Passage Illustrated: Jumping a Fence in Galway

By the time that we reached the foot of the hill, the fox, followed closely by the hounds, had passed through a breach in the wall; while Matthew Blake, with the huntsmen and whipper-in, was riding along in search of a gap to lead the horses through. Before I put spurs to Badger to face the hill, I turned one look towards Hammersley. There was a slight curl, half-smile, half-sneer, upon his lip that actually maddened me, and had a precipice yawned beneath my feet, I should have dashed at it after that. The ascent was so steep that I was obliged to take the hill in a slanting direction; and even thus, the loose footing rendered it dangerous in the extreme.

At length I reached the crest, where the wall, more than five feet in height, stood frowning above and seeming to defy me. I turned my horse full round, so that his very chest almost touched the stones, and with a bold cut of the whip and a loud halloo, the gallant animal rose, as if rearing, pawed for an instant to regain his balance, and then, with a frightful struggle, fell backwards, and rolled from top to bottom of the hill, carrying me along with him; the last object that crossed my sight, as I lay bruised and motionless, being the captain as he took the wall in a flying leap, and disappeared at the other side. After a few scrambling efforts to rise, Badger regained his legs and stood beside me; but such was the shock and concussion of my fall that all the objects around seemed wavering and floating before me, while showers of bright sparks fell in myriads before my eyes. I tried to rise, but fell back helpless. Cold perspiration broke over my forehead, and I fainted. From that moment I can remember nothing, till I felt myself galloping along at full speed upon a level table-land, with the hounds about three fields in advance, Hammersley riding foremost, and taking all his leaps coolly as ever. As I swayed to either side upon my saddle, from weakness, I was lost to all thought or recollection, save a flickering memory of some plan of vengeance, which still urged me forward. The chase had now lasted above an hour, and both hounds and horses began to feel the pace at which they were going. As for me, I rode mechanically; I neither knew nor cared for the dangers before me. My eye rested on but one object; my whole being was concentrated upon one vague and undefined sense of revenge. At this instant the huntsman came alongside of me.

“Are you hurted, Misther Charles? Did you fall? Your cheek is all blood, and your coat is torn in two; and, Mother o’ God! his boot is ground to powder; he does not hear me! Oh, pull up! pull up, for the love of the Virgin! There’s the clover-field and the sunk fence before you, and you’ll be killed on the spot!” [Chapter IV, "The Hunt," pp. 20-21]

Commentary by Michael Steig (1978)

Eighteen-forty was an extremely busy year for Browne (see checklist, p. 318), and some of his work is understandably perfunctory; yet there is evidence of artistic growth. A comparison of Harry Lorrequer and Charles O'Malley is especially revealing because of the similarity of the two novels' subject matter. The very first plate in the latter, The Sunk Fence (Illus. 118), showing the hero being thrown off his horse during a fox hunt, is far beyond what Browne appeared capable of two years earlier in its handling of perspective, landscape, degrees of biting-in to provide depth, and management of detail and figures in action. Much of the comic Irish physiognomy is still caricatural — more so than most of his work for Dickens at any time — but his line is surer, and there are few examples of really monstrous grotesquerie in the characters' faces. [Chapter VII, "Phiz the Illustrator: An Overview and a Summing Up," pp. 302-303]

Commentary on the First of the Novel's Many Horse Scenes

The plate, used in the American edition as the frontispiece, creates an interesting change in narrative perspective as Lever narrates in the first-person, major character (Charles O'Malley's voice), but the plate objectifies the action, making the protagonist look faintly ridiculous rather than dashing, and minimizing the injuries that both riders and horses sustain in pursuit of the fox.

This early "sporting" illustration in the manner of R. S. Surtees introduces several key elements in the novel: young Charles O'Malley's intention to become a master equestrian (possibly with an eye to entering the Dragoons), his family's vast estates at Castle O'Malley, and his antipathy for his romantic rival, Captain Hammersley of the 12th Irish Dragoons. O'Malley's Irish mount (Badger) proves superior to Hammersley's, sustaining only a thorough shaking as a result of the rider's misjudging the jump, whereas the Captain's horse has to be put down. In the dynamic Phiz illustration, Hammersley is tumbling off his mount while O'Malley clears the brickwork wall. The English mare breaks her collar bone and both of her forelegs. In a sense, then, Phiz's programme begins and ends with horses; he opens the regular monthly serial sequence with the hapless Captain Hammersley's losing his English mare on the O'Malley estate in Galway, and ends with his being shot off his horse by the French at the Battle of Waterloo in the novel's penultimate engraving, one of the few set in the horizontal, The Death of Hammersley in the serial's final, double number (November 1841).

Related Material: Phiz's Passion for Horses

• Phiz: "A Good Hand at a Horse" — A Gallery and Brief Overview of Phiz's Illustrations of Horses for Defoe, Dickens, Lever, and Ainsworth (1836-64)
• Charles Lever's Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon (1840-41)

Bibliography

Lever, Charles. Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne]. Published serially in The Dublin University Magazine from Vol. XV (March 1840) through XVIII (December 1841). Dublin: William Curry, March 1840 through December 1841, 2 vols. London: Samuel Holdsworth, 1840; rpt., Chapman and Hall, 1873.

Lever, Charles. Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne]. Novels and Romances of Charles Lever. Vol. I and II. In two volumes. Project Gutenberg. Last Updated: 2 September 2016.

Steig, Michael. Plate 118, The Sunk Fence. Chapter Seven: "Phiz the Illustrator: An Overview and a Summing Up." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington: Indiana U. P., 1978. Pp. 298-316.

Stevenson, Lionel. Chapter V, "Renegade from Physic, 1839-1841." Dr. Quicksilver: The Life of Charles Lever. London: Chapman and Hall, 1939. Pp. 73-93.

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Created 11 November 2007

Last updated 5 March 2023