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Hartright keeping watch in the church

John McLenan

31 December 1859

9.5 cm high by 6 cm wide (3 ¾ by 2 ¼ inches), framed.

Sixth uncaptioned headnote vignette for Collins's The Woman in White: A Novel (31 December 1859), 841.

[Click on the image to enlarge it.]

The illustration prepares the American serial readers for Walter's second interview with Anne Catherick, beside Mrs. Fairlie's grave, not far from Limmeridge House. Hartright has stationed himself so that, unseen, he can conduct surviellance of Mrs. Fairlie's grave, whose marble cross has been recently cleaned.

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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Hartright keeping watch in the church. — staff artist John McLenan's sixth headnote vignette (composite woodblock engraving) for Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White: A Novel, Instalment 6, published on 31 December 1859 in Harper's Weekly: A Journal of Civilization, Vol. III, Part One: "The Story Begun by Walter Hartright, of Clement's Inn, Teacher of Drawing," Chapter XII, 84; p. 40 in the 1861 volume edition.

The Opening Scene Captured in the Headnote Vignette: Watchful Walter

The main entrance to the church was on the side next to the burial-ground, and the door was screened by a porch walled in on either side. After some little hesitation, caused by natural reluctance to conceal myself, indispensable as that concealment was to the object in view, I had resolved on entering the porch. A loophole window was pierced in each of its side walls. Through one of these windows I could see Mrs. Fairlie’s grave. The other looked towards the stone quarry in which the sexton’s cottage was built. Before me, fronting the porch entrance, was a patch of bare burial-ground, a line of low stone wall, and a strip of lonely brown hill, with the sunset clouds sailing heavily over it before the strong, steady wind. No living creature was visible or audible — no bird flew by me, no dog barked from the sexton’s cottage. The pauses in the dull beating of the surf were filled up by the dreary rustling of the dwarf trees near the grave, and the cold faint bubble of the brook over its stony bed. A dreary scene and a dreary hour. My spirits sank fast as I counted out the minutes of the evening in my hiding-place under the church porch. [Chapter XII, "Hartright's Narrative Continued," 841; p. 39 in the 1861 volume edition]

Related Material

  • McLenan's regular, full-scale illustration for the sixth weekly number in serial: The hand holding the damp cloth with which she had been cleaning the inscription dropped to her side; the other hand grasped the marble cross, etc. for 31 December 1859 (Concludes Vol. III).
  • Fred Walker's poster: The Woman in White for the Olympic's October 1871 adaptation

Bibliography

Collins, Wilkie. The Woman in White: A Novel. New York: Harper & Bros., 1860.

Collins, Wilkie. The Woman in White: A Novel. Harper's Weekly: A Journal of Civilization. Illustrated by John McLenan. Vols. III-IV (16 November 1859 through 8 September 1860).

Collins, Wilkie. The Woman in White. Ed. Maria K. Bachman and Don Richard Cox. Illustrated by Sir John Gilbert. London: Minerva, 2006.

Peters, Catherine. "Chapter Twelve: The Woman in White (1859-1860)." The King of the Inventors: A Life of Wilkie Collins. London: Minerva Press, 1992. Pp. 205-225.

Vann, J. Don. "The Woman in White in All the Year Round, 26 November — 25 August 1860." Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: MLA, 1985. Pp. 44-46.


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