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Character Counts!
‘Interior with a Barrel’ by Cyprian Norwid (1821–1883)
‘Interior with barrel’ by Polish artist Cyprian Norwid (1821–1883) shows a rough chamber and a barrel with a broom leaning up against it. Hubbard tells us that young Richard Cobden’s first paid employment required him to sweep his uncle’s warehouse, and that having entrusted him with this task his uncle felt he need do more for the boy. Thanks to Cobden’s perseverance and a kindly boss, no more was indeed required of him.
Back to text
‘Interior with barrel’ by Polish artist Cyprian Norwid (1821–1883) shows a rough chamber and a barrel with a broom leaning up against it. Hubbard tells us that young Richard Cobden’s first paid employment required him to sweep his uncle’s warehouse, and that having entrusted him with this task his uncle felt he need do more for the boy. Thanks to Cobden’s perseverance and a kindly boss, no more was indeed required of him.
Introduction
Richard Cobden, the great liberal statesman, began with few advantages in life. His father, a bankrupt Sussex farmer, handed him over to relatives, who hastily packed the ten-year-old boy off to a Yorkshire boarding school — a veritable Dotheboys Hall. At fifteen, he was released from this captivity, but sweeping the floors for his rich uncle did not seem to promise much better.
When Richard was sixteen he was transferred from the boarding school to his uncle's warehouse in London.* His position was that of a poor relation, and his work in the warehouse was to carry bundles and manipulate a broom.* His shy and sensitive ways caught the attention of a burly and gruff superintendent, whose gruffness was only on the outside. This man said to the boy, before he had been sweeping a week, “Young ’un, I obsarve with my hown hies that you sweeps in the corners. For this I raises your pay a shilling a week, and makes you monkey to the shipping clerk.” In a year the shipping clerk was needed as a salesman and Richard took his place. In another year Richard was a salesman, and canvassing London for orders. [...]
* Richard left the school in 1819. His experiences there scarred him mentally and physically; it was “a grim and desolate time,” wrote biographer John Morley, “of which he could never afterwards endure to speak ... The unfortunate boy from his tenth to his fifteenth year was ill fed, ill taught, ill used.” He made no friends and was permitted to write to his mother once a quarter. It was a miserable change from the Dame school (a charitable school for the children of the poor, typically run by an elderly lady) in Midhurst, West Sussex, where he learnt to read and write. Understandably, Cobden was a vocal critic of boarding schools ever after, though it is never a good idea to judge everyone’s experiences by one’s own.
* The warehouse was in Old Change, London. As Cobden later put it, Mr and Mrs Partridge “inflicted rather than bestowed their bounties”. Mrs Partridge was Mrs Cobden’s sister.
Richard Cobden, later one of the country’s great statesmen, was given his first job at sixteen, sweeping floors. The job came by courtesy of his uncle, who made sure Richard felt his ‘poor relation’ status keenly. Happily, a kindly manager in the same warehouse took a shine to Richard, and a serious of well-deserved promotions quickly followed. (57 / 60 words)
Richard Cobden, later one of the country’s great statesmen, was given his first job at sixteen, sweeping floors. The job came by courtesy of his uncle, who made sure Richard felt his ‘poor relation’ status keenly. Happily, a kindly manager in the same warehouse took a shine to Richard, and a serious of well-deserved promotions quickly followed.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 60 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 50 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: although, may, must, not, ought, since, until, whether.
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