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"And just outside the door an old woman was engaged in washing."
John McLenan
24 December 1859
11 cm high by 11.4 cm wide (4 ⅜ by 4 ½ inches), framed, p. 821.
Fifth regular illustration for Collins's The Woman in White: A Novel (1860).
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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"And just outside the door an old woman was engaged in washing." — staff artist John McLenan's fifth composite woodblock engraving for Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White: A Novel, Instalment 5, published on 24 December 1859 in Harper's Weekly: A Journal of Civilization, Vol. III. Part Four: "The Story Begun by Walter Hartright, of Clement's Inn, Teacher of Drawing," p. 821; Chapter XI, p. 38 in volume. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
I looked about me, wondering how the question was to be solved. No sign of a habitation could be discerned from the point at which I was standing — the burial-ground was left in the lonely possession of the dead. I returned to the church, and walked round it till I came to the back of the building; then crossed the boundary wall beyond, by another of the stone stiles, and found myself at the head of a path leading down into a deserted stone quarry. Against one side of the quarry a little two-room cottage was built, and just outside the door an old woman was engaged in washing. [Chapter XI, 805; p. 38 in the 1861 volume edition]
Collins, Wilkie. The Woman in White: A Novel. New York: Harper & Bros., 1861 (first printing, 15 August 1860; reissued in single-column format in 1902, 548 pages).
Collins, Wilkie. The Woman in White: A Novel. Harper's Weekly: A Journal of Civilization. Illustrated by John McLenan. Vols. III-IV (26 November 1859 through 8 September 1860).
Collins, Wilkie. The Woman in White. Ed. Maria K. Bachman and Don Richard Cox. Illustrated by Sir John Gilbert. London: Minerva, 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. Pp. 205-225.
Vann, J. Don. "The Woman in White in All the Year Round, 26 November — 25 August 1860." Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: MLA, 1985. Pp. 44-46.
Created 7 July 2024