Warm Tea and Cold Reception
Phiz (Halbot K. Browne)
1863
Charles Lever's Barrington, p. 23
Image scan and text by Philip V. Allingham.
Commentary
See the text, mid-p. 24. Most of the plates in the volume edition of the novel have been juxtaposed against the moments illustrated. The parsimonious, old, half-pay major, M'Cormick (standing), a veteran of the disastrous Walcheren campaign (summer 80) in the Napoleonic wars, is frequently a self-invited guest at "The Fisherman's Home," much to the chagrin of the thrifty Dinah (right). Since the local quack, Dr. Dill, is the figure seated left, the remaining figure with the mutton-chop whiskers should, by process of elimination, be Peter Barrington, who looks rather young for an octogenarian. The host as depicted in plate 4 and the doctor as depicted in plate 23 somewhat resemble one another while the major, also depicted in plates 3, 24, and is clearly bald. Perhaps at this stage of the program Phiz had not clearly thought out what each of these characters should look like; certainly, his version of Miss Dinah is consistently much thinner than Lever's.
Last modified August 2002