5th Dec 2023
Sold in the 1850s, The Old Cornish Woman was part of popular children's series Aunt Mavor's Picture Books for Little Readers. This Cornish-themed picture book charms with no less than eight hand-coloured engravings as it tells the story of a spinner woman who dreams of visiting the big city.
A FEARLESS WOMAN
The 'old woman' of the story - whose real name is never revealed - lives 'near the mines they get the Iron from'. She works hard for very little money, spinning all day. This ominous mechanism of fortune pops up in many fairytales like Sleeping Beauty. While she spins, the old woman dreams of visiting the Great Exhibition in London.
This international event took place in 1851. It was the Glastonbury of its day. Famous writers, scientists and political figures attended the exhibition. Charlotte Brontë, Charles Darwin and George Eliot all attended.
The exhibition appealed to the upper classes early on. When the parliamentary season ended, ticket prices dropped and travel companies offered discounted fares to encourage working class people to visit. It remained too costly for some as the old woman's tale attests.
As she can't pay the costs, the old woman decides to make her own way to London by foot. Nothing fazes her in the pursuit of her dream, even 280 miles of journeying. She takes on lashing rain with a 'good heart'. She cheers herself with a sing-song and charms a farming family into giving her shelter. But as she approaches the 'great City', the old woman realises that she has completely run out of money!
Resourceful and determined to the end, the old woman is finally rewarded for her hard work. Most tellingly the Lord Mayor praises her for being 'very industrious', an adjective which connects her back to the hardy mining landscape of her home.
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