Seligor's Castle, fun for all the children of the world. Blogs
Wed, 06 Apr 2011
My first blog for April, gosh I've been busy but I am sure you will love this new page xxxSeligor
CHILDREN'S
HOUR
WITH SELIGOR IN THE
CASTLE LIBRARY
When my mother died I was
very young,
And my father sold me while yet my
tongue,
Could scarcely cry weep weep weep
weep,
So your chimneys I sweep and in soot I
sleep.
Theres little Tom Dacre, who cried when his
head
That curled like a lambs back was shav'd, so I
said.
Hush Tom never mind it, for when your head's
bare,
You know that the soot cannot spoil your white
hair
And so he was quiet.and that very
night.
As Tom was a sleeping he had such a
sight
That thousands of sweepers Dick, Joe, Ned, &
Jack
Were all of them lock'd up in coffins of
black,
And by came an Angel who had a bright
key
And he open'd the coffins and set them all
free.
Then down a green plain leaping laughing they
run
And wash in a river and shine in the
Sun.
Then naked & white, all their bags left
behind.
They rise upon clouds, and sport in the
wind.
And the Angel told Tom, if he'd be a good
boy,
He'd have God for his father and never want
joy.
And so Tom awoke and we rose in the
dark
And got with our bags and our brushes to
work.
Tho' the morning was cold, Tom was happy and
warm
So if all do their duty, they need not fear harm.
The Chimney
SweeperWilliam Blake,
1757 - 1827
In this
clip from the film Mary Poppins,
Burt and the other Chimney Sweeps make it look fun
sweeping the chimney's. But it wasn't, oh no! quite
the opposite for the young assistants like Tom in
the poem who didn't last very long on the job his
father gave him away to do. Life was very hard in
Victorian Times. If you ever get the chance to see
The Water Babies, I think I have it on
diddilydeedotsdreamland. Have a look at the film
and you will get the real story of the Chimney
Sweepers of Old London and other
places.
The
Water-Babies on the other hand
is, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby is a
children's novel by the Reverend Charles Kingsley.
Written in 18621863 as a serial for Macmillan's
Magazine,
it was first published in its entirety in 1863.
The book was extremely
popular in England during its day, and was a
mainstay of British
children's literature through the
1920s.
The Water Babies by
Charles Kingsley
The boy is Tom, a young
chimney sweep,
who falls into a river after encountering an
upper-class girl named
Ellie and being chased out of her house. There he
dies and is
transformed into a "water baby", as he is told by a
caddis flyan
insect that sheds its skinand begins his moral
education. The story is thematically concerned with
Christian redemption, though Kingsley also uses the
book to argue that England treats its poor badly,
and to question child labour, among other
themes.
Tom embarks on a series of
adventures and lessons, and enjoys the
community of other water babies once he proves
himself a moral creature.
The major spiritual leaders in his new world are
the fairies Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby,
Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid, and Mother Carey. Weekly,
Tom is allowed the
company of Ellie, who had fallen into the river
after he did.
Grimes, his old master,
drowns as well, and in his final adventure,
Tom travels to the end of the world to attempt to
help the man where he
is being punished for his misdeeds. Tom helps
Grimes to find repentance,
and Grimes will be given a second chance if he can
successfully perform
a final penance. By proving his willingness to do
things he does not
like, if they are the right things to do, Tom earns
himself a return to
human form, and becomes "a great man of science"
who "can plan railways,
and steam-engines, and electric telegraphs, and
rifled guns, and so
forth". He and Ellie are united, although the book
makes clear that they
never marry.
The
Water Babies [Hardcover]
Charles Kingsley (Author), Jane Carruth
(Author)
Available at
Amazon.co.uk
The Water Babies [1978]
[DVD]
James Mason (Actor), Billie Whitelaw
(Actor), Lionel
Jeffries (Director)|Rated: Universal,
suitable for all |Format:
DVD
xxxxxxxxx
Posted 16:49
1 comment
Missing picture of DVD
Sorry about the DVD picture cutting, such a pest
these blogs, so much fiddling to get everything
on. The whole new page is really good though, I am
quite pleased. Seligor. xxx