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I used to go each morning to the post in the village, etc. — staff artist William Newman's fifth composite woodblock engraving for Charles Lever's A Day's Ride: A Life's Romance, instalment 5, published on 8 September 1860 in Harper's Weekly: A Journal of Civilization, Vol. IV, Chapter VI, "My Self-Examination," framed, top left, page 573. [Click on image to enlarge it.]

Passage Illustrated: Potts settles into the social life of The Rosary

As I advanced in the intimacy, I became depository of the secrets of each. Edward's was the sorrow he felt for having involved his sister in his own ruin, and been the means of separating her from one so well able and so willing to befriend her. Hers was the more bitter thought that their narrow means should prejudice her brother's chances of recovery, for his chest had shown symptoms of dangerous disease requiring all that climate and consummate care might do to overcome. Preyed on incessantly by this reflection, unable to banish it, equally unable to resist its force, he took the first and only step she had ever adventured without his knowledge, and had written to her uncle a long letter of explanations and entreaty.

I saw the letter, and read it carefully. It was all that sisterly love and affection could dictate, accompanied by a sense of dignity, that if her appeal should be unsuccessful, no slight should be passed upon her brother, who was unaware of the step thus taken. To express this sufficiently, she was driven to the acknowledgment that Edward would never have himself stooped to the appeal; and so careful was she of his honor in this respect, that she repeated—with what appeared to me unnecessary insistence — that the request should be regarded as hers, and hers only. In fact, this was the uppermost sentiment in the whole epistle. I ventured to say as much, and endeavored to induce her to moderate in some degree the amount of this pretension; but she resisted firmly and decidedly. Now, I have recorded this circumstance here,—less for itself than to mention how by its means this little controversy led to a great intimacy between us, — inducing us, while defending our separate views, to discuss each other's motives, and even characters, with the widest freedom. I called her enthusiast, and in return she styled me worldly and calculating; and, indeed, I tried to seem so, and fortified my opinions by prudential maxims and severe reflections I should have been sorely indisposed to adopt in my own case. I believe she saw all this. I am sure she read me aright, and perceived that I was arguing against my own convictions. At all events, day after day went over, and no answer came to the letter. I used to go each morning to the post in the village to inquire, but always returned with the same disheartening tidings, “Nothing to-day!” [Chapter VI, "My Self-Examination," 573; pages 41-42 in the Chapman and Hall edition]

Commentary

Newman indicates the location of the post office by the indolent Irish peasant standing behind Potts in the queue. At the village of Inistioge, Potts has time for self-analysis and reflection as the chapter title, "My Self-Examination," suggests. Nevertheless, he has been accepted as Father Dyke's guest at his cottage, The Rosary, and has enjoyed such field sports as loitering on the river bank while another guest, Edward Crofton, fishes for trout. Three weeks of summer in the idyllic setting have glided by in the company of the orphaned, formerly wealthy Croftons, Mary and Edward. Feeling that their shiftless life is inadequate, Mary has written to the rich uncle who disinherited them when Edward, wounded and dispirited, gave up his commission in the Indian Army. She earnestly awaits a reply, hoping that they will be reinstated. Potts goes daily to the local post-office to inquire on Mary's behalf if the much-hoped-for letter restoring them to their former prosperity has arrived.

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.

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Created 25 May 2022