Initial-letter Vignette "T" — Lord Cudluff reads Lady Augusta's letter to his wife (Vol. XVIII, page 1) vertically-mounted, 7.5 cm high by 5 cm wide, signed "MEE." in the lower-left corner; also in the lower-left corner of the main illustration. Mary Ellen Edwards' fourteenth thumbnail vignette illustration for the July 1868 number of Charles Lever's The Bramleighs of Bishop's Folly in the Cornhill Magazine, Chapters LII-LV ("Ischia" through "The Prisoner at Cattaro") in Vol. 18: pages 1 through 26. The wood-engraver responsible for this illustration was Joseph Swain (1820-1909), noted for his engravings of Sir John Tenniel's cartoons in Punch. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
This fourteenth vignette opens Chapter LII, with Lord and Lady Cudluff, conferring about Lady Augusta Bramleigh's letter.
“Make your mind at ease, my Lord. It is no question of an opera-box, or a milliner's bill, but it is a matter of much importance that I desire, to speak about. Will you do me the favour to read that, and say what answer I shall return to it?”
Lord Culduff took the letter and read it over leisurely, and then, laying it down, said, “Lady Augusta is not a very perspicuous letter-writer, or else she feels her present task too much for her tact, but what she means here is, that you should give M. Pracontal permission to ransack your brother's house for documents, which, if discovered, might deprive him of the title to his estate. The request, at least, has modesty to recommend it.”
“The absurdity is, to my thinking, greater than even the impertinence,” cried Lady Culduff. [Vol. XVIII, Chapter LII, "Ischia," pp. 6-7 in serial; pp. 347-348 in volume]
Comment
One can only imagine with what distaste Marion meets Pracontal at Lady Augusta's. He has made a quick trip to Ireland, and, accompanied by Cutbill, has discovered a wooden box beneath the Flora mural. Contrary to Cutbill's expectation, the hidden box does indeed contain the missing parish registries of Port Shannon that confirm Montague Bramleigh's having married Giacomo Lami's daughter, supposedly Pracontal's grandmother. Edwards focuses on the statuesque, self-confident Marion, who is now a peeress and feels entitled to interrupt her husband whenever she feels the matter warrants.
Scanned images and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use the images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned them, and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Lever, Charles. The Bramleighs of Bishop’s Folly. The Cornhill Magazine 15 (June, 1867): pp. 640-664; 16 (July-December 1867): 1-666; 17 (January-June 1868): 70-663; 18 (July-October 1868): 1-403. Rpt. London: Chapman & Hall, 1872. Illustrated by M. E. Edwards; engraved by Joseph Swain.
Stevenson, Lionel. "Chapter XVI: Exile on the Adriatic, 1867-1872." Dr. Quicksilver: The Life of Charles Lever. London: Chapman and Hall, 1939. Pp. 277-296.
Created 6 September 2023