Mr. Paul Dempsey does the honours of Ballintray by Phiz (Hablot K. Browne). Twenty-second illustration for Charles Lever's The Knight of Gwynne; A Tale of the Time of the Union, 10.4 cm high by 15.1 cm wide (4 by 6 inches), vignetted, full-page steel-engraving for Chapter XXXVIII, "Some Characters New to the Knight and the Reader," facing p. 312. Part 10 (October 1846). [Click on the illustration to enlarge it.]

Passage Illustrated: Visiting a Seaside Resort, the Village of Ballintray

Right: The engraved title-page from the nineteenth and final instalment (July, 1847).

"I must own," said Darcy, dryly, "that, not having the privilege of knowing these ladies, I do not conceive myself at liberty to regard them with due attention."

"Oh! they never mind that here; no secrets among us."

"Very primitive, and doubtless very delightful; but I have trespassed too long on your politeness. Permit me to wish you a very good morning."

"Not at all; having nothing in the world to do. Paul Dempsey — that's my name — was always an idle man; Paul Dempsey, sir, nephew of old Paul Dempsey, of Dempsey Grove, in the county of Kilkenny; a snug place, that I wish the proprietor felt he had enjoyed sufficiently long. And your name, if I might make bold, is —"

"I call myself Gwynne," said Darcy, after a slight hesitation.

"Gwynne — Gwynne — there was a Gwynne, a tailor, in Ballyragget; a connection, probably?"

"I'm not aware of any relationship,” said Darcy, smiling.

"I'm glad of it; I owe your brother or your cousin there — that is, if he was either — a sum of seven-and-nine for these ducks. There are Gwynnes in Ross besides, and Quins; are you sure it is not Quin? Very common name Quin." [Chapter XXXVIII, "Some Characters New to the Knight and the Reader," 312]

Commentary: Darcy enters the middle-class seaside resort of Ballintray as a pedestrian

As the seaside resort of Ballintray, near the Giant's Causeway in Antrim, is but a three-mile walk from The Corvy, where the Darcys (under the somewhat assumed name of "Gwynne") are staying as Bagenal Daly's guests, the Knight of Gwynne decides to walk to the village to pay his respects to Miss Daly, whom he knew in youth as a beautiful heiress. She has, after all, given up her occupancy of the maritime cottage for them, and has moved temporarily to reside in what Darcy regards as a "Cockneyism," Fumbally's Boarding House in Ballintray, "a little watering-place much frequented in the season by visiters from Coleraine, and other towns still more inland" (308). Phiz has derived his costuming and the pose of the chatty and highly inquisitive Paul Delaney from Lever's initial description of him:

Never was the good Knight more convinced of his own prudence in paying his first visit alone, and he stood for some time in patient admiration of the scene, until his eye rested on a figure who, seated at some distance off on a little eminence of the rocky coast, was as coolly surveying Darcy through his telescope. The mutual inspection continued for several minutes, when the stranger, deliberately shutting up his glass, advanced towards the Knight.

The gentleman was short, but stoutly knit, with a walk and a carriage of his head that, to Darcy's observant eye, bespoke an innate sense of self-importance; his dress was a greatcoat, cut jockey fashion, and ornamented with very large buttons, displaying heads of stags, foxes, and badgers, and other emblems of the chase, short Russia duck trousers, a wide-leaved straw hat, and a very loose cravat, knotted sailor-fashion on his breast. [311]

Another decided "Cockneyism" that Phiz has added but which Lever's description does not feature is the bathing machine (mobile changing room), up right, which bears the Fumbally name as advertising the boarding house (not shown). Otherwise, such details as the sea-bathers, telescopes, and even binoculars are consistent with Lever's description of the landward prospect, as are the abundance of "fair niads."

For the volume reader of 1847 and afterwards, a glance at the "List of Plates" (p. xi) would have revealed that Mr. Dempsey and the owner of the boarding-house, Mrs. Fumbally, will become continuing comic characters. Tantalizingly, too, the title "The Howling Wind" alias Bagenal Daly captures "Honest Tom" reveals that Tom Gleeson has not committed suicide, but has fled to America, where the determined Daly will apprehend him at the conclusion of the novel.

Further Illustrations Featuring Paul Dempsey and Mrs. Fumbally

Scanned images and commentary by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose, as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned them, and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

Bibliography

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

Lester, Valerie Browne Lester. Chapter 11: "'Give Me Back the Freshness of the Morning!'" Phiz! The Man Who Drew Dickens. London: Chatto and Windus, 2004. Pp. 108-127.

Lever, Charles. The Knight of Gwynne; A Tale of the Time of the Union. London: Chapman and Hall, serialised January 1846 through July 1847.

Lever, Charles. The Knight of Gwynne. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablột Knight Browne]. Novels and Romances of Charles Lever. Vol. I and II. In two volumes. Project Gutenberg. Last Updated: 28 February 2018.

Steig, Michael. Chapter Four: "Dombey and Son: Iconography of Social and Sexual Satire." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington: Indiana U. P., 1978. Pp. 86-112.

Stevenson, Lionel. Chapter IX, "Nomadic Patriarch, 1845-1847." Dr. Quicksilver: The Life of Charles Lever. London: Chapman and Hall, 1939. Pp. 146-164.

_______. "The Domestic Scene." The English Novel: A Panorama. Cambridge, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin and Riverside, 1960.


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