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Ruth and Westlock in Fountain Court
Harry Furniss
1910
14.7 cm by 9.8 cm, vignetted
Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit, TheCharles Dickens Library Edition, Chapter 45, "In which Tom Pinch and his Sister take a little Pleasure; but quite in a Domestic Way, and with no Ceremony about it," facing VII, 737.
[Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
Either [Ruth] was a little too soon, or Tom was a little too late — she was so precise in general, that she timed it to half a minute — but no Tom was there. Well! But was anybody else there, that she blushed so deeply, after looking round, and tripped off down the steps with such unusual expedition?
Why, the fact is, that Mr. Westlock was passing at that moment. The Temple is a public thoroughfare; they may write up on the gates that it is not, but so long as the gates are left open it is, and will be; and Mr. Westlock had as good a right to be there as anybody else. But why did she run away, then? Not being ill dressed, for she was much too neat for that, why did she run away? The brown hair that had fallen down beneath her bonnet, and had one impertinent imp of a false flower clinging to it, boastful of its licence before all men, that could not have been the cause, for it looked charming. Oh! foolish, panting, frightened little heart, why did she run away!
Merrily the tiny fountain played, and merrily the dimples sparkled on its sunny face. John Westlock hurried after her. Softly the whispering water broke and fell; as roguishly the dimples twinkled, as he stole upon her footsteps. [Chapter 45, "In which Tom Pinch and his Sister take a little pleasure; but quite in a domestic way, and with no ceremony about it," 709-10: the picture's original caption has been emphasized]
This illustration in Chapter utilizes Dickens's romantic rendezvous to suggest the impending closure in all of the novel's plots. Now that the chief plot thread, of the rift between Old Martin Chuzzlewit and his grandson, has been resolved, Dickens turns his attention (and ours) to the incipient romance of the young architect John Westlock, formerly Tom's former fellow apprentice, and Ruth Pinch, until recently a governess. The pair meet — apparently by accident — in the Fountain Court in the Middle Temple, where Tom is working on organizing the library — Furniss even places Tom well in the background, upper left.
Entered off Fleet Street, Middle Temple Lane near London's Embankment leads to the hidden square of Fountain Court, an Edenic oasis of quiet suitable to this meeting of the sensible lovers; here many times before Ruth would rendezvous with her brother after work. Since the little fountain dates from 1682, the lovers meet in the shadows of the past, which was also part of Dickens's past. Having lived as a bachelor at Lincoln's Inn Fields and worked as a clerk in a law firm, Dickens was highly familiar with the area, which he describes in detail in chapter 15 of Barnaby Rudge,a novel set in the late eighteenth century. Bounded by buildings, the little court with its fountain spouting water eight feet into the air does not afford much of a view of the southern shore of the Thames, so that Eytinge's composition remains an enigma, perhaps born out of his desire to contrast the city's recent past as recorded by Dickens with the modern industrial blight gradually taking hold of London.
On the other hand, one may literally step into the scene that Furniss described over a century ago, although the tree to the right is somewhat larger today, and the jet today reaches about half the height of Furniss's. Interesting background details that suggest that the scene is a synthesis of the urban and the rural are the gardener (left rear) and the obvious London fashions of the lovers. The direction of Ruth's gaze alerts the reader to the figure of her brother (upper right) descending the river-steps to the hortus conclusus of the sun-swept courtyard. Thus, Furniss places the figures in the enclosed, almost magical garden of mediaeval romance and Renaissance poetry, but also within the contemporary metropolis. Furniss also injects a note of suspense into the romantic interlude as the viewer wonders whether the well-meaning Tom will interrupt the lovers at a crucial moment in their relationship (the proposal of marriage), The text describes the scene with a vague pronoun ("as he stole upon her footsteps," 710), but the caption emphasizes Westlock's approach in as he steals upon her, and she begins to turn her head, perhaps seeing Tom out of the corner of her eye, and perhaps simultaneously hearing masculine footsteps close behind her: Softly the whispering water broke and fell; and roguishly the dimples twinkled, as John Westlock stole upon Ruth's footsteps. Furniss has Westlock raise his hand, as if in indecision as to how he may gently attract Ruth's attention without momentarily alarming her. Furniss, then, sketches the scene as both a tableau vivant and a pregnant moment which may develop in several ways in the accompanying narrative. All too soon the golden moment in the green shade will dissolve into action.
Left: Phiz's realisation of John Westlock's unexpectedly dropping by the Pinches' Islington flat in Chapter 39, Mr. Pinch and Ruth Unconscious of a Visitor (March 1844). Centre: Harold Copping's 1924 colour lithograph of Ruth attempting to make a pudding for her brother, Ruth Pinch Makes a Pudding(Chapter 39). Right: Eyytinge's realisation of the scene between Ruth Pinch and John Westlock, with a rather extravagant fountain, John Westlock and Ruth Pinch (1867).
Above: Fred Barnard's realisation of the later scene, in Chapter 51, when, Ruth Pinch comforts her brother after Martin Chuzzlewit has denounced him for not having protected Mary Graham, Brother and Sister(1872). [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
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Created 4 February 2016
Last modified 22 January 2020