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Mrs. Elton was first seen at church
Hugh Thomson
1905
Photomechanical reproduction of a pen-and-ink drawing
14.6 by 8.5 cm (5 ⅝ by 3 ½ inches), vignetted
Jane Austen, Emma, facing page 241.
For passage illustrated and commentary, see below.
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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Mrs. Elton was first seen at church: but though devotion might be interrupted, curiosity could not be satisfied by a bride in a pew, and it must be left for the visits in form which were then to be paid, to settle whether she were very pretty indeed, or only rather pretty, or not pretty at all.
Emma had feelings, less of curiosity than of pride or propriety, to make her resolve on not being the last to pay her respects; and she made a point of Harriet’s going with her, that the worst of the business might be gone through as soon as possible. [Chapter XXXII, 239]
Although Harriet describes the new Mrs. Elton as "a very pleasing young woman," Emma keeps her own counsel about the suitability of the former Augusta Hawkins of the Maple Grove estate (which in fact belongs to her brother-in-law) as a wife for the middle-aged Reverend Mr. Philip Elton, the social-climbing vicar of Highbury. "Emma's implication here is that Augusta Hawkins accepted Elton out of desperation, and that he was ready to marry anyone with enough money who came along" (Tandon, Note 4, p. 311). The scene in parish church shows the parishioners very curiously studying Mrs. Elton (off right), but focusses on the reactions of Emma and her father, and does not include Mrs. Elton herself.
The picture's subject, then, is their reception by the Highbury congregation (notably Emma Woodhouse, left). Thomson makes the reader wait until Some vulgar, some dashing widow (p. 246) for his realisation of the haughty Mrs. Elton herself. Unlike the previous illustration, this is a headpiece. Instead of serving as a culmination of the events of the previous chapter, it alerts the reader to new developments — in this case, the introduction of a major character into the plot. Since the text only briefly introduces her in this chapter, the illustration compels us to consider how she will function in the remainder of the novel. Having proven his mercenary nature, once he has failed to secure Emma, outside Highbury Philip Elton has quickly found at the major commercial centre of Bristol a nouveau-riche wife, the obnoxious former Augusta Hawkins — who has come to the altar with a fortune of ten thousand pounds. Despite her obvious vulgarity, she will easily charm the better class of Highbury resident.
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. New York & Philadelphia: Frank S. Holby, 1906. 2 vols.
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 28 May 2026