Initial-letter Vignette "T" — George L'Estrange and Jack Bramleigh at breakfast (Vol. XVIII, page 129) vertically-mounted, 7.5 cm high by 5 cm wide, signed "MEE." in the lower-left corner; also in the lower-left corner of the main illustration. Mary Ellen Edwards' fifteenth thumbnail vignette illustration for the August 1868 number of Lever's The Bramleighs of Bishop's Folly in the Cornhill Magazine, Chapters LVI-LX ("At Lady Augusta's" through "A Return Home") in Vol. 18: pages 129 through 154. The wood-engraver responsible for this illustration was Joseph Swain (1820-1909), noted for his engravings of Sir John Tenniel's cartoons in Punch. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
This fifteenth vignette opens Chapter LVI, but realizes the opening of the following chapter.
When L'Estrange had carried off Jack Bramleigh to the inn, and had seen him engaged with an excellent breakfast, he despatched a messenger to the villa to say that he was not to be expected home by dinner time, but would be back to tea “with a friend,” for whom he begged Gusty Bramleigh's room might be prepared.
I shall not delay to chronicle all the doubt, the discussion, and the guessing that the note occasioned; the mere fact that George had ventured to issue an order of this kind without first consulting Julia investing the step with a degree of mysteriousness perfectly inscrutable. I turn, however, to Cattaro, where L'Estrange and Jack sat together, each so eager to hear the other's tidings as to be almost too impatient to dwell upon himself. [Chapter LVII, "At the Inn at Cattaro," 376 in volume]
Comment
In order to make Jack's identity obvious, Edwards has depicted him in a common sailor's uniform rather than the tattered penal garb in which the wasted youth had been wearing during his hearing. George shortly procures for his friend an exotic costume worthy of a Montenegrin prince or chieftain. In either event, Edwards has erred in her depiction of Jack's costume, minimising the physical deterioration of the young man held for months as a convict in the Neapolitan galleys on Ischia, from which he has but recently escaped by swimming in the Adriatic.
Scanned images and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use th images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned them and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Lever, Charles. The Bramleighs of Bishop’s Folly. The Cornhill Magazine 15 (June, 1867): pp. 640-664; 16 (July-December 1867): 1-666; 17 (January-June 1868): 70-663; 18 (July-October 1868): 1-403. Rpt. London: Chapman & Hall, 1872. Illustrated by M. E. Edwards; engraved by Joseph Swain.
Stevenson, Lionel. "Chapter XVI: Exile on the Adriatic, 1867-1872." Dr. Quicksilver: The Life of Charles Lever. London: Chapman and Hall, 1939. Pp. 277-296.
Created 6 September 2023