"I seated myself on a bench, placed between the clipped yew-trees" by John McLenan for Bulwer-Lytton's "A Strange Story" (Instalment 19) in "Harper's Weekly" (14 December 1861)

"I seated myself on a bench, placed between the clipped yew-trees."

John McLenan

1861

Wood engraving

11.5 cm. by 11.5 cm. (4 ½ inches squared)

Bulwer-Lytton's A Strange Story

Harper's Weekly 5 (14 December 1861): 796.

Image scan 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. ]

Passage Illustrated: The Image of the Child at her Father's Grave

I seated myself on a bench, placed between the clipped yew-trees that bordered the path from the entrance to the church porch, deeming vaguely that my own perplexing thoughts might imbibe a quiet from the quiet of the place.

“And oh,” I murmured to myself, “oh that I had one bosom friend to whom I might freely confide all these torturing riddles which I cannot solve, — one who could read my heart, light up its darkness, exorcise its spectres; one in whose wisdom I could welcome a guide through the Nature which now suddenly changes her aspect, opening out from the walls with which I had fenced and enclosed her as mine own formal garden; — all her pathways, therein, trimmed to my footstep; all her blooms grouped and harmonized to my own taste in colour; all her groves, all her caverns, but the soothing retreats of a Muse or a Science; opening out — opening out, desert on desert, into clewless and measureless space! Gone is the garden! Were its confines too narrow for Nature? Be it so! [Chapter XLIV, page 796]

Commentary: The Arrival of Fenwick's Mentor, Julius Faber

The pioneering pathologist who assisted Allen Fenwick to begin his career as a physician suddenly returns from abroad. Apparently, his nephew whom he has made his heir has run into financial difficulties through a profligate lifestyle and injudicious investments. Determined to restore his heir's finances, Faber is about to arrange the family's embarking for Australia: "under my eye, my poor boy will be at once more prudent and more persevering. We sail next week" (Collier, 132). Amy Lloyd will be accompanying the emigrants.

As yet in Mclenan's chief illustration for the 23 November 1861 instalment, Amy Lloyd is kneeling at her father's grave, but Faber has yet to appear. Ironically, Faber's rationalist debunking of Fenwick's mystical adventures and relationships with Margrave and Lilian occupies almost the entire chapter — and Bulwer-Lytton does not develop the character of Amy Lloyd beyond introducing her.

Bibliography

Bulwer-Lytton, Edward G. D. A Strange Story. Illustrated by John McLenan. Harper's Weekly V, 10 August — 8 March 1862.

Bulwer Lytton, Edward (Lord Lytton). A Strange Story. The Works of Edward Bulwer Lytton, Vol. VII. New York: P. F. Collier, n. d. Pp. 7-242.

Last modified 21 November 2007

Last modified 20 June 2026