A. A. Dixon's “We had no lack of music.” Eighth and final lithograph for Dickens's “American Notes” (1906)

“We had no lack of music.”

Arthur A. Dixon

1906

Lithographic reproduction of a watercolour

12.3 cm high by 8.1 cm wide (4 ⅞ by 3 ¼ inches)

Seventh illustration for American Notes, Collins' Pocket Edition (1906), facing page 289.

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Is that Charles Dickens, playing the concertina in the background?

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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Passage Illustrated from Chapter XVI: Returning to Britain from the Port of New York.

“By way of beguiling the tediousness of these banquets, a select association was formed at the lower end of the table, below the mast, to whose distinguished president modesty forbids me to make any further allusion, which, being a very hilarious and jovial institution, was (prejudice apart) in high favour with the rest of the community, and particularly with a black steward, who lived for three weeks in a broad grin at the marvellous humour of these incorporated worthies.

Then, we had chess for those who played it, whist, cribbage, books, backgammon, and shovelboard. In all weathers, fair or foul, calm or windy, we were every one on deck, walking up and down in pairs, lying in the boats, leaning over the side, or chatting in a lazy group together. We had no lack of music, for one played the accordion, another the violin, and another (who usually began at six o’clock A.M.) the key-bugle: the combined effect of which instruments, when they all played different tunes in different parts of the ship, at the same time, and within hearing of each other, as they sometimes did (everybody being intensely satisfied with his own performance), was sublimely hideous. [Chapter XVI, “The Passage Home,” pp. 334-335]

Commentary: The "Sublimely Hideous" Music on the Homeward Voyage of Three Weeks

The situation for the fifteen passengers, many of whom have come down from Canada to New York City together for the George Washington's transAtlantic passage on 7 June 1842 bound for Liverpool, seems almost idyllic, with four meals a day: breakfasting at 8:00 AM, lunching at noon, dining from 3:00 to 5:30 PM, and taking tea at 7:30 PM. Contributing to this sense of an oceanic idyll, the book's ultimate lithograph inadequately realizes the “never-failing entertainment” (334) on the deck in “The Passage Home.” Here, Dixon shows just a few members of the party of fifteen (mostly British) travellers “from Canada” (334). For the deck-side unorchestrated daily concert Dixon has depicted just an accordion player (rear, modelled on Dickens himself) and a key-bugler in the foreground. These figures hardly seem to justify Dickens’s terming the between-meals music-making as “sublimely hideous” (335). No violinist or other amateur musicians appear, so that the reader, judging merely from the illustration, cannot imagine the cacophony, nor how inconvenient it must have been for the remaining fourteen members of the “after-cabin” society to experience the key-bugler’s beginning his daily performance at 6:00 AM. Dixon does not even hint at the very real menace of icebergs’ drifting into the shipping lanes.

Related Materials

"Philadelphia, and its Solitary Prison," Chapter 7 in American Notes (1842)
Introduction to "Philadelphia, and its Solitary Prison"
Reading and Discussion Questions
Charles Dickens, the traveler — places he visited
Charles Dickens and American Slavery

Bibliography

Dickens, Charles. American Notes and Pictures from Italy, Volume XX, in the New York: P. F. Collier & Son edition, n. d.

Dickens, Charles. American Notes. Illustrated by A. A. Dixon. London and Glasgow: Collins Clear-Type Press, 1906.

Dickens, Charles. American Notes for General Circulation and Pictures from Italy. Illustrated by Marcus Stone. Illustrated Library Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1874.

Dickens, Charles. American Notes. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book Company, 1910. Vol. XIII.

Dickens, Charles. Oliver Twist with American Notes for General Circulation and Pictures from Italy. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge. Diamond Edition. 14 volumes. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1867. Vol. XI.

Dickens, Charles. Pictures from Italy, Sketches by Boz and American Notes. Illustrated by Thomas Nast and Arthur B. Frost. American Household Edition. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1877 (copyrighted in 1876). Vol VII.

Dickens, Charles. American Notes for General Circulation and Pictures from Italy. Illustrated by J. Gordon Thomson and A. B. Frost. Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1880. Vol. XIX.

Created 3 September 2026

Last updated 6 September 2026