Tag Archives: Honresfield

An early Christmas present

Catherine Dack, Research Support Librarian, writes about Thomas Hervey’sThe Book of Christmas’.

Special Collections received an early Christmas present this year when Friends of the National Libraries gave us a donation of rare books from the Blavatnik Honresfield Library (see an earlier blog). Among the titles we received was a first edition copy of Thomas Hervey’s The Book of Christmas, published in 1836.

Thomas Hervey (1799-1859) was known as a poet, critic, and editor of the Athenaeum. In The Book of Christmas he describes a variety of Christmas and New Year customs and traditions.  First published just before the Victorian enthusiasm for the festive season took hold, the book became popular and went through many editions. Part of its popularity must have been due to the lively Illustrations by Robert Seymour (1798-1836), a caricaturist who also worked on Dickens’ Pickwick Papers.

‘The Mistletoe Bough’. An illustration by Robert Seymour from ‘The Book of Christmas’ by Thomas Hervey (1836).

‘The Mistletoe Bough’. An illustration by Robert Seymour from ‘The Book of Christmas’ by Thomas Hervey (1836).

Among the holiday customs depicted are traditions that are still very familiar today, such as carol singing, kissing under the mistletoe, and Christmas dinner, turkeys for which were transported by coach with

…hampers piled on the roof and swung from beneath the body, and its birds depending, by every possible contrivance, from every part from which a bird could be made to hang.

‘Norfolk Coach at Christmas’. An illustration by Robert Seymour from ‘The Book of Christmas’ by Thomas Hervey (1836).

‘Norfolk Coach at Christmas’. An illustration by Robert Seymour from ‘The Book of Christmas’ by Thomas Hervey (1836).

The Christmas pudding is shown being boiled in a cloth (steaming being a more recent method for cooking the puddings) and is described as “a truly national dish” which “refuses to flourish out of England”.

‘Christmas Pudding’. An illustration by Robert Seymour from ‘The Book of Christmas’ by Thomas Hervey (1836).

‘Christmas Pudding’. An illustration by Robert Seymour from ‘The Book of Christmas’ by Thomas Hervey (1836).

Father Christmas appears in an early guise as “Old Christmas”, wearing a traditional holly crown and riding a goat.  Later in the 19th century, he merged with the figure of the gift-giving St Nicholas or Santa Claus.

‘Old Christmas’. An illustration by Robert Seymour from ‘The Book of Christmas’ by Thomas Hervey (1836).

‘Old Christmas’. An illustration by Robert Seymour from ‘The Book of Christmas’ by Thomas Hervey (1836).

Christmas trees had not yet become popular at the time the book was first published, but the “ancient and still familiar practice of adorning our houses and churches with evergreens” is recommended.

‘Bringing home Christmas’. An illustration by Robert Seymour from ‘The Book of Christmas’ by Thomas Hervey (1836).

‘Bringing home Christmas’. An illustration by Robert Seymour from ‘The Book of Christmas’ by Thomas Hervey (1836).

Other traditions described in the book are less well-known now, such as the wassail-bowl, which should be composed, according to Hervey, of wine or ale, highly spiced and sweetened with roasted apples floating on its surface.

‘Wassail Bowl’. An illustration by Robert Seymour from ‘The Book of Christmas’ by Thomas Hervey (1836).

‘Wassail Bowl’. An illustration by Robert Seymour from ‘The Book of Christmas’ by Thomas Hervey (1836).

The origins and traditions of mummers’ entertainments are explored at length.  Hervey describes the performance of ancient plays, travelling from house to house in disguise to make merry, dancing hobby-horses and sword-dances.

‘Mummers’. An illustration by Robert Seymour from ‘The Book of Christmas’ by Thomas Hervey (1836).

‘Mummers’. An illustration by Robert Seymour from ‘The Book of Christmas’ by Thomas Hervey (1836).

The Book of Christmas helped to fuel the Victorian revival of the Christmas season and was soon followed by the publication of numerous books about Christmas.  Our copy will be catalogued in the New Year and will then be available for consultation by readers in Special Collections.

Historical books from the Blavatnik Honresfield Library find a new home

Catherine Dack, Research Support Librarian, writes about recent additions to our holdings – distributed from the Blavatnik Honresfield Library.

We were delighted recently to receive a generous donation of books from the Honresfield Library, which has been acquired for the nation by Friends of the National Libraries.  The charity, who work to save the UK’s written and printed heritage, succeeded last year in raising £15m to purchase this significant collection of manuscripts and books, formed towards the end of the 19th century by mill owner brothers William and Alfred Law, who lived at Honresfield House near Rochdale. The manuscripts and books are being distributed to libraries across the UK to ensure they will remain accessible to the public.

Honresfield books donated to the Arts and Social Sciences Library, University of Bristol.

Honresfield books donated to the Arts and Social Sciences Library, University of Bristol.

Among the historical works in the collection is a copy of The Baronage of England by William Dugdale, an English antiquary. Printed in 1675-1676, in three volumes, bound in two parts, it is an account of the lives of the English nobility from the Anglo-Saxon period. Our copy was originally in the library at Stourhead, and was sold at Sotheby’s in 1883, presumably to the Law brothers.

Dugdale’s 'Baronage of England', Vol. 1, 1675.

Dugdale’s ‘Baronage of England’, Vol. 1, 1675.

A very different historical work is The Comic History of England, 1847-8, by Gilbert Abbott A’Beckett.  This popular work was illustrated with many humorous engravings by John Leech who, like the author, was a contributor to Punch, in which the episodes in the book first appeared.

'Georgy Porgy the First going out for a ride in his State Coachy Poachy' from 'The Comic History of England'.

‘Georgy Porgy the First going out for a ride in his State Coachy Poachy’ from ‘The Comic History of England’.

One item with an interesting publication history is a pirated edition of Tennyson’s early poems, printed in Toronto in 1862. Tennyson successfully obtained an injunction to prevent its sale in Britain, receiving an apology and £100. A manuscript copy of the Bill of Complaint in Chancery is loosely inserted into this copy.

Manuscript copy of the Bill of Complaint between Alfred Tennyson and John Camden Hotten.

Manuscript copy of the Bill of Complaint between Alfred Tennyson and John Camden Hotten.

The gift includes eight volumes of Charles Knight’s Standard Edition of the Pictorial Shakspeare 1842-1843, which was originally issued in monthly parts and later published in a number of editions. Knight took a new approach to the illustration of Shakespeare’s works, using images that aimed for historical accuracy, rather than representations of Shakespeare as performed in the Victorian theatre in contemporary costume, which previously had been the standard practice.

Act I of 'The Two Gentlemen of Verona' from Charles Knight’s Standard Edition of the Pictorial Shakspeare, Vol. I.

Act I of ‘The Two Gentlemen of Verona’ from Charles Knight’s Standard Edition of the Pictorial Shakspeare, Vol. I.

We also received some fiction titles, including an 1877 edition of Bracebridge Hall by Washington Irving: a series of tales of life in an English manor, written when Irving was living in England.  The illustrations are by Randolph Caldecott, after whom the Caldecott medal, awarded by the American Library Association for children’s picture book illustration, is named.  Caldecott’s illustrations for Bracebridge Hall were among those which first established him as an illustrator.

'Bracebridge Hall' by Washington Irving, illustrated by Randolph Caldecott.

‘Bracebridge Hall’ by Washington Irving, illustrated by Randolph Caldecott.

We are now looking forward to cataloguing these, together with the other books we received, to make them discoverable to the public.

You can read more about the saving of the Library, which has now been renamed the Blavatnik Honresfield Library, in honour of the principal benefactor, on the Friends of the National Libraries’ blog.

Also note the British Library event on Tuesday 6th December 2022 at 7pm, celebrating the acquisition for the nation of the Blavatnik Honresfield Library and its extraordinary collection of manuscripts by the Brontës, Jane Austen, Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott.