"Master and Man's Reflection Over Old Habits" — Phiz's twelfth illustration for Charles Lever's "Barrington" (1863)

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Phiz (Hablot K. Browne)

steel engraving

12.7 cm high by 10.3 cm wide (4 ⅞ by 4 ⅛ inches), vignetted

July 1862

Twelfth serial illustration for Charles Lever's Barrington (Chapter XXII, "Leaving Home"), facing p. 180.

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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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Commentary

As Lever's chapter title "Leaving Home" proclaims, Peter is preparing to depart for the Continent to bring his granddaughter home (why he has not done so years before, or as a Protestant tolerated her being raised in a Catholic institution, Lever does not adequately explain). He recalls the days of his youth, "when Irish gentlemen were as gorgeous as the courtiers of Versailles" (7) in bright uniforms. Dinah dismisses these youthful garments (note the pun on "habits" in Phiz's title), reminiscent of gay nights and a political career, as "tawdry absurdities" (8), proposing instead a simple suit of black and a grey shooting-coat.

Related Material

Bibliography

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

Lever, Charles. Barrington. With 25 engravings by Phiz [Hablôt Knight Browne]. London: Chapman and Hall, 1863.

Sutherland, John A. Barrington." The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford, Cal.: Stanford U. P., 1989, rpt. 1990, 48-49.

Created 9 August 2002

Last updated 16 September 2026