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Textual Background: Roundhead versus Cavalier

Cautiously approaching the edge of the declivity, to his infinite astonishment and vexation he beheld the bold horseman rapidly descending the steep escarpment, apparently with perfect ease and security. The rider seemed to trust himself entirely to his horse, not attempting to direct him, but leaving him to take his own way. All he did was to lean back as much as he could in the saddle to avoid sliding out of it on to the horse’s shoulder. In this way he had accomplished nearly half the descent.

The sight stung Stelfax to the quick. His prey he now felt would escape him. If the fugitive should reach the bottom in safety, his escape was inevitable. Long before the valley could be gained by any secure descent, he would be far out of harm’s way, and Stelfax, fearless and venturesome as he was, did not like to essay this perilous descent, not deeming his horse sufficiently sure-footed to accomplish it. There was but one way of arresting the fugitive. Stelfax took a pistol from his holster, and fired. His mark had not been the Cavalier, but his steed. The ball lodged in the gallant animal’s brain. Instantly quitting the almost sliding posture he had assumed, he sprang with a slight bound in the air, and then dropped. The Cavalier had managed to disengage himself from the saddle, but fell in the attempt, and could not recover his footing. He and his slaughtered steed rolled together to the bottom of the declivity, where both lay motionless. [179-80]

Commentary: A Swashbuckling Frontispiece

Phiz has based the illustration which eventually served as the frontispiece for the July 1860 volume edition of Ovingdean Grange on an exciting incident in the sixth instalment (April 1860), in which the Roundhead leader, Colonel Stelfax, gives chase to a cavalier whom he mistakenly believes is Prince Charles Stuart.

The dramatic frontispiece again demonstrates Browne's capacity for depicting credible horses, not the caricature horses of George Cruikshank such as one sees in his illustrations for the second part of Robinson Crusoe, but dynamic and individualised steeds — a feature of Phiz's style ever since he was awarded a medal by the Society of Arts for John Gilpin's Ride (from William Cowper's 1782 comic ballad, The Diverting History of John Gilpin) in 1833, which in turn led to his being commissioned to provide the plates for Surtees' Jorrocks' Jaunts and Jollities (1838).

Related Materials

• Phiz's Illustrations for William Harrison Ainsworth's Ovingdean Grange (1859-60)
• Phiz: 'A Good Hand at a Horse' — A Gallery and Brief Overview of Phiz's Illustrations of Horses for Defoe, Dickens, Lever, and Ainsworth (1836-64)
• "Phiz" — artist, wood-engraver, etcher, and printer
• Etching, Wood-engraving, or Lithography in Phiz's Illustrations for A Tale of Two Cities?

Bibliography

Ainsworth, William Harrison. Ovingdean Grange: A Tale of the South Downs. (1860). Illustrated by Phiz. Ainsworth's Works. London & New York: George Routledge, 1876.

Buchanan-Brown, John. Phiz! Illustrator of Dickens' World. (1860). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1978.

Lester, Valerie Browne. Phiz: The Man Who Drew Dickens. London: Chatto and Windus, 2004.

Vann, J. Don. "William Harrison Ainsworth's Ovingdean Grange: A Tale of the South Downs in Bentley's Miscellany, November 1859 — July 1860." Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: Modern Language Association, 1985, pp. 30-31.

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Created 29 December 2019