A London Child of the Seventies, which was first published in 1934, is a record of British author Molly Hughes’ memories of life as a child in London during the ‘seventies of the last century.’ In the warmth of her recollection, the image of “Victorianism” as something harsh, restricted and unnatural melts and vanishes. This was a happy life, not because it was luxuriously equipped, but because the spirit of human relationships in a large family was always of the happiest and because imagination learned to build, with the simplest of materials, a wonderland of adventure…
“NONE of the characters in this book are fictitious. The incidents, if not dramatic, are at least genuine memories. Expressions of jollity and enjoyment of life are understatements rather than overstatements. We were just an ordinary, suburban, Victorian family, undistinguished ourselves and unacquainted with distinguished people. It occurred to me to record our doings only because, on looking back, and comparing our lot with that of the children of today, we seemed to have been so lucky. In writing them down, however, I have come to realize that luck is at one’s own disposal, that ‘there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so’. Bring up children in the conviction that they are lucky, and behold they are. But in our case high spirits were perhaps inherited, as my story will show.
“DON PEDRO. In faith, lady, you have a merry heart.
“BEATRICE. Yea, my lord; I thank it, poor fool, it keeps on the windy side of care.”
