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The first of two duels in Tothill Fields, Westminster

Advancing towards each other, the combatants saluted; and in an another moment their blades were crossed, and several rapid passes exchanged. The spectators watched the conflict with the greatest interest, for both parties appeared admirably matched, and the beau's superior skill was counterbalanced by Randulph's extraordinary vigour and quickness. Thrusts were made and parried on both sides, but not a single hit was given, until Randulph, finding his adversary engaged in tierce with a high point, made a firm thrust in carte over the arm, and passed his sword through the fleshy part of the other's shoulder. At this successful hit, the seconds rushed forward, but before they reached the spot, the beau's sword fell from his grasp. [Book II, Chapter XI, "Randulph Worsts Beau Villiers in a Duel in Tothill Fields; and is Worsted Himself​ in a Second Duel by Sir Norfolk Salusbury," pp. 195-96]

Commentary

W. H. Chesson in George Cruikshank (1907) particularly admired this illustration as a fusion of the actual (the physical setting) and the fictional (the characters and situation), and reproduced only The Duel in Tothill Fields as example of Cruikshank's work in that 1842 novel, which “is only incidentally historical, but . . . afforded Cruikshank an opportunity for quickening his hand with the spirit of place. He has told us that his drawing of Westminster Abbey Cloisters and Lambeth Church, etc., are "correct copies from nature" [sic], and it almost seems as we look at his etchings and watercolours for "The Miser's Daughter" that he copied not only stones but living scenes” (86). The phrase "only incidentally historical" is telling in Chesson's observations because Ainsworth's novel — unlike Windsor Castle and The Tower of London — offers no significant historical personage equivalent to Henry VIII or Anne Boleyn or Lady Jane Grey, and an action that does not touch on matters of national importance. However, Cruikshank once again was able to utilise ready-made physical settings, lending his plates a similar historical authenticity. Here, for example, the twin Gothic towers of Westminster Abbey provide an immediate geographical context, very much as they do in the earlier illustration The Jacobite Club pursued by the guard (May 1842: Book I, Chapter 18). Victorian readers would have noted that in the illustration, set in 1744, nothing exists between the site of the duel (scene of many a physical altercation with rapiers and later pistols) lying between Millbank and Westminster Abbey, whereas by the mid-nineteenth century such a view would have been impossible owing to the growth of Greater London and Westminster.

There is extant a curious etching, by Hollar, of Tothill Fields as they were in the time of Charles I. They appear to be a dead level, broken on by a clump of trees in the centre, forming a sort of maze. The foreground is broken by a row of slight terraces, not unlike the "butts;" and some ladies are promenading leisurely, dressed in the fashionable costume of the day. ["Westminster: Tothill Fields"]​

Cruikshank indicates that just a few two-storey houses lie between the fields and the Abbey, and has suggested the "clump of trees" to the left, as if he may have used the "curious etching" from the seventeenth century as a reference. Occupying the centre foreground, the protagonist lunges at his initial antagonist, Beau Villiers, but has yet to thrust home, so that the illustration does not telegraph the outcome of the duel — or pre-empt the story-telling authority of the letterpress. Moreover, only a careful reading enables the viewer to determine whether the swordsman who is pinning his opponent is Crew in the first duel or Salusbury in the second.

Ainsworth is historically accurate in depicting the duel as a contest involving rapiers rather than pistols, and Cruikshank would certainly have acquiesced since the rapiers make for a more compact design, with the adversaries close together. According to Robert B. Shoemaker, “The​first duel involving pistols in the London area took place in Tothill Fields in 1711​between Colonel Richard Thornhill and Sir Cholmley Deering, but pistols were not commonly used until the early​1760s” (528).

Since Ainsworth mentions that Trussell, Firebras, and Hewitt are standing to one side, they must be the figures centre left (Cruikshank has placed the now-familiar figure of Firebras, seen in Randulph's interview with Cordwell Firebras in the Cloisters of Westminster Abbey (March 1842: Book I, Chapter 14). Of the four figures in the right-hand register, the man holding Villiers' coat must be Cripps, the valet, and just behind him, the surgeon. The foremost figure to the right, then, must be Crew's second antagonist, Sir Norfolk Salusbury, carefully studying Crew's technique in preparation for the next bout.

References

Ainsworth, William Harrison. The Miser's Daughter: A Tale. With 20 illustrations by George Cruikshank. First published in 3 volumes by Cunningham and Mortimer, London, 1842. London, Glasgow, and New York: George Routledge, 1892.

Chesson, Wilfred Hugh. George Cruikshank. The Popular Library of Art. London: Duckworth, 1908.

Shoemaker, Robert B. "The taming of the duel: masculinity, honour, and ritual violence in London, 1660-1800." The Historical Journal, 45, 3 (2002), pp. 525–545. University of Sheffield. Web. 25 June 2018.

Vann, J. Don. "The Miser's Daughter in Ainsworth's Magazine January-October 1842." Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: MLA, 1988. Pp. 22-23.

"Westminster: Tothill Fields and neighbourhood," in ​Old and New London. London: Cassell, Petter & Galpin,​1878. Vol. 4: pp. 14-26. BHO: British History Online. Web. 25 June 2018.

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