Toys in Miniature: Frances Armstrong
The true story of Ragged Robin
"Ragged Robin," from which these excerpts are taken, was published in the May 17, 1856 edition of
Household Words. The anonymous author was in fact the mother of the young lady she calls "Miss O.P.Q," who was Octavia Hill.
Household Words. The anonymous author was in fact the mother of the young lady she calls "Miss O.P.Q," who was Octavia Hill.
There is a large, light, lofty workshop, situated in one of the best thoroughfares of the town, in which are occupied about two dozen girls between the ages of eight and seventeen. They make choice furniture for dolls' houses. They work in groups, each group having its own department of the little trade; some cut the wire which forms the framework of the furniture, some over the wire with muslin, or adorn the furniture with imitations of wood carving, others cover sofas and chairs with gay chintzes, satins, or velvets, or fit up miniature bedsteads with bed furniture. The articles so made all look luxurious and beautiful, and have also the merit of not being fragile. A young majority of the workers--only those whose education has been infinitely better--rules over the little band; apportions the work; distributes the material; keeps the accounts; stops the disputes; stimulates the intellect, and directs the recreation of all. The Autocrat of all the Russias has not a sway more despotic than Miss O.P.Q.; but the two potentates differ in this, that the one governs by fear, the other by affection.
The objects of this little institution are, to employ and educate girls born of the poorest parents, and to accumulate for them the profits of their labour, so that they may be of use to them in after life.
. . .
It is pleasant to know that these Art Toys find a ready sale, and that their elegance and durability are likely to preserve for them the public favour. They are the invention of a lady, and may be remembered by some as furnishing the Tudor Villa, a model contributed by her to the Great Exhibition of eighteen hundred and fifty-one.
The discipline of the little factory about which I am speaking I will now endeavour briefly to describe. There is head-work as well as hand-work. One morning, when the girls had just been singing in chorus, as they sat at labout, a song about buttercups and daisies, a confused little fumbling tap was heard at the workshop door, and several of the workers, when they recognised the little creature who was knocking, joyfully pulled her in. They had not seen her for many months--not since they had all been together in the Ragged School. . . .
Well, there she was. . . .The child, in a ragged gown that had belonged to a much larger sister, . . . partially drew up her long dress, and held out her feet, buried in enormous boots. "I would have come long ago," she said, with perfect good humour, "but I had no shoes and no stockings. . . . I put on Billy's boots. My feet are so sore," she added, wincing with the pain.
Her boots are removed, her feet bathed, and stockings and shoes found for her.
The new comer--who got the name of Ragged Robin--was of course put to the easiest employment; covering the wire with muslin. Her fingers were awkward, and she was bewildered with the scene around her; she did not get on at all well. Miss O.P.Q. encouraged her, and said that everyone must have her time to learn; appealing to the girls, who testified that, at first, they had not earned sixpence a-week, and now they could earn six, eight, or ten shillings.
The girls club together--twopence a meal--to buy and cook meat and potatoes for their midday dinner, then attend the gardens they have been given. At four o'clock they sit down to school lessons.
Later the girls are taken on a trip to the country, many of them never having been outside the city. They have a wonderful time, and return laden with flowers. But for Robin, the flowers "soon became her only treasure."
After she had been some time at the school, Miss O.P.Q. found it necessary to send work to her mother that she wished she would keep her daughter clean, as cleanliness was indispensable. For several days after that the child did not come, and at last the mother sent word that she "would not let her go back to work, because of Miss O.P.Q.'s message; but she was much obliged for the shoes and frock."
Miss O.P.Q. went to Robin's home. It looked too dirty to enter; but one of the girls who acted a guide mounted the stairs, and on a dark landing Robin was found washing heavy sheets, with which she stood upon a three-legged stool to struggle. She came downstairs, and wept at the kind words brought home to her. She was seen no more. She is with many thousands pining and perishing in London courts.
Household Words, May 17, 1856.
That was how the author left the reader, in 1856, but other sources show that Robin became employed in the Hill household and was later successful as a settler in Australia. Octavia Hill went on to a lifetime of philanthropic work.
The miniature furniture factory failed, for a number of reasons. I would love to know whether any of the pieces the children made survive, and who the lady with the Tudor Villa at the Great Exhibition was.
