Rochester Cathedral Interior by F. G. Kitton
Illustration for Dickens's The Mystery of Edwin Drood, p. xxvi
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham
Source
Foot’s Cray Church, Sidcup
from “Greater London ... Illustrated" by Edward Walford, 1823-1897
Edward Walford (1823–1897) was an English magazine editor and a compiler of educational, biographical, genealogical and touristic works, perhaps best known for the final four volumes of Old and New London (Cassell, London, 1878).
…And there she lulled me asleep, And there I dreamed—Ah! woe betide!—
The latest dream I ever dreamt
On the cold hill side.
I saw pale kings and princes too, Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
They cried—'La Belle Dame sans Merci
Thee hath in thrall!'
I saw their starved lips in the gloam, With horrid warning gaped wide, And I awoke and found me here,
On the cold hill's side…
from La Belle Dame Sans Merci by John Keats
John William Waterhouse, La Belle Dame Sans Merci
Above us, rising ridge beyond ridge, slope beyond slope, spread the mountainous moor-country, bare and bleak for the most part, with here and there a patch of cultivated field or hardy plantation, and crowned highest of all with masses of huge grey crag, abrupt, isolated, hoary, and older than the deluge. These were the Tors-Druids' Tor, King's Tor, Castle Tor, and the like; sacred places, as I have heard, in the ancient time, where crownings, burnings, human sacrifices, and all kinds of bloody heathen rites were performed.
Bones, too, had been found there, and arrowheads, and ornaments of gold and glass. I had a vague awe of the Tors in those boyish days, and would not have gone near them after dark for the heaviest bribe.
From The Engineer’s Story by Amelia B. Edwards, 1866
Illustration by FW Pailthorpe for Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
…the scene for that matter being one that might have been matched at almost any spot in any county in England at this time of the year; a road neither straight nor crooked, neither level nor hilly, bordered by hedges, trees, and other vegetation, which had entered the blackened-green stage of colour that the doomed leaves pass through on their way to dingy, and yellow, and red. The grassy margin of the bank, and the nearest hedgerow boughs, were powdered by the dust that had been stirred over them by hasty vehicles, the same dust as it lay on the road deadening their footfalls like a carpet; and this, with the aforesaid total absence of conversation, allowed every extraneous sound to be heard.
Thomas Hardy, The Mayor of Casterbridge
The Hard Times of Old England
Come all you tradesmen that travel alone
Come and tell me where the trade has all gone
Long time I’ve travelled and cannot find none
And it’s O, the hard times of Old England
In Old England very hard times
Provisions you buy in the shop it is true
But if you’ve no money there’s none left for you
So what’s a poor man and his family to do?
And it’s O, the hard times of Old England
In Old England very hard times
If you go to a shop and you ask for a job
They’ll answer you there with a shake and a nod
Ain’t that enough to make a man rob
And it’s O, the hard times of Old England
In Old England very hard times
You’ll see the poor tradesmen a-walking the street
From morning till night for employment to seek
They’ve scarcely enough to buy shoes for their feet
And it’s O, the hard times of Old England
In Old England very hard times
Our soldiers and sailors have just come from war
Been fighting for Queen and for country once more
Come home to be starved, shoulda stayed where they were
And it’s O, the hard times of Old England
In Old England very hard times
So now to conclude and to finish my song
Let’s hope that these hard time will not last for long
And I’ll soon have chance for to alter my song
Singing, O the good times of Old England
In Old England very good times
He knew the world too well to risk the comfort of such halcyon moments, by prolonging them till they were disagreeable.
From The Warden by Antony Trollope
Romans Destroying the Druids 1860
John Warner Barber (1798-1885)
Engraving
Julia Margaret Cameron
May Day
Albumen print, 1866
Victoria and Albert Museum
seen at National Portrait Gallery, London
“In another moment Alice was through the glass, and had jumped lightly down into the Looking-glass room.”
Alice Through The Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
Illustration by Helen Oxenbury
Alice has always kept up with the times in her dress as in this 2005 edition
This beautiful and eerie painting by John Constable captures so much about the unsettling in the English imagination
Constable wrote: ‘In the dark recesses of these gardens, and at the end of one of the walks, I saw an urn [...] of Sir Joshua Reynolds – & under it some beautifull verses, by Wordsworth.’
Cenotaph to the Memory of Sir Joshua Reynolds erected in the grounds of Coleorton Hall, Leicestershire by the late Sir George Beaumont, Bt.
by John Constable 1833
Oil on canvas
Samuel Palmer (1805-1881)
The White Cloud
oil on canvas
Based on a small monochrome drawing of c. 1831-2, in the Ashmolean, this painting is one of a series exploring the picturesque possibilities of clouds.
The landscape is based on that surrounding the village of Shoreham in Kent, where Palmer spent 'the happiest years of his life', between c. 1827 and 1835.
The Ashmolean, Oxford