"Tis not from the window. That's a gig-lamp, to the best of my belief" by Arthur Hopkins for Thomas Hardy's The Return of the Native. Plate 11. Belgravia, A Magazine of Fashion and Amusement (November 1878): Vol. XXXVII, Frontispiece; vertically mounted; 4.3125 inches high by 6.375 inches wide, framed, to face page 25. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Text illustrated
“You are sure the rain does not fall upon baby?”
“Quite sure. May I ask how old he is, ma’am?”
“He!” said Thomasin reproachfully. “Anybody can see better than that in a moment. She is nearly two months old. How far is it now to the inn?”
“A little over a quarter of a mile.”
“Will you walk a little faster?”
“I was afraid you could not keep up.”
“I am very anxious to get there. Ah, there is a light from the window!”
“’Tis not from the window. That’s a gig-lamp, to the best of my belief.”
“O!” said Thomasin in despair. “I wish I had been there sooner — give me the baby, Diggory — you can go back now.”
“I must go all the way,” said Venn. “There is a quag between us and that light, and you will walk into it up to your neck unless I take you round.”
“But the light is at the inn, and there is no quag in front of that.”
“No, the light is below the inn some two or three hundred yards.”
“Never mind,” said Thomasin hurriedly. “Go towards the light, and not towards the inn.” [Book V, “The Discovery,” Chapter 8, “Rain, Darkness, and Anxious Wanderers,” 25]
Commentary: Venn and Thomasin Move through the Darkness towards the Climax
In the rain and darkness the actors cannot clearly grasp what is happening, so that a dark plate was Hopkins' logical choice of medium for repeated misidentifications and misperceptions. Already, Thomasin has alerted her cousin, Clym, that Wildeve means to run off with Eustacia. When, disoriented, Thomasin arrives at Venn's wagon, the reddleman mistakes the sobbing woman for Eustacia, who in fact had called just moments earlier, before turning to run back downhill. Taking up his lantern, Diggory Venn determines to see Thomasin and her infant safely home. Meanwhile, Damon Wildeve has seen Eustacia's signal, and is making his way to Ten-Hatch Weir, setting of the climactic twelfth illustration, All that remained of the desperate and unfortunate Eustacia (December 1878).
In the present illustration, Thomasin has just jumped down from the wagon, and Diggory has offered to accompany her in her quest for Eustacia. He locks the door of the wagon, takes up her baby, and goes ahead of her, holding the lantern aloft. Even so, with the intense rain falling, visibility is minimal as Diggory attempts to navigate by proximity to the Rainbarrow They are now only a quarter-mile from The Quiet Woman Inn, when they spot a gig-lamp several hundred yards below the inn. Suspense mounts as the pair approach the building and the source of the light across a quag. As yet, Thomasin has failed to explain the precise nature of her nocturnal mission. And serial readers remained as much in the dark about the outcome of the novel's action in this eleventh monthly instalment as they approached the closing of the curtain and feel compelled to purchase the December 1878 issue of Belgravia. We now approach the climax early in the twelfth monthly number's fifth book, Chapter IX, “Sights and Sounds draw the Wanderers together.”
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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.]
Bibliography
Hardy, Thomas. Book Five, “The Discovery,” Chapters 5-8. The Return of the Native. Illustrated by Arthur Hopkins. Belgravia, A Magazine of Fashion and Amusement (London), Vol. XXXVII. November 1878. Pp. 1-26.
Jackson, Arlene M. Illustration and the Novels of Thomas Hardy. Towtowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield, 1981.
Purdy, Richard Little, and Millgate, Michael, eds. The Collected Letters of Thomas Hardy . Oxford: Clarendon, 1978. Vol. 1 (1840-1892).
Seymour-Smith, Martin. Hardy. London: Bloomsbury, 1994.
Vann, J. Don. “Part Eleven. Book V, "The Discovery," Chapters 5-8. November 1878. The Return of the Native in Belgravia, January-December 1878.” Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: MLA, 1985. 84.
Wright, Sarah Bird. "The Return of the Native." Thomas Hardy A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Works. New York: Facts On File, 2002. Pp. 261-270.
5 December 2000
Last updated 12 June 2025