READING Rosita Boland's fascinating Irishwoman's Diary (January 7th) about Little Folk in Many Landssent me foraging on my bookshelves for another book. This is a handsome large format landscape-sized picture book from 1898 with the title All the World Overby Edith Farmiloe with verses by EV Lucas, published in London by Grant Richards and in New York by EP Dutton.
The purpose of both books is roughly similar: to educate the “little ones” about their companions in other parts of the world through descriptions and pictures. There was something of a vogue for these books at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century and curiously despite a wide range of choices of
countries available to the authors and illustrators, many of them chose remarkably similar topics. This was at a time when notions of nationhood and national identity rarely featured in the canon of children’s literature.
All the World Overin many respects follows the convention – depicting children in their national costumes – two little Welsh girls in tall hats and aprons, knit as they chat; in Greenland a group of beaming children wrapped in furs have just emerged from an igloo; two scenes set in Holland show mob-capped children skating on the ice or at home while the verse confirms the notion of devotion to cleanliness as shown in Little Folks in Many Lands: "The housewives get up early/ The housewives sit up late/ For fear a little speck of dust/Should wander through the gate".
America warrants two pages of images: "The Red Man at Home" showing a young Indian boy dressed in skins with a feather band in his hair pointing a bow and arrow while several younger children watch. And the second image also comes from Virginia as in Little Folks in Many Landswith two small children playing in a field with the caption 'Virginia "Coons".'
All terribly politically incorrect by today’s standards but definitely not unusual for the time. Nothing earthshaking so far, that is, until we come to Ireland. No bogs, no red-hair, no pigs in the kitchen.
Instead we are given a picture of three young barefoot children at play.
The boy is clearly in command (well it was the 19th century) and stands in the centre of a circle of stones obviously meant to indicate a homestead. There is a “For Sale” sign and he shakes a finger at two downcast-looking little girls. The caption reads: Ireland – “An Eviction”. This is one of the most thought-provoking and startling images of Irish children of the 19th century that I have ever seen. Thinking about it, children at play imitate the adult world around them and this is something that they have always done. Therefore, it really should not seem so remarkable that these young children, whom we must assume have witnessed parents, neighbours and friends being evicted, should also seek to play this most dramatic of “pretend” games.
The drawing is by Edith Farmiloe whom it turns out is a second cousin of Charles Stewart Parnell – hence her acute awareness of the plight of the tenant farmers. The verse that accompanies the Ireland illustration bears no relation whatsoever to the image – it is stage Irish and irritating.
“The Irish child is prone to say/ For cup of tea, a cup of “tay,” /And “ould” for “old” and “me” for “my”/ And “kilt” for “killed,” and “Oi” for “I.” /The Irish child can dance a jig, /And share his pillow with a pig,/ And where you ask for pie or meat,/ The “pratie” he is glad to eat./
“Now if the Irish child’s a boy,/ His name is Pat, or Tim, Molloy,/ But if a girl, in cloak of green, Then Norah, or, perhaps, Kathleen./
“From Ireland chickens come, and eggs, /And butter too in wooden kegs: /(May be it is because of that /A piece of butter’s called a “Pat”.)”
At that time most English people were totally unaware of the crisis in Ireland. In all there exist just a handful of images of Irish evictions which were mainly published in the Illustrated London Newswith some cartoons in Punch. This lavish picture book would have been produced for the bedtime story read by mother or nanny. I cannot help speculate that there were puzzled children and equally flummoxed adults. "Mammy, what's an eviction?" Edith Farmiloe was illustrating at a time which had become accustomed to the colourful and sometimes intricate illustrations of Kate Greenaway, Walter Crane and Randolph Caldecott.
Farmiloe's style is fresh and modern: she uses boldly drawn ink lines and mostly fills the drawings with flat washes of colour set against clear white backgrounds. Edith married William Farmiloe, a clergyman whose parish was in Soho and she regularly showed poor street children having fun and making do with old wooden boxes instead of doll's prams – pictures that were both sympathetic and full of humour. These children are very far removed from Kate Greenaway's little girls wearing flower-sprigged muslin dresses with bonnets and muffs. And most certainly no Kate Greenaway child would ever stray into a picture of an eviction. I have been unable to find any reviews of this book and no indications that this thorny topic was ever noted. Edith Farmiloe did merit a mention by an anonymous reviewer in The Irish Timesof October 1st, 1900 who commented that "Christmastide is evidently approaching again . . ." On the first of October? He goes on to mention the many "dainty picture toy books" on the publisher's lists and notes Farmiloe's Piccallili – stories and pictures of young Italian children with drawings which he describes as "clever". They are clever but none of them has quite the same impact for me as "The Eviction".