"Title-page" — Phiz's second illustration for Charles Lever's "Barrington" (1863)

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Polly Dill

Phiz (Hablot K. Browne)

steel engraving

vignette: 10.4 cm by 8.5 cm

January 1863

Charles Lever's Barrington; Tales of the Trains (scene in Chapter VI), facing frontispiece.

[Click on the images to enlarge them.]

Printed Title-Page (January 1863)

Dedication: To Charles Dickens (Spezia, December 1862)

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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Passage Illustrated: Polly Dill at the Gallop

Polly Dill rode very well and very fearlessly, and occasionally was assisted to "a mount" by some country gentleman, who combined gallantry with profit, and knew that the horse he lent could never be seen to greater advantage. Yet, even in this, she avoided display, quite satisfied, as it seemed, to enjoy herself thoroughly, and not attract any notice that could be avoided. Indeed, she never tried for “a place,” but rather attached herself to some of the older and heavier weights, who grew to believe that they were especially in charge of her, and nothing was more common, at the end of a hard run, than to hear such self-gratulations as, "I think I took great care of you, Miss Dill?" "Eh, Miss Polly! you see I'm not such a bad leader!" and so on. [Chapter VI, "The Doctor's Daughter," 48]

Commentary

Clearly, the equestrian on the title-page is not Dinah, Peter Barrington's younger sister (depicted on the frontispiece), but the daring horsewoman Polly Dill, whose actions in The Wager and at "Barrington's Ford" (Chapter XIV) result in her unwillingly being rescued by Fred Conyers. The title-page vignette, then, refers to a much later chapter than the frontispiece, and was one of the last engravings Phiz executed for Charles Lever.

Related Material

Phiz: "A Good Hand at a Horse"

Bibliography

Lester, Valerie Browne. Phiz: The Man Who Drew Dickens. London: Chatto and Windus, 2004.

Lever, Charles. Barrington; Tales of the Trains. Illustrated by 'Phiz'. London: Chapman and Hall, 1863.

Created 9 November 2007

Last modified 8 April 2020