© photographed by Ingrid Haunold
The Cherry Tent was written by Louisa Lilias (Lelias) Plunket Greene (7 November 1833 – 30 March 1891) who is listed as “Hon. Mrs. Greene” on the book’s cover. She wrote children’s literature in the Victorian era.
I became interested in Victorian era children’s literature a while ago, and have been buying books from that period for some time now, mainly from AbeBooks and ZVAB.
I’m not a collector in the traditional sense. I don’t buy rare books as an investment. Most books that I buy cost very little, rarely more than 50.00 Euros. I just buy books that interest me.
© photographed by Ingrid Haunold
I read a short story written by the Hon. Mrs. Greene in a Victorian era magazine, started browsing the AbeBooks and ZAVB websites, and stumbled across The Cherry Tent.
The book was published by Frederick Warne and Co., but no publishing date is listed on the title page. The University of Florida seems to have a digitized copy of the same edition that I bought, and lists the publishing date as 1887; but I don’t know from where they got that information.
The book contains a dozen illustrations, but the illustrator’s name isn’t listed on the title page, and I don’t see any identifying marks on the illustrations. It could well be that several people provided illustrations for this book, I can discern stylistic differences in the illustrations. The University of Florida lists Edward Dalziel as the book’s illustrator, but again, I don’t know from where they got that information. The brothers Dalziel wrote an autobiography, The Brothers Dalziel. A Record of Fifty Years Work in Conjunction with many of the Most Distinguished Artists of the Period 1840-1890. I did not find any references in regard to The Cherry Tent, and no mention is made in this book of any cooperation with the Hon. Mrs. Greene.
© photographed by Ingrid Haunold
The book’s pages aren’t numbered, but there are 60 pages starting with the story’s first page, not counting the title page and the frontispiece.
It’s a morality tale, the story of two boys behaving badly. Maurice and Louis, two boys of unknown age who attend a boarding school in England, unexpectedly find themselves with free time on their hands. They leave the school grounds, take a walk, and come across an unattended tent where cherries are offered for sale.
The boys only have half a penny between them, but fill two full bags with cherries, thereby committing theft.
© photographed by Ingrid Haunold
They later have a chance meeting with a friend and her mother who invite the boys to accompany them to a flower show in a nearby village, offering them a ride in their carriage.
Even though the boys are strictly forbidden by their teacher to attend that flower show, they accept the offer anyway. During the carriage ride, juices from the cherries ruin their friend’s clothing.
A chance meeting with their teacher ends the boys’ adventure. When they are found out, Maurice gives an honest account of everything that happened, but Louis lies about their actions. Maurice takes full responsibility for his actions, but Louis doesn’t and is expelled from school, never to be heard from again.
© photographed by Ingrid Haunold
I only know of one other edition of this book, which shows an illustration of a child’s head on the cover, and only one copy of that other edition is currently (August 2025) for sale online. So I guess I bought a rare book after all….
My rating: 5 (of 5) “stars”. It is a simple, but charming morality tale written for Victorian era children, and I love the many illustrations in this book.