“Well, that's a blessing,’” said Mr. Weller. “Sammy, help your master up to the box; t’other leg, Sir, that’s it; give us your hand, Sir. Up with you. You was a lighter weight when you was a boy, Sir.’” — Thomas Onwhyn's eighteenth extra illustration for Charles Dickens's "The Pickwick Club" (30 September 1837)

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“Well, that's a blessing,’” said Mr. Weller. “Sammy, help your master up to the box; t’other leg, Sir, that’s it; give us your hand, Sir. Up with you. . . . .’”

Thomas Onwhyn [signed TO del”]

steel engraving

13.5 cm high by 11.7 cm wide (5 by 4 ½ inches), vignetted

Charles Dickens's The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, Chapter XXII, "In which Mr. Pickwick Journeys to Ipswitch and Meets with a Romantic Adventure with a Middle-Aged Lady in Yellow Curl-Papers" (November 1836), facing page 227.

[Click on the image to enlarge it.]

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 it, and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

Passage Illustrated: Pickwick takes Tony Weller's Coach to Ipswich

‘You’re given to nervousness, ain’t you, Sir?’ inquired Mr. Weller, senior, eyeing the stranger askance, as he mounted to his place.

‘Yes; I always am rather about these little matters,’ said the stranger, ‘but I am all right now — quite right.’

‘Well, that’s a blessin’, said Mr. Weller. ‘Sammy, help your master up to the box; t’other leg, Sir, that’s it; give us your hand, Sir. Up with you. You was a lighter weight when you was a boy, sir.’

‘True enough, that, Mr. Weller,’ said the breathless Mr. Pickwick good-humouredly, as he took his seat on the box beside him.

‘Jump up in front, Sammy,’ said Mr. Weller. ‘Now Villam, run ‘em out. Take care o’ the archvay, gen’l’m’n. “Heads,” as the pieman says. That’ll do, Villam. Let ‘em alone.’ And away went the coach up Whitechapel, to the admiration of the whole population of that pretty densely populated quarter.’ [Chapter XXII, “In which Mr. Pickwick Journeys to Ipswitch and Meets with a Romantic Adventure with a Middle-Aged Lady in Yellow Curl-Papers,” 227]

Commentary: Pickwick embarks on an adventure without the Pickwickians

“Well, that's a blessing,’” said Mr. Weller. “Sammy, help your master up to the box; t’other leg, Sir, that’s it; give us your hand, Sir. Up with you. You was a lighter weight when you was a boy, Sir.’” Page 227.

Before his trial for breach-of-promise, Pickwick decides to travel by coach to Ipswich in Suffolk, some sixty-seven miles from London, since Alfred Jingle and his servant Job Trotter have been reported there. Pickwick's friends Tupman, Winkle, and Snodgrass are to rendezvous with him at the Great White Horse Inn. His companion on this coach trip, apart from the faithful, level-headed Sam Weller, will be the somewhat reserved, enigmatic "stranger," Peter Magnus, whom Onwhyn has positioned on the roof of the Ipswich coach. As Pickwick awkwardly attempts to clamber up, Tony Weller uses his free hand to assist Pickwick, and Sam helps him keep his balance as he ascends to sit beside the driver. The illustrator provides an effective backdrop, realising the London inn yard, the hostler, and several other equipages. Magnus by his posture still seems agitated about whether the leather hatbox is onboard. And the figure of Tony Weller in this September 30, 1837, "extra" illustration is consistent with that of Phiz's coachman in his first appearance, in The Valentine (March 1837 instalment). The illustrator's job in both is to give that distinctive, jocular coachman's voice a suitable, instantly identifiable image.

The Jovial Tony Weller in the British and American Household Editions (1873-74)

Left: Phiz's British Household Edition woodcut reworks his original 1837 steel engraving as Before Sam could interfere to prevent it, his heroic parent had penetrated into a remote corner of the room, and attacked the Reverend Stiggins with manual dexterity (Ch. XXII, 1874). Right: Phiz's British Household Edition woodcut reworks his August 1837 steel engraving as Mr. Stiggins, getting on his legs as well as he could, proceeded to deliver an edifying discourse for the benefit of the company (Ch. XLV, 1874). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]

Left: The American edition's illustration by Thomas Nast that gives us the scene from inside the public house, Resuming his kicking with greater agility than before (1873). Right: Phiz's re-drafted version of the same scene for the Household Edition, Mr. Weller . . . . . immersing Mr. Stiggins's head in a horse-trough. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]

Phiz's Scenes Involving Tony Weller in the First Edition (1836-37)

The Valentine (March 1837 instalment)

The Red-Nosed Man Discourseth (August 1837 instalment)

Tony Weller ejects Mr. Stiggins (November 1837 instalment)

Bibliography

Dickens, Charles. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Robert Seymour, Robert Buss, and Phiz. London: Chapman and Hall, November 1837. With 32 additional illustrations by Thomas Onwhyn (London: E. Grattan, April-November 1837).

_______. The Pickwick Papers. Illustrated by Thomas Nast (1873) and Phiz (1874). The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1874; New York: Harpers and Brothers, 1873. Vol. 6.

Titley, Graham D. C. "Thomas Onwhyn: a Life in Illustration (1811-1886)." Pearl. University of Plymouth (2018-07-12).

Created 20 February 2024