{"id":2341,"date":"2025-12-16T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chr.org.uk\/anddidthosefeet\/?p=2341"},"modified":"2025-12-16T22:00:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T22:00:10","slug":"december-16-trotty-veck-the-chimes-and-seasonal-abundance-in-the-midst-of-want","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chr.org.uk\/anddidthosefeet\/december-16-trotty-veck-the-chimes-and-seasonal-abundance-in-the-midst-of-want\/","title":{"rendered":"Trotty Veck, the Chimes and Charles Dickens’ Christmas Books December 16th"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Dickens
Trotty Veck 1889 Dickens The Chimes by Kyd (Joseph Clayton Clarke)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

As Christmas looms, seasonal publications have a mixture of wonder and joy at the coming family reunions and festivities mingled with an awareness that, for some, Christmas will depend on the Food Bank or the Charity Shelter. The weather is now cold, living costs continue to rise at the very time extra spending is needed to unlock the joy of the Season. Also to counter the dark, the cold, and the spectre of death which, in fact, has always been central to the season of winter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charles Dickens’ Christmas Books epitomise this dichotomy.And by adding an element of the supernatural, provided a vehicle for joy and hope. It also came with a forceful political message that the authorities and the rich were not doing their Christian duty to alleviate poverty. Christmas Carol contrasts the wealth of a mean rich Stockbroker with the family of his poor employee Bob Cratchit, and provides a powerful tale of redemption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Chimes<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

But in this post I want to concentrate on his second Christmas Book, ‘The Chimes’. It was published on December 16th, 1844. And tells the story of the stick-thin Trotty Veck who is an aged City messenger, nicknamed Trotty because of his habit of keeping himself warm by running on the spot. He is afraid to let his daughter, Meg, marry as he has so little hope for the future. While he is worrying, he, Meg and her intended Richard are approached by Alderman Cute and Mr Filer.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Meg, Richard, Mr Filer, Gentleman, Alderman Cute and Trotty Veck. Probably located by the door of St Nicholas, Colechurch, City of London.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Cute represents the financial industries in the City of London and the Law. Filer the new breed of political economists. These, working with the ideas of Malthus and the new science of Statistics, had proved, that generous support for the poor would, inevitably, lead to a country full of poor people and no rich people. And thus, they justified the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1832. At this time Dickens was a Parliamentary reporter (1831-1834), and he observed the cruelty and absurdity of this piece of iniquitous legislation. In 1929 my mother was born in a workhouse, where she had been taken by her unmarried mother. She was so ashamed she didn’t tell her children until she was in her 70s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Workhouse<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

That is the legacy of the cruel Workhouse system. It was based on providing the lowest possible level of support offering separation from family, meagre food, and sparse comforts. This the rate payers believed would encourage the poor to stop being lazy and get back out there to earn their own living. Thus allowing taxes to fall. (brilliantly satirised by Dickens’ Oliver Twist, asking for ‘More’).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below, I enclose the scene from the Chimes, which satirises the attitude of the governing classes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018And you\u2019re making love to her, are you?\u2019 said Cute to the young smith.\n\n\u2018Yes,\u2019 returned Richard quickly, for he was nettled by the question.\n\u2018And we are going to be married on New Year\u2019s Day.\u2019\n\n\u2018What do you mean!\u2019 cried Filer sharply?Enough  \u2018Married!\u2019\n\n\u2018Why, yes, we\u2019re thinking of it, Master,\u2019 said Richard.  \u2018We\u2019re rather in a hurry, you see, in case it should be Put Down first.\u2019\n\n\u2018Ah!\u2019 cried Filer, with a groan.  \u2018Put that down indeed, Alderman, and you\u2019ll do something.  Married!  Married!!  The ignorance of the first principles of political economy on the part of these people; their improvidence; their wickedness; is, by Heavens! enough to\u2014Now look at that couple, will you!\u2019\n\n...\n\n\u2018A man may live to be as old as Methuselah,\u2019 said Mr. Filer, \u2018and may\nlabour all his life for the benefit of such people as those; and may heap up facts on figures, facts on figures, facts on figures, mountains high and dry; and he can no more hope to persuade \u2019em that they have no right or business to be married, than he can hope to persuade \u2019em that they have no earthly right or business to be born.  And that we know they haven\u2019t.  We reduced it to a mathematical certainty long ago!\u2019\n\nAlderman Cute was mightily diverted, and laid his right forefinger on the side of his nose, as much as to say to both his friends, \u2018Observe me, will you!  Keep your eye on the practical man!\u2019\u2014and called Meg to him. \n\n...\n\n\u2018Now, I\u2019m going to give you a word or two of good advice, my girl,\u2019 said the Alderman, in his nice easy way.  \u2018It\u2019s my place to give advice, you know, because I\u2019m a Justice. ...\n\n\u2018You are going to be married, you say,\u2019 pursued the Alderman.  \u2018Very\nunbecoming and indelicate in one of your sex!  But never mind that.\nAfter you are married, you\u2019ll quarrel with your husband and come to be a distressed wife.  You may think not; but you will, because I tell you so. Now, I give you fair warning, that I have made up my mind to Put distressed wives Down.  So, don\u2019t be brought before me.  \n\nYou\u2019ll have children\u2014boys.  Those boys will grow up bad, of course, and run wild in the streets, without shoes and stockings.  Mind, my young friend!  I\u2019ll convict \u2019em summarily, every one, for I am determined to Put boys without shoes and stockings, Down.  Perhaps your husband will die young (most likely) and leave you with a baby.  Then you\u2019ll be turned out of doors, and wander up and down the streets.  Now, don\u2019t wander near me, my dear, for I am resolved, to Put all wandering mothers Down.  All young mothers,of all sorts and kinds, it\u2019s my determination to Put Down.  Don\u2019t think\nto plead illness as an excuse with me; or babies as an excuse with me;\nfor all sick persons and young children (I hope you know the\nchurch-service, but I\u2019m afraid not) I am determined to Put Down.  \n\nAnd if you attempt, desperately, and ungratefully, and impiously, and\nfraudulently attempt, to drown yourself, or hang yourself, I\u2019ll have no pity for you, for I have made up my mind to Put all suicide Down!  If there is one thing,\u2019 said the Alderman, with his self-satisfied smile, \u2018on which I can be said to have made up my mind more than on another, it is to Put suicide Down.  So don\u2019t try it on.  That\u2019s the phrase, isn\u2019t it?  Ha, ha! now we understand each other.\u2019\n\nProject Gutenberg - The Chimes by Charles Dickens<\/a><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
It is a savage burlesque of a satire but at its core, Filer provides the economic\/statistical justification. Cute enforces it by legal harassment of the poor. Dickens was writing after a recent introduction of legislation making suicide a punishable offence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Government Cruelty<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
This has a contemporary resonance. During my lifetime, the first British Government to be cruel in its provision of benefits, in my opinion, for the poor was Teresa May’s Conservative Government. Her laws made getting help so difficult that people died as a result of the deliberately difficult system. ‘I, Daniel Blake’ a 2016 film by Ken Loach brilliantly captured the essence of this system. That government’s treatment of the Windrush generation was a similar example of bureaucratic cruelty. And the continual decline of the benefit system over the 14 years of Conservative Government meant that the poor bore the brunt of austerity. Keir Starmer started  his period in office on the wrong foot too cutting benefits to the poor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dickens, progressive propagandist<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The piece above reminds us what a brilliant propagandist Dickens was. Every generation of children, since he wrote Christmas Carol, has read it or seen it in popular retellings such as The Muppet Movie. I think it could be argued that the ‘More’ scene in Oliver Twist and the Christmas Carol have made the case for compassionate care and redemption far better than contemporary Christianity or political parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the Chimes. these two men discourage Trotty from letting the young ones marry. He has a dream and sees the hopeless result of his decision: suicide, prostitution, crime. When he wakes up, he realises that what they do have is hope. Hope springs eternal and he lets them marry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For more on this scene, have a look at the Victorian Web  <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dickens was not a socialist.  ‘Hard Times’ shows that Dickens was against strikes, despite leading a strike when he was a young newspaper man.  He was a free trade Liberal; a reformer who believed that the rich needed to do their Christian duty and provide charitable support, pay decent wages and look after their dependents and servants. He thought society should care less about the dogma of Christianity but look to its essence,  ‘love your neighbour like yourself’. This, alone, was sufficient to right the wrongs caused  by the selfish.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n
First Published on December 16th 2022, republished and revised in December 2023, 2024, 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As Christmas looms, seasonal publications have a mixture of wonder and joy at the coming family reunions and festivities mingled with an awareness that, for some, Christmas will depend on the Food Bank or the Charity Shelter. The weather is now cold, living costs continue to rise at the very time extra spending is needed … <\/p>\n
Continue reading “Trotty Veck, the Chimes and Charles Dickens’ Christmas Books December 16th”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[120,112,116,119,118,115,6,13,4,322,9,17],"tags":[398,399,400,1183,1189,401,1185,397,1187,1184],"class_list":["post-2341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-19th-century","category-almanac-of-the-past","category-calendar","category-christian-heritage","category-events","category-folklore","category-guided-walks","category-literary-history","category-london","category-uk","category-victorian","category-writing","tag-charles-dickens","tag-christmas-books","tag-christmas-carol","tag-daniel-blake","tag-mr-filer","tag-political-economy","tag-poor-law-amendment-act","tag-the-chimes","tag-trotty-veck","tag-workhouse"],"yoast_head":"\nTrotty Veck, the Chimes and Charles Dickens' Christmas Books December 16th - 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