"Sweet Lady Hester kissed her hand" by Jessie Macgregor (1847-1919)

"Sweet Lady Hester kissed her hand"

Jessie Macgregor (1847-1919)

1900

Pencil

Source: Macgregor

On the magic stroke of twelve, the characters in the hall join hands for a stately dance to the ethereal music — and the dazzled Christopher sees Hester step out of her portrait to play on the miraculously restored spinnet, just as she is shown playing on the binding and in the frontispiece. [Commentary continues below.]

Image download, text and formatting by Jacqueline Banerjee.

You may use the 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. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]

Rupert, whom we saw on horseback earlier, has already stepped out of his portrait, and the two then leave together, Hester blowing a kiss as she goes. A host of happy children follow them, the first one perhaps Red Riding-Hood, with a taller child, a boy, beside her, playing a lute. The entertainment is over, the magic dispelled, and Christopher goes back to bed. As the decorations here remind us, he will next wake up on Christmas morning.

The penultimate stanza (seventeen), decribing the restored spinnet and its melody, has introduced a note of sadness, though. Havng expressed a sentimental view of childhood as a time of rich imaginative engagement with history, nursery tales etc., Macgregor suggests that the magic will indeeed evaporate: later life can only bring more muted happiness:

ITS waxen tapers all aflame,
No dust upon its keys,
Nor discord in its silver tones
And ancient melodies.
She plays the march of life in youth,
Marching to merry measure;
Alas! the minor key prevails
In later songs of pleasure.

Here, however, as both author and artist, she has created a little gem of a children's book which captures that time perfectly.

Bibliography

Macgregor, Jessie. Christmas Eve at Romney Hall. London: Elkin Mathews, 1900. Digital Archive — Toronto Public Library. Web. 13 March 2022.

Created 23 March 2022