This Is the House That Jack Built

An Early Version -- The Home of a Haughty English Gentleman

Randolph Caldecott's illustration of the reader's first view of Jack's house is the pastoral, rather dignified picture typical of a 19th century English artist. A rather opulent gentleman is gesturing proudly to a grand house that has a very straight path leading through the formal gardens to the front door. He is standing in front of two women and a man seated on a garden bench. They are all wearing formal, genteel attire suggesting affluence. The centrality of the animals on the path at the center of the image may suggest that Jack will not necessarily be the central character in this rhyme.