"Firstly, Will you design, upon a block of wood, Lord George Gordon, alone and very solitary, in his prison, and after your own fancy; the time, evening; the season, summer?
"Secondly, Will you ditto upon a ditto, a sword-duel between Mr. Haredale and Mr. Chester, in a grove of trees? No one close by. Mr. Haredale has just pierced his adversary, who has fallen, dying, on the grass. He (that is, Chester) tries to staunch the wound in his breast with his handkerchief; has his snuff-box on the earth beside him, and looks at Mr. Haredale (who stands with his sword in his hand looking down on him) with most supercilious hatred, but polite to the last. Mr. Haredale is more sorry than triumphant.
"Thirdly, Will you conceive and execute, after your own fashion, a frontispiece for 'Barnaby'?
"Fourthly, Will you also devise a subject representing 'Master Humphrey's Clock' as stopped; his chair by the fireside empty; his crutch against the wall; his slippers on the cold hearth; his hat upon the chair-back; the MSS. of 'Barnaby' and 'The Curiosity Shop' heaped upon the table; and the flowers you introduced in the first subject of all withered and dead? Master Humphrey being supposed to be no more.
"I have a fifthly, sixthly, seventhly, and eighthly; for I sorely want you, as I approach the close of the tale; but I won't frighten you, so we'll take breath.
"P.S.—I have been waiting until I got to subjects of this nature, thinking you would like them best."
Owing to an illness from which Cattermole was then suffering, the frontispiece here referred to was designed by Hablôt Browne. A few days later, the author bethought him of an incident earlier in the story (chapter lxix.), which required an illustration, and anent this he despatched the following note:—
"Will you, before you go on with the other subjects I gave you, do one of Hugh, bareheaded, bound, tied on a horse, and escorted by horse-soldiers to jail? If you can add an indication of old Fleet Market, and bodies of foot-soldiers firing at people who have taken refuge on the tops of stalls, bulk-heads, etc., it will be all the better."
Plate XLII
THE MURDER AT THE WARREN
Facsimile of the Original Sketch for "Barnaby Rudge" by GEORGE CATTERMOLE
Lent by Mr. Augustin Daly.
This letter is the last (of those which have been preserved) having reference to George Cattermole's artistic association with "Master Humphrey's Clock." Of the one hundred and ninety-four illustrations contained in this work, thirty-nine were designed by him, these comprising fourteen for "The Old Curiosity Shop," fifteen for "Barnaby Rudge," and ten for the "Clock" chapters; his signature, "G.C.," appended thereto has occasionally been mistaken for the initials of George Cruikshank, to whom some of these designs have been incorrectly attributed. There can be no doubt that George Cattermole's drawings greatly enhanced the popularity of the work, for nothing could be happier than his facile treatment of such subjects as the "Maypole" Inn, the interior of the Old Curiosity Shop, and Quilp's Wharf; while especially effective are his representations of the old church in the village where Little Nell died. This picturesque little structure really exists at Tong, in Shropshire, and, with its splendid carving and magnificent monuments, presents the same attractive appearance which inspired both Dickens and his illustrator. The novelist was so much charmed with Cattermole's designs in "The Old Curiosity Shop" that he could not refrain from expressing to the artist his warm appreciation of them. "I have so deeply felt," he wrote, "your hearty and most invaluable co-operation in the beautiful illustrations you have made for the last story, that I look at them with a pleasure I cannot describe to you in words, and that it is impossible for me to say how sensible I am of your earnest and friendly aid. Believe me that this is the very first time that any designs for what I have written have touched and moved me, and caused me to feel that they expressed the idea I had in my mind. I am most sincerely and affectionately grateful to you, and am full of pleasure and delight."
In concluding this account of George Cattermole's illustrations for the writings of Dickens, it only remains to add that he prepared a special design as the frontispiece for the first cheap edition of "The Old Curiosity Shop" (1848), an admirable drawing on wood, excellently engraved by Thomas Williams, depicting "Little Nell in the Church."
On the completion of "Master Humphrey's Clock," the author commissioned Cattermole to make two water-colour drawings of scenes in "The Old Curiosity Shop," one representing "Little Nell's Home," while the other (now in the Forster Collection at South Kensington) portrays "Little Nell's Grave" in the old church, this being an enlarged version of the woodcut. These drawings are excellent examples of Cattermole's work, and were highly valued by the novelist, who, in a letter to the artist (dated December 20, 1842), expressed his sincere approval of them. "It is impossible," he said, "for me to tell you how greatly I am charmed with those beautiful pictures, in which the whole feeling, and thought, and expression of the little story is rendered, to the gratification of my inmost heart; and on which you have lavished those amazing resources of yours with power at which I fairly wondered when I sat down yesterday before them. I took them to Mac [Maclise] straightway in a cab, and it would have done you good if you could have seen and heard him. You can't think how moved he was by the old man in the church, or how pleased I was to have chosen it before he saw the drawings. You are such a queer fellow, and hold yourself so much aloof, that I am afraid to say half I would say touching my grateful admiration; so you shall imagine the rest...."