Valediction Number 24: Some Running Rhymes
A notable volume from publisher Blackie is the latest of book from Brian Alderson’s collection to be wrapped up and presented to Seven Stories.
Scotland has a notable place in the history of British writing for children. If we rule out the great Dundee publishers of such comics as Dandy and Beano we can name such book publishers as the Chambers Brothers and Thomas Nelson, both of Edinburgh, and William Collins and Messrs Blackie of Glasgow. They could not help opening London offices but Scotland was their true homeland.
The firm of Blackie was founded in Glasgow in 1809 and opened their important adjunct as printers in 1819. Although it was much later in the century that they entered the field of publishing for children. Their multiple successes included many of the children’s novels of G A Henty where their multiple variants have been marvellously described in the bibliography by Peter Newbolt and the 20th Century would see a raft of popular items, not least the long run of Blackie Annuals.
Florence Harrison found a place with them soon after she got to England from Brisbane, Australia where she was born. Her first book was Rhymes and Reasons, which she wrote and illustrated herself in 1905 and she remained faithful to the company until her death in 1955.
At the start of things she was fortunate to encounter Talwin Morris, the great book designer employed by Blackie, and it was he who would have been responsible for the design of the The Rhyme of a Run, which was her second book. It is a fine piece of book design giving ample space to the layout of Florence’s first compositions. The title poem is the longest of these and gives a good idea of her entertaining style:
Fingers and Thumbs, they stole the plums,
And little feet ran away,
The big scarecrow cried “Bo Ho Ho!
You’d better not come this way”.
However, Fingers and Thumbs escapes past a blue stream, a stone wall, and sundry ducks and geese and the like, and eventually ends up in the town;
And the big Church Bell went ding, dong, dell,
And the soldiers beat the drums,
And all the people ran up the steeple,
And caught poor Fingers and Thumbs.
The nine additional sets of verses that followed this were shorter but uniformly cheerful;
Four little lasses took me to the fair.
What did I buy them when I got there?
I bought one a posy, and I bought one a pin;
I bought one a bow and a little violin;
I bought one a dolly in a bright blue shawl.
What was it I had? Nothing at all.
What was I had? Nothing at all.
Florence, perhaps under the direction of Morris, accompanied all the verses with either coloured or monochrome illustrations to make a completely satisfying book.
Florence published over 21 rhyme books during her stay with Blackie, including one or two classic poems by such as Christina Rosetti and Tennyson.
Eventually, in 1991, Blackie closed down both their publishing and printing operations only to make way for the rather less child friendly horrors of social media and such like.
Brian Alderson is a long-time and much-valued contributor to Books for Keeps, founder of the Children’s Books History Society and a former Children’s Books Editor for The Times. His most recent book The 100 Best Children’s Books is published by Galileo Publishing, 978-1903385982, £14.99 hbk.
This article was written with the help of Eric Foster.
Biblio:
Florence Harrison. The Rhyme of a Run and Other Verse. [rubricated] [4 titles] Glasgow: Blackie & Sons Ltd Glasgow. Dublin. Bombay & New York. [rubricated] The whole within a monochrome frame with hand drawn illustrations on sage green paper. 225mm x 285mm.68pp. On sage green paper throughout.[1-2] blank [3] monochrome vignette [4] blank [5] half title [6] blank [7] title–page as above [8] blank [9] contents [10] blank [11-29] The Rhyme of a Run [Title and Verses on versos faced by illustrations, 6 in 4 colours, 4 in monochrome.[30] blank [31-63]: 9 further sets of verses by Florence Harrison. The following rhymes with variegated coloured illustrations as previously: Four Little Lassies, Mother Malloon, Topply Tilts, Heathery Mill, The Flying Piggy, Brownie’s Park, Billy Boatman, Marigold Mary, Lucky Loo. [64] blank [65] Monochrome vignette [66-68] blank. Green cloth over thick boards colour illustrated title to front, titling to spine, back blank. Front and rear end papers with animals and characters.
