Forgotten Tales of Long Ago — Inside the Classic

A Father's Foolishness and a Doctor's Name

The first story, 'Dicky Random,' from The Satchel, features a father who is 'hardly less foolish than his son,' an unusual characterization in these didactic works. Lucas also notes the courage of naming a doctor 'Hardheart,' a blunt moral label. The story includes 'pleasing incidents,' such as 'the irreproachable behaviour of the gentlemen at dinner,' suggesting that social decorum was a key lesson. Lucas's commentary reveals his awareness of the period's conventions and his appreciation for deviations from them.

A Robin, a Cathedral, and a Lost Eye

In one excerpt, two boys, Hal and Ben, visit a cathedral with their uncle. Hal is preoccupied with getting a uniform, while Ben notices the 'coloured shadows on the floor and walls' from stained glass. Their uncle explains Gothic arches and the lost art of painting on glass. A robin perched on the organ is fed by a young man with a black patch over his eye, who lost his sight from a stone while passing under rocks at Clifton. The robin, once tame, now does not recognize him. The scene shifts to the young man's hovel, where his paralyzed mother and four pale siblings work sticking pins in paper. The contrast between Hal's impatience and Ben's curiosity, and between the cathedral's beauty and the family's poverty, is striking.

Teaching Through Observation and Contrast

Lucas includes 'The Months' from Tales from the Mountains as a 'little work of pretty fancy' that compensates for lack of drama with ingenuity. He suggests reading the descriptions aloud in irregular order and asking children to identify each month, encouraging thought and observation. Another story, 'The Spotted Cow and the Pianoforte,' has a promising title but disappointing content, being a variation on a very old theme. Lucas's editorial choices highlight his interest in stories that teach through observation and contrast rather than overt moralizing, and his willingness to include pieces that are more fanciful than dramatic.

Readers approaching Forgotten Tales of Long Ago should attend to the editorial voice of E. V. Lucas, who guides us through these early stories with wry commentary and historical context. The collection rewards those who notice the small, telling details—a doctor's name, a robin's loyalty, a father's foolishness—that reveal the values and tensions of a bygone era. Lucas's selection invites us to see both the limitations and the unexpected charms of these didactic tales.

Reading how those old tales let a boy ponder colored shadows made me recall sitting with Forgotten Tales as a child, but it was A Garland for Girls — Story, Setting & Ideas that first taught me quiet wonder—not for a lesson, just for the strange, private pleasure of noticing something small shift under the light, the way the robin’s loyalty lingered long after the page closed.