Art

The original illustration, signed by the artist, for one of the character portraits in Mary Russell Mitford's "Our Village", which comprised a series of sketches of country life. Brock's illustrations form part of the "Series of English Idylls" published by J. M. Dent & Co. The image is of Isaac Bint, mole catcher, which accompanies this character portrait: "His stride is awful : he hath the stalk of a ghost. His whole air and demeanour savour of one that comes from underground. His appearance is "of the earth, earthy." His clothes, hands, and face are of the colour of the mould in which he delves. The little round traps which hang behind him over one shoulder, as well as the strings of dead moles which embellish the other, are encrusted with dirt like a tombstone ; and the staff which he plunges into the little hillocks, by which he traces the course of his small quarry, returns a hollow sound, as if tapping on the lid of a coffin." Original pen-and-ink watercolour illustration (366 x 216 mm), in a wash-line mount. Margins marked, but image in very good condition.