Passage Illustrated: The Martins' Decaying Ancestral Seat at Cro' Martin

Gradually, however, the scene becomes less dreary. Little patches of grass land come into view, generally skirting some small lake; and here are to be met with droves of those wild Connemara ponies for which the district is so celebrated; a stunted hardy race, with all the endurance and courage that beseem a mountain origin. Further on, the grateful sight of young timber meets the eye, and large enclosures of larch and spruce fir are seen on every favorable spot of ground. And at length, on winding round the base of a steep mountain, the deep woods of a rich demesne appear, and soon afterwards a handsome entrance-gate of massive stone, with armorial bearings above it, announces the approach to Cro' Martin Castle, the ancient seat of the Martins.

An avenue of several miles in length, winding through scenery of the most varied character, at one time traversing rich lawns of waving meadow, at another tracking its course along some rocky glen, or skirting the bank of a clear and rapid river, at length arrives at the castle. With few pretensions to architectural correctness, Cro' Martin was, indeed, an imposing structure. Originally the stronghold of some bold Borderer, it had been added to by successive proprietors, till at last it had assumed the proportions of a vast and spacious edifice, different eras contributing the different styles of building, and presenting in the mass traces of every architecture, from the stern old watch-tower of the fourteenth century to the commodious dwelling-house of our own. [Chapter One, "Cro' Martin," pp. 1-2]

Commentary: Picturesque Ireland and the Desolate Portal

With extended descriptions of Irish scenery, particularly the Atlantic coastline, cottages, and castles, The Martins of Cro' Martin offered Phiz plenty of opportunity for atmospheric illustration. Then, too, crowd scenes and incidents involving horses were thoroughly suited to Phiz's inclinations and talents. Unfortunately, illustrating Lever's nineteen-month serialization meant that Phiz would also have to undertake a number of far less engaging parlour scenes that serve to convey a sense of the social life of the decaying Anglo-Irish gentry.

Although he excelled at telling comic tales of Anglo-Irish youth in such novels as The Daltons, Barrington, and A Day's Ride, in this novel of the mid-fifties Lever focuses on the tragic figure of the reforming Mary Martin. Lever depicts her failure against the fall of the Martins' Connemara estate in his native Ireland in the period between the Catholic Emancipation Bill, which extended the franchise beyond the Protestant minority (1829), and the Great Famine (1845-1849). Even as he asserts that the fall of the landed gentry brings a disastrous upheaval to a highly traditional, agrarian society, Lever insists on the inevitability of such a collapse. Thus, in the decaying portal of the Martins' ancestral seat Phiz presents a symbol for the privileged owners and for their entire class. The atmospheric scene sets the gloomy keynote for this tale of Mary's failure to repair and renew the estate, and her early death.

Bibliography

Buchanan-Brown, John. Phiz! Illustrator of Dickens' World. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1978.

Lester, Valerie Browne Lester. Chapter 11: "'Give Me Back the Freshness of the Morning!'" Phiz! The Man Who Drew Dickens. London: Chatto and Windus, 2004. Pp. 108-127.

Lever, Charles. The Martins of Cro' Martin. With 39 illustrations by Phiz. London: Chapman & Hall, 1856, rpt. London & New York: Routledge, 1873. 2 vols.

Lever, Charles. The Martins of Cro' Martin. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne]. Novels and Romances of Charles Lever. Introduction by Andrew Lang. Lorrequer Edition. Vols. XII and XIII. In two volumes. Boston: Little, Brown, 1907.

Steig, Michael. Chapter VII, "Phiz the Illustrator: An Overview and Summing Up." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U. P., 1978. Pp. 299-316.

Stevenson, Lionel. Chapter XII, "Aspirant for Preferment, 1854-1856." Dr. Quicksilver: The Life of Charles Lever. New York: Russell and Russell, 1939; rpt. 1969. Pp. 203-220.

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