Sir Lucas by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne), facing page 276 in the tenth instalment (September 1855). Steel-engraving. 11 cm high by 17.5 cm wide (4 ¼ by 7 inches), vignetted, full-page illustration for The Martins of Cro' Martin, for Chapter XXIX, "A Sunday Morning at Cro' Martin." [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Passage Illustrated: Maurice Scanlan negotiates for a thoroughbred race-horse
Right: Phiz's full-page illustration becomes a mere thumbnail for the Little, Brown & Co. "Lorrequer Edition," Vol. XII (1907). This edition thus reduced in scale a number of the original's full-page plates in order to save space. This is the last illustration in the first of the two 1907 volumes.
“Wait till I bring him out, then. I'll show you a picture!” And Barnes disappeared into the stable. In five minutes after, he returned, leading a dark brown horse, who, even shrouded in all the covering of hood and body-clothes, displayed in his long step and lounging gait the attributes of a racer.
In a few minutes Barnes had unbuckled strap and surcingle, and sweeping back the blankets dexterously over the croup, so as not to ruffle a hair of the glossy coat, exhibited an animal of surpassing symmetry, in all the pride of high condition.
“There's a beast,” said he, proudly, “without speck or spot, brand or blemish about him! You 're a good judge of a horse, Mr. Scanlan; and tell me when did you see his equal?”
“He's a nice horse,” said Scanlan, once more, as if the very parsimony of the praise was the highest testimony of the utterer; “and in rare condition, too,” added he.
“In the very highest,” said Barnes. “He was as sure of that cup as I am that my name's Tim.”
“What cup?” asked Scanlan.
“Kiltimmon, — the June race; he's entered and all; and now he's to be sold, — them's the orders I got yesterday; he's to be auctioned at Dycer's on Saturday for whatever he'll bring!”
“And now, what do you expect for him, Barnes?” said Maurice, confidentially.
“Sorrow one o' me knows. He might go for fifty, — he might go for two hundred and fifty! and cheap he'd be of it. He has racing speed over a flat course, and steeplechase action for his fences. With eleven stone on his back — one that can ride, I mean, of course — he'd challenge all Ireland.”
“I wouldn't mind making a bid for him myself,” said Scanlan, hesitating between his jockeyism and the far deeper game which he was playing.
“Do then, sir, and don't draw him for the race, for he'll win it as sure as I'm here. 'Tis Jemmy was to ride him; and Miss Mary wouldn't object to give you the boy, jacket and all, her own colours, — blue, with white sleeves.”
“Do you think so, Barnes? Do you think she'd let me run him in the Martin colours?” cried Scanlan, to whom the project now had suddenly assumed a most fascinating aspect.
“What would you give for him?” asked Barnes, in a business-like voice.
“A hundred, — a hundred and fifty, — two hundred, if I was sure of what you say.” [Chapter XXIX, "A Sunday Morning at Cro' Martin," 277]
Commentary: Complementing the Portrait of a Prize-Winning Thoroughbred
Lady Dorothea is in complete earnest about never returning to Cro' Martin, despite her husband's emotional ties to the estate. Thus, Martin has instructed his agent, the attorney Scanlan, to sell off not only the estate's prime livestock (including the particularly well-bred sow whom Peter Hayes is admiring in the lower right of the previous engraving, The Sale), but also the entire stable of highly-bred hunters and thoroughbred racehorses. Presumably the "sporting attorney," Maurice Scanlan, feels that if he can acquire the champion "Sir Lucas" and race him under the Martins' colours, the horse will command more attention and better odds.
The previous chapter begins with Mary Martin's summoning Scanlan by note to the library to discuss the new austerity measures that will severely limit her charity work, and which have already resulted in the dismissal of tenant farmers, quarry workers, and hewers of timber on the estate — to say nothing of penalizing the estate's kindly Protestant clergyman, the Reverend Dr. Leslie, who can no longer cut through the grounds near the Castle to go from the vicarage to the chapel. Mary is not prepared to see a mass exodus of the peasantry for America as an alternative to poverty and starvation in their homeland. If Scanlan fails to act in a timely manner, he fears that Mary will simply join her aunt and uncle abroad — little does he realise that in fact she is the heiress to the estate. As her saviour, he hopes that Mary will look favourably upon his marriage proposal. But even the cunning attorney has not been aware of his client's leasing out the farms and selling off the timber and the royalties. Judging by her expression that Mary is distraught by these cost-cutting measures, Scanlan expresses sympathy and agrees to help her raise a thousand pounds on her deed of inheritance for five thousand. We now come to Scanlan's taking personal advantage of the selling off of the horses, which he readily exhibits as the chapter closes:
“That will do, — enough said!” And Barnes, replacing the horse-sheet, slowly re-entered the stable; while Scanlan, putting spurs to his nag, dashed hurriedly away, his thoughts outstripping in their speed the pace he went, and traversing space with a rapidity that neither “blood” nor training ever vied with. [Chapter XXIX, "A Sunday Morning at Cro' Martin," pp. 313-314]
Despite his protestations that he feels deep sympathy with those tenants and workers who have been the victims of Lady Dorothea's wrath, Scanlan is merely interested in cultivating an appearance of being sympathetic. His master plan is to woo and wed Mary Martin, intellectually, socially, and spiritually far out of his league. But he does understand horse flesh. No sooner has Scanlan left Mary in the library, than the master of the stables, Barnes, shows the sporting attorney a horse he cannot resist. Phiz makes Barnes diminutive, as if he were a jockey in his youth, but the illustrator's focus is the sleek, powerful Sir Lucas. Thus ends the first volume in the 1907 edition, although the mid-point of the original serial would have come at the close of Chapter 30 (page 320).
Related Material: Phiz's Passion for Horses, as Reflected Here
The Anglican Church in Ireland in Fun (1880)
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 the image and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Buchanan-Brown, John. Phiz! Illustrator of Dickens' World. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1978.
Lester, Valerie Browne Lester. Chapter 11: "'Give Me Back the Freshness of the Morning!'"Phiz! The Man Who Drew Dickens. London: Chatto and Windus, 2004. Pp. 108-127.
Lever, Charles. The Martins of Cro' Martin. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne]. London: Chapman & Hall, 1856, rpt. 1872.
Lever, Charles. The Martins of Cro' Martin. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne]. In two volumes. Novels and Romances of Charles Lever. Introduction by Andrew Lang. Lorrequer Edition. Vols. XII and XIII. Boston: Little, Brown, 1907.
Steig, Michael. Chapter VII, "Phiz the Illustrator: An Overview and Summing Up." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U. P., 1978. Pp. 299-316.
Stevenson, Lionel. Chapter XII, "Aspirant for Preferment, 1854-1856." Dr. Quicksilver: The Life of Charles Lever. New York: Russell and Russell, 1939; rpt. 1969. Pp. 203-220.
Created 28 September 2022