"Children peer into the charred vestry of the Welmington church." — John McLenan's uncaptioned headnote vignette for the thirty-fifth weekly number of Wilkie Collins's "The Woman in White" in <span class="book">Harper's Weekly</span> (21 July 1860)

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Children peer into the charred vestry of the Welmington church.

John McLenan

21 July 1860

10.1 cm high by 5 cm wide (4 by 2 inches), vignetted.

Uncaptioned headnote vignette for the thirty-fourth weekly number of Collins's The Woman in White: A Novel (14 July 1860), 437; p. 219 in the 1861 volume.

[Click on the image to enlarge it.]

McLenan flags at the head of the instalment the conflagration that will result in the death of Sir Percival Glyde, who is hoist on his own petard as he has attempted to destroy the registry book, and inadvertently trapped himself in the vestry.

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.

Children peer into the charred vestry of the ' Welmington church. — staff artist John McLenan's headnote vignette (composite woodblock engraving) for the thirty-fifth weekly part of Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White: A Novel, published on 21 July 1860 in Harper's Weekly: A Journal of Civilization, Vol. IV, "The Second Epoch; "The Narrative of Walter Hartright, Resumed. X," p. 453; p. 220 in the 1861 volume. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]

Passage Illustrated: The Aftermath of the Fire at the Church Vestry

I read the letter [from Marian] thankfully, and then set forth with my mind at ease for the day to go to Old Welmingham, and to view the scene of the fire by the morning light.

What changes met me when I got there!

Through all the ways of our unintelligible world the trivial and the terrible walk hand in hand together. The irony of circumstances holds no mortal catastrophe in respect. When I reached the church, the trampled condition of the burial-ground was the only serious trace left to tell of the fire and the death. A rough hoarding of boards had been knocked up before the vestry doorway. Rude caricatures were scrawled on it already, and the village children were fighting and shouting for the possession of the best peep-hole to see through. On the spot where I had heard the cry for help from the burning room, on the spot where the panic-stricken servant had dropped on his knees, a fussy flock of poultry was now scrambling for the first choice of worms after the rain; and on the ground at my feet, where the door and its dreadful burden had been laid, a workman’s dinner was waiting for him, tied up in a yellow basin, and his faithful cur in charge was yelping at me for coming near the food. The old clerk, looking idly at the slow commencement of the repairs, had only one interest that he could talk about now — the interest of escaping all blame for his own part on account of the accident that had happened. One of the village women, whose white wild face I remembered the picture of terror when we pulled down the beam, was giggling with another woman, the picture of inanity, over an old washing-tub. There is nothing serious in mortality! Solomon in all his glory was Solomon with the elements of the contemptible lurking in every fold of his robes and in every corner of his palace.

As I left the place, my thoughts turned, not for the first time, to the complete overthrow that all present hope of establishing Laura’s identity had now suffered through Sir Percival’s death. He was gone — and with him the chance was gone which had been the one object of all my labours and all my hopes. [Part 35. Third Epoch. Part III. "Hartright's Narrative, Resumed. X," p. 437; p. 220 in the 1861 volume.

Related Material

McLenan's regular, full-scale illustration for the thirty-fifth weekly number in serial: "The smoke and flame, confined as they were to the room, had been too much for him for 30 June 1860.
F. A. Fraser's "There at the end, stark and grim and black, in the yellow light — there, was his dead face." (London: Sampson Low, 1861)
Fred Walker's poster: The Woman in White for the Olympic's October 1871 adaptation

Bibliography

Collins, Wilkie. The Woman in White: A Novel. New York: Harper & Bros., 1860.

Collins, Wilkie. The Woman in White: A Novel. Harper's Weekly: A Journal of Civilization. Illustrated by John McLenan. Vols. III-IV (16 November 1859 through 8 September 1860).

Collins, Wilkie. The Woman in White. Illustrated by F. A. Fraser and Sir John Gilbert. London: Sampson Low, 1860; rpt., Chatto & Windus, 1875.

Collins, Wilkie. The Woman in White. Ed. Maria K. Bachman and Don Richard Cox. Illustrated by Sir John Gilbert and F. A. Fraser. Toronto: Broadview, 2006.

Peters, Catherine. "Chapter Twelve: The Woman in White (1859-1860)." The King of the Inventors: A Life of Wilkie Collins. London: Minerva Press, 1992. 205-25.

Vann, J. Don. "The Woman in White in All the Year Round, 26 November 1859 — 25 August 1860." Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: MLA, 1985. 44-46.

Created 30 July 2024