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"Look, Joe!" he said; "see that fellow behind! Well mounted, is he not?"

Grimaldi looked back, and saw the man coming along at a fast trot. He was a stout, hearty fellow, dressed like a small farmer, as he very probably was, and was riding a strong horse, of superior make, good pace, and altogether an excellent roadster.

"Yes, I see him," was his reply. "He's well enough, but I see nothing particular about him or the horse either."

"Nor is there anything particular about either of them that I am aware of," answered his companion; "but wouldn't you think, judging from the appearance of his nag, and the rate at which he is riding, that he would pass our chaise in a very short time?"

"Most unquestionably; he will pass us in a few seconds."

"I'll tell you what, Joe, I'll bet you a guinea he does not," said the friend.

"Nonsense!"

"Well, will you take it?"

"No, no; it would be robbing you."

"Oh, leave me to judge about that," said the friend; "I shall not consider it a robbery: and, so far from that, I'm willing to make the bet more in your favour.​ — Come, I'll bet you a guinea, Joe, that that man don't pass our chaise between this and Dartford."

"Done!" said Grimaldi, well knowing that, unless some sudden and most unaccountable change took place in the pace at which the man was riding, he must pass in a minute or two​ — "done!"

"Very good," said the other.​— "Stop​— I forgot: remember that if you laugh or smile, so that he can see you, between this and Dartford, you will have lost. Is that agreed?"

"Oh, certainly," replied Grimaldi, very much interested to know by what mode his friend proposed to win the wager,​ — ​"certainly."

He did not remain very long in expectation: the horseman drew nearer and nearer, and the noise of his horse's feet was heard close behind the chaise, when the friend, pulling a pistol from his pocket, suddenly thrust his head and shoulders out of the window and presented the pistol full at the face of the unconscious countryman, assuming at the same time a ferocious countenance and menacing air which were perfectly alarming. Grimaldi was looking through the little window at the back of the chaise, and was like to die with laughter when he witnessed the effect produced by this singular apparition.​— Chapter VI. 1798. "Tribulations connected with 'Old Lucas,' the constable, with an account of the subsequent proceedings before Mr. Blamire, the magistrate, at Hatton Garden, and the mysterious appearance of a silver staff​— A guinea wager with a jocose friend on the Dartford-road​— The Prince of Wales, Sheridan, and the Crockery Girl," p.​ 71-72.

Commentary

Dickens wrote an introductory chapter extolling the delights of pantomime, also a concluding one, and set much store by both of them. Throughout the work there are unmistakable Dickens touches, like the description of Grimaldi 'coughing very fiercely' in an attempt to frighten off some suspected burglars, and ironic asides like the one about two night watchmen having been 'chosen, as the majority of that fine body of men were, with a specific view to their old age and infirmities'. Moreover, in certain places Dickens has completely changed the original Grimaldi/Wilks text, 'telling some of the stories in my own way'. He sometimes ends up with something that could well be an episde from Pickwick . . . . — Michael Slater, p. 112.

The anecdote about cheating to win "The Wager" is exactly the stuff of an episode from the Pickwick Papers, featuring that great wag and practical joker Bob Sawyer, and such carriage scenes are plentiful in that serialised novel. Cruikshank's handling of the scene with the young countryman on horseback and wearing a hunting-cap, and Joey and his histrionic companion leaning out of the carriage, recalls such scenes from Pickwick as The Breakdown by Phiz (July 1836) and Bob Sawyer's Mode of Travelling (October 1837), and for inspiration Cruikshank would also have had the Sporting Magazine plates and stories that spawned Hillingdon Hall and the other Jorrocks novels by Robert Smith Surtees (17 May 1805-16 March 1864) that had been appearing in the New Sporting Magazine since 1831, and which were collected as Jorrocks' Jaunts and Jollities, and, like Grimaldi's Memoirs, published in 1838.

Related Materials

• Victorian Pantomimes and Extravaganzas
• The Development of Pantomime, 1692-1761
• Pantomime, 1844
• Nineteenth-Century British Pantomime

Bibliography

Ackroyd, Peter. Dickens: A Biography. London: Sinclair-Stevenson, 1990.

Ainsworth, William Harrison. Jack Sheppard. A Romance. With 28 illustrations by George Cruikshank. In three volumes. London: Richard Bentley, 1839.

Bentley, Nicholas, Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. The Dickens: Index. Oxfiord: Oxford U. P., 1990.

Cohen, Jane Rabb. Part One, "Dickens and His Early Illustrators: 1. George Cruikshank. Charles Dickens and His Original Illustrators. Columbus: Ohio University Press, 1980. Pp. 15-38.

Grimaldi, Joseph, and Charles Dickens. Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi, Edited By 'Boz'. With ten illustrations by George Cruikshank. London: George Routledge and Sons. The Broadway, Ludgate. New York: 416, Broome Street, 1869.

Kitton, Frederic G. "George Cruikshank." Dickens and His Illustrators. London: Chapman & Hall, 1899. Pp. 1-28.

Kitton, Frederic G. The Minor Writings of Charles Dickens: A Bibliography and a Sketch. London: Elliot Stock, 1900.

Schlicke, Paul. "Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi. Oxford Reader's Companion to Dickens. Oxford: Oxford U. P., 1999. P. 374.

Slater, Michael. Charles Dickens: A Life Defined by Writing. New Haven and London: Yale U. P., 2009.

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