An Orphan Family’s Christmasdetails

An Orphan Family’s Christmas

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This picture, by Thomas Morten, was engraved by the Brothers Dalziel. It shows a woman and two children sitting near a lit fireplace, their heavy clothing suggesting the house is not warm. One child holds a sprig of holly, but there do not seem to be presents or a tree.

In the background, the giant tongs or andirons go with the hook dangling from the mantelpiece, for roasting meat. Wealthier families would have a clockwork “turnjack” rather than have a turnspit-boy stand by the fire and turn the meat every few minutes, needed to get an even roast.

The clockwork roasting spit was one of the inventions that made the industrial revolution possible, by freeing up children’s time for going to school and learning.

The illustration accompanied a long poem, An Orphan Family’s Christmas by the working-class poet Gerald Massey, who was a Chartist, pushing for workers’ rights. The poem was first published in Good Words, and you can read a copy at the University of Victoria’s Digital Victorian Periodical Poetry. There are some other copies of the poem online, but with considerable changes, though whether from revisions by the author i cannot say.

christmas, xmas, interiors, victorian costumes, andirons, fireplaces, holly, orphans, poverty, people, children, women, boys, girls

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2312 dots per inch (approximately)