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Lord George Gordon leaving the Maypole
In lieu of a whip, he carried in his hand a great gold-headed cane, as large as any footman carries in these days.
Harry Furniss
1910
13.8 cm x 9.2 cm (5 ½ by 3 ¾ inches), vignetted
Dickens's Barnaby Rudge, The Charles Dickens Library Edition (1910), facing VI, 289.
[Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
If Lord George Gordon had appeared in the eyes of Mr. Willet, overnight, a nobleman of somewhat quaint and odd exterior, the impression was confirmed this morning, and increased a hundredfold. Sitting bolt upright upon his bony steed, with his long, straight hair, dangling about his face and fluttering in the wind; his limbs all angular and rigid, his elbows stuck out on either side ungracefully, and his whole frame jogged and shaken at every motion of his horse’s feet; a more grotesque or more ungainly figure can hardly be conceived. In lieu of whip, he carried in his hand a great gold-headed cane, as large as any footman carries in these days, and his various modes of holding this unwieldy weapon — now upright before his face like the sabre of a horse-soldier, now over his shoulder like a musket, now between his finger and thumb, but always in some uncouth and awkward fashion — contributed in no small degree to the absurdity of his appearance. Stiff, lank, and solemn, dressed in an unusual manner, and ostentatiously exhibiting — whether by design or accident — all his peculiarities of carriage, gesture, and conduct, all the qualities, natural and artificial, in which he differed from other men; he might have moved the sternest looker-on to laughter, and fully provoked the smiles and whispered jests which greeted his departure from the Maypole inn. [Chapter XXXVII, 286]
The upshot of the rebellion was that the government hanged twenty-five ringleaders, but found the aristocratic, misguided leader "Not Guilty" of treason. Ironically in Dickens's quasi-historical account, Gordon was freed without further charge, but his henchmen Hugh and Dennis were executed. Although Barnard's figures are much more realistic and far less cartoon-like than those of Phiz in Distinguished Guests at The Maypole, Furniss does not spare Gordon a slightly comedic treatment. The inn itself appears in the backdrop of Furniss's illustration looking very much like the version that Cattermole used to open the novel, The Maypole (13 February 1841). As in a later depiction of him in the original series (Cattermole's Lord George Gordon in the Tower, Ch. LXXIII), the image Gordon in prison is consistent with Furniss's and Phiz's depictions of him here. The deluded anti-Papist looks much like Phiz's gangly figure: an angular, thin-looking aristocrat, with a visage suggestive of restricted intellectual capacity. Furniss's image of Gordon as an elderly rider, however, is at variance with Dickens's description of Gordon as a severely-dressed Puritan in his early thirties. Although Furniss's figure in the 1910 Charles Dickens Library Edition somewhat resembles Barnard's rather than Phiz's version of the religious zealot in this introductory illustration, all three artists have made the demagogue look far older and far less physically robust than the text, perhaps to reinforce Dickens's suggestion that Gordon as a leader is somewhat lacking in mental competency, and that he is being manipulated by the unscrupulous Gashford.
Whereas Barnard depicts Gordon leaving the inn-yard triumphantly, Furniss shows him already on his way, and that throng behind him. But according to the text, his departure was not attended by a supportive throng, but just a few — he receives only "the parting salutation of a dozen idlers whom the rumour of a live lord being about to leave the Maypole had gathered round the porch" (286). A number of these curious "idlers" in the Barnard illustration are mere children.
Lord George Gordon (26 December 1751–1 November 1793), a Scots "eccentric," is remembered now (if at all) for having incited the "No Popery" riots in London on 2 June 1780. His intention was to lead a procession signalling widespread support for his initiative to repeal of the Catholic Relief Act of 1778. Despite his personal eccentricities, he was something of a social reformer. As an officer in the Royal Navy he tried to improve the living conditions of ordinary sailors. From the moment he entered Parliament in 1774 as Member of Parliament for the pocket-borough of Ludgershall (Wiltshire), he was a strident critic of the government's colonial policy in regard to America. He became a supporter of American independence and often spoke out in favour of the colonies. Some 50,000 members of his Ptoestant Association marched from St. George's Fields, just south of London, to the Houses of Parliament in Westminster in support of repealing the act which had restored political and civil rights to those Roman Catholics who were willing to swear an oaths of allegiance to the Crown. Subsequently, however, the protest turned violent as over the next few days, the mob burned Roman Catholic chapels at several embassies, pillaged the Catholics' houses, set fire to Newgate Prison to liberate 300 prisoners, broke open all the other prisons, and attacked such public edifices as the Bank of England and 10 Downing Street, residence of Prime Minister Lord North. The government had to call in the army to quell the violence. Estimates of how many died range from 300 to 500, and the same again were wounded.
Although acquitted of treasonous intent thanks his gifted barrister, Thomas Erskine, Gordon was excommunicated from the Church of England for refusing to testify in ecclesiastical court. He then publicly defamed the Queen of France, Marie Antoinette, and criticized the impartiality of British justice. He fled abroad, to Holland, but was forced by French authorities to return to England. In August 1786 in Birmingham at the age of 36, Gordon converted to Judaism, and was apparently utterly sincere in embracing the new faith. in January 1788 was sentenced to five years' imprisonment in Newgate, where he died of typhoid on 1 November 1793 at the age of 42.
Left: Phiz's more amusing and less epic illustration involving Lord Gordon and his party at the inn: Distinguished Guests at The Maypole (19 June 1841). Right: Fred Barnard's panoramic treatment of the epic departure of the ultra-Protestant party: Lord George Gordon leaving the Maypole (1874).
Dickens, Charles. Barnaby Rudge in Master Humphrey's Clock. Illustrated by Phiz and George Cattermole. 3 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1841; rpt., Bradbury and Evans, 1849.
________. Barnaby Rudge — A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty. Illustrated by Fred Barnard. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1874. VII.
________. Barnaby Rudge. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. London: Educational Book Company, 1910. VI.
Created 24 July 2020
Last modified 15 December 2020