Mr. Lambkin buys a regular hard-trotter
George Cruikshank
1844
Steel-engraving
9.9 cm high by 8.9 cm wide, framed
Twentieth illustration for The Bachelor’s Own Book; Or, The Progress Of Mr. Lambkin (Gent.), in the Pursuit Of Pleasure And Amusement, p. 43 (right-hand side of the tenth plate).
[Click on image to enlarge it.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
Mr. Lambkin buys a regular hard-trotter, and combines the health-restoring exercise of Riding with the very great advantages of Wet Swaddling clothes. [page 43]
Horseback riding for Mr. Lambkin, despite his urban upbringing, represents something of a return to normalcy after Lambkin's undertaking the Preissnitz miracle cure. His coat-tails streaming out behind him, Lambkin is rapidly on the move but thoroughly in control of his stallion, whose nose visually echoes Lambkin's. The horse appears to be in mid-air as Cruikshank shows none of his four hooves touching the ground. The fields and noble barn in the background (left) provide a geographical context for Lambkin's exercise routine, conducted far away from those debilitating urban scenes that have brought him nothing but dissipation, misfortune, and ill-health. To the right, a prepubescent boy enthusiastically mirrors Lambkin's posture, arms akimbo, as if he is vicariously participating in the rider's exhilarating experience. The soaring birds and scudding clouds contribute to this impression of rapid movement.
Unfortunately, Cruikshank had but one effective posture for his horses: the gallop. The slight difference between Lambkin's mount and those of Herne the Hunter in Windsor Castle and the highwayman Dick Turpin in Rookwood is one of mass: the present stead seems much heavier, and his facial expression more comical as he carries the greater the weight of the portly Lambkin with aplomb. Perhaps aware of his limited range in drawing horses and equestrians, Cruikshank seems to have avoided the subject whenever possible, unlike his younger contemporary Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne), who had from his first compositions been a dab hand at depicting horses, either in motion or standing still. Whereas there is nothing prepossessing about the mounts of the villains in Jack Sheppard's escape from Willesden Cage (June 1839), the only significant closeup of horses throughout the three-volume Newgate novel about the highwayman and escape-artist Jack Sheppard, even so inferior an illustrator as Robert Seymour can offer up convincing portraits of horses in motion such as Mr. Winkle Soothes the Refractory Steed (1836), even though his human figures are far inferior to both Cruikshank's and Phiz's. Whereas Phiz had the knack of individualising horses, as in The Break Down (June 1836), the best Cruikshank seems to offer is a caricature of a horse, as the following examples illustrate.
Left: The original 1831 Cruikshank engraving from Robinson Crusoe of a runaway, riderless horse, Riderless horse pursued by wolves. Centre: Cruikshanks's animated race northward of the gallant highwayman, Turpin's flight through Edmonton (1910). Right: The celebrated Cruikshank illustration of Turpin's vaulting a tollgate with Black Bess, The Hornsey Gate from Rookwood (1836). [Click on images to enlarge them.]
Above: Cruikshank's depiction of Herne's lean mount as the huntsman of Windsor Forest makes off with Wolsey's daughter, Herne flying into the burning woods with Mabel, Windsor Castle (1843). [Click on image to enlarge it.]
Cruikshank, George. The Bachelor’s Own Book; Or, The Progress Of Mr. Lambkin, In The Pursuit Of Pleasure And Amusement. Glasgow: David Bryce, 1844, rpt. 1880.
Last modified 26 May 2018
