[Victorian Web Home —> W. H. Ainsworth —> Illustration —> George Cruikshank —> Windsor Castle —> Next]
TheVisit to Tristram Lyndwood's Cottage
George Cruikshank
1842
Steel-engraving
12 cm high by 9.9 cm wide, framed
Cruikshank's third illustration for W. Harrison Ainsworth's Windsor Castle. An Historical Romance, first published in the January 1843 number of Ainsworth's Magazine; volume, facing p. 101.
[Click on image to enlarge it and mouse over text for links.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
"You will discompose her, my masters, if you praise her thus to her face," said Tristram somewhat testily. "Here, Mab, bring forth all my scanty larder affords, and put some rashers of bacon on the fire."
"Cold meat and bread will suffice for us,” said Harry: “we will not trouble the damsel to play the cook."
With this Mabel, who appeared a good deal embarrassed by the presence of the strangers, spread a cloth of snow-white linen on the little table, and placed the remains of the pie and a large oven cake before them. The new-comers sate down, and ate heartily of the humble viands, he who had answered to the name of Harry frequently stopping in the course of his repast to compliment his fair attendant.
"By our Lady, I have never been so waited on before," he added, rising and removing his stool towards the fire, while his companion took up a position, with his back against the wall, near the fireplace. “And now, my pretty Mabel, have you never a cup of ale to wash down the pie?"
"I can offer you a draught of right good mead, master," said Tristram; "and that is the only liquor my cottage can furnish."
"Nothing can be better,” replied Harry. “The mead, by all means."
While Mabel went to draw the liquor, Tristram fixed his eyes on Harry, whose features were now fully revealed by the light of the fire.
"Why do you look at me so hard, friend?” demanded Harry bluffly.
"I have seen some one very like you, master," replied Tristram, “and one whom it is no light honour to resemble."
"You mean the king,” returned Harry, laughing. "You are not the first person who has thought me like him."
"You are vain of the likeness, I see, master,” replied Tristram, joining in the laugh. “How say you, Mab?” he added to his granddaughter, who at that moment returned with a jug and a couple of drinking-horns. “Whom does this gentleman resemble?"
"No one," returned Mabel, without raising her eyes.
"No one," echoed Harry, chucking her under the chin. "Look me full in the face, and you will find out your mistake. Marry, if I were the royal Henry, instead of what I am, a plain Guildford merchant, I should prefer you to Anne Boleyn."
"Is that said in good sooth, sir?" asked Mabel, slightly raising her eyes, and instantly dropping them before the ardent gaze of the self-styled merchant.
"In good sooth and sober truth,” replied Henry, rounding his arm and placing his hand on his lusty thigh in true royal fashion. [Book 2, "Herne the Hunter," Chapter III, "Of the Visit of the Two Guildford Merchants to the Forester's Hut," p. 100]
Harry Le Roy and his confidant are visiting his subjects incognito, but barely, as he has made no attempt to adjust his distinctive beard, and has adopted a cognomen suggestive of his kingly status, despite the fact that he proclaims himself a mere merchant. Ainsworth clearly depicts thirty-eight-year-old monarch as something of a womanizer in the attentions he pays the adolescent Mabel Lyndwood, who is in fact Cardinal Wolsey's illegitimate daughter, raised by the humble family of woodlanders. The moment that Cruikshank has realised is Mabel's filling Henry's drinking horn with mead as her grandfather, Tristram, looks on.
At the end of Chapter 3 the text clarifies the presence of Morgan Fenwolf and Herne the Hunter throughout the scene, present in the Cruikshank illustration for several pages, but not remarked upon by Ainsworth:
"And with reason," said Harry. "Good-night, sweet-heart! By my crown, Suffolk!" he exclaimed to his companion, as he quitted the cottage, "she is an angel, and shall be mine."
"Not if my arm serves me truly," muttered Fenwolf, who, with his mysterious companion, had stationed himself at the window of the hut.
"Do him no injury," returned the other; "he is only to be made captive-mark that. And now to apprise Sir Thomas Wyat. We must intercept them before they reach their horses." [p. 102]
Left: W. Alfred Delamotte's atmospheric realisation of the scenic countryside near Lyndwood's cottage,Forest Glade looking upon Cook's Hill, Book Two, "Herne the Hunter," Chapter II. "In What Manner Wolsey put his Scheme in Operation." Centre: The Castle, from the Western side of Snow Hill, tailpiece for Chapter 5. Right: Delamotte's sketch, View of the Castle from the "Adelaide Peep", headpiece for Chapter VIII. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Ainsworth, William Harrison. "Preface" to Rookwood. A Romance. With 12 illustrations by George Cruikshank. London: George Routledge, 1882. Pp. xxxiii-xxxviii.
Ainsworth, William Harrison. Windsor Castle. An Historical Romance. Illustrated by George Cruikshank and Tony Johannot. With designs on wood by W. Alfred Delamotte. London: Routledge, 1880. Based on the Henry Colburn edition of 1844.
Chesson, Wilfred Hugh. George Cruikshank. The Popular Library of Art. London: Duckworth, 1908.
Jerrold, Blanchard. The Life of George Cruikshank. In Two Epochs. Illustrated by George Cruikshank. 2 vols. London: Chatto and Windus, 1882.
Johnson, E. D. H. "The George Cruikshank Collection at Princeton." George Cruikshank: A Revaluation. Ed. Robert L. Patten. Princeton, NJ: Princeton U. P., 1974, rpt. 1992. Pp. 1-34.
Patten, Robert L. Chapter 30, "The 'Hoc' Goes Down." George Cruikshank's Life, Times, and Art, vol. 2: 1835-1878. Rutgers, NJ: Rutgers U. P., 1991; London: The Lutterworth Press, 1996. Pp. 153-186.
Vann, J. Don. "Windsor Castle in Ainsworth's Magazine, June 1842-June 1843." Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: MLA, 1985. P. 23.
Worth, George J. William Harrison Ainsworth. New York: Twayne, 1972.
Last modified 14 December 2017