"The Two Spies Watch Hartright at the Welmington church." — John McLenan's uncaptioned headnote vignette for the thirty-third weekly number of Wilkie Collins's "The Woman in White" in <span class="book">Harper's Weekly</span> (7 July 1860)

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The Two Spies Watch Hartright at the Welmington church.

John McLenan

7 July 1860

10 cm high by 5.7 cm wide (4 by 2 ¼ inchess), vignetted.

Uncaptioned headnote vignette for the thirtieth weekly number of Collins's The Woman in White: A Novel (7 July 1860), 421; p. 210 in the 1861 volume.

[Click on the image to enlarge it.]McLenan notes in advance of the instalment that Walter had realized he has been spied upon at Kyrle's office. One of those same spies now appears at Blackwater Park: this can be no mere coincidence. He realizes that this agent of Fosco and Glyde has anticipated his arrival in Hampshire.

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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The Two Spies Watch Hartright at the Welmington church. — staff artist John McLenan's headnote vignette (composite woodblock engraving) for the thirty-third weekly part of Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White: A Novel, published on 7 July 1860 in Harper's Weekly: A Journal of Civilization, "Epoch 3: Part II, "Hartright's Narrative, Ch. VIII," p. 380; p. 210 in the 1861 volume.

Passage Illustrated: The Suspense Rises as Walter Notices Glyde's Spies at the Church

We parted. As I left the church behind me I looked back, and there were the two men again on the road below, with a third in their company, that third person being the short man in black whom I had traced to the railway the evening before.

The three stood talking together for a little while, then separated. The man in black went away by himself towards Welmingham — the other two remained together, evidently waiting to follow me as soon as I walked on.

I proceeded on my way without letting the fellows see that I took any special notice of them. They caused me no conscious irritation of feeling at that moment — on the contrary, they rather revived my sinking hopes. In the surprise of discovering the evidence of the marriage, I had forgotten the inference I had drawn on first perceiving the men in the neighbourhood of the vestry. Their reappearance reminded me that Sir Percival had anticipated my visit to Old Welmingham church as the next result of my interview with Mrs. Catherick — otherwise he would never have placed his spies there to wait for me. Smoothly and fairly as appearances looked in the vestry, there was something wrong beneath them — there was something in the register-book, for aught I knew, that I had not discovered yet. [Part 33. Third Epoch. Part VIII. "Hartright's Narrative, VIII," p. 380; p. 210 in the 1861 volume.

Commentary: Glyde and Fosco have placed the church under surveillance

McLenan depicts the spy to the left, the down-at-heels lawyer's clerk, as an urban contrast to the countryman from the rural village (right). The two who have stationed themselves at the rear entrance to the churchyard at old Welmingham, and will likely follow Hartright to the attorney's at Knowlesbury in Chapter IX. There is in fact a third spy, whom McLenan has omitted. There must be something in the church vestry about which Sir Percival is apprehensive. Could Hartright be on the verge of discovering "The Secret"?

Related Material

McLenan's regular, full-scale illustration for the thirtieth weekly number in serial: Count Fosco and Mrs. Clements for 16 June 1860
Fred Walker's poster: The Woman in White for the Olympic's October 1871 adaptation

Bibliography

Collins, Wilkie. The Woman in White: A Novel. New York: Harper & Bros., 1860.

Collins, Wilkie. The Woman in White: A Novel. Harper's Weekly: A Journal of Civilization. Illustrated by John McLenan. Vols. III-IV (16 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 and F. A. Fraser. Toronto: Broadview, 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. 205-25.

Vann, J. Don. "The Woman in White in All the Year Round, 26 November 1859 — 25 August 1860." Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: MLA, 1985. 44-46.

Created 29 July 2024