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The House on Fire. Phiz (Hablot K. Browne). 1866. Wood engraving. Errym's A Mystery in Scarlet. Courtesy Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington. Click on image to enlarge it.
Text Illustrated
The highwayman, without another word, led the way down some dilapidated old back staircase of the Red Cap, and, threading a passage through a wilderness of outbuildings, with all of which he seemed perfectly familiar, he at length emerged at the top of a slippery flight of wooden steps, at the foot of which the river, in as great a commotion as such refined and inland water was capable of, was lashing and foaming. [35]
Commentary
The highwayman (lower left) points the way as Markham (right) and Bertha flee from the thieves' safe house (the Red Cap public house) across Westminster and into the night. The Thames is not only "lashing and flowing" but glowing, suggesting the light of the house fire from which Markham and Bertha have just escaped. The highwayman's face is concealed; appropriately, as he will only be identified much later, in the sixth installment. His tricorn hat lies on the rooftop (lower center). Bertha’s legs seem strangely foreshortened, and her facelessless as she gazes upstage at the river redirects the reader's focus to the relationship between the Highwayman and Markham, whose arms and gazes bisect the composition diagonally. Markham is gradually becoming a righteous outlaw, like the highwayman.
Image scan by the Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington. Commentary by Rebecca Nesvet, University of Wisconsin, Green Bay. Color correction, sizing, and formatting by George P. Landow[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit Indiana University and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Errym, Malcolm J [James Malcolm Rymer]. A Mystery in Scarlet, leading serial of The London Miscellany. Ed. James Malcolm Rymer, 1, no. 3 (1866): 1. From the copy in the collection of the Wells Library, Indiana University, Bloomington. Courtesy Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington.
Last modified 13 July 2019