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diff --git a/25852-h/25852-h.htm b/25852-h/25852-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0e2b4fc --- /dev/null +++ b/25852-h/25852-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,22685 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Letters of Charles Dickens, Vol. 1, edited by Mamie Dickens and Georgina Hogarth. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p {margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + text-indent: 1.25em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + img {border: 0;} + .tnote {border: dashed 1px; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em;} + ins {text-decoration:none; border-bottom: thin dotted gray;} + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + .date {text-align: right;} + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%; text-align: justify;} + + .bbox {border: solid 2px; margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .unindent {margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + .right {text-align: right;} + .poem {margin-left: 30%; margin-right: 10%; text-align: left;} + .poem2 {margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 10%; text-align: left;} + .sig {margin-right: 10%; text-align: right;} + .u {text-decoration: underline;} + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .sidenote {position: absolute; + right: 91%; +width: 10%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; text-align: center; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; margin-left: 1em; + float: right; margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; color: black; background: 0; border: solid 1px;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align:baseline; + position: relative; + bottom: 0.33em; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: none;} + .hang1 {text-indent: -3em; margin-left: 3em;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's The Letters of Charles Dickens, by Charles Dickens + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Letters of Charles Dickens + Vol. 1 (of 3), 1833-1856 + +Author: Charles Dickens + +Editor: Mamie Dickens + Georgina Hogarth + +Release Date: June 20, 2008 [EBook #25852] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LETTERS OF CHARLES DICKENS *** + + + + +Produced by Susan Skinner, Emmy and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[iii]</a></span></p> +<h1>THE LETTERS</h1> + +<h3>OF</h3> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/1title_sig.png" width="400" height="167" alt="HW: Charles Dickens" title="HW: Charles Dickens" /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[iv]</a></span></p> +<h1>THE LETTERS</h1> + +<h3>OF</h3> + +<h1>CHARLES DICKENS.</h1> + +<h4>EDITED BY</h4> + +<h3>HIS SISTER-IN-LAW AND HIS ELDEST DAUGHTER.</h3> + +<h4>In Two Volumes.</h4> + +<div class='center'><br /><br />VOL. I.<br /> + +1833 to 1856.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + +<b>London:</b><br /> +CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY.<br /> +1880.<br /> +<small>[<i>The Right of Translation is Reserved.</i>]</small></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span></p> + +<div class='center'><small>CHARLES DICKENS AND EVANS,</small><br /> +<small>CRYSTAL PALACE PRESS.</small></div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[vi]</a></span></p> + +<div class='center'> +TO<br /> +<br /> +<big>KATE PERUGINI,</big><br /> +<br /> +THIS MEMORIAL OF HER FATHER<br /> +<br /> +<small>IS LOVINGLY INSCRIBED</small><br /> +<br /> +BY HER AUNT AND SISTER.</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span></p> + +<h2>PREFACE.</h2> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>We</span> intend this Collection of Letters to be a Supplement +to the "Life of Charles Dickens," by John Forster. That +work, perfect and exhaustive as a biography, is only incomplete +as regards correspondence; the scheme of the +book having made it impossible to include in its space +any letters, or hardly any, besides those addressed to +Mr. Forster. As no man ever expressed <i>himself</i> more +in his letters than Charles Dickens, we believe that in +publishing this careful selection from his general correspondence +we shall be supplying a want which has been +universally felt.</div> + +<p>Our request for the loan of letters was so promptly +and fully responded to, that we have been provided with +more than sufficient material for our work. By arranging +the letters in chronological order, we find that they +very frequently explain themselves and form a narrative +of the events of each year. Our collection dates from +1833, the commencement of Charles Dickens's literary +life, just before the starting of the "Pickwick Papers," +and is carried on up to the day before his death, in 1870.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a></span></p> + +<p>We find some difficulty in being quite accurate in the +arrangements of letters up to the end of 1839, for he had +a careless habit in those days about dating his letters, +very frequently putting only the day of the week on +which he wrote, curiously in contrast with the habit of +his later life, when his dates were always of the very +fullest.</p> + +<p>A blank is made in Charles Dickens's correspondence +with his family by the absence of any letter addressed to +his daughter Kate (Mrs. Perugini), to her great regret +and to ours. In 1873, her furniture and other possessions +were stored in the warehouse of the Pantechnicon at the +time of the great fire there. All her property was +destroyed, and, among other things, a box of papers which +included her letters from her father.</p> + +<p>It was our intention as well as our desire to have +thanked, individually, every one—both living friends and +representatives of dead ones—for their readiness to give +us every possible help to make our work complete. But +the number of such friends, besides correspondents +hitherto unknown, who have volunteered contributions +of letters, make it impossible in our space to do otherwise +than to express, collectively, our earnest and heartfelt +thanks.</p> + +<p>A separate word of gratitude, however, must be given +by us to Mr. Wilkie Collins for the invaluable help which +we have received from his great knowledge and experience, +in the technical part of our work, and for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[ix]</a></span> +deep interest which he has shown from the beginning, +in our undertaking.</p> + +<p>It is a great pleasure to us to have the name of +Henry Fielding Dickens associated with this book. To +him, for the very important assistance he has given in +making our Index, we return our loving thanks.</p> + +<p>In writing our explanatory notes we have, we hope, +left nothing out which in any way requires explanation +from us. But we have purposely made them as short +as possible; our great desire being to give to the public +another book from Charles Dickens's own hands—as it +were, a portrait of himself by himself.</p> + +<p>Those letters which need no explanation—and of +those we have many—we give without a word from us.</p> + +<p>In publishing the more private letters, we do so with +the view of showing him in his homely, domestic life—of +showing how in the midst of his own constant and arduous +work, no household matter was considered too trivial to +claim his care and attention. He would take as much +pains about the hanging of a picture, the choosing of +furniture, the superintending any little improvement in +the house, as he would about the more serious business +of his life; thus carrying out to the very letter his +favourite motto of "What is worth doing at all is worth +doing well."</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span class="smcap">Mamie Dickens.</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Georgina Hogarth.</span><br /> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">London</span>: <i>October</i>, 1879.</p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[x]</a></span></p> + +<h2>ERRATA.</h2> + +<h3>VOL. I.</h3> + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Errata"> +<tr><td align='left'>Page</td><td align='left'>111,</td><td align='left'> line 6. For "because if I hear of you," <i>read</i> "because I hear of you."</td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'> 114,</td><td align='left'> line 24. For "any old end," <i>read</i> "or any old end."</td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left' valign='top'> 137.</td><td align='left'> First paragraph, second sentence, <i>should read</i>, "All the ancient part of Rome is wonderful and impressive in the extreme, far beyond the possibility of exaggeration. As to the," etc.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'> 456,</td><td align='left'> line 11. For "Mr." <i>read</i> "Mrs."</td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[xi]</a></span></p> +<h2>Book I.</h2> + +<h3>1833 <span class="smcap">to</span> 1842.</h3> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p> + +<h3>THE</h3> + +<h2>LETTERS OF CHARLES DICKENS.</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>1833 <span class="smcap">or</span> 1834, <span class="smcap">and</span> 1835, 1836.</h2> + +<h3>NARRATIVE.</h3> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>We</span> have been able to procure so few early letters of any +general interest that we put these first years together. +Charles Dickens was then living, as a bachelor, in Furnival's +Inn, and was engaged as a parliamentary reporter on +<i>The Morning Chronicle</i>. The "Sketches by Boz" were +written during these years, published first in "The Monthly +Magazine" and continued in <i>The Evening Chronicle</i>. He +was engaged to be married to Catherine Hogarth in 1835—the +marriage took place on the 2nd April, 1836; and he +continued to live in Furnival's Inn with his wife for more +than a year after their marriage. They passed the summer +months of that year in a lodging at Chalk, near Gravesend, +in the neighbourhood associated with all his life, from his +childhood to his death. The two letters which we publish, +addressed to his wife as Miss Hogarth, have no date, but +were written in 1835. The first of the two refers to the +offer made to him by Chapman and Hall to edit a monthly +periodical, the emolument (which he calls "too tempting to +resist!") to be fourteen pounds a month. The bargain was +concluded, and this was the starting of "The Pickwick +Papers." The first number was published in March, 1836.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span> +The second letter to Miss Hogarth was written after he had +completed three numbers of "Pickwick," and the character +who is to "make a decided hit" is "Jingle."</div> + +<p>The first letter of this book is addressed to Henry +Austin, a friend from his boyhood, who afterwards married +his second sister Letitia. It bears no date, but must have +been written in 1833 or 1834, during the early days of his +reporting for <i>The Morning Chronicle</i>; the journey on which +he was "ordered" being for that paper.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Henry +Austin.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class='smcap'>Furnivall's Inn</span>, <i>Wednesday Night, past 12.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">Dear Henry</span>,</div> + +<p>I have just been ordered on a journey, the length of +which is at present uncertain. I may be back on Sunday +very probably, and start again on the following day. Should +this be the case, you shall hear from me before.</p> + +<p>Don't laugh. I am going (alone) in a gig; and, to +quote the eloquent inducement which the proprietors of +Hampstead <i>chays</i> hold out to Sunday riders—"the gen'l'm'n +drives himself." I am going into Essex and Suffolk. It +strikes me I shall be spilt before I pay a turnpike. I have +a presentiment I shall run over an only child before I reach +Chelmsford, my first stage.</p> + +<p>Let the evident haste of this specimen of "The Polite +Letter Writer" be its excuse, and</p> + +<p>Believe me, dear Henry, most sincerely yours,</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/2signature.png" width="400" height="89" alt="Signature: Charles Dickens" title="Signature: Charles Dickens" /> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Note</span>.—To avoid the monotony of a constant repetition, we propose to dispense with +the signature at the close of each letter, excepting to the first and last letters of our +collection. Charles Dickens's handwriting altered so much during these years of his life, +that we have thought it advisable to give a facsimile of his autograph to this our first +letter; and we reproduce in the same way his latest autograph<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span>.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Furnival's Inn</span>, <i>Wednesday Evening, 1835.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dearest Kate</span>,</div> + +<p>The House is up; but I am very sorry to say that I +must stay at home. I have had a visit from the publishers +this morning, and the story cannot be any longer delayed; +it must be done to-morrow, as there are more important +considerations than the mere payment for the story involved +too. I must exercise a little self-denial, and set to work.</p> + +<p>They (Chapman and Hall) have made me an offer of +fourteen pounds a month, to write and edit a new publication +they contemplate, entirely by myself, to be published +monthly, and each number to contain four woodcuts. I am +to make my estimate and calculation, and to give them a +decisive answer on Friday morning. The work will be no +joke, but the emolument is too tempting to resist.</p> + +<div class='center'><b>* * * * * *</b></div> + +<div class="sidenote">The same.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /><i>Sunday Evening.</i></div> + +<div class='center'><b>* * * * * *</b></div> + +<p>I have at this moment got Pickwick and his friends on +the Rochester coach, and they are going on swimmingly, +in company with a very different character from any I have +yet described, who I flatter myself will make a decided hit. +I want to get them from the ball to the inn before I go to +bed; and I think that will take me until one or two o'clock +at the earliest. The publishers will be here in the morning, +so you will readily suppose I have no alternative but to +stick at my desk.</p> + +<div class='center'><b>* * * * * *</b></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span></p> +<h2>1837.</h2> + +<h3>NARRATIVE.</h3> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>From</span> the commencement of "The Pickwick Papers," and +of Charles Dickens's married life, dates the commencement +of his literary life and his sudden world-wide fame. And +this year saw the beginning of many of those friendships +which he most valued, and of which he had most reason to +be proud, and which friendships were ended only by death.</div> + +<p>The first letters which we have been able to procure to +Mr. Macready and Mr. Harley will be found under this date. +In January, 1837, he was living in Furnival's Inn, where +his first child, a son, was born. It was an eventful year to +him in many ways. He removed from Furnival's Inn to +Doughty Street in March, and here he sustained the first +great grief of his life. His young sister-in-law, Mary +Hogarth, to whom he was devotedly attached, died very +suddenly, at his house, on the 7th May. In the autumn +of this year he took lodgings at Broadstairs. This was +his first visit to that pleasant little watering-place, of which +he became very fond, and whither he removed for the +autumn months with all his household, for many years in +succession.</p> + +<p>Besides the monthly numbers of "Pickwick," which +were going on through this year until November, when the +last number appeared, he had commenced "Oliver Twist," +which was appearing also monthly, in the magazine called +"Bentley's Miscellany," long before "Pickwick" was +completed. And during this year he had edited, for +Mr. Bentley, "The Life of Grimaldi," the celebrated +clown. To this book he wrote himself only the preface, +and altered and rearranged the autobiographical MS. +which was in Mr. Bentley's possession.</p> + +<p>The letter to Mr. Harley, which bears no date, but must +have been written either in 1836 or 1837, refers to a farce +called "The Strange Gentleman" (founded on one of the +"Sketches," called the "Great Winglebury Duel"), which he +wrote expressly for Mr. Harley, and which was produced<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span> +at the St. James's Theatre, under the management of +Mr. Braham. The only other piece which he wrote for that +theatre was the story of an operetta, called "The Village +Coquettes," the music of which was composed by Mr. John +Hullah.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. J. P. +Harley.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +48, <span class="smcap">Doughty Street</span>, <i>Saturday Morning.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My Dear Sir</span>,</div> + +<p>I have considered the terms on which I could afford +just now to sell Mr. Braham the acting copyright in London +of an entirely new piece for the St. James's Theatre; and +I could not sit down to write one in a single act of about +one hour long, under a hundred pounds. For a new piece +in two acts, a hundred and fifty pounds would be the sum +I should require.</p> + +<p>I do not know whether, with reference to arrangements +that were made with any other writers, this may or +may not appear a large item. I state it merely with regard +to the value of my own time and writings at this moment; +and in so doing I assure you I place the remuneration +below the mark rather than above it.</p> + +<p>As you begged me to give you my reply upon this +point, perhaps you will lay it before Mr. Braham. If these +terms exceed his inclination or the ability of the theatre, +there is an end of the matter, and no harm done.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Believe me ever faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +48, <span class="smcap">Doughty Street</span>, <i>Wednesday Evening.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My Dear Sir</span>,</div> + +<p>There is a semi-business, semi-pleasure little dinner +which I intend to give at The Prince of Wales, in +Leicester Place, Leicester Square, on Saturday, at five for +half-past precisely, at which only Talfourd, Forster, Ainsworth, +Jerdan, and the publishers will be present. It is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> +to celebrate (that is too great a word, but I can think of +no better) the conclusion of my "Pickwick" labours; and +so I intend, before you take that roll upon the grass +you spoke of, to beg your acceptance of one of the first +complete copies of the work. I shall be much delighted if +you would join us.</p> + +<p>I know too well the many anxieties that press upon +you just now to seek to persuade you to come if you would +prefer a night's repose and quiet. Let me assure you, notwithstanding, +most honestly and heartily that there is no +one I should be more happy or gratified to see, and that +among your brilliant circle of well-wishers and admirers you +number none more unaffectedly and faithfully yours than,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +My dear Sir, yours most truly.<br /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>1838.</h2> + +<h3>NARRATIVE.</h3> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>In</span> February of this year Charles Dickens made an expedition +with his friend, and the illustrator of most of his books, +Mr. Hablot K. Browne ("Phiz"), to investigate for himself +the real facts as to the condition of the Yorkshire schools, +and it may be observed that portions of a letter to his +wife, dated Greta Bridge, Yorkshire, which will be found +among the following letters, were reproduced in "Nicholas +Nickleby." In the early summer he had a cottage at +Twickenham Park. In August and September he was +again at Broadstairs; and in the late autumn he made +another bachelor excursion—Mr. Browne being again his +companion—in England, which included his first visit to +Stratford-on-Avon and Kenilworth. In February appeared +the first number of "Nicholas Nickleby," on which work +he was engaged all through the year, writing each number +ready for the following month, and never being in advance, +as was his habit with all his other periodical works, until +his very latest ones.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span></div> + +<p>The first letter which appears under this date, from +Twickenham Park, is addressed to Mr. Thomas Mitton, a +schoolfellow at one of his earliest schools, and afterwards +for some years his solicitor. The letter contains instructions +for his first will; the friend of almost his whole life, +Mr. John Forster, being appointed executor to this will as +he was to the last, to which he was "called upon to act" +only three years before his own death.</p> + +<p>The letter which we give in this year to Mr. Justice +Talfourd is, unfortunately, the only one we have been able +to procure to that friend, who was, however, one with +whom he was most intimately associated, and with whom +he maintained a constant correspondence.</p> + +<p>The letter beginning "Respected Sir" was an answer +to a little boy (Master Hastings Hughes), who had written +to him as "Nicholas Nickleby" approached completion, +stating his views and wishes as to the rewards and punishments +to be bestowed on the various characters in the book. +The letter was sent to him through the Rev. Thomas +Barham, author of "The Ingoldsby Legends."</p> + +<p>The two letters to Mr. Macready, at the end of this year, +refer to a farce which Charles Dickens wrote, with an idea +that it might be suitable for Covent Garden Theatre, then +under Mr. Macready's management.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Charles +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Greta Bridge</span>, <i>Thursday, Feb. 1st, 1838.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dearest Kate</span>,</div> + +<p>I am afraid you will receive this later than I could +wish, as the mail does not come through this place until two +o'clock to-morrow morning. However, I have availed +myself of the very first opportunity of writing, so the fault +is that mail's, and not this.</p> + +<p>We reached Grantham between nine and ten on Thursday +night, and found everything prepared for our reception +in the very best inn I have ever put up at. It is odd<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> +enough that an old lady, who had been outside all day and +came in towards dinner time, turned out to be the mistress +of a Yorkshire school returning from the holiday stay in +London. She was a very queer old lady, and showed us a +long letter she was carrying to one of the boys from his +father, containing a severe lecture (enforced and aided by +many texts of Scripture) on his refusing to eat boiled meat. +She was very communicative, drank a great deal of brandy +and water, and towards evening became insensible, in which +state we left her.</p> + +<p>Yesterday we were up again shortly after seven <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>, +came on upon our journey by the Glasgow mail, which +charged us the remarkably low sum of six pounds fare for +two places inside. We had a very droll male companion +until seven o'clock in the evening, and a most delicious +lady's-maid for twenty miles, who implored us to keep a +sharp look-out at the coach-windows, as she expected the +carriage was coming to meet her and she was afraid of +missing it. We had many delightful vauntings of the same +kind; but in the end it is scarcely necessary to say that the +coach did not come, but a very dirty girl did.</p> + +<p>As we came further north the mire grew deeper. About +eight o'clock it began to fall heavily, and, as we crossed the +wild heaths hereabout, there was no vestige of a track. The +mail kept on well, however, and at eleven we reached a +bare place with a house standing alone in the midst of a +dreary moor, which the guard informed us was Greta Bridge. +I was in a perfect agony of apprehension, for it was fearfully +cold, and there were no outward signs of anybody +being up in the house. But to our great joy we discovered +a comfortable room, with drawn curtains and a most blazing +fire. In half an hour they gave us a smoking supper and +a bottle of mulled port (in which we drank your health),<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> +and then we retired to a couple of capital bedrooms, +in each of which there was a rousing fire halfway up the +chimney.</p> + +<p>We have had for breakfast, toast, cakes, a Yorkshire pie, +a piece of beef about the size and much the shape of my +portmanteau, tea, coffee, ham, and eggs; and are now going +to look about us. Having finished our discoveries, we start +in a postchaise for Barnard Castle, which is only four miles +off, and there I deliver the letter given me by Mitton's +friend. All the schools are round about that place, and a +dozen old abbeys besides, which we shall visit by some means +or other to-morrow. We shall reach York on Saturday +I hope, and (God willing) I trust I shall be at home on +Wednesday morning.</p> + +<p>I wish you would call on Mrs. Bentley and thank her for +the letter; you can tell her when I expect to be in York.</p> + +<p>A thousand loves and kisses to the darling boy, whom I +see in my mind's eye crawling about the floor of this Yorkshire +inn. Bless his heart, I would give two sovereigns for +a kiss. Remember me too to Frederick, who I hope is +attentive to you.</p> + +<p>Is it not extraordinary that the same dreams which have +constantly visited me since poor Mary died follow me everywhere? +After all the change of scene and fatigue, I have +dreamt of her ever since I left home, and no doubt shall till +I return. I should be sorry to lose such visions, for they +are very happy ones, if it be only the seeing her in one's +sleep. I would fain believe, too, sometimes, that her spirit +may have some influence over them, but their perpetual +repetition is extraordinary.</p> + +<p>Love to all friends.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 6em;">Ever, my dear Kate,</span><br /> +Your affectionate Husband.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Thomas +Mitton.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Twickenham Park</span>, <i>Tuesday Night.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">Dear Tom</span>,</div> + +<p>I sat down this morning and put on paper my +testamentary meaning. Whether it is sufficiently legal +or not is another question, but I hope it is. The rough +draft of the clauses which I enclose will be preceded by +as much of the fair copy as I send you, and followed by +the usual clause about the receipts of the trustees being +a sufficient discharge. I also wish to provide that if all +our children should die before twenty-one, and Kate married +again, half the surplus should go to her and half to my +surviving brothers and sisters, share and share alike.</p> + +<p>This will be all, except a few lines I wish to add +which there will be no occasion to consult you about, as +they will merely bear reference to a few tokens of remembrance +and one or two slight funeral directions. +And so pray God that you may be gray, and Forster +bald, long before you are called upon to act as my +executors.</p> + +<p>I suppose I shall see you at the water-party on +Thursday? We will then make an appointment for +Saturday morning, and if you think my clauses will do, I +will complete my copy, seal it up, and leave it in your +hands. There are some other papers which you ought to +have. We must get a box.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Serjeant +Talfourd, +M.P.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Twickenham Park</span>, <i>Sunday, July 15th, 1838.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Talfourd</span>,</div> + +<p>I cannot tell you how much pleasure I have derived +from the receipt of your letter. I have heard little of +you, and seen less, for so long a time, that your handwriting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> +came like the renewal of some old friendship, +and gladdened my eyes like the face of some old friend.</p> + +<p>If I hear from Lady Holland before you return, I +shall, as in duty bound, present myself at her bidding; +but between you and me and the general post, I hope +she may not renew her invitation until I can visit her +with you, as I would much rather avail myself of your +personal introduction. However, whatever her ladyship +may do I shall respond to, and anyway shall be only too +happy to avail myself of what I am sure cannot fail to +form a very pleasant and delightful introduction.</p> + +<p>Your kind invitation and reminder of the subject of a +pleasant conversation in one of our pleasant rides, has +thrown a gloom over the brightness of Twickenham, for +here I am chained. It is indispensably necessary that +"Oliver Twist" should be published in three volumes, in +September next. I have only just begun the last one, +and, having the constant drawback of my monthly work, +shall be sadly harassed to get it finished in time, especially +as I have several very important scenes (important to the +story I mean) yet to write. Nothing would give me so +much pleasure as to be with you for a week or so. I +can only imperfectly console myself with the hope that +when you see "Oliver" you will like the close of the +book, and approve my self-denial in staying here to write +it. I should like to know your address in Scotland when +you leave town, so that I may send you the earliest copy +if it be produced in the vacation, which I pray Heaven +it may.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, believe that though my body is on the banks +of the Thames, half my heart is going the Oxford circuit.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Dickens and Charley desire their best remembrances +(the latter expresses some anxiety, not unmixed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> +with apprehension, relative to the Copyright Bill, in which +he conceives himself interested), with hearty wishes that +you may have a fine autumn, which is all you want, being +sure of all other means of enjoyment that a man can have.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">I am, my dear Talfourd,</span><br /> +Ever faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—I hope you are able to spare a moment now and +then to glance at "Nicholas Nickleby," and that you have +as yet found no reason to alter the opinion you formed on +the appearance of the first number.</p> + +<p>You know, I suppose, that they elected me at the +Athenæum? Pray thank Mr. Serjeant Storks for me.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Charles +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Lion Hotel, Shrewsbury</span>, <i>Thursday, Nov. 1st, 1838.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dearest Love</span>,</div> + +<p>I received your welcome letter on arriving here last +night, and am rejoiced to hear that the dear children are so +much better. I hope that in your next, or your next but +one, I shall learn that they are quite well. A thousand +kisses to them. I wish I could convey them myself.</p> + +<p>We found a roaring fire, an elegant dinner, a snug room, +and capital beds all ready for us at Leamington, after a +very agreeable (but very cold) ride. We started in a postchaise +next morning for Kenilworth, with which we were +both enraptured, and where I really think we MUST have +lodgings next summer, please God that we are in good +health and all goes well. You cannot conceive how delightful +it is. To read among the ruins in fine weather +would be perfect luxury. From here we went on to +Warwick Castle, which is an ancient building, newly +restored, and possessing no very great attraction beyond +a fine view and some beautiful pictures; and thence to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> +Stratford-upon-Avon, where we sat down in the room +where Shakespeare was born, and left our autographs +and read those of other people and so forth.</p> + +<p>We remained at Stratford all night, and found to our +unspeakable dismay that father's plan of proceeding by +Bridgenorth was impracticable, as there were no coaches. +So we were compelled to come here by way of Birmingham +and Wolverhampton, starting at eight o'clock through +a cold wet fog, and travelling, when the day had cleared up, +through miles of cinder-paths and blazing furnaces, and +roaring steam-engines, and such a mass of dirt, gloom, and +misery as I never before witnessed. We got pretty well +accommodated here when we arrived at half-past four, and +are now going off in a postchaise to Llangollen—thirty +miles—where we shall remain to-night, and where the +Bangor mail will take us up to-morrow. Such are our +movements up to this point, and when I have received your +letter at Chester I shall write to you again and tell you +when I shall be back. I can say positively that I shall +not exceed the fortnight, and I think it very possible that +I may return a day or two before it expires.</p> + +<p>We were at the play last night. It was a bespeak—"The +Love Chase," a ballet (with a phenomenon!), divers +songs, and "A Roland for an Oliver." It is a good theatre, +but the actors are very funny. Browne laughed with such +indecent heartiness at one point of the entertainment, that +an old gentleman in the next box suffered the most violent +indignation. The bespeak party occupied two boxes, the +ladies were full-dressed, and the gentlemen, to a man, in +white gloves with flowers in their button-holes. It amused +us mightily, and was really as like the Miss Snevellicci +business as it could well be.</p> + +<p>My side has been very bad since I left home, although<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> +I have been very careful not to drink much, remaining to +the full as abstemious as usual, and have not eaten any +great quantity, having no appetite. I suffered such an +ecstasy of pain all night at Stratford that I was half dead +yesterday, and was obliged last night to take a dose of +henbane. The effect was most delicious. I slept soundly, +and without feeling the least uneasiness, and am a great +deal better this morning; neither do I find that the henbane +has affected my head, which, from the great effect it +had upon me—exhilarating me to the most extraordinary +degree, and yet keeping me sleepy—I feared it would. If +I had not got better I should have turned back to Birmingham, +and come straight home by the railroad. As it +is, I hope I shall make out the trip.</p> + +<p>God bless you, my darling. I long to be back with you +again and to see the sweet Babs.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Your faithful and most affectionate Husband.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Master +Hastings +Hughes.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Doughty Street, London</span>, <i>Dec. 12th, 1838.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">Respected Sir</span>,</div> + +<p>I have given Squeers one cut on the neck and two +on the head, at which he appeared much surprised and +began to cry, which, being a cowardly thing, is just what I +should have expected from him—wouldn't you?</p> + +<p>I have carefully done what you told me in your letter +about the lamb and the two "sheeps" for the little boys. +They have also had some good ale and porter, and some +wine. I am sorry you didn't say <i>what</i> wine you would like +them to have. I gave them some sherry, which they liked +very much, except one boy, who was a little sick and choked +a good deal. He was rather greedy, and that's the truth, +and I believe it went the wrong way, which I say served +him right, and I hope you will say so too.</p> + +<p>Nicholas had his roast lamb, as you said he was to, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> +he could not eat it all, and says if you do not mind his +doing so he should like to have the rest hashed to-morrow +with some greens, which he is very fond of, and so am I. +He said he did not like to have his porter hot, for he +thought it spoilt the flavour, so I let him have it cold. +You should have seen him drink it. I thought he never +would have left off. I also gave him three pounds of +money, all in sixpences, to make it seem more, and he said +directly that he should give more than half to his mamma +and sister, and divide the rest with poor Smike. And I +say he is a good fellow for saying so; and if anybody says +he isn't I am ready to fight him whenever they like—there!</p> + +<p>Fanny Squeers shall be attended to, depend upon it. +Your drawing of her is very like, except that I don't think +the hair is quite curly enough. The nose is particularly +like hers, and so are the legs. She is a nasty disagreeable +thing, and I know it will make her very cross when she +sees it; and what I say is that I hope it may. You will +say the same I know—at least I think you will.</p> + +<p>I meant to have written you a long letter, but I cannot +write very fast when I like the person I am writing to, +because that makes me think about them, and I like you, +and so I tell you. Besides, it is just eight o'clock at night, +and I always go to bed at eight o'clock, except when it is +my birthday, and then I sit up to supper. So I will not +say anything more besides this—and that is my love to +you and Neptune; and if you will drink my health every +Christmas Day I will drink yours—come.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 11em;">I am,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 6em;">Respected Sir,</span><br /> +Your affectionate Friend.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—I don't write my name very plain, but you know +what it is you know, so never mind<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span>.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Doughty Street</span>, <i>Monday Morning.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>I have not seen you for the past week, because I +hoped when we next met to bring "The Lamplighter" in +my hand. It would have been finished by this time, but +I found myself compelled to set to work first at the +"Nickleby" on which I am at present engaged, and +which I regret to say—after my close and arduous application +last month—I find I cannot write as quickly as +usual. I must finish it, at latest, by the 24th (a doubtful +comfort!), and the instant I have done so I will apply +myself to the farce. I am afraid to name any particular +day, but I pledge myself that you shall have it this +month, and you may calculate on that promise. I send +you with this a copy of a farce I wrote for Harley when +he left Drury Lane, and in which he acted for some +seventy nights. It is the best thing he does. It is +barely possible you might like to try it. Any local or +temporary allusions could be easily altered.</p> + +<p>Believe me that I only feel gratified and flattered by +your inquiry after the farce, and that if I had as much +time as I have inclination, I would write on and on and +on, farce after farce and comedy after comedy, until I +wrote you something that would run. You do me justice +when you give me credit for good intentions; but the +extent of my good-will and strong and warm interest in +you personally and your great undertaking, you cannot +fathom nor express.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Believe me, my dear Macready,</span><br /> +Ever faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—For Heaven's sake don't fancy that I hold "The +Strange Gentleman" in any estimation, or have a wish upon +the subject<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +48, <span class="smcap">Doughty Street</span>, <i>December 13th, 1838.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>I can have but one opinion on the subject—withdraw +the farce at once, by all means.</p> + +<p>I perfectly concur in all you say, and thank you most +heartily and cordially for your kind and manly conduct, +which is only what I should have expected from you; +though, under such circumstances, I sincerely believe there +are few but you—if any—who would have adopted it.</p> + +<p>Believe me that I have no other feeling of disappointment +connected with this matter but that arising from the +not having been able to be of some use to you. And trust +me that, if the opportunity should ever arrive, my ardour +will only be increased—not damped—by the result of this +experiment.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Believe me always, my dear Macready,</span><br /> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>1839.</h2> + +<h3>NARRATIVE.</h3> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>Charles Dickens</span> was still living in Doughty Street, but +he removed at the end of this year to 1, Devonshire +Terrace, Regent's Park. He hired a cottage at Petersham +for the summer months, and in the autumn took lodgings +at Broadstairs.</div> + +<p>The cottage at Alphington, near Exeter, mentioned in +the letter to Mr. Mitton, was hired by Charles Dickens +for his parents.</p> + +<p>He was at work all through this year on "Nicholas +Nickleby."</p> + +<p>We have now the commencement of his correspondence +with Mr. George Cattermole. His first letter was written +immediately after Mr. Cattermole's marriage with Miss +Elderton, a distant connection of Charles Dickens; hence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> +the allusions to "cousin," which will be found in many +of his letters to Mr. Cattermole. The bride and bridegroom +were passing their honeymoon in the neighbourhood +of Petersham, and the letter refers to a request from them +for the loan of some books, and also to his having lent +them his pony carriage and groom, during their stay in this +neighbourhood.</p> + +<p>The first letter in this year to Mr. Macready is in +answer to one from him, announcing his retirement from +the management of Covent Garden Theatre.</p> + +<p>The portrait by Mr. Maclise, mentioned to Mr. Harley, +was the, now, well-known one, which appeared as a +frontispiece to "Nicholas Nickleby."</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Doughty Street</span>, <i>Sunday.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>I will have, if you please, three dozen of the extraordinary +champagne; and I am much obliged to you for +recollecting me.</p> + +<p>I ought not to be sorry to hear of your abdication, +but I am, notwithstanding, most heartily and sincerely +sorry, for my own sake and the sake of thousands, who may +now go and whistle for a theatre—at least, such a theatre +as you gave them; and I do now in my heart believe that +for a long and dreary time that exquisite delight has +passed away. If I may jest with my misfortunes, and +quote the Portsmouth critic of Mr. Crummles's company, +I say that: "As an exquisite embodiment of the poet's +visions and a realisation of human intellectuality, gilding +with refulgent light our dreamy moments, and laying open +a new and magic world before the mental eye, the drama +is gone—perfectly gone."</p> + +<p>With the same perverse and unaccountable feeling which +causes a heart-broken man at a dear friend's funeral to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> +see something irresistibly comical in a red-nosed or one-eyed +undertaker, I receive your communication with ghostly +facetiousness; though on a moment's reflection I find better +cause for consolation in the hope that, relieved from your +most trying and painful duties, you will now have leisure to +return to pursuits more congenial to your mind, and to +move more easily and pleasantly among your friends. In +the long catalogue of the latter, I believe that there is not +one prouder of the name, or more grateful for the store of +delightful recollections you have enabled him to heap up +from boyhood, than,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 3em;">My dear Macready,</span><br /> +Yours always faithfully.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Thomas +Mitton.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 8em;"><span class="smcap">New London Inn, Exeter,</span></span><br /> +<i>Wednesday Morning, March 6th, 1839.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">Dear Tom</span>,</div> + +<p>Perhaps you have heard from Kate that I succeeded +yesterday in the very first walk, and took a cottage at +a place called Alphington, one mile from Exeter, which +contains, on the ground-floor, a good parlour and kitchen, +and above, a full-sized country drawing-room and three +bedrooms; in the yard behind, coal-holes, fowl-houses, and +meat-safes out of number; in the kitchen, a neat little +range; in the other rooms, good stoves and cupboards; +and all for twenty pounds a year, taxes included. There +is a good garden at the side well stocked with cabbages, +beans, onions, celery, and some flowers. The stock +belonging to the landlady (who lives in the adjoining +cottage), there was some question whether she was not +entitled to half the produce, but I settled the point by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> +paying five shillings, and becoming absolute master of the +whole!</p> + +<p>I do assure you that I am charmed with the place and +the beauty of the country round about, though I have not +seen it under very favourable circumstances, for it +snowed when I was there this morning, and blew bitterly +from the east yesterday. It is really delightful, and when +the house is to rights and the furniture all in, I shall be +quite sorry to leave it. I have had some few things +second-hand, but I take it seventy pounds will be the mark, +even taking this into consideration. I include in that estimate +glass and crockery, garden tools, and such like little +things. There is a spare bedroom of course. That I have +furnished too.</p> + +<p>I am on terms of the closest intimacy with Mrs. +Samuell, the landlady, and her brother and sister-in-law, +who have a little farm hard by. They are capital specimens +of country folks, and I really think the old woman herself +will be a great comfort to my mother. Coals are dear just +now—twenty-six shillings a ton. They found me a boy to +go two miles out and back again to order some this +morning. I was debating in my mind whether I should +give him eighteenpence or two shillings, when his fee was +announced—twopence!</p> + +<p>The house is on the high road to Plymouth, and, +though in the very heart of Devonshire, there is as much +long-stage and posting life as you would find in Piccadilly. +The situation is charming. Meadows in front, an orchard +running parallel to the garden hedge, richly-wooded hills +closing in the prospect behind, and, away to the left, +before a splendid view of the hill on which Exeter is +situated, the cathedral towers rising up into the sky in +the most picturesque manner possible. I don't think I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> +ever saw so cheerful or pleasant a spot. The drawing-room +is nearly, if not quite, as large as the outer room +of my old chambers in Furnival's Inn. The paint and +paper are new, and the place clean as the utmost excess of +snowy cleanliness can be.</p> + +<p>You would laugh if you could see me powdering away +with the upholsterer, and endeavouring to bring about all +sorts of impracticable reductions and wonderful arrangements. +He has by him two second-hand carpets; the important +ceremony of trying the same comes off at three this +afternoon. I am perpetually going backwards and forwards. +It is two miles from here, so I have plenty of +exercise, which so occupies me and prevents my being +lonely that I stopped at home to read last night, and +shall to-night, although the theatre is open. Charles Kean +has been the star for the last two evenings. He was stopping +in this house, and went away this morning. I have got +his sitting-room now, which is smaller and more comfortable +than the one I had before.</p> + +<p>You will have heard perhaps that I wrote to my mother +to come down to-morrow. There are so many things she +can make comfortable at a much less expense than I could, +that I thought it best. If I had not, I could not have +returned on Monday, which I now hope to do, and to be in +town at half-past eight.</p> + +<p>Will you tell my father that if he could devise any +means of bringing him down, I think it would be a great +thing for him to have Dash, if it be only to keep down the +trampers and beggars. The cheque I send you below.</p> + +<div class='center'><b>* * * * * *</b></div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +George +Cattermole.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Elm Cottage, Petersham</span>, <i>Wednesday Morning.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Cattermole</span>,</div> + +<p>Why is "Peveril" lingering on my dusty shelves +in town, while my fair cousin and your fair bride remains in +blissful ignorance of his merits? There he is, I grieve +to say, but there he shall not be long, for I shall be +visiting my other home on Saturday morning, and will +bring him bodily down and forward him the moment he +arrives.</p> + +<p>Not having many of my books here, I don't find any +among them which I think more suitable to your purpose +than a carpet-bagful sent herewith, containing the Italian +and German novelists (convenient as being easily taken up +and laid down again; and I suppose you won't read long +at a sitting), Leigh Hunt's "Indicator" and "Companion" +(which have the same merit), "Hood's Own" (complete), +"A Legend of Montrose," and "Kenilworth," which I +have just been reading with greater delight than ever, +and so I suppose everybody else must be equally interested +in. I have Goldsmith, Swift, Fielding, Smollett, and the +British Essayists "handy;" and I need not say that you +have them on hand too, if you like.</p> + +<p>You know all I would say from my heart and soul on +the auspicious event of yesterday; but you don't know +what I could say about the delightful recollections I have +of your "good lady's" charming looks and bearing, upon +which I discoursed most eloquently here last evening, +and at considerable length. As I am crippled in +this respect, however, by the suspicion that possibly +she may be looking over your shoulder while you read +this note (I would lay a moderate wager that you have +looked round twice or thrice already), I shall content<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> +myself with saying that I am ever heartily, my dear +Cattermole,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Hers and yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—My man (who with his charge is your man +while you stay here) waits to know if you have any orders +for him.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. J. P. +Harley.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Elm Cottage, Petersham, near Richmond</span>,</span><br /> +<i>June 28th, 1839.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Harley,</span></p> + +<p>I have "left my home," and been here ever since the +end of April, and shall remain here most probably until the +end of September, which is the reason that we have been +such strangers of late.</p> + +<p>I am very sorry that I cannot dine with you on Sunday, +but some people are coming here, and I cannot get away. +Better luck next time, I hope.</p> + +<p>I was on the point of writing to you when your note +came, to ask you if you would come down here next +Saturday—to-morrow week, I mean—and stop till Monday. +I will either call for you at the theatre, at any time you +name, or send for you, "punctual," and have you brought +down. Can you come if it's fine? Say yes, like a good +fellow as you are, and say it per post.</p> + +<p>I have countermanded that face. Maclise has made +another face of me, which all people say is astonishing. +The engraving will be ready soon, and I would rather you +had that, as I am sure you would if you had seen it.</p> + +<p>In great haste to save the post, I am, my dear +Harley,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +William +Longman.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Doughty Street</span>, <i>Monday Morning.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Sir</span>,</div> + +<p>On Friday I have a family dinner at home—uncles, +aunts, brothers, sisters, cousins—an annual gathering.</p> + +<p>By what fatality is it that you always ask me to dine on +the wrong day?</p> + +<p>While you are tracing this non-consequence to its cause, +I wish you would tell Mr. Sydney Smith that of all the men +I ever heard of and never saw, I have the greatest curiosity +to see and the greatest interest to know him.</p> + +<p>Begging my best compliments at home,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">I am, my dear Sir,</span><br /> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Petersham</span>, <i>July 26th, 1839.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>Fix your visit for whenever you please. It can never +give us anything but delight to see you, and it is better to +look forward to such a pleasure than to look back upon it, +as the last gratification is enjoyable all our lives, and the +first for a few short stages in the journey.</p> + +<p>I feel more true and cordial pleasure than I can express +to you in the request you have made. Anything which can +serve to commemorate our friendship and to keep the recollection +of it alive among our children is, believe me, and +ever will be, most deeply prized by me. I accept the office +with hearty and fervent satisfaction; and, to render this +pleasant bond between us the more complete, I must solicit +you to become godfather to the last and final branch of +a genteel small family of three which I am told may be +looked for in that auspicious month when Lord Mayors are +born and guys prevail. This I look upon as a bargain +between us, and I have shaken hands with you in spirit<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> +upon it. Family topics remind me of Mr. Kenwigs. As +the weather is wet, and he is about to make his last appearance +on my little stage, I send Mrs. Macready an early +proof of the next number, containing an account of his +baby's progress.</p> + +<p>I am going to send you something else on Monday—a +tragedy. Don't be alarmed. I didn't write it, nor do I +want it acted. A young Scotch lady whom I don't know +(but she is evidently very intelligent and accomplished) +has sent me a translation of a German play, soliciting my +aid and advice in the matter of its publication. Among a +crowd of Germanisms, there are many things in it which +are so very striking, that I am sure it will amuse you very +much. At least I think it will; it has me. I am going to +send it back to her—when I come to Elstree will be time +enough; and meantime, if you bestow a couple of hours +upon it, you will not think them thrown away.</p> + +<p>It's a large parcel, and I must keep it here till somebody +goes up to town and can book it by the coach. I +warrant it, large as it looks, readable in two hours; and +I very much want to know what you think of the first +act, and especially the opening, which seems to me quite +famous. The metre is very odd and rough, but now and +then there's a wildness in it which helps the thing very +much; and altogether it has left a something on my mind +which I can't get rid of.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Dickens joins with me in kindest regards to yourself, +Mrs., and Miss Macready. And I am always,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;">My dear Macready,</span><br /> +Faithfully and truly yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—A dreadful thought has just occurred to me—that +this is a quadruple letter, and that Elstree may not be within +the twopenny post. Pray Heaven my fears are unfounded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span>.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">40, <span class="smcap">Albion Street, Broadstairs</span>,</span><br /> +<i>September 21st, 1839.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>I am so anxious to prefer a request to you which +does not admit of delay that I send you a double letter, +with the one redeeming point though of having very +little in it.</p> + +<p>Let me prefix to the last number of "Nickleby," and to +the book, a duplicate of the leaf which I now send you. +Believe me that there will be no leaf in the volume which +will afford me in times to come more true pleasure and +gratification, than that in which I have written your name +as foremost among those of the friends whom I love and +honour. Believe me, there will be no one line in it conveying +a more honest truth or a more sincere feeling than +that which describes its dedication to you as a slight token +of my admiration and regard.</p> + +<p>So let me tell the world by this frail record that I +was a friend of yours, and interested to no ordinary extent +in your proceedings at that interesting time when you +showed them such noble truths in such noble forms, and +gave me a new interest in, and associations with, the labours +of so many months.</p> + +<p>I write to you very hastily and crudely, for I have been +very hard at work, having only finished to-day, and my +head spins yet. But you know what I mean. I am then +always,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Believe me, my dear Macready,</span><br /> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—(Proof of Dedication enclosed): "To W. C. +Macready, Esq., the following pages are inscribed, as a +slight token of admiration and regard, by his friend, the +Author."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Doughty Street</span>, <i>Friday Night, Oct. 25th, 1839.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>The book, the whole book, and nothing but the +book (except the binding, which is an important item), +has arrived at last, and is forwarded herewith. The red +represents my blushes at its gorgeous dress; the gilding, +all those bright professions which I do not make to you; +and the book itself, my whole heart for twenty months, +which should be yours for so short a term, as you have it +always.</p> + +<p>With best regards to Mrs. and Miss Macready, always +believe me,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">My dear Macready,</span><br /> +Your faithful Friend.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">The same.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Doughty Street</span>, <i>Thursday, Nov. 14th, 1839.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>Tom Landseer—that is, the deaf one, whom everybody +quite loves for his sweet nature under a most +deplorable infirmity—Tom Landseer asked me if I would +present to you from him the accompanying engraving, +which he has executed from a picture by his brother +Edwin; submitting it to you as a little tribute from an +unknown but ardent admirer of your genius, which speaks +to his heart, although it does not find its way there through +his ears. I readily undertook the task, and send it herewith.</p> + +<p>I urged him to call upon you with me and proffer it +boldly; but he is a very modest and delicately-minded +creature, and was shy of intruding. If you thank him +through me, perhaps you will say something about my +bringing him to call, and so gladden the gentle artist and +make him happy.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span></p> + +<p>You must come and see my new house when we have it +to rights. By Christmas Day we shall be, I hope, your +neighbours.</p> + +<p>Kate progresses splendidly, and, with me, sends her best +remembrances to Mrs. Macready and all your house.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 6em;">Ever believe me,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;">Dear Macready,</span><br /> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>1840.</h2> + +<h3>NARRATIVE.</h3> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>Charles Dickens</span> was at Broadstairs with his family for the +autumn months. During all this year he was busily engaged +with the periodical entitled "Master Humphrey's Clock," in +which the story of "The Old Curiosity Shop" subsequently +appeared. Nearly all these letters to Mr. George Cattermole +refer to the illustrations for this story.</div> + +<p>The one dated March 9th alludes to short papers written +for "Master Humphrey's Clock" prior to the commencement +of "The Old Curiosity Shop."</p> + +<p>We have in this year Charles Dickens's first letter to +Mr. Daniel Maclise, this and one other being, unfortunately, +the only letters we have been able to obtain addressed to +this much-loved friend and most intimate companion.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +George +Cattermole.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;">1, <span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Monday, January 13th, 1840.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My Dear Cattermole</span>,</div> + +<p>I am going to propound a mightily grave matter to +you. My now periodical work appears—or I should rather +say the first number does—on Saturday, the 28th of March; +and as it has to be sent to America and Germany, and +must therefore be considerably in advance, it is now in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> +hand; I having in fact begun it on Saturday last. Instead +of being published in monthly parts at a shilling each only, +it will be published in weekly parts at threepence and +monthly parts at a shilling; my object being to baffle the +imitators and make it as novel as possible. The plan is +a new one—I mean the plan of the fiction—and it will +comprehend a great variety of tales. The title is: "Master +Humphrey's Clock."</p> + +<p>Now, among other improvements, I have turned my +attention to the illustrations, meaning to have woodcuts +dropped into the text and no separate plates. I want to +know whether you would object to make me a little sketch +for a woodcut—in indian-ink would be quite sufficient—about +the size of the enclosed scrap; the subject, an old +quaint room with antique Elizabethan furniture, and in +the chimney-corner an extraordinary old clock—the clock +belonging to Master Humphrey, in fact, and no figures. +This I should drop into the text at the head of my opening +page.</p> + +<p>I want to know besides—as Chapman and Hall are my +partners in the matter, there need be no delicacy about +my asking or your answering the question—what would be +your charge for such a thing, and whether (if the work +answers our expectations) you would like to repeat the +joke at regular intervals, and, if so, on what terms? I +should tell you that I intend to ask Maclise to join me +likewise, and that the copying the drawing on wood and +the cutting will be done in first-rate style. We are justified +by past experience in supposing that the sale would be +enormous, and the popularity very great; and when I explain +to you the notes I have in my head, I think you will +see that it opens a vast number of very good subjects.</p> + +<p>I want to talk the matter over with you, and wish you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> +would fix your own time and place—either here or at your +house or at the Athenæum, though this would be the best +place, because I have my papers about me. If you would +take a chop with me, for instance, on Tuesday or Wednesday, +I could tell you more in two minutes than in +twenty letters, albeit I have endeavoured to make this as +businesslike and stupid as need be.</p> + +<p>Of course all these tremendous arrangements are as yet +a profound secret, or there would be fifty Humphreys in +the field. So write me a line like a worthy gentleman, and +convey my best remembrances to your worthy lady.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Believe me always, my dear Cattermole,</span><br /> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +George +Cattermole.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>Tuesday Afternoon.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Cattermole</span>,</div> + +<p>I think the drawing most famous, and so do the +publishers, to whom I sent it to-day. If Browne should +suggest anything for the future which may enable him to +do you justice in copying (on which point he is very +anxious), I will communicate it to you. It has occurred +to me that perhaps you will like to see his copy on the +block before it is cut, and I have therefore told Chapman +and Hall to forward it to you.</p> + +<p>In future, I will take care that you have the number to +choose your subject from. I ought to have done so, perhaps, +in this case; but I was very anxious that you should +do the room.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the shortest plan will be for me to send you, as +enclosed, regularly; but if you prefer keeping account with +the publishers, they will be happy to enter upon it when, +where, and how you please.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours always.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +George +Cattermole.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;">1, <span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Monday, March 9th, 1840.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Cattermole</span>,</div> + +<p>I have been induced, on looking over the works of +the "Clock," to make a slight alteration in their disposal, +by virtue of which the story about "John Podgers" will +stand over for some little time, and that short tale will +occupy its place which you have already by you, and which +treats of the assassination of a young gentleman under circumstances +of peculiar aggravation. I shall be greatly +obliged to you if you will turn your attention to this last +morsel as the feature of No. 3, and still more if you can +stretch a point with regard to time (which is of the last +importance just now), and make a subject out of it, rather +than find one in it. I would neither have made this +alteration nor have troubled you about it, but for weighty +and cogent reasons which I feel very strongly, and into +the composition of which caprice or fastidiousness has no +part.</p> + +<p>I should tell you perhaps, with reference to Chapman and +Hall, that they will never trouble you (as they never trouble +me) but when there is real and pressing occasion, and that +their representations in this respect, unlike those of most +men of business, are to be relied upon.</p> + +<p>I cannot tell you how admirably I think Master +Humphrey's room comes out, or what glowing accounts I +hear of the second design you have done. I had not the +faintest anticipation of anything so good—taking into +account the material and the despatch.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 8em;">With best regards at home,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;">Believe me, dear Cattermole,</span><br /> +Heartily yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—The new (No. 3) tale begins: "I hold a lieutenant's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> +commission in his Majesty's army, and served abroad in +the campaigns of 1677 and 1678." It has at present no +title.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. S. A. +Diezman.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;">1, <span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace, York Gate, Regent's Park</span>,</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">London</span>, <i>10th March, 1840.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Sir</span>,</div> + +<p>I will not attempt to tell you how much gratified +I have been by the receipt of your first English letter; +nor can I describe to you with what delight and gratification +I learn that I am held in such high esteem by +your great countrymen, whose favourable appreciation is +flattering indeed.</p> + +<p>To you, who have undertaken the laborious (and often, +I fear, very irksome) task of clothing me in the German +garb, I owe a long arrear of thanks. I wish you would +come to England, and afford me an opportunity of slightly +reducing the account.</p> + +<p>It is with great regret that I have to inform you, in +reply to the request contained in your pleasant communication, +that my publishers have already made such arrangements +and are in possession of such stipulations +relative to the proof-sheets of my new works, that I +have no power to send them out of England. If I had, +I need not tell you what pleasure it would afford me to +promote your views.</p> + +<p>I am too sensible of the trouble you must have already +had with my writings to impose upon you now a long letter. +I will only add, therefore, that I am,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 8em;">My dear Sir,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 3em;">With great sincerity,</span><br /> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Daniel +Maclise.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Broadstairs</span>, <i>June 2nd, 1840.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Maclise</span>,</div> + +<div class='poem'> +My foot is in the house,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">My bath is on the sea,</span><br /> +And, before I take a souse,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Here's a single note to thee.</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>It merely says that the sea is in a state of extraordinary +sublimity; that this place is, as the Guide Book most justly +observes, "unsurpassed for the salubrity of the refreshing +breezes, which are wafted on the ocean's pinions from far-distant +shores." That we are all right after the perils and +voyages of yesterday. That the sea is rolling away in +front of the window at which I indite this epistle, and that +everything is as fresh and glorious as fine weather and a +splendid coast can make it. Bear these recommendations +in mind, and shunning Talfourdian pledges, come to the +bower which is shaded for you in the one-pair front, where +no chair or table has four legs of the same length, and +where no drawers will open till you have pulled the pegs +off, and then they keep open and won't shut again.</p> + +<div class='center'> +<span class="smcap">Come!</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>I can no more.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Always faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +George +Cattermole.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>December 21st.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear George</span>,</div> + +<p>Kit, the single gentleman, and Mr. Garland go down +to the place where the child is, and arrive there at night. +There has been a fall of snow. Kit, leaving them behind, +runs to the old house, and, with a lanthorn in one hand and +the bird in its cage in the other, stops for a moment at a +little distance with a natural hesitation before he goes up to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> +make his presence known. In a window—supposed to be +that of the child's little room—a light is burning, and in +that room the child (unknown, of course, to her visitors, +who are full of hope) lies dead.</p> + +<p>If you have any difficulty about Kit, never mind about +putting him in.</p> + +<p>The two others to-morrow.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully always.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +George +Cattermole.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>Friday Morning.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Cattermole</span>,</div> + +<p>I sent the MS. of the enclosed proof, marked 2, up +to Chapman and Hall, from Devonshire, mentioning a subject +of an old gateway, which I had put in expressly with a view +to your illustrious pencil. By a mistake, however, it went +to Browne instead. Chapman is out of town, and such +things have gone wrong in consequence.</p> + +<p>The subject to which I wish to call your attention is in +an unwritten number to follow this one, but it is a mere +echo of what you will find at the conclusion of this proof +marked 2. I want the cart, gaily decorated, going through +the street of the old town with the wax brigand displayed +to fierce advantage, and the child seated in it also dispersing +bills. As many flags and inscriptions about Jarley's Wax +Work fluttering from the cart as you please. You know the +wax brigands, and how they contemplate small oval miniatures? +That's the figure I want. I send you the scrap of +MS. which contains the subject.</p> + +<p>Will you, when you have done this, send it with all +speed to Chapman and Hall, as we are mortally pressed for +time, and I must go hard to work to make up for what I +have lost by being dutiful and going to see my father.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span></p> + +<p>I want to see you about a frontispiece to our first +"Clock" volume, which will come out (I think) at the end +of September, and about other matters. When shall we +meet and where?</p> + +<p>I say nothing about our cousin or the baby, for Kate +bears this, and will make me a full report and convey all +loves and congratulations.</p> + +<p>Could you dine with us on Sunday, at six o'clock sharp? +I'd come and fetch you in the morning, and we could take +a ride and walk. We shall be quite alone, unless Macready +comes. What say you?</p> + +<p>Don't forget despatch, there's a dear fellow, and ever +believe me,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Heartily yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +George +Cattermole.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<i>December 22nd, 1840.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">Dear George</span>,</div> + +<p>The child lying dead in the little sleeping-room, +which is behind the open screen. It is winter time, so there +are no flowers; but upon her breast and pillow, and about +her bed, there may be strips of holly and berries, and such +free green things. Window overgrown with ivy. The little +boy who had that talk with her about angels may be by +the bedside, if you like it so; but I think it will be quieter +and more peaceful if she is quite alone. I want it to +express the most beautiful repose and tranquillity, and to +have something of a happy look, if death can.</p> + + +<p>2.</p> + +<p>The child has been buried inside the church, and the +old man, who cannot be made to understand that she is +dead, repairs to the grave and sits there all day long,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> +waiting for her arrival, to begin another journey. His +staff and knapsack, her little bonnet and basket, etc., lie +beside him. "She'll come to-morrow," he says when it +gets dark, and goes sorrowfully home. I think an hourglass +running out would help the notion; perhaps her little +tilings upon his knee, or in his hand.</p> + +<p>I am breaking my heart over this story, and cannot bear +to finish it.</p> + +<p>Love to Missis.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever and always heartily.<br /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>1841.</h2> + +<h3>NARRATIVE.</h3> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>In</span> the summer of this year Charles Dickens made, accompanied +by Mrs. Dickens, his first visit to Scotland, and +was received in Edinburgh with the greatest enthusiasm.</div> + +<p>He was at Broadstairs with his family for the autumn, +and at the close of the year he went to Windsor for change +of air after a serious illness.</p> + +<p>On the 17th January "The Old Curiosity Shop" was +finished. In the following week the first number of +his story of "Barnaby Rudge" appeared, in "Master +Humphrey's Clock," and the last number of this story +was written at Windsor, in November of this year.</p> + +<p>We have the first letters to his dear and valued friends +the Rev. William Harness and Mr. Harrison Ainsworth. +Also his first letter to Mr. Monckton Milnes (now Lord +Houghton).</p> + +<p>Of the letter to Mr. John Tomlin we would only remark, +that it was published in an American magazine, edited by +Mr. E. A. Poe, in the year 1842.</p> + +<p>"The New First Rate" (first letter to Mr. Harrison +Ainsworth) must, we think, be an allusion to the outside +cover of "Bentley's Miscellany," which first appeared in +this year, and of which Mr. Ainsworth was editor.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span></p> + +<p>The two letters to Mr. Lovejoy are in answer to a +requisition from the people of Reading that he would +represent them in Parliament.</p> + +<p>The letter to Mr. George Cattermole (26th June) refers +to a dinner given to Charles Dickens by the people of +Edinburgh, on his first visit to that city.</p> + +<p>The "poor Overs," mentioned in the letter to Mr. +Macready of 24th August, was a carpenter dying of consumption, +to whom Dr. Elliotson had shown extraordinary +kindness. "When poor Overs was dying" (wrote Charles +Dickens to Mr. Forster), "he suddenly asked for a pen and +ink and some paper, and made up a little parcel for me, +which it was his last conscious act to direct. She (his +wife) told me this, and gave it me. I opened it last night. +It was a copy of his little book, in which he had written my +name, 'with his devotion.' I thought it simple and affecting +of the poor fellow."</p> + +<p>"The Saloon," alluded to in our last letter of this year, +was an institution at Drury Lane Theatre during Mr. +Macready's management. The original purpose for which +this saloon was established having become perverted and +degraded, Charles Dickens had it much at heart to remodel +and improve it. Hence this letter to Mr. Macready.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Rev. +William +Harness.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>Saturday Morning, Jan. 2nd, 1841.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Harness</span>,</div> + +<p>I should have been very glad to join your pleasant +party, but all next week I shall be laid up with a broken +heart, for I must occupy myself in finishing the "Curiosity +Shop," and it is such a painful task to me that I must concentrate +myself upon it tooth and nail, and go out nowhere +until it is done.</p> + +<p>I have delayed answering your kind note in a vague +hope of being heart-whole again by the seventh. The +present state of my work, however (Christmas not being a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> +very favourable season for making progress in such doings), +assures me that this cannot be, and that I must heroically +deny myself the pleasure you offer.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Always believe me,</span><br /> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +George +Cattermole.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>Thursday, Jan. 14th, 1841.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Cattermole</span>,</div> + +<p>I cannot tell you how much obliged I am to you +for altering the child, or how much I hope that my wish +in that respect didn't go greatly against the grain.</p> + +<p>I saw the old inn this morning. Words cannot say how +good it is. I can't bear the thought of its being cut, and +should like to frame and glaze it in <i>statu quo</i> for ever and +ever.</p> + +<p>Will you do a little tail-piece for the "Curiosity" story?—only +one figure if you like—giving some notion of the +etherealised spirit of the child; something like those little +figures in the frontispiece. If you will, and can despatch it +at once, you will make me happy.</p> + +<p>I am, for the time being, nearly dead with work and +grief for the loss of my child.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;">Always, my dear George,</span><br /> +Heartily yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">The same.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>Thursday Night, Jan. 28th, 1841.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear George</span>,</div> + +<p>I sent to Chapman and Hall yesterday morning about +the second subject for No. 2 of "Barnaby," but found they +had sent it to Browne.</p> + +<p>The first subject of No. 3 I will either send to you on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> +Saturday, or, at latest, on Sunday morning. I have also +directed Chapman and Hall to send you proofs of what has +gone before, for reference, if you need it.</p> + +<p>I want to know whether you feel ravens in general and +would fancy Barnaby's raven in particular. Barnaby being +an idiot, my notion is to have him always in company +with a pet raven, who is immeasurably more knowing than +himself. To this end I have been studying my bird, and +think I could make a very queer character of him. Should +you like the subject when this raven makes his first +appearance?</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully always.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +George +Cattermole.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>Saturday Evening, Jan. 30th, 1841.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear George</span>,</div> + +<p>I send you the first four slips of No. 48, containing +the description of the locksmith's house, which I think will +make a good subject, and one you will like. If you put +the "'prentice" in it, show nothing more than his paper cap, +because he will be an important character in the story, and +you will need to know more about him as he is minutely +described. I may as well say that he is very short. Should +you wish to put the locksmith in, you will find him described +in No. 2 of "Barnaby" (which I told Chapman and Hall +to send you). Browne has done him in one little thing, but +so very slightly that you will not require to see his sketch, I +think.</p> + +<p>Now, I must know what you think about the raven, +my buck; I otherwise am in this fix. I have given +Browne no subject for this number, and time is flying. +If you would like to have the raven's first appearance, +and don't object to having both subjects, so be it. I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> +shall be delighted. If otherwise, I must feed that hero +forthwith.</p> + +<p>I cannot close this hasty note, my dear fellow, without +saying that I have deeply felt your hearty and most +invaluable co-operation in the beautiful illustrations you +have made for the last story, that I look at them with a +pleasure I cannot describe to you in words, and that it is +impossible for me to say how sensible I am of your +earnest and friendly aid. Believe me that this is the very +first time any designs for what I have written have +touched and moved me, and caused me to feel that they +expressed the idea I had in my mind.</p> + +<p>I am most sincerely and affectionately grateful to you, +and am full of pleasure and delight.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 6em;">Believe me, my dear Cattermole,</span><br /> +Always heartily yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. John +Tomlin.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;">1, <span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace, York Gate, Regent's Park,</span></span><br /> +<span class="smcap">London</span>, <i>Tuesday, Feb. 23rd, 1841.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,</div> + +<p>You are quite right in feeling assured that I should +answer the letter you have addressed to me. If you had +entertained a presentiment that it would afford me sincere +pleasure and delight to hear from a warm-hearted and +admiring reader of my books in the backwoods of America, +you would not have been far wrong.</p> + +<p>I thank you cordially and heartily both for your letter +and its kind and courteous terms. To think that I have +awakened a fellow-feeling and sympathy with the creatures +of many thoughtful hours among the vast solitudes in which +you dwell, is a source of the purest delight and pride to +me; and believe me that your expressions of affectionate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> +remembrance and approval, sounding from the green forests +on the banks of the Mississippi, sink deeper into my heart +and gratify it more than all the honorary distinctions that +all the courts in Europe could confer.</p> + +<p>It is such things as these that make one hope one does +not live in vain, and that are the highest reward of an +author's life. To be numbered among the household gods +of one's distant countrymen, and associated with their +homes and quiet pleasures; to be told that in each nook +and corner of the world's great mass there lives one well-wisher +who holds communion with one in the spirit, is a +worthy fame indeed, and one which I would not barter for +a mine of wealth.</p> + +<p>That I may be happy enough to cheer some of your +leisure hours for a very long time to come, and to hold +a place in your pleasant thoughts, is the earnest wish of +"Boz."</p> + +<p>And, with all good wishes for yourself, and with a +sincere reciprocation of all your kindly feeling,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">I am, dear Sir,</span><br /> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. R. +Monckton +Milnes</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>Wednesday, March 10th, 1841.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Milnes</span>,</div> + +<p>I thank you very much for the "Nickleby" correspondence, +which I will keep for a day or two, and return +when I see you. Poor fellow! The long letter is quite +admirable, and most affecting.</p> + +<p>I am not quite sure either of Friday or Saturday, for, +independently of the "Clock" (which for ever wants winding), +I am getting a young brother off to New Zealand just +now, and have my mornings sadly cut up in consequence.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> +But, knowing your ways, I know I may say that I will +come if I can; and that if I can't I won't.</p> + +<p>That Nellicide was the act of Heaven, as you may see +any of these fine mornings when you look about you. If +you knew the pain it gave me—but what am I talking of? +if you don't know, nobody does. I am glad to shake you +by the hand again autographically,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">And am always,</span><br /> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +George +Cattermole.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>Tuesday, February 9th.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear George</span>,</div> + +<p>My notes tread upon each other's heels. In my last +I quite forgot business.</p> + +<p>Will you, for No. 49, do the locksmith's house, which +was described in No. 48? I mean the outside. If you can, +without hurting the effect, shut up the shop as though it +were night, so much the better. Should you want a figure, +an ancient watchman in or out of his box, very sleepy, will +be just the thing for me.</p> + +<p>I have written to Chapman and requested him to send +you a block of a long shape, so that the house may come +upright as it were.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully ever.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">The same.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Old Ship Hotel, Brighton</span>, <i>Feb. 26th, 1841.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Kittenmoles</span>,</div> + +<p>I passed your house on Wednesday, being then atop +of the Brighton Era; but there was nobody at the door, +saving a solitary poulterer, and all my warm-hearted aspirations +lodged in the goods he was delivering. No doubt you +observed a peculiar relish in your dinner. That was the +cause.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span></p> + +<p>I send you the MS. I fear you will have to read all the +five slips; but the subject I think of is at the top of the +last, when the guest, with his back towards the spectator, +is looking out of window. I think, in your hands, it will +be a very pretty one.</p> + +<p>Then, my boy, when you have done it, turn your +thoughts (as soon as other engagements will allow) first to +the outside of The Warren—see No. 1; secondly, to the +outside of the locksmith's house, by night—see No. 3. +Put a penny pistol to Chapman's head and demand the +blocks of him.</p> + +<p>I have addled my head with writing all day, and have +barely wit enough left to send my love to my cousin, +and—there's a genealogical poser—what relation of mine +may the dear little child be? At present, I desire to be +commended to her clear blue eyes.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Always, my dear George,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Faithfully yours,</span><br /> +<div class="figright" style="width: 150px;"> +<img src="images/3boz.png" width="150" height="91" alt="Signature: Boz." title="Signature: Boz." /> +</div><br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +William +Harrison +Ainsworth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>April 29th, 1841.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Ainsworth</span>,</div> + +<p>With all imaginable pleasure. I quite look forward +to the day. It is an age since we met, and it ought not +to be.</p> + +<p>The artist has just sent home your "Nickleby." He +suggested variety, pleading his fancy and genius. As an +artful binder must have his way, I put the best face on +the matter, and gave him his. I will bring it together +with the "Pickwick" to your house-warming with me.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span></p> + +<p>The old <i>Royal George</i> went down in consequence of +having too much weight on one side. I trust the new +"First Rate" won't be heavy anywhere. There seems to +me to be too much whisker for a shilling, but that's a +matter of taste.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours always.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. G. +Lovejoy.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;">1, <span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace, York Gate, Regent's Park</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Monday Evening, May 31st, 1841.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,</div> + +<p>I am much obliged and flattered by the receipt of +your letter, which I should have answered immediately +on its arrival but for my absence from home at the +moment.</p> + +<p>My principles and inclinations would lead me to +aspire to the distinction you invite me to seek, if there +were any reasonable chance of success, and I hope I +should do no discredit to such an honour if I won and +wore it. But I am bound to add, and I have no hesitation +in saying plainly, that I cannot afford the expense +of a contested election. If I could, I would act on your +suggestion instantly. I am not the less indebted to you +and the friends to whom the thought occurred, for your +good opinion and approval. I beg you to understand +that I am restrained solely (and much against my will) by +the consideration I have mentioned, and thank both you +and them most warmly.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Yours faithfully.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">The same.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>June 10th, 1841.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,</div> + +<p>I am favoured with your note of yesterday's date, +and lose no time in replying to it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span></p> + +<p>The sum you mention, though small I am aware in +the abstract, is greater than I could afford for such a +purpose; as the mere sitting in the House and attending +to my duties, if I were a member, would oblige me to +make many pecuniary sacrifices, consequent upon the very +nature of my pursuits.</p> + +<p>The course you suggest did occur to me when I +received your first letter, and I have very little doubt +indeed that the Government would support me—perhaps +to the whole extent. But I cannot satisfy myself that to +enter Parliament under such circumstances would enable +me to pursue that honourable independence without which +I could neither preserve my own respect nor that of my +constituents. I confess therefore (it may be from not +having considered the points sufficiently, or in the right +light) that I cannot bring myself to propound the subject +to any member of the administration whom I know. I +am truly obliged to you nevertheless, and am,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;">Dear Sir,</span><br /> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +George +Cattermole.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>Wednesday Evening, July 28th, 1841.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear George</span>,</div> + +<p>Can you do for me by Saturday evening—I know +the time is short, but I think the subject will suit you, and +I am greatly pressed—a party of rioters (with Hugh and +Simon Tappertit conspicuous among them) in old John +Willet's bar, turning the liquor taps to their own advantage, +smashing bottles, cutting down the grove of lemons, sitting +astride on casks, drinking out of the best punch-bowls, +eating the great cheese, smoking sacred pipes, etc. etc.; +John Willet, fallen backward in his chair, regarding them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> +with a stupid horror, and quite alone among them, with +none of The Maypole customers at his back.</p> + +<p>It's in your way, and you'll do it a hundred times better +than I can suggest it to you, I know.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully always.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +George +Cattermole.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Broadstairs</span>, <i>Friday, August 6th, 1841.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear George</span>,</div> + +<p>Here is a subject for the next number; the next to +that I hope to send you the MS. of very early in the week, +as the best opportunities of illustration are all coming off +now, and we are in the thick of the story.</p> + +<p>The rioters went, sir, from John Willet's bar (where you +saw them to such good purpose) straight to The Warren, +which house they plundered, sacked, burned, pulled down as +much of as they could, and greatly damaged and destroyed. +They are supposed to have left it about half an hour. It +is night, and the ruins are here and there flaming and +smoking. I want—if you understand—to show one of the +turrets laid open—the turret where the alarm-bell is, mentioned +in No. 1; and among the ruins (at some height if +possible) Mr. Haredale just clutching our friend, the mysterious +file, who is passing over them like a spirit; Solomon +Daisy, if you can introduce him, looking on from the ground +below.</p> + +<p>Please to observe that the M. F. wears a large cloak +and a slouched hat. This is important, because Browne +will have him in the same number, and he has not changed +his dress meanwhile. Mr. Haredale is supposed to have +come down here on horseback, pell-mell; to be excited to +the last degree. I think it will make a queer picturesque +thing in your hands. I have told Chapman and Hall that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> +you may like to have a block of a peculiar shape for it. +One of them will be with you almost as soon as you receive +this.</p> + +<p>We are very anxious to know that our cousin is out of +her trouble, and you free from your anxiety. Mind you +write when it comes off. And when she is quite comfortable +come down here for a day or two, like a bachelor, +as you will be. It will do you a world of good. Think of +that.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Always, dear Cattermole,</span><br /> +Heartily yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—When you have done the subject, I wish you'd +write me one line and tell me how, that I may be sure we +agree. Loves from Kate.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +George +Cattermole.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>Thursday, August 13th.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Cattermole</span>,</div> + +<p>Will you turn your attention to a frontispiece for +our first volume, to come upon the left-hand side of the +book as you open it, and to face a plain printed title? +My idea is, some scene from the "Curiosity Shop," in a +pretty border, or scroll-work, or architectural device; it +matters not what, so that it be pretty. The scene even +might be a fanciful thing, partaking of the character of +the story, but not reproducing any particular passage in it, +if you thought that better for the effect.</p> + +<p>I ask you to think of this, because, although the volume +is not published until the end of September, there is no +time to lose. We wish to have it engraved with great +care, and worked very skilfully; and this cannot be done +unless we get it on the stocks soon.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span></p> + +<p>They will give you every opportunity of correction, +alteration, revision, and all other ations and isions +connected with the fine arts.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Always believe me,</span><br /> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +George +Cattermole.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Broadstairs</span>, <i>August 19th, 1841.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear George</span>,</div> + +<p>When Hugh and a small body of the rioters cut off +from The Warren beckoned to their pals, they forced into +a very remarkable postchaise Dolly Varden and Emma +Haredale, and bore them away with all possible rapidity; +one of their company driving, and the rest running +beside the chaise, climbing up behind, sitting on the +top, lighting the way with their torches, etc. etc. If +you can express the women inside without showing them—as +by a fluttering veil, a delicate arm, or so forth appearing +at the half-closed window—so much the better. +Mr. Tappertit stands on the steps, which are partly down, +and, hanging on to the window with one hand and extending +the other with great majesty, addresses a few +words of encouragement to the driver and attendants. +Hugh sits upon the bar in front; the driver sitting +postilion-wise, and turns round to look through the window +behind him at the little doves within. The gentlemen +behind are also anxious to catch a glimpse of the ladies. +One of those who are running at the side may be gently +rebuked for his curiosity by the cudgel of Hugh. So they +cut away, sir, as fast as they can.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Always faithfully.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—John Willet's bar is noble.</p> + +<p>We take it for granted that cousin and baby are hearty. +Our loves to them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Broadstairs</span>, <i>Tuesday, August 24th, 1841.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>I must thank you, most heartily and cordially, for +your kind note relative to poor Overs. I can't tell you +how glad I am to know that he thoroughly deserves such +kindness.</p> + +<p>What a good fellow Elliotson is. He kept him in his +room a whole hour, and has gone into his case as if he were +Prince Albert; laying down all manner of elaborate projects +and determining to leave his friend Wood in town when +he himself goes away, on purpose to attend to him. Then +he writes me four sides of paper about the man, and says he +can't go back to his old work, for that requires muscular +exertion (and muscular exertion he mustn't make), what +are we to do with him? He says: "Here's five pounds for +the present."</p> + +<p>I declare before God that I could almost bear the +Jones's for five years out of the pleasure I feel in knowing +such things, and when I think that every dirty speck upon +the fair face of the Almighty's creation, who writes in a +filthy, beastly newspaper; every rotten-hearted pander who +has been beaten, kicked, and rolled in the kennel, yet struts +it in the editorial "We," once a week; every vagabond that +an honest man's gorge must rise at; every live emetic in +that noxious drug-shop the press, can have his fling at such +men and call them knaves and fools and thieves, I grow so +vicious that, with bearing hard upon my pen, I break the nib +down, and, with keeping my teeth set, make my jaws ache.</p> + +<p>I have put myself out of sorts for the day, and shall go +and walk, unless the direction of this sets me up again. +On second thoughts I think it will.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Always, my dear Macready,</span><br /> +Your faithful Friend.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +George +Cattermole.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Broadstairs</span>, <i>Sunday, September 12th, 1841.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear George</span>,</div> + +<p>Here is a business letter, written in a scramble just +before post time, whereby I dispose of loves to cousin in a +line.</p> + +<p>Firstly. Will you design, upon a block of wood, Lord +George Gordon, alone and very solitary, in his prison in +the Tower? The chamber as ancient as you please, and +after your own fancy; the time, evening; the season, +summer.</p> + +<p>Secondly. Will you ditto upon a ditto, a sword duel +between Mr. Haredale and Mr. Chester, in a grove of trees? +No one close by. Mr. Haredale has just pierced his adversary, +who has fallen, dying, on the grass. He (that is, +Chester) tries to staunch the wound in his breast with his +handkerchief; has his snuffbox on the earth beside him, +and looks at Mr. Haredale (who stands with his sword in +his hand, looking down on him) with most supercilious +hatred, but polite to the last. Mr. Haredale is more sorry +than triumphant.</p> + +<p>Thirdly. Will you conceive and execute, after your own +fashion, a frontispiece for "Barnaby"?</p> + +<p>Fourthly. Will you also devise a subject representing +"Master Humphrey's Clock" as stopped; his chair by the +fireside, empty; his crutch against the wall; his slippers on +the cold hearth; his hat upon the chair-back; the MSS. of +"Barnaby" and "The Curiosity Shop" heaped upon the +table; and the flowers you introduced in the first subject of +all withered and dead? Master Humphrey being supposed +to be no more.</p> + +<p>I have a fifthly, sixthly, seventhly, and eighthly; for I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> +sorely want you, as I approach the close of the tale, but I +won't frighten you, so we'll take breath.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Always, my dear Cattermole,</span><br /> +Heartily yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—I have been waiting until I got to subjects of this +nature, thinking you would like them best.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +George +Cattermole.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Broadstairs</span>, <i>September 21st, 1841.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear George</span>,</div> + +<p>Will you, before you go on with the other subjects +I gave you, do one of Hugh, bareheaded, bound, tied on +a horse, and escorted by horse-soldiers to jail? If you +can add an indication of old Fleet Market, and bodies of +foot soldiers firing at people who have taken refuge on the +tops of stalls, bulk-heads, etc., it will be all the better.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours always.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss Mary +Talfourd.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>December 16th, 1841.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mary</span>,</div> + +<p>I should be delighted to come and dine with you +on your birthday, and to be as merry as I wish you to +be always; but as I am going, within a very few days afterwards, +a very long distance from home, and shall not see +any of my children for six long months, I have made up +my mind to pass all that week at home for their sakes; +just as you would like your papa and mamma to spend all +the time they possibly could spare with you if they were +about to make a dreary voyage to America; which is what +I am going to do myself.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span></p> + +<p>But although I cannot come to see you on that day, +you may be sure I shall not forget that it is your birthday, +and that I shall drink your health and many happy returns, +in a glass of wine, filled as full as it will hold. And I +shall dine at half-past five myself, so that we may both +be drinking our wine at the same time; and I shall tell my +Mary (for I have got a daughter of that name but she is a +very small one as yet) to drink your health too; and we +shall try and make believe that you are here, or that we +are in Russell Square, which is the best thing we can do, +I think, under the circumstances.</p> + +<p>You are growing up so fast that by the time I come +home again I expect you will be almost a woman; and in +a very few years we shall be saying to each other: +"Don't you remember what the birthdays used to be in +Russell Square?" and "How strange it seems!" and +"How quickly time passes!" and all that sort of thing, +you know. But I shall always be very glad to be asked +on your birthday, and to come if you will let me, and to +send my love to you, and to wish that you may live to +be very old and very happy, which I do now with all my +heart.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 6em;">Believe me always,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;">My dear Mary,</span><br /> +Yours affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>Tuesday, Dec. 28th, 1841.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>This note is about the saloon. I make it as brief as +possible. Read it when you have time. As we were the +first experimentalists last night you will be glad to know +what it wants.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span></p> + +<p>First, the refreshments are preposterously dear. A glass +of wine is a shilling, and it ought to be sixpence.</p> + +<p>Secondly, they were served out by the wrong sort of +people—two most uncomfortable drabs of women, and a +dirty man with his hat on.</p> + +<p>Thirdly, there ought to be a box-keeper to ring a bell +or give some other notice of the commencement of the +overture to the after-piece. The promenaders were in a +perpetual fret and worry to get back again.</p> + +<p>And fourthly, and most important of all—if the plan is +ever to succeed—you must have some notice up to the effect +that as it is now a place of resort for ladies, gentlemen are +requested not to lounge there in their hats and greatcoats. +No ladies will go there, though the conveniences should be +ten thousand times greater, while the sort of swells who +have been used to kick their heels there do so in the old +sort of way. I saw this expressed last night more strongly +than I can tell you.</p> + +<p>Hearty congratulations on the brilliant triumph. I have +always expected one, as you know, but nobody could have +imagined the reality.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Always, my dear Macready,</span><br /> +Affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>1842.</h2> + +<h3>NARRATIVE.</h3> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>In</span> January of this year Charles Dickens went, with his +wife, to America, the house in Devonshire Terrace being let +for the term of their absence (six months), and the four +children left in a furnished house in Osnaburgh Street, +Regent's Park, under the care of Mr. and Mrs. Macready. +They returned from America in July, and in August went to +Broadstairs for the autumn months as usual, and in October<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> +Charles Dickens made an expedition to Cornwall, with Mr. +Forster, Mr. Maclise, and Mr. Stanfield for his companions.</div> + +<p>During his stay at Broadstairs he was engaged in +writing his "American Notes," which book was published +in October. At the end of the year he had written the +first number of "Martin Chuzzlewit," which appeared in +January, 1843.</p> + +<p>An extract from a letter, addressed to Messrs. Chapman +and Hall before his departure for America, is given as a +testimony of the estimation in which Charles Dickens +held the firm with whom he was connected for so many +years.</p> + +<p>His letters to Mr. H. P. Smith, for many years actuary +of the Eagle Insurance Office, are a combination of business +and friendship. Mr. Smith gives us, as an explanation of +a note to him, dated 14th July, that he alluded to the +stamp of the office upon the cheque, which was, as he +described it, "almost a work of art"—a truculent-looking +eagle seated on a rock and scattering rays over the whole +sheet.</p> + +<p>Of letters written by Charles Dickens in America we +have been able to obtain very few. One, to Dr. F. H. +Deane, Cincinnati, complying with his request to write him +an epitaph for the tombstone of his little child, has been +kindly copied for us from an album, by Mrs. Fields, of +Boston. Therefore, it is not directly received, but as we +have no doubt of its authenticity, we give it here; and there +is one to Mr. Halleck, the American poet.</p> + +<p>At the close of the voyage to America (a very bad and +dangerous one), a meeting of the passengers, with Lord +Mulgrave in the chair, took place, and a piece of plate and +thanks were voted to the captain of the <i>Britannia</i>, Captain +Hewett. The vote of thanks, being drawn up by Charles +Dickens, is given here. We have letters in this year to +Mr. Thomas Hood, Miss Pardoe, Mrs. Trollope, and Mr. +W. P. Frith. The last-named artist—then a very young +man—had made great success with several charming +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>pictures of Dolly Varden. One of these was bought by +Charles Dickens, who ordered a companion picture of Kate +Nickleby, from the young painter, whose acquaintance he +made at the same time; and the two letters to Mr. Frith +have reference to the purchase of the one picture and the +commission for the other.</p> + +<p>The letter to Mr. Cattermole is an acknowledgment also +of a completed commission of two water-colour drawings, +from the subjects of two of Mr. Cattermole's illustrations +to "The Old Curiosity Shop."</p> + +<p>A note to Mr. Macready, at the close of this year, refers +to the first representation of Mr. Westland Marston's play, +"The Patrician's Daughter." Charles Dickens took great +interest in the production of this work at Drury Lane. It +was, to a certain extent, an experiment of the effect of a +tragedy of modern times and in modern dress; and the +prologue, which Charles Dickens wrote and which we give, +was intended to show that there need be no incongruity +between plain clothes of this century and high tragedy. +The play was quite successful.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Messrs. +Chapman +and Hall.</div> + +<div class='center'><b>* * * * * *</b></div> + +<p>Having disposed of the business part of this letter, I +should not feel at ease on leaving England if I did not tell +you once more with my whole heart that your conduct to +me on this and all other occasions has been honourable, +manly, and generous, and that I have felt it a solemn duty, +in the event of any accident happening to me while I am +away, to place this testimony upon record. It forms part of +a will I have made for the security of my children; for I +wish them to know it when they are capable of understanding +your worth and my appreciation of it.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;">Always believe me,</span><br /> +Faithfully and truly yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Thomas +Mitton.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool</span>, <i>Monday, Jan. 3rd, 1842.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mitton</span>,</div> + +<p>This is a short note, but I will fulfil the adage and +make it a merry one.</p> + +<p>We came down in great comfort. Our luggage is now +aboard. Anything so utterly and monstrously absurd as +the size of our cabin, no "gentleman of England who lives +at home at ease" can for a moment imagine. Neither of the +portmanteaus would go into it. There!</p> + +<p>These Cunard packets are not very big you know +actually, but the quantity of sleeping-berths makes them +much smaller, so that the saloon is not nearly as large as in +one of the Ramsgate boats. The ladies' cabin is so close to +ours that I could knock the door open without getting +off something they call my bed, but which I believe to +be a muffin beaten flat. This is a great comfort, for it +is an excellent room (the only good one in the ship); and +if there be only one other lady besides Kate, as the +stewardess thinks, I hope I shall be able to sit there very +often.</p> + +<p>They talk of seventy passengers, but I can't think there +will be so many; they talk besides (which is even more to +the purpose) of a very fine passage, having had a noble one +this time last year. God send it so! We are in the best +spirits, and full of hope. I was dashed for a moment +when I saw our "cabin," but I got over that directly, and +laughed so much at its ludicrous proportions, that you +might have heard me all over the ship.</p> + +<p>God bless you! Write to me by the first opportunity. I +will do the like to you. And always believe me,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Your old and faithful Friend.<br /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span></p> +<h2>NARRATIVE.</h2> + + +<p>At a meeting of the passengers on board the <i>Britannia</i> +steam-ship, travelling from Liverpool to Boston, held in the +saloon of that vessel, on Friday, the 21st January, 1842, it +was moved and seconded:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"That the Earl of Mulgrave do take the chair."</p></div> + +<p>The motion having been carried unanimously, the Earl +of Mulgrave took the chair accordingly.</p> + +<p>It was also moved and seconded, and carried +unanimously:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"That Charles Dickens, Esq., be appointed secretary +and treasurer to the meeting."</p></div> + +<p>The three following resolutions were then proposed and +carried <i>nem. con.</i>:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"First. That, gratefully recognising the blessing of +Divine Providence by which we are brought nearly to the +termination of our voyage, we have great pleasure in expressing +our high appreciation of Captain Hewett's nautical +skill and of his indefatigable attention to the management +and safe conduct of the ship, during a more than ordinarily +tempestuous passage.</p> + +<p>"Secondly. That a subscription be opened for the purchase +of a piece of silver plate, and that Captain Hewett be +respectfully requested to accept it, as a sincere expression of +the sentiments embodied in the foregoing resolution.</p> + +<p>"Thirdly. That a committee be appointed to carry +these resolutions into effect; and that the committee be +composed of the following gentlemen: Charles Dickens, +Esq., E. Dunbar, Esq., and Solomon Hopkins, Esq."</p></div> + +<p>The committee having withdrawn and conferred with +Captain Hewett, returned, and informed the meeting that +Captain Hewett desired to attend and express his thanks, +which he did.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span></p> + +<p>The amount of the subscription was reported at fifty +pounds, and the list was closed. It was then agreed that the +following inscription should be placed upon the testimonial +to Captain Hewett:</p> + +<div class='center'> +<span class="smcap">This Piece of Plate</span><br /> +was presented to<br /> +<big>CAPTAIN JOHN HEWETT,</big><br /> +of the <span class="smcap">Britannia</span> Steam-ship,<br /> +<br /> +By the Passengers on board that vessel in a voyage from Liverpool<br /> +to Boston, in the month of January, 1842,<br /> +<br /> +As a slight acknowledgment of his great ability and skill<br /> +under circumstances of much difficulty and danger,<br /> +And as a feeble token of their lasting gratitude.<br /> +</div> + +<p>Thanks were then voted to the chairman and to the +secretary, and the meeting separated.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Thomas +Mitton.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tremont House, Boston</span>, <i>January 31st, 1842.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mitton</span>,</div> + +<p>I am so exhausted with the life I am obliged to +lead here, that I have had time to write but one letter which +is at all deserving of the name, as giving any account of +our movements. Forster has it, in trust, to tell you all its +news; and he has also some newspapers which I had an +opportunity of sending him, in which you will find further +particulars of our progress.</p> + +<p>We had a dreadful passage, the worst, the officers all +concur in saying, that they have ever known. We were +eighteen days coming; experienced a dreadful storm which +swept away our paddle-boxes and stove our lifeboats; and +ran aground besides, near Halifax, among rocks and +breakers, where we lay at anchor all night. After we left +the English Channel we had only one fine day. And we +had the additional discomfort of being eighty-six passengers.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> +I was ill five days, Kate six; though, indeed, she had a +swelled face and suffered the utmost terror all the way.</p> + +<p>I can give you no conception of my welcome here. +There never was a king or emperor upon the earth so +cheered and followed by crowds, and entertained in public +at splendid balls and dinners, and waited on by public +bodies and deputations of all kinds. I have had one from +the Far West—a journey of two thousand miles! If I +go out in a carriage, the crowd surround it and escort me +home; if I go to the theatre, the whole house (crowded to +the roof) rises as one man, and the timbers ring again. +You cannot imagine what it is. I have five great public +dinners on hand at this moment, and invitations from every +town and village and city in the States.</p> + +<p>There is a great deal afloat here in the way of subjects for +description. I keep my eyes open pretty wide, and hope to +have done so to some purpose by the time I come home.</p> + +<p>When you write to me again—I say again, hoping that +your first letter will be soon upon its way here—direct to +me to the care of David Colden, Esq., New York. He will +forward all communications by the quickest conveyance and +will be perfectly acquainted with all my movements.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Always your faithful Friend.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Fitz-Greene +Halleck.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Carlton House</span>, <i>February 14th, 1842.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Sir</span>,</div> + +<p>Will you come and breakfast with me on Tuesday, +the 22nd, at half-past ten? Say yes. I should have been +truly delighted to have a talk with you to-night (being +quite alone), but the doctor says that if I talk to man, +woman, or child this evening I shall be dumb to-morrow.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Believe me, with true regard,</span><br /> +Faithfully your Friend.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Baltimore</span>, <i>March 22nd, 1842.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Friend</span>,</div> + +<p>I beg your pardon, but you were speaking of rash +leaps at hasty conclusions. Are you quite sure you +designed that remark for me? Have you not, in the +hurry of correspondence, slipped a paragraph into my +letter which belongs of right to somebody else? When +did you ever find me leap at wrong conclusions? I pause +for a reply.</p> + +<p>Pray, sir, did you ever find me admiring Mr. ——? +On the contrary, did you never hear of my protesting +through good, better, and best report that he was not an +open or a candid man, and would one day, beyond all +doubt, displease you by not being so? I pause again for a +reply.</p> + +<p>Are you quite sure, Mr. Macready—and I address myself +to you with the sternness of a man in the pit—are +you quite sure, sir, that you do not view America +through the pleasant mirage which often surrounds a +thing that has been, but not a thing that is? Are you +quite sure that when you were here you relished it as well +as you do now when you look back upon it. The early +spring birds, Mr. Macready, <i>do</i> sing in the groves that you +were, very often, not over well pleased with many of the +new country's social aspects. Are the birds to be trusted? +Again I pause for a reply.</p> + +<p>My dear Macready, I desire to be so honest and +just to those who have so enthusiastically and earnestly +welcomed me, that I burned the last letter I wrote to +you—even to you to whom I would speak as to myself—rather +than let it come with anything that might seem +like an ill-considered word of disappointment. I preferred +that you should think me neglectful (if you could imagine<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> +anything so wild) rather than I should do wrong in this +respect. Still it is of no use. I <i>am</i> disappointed. This +is not the republic I came to see; this is not the republic of +my imagination. I infinitely prefer a liberal monarchy—even +with its sickening accompaniments of court circulars—to +such a government as this. The more I think of its youth +and strength, the poorer and more trifling in a thousand +aspects it appears in my eyes. In everything of which it +has made a boast—excepting its education of the people and +its care for poor children—it sinks immeasurably below the +level I had placed it upon; and England, even England, +bad and faulty as the old land is, and miserable as millions +of her people are, rises in the comparison.</p> + +<p><i>You</i> live here, Macready, as I have sometimes heard you +imagining! <i>You!</i> Loving you with all my heart and soul, +and knowing what your disposition really is, I would not +condemn you to a year's residence on this side of the +Atlantic for any money. Freedom of opinion! Where is +it? I see a press more mean, and paltry, and silly, and +disgraceful than any country I ever knew. If that is its +standard, here it is. But I speak of Bancroft, and am +advised to be silent on that subject, for he is "a black sheep—a +Democrat." I speak of Bryant, and am entreated to +be more careful, for the same reason. I speak of international +copyright, and am implored not to ruin myself outright. +I speak of Miss Martineau, and all parties—Slave +Upholders and Abolitionists, Whigs, Tyler Whigs, and +Democrats, shower down upon me a perfect cataract of +abuse. "But what has she done? Surely she praised +America enough!" "Yes, but she told us of some of our +faults, and Americans can't bear to be told of their faults. +Don't split on that rock, Mr. Dickens, don't write about +America; we are so very suspicious."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span></p> + +<p>Freedom of opinion! Macready, if I had been born +here and had written my books in this country, producing +them with no stamp of approval from any other land, +it is my solemn belief that I should have lived and died +poor, unnoticed, and a "black sheep" to boot. I never +was more convinced of anything than I am of that.</p> + +<p>The people are affectionate, generous, open-hearted, +hospitable, enthusiastic, good-humoured, polite to women, +frank and candid to all strangers, anxious to oblige, far +less prejudiced than they have been described to be, +frequently polished and refined, very seldom rude or disagreeable. +I have made a great many friends here, even in +public conveyances, whom I have been truly sorry to part +from. In the towns I have formed perfect attachments. +I have seen none of that greediness and indecorousness +on which travellers have laid so much emphasis. I have +returned frankness with frankness; met questions not intended +to be rude, with answers meant to be satisfactory; +and have not spoken to one man, woman, or child of any +degree who has not grown positively affectionate before we +parted. In the respects of not being left alone, and of +being horribly disgusted by tobacco chewing and tobacco +spittle, I have suffered considerably. The sight of slavery +in Virginia, the hatred of British feeling upon the subject, +and the miserable hints of the impotent indignation of the +South, have pained me very much; on the last head, of +course, I have felt nothing but a mingled pity and amusement; +on the other, sheer distress. But however much I +like the ingredients of this great dish, I cannot but come +back to the point upon which I started, and say that the +dish itself goes against the grain with me, and that I don't +like it.</p> + +<p>You know that I am truly a Liberal. I believe I have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> +as little pride as most men, and I am conscious of not the +smallest annoyance from being "hail fellow well met" with +everybody. I have not had greater pleasure in the company +of any set of men among the thousands I have received +(I hold a regular <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'levee'">levée</ins> every day, you know, which is +duly heralded and proclaimed in the newspapers) than in +that of the carmen of Hertford, who presented themselves +in a body in their blue frocks, among a crowd of well-dressed +ladies and gentlemen, and bade me welcome through +their spokesman. They had all read my books, and all +perfectly understood them. It is not these things I have +in my mind when I say that the man who comes to this +country a Radical and goes home again with his opinions +unchanged, must be a Radical on reason, sympathy, and +reflection, and one who has so well considered the subject +that he has no chance of wavering.</p> + +<p>We have been to Boston, Worcester, Hertford, New +Haven, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, +Fredericksburgh, Richmond, and back to Washington +again. The premature heat of the weather (it was eighty +yesterday in the shade) and Clay's advice—how you would +like Clay!—have made us determine not to go to Charleston; +but having got to Richmond, I think I should have turned +back under any circumstances. We remain at Baltimore +for two days, of which this is one; then we go to Harrisburgh. +Then by the canal boat and the railroad over the +Alleghany Mountains to Pittsburgh, then down the Ohio to +Cincinnati, then to Louisville, and then to St. Louis. I have +been invited to a public entertainment in every town I +have entered, and have refused them; but I have excepted +St. Louis as the farthest point of my travels. My friends +there have passed some resolutions which Forster has, and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span>will show you. From St. Louis we cross to Chicago, +traversing immense prairies. Thence by the lakes and +Detroit to Buffalo, and so to Niagara. A run into Canada +follows of course, and then—let me write the blessed word +in capitals—we turn towards <span class="smcap">home</span>.</p> + +<p>Kate has written to Mrs. Macready, and it is useless for +me to thank you, my dearest friend, or her, for your care +of our dear children, which is our constant theme of discourse. +Forster has gladdened our hearts with his account +of the triumph of "Acis and Galatea," and I am anxiously +looking for news of the tragedy. Forrest breakfasted +with us at Richmond last Saturday—he was acting there, +and I invited him—and he spoke very gratefully, and +very like a man, of your kindness to him when he was in +London.</p> + +<p>David Colden is as good a fellow as ever lived; and +I am deeply in love with his wife. Indeed we have received +the greatest and most earnest and zealous kindness from +the whole family, and quite love them all. Do you +remember one Greenhow, whom you invited to pass some +days with you at the hotel on the Kaatskill Mountains? +He is translator to the State Office at Washington, has a +very pretty wife, and a little girl of five years old. We +dined with them, and had a very pleasant day. The +President invited me to dinner, but I couldn't stay for it. I +had a private audience, however, and we attended the public +drawing-room besides.</p> + +<p>Now, don't you rush at the quick conclusion that I have +rushed at a quick conclusion. Pray, be upon your guard. +If you can by any process estimate the extent of my +affectionate regard for you, and the rush I shall make when +I reach London to take you by your true right hand, I +don't object. But let me entreat you to be very careful +how you come down upon the sharpsighted individual who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> +pens these words, which you seem to me to have done in what +Willmott would call "one of Mr. Macready's rushes." As my +pen is getting past its work, I have taken a new one to say that</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">I am ever, my dear Macready,</span><br /> +Your faithful Friend.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Thomas +Mitton.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Baltimore, United States</span>, <i>March 22nd, 1842.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Friend</span>,</div> + +<p>We have been as far south as Richmond in Virginia +(where they grow and manufacture tobacco, and where the +labour is all performed by slaves), but the season in those +latitudes is so intensely and prematurely hot, that it was +considered a matter of doubtful expediency to go on to +Charleston. For this unexpected reason, and because the +country between Richmond and Charleston is but a desolate +swamp the whole way, and because slavery is anything but +a cheerful thing to live amidst, I have altered my route by +the advice of Mr. Clay (the great political leader in this +country), and have returned here previous to diving into +the far West. We start for that part of the country—which +includes mountain travelling, and lake travelling, +and prairie travelling—the day after to-morrow, at eight +o'clock in the morning; and shall be in the West, and from +there going northward again, until the 30th of April or 1st +of May, when we shall halt for a week at Niagara, before +going further into Canada. We have taken our passage home +(God bless the word) in the <i>George Washington</i> packet-ship +from New York. She sails on the 7th of June.</p> + +<p>I have departed from my resolution not to accept any +more public entertainments; they have been proposed in +every town I have visited—in favour of the people of +St. Louis, my utmost western point. That town is on the +borders of the Indian territory, a trifling distance from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> +this place—only two thousand miles! At my second +halting-place I shall be able to write to fix the day; I +suppose it will be somewhere about the 12th of April. +Think of my going so far towards the setting sun to dinner!</p> + +<p>In every town where we stay, though it be only for a +day, we hold a regular <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'levee'">levée</ins> or drawing-room, where I +shake hands on an average with five or six hundred people, +who pass on from me to Kate, and are shaken again by +her. Maclise's picture of our darlings stands upon a table +or sideboard the while; and my travelling secretary, assisted +very often by a committee belonging to the place, presents +the people in due form. Think of two hours of this every +day, and the people coming in by hundreds, all fresh, and +piping hot, and full of questions, when we are literally +exhausted and can hardly stand. I really do believe that +if I had not a lady with me, I should have been obliged to +leave the country and go back to England. But for her they +never would leave me alone by day or night, and as it is, a +slave comes to me now and then in the middle of the night +with a letter, and waits at the bedroom door for an answer.</p> + +<p>It was so hot at Richmond that we could scarcely +breathe, and the peach and other fruit trees were in full +blossom; it was so cold at Washington next day that we +were shivering; but even in the same town you might often +wear nothing but a shirt and trousers in the morning, and two +greatcoats at night, the thermometer very frequently taking +a little trip of thirty degrees between sunrise and sunset.</p> + +<p>They do lay it on at the hotels in such style! They +charge by the day, so that whether one dines out or dines at +home makes no manner of difference. T'other day I wrote +to order our rooms at Philadelphia to be ready on a certain +day, and was detained a week longer than I expected in +New York. The Philadelphia landlord not only charged me<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> +half rent for the rooms during the whole of that time, but +board for myself and Kate and Anne during the whole time +too, though we were actually boarding at the same expense +during the same time in New York! What do you say to +that? If I remonstrated, the whole virtue of the newspapers +would be aroused directly.</p> + +<p>We were at the President's drawing-room while we were +in Washington. I had a private audience besides, and was +asked to dinner, but couldn't stay.</p> + +<p>Parties—parties—parties—of course, every day and +night. But it's not all parties. I go into the prisons, the +police-offices, the watch-houses, the hospitals, the workhouses. +I was out half the night in New York with two +of their most famous constables; started at midnight, and +went into every brothel, thieves' house, murdering hovel, +sailors' dancing-place, and abode of villany, both black and +white, in the town. I went <i>incog.</i> behind the scenes to the +little theatre where Mitchell is making a fortune. He has +been rearing a little dog for me, and has called him "Boz."<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> +I am going to bring him home. In a word I go everywhere, +and a hard life it is. But I am careful to drink hardly +anything, and not to smoke at all. I have recourse to my +medicine-chest whenever I feel at all bilious, and am, thank +God, thoroughly well.</p> + +<p>When I next write to you, I shall have begun, I hope, to +turn my face homeward. I have a great store of oddity +and whimsicality, and am going now into the oddest and +most characteristic part of this most queer country.</p> + +<p>Always direct to the care of David Colden, Esq.,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> +28, Laight Street, Hudson Square, New York. I received +your Caledonia letter with the greatest joy.</p> + +<p>Kate sends her best remembrances.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +And I am always.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—Richmond was my extreme southern point, and I +turn from the South altogether the day after to-morrow. Will +you let the Britannia<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> know of this change—if needful?</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Dr. F. H. +Deane.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Cincinnati, Ohio</span>, <i>April 4th, 1842.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Sir</span>,</div> + +<p>I have not been unmindful of your request for a +moment, but have not been able to think of it until now. +I hope my good friends (for whose christian-names I have +left blanks in the epitaph) may like what I have written, +and that they will take comfort and be happy again. I sail +on the 7th of June, and purpose being at the Carlton House, +New York, about the 1st. It will make me easy to know +that this letter has reached you.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + +<div class='center'><br /> +<b>This is the Grave of a Little Child,</b><br /> +<br /> +<small>WHOM GOD IN HIS GOODNESS CALLED TO A BRIGHT ETERNITY</small><br /> +<small>WHEN HE WAS VERY YOUNG.</small><br /> +<br /> +<small>HARD AS IT IS FOR HUMAN AFFECTION TO RECONCILE ITSELF TO DEATH IN ANY</small><br /> +<small>SHAPE (AND MOST OF ALL, PERHAPS, AT FIRST IN THIS),</small><br /> +<br /> +<small>HIS PARENTS CAN EVEN NOW BELIEVE THAT IT WILL BE A CONSOLATION</small><br /> +<small>TO THEM THROUGHOUT THEIR LIVES,</small><br /> +<br /> +<small>AND WHEN THEY SHALL HAVE GROWN OLD AND GRAY,</small><br /> +<br /> +<b>Always to think of him as a Child in Heaven.</b><br /> +<br /> +"<i>And Jesus called a little child unto Him, and set him in the midst of them.</i>"<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">He was the Son of Q—— and M—— THORNTON, christened</span><br /> +<br /> +CHARLES JERKING.<br /> +<br /> +<small><span class="smcap">HE WAS BORN ON THE 20TH DAY OF JANUARY, 1841,</span></small><br /> +<small><span class="smcap">AND HE DIED ON THE 12TH DAY OF MARCH, 1842,</span></small><br /> +<span class="smcap">having lived only thirteen months and twenty days.</span><br /> +</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span></p> + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Henry +Austin.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Niagara Falls</span> (English Side),</span><br /> +<i>Sunday, May 1st, 1842.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Henry</span>,</div> + +<p>Although I date this letter as above, it will not be so +old a one as at first sight it would appear to be when it +reaches you. I shall carry it on with me to Montreal, and +despatch it from there by the steamer which goes to Halifax, +to meet the Cunard boat at that place, with Canadian letters +and passengers. Before I finally close it, I will add a short +postscript, so that it will contain the latest intelligence.</p> + +<p>We have had a blessed interval of quiet in this beautiful +place, of which, as you may suppose, we stood greatly in +need, not only by reason of our hard travelling for a long +time, but on account of the incessant persecutions of the +people, by land and water, on stage coach, railway car, and +steamer, which exceeds anything you can picture to yourself +by the utmost stretch of your imagination. So far we +have had this hotel nearly to ourselves. It is a large square +house, standing on a bold height, with overhanging eaves +like a Swiss cottage, and a wide handsome gallery outside +every story. These colonnades make it look so very light, +that it has exactly the appearance of a house built with a +pack of cards; and I live in bodily terror lest any man should +venture to step out of a little observatory on the roof, and +crush the whole structure with one stamp of his foot.</p> + +<p>Our sitting-room (which is large and low like a nursery) +is on the second floor, and is so close to the Falls that the +windows are always wet and dim with spray. Two bedrooms +open out of it—one our own; one Anne's. The secretary +slumbers near at hand, but without these sacred precincts. +From the three chambers, or any part of them, you can see +the Falls rolling and tumbling, and roaring and leaping, +all day long, with bright rainbows making fiery arches<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> +down a hundred feet below us. When the sun is on them, +they shine and glow like molten gold. When the day is +gloomy, the water falls like snow, or sometimes it seems +to crumble away like the face of a great chalk cliff, or +sometimes again to roll along the front of the rock like +white smoke. But it all seems gay or gloomy, dark or light, +by sun or moon. From the bottom of both Falls, there is +always rising up a solemn ghostly cloud, which hides the +boiling cauldron from human sight, and makes it in its +mystery a hundred times more grand than if you could see +all the secrets that lie hidden in its tremendous depth. One +Fall is as close to us as York Gate is to No. 1, Devonshire +Terrace. The other (the great Horse-shoe Fall) may be, +perhaps, about half as far off as "Creedy's."<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> One circumstance +in connection with them is, in all the accounts, +greatly exaggerated—I mean the noise. Last night was +perfectly still. Kate and I could just hear them, at the +quiet time of sunset, a mile off. Whereas, believing the +statements I had heard I began putting my ear to the +ground, like a savage or a bandit in a ballet, thirty miles +off, when we were coming here from Buffalo.</p> + +<p>I was delighted to receive your famous letter, and to +read your account of our darlings, whom we long to see +with an intensity it is impossible to shadow forth, ever so +faintly. I do believe, though I say it as shouldn't, that +they are good 'uns—both to look at and to go. I roared out +this morning, as soon as I was awake, "Next month," +which we have been longing to be able to say ever since we +have been here. I really do not know how we shall ever +knock at the door, when that slowest of all impossibly slow +hackney-coaches shall pull up—at home.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span></p> +<p>I am glad you exult in the fight I have had about the +copyright. If you knew how they tried to stop me, you +would have a still greater interest in it. The greatest men +in England have sent me out, through Forster, a very manly, +and becoming, and spirited memorial and address, backing +me in all I have done. I have despatched it to Boston for +publication, and am coolly prepared for the storm it will +raise. But my best rod is in pickle.</p> + +<p>Is it not a horrible thing that scoundrel booksellers +should grow rich here from publishing books, the authors of +which do not reap one farthing from their issue by scores +of thousands; and that every vile, blackguard, and detestable +newspaper, so filthy and bestial that no honest man +would admit one into his house for a scullery door-mat, +should be able to publish those same writings side by side, +cheek by jowl, with the coarsest and most obscene companions +with which they must become connected, in course +of time, in people's minds? Is it tolerable that besides +being robbed and rifled an author should be forced to appear +in any form, in any vulgar dress, in any atrocious company; +that he should have no choice of his audience, no +control over his own distorted text, and that he should be +compelled to jostle out of the course the best men in this +country who only ask to live by writing? I vow before +high heaven that my blood so boils at these enormities, that +when I speak about them I seem to grow twenty feet high, +and to swell out in proportion. "Robbers that ye are," I +think to myself when I get upon my legs, "here goes!"</p> + +<p>The places we have lodged in, the roads we have gone +over, the company we have been among, the tobacco-spittle +we have wallowed in, the strange customs we have +complied with, the packing-cases in which we have travelled, +the woods, swamps, rivers, prairies, lakes, and mountains we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> +have crossed, are all subjects for legends and tales at home; +quires, reams, wouldn't hold them. I don't think Anne +has so much as seen an American tree. She never looks +at a prospect by any chance, or displays the smallest emotion +at any sight whatever. She objects to Niagara that "it's +nothing but water," and considers that "there is too much +of that."</p> + +<p>I suppose you have heard that I am going to act at +the Montreal theatre with the officers? Farce-books being +scarce, and the choice consequently limited, I have selected +Keeley's part in "Two o'Clock in the Morning." I wrote +yesterday to Mitchell, the actor and manager at New York, +to get and send me a comic wig, light flaxen, with a small +whisker halfway down the cheek; over this I mean to wear +two night-caps, one with a tassel and one of flannel; a +flannel wrapper, drab tights and slippers, will complete the +costume.</p> + +<p>I am very sorry to hear that business is so flat, but the +proverb says it never rains but it pours, and it may be remarked +with equal truth upon the other side, that it never +<i>don't</i> rain but it holds up very much indeed. You will be +busy again long before I come home, I have no doubt.</p> + +<p>We purpose leaving this on Wednesday morning. +Give my love to Letitia and to mother, and always +believe me, my dear Henry,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Henry +Austin.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Montreal, Canada</span>, <i>May 12th, 1842.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>All well, though (with the exception of one from Fred) +we have received no letters whatever by the <i>Caledonia</i>. +We have experienced impossible-to-be-described attentions +in Canada. Everybody's carriage and horses are at our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> +disposal, and everybody's servants; and all the Government +boats and boats' crews. We shall play, between +the 20th and the 25th, "A Roland for an Oliver," "Two +o'Clock in the Morning," and "Deaf as a Post."</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Thomas +Longman.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Athenæum</span>, <i>Friday Afternoon.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Sir</span>,</div> + +<p>If I could possibly have attended the meeting yesterday +I would most gladly have done so. But I have been up +the whole night, and was too much exhausted even to write +and say so before the proceedings came on.</p> + +<p>I have fought the fight across the Atlantic with the +utmost energy I could command; have never been turned +aside by any consideration for an instant; am fresher for +the fray than ever; will battle it to the death, and die +game to the last.</p> + +<p>I am happy to say that my boy is quite well again. +From being in perfect health he fell into alarming convulsions +with the surprise and joy of our return.</p> + +<p>I beg my regards to Mrs. Longman,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 3em;">And am always,</span><br /> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Pardoe.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace, York Gate, Regent's Park</span>,</span><br /> +<i>July 19th, 1842.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">Dear Madam</span>,</div> + +<p>I beg to set you right on one point in reference +to the American robbers, which perhaps you do not quite +understand.</p> + +<p>The existing law allows them to reprint any English +book, without any communication whatever with the author<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> +or anybody else. My books have all been reprinted on these +agreeable terms.</p> + +<p>But sometimes, when expectation is awakened there +about a book before its publication, one firm of pirates +will pay a trifle to procure early proofs of it, and get so +much the start of the rest as they can obtain by the +time necessarily consumed in printing it. Directly it is +printed it is common property, and may be reprinted a +thousand times. My circular only referred to such bargains +as these.</p> + +<p>I should add that I have no hope of the States doing +justice in this dishonest respect, and therefore do not +expect to overtake these fellows, but we may cry "Stop +thief!" nevertheless, especially as they wince and smart +under it.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours always.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. H. P. +Smith.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>Thursday, July 14th, 1842.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Smith</span>,</div> + +<p>The cheque safely received. As you say, it would +be cheap at any money. My devotion to the fine arts +renders it impossible for me to cash it. I have therefore +ordered it to be framed and glazed.</p> + +<p>I am really grateful to you for the interest you take in +my proceedings. Next time I come into the City I will +show you my introductory chapter to the American book. +It may seem to prepare the reader for a much greater +amount of slaughter than he will meet with; but it is honest +and true. Therefore my hand does not shake.</p> + +<p>Best love and regards. "Certainly" to the Richmondian +intentions.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Always faithfully your Friend.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Harrison +Ainsworth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Broadstairs, Kent</span>, <i>September 14th, 1842.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Ainsworth</span>,</div> + +<p>The enclosed has been sent to me by a young gentleman +in Devonshire (of whom I know no more than that I +have occasionally, at his request, read and suggested +amendments in some of his writings), with a special petition +that I would recommend it to you for insertion in your +magazine.</p> + +<p>I think it very pretty, and I have no doubt you will +also. But it is poetry, and may be too long.</p> + +<p>He is a very modest young fellow, and has decided +ability.</p> + +<p>I hope when I come home at the end of the month, +we shall foregather more frequently. Of course you are +working, tooth and nail; and of course I am.</p> + +<p>Kate joins me in best regards to yourself and all your +house (not forgetting, but especially remembering, my old +friend, Mrs. Touchet), and I am always,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">My dear Ainsworth,</span><br /> +Heartily yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Henry +Austin.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Broadstairs</span>, <i>Sunday, September 25th, 1842.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Henry</span>,</div> + +<p>I enclose you the Niagara letter, with many thanks +for the loan of it.</p> + +<p>Pray tell Mr. Chadwick that I am greatly obliged to +him for his remembrance of me, and I heartily concur +with him in the great importance and interest of the +subject, though I do differ from him, to the death, on his +crack topic—the New Poor-Law.</p> + +<p>I have been turning my thoughts to this very item +in the condition of American towns, and had put their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> +present aspects strongly before the American people; +therefore I shall read his report with the greater interest +and attention.</p> + +<p>We return next Saturday night.</p> + +<p>If you will dine with us next day or any day in the +week, we shall be truly glad and delighted to see you. +Let me know, then, what day you will come.</p> + +<p>I need scarcely say that I shall joyfully talk with you +about the Metropolitan Improvement Society, then or at +any time; and with love to Letitia, in which Kate and the +babies join, I am always, my dear Henry,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—The children's present names are as follows:</p> + +<p>Katey (from a lurking propensity to fieryness), Lucifer +Box.</p> + +<p>Mamey (as generally descriptive of her bearing), Mild +Glo'ster.</p> + +<p>Charley (as a corruption of Master Toby), Flaster Floby.</p> + +<p>Walter (suggested by his high cheek-bones), Young +Skull.</p> + +<p>Each is pronounced with a peculiar howl, which I shall +have great pleasure in illustrating.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Rev. +William +Harness.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>November 8th, 1842.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Harness</span>,</div> + +<p>Some time ago, you sent me a note from a friend of +yours, a barrister, I think, begging me to forward to him +any letters I might receive from a deranged nephew of his, +at Newcastle. In the midst of a most bewildering correspondence +with unknown people, on every possible and impossible +subject, I have forgotten this gentleman's name, +though I have a kind of hazy remembrance that he lived<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> +near Russell Square. As the Post Office would be rather +puzzled, perhaps, to identify him by such an address, may +I ask the favour of you to hand him the enclosed, and to +say that it is the second I have received since I returned +from America? The last, I think, was a defiance to mortal +combat. With best remembrances to your sister, in which +Mrs. Dickens joins, believe me, my dear Harness,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Always faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>Saturday, Nov. 12th, 1842.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>You pass this house every day on your way to or from +the theatre. I wish you would call once as you go by, and +soon, that you may have plenty of time to deliberate on +what I wish to suggest to you. The more I think of +Marston's play, the more sure I feel that a prologue to +the purpose would help it materially, and almost decide +the fate of any ticklish point on the first night. Now I +have an idea (not easily explainable in writing but told +in five words), that would take the prologue out of the +conventional dress of prologues, quite. Get the curtain up +with a dash, and begin the play with a sledge-hammer +blow. If on consideration, you should think with me, I +will write the prologue heartily.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours ever.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class='center'><br />PROLOGUE<br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">To Mr. Marston's Play of "The Patrician's Daughter.</span>"<br /><br /></div> + +<div class='poem'> +No tale of streaming plumes and harness bright<br /> +Dwells on the poet's maiden harp to-night;<br /> +No trumpet's clamour and no battle's fire<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span>Breathes in the trembling accents of his lyre;<br /> +Enough for him, if in his lowly strain<br /> +He wakes one household echo not in vain;<br /> +Enough for him, if in his boldest word<br /> +The beating heart of <span class="smcap">man</span> be dimly heard.<br /> +<br /> +Its solemn music which, like strains that sigh<br /> +Through charmèd gardens, all who hearing die;<br /> +Its solemn music he does not pursue<br /> +To distant ages out of human view;<br /> +Nor listen to its wild and mournful chime<br /> +In the dead caverns on the shore of Time;<br /> +But musing with a calm and steady gaze<br /> +Before the crackling flames of living days,<br /> +He hears it whisper through the busy roar<br /> +Of what shall be and what has been before.<br /> +Awake the Present! shall no scene display<br /> +The tragic passion of the passing day?<br /> +Is it with Man, as with some meaner things,<br /> +That out of death his single purpose springs?<br /> +Can his eventful life no moral teach<br /> +Until he be, for aye, beyond its reach?<br /> +Obscurely shall he suffer, act, and fade,<br /> +Dubb'd noble only by the sexton's spade?<br /> +Awake the Present! Though the steel-clad age<br /> +Find life alone within the storied page,<br /> +Iron is worn, at heart, by many still—<br /> +The tyrant Custom binds the serf-like will;<br /> +If the sharp rack, and screw, and chain be gone,<br /> +These later days have tortures of their own;<br /> +The guiltless writhe, while Guilt is stretched in sleep,<br /> +And Virtue lies, too often, dungeon deep.<br /> +Awake the Present! what the Past has sown<br /> +Be in its harvest garner'd, reap'd, and grown!<br /> +How pride breeds pride, and wrong engenders wrong,<br /> +Read in the volume Truth has held so long,<br /> +Assured that where life's flowers freshest blow,<br /> +The sharpest thorns and keenest briars grow,<br /> +How social usage has the pow'r to change<br /> +Good thoughts to evil; in its highest range<br /> +To cramp the noble soul, and turn to ruth<br /> +The kindling impulse of our glorious youth,<br /> +Crushing the spirit in its house of clay,<br /> +Learn from the lessons of the present day.<br /> +Not light its import and not poor its mien;<br /> +Yourselves the actors, and your homes the scene.<br />. +</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<i>Saturday Morning.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>One suggestion, though it be a late one. Do have +upon the table, in the opening scene of the second act, +something in a velvet case, or frame, that may look like a +large miniature of Mabel, such as one of Ross's, and eschew +that picture. It haunts me with a sense of danger. Even +a titter at that critical time, with the whole of that act +before you, would be a fatal thing. The picture is bad in +itself, bad in its effect upon the beautiful room, bad in all +its associations with the house. In case of your having +nothing at hand, I send you by bearer what would be a +million times better. Always, my dear Macready,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—I need not remind you how common it is to have +such pictures in cases lying about elegant rooms.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. P. +Frith.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;">1, <span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace, York Gate, Regent's Park</span>,</span><br /> +<i>November 15th, 1842.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Sir</span>,</div> + +<p>I shall be very glad if you will do me the favour +to paint me two little companion pictures; one, a Dolly +Varden (whom you have so exquisitely done already), the +other, a Kate Nickleby.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours always.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—I take it for granted that the original picture +of Dolly with the bracelet is sold?</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">The same.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>November 17th, 1842.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Sir</span>,</div> + +<p>Pray consult your own convenience in the matter of +my little commission; whatever suits your engagements +and prospects will best suit me.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span></p> + +<p>I saw an unfinished proof of Dolly at Mitchell's some +two or three months ago; I thought it was proceeding +excellently well then. It will give me great pleasure to +see her when completed.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Thomas +Hood.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>November 30th, 1842.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Hood</span>,</div> + +<p>In asking your and Mrs. Hood's leave to bring +Mrs. D.'s sister (who stays with us) on Tuesday, let me +add that I should very much like to bring at the same +time a very unaffected and ardent admirer of your genius, +who has no small portion of that commodity in his own +right, and is a very dear friend of mine and a very famous +fellow; to wit, Maclise, the painter, who would be glad (as +he has often told me) to know you better, and would be +much pleased, I know, if I could say to him, "Hood wants +me to bring you."</p> + +<p>I use so little ceremony with you, in the conviction that +you will use as little with me, and say, "My dear D.—Convenient;" +or, "My dear D.—Ill-convenient," (as the +popular phrase is), just as the case may be. Of course, I +have said nothing to him.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Always heartily yours,</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Boz.</span><br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Trollope.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;">1, <span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace, York Gate, Regent's Park</span>,</span><br /> +<i>December 16th, 1842.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mrs. Trollope</span>,</div> + +<p>Let me thank you most cordially for your kind note, +in reference to my Notes, which has given me true pleasure +and gratification.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span></p> + +<p>As I never scrupled to say in America, so I can have no +delicacy in saying to you, that, allowing for the change you +worked in many social features of American society, and +for the time that has passed since you wrote of the country, +I am convinced that there is no writer who has so well and +accurately (I need not add so entertainingly) described it, in +many of its aspects, as you have done; and this renders your +praise the more valuable to me. I do not recollect ever +to have heard or seen the charge of exaggeration made +against a feeble performance, though, in its feebleness, +it may have been most untrue. It seems to me essentially +natural, and quite inevitable, that common observers should +accuse an uncommon one of this fault, and I have no doubt +that you were long ago of this opinion; very much to your +own comfort.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Dickens begs me to thank you for your kind remembrance +of her, and to convey to you her best regards. +Always believe me,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +George +Cattermole.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>December 20th, 1842.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear George</span>,</div> + +<p>It is impossible for me to tell you how greatly I +am charmed with those beautiful pictures, in which the +whole feeling, and thought, and expression of the little +story is rendered to the gratification of my inmost heart; +and on which you have lavished those amazing resources +of yours with a power at which I fairly wondered when I +sat down yesterday before them.</p> + +<p>I took them to Mac, straightway, in a cab, and it +would have done you good if you could have seen and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> +heard him. You can't think how moved he was by the old +man in the church, or how pleased I was to have chosen +it before he saw the drawings.</p> + +<p>You are such a queer fellow and hold yourself so much +aloof, that I am afraid to say half I would say touching +my grateful admiration; so you shall imagine the rest. I +enclose a note from Kate, to which I hope you will bring +the only one acceptable reply. Always, my dear Cattermole,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span></p> +<h2>Book II.</h2> + +<h3>1843 TO 1857.</h3> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span></p> +<h2>1843.</h2> + +<h3>NARRATIVE.</h3> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>We</span> have, unfortunately, very few letters of interest in this +year. But we are able to give the commencement of +Charles Dickens's correspondence with his beloved friends, +Mr. Douglas Jerrold and Mr. Clarkson Stanfield; with Lord +Morpeth (afterwards Lord Carlisle), for whom he always +entertained the highest regard; and with Mr. Charles +Babbage.</div> + +<p>He was at work upon "Martin Chuzzlewit" until the +end of the year, when he also wrote and published the +first of his Christmas stories—"The Christmas Carol."</p> + +<p>He was much distressed by the sad fate of Mr. Elton (a +respected actor), who was lost in the wreck of the <i>Pegasus</i>, +and was very eager and earnest in his endeavours to raise a +fund on behalf of Mr. Elton's children.</p> + +<p>We are sorry to be unable to give any explanation as to +the nature of the Cockspur Street Society, mentioned in +this first letter to Mr. Charles Babbage. But we publish +it notwithstanding, considering it to be one of general +interest.</p> + +<p>The "Little History of England" was never finished—not, +that is to say, the one alluded to in the letter to +Mr. Jerrold.</p> + +<p>Mr. David Dickson kindly furnishes us with an explanation +of the letter dated 10th May. "It was," he says, +"in answer to a letter from me, pointing out that the +'Shepherd' in 'Pickwick' was apparently reflecting on the +scriptural doctrine of the new birth."</p> + +<p>The beginning of the letter to Mr. Jerrold (15th June) +is, as will be readily understood, an imaginary cast of a +purely imaginary play. A portion of this letter has already<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> +been published, in Mr. Blanchard Jerrold's life of his father. +It originated in a proposal of Mr. Webster's—the manager +of the Haymarket Theatre—to give five hundred pounds +for a prize comedy by an English author.</p> + +<p>The opera referred to in the letter to Mr. R. H. Horne +was called "The Village Coquettes," and the farce was +"The Strange Gentleman," already alluded to by us, in +connection with a letter to Mr. Harley.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Charles +Babbage.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>April 27th, 1843.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Sir</span>,</div> + +<p>I write to you, <i>confidentially</i>, in answer to your note +of last night, and the tenor of mine will tell you why.</p> + +<p>You may suppose, from seeing my name in the printed +letter you have received, that I am favourable to the proposed +society. I am decidedly opposed to it. I went there +on the day I was in the chair, after much solicitation; and +being put into it, opened the proceedings by telling the +meeting that I approved of the design in theory, but in +practice considered it hopeless. I may tell you—I did not +tell them—that the nature of the meeting, and the character +and position of many of the men attending it, cried +"Failure" trumpet-tongued in my ears. To quote an expression +from Tennyson, I may say that if it were the best +society in the world, the grossness of some natures in it +would have weight to drag it down.</p> + +<p>In the wisdom of all you urge in the notes you have +sent me, taking them as statements of theory, I entirely +concur. But in practice, I feel sure that the present publishing +system cannot be overset until authors are different +men. The first step to be taken is to move as a body in the +question of copyright, enforce the existing laws, and try to +obtain better. For that purpose I hold that the authors<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> +and publishers must unite, as the wealth, business habits, +and interest of that latter class are of great importance +to such an end. The Longmans and Murray have been +with me proposing such an association. That I shall support. +But having seen the Cockspur Street Society, I am +as well convinced of its invincible hopelessness as if I saw +it written by a celestial penman in the Book of Fate.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 6em;">My dear Sir,</span><br /> +Always faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Douglas +Jerrold.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>May 3rd, 1843.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Jerrold</span>,</div> + +<p>Let me thank you most cordially for your books, +not only for their own sakes (and I have read them with +perfect delight), but also for this hearty and most welcome +mark of your recollection of the friendship we have +established; in which light I know I may regard and +prize them.</p> + +<p>I am greatly pleased with your opening paper in the +Illuminated. It is very wise, and capital; written with the +finest end of that iron pen of yours; witty, much needed, +and full of truth. I vow to God that I think the parrots +of society are more intolerable and mischievous than its +birds of prey. If ever I destroy myself, it will be in the +bitterness of hearing those infernal and damnably good old +times extolled. Once, in a fit of madness, after having +been to a public dinner which took place just as this +Ministry came in, I wrote the parody I send you enclosed, +for Fonblanque. There is nothing in it but wrath; but +that's wholesome, so I send it you.</p> + +<p>I am writing a little history of England for my boy, +which I will send you when it is printed for him, though<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> +your boys are too old to profit by it. It is curious that I +have tried to impress upon him (writing, I daresay, at +the same moment with you) the exact spirit of your paper, +for I don't know what I should do if he were to get hold +of any Conservative or High Church notions; and the best +way of guarding against any such horrible result is, I take +it, to wring the parrots' necks in his very cradle.</p> + +<p>Oh Heaven, if you could have been with me at a hospital +dinner last Monday! There were men there who made +such speeches and expressed such sentiments as any +moderately intelligent dustman would have blushed through +his cindery bloom to have thought of. Sleek, slobbering, +bow-paunched, over-fed, apoplectic, snorting cattle, and +the auditory leaping up in their delight! I never saw such +an illustration of the power of purse, or felt so degraded +and debased by its contemplation, since I have had eyes +and ears. The absurdity of the thing was too horrible to +laugh at. It was perfectly overwhelming. But if I could +have partaken it with anybody who would have felt it +as you would have done, it would have had quite another +aspect; or would at least, like a "classic mask" (oh +d—— that word!) have had one funny side to relieve its +dismal features.</p> + +<p>Supposing fifty families were to emigrate into the wilds +of North America—yours, mine, and forty-eight others—picked +for their concurrence of opinion on all important +subjects and for their resolution to found a colony of common-sense, +how soon would that devil, Cant, present itself +among them in one shape or other? The day they landed, +do you say, or the day after?</p> + +<p>That is a great mistake (almost the only one I know) in +the "Arabian Nights," when the princess restores people +to their original beauty by sprinkling them with the golden<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> +water. It is quite clear that she must have made monsters +of them by such a christening as that.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;">My dear Jerrold,</span><br /> +Faithfully your Friend.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. David +Dickson.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;">1, <span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace, York Gate, Regent's Park</span>,</span><br /> +<i>May 10th, 1843.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,</div> + +<p>Permit me to say, in reply to your letter, that you +do not understand the intention (I daresay the fault is +mine) of that passage in the "Pickwick Papers" which +has given you offence. The design of "the Shepherd" and +of this and every other allusion to him is, to show how +sacred things are degraded, vulgarised, and rendered absurd +when persons who are utterly incompetent to teach the +commonest things take upon themselves to expound such +mysteries, and how, in making mere cant phrases of divine +words, these persons miss the spirit in which they had their +origin. I have seen a great deal of this sort of thing in +many parts of England, and I never knew it lead to charity +or good deeds.</p> + +<p>Whether the great Creator of the world and the +creature of his hands, moulded in his own image, be +quite so opposite in character as you believe, is a question +which it would profit us little to discuss. I like the frankness +and candour of your letter, and thank you for it. That +every man who seeks heaven must be born again, in good +thoughts of his Maker, I sincerely believe. That it is expedient +for every hound to say so in a certain snuffling form +of words, to which he attaches no good meaning, I do not +believe. I take it there is no difference between us.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span></p> + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Douglas +Jerrold.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>June 13th, 1843.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Jerrold</span>,</div> + +<p>Yes, you have anticipated my occupation. Chuzzlewit +be d——d. High comedy and five hundred pounds are the +only matters I can think of. I call it "The One Thing +Needful; or, A Part is Better than the Whole." Here are +the characters:</p> + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Cast"> +<tr><td align='left'>Old Febrile</td><td align='left'>Mr. <span class="smcap">Farren</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Young Febrile (his Son)</td><td align='left'>Mr. <span class="smcap">Howe</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Jack Hessians (his Friend) </td><td align='left'>Mr. <span class="smcap">W. Lacy</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Chalks (a Landlord)</td><td align='left'>Mr. <span class="smcap">Gough</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Hon. Harry Staggers</td><td align='left'>Mr. <span class="smcap">Mellon</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Sir Thomas Tip</td><td align='left'>Mr. <span class="smcap">Buckstone</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Swig</td><td align='left'>Mr. <span class="smcap">Webster</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Duke of Leeds</td><td align='left'>Mr. <span class="smcap">Coutts</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Sir Smivin Growler</td><td align='left'>Mr. <span class="smcap">Macready</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'><br />Servants, Gamblers, Visitors, etc.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Mrs. Febrile</td><td align='left'>Mrs. <span class="smcap">Gallot</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Lady Tip</td><td align='left'>Mrs. <span class="smcap">Humby</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Mrs. Sour</td><td align='left'>Mrs. <span class="smcap">W. Clifford</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Fanny</td><td align='left'>Miss <span class="smcap">A. Smith</span>.</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<p>One scene, where Old Febrile tickles Lady Tip in the +ribs, and afterwards dances out with his hat behind him, his +stick before, and his eye on the pit, I expect will bring +the house down. There is also another point, where Old +Febrile, at the conclusion of his disclosure to Swig, rises +and says: "And now, Swig, tell me, have I acted well?" +And Swig says: "Well, Mr. Febrile, have you ever acted +ill?" which will carry off the piece.</p> + +<p>Herne Bay. Hum. I suppose it's no worse than any +other place in this weather, but it is watery rather—isn't it? +In my mind's eye, I have the sea in a perpetual state of +smallpox; and the chalk running downhill like town milk. +But I know the comfort of getting to work in a fresh place, +and proposing pious projects to one's self, and having the +more substantial advantage of going to bed early and getting +up ditto, and walking about alone. I should like to deprive<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> +you of the last-named happiness, and to take a good long +stroll, terminating in a public-house, and whatever they +chanced to have in it. But fine days are over, I think. +The horrible misery of London in this weather, with not +even a fire to make it cheerful, is hideous.</p> + +<p>But I have my comedy to fly to. My only comfort! +I walk up and down the street at the back of the theatre +every night, and peep in at the green-room window, thinking +of the time when "Dick—ins" will be called for by +excited hundreds, and won't come till Mr. Webster (half +Swig and half himself) shall enter from his dressing-room, +and quelling the tempest with a smile, beseech that wizard, +if he be in the house (here he looks up at my box), to accept +the congratulations of the audience, and indulge them with a +sight of the man who has got five hundred pounds in money, +and it's impossible to say how much in laurel. Then I shall +come forward, and bow once—twice—thrice—roars of approbation—Brayvo—brarvo—hooray—hoorar—hooroar—one +cheer more; and asking Webster home to supper, shall +declare eternal friendship for that public-spirited individual.</p> + +<p>They have not sent me the "Illustrated Magazine." +What do they mean by that? You don't say your daughter +is better, so I hope you mean that she is quite well. My +wife desires her best regards.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;">I am always, my dear Jerrold,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Faithfully your Friend,</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">The Congreve of the Nineteenth Century</span><br /> +(which I mean to be called in the Sunday papers).<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—I shall dedicate it to Webster, beginning: +"My dear Sir,—When you first proposed to stimulate the +slumbering dramatic talent of England, I assure you I had +not the least idea"—etc. etc. etc.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Clarkson +Stanfield.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +1, <span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>July 26th, 1843.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Stanfield</span>,</div> + +<p>I am chairman of a committee, whose object is to +open a subscription, and arrange a benefit for the relief of +the seven destitute children of poor Elton the actor, who +was drowned in the <i>Pegasus</i>. They are exceedingly anxious +to have the great assistance of your name; and if you will +allow yourself to be announced as one of the body, I do +assure you you will help a very melancholy and distressful +cause.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully always.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—The committee meet to-night at the Freemasons', +at eight o'clock.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Lord +Morpeth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;">1, <span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace, York Gate, Regent's Park</span>,</span><br /> +<i>August 3rd, 1843.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">Dear Lord Morpeth</span>,</div> + +<p>In acknowledging the safe receipt of your kind +donation in behalf of poor Mr. Elton's orphan children, I +hope you will suffer me to address you with little ceremony, +as the best proof I can give you of my cordial reciprocation +of all you say in your most welcome note. I have +long esteemed you and been your distant but very truthful +admirer; and trust me that it is a real pleasure and happiness +to me to anticipate the time when we shall have a +nearer intercourse.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Believe me, with sincere regard,</span><br /> +Faithfully your Servant.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +William +Harrison +Ainsworth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>October 13th, 1843.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Ainsworth</span>,</div> + +<p>I want very much to see you, not having had that +old pleasure for a long time. I am at this moment deaf +in the ears, hoarse in the throat, red in the nose, green in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> +the gills, damp in the eyes, twitchy in the joints, and +fractious in the temper from a most intolerable and oppressive +cold, caught the other day, I suspect, at Liverpool, +where I got exceedingly wet; but I will make prodigious +efforts to get the better of it to-night by resorting to +all conceivable remedies, and if I succeed so as to be +only negatively disgusting to-morrow, I will joyfully +present myself at six, and bring my womankind along +with me.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Cordially yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. R. H. +Horne.</div> + + + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>November 13th, 1843.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='center'><b>* * * * * *</b></div> + +<p>Pray tell that besotted —— to let the opera sink into +its native obscurity. I did it in a fit of d——ble good +nature long ago, for Hullah, who wrote some very pretty +music to it. I just put down for everybody what everybody +at the St. James's Theatre wanted to say and do, and that +they could say and do best, and I have been most sincerely +repentant ever since. The farce I also did as a sort of +practical joke, for Harley, whom I have known a long time. +It was funny—adapted from one of the published sketches +called the "Great Winglebury Duel," and was published +by Chapman and Hall. But I have no copy of it now, +nor should I think they have. But both these things +were done without the least consideration or regard to +reputation.</p> + +<p>I wouldn't repeat them for a thousand pounds apiece, +and devoutly wish them to be forgotten. If you will impress +this on the waxy mind of —— I shall be truly and +unaffectedly obliged to you.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Always faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span></p> +<h2>1844.</h2> + +<h3>NARRATIVE.</h3> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>In</span> the summer of this year the house in Devonshire +Terrace was let, and Charles Dickens started with his family +for Italy, going first to a villa at Albaro, near Genoa, for +a few months, and afterwards to the Palazzo Pescheire, +Genoa. Towards the end of this year he made excursions to +the many places of interest in this country, and was joined +at Milan by his wife and sister-in-law, previous to his own +departure alone on a business visit to England. He had +written his Christmas story, "The Chimes," and was anxious +to take it himself to England, and to read it to some of his +most intimate friends there.</div> + +<p>Mr. Macready went to America and returned in the +autumn, and towards the end of the year he paid a +professional visit to Paris.</p> + +<p>Charles Dickens's letter to his wife (26th February) +treats of a visit to Liverpool, where he went to take the +chair on the opening of the Mechanics' Institution and to +make a speech on education. The "Fanny" alluded to +was his sister, Mrs. Burnett; the <i>Britannia</i>, the ship in +which he and Mrs. Dickens made their outward trip to +America; the "Mrs. Bean," the stewardess, and "Hewett," +the captain, of that same vessel.</p> + +<p>The letter to Mr. Charles Knight was in acknowledgment +of the receipt of a prospectus entitled "Book Clubs +for all readers." The attempt, which fortunately proved +completely successful, was to establish a cheap book club. +The scheme was, that a number of families should combine +together, each contributing about three halfpennies a week; +which contribution would enable them, by exchanging the +volumes among them, to have sufficient reading to last the +year. The publications, which were to be made as cheap as +possible, could be purchased by families at the end of the +year, on consideration of their putting by an extra penny a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> +week for that purpose. Charles Dickens, who always had +the comfort and happiness of the working-classes greatly +at heart, was much interested in this scheme of Mr. Charles +Knight's, and highly approved of it. Charles Dickens and this +new correspondent became subsequently true and fast friends.</p> + +<p>"Martin Chuzzlewit" was dramatised in the early +autumn of this year, at the Lyceum Theatre, which was +then under the management of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Keeley. +Charles Dickens superintended some rehearsals, but had left +England before the play was acted in public.</p> + +<p>The man "Roche," alluded to in his letter to +Mr. Maclise, was the French courier engaged to go with the +family to Italy. He remained as servant there, and was +with Charles Dickens through all his foreign travels. His +many excellent qualities endeared him to the whole family, +and his master never lost sight of this faithful servant +until poor Roche's untimely death in 1849.</p> + +<p>The Rev. Edward Tagart was a celebrated Unitarian +minister, and a very highly esteemed and valued friend.</p> + +<p>The "Chickenstalker" (letter to Mrs. Dickens, November +8th), is an instance of the eccentric names he was +constantly giving to his children, and these names he +frequently made use of in his books.</p> + +<p>In this year we have our first letter to Mr. (afterwards +Sir Edwin) Landseer, for whom Charles Dickens had the +highest admiration and personal regard.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>January 3rd, 1844.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My very dear Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>You know all the news, and you know I love you; +so I no more know why I write than I do why I "come +round" after the play to shake hands with you in your +dressing-room. I say come, as if you were at this present +moment the lessee of Drury Lane, and had —— with a +long face on one hand, —— elaborately explaining that +everything in creation is a joint-stock company on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> +other, the inimitable B. by the fire, in conversation with +——. Well-a-day! I see it all, and smell that extraordinary +compound of odd scents peculiar to a theatre, +which bursts upon me when I swing open the little door in +the hall, accompanies me as I meet perspiring supers in +the narrow passage, goes with me up the two steps, crosses +the stage, winds round the third entrance P.S. as I wind, +and escorts me safely into your presence, where I find you +unwinding something slowly round and round your chest, +which is so long that no man can see the end of it.</p> + +<p>Oh that you had been at Clarence Terrace on Nina's +birthday! Good God, how we missed you, talked of you, +drank your health, and wondered what you were doing! +Perhaps you are Falkland enough (I swear I suspect you +of it) to feel rather sore—just a little bit, you know, the +merest trifle in the world—on hearing that Mrs. Macready +looked brilliant, blooming, young, and handsome, and that +she danced a country dance with the writer hereof (Acres +to your Falkland) in a thorough spirit of becoming good +humour and enjoyment. Now you don't like to be told +that? Nor do you quite like to hear that Forster and I +conjured bravely; that a plum-pudding was produced from +an empty saucepan, held over a blazing fire kindled in +Stanfield's hat without damage to the lining; that a box of +bran was changed into a live guinea-pig, which ran between +my godchild's feet, and was the cause of such a shrill +uproar and clapping of hands that you might have heard it +(and I daresay did) in America; that three half-crowns +being taken from Major Burns and put into a tumbler-glass +before his eyes, did then and there give jingling +answers to the questions asked of them by me, and knew +where you were and what you were doing, to the unspeakable +admiration of the whole assembly. Neither do<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> +you quite like to be told that we are going to do it again +next Saturday, with the addition of demoniacal dresses +from the masquerade shop; nor that Mrs. Macready, for +her gallant bearing always, and her best sort of best +affection, is the best creature I know. Never mind; no +man shall gag me, and those are my opinions.</p> + +<p>My dear Macready, the lecturing proposition is not to +be thought of. I have not the slightest doubt or hesitation +in giving you my most strenuous and decided advice +against it. Looking only to its effect at home, I am +immovable in my conviction that the impression it would +produce would be one of failure, and a reduction of +yourself to the level of those who do the like here. +To us who know the Boston names and honour them, +and who know Boston and like it (Boston is what I would +have the whole United States to be), the Boston requisition +would be a valuable document, of which you and your +friends might be proud. But those names are perfectly +unknown to the public here, and would produce not the +least effect. The only thing known to the public here is, +that they ask (when I say "they" I mean the people) +everybody to lecture. It is one of the things I have +ridiculed in "Chuzzlewit." Lecture you, and you fall into +the roll of Lardners, Vandenhoffs, Eltons, Knowleses, +Buckinghams. You are off your pedestal, have flung away +your glass slipper, and changed your triumphal coach into +a seedy old pumpkin. I am quite sure of it, and cannot +express my strong conviction in language of sufficient force.</p> + +<p>"Puff-ridden!" why to be sure they are. The nation is +a miserable Sindbad, and its boasted press the loathsome, foul +old man upon his back, and yet they will tell you, and proclaim +to the four winds for repetition here, that they don't +need their ignorant and brutal papers, as if the papers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> +could exist if they didn't need them! Let any two of these +vagabonds, in any town you go to, take it into their heads +to make you an object of attack, or to direct the general +attention elsewhere, and what avail those wonderful images +of passion which you have been all your life perfecting!</p> + +<p>I have sent you, to the charge of our trusty and well-beloved +Colden, a little book I published on the 17th of +December, and which has been a most prodigious success—the +greatest, I think, I have ever achieved. It pleases me +to think that it will bring you home for an hour or two, +and I long to hear you have read it on some quiet morning. +Do they allow you to be quiet, by-the-way? "Some of our +most fashionable people, sir," denounced me awfully for +liking to be alone sometimes.</p> + +<p>Now that we have turned Christmas, I feel as if your +face were directed homewards, Macready. The downhill +part of the road is before us now, and we shall travel on to +midsummer at a dashing pace; and, please Heaven, I will be +at Liverpool when you come steaming up the Mersey, with +that red funnel smoking out unutterable things, and your +heart much fuller than your trunks, though something +lighter! If I be not the first Englishman to shake hands +with you on English ground, the man who gets before me +will be a brisk and active fellow, and even then need put +his best leg foremost. So I warn Forster to keep in the +rear, or he'll be blown.</p> + +<p>If you shall have any leisure to project and put on paper +the outline of a scheme for opening any theatre on your +return, upon a certain list subscribed, and on certain +understandings with the actors, it strikes me that it would +be wise to break ground while you are still away. Of course +I need not say that I will see anybody or do anything—even +to the calling together of the actors—if you should<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> +ever deem it desirable. My opinion is that our respected +and valued friend Mr. —— will stagger through another +season, if he don't rot first. I understand he is in a +partial state of decomposition at this minute. He was very +ill, but got better. How is it that —— always do get +better, and strong hearts are so easy to die?</p> + +<p>Kate sends her tender love; so does Georgy, so does +Charlie, so does Mamey, so does Katey, so does Walter, so +does the other one who is to be born next week. Look +homeward always, as we look abroad to you. God bless +you, my dear Macready.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever your affectionate Friend.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Laman +Blanchard.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>January 4th, 1844.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Blanchard</span>,</div> + +<p>I cannot thank you enough for the beautiful manner +and the true spirit of friendship in which you have noticed +my "Carol." But I <i>must</i> thank you because you have filled +my heart up to the brim, and it is running over.</p> + +<p>You meant to give me great pleasure, my dear fellow, +and you have done it. The tone of your elegant and +fervent praise has touched me in the tenderest place. I +cannot write about it, and as to talking of it, I could no +more do that than a dumb man. I have derived inexpressible +gratification from what I know was a labour of +love on your part. And I can never forget it.</p> + +<p>When I think it likely that I may meet you (perhaps at +Ainsworth's on Friday?) I shall slip a "Carol" into my +pocket and ask you to put it among your books for +my sake. You will never like it the less for having made it +the means of so much happiness to me.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Always, my dear Blanchard,</span><br /> +Faithfully your Friend.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Charles +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Liverpool, Radley's Hotel</span>, <i>Monday, Feb. 26th, 1844.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Kate</span>,</div> + +<p>I got down here last night (after a most intolerably +wet journey) before seven, and found Thompson sitting by +my fire. He had ordered dinner, and we ate it pleasantly +enough, and went to bed in good time. This morning, +Mr. Yates, the great man connected with the Institution +(and a brother of Ashton Yates's), called. I went to look +at it with him. It is an enormous place, and the tickets +have been selling at two and even three guineas apiece. +The lecture-room, in which the celebration is held, will +accommodate over thirteen hundred people. It was being +fitted with gas after the manner of the ring at Astley's. I +should think it an easy place to speak in, being a semicircle +with seats rising one above another to the ceiling, +and will have eight hundred ladies to-night, in full dress. +I am rayther shaky just now, but shall pull up, I have no +doubt. At dinner-time to-morrow you will receive, I hope, +a facetious document hastily penned after I return to-night, +telling you how it all went off.</p> + +<p>When I came back here, I found Fanny and Hewett had +picked me up just before. We all went off straight to the +<i>Britannia</i>, which lay where she did when we went on board. +We went into the old little cabin and the ladies' cabin, but +Mrs. Bean had gone to Scotland, as the ship does not sail +again before May. In the saloon we had some champagne +and biscuits, and Hewett had set out upon the table a +block of Boston ice, weighing fifty pounds. Scott, of the +<i>Caledonia</i>, lunched with us—a very nice fellow. He saw +Macready play Macbeth in Boston, and gave me a tremendous +account of the effect. Poor Burroughs, of the <i>George +Washington</i>, died on board, on his last passage home. His +little wife was with him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span></p> + +<p>Hewett dines with us to-day, and I have procured him +admission to-night. I am very sorry indeed (and so was +he), that you didn't see the old ship. It was the strangest +thing in the world to go on board again.</p> + +<p>I had Bacon with me as far as Watford yesterday, and +very pleasant. Sheil was also in the train, on his way to +Ireland.</p> + +<p>Give my best love to Georgy, and kisses to the darlings. +Also affectionate regards to Mac and Forster.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + + +<div class='center'><br />OUT OF THE COMMON—PLEASE.<br /><br /> + +<span class="smcap">Dickens</span> <i>against</i> <span class="smcap">The World</span>.</div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Charles Dickens</span>, of No. 1, Devonshire Terrace, York +Gate, Regent's Park, in the county of Middlesex, gentleman, +the successful plaintiff in the above cause, maketh oath +and saith: That on the day and date hereof, to wit at seven +o'clock in the evening, he, this deponent, took the chair at a +large assembly of the Mechanics' Institution at Liverpool, and +that having been received with tremendous and enthusiastic +plaudits, he, this deponent, did immediately dash into a +vigorous, brilliant, humorous, pathetic, eloquent, fervid, and +impassioned speech. That the said speech was enlivened +by thirteen hundred persons, with frequent, vehement, +uproarious, and deafening cheers, and to the best of this +deponent's knowledge and belief, he, this deponent, did +speak up like a man, and did, to the best of his knowledge +and belief, considerably distinguish himself. That after the +proceedings of the opening were over, and a vote of thanks +was proposed to this deponent, he, this deponent, did again +distinguish himself, and that the cheering at that time,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> +accompanied with clapping of hands and stamping of feet, +was in this deponent's case thundering and awful. And this +deponent further saith, that his white-and-black or magpie +waistcoat, did create a strong sensation, and that during the +hours of promenading, this deponent heard from persons +surrounding him such exclamations as, "What is it! <i>Is</i> +it a waistcoat? No, it's a shirt"—and the like—all of +which this deponent believes to have been complimentary +and gratifying; but this deponent further saith that he is +now going to supper, and wishes he may have an appetite to +eat it.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span class="smcap">Charles Dickens.</span><br /> +</div> +<div> + +<div> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Sworn statement"> +<tr><td align='left'>Sworn before me, at the Adelphi</td><td align='left' rowspan='4'><div class="figcenter" style="width: 10px;"> +<img src="images/largebracketpointright.png" width="10" height="100" alt="Bracket" title="Bracket" /> +</div></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>Hotel, Liverpool, on the 26th</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>of February, 1844.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'><span class="smcap">S. Radley.</span></td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Clarkson +Stanfield.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>April 30th, 1844.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Stanfield</span>,</div> + +<p>The Sanatorium, or sick house for students, governesses, +clerks, young artists, and so forth, who are above +hospitals, and not rich enough to be well attended in illness +in their own lodgings (you know its objects), is going to +have a dinner at the London Tavern, on Tuesday, the 5th +of June.</p> + +<p>The Committee are very anxious to have you for a +steward, as one of the heads of a large class; and I have +told them that I have no doubt you will act. There is no +steward's fee or collection whatever.</p> + +<p>They are particularly anxious also to have Mr. Etty and +Edwin Landseer. As you see them daily at the Academy, +will you ask them or show them this note? Sir Martin<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> +became one of the Committee some few years ago, at my +solicitation, as recommending young artists, struggling alone +in London, to the better knowledge of this establishment.</p> + +<p>The dinner is to comprise the new feature of ladies +dining at the tables with the gentlemen—not looking down +upon them from the gallery. I hope in your reply you will +not only book yourself, but Mrs. Stanfield and Mary. It +will be very brilliant and cheerful I hope. Dick in the +chair. Gentlemen's dinner-tickets a guinea, as usual; +ladies', twelve shillings. I think this is all I have to say, +except (which is nonsensical and needless) that I am always,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Edwin +Landseer.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Athenæum</span>, <i>Monday Morning, May 27th, 1844.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Landseer</span>,</div> + +<p>I have let my house with such delicious promptitude, +or, as the Americans would say, "with sich everlass'in +slickness and al-mity sprydom," that we turn out to-night! +in favour of a widow lady, who keeps it all the time we +are away!</p> + +<p>Wherefore if you, looking up into the sky this evening +between five and six (as possibly you may be, in search of +the spring), should see a speck in the air—a mere dot—which, +growing larger and larger by degrees, appears in +course of time to be an eagle (chain and all) in a light cart, +accompanied by a raven of uncommon sagacity, curse that +good-nature which prompted you to say it—that you would +give them house-room. And do it for the love of</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span class="smcap">Boz.</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—The writer hereof may be heerd on by personal +enquiry at No. 9, Osnaburgh Terrace, New Road.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Charles +Knight.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>June 4th, 1844.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Sir</span>,</div> + +<p>Many thanks for your proof, and for your truly +gratifying mention of my name. I think the subject excellently +chosen, the introduction exactly what it should be, +the allusion to the International Copyright question most +honourable and manly, and the whole scheme full of the +highest interest. I had already seen your prospectus, and +if I can be of the feeblest use in advancing a project so +intimately connected with an end on which my heart is set—the +liberal education of the people—I shall be sincerely +glad. All good wishes and success attend you!</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Believe me always,</span><br /> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Dudley +Costello.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<i>June 7th, 1844.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,</div> + +<p>Mrs. Harris, being in that delicate state (just confined, +and "made comfortable," in fact), hears some sounds +below, which she fancies may be the owls (or howls) of the +husband to whom she is devoted. They ease her mind by +informing her that these sounds are only organs. By +"they" I mean the gossips and attendants. By "organs" +I mean instrumental boxes with barrels in them, which are +commonly played by foreigners under the windows of people +of sedentary pursuits, on a speculation of being bribed to +leave the street. Mrs. Harris, being of a confiding nature, +believed in this pious fraud, and was fully satisfied "that +his owls was organs."</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Robert +Keeley.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +9, <span class="smcap">Osnaburgh Terrace</span>, <i>Monday Evening, June 24th, 1844.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My Dear Sir</span>,</div> + +<p>I have been out yachting for two or three days; and +consequently could not answer your letter in due course.</p> + +<p>I cannot, consistently with the opinion I hold and have +always held, in reference to the principle of adapting novels +for the stage, give you a prologue to "Chuzzlewit." But +believe me to be quite sincere in saying that if I felt I could +reasonably do such a thing for anyone, I would do it for +you.</p> + +<p>I start for Italy on Monday next, but if you have the +piece on the stage, and rehearse on Friday, I will gladly +come down at any time you may appoint on that morning, +and go through it with you all. If you be not in a sufficiently +forward state to render this proposal convenient to +you, or likely to assist your preparations, do not take the +trouble to answer this note.</p> + +<p>I presume Mrs. Keeley will do Ruth Pinch. If so, I feel +secure about her, and of Mrs. Gamp I am certain. But a +queer sensation begins in my legs, and comes upward to my +forehead, when I think of Tom.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours always.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Daniel +Maclise.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Villa Di Bagnarello, Albaro</span>, <i>Monday, July 22nd, 1844.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My very dear Mac</span>,</div> + +<p>I address you with something of the lofty spirit of an +exile—a banished commoner—a sort of Anglo-Pole. I +don't exactly know what I have done for my country in +coming away from it; but I feel it is something—something +great—something virtuous and heroic. Lofty emotions +rise within me, when I see the sun set on the blue<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> +Mediterranean. I am the limpet on the rock. My father's +name is Turner and my boots are green.</p> + +<p>Apropos of blue. In a certain picture, called "The +Serenade," you painted a sky. If you ever have occasion to +paint the Mediterranean, let it be exactly of that colour. +It lies before me now, as deeply and intensely blue. But +no such colour is above me. Nothing like it. In the South +of France—at Avignon, at Aix, at Marseilles—I saw deep +blue skies (not <i>so</i> deep though—oh Lord, no!), and also in +America; but the sky above me is familiar to my sight. +Is it heresy to say that I have seen its twin-brother shining +through the window of Jack Straw's—that down in Devonshire +I have seen a better sky? I daresay it is; but like +a great many other heresies, it is true.</p> + +<p>But such green—green—green—as flutters in the vineyard +down below the windows, <i>that</i> I never saw; nor yet +such lilac, and such purple as float between me and the +distant hills; nor yet—in anything—picture, book, or +verbal boredom—such awful, solemn, impenetrable blue, as +is that same sea. It has such an absorbing, silent, deep, +profound effect, that I can't help thinking it suggested +the idea of Styx. It looks as if a draught of it—only so +much as you could scoop up on the beach, in the hollow of +your hand—would wash out everything else, and make a +great blue blank of your intellect.</p> + +<p>When the sun sets clearly, then, by Heaven, it is +majestic! From any one of eleven windows here, or from +a terrace overgrown with grapes, you may behold the broad +sea; villas, houses, mountains, forts, strewn with rose +leaves—strewn with thorns—stifled in thorns! Dyed +through and through and through. For a moment. No +more. The sun is impatient and fierce, like everything else +in these parts, and goes down headlong. Run to fetch<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> +your hat—and it's night. Wink at the right time of black +night—and it's morning. Everything is in extremes. There +is an insect here (I forget its name, and Fletcher and +Roche are both out) that chirps all day. There is one +outside the window now. The chirp is very loud, something +like a Brobdingnagian grasshopper. The creature is +born to chirp—to progress in chirping—to chirp louder, +louder, louder—till it gives one tremendous chirp, and +bursts itself. That is its life and death. Everything "is +in a concatenation accordingly." The day gets brighter, +brighter, brighter, till it's night. The summer gets +hotter, hotter, hotter, till it bursts. The fruit gets riper, +riper, riper, till it tumbles down and rots.</p> + +<p>Ask me a question or two about fresco—will you be so +good? All the houses are painted in fresco hereabout—the +outside walls I mean; the fronts, and backs, and sides—and +all the colour has run into damp and green seediness, and +the very design has struggled away into the component +atoms of the plaster. Sometimes (but not often) I can +make out a Virgin with a mildewed glory round her +head; holding nothing, in an indiscernible lap, with invisible +arms; and occasionally the leg or arms of a +cherub, but it is very melancholy and dim. There are +two old fresco-painted vases outside my own gate—one +on either hand—which are so faint, that I never saw them +till last night; and only then because I was looking over +the wall after a lizard, who had come upon me while I +was smoking a cigar above, and crawled over one of +these embellishments to his retreat. There is a church +here—the Church of the Annunciation—which they are +now (by "they" I mean certain noble families) restoring +at a vast expense, as a work of piety. It is a large church, +with a great many little chapels in it, and a very high<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> +dome. Every inch of this edifice is painted, and every +design is set in a great gold frame or border elaborately +wrought. You can imagine nothing so splendid. It is +worth coming the whole distance to see. But every sort of +splendour is in perpetual enactment through the means of +these churches. Gorgeous processions in the streets, illuminations +of windows on festa nights; lighting up of +lamps and clustering of flowers before the shrines of saints; +all manner of show and display. The doors of the churches +stand wide open; and in this hot weather great red curtains +flutter and wave in their palaces; and if you go and sit in +one of these to get out of the sun, you see the queerest +figures kneeling against pillars, and the strangest people +passing in and out, and vast streams of women in veils (they +don't wear bonnets), with great fans in their hands, coming +and going, that you are never tired of looking on. Except +in the churches, you would suppose the city (at this time of +year) to be deserted, the people keep so close within doors. +Indeed it is next to impossible to go out into the heat. I +have only been into Genoa twice myself. We are deliciously +cool here, by comparison; being high, and having the sea +breeze. There is always some shade in the vineyard, too; +and underneath the rocks on the sea-shore, so if I +choose to saunter I can do it easily, even in the hot time +of the day. I am as lazy, however, as—as you are, and do +little but eat and drink and read.</p> + +<p>As I am going to transmit regular accounts of all sight-seeings +and journeyings to Forster, who will show them to +you, I will not bore you with descriptions, however. I +hardly think you allow enough for the great brightness and +brilliancy of colour which is commonly achieved on the +Continent, in that same fresco painting. I saw some—by a +French artist and his pupil—in progress at the cathedral at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> +Avignon, which was as bright and airy as anything can be,—nothing +dull or dead about it; and I have observed quite +fierce and glaring colours elsewhere.</p> + +<p>We have a piano now (there was none in the house), and +have fallen into a pretty settled easy track. We breakfast +about half-past nine or ten, dine about four, and go to bed +about eleven. We are much courted by the visiting people, +of course, and I very much resort to my old habit of bolting +from callers, and leaving their reception to Kate. Green +figs I have already learnt to like. Green almonds (we have +them at dessert every day) are the most delicious fruit in +the world. And green lemons, combined with some rare +hollands that is to be got here, make prodigious punch, I +assure you. You ought to come over, Mac; but I don't expect +you, though I am sure it would be a very good move for +you. I have not the smallest doubt of that. Fletcher has +made a sketch of the house, and will copy it in pen-and-ink +for transmission to you in my next letter. I shall look out +for a place in Genoa, between this and the winter time. In +the meantime, the people who come out here breathe +delightedly, as if they had got into another climate. Landing +in the city, you would hardly suppose it possible that there +could be such an air within two miles.</p> + +<p>Write to me as often as you can, like a dear good +fellow, and rely upon the punctuality of my correspondence. +Losing you and Forster is like losing my arms and legs, +and dull and lame I am without you. But at Broadstairs +next year, please God, when it is all over, I shall be very +glad to have laid up such a store of recollections and +improvement.</p> + +<p>I don't know what to do with Timber. He is as ill-adapted +to the climate at this time of year as a suit of fur. +I have had him made a lion dog; but the fleas flock in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> +such crowds into the hair he has left, that they drive him +nearly frantic, and renders it absolutely necessary that he +should be kept by himself. Of all the miserable hideous +little frights you ever saw, you never beheld such a devil. +Apropos, as we were crossing the Seine within two stages +of Paris, Roche suddenly said to me, sitting by me on the +box: "The littel dog 'ave got a great lip!" I was thinking +of things remote and very different, and couldn't comprehend +why any peculiarity in this feature on the part of +the dog should excite a man so much. As I was musing +upon it, my ears were attracted by shouts of "Helo! hola! +Hi, hi, hi! Le voilà! Regardez!" and the like. And +looking down among the oxen—we were in the centre of a +numerous drove—I saw him, Timber, lying in the road, +curled up—you know his way—like a lobster, only not so +stiff, yelping dismally in the pain of his "lip" from the +roof of the carriage; and between the aching of his bones, +his horror of the oxen, and his dread of me (who he +evidently took to be the immediate agent in and cause of +the damage), singing out to an extent which I believe to +be perfectly unprecedented; while every Frenchman and +French boy within sight roared for company. He wasn't +hurt.</p> + +<p>Kate and Georgina send their best loves; and the +children add "theirs." Katey, in particular, desires to be +commended to "Mr. Teese." She has a sore throat; from +sitting in constant draughts, I suppose; but with that +exception, we are all quite well. Ever believe me, my +dear Mac,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Your affectionate Friend.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">Rev. +Edward +Tagart.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Albaro, Near Genoa</span>, <i>Friday, August 9th, 1844.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Sir</span>,</div> + +<p>I find that if I wait to write you a long letter (which +has been the cause of my procrastination in fulfilling my +part of our agreement), I am likely to wait some time +longer. And as I am very anxious to hear from you; not +the less so, because if I hear of you through my brother, +who usually sees you once a week in my absence; I take +pen in hand and stop a messenger who is going to Genoa. +For my main object being to qualify myself for the receipt +of a letter from you, I don't see why a ten-line qualification +is not as good as one of a hundred lines.</p> + +<p>You told me it was possible that you and Mrs. Tagart +might wander into these latitudes in the autumn. I wish +you would carry out that infant intention to the utmost. +It would afford us the truest delight and pleasure to receive +you. If you come in October, you will find us in the +Palazzo Peschiere, in Genoa, which is surrounded by a +delicious garden, and is a most charming habitation in all +respects. If you come in September, you will find us less +splendidly lodged, but on the margin of the sea, and in the +midst of vineyards. The climate is delightful even now; +the heat being not at all oppressive, except in the actual +city, which is what the Americans would call considerable +fiery, in the middle of the day. But the sea-breezes out +here are refreshing and cool every day, and the bathing in +the early morning is something more agreeable than you can +easily imagine. The orange trees of the Peschiere shall +give you their most fragrant salutations if you come to us<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> +at that time, and we have a dozen spare beds in that house +that I know of; to say nothing of some vast chambers +here and there with ancient iron chests in them, where +Mrs. Tagart might enact Ginevra to perfection, and never +be found out. To prevent which, I will engage to watch +her closely, if she will only come and see us.</p> + +<p>The flies are incredibly numerous just now. The +unsightly blot a little higher up was occasioned by a +very fine one who fell into the inkstand, and came out, +unexpectedly, on the nib of my pen. We are all quite well, +thank Heaven, and had a very interesting journey here, of +which, as well as of this place, I will not write a word, lest +I should take the edge off those agreeable conversations +with which we will beguile our walks.</p> + +<p>Pray tell me about the presentation of the plate, and +whether —— was very slow, or trotted at all, and if so, +when. He is an excellent creature, and I respect him very +much, so I don't mind smiling when I think of him as he +appeared when addressing you and pointing to the plate, +with his head a little on one side, and one of his eyes turned +up languidly.</p> + +<p>Also let me know exactly how you are travelling, and +when, and all about it; that I may meet you with open +arms on the threshold of the city, if happily you bend your +steps this way. You had better address me, "Poste +Restante, Genoa," as the Albaro postman gets drunk, and +when he has lost letters, and is sober, sheds tears—which is +affecting, but hardly satisfactory.</p> + +<p>Kate and her sister send their best regards to yourself, +and Mrs. and Miss Tagart, and all your family. I heartily +join them in all kind remembrances and good wishes. As +the messenger has just looked in at the door, and shedding +on me a balmy gale of onions, has protested against being<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> +detained any longer, I will only say (which is not at all +necessary) that I am ever,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—There is a little to see here, in the church way, +I assure you.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Clarkson +Stanfield.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Albaro</span>, <i>Saturday Night, August 24th, 1844.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Stanfield</span>,</div> + +<p>I love you so truly, and have such pride and joy of +heart in your friendship, that I don't know how to begin +writing to you. When I think how you are walking up and +down London in that portly surtout, and can't receive +proposals from Dick to go to the theatre, I fall into a state +between laughing and crying, and want some friendly back +to smite. "Je-im!" "Aye, aye, your honour," is in my +ears every time I walk upon the sea-shore here; and the +number of expeditions I make into Cornwall in my sleep, +the springs of Flys I break, the songs I sing, and the bowls +of punch I drink, would soften a heart of stone.</p> + +<p>We have had weather here, since five o'clock this morning, +after your own heart. Suppose yourself the Admiral in +"Black-eyed Susan" after the acquittal of William, and +when it was possible to be on friendly terms with him. I +am T. P.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> My trousers are very full at the ankles, my black +neckerchief is tied in the regular style, the name of my ship +is painted round my glazed hat, I have a red waistcoat on, +and the seams of my blue jacket are "paid"—permit me to +dig you in the ribs when I make use of this nautical expression—with +white. In my hand I hold the very box connected +with the story of Sandomingerbilly. I lift up my +eyebrows as far as I can (on the T. P. model), take a quid<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> +from the box, screw the lid on again (chewing at the same +time, and looking pleasantly at the pit), brush it with my +right elbow, take up my right leg, scrape my right foot on +the ground, hitch up my trousers, and in reply to a question +of yours, namely, "Indeed, what weather, William?" I +deliver myself as follows:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Lord love your honour! Weather! Such weather as would set all +hands to the pumps aboard one of your fresh-water cockboats, and set the +purser to his wits' ends to stow away, for the use of the ship's company, the +casks and casks full of blue water as would come powering in over the +gunnel! The dirtiest night, your honour, as ever you see 'atween Spithead +at gun-fire and the Bay of Biscay! The wind sou'-west, and your house +dead in the wind's eye; the breakers running up high upon the rocky +beads, the light'us no more looking through the fog than Davy Jones's +sarser eye through the blue sky of heaven in a calm, or the blue toplights +of your honour's lady cast down in a modest overhauling of her catheads: +avast! (<i>whistling</i>) my dear eyes; here am I a-goin' head on to the +breakers (<i>bowing</i>).</p> + +<p><i>Admiral</i> (<i>smiling</i>). No, William! I admire plain speaking, as you know, +and so does old England, William, and old England's Queen. But you were +saying——</p> + +<p><i>William.</i> Aye, aye, your honour (<i>scratching his head</i>). I've lost my +reckoning. Damme!—I ast pardon—but won't your honour throw a hencoop +<ins title="Transcriber's Note: this word not in original text">or</ins> any old end of towline to a man as is overboard?</p> + +<p><i>Admiral</i> (<i>smiling still</i>). You were saying, William, that the wind——</p> + +<p><i>William</i> (<i>again cocking his leg, and slapping the thighs very hard</i>). Avast +heaving, your honour! I see your honour's signal fluttering in the breeze, +without a glass. As I was a-saying, your honour, the wind was blowin' +from the sou'-west, due sou'-west, your honour, not a pint to larboard nor a +pint to starboard; the clouds a-gatherin' in the distance for all the world +like Beachy Head in a fog, the sea a-rowling in, in heaps of foam, and +making higher than the mainyard arm, the craft a-scuddin' by all taught +and under storms'ils for the harbour; not a blessed star a-twinklin' out +aloft—aloft, your honour, in the little cherubs' native country—and the +spray is flying like the white foam from the Jolly's lips when Poll of Portsea +took him for a tailor! (<i>laughs.</i>)</p> + +<p><i>Admiral</i> (<i>laughing also</i>). You have described it well, William, and I +thank you. But who are these?</p> + +<div class='hang1'><i>Enter Supers in calico jackets to look like cloth, some in brown +holland petticoat-trousers and big boots, all with very large +buckles. Last Super rolls on a cask, and pretends to keep it. +Other Supers apply their mugs to the bunghole and drink, +previously holding them upside down.</i></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span><i>William</i> (<i>after shaking hands with everybody</i>). Who are these, your +honour! Messmates as staunch and true as ever broke biscuit. Ain't you, +my lads?</p> + +<p><i>All.</i> Aye, aye, William. That we are! that we are!</p> + +<p><i>Admiral</i> (<i>much affected</i>). Oh, England, what wonder that——! But I will +no longer detain you from your sports, my humble friends (<span class="smcap">Admiral</span> +<i>speaks very low, and looks hard at the orchestra, this being the cue for the +dance</i>)—from your sports, my humble friends. Farewell!</p> + +<p><i>All.</i> Hurrah! hurrah! [<i>Exit</i> <span class="smcap">Admiral</span>.</p> + +<p><i>Voice behind.</i> Suppose the dance, Mr. Stanfield. Are you all ready? Go +then!</p></div> + +<p>My dear Stanfield, I wish you would come this way and +see me in that Palazzo Peschiere! Was ever man so welcome +as I would make you! What a truly gentlemanly action it +would be to bring Mrs. Stanfield and the baby. And how +Kate and her sister would wave pocket-handkerchiefs from +the wharf in joyful welcome! Ah, what a glorious +proceeding!</p> + +<p>Do you know this place? Of course you do. I won't +bore you with anything about it, for I know Forster reads +my letters to you; but what a place it is. The views from +the hills here, and the immense variety of prospects of the +sea, are as striking, I think, as such scenery can be. Above +all, the approach to Genoa, by sea from Marseilles, constitutes +a picture which you ought to paint, for nobody else +can ever do it! William, you made that bridge at Avignon +better than it is. Beautiful as it undoubtedly is, you made +it fifty times better. And if I were Morrison, or one of that +school (bless the dear fellows one and all!), I wouldn't stand +it, but would insist on having another picture gratis, to +atone for the imposition.</p> + +<p>The night is like a seaside night in England towards the +end of September. They say it is the prelude to clear +weather. But the wind is roaring now, and the sea is +raving, and the rain is driving down, as if they had all set<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> +in for a real hearty picnic, and each had brought its own +relations to the general festivity. I don't know whether +you are acquainted with the coastguard and men in these +parts? They are extremely civil fellows, of a very amiable +manner and appearance, but the most innocent men in +matters you would suppose them to be well acquainted with, +in virtue of their office, that I ever encountered. One of +them asked me only yesterday, if it would take a year to get +to England in a ship? Which I thought for a coastguardman +was rather a tidy question. It would take a long time +to catch a ship going there if he were on board a pursuing +cutter though. I think he would scarcely do it in twelve +months, indeed.</p> + +<p>So you were at Astley's t'other night. "Now, Mr. +Stickney, sir, what can I come for to go for to do for to +bring for to fetch for to carry for you, sir?" "He, he, he! +Oh, I say, sir!" "Well, sir?" "Miss Woolford knows +me, sir. She laughed at me!" I see him run away after +this; not on his feet, but on his knees and the calves of his +legs alternately; and that smell of sawdusty horses, which +was never in any other place in the world, salutes my nose +with painful distinctness. What do you think of my suddenly +finding myself a swimmer? But I have really made +the discovery, and skim about a little blue bay just below +the town here, like a fish in high spirits. I hope to preserve +my bathing-dress for your inspection and approval, or possibly +to enrich your collection of Italian costumes on my +return. Do you recollect Yarnold in "Masaniello"? I +fear that I, unintentionally, "dress at him," before plunging +into the sea. I enhanced the likeness very much, last Friday +morning, by singing a barcarole on the rocks. I was a +trifle too flesh-coloured (the stage knowing no medium +between bright salmon and dirty yellow), but apart from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> +that defect, not badly made up by any means. When you +write to me, my dear Stanny, as I hope you will soon, +address Poste Restante, Genoa. I remain out here until the +end of September, and send in for my letters daily. There +is a postman for this place, but he gets drunk and loses the +letters; after which he calls to say so, and to fall upon his +knees. About three weeks ago I caught him at a wine-shop +near here, playing bowls in the garden. It was then +about five o'clock in the afternoon, and he had been airing +a newspaper addressed to me, since nine o'clock in the +morning.</p> + +<p>Kate and Georgina unite with me in most cordial remembrances +to Mrs. and Miss Stanfield, and to all the children. +They particularise all sorts of messages, but I tell them that +they had better write themselves if they want to send any. +Though I don't know that this writing would end in the +safe deliverance of the commodities after all; for when I +began this letter, I meant to give utterance to all kinds of +heartiness, my dear Stanfield; and I come to the end of it +without having said anything more than that I am—which +is new to you—under every circumstance and everywhere,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Your most affectionate Friend.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Palazzo Peschiere, Genoa</span>, <i>October 14th, 1844.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My very dear Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>My whole heart is with you <i>at home</i>. I have not yet +felt so far off as I do now, when I think of you there, and +cannot fold you in my arms. This is only a shake of the +hand. I couldn't <i>say</i> much to you, if I were home to greet +you. Nor can I write much, when I think of you, safe and +sound and happy, after all your wanderings.</p> + +<p>My dear fellow, God bless you twenty thousand times.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> +Happiness and joy be with you! I hope to see you soon. +If I should be so unfortunate as to miss you in London, I +will fall upon you, with a swoop of love, in Paris. Kate says +all kind things in the language; and means more than are +in the dictionary capacity of all the descendants of all the +stonemasons that worked at Babel. Again and again and +again, my own true friend, God bless you!</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever yours affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Douglas +Jerrold.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Cremona</span>, <i>Saturday Night, October 16th, 1844.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Jerrold</span>,</div> + +<p>As half a loaf is better than no bread, so I hope that +half a sheet of paper may be better than none at all, coming +from one who is anxious to live in your memory and friendship. +I should have redeemed the pledge I gave you in +this regard long since, but occupation at one time, and +absence from pen and ink at another, have prevented me.</p> + +<p>Forster has told you, or will tell you, that I very much +wish you to hear my little Christmas book; and I hope you +will meet me, at his bidding, in Lincoln's Inn Fields. I +have tried to strike a blow upon that part of the brass +countenance of wicked Cant, when such a compliment is sorely +needed at this time, and I trust that the result of my training +is at least the exhibition of a strong desire to make it a +staggerer. If <i>you</i> should think at the end of the four +rounds (there are no more) that the said Cant, in the +language of <i>Bell's Life</i>, "comes up piping," I shall be very +much the better for it.</p> + +<p>I am now on my way to Milan; and from thence (after +a day or two's rest) I mean to come to England by the +grandest Alpine pass that the snow may leave open. You +know this place as famous of yore for fiddles. I don't see<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> +any here now. But there is a whole street of coppersmiths +not far from this inn; and they throb so d——ably and +fitfully, that I thought I had a palpitation of the heart after +dinner just now, and seldom was more relieved than when I +found the noise to be none of mine.</p> + +<p>I was rather shocked yesterday (I am not strong in +geographical details) to find that Romeo was only banished +twenty-five miles. That is the distance between Mantua +and Verona. The latter is a quaint old place, with great +houses in it that are now solitary and shut up—exactly the +place it ought to be. The former has a great many apothecaries +in it at this moment, who could play that part to the +life. For of all the stagnant ponds I ever beheld, it is the +greenest and weediest. I went to see the old palace of the +Capulets, which is still distinguished by their cognizance (a +hat carved in stone on the courtyard wall). It is a miserable +inn. The court was full of crazy coaches, carts, geese, +and pigs, and was ankle-deep in mud and dung. The +garden is walled off and built out. There was nothing to +connect it with its old inhabitants, and a very unsentimental +lady at the kitchen door. The Montagues used to live some +two or three miles off in the country. It does not appear +quite clear whether they ever inhabited Verona itself. But +there is a village bearing their name to this day, and traditions +of the quarrels between the two families are still +as nearly alive as anything can be, in such a drowsy +neighbourhood.</p> + +<p>It was very hearty and good of you, Jerrold, to +make that affectionate mention of the "Carol" in <i>Punch</i>, +and I assure you it was not lost on the distant object of +your manly regard, but touched him as you wished and +meant it should. I wish we had not lost so much time in +improving our personal knowledge of each other. But I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> +have so steadily read you, and so selfishly gratified myself +in always expressing the admiration with which your gallant +truths inspired me, that I must not call it time lost, either.</p> + +<p>You rather entertained a notion, once, of coming to see +me at Genoa. I shall return straight, on the 9th of +December, limiting my stay in town to one week. Now +couldn't you come back with me? The journey, that way, +is very cheap, costing little more than twelve pounds; and +I am sure the gratification to you would be high. I am +lodged in quite a wonderful place, and would put you in a +painted room, as big as a church and much more comfortable. +There are pens and ink upon the premises; orange +trees, gardens, battledores and shuttlecocks, rousing wood-fires +for evenings, and a welcome worth having.</p> + +<p>Come! Letter from a gentleman in Italy to Bradbury +and Evans in London. Letter from a gentleman in a +country gone to sleep to a gentleman in a country that +would go to sleep too, and never wake again, if some people +had their way. You can work in Genoa. The house is +used to it. It is exactly a week's post. Have that portmanteau +looked to, and when we meet, say, "I am coming."</p> + +<p>I have never in my life been so struck by any place as +by Venice. It is <i>the</i> wonder of the world. Dreamy, beautiful, +inconsistent, impossible, wicked, shadowy, d——able +old place. I entered it by night, and the sensation of +that night and the bright morning that followed is a +part of me for the rest of my existence. And, oh +God! the cells below the water, underneath the Bridge of +Sighs; the nook where the monk came at midnight to +confess the political offender; the bench where he was +strangled; the deadly little vault in which they tied him in +a sack, and the stealthy crouching little door through +which they hurried him into a boat, and bore him away to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> +sink him where no fisherman dare cast his net—all shown +by torches that blink and wink, as if they were ashamed to +look upon the gloomy theatre of sad horrors; past and +gone as they are, these things stir a man's blood, like a +great wrong or passion of the instant. And with these in +their minds, and with a museum there, having a chamber +full of such frightful instruments of torture as the devil +in a brain fever could scarcely invent, there are hundreds of +parrots, who will declaim to you in speech and print, by the +hour together, on the degeneracy of the times in which a +railroad is building across the water at Venice; instead of +going down on their knees, the drivellers, and thanking +Heaven that they live in a time when iron makes roads, +instead of prison bars and engines for driving screws into +the skulls of innocent men. Before God, I could almost +turn bloody-minded, and shoot the parrots of our island +with as little compunction as Robinson Crusoe shot the +parrots in his.</p> + +<p>I have not been in bed, these ten days, after five in the +morning, and have been, travelling many hours every day. +If this be the cause of my inflicting a very stupid and +sleepy letter on you, my dear Jerrold, I hope it will be a +kind of signal at the same time, of my wish to hail you +lovingly even from this sleepy and unpromising state. And +believe me as I am,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Always your Friend and Admirer.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Thomas +Mitton.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Peschiere, Genoa</span>, <i>Tuesday, Nov. 5th, 1844.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mitton</span>,</div> + +<p>The cause of my not having written to you is too +obvious to need any explanation. I have worn myself to +death in the month I have been at work. None of my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> +usual reliefs have been at hand; I have not been able to +divest myself of the story—have suffered very much in my +sleep in consequence—and am so shaken by such work in +this trying climate, that I am as nervous as a man who is +dying of drink, and as haggard as a murderer.</p> + +<p>I believe I have written a tremendous book, and +knocked the "Carol" out of the field. It will make a +great uproar, I have no doubt.</p> + +<p>I leave here to-morrow for Venice and many other +places; and I shall certainly come to London to see my +proofs, coming by new ground all the way, cutting through +the snow in the valleys of Switzerland, and plunging through +the mountains in the dead of winter. I would accept your +hearty offer with right goodwill, but my visit being one of +business and consultation, I see impediments in the way, +and insurmountable reasons for not doing so. Therefore, I +shall go to an hotel in Covent Garden, where they know me +very well, and with the landlord of which I have already +communicated. My orders are not upon a mighty scale, +extending no further than a good bedroom and a cold +shower-bath.</p> + +<p>Bradbury and Evans are going at it, ding-dong, and are +wild with excitement. All news on that subject (and on +every other) I must defer till I see you. That will be +immediately after I arrive, of course. Most likely on +Monday, 2nd December.</p> + +<p>Kate and her sister (who send their best regards) and +all the children are as well as possible. The house is +<i>perfect</i>; the servants are as quiet and well-behaved as at +home, which very rarely happens here, and Roche is my +right hand. There never was such a fellow.</p> + +<p>We have now got carpets down—burn fires at night—draw +the curtains, and are quite wintry. We have a box at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> +the opera, which, is close by (for nothing), and sit there +when we please, as in our own drawing-room. There have +been three fine days in four weeks. On every other the +water has been falling down in one continual sheet, and it +has been thundering and lightening every day and night.</p> + +<p>My hand shakes in that feverish and horrible manner +that I can hardly hold a pen. And I have so bad a cold +that I can't see.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">In haste to save the post,</span><br /> +Ever faithfully.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—Charley has a writing-master every day, and a +French master. He and his sisters are to be waited on +by a professor of the noble art of dancing, next week.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Charles +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Parma, Albergo della Posta</span>, <i>Friday, Nov. 8th, 1844.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dearest Kate</span>,</div> + +<p>"If missis could see us to-night, what would she +say?" That was the brave C.'s remark last night at midnight, +and he had reason. We left Genoa, as you know, +soon after five on the evening of my departure; and in +company with the lady whom you saw, and the dog whom I +don't think you did see, travelled all night at the rate of +four miles an hour over bad roads, without the least refreshment +until daybreak, when the brave and myself escaped +into a miserable caffé while they were changing horses, and +got a cup of that drink hot. That same day, a few hours +afterwards, between ten and eleven, we came to (I hope) the +d——dest inn in the world, where, in a vast chamber, +rendered still more desolate by the presence of a most offensive +specimen of what D'Israeli calls the Mosaic Arab (who +had a beautiful girl with him), I regaled upon a breakfast,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> +almost as cold, and damp, and cheerless, as myself. Then, +in another coach, much smaller than a small Fly, I was packed +up with an old padre, a young Jesuit, a provincial avvocato, a +private gentleman with a very red nose and a very wet brown +umbrella, and the brave C. and I went on again at the same +pace through the mud and rain until four in the afternoon, +when there was a place in the coupé (two indeed), which I +took, holding that select compartment in company with a very +ugly but very agreeable Tuscan "gent," who said "<i>gia</i>" +instead of "<i>si</i>," and rung some other changes in this +changing language, but with whom I got on very well, being +extremely conversational. We were bound, as you know +perhaps, for Piacenza, but it was discovered that we couldn't +get to Piacenza, and about ten o'clock at night we halted at +a place called Stradella, where the inn was a series of queer +galleries open to the night, with a great courtyard full of +waggons and horses, and "<i>velociferi</i>," and what not in the +centre. It was bitter cold and very wet, and we all walked +into a bare room (mine!) with two immensely broad beds on +two deal dining-tables, a third great empty table, the usual +washing-stand tripod, with a slop-basin on it, and two chairs. +And then we walked up and down for three-quarters of an +hour or so, while dinner, or supper, or whatever it was, was +getting ready. This was set forth (by way of variety) in the +old priest's bedroom, which had two more immensely broad +beds on two more deal dining-tables in it. The first dish +was a cabbage boiled in a great quantity of rice and hot +water, the whole flavoured with cheese. I was so cold that +I thought it comfortable, and so hungry that a bit of cabbage, +when I found such a thing floating my way, charmed +me. After that we had a dish of very little pieces of pork, +fried with pigs' kidneys; after that a fowl; after that something +very red and stringy, which I think was veal; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> +after that two tiny little new-born-baby-looking turkeys, +very red and very swollen. Fruit, of course, to wind up, +and garlic in one shape or another in every course. I made +three jokes at supper (to the immense delight of the +company), and retired early. The brave brought in a bush +or two and made a fire, and after that a glass of screeching +hot brandy and water; that bottle of his being full of brandy. +I drank it at my leisure, undressed before the fire, and went +into one of the beds. The brave reappeared about an hour +afterwards and went into the other; previously tying a +pocket-handkerchief round and round his head in a strange +fashion, and giving utterance to the sentiment with which +this letter begins. At five this morning we resumed our +journey, still through mud and rain, and at about eleven +arrived at Piacenza; where we fellow-passengers took leave +of one another in the most affectionate manner. As there +was no coach on till six at night, and as it was a very grim, +despondent sort of place, and as I had had enough of diligences +for one while, I posted forward here in the strangest +carriages ever beheld, which we changed when we changed +horses. We arrived here before six. The hotel is quite +French. I have dined very well in my own room on the +second floor; and it has two beds in it, screened off from +the room by drapery. I only use one to-night, and that is +already made.</p> + +<p>I purpose posting on to Bologna, if I can arrange it, at +twelve to-morrow; seeing the sights here first.</p> + +<p>It is dull work this travelling alone. My only comfort +is in motion. I look forward with a sort of shudder to +Sunday, when I shall have a day to myself in Bologna; and +I think I must deliver my letters in Venice in sheer desperation. +Never did anybody want a companion after dinner +so much as I do.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span></p> + +<p>There has been music on the landing outside my door +to-night. Two violins and a violoncello. One of the violins +played a solo, and the others struck in as an orchestra does +now and then, very well. Then he came in with a small tin +platter. "Bella musica," said I. "Bellissima musica, +signore. Mi piace moltissimo. Sono felice, signoro," said +he. I gave him a franc. "O moltissimo generoso. Tanto +generoso signore!"</p> + +<p>It was a joke to laugh at when I was learning, but I +swear unless I could stagger on, Zoppa-wise, with the people, +I verily believe I should have turned back this morning.</p> + +<p>In all other respects I think the entire change has done +me undoubted service already. I am free of the book, and +am red-faced; and feel marvellously disposed to sleep.</p> + +<p>So for all the straggling qualities of this straggling +letter, want of sleep must be responsible. Give my best love +to Georgy, and my paternal blessing to</p> + +<div class='center'> +Mamey,<br /> +Katey,<br /> +Charley,<br /> +Wally,<br /> +and<br /> +Chickenstalker.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—Get things in their places. I can't bear to picture +them otherwise.</p> + +<p>P.P.S.—I think I saw Roche sleeping with his head on +the lady's shoulder, in the coach. I couldn't swear it, and +the light was deceptive. But I think I did.</p> + +<div class='unindent'> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Alia sign<sup>a</sup></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Sign<sup>a</sup> Dickens.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Palazzo Peschiere, Genova.</span><br /></div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Charles +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Fribourg</span>, <i>Saturday Night, November 23rd, 1844.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dearest Kate</span>,</div> + +<p>For the first time since I left you I am sitting in a +room of my own hiring, with a fire and a bed in it. And I +am happy to say that I have the best and fullest intentions +of sleeping in the bed, having arrived here at half-past four +this afternoon, without any cessation of travelling, night or +day, since I parted from Mr. Bairr's cheap firewood.</p> + +<p>The Alps appeared in sight very soon after we left +Milan—by eight or nine o'clock in the morning; and the +brave C. was so far wrong in his calculations that we began +the ascent of the Simplon that same night, while you were +travelling (as I would I were) towards the Peschiere. Most +favourable state of circumstances for journeying up that +tremendous pass! The brightest moon I ever saw, all +night, and daybreak on the summit. The glory of which, +making great wastes of snow a rosy red, exceeds all telling. +We <i>sledged</i> through the snow on the summit for two hours +or so. The weather was perfectly fair and bright, and +there was neither difficulty nor danger—except the danger +that there always must be, in such a place, of a horse +stumbling on the brink of an immeasurable precipice. In +which case no piece of the unfortunate traveller would be +left large enough to tell his story in dumb show. You may +imagine something of the rugged grandeur of such a scene +as this great passage of these great mountains, and indeed +Glencoe, well sprinkled with snow, would be very like the +ascent. But the top itself, so wild, and bleak, and lonely, +is a thing by itself, and not to be likened to any other +sight. The cold was piercing; the north wind high and +boisterous; and when it came driving in our faces, bringing +a sharp shower of little points of snow and piercing it into<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> +our very blood, it really was, what it is often said to be, +"cutting"—with a very sharp edge too. There are houses +of refuge here—bleak, solitary places—for travellers overtaken +by the snow to hurry to, as an escape from death; +and one great house, called the Hospital, kept by monks, +where wayfarers get supper and bed for nothing. We saw +some coming out and pursuing their journey. If all monks +devoted themselves to such uses, I should have little fault +to find with them.</p> + +<p>The cold in Switzerland, since, has been something quite +indescribable. My eyes are tingling to-night as one may +suppose cymbals to tingle when they have been lustily +played. It is positive pain to me to write. The great +organ which I was to have had "pleasure in hearing" +don't play on a Sunday, at which the brave is inconsolable. +But the town is picturesque and quaint, and worth seeing. +And this inn (with a German bedstead in it about the size +and shape of a baby's linen-basket) is perfectly clean and +comfortable. Butter is so cheap hereabouts that they bring +you a great mass like the squab of a sofa for tea. And of +honey, which is most delicious, they set before you a proportionate +allowance. We start to-morrow morning at six +for Strasburg, and from that town, or the next halting-place +on the Rhine, I will report progress, if it be only in +half-a-dozen words.</p> + +<p>I am anxious to hear that you reached Genoa quite +comfortably, and shall look forward with impatience to that +letter which you are to indite with so much care and pains +next Monday. My best love to Georgy, and to Charley, +and Mamey, and Katey, and Wally, and Chickenstalker. +I have treated myself to a new travelling-cap to-night (my +old one being too thin), and it is rather a prodigious affair I +flatter myself.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span></p> + +<p>Swiss towns, and mountains, and the Lake of Geneva, +and the famous suspension bridge at this place, and a great +many other objects (with a very low thermometer conspicuous +among them), are dancing up and down me, +strangely. But I am quite collected enough, notwithstanding, +to have still a very distinct idea that this hornpipe +travelling is uncomfortable, and that I would gladly +start for my palazzo out of hand without any previous rest, +stupid as I am and much as I want it.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;">Ever, my dear love,</span><br /> +Affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—I hope the dancing lessons will be a success. +Don't fail to let me know.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Hôtel Bristol, Paris</span>, <i>Thursday Night,</i></span><br /> +<i>Nov. 28th, 1844, Half-past Ten.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dearest Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>Since I wrote to you what would be called in law +proceedings the exhibit marked A, I have been round to +the Hôtel Brighton, and personally examined and cross-examined +the attendants. It is painfully clear to me that +I shall not see you to-night, nor until Tuesday, the 10th +of December, when, please God, I shall re-arrive here, on +my way to my Italian bowers. I mean to stay all the +Wednesday and all the Thursday in Paris. One night to +see you act (my old delight when you little thought of such +a being in existence), and one night to read to you and +Mrs. Macready (if that scamp of Lincoln's Inn Fields has +not anticipated me) my little Christmas book, in which I +have endeavoured to plant an indignant right-hander on +the eye of certain wicked Cant that makes my blood boil, +which I hope will not only cloud that eye with black and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> +blue, but many a gentle one with crystal of the finest sort. +God forgive me, but I think there are good things in the +little story!</p> + +<p>I took it for granted you were, as your American friends +say, "in full blast" here, and meant to have sent a +card into your dressing-room, with "Mr. G. S. Hancock +Muggridge, United States," upon it. But Paris looks +coldly on me without your eye in its head, and not being +able to shake your hand I shake my own head dolefully, +which is but poor satisfaction.</p> + +<p>My love to Mrs. Macready. I will swear to the death +that it is truly hers, for her gallantry in your absence if for +nothing else, and to you, my dear Macready, I am ever a +devoted friend.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Charles +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Hôtel Bristol, Paris</span>, <i>Thursday Night, Nov. 28th, 1844.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dearest Kate</span>,</div> + +<p>With an intolerable pen and no ink, I am going to +write a few lines to you to report progress.</p> + +<p>I got to Strasburg on Monday night, intending to go +down the Rhine. But the weather being foggy, and the +season quite over, they could not insure me getting on for +certain beyond Mayence, or our not being detained by +unpropitious weather. Therefore I resolved (the malle +poste being full) to take the diligence hither next day in +the afternoon. I arrived here at half-past five to-night, +after fifty hours of it in a French coach. I was so beastly +dirty when I got to this house, that I had quite lost all +sense of my identity, and if anybody had said, "Are you +Charles Dickens?" I should have unblushingly answered, +"No; I never heard of him." A good wash, and a good +dress, and a good dinner have revived me, however; and I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span> +can report of this house, concerning which the brave was so +anxious when we were here before, that it is the best I ever +was in. My little apartment, consisting of three rooms and +other conveniences, is a perfect curiosity of completeness. +You never saw such a charming little baby-house. It is +infinitely smaller than those first rooms we had at Meurice's, +but for elegance, compactness, comfort, and quietude, +exceeds anything I ever met with at an inn.</p> + +<p>The moment I arrived here, I enquired, of course, after +Macready. They said the English theatre had not begun +yet, that they thought he was at Meurice's, where they knew +some members of the company to be. I instantly despatched +the porter with a note to say that if he were there, I would +come round and hug him, as soon as I was clean. They +referred the porter to the Hôtel Brighton. He came back +and told me that the answer there was: "M. Macready's +rooms were engaged, but he had not arrived. He was +expected to-night!" If we meet to-night, I will add a +postscript. Wouldn't it be odd if we met upon the road +between this and Boulogne to-morrow?</p> + +<p>I mean, as a recompense for my late sufferings, to get a +hackney-carriage if I can and post that journey, starting +from here at eight to-morrow morning, getting to Boulogne +sufficiently early next morning to cross at once, and dining +with Forster that same day—to wit, Saturday. I have +notions of taking you with me on my next journey (if you +would like to go), and arranging for Georgy to come to us +by steamer—under the protection of the English captain, +for instance—to Naples; there I would top and cap all our +walks by taking her up to the crater of Vesuvius with me. +But this is dependent on her ability to be perfectly happy +for a fortnight or so in our stately palace with the children, +and such foreign aid as the Simpsons. For I love her too<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> +dearly to think of any project which would involve her being +uncomfortable for that space of time.</p> + +<p>You can think this over, and talk it over; and I will join +you in doing so, please God, when I return to our Italian +bowers, which I shall be heartily glad to do.</p> + +<p>They tell us that the landlord of this house, going to +London some week or so ago, was detained at Boulogne two +days by a high sea, in which the packet could not put out. +So I hope there is the greater chance of no such bedevilment +happening to me.</p> + +<p>Paris is better than ever. Oh dear, how grand it was +when I came through it in that caravan to-night! I hope +we shall be very hearty here, and able to say with Wally, +"Han't it plassant!"</p> + +<p>Love to Charley, Mamey, Katey, Wally, and Chickenstalker. +The last-named, I take it for granted, is indeed +prodigious.</p> + +<p>Best love to Georgy.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 3em;">Ever, my dearest Kate,</span><br /> +Affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—I have been round to Macready's hotel; it is now +past ten, and he has not arrived, nor does it seem at all +certain that he seriously intended to arrive to-night. So I +shall not see him, I take it for granted, until my return.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Charles +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Piazza Coffee House, Covent Garden</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Monday, Dec. 2nd, 1844.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dearest Kate</span>,</div> + +<p>I received, with great delight, your <i>excellent</i> letter +of this morning. Do not regard this as my answer to it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> +It is merely to say that I have been at Bradbury and +Evans's all day, and have barely time to write more than +that I <i>will</i> write to-morrow. I arrived about seven on +Saturday evening, and rushed into the arms of Mac and +Forster. Both of them send their best love to you and +Georgy, with a heartiness not to be described.</p> + +<p>The little book is now, as far as I am concerned, all +ready. One cut of Doyle's and one of Leech's I found so +unlike my ideas, that I had them both to breakfast with me +this morning, and with that winning manner which you +know of, got them with the highest good humour to do +both afresh. They are now hard at it. Stanfield's readiness, +delight, wonder at my being pleased with what he +has done is delicious. Mac's frontispiece is charming. +The book is quite splendid; the expenses will be very great, +I have no doubt.</p> + +<p>Anybody who has heard it has been moved in the +most extraordinary manner. Forster read it (for dramatic +purposes) to A'Beckett. He cried so much and so painfully, +that Forster didn't know whether to go on or stop; +and he called next day to say that any expression of his +feeling was beyond his power. But that he believed it, and +felt it to be—I won't say what.</p> + +<p>As the reading comes off to-morrow night, I had better +not despatch my letters to you until <i>Wednesday's</i> post. I +must close to save this (heartily tired I am, and I dine at +Gore House to-day), so with love to Georgy, Mamey, Katey, +Charley, Wally, and Chickenstalker, ever, believe me,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Yours, with true affection.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—If you had seen Macready last night, undisguisedly +sobbing and crying on the sofa as I read, you +would have felt, as I did, what a thing it is to have power.</p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span></p> +<h2>1845.</h2> + +<h3>NARRATIVE.</h3> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>At</span> the beginning of this year, Charles Dickens was still +living at the Palazzo Peschiere, Genoa, with his family. In +February, he went with his wife to Rome for the Carnival, +leaving his sister-in-law and children at Genoa; Miss Hogarth +joining them later on at Naples. They all returned to Rome +for the Holy Week, and then went to Florence, and so back +to Genoa. He continued his residence at Genoa until June +of this year, when he returned to England by Switzerland and +Belgium, the party being met at Brussels by Mr. Forster, +Mr. Maclise, and Mr. Douglas Jerrold, and arriving at +home at the end of June. The autumn months, until the +1st October, were again spent at Broadstairs. And in +this September was the first amateur play at Miss Kelly's +theatre in Dean Street, under the management of Charles +Dickens, with Messrs. Jerrold, Mark Lemon, John Leech, +Gilbert A'Beckett, Leigh, Frank Stone, Forster, and others +as his fellow-actors. The play selected was Ben Jonson's +"Every Man in his Humour," in which Charles Dickens acted +Captain Bobadil. The first performance was a private one, +merely as an entertainment for the actors and their friends, +but its success speedily led to a repetition of the same performance, +and afterwards to many other performances for +public and charitable objects. "Every Man in his Humour" +was shortly after repeated, at the same little theatre, for a +useful charity which needed help; and later in the year +Beaumont and Fletcher's play of "The Elder Brother" was +given by the same company, at the same place, for the +benefit of Miss Kelly. There was a farce played after the +comedy on each occasion—not always the same one—in +which Charles Dickens and Mark Lemon were the principal +actors.</div> + +<p>The letters which we have for this year, refer, with very +few exceptions, to these theatricals, and therefore need no +explanation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span></p> + +<p>He was at work at the end of this year on another +Christmas book, "The Cricket on the Hearth," and was +also much occupied with the project of <i>The Daily News</i> +paper, of which he undertook the editorship at its starting, +which took place in the beginning of the following year, +1846.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Rome</span>, <i>Tuesday, February 4th, 1845.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dearest Georgy</span>,</div> + +<p>This is a very short note, but time is still shorter. +Come by the first boat by all means. If there be a good +one a day or two before it, come by that. Don't delay on +any account. I am very sorry you are not here. The +Carnival is a very remarkable and beautiful sight. I have +been regretting the having left you at home all the way +here.</p> + +<p>Kate says, will you take counsel with Charlotte about +colour (I put in my word, as usual, for brightness), and have +the darlings' bonnets made at once, by the same artist as +before? Kate would have written, but is gone with Black +to a day performance at the opera, to see Cerito dance. +At two o'clock each day we sally forth in an open carriage, +with a large sack of sugar-plums and at least five hundred +little nosegays to pelt people with. I should think we +threw away, yesterday, a thousand of the latter. We had +the carriage filled with flowers three or four times. I wish +you could have seen me catch a swell brigand on the nose +with a handful of very large confetti every time we met +him. It was the best thing I have ever done. "The +Chimes" are nothing to it.</p> + +<p>Anxiously expecting you, I am ever,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 6em;">Dear Georgy,</span><br /> +Yours most affectionately.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Thomas +Mitton.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Naples</span>, <i>Monday, February 17th, 1845.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mitton</span>,</div> + +<p>This will be a hasty letter, for I am as badly off in +this place as in America—beset by visitors at all times and +seasons, and forced to dine out every day. I have found, +however, an excellent man for me—an Englishman, who +has lived here many years, and is well acquainted with +<i>the people</i>, whom he doctored in the bad time of the +cholera, when the priests and everybody else fled in +terror.</p> + +<p>Under his auspices, I have got to understand the low +life of Naples (among the fishermen and idlers) almost as +well as I understand the do. do. of my own country; always +excepting the language, which is very peculiar and extremely +difficult, and would require a year's constant practice at +least. It is no more like Italian than English is to Welsh. +And as they don't say half of what they mean, but make a +wink or a kick stand for a whole sentence, it's a marvel to +me how they comprehend each other. At Rome they speak +beautiful Italian (I am pretty strong at that, I believe); but +they are worse here than in Genoa, which I had previously +thought impossible.</p> + +<p>It is a fine place, but nothing like so beautiful as people +make it out to be. The famous bay is, to my thinking, as +a piece of scenery, immeasurably inferior to the Bay of +Genoa, which is the most lovely thing I have ever +seen. The city, in like manner, will bear no comparison +with Genoa. But there is none in Italy that will, except +Venice. As to houses, there is no palace like the Peschiere +for architecture, situation, gardens, or rooms. It is a great +triumph to me, too, to find how cheap it is. At Rome, +the English people live in dirty little fourth, fifth, and +sixth floors, with not one room as large as your own<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> +drawing-room, and pay, commonly, seven or eight pounds +a week.</p> + +<p>I was a week in Rome on my way here, and saw the +Carnival, which is perfectly delirious, and a great scene for +a description. All the ancient part of Rome is wonderful +and impressive in the extreme. Far beyond the possibility +of exaggeration as to the modern part, it might be anywhere +or anything—Paris, Nice, Boulogne, Calais, or one of a +thousand other places.</p> + +<p>The weather is so atrocious (rain, snow, wind, darkness, +hail, and cold) that I can't get over into Sicily. But I don't +care very much about it, as I have planned out ten days of +excursion into the neighbouring country. One thing of +course—the ascent of Vesuvius, Herculaneum and Pompeii, +the two cities which were covered by its melted ashes, and +dug out in the first instance accidentally, are more full of +interest and wonder than it is possible to imagine. I have +heard of some ancient tombs (quite unknown to travellers) +dug in the bowels of the earth, and extending for some +miles underground. They are near a place called Viterbo, +on the way from Rome to Florence. I shall lay in a small +stock of torches, etc., and explore them when I leave +Rome. I return there on the 1st of March, and shall stay +there nearly a month.</p> + +<p>Saturday, February 22nd.—Since I left off as above, +I have been away on an excursion of three days. Yesterday +evening, at four o'clock, we began (a small party of six) the +ascent of Mount Vesuvius, with six saddle-horses, an armed +soldier for a guard, and twenty-two guides. The latter +rendered necessary by the severity of the weather, which +is greater than has been known for twenty years, and has +covered the precipitous part of the mountain with deep +snow, the surface of which is glazed with one smooth sheet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> +of ice from the top of the cone to the bottom. By starting +at that hour I intended to get the sunset about halfway up, +and night at the top, where the fire is raging. It was an +inexpressibly lovely night without a cloud; and when the +day was quite gone, the moon (within a few hours of the +full) came proudly up, showing the sea, and the Bay of +Naples, and the whole country, in such majesty as no words +can express. We rode to the beginning of the snow and +then dismounted. Catherine and Georgina were put into +two litters, just chairs with poles, like those in use in +England on the 5th of November; and a fat Englishman, +who was of the party, was hoisted into a third, borne by +eight men. I was accommodated with a tough stick, and we +began to plough our way up. The ascent was as steep +as this line <b><big>/</big></b>—very nearly perpendicular. We were all +tumbling at every stop; and looking up and seeing the +people in advance tumbling over one's very head, and looking +down and seeing hundreds of feet of smooth ice below, was, +I must confess, anything but agreeable. However, I knew +there was little chance of another clear night before I leave +this, and gave the word to get up, somehow or other. So +on we went, winding a little now and then, or we should not +have got on at all. By prodigious exertions we passed the +region of snow, and came into that of fire—desolate and +awful, you may well suppose. It was like working one's +way through a dry waterfall, with every mass of stone burnt +and charred into enormous cinders, and smoke and sulphur +bursting out of every chink and crevice, so that it was difficult +to breathe. High before us, bursting out of a hill at +the top of the mountain, shaped like this <img src="images/a.png" width="22" height="19" alt="Handwritten A" title="Handwritten A" />, the fire was +pouring out, reddening the night with flames, blackening it +with smoke, and spotting it with red-hot stones and cinders +that fell down again in showers. At every step everybody<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> +fell, now into a hot chink, now into a bed of ashes, now +over a mass of cindered iron; and the confusion in the darkness +(for the smoke obscured the moon in this part), and the +quarrelling and shouting and roaring of the guides, and the +waiting every now and then for somebody who was not to +be found, and was supposed to have stumbled into some pit +or other, made such a scene of it as I can give you no idea +of. My ladies were now on foot, of course; but we dragged +them on as well as we could (they were thorough game, and +didn't make the least complaint), until we got to the foot of +that topmost hill I have drawn so beautifully. Here we all +stopped; but the head guide, an English gentleman of the +name of Le Gros—who has been here many years, and has +been up the mountain a hundred times—and your humble +servant, resolved (like jackasses) to climb that hill to the +brink, and look down into the crater itself. You may form +some notion of what is going on inside it, when I tell you +that it is a hundred feet higher than it was six weeks ago. +The sensation of struggling up it, choked with the fire and +smoke, and feeling at every step as if the crust of ground +between one's feet and the gulf of fire would crumble in +and swallow one up (which is the real danger), I shall +remember for some little time, I think. But we did it. We +looked down into the flaming bowels of the mountain and +came back again, alight in half-a-dozen places, and burnt +from head to foot. You never saw such devils. And <i>I</i> +never saw anything so awful and terrible.</p> + +<p>Roche had been tearing his hair like a madman, and +crying that we should all three be killed, which made the rest +of the company very comfortable, as you may suppose. But +we had some wine in a basket, and all swallowed a little of that +and a great deal of sulphur before we began to descend. The +usual way, after the fiery part is past—you will understand<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> +that to be all the flat top of the mountain, in the centre of +which, again, rises the little hill I have drawn—is to slide +down the ashes, which, slipping from under you, make a +gradually increasing ledge under your feet, and prevent your +going too fast. But when we came to this steep place last +night, we found nothing there but one smooth solid sheet of +ice. The only way to get down was for the guides to make +a chain, holding by each other's hands, and beat a narrow +track in it into the snow below with their sticks. My two +unfortunate ladies were taken out of their litters again, with +half-a-dozen men hanging on to each, to prevent their falling +forward; and we began to descend this way. It was like a +tremendous dream. It was impossible to stand, and the +only way to prevent oneself from going sheer down the +precipice, every time one fell, was to drive one's stick into +one of the holes the guides had made, and hold on by that. +Nobody could pick one up, or stop one, or render one the +least assistance. Now, conceive my horror, when this +Mr. Le Gros I have mentioned, being on one side of +Georgina and I on the other, suddenly staggers away from +the narrow path on to the smooth ice, gives us a jerk, lets +go, and plunges headforemost down the smooth ice into the +black night, five hundred feet below! Almost at the same +instant, a man far behind, carrying a light basket on his +head with some of our spare cloaks in it, misses his footing +and rolls down in another place; and after him, rolling over +and over like a black bundle, goes a boy, shrieking as +nobody but an Italian can shriek, until the breath is tumbled +out of him.</p> + +<p>The Englishman is in bed to-day, terribly bruised but +without any broken bones. He was insensible at first and +a mere heap of rags; but we got him before the fire, in a +little hermitage there is halfway down, and he so far<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> +recovered as to be able to take some supper, which was +waiting for us there. The boy was brought in with his head +tied up in a bloody cloth, about half an hour after the rest +of us were assembled. And the man who had had the +basket was not found when we left the mountain at midnight. +What became of the cloaks (mine was among them) +I know as little. My ladies' clothes were so torn off their +backs that they would not have been decent, if there could +have been any thought of such things at such a time. And +when we got down to the guides' house, we found a French +surgeon (one of another party who had been up before us) +lying on a bed in a stable, with God knows what horrible +breakage about him, but suffering acutely and looking like +death. A pretty unusual trip for a pleasure expedition, I +think!</p> + +<p>I am rather stiff to-day but am quite unhurt, except a +slight scrape on my right hand. My clothes are burnt to +pieces. My ladies are the wonder of Naples, and everybody +is open-mouthed.</p> + +<p>Address me as usual. All letters are forwarded. The +children well and happy. Best regards.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Albion Hotel, Broadstairs</span>, <i>Sunday, Aug. 17th, 1845.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>I have been obliged to communicate with the <i>Punch</i> +men in reference to Saturday, the 20th, as that day of the +week is usually their business dinner day, and I was not +quite sure that it could be conveniently altered.</p> + +<p>Jerrold now assures me that it can for such a purpose, +and that it shall, and therefore consider the play as being<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> +arranged to come off on Saturday, the 20th of next +month.</p> + +<p>I don't know whether I told you that we have +changed the farce; and now we are to act "Two o'clock +in the Morning," as performed by the inimitable B. at +Montreal.</p> + +<p>In reference to Bruce Castle school, I think the question +set at rest most probably by the fact of there being no +vacancy (it is always full) until Christmas, when Howitt's +two boys and Jerrold's one go in and fill it up again. But +after going carefully through the school, a question would +arise in my mind whether the system—a perfectly admirable +one; the only recognition of education as a broad system of +moral and intellectual philosophy, that I have ever seen in +practice—do not require so much preparation and progress +in the mind of the boy, as that he shall have come there +younger and less advanced than Willy; or at all events +without that very different sort of school experience which +he must have acquired at Brighton. I have no warrant for +this doubt, beyond a vague uneasiness suggesting a suspicion +of its great probability. On such slight ground I +would not hint it to anyone but you, who I know will +give it its due weight, and no more and no less.</p> + +<p>I have the paper setting forth the nature of the higher +classical studies, and the books they read. It is the usual +course, and includes the great books in Greek and Latin. +They have a miscellaneous library, under the management +of the boys themselves, of some five or six thousand volumes, +and every means of study and recreation, and every inducement +to self-reliance and self-exertion that can easily be +imagined. As there is no room just now, you can turn it +over in your mind again. And if you would like to see the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> +place yourself, when you return to town, I shall be delighted +to go there with you. I come home on Wednesday. It is +our rehearsal night; and of course the active and enterprising +stage-manager must be at his post.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Ever, my dear Macready,</span><br /> +Affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +George +Cattermole.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<i>August 27th, 1845.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear George</span>,</div> + +<p>I write a line to tell you a project we have in view. A +little party of us have taken Miss Kelly's theatre for the +night of the 20th of next month, and we are going to act a +play there, with correct and pretty costume, good orchestra, +etc. etc. The affair is strictly private. The admission will +be by cards of invitation; every man will have from thirty to +thirty-five. Nobody can ask any person without the knowledge +and sanction of the rest, my objection being final; +and the expense to each (exclusive of the dress, which every +man finds for himself) will not exceed two guineas. Forster +plays, and Stone plays, and I play, and some of the <i>Punch</i> +people play. Stanfield, having the scenery and carpenters +to attend to, cannot manage his part also. It is Downright, +in "Every Man in his Humour," not at all long, but very +good; he wants you to take it. And so help me. We shall +have a brilliant audience. The uphill part of the thing is +already done, our next rehearsal is next Tuesday, and if +you will come in you will find everything to your hand, and +all very merry and pleasant.</p> + +<p>Let me know what you decide, like a Kittenmolian +Trojan. And with love from all here to all there,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Believe me, ever,</span><br /> +Heartily yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>Thursday, Sept. 18th, 1845.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>We have a little supper, sir, after the farce, at No. 9, +Powis Place, Great Ormond Street, in an empty house +belonging to one of the company. There I am requested +by my fellows to beg the favour of thy company and that +of Mrs. Macready. The guests are limited to the actors +and their ladies—with the exception of yourselves, and +D'Orsay, and George Cattermole, "or so"—that sounds +like Bobadil a little.</p> + +<p>I am going to adopt your reading of the fifth act with +the worst grace in the world. It seems to me that you +don't allow enough for Bobadil having been frequently +beaten before, as I have no doubt he had been. The part +goes down hideously on this construction, and the end is +mere lees. But never mind, sir, I intend bringing you up +with the farce in the most brilliant manner.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever yours affectionately.<br /> +</div> + +<p>N.B.—Observe. I think of changing my present mode +of life, and am open to an engagement.</p> + +<p>N.B. No. 2.—I will undertake not to play tragedy, +though passion is my strength.</p> + +<p>N.B. No. 3.—I consider myself a chained lion.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Clarkson +Stanfield.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>October 2nd, 1845.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Stanny</span>,</div> + +<p>I send you the claret jug. But for a mistake, you +would have received the little remembrance almost immediately +after my return from abroad.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span></p> +<p>I need not say how much I should value another little +sketch from your extraordinary hand in this year's small +volume, to which Mac again does the frontispiece. But I +cannot hear of it, and will not have it (though the gratification +of such aid, to me, is really beyond all expression), +unless you will so far consent to make it a matter of +business as to receive, without asking any questions, +a cheque in return from the publishers. Do not misunderstand +me—though I am not afraid there is much +danger of your doing so, for between us misunderstanding +is, I hope, not easy. I know perfectly well that nothing +can pay you for the devotion of any portion of your time +to such a use of your art. I know perfectly well that no +terms would induce you to go out of your way, in such a +regard, for perhaps anybody else. I cannot, nor do I +desire to, vanquish the friendly obligation which help from +you imposes on me. But I am not the sole proprietor of +those little books; and it would be monstrous in you if you +were to dream of putting a scratch into a second one without +some shadowy reference to the other partners, ten thousand +times more monstrous in me if any consideration on earth +could induce me to permit it, which nothing will or +shall.</p> + +<p>So, see what it comes to. If you will do me a favour +on my terms it will be more acceptable to me, my dear +Stanfield, than I can possibly tell you. If you will not be +so generous, you deprive me of the satisfaction of receiving +it at your hands, and shut me out from that possibility +altogether. What a stony-hearted ruffian you must be in +such a case!</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>Friday Evening, Oct. 17th, 1845.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>You once—only once—gave the world assurance of a +waistcoat. You wore it, sir, I think, in "Money." It was +a remarkable and precious waistcoat, wherein certain broad +stripes of blue or purple disported themselves as by a combination +of extraordinary circumstances, too happy to occur +again. I have seen it on your manly chest in private life. +I saw it, sir, I think, the other day in the cold light of +morning—with feelings easier to be imagined than described. +Mr. Macready, sir, are you a father? If so, lend me that +waistcoat for five minutes. I am bidden to a wedding +(where fathers are made), and my artist cannot, I find (how +should he?), imagine such a waistcoat. Let me show it to +him as a sample of my tastes and wishes; and—ha, ha, ha, +ha!—eclipse the bridegroom!</p> + +<p>I will send a trusty messenger at half-past nine precisely, +in the morning. He is sworn to secrecy. He durst not for +his life betray us, or swells in ambuscade would have the +waistcoat at the cost of his heart's blood.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 10em;">Thine,</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">The Unwaistcoated One.</span><br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Viscount +Morpeth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>Nov. 28th, 1845.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Lord Morpeth</span>,</div> + +<p>I have delayed writing to you until now, hoping I +might have been able to tell you of our dramatic plans, and +of the day on which we purpose playing. But as these +matters are still in abeyance, I will give you that precious +information when I come into the receipt of it myself. And +let me heartily assure you, that I had at least as much pleasure<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span> +in seeing you the other day as you can possibly have +had in seeing me; and that I shall consider all opportunities +of becoming better known to you among the most fortunate +and desirable occasions of my life. And that I am with your +conviction about the probability of our liking each other, +and, as Lord Lyndhurst might say, with "something +more."</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>1846.</h2> + +<h3>NARRATIVE.</h3> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>In</span> the spring of this year Charles Dickens gave up the editorship +of, and finally, all connection with <i>The Daily News</i>, and +went again abroad with his family; the house in Devonshire +Terrace being let for twelve months. He made his summer +residence at Lausanne, taking a villa (Rosemont) there, from +May till November. Here he wrote "The Battle of Life," +and the first number of "Dombey and Son." In November +he removed to Paris, where he took a house in the Rue de +Courcelles for the winter, and where he lived and was at +work upon "Dombey" until March, 1847. Among the +English residents that summer at Lausanne he made many +friendships, in proof of which he dedicated the Christmas +book written there to his "English friends in Lausanne." +The especially intimate friendships which he formed were +with M. de Cerjat, who was always a resident of Lausanne +with his family; Mr. Haldimand, whose name is identified +with the place, and with the Hon. Richard and Mrs. Watson, +of Rockingham Castle. He maintained a constant correspondence +with them, and to Mr. and Mrs. Watson he afterwards +dedicated his own favourite of all his books, "David<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> +Copperfield." M. de Cerjat, from the time of Charles +Dickens leaving Lausanne, began a custom, which he kept +up almost without an interval to the time of his own death, +of writing him a long letter every Christmas, to which he +returned answers, which will be given in this and the +following years.</div> + +<p>In this year we have the commencement of his association +and correspondence with Mr. W. H. Wills. Their +connection began in the short term of his editorship of <i>The +Daily News</i>, when he at once fully appreciated Mr. Wills's +invaluable business qualities. And when, some time later, +he started his own periodical, "Household Words," he +thought himself very fortunate in being able to secure +Mr. Wills's co-operation as editor of that journal, and afterwards +of "All the Year Round," with which "Household +Words" was incorporated. They worked together on +terms of the most perfect mutual understanding, confidence, +and affectionate regard, until Mr. Wills's health +made it necessary for him to retire from the work in 1868. +Besides his first notes to Mr. Wills in this year, we have +our first letters to his dear friends, the Rev. James White, +Walter Savage Landor, and Miss Marion Ely, the niece of +Lady Talfourd.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. H. +Wills.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>February 18th, 1846.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mr. Wills</span>,</div> + +<p>Do look at the enclosed from Mrs. What's-her-name. +For a surprising audacity it is remarkable even to me, +who am positively bullied, and all but beaten, by these +people. I wish you would do me the favour to write to her +(in your own name and from your own address), stating that +you answered her letter as you did, because if I were +the wealthiest nobleman in England I could not keep pace +with one-twentieth part of the demands upon me, and +because you saw no internal evidence in her application to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span> +induce you to single it out for any especial notice. That +the tone of this letter renders you exceedingly glad you did +so; and that you decline, from me, holding any correspondence +with her. Something to that effect, after what flourish +your nature will.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours always.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Rev. +James +White.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;">1, <span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace, York Gate, Regent's Park</span>,</span><br /> +<i>February 24th, 1846.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>I cannot help telling you, my dear White, for I can +think of no formal use of Mister to such a writer as you, +that I have just now read your tragedy, "The Earl of +Gowrie," with a delight which I should in vain endeavour +to express to you. Considered with reference to its story, +or its characters, or its noble poetry, I honestly regard it as +a work of most remarkable genius. It has impressed me +powerfully and enduringly. I am proud to have received it +from your hand. And if I have to tell you what complete +possession it has taken of me—that is, if I <i>could</i> tell you—I +do believe you would be glad to know it.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Always faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. H. +Wills.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>Monday Morning, March 2nd, 1846.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mr. Wills</span>,</div> + +<p>I really don't know what to say about the New +Brunswicker. The idea will obtrude itself on my mind, that +he had no business to come here on such an expedition; and +that it is a piece of the wild conceit for which his countrymen +are so remarkable, and that I can hardly afford to be +steward to such adventurers. On the other hand, your<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> +description of him pleases me. Then that purse which I +could never keep shut in my life makes mouths at me, +saying, "See how empty I am." Then I fill it, and it +looks very rich indeed.</p> + +<p>I think the best way is to say, that if you think you can +do him any <i>permanent</i> good with five pounds (that is, get +him home again) I will give you the money. But I should +be very much indisposed to give it him, merely to linger +on here about town for a little time and then be hard up +again.</p> + +<p>As to employment, I do in my soul believe that if +I were Lord Chancellor of England, I should have been +aground long ago, for the patronage of a messenger's +place.</p> + +<p>Say all that is civil for me to the proprietor of <i>The +Illustrated London News</i>, who really seems to be very +liberal. "Other engagements," etc. etc., "prevent me from +entertaining," etc. etc.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours ever.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. H. +Wills.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>March 4th, 1846.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mr. Wills</span>,</div> + +<p>I assure you I am very truly and unaffectedly sensible +of your earnest friendliness, and in proof of my feeling its +worth I shall unhesitatingly trouble you sometimes, in +the fullest reliance on your meaning what you say. The +letter from Nelson Square is a very manly and touching +one. But I am more helpless in such a case as that than in +any other, having really fewer means of helping such a +gentleman to employment than I have of firing off the guns<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span> +in the Tower. Such, appeals come to me here in scores +upon scores.</p> + +<p>The letter from Little White Lion Street does not +impress me favourably. It is not written in a simple or +truthful manner, I am afraid, and is <i>not</i> a good reference. +Moreover, I think it probable that the writer may have +deserted some pursuit for which he is qualified, for vague +and laborious strivings which he has no pretensions to +make. However, I will certainly act on your impression of +him, whatever it may be. And if you could explain to +the gentleman in Nelson Square, that I am not evading +his request, but that I do not know of anything to +which I can recommend him, it would be a great relief +to me.</p> + +<p>I trust this new printer <i>is</i> a Tartar; and I hope to God +he will so proclaim and assert his Tartar breeding, as to +excommunicate —— from the "chapel" over which he +presides.</p> + +<p>Tell Powell (with my regards) that he needn't "deal +with" the American notices of the "Cricket." I never +read one word of their abuse, and I should think it base to +read their praises. It is something to know that one is +righted so soon; and knowing that, I can afford to know no +more.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Clarkson +Stanfield.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>March 6th, 1846.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Stanny</span>,</div> + +<p>In reference to the damage of the candlesticks, +I beg to quote (from "The Cricket on the Hearth,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> +by the highly popular and deservedly so Dick) this +reply:</p> + +<p>"I'll damage you if you enquire."</p> + +<div class='unindent'> +<span style="margin-left: 22em;">Ever yours,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 24em;">My block-reeving,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 24em;">Main-brace splicing,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 24em;">Lead-heaving,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 24em;">Ship-conning,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 24em;">Stun'sail-bending,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 24em;">Deck-swabbing</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 24em;">Son of a sea-cook,</span><br /></div> +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Henry Bluff</span>,</span><br /> +H.M.S. <i>Timber.</i><br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Charles +Knight.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>Saturday, April 13th, 1846.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Sir</span>,</div> + +<p>Do you recollect sending me your biography of +Shakespeare last autumn, and my not acknowledging its +receipt? I do, with remorse.</p> + +<p>The truth is, that I took it out of town with me, read it +with great pleasure as a charming piece of honest enthusiasm +and perseverance, kept it by me, came home, meant to +say all manner of things to you, suffered the time to go by, +got ashamed, thought of speaking to you, never saw you, +felt it heavy on my mind, and now fling off the load by +thanking you heartily, and hoping you will not think it too +late.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Always believe me,</span><br /> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">Miss Ely.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>Sunday, April 19th, 1846.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Miss Ely</span>,</div> + +<p>A mysterious emissary brought me a note in your +always welcome handwriting at the Athenæum last night. +I enquired of the servant in attendance whether the bearer +of this letter was of my vast establishment. To which he +replied "Yezzir." "Then," said I, "tell him not to wait."</p> + +<p>Maclise was with me. It was then half-past seven. We +had been walking, and were splashed to the eyes. We +debated upon the possibility of getting to Russell Square in +reasonable time—decided that it would be in the worst taste +to appear when the performance would be half over—and +very reluctantly decided not to come. You may suppose +how dirty and dismal we were when we went to the Thames +Tunnel, of all places in the world, instead!</p> + +<p>When I came home here at midnight I found another +letter from you (I left off in this place to press it dutifully +to my lips). Then my mind misgave me that <i>you</i> must have +sent to the Athenæum. At the apparent rudeness of my +reply, my face, as Hadji Baba says, was turned upside down, +and fifty donkeys sat upon my father's grave—or would +have done so, but for his not being dead yet.</p> + +<p>Therefore I send this humble explanation—protesting, +however, which I do most solemnly, against being invited +under such untoward circumstances; and claiming as your +old friend and no less old admirer to be instantly invited to +the next performance, if such a thing is ever contemplated.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Ever, my dear Miss Ely,</span><br /> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Douglas +Jerrold.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>Tuesday, May 26th, 1846.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Jerrold</span>,</div> + +<p>I send you herewith some books belonging to you. +A thousand thanks for the "Hermit." He took my fancy +mightily when I first saw him in the "Illuminated;" and I +have stowed him away in the left-hand breast pocket of +my travelling coat, that we may hold pleasant converse +together on the Rhine. You see what confidence I have +in him!</p> + +<p>I wish you would seriously consider the expediency and +feasibility of coming to Lausanne in the summer or early +autumn. I must be at work myself during a certain part of +every day almost, and you could do twice as much there as +here. It is a wonderful place to see—and what sort of +welcome you would find I will say nothing about, for I have +vanity enough to believe that you would be willing to feel +yourself as much at home in my household as in any man's.</p> + +<p>Do think it over. I could send you the minutest particular +of the journey. It is really all railroad and steamboat, +and the easiest in the world.</p> + +<p>At Macready's on Thursday, we shall meet, please God!</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Always, my dear Jerrold,</span><br /> +Cordially yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Geneva</span>, <i>Saturday, October 24th, 1846.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>The welcome sight of your handwriting moves me +(though I have nothing to say) to show you mine, and if I +could recollect the passage in Virginius I would paraphrase +it, and say, "Does it seem to tremble, boy? Is it a loving +autograph? Does it beam with friendship and affection?" +all of which I say, as I write, with—oh Heaven!—such a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> +splendid imitation of you, and finally give you one of those +grasps and shakes with which I have seen you make the +young Icilius stagger again.</p> + +<p>Here I am, running away from a bad headache as +Tristram Shandy ran away from death, and lodging for a +week in the Hôtel de l'Écu de Genève, wherein there is a +large mirror shattered by a cannon-ball in the late revolution. +A revolution, whatever its merits, achieved by free +spirits, nobly generous and moderate, even in the first +transports of victory, elevated by a splendid popular education, +and bent on freedom from all tyrants, whether +their crowns be shaven or golden. The newspapers may +tell you what they please. I believe there is no country on +earth but Switzerland in which a violent change could have +been effected in the Christian spirit shown in this place, or +in the same proud, independent, gallant style. Not one +halfpennyworth of property was lost, stolen, or strayed. +Not one atom of party malice survived the smoke of +the last gun. Nothing is expressed in the Government +addresses to the citizens but a regard for the general happiness, +and injunctions to forget all animosities; which +they are practically obeying at every turn, though the late +Government (of whose spirit I had some previous knowledge) +did load the guns with such material as should +occasion gangrene in the wounds, and though the wounded +<i>do</i> die, consequently, every day, in the hospital, of sores +that in themselves were nothing.</p> + +<p><i>You</i> a mountaineer! <i>You</i> examine (I have seen you do +it) the point of your young son's bâton de montagne before +he went up into the snow! And <i>you</i> talk of coming to +Lausanne in March! Why, Lord love your heart, William +Tell, times are changed since you lived at Altorf. There is +not a mountain pass open until June. The snow is closing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> +in on all the panorama already. I was at the Great St. +Bernard two months ago, and it was bitter cold and frosty +then. Do you think I could let you hazard your life by +going up any pass worth seeing in bleak March? Never +shall it be said that Dickens sacrificed his friend upon the +altar of his hospitality! Onward! To Paris! (Cue for +band. Dickens points off with truncheon, first entrance +P.S. Page delivers gauntlets on one knee. Dickens puts +'em on and gradually falls into a fit of musing. Mrs. +Dickens lays her hand upon his shoulder. Business. Procession. +Curtain.)</p> + +<p>It is a great pleasure to me, my dear Macready, to hear +from yourself, as I had previously heard from Forster, that +you are so well pleased with "Dombey," which is evidently +a great success and a great hit, thank God! I felt that +Mrs. Brown was strong, but I was not at all afraid of +giving as heavy a blow as I could to a piece of hot iron +that lay ready at my hand. For that is my principle +always, and I hope to come down with some heavier sledge-hammers +than that.</p> + +<p>I know the lady of whom you write. —— left there +only yesterday. The story may arise only in her manner, +which is extraordinarily free and careless. He was visiting +her here, when I was here last, three weeks ago. I knew +her in Italy. It is not her fault if scandal ever leaves her +alone, for such a braver of all conventionalities never wore +petticoats. But I should be sorry to hear there was anything +guilty in her conduct. She is very clever, really +learned, very pretty, much neglected by her husband, and +only four-and-twenty years of age.</p> + +<p>Kate and Georgy send their best loves to Mrs. and Miss +Macready and all your house.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Your most affectionate Friend.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Haldimand.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Paris</span>, <i>November, 1846.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='center'><b>* * * * * *</b></div> + +<p>Talking of which<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> reminds me to say, that I have written +to my printers, and told them to prefix to "The Battle of +Life" a dedication that is printed in illuminated capitals on +my heart. It is only this:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"This Christmas book is cordially inscribed to my English +friends in Switzerland."</p></div> + +<p>I shall trouble you with a little parcel of three or four +copies to distribute to those whose names will be found +written in them, as soon as they can be made ready, and +believe me, that there is no success or approval in the great +world beyond the Jura that will be more precious and +delightful to me, than the hope that I shall be remembered +of an evening in the coming winter time, at one or two +friends' I could mention near the Lake of Geneva. It runs +with a spring tide, that will always flow and never ebb, +through my memory; and nothing less than the waters of +Lethe shall confuse the music of its running, until it loses +itself in that great sea, for which all the currents of our life +are desperately bent.</p> + +<div class='center'><b>* * * * * *</b></div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Walter +Savage +Landor.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Paris</span>, <i>Sunday, November 22nd, 1846.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">Young Man</span>,</div> + +<p>I will not go there if I can help it. I have not the +least confidence in the value of your introduction to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> +Devil. I can't help thinking that it would be of better use +"the other way, the other way," but I won't try it there, +either, at present, if I can help it. Your godson says is +that your duty? and he begs me to enclose a blush newly +blushed for you.</p> + +<p>As to writing, I have written to you twenty times and +twenty more to that, if you only knew it. I have been +writing a little Christmas book, besides, expressly for you. +And if you don't like it, I shall go to the font of Marylebone +Church as soon as I conveniently can and renounce +you: I am not to be trifled with. I write from Paris. I am +getting up some French steam. I intend to proceed upon +the longing-for-a-lap-of-blood-at-last principle, and if you +<i>do</i> offend me, look to it.</p> + +<p>We are all well and happy, and they send loves to you +by the bushel. We are in the agonies of house-hunting. +The people are frightfully civil, and grotesquely extortionate. +One man (with a house to let) told me yesterday that he +loved the Duke of Wellington like a brother. The same +gentleman wanted to hug me round the neck with one hand, +and pick my pocket with the other.</p> + +<p>Don't be hard upon the Swiss. They are a thorn in the +sides of European despots, and a good wholesome people to +live near Jesuit-ridden kings on the brighter side of the +mountains. My hat shall ever be ready to be thrown up, +and my glove ever ready to be thrown down for Switzerland. +If you were the man I took you for, when I took you (as a +godfather) for better and for worse, you would come to +Paris and amaze the weak walls of the house I haven't found +yet with that steady snore of yours, which I once heard +piercing the door of your bedroom in Devonshire Terrace, +reverberating along the bell-wire in the hall, so getting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> +outside into the street, playing Eolian harps among the area +railings, and going down the New Road like the blast of a +trumpet.</p> + +<p>I forgive you your reviling of me: there's a shovelful of +live coals for your head—does it burn? And am, with true +affection—does it burn now?—</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">The Hon. +Richard +Watson.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Paris, 48, Rue de Courcelles, St. Honoré</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Friday, Nov. 27th, 1846.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Watson</span>,</div> + +<p>We were housed only yesterday. I lose no time +in despatching this memorandum of our whereabouts, in +order that you may not fail to write me a line before you +come to Paris on your way towards England, letting me +know on what day we are to expect you to dinner.</p> + +<p>We arrived here quite happily and well. I don't mean +here, but at the Hôtel Brighton, in Paris, on Friday +evening, between six and seven o'clock. The agonies of +house-hunting were frightfully severe. It was one paroxysm +for four mortal days. I am proud to express my belief, +that we are lodged at last in the most preposterous house in +the world. The like of it cannot, and so far as my knowledge +goes does not, exist in any other part of the globe. +The bedrooms are like opera-boxes. The dining-rooms, +staircases, and passages, quite inexplicable. The dining-room +is a sort of cavern, painted (ceiling and all) to represent +a grove, with unaccountable bits of looking-glass sticking +in among the branches of the trees. There is a gleam of +reason in the drawing-room. But it is approached through +a series of small chambers, like the joints in a telescope,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> +which are hung with inscrutable drapery. The maddest +man in Bedlam, having the materials given him, would be +likely to devise such a suite, supposing his case to be +hopeless and quite incurable.</p> + +<p>Pray tell Mrs. Watson, with my best regards, that the +dance of the two sisters in the little Christmas book is being +done as an illustration by Maclise; and that Stanfield is +doing the battle-ground and the outside of the Nutmeg +Grater Inn. Maclise is also drawing some smaller subjects +for the little story, and they write me that they hope it will +be very pretty, and they think that I shall like it. I shall +have been in London before I see you, probably, and I hope +the book itself will then be on its road to Lausanne to speak +for itself, and to speak a word for me too. I have never +left so many friendly and cheerful recollections in any place; +and to represent me in my absence, its tone should be +very eloquent and affectionate indeed.</p> + +<p>Well, if I don't turn up again next summer it shall not +be my fault. In the meanwhile, I shall often and often look +that way with my mind's eye, and hear the sweet, clear, +bell-like voice of —— with the ear of my imagination. +In the event of there being any change—but it is not likely—in +the appearance of his cravat behind, where it goes up +into his head, I mean, and frets against his wig—I hope +some one of my English friends will apprise me of it, for the +love of the great Saint Bernard.</p> + +<p>I have not seen Lord Normanby yet. I have not seen +anything up to this time but houses and lodgings. There +seems to be immense excitement here on the subject of —— +however, and a perfectly stupendous sensation getting up. +I saw the king the other day coming into Paris. His +carriage was surrounded by guards on horseback, and he +sat very far back in it, I thought, and drove at a great pace.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> +It was strange to see the préfet of police on horseback some +hundreds of yards in advance, looking to the right and left +as he rode, like a man who suspected every twig in every +tree in the long avenue.</p> + +<p>The English relations look anything but promising, +though I understand that the Count St. Aulaire is to +remain in London, notwithstanding the newspaper alarms +to the contrary. If there be anything like the sensation in +England about —— that there is here, there will be a +bitter resentment indeed. The democratic society of Paris +have announced, this morning, their intention of printing +and circulating fifty thousand copies of an appeal in every +European language. It is a base business beyond question, +and comes at an ill time.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Dickens and her sister desire their best regards to +be sent to you and their best loves to Mrs. Watson, in +which I join, as nearly as I may. Believe me, with great +truth,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Very sincerely yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—Mrs. Dickens is going to write to Mrs. Watson +next week, she says.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">M. Cerjat.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Paris, 48, Rue de Courcelles, St. Honoré</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Friday, Nov. 27th, 1846.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My Dear Cerjat</span>,</div> + +<p>When we turned out of your view on that disconsolate +Monday, when you so kindly took horse and rode +forth to say good-bye, we went on in a very dull and +drowsy manner, I can assure you. I could have borne a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> +world of punch in the rumble and been none the worse for +it. There was an uncommonly cool inn that night, and +quite a monstrous establishment at Auxonne the next +night, full of flatulent passages and banging doors. The +next night we passed at Montbard, where there is one of +the very best little inns in all France. The next at Sens, +and so we got here. The roads were bad, but not very +for French roads. There was no deficiency of horses anywhere; +and after Pontarlier the weather was really not too +cold for comfort. They weighed our plate at the frontier +custom-house, spoon by spoon, and fork by fork, and we +lingered about there, in a thick fog and a hard frost, for +three long hours and a half, during which the officials committed +all manner of absurdities, and got into all sorts of +disputes with my brave courier. This was the only misery +we encountered—except leaving Lausanne, and that was +enough to last us and <i>did</i> last us all the way here. We are +living on it now. I felt, myself, much as I should think +the murderer felt on that fair morning when, with his gray-haired +victim (those unconscious gray hairs, soon to be +bedabbled with blood), he went so far towards heaven as +the top of that mountain of St. Bernard without one touch +of remorse. A weight is on my breast. The only difference +between me and the murderer is, that his weight +was guilt and mine is regret.</p> + +<p>I haven't a word of news to tell you. I shouldn't write +at all if I were not the vainest man in the world, impelled +by a belief that you will be glad to hear from me, even +though you hear no more than that I have nothing to say. +"Dombey" is doing wonders. It went up, after the publication +of the second number, over the thirty thousand. +This is such a very large sale, so early in the story, that I +begin to think it will beat all the rest. Keeley and his wife<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> +are making great preparations for producing the Christmas +story, and I have made them (as an old stage manager) +carry out one or two expensive notions of mine about +scenery and so forth—in particular a sudden change from +the inside of the doctor's house in the midst of the ball to +the orchard in the snow—which ought to tell very well. +But actors are so bad, in general, and the best are spread +over so many theatres, that the "cast" is black despair and +moody madness. There is no one to be got for Marion but a +certain Miss ——, I am afraid—a pupil of Miss Kelly's, +who acted in the private theatricals I got up a year ago. +Macready took her afterwards to play Virginia to his +Virginius, but she made nothing of it, great as the +chance was. I have promised to show her what I mean, as +near as I can, and if you will look into the English Opera +House on the morning of the 17th, 18th, or 19th of next +month, between the hours of eleven and four, you will find +me in a very hot and dusty condition, playing all the parts +of the piece, to the immense diversion of all the actors, +actresses, scene-shifters, carpenters, musicians, chorus +people, tailors, dressmakers, scene-painters, and general +ragamuffins of the theatre.</p> + +<p>Moore, the poet, is very ill—I fear dying. The last +time I saw him was immediately before I left London, and +I thought him sadly changed and tamed, but not much +more so than such a man might be under the heavy hand +of time. I believe he suffered severe grief in the death of +a son some time ago. The first man I met in Paris was +——, who took hold of me as I was getting into a +coach at the door of the hotel. He hadn't a button on his +shirt (but I don't think he ever has), and you might +have sown what boys call "mustard and cress" in the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span>dust on his coat. I have not seen Lord Normanby yet, +as we have only just got a house (the queerest house in +Europe!) to lay our heads in; but there seems reason to +fear that the growing dissensions between England and +France, and the irritation of the French king, may lead +to the withdrawal of the minister on each side of the +Channel.</p> + +<p>Have you cut down any more trees, played any more +rubbers, propounded any more teasers to the players at the +game of Yes and No? How is the old horse? How is the +gray mare? How is Crab (to whom my respectful compliments)? +Have you tried the punch yet; if yes, +did it succeed; if no, why not? Is Mrs. Cerjat as happy +and as well as I would have her, and all your house +ditto ditto? Does Haldimand play whist with any science +yet? Ha, ha, ha! the idea of his saying <i>I</i> hadn't any! +And are those damask-cheeked virgins, the Miss ——, +still sleeping on dewy rose leaves near the English +church?</p> + +<p>Remember me to all your house, and most of all to its +other head, with all the regard and earnestness that a +"numble individual" (as they always call it in the House +of Commons) who once travelled with her in a car over a +smooth country may charge you with. I have added two +lines to the little Christmas book, that I hope both you and +she may not dislike. Haldimand will tell you what they +are. Kate and Georgy send their kindest loves, and Kate +is "going" to write "next week." Believe me always, my +dear Cerjat, full of cordial and hearty recollections of this +past summer and autumn, and your part in my part of +them,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Very faithfully your Friend.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Charles +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +58, <span class="smcap">Lincoln's Inn Fields</span>, <i>Saturday, Dec. 19th, 1846.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dearest Kate</span>,</div> + +<p>I really am bothered to death by this confounded +<i>dramatization</i> of the Christmas book. They were in a state +so horrible at Keeley's yesterday (as perhaps Forster told +you when he wrote), that I was obliged to engage to +read the book to them this morning. It struck me that +Mrs. Leigh Murray, Miss Daly, and Vining seemed to +understand it best. Certainly Miss Daly knew best what +she was about yesterday. At eight to-night we have +a rehearsal with scenery and band, and everything but +dresses. I see no possibility of escaping from it before +one or two o'clock in the morning. And I was at the +theatre all day yesterday. Unless I had come to London, +I do not think there would have been much hope of +the version being more than just tolerated, even that +doubtful. All the actors bad, all the business frightfully +behindhand. The very words of the book confused in the +copying into the densest and most insufferable nonsense. +I must exempt, however, from the general slackness both +the Keeleys. I hope they will be very good. I have +never seen anything of its kind better than the manner +in which they played the little supper scene between +Clemency and Britain, yesterday. It was quite perfect, +even to me.</p> + +<p>The small manager, Forster, Talfourd, Stanny, and +Mac dine with me at the Piazza to-day, before the rehearsal. +I have already one or two uncommonly good stories of Mac. +I reserve them for narration. I have also a dreadful cold, +which I would not reserve if I could help it. I can hardly +hold up my head, and fight through from hour to hour, but +had serious thoughts just now of walking off to bed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span></p> + +<p>Christmas book published to-day—twenty-three thousand +copies already gone!!! Browne's plates for next "Dombey" +much better than usual.</p> + +<p>I have seen nobody yet, of course. But I sent Roche +up to your mother this morning, to say I am in town and +will come shortly. There is a great thaw here to-day, and +it is raining hard. I hope you have the advantage (if it be +one, which I am not sure of) of a similar change in Paris. +Of course I start again on Thursday. We are expecting +(Roche and I) a letter from the malle poste people, to whom +we have applied for places. The journey here was long and +cold—twenty-four hours from Paris to Boulogne. Passage +not very bad, and made in two hours.</p> + +<p>I find I can't write at all, so I had best leave off. I am +looking impatiently for your letter on Monday morning. +Give my best love to Georgy, and kisses to all the dear +children. And believe me, my love,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Most affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Charles +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Piazza Coffee-house, Covent Garden</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Monday, Dec. 21st, 1846.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dearest Kate</span>,</div> + +<p>In a quiet interval of half an hour before going to +dine at Macready's, I sit down to write you a few words. +But I shall reserve my letter for to-morrow's post, in order +that you may hear what <i>I</i> hear of the "going" of the play +to-night. Think of my being there on Saturday, with a +really frightful cold, and working harder than ever I did at +the amateur plays, until two in the morning. There was +no supper to be got, either here or anywhere else, after<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span> +coming out; and I was as hungry and thirsty as need be. +The scenery and dresses are very good indeed, and they +have spent money on it <i>liberally</i>. The great change from +the ball-room to the snowy night is most effective, and both +the departure and the return will tell, I think, strongly on +an audience. I have made them very quick and excited in +the passionate scenes, and so have infused some appearance +of life into those parts of the play. But I can't make a +Marion, and Miss —— is awfully bad. She is a mere +nothing all through. I put Mr. Leigh Murray into such +a state, by making him tear about, that the perspiration +ran streaming down his face. They have a great let. +I believe every place in the house is taken. Roche is +going.</p> + +<p><i>Tuesday Morning.</i>—The play went, as well as I can +make out—I hoped to have had Stanny's report of it, but +he is ill—with great effect. There was immense enthusiasm +at its close, and great uproar and shouting for me. Forster +will go on Wednesday, and write you his account of it. I +saw the Keeleys on the stage at eleven o'clock or so, and +they were in prodigious spirits and delight.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. John +Forster.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">48, <span class="smcap">Rue de Courcelles, Paris</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Sunday Night, Dec. 27th, 1846.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My very dear Forster</span>,</div> + +<p>Amen, amen. Many merry Christmases, many +happy new years, unbroken friendship, great accumulation +of cheerful recollections, affection on earth, and heaven at +last, for all of us.</p> + +<p>I enclose you a letter from Jeffrey, which you may like +to read. <i>Bring it to me back when you come over.</i> I have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> +told him all he wants to know. Is it not a strange example +of the hazards of writing in numbers that a man like him +should form his notion of Dombey and Miss Tox on +three months' knowledge? I have asked him the same +question, and advised him to keep his eye on both of them +as time rolls on.</p> + +<p>We had a cold journey here from Boulogne, but the +roads were not very bad. The malle poste, however, now +takes the trains at Amiens. We missed it by ten minutes, +and had to wait three hours—from twelve o'clock until +three, in which interval I drank brandy and water, and +slept like a top. It is delightful travelling for its speed, +that malle poste, and really for its comfort too. But on +this occasion it was not remarkable for the last-named +quality. The director of the post at Boulogne told me a +lamentable story of his son at Paris being ill, and implored +me to bring him on. The brave doubted the representations +altogether, but I couldn't find it in my heart to say no; so +we brought the director, bodkinwise, and being a large +man, in a great number of greatcoats, he crushed us +dismally until we got to the railroad. For two passengers +(and it never carries more) it is capital. For three, +excruciating.</p> + +<p>Write to —— what you have said to me. You need +write no more. He is full of vicious fancies and wrong suspicions, +even of Hardwick, and I would rather he heard it +from you than from me, whom he is not likely to love much +in his heart. I doubt it may be but a rusty instrument for +want of use, the ——ish heart.</p> + +<p>My most important present news is that I am going to +take a jorum of hot rum and egg in bed immediately, +and to cover myself up with all the blankets in the +house. Love from all. I have a sensation in my head,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> +as if it were "on edge." It is still very cold here, +but the snow had disappeared on my return, both here +and on the road, except within ten miles or so of +Boulogne.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>1847.</h2> + +<h3>NARRATIVE.</h3> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>At</span> the beginning of the year Charles Dickens was still +living in Paris—Rue de Courcelles. His stay was cut +shorter than he intended it to have been, by the illness +from scarlet fever of his eldest son, who was at school +in London. Consequent upon this, he and his wife went +to London at the end of February, taking up their abode +at the Victoria Hotel, Euston Square, the Devonshire +Terrace house being still occupied by its tenant, Sir +James Duke, and the sick boy under the care of his +grandmother, Mrs. Hogarth, in Albany Street. The +children, with their aunt, remained in Paris, until a +temporary house had been taken for the family in +Chester Place, Regent's Park; and Roche was then +sent back to take <i>all</i> home. In Chester Place another +son was born—Sydney Smith Haldimand—his godfathers +being Mr. Haldimand, of Lausanne, and Mr. H. P. Smith, +of the Eagle Life Assurance office. He was christened +at the same time as a daughter of Mr. Macready's, and +the letters to Mr. Smith have reference to the postponement +of the christening on Mr. Smith's account. +In May, Charles Dickens had lodgings in Brighton for +some weeks, for the recovery of Mrs. Dickens's health; +going there first with his wife and sister-in-law and the +eldest boy—now recovered from his fever—and being joined +at the latter part of the time by his two little daughters, +to whom there are some letters among those which follow<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> +here. He removed earlier than usual this summer to Broadstairs, +which remained his head-quarters until October, with +intervals of absence for amateur theatrical tours (which +Mr. Forster calls "splendid strolling"), in which he was +usually accompanied by his wife and sister-in-law. Several +new recruits had been added to the theatrical company, +from among distinguished literary men and artists, and it +now included, besides those previously named, Mr. George +Cruikshank, Mr. George Henry Lewes, and Mr. Augustus +Egg; the supreme management and arrangement of everything +being always left to Charles Dickens. "Every Man +in his Humour" and farces were again played at Manchester +and Liverpool, for the benefit of Mr. Leigh Hunt, and the +dramatic author, Mr. John Poole.</div> + +<p>By the end of the Broadstairs holiday, the house in +Devonshire Terrace was vacant, and the family returned +to it in October. All this year Charles Dickens had been +at work upon the monthly numbers of "Dombey and Son," +in spite of these many interruptions. He began at Broadstairs +a Christmas book. But he found that the engrossing +interest of his novel approaching completion made it impossible +for him to finish the other work in time. So he +decided to let this Christmas pass without a story, and +postponed the publication of "The Haunted Man" until +the following year.</p> + +<p>At the close of the year he went to Leeds, to take +the chair at a meeting of the Mechanics' Institute, and +on the 28th December he presided at the opening of the +Glasgow Athenæum; he and his wife being the guests of +the historian—<i>then</i> Mr. Sheriff, afterwards Sir Archibald +Alison. From a letter to his sister-in-law, written from +Edinburgh, it will be seen that Mrs. Dickens was prevented +by sudden illness from being present at the "demonstration." +At the end of that letter there is another illustration +of the odd names he was in the habit of giving to his +children, the last of the three, the "Hoshen Peck," being +a corruption of "Ocean Spectre"—a name which had, afterwards, +a sad significance, as the boy (Sydney Smith)<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span> +became a sailor, and died and was buried at sea two years +after his father's death.</p> + +<p>The letters in this year need very little explanation. In +the first letter to Mrs. Watson, he alludes to a sketch which +she had made from "The Battle of Life," and had sent to +Charles Dickens, as a remembrance, when her husband paid +a short visit to Paris in this winter.</p> + +<p>And there are two letters to Miss Marguerite Power, +the niece of the Countess of Blessington—a lady for whom +he had then, and until her death, a most affectionate friendship +and respect, for the sake of her own admirable +qualities, and in remembrance of her delightful association +with Gore House, where he was a frequent visitor. For +Lady Blessington he had a high admiration and great +regard, and she was one of his earliest appreciators; and +Alfred, Comte D'Orsay, was also a much-loved friend. His +"own marchioness," alluded to in the second letter to Miss +Power, was the younger and very charming sister of his +correspondent.</p> + +<p>We much regret having been unable to procure any +letters addressed to Mr. Egg. His intimacy with him +began first in the plays of this year; but he became, +almost immediately, one of the friends for whom he had +an especial affection; and Mr. Egg was a regular visitor +at his house and at his seaside places of resort for many +years after this date.</p> + +<p>The letter to Mr. William Sandys has reference to an +intention which Charles Dickens <i>had</i> entertained, of laying +the scene of a story in Cornwall; Mr. Sandys, himself a +Cornishman, having proposed to send him some books to +help him as to the dialect.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">The Hon. +Mrs. +Watson.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Paris, 48, Rue de Courcelles</span>, <i>Jan. 25th, 1847.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mrs. Watson</span>,</div> + +<p>I cannot allow your wandering lord to return to +your—I suppose "arms" is not improper—arms, then,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span> +without thanking you in half-a-dozen words for your letter, +and assuring you that I had great interest and pleasure in +its receipt, and that I say Amen to all <i>you</i> say of our happy +past and hopeful future. There is a picture of Lausanne—St. +Bernard—the tavern by the little lake between +Lausanne and Vevay, which is kept by that drunken dog +whom Haldimand believes to be so sober—and of many +other such scenes, within doors and without—that rises up +to my mind very often, and in the quiet pleasure of its +aspect rather daunts me, as compared with the reality of a +stirring life; but, please God, we will have some more +pleasant days, and go up some more mountains, somewhere, +and laugh together, at somebody, and form the +same delightful little circle again, somehow.</p> + +<p>I quite agree with you about the illustrations to the +little Christmas book. I was delighted with yours. Your +good lord before-mentioned will inform you that it hangs +up over my chair in the drawing-room here; and when you +come to England (after I have seen you again in Lausanne) +I will show it you in my little study at home, quietly +thanking you on the bookcase. Then we will go and see +some of Turner's recent pictures, and decide that question +to Haldimand's utmost confusion.</p> + +<p>You will find Watson looking wonderfully well, I think. +When he was first here, on his way to England, he took an +extraordinary bath, in which he was rubbed all over with +chemical compounds, and had everything done to him that +could be invented for seven francs. It <i>may</i> be the influence +of this treatment that I see in his face, but I think it's the +prospect of coming back to Elysée. All I can say is, that +when <i>I</i> come that way, and find myself among those +friends again, I expect to be perfectly lovely—a kind of +Glorious Apollo, radiant and shining with joy.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span></p> + +<p>Kate and her sister send all kinds of love in this hasty +packet, and I am always, my dear Mrs. Watson,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Rev. +Edward +Tagart.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Paris, 48, Rue de Courcelles, St. Honoré</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Thursday, Jan. 28th, 1847.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Sir</span>,</div> + +<p>Before you read any more, I wish you would take +those tablets out of your drawer, in which you have put a +black mark against my name, and erase it neatly. I don't +deserve it, on my word I don't, though appearances are +against me, I unwillingly confess.</p> + +<p>I had gone to Geneva, to recover from an uncommon +depression of spirits consequent on too much sitting over +"Dombey" and the little Christmas book, when I received +your letter as I was going out walking, one sunshiny, windy +day. I read it on the banks of the Rhone, where it runs, +very blue and swift, between two high green hills, with +ranges of snowy mountains filling up the distance. Its +cordial and unaffected tone gave me the greatest pleasure—did +me a world of good—set me up for the afternoon, and +gave me an evening's subject of discourse. For I talked to +"them" (that is, Kate and Georgy) about those bright +mornings at the Peschiere, until bedtime, and threatened to +write you such a letter next day as would—I don't exactly +know what it was to do, but it was to be a great letter, +expressive of all kinds of pleasant things, and, perhaps the +most genial letter that ever was written.</p> + +<p>From that hour to this, I have again and again and +again said, "I'll write to-morrow," and here I am to-day +full of penitence—really sorry and ashamed, and with no +excuse but my writing-life, which makes me get up and go<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> +out, when my morning work is done, and look at pen and +ink no more until I begin again.</p> + +<p>Besides which, I have been seeing Paris—wandering +into hospitals, prisons, dead-houses, operas, theatres, concert-rooms, +burial-grounds, palaces, and wine-shops. In my +unoccupied fortnight of each month, every description of +gaudy and ghastly sight has been passing before me in a +rapid panorama. Before that, I had to come here from +Switzerland, over frosty mountains in dense fogs, and +through towns with walls and drawbridges, and without +population, or anything else in particular but soldiers and +mud. I took a flight to London for four days, and went +and came back over one sheet of snow, sea excepted; and I +wish that had been snow too. Then Forster (who is here +now, and begs me to send his kindest regards) came to see +Paris for himself, and in showing it to him, away I was +borne again, like an enchanted rider. In short, I have had +no rest in my play; and on Monday I am going to work +again. A fortnight hence the play will begin once more; a +fortnight after that the work will follow round, and so the +letters that I care for go unwritten.</p> + +<p>Do you care for French news? I hope not, because I +don't know any. There is a melodrama, called "The +French Revolution," now playing at the Cirque, in the first +act of which there is the most tremendous representation of +<i>a people</i> that can well be imagined. There are wonderful +battles and so forth in the piece, but there is a power and +massiveness in the mob which is positively awful. At +another theatre, "Clarissa Harlowe" is still the rage. +There are some things in it rather calculated to astonish +the ghost of Richardson, but Clarissa is very admirably +played, and dies better than the original to my thinking; +but Richardson is no great favourite of mine, and never<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> +seems to me to take his top-boots off, whatever he does. +Several pieces are in course of representation, involving +rare portraits of the English. In one, a servant, called +"Tom Bob," who wears a particularly English waistcoat, +trimmed with gold lace and concealing his ankles, does very +good things indeed. In another, a Prime Minister of +England, who has ruined himself by railway speculations, +hits off some of our national characteristics very happily, +frequently making incidental mention of "Vishmingster," +"Regeenstreet," and other places with which you are well +acquainted. "Sir Fakson" is one of the characters in +another play—"English to the Core;" and I saw a Lord +Mayor of London at one of the small theatres the other +night, looking uncommonly well in a stage-coachman's +waistcoat, the order of the Garter, and a very low-crowned +broad-brimmed hat, not unlike a dustman.</p> + +<p>I was at Geneva at the time of the revolution. The +moderation and mildness of the successful party were beyond +all praise. Their appeals to the people of all parties—printed +and pasted on the walls—have no parallel that I +know of, in history, for their real good sterling Christianity +and tendency to promote the happiness of mankind. My +sympathy is strongly with the Swiss radicals. They know +what Catholicity is; they see, in some of their own valleys, +the poverty, ignorance, misery, and bigotry it always +brings in its train wherever it is triumphant; and they +would root it out of their children's way at any price. I +fear the end of the struggle will be, that some Catholic +power will step in to crush the dangerously well-educated +republics (very dangerous to such neighbours); but there is +a spirit in the people, or I very much mistake them, that +will trouble the Jesuits there many years, and shake their +altar steps for them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span></p> + +<p>This is a poor return (I look down and see the end of +the paper) for your letter, but in its cordial spirit of +reciprocal friendship, it is not so bad a one if you could +read it as I do, and it eases my mind and discharges my +conscience. We are coming home, please God, at the end +of March. Kate and Georgy send their best regards to you, +and their loves to Mrs. and Miss Tagart and the children. +<i>Our</i> children wish to live too in <i>your</i> children's remembrance. +You will be glad, I know, to hear that "Dombey" +is doing wonders, and that the Christmas book shot far +ahead of its predecessors. I hope you will like <i>the last +chapter of No. 5</i>. If you can spare me a scrap of your handwriting +in token of forgiveness, do; if not, I'll come and +beg your pardon on the 31st of March.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;">Ever believe me,</span><br /> +Cordially and truly yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Victoria Hotel, Euston Square</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Thursday, March 4th, 1847.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dearest Mamey</span>,</div> + +<p>I have not got much to say, and that's the truth; +but I cannot let this letter go into the post without wishing +you many many happy returns of your birthday, and sending +my love to Auntey and to Katey, and to all of them. +We were at Mrs. Macready's last night, where there was a +little party in honour of Mr. Macready's birthday. We +had some dancing, and they wished very much that you +and Katey had been there; so did I and your mamma. We +have not got back to Devonshire Terrace yet, but are living +at an hotel until Sir James Duke returns from Scotland, +which will be on Saturday or Monday. I hope when he +comes home and finds us here he will go out of Devonshire<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span> +Terrace, and let us get it ready for you. Roche is coming +back to you very soon. He will leave here on Saturday +morning. He says he hopes you will have a very happy +birthday, and he means to drink your health on the road to +Paris.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Always your affectionate.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Chester Place</span>, <i>Tuesday Night.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dearest Georgy</span>,</div> + +<div class='center'><b>* * * * * *</b></div> + +<p>So far from having "got through my agonies," as +you benevolently hope, I have not yet begun them. No, +on this <i>ninth of the month</i> I have not yet written a single +slip. What could I do; house-hunting at first, and beleaguered +all day to-day and yesterday by furniture that +must be altered, and things that must be put away? My +wretchedness, just now, is inconceivable. Tell Anne, by-the-bye +(not with reference to my wretchedness, but in +connection with the arrangements generally), that I can't +get on at all without her.</p> + +<p>If Kate has not mentioned it, get Katey and Mamey to +write and send a letter to Charley; of course not hinting at +our being here. He wants to hear from them.</p> + +<p>Poor little Hall is dead, as you will have seen, I dare +say, in the paper. This house is very cheerful on the +drawing-room floor and above, looking into the park on +one side and Albany Street on the other. Forster is mild. +Maclise, exceedingly bald on the crown of his head. Roche +has just come in to know if he may "blow datter light." +Love to all the darlings. Regards to everybody else. +Love to yourself.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span></p> + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens +and Miss +Katey +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +148, <span class="smcap">King's Road, Brighton</span>, <i>Monday, May 24, 1847.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mamey and Katey</span>,</div> + +<p>I was very glad to receive your nice letter. I am +going to tell you something that I hope will please you. +It is this: I am coming to London Thursday, and I mean to +bring you both back here with me, to stay until we all come +home together on the Saturday. I hope you like this.</p> + +<p>Tell John to come with the carriage to the London +Bridge Station, on Thursday morning at ten o'clock, and to +wait there for me. I will then come home and fetch you.</p> + +<p>Mamma and Auntey and Charley send their loves. I +send mine too, to Walley, Spim, and Alfred, and Sydney.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;">Always, my dears,</span><br /> +Your affectionate Papa.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +William +Sandys.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +1, <span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>June 13th, 1847.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,</div> + +<p>Many thanks for your kind note. I shall hope to see +you when we return to town, from which we shall now be +absent (with a short interval in next month) until October. +Your account of the Cornishmen gave me great pleasure; +and if I were not sunk in engagements so far, that the +crown of my head is invisible to my nearest friends, I +should have asked you to make me known to them. The +new dialogue I will ask you by-and-by to let me see. I +have, for the present, abandoned the idea of sinking a shaft +in Cornwall.</p> + +<p>I have sent your Shakesperian extracts to Collier. It is +a great comfort, to my thinking, that so little is known concerning +the poet. It is a fine mystery; and I tremble every +day lest something should come out. If he had had a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span> +Boswell, society wouldn't have respected his grave, but +would calmly have had his skull in the phrenological shop-windows.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;">Believe me,</span><br /> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. H. P. +Smith.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Chester Place</span>, <i>June 14th, 1847.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Smith</span>,</div> + +<p>Haldimand stayed at No. 7, Connaught Place, Hyde +Park, when I saw him yesterday. But he was going to cross +to Boulogne to-day.</p> + +<p>The young Pariah seems pretty comfortable. He is of +a cosmopolitan spirit I hope, and stares with a kind of +leaden satisfaction at his spoons, without afflicting himself +much about the established church.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—I think of bringing an action against you for a +new sort of breach of promise, and calling all the bishops to +estimate the damage of having our christening postponed +for a fortnight. It appears to me that I shall get a good +deal of money in this way. If you have any compromise to +offer, my solicitors are Dodson and Fogg.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Power.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Broadstairs, Kent</span>, <i>July 2nd, 1847.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Miss Power</span>,</div> + +<p>Let me thank you, very sincerely, for your kind +note and for the little book. I read the latter on my way +down here with the greatest pleasure. It is a charming +story gracefully told, and very gracefully and worthily +translated. I have not been better pleased with a book for +a long time.</p> + +<p>I cannot say I take very kindly to the illustrations.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> +They are a long way behind the tale to my thinking. The +artist understands it very well, I dare say, but does not +express his understanding of it, in the least degree, to any +sense of mine.</p> + +<p>Ah Rosherville! That fated Rosherville, when shall we +see it! Perhaps in one of those intervals when I am up +to town from here, and suddenly appear at Gore House, +somebody will propose an excursion there, next day. If +anybody does, somebody else will be ready to go. So this +deponent maketh oath and saith.</p> + +<p>I am looking out upon a dark gray sea, with a keen +north-east wind blowing it in shore. It is more like late +autumn than midsummer, and there is a howling in the +air as if the latter were in a very hopeless state indeed. +The very Banshee of Midsummer is rattling the windows +drearily while I write. There are no visitors in the place +but children, and they (my own included) have all got the +hooping-cough, and go about the beach choking incessantly. +A miserable wanderer lectured in a library last night about +astronomy; but being in utter solitude he snuffed out the +transparent planets he had brought with him in a box and +fled in disgust. A white mouse and a little tinkling box of +music that stops at "come," in the melody of the Buffalo +Gals, and can't play "out to-night," are the only amusements +left.</p> + +<p>I beg from my solitude to send my love to Lady +Blessington, and your sister, and Count D'Orsay. I think +of taming spiders, as Baron Trenck did. There is one in +my cell (with a speckled body and twenty-two very decided +knees) who seems to know me.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;">Dear Miss Power,</span><br /> +Faithfully yours ever.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">Mr. H. P. +Smith.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Broadstairs</span>, <i>July 9th, 1847.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Smith</span>,</div> + +<p>I am really more obliged to you for your kindness +about "The Eagle" (as I always call your house) than I +can say. But when I come to town to-morrow week, for +the Liverpool and Manchester plays, I shall have Kate and +Georgy with me. Moreover I shall be continually going +out and coming in at unholy hours. Item, the timid will +come at impossible seasons to "go over" their parts with +the manager. Item, two Jews with musty sacks of dresses +will be constantly coming backwards and forwards. Item, +sounds as of "groans" will be heard while the inimitable +Boz is "getting" his words—which happens all day. +Item, Forster will incessantly deliver an address by Bulwer. +Item, one hundred letters per diem will arrive from +Manchester and Liverpool; and five actresses, in very limp +bonnets, with extraordinary veils attached to them, will be +always calling, protected by five mothers.</p> + +<p>No, no, my actuary. Some congenial tavern is the +fitting scene for these things, if I don't get into Devonshire +Terrace, whereof I have some spark of hope. Eagles +couldn't look the sun in the face and have such enormities +going on in their nests.</p> + +<p>I am, for the time, that obscene thing, in short, now +chronicled in the Marylebone Register of Births—</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 3em;">A <span class="smcap">Player</span>,</span><br /> +Though still yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Power.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Broadstairs, Kent</span>, <i>Tuesday, July 14th, 1847.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Miss Power</span>,</div> + +<p>Though I am hopeless of Rosherville until after the +28th—for am I not beckoned, by angels of charity and by +local committees, to Manchester and Liverpool, and to all +sorts of bedevilments (if I may be allowed the expression)<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span> +in the way of managerial miseries in the meantime—here I +find myself falling into parenthesis within parenthesis, like +Lord Brougham—yet will I joyfully come up to London on +Friday, to dine at your house and meet the Dane, whose +Books I honour, and whose—to make the sentiment complete, +I want something that would sound like "Bones, I love!" +but I can't get anything that unites reason with beauty. +You, who have genius and beauty in your own person, will +supply the gap in your kindness.</p> + +<p>An advertisement in the newspapers mentioning the +dinner-time, will be esteemed a favour.</p> + +<p>Some wild beasts (in cages) have come down here, and +involved us in a whirl of dissipation. A young lady in +complete armour—at least, in something that shines very +much, and is exceedingly scaley—goes into the den of +ferocious lions, tigers, leopards, etc., and pretends to go to +sleep upon the principal lion, upon which a rustic keeper, +who speaks through his nose, exclaims, "Behold the abazid +power of woobad!" and we all applaud tumultuously.</p> + +<p>Seriously, she beats Van Amburgh. And I think the +Duke of Wellington must have her painted by Landseer.</p> + +<p>My penitent regards to Lady Blessington, Count +D'Orsay, and my own Marchioness.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Ever, dear Miss Power,</span><br /> +Very faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Broadstairs</span>, <i>Wednesday, August 4th, 1847.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dearest Mamey</span>,</div> + +<p>I am delighted to hear that you are going to improve +in your spelling, because nobody can write properly without +spelling well. But I know you will learn whatever you +are taught, because you are always good, industrious, and +attentive. That is what I always say of my Mamey.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span></p> + +<p>The note you sent me this morning is a very nice one, +and the spelling is beautiful.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Always, my dear Mamey,</span><br /> +Your affectionate Papa.<br /> +</div> + + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>Tuesday Morning, Nov. 23rd, 1847.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>I am in the whirlwind of finishing a number with a +crisis in it; but I can't fall to work without saying, in so +many words, that I feel all words insufficient to tell you +what I think of you after a night like last night. The +multitudes of new tokens by which I know you for a great +man, the swelling within me of my love for you, the pride I +have in you, the majestic reflection I see in you of all the +passions and affections that make up our mystery, throw +me into a strange kind of transport that has no expression +but in a mute sense of an attachment, which, in truth and +fervency, is worthy of its subject.</p> + +<p>What is this to say! Nothing, God knows, and yet I +cannot leave it unsaid.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—I never saw you more gallant and free than +in the gallant and free scenes last night. It was perfectly +captivating to behold you. However, it shall not interfere +with my determination to address you as Old Parr in +all future time.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Edinburgh</span>, <i>Thursday, December 13th, 1847.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Georgy</span>,</div> + +<p>I "take up my pen," as the young ladies write, to +let you know how we are getting on; and as I shall be +obliged to put it down again very soon, here goes. We +lived with very hospitable people in a very splendid house<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> +near Glasgow, and were perfectly comfortable. The meeting +was the most stupendous thing as to numbers, and the most +beautiful as to colours and decorations I ever saw. The +inimitable did wonders. His grace, elegance, and eloquence, +enchanted all beholders. <i>Kate didn't go!</i> having been +taken ill on the railroad between here and Glasgow.</p> + +<p>It has been snowing, sleeting, thawing, and freezing, +sometimes by turns and sometimes all together, since the +night before last. Lord Jeffrey's household are in town +here, not at Craigcrook, and jogging on in a cosy, old-fashioned, +comfortable sort of way. We have some idea of +going to York on Sunday, passing that night at Alfred's, +and coming home on Monday; but of this, Kate will advise +you when she writes, which she will do to-morrow, after I +shall have seen the list of railway trains.</p> + +<p>She sends her best love. She is a little poorly still, but +nothing to speak of. She is frightfully anxious that her +not having been to the great demonstration should be kept +a secret. But I say that, like murder, it will out, and that +to hope to veil such a tremendous disgrace from the general +intelligence is out of the question. In one of the Glasgow +papers she is elaborately described. I rather think Miss +Alison, who is seventeen, was taken for her, and sat for the +portrait.</p> + +<p>Best love from both of us, to Charley, Mamey, Katey, +Wally, Chickenstalker, Skittles, and the Hoshen Peck; last, +and not least, to you. We talked of you at the Macreadys' +party on Monday night. I hope —— came out lively, also +that —— was truly amiable. Finally, that —— took everybody +to their carriages, and that —— wept a good deal +during the festivities? God bless you. Take care of +yourself, for the sake of mankind in general.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately, dear Georgy.<br /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span></p> +<h2>>1848.</h2> + +<h3>NARRATIVE.</h3> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>In</span> March of this year Charles Dickens went with his wife +for two or three weeks to Brighton, accompanied by +Mrs. Macready, who was in delicate health, and we give +a letter to Mr. Macready from Brighton. Early in the +year, "Dombey and Son" was finished, and he was again +busy with an amateur play, with the same associates and +some new adherents; the proceeds being, at first, intended +to go towards the curatorship of Shakespeare's house, +which post was to be given to Mr. Sheridan Knowles. The +endowment was abandoned, upon the town and council +of Stratford-on-Avon taking charge of the house; the +large sum realised by the performances being handed over +to Mr. Sheridan Knowles. The play selected was "The +Merry Wives of Windsor;" the farce, "Love, Law, and +Physic." There were two performances at the Haymarket +in April, at one of which her Majesty and the Prince +Consort were present; and in July there were performances +at Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Edinburgh, and +Glasgow. Some ladies accompanied the "strollers" on +this theatrical provincial tour, and Mrs. Dickens and her +sister were of the party. Many of the following letters bear +reference to these plays.</div> + +<p>In this summer, his eldest sister Fanny (Mrs. Burnett) +died, and there are sorrowful allusions to her illness in +several of the letters.</p> + +<p>The autumn months were again spent at Broadstairs, +where he wrote "The Haunted Man," which was illustrated +by Mr. Frank Stone, Mr. Leech, and others. At the end of +the year and at the end of his work, he took another short +holiday at Brighton with his wife and sister-in-law; and the +letters to Mr. Stone on the subject of his illustrations to +"The Haunted Man" are written from Brighton. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span> +first letters which we have to Mr. Mark Lemon come here. +We regret to have been unable to procure any letters +addressed to Mr. Leech, with whom, as with Mr. Lemon, +Charles Dickens was very intimately associated for many +years.</p> + +<p>Also, we have the beginning of his correspondence with +Mr. Charles Kent. He wrote (an unusual thing for him to +do) to the editor of <i>The Sun</i> newspaper, begging him to +thank the writer of a particularly sympathetic and earnest +review of "Dombey and Son," which appeared in <i>The Sun</i> +at the close of the book. Mr. Charles Kent replied in his +proper person, and from that time dates a close friendship +and constant correspondence.</p> + +<p>With the letter to Mr. Forster we give, as a note, a +letter which Baron Taüchnitz published in his edition of +Mr. Forster's "Life of Oliver Goldsmith."</p> + +<p>Mr. Peter Cunningham, as an important member of +the "Shakespeare's House" committee, managed the <i>un</i>-theatrical +part of this Amateur Provincial Tour, and was +always pleasantly connected with the plays.</p> + +<p>The book alluded to in the last letter for this year, to be +dedicated to Charles Dickens's daughters by Mr. Mark +Lemon, was called "The Enchanted Doll."</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Charles +Babbage.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>February 26th, 1848.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Sir</span>,</div> + +<p>Pray let me thank you for your pamphlet.</p> + +<p>I confess that I am one of the unconvinced grumblers, +and that I doubt the present or future existence of any +government in England, strong enough to convert the +people to your income-tax principles. But I do not the +less appreciate the ability with which you advocate them, +nor am I the less gratified by any mark of your remembrance.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours always.<br /> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Junction House, Brighton</span>, <i>March 2nd, 1848.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>We have migrated from the Bedford and come here, +where we are very comfortably (not to say gorgeously) +accommodated. Mrs. Macready is certainly better already, +and I really have very great hopes that she will come back +in a condition so blooming, as to necessitate the presentation +of a piece of plate to the undersigned trainer.</p> + +<p>You mean to come down on Sunday and on Sunday +week. If you don't, I shall immediately take the Victoria, +and start Mr. ——, of the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, as a +smashing tragedian. Pray don't impose upon me this cruel +necessity.</p> + +<p>I think Lamartine, so far, one of the best fellows in the +world; and I have lively hopes of that great people establishing +a noble republic. Our court had best be careful not +to overdo it in respect of sympathy with ex-royalty and +ex-nobility. Those are not times for such displays, as, it +strikes me, the people in some of our great towns would be +apt to express pretty plainly.</p> + +<p>However, we'll talk of all this on these Sundays, and +Mr. —— shall <i>not</i> be raised to the pinnacle of fame.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Ever affectionately yours,</span><br /> +My dear Macready.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Editor of +<i>The Sun</i>.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace, York Gate, Regent's Park</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Friday, April 14th, 1848.</i><br /></div> +<div class='center'> +<i>Private.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>Mr. Charles Dickens presents his compliments to the +Editor of <i>The Sun</i>, and begs that gentleman will have the +goodness to convey to the writer of the notice of "Dombey +and Son," in last evening's paper, Mr. Dickens's warmest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span> +acknowledgments and thanks. The sympathy expressed in +it is so very earnestly and unaffectedly stated, that it is +particularly welcome and gratifying to Mr. Dickens, and he +feels very desirous indeed to convey that assurance to the +writer of that frank and genial farewell.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. +Charles M. +Kent.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;">1, <span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace, York Gate, Regent's Park</span>,</span><br /> +<i>April 18th, 1848.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,</div> + +<p>Pray let me repeat to you personally what I expressed +in my former note, and allow me to assure you, as an illustration +of my sincerity, that I have never addressed a similar +communication to anybody except on one occasion.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. John +Forster.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>Saturday, April 22nd, 1848.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class="smcap">My dear Forster</span>,<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></div> + +<p>I finished Goldsmith yesterday, after dinner, having +read it from the first page to the last with the greatest care +and attention.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span></p> +<p>As a picture of the time, I really think it impossible to +give it too much praise. It seems to me to be the very +essence of all about the time that I have ever seen in +biography or fiction, presented in most wise and humane +lights, and in a thousand new and just aspects. I have +never liked Johnson half so well. Nobody's contempt for +Boswell ought to be capable of increase, but I have never +seen him in my mind's eye half so plainly. The introduction +of him is quite a masterpiece. I should point to that, +if I didn't know the author, as being done by somebody +with a remarkably vivid conception of what he narrated, +and a most admirable and fanciful power of communicating +it to another. All about Reynolds is charming; and the +first account of the Literary Club and of Beauclerc as +excellent a piece of description as ever I read in my life. +But to read the book is to be in the time. It lives again in +as fresh and lively a manner as if it were presented on an +impossibly good stage by the very best actors that ever lived, +or by the real actors come out of their graves on purpose.</p> + +<p>And as to Goldsmith himself, and <i>his</i> life, and the +tracing of it out in his own writings, and the manful and +dignified assertion of him without any sobs, whines, or +convulsions of any sort, it is throughout a noble achievement, +of which, apart from any private and personal affection +for you, I think (and really believe) I should feel +proud, as one who had no indifferent perception of these +books of his—to the best of my remembrance—when little +more than a child. I was a little afraid in the beginning, +when he committed those very discouraging imprudences, +that you were going to champion him somewhat indiscriminately; +but I very soon got over that fear, and found +reason in every page to admire the sense, calmness, and +moderation with which you make the love and admiration<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span> +of the reader cluster about him from his youth, and +strengthen with his strength—and weakness too, which is +better still.</p> + +<p>I don't quite agree with you in two small respects. +First, I question very much whether it would have been a +good thing for every great man to have had his Boswell, +inasmuch as I think that two Boswells, or three at most, +would have made great men extraordinarily false, and would +have set them on always playing a part, and would have +made distinguished people about them for ever restless +and distrustful. I can imagine a succession of Boswells +bringing about a tremendous state of falsehood in society, +and playing the very devil with confidence and friendship. +Secondly, I cannot help objecting to that practice (begun, +I think, or greatly enlarged by Hunt) of italicising lines +and words and whole passages in extracts, without some +very special reason indeed. It does appear to be a kind of +assertion of the editor over the reader—almost over the +author himself—which grates upon me. The author might +almost as well do it himself to my thinking, as a disagreeable +thing; and it is such a strong contrast to the modest, +quiet, tranquil beauty of "The Deserted Village," for +instance, that I would almost as soon hear "the town crier" +speak the lines. The practice always reminds me of a man +seeing a beautiful view, and not thinking how beautiful it is +half so much as what he shall say about it.</p> + +<p>In that picture at the close of the third book (a most +beautiful one) of Goldsmith sitting looking out of window +at the Temple trees, you speak of the "gray-eyed" rooks. +Are you sure they are "gray-eyed"? The raven's eye is +a deep lustrous black, and so, I suspect, is the rook's, +except when the light shines full into it.</p> + +<p>I have reserved for a closing word—though I <i>don't</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span> +mean to be eloquent about it, being far too much in earnest—the +admirable manner in which the case of the literary +man is stated throughout this book. It is splendid. I +don't believe that any book was ever written, or anything +ever done or said, half so conducive to the dignity and +honour of literature as "The Life and Adventures of Oliver +Goldsmith," by J. F., of the Inner Temple. The gratitude +of every man who is content to rest his station and claims +quietly on literature, and to make no feint of living by anything +else, is your due for evermore. I have often said, +here and there, when you have been at work upon the +book, that I was sure it would be; and I shall insist on +that debt being due to you (though there will be no need +for insisting about it) as long as I have any tediousness +and obstinacy to bestow on anybody. Lastly, I never will +hear the biography compared with Boswell's except under +vigorous protest. For I do say that it is mere folly to put +into opposite scales a book, however amusing and curious, +written by an unconscious coxcomb like that, and one +which surveys and grandly understands the characters of +all the illustrious company that move in it.</p> + +<p>My dear Forster, I cannot sufficiently say how proud I +am of what you have done, or how sensible I am of being +so tenderly connected with it. When I look over this note, +I feel as if I had said no part of what I think; and yet if I +were to write another I should say no more, for I can't get +it out. I desire no better for my fame, when my personal +dustiness shall be past the control of my love of order, +than such a biographer and such a critic. And again I say, +most solemnly, that literature in England has never had, +and probably never will have, such a champion as you are, +in right of this book.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Mark +Lemon.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<i>Wednesday, May 3rd, 1848.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Lemon</span>,</div> + +<p>Do you think you could manage, before we meet to-morrow, +to get from the musical director of the Haymarket +(whom I don't know) a note of the overtures he purposes +playing on our two nights? I am obliged to correct and +send back the bill proofs to-morrow (they are to be +brought to Miss Kelly's)—and should like, for completeness' +sake, to put the music in. Before "The Merry Wives," +it must be something Shakespearian. Before "Animal +Magnetism," something very telling and light—like "Fra +Diavolo."</p> + +<p>Wednesday night's music in a concatenation accordingly, +and jolly little polkas and quadrilles between the pieces, +always beginning the moment the act-drop is down. If any +little additional strength should be really required in the +orchestra, so be it.</p> + +<p>Can you come to Miss Kelly's by <i>three</i>? I should like +to show you bills, tickets, and so forth, before they are +worked. In order that they may not interfere with or +confuse the rehearsal, I have appointed Peter Cunningham +to meet me there at three, instead of half-past.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully ever.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—If you should be disposed to chop together early, +send me a line to the Athenæum. I have engaged to be +with Barry at ten, to go over the Houses of Parliament. +When I have done so, I will go to the club on the chance of +a note from you, and would meet you where you chose.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Rev. +James +White.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Athenæum</span>, <i>Thursday, May 4th, 1848.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear White</span>,</div> + +<p>I have not been able to write to you until now. I +have lived in hope that Kate and I might be able to run +down to see you and yours for a day, before our design for +enforcing the Government to make Knowles the first custodian +of the Shakespeare house should come off. But I +am so perpetually engaged in drilling the forces, that I see +no hope of making a pleasant expedition to the Isle of +Wight until about the twentieth. Then I shall hope to do +so for one day. But of this I will advise you further, in +due course.</p> + +<p>My doubts about the house you speak of are twofold, +First, I could not leave town so soon as May, having affairs +to arrange for a sick sister. And secondly, I fear Bonchurch +is not sufficiently bracing for my chickens, who thrive best +in breezy and cool places. This has set me thinking, sometimes +of the Yorkshire coast, sometimes of Dover. I would +not have the house at Bonchurch reserved for me, therefore. +But if it should be empty, we will go and look at it in a +body. I reserve the more serious part of my letter until the +last, my dear White, because it comes from the bottom of +my heart. None of your friends have thought and spoken +oftener of you and Mrs. White than we have these many +weeks past. I should have written to you, but was timid of +intruding on your sorrow. What you say, and the manner +in which you tell me I am connected with it in your recollection +of your dear child, now among the angels of God, +gives me courage to approach your grief—to say what +sympathy we have felt with it, and how we have not been +unimaginative of these deep sources of consolation to which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span> +you have had recourse. The traveller who journeyed in +fancy from this world to the next was struck to the heart +to find the child he had lost, many years before, building +him a tower in heaven. Our blessed Christian hopes do +not shut out the belief of love and remembrance still +enduring there, but irradiate it and make it sacred. Who +should know that better than you, or who more deeply +feel the touching truths and comfort of that story in +the older book, where, when the bereaved mother is +asked, "Is it well with the child?" she answers, "It <i>is</i> +well."</p> + +<p>God be with you. Kate and her sister desire their +kindest love to yourself and Mrs. White, in which I heartily +join.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Being ever, my dear White,</span><br /> +Your affectionate Friend.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>Wednesday, May 10th, 1848.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>We are rehearsing at the Haymarket now, and Lemon +mentioned to me yesterday that Webster had asked him if +he would sound Forster or me as to your intention of having +a farewell benefit before going to America, and whether +you would like to have it at the Haymarket, and also as to +its being preceded by a short engagement there. I don't +know what your feelings may be on this latter head, but +thinking it well that you may know how the land lies in +these seas, send you this; the rather (excuse Elizabethan +phrase, but you know how indispensable it is to me under +existing circumstances)—the rather that I am thereto +encouraged by thy consort, who has just come a-visiting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span> +here, with thy fair daughters, Mistress Nina and the little +Kate. Wherefore, most selected friend, perpend at thy +leisure, and so God speed thee!</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">And no more at present from,</span><br /> +Thine ever.<br /> +</div> + +<p>From my tent in my garden.</p> + + +<div class='center'><br />ANOTHER "BOBADIL" NOTE.</div> + +<p>I must tell you this, sir, I am no general man; but for +William Shakespeare's sake (you may embrace it at what +height of favour you please) I will communicate with you +on the twenty-first, and do esteem you to be a gentleman of +some parts—of a good many parts in truth. I love few +words.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/4signature.png" width="400" height="197" alt="Signature: Bobadil" title="Signature: Bobadil" /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><br /><br /> +At Cobb's, a water-bearer,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;"><i>October 11th.</i></span><br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Peter +Cunningham.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>Thursday Morning, June 22nd, 1848.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Cunningham</span>,</div> + +<p>I will be at Miss Kelly's to-morrow evening, from +seven to eight, and shall hope to see you there, for a little +conversation, touching the railroad arrangements.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span></p> + +<p>All preparations completed in Edinburgh and Glasgow. +There will be a great deal of money taken, especially at the +latter place.</p> + +<p>I wish I could persuade you, seriously, to come into +training for Nym, in "The Merry Wives." He is never +on by himself, and all he has to do is good, without being +difficult. If you could screw yourself up to the doing of +that part in Scotland, it would prevent our taking some +new man, and would cover you (all over) with glory.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours always.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—I am fully persuaded that an amateur manager +has more correspondence than the Home Secretary.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">The Hon. +Mrs. +Watson.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;">1, <span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace, Regent's Park</span>,</span><br /> +<i>July 27th, 1848.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mrs. Watson</span>,</div> + +<p>I thought to have been at Rockingham long ago! +It seems a century since I, standing in big boots on the +Haymarket stage, saw you come into a box upstairs and +look down on the humbled Bobadil, since then I have +had the kindest of notes from you, since then the finest +of venison, and yet I have not seen the Rockingham flowers, +and they are withering I daresay.</p> + +<p>But we have acted at Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, +Edinburgh, and Glasgow; and the business of all this—and +graver and heavier daily occupation in going to see a +dying sister at Hornsey—has so worried me that I have +hardly had an hour, far less a week. I shall never be +quite happy, in a theatrical point of view, until you have +seen me play in an English version of the French piece, +"L'Homme Blasé," which fairly turned the head of Glasgow<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span> +last Thursday night as ever was; neither shall I be quite +happy, in a social point of view, until I have been to +Rockingham again. When the first event will come about +Heaven knows. The latter will happen about the end of +the November fogs and wet weather. For am I not going +to Broadstairs now, to walk about on the sea-shore (why +don't you bring your rosy children there?) and think what +is to be done for Christmas! An idea occurs to me all at once. +I must come down and read you that book before it's published. +Shall it be a bargain? Were you all in Switzerland? +I don't believe <i>I</i> ever was. It is such a dream +now. I wonder sometimes whether I ever disputed with a +Haldimand; whether I ever drank mulled wine on the top +of the Great St. Bernard, or was jovial at the bottom with +company that have stolen into my affection; whether I +ever was merry and happy in that valley on the Lake of +Geneva, or saw you one evening (when I didn't know you) +walking down among the green trees outside Elysée, arm-in-arm +with a gentleman in a white hat. I am quite clear +that there is no foundation for these visions. But I should +like to go somewhere, too, and try it all over again. I +don't know how it is, but the ideal world in which my lot is +cast has an odd effect on the real one, and makes it chiefly +precious for such remembrances. I get quite melancholy +over them sometimes, especially when, as now, those great +piled-up semicircles of bright faces, at which I have lately +been looking—all laughing, earnest and intent—have faded +away like dead people. They seem a ghostly moral of +everything in life to me.</p> + +<p>Kate sends her best love, in which Georgy would as +heartily unite, I know, but that she is already gone to +Broadstairs with the children. We think of following on +Saturday morning, but that depends on my poor sister.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span> +Pray give my most cordial remembrances to Watson, and +tell him they include a great deal. I meant to have written +you a letter. I don't know what this is. There is no word +for it. So, if you will still let me owe you one, I will pay +my debt, on the smallest encouragement, from the seaside. +Here, there, and elsewhere, I am, with perfect truth, +believe me,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Very faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Broadstairs, Kent</span>, <i>Saturday, August 26th, 1848.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>I was about to write to you when I received your +welcome letter. You knew I should come from a somewhat +longer distance than this to give you a hearty God-speed +and farewell on the eve of your journey. What do you say +to Monday, the fourth, or Saturday, the second? Fix either +day, let me know which suits you best—at what hour you +expect the Inimitable, and the Inimitable will come up +to the scratch like a man and a brother.</p> + +<p>Permit me, in conclusion, to nail my colours to the +mast. Stars and stripes are so-so—showy, perhaps; but my +colours is <span class="smcap">the union jack</span>, which I am told has the remarkable +property of having braved a thousand years the battle +<span class="smcap">and</span> the breeze. Likewise, it is the flag of Albion—the +standard of Britain; and Britons, as I am informed, never, +never, never—will—be—slaves!</p> + +<p>My sentiment is: Success to the United States as a +golden campaigning ground, but blow the United States +to 'tarnal smash as an Englishman's place of residence. +Gentlemen, are you all charged?</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Affectionately ever.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>Friday, Sept. 8th, 1848.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dearest Mamey</span>,</div> + +<p>We shall be very glad to see you all again, and we +hope you will be very glad to see us. Give my best love to +dear Katey, also to Frankey, Alley, and the Peck.</p> + +<p>I have had a nice note from Charley just now. He says +it is expected at school that when Walter puts on his jacket, +all the Miss Kings will fall in love with him to desperation +and faint away.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;">Ever, my dear Mamey,</span><br /> +Most affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Effingham +William +Wilson.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;">1, <span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace, York Gate, Regent's Park</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Nov. 7th, 1848.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='center'> +"A NATIONAL THEATRE."<br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,</div> + +<p>I beg you to accept my best thanks for your pamphlet +and your obliging note. That such a theatre as you +describe would be but worthy of this nation, and would not +stand low upon the list of its instructors, I have no kind of +doubt. I wish I could cherish a stronger faith than I have +in the probability of its establishment on a rational footing +within fifty years.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Frank +Stone.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>Tuesday, Nov. 21st, 1848.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Stone</span>,</div> + +<p>I send you herewith the second part of the book, +which I hope may interest you. If you should prefer to +have it read to you by the Inimitable rather than to read it, +I shall be at home this evening (loin of mutton at half-past<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span> +five), and happy to do it. The proofs are full of printers' +errors, but with the few corrections I have scrawled upon it, +you will be able to make out what they mean.</p> + +<p>I send you, on the opposite side, a list of the subjects +already in hand from this second part. If you should see +no other in it that you like (I think it important that you +should keep Milly, as you have begun with her), I will, in a +day or two, describe you an unwritten subject for the third +part of the book.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class='center'><br />SUBJECTS IN HAND FOR THE SECOND PART.</div> + +<p>1. Illuminated page. Tenniel. Representing Redlaw +going upstairs, and the Tetterby family below.</p> + +<p>2. The Tetterby supper. Leech.</p> + +<p>3. The boy in Redlaw's room, munching his food and +staring at the fire.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Frank +Stone.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Brighton</span>, <i>Thursday Night, Nov. 23rd, 1848.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Stone</span>,</div> + +<p>We are unanimous.</p> + +<p>The drawing of Milly on the chair is <span class="smcap">charming</span>. I +cannot tell you how much the little composition and expression +please me. Do that, by all means.</p> + +<p>I fear she must have a little cap on. There is something +coming in the last part, about her having had a dead child, +which makes it yet more desirable than the existing text +does that she should have that little matronly sign about +her. Unless the artist is obdurate indeed, and then he'll do +as he likes.</p> + +<p>I am delighted to hear that you have your eye on her in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span> +the students' room. You will really, pictorially, make the +little woman whom I love.</p> + +<p>Kate and Georgy send their kindest remembrances. I +write hastily to save the post.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Ever, my dear Stone,</span><br /> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Frank +Stone.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Bedford Hotel, Brighton</span>, <i>Monday Night, Nov. 27th, 1848.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Stone</span>,</div> + +<p>You are a <span class="smcap">trump</span>, emphatically a TRUMP, and such +are my feelings towards you at this moment that I think +(but I am not sure) that if I saw you about to place a card +on a wrong pack at Bibeck (?), I wouldn't breathe a word +of objection.</p> + +<p>Sir, there is a subject I have written to-day for the +third part, that I think and hope will just suit you. Scene, +Tetterby's. Time, morning. The power of bringing back +people's memories of sorrow, wrong and trouble, has been +given by the ghost to Milly, though she don't know it herself. +As she comes along the street, Mr. and Mrs. Tetterby +recover themselves, and are mutually affectionate again, +and embrace, closing <i>rather</i> a good scene of quarrel and +discontent. The moment they do so, Johnny (who has seen +her in the distance and announced her before, from which +moment they begin to recover) cries "Here she is!" and +she comes in, surrounded by the little Tetterbys, the very +spirit of morning, gladness, innocence, hope, love, domesticity, +etc. etc. etc. etc.</p> + +<p>I would limit the illustration to her and the children, +which will make a fitness between it and your other illustrations, +and give them all a character of their own. The +exact words of the passage I endorsed on another slip of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span> +paper. Note. There are six boy Tetterbys present (young +'Dolphus is not there), including Johnny; and in Johnny's +arms is Moloch, the baby, who is a girl. I hope to be back +in town next Monday, and will lose no time in reporting +myself to you. Don't wait to send me the drawing of this. +I know how pretty she will be with the children in your +hands, and should be a stupendous jackass if I had any +distrust of it.</p> + +<p>The Duke of Cambridge is staying in this house, and +they are driving me mad by having Life Guards bands +under our windows, playing <i>our</i> overtures! I have been +at work all day, and am going to wander into the theatre, +where (for the comic man's benefit) "two gentlemen of +Brighton" are performing two counts in a melodrama. I +was quite addle-headed for the time being, and think an +amateur or so would revive me. No 'Tone! I don't in the +abstract approve of Brighton. I couldn't pass an autumn +here; but it is a gay place for a week or so; and when +one laughs and cries, and suffers the agitation that some +men experience over their books, it's a bright change to +look out of window, and see the gilt little toys on horseback +going up and down before the mighty sea, and thinking +nothing of it.</p> + +<p>Kate's love and Georgy's. They say you'll contradict +every word of this letter.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully ever.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class='center'><br />[<small>SLIP OF PAPER ENCLOSED.</small>]</div> + +<p>"Hurrah! here's Mrs. Williams!" cried Johnny.</p> + +<p>So she was, and all the Tetterby children with her; and +as she came in, they kissed her and kissed one another, and +kissed the baby and kissed their father and mother, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span> +then ran back and flocked and danced about her, trooping +on with her in triumph.</p> + +<p>(After which, she is going to say: "What, are <i>you</i> all +glad to see me too! Oh, how happy it makes me to find +everyone so glad to see me this bright morning!")</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Mark +Lemon.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Bedford Hotel, Brighton</span>, <i>Nov. 28th, 1848.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mark</span>,</div> + +<p>I assure you, most unaffectedly and cordially, that +the dedication of that book to Mary and <i>Kate</i> (not Catherine) +will be a real delight to me, and to all of us. I know well +that you propose it in "affectionate regard," and value +and esteem it, therefore, in a way not easy of expression.</p> + +<p>You were talking of "coming" down, and now, in a +mean and dodging way, you write about "sending" the +second act! I have a propogician to make. Come down +on Friday. There is a train leaves London Bridge at two—gets +here at four. By that time I shall be ready to +strike work. We can take a little walk, dine, discuss, and +you can go back in good time next morning. I really +think this ought to be done, and indeed <span class="smcap">must</span> be done. +Write and say it shall be done.</p> + +<p>A little management will be required in dramatising the +third part, where there are some things I <i>describe</i> (for +effect's sake, and as a matter of art) which must be <i>said</i> on +the stage. Redlaw is in a new condition of mind, which +fact must be shot point-blank at the audience, I suppose, +"as from the deadly level of a gun." By anybody who +knew how to play Milly, I think it might be made very +good. Its effect is very pleasant upon me. I have also +given Mr. and Mrs. Tetterby another innings.</p> + +<p>I went to the play last night—fifth act of Richard the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span> +Third. Richmond by a stout <i>lady</i>, with a particularly well-developed +bust, who finished all the speeches with the +soubrette simper. Also, at the end of the tragedy she +came forward (still being Richmond) and said, "Ladies and +gentlemen, on Wednesday next the entertainments will be +for <i>My</i> benefit, when I hope to meet your approbation and +support." Then, having bowed herself into the stage-door, +she looked out of it, and said, winningly, "Won't you +come?" which was enormously applauded.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>1849.</h2> + +<h3>NARRATIVE.</h3> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>This</span>, as far as correspondence is concerned, was an uneventful +year. In the spring Charles Dickens took one +of his holidays at Brighton, accompanied by his wife and +sister-in-law and two daughters, and they were joined in +their lodgings by Mr. and Mrs. Leech. From Brighton he +writes the letter—as a song—which we give, to Mr. Mark +Lemon, who had been ill, asking him to pay them a visit.</div> + +<p>In the summer, Charles Dickens went with his family, +for the first time, to Bonchurch, Isle of Wight, having +hired for six months the charming villa, Winterbourne, +belonging to the Rev. James White. And now began that +close and loving intimacy which for the future was to exist +between these two families. Mr. Leech also took a house +at Bonchurch. All through this year Charles Dickens was +at work upon "David Copperfield."</p> + +<p>As well as giving eccentric names to his children and +friends, he was also in the habit of giving such names to himself—that +of "Sparkler" being one frequently used by him.</p> + +<p>Miss Joll herself gives us the explanation of the letter +to her on capital punishment: "Soon after the appearance +of his 'Household Words,' some friends were discussing an +article in it on 'Private Executions.' They contended that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span> +it went to prove Mr. Dickens was an advocate of capital +punishment. I, however, took a different view of the +matter, and ventured to write and inquire his views on +the subject, and to my letter he sent me a courteous reply."</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Dudley +Costello.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>Friday Night, Jan. 26th, 1849.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Costello</span>,</div> + +<p>I am desperate! Engaged in links of adamant to a +"monster in human form"—a remarkable expression I +think I remember to have once met with in a newspaper—whom +I encountered at Franconi's, whence I have just +returned, otherwise I would have done all three things +right heartily and with my accustomed sweetness. Think +of me another time when chops are on the carpet (figuratively +speaking), and see if I won't come and eat 'em!</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—I find myself too despondent for the flourish.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>Tuesday Night, Feb. 27th, 1849.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dearest Mamey</span>,</div> + +<p>I am not engaged on the evening of your birthday. +But even if I had an engagement of the most particular +kind, I should excuse myself from keeping it, so that I +might have the pleasure of celebrating at home, and among +my children, the day that gave me such a dear and good +daughter as you.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Clarkson +Stanfield.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>May 25th, 1849.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Stanfield</span>,</div> + +<p>No—no—no! Murder, murder! Madness and misconception! +Any <i>one</i> of the subjects—not the whole. Oh,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span> +blessed star of early morning, what do you think I am +made of, that I should, on the part of any man, prefer such +a pig-headed, calf-eyed, donkey-eared, imp-hoofed request!</p> + +<p>Says my friend to me, "Will you ask <i>your</i> friend, +Mr. Stanfield, what the damage of a little picture of that +size would be, that I may treat myself with the same, if I +can afford it?" Says I, "I will." Says he, "Will you +suggest that I should like it to be <i>one</i> of those subjects?" +Says I, "I will."</p> + +<p>I am beating my head against the door with grief and +frenzy, and I shall continue to do so, until I receive your +answer.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Ever heartily yours,</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">The Misconceived One</span>.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Frank +Stone.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>Monday, June 4th, 1849.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Stone</span>,</div> + +<p>Leech and Sparkler having promised their ladies to +take them to Ascot, and having failed in their truths, +propoge to take them to Greenwich instead, next Wednesday. +Will that alteration in the usual arrangements be +agreeable to Gaffin, S.? If so, the place of meeting is the +Sparkler's Bower, and the hour, one exactly.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Charles +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Shanklin, Isle of Wight</span>, <i>Monday Night, June 16th, 1849.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Kate</span>,</div> + +<p>I have but a moment. Just got back and post going +out. I have taken a most delightful and beautiful house, +belonging to White, at Bonchurch; cool, airy, private +bathing, everything delicious. I think it is the prettiest +place I ever saw in my life, at home or abroad. Anne may<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span> +begin to dismantle Devonshire Terrace. I have arranged +for carriages, luggage, and everything.</p> + +<p>The man with the post-bag is swearing in the passage.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—A waterfall on the grounds, which I have arranged +with a carpenter to convert into a perpetual shower-bath.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Mark +Lemon.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>Monday, June 25th, 1849.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Lemon</span>,</div> + +<p>I am very unwilling to deny Charley the pleasure +you so kindly offer him. But as it is just the close of the +half-year when they are getting together all the half-year's +work—and as that day's pleasure would weaken the next +day's duty, I think I must be "more like an ancient Roman +than a ——" Sparkler, and that it will be wisest in me to +say nothing about it.</p> + +<p>Get a clean pocket-handkerchief ready for the close of +"Copperfield" No. 3; "simple and quiet, but very natural +and touching."—<i>Evening Bore.</i></p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class='center'>NEW SONG.<br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tune</span>—"Lesbia hath a beaming eye."<br /> + +<br />1.</div> + +<div class='poem'> +Lemon is a little hipped,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And this is Lemon's true position;</span><br /> +He is not pale, he's not white-lipped,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Yet wants a little fresh condition.</span><br /> +Sweeter 'tis to gaze upon<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Old ocean's rising, falling billows,</span><br /> +Than on the houses every one,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That form the street called Saint Anne's Willers.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Oh, my Lemon, round and fat,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Oh, my bright, my right, my tight 'un,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Think a little what you're at—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Don't stay at home, but come to Brighton!</span><br /> +</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span></p> + +<div class='center'><br />2.</div> + +<div class='poem'> +Lemon has a coat of frieze,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But all so seldom Lemon wears it,</span><br /> +That it is a prey to fleas,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And ev'ry moth that's hungry tears it.</span><br /> +Oh, that coat's the coat for me,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That braves the railway sparks and breezes,</span><br /> +Leaving every engine free<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To smoke it, till its owner sneezes!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Then my Lemon, round and fat,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">L., my bright, my right, my tight 'un,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Think a little what you're at—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">On Tuesday first, come down to Brighton!</span><br /> +</div> + +<div class='sig'> +<span class="smcap">T. Sparkler.</span><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>Also signed,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Catherine Dickens</span>,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Annie Leech</span>,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Georgina Hogarth</span>,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Mary Dickens</span>,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Katie Dickens</span>,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">John Leech</span>.</span><br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Rev. +James +White.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Winterbourne</span>, <i>Sunday Evening, Sept. 23rd, 1849.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear White</span>,</div> + +<p>I have a hundred times at least wanted to say to you +how good I thought those papers in "Blackwood"—how +excellent their purpose, and how delicately and charmingly +worked out. Their subtle and delightful humour, and their +grasp of the whole question, were something more pleasant +to me than I can possibly express.</p> + +<p>"How comes this lumbering Inimitable to say this, on +this Sunday night of all nights in the year?" you naturally +ask. Now hear the Inimitable's honest avowal! I make +so bold because I heard that Morning Service better read +this morning than ever I have heard it read in my life. +And because—for the soul of me—I cannot separate the +two things, or help identifying the wise and genial man +out of church with the earnest and unaffected man in it. +Midsummer madness, perhaps, but a madness I hope that +will hold us true friends for many and many a year to come.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span> +The madness is over as soon as you have burned this letter +(see the history of the Gunpowder Plot), but let us be +friends much longer for these reasons and many included +in them not herein expressed.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Affectionately always.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss Joll.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Rockingham Castle, Northamptonshire</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Nov. 27th, 1849.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>Mr. Charles Dickens presents his compliments to Miss +Joll. He is, on principle, opposed to capital punishment, +but believing that many earnest and sincere people who are +favourable to its retention in extreme cases would unite in +any temperate effort to abolish the evils of public executions, +and that the consequences of public executions are +disgraceful and horrible, he has taken the course with +which Miss Joll is acquainted as the most hopeful, and as +one undoubtedly calculated to benefit society at large.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">The Hon. +Mrs. +Watson.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>Friday Night, Nov. 30th, 1849.</i><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><i>A Quarter-past Ten.</i></span><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mrs. Watson</span>,</div> + +<p>Plunged in the deepest gloom, I write these few +words to let you know that, just now, when the bell was +striking ten, I drank to</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><span class="caption">H. E. R.!</span> +<img src="images/5valentine.png" width="350" height="176" alt="H. E. R.!" title="H. E. R.!" /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>and to all the rest of Rockingham; as the wine went down<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span> +my throat, I felt distinctly that it was "changing those +thoughts to madness."</div> + +<p>On the way here I was a terror to my companions, and +I am at present a blight and mildew on my home.</p> + +<p>Think of me sometimes, as I shall long think of our +glorious dance last night. Give my most affectionate +regards to Watson, and my kind remembrances to all who +remember me, and believe me,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—I am in such an incapable state, that after executing +the foregoing usual flourish I swooned, and remained +for some time insensible. Ha, ha, ha! Why was I ever +restored to consciousness!!!</p> + +<p>P.P.S.—"Changing" those thoughts ought to be +"driving." But my recollection is incoherent and my +mind wanders.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">M. Cerjat.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>Saturday, Dec. 29th, 1849.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Cerjat</span>,</div> + +<p>I received your letter at breakfast-time this morning +with a pleasure my eloquence is unable to express and your +modesty unable to conceive. It is so delightful to be remembered +at this time of the year in your house where we +have been so happy, and in dear old Lausanne, that we +always hope to see again, that I can't help pushing away +the first page of "Copperfield" No. 10, now staring at me +with what I may literally call a blank aspect, and plunging +energetically into this reply.</p> + +<p>What a strange coincidence that is about Blunderstone<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span> +House! Of all the odd things I have ever heard (and their +name is Legion), I think it is the oddest. I went down +into that part of the country on the 7th of January last +year, when I was meditating the story, and chose Blunderstone +for the sound of its name. I had previously observed +much of what you say about the poor girls. In all you +suggest with so much feeling about their return to virtue +being cruelly cut off, I concur with a sore heart. I have been +turning it over in my mind for some time, and hope, in the +history of Little Em'ly (who <i>must</i> fall—there is no hope for +her), to put it before the thoughts of people in a new and +pathetic way, and perhaps to do some good. You will be +glad to hear, I know, that "Copperfield" is a great success. +I think it is better liked than any of my other books.</p> + +<p>We had a most delightful time at Watsons' (for both of +them we have preserved and strengthened a real affection), +and were the gayest of the gay. There was a Miss Boyle +staying in the house, who is an excellent amateur actress, +and she and I got up some scenes from "The School for +Scandal" and from "Nickleby," with immense success. +We played in the old hall, with the audience filled up and +running over with servants. The entertainments concluded +with feats of legerdemain (for the performance of which I +have a pretty good apparatus, collected at divers times and +in divers places), and we then fell to country dances of a +most frantic description, and danced all night. We often +spoke of you and Mrs. Cerjat and of Haldimand, and wished +you were all there. Watson and I have some fifty times +"registered a vow" (like O'Connell) to come to Lausanne +together, and have even settled in what month and week. +Something or other has always interposed to prevent us; +but I hope, please God, most certainly to see it again, when +my labours-Copperfieldian shall have terminated.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span></p> + +<p>You have no idea what that hanging of the Mannings +really was. The conduct of the people was so indescribably +frightful, that I felt for some time afterwards almost as if I +were living in a city of devils. I feel, at this hour, as if I +never could go near the place again. My letters have made +a great to-do, and led to a great agitation of the subject; +but I have not a confident belief in any change being made, +mainly because the total abolitionists are utterly reckless +and dishonest (generally speaking), and would play the +deuce with any such proposition in Parliament, unless it +were strongly supported by the Government, which it would +certainly not be, the Whig motto (in office) being "<i>laissez +aller</i>." I think Peel might do it if he came in. Two +points have occurred to me as being a good commentary to +the objections to my idea. The first is that a most terrific +uproar was made when the hanging processions were +abolished, and the ceremony shrunk from Tyburn to the +prison door. The second is that, at this very time, under +the British Government in New South Wales, executions +take place <i>within the prison walls</i>, with decidedly improved +results. (I am waiting to explode this fact on the first +man of mark who gives me the opportunity.)</p> + +<p>Unlike you, we have had no marriages or giving in +marriage here. We might have had, but a certain young +lady, whom you know, is hard to please. The children are +all well, thank God! Charley is going to Eton the week +after next, and has passed a first-rate examination. Kate +is quite well, and unites with me and Georgina in love to +you and Mrs. Cerjat and Haldimand, whom I would give +a good deal (tell him) to have several hours' contradiction +of at his own table. Good heavens, how obstinate +we would both be! I see him leaning back in his +chair, with his right forefinger out, and saying, "Good<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span> +God!" in reply to some proposition of mine, and then +laughing.</p> + +<p>All in a moment a feeling comes over me, as if you and +I have been still talking, smoking cigars outside the inn at +Martigny, the piano sounding inside, and Lady Mary Taylour +singing. I look into my garden (which is covered with +snow) rather dolefully, but take heart again, and look +brightly forward to another expedition to the Great St. +Bernard, when Mrs. Cerjat and I shall laugh as I fancy I +have never laughed since, in one of those one-sided cars; +and when we shall again learn from Haldimand, in a little +dingy cabaret, at lunch-time, how to secure a door in +travelling (do you remember?) by balancing a chair against +it on its two hind-legs.</p> + +<p>I do hope that we may all come together again once +more, while there is a head of hair left among us; and in +this hope remain, my dear Cerjat,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Your faithful Friend.<br /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>1850.</h2> + +<h3>NARRATIVE.</h3> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>In</span> the spring Charles Dickens took a short holiday again, +with his wife and sister-in-law, at Brighton, from whence he +wrote to Mr. Wills, on "Household Words" business. The +first number of this journal appeared on the 30th March.</div> + +<p>This autumn he succeeded, for the first time, in getting +possession of the "Fort House," Broadstairs, on which he +had always set his affections. He was hard at work on the +closing numbers of "David Copperfield" during all the +summer and autumn. The family moved to Broadstairs +in July, but as a third daughter was born in August, they +were not joined by Mrs. Dickens until the end of September. +"David Copperfield" was finished in October.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span></p> + +<p>The beginning of his correspondence with Mrs. Gaskell is +in his asking her to contribute to "Household Words," which +she did from the first number, and very frequently afterwards +both to "Household Words" and "All the Year Round."</p> + +<p>The letter to Mr. David Roberts, R.A., is one thanking +him for a remembrance of his (Mr. Roberts's) travels in the +East—a picture of a "Simoom in the Desert," which was +one of Charles Dickens's most highly prized possessions.</p> + +<p>A letter to Mr. Sheridan Knowles contains allusions +which we have no means of explaining, but we publish it, +as it is characteristic, and addressed to a literary celebrity. +Its being inscribed to "Daddy" Knowles illustrates a habit +of Charles Dickens—as does a letter later in this year to Mr. +Stone, beginning, "My dear P."—of giving nicknames to +the friends with whom he was on the most affectionate and +intimate terms. Mr. Stone—especially included in this category—was +the subject of many such names; "Pump," or +"Pumpion," being one by which he was frequently addressed—a +joke as good-humouredly and gladly received as +it was kindly and pleasantly intended.</p> + +<p>There were no public amateur theatricals this year; but +in November, the greater part of the amateur company +played for three nights at Knebworth Park, as the guests of +Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton (afterwards Lord Lytton), who +entertained all his county neighbours to witness the performances. +The play was "Every Man in his Humour," +and farces, varied each night.</p> + +<p>This year we have our first letter to Miss Mary Boyle, a +cousin of Mrs. Watson, well known as an amateur actress and +an accomplished lady. Miss Boyle was to have acted with +the amateur company at Knebworth, but was prevented by +domestic affliction. Early in the following year there was a +private play at Rockingham Castle, when Miss Boyle acted +with Charles Dickens, the play being "Used Up," in which +Mrs. Dickens also acted; and the farce, "Animal Magnetism," +in which Miss Boyle and Miss Hogarth played. +The letters to Mrs. Watson in this year refer chiefly to the +preparations for the play in her house.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span></p> + +<p>The accident mentioned in the letter addressed to Mr. +Henry Bicknell (son-in-law of Mr. David Roberts, R.A., +and a much-esteemed friend of Charles Dickens) was an +accident which happened to Mrs. Dickens, while rehearsing +at a theatre. She fell through a trap-door, spraining her +ankle so badly as to be incapacitated from taking her part +in the theatricals at Knebworth.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. David +Roberts, +R.A.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>January 3rd, 1850.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Roberts</span>,</div> + +<p>I am more obliged to you than I can tell you for +the beautiful mark of your friendly remembrance which +you have sent me this morning. I shall set it up among +my household gods with pride. It gives me the highest +gratification, and I beg you to accept my most cordial and +sincere thanks. A little bit of the tissue paper was sticking +to the surface of the picture, and has slightly marked it. It +requires but a touch, as one would dot an "i" or cross a "t," +to remove the blemish; but as I cannot think of a recollection +so full of poetry being touched by any hand but +yours, I have told Green the framer, whenever he shall be +on his way with it, to call on you by the road. I enclose a +note from Mrs. Dickens, which I hope will impress you into +a country dance, with which we hope to dismiss Christmas +merrily.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Ever, my dear Roberts,</span><br /> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. James +Sheridan +Knowles.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>January 3rd, 1850.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear good Knowles</span>,</div> + +<p>Many happy New Years to you, and to all who are +near and dear to you. Your generous heart unconsciously +exaggerates, I am sure, my merit in respect of that most +honourable gentleman who has been the occasion of our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span> +recent correspondence. I cannot sufficiently admire the +dignity of his conduct, and I really feel indebted to you for +giving me the gratification of observing it.</p> + +<p>As to that "cross note," which, rightly considered, was +nothing of the sort, if ever you refer to it again, I'll do—I +don't exactly know what, but something perfectly desperate +and ferocious. If I have ever thought of it, it has only +been to remember with delight how soon we came to a +better understanding, and how heartily we confirmed it +with a most expressive shake of the hand, one evening +down in that mouldy little den of Miss Kelly's.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Heartily and faithfully yours.<br /></div> +<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Daddy" Knowles.</span><br /> +</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Gaskell.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>January 31st, 1850.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mrs. Gaskell</span>,</div> + +<p>You may perhaps have seen an announcement in the +papers of my intention to start a new cheap weekly journal +of general literature.</p> + +<p>I do not know what your literary vows of temperance or +abstinence may be, but as I do honestly know that there is +no living English writer whose aid I would desire to enlist +in preference to the authoress of "Mary Barton" (a book +that most profoundly affected and impressed me), I venture +to ask you whether you can give me any hope that you will +write a short tale, or any number of tales, for the projected +pages.</p> + +<p>No writer's name will be used, neither my own nor any +other; every paper will be published without any signature, +and all will seem to express the general mind and purpose +of the journal, which is the raising up of those that are +down, and the general improvement of our social condition. +I should set a value on your help which your modesty can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span> +hardly imagine; and I am perfectly sure that the least +result of your reflection or observation in respect of the life +around you, would attract attention and do good.</p> + +<p>Of course I regard your time as valuable, and consider it +so when I ask you if you could devote any of it to this +purpose.</p> + +<p>If you could and would prefer to speak to me on the +subject, I should be very glad indeed to come to Manchester +for a few hours and explain anything you might wish to +know. My unaffected and great admiration of your book +makes me very earnest in all relating to you. Forgive my +troubling you for this reason, and believe me ever,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—Mrs. Dickens and her sister send their love.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Rev. +James +White.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>Tuesday, Feb. 5th, 1850.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear White</span>,</div> + +<p>I have been going to write to you for a long time, +but have always had in my mind that you might come here +with Lotty any day. As Lotty has come without you, however +(witness a tremendous rampaging and ravaging now +going on upstairs!), I despatch this note to say that I +suppose you have seen the announcement of "the" new +weekly thing, and that if you would ever write anything +for it, you would please me better than I can tell you. We +hope to do some solid good, and we mean to be as cheery +and pleasant as we can. (And, putting our hands in our +breeches pockets, we say complacently, that our money is +as good as Blackwood's any day in the week.)</p> + +<p>Now the murder's out!</p> + +<p>Are you never coming to town any more? Must I come<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span> +to Bonchurch? Am I born (for the eight-and-thirtieth +time) next Thursday, at half-past five, and do you mean +to say you are <i>not</i> coming to dinner? Well, well, I can +always go over to Puseyism to spite my friends, and that's +some comfort.</p> + +<p>Poor dear Jeffrey! I had heard from him but a few +days, and the unopened proof of No. 10 was lying on his +table when he died. I believe I have lost as affectionate a +friend as I ever had, or ever shall have, in this world.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever heartily yours, my dear White.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Charles +Knight.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>February 8th, 1850.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Knight</span>,</div> + +<p>Let me thank you in the heartiest manner for your +most kind and gratifying mention of me in your able +pamphlet. It gives me great pleasure, and I sincerely +feel it.</p> + +<p>I quite agree with you in all you say so well of the +injustice and impolicy of this excessive taxation. But when +I think of the condition of the great mass of the people, I +fear that I could hardly find the heart to press for justice in +this respect, before the window-duty is removed. They +cannot read without light. They cannot have an average +chance of life and health without it. Much as we feel our +wrong, I fear that they feel their wrong more, and that the +things just done in this wise must bear a new physical +existence.</p> + +<p>I never see you, and begin to think we must have +another play—say in Cornwall—expressly to bring us +together.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Very faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span></p> + +<div class='center'>SUGGESTIONS FOR TITLES OF "HOUSEHOLD WORDS."<br /><br /> + +THE FORGE:<br /> +<br /> +A Weekly Journal,<br /> +<br /> +Conducted by <span class="smcap">Charles Dickens.</span><br /><br /></div> + + +<div class='poem2'> +"Thus at the glowing Forge of Life our actions must be wrought,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Thus on its sounding anvil shaped</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Each burning deed and thought."—<i>Longfellow.</i></span><br /><br /> +</div> + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Titles"> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Hearth.</span></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Home-Music.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Forge.</span></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Change.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Crucible.</span></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Time and Tide.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Anvil of the Time.</span> </td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Twopence.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Charles Dickens's Own.</span></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">English Bells.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Seasonable Leaves.</span></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Weekly Bells.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Evergreen Leaves.</span></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Rocket.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Home.</span></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Good Humour.</span></td></tr> +</table></div> + + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. H. +Wills.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">148, <span class="smcap">King's Road, Brighton</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Tuesday Night, March 12th, 1850.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Wills</span>,</div> + +<p>I have made a correction or two in my part of the +post-office article. I still observe the top-heavy "Household +Words" in the title. The title of "The Amusements of the +People" has to be altered as I have marked it. I would +as soon have my hair cut off as an intolerable Scotch shortness +put into my titles by the elision of little words. +"The Seasons" wants a little punctuation. Will the +"Incident in the Life of Mademoiselle Clairon" go into +those two pages? I fear not, but one article would be +infinitely better, I am quite certain, than two or three short +ones. If it will go in, in with it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span></p> + +<p>I shall be back, please God, by dinner-time to-morrow +week. I will be ready for Smithfield either on the following +Monday morning at four, or any other morning you +may arrange for.</p> + +<p>Would it do to make up No. 2 on Wednesday, the 20th, +instead of Saturday? If so, it would be an immense convenience +to me. But if it be distinctly necessary to make +it up on Saturday, say by return, and I am to be relied +upon. Don't fail in this.</p> + +<p>I really <i>can't</i> promise to be comic. Indeed, your +note put me out a little, for I had just sat down to begin, +"It will last my time." I will shake my head a little, and +see if I can shake a more comic substitute out of it.</p> + +<p>As to <i>two</i> comic articles, or two any sort of articles, out +of me, that's the intensest extreme of no-goism.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Rev. +James +White.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>July 13th, 1850.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear White</span>,</div> + +<p>Being obliged (sorely against my will) to leave my +work this morning and go out, and having a few spare +minutes before I go, I write a hasty note, to hint how glad +I am to have received yours, and how happy and tranquil +we feel it to be for you all, that the end of that long illness +has come.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> Kate and Georgy send best loves to Mrs. White, +and we hope she will take all needful rest and relief after +those arduous, sad, and weary weeks. I have taken a house +at Broadstairs, from early in August until the end of +October, as I don't want to come back to London until I +shall have finished "Copperfield." I am rejoiced at the +idea of your going there. You will find it the healthiest +and freshest of places; and there are Canterbury, and all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span> +varieties of what Leigh Hunt calls "greenery," within a few +minutes' railroad ride. It is not very picturesque ashore, +but extremely so seaward; all manner of ships continually +passing close inshore. So come, and we'll have no end of +sports, please God.</p> + +<p>I am glad to say, as I know you will be to hear, that +there seems a bright unanimity about "Copperfield." I +am very much interested in it and pleased with it myself. I +have carefully planned out the story, for some time past, to +the end, and am making out my purposes with great care. +I should like to know what you see from that tower of +yours. I have little doubt you see the real objects in the +prospect.</p> + +<p>"Household Words" goes on <i>thoroughly well</i>. It is +expensive, of course, and demands a large circulation; but +it is taking a great and steady stand, and I have no doubt +already yields a good round profit.</p> + +<p>To-morrow week I shall expect you. You shall have a +bottle of the "Twenty." I have kept a few last lingering +caskets with the gem enshrined therein, expressly for you.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Ever, my dear White,</span><br /> +Cordially yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. H. +Wills.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Hôtel Windsor, Paris</span>, <i>Thursday, July 27th, 1850.</i><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;"><i>After post-time.</i></span><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Wills</span>,</div> + +<p>I have had much ado to get to work; the heat here +being so intense that I can do nothing but lie on the bare +floor all day. I never felt it anything like so hot in Italy.</p> + +<p>There is nothing doing in the theatres, and the atmosphere +is so horribly oppressive there that one can hardly +endure it. I came out of the Français last night half +dead. I am writing at this moment with nothing on but a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span> +shirt and pair of white trousers, and have been sitting four +hours at this paper, but am as faint with the heat as if I +had been at some tremendous gymnastics; and yet we had +a thunderstorm last night.</p> + +<p>I hope we are doing pretty well in Wellington Street. +My anxiety makes me feel as if I had been away a year. I +hope to be home on Tuesday evening, or night at latest. I +have picked up a very curious book of French statistics +that will suit us, and an odd proposal for a company connected +with the gambling in California, of which you will +also be able to make something.</p> + +<p>I saw a certain "Lord Spleen" mentioned in a playbill +yesterday, and will look after that distinguished English +nobleman to-night, if possible. Rachel played last night +for the last time before going to London, and has not so +much in her as some of our friends suppose.</p> + +<p>The English people are perpetually squeezing themselves +into courtyards, blind alleys, closed edifices, and other +places where they have no sort of business. The French +people, as usual, are making as much noise as possible +about everything that is of no importance, but seem (as far as +one can judge) pretty quiet and good-humoured. They made +a mighty hullabaloo at the theatre last night, when Brutus +(the play was "Lucretia") declaimed about liberty.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. H. +Wills.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>August 9th, 1850.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Wills</span>,</div> + +<p>I shall be obliged to you if you will write to this +man, and tell him that what he asks I never do—firstly, +because I have no kind of connection with any manager or +theatre; secondly, because I am asked to read so many<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span> +manuscripts, that compliance is impossible, or I should have +no other occupation or relaxation in the world.</p> + + +<p><img src="images/rightindex.png" width="78" height="39" alt="left hand" title="left hand" /> + A foreign gentleman, with a beard, name unknown, +but signing himself "A Fellow Man," and dating from +nowhere, declined, twice yesterday, to leave this house for +any less consideration than the insignificant one of "twenty +pounds." I have had a policeman waiting for him all day.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Charles +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Broadstairs</span>, <i>Tuesday, Sept. 3rd, 1850.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dearest Kate</span>,</div> + +<p>I enclose a few lines from Georgy, and write these +to say that I purpose going home at some time on Thursday, +but I cannot say precisely when, as it depends on what +work I do to-morrow. Yesterday Charles Knight, White, +Forster, Charley, and I walked to Richborough Castle and +back. Knight dined with us afterwards; and the Whites, +the Bicknells, and Mrs. Gibson came in in the evening and +played vingt-et-un.</p> + +<p>Having no news I must tell you a story of Sydney. +The children, Georgy, and I were out in the garden on +Sunday evening (by-the-bye, I made a beautiful passage +down, and got to Margate a few minutes after one), when I +asked Sydney if he would go to the railroad and see if Forster +was coming. As he answered very boldly "Yes," I opened +the garden-gate, upon which he set off alone as fast as his +legs would carry him; and being pursued, was not overtaken +until he was through the Lawn House Archway, when he +was still going on at full speed—I can't conceive where. +Being brought back in triumph, he made a number of +fictitious starts, for the sake of being overtaken again, and +we made a regular game of it. At last, when he and Ally<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span> +had run away, instead of running after them, we came into +the garden, shut the gate, and crouched down on the ground. +Presently we heard them come back and say to each other +with some alarm, "Why, the gate's shut, and they're all +gone!" Ally began in a dismayed way to cry out, but the +Phenomenon shouting, "Open the gate!" sent an enormous +stone flying into the garden (among our heads) by way of +alarming the establishment. I thought it a wonderful piece +of character, showing great readiness of resource. He would +have fired a perfect battery of stones, or very likely have +broken the pantry window, I think, if we hadn't let him in.</p> + +<p>They are all in great force, and send their loves. They +are all much excited with the expectation of receiving you +on Friday, and would start me off to fetch you now if I +would go.</p> + +<p>Our train on Friday will be half-past twelve. I have +spoken to Georgy about the partridges, and hope we may +find some.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Ever, my dearest Kate,</span><br /> +Most affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss Mary +Boyle.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Broadstairs, Kent</span>, <i>Monday Night, Sept. 16th, 1850.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Miss Boyle</span>,</div> + +<p>Your letter having arrived in time for me to write a +line by the evening post, I came out of a paroxysm of +"Copperfield," to say that I am <i>perfectly delighted</i> to read +it, and to know that we are going to act together in that +merry party. We dress "Every Man" in Queen Elizabeth's +time. The acting copy is much altered from the old play, +but we still smooth down phrases when needful. I don't +remember anyone that is changed. Georgina says she can't +describe the dress Mrs. Kitely used to wear. I shall be in +town on Saturday, and will then get Maclise to make me a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span> +little sketch, of it, carefully explained, which I will post to +you. At the same time I will send you the book. After +consideration of forces, it has occurred to me (old Ben being, +I daresay, rare; but I <i>do</i> know rather heavy here and there) +that Mrs. Inchbald's "Animal Magnetism," which we have +often played, will "go" with a greater laugh than anything +else. That book I will send you on Saturday too. You +will find your part (Lisette, I think it is called, but it is +a waiting-maid) a most admirable one; and I have seen +people laugh at the piece until they have hung over the +front of the boxes like ripe fruit. You may dress the part +to please yourself after reading it. We wear powder. I will +take care (bringing a theatrical hairdresser for the company) +of your wig! We will rehearse the two pieces when we go +down, or at least anything with which you have to do, over +and over again. You will find my company so well used to +it, and so accustomed to consider it a grave matter of business, +as to make it easy. I am now awaiting the French +books with a view to "Rockingham," and I hope to report +of that too, when I write to you on Saturday.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +My dear Miss Boyle, very faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss Mary +Boyle.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>Friday, Sept. 20th, 1850.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Miss Boyle</span>,</div> + +<p>I enclose you the book of "Animal Magnetism," +and the book of "Every Man in his Humour;" also a +sketch by Mr. Maclise of a correct and picturesque Mrs. +Kitely. Mr. Forster is Kitely; Mr. Lemon, Brainworm; +Mr. Leech, Master Matthew; Mr. Jerrold, Master Stephen; +Mr. Stone, Downright. Kitely's dress is a very plain +purple gown, like a Bluecoat-boy's. Downright's dress is +also very sober, chiefly brown and gray. All the rest of us +are very bright. I am flaming red. Georgina will write<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span> +you about your colour and hers in "Animal Magnetism;" +the gayer the better. I am the Doctor, in black, with red +stockings. Mr. Lemon (an excellent actor), the valet, as +far as I can remember, in blue and yellow, and a chintz +waistcoat. Mr. Leech is the Marquis, and Mr. Egg the +one-eyed servant.</p> + +<p>What do you think of doing "Animal Magnetism" as +the last piece (we may play three in all, I think) at +Rockingham? If so, we might make Quin the one-eyed +servant, and beat up with Mrs. Watson for a Marquis. Will +you tell me what you think of this, addressed to Broadstairs? +I have not heard from Bulwer again. I daresay I have crossed +a letter from him by coming up to-day; but I have every +reason to believe that the last week in October is the time.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever very faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—This is quite a managerial letter, which I write +with all manner of appointments and business discussions +going on about me, having my pen on the paper and my +eye on "Household Words," my head on "Copperfield" +and my ear nowhere particularly.</p> + +<p>I will let you know about "A Day after the Wedding." +I have sent for the book on Monday.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">The Hon. +Mrs. +Watson.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Broadstairs, Kent</span>, <i>September 24th, 1850.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mrs. Watson</span>,</div> + +<p>Coming out of "Copperfield" into a condition of +temporary and partial consciousness, I plunge into histrionic +duties, and hold enormous correspondence with Miss Boyle, +between whom and myself the most portentous packets are +continually passing. I send you a piece we purpose playing +last at Rockingham, which "my company" played in +London, Scotland, Manchester, Liverpool, and I don't know +where else. It is one of the most ridiculous things ever<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span> +done. We purpose, as I have said, playing it last. Why +do I send it to you? Because there is an excellent part +(played in my troupe by George Cruikshank) for your +brother in it—Jeffrey; with a black patch on his eye, and +a lame leg, he would be charming—noble! If he is come +home, give him my love and tell him so. If he is not come +home, do me that favour when he does come. And add +that I have a wig for him belonging to the part, which I +have an idea of sending to the Exposition of '51, as a +triumph of human ingenuity.</p> + +<p>I am the Doctor; Miss Boyle, Lisette; Georgy, the other +little woman. We have nearly arranged our "bill" for +Rockingham. We shall want one more reasonably good +actor, besides your brother and Miss Boyle's, to play the +Marquis in this piece. Do you know a being endowed by +nature with the requisite qualities?</p> + +<p>There are some things in the next "Copperfield" that I +think better than any that have gone before. After I have +been believing such things with all my heart and soul, two +results always ensue: first, I can't write plainly to the eye; +secondly, I can't write sensibly to the mind. So "Copperfield" +is to blame, and I am not, for this wandering note; +and if you like it, you'll forgive me. With my affectionate +remembrances to Watson,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Ever, my dear Mrs. Watson,</span><br /> +Very faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—I find I am not equal to the flourish.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss Mary +Boyle.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>Wednesday, Oct 30th, 1850.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Miss Boyle</span>,</div> + +<p>We are all extremely concerned and distressed to +lose you. But we feel that it cannot be otherwise, and we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span> +do not, in our own expectation of amusement, forget the +sad cause of your absence.</p> + +<p>Bulwer was here yesterday; and if I were to tell you +how earnestly he and all the other friends whom you don't +know have looked forward to the projected association with +you, and in what a friendly spirit they all express their +disappointment, you would be quite moved by it, I think. +Pray don't give yourself the least uneasiness on account of +the blank in our arrangements. I did not write to you +yesterday, in the hope that I might be able to tell you +to-day that I had replaced you, in however poor a way. I +cannot do that yet, but I am busily making out some means +of filling the parts before we rehearse to-morrow night, +and I trust to be able to do so in some out-of-the-way +manner.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Dickens and Bridget send you their kindest remembrances. +They are bitterly disappointed at not seeing +you to-day, but we all hope for a better time.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;">Dear Miss Boyle,</span><br /> +Faithfully yours always.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">The Hon. +Mrs. +Watson.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>Saturday Evening, Nov. 23rd, 1850.</i><br /> +</div> +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Mrs. Watson</span>,<br /> +</div> + +<p>Being well home from Knebworth, where everything +has gone off in a whirl of triumph and fired the whole +length and breadth of the county of Hertfordshire, I write +a short note to say that we are yours any time after Twelfth-night, +and that we look forward to seeing you with the +greatest pleasure. I should have made this reply to your +last note sooner, but that I have been waiting to send you +"Copperfield" in a new waistcoat. His tailor is so slow +that it has not yet appeared; but when the resplendent +garment comes home it shall be forwarded.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span></p> + +<p>I have not your note at hand, but I think you said "any +time after Christmas." At all events, and whatever you +said, we will conclude a treaty on any terms you may +propose. And if it should include any of Charley's holidays, +perhaps you would allow us to put a brass collar round +his neck, and chain him up in the stable.</p> + +<p>Kate and Georgina (who has covered herself with glory) +join me in best remembrances and regards to Watson and +you and all the house. I have stupendous proposals to make +concerning Switzerland in the spring.</p> + +<p>I promised Bulwer to make enquiry of you about "Miss +Watson," whom he once knew and greatly wished to hear +of. He associated her (but was not clear how) with Lady +Palmer.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 3em;">My dear Mrs. Watson,</span><br /> +Ever faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Henry +Bicknell.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>November 28th, 1850.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mr. Bicknell</span>,</div> + +<p>If I ever did such a thing, believe me I would do it +at your request. But I don't, and if you could see the +ramparts of letters from similar institutions with which my +desk bristles every now and then, you would feel that nothing +lies between total abstinence (in this regard) and utter +bewilderment and lecturation.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Dickens and her sister unite with me in kind +regards to you and Mrs. Bicknell. The consequences of the +accident are fast fading, I am happy to say. We all hope +to hear shortly that Mrs. Bicknell has recovered that other +little accident, which (as you and I know) will occasionally +happen in well-regulated families.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Very faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Walter +Savage +Landor.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Office of "Household Words</span>,"</span><br /> +<br /> +<i>Wednesday, Dec. 4th, 1850.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Landor</span>,</div> + +<p>I have been (a strange thing for me) so very unwell +since Sunday, that I have hardly been able to hold up my +head—a bilious attack, I believe, and a very miserable sort +of business. This, my dear friend, is the reason why I have +not sooner written to you in reference to your noble letter, +which I read in <i>The Examiner</i>, and for which—as it exalts +me—I cannot, cannot thank you in words.</p> + +<p>We had been following up the blow in Kinkel's<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> favour, +and I was growing sanguine, in the hope of getting him out +(having enlisted strong and active sympathy in his behalf), +when the news came of his escape. Since then we have +heard nothing of him. I rather incline to the opinion that +the damnable powers that be connived at his escape, but +know nothing. Whether he be retaken or whether he +appear (as I am not without hope he may) in the streets of +London, I shall be a party to no step whatever without +consulting you; and if any scrap of intelligence concerning +him shall reach me, it shall be yours immediately.</p> + +<p>Horne wrote the article. I shall see him here to-night, +and know how he will feel your sympathy and support. +But I do not wait to see him before writing, lest you should +think me slow to feel your generosity. We said at home +when we read your letter, that it was like the opening of +your whole munificent and bare heart.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Ever most affectionately yours,</span><br /> +My dear Landor.<br /> +</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span></p> + +<div class="sidenote">The Hon. +Mrs. +Watson.</div> +<div class="figleft" style="width: 78px;"> +<img src="images/rightindex.png" width="78" height="39" alt="left hand" title="left hand" /> +</div> +<div class='center'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">This is No. 2</span>.<br /></div> +<div class='date'> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>Monday Morning, Dec. 9th, 1850.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mrs. Watson</span>,</div> + +<p>Your note to me of Saturday has crossed mine to +you, I find. If you open both of mine together, please to +observe <i>this is No. 2</i>.</p> + +<p>You may rely on Mr. Tucker's doing his work thoroughly +well and charging a fair price. It is not possible for him to +say aforehand, in such a case, what it will cost, I imagine, +as he will have to adapt his work to the place. Nathan's +stage knowledge may be stated in the following figures: +00000000000. Therefore, I think you had best refer +Mr. Tucker to <i>me</i>, and I will apply all needful screws and +tortures to him.</p> + +<p>I have thought of one or two very ingenious (hem!) +little contrivances for adapting the difficulties of "Used Up" +to the small stage. They will require to be so exactly +explained to your carpenter (though very easy little things +in themselves), that I think I had better, before Christmas, +send my servant down for an hour—he is quite an old stager +now—to show him precisely what I mean. It is not a day's +work, but it would be extremely difficult to explain in +writing. I developed these wonderful ideas to the master +carpenter at one of the theatres, and he shook his head +with an intensely mournful air, and said, "Ah, sir, it's a +universal observation in the profession, sir, that it was a +great loss to the public when you took to writing books!" +which I thought complimentary to "Copperfield."</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">The same.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>Saturday, Dec. 14th, 1850.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mrs. Watson</span>,</div> + +<p>I shall be delighted to come on the seventh instead of +the eighth. We consider it an engagement. Over and above<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span> +the pleasure of a quiet day with you, I think I can greatly +facilitate the preparations (that's the way, you see, in which +we cheat ourselves into making duties of pleasures) by +being at Rockingham a day earlier. So that's settled.</p> + +<p>I was quite certain when that Child of Israel mentioned +those dimensions, that he must be wrong. For which +wooden-headedness the Child shall be taken to task on +Monday morning, when I am going to look at his preparations, +by appointment, about the door. Don't you +observe, that the scenery not being made expressly for the +room, it may be impossible to use it as you propose? There +is a scene before that wall, and unless the door in the scene +(supposing there to be one, which I am not sure of) should +come exactly into the place of the door of the room, the +door of the room might as well be in Africa. If it could be +used it would still require to be backed (excuse professional +technicality) by another scene in the passage. And if it be +rather in the side of the bottom of the room (as I seem to +remember it), it would be shut out of sight, or partially, by +the side scenes. Do you comprehend these stage managerial +sagacities? That piece of additional room in so +small a stage would be of immense service, if we could +avail ourselves of it. If we can't, I have another means (I +think) of discovering Leech, Saville, and Coldstream at +table. I am constantly turning over in my mind the +capacities of the place, and hope by one means or other to +make something more than the best of it. As to the fireplace, +you will never be able to use that. The heat of the +lamp will be very great, and ventilation will be the thing +wanted. Thirteen feet and a half of depth, diminished by +stage fittings and furniture, is a small space. I think the +doorway could be used in the last scene, with the castle +steps and platform for the staircase running straight<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span> +through it toward the hall. <i>Nous verrons.</i> I will write +again about my visit of inspection, probably on Monday.</p> + +<p>Will you let them know that Messrs. Nathan, of Titchborne +Street, Haymarket, will dress them, please, and that +I will engage for their doing it thoroughly well; also that +Mr. Wilson, theatrical hairdresser, Strand, near St. Clement's +Churchyard, will come down with wigs, etc., to "make up" +everybody; that he has a list of the pieces from me, and +that he will be glad to measure the heads and consult the +tastes of all concerned, if they will give him the opportunity +beforehand? I should like to see Sir Adonis Leech and the +Hon. T. Saville if I can. For they ought to be wonderfully +made up, and to be as unlike themselves as possible, +and to contrast well with each other and with me. I rather +grudge <i>caro sposo</i> coming into the company. I should like +him so much to see the play. If we do it all well together it +ought to be so very pleasant. I never saw a great mass of +people so charmed with a little story as when we acted it +at the Glasgow Theatre. But I have no other reason for +faltering when I take him to my arms. I feel that he is the +man for the part.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> I see him with a blue bag, a flaxen wig, +and green spectacles. I know what it will be. I foresee +how all that sessional experience will come out. I reconcile +myself to it, in spite of the selfish consideration of wanting +him elsewhere; and while I have a heavy sense of a light +being snuffed out in the audience, perceive a new luminary +shining on the stage!</p> + +<p>Your brother<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> would make a capital tiger, too! Very +short tight surtout, doeskins, bright top-boots, white cravat, +bouquet in button-hole, close wig—very good, ve—ry good.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span> +It clearly must be so. The thing is done. I told you we +were opening a tremendous correspondence when we first +began to write on such a long subject. But do let me tell +you, once and for all, that I am in the business heart and +soul, and that you cannot trouble me respecting it, and that +I wouldn't willingly or knowingly leave the minutest detail +unprovided for. It cannot possibly be a success if the +smallest peppercorn of arrangement be omitted. And +a success it must be! I couldn't go into such a thing, +or help to bring you poorly out of it, for any earthly consideration. +Talking of forgetting, isn't it odd? I doubt +if I could forget words I had learned, so long as I wanted +them. But the moment the necessity goes, they go. I +know my place and everybody's place in this identical piece +of "Used Up" perfectly, and could put every little object +on its own square inches of room exactly where it ought to +be. But I have no more recollection of my words now (I +took the book up yesterday) than if I had only seen the play +as one of the audience at a theatre. Perhaps not so much. +With cordial remembrances,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Ever, dear Mrs. Watson,</span><br /> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">The Hon. +Mrs. +Watson.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>December 19th, 1850.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mrs. Watson</span>,</div> + +<p>I am sorry to say that business ("Household Words" +business) will keep me in town to-morrow. But on Monday +I propose coming down and returning the same day. The +train for my money appears to be the half-past six <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> +(horrible initials!), and to that invention for promoting early +rising I design to commit myself.</p> + +<p>I am shocked if I also made the mistake of confounding +those two (and too) similar names.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> But I think Mr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span> +<span class="smcap">S-t-a-f-f-o-r-d</span> had better do the Marquis. I am glad to +find that we agree, but we always do.</p> + +<p>I have closely overhauled the little theatre, and the +carpenter and painter. The whole has been entirely +repainted (I mean the proscenium and scenery) for this +especial purpose, and is extremely pretty. I don't think, +the scale considered, that anything better <i>could</i> be done. It +is very elegant. I have brought "the Child" to this. For the +hire of the theatre, fifteen pounds. The carriage to be extra. +The Child's fares and expenses (which will be very moderate) +to be extra. The stage carpenter's wages to be extra—seven +shillings a day. I don't think, when you see the +things, that you will consider this too much. It is as good +as the Queen's little theatre at Windsor, raised stage +excepted. I have had an extraction made, which will enable +us to use the door. I am at present breaking my man's +heart, by teaching him how to imitate the sounds of the +smashing of the windows and the breaking of the balcony +in "Used Up." In the event of his death from grief, I +have promised to do something for his mother. Thinking +it possible that you might not see the enclosed until next +month, and hoping that it is seasonable for Christmas, I +send it. Being, with cordial regards and all seasonable +good wishes,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Ever, dear Mrs. Watson,</span><br /> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—This [blot] is a tear over the devotion of Captain +Boyle, who (as I learned from the Child of Israel this +morning) would not decide upon Farmer Wurzel's coat, +without referring the question of buttons to managerial +approval.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. John +Poole.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>Tuesday Night, Christmas Eve, 1850.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Poole</span>,</div> + +<p>On the Sunday when I last saw you, I went straight +to Lord John's with the letter you read. He was out of +town, and I left it with my card.</p> + +<p>On the following Wednesday I received a note from him, +saying that he did not bear in mind exactly what I had told +him of you before, and asking me to tell it again. I immediately +replied, of course, and gave him an exact description +of you and your condition, and your way of life in Paris +and everything else; a perfect diorama in little, with you +pervading it. To-day I got a letter from him, announcing +that you have a pension of <i>a hundred a year</i>! of which I +heartily wish you joy.</p> + +<p>He says: "I am happy to say that the Queen has +approved of a pension of one hundred pounds a year to +Mr. Poole.</p> + +<p>"The Queen, in her gracious answer, informs me that +she meant to have mentioned Mr. Poole to me, and that she +had wished to place him in the Charter House, but found +the society there was not such as he could associate with.</p> + +<p>"Be so good as to inform Mr. Poole that directions are +given for his pension, which will date from the end of June +last."</p> + +<p>I have lost no time in answering this, but you must +brace up your energies to write him a short note too, and +another for the Queen.</p> + +<p>If you are in Paris, shall I ascertain what authority I +shall need from you to receive the half-year, which I suppose +will be shortly due? I can receive it as usual.</p> + +<p>With all good wishes and congratulations, seasonable +and unseasonable,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Always faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">The Hon. +Mrs. +Watson.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>Monday Morning, Dec. 30th, 1850.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mrs. Watson</span>,</div> + +<p>As your letter is <i>decided</i>, the scaffolding shall be re-erected +round Charley's boots (it has been taken down, and +the workmen had retired to their respective homes in various +parts of England and Wales) and his dressing proceeded +with. I have been very much pleased with him in the +matter, as he has never made the least demonstration of +disappointment or mortification, and was perfectly contented +to give in. (<i>Here I break off to go to Boxall.</i>) (<i>Here I +return much exhausted.</i>)</p> + +<p>Your time shall be stated in the bills for both nights. I +propose to rehearse on the day, on Thursday and Friday, +and in the evening on Saturday, that we may try our lights. +Therefore:</p> + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="workers schedule on stage"> +<tr><td align='center'><span class="smcap">Nathan<br />and<br />Stage Carpenter</span></td><td align='left'><div class="figcenter" style="width: 10px;"> +<img src="images/largebracketpointleft.png" width="10" height="100" alt="Bracket" title="Bracket" /> +</div></td><td align='left'>will come on Tuesday, 7th January, as there must be a responsible person to anathematise, and as the company seem so slow about their dresses, that I foresee the strong probability of Nathan having a good deal to do at Rockingham without respect.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Wilson</span></td><td align='left'> </td><td align='left'>will come on Saturday, 11th January.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Tucker</span></td><td align='left'> </td><td align='left'>will come on Saturday, 11th January.</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<p>I shall be delighted to see your brother, and so no more +at present from</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 5em;">Yours ever,</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Coldstream Freelove Doctor Dickens</span>.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—As Boxall (with his head very much on one side +and his spectacles on) danced backward from the canvas +incessantly with great nimbleness, and returned, and made +little digs at it with his pencil, with a horrible grin on his +countenance, I augur that he pleased himself this morning.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Tag" added by Mr. Dickens to "Animal Magnetism," +played at Rockingham Castle.</p> + +<div class='center'> +ANIMAL MAGNETISM.—TAG.<br /> +<br /> +[After <span class="smcap">La Fleur</span> says to the Marquis: "Sir, return him the wand; and<br /> +the ladies, I daresay, will fall in love with him again."]<br /><br /> +</div> + +<div class='hang1'> +<span class="smcap">Doctor</span>. I'm cheated, robbed! I don't believe! I hate<br /> +Wand, Marquis, Doctor, Ward, Lisette, and Fate!</div> +<div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">La Fleur</span>. Not me?</div> +<div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Doctor</span>. <i>You</i> worse, you rascal, than the rest.</div> +<div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">La Fleur</span>. (<i>bowing</i>). To merit it, good sir, I've done my best.</div> +<div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Lisette</span>. (<i>sharply</i>). And I.</div> +<div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Constance</span>. <span style="margin-left: 2em;">I fear that I too have a claim</span><br /> +Upon your anger.</div> +<div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Lisette</span>. <span style="margin-left: 6em;">Anger, madam? Shame!</span><br /> +He's justly treated, as he might have known.<br /> +And if the wand were a divining one<br /> +It would have turn'd, within his very hands,<br /> +Point-blank to where your handsome husband stands.</div> +<div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Constance</span> (<i>glancing at</i> <span class="smcap">Doctor</span>). I would it were the wand of Harlequin,<br /> +To change his temper and his favour win.</div> +<div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Jeffrey</span> (<i>peeping in</i>). In that case, mistress, you might be so kind<br /> +As wave me back the eye of which I'm blind.</div> +<div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Marquis</span> (<i>laughing and examining it</i>). 'Tis nothing but a piece of senseless wood,<br /> +And has no influence for harm or good.<br /> +Yet stay! It surely draws me towards those<br /> +Indulgent, pleasant, smiling, beaming rows!<br /> +It surely charms me.</div> +<div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">All</span>. <span style="margin-left: 8em;">And us too.</span></div> +<div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Marquis</span>. <span style="margin-left: 10em;">To bend</span><br /> +Before their gen'rous efforts to commend;<br /> +To cheer us on, through these few happy hours,<br /> +And strew our mimic way with real flowers.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 14em;">[<i>All make obeisance.</i></span><br /> +Stay yet again. Among us all, I feel<br /> +One subtle, all-pervading influence steal,<br /> +Stirring one wish within one heart and head,<br /> +Bright be the path our host and hostess tread!<br /> +Blest be their children, happy be their race,<br /> +Long may they live, this ancient hall to grace<br /> +Long bear of English virtues noble fruit—<br /> +Green-hearted <span class="smcap">Rockingham</span>! strike deep thy root<br /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span></p> +<h2>1851.</h2> + +<h3>NARRATIVE.</h3> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>In</span> February this year, Charles Dickens made a short bachelor +excursion with Mr. Leech and the Hon. Spencer Lyttelton +to Paris, from whence we give a letter to his wife. She +was at this time in very bad health, and the little infant +Dora had a serious illness during the winter. The child +rallied for the time, but Mrs. Dickens continued so ill that +she was advised to try the air—and water—of Malvern. +And early in March, she and her sister were established in +lodgings there, the children being left in London, and +Charles Dickens dividing his time between Devonshire +Terrace and Malvern. He was busily occupied before this +time in superintending the arrangements for Mr. Macready's +last appearance on the stage at Drury Lane, and for a great +dinner which was given to Mr. Macready after it on the 1st +March, at which the chair was taken by Sir Edward Bulwer +Lytton. With him Charles Dickens was then engaged in +maturing a scheme, which had been projected at the time +of the amateur play at Knebworth, of a Guild of Literature +and Art, which was to found a provident fund for literary +men and artists; and to start which, a series of dramatic +performances by the amateur company was proposed. Sir +E. B. Lytton wrote a comedy, "Not so Bad as We Seem," +for the purpose, to be played in London and the provinces; +and the Duke of Devonshire turned one of the splendid +rooms in Devonshire House into a theatre, for the first +occasion of its performance. It was played early in May +before her Majesty and the Prince Consort, and a large +audience. Later in the season, there were several representations +of the comedy (with a farce, "Mr. Nightingale's +Diary," written by Charles Dickens for himself and Mr. +Mark Lemon) in the Hanover Square Rooms.</div> + +<p>But in the interval between the Macready banquet and +the play at Devonshire House, Charles Dickens underwent +great family trouble and sorrow. His father, whose health +had been declining for some time, became seriously ill, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span> +Charles Dickens was summoned from Malvern to attend upon +him. Mr. John Dickens died on the 31st March. On the 14th +April, Charles Dickens had gone from Malvern to preside +at the annual dinner of the General Theatrical Fund, and +found his children all well at Devonshire Terrace. He was +playing with his baby, Dora, before he went to the dinner; +soon after he left the house the child died suddenly in her +nurse's arms. The sad news was communicated to the +father after his duties at the dinner were over. The next +day, Mr. Forster went to Malvern to break the news to +Mrs. Dickens, and she and her sister returned with him +to London, and the Malvern lodgings were given up. But +Mrs. Dickens being still out of health, and London being +more than usually full (this being the year of the Great +Exhibition), Charles Dickens decided to let the town house +again for a few months, and engaged the Fort House, +Broadstairs, from the beginning of May until November. +This, which was his longest sojourn at Broadstairs, was also +the last, as the following summer he changed his seaside resort, +and never returned to that pretty little watering-place, +although he always retained an affectionate interest in it.</p> + +<p>The lease of the Devonshire Terrace house was to expire +this year. It was now too small for his family, so he could +not renew it, although he left it with regret. From the +beginning of the year, he had been in negotiation for a house +in Tavistock Square, in which his friend Mr. Frank Stone had +lived for some years. Many letters which follow are on +the subject of this house and the improvements Charles +Dickens made in it. His brother-in-law, Henry Austin—himself +an architect—superintended the "works" at Tavistock +House, as he did afterwards those at Gad's Hill—and +there are many characteristic letters to Mr. Austin while these +works were in progress. In the autumn, as a letter written +in August to Mr. Stone will show, an exchange of houses +was made—Mr. Stone removing with his family to Devonshire +Terrace until his own new house was ready—while +the alterations in Tavistock House went on, and Charles +Dickens removed into it from Broadstairs, in November.</p> + +<p>His eldest son was now an Eton boy. He had been one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span> +of the party and had played a small part in the play at +Rockingham Castle, in the Christmas holidays, and his +father's letters to Mrs. Watson at the beginning of this year +have reference to this play.</p> + +<p>This year he wrote and published the "Haunted Man," +which he had found himself unable to finish for the previous +Christmas. It was the last of the Christmas <i>books</i>. He +abandoned them in favour of a Christmas number of "Household +Words," which he continued annually for many years +in "Household Words" and "All the Year Round," and +in which he had the collaboration of other writers. The +"Haunted Man" was dramatised and produced at the +Adelphi Theatre, under the management of Mr. Benjamin +Webster. Charles Dickens read the book himself, at +Tavistock House, to a party of actors and actresses.</p> + +<p>At the end of the year he wrote the first number of +"Bleak House," although it was not published until March +of the following year. With the close attention and the +hard work he gave, from the time of its starting, to his +weekly periodical, he found it to be most desirable, now, in +beginning a new monthly serial, that he should be ready +with some numbers in advance before the appearance of the +first number.</p> + +<p>A provincial tour for the "Guild" took place at the end +of the year. A letter to his wife, from Clifton, in November, +gives a notion of the general success and enthusiasm with +which the plays were attended. The "new Hardman," to +whom he alludes as taking that part in Sir E. B. Lytton's +comedy in the place of Mr. Forster, was Mr. John Tenniel, +who was a new addition, and a very valuable and pleasant +one, to the company. Mr. Topham, the delightful water-colour +painter, Mr. Dudley Costello, and Mr. Wilkie Collins +were also new recruits to the company of "splendid strollers" +about this time. A letter to Mr. Wills, asking him to take +a part in the comedy, is given here. He never did <i>act</i> with +the company, but he complied with Charles Dickens's desire +that he should be "in the scheme" by giving it all sorts of +assistance, and almost invariably being one of the party in +the provincial tours.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">The Hon. +Mrs. +Watson.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>January 24th, 1851.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mrs. Watson</span>,</div> + +<p>Kate will have told you, I daresay, that my despondency +on coming to town was relieved by a talk with Lady +John Russell, of which you were the subject, and in which she +spoke of you with an earnestness of old affection and regard +that did me good. I date my recovery (which has been +slow) from that hour. I am still feeble, and liable to sudden +outbursts of causeless rage and demoniacal gloom, but I +shall be better presently. What a thing it is, that we can't +be always innocently merry and happy with those we like +best without looking out at the back windows of life! +Well, one day perhaps—after a long night—the blinds on +that side of the house will be down for ever, and nothing +left but the bright prospect in front.</p> + +<p>Concerning supper-toast (of which I feel bound to make +some mention), you did, as you always do, right, and exactly +what was most agreeable to me.</p> + +<p>My love to your excellent husband (I wonder whether +he and the dining-room have got to rights yet!), and to the +jolly little boys and the calm little girl. Somehow, I shall +always think of Lord Spencer as eternally walking up and +down the platform at Rugby, in a high chill wind, with no +apparent hope of a train—as I left him; and somehow I +always think of Rockingham, after coming away, as if I +belonged to it and had left a bit of my heart behind, which +it is so very odd to find wanting twenty times a day.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever, dear Mrs. Watson, faithfully yours, and his.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">The same.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>Tuesday Night, Jan. 28th, 1851.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear, dear Mrs. Watson</span>,</div> + +<p>I presume you mean Mr. Stafford and Mr. Stopford +to pay Wilson (as I have instructed him) a guinea each? +Am I right? In that just case I still owe you a guinea for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span> +<i>my</i> part. I was going to send you a post-office order for +that amount, when a faint sense of absurdity mantled my +ingenuous visage with a blush, and I thought it better to +owe you the money until we met. I hope it may be soon!</p> + +<p>I believe I may lay claim to the mysterious inkstand, +also to a volume lettered on the back, "Shipwrecks and +Disasters at Sea, II.," which I left when I came down at +Christmas. Will you take care of them as hostages until +we effect an exchange?</p> + +<p>Charley went back in great spirits, threatening to write +to George. It was a very wet night, and John took him to +the railway. He said, on his return: "Mas'r Charles went +off very gay, sir. He found some young gen'lemen as was +his friends in the train, sir." "Come," said I, "I am glad +of that. How many were there? Two or three?" "Oh +dear, sir, there was a matter of forty, sir! All with their +heads out o' the coach-windows, sir, a-hallooing 'Dickens!' +all over the station!"</p> + +<p>Her ladyship and the ward of the <span class="smcap">Fiz-zish-un</span> send their +best loves, in which I heartily join. If you and your dear +husband come to town before we bring out Bulwer's comedy, +I think we must have a snug reading of it.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever, dear Mrs. Watson, faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Mark +Lemon.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>Friday, Jan. 31st, 1851.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Lemon</span>,</div> + +<p>We are deeply sorry to receive the mournful intelligence +of your calamity. But we know you will both +have found comfort in that blessed belief, from which the +sacred figure with the child upon His knee is, in all stages +of our lives, inseparable, for of such is the kingdom of God!</p> + +<p>We join in affectionate loves to you and your dear wife. +She well deserves your praise, I am sure.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. H. +Wills.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>Monday, Feb. 10th, 1851.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Wills</span>,</div> + +<p>There is a small part in Bulwer's comedy, but very +good what there is—not much—my servant, who opens the +play, which I should be very glad if you would like to do.</p> + +<p>Pray understand that there is no end of men who would +do it, and that if you have the least objection to the trouble, +I don't make this the expression of a wish even. Otherwise, +I would like you to be in the scheme, which is a very great +and important one, and which cannot have too many men +who are steadily—not flightily, like some of our friends—in +earnest, and who are not to be lightly discouraged.</p> + +<p>If you do the part, I would like to have a talk with you +about the secretarial duties. They must be performed by +someone I clearly see, and will require good business +direction. I should like to put some young fellow, to whom +such work and its remuneration would be an object, under +your eye, if we could find one entire and perfect chrysolite +anywhere. Let me know whether I am to rate you on the +ship's books or not. If yes, consider yourself "called" to +the reading (by Macready) at Forster's rooms, on Wednesday, +the 19th, at three.</p> + +<p>And in the meantime you shall have a proof of the plan.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Charles +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Hôtel Wagram, Paris</span>, <i>Thursday, Feb. 12th, 1851.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dearest Kate</span>,</div> + +<p>I received your letter this morning (on returning +from an expedition to a market thirteen miles away, which +involved the necessity of getting up at five), and am +delighted to have such good accounts of all at home.</p> + +<p>We had D'Orsay to dinner yesterday, and I am hurried +to dress now, in order to pay a promised visit to his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span> +<i>atelier</i>. He was very happy with us, and is much improved +both in spirits and looks. Lord and Lady Castlereagh live +downstairs here, and we went to them in the evening, and +afterwards brought him upstairs to smoke. To-night we +are going to see Lemaître in the renowned "Belphégor" +piece. To-morrow at noon we leave Paris for Calais (the +Boulogne boat does not serve our turn), and unless the +weather for crossing should be absurd, I shall be at home, +please God, early on the evening of Saturday. It continues +to be delightful weather here—gusty, but very clear and +fine. Leech and I had a charming country walk before +breakfast this morning at Poissy and enjoyed it very much. +The rime was on the grass and trees, and the country +most delicious.</p> + +<p>Spencer Lyttelton is a capital companion on a trip, and +a great addition to the party. We have got on famously +and been very facetious. With best love to Georgina and +the darlings,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever most affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss Mary +Boyle.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>Friday Night, late, Feb. 21st, 1851.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Miss Boyle</span>,</div> + +<p>I have devoted a couple of hours this evening to +going very carefully over your paper (which I had read +before) and to endeavouring to bring it closer, and to +lighten it, and to give it that sort of compactness which a +habit of composition, and of disciplining one's thoughts like +a regiment, and of studying the art of putting each soldier +into his right place, may have gradually taught me to think +necessary. I hope, when you see it in print, you will not be +alarmed by my use of the pruning-knife. I have tried to +exercise it with the utmost delicacy and discretion, and to +suggest to you, especially towards the end, how this sort of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span> +writing (regard being had to the size of the journal in which +it appears) requires to be compressed, and is made pleasanter +by compression. This all reads very solemnly, but only +because I want you to read it (I mean the article) with as +loving an eye as I have truly tried to touch it with a loving +and gentle hand. I propose to call it "My Mahogany Friend." +The other name is too long, and I think not attractive. +Until I go to the office to-morrow and see what is actually +in hand, I am not certain of the number in which it will +appear, but Georgy shall write on Monday and tell you. We +are always a fortnight in advance of the public or the +mechanical work could not be done. I think there are many +things in it that are <i>very pretty</i>. The Katie part is particularly +well done. If I don't say more, it is because I have a +heavy sense, in all cases, of the responsibility of encouraging +anyone to enter on that thorny track, where the prizes are +so few and the blanks so many; where——</p> + +<p>But I won't write you a sermon. With the fire going +out, and the first shadows of a new story hovering in a +ghostly way about me (as they usually begin to do, when I +have finished an old one), I am in danger of doing the heavy +business, and becoming a heavy guardian, or something of +that sort, instead of the light and airy Joe.</p> + +<p>So good-night, and believe that you may always trust +me, and never find a grim expression (towards you) in any +that I wear.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. David +Roberts, +R.A.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<i>February 21st, 1851.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>Oh my dear Roberts, if you knew the trouble we have +had and the money we pay for Drury Lane for one night +for the benefit, you would never dream of it for the dinner. +<i>There isn't possibility of getting a theatre.</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span></p> + +<p>I will do all I can for your charming little daughter, and +hope to squeeze in half-a-dozen ladies at the last; but we +must not breathe the idea or we shall not dare to execute +it, there will be such an outcry.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>February 27th, 1851.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>Forster told me to-day that you wish Tennyson's +sonnet to be read after your health is given on Saturday. +I am perfectly certain that it would not do at that time. I +am quite convinced that the audience would not receive +it, under these exciting circumstances, as it ought to be +received. If I had to read it, I would on no account undertake +to do so at that period, in a great room crowded with +a dense company. I have an instinctive assurance that it +would fail. Being with Bulwer this morning, I communicated +your wish to him, and he immediately felt as I do. I +could enter into many reasons which induce me to form this +opinion. But I believe that you have that confidence in me +that I may spare you the statement of them.</p> + +<p>I want to know one thing from you. As I shall be +obliged to be at the London Tavern in the afternoon of +to-morrow, Friday (I write, observe, on Thursday night), I +shall be much helped in the arrangements if you will send +me your answer by a messenger (addressed here) on the +receipt of this. Which would you prefer—that "Auld +Lang Syne" should be sung after your health is given and +before you return thanks, or after you have spoken?</p> + +<p>I cannot forbear a word about last night. I think I +have told you sometimes, my much-loved friend, how, when +I was a mere boy, I was one of your faithful and devoted +adherents in the pit; I believe as true a member of that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span> +true host of followers as it has ever boasted. As I improved +myself and was improved by favouring circumstances in +mind and fortune, I only became the more earnest (if it +were possible) in my study of you. No light portion of my +life arose before me when the quiet vision to which I am +beholden, in I don't know how great a decree, or for how +much—who does?—faded so nobly from my bodily eyes +last night. And if I were to try to tell you what I felt—of +regret for its being past for ever, and of joy in the thought +that you could have taken your leave of <i>me</i> but in God's +own time—I should only blot this paper with some drops +that would certainly not be of ink, and give very faint +expression to very strong emotions.</p> + +<p>What is all this in writing! It is only some sort of +relief to my full heart, and shows very little of it to you; +but that's something, so I let it go.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;">Ever, my dearest Macready,</span><br /> +Your most affectionate Friend.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—My very flourish departs from me for the moment.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. David +Roberts, +R.A.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Knutsford Lodge, Great Malvern</span>, <i>March 20th, 1851.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Roberts</span>,</div> + +<p>Mrs. Dickens has been unwell, and I am here with +her. I want you to give a quarter of an hour to the +perusal of the enclosed prospectus; to consider the immense +value of the design, if it be successful, to artists young and +old; and then to bestow your favourable consideration on +the assistance I am going to ask of you for the sake and in +the name of the cause.</p> + +<p>For the representation of the new comedy Bulwer has +written for us, to start this scheme, I am having an ingenious +theatre made by Webster's people, for erection on +certain nights in the Hanover Square Rooms. But it will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span> +first be put up in the Duke of Devonshire's house, where +the first representation will take place before a brilliant +company, including (I believe) the Queen.</p> + +<p>Now, will you paint us a scene—the scene of which I +enclose Bulwer's description from the prompter's book? It +will be a cloth with a set-piece. It should be sent to your +studio or put up in a theatre painting-room, as you would +prefer. I have asked Stanny to do another scene, Edwin +Landseer, and Louis Haghe. The Devonshire House performance +will probably be on Monday, the 28th of April. +I should want to have the scenery complete by the 20th, as +it would require to be elaborately worked and rehearsed. +<i>You</i> could do it in no time after sending in your pictures, +and will you?</p> + +<p>What the value of such aid would be I need not say. +I say no more of the reasons that induce me to ask it, +because if they are not in the prospectus they are nowhere.</p> + +<p>On Monday and Tuesday nights I shall be in town for +rehearsal, but until then I shall be here. Will you let me +have a line from you in reply?</p> + +<div class='sig'> +My dear Roberts, ever faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<div class='center'><br /> +<i>Description of the Scene proposed:</i><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Streets of London in the time of George I</span>.<br /> +</div> + +<p>In perspective, an alley inscribed <span class="smcap">Deadman's Lane</span>; a large, old-fashioned, +gloomy, mysterious house in the corner, marked No. 1. (<i>This +No. 1, Deadman's Lane, has been constantly referred to in the play as the abode +of a mysterious female figure, who enters masked, and passes into this house +on the scene being disclosed.</i>) It is night, and there are moonlight mediums.</p></div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Charles +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">H. W. Office</span>, <i>Monday, March 26th, 1851.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dearest Kate</span>,</div> + +<p>I reserve all news of the play until I come down. +The Queen appoints the 30th of April. There is no end of +trouble.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span></p> + +<p>My father slept well last night, and is as well this +morning (they send word) as anyone in such a state, so cut +and slashed, can be. I have been waiting at home for +Bulwer all the morning (it is now two), and am now waiting +for Lemon before I go up there. I will not close this note +until I have been.</p> + +<p>It is raining here incessantly. The streets are in a most +miserable state. A van, containing the goods of some +unfortunate family moving, has broken down close outside, +and the whole scene is a picture of dreariness.</p> + +<p>The children are quite well and very happy. I had +Dora down this morning, who was quite charmed to see me. +That Miss Ketteridge appointed two to-day for seeing the +house, and probably she is at this moment disparaging it.</p> + +<p>My father is very weak and low, but not worse, I hope, +than might be expected. I am going home to dine with the +children. By working here late to-night (coming back +after dinner) I can finish what I have to do for the play. +Therefore I hope to be with you to-morrow, in good time +for dinner.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—Love to Georgy.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. H. +Wills.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Devonshire Terrace</span>, <i>Thursday Morning, April 3rd, 1851.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Wills</span>,</div> + +<p>I took my threatened walk last night, but it yielded +little but generalities.</p> + +<p>However, I thought of something for <i>to-night</i>, that I +think will make a splendid paper. I have an idea that it +might be connected with the gas paper (making gas a great +agent in an effective police), and made one of the articles. +This is it: "A Night in a Station-house." If you would +go down to our friend Mr. Yardley, at Scotland Yard, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span> +get a letter or order to the acting chief authority at that +station-house in Bow Street, to enable us to hear the +charges, observe the internal economy of the station-house +all night, go round to the cells with the visiting policeman, +etc., I would stay there, say from twelve to-night to four or +five in the morning. We might have a "night-cap," a fire, +and some tea at the office hard by. If you could conveniently +borrow an hour or two from the night we could +both go. If not, I would go alone. It would make a wonderful +good paper at a most appropriate time, when the +back slums of London are going to be invaded by all sorts +of strangers.</p> + +<p>You needn't exactly say that <i>I</i> was going <i>in propriâ</i> +(unless it were necessary), and, of course, you wouldn't say +that I propose to-night, because I am so worn by the sad +arrangements in which I am engaged, and by what led to +them, that I cannot take my natural rest. But to-morrow +night we go to the gas-works. I might not be so disposed +for this station-house observation as I shall be to-night for +a long time, and I see a most singular and admirable chance +for us in the descriptive way, not to be lost.</p> + +<p>Therefore, if you will arrange the thing before I come +down at four this afternoon, any of the Scotland Yard people +will do it, I should think; if our friend by any accident +should not be there, I will go into it.</p> + +<p>If they should recommend any other station-house as +better for the purpose, or would think it better for us to go +to more than one under the guidance of some trustworthy +man, of course we will pay any man and do as they +recommend. But I think one topping station-house would +be best.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully ever.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—I write from my bed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<i>Saturday, May 24th, 1851.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>We are getting in a good heap of money for the +Guild. The comedy has been very much improved, in many +respects, since you read it. The scene to which you refer is +certainly one of the most telling in the play. And there <i>is</i> +a farce to be produced on Tuesday next, wherein a distinguished +amateur will sustain a variety of assumption-parts, +and in particular, Samuel Weller and Mrs. Gamp, of +which I say no more. I am pining for Broadstairs, where +the children are at present. I lurk from the sun, during +the best part of the day, in a villainous compound of darkness, +canvas, sawdust, general dust, stale gas (involving a +vague smell of pepper), and disenchanted properties. But +I hope to get down on Wednesday or Thursday.</p> + +<p>Ah! you country gentlemen, who live at home at ease, +how little do you think of us among the London fleas! But +they tell me you are coming in for Dorsetshire. You must +be very careful, when you come to town to attend to your +parliamentary duties, never to ask your way of people in the +streets. They will misdirect you for what the vulgar call +"a lark," meaning, in this connection, a jest at your expense. +Always go into some respectable shop or apply to a policeman. +You will know him by his being dressed in blue, with +very dull silver buttons, and by the top of his hat being +made of sticking-plaster. You may perhaps see in some +odd place an intelligent-looking man, with a curious little +wooden table before him and three thimbles on it. He will +want you to bet, but don't do it. He really desires to cheat +you. And don't buy at auctions where the best plated +goods are being knocked down for next to nothing. These, +too, are delusions. If you wish to go to the play to see real +good acting (though a little more subdued than perfect<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span> +tragedy should be), I would recommend you to see —— +at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Anybody will show +it to you. It is near the Strand, and you may know it +by seeing no company whatever at any of the doors. Cab +fares are eightpence a mile. A mile London measure is +half a Dorsetshire mile, recollect. Porter is twopence per +pint; what is called stout is fourpence. The Zoological +Gardens are in the Regent's Park, and the price of admission +is one shilling. Of the streets, I would recommend you to +see Regent Street and the Quadrant, Bond Street, Piccadilly, +Oxford Street, and Cheapside. I think these will please +you after a time, though the tumult and bustle will at first +bewilder you. If I can serve you in any way, pray command +me. And with my best regards to your happy family, so +remote from this Babel,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Believe me, my dear Friend,</span><br /> +Ever affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—I forgot to mention just now that the black +equestrian figure you will see at Charing Cross, as you go +down to the House, is a statue of <i>King Charles the First</i>.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">The Earl of +Carlisle.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Broadstairs</span>, <i>July 8th, 1851.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Lord Carlisle</span>,</div> + +<p>We shall be delighted to see you, if you will come +down on Saturday. Mr. Lemon may perhaps be here, with +his wife, but no one else. And we can give you a bed that +may be surpassed, with a welcome that certainly cannot be.</p> + +<p>The general character of Broadstairs as to size and +accommodation was happily expressed by Miss Eden, when +she wrote to the Duke of Devonshire (as he told me), saying +how grateful she felt to a certain sailor, who asked leave to +see her garden, for not plucking it bodily up, and sticking +it in his button-hole.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span></p> + +<p>As we think of putting mignonette-boxes outside the +windows, for the younger children to sleep in by-and-by, I +am afraid we should give your servant the cramp if we +hardily undertook to lodge him. But in case you should +decide to bring one, he is easily disposable hard by.</p> + +<p>Don't come by the boat. It is rather tedious, and both +departs and arrives at inconvenient hours. There is a railway +train from the Dover terminus to Ramsgate, at half-past +twelve in the day, which will bring you in three hours. +Another at half-past four in the afternoon. If you will tell +me by which you come (I hope the former), I will await you +at the terminus with my little brougham.</p> + +<p>You will have for a night-light in the room we shall +give you, the North Foreland lighthouse. That and the sea +and air are our only lions. It is a very rough little place, +but a very pleasant one, and you will make it pleasanter +than ever to me.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours always.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">The Hon. +Mrs. +Watson.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Broadstairs, Kent</span>, <i>July 11th, 1851.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mrs. Watson</span>,</div> + +<p>I am so desperately indignant with you for writing +me that short apology for a note, and pretending to suppose +that under any circumstances I could fail to read with +interest anything <i>you</i> wrote to me, that I have more than +half a mind to inflict a regular letter upon you. If I were +not the gentlest of men I should do it!</p> + +<p>Poor dear Haldimand, I have thought of him so often. +That kind of decay is so inexpressibly affecting and piteous +to me, that I have no words to express my compassion and +sorrow. When I was at Abbotsford, I saw in a vile glass case +the last clothes Scott wore. Among them an old white hat, +which seemed to be tumbled and bent and broken by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span> +uneasy, purposeless wandering, hither and thither, of his +heavy head. It so embodied Lockhart's pathetic description +of him when he tried to write, and laid down his pen and +cried, that it associated itself in my mind with broken +powers and mental weakness from that hour. I fancy +Haldimand in such another, going listlessly about that +beautiful place, and remembering the happy hours we have +passed with him, and his goodness and truth. I think what +a dream we live in, until it seems for the moment the saddest +dream that ever was dreamed. Pray tell us if you hear +more of him. We really loved him.</p> + +<p>To go to the opposite side of life, let me tell you that a +week or so ago I took Charley and three of his schoolfellows +down the river gipsying. I secured the services of Charley's +godfather (an old friend of mine, and a noble fellow with +boys), and went down to Slough, accompanied by two +immense hampers from Fortnum and Mason, on (I believe) +the wettest morning ever seen out of the tropics.</p> + +<p>It cleared before we got to Slough; but the boys, who +had got up at four (we being due at eleven), had horrible +misgivings that we might not come, in consequence of which +we saw them looking into the carriages before us, all face. +They seemed to have no bodies whatever, but to be all face; +their countenances lengthened to that surprising extent. +When they saw us, the faces shut up as if they were upon +strong springs, and their waistcoats developed themselves +in the usual places. When the first hamper came out of the +luggage-van, I was conscious of their dancing behind the +guard; when the second came out with bottles in it, they all +stood wildly on one leg. We then got a couple of flys to +drive to the boat-house. I put them in the first, but they +couldn't sit still a moment, and were perpetually flying up +and down like the toy figures in the sham snuff-boxes. In<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span> +this order we went on to "Tom Brown's, the tailor's," where +they all dressed in aquatic costume, and then to the boat-house, +where they all cried in shrill chorus for "Mahogany"—a +gentleman, so called by reason of his sunburnt complexion, +a waterman by profession. (He was likewise +called during the day "Hog" and "Hogany," and seemed +to be unconscious of any proper name whatsoever.) We +embarked, the sun shining now, in a galley with a striped +awning, which I had ordered for the purpose, and all rowing +hard, went down the river. We dined in a field; what I +suffered for fear those boys should get drunk, the struggles +I underwent in a contest of feeling between hospitality and +prudence, must ever remain untold. I feel, even now, old +with the anxiety of that tremendous hour. They were very +good, however. The speech of one became thick, and his +eyes too like lobsters' to be comfortable, but only temporarily. +He recovered, and I suppose outlived the salad +he took. I have heard nothing to the contrary, and I +imagine I should have been implicated on the inquest if +there had been one. We had tea and rashers of bacon at a +public-house, and came home, the last five or six miles in a +prodigious thunderstorm. This was the great success of the +day, which they certainly enjoyed more than anything else. +The dinner had been great, and Mahogany had informed +them, after a bottle of light champagne, that he never would +come up the river "with ginger company" any more. But +the getting so completely wet through was the culminating +part of the entertainment. You never in your life saw such +objects as they were; and their perfect unconsciousness that +it was at all advisable to go home and change, or that there +was anything to prevent their standing at the station two +mortal hours to see me off, was wonderful. As to getting +them to their dames with any sort of sense that they were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span> +damp, I abandoned the idea. I thought it a success when +they went down the street as civilly as if they were just up +and newly dressed, though they really looked as if you could +have rubbed them to rags with a touch, like saturated +curl-paper.</p> + +<p>I am sorry you have not been able to see our play, which +I suppose you won't now, for I take it you are not going on +Monday, the 21st, our last night in town? It is worth +seeing, not for the getting up (which modesty forbids me to +approve), but for the little bijou it is, in the scenery, dresses, +and appointments. They are such as never can be got together +again, because such men as Stanfield, Roberts, Grieve, +Haghe, Egg, and others, never can be again combined in +such a work. Everything has been done at its best from all +sorts of authorities, and it is really very beautiful to look at.</p> + +<p>I find I am "used up" by the Exhibition. I don't say +"there is nothing in it"—there's too much. I have only +been twice; so many things bewildered me. I have a natural +horror of sights, and the fusion of so many sights in one has +not decreased it. I am not sure that I have seen anything +but the fountain and perhaps the Amazon. It is a dreadful +thing to be obliged to be false, but when anyone says, +"Have you seen ——?" I say, "Yes," because if I don't, +I know he'll explain it, and I can't bear that. —— took +all the school one day. The school was composed of a +hundred "infants," who got among the horses' legs in +crossing to the main entrance from the Kensington Gate, +and came reeling out from between the wheels of coaches +undisturbed in mind. They were clinging to horses, I am +told, all over the park.</p> + +<p>When they were collected and added up by the frantic +monitors, they were all right. They were then regaled with +cake, etc., and went tottering and staring all over the place;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span> +the greater part wetting their forefingers and drawing a +wavy pattern on every accessible object. One infant strayed. +He was not missed. Ninety and nine were taken home, +supposed to be the whole collection, but this particular +infant went to Hammersmith. He was found by the police +at night, going round and round the turnpike, which he +still supposed to be a part of the Exhibition. He had the +same opinion of the police, also of Hammersmith workhouse, +where he passed the night. When his mother came +for him in the morning, he asked when it would be over? +It was a great Exhibition, he said, but he thought it +long.</p> + +<p>As I begin to have a foreboding that you will think the +same of this act of vengeance of mine, this present letter, I +shall make an end of it, with my heartiest and most loving +remembrances to Watson. I should have liked him of all +things to have been in the Eton expedition, tell him, and to +have heard a song (by-the-bye, I have forgotten that) sung +in the thunderstorm, solos by Charley, chorus by the friends, +describing the career of a booby who was plucked at +college, every verse ending:</p> + +<div class='poem'> +I don't care a fig what the people may think,<br /> +But what <span class="smcap">will</span> the governor say!<br /> +</div> + +<p>which was shouted with a deferential jollity towards myself, +as a governor who had that day done a creditable +action, and proved himself worthy of all confidence.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;">With love to the boys and girls,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Ever, dear Mrs. Watson,</span><br /> +Most sincerely yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Frank +Stone.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +"<span class="smcap">Household Words</span>," <i>Sunday, July 20th, 1851.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Stone</span>,</div> + +<p>I have been considering the great house question +since you kindly called yesterday evening, and come to the +conclusion that I had better not let it go. I am convinced +it is the prudent thing for me to do, and that I am very +unlikely to find the same comforts for the rising generation +elsewhere, for the same money. Therefore, as Robins no +doubt understands that you would come to me yesterday—passing +his life as he does amidst every possible phase of +such negotiations—I think it hardly worth while to wait for +the receipt of his coming letter. If you will take the trouble +to call on him in the morning, and offer the £1,450, I shall +be very much obliged to you. If you will receive from me +full power to conclude the purchase (subject of course to +my solicitor's approval of the lease), pray do. I give you +<i>carte blanche</i> to £1,500, but I think the £1,450 ought to +win the day.</p> + +<p>I don't make any apologies for thrusting this honour +upon you, knowing what a thorough-going old pump you are. +Lemon and his wife are coming here, after the rehearsal, to +a gipsy sort of cold dinner. Time, half-past three. Viands, +pickled salmon and cold pigeon-pie. Occupation afterwards, +lying on the carpet as a preparation for histrionic strength. +Will you come with us from the Hanover Square Rooms?</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Charles +Knight.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Broadstairs, Kent</span>, <i>Sunday, July 27th, 1851.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Knight</span>,</div> + +<p>A most excellent Shadow!<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> I have sent it up to the +printer, and Wills is to send you a proof. Will you look +carefully at all the earlier part, where the use of the past<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span> +tense instead of the present a little hurts the picturesque +effect? I understand each phase of the thing to be <i>always +a thing present before the mind's eye</i>—a shadow passing +before it. Whatever is done, must be <i>doing</i>. Is it not so? +For example, if I did the Shadow of Robinson Crusoe, I +should not say he <i>was</i> a boy at Hull, when his father lectured +him about going to sea, and so forth; but he <i>is</i> a boy at +Hull. There he is, in that particular Shadow, eternally a +boy at Hull; his life to me is a series of shadows, but there +is no "was" in the case. If I choose to go to his manhood, +I can. These shadows don't change as realities do. No +phase of his existence passes away, if I choose to bring it +to this unsubstantial and delightful life, the only death of +which, to me, is <i>my</i> death, and thus he is immortal to +unnumbered thousands. If I am right, will you look at the +proof through the first third or half of the papers, and see +whether the Factor comes before us in that way? If not, +it is merely the alteration of the verb here and there that is +requisite.</p> + +<p>You say you are coming down to look for a place next +week. Now, Jerrold says he is coming on Thursday, by the +cheap express at half-past twelve, to return with me for +the play early on Monday morning. Can't you make that +holiday too? I have promised him our only spare bed, but +we'll find you a bed hard by, and shall be delighted "to +eat and drink you," as an American once wrote to me. +We will make expeditions to Herne Bay, Canterbury, where +not? and drink deep draughts of fresh air. Come! They +are beginning to cut the corn. You will never see the +country so pretty. If you stay in town these days, you'll +do nothing. I feel convinced you'll not buy the "Memoirs +of a Man of Quality." Say you'll come!</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Frank +Stone.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Broadstairs, Kent</span>, <i>Saturday, August 23rd, 1851.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Stone</span>,</div> + +<p>A "dim vision" occurs to me, arising out of your +note; also presents itself to the brains of my other +half.</p> + +<p>Supposing you should find, on looking onward, a possibility +of your being houseless at Michaelmas, what do you +say to using Devonshire Terrace as a temporary encampment? +It will not be in its usual order, but we would take +care that there should be as much useful furniture of all +sorts there, as to render it unnecessary for you to move a +stick. If you should think this a convenience, then I should +propose to you to pile your furniture in the middle of the +rooms at Tavistock House, and go out to Devonshire Terrace +two or three weeks <i>before</i> Michaelmas, to enable my workmen +to commence their operations. This might be to our +mutual convenience, and therefore I suggest it. Certainly +the sooner I can begin on Tavistock House the better. +And possibly your going into Devonshire Terrace might +relieve you from a difficulty that would otherwise be +perplexing.</p> + +<p>I make this suggestion (I need not say to <i>you</i>) solely on +the chance of its being useful to both of us. If it were +merely convenient to me, you know I shouldn't dream +of it. Such an arrangement, while it would cost you +nothing, would perhaps enable you to get your new house +into order comfortably, and do exactly the same thing +for me.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—I anticipated your suggestion some weeks ago, +when I found I couldn't build a stable. I said I ought to +have permission to take the piece of ground into my garden,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span> +which was conceded. Loaden writes me this morning that +he thinks he can get permission to build a stable one storey +high, without a chimney. I reply that on the whole I would +rather enlarge the garden than build a stable with those +restrictions.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Henry +Austin.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Broadstairs</span>, <i>Sunday, September 7th, 1851.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Henry</span>,</div> + +<p>I am in that state of mind which you may (once) have +seen described in the newspapers as "bordering on distraction;" +the house given up to me, the fine weather going on +(soon to break, I daresay), the painting season oozing away, +my new book waiting to be born, and</p> + +<div class='center'> +<span class="smcap">no workmen on the premises</span>,<br /> +</div> + +<p>along of my not hearing from you!! I have torn all my +hair off, and constantly beat my unoffending family. Wild +notions have occurred to me of sending in my own plumber +to do the drains. Then I remember that you have probably +written to prepare <i>your</i> man, and restrain my audacious +hand. Then Stone presents himself, with a most exasperatingly +mysterious visage, and says that a rat has appeared +in the kitchen, and it's his opinion (Stone's, not the rat's) +that the drains want "compo-ing;" for the use of which +explicit language I could fell him without remorse. In my +horrible desire to "compo" everything, the very postman +becomes my enemy because he brings no letter from you; +and, in short, I don't see what's to become of me unless I +hear from you to-morrow, which I have not the least expectation +of doing.</p> + +<p>Going over the house again, I have materially altered +the plans—abandoned conservatory and front balcony—decided +to make Stone's painting-room the drawing-room (it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span> +is nearly six inches higher than the room below), to carry +the entrance passage right through the house to a back door +leading to the garden, and to reduce the once intended +drawing-room—now school-room—to a manageable size, +making a door of communication between the new drawing-room +and the study. Curtains and carpets, on a scale of +awful splendour and magnitude, are already in preparation, +and still—still—</p> + +<div class='center'> +<span class="smcap">no workmen on the premises</span>.<br /> +</div> + +<p>To pursue this theme is madness. Where are you? +When are you coming home? Where is the man who is to +do the work? Does he know that an army of artificers +must be turned in at once, and the whole thing finished out +of hand? O rescue me from my present condition. Come +up to the scratch, I entreat and implore you!</p> + +<p>I send this to Lætitia to forward,</p> + +<div class='poem'> +Being, as you well know why,<br /> +Completely floored by N. W., I<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;"><i>Sleep</i>.</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>I hope you may be able to read this. My state of mind +does not admit of coherence.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—<span class="smcap">No workmen on the premises</span>!</p> + +<p>Ha! ha! ha! (I am laughing demoniacally.)</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Henry +Austin.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Broadstairs</span>, <i>Sunday, September 21st, 1851.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Henry</span>,</div> + +<p>It is quite clear we could do nothing else with the +drains than what you have done. Will it be at all a heavy +item in the estimate?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span></p> + +<p>If there be the <i>least</i> chance of a necessity for the pillar, +let us have it. Let us dance in peace, whatever we do, and +only go into the kitchen by the staircase.</p> + +<p>Have they cut the door between the drawing-room and +the study yet? The foreman will let Shoolbred know when +the feat is accomplished.</p> + +<p>O! and did you tell him of another brass ventilator +in the dining-room, opening into the dining-room flue?</p> + +<p>I don't think I shall come to town until you want to +show the progress, whenever that may be. I shall look +forward to another dinner, and I think we must encourage +the Oriental, for the goodness of its wine.</p> + +<p>I am getting a complete set of a certain distinguished +author's works prepared for a certain distinguished architect, +which I hope he will accept, as a slight, though very inadequate, +etc. etc.; affectionate, etc.; so heartily and kindly +taking so much interest, etc. etc.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Love to Lætitia.</span><br /> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Henry +Austin.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Broadstairs, Kent</span>, <i>October 7th, 1851.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Henry</span>,</div> + +<div class='center'>O! O! O! D—— the Pantechnicon. O!</div> + +<p>I will be at Tavistock House at twelve on Saturday, and +then will wait for you until I see you. If we return together—as +I hope we shall—our express will start at half-past +four, and we ought to dine (somewhere about Temple Bar) +at three.</p> + +<p>The infamous —— says the stoves shall be fixed to-morrow.</p> + +<p>O! if this were to last long; the distraction of the new +book, the whirling of the story through one's mind, escorted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span> +by workmen, the imbecility, the wild necessity of beginning +to write, the not being able to do so, the, O! I should +go—— O!</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—None. I have torn it off.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss Mary +Boyle.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Broadstairs, Kent</span>, <i>October 10th, 1851.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='center'><br /><span class="smcap">on the death of her mother</span>.</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Miss Boyle</span>,</div> + +<p>Your remembrance at such a time—not thrown away +upon me, trust me—is a sufficient assurance that you know +how truly I feel towards you, and with what an earnest +sympathy I must think of you now.</p> + +<p>God be with you! There is indeed nothing terrible in +such a death, nothing that we would undo, nothing that we +may remember otherwise than with deeply thankful, though +with softened hearts.</p> + +<p>Kate sends you her affectionate love. I enclose a note +from Georgina. Pray give my kindest remembrances to +your brother Cavendish, and believe me now and ever,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully your Friend.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Eeles.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 6em;">"<span class="smcap">Household Words" Office</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Wednesday Evening, Oct. 22nd, 1851.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">Dear Mr. Eeles</span>,</div> + +<p>I send you the list I have made for the book-backs. +I should like the "History of a Short Chancery Suit" to +come at the bottom of one recess, and the "Catalogue of +Statues of the Duke of Wellington" at the bottom of the +other. If you should want more titles, and will let me know +how many, I will send them to you.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span></p> +<div class='center'><br /> +LIST OF IMITATION BOOK-BACKS.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Tavistock House</i>, 1851.<br /> +<br /> +<br /></div> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Books at Tavistock"> +<tr><td align='left'>Five Minutes in China. 3 vols.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Forty Winks at the Pyramids. 2 vols.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Abernethy on the Constitution. 2 vols.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Mr. Green's Overland Mail. 2 vols.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Captain Cook's Life of Savage. 2 vols.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>A Carpenter's Bench of Bishops. 2 vols.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Toot's Universal Letter-Writer. 2 vols.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Orson's Art of Etiquette.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Downeaster's Complete Calculator.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>History of the Middling Ages. 6 vols.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Jonah's Account of the Whale.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Captain Parry's Virtues of Cold Tar.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Kant's Ancient Humbugs. 10 vols.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Bowwowdom. A Poem.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Quarrelly Review. 4 vols.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Gunpowder Magazine. 4 vols.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Steele. By the Author of "Ion."</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Art of Cutting the Teeth.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Matthew's Nursery Songs. 2 vols.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Paxton's Bloomers. 5 vols.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>On the Use of Mercury by the Ancient Poets.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Drowsy's Recollections of Nothing. 3 vols.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Heavyside's Conversations with Nobody. 3 vols.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Commonplace Book of the Oldest Inhabitant. 2 vols.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Growler's Gruffiology, with Appendix. 4 vols.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Books of Moses and Sons. 2 vols.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Burke (of Edinburgh) on the Sublime and Beautiful. 2 vols.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Teazer's Commentaries.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>King Henry the Eighth's Evidences of Christianity. 5 vols.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Miss Biffin on Deportment.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Morrison's Pills Progress. 2 vols.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Lady Godiva on the Horse.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Munchausen's Modern Miracles. 4 vols.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Richardson's Show of Dramatic Literature. 12 vols.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Hansard's Guide to Refreshing Sleep. As many volumes as possible.</td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Henry +Austin.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Office of "Household Words</span>,"</span><br /> +<i>Saturday, Oct. 25th, 1851.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Henry</span>,</div> + +<p>On the day of our departure, I thought we were going—backward—at +a most triumphant pace; but yesterday we +rather recovered. The painters still mislaid their brushes every +five minutes, and chiefly whistled in the intervals; and the +carpenters (especially the Pantechnicon) continued to look +sideways with one eye down pieces of wood, as if they were +absorbed in the contemplation of the perspective of the +Thames Tunnel, and had entirely relinquished the vanities +of this transitory world; but still there was an improvement, +and it is confirmed to-day. White lime is to be seen +in kitchens, the bath-room is gradually resolving itself from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span> +an abstract idea into a fact—youthful, extremely youthful, +but a fact. The drawing-room encourages no hope whatever, +nor the study. Staircase painted. Irish labourers +howling in the school-room, but I don't know why. I see +nothing. Gardener vigorously lopping the trees, and really +letting in the light and air. Foreman sweet-tempered but +uneasy. Inimitable hovering gloomily through the premises +all day, with an idea that a little more work is done when he +flits, bat-like, through the rooms, than when there is no one +looking on. Catherine all over paint. Mister McCann, +encountering Inimitable in doorways, fades obsequiously +into areas, and there encounters him again, and swoons with +confusion. Several reams of blank paper constantly spread +on the drawing-room walls, and sliced off again, which looks +like insanity. Two men still clinking at the new stair-rails. +I think they must be learning a tune; I cannot make out +any other object in their proceedings.</p> + +<p>Since writing the above, I have been up there again, +and found the young paper-hanger putting on his slippers, +and looking hard at the walls of the servants' room at the +top of the house, as if he meant to paper it one of these +days. May Heaven prosper his intentions!</p> + +<p>When do you come back? I hope soon.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Charles +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Clifton</span>, <i>November 13th, 1851.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dearest Kate</span>,</div> + +<p>I have just received your second letter, and am quite +delighted to find that all is going on so vigorously, and that +you are in such a methodical, business-like, and energetic +state. I shall come home by the express on Saturday +morning, and shall hope to be at home between eleven and +twelve.</p> + +<p>We had a noble night last night. The room (which is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span> +the largest but one in England) was crammed in every part. +The effect of from thirteen to fourteen hundred people, all +well dressed, and all seated in one unbroken chamber, except +that the floor rose high towards the end of the hall, was +most splendid, and we never played to a better audience. +The enthusiasm was prodigious; the place delightful for +speaking in; no end of gas; another hall for a dressing-room; +an immense stage; and every possible convenience. +We were all thoroughly pleased, I think, with the whole +thing, and it was a very great and striking success. To-morrow-night, +having the new Hardman, I am going to try +the play with all kinds of cuts, taking out, among other +things, some half-dozen printed pages of "Wills's Coffee +House."</p> + +<p>We are very pleasant and cheerful. They are all going +to Matthew Davenport Hill's to lunch this morning, and to +see some woods about six or seven miles off. I prefer being +quiet, and shall go out at my leisure and call on Elliot. We +are very well lodged and boarded, and, living high up on +the Downs, are quite out of the filth of Bristol.</p> + +<p>I saw old Landor at Bath, who has bronchitis. When +he was last in town, "Kenyon drove him about, by God, +half the morning, under a most damnable pretence of +taking him to where Walter was at school, and they never +found the confounded house!" He had in his pocket on +that occasion a souvenir for Walter in the form of a Union +shirt-pin, which is now in my possession, and shall be duly +brought home.</p> + +<p>I am tired enough, and shall be glad when to-morrow +night is over. We expect a very good house. Forster +came up to town after the performance last night, and promised +to report to you that all was well. Jerrold is in +extraordinary force. I don't think I ever knew him so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span> +humorous. And this is all my news, which is quite enough. +I am continually thinking of the house in the midst of all +the bustle, but I trust it with such confidence to you that I +am quite at my ease about it.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;">With best love to Georgy and the girls,</span><br /> +Ever, my dearest Kate, most affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—I forgot to say that Topham has suddenly come out +as a juggler, and swallows candles, and does wonderful things +with the poker very well indeed, but with a bashfulness and +embarrassment extraordinarily ludicrous.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Eeles.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House, Tavistock Square</span>, <i>Nov. 17th, 1851.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">Dear Mr. Eeles</span>,</div> + +<p>I must thank you for the admirable manner in which +you have done the book-backs in my room. I feel personally +obliged to you, I assure you, for the interest you have +taken in my whim, and the promptitude with which you +have completely carried it out.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Gaskell.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Thursday Afternoon, Dec. 5th, 1851.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mrs. Gaskell</span>,</div> + +<p>I write in great haste to tell you that Mr. Wills, in +the utmost consternation, has brought me your letter, just +received (four o'clock), and that it is <i>too late</i> to recall your +tale. I was so delighted with it that I put it first in the +number (not hearing of any objection to my proposed +alteration by return of post), and the number is now made +up and in the printer's hands. I cannot possibly take the +tale out—it has departed from me.</p> + +<p>I am truly concerned for this, but I hope you will not +blame me for what I have done in perfect good faith. Any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span> +recollection of me from your pen cannot (as I think you +know) be otherwise than truly gratifying to me; but with +my name on every page of "Household Words," there +would be—or at least I should feel—an impropriety in so +mentioning myself. I was particular, in changing the +author, to make it "Hood's <i>Poems</i>" in the most important +place—I mean where the captain is killed—and I hope and +trust that the substitution will not be any serious drawback +to the paper in any eyes but yours. I would do anything +rather than cause you a minute's vexation arising out of +what has given me so much pleasure, and I sincerely +beseech you to think better of it, and not to fancy that any +shade has been thrown on your charming writing, by</p> + +<div class='sig'> +The unfortunate but innocent.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—I write at a gallop, not to lose another post.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Gaskell.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Sunday, December 21st, 1851.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mrs. Gaskell</span>,</div> + +<p>If you were not the most suspicious of women, always +looking for soft sawder in the purest metal of praise, I should +call your paper delightful, and touched in the tenderest and +most delicate manner. Being what you are, I confine myself +to the observation that I have called it "A Love Affair at +Cranford," and sent it off to the printer.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours ever.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Peter +Cunningham.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>December 26th, 1851.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Cunningham</span>,</div> + +<p>About the three papers.</p> + +<p>1st. With Mr. Plowman of Oxford, Wills will communicate.</p> + +<p>2nd. (Now returned.) I have seen, in nearly the same +form, before. The list of names is overwhelming.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span></p> + +<p>3rd. I am not at all earnest in the Savage matter; +firstly, because I think so tremendous a vagabond never +could have obtained an honest living in any station of existence +or at any period of time; and secondly, because I think +it of the highest importance that such an association as our +Guild should not appear to resent upon society the faults of +individuals who were flagrantly impracticable.</p> + +<p>At its best, it is liable to that suspicion, as all such efforts +have been on the part of many jealous persons, to whom it +<i>must</i> look for aid. And any stop that in the least encourages +it is one of a fatal kind.</p> + +<p>I do <i>not</i> think myself, but this is merely an individual +opinion, that Savage <i>was</i> a man of genius, or that anything +of his writing would have attracted much notice but for +the bastard's reference to his mother. For these reasons +combined, I should not be inclined to add my subscription +of two guineas to yours, unless the inscription were altered +as I have altered it in pencil. But in that case I should be +very glad to respond to your suggestion, and to snuff out all +my smaller disinclination.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours ever.<br /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>1852.</h2> + +<h3>NARRATIVE.</h3> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>In</span> the summer of this year, Charles Dickens hired a house +at Dover for three months, whither he went with his family. +At the end of this time he sent his children and servants +back to Tavistock House, and crossed over to Boulogne, with +his wife and sister-in-law, to inspect that town and its neighbourhood, +with a view of making it his summer quarters in +the following year. Many amateur performances were given +in the provinces in aid of the fund for the Guild of Literature<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span> +and Art; Charles Dickens, as usual, taking the whole management +on his own shoulders.</div> + +<p>In March, the first number of "Bleak House" appeared, +and he was at work on this book all through the year, as +well as being constantly occupied with his editorship of +"Household Words."</p> + +<p>We have, in the letters for this year, Charles Dickens's +first to Lord John Russell (afterwards the Earl Russell); a +friend whom he held in the highest estimation, and to whom +he was always grateful for many personal kindnesses. We +have also his first letter to Mr. Wilkie Collins, with whom +he became most intimately associated in literary work. The +affectionate friendship he had for him, the high value in which +he held him as a brother-artist, are constantly expressed in +Charles Dickens's own letters to Mr. Collins, and in his letters +to other friends.</p> + +<p>"Those gallant men" (in the letter to Mr. J. Crofton +Croker) had reference to an antiquarian club, called the +Noviomagians, who were about to give a dinner in honour +of Sir Edward Belcher and Captain Kellett, the officers in +command of the Arctic Exploring Expedition, to which +Charles Dickens was also invited. Mr. Crofton Croker was +the president of this club, and to denote his office it was +customary to put on a cocked hat after dinner.</p> + +<p>The "lost character" he writes of in a letter to Mrs. +Watson, refers to two different decipherings of his handwriting; +this sort of study being in fashion then, and he +and his friends at Rockingham Castle deriving much +amusement from it.</p> + +<p>The letter dated July 9th was in answer to an anonymous +correspondent, who wrote to him as follows: "I +venture to trespass on your attention with one serious +query, touching a sentence in the last number of 'Bleak +House.' Do the supporters of Christian missions to the +heathen really deserve the attack that is conveyed in the +sentence about Jo' seated in his anguish on the door-step of +the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign +Parts? The allusion is severe, but is it just? Are such<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span> +boys as Jo' neglected? What are ragged schools, town +missions, and many of those societies I regret to see sneered +at in the last number of 'Household Words'?"</p> + +<p>The "Duke of Middlesex," in the letter we have here to +Mr. Charles Knight, was the name of the character played +by Mr. F. Stone, in Sir E. B. Lytton's comedy of "Not so +Bad as we Seem."</p> + +<p>Our last letter in this year, to Mr. G. Linnæus Banks, was +in acknowledgment of one from him on the subject of a +proposed public dinner to Charles Dickens, to be given by +the people of Birmingham, when they were also to present +him with a salver and a diamond ring. The dinner was given +in the following year, and the ring and salver (the latter an +artistic specimen of Birmingham ware) were duly presented +by Mr. Banks, who acted as honorary secretary, in the names +of the subscribers, at the rooms of the Birmingham Fine +Arts Association. Mr. Banks, and the artist, Mr. J. C. +Walker, were the originators of this demonstration.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>January 31st, 1852.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>If the "taxes on knowledge" mean the stamp duty, +the paper duty, and the advertisement duty, they seem to +me to be unnecessarily confounded, and unfairly too.</p> + +<p>I have already declined to sign a petition for the removal +of the stamp duty on newspapers. I think the reduced +duty is some protection to the public against the rash and +hasty launching of blackguard newspapers. I think the +newspapers are made extremely accessible to the poor man +at present, and that he would not derive the least benefit +from the abolition of the stamp. It is not at all clear to +me, supposing he wants <i>The Times</i> a penny cheaper, that +he would get it a penny cheaper if the tax were taken off. +If he supposes he would get in competition two or three<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span> +new journals as good to choose from, he is mistaken; not +knowing the immense resources and the gradually perfective +machinery necessary to the production of such a journal. It +appears to me to be a fair tax enough, very little in the way +of individuals, not embarrassing to the public in its mode of +being levied, and requiring some small consideration and +pauses from the American kind of newspaper projectors. +Further, a committee has reported in favour of the repeal, +and the subject may be held to need no present +launching.</p> + +<p>The repeal of the paper duty would benefit the producers +of periodicals immensely. It would make a very large difference +to me, in the case of such a journal as "Household +Words." But the gain to the public would be very small. +It would not make the difference of enabling me, for +example, to reduce the price of "Household Words," by +its fractional effect upon a copy, or to increase the quantity +of matter. I might, in putting the difference into my +pocket, improve the quality of the paper a little, but not +one man in a thousand would notice it. It <i>might</i> (though I +am not sure even of this) remove the difficulties in the way +of a deserving periodical with a small sale. Charles Knight +holds that it would. But the case, on the whole, appeared +to me so slight, when I went to Downing Street with a +deputation on the subject, that I said (in addressing the +Chancellor of the Exchequer) I could not honestly maintain +it for a moment as against the soap duty, or any other +pressing on the mass of the poor.</p> + +<p>The advertisement duty has this preposterous anomaly, +that a footman in want of a place pays as much in the way +of tax for the expression of his want, as Professor Holloway +pays for the whole list of his miraculous cures.</p> + +<p>But I think, at this time especially, there is so much to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span> +be considered in the necessity the country will be under of +having money, and the necessity of justice it is always +under, to consider the physical and moral wants of the poor +man's home, as to justify a man in saying: "I must wait a +little, all taxes are more or less objectionable, and so no +doubt are these, but we must have some; and I have not +made up my mind that all these things that are mixed up +together <i>are</i> taxes on knowledge in reality."</p> + +<p>Kate and Georgy unite with me in kindest and heartiest +love to dear Mrs. Macready. We are always with you in +spirit, and always talking about you. I am obliged to +conclude very hastily, being beset to-day with business +engagements. Saw the lecture and was delighted; thought +the idea admirable. Again, loves upon loves to dear Mrs. +Macready and to Miss Macready also, and Kate and all the +house. I saw —— play (O Heaven!) "Macbeth," the +other night, in three hours and fifty minutes, which is quick, +I think.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever and always affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. J. +Crofton +Croker.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>March 6th, 1852.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Sir</span>,</div> + +<p>I have the greatest interest in those gallant men, and +should have been delighted to dine in their company. I feel +truly obliged to you for your kind remembrance on such an +occasion.</p> + +<p>But I am engaged to Lord Lansdowne on Wednesday, +and can only drink to them in the spirit, which I have often +done when they have been farther off.</p> + +<p>I hope you will find occasion to put on your cocked hat, +that they may see how terrific and imposing "a fore-and-after" +can be made on shore.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours always.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">The Hon. +Mrs. +Watson.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>April 6th, 1852.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mrs. Watson</span>,</div> + +<p>My "lost character" was one of those awful documents +occasionally to be met with, which <span class="smcap">will</span> be everywhere. +It glared upon me from every drawer I had, fell out of +books, lurked under keys, hid in empty inkstands, got into +portfolios, frightened me by inscrutably passing into locked +despatch-boxes, and was not one character, but a thousand. +This was when I didn't want it. I look for it this morning, +and it is nowhere! Probably will never be beheld +again.</p> + +<p>But it was very unlike this one; and there is no doubt +that when these ventures come out good, it is only by lucky +chance and coincidence. She never mentioned my love of +order before, and it is so remarkable (being almost a <i>dis</i>order), +that she ought to have fainted with surprise when +my handwriting was first revealed to her.</p> + +<p>I was very sorry to leave Rockingham the other day, +and came away in quite a melancholy state. The Birmingham +people were very active; and the Shrewsbury gentry +quite transcendent. I hope we shall have a very successful +and dazzling trip. It is delightful to me to think of your +coming to Birmingham; and, by-the-bye, if you will tell me +in the previous week what hotel accommodation you want, +Mr. Wills will look to it with the greatest pleasure.</p> + +<p>Your bookseller ought to be cashiered. I suppose "he" +(as Rogers calls everybody's husband) went out hunting with +the idea of diverting his mind from dwelling on its loss. +Abortive effort!</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 8em;">Charley brings this with himself.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;">With kindest regards and remembrances,</span><br /> +Ever, dear Mrs. Watson, most faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Charles +Knight.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>June 29th, 1852.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Knight</span>,</div> + +<p>A thousand thanks for the Shadow, which, is charming. +May you often go (out of town) and do likewise!</p> + +<p>I dined with Charles Kemble, yesterday, to meet Emil +Devrient, the German actor. He said (Devrient is my antecedent) +that Ophelia <i>spoke</i> the snatches of ballads in their +German version of "Hamlet," because they didn't know the +airs. Tom Taylor said that you had published the airs in +your "Shakespeare." I said that if it were so, I knew you +would be happy to place them at the German's service. If +you have got them and will send them to me, I will write to +Devrient (who knows no English) a French explanation and +reminder of the circumstance, and will tell him that you +responded like a man and a—I was going to say publisher, +but you are nothing of the sort, except as Tonson. Then +indeed you are every inch a pub.!</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">The +Lord John +Russell.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Wednesday, June 30th, 1852.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Lord</span>,</div> + +<p>I am most truly obliged to you for your kind note, +and for your so generously thinking of me in the midst of +your many occupations. I do assure you that your ever +ready consideration had already attached me to you in the +warmest manner, and made me very much your debtor. +I thank you unaffectedly and very earnestly, and am proud +to be held in your remembrance.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Believe me always, yours faithfully and obliged.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Anonymous +Correspondent.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House, Tavistock Square</span>, <i>July 9th, 1852.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,</div> + +<p>I have received your letter of yesterday's date, and +shall content myself with a brief reply.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span></p> + +<p>There was a long time during which benevolent societies +were spending immense sums on missions abroad, when there +was no such thing as a ragged school in England, or any +kind of associated endeavour to penetrate to those horrible +domestic depths in which such schools are now to be found, +and where they were, to my most certain knowledge, neither +placed nor discovered by the Society for the Propagation of +the Gospel in Foreign Parts.</p> + +<p>If you think the balance between the home mission and +the foreign mission justly held in the present time, I do not. +I abstain from drawing the strange comparison that might +be drawn between the sums even now expended in endeavours +to remove the darkest ignorance and degradation from our +very doors, because I have some respect for mistakes that +may be founded in a sincere wish to do good. But I present +a general suggestion of the still-existing anomaly (in such a +paragraph as that which offends you), in the hope of inducing +some people to reflect on this matter, and to adjust the balance +more correctly. I am decidedly of opinion that the two +works, the home and the foreign, are <i>not</i> conducted with an +equal hand, and that the home claim is by far the stronger +and the more pressing of the two.</p> + +<p>Indeed, I have very grave doubts whether a great commercial +country, holding communication with all parts of the +world, can better Christianise the benighted portions of it +than by the bestowal of its wealth and energy on the making +of good Christians at home, and on the utter removal of +neglected and untaught childhood from its streets, before it +wanders elsewhere. For, if it steadily persist in this work, +working downward to the lowest, the travellers of all grades +whom it sends abroad will be good, exemplary, practical +missionaries, instead of undoers of what the best professed +missionaries can do.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span></p> + +<p>These are my opinions, founded, I believe, on some +knowledge of facts and some observation. If I could be +scared out of them, let me add in all good humour, by such +easily-impressed words as "antichristian" or "irreligious," +I should think that I deserved them in their real +signification.</p> + +<p>I have referred in vain to page 312 of "Household +Words" for the sneer to which you call my attention. Nor +have I, I assure you, the least idea where else it is to be +found.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +I am, Sir, your faithful Servant.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss Mary +Boyle.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +10, <span class="smcap">Camden Crescent, Dover</span>, <i>July 22nd, 1852.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mary</span>,</div> + +<p>This is indeed a noble letter. The description of the +family is quite amazing. I <i>must</i> return it myself to say that +I <span class="smcap">have</span> appreciated it.</p> + +<p>I am going to do "Used Up" at Manchester on the 2nd +of September. O, think of that! With another Mary!!! +How can I ever say, "<i>Dear</i> Joe, if you like!" The voice +may fully frame the falsehood, but the heart—the heart, +Mr. Wurzel—will have no part in it.</p> + +<p>My dear Mary, you do scant justice to Dover. It is not +quite a place to my taste, being too bandy (I mean musical, +no reference to its legs), and infinitely too genteel. But the +sea is very fine, and the walks are quite remarkable. There +are two ways of going to Folkestone, both lovely and striking +in the highest degree; and there are heights, and downs, +and country roads, and I don't know what, everywhere.</p> + +<p>To let you into a secret, I am not quite sure that I +ever did like, or ever shall like, anything quite so well +as "Copperfield." But I foresee, I think, some very +good things in "Bleak House." I shouldn't wonder if they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span> +were the identical things that D'Israeli sees looming in the +distance. I behold them in the months ahead and weep.</p> + +<p>Watson seemed, when I saw him last, to be holding on +as by a sheet-anchor to theatricals at Christmas. Then, +O rapture! but be still, my fluttering heart.</p> + +<p>This is one of what I call my wandering days before I +fall to work. I seem to be always looking at such times for +something I have not found in life, but may possibly come +to a few thousands of years hence, in some other part of +some other system. God knows. At all events I won't put +your pastoral little pipe out of tune by talking about it. I'll +go and look for it on the Canterbury road among the hop-gardens +and orchards.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Ever faithfully your Friend,</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Joe</span>.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Charles +Knight.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +10, <span class="smcap">Camden Crescent, Dover</span>, <i>Sunday, Aug. 1st, 1852.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Knight</span>,</div> + +<p>I don't see why you should go to the Ship, and I +won't stand it. The state apartment will be occupied by +the Duke of Middlesex (whom I think you know), but we +can easily get a bed for you hard by. Therefore you will +please to drive here next Saturday evening. Our regular +dinner hour is half-past five. If you are later, you will find +something ready for you.</p> + +<p>If you go on in that way about your part, I shall think +you want to play Mr. Gabblewig. Your rôle, though a +small one on the stage, is a large one off it; and no man is +more important to the Guild, both on and off.</p> + +<p>My dear friend Watson! Dead after an illness of four +days. He dined with us this day three weeks. I loved +him as my heart, and cannot think of him without tears.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Mark +Lemon.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Dover</span>, <i>August 5th, 1852.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mark</span>,</div> + +<p>Poor dear Watson was dead when the paragraph in +the paper appeared. He was buried in his own church +yesterday. Last Sunday three weeks (the day before he +went abroad) he dined with us, and was quite well and +happy. She has come home, is at Rockingham with the +children, and does not weakly desert his grave, but sets up +her rest by it from the first. He had been wandering in +his mind a little before his death, but recovered consciousness, +and fell asleep (she says) quite gently and peacefully +in her arms.</p> + +<p>I loved him very much, and God knows he deserved it.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">The Earl of +Carlisle.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +10, <span class="smcap">Camden Crescent, Dover</span>, <i>Thursday, Aug. 5th, 1852.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Lord Carlisle</span>,</div> + +<p>'Peared to me (as Uncle Tom would say) until within +these last few days, that I should be able to write to +you, joyfully accepting your Saturday's invitation after +Newcastle, in behalf of all whom it concerned. But the +Sunderland people rushed into the field to propose our +acting there on that Saturday, the only possible night. +And as it is the concluding Guild expedition, and the Guild +has a paramount claim on us, I have been obliged to knock +my own inclinations on the head, cut the throat of my own +wishes, and bind the Company hand and foot to the +Sunderland lieges. I don't mean to tell them now of your +invitation until we shall have got out of that country. +There might be rebellion. We are staying here for the +autumn.</p> + +<p>Is there any hope of your repeating your visit to these +coasts?</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">The Hon. +Mrs. +Watson.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +10, <span class="smcap">Camden Crescent, Dover</span>, <i>August 5th, 1852.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='center'><br /> +ON THE DEATH OF MR. WATSON.<br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear, dear Mrs. Watson</span>,</div> + +<p>I cannot bear to be silent longer, though I know full +well—no one better I think—how your love for him, and +your trust in God, and your love for your children will have +come to the help of such a nature as yours, and whispered +better things than any friendship can, however faithful and +affectionate.</p> + +<p>We held him so close in our hearts—all of us here—and +have been so happy with him, and so used to say how good +he was, and what a gentle, generous, noble spirit he had, +and how he shone out among commoner men as something +so real and genuine, and full of every kind of worthiness, +that it has often brought the tears into my eyes to talk of +him; we have been so accustomed to do this when we +looked forward to years of unchanged intercourse, that now, +when everything but truth goes down into the dust, those +recollections which make the sword so sharp pour balm into +the wound. And if it be a consolation to us to know the +virtues of his character, and the reasons that we had for +loving him, O how much greater is your comfort who were +so devoted to him, and were the happiness of his life!</p> + +<p>We have thought of you every day and every hour; we +think of you now in the dear old house, and know how right +it is, for his dear children's sake, that you should have +bravely set up your rest in the place consecrated by their +father's memory, and within the same summer shadows that +fall upon his grave. We try to look on, through a few years, +and to see the children brightening it, and George a comfort +and a pride and an honour to you; and although it <i>is</i> hard +to think of what we have lost, we know how something of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span> +it will be restored by your example and endeavours, and the +blessing that will descend upon them. We know how the +time will come when some reflection of that cordial, unaffected, +most affectionate presence, which we can never +forget, and never would forget if we could—such is God's +great mercy—will shine out of your boy's eyes upon you, +his best friend and his last consoler, and fill the void there +is now.</p> + +<p>May God, who has received into His rest through this +affliction as good a man as ever I can know and love and +mourn for on this earth, be good to you, dear friends, +through these coming years! May all those compassionate +and hopeful lessons of the great Teacher who shed divine +tears for the dead bring their full comfort to you! I have +no fear of that, my confidence is certainty.</p> + +<p>I cannot write what I wish; I had so many things to +say, I seem to have said none. It is so with the remembrances +we send. I cannot put them into words.</p> + +<p>If you should ever set up a record in the little church, I +would try to word it myself, and God knows out of the +fulness of my heart, if you should think it well.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 12em;">My dear Friend,</span><br /> +Yours, with the truest affection and sympathy.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Hôtel Des Bains, Boulogne</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Tuesday Night, Oct. 5th, 1852.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='center'><br />ON THE DEATH OF MRS. MACREADY.</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dearest Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>I received your melancholy letter while we were +staying at Dover, a few days after it was written; but I +thought it best not to write to you until you were at home +again, among your dear children.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span></p> + +<p>Its tidings were not unexpected to us, had been +anticipated in many conversations, often thought of under +many circumstances; but the shock was scarcely lessened +by this preparation. The many happy days we have passed +together came crowding back; all the old cheerful times +arose before us; and the remembrance of what we had +loved so dearly and seen under so many aspects—all natural +and delightful and affectionate and ever to be cherished—was, +how pathetic and touching you know best!</p> + +<p>But my dear, dear Macready, this is not the first time +you have felt that the recollection of great love and +happiness associated with the dead soothes while it wounds. +And while I can imagine that the blank beside you may +grow wider every day for many days to come, I <i>know</i>—I +think—that from its depths such comfort will arise as only +comes to great hearts like yours, when they can think upon +their trials with a steady trust in God.</p> + +<p>My dear friend, I have known her so well, have been +so happy in her regard, have been so light-hearted with +her, have interchanged so many tender remembrances of +you with her when you were far away, and have seen her +ever so simply and truly anxious to be worthy of you, that +I cannot write as I would and as I know I ought. As I +would press your hand in your distress, I let this note go +from me. I understand your grief, I deeply feel the reason +that there is for it, yet in that very feeling find a softening +consolation that must spring up a hundred-thousandfold for +you. May Heaven prosper it in your breast, and the +spirits that have gone before, from the regions of mercy to +which they have been called, smooth the path you have to +tread alone! Children are left you. Your good sister (God +bless her!) is by your side. You have devoted friends, and +more reasons than most men to be self-reliant and stedfast.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span> +Something is gone that never in this world can be replaced, +but much is left, and it is a part of her life, her death, her +immortality.</p> + +<p>Catherine and Georgina, who are with me here, send you +their overflowing love and sympathy. We hope that in a +little while, and for a little while at least, you will come +among us, who have known the happiness of being in this +bond with you, and will not exclude us from participation in +your past and future.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Ever, my dearest Macready, with unchangeable affection,</span><br /> +Yours in all love and truth.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. H. +Wills.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Hôtel Des Bains, Boulogne</span>, <i>Tuesday, Oct. 12th, 1852.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Wills</span>,</div> + +<div class='center'> +H. W.<br /> +</div> + +<p>I have thought of the Christmas number, but not very +successfully, because I have been (and still am) constantly +occupied with "Bleak House." I purpose returning home +either on Sunday or Monday, as my work permits, and we +will, immediately thereafter, dine at the office and talk it +over, so that you may get all the men to their work.</p> + +<p>The fault of ——'s poem, besides its intrinsic meanness +as a composition, is that it goes too glibly with the comfortable +ideas (of which we have had a great deal too much in +England since the Continental commotions) that a man is to +sit down and make himself domestic and meek, no matter +what is done to him. It wants a stronger appeal to rulers +in general to let men do this, fairly, by governing them well. +As it stands, it is at about the tract-mark ("Dairyman's +Daughter," etc.) of political morality, and don't think that +it is necessary to write <i>down</i> to any part of our audience. I +always hold that to be as great a mistake as can be made.</p> + +<p>I wish you would mention to Thomas, that I think the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span> +paper on hops <i>extremely well done</i>. He has quite caught +the idea we want, and caught it in the best way. In +pursuing the bridge subject, I think it would be advisable +to look up the <i>Thames police</i>. I have a misty notion of some +capital papers coming out of it. Will you see to this branch +of the tree among the other branches?</p> + +<div class='center'> +<span class="smcap">Myself</span>.<br /> +</div> + +<p>To Chapman I will write. My impression is that I shall +not subscribe to the Hood monument, as I am not at all +favourable to such posthumous honours.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. H. +Wills.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;"><span class="smcap">Hôtel des Bains, Boulogne</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Wednesday Night, Oct. 13th, 1852.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Wills</span>,</div> + +<p>The number coming in after dinner, since my letter +was written and posted, I have gone over it.</p> + +<p>I am grievously depressed by it; it is so exceedingly +bad. If you have anything else to put first, don't put ——'s +paper first. (There is nothing better for a beginning in the +number as it stands, but this is very bad.) It is a mistake +to think of it as a first article. The article itself is in the +main a mistake. Firstly, the subject requires the greatest +discretion and nicety of touch. And secondly, it is all wrong +and self-contradictory. Nobody can for a moment suppose +that "sporting" amusements are the sports of the <span class="smcap">people</span>; +the whole gist of the best part of the description is to show +that they are the amusements of a peculiar and limited class. +The greater part of them are at a miserable discount (horse-racing +excepted, which has been already sufficiently done in +H. W.), and there is no reason for running amuck at them +at all. I have endeavoured to remove much of my objection<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span> +(and I think have done so), but, both in purpose and in any +general address, it is as wide of a first article as anything +can well be. It would do best in the opening of the number.</p> + +<p>About Sunday in Paris there is no kind of doubt. Take +it out. Such a thing as that crucifixion, unless it were done +in a masterly manner, we have no business to stagger families +with. Besides, the name is a comprehensive one, and should +include a quantity of fine matter. Lord bless me, what I +could write under that head!</p> + +<p>Strengthen the number, pray, by anything good you +may have. It is a very dreary business as it stands.</p> + +<p>The proofs want a thorough revision.</p> + +<p>In haste, going to bed.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—I want a name for Miss Martineau's paper.</p> + +<div class='center'> +<span class="smcap">Triumphant Carriages</span> (or <span class="smcap">Triumphal</span>).<br /> + +<span class="smcap">Dublin Stoutheartedness</span>.<br /> + +<span class="smcap">Patience and Prejudice</span>.<br /> +</div> + +<p>Take which you like best.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. John +Watkins.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Monday</span>, <i>October 18th, 1852.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,</div> + +<p>On my return to town I find the letter awaiting me +which you did me the favour to address to me, I believe—for +it has no date—some days ago.</p> + +<p>I have the greatest tenderness for the memory of Hood, +as I had for himself. But I am not very favourable to +posthumous memorials in the monument way, and I should +exceedingly regret to see any such appeal as you contemplate +made public, remembering another public appeal that +was made and responded to after Hood's death. I think +that I best discharge my duty to my deceased friend, and +best consult the respect and love with which I remember +him, by declining to join in any such public endeavours as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span> +that which you (in all generosity and singleness of purpose, +I am sure) advance. I shall have a melancholy gratification +in privately assisting to place a simple and plain record +over the remains of a great writer that should be as modest +as he was himself, but I regard any other monument in +connection with his mortal resting-place as a mistake.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +I am, Sir, your faithful Servant.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Rev. +James +White.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Office of "Household Words</span>," <i>Tuesday, Oct. 19th, 1852.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear White</span>,</div> + +<p>We are now getting our Christmas extra number +together, and I think you are the boy to do, if you will, one +of the stories.</p> + +<p>I propose to give the number some fireside name, and to +make it consist entirely of short stories supposed to be told +by a family sitting round the fire. <i>I don't care about their +referring to Christmas at all</i>; nor do I design to connect +them together, otherwise than by their names, as:</p> + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Names of Story"> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Grandfather's Story.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Father's Story.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Daughter's Story.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Schoolboy's Story.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Child's Story.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Guest's Story.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Old Nurse's Story</span>.</td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<p>The grandfather might very well be old enough to have +lived in the days of the highwaymen. Do you feel disposed, +from fact, fancy, or both, to do a good winter-hearth story +of a highwayman? If you do, I embrace you (per post), +and throw up a cap I have purchased for the purpose into +mid-air.</p> + +<p>Think of it and write me a line in reply. We are all +well and blooming.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span></p> + +<p>Are you never coming to town any more? Never going +to drink port again, metropolitaneously, but <i>always</i> with +Fielden?</p> + +<p>Love to Mrs. White and the children, if Lotty be not out +of the list long ago.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully, my dear White.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">The Hon. +Mrs. +Watson.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Athenæum</span>, <i>Monday, November 22nd, 1852.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mrs. Watson</span>,</div> + +<p>Having just now finished my work for the time being, +I turn in here in the course of a rainy walk, to have the +gratification of writing a few lines to you. If my occupations +with this same right hand were less numerous, you +would soon be tired of me, I should write to you so often.</p> + +<p>You asked Catherine a question about "Bleak House." +Its circulation is half as large again as "Copperfield"! I +have just now come to the point I have been patiently +working up to in the writing, and I hope it will suggest to +you a pretty and affecting thing. In the matter of "Uncle +Tom's Cabin," I partly though not entirely agree with +Mr. James. No doubt a much lower art will serve for the +handling of such a subject in fiction, than for a launch +on the sea of imagination without such a powerful bark; +but there are many points in the book very admirably +done. There is a certain St. Clair, a New Orleans gentleman, +who seems to me to be conceived with great power +and originality. If he had not "a Grecian outline of face," +which I began to be a little tired of in my earliest infancy, +I should think him unexceptionable. He has a sister too, +a maiden lady from New England, in whose person the +besetting weaknesses and prejudices of the Abolitionists +themselves, on the subject of the blacks, are set forth in the +liveliest and truest colours and with the greatest boldness.</p> + +<p>I have written for "Household Words" of this next<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span> +publication-day an article on the State funeral,<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> showing +why I consider it altogether a mistake, to be temperately +but firmly objected to; which I daresay will make a good +many of the admirers of such things highly indignant. It +may have right and reason on its side, however, none the less.</p> + +<p>Charley and I had a great talk at Dover about his going +into the army, when I thought it right to set before him +fairly and faithfully the objections to that career, no less +than its advantages. The result was that he asked in a +very manly way for time to consider. So I appointed to go +down to Eton on a certain day at the beginning of this +month, and resume the subject. We resumed it accordingly +at the White Hart, at Windsor, and he came to the conclusion +that he would rather be a merchant, and try to +establish some good house of business, where he might find +a path perhaps for his younger brothers, and stay at home, +and make himself the head of that long, small procession. +I was very much pleased with him indeed; he showed a fine +sense and a fine feeling in the whole matter. We have +arranged, therefore, that he shall leave Eton at Christmas, +and go to Germany after the holidays, to become well +acquainted with that language, now most essential in such a +walk of life as he will probably tread.</p> + +<p>And I think this is the whole of my news. We are +always talking of you at home. Mary Boyle dined with us +a little while ago. You look out, I imagine, on a waste of +water. When I came from Windsor, I thought I must have +made a mistake and got into a boat (in the dark) instead of +a railway-carriage. Catherine and Georgina send their +kindest loves. I am ever, with the best and truest wishes +of my heart, my dear Mrs. Watson,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Your most affectionate Friend.<br /> +</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span></p> + +<div class="sidenote">Rev. +James +White.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Office of "Household Words</span>," <i>Monday, Nov. 22nd, 1852.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear White</span>,</div> + +<p>First and foremost, there is no doubt whatever of +your story suiting "Household Words." It is a very good +story indeed, and would be serviceable at any time. I am +not quite so clear of its suiting the Christmas number, for +this reason. You know what the spirit of the Christmas +number is. When I suggested the stories being about a +highwayman, I got hold of that idea as being an adventurous +one, including various kinds of wrong, expressing a state of +society no longer existing among us, and pleasant to hear +(therefore) from an old man. Now, your highwayman not +being a real highwayman after all, the kind of suitable +Christmas interest I meant to awaken in the story is not in +it. Do you understand? For an ordinary number it is +quite unobjectionable. If you should think of any other +idea, narratable by an old man, which you think would +strike the chord of the season; and if you should find time +to work it out during the short remainder of this month, I +should be greatly pleased to have it. In any case, this +story goes straightway into type.</p> + +<p>What tremendous weather it is! Our best loves to all +at home. (I have just bought thirty bottles of the most +stunning port on earth, which Ellis of the Star and Garter, +Richmond, wrote to me of.)</p> + +<p>I think you will find some good going in the next +"Bleak House." I write shortly, having been working my +head off.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Gaskell.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Office of "Household Words</span>," <i>Wednesday, Dec. 1st, 1852.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My Dear Mrs. Gaskell</span>,</div> + +<p>I send you the proof of "The Old Nurse's Story," with +my proposed alteration. I shall be glad to know whether +you approve of it. To assist you in your decision, I send +you, also enclosed, the original ending. And I have made a +line with ink across the last slip but one, where the alteration +begins. Of course if you wish to enlarge, explain, or +re-alter, you will do it. Do not keep the proof longer than +you can help, as I want to get to press with all despatch.</p> + +<p>I hope I address this letter correctly. I am far from +sure. In haste.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. H. +Wills.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Thursday, December 9th, 1852.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Wills</span>,</div> + +<p>I am driven mad by dogs, who have taken it into +their accursed heads to assemble every morning in the piece +of ground opposite, and who have barked this morning <i>for +five hours without intermission</i>; positively rendering it impossible +for me to work, and so making what is really +ridiculous quite serious to me. I wish, between this and +dinner, you would send John to see if he can hire a gun, +with a few caps, some powder, and a few charges of small +shot. If you duly commission him with a card, he can +easily do it. And if I get those implements up here to-night, +I'll be the death of some of them to-morrow morning.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Rev. +James +White.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Thursday Evening, Dec. 9th, 1852.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear White</span>,</div> + +<p>I hear you are not going to poor Macready's. Now, +don't you think it would do you good to come here instead?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span> +<i>I</i> say it would, and I ought to know! We can give you +everything but a bed (all ours are occupied in consequence +of the boys being at home), and shall all be delighted to see +you. Leave the bed to us, and we'll find one hard by. I +say nothing of the last day of the old year, and the dancing +out of that good old worthy that will take place here (for +you might like to hear the bells at home); but after the +twentieth, I shall be comparatively at leisure, and good for +anything or nothing. Don't you consider it your duty to +your family to come? <i>I</i> do, and I again say that I ought +to know.</p> + +<p>Our best love to Mrs. White and Lotty—happily so much +better, we rejoice to hear—and all.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">So no more at present from</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">The Inimitable B</span>.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Gaskell.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Friday, Dec. 17th, 1852.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mrs. Gaskell</span>,</div> + +<p>I received your kind note yesterday morning with +the truest gratification, for I <i>am</i> the writer of "The Child's +Story" as well as of "The Poor Relation's." I assure you, +you have given me the liveliest and heartiest pleasure by +what you say of it.</p> + +<p>I don't claim for my ending of "The Nurse's Story" that +it would have made it a bit better. All I can urge in its +behalf is, that it is what I should have done myself. But +there is no doubt of the story being admirable as it stands, +and there <i>is</i> some doubt (I think) whether Forster would +have found anything wrong in it, if he had not known of my +hammering over the proofs in making up the number, with +all the three endings before me.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">With kindest regards to Mr. Gaskell,</span><br /> +Ever faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. +Wilkie +Collins.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Monday, Dec. 20th, 1852.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Collins</span>,</div> + +<p>If I did not know that you are likely to have a forbearing +remembrance of my occupation, I should be full of +remorse for not having sooner thanked you for "Basil."</p> + +<p>Not to play the sage or the critic (neither of which parts, +I hope, is at all in my line), but to say what is the friendly +truth, I may assure you that I have read the book with +very great interest, and with a very thorough conviction that +you have a call to this same art of fiction. I think the probabilities +here and there require a little more respect than you +are disposed to show them, and I have no doubt that the +prefatory letter would have been better away, on the ground +that a book (of all things) should speak for and explain +itself. But the story contains admirable writing, and many +clear evidences of a very delicate discrimination of character. +It is delightful to find throughout that you have taken great +pains with it besides, and have "gone at it" with a perfect +knowledge of the jolter-headedness of the conceited idiots +who suppose that volumes are to be tossed off like pancakes, +and that any writing can be done without the utmost application, +the greatest patience, and the steadiest energy of +which the writer is capable.</p> + +<p>For all these reasons, I have made "Basil's" acquaintance +with great gratification, and entertain a high respect +for him. And I hope that I shall become intimate with +many worthy descendants of his, who are yet in the limbo +of creatures waiting to be born.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Always faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—I am open to any proposal to go anywhere any +day or days this week. Fresh air and change in any +amount I am ready for. If I could only find an idle man +(this is a general observation), he would find the warmest +recognition in this direction.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Frank +Stone, +A.R.A.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Monday Evening, Dec. 20th, 1852.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Stone</span>,</div> + +<p>Every appearance of brightness! Shall I expect you +to-morrow morning? If so, at what hour?</p> + +<p>I think of taking train afterwards, and going down for +a walk on Chatham lines. If you can spare the day for +fresh air and an impromptu bit of fish and chop, I can +recommend you one of the most delightful of men for a +companion. O, he is indeed refreshing!!!</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. H. +Wills.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Office of "Household Words</span>," <i>Christmas Eve, 1852.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Wills</span>,</div> + +<p>I have gone carefully through the number—an +awful one for the amount of correction required—and have +made everything right. If my mind could have been +materialised, and drawn along the tops of all the spikes on +the outside of the Queen's Bench prison, it could not have +been more agonised than by the ——, which, for imbecility, +carelessness, slovenly composition, relatives without antecedents, +universal chaos, and one absorbing whirlpool of +jolter-headedness, beats anything in print and paper I have +ever "gone at" in my life.</p> + +<p>I shall come and see how you are to-morrow. Meantime +everything is in perfect trim in these parts, and I have +sent down to Stacey to come here and top up with a final +interview before I go.</p> + +<p>Just after I had sent the messenger off to you, yesterday, +concerning the toll-taker memoranda, the other idea came +into my head, and in the most obliging manner came out +of it.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—Here is —— perpetually flitting about Brydges<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span> +Street, and hovering in the neighbourhood, with a veil of +secrecy drawn down over his chin, so ludicrously transparent, +that I can't help laughing while he looks at me.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. G. +Linnæus +Banks.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Sunday, Dec. 26th, 1852</i>.<br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Sir</span>,</div> + +<p>I will not attempt to tell you how affected and gratified +I am by the intelligence your kind letter conveys to me. +Nothing would be more welcome to me than such a mark of +confidence and approval from such a source, nothing more +precious, or that I could set a higher worth upon.</p> + +<p>I hasten to return the gauges, of which I have marked +one as the size of the finger, from which this token will never +more be absent as long as I live.</p> + +<p>With feelings of the liveliest gratitude and cordiality +towards the many friends who so honour me, and with many +thanks to you for the genial earnestness with which you +represent them,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +I am, my dear Sir, very faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—Will you do me the favour to inform the dinner +committee that a friend of mine, Mr. Clement, of Shrewsbury, +is very anxious to purchase a ticket for the dinner, +and that if they will be so good as to forward one for him +to me I shall feel much obliged.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>1853.</h2> + +<h3>NARRATIVE.</h3> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>In</span> this year, Charles Dickens was still writing "Bleak +House," and went to Brighton for a short time in the +spring. In May he had an attack of illness, a return<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span> +of an old trouble of an inflammatory pain in the side, +which was short but very severe while it lasted. Immediately +on his recovery, early in June, a departure from +London for the summer was resolved upon. He had +decided upon trying Boulogne this year for his holiday +sojourn, and as soon as he was strong enough to travel, +he, his wife, and sister-in-law went there in advance of +the family, taking up their quarters at the Hôtel des Bains, +to find a house, which was speedily done. The pretty little +Villa des Moulineaux, and its excellent landlord, at once +took his fancy, and in that house, and in another on the +same ground, also belonging to M. Beaucourt, he passed +three very happy summers. And he became as much +attached to "Our French Watering Place" as to "Our +English" one. Having written a sketch of Broadstairs +under that name in "Household Words," he did the same +of Boulogne under the former title.</div> + +<p>During the summer, besides his other work, he was +employed in dictating "The Child's History of England," +which he published in "Household Words," and which +was the only book he ever wrote by dictation. But, as at +Broadstairs and other seaside homes, he had always plenty +of relaxation and enjoyment in the visits of his friends. +In September he finished "Bleak House," and in October +he started with Mr. Wilkie Collins and Mr. Egg from +Boulogne, on an excursion through parts of Switzerland +and Italy; his wife and family going home at the same +time, and he himself returning to Tavistock House early in +December. His eldest son, Charles, had left Eton some +time before this, and had gone for the completion of his +education to Leipsic. He was to leave Germany at the end +of the year, therefore it was arranged that he should meet +the travellers in Paris on their homeward journey, and they +all returned together.</p> + +<p>Just before Christmas he went to Birmingham in fulfilment +of an offer which he had made at the dinner given to +him at Birmingham on the 6th of January (of which he +writes to Mr. Macready in the first letter that follows here),<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span> +to give two readings from his own books for the benefit of +the New Midland Institute. They were his first public +readings. He read "The Christmas Carol" on one evening, +and "The Cricket on the Hearth" on the next, before +enormous audiences. The success was so great, and the +sum of money realised for the institute so large, that he +consented to give a second reading of "The Christmas +Carol," remaining another night in Birmingham for the +purpose, on the condition that seats were reserved, at +prices within their means, for the working men. And to +his great satisfaction they formed a large proportion, and +were among the most enthusiastic and appreciative of his +audience. He was accompanied by his wife and sister-in-law, +and on this occasion a breakfast was given to him +after his last reading, at which a silver flower-basket, duly +inscribed, was very gracefully presented to <i>Mrs.</i> Charles +Dickens.</p> + +<p>The letters in this year require little explanation. Those +to his wife and sister-in-law and Mr. Wills give a little +history of his Italian journey. At Naples he found his +excellent friend Sir James Emerson Tennent, with his wife +and daughter, with whom he joined company in the ascent +of Vesuvius.</p> + +<p>The two letters to M. Regnier, the distinguished actor +of the Théâtre Français—with whom Charles Dickens had +formed a sincere friendship during his first residence in +Paris—on the subject of a projected benefit to Miss Kelly, +need no further explanation.</p> + +<p>Mr. John Delane, editor of <i>The Times</i>, and always a +highly-esteemed friend of Charles Dickens, had given him +an introduction to a school at Boulogne, kept by two English +gentlemen, one a clergyman and the other a former Eton +master, the Rev. W. Bewsher and Mr. Gibson. He had at +various times four boys at this school, and very frequently +afterwards he expressed his gratitude to Mr. Delane for +having given him the introduction, which turned out so +satisfactory in every respect.</p> + +<p>The letter of grateful acknowledgment from Mr. Poole<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span> +and Charles Dickens to Lord Russell was for the pension +for which the old dramatic author was indebted to that +nobleman, and which enabled him to live comfortably until +the end of his life.</p> + +<p>A note to Mr. Marcus Stone was sent with a copy of "The +Child's History of England." The sketch referred to was +one of "Jo'," in "Bleak House," which showed great feeling +and artistic promise, since fully fulfilled by the young +painter, but very remarkable in a boy so young as he was +at that time. The letter to Mr. Stanfield, in seafaring +language, is a specimen of a playful way in which he +frequently addressed that dear friend.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. H. +Wills.</div> + +<div class='center'><br /><br /> +<small>"A curiosity from <i>him</i>. No date. No signature."—W. H. H.</small><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Wills</span>,</div> + +<p>I have not a shadow of a doubt about Miss Martineau's +story. It is certain to tell. I think it very effectively, +admirably done; a fine plain purpose in it; quite +a singular novelty. For the last story in the Christmas +number it will be great. I couldn't wish for a better.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Gaskell's ghost story I have got this morning; +have not yet read. It is long.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Clarkson +Stanfield.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +H.M.S. <i>Tavistock, January 2nd, 1853.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>Yoho, old salt! Neptun' ahoy! You don't forget, +messmet, as you was to meet Dick Sparkler and Mark +Porpuss on the fok'sle of the good ship <i>Owssel Words</i>, +Wednesday next, half-past four? Not you; for when did +Stanfell ever pass his word to go anywheers and not come! +Well. Belay, my heart of oak, belay! Come alongside the +<i>Tavistock</i> same day and hour, 'stead of <i>Owssel Words</i>. +Hail your shipmets, and they'll drop over the side and join<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span> +you, like two new shillings a-droppin' into the purser's +pocket. Damn all lubberly boys and swabs, and give me +the lad with the tarry trousers, which shines to me like +di'mings bright!</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Friday Night, Jan. 14th, 1853.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dearest Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>I have been much affected by the receipt of your +kindest and best of letters; for I know out of the midst of +what anxieties it comes to me, and I appreciate such remembrance +from my heart. You and yours are always with us, +however. It is no new thing for you to have a part in any +scene of my life. It very rarely happens that a day passes +without our thoughts and conversation travelling to Sherborne. +We are so much there that I cannot tell you how +plainly I see you as I write.</p> + +<p>I know you would have been full of sympathy and +approval if you had been present at Birmingham, and that +you would have concurred in the tone I tried to take about +the eternal duties of the arts to the people. I took the +liberty of putting the court and that kind of thing out of +the question, and recognising nothing <i>but</i> the arts and the +people. The more we see of life and its brevity, and the +world and its varieties, the more we know that no exercise +of our abilities in any art, but the addressing of it to the +great ocean of humanity in which we are drops, and not to +bye-ponds (very stagnant) here and there, ever can or ever +will lay the foundations of an endurable retrospect. Is it +not so? <i>You</i> should have as much practical information on +this subject, now, my dear friend, as any man.</p> + +<p>My dearest Macready, I cannot forbear this closing word. +I still look forward to our meeting as we used to do in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span> +happy times we have known together, so far as your old +hopefulness and energy are concerned. And I think I +never in my life have been more glad to receive a sign, +than I have been to hail that which I find in your +handwriting.</p> + +<p>Some of your old friends at Birmingham are full of +interest and enquiry. Kate and Georgina send their dearest +loves to you, and to Miss Macready, and to all the children. +I am ever, and no matter where I am—and quite as much in +a crowd as alone—my dearest Macready,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Your affectionate and most attached Friend.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Gaskell.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>May 3rd, 1853.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mrs. Gaskell</span>,</div> + +<p>The subject is certainly not too serious, so sensibly +treated. I have no doubt that you may do a great deal of +good by pursuing it in "Household Words." I thoroughly +agree in all you say in your note, have similar reasons for +giving it some anxious consideration, and shall be greatly +interested in it. Pray decide to do it. Send the papers, as +you write them, to me. Meanwhile I will think of a name +for them, and bring it to bear upon yours, if I think yours +improvable. I am sure you may rely on being widely understood +and sympathised with.</p> + +<p>Forget that I called those two women my dear friends! +Why, if I told you a fiftieth part of what I have thought +about them, you would write me the most suspicious of notes, +refusing to receive the fiftieth part of that. So I don't write, +particularly as you laid your injunctions on me concerning +Ruth. In revenge, I will now mention one word that I wish +you would take out whenever you reprint that book. She +would never—I am ready to make affidavit before any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span> +authority in the land—have called her seducer "Sir," when +they were living at that hotel in Wales. A girl pretending +to be what she really was would have done it, but she—never!</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever most faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Monsieur +Regnier.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Monday, May 9th, 1853.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Regnier</span>,</div> + +<p>I meant to have spoken to you last night about a +matter in which I hope you can assist me, but I forgot it. +I think I must have been quite <i>bouleversé</i> by your supposing +(as you pretended to do, when you went away) that it was +not a great pleasure and delight to me to see you act!</p> + +<p>There is a certain Miss Kelly, now sixty-two years old, +who was once one of the very best of English actresses, in +the greater and better days of the English theatre. She +has much need of a benefit, and I am exerting myself to +arrange one for her, on about the 9th of June, if possible, +at the St. James's Theatre. The first piece will be an +entertainment of her own, and she will act in the last. +Between these two (and at the best time of the night), it +would be a great attraction to the public, and a great proof +of friendship to me, if you would act. If we could manage, +through your influence and with your assistance, to present +a little French vaudeville, such as "<i>Le bon Homme jadis</i>," +it would make the night a grand success.</p> + +<p>Mitchell's permission, I suppose, would be required. +That I will undertake to apply for, if you will tell me that +you are willing to help us, and that you could answer for +the other necessary actors in the little French piece, whatever +the piece might be, that you would choose for the +purpose. Pray write me a short note in answer, on this +point.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span></p><p>I ought to tell you that the benefit will be "under distinguished +patronage." The Duke of Devonshire, the Duke +of Leinster, the Duke of Beaufort, etc. etc., are members of +the committee with me, and I have no doubt that the +audience will be of the <i>élite</i>.</p> + +<p>I have asked Mr. Chapman to come to me to-morrow, to +arrange for the hiring of the theatre. Mr. Harley (a favourite +English comedian whom you may know) is our secretary. +And if I could assure the committee to-morrow afternoon of +your co-operation, I am sure they would be overjoyed.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<i>Votre tout dévoué.</i><br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Monsieur +Regnier.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>May 20th, 1853.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Regnier</span>,</div> + +<p>I am heartily obliged to you for your kind letter +respecting Miss Kelly's benefit. It is to take place <i>on +Thursday, the 16th June</i>; Thursday the 9th (the day originally +proposed) being the day of Ascot Races, and therefore +a bad one for the purpose.</p> + +<p>Mitchell, like a brave <i>garçon</i> as he is, most willingly +consents to your acting for us. Will you think what little +French piece it will be best to do, in order that I may have +it ready for the bills?</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully yours, my dear Regnier.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. H. +Wills.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Boulogne</span>, <i>Monday, June 13th, 1853.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Wills</span>,</div> + +<p>You will be glad, I know, to hear that we had a +delightful passage yesterday, and that I made a perfect +phenomenon of a dinner. It is raining hard to-day, and my +back feels the draught; but I am otherwise still mending.</p> + +<p>I have signed, sealed, and delivered a contract for a +house (once occupied for two years by a man I knew in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span> +Switzerland), which is not a large one, but stands in the +middle of a great garden, with what the landlord calls a +"forest" at the back, and is now surrounded by flowers, +vegetables, and all manner of growth. A queer, odd, +French place, but extremely well supplied with all table and +other conveniences, and strongly recommended.</p> + +<p>The address is:</p> + +<div class='center'> +Château des Moulineaux,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Rue Beaurepaire, Boulogne.</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>There is a coach-house, stabling for half-a-dozen horses, +and I don't know what.</p> + +<p>We take possession this afternoon, and I am now laying +in a good stock of creature comforts. So no more at +present from</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Yours ever faithfully.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—Mrs. Dickens and her sister unite in kindest +regards.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. H. +Wills.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap"><ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Chateau'">Château</ins> des Moulineaux, Boulogne</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Saturday Night, June 18th, 1853.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Wills</span>,</div> + +<div class='center'> +"<span class="smcap">Bleak House</span>."<br /> +</div> + +<p>Thank God, I have done half the number with great +care, and hope to finish on Thursday or Friday next. O +how thankful I feel to be able to have done it, and what a +relief to get the number out!</p> + +<div class='center'> +<span class="smcap">General Movements of Inimitable</span>.<br /> +</div> + +<p><i>I don't think</i> (I am not sure) I shall come to London +until after the completion of "Bleak House," No. 18—the +number after this now in hand—for it strikes me +that I am better here at present. I have picked up in +the most extraordinary manner, and I believe you would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span> +never suppose to look at me that I had had that week or +barely an hour of it. If there should be any occasion for +our meeting in the meantime, a run over here would do you +no harm, and we should be delighted to see you at any +time. If you suppose this place to be in a street, you are +much mistaken. It is in the country, though not more +than ten minutes' walk from the post-office, and is the best +doll's-house of many rooms, in the prettiest French grounds, +in the most charming situation I have ever seen; the best +place I have ever lived in abroad, except at Genoa. You +can scarcely imagine the beauty of the air in this richly-wooded +hill-side. As to comforts in the house, there are +all sorts of things, beginning with no end of the coldest +water and running through the most beautiful flowers down +to English foot-baths and a Parisian liqueur-stand. Your +parcel (frantic enclosures and all) arrived quite safely last +night. This will leave by steamer to-morrow, Sunday +evening. There is a boat in the morning, but having no +one to send to-night I can't reach it, and to-morrow being +Sunday it will come to much the same thing.</p> + +<p>I think that's all at present.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever, my dear Wills, faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Frank +Stone, +A.R.A.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap"><ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Chateau'">Château</ins> des Moulineaux, Rue Beaurepaire, Boulogne</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Thursday, June 23rd, 1853.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Pumpion</span>,</div> + +<p>I take the earliest opportunity, after finishing my +number—ahem!—to write you a line, and to report myself +(thank God) brown, well, robust, vigorous, open to fight +any man in England of my weight, and growing a moustache. +Any person of undoubted pluck, in want of a customer, may +hear of me at the bar of Bleak House, where my money is +down.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span></p> + +<p>I think there is an abundance of places here that would +suit you well enough; and Georgina is ready to launch on +voyages of discovery and observation with you. But it is +necessary that you should consider for how long a time you +want it, as the folks here let much more advantageously +for the tenant when they know the term—don't like to let +without. It seems to me that the best thing you can do is +to get a paper of the South Eastern tidal trains, fix your +day for coming over here in five hours (when you will pay +through to Boulogne at London Bridge), let me know the +day, and come and see how you like the place. <i>I</i> like it +better than ever. We can give you a bed (two to spare, at +a pinch three), and show you a garden and a view or so. +The town is not so cheap as places farther off, but you get a +great deal for your money, and by far the best wine at tenpence +a bottle that I have ever drank anywhere. I really +desire no better.</p> + +<p>I may mention for your guidance (for I count upon your +coming to overhaul the general aspect of things), that you +have nothing on earth to do with your luggage when it is +once in the boat, <i>until after you have walked ashore</i>. That +you will be filtered with the rest of the passengers through +a hideous, whitewashed, quarantine-looking custom-house, +where a stern man of a military aspect will demand your +passport. That you will have nothing of the sort, but will +produce your card with this addition: "Restant à Boulogne, +chez M. Charles Dickens, Château des Moulineaux." That +you will then be passed out at a little door, like one of the +ill-starred prisoners on the bloody September night, into a +yelling and shrieking crowd, cleaving the air with the +names of the different hotels, exactly seven thousand six +hundred and fifty-four in number. And that your heart +will be on the point of sinking with dread, then you will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span> +find yourself in the arms of the Sparkler of Albion. All +unite in kindest regards.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—I thought you might like to see the flourish again.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. H. +Wills.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Boulogne</span>, <i>Wednesday, July 27th, 1853.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Wills</span>,</div> + +<p>I have thought of another article to be called "Frauds +upon the Fairies," <i>à propos</i> of George Cruikshank's editing. +Half playfully and half seriously, I mean to protest most +strongly against alteration, for any purpose, of the beautiful +little stories which are so tenderly and humanly useful to +us in these times, when the world is too much with us, early +and late; and then to re-write "Cinderella" according to +Total Abstinence, Peace Society, and Bloomer principles, +and expressly for their propagation.</p> + +<p>I shall want his book of "Hop o' my Thumb" (Forster +noticed it in the last <i>Examiner</i>), and the most simple and +popular version of "Cinderella" you can get me. I shall +not be able to do it until after finishing "Bleak House," but +I shall do it the more easily for having the books by me. +So send them, if convenient, in your next parcel.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap"><ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Chateau'">Château</ins> des Moulineaux, Boulogne</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Sunday, Aug. 24th, 1853.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My Dearest Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>Some unaccountable delay in the transmission here +of the parcel which contained your letter, caused me to come +into the receipt of it a whole week after its date. I immediately +wrote to Miss Coutts, who has written to you, and I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[308]</a></span> +hope some good may come of it. I know it will not be her +fault if none does. I was very much concerned to read your +account of poor Mrs. Warner, and to read her own plain and +unaffected account of herself. Pray assure her of my cordial +sympathy and remembrance, and of my earnest desire to do +anything in my power to help to put her mind at ease.</p> + +<p>We are living in a beautiful little country place here, +where I have been hard at work ever since I came, and am +now (after an interval of a week's rest) going to work again +to finish "Bleak House." Kate and Georgina send their +kindest loves to you, and Miss Macready, and all the rest. +They look forward, I assure you, to their Sherborne visit, +when I—a mere forlorn wanderer—shall be roaming over +the Alps into Italy. I saw "The Midsummer Night's Dream" +of the Opéra Comique, done here (very well) last night. The +way in which a poet named Willyim Shay Kes Peer gets +drunk in company with Sir John Foll Stayffe, fights with a +noble 'night, Lor Latimeer (who is in love with a maid-of-honour +you may have read of in history, called Mees Oleevia), +and promises not to do so any more on observing symptoms +of love for him in the Queen of England, is very remarkable. +Queen Elizabeth, too, in the profound and impenetrable disguise +of a black velvet mask, two inches deep by three broad, +following him into taverns and worse places, and enquiring +of persons of doubtful reputation for "the sublime Williams," +was inexpressibly ridiculous. And yet the nonsense was +done with a sense quite admirable.</p> + +<p>I have been very much struck by the book you sent me. +It is one of the wisest, the manliest, and most serviceable I +ever read. I am reading it again with the greatest pleasure +and admiration.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Ever most affectionately yours,</span><br /> +My dear Macready.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[309]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">The Hon. +Mrs. +Watson.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Villa des Moulineaux, Boulogne</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Saturday, Aug. 27th, 1853.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My Dear Mrs. Watson</span>,</div> + +<p>I received your letter—most welcome and full of +interest to me—when I was hard at work finishing "Bleak +House." We are always talking of you; and I had said +but the day before, that one of the first things I would do +on my release would be to write to you. To finish the topic +of "Bleak House" at once, I will only add that I like the +conclusion very much and think it <i>very pretty indeed</i>. The +story has taken extraordinarily, especially during the last +five or six months, when its purpose has been gradually +working itself out. It has retained its immense circulation +from the first, beating dear old "Copperfield" by a round +ten thousand or more. I have never had so many readers. +We had a little reading of the final double number here the +night before last, and it made a great impression I assure +you.</p> + +<p>We are all extremely well, and like Boulogne very much +indeed. I laid down the rule before we came, that we +would know nobody here, and we <i>do</i> know nobody here. We +evaded callers as politely as we could, and gradually came +to be understood and left to ourselves. It is a fine bracing +air, a beautiful open country, and an admirable mixture of +town and country. We live on a green hill-side out of the +town, but are in the town (on foot) in ten minutes. Things +are tolerably cheap, and exceedingly good; the people very +cheerful, good-looking, and obliging; the houses very +clean; the distance to London short, and easily traversed. +I think if you came to know the place (which I never did +myself until last October, often as I have been through it), +you could be but in one mind about it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[310]</a></span></p> + +<p>Charley is still at Leipzig. I shall take him up somewhere +on the Rhine, to bring him home for Christmas, as I +come back on my own little tour. He has been in the Hartz +Mountains on a walking tour, and has written a journal +thereof, which he has sent home in portions. It has cost +about as much in postage as would have bought a pair of +ponies.</p> + +<p>I contemplate starting from here on Monday, the 10th of +October; Catherine, Georgina, and the rest of them will +then go home. I shall go first by Paris and Geneva to +Lausanne, for it has a separate place in my memory. If +the autumn should be very fine (just possible after such a +summer), I shall then go by Chamonix and Martigny, over +the Simplon to Milan, thence to Genoa, Leghorn, Pisa, and +Naples, thence, I hope, to Sicily. Back by Bologna, +Florence, Rome, Verona, Mantua, etc., to Venice, and home +by Germany, arriving in good time for Christmas Day. +Three nights in Christmas week, I have promised to read in +the Town Hall at Birmingham, for the benefit of a new and +admirable institution for working men projected there. +The Friday will be the last night, and I shall read the +"Carol" to two thousand working people, stipulating that +they shall have that night entirely to themselves.</p> + +<p>It just occurs to me that I mean to engage, for the two +months odd, a travelling servant. I have not yet got one. +If you should happen to be interested in any good foreigner, +well acquainted with the countries and the languages, who +would like such a master, how delighted I should be to like +<i>him</i>!</p> + +<p>Ever since I have been here, I have been very hard at +work, often getting up at daybreak to write through many +hours. I have never had the least return of illness, thank<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[311]</a></span> +God, though I was so altered (in a week) when I came here, +that I doubt if you would have known me. I am redder +and browner than ever at the present writing, with the +addition of a rather formidable and fierce moustache. +Lowestoft I know, by walking over there from Yarmouth, +when I went down on an exploring expedition, previous to +"Copperfield." It is a fine place. I saw the name "Blunderstone" +on a direction-post between it and Yarmouth, and +took it from the said direction-post for the book. We +imagined the Captain's ecstasies when we saw the birth of +his child in the papers. In some of the descriptions of +Chesney Wold, I have taken many bits, chiefly about trees +and shadows, from observations made at Rockingham. I +wonder whether you have ever thought so! I shall hope to +hear from you again soon, and shall not fail to write again +before I go away. There seems to be nothing but "I" in +this letter; but "I" know, my dear friend, that you will +be more interested in that letter in the present connection, +than in any other I could take from the alphabet.</p> + +<p>Catherine and Georgina send their kindest loves, and +more messages than this little sheet would hold. If I were +to give you a hint of what we feel at the sight of your handwriting, +and at the receipt of a word from yourself about +yourself, and the dear boys, and the precious little girls, I +should begin to be sorrowful, which is rather the tendency +of my mind at the close of another long book. I heard from +Cerjat two or three days since. Goff, by-the-bye, lived in +this house two years.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 6em;">Ever, my dear Mrs. Watson,</span><br /> +Yours, with true affection and regard.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[312]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Peter +Cunningham.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap"><ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Chateau'">Château</ins> des Moulineaux, Rue Beaurepaire, Boulogne</span>.<br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'> +<span class="smcap">My dear Cunningham</span>,<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">A note—Cerberus-like—of three heads.</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>First. I know you will be glad to hear that the manager +is himself again. Vigorous, brown, energetic, muscular; +the pride of Albion and the admiration of Gaul.</p> + +<p>Secondly. I told Wills when I left home, that I was +quite pained to see the end of your excellent "Bowl of Punch" +altered. I was unaffectedly touched and gratified by the +heartiness of the original; and saw no earthly, celestial, or +subterranean objection to its remaining, as it did not so +unmistakably apply to me as to necessitate the observance +of my usual precaution in the case of such references, by +any means.</p> + +<p>Thirdly. If you ever have a holiday that you don't know +what to do with, <i>do</i> come and pass a little time here. We +live in a charming garden in a very pleasant country, and +should be delighted to receive you. Excellent light wines +on the premises, French cookery, millions of roses, two +cows (for milk punch), vegetables cut for the pot, and handed +in at the kitchen window; five summer-houses, fifteen +fountains (with no water in 'em), and thirty-seven clocks +(keeping, as I conceive, Australian time; having no reference +whatever to the hours on this side of the globe).</p> + +<p>I know, my dear Cunningham, that the British nation +can ill afford to lose you; and that when the Audit Office +mice are away, the cats of that great public establishment +will play. But pray consider that the bow may be sometimes +bent too long, and that ever-arduous application, even +in patriotic service, is to be avoided. No one can more +highly estimate your devotion to the best interests of Britain +than I. But I wish to see it tempered with a wise consideration<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[313]</a></span> +for your own amusement, recreation, and pastime. +All work and no play may make Peter a dull boy as well as +Jack. And (if I may claim the privilege of friendship to +remonstrate) I would say that you do not take enough time +for your meals. Dinner, for instance, you habitually neglect. +Believe me, this rustic repose will do you good. Winkles +also are to be obtained in these parts, and it is well remarked +by Poor Richard, that a bird in the handbook is worth two +in the bush.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever cordially yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Walter +Savage +Landor.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House, London</span>, <i>Sept. 8th, 1853.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Landor</span>,</div> + +<p>I am in town for a day or two, and Forster tells me +I may now write to thank you for the happiness you have +given me by honouring my name with such generous +mention, on such a noble place, in your great book. I +believe he has told you already that I wrote to him from +Boulogne, not knowing what to do, as I had not received +the precious volume, and feared you might have some plan +of sending it to me, with which my premature writing would +interfere.</p> + +<p>You know how heartily and inexpressibly I prize what +you have written to me, or you never would have selected +me for such a distinction. I could never thank you enough, +my dear Landor, and I will not thank you in words any +more. Believe me, I receive the dedication like a great +dignity, the worth of which I hope I thoroughly know. The +Queen could give me none in exchange that I wouldn't +laughingly snap my fingers at.</p> + +<p>We are staying at Boulogne until the 10th of October, +when I go into Italy until Christmas, and the rest come +home.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[314]</a></span></p> + +<p>Kate and Georgina would send you their best loves if +they were here, and would never leave off talking about it +if I went back and told them I had written to you without +such mention of them. Walter is a very good boy, and +comes home from school with honourable commendation. +He passed last Sunday in solitary confinement (in a bath-room) +on bread and water, for terminating a dispute with +the nurse by throwing a chair in her direction. It is the +very first occasion of his ever having got into trouble, for +he is a great favourite with the whole house, and one of the +most amiable boys in the boy world. (He comes out on +birthdays in a blaze of shirt-pin).</p> + +<p>If I go and look at your old house, as I shall if I go to +Florence, I shall bring you back another leaf from the same +tree as I plucked the last from.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 6em;">Ever, my dear Landor,</span><br /> +Heartily and affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. John +Delane.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Villa Des Moulineaux, Boulogne</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Monday, Sept. 12th, 1853.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Delane</span>,</div> + +<p>I am very much obliged to you, I assure you, for +your frank and full reply to my note. Nothing could be +more satisfactory, and I have to-day seen Mr. Gibson and +placed my two small representatives under his charge. His +manner is exactly what you describe him. I was greatly +pleased with his genuineness altogether.</p> + +<p>We remain here until the tenth of next month, when I +am going to desert my wife and family and run about Italy +until Christmas. If I can execute any little commission for +you or Mrs. Delane—in the Genoa street of silversmiths, or +anywhere else—I shall be delighted to do so. I have been +in the receipt of several letters from Macready lately, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[315]</a></span> +rejoice to find him quite himself again, though I have great +misgivings that he will lose his eldest boy before he can be +got to India.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Dickens and her sister are proud of your message, +and beg their kind regards to be forwarded in return; my +other half being particularly comforted and encouraged by +your account of Mr. Gibson. In this charge I am to include +Mrs. Delane, who, I hope, will make an exchange of +remembrances, and give me hers for mine.</p> + +<p>I never saw anything so ridiculous as this place at present. +They expected the Emperor ten or twelve days ago, +and put up all manner of triumphal arches made of evergreens, +which look like tea-leaves now, and will take a +withered and weird appearance hardly to be foreseen, long +before the twenty-fifth, when the visit is vaguely expected +to come off. In addition to these faded garlands all over +the leading streets, there are painted eagles hoisted over +gateways and sprawling across a hundred ways, which have +been washed out by the rain and are now being blistered by +the sun, until they look horribly ludicrous. And a number +of our benighted compatriots who came over to see a perfect +blaze of <i>fêtes</i>, go wandering among these shrivelled preparations +and staring at ten thousand flag-poles without any +flags upon them, with a kind of indignant curiosity and +personal injury quite irresistible. With many thanks,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Very faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. H. +Wills.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Boulogne</span>, <i>Sunday, Sept. 18th, 1853.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Wills</span>,</div> + +<div class='center'> +<span class="smcap">Courier</span>.<br /> +</div> + +<p>Edward Kaub will bring this. He turned up yesterday, +accounting for his delay by waiting for a written +recommendation, and having at the last moment (as a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[316]</a></span> +foreigner, not being an Englishman) a passport to get. I +quite agree with you as to his appearance and manner, and +have engaged him. It strikes me that it would be an +excellent beginning if you would deliver him a neat and +appropriate address, telling him what in your conscience you +can find to tell of me favourably as a master, and particularly +impressing upon him <i>readiness and punctuality</i> on +his part as the great things to be observed. I think it +would have a much better effect than anything I could say +in this stage, if said from yourself. But I shall be much +obliged to you if you will act upon this hint forthwith.</p> + +<div class='center'> +<span class="smcap">W. H. Wills</span>.<br /> +</div> + +<p>No letter having arrived from the popular author of +"The Larboard Fin,"<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> by this morning's post, I rather +think one must be on the way in the pocket of Gordon's +son. If Kaub calls for this before young Scotland arrives, +you will understand if I do not herein refer to an unreceived +letter. But I shall leave this open, until Kaub comes for it.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">The +Lord John +Russell.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Villa des Moulineaux, Boulogne</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Wednesday, Sept. 21st, 1853.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Lord</span>,</div> + +<p>Your note having been forwarded to me here, I +cannot forbear thanking you with all my heart for your +great kindness. Mr. Forster had previously sent me a +copy of your letter to him, together with the expression of +the high and lasting gratification he had in your handsome +response. I know he feels it most sincerely.</p> + +<p>I became the prey of a perfect spasm of sensitive twinges,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[317]</a></span> +when I found that the close of "Bleak House" had not +penetrated to "the wilds of the North" when your letter +left those parts. I was so very much interested in it myself +when I wrote it here last month, that I have a fond sort of +faith in its interesting its readers. But for the hope that +you may have got it by this time, I should refuse comfort. +That supports me.</p> + +<p>The book has been a wonderful success. Its audience +enormous.</p> + +<p>I fear there is not much chance of my being able to +execute any little commission for Lady John anywhere in +Italy. But I am going across the Alps, leaving here on the +tenth of next month, and returning home to London for +Christmas Day, and should indeed be happy if I could do +her any dwarf service.</p> + +<p>You will be interested, I think, to hear that Poole lives +happily on his pension, and lives within it. He is quite +incapable of any mental exertion, and what he would have +done without it I cannot imagine. I send it to him at Paris +every quarter. It is something, even amid the estimation +in which you are held, which is but a foreshadowing of what +shall be by-and-by as the people advance, to be so gratefully +remembered as he, with the best reason, remembers +you. Forgive my saying this. But the manner of that +transaction, no less than the matter, is always fresh in my +memory in association with your name, and I cannot help it.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 9em;">My dear Lord,</span><br /> +Yours very faithfully and obliged.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">The Hon. +Mrs. +Watson.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Boulogne</span>, <i>Wednesday, Sept. 21st, 1853.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mrs. Watson</span>,</div> + +<p>The courier was unfortunately engaged. He offered +to recommend another, but I had several applicants, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[318]</a></span> +begged Mr. Wills to hold a grand review at the "Household +Words" office, and select the man who is to bring me down +as his victim. I am extremely sorry the man you recommend +was not to be had. I should have been so delighted +to take him.</p> + +<p>I am finishing "The Child's History," and clearing the +way through "Household Words," in general, before I go +on my trip. I forget whether I told you that Mr. Egg +the painter and Mr. Collins are going with me. The other +day I was in town. In case you should not have heard of +the condition of that deserted village, I think it worth +mentioning. All the streets of any note were unpaved, +mountains high, and all the omnibuses were sliding down +alleys, and looking into the upper windows of small houses. +At eleven o'clock one morning I was positively <i>alone</i> in +Bond Street. I went to one of my tailors, and he was at +Brighton. A smutty-faced woman among some gorgeous +regimentals, half finished, had not the least idea when he +would be back. I went to another of my tailors, and he +was in an upper room, with open windows and surrounded +by mignonette boxes, playing the piano in the bosom of +his family. I went to my hosier's, and two of the least +presentable of "the young men" of that elegant establishment +were playing at draughts in the back shop. (Likewise +I beheld a porter-pot hastily concealed under a Turkish +dressing-gown of a golden pattern.) I then went wandering +about to look for some ingenious portmanteau, and near the +corner of St. James's Street saw a solitary being sitting in +a trunk-shop, absorbed in a book which, on a close inspection, +I found to be "Bleak House." I thought this looked +well, and went in. And he really was more interested in +seeing me, when he knew who I was, than any face I had +seen in any house, every house I knew being occupied by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[319]</a></span> +painters, including my own. I went to the Athenæum that +same night, to get my dinner, and it was shut up for repairs. +I went home late, and had forgotten the key and was +locked out.</p> + +<p>Preparations were made here, about six weeks ago, to +receive the Emperor, who is not come yet. Meanwhile our +countrymen (deluded in the first excitement) go about +staring at these arrangements, with a personal injury upon +them which is most ridiculous. And they <i>will</i> persist in +speaking an unknown tongue to the French people, who <i>will</i> +speak English to them.</p> + +<p>Kate and Georgina send their kindest loves. We are all +quite well. Going to drop two small boys here, at school +with a former Eton tutor highly recommended to me. +Charley was heard of a day or two ago. He says his +professor "is very short-sighted, always in green spectacles, +always drinking weak beer, always smoking a pipe, and +always at work." The last qualification seems to appear to +Charley the most astonishing one.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Ever, my dear Mrs. Watson,</span><br /> +Most affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Hotel de la Villa, Milan</span>, <i>Tuesday, Oct. 25th, 1853.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Georgy</span>,</div> + +<p>I have walked to that extent in Switzerland (walked +over the Simplon on Sunday, as an addition to the other +feats) that one pair of the new strong shoes has gone to be +mended this morning, and the other is in but a poor way; +the snow having played the mischief with them.</p> + +<p>On the Swiss side of the Simplon, we slept at the +beastliest little town, in the wildest kind of house, where<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[320]</a></span> +some fifty cats tumbled into the corridor outside our bedrooms +all at once in the middle of the night—whether +through the roof or not, I don't know; for it was dark +when we got up—and made such a horrible and terrific +noise that we started out of our beds in a panic. I strongly +objected to opening the door lest they should get into the +room and tear at us; but Edward opened his, and laid about +him until he dispersed them. At Domo D'Ossola we had +three immense bedrooms (Egg's bed twelve feet wide!), and +a sala of imperceptible extent in the dim light of two +candles and a wood fire; but were very well and very +cheaply entertained. Here, we are, as you know, housed in +the greatest comfort.</p> + +<p>We continue to get on very well together. We really do +admirably. I lose no opportunity of inculcating the lesson +that it is of no use to be out of temper in travelling, and it +is very seldom wanted for any of us. Egg is an excellent +fellow, and full of good qualities; I am sure a generous +and staunch man at heart, and a good and honourable +nature.</p> + +<p>I shall send Catherine from Genoa a list of the places +where letters will find me. I shall hope to hear from you +too, and shall be very glad indeed to do so. No more at +present.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever most affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Croce di Malta, Genoa</span>, <i>Saturday, Oct. 29th, 1853.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dearest Georgy</span>,</div> + +<p>We had thirty-one hours consecutively on the road +between this and Milan, and arrived here in a rather +damaged condition. We live at the top of this immense +house, overlooking the port and sea, pleasantly and airily<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[321]</a></span> +enough, though it is no joke to get so high, and though the +apartment is rather vast and faded.</p> + +<p>The old walks are pretty much the same as ever, except +that they have built behind the Peschiere on the San +Bartolomeo hill, and changed the whole town towards San +Pietro d'Arena, where we seldom went. The Bisagno looks +just the same, strong just now, and with very little water in +it. Vicoli stink exactly as they used to, and are fragrant with +the same old flavour of very rotten cheese kept in very hot +blankets. The Mezzaro pervades them as before. The +old Jesuit college in the Strada Nuova is under the present +government the Hôtel de Ville, and a very splendid caffé +with a terrace garden has arisen between it and Palavicini's +old palace. Another new and handsome caffé has been +built in the Piazza Carlo Felice, between the old caffé of the +Bei Arti (where Fletcher stopped for the bouquets in the +green times, when we went to the ——'s party), and the +Strada Carlo Felice. The old beastly gate and guardhouse +on the Albaro road are still in their dear old beastly +state, and the whole of that road is just as it was. The +man without legs is still in the Strada Nuova; but the +beggars in general are all cleared off, and our old one-armed +Belisario made a sudden evaporation a year or two +ago. I am going to the Peschiere to-day. The puppets +are here, and the opera is open, but only with a buffo +company, and without a buffet. We went to the Scala, +where they did an opera of Verdi's, called "Il Trovatore," +and a poor enough ballet. The whole performance miserable +indeed. I wish you were here to take some of the old +walks. It is quite strange to walk about alone. Good-bye, +my dear Georgy. Pray tell me how Kate is. I rather +fancy from her letter, though I scarcely know why, that +she is not quite as well as she was at Boulogne. I was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[322]</a></span> +charmed with your account of the Plornishghenter and +everything and everybody else. Kiss them all for me.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever most affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Hôtel des Étrangers, Naples</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Friday Night, Nov. 4th, 1853.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dearest Georgy</span>,</div> + +<p>Instead of embarking on Monday at Genoa, we were +delayed (in consequence of the boat's being a day later +when there are thirty-one days in the month) until Tuesday. +Going aboard that morning at half-past nine, we found the +steamer more than full of passengers from Marseilles, and +in a state of confusion not to be described. We could get +no places at the table, got our dinners how we could on +deck, had no berths or sleeping accommodation of any kind, +and had paid heavy first-class fares! To add to this, we +got to Leghorn too late to steam away again that night, +getting the ship's papers examined first—as the authorities +said so, not being favourable to the new express English +ship, English officered—and we lay off the lighthouse all +night long. The scene on board beggars description. +Ladies on the tables, gentlemen under the tables, and +ladies and gentlemen lying indiscriminately on the open +deck, arrayed like spoons on a sideboard. No mattresses, +no blankets, nothing. Towards midnight, attempts were +made by means of an awning and flags to make this latter +scene remotely approach an Australian encampment; and +we three lay together on the bare planks covered with overcoats. +We were all gradually dozing off when a perfectly +tropical rain fell, and in a moment drowned the whole ship. +The rest of the night was passed upon the stairs, with an +immense jumble of men and women. When anybody came<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[323]</a></span> +up for any purpose we all fell down; and when anybody +came down we all fell up again. Still, the good-humour in +the English part of the passengers was quite extraordinary. +There were excellent officers aboard, and the first mate lent +me his cabin to wash in in the morning, which I afterwards +lent to Egg and Collins. Then we and the Emerson +Tennents (who were aboard) and the captain, the doctor, +and the second officer went off on a jaunt together to Pisa, +as the ship was to lie at Leghorn all day.</p> + +<p>The captain was a capital fellow, but I led him, facetiously, +such a life all day, that I got almost everything altered +at night. Emerson Tennent, with the greatest kindness, +turned his son out of his state room (who, indeed, volunteered +to go in the most amiable manner), and I got a good +bed there. The store-room down by the hold was opened +for Egg and Collins, and they slept with the moist sugar, the +cheese in cut, the spices, the cruets, the apples and pears—in +a perfect chandler's shop; in company with what the +——'s would call a "hold gent"—who had been so horribly +wet through overnight that his condition frightened the +authorities—a cat, and the steward—who dozed in an arm-chair, +and all night long fell headforemost, once in every five +minutes, on Egg, who slept on the counter or dresser. Last +night I had the steward's own cabin, opening on deck, all to +myself. It had been previously occupied by some desolate +lady, who went ashore at Civita Vecchia. There was little +or no sea, thank Heaven, all the trip; but the rain was +heavier than any I have ever seen, and the lightning very +constant and vivid. We were, with the crew, some two +hundred people; with boats, at the utmost stretch, for one +hundred, perhaps. I could not help thinking what would +happen if we met with any accident; the crew being chiefly +Maltese, and evidently fellows who would cut off alone in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[324]</a></span> +the largest boat on the least alarm. The speed (it being the +crack express ship for the India mail) very high; also the +running through all the narrow rocky channels. Thank +God, however, here we are. Though the more sensible and +experienced part of the passengers agreed with me this +morning that it was not a thing to try often. We had an +excellent table after the first day, the best wines and so +forth, and the captain and I swore eternal friendship. Ditto +the first officer and the majority of the passengers. We got +into the bay about seven this morning, but could not land +until noon. We towed from Civita Vecchia the entire Greek +navy, I believe, consisting of a little brig-of-war, with great +guns, fitted as a steamer, but disabled by having burst the +bottom of her boiler in her first run. She was just big +enough to carry the captain and a crew of six or so, but the +captain was so covered with buttons and gold that there +never would have been room for him on board to put these +valuables away if he hadn't worn them, which he consequently +did, all night.</p> + +<p>Whenever anything was wanted to be done, as slackening +the tow-rope or anything of that sort, our officers roared at +this miserable potentate, in violent English, through a +speaking-trumpet, of which he couldn't have understood a +word under the most favourable circumstances, so he did all +the wrong things first, and the right things always last. +The absence of any knowledge of anything not English on +the part of the officers and stewards was most ridiculous. +I met an Italian gentleman on the cabin steps, yesterday +morning, vainly endeavouring to explain that he wanted a +cup of tea for his sick wife. And when we were coming +out of the harbour at Genoa, and it was necessary to order +away that boat of music you remember, the chief officer +(called aft for the purpose, as "knowing something of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[325]</a></span> +Italian,") delivered himself in this explicit and clear manner +to the principal performer: "Now, signora, if you don't +sheer off, you'll be run down; so you had better trice up +that guitar of yours, and put about."</p> + +<p>We get on as well as possible, and it is extremely +pleasant and interesting, and I feel that the change is doing +me great and real service, after a long continuous strain +upon the mind; but I am pleased to think that we are at +our farthest point, and I look forward with joy to coming +home again, to my old room, and the old walks, and all the +old pleasant things.</p> + +<p>I wish I had arranged, or could have done so—for it +would not have been easy—to find some letters here. It is +a blank to stay for five days in a place without any.</p> + +<p>I don't think Edward knows fifty Italian words; but +much more French is spoken in Italy now than when we +were here, and he stumbles along somehow.</p> + +<p>I am afraid this is a dull letter, for I am very tired. +You must take the will for the deed, my dear, and good +night.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever most affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote"> +Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Rome</span>, <i>Sunday Night, Nov. 13th, 1853.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dearest Georgy</span>,</div> + +<p>We arrived here yesterday afternoon, at between +three and four. On sending to the post-office this morning, +I received your pleasant little letter, and one from Miss +Coutts, who is still at Paris. But to my amazement there +was none from Catherine! You mention her writing, and +I cannot but suppose that your two letters must have been +posted together. However, I received none from her, and +I have all manner of doubts respecting the plainness of its +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[326]</a></span>direction. They will not produce the letters here as at +Genoa, but persist in looking them out at the post-office for +you. I shall send again to-morrow, and every day until +Friday, when we leave here. If I find no letter from her +<i>to-morrow</i>, I shall write to her nevertheless by that post +which brings this, so that you may both hear from me +together.</p> + +<p>One night, at Naples, Edward came in, open-mouthed, +to the table d'hôte where we were dining with the Tennents, +to announce "The Marchese Garofalo." I at first thought it +must be the little parrot-marquess who was once your escort +from Genoa; but I found him to be a man (married to an +Englishwoman) whom we used to meet at Ridgway's. He was +very glad to see me, and I afterwards met him at dinner at +Mr. Lowther's, our chargé d'affaires. Mr. Lowther was at the +Rockingham play, and is a very agreeable fellow. We had an +exceedingly pleasant dinner of eight, preparatory to which I +was near having the ridiculous adventure of not being able +to find the house and coming back dinnerless. I went in an +open carriage from the hotel in all state, and the coachman, +to my surprise, pulled up at the end of the Chiaja. "Behold +the house," says he, "of Il Signor Larthoor!"—at the same +time pointing with his whip into the seventh heaven, where +the early stars were shining. "But the Signor Larthoor," +returns the Inimitable darling, "lives at Pausilippo." "It +is true," says the coachman (still pointing to the evening +star), "but he lives high up the Salita Sant' Antonio, where +no carriage ever yet ascended, and that is the house" (evening +star as aforesaid), "and one must go on foot. Behold the +Salita Sant' Antonio!" I went up it, a mile and a half I +should think. I got into the strangest places, among the +wildest Neapolitans—kitchens, washing-places, archways, +stables, vineyards—was baited by dogs, answered in profoundly +unintelligible Neapolitan, from behind lonely locked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[327]</a></span> +doors, in cracked female voices, quaking with fear; could +hear of no such Englishman or any Englishman. By-and-by +I came upon a Polenta-shop in the clouds, where an old +Frenchman, with an umbrella like a faded tropical leaf (it +had not rained for six weeks) was staring at nothing at all, +with a snuff-box in his hand. To him I appealed concerning +the Signor Larthoor. "Sir," said he, with the sweetest +politeness, "can you speak French?" "Sir," said I, "a +little." "Sir," said he, "I presume the Signor Loothere"—you +will observe that he changed the name according to +the custom of his country—"is an Englishman." I admitted +that he was the victim of circumstances and had that misfortune. +"Sir," said he, "one word more. <i>Has</i> he a servant +with a wooden leg?" "Great Heaven, sir," said I, "how +do I know! I should think not, but it is possible." "It +is always," said the Frenchman, "possible. Almost all the +things of the world are always possible." "Sir," said I—you +may imagine my condition and dismal sense of my own +absurdity, by this time—"that is true." He then took an +immense pinch of snuff, wiped the dust off his umbrella, +led me to an arch commanding a wonderful view of the bay +of Naples, and pointed deep into the earth from which I +had mounted. "Below there, near the lamp, one finds an +Englishman, with a servant with a wooden leg. It is always +possible that he is the Signor Loothere." I had been asked +at six, and it was now getting on for seven. I went down +again in a state of perspiration and misery not to be +described, and without the faintest hope of finding the +place. But as I was going down to the lamp, I saw the +strangest staircase up a dark corner, with a man in a white-waistcoat +(evidently hired) standing on the top of it, fuming. +I dashed in at a venture, found it was the place, made the +most of the whole story, and was indescribably popular.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[328]</a></span> +The best of it was, that as nobody ever did find the place, +he had put a servant at the bottom of the Salita, to "wait +for an English gentleman." The servant (as he presently +pleaded), deceived by the moustache, had allowed the +English gentleman to pass unchallenged.</p> + +<p>The night before we left Naples we were at the San +Carlo, where, with the Verdi rage of our old Genoa time, +they were again doing the "Trovatore." It seemed rubbish +on the whole to me, but was very fairly done. I think +"La Tenco," the prima donna, will soon be a great hit in +London. She is a very remarkable singer and a fine actress, +to the best of my judgment on such premises. There seems +to be no opera here, at present. There was a Festa in +St. Peter's to-day, and the Pope passed to the Cathedral in +state. We were all there.</p> + +<p>We leave here, please God, on Friday morning, and post +to Florence in three days and a half. We came here by +Vetturino. Upon the whole, the roadside inns are greatly +improved since our time. Half-past three and half-past +four have been, however, our usual times of rising on the +road.</p> + +<p>I was in my old place at the Coliseum this morning, +and it was as grand as ever. With that exception the +ruined part of Rome—the real original Rome—looks smaller +than my remembrance made it. It is the only place on +which I have yet found that effect. We are in the old +hotel.</p> + +<p>You are going to Bonchurch I suppose? will be there, +perhaps, when this letter reaches you? I shall be pleased +to think of you as at home again, and making the commodious +family mansion look natural and home-like. I +don't like to think of my room without anybody to peep +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[329]</a></span>into it now and then. Here is a world of travelling +arrangements for me to settle, and here are Collins and Egg +looking sideways at me with an occasional imploring glance +as beseeching me to settle it. So I leave off. Good-night.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Ever, my dearest Georgy,</span><br /> +Most affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Sir James +Emerson +Tennent.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Hôtel des Îles Britanniques, Piazza del Popolo, Rome</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Monday, Nov. 14th, 1853.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Tennent</span>,</div> + +<p>As I never made a good bargain in my life—except +once, when, on going abroad, I let my house on excellent +terms to an admirable tenant, who never paid anything—I +sent Edward into the Casa Dies yesterday morning, while +I invested the premises from the outside, and carefully +surveyed them. It is a very clean, large, bright-looking +house at the corner of the Via Gregoriana; not exactly in a +part of Rome I should pick out for living in, and on what I +should be disposed to call the wrong side of the street. +However, this is not to the purpose. Signor Dies has no +idea of letting an apartment for a short time—scouted the +idea of a month—signified that he could not be brought to +the contemplation of two months—was by no means clear +that he could come down to the consideration of three. +This of course settled the business speedily.</p> + +<p>This hotel is no longer kept by the Melloni I spoke of, +but is even better kept than in his time, and is a very +admirable house. I have engaged a small apartment for +you to be ready on Thursday afternoon (at two piastres +and a half—two-and-a-half per day—sitting-room and three +bedrooms, one double-bedded and two not). If you would +like to change to ours, which is a very good one, on Friday +morning, you can of course do so. As our dining-room is +large, and there is no table d'hôte here, I will order dinner<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[330]</a></span> +in it for our united parties at six on Thursday. You +will be able to decide how to arrange for the remainder of +your stay, after being here and looking about you—two +really necessary considerations in Rome.</p> + +<p>Pray make my kind regards to Lady Tennent, and Miss +Tennent, and your good son, who became homeless for +my sake. Mr. Egg and Mr. Collins desire to be also +remembered.</p> + +<p>It has been beautiful weather since we left Naples, +until to-day, when it rains in a very dogged, sullen, downcast, +and determined manner. We have been speculating +at breakfast on the possibility of its raining in a similar +manner at Naples, and of your wandering about the hotel, +refusing consolation.</p> + +<p>I grieve to report the Orvieto considerably damaged by +the general vine failure, but still far from despicable. +Montefiascone (the Est wine you know) is to be had here; +and we have had one bottle in the very finest condition, and +one in a second-rate state.</p> + +<p>The Coliseum, in its magnificent old decay, is as grand +as ever; and with the electric telegraph darting through +one of its ruined arches like a sunbeam and piercing direct +through its cruel old heart, is even grander.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Believe me always, very faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Charles +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Rome</span>, <i>Monday, Nov. 14th, 1853.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dearest Catherine</span>,</div> + +<p>As I have mentioned in my letter to Georgy (written +last night but posted with this), I received her letter without +yours, to my unbounded astonishment. This morning, +on sending again to the post-office, I at last got yours, and +most welcome it is with all its contents.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[331]</a></span></p> + +<p>I found Layard at Naples, who went up Vesuvius with +us, and was very merry and agreeable. He is travelling +with Lord and Lady Somers, and Lord Somers being laid +up with an attack of malaria fever, Layard had a day to +spare. Craven, who was Lord Normanby's Secretary of +Legation in Paris, now lives at Naples, and is married to a +French lady. He is very hospitable and hearty, and seemed +to have vague ideas that something might be done in a +pretty little private theatre he has in his house. He told +me of Fanny Kemble and the Sartoris's being here. I have +also heard of Thackeray's being here—I don't know how +truly. Lockhart is here, and, I fear, very ill. I mean to +go and see him.</p> + +<p>We are living in the old hotel, which is not now kept by +Meloni, who has retired. I don't know whether you recollect +an apartment at the top of the house, to which we once ran +up with poor Roche to see the horses start in the race at +the Carnival time? That is ours, in which I at present +write. We have a large back dining-room, a handsome +front drawing-room, looking into the Piazza del Popolo, +and three front bedrooms, all on a floor. The whole costs us +about four shillings a day each. The hotel is better kept +than ever. There is a little kitchen to each apartment +where the dinner is kept hot. There is no house comparable +to it in Paris, and it is better than Mivart's. We +start for Florence, post, on Friday morning, and I am +bargaining for a carriage to take us on to Venice.</p> + +<p>Edward is an excellent servant, and always cheerful and +ready for his work. He knows no Italian, except the names +of a few things, but French is far more widely known here +now than in our time. Neither is he an experienced courier +as to roads and so forth; but he picks up all that I want to +know, here and there, somehow or other. I am perfectly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[332]</a></span> +pleased with him, and would rather have him than an older +hand. Poor dear Roche comes back to my mind though, +often.</p> + +<p>I have written to engage the courier from Turin into +France, from <i>Tuesday, the 6th December</i>. This will bring us +home some two days after the tenth, probably. I wrote to +Charley from Naples, giving him his choice of meeting me +at Lyons, in Paris, or at Boulogne. I gave him full +instructions what to do if he arrived before me, and he will +write to me at Turin saying where I shall find him. I shall +be a day or so later than I supposed as the nearest calculation +I could make when I wrote to him; but his waiting for +me at an hotel will not matter.</p> + +<p>We have had delightful weather, with one day's exception, +until to-day, when it rained very heavily and suddenly. +Egg and Collins have gone to the Vatican, and I am +"going" to try whether I can hit out anything for the +Christmas number. Give my love to Forster, and tell him +I won't write to him until I hear from him.</p> + +<p>I have not come across any English whom I know except +Layard and the Emerson Tennents, who will be here on +Thursday from Civita Vecchia, and are to dine with us. +The losses up to this point have been two pairs of shoes +(one mine and one Egg's), Collins's snuff-box, and Egg's +dressing-gown.</p> + +<p>We observe the managerial punctuality in all our arrangements, +and have not had any difference whatever.</p> + +<p>I have been reserving this side all through my letter, in +the conviction that I had something else to tell you. If I +had, I cannot remember what it is. I introduced myself to +Salvatore at Vesuvius, and reminded him of the night when +poor Le Gros fell down the mountains. He was full of +interest directly, remembered the very hole, put on his gold-banded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[333]</a></span> +cap, and went up with us himself. He did not +know that Le Gros was dead, and was very sorry to hear it. +He asked after the ladies, and hoped they were very happy, +to which I answered, "Very." The cone is completely +changed since our visit, is not at all recognisable as the +same place; and there is no fire from the mountain, though +there is a great deal of smoke. Its last demonstration was +in 1850.</p> + +<p>I shall be glad to think of your all being at home again, +as I suppose you will be soon after the receipt of this. +Will you see to the invitations for Christmas Day, and write +to Lætitia? I shall be very happy to be at home again +myself, and to embrace you; for of course I miss you <i>very +much</i>, though I feel that I could not have done a better +thing to clear my mind and freshen it up again, than make +this expedition. If I find Charley much ahead of me, I +shall start on through a night or so to meet him, and leave +the others to catch us up. I look upon the journey as almost +closed at Turin. My best love to Mamey, and Katey, and +Sydney, and Harry, and the darling Plornishghenter. We +often talk about them, and both my companions do so with +interest. They always send all sorts of messages to you, +which I never deliver. God bless you! Take care of +yourself.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever most affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. H. +Wills.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Rome</span>, <i>Thursday Afternoon, Nov. 17th, 1853.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Wills</span>,</div> + +<p>Just as I wrote the last words of the enclosed little +story for the Christmas number just now, Edward brought +in your letter. Also one from Forster (tell him) which I +have not yet opened. I will write again—and write to him—from +Florence. I am delighted to have news of you.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[334]</a></span></p> + +<p>The enclosed little paper for the Christmas number is in +a character that nobody else is likely to hit, and which is +pretty sure to be considered pleasant. Let Forster have +the MS. with the proof, and I know he will correct it to the +minutest point. I have a notion of another little story, also +for the Christmas number. If I can do it at Venice, I will, +and send it straight on. But it is not easy to work under +these circumstances. In travelling we generally get up +about three; and in resting we are perpetually roaming +about in all manner of places. Not to mention my being +laid hold of by all manner of people.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Keep "Household Words" Imaginative</span>! is the solemn +and continual Conductorial Injunction. Delighted to hear +of Mrs. Gaskell's contributions.</p> + +<p>Yes by all manner of means to Lady Holland. Will you +ask her whether she has Sydney Smith's letters to me, +which I placed (at Mrs. Smith's request) either in Mrs. +Smith's own hands or in Mrs. Austin's? I cannot remember +which, but I think the latter.</p> + +<p>In making up the Christmas number, don't consider my +paper or papers, with any reference saving to where they +will fall best. I have no liking, in the case, for any +particular place.</p> + +<p>All perfectly well. Companion moustaches (particularly +Egg's) dismal in the extreme. Kindest regards to Mrs. +Wills.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. H. +Wills.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Florence</span>, <i>Monday, Nov. 21st, 1853.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='center'> +H. W.<br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Wills</span>,</div> + +<p>I sent you by post from Rome, on Wednesday last, a +little story for the Christmas number, called "The Schoolboy's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[335]</a></span> +Story." I have an idea of another short one, to be +called "Nobody's Story," which I hope to be able to +do at Venice, and to send you straight home before +this month is out. I trust you have received the first +safely.</p> + +<p>Edward continues to do extremely well. He is always, +early and late, what you have seen him. He is a very steady +fellow, a little too bashful for a courier even; settles prices +of everything now, as soon as we come into an hotel; and +improves fast. His knowledge of Italian is painfully defective, +and, in the midst of a howling crowd at a post-house +or railway station, this deficiency perfectly stuns him. I +was obliged last night to get out of the carriage, and pluck +him from a crowd of porters who were putting our baggage +into wrong conveyances—by cursing and ordering about in +all directions. I should think about ten substantives, the +names of ten common objects, form his whole Italian stock. +It matters very little at the hotels, where a great deal of +French is spoken now; but, on the road, if none of his +party knew Italian, it would be a very serious inconvenience +indeed.</p> + +<p>Will you write to Ryland if you have not heard from +him, and ask him what the Birmingham reading-nights +are really to be? For it is ridiculous enough that I +positively don't know. Can't a Saturday Night in a Truck +District, or a Sunday Morning among the Ironworkers (a +fine subject) be knocked out in the course of the same +visit?</p> + +<p>If you should see any managing man you know in the +Oriental and Peninsular Company, I wish you would very +gravely mention to him from me that if they are not careful +what they are about with their steamship <i>Valetta</i>, between +Marseilles and Naples, they will suddenly find that they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[336]</a></span> +will receive a blow one fine day in <i>The Times</i>, which it +will be a very hard matter for them ever to recover. When +I sailed in her from Genoa, there had been taken on board, +<i>with no caution in most cases from the agent, or hint of +discomfort</i>, at least forty people of both sexes for whom +there was no room whatever. I am a pretty old traveller +as you know, but I never saw anything like the manner in +which pretty women were compelled to lie among the men +in the great cabin and on the bare decks. The good humour +was beyond all praise, but the natural indignation very +great; and I was repeatedly urged to stand up for the +public in "Household Words," and to write a plain description +of the facts to <i>The Times</i>. If I had done either, and +merely mentioned that all these people paid heavy first-class +fares, I will answer for it that they would have been beaten +off the station in a couple of months. I did neither, +because I was the best of friends with the captain and all +the officers, and never saw such a fine set of men; so admirable +in the discharge of their duty, and so zealous to do +their best by everybody. It is impossible to praise them too +highly. But there is a strong desire at all the ports along +the coast to throw impediments in the way of the English +service, and to favour the French and Italian boats. In +those boats (which I know very well) great care is taken of +the passengers, and the accommodation is very good. If the +Peninsula and Oriental add to all this the risk of such an +exposure as they are <i>certain</i> to get (if they go on so) in <i>The +Times</i>, they are dead sure to get a blow from the public +which will make them stagger again. I say nothing of the +number of the passengers and the room in the ship's boats, +though the frightful consideration the contrast presented +must have been in more minds than mine. I speak only of +the taking people for whom there is no sort of accommodation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[337]</a></span> +as the most decided swindle, and the coolest, I ever did with +my eyes behold.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Kindest regards from fellow-travellers.</span><br /> +Ever, my dear Wills, faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Venice</span>, <i>Friday, November 25th, 1853.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dearest Georgy</span>,</div> + +<p>We found an English carriage from Padua at Florence, +and hired it to bring it back again. We travelled post with +four horses all the way (from Padua to this place there is a +railroad) and travelled all night. We left Florence at half-past +six in the morning, and got to Padua at eleven next day—yesterday. +The cold at night was most intense. I don't +think I have ever felt it colder. But our carriage was very +comfortable, and we had some wine and some rum to keep +us warm. We came by Bologna (where we had tea) and +Ferrara. You may imagine the delays in the night when I +tell you that each of our passports, after receiving <i>six visés</i> +at Florence, received in the course of the one night, <i>nine +more</i>, every one of which was written and sealed; somebody +being slowly knocked out of bed to do it every time! It +really was excruciating.</p> + +<p>Landor had sent me a letter to his son, and on the day +before we left Florence I thought I would go out to Fiesoli +and leave it. So I got a little one-horse open carriage and +drove off alone. We were within half a mile of the Villa +Landoro, and were driving down a very narrow lane like one +of those at Albaro, when I saw an elderly lady coming +towards us, very well dressed in silk of the Queen's blue, +and walking freshly and briskly against the wind at a good +round pace. It was a bright, cloudless, very cold day, and +I thought she walked with great spirit, as if she enjoyed it. +I also thought (perhaps that was having him in my mind)<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[338]</a></span> +that her ruddy face was shaped like Landor's. All of a +sudden the coachman pulls up, and looks enquiringly at +me. "What's the matter?" says I. "Ecco la Signora +Landoro?" says he. "For the love of Heaven, don't stop," +says I. "<i>I</i> don't know her, I am only going to the house to +leave a letter—go on!" Meanwhile she (still coming on) +looked at me, and I looked at her, and we were both a good +deal confused, and so went our several ways. Altogether, I +think it was as disconcerting a meeting as I ever took part +in, and as odd a one. Under any other circumstances I +should have introduced myself, but the separation made the +circumstances so peculiar that "I didn't like."</p> + +<p>The Plornishghenter is evidently the greatest, noblest, +finest, cleverest, brightest, and most brilliant of boys. +Your account of him is most delightful, and I hope to find +another letter from you somewhere on the road, making +me informed of his demeanour on your return. On which +occasion, as on every other, I have no doubt he will have +distinguished himself as an irresistibly attracting, captivating +May-Roon-Ti-Groon-Ter. Give him a good many kisses +for me. I quite agree with Syd as to his ideas of paying +attention to the old gentleman. It's not bad, but deficient in +originality. The usual deficiency of an inferior intellect +with so great a model before him. I am very curious to see +whether the Plorn remembers me on my reappearance.</p> + +<p>I meant to have gone to work this morning, and to have +tried a second little story for the Christmas number of +"Household Words," but my letters have (most pleasantly) +put me out, and I defer all such wise efforts until to-morrow. +Egg and Collins are out in a gondola with a +servitore di piazza.</p> + +<p>You will find this but a stupid letter, but I really have +no news. We go to the opera, whenever there is one, see<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[339]</a></span> +sights, eat and drink, sleep in a natural manner two or +three nights, and move on again. Edward was a little +crushed at Padua yesterday. He had been extraordinarily +cold all night in the rumble, and had got out our clothes to +dress, and I think must have been projecting a five or six +hours' sleep, when I announced that he was to come on here +in an hour and a half to get the rooms and order dinner. +He fell into a sudden despondency of the profoundest kind, +but was quite restored when we arrived here between eight +and nine. We found him waiting at the Custom House with +a gondola in his usual brisk condition.</p> + +<p>It is extraordinary how few English we see. With the +exception of a gentlemanly young fellow (in a consumption +I am afraid), married to the tiniest little girl, in a brown +straw hat, and travelling with his sister and her sister, and +a consumptive single lady, travelling with a maid and a +Scotch terrier <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'chistened'">christened</ins> Trotty Veck, we have scarcely seen +any, and have certainly spoken to none, since we left +Switzerland. These were aboard the <i>Valetta</i>, where the +captain and I indulged in all manner of insane suppositions +concerning the straw hat—the "Little Matron" we called +her; by which name she soon became known all over the +ship. The day we entered Rome, and the moment we +entered it, there was the Little Matron, alone with antiquity—and +Murray—on the wall. The very first church I +entered, there was the Little Matron. On the last afternoon, +when I went alone to St. Peter's, there was the Little +Matron and her party. The best of it is, that I was +extremely intimate with them, invited them to Tavistock +House, when they come home in the spring, and have not +the faintest idea of their name.</p> + +<p>There was no table d'hôte at Rome, or at Florence, but +there is one here, and we dine at it to-day, so perhaps we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[340]</a></span> +may stumble upon somebody. I have heard from Charley +this morning, who appoints (wisely) Paris as our place of +meeting. I had a letter from Coote, at Florence, informing +me that his volume of "Household Songs" was ready, and +requesting permission to dedicate it to me. Which of course +I gave.</p> + +<p>I am beginning to think of the Birmingham readings. +I suppose you won't object to be taken to hear them? This +is the last place at which we shall make a stay of more than +one day. We shall stay at Parma one, and at Turin one, +supposing De la Rue to have been successful in taking +places with the courier into France for the day on which we +want them (he was to write to bankers at Turin to do it), +and then we shall come hard and fast home. I feel almost +there already, and shall be delighted to close the pleasant +trip, and get back to my own Piccola Camera—if, being +English, you understand what <i>that</i> is. My best love and +kisses to Mamey, Katey, Sydney, Harry, and the noble +Plorn. Last, not least, to yourself, and many of them. I +will not wait over to-morrow, tell Kate, for her letter; but +will write then, whether or no.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Ever, my dearest Georgy,</span><br /> +Most affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Marcus +Stone.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>December 19th, 1853.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Marcus</span>,</div> + +<p>You made an excellent sketch from a book of mine +which I have received (and have preserved) with great +pleasure. Will you accept from me, in remembrance of it, +<i>this</i> little book? I believe it to be true, though it may be +sometimes not as genteel as history has a habit of being.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[341]</a></span></p> +<h2>1854.</h2> + +<h3>NARRATIVE.</h3> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>The</span> summer of this year was also spent at Boulogne, +M. Beaucourt being again the landlord; but the house, +though still on the same "property," stood on the top of +the hill, above the Moulineaux, and was called the Villa du +Camp de Droite.</div> + +<p>In the early part of the year Charles Dickens paid +several visits to the English provinces, giving readings from +his books at many of the large manufacturing towns, and +always for some good and charitable purpose.</p> + +<p>He was still at work upon "Hard Times," which was +finished during the summer, and was constantly occupied +with "Household Words." Many of our letters for this +year are to the contributors to this journal. The last is an +unusually interesting one. He had for some time past been +much charmed with the writings of a certain Miss Berwick, +who, he knew, to be a contributor under a feigned name. +When at last the lady confided her real name, and he discovered +in the young poetess the daughter of his dear +friends, Mr.<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> and Mrs. Procter, the "new sensation" caused +him intense surprise, and the greatest pleasure and delight. +Miss Adelaide Procter was, from this time, a frequent contributor +to "Household Words," more especially to the +Christmas numbers.</p> + +<p>There are really very few letters in this year requiring +any explanation from us—many explaining themselves, and +many having allusion to incidents in the past year, which +have been duly noted by us for 1853.</p> + +<p>The portrait mentioned in the letter to Mr. Collins, for +which he was sitting to Mr. E. M. Ward, R.A., was to be +one of a series of oil sketches of the then celebrated literary +men of the day, in their studies. We believe this portrait +to be now in the possession of Mrs. Ward.</p> + +<p>In explanation of the letter to Mr. John Saunders on +the subject of the production of the latter's play, called<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[342]</a></span> +"Love's Martyrdom," we will give the dramatist's own +words:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Having printed for private circulation a play entitled +'Love's Martyrdom,' and for which I desired to obtain the +independent judgment of some of our most eminent literary +men, before seeking the ordeal of the stage, I sent a +copy to Mr. Dickens, and the letter in question is his +acknowledgment.</p> + +<div class='center'><b>* * * * * *</b></div> + +<p>"He immediately took steps for the introduction of the +play to the theatre. At first he arranged with Mr. Phelps, +of Sadler's Wells, but subsequently, with that gentleman's +consent, removed it to the Haymarket. There it was played +with Miss Helen Faucit in the character of Margaret, Miss +Swanborough (who shortly after married and left the stage) +as Julia, Mr. Barry Sullivan as Franklyn, and Mr. Howe as +Laneham.</p> + +<p>"As far as the play itself was concerned, it was received +on all sides as a genuine dramatic and poetic success, +achieved, however, as an eminent critic came to my box to +say, through greater difficulties than he had ever before +seen a dramatic work pass through. The time has not come +for me to speak freely of these, but I may point to two of +them: the first being the inadequate rehearsals, which +caused Mr. Dickens to tell me on the stage, four or five +days only before the first performance, that the play was +not then in as good a state as it would have been in at Paris +three weeks earlier. The other was the breakdown of the +performer of a most important secondary part; a collapse +so absolute that he was changed by the management before +the second representation of the piece."</p></div> + +<p>This ill-luck of the beginning, pursued the play to its +close.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The Haymarket Theatre was at the time in the very +lowest state of prostration, through the Crimean War; the +habitual frequenters were lovers of comedy, and enjoyers of +farce and burlesque; and there was neither the money nor +the faith to call to the theatre by the usual methods,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[343]</a></span> +vigorously and discriminatingly pursued, the multitudes +that I believed could have been so called to a better and +more romantic class of comedy.</p> + +<p>"Even under these and other, similarly depressing circumstances, +the nightly receipts were about £60, the expenses +being £80; and on the last—an author's—night, there was +an excellent and enthusiastic house, yielding, to the best of +my recollection, about £140, but certainly between £120 +and £140. And with that night—the sixth or seventh—the +experiment ended."</p></div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Walter +Savage +Landor.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>January 7th, 1854.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Landor</span>,</div> + +<p>I heartily assure you that to have your name coupled +with anything I have done is an honour and a pleasure to +me. I cannot say that I am sorry that you should have +thought it necessary to write to me, for it is always delightful +to me to see your hand, and to know (though I +want no outward and visible sign as an assurance of the fact) +that you are ever the same generous, earnest, gallant man.</p> + +<p>Catherine and Georgina send their kind loves. So does +Walter Landor, who came home from school with high +judicial commendation and a prize into the bargain.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever, my dear Landor, affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">The Hon. +Mrs. +Watson.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Friday, January 13th, 1854.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mrs. Watson</span>,</div> + +<p>On the very day after I sent the Christmas number +to Rockingham, I heard of your being at Brighton. I should +have sent another there, but that I had a misgiving I might +seem to be making too much of it. For, when I thought of +the probability of the Rockingham copy going on to Brighton, +and pictured to myself the advent of two of those very large +envelopes at once at Junction House at breakfast time, a +sort of comic modesty overcame me. I was heartily pleased<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[344]</a></span> +with the Birmingham audience, which was a very fine one. +I never saw, nor do I suppose anybody ever did, such an +interesting sight as the working people's night. There were +two thousand five hundred of them there, and a more delicately +observant audience it is impossible to imagine. They +lost nothing, misinterpreted nothing, followed everything +closely, laughed and cried with most delightful earnestness, +and animated me to that extent that I felt as if we were all +bodily going up into the clouds together. It is an enormous +place for the purpose; but I had considered all that carefully, +and I believe made the most distant person hear as well as +if I had been reading in my own room. I was a little doubtful +before I began on the first night whether it was quite practicable +to conceal the requisite effort; but I soon had the +satisfaction of finding that it was, and that we were all going +on together, in the first page, as easily, to all appearance, as +if we had been sitting round the fire.</p> + +<p>I am obliged to go out on Monday at five and to dine +out; but I will be at home at any time before that hour that +you may appoint. You say you are only going to stay one +night in town; but if you could stay two, and would dine +with us alone on Tuesday, <i>that</i> is the plan that we should +all like best. Let me have one word from you by post on +Monday morning. Few things that I saw, when I was away, +took my fancy so much as the Electric Telegraph, piercing, +like a sunbeam, right through the cruel old heart of the +Coliseum at Rome. And on the summit of the Alps, among +the eternal ice and snow, there it was still, with its posts +sustained against the sweeping mountain winds by clusters +of great beams—to say nothing of its being at the bottom +of the sea as we crossed the Channel. With kindest loves,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Ever, my dear Mrs. Watson,</span><br /> +Most faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[345]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">Miss Mary +Boyle.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Monday, January 16th, 1854.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mary</span>,</div> + +<p>It is all very well to pretend to love me as you do. +Ah! If you loved as <i>I</i> love, Mary! But, when my breast is +tortured by the perusal of such a letter as yours, Falkland, +Falkland, madam, becomes my part in "The Rivals," and I +play it with desperate earnestness.</p> + +<p>As thus:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Falkland</span> (<i>to Acres</i>). Then you see her, sir, sometimes?</div> + +<div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Acres</span>. See her! Odds beams and sparkles, yes. See her acting! +Night after night.</div> + +<div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Falkland</span> (<i>aside and furious</i>). Death and the devil! Acting, and I +not there! Pray, sir (<i>with constrained calmness</i>), what +does she act?</div> + +<div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Acres</span>. Odds, monthly nurses and babbies! Sairey Gamp and +Betsey Prig, "which, wotever it is, my dear (<i>mimicking</i>), +I likes it brought reg'lar and draw'd mild!" <i>That's</i> +very like her.</div> + +<div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Falkland</span>. Confusion! Laceration! Perhaps, sir, perhaps she sometimes +acts—ha! ha! perhaps she sometimes acts, I say—eh! +sir?—a—ha, ha, ha! a fairy? (<i>With great bitterness.</i>)</div> + +<div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Acres</span>. Odds, gauzy pinions and spangles, yes! You should hear +her sing as a fairy. You should see her dance as a +fairy. Tol de rol lol—la—lol—liddle diddle. (<i>Sings and +dances</i>). <i>That's</i> very like her.</div> + +<div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Falkland</span>. Misery! while I, devoted to her image, can scarcely write +a line now and then, or pensively read aloud to the +people of Birmingham. (<i>To him.</i>) And they applaud her, +no doubt they applaud her, sir. And she—I see her! +Curtsies and smiles! And they—curses on them! they +laugh and—ha, ha, ha!—and clap their hands—and say +it's very good. Do they not say it's very good, sir? +Tell me. Do they not?</div> + +<div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Acres</span>. Odds, thunderings and pealings, of course they do! and +the third fiddler, little Tweaks, of the county town, goes +into fits. Ho, ho, ho, I can't bear it (<i>mimicking</i>); take +me out! Ha, ha, ha! O what a one she is! She'll be +the death of me. Ha, ha, ha, ha! <i>That's</i> very like her!</div> + +<div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Falkland</span>. Damnation! Heartless Mary! (<i>Rushes out.</i>)</div></div> + +<p>Scene opens, and discloses coals of fire, heaped up<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[346]</a></span> +into form of letters, representing the following inscription:</p> + +<div class='poem'> +When the praise thou meetest<br /> +To thine ear is sweetest,<br /> +O then<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;"><span class="smcap">Remember Joe</span>!</span><br /> +</div> + +<div class='center'><br /> +(<i>Curtain falls.</i>)<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">M. de +Cerjat.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Monday, Jan. 16th, 1854.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Cerjat</span>,</div> + +<p>Guilty. The accused pleads guilty, but throws himself +upon the mercy of the court. He humbly represents +that his usual hour for getting up, in the course of his +travels, was three o'clock in the morning, and his usual hour +for going to bed, nine or ten the next night. That the +places in which he chiefly deviated from these rules of +hardship, were Rome and Venice; and that at those cities of +fame he shut himself up in solitude, and wrote Christmas +papers for the incomparable publication known as "Household +Words." That his correspondence at all times, arising +out of the business of the said "Household Words" alone, +was very heavy. That his offence, though undoubtedly +committed, was unavoidable, and that a nominal punishment +will meet the justice of the case.</p> + +<p>We had only three bad days out of the whole time. +After Naples, which was very hot, we had very cold, clear, +bright weather. When we got to Chamounix, we found +the greater part of the inns shut up and the people gone. +No visitors whatsoever, and plenty of snow. These were +the very best circumstances under which to see the place, +and we stayed a couple of days at the Hôtel de Londres +(hastily re-furbished for our entertainment), and climbed +through the snow to the Mer de Glace, and thoroughly +enjoyed it. Then we went, in mule procession (I walking) +to the old hotel at Martigny, where Collins was ill, and I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[347]</a></span> +suppose I bored Egg to death by talking all the evening +about the time when you and I were there together. Naples +(a place always painful to me, in the intense degradation of +the people) seems to have only three classes of inhabitants +left in it—priests, soldiers (standing army one hundred +thousand strong), and spies. Of macaroni we ate very +considerable quantities everywhere; also, for the benefit of +Italy, we took our share of every description of wine. At +Naples I found Layard, the Nineveh traveller, who is a +friend of mine and an admirable fellow; so we fraternised +and went up Vesuvius together, and ate more macaroni and +drank more wine. At Rome, the day after our arrival, they +were making a saint at St. Peter's; on which occasion I was +surprised to find what an immense number of pounds of +wax candles it takes to make the regular, genuine article. +From Turin to Paris, over the Mont Cenis, we made only +one journey. The Rhone, being frozen and foggy, was not +to be navigated, so we posted from Lyons to Chalons, and +everybody else was doing the like, and there were no horses +to be got, and we were stranded at midnight in amazing +little cabarets, with nothing worth mentioning to eat in +them, except the iron stove, which was rusty, and the +billiard-table, which was musty. We left Turin on a +Tuesday evening, and arrived in Paris on a Friday evening; +where I found my son Charley, hot—or I should rather say +cold—from Germany, with his arms and legs so grown out +of his coat and trousers, that I was ashamed of him, and +was reduced to the necessity of taking him, under cover of +night, to a ready-made establishment in the Palais Royal, +where they put him into balloon-waisted pantaloons, and +increased my confusion. Leaving Calais on the evening +of Sunday, the 10th of December; fact of distinguished +author's being aboard, was telegraphed to Dover; thereupon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[348]</a></span> +authorities of Dover Railway detained train to London for +distinguished author's arrival, rather to the exasperation of +British public. D. A. arrived at home between ten and +eleven that night, thank God, and found all well and +happy.</p> + +<p>I think you see <i>The Times</i>, and if so, you will have +seen a very graceful and good account of the Birmingham +readings. It was the most remarkable thing that England +could produce, I think, in the way of a vast intelligent +assemblage; and the success was most wonderful and +prodigious—perfectly overwhelming and astounding altogether. +They wound up by giving my wife a piece of plate, +having given me one before; and when you come to dine +here (may it be soon!) it shall be duly displayed in the centre +of the table.</p> + +<p>Tell Mrs. Cerjat, to whom my love, and all our loves, that +I have highly excited them at home here by giving them +an account in detail of all your daughters; further, that the +way in which Catherine and Georgina have questioned me +and cross-questioned me about you all, notwithstanding, +is maddening. Mrs. Watson has been obliged to pass her +Christmas at Brighton alone with her younger children, in consequence +of her two eldest boys coming home to Rockingham +from school with the whooping-cough. The quarantine +expires to-day, however; and she drives here, on her way +back into Northamptonshire, to-morrow.</p> + +<p>The sad affair of the Preston strike remains unsettled; +and I hear, on strong authority, that if that were settled, the +Manchester people are prepared to strike next. Provisions +very dear, but the people very temperate and quiet in +general. So ends this jumble, which looks like the index +to a chapter in a book, I find, when I read it over.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever, my dear Cerjat, heartily your Friend.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[349]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Arthur +Ryland.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>January 18th, 1854.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Sir</span>,</div> + +<p>I am quite delighted to find that you are so well +satisfied, and that the enterprise has such a light upon it. I +think I never was better pleased in my life than I was with +my Birmingham friends.</p> + +<p>That principle of fair representation of all orders carefully +carried out, I believe, will do more good than any of us +can yet foresee. Does it not seem a strange thing to +consider that I have never yet seen with these eyes of +mine, a mechanic in any recognised position on the platform +of a Mechanics' Institution?</p> + +<p>Mr. Wills may be expected to sink, shortly, under the +ravages of letters from all parts of England, Ireland, and +Scotland, proposing readings. He keeps up his spirits, but +I don't see how they are to carry him through.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Dickens and Miss Hogarth beg their kindest +regards; and I am, my dear sir, with much regard, too,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Very faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Charles +Knight.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>January 30th, 1854.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Knight</span>,</div> + +<p>Indeed there is no fear of my thinking you the owner +of a cold heart. I am more than three parts disposed, +however, to be ferocious with you for ever writing down +such a preposterous truism.</p> + +<p>My satire is against those who see figures and averages, +and nothing else—the representatives of the wickedest and +most enormous vice of this time—the men who, through +long years to come, will do more to damage the real useful +truths of political economy than I could do (if I tried) in my +whole life; the addled heads who would take the average +of cold in the Crimea during twelve months as a reason<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[350]</a></span> +for clothing a soldier in nankeens on a night when he +would be frozen to death in fur, and who would comfort the +labourer in travelling twelve miles a day to and from his +work, by telling him that the average distance of one +inhabited place from another in the whole area of England, +is not more than four miles. Bah! What have you to +do with these?</p> + +<p>I shall put the book upon a private shelf (after reading +it) by "Once upon a Time." I should have buried my pipe of +peace and sent you this blast of my war-horn three or four +days ago, but that I have been reading to a little audience +of three thousand five hundred at Bradford.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Rev. +James +White.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Tuesday, March 7th, 1854.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear White</span>,</div> + +<p>I am tardy in answering your letter; but "Hard +Times," and an immense amount of enforced correspondence, +are my excuse. To you a sufficient one, I know.</p> + +<p>As I should judge from outward and visible appearances, +I have exactly as much chance of seeing the Russian fleet +reviewed by the Czar as I have of seeing the English fleet +reviewed by the Queen.</p> + +<p>"Club Law" made me laugh very much when I went +over it in the proof yesterday. It is most capitally done, +and not (as I feared it might be) too directly. It is in the +next number but one.</p> + +<p>Mrs. —— has gone stark mad—and stark naked—on +the spirit-rapping imposition. She was found t'other day +in the street, clothed only in her chastity, a pocket-handkerchief +and a visiting card. She had been informed, it appeared, +by the spirits, that if she went out in that trim she would be +invisible. She is now in a madhouse, and, I fear, hopelessly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[351]</a></span> +insane. One of the curious manifestations of her disorder +is that she can bear nothing black. There is a terrific +business to be done, even when they are obliged to put coals +on her fire.</p> + +<p>—— has a thing called a Psycho-grapher, which writes +at the dictation of spirits. It delivered itself, a few nights +ago, of this extraordinarily lucid message:</p> + +<div class='center'> +<span class="smcap">x. y. z</span>!<br /> +</div> + +<p>upon which it was gravely explained by the true believers +that "the spirits were out of temper about something." +Said —— had a great party on Sunday, when it was +rumoured "a count was going to raise the dead." I stayed +till the ghostly hour, but the rumour was unfounded, for +neither count nor plebeian came up to the spiritual scratch. +It is really inexplicable to me that a man of his calibre can +be run away with by such small deer.</p> + +<p><i>À propos</i> of spiritual messages comes in Georgina, and, +hearing that I am writing to you, delivers the following +enigma to be conveyed to Mrs. White:</p> + +<div class='center'> +"Wyon of the Mint lives <i>at</i> the Mint."<br /> +</div> + +<p>Feeling my brain going after this, I only trust it with +loves from all to all.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Charles +Knight.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>March 17th, 1854.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Knight</span>,</div> + +<p>I have read the article with much interest. It is +most conscientiously done, and presents a great mass of +curious information condensed into a surprisingly small +space.</p> + +<p>I have made a slight note or two here and there, with a +soft pencil, so that a touch of indiarubber will make all +blank again.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[352]</a></span></p> + +<p>And I earnestly entreat your attention to the point (I +have been working upon it, weeks past, in "Hard Times") +which I have jocosely suggested on the last page but one. +The English are, so far as I know, the hardest-worked +people on whom the sun shines. Be content if, in their +wretched intervals of pleasure, they read for amusement and +do no worse. They are born at the oar, and they live and +die at it. Good God, what would we have of them!</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Affectionately yours always.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. H. +Wills.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;"><span class="smcap">Office of "Household Words</span>,"</span><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">No. 16, Wellington Street, North Strand</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Wednesday, April 12th, 1854.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='center'><b>* * * * * *</b></div> + +<p>I know all the walks for many and many miles +round about Malvern, and delightful walks they are. I +suppose you are already getting very stout, very red, very +jovial (in a physical point of view) altogether.</p> + +<p>Mark and I walked to Dartford from Greenwich, last +Monday, and found Mrs. —— acting "The Stranger" (with +a strolling company from the Standard Theatre) in Mr. +Munn's schoolroom. The stage was a little wider than +your table here, and its surface was composed of loose +boards laid on the school forms. Dogs sniffed about it +during the performances, and <i>the</i> carpenter's highlows were +ostentatiously taken off and displayed in the proscenium.</p> + +<p>We stayed until a quarter to ten, when we were obliged +to fly to the railroad, but we sent the landlord of the hotel +down with the following articles:</p> + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Punch recipe"> +<tr><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'> bottle</td><td align='left'> superior</td><td align='left'> old port,</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>1</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='left'>golden sherry,</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>1</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='left'>best French brandy,</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[353]</a></span>1</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='left'>1st quality old Tom gin,</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'> bottle</td><td align='left'> superior</td><td align='left'> prime Jamaica rum,</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>1</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='left'>small still <i>Isla</i> whiskey,</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'> kettle</td><td align='left'> boiling</td><td align='left'>water, two pounds finest white lump sugar,</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left' colspan='3'>Our cards,</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'> lemon,</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left' colspan='2'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">and</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left' colspan='3'>Our compliments.</td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<p>The effect we had previously made upon the theatrical +company by being beheld in the first two chairs—there was +nearly a pound in the house—was altogether electrical.</p> + +<p>My ladies send their kindest regards, and are disappointed +at your not saying that you drink two-and-twenty +tumblers of the limpid element, every day. The children +also unite in "loves," and the Plornishghenter, on being +asked if he would send his, replies "Yes—man," which we +understand to signify cordial acquiescence.</p> + +<p>Forster just come back from lecturing at Sherborne. +Describes said lecture as "Blaze of Triumph."</p> + +<div class='center'> +H. W. <span class="smcap">again</span>.<br /> +</div> + +<p>Miss—I mean Mrs.—Bell's story very nice. I have sent +it to the printer, and entitled it "The Green Ring and the +Gold Ring."</p> + +<p>This apartment looks desolate in your absence; but, +O Heavens, how tidy!</p> + +<div class='center'> +F. W.<br /> +</div> + +<p>Mrs. Wills supposed to have gone into a convent at +Somers Town.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 5em;">My dear Wills,</span><br /> +Ever faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[354]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">Mr. B. W. +Procter.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Saturday Night, April 15th, 1854.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Procter</span>,</div> + +<p>I have read the "Fatal Revenge." Don't do what +the minor theatrical people call "despi-ser" me, but I think +it's very bad. The concluding narrative is by far the most +meritorious part of the business. Still, the people are so +very convulsive and tumble down so many places, and are +always knocking other people's bones about in such a very +irrational way, that I object. The way in which earthquakes +won't swallow the monsters, and volcanoes in +eruption won't boil them, is extremely aggravating. Also +their habit of bolting when they are going to explain +anything.</p> + +<p>You have sent me a very different and a much better +book; and for that I am truly grateful. With the dust of +"Maturin" in my eyes, I sat down and read "The Death of +Friends," and the dust melted away in some of those tears +it is good to shed. I remember to have read "The Backroom +Window" some years ago, and I have associated it +with you ever since. It is a most delightful paper. But +the two volumes are all delightful, and I have put them on +a shelf where you sit down with Charles Lamb again, with +Talfourd's vindication of him hard by.</p> + +<p>We never meet. I hope it is not irreligious, but in this +strange London I have an inclination to adapt a portion of +the Church Service to our common experience. Thus:</p> + +<p>"We have left unmet the people whom we ought to have +met, and we have met the people whom we ought not to +have met, and there seems to be no help in us."</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 7em;">But I am always, my dear Procter,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 5em;">(At a distance),</span><br /> +Very cordially yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[355]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Gaskell.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>April 21st, 1854.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mrs. Gaskell</span>,</div> + +<p>I safely received the paper from Mr. Shaen, welcomed +it with three cheers, and instantly despatched it to +the printer, who has it in hand now.</p> + +<p>I have no intention of striking. The monstrous claims +at domination made by a certain class of manufacturers, +and the extent to which the way is made easy for working +men to slide down into discontent under such hands, are +within my scheme; but I am not going to strike, so don't +be afraid of me. But I wish you would look at the story +yourself, and judge where and how near I seem to be +approaching what you have in your mind. The first two +months of it will show that.</p> + +<p>I will "make my will" on the first favourable occasion. +We were playing games last night, and were fearfully +clever. With kind regards to Mr. Gaskell, always, my dear +Mrs. Gaskell,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Frank +Stone, +A.R.A.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>May 30th, 1854.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Stone</span>,</div> + +<p>I can<i>not</i> stand a total absence of ventilation, and I +should have liked (in an amiable and persuasive manner) to +have punched ——'s head, and opened the register stoves. +I saw the supper tables, sir, in an empty state, and was +charmed with them. Likewise I recovered myself from a +swoon, occasioned by long contact with an unventilated man +of a strong flavour from Copenhagen, by drinking an +unknown species of celestial lemonade in that enchanted +apartment.</p> + +<p>I am grieved to say that on Saturday I stand engaged +to dine, at three weeks' notice, with one ——, +a man who has read every book that ever was written,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[356]</a></span> +and is a perfect gulf of information. Before exploding +a mine of knowledge he has a habit of closing one eye +and wrinkling up his nose, so that he seems perpetually +to be taking aim at you and knocking you over with a +terrific charge. Then he looks again, and takes another +aim. So you are always on your back, with your legs in +the air.</p> + +<p>How can a man be conversed with, or walked with, in +the county of Middlesex, when he is reviewing the Kentish +Militia on the shores of Dover, or sailing, every day for +three weeks, between Dover and Calais?</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—"Humphry Clinker" is certainly Smollett's best. +I am rather divided between "Peregrine Pickle" and +"Roderick Random," both extraordinarily good in their +way, which is a way without tenderness; but you will have +to read them both, and I send the first volume of +"Peregrine" as the richer of the two.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Peter +Cunningham.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>June 7th, 1854.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Cunningham</span>,</div> + +<p>I cannot become one of the committee for Wilson's +statue, after entertaining so strong an opinion against the +expediency of such a memorial in poor dear Talfourd's case. +But I will subscribe my three guineas, and will pay that +sum to the account at Coutts's when I go there next week, +before leaving town.</p> + +<p>"The Goldsmiths" admirably done throughout. It is a +book I have long desired to see done, and never expected to +see half so well done. Many thanks to you for it.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—Please to observe the address at Boulogne: "Villa +du Camp de Droite."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[357]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. H. +Wills.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Villa du Camp de Droite</span>, <i>Thursday, June 22nd, 1854.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Wills</span>,</div> + +<p>I have nothing to say, but having heard from you +this morning, think I may as well report all well.</p> + +<p>We have a most charming place here. It beats the +former residence all to nothing. We have a beautiful +garden, with all its fruits and flowers, and a field of our +own, and a road of our own away to the Column, and +everything that is airy and fresh. The great Beaucourt +hovers about us like a guardian genius, and I imagine that +no English person in a carriage could by any possibility +find the place.</p> + +<p>Of the wonderful inventions and contrivances with +which a certain inimitable creature has made the most of +it, I will say nothing, until you have an opportunity of +inspecting the same. At present I will only observe that I +have written exactly seventy-two words of "Hard Times," +since I have been here.</p> + +<p>The children arrived on Tuesday night, by London boat, +in every stage and aspect of sea-sickness.</p> + +<p>The camp is about a mile off, and huts are now building +for (they say) sixty thousand soldiers. I don't imagine it to +be near enough to bother us.</p> + +<p>If the weather ever should be fine, it might do you good +sometimes to come over with the proofs on a Saturday, +when the tide serves well, before you and Mrs. W. make +your annual visit. Recollect there is always a bed, and no +sudden appearance will put us out.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;">Kind regards.</span><br /> +Ever faithfully.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[358]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. +Wilkie +Collins.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Villa du Camp de Droite, Boulogne</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Wednesday Night, July 12th, 1854.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Collins</span>,</div> + +<p>Bobbing up, corkwise, from a sea of "Hard Times" +I beg to report this tenement—<span class="smcap">amazing</span>!!! Range of view +and air, most free and delightful; hill-side garden, delicious; +field, stupendous; speculations in haycocks already +effected by the undersigned, with the view to the keeping +up of a "home" at rounders.</p> + +<p>I hope to finish and get to town by next Wednesday +night, the 19th; what do you say to coming back with me +on the following Tuesday? The interval I propose to pass +in a career of amiable dissipation and unbounded license in +the metropolis. If you will come and breakfast with me +about midnight—anywhere—any day, and go to bed no +more until we fly to these pastoral retreats, I shall be +delighted to have so vicious an associate.</p> + +<p>Will you undertake to let Ward know that if he still +wishes me to sit to him, he shall have me as long as he +likes, at Tavistock House, on Monday, the 24th, from +ten <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>?</p> + +<p>I have made it understood here that we shall want to be +taken the greatest care of this summer, and to be fed on +nourishing meats. Several new dishes have been rehearsed +and have come out very well. I have met with what they +call in the City "a parcel" of the celebrated 1846 champagne. +It is a very fine wine, and calculated to do us good +when weak.</p> + +<p>The camp is about a mile off. Voluptuous English +authors reposing from their literary fatigues (on their +laurels) are expected, when all other things fail, to lie on +straw in the midst of it when the days are sunny, and stare +at the blue sea until they fall asleep. (About one hundred<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[359]</a></span> +and fifty soldiers have been at various times billeted on +Beaucourt since we have been here, and he has clinked +glasses with them every one, and read a MS. book of his +father's, on soldiers in general, to them all.)</p> + +<p>I shall be glad to hear what you say to these various +proposals. I write with the Emperor in the town, and a +great expenditure of tricolour floating thereabouts, but no +stir makes its way to this inaccessible retreat. It is like +being up in a balloon. Lionising Englishmen and Germans +start to call, and are found lying imbecile in the road halfway +up. Ha! ha! ha!</p> + +<p>Kindest regards from all. The Plornishghenter adds +Mr. and Mrs. Goose's duty.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—The cobbler has been ill these many months, and +unable to work; has had a carbuncle in his back, and has it +cut three times a week. The little dog sits at the door so +unhappy and anxious to help, that I every day expect to see +him beginning a pair of top boots.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Office of "Household Words</span>," <i>Saturday, July 22nd, 1854.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Georgina</span>,</div> + +<p>Neither you nor Catherine did justice to Collins's +book.<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> I think it far away the cleverest novel I have +ever seen written by a new hand. It is in some respects +masterly. "Valentine Blyth" is as original, and as well +done as anything can be. The scene where he shows his +pictures is full of an admirable humour. Old Mat is admirably +done. In short, I call it a very remarkable book, +and have been very much surprised by its great merit.</p> + +<p>Tell Kate, with my love, that she will receive to-morrow +in a little parcel, the complete proofs of "Hard Times."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[360]</a></span> +They will not be corrected, but she will find them pretty +plain. I am just now going to put them up for her. I saw +Grisi the night before last in "Lucrezia Borgia"—finer +than ever. Last night I was drinking gin-slings till daylight, +with Buckstone of all people, who saw me looking at +the Spanish dancers, and insisted on being convivial. I +have been in a blaze of dissipation altogether, and have +succeeded (I think), in knocking the remembrance of my +work out.</p> + +<p>Loves to all the darlings, from the Plornish-Maroon +upward. London is far hotter than Naples.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Gaskell.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Villa du Camp de Droite, Boulogne</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Thursday, Aug. 17th, 1854.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mrs. Gaskell</span>,</div> + +<p>I sent your MS. off to Wills yesterday, with instructions +to forward it to you without delay. I hope you +will have received it before this notification comes to hand.</p> + +<p>The usual festivity of this place at present—which is the +blessing of soldiers by the ten thousand—has just now been +varied by the baptising of some new bells, lately hung up +(to my sorrow and lunacy) in a neighbouring church. An +English lady was godmother; and there was a procession +afterwards, wherein an English gentleman carried "the +relics" in a highly suspicious box, like a barrel organ; and +innumerable English ladies in white gowns and bridal +wreaths walked two and two, as if they had all gone to +school again.</p> + +<p>At a review, on the same day, I was particularly struck +by the commencement of the proceedings, and its singular +contrast to the usual military operations in Hyde Park. +Nothing would induce the general commanding in chief to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[361]</a></span> +begin, until chairs were brought for all the lady-spectators. +And a detachment of about a hundred men deployed into +all manner of farmhouses to find the chairs. Nobody +seemed to lose any dignity by the transaction, either.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">With kindest regards, my dear Mrs. Gaskell,</span><br /> +Faithfully yours always.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Rev. +William +Harness.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Villa du Camp de Droite, Boulogne</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Saturday, Aug. 19th, 1854.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Harness</span>,</div> + +<p>Yes. The book came from me. I could not put a +memorandum to that effect on the title-page, in consequence +of my being here.</p> + +<p>I am heartily glad you like it. I know the piece you +mention, but am far from being convinced by it. A great +misgiving is upon me, that in many things (this thing +among the rest) too many are martyrs to <i>our</i> complacency +and satisfaction, and that we must give up something +thereof for their poor sakes.</p> + +<p>My kindest regards to your sister, and my love (if I may +send it) to another of your relations.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Always, very faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Henry +Austin.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Villa du Camp de Droite, Boulogne</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Wednesday, Sept. 6th, 1854.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='center'><b>* * * * * *</b></div> + +<p>Any Saturday on which the tide serves your purpose +(next Saturday excepted) will suit me for the flying visit +you hint at; and we shall be delighted to see you. +Although the camp is not above a mile from this gate, we +never see or hear of it, unless we choose. If you could +come here in dry weather you would find it as pretty, airy, +and pleasant a situation as you ever saw. We illuminated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[362]</a></span> +the whole front of the house last night—eighteen windows—and +an immense palace of light was seen sparkling on +this hill-top for miles and miles away. I rushed to a +distance to look at it, and never saw anything of the same +kind half so pretty.</p> + +<p>The town<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> looks like one immense flag, it is so decked +out with streamers; and as the royal yacht approached +yesterday—the whole range of the cliff tops lined with +troops, and the artillery matches in hand, all ready to fire +the great guns the moment she made the harbour; the +sailors standing up in the prow of the yacht, the Prince in +a blazing uniform, left alone on the deck for everybody to +see—a stupendous silence, and then such an infernal blazing +and banging as never was heard. It was almost as fine a +sight as one could see under a deep blue sky. In our own +proper illumination I laid on all the servants, all the +children now at home, all the visitors (it is the annual +"Household Words" time), one to every window, with +everything ready to light up on the ringing of a big +dinner-bell by your humble correspondent. St. Peter's on +Easter Monday was the result.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Best love from all.</span><br /> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. +Wilkie +Collins.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Boulogne</span>, <i>Tuesday, Sept. 26th, 1854.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Collins</span>,</div> + +<p>First, I have to report that I received your letter with +much pleasure.</p> + +<p>Secondly, that the weather has entirely changed. It is so +cool that we have not only a fire in the drawing-room regularly, +but another to dine by. The delicious freshness of the +air is charming, and it is generally bright and windy besides.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[363]</a></span></p> +<p>Thirdly, that ——'s intellectual faculties appear to +have developed suddenly. He has taken to borrowing +money; from which I infer (as he has no intention whatever +of repaying) that his mental powers are of a high +order. Having got a franc from me, he fell upon Mrs. +Dickens for five sous. She declining to enter into the transaction, +he beleaguered that feeble little couple, Harry and +Sydney, into paying two sous each for "tickets" to behold +the ravishing spectacle of an utterly-non-existent-and-there-fore-impossible-to-be-produced +toy theatre. He eats stony +apples, and harbours designs upon his fellow-creatures until +he has become light-headed. From the couch rendered uneasy +by this disorder he has arisen with an excessively protuberant +forehead, a dull slow eye, a complexion of a leaden +hue, and a croaky voice. He has become a horror to me, +and I resort to the most cowardly expedients to avoid meeting +him. He, on the other hand, wanting another franc, +dodges me round those trees at the corner, and at the back +door; and I have a presentiment upon me that I shall fall a +sacrifice to his cupidity at last.</p> + +<p>On the Sunday night after you left, or rather on the +Monday morning at half-past one, Mary was taken <i>very ill</i>. +English cholera. She was sinking so fast, and the sickness +was so exceedingly alarming, that it evidently would not do +to wait for Elliotson. I caused everything to be done that +we had naturally often thought of, in a lonely house so full +of children, and fell back upon the old remedy; though the +difficulty of giving even it was rendered very great by the +frightful sickness. Thank God, she recovered so favourably +that by breakfast time she was fast asleep. She slept +twenty-four hours, and has never had the least uneasiness +since. I heard—of course afterwards—that she had had an +attack of sickness two nights before. I think that long ride<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[364]</a></span> +and those late dinners had been too much for her. Without +them I am inclined to doubt whether she would have been ill.</p> + +<p>Last Sunday as ever was, the theatre took fire at half-past +eleven in the forenoon. Being close by the English +church, it showered hot sparks into that temple through the +open windows. Whereupon the congregation shrieked and +rose and tumbled out into the street; —— benignly observing +to the only ancient female who would listen to him, "I fear +we must part;" and afterwards being beheld in the street—in +his robes and with a kind of sacred wildness on him—handing +ladies over the kennel into shops and other structures, +where they had no business whatever, or the least +desire to go. I got to the back of the theatre, where I +could see in through some great doors that had been forced +open, and whence the spectacle of the whole interior, burning +like a red-hot cavern, was really very fine, even in the daylight. +Meantime the soldiers were at work, "saving" the +scenery by pitching it into the next street; and the poor +little properties (one spinning-wheel, a feeble imitation of a +water-mill, and a basketful of the dismalest artificial flowers +very conspicuous) were being passed from hand to hand +with the greatest excitement, as if they were rescued children +or lovely women. In four or five hours the whole place was +burnt down, except the outer walls. Never in my days did +I behold such feeble endeavours in the way of extinguishment. +On an average I should say it took ten minutes to +throw half a gallon of water on the great roaring heap; and +every time it was insulted in this way it gave a ferocious +burst, and everybody ran off. Beaucourt has been going +about for two days in a clean collar; which phenomenon +evidently means something, but I don't know what. Elliotson +reports that the great conjuror lives at his hotel, has +extra wine every day, and fares expensively. Is he the devil?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[365]</a></span></p> + +<p>I have heard from the Kernel.<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> Wa'al, sir, sayin' as he +minded to locate himself with us for a week, I expected to +have heard from him again this morning, but have not. +Beard comes to-morrow.</p> + +<p>Kindest regards and remembrances from all. Ward +lives in a little street between the two Tintilleries. The +Plornish-Maroon desires his duty. He had a fall yesterday, +through overbalancing himself in kicking his nurse.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Frank +Stone, +A.R.A.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Boulogne</span>, <i>Friday, Oct. 13th, 1854.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Stone</span>,</div> + +<p>Having some little matters that rather press on my +attention to see to in town, I have made up my mind to +relinquish the walking project, and come straight home (by +way of Folkestone) on Tuesday. I shall be due in town at +midnight, and shall hope to see you next day, with the top +of your coat-collar mended.</p> + +<p>Everything that happens here we suppose to be an +announcement of the taking of Sebastopol. When a +church-clock strikes, we think it is the joy-bell, and fly +out of the house in a burst of nationality—to sneak in +again. If they practise firing at the camp, we are sure it +is the artillery celebrating the fall of the Russian, and we +become enthusiastic in a moment. I live in constant +readiness to illuminate the whole house. Whatever anybody +says I believe; everybody says, every day, that +Sebastopol is in flames. Sometimes the Commander-in-Chief +has blown himself up, with seventy-five thousand +men. Sometimes he has "cut" his way through Lord +Raglan, and has fallen back on the advancing body<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[366]</a></span> +of the Russians, one hundred and forty-two thousand +strong, whom he is going to "bring up" (I don't know +where from, or how, or when, or why) for the destruction +of the Allies. All these things, in the words of the +catechism, "I steadfastly believe," until I become a mere +driveller, a moonstruck, babbling, staring, credulous, +imbecile, greedy, gaping, wooden-headed, addle-brained, +wool-gathering, dreary, vacant, obstinate civilian.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever, my fellow-countryman, affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. John +Saunders.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>October 26th, 1854.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,</div> + +<p>I have had much gratification and pleasure in the +receipt of your obliging communication. Allow me to +thank you for it, in the first place, with great cordiality.</p> + +<p>Although I cannot say that I came without any prepossessions +to the perusal of your play (for I had favourable +inclinings towards it before I began), I <i>can</i> say that I read it +with the closest attention, and that it inspired me with +a strong interest, and a genuine and high admiration. The +parts that involve some of the greatest difficulties of your +task appear to me those in which you shine most. I would +particularly instance the end of Julia as a very striking +example of this. The delicacy and beauty of her redemption +from her weak rash lover, are very far, indeed beyond +the range of any ordinary dramatist, and display the true +poetical strength.</p> + +<p>As your hopes now centre in Mr. Phelps, and in seeing +the child of your fancy on his stage, I will venture to point +out to you not only what I take to be very dangerous +portions of "Love's Martyrdom" as it stands, <i>for presentation +on the stage</i>, but portions which I believe Mr. Phelps +will speedily regard in that light when he sees it before<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[367]</a></span> +him in the persons of live men and women on the wooden +boards. Knowing him, I think he will be then as violently +discouraged as he is now generously exalted; and it may be +useful to you to be prepared for the consideration of those +passages.</p> + +<p>I do not regard it as a great stumbling-block that the +play of modern times best known to an audience proceeds +upon the main idea of this, namely, that there was a +hunchback who, because of his deformity, mistrusted himself. +But it is certainly a grain in the balance when the +balance is going the wrong way, and therefore it +should be most carefully trimmed. The incident of the +ring is an insignificant one to look at over a row of gaslights, +is difficult to convey to an audience, and the least thing will +make it ludicrous. If it be so well done by Mr. Phelps +himself as to be otherwise than ludicrous, it will be disagreeable. +If it be either, it will be perilous, and doubly +so, because you revert to it. The quarrel scene between the +two brothers in the third act is now so long that the justification +of blind passion and impetuosity—which can alone +bear out Franklyn, before the bodily eyes of a great concourse +of spectators, in plunging at the life of his own +brother—is lost. That the two should be parted, and that +Franklyn should again drive at him, and strike him, and then +wound him, is a state of things to set the sympathy of an +audience in the wrong direction, and turn it from the man +you make happy to the man you leave unhappy. I would +on no account allow the artist to appear, attended by that +picture, more than once. All the most sudden inconstancy +of Clarence I would soften down. Margaret must act much +better than any actress I have ever seen, if all her lines fall +in pleasant places; therefore, I think she needs compression +too.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[368]</a></span></p> + +<p>All this applies solely to the theatre. If you ever revise +the sheets for readers, will you note in the margin the +broken laughter and the appeals to the Deity? If, on +summing them up, you find you want them all, I would +leave them as they stand by all means. If not, I would +blot accordingly.</p> + +<p>It is only in the hope of being slightly useful to you by +anticipating what I believe Mr. Phelps will discover—or +what, if ever he should pass it, I have a strong conviction +the audience will find out—that I have ventured on these +few hints. Your concurrence with them generally, on reconsideration, +or your preference for the poem as it stands, can +not in the least affect my interest in your success. On the +other hand, I have a perfect confidence in your not taking +my misgivings ill; they arise out of my sincere desire for +the triumph of your work.</p> + +<p>With renewed thanks for the pleasure you have afforded +me,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +I am, dear Sir, faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>November 1st, 1854.</i></span><br /> +(And a constitutionally foggy day.)<br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dearest Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>I thought it better not to encumber the address to +working men with details. Firstly, because they would +detract from whatever fiery effect the words may have in +them; secondly, because writing and petitioning and +pressing a subject upon members and candidates are now +so clearly understood; and thirdly, because the paper was +meant as an opening to a persistent pressure of the whole +question on the public, which would yield other opportunities +of touching on such points.</p> + +<p>In the number <i>for next week</i>—not this—is one of those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[369]</a></span> +following-up articles called "A Home Question." It is not +written by me, but is generally of my suggesting, and is +exceedingly well done by a thorough and experienced hand. +I think you will find in it, generally, what you want. I have +told the printers to send you a proof by post as soon as it is +corrected—that is to say, as soon as some insertions I made +in it last night are in type and in their places.</p> + +<p>My dear old Parr, I don't believe a word you write about +King John! That is to say, I don't believe you take into +account the enormous difference between the energy summonable-up +in your study at Sherborne and the energy that +will fire up in you (without so much as saying "With your +leave" or "By your leave") in the Town Hall at Birmingham. +I know you, you ancient codger, I know you! Therefore +I will trouble you to be so good as to do an act of +honesty after you have been to Birmingham, and to write +to me, "Ingenuous boy, you were correct. I find I could +have read 'em 'King John' with the greatest ease."</p> + +<p>In that vast hall in the busy town of Sherborne, in +which our illustrious English novelist is expected to read +next month—though he is strongly of opinion that he is +deficient in power, and too old—I wonder what accommodation +there is for reading! because our illustrious +countryman likes to stand at a desk breast-high, with +plenty of room about him, a sloping top, and a ledge to +keep his book from tumbling off. If such a thing should +not be there, however, on his arrival, I suppose even a Sherborne +carpenter could knock it up out of a deal board. <i>Is</i> +there a deal board in Sherborne though? I should like to +hear Katey's opinion on that point.</p> + +<p>In this week's "Household Words" there is an exact +portrait of our Boulogne landlord, which I hope you will +like. I think of opening the next long book I write with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[370]</a></span> +a man of juvenile figure and strong face, who is always +persuading himself that he is infirm. What do you think +of the idea? I should like to have your opinion about it. +I would make him an impetuous passionate sort of fellow, +devilish grim upon occasion, and of an iron purpose. +Droll, I fancy?</p> + +<p>—— is getting a little too fat, but appears to be +troubled by the great responsibility of directing the whole +war. He doesn't seem to be quite clear that he has got the +ships into the exact order he intended, on the sea point of +attack at Sebastopol. We went to the play last Saturday +night with Stanfield, whose "high lights" (as Maclise calls +those knobs of brightness on the top of his cheeks) were +more radiant than ever. We talked of you, and I told +Stanny how they are imitating his "Acis and Galatea" sea +in "Pericles," at Phelps's. He didn't half like it; but I +added, in nautical language, that it was merely a piratical +effort achieved by a handful of porpoise-faced swabs, and +that brought him up with a round turn, as we say at sea.</p> + +<p>We are looking forward to the twentieth of next month +with great pleasure. All Tavistock House send love and +kisses to all Sherborne House. If there is anything I can +bring down for you, let me know in good course of time.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Ever, my dearest Macready,</span><br /> +Most affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">The Hon. +Mrs. +Watson.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Wednesday, Nov. 1st, 1854.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mrs. Watson</span>,</div> + +<p>I take upon myself to answer your letter to Catherine, +as I am referred to in it.</p> + +<p>The "Walk" is not my writing. It is very well done by +a close imitator. Why I found myself so "used up" after<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[371]</a></span> +"Hard Times" I scarcely know, perhaps because I intended +to do nothing in that way for a year, when the idea laid hold +of me by the throat in a very violent manner, and because +the compression and close condensation necessary for that +disjointed form of publication gave me perpetual trouble. +But I really was tired, which is a result so very incomprehensible +that I can't forget it. I have passed an idle autumn +in a beautiful situation, and am dreadfully brown and big. +For further particulars of Boulogne, see "Our French +Watering Place," in this present week of "Household +Words," which contains a faithful portrait of our landlord +there.</p> + +<p>If you carry out that bright Croydon idea, rely on our +glad co-operation, only let me know all about it a few days +beforehand; and if you feel equal to the contemplation of +the moustache (which has been cut lately) it will give us the +heartiest pleasure to come and meet you. This in spite of +the terrific duffery of the Crystal Palace. It is a very +remarkable thing in itself; but to have so very large a +building continually crammed down one's throat, and to find +it a new page in "The Whole Duty of Man" to go there, is +a little more than even I (and you know how amiable I am) +can endure.</p> + +<p>You always like to know what I am going to do, so I +beg to announce that on the 19th of December I am going +to read the "Carol" at Reading, where I undertook the +presidency of the Literary Institution on the death of poor +dear Talfourd. Then I am going on to Sherborne, in +Dorsetshire, to do the like for another institution, which +is one of the few remaining pleasures of Macready's life. +Then I am coming home for Christmas Day. Then I believe +I must go to Bradford, in Yorkshire, to read once more to a +little fireside party of four thousand. Then I am coming<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[372]</a></span> +home again to get up a new little version of "The Children +in the Wood" (yet to be written, by-the-bye), for the children +to act on Charley's birthday.</p> + +<p>I am full of mixed feeling about the war—admiration of +our valiant men, burning desires to cut the Emperor of +Russia's throat, and something like despair to see how the +old cannon-smoke and blood-mists obscure the wrongs and +sufferings of the people at home. When I consider the +Patriotic Fund on the one hand, and on the other the +poverty and wretchedness engendered by cholera, of which +in London alone, an infinitely larger number of English +people than are likely to be slain in the whole Russian war +have miserably and needlessly died—I feel as if the world +had been pushed back five hundred years. If you are +reading new books just now, I think you will be interested +with a controversy between Whewell and Brewster, on the +question of the shining orbs about us being inhabited or +no. Whewell's book is called, "On the Plurality of Worlds;" +Brewster's, "More Worlds than One." I shouldn't wonder +if you know all about them. They bring together a vast +number of points of great interest in natural philosophy, +and some very curious reasoning on both sides, and leave +the matter pretty much where it was.</p> + +<p>We had a fine absurdity in connection with our luggage, +when we left Boulogne. The barometer had within a few +hours fallen about a foot, in honour of the occasion, and it +was a tremendous night, blowing a gale of wind and raining +a little deluge. The luggage (pretty heavy, as you may +suppose), in a cart drawn by two horses, stuck fast in a rut +in our field, and couldn't be moved. Our man, made a +lunatic by the extremity of the occasion, ran down to the +town to get two more horses to help it out, when he +returned with those horses and carter B, the most beaming<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[373]</a></span> +of men; carter A, who had been soaking all the time by +the disabled vehicle, descried in carter B the acknowledged +enemy of his existence, took his own two horses out, and +walked off with them! After which, the whole set-out +remained in the field all night, and we came to town, +thirteen individuals, with one comb and a pocket-handkerchief. +I was upside-down during the greater part of the +passage.</p> + +<p>Dr. Rae's account of Franklin's unfortunate party is +deeply interesting; but I think hasty in its acceptance of +the details, particularly in the statement that they had eaten +the dead bodies of their companions, which I don't believe. +Franklin, on a former occasion, was almost starved to death, +had gone through all the pains of that sad end, and lain +down to die, and no such thought had presented itself to +any of them. In famous cases of shipwreck, it is very rare +indeed that any person of any humanising education or +refinement resorts to this dreadful means of prolonging +life. In open boats, the coarsest and commonest men of the +shipwrecked party have done such things; but I don't +remember more than one instance in which an officer had +overcome the loathing that the idea had inspired. Dr. Rae +talks about their <i>cooking</i> these remains too. I should like +to know where the fuel came from.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 5em;">Kindest love and best regards.</span><br /> +Ever, my dear Mrs. Watson, affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Clarkson +Stanfield, +R.A.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Friday Night, Nov. 3rd, 1854.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Stanny</span>,</div> + +<p>First of all, here is enclosed a letter for Mrs. +Stanfield, which, if you don't immediately and faithfully +deliver, you will hear of in an unpleasant way from the +station-house at the curve of the hill above you.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[374]</a></span></p> + +<p>Secondly, this is not to remind you that we meet at the +Athenæum next Monday at five, because none but a mouldy +swab as never broke biscuit or lay out on the for'sel-yardarm +in a gale of wind ever forgot an appointment with a +messmate.</p> + +<p>But what I want you to think of at your leisure is this: +when our dear old Macready was in town last, I saw it would +give him so much interest and pleasure if I promised to go +down and read my "Christmas Carol" to the little Sherborne +Institution, which is now one of the few active objects he +has in the life about him, that I came out with that promise +in a bold—I may say a swaggering way. Consequently, +on Wednesday, the 20th of December, I am going down +to see him, with Kate and Georgina, returning to town in +good time for Christmas, on Saturday, the 23rd. Do you +think you could manage to go and return with us? I really +believe there is scarcely anything in the world that would give +him such extraordinary pleasure as such a visit; and if you +would empower me to send him an intimation that he may +expect it, he will have a daily joy in looking forward to the +time (I am seriously sure) which we—whose light has not +gone out, and who are among our old dear pursuits and +associations—can scarcely estimate.</p> + +<p>I don't like to broach the idea in a careless way, and so +I propose it thus, and ask you to think of it.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever most affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Procter.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Sunday, Dec. 17th, 1854.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Miss Procter</span>,</div> + +<p>You have given me a new sensation. I did suppose +that nothing in this singular world could surprise me, but +you have done it.</p> + +<p>You will believe my congratulations on the delicacy and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[375]</a></span> +talent of your writing to be sincere. From the first, I have +always had an especial interest in that Miss Berwick, and +have over and over again questioned Wills about her. I +suppose he has gone on gradually building up an imaginary +structure of life and adventure for her, but he has given me +the strangest information! Only yesterday week, when we +were "making up" "The Poor Travellers," as I sat meditatively +poking the office fire, I said to him, "Wills, have +you got that Miss Berwick's proof back, of the little sailor's +song?" "No," he said. "Well, but why not?" I asked +him. "Why, you know," he answered, "as I have often +told you before, she don't live at the place to which her +letters are addressed, and so there's always difficulty and +delay in communicating with her." "Do you know what +age she is?" I said. Here he looked unfathomably profound, +and returned, "Rather advanced in life." "You said she +was a governess, didn't you?" said I; to which he replied +in the most emphatic and positive manner, "A governess."</p> + +<p>He then came and stood in the corner of the hearth, +with his back to the fire, and delivered himself like an +oracle concerning you. He told me that early in life (conveying +to me the impression of about a quarter of a century +ago) you had had your feelings desperately wounded by +some cause, real or imaginary—"It does not matter which," +said I, with the greatest sagacity—and that you had then +taken to writing verses. That you were of an unhappy +temperament, but keenly sensitive to encouragement. That +you wrote after the educational duties of the day were discharged. +That you sometimes thought of never writing +any more. That you had been away for some time "with +your pupils." That your letters were of a mild and melancholy +character, and that you did not seem to care as much +as might be expected about money. All this time I sat<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[376]</a></span> +poking the fire, with a wisdom upon me absolutely crushing; +and finally I begged him to assure the lady that she might +trust me with her real address, and that it would be better +to have it now, as I hoped our further communications, +etc. etc. etc. You must have felt enormously wicked last +Tuesday, when I, such a babe in the wood, was unconsciously +prattling to you. But you have given me so much pleasure, +and have made me shed so many tears, that I can only think +of you now in association with the sentiment and grace of +your verses.</p> + +<p>So pray accept the blessing and forgiveness of Richard +Watts, though I am afraid you come under both his conditions +of exclusion.<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a></p> + +<div class='sig'> +Very faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>1855.</h2> + +<h3>NARRATIVE.</h3> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>In</span> the beginning of this year, Charles Dickens gave public +readings at Reading, Sherborne, and Bradford in Yorkshire, +to which reference is made in the first following letters. Besides +this, he was fully occupied in getting up a play for his +children, which was acted on the 6th January. Mr. Planché's +fairy extravaganza of "Fortunio and his Seven Gifted +Servants" was the play selected, the parts being filled by +all his own children and some of their young friends, and +Charles Dickens, Mr. Mark Lemon, and Mr. Wilkie Collins +playing with them, the only grown-up members of the company. +In February he made a short trip to Paris with +Mr. Wilkie Collins, with an intention of going on to Bordeaux, +which was abandoned on account of bad weather. +Out of the success of the children's play at Tavistock House +rose a scheme for a serious play at the same place. Mr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[377]</a></span> +Collins undertaking to write a melodrama for the purpose, +and Mr. Stanfield to paint scenery and drop-scene, Charles +Dickens turned one of the rooms of the house into a very +perfect little theatre, and in June "The Lighthouse" was +acted for three nights, with "Mr. Nightingale's Diary" +and "Animal Magnetism" as farces; the actors being himself +and several members of the original amateur company, +the actresses, his two daughters and his sister-in-law. Mr. +Stanfield, after entering most heartily into the enterprise, +and giving constant time and attention to the painting of +his beautiful scenes, was unfortunately ill and unable to +attend the first performance. We give a letter to him, +reporting its great success.</div> + +<p>In this summer Charles Dickens made a speech at a +great meeting at Drury Lane Theatre on the subject of +"Administrative Reform," of which he writes to Mr. +Macready. On this subject of "Administrative Reform," +too, we give two letters to the great Nineveh traveller +Mr. Layard (now Sir Austen H. Layard), for whom, as his +letters show, he conceived at once the affectionate friendship +which went on increasing from this time for the rest of his +life. Mr. Layard also spoke at the Drury Lane meeting.</p> + +<p>Charles Dickens had made a promise to give another +reading at Birmingham for the funds of the institute which +still needed help; and in a letter to Mr. Arthur Ryland, +asking him to fix a time for it, he gives the first idea of a +selection from "David Copperfield," which was afterwards +one of the most popular of his readings.</p> + +<p>He was at all times fond of making excursions for a day—or +two or three days—to Rochester and its neighbourhood; +and after one of these, this year, he writes to +Mr. Wills that he has seen a "small freehold" to be sold, +<i>opposite</i> the house on which he had fixed his childish +affections (and which he calls in <i>this</i> letter the "Hermitage," +its real name being "Gad's Hill Place"). The latter house +was not, at that time, to be had, and he made some approach +to negotiations as to the other "little freehold," which, +however, did not come to anything. Later in the year,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[378]</a></span> +however, Mr. Wills, by an accident, discovered that Gad's +Hill Place, the property of Miss Lynn, the well-known +authoress, and a constant contributor to "Household +Words," was itself for sale; and a negotiation for its +purchase commenced, which was not, however, completed +until the following spring.</p> + +<p>Later in the year, the performance of "The Lighthouse" +was repeated, for a charitable purpose, at the Campden +House theatre.</p> + +<p>This autumn was passed at Folkestone. Charles Dickens +had decided upon spending the following winter in Paris, +and the family proceeded there from Folkestone in October, +making a halt at Boulogne; from whence his sister-in-law +preceded the party to Paris, to secure lodgings, with the +help of Lady Olliffe. He followed, to make his choice of +apartments that had been found, and he writes to his wife +and to Mr. Wills, giving a description of the Paris house. +Here he began "Little Dorrit." In a letter to Mrs. Watson, +from Folkestone, he gives her the name which he had first +proposed for this story—"Nobody's Fault."</p> + +<p>During his absence from England, Mr. and Mrs. Hogarth +occupied Tavistock House, and his eldest son, being now +engaged in business, remained with them, coming to Paris +only for Christmas. Three of his boys were at school +at Boulogne at this time, and one, Walter Landor, at +Wimbledon, studying for an Indian army appointment.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">M. de +Cerjat.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>January 3rd, 1855.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Cerjat</span>,</div> + +<p>When your Christmas letter did not arrive according +to custom, I felt as if a bit of Christmas had fallen out and +there was no supplying the piece. However, it was soon supplied +by yourself, and the bowl became round and sound again.</p> + +<p>The Christmas number of "Household Words," I suppose, +will reach Lausanne about midsummer. The first +ten pages or so—all under the head of "The First Poor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[379]</a></span> +Traveller"—are written by me, and I hope you will find, in +the story of the soldier which they contain, something that +may move you a little. It moved me <i>not</i> a little in the +writing, and I believe has touched a vast number of people. +We have sold eighty thousand of it.</p> + +<p>I am but newly come home from reading at Reading +(where I succeeded poor Talfourd as the president of an +institution), and at Sherborne, in Dorsetshire, and at Bradford, +in Yorkshire. Wonderful audiences! and the number +at the last place three thousand seven hundred. And yet +but for the noise of their laughing and cheering, they +"went" like one man.</p> + +<p>The absorption of the English mind in the war is, to +me, a melancholy thing. Every other subject of popular +solicitude and sympathy goes down before it. I fear I +clearly see that for years to come domestic reforms are +shaken to the root; every miserable red-tapist flourishes +war over the head of every protester against his humbug; +and everything connected with it is pushed to such an unreasonable +extent, that, however kind and necessary it may +be in itself, it becomes ridiculous. For all this it is an +indubitable fact, I conceive, that Russia <span class="smcap">must be</span> stopped, +and that the future peace of the world renders the war imperative +upon us. The Duke of Newcastle lately addressed +a private letter to the newspapers, entreating them to exercise +a larger discretion in respect of the letters of "Our Own +Correspondents," against which Lord Raglan protests as +giving the Emperor of Russia information for nothing which +would cost him (if indeed he could get it at all) fifty or a +hundred thousand pounds a year. The communication has +not been attended with much effect, so far as I can see. In +the meantime I do suppose we have the wretchedest Ministry +that ever was—in whom nobody not in office of some sort<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[380]</a></span> +believes—yet whom there is nobody to displace. The +strangest result, perhaps, of years of Reformed Parliaments +that ever the general sagacity did <i>not</i> foresee.</p> + +<p>Let me recommend you, as a brother-reader of high distinction, +two comedies, both Goldsmith's—"She Stoops to +Conquer" and "The Good-natured Man." Both are so +admirable and so delightfully written that they read wonderfully. +A friend of mine, Forster, who wrote "The Life of +Goldsmith," was very ill a year or so ago, and begged me +to read to him one night as he lay in bed, "something of +Goldsmith's." I fell upon "She Stoops to Conquer," and +we enjoyed it with that wonderful intensity, that I believe +he began to get better in the first scene, and was all right +again in the fifth act.</p> + +<p>I am charmed by your account of Haldimand, to whom +my love. Tell him Sydney Smith's daughter has privately +printed a life of her father with selections from his letters, +which has great merit, and often presents him exactly as he +used to be. I have strongly urged her to publish it, and I +think she will do so, about March.</p> + +<p>My eldest boy has come home from Germany to learn +a business life at Birmingham (I think), first of all. The +whole nine are well and happy. Ditto, Mrs. Dickens. +Ditto, Georgina. My two girls are full of interest in yours; +and one of mine (as I think I told you when I was at +Elysée) is curiously like one of yours in the face. They are +all agog now about a great fairy play, which is to come off +here next Monday. The house is full of spangles, gas, Jew +theatrical tailors, and pantomime carpenters. We all unite +in kindest and best loves to dear Mrs. Cerjat and all the +blooming daughters. And I am, with frequent thoughts of +you and cordial affection, ever, my dear Cerjat,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Your faithful Friend.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[381]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">Miss Mary +Boyle.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>January 3rd, 1855.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mary</span>,</div> + +<p>This is a word of heartfelt greeting; in exchange for +yours, which came to me most pleasantly, and was received +with a cordial welcome. If I had leisure to write a letter, +I should write you, at this point, perhaps the very best +letter that ever was read; but, being in the agonies of +getting up a gorgeous fairy play for the postboys, on +Charley's birthday (besides having the work of half-a-dozen +to do as a regular thing), I leave the merits of the +wonderful epistle to your lively fancy.</p> + +<p>Enclosing a kiss, if you will have the kindness to return +it when done with.</p> + +<p>I have just been reading my "Christmas Carol" in +Yorkshire. I should have lost my heart to the beautiful +young landlady of my hotel (age twenty-nine, dress, black +frock and jacket, exquisitely braided) if it had not been +safe in your possession.</p> + +<p>Many, many happy years to you! My regards to that +obstinate old Wurzell<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> and his dame, when you have them +under lock and key again.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Gaskell.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>January 27th, 1855.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mrs. Gaskell</span>,</div> + +<p>Let me congratulate you on the conclusion of your +story; not because it is the end of a task to which you had +conceived a dislike (for I imagine you to have got the +better of that delusion by this time), but because it is the +vigorous and powerful accomplishment of an anxious labour. +It seems to me that you have felt the ground thoroughly +firm under your feet, and have strided on with a force and +purpose that <span class="smcap">must</span> now give you pleasure.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[382]</a></span></p> +<p>You will not, I hope, allow that not-lucid interval of +dissatisfaction with yourself (and me?), which beset you for +a minute or two once upon a time, to linger in the shape of +any disagreeable association with "Household Words." I +shall still look forward to the large sides of paper, and shall +soon feel disappointed if they don't begin to reappear.</p> + +<p>I thought it best that Wills should write the business +letter on the conclusion of the story, as that part of our +communications had always previously rested with him. I +trust you found it satisfactory? I refer to it, not as a +matter of mere form, but because I sincerely wish everything +between us to be beyond the possibility of misunderstanding +or reservation.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Dear Mrs. Gaskell, very faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Arthur +Ryland.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Monday, Jan. 29th, 1855.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mr. Ryland</span>,</div> + +<p>I have been in the greatest difficulty—which I am not +yet out of—to know what to read at Birmingham. I fear +the idea of next month is now impracticable. Which of +two other months do you think would be preferable for your +Birmingham objects? Next May, or next December?</p> + +<p>Having already read two Christmas books at Birmingham, +I should like to get out of that restriction, and have a swim +in the broader waters of one of my long books. I have +been poring over "Copperfield" (which is my favourite), with +the idea of getting a reading out of it, to be called by some +such name as "Young Housekeeping and Little Emily." +But there is still the huge difficulty that I constructed the +whole with immense pains, and have so woven it up and +blended it together, that I cannot yet so separate the parts +as to tell the story of David's married life with Dora, and +the story of Mr. Peggotty's search for his niece, within the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[383]</a></span> +time. This is my object. If I could possibly bring it to +bear, it would make a very attractive reading, with, a strong +interest in it, and a certain completeness.</p> + +<p>This is exactly the state of the case. I don't mind confiding +to you, that I never can approach the book with +perfect composure (it had such perfect possession of me +when I wrote it), and that I no sooner begin to try to get +it into this form, than I begin to read it all, and to feel that +I cannot disturb it. I have not been unmindful of the +agreement we made at parting, and I have sat staring at +the backs of my books for an inspiration. This project is +the only one that I have constantly reverted to, and yet I +have made no progress in it!</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours always.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Monsieur +Regnier.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House, London</span>, <i>Saturday Evening, Feb. 3rd, 1855.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Regnier</span>,</div> + +<p>I am coming to Paris for a week, with my friend +Collins—son of the English painter who painted our green +lanes and our cottage children so beautifully. Do not tell +this to Le Vieux. Unless I have the ill fortune to stumble +against him in the street I shall not make my arrival known +to him.</p> + +<p>I purpose leaving here on Sunday, the 11th, but I shall +stay that night at Boulogne to see two of my little boys +who are at school there. We shall come to Paris on +Monday, the 12th, arriving there in the evening.</p> + +<p>Now, <i>mon cher</i>, do you think you can, without inconvenience, +engage me for a week an apartment—cheerful, +light, and wholesome—containing a comfortable <i>salon et +deux chambres à coucher</i>. I do not care whether it is +an hotel or not, but the reason why I do not write for +an apartment to the Hôtel Brighton is, that there they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[384]</a></span> +expect one to dine at home (I mean in the apartment) +generally; whereas, as we are coming to Paris expressly to +be always looking about us, we want to dine wherever we +like every day. Consequently, what we want to find is +a good apartment, where we can have our breakfast but +where we shall never dine.</p> + +<p>Can you engage such accommodation for me? If you +can, I shall feel very much obliged to you. If the apartment +should happen to contain a little bed for a servant I +might perhaps bring one, but I do not care about that +at all. I want it to be pleasant and gay, and to throw +myself <i>en garçon</i> on the festive <i>diableries de Paris</i>.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Dickens and her sister send their kindest regards +to Madame Regnier and you, in which I heartily join. All +the children send their loves to the two brave boys and the +Normandy <i>bonnes</i>.</p> + +<p>I shall hope for a short answer from you one day next +week. My dear Regnier,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Always faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. H. +Wills.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Office of "Household Words</span>," <i>Friday, Feb. 9th, 1855.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Wills</span>,</div> + +<p>I want to alter the arrangements for to-morrow, and +put you to some inconvenience.</p> + +<p>When I was at Gravesend t'other day, I saw, at Gad's +Hill—just opposite to the Hermitage, where Miss Lynn +used to live—a little freehold to be sold. The spot and the +very house are literally "a dream of my childhood," and I +should like to look at it before I go to Paris. With that +purpose I must go to Strood by the North Kent, at a +quarter-past ten to-morrow morning, and I want you, +strongly booted, to go with me! (I know the particulars +from the agent.)<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[385]</a></span></p> + +<p>Can you? Let me know. If you can, can you manage +so that we can take the proofs with us? If you can't, will +you bring them to Tavistock House at dinner time to-morrow, +half-past five? Forster will dine with us, but no +one else.</p> + +<p>I am uncertain of your being in town to-night, but I +send John up with this.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Hôtel Meurice, Paris</span>, <i>Friday, Feb. 16th, 1855.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Georgy</span>,</div> + +<p>I heard from home last night; but the posts are so +delayed and put out by the snow, that they come in at all +sorts of times except the right times, and utterly defy all +calculation. Will you tell Catherine with my love, that I +will write to her again to-morrow afternoon; I hope she +may then receive my letter by Monday morning, and in it I +purpose telling her when I may be expected home. The +weather is so severe and the roads are so bad, that the +journey to and from Bordeaux seems out of the question. +We have made up our minds to abandon it for the present, +and to return about Tuesday night or Wednesday. Collins +continues in a queer state, but is perfectly cheerful under +the stoppage of his wine and other afflictions.</p> + +<p>We have a beautiful apartment, very elegantly furnished, +very thickly carpeted, and as warm as any apartment in +Paris <i>can</i> be in such weather. We are very well waited on +and looked after. We breakfast at ten, read and write till +two, and then I go out walking all over Paris, while the +invalid sits by the fire or is deposited in a café. We dine at +five, in a different restaurant every day, and at seven or so +go to the theatre—sometimes to two theatres, sometimes to +three. We get home about twelve, light the fire, and drink<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[386]</a></span> +lemonade, to which <i>I</i> add rum. We go to bed between +one and two. I live in peace, like an elderly gentleman, +and regard myself as in a negative state of virtue and +respectability.</p> + +<p>The theatres are not particularly good, but I have +seen Lemaître act in the most wonderful and astounding +manner. I am afraid we must go to the Opéra Comique on +Sunday. To-morrow we dine with Regnier and to-day with +the Olliffes.</p> + +<p>"La Joie fait Peur," at the Français, delighted me. +Exquisitely played and beautifully imagined altogether. +Last night we went to the Porte St. Martin to see a piece +(English subject) called "Jane Osborne," which the characters +pronounce "Ja Nosbornnne." The seducer was Lord +Nottingham. The comic Englishwoman's name (she kept +lodgings and was a very bad character) was Missees +Christmas. She had begun to get into great difficulties +with a gentleman of the name of Meestair Cornhill, when +we were obliged to leave, at the end of the first act, by the +intolerable stench of the place. The whole theatre must be +standing over some vast cesspool. It was so alarming that +I instantly rushed into a café and had brandy.</p> + +<p>My ear has gradually become so accustomed to French, +that I understand the people at the theatres (for the first +time) with perfect ease and satisfaction. I walked about +with Regnier for an hour and a half yesterday, and received +many compliments on my angelic manner of speaking the +celestial language. There is a winter Franconi's now, high +up on the Boulevards, just like the round theatre on the +Champs Elysées, and as bright and beautiful. A clown +from Astley's is all in high favour there at present. He +talks slang English (being evidently an idiot), as if he felt a +perfect confidence that everybody understands him. His<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[387]</a></span> +name is Boswell, and the whole cirque rang last night with +cries for Boz Zwilllll! Boz Zweellll! Boz Zwuallll! etc. +etc. etc. etc.</p> + +<p>I must begin to look out for the box of bon-bons for the +noble and fascinating Plornish-Maroon. Give him my love +and a thousand kisses.</p> + +<p>Loves to Mamey, Katey, Sydney, Harry, and the +following stab to Anne—she forgot to pack me any shaving +soap.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever, my dear Georgy, most affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—Collins sends kind regards.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. H. +Wills.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Hôtel Meurice, Paris</span>, <i>Friday, Feb. 16th, 1855.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Wills</span>,</div> + +<p>I received your letter yesterday evening. I have +not yet seen the lists of trains and boats, but propose +arranging to return about Tuesday or Wednesday. In the +meantime I am living like Gil Blas and doing nothing. I +am very much obliged to you, indeed, for the trouble you +have kindly taken about the little freehold. It is clear to +me that its merits resolve themselves into the view and the +spot. If I had more money these considerations might, with +me, overtop all others. But, as it is, I consider the matter +quite disposed of, finally settled in the negative, and to be +thought no more about. I shall not go down and look at +it, as I could add nothing to your report.</p> + +<p>Paris is finer than ever, and I go wandering about it all +day. We dine at all manner of places, and go to two or +three theatres in the evening. I suppose, as an old farmer +said of Scott, I am "makin' mysel'" all the time; but I +seem to be rather a free-and-easy sort of superior vagabond.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[388]</a></span></p> + +<p>I live in continual terror of ——, and am strongly fortified +within doors, with a means of retreat into my bedroom +always ready. Up to the present blessed moment, his +staggering form has not appeared.</p> + +<p>As to yesterday's post from England, I have not, at the +present moment, the slightest idea where it may be. It is +under the snow somewhere, I suppose; but nobody expects +it, and <i>Galignani</i> reprints every morning leaders from <i>The +Times</i> of about a fortnight or three weeks old.</p> + +<p>Collins, who is not very well, sends his "penitent +regards," and says he is enjoying himself as much as a man +with the weight of a broken promise on his conscience can.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever, my dear Wills, faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Arthur +Ryland.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>February 26th, 1855.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mr. Ryland</span>,</div> + +<p>Charley came home, I assure you, perfectly delighted +with his visit to you, and rapturous in his accounts of your +great kindness to him.</p> + +<p>It appears to me that the first question in reference to +my reading (I have not advanced an inch in my "Copperfield" +trials by-the-bye) is, whether you think you could +devise any plan in connection with the room at Dee's, +which would certainly bring my help in money up to five +hundred pounds. That is what I want. If it could be +done by a subscription for two nights, for instance, I +would not be chary of my time and trouble. But if you +cannot see your way clearly to that result in that connection, +then I think it would be better to wait until we +can have the Town Hall at Christmas. I have promised to +read, about Christmas time, at Sheffield and at Peterboro'. +I <i>could</i> add Birmingham to the list, then, if need were. But<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[389]</a></span> +what I want is, to give the institution in all five hundred +pounds. That is my object, and nothing less will satisfy me.</p> + +<p>Will you think it over, taking counsel with whomsoever +you please, and let me know what conclusion you arrive at. +Only think of me as subservient to the institution.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +My dear Mr. Ryland, always very faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. David +Roberts, +R.A.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>February 28th, 1855.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear David Roberts</span>,</div> + +<p>I hope to make it quite plain to you, in a few words, +why I think it right to stay away from the Lord Mayor's +dinner to the club. If I did not feel a kind of rectitude +involved in my non-acceptance of his invitation, your note +would immediately induce me to change my mind.</p> + +<p>Entertaining a strong opinion on the subject of the +City Corporation as it stands, and the absurdity of its +pretensions in an age perfectly different, in all conceivable +respects, from that to which it properly belonged as a +reality, I have expressed that opinion on more than one +occasion, within a year or so, in "Household Words." I do +not think it consistent with my respect for myself, or for +the art I profess, to blow hot and cold in the same breath; +and to laugh at the institution in print, and accept the +hospitality of its representative while the ink is staring us +all in the face. There is a great deal too much of this +among us, and it does not elevate the earnestness or +delicacy of literature.</p> + +<p>This is my sole consideration. Personally I have always +met the present Lord Mayor on the most agreeable terms, +and I think him an excellent one. As between you, and +me, and him, I cannot have the slightest objection to your +telling him the truth. On a more private occasion, when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[390]</a></span> +he was not keeping his state, I should be delighted to +interchange any courtesy with that honourable and amiable +gentleman, Mr. Moon.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Believe me always cordially yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Austen H. +Layard.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Tuesday Evening, April 3rd, 1855.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">Dear Layard</span>,</div> + +<p>Since I had the pleasure of seeing you again at Miss +Coutts's (really a greater pleasure to me than I could easily +tell you), I have thought a good deal of the duty we all owe +you of helping you as much as we can. Being on very +intimate terms with Lemon, the editor of "Punch" (a most +affectionate and true-hearted fellow), I mentioned to him in +confidence what I had at heart. You will find yourself the +subject of their next large cut, and of some lines in an +earnest spirit. He again suggested the point to Mr. Shirley +Brookes, one of their regular corps, who will do what is +right in <i>The Illustrated London News</i> and <i>The Weekly +Chronicle</i>, papers that go into the hands of large numbers +of people. I have also communicated with Jerrold, whom I +trust, and have begged him not to be diverted from the +straight path of help to the most useful man in England on +all possible occasions. Forster I will speak to carefully, +and I have no doubt it will quicken him a little; not that +we have anything to complain of in his direction. If you +ever see any new loophole, cranny, needle's-eye, through +which I can present your case to "Household Words," I +most earnestly entreat you, as your staunch friend and +admirer—you <i>can</i> have no truer—to indicate it to me at +any time or season, and to count upon my being Damascus +steel to the core.</p> + +<p>All this is nothing; because all these men, and thousands +of others, dote upon you. But I know it would be a comfort<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[391]</a></span> +to me, in your hard-fighting place, to be assured of such +sympathy, and therefore only I write.</p> + +<p>You have other recreations for your Sundays in the +session, I daresay, than to come here. But it is generally +a day on which I do not go out, and when we dine at half-past +five in the easiest way in the world, and smoke in the +peacefulest manner. Perhaps one of these Sundays after +Easter you might not be indisposed to begin to dig us out?</p> + +<p>And I should like, on a Saturday of your appointing, to +get a few of the serviceable men I know—such as I have +mentioned—about you here. Will you think of this, too, +and suggest a Saturday for our dining together?</p> + +<p>I am really ashamed and moved that you should do your +part so manfully and be left alone in the conflict. I felt you +to be all you are the first moment I saw you. I know you +will accept my regard and fidelity for what they are worth.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Dear Layard, very heartily yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Austen H. +Layard.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Tuesday, April 10th, 1855.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">Dear Layard</span>,</div> + +<p>I shall of course observe the strictest silence, at +present, in reference to your resolutions. It will be a most +acceptable occupation to me to go over them with you, +and I have not a doubt of their producing a strong effect +out of doors.</p> + +<p>There is nothing in the present time at once so galling +and so alarming to me as the alienation of the people from +their own public affairs. I have no difficulty in understanding +it. They have had so little to do with the game +through all these years of Parliamentary Reform, that they +have sullenly laid down their cards, and taken to looking +on. The players who are left at the table do not see +beyond it, conceive that gain and loss and all the interest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[392]</a></span> +of the play are in their hands, and will never be wiser +until they and the table and the lights and the money are +all overturned together. And I believe the discontent to +be so much the worse for smouldering, instead of blazing +openly, that it is extremely like the general mind of France +before the breaking out of the first Revolution, and is in +danger of being turned by any one of a thousand accidents—a +bad harvest—the last strain too much of aristocratic +insolence or incapacity—a defeat abroad—a mere chance at +home—with such a devil of a conflagration as never has +been beheld since.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, all our English tuft-hunting, toad-eating, +and other manifestations of accursed gentility—to say +nothing of the Lord knows who's defiances of the proven +truth before six hundred and fifty men—<span class="smcap">are</span> expressing +themselves every day. So, every day, the disgusted +millions with this unnatural gloom are confirmed and +hardened in the very worst of moods. Finally, round all +this is an atmosphere of poverty, hunger, and ignorant +desperation, of the mere existence of which perhaps not +one man in a thousand of those not actually enveloped in +it, through the whole extent of this country, has the least +idea.</p> + +<p>It seems to me an absolute impossibility to direct the +spirit of the people at this pass until it shows itself. If +they begin to bestir themselves in the vigorous national +manner; if they would appear in political reunion, array +themselves peacefully but in vast numbers against a system +that they know to be rotten altogether, make themselves +heard like the sea all round this island, I for one should +be in such a movement heart and soul, and should think it +a duty of the plainest kind to go along with it, and try to +guide it by all possible means. But you can no more help<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[393]</a></span> +a people who do not help themselves than you can help a +man who does not help himself. And until the people can +be got up from the lethargy, which is an awful symptom of +the advanced state of their disease, I know of nothing that +can be done beyond keeping their wrongs continually +before them.</p> + +<p>I shall hope to see you soon after you come back. Your +speeches at Aberdeen are most admirable, manful, and +earnest. I would have such speeches at every market-cross, +and in every town-hall, and among all sorts and conditions +of men; up in the very balloons, and down in the very +diving-bells.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever, cordially yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. John +Forster.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Saturday, April 14th, 1855.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My Dear Forster</span>,</div> + +<p>I cannot express to you how very much delighted I +am with the "Steele." I think it incomparably the best of +the series. The pleasanter humanity of the subject may +commend it more to one's liking, but that again requires a +delicate handling, which you have given to it in a most +charming manner. It is surely not possible to approach a +man with a finer sympathy, and the assertion of the claims +of literature throughout is of the noblest and most gallant +kind.</p> + +<p>I don't agree with you about the serious papers in <i>The +Spectator</i>, which I think (whether they be Steele's or +Addison's) are generally as indifferent as the humour of +<i>The Spectator</i> is delightful. And I have always had a +notion that Prue understood her husband very well, and +held him in consequence, when a fonder woman with less +show of caprice must have let him go. But these are +points of opinion. The paper is masterly, and all I have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[394]</a></span> +got to say is, that if —— had a grain of the honest sentiment +with which it overflows, he never would or could +have made so great a mistake.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Mark +Lemon.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Thursday, April 26th, 1855.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='center'><br /> +>ON THE DEATH OF AN INFANT.<br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My Dear Mark</span>,</div> + +<p>I will call for you at two, and go with you to Highgate, +by all means.</p> + +<p>Leech and I called on Tuesday evening and left our +loves. I have not written to you since, because I thought +it best to leave you quiet for a day. I have no need to tell +you, my dear fellow, that my thoughts have been constantly +with you, and that I have not forgotten (and never +shall forget) who sat up with me one night when a little +place in my house was left empty.</p> + +<p>It is hard to lose any child, but there are many blessed +sources of consolation in the loss of a baby. There is a +beautiful thought in Fielding's "Journey from this World +to the Next," where the baby he had lost many years before +was found by him all radiant and happy, building him a +bower in the Elysian Fields where they were to live together +when he came.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—Our kindest loves to Mrs. Lemon.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Clarkson +Stanfield, +R.A.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Sunday, May 20th, 1855.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My Dear Stanny</span>,</div> + +<p>I have a little lark in contemplation, if you will help +it to fly.</p> + +<p>Collins has done a melodrama (a regular old-style melodrama), +in which there is a very good notion. I am going<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[395]</a></span> +to act it, as an experiment, in the children's theatre here—I, +Mark, Collins, Egg, and my daughter Mary, the +whole <i>dram. pers.</i>; our families and yours the whole +audience; for I want to make the stage large and shouldn't +have room for above five-and-twenty spectators. Now +there is only one scene in the piece, and that, my tarry lad, +is the inside of a lighthouse. Will you come and paint it +for us one night, and we'll all turn to and help? It is a +mere wall, of course, but Mark and I have sworn that you +must do it. If you will say yes, I should like to have the +tiny flats made, after you have looked at the place, and not +before. On Wednesday in this week I am good for a steak +and the play, if you will make your own appointment here; +or any day next week except Thursday. Write me a line in +reply. We mean to burst on an astonished world with the +melodrama, without any note of preparation. So don't say +a syllable to Forster if you should happen to see him.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Clarkson +Stanfield, +R.A.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Tuesday Afternoon, Six o'clock, May 22nd, 1855.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Stanny</span>,</div> + +<p>Your note came while I was out walking. Even if I +had been at home I could not have managed to dine +together to-day, being under a beastly engagement to dine +out. Unless I hear from you to the contrary, I shall expect +you here some time to-morrow, and will remain at home. I +only wait your instructions to get the little canvases made. +O, what a pity it is not the outside of the light'us, with the sea +a-rowling agin it! Never mind, we'll get an effect out of +the inside, and there's a storm and a shipwreck "off;" +and the great ambition of my life will be achieved at last, in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[396]</a></span> +the wearing of a pair of very coarse petticoat trousers. So +hoorar for the salt sea, mate, and bouse up!</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Ever affectionately,</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Dicky</span>.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Mark +Lemon.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>May 23rd, 1855.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mark</span>,</div> + +<p>Stanny says he is only sorry it is not the outside of +the lighthouse with a raging sea and a transparent light. +He enters into the project with the greatest delight, and I +think we shall make a capital thing of it.</p> + +<p>It now occurs to me that we may as well do a farce too. +I should like to get in a little part for Katey, and also for +Charley, if it were practicable. What do you think of +"Animal Mag."? You and I in our old parts; Collins, +Jeffrey; Charley, the Markis; Katey and Mary (or Georgina), +the two ladies? Can you think of anything merry that is +better? It ought to be broad, as a relief to the melodrama, +unless we could find something funny with a story in it too. +I rather incline myself to "Animal Mag." Will you come +round and deliver your sentiments?</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Frank +Stone, +A.R.A.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Thursday, May 24th, 1855.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Stone</span>,</div> + +<p>Great projects are afoot here for a grown-up play in +about three weeks' time. Former schoolroom arrangements +to be reversed—large stage and small audience. Stanfield +bent on desperate effects, and all day long with his coat off, +up to his eyes in distemper colours.</p> + +<p>Will you appear in your celebrated character of Mr. +Nightingale? I want to wind up with that popular farce, +we all playing our old parts.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[397]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Frank +Stone, +A.R.A.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>May 24th, 1855.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Stone</span>,</div> + +<p>That's right! You will find the words come back +very quickly. Why, <i>of course</i> your people are to come, and +if Stanfield don't astonish 'em, I'm a Dutchman. O Heaven, +if you could hear the ideas he proposes to me, making even +<i>my</i> hair stand on end!</p> + +<p>Will you get Marcus or some similar bright creature to +copy out old Nightingale's part for you, and then return +the book? This is the prompt-book, the only one I have; +and Katey and Georgina (being also in wild excitement) +want to write their parts out with all despatch.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. +Wilkie +Collins.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Thursday, May 24th, 1855.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Collins</span>,</div> + +<p>I shall expect you to-morrow evening at "Household +Words." I have written a little ballad for Mary—"The +Story of the Ship's Carpenter and the Little Boy, in the +Shipwreck."</p> + +<p>Let us close up with "Mr. Nightingale's Diary." Will +you look whether you have a book of it, or your part.</p> + +<p>All other matters and things hereunto belonging when +we meet.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Trollope.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Tuesday Morning, June 19th, 1855.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mrs. Trollope</span>,</div> + +<p>I was out of town on Sunday, or I should have +answered your note immediately on its arrival. I cannot +have the pleasure of seeing the famous "medium" to-night, +for I have some theatricals at home. But I fear I +shall not in any case be a good subject for the purpose, as I +altogether want faith in the thing.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[398]</a></span></p> + +<p>I have not the least belief in the awful unseen world +being available for evening parties at so much per night; +and, although I should be ready to receive enlightenment +from any source, I must say I have very little hope of it +from the spirits who express themselves through mediums, +as I have never yet observed them to talk anything but +nonsense, of which (as Carlyle would say) there is probably +enough in these days of ours, and in all days, among +mere mortality.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Very faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Clarkson +Stanfield, +R.A.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Wednesday, June 20th, 1855.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Stanny</span>,</div> + +<p>I write a hasty note to let you know that last night +was perfectly wonderful!!!</p> + +<p>Such an audience! Such a brilliant success from first +to last! The Queen had taken it into her head in the +morning to go to Chatham, and had carried Phipps with +her. He wrote to me asking if it were possible to give him +a quarter of an hour. I got through that time before the +overture, and he came without any dinner, so influenced by +eager curiosity. Lemon and I did every conceivable absurdity, +I think, in the farce; and they never left off laughing. +At supper I proposed your health, which was drunk with +nine times nine, and three cheers over. We then turned to +at Scotch reels (having had no exercise), and danced in the +maddest way until five this morning.</p> + +<p>It is as much as I can do to guide the pen.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">With loves to Mrs. Stanfield and all,</span><br /> +Ever most affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[399]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Saturday, June 30th, 1855.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My very dear Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>I write shortly, after a day's work at my desk, rather +than lose a post in answering your enthusiastic, earnest, and +young—how young, in all the best side of youth—letter.</p> + +<p>To tell you the truth, I confidently expected to hear from +you. I knew that if there were a man in the world who +would be interested in, and who would approve of, my giving +utterance to whatever was in me at this time, it would be +you. I was as sure of you as of the sun this morning.</p> + +<p>The subject is surrounded by difficulties; the Association +is sorely in want of able men; and the resistance of all the +phalanx, who have an interest in corruption and mismanagement, +is the resistance of a struggle against death. But the +great, first, strong necessity is to rouse the people up, to +keep them stirring and vigilant, to carry the war dead into +the tent of such creatures as ——, and ring into their souls +(or what stands for them) that the time for dandy insolence +is gone for ever. It may be necessary to come to that law +of primogeniture (I have no love for it), or to come to even +greater things; but this is the first service to be done, and +unless it is done, there is not a chance. For this, and to +encourage timid people to come in, I went to Drury Lane +the other night; and I wish you had been there and had +seen and heard the people.</p> + +<p>The Association will be proud to have your name and +gift. When we sat down on the stage the other night, +and were waiting a minute or two to begin, I said to Morley, +the chairman (a thoroughly fine earnest fellow), "this +reminds me so of one of my dearest friends, with a melancholy +so curious, that I don't know whether the place feels +familiar to me or strange." He was full of interest directly,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[400]</a></span> +and we went on talking of you until the moment of his +getting up to open the business.</p> + +<p>They are going to print my speech in a tract-form, and +send it all over the country. I corrected it for the purpose +last night. We are all well. Charley in the City; all the +boys at home for the holidays; three prizes brought home +triumphantly (one from the Boulogne waters and one from +Wimbledon); I taking dives into a new book, and runs at +leap-frog over "Household Words;" and Anne going to be +married—which is the only bad news.</p> + +<p>Catherine, Georgie, Mary, Katey, Charley, and all the +rest, send multitudes of loves. Ever, my dearest Macready, +with unalterable affection and attachment,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Your faithful Friend.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. +Wilkie +Collins.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +3, <span class="smcap">Albion Villas, Folkestone</span>, <i>Tuesday, July 17th, 1855.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Collins</span>,</div> + +<p>Walter goes back to school on the 1st of August. +Will you come out of school to this breezy vacation on the +same day, or rather <i>this day fortnight, July 31st</i>? for that is +the day on which he leaves us, and we begin (here's a +parent!) to be able to be comfortable. Why a boy of that +age should seem to have on at all times a hundred and +fifty pair of double-soled boots, and to be always jumping +a bottom stair with the whole hundred and fifty, I don't +know. But the woeful fact is within my daily experience.</p> + +<p>We have a very pleasant little house, overlooking the +sea, and I think you will like the place. It rained, in +honour of our arrival, with the greatest vigour, yesterday. +I went out after dinner to buy some nails (you know the +arrangements that would be then in progress), and I stopped +in the rain, about halfway down a steep, crooked street, +like a crippled ladder, to look at a little coachmaker's,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[401]</a></span> +where there had just been a sale. Speculating on the +insolvent coachmaker's business, and what kind of coaches +he could possibly have expected to get orders for in +Folkestone, I thought, "What would bring together fifty +people now, in this little street, at this little rainy minute?" +On the instant, a brewer's van, with two mad horses in it, +and the harness dangling about them—like the trappings of +those horses you are acquainted with, who bolted through +the starry courts of heaven—dashed by me, and in that +instant, such a crowd as would have accumulated in Fleet +Street sprang up magically. Men fell out of windows, +dived out of doors, plunged down courts, precipitated +themselves down steps, came down waterspouts, instead of +rain, I think, and I never saw so wonderful an instance of +the gregarious effect of an excitement.</p> + +<p>A man, a woman, and a child had been thrown out on +the horses taking fright and the reins breaking. The child +is dead, and the woman very ill but will probably recover, +and the man has a hand broken and other mischief done to +him.</p> + +<p>Let me know what Wigan says. If he does not take the +play, and readily too, I would recommend you not to offer +it elsewhere. You have gained great reputation by it, have +done your position a deal of good, and (as I think) stand so +well with it, that it is a pity to engender the notion that you +care to stand better.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. H. +Wills.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Folkestone</span>, <i>September 16th, 1855.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Wills</span>,</div> + +<p>Scrooge is delighted to find that Bob Cratchit is +enjoying his holiday in such a delightful situation; and he +says (with that warmth of nature which has distinguished<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[402]</a></span> +him since his conversion), "Make the most of it, Bob; make +the most of it."</p> + +<p>[I am just getting to work on No. 3 of the new book, +and am in the hideous state of mind belonging to that +condition.]</p> + +<p>I have not a word of news. I am steeped in my story, +and rise and fall by turns into enthusiasm and depression.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">The Hon. +Mrs. +Watson.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Folkestone</span>, <i>Sunday, Sept. 16th, 1855.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mrs. Watson</span>,</div> + +<p>This will be a short letter, but I hope not unwelcome. +If you knew how often I write to you—in intention—I don't +know where you would find room for the correspondence.</p> + +<p>Catherine tells me that you want to know the name of +my new book. I cannot bear that you should know it from +anyone but me. It will not be made public until the end +of October; the title is:</p> + +<div class='center'> +"<span class="smcap">Nobody's Fault</span>."<br /> +</div> + +<p>Keep it as the apple of your eye—an expressive form of +speech, though I have not the least idea of what it means.</p> + +<p>Next, I wish to tell you that I have appointed to read at +Peterboro', on Tuesday, the 18th of December. I have +told the Dean that I cannot accept his hospitality, and that +I am going with Mr. Wills to the inn, therefore I shall be +absolutely at your disposal, and shall be more than disappointed +if you don't stay with us. As the time approaches +will you let me know your arrangements, and whether Mr. +Wills can bespeak any rooms for you in arranging for me? +Georgy will give you our address in Paris as soon as we shall +have settled there. We shall leave here, I think, in rather +less than a month from this time.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[403]</a></span></p> + +<p>You know my state of mind as well as I do, indeed, if +you don't know it much better, it is not the state of mind I +take it to be. How I work, how I walk, how I shut +myself up, how I roll down hills and climb up cliffs; how +the new story is everywhere—heaving in the sea, flying +with the clouds, blowing in the wind; how I settle to +nothing, and wonder (in the old way) at my own incomprehensibility. +I am getting on pretty well, have done the +first two numbers, and am just now beginning the third; +which egotistical announcements I make to you because I +know you will be interested in them.</p> + +<p>All the house send their kindest loves. I think of +inserting an advertisement in <i>The Times</i>, offering to submit +the Plornishghenter to public competition, and to receive +fifty thousand pounds if such another boy cannot be found, +and to pay five pounds (my fortune) if he can.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever, my dear Mrs. Watson, affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. +Wilkie +Collins.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Folkestone</span>, <i>Sunday, Sept. 30th, 1855.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Collins</span>,</div> + +<p>Welcome from the bosom of the deep! If a hornpipe +will be acceptable to you at any time (as a reminder of +what the three brothers were always doing), I shall be, as +the chairman says at Mr. Evans's, "happy to oblige."</p> + +<p>I have almost finished No. 3, in which I have relieved +my indignant soul with a scarifier. Sticking at it day after +day, I am the incompletest letter-writer imaginable—seem +to have no idea of holding a pen for any other purpose but +that book. My fair Laura has not yet reported concerning +Paris, but I should think will have done so before I see you. +And now to that point. I purpose being in town on <i>Monday, +the 8th</i>, when I have promised to dine with Forster. At the +office, between half-past eleven and one that day, I will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[404]</a></span> +expect you, unless I hear from you to the contrary. Of +course the H. W. stories are at your disposition. If you +should have completed your idea, we might breakfast together +at the G. on the Tuesday morning and discuss it. +Or I shall be in town after ten on the Monday night. At the +office I will tell you the idea of the Christmas number, which +will put you in train, I hope, for a story. I have postponed +the shipwreck idea for a year, as it seemed to require more +force from me than I could well give it with the weight of a +new start upon me.</p> + +<p>All here send their kindest remembrances. We missed +you very much, and the Plorn was quite inconsolable. We +slide down Cæsar occasionally.</p> + +<p>They launched the boat, the rapid building of which you +remember, the other day. All the fishermen in the place, +all the nondescripts, and all the boys pulled at it with ropes +from six <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> to four <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> Every now and then the ropes +broke, and they all fell down in the shingle. The obstinate +way in which the beastly thing wouldn't move was so exasperating +that I wondered they didn't shoot it, or burn it. +Whenever it moved an inch they all cheered; whenever it +wouldn't move they all swore. Finally, when it was quite +given over, some one tumbled against it accidentally (as it +appeared to me, looking out at my window here), and it +instantly shot about a mile into the sea, and they all stood +looking at it helplessly.</p> + +<p>Kind regards to Pigott, in which all unite.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Folkestone</span>, <i>Thursday, Oct. 4th, 1855.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dearest Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>I have been hammering away in that strenuous +manner at my book, that I have had leisure for scarcely any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[405]</a></span> +letters but such, as I have been obliged to write; having a +horrible temptation when I lay down my book-pen to run +out on the breezy downs here, tear up the hills, slide down +the same, and conduct myself in a frenzied manner, for the +relief that only exercise gives me.</p> + +<p>Your letter to Miss Coutts in behalf of little Miss Warner +I despatched straightway. She is at present among the +Pyrenees, and a letter from her crossed that one of mine in +which I enclosed yours, last week.</p> + +<p>Pray stick to that dim notion you have of coming to +Paris! How delightful it would be to see your aged +countenance and perfectly bald head in that capital! It +will renew your youth, to visit a theatre (previously dining +at the Trois Frères) in company with the jocund boy who +now addresses you. Do, do stick to it.</p> + +<p>You will be pleased to hear, I know, that Charley has +gone into Baring's house under very auspicious circumstances. +Mr. Bates, of that firm, had done me the kindness +to place him at the brokers' where he was. And when said +Bates wrote to me a fortnight ago to say that an excellent +opening had presented itself at Baring's, he added that the +brokers gave Charley "so high a character for ability and +zeal" that it would be unfair to receive him as a volunteer, +and he must begin at a fifty-pound salary, to which I +graciously consented.</p> + +<p>As to the suffrage, I have lost hope even in the ballot. +We appear to me to have proved the failure of representative +institutions without an educated and advanced people +to support them. What with teaching people to "keep in +their stations," what with bringing up the soul and body of +the land to be a good child, or to go to the beershop, to go +a-poaching and go to the devil; what with having no such +thing as a middle class (for though we are perpetually<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[406]</a></span> +bragging of it as our safety, it is nothing but a poor fringe +on the mantle of the upper); what with flunkyism, toadyism, +letting the most contemptible lords come in for all manner +of places, reading <i>The Court Circular</i> for the New Testament, +I do reluctantly believe that the English people are +habitually consenting parties to the miserable imbecility +into which we have fallen, <i>and never will help themselves +out of it</i>. Who is to do it, if anybody is, God knows. But +at present we are on the down-hill road to being conquered, +and the people <span class="smcap">will</span> be content to bear it, sing "Rule +Britannia," and <span class="smcap">will not</span> be saved.</p> + +<p>In No. 3 of my new book I have been blowing off +a little of indignant steam which would otherwise blow +me up, and with God's leave I shall walk in the same all +the days of my life; but I have no present political faith or +hope—not a grain.</p> + +<p>I am going to read the "Carol" here to-morrow in a +long carpenter's shop, which looks far more alarming as a +place to hear in than the Town Hall at Birmingham.</p> + +<p>Kindest loves from all to your dear sister, Kate and the +darlings. It is blowing a gale here from the south-west +and raining like mad.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever most affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Charles +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">2, Rue St. Florentin</span>, <i>Tuesday, Oct. 16th, 1855.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dearest Catherine</span>,</div> + +<p>We have had the most awful job to find a place that +would in the least suit us, for Paris is perfectly full, and +there is nothing to be got at any sane price. However, we +have found two apartments—an <i>entresol</i> and a first floor, +with a kitchen and servants' room at the top of the house, +at No. 49, Avenue des Champs Elysées.</p> + +<p>You must be prepared for a regular Continental abode.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[407]</a></span> +There is only one window in each room, but the front +apartments all look upon the main street of the Champs +Elysées, and the view is delightfully cheerful. There are +also plenty of rooms. They are not over and above well +furnished, but by changing furniture from rooms we don't +care for to rooms we <i>do</i> care for, we shall be able to make +them home-like and presentable. I think the situation +itself almost the finest in Paris; and the children will have +a window from which to look on the busy life outside.</p> + +<p>We could have got a beautiful apartment in the Rue +Faubourg St. Honoré for a very little more, most elegantly +furnished; but the greater part of it was on a courtyard, +and it would never have done for the children. This, that I +have taken for six months, is seven hundred francs per +month, and twenty more for the <i>concierge</i>. What you have +to expect is a regular French residence, which a little +habitation will make pretty and comfortable, with nothing +showy in it, but with plenty of rooms, and with that +wonderful street in which the Barrière de l'Étoile stands +outside. The amount of rooms is the great thing, and I +believe it to be the place best suited for us, at a not +unreasonable price in Paris.</p> + +<p>Georgina and Lady Olliffe<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> send their loves. Georgina +and I add ours to Mamey, Katey, the Plorn, and Harry.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. H. +Wills.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">49, <span class="smcap">Avenue des Champs Elysées, Paris</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Friday, Oct. 19th, 1855.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Wills</span>,</div> + +<p>After going through unheard-of bedevilments (of +which you shall have further particulars as soon as I come +right side upwards, which may happen in a day or two),<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[408]</a></span> +we are at last established here in a series of closets, but a +great many of them, with all Paris perpetually passing +under the windows. Letters may have been wandering +after me to that home in the Rue de Balzac, which is to be +the subject of more lawsuits between the man who let it +to me and the man who wouldn't let me have possession, +than any other house that ever was built. But I have had +no letters at all, and have been—ha, ha!—a maniac since +last Monday.</p> + +<p>I will try my hand at that paper for H. W. to-morrow, +if I can get a yard of flooring to sit upon; but we have +really been in that state of topsy-turvyhood that even +that has been an unattainable luxury, and may yet be +for eight-and-forty hours or so, for anything I see to the +contrary.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. H. +Wills.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">49, Avenue des Champs Elysées, Paris</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Sunday Night, Oct. 21st, 1855.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Wills</span>,</div> + +<p>Coming here from a walk this afternoon, I found +your letter of yesterday awaiting me. I send this reply by +my brother Alfred, who is here, and who returns home to-morrow. +You should get it at the office early on Tuesday.</p> + +<p>I will go to work to-morrow, and will send you, please +God, an article by Tuesday's post, which you will get on +Wednesday forenoon. Look carefully to the proof, as I +shall not have time to receive it for correction. When you +arrange about sending your parcels, will you ascertain, and +communicate to me, the prices of telegraph messages? It +will save me trouble, having no foreign servant (though +French is in that respect a trump), and may be useful on +an emergency.</p> + +<p>I have two floors here—<i>entresol</i> and first—in a doll's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[409]</a></span> +house, but really pretty within, and the view without +astounding, as you will say when you come. The house is +on the Exposition side, about half a quarter of a mile above +Franconi's, of course on the other side of the way, and close +to the Jardin d'Hîver. Each room has but one window in +it, but we have no fewer than six rooms (besides the back +ones) looking on the Champs Elysées, with the wonderful +life perpetually flowing up and down. We have no spare-room, +but excellent stowage for the whole family, including +a capital dressing-room for me, and a really slap-up kitchen +near the stairs. Damage for the whole, seven hundred +francs a month.</p> + +<p>But, sir—but—when Georgina, the servants, and I +were here for the first night (Catherine and the rest +being at Boulogne), I heard Georgy restless—turned out—asked: +"What's the matter?" "Oh, it's dreadfully +dirty. I can't sleep for the smell of my room." Imagine +all my stage-managerial energies multiplied at daybreak by +a thousand. Imagine the porter, the porter's wife, the +porter's wife's sister, a feeble upholsterer of enormous age +from round the corner, and all his workmen (four boys), +summoned. Imagine the partners in the proprietorship of +the apartment, and martial little man with François-Prussian +beard, also summoned. Imagine your inimitable chief +briefly explaining that dirt is not in his way, and that he is +driven to madness, and that he devotes himself to no coat +and a dirty face, until the apartment is thoroughly purified. +Imagine co-proprietors at first astounded, then urging that +"it's not the custom," then wavering, then affected, then +confiding their utmost private sorrows to the Inimitable, +offering new carpets (accepted), embraces (not accepted), +and really responding like French bricks. Sallow, unbrushed, +unshorn, awful, stalks the Inimitable through the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[410]</a></span> +apartment until last night. Then all the improvements +were concluded, and I do really believe the place to be now +worth eight or nine hundred francs per month. You +must picture it as the smallest place you ever saw, but +as exquisitely cheerful and vivacious, clean as anything +human can be, and with a moving panorama always outside, +which is Paris in itself.</p> + +<p>You mention a letter from Miss Coutts as to Mrs. +Brown's illness, which you say is "enclosed to Mrs. Charles +Dickens."</p> + +<p>It is not enclosed, and I am mad to know where she +writes from that I may write to her. Pray set this right, +for her uneasiness will be greatly intensified if she have no +word from me.</p> + +<p>I thought we were to give £1,700 for the house at Gad's +Hill. Are we bound to £1,800? Considering the improvements +to be made, it is a little too much, isn't it? I have a +strong impression that at the utmost we were only to divide +the difference, and not to pass £1,750. You will set me +right if I am wrong. But I don't think I am.</p> + +<p>I write very hastily, with the piano playing and Alfred +looking for this.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever, my dear Wills, faithfully.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. H. +Wills.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">49, <span class="smcap">Avenue des Champs Elysées</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Wednesday, Oct. 24th, 1855.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Wills</span>,</div> + +<p>In the Gad's Hill matter, I too would like to try the +effect of "not budging." <i>So do not go beyond the</i> £1,700. +Considering what I should have to expend on the one hand, +and the low price of stock on the other, I do not feel disposed +to go beyond that mark. They won't let a purchaser +escape for the sake of the £100, I think. And Austin<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[411]</a></span> +was strongly of opinion, when I saw him last, that £1,700 +was enough.</p> + +<p>You cannot think how pleasant it is to me to find myself +generally known and liked here. If I go into a shop to buy +anything, and give my card, the officiating priest or +priestess brightens up, and says: "<i>Ah! c'est l'écrivain +célèbre! Monsieur porte un nom très-distingué. Mais! +je suis honoré et intéressé de voir Monsieur Dick-in. Je lis +un des livres de monsieur tous les jours</i>" (in the <i>Moniteur</i>). +And a man who brought some little vases home last night, +said: "<i>On connaît bien en France que Monsieur Dick-in +prend sa position sur la dignité de la littérature. Ah! c'est +grande chose! Et ses caractères</i>" (this was to Georgina, +while he unpacked) "<i>sont si spirituellement tournées! Cette +Madame Tojare</i>" (Todgers), "<i>ah! qu'elle est drôle et +précisément comme une dame que je connais à Calais.</i>"</p> + +<p>You cannot have any doubt about this place, if you will +only recollect it is the great main road from the Place de la +Concorde to the Barrière de l'Étoile.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote"> +Monsieur +Regnier.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<i>Wednesday, November 21st, 1855.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Regnier</span>,</div> + +<p>In thanking you for the box you kindly sent me the +day before yesterday, let me thank you a thousand times +for the delight we derived from the representation of your +beautiful and admirable piece. I have hardly ever been so +affected and interested in any theatre. Its construction is +in the highest degree excellent, the interest absorbing, and +the whole conducted by a masterly hand to a touching and +natural conclusion.</p> + +<p>Through the whole story from beginning to end, I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[412]</a></span> +recognise the true spirit and feeling of an artist, and I most +heartily offer you and your fellow-labourer my felicitations +on the success you have achieved. That it will prove a very +great and a lasting one, I cannot for a moment doubt.</p> + +<p>O my friend! If I could see an English actress with +but one hundredth part of the nature and art of Madame +Plessy, I should believe our English theatre to be in a fair +way towards its regeneration. But I have no hope of ever +beholding such a phenomenon. I may as well expect ever +to see upon an English stage an accomplished artist, able +to write and to embody what he writes, like you.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours ever.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Madame +Viardot.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +49, <span class="smcap">Avenue des Champs Elysées</span>, <i>Monday, Dec. 3rd, 1855.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">Dear Madame Viardot</span>,</div> + +<p>Mrs. Dickens tells me that you have only borrowed +the first number of "Little Dorrit," and are going to send +it back. Pray do nothing of the sort, and allow me to have +the great pleasure of sending you the succeeding numbers +as they reach me. I have had such delight in your great +genius, and have so high an interest in it and admiration of +it, that I am proud of the honour of giving you a moment's +intellectual pleasure.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Believe me, very faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">The Hon. +Mrs. +Watson.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Sunday, Dec. 23rd, 1855.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mrs. Watson</span>,</div> + +<p>I have a moment in which to redeem my promise, of +putting you in possession of my Little Friend No. 2, before +the general public. It is, of course, at the disposal of your +circle, but until the month is out, is understood to be a +prisoner in the castle.</p> + +<p>If I had time to write anything, I should still quite vainly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[413]</a></span> +try to tell you what interest and happiness I had in once +more seeing you among your dear children. Let me congratulate +you on your Eton boys. They are so handsome, +frank, and genuinely modest, that they charmed me. A +kiss to the little fair-haired darling and the rest; the love +of my heart to every stone in the old house.</p> + +<p>Enormous effect at Sheffield. But really not a better +audience perceptively than at Peterboro', for that could +hardly be, but they were more enthusiastically demonstrative, +and they took the line, "and to Tiny Tim who did +<span class="smcap">not</span> die," with a most prodigious shout and roll of thunder.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever, my dear Friend, most faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>1856.</h2> + +<h3>NARRATIVE.</h3> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>Charles Dickens</span> having taken an <i>appartement</i> in Paris for +the winter months, 49, Avenue des Champs Elysées, was +there with his family until the middle of May. He much +enjoyed this winter sojourn, meeting many old friends, +making new friends, and interchanging hospitalities with +the French artistic world. He had also many friends from +England to visit him. Mr. Wilkie Collins had an <i>appartement +de garçon</i> hard by, and the two companions were constantly +together. The Rev. James White and his family +also spent their winter at Paris, having taken an <i>appartement</i> +at 49, Avenue des Champs Elysées, and the girls of +the two families had the same masters, and took their lessons +together. After the Whites' departure, Mr. Macready paid +Charles Dickens a visit, occupying the vacant <i>appartement</i>.</div> + +<p>During this winter Charles Dickens was, however, +constantly backwards and forwards between Paris and +London on "Household Words" business, and was also at +work on his "Little Dorrit."</p> + +<p>While in Paris he sat for his portrait to the great Ary<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[414]</a></span> +Scheffer. It was exhibited at the Royal Academy Exhibition +of this year, and is now in the National Portrait +Gallery.</p> + +<p>The summer was again spent at Boulogne, and once more +at the Villa des Moulineaux, where he received +constant visits from English friends, Mr. Wilkie Collins +taking up his quarters for many weeks at a little cottage +in the garden; and there the idea of another play, to be +acted at Tavistock House, was first started. Many of +our letters for this year have reference to this play, and +will show the interest which Charles Dickens took in it, +and the immense amount of care and pains given by him to +the careful carrying out of this favourite amusement.</p> + +<p>The Christmas number of "Household Words," written +by Charles Dickens and Mr. Collins, called "The Wreck of +the <i>Golden Mary</i>," was planned by the two friends during +this summer holiday.</p> + +<p>It was in this year that one of the great wishes of his +life was to be realised, the much-coveted house—Gad's +Hill Place—having been purchased by him, and the cheque +written on the 14th of March—on a "Friday," as he writes +to his sister-in-law, in the letter of this date. He frequently +remarked that all the important, and so far fortunate, events +of his life had happened to him on a Friday. So that, +contrary to the usual superstition, that day had come to be +looked upon by his family as his "lucky" day.</p> + +<p>The allusion to the "plainness" of Miss Boyle's handwriting +is good-humouredly ironical; that lady's writing +being by no means famous for its legibility.</p> + +<p>The "Anne" mentioned in the letter to his sister-in-law, +which follows the one to Miss Boyle, was the faithful +servant who had lived with the family so long; and who, +having left to be married the previous year, had found it a +very difficult matter to recover from her sorrow at this +parting. And the "godfather's present" was for a son of +Mr. Edmund Yates.</p> + +<p>"The Humble Petition" was written to Mr. Wilkie +Collins during that gentleman's visit to Paris.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[415]</a></span></p> + +<p>The explanation of the remark to Mr. Wills (6th April), +that he had paid the money to Mr. Poole, is that Charles +Dickens was the trustee through whom the dramatist +received his pension.</p> + +<p>The letter to the Duke of Devonshire has reference to +the peace illuminations after the Crimean war.</p> + +<p>The M. Forgues for whom, at Mr. Collins's request, he +writes a short biography of himself, was the editor of the +<i>Revue des Deux Mondes</i>.</p> + +<p>The speech at the London Tavern was on behalf of +the Artists' Benevolent Fund.</p> + +<p>Miss Kate Macready had sent some clever poems to +"Household Words," with which Charles Dickens had been +much pleased. He makes allusion to these, in our two +remaining letters to Mr. Macready.</p> + +<p>"I did write it for you" (letter to Mrs. Watson, 17th +October), refers to that part of "Little Dorrit" which +treats of the visit of the Dorrit family to the Great St. +Bernard. An expedition which it will be remembered he +made himself, in company with Mr. and Mrs. Watson and +other friends.</p> + +<p>The letter to Mrs. Horne refers to a joke about the name +of a friend of this lady's, who had once been brought by her +to Tavistock House. The letter to Mr. Mitton concerns the +lighting of the little theatre at Tavistock House.</p> + +<p>Our last letter is in answer to one from Mr. Kent, asking +him to sit to Mr. John Watkins for his photograph. We +should add, however, that he did subsequently give this +gentleman some sittings.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. H. +Wills.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +49, <span class="smcap">Champs Elysées</span>, <i>Sunday, Jan. 6th, 1856.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Wills</span>,</div> + +<p>I should like Morley to do a Strike article, and to +work into it the greater part of what is here. But I cannot +represent myself as holding the opinion that all strikes +among this unhappy class of society, who find it so difficult +to get a peaceful hearing, are always necessarily wrong,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[416]</a></span> +because I don't think so. To open a discussion of the +question by saying that the men are "<i>of course</i> entirely and +painfully in the wrong," surely would be monstrous in any +one. Show them to be in the wrong here, but in the name +of the eternal heavens show why, upon the merits of this +question. Nor can I possibly adopt the representation that +these men are wrong because by throwing themselves out +of work they throw other people, possibly without their +consent. If such a principle had anything in it, there could +have been no civil war, no raising by Hampden of a troop +of horse, to the detriment of Buckinghamshire agriculture, +no self-sacrifice in the political world. And O, good God, +when —— treats of the suffering of wife and children, can +he suppose that these mistaken men don't feel it in the +depths of their hearts, and don't honestly and honourably, +most devoutly and faithfully believe that for those very +children, when they shall have children, they are bearing all +these miseries now!</p> + +<p>I hear from Mrs. Fillonneau that her husband was +obliged to leave town suddenly before he could get your +parcel, consequently he has not brought it; and White's +sovereigns—unless you have got them back again—are +either lying out of circulation somewhere, or are being +spent by somebody else. I will write again on Tuesday. +My article is to begin the enclosed.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Mark +Lemon.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +49, <span class="smcap">Champs Elysées, Paris</span>, <i>Monday, Jan. 7th, 1856.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mark</span>,</div> + +<p>I want to know how "Jack and the Beanstalk" goes. +I have a notion from a notice—a favourable notice, however—which +I saw in <i>Galignani</i>, that Webster has let down +the comic business.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[417]</a></span></p> + +<p>In a piece at the Ambigu, called the "Rentrée à Paris," +a mere scene in honour of the return of the troops from the +Crimea the other day, there is a novelty which I think it +worth letting you know of, as it is easily available, either +for a serious or a comic interest—the introduction of a +supposed electric telegraph. The scene is the railway +terminus at Paris, with the electric telegraph office on the +prompt side, and the clerks <i>with their backs to the audience</i>—much +more real than if they were, as they infallibly would +be, staring about the house—working the needles; and the +little bell perpetually ringing. There are assembled to greet +the soldiers, all the easily and naturally imagined elements +of interest—old veteran fathers, young children, agonised +mothers, sisters and brothers, girl lovers—each impatient +to know of his or her own object of solicitude. Enter to +these a certain marquis, full of sympathy for all, who +says: "My friends, I am one of you. My brother has +no commission yet. He is a common soldier. I wait for +him as well as all brothers and sisters here wait for <i>their</i> +brothers. Tell me whom you are expecting." Then +they all tell him. Then he goes into the telegraph-office, +and sends a message down the line to know how long +the troops will be. Bell rings. Answer handed out +on slip of paper. "Delay on the line. Troops will not +arrive for a quarter of an hour." General disappointment. +"But we have this brave electric telegraph, my friends," +says the marquis. "Give me your little messages, and I'll +send them off." General rush round the marquis. Exclamations: +"How's Henri?" "My love to Georges;" "Has +Guillaume forgotten Elise?" "Is my son wounded?" +"Is my brother promoted?" etc. etc. Marquis composes +tumult. Sends message—such a regiment, such a company—"Elise's +love to Georges." Little bell rings, slip of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[418]</a></span> +paper handed out—"Georges in ten minutes will embrace +his Elise. Sends her a thousand kisses." Marquis sends +message—such a regiment, such a company—"Is my son +wounded?" Little bell rings. Slip of paper handed out—"No. +He has not yet upon him those marks of bravery in +the glorious service of his country which his dear old father +bears" (father being lamed and invalided). Last of all, +the widowed mother. Marquis sends message—such a +regiment, such a company—"Is my only son safe?" Little +bell rings. Slip of paper handed out—"He was first upon +the heights of Alma." General cheer. Bell rings again, +another slip of paper handed out. "He was made a sergeant +at Inkermann." Another cheer. Bell rings again, another +slip of paper handed out. "He was made colour-sergeant +at Sebastopol." Another cheer. Bell rings again, another +slip of paper handed out. "He was the first man who +leaped with the French banner on the Malakhoff tower." +Tremendous cheer. Bell rings again, another slip of paper +handed out. "But he was struck down there by a musket-ball, +and——Troops have proceeded. Will arrive in half a +minute after this." Mother abandons all hope; general +commiseration; troops rush in, down a platform; son only +wounded, and embraces her.</p> + +<p>As I have said, and as you will see, this is available for +any purpose. But done with equal distinction and rapidity, +it is a tremendous effect, and got by the simplest means in the +world. There is nothing in the piece, but it was impossible +not to be moved and excited by the telegraph part of it.</p> + +<p>I hope you have seen something of Stanny, and have +been to pantomimes with him, and have drunk to the +absent Dick. I miss you, my dear old boy, at the play, +woefully, and miss the walk home, and the partings at the +corner of Tavistock Square. And when I go by myself, I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[419]</a></span> +come home stewing "Little Dorrit" in my head; and the +best part of <i>my</i> play is (or ought to be) in Gordon Street.</p> + +<p>I have written to Beaucourt about taking that breezy +house—a little improved—for the summer, and I hope you +and yours will come there often and stay there long. My +present idea, if nothing should arise to unroot me sooner, is +to stay here until the middle of May, then plant the family +at Boulogne, and come with Catherine and Georgy home for +two or three weeks. When I shall next run across I don't +know, but I suppose next month.</p> + +<p>We are up to our knees in mud here. Literally in +vehement despair, I walked down the avenue outside the +Barrière de l'Étoile here yesterday, and went straight on +among the trees. I came back with top-boots of mud on. +Nothing will cleanse the streets. Numbers of men and +women are for ever scooping and sweeping in them, and they +are always one lake of yellow mud. All my trousers go to +the tailor's every day, and are ravelled out at the heels every +night. Washing is awful.</p> + +<p>Tell Mrs. Lemon, with my love, that I have bought her +some Eau d'Or, in grateful remembrance of her knowing +what it is, and crushing the tyrant of her existence by +resolutely refusing to be put down when that monster would +have silenced her. You may imagine the loves and messages +that are now being poured in upon me by all of them, so I +will give none of them; though I am pretending to be very +scrupulous about it, and am looking (I have no doubt) as if +I were writing them down with the greatest care.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. +Wilkie +Collins.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +49, <span class="smcap">Champs Elysées</span>, <i>Saturday, Jan. 19th, 1856.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Collins</span>,</div> + +<p>I had no idea you were so far on with your book, +and heartily congratulate you on being within sight of land.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[420]</a></span></p> + +<p>It is excessively pleasant to me to get your letter, as it +opens a perspective of theatrical and other lounging evenings, +and also of articles in "Household Words." It will not be +the first time that we shall have got on well in Paris, and I +hope it will not be by many a time the last.</p> + +<p>I purpose coming over, early in February (as soon, in +fact, as I shall have knocked out No. 5 of "Little D."), and +therefore we can return in a jovial manner together. As +soon as I know my day of coming over, I will write to you +again, and (as the merchants—say Charley—would add) +"communicate same" to you.</p> + +<p>The lodging, <i>en garçon</i>, shall be duly looked up, and I +shall of course make a point of finding it close here. There +will be no difficulty in that. I will have concluded the +treaty before starting for London, and will take it by the +month, both because that is the cheapest way, and because +desirable places don't let for shorter terms.</p> + +<p>I have been sitting to Scheffer to-day—conceive this, if +you please, with No. 5 upon my soul—four hours!! I am +so addleheaded and bored, that if you were here, I should +propose an instantaneous rush to the Trois Frères. Under +existing circumstances I have no consolation.</p> + +<p>I think <span class="smcap">the</span> portrait<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> is the most astounding thing ever +beheld upon this globe. It has been shrieked over by the +united family as "Oh! the very image!" I went down to +the <i>entresol</i> the moment I opened it, and submitted it to +the Plorn—then engaged, with a half-franc musket, in +capturing a Malakhoff of chairs. He looked at it very hard, +and gave it as his opinion that it was Misser Hegg. We +suppose him to have confounded the Colonel with Jollins. +I met Madame Georges Sand the other day at a dinner got +up by Madame Viardot for that great purpose. The human<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[421]</a></span> +mind cannot conceive any one more astonishingly opposed to +all my preconceptions. If I had been shown her in a state +of repose, and asked what I thought her to be, I should have +said: "The Queen's monthly nurse." <i>Au reste</i>, she has +nothing of the <i>bas bleu</i> about her, and is very quiet and +agreeable.</p> + +<p>The way in which mysterious Frenchmen call and want +to embrace me, suggests to any one who knows me intimately, +such infamous lurking, slinking, getting behind doors, +evading, lying—so much mean resort to craven flights, +dastard subterfuges, and miserable poltroonery—on my +part, that I merely suggest the arrival of cards like this:</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/6handwrittencards.png" width="500" height="372" alt="Handwritten cards" title="Handwritten cards" /> +</div> + + +<div class='unindent'>—and I then write letters of terrific <i>empressement</i>, with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[422]</a></span> +assurances of all sorts of profound considerations, and never +by any chance become visible to the naked eye.</div> + +<p>At the Porte St. Martin they are doing the "Orestes," put +into French verse by Alexandre Dumas. Really one of the +absurdest things I ever saw. The scene of the tomb, with +all manner of classical females, in black, grouping themselves +on the lid, and on the steps, and on each other, and +in every conceivable aspect of obtrusive impossibility, is +just like the window of one of those artists in hair, who +address the friends of deceased persons. To-morrow week +a fête is coming off at the Jardin d'Hîver, next door +but one here, which I must certainly go to. The fête of +the company of the Folies Nouvelles! The ladies of the +company are to keep stalls, and are to sell to Messieurs the +Amateurs orange-water and lemonade. Paul le Grand is +to promenade among the company, dressed as Pierrot. +Kalm, the big-faced comic singer, is to do the like, dressed +as a Russian Cossack. The entertainments are to conclude +with "La Polka des Bêtes féroces, par la Troupe entière des +Folies Nouvelles." I wish, without invasion of the rights +of British subjects, or risk of war, —— could be seized by +French troops, brought over, and made to assist.</p> + +<p>The <i>appartement</i> has not grown any bigger since you last +had the joy of beholding me, and upon my honour and word +I live in terror of asking —— to dinner, lest she should not +be able to get in at the dining-room door. I <i>think</i> (am not +sure) the dining-room would hold her, if she could be once +passed in, but I don't see my way to that. Nevertheless, +we manage our own family dinners very snugly there, and +have good ones, as I think you will say, every day at half-past +five.</p> + +<p>I have a notion that we may knock out a <i>series</i> of +descriptions for H. W. without much trouble. It is very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">[423]</a></span> +difficult to get into the Catacombs, but my name is so well +known here that I think I may succeed. I find that the +guillotine can be got set up in private, like Punch's show. +What do you think of <i>that</i> for an article? I find myself +underlining words constantly. It is not my nature. It is +mere imbecility after the four hours' sitting.</p> + +<p>All unite in kindest remembrances to you, your mother +and brother.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever cordially.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss Mary +Boyle.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +49, <span class="smcap">Champs Elysées, Paris</span>, <i>Jan. 28th, 1856.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mary</span>,</div> + +<p>I am afraid you will think me an abandoned ruffian +for not having acknowledged your more than handsome +warm-hearted letter before now. But, as usual, I have +been so occupied, and so glad to get up from my desk and +wallow in the mud (at present about six feet deep here), +that pleasure correspondence is just the last thing in the +world I have had leisure to take to. Business correspondence +with all sorts and conditions of men and women, +O my Mary! is one of the dragons I am perpetually fighting; +and the more I throw it, the more it stands upon its hind +legs, rampant, and throws me.</p> + +<p>Yes, on that bright cold morning when I left Peterboro', +I felt that the best thing I could do was to say +that word that I would do anything in an honest way to +avoid saying, at one blow, and make off. I was so sorry to +leave you all! You can scarcely imagine what a chill and +blank I felt on that Monday evening at Rockingham. It +was so sad to me, and engendered a constraint so melancholy +and peculiar, that I doubt if I were ever much more out of +sorts in my life. Next morning, when it was light and +sparkling out of doors, I felt more at home again. But<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[424]</a></span> +when I came in from seeing poor dear Watson's grave, +Mrs. Watson asked me to go up in the gallery, which I +had last seen in the days of our merry play. We went up, +and walked into the very part he had made and was so fond +of, and she looked out of one window and I looked out of +another, and for the life of me I could not decide in my own +heart whether I should console or distress her by going and +taking her hand, and saying something of what was naturally +in my mind. So I said nothing, and we came out again, +and on the whole perhaps it was best; for I have no doubt +we understood each other very well without speaking a +word.</p> + +<p>Sheffield was a tremendous success and an admirable +audience. They made me a present of table-cutlery after +the reading was over; and I came away by the mail-train +within three-quarters of an hour, changing my dress and +getting on my wrappers partly in the fly, partly at the inn, +partly on the platform. When we got among the Lincolnshire +fens it began to snow. That changed to sleet, that +changed to rain; the frost was all gone as we neared London, +and the mud has all come. At two or three o'clock in the +morning I stopped at Peterboro' again, and thought of you +all disconsolately. The lady in the refreshment-room was +very hard upon me, harder even than those fair enslavers +usually are. She gave me a cup of tea, as if I were a hyena +and she my cruel keeper with a strong dislike to me. I +mingled my tears with it, and had a petrified bun of enormous +antiquity in miserable meekness.</p> + +<p>It is clear to me that climates are gradually assimilating +over a great part of the world, and that in the most miserable +part of our year there is very little to choose between +London and Paris, except that London is not so muddy. +I have never seen dirtier or worse weather than we have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[425]</a></span> +had here since I returned. In desperation I went out to +the Barrières last Sunday on a headlong walk, and came +back with my very eyebrows smeared with mud. Georgina +is usually invisible during the walking time of the day. +A turned-up nose may be seen in the midst of splashes, +but nothing more.</p> + +<p>I am settling to work again, and my horrible restlessness +immediately assails me. It belongs to such times. As I +was writing the preceding page, it suddenly came into my +head that I would get up and go to Calais. I don't know +why; the moment I got there I should want to go somewhere +else. But, as my friend the Boots says (see Christmas +number "Household Words"): "When you come to think +what a game you've been up to ever since you was in your +own cradle, and what a poor sort of a chap you were, and +how it's always yesterday with you, or else to-morrow, and +never to-day, that's where it is."</p> + +<p>My dear Mary, would you favour me with the name and +address of the professor that taught you writing, for I want +to improve myself? Many a hand have I seen with many +characteristics of beauty in it—some loopy, some dashy, +some large, some small, some sloping to the right, some +sloping to the left, some not sloping at all; but what I like +in <i>your</i> hand, Mary, is its plainness, it is like print. Them +as runs may read just as well as if they stood still. I should +have thought it was copper-plate if I hadn't known you. +They send all sorts of messages from here, and so do I, with +my best regards to Bedgy and pardner and the blessed +babbies. When shall we meet again, I wonder, and go +somewhere! Ah!</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 6em;">Believe me ever, my dear Mary,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Yours truly and affectionately,</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Joe</span>.<br /> +<span style="margin-right: 5em;">(That doesn't look plain.)</span><br /> +JOE.<br /></div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">[426]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +"<span class="smcap">Household Words</span>," <i>Friday, Feb. 8th, 1856.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Georgy</span>,</div> + +<p>I must write this at railroad speed, for I have been +at it all day, and have numbers of letters to cram into the +next half-hour. I began the morning in the City, for the +Theatrical Fund; went on to Shepherd's Bush; came back +to leave cards for Mr. Baring and Mr. Bates; ran across +Piccadilly to Stratton Street, stayed there an hour, and +shot off here. I have been in four cabs to-day, at a cost +of thirteen shillings. Am going to dine with Mark and +Webster at half-past four, and finish the evening at the +Adelphi.</p> + +<p>The dinner was very successful. Charley was in great +force, and floored Peter Cunningham and the Audit Office +on a question about some bill transactions with Baring's. +The other guests were B. and E., Shirley Brooks, Forster, +and that's all. The dinner admirable. I never had a +better. All the wine I sent down from Tavistock House. +Anne waited, and looked well and happy, very much +brighter altogether. It gave me great pleasure to see +her so improved. Just before dinner I got all the +letters from home. They could not have arrived more +opportunely.</p> + +<p>The godfather's present looks charming now it is +engraved, and John is just now going off to take it to +Mrs. Yates. To-morrow Wills and I are going to Gad's +Hill. It will occupy the whole day, and will just leave me +time to get home to dress for dinner.</p> + +<p>And that's all that I have to say, except that the first +number of "Little Dorrit" has gone to forty thousand, and +the other one fast following.</p> + +<p>My best love to Catherine, and to Mamey and Katey, +and Walter and Harry, and the noble Plorn. I am grieved<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">[427]</a></span> +to hear about his black eye, and fear that I shall find it in +the green and purple state on my return.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + +<div class='center'><br /> +<span class="smcap">The Humble Petition of Charles Dickens, a Distressed Foreigner</span>,<br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">Sheweth</span>,</div> + +<p> That your Petitioner has not been able to write one +word to-day, or to fashion forth the dimmest shade of the +faintest ghost of an idea.</p> + +<p>That your Petitioner is therefore desirous of being taken +out, and is not at all particular where.</p> + +<p>That your Petitioner, being imbecile, says no more. But +will ever, etc. (whatever that may be).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Paris</span>, <i>March 3rd, 1856.</i><br /></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Douglas +Jerrold.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +"<span class="smcap">Household Words" Office</span>, <i>March 6th, 1856.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Jerrold</span>,</div> + +<p>Buckstone has been with me to-day in a state of +demi-semi-distraction, by reason of Macready's dreading his +asthma so much as to excuse himself (of necessity, I know) +from taking the chair for the fund on the occasion of their +next dinner. I have promised to back Buckstone's entreaty +to you to take it; and although I know that you have an +objection which you once communicated to me, I still hold +(as I did then) that it is a reason <i>for</i> and not against. Pray +reconsider the point. Your position in connection with +dramatic literature has always suggested to me that there +would be a great fitness and grace in your appearing in this +post. I am convinced that the public would regard it in that +light, and I particularly ask you to reflect that we never can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[428]</a></span> +do battle with the Lords, if we will not bestow ourselves to +go into places which they have long monopolised. Now pray +discuss this matter with yourself once more. If you can +come to a favourable conclusion I shall be really delighted, +and will of course come from Paris to be by you; if you +cannot come to a favourable conclusion I shall be really +sorry, though I of course most readily defer to your right to +regard such a matter from your own point of view.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +"<span class="smcap">Household Words" Office</span>, <i>Tuesday, March 11th, 1856</i>.<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Georgy</span>,</div> + +<p>I have been in bed half the day with my cold, which +is excessively violent, consequently have to write in a +great hurry to save the post.</p> + +<p>Tell Catherine that I have the most prodigious, overwhelming, +crushing, astounding, blinding, deafening, pulverising, +scarifying secret, of which Forster is the hero, +imaginable by the whole efforts of the whole British population. +It is a thing of that kind that, after I knew it, +(from himself) this morning, I lay down flat as if an engine +and tender had fallen upon me.</p> + +<p>Love to Catherine (not a word of Forster before anyone +else), and to Mamey, Katey, Harry, and the noble Plorn. +Tell Collins with my kind regards that Forster has just +pronounced to me that "Collins is a decidedly clever +fellow." I hope he is a better fellow in health, too.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">[429]</a></span></p> + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +"<span class="smcap">Household Words</span>," <i>Friday, March 14th, 1856.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Georgy</span>,</div> + +<p>I am amazed to hear of the snow (I don't know why, +but it excited John this morning beyond measure); though +we have had the same east wind here, and <i>the</i> cold and <i>my</i> +cold have both been intense.</p> + +<p>Yesterday evening Webster, Mark, Stanny, and I went +to the Olympic, where the Wigans ranged us in a row in a +gorgeous and immense private box, and where we saw +"Still Waters Run Deep." I laughed (in a conspicuous +manner) to that extent at Emery, when he received the +dinner-company, that the people were more amused by me +than by the piece. I don't think I ever saw anything +meant to be funny that struck me as so extraordinarily +droll. I couldn't get over it at all. After the piece we +went round, by Wigan's invitation, to drink with him. It +being positively impossible to get Stanny off the stage, +we stood in the wings during the burlesque. Mrs. Wigan +seemed really glad to see her old manager, and the company +overwhelmed him with embraces. They had nearly all +been at the meeting in the morning.</p> + +<p>I have seen Charley only twice since I came to +London, having regularly been in bed until mid-day. To +my amazement, my eye fell upon him at the Adelphi +yesterday.</p> + +<p>This day I have paid the purchase-money for Gad's +Hill Place. After drawing the cheque, I turned round to +give it to Wills (£1,790), and said: "Now isn't it an extraordinary +thing—look at the day—Friday! I have been +nearly drawing it half-a-dozen times, when the lawyers +have not been ready, and here it comes round upon a Friday, +as a matter of course."</p> + +<p>Kiss the noble Plorn a dozen times for me, and tell him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">[430]</a></span> +I drank his health yesterday, and wished him many happy +returns of the day; also that I hope he will not have +broken all his toys before I come back.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +49, <span class="smcap">Champs Elysées, Paris</span>, <i>Saturday, March 22nd, 1856.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>I want you—you being quite well again, as I trust +you are, and resolute to come to Paris—so to arrange your +order of march as to let me know beforehand when you +will come, and how long you will stay. We owe Scribe +and his wife a dinner, and I should like to pay the debt +when you are with us. Ary Scheffer too would be delighted +to see you again. If I could arrange for a certain +day I would secure them. We cannot afford (you and I, +I mean) to keep much company, because we shall have to +look in at a theatre or so, I daresay!</p> + +<p>It would suit my work best, if I could keep myself clear +until Monday, the 7th of April. But in case that day +should be too late for the beginning of your brief visit with +a deference to any other engagements you have in contemplation, +then fix an earlier one, and I will make "Little +Dorrit" curtsy to it. My recent visit to London and my +having only just now come back have thrown me a little +behindhand; but I hope to come up with a wet sail in a +few days.</p> + +<p>You should have seen the ruins of Covent Garden +Theatre. I went in the moment I got to London—four +days after the fire. Although the audience part and the +stage were so tremendously burnt out that there was not a +piece of wood half the size of a lucifer-match for the eye to +rest on, though nothing whatever remained but bricks and +smelted iron lying on a great black desert, the theatre still<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">[431]</a></span> +looked so wonderfully like its old self grown gigantic that +I never saw so strange a sight. The wall dividing the +front from the stage still remained, and the iron pass-doors +stood ajar in an impossible and inaccessible frame. The +arches that supported the stage were there, and the +arches that supported the pit; and in the centre of the +latter lay something like a Titanic grape-vine that a +hurricane had pulled up by the roots, twisted, and flung +down there; this was the great chandelier. Gye had kept +the men's wardrobe at the top of the house over the great +entrance staircase; when the roof fell in it came down +bodily, and all that part of the ruins was like an old +Babylonic pavement, bright rays tesselating the black +ground, sometimes in pieces so large that I could make out +the clothes in the "Trovatore."</p> + +<p>I should run on for a couple of hours if I had to +describe the spectacle as I saw it, wherefore I will immediately +muzzle myself. All here unite in kindest loves +to dear Miss Macready, to Katie, Lillie, Benvenuta, my +godson, and the noble Johnny. We are charmed to hear +such happy accounts of Willy and Ned, and send our loving +remembrance to them in the next letters. All Parisian +novelties you shall see and hear for yourself.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Ever, my dearest Macready,</span><br /> +Your affectionate Friend.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—Mr. F.'s aunt sends her defiant respects.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 6em;">49, <span class="smcap">Avenue des Champs Elysées, Paris</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Thursday Night, March 27th, 1856 (after post time).</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dearest Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>If I had had any idea of your coming (see how +naturally I use the word when I am three hundred miles<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">[432]</a></span> +off!) to London so soon, I would never have written one +word about the jump over next week. I am vexed that I +did so, but as I did I will not now propose a change in the +arrangements, as I know how methodical you tremendously +old fellows are. That's your secret I suspect. That's the +way in which the blood of the Mirabels mounts in your aged +veins, even at your time of life.</p> + +<p>How charmed I shall be to see you, and we all shall be, +I will not attempt to say. On that expected Sunday you +will lunch at Amiens but not dine, because we shall wait +dinner for you, and you will merely have to tell that driver +in the glazed hat to come straight here. When the Whites +left I added their little apartment to this little apartment, +consequently you shall have a snug bedroom (is it not waiting +expressly for you?) overlooking the Champs Elysées. +As to the arm-chair in my heart, no man on earth——but, +good God! you know all about it.</p> + +<p>You will find us in the queerest of little rooms all alone, +except that the son of Collins the painter (who writes a +good deal in "Household Words") dines with us every day. +Scheffer and Scribe shall be admitted for one evening, +because they know how to appreciate you. The Emperor +we will not ask unless you expressly wish it; it makes a fuss.</p> + +<p>If you have no appointed hotel at Boulogne, go to the +Hôtel des Bains, there demand "Marguerite," and tell her +that I commended you to her special care. It is the best +house within my experience in France; Marguerite the +best housekeeper in the world.</p> + +<p>I shall charge at "Little Dorrit" to-morrow with new +spirits. The sight of you is good for my boyish eyes, and +the thought of you for my dawning mind. Give the enclosed +lines a welcome, then send them on to Sherborne.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever yours most affectionately and truly.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">[433]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. H. +Wills.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +49, <span class="smcap">Champs Elysées, Paris</span>, <i>Sunday, April 6th, 1856.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Wills</span>,</div> + +<div class='center'><span class="smcap">christmas</span>.</div> + +<p>Collins and I have a mighty original notion (mine in +the beginning) for another play at Tavistock House. I +propose opening on Twelfth Night the theatrical season of +that great establishment. But now a tremendous question. +Is</p> + +<div class='center'><span class="smcap">Mrs. Wills</span>!</div> + +<div class='unindent'>game to do a Scotch housekeeper, in a supposed country-house, +with Mary, Katey, Georgina, etc.? If she can screw +her courage up to saying "Yes," that country-house opens the +piece in a singular way, and that Scotch housekeeper's part +shall flow from the present pen. If she says "No" (but she +won't), no Scotch housekeeper can be. The Tavistock House +season of four nights pauses for a reply. Scotch song (new +and original) of Scotch housekeeper would pervade the +piece.</div> + +<div class='center'><span class="smcap">You</span></div> + +<div class='unindent'>had better pause for breath.</div> + +<div class='sig'>Ever faithfully.</div> + +<div class='center'><span class="smcap">Poole</span>.</div> + +<p>I have paid him his money. Here is the proof of life. +If you will get me the receipt to sign, the money can go to +my account at Coutts's.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Charles +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Monday, May 5th, 1856.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Catherine</span>,</div> + +<p>I did nothing at Dover (except for "Household +Words"), and have not begun "Little Dorrit," No. 8, yet. +But I took twenty-mile walks in the fresh air, and perhaps +in the long run did better than if I had been at work. The +report concerning Scheffer's portrait I had from Ward. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434">[434]</a></span> +is in the best place in the largest room, but I find the <i>general</i> +impression of the artists exactly mine. They almost all +say that it wants something; that nobody could mistake +whom it was meant for, but that it has something disappointing +in it, etc. etc. Stanfield likes it better than +any of the other painters, I think. His own picture is +magnificent. And Frith, in a "Little Child's Birthday +Party," is quite delightful. There are many interesting +pictures. When you see Scheffer, tell him from me that +Eastlake, in his speech at the dinner, referred to the portrait +as "a contribution from a distinguished man of genius +in France, worthy of himself and of his subject."</p> + +<p>I did the maddest thing last night, and am deeply +penitent this morning. We stayed at Webster's till any +hour, and they wanted me, at last, to make punch, which +couldn't be done when the jug was brought, because (to +Webster's burning indignation) there was only one lemon +in the house. Hereupon I then and there besought the +establishment in general to come and drink punch on +Thursday night, after the play; on which occasion it will +become necessary to furnish fully the table with some cold +viands from Fortnum and Mason's. Mark has looked in +since I began this note, to suggest that the great festival +may come off at "Household Words" instead. I am +inclined to think it a good idea, and that I shall transfer +the locality to that business establishment. But I am at +present distracted with doubts and torn by remorse.</p> + +<p>The school-room and dining-room I have brought into +habitable condition and comfortable appearance. Charley +and I breakfast at half-past eight, and meet again at dinner +when he does not dine in the City, or has no engagement. +He looks very well.</p> + +<p>The audiences at Gye's are described to me as absolute<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435">[435]</a></span> +marvels of coldness. No signs of emotion can be hammered, +out of them. Panizzi sat next me at the Academy dinner, +and took it very ill that I disparaged ——. The amateurs +here are getting up another pantomime, but quarrel so +violently among themselves that I doubt its ever getting +on the stage. Webster expounded his scheme for rebuilding +the Adelphi to Stanfield and myself last night, +and I felt bound to tell him that I thought it wrong +from beginning to end. This is all the theatrical news I +know.</p> + +<p>I write by this post to Georgy. Love to Mamey, Katey, +Harry, and the noble Plorn. I should be glad to see him +here.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Monday, May 5th, 1856.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Georgy</span>,</div> + +<p>You will not be much surprised to hear that I have +done nothing yet (except for H. W.), and have only just +settled down into a corner of the school-room. The extent +to which John and I wallowed in dust for four hours +yesterday morning, getting things neat and comfortable +about us, you may faintly imagine. At four in the afternoon +came Stanfield, to whom I no sooner described the +notion of the new play, than he immediately upset all my +new arrangements by making a proscenium of the chairs, +and planning the scenery with walking-sticks. One of the +least things he did was getting on the top of the long +table, and hanging over the bar in the middle window +where that top sash opens, as if he had got a hinge in +the middle of his body. He is immensely excited on the +subject. Mark had a farce ready for the managerial perusal, +but it won't do.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436">[436]</a></span></p> + +<p>I went to the Dover theatre on Friday night, which was +a miserable spectacle. The pit is boarded over, and it is a +drinking and smoking place. It was "for the benefit of +Mrs. ——," and the town had been very extensively +placarded with "Don't forget Friday." I made out four +and ninepence (I am serious) in the house, when I went in. +We may have warmed up in the course of the evening to +twelve shillings. A Jew played the grand piano; Mrs. —— +sang no end of songs (with not a bad voice, poor creature); +Mr. —— sang comic songs fearfully, and danced clog +hornpipes capitally; and a miserable woman, shivering in a +shawl and bonnet, sat in the side-boxes all the evening, +nursing Master ——, aged seven months. It was a most +forlorn business, and I should have contributed a sovereign +to the treasury, if I had known how.</p> + +<p>I walked to Deal and back that day, and on the previous +day walked over the downs towards Canterbury in a gale of +wind. It was better than still weather after all, being +wonderfully fresh and free.</p> + +<p>If the Plorn were sitting at this school-room window in +the corner, he would see more cats in an hour than he ever +saw in his life. <i>I</i> never saw so many, I think, as I have +seen since yesterday morning.</p> + +<p>There is a painful picture of a great deal of merit (Egg +has bought it) in the exhibition, painted by the man who +did those little interiors of Forster's. It is called "The +Death of Chatterton." The dead figure is a good deal like +Arthur Stone; and I was touched on Saturday to see that +tender old file standing before it, crying under his spectacles +at the idea of seeing his son dead. It was a very tender +manifestation of his gentle old heart.</p> + +<p>This sums up my news, which is no news at all. Kiss the +Plorn for me, and expound to him that I am always looking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437">[437]</a></span> +forward to meeting him again, among the birds and flowers +in the garden on the side of the hill at Boulogne.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">The Duke +of Devonshire.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Sunday, June 1st, 1856.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Duke of Devonshire</span>,</div> + +<p>Allow me to thank you with all my heart for your +kind remembrance of me on Thursday night. My house +was already engaged to Miss Coutts's, and I to—the top of +St. Paul's, where the sight was most wonderful! But +seeing that your cards gave me leave to present some +person not named, I conferred them on my excellent friend +Dr. Elliotson, whom I found with some fireworkless little +boys in a desolate condition, and raised to the seventh +heaven of happiness. You are so fond of making people +happy, that I am sure you approve.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Always your faithful and much obliged.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. +Wilkie +Collins.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>June 6th, 1856.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Collins</span>,</div> + +<p>I have never seen anything about myself in print +which has much correctness in it—any biographical account +of myself I mean. I do not supply such particulars when +I am asked for them by editors and compilers, simply +because I am asked for them every day. If you want to +prime Forgues, you may tell him without fear of anything +wrong, that I was born at Portsmouth on the 7th of +February, 1812; that my father was in the Navy Pay Office; +that I was taken by him to Chatham when I was very +young, and lived and was educated there till I was twelve +or thirteen, I suppose; that I was then put to a school near +London, where (as at other places) I distinguished myself<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_438" id="Page_438">[438]</a></span> +like a brick; that I was put in the office of a solicitor, a +friend of my father's, and didn't much like it; and after a +couple of years (as well as I can remember) applied myself +with a celestial or diabolical energy to the study of such +things as would qualify me to be a first-rate parliamentary +reporter—at that time a calling pursued by many clever +men who were young at the Bar; that I made my début in +the gallery (at about eighteen, I suppose), engaged on a +voluminous publication no longer in existence, called <i>The +Mirror of Parliament</i>; that when <i>The Morning Chronicle</i> +was purchased by Sir John Easthope and acquired a large +circulation, I was engaged there, and that I remained there +until I had begun to publish "Pickwick," when I found +myself in a condition to relinquish that part of my labours; +that I left the reputation behind me of being the best and +most rapid reporter ever known, and that I could do anything +in that way under any sort of circumstances, and +often did. (I daresay I am at this present writing the best +shorthand writer in the world.)</p> + +<p>That I began, without any interest or introduction of +any kind, to write fugitive pieces for the old "Monthly +Magazine," when I was in the gallery for <i>The Mirror of +Parliament</i>; that my faculty for descriptive writing was +seized upon the moment I joined <i>The Morning Chronicle</i>, +and that I was liberally paid there and handsomely acknowledged, +and wrote the greater part of the short +descriptive "Sketches by <span class="smcap">Boz</span>" in that paper; that I had +been a writer when I was a mere baby, and always an actor +from the same age; that I married the daughter of a writer +to the signet in Edinburgh, who was the great friend and +assistant of Scott, and who first made Lockhart known to +him.</p> + +<p>And that here I am.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439">[439]</a></span></p> + +<p>Finally, if you want any dates of publication of books, +tell Wills and he'll get them for you.</p> + +<p>This is the first time I ever set down even these particulars, +and, glancing them over, I feel like a wild beast in +a caravan describing himself in the keeper's absence.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—I made a speech last night at the London Tavern, +at the end of which all the company sat holding their napkins +to their eyes with one hand, and putting the other +into their pockets. A hundred people or so contributed +nine hundred pounds then and there.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Mark +Lemon.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Villa des Moulineaux, Boulogne</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Sunday, June 15th 1856.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear old Boy</span>,</div> + +<p>This place is beautiful—a burst of roses. Your friend +Beaucourt (who <i>will not</i> put on his hat), has thinned the +trees and greatly improved the garden. Upon my life, I +believe there are at least twenty distinct smoking-spots +expressly made in it.</p> + +<p>And as soon as you can see your day in next month for +coming over with Stanny and Webster, will you let them +both know? I should not be very much surprised if I were +to come over and fetch you, when I know what your day is. +Indeed, I don't see how you could get across properly +without me.</p> + +<p>There is a fête here to-night in honour of the Imperial +baptism, and there will be another to-morrow. The Plorn +has put on two bits of ribbon (one pink and one blue), which +he calls "companys," to celebrate the occasion. The fact +that the receipts of the fêtes are to be given to the sufferers +by the late floods reminds me that you will find at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_440" id="Page_440">[440]</a></span> +passport office a tin-box, condescendingly and considerately +labelled in English:</p> + +<div class='center'> +<span class="smcap">For the Overflowings</span>,<br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>which the chief officer clearly believes to mean, for the +sufferers from the inundations.</div> + +<p>I observe more Mingles in the laundresses' shops, and +one inscription, which looks like the name of a duet or +chorus in a playbill, "Here they mingle."</p> + +<p>Will you congratulate Mrs. Lemon, with our loves, on her +gallant victory over the recreant cabman?</p> + +<p>Walter has turned up, rather brilliant on the whole; and +that (with shoals of remembrances and messages which I +don't deliver) is all my present intelligence.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Mark +Lemon.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">H. W. Office</span>, <i>July 2nd, 1856.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mark</span>,</div> + +<p>I am concerned to hear that you are ill, that you +sit down before fires and shiver, and that you have stated +times for doing so, like the demons in the melodramas, and +that you mean to take a week to get well in.</p> + +<p>Make haste about it, like a dear fellow, and keep up your +spirits, because I have made a bargain with Stanny and +Webster that they shall come to Boulogne to-morrow week, +Thursday the 10th, and stay a week. And you know how +much pleasure we shall all miss if you are not among us—at +least for some part of the time.</p> + +<p>If you find any unusually light appearance in the air at +Brighton, it is a distant refraction (I have no doubt) of the +gorgeous and shining surface of Tavistock House, now +transcendently painted. The theatre partition is put up, +and is a work of such terrific solidity, that I suppose it will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_441" id="Page_441">[441]</a></span> +be dug up, ages hence, from the ruins of London, by that +Australian of Macaulay's who is to be impressed by its +ashes. I have wandered through the spectral halls of the +Tavistock mansion two nights, with feelings of the profoundest +depression. I have breakfasted there, like a +criminal in Pentonville (only not so well). It is more like +Westminster Abbey by midnight than the lowest-spirited +man—say you at present for example—can well imagine.</p> + +<p>There has been a wonderful robbery at Folkestone, by +the new manager of the Pavilion, who succeeded Giovannini. +He had in keeping £16,000 of a foreigner's, and bolted +with it, as he supposed, but in reality with only £1,400 of +it. The Frenchman had previously bolted with the whole, +which was the property of his mother. With him to +England the Frenchman brought a "lady," who was, all +the time and at the same time, endeavouring to steal all the +money from him and bolt with it herself. The details are +amazing, and all the money (a few pounds excepted) has +been got back.</p> + +<p>They will be full of sympathy and talk about you when +I get home, and I shall tell them that I send their loves +beforehand. They are all enclosed. The moment you feel +hearty, just write me that word by post. I shall be so +delighted to receive it.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever, my dear Boy, your affectionate Friend.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Walter +Savage +Landor.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Villa des Moulineaux, Boulogne</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Saturday Evening, July 5th, 1856.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Landor</span>,</div> + +<p>I write to you so often in my books, and my writing +of letters is usually so confined to the numbers that I <i>must</i> +write, and in which I have no kind of satisfaction, that I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_442" id="Page_442">[442]</a></span> +am afraid to think how long it is since we exchanged a +direct letter. But talking to your namesake this very day +at dinner, it suddenly entered my head that I would come +into my room here as soon as dinner should be over, and +write, "My dear Landor, how are you?" for the pleasure +of having the answer under your own hand. That you <i>do</i> +write, and that pretty often, I know beforehand. Else +why do I read <i>The Examiner</i>?</p> + +<p>We were in Paris from October to May (I perpetually +flying between that city and London), and there we found +out, by a blessed accident, that your godson was horribly +deaf. I immediately consulted the principal physician of +the Deaf and Dumb Institution there (one of the best aurists +in Europe), and he kept the boy for three months, and took +unheard-of pains with him. He is now quite recovered, +has done extremely well at school, has brought home a prize +in triumph, and will be eligible to "go up" for his India +examination soon after next Easter. Having a direct +appointment, he will probably be sent out soon after he has +passed, and so will fall into that strange life "up the +country," before he well knows he is alive, which indeed +seems to be rather an advanced stage of knowledge.</p> + +<p>And there in Paris, at the same time, I found Marguerite +Power and Little Nelly, living with their mother and a +pretty sister, in a very small, neat apartment, and working +(as Marguerite told me) hard for a living. All that I saw +of them filled me with respect, and revived the tenderest +remembrances of Gore House. They are coming to pass +two or three weeks here for a country rest, next month. +We had many long talks concerning Gore House, and all its +bright associations; and I can honestly report that they +hold no one in more gentle and affectionate remembrance +than you. Marguerite is still handsome, though she had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_443" id="Page_443">[443]</a></span> +the smallpox two or three years ago, and bears the traces +of it here and there, by daylight. Poor little Nelly (the +quicker and more observant of the two) shows some little +tokens of a broken-off marriage in a face too careworn for +her years, but is a very winning and sensible creature.</p> + +<p>We are expecting Mary Boyle too, shortly.</p> + +<p>I have just been propounding to Forster if it is not a +wonderful testimony to the homely force of truth, that one +of the most popular books on earth has nothing in it to +make anyone laugh or cry? Yet I think, with some confidence, +that you never did either over any passage in +"Robinson Crusoe." In particular, I took Friday's death +as one of the least tender and (in the true sense) least +sentimental things ever written. It is a book I read very +much; and the wonder of its prodigious effect on me and +everyone, and the admiration thereof, grows on me the +more I observe this curious fact.</p> + +<p>Kate and Georgina send you their kindest loves, and +smile approvingly on me from the next room, as I bend +over my desk. My dear Landor, you see many I daresay, +and hear from many I have no doubt, who love you +heartily; but we silent people in the distance never forget +you. Do not forget us, and let us exchange affection at +least.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever your Admirer and Friend.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">The Duke +of Devonshire.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Villa des Moulineaux, near Boulogne</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Saturday Night, July 5th, 1856.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Duke of Devonshire</span>,</div> + +<p>From this place where I am writing my way through +the summer, in the midst of rosy gardens and sea airs, I +cannot forbear writing to tell you with what uncommon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_444" id="Page_444">[444]</a></span> +pleasure I received your interesting letter, and how sensible +I always am of your kindness and generosity. You were +always in the mind of my household during your illness; +and to have so beautiful, and fresh, and manly an assurance +of your recovery from it, under your own hand, is a privilege +and delight that I will say no more of.</p> + +<p>I am so glad you like Flora. It came into my head +one day that we have all had our Floras, and that it was a +half-serious, half-ridiculous truth which had never been +told. It is a wonderful gratification to me to find that +everybody knows her. Indeed, some people seem to think +I have done them a personal injury, and that their individual +Floras (God knows where they are, or who!) are +each and all Little Dorrit's.</p> + +<p>We were all grievously disappointed that you were ill +when we played Mr. Collins's "Lighthouse" at my house. +If you had been well, I should have waited upon you with +my humble petition that you would come and see it; and if +you had come I think you would have cried, which would +have charmed me. I hope to produce another play at +home next Christmas, and if I can only persuade you to see +it from a special arm-chair, and can only make you wretched, +my satisfaction will be intense. May I tell you, to beguile +a moment, of a little "Tag," or end of a piece, I saw in +Paris this last winter, which struck me as the prettiest I +had ever met with? The piece was not a new one, but a +revival at the Vaudeville—"Les Mémoires du Diable." +Admirably constructed, very interesting, and extremely +well played. The plot is, that a certain M. Robin has come +into possession of the papers of a deceased lawyer, and +finds some relating to the wrongful withholding of an +estate from a certain baroness, and to certain other +frauds (involving even the denial of the marriage to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_445" id="Page_445">[445]</a></span> +the deceased baron, and the tarnishing of his good name) +which are so very wicked that he binds them up in a book +and labels them "Mémoires du Diable." Armed with this +knowledge he goes down to the desolate old château in the +country—part of the wrested-away estate—from which the +baroness and her daughter are going to be ejected. He +informs the mother that he can right her and restore the +property, but must have, as his reward, her daughter's +hand in marriage. She replies: "I cannot promise my +daughter to a man of whom I know nothing. The gain +would be an unspeakable happiness, but I resolutely decline +the bargain." The daughter, however, has observed all, +and she comes forward and says: "Do what you have promised +my mother you can do, and I am yours." Then the +piece goes on to its development, in an admirable way, +through the unmasking of all the hypocrites. Now, +M. Robin, partly through his knowledge of the secret ways +of the old château (derived from the lawyer's papers), and +partly through his going to a masquerade as the devil—the +better to explode what he knows on the hypocrites—is +supposed by the servants at the château really to be the +devil. At the opening of the last act he suddenly appears +there before the young lady, and she screams, but, recovering +and laughing, says: "You are not really the ——?" +"Oh dear no!" he replies, "have no connection with him. +But these people down here are so frightened and absurd! +See this little toy on the table; I open it; here's a little +bell. They have a notion that whenever this bell rings I +shall appear. Very ignorant, is it not?" "Very, indeed," +says she. "Well," says M. Robin, "if you should want +me very much to appear, try the bell, if only for a jest. +Will you promise?" Yes, she promises, and the play goes +on. At last he has righted the baroness completely, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_446" id="Page_446">[446]</a></span> +has only to hand her the last document, which proves her +marriage and restores her good name. Then he says: +"Madame, in the progress of these endeavours I have +learnt the happiness of doing good for its own sake. I +made a necessary bargain with you; I release you from it. +I have done what I undertook to do. I wish you and your +amiable daughter all happiness. Adieu! I take my leave." +Bows himself out. People on the stage astonished. +Audience astonished—incensed. The daughter is going +to cry, when she looks at the box on the table, remembers +the bell, runs to it and rings it, and he rushes back and +takes her to his heart; upon which we all cry with pleasure, +and then laugh heartily.</p> + +<p>This looks dreadfully long, and perhaps you know it +already. If so, I will endeavour to make amends with +Flora in future numbers.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Dickens and her sister beg to present their remembrances +to your Grace, and their congratulations on your +recovery. I saw Paxton now and then when you were ill, +and always received from him most encouraging accounts. +I don't know how heavy he is going to be (I mean in the +scale), but I begin to think Daniel Lambert must have been +in his family.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever your Grace's faithful and obliged.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Villa des Moulineaux, Boulogne</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Tuesday, July 8th, 1856.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dearest Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>I perfectly agree with you in your appreciation of +Katie's poem, and shall be truly delighted to publish it in +"Household Words." It shall go into the very next number +we make up. We are a little in advance (to enable Wills to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_447" id="Page_447">[447]</a></span> +get a holiday), but as I remember, the next number made +up will be published in three weeks.</p> + +<p>We are pained indeed to read your reference to my poor +boy. God keep him and his father. I trust he is not conscious +of much suffering himself. If that be so, it is, in the +midst of the distress, a great comfort.</p> + +<p>"Little Dorrit" keeps me pretty busy, as you may +suppose. The beginning of No. 10—the first line—now lies +upon my desk. It would not be easy to increase upon the +pains I take with her anyhow.</p> + +<p>We are expecting Stanfield on Thursday, and Peter +Cunningham and his wife on Monday. I would we were +expecting you! This is as pretty and odd a little French +country house as could be found anywhere; and the gardens +are most beautiful.</p> + +<p>In "Household Words," next week, pray read "The +Diary of Anne Rodway" (in two not long parts). It is +by Collins, and I think possesses great merit and real +pathos.</p> + +<p>Being in town the other day, I saw Gye by accident, +and told him, when he praised —— to me, that she was a +very bad actress. "Well!" said he, "<i>you</i> may say anything, +but if anybody else had told me that I should have +stared." Nevertheless, I derived an impression from his +manner that she had not been a profitable speculation in +respect of money. That very same day Stanfield and I +dined alone together at the Garrick, and drank your health. +We had had a ride by the river before dinner (of course he +<i>would</i> go and look at boats), and had been talking of you. +It was this day week, by-the-bye.</p> + +<p>I know of nothing of public interest that is new in France, +except that I am changing my moustache into a beard. We +all send our most tender loves to dearest Miss Macready and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_448" id="Page_448">[448]</a></span> +all the house. The Hammy boy is particularly anxious to +have his love sent to "Misr Creedy."</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Ever, my dearest Macready,</span><br /> +Most affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. +Wilkie +Collins.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Villa des Moulineaux, Boulogne</span>, <i>Sunday, July 13th, 1856.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Collins</span>,</div> + +<p>We are all sorry that you are not coming until the +middle of next month, but we hope that you will then be +able to remain, so that we may all come back together about +the 10th of October. I think (recreation allowed, etc.), +that the play will take that time to write. The ladies of +the <i>dram. pers.</i> are frightfully anxious to get it under +way, and to see you locked up in the pavilion; apropos of +which noble edifice I have omitted to mention that it is +made a more secluded retreat than it used to be, and is +greatly improved by the position of the door being changed. +It is as snug and as pleasant as possible; and the Genius +of Order has made a few little improvements about the +house (at the rate of about tenpence apiece), which the +Genius of Disorder will, it is hoped, appreciate.</p> + +<p>I think I must come over for a small spree, and to fetch +you. Suppose I were to come on the 9th or 10th of +August to stay three or four days in town, would that do +for you? Let me know at the end of this month.</p> + +<p>I cannot tell you what a high opinion I have of Anne +Rodway. I took "Extracts" out of the title because it +conveyed to the many-headed an idea of incompleteness—of +something unfinished—and is likely to stall some readers +off. I read the first part at the office with strong admiration, +and read the second on the railway coming back here,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_449" id="Page_449">[449]</a></span> +being in town just after you had started on your cruise. +My behaviour before my fellow-passengers was weak in the +extreme, for I cried as much as you could possibly desire. +Apart from the genuine force and beauty of the little +narrative, and the admirable personation of the girl's +identity and point of view, it is done with an amount of +honest pains and devotion to the work which few men have +better reason to appreciate than I, and which no man can +have a more profound respect for. I think it excellent, +feel a personal pride and pleasure in it which is a delightful +sensation, and know no one else who could have done it.</p> + +<p>Of myself I have only to report that I have been hard at +it with "Little Dorrit," and am now doing No. 10. This +last week I sketched out the notion, characters, and +progress of the farce, and sent it off to Mark, who has been +ill of an ague. It ought to be very funny. The cat +business is too ludicrous to be treated of in so small a sheet +of paper, so I must describe it <i>vivâ voce</i> when I come to +town. French has been so insufferably conceited since he +shot tigerish cat No. 1 (intent on the noble Dick, with +green eyes three inches in advance of her head), that I am +afraid I shall have to part with him. All the boys likewise +(in new clothes and ready for church) are at this instant +prone on their stomachs behind bushes, whooshing and +crying (after tigerish cat No. 2): "French!" "Here she +comes!" "There she goes!" etc. I dare not put my +head out of window for fear of being shot (it is as like a +<i>coup d'état</i> as possible), and tradesmen coming up the +avenue cry plaintively: "<i>Ne tirez pas, Monsieur Fleench; +c'est moi—boulanger. Ne tirez pas, mon ami.</i>"</p> + +<p>Likewise I shall have to recount to you the secret +history of a robbery at the Pavilion at Folkestone, which +you will have to write.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_450" id="Page_450">[450]</a></span></p> + +<p>Tell Piggot, when you see him, that we shall all be much +pleased if he will come at his own convenience while you +are here, and stay a few days with us.</p> + +<p>I shall have more than one notion of future work to +suggest to you while we are beguiling the dreariness of an +arctic winter in these parts. May they prosper!</p> + +<p>Kind regards from all to the Dramatic Poet of the +establishment, and to the D. P.'s mother and brother.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—If the "Flying Dutchman" should be done again, +pray do go and see it. Webster expressed his opinion to me +that it was "a neat piece." I implore you to go and see a +neat piece.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. H. +Wills.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Boulogne</span>, <i>Thursday, August 7th, 1856.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Wills</span>,</div> + +<p>I do not feel disposed to record those two Chancery +cases; firstly, because I would rather have no part in +engendering in the mind of any human creature, a hopeful +confidence in that den of iniquity.</p> + +<p>And secondly, because it seems to me that the real philosophy +of the facts is altogether missed in the narrative. The +wrong which chanced to be set right in these two cases was +done, as all such wrong is, mainly because these wicked +courts of equity, with all their means of evasion and postponement, +give scoundrels confidence in cheating. If justice +were cheap, sure, and speedy, few such things could be. It +is because it has become (through the vile dealing of those +courts and the vermin they have called into existence) a +positive precept of experience that a man had better endure +a great wrong than go, or suffer himself to be taken, into<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_451" id="Page_451">[451]</a></span> +Chancery, with the dream of setting it right. It is because +of this that such nefarious speculations are made.</p> + +<p>Therefore I see nothing at all to the credit of Chancery +in these cases, but everything to its discredit. And as to +owing it to Chancery to bear testimony to its having +rendered justice in two such plain matters, I have no debt +of the kind upon my conscience.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +In haste, ever faithfully.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Boulogne</span>, <i>Friday, August 8th, 1856.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dearest Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>I like the second little poem very much indeed, and +think (as you do) that it is a great advance upon the first. +Please to note that I make it a rule to pay for everything +that is inserted in "Household Words," holding it to be a +part of my trust to make my fellow-proprietors understand +that they have no right to unrequited labour. Therefore, +when Wills (who has been ill and is gone for a holiday) does +his invariable spiriting gently, don't make Katey's case +different from Adelaide Procter's.</p> + +<p>I am afraid there is no possibility of my reading Dorsetshirewards. +I have made many conditional promises thus: +"I am very much occupied; but if I read at all, I will read +for your institution in such an order on my list." Edinburgh, +which is No. 1, I have been obliged to put as far off +as next Christmas twelvemonth. Bristol stands next. The +working men at Preston come next. And so, if I were to +go out of the record and read for your people, I should bring +such a house about my ears as would shake "Little Dorrit" +out of my head.</p> + +<p>Being in town last Saturday, I went to see Robson in a +burlesque of "Medea." It is an odd but perfectly true<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_452" id="Page_452">[452]</a></span> +testimony to the extraordinary power of his performance +(which is of a very remarkable kind indeed), that it points +the badness of ——'s acting in a most singular manner, +by bringing out what she might do and does not. The scene +with Jason is perfectly terrific; and the manner in which the +comic rage and jealousy does not pitch itself over the floor +at the stalls is in striking contrast to the manner in which +the tragic rage and jealousy does. He has a frantic song +and dagger dance, about ten minutes long altogether, which +has more passion in it than —— could express in fifty +years.</p> + +<p>We all unite in kindest love to Miss Macready and all +your dear ones; not forgetting my godson, to whom I send +his godfather's particular love twice over. The Hammy +boy is so brown that you would scarcely know him.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever, my dear Macready, affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. H. +Wills.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Sunday Morning, Sept. 28th, 1856.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Wills</span>,</div> + +<p>I suddenly remember this morning that in Mr. +Curtis's article, "Health and Education," I left a line +which must come out. It is in effect that the want of +healthy training leaves girls in a fit state to be the subjects +of mesmerism. I would not on any condition hurt +Elliotson's feelings (as I should deeply) by leaving that +depreciatory kind of reference in any page of H. W. He +has suffered quite enough without a stab from a friend. So +pray, whatever the inconvenience may be in what Bradbury +calls "the Friars," take that passage out. By some extraordinary +accident, after observing it, I forgot to do it.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_453" id="Page_453">[453]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Saturday, Oct. 4th, 1856.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mamey</span>,</div> + +<p>The preparations for the play are already beginning, +and it is christened (this is a great dramatic secret, which I +suppose you know already) "The Frozen Deep."</p> + +<p>Tell Katey, with my best love, that if she fail to come +back six times as red, hungry, and strong as she was when +she went away, I shall give her part to somebody else.</p> + +<p>We shall all be very glad to see you both back again; +when I say "we" I include the birds (who send their +respectful duty) and the Plorn.</p> + +<p>Kind regards to all at Brighton.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever, my dear Mamey, your affectionate Father.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">The Hon. +Mrs. +Watson.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Tuesday, Oct. 7th</i>, 1856.<br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mrs. Watson</span>,</div> + +<p>I <i>did</i> write it for you; and I hoped in writing +it, that you would think so. All those remembrances are +fresh in my mind, as they often are, and gave me an +extraordinary interest in recalling the past. I should have +been grievously disappointed if you had not been pleased, +for I took aim at you with a most determined intention.</p> + +<p>Let me congratulate you most heartily on your handsome +Eddy having passed his examination with such credit. I +am sure there is a spirit shining out of his eyes, which will +do well in that manly and generous pursuit. You will +naturally feel his departure very much, and so will he; but +I have always observed within my experience, that the men +who have left home young have, many long years afterwards, +had the tenderest love for it, and for all associated +with it. That's a pleasant thing to think of, as one of the +wise and benevolent adjustments in these lives of ours.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_454" id="Page_454">[454]</a></span></p> + +<p>I have been so hard at work (and shall be for the next +eight or nine months), that sometimes I fancy I have a +digestion, or a head, or nerves, or some odd encumbrance of +that kind, to which I am altogether unaccustomed, and am +obliged to rush at some other object for relief; at present +the house is in a state of tremendous excitement, on account +of Mr. Collins having nearly finished the new play we are +to act at Christmas, which is very interesting and extremely +clever. I hope this time you will come and see it. We +purpose producing it on Charley's birthday, Twelfth Night; +but we shall probably play four nights altogether—"The +Lighthouse" on the last occasion—so that if you could +come for the two last nights, you would see both the pieces. +I am going to try and do better than ever, and already the +school-room is in the hands of carpenters; men from underground +habitations in theatres, who look as if they lived +entirely upon smoke and gas, meet me at unheard-of hours. +Mr. Stanfield is perpetually measuring the boards with a +chalked piece of string and an umbrella, and all the elder +children are wildly punctual and business-like to attract +managerial commendation. If you don't come, I shall do +something antagonistic—try to unwrite No. 11, I think. +I should particularly like you to see a new and serious piece +so done. Because I don't think you know, without seeing, +how good it is!!!</p> + +<p>None of the children suffered, thank God, from the +Boulogne risk. The three little boys have gone back to +school there, and are all well. Katey came away ill, but it +turned out that she had the whooping-cough for the second +time. She has been to Brighton, and comes home to-day. +I hear great accounts of her, and hope to find her quite +well when she arrives presently. I am afraid Mary Boyle +has been praising the Boulogne life too highly. Not that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_455" id="Page_455">[455]</a></span> +I deny, however, our having passed some very pleasant days +together, and our having had great pleasure in her visit.</p> + +<p>You will object to me dreadfully, I know, with a beard +(though not a great one); but if you come and see the play, +you will find it necessary there, and will perhaps be more +tolerant of the fearful object afterwards. I need not tell +you how delighted we should be to see George, if you would +come together. Pray tell him so, with my kind regards. I +like the notion of Wentworth and his philosophy of all +things. I remember a philosophical gravity upon him, a +state of suspended opinion as to myself, it struck me, when +we last met, in which I thought there was a great deal of +oddity and character.</p> + +<p>Charley is doing very well at Baring's, and attracting +praise and reward to himself. Within this fortnight there +turned up from the West Indies, where he is now a chief +justice, an old friend of mine, of my own age, who lived +with me in lodgings in the Adelphi, when I was just +Charley's age. He had a great affection for me at that +time, and always supposed I was to do some sort of wonders. +It was a very pleasant meeting indeed, and he seemed to +think it so odd that I shouldn't be Charley!</p> + +<p>This is every atom of no-news that will come out of my +head, and I firmly believe it is all I have in it—except that +a cobbler at Boulogne, who had the nicest of little dogs, +that always sat in his sunny window watching him at work, +asked me if I would bring the dog home, as he couldn't +afford to pay the tax for him. The cobbler and the dog +being both my particular friends, I complied. The cobbler +parted with the dog heart-broken. When the dog got +home here, my man, like an idiot as he is, tied him up and +then untied him. The moment the gate was open, the dog +(on the very day after his arrival) ran out. Next day,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_456" id="Page_456">[456]</a></span> +Georgy and I saw him lying, all covered with mud, dead, +outside the neighbouring church. How am I ever to tell +the cobbler? He is too poor to come to England, so I feel +that I must lie to him for life, and say that the dog is fat and +happy. Mr. Plornish, much affected by this tragedy, said: +"I s'pose, pa, I shall meet the cobbler's dog" (in heaven).</p> + +<p>Georgy and Catherine send their best love, and I send +mine. Pray write to me again some day, and I can't be too +busy to be happy in the sight of your familiar hand, associated +in my mind with so much that I love and honour.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever, my dear Mr. Watson, most faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Horne.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House, Tavistock Square</span>, <i>Oct. 20th, 1856.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mrs. Horne</span>,</div> + +<p>I answer your note by return of post, in order that +you may know that the Stereoscopic Nottage has not +written to me yet. Of course I will not lose a moment in +replying to him when he does address me.</p> + +<p>We shall be greatly pleased to see you again. You have +been very, very often in our thoughts and on our lips, during +this long interval.</p> + +<p>And "she" is near you, is she? O I remember her +well! And I am still of my old opinion! Passionately +devoted to her sex as I am (they are the weakness of my +existence), I still consider her a failure. She had some +extraordinary christian-name, which I forget. Lashed into +verse by my feelings, I am inclined to write:</p> + +<div class='poem'> +My heart disowns<br /> +Ophelia Jones;<br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>only I think it was a more sounding name.</div> + +<div class='poem'> +Are these the tones—<br /> +Volumnia Jones?<br /></div> +</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_457" id="Page_457">[457]</a></span></p> + +<div class='unindent'>No. Again it seems doubtful.</div> + +<div class='poem'> +God bless her bones,<br /> +Petronia Jones!<br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>I think not.</div> + +<div class='poem'> +Carve I on stones<br /> +Olympia Jones?<br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>Can <i>that</i> be the name? Fond memory favours it more +than any other. My love to her.</div> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever, my dear Mrs. Horne, very faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">The Duke +of Devonshire.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>December 1st</i>, 1856.<br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Duke of Devonshire</span>,</div> + +<p>The moment the first bill is printed for the first +night of the new play I told you of, I send it to you, in the +hope that you will grace it with your presence. There is +not one of the old actors whom you will fail to inspire as +no one else can; and I hope you will see a little result of a +friendly union of the arts, that you may think worth +seeing, and that you can see nowhere else.</p> + +<p>We propose repeating it on Thursday, the 8th; Monday, +the 12th; and Wednesday, the 14th of January. I do not +encumber this note with so many bills, and merely mention +those nights in case any one of them should be more +convenient to you than the first.</p> + +<p>But I shall hope for the first, unless you dash me +(N. B.—I put Flora into the current number on purpose that +this might catch you softened towards me, and at a disadvantage). +If there is hope of your coming, I will have +the play clearly copied, and will send it to you to read +beforehand. With the most grateful remembrances, and +the sincerest good wishes for your health and happiness,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">I am ever, my dear Duke of Devonshire,</span><br /> +Your faithful and obliged.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_458" id="Page_458">[458]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Thomas +Mitton.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Wednesday, Dec. 3rd</i>, 1856.<br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Mitton</span>,</div> + +<p>The inspector from the fire office—surveyor, by-the-bye, +they called him—duly came. Wills described him as +not very pleasant in his manners. I derived the impression +that he was so exceedingly dry, that if <i>he</i> ever takes fire, he +must burn out, and can never otherwise be extinguished.</p> + +<p>Next day, I received a letter from the secretary, to say +that the said surveyor had reported great additional risk +from fire, and that the directors, at their meeting next +Tuesday, would settle the extra amount of premium to be +paid.</p> + +<p>Thereupon I thought the matter was becoming complicated, +and wrote a common-sense note to the secretary +(which I begged might be read to the directors), saying +that I was quite prepared to pay any extra premium, but +setting forth the plain state of the case. (I did not say that +the Lord Chief Justice, the Chief Baron, and half the Bench +were coming; though I felt a temptation to make a joke +about burning them all.)</p> + +<p>Finally, this morning comes up the secretary to me +(yesterday having been the great Tuesday), and says that +he is requested by the directors to present their compliments, +and to say that they could not think of charging for any +additional risk at all; feeling convinced that I would place +the gas (which they considered to be the only danger) under +the charge of one competent man. I then explained to him +how carefully and systematically that was all arranged, and +we parted with drums beating and colours flying on both +sides.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_459" id="Page_459">[459]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Saturday Evening, Dec. 13th</i>, 1856.<br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dearest Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>We shall be charmed to squeeze Willie's friend in, +and it shall be done by some undiscovered power of compression +on the second night, Thursday, the 14th. Will +you make our compliments to his honour, the Deputy Fiscal, +present him with the enclosed bill, and tell him we shall be +cordially glad to see him? I hope to entrust him with +a special shake of the hand, to be forwarded to our dear +boy (if a hoary sage like myself may venture on that +expression) by the next mail.</p> + +<p>I would have proposed the first night, but that is too +full. You may faintly imagine, my venerable friend, the occupation +of these also gray hairs, between "Golden Marys," +"Little Dorrits," "Household Wordses," four stage-carpenters +entirely boarding on the premises, a carpenter's +shop erected in the back garden, size always boiling over +on all the lower fires, Stanfield perpetually elevated on +planks and splashing himself from head to foot, Telbin +requiring impossibilities of smart gasmen, and a legion of +prowling nondescripts for ever shrinking in and out. Calm +amidst the wreck, your aged friend glides away on the +"Dorrit" stream, forgetting the uproar for a stretch of +hours, refreshes himself with a ten or twelve miles walk, +pitches headforemost into foaming rehearsals, placidly +emerges for editorial purposes, smokes over buckets of +distemper with Mr. Stanfield aforesaid, again calmly floats +upon the "Dorrit" waters.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">With very best love to Miss Macready and all the rest,</span><br /> +Ever, my dear Macready, most affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_460" id="Page_460">[460]</a></span></p> + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Power.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>December 15th</i>, 1856.<br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Marguerite</span>,</div> + +<p>I am not <i>quite</i> clear about the story; not because it +is otherwise than exceedingly pretty, but because I am +rather in a difficult position as to stories just now. Besides +beginning a long one by Collins with the new year (which +will last five or six months), I have, as I always have at this +time, a considerable residue of stories written for the +Christmas number, not suitable to it, and yet available for +the general purposes of "Household Words." This limits +my choice for the moment to stories that have some decided +specialties (or a great deal of story) in them.</p> + +<p>But I will look over the accumulation before you come, and +I hope you will never see your little friend again but in print.</p> + +<p>You will find us expecting you on the night of the +twenty-fourth, and heartily glad to welcome you. The +most terrific preparations are in hand for the play on +Twelfth Night. There has been a carpenter's shop in the +garden for six weeks; a painter's shop in the school-room; +a gasfitter's shop all over the basement; a dressmaker's +shop at the top of the house; a tailor's shop in my dressing-room. +Stanfield has been incessantly on scaffoldings for two +months; and your friend has been writing "Little Dorrit," +etc. etc., in corners, like the sultan's groom, who was +turned upside-down by the genie.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Kindest love from all, and from me.</span><br /> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +William +Charles +Kent.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Christmas Eve, 1856.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class="unindent"><span class="smcap">My dear Sir</span>,</div> + +<p>I cannot leave your letter unanswered, because I am +really anxious that you should understand why I cannot +comply with your request.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_461" id="Page_461">[461]</a></span></p> + +<p>Scarcely a week passes without my receiving requests +from various quarters to sit for likenesses, to be taken by +all the processes ever invented. Apart from my having an +invincible objection to the multiplication of my countenance +in the shop-windows, I have not, between my avocations and +my needful recreation, the time to comply with these proposals. +At this moment there are three cases out of a vast +number, in which I have said: "If I sit at all, it shall be to +you first, to you second, and to you third." But I assure +you, I consider myself almost as unlikely to go through +these three conditional achievements as I am to go to +China. Judge when I am likely to get to Mr. Watkins!</p> + +<p>I highly esteem and thank you for your sympathy with +my writings. I doubt if I have a more genial reader in the +world.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Very faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + + +<div class='center'><br />PROLOGUE TO "THE LIGHTHOUSE."<br /> + +<br />(Spoken by <span class="smcap">Charles Dickens</span>.)<br /> + +<br /><i>Slow music all the time, unseen speaker, curtain down.</i><br /><br /></div> + + +<div class='poem'> +A story of those rocks where doomed ships come<br /> +To cast them wreck'd upon the steps of home,<br /> +Where solitary men, the long year through—<br /> +The wind their music and the brine their view—<br /> +Warn mariners to shun the beacon-light;<br /> +A story of those rocks is here to-night.<br /> +Eddystone lighthouse<br /> +</div> + +<div class='sig'>[<i>Exterior view discovered.</i><br /><br /></div> + +<div class='poem'> +<span style="margin-left: 11em;">In its ancient form;</span><br /> +Ere he who built it wish'd for the great storm<br /> +That shiver'd it to nothing; once again<br /> +Behold outgleaming on the angry main!<br /> +Within it are three men; to these repair<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_462" id="Page_462">[462]</a></span>In our frail bark of Fancy, swift as air!<br /> +<br /> +They are but shadows, as the rower grim<br /> +Took none but shadows in his boat with him.<br /> +So be <i>ye</i> shades, and, for a little space,<br /> +The real world a dream without a trace.<br /> +Return is easy. It will have ye back<br /> +Too soon to the old beaten dusty track;<br /> +For but one hour forget it. Billows rise,<br /> +Blow winds, fall rain, be black ye midnight skies;<br /> +And you who watch the light, arise! arise!<br /> +<br /></div> +<div class='sig'>[<i>Exterior view rises and discovers the scene.</i><br /> +</div> + + + + +<div class='center'><br />THE SONG OF THE WRECK.<br /> + + +<br />I.</div> + +<div class='poem'> +The wind blew high, the waters raved,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A ship drove on the land,</span><br /> +A hundred human creatures saved,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Kneeled down upon the sand.</span><br /> +Threescore were drowned, threescore were thrown<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Upon the black rocks wild,</span><br /> +And thus among them, left alone,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">They found one helpless child.</span><br /> +</div> + + +<div class='center'><br />II.</div> + +<div class='poem'> +A seaman rough, to shipwreck bred,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Stood out from all the rest,</span><br /> +And gently laid the lonely head<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Upon his honest breast.</span><br /> +And travelling o'er the desert wide,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">It was a solemn joy,</span><br /> +To see them, ever side by side,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The sailor and the boy.</span><br /> +</div> + + +<div class='center'><br />III.</div> + +<div class='poem'> +In famine, sickness, hunger, thirst,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The two were still but one,</span><br /> +Until the strong man drooped the first,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And felt his labours done.</span><br /> +Then to a trusty friend he spake,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Across the desert wide,</span><br /> +O take this poor boy for my sake!"<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And kissed the child and died.</span><br /> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_463" id="Page_463">[463]</a></span></p> + + +<div class='center'><br />IV.</div> + +<div class='poem'> +Toiling along in weary plight,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Through heavy jungle, mire,</span><br /> +These two came later every night<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To warm them at the fire.</span><br /> +Until the captain said one day,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"O seaman good and kind,</span><br /> +To save thyself now come away,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And leave the boy behind!"</span><br /> +</div> + + +<div class='center'><br />V.</div> + +<div class='poem'> +The child was slumb'ring near the blaze,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"O captain, let him rest</span><br /> +Until it sinks, when God's own ways<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Shall teach us what is best!"</span><br /> +They watched the whitened ashy heap,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">They touched the child in vain;</span><br /> +They did not leave him there asleep,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He never woke again.</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>This song was sung to the music of "Little Nell," a +ballad composed by the late Mr. George Linley, to the words +of Miss Charlotte Young, and dedicated to Charles Dickens. +He was very fond of it, and his eldest daughter had been in +the habit of singing it to him constantly since she was quite +a child.</p> + + + + +<div class='center'>END OF VOL. I.<br /><br /><br /> + + + +——————————<br /> +<small>CHARLES DICKENS AND EVANS, CRYSTAL PALACE PRESS.</small></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="INDEX" id="INDEX"></a>INDEX.</h2> + + +<div class='unindent'> +A'Beckett, Gilbert, i. <a href="#Page_134">134</a><br /> + +<br /> +Affidavit, a facetious, i. <a href="#Page_101">101</a><br /> +<br /> +Ainsworth, W. H., letters to, i. <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a><br /> +<br /> +Alison, Sir Archibald, i. <a href="#Page_170">170</a><br /> +<br /> +<a name="america" id="america"></a>America, feeling for Dickens in the backwoods of, i. <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dickens's first visit to, i. <a href="#Page_53">53</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his welcome in, i. <a href="#Page_59">59</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his opinion of, i. <a href="#Page_60">60</a>-<a href="#Page_64">64</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">freedom of opinion in, i. <a href="#Page_61">61</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dickens's levées in, i. <a href="#Page_66">66</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">change of temperature in, i. <a href="#Page_66">66</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">hotel charges in, i. <a href="#Page_67">67</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">midnight rambles in New York, i. <a href="#Page_67">67</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">descriptions of Niagara, i. <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">a maid's views on Niagara, i. <a href="#Page_72">72</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">copyright in, i. <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dickens's tribute to Mrs. Trollope's book on, i. <a href="#Page_81">81</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">press-ridden, i. <a href="#Page_97">97</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">absence of quiet in, i. <a href="#Page_98">98</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">criticisms of Dickens in, i. <a href="#Page_151">151</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see <a href="#readings">Readings</a></span><br /> +<br /> +"American Notes," publication of, i. <a href="#Page_54">54</a><br /> +<br /> +"Animal Magnetism," tag to, written by Dickens, i. <a href="#Page_238">238</a><br /> +<br /> +Anne, Mrs. Dickens's maid, i. <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_414">414</a><br /> + +<br /> +"Arabian Nights," a mistake in the, i. <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a><br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_452i" id="Page_452i">[452]</a></span>Astley's Theatre, description of a clown at, i. <a href="#Page_116">116</a><br /> +<br /> +Austin, Henry, i. <a href="#Page_240">240</a>; +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see <a href="#letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Author, the highest reward of an, i. <a href="#Page_41">41</a><br /> +<br /> +Autobiography, a concise, of Dickens, i. <a href="#Page_437">437</a><br /> +<br /> +Autograph of Dickens in 1833, i. <a href="#Page_2">2</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dickens leaves his in Shakespeare's room, i. <a href="#Page_13">13</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of Boz, i. <a href="#Page_43">43</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of Dickens as Bobadil, i. <a href="#Page_195">195</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">facsimile of Dickens's handwriting in 1856, i. <a href="#Page_421">421</a>;</span><br /> +<br /> +Babbage, Charles, letters to, i. <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a><br /> +<br /> +Banks, G., i. <a href="#Page_273">273</a>; letter to, i. <a href="#Page_296">296</a><br /> + +<br /> +"Barnaby Rudge" written and published, i. <a href="#Page_36">36</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dickens's descriptions of the illustrations of:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">the raven, i. <a href="#Page_38">38</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">the locksmith's house, i. <a href="#Page_39">39</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">rioters in The Maypole, i. <a href="#Page_45">45</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">scene in the ruins of the Warren, i. <a href="#Page_46">46</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">abduction of Dolly Varden, i. <a href="#Page_48">48</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Lord George Gordon in the Tower, the duel, frontispiece, i. <a href="#Page_50">50</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Hugh taken to gaol, i. <a href="#Page_51">51</a></span><br /> +<br /> +"Battle of Life, The," dedication of, i. <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dickens superintends rehearsals of the play of, i. <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sale of, i. <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reception of the play of, i. <a href="#Page_167">167</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Beaucourt, M., i. <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>, <a href="#Page_439">439</a><br /> +<br /> +Bedstead, a German, i. <a href="#Page_128">128</a><br /> +<br /> +Begging letters, Dickens's answers to, i. <a href="#Page_148">148</a>-<a href="#Page_150">150</a><br /> +<br /> +Bicknell, Henry, i. <a href="#Page_215">215</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to, i. <a href="#Page_229">229</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Biographers, Dickens on, i. <a href="#Page_190">190</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his opinion of John Forster as a biographer, i. <a href="#Page_188">188</a>-<a href="#Page_191">191</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Birthday wishes, i. <a href="#Page_51">51</a><br /> +<br /> +"Black-eyed Susan," Dickens as T. P. Cooke in, i. <a href="#Page_113">113</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">a new version of, i. <a href="#Page_114">114</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Blanchard, Laman, letter to, i. <a href="#Page_99">99</a><br /> +<br /> +"Bleak House," commenced, i. <a href="#Page_241">241</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">publication of, i. <a href="#Page_272">272</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dickens's opinion of, i. <a href="#Page_279">279</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">circulation of, i. <a href="#Page_289">289</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>, <a href="#Page_317">317</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Blessington, Lady, i. <a href="#Page_171">171</a><br /> +<br /> +Bobadil, Captain, Dickens plays, i. <a href="#Page_134">134</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dickens's remarks on, i. <a href="#Page_144">144</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">a letter after, i. <a href="#Page_195">195</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Book-backs, Dickens's imitation, i. <a href="#Page_265">265</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a><br /> +<br /> +Book Clubs, established, i. <a href="#Page_94">94</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dickens on, i. <a href="#Page_104">104</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<a name="Boulogne" id="Boulogne"></a>Boulogne, Dickens at, i. <a href="#Page_271">271</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>-<a href="#Page_312">312</a>, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>, <a href="#Page_439">439</a>-<a href="#Page_448">448</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">a Shakespearian performance at, i. <a href="#Page_308">308</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>en fête</i>, i. <a href="#Page_315">315</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">illuminations at, on the occasion of the Prince Consort's visit, i. <a href="#Page_362">362</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fire at, i. <a href="#Page_364">364</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">condition of, during the Crimean war, i. <a href="#Page_365">365</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters descriptive of, i. <a href="#Page_305">305</a>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>, <a href="#Page_372">372</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Boxall, Sir William, i. <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a><br /> +<br /> +Boyle, Miss Mary, i. <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see <a href="#letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Breach of Promise, a new sort of, i. <a href="#Page_179">179</a><br /> +<br /> +Breakfast, a Yorkshire, i. <a href="#Page_9">9</a><br /> +<br /> +<a name="broadstairs" id="broadstairs"></a>Broadstairs, Dickens at, i. <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">description of lodgings at, i. <a href="#Page_33">33</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">amusements of, i. <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">size of Fort House at, i. <a href="#Page_254">254</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_453i" id="Page_453i">[453]</a></span>Browne, H. K., i. <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a><br /> +<br /> +Buckstone, J. B., i. <a href="#Page_360">360</a><br /> +<br /> +<a name="Burnett" id="Burnett"></a>Burnett, Mrs., i. <a href="#Page_185">185</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Cabin, a, on board ship, i. <a href="#Page_56">56</a><br /> +<br /> +Capital punishment, Dickens's views on, i. <a href="#Page_209">209</a><br /> +<br /> +<a name="carlisle" id="carlisle"></a>Carlisle, the Earl of, letters to, i. <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>;<br /> +<br /> +Castlereagh, Lord, i. <a href="#Page_245">245</a><br /> +<br /> +Cat-hunting, i. <a href="#Page_449">449</a><br /> +<br /> +Cattermole, George, i. <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see <a href="#letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Chancery, Dickens on the Court of, i. <a href="#Page_450">450</a><br /> +<br /> +Chapman and Hall, Messrs., i. <a href="#Page_3">3</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to, i. <a href="#Page_55">55</a></span><br /> +<br /> +"Chimes, The," written, i. <a href="#Page_95">95</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">an attack on cant, i. <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dickens's opinion of, i. <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dickens gives a private reading of, i. <a href="#Page_133">133</a></span><br /> +<br /> +"Christmas Carol, The," publication of, i. <a href="#Page_85">85</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">criticisms on, i. <a href="#Page_99">99</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Christmas greetings, i. <a href="#Page_167">167</a><br /> +<br /> +Cockspur Street Society, the, i. <a href="#Page_85">85</a>-<a href="#Page_87">87</a><br /> +<br /> +Cold, effects of a, i. <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">remedy for a, i. <a href="#Page_168">168</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Colden, David, i. <a href="#Page_64">64</a><br /> +<br /> +Collins, Wilkie, i. <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>, <a href="#Page_447">447</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see <a href="#letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Comedy, Mr. Webster's offer for a prize, Dickens an imaginary competitor, i. <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a><br /> +<br /> +Conjuring feats, i. <a href="#Page_96">96</a>;<br /> +<br /> +Cooke, T. P., i. <a href="#Page_113">113</a>;<br /> +<br /> +Copyright, i. <a href="#Page_13">13</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dickens's struggles to secure English, in America, i. <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Costello, Dudley, i. <a href="#Page_241">241</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters to, i. <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Cottage, a cheap, i. <a href="#Page_18">18</a><br /> +<br /> +Coutts, Miss, i. <a href="#Page_410">410</a><br /> +<br /> +Covent Garden Theatre, Macready retires from management of, i. <a href="#Page_18">18</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ruins of, i. <a href="#Page_430">430</a>;</span><br /> +<br /> +"Cricket on the Hearth, The," i. <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a><br /> +<br /> +Croker, J. Crofton, i. <a href="#Page_272">272</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to, i. <a href="#Page_275">275</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Cruikshank, George, i. <a href="#Page_170">170</a><br /> +<br /> +Cunningham, Peter, i. <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_407">407</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters to, i. <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>, <a href="#Page_356">356</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<i>Daily News, The</i>, started, i. <a href="#Page_135">135</a><br /> +<br /> +"David Copperfield," dedication of, i. <a href="#Page_147">147</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">purpose of Little Emily in, i. <a href="#Page_211">211</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">success of, i. <a href="#Page_211">211</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reading of, i. <a href="#Page_377">377</a>, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dickens's favourite work, i. <a href="#Page_382">382</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see i. <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Deane, F. H., letter to, i. <a href="#Page_68">68</a><br /> +<br /> +Delane, John, i. <a href="#Page_298">298</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to, i. <a href="#Page_314">314</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Devonshire, the Duke of, letters to, i. <a href="#Page_437">437</a>, <a href="#Page_443">443</a>, <a href="#Page_457">457</a><br /> +<br /> +Devrient, Emil, i. <a href="#Page_277">277</a><br /> +<br /> +Dickens, Charles, at Furnival's Inn, i. <a href="#Page_1">1</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his marriage, i. <a href="#Page_1">1</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">employed as a parliamentary reporter, i. <a href="#Page_1">1</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">spends his honeymoon at Chalk, Kent, i. <a href="#Page_1">1</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">employed on <i>The Morning Chronicle</i>, i. <a href="#Page_2">2</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">removes to Doughty Street, i. <a href="#Page_4">4</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">writes for the stage, i. <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his visit to the Yorkshire schools, i. <a href="#Page_6">6</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Twickenham Park, i. <a href="#Page_6">6</a>;</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_454i" id="Page_454i">[454]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">his visits to Broadstairs, see <a href="#broadstairs">Broadstairs</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his visit to Stratford-on-Avon and Kenilworth, i. <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Shakespeare's room, i. <a href="#Page_13">13</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">elected at the Athenæum Club, i. <a href="#Page_12">12</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">removes to Devonshire Terrace, i. <a href="#Page_17">17</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">portraits of, see <a href="#portraits">Portraits</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">visits to Scotland, i. <a href="#Page_36">36</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">personal feeling of for his characters, i. <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">declines to enter Parliament, i. <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">public dinners to, i. <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">an enemy of cant, i. <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">visits of to America, see <a href="#america">America</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">expedition of to Cornwall, i. <a href="#Page_54">54</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his travels in Italy, see <a href="#italy">Italy</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">political opinions of, i. <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fancy signatures to letters of, i. <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_425">425</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">takes the chair at the opening of the Liverpool Mechanics' Institute, i. <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, and see i. <a href="#Page_100">100</a>-<a href="#Page_102">102</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his theatrical performances, see <a href="#theatrical">Theatrical Performances</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">effects of work on, i. <a href="#Page_121">121</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>The Daily News</i>, started by, i. <a href="#Page_135">135</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his visits to Lausanne and Switzerland, i. <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, and see <a href="#switzerland">Switzerland</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his visits to Paris, see <a href="#paris">Paris</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">as a stage, manager, i. <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Chester Place, Regent's Park, i. <a href="#Page_169">169</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">takes the chair at the opening of the Leeds Mechanics' Institute, and of the Glasgow Athenæum, i. <a href="#Page_170">170</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Brighton, i. <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Bonchurch, i, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">purchases Tavistock House, i. <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, and see <a href="#tavistock">Tavistock House</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">as an editor, i. <a href="#Page_246">246</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his readings, see <a href="#readings">Readings</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">illnesses of, i. <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his visits to Boulogne, see <a href="#Boulogne">Boulogne</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">presentation of plate to, at Birmingham, i. <a href="#Page_348">348</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">purchases Gad's Hill, i. <a href="#Page_377">377</a>, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>, and see <a href="#Gad">Gad's Hill</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">delivers a speech on Administrative Reform, i. <a href="#Page_377">377</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Folkestone, i. <a href="#Page_377">377</a>, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">restlessness of, when at work, i. <a href="#Page_402">402</a>, <a href="#Page_425">425</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see <a href="#letters">Letters</a> of</span><br /> +<br /> +Dickens, Mrs. Charles, marriage of, i. <a href="#Page_1">1</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">visit of, to America, i. <a href="#Page_53">53</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Rome, i. <a href="#Page_135">135</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">accident to, i. <a href="#Page_215">215</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Malvern, i. <a href="#Page_239">239</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">present to, at Birmingham, i. <a href="#Page_298">298</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see <a href="#letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Dickens, Charles, jun., birth of, i. <a href="#Page_4">4</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nickname of, i. <a href="#Page_76">76</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Eton, i. <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Leipsic, i. <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Barings', i. <a href="#Page_455">455</a>;</span><br /> +<br /> +Dickens, Kate, nickname of, i. <a href="#Page_76">76</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters to, i. <a href="#Page_178">178</a>;</span><br /> +<br /> +Dickens, Mamie, nickname of, i. <a href="#Page_76">76</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">illnesses of, i. <a href="#Page_363">363</a>, <a href="#Page_436">436</a>;</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_455i" id="Page_455i">[455]</a></span><br /> +Dickens, Walter, nickname of, i. <a href="#Page_76">76</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see i. <a href="#Page_268">268</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>, <a href="#Page_443">443</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Dickens, Frank, nickname of, i. <a href="#Page_126">126</a>;<br /> +<br /> +Dickens, Sydney, birth of, i. <a href="#Page_169">169</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nickname of, i. <a href="#Page_170">170</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">death of, i. <a href="#Page_171">171</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">story of, i. <a href="#Page_223">223</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see i. <a href="#Page_363">363</a>;</span><br /> +<br /> +Dickens, Edward, nicknames of, i. <a href="#Page_322">322</a>, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">and see i. <a href="#Page_353">353</a>, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>, <a href="#Page_420">420</a>, <a href="#Page_426">426</a>, <a href="#Page_439">439</a>;</span><br /> +<br /> +Dickens, Dora, birth of, i. <a href="#Page_213">213</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">death of, i. <a href="#Page_240">240</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Dickens, Alfred, sen., i. <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>;<br /> +<br /> +Dickens, Fanny, see <a href="#Burnett">Mrs. Burnett</a><br /> +<br /> +Dickens, Frederick, i. <a href="#Page_9">9</a><br /> +<br /> +Dickens, John, i. <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href="#Page_437">437</a>;<br /> +<br /> +Dickson, David, letter to, i. <a href="#Page_89">89</a><br /> +<br /> +Diezman, S. A., letter to, i. <a href="#Page_32">32</a><br /> +<br /> +Dinner, a search for a, i. <a href="#Page_326">326</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ladies at public dinners, i. <a href="#Page_103">103</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Dogs, Dickens's, i. <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">a plague of, i. <a href="#Page_292">292</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">stories of, i. <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>, <a href="#Page_354">354</a>, <a href="#Page_455">455</a></span><br /> +<br /> +"Dombey and Son," i. <a href="#Page_147">147</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">success of, i. <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sale of, i. <a href="#Page_162">162</a></span><br /> +<br /> +D'Orsay, Comte, i. <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a><br /> +<br /> +Driver, Dickens's estimate of himself as a, i. <a href="#Page_2">2</a><br /> +<br /> +Drury Lane Theatre, the saloon at, i. <a href="#Page_37">37</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">suggestions for the saloon at, i. <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Education, Dickens an advocate of, for the people, i. <a href="#Page_104">104</a><br /> +<br /> +Eeles, Mr., letters to, i. <a href="#Page_265">265</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a><br /> +<br /> +Egg, Augustus, i. <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>, <a href="#Page_332">332</a><br /> +<br /> +Elliotson, Dr., i. <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>,<br /> +<br /> +Elton, Mr., i. <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a><br /> +<br /> +Ely, Miss, letter to, i. <a href="#Page_153">153</a><br /> +<br /> +Emery, Mr., i. <a href="#Page_429">429</a><br /> +<br /> +England, state of, in 1855, i. <a href="#Page_391">391</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">politically, i. <a href="#Page_406">406</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Epitaph, Dickens's, on a little child, i. <a href="#Page_68">68</a><br /> +<br /> +Executions, Dickens on public, i. <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a><br /> +<br /> +Exhibition, an infant school at the, i. <a href="#Page_257">257</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Fairy Tales, Dickens on, i. <a href="#Page_307">307</a><br /> +<br /> +Fielding, Henry, i. <a href="#Page_394">394</a><br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_456i" id="Page_456i">[456]</a></span> +Forgues, M., i. <a href="#Page_415">415</a>, <a href="#Page_421">421</a><br /> +<br /> +Forster, John, i. <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>, <a href="#Page_428">428</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see <a href="#letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Franklin, Sir John, i. <a href="#Page_373">373</a><br /> +<br /> +French portraits of the English, i. <a href="#Page_175">175</a><br /> +<br /> +Friday, Dickens's lucky day, i. <a href="#Page_414">414</a>, <a href="#Page_429">429</a><br /> +<br /> +Frith, W. P., letters to, i. <a href="#Page_79">79</a><br /> +<br /> +Funerals, Dickens on state, i. <a href="#Page_290">290</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="Gad" id="Gad"></a>Gad's Hill, purchase of, i. <a href="#Page_377">377</a>, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters concerning, i. <a href="#Page_384">384</a>, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>, <a href="#Page_429">429</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Gaskell, Mrs., i. <a href="#Page_214">214</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see <a href="#letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Germany, esteem felt for Dickens in, i. <a href="#Page_32">32</a><br /> +<br /> +Gibson, M., i. <a href="#Page_315">315</a><br /> +<br /> +Goldsmith, Oliver, Dickens on Forster's Life of, i. <a href="#Page_188">188</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on the works of, i. <a href="#Page_380">380</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Grief, the perversity of, exemplified, i. <a href="#Page_18">18</a><br /> +<br /> +Grimaldi, Life of, edited by Dickens, i. <a href="#Page_4">4</a><br /> +<br /> +Guild of Literature and Art, i. <a href="#Page_239">239</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">theatrical performances in aid of the, i. <a href="#Page_239">239</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>;</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Haldimand, Mr., i. <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_380">380</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters to, i. <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Halleck, <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Fitzgreene'">Fitz-Greene</ins>, i. <a href="#Page_59">59</a><br /> +<br /> +"Hard Times," i. <a href="#Page_341">341</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">satire of, explained, i. <a href="#Page_349">349</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters concerning, i. <a href="#Page_355">355</a>, <a href="#Page_371">371</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Harley, J. P., letters to, i. <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a><br /> +<br /> +Harness, Rev. W., letters to, i. <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_361">361</a><br /> +<br /> +"Haunted Man, The," i. <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">subjects for illustrations in, described, i. <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">dramatisation of, i. <a href="#Page_203">203</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Hewett, Captain, i. <a href="#Page_57">57</a><br /> +<br /> +"History of England, The Child's," i. <a href="#Page_297">297</a><br /> +<br /> +Hogarth, Mary, i. <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a><br /> +<br /> +Hogarth, Georgina, i. <a href="#Page_425">425</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see <a href="#letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Holland, Lady, i. <a href="#Page_11">11</a><br /> +<br /> +Home, longings for, i. <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a><br /> +<br /> +Hood, Tom, i. <a href="#Page_287">287</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to, i. <a href="#Page_80">80</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Horne, Mrs., letter to, i. <a href="#Page_456">456</a><br /> +<br /> +Horne, R. H., letter to, i. <a href="#Page_93">93</a><br /> +<br /> +Hospital, a dinner at a, i. <a href="#Page_88">88</a><br /> +<br /> +Houghton, Lord, letter to, i. <a href="#Page_41">41</a><br /> +<br /> +"Household Words," i. <a href="#Page_148">148</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">scheme of, i. <a href="#Page_216">216</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">suggested titles for, i. <a href="#Page_219">219</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">success of, i. <a href="#Page_221">221</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Christmas numbers of, i. <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"The Golden Mary," i. <a href="#Page_414">414</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters concerning, i. <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>-<a href="#Page_293">293</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>, <a href="#Page_423">423</a>, <a href="#Page_452">452</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Hughes, Master Hastings, letter to, i. <a href="#Page_14">14</a><br /> +<br /> +Hullah, John, i. <a href="#Page_5">5</a><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_457i" id="Page_457i">[457]</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<i>Illustrated London News</i>, offers to Dickens from, i. <a href="#Page_150">150</a><br /> +<br /> +Illustrations of Dickens's works, his descriptions for, i. <a href="#Page_38">38</a>-<a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>-<a href="#Page_203">203</a><br /> +<br /> +<a name="italy" id="italy"></a>Italy, Dickens's first visit to, i. <a href="#Page_94">94</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the sky of, i. <a href="#Page_106">106</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the colouring of, i. <a href="#Page_106">106</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">a sunset in, i. <a href="#Page_106">106</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">twilight in, i. <a href="#Page_107">107</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">frescoes in, i. <a href="#Page_107">107</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">churches in, i. <a href="#Page_108">108</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fruit in, i. <a href="#Page_109">109</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">climate of, i. <a href="#Page_111">111</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">a coastguard in, i. <a href="#Page_116">116</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dickens at Albaro, i. <a href="#Page_105">105</a>-<a href="#Page_117">117</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Genoa, i. <a href="#Page_120">120</a>-<a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Venice and Verona, i. <a href="#Page_119">119</a>-<a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Naples, i. <a href="#Page_134">134</a>-<a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">an ascent of Vesuvius, i. <a href="#Page_137">137</a>-<a href="#Page_141">141</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Rome, i. <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>-<a href="#Page_333">333</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see i. <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_346">346</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Jeffrey, Lord, i. <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a><br /> +<br /> +Jerrold, Douglas, i. <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see <a href="#letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Joll, Miss, letter to, i. <a href="#Page_209">209</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Keeley, Robert, i. <a href="#Page_165">165</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to, i. <a href="#Page_105">105</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Kelly, Miss, i. <a href="#Page_302">302</a>, <a href="#Page_303">303</a><br /> +<br /> +Kent, W. Charles, i. <a href="#Page_186">186</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see <a href="#letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Kinkel, Dr., i. <a href="#Page_230">230</a><br /> +<br /> +Knight, Charles, i. <a href="#Page_94">94</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see <a href="#letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Knowles, Sheridan, i. <a href="#Page_214">214</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to, i. <a href="#Page_215">215</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Lamartine, i. <a href="#Page_187">187</a><br /> +<br /> +Landor, Walter Savage, i. <a href="#Page_268">268</a>, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see <a href="#letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Landseer, Edwin, letter to, i. <a href="#Page_103">103</a><br /> +<br /> +Landseer, Tom, i. <a href="#Page_27">27</a><br /> +<br /> +Lansdowne, Lord, i. <a href="#Page_275">275</a><br /> +<br /> +Layard, A. H., i. <a href="#Page_377">377</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters to, i. <a href="#Page_390">390</a>, <a href="#Page_391">391</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Lectures, Dickens on public, i. <a href="#Page_97">97</a><br /> +<br /> +Leech, John, i. <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a><br /> +<br /> +Le Gros, Mr., i. <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_332">332</a><br /> +<br /> +Lemaître, M., i. <a href="#Page_386">386</a><br /> +<br /> +Lemon, Mark, i. <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see <a href="#letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Lemon, Mrs., i. <a href="#Page_419">419</a><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap"><a name="letters" id="letters"></a>Letters of Charles Dickens to</span>:<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ainsworth, W. H., i. <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Anonymous, i. <a href="#Page_277">277</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Austin, Henry, i. <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>-<a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>-<a href="#Page_264">264</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Babbage, Charles, i. <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Banks, G., i. <a href="#Page_296">296</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bicknell, H., i. <a href="#Page_229">229</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Blanchard, Laman, i. <a href="#Page_99">99</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Boyle, Miss, i. <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>, <a href="#Page_381">381</a>, <a href="#Page_423">423</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Carlisle, the Earl of, i. <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>;</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_458i" id="Page_458i">[458]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cattermole, George, i. <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>-<a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>-<a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>-<a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cerjat, M. de, i. <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Chapman and Hall, i. <a href="#Page_55">55</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Collins, Wilkie, i. <a href="#Page_294">294</a>, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>, <a href="#Page_419">419</a>, <a href="#Page_437">437</a>, <a href="#Page_448">448</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Costello, Dudley, i. <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Croker, J. Crofton, i. <a href="#Page_275">275</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cunningham, Peter, i. <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>, <a href="#Page_356">356</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Deane, F. H., i. <a href="#Page_68">68</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Delane, John, i. <a href="#Page_314">314</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Devonshire, the Duke of, i. <a href="#Page_437">437</a>, <a href="#Page_443">443</a>, <a href="#Page_457">457</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dickens, Mrs. Charles, i. <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>, <a href="#Page_433">433</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dickens, Miss Kate, i. <a href="#Page_178">178</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dickens, Miss, i. <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_453">453</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dickson, David, i. <a href="#Page_89">89</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Diezman, S. A., i. <a href="#Page_32">32</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Eeles, Mr., i. <a href="#Page_265">265</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ely, Miss, i. <a href="#Page_153">153</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Forster, John, i. <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Frith, W. P., i. <a href="#Page_79">79</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gaskell, Mrs., i. <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>, <a href="#Page_381">381</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Haldimand, Mr., i. <a href="#Page_157">157</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Halleck, <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Fitzgreene'">Fitz-Greene</ins>, i. <a href="#Page_59">59</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Harley, J. P., i. <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Harness, Rev. W., i. <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_361">361</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hogarth, Catherine, i. <a href="#Page_3">3</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hogarth, Miss, i. <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>, <a href="#Page_426">426</a>, <a href="#Page_428">428</a>, <a href="#Page_429">429</a>, <a href="#Page_435">435</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hood, Tom, i. <a href="#Page_80">80</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Horne, Mrs., i. <a href="#Page_456">456</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Horne, R. H., i. <a href="#Page_93">93</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hughes, Master, i. <a href="#Page_14">14</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Jerrold, Douglas, i. <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_427">427</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Joll, Miss, i. <a href="#Page_209">209</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Keeley, Robert, i. <a href="#Page_105">105</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Kent, W. Charles, i. <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_461">461</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Knight, Charles, i. <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Knowles, Sheridan, i. <a href="#Page_215">215</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Landor, Walter Savage, i. <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>, <a href="#Page_441">441</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Landseer, Edwin, i. <a href="#Page_103">103</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Layard, A. H., i. <a href="#Page_390">390</a>, <a href="#Page_391">391</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lemon, Mark, i. <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>, <a href="#Page_416">416</a>, <a href="#Page_439">439</a>, <a href="#Page_440">440</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Longman, Thomas, i. <a href="#Page_73">73</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Longman, William, i. <a href="#Page_24">24</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lovejoy, G., i. <a href="#Page_44">44</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Maclise, Daniel, i. <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_459i" id="Page_459i">[459]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Macready, W. C., i. <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>, <a href="#Page_404">404</a>, <a href="#Page_430">430</a>, <a href="#Page_431">431</a>, <a href="#Page_446">446</a>, <a href="#Page_451">451</a>, <a href="#Page_459">459</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Milnes, R. Monckton, i. <a href="#Page_41">41</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mitton, Thomas, i. <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_458">458</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Morpeth, Viscount, i. <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pardoe, Miss, i. <a href="#Page_73">73</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Poole, John, i. <a href="#Page_236">236</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Power, Miss, i. <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_460">460</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Procter, Adelaide, i. <a href="#Page_374">374</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Procter, B. W., i. <a href="#Page_354">354</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Regnier, Monsieur, i. <a href="#Page_302">302</a>, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>, <a href="#Page_411">411</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Roberts, David, i. <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>, <a href="#Page_389">389</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Russell, Lord John, i. <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ryland, Arthur, i. <a href="#Page_349">349</a>, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sandys, William, i. <a href="#Page_178">178</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Saunders, John, i. <a href="#Page_366">366</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Smith, H. P., i. <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Stanfield, Clarkson, i. <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>, <a href="#Page_373">373</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Stone, Marcus, i. <a href="#Page_340">340</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Stone, Frank, i. <a href="#Page_199">199</a>-<a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"<i>Sun, The</i>," the editor of, i. <a href="#Page_187">187</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tagart, Edward, i. <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Talfourd, Miss Mary, i. <a href="#Page_51">51</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Talfourd, Serjeant, i. <a href="#Page_10">10</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tennent, Sir James Emerson, i. <a href="#Page_329">329</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tomlin, John, i. <a href="#Page_40">40</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Trollope, Mrs., i. <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_397">397</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Viardot, Madame, i. <a href="#Page_412">412</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Watkins, John, i. <a href="#Page_287">287</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Watson, Hon. Mrs., i. <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>, <a href="#Page_453">453</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Watson, Hon. R., i. <a href="#Page_159">159</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">White, Rev. James, i. <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Wills, W. H., i. <a href="#Page_148">148</a>-<a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>, <a href="#Page_407">407</a>, <a href="#Page_408">408</a>, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>, <a href="#Page_433">433</a>, <a href="#Page_450">450</a>, <a href="#Page_452">452</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Wilson, Effingham, i. <a href="#Page_199">199</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Lewes, G. H., i. <a href="#Page_170">170</a><br /> +<br /> +"Lighthouse, The," the play of, i. <a href="#Page_337">337</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dickens's prologue to, i. <a href="#Page_461">461</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dickens's "Song of the Wreck" in, i. <a href="#Page_461">461</a>;</span><br /> +<br /> +Lion, a chained, i. <a href="#Page_144">144</a><br /> +<br /> +"Little Dorrit," i. <a href="#Page_378">378</a>, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">proposed name of, i. <a href="#Page_402">402</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sale of, i. <a href="#Page_426">426</a>;</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_460i" id="Page_460i">[460]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters concerning, i. <a href="#Page_402">402</a>, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>, <a href="#Page_426">426</a></span><br /> +<br /> +London, the Mayor of, from a French point of view, i. <a href="#Page_175">175</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in September, i. <a href="#Page_318">318</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dickens's opinion of the Corporation of, i. <a href="#Page_389">389</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">facetious advice to country visitors to, i. <a href="#Page_252">252</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Longman, Thomas, letters to, i. <a href="#Page_73">73</a>;<br /> +<br /> +Longman, William, letter to, i. <a href="#Page_24">24</a><br /> +<br /> +Lovejoy, G., i. <a href="#Page_44">44</a><br /> +<br /> +Lyndhurst, Lord, i. <a href="#Page_147">147</a>;<br /> +<br /> +Lynn, Miss, i. <a href="#Page_378">378</a><br /> +<br /> +<ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Lyttleton'">Lyttelton</ins>, Hon. Spencer, i. <a href="#Page_239">239</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a><br /> +<br /> +Lytton, the first Lord, i. <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>;<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Maclise, Daniel, i. <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters to, i. <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Macready, W. C., i. <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see <a href="#letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Macready, Benvenuta, i. <a href="#Page_431">431</a>;<br /> +<br /> +Macready, Kate, i. <a href="#Page_415">415</a>;<br /> +<br /> +Macready, Nina, i. <a href="#Page_195">195</a><br /> +<br /> +Martineau, i. <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a><br /> +<br /> +"Martin Chuzzlewit," i. <a href="#Page_53">53</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">dramatised, i. <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>;</span><br /> +<br /> +"Master Humphrey's Clock," i. <a href="#Page_28">28</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the plan of, described, i. <a href="#Page_29">29</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters concerning illustrations for, i. <a href="#Page_29">29</a>-<a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>-<a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>-<a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>-<a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>-<a href="#Page_51">51</a></span><br /> +<br /> +"Mémoires du Diable, Les," i. <a href="#Page_444">444</a><br /> +<br /> +Missionaries, Dickens on, i. <a href="#Page_227">227</a><br /> +<br /> +Mitton, Thomas, see <a href="#letters">Letters</a><br /> +<br /> +Monuments, Dickens on, i. <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_356">356</a><br /> +<br /> +Moore, Tom, i. <a href="#Page_163">163</a><br /> +<br /> +Morley, Mr., i. <a href="#Page_399">399</a><br /> +<br /> +Morpeth, Viscount, letters to, i. <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see <a href="#carlisle">Carlisle</a>, The Earl of</span><br /> +<br /> +Mulgrave, Earl of, i. <a href="#Page_57">57</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Narrative, i. <a href="#Page_1">1</a>, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>, <a href="#Page_413">413</a><br /> +<br /> +Nathan, Messrs. H. and L., i. <a href="#Page_232">232</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a><br /> +<br /> +"Nicholas Nickleby," publication of, i. <a href="#Page_6">6</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">rewards and punishments of characters in, i. <a href="#Page_14">14</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dickens at work on, i. <a href="#Page_16">16</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">dedication of, i, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Kenwigs in, i, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>;</span><br /> +<br /> +Nicknames, Dickens's, of George Cattermole, i. <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of his children, i. <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>, <a href="#Page_453">453</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nautical, i. <a href="#Page_152">152</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of himself, i. <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of Frank Stone, i. <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_305">305</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Noviomagians, the, i. <a href="#Page_272">272</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +"Old Curiosity Shop, The," Dickens engaged on, i. <a href="#Page_28">28</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">scenes in, described by Dickens for illustration, i. <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>-<a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dickens heartbroken over the story, i. <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></span><br /> +<br /> +"Oliver Twist," publication of, i. <a href="#Page_4">4</a>;<br /> +<br /> +Organs, street, i. <a href="#Page_104">104</a><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_461i" id="Page_461i">[461]</a></span><br /> +Overs, i. <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Pardoe, Miss, letter to, i. <a href="#Page_73">73</a><br /> +<br /> +<a name="paris" id="paris"></a>Paris, Dickens at, i. <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>-<a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>-<a href="#Page_387">387</a>, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>-<a href="#Page_425">425</a>, <a href="#Page_430">430</a>, <a href="#Page_431">431</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">house-hunting in, i. <a href="#Page_158">158</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">description of Dickens's house in, i. <a href="#Page_159">159</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">state of, in 1846, i. <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">feeling of people of, for Dickens, i. <a href="#Page_411">411</a>;</span><br /> +<br /> +Parrots, human, i. <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a><br /> +<br /> +"Patrician's Daughter, The," prologue to, written by Dickens, i. <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a><br /> +<br /> +Paxton, Sir Joseph, i. <a href="#Page_446">446</a><br /> +<br /> +Phelps, J., i. <a href="#Page_366">366</a><br /> +<br /> +"Pickwick," origin and publication of, i. <a href="#Page_1">1</a>, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">first mention of Jingle, i. <a href="#Page_3">3</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">conclusion of, celebrated, i. <a href="#Page_5">5</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the design of the Shepherd in, explained, i. <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Picnic, a, of the elements, i, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">with Eton boys, i. <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Plessy, Madame, i. <a href="#Page_412">412</a><br /> +<br /> +Poole, John, i. <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to, i. <a href="#Page_236">236</a></span><br /> +<br /> +"Poor Travellers, The," i. <a href="#Page_378">378</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sale of, i. <a href="#Page_379">379</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<a name="portraits" id="portraits"></a>Portraits of Dickens, by Maclise, i. <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">by Ary Scheffer, i. <a href="#Page_414">414</a>, <a href="#Page_434">434</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Postman, an Albaro, i. <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a><br /> +<br /> +Power, Miss, i. <a href="#Page_442">442</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see <a href="#letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Power, Nelly, i. <a href="#Page_443">443</a><br /> +<br /> +Press, the, freedom of, i. <a href="#Page_49">49</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in America, i. <a href="#Page_97">97</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">taxation of the, i. <a href="#Page_274">274</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Procter, Adelaide, i. <a href="#Page_341">341</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to, i. <a href="#Page_374">374</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Procter, B. W., i. <a href="#Page_341">341</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see <a href="#letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Publishing system, how to improve the, i. <a href="#Page_86">86</a><br /> +<br /> +Purse, the power of the, i. <a href="#Page_88">88</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Queen, the, Dickens's theatrical performance before, i. <a href="#Page_239">239</a>;<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Rae, Dr., i. <a href="#Page_373">373</a><br /> +<br /> +<a name="readings" id="readings"></a>Readings, Dickens's public, for charities, i. <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>, <a href="#Page_377">377</a><br /> +<br /> +Reform, Dickens speaks on Administrative, i. <a href="#Page_377">377</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">association for, i. <a href="#Page_399">399</a>;</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_462i" id="Page_462i">[462]</a></span><br /> +Refreshment rooms, i. <a href="#Page_424">424</a><br /> +<br /> +Regnier, M., i. <a href="#Page_298">298</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see <a href="#letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Richardson, Samuel, Dickens's opinion of, i. <a href="#Page_175">175</a><br /> +<br /> +"Rivals, The," a scene from, rewritten, i. <a href="#Page_345">345</a><br /> +<br /> +Roberts, David, i. <a href="#Page_214">214</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters to, i. <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>, <a href="#Page_389">389</a></span><br /> +<br /> +"Robinson Crusoe," Dickens on, i. <a href="#Page_443">443</a><br /> +<br /> +Robson, F., i. <a href="#Page_451">451</a><br /> +<br /> +Roche, Dickens's courier, i. <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>-<a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a><br /> +<br /> +Russell, Lord John, i. <a href="#Page_272">272</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see <a href="#letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Sanatorium for art-students, i. <a href="#Page_102">102</a><br /> +<br /> +Sand, Georges, i. <a href="#Page_420">420</a><br /> +<br /> +Sandys, William, letter to, i. <a href="#Page_178">178</a><br /> +<br /> +Saunders, John, i. <a href="#Page_341">341</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to, i. <a href="#Page_366">366</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Savage, i. <a href="#Page_271">271</a><br /> +<br /> +Scheffer, Ary, i. <a href="#Page_414">414</a>, <a href="#Page_434">434</a><br /> +<br /> +Schoolmistress, a Yorkshire, i. <a href="#Page_8">8</a><br /> +<br /> +Scott, Sir Walter, i. <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a><br /> +<br /> +Scribe, Eugène, i. <a href="#Page_430">430</a>, <a href="#Page_432">432</a><br /> +<br /> +Seaside, the, in wet weather, i. <a href="#Page_90">90</a><br /> +<br /> +Sea voyage, a, i. <a href="#Page_322">322</a><br /> +<br /> +Shakespeare, Dickens in room of, i. <a href="#Page_13">13</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dickens's criticisms of Charles Knight's biography of, i. <a href="#Page_152">152</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see i. <a href="#Page_178">178</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Shower-bath, a perpetual, i. <a href="#Page_207">207</a><br /> +<br /> +"Sketches," publication of the, i. <a href="#Page_1">1</a><br /> +<br /> +Smith, H. P., letters to, i. <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a><br /> +<br /> +Smith, Sydney, i. <a href="#Page_24">24</a><br /> +<br /> +Smollett, Dickens on the works of, i. <a href="#Page_356">356</a><br /> +<br /> +Snevellicci, Miss, in real life, i. <a href="#Page_13">13</a><br /> +<br /> +Snore, a mighty, i. <a href="#Page_158">158</a><br /> +<br /> +Songs by Dickens: on Mark Lemon, i. <a href="#Page_207">207</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of "The Wreck" in "The Lighthouse," i. <a href="#Page_461">461</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Spencer, Lord, i. <a href="#Page_242">242</a><br /> +<br /> +Spider, a fearful, i. <a href="#Page_180">180</a><br /> +<br /> +Spiritualism, Dickens on, i. <a href="#Page_350">350</a>, <a href="#Page_397">397</a><br /> +<br /> +Stage suggestions, i. <a href="#Page_79">79</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">a stage mob, i. <a href="#Page_174">174</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">a piece of stage business, i. <a href="#Page_156">156</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Stanfield, Clarkson, i. <a href="#Page_370">370</a>, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>, <a href="#Page_429">429</a>, <a href="#Page_435">435</a>, <a href="#Page_454">454</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see <a href="#letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Steele, Sir Richard, Dickens on Forster's essay on, i. <a href="#Page_393">393</a><br /> +<br /> +Stone, Arthur, i. <a href="#Page_436">436</a><br /> +<br /> +Stone, Frank, i. <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see <a href="#letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Stone, Marcus, i. <a href="#Page_299">299</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters to, i. <a href="#Page_340">340</a></span><br /> +<br /> +"Strange Gentleman, The," farce written by Dickens and produced, i. <a href="#Page_4">4</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">price of, i. <a href="#Page_5">5</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sent to Macready, i. <a href="#Page_16">16</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Strikes, Dickens on, i. <a href="#Page_416">416</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Sun, The</i>, letter to editor of, i. <a href="#Page_187">187</a></span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_463i" id="Page_463i">[463]</a></span><br /> +<a name="switzerland" id="switzerland"></a>Switzerland, the Simplon Pass in, i. <a href="#Page_127">127</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">pleasant recollections of, i. <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dickens at Lausanne in, i. <a href="#Page_147">147</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">a revolution in, i. <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">friends in, i. <a href="#Page_157">157</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dickens's love for, i. <a href="#Page_158">158</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters concerning Lausanne in, i. <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Sympathy, letters of, i. <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Tagart, Edward, letters to, i. <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a><br /> +<br /> +Talfourd, Miss Mary, letter to, i. <a href="#Page_51">51</a><br /> +<br /> +Talfourd, Mr. Justice, i. <a href="#Page_7">7</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to, i. <a href="#Page_10">10</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Taüchnitz, Baron, i. <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a><br /> +<br /> +<a name="tavistock" id="tavistock"></a>Tavistock House, purchase of, i. <a href="#Page_240">240</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters concerning, i. <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>-<a href="#Page_266">266</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Taxation, Dickens on, i. <a href="#Page_218">218</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of newspapers, i. <a href="#Page_273">273</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Telegraph, the dramatic side of the, i. <a href="#Page_417">417</a><br /> +<br /> +Tennent, Sir James Emerson, i. <a href="#Page_298">298</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters to, i. <a href="#Page_329">329</a>;</span><br /> +<br /> +Tenniel, John, i. <a href="#Page_241">241</a><br /> +<br /> +Theatre, Dickens at the, i. <a href="#Page_13">13</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Phiz's laughter at the, i. <a href="#Page_13">13</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the saloon at Drury Lane, i. <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">scents of a, i. <a href="#Page_96">96</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">story of a, i. <a href="#Page_144">144</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">proposal for a national, i. <a href="#Page_199">199</a>;</span><br /> +<br /> +<a name="theatrical" id="theatrical"></a>Theatrical performances of Charles Dickens:<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Montreal, i. <a href="#Page_72">72</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Miss Kelly's Theatre, i. <a href="#Page_134">134</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Fortunio" at Tavistock House, i. <a href="#Page_376">376</a>, <a href="#Page_381">381</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"The Lighthouse," i. <a href="#Page_377">377</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>-<a href="#Page_397">397</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"The Frozen Deep," i. <a href="#Page_414">414</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">before the Queen, i. <a href="#Page_239">239</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see i. <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters concerning the, i. <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>-<a href="#Page_228">228</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>, <a href="#Page_433">433</a>, <a href="#Page_453">453</a>, <a href="#Page_454">454</a>, <a href="#Page_457">457</a>, <a href="#Page_459">459</a>, <a href="#Page_460">460</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Tomlin, John, letter to, i. <a href="#Page_40">40</a><br /> +<br /> +Topham, F. W., i. <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a><br /> +<br /> +Trollope, Mrs., letters to, i. <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_397">397</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +"Uncle Tom's Cabin," Dickens on, i. <a href="#Page_289">289</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Viardot, Madame, letter to, i. <a href="#Page_412">412</a><br /> +<br /> +"Village Coquettes, The," operetta written by Dickens, i. <a href="#Page_5">5</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see i. <a href="#Page_93">93</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Waistcoat, a wonderful, i. <a href="#Page_102">102</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the loan by Dickens of Macready's, i. <a href="#Page_146">146</a></span><br /> +<br /> +War, Dickens on the Russian, i. <a href="#Page_379">379</a><br /> +<br /> +Ward, E. M., i. <a href="#Page_341">341</a><br /> +<br /> +Watkins, John, i. <a href="#Page_415">415</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters to, i. <a href="#Page_287">287</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Watson, Hon. R., i. <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to, i. <a href="#Page_159">159</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Watson, Hon. Mrs., i. <a href="#Page_147">147</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see <a href="#letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Welcome home, a, i. <a href="#Page_117">117</a><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_464i" id="Page_464i">[464]</a></span><br /> +Whewell, Dr., i. <a href="#Page_372">372</a><br /> +<br /> +White, Rev. James, i. <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see <a href="#letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Wigan, Alfred, i. <a href="#Page_429">429</a><br /> +<br /> +Wills, W. H., i. <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_375">375</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see <a href="#letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Wilson, Effingham, letter to, i. <a href="#Page_199">199</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Yates, Edmund, i. <a href="#Page_414">414</a>, <a href="#Page_426">426</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see <a href="#letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +</div> + + +<h2>THE END.</h2> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> The little dog—a white Havana spaniel—<i>was</i> brought home and renamed, +after an incidental character in "Nicholas Nickleby," "Mr. Snittle +Timbery." This was shortened to "Timber," and under that name the +little dog lived to be very old, and accompanied the family in all its +migrations, including the visits to Italy and Switzerland.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Life Insurance Office.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Mr. Macready's—so pronounced by one of Charles Dickens's little +children.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> T. P. Cooke, the celebrated actor of "William" in Douglas Jerrold's play of +"Black-eyed Susan."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> This alludes to a theatrical story of a second-rate actor, who described +himself as a "chained lion," in a theatre where he had to play inferior parts +to Mr. Macready.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> "The Battle of Life."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a></p> <div class='center'>LETTER OF BARON TAÜCHNITZ.</div> + +<p>Having had the privilege to see a letter which the late Mr. Charles Dickens +wrote to the author of this work upon its first appearance, and which there +was no intention to publish in England, it became my lively wish to make +it known to the readers of my edition.</p> +<p>I therefore addressed an earnest request to Mr. Forster, that he would +permit the letter to be prefixed to a reprint not designed for circulation in +England, where I could understand his reluctance to sanction its publication. +Its varied illustration of the subject of the book, and its striking +passages of personal feeling and character, led me also to request that I +might be allowed to present it in facsimile.</p> +<p>Mr. Forster complied; and I am most happy to be thus enabled to give to +my public, on the following pages, so attractive and so interesting a letter, +reproduced in the exact form in which it was written, by the most popular +and admired-of writers—too early gone.</p> +<div class='sig'> +<span class="smcap">Taüchnitz.</span><br /></div> +<p>Leipsic,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>May 23, 1873.</i></span></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> The last illness of Mrs. White's mother.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Dr. Gottfried Kinkel, a distinguished scholar and Professor in the +University of Bonn, who was at that time undergoing very rigorous State +imprisonment in Prussia, for political reasons. Dr. Kinkel was afterwards +well known as a teacher and lecturer on Art in London, where he resided +for many years.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> The part of the lawyer in "Used Up." It was <i>not</i> played after all by +Mr. Watson, but by Mr. (now Sir William) Boxall, R.A., a very old and +intimate friend of Mr. and Mrs. Watson, and of Charles Dickens.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> This part, finally, was played by Charles Dickens, junior.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Mr. Stafford and Mr. Stopford, who both acted in the plays at Rockingham.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> Mr. Charles Knight was writing a series of papers in "Household +Words," called "Shadows."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> The great Duke of Wellington's funeral.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Meaning Mr. W. H. Wills himself.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> The poet "Barry Cornwall."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> "Hide and Seek."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> On the occasion of the Prince Consort's visit to the camp at Boulogne.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Mr. Egg.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> The inscription on the house in Rochester known as "Watts's Charity" +is to the effect that it furnishes a night's lodging for six poor travellers—"not +being Rogues or Proctors."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> Captain Cavendish Boyle was governor of the military prison at Weedon.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> Wife of the late Sir Joseph Olliffe, Physician to the British Embassy.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> Of Mr. Wilkie Collins.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> This note was written after hearing from Mr. Forster of his intended +marriage.</p></div> +</div> +<p><br /><br /> </p> +<div class='tnote'><h3>Transcriber's Notes:</h3> + +<p>The index for this volume was originally located at the end of +Volume II. To aid the reader, the parts referring to Volume I were +extracted from that index and appended to the end of this html text. The +original index can be found in its entirety at the end of the plain text +version of these volumes.</p> +<p>Pages 454-455, entries for "Dickens, Mamie" and "Dickens, Kate" were originally not in alphabetically order. This was corrected.</p> +<p>Obvious punctuation errors repaired.</p> + +<p>The remaining corrections made are indicated by dotted lines under the corrections. Scroll the mouse over the word and the original text will <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'apprear'">appear</ins>.</p></div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Letters of Charles Dickens, by Charles Dickens + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LETTERS OF CHARLES DICKENS *** + +***** This file should be named 25852-h.htm or 25852-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/8/5/25852/ + +Produced by Susan Skinner, Emmy and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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