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Passage Illustrated: Two travellers meet by accident in the little inn at Kilbeggan.

"Hadn't you better speak a word to him, anyhow?" said the waiter, half opening the parlour door. And Forester, accepting the suggestion, entered.

In the little low-ceilinged apartment of the small inn, at a table very amply and as temptingly covered, sat a large and, for his age, singularly handsome man; a forehead both high and broad surmounted two clear blue eyes, whose brilliancy seemed to defy the wear of time; regular and handsome teeth; and a complexion the very type of health appeared to vouch for a strength of constitution rare at his advanced age. His dress was the green coat so commonly worn by country gentlemen, with leather breeches and boots, nor, though the season was winter, did he appear to have any great-coat, or other defence against the weather. He was heaping some turf upon the fire as Forester entered, and, laughingly interrupting the operation, he stood up and bowed courteously.

"I have taken a great liberty, sir, first, to suppose that any man at this hour of the night is not the worse for something to eat and drink; and, secondly, that he might have no objection to partake of either in my company." Forester was not exactly prepared for a manner so palpably that of the best society, and, at once repressing every sign of his former impatience, replied by apologizing for a request which might inconvenience the granter. "Let me help you to this grouse-pie, and fill yourself a glass of sherry; and by the time you have taken some refreshment, the horses will be put to. I am most happy to offer you a seat."

"I am afraid there is a mistake somewhere," said Forester, half timidly. "I heard you had engaged the only four horses here, and as my carriage is without, my request was to obtain two if you —"

"But why not come with me? I'm pressed, and must be up, if possible, before morning. Remember, we are forty-eight miles from Dublin."

"Dublin! But I'm going the very opposite road. I'm for Westport."

"Oh, by Jove! that is different. What a stupid fellow the waiter is! Never mind; sit down. Let us have a glass of wine together. You shall have two of the horses. Old Wilkins must only make his spurs supply the place of the leaders."

There was a hearty good-nature in every accent of the old man's voice, and Forester drew his chair to the table, by no means sorry to spend some time longer in his company. [Chapter II, "A Travelling Acquaintance," pp. 9-10]

Commentary: En Route to Bribe the Knight of Gwynne to Vote for the Act Union

Lever introduces Dick Forester in Chapter I, "A Fire-side Group," set in Dublin's Merrion-square in 1801. The principal figure in the political discussion, Lord Castlereagh, Secretary for Ireland, instructs his aide-de-camp, Forster, to go west to secure the vote of Maurice Darcy, the Knight of Gwynne, for union with England. Forester is to intimate that his son, Lionel, a lieutenant in the Guards, will receive a promotion if his father votes in the Irish Parliament as Castlereagh wishes. In the next chapter, already on the road, Forester, hoping to change of horses at the inn in Kilbeggan, meets a handsome aristocrat of about sixty years of age in a private apartment. The well-dressed, well-mannered stranger (left) agrees to give up two of the horses he has booked so that Forester (right, in travelling clothes) may continue his journey to Westport, the village near the territory of the Knight of Gwynne. Little does Forester know (until the beginning of Chapter Five) that the suave, well-appointed traveller whom he has just met in the inn at Kilbeggan is in fact the Knight of Gwynne himself. Forester makes a wager with the affable stranger that he will be able to identify him by name once he arrives at Gwynne by virtue of his "descriptive powers" (12).

The third figure is not Forester's "smart-looking London servant," Linwood, but, in all likelihood, "a dirty waiter in a nankeen jacket" (8). Phiz places him in the margin in to focus on the English traveller and the genial Irish aristocrat who is entertaining him, and is in the act of putting a lump of turf on the fire. Although the stranger invites Forester to fill his glass with sherry and enjoy some of his grouse pie, the illustrator has shown a punchbowl, ladle and three silver cups on the side table. Thus, in his first regular illustration Phiz has introduced the figure whose moral worth will dominate the story, although Lever keeps the reader in suspense by not naming the jovial Irish traveller who is on his way up to Dublin from Westport.

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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