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Context of the Illustration: Mervyn Abducted by Gipsies

"Where are you taking me to? What are you going to do?" I cried, greatly terrified, and unable to conceive what was about to happen.

"You'll learn presently," the man replied, with a savage grin. And he forced Taffy down the slippery sides of the hollow; and if the pony had not been as sure-footed as a goat of his own native hills, he must have fallen. As it was, he slided down for some yards. I would have jumped off if I could, but the gipsy held me fast. On reaching the bottom, I became aware that the ravine was inhabited, and perceived at a little distance a low shed, protected from the weather by a sloping roof of dried gorse, and having wattled sides. The snow had been carefully cleared away around it, and in this space a turf fire was burning, and heating a caldron suspended above it from a cross-sticks. In summer this ravine must have been beautiful s well as secluded; but now it had a savage and almost fearful aspect, more fitted to the lair of a wild beast than the haunt of man. Black and gnarled roots of trees protruded from the sides, looking hideous from the congealed snow around, and the shoots of ice hanging from them. So strange and fantastic were some of the tricks played by the spirits of frost and snow, that the hollow had almost the appearance of an icy cavern; and at the further end, where the boughs overhead were thick, making an arch impervious to the sun in the summer, the snow had lodged in masses, and then freezing, formed a roof which long icicles depended, giving the whole place the semblance of a grotto, with a pavement of "thick-ribbed ice," caused by the accumulations of a half-frozen rivulet that tried to force its way through it. [pp. 45-46]

[The gypsy-boy, the father (Phaleg), the mother (Peninnah or Ninnah) are an indigent squatter family trying to get by, but apparently they are in league with "the young gentry cove" (47), Malpas Sale, Mervyn's sworn enemy. When she reads the boy's palm to predict his future, she is interrupted by the arrival of Ned Culcheth's hound:]

. . . some object rolled down the bank, and was almost buried in the avalanche of snow that attended its rapid course. It turned out to be the gipsy lad [Obed]. He was pursued by a bloodhound, which dashed down the brake after him, and which no doubt would have seized him and lacerated him dreadfully, but for the intervention of his father, who, hearing the noise, rushed out of the tent to his assistance, armed with a stake, with which he kept the hound off. [Book One, Chapter VI, "In which I ride round Marston Mere; meet with some Gipsies in a strange place; and take part at the Twelfth-Night merry-making in Farmer Shakeshaft's Barn," 47]

Commentary: A Gothic Scene

The picturesque scene set in a weird glenn occupied by outlandish figures who menace the tidily dressed protagonist on his pony has gothic undertones. Phiz seems to have relished the challenge to include as many details from the text as possible, although in having made the harsh gipsy father, Phaleg, the focal point of the composition Phiz is clearly pointing to the moment when his son and the bloodhound unexpectedly tumble down the side of the ravine and land in the midst of the encampment. The "adventure" as narrated focuses on the protagonist's feeling threatened, but Phiz has chosen to concentrate on the menacing figure of the gipsy leader, who will become important later in the story.

Although Phiz seems to have ignored certain elements that Ainsworth had specified in the text, he is wholly successful in introducing to the composition both the gipsy family and the highly atmospheric backdrop to the protagonist's abduction. Phiz has even included in the upper-left-hand corner the descending figures of Malpas (rear) and gamekeeper Ned Culcheth, who is carrying a double-barrelled shogun and is accompanied by his other bloodhound. Phiz does not, however, reinforce Ainsworth's suggestion that Malpas is somehow in league wit the villainous Phaleg.

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. 27-28

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Created 28 October 2018

Last modified 17 March 2021