Passage Illustrated: The boys' listen to a Veteran of the Revolutionary War

Notwithstanding John's indignant declaration, he showed no disposition to abandon his shop, and no particular objection to the continuance of our custom. He soon forgot his grievances, or rather they were effaced by new ones, for we were perpetually playing him tricks. We wanted him to tell us how he lost his arm; but he always seemed shy of tho subject, till one afternoon, when he was in good humour, and a sood lot of us were assembled togother, helping ourselves to cakes and confectionary, we thought we might get it out of him, and made the attempt accordingly.

"You'll be a soldier like your father, I suppose, Clitheroe?" observed Simpson.

"No. I won't," I replied.

"You're atraid of losing an arm, like John Leigh?" remarked Hyde.

"Perhaps I am," I answered. "But John seems scarcely to miss his limb. "Hand me some figs, old fellow. And now, suppose you tell us how you got rid of your fin?"

"Ay," t"ell us all about it, John," the others chorused.

"Well," he replied, "it's a long story altogether, but I'll cut it as short as I can." (We signified our approval, and he went on.) "The Battle of Bunker's Hill, you must know, was fought many years ago, almost afore your fathers was thought of, young gentlemen, on the 17th of June, 1775; and though I oughtn't to speak disrespectfully of my commanding officers, yet I must say it was their fault entirely that we didn't give them Yankees twice the drubbing we did give 'em, as you shall hear. Well, the troubles had just begun in Americay, which ended in the great war, and a large body of troops had been collected by the Provinciai Congress of Massachusetts; British blood had been spilt by the colonists at the fight of Lexington; and Boston, of which General Gage was governor, was blockaded; and a pity was we hadn't some one more competent and determined than Gage for a governor, as the first outbieak might have been checked, and no more mischief done. Well, war to extremities was resolved on by our government, and more troops was sent over under the command of Major-General Howe, including some companies of grenadiers, amongst whom I was, and we landed at Boston touards the end of May. The time was row come when we might have read them saucy Yankees a lesson, and given them such a dreseing, as Mr. Cane sometimes gives you misbehaved boys —"

"Don't be personal, John," Simpson cried.

"Howsomever, our generals took it mighty easy, and seemed resolved to let 'em go any lengths afore they'd let 'em go any lengths afore they'd fire a gun to stop 'em. Well, you must know, Boston's a very fine city, and is built on a peninsula connected with the mainland by a narrow neck, which was strongly fortified by old Gage. Opposite Boston, and only separated from it by a narrow channel, called Charles River, about as wide as the Thames at Lunnon, and now crossed, I believe, by a bridge but quite open in my time, is another peninsula, on which stands Charlestown, and at the back of it there rises a commanding height, completely overlooking Boston, called Bunker's Hill."

And thinking his description might be rendered more intelligible by some illustration, John took up a board, and rearing it against the counter, drew a few sketches upon it with a piece of chalk. This he performed very dexterously, considering he had to do it with his left hand.

"This here's Boston, you see, young gentlemen, and that there's Boston Neck, where we was stationed, and where our officers did nothing, as somebody said, 'but twist their tails and powder their heads;' and here's Boston Bay, where our men-of-war and transports was lying; and here's all the little islands — Noddle Island, and Hog Island, and Spectacle Island, and a great many more, where we used to have skirmishes with the Yankees; and now, look you, here's Charlestown, and Bunker's Hill above it. [Book the First, Chapter II, "An Account of My Schooldays, Schoolfellows, and Schoolmasters — Mr. Abel Cane proves that he is able to cane — Dr. Londsdale adopts a different mode of tuition — John Brideoak — A Bunker's Hill Hero — a boy drowned," pp. 16-17]

Commentary

Although the Cottonborough boys (based on Ainsworth's own classmates at the Manchester Grammar School) are much more interested in Leigh's losing his arm than the Battle of Bunker Hill, the old soldier only briefly describes his having been left for dead on the field of battle. In his illustration of the American history lesson, Phiz focuses on the young "gentlemen" from the grammar school who in the Ainsworth text seem far less interested in the crude map of Boston and far more interested in the exciting battlefield narrative which has won their rapt attention.

Phiz seems to have enjoyed revisiting the kinds of schoolboy scenes that he created for the early chapters of Dickens's David Copperfield (May 1849 — November 1850). The boys in their uniforms are not uniformly engaged in listening to old soldier's account of the Battle of Bunker Hill; one boy, obviously not paying attention to where he was sitting, is tumbling into a supply bin in the general store. One might have wished for more schoolroom scenes such as Steerforth and Mr. Mell (July 1849), so that we might have expected that readers would have embraced Ainsworth's apparent Bildungsroman, suggesting a new direction in his serial fiction. However, the popular taste, conditioned by such historical novels as Jack Sheppard, did not warm to Ainsworth's boyhood reminiscence.

The old soldier, one-armed John Leigh, proprietor of the general store across from the Manchester Grammar School, is more or less as Ainsworth describes him in the text. Although he is not particularly bulky or heavy-featured, he wears knee-breeches in the style of the eighteenh century and buckled shoes, and "a thick, clubbed pigtail behind" (page 14) his pulled back hair. Phiz draws the reader's attention to the pigtail by forcing it upward against a cupboard. Although the illustration contains eleven boys in various positions of wrapt attention, including one hapless fellow tumbling into a potato bin (right), Ainsworth identifies only Clitheroe (the tall boy beside the map), Simpson (later reported drowned), amd Hyde (eating figs, centre). Oddly enough, Mr. Cane specifies afterwards that six of his boys are absent without leave: "Lathon, Hilton, Frogg, Simpson, and Clitheroe" (14). Either his vigilance is slipping, or Phiz thought the shop scene required far more truants. The congruence between text and plate is otherwise considerable: surviving correspondence between the novelist and Phiz shows that Ainsworth previewed the month's illustrations before submitting the final draft of the instalment for type-setting. Writer and artist even agree as to which arm the veteran of the revolutionary wars lost at the Battle of Bunker's Hill; "His right sleeve was fastened to his breast" (14).

Bibliography

"Ainsworth and Friends." Chapter V: "The Lancashire Novels," in Essays on 19th Century Literature & The Gothic, posted 16 January 2013; last updated October 2018. Online version available from wordpress.com — Dr. Stephen Carver's Blog. Web. 8 October 2018.

Ainsworth, William Harrison. The Life and Adventures of Mervyn Clitheroe (1851-2; 1858). Illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne ('Phiz'). London: Routledge, 1882.

Carver, Stephen. The Life and Works of the Lancashire Novelist William Harrison Ainsworth, 1805–1882. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press, 2003.

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

Vann, J. Don. "William Harrison Ainsworth. Mervyn Clitheroe, twelve parts in eleven monthly installments, December 1851-March 1852, December 1857-June 1858." New York: MLA, 1985. Pp. 27-28

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Last modified 10 October 2018