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"I am very sorry, Miss Fairfax, of your being out this morning in the rain""
Hugh Thomson
1905
Photomechanical reproduction of a pen-and-ink drawing
11.7 by 8.5 cm (4 ¾ by 3 ⅝ inches), vignetted
Jane Austen, Emma, facing page 265.
For passage illustrated and commentary, see below.
Scanned image 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.]
It was kindly said, and very far from giving offence. A pleasant “thank you” seemed meant to laugh it off, but a blush, a quivering lip, a tear in the eye, showed that it was felt beyond a laugh. Her attention was now claimed by Mr. Woodhouse, who being, according to his custom on such occasions, making the circle of his guests, and paying his particular compliments to the ladies, was ending with her — and with all his mildest urbanity, said, —
“I am very sorry to hear, Miss Fairfax, of your being out this morning in the rain. Young ladies should take care of themselves. Young ladies are delicate plants. They should take care of their health and their complexion. My dear, did you change your stockings?”
“Yes, sir, I did indeed; and I am very much obliged by your kind solicitude about me.”
“My dear Miss Fairfax, young ladies are very sure to be cared for. — I hope your good grand-mama and aunt are well. They are some of my very old friends. I wish my health allowed me to be a better neighbour. You do us a great deal of honour to-day, I am sure. My daughter and I are both highly sensible of your goodness, and have the greatest satisfaction in seeing you at Hartfield.”
The kind-hearted, polite old man might then sit down and feel that he had done his duty, and made every fair lady welcome and easy. [Chapter XXXIV, 263]
Here Thomson depicts the first of two interviews in which the pillars of the Highbury community, the genuinely concerned Mr. Woodhouse and the newcomer, the dictatorial Mrs. Elton, upbraid Jane Fairfax for making her usual morning walk to the post office in town. As the caption suggests, the problem is that being exposed to the rain may have compromised her health. Solicitously, Emma’s father asks if, after coming in from the rain, Miss Fairfax has at least changed her stockings.
As the picture suggests, he addresses her with “the mildest urbanity” (263) and even deference, presumably in his own parlour or library, as indicated by the furnishings. We recognize him right away by his somewhat old-fashioned clothing and advanced age. Thomson’s problem, however, is how to distinguish the figure of Jane Fairfax. She is as young as Emma, but more simply dressed. Her textual self-assertion, first with Mr. Woodhouse and then with Mrs. Elton, foils the image of the demure young visitor to Hartfield. Emma's father is here, as in the text, a “kind-hearted, polite old man” (263), but she is much more than a reserved young woman casually defending her daily walks to the post-office. With Mrs. Elton she both defends herself and grows tearful. Intrusively, Mrs. Elton proposes that henceforth her servant retrieve Jane’s mail, but Jane asserts her independence. The letters actually come from her secret fiancé, Frank Churchill.
Austen, Jane. Emma. Ed. Austin Dobson. With forty pen-and-ink illustrations by Hugh Thomson. The Novels of Jane Austen. London: Macmillan, 1896, rpt. 1905.
Austen, Jane. Emma. Ed. R. Brimley Johnson. With coloured illustrations by C. E. Brock. The Novels and Letters of Jane Austen. 2 vols. New York & Philadelphia: Frank S. Holby, 1906.
Austen, Jane. Emma. Ed. George Justice. 4th edition. New York: W. W. Norton, 2011.
Austen, Jane. Emma: An Annotated Edition. Ed. Bharat Tandon. Cambridge, Mass., and London: Belknap Press of Harvard U. P., 2012.
Last modified 26 May 2026