"The Sexton shows Little Nell the Old Well" — Furniss's twenty-fourth illustration for Dickens's "The Old Curiosity Shop" (1910)

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The Sexton shows Little Nell the Old Well

They descended the narrow steps, which led into the crypt, and paused among the gloomy arches. "This is the place," said the old man, pointing downward with his finger. "Look in." The child complied, and gazed down into the pit.

Harry Furniss

1910

14.1 x 9.2 cm, framed

Dickens's The Old Curiosity Shop, The Charles Dickens Library Edition, facing V, Chapter L, facing 416.

[Click on image to enlarge it.]

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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Context for the Illustration: "A bleak and dreadful place."

"Come down with me," said the old man. "I have known it from a boy. Come!"

They descended the narrow steps which led into the crypt, and paused among the gloomy arches, in a dim and murky spot.

"This is the place," said the old man. "Give me your hand while you throw back the cover, lest you should stumble and fall in. I am too old — I mean rheumatic — to stoop, myself."

"A black and dreadful place!" exclaimed the child.

"Look in," said the old man, pointing downward with his finger.

The child complied, and gazed down into the pit.

"It looks like a grave itself," said the old man.

"It does," replied the child.

"I have often had the fancy," said the sexton, "that it might have been dug at first to make the old place more gloomy, and the old monks more religious. It’s to be closed up, and built over."

The child still stood, looking thoughtfully into the vault.

"We shall see," said the sexton, "on what gay heads other earth will have closed, when the light is shut out from here. God knows! They’ll close it up, next spring."

"The birds sing again in spring," thought the child, as she leaned at her casement window, and gazed at the declining sun. "Spring! a beautiful and happy time!" [Chapter LV, 409-19]

Related Material about The Old Curiosity Shop

Bibliography

Dickens, Charles. The Old Curiosity Shop. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book Company, 1910. V.

Created 8 May 2020

Last modified 27 November 2020