[Victorian Web Home —> Visual Arts —> Illustration —> George Cruikshank —> The Miser's Daughter —> Next]

Passage Illustrated

Mr. Scarve was an old man, and looked much older than he really was, — being only sixty-five, whereas he appeared like eighty. His frame was pinched, as if by self-denial, and preternaturally withered and shrivelled; and there was a thin, haggard, and almost hungry look about his face, extremely painful to contemplate. His features were strongly marked, and sharp, and his eye gray, keen, and piercing. He was dressed in a threadbare cloth robe, trimmed with sable, and wore a velvet nightcap, lined with cotton, on his head. The rest of his habiliments were darned and patched in an unseemly manner. He was seated near a small table, on which was laid a ragged and dirty cloth, covered with the remains of his scanty meal, which Randulph's arrival had interrupted. Part of a stale loaf, a slice of cheese, and a little salt, constituted the sum total of the repast. Everything in the room bespoke the character of its owner. The panelled walls were without hangings or decoration of any kind. The room itself, it was evident, had known better days and richer garniture. It was plain, but handsome in its character, and boasted a large and well-carved chimney-piece, and a window filled with stained glass, displaying the armorial bearings of the former possessor of the house, though now patched in many places with paper, and stopped up in others with old rags. This window was strongly grated, and the bars were secured in their turn by a large padlock placed inside the room. Over the chimney-piece there were placed a couple of large blue and white china bottles with dried everlasting flowers stuck in their necks. There were only two chairs in the room, and a stool. The best chair was appropriated by the miser himself. It was an old-fashioned affair, with great wooden arms, and a hard leathern back, polished like a well-blacked shoe by frequent use. A few coals, carefully piled into a little pyramid, burnt within the bars, as if to shew the emptiness of the grate, and diffused a slight gleam, like a hollow laugh, but no sort of heat. Beside it sat Mrs. Clinton, an elderly maiden lady, almost as wintry-looking, and as pinched as her brother-in-law. This antiquated lady had a long thin neck, a large nose, very, very retroussee, and a skin yellow as parchment; but the expression of her countenance, though rather sharp and frosty, was kindly. She wore a close-fitting gown of dark camlet, with short tight sleeves, that by no means concealed the angularities of her figure. Her hair, which was still dark as in her youth, was gathered up closely behind, and was surmounted by the small muslin cap then in vogue.

The object, however, that chiefly rivetted Randulph's attention on his entrance was neither the miser himself, nor his sister-in-law, but his daughter. Her beauty was so extraordinary that it acted like a surprise upon him, occasioning a thrill of delight, mingled with a feeling of embarrassment. She had risen as he entered the room, and gracefully, and with much natural dignity, returned his salutation, which, through inadvertence, he addressed almost exclusively to her. Hilda Scarve's age might be guessed at nineteen. She was tall, exquisitely proportioned, with a pale, clear complexion, set off by her rich raven tresses, which, totally unrestrained, showered down in a thick cloud over her shoulders. Her eyes were large, and dark, luminous but steady, and indicated firmness of character. Her look was grave and sedate, and there was great determination in her beautifully formed but closely shut lips. Both her aspect and deportment exhibited the most perfect self-command, and whatever effect might be produced upon her by the sudden entrance of the handsome visitor, not a glance was suffered to reveal it, while he, on the contrary, could not repress the admiration excited by her beauty. He was, however; speedily recalled to himself by the miser, who rapping the table impatiently, exclaimed in a querulous tone, "Your business, sir? — your business?"

"I have come to deliver this to you, sir," replied Randulph, producing a small packet, and handing it to the miser. "I should tell you, sir," he added in a voice of emotion, "that it was my father's wish that this packet should be given to you a year after his death, but not before."

"And your father's name," cried the miser, bending eagerly forward, and shading his eyes so as to enable him to see the young man more distinctly, "was — was —"

"The same as my own, Randulph Crew," was the reply. [Chapter II, "The Miser and His Daughter — Randulph delivers the Package to the former — Its reception," pp. 11-12]

Commentary

Although Ainsworth carried over Cruikshank's twenty steel engravings from the Ainsworth's Magazine serial to the triple-decker volume edition​issued in the autumn of 1842, he did not utilise three woodcut portraits, one of which almost certainly concerned the novel's youthful protagonist, Randulph Carew. In this second illustration, the young aristocrat has just arrived in London from Cheshire after his father's death. Unlike so many of the other characters, who are motivated by largely by greed, to discharge his father's debts and clear the estate Crew is prepared to transfer most of his inheritance to his father's creditors, including Scarve. In this scene, Ainsworth sets up the story's romance by introducing his protagonist to the miser's virtuous, beautiful, nineteen-year-old daughter, Hilda. However, her parsimonious father will block a possible romance as he intends Hilda to marry his nephew, Philip Frewin.

That the properties and the characters in the illustrations are exactly as they appear in the illustration suggests that (as Cruikshank later asserted) Ainsworth was merely "writing up" the tracing which Cruikshank had sent him after their interview in Ainsworth's library at Kensal Lodge — precisely the sort of monthly conference which Cruikshank represents in Our Library Table — Cruikshank and Ainsworth at work for the next instalment of The Miser's Daughter (1842).

Illustration for Ainsworth's Magazine by Cruikshank [1842].

In what was the magazine serial's initial illustration for the January 1842 number, Cruikshank has placed Mr. Scarve at the centre of the composition. Although the miser is much as Ainsworth describes him, Cruikshank does not give him any mark of cunning intelligence — instead of "his eye grey, keen and piercing," the illustrator gives us a bleary eye and a visage indicative of limited mental capacity. Since Ainsworth and Cruikshank have both taken pains to describe the miser's dress so precisely, one naturally wonders why Cruikshank has made the table neither "small" nor "round." A more serious failing is Cruikshank's depiction of Hilda Scarve as not great beauty, but then Cruikshank was never much of a hand at depicting beautiful young women. His Hilda is a plain, static, thin-waisted young woman only slightly more interesting visually than Scarve's sister-in-law, Mrs. Clinton, "an elderly maiden lady" with a long, thin neck (down left).

In the ornate mantelpiece Cruikshank has placed a chivalric figure carved into side-beam, but the leaded-pained stained glass, probably indicative of the taste of a previous owner of the house near Westminster Abbey, effectively contrasts the spartan character of the room.​Cruikshank provides more visual information about the family retainer, Jacob, holds a copper candlestick (mentioned at the end of the last chapter); however, Cruikshank makes him a dull, inoffensive, unobservant fellow not entirely consistent with Ainsworth's remarks about him, or his role as Hilda's protector.​The chief feature of the drawing, the mysterious packet to be delivered exactly a year after the death of Randulph Crew's father, remains enigmatic, for Ainsworth drops it from the dialogue and Cruikshank gives no clue as to its meaning or import.​Unfortunately, all too often in constructing the serial, Ainsworth seems to have relied upon the clarity which Cruikshank's historically accurate tableaux vivants offered.

References

Ainsworth, William Harrison. The Miser's Daughter: A Tale. Illustrated by George Cruikshank. First published in 3 volumes by Cunningham and Mortimer, London, 1842. London, Glasgow, and New York: George Routledge, 1892.

Burton, Anthony. "Cruikshank as an Illustrator of Fiction." George Cruikshank: A Revaluation, ed. Robert L. Patten. Princeton, NJ: Princeton U. P., 1974, rpt. 1992. Pp. 93-128.

Patten, Robert L. George Cruikshank's Life, Times, and Art, vol. 2: 1835-1878.Cambridge: The Lutterworth Press, 1992.

Vann, J. Don. "The Miser's Daughter in Ainsworth's Magazine January-October 1842." Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: MLA, 1988. Pp. 22-23.

Vogler, Richard A. Graphic Works of George Cruikshank. Dover Pictorial Archive Series. New York: Dover, 1979.

Worth, George. William Harrison Ainsworth.​New York: Twayne, 1972.

---

Victorian
Web

Illus-
tration

George
Cruikshank

The Miser's Daughter

W. Harrison
Ainsworth

Next

Last modified 8 June 2018