"As I walked onward against the swooping wind and the plashing rain," etc. — staff artist William Newman's third composite woodblock engraving for Charles Lever's A Day's Ride: A Life's Romance, instalment 4, published on 1 September 1860 in Harper's Weekly: A Journal of Civilization, Vol. IV, Chapter V, "The Rosary at Inistioge," 2 ⅝ by 3 ⅜ inches (6.7 cm by 8.8 cm), framed, top left, page 549. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Passage Illustrated: Potts's Journey continues without Blondel
As I walked onward against the swooping wind and the plashing rain, I felt a sort of heroic ardor in the notion of breasting the adverse waves of life so boldly. It is not every fellow could do this, — throw his knapsack on his shoulder, seize his stick, and set out in storm and blackness. No, Potts, my man; for downright inflexibility of purpose, for bold and resolute action, you need yield to none! It was, indeed, an awful night; the thunder rolled and crashed with scarce an interval of cessation; forked lightning tore across the sky in every direction; while the wind swept through the deep glen, smashing branches and uplifting large trees like mere shrubs. I was soon completely drenched, and my soaked clothes hung around with the weight of lead; my spirits, however, sustained me, and I toiled along, occasionally in a sort of wild bravado, giving a cheer as the thunder rolled close above my head, and trying to sing, as though my heart were as gay and my spirits as light as in an hour of happiest abandonment. [Chapter V, "The Rosary at Inistioge," 549; page 31 in the Chapman and Hall edition]
Commentary
Indignant that the servant at the inn in Ashford has brought up Potts's losing Blondel to Father Dyke over a game of backgammon the night before, Potts sets out the next day, contemplating returning to Dublin. That the storm blows his umbrella inside out as soon as he has closed the door of the hostelry is inauspicious. He is certainly distressed at the thought of having to face the ostler who rented him Blondel. His destination, however, resolves itself into Father Dyke's cottage called Rosario at the nearby village of Inistioge. This is an actual Irish village in County Kilkenny, situated on the River Nore, twenty-five kilometres southeast of Kilkenny. When he arrives there in pursuit of Blondel, Potts will be 140 kilometres away from home.
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 photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Brown, Jane E., and Richard Samuel West. "William Newman (1817—1870): A Victorian Cartoonist in London and New York." American Periodicals, 17, 2: "Periodical Comics and Cartoons." (Ohio State University Press, 2007), 143-183. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20770984.
Lever, Charles. A Day's Ride: A Life's Romance. Harper's Weekly: A Journal of Civilization. Illustrated by William Newman. Vols. IV-V (13 April 1860 through 23 March 1861) in thirty-five weekly parts. Only a dozen of these weekly instalments were illustrated: p. 541 (one), 549 (two), 573, 589, 605, 621, 637, 649, 661, 678, 701, and 714.
_______. A Day's Ride; A Life's Romance. Illustrated by "Phiz" (Hablot Knight Browne). London: Chapman and Hall, 1863, rpt. Routledge, 1882.
_______. A Day's Ride: A Life's Romance. London: Chapman and Hall, 1873.
Lever, Charles James. A Day's Ride; A Life's Romance. http://www.gutenberg.org//files/32692/32692-h/32692-h.htm
Stevenson, Lionel. Dr. Quicksilver: The Life of Charles Lever. New York: Russell & Russell, 1939, rpt. 1969.
Sutherland, John. "Charles Lever." The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford, Cal.: Stanford U. P., 1989. Pp. 372-374.
Created 25 May 2022