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Martha Cratchit and the marvellous Christmas pudding
Harold Copping
1924
Lithographic reproduction of line drawing
6 by 3 ½ inches (15.3 x 9.4 cm)
From Children's Stories from Dickens, p. 52.
"Christmas is looked upon as a festival in the most literal sense, and held sacred to good eating and drinking" [Pimlott 65]
[Click on image to enlarge it.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
Chop the raisins, and sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, and the spice. Mix together in a bowl all the dry ingredients. Beat the [five] eggs and warm the [tbsp] treacle, then add them to the dry ingredients. . . . . Either a pudding cloth of aluminum foil can go over the top. . . . .Place the pudding mixture in the basin or [scalded] cloth. If a cloth is used, tie it very securely with string. . . . . A clothed pudding must be immersed in steadily boiling water, having it resting on a plate or rack in the bottom of the saucepan to prevent it burning. . . . . Boil for 8 hours. Allow to cool and dry completely, then hang a clothed pudding in a cool place. . . . Boil for a further 2 hours before serving. [Marshall, "A Speckled Cannon-Ball of a Christmas Plum Pudding," 123]
Dinner was waiting to be dished up. Mrs. Cratchet proudly placed a goose upon the table. Belinda brought in the apple sauce, and Peter the mashed potatoes; the other children set chairs, Tim's as usual close to his father's; and Tim was so excited that he rapped the table with his knife, and carried "Hurrah." After the goose came the pudding, all ablaze, with its sprig of holly in the middle, and was eaten to the last morsel; then apples and oranges were set upon the table, and a shovelful of chestnuts on the fire, and Mr. Cratchet served round some hot sweet stuff out of a jug as they closed round the fire, and said, "A Merry Christmas to us all, my dears, God bless us." "God bless us, every one," echoed Tiny Tim, and then they drank each other's health, and Mr. Scrooge's health, and told stories and sang songs. ["Tim Tim," in Children's Stories from Dickens, 52]
Unusually for Children's Stories from Dickens, text and illustrating image appear of the same page here, and thereby present the same scene in two different media simultaneously. The large image of the pivotal moment in the Cratchits' Christmas celebration, the culmination of several days of preparation, crowds the accompanying text into the right margin, asserting the primacy of image over word in this text designed to be "consumed" by child-listeners and child-readers. Anything involving dessert was likely to be consumed avidly.
Although there is no equivalent illustration in the 1843 first edition of the novella, in later editions, many illustrators have included such a scene, notably E. A. Abbey, focussing on the joyful family gathering, "Mr. Scrooge!" said Bob; "I'll give you Mr. Scrooge, the Founder of the feast!" As a British artist, Copping simply may not have had access to a volume published across the Atlantic, so he may not have seen the interpretations of Eytinge and Abbey; however, all illustrators would have shared another resource: Forster's The Life of Charles Dickens, and therefore would have realised that the Cratchits resemble the John and Elizabeth Dickens family of the 1820s. What distinguishes Copping's interpretation is his exclusive focus on Martha Cratchit, middle-aged matriarch, and her culinary creation as a symbol of the family festival. The intensity of the illustration is augmented by its juxtaposition with one of two full-page colour lithographs for the chapter, Tiny Tim and His Father on the facing page, the centre and core of the chapter entitled "Tiny Tim." The girl (right) smiling as she carries home the Christmas baking (right) reinforces the connection between the seasonal celebration and specially prepared dishes.
Although Dickens's stories did much to invest Christmas with its popular emotional content, they were part of a general resurgence of nostalgia for traditional observance of the holidays. . . . [Hewett & Axton, 31]
Left: Arthur Rackham's pen-and-ink drawing of Mrs. Cratchit's presentation of the dessert course, With the Pudding (1915). Centre: Eytinge's interpretation of the scene in which the family welcomes Bob home, Bob Cratchit at Home. Right: The same artist's interpretation of the Cratchit family Christmas dinner, The Wonderful Pudding (1868).
Above: Abbey's 1876 engraving of the Cratchit family ironically attributing the bounty which they have enjoyed to Bob's parsimonious employer, "Mr. Scrooge!" said Bob; "I'll give you Mr. Scrooge, the Founder of the feast!".
Left: Charles Brock's 1905 engraving of the Cratchit family's enthusiastically welcoming the arrival of the dessert course, "Oh, a wonderful pudding!". Right: Charles Green's rather less exuberant realisation of the Camden Town festivities suggestive of the Dickenses' own in Charles's youth: Christmas Day at Bob Cratchit's (1912).
Dickens, Charles. A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being A Ghost Story for Christmas. Illustrated by John Leech. London: Chapman & Hall, 1843.
Dickens, Charles. A Christmas Carol. Illustrated by Harold Copping. London, Paris, New, York: Raphael Tuck, 1911.
Dickens, Charles. A Christmas Carol. Illustrated by Charles Green, R. I. London: A & F Pears, 1912.
Dickens, Mary Angela, Percy Fitzgerald, Captain Edric Vredenburg, and Others. Illustrated by Harold Copping with eleven coloured lithographs. Children's Stories from Dickens. London: Raphael Tuck, 1893.
Dickens, Mary Angela [Charles Dickens' grand-daughter]. Dickens' Dream Children. London, Paris, New York: Raphael Tuck & Sons, Ltd., 1924.
Guida, Fred. 'A Christmas Carol' and Its Adaptations. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2000.
Hearne, Michael Patrick, ed. The Annotated Christmas Carol. New York: Avenel, 1989.
Hewett, Edward, and W. F. Axton. "Christmas." Convivial Dickens: The Drinks of Dickens and His Times. Athens: Ohio U. P., 1938. Pp. 23-39.
Marshall, Brenda. "Puddings and Desserts." The Charles Dickens Cookbook. Toronto: Personal Library, 1980. Pp. 111-134.
Matz, B. W., and Kate Perugini; illustrated by Harold Copping. Character Sketches from Dickens. London: Raphael Tuck, 1924. Copy in the Paterson Library, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada.
Pimlott, J. A. R. The Englishman's Christmas: A Social History. Hassocks, Sussex: Harvester, 1978.
Slater, Michael. "Notes to A Christmas Carol. The Christmas Books. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971. Rpt. 1978. Pp. 257-261.
Simons, Paul, and Will Pavia. "Dreaming of a white Christmas? Put it down to Dickens's nostalgia for his lost childhood." The Times. 24 December 2008. Page 4.
6 October 2023