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"I saw on one thorny branch some fragments of fringe from a woman's shawl."
John McLenan
31 March 1860
11 cm high by 8.5 cm wide (4 ¼ by 3 ⅜ inches), vignetted, p. 196, p. 122 in the 1861 volume.
Regular illustration for the nineteenth weekly number of Collins's The Woman in White: A Novel (1860).
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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"I saw on one thorny branch some fragments of fringe from a woman's shawl." — staff artist John McLenan's nineteenth regular composite woodblock engraving for Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White: A Novel, Instalment 19, published on 31 March 1860 in Harper's Weekly: A Journal of Civilization, Vol. IV, "The Second Epoch; The Story continued by Marian Halcombe, Blackwater Park, Hampshire: July 5th," p. 196; p. 122 in the 1861 volume. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
I detected the footsteps of two persons — large footsteps like a man’s, and small footsteps, which, by putting my own feet into them and testing their size in that manner, I felt certain were Laura’s. The ground was confusedly marked in this way just before the boat-house. Close against one side of it, under shelter of the projecting roof, I discovered a little hole in the sand — a hole artificially made, beyond a doubt. I just noticed it, and then turned away immediately to trace the footsteps as far as I could, and to follow the direction in which they might lead me.
They led me, starting from the left-hand side of the boat-house, along the edge of the trees, a distance, I should think, of between two and three hundred yards, and then the sandy ground showed no further trace of them. Feeling that the persons whose course I was tracking must necessarily have entered the plantation at this point, I entered it too. At first I could find no path, but I discovered one afterwards, just faintly traced among the trees, and followed it. It took me, for some distance, in the direction of the village, until I stopped at a point where another foot-track crossed it. The brambles grew thickly on either side of this second path. I stood looking down it, uncertain which way to take next, and while I looked I saw on one thorny branch some fragments of fringe from a woman’s shawl. A closer examination of the fringe satisfied me that it had been torn from a shawl of Laura’s, and I instantly followed the second path. It brought me out at last, to my great relief, at the back of the house. ["The Second Epoch. The Story continued by Marian Halcombe," Blackwater Park, Hampshire. July 5th," p. 196; pp. 122-123 in the 1861 volume.]
But is the fragment of cloth from Anne's rather than Laura's shawl? And to whom do the tracks of a man belong? Was Anne correct in asserting that she could not utter the secret about Glyde because they were being followed, and overheard?
Collins, Wilkie. The Woman in White: A Novel. New York: Harper & Bros., 1860.
Collins, Wilkie. The Woman in White: A Novel. Harper's Weekly: A Journal of Civilization. Illustrated by John McLenan. Vols. III-IV (16 November 1859 through 8 September 1860).
Collins, Wilkie. The Woman in White. Ed. Maria K. Bachman and Don Richard Cox. Illustrated by Sir John Gilbert and F. A. Fraser. Toronto: Broadview, 2006.
Peters, Catherine. "Chapter Twelve: The Woman in White (1859-1860)." The King of the Inventors: A Life of Wilkie Collins. London: Minerva Press, 1992. Pp. 205-25.
Vann, J. Don. "The Woman in White in All the Year Round, 26 November 1859 — 25 August 1860." Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: MLA, 1985. Pp. 44-46.
Created 12 July 2024