The House the Master Built

This entertaining and original tale is based upon the popular nursery rhyme ‘This is the House that Jack Built’ where the
story cumulates with each verse. This version opens with ‘the Master all forlorn’ followed by ‘the aunts, who little think of Anything but to Eat & drink…’, and the Housekeepers … ‘who all their Duty so little know’. Next come ‘the children noisy & gay who (heartily glad that the Master’s away) …’.

Written anonymously and illustrated in pen and ink over three double-sided sheets folded into a loose-leaf booklet, the tale ends with the line ‘A right Merry Christmas & Happy New Year’ and was signed off at ‘3.30 a.m. Saturday morning’. The final two pages of the booklet are blank.

The booklet is in very good condition though it has once been folded in half, possibly to be inserted into an envelope, so there is a horizontal crease on each page. There is also the occasional ink smudge and a little wear to the page edges.