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"Come and see me one of these days, Potts." — staff artist William Newman's initial composite woodblock engraving for Charles Lever's A Day's Ride: A Life's Romance, instalment 3, published on 25 August 1860 in Harper's Weekly: A Journal of Civilization, Vol. IV, Chapter III, "Truth Not Always in Wine," framed, top of page 541. [Click on image to enlarge it.]

Passage Illustrated: Potts Drinking with his colleagues

In an episode about bear-shooting, I mentioned the Emperor of Russia, poor dear Nicholas, and told how we had once exchanged horses, — mine being more strong-boned, and a weight-carrier; his a light Caucasian mare of purest breed, “the dam of that creature you may see below in the stable now,” said I, carelessly. “'Come and see me one of these days, Potts,' said he, in parting; 'come and pass a week with me at Constantinople.' This was the first intimation he had ever given of his project against Turkey; and when I told it to the Duke of Wellington, his remark was a muttered 'Strange fellow, Potts, — knows everything!' though he made no reply to me at the time.” [Chapter III, "Truth Not Always in Wine," 541; page 25 in the Chapman and Hall edition]

Commentary: Potts passes himself off as an Aristocrat

On his day's ride on Blondel, Potts visits the sleepy village of Ashford. Here at the local inn he falls in with a group of young aristocrats, led by Lord Keldrum. In company with him, Oxley, Hammond, and Dyke, a Catholic priest from County Clare, after a champagne dinner and a chaser of claret, Potts feels that he has been accepted as one of by these indolent social superiors. Further after dinner drinking of punch operates on Potts in such a way that he is anything but truthful: he waxes "extravagant" and "vain-glorious," using travellers' accounts that he has read to fill out his barren youth with Continental travels and adventures. After several pages of such whoppers, the priest tries to outdo Potts as a "story-teller." Finally, Potts vaguely remembers having bet his mount (a gift of the late Czar Nicholas, asserts Potts) against Father Dyke's signet ring (supposedly originally owned by Bonnie Prince Charlie). But in the ensuing game of backgammon Potts loses.

To show their difference in age, experience, and social status, Newman exaggerates Lord Keldrum's height and costumes him as some sort of Prussian or Austrian officer. The illustrator depicts the garishly dressed Potts as much shorter, a mere boy beside the genuine aristocrat.

Bibliography

Brown, Jane E., and Richard Samuel West. "William Newman (1817—1870): A Victorian Cartoonist in London and New York." American Periodicals, 17, 2: "Periodical Comics and Cartoons." (Ohio State University Press, 2007), 143-183. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20770984.

Lever, Charles. A Day's Ride: A Life's Romance. Harper's Weekly: A Journal of Civilization. Illustrated by William Newman. Vols. IV-V (13 April 1860 through 23 March 1861) in thirty-five weekly parts. Only a dozen of these weekly instalments were illustrated: p. 541 (one), 549 (two), 573, 589, 605, 621, 637, 649, 661, 678, 701, and 714.

_______. A Day's Ride; A Life's Romance. Illustrated by "Phiz" (Hablot Knight Browne). London: Chapman and Hall, 1863, rpt. Routledge, 1882.

_______. A Day's Ride: A Life's Romance. London: Chapman and Hall, 1873.

Lever, Charles James. A Day's Ride; A Life's Romance. http://www.gutenberg.org//files/32692/32692-h/32692-h.htm

Stevenson, Lionel. Dr. Quicksilver: The Life of Charles Lever. New York: Russell & Russell, 1939, rpt. 1969.

Sutherland, John. "Charles Lever." The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford, Cal.: Stanford U. P., 1989. Pp. 372-374.

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Created 25 May 2022