"The Wager" by "Phiz" (Illustration for Charles Lever's "Barrington")

The Wager

Phiz (Hablot K. Browne)

1863

Charles Lever's Barrington (Chapter XIV)

Image scan and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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Commentary

Again we see Polly Dill (on the borrowed champion "Baythershin") and three riders of the chase; this time, she has accepted the challenge in a mere hour and forty minutes to ride from Lowe's Folly to Foynes, but has dared to ford the river near The Fisherman's Home rather than take the slightly longer and safer crossing at Nusford. However, having broken her reins she is in peril when rescued by Fred Conyers, who receives no thanks since she believes she could have won her friends their £00 wager against the "English officer that is stopping at Sir Charles's" (p. 90), presumably Horace Stapylton. Fred is disgusted by what he regards as a disgraceful bet because it threatened both horse and rider: "He had often heard of the reckless habits and absurd extravagances of Irish life" (90), comments Lever of Fred's typically English prejudices.

Last modified August 2002