The way we were: playtime

1910

Lesley Blanch describes her Edwardian childhood in Chiswick: “In winter during the long, dark evenings that set in around three o’clock, we spent more time indoors at home, sampling simple indoor diversions. As a special treat we were allowed a large, iron-bound box of ancient playthings which had been discovered by my father in some antique-dealer’s cellar. This had a mysterious quality, like its contents: a painted cup and ball, a baby’s silver-gilt rattle…