Orley Farm by Anthony Trollope
published 1861-1862
It was a pleasant sight to see, the long, broad, well-filled breakfast table, with all that company round it. There were some eighteen or twenty gathered now at the table, among whom the judge sat pre-eminent, looming large in an arm-chair and having a double space allotted to him;—some eighteen or twenty, children included.
comments: Last year in the Clothes in Books Christmas scenes
series, I looked at The Small House at Allington, a later book by
Trollope, which had a tremendous
description of a very boring Christmas. Around that time (but not in the comments to
that post) Marty told me to read Orley Farm, as having plenty of Christmas
content. Well, she was not exaggerating – look at this succession of chapter
titles a quarter of the way in:
CHRISTMAS IN HARLEY STREET
CHRISTMAS AT NONINGSBY
CHRISTMAS AT GROBY PARK
CHRISTMAS IN GREAT ST. HELENS
--and these are very different events indeed.
(Note – no-one is having much Christmas at Orley Farm itself.)
Noningsby would definitely be the one to attend – a very
jolly houseparty at the home of Judge Staveley, with a variety of guests to mix
it up, and a good collection of children and young people.
One of the guests (rather cheekily) complains to Madeline, the
daughter of the house:
“The peculiar conviviality of the day is so ponderous! Its roast-beefiness oppresses one so thoroughly from the first moment of one's waking, to the last ineffectual effort at a bit of fried pudding for supper!"
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"But blindman's buff at three, with snap-dragon at a quarter to four—charades at five, with wine and sweet cake at half-past six, is ponderous. And that's our mistake. The big turkey would be very good;—capital fun to see a turkey twice as big as it ought to be! But the big turkey, and the mountain of beef, and the pudding weighing a hundredweight, oppress one's spirits by their combined gravity. And then they impart a memory of indigestion, a halo as it were of apoplexy, even to the church services."
(Snapdragon is a game where people snatch flaming items,
such as raisins, from a burning bowl. It always sounds terrifying and highly
dangerous)
This serious-minded young man is easily persuaded - by a few
rounds of Blindman’s buff and snapdragon with Madeline - that maybe Christmas
isn’t so bad…
In my earlier post I was less than wholly enthusiastic about this book, although I haven’t yet found a Trollope book that I hated. This one had some loose ends I thought, he doesn’t tell you what happened to all the characters: usually he is very good at that, and it’s something I like to know…
Top picture from a 1916 Christmas book via Wikimedia Commons.
Blindman’s Buff from Wikimedia Commons – an engraving by noted artist Winslow Homer
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I do like the look at Christmas doings of the time, Moira. Still, you make a good point about wanting to know what happens to the characters in the end. I think that gives the reader some satisfaction - even closure.
ReplyDeleteI agree about snapdragon. Might be interesting to consider which fictional Christmases one would have most and least like to be present at. The Christmas at in The Small House at Allingham would rank pretty high among the least, but Mr Fezziwig's party in A Christmas Carol would be fun.
ReplyDeleteI loved the top illustration! It appears to be from a re-issue of Washington Irving's Sketch Book, originally published 1819-20 (which helps to explain the style of the clothing). The illustrator of the 1916 edition is Frank Dadd: https://www.artnet.com/artists/frank-dadd/biography
ReplyDeleteYou've done a great job of combining British and American writers, artists, and traditions in this post! In exploring the Christmas Sketches, I was delighted to find that in one of them, the narrator meets the local parson, who "was a complete black-letter hunter, and would scarcely read a work printed in the Roman character. The editions of Caxton and Wynkin de Worde were his delight; and he was indefatigable in his researches after such old English writers as have fallen into oblivion from their worthlessness." ("Christmas Day," p. 70: https://archive.org/details/oldchristmas00irviuoft/page/70/mode/1up?view=theater)
It is so rare that I can bring together my interests in clothes and old books, but here we are!
Also, off-topic, your post about Ballet Shoes inspired me: https://dameeleanorhull.wordpress.com/2024/12/27/who-is-sylvia-what-did-she/
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