every food in: The Railway Children
The Railway Children by Edith Nesbit
Originally published 1905
I have to admit - I found this and confused it with the Boxcar Children, but it was still a decently fun and short read. And surprisingly um, political, for a children’s book. World history in 1905 isn’t quite my forte, so I had to do some googling about this one.
Bobbie, Peter, and Phyllis’s father is falsely imprisoned for espionage (yes, seriously) and the children move to a smaller home with less guaranteed food security near a railway station because their mother can’t afford to keep them in the larger house. They spend a lot of time having (unsupervised) adventures that are, frankly, pretty alarming to a 2020 reader - at one point they RESCUE A BABY FROM A BURNING CANAL SHIP and everyone seems pretty fine and generally not as alarmed as they ought to be about the idea of children doing this. They meet an “old gentleman” at the Railway Station who eventually helps prove their father’s innocence, and everything turns out fine in the end.
Now for the really unexpected bit - this book was apparently pretty controversial at the time for being explicitly anti-Czarist Russia, and Nesbit was accused of plagiarism. I couldn’t find a copy either online or for sale, so I really don’t know about that last one. I will say that outside of the Russian spy plot line, “children separated from father but reunited via a stranger who gives gifts” is not the most unique plot ever. I’ve read at least five so far with that exact plot from the 1900s-1910s. Apparently it was a whole thing.
Finally, a new feature for this post: I’ve linked resources explaining each item that you might not be familiar with, so you can just click the names of the more obscure ones to learn more about them.
Pigeon pie
Ginger wine, Marie biscuits, sardines, preserved ginger, cooking raisins, candied peel, marmalade
Cold roast beef, bread, butter, cheese, apple pie
Beef tea, grapes, brandy, good bread and butter
Buns, jam, and a birthday cake with sweets and pink writing on it
A packet of homemade toffee
Wild strawberries
Bread, cheese, half a soda cake, and mutton
Tea in a tin can, bread, jam
Milk and porridge
Apple pie
