A. A. Dixon's fourth lithograph for Dickens's "American Notes" — “I am an antediluvian, sir.” (1906)

“I am an antediluvian, sir.”

Arthur A. Dixon

1906

lithograph

4 ⅞ inches high by 3 ⅛ inches wide (12.3 cm by 8 cm)

Third regular illustration for the Collins Pocket edition, facing p. 137.

At the Insane Asylum in Hartford, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Dickens meets a prim old lady who is comically insane. See Ch. 5, “Worcester — The Connecticut River — Hartford — New Haven — To New York,” p. 116.

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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Passage Realised: A Humorous Scene in an Unlikely Location — the Insane Asylum in Hartford

I very much questioned within myself, as I walked through the Insane Asylum, whether I should have known the attendants from the patients, but for the few words which passed between the former, and the Doctor, in reference to the persons under their charge. Of course I limit this remark merely to their looks; for the conversation of the mad people was mad enough.

There was one little, prim old lady, of very smiling and good-humoured appearance, who came sidling up to me from the end of a long passage, and with a curtsey of inexpressible condescension, propounded this unaccountable inquiry —

‘Does Pontefract still flourish, sir, upon the soil of England?’

‘He does, ma’am,’ I rejoined.

‘When you last saw him, sir, he was ——’

‘Well, ma’am,’ said I, ‘extremely well. He begged me to present his compliments. I never saw him looking better.’

At this, the old lady was very much delighted. After glancing at me for a moment, as if to be quite sure that I was serious in my respectful air, she sidled back some paces; sidled forward again; made a sudden skip (at which I precipitately retreated a step or two); and said:

‘I am an antediluvian, sir.’

I thought the best thing to say was, that I had suspected as much from the first. Therefore I said so. [Ch. V, “Worcester — The Connecticut River — Hartford — New Haven — To New York,” p. 116]

Commentary: Character Comedy and Absurd Delusions in Hartford's Insane Asylum

Here as elsewhere in the Collins Pocket Edition the reader requires some context to make sense of the lithograph and its puzzling caption. The composition makes complete sense when the reader realizes that the scene is transpiring in an insane asylum. Here, Dickens is interviewing one particularly amusing, elderly female inmate. Dixon is careful to give Dickens an appearance of interest in and respect for the “little, prim old lady.”

The caption that Dixon has employed is particularly amusing since the prim old lady seems to be suggesting that she is so old that her birth preceded Noah's Flood. The noun “antediluvian,” merely means one who is old-fashioned, or lacking up-to-date information, or is somewhat antiquated, particularly in her ideas about appropriate social conduct, or is simply “out of touch” with present reality. The idiom was popularised by Sir Thmomas Browne in Pseudodoxia Epidemica (1646), although he was using it in its restrictive, latinate sense, rather than to mean (as here) “ridiculously primitive.” The next institutional inmate whom Dickens encounters will not be nearly so amusing. The Solitary Prisoner (that is, In Agony of Soul. Page 164) does not offer us any evidence of America's institutions as being socially enlightened.

Related Materials

"Philadelphia, and its Solitary Prison," Chapter 7 in American Notes (1842)
Introduction to "Philadelphia, and its Solitary Prison"
Reading and Discussion Questions
Charles Dickens, the traveler — places he visited
Charles Dickens and American Slavery
Dickens's 1842 Reading Tour: Launching the Copyright Question in Tempestuous Seas

Bibliography

Dickens, Charles. American Notes and Pictures from Italy, Volume XX, in the New York: P. F. Collier & Son edition, n. d.

Dickens, Charles. American Notes. Illustrated by A. A. Dixon. London and Glasgow: Collins Clear-Type Press, 1906.

Dickens, Charles. American Notes for General Circulation and Pictures from Italy. Illustrated by Marcus Stone. Illustrated Library Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1874.

Dickens, Charles. American Notes. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book Company, 1910. Vol. XIII.

Dickens, Charles. Oliver Twist with American Notes for General Circulation and Pictures from Italy. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge. Diamond Edition. 14 volumes. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1867. Vol. XI.

Dickens, Charles. Pictures from Italy, Sketches by Boz and American Notes. Illustrated by Thomas Nast and Arthur B. Frost. American Household Edition. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1877 (copyrighted in 1876). Vol VII.

Dickens, Charles. American Notes for General Circulation and Pictures from Italy. Illustrated by J. Gordon Thomson and A. B. Frost. Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1880. Vol. XIX.

Created 2 September 2026