"I had my country seat." — illustration for Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe" (1891)

I had my country seat

Wal Paget (1863-1935)

half-page lithograph

13.5 cm high by 9.7 cm wide, vignetted.

1891

Robinson Crusoe, embedded on page 113; signed "Wal Paget" lower left.

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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Passage illustrated: The Country Seat

Near this dwelling of mine, but a little farther within the land, and upon lower ground, lay my two pieces of corn land, which I kept duly cultivated and sowed, and which duly yielded me their harvest in its season; and whenever I had occasion for more corn, I had more land adjoining as fit as that.

Besides this, I had my country seat, and I had now a tolerable plantation there also; for, first, I had my little bower, as I called it, which I kept in repair—that is to say, I kept the hedge which encircled it in constantly fitted up to its usual height, the ladder standing always in the inside. I kept the trees, which at first were no more than stakes, but were now grown very firm and tall, always cut, so that they might spread and grow thick and wild, and make the more agreeable shade, which they did effectually to my mind. In the middle of this I had my tent always standing, being a piece of a sail spread over poles, set up for that purpose, and which never wanted any repair or renewing; and under this I had made me a squab or couch with the skins of the creatures I had killed, and with other soft things, and a blanket laid on them, such as belonged to our sea-bedding, which I had saved; and a great watch-coat to cover me. And here, whenever I had occasion to be absent from my chief seat, I took up my country habitation. [Chapter XI, "Finds Print of Man's Foot in the Sand," page 109]

Commentary

Paget communicates the facetiousness of Crusoe's labelling his barley field "my country seat," "a tolerable plantation," and "my country habitation" by describing the tentative nature of the dwelling. Here, Paget shows Crusoe holding the jungle at bay as he attempts to make the land productive. In contrast, in the 1863-64 edition the Cassell's house artists had implied Crusoe's conquest of the island in Crusoe in his Fort, which demonstrates his readiness for the next phase of the story, in which he will have to defend himself from the invading cannibals. Indeed, by the time that readers encounter this illustration of the cornfield Crusoe is already mulling over the significance of the footprint he has discovered embedded in the sand:

. . . this foot might be the print of my own foot, when I came on shore from my boat: this cheered me up a little, too, and I began to persuade myself it was all a delusion; that it was nothing else but my own foot. . . [113]

The various illustrators including Paget undermine the logic of Crusoe's optimistic construction of the footprint by continually depicting Crusoe as wearing shoes.

Related Material

Reference

Defoe, Daniel. The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe Of York, Mariner. As Related by Himself. With upwards of One Hundred and Twenty Original Illustrations by Walter Paget. London, Paris, and Melbourne: Cassell, 1891.

Last modified 30 April 2018