Charles Dickens Gallery

Humour social comment the ale house cartoon by Cruikshank

This is a cartoon etching by the well-known Victorian social caricaturist / cartoonist George Cruikshank (1792 - 1878), dated 1832. The Ale House is one of two panels that belong side-by-side, and this is number 1 of 2. Its companion is called The Home. (1832 is actually in the reign of Queen Victoria's predecessor, William IV.) Amongst other things, Cruikshank provided book illustrations for Charles Dickens. (Title) The Ale House. Most of the men are smoking pipes, and a smoky fug pervades the sketch. On the table is a jug of ale and a variety of drinking vessels, no two the same. On the wall are pictures of cock fighting and dog fighting, two activities that now are frowned upon (although even today, in the USA, it is reported that there are around 40, 000 people professionally involved in such 'sport'). Overall, there is a bright atmosphere of drunken revelry, to contrast with the grim darkness of the companion sketch The Home. Designed Etched & Published byGeorge Cruikshank. Septr. 1st 1832

© Whiteway

Captain Collins of Brighton, with his family

Captain Fred Collins of Brighton, who ran three pleasure boats called the Skylark and was a familiar figure on Brighton Beach for sixty years. His cry of Any More for the Skylark became so famous that it became a national saying for pleasure boats. It is believed that the novelist Charles Dickens knew Collins, and went for a trip on the Skylark in 1867, commenting later on the captain's witty chatter to the trippers. Collins is seen here on the right, with his son, grandson and great grandson. The fleet continued to sail until just after the Second World War under his son, also named Fred Collins, although two of the three boats were lost at Dunkirk in 1940

© Mary Evans Picture Library 2015 - https://copyrighthub.org/s0/hub1/creation/maryevans/MaryEvansPictureID/10410849

'Folly Ditch, Jacob's Island', (c1878). Creator: Unknown

'Folly Ditch, Jacob's Island', (c1878). Jacob's Island, a notorious slum on the south bank of the River Thames in Bermondsey, London, was made famous in Charles Dickens's novel Oliver Twist. The villain Bill Sikes is chased by police and dies in the mud of 'Folly Ditch'. From Old and New London: A Narrative of Its History, Its People, And Its Places. The Southern Suburbs, Volume VI, by Edward Walford. [Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co., London, Paris & New York, c1878]

© The Print Collector / Heritage-Images