Live toys

In Short

Emma Davenport's memoir chronicles the domestic life of two young Victorian siblings through their intimate, often volatile relationships with an array of pets. Set across military barracks, French seaports, and rural English properties, the narrative follows a succession of rabbits, birds, donkeys, and dogs. Rather than romanticizing animal keeping, the work records both the delight of companionship and the inevitable heartbreak of loss. It survives as a vivid document of nineteenth-century childhood, balancing gentle moral guidance on animal welfare with an unflinching look at the hazards facing captive creatures.

The Story

The chronicle unfolds through the recollections of a sister and brother growing up under the guidance of their parents. Their domestic life is defined by a constantly revolving procession of "live toys," beginning with caged birds and domestic rabbits. In a French seaport town, the children nag their mother while walking the animal market along the quays, surrounded by screaming macaws, white mice, and chattering monkeys. Their persuasion yields a grey parrot, whom they proudly shelter and attempt to educate, though the bird eventually succumbs to a fatal series of head injuries from tumbling off perches and falling out of windows.

As the family moves between military stations, garrisons, and country homes, the children’s animal collection expands to match their surroundings. A gift of money from an aunt prompts the purchase of a donkey named Neddy, who grazes in a waste field beside the Barrack Square. However, when the father is stationed at a river fort in Ireland, Neddy steadfastly refuses to cross a narrow plank bridge over a moat, forcing the family to give him up. Other creatures require different compromises; a wild rabbit named Bunny is released into a fir-wood to avoid the destruction of the mother's prized flowerbeds, while a captured sparrow-hawk terrorizes a resident jackdaw before breaking its chain.

Tragedy frequently intersects with their affection. A beloved canary meets a violent end at the claws of a barrack cat while the family is away, leaving only an empty cage. A hedgehog brought in to manage garden pests is killed by Tawney, the children's energetic terrier; a second hedgehog, gifted to a neighbor to clear a kitchen infested with black beetles, dies rapidly from overeating its prey.

Despite these losses, the children's lives are brightened by the mischievous instincts of their larger pets. Their Shetland pony, Bluebeard, routinely tosses the narrator over his head, rolls in the straw to avoid his harness, and bites a groom on the chest. Meanwhile, Tawney instigates chaotic multi-dog brawls in railway baggage cars and fearlessly leaps into rough ocean surf after thrown sticks. The narrative concludes with Joe, a lively German dog brought home through London, who forms an amusing alliance with the house cat, chases yard poultry, and is eventually humbled when an aggressive rooster leaps onto his back and pecks him into submission.

How It Unfolds

The seaport market Visiting a French harbor city, the children marvel at the exotic creatures for sale along the quay and successfully convince their mother to buy a grey parrot.

The stubborn donkey After purchasing a donkey with gift money, the children enjoy riding him until a relocation to an Irish fort reveals his absolute refusal to cross a wooden bridge over a moat.

Return to the wild Recognizing that keeping a wild rabbit caged or in the garden is cruel, the family drives to a sunlit fir-wood and releases the animal into a colony of burrowing rabbits.

Territory in the garden A wild sparrow-hawk brought home in a paper bag terrorizes the children's pet jackdaw until the hawk breaks its chain and sits atop the dining room bookcase.

Battles and beetles The terrier Tawney kills a pet hedgehog in the garden, leading the father to transfer a second hedgehog to a neighbor's beetle-infested kitchen, where it promptly eats itself to death.

Chaos in transit During a train journey to the coast, Tawney incites a violent brawl inside a wooden dog-box, forcing officials to separate the fighting animals by their tails and legs.

The defiant pony The children struggle to control Bluebeard, a headstrong Shetland pony who pitches his riders into the road and bites the groom to escape his daily work.

A lesson from the coop After traveling to London, a playful German dog named Joe makes peace with the resident cat but gets thoroughly beaten by a courageous rooster he tried to tease.

The People

The Narrator and Her Brother Driven by an eagerness to adopt every animal they encounter, the young siblings view pets as sources of endless entertainment. Their enthusiasm is frequently tempered by the harsh realities of pet care, as they learn to navigate the frustration of stubborn animals and the grief of sudden losses.

Mamma Practical and protective, Mamma serves as the voice of reason within the household. She repeatedly sets firm boundaries—refusing to buy ill-tempered monkeys, denying the rabbit access to her flowerbeds, and demanding proper discipline when the pony bites the groom.

Papa Resourceful and accommodating, Papa facilitates the children's ambitions by finding grazing land in barrack yards, securing permission to keep animals in military forts, and presenting the children with new pets like the retriever Drake and the troublesome sparrow-hawk.

Bluebeard A headstrong Shetland pony who fiercely guards his independence. Bluebeard delights in disrupting his daily routine by sprawling in the straw, dragging his young riders toward his preferred routes, and dumping the narrator into the dirt when contradicted.

Tawney A fearless, highly excitable terrier whose boundless energy repeatedly lands him in trouble. He spent his days fighting other dogs in transport boxes, hunting rats in haystacks, confronting garden hedgehogs, and plunging into rough ocean waves without hesitation.

In Its Own Voice

"When we returned home, there was nothing but the empty cage."

Left behind in a barrack kitchen during a family visit, a pet bird falls victim to a stray cat.

"I put it on my head and the bridle round my waist, and my sister drove me, and pretended I was a donkey."

The children joyfully anticipate a ride on their newly acquired donkey while carrying his tack to the fort.

"Bunny soon put up his head, snuffed the sunny sweet air, and glanced about him in all directions."

A captive rabbit experiences the open expanse of the fir-woods for the first time upon his release.

What It's Really About

Beneath its charming episodic structure, the book investigates the boundary between human dominion and animal autonomy. By labeling pets "live toys," the text highlights a child's natural tendency to view living creatures as playthings, only to systematically dismantle that premise. Through each encounter, the narrative argues that animals possess distinct temperaments, wild instincts, and rights that human owners must respect. It poses difficult questions about the ethics of confinement, contrasting the misery of caged birds and tethered hawks with the joy of creatures granted proper freedom. Ultimately, the story functions as an education in empathy, teaching young readers that loving an animal requires accepting its true nature rather than forcing it to conform to human desires.

Why Read It Today

Modern readers interested in historical juvenile literature and environmental ethics will find a remarkably candid snapshot of Victorian domestic life in this work. Unlike many moralizing children's books of the nineteenth century, it avoids sentimentality, presenting the sudden deaths, behavioral failures, and messy realities of animal ownership with surprising honesty. The writing possesses a crisp, observant momentum, free from complex dialect or tedious instructional lectures, making the prose accessible and engaging.

What lingers most is the book's unvarnished portrayal of childhood vulnerability and resilience. Readers may flinch at historical practices—such as housing hedgehogs in kitchens to eat vermin or carrying wild hawks home in paper bags—yet these details offer an authentic glimpse into how past generations interacted with the natural world. It leaves behind a poignant realization that while human expectations change, the unpredictable, spirited nature of animals remains entirely untamed.