Irish Sport — with a Cockney by Phiz (Hablot K. Browne), eleventh steel-engraving and seventeenth serial illustration for Charles Lever's Jack Hinton, The Guardsman, Part 6 (June 1842), Chapter XXIV, "The Devil's Grip." 9.2 by 15.3 cm (3 ½ by 6 inches), vignetted, p. 165. [Click on the illustration to enlarge it.]
Passage Illustrated: The Irish of Waterford take their Cockney guest fowling
It took some time to caparison ourselves for the field. Shot-bags, flasks, and powder-horns were distributed about, while three brace of dogs caracoled round the room, and increased the uproar. We now sallied forth. It was a dark and starless night — the wind still blowing a hurricane from the north-east, and not a thing to be seen two yards from where you stood.
'“Glorious weather!” said Oakley.
'“A delicious morning!” cried another. “When those clouds blow over we shall have no rain.”
'“That's a fine line of country, Mr. Green,” said I.
'“Eh? what? a fine what? I can see nothing — it's pitch dark.”
'“Ah, I forgot,” said I. “How stupid we were, Oakley, not to remember that Mr. Green was not used to our climate! We can see everything, you know; but come along, you'll get better by-and-by.”
'With this we hurried him down a lane, through a hedge, and into a ploughed field; while on every side of him pop, pop went the guns, accompanied by exclamations of enthusiastic pleasure and delight.
'“There they go — mark! That's yours, Tom! Well done — cock pheasant, by Jove! Here, Mr. Green! this way, Mr. Green! that dog is pointing — there, there! don't you see there?” said I, almost lifting the gun to his shoulder, while poor Mr. Green, almost in a panic of excitement and trepidation, pulled both triggers, and nearly fell back with the recoil.
'“Splendid shot, begad! — killed both,” said Oakley. “Ah, Mr. Green, we have no chance with you. Give him another gun at once.” [Chapter XXIV, "The Devil's Grip," 165]
Commentary: Bob Mahon's Recollection of a Gullible Londoner
“The Devil’s Grip” is merely an interlude narrated by Major Bob Mahon of Roscommon, a friend of Father Tom Loftus at Loughrea. On the night before the steeple-chase in which Hinton must ride O’Grady’s horse to save the wager, Bob over dinner recalls a Londoner’s visit to the Devil’s Grip, a rundown estate in Waterford. Mr. Green, a prosperous grocer from Holborn, fancies setting himself up as a squire, and Bob has been keen to unload the estate on the unsuspecting Londoner. But when Green turns up after the capsizing of the Milford packet-boat, Bob decides to play a joke on the gullible Englishman, turning day into night and night into day. He and his practical-joking comrades take Green shooting early in the morning; in fact, it is night. In the present scene, the corpulent shooter is Mr. Green, accompanied by half-a-dozen soldiers of the Fifth from the nearby barracks. Phiz has made the engraving rather murky to suggest the nocturnal setting in the fields near the Devil's Grip. And, unlike the middle-aged, overweight "Cockney," the young Irishmen are all supremely self-confident and physically attractive. In contrast to their obvious ebullience and camaraderie, Mr. Green (an apt name for a grocer) is very much the outsider who fails to distinguish evening from early morning.
Related Material
- "Phiz" — artist, wood-engraver, etcher, and printer — and the new reproductive processes
- The Novels of Charles Lever, 1839-72
- Phiz's Forty-four Illustrations for Lever's Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon (1840-41)
- Phiz's Forty Illustrations for Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit (1843-44)
Scanned image and commentary 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
Lester, Valerie Browne. Phiz: The Man Who Drew Dickens. London: Chatto and Windus, 2004.
Lever, Charles. Jack Hinton, The Guardsman. Illustrated by Hablột Knight Browne (Phiz). London: Downey & Co., 1901. [First published serially in The Dublin University Magazine January through December 1842; and subsequently in a single volume, Dublin: William Curry, Jun. December 1842, pp. 396. Illustrated with wood and steel engravings by H. K. Browne: 27 full-page plates. 8vo, 396pp. Boston: Little, Brown, 1894; New York: Croscup, 1894. 2 vols.
Stevenson, Lionel. Chapter VI, "Editor, 1841-1843." Dr. Quicksilver: The Life of Charles Lever. London: Chapman and Hall, 1939. 92-107.
Sutherland, John A. "Jack Hinton The Guardsman." The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford, Cal.: Stanford U. P., 1989, rpt. 1990, 323.
Thomson, David Croal. Life and Labours of Hablột Knight Browne, "Phiz". London: Chapman and Hall, 1884.
Created 26 May 2023