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diff --git a/25852-8.txt b/25852-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3518740 --- /dev/null +++ b/25852-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,17269 @@ +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 + + + + + + +For the reader: Things that were handwritten are denoted in the text as +HW: + +Asterisms in the text are denoted by [asterism] + + +THE LETTERS + +OF + +[HW: Charles Dickens] + + + + +THE LETTERS + +OF + +CHARLES DICKENS. + +EDITED BY + +HIS SISTER-IN-LAW AND HIS ELDEST DAUGHTER. + +In Two Volumes. + +VOL. I. + +1833 to 1856. + +London: + +CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY. + +1880. + +[_The Right of Translation is Reserved._] + + + + +CHARLES DICKENS AND EVANS, + +CRYSTAL PALACE PRESS. + + TO + + KATE PERUGINI, + + THIS MEMORIAL OF HER FATHER + + IS LOVINGLY INSCRIBED + + BY HER AUNT AND SISTER. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +We 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 _himself_ 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 deep interest which he has shown from the beginning, in our +undertaking. + +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. + +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. + +Those letters which need no explanation--and of those we have many--we +give without a word from us. + +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." + + MAMIE DICKENS. + GEORGINA HOGARTH. + + LONDON: _October_, 1879. + + + + + +ERRATA. + +VOL. I. + + + Page 111, line 6. For "because if I hear of you," _read_ "because I hear + of you." + + " 114, line 24. For "any old end," _read_ "or any old end." + + " 137. First paragraph, second sentence, _should read_, "All the + ancient part of Rome is wonderful and impressive in the + extreme, far beyond the possibility of exaggeration. As to + the," etc. + + " 456, line 11. For "Mr." _read_ "Mrs." + + + + +Book I. + +1833 TO 1842. + + + + +THE + +LETTERS OF CHARLES DICKENS. + + + + +1833 OR 1834, AND 1835, 1836. + +NARRATIVE. + + +We 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 _The Morning Chronicle_. The "Sketches by Boz" +were written during these years, published first in "The Monthly +Magazine" and continued in _The Evening Chronicle_. 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. +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." + +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 _The Morning Chronicle_; the journey on +which he was "ordered" being for that paper. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Henry Austin.] + + FURNIVAL'S INN, _Wednesday Night, past 12._ + +DEAR HENRY, + +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. + +Don't laugh. I am going (alone) in a gig; and, to quote the eloquent +inducement which the proprietors of Hampstead _chays_ 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. + +Let the evident haste of this specimen of "The Polite Letter Writer" be +its excuse, and + +Believe me, dear Henry, most sincerely yours, + + [HW: Charles Dickens] + +NOTE.--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. + + +[Sidenote: Miss Hogarth.] + + FURNIVAL'S INN, _Wednesday Evening, 1835._ + +MY DEAREST KATE, + +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. + +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. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: The same.] + + _Sunday Evening._ + + * * * * * + +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. + + * * * * * + + + + +1837. + +NARRATIVE. + + +From 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. J. P. Harley.] + + 48, DOUGHTY STREET, _Saturday Morning._ + +MY DEAR SIR, + +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. + +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. + +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. + + Believe me ever faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. C. Macready.] + + 48, DOUGHTY STREET, _Wednesday Evening._ + +MY DEAR SIR, + +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 +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. + +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, + + My dear Sir, yours most truly. + + + + +1838. + +NARRATIVE. + + +In 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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + + +[Sidenote: Mrs. Charles Dickens.] + + GRETA BRIDGE, _Thursday, Feb. 1st, 1838._ + +MY DEAREST KATE, + +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. + +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 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. + +Yesterday we were up again shortly after seven A.M., 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. + +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), and then we retired to +a couple of capital bedrooms, in each of which there was a rousing fire +halfway up the chimney. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Love to all friends. + + Ever, my dear Kate, + Your affectionate Husband. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Thomas Mitton.] + + TWICKENHAM PARK, _Tuesday Night._ + +DEAR TOM, + +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. + +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. + +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. + + Ever yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Serjeant Talfourd, M.P.] + + TWICKENHAM PARK, _Sunday, July 15th, 1838._ + +MY DEAR TALFOURD, + +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 came like the renewal of some old +friendship, and gladdened my eyes like the face of some old friend. + +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. + +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. + +Meanwhile, believe that though my body is on the banks of the Thames, +half my heart is going the Oxford circuit. + +Mrs. Dickens and Charley desire their best remembrances (the latter +expresses some anxiety, not unmixed 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. + + I am, my dear Talfourd, + Ever faithfully yours. + +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. + +You know, I suppose, that they elected me at the Athenæum? Pray thank +Mr. Serjeant Storks for me. + + +[Sidenote: Mrs. Charles Dickens.] + + LION HOTEL, SHREWSBURY, _Thursday, Nov. 1st, 1838._ + +MY DEAREST LOVE, + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +My side has been very bad since I left home, although 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. + +God bless you, my darling. I long to be back with you again and to see +the sweet Babs. + + Your faithful and most affectionate Husband. + + +[Sidenote: Master Hastings Hughes.] + + DOUGHTY STREET, LONDON, _Dec. 12th, 1838._ + +RESPECTED SIR, + +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? + +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 _what_ 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. + +Nicholas had his roast lamb, as you said he was to, but 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! + +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. + +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. + + I am, + Respected Sir, + Your affectionate Friend. + +P.S.--I don't write my name very plain, but you know what it is you +know, so never mind. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. C. Macready.] + + DOUGHTY STREET, _Monday Morning._ + +MY DEAR MACREADY, + +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. + +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. + + Believe me, my dear Macready, + Ever faithfully yours. + +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. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. C Macready.] + + 48, DOUGHTY STREET, _December 13th, 1838._ + +MY DEAR MACREADY, + +I can have but one opinion on the subject--withdraw the farce at once, +by all means. + +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. + +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. + + Believe me always, my dear Macready, + Faithfully yours. + + + + +1839. + +NARRATIVE. + + +Charles Dickens 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. + +The cottage at Alphington, near Exeter, mentioned in the letter to Mr. +Mitton, was hired by Charles Dickens for his parents. + +He was at work all through this year on "Nicholas Nickleby." + +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 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. + +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. + +The portrait by Mr. Maclise, mentioned to Mr. Harley, was the, now, +well-known one, which appeared as a frontispiece to "Nicholas Nickleby." + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. C. Macready.] + + DOUGHTY STREET, _Sunday._ + +MY DEAR MACREADY, + +I will have, if you please, three dozen of the extraordinary champagne; +and I am much obliged to you for recollecting me. + +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." + +With the same perverse and unaccountable feeling which causes a +heart-broken man at a dear friend's funeral to 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, + + My dear Macready, + Yours always faithfully. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Thomas Mitton.] + + NEW LONDON INN, EXETER, + _Wednesday Morning, March 6th, 1839._ + +DEAR TOM, + +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 paying five shillings, and becoming absolute master of the +whole! + +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. + +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! + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Mr. George Cattermole.] + + ELM COTTAGE, PETERSHAM, _Wednesday Morning._ + +MY DEAR CATTERMOLE, + +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. + +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. + +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 myself with saying that I am +ever heartily, my dear Cattermole, + + Hers and yours. + +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. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. J. P. Harley.] + + ELM COTTAGE, PETERSHAM, NEAR RICHMOND, + _June 28th, 1839._ + +MY DEAR HARLEY, + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +In great haste to save the post, I am, my dear Harley, + + Faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. William Longman.] + + DOUGHTY STREET, _Monday Morning._ + +MY DEAR SIR, + +On Friday I have a family dinner at home--uncles, aunts, brothers, +sisters, cousins--an annual gathering. + +By what fatality is it that you always ask me to dine on the wrong day? + +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. + +Begging my best compliments at home, + + I am, my dear Sir, + Faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. C. Macready.] + + PETERSHAM, _July 26th, 1839._ + +MY DEAR MACREADY, + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +Mrs. Dickens joins with me in kindest regards to yourself, Mrs., and +Miss Macready. And I am always, + + My dear Macready, + Faithfully and truly yours. + +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. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. C. Macready.] + + + 40, ALBION STREET, BROADSTAIRS, + _September 21st, 1839._ + +MY DEAR MACREADY, + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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, + + Believe me, my dear Macready, + Faithfully yours. + +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." + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. C. Macready.] + + DOUGHTY STREET, _Friday Night, Oct. 25th, 1839._ + +MY DEAR MACREADY, + +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. + +With best regards to Mrs. and Miss Macready, always believe me, + + My dear Macready, + Your faithful Friend. + + +[Sidenote: The same.] + + DOUGHTY STREET, _Thursday, Nov. 14th, 1839._ + +MY DEAR MACREADY, + +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. + +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. + +You must come and see my new house when we have it to rights. By +Christmas Day we shall be, I hope, your neighbours. + +Kate progresses splendidly, and, with me, sends her best remembrances to +Mrs. Macready and all your house. + + Ever believe me, + Dear Macready, + Faithfully yours. + + + + +1840. + +NARRATIVE. + + +Charles Dickens 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. + +The one dated March 9th alludes to short papers written for "Master +Humphrey's Clock" prior to the commencement of "The Old Curiosity Shop." + +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. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. George Cattermole.] + + 1, DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, + _Monday, January 13th, 1840._ +MY DEAR CATTERMOLE, + +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 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." + +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. + +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. + +I want to talk the matter over with you, and wish you 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. + +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. + + Believe me always, my dear Cattermole, + Faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. George Cattermole.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Tuesday Afternoon._ + +MY DEAR CATTERMOLE, + +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. + +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. + +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. + + Faithfully yours always. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. George Cattermole.] + + 1, DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, + _Monday, March 9th, 1840._ +MY DEAR CATTERMOLE, + +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. + +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. + +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. + + With best regards at home, + Believe me, dear Cattermole, + Heartily yours. + +P.S.--The new (No. 3) tale begins: "I hold a lieutenant's commission in +his Majesty's army, and served abroad in the campaigns of 1677 and +1678." It has at present no title. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. S. A. Diezman.] + + 1, DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, YORK GATE, REGENT'S PARK, + LONDON, _10th March, 1840._ + +MY DEAR SIR, + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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, + + My dear Sir, + With great sincerity, + Faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Daniel Maclise.] + + BROADSTAIRS, _June 2nd, 1840._ + +MY DEAR MACLISE, + + My foot is in the house, + My bath is on the sea, + And, before I take a souse, + Here's a single note to thee. + +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. + + COME! + +I can no more. + + Always faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. George Cattermole.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _December 21st._ + +MY DEAR GEORGE, + +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 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. + +If you have any difficulty about Kit, never mind about putting him in. + +The two others to-morrow. + + Faithfully always. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. George Cattermole.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Friday Morning._ + +MY DEAR CATTERMOLE, + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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? + +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. + +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? + +Don't forget despatch, there's a dear fellow, and ever believe me, + + Heartily yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. George Cattermole.] + + _December 22nd, 1840._ + +DEAR GEORGE, + +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. + + +2. + +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, 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 things upon his knee, or in his hand. + +I am breaking my heart over this story, and cannot bear to finish it. + +Love to Missis. + + Ever and always heartily. + + + + +1841. + +NARRATIVE. + + +In 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. + +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. + +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. + +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). + +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. + +"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. + +The two letters to Mr. Lovejoy are in answer to a requisition from the +people of Reading that he would represent them in Parliament. + +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. + +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." + +"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. + + +[Sidenote: Rev. William Harness.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Saturday Morning, Jan. 2nd, 1841._ + +MY DEAR HARNESS, + +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. + +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 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. + + Always believe me, + Faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. George Cattermole.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Thursday, Jan. 14th, 1841._ + +MY DEAR CATTERMOLE, + +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. + +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 _statu quo_ for ever and ever. + +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. + +I am, for the time being, nearly dead with work and grief for the loss +of my child. + + Always, my dear George, + Heartily yours. + + +[Sidenote: The same.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Thursday Night, Jan. 28th, 1841._ + +MY DEAR GEORGE, + +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. + +The first subject of No. 3 I will either send to you on 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. + +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? + + Faithfully always. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. George Cattermole.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Saturday Evening, Jan. 30th, 1841._ + +MY DEAR GEORGE, + +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. + +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 shall be delighted. +If otherwise, I must feed that hero forthwith. + +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. + +I am most sincerely and affectionately grateful to you, and am full of +pleasure and delight. + + Believe me, my dear Cattermole, + Always heartily yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. John Tomlin.] + + 1, DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, YORK GATE, REGENT'S PARK, + LONDON, _Tuesday, Feb. 23rd, 1841._ + +DEAR SIR, + +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. + +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 +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. + +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. + +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." + +And, with all good wishes for yourself, and with a sincere reciprocation +of all your kindly feeling, + + I am, dear Sir, + Faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. R. Monckton Milnes] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Wednesday, March 10th, 1841._ + +MY DEAR MILNES, + +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. + +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. 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. + +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, + + And am always, + Faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. George Cattermole.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Tuesday, February 9th._ + +MY DEAR GEORGE, + +My notes tread upon each other's heels. In my last I quite forgot +business. + +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. + +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. + + Faithfully ever. + + +[Sidenote: The same.] + + OLD SHIP HOTEL, BRIGHTON, _Feb. 26th, 1841._ + +MY DEAR KITTENMOLES, + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + Always, my dear George, + Faithfully yours, + [HW: Boz.] + + +[Sidenote: Mr. William Harrison Ainsworth.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _April 29th, 1841._ + +MY DEAR AINSWORTH, + +With all imaginable pleasure. I quite look forward to the day. It is an +age since we met, and it ought not to be. + +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. + +The old _Royal George_ 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. + + Faithfully yours always. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. G. Lovejoy.] + + 1, DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, YORK GATE, REGENT'S PARK, + _Monday Evening, May 31st, 1841._ + +SIR, + +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. + +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. + + Yours faithfully. + + +[Sidenote: The same.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _June 10th, 1841._ + +DEAR SIR, + +I am favoured with your note of yesterday's date, and lose no time in +replying to it. + +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. + +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, + + Dear Sir, + Faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. George Cattermole.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Wednesday Evening, July 28th, 1841._ + +MY DEAR GEORGE, + +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 with a stupid horror, and quite alone among them, +with none of The Maypole customers at his back. + +It's in your way, and you'll do it a hundred times better than I can +suggest it to you, I know. + + Faithfully always. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. George Cattermole.] + + BROADSTAIRS, _Friday, August 6th, 1841._ + +MY DEAR GEORGE, + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + + Always, dear Cattermole, + Heartily yours. + +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. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. George Cattermole.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Thursday, August 13th._ + +MY DEAR CATTERMOLE, + +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. + +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. + +They will give you every opportunity of correction, alteration, +revision, and all other ations and isions connected with the fine arts. + + Always believe me, + Faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. George Cattermole.] + + BROADSTAIRS, _August 19th, 1841._ + +MY DEAR GEORGE, + +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. + + Always faithfully. + +P.S.--John Willet's bar is noble. + +We take it for granted that cousin and baby are hearty. Our loves to +them. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. C. Macready.] + + BROADSTAIRS, _Tuesday, August 24th, 1841._ + +MY DEAR MACREADY, + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + + Always, my dear Macready, + Your faithful Friend. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. George Cattermole.] + + BROADSTAIRS, _Sunday, September 12th, 1841._ + +MY DEAR GEORGE, + +Here is a business letter, written in a scramble just before post time, +whereby I dispose of loves to cousin in a line. + +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. + +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. + +Thirdly. Will you conceive and execute, after your own fashion, a +frontispiece for "Barnaby"? + +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. + +I have a fifthly, sixthly, seventhly, and eighthly; for I sorely want +you, as I approach the close of the tale, but I won't frighten you, so +we'll take breath. + + Always, my dear Cattermole, + Heartily yours. + +P.S.--I have been waiting until I got to subjects of this nature, +thinking you would like them best. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. George Cattermole.] + + BROADSTAIRS, _September 21st, 1841._ + +MY DEAR GEORGE, + +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. + + Faithfully yours always. + + +[Sidenote: Miss Mary Talfourd.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _December 16th, 1841._ + +MY DEAR MARY, + +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. + +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. + +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. + + Believe me always, + My dear Mary, + Yours affectionately. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. C. Macready.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Tuesday, Dec. 28th, 1841._ + +MY DEAR MACREADY, + +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. + +First, the refreshments are preposterously dear. A glass of wine is a +shilling, and it ought to be sixpence. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Hearty congratulations on the brilliant triumph. I have always expected +one, as you know, but nobody could have imagined the reality. + + Always, my dear Macready, + Affectionately yours. + + + + +1842. + +NARRATIVE. + + +In 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 Charles +Dickens made an expedition to Cornwall, with Mr. Forster, Mr. Maclise, +and Mr. Stanfield for his companions. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 +_Britannia_, 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 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. + +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." + +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. + + +[Sidenote: Messrs. Chapman and Hall.] + + * * * * * + +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. + + Always believe me, + Faithfully and truly yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Thomas Mitton.] + + ADELPHI HOTEL, LIVERPOOL, _Monday, Jan. 3rd, 1842._ + +MY DEAR MITTON, + +This is a short note, but I will fulfil the adage and make it a merry +one. + +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! + +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. + +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. + +God bless you! Write to me by the first opportunity. I will do the like +to you. And always believe me, + + Your old and faithful Friend. + + + + +NARRATIVE. + + +At a meeting of the passengers on board the _Britannia_ 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: + + "That the Earl of Mulgrave do take the chair." + +The motion having been carried unanimously, the Earl of Mulgrave took +the chair accordingly. + +It was also moved and seconded, and carried unanimously: + + "That Charles Dickens, Esq., be appointed + secretary and treasurer to the meeting." + +The three following resolutions were then proposed and carried _nem. +con._: + + "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. + + "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. + + "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." + +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. + +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: + + THIS PIECE OF PLATE + was presented to + CAPTAIN JOHN HEWETT, + of the BRITANNIA Steam-ship, + + By the Passengers on board that vessel in a voyage from Liverpool + to Boston, in the month of January, 1842, + + As a slight acknowledgment of his great ability and skill + under circumstances of much difficulty and danger, + And as a feeble token of their lasting gratitude. + +Thanks were then voted to the chairman and to the secretary, and the +meeting separated. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Thomas Mitton.] + + TREMONT HOUSE, BOSTON, _January 31st, 1842._ + +MY DEAR MITTON, + +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. + +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. I was ill five days, Kate six; though, +indeed, she had a swelled face and suffered the utmost terror all the +way. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + Always your faithful Friend. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Fitz-Greene Halleck.] + + CARLTON HOUSE, _February 14th, 1842._ + +MY DEAR SIR, + +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. + + Believe me, with true regard, + Faithfully your Friend. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. C. Macready.] + + BALTIMORE, _March 22nd, 1842._ + +MY DEAR FRIEND, + +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. + +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. + +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, _do_ 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. + +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 anything so wild) rather than I +should do wrong in this respect. Still it is of no use. I _am_ +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. + +_You_ live here, Macready, as I have sometimes heard you imagining! +_You!_ 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." + +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. + +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. + +You know that I am truly a Liberal. I believe I have 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 levée 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. + +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 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 HOME. + +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. + +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. + +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 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 + + I am ever, my dear Macready, + Your faithful Friend. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Thomas Mitton.] + + BALTIMORE, UNITED STATES, _March 22nd, 1842._ + +MY DEAR FRIEND, + +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 +_George Washington_ packet-ship from New York. She sails on the 7th of +June. + +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 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! + +In every town where we stay, though it be only for a day, we hold a +regular levée 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 _incog._ 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."[1] 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. + +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. + +Always direct to the care of David Colden, Esq., 28, Laight Street, +Hudson Square, New York. I received your Caledonia letter with the +greatest joy. + +Kate sends her best remembrances. + + And I am always. + +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[2] know +of this change--if needful? + + +[Sidenote: Dr. F. H. Deane.] + + CINCINNATI, OHIO, _April 4th, 1842._ + +MY DEAR SIR, + +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. + + Faithfully yours. + + This is the Grave of a Little Child, + + WHOM GOD IN HIS GOODNESS CALLED TO A BRIGHT ETERNITY + WHEN HE WAS VERY YOUNG. + + HARD AS IT IS FOR HUMAN AFFECTION TO RECONCILE ITSELF + TO DEATH IN ANY + SHAPE (AND MOST OF ALL, PERHAPS, AT FIRST IN THIS), + + HIS PARENTS CAN EVEN NOW BELIEVE THAT IT WILL BE A CONSOLATION + TO THEM THROUGHOUT THEIR LIVES, + + AND WHEN THEY SHALL HAVE GROWN OLD AND GRAY, + + Always to think of him as a Child in Heaven. + + "_And Jesus called a little child unto Him, and set him + in the midst of them._" + + HE WAS THE SON OF Q---- AND M---- THORNTON, CHRISTENED + + CHARLES JERKING. + + HE WAS BORN ON THE 20TH DAY OF JANUARY, 1841, + AND HE DIED ON THE 12TH DAY OF MARCH, 1842, + HAVING LIVED ONLY THIRTEEN MONTHS AND TWENTY DAYS. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Henry Austin.] + + NIAGARA FALLS (English Side), + _Sunday, May 1st, 1842._ + +MY DEAR HENRY, + +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. + +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. + +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 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."[3] 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. + +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. + +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. + +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!" + +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 +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." + +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. + +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 _don't_ rain but it holds up very +much indeed. You will be busy again long before I come home, I have no +doubt. + +We purpose leaving this on Wednesday morning. Give my love to Letitia +and to mother, and always believe me, my dear Henry, + + Affectionately yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Henry Austin.] + + MONTREAL, CANADA, _May 12th, 1842._ + +All well, though (with the exception of one from Fred) we have received +no letters whatever by the _Caledonia_. We have experienced +impossible-to-be-described attentions in Canada. Everybody's carriage +and horses are at our 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." + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Thomas Longman.] + + ATHENÆUM, _Friday Afternoon._ + +MY DEAR SIR, + +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. + +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. + +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. + +I beg my regards to Mrs. Longman, + + And am always, + Faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Miss Pardoe.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, YORK GATE, REGENT'S PARK, + _July 19th, 1842._ + +DEAR MADAM, + +I beg to set you right on one point in reference to the American +robbers, which perhaps you do not quite understand. + +The existing law allows them to reprint any English book, without any +communication whatever with the author or anybody else. My books have +all been reprinted on these agreeable terms. + +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. + +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. + + Faithfully yours always. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. H. P. Smith.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Thursday, July 14th, 1842._ + +MY DEAR SMITH, + +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. + +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. + +Best love and regards. "Certainly" to the Richmondian intentions. + + Always faithfully your Friend. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Harrison Ainsworth.] + + BROADSTAIRS, KENT, _September 14th, 1842._ + +MY DEAR AINSWORTH, + +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. + +I think it very pretty, and I have no doubt you will also. But it is +poetry, and may be too long. + +He is a very modest young fellow, and has decided ability. + +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. + +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, + + My dear Ainsworth, + Heartily yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Henry Austin.] + + BROADSTAIRS, _Sunday, September 25th, 1842._ + +MY DEAR HENRY, + +I enclose you the Niagara letter, with many thanks for the loan of it. + +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. + +I have been turning my thoughts to this very item in the condition of +American towns, and had put their present aspects strongly before the +American people; therefore I shall read his report with the greater +interest and attention. + +We return next Saturday night. + +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. + +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, + + Affectionately yours. + +P.S.--The children's present names are as follows: + +Katey (from a lurking propensity to fieryness), Lucifer Box. + +Mamey (as generally descriptive of her bearing), Mild Glo'ster. + +Charley (as a corruption of Master Toby), Flaster Floby. + +Walter (suggested by his high cheek-bones), Young Skull. + +Each is pronounced with a peculiar howl, which I shall have great +pleasure in illustrating. + + +[Sidenote: Rev. William Harness.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _November 8th, 1842._ + +MY DEAR HARNESS, + +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 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, + + Always faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. C. Macready.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Saturday, Nov. 12th, 1842._ + +MY DEAR MACREADY, + +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. + + Faithfully yours ever. + + +PROLOGUE + +TO MR. MARSTON'S PLAY OF "THE PATRICIAN'S DAUGHTER." + + No tale of streaming plumes and harness bright + Dwells on the poet's maiden harp to-night; + No trumpet's clamour and no battle's fire + Breathes in the trembling accents of his lyre; + + Enough for him, if in his lowly strain + He wakes one household echo not in vain; + Enough for him, if in his boldest word + The beating heart of MAN be dimly heard. + + Its solemn music which, like strains that sigh + Through charmèd gardens, all who hearing die; + Its solemn music he does not pursue + To distant ages out of human view; + Nor listen to its wild and mournful chime + In the dead caverns on the shore of Time; + But musing with a calm and steady gaze + Before the crackling flames of living days, + He hears it whisper through the busy roar + Of what shall be and what has been before. + Awake the Present! shall no scene display + The tragic passion of the passing day? + Is it with Man, as with some meaner things, + That out of death his single purpose springs? + Can his eventful life no moral teach + Until he be, for aye, beyond its reach? + Obscurely shall he suffer, act, and fade, + Dubb'd noble only by the sexton's spade? + Awake the Present! Though the steel-clad age + Find life alone within the storied page, + Iron is worn, at heart, by many still-- + The tyrant Custom binds the serf-like will; + If the sharp rack, and screw, and chain be gone, + These later days have tortures of their own; + The guiltless writhe, while Guilt is stretched in sleep, + And Virtue lies, too often, dungeon deep. + Awake the Present! what the Past has sown + Be in its harvest garner'd, reap'd, and grown! + How pride breeds pride, and wrong engenders wrong, + Read in the volume Truth has held so long, + Assured that where life's flowers freshest blow, + The sharpest thorns and keenest briars grow, + How social usage has the pow'r to change + Good thoughts to evil; in its highest range + To cramp the noble soul, and turn to ruth + The kindling impulse of our glorious youth, + Crushing the spirit in its house of clay, + Learn from the lessons of the present day. + Not light its import and not poor its mien; + Yourselves the actors, and your homes the scene. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. C. Macready.] + + _Saturday Morning._ + +MY DEAR MACREADY, + +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, + + Faithfully yours. + +P.S.--I need not remind you how common it is to have such pictures in +cases lying about elegant rooms. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. P. Frith.] + + 1, DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, YORK GATE, REGENT'S PARK, + _November 15th, 1842._ + +MY DEAR SIR, + +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. + + Faithfully yours always. + +P.S.--I take it for granted that the original picture of Dolly with the +bracelet is sold? + + +[Sidenote: The same.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _November 17th, 1842._ + +MY DEAR SIR, + +Pray consult your own convenience in the matter of my little commission; +whatever suits your engagements and prospects will best suit me. + +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. + + Faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Thomas Hood.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _November 30th, 1842._ + +MY DEAR HOOD, + +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." + +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. + + Always heartily yours, + BOZ. + + +[Sidenote: Mrs. Trollope.] + + 1, DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, YORK GATE, REGENT'S PARK, + _December 16th, 1842._ + +MY DEAR MRS. TROLLOPE, + +Let me thank you most cordially for your kind note, in reference to my +Notes, which has given me true pleasure and gratification. + +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. + +Mrs. Dickens begs me to thank you for your kind remembrance of her, and +to convey to you her best regards. Always believe me, + + Faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. George Cattermole.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _December 20th, 1842._ + +MY DEAR GEORGE, + +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. + +I took them to Mac, straightway, in a cab, and it would have done you +good if you could have seen and 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. + +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, + + Faithfully yours. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] The little dog--a white Havana spaniel--_was_ 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. + +[2] Life Insurance Office. + +[3] Mr. Macready's--so pronounced by one of Charles Dickens's little +children. + + + + +Book II. + +1843 TO 1857. + + + + +1843. + +NARRATIVE. + + +We 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. + +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." + +He was much distressed by the sad fate of Mr. Elton (a respected actor), +who was lost in the wreck of the _Pegasus_, and was very eager and +earnest in his endeavours to raise a fund on behalf of Mr. Elton's +children. + +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. + +The "Little History of England" was never finished--not, that is to say, +the one alluded to in the letter to Mr. Jerrold. + +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." + +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 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. + +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. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Charles Babbage.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _April 27th, 1843._ + +MY DEAR SIR, + +I write to you, _confidentially_, in answer to your note of last night, +and the tenor of mine will tell you why. + +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. + +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 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. + + My dear Sir, + Always faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Douglas Jerrold.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _May 3rd, 1843._ + +MY DEAR JERROLD, + +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. + +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. + +I am writing a little history of England for my boy, which I will send +you when it is printed for him, though 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. + +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. + +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? + +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 water. It is quite clear that she must +have made monsters of them by such a christening as that. + + My dear Jerrold, + Faithfully your Friend. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. David Dickson.] + + 1, DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, YORK GATE, REGENT'S PARK, + _May 10th, 1843._ + +SIR, + +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. + +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. + + Faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Douglas Jerrold.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _June 13th, 1843._ + +MY DEAR JERROLD, + +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: + + Old Febrile Mr. FARREN. + Young Febrile (his Son) Mr. HOWE. + Jack Hessians (his Friend) Mr. W. LACY. + Chalks (a Landlord) Mr. GOUGH. + Hon. Harry Staggers Mr. MELLON. + Sir Thomas Tip Mr. BUCKSTONE. + Swig Mr. WEBSTER. + The Duke of Leeds Mr. COUTTS. + Sir Smivin Growler Mr. MACREADY. + +Servants, Gamblers, Visitors, etc. + + Mrs. Febrile Mrs. GALLOT. + Lady Tip Mrs. HUMBY. + Mrs. Sour Mrs. W. CLIFFORD. + Fanny Miss A. SMITH. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + + I am always, my dear Jerrold, + Faithfully your Friend, + THE CONGREVE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY + (which I mean to be called in the Sunday papers). + +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. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Clarkson Stanfield.] + + 1, DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _July 26th, 1843._ + +MY DEAR STANFIELD, + +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 _Pegasus_. 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. + + Faithfully always. + +P.S.--The committee meet to-night at the Freemasons', at eight o'clock. + + +[Sidenote: Lord Morpeth.] + + 1, DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, YORK GATE, REGENT'S PARK, + _August 3rd, 1843._ + +DEAR LORD MORPETH, + +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. + + Believe me, with sincere regard, + Faithfully your Servant. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. William Harrison Ainsworth.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _October 13th, 1843._ + +MY DEAR AINSWORTH, + +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 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. + + Cordially yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. R. H. Horne.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _November 13th, 1843._ + + * * * * * + +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. + +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. + + Always faithfully yours. + + + + + +1844. + +NARRATIVE. + + +In 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. + +Mr. Macready went to America and returned in the autumn, and towards the +end of the year he paid a professional visit to Paris. + +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 _Britannia_, 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. + +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 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. + +"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. + +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. + +The Rev. Edward Tagart was a celebrated Unitarian minister, and a very +highly esteemed and valued friend. + +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. + +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. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. C. Macready.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _January 3rd, 1844._ + +MY VERY DEAR MACREADY, + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +"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 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! + +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. + +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. + +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 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? + +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. + + Ever your affectionate Friend. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Laman Blanchard.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _January 4th, 1844._ + +MY DEAR BLANCHARD, + +I cannot thank you enough for the beautiful manner and the true spirit +of friendship in which you have noticed my "Carol." But I _must_ thank +you because you have filled my heart up to the brim, and it is running +over. + +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. + +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. + + Always, my dear Blanchard, + Faithfully your Friend. + + +[Sidenote: Mrs. Charles Dickens.] + + LIVERPOOL, RADLEY'S HOTEL, _Monday, Feb. 26th, 1844._ + +MY DEAR KATE, + +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. + +When I came back here, I found Fanny and Hewett had picked me up just +before. We all went off straight to the _Britannia_, 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 _Caledonia_, 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 _George Washington_, died +on board, on his last passage home. His little wife was with him. + +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. + +I had Bacon with me as far as Watford yesterday, and very pleasant. +Sheil was also in the train, on his way to Ireland. + +Give my best love to Georgy, and kisses to the darlings. Also +affectionate regards to Mac and Forster. + + Ever affectionately. + + + + +OUT OF THE COMMON--PLEASE. + +DICKENS _against_ THE WORLD. + + +Charles Dickens, 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, 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! _Is_ 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. + + CHARLES DICKENS. + + Sworn before me, at the Adelphi } + Hotel, Liverpool, on the 26th } + of February, 1844. } + + S. RADLEY. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Clarkson Stanfield.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _April 30th, 1844._ + +MY DEAR STANFIELD, + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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, + + Affectionately yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Edwin Landseer.] + + ATHENÆUM, _Monday Morning, May 27th, 1844._ + +MY DEAR LANDSEER, + +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! + +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 + + BOZ. + +P.S.--The writer hereof may be heerd on by personal enquiry at No. 9, +Osnaburgh Terrace, New Road. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Charles Knight.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _June 4th, 1844._ + +MY DEAR SIR, + +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! + + Believe me always, + Faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Dudley Costello.] + + _June 7th, 1844._ + +DEAR SIR, + +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." + + Faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Robert Keeley.] + + 9, OSNABURGH TERRACE, _Monday Evening, June 24th, 1844._ + +MY DEAR SIR, + +I have been out yachting for two or three days; and consequently could +not answer your letter in due course. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + Faithfully yours always. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Daniel Maclise.] + + VILLA DI BAGNARELLO, ALBARO, _Monday, July 22nd, 1844._ + +MY VERY DEAR MAC, + +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 +Mediterranean. I am the limpet on the rock. My father's name is Turner +and my boots are green. + +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 _so_ 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. + +But such green--green--green--as flutters in the vineyard down below the +windows, _that_ 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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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, + + Your affectionate Friend. + + +[Sidenote: Rev. Edward Tagart.] + + ALBARO, NEAR GENOA, _Friday, August 9th, 1844._ + +MY DEAR SIR, + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 detained any longer, I will only say (which is not at all +necessary) that I am ever, + + Faithfully yours. + +P.S.--There is a little to see here, in the church way, I assure you. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Clarkson Stanfield.] + + ALBARO, _Saturday Night, August 24th, 1844._ + +MY DEAR STANFIELD, + +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. + +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.[4] 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 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: + + 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! (_whistling_) my dear + eyes; here am I a-goin' head on to the breakers + (_bowing_). + + _Admiral_ (_smiling_). No, William! I admire + plain speaking, as you know, and so does old + England, William, and old England's Queen. But + you were saying---- + + _William._ Aye, aye, your honour (_scratching + his head_). I've lost my reckoning. Damme!--I + ast pardon--but won't your honour throw a + hencoop or any old end of towline to a man as + is overboard? + + _Admiral_ (_smiling still_). You were saying, + William, that the wind---- + + _William_ (_again cocking his leg, and slapping + the thighs very hard_). 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! (_laughs._) + + _Admiral_ (_laughing also_). You have described + it well, William, and I thank you. But who are + these? + + _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._ + + _William_ (_after shaking hands with + everybody_). Who are these, your honour! + Messmates as staunch and true as ever broke + biscuit. Ain't you, my lads? + + _All._ Aye, aye, William. That we are! that we + are! + + _Admiral_ (_much affected_). Oh, England, what + wonder that----! But I will no longer detain + you from your sports, my humble friends + (ADMIRAL _speaks very low, and looks hard at + the orchestra, this being the cue for the + dance_)--from your sports, my humble friends. + Farewell! + + _All._ Hurrah! hurrah! [_Exit_ ADMIRAL. + + _Voice behind._ Suppose the dance, Mr. + Stanfield. Are you all ready? Go then! + +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! + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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, + + Your most affectionate Friend. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. C. Macready.] + + PALAZZO PESCHIERE, GENOA, _October 14th, 1844._ + +MY VERY DEAR MACREADY, + +My whole heart is with you _at home_. 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 _say_ 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. + +My dear fellow, God bless you twenty thousand times. 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! + + Ever yours affectionately. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Douglas Jerrold.] + + CREMONA, _Saturday Night, October 16th, 1844._ + +MY DEAR JERROLD, + +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. + +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 _you_ should think at the end of the four rounds (there +are no more) that the said Cant, in the language of _Bell's Life_, +"comes up piping," I shall be very much the better for it. + +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 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. + +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. + +It was very hearty and good of you, Jerrold, to make that affectionate +mention of the "Carol" in _Punch_, 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 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. + +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. + +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." + +I have never in my life been so struck by any place as by Venice. It is +_the_ 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 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. + +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, + + Always your Friend and Admirer. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Thomas Mitton.] + + PESCHIERE, GENOA, _Tuesday, Nov. 5th, 1844._ + +MY DEAR MITTON, + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Kate and her sister (who send their best regards) and all the children +are as well as possible. The house is _perfect_; 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. + +We have now got carpets down--burn fires at night--draw the curtains, +and are quite wintry. We have a box at 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. + +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. + + In haste to save the post, + Ever faithfully. + +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. + + +[Sidenote: Mrs. Charles Dickens.] + + PARMA, ALBERGO DELLA POSTA, _Friday, Nov. 8th, 1844._ + +MY DEAREST KATE, + +"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, 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 "_gia_" instead of "_si_," 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 +"_velociferi_," 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 +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. + +I purpose posting on to Bologna, if I can arrange it, at twelve +to-morrow; seeing the sights here first. + +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. + +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!" + +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. + +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. + +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 + + Mamey, + Katey, + Charley, + Wally, + and + Chickenstalker. + +P.S.--Get things in their places. I can't bear to picture them +otherwise. + +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. + + Alia sign^{a} + Sign^{a} Dickens. + Palazzo Peschiere, Genova. + + +[Sidenote: Mrs. Charles Dickens.] + + FRIBOURG, _Saturday Night, November 23rd, 1844._ + +MY DEAREST KATE, + +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. + +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 _sledged_ 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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + Ever, my dear love, + Affectionately yours. + +P.S.--I hope the dancing lessons will be a success. Don't fail to let me +know. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. C. Macready.] + + HÔTEL BRISTOL, PARIS, _Thursday Night, + Nov. 28th, 1844, Half-past Ten._ + +MY DEAREST MACREADY, + +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 +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! + +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. + +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. + + +[Sidenote: Mrs. Charles Dickens.] + + HÔTEL BRISTOL, PARIS, _Thursday Night, Nov. 28th, 1844._ + +MY DEAREST KATE, + +With an intolerable pen and no ink, I am going to write a few lines to +you to report progress. + +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 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. + +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? + +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 +dearly to think of any project which would involve her being +uncomfortable for that space of time. + +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. + +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. + +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!" + +Love to Charley, Mamey, Katey, Wally, and Chickenstalker. The +last-named, I take it for granted, is indeed prodigious. + +Best love to Georgy. + + Ever, my dearest Kate, + Affectionately yours. + +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. + + +[Sidenote: Mrs. Charles Dickens.] + + PIAZZA COFFEE HOUSE, COVENT GARDEN, + _Monday, Dec. 2nd, 1844._ + +MY DEAREST KATE, + +I received, with great delight, your _excellent_ letter of this morning. +Do not regard this as my answer to it. 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 _will_ 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. + +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. + +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. + +As the reading comes off to-morrow night, I had better not despatch my +letters to you until _Wednesday's_ 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, + + Yours, with true affection. + +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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] T. P. Cooke, the celebrated actor of "William" in Douglas Jerrold's +play of "Black-eyed Susan." + + + + +1845. + +NARRATIVE. + + +At 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. + +The letters which we have for this year, refer, with very few +exceptions, to these theatricals, and therefore need no explanation. + +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 +_The Daily News_ paper, of which he undertook the editorship at its +starting, which took place in the beginning of the following year, 1846. + + +[Sidenote: Miss Hogarth.] + + ROME, _Tuesday, February 4th, 1845._ + +MY DEAREST GEORGY, + +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. + +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. + +Anxiously expecting you, I am ever, + + Dear Georgy, + Yours most affectionately. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Thomas Mitton.] + + NAPLES, _Monday, February 17th, 1845._ + +MY DEAR MITTON, + +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 +_the people_, whom he doctored in the bad time of the cholera, when the +priests and everybody else fled in terror. + +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. + +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 drawing-room, and pay, commonly, seven or eight pounds a week. + +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. + +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. + +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 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 /--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 [HW: 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 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_ +never saw anything so awful and terrible. + +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 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. + +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 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! + +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. + +Address me as usual. All letters are forwarded. The children well and +happy. Best regards. + + Ever faithfully. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. C. Macready.] + + ALBION HOTEL, BROADSTAIRS, _Sunday, Aug. 17th, 1845._ + +MY DEAR MACREADY, + +I have been obliged to communicate with the _Punch_ 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. + +Jerrold now assures me that it can for such a purpose, and that it +shall, and therefore consider the play as being arranged to come off on +Saturday, the 20th of next month. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + + Ever, my dear Macready, + Affectionately yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. George Cattermole.] + + _August 27th, 1845._ + +MY DEAR GEORGE, + +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 _Punch_ 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. + +Let me know what you decide, like a Kittenmolian Trojan. And with love +from all here to all there, + + Believe me, ever, + Heartily yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. C. Macready.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Thursday, Sept. 18th, 1845._ + +MY DEAR MACREADY, + +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. + +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. + + Ever yours affectionately. + +N.B.--Observe. I think of changing my present mode of life, and am open +to an engagement. + +N.B. No. 2.--I will undertake not to play tragedy, though passion is my +strength. + +N.B. No. 3.--I consider myself a chained lion.[5] + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Clarkson Stanfield.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _October 2nd, 1845._ + +MY DEAR STANNY, + +I send you the claret jug. But for a mistake, you would have received +the little remembrance almost immediately after my return from abroad. + +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. + +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! + + Ever affectionately yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. C. Macready.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Friday Evening, Oct. 17th, 1845._ + +MY DEAR MACREADY, + +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! + +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. + + Thine, + THE UNWAISTCOATED ONE. + + +[Sidenote: Viscount Morpeth.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Nov. 28th, 1845._ + +MY DEAR LORD MORPETH, + +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 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." + + Ever faithfully yours. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[5] 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. + + + + +1846. + +NARRATIVE. + + +In the spring of this year Charles Dickens gave up the editorship of, +and finally, all connection with _The Daily News_, 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 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. + +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 _The Daily News_, 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. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. H. Wills.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _February 18th, 1846._ + +MY DEAR MR. WILLS, + +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 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. + + Faithfully yours always. + + +[Sidenote: Rev. James White.] + + 1, DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, YORK GATE, REGENT'S PARK, + _February 24th, 1846._ + +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 _could_ tell +you--I do believe you would be glad to know it. + + Always faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. H. Wills.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Monday Morning, March 2nd, 1846._ + +MY DEAR MR. WILLS, + +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 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. + +I think the best way is to say, that if you think you can do him any +_permanent_ 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. + +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. + +Say all that is civil for me to the proprietor of _The Illustrated +London News_, who really seems to be very liberal. "Other engagements," +etc. etc., "prevent me from entertaining," etc. etc. + + Faithfully yours ever. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. H. Wills.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _March 4th, 1846._ + +MY DEAR MR. WILLS, + +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 in the Tower. Such, +appeals come to me here in scores upon scores. + +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 +_not_ 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. + +I trust this new printer _is_ 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. + +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. + + Ever faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Clarkson Stanfield.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _March 6th, 1846._ + +MY DEAR STANNY, + +In reference to the damage of the candlesticks, I beg to quote (from +"The Cricket on the Hearth," by the highly popular and deservedly so +Dick) this reply: + +"I'll damage you if you enquire." + + Ever yours, + My block-reeving, + Main-brace splicing, + Lead-heaving, + Ship-conning, + Stun'sail-bending, + Deck-swabbing + Son of a sea-cook, + HENRY BLUFF, + H.M.S. _Timber._ + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Charles Knight.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Saturday, April 13th, 1846._ + +MY DEAR SIR, + +Do you recollect sending me your biography of Shakespeare last autumn, +and my not acknowledging its receipt? I do, with remorse. + +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. + + Always believe me, + Faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Miss Ely.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Sunday, April 19th, 1846._ + +MY DEAR MISS ELY, + +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." + +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! + +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 _you_ 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. + +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. + + Ever, my dear Miss Ely, + Faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Douglas Jerrold.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Tuesday, May 26th, 1846._ + +MY DEAR JERROLD, + +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! + +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. + +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. + +At Macready's on Thursday, we shall meet, please God! + + Always, my dear Jerrold, + Cordially yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. C. Macready.] + + GENEVA, _Saturday, October 24th, 1846._ + +MY DEAR MACREADY, + +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 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. + +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 _do_ die, consequently, every day, in the +hospital, of sores that in themselves were nothing. + +_You_ a mountaineer! _You_ 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 +_you_ 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 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.) + +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. + +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. + +Kate and Georgy send their best loves to Mrs. and Miss Macready and all +your house. + + Your most affectionate Friend. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Haldimand.] + + PARIS, _November, 1846._ + + * * * * * + +Talking of which[6] 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: + + "This Christmas book is cordially inscribed to + my English friends in Switzerland." + +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. + + * * * * * + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Walter Savage Landor.] + + PARIS, _Sunday, November 22nd, 1846._ + +YOUNG MAN, + +I will not go there if I can help it. I have not the least confidence in +the value of your introduction to the 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. + +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 _do_ offend me, look to it. + +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. + +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 outside into +the street, playing Eolian harps among the area railings, and going down +the New Road like the blast of a trumpet. + +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?-- + + Ever yours. + + +[Sidenote: The Hon. Richard Watson.] + + PARIS, 48, RUE DE COURCELLES, ST. HONORÉ, + _Friday, Nov. 27th, 1846._ + +MY DEAR WATSON, + +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. + +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, 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. 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. + +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. + +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, + + Very sincerely yours. + +P.S.--Mrs. Dickens is going to write to Mrs. Watson next week, she says. + + +[Sidenote: M. Cerjat.] + + PARIS, 48, RUE DE COURCELLES, ST. HONORÉ, + _Friday, Nov. 27th, 1846._ + +MY DEAR CERJAT, + +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 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 _did_ 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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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_ hadn't any! And are +those damask-cheeked virgins, the Miss ----, still sleeping on dewy rose +leaves near the English church? + +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, + + Very faithfully your Friend. + + +[Sidenote: Mrs. Charles Dickens.] + + 58, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, _Saturday, Dec. 19th, 1846._ + +MY DEAREST KATE, + +I really am bothered to death by this confounded _dramatization_ 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. + +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. + +Christmas book published to-day--twenty-three thousand copies already +gone!!! Browne's plates for next "Dombey" much better than usual. + +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. + +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, + + Most affectionately. + + +[Sidenote: Mrs. Charles Dickens.] + + PIAZZA COFFEE-HOUSE, COVENT GARDEN, + _Monday, Dec. 21st, 1846._ + +MY DEAREST KATE, + +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_ 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 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 _liberally_. 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. + +_Tuesday Morning._--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. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. John Forster.] + + 48, RUE DE COURCELLES, PARIS, + _Sunday Night, Dec. 27th, 1846._ + +MY VERY DEAR FORSTER, + +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. + +I enclose you a letter from Jeffrey, which you may like to read. _Bring +it to me back when you come over._ I have 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. + +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. + +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. + +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, 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. + + Ever affectionately. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[6] "The Battle of Life." + + + + +1847. + +NARRATIVE. + + +At 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 _all_ 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 +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. + +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. + +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--_then_ 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) became a +sailor, and died and was buried at sea two years after his father's +death. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +The letter to Mr. William Sandys has reference to an intention which +Charles Dickens _had_ 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. + + +[Sidenote: The Hon. Mrs. Watson.] + + PARIS, 48, RUE DE COURCELLES, _Jan. 25th, 1847._ + +MY DEAR MRS. WATSON, + +I cannot allow your wandering lord to return to your--I suppose "arms" +is not improper--arms, then, 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 _you_ 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. + +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. + +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 _may_ 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_ 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. + +Kate and her sister send all kinds of love in this hasty packet, and I +am always, my dear Mrs. Watson, + + Faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Rev. Edward Tagart.] + + PARIS, 48, RUE DE COURCELLES, ST. HONORÉ, + _Thursday, Jan. 28th, 1847._ + +MY DEAR SIR, + +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. + +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. + +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 out, when my morning work is done, and look at pen and ink no +more until I begin again. + +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. + +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 _a people_ 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 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. + +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. + +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. _Our_ children wish to live +too in _your_ 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 _the last chapter of No. +5_. 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. + + Ever believe me, + Cordially and truly yours. + + +[Sidenote: Miss Dickens.] + + VICTORIA HOTEL, EUSTON SQUARE, + _Thursday, March 4th, 1847._ + +MY DEAREST MAMEY, + +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 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. + + Always your affectionate. + + +[Sidenote: Miss Hogarth.] + + CHESTER PLACE, _Tuesday Night._ + +MY DEAREST GEORGY, + + * * * * * + +So far from having "got through my agonies," as you benevolently hope, I +have not yet begun them. No, on this _ninth of the month_ 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. + +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. + +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. + + Ever affectionately. + + +[Sidenote: Miss Dickens and Miss Katey Dickens.] + + 148, KING'S ROAD, BRIGHTON, _Monday, May 24, 1847._ + +MY DEAR MAMEY AND KATEY, + +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. + +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. + +Mamma and Auntey and Charley send their loves. I send mine too, to +Walley, Spim, and Alfred, and Sydney. + + Always, my dears, + Your affectionate Papa. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. William Sandys.] + + 1, DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _June 13th, 1847._ + +DEAR SIR, + +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. + +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 Boswell, society wouldn't have respected his +grave, but would calmly have had his skull in the phrenological +shop-windows. + + Believe me, + Faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. H. P. Smith.] + + CHESTER PLACE, _June 14th, 1847._ + +MY DEAR SMITH, + +Haldimand stayed at No. 7, Connaught Place, Hyde Park, when I saw him +yesterday. But he was going to cross to Boulogne to-day. + +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. + + Affectionately yours. + +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. + + +[Sidenote: Miss Power.] + + BROADSTAIRS, KENT, _July 2nd, 1847._ + +MY DEAR MISS POWER, + +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. + +I cannot say I take very kindly to the illustrations. 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + Dear Miss Power, + Faithfully yours ever. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. H. P. Smith.] + + BROADSTAIRS, _July 9th, 1847._ + +MY DEAR SMITH, + +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. + +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. + +I am, for the time, that obscene thing, in short, now chronicled in the +Marylebone Register of Births-- + + A PLAYER, + Though still yours. + + +[Sidenote: Miss Power.] + + BROADSTAIRS, KENT, _Tuesday, July 14th, 1847._ + +MY DEAR MISS POWER, + +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) 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. + +An advertisement in the newspapers mentioning the dinner-time, will be +esteemed a favour. + +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. + +Seriously, she beats Van Amburgh. And I think the Duke of Wellington +must have her painted by Landseer. + +My penitent regards to Lady Blessington, Count D'Orsay, and my own +Marchioness. + + Ever, dear Miss Power, + Very faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Miss Dickens.] + + BROADSTAIRS, _Wednesday, August 4th, 1847._ + +MY DEAREST MAMEY, + +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. + +The note you sent me this morning is a very nice one, and the spelling +is beautiful. + + Always, my dear Mamey, + Your affectionate Papa. + + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. C. Macready.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Tuesday Morning, Nov. 23rd, 1847._ + +MY DEAR MACREADY, + +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. + +What is this to say! Nothing, God knows, and yet I cannot leave it +unsaid. + + Ever affectionately yours. + +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. + + +[Sidenote: Miss Hogarth.] + + EDINBURGH, _Thursday, December 13th, 1847._ + +MY DEAR GEORGY, + +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 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. _Kate didn't +go!_ having been taken ill on the railroad between here and Glasgow. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + Ever affectionately, dear Georgy. + + + + +1848. + +NARRATIVE. + + +In 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. + +In this summer, his eldest sister Fanny (Mrs. Burnett) died, and there +are sorrowful allusions to her illness in several of the letters. + +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 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. + +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 _The Sun_ +newspaper, begging him to thank the writer of a particularly sympathetic +and earnest review of "Dombey and Son," which appeared in _The Sun_ 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. + +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." + +Mr. Peter Cunningham, as an important member of the "Shakespeare's +House" committee, managed the _un_-theatrical part of this Amateur +Provincial Tour, and was always pleasantly connected with the plays. + +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." + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Charles Babbage.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _February 26th, 1848._ + +MY DEAR SIR, + +Pray let me thank you for your pamphlet. + +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. + + Faithfully yours always. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. C. Macready.] + + JUNCTION HOUSE, BRIGHTON, _March 2nd, 1848._ + +MY DEAR MACREADY, + +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. + +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. + +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. + +However, we'll talk of all this on these Sundays, and Mr. ---- shall +_not_ be raised to the pinnacle of fame. + + Ever affectionately yours, + My dear Macready. + + +[Sidenote: Editor of _The Sun_.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, YORK GATE, REGENT'S PARK, + _Friday, April 14th, 1848._ + + _Private._ + +Mr. Charles Dickens presents his compliments to the Editor of _The Sun_, +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 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. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. Charles M. Kent.] + + 1, DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, YORK GATE, REGENT'S PARK, + _April 18th, 1848._ + +DEAR SIR, + +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. + + Faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. John Forster.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Saturday, April 22nd, 1848._ + +MY DEAR FORSTER,[7] + +I finished Goldsmith yesterday, after dinner, having read it from the +first page to the last with the greatest care and attention. + +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. + +And as to Goldsmith himself, and _his_ 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 of the reader cluster about him from his youth, and +strengthen with his strength--and weakness too, which is better still. + +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. + +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. + +I have reserved for a closing word--though I _don't_ 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. + +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. + + Ever affectionately. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Mark Lemon.] + + _Wednesday, May 3rd, 1848._ + +MY DEAR LEMON, + +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." + +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. + +Can you come to Miss Kelly's by _three_? 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. + + Faithfully ever. + +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. + + +[Sidenote: Rev. James White.] + + ATHENÆUM, _Thursday, May 4th, 1848._ + +MY DEAR WHITE, + +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. + +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 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 _is_ well." + +God be with you. Kate and her sister desire their kindest love to +yourself and Mrs. White, in which I heartily join. + + Being ever, my dear White, + Your affectionate Friend. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. C. Macready.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Wednesday, May 10th, 1848._ + +MY DEAR MACREADY, + +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 here, with thy fair daughters, +Mistress Nina and the little Kate. Wherefore, most selected friend, +perpend at thy leisure, and so God speed thee! + + And no more at present from, + Thine ever. + + From my tent in my garden. + + +ANOTHER "BOBADIL" NOTE. + +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. + +[Illustration: HW: Signature: Bobadil] + + At Cobb's, a water-bearer, + _October 11th._ + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Peter Cunningham.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Thursday Morning, June 22nd, 1848._ + +MY DEAR CUNNINGHAM, + +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. + +All preparations completed in Edinburgh and Glasgow. There will be a +great deal of money taken, especially at the latter place. + +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. + + Faithfully yours always. + +P.S.--I am fully persuaded that an amateur manager has more +correspondence than the Home Secretary. + + +[Sidenote: The Hon. Mrs. Watson.] + + 1, DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, REGENT'S PARK, + _July 27th, 1848._ + +MY DEAR MRS. WATSON, + +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. + +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 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_ 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. + +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. 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, + + Very faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. C. Macready.] + + BROADSTAIRS, KENT, _Saturday, August 26th, 1848._ + +MY DEAR MACREADY, + +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. + +Permit me, in conclusion, to nail my colours to the mast. Stars and +stripes are so-so--showy, perhaps; but my colours is THE UNION JACK, +which I am told has the remarkable property of having braved a thousand +years the battle AND 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! + +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? + + Affectionately ever. + + +[Sidenote: Miss Dickens.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Friday, Sept. 8th, 1848._ + +MY DEAREST MAMEY, + +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. + +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. + + Ever, my dear Mamey, + Most affectionately yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Effingham William Wilson.] + + 1, DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, YORK GATE, REGENT'S PARK, + _Nov. 7th, 1848._ + + "A NATIONAL THEATRE." + +SIR, + +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. + + Faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Frank Stone.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Tuesday, Nov. 21st, 1848._ + +MY DEAR STONE, + +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 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. + +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. + + Ever faithfully. + + +SUBJECTS IN HAND FOR THE SECOND PART. + +1. Illuminated page. Tenniel. Representing Redlaw going upstairs, and +the Tetterby family below. + +2. The Tetterby supper. Leech. + +3. The boy in Redlaw's room, munching his food and staring at the fire. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Frank Stone.] + + BRIGHTON, _Thursday Night, Nov. 23rd, 1848._ + +MY DEAR STONE, + +We are unanimous. + +The drawing of Milly on the chair is CHARMING. I cannot tell you how +much the little composition and expression please me. Do that, by all +means. + +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. + +I am delighted to hear that you have your eye on her in the students' +room. You will really, pictorially, make the little woman whom I love. + +Kate and Georgy send their kindest remembrances. I write hastily to save +the post. + + Ever, my dear Stone, + Faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Frank Stone.] + + BEDFORD HOTEL, BRIGHTON, _Monday Night, Nov. 27th, 1848._ + +MY DEAR STONE, + +You are a TRUMP, 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. + +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 _rather_ 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. + +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 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. + +The Duke of Cambridge is staying in this house, and they are driving me +mad by having Life Guards bands under our windows, playing _our_ +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. + +Kate's love and Georgy's. They say you'll contradict every word of this +letter. + + Faithfully ever. + + +[SLIP OF PAPER ENCLOSED.] + +"Hurrah! here's Mrs. Williams!" cried Johnny. + +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 then ran back and flocked and danced about +her, trooping on with her in triumph. + +(After which, she is going to say: "What, are _you_ all glad to see me +too! Oh, how happy it makes me to find everyone so glad to see me this +bright morning!") + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Mark Lemon.] + + BEDFORD HOTEL, BRIGHTON, _Nov. 28th, 1848._ + +MY DEAR MARK, + +I assure you, most unaffectedly and cordially, that the dedication of +that book to Mary and _Kate_ (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. + +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 MUST be done. +Write and say it shall be done. + +A little management will be required in dramatising the third part, +where there are some things I _describe_ (for effect's sake, and as a +matter of art) which must be _said_ 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. + +I went to the play last night--fifth act of Richard the Third. Richmond +by a stout _lady_, 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 _My_ +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. + + Ever affectionately. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[7] LETTER OF BARON TAÜCHNITZ. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +TAÜCHNITZ. + +Leipsic, _May 23, 1873._ + + + + +1849. + +NARRATIVE. + + +This, 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. + +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." + +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. + +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 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." + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Dudley Costello.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Friday Night, Jan. 26th, 1849._ + +MY DEAR COSTELLO, + +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! + + Ever faithfully yours. + +P.S.--I find myself too despondent for the flourish. + + +[Sidenote: Miss Dickens.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Tuesday Night, Feb. 27th, 1849._ + +MY DEAREST MAMEY, + +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. + + Ever affectionately yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Clarkson Stanfield.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _May 25th, 1849._ + +MY DEAR STANFIELD. + +No--no--no! Murder, murder! Madness and misconception! Any _one_ of the +subjects--not the whole. Oh, 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! + +Says my friend to me, "Will you ask _your_ 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 _one_ of those subjects?" +Says I, "I will." + +I am beating my head against the door with grief and frenzy, and I shall +continue to do so, until I receive your answer. + + Ever heartily yours, + THE MISCONCEIVED ONE. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Frank Stone.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Monday, June 4th, 1849._ + +MY DEAR STONE, + +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. + + Ever yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mrs. Charles Dickens.] + + SHANKLIN, ISLE OF WIGHT, _Monday Night, June 16th, 1849._ + +MY DEAR KATE, + +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 +begin to dismantle Devonshire Terrace. I have arranged for carriages, +luggage, and everything. + +The man with the post-bag is swearing in the passage. + + Ever affectionately. + +P.S.--A waterfall on the grounds, which I have arranged with a carpenter +to convert into a perpetual shower-bath. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Mark Lemon.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Monday, June 25th, 1849._ + +MY DEAR LEMON, + +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. + +Get a clean pocket-handkerchief ready for the close of "Copperfield" No. +3; "simple and quiet, but very natural and touching."--_Evening Bore._ + + Ever affectionately. + + +NEW SONG. + +TUNE--"Lesbia hath a beaming eye." + +1. + + Lemon is a little hipped, + And this is Lemon's true position; + He is not pale, he's not white-lipped, + Yet wants a little fresh condition. + Sweeter 'tis to gaze upon + Old ocean's rising, falling billows, + Than on the houses every one, + That form the street called Saint Anne's Willers. + Oh, my Lemon, round and fat, + Oh, my bright, my right, my tight 'un, + Think a little what you're at-- + Don't stay at home, but come to Brighton! + +2. + + Lemon has a coat of frieze, + But all so seldom Lemon wears it, + That it is a prey to fleas, + And ev'ry moth that's hungry tears it. + Oh, that coat's the coat for me, + That braves the railway sparks and breezes, + Leaving every engine free + To smoke it, till its owner sneezes! + Then my Lemon, round and fat, + L., my bright, my right, my tight 'un, + Think a little what you're at-- + On Tuesday first, come down to Brighton! + + T. SPARKLER. + +Also signed, + + CATHERINE DICKENS, + ANNIE LEECH, + GEORGINA HOGARTH, + MARY DICKENS, + KATIE DICKENS, + JOHN LEECH. + + +[Sidenote: Rev. James White.] + + WINTERBOURNE, _Sunday Evening, Sept. 23rd, 1849._ + +MY DEAR WHITE, + +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. + +"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. 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. + + Affectionately always. + + +[Sidenote: Miss Joll.] + + ROCKINGHAM CASTLE, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, + _Nov. 27th, 1849._ + +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. + + +[Sidenote: The Hon. Mrs. Watson.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Friday Night, Nov. 30th, 1849._ + _A Quarter-past Ten._ + +MY DEAR MRS. WATSON, + +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 + +[Illustration: H. E. R.!] + +and to all the rest of Rockingham; as the wine went down my throat, I +felt distinctly that it was "changing those thoughts to madness." + +On the way here I was a terror to my companions, and I am at present a +blight and mildew on my home. + +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, + + Ever faithfully yours. + +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.S.--"Changing" those thoughts ought to be "driving." But my +recollection is incoherent and my mind wanders. + + +[Sidenote: M. Cerjat.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Saturday, Dec. 29th, 1849._ + +MY DEAR CERJAT, + +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. + +What a strange coincidence that is about Blunderstone 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 _must_ 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. + +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. + +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 "_laissez aller_." 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 _within the +prison walls_, with decidedly improved results. (I am waiting to explode +this fact on the first man of mark who gives me the opportunity.) + +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 God!" in reply to some +proposition of mine, and then laughing. + +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. + +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, + + Your faithful Friend. + + + + +1850. + +NARRATIVE. + + +In 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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. David Roberts, R.A.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _January 3rd, 1850._ + +MY DEAR ROBERTS, + +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. + + Ever, my dear Roberts, + Faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. James Sheridan Knowles.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _January 3rd, 1850._ + +MY DEAR GOOD KNOWLES, + +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 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. + +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. + + Heartily and faithfully yours. + "Daddy" Knowles. + + +[Sidenote: Mrs. Gaskell.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _January 31st, 1850._ + +MY DEAR MRS. GASKELL, + +You may perhaps have seen an announcement in the papers of my intention +to start a new cheap weekly journal of general literature. + +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. + +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 +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. + +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. + +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, + + Faithfully yours. + +P.S.--Mrs. Dickens and her sister send their love. + + +[Sidenote: Rev. James White.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Tuesday, Feb. 5th, 1850._ + +MY DEAR WHITE, + +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.) + +Now the murder's out! + +Are you never coming to town any more? Must I come 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 _not_ coming to dinner? Well, well, +I can always go over to Puseyism to spite my friends, and that's some +comfort. + +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. + + Ever heartily yours, my dear White. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Charles Knight.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _February 8th, 1850._ + +MY DEAR KNIGHT, + +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. + +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. + +I never see you, and begin to think we must have another play--say in +Cornwall--expressly to bring us together. + + Very faithfully yours. + + + + +SUGGESTIONS FOR TITLES OF "HOUSEHOLD WORDS." + +THE FORGE: + +A Weekly Journal, + +Conducted by Charles Dickens. + + + "Thus at the glowing Forge of Life our actions must be wrought, + Thus on its sounding anvil shaped + Each burning deed and thought."--_Longfellow._ + + THE HEARTH. + THE FORGE. + THE CRUCIBLE. + THE ANVIL OF THE TIME. + CHARLES DICKENS'S OWN. + SEASONABLE LEAVES. + EVERGREEN LEAVES. + HOME. + HOME-MUSIC. + CHANGE. + TIME AND TIDE. + TWOPENCE. + ENGLISH BELLS. + WEEKLY BELLS. + THE ROCKET. + GOOD HUMOUR. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. H. Wills.] + + 148, KING'S ROAD, BRIGHTON, + _Tuesday Night, March 12th, 1850._ + +MY DEAR WILLS, + +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. + +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. + +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. + +I really _can't_ 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. + +As to _two_ comic articles, or two any sort of articles, out of me, +that's the intensest extreme of no-goism. + + Ever faithfully. + + +[Sidenote: Rev. James White.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _July 13th, 1850._ + +MY DEAR WHITE, + +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.[8] 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 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. + +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. + +"Household Words" goes on _thoroughly well_. 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. + +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. + + Ever, my dear White, + Cordially yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. H. Wills.] + + HÔTEL WINDSOR, PARIS, _Thursday, July 27th, 1850._ + _After post-time._ + +MY DEAR WILLS, + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + Ever faithfully. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. H. Wills.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _August 9th, 1850._ + +MY DEAR WILLS, + +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 manuscripts, that compliance is impossible, or I should +have no other occupation or relaxation in the world. + +[Symbol: right 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. + + Faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mrs. Charles Dickens.] + + BROADSTAIRS, _Tuesday, Sept. 3rd, 1850._ + +MY DEAREST KATE, + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +Our train on Friday will be half-past twelve. I have spoken to Georgy +about the partridges, and hope we may find some. + + Ever, my dearest Kate, + Most affectionately. + + +[Sidenote: Miss Mary Boyle.] + + BROADSTAIRS, KENT, _Monday Night, Sept. 16th, 1850._ + +MY DEAR MISS BOYLE, + +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 +_perfectly delighted_ 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 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 +_do_ 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. + + My dear Miss Boyle, very faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Miss Mary Boyle.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Friday, Sept. 20th, 1850._ + +MY DEAR MISS BOYLE, + +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 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. + +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. + + Ever very faithfully yours. + +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. + +I will let you know about "A Day after the Wedding." I have sent for the +book on Monday. + + +[Sidenote: The Hon. Mrs. Watson.] + + BROADSTAIRS, KENT, _September 24th, 1850._ + +MY DEAR MRS. WATSON, + +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 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. + +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? + +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, + + Ever, my dear Mrs. Watson, + Very faithfully yours. + +P.S.--I find I am not equal to the flourish. + + +[Sidenote: Miss Mary Boyle.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Wednesday, Oct 30th, 1850._ + +MY DEAR MISS BOYLE, + +We are all extremely concerned and distressed to lose you. But we feel +that it cannot be otherwise, and we do not, in our own expectation of +amusement, forget the sad cause of your absence. + +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. + +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. + + Dear Miss Boyle, + Faithfully yours always. + + +[Sidenote: The Hon. Mrs. Watson.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Saturday Evening, Nov. 23rd, 1850._ + +MY DEAR MRS. WATSON, + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + My dear Mrs. Watson, + Ever faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Henry Bicknell.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _November 28th, 1850._ + +MY DEAR MR. BICKNELL, + +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. + +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. + + Very faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Walter Savage Landor.] + + OFFICE OF "HOUSEHOLD WORDS," + _Wednesday, Dec. 4th, 1850._ + +MY DEAR LANDOR, + +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 _The Examiner_, and for which--as it exalts +me--I cannot, cannot thank you in words. + +We had been following up the blow in Kinkel's[9] 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. + +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. + + Ever most affectionately yours, + My dear Landor. + + + +[Sidenote: The Hon. Mrs. Watson.] + + [Symbol: right hand] THIS IS NO. 2. + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Monday Morning, Dec. 9th, 1850._ + +MY DEAR MRS. WATSON, + +Your note to me of Saturday has crossed mine to you, I find. If you open +both of mine together, please to observe _this is No. 2_. + +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 _me_, and I will apply all needful screws and tortures to him. + +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." + + Ever faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: The same.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Saturday, Dec. 14th, 1850._ + +MY DEAR MRS. WATSON, + +I shall be delighted to come on the seventh instead of the eighth. We +consider it an engagement. Over and above 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. + +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 through it toward the hall. +_Nous verrons._ I will write again about my visit of inspection, +probably on Monday. + +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 _caro sposo_ 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.[10] 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! + +Your brother[11] 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. 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, + + Ever, dear Mrs. Watson, + Faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: The Hon. Mrs. Watson.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _December 19th, 1850._ + +MY DEAR MRS. WATSON, + +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 +A.M. (horrible initials!), and to that invention for promoting early +rising I design to commit myself. + +I am shocked if I also made the mistake of confounding those two (and +too) similar names.[12] But I think Mr. S-T-A-F-F-O-R-D had better do +the Marquis. I am glad to find that we agree, but we always do. + +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 _could_ 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, + + Ever, dear Mrs. Watson, + Faithfully yours. + +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. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. John Poole.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Tuesday Night, Christmas Eve, 1850._ + +MY DEAR POOLE, + +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. + +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 _a hundred a year_! of which I heartily wish you joy. + +He says: "I am happy to say that the Queen has approved of a pension of +one hundred pounds a year to Mr. Poole. + +"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. + +"Be so good as to inform Mr. Poole that directions are given for his +pension, which will date from the end of June last." + +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. + +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. + +With all good wishes and congratulations, seasonable and unseasonable, + + Always faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: The Hon. Mrs. Watson.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Monday Morning, Dec. 30th, 1850._ + +MY DEAR MRS. WATSON, + +As your letter is _decided_, 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. (_Here I break +off to go to Boxall._) (_Here I return much exhausted._) + +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: + + {will come on Tuesday, 7th January, as there must be a + {responsible person to anathematise, and as the company + NATHAN {seem so slow about their dresses, that I foresee the + AND {strong probability of Nathan having a good deal to do + STAGE CARPENTER {at Rockingham without respect. + + WILSON will come on Saturday, 11th January. + TUCKER will come on Saturday, 11th January. + +I shall be delighted to see your brother, and so no more at present from + + Yours ever, + COLDSTREAM FREELOVE DOCTOR DICKENS. + +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. + +"Tag" added by Mr. Dickens to "Animal Magnetism," played at Rockingham +Castle. + + ANIMAL MAGNETISM.--TAG. + + [After LA FLEUR says to the Marquis: "Sir, return him the wand; and + the ladies, I daresay, will fall in love with him again."] + + DOCTOR. I'm cheated, robbed! I don't believe! I hate + Wand, Marquis, Doctor, Ward, Lisette, and Fate! + + LA FLEUR. Not me? + + DOCTOR. _You_ worse, you rascal, than the rest. + + LA FLEUR. (_bowing_). To merit it, good sir, I've done my best. + + LISETTE. (_sharply_). And I. + + CONSTANCE. I fear that I too have a claim + Upon your anger. + + LISETTE. Anger, madam? Shame! + He's justly treated, as he might have known. + And if the wand were a divining one + It would have turn'd, within his very hands, + Point-blank to where your handsome husband stands. + + CONSTANCE (_glancing at_ DOCTOR). I would it were the wand of + Harlequin, + To change his temper and his favour win. + + JEFFREY (_peeping in_). In that case, mistress, you might be + so kind + As wave me back the eye of which I'm blind. + + MARQUIS (_laughing and examining it_). 'Tis nothing but a piece + of senseless wood, + And has no influence for harm or good. + Yet stay! It surely draws me towards those + Indulgent, pleasant, smiling, beaming rows! + It surely charms me. + + ALL. And us too. + + MARQUIS. To bend + Before their gen'rous efforts to commend; + To cheer us on, through these few happy hours, + And strew our mimic way with real flowers. + +[_All make obeisance._ + + Stay yet again. Among us all, I feel + One subtle, all-pervading influence steal, + Stirring one wish within one heart and head, + Bright be the path our host and hostess tread! + Blest be their children, happy be their race, + Long may they live, this ancient hall to grace + Long bear of English virtues noble fruit-- + Green-hearted ROCKINGHAM! strike deep thy root + +FOOTNOTES: + +[8] The last illness of Mrs. White's mother. + +[9] 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. + +[10] The part of the lawyer in "Used Up." It was _not_ 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. + +[11] This part, finally, was played by Charles Dickens, junior. + +[12] Mr. Stafford and Mr. Stopford, who both acted in the plays at +Rockingham. + + + + +1851. + +NARRATIVE. + + +In 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +His eldest son was now an Eton boy. He had been one 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. + +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 _books_. 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. + +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. + +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 _act_ 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. + + +[Sidenote: The Hon. Mrs. Watson.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _January 24th, 1851._ + +MY DEAR MRS. WATSON, + +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. + +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. + +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. + + Ever, dear Mrs. Watson, faithfully yours, and his. + + +[Sidenote: The same.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Tuesday Night, Jan. 28th, 1851._ + +MY DEAR, DEAR MRS. WATSON, + +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 _my_ 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! + +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? + +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!" + +Her ladyship and the ward of the FIZ-ZISH-UN 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. + + Ever, dear Mrs. Watson, faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Mark Lemon.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Friday, Jan. 31st, 1851._ + +MY DEAR LEMON, + +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! + +We join in affectionate loves to you and your dear wife. She well +deserves your praise, I am sure. + + Ever affectionately yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. H. Wills.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Monday, Feb. 10th, 1851._ + +MY DEAR WILLS, + +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. + +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. + +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. + +And in the meantime you shall have a proof of the plan. + + Ever yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mrs. Charles Dickens.] + + HÔTEL WAGRAM, PARIS, _Thursday, Feb. 12th, 1851._ + +MY DEAREST KATE, + +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. + +We had D'Orsay to dinner yesterday, and I am hurried to dress now, in +order to pay a promised visit to his _atelier_. 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. + +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, + + Ever most affectionately. + + +[Sidenote: Miss Mary Boyle.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Friday Night, late, Feb. 21st, 1851._ + +MY DEAR MISS BOYLE, + +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 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 _very pretty_. 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---- + +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. + +So good-night, and believe that you may always trust me, and never find +a grim expression (towards you) in any that I wear. + + Ever yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. David Roberts, R.A.] + + _February 21st, 1851._ + +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. _There isn't possibility of getting a theatre._ + +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. + + Faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. C. Macready.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _February 27th, 1851._ + +MY DEAR MACREADY, + +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. + +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? + +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 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 _me_ 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. + +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. + + Ever, my dearest Macready, + Your most affectionate Friend. + +P.S.--My very flourish departs from me for the moment. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. David Roberts, R.A.] + + KNUTSFORD LODGE, GREAT MALVERN, _March 20th, 1851._ + +MY DEAR ROBERTS, + +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. + +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 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. + +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. _You_ could do it in no time after sending in your +pictures, and will you? + +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. + +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? + + My dear Roberts, ever faithfully yours. + + + _Description of the Scene proposed:_ + + STREETS OF LONDON IN THE TIME OF GEORGE I. + + In perspective, an alley inscribed DEADMAN'S + LANE; a large, old-fashioned, gloomy, + mysterious house in the corner, marked No. 1. + (_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._) It is night, and there are + moonlight mediums. + + +[Sidenote: Mrs. Charles Dickens.] + + H. W. OFFICE, _Monday, March 26th, 1851._ + +MY DEAREST KATE, + +I reserve all news of the play until I come down. The Queen appoints the +30th of April. There is no end of trouble. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + Ever affectionately. + +P.S.--Love to Georgy. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. H. Wills.] + + DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Thursday Morning, April 3rd, 1851._ + +MY DEAR WILLS, + +I took my threatened walk last night, but it yielded little but +generalities. + +However, I thought of something for _to-night_, 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 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. + +You needn't exactly say that _I_ was going _in propriâ_ (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. + +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. + +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. + + Faithfully ever. + +P.S.--I write from my bed. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. C. Macready.] + + _Saturday, May 24th, 1851._ + +MY DEAR MACREADY, + +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 _is_ 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. + +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 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, + + Believe me, my dear Friend, + Ever affectionately yours. + +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 +_King Charles the First_. + + +[Sidenote: The Earl of Carlisle.] + + BROADSTAIRS, _July 8th, 1851._ + +MY DEAR LORD CARLISLE, + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + Faithfully yours always. + + +[Sidenote: The Hon. Mrs. Watson.] + + BROADSTAIRS, KENT, _July 11th, 1851._ + +MY DEAR MRS. WATSON, + +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 _you_ 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! + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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; 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. + +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: + + I don't care a fig what the people may think, + But what WILL the governor say! + +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. + + With love to the boys and girls, + Ever, dear Mrs. Watson, + Most sincerely yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Frank Stone.] + + "HOUSEHOLD WORDS," _Sunday, July 20th, 1851._ + +MY DEAR STONE, + +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 _carte blanche_ to £1,500, but I think +the £1,450 ought to win the day. + +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? + + Ever affectionately. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Charles Knight.] + + BROADSTAIRS, KENT, _Sunday, July 27th, 1851._ + +MY DEAR KNIGHT, + +A most excellent Shadow![13] 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 tense instead of the present a little hurts +the picturesque effect? I understand each phase of the thing to be +_always a thing present before the mind's eye_--a shadow passing before +it. Whatever is done, must be _doing_. Is it not so? For example, if I +did the Shadow of Robinson Crusoe, I should not say he _was_ a boy at +Hull, when his father lectured him about going to sea, and so forth; but +he _is_ 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 _my_ 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. + +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! + + Ever affectionately. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Frank Stone.] + + BROADSTAIRS, KENT, _Saturday, August 23rd, 1851._ + +MY DEAR STONE, + +A "dim vision" occurs to me, arising out of your note; also presents +itself to the brains of my other half. + +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 _before_ 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. + +I make this suggestion (I need not say to _you_) 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. + + Ever affectionately. + +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, 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. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Henry Austin.] + + BROADSTAIRS, _Sunday, September 7th, 1851._ + +MY DEAR HENRY, + +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 + + NO WORKMEN ON THE PREMISES, + +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 _your_ 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. + +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 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-- + + NO WORKMEN ON THE PREMISES. + +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! + +I send this to Lætitia to forward, + + Being, as you well know why, + Completely floored by N. W., I + _Sleep_. + +I hope you may be able to read this. My state of mind does not admit of +coherence. + + Ever affectionately. + +P.S.--NO WORKMEN ON THE PREMISES! + +Ha! ha! ha! (I am laughing demoniacally.) + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Henry Austin.] + + BROADSTAIRS, _Sunday, September 21st, 1851._ + +MY DEAR HENRY, + +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? + +If there be the _least_ 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. + +Have they cut the door between the drawing-room and the study yet? The +foreman will let Shoolbred know when the feat is accomplished. + +O! and did you tell him of another brass ventilator in the dining-room, +opening into the dining-room flue? + +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. + +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. + + Love to Lætitia. + Ever affectionately. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Henry Austin.] + + BROADSTAIRS, KENT, _October 7th, 1851._ + +MY DEAR HENRY, + +O! O! O! D---- the Pantechnicon. O! + +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. + +The infamous ---- says the stoves shall be fixed to-morrow. + +O! if this were to last long; the distraction of the new book, the +whirling of the story through one's mind, escorted by workmen, the +imbecility, the wild necessity of beginning to write, the not being able +to do so, the, O! I should go---- O! + + Ever affectionately. + +P.S.--None. I have torn it off. + + +[Sidenote: Miss Mary Boyle.] + + BROADSTAIRS, KENT, _October 10th, 1851._ + + ON THE DEATH OF HER MOTHER. + +MY DEAR MISS BOYLE, + +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. + +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. + +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, + + Faithfully your Friend. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Eeles.] + + "HOUSEHOLD WORDS" OFFICE, + _Wednesday Evening, Oct. 22nd, 1851._ + +DEAR MR. EELES, + +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. + + Faithfully yours. + + LIST OF IMITATION BOOK-BACKS. + + _Tavistock House_, 1851. + + Five Minutes in China. 3 vols. + Forty Winks at the Pyramids. 2 vols. + Abernethy on the Constitution. 2 vols. + Mr. Green's Overland Mail. 2 vols. + Captain Cook's Life of Savage. 2 vols. + A Carpenter's Bench of Bishops. 2 vols. + Toot's Universal Letter-Writer. 2 vols. + Orson's Art of Etiquette. + Downeaster's Complete Calculator. + History of the Middling Ages. 6 vols. + Jonah's Account of the Whale. + Captain Parry's Virtues of Cold Tar. + Kant's Ancient Humbugs. 10 vols. + Bowwowdom. A Poem. + The Quarrelly Review. 4 vols. + The Gunpowder Magazine. 4 vols. + Steele. By the Author of "Ion." + The Art of Cutting the Teeth. + Matthew's Nursery Songs. 2 vols. + Paxton's Bloomers. 5 vols. + On the Use of Mercury by the Ancient Poets. + Drowsy's Recollections of Nothing. 3 vols. + Heavyside's Conversations with Nobody. 3 vols. + Commonplace Book of the Oldest Inhabitant. 2 vols. + Growler's Gruffiology, with Appendix. 4 vols. + The Books of Moses and Sons. 2 vols. + Burke (of Edinburgh) on the Sublime and Beautiful. 2 vols. + Teazer's Commentaries. + King Henry the Eighth's Evidences of Christianity. 5 vols. + Miss Biffin on Deportment. + Morrison's Pills Progress. 2 vols. + Lady Godiva on the Horse. + Munchausen's Modern Miracles. 4 vols. + Richardson's Show of Dramatic Literature. 12 vols. + Hansard's Guide to Refreshing Sleep. As many volumes as possible. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Henry Austin.] + + OFFICE OF "HOUSEHOLD WORDS," + _Saturday, Oct. 25th, 1851._ + +MY DEAR HENRY, + +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 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. + +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! + +When do you come back? I hope soon. + + Ever affectionately. + + +[Sidenote: Mrs. Charles Dickens.] + + CLIFTON, _November 13th, 1851._ + +MY DEAREST KATE, + +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. + +We had a noble night last night. The room (which is 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." + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + + With best love to Georgy and the girls, + Ever, my dearest Kate, most affectionately yours. + +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. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Eeles.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, TAVISTOCK SQUARE, _Nov. 17th, 1851._ + +DEAR MR. EELES, + +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. + + Faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mrs. Gaskell.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Thursday Afternoon, Dec. 5th, 1851._ + +MY DEAR MRS. GASKELL, + +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 _too late_ 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. + +I am truly concerned for this, but I hope you will not blame me for what +I have done in perfect good faith. Any 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 _Poems_" 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 + + The unfortunate but innocent. + +P.S.--I write at a gallop, not to lose another post. + + +[Sidenote: Mrs. Gaskell.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Sunday, December 21st, 1851._ + +MY DEAR MRS. GASKELL, + +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. + + Faithfully yours ever. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Peter Cunningham.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _December 26th, 1851._ + +MY DEAR CUNNINGHAM, + +About the three papers. + +1st. With Mr. Plowman of Oxford, Wills will communicate. + +2nd. (Now returned.) I have seen, in nearly the same form, before. The +list of names is overwhelming. + +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. + +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 _must_ look for +aid. And any stop that in the least encourages it is one of a fatal +kind. + +I do _not_ think myself, but this is merely an individual opinion, that +Savage _was_ 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. + + Faithfully yours ever. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[13] Mr. Charles Knight was writing a series of papers in "Household +Words," called "Shadows." + + + + +1852. + +NARRATIVE. + + +In 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 and Art; +Charles Dickens, as usual, taking the whole management on his own +shoulders. + +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." + +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. + +"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. + +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. + +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 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'?" + +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." + +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. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. C. Macready.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _January 31st, 1852._ + +MY DEAR MACREADY, + +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. + +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 +_The Times_ 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 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. + +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 _might_ +(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. + +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. + +But I think, at this time especially, there is so much to 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 _are_ taxes on +knowledge in reality." + +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. + + Ever and always affectionately. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. J. Crofton Croker.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _March 6th, 1852._ + +MY DEAR SIR, + +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. + +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. + +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. + + Faithfully yours always. + + +[Sidenote: The Hon. Mrs. Watson.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _April 6th, 1852._ + +MY DEAR MRS. WATSON, + +My "lost character" was one of those awful documents occasionally to be +met with, which WILL 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. + +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 _dis_order), that she ought to have fainted with surprise when +my handwriting was first revealed to her. + +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. + +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! + + Charley brings this with himself. + With kindest regards and remembrances, + Ever, dear Mrs. Watson, most faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Charles Knight.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _June 29th, 1852._ + +MY DEAR KNIGHT, + +A thousand thanks for the Shadow, which, is charming. May you often go +(out of town) and do likewise! + +I dined with Charles Kemble, yesterday, to meet Emil Devrient, the +German actor. He said (Devrient is my antecedent) that Ophelia _spoke_ +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.! + + Ever affectionately. + + +[Sidenote: The Lord John Russell.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Wednesday, June 30th, 1852._ + +MY DEAR LORD, + +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. + + Believe me always, yours faithfully and obliged. + + +[Sidenote: Anonymous Correspondent.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, TAVISTOCK SQUARE, _July 9th, 1852._ + +SIR, + +I have received your letter of yesterday's date, and shall content +myself with a brief reply. + +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. + +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 +_not_ conducted with an equal hand, and that the home claim is by far +the stronger and the more pressing of the two. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + I am, Sir, your faithful Servant. + + +[Sidenote: Miss Mary Boyle.] + + 10, CAMDEN CRESCENT, DOVER, _July 22nd, 1852._ + +MY DEAR MARY, + +This is indeed a noble letter. The description of the family is quite +amazing. I _must_ return it myself to say that I HAVE appreciated it. + +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, "_Dear_ Joe, if +you like!" The voice may fully frame the falsehood, but the heart--the +heart, Mr. Wurzel--will have no part in it. + +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. + +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 were the identical things that D'Israeli sees looming in the +distance. I behold them in the months ahead and weep. + +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. + +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. + + Ever faithfully your Friend, + JOE. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Charles Knight.] + + 10, CAMDEN CRESCENT, DOVER, _Sunday, Aug. 1st, 1852._ + +MY DEAR KNIGHT, + +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. + +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. + +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. + + Ever affectionately. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Mark Lemon.] + + DOVER, _August 5th, 1852._ + +MY DEAR MARK, + +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. + +I loved him very much, and God knows he deserved it. + + Ever affectionately. + + +[Sidenote: The Earl of Carlisle.] + + 10, CAMDEN CRESCENT, DOVER, _Thursday, Aug. 5th, 1852._ + +MY DEAR LORD CARLISLE, + +'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. + +Is there any hope of your repeating your visit to these coasts? + + Ever faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: The Hon. Mrs. Watson.] + + 10, CAMDEN CRESCENT, DOVER, _August 5th, 1852._ + + ON THE DEATH OF MR. WATSON. + +MY DEAR, DEAR MRS. WATSON, + +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. + +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! + +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 _is_ hard to think of what we have lost, +we know how something of 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + My dear Friend, + Yours, with the truest affection and sympathy. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. C. Macready.] + + HÔTEL DES BAINS, BOULOGNE, + _Tuesday Night, Oct. 5th, 1852._ + + ON THE DEATH OF MRS. MACREADY. + +MY DEAREST MACREADY, + +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. + +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! + +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 _know_--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. + +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. 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. + +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. + + Ever, my dearest Macready, with unchangeable affection, + Yours in all love and truth. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. H. Wills.] + + HÔTEL DES BAINS, BOULOGNE, _Tuesday, Oct. 12th, 1852._ + +MY DEAR WILLS, + + H. W. + +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. + +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 +_down_ to any part of our audience. I always hold that to be as great a +mistake as can be made. + +I wish you would mention to Thomas, that I think the paper on hops +_extremely well done_. 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 _Thames police_. 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? + + MYSELF. + +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. + + Ever faithfully. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. H. Wills.] + + HÔTEL DES BAINS, BOULOGNE, + _Wednesday Night, Oct. 13th, 1852._ + +MY DEAR WILLS, + +The number coming in after dinner, since my letter was written and +posted, I have gone over it. + +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 PEOPLE; 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 (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. + +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! + +Strengthen the number, pray, by anything good you may have. It is a very +dreary business as it stands. + +The proofs want a thorough revision. + +In haste, going to bed. + + Ever faithfully. + +P.S.--I want a name for Miss Martineau's paper. + + TRIUMPHANT CARRIAGES (or TRIUMPHAL). + DUBLIN STOUTHEARTEDNESS. + PATIENCE AND PREJUDICE. + +Take which you like best. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. John Watkins.] + + MONDAY, _October 18th, 1852._ + +SIR, + +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. + +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 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. + + I am, Sir, your faithful Servant. + + +[Sidenote: Rev. James White.] + + OFFICE OF "HOUSEHOLD WORDS," _Tuesday, Oct. 19th, 1852._ + +MY DEAR WHITE, + +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. + +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 don't care about their referring to Christmas at all_; nor +do I design to connect them together, otherwise than by their names, as: + + THE GRANDFATHER'S STORY. + THE FATHER'S STORY. + THE DAUGHTER'S STORY. + THE SCHOOLBOY'S STORY. + THE CHILD'S STORY. + THE GUEST'S STORY. + THE OLD NURSE'S STORY. + +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. + +Think of it and write me a line in reply. We are all well and blooming. + +Are you never coming to town any more? Never going to drink port again, +metropolitaneously, but _always_ with Fielden? + +Love to Mrs. White and the children, if Lotty be not out of the list +long ago. + + Ever faithfully, my dear White. + + +[Sidenote: The Hon. Mrs. Watson.] + + ATHENÆUM, _Monday, November 22nd, 1852._ + +MY DEAR MRS. WATSON, + +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. + +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. + +I have written for "Household Words" of this next publication-day an +article on the State funeral,[14] 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. + +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. + +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, + + Your most affectionate Friend. + + + +[Sidenote: Rev. James White.] + + OFFICE OF "HOUSEHOLD WORDS," _Monday, Nov. 22nd, 1852._ + +MY DEAR WHITE, + +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. + +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.) + +I think you will find some good going in the next "Bleak House." I write +shortly, having been working my head off. + + Ever affectionately yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mrs. Gaskell.] + + OFFICE OF "HOUSEHOLD WORDS," _Wednesday, Dec. 1st, 1852._ + +MY DEAR MRS. GASKELL, + +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. + +I hope I address this letter correctly. I am far from sure. In haste. + + Ever faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. H. Wills.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Thursday, December 9th, 1852._ + +MY DEAR WILLS, + +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 _for five hours without intermission_; 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. + + Ever faithfully. + + +[Sidenote: Rev. James White.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Thursday Evening, Dec. 9th, 1852._ + +MY DEAR WHITE, + +I hear you are not going to poor Macready's. Now, don't you think it +would do you good to come here instead? _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_ do, and I again say that I ought to know. + +Our best love to Mrs. White and Lotty--happily so much better, we +rejoice to hear--and all. + + So no more at present from + THE INIMITABLE B. + + +[Sidenote: Mrs. Gaskell.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Friday, Dec. 17th, 1852._ + +MY DEAR MRS. GASKELL, + +I received your kind note yesterday morning with the truest +gratification, for I _am_ 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. + +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 _is_ 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. + + With kindest regards to Mr. Gaskell, + Ever faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. Wilkie Collins.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Monday, Dec. 20th, 1852._ + +MY DEAR COLLINS, + +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." + +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. + +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. + + Always faithfully yours. + +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. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Frank Stone, A.R.A.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Monday Evening, Dec. 20th, 1852._ + +MY DEAR STONE, + +Every appearance of brightness! Shall I expect you to-morrow morning? If +so, at what hour? + +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!!! + + Ever affectionately yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. H. Wills.] + + OFFICE OF "HOUSEHOLD WORDS," _Christmas Eve, 1852._ + +MY DEAR WILLS, + +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. + +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. + +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. + + Ever faithfully yours. + +P.S.--Here is ---- perpetually flitting about Brydges 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. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. G. Linnæus Banks.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Sunday, Dec. 26th, 1852._ + +MY DEAR SIR, + +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. + +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. + +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, + + I am, my dear Sir, very faithfully yours. + +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. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[14] The great Duke of Wellington's funeral. + + + + +1853. + +NARRATIVE. + + +In 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 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. + +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. + +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), 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 _Mrs._ +Charles Dickens. + +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. + +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. + +Mr. John Delane, editor of _The Times_, 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. + +The letter of grateful acknowledgment from Mr. Poole 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. + +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. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. H. Wills.] + + "A curiosity from _him_. No date. No signature."--W. H. H. + +MY DEAR WILLS, + +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. + +Mrs. Gaskell's ghost story I have got this morning; have not yet read. +It is long. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Clarkson Stanfield.] + + H.M.S. _Tavistock, January 2nd, 1853._ + +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 +_Owssel Words_, 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 _Tavistock_ same day and +hour, 'stead of _Owssel Words_. Hail your shipmets, and they'll drop +over the side and join 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! + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. C. Macready.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Friday Night, Jan. 14th, 1853._ + +MY DEAREST MACREADY, + +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. + +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 _but_ 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? _You_ +should have as much practical information on this subject, now, my dear +friend, as any man. + +My dearest Macready, I cannot forbear this closing word. I still look +forward to our meeting as we used to do in the 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. + +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, + + Your affectionate and most attached Friend. + + +[Sidenote: Mrs. Gaskell.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _May 3rd, 1853._ + +MY DEAR MRS. GASKELL, + +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. + +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 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! + + Ever most faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Monsieur Regnier.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Monday, May 9th, 1853._ + +MY DEAR REGNIER, + +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 +_bouleversé_ 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! + +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 "_Le bon Homme jadis_," it would make the +night a grand success. + +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. + +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 _élite_. + +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. + + _Votre tout dévoué._ + + +[Sidenote: Monsieur Regnier.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _May 20th, 1853._ + +MY DEAR REGNIER, + +I am heartily obliged to you for your kind letter respecting Miss +Kelly's benefit. It is to take place _on Thursday, the 16th June_; +Thursday the 9th (the day originally proposed) being the day of Ascot +Races, and therefore a bad one for the purpose. + +Mitchell, like a brave _garçon_ 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? + + Ever faithfully yours, my dear Regnier. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. H. Wills.] + + BOULOGNE, _Monday, June 13th, 1853._ + +MY DEAR WILLS, + +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. + +I have signed, sealed, and delivered a contract for a house (once +occupied for two years by a man I knew in 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. + +The address is: + + Château des Moulineaux, + Rue Beaurepaire, Boulogne. + +There is a coach-house, stabling for half-a-dozen horses, and I don't +know what. + +We take possession this afternoon, and I am now laying in a good stock +of creature comforts. So no more at present from + + Yours ever faithfully. + +P.S.--Mrs. Dickens and her sister unite in kindest regards. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. H. Wills.] + + CHÂTEAU DES MOULINEAUX, BOULOGNE, + _Saturday Night, June 18th, 1853._ + +MY DEAR WILLS, + + "BLEAK HOUSE." + +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! + + GENERAL MOVEMENTS OF INIMITABLE. + +_I don't think_ (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 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. + +I think that's all at present. + + Ever, my dear Wills, faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Frank Stone, A.R.A.] + + CHÂTEAU DES MOULINEAUX, RUE BEAUREPAIRE, BOULOGNE, + _Thursday, June 23rd, 1853._ + +MY DEAR PUMPION, + +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. + +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_ 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. + +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, _until after you +have walked ashore_. 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 find yourself in the arms of the +Sparkler of Albion. All unite in kindest regards. + + Ever affectionately. + +P.S.--I thought you might like to see the flourish again. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. H. Wills.] + + BOULOGNE, _Wednesday, July 27th, 1853._ + +MY DEAR WILLS, + +I have thought of another article to be called "Frauds upon the +Fairies," _à propos_ 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. + +I shall want his book of "Hop o' my Thumb" (Forster noticed it in the +last _Examiner_), 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. + + Ever faithfully. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. C. Macready.] + + CHÂTEAU DES MOULINEAUX, BOULOGNE, + _Sunday, Aug. 24th, 1853._ + +MY DEAREST MACREADY, + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + + Ever most affectionately yours, + My dear Macready. + + +[Sidenote: The Hon. Mrs. Watson.] + + VILLA DES MOULINEAUX, BOULOGNE, + _Saturday, Aug. 27th, 1853._ + +MY DEAR MRS. WATSON, + +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 _very pretty indeed_. 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. + +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 +_do_ 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _him_! + +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 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. + +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. + + Ever, my dear Mrs. Watson, + Yours, with true affection and regard. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Peter Cunningham.] + + CHÂTEAU DES MOULINEAUX, RUE BEAUREPAIRE, BOULOGNE. + +MY DEAR CUNNINGHAM, + + A note--Cerberus-like--of three heads. + +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. + +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. + +Thirdly. If you ever have a holiday that you don't know what to do with, +_do_ 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). + +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 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. + + Ever cordially yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Walter Savage Landor.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, LONDON, _Sept. 8th, 1853._ + +MY DEAR LANDOR, + +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. + +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. + +We are staying at Boulogne until the 10th of October, when I go into +Italy until Christmas, and the rest come home. + +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). + +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. + + Ever, my dear Landor, + Heartily and affectionately yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. John Delane.] + + VILLA DES MOULINEAUX, BOULOGNE, + _Monday, Sept. 12th, 1853._ + +MY DEAR DELANE, + +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. + +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 +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. + +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. + +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 _fêtes_, +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, + + Very faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. H. Wills.] + + BOULOGNE, _Sunday, Sept. 18th, 1853._ + +MY DEAR WILLS, + + COURIER. + +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 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 _readiness and punctuality_ 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. + + W. H. WILLS. + +No letter having arrived from the popular author of "The Larboard +Fin,"[15] 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. + + Ever faithfully. + + +[Sidenote: The Lord John Russell.] + + VILLA DES MOULINEAUX, BOULOGNE, + _Wednesday, Sept. 21st, 1853._ + +MY DEAR LORD, + +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. + +I became the prey of a perfect spasm of sensitive twinges, 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. + +The book has been a wonderful success. Its audience enormous. + +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. + +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. + + My dear Lord, + Yours very faithfully and obliged. + + +[Sidenote: The Hon. Mrs. Watson.] + + BOULOGNE, _Wednesday, Sept. 21st, 1853._ + +MY DEAR MRS. WATSON, + +The courier was unfortunately engaged. He offered to recommend another, +but I had several applicants, and 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. + +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 _alone_ 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 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. + +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 _will_ +persist in speaking an unknown tongue to the French people, who _will_ +speak English to them. + +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. + + Ever, my dear Mrs. Watson, + Most affectionately yours. + + +[Sidenote: Miss Hogarth.] + + HOTEL DE LA VILLA, MILAN, _Tuesday, Oct. 25th, 1853._ + +MY DEAR GEORGY, + +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. + +On the Swiss side of the Simplon, we slept at the beastliest little +town, in the wildest kind of house, where 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. + +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. + +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. + + Ever most affectionately. + + +[Sidenote: Miss Hogarth.] + + CROCE DI MALTA, GENOA, _Saturday, Oct. 29th, 1853._ + +MY DEAREST GEORGY, + +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 enough, though it is no joke to get so high, and though the +apartment is rather vast and faded. + +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 charmed with your +account of the Plornishghenter and everything and everybody else. Kiss +them all for me. + + Ever most affectionately yours. + + +[Sidenote: Miss Hogarth.] + + HÔTEL DES ÉTRANGERS, NAPLES, + _Friday Night, Nov. 4th, 1853._ + +MY DEAREST GEORGY, + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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 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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + Ever most affectionately. + + +[Sidenote: Miss Hogarth.] + + ROME, _Sunday Night, Nov. 13th, 1853._ + +MY DEAREST GEORGY, + +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 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 _to-morrow_, I +shall write to her nevertheless by that post which brings this, so that +you may both hear from me together. + +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 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. +_Has_ 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. 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + + Ever, my dearest Georgy, + Most affectionately yours. + + +[Sidenote: Sir James Emerson Tennent.] + + HÔTEL DES ÎLES BRITANNIQUES, PIAZZA DEL POPOLO, ROME, + _Monday, Nov. 14th, 1853._ + +MY DEAR TENNENT, + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + Believe me always, very faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mrs. Charles Dickens.] + + ROME, _Monday, Nov. 14th, 1853._ + +MY DEAREST CATHERINE, + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 pleased +with him, and would rather have him than an older hand. Poor dear Roche +comes back to my mind though, often. + +I have written to engage the courier from Turin into France, from +_Tuesday, the 6th December_. 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. + +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. + +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. + +We observe the managerial punctuality in all our arrangements, and have +not had any difference whatever. + +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 +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. + +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 _very much_, 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. + + Ever most affectionately. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. H. Wills.] + + ROME, _Thursday Afternoon, Nov. 17th, 1853._ + +MY DEAR WILLS, + +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. + +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. + +KEEP "HOUSEHOLD WORDS" IMAGINATIVE! is the solemn and continual +Conductorial Injunction. Delighted to hear of Mrs. Gaskell's +contributions. + +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. + +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. + +All perfectly well. Companion moustaches (particularly Egg's) dismal in +the extreme. Kindest regards to Mrs. Wills. + + Ever faithfully. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. H. Wills.] + + FLORENCE, _Monday, Nov. 21st, 1853._ + + H. W. + +MY DEAR WILLS, + +I sent you by post from Rome, on Wednesday last, a little story for the +Christmas number, called "The Schoolboy's 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. + +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. + +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? + +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 +_Valetta_, between Marseilles and Naples, they will suddenly find that +they will receive a blow one fine day in _The Times_, 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, _with no caution in most cases +from the agent, or hint of discomfort_, 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 _The Times_. 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 _certain_ to get (if +they go on so) in _The Times_, 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 as the most decided swindle, and the coolest, I ever did +with my eyes behold. + + Kindest regards from fellow-travellers. + Ever, my dear Wills, faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Miss Hogarth.] + + VENICE, _Friday, November 25th, 1853._ + +MY DEAREST GEORGY, + +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 _six visés_ +at Florence, received in the course of the one night, _nine more_, every +one of which was written and sealed; somebody being slowly knocked out +of bed to do it every time! It really was excruciating. + +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) 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_ 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." + +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. + +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. + +You will find this but a stupid letter, but I really have no news. We go +to the opera, whenever there is one, see 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. + +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 christened Trotty Veck, we have scarcely seen +any, and have certainly spoken to none, since we left Switzerland. These +were aboard the _Valetta_, 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. + +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 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. + +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 _that_ 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. + + Ever, my dearest Georgy, + Most affectionately yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Marcus Stone.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _December 19th, 1853._ + +MY DEAR MARCUS, + +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, _this_ little book? I believe it to be true, though +it may be sometimes not as genteel as history has a habit of being. + + Faithfully yours. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[15] Meaning Mr. W. H. Wills himself. + + + + +1854. + +NARRATIVE. + + +The 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. + +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. + +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.[16] 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. + +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. + +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. + +In explanation of the letter to Mr. John Saunders on the subject of the +production of the latter's play, called "Love's Martyrdom," we will +give the dramatist's own words: + + "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. + + * * * * * + + "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. + + "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." + +This ill-luck of the beginning, pursued the play to its close. + + "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, vigorously and discriminatingly + pursued, the multitudes that I believed could + have been so called to a better and more + romantic class of comedy. + + "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." + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Walter Savage Landor.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _January 7th, 1854._ + +MY DEAR LANDOR, + +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. + +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. + + Ever, my dear Landor, affectionately yours. + + +[Sidenote: The Hon. Mrs. Watson.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Friday, January 13th, 1854._ + +MY DEAR MRS. WATSON, + +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 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. + +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, _that_ 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, + + Ever, my dear Mrs. Watson, + Most faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Miss Mary Boyle.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Monday, January 16th, 1854._ + +MY DEAR MARY, + +It is all very well to pretend to love me as you do. Ah! If you loved as +_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. + +As thus: + + FALKLAND (_to Acres_). Then you see her, sir, + sometimes? + + ACRES. See her! Odds beams and sparkles, yes. + See her acting! Night after night. + + FALKLAND (_aside and furious_). Death and the + devil! Acting, and I not there! Pray, sir + (_with constrained calmness_), what does she + act? + + ACRES. Odds, monthly nurses and babbies! Sairey + Gamp and Betsey Prig, "which, wotever it is, my + dear (_mimicking_), I likes it brought reg'lar + and draw'd mild!" _That's_ very like her. + + FALKLAND. Confusion! Laceration! Perhaps, sir, + perhaps she sometimes acts--ha! ha! perhaps she + sometimes acts, I say--eh! sir?--a--ha, ha, ha! + a fairy? (_With great bitterness._) + + ACRES. 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. (_Sings and + dances_). _That's_ very like her. + + FALKLAND. Misery! while I, devoted to her + image, can scarcely write a line now and then, + or pensively read aloud to the people of + Birmingham. (_To him._) 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? + + ACRES. 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 (_mimicking_); take me + out! Ha, ha, ha! O what a one she is! She'll be + the death of me. Ha, ha, ha, ha! _That's_ very + like her! + + FALKLAND. Damnation! Heartless Mary! (_Rushes + out._) + +Scene opens, and discloses coals of fire, heaped up into form of +letters, representing the following inscription: + + When the praise thou meetest + To thine ear is sweetest, + O then + REMEMBER JOE! + (_Curtain falls._) + + +[Sidenote: M. de Cerjat.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Monday, Jan. 16th, 1854._ + +MY DEAR CERJAT, + +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. + +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 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 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. + +I think you see _The Times_, 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. + +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. + +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. + + Ever, my dear Cerjat, heartily your Friend. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Arthur Ryland.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _January 18th, 1854._ + +MY DEAR SIR, + +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. + +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? + +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. + +Mrs. Dickens and Miss Hogarth beg their kindest regards; and I am, my +dear sir, with much regard, too, + + Very faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Charles Knight.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _January 30th, 1854._ + +MY DEAR KNIGHT, + +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. + +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 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? + +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. + + Ever affectionately yours. + + +[Sidenote: Rev. James White.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Tuesday, March 7th, 1854._ + +MY DEAR WHITE, + +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. + +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. + +"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. + +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 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. + +---- 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: + + X. Y. Z! + +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. + +_À propos_ of spiritual messages comes in Georgina, and, hearing that I +am writing to you, delivers the following enigma to be conveyed to Mrs. +White: + + "Wyon of the Mint lives _at_ the Mint." + +Feeling my brain going after this, I only trust it with loves from all +to all. + + Ever faithfully. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Charles Knight.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _March 17th, 1854._ + +MY DEAR KNIGHT, + +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. + +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. + +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! + + Affectionately yours always. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. H. Wills.] + + OFFICE OF "HOUSEHOLD WORDS," + NO. 16, WELLINGTON STREET, NORTH STRAND, + _Wednesday, April 12th, 1854._ + + * * * * * + +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. + +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 +_the_ carpenter's highlows were ostentatiously taken off and displayed +in the proscenium. + +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: + + 1 bottle superior old port, + 1 do. do. golden sherry, + 1 do. do. best French brandy, + 1 do. do. 1st quality old Tom gin, + 1 bottle superior prime Jamaica rum, + 1 do. do. small still _Isla_ whiskey, + 1 kettle boiling water, two pounds finest white lump sugar, + Our cards, + 1 lemon, + and + Our compliments. + +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. + +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. + +Forster just come back from lecturing at Sherborne. Describes said +lecture as "Blaze of Triumph." + + H. W. AGAIN. + +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." + +This apartment looks desolate in your absence; but, O Heavens, how tidy! + + F. W. + +Mrs. Wills supposed to have gone into a convent at Somers Town. + + My dear Wills, + Ever faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. B. W. Procter.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Saturday Night, April 15th, 1854._ + +MY DEAR PROCTER, + +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. + +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. + +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: + +"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." + + But I am always, my dear Procter, + (At a distance), + Very cordially yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mrs. Gaskell.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _April 21st, 1854._ + +MY DEAR MRS. GASKELL, + +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. + +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. + +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, + + Faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Frank Stone, A.R.A.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _May 30th, 1854._ + +MY DEAR STONE, + +I can_not_ 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. + +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, 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. + +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? + + Ever affectionately. + +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. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Peter Cunningham.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _June 7th, 1854._ + +MY DEAR CUNNINGHAM, + +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. + +"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. + + Ever faithfully yours. + +P.S.--Please to observe the address at Boulogne: "Villa du Camp de +Droite." + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. H. Wills.] + + VILLA DU CAMP DE DROITE, _Thursday, June 22nd, 1854._ + +MY DEAR WILLS, + +I have nothing to say, but having heard from you this morning, think I +may as well report all well. + +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. + +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. + +The children arrived on Tuesday night, by London boat, in every stage +and aspect of sea-sickness. + +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. + +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. + + Kind regards. + Ever faithfully. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. Wilkie Collins.] + + VILLA DU CAMP DE DROITE, BOULOGNE, + _Wednesday Night, July 12th, 1854._ + +MY DEAR COLLINS, + +Bobbing up, corkwise, from a sea of "Hard Times" I beg to report this +tenement--AMAZING!!! 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. + +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. + +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 A.M.? + +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. + +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 +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.) + +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! + +Kindest regards from all. The Plornishghenter adds Mr. and Mrs. Goose's +duty. + + Ever faithfully. + +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. + + +[Sidenote: Miss Hogarth.] + + OFFICE OF "HOUSEHOLD WORDS," _Saturday, July 22nd, 1854._ + +MY DEAR GEORGINA, + +Neither you nor Catherine did justice to Collins's book.[17] 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. + +Tell Kate, with my love, that she will receive to-morrow in a little +parcel, the complete proofs of "Hard Times." 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. + +Loves to all the darlings, from the Plornish-Maroon upward. London is +far hotter than Naples. + + Ever affectionately. + + +[Sidenote: Mrs. Gaskell.] + + VILLA DU CAMP DE DROITE, BOULOGNE, + _Thursday, Aug. 17th, 1854._ + +MY DEAR MRS. GASKELL, + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + + With kindest regards, my dear Mrs. Gaskell, + Faithfully yours always. + + +[Sidenote: Rev. William Harness.] + + VILLA DU CAMP DE DROITE, BOULOGNE, + _Saturday, Aug. 19th, 1854._ + +MY DEAR HARNESS, + +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. + +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 _our_ +complacency and satisfaction, and that we must give up something thereof +for their poor sakes. + +My kindest regards to your sister, and my love (if I may send it) to +another of your relations. + + Always, very faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Henry Austin.] + + VILLA DU CAMP DE DROITE, BOULOGNE, + _Wednesday, Sept. 6th, 1854._ + + * * * * * + +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 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. + +The town[18] 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. + + Best love from all. + Ever affectionately. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. Wilkie Collins.] + + BOULOGNE, _Tuesday, Sept. 26th, 1854._ + +MY DEAR COLLINS, + +First, I have to report that I received your letter with much pleasure. + +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. + +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. + +On the Sunday night after you left, or rather on the Monday morning at +half-past one, Mary was taken _very ill_. 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 and those +late dinners had been too much for her. Without them I am inclined to +doubt whether she would have been ill. + +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? + +I have heard from the Kernel.[19] 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. + +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. + + Ever faithfully. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Frank Stone, A.R.A.] + + BOULOGNE, _Friday, Oct. 13th, 1854._ + +MY DEAR STONE, + +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. + +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 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. + + Ever, my fellow-countryman, affectionately. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. John Saunders.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _October 26th, 1854._ + +DEAR SIR, + +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. + +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 _can_ 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. + +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, +_for presentation on the stage_, but portions which I believe Mr. Phelps +will speedily regard in that light when he sees it before 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +With renewed thanks for the pleasure you have afforded me, + + I am, dear Sir, faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. C. Macready.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _November 1st, 1854._ + (And a constitutionally foggy day.) + +MY DEAREST MACREADY, + +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. + +In the number _for next week_--not this--is one of those 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. + +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." + +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. _Is_ there a deal board in Sherborne though? I should like to +hear Katey's opinion on that point. + +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 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? + +---- 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. + +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. + + Ever, my dearest Macready, + Most affectionately yours. + + +[Sidenote: The Hon. Mrs. Watson.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Wednesday, Nov. 1st, 1854._ + +MY DEAR MRS. WATSON, + +I take upon myself to answer your letter to Catherine, as I am referred +to in it. + +The "Walk" is not my writing. It is very well done by a close imitator. +Why I found myself so "used up" after "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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 +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. + +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 _cooking_ these remains too. I +should like to know where the fuel came from. + + Kindest love and best regards. + Ever, my dear Mrs. Watson, affectionately yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Clarkson Stanfield, R.A.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Friday Night, Nov. 3rd, 1854._ + +MY DEAR STANNY, + +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. + +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-yard-arm in a gale of wind ever forgot an +appointment with a messmate. + +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. + +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. + + Ever most affectionately yours. + + +[Sidenote: Miss Procter.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Sunday, Dec. 17th, 1854._ + +MY DEAR MISS PROCTER, + +You have given me a new sensation. I did suppose that nothing in this +singular world could surprise me, but you have done it. + +You will believe my congratulations on the delicacy and 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." + +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 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. + +So pray accept the blessing and forgiveness of Richard Watts, though I +am afraid you come under both his conditions of exclusion.[20] + + Very faithfully yours. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[16] The poet "Barry Cornwall." + +[17] "Hide and Seek." + +[18] On the occasion of the Prince Consort's visit to the camp at +Boulogne. + +[19] Mr. Egg. + +[20] 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." + + + + +1855. + +NARRATIVE. + + +In 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. 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. + +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. + +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. + +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, _opposite_ the house on which he had fixed his childish affections +(and which he calls in _this_ 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, +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. + +Later in the year, the performance of "The Lighthouse" was repeated, for +a charitable purpose, at the Campden House theatre. + +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." + +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. + + +[Sidenote: M. de Cerjat.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _January 3rd, 1855._ + +MY DEAR CERJAT, + +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. + +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 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 _not_ a little in the writing, and I +believe has touched a vast number of people. We have sold eighty +thousand of it. + +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. + +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 MUST BE 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 believes--yet whom there is nobody to displace. The strangest +result, perhaps, of years of Reformed Parliaments that ever the general +sagacity did _not_ foresee. + +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. + +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. + +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, + + Your faithful Friend. + + +[Sidenote: Miss Mary Boyle.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _January 3rd, 1855._ + +MY DEAR MARY, + +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. + +Enclosing a kiss, if you will have the kindness to return it when done +with. + +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. + +Many, many happy years to you! My regards to that obstinate old +Wurzell[21] and his dame, when you have them under lock and key again. + + Ever affectionately yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mrs. Gaskell.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _January 27th, 1855._ + +MY DEAR MRS. GASKELL, + +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 MUST now give +you pleasure. + +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. + +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. + + Dear Mrs. Gaskell, very faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Arthur Ryland.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Monday, Jan. 29th, 1855._ + +MY DEAR MR. RYLAND, + +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? + +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 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. + +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! + + Faithfully yours always. + + +[Sidenote: Monsieur Regnier.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, LONDON, _Saturday Evening, Feb. 3rd, 1855._ + +MY DEAR REGNIER, + +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. + +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. + +Now, _mon cher_, do you think you can, without inconvenience, engage me +for a week an apartment--cheerful, light, and wholesome--containing a +comfortable _salon et deux chambres à coucher_. 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 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. + +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 _en +garçon_ on the festive _diableries de Paris_. + +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 _bonnes_. + +I shall hope for a short answer from you one day next week. My dear +Regnier, + + Always faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. H. Wills.] + + OFFICE OF "HOUSEHOLD WORDS," _Friday, Feb. 9th, 1855._ + +MY DEAR WILLS, + +I want to alter the arrangements for to-morrow, and put you to some +inconvenience. + +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.) + +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. + +I am uncertain of your being in town to-night, but I send John up with +this. + + Ever faithfully. + + +[Sidenote: Miss Hogarth.] + + HÔTEL MEURICE, PARIS, _Friday, Feb. 16th, 1855._ + +MY DEAR GEORGY, + +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. + +We have a beautiful apartment, very elegantly furnished, very thickly +carpeted, and as warm as any apartment in Paris _can_ 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 lemonade, to which _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. + +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. + +"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. + +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 +name is Boswell, and the whole cirque rang last night with cries for Boz +Zwilllll! Boz Zweellll! Boz Zwuallll! etc. etc. etc. etc. + +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. + +Loves to Mamey, Katey, Sydney, Harry, and the following stab to +Anne--she forgot to pack me any shaving soap. + + Ever, my dear Georgy, most affectionately yours. + +P.S.--Collins sends kind regards. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. H. Wills.] + + HÔTEL MEURICE, PARIS, _Friday, Feb. 16th, 1855._ + +MY DEAR WILLS, + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _Galignani_ reprints every morning +leaders from _The Times_ of about a fortnight or three weeks old. + +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. + + Ever, my dear Wills, faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Arthur Ryland.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _February 26th, 1855._ + +MY DEAR MR. RYLAND, + +Charley came home, I assure you, perfectly delighted with his visit to +you, and rapturous in his accounts of your great kindness to him. + +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 _could_ add Birmingham +to the list, then, if need were. But what I want is, to give the +institution in all five hundred pounds. That is my object, and nothing +less will satisfy me. + +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. + + My dear Mr. Ryland, always very faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. David Roberts, R.A.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _February 28th, 1855._ + +MY DEAR DAVID ROBERTS, + +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. + +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. + +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 he was not keeping his state, I should be delighted to interchange +any courtesy with that honourable and amiable gentleman, Mr. Moon. + + Believe me always cordially yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Austen H. Layard.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Tuesday Evening, April 3rd, 1855._ + +DEAR LAYARD, + +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 _The Illustrated London News_ and _The Weekly +Chronicle_, 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 _can_ have no truer--to indicate it to me at any time +or season, and to count upon my being Damascus steel to the core. + +All this is nothing; because all these men, and thousands of others, +dote upon you. But I know it would be a comfort to me, in your +hard-fighting place, to be assured of such sympathy, and therefore only +I write. + +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? + +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? + +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. + + Dear Layard, very heartily yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Austen H. Layard.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Tuesday, April 10th, 1855._ + +DEAR LAYARD, + +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. + +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 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. + +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--ARE 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. + +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 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. + +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. + + Ever, cordially yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. John Forster.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Saturday, April 14th, 1855._ + +MY DEAR FORSTER, + +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. + +I don't agree with you about the serious papers in _The Spectator_, +which I think (whether they be Steele's or Addison's) are generally as +indifferent as the humour of _The Spectator_ 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 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. + + Ever affectionately. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Mark Lemon.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Thursday, April 26th, 1855._ + + ON THE DEATH OF AN INFANT. + +MY DEAR MARK, + +I will call for you at two, and go with you to Highgate, by all means. + +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. + +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. + + Ever affectionately yours. + +P.S.--Our kindest loves to Mrs. Lemon. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Clarkson Stanfield, R.A.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Sunday, May 20th, 1855._ + +MY DEAR STANNY, + +I have a little lark in contemplation, if you will help it to fly. + +Collins has done a melodrama (a regular old-style melodrama), in which +there is a very good notion. I am going to act it, as an experiment, in +the children's theatre here--I, Mark, Collins, Egg, and my daughter +Mary, the whole _dram. pers._; 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. + + Ever affectionately yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Clarkson Stanfield, R.A.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Tuesday Afternoon, Six o'clock, May 22nd, 1855._ + +MY DEAR STANNY, + +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 the wearing of a pair of very coarse petticoat +trousers. So hoorar for the salt sea, mate, and bouse up! + + Ever affectionately, + DICKY. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Mark Lemon.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _May 23rd, 1855._ + +MY DEAR MARK, + +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. + +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? + + Ever affectionately. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Frank Stone, A.R.A.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Thursday, May 24th, 1855._ + +MY DEAR STONE, + +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. + +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. + + Ever affectionately. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Frank Stone, A.R.A.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _May 24th, 1855._ + +MY DEAR STONE, + +That's right! You will find the words come back very quickly. Why, _of +course_ 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 _my_ hair stand on end! + +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. + + Ever affectionately. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. Wilkie Collins.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Thursday, May 24th, 1855._ + +MY DEAR COLLINS, + +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." + +Let us close up with "Mr. Nightingale's Diary." Will you look whether +you have a book of it, or your part. + +All other matters and things hereunto belonging when we meet. + + Ever faithfully. + + +[Sidenote: Mrs. Trollope.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Tuesday Morning, June 19th, 1855._ + +MY DEAR MRS. TROLLOPE, + +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. + +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. + + Very faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Clarkson Stanfield, R.A.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Wednesday, June 20th, 1855._ + +MY DEAR STANNY, + +I write a hasty note to let you know that last night was perfectly +wonderful!!! + +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. + +It is as much as I can do to guide the pen. + + With loves to Mrs. Stanfield and all, + Ever most affectionately yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. C. Macready.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Saturday, June 30th, 1855._ + +MY VERY DEAR MACREADY, + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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, and we +went on talking of you until the moment of his getting up to open the +business. + +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. + +Catherine, Georgie, Mary, Katey, Charley, and all the rest, send +multitudes of loves. Ever, my dearest Macready, with unalterable +affection and attachment, + + Your faithful Friend. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. Wilkie Collins.] + + 3, ALBION VILLAS, FOLKESTONE, _Tuesday, July 17th, 1855._ + +MY DEAR COLLINS, + +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 _this day +fortnight, July 31st_? 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. + +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, 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. + +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. + +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. + + Ever faithfully. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. H. Wills.] + + FOLKESTONE, _September 16th, 1855._ + +MY DEAR WILLS, + +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 him since his conversion), "Make the most of +it, Bob; make the most of it." + +[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.] + +I have not a word of news. I am steeped in my story, and rise and fall +by turns into enthusiasm and depression. + + Ever faithfully. + + +[Sidenote: The Hon. Mrs. Watson.] + + FOLKESTONE, _Sunday, Sept. 16th, 1855._ + +MY DEAR MRS. WATSON, + +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. + +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: + + "NOBODY'S FAULT." + +Keep it as the apple of your eye--an expressive form of speech, though I +have not the least idea of what it means. + +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. + +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. + +All the house send their kindest loves. I think of inserting an +advertisement in _The Times_, 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. + + Ever, my dear Mrs. Watson, affectionately yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. Wilkie Collins.] + + FOLKESTONE, _Sunday, Sept. 30th, 1855._ + +MY DEAR COLLINS, + +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." + +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 _Monday, the 8th_, +when I have promised to dine with Forster. At the office, between +half-past eleven and one that day, I will 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. + +All here send their kindest remembrances. We missed you very much, and +the Plorn was quite inconsolable. We slide down Cæsar occasionally. + +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 A.M. to four P.M. 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. + +Kind regards to Pigott, in which all unite. + + Ever faithfully. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. C. Macready.] + + FOLKESTONE, _Thursday, Oct. 4th, 1855._ + +MY DEAREST MACREADY, + +I have been hammering away in that strenuous manner at my book, that I +have had leisure for scarcely any 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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 _The Court Circular_ 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, _and +never will help themselves out of it_. 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 WILL be content to bear it, sing "Rule +Britannia," and WILL NOT be saved. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + Ever most affectionately. + + +[Sidenote: Mrs. Charles Dickens.] + + 2, RUE ST. FLORENTIN, _Tuesday, Oct. 16th, 1855._ + +MY DEAREST CATHERINE, + +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 _entresol_ and +a first floor, with a kitchen and servants' room at the top of the +house, at No. 49, Avenue des Champs Elysées. + +You must be prepared for a regular Continental abode. 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 _do_ 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. + +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 _concierge_. 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. + +Georgina and Lady Olliffe[22] send their loves. Georgina and I add ours +to Mamey, Katey, the Plorn, and Harry. + + Ever affectionately. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. H. Wills.] + + 49, AVENUE DES CHAMPS ELYSÉES, PARIS, + _Friday, Oct. 19th, 1855._ + +MY DEAR WILLS, + +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), 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. + +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. + + Ever faithfully. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. H. Wills.] + + 49, AVENUE DES CHAMPS ELYSÉES, PARIS, + _Sunday Night, Oct. 21st, 1855._ + +MY DEAR WILLS, + +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. + +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. + +I have two floors here--_entresol_ and first--in a doll's 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. + +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 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. + +You mention a letter from Miss Coutts as to Mrs. Brown's illness, which +you say is "enclosed to Mrs. Charles Dickens." + +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. + +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. + +I write very hastily, with the piano playing and Alfred looking for +this. + + Ever, my dear Wills, faithfully. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. H. Wills.] + + 49, AVENUE DES CHAMPS ELYSÉES, + _Wednesday, Oct. 24th, 1855._ + +MY DEAR WILLS, + +In the Gad's Hill matter, I too would like to try the effect of "not +budging." _So do not go beyond the_ £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 was +strongly of opinion, when I saw him last, that £1,700 was enough. + +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: "_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_" (in the _Moniteur_). And a man who brought +some little vases home last night, said: "_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_" (this was to Georgina, while he +unpacked) "_sont si spirituellement tournées! Cette Madame Tojare_" +(Todgers), "_ah! qu'elle est drôle et précisément comme une dame que je +connais à Calais._" + +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. + + Ever faithfully. + + +[Sidenote: Monsieur Regnier.] + + _Wednesday, November 21st, 1855._ + +MY DEAR REGNIER, + +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. + +Through the whole story from beginning to end, I 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. + +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. + + Faithfully yours ever. + + +[Sidenote: Madame Viardot.] + + 49, AVENUE DES CHAMPS ELYSÉES, _Monday, Dec. 3rd, 1855._ + +DEAR MADAME VIARDOT, + +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. + + Believe me, very faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: The Hon. Mrs. Watson.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Sunday, Dec. 23rd, 1855._ + +MY DEAR MRS. WATSON, + +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. + +If I had time to write anything, I should still quite vainly 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. + +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 NOT die," with a most prodigious shout and roll of +thunder. + + Ever, my dear Friend, most faithfully yours. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[21] Captain Cavendish Boyle was governor of the military prison at +Weedon. + +[22] Wife of the late Sir Joseph Olliffe, Physician to the British +Embassy. + + + + +1856. + +NARRATIVE. + + +Charles Dickens having taken an _appartement_ 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 _appartement de garçon_ 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 _appartement_ +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 _appartement_. + +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." + +While in Paris he sat for his portrait to the great Ary Scheffer. It +was exhibited at the Royal Academy Exhibition of this year, and is now +in the National Portrait Gallery. + +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. + +The Christmas number of "Household Words," written by Charles Dickens +and Mr. Collins, called "The Wreck of the _Golden Mary_," was planned by +the two friends during this summer holiday. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"The Humble Petition" was written to Mr. Wilkie Collins during that +gentleman's visit to Paris. + +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. + +The letter to the Duke of Devonshire has reference to the peace +illuminations after the Crimean war. + +The M. Forgues for whom, at Mr. Collins's request, he writes a short +biography of himself, was the editor of the _Revue des Deux Mondes_. + +The speech at the London Tavern was on behalf of the Artists' Benevolent +Fund. + +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. + +"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. + +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. + +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. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. H. Wills.] + + 49, CHAMPS ELYSÉES, _Sunday, Jan. 6th, 1856._ + +MY DEAR WILLS, + +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, because I don't think so. To open a discussion of the question +by saying that the men are "_of course_ 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! + +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. + + Ever faithfully. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Mark Lemon.] + + 49, CHAMPS ELYSÉES, PARIS, _Monday, Jan. 7th, 1856._ + +MY DEAR MARK, + +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 _Galignani_, that +Webster has let down the comic business. + +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 _with their backs to the audience_--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 _their_ 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 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. + +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. + +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 come home +stewing "Little Dorrit" in my head; and the best part of _my_ play is +(or ought to be) in Gordon Street. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + Ever affectionately. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. Wilkie Collins.] + + 49, CHAMPS ELYSÉES, _Saturday, Jan. 19th, 1856._ + +MY DEAR COLLINS, + +I had no idea you were so far on with your book, and heartily +congratulate you on being within sight of land. + +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. + +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. + +The lodging, _en garçon_, 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. + +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. + +I think THE portrait[23] 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 _entresol_ 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 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." _Au reste_, she has nothing of the _bas bleu_ about her, and is +very quiet and agreeable. + +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: + +[Illustration: HW: + + Horgues + homme de lettres + or + Drouse + membre de l'Institut + or + Cregibus Patalanternois + Ecole des Beaux arts + + --every five minutes. Books also arrive with, on the flyleaf, + + Jaubaud + Hommage à l'illustre romancier d'Angleterre + + Charles De Kean.] + +--and I then write letters of terrific _empressement_, with assurances +of all sorts of profound considerations, and never by any chance become +visible to the naked eye. + +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. + +The _appartement_ 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 _think_ (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. + +I have a notion that we may knock out a _series_ of descriptions for H. +W. without much trouble. It is very 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 _that_ for an article? I find myself +underlining words constantly. It is not my nature. It is mere imbecility +after the four hours' sitting. + +All unite in kindest remembrances to you, your mother and brother. + + Ever cordially. + + +[Sidenote: Miss Mary Boyle.] + + 49, CHAMPS ELYSÉES, PARIS, _Jan. 28th, 1856._ + +MY DEAR MARY, + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 +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. + +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." + +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 _your_ +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! + + Believe me ever, my dear Mary, + Yours truly and affectionately, + + Joe. + (That doesn't look plain.) + JOE. + + +[Sidenote: Miss Hogarth.] + + "HOUSEHOLD WORDS," _Friday, Feb. 8th, 1856._ + +MY DEAR GEORGY, + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +My best love to Catherine, and to Mamey and Katey, and Walter and Harry, +and the noble Plorn. I am grieved to hear about his black eye, and fear +that I shall find it in the green and purple state on my return. + + Ever affectionately. + + + THE HUMBLE PETITION OF CHARLES DICKENS, A DISTRESSED FOREIGNER, + +SHEWETH, + +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. + +That your Petitioner is therefore desirous of being taken out, and is +not at all particular where. + +That your Petitioner, being imbecile, says no more. But will ever, etc. +(whatever that may be). + + PARIS, _March 3rd, 1856._ + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Douglas Jerrold.] + + "HOUSEHOLD WORDS" OFFICE, _March 6th, 1856._ + +MY DEAR JERROLD, + +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 _for_ 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 +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. + + Ever faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Miss Hogarth.] + + "HOUSEHOLD WORDS" OFFICE, _Tuesday, March 11th, 1856_.[24] + +MY DEAR GEORGY, + +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. + +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. + +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. + + Ever affectionately. + + + +[Sidenote: Miss Hogarth.] + + "HOUSEHOLD WORDS," _Friday, March 14th, 1856._ + +MY DEAR GEORGY, + +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 _the_ cold and _my_ cold have both been intense. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +Kiss the noble Plorn a dozen times for me, and tell him 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. + + Ever affectionately. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. C. Macready.] + + 49, CHAMPS ELYSÉES, PARIS, _Saturday, March 22nd, 1856._ + +MY DEAR MACREADY, + +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! + +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. + +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 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." + +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. + + Ever, my dearest Macready, + Your affectionate Friend. + +P.S.--Mr. F.'s aunt sends her defiant respects. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. C. Macready.] + + 49, AVENUE DES CHAMPS ELYSÉES, PARIS, + _Thursday Night, March 27th, 1856 (after post time)._ + +MY DEAREST MACREADY, + +If I had had any idea of your coming (see how naturally I use the word +when I am three hundred miles 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + Ever yours most affectionately and truly. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. H. Wills.] + + 49, CHAMPS ELYSÉES, PARIS, _Sunday, April 6th, 1856._ + +MY DEAR WILLS, + + CHRISTMAS. + +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 + + MRS. WILLS! + +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. + + YOU + +had better pause for breath. + + Ever faithfully. + + POOLE. + +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. + + +[Sidenote: Mrs. Charles Dickens.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Monday, May 5th, 1856._ + +MY DEAR CATHERINE, + +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 is +in the best place in the largest room, but I find the _general_ +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." + +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. + +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. + +The audiences at Gye's are described to me as absolute 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. + +I write by this post to Georgy. Love to Mamey, Katey, Harry, and the +noble Plorn. I should be glad to see him here. + + Ever affectionately. + + +[Sidenote: Miss Hogarth.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Monday, May 5th, 1856._ + +MY DEAR GEORGY, + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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_ never +saw so many, I think, as I have seen since yesterday morning. + +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. + +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 forward to meeting him +again, among the birds and flowers in the garden on the side of the hill +at Boulogne. + + Ever affectionately. + + +[Sidenote: The Duke of Devonshire.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Sunday, June 1st, 1856._ + +MY DEAR DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE, + +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. + + Always your faithful and much obliged. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. Wilkie Collins.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _June 6th, 1856._ + +MY DEAR COLLINS, + +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 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 _The Mirror of Parliament_; that when _The Morning +Chronicle_ 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.) + +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 _The Mirror of Parliament_; that my faculty for descriptive +writing was seized upon the moment I joined _The Morning Chronicle_, and +that I was liberally paid there and handsomely acknowledged, and wrote +the greater part of the short descriptive "Sketches by BOZ" 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. + +And that here I am. + +Finally, if you want any dates of publication of books, tell Wills and +he'll get them for you. + +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. + + Ever faithfully. + +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. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Mark Lemon.] + + VILLA DES MOULINEAUX, BOULOGNE, + _Sunday, June 15th 1856._ + +MY DEAR OLD BOY, + +This place is beautiful--a burst of roses. Your friend Beaucourt (who +_will not_ 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. + +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. + +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 +passport office a tin-box, condescendingly and considerately labelled in +English: + + FOR THE OVERFLOWINGS, + +which the chief officer clearly believes to mean, for the sufferers from +the inundations. + +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." + +Will you congratulate Mrs. Lemon, with our loves, on her gallant victory +over the recreant cabman? + +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. + + Ever affectionately. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Mark Lemon.] + + H. W. OFFICE, _July 2nd, 1856._ + +MY DEAR MARK, + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + + Ever, my dear Boy, your affectionate Friend. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Walter Savage Landor.] + + VILLA DES MOULINEAUX, BOULOGNE, + _Saturday Evening, July 5th, 1856._ + +MY DEAR LANDOR, + +I write to you so often in my books, and my writing of letters is +usually so confined to the numbers that I _must_ write, and in which I +have no kind of satisfaction, that I 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 _do_ write, and that pretty often, I know beforehand. +Else why do I read _The Examiner_? + +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. + +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 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. + +We are expecting Mary Boyle too, shortly. + +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. + +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. + + Ever your Admirer and Friend. + + +[Sidenote: The Duke of Devonshire.] + + VILLA DES MOULINEAUX, NEAR BOULOGNE, + _Saturday Night, July 5th, 1856._ + +MY DEAR DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE, + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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 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. + +This looks dreadfully long, and perhaps you know it already. If so, I +will endeavour to make amends with Flora in future numbers. + +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. + + Ever your Grace's faithful and obliged. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. C. Macready.] + + VILLA DES MOULINEAUX, BOULOGNE, + _Tuesday, July 8th, 1856._ + +MY DEAREST MACREADY, + +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 get a holiday), but as I remember, the next number made +up will be published in three weeks. + +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. + +"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. + +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. + +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. + +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, +"_you_ 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 +_would_ go and look at boats), and had been talking of you. It was this +day week, by-the-bye. + +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 all the house. The Hammy boy is +particularly anxious to have his love sent to "Misr Creedy." + + Ever, my dearest Macready, + Most affectionately yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. Wilkie Collins.] + + VILLA DES MOULINEAUX, BOULOGNE, _Sunday, July 13th, 1856._ + +MY DEAR COLLINS, + +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 _dram. pers._ 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. + +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. + +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, 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. + +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 _vivâ voce_ 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 _coup d'état_ +as possible), and tradesmen coming up the avenue cry plaintively: "_Ne +tirez pas, Monsieur Fleench; c'est moi--boulanger. Ne tirez pas, mon +ami._" + +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. + +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. + +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! + +Kind regards from all to the Dramatic Poet of the establishment, and to +the D. P.'s mother and brother. + + Ever yours. + +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. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. H. Wills.] + + BOULOGNE, _Thursday, August 7th, 1856._ + +MY DEAR WILLS, + +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. + +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 Chancery, with the dream of setting it right. It is because of +this that such nefarious speculations are made. + +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. + + In haste, ever faithfully. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. C. Macready.] + + BOULOGNE, _Friday, August 8th, 1856._ + +MY DEAREST MACREADY, + +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. + +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. + +Being in town last Saturday, I went to see Robson in a burlesque of +"Medea." It is an odd but perfectly true 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. + +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. + + Ever, my dear Macready, affectionately yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. H. Wills.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Sunday Morning, Sept. 28th, 1856._ + +MY DEAR WILLS, + +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. + + Ever faithfully. + + +[Sidenote: Miss Dickens.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Saturday, Oct. 4th, 1856._ + +MY DEAR MAMEY, + +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." + +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. + +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. + +Kind regards to all at Brighton. + + Ever, my dear Mamey, your affectionate Father. + + +[Sidenote: The Hon. Mrs. Watson.] + + Tavistock House, _Tuesday, Oct. 7th, 1856._ + +MY DEAR MRS. WATSON, + +I _did_ 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. + +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. + +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!!! + +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 I deny, however, our having passed some very +pleasant days together, and our having had great pleasure in her visit. + +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. + +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! + +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, +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). + +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. + + Ever, my dear Mr. Watson, most faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: Mrs. Horne.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, TAVISTOCK SQUARE, _Oct. 20th, 1856._ + +MY DEAR MRS. HORNE, + +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. + +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. + +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: + + My heart disowns + Ophelia Jones; + +only I think it was a more sounding name. + + Are these the tones-- + Volumnia Jones? + +No. Again it seems doubtful. + + God bless her bones, + Petronia Jones! + +I think not. + + Carve I on stones + Olympia Jones? + +Can _that_ be the name? Fond memory favours it more than any other. My +love to her. + + Ever, my dear Mrs. Horne, very faithfully yours. + + +[Sidenote: The Duke of Devonshire.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _December 1st, 1856._ + +MY DEAR DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE, + +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. + +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. + +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, + + I am ever, my dear Duke of Devonshire, + Your faithful and obliged. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. Thomas Mitton.] + + Tavistock House, _Wednesday, Dec. 3rd, 1856._ + +MY DEAR MITTON, + +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 _he_ +ever takes fire, he must burn out, and can never otherwise be +extinguished. + +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. + +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.) + +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. + + Ever faithfully. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. W. C. Macready] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Saturday Evening, Dec. 13th_, 1856. + +MY DEAREST MACREADY, + +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. + +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. + + With very best love to Miss Macready and all the rest, + Ever, my dear Macready, most affectionately yours. + + +[Sidenote: Miss Power.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _December 15th, 1856._ + +MY DEAR MARGUERITE, + +I am not _quite_ 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. + +But I will look over the accumulation before you come, and I hope you +will never see your little friend again but in print. + +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. + + Kindest love from all, and from me. + Ever affectionately. + + +[Sidenote: Mr. William Charles Kent.] + + TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Christmas Eve, 1856._ + +MY DEAR SIR, + +I cannot leave your letter unanswered, because I am really anxious that +you should understand why I cannot comply with your request. + +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! + +I highly esteem and thank you for your sympathy with my writings. I +doubt if I have a more genial reader in the world. + + Very faithfully yours. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[23] Of Mr. Wilkie Collins. + +[24] This note was written after hearing from Mr. Forster of his +intended marriage. + + + + +PROLOGUE TO "THE LIGHTHOUSE." + +(Spoken by CHARLES DICKENS.) + +_Slow music all the time, unseen speaker, curtain down._ + + + A story of those rocks where doomed ships come + To cast them wreck'd upon the steps of home, + Where solitary men, the long year through-- + The wind their music and the brine their view-- + Warn mariners to shun the beacon-light; + A story of those rocks is here to-night. + Eddystone lighthouse + +[_Exterior view discovered._ + + In its ancient form; + Ere he who built it wish'd for the great storm + That shiver'd it to nothing; once again + Behold outgleaming on the angry main! + Within it are three men; to these repair + In our frail bark of Fancy, swift as air! + + They are but shadows, as the rower grim + Took none but shadows in his boat with him. + So be _ye_ shades, and, for a little space, + The real world a dream without a trace. + Return is easy. It will have ye back + Too soon to the old beaten dusty track; + For but one hour forget it. Billows rise, + Blow winds, fall rain, be black ye midnight skies; + And you who watch the light, arise! arise! + + [_Exterior view rises and discovers the scene._ + + + + +THE SONG OF THE WRECK. + + +I. + + The wind blew high, the waters raved, + A ship drove on the land, + A hundred human creatures saved, + Kneeled down upon the sand. + Threescore were drowned, threescore were thrown + Upon the black rocks wild, + And thus among them, left alone, + They found one helpless child. + + +II. + + A seaman rough, to shipwreck bred, + Stood out from all the rest, + And gently laid the lonely head + Upon his honest breast. + And travelling o'er the desert wide, + It was a solemn joy, + To see them, ever side by side, + The sailor and the boy. + + +III. + + In famine, sickness, hunger, thirst, + The two were still but one, + Until the strong man drooped the first, + And felt his labours done. + Then to a trusty friend he spake, + "Across the desert wide, + O take this poor boy for my sake!" + And kissed the child and died. + + +IV. + + Toiling along in weary plight, + Through heavy jungle, mire, + These two came later every night + To warm them at the fire. + Until the captain said one day, + "O seaman good and kind, + To save thyself now come away, + And leave the boy behind!" + + +V. + + The child was slumb'ring near the blaze, + "O captain, let him rest + Until it sinks, when God's own ways + Shall teach us what is best!" + They watched the whitened ashy heap, + They touched the child in vain; + They did not leave him there asleep, + He never woke again. + +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. + + + + +END OF VOL. I. + + + + +CHARLES DICKENS AND EVANS, CRYSTAL PALACE +PRESS. + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Obvious punctuation errors repaired. + +Page 63, "levee" changed to "levée" (regular levée every) + +Page 66, "levee" changed to "levée" (a regular levée) + +Page 114, word "or" inserted into text. (hencoop or any old) + +Page 304, 305, 307, 312, "Chateau" changed to "Château" + +Page 339, "chistened" changed to "christened" (christened Trotty Veck) + + + + + +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 25852-8.txt or 25852-8.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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