Week of April 23, 2007

Chapter Twelve: In Which I Go Into Camphor, Reach New York, and Become a Doll of Fashion:

Hitty's new owner in this chapter is Isabella Van Rensselaer. Rachel Field's maternal grandmother was Isabella Ann McWilliams, so I think it is very likely that Isabella Van R was named for the author's grandmother. It seems that Rachel honored her favorite relatives by using their names in her books!
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Things have changed for Hitty. She knew things were going to change as Clarissa was 12 and getting too old for a doll. She is going away to boarding school so Hitty will be packed away in camphor. Another two years will go by. For some reason the box she was in was to be moved with some old furniture and odds and ends of material to another cousin’s home in New York. In true Hitty style, the box became separated and was taken to a house on Washington Square. The box was eventually opened by Miss Milly Pinch, a seamstress hired by the Van Rensselaer family. She was looking for some lace for petticoats and found Hitty. Hitty thought she was in another bad situation as Miss Pinch hid her on the top shelf of her wardrobe (but at least she was now out of the camphor). Miss Pinch certainly made an impression on Hitty as during her writing of her memoirs, she recalls every detail of that first evening with Miss Pinch.

Miss Pinch is treating Hitty well. Hitty is to be her masterpiece, her proof that she is a fashionable dressmaker and not merely a seamstress. It must have been hard work being a dressmaker. Poor Miss Pinch sewed for the family all day. It must have been very tiring work and hard on the eyes. At night she would work on Hitty’s wardrobe and grumble about the family to herself. Hitty learned quite a bit about the family from Miss Pinch before ever meeting them. Miss Pinch had the goods on the bad behavior of the children, too. She would store away in her mind these handy bits of information to use in future if needed.

Hitty still has her chemise that Phoebe made. It is hard to believe after everything she has gone through, all the miles traveled and dangerous situations she was in, that the chemise would hold up, but perhaps Rachel Field wanted Hitty to retain something of Phoebe’s throughout the book. Miss Pinch thought it a remarkably fine piece of linen cloth.

Hitty is so thrilled with her new fashionable attire she is at a loss for words to describe her new attire. She has become a doll of fashion. Despite all the warnings she had heard from the families of both Little Thankful and Clarissa, she is very pleased to be as well dressed as the people in Godey’s Lady’s Book.
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Why with all the toys and dolls probably owned by Isabella, would she find it necessary to take Hitty from Miss Pinch? I think she is just bored with her life. Is she is another spoiled little rich girl who feels Miss Pinch is not in her class? She means to have Hitty for herself.
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I was worried at first about Isabella, thinking her to be spoiled and mean. However, I was very happy to see that she came to care a great deal for Hitty, probably as much, if not more, than Phoebe. She takes Hitty almost everywhere which pleases Hitty a great deal.

Isabella is a beauty, her father's pet, not that interested in learning and does pretty much as she pleases. I think she is quite the romantic. She has a closeness with her father that is wonderful. They take long walks often and each evening he reads to her (and Hitty) for an hour from Nicholas Nickleby.

I wish Hitty could dance. She enjoyed so much watching the children at their dancing lessons. I love her spirit. After trying to dance, she knew it would be impossible, so instead of dwelling on it and feeling sorry for herself, she just accepts it as fact and moves on.
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Chapter 11 and Chapter 12 let us definitively date Hitty's adventures. In Chapter 11 the Civil War started (1861) and now in Chapter 12 she tells us that she was put in camphor near the end of the Civil War and was "out of it" for about 2 years, ending up in New York City. (The Civil War ends on April 9, 1865. President Lincoln died on April 15, 1865.)

Has anyone noticed that the father figures in the book are very loving, gentle, kind, understanding men? Poor Rachel never knew her father. A prominent and well-liked physician, he died from a heart problem when he was 41 and she was only 7 months old. Rachel and her only surviving sibling Elizabeth were raised by their mother and their aunt. Her mother must have told Rachel and Elizabeth wonderful tales about their father, and Rachel wrote from the heart when describing the fathers in her stories.
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You are right about the father figures. They are all kind and loving men. I didn't think about that. Perhaps there was a loving and gentle grandfather(s) that also influenced Rachel.
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Rachel's paternal grandparents had died long before she was born. Her maternal grandparents died before Rachel's tenth birthday. But I think there were lots of cousins, aunts, and uncles around.

Taken from the Hitty Timeline: We can calculate that she was with Clarissa Pryce from 1862 until 1864 (two years). She was in the box in camphor from 1864--1868 (four years). She was with Isabella Van Rensselaer on New Year's Eve in 1870 (two years). This makes a total of eight years. She met Dickens in 1868.

Camphor: Camphor is a white transparent waxy crystalline solid with a strong penetrating pungent aromatic odor. It is a terpenoid with the chemical formula C10H16O. It is found in wood of the Camphor laurel (Cinnamomum camphora), a large evergreen tree found in Asia (particularly in Borneo and Taiwan, hence its alternate name) and some other related trees in the laurel family, notably Ocotea usambarensis; it can also be synthetically produced from oil of turpentine. It is used for its scent, as an ingredient in cooking (mainly in India), as an embalming fluid, in religious ceremonies and for medicinal purposes. A major source of camphor in Asia is Camphor basil.

Basque: Basque is a term for an item of women's apparel, referring either to a long corset or jacket characterised by a close, contoured fit and extending past the waistline over the hips.
The undergarment is similar to a Victorian-era corset, but with less compression of the ribs. The modern-day basque features lace-up or hook-and-eye fastening, as well as boning or vertical seams for structure and support. It usually, though not always, has brassiere cups, and is distinguished from the bustier by its length. It sometimes features detachable garters, or suspenders. In American English, it is known as a "Merry Widow".

In Victorian outerwear, basque refers to a closely fitted jacket extending at the back past the waistline over the hips, to be worn over a bustle.
In 20th century and contemporary attire, the term basque is used to refer to an article of lingerie. Basque may also refer to details reminiscent of lingerie such as frilly lace and cutout, "peekaboo" designs.
Toilette: (twä-let') The act or process of dressing or grooming oneself; toilet. A person's dress or style of dress. A gown or costume.

Godey’s Lady’s Book: Godey's Lady's Book was one of the most popular lady's books of the 19th century. Each issue contained poetry, beautiful engraving and articles by some of the most well known authors in America.

Additional Suggested Reading by Nancy B: Knowing that the cruel war was raging, here are two very recently published books on the chapter's background. They are both short, very attractive and true stories.

The first is: The Escape of Oney Judge : Martha Washington's slave; the second is: Henry's freedom box.

Hitty may not have understood what slavery meant, nor would her people have gotten into the cover story of "States Rights", but the struggle was very important to those who lived it.

Hitty’s Travels Thus Far:

Chapter 1: In Maine with the Preble family;
Chapter 2: To Portland, Maine;
Aboard ship bound for the South Seas on a whaling expedition;
Chapter 6: Lost on a South Sea Island;
Chapter 8: Rescued at sea and arrival in Bombay, India;
Traveling back and forth across India with the snake charmer;
Chapter 9: A new home with a missionary family in India;
On board ship with Little Thankful and headed to Philadelphia in America
to live with Little Thankful’s grandparents;
Chapter 10: A new family, the Pryces, in Philadelphia;
Chapter 12: To New York to reside with the Van Rensselaer family.

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