Mr. Landon, Ex-Cotton Spinner [uncaptioned vignette] second composite woodblock illustration by J. Gordon Thomson, in F. E. West's "A Cottage by the Sea," framed. The Graphic (24 July 1886): Volume XXXIV, p. 89. Thomson humorously juxtaposes the image of the elderly, blustering upper-middle-class retired industrialist, ironically surrounded by springtime flowers, and his fashionably dressed, youngest daughter: his appearing irate as he orders the officers off the property of the seaside cottage complements his understandable antipathy towards the military: "A window above the porch was thrown up, and an elderly man, with a very long face and very white whiskers, desired the young men to be gone." Scanned image, colour correction, sizing, caption, and commentary 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. Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Passages associated with the Uncaptioned Vignette
MR. LANDON, EX-COTTON-SPINNER, had good reason to hate the army. His eldest daughter had married a gallant young Hussar, who quickly spent her fortune at Newmarket, and thereafter vanished from the world's ken, leaving her neither widow nor maid. His eldest son — a great scamp, as the sons of steady business men often are — entered a Dragoon regiment, got into some discreditable row, was tried by court-martial, dismissed from the Service, and shot himself through the head the next day. His second daughter, Clara, was cruelly jilted by s Guardsman, and died at Bournemouth a year subse- quently of a broken heart. A second son — at Woolwich — was blown to pieces by a shell which exploded in his hands while he was examining it; and last, but not least, his one remaining child, his ewe lamb, Lily, evinced a remarkable prepossession for the military. [89]
. . . .
But when the two young men knocked and rang the bell, they became aware, to their surprise, of a great commotion within. There was a noise of a chain being put across the door; a hurrying of feet, and a clatter of fire-irons, and above all the din the poodle barked furiously.
"Officers! some one cried in an angry voice. "On no account let them in."
A window above the porch was thrown up, and an elderly man, with a very long face and very white whiskers, desired the young men to be gone. [89]
Bibliography
West, F. E. "A Cottage by the Sea." Illustrated by Gordon Thomson. The Graphic, Vol. XXXIV, 24 July 1886: pp. 89-90.
Created 9 April 2025