"The Accident," by "Phiz" — the second serial illustration for Charles Lever's "Barrington" (February 1862)

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The Accident

Phiz (Hablot K. Browne)

February 1862

steel engraving

10.9 by 10 cm (4 ¼ by 3 ⅞ inches), vignetted

Second serial illustration for Charles Lever's Barrington; Tales of the Trains, facing 28.

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned it and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

Passage Illustrated: Aftermath of The Accident

“At last,” cried a stranger, as the door opened, — “at last! Do you know that we've been full twenty minutes here, listening to your animated discussion over the odd trick? — I fainting with hunger, and my friend with pain.” And so saying, he assisted another to limp forward, who leaned on his arm and moved with the greatest difficulty.

The mere sight of one in suffering repressed any notion of a rejoinder to his somewhat rude speech, and Barrington led the way into the room.

“Have you met with an accident?” asked he, as he placed the sufferer on a sofa.

“Yes,” interposed the first speaker; “he slipped down one of those rocks into the river, and has sprained, if he has not broken, something.”

“It is our good fortune to have advice here; this gentleman is a doctor.”

“Of the Royal College, and an M.D. of Aberdeen, besides,” said Dill, with a professional smile, while, turning back his cuffs, he proceeded to remove the shoe and stocking of his patient. [Chapter III, "Our Next-door Neighbours," pp. 27-28]

Commentary

Peter Barrington (right), Fred Conyers (a young cornet in the Hussars; centre), and Colonel Hunter (left) are set in the entrance hall of "The Fisherman's Rest," the room containing fishing tackle and (somewhat incongruously above the lintel) either a picture of or a mounted specimen of a large fish (presumably a trout). The moment realised occurs at the bottom of page 27 and the top of page 28, when the youth with a sprained ankle, assisted by his colonel, is admitted just as M'Cormick, Barrington, and Dr. Dill are about to start their weekly rubber of whist.

Related Material

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.

Steig, Michael. Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U. P., 1978.

Sutherland, John A. "Barrington." The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford, Cal.: Stanford U. P., 1989, rpt. 1990, 48-49.

Created 9 August 2002

Last modified 28 September 2026