Robert Seymour's "Captain and Mrs. Waters Greeting The Tuggses Family on Ramsgate Sands" (31 March 1836)

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Captain and Mrs. Waters Greeting The Tuggses Family on Ramsgate Sands

Robert Seymour

31 March 1836

steel engraving

12.2 cm high by 9.4 cm wide (4 ¾ by 3 ⅝ inches), vignetted.

One of Robert Seymour's two illustrations for Dickens's "The Tuggses at Ramsgate."

First published in Chapman and Hall's Library of Fiction; subsequently included in Sketches by Boz.

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.]

Passage Illustrated: The Waters Encounter The Tuggses on the Ramsgate Sands

‘Why, here’s some gentlemen a-going in on this side!’ exclaimed Mrs. Tuggs, in a tone of horror.

Three machines — three horses — three flounderings — three turnings round — three splashes — three gentlemen, disporting themselves in the water like so many dolphins.

‘Well, that’s sing’ler!’ said Mr. Joseph Tuggs again. Miss Charlotta coughed this time, and another pause ensued. It was agreeably broken.

‘How d’ye do, dear? We have been looking for you, all the morning,’ said a voice to Miss Charlotta Tuggs. Mrs. Captain Waters was the owner of it.

‘How d’ye do?’ said Captain Walter Waters, all suavity; and a most cordial interchange of greetings ensued.

‘Belinda, my love,’ said Captain Walter Waters, applying his glass to his eye, and looking in the direction of the sea.

‘Yes, my dear,’ replied Mrs. Captain Waters.

‘There’s Harry Thompson!’

‘Where?’ said Belinda, applying her glass to her eye.

‘Bathing.’

‘Lor, so it is! He don’t see us, does he?’

‘No, I don’t think he does’ replied the captain. ‘Bless my soul, how very singular!’

‘What?’ inquired Belinda.

‘There’s Mary Golding, too.’

‘Lor! — where?’ (Up went the glass again.)

‘There!’ said the captain, pointing to one of the young ladies before noticed, who, in her bathing costume, looked as if she was enveloped in a patent Mackintosh, of scanty dimensions.

‘So it is, I declare!’ exclaimed Mrs. Captain Waters. ‘How very curious we should see them both!’

‘Very,’ said the captain, with perfect coolness.

‘It’s the reg’lar thing here, you see,’ whispered Mr. Cymon Tuggs to his father.

‘I see it is,’ whispered Mr. Joseph Tuggs in reply. ‘Queer, though — ain’t it?’ Mr. Cymon Tuggs nodded assent. [pp. 274-275] [return to "Great Expectations in "The Tuggses at Ramsgate," or, The Importance of Being Cymon"]

Bibliography

Dickens, Charles. "The Tuggses at Ramsgate." Sketches by Boz, Illustrative of Every-Day Life and Every-Day People. Illustrated by George Cruikshank and Phiz. The Universal Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1913. "Tales," Chapter IV, pp. 266-282.

Hammerton, J. A . The Dickens Picture-Book: A Record of the Dickens Illustrators. London: Educational Book Co., 1912. Vol. 17. Page 81.

Last modified 31 October 2024