The Journey — fortieth illustration engraved by the Dalziels for the 1852 Chapman and Hall edition of The Daltons, or, Three Roads in Life by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne). Chapter LXII, "The Tyrol Journey," facing 553. 11 cm by 15.3 cm (4 ¼ by 6 inches) vignetted. This is the fifteenth vertically oriented plate in the two-volume novel. Note: This engraving serves as the title-page vignette for Volume Two of the Little, Brown edition (Boston: 1904). For the title-page vignette for the initial volume, see A Midnight reception. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Passage Illustrated: The Picturesque Funeral Journey Continues
If our task as story-teller had not other claims on us, we would gladly linger with Nelly Dalton, as, in company with Hanserl and old Andy, she wended her slow way through the deep valleys of the Schwartz wald. The little party might have created astonishment in even more frequented districts than the primitive tract in which they journeyed, and have suggested many a puzzling doubt as to what rank or condition they belonged to. For Andy's convenience Hans had purchased an ass and a small cart, such as are sometimes used by the travelling beggars of every land. Seated in this, and in his old hunting-cap and scarlet coat, the old man fancied it was some pleasure excursion, or that he was “trundling along” to “cover,” as he used to do sixty years ago. Nelly walked at his side, now roused from her deep musings to reply to some meaningless question of the old man, or now feeding her sad memories as she listened to the little snatches of song which occasionally broke from him. Hanserl formed the rear-guard, making with his redoubted battle-axe and a most formidable old Turkish pistol, not the least singular figure in the procession. Their very baggage too had something strange and incomprehensible to common eyes; for, amidst stray scraps of old armour, the little remnants of Hanserl's collection, were to be seen an unfinished figure by Nelly's hand, or the rude beginning of some new group. Along with these were books and tools, and an infinity of queer costumes, of the Dwarf's own designing, for various seasons of the year. [Chapter LXII, "The Tyrol Journey," pp. 553-554]
Commentary
The little party, consisting of Nelly Dalton (left), her elderly servant Andy (driving the donkey-cart), and the redoubtable dwarf, Hanserl, the Baden toymaker who up to a few months before had been the Daltons' landlord. Sadly, the condition of the Daltons has suffered numerous reversals over the period as Frank has been imprisoned for dereliction of duty as an officer on the northern Italian campaign, Kate is a princess-designate waiting to marry a Russian oligarch in far-off St. Petersburg, and Peter Dalton has just died of a sudden stroke at the gaming tables in the Cursaal. But the little toymaker has suffered an ill-turn as well, for he made his shop security for Peter Dalton's loan with the local money-lender, Abel Kraus, and lost his property after Dalton's death. The kindly Hanserl has, as Nelly observes, paid dearly for befriending Peter and his daughter. At the close of the previous chapter, Nelly, Hanserl, and Andy have delivered the coffin containing Peter Dalton's remains to be interred at the mountaintop church above Baden.
In short, there is no going back to Baden. Phiz realizes the obtuse Andy on the reins as a contrast to the well-armed dwarf and the orphaned daughter in mourning. The trio are now on their way to Hans's birthplace in the Tyrol, where they will find a home with Hans's mother. Thus, the situation allows the illustrator plenty of scope for a romantic German landscape as its backdrop.
This is only one of eight illustrations reproduced in Volume Two (1859) of the first edition's forty-eight engravings. The other seven are A Discovery (facing 52), Frank Visits his Uncle (facing 18), Teaching the Old Idea how to shoot (facing 87), The Benediction (facing 115), Abel Narrowly escapes Caning (facing 161), Norwood's Exit (facing 267), and Retribution (facing 332).
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Browne, John Buchanan. Phiz! Illustrator of Dickens' World. New York: Charles Scribner's, 1978.
Downey, Edmund. Charles Lever: His Life in Letters. 2 vols. London: William Blackwood, 1906.
Fitzpatrick, W. J. The Life of Charles Lever. London: Downey, 1901.
Lester, Valerie Browne. Phiz: The Man Who Drew Dickens. London: Chatto and Windus, 2004.
Lever, Charles. The Daltons, or, Three Roads in Life. Illustrated by "Phiz" (Hablot Knight Browne). London: Chapman and Hall, 1852, rpt. 1859, and 1872. [Two volumes as one, with separate page numbers in the 1859 volume, after I: 362.]
_______. The Daltons and A Day's Ride. Illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne ('Phiz'). Vol VI of Lever's Works. New York: P. F. Collier, 1882. [This large-format American edition reproduces only six of the original forthy-eight Phiz illustrations.]
Lever, Charles James. The Daltons, or, Three Roads in Life. Vol. 2. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/32062/32062-h/32062-h.htm
Skinner, Anne Maria. Charles Lever and Ireland. University of Liverpool. PhD dissertation. May 2019.
Stevenson, Lionel. Dr. Quicksilver: The Life of Charles Lever. New York: Russell & Russell, 1939, rpt. 1969.
_______. "The Domestic Scene." The English Novel: A Panorama. Cambridge, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin and Riverside, 1960.
Last modified 31 May 2022