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Mr. Minns and his Cousin
Harry Furniss
1910
14 cm x 10 cm, vignetted
Dickens's Sketches by Boz, The Charles Dickens Library Edition, "Tales," Chapter 1, "Mr. Minns and his Cousin," facing I, 304.
[Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
"How do you do, Mr. Budden? — pray take a chair!" politely stammered the discomfited Minns.
"Thank you— thank you— well— how are you, eh?"
"Uncommonly well, thank you," said Minns, casting a diabolical look at the dog, who, with his hind legs on the floor, and his fore paws resting on the table, was dragging a bit of bread and butter out of a plate, preparatory to devouring it, with the buttered side next the carpet.
"Ah, you rogue!"said Budden to his dog; "you see, Minns, he's like me, always at home, eh, my boy!— Egad, I'm precious hot and hungry! I've walked all the way from Stamford-hill this morning."
"Have you breakfasted?"inquired Minns.
"Oh, no!— came to breakfast with you; so ring the bell, my dear fellow, will you? and let's have another cup and saucer, and the cold ham. — Make myself at home, you see!" continued Budden, dusting his boots with a table-napkin. "Ha! — ha! — ha! — 'pon my life, I’m hungry." ["Tales," Chapter 2, "Mr. Minns and his Cousin," 302.
Extended caption adapted from the text: "Ah, you rogue!"said Budden to his dog; "you see, Minns, he's like me, always at home, eh, my boy!— Egad, I'm precious hot and hungry! I've walked all the way from Stamford-hill this morning." — Sketches by Boz, 302.
Although both Mr. Minns and his cousin, Mr. Budden, are middle-class and middle-aged, Furniss conceives of these two in contrasting terms, as their clothing and postures suggest. Mr. Augustus Minns, a senior civil servant whose post is in the heart of the City, at Somerset House, is fashionably dressed in tailcoat and pumps; his cousin, Mr. Octavius Budden, has the look of a country squire, with light-coloured waistcoat and boots. But the obvious difference, manifested in their facial expressions, is in their attitude towards the marauding dog who is trampling on Mr. Minns' morning paper as he lunges for a piece of bread-and-butter on the table; whereas Budden is quite unconcerned about the behaviour of his canine companion, whom he regards as an extension of himself, Minns casts a look of disdain upon the vexatious creature who has invaded the tranquility of his amply-laid breakfast table. The dog-owner waves his neckerchief at the ill-mannered pet, and is not much engaged in the desultory conversation with his urban (and urbane) cousin. Whereas George Cruikshank in his original 1839 illustration Mr. Minns and his Cousin (see below) describes the dog of nameless breed as black and not wearing a coat, Furniss in his 1910 lithograph clearly depicts the white, tail-less dog's "suit of fleecy hosiery."
Although this is Dickens's first published work, originally entitled "A Dinner at Poplar Walk" in The Monthly Magazine, 1 December 1833, it is still highly amusing as a study in contrasts. The sedate, affluent bachelor Mr. Minns, a career civil servant at Somerset House (where John Dickens, the writer's father, began his government career in the Naval Pay Office, and where he worked when posted from Chatham to London), is worlds apart from his boisterous suburban cousin's apartment. Whereas Mr. Minns is a wealthy bachelor, Budden, a family man of more modest means, has determined to ingratiate himself with Minns by inviting him to Sunday dinner, in furtherance of his scheme to have the childless Mr. Minns make Master Alexander Augustus Budden (his awkward son "Alick") his heir. The plan goes awry from the start because Minns detests both dogs and children, both of whom Budden seems to dote upon, as Furniss's illustration suggests at least with respect to the unruly pet he has brought with him. How obtuse of Budden never to have detected his cousin's biases!
Above: The original Cruikshank illustration of Budden and his dog disturbing the fastidious Mr. Minns' breakfast in order to deliver in invitation to Sunday dinner, in Mr. Minns and his Cousin (1839).[Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Davis, Paul. Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Checkmark and Facts On File, 1999.
Dickens, Charles. "Tales," Chapter 2, "Mr. Minns and his Cousin,"Sketches by Boz, Illustrative of Every-day Life and Every-day People. Illustrated by GeorgeCruikshank. London: Chapman and Hall, 1839; rpt., 1890. 234-242.
_____. "Tales," Chapter 2, "Mr. Minns and his Cousin." Christmas Books and Sketches by Boz, Illustrative of Every-day Life and Every-day People. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition. Boston: James R. Osgood, 1875 [rpt. of 1867 Ticknor & Fields edition]. 398-404.
_____. "Tales," Chapter 2, "Mr. Minns and his Cousin." Sketches by Boz. Illustrated by Fred Barnard. The Household Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1876. 148-153.
_____. "Tales," Chapter 1, "The Boarding-House." Sketches by Boz. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. London: Educational Book Company, 1910. Vol. 1. 300-310.
Hawksley, Lucinda Dickens. Chapter 3, "Sketches by Boz." Dickens Bicentenary 1812-2012: Charles Dickens. San Rafael, California: Insight, 2011. 12-15.
Slater, Michael. Charles Dickens: A Life Defined by Writing. New Haven and London: Yale U. , 2009.
Created 14 May 2017
Last modified 2 February 2020