Rogue Riderhood by J. Clayton Clarke (“Kyd”) for the watercolour series (1910): reproduced on John Player cigarette card no. 33: Ninety-two Characters from Dickens: Our Mutual Friend. 2 ½ inches high by 1 ¼ inches wide (6.3 cm high by 3.3 cm wide). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
ROGUE RIDERHOOD. (Our Mutual Friend.)
A waterside loafer and seeker after grim flotsam from the turbid bosom of old father Thames. Restored to life after being apparently drowned, he believes himself immune from any like disaster; but, levying blackmail upon Bradley Headstone, he is hurled to a watery death, locked in the iron grip of that unhappy “Schoolmaster.” [Verso of Card No. 33]
Passage Suggested
Left: Fred Barnard's 1884 chromolithographic portrait Rogue Riderhood at Limehouse Hole in Series 2, A Series of Character Sketches from Dickens, from the Original Drawings of Fred Barnard.
Rogue Riderhood dwelt deep and dark in Limehouse Hole, among the riggers, and the mast, oar and block makers, and the boat-builders, and the sail-lofts, as in a kind of ship's hold stored full of waterside characters, some no better than himself, some very much better, and none much worse. The Hole, albeit in a general way not over nice in its choice of company, was rather shy in reference to the honour of cultivating the Rogue's acquaintance; more frequently giving him the cold shoulder than the warm hand, and seldom or never drinking with him unless at his own expense. A part of the Hole, indeed, contained so much public spirit and private virtue that not even this strong leverage could move it to good fellowship with a tainted accuser. But, there may have been the drawback on this magnanimous morality, that its exponents held a true witness before Justice to be the next unneighbourly and accursed character to a false one. {Household Edition, Book 2, Ch. XII, "More Birds of Prey," 180]
Commentary
Although Kyd's representations of the two characters from Our Mutual Friend (May 1864-November 1865) are largely based on the original serial illustrations by Dickens's last major illustrator, Marcus Stone, the modelling of the figures is perhaps suggestive of those of the Dickens illustrator James Mahoney for the Household Edition (Volume IX, 1875). The Dickens reader at the fin de siècle must have been surprised to find missing from Kyd's character sketches such significant figures in Our Mutual Friend as the depraved, obsessive school-master, Bradley Headstone; Lizzie Hexam and her father, the Thames waterman Gaffer; the story's chief love interest, Bella Wilfer; the doll's dressmaker, the sharp-tongued Jenny Wren; the deceptive socialite (secretly a money-lender) Fascination Fledgby; his put-upon employee, Riah; and the Golden Dustman, Noddy Boffin. Since these late Dickens characters had plenty to offer the illustrator, one must assume that Kyd fashioned his short list according to the popular taste, which seems to have run to the early novels. However, he does include the Thames waterman, formerly Gaffer Hexam's partner, Roger (“Rogue”) Riderhood, distinguished by his squinting leer and sodden, old fur hat from his first appearance in the novel, in Miss Abbey Potterson's waterside tavern, The Three Jolly Fellowship Porters.
The models for Kyd's interpretation are several of Marcus Stone's original serial images of the disreputable Thames waterman, specifically, the June 1864 instalment's At the Bar (Book One, "The Cup and the Lip," Chapter VI, "Cut Adrift"), as well as the March 1865 instalment's Rogue Riderhood's Recovery (Book Three, "A Long Lane," Chapter III, "The Same Respected Friend in More Aspects than One"). These serial illustrations, however, would not have given Kyd many details on which to base an illustration: we see him as the attorneys Lightwood and Rayburn see him, a hoarse "ghost" with a squinting leer," fumbling with "an old sodden fur cap, formless and mangy" (Book One, Ch. XII). A disreputable, "ill-looking" fellow with a stocky figure, Riderhood is shiftless, devious, and utterly untrustworthy. Moreover, even referring to Mahoney's Household Edition illustrations of the gruff, opportunistic blackmailer, Kyd would have had to invent many visual aspects of a character for whom Dickens does not provide a comprehensive verbal portrait — including suitable clothing. In And now, as the man held out the bottle to fill all around, Riderhood stood up, leaned over the table to look closer at the knife, and started from it to him (Book the Second, "Birds of a Feather," Chapter 12, "More Birds of Prey") and Rogue Riderhood recognized his 't'other governor, Mr. Eugene Rayburn (Book the Fourth, "A Turning," Chapter 1, "Setting Traps"), set at the Plashwater Mill-lock, Kyd would have found a figure of Riderhood similar to Marcus Stone's. In contrast, then, Kyd's waterman-turned-lock-keeper is more slender and less boxy in form and more curious in his facial expression.
Owing to copyright restrictions on American imports, Kyd is not likely to have seen the 1867 Diamond Edition illustration of the surly waterman's domestic circumstances, Rogue Riderhood and Miss Pleasant at Home for Book Two, "Birds of a Feather," Chapter XII, "More Birds of Prey."
Rogue Riderhood in the original and later editions, 1865-1875
Left: Marcus Stone's March 1865 (Part 11) serial illustration of the waterman's return from the dead: Rogue Riderhood's Recovery.Centre: Sol Eytinge, Junior's dual character study of theRiderhoods, Rogue Riderhood and Miss Pleasant at Home (1867). Right: F. O. C. Darley's version of Rokesmith's interviewing Rogue Riderhood in the "leaving shop," Riderhood Checkmated (1866). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Scanned images and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use these 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
Bentley, Nicolas, Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. The Dickens Index. Oxford and New York: Oxford U. P., 1988.
The Characters of Charles Dickens Pourtrayed in a Series of Original Water Colour Sketches by “Kyd.” London, Paris, and New York: Raphael Tuck & Sons, 1898[?].
Davis, Paul. Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Checkmark and Facts On File, 1999.
Dickens, Charles. Our Mutual Friend. Illustrated by Marcus Stone. The Authentic Edition. Vol. 14. London: Chapman and Hall, 1901.
Dickens, Charles. Our Mutual Friend. Frontispieces by Felix Octavius Carr Darley and Sir John Gilbert. The Household Edition. 55 vols. New York: Sheldon & Co., 1863. 4 vols.
Dickens, Charles. Our Mutual Friend. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition. 14 vols. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867. Vol. VIII.
Dickens, Charles. Our Mutual Friend. Illustrated by James Mahoney. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1875. Vol. IX.
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Hammerton, J. A. "Chapter 21: The Other Novels." The Dickens Picture-Book. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. 18 vols. London: Educational Book Co., 1910. Vol. XVII. 441-442.
"Our Mutual Friend — Fifty-eight Illustrations by James Mahoney." Scenes and Characters from the Works of Charles Dickens, Being Eight Hundred and Sixty-six Drawings by Fred Barnard, Gordon Thomson, Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz), J. McL. Ralston, J. Mahoney, H. French, Charles Green, E. G. Dalziel, A. B. Frost, F. A. Fraser, and Sir Luke Fildes. London: Chapman and Hall, 1907.
A Series of Character Sketches from Dickens, from the Original Drawings of Fred Barnard, Bein g Facsimiles of Original Drawings by Fred Barnard. Series 2. London: Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, 1884.
Vann, J. Don. "Our Mutual Friend, twenty parts in nineteen monthly instalments, May 1864—November 1865." Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: The Modern Language Association, 1985. 74.
Created 17 January 2015
Last modified 25 July 2025