"Likewise an old man who ran over a milk-child. . . " — Book 6, chap. vi. The final (twenty-second) volume of the Household Edition of Dickens's Works: Barnard's eighteenth illustration for John Forster's "Life of Charles Dickens" (1879).

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"Likewise an old man who ran over a milk-child, rather than stop! — with no neckcloth, on principle; and with his mouth wide open to catch the morning air."

Fred Barnard

1879

Composite woodblock engraving by the Dalziels>/a>

Book 8, chap. vi. Forster's Life of Charles Dickens in the Household Edition Vol. XXII, 340.

13.8 cm high by 10.6 cm wide (5 ½ by 4 ¼ inches), 272, framed.

[Click on image to enlarge it.]

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

Passage Illustrated: A Country Jaunt Preceding the Death of His Daughter, Dora

The year [1851] following did not open with favourable omen, both the child and its mother having severe illness. The former rallied however, and "little Dora is getting on bravely, thank God!" was his bulletin of the early part of February. Soon after, it was resolved to make trial of Great Malvern for Mrs. Dickens; and lodgings were taken there in March, Dickens and her sister accompanying her, and the children being left in London. "It is a most beautiful place," he wrote to me (15th of March). "O Heaven, to meet the Cold Waterers (as I did this morning when I went out for a shower-bath) dashing down the hills, with severe expressions on their countenances, like men doing matches and not exactly winning! Then, a young lady in a grey polka going up the hills, regardless of legs; and meeting a young gentleman (a bad case, I should say) with a light black silk cap on under his hat, and the pimples of I don't know how many douches under that. Likewise an old man who ran over a milk-child, rather than stop! — with no neckcloth, on principle; and with his mouth wide open, to catch the morning air." [Book VIII, Ch. vi, "Last Years in Devonshire Terrace. 1848—1851," pp. 270-271]

Bibliography

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

Barnard, Fred, et al. Scenes and Characters from the Works of Charles Dickens; being eight hundred and sixty-six drawings by Fred Barnard, Hablot K. Browne (Phiz), J. Mahoney [and others] printed from the original woodblocks engraved for "The Household Edition." London: Chapman & Hall, 1908. Page 575.

[The copy of the book from which these pictures were scanned is in the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.]

Forster, John. The Life of Charles Dickens. London: Chapman & Hall, 1872 and 1874. 3 vols.

Forster, John. The Life of Charles Dickens. Illustrated by Fred Barnard. 22 vols. London: Chapman & Hall, 1879. Vol. XXII.

Created 15 September 2009

Last modified 9 January 2025