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"Stop!" cried the locksmith in a voice that made them falter — presenting, as he spoke, a gun. "Let an old man do that. You can spare him better."
Fred Barnard
1874
5 7⁄16 x 4 ⅛ inches (13.7 cm by 10.6 cm), framed
Dickens's Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty, Vol. VII of the Household Edition, Chapter LXIII, 244.
[Click on image to enlarge it.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
Instead of going straight down Holborn to the jail, as all expected, their leaders took the way to Clerkenwell, and pouring down a quiet street, halted before a locksmith’s house — the Golden Key.
"Beat at the door," cried Hugh to the men about him. "We want one of his craft to-night. Beat it in, if no one answers.’The shop was shut. Both door and shutters were of a strong and sturdy kind, and they knocked without effect. But the impatient crowd raising a cry of "Set fire to the house!" and torches being passed to the front, an upper window was thrown open, and the stout old locksmith stood before them.
"What now, you villains!" he demanded. "Where is my daughter?"
"Ask no questions of us, old man," retorted Hugh, waving his comrades to be silent, "but come down, and bring the tools of your trade. We want you."
"Want me!" cried the locksmith, glancing at the regimental dress he wore: "Ay, and if some that I could name possessed the hearts of mice, ye should have had me long ago. Mark me, my lad — and you about him do the same. There are a score among ye whom I see now and know, who are dead men from this hour. Begone! and rob an undertaker’s while you can! You’ll want some coffins before long."
"Will you come down?" cried Hugh.
"Will you give me my daughter, ruffian?" cried the locksmith.
"I know nothing of her," Hugh rejoined. "Burn the door!"
"Stop!" cried the locksmith, in a voice that made them falter — presenting, as he spoke, a gun. "Let an old man do that. You can spare him better." [Chapter LXIII, 243]
Although the small scale of the figures makes them difficult to distinguish, Barnard has indicated the principal characters involved in the confrontation at the doorway of Gabriel Varden's shop, The Golden Key, in Clerkenwell. Hugh, insisting that the rioters require Varden alive to open the lock on Newgate's main gate (a lock he himself devised and installed), is the hairy giant (down centre) looking up at Vaden in the casement window, his gun pointed downward. Immediately beside Hugh is Ned Dennis, apparently intent upon hanging Varden if he refuses to cooperate. The slight figure in uniform, arms akimbo, is Sim Tappertit. A nameless youth is preparing to set fire to the front door with his torch.
Above: Phiz's dramatic closeup of Varden's defying the rioters in Chapter LXIV: The Locksmith Undaunted (25 September 1841).
Dickens, Charles. Barnaby Rudge in Master Humphrey's Clock. Illustrated by Phiz and George Cattermole. 3 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1841.
_______. 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.
________. 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.
Last modified 25 December 2020