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Now he would call to her from the topmost branch of some high tree by the roadside
Fred Barnard
1874
5 ¼ 7⁄16 by 3 ⅛ inches (13.5 cm by 9.3 cm), framed
Dickens's Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty, the Household Edition, VII, 88.
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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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The widow, to whom each painful mile seemed longer than the last, toiled wearily along; while Barnaby, yielding to every inconstant impulse, fluttered here and there, now leaving her far behind, now lingering far behind himself, now darting into some by-lane or path and leaving her to pursue her way alone, until he stealthily emerged again and came upon her with a wild shout of merriment, as his wayward and capricious nature prompted. Now he would call to her from the topmost branch of some high tree by the roadside; now using his tall staff as a leaping-pole, come flying over ditch or hedge or five-barred gate; now run with surprising swiftness for a mile or more on the straight road, and halting, sport upon a patch of grass with Grip till she came up. These were his delights; and when his patient mother heard his merry voice, or looked into his flushed and healthy face, she would not have abated them by one sad word or murmur, though each had been to her a source of suffering in the same degree as it was to him of pleasure. [Chapter XXV, 95]
Barnard has completely captured Barnarby's exuberance at being freed from the confines of the city and at liberty with his plodding mother on the high road to Chigwell. Her mission is anything but pleasant as it involves the pension she has enjoyed for two decades. In the first place, she feels that she and her son do not deserve the Haredale pension because she now realizes that her husband in fact must have murdered his master. In the second place, as long as she is inrecipt of a regular income she is liable to be extorted by her estranged husband, with the consequence that the Haredale's money would be going to Reuben Hardeale's killer. Mary Rudge's acute sense of moral responsibility will not permit her to take the family's money, now she suspects the truth about her husband. Further, to protect Barnaby she must go into hiding, so that even the Haredales will not be able to find her. Barnard offers against these plot machinations a joyful portrait of ape-like Barnaby with Grip on his shoulder effortlessly swinging from tree to tree, and calling out to Mary Rudge far below.
Dickens, Charles. Barnaby Rudge in Master Humphrey's Clock. Illustrated by Phiz and George Cattermole. 3 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1841; rpt., Bradbury and Evans, 1849.
_______. Barnaby Rudge. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition. 16 vols. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1867.
________. Barnaby Rudge — A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty. Illustrated by Fred Barnard. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1874. VII.
________. Barnaby Rudge. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. London: Educational Book Company, 1910. VI.
________. The Dickens Souvenir Book. London: Chapman & Hall, 1912.
Hammerton, J. A. "Ch. XIV. Barnaby Rudge." The Dickens Picture-Book. The Charles Dickens Library Edition, illustrated by Harry Furniss. London: Educational Book Co., 1910. 213-55.
Created 28 November 2019
Last modified 17 December 2020