"You hear the gentle murmur of that sea?" — illustration by Harold Hume Piffard for Charles Dickens's "Hunted Down" (<em>circa</em> 1904)

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"You hear the gentle murmur of that sea?"

Harold Hume Piffard

circa 1900

12.1 cm high by 7.6 cm wide (4 ¾ by 3 inches)

Charles Dickens's The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Other Stories, facing p. 353.

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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"You hear the gentle murmur of that sea?" — Harold Hume Piffard's sixth lithograph for Charles Dickens's The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Other Stories: Part IV of "Hunted Down," originally published in The New York Ledger (20, 27 August and 3 September, 1859). [Click on the image to enlarge it.]

Passage Illustrated: Sampson tries to alert Miss Niner to the danger Slinkton poses

"I shall leave him, Mr. Sampson, very soon," said the young lady; "I know my life is drawing to an end; and when I am gone, I hope he will marry and be happy. I am sure he has lived single so long, only for my sake, and for my poor, poor sister’s."

The little hand-carriage had made another great loop on the damp sand, and was coming back again, gradually spinning out a slim figure of eight, half a mile long.

"Young lady," said I, looking around, laying my hand upon her arm, and speaking in a low voice, "time presses. You hear the gentle murmur of that sea?" ["Hunted Down," IV, 353]

Commentary

To fill out the slight volume of Dickens's incomplete serial novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood (January through June 1870) the editors of the Collins Pocket Edition have selected three later shorter works: "Hunted Down" (20, 27 August and 3 September, 1859), A Holiday Romance (five parts, January-May 1868), and "George Silverman's Explanation" (originally in The Atlantic Monthly, January-March, 1868). Although Sol Eytinge, Jr., whimsically illustration the children's "romance" for the juvenile magazine Our Young Folks, An Illustrated Magazine For Boys and Girls, Vol. IV, the other periodical pieces originally appeared without illustration. It is worth noting that the Collins editors did not arrange to have Piffard illustrate the psychological study, "George Silverman's Explanation," probably since so much of the action and interest are "interior."

The crime and detection story "Hunted Down" features a sinister poisoner, Julius Slinkton; his intended victim (his niece, Miss Margaret Niner); her eventual preserver (Alfred Beckwith), here disguised as an elderly invalid; and a former East India Company director, Major Banks, racing around the beach at Scarborough in his hand-carriage nearby. The illustration realizes a scene in the fourth part, when the narrator, an elderly insurance company director named Sampson, whom we see attempting to comfort Miss Niner, as he cautions her about judging the sea by its present, pleasant appearance. In fact, he is preparing her for his revelation of Slinkton's true character and the very real danger in which she, as the surviving heiress, stands.

Bibliography

Dickens, Charles. The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Other Stories. Illustrated by Sir Luke Fildes, R. A. London: Chapman and Hall Limited, 193, Piccadilly. 1880.

Dickens, Charles. The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Other Stories, illustrated by Harold Hume Piffard. LOndon & Glasgow: Collins' Clear-Type Press, circa 1904.

Created 27 JUne 2022