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Tom Tiddler's Ground
Tom Tidler's Ground, also called Tom Tiddler's Ground or Tommy Tiddler's Ground, is an ancient children's game in which one player, "Tom Tidler," stands on a heap of stones, gravel, etc.; other players rush on the heap, crying "Here I am on Tom Tidler's ground," while Tom tries to capture the invaders or keep them off. By extension, the phrase has come to mean the ground or tenement of a sluggard, or of one who is easily taken advantage of. The essence of the game lives on in such more modern games as Steal the Bacon and other variants of Tag.
34 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1871
8 people are currently reading
176 people want to read
About the author
Charles Dickens
12.7k books31.5k followersCharles John Huffam Dickens (1812-1870) was a writer and social critic who created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the twentieth century critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories enjoy lasting popularity.
Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. Despite his lack of formal education, he edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children's rights, education, and other social reforms.
Dickens was regarded as the literary colossus of his age. His 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol, remains popular and continues to inspire adaptations in every artistic genre. Oliver Twist and Great Expectations are also frequently adapted, and, like many of his novels, evoke images of early Victorian London. His 1859 novel, A Tale of Two Cities, set in London and Paris, is his best-known work of historical fiction. Dickens's creative genius has been praised by fellow writers—from Leo Tolstoy to George Orwell and G. K. Chesterton—for its realism, comedy, prose style, unique characterisations, and social criticism. On the other hand, Oscar Wilde, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf complained of a lack of psychological depth, loose writing, and a vein of saccharine sentimentalism. The term Dickensian is used to describe something that is reminiscent of Dickens and his writings, such as poor social conditions or comically repulsive characters.
On 8 June 1870, Dickens suffered another stroke at his home after a full day's work on Edwin Drood. He never regained consciousness, and the next day he died at Gad's Hill Place. Contrary to his wish to be buried at Rochester Cathedral "in an inexpensive, unostentatious, and strictly private manner," he was laid to rest in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. A printed epitaph circulated at the time of the funeral reads: "To the Memory of Charles Dickens (England's most popular author) who died at his residence, Higham, near Rochester, Kent, 9 June 1870, aged 58 years. He was a sympathiser with the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England's greatest writers is lost to the world." His last words were: "On the ground", in response to his sister-in-law Georgina's request that he lie down.
(from Wikipedia)
Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. Despite his lack of formal education, he edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children's rights, education, and other social reforms.
Dickens was regarded as the literary colossus of his age. His 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol, remains popular and continues to inspire adaptations in every artistic genre. Oliver Twist and Great Expectations are also frequently adapted, and, like many of his novels, evoke images of early Victorian London. His 1859 novel, A Tale of Two Cities, set in London and Paris, is his best-known work of historical fiction. Dickens's creative genius has been praised by fellow writers—from Leo Tolstoy to George Orwell and G. K. Chesterton—for its realism, comedy, prose style, unique characterisations, and social criticism. On the other hand, Oscar Wilde, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf complained of a lack of psychological depth, loose writing, and a vein of saccharine sentimentalism. The term Dickensian is used to describe something that is reminiscent of Dickens and his writings, such as poor social conditions or comically repulsive characters.
On 8 June 1870, Dickens suffered another stroke at his home after a full day's work on Edwin Drood. He never regained consciousness, and the next day he died at Gad's Hill Place. Contrary to his wish to be buried at Rochester Cathedral "in an inexpensive, unostentatious, and strictly private manner," he was laid to rest in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. A printed epitaph circulated at the time of the funeral reads: "To the Memory of Charles Dickens (England's most popular author) who died at his residence, Higham, near Rochester, Kent, 9 June 1870, aged 58 years. He was a sympathiser with the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England's greatest writers is lost to the world." His last words were: "On the ground", in response to his sister-in-law Georgina's request that he lie down.
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
April 6, 2021
Another short story from the book "Christmas Stories" by Dickens. This is also yet another one that he wrote with several others so, due to copyright issues, Christmas Stories only has the chapters by Dickens. A problem easily taken care of, I just got the complete works of Charles Dickens by Delphi on Kindle, and could read the chapters not in my book. A cute story about a Traveller and a hobo with some fun characters in between. After reading several short stories now by Dickens, I've concluded that he's such an expert in character and plot development, that he really sucks at short stories. There just isn't enough time to get into the storyline that he wants to represent so it seems half-hearted and never really complete. I do really enjoy some of these collaborations though. I'm a big fan of Wilkie Collins and love that because he and Dickens were friends, we often see Collins contributing to Dickens's work. If you're more of a listening type of person, there's a great rendition on Youtube that you can listen to. My favorite chapters was "Picking up Miss Kimmeen's". I could relate to the little girl's self actualization as she spent a day hope alone. Overall, not my favorite, but worth the read.
December 31, 2022
So I am still in the mood to read some more Charles Dickens stories, so this one was the next up. I'm not sure if it was meant to be funny, but I found the interaction between Mr. Traveller & the Hermit hilarious. The Hermit is my favourite Dickens character so far, just because he is so different from all the others and everyone hates him, but is fascinated by him at the same time.
March 1, 2016
I really enjoyed this!
Dickens published this in the Christmas edition of All the Year Round in 1861.
Tom Tiddler’s Ground is a framework novel. The framework, visitors telling their personal stories to the hermit Mr Mopes, and some of the stories were written by Dickens, and the other short stories were contributed by friends.
Picking up Soot and Cinders (Charles Dickens)
Picking up Evening Shadows (Charles Collins, brother of Wilkie)
Picking up Terrible Company (Amelia B. Edwards)
Picking up Waifs at Sea (Wilkie Collins)
Picking up a Pocket Book (John Berwick Harwood)
Picking up Miss Kimmeens (Charles Dickens)
Picking up the Tinker (Charles Dickens)
My favourites are:
“Evening Shadows”, a tale like a shadow pantomime. The narrator reconstructs the lives of his neighbours based on the shadows they form on the blinds.
“Pocket Book”, a western, an adventure story with horses, Indians and a race across the plains.
Would definitely recommend this to fans of Dickens/Collins.
Dickens published this in the Christmas edition of All the Year Round in 1861.
Tom Tiddler’s Ground is a framework novel. The framework, visitors telling their personal stories to the hermit Mr Mopes, and some of the stories were written by Dickens, and the other short stories were contributed by friends.
Picking up Soot and Cinders (Charles Dickens)
Picking up Evening Shadows (Charles Collins, brother of Wilkie)
Picking up Terrible Company (Amelia B. Edwards)
Picking up Waifs at Sea (Wilkie Collins)
Picking up a Pocket Book (John Berwick Harwood)
Picking up Miss Kimmeens (Charles Dickens)
Picking up the Tinker (Charles Dickens)
My favourites are:
“Evening Shadows”, a tale like a shadow pantomime. The narrator reconstructs the lives of his neighbours based on the shadows they form on the blinds.
“Pocket Book”, a western, an adventure story with horses, Indians and a race across the plains.
Would definitely recommend this to fans of Dickens/Collins.
November 10, 2023
3.42⭐
CHAPTER I — PICKING UP SOOT AND CINDERS 3.5⭐
CHAPTER II — PICKING UP MISS KIMMEENS 3.25⭐
CHAPTER III — PICKING UP THE TINKER 3.5⭐
CHAPTER I — PICKING UP SOOT AND CINDERS 3.5⭐
CHAPTER II — PICKING UP MISS KIMMEENS 3.25⭐
CHAPTER III — PICKING UP THE TINKER 3.5⭐
April 25, 2025
"‘I’m on Tom Tiddler’s ground,’” opens an 1896 article by The Strand magazine, “Picking up gold and silver.’ This simple rhyme, so familiar to us all from early childhood…” I’m sorry, The Strand, but I am not familiar with this rhyme. You’re assuming a lot of your readers a hundred years hence.
I stumbled on this while seeking enlightenment on the title of Charles Dickens’s anthology of short stories in the 1861 Christmas edition of his literary journal “All The Year Round.” The Strand may not have helped much, but I finally found that this was a kids’s game. “Tom Tiddler” stands on one side of a line while the rest jump across, trying to shout the rhyme and retreat before “Tom” catches them.
That makes sense, since the stories in this anthology are loosely themed on the dangers of the isolated life. The first chapter introduces the frame for the rest of the stories. An unnamed Traveller arrives at a dirty tumble-down shack known locally as Tom Tiddler’s Ground due to the growlings of its misanthropic resident who refuses to set a foot outside.
This first chapter is pure Dickens in its flow of witticisms and sly deflation of human vanity. The Traveller sets up shop at the hermit’s window, exchanges some withering barbs, and archly informs him they’re going to sit there all day and listen to the tales of passers-by in order to prove how stupid the hermit is to lock himself away from humanity. I find the hermit’s incredulous exasperation and the Traveller’s pithy disdain very funny.
Each subsequent story, most written by Dickens’s literary collaborators, serves more or less to prove the Traveller’s point. I say more or less because sometimes the point is obvious and sometimes seems tacked on. The tale of the French exile is clear enough: his brutal fellow prisoner in the Republic’s labor camps is a man made cruel by a life withdrawn from human fellowship. The tale of the carpenter’s son born at sea, in circumstances worthy of an Abbott and Costello sketch, is much less obvious; but amounts to “whatever grievance you think you have against the world, someone else has it worse.”
Dickens himself doesn’t take pen in hand again until the two closing chapters, and most published editions of “Tom Tiddler’s Ground” follow the irritating modern convention of leaving out anything that Dickens didn’t write. This is less damaging here than it is for the 1860 anthology “A Message from the Sea” or for the 1856 anthology “The Wreck of the Golden Mary,” in which the excision of chapters destroys the interconnected narrative arc. Still, I’ve learned to hunt up online PDFs or HTML replications of these works because today’s editors think they know what I want, and they are wrong.
“Tom Tiddler’s Ground” is worth a read if you’re a Dickens fan; and since each chapter is mostly self-contained, you can get away with reading just the stories he wrote if you’re less obsessive than I am. Each story has its own charm and interest, though none is timeless and each flows with the gentler pace of a slower time. If you’re tired of the speed of this world, then make yourself a hot cuppa, turn off your TikTok brain, and settle into a long-ago time that (despite a lack of social media) wrestled just as much as we do today with questions of isolation, interconnection, community, and what it means to be human.
I stumbled on this while seeking enlightenment on the title of Charles Dickens’s anthology of short stories in the 1861 Christmas edition of his literary journal “All The Year Round.” The Strand may not have helped much, but I finally found that this was a kids’s game. “Tom Tiddler” stands on one side of a line while the rest jump across, trying to shout the rhyme and retreat before “Tom” catches them.
That makes sense, since the stories in this anthology are loosely themed on the dangers of the isolated life. The first chapter introduces the frame for the rest of the stories. An unnamed Traveller arrives at a dirty tumble-down shack known locally as Tom Tiddler’s Ground due to the growlings of its misanthropic resident who refuses to set a foot outside.
This first chapter is pure Dickens in its flow of witticisms and sly deflation of human vanity. The Traveller sets up shop at the hermit’s window, exchanges some withering barbs, and archly informs him they’re going to sit there all day and listen to the tales of passers-by in order to prove how stupid the hermit is to lock himself away from humanity. I find the hermit’s incredulous exasperation and the Traveller’s pithy disdain very funny.
Each subsequent story, most written by Dickens’s literary collaborators, serves more or less to prove the Traveller’s point. I say more or less because sometimes the point is obvious and sometimes seems tacked on. The tale of the French exile is clear enough: his brutal fellow prisoner in the Republic’s labor camps is a man made cruel by a life withdrawn from human fellowship. The tale of the carpenter’s son born at sea, in circumstances worthy of an Abbott and Costello sketch, is much less obvious; but amounts to “whatever grievance you think you have against the world, someone else has it worse.”
Dickens himself doesn’t take pen in hand again until the two closing chapters, and most published editions of “Tom Tiddler’s Ground” follow the irritating modern convention of leaving out anything that Dickens didn’t write. This is less damaging here than it is for the 1860 anthology “A Message from the Sea” or for the 1856 anthology “The Wreck of the Golden Mary,” in which the excision of chapters destroys the interconnected narrative arc. Still, I’ve learned to hunt up online PDFs or HTML replications of these works because today’s editors think they know what I want, and they are wrong.
“Tom Tiddler’s Ground” is worth a read if you’re a Dickens fan; and since each chapter is mostly self-contained, you can get away with reading just the stories he wrote if you’re less obsessive than I am. Each story has its own charm and interest, though none is timeless and each flows with the gentler pace of a slower time. If you’re tired of the speed of this world, then make yourself a hot cuppa, turn off your TikTok brain, and settle into a long-ago time that (despite a lack of social media) wrestled just as much as we do today with questions of isolation, interconnection, community, and what it means to be human.
December 3, 2020
My review
A strange book. It is based on the true story of a hermit James Lucas. The debate between the hermit and the traveller is too long; the story then jumps from chapter 1 to chapter 6!; The traveller meets a little girl; and finally he goes to a pub with a tinker. But it still has some of the Dickens magic.
A strange book. It is based on the true story of a hermit James Lucas. The debate between the hermit and the traveller is too long; the story then jumps from chapter 1 to chapter 6!; The traveller meets a little girl; and finally he goes to a pub with a tinker. But it still has some of the Dickens magic.
September 3, 2022
As ever Dickens creates some very colourful characters here. he writes the story well. There is a little in coherency in the series of event; apparently a couple of the chapter were written by someone else. But it's still worth looking at these lesser know works by Dickens.
December 23, 2020
Es un libro atípico de Charles Dickens, se desarrolla en parte en Francia y en USA, mucha aventura, lo leí de niño pero recuerdo aventuras en el viejo Oeste, indios, bandidos etc.
March 6, 2014
Allegedly this contains an Outline of the visit Charles Dickens made to Hertfordshire to talk with famous recluse James Lucas.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 20, 2012
In this story, Dickens gives an excellent and spot-on description of a hermit. He shows much empathy and identification with a lonely child (perhaps shades of his own childhood?)- fear escalating, noises magnified. I found the ending rather abrupt.
January 2, 2009
Not among my favorite Dicken's Christmas stories.
April 13, 2016
Скучная английская классика с хорошей моралью.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews