January 1790

January 1790 provides the historical setting for a scene of isolation in London: in the aftermath of a severe plague outbreak, fear of infection has made people reluctant to offer shelter, leaving a child to experience the town’s indifference at close quarters.

Historical Setting

The narration situates the scene in January 1790, shortly after London had endured a somewhat severe outbreak of plague. Fear of taking in sick vagabonds had diminished hospitality, and residents avoided even opening their windows lest they inhale infection. The date therefore marks more than a winter setting: it locates the child’s rejection within a particular climate of public fear.

The Hour in the Scene

At three o’clock, the old belfry of St. Nicholas tolls behind the child. The sound is followed by silence, while the surrounding inhabitants remain shut away. The passage links the measured hour to the child’s growing sense of abandonment: the town is not an empty wilderness but a place full of life from which he receives no welcome.

Narrative Significance

The scene contrasts the coldness of the night with what the child experiences as the deliberate coldness of people. The plague helps explain the residents’ caution, but the narration emphasizes the cost of that caution to someone left without shelter. January 1790 thus anchors a moment in which historical circumstance and personal misery meet: fear closes the windows, and the tolling hour makes that refusal feel like a declaration of indifference.