Tristram Shandy: Book 6: Chapters 21-25 Summary & Analysis

Chapter 21. Tristram claims that if the reader has only their own lack of imagination to blame if they struggle to picture Toby’s bowling green, since Tristram has described it very well. The bowling green had a particularly lucky kind of soil, perfectly suited to Toby’s fortifications. Toby takes every town plan he can get his hands on has Trim build a model to scale on the green. They then build parallels outside it and prepare for the attack, though their parallels often spill over into the garden. Tristram maintains that this description is but a short sketch, and that it would take many more books to detail Toby’s campaigns.

Chapter 22. Toby and Trim do not run their parallels as they please, but closely follow the actual sequence of events in each given siege as told by the newspapers. When the Duke of Marlborough attacks a certain part of the fortifications, Toby and Trim do the same, taking great pleasure in each new victory. This routine keeps Toby and Trim entertained, except when poor winds prevent the delivery of mail from Flanders. Toby begins to add more expensive model bridges and gates, and eventually builds a sentry box to observe the bowling green even when it rains.

Chapter 23. Tristram points out that for the first year of Toby’s campaigns, the model fortifications did not actually surround a model town. By the third year, however, Toby and Trim have added a model town in the style of towns in Flanders, which can be rearranged to represent different towns as the campaign goes on. This town, Tristram explains, has acted more parts than any others since Sodom and Gomorrah. In the fourth year of his campaigns Toby adds a church, and then model cannons. Eventually he adds the mortars made out of Walter’s boots. The following year Toby becomes frustrated that his model cannons will not fire, as the news of the siege of Lisle is full of reports of constant cannon fire. Trim, always a creative inventor, comes up with a clever solution.

Chapter 24. Trim owns a few souvenirs sent to him by his brother Tom, including a Montero cap and two Turkish tobacco pipes. The pipes are not particularly special, one tipped with ivory, one with ebony and silver. Walter believes Tom sent these to Trim to get rid of them, a theory Trim vehemently rejects. The Montero cap, made of high-quality Spanish cloth, is one of Trim’s prized possessions which he only wears on special occasions. Trim, attempting to make Toby’s cannons fire, swears on his Montero cap that he will find a solution. Toby prepares for the attack the next morning very seriously, as it was a bloody battle.  In the morning, Toby takes so long getting fully dressed with his wig and sword that he is half an hour late to the bowling green.

Chapter 25. Coming around the hedge, Toby realizes Trim has already begun the attack. Tristram promises to describe Trim’s invention, pausing first to praise Trim’s genius and mourn his death. Describing Trim’s death, Tristram imagines Toby’s grief, and he prays that he will have the strength to write about such an emotional scene.