Tag Archives: Period story

Selina’s Search / Selina’s Sketches (1985)

Picture Story Library, , , , ,

Published: Selina’s Search – Debbie PSL #91 (1985)

Reprint: Selina’s Sketches – Mandy PSL #249 (1996)

Artist: Unknown

Plot

Mr James is a struggling, ailing Victorian artist. He has been commissioned to paint a picture of the opening of the new merchants’ hall. But during the ceremony he finally collapses, leaving the sketch six people short for his painting. If he can’t finish it, this will mean no payment, and they really need the money.

Fortunately the Guild of Merchants provided a preliminary plan of where the dignitaries were during the ceremony. His daughter Selina is going to use it to track down the six people and take sketches of them. But tracking them down is only half of it. Somehow, Selina has to get these six important-sounding people to sit for her. And she does not think this will be easy.


Selina’s first stop is a servant named Jem, who was a page at the ceremony. However, the maid won’t let her in to sketch a picture of Jem. Fortunately Jem overhears, and arranges a secret meeting with Selina. He does not have enough time to be sketched, but Selina finds a way to change the maid’s mind and let her in to sketch Jem – a drawing of her and her sweetheart. All of a sudden Selina is a welcome guest and given all the time in the world to sketch Jem in the outfit he wore at the ceremony.

Next is the French ambassador, who will be returning to France next day. But the constable at the French embassy won’t let Selina in. Then a coach knocks over a road sweeper and Selina sketches its coat of arms to identify the reckless driver. Impressed, the constable finds a way for Selina to sketch the ambassador: at Waterloo station where the ambassador is boarding his train for home.

Two down, but the merchants want the picture done in five days. So, although Dad is still not well enough, he has to start painting it now, and he is. The race against time has Selina braving the streets after dark for number three, Dr Armitage, who is the medical advisor for the guild.

Unfortunately Dr Armitage is out on call at the arches under the bridge. Selina finds this means he is tending to homeless children under the bridge, and he is more concerned with treating them than helping her with her sketches. To win him over she entertains the children with shadow pictures to help them forget the pain while he treats them. Dr Armitage agrees to the sketch on condition she also draws a poster to raise funds for the children. Dr Armitage also gives Selina’s father some medical treatment.

Number four is Septimus Swann, a leading member of the Guild and owner of a posh ladies shoe shop. However, Swann has left instructions not to be disturbed while he selects designs for his next collection. Then Selina discovers Swan has rejected the latest designs from his shoe designers and hits upon the idea of asking the customers what they want in a Swann shoe to design a shoe for Swann that will meet the customers’ wants. Swann is impressed with the design – and surprised that all Selina wants in return for it is a sketch of him for it rather than the ten guineas he offers.

However, Selina is rather annoyed that the conceited old peacock keeps her hours drawing copies of him to show his friends. This has eaten up valuable time she needs to track down the remaining two.

Dad anticipates no problems with number five, a Mr Toby Maitland. But he has not counted on Maitland falling ill too. Selina discovers Maitland is ill because he was put in charge of minding the guild regalia from the ceremony, but someone has stolen it. On the case is the constable from the French embassy, and he has to tackle the problem of conflicting descriptions of the thief, which sound pretty pantomime. Selina uses her sketches and pantomime posters to put together a composite, which matches the description of a criminal named Beanpole Beckett. Sure enough, they find the regalia when they raid Beckett’s house. In return, Maitland not only sits for Selina but also gives her a letter of introduction to the last person on her list: the Duchess of Dorian.

But even with this letter of introduction there are problems in getting the sketch. The duchess is up at Dorian Castle, Sussex, which is miles away. Fortunately, Selina matches to get a lift from her town residence, which is packing up and moving to the castle. However, the duchess is in the middle of organising a banquet and a bit busy to sit for a sketch. Then Selina uses her sketches to help a lady organise the flowers for the table. It turns out to be the duchess herself, and she is so grateful she is only too happy to sit for Selina.

Thanks to Selina’s sketches, Dad is able to complete the picture in time, and he acknowledges it at the unveiling. Dad is paid handsomely, and now many of the merchants want Dad to paint pictures for them too. But there’s more – the duchess was so impressed with Selina’s sketch book that she has the Director of Sarum School of Art award Selina a free scholarship.

Thoughts

This is a delightful, engaging story, and it has nice, simple artwork that lends itself really well to the setting. It’s a race against time that becomes a rags to riches story in the end. Selina didn’t quite intend it that way; she just wants to help her father get his work done in time and save face and receive his much-needed payment. We feel for Dad too, who is struggling with ill-health as well as poverty, and though he is still sick, he still has to get that painting finished on schedule. And no matter how sick he is, he has to make that painting a masterpiece.

The story doesn’t delve too far into the dark side of Victorian times. However, we still get hints during Selina’s search of it with the lives of servants, the homeless waifs under the bridge and the doctor who wants to help them, and Beckett the thief. The Jameses themselves are part of the dark side of it. They clearly live in poverty, have little money, and it’s no wonder Dad’s health is suffering. He not only needs the payment from that commission but the prestige and hope of more work from it as well.

There are some touches of humour, such as Jem the servant who’s a likeable scallywag to boot and is not going to have the maid turn Selina away like that. And there is the crook who looks like he’s straight from a pantomime, and pantomime posters help bring about his downfall.

Of course everything comes down to Selina not only being a brilliant artist who is able to sketch well enough to help Dad, but also use quick wits to get those people to sit for her. Getting the people to sit for her or overcoming difficult people who stand in her way turns out to be easier than she thought, even if it is extra work, because she uses her artwork to do them good turns first, from tracking down criminals to doing fashion designs. It always seems to happen that way. So they all get something out of having Selina sketching for them, and it is only fair that Selina receive an extra reward – the art scholarship.

Lady Locksley’s Secret [1967]

Judy, ,

Plot

The second wife of Lord Locksley fakes the death of her stepdaughter so that her own daughter will inherit. The stepdaughter is taken to an orphanage. Some years later, while Lord Locksley is away in the army, Lady Locksley gets the child back to Locksley Hall as a servant to keep an eye on her.

Notes

Appeared

  • Lady Locksley’s Secret – Judy: #412 (2 December 1967) – #417 (6 January 1968)

Annie’s Orphans [1967]

Bunty,

Plot

In the wake of the Great Fire of London, Annie Besson rescues seven orphans. They go to live on a barge where Annie is trying to teach them to read and write. They are joined by a mudlark, Jonno, who steals whatever he needs. Annie is trying to cure him of stealing, but Jonno eventually ends up in court.

Notes

Appeared

  • Annie’s Orphans – Bunty: circa #484 (22 April 1967) – (?)

Gwyneth of Golden Valley [1965]

Bunty,

Plot

Gwyneth Jones and her family live in a  Welsh coal mining town during the industrial depression of the 1920s. A prophecy says the Joneses will become owners of the House on the Hill. Its current owner, Mr Andrew Melville the mine owner, wants to buy the Joneses out because their cottage is spoiling his view.

Gwen finds gold in the stream and traces its source to a disused mine. She becomes trapped in the mine. The Melvilles discover this but refuse to help her. Instead, they use her plight to blackmail Gwen’s grandfather into selling his cottage to them.

Notes

Appeared:

  • Gwyneth of Golden Valley – Bunty: circa #375 (20 March 1965) – (?)

Mark of the Witch [1966-67]

Bunty, ,

Plot

In 1588, Liza Trott’s mother Betsy is accused of witchcraft by Sir Edward, the current owner of Mullion Manor, and imprisoned to await trial at the assizes. Liza is branded “W” as the daughter of a witch and turned out of the community. She goes to London to get help for her mother from the previous owner of Mullion Manor. But when Sir Edward realises where Liza is headed, he goes in pursuit of her.

Notes

  • Artist: Hugh Thornton-Jones
  • Not to be confused with “Mark of the Witch!” from Jinty

Appeared

  • Mark of the Witch – Bunty: #458 (22 October 1966) – #469 (7 January 1967)

The Prisoner of Craven Castle [1977]

Debbie,

Plot

Evelynne Creely lies very ill at Craven Castle, and she is mistress to Clara Munnings. Evelynne’s evil uncle is trying to force Clara to impersonate Evelynne. Clara is very determined to save her mistress, but eventually the uncle succeeds in forcing Clara to sign the document that will hand the Greely estate over to him.

Notes

  • Reprinted and translated to Dutch as“Gevangene van Rotsburg” – Debbie Groot Mysterieboek #7 (1978)

Appeared

  • The Prisoner of Craven Castle – Debbie: #232 (23 July 1977) –  #241 (17 September 1977)

 

 

Hard Times for Hatty (1978)

Debbie, , , ,

Plot

In 1840, Hatty Clifton is abducted by a pair of swindlers, the Rackhams, while visiting London with her parents. After the parents are fooled into thinking Hatty has died in a drowning accident, the Rackhams force her into helping with their fraudulent sideshows and games of chance at fairgrounds. Hatty’s attempts to escape are proving unsuccessful, and when she gets badly injured on the high wire the Rackhams refuse to get medical attention for her. However, Hatty manages to get the doctor in, who begins to suspect what’s going on. He starts making enquiries with the police and Hatty’s parents.

Notes

  • Artist: Terry Aspin
  • Reprinted and translated to Dutch as “Moelijke tijden voor Betty” – Debbie #34 (1983).

Appeared

  • Hard Times for Hatty – Debbie: #291 (9 September 1978) –  #299 (4 November 1978)

 

Lonely Lucy [1976]

Spellbound, , , , , , ,

Published: Spellbound: #01 (25 Sep. 1976) – #10 (27 Nov. 1976)

Episodes: 10

Artist: Jordi Franch

Plot

The splash page of the first episode of this story immediately establishes that it is set in the days of highwaymen. It’s also set in the days of lingering witch superstitions, as our protagonist Lucy Pilgrim is to find out.

Lucy’s mother has just died and her cruel aunt and uncle have a bombshell for her: her mother adopted her as a baby after she was found abandoned, and her real parents are unknown. Aunt and Uncle don’t want Lucy and are taking her to an orphanage. At least they allow her to retain her bracelet, which has strange marks her adoptive mother never explained. It brings Lucy comfort, and we can guess it’s the key to finding her true parents.

On the way to the orphanage their coach is held up by a highwayman, Gentleman John. When John see how the cruel relatives are making Lucy sit outside the coach with the driver in drenching rain and without any rain protection, he is appalled at their treatment of her. He forces them at gunpoint to take Lucy’s place and has Lucy take their place in the coach. John also reacts oddly to Lucy’s bracelet. He allows her to keep it, saying “Where you’re going ‘tis best kept hidden” and wishes her luck.

The orphanage is just as cruel as Lucy’s aunt and uncle. Even the other children in the orphanage pick on her once they see she comes from a higher-class background, there are a few kinder exceptions. Their bullying grows worse when they see Lucy is left-handed. They call it the mark of evil and brand Lucy a witch. When Lucy faints from her ill-treatment, the staff throw water over her and throw her out on the street for a while, anticipating she will come crawling to be let back in.

Instead, Lucy runs away and bumps into Gentleman John again. John and his horse Midnight got shot in a clash with some soldiers. Lucy, who has been taught nursing by her adoptive mother, tends to both of them. John is outraged to hear what people are calling her because she’s left-handed, but unfortunately for Lucy that’s not the end of it. John also needs food, and the only way Lucy can get it is…to go back to the orphanage. She also finds they’re looking for her as the Governors are coming. She pretends to have fallen ill from the way they treated her earlier, which gets her special treatment and good feeding – with a bit of blackmail she applies on them while the Governors are around. Once they’re gone, Matron has Lucy sleep in the outhouse as punishment for the trouble she caused.

At least the outhouse makes it easier for Lucy to slip back to John. John is recovering, but Midnight is suffering from infection and needs special care. Lucy insists on using the orphanage as the place to get food and supplies from despite its cruelties, as she refuses to use John’s dubious highwayman contacts on principle.

But when the resident black cat seems to protect Lucy from the children’s bullying and becomes friendly with her, her witchy reputation escalates to the point where the children actually believe she’s a witch and become really frightened of her. Matron decides Lucy has to go. She has Lucy boarded out to another position – and pocketing her wages – so she will make a profit into the bargain.

Trust Matron to have Lucy boarded out to a coal mine, with all its horrors, dangers and dreadful working conditions. And again rumours spread that Lucy is a witch once her fellow workers see she is left handed. At least Lucy is not far from John and can slip away to tend to Midnight, who is on the mend. She stays on at the coal mine because she fears running away will lead her pursuers to John. But she gets into big trouble when she speaks out at the colliery owner, Mr Tranter, when his nasty daughter insults her. Tranter orders that Lucy be roundly beaten in front of everyone, much to the delight of his daughter – and then straight back to work without any medical treatment. None of the workers offer Lucy any sympathy because of her left hand, and she’s on the brink of collapse.

But one of John’s men has seen everything and makes a full report to him. John retaliates by holding up the Tranters. But instead of robbing them he deprives them of their coach so they have to make a very long walk, and warns them to repent how they mistreated the “left-handed lass”.

Repent? If they had any brains they would realise there was a link between Lucy and the highwayman and have her arrested. Instead, when word gets back to the mine, the idiots actually think Lucy used witchcraft to summon Gentlemen John! Well, at least their fear prompts them to release her from the mine (so that’s the end of Matron’s profit there) and she is free to nurse Midnight. However, she begins to wonder if John actually knows something about her past because of the way he reacted to the bracelet when they first met. And now there’s no sign of him.

So Lucy goes in search of John, and fortunately Midnight is now well enough for Lucy to ride her. Unfortunately the constables spot her riding John’s horse, so now she is wanted as his accomplice. She traces John to a derelict inn, and is horrified to see he is in league with some cut throats. They are planning a big gold bullion robbery, which John is going along with rather reluctantly as he does not like their talk of murder. They just say, so what? They will be hanged anyway. John says he won’t help them without Midnight, so for this reason Lucy decides not to reveal herself or Midnight to him. She heads out to Hartford Hall, where John said he was hanging around, but hears some talk that suggests Hartford Hall has a sinister reputation.

Then gypsies steal Midnight and threaten to put a curse on Lucy when she tracks them down. She decides to use her left-handed reputation to her advantage and claims she has her own powers with it. When she puts on a witchcraft act with their fierce dogs they fall for it and return Midnight. But as they do so, they say that’s no wonder she has such powers above the ordinary with that bracelet of hers. But they refuse to elaborate and tell her to get the hell out.

As Lucy nears Hartford Hall she hears more sinister rumours about it: it has been taken over by “nameless forces” ever since a tragedy occurred there. She reckons John started those rumours to scare people away from the place. At Hartford Hall she finds John, and tells him what she overheard, and tries to talk him out of it. Instead, he holds her prisoner and leaves her in the care of Nursie Kate.

When Kate sees Lucy is left-handed she says someone very dear to her and John was too. She also says John is a Robin Hood type – he steals only ill-gotten wealth and does not keep it for himself. Lucy tries to escape from the hall and warn someone about John’s plot, only to fall into a deep pool of water and John finds her. He pulls her out and takes her back to Kate for nursing. Kate also reacts strangely to the sight of Lucy’s bracelet.

Lucy falls asleep and dreams of a woman, and she calls her “mother”. Lucy explores the hall and finds a portrait of the woman. The woman in the portrait is left-handed and wears the bracelet, and Lucy realises the woman must be her mother. She then overhears a conversation between John and Kate and learns that John is her father! Her mother had been a gypsy, and her tribe never forgave her for marrying the non-Romany John. When the mother died giving birth to Lucy, John could not bear to set eyes on his infant daughter. So Kate handed her over to the gypsies, who must have abandoned her.

Lucy tries to escape again and give warning, but gets into trouble when she tries to climb a ledge. John saves her. He says he turned to being a highwayman because he was “crazed” by his wife’s death. He knew from the first who Lucy was, but her disapproval of him being a highwayman prevented him from revealing himself to her. He agrees to give up being a highwayman if Lucy will live as his daughter, and she says she knew he was not a highwayman at heart.

Thoughts

The splash panel of the highwayman in the first episode would immediately have anyone hooked into this story. There is something so romantic about the highwayman (though I’m sure the reality must have been very different), and possible spooky connotations as the highwayman is often associated with ghosts and hauntings. The story has a lot to keep the reader engaged. It’s a tight, engrossing plot with a heroine who not only suffers cruelty but also superstitious prejudice, a mystery to be solved, fugitive elements, exploitation, dastardly plots, and an animal to be nursed back to health. The heroine is determined to keep up her nursing of Gentlemen John and his horse even when she is collapsing from a hard day’s work at the mine or enduring the severities of the orphanage. But will she be cut down by a witch-hunting mob or something the way they think about her being left-handed?

The scary thing is, this story is not far wrong in the superstitious prejudice Lucy encounters because she is left-handed. In earlier centuries, being left-handed really could get you accused of witchcraft and burned at the stake. Lucy also has other skills that could also get her accused of witchcraft, such as her skills with nursing and herbal remedies, the way she handles the gypsies’ dogs, and how the black cat at the orphanage befriends her. It is fortunate for Lucy that she was born too late to become a victim of the witch persecutions themselves or be charged with witchcraft, but the witch superstitions still linger among the lower and less educated classes. And they are enough to make Lucy’s life an additional misery to what she suffers at the orphanage and the coal mine. If not for those superstitions regarding her left hand Lucy would have some helpers and friends among her fellow victims at those places. Ironically, that same reputation also helps Lucy to get out of those same situations by making her oppressors too frightened of her to bother her much further.

From the moment we meet Gentleman John and the kindness he shows Lucy we know he is not a bad sort, even if he is a highwayman. He’s the hero in the story while everyone else Lucy meets (the aunt and uncle, the orphanage staff and children, the coal mine people, the gypsies and the cut throats) is villainous, and he dishes out comeuppances to several of them. We have to wonder why he is a highwayman at all and what made him one when he clearly has no criminal mind. It isn’t hard to guess that it’s something to do with Lucy’s the bracelet from the way he reacts to it, and unlocking the mystery of the bracelet will also unlock the mystery of the highwayman. Like Lucy, we want him to give up being a highwayman, especially when he starts plotting something downright criminal with the evil conspirators. It is at this point we begin to despair of him, and even more so when it looks like he will proceed with the plan when Lucy catches up with him. It becomes even more imperative to unlock that mystery.

It’s certainly a bombshell when Gentleman John is revealed to be Lucy’s father, and he rejected her as a baby because of a bad reaction to his wife’s death. However, this being the reason for him becoming a highwayman sounds less plausible if he using it as a form of crusade, to get ill-gotten gains off unsavoury types. Some other explanation would have worked better, such as him being cheated and robbed by an unscrupulous type who got away with it. But it’s a relief all around when Lucy finally succeeds in getting her father to stop being a highwayman. Let us hope the law does not catch up with him all the same.

 

Was My Mother a Witch? [1979]

Judy, , ,

 

Published: Judy Picture Story Library #190

Artist: Unknown

Writer: Unknown

Halloween is in the offing, which makes it fitting to focus on some more of the spooky publications from DCT.

Plot

The year is 1656. Anne is the adopted daughter of Pastor Septimus Bartholomew. Anne has always been happy there, but then small disquieting things begin to happen. Her father gets oddly upset when Anne jokingly calls one of her siblings “my little imp”, and also when she speaks endearments to a kitten.

These seem such trivial things, but they foreshadow something more worrying when Anne pays a visit to Pendleton, the village of her birth. An old woman (who looks like a witch herself!) tells Anne that her mother was a witch. As she is approaching thirteen, her own powers of witchcraft will soon awaken too, and she would have a Devil’s mark on her body. Following this, Anne begins to doubt herself. She wonders if she has inherited witchcraft from her mother, and whether a mark on her arm is the Devil’s mark like the old woman said.

Mary, the servant woman, tells Anne it’s all superstitious nonsense, and that mark on her arm is not a devil’s mark but a scar from a rose thorn. All the same, Anne has horrible nightmares of being a witch’s child that night and is still full of self-doubts.

Soon after, Anne is given a place as a seamstress to a grand lady, Mistress Latimer at Pendleton Hall – which is in the very village where her alleged witch mother lived. The sewing goes very well, but Anne is still troubled by the story about her mother and the doubts about herself. She grows even more fearful she is a witch when the household dog, Toby, reacts very badly to her for no apparent reason.

Unwisely, Anne tells people in the household that she wonders if she is a witch because of the allegations against her mother. Though Emmie the housekeeper is sensible about it, she does tell Anne that her grandmother was feared because was said to have powers to foretell the future. She also says plague killed the mother and her family, and Anne was the only survivor. However, the ensuing gossip spread by others has Lady Latimer telling Anne to leave the hall the next day.

That night Anne slips out to the ruins of the cottage where her mother once lived. She examines an old cauldron Emmie said was there, but there is nothing untoward or sinister about it.

On the way back Anne rescues the dog Toby from a trap set by the manservant of the hall. Emmie tells Anne that her act of kindness is proof she is not a witch, and gives logical explanations for Toby’s initial hostility towards her. Anne’s mind is now put to rest, but she is so glad when her family summon her home.

Thoughts

The story definitely means well in its message that the old belief in witchcraft was a product of ignorance and superstition. From the sound of it, Anne’s mother was a victim of it rather than being any practitioner of black magic, presumably because her own mother had what would now be called psychic powers. Anne was very fortunate that she experienced little more than self-doubt and some gossip. There have been so many other girls in girls’ comics who suffered full persecution that started with such rumours, such as Ellie Ross in Bunty’s “Witch!” Nor did Anne have any weird experiences that could suggest genuine powers of some sort as her counterparts in stories like “Witch!” did.

As this is a story set in the age of witchcraft persecution itself, it feels so pat and unrealistic that Anne got through it so unscathed and with such little trouble. The 17th century people in the story are not reacting to these rumours of witchcraft with the fear and hysteria that they should have. It is acknowledged that even the 17th century would have had its share of sceptics, who come across so exemplary in the forms of Mary and Emmie. But the others in the story who believe it more are not really reacting as dangerously as they should have been. In those days, once that sort of rumour got going, Anne would have found herself persecuted on all sides from witch-hunting mobs and such. Nor would she have been able to cast off the accusation of witchcraft as glibly as she did. Once the label of witchcraft stuck in those times, it was there to stay. Even if anyone was acquitted of witchcraft in those times, the accusation still cast a long shadow over their lives.

Although the story is well meaning in its intentions and the artwork works well, particularly in the spooky night scenes, the plot feels weak and unconvincing. Also, there is little drama or excitement in the story, while the potential was there to use the 17th century fear of witchcraft and its life-threatening ramifications for Anne to make it a far more intense and thrilling story.

Rosie at Thorndale Hall [1983]

Bunty, Judy, , , , , , ,

Thorndale Hall cover

Published: Judy Picture Library #240 [1983]

Reprinted: Bunty Picture Library #400 [1993]

Artist: David Matysiak

Writer: Unknown

Plot

Rosie Cooper is not a popular girl at Meadowdale Hall School. She is an extremely gifted girl who excels at everything, but she is spoiled and selfish and never helps anyone or shares her skills. Even the staff find her unbearable, but don’t speak out because her father is the chairman of the board of governors and her family have old ties with the school. For this reason the staff give her favourable treatment and bend a lot of rules for her.

Thorndale Hall 1

Then prefect Kay Easton decides enough is enough. She orders Rosie to clean out a lumber room and won’t have any of Rosie’s threats of what she could do because her father’s position. Rosie realises she has met her match in Kay and grudgingly starts cleaning.

While cleaning the room, Rosie stumbles across a picture of what looks like the school in its early days, but under a different name: Thorndale Hall. Rosie gets a strange feeling the picture means something to her, and it’s creepy.

It’s creepy all right: next moment the picture vanishes, and everything starts spinning and dissolving. When it stops, Rosie finds the school has changed and so have her clothes: “what coarse old rubbish”. A fearsome-looking Victorian woman named Mrs Grimm (the Thorndale headmistress) appears and demands to know why Rosie hasn’t scrubbed the floor. Rosie’s arrogance resurfaces, making her usual threats about her father being the chairman of the governors. Thinking Rosie has lost her mind or something, Grimm and her assistant, Trimlett, inform her that she is an orphan who is boarding at Thorndale Hall, all paid by her “scapegrace [wayward] guardian”. Grimm and Trimlett make it very clear that they are capable of handling Rosie with extreme cruelty; Trimlett has already broken one girl’s arm. Later we learn Trimlett’s punishments killed another girl. Cowed and bewildered, Rosie is forced to scrub the floor, realising she has somehow gone back in time to Thorndale Hall, which is clearly run on the lines of Wackford Squeers.

Thorndale Hall 6

In the dining hall Rosie is introduced to another cruel assistant, Mr Bludge, who wants her to help with very substandard and meagre portions for the pupils. It is here that Rosie begins to find that she is no longer quite so good at everything. She clumsily breaks the jar of dripping and in punishment is given just dry bread. One girl, Lucy Dawlish, takes pity on her, and Rosie makes a friend for the first time in this story.

That night Rosie tries to run away, but finds there is a guard dog, which raises the alarm. Bludge almost catches her, but Lucy creates a diversion by screaming and feigning night horrors. This enables Rosie to slip back without being caught, but the cruel staff say Lucy’s nightmares are due to too much food and don’t let her have any breakfast. (Any excuse to make them go short, obviously.) Rosie tries to slip Lucy her own food, but Trimlett catches her.

Pupils are forced to do all the work around the school. There are lessons, but Rosie is in for a shocking surprise in class – she is no longer able to read! Grimm calls her a “useless slut”, but instead of teaching Rosie to read she puts Rosie back to more menial work, saying that’s all she’s good for. (Another excuse for more slave labour, obviously.)

Rosie still wants to escape, and realises the first step is to make friends with the guard dog. So she takes scraps from the larder to feed to the dog. Lucy envies the dog for getting more food than they do, but it does the trick: in a matter of days the dog no longer barks at Rosie.

Thorndale Hall 2

However, when Rosie gets too close to a room with blacked-out windows while window cleaning, Bludge acts like this has spooked him and he rants at her. This arouses Rosie’s suspicions. She gets even more suspicious when she finds the door to the grimy window room is always locked. Grimm and Trimlett also go into a rant when they catch Rosie at the door, which makes her even more suspicious. The cruel staff are getting suspicious of Rosie and are watching her closely.

Rosie and Lucy now try their escape. As they do so, they are surprised to see a horse trap arrive with two men, who carry a box into the school. The dog does not bark at them, so it must know them. The girls take advantage of the men leaving the gate unlocked to make their escape.

Thorndale Hall 4

They find a Peeler, but he does not believe their story and brings them back to Thorndale Hall. He tells the staff that he will call back to check in a week or so, which makes the staff too scared to punish the girls. Instead they tread a cautious line of better treatment for the girls (such as more food for the pupils) until they are sure things are safe again. But Rosie senses they are in danger because the staff suspect they saw the men and there are signs the staff are wary, such as the dog being moved closer to the grimy windowed room. Rosie keeps watch for the men and sees them creeping around the room with the box, and then somehow reappear without it. She realises there must be a secret entrance that is concealed by greenery.

Rosie does not realise the men saw her spying. When the staff hear about it, they decide to advance their plans to do away with Rosie and Lucy. Rosie is listening at the door (and narrowly escapes being caught doing so) and realises they must escape. But in view of what happened before, they must go with some form of evidence so the Peelers will listen this time.

So Rosie heads to the secret room for some. When she pulls back the greenery she finds a small hidden door and a silver medallion. Hearing footsteps, Rosie hides with the medallion in time – but not in time to put the greenery back. Bludge sees it has been moved and is now alerted, which means Rosie and Lucy have to make an instant escape. They do so, but Grimm sends Bludge and Trimlett out to find and silence them, or it will be Newgate Prison for all of them.

Thorndale Hall 3

Trimlett and Bludge do catch up with the girls, but the Peelers catch them red-handed and arrest them. The Peelers explain they half-believed the girls because it tied in with other things they had observed, such as the two men, but they had to wait until they had checked things out.

At the school, the Peelers force Grimm to open the door to the secret room, which reveals a counterfeiting operation that forges coins with stolen silver. Grimm feigns innocence, but she goes wild when Rosie furiously counters with the truth. Grimm locks the Peelers in the room and then goes after Rosie with a poker. She is almost upon Rosie, but then everything starts spinning and dissolving again…

Rosie now finds herself back in her own time, and in her own clothes. Kay gives Rosie full marks for her excellent cleanup of the lumber room (how did it get cleaned up?). Rosie wonders if it was a dream, but when she checks the school records it corroborates everything she experienced at Thorndale Hall. The school was exposed, Grimm was imprisoned for theft and forgery, and her school closed down. Thorndale was exposed by…Rosie Cooper.

Rosie is at a loss to explain it. Was it a dream or what? But everyone is surprised and delighted at how Rosie has suddenly become a kind, friendly and helpful girl at the school. Rosie is now making friends and becoming popular.

Thoughts

This story could still stand on its own if it was just a straight out period piece of Rosie being a 19th century girl being put through the experiences of Thorndale Hall, bringing it down, and going on to become one of the founders of its more savoury successor, Meadowdale. After all, there must be some connection between Rosie Cooper exposing Thorndale Hall and the Coopers having long-standing connections with Meadowdale. However, that aspect is never explained. Instead we’ve got the added dimensions of a spoiled 20th century girl who needs a lesson and gets it at 19th century Thorndale, and a time travel element that nobody can understand or explain. This makes the story even more exciting, intriguing and mysterious than if it was just a group slave story set in a cruel and secretly criminal 19th century school.

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We have to wonder if the time travel creates some sort of paradox. Is 20th century Rosie the same Rosie who exposed Thorndale Hall in the past and (presumably) established her own ancestral connections to Meadowdale? Or is it some weird combination between 20th century Rosie and 19th century Rosie (as implied by retaining her 20th century memories yet becoming unable to read)? Or was 20th century Rosie somehow reliving the experiences of 19th century Rosie while still retaining a portion of her own consciousness? Or was it some supernatural power reaching out to punish Rosie for her arrogance? It is stretching credibility to say the whole thing was in Rosie’s imagination.

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The villains are predictably cruel Victorian people who run their school in a Squeersian style manner. But it’s not just to take advantage of girls for profit. The villains also using the school as a front for a secret counterfeiting ring. It would be interesting to know if they set up the school that way in the first place and they were criminals to begin with. We get a hint that this may be so when Grimm’s lessons suggest she does not care all that much about educating the girls. One-eyed Bludge does not give the impression he is the teaching sort either.

Matysiak’s artwork makes the villains really terrifying and the stuff of nightmares. For example, the close-up of the two mystery men (above) still keeps their faces indistinct. Their faces are rendered in an impressionist manner that makes them even more frightening than if their faces were shown clearly. In another panel (below), Grimm is made even more alarming by a stripe of dark highlighting that goes right down from her forehead to her collarbone.

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The artwork is a perfect fit for rendering this intriguing and powerful story. Matysiak’s artwork is brilliantly atmospheric in conveying the grimness of the school and its Victorian setting, the evil of the school staff, the covert operations at the school that provide the mystery that must be unravelled, and the supernatural time travel elements of the story. It’s done through ingenious applications of inking rather than linework or hatching. It produces real beauties, such as in the two panels mentioned above.