What the Dickens?

[Subdeacon Joe]

British History Advent Calendar: Day 19

Charles Dickens a Christmas Carol was first published by Chapman & Hall on 19th December 1843, the first edition of 6,000 copies sold out by Christmas Eve.
Thirteen more editions had been released by the end of 1844 and it has never been out of print, it has been translated into a number of languages, and has spanned into many adaptations for the theatre, film and TV.
It was Dickens 4th Christmas story and he would go onto to write four more but it was the Christmas Carol that was his most successful, so much so that in 1849 he began public readings of the story, which proved so successful that he undertook another 127 performances until the year of his death in 1870. 
The story was published at a time when Christmas was becoming popular again, with a renewed interest in carols and people looking back to the glory days when those living in the countryside celebrated for twelve days, something that didn’t happen in the city, after all money could be made just as easily on Christmas Day as it could any other day, Scrooge is never given a job title because he is meant to represent people who work in the city.
Dickens himself said in 1836 that ‘People will tell you that Christmas is not to them what it used to be’.

 

 

[Subdeacon Joe]

Not Dickens, but I like it.

 

"SAT ON THE END OF MY BAYONET LIKE A BLOOMIN CHRISTMAS CARD, HE DID".

On 29th November 1915 this image appeared in The Sphere, a British illustrated newspaper, which was out weekly from 27 January 1900 until the closure of the paper on 27 June 1964.
The image was created by illustrator Philip Dadd, who was a staff artist for The Sphere.

Underneath the picture it said, A private writing from the trenches during the winter campaign, says that a plucky little robin used to come into the trench, much to the soldier's joy.  "Sat on the end of my bayonet like a bloomin Christmas card, he did" wrote the Tommy to his family.

 

[Alpo]

This just makes me wonder. Do European robins not migrate? I would not expect to see a robin in New York in the winter. They go south.

[Eyesa Horg]

12 minutes ago, Alpo said:

This just makes me wonder. Do European robins not migrate? I would not expect to see a robin in New York in the winter. They go south.

You prompted some searching as once in a blue moon I have seen one or two here in Vermont in the winter. 

Most migrate to southern states and Mexico. Although some will winter over to get dibs on nesting areas. They can survive 30 below on their feathers, but under the feathers they are 104 degrees. Amazing!