‘Rode off in great spirits,’ for Jane Austen's "Emma" (1905) by Hugh Thomson (P. 58, Chapter VIII)

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‘Rode off in great spirits’

Hugh Thomson

1905

Photomechanical reproduction of a pen-and-ink drawing

12.3 by 8.3 cm (5 by 3 ⅜ inches), vignetted

Jane Austen, Emma, facing page 59.

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

Passage Illustrated: Mr. Elton encounters Mr. Perry as he rides to London.

Mr. Perry had been to Mrs. Goddard’s to attend a sick child, and Miss Nash had seen him, and he had told Miss Nash, that as he was coming back yesterday from Clayton Park, he had met Mr. Elton, and found to his great surprize, that Mr. Elton was actually on his road to London, and not meaning to return till the morrow, though it was the whist-club night, which he had been never known to miss before; and Mr. Perry had remonstrated with him about it, and told him how shabby it was in him, their best player, to absent himself, and tried very much to persuade him to put off his journey only one day; but it would not do; Mr. Elton had been determined to go on, and had said in a very particular way indeed, that he was going on business which he would not put off for any inducement in the world; and something about a very enviable commission, and being the bearer of something exceedingly precious. Mr. Perry could not quite understand him, but he was very sure there must be a lady in the case, and he told him so; and Mr. Elton only looked very conscious and smiling, and rode off in great spirits. [Chapter 8, 59]

Commentary: Emma insists upon Elton's interest in Harriet

Emma continues to fuel the false narrative that Mr. Elton is devoted to Harriet, when in fact he has undertaken his mission to the picture-framer's in London on Emma's behalf. This is the third illustration in which Thomson has made the portrait of Harriet his subject. In the background we see the jolly apothecary, waving his stick in one hand as he carries his professional bag in the other. Elton turns in the saddle to wave at Perry, but Thomson offers no suggestion that Elton is transporting the picture.

Related Material

Bibliography

Austen, Jane. Emma. Ed. Austin Dobson. With forty pen-and-ink illustrations by Hugh Thomson. The Novels of Jane Austen. London: Macmillan, 1896, rpt. 1905.

Austen, Jane. Emma. Ed. R. Brimley Johnson. With coloured illustrations by C. E. Brock. The Novels and Letters of Jane Austen. 2 vols. New York & Philadelphia: Frank S. Holby, 1906.

Austen, Jane. Emma. Ed. George Justice. 4th edition. New York: W. W. Norton, 2011.

Austen, Jane. Emma: An Annotated Edition. Ed. Bharat Tandon. Cambridge, Mass., and London: Belknap Press of Harvard U. P, 2012.

Last modified 25 April 2026