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diff --git a/25853-h/25853-h.htm b/25853-h/25853-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ec8d780 --- /dev/null +++ b/25853-h/25853-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,21190 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Letters of Charles Dickens, Vol. 2, edited by Mamie Dickens and Georgina Hogarth. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p {margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + text-indent: 1.25em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + img {border: 0;} + .tnote {border: dashed 1px; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em;} + ins {text-decoration:none; border-bottom: thin dotted gray;} + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + .date {text-align: right;} + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%; text-align: justify;} + + .bbox {border: solid 2px; margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .unindent {margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + .right {text-align: right;} + .poem {margin-left: 30%; margin-right: 10%; text-align: left;} + .poem2 {margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 10%; text-align: left;} + .sig {margin-right: 10%; text-align: right;} + .u {text-decoration: underline;} + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .sidenote {position: absolute; + right: 91%; +width: 10%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; text-align: center; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; margin-left: 1em; + float: right; margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; color: black; background: 0; border: solid 1px;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align:baseline; + position: relative; + bottom: 0.33em; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: none;} + .hang1 {text-indent: -3em; margin-left: 3em;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's The Letters of Charles Dickens, by Charles Dickens + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Letters of Charles Dickens + Vol. 2 (of 3), 1857-1870 + +Author: Charles Dickens + +Editor: Mamie Dickens + Georgina Hogarth + +Release Date: June 20, 2008 [EBook #25853] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LETTERS OF CHARLES DICKENS *** + + + + +Produced by Susan Skinner, Emmy and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[i]</a></span></p> + + +<h1>THE LETTERS</h1> + +<h3>OF</h3> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/7title_sig.png" width="400" height="172" alt="Signature: Charles Dickens" title="Signature: Charles Dickens" /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[iii]</a></span></p> +<h1>THE LETTERS</h1> + +<h3>OF</h3> + +<h1>CHARLES DICKENS.</h1> + +<h4>EDITED BY</h4> + +<h3>HIS SISTER-IN-LAW AND HIS ELDEST DAUGHTER.</h3> + +<h4>In Two Volumes.</h4> + +<div class='center'><br /><br />VOL. II.<br /> + +1857 <span class="smcap">to</span> 1870.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + +<b>London:</b><br /> +CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY.<br /> +1880.<br /> +<small>[<i>The Right of Translation is Reserved.</i>]</small></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[iv]</a></span><br /> +</p> +<div class='center'><small>CHARLES DICKENS AND EVANS,</small><br /> +<small>CRYSTAL PALACE PRESS.</small></div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span> +</p> + +<h2>ERRATA.</h2> + +<h3>VOL. II.</h3> + + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Errata"> +<tr><td align='left'>Page</td><td align='right'> 84,</td><td align='left'> line</td><td align='left'> 35.</td><td align='left'> For "South Kensington Museum," <i>read</i> "the South Kensington Museum."</td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>108,</td><td align='left'> line</td><td align='left'> 26.</td><td align='left'> For "frequent contributor," <i>read</i> "a frequent contributor."</td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>113,</td><td align='left'> lines</td><td align='left'> 6, 7.</td><td align='left'> For "great remonstrance," <i>read</i> "Great Remonstrance."</td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>130,</td><td align='left'> line</td><td align='left'> 10.</td><td align='left'> For "after," <i>read</i> "afore."</td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>160,</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'> 32.</td><td align='left'> For "a head," <i>read</i> "ahead."</td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>247,</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'> 12.</td><td align='left'> For "Shea," <i>read</i> "Shoe."</td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>292,</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'> 12.</td><td align='left'> For "Mabel's progress," <i>read</i> "Mabel's Progress."</td></tr> +</table></div> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span></p> +<h2>Book II.—<i>Continued.</i></h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>THE<br /> + +LETTERS OF CHARLES DICKENS.</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>1857.</h2> + +<h3>NARRATIVE.</h3> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>This</span> was a very full year in many ways. In February, Charles +Dickens obtained possession of Gad's Hill, and was able to +turn workmen into it. In April he stayed, with his wife and +sister-in-law, for a week or two at Wate's Hotel, Gravesend, +to be at hand to superintend the beginning of his alterations +of the house, and from thence we give a letter to Lord +Carlisle. He removed his family, for a summer residence in +the house, in June; and he finished "Little Dorrit" there +early in the summer. One of his first visitors at Gad's Hill +was the famous writer, Hans Christian Andersen. In January +"The Frozen Deep" had been played at the Tavistock House +theatre with such great success, that it was necessary to +repeat it several times, and the theatre was finally demolished +at the end of that month. In June Charles Dickens heard, +with great grief, of the death of his dear friend Douglas +Jerrold; and as a testimony of admiration for his genius +and affectionate regard for himself, it was decided to +organise, under the management of Charles Dickens, a +series of entertainments, "in memory of the late Douglas +Jerrold," the fund produced by them (a considerable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> +sum) to be presented to Mr. Jerrold's family. The amateur +company, including many of Mr. Jerrold's colleagues on +"Punch," gave subscription performances of "The Frozen +Deep;" the Gallery of Illustration, in Regent Street, being +engaged for the purpose. Charles Dickens gave two readings +at St. Martin's Hall of "The Christmas Carol" (to such +immense audiences and with such success, that the idea of +giving public readings for his <i>own</i> benefit first occurred to +him at this time). The professional actors, among them +the famous veteran actor, Mr. T. P. Cooke, gave a performance +of Mr. Jerrold's plays of "The Rent Day" and "Black-eyed +Susan," in which Mr. T. P. Cooke sustained the +character in which he had originally made such great success +when the play was written. A lecture was given by Mr. +Thackeray, and another by Mr. W. H. Russell. Finally, +the Queen having expressed a desire to see the play, which +had been much talked of during that season, there was +another performance before her Majesty and the Prince +Consort at the Gallery of Illustration in July, and at the +end of that month Charles Dickens read his "Carol" in the +Free Trade Hall, at Manchester. And to wind up the +"Memorial Fund" entertainments, "The Frozen Deep" +was played again at Manchester, also in the great Free +Trade Hall, at the end of August. For the business of +these entertainments he secured the assistance of Mr. Arthur +Smith, of whom he writes to Mr. Forster, at this time: "I +have got hold of Arthur Smith, as the best man of business +I know, and go to work with him to-morrow morning." +And when he began his own public readings, both in town +and country, he felt himself most fortunate in having the +co-operation of this invaluable man of business, and also of +his zealous friendship and pleasant companionship.</div> + +<p>In July, his second son, Walter Landor, went to India +as a cadet in the "Company's service," from which he was +afterwards transferred to the 42nd Royal Highlanders. His +father and his elder brother went to see him off, to Southampton. +From this place Charles Dickens writes to Mr. +Edmund Yates, a young man in whom he had been interested<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span> +from his boyhood, both for the sake of his parents +and for his own sake, and for whom he had always an +affectionate regard.</p> + +<p>In September he made a short tour in the North of +England, with Mr. Wilkie Collins, out of which arose the +"Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices," written by them +jointly, and published in "Household Words." Some +letters to his sister-in-law during this expedition are given +here, parts of which (as is the case with many letters to his +eldest daughter and his sister-in-law) have been published +in Mr. Forster's book.</p> + +<p>The letters which follow are almost all on the various +subjects mentioned in our notes, and need little explanation.</p> + +<p>His letter to Mr. Procter makes allusion to a legacy lately +left to that friend.</p> + +<p>The letters to Mr. Dilke, the original and much-respected +editor of "The Athenæum," and to Mr. Forster, on the subject +of the "Literary Fund," refer, as the letters indicate, +to a battle which they were carrying on together with that +institution.</p> + +<p>A letter to Mr. Frank Stone is an instance of his kind, +patient, and judicious criticism of a young writer, and the +letter which follows it shows how thoroughly it was understood +and how perfectly appreciated by the authoress of +the "Notes" referred to. Another instance of the same +kind criticism is given in a second letter this year to +Mr. Edmund Yates.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. B. W. +Procter.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>January 2nd, 1857.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Procter</span>,</div> + +<p>I have to thank you for a delightful book, which has +given me unusual pleasure. My delight in it has been a +little dashed by certain farewell verses, but I have made up +my mind (and you have no idea of the obstinacy of my +character) not to believe them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span></p> + +<p>Perhaps it is not taking a liberty—perhaps it is—to +congratulate you on Kenyon's remembrance. Either way I +can't help doing it with all my heart, for I know no man +in the world (myself excepted) to whom I would rather the +money went.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Affectionately yours ever.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Sir James +Emerson +Tennent.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>January 9th, 1857.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Tennent</span>,</div> + +<p>I must thank you for your earnest and affectionate +letter. It has given me the greatest pleasure, mixing the +play in my mind confusedly and delightfully with Pisa, the +Valetta, Naples, Herculanæum—God knows what not.</p> + +<p>As to the play itself; when it is made as good as my +care can make it, I derive a strange feeling out of it, like +writing a book in company; a satisfaction of a most +singular kind, which has no exact parallel in my life; a +something that I suppose to belong to the life of a labourer +in art alone, and which has to me a conviction of its being +actual truth without its pain, that I never could adequately +state if I were to try never so hard.</p> + +<p>You touch so kindly and feelingly on the pleasure such +little pains give, that I feel quite sorry you have never seen +this drama in progress during the last ten weeks here. +Every Monday and Friday evening during that time we +have been at work upon it. I assure you it has been a +remarkable lesson to my young people in patience, perseverance, +punctuality, and order; and, best of all, in that +kind of humility which is got from the earned knowledge +that whatever the right hand finds to do must be done with +the heart in it, and in a desperate earnest.</p> + +<p>When I changed my dress last night (though I did it +very quickly), I was vexed to find you gone. I wanted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> +to have secured you for our green-room supper, which was +very pleasant. If by any accident you should be free next +Wednesday night (our last), pray come to that green-room +supper. It would give me cordial pleasure to have you +there.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever, my dear Tennent, very heartily yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">M. de +Cerjat.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Monday Night, Jan. 17th, 1857.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Cerjat</span>,</div> + +<p>So wonderfully do good (epistolary) intentions become +confounded with bad execution, that I assure you I laboured +under a perfect and most comfortable conviction that I had +answered your Christmas Eve letter of 1855. More than +that, in spite of your assertions to the contrary, I still +strenuously believe that I did so! I have more than half a +mind ("Little Dorrit" and my other occupations notwithstanding) +to charge you with having forgotten my reply!! +I have even a wild idea that Townshend reproached me, +when the last old year was new, with writing to you instead +of to him!!! We will argue it out, as well as we can argue +anything without poor dear Haldimand, when I come back +to Elysée. In any case, however, don't discontinue your +annual letter, because it has become an expected and a +delightful part of the season to me.</p> + +<p>With one of the prettiest houses in London, and every +conceivable (and inconceivable) luxury in it, Townshend is +voluntarily undergoing his own sentence of transportation in +Nervi, a beastly little place near Genoa, where you would as +soon find a herd of wild elephants in any villa as comfort. +He has a notion that he <i>must</i> be out of England in the +winter, but I believe him to be altogether wrong (as I have +just told him in a letter), unless he could just take his +society with him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span></p> + +<p>Workmen are now battering and smashing down my +theatre here, where we have just been acting a new play of +great merit, done in what I may call (modestly speaking of +the getting-up, and not of the acting) an unprecedented +way. I believe that anything so complete has never been +seen. We had an act at the North Pole, where the slightest +and greatest thing the eye beheld were equally taken from +the books of the Polar voyagers. Out of thirty people, +there were certainly not two who might not have gone +straight to the North Pole itself, completely furnished for +the winter! It has been the talk of all London for these +three weeks. And now it is a mere chaos of scaffolding, +ladders, beams, canvases, paint-pots, sawdust, artificial +snow, gas-pipes, and ghastliness. I have taken such pains +with it for these ten weeks in all my leisure hours, that I +feel now shipwrecked—as if I had never been without a +play on my hands before. A third topic comes up as this +ceases.</p> + +<p>Down at Gad's Hill, near Rochester, in Kent—Shakespeare's +Gad's Hill, where Falstaff engaged in the robbery—is +a quaint little country-house of Queen Anne's time. I +happened to be walking past, a year and a half or so ago, +with my sub-editor of "Household Words," when I said to +him: "You see that house? It has always a curious +interest for me, because when I was a small boy down in +these parts I thought it the most beautiful house (I suppose +because of its famous old cedar-trees) ever seen. And my +poor father used to bring me to look at it, and used to say +that if I ever grew up to be a clever man perhaps I might +own that house, or such another house. In remembrance +of which, I have always in passing looked to see if it was +to be sold or let, and it has never been to me like any other +house, and it has never changed at all." We came back to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> +town, and my friend went out to dinner. Next morning he +came to me in great excitement, and said: "It is written +that you were to have that house at Gad's Hill. The lady +I had allotted to me to take down to dinner yesterday +began to speak of that neighbourhood. 'You know it?' I +said; 'I have been there to-day.' 'O yes,' said she, 'I +know it very well. I was a child there, in the house they +call Gad's Hill Place. My father was the rector, and lived +there many years. He has just died, has left it to me, and +I want to sell it.' 'So,' says the sub-editor, 'you must buy +it. Now or never!'" I did, and hope to pass next summer +there, though I may, perhaps, let it afterwards, furnished, +from time to time.</p> + +<p>All about myself I find, and the little sheet nearly full! +But I know, my dear Cerjat, the subject will have its +interest for you, so I give it its swing. Mrs. Watson was +to have been at the play, but most unfortunately had three +children sick of gastric fever, and could not leave them. +She was here some three weeks before, looking extremely +well in the face, but rather thin. I have not heard of your +friend Mr. Percival Skelton, but I much misdoubt an +amateur artist's success in this vast place. I hope you +detected a remembrance of our happy visit to the Great +St. Bernard in a certain number of "Little Dorrit"? Tell +Mrs. Cerjat, with my love, that the opinions I have +expressed to her on the subject of cows have become +matured in my mind by experience and venerable age; and +that I denounce the race as humbugs, who have been +getting into poetry and all sorts of places without the +smallest reason. Haldimand's housekeeper is an awful +woman to consider. Pray give him our kindest regards +and remembrances, if you ever find him in a mood to +take it. "Our" means Mrs. Dickens's, Georgie's, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> +mine. We often, often talk of our old days at Lausanne, +and send loving regard to Mrs. Cerjat and all your house.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Adieu, my dear fellow; ever cordially yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>January 28th, 1857.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>Your friend and servant is as calm as Pecksniff, +saving for his knitted brows now turning into cordage over +Little Dorrit. The theatre has disappeared, the house is +restored to its usual conditions of order, the family are +tranquil and domestic, dove-eyed peace is enthroned in this +study, fire-eyed radicalism in its master's breast.</p> + +<p>I am glad to hear that our poetess is at work again, +and shall be very much pleased to have some more contributions +from her.</p> + +<p>Love from all to your dear sister, and to Katie, and to +all the house.</p> + +<p>We dined yesterday at Frederick Pollock's. I begged +an amazing photograph of you, and brought it away. It +strikes me as one of the most ludicrous things I ever saw +in my life. I think of taking a public-house, and having +it copied larger, for the size. You may remember it? Very +square and big—the Saracen's Head with its hair cut, and +in modern gear? Staring very hard? As your particular +friend, I would not part with it on any consideration. I +will never get such a wooden head again.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss Mary +Boyle.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>February 7th, 1857.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Mary</span>,</div> + +<p>Half-a-dozen words on this, my birthday, to thank +you for your kind and welcome remembrance, and to assure +you that your Joseph is proud of it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span></p> + +<p>For about ten minutes after his death, on each occasion +of that event occurring, Richard Wardour was in a floored +condition. And one night, to the great terror of Devonshire, +the Arctic Regions, and Newfoundland (all of which localities +were afraid to speak to him, as his ghost sat by the kitchen +fire in its rags), he very nearly did what he never did, went +and fainted off, dead, again. But he always plucked up, on +the turn of ten minutes, and became facetious.</p> + +<p>Likewise he chipped great pieces out of all his limbs +(solely, as I imagine, from moral earnestness and concussion +of passion, for I never know him to hit himself in any way) +and terrified Aldersley<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> to that degree, by lunging at him to +carry him into the cave, that the said Aldersley always +shook like a mould of jelly, and muttered, "By G——, this +is an awful thing!"</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—I shall never cease to regret Mrs. Watson's not +having been there.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Rev. +James +White.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Sunday, Feb. 8th, 1857.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear White</span>,</div> + +<p>I send these lines by Mary and Katey, to report my +love to all.</p> + +<p>Your note about the <i>Golden Mary</i> gave me great pleasure; +though I don't believe in one part of it; for I +honestly believe that your story, as really belonging to the +rest of the narrative, had been generally separated from +the other stories, and greatly liked. I had not that particular +shipwreck that you mention in my mind (indeed I +doubt if I know it), and John Steadiman merely came into +my head as a staunch sort of name that suited the character. +The number has done "Household Words" great service, +and has decidedly told upon its circulation.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span></p> +<p>You should have come to the play. I much doubt if +anything so complete will ever be seen again. An incredible +amount of pains and ingenuity was expended on it, and the +result was most remarkable even to me.</p> + +<p>When are you going to send something more to +H. W.? Are you lazy?? Low-spirited??? Pining for +Paris????</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. C. W. +Dilke.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Office of "Household Words,"</span> <i>Thursday, March 19th, 1857.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Mr. Dilke</span>,</div> + +<p>Forster has another notion about the Literary Fund. +Will you name a day next week—that day being neither +Thursday nor Saturday—when we shall hold solemn council +there at half-past four?</p> + +<p>For myself, I beg to report that I have my war-paint on, +that I have buried the pipe of peace, and am whooping +for committee scalps.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">The Earl of +Carlisle.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Gravesend, Kent</span>, <i>Wednesday, April 15th, 1857.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Lord Carlisle</span>,</div> + +<p>I am writing by the river-side for a few days, and +at the end of last week —— appeared here with your note +of introduction. I was not in the way; but as —— had +come express from London with it, Mrs. Dickens opened it, +and gave her (in the limited sense which was of no use to +her) an audience. She did not quite seem to know what +she wanted of me. But she said she had understood at +Stafford House that I had a theatre in which she could +read; with a good deal of modesty and diffidence she at +last got so far. Now, my little theatre turns my house +out of window, costs fifty pounds to put up, and is only +two months taken down; therefore, is quite out of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> +question. This Mrs. Dickens explained, and also my profound +inability to do anything for —— readings which +they could not do for themselves. She appeared fully to +understand the explanation, and indeed to have anticipated +for herself how powerless I must be in such a case.</p> + +<p>She described herself as being consumptive, and as +being subject to an effusion of blood from the lungs; about +the last condition, one would think, poor woman, for the +exercise of public elocution as an art.</p> + +<p>Between ourselves, I think the whole idea a mistake, +and have thought so from its first announcement. It has a +fatal appearance of trading upon Uncle Tom, and am I not +a man and a brother? which you may be by all means, and +still not have the smallest claim to my attention as a public +reader. The town is over-read from all the white squares +on the draught-board; it has been considerably harried +from all the black squares—now with the aid of old banjoes, +and now with the aid of Exeter Hall; and I have a very +strong impression that it is by no means to be laid hold of +from this point of address. I myself, for example, am the +meekest of men, and in abhorrence of slavery yield to no +human creature, and yet I don't admit the sequence that I +want Uncle Tom (or Aunt Tomasina) to expound "King +Lear" to me. And I believe my case to be the case of +thousands.</p> + +<p>I trouble you with this much about it, because I am +naturally desirous you should understand that if I could +possibly have been of any service, or have suggested +anything to this poor lady, I would not have lost the +opportunity. But I cannot help her, and I assure you +that I cannot honestly encourage her to hope. I fear her +enterprise has no hope in it.</p> + +<p>In your absence I have always followed you through the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> +papers, and felt a personal interest and pleasure in the +public affection in which you are held over there.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> At the +same time I must confess that I should prefer to have you +here, where good public men seem to me to be dismally +wanted. I have no sympathy with demagogues, but am a +grievous Radical, and think the political signs of the times +to be just about as bad as the spirit of the people will admit +of their being. In all other respects I am as healthy, sound, +and happy as your kindness can wish. So you will set +down my political despondency as my only disease.</p> + +<p>On the tip-top of Gad's Hill, between this and Rochester, +on the very spot where Falstaff ran away, I have a pretty +little old-fashioned house, which I shall live in the hope of +showing to you one day. Also I have a little story respecting +the manner in which it became mine, which I hope (on +the same occasion in the clouds) to tell you. Until then +and always, I am, dear Lord Carlisle,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Yours very faithfully and obliged.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. John +Forster.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>May 13th, 1857.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Forster</span>,</div> + +<p>I have gone over Dilke's memoranda, and I think it +quite right and necessary that those points should be stated. +Nor do I see the least difficulty in the way of their introduction +into the pamphlet. But I do not deem it possible to get +the pamphlet written and published before the dinner. I +have so many matters pressing on my attention, that I cannot +turn to it immediately on my release from my book just +finished. It shall be done and distributed early next month.</p> + +<p>As to anything being lost by its not being in the hands +of the people who dine (as you seem to think), I have not +the least misgiving on that score. They would say, if it +were issued, just what they will say without it.</p> + +<p>Lord Granville is committed to taking the chair, and will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> +make the best speech he can in it. The pious —— will cram +him with as many distortions of the truth as his stomach may +be strong enough to receive. ——, with Bardolphian eloquence, +will cool his nose in the modest merits of the institution. +—— will make a neat and appropriate speech on both +sides, round the corner and over the way. And all this would +be done exactly to the same purpose and in just the same +strain, if twenty thousand copies of the pamphlet had been +circulated.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Rev. +James +White.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Friday, May 22nd, 1857.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear White</span>,</div> + +<p>My emancipation having been effected on Saturday, +the ninth of this month, I take some shame to myself for +not having sooner answered your note. But the host of +things to be done as soon as I was free, and the tremendous +number of ingenuities to be wrought out at Gad's Hill, have +kept me in a whirl of their own ever since.</p> + +<p>We purpose going to Gad's Hill for the summer on the +1st of June; as, apart from the master's eye being a +necessary ornament to the spot, I clearly see that the workmen +yet lingering in the yard must be squeezed out by +bodily pressure, or they will never go. How will this suit +you and yours? If you will come down, we can take you +all in, on your way north; that is to say, we shall have that +ample verge and room enough, until about the eighth; +when Hans Christian Andersen (who has been "coming" +for about three years) will come for a fortnight's stay in +England. I shall like you to see the little old-fashioned +place. It strikes me as being comfortable.</p> + +<p>So let me know your little game. And with love to +Mrs. White, Lotty, and Clara,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Believe me, ever affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Frank +Stone, +A.R.A.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Office of "Household Words,"</span> <i>Monday, June 1st, 1857.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Stone</span>,</div> + +<p>I know that what I am going to say will not be +agreeable; but I rely on the authoress's good sense; and +say it, knowing it to be the truth.</p> + +<p>These "Notes" are destroyed by too much smartness. +It gives the appearance of perpetual effort, stabs to the +heart the nature that is in them, and wearies by the manner +and not by the matter. It is the commonest fault in the +world (as I have constant occasion to observe here), but it +is a very great one. Just as you couldn't bear to have an +épergne or a candlestick on your table, supported by a +light figure always on tiptoe and evidently in an impossible +attitude for the sustainment of its weight, so all readers +would be more or less oppressed and worried by this presentation +of everything in one smart point of view, when +they know it must have other, and weightier, and more +solid properties. Airiness and good spirits are always delightful, +and are inseparable from notes of a cheerful trip; +but they should sympathise with many things as well as see +them in a lively way. It is but a word or a touch that expresses +this humanity, but without that little embellishment +of good nature there is no such thing as humour. In this +little MS. everything is too much patronised and condescended +to, whereas the slightest touch of feeling for the +rustic who is of the earth earthy, or of sisterhood with the +homely servant who has made her face shine in her desire to +please, would make a difference that the writer can scarcely +imagine without trying it. The only relief in the twenty-one +slips is the little bit about the chimes. It <i>is</i> a relief, +simply because it is an indication of some kind of sentiment. +You don't want any sentiment laboriously made out in such +a thing. You don't want any maudlin show of it. But you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> +do want a pervading suggestion that it is there. It makes +all the difference between being playful and being cruel. +Again I must say, above all things—especially to young +people writing: For the love of God don't condescend! +Don't assume the attitude of saying, "See how clever I am, +and what fun everybody else is!" Take any shape but that.</p> + +<p>I observe an excellent quality of observation throughout, +and think the boy at the shop, and all about him, particularly +good. I have no doubt whatever that the rest of +the journal will be much better if the writer chooses to +make it so. If she considers for a moment within herself, +she will know that she derived pleasure from everything +she saw, because she saw it with innumerable lights and +shades upon it, and bound to humanity by innumerable fine +links; she cannot possibly communicate anything of that +pleasure to another by showing it from one little limited +point only, and that point, observe, the one from which it is +impossible to detach the exponent as the patroness of a +whole universe of inferior souls. This is what everybody +would mean in objecting to these notes (supposing them to +be published), that they are too smart and too flippant.</p> + +<p>As I understand this matter to be altogether between +us three, and as I think your confidence, and hers, imposes +a duty of friendship on me, I discharge it to the best of my +ability. Perhaps I make more of it than you may have +meant or expected; if so, it is because I am interested and +wish to express it. If there had been anything in my +objection not perfectly easy of removal, I might, after all, +have hesitated to state it; but that is not the case. A very +little indeed would make all this gaiety as sound and wholesome +and good-natured in the reader's mind as it is in the +writer's.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Affectionately always.<br /> +</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote"><small>Anonymous.</small></div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham</span>, <i>Thursday, June 4th, 1857.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class="smcap">My dear ——</span></div> + +<p>Coming home here last night, from a day's business +in London, I found your most excellent note awaiting me, +in which I have had a pleasure to be derived from none but +good and natural things. I can now honestly assure you +that I believe you will write <i>well</i>, and that I have a lively +hope that I may be the means of showing you yourself in +print one day. Your powers of graceful and light-hearted +observation need nothing but the little touches on which +we are both agreed. And I am perfectly sure that they +will be as pleasant to you as to anyone, for nobody can see +so well as you do, without feeling kindly too.</p> + +<p>To confess the truth to you, I was half sorry, yesterday, +that I had been so unreserved; but not half as sorry, +yesterday, as I am glad to-day. You must not mind my +adding that there is a noble candour and modesty in your +note, which I shall never be able to separate from you +henceforth.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Affectionately yours always.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Henry +Austin.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Gad's Hill</span>, <i>Saturday, June 6th, 1857.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Henry</span>,</div> + +<p>Here is a very serious business on the great estate +respecting the water supply. Last night, they had pumped +the well dry merely in raising the family supply for the +day; and this morning (very little water having been got +into the cisterns) it is dry again! It is pretty clear to me +that we must look the thing in the face, and at once bore +deeper, dig, or do some beastly thing or other, to secure +this necessary in abundance. Meanwhile I am in a most +plaintive and forlorn condition without your presence and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> +counsel. I raise my voice in the wilderness and implore the +same!!!</p> + +<p>Wild legends are in circulation among the servants +how that Captain Goldsmith on the knoll above—the skipper +in that crow's-nest of a house—has millions of gallons of +water always flowing for him. Can he have damaged my +well? Can we imitate him, and have our millions of +gallons? Goldsmith or I must fall, so I conceive.</p> + +<p>If you get this, send me a telegraph message informing +me when I may expect comfort. I am held by four of the +family while I write this, in case I should do myself a +mischief—it certainly won't be taking to drinking water.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately (most despairingly).<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Monday, July 13th, 1857.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>Many thanks for your Indian information. I shall +act upon it in the most exact manner. Walter sails next +Monday. Charley and I go down with him to Southampton +next Sunday. We are all delighted with the prospect of +seeing you at Gad's Hill. These are my Jerrold engagements: +On Friday, the 24th, I have to repeat my reading at +St. Martin's Hall; on Saturday, the 25th, to repeat "The +Frozen Deep" at the Gallery of Illustration for the last time. +On Thursday, the 30th, or Friday, the 31st, I shall probably +read at Manchester. Deane, the general manager of the +Exhibition, is going down to-night, and will arrange all the +preliminaries for me. If you and I went down to Manchester +together, and were there on a Sunday, he would give us the +whole Exhibition to ourselves. It is probable, I think (as +he estimates the receipts of a night at about seven hundred +pounds), that we may, in about a fortnight or so after the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> +reading, play "The Frozen Deep" at Manchester. But of +this contingent engagement I at present know no more than +you do.</p> + +<p>Now, will you, upon this exposition of affairs, choose your +own time for coming to us, and, when you have made your +choice, write to me at Gad's Hill? I am going down this +afternoon for rest (which means violent cricket with the +boys) after last Saturday night; which was a teaser, but +triumphant. The St. Martin's Hall audience was, I must +confess, a very extraordinary thing. The two thousand and +odd people were like one, and their enthusiasm was something +awful.</p> + +<p>Yet I have seen that before, too. Your young remembrance +cannot recall the man; but he flourished in my day—a +great actor, sir—a noble actor—thorough artist! I +have seen him do wonders in that way. He retired from +the stage early in life (having a monomaniacal delusion that +he was old), and is said to be still living in your county.</p> + +<p>All join in kindest love to your dear sister and all the +rest.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Ever, my dearest Macready,</span><br /> +Most affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Edmund +Yates.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Sunday, July 19th, 1857.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Yates</span>,</div> + +<p>Although I date this ashore, I really write it from +Southampton (don't notice this fact in your reply, for I +shall be in town on Wednesday). I have come here on +an errand which will grow familiar to you before you know +that Time has flapped his wings over your head. Like me, +you will find those babies grow to be young men before you +are quite sure they are born. Like me, you will have great +teeth drawn with a wrench, and will only then know that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> +you ever cut them. I am here to send Walter away over +what they call, in Green Bush melodramas, "the Big Drink," +and I don't at all know this day how he comes to be mine, +or I his.</p> + +<p>I don't write to say this—or to say how seeing Charley, +and he going aboard the ship before me just now, I +suddenly came into possession of a photograph of my own +back at sixteen and twenty, and also into a suspicion that +I had doubled the last age. I merely write to mention +that Telbin and his wife are going down to Gad's Hill with +us, about mid-day next Sunday, and that if you and Mrs. +Yates will come too, we shall be delighted to have you. +We can give you a bed, and you can be in town (if you +have such a savage necessity) by twenty minutes before ten +on Monday morning.</p> + +<p>I was very much pleased (as I had reason to be) with +your account of the reading in <i>The Daily News</i>. I thank +you heartily.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. T. P. +Cooke.</div> + +<div class='center'><br /><br /> +IN REMEMBRANCE OF THE LATE MR. DOUGLAS JERROLD.<br /> +</div> + +<div class='date'><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Committee's Office, Gallery of Illustration</span>,</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Regent Street</span>, <i>Thursday, July 30th</i>, 1857.<br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Mr. Cooke</span>,</div> + +<p>I cannot rest satisfied this morning without writing +to congratulate you on your admirable performance of last +night. It was so fresh and vigorous, so manly and gallant, +that I felt as if it splashed against my theatre-heated face +along with the spray of the breezy sea. What I felt everybody +felt; I should feel it quite an impertinence to take +myself out of the crowd, therefore, if I could by any means +help doing so. But I can't; so I hope you will feel that you +bring me on yourself, and have only yourself to blame.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Always faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Compton.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Sunday Night, Aug 2nd, 1857.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Mrs. Compton</span>,</div> + +<p>We are going to play "The Frozen Deep" (pursuant +to requisition from town magnates, etc.) at Manchester, at +the New Free Trade Hall, on the nights of Friday and +Saturday, the 21st and 22nd August.</p> + +<p>The place is out of the question for my girls. Their +action could not be seen, and their voices could not be +heard. You and I have played, there and elsewhere, so +sociably and happily, that I am emboldened to ask you +whether you would play my sister-in-law Georgina's part +(Compton and babies permitting).</p> + +<p>We shall go down in the old pleasant way, and shall +have the Art Treasures Exhibition to ourselves on the +Sunday; when even "he" (as Rogers always called every +pretty woman's husband) might come and join us.</p> + +<p>What do you say? What does he say? and what does +baby say? When I use the term "baby," I use it in two +tenses—present and future.</p> + +<p>Answer me at this address, like the Juliet I saw at +Drury Lane—when was it?—yesterday. And whatever +your answer is, if you will say that you and Compton will +meet us at the North Kent Station, London Bridge, next +Sunday at a quarter before one, and will come down here +for a breath of sweet air and stay all night, you will give +your old friends great pleasure. Not least among them,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Yours faithfully.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Monday, Aug. 3rd, 1857.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>I write to you in reference to your last note, as soon as +I positively know our final movements in the Jerrold matter.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span></p> + +<p>We are going to wind up by acting at Manchester (on +solemn requisition) on the evenings of Friday and Saturday, +the 21st and 22nd (actresses substituted for the girls, of +course). We shall have to leave here on the morning of +the 20th. You thought of coming on the 16th; can't +you make it a day or two earlier, so as to be with us a +whole week? Decide and pronounce. Again, cannot you +bring Katey with you? Decide and pronounce thereupon, +also.</p> + +<p>I read at Manchester last Friday. As many thousand +people were there as you like to name. The collection of +pictures in the Exhibition is wonderful. And the power +with which the modern English school asserts itself is a +very gratifying and delightful thing to behold. The care +for the common people, in the provision made for their +comfort and refreshment, is also admirable and worthy of +all commendation. But they want more amusement, and +particularly (as it strikes me) <i>something in motion</i>, though +it were only a twisting fountain. The thing is too still +after their lives of machinery, and art flies over their heads +in consequence.</p> + +<p>I hope you have seen my tussle with the "Edinburgh." +I saw the chance last Friday week, as I was going down to +read the "Carol" in St. Martin's Hall. Instantly turned +to, then and there, and wrote half the article. Flew out of +bed early next morning, and finished it by noon. Went +down to Gallery of Illustration (we acted that night), did +the day's business, corrected the proofs in Polar costume in +dressing-room, broke up two numbers of "Household +Words" to get it out directly, played in "Frozen Deep" +and "Uncle John," presided at supper of company, made +no end of speeches, went home and gave in completely for +four hours, then got sound asleep, and next day was as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> +fresh as you used to be in the far-off days of your lusty +youth.</p> + +<p>All here send kindest love to your dear good sister and +all the house.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever and ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Frank +Stone, +A.R.A.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Sunday Afternoon, Aug. 9th, 1857.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Stone</span>,</div> + +<p>Now here, without any preface, is a good, confounding, +stunning question for you—would you like to play +"Uncle John" on the two nights at Manchester?</p> + +<p>It is not a long part. You could have a full rehearsal +on the Friday, and I could sit in the wing at night and pull +you through all the business. Perhaps you might not +object to being in the thing in your own native place, and +the relief to me would be enormous.</p> + +<p>This is what has come into my head lying in bed to-day +(I have been in bed all day), and this is just my plain +reason for writing to you.</p> + +<p>It's a capital part, and you are a capital old man. You +know the play as we play it, and the Manchester people +don't. Say the word, and I'll send you my own book by +return of post.</p> + +<p>The agitation and exertion of Richard Wardour are so +great to me, that I cannot rally my spirits in the short space +of time I get. The strain is so great to make a show of +doing it, that I want to be helped out of "Uncle John" if +I can. Think of yourself far more than me; but if you half +think you are up to the joke, and half doubt your being so, +then give me the benefit of the doubt and play the part.</p> + +<p>Answer me at Gad's Hill.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—If you play, I shall immediately announce it to all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> +concerned. If you don't, I shall go on as if nothing had +happened, and shall say nothing to anyone.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Henry +Austin.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place</span>, <i>Saturday, Aug. 15th, 1857.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Henry</span>,</div> + +<p>At last, I am happy to inform you, we have got at a +famous spring!! It rushed in this morning, ten foot deep. +And our friends talk of its supplying "a ton a minute for +yourself and your family, sir, for nevermore."</p> + +<p>They ask leave to bore ten feet lower, to prevent the +possibility of what they call "a choking with sullage." +Likewise, they are going to insert "a rose-headed pipe;" +at the mention of which implement, I am (secretly) well-nigh +distracted, having no idea of what it means. But I +have said "Yes," besides instantly standing a bottle of gin. +Can you come back, and can you get down on Monday +morning, to advise and endeavour to decide on the +mechanical force we shall use for raising the water? I +would return with you, as I shall have to be in town until +Thursday, and then to go to Manchester until the following +Tuesday.</p> + +<p>I send this by hand to John, to bring to you.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Frank +Stone, +A.R.A.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place</span>, <i>Monday, Aug. 17th, 1857.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Stone</span>,</div> + +<p>I received your kind note this morning, and write +this reply here to take to London with me and post in +town, being bound for that village and three days' drill +of the professional ladies who are to succeed the Tavistock +girls.</p> + +<p>My book I enclose. There is a slight alteration (which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> +does not affect you) at the end of the first act, in order that +the piece may be played through without having the drop +curtain down. You will not find the situations or business +difficult, with me on the spot to put you right.</p> + +<p>Now, as to the dress. You will want a pair of pumps, +and a pair of white silk socks; these you can get at Manchester. +The extravagantly and anciently-frilled shirts +that I have had got up for the part, I will bring you down; +large white waistcoat, I will bring you down; large white +hat, I will bring you down; dressing-gown, I will bring +you down; white gloves and ditto choker you can get at +Manchester. There then remain only a pair of common +nankeen tights, to button below the calf, and blue wedding-coat. +The nankeen tights you had best get made at once; +my "Uncle John" coat I will send you down in a parcel by +to-morrow's train, to have altered in Manchester to your +shape and figure. You will then be quite independent of +Christian chance and Jewish Nathan, which latter potentate +is now at Canterbury with the cricket amateurs, and might +fail.</p> + +<p>A Thursday's rehearsal is (unfortunately) now impracticable, +the passes for the railway being all made out, +and the company's sailing orders issued. But, as I have +already suggested, with a careful rehearsal on Friday +morning, and with me at the wing at night to put you +right, you will find yourself sliding through it easily. There +is nothing in the least complicated in the business. As to +the dance, you have only to knock yourself up for a twelvemonth +and it will go nobly.</p> + +<p>After all, too, if you <i>should</i>, through any unlucky breakdown, +come to be afraid of it, I am no worse off than I was +before, if I have to do it at last. Keep your pecker up +with that.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span></p> + +<p>I am heartily obliged to you, my dear old boy, for your +affectionate and considerate note, and I wouldn't have you +do it, really and sincerely—immense as the relief will be to +me—unless you are quite comfortable in it, and able to +enjoy it.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Frank +Stone, +A.R.A.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Office of "Household Words,"</span> <i>Tuesday, Aug. 18th, 1857.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Stone</span>,</div> + +<p>I sent you a telegraph message last night, in total +contradiction of the letter you received from me this +morning.</p> + +<p>The reason was simply this: Arthur Smith and the +other business men, both in Manchester and here, urged +upon me, in the strongest manner, that they were afraid of +the change; that it was well known in Manchester that I +had done the part in London; that there was a danger of +its being considered disrespectful in me to give it up; also +that there was a danger that it might be thought that I did +so at the last minute, after an immense let, whereas I +might have done it at first, etc. etc. etc. Having no +desire but for the success of our object, and a becoming +recognition on my part of the kind Manchester public's +cordiality, I gave way, and thought it best to go on.</p> + +<p>I do so against the grain, and against every inclination, +and against the strongest feeling of gratitude to you. My +people at home will be miserable too when they hear I am +going to do it. If I could have heard from you sooner, and +got the bill out sooner, I should have been firmer in considering +my own necessity of relief. As it is, I sneak +under; and I hope you will feel the reasons, and approve.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Henry +Austin.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place</span>, <i>Wednesday, Sept. 2nd, 1857.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Henry</span>,</div> + +<p>The second conspirator has been here this morning +to ask whether you wish the windlass to be left in the yard, +and whether you will want him and his mate any more, and, +if so, when? Of course he says (rolling something in the +form of a fillet in at one broken tooth all the while, and +rolling it out at another) that they could wish fur to have +the windlass if it warn't any ways a hill conwenience fur to +fetch her away. I have told him that if he will come back +on Friday he shall have your reply. Will you, therefore, +send it me by return of post? He says he'll "look up" +(as if he was an astronomer) "a Friday arterdinner."</p> + +<p>On Monday I am going away with Collins for ten days +or a fortnight, on a "tour in search of an article" for +"Household Words." We have not the least idea where +we are going; but <i>he</i> says, "Let's look at the Norfolk coast," +and <i>I</i> say, "Let's look at the back of the Atlantic." I don't +quite know what I mean by that; but have a general +impression that I mean something knowing.</p> + +<p>I am horribly used up after the Jerrold business. Low +spirits, low pulse, low voice, intense reaction. If I were not +like Mr. Micawber, "falling back for a spring" on Monday, +I think I should slink into a corner and cry.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Allonby, Cumberland</span>, <i>Wednesday Night, Sept. 9th, 1857.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Georgy</span>,</div> + +<div class='center'><b>* * * * * *</b></div> + +<p>Think of Collins's usual luck with me! We went up a +Cumberland mountain yesterday—a huge black hill, fifteen +hundred feet high. We took for a guide a capital innkeeper<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> +hard by. It rained in torrents—as it only does rain +in a hill country—the whole time. At the top, there were +black mists and the darkness of night. It then came out +that the innkeeper had not been up for twenty years, and +he lost his head and himself altogether; and we couldn't +get down again! What wonders the Inimitable performed +with his compass until it broke with the heat and +wet of his pocket no matter; it did break, and then we +wandered about, until it was clear to the Inimitable that +the night must be passed there, and the enterprising +travellers probably die of cold. We took our own way +about coming down, struck, and declared that the guide +might wander where he would, but we would follow a watercourse +we lighted upon, and which must come at last to +the river. This necessitated amazing gymnastics; in the +course of which performances, Collins fell into the said +watercourse with his ankle sprained, and the great +ligament of the foot and leg swollen I don't know how +big.</p> + +<p>How I enacted Wardour over again in carrying him +down, and what a business it was to get him down; I may +say in Gibbs's words: "Vi lascio a giudicare!" But he was +got down somehow, and we got off the mountain somehow; +and now I carry him to bed, and into and out of carriages, +exactly like Wardour in private life. I don't believe he +will stand for a month to come. He has had a doctor, and +can wear neither shoe nor stocking, and has his foot +wrapped up in a flannel waistcoat, and has a breakfast +saucer of liniment, and a horrible dabbling of lotion incessantly +in progress. We laugh at it all, but I doubt very +much whether he can go on to Doncaster. It will be a +miserable blow to our H. W. scheme, and I say nothing +about it as yet; but he is really so crippled that I doubt<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> +the getting him there. We have resolved to fall to work +to-morrow morning and begin our writing; and there, for +the present, that point rests.</p> + +<p>This is a little place with fifty houses, five bathing-machines, +five girls in straw hats, five men in straw hats, +and no other company. The little houses are all in half-mourning—yellow +stone on white stone, and black; and it +reminds me of what Broadstairs might have been if it had +not inherited a cliff, and had been an Irishman. But this +is a capital little homely inn, looking out upon the sea; and +we are really very comfortably lodged. I can just stand +upright in my bedroom. Otherwise, it is a good deal like +one of Ballard's top-rooms. We have a very obliging and +comfortable landlady; and it is a clean nice place in a rough +wild country. We came here haphazard, but could not +have done better.</p> + +<p>We lay last night at a place called Wigton—also in +half-mourning—with the wonderful peculiarity that it had +no population, no business, no streets to speak of; but five +linendrapers within range of our small windows, one linendraper's +next door, and five more linendrapers round the +corner. I ordered a night-light in my bedroom. A queer +little old woman brought me one of the common Child's +night-lights, and seeming to think that I looked at it with +interest, said: "It's joost a vara keeyourious thing, sir, and +joost new coom oop. It'll burn awt hoors a' end, an no +gootther, nor no waste, nor ony sike a thing, if you can +creedit what I say, seein' the airticle."</p> + +<p>Of course <i>I</i> shall go to Doncaster, whether or no (please +God), and my postage directions to you remain unchanged. +Love to Mamey, Katey, Charley, Harry, and the darling +Plorn.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Lancaster</span>, <i>Saturday Night, Sept. 12th, 1857.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Georgy</span>,</div> + +<p>I received your letter at Allonby yesterday, and was +delighted to get it. We came back to Carlisle last night +(to a capital inn, kept by Breach's brother), and came on +here to-day. We are on our way to Doncaster; but Sabbath +observance throws all the trains out; and although +it is not a hundred miles from here, we shall have, as well as +I can make out the complicated lists of trains, to sleep at +Leeds—which I particularly detest as an odious place—to-morrow +night.</p> + +<p>Accustomed as you are to the homage which men +delight to render to the Inimitable, you would be scarcely +prepared for the proportions it assumes in this northern +country. Station-masters assist him to alight from carriages, +deputations await him in hotel entries, innkeepers +bow down before him and put him into regal rooms, the +town goes down to the platform to see him off, and +Collins's ankle goes into the newspapers!!!</p> + +<p>It is a great deal better than it was, and he can get into +new hotels and up the stairs with two thick sticks, like an +admiral in a farce. His spirits have improved in a corresponding +degree, and he contemplates cheerfully the keeping +house at Doncaster. I thought (as I told you) he would +never have gone there, but he seems quite up to the mark +now. Of course he can never walk out, or see anything of +any place. We have done our first paper for H. W., and +sent it up to the printer's.</p> + +<p>The landlady of the little inn at Allonby lived at Greta +Bridge, in Yorkshire, when I went down there before +"Nickleby," and was smuggled into the room to see me, +when I was secretly found out. She is an immensely fat +woman now. "But I could tuck my arm round her waist<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> +then, Mr. Dickens," the landlord said when she told me the +story as I was going to bed the night before last. "And +can't you do it now," I said, "you insensible dog? Look +at me! Here's a picture!" Accordingly, I got round as +much of her as I could; and this gallant action was the +most successful I have ever performed, on the whole. I +think it was the dullest little place I ever entered; and +what with the monotony of an idle sea, and what with the +monotony of another sea in the room (occasioned by Collins's +perpetually holding his ankle over a pail of salt water, and +laving it with a milk jug), I struck yesterday, and came +away.</p> + +<p>We are in a very remarkable old house here, with +genuine old rooms and an uncommonly quaint staircase. I +have a state bedroom, with two enormous red four-posters +in it, each as big as Charley's room at Gad's Hill. Bellew +is to preach here to-morrow. "And we know he is a friend +of yours, sir," said the landlord, when he presided over the +serving of the dinner (two little salmon trout; a sirloin +steak; a brace of partridges; seven dishes of sweets; five +dishes of dessert, led off by a bowl of peaches; and in the +centre an enormous bride-cake—"We always have it here, +sir," said the landlord, "custom of the house.") (Collins +turned pale, and estimated the dinner at half a guinea +each.)</p> + +<p>This is the stupidest of letters, but all description is +gone, or going, into "The Lazy Tour of Two Idle +Apprentices."</p> + +<p>Kiss the darling Plorn, who is often in my thoughts. +Best love to Charley, Mamey, and Katie. I will write to +you again from Doncaster, where I shall be rejoiced to find +another letter from you.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately, my dearest Georgy.<br /> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Angel Hotel, Doncaster</span>, <i>Tuesday, Sept. 15th, 1857.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Georgy</span>,</div> + +<p>I found your letter here on my arrival yesterday. I +had hoped that the wall would have been almost finished by +this time, and the additions to the house almost finished +too—but patience, patience!</p> + +<p>We have very good, clean, and quiet apartments here, +on the second floor, looking down into the main street, +which is full of horse jockeys, bettors, drunkards, and other +blackguards, from morning to night—and all night. The +races begin to-day and last till Friday, which is the Cup Day. +I am not going to the course this morning, but have engaged +a carriage (open, and pair) for to-morrow and Friday.</p> + +<p>"The Frozen Deep's" author gets on as well as could +be expected. He can hobble up and down stairs when +absolutely necessary, and limps to his bedroom on the same +floor. He talks of going to the theatre to-night in a cab, +which will be the first occasion of his going out, except to +travel, since the accident. He sends his kind regards and +thanks for enquiries and condolence. I am perpetually +tidying the rooms after him, and carrying all sorts of untidy +things which belong to him into his bedroom, which is a +picture of disorder. You will please to imagine mine, airy +and clean, little dressing-room attached, eight water-jugs (I +never saw such a supply), capital sponge-bath, perfect +arrangement, and exquisite neatness. We breakfast at +half-past eight, and fall to work for H. W. afterwards. +Then I go out, and—hem! look for subjects.</p> + +<p>The mayor called this morning to do the honours of +the town, whom it pleased the Inimitable to receive with +great courtesy and affability. He propounded invitation to +public <i>déjeûner</i>, which it did <i>not</i> please the Inimitable to +receive, and which he graciously rejected.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span></p> + +<p>That's all the news. Everything I can describe by hook +or by crook, I describe for H. W. So there is nothing of +that sort left for letters.</p> + +<p>Best love to dear Mamey and Katey, and to Charley, and +to Harry. Any number of kisses to the noble Plorn.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Arthur +Ryland.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place</span>, <i>Saturday Evening, Oct. 3rd, 1857.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Sir</span>,</div> + +<p>I have had the honour and pleasure of receiving your +letter of the 28th of last month, informing me of the distinction +that has been conferred upon me by the Council +of the Birmingham and Midland Institute.</p> + +<p>Allow me to assure you with much sincerity, that I am +highly gratified by having been elected one of the first +honorary members of that establishment. Nothing could +have enhanced my interest in so important an undertaking; +but the compliment is all the more welcome to me on that +account.</p> + +<p>I accept it with a due sense of its worth, with many +acknowledgments and with all good wishes.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +I am ever, my dear Sir, very faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Edmund +Yates.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Monday Night, Nov. 16th, 1857.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Yates</span>,</div> + +<p>I retain the story with pleasure; and I need not tell +you that you are not mistaken in the last lines of your note.</p> + +<p>Excuse me, on that ground, if I say a word or two as +to what I think (I mention it with a view to the future) +might be better in the paper. The opening is excellent. +But it passes too completely into the Irishman's narrative, +does not light it up with the life about it, or the circumstances<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> +under which it is delivered, and does not carry +through it, as I think it should with a certain indefinable +subtleness, the thread with which you begin your weaving. +I will tell Wills to send me the proof, and will try to show +you what I mean when I shall have gone over it carefully.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours always.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Frank +Stone, +A.R.A.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Wednesday, Dec. 13th, 1857.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Stone</span>,</div> + +<p>I find on enquiry that the "General Theatrical +Fund" has relieved non-members in one or two instances; +but that it is exceedingly unwilling to do so, and would +certainly not do so again, saving on some very strong and +exceptional case. As its trustee, I could not represent to it +that I think it ought to sail into those open waters, for I +very much doubt the justice of such cruising, with a +reference to the interests of the patient people who support +it out of their small earnings.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Affectionately ever.<br /> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span></p> +<h2>Book III.</h2> + +<h3>1858 <small>TO</small> 1870.</h3> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span></p> +<h2>1858.</h2> + +<h3>NARRATIVE.</h3> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>All</span> through this year, Charles Dickens was constantly +moving about from place to place. After much and careful +consideration, he had come to the determination of, for the +future, giving readings for his own benefit. And although in +the spring of this year he gave one reading of his "Christmas +Carol" for a charity, all the other readings, beginning from +the 29th April, and ever after, were for himself. In the +autumn of this year he made reading tours in England, Scotland, +and Ireland, always accompanied by his friend and +secretary, Mr. Arthur Smith. At Newcastle, Charles Dickens +was joined by his daughters, who accompanied him in his +Scotch tour. The letters to his sister-in-law, and to his +eldest daughter, are all given here, and will be given in all +future reading tours, as they form a complete diary of his +life and movements at these times. To avoid the constant +repetition of the two names, the beginning of the +letters will be dispensed with in all cases where they follow +each other in unbroken succession. The Mr. Frederick +Lehmann mentioned in the letter written from Sheffield, had +married a daughter of Mr. Robert Chambers, and niece of +Mrs. Wills. Coming to settle in London a short time after +this date, Mr. and Mrs. Lehmann became intimately known +to Charles Dickens and his family—more especially to his +eldest daughter, to whom they have been, and are, the +kindest and truest of friends. The "pretty little boy" +mentioned as being under Mrs. Wills's care, was their eldest +son.</div> + +<p>We give the letter to Mr. Thackeray, not because it is +one of very great interest, but because, being the only one +we have, we are glad to have the two names associated +together in this work.</p> + +<p>The "little speech" alluded to in this first letter to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> +Mr. Macready was one made by Charles Dickens at a public +dinner, which was given in aid of the Hospital for Sick +Children, in Great Ormond Street. He afterwards (early in +April) gave a reading from his "Christmas Carol" for this +same charity.</p> + +<p>The Christmas number of "Household Words," mentioned +in a letter to Mr. Wilkie Collins, was called "A House +to Let," and contained stories written by Charles Dickens, +Mr. Wilkie Collins, and other contributors to "Household +Words."</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. +Wilkie +Collins.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Sunday, Jan. 17th, 1858.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Wilkie</span>,</div> + +<p>I am very sorry to receive so bad an account of the +foot. But I hope it is all in the past tense now.</p> + +<p>I met with an incident the other day, which I think is a +good deal in your way, for introduction either into a long or +short story. Dr. Sutherland and Dr. Monro went over +St. Luke's with me (only last Friday), to show me some +distinctly and remarkably developed types of insanity. +Among other patients, we passed a deaf and dumb man, +now afflicted with incurable madness too, of whom they +said that it was only when his madness began to develop +itself in strongly-marked mad actions, that it began to be +suspected. "Though it had been there, no doubt, some +time." This led me to consider, suspiciously, what employment +he had been in, and so to ask the question. "Aye," +says Dr. Sutherland, "that is the most remarkable thing of +all, Mr. Dickens. He was employed in the transmission of +electric-telegraph messages; and it is impossible to conceive +what delirious despatches that man may have been sending +about all over the world!"</p> + +<p>Rejoiced to hear such good report of the play.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully.<br /> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Edmund +Yates.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Tuesday, Feb. 2nd, 1858.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Yates</span>,</div> + +<p>Your quotation is, as I supposed, all wrong. The +text is <i>not</i> "which his 'owls was organs." When Mr. +Harris went into an empty dog-kennel, to spare his sensitive +nature the anguish of overhearing Mrs. Harris's exclamations +on the occasion of the birth of her first child (the +Princess Royal of the Harris family), "he never took his +hands away from his ears, or came out once, till he was +showed the baby." On encountering that spectacle, he was +(being of a weakly constitution) "took with fits." For +this distressing complaint he was medically treated; the +doctor "collared him, and laid him on his back upon the +airy stones"—please to observe what follows—"and she +was told, to ease her mind, his 'owls was organs."</p> + +<p>That is to say, Mrs. Harris, lying exhausted on her bed, +in the first sweet relief of freedom from pain, merely +covered with the counterpane, and not yet "put comfortable," +hears a noise apparently proceeding from the +back-yard, and says, in a flushed and hysterical manner: +"What 'owls are those? Who is a-'owling? Not my +ugebond?" Upon which the doctor, looking round one of +the bottom posts of the bed, and taking Mrs. Harris's pulse +in a reassuring manner, says, with much admirable presence +of mind: "Howls, my dear madam?—no, no, no! +What are we thinking of? Howls, my dear Mrs. Harris? +Ha, ha, ha! Organs, ma'am, organs. Organs in the streets, +Mrs. Harris; no howls."</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Yours faithfully.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. M. +Thackeray.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Tuesday, Feb. 2nd, 1858.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Thackeray</span>,</div> + +<p>The wisdom of Parliament, in that expensive act of +its greatness which constitutes the Guild, prohibits that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> +corporation <i>from doing anything</i> until it shall have existed +in a perfectly useless condition for seven years. This +clause (introduced by some private-bill magnate of official +might) seemed so ridiculous, that nobody could believe it +to have this meaning; but as I felt clear about it when we +were on the very verge of granting an excellent literary +annuity, I referred the point to counsel, and my construction +was confirmed without a doubt.</p> + +<p>It is therefore needless to enquire whether an association +in the nature of a provident society could address itself to +such a case as you confide to me. The prohibition has still +two or three years of life in it.</p> + +<p>But, assuming the gentleman's title to be considered as +an "author" as established, there is no question that it +comes within the scope of the Literary Fund. They would +habitually "lend" money if they did what I consider to be +their duty; as it is they only give money, but they give it +in such instances.</p> + +<p>I have forwarded the envelope to the Society of Arts, +with a request that they will present it to Prince Albert, +approaching H.R.H. in the Siamese manner.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. John +Forster.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Wednesday Night, Feb. 3rd, 1858.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Forster</span>,</div> + +<p>I beg to report two phenomena:</p> + +<p>1. An excellent little play in one act, by Marston, at +the Lyceum; title, "A Hard Struggle;" as good as "La +Joie fait Peur," though not at all like it.</p> + +<p>2. Capital acting in the same play, by Mr. Dillon. Real +good acting, in imitation of nobody, and honestly made out +by himself!!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span></p> + +<p>I went (at Marston's request) last night, and cried till I +sobbed again. I have not seen a word about it from Oxenford. +But it is as wholesome and manly a thing altogether +as I have seen for many a day. (I would have given a +hundred pounds to have played Mr. Dillon's part).</p> + +<p>Love to Mrs. Forster.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Dr. +Westland +Marston.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Wednesday, Feb. 3rd, 1858.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Marston</span>,</div> + +<p>I most heartily and honestly congratulate you on +your charming little piece. It moved me more than I could +easily tell you, if I were to try. Except "La Joie fait +Peur," I have seen nothing nearly so good, and there is a +subtlety in the comfortable presentation of the child who +is to become a devoted woman for Reuben's sake, which +goes a long way beyond Madame de Girardin. I am at a +loss to let you know how much I admired it last night, or +how heartily I cried over it. A touching idea, most delicately +conceived and wrought out by a true artist and poet, +in a spirit of noble, manly generosity, that no one should +be able to study without great emotion.</p> + +<p>It is extremely well acted by all concerned; but Mr. +Dillon's performance is really admirable, and deserving of +the highest commendation. It is good in these days to see +an actor taking such pains, and expressing such natural and +vigorous sentiment. There is only one thing I should have +liked him to change. I am much mistaken if any man—least +of all any such man—would crush a letter written by +the hand of the woman he loved. Hold it to his heart +unconsciously and look about for it the while, he might; +or he might do any other thing with it that expressed a +habit of tenderness and affection in association with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> +idea of her; but he would never crush it under any circumstances. +He would as soon crush her heart.</p> + +<p>You will see how closely I went with him, by my +minding so slight an incident in so fine a performance. +There is no one who could approach him in it; and I am +bound to add that he surprised me as much as he pleased me.</p> + +<p>I think it might be worth while to try the people at the +Français with the piece. They are very good in one-act +plays; such plays take well there, and this seems to me well +suited to them. If you would like Samson or Regnier to +read the play (in English), I know them well, and would +be very glad indeed to tell them that I sent it with your +sanction because I had been so much struck by it.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours always.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Monsieur +Regnier.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House, London, W.C.</span>, <i>Thursday, Feb. 11th, 1858.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Regnier</span>,</div> + +<p>I want you to read the enclosed little play. You +will see that it is in one act—about the length of "La Joie +fait Pour." It is now acting at the Lyceum Theatre here, +with very great success. The author is Mr. Westland +Marston, a dramatic writer of reputation, who wrote a very +well-known tragedy called "The Patrician's Daughter," +in which Macready and Miss Faucit acted (under Macready's +management at Drury Lane) some years ago.</p> + +<p>This little piece is so very powerful on the stage, its +interest is so simple and natural, and the part of Reuben is +such a very fine one, that I cannot help thinking you might +make one grand <i>coup</i> with it, if with your skilful hand you +arranged it for the Français. I have communicated this +idea of mine to the author, "<i>et là-dessus je vous écris</i>." I +am anxious to know your opinion, and shall expect with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> +much interest to receive a little letter from you at your +convenience.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Dickens, Miss Hogarth, and all the house send a +thousand kind loves and regards to Madame Regnier and +the dear little boys. You will bring them to London when +you come, with all the force of the Français—will you not?</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever, my dear Regnier, faithfully your Friend.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Monsieur +Regnier.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Saturday, Feb. 20th, 1858.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Regnier</span>,</div> + +<p>Let me thank you with all my heart for your most +patient and kind letter. I made its contents known to +Mr. Marston, and I enclose you his reply. You will see that +he cheerfully leaves the matter in your hands, and abides +by your opinion and discretion.</p> + +<p>You need not return his letter, my friend. There is +great excitement here this morning, in consequence of the +failure of the Ministry last night to carry the bill they +brought in to please your Emperor and his troops. <i>I</i>, for +one, am extremely glad of their defeat.</p> + +<p>"Le vieux P——," I have no doubt, will go staggering +down the Rue de la Paix to-day, with his stick in his hand +and his hat on one side, predicting the downfall of everything, +in consequence of this event. His handwriting +shakes more and more every quarter, and I think he mixes +a great deal of cognac with his ink. He always gives me +some astonishing piece of news (which is never true), or some +suspicious public prophecy (which is never verified), and he +always tells me he is dying (which he never is).</p> + +<p>Adieu, my dear Regnier, accept a thousand thanks from +me, and believe me, now and always,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Your affectionate and faithful Friend.<br /> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>March 15th, 1858.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>I have safely received your cheque this morning, and +will hand it over forthwith to the honorary secretary of the +hospital. I hope you have read the little speech in the +hospital's publication of it. They had it taken by their +own shorthand-writer, and it is done verbatim.</p> + +<p>You may be sure that it is a good and kind charity. It +is amazing to me that it is not at this day ten times as large +and rich as it is. But I hope and trust that I have happily +been able to give it a good thrust onward into a great +course. We all send our most affectionate love to all the +house. I am devising all sorts of things in my mind, and +am in a state of energetic restlessness incomprehensible to +the calm philosophers of Dorsetshire. What a dream it is, +this work and strife, and how little we do in the dream +after all! Only last night, in my sleep, I was bent upon +getting over a perspective of barriers, with my hands and +feet bound. Pretty much what we are all about, waking, I +think?</p> + +<p>But, Lord! (as I said before) you smile pityingly, not +bitterly, at this hubbub, and moralise upon it, in the calm +evenings when there is no school at Sherborne.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately and truly.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs +Hogge.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Tavistock House, Tavistock Square, London, W.C.</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Wednesday, April 14th, 1858.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Mrs. Hogge</span>,</div> + +<p>After the profoundest cogitation, I come reluctantly +to the conclusion that I do not know that orphan. If you +were the lady in want of him, I should certainly offer <i>myself</i>. +But as you are not, I will not hear of the situation.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span></p> +<p>It is wonderful to think how many charming little +people there must be, to whom this proposal would be like +a revelation from Heaven. Why don't I know one, and +come to Kensington, boy in hand, as if I had walked (I +wish to God I had) out of a fairy tale! But no, I do <i>not</i> +know that orphan. He is crying somewhere, by himself, at +this moment. I can't dry his eyes. He is being neglected +by some ogress of a nurse. I can't rescue him.</p> + +<p>I will make a point of going to the Athenæum on +Monday night; and if I had five hundred votes to give, +Mr. Macdonald should have them all, for your sake.</p> + +<p>I grieve to hear that you have been ill, but I hope that +the spring, when it comes, will find you blooming with the +rest of the flowers.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Very faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Edmund +Yates.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Tavistock House, Tavistock Square, London, W.C.</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Wednesday, April 28th, 1858.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Yates</span>,</div> + +<p>For a good many years I have suffered a great deal +from charities, but never anything like what I suffer now. +The amount of correspondence they inflict upon me is really +incredible. But this is nothing. Benevolent men get +behind the piers of the gates, lying in wait for my going +out; and when I peep shrinkingly from my study-windows, +I see their pot-bellied shadows projected on the gravel. +Benevolent bullies drive up in hansom cabs (with engraved +portraits of their benevolent institutions hanging over the +aprons, like banners on their outward walls), and stay long +at the door. Benevolent area-sneaks get lost in the kitchens +and are found to impede the circulation of the knife-cleaning +machine. My man has been heard to say (at The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> +Burton Arms) "that if it was a wicious place, well and +good—<i>that</i> an't door work; but that wen all the Christian +wirtues is always a-shoulderin' and a-helberin' on you in the +'all, a-tryin' to git past you and cut upstairs into master's +room, why no wages as you couldn't name wouldn't make it +up to you."</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Persecuted ever.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs Yates.</div> + +<div class='center'><br /><br />(<small>THE CHARMING ACTRESS, THE MOTHER OF MR. EDMUND YATES.</small>)</div> + +<div class='date'><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Tavistock House, Tavistock Square, W.C.</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Saturday Evening, May 15th, 1858.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Mrs. Yates</span>,</div> + +<p>Pray believe that I was sorry with all my heart to +miss you last Thursday, and to learn the occasion of your +absence; also that, whenever you can come, your presence +will give me a new interest in that evening. No one alive +can have more delightful associations with the lightest +sound of your voice than I have; and to give you a minute's +interest and pleasure, in acknowledgment of the uncountable +hours of happiness you gave me when you were a +mysterious angel to me, would honestly gratify my heart.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Very faithfully and gratefully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">M. de +Cerjat.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Gad's Hill</span>, <i>Wednesday, July 7th, 1858.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Cerjat</span>,</div> + +<p>I should vainly try to tell you—so I <i>won't</i> try—how +affected I have been by your warm-hearted letter, or how +thoroughly well convinced I always am of the truth and +earnestness of your friendship. I thank you, my dear, dear +fellow, with my whole soul. I fervently return that friendship +and I highly cherish it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span></p> + +<p>You want to know all about me? I am still reading in +London every Thursday, and the audiences are very great, +and the success immense. On the 2nd of August I am going +away on a tour of some four months in England, Ireland, +and Scotland. I shall read, during that time, not fewer than +four or five times a week. It will be sharp work; but probably +a certain musical clinking will come of it, which will +mitigate the hardship.</p> + +<p>At this present moment I am on my little Kentish freehold +(<i>not</i> in top-boots, and not particularly prejudiced that +I know of), looking on as pretty a view out of my study +window as you will find in a long day's English ride. My +little place is a grave red brick house (time of George the +First, I suppose), which I have added to and stuck bits upon +in all manner of ways, so that it is as pleasantly irregular, +and as violently opposed to all architectural ideas, as the +most hopeful man could possibly desire. It is on the summit +of Gad's Hill. The robbery was committed before the door, +on the man with the treasure, and Falstaff ran away from +the identical spot of ground now covered by the room in +which I write. A little rustic alehouse, called The Sir +John Falstaff, is over the way—has been over the way, +ever since, in honour of the event. Cobham Woods and +Park are behind the house; the distant Thames in front; +the Medway, with Rochester, and its old castle and cathedral, +on one side. The whole stupendous property is on the old +Dover Road, so when you come, come by the North Kent +Railway (not the South-Eastern) to Strood or Higham, and +I'll drive over to fetch you.</p> + +<p>The blessed woods and fields have done me a world of +good, and I am quite myself again. The children are all as +happy as children can be. My eldest daughter, Mary, +keeps house, with a state and gravity becoming that high<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> +position; wherein she is assisted by her sister Katie, and by +her aunt Georgina, who is, and always has been, like +another sister. Two big dogs, a bloodhound and a St. +Bernard, direct from a convent of that name, where I think +you once were, are their principal attendants in the green +lanes. These latter instantly untie the neckerchiefs of all +tramps and prowlers who approach their presence, so that +they wander about without any escort, and drive big horses +in basket-phaetons through murderous bye-ways, and never +come to grief. They are very curious about your daughters, +and send all kinds of loves to them and to Mrs. Cerjat, in +which I heartily join.</p> + +<p>You will have read in the papers that the Thames in +London is most horrible. I have to cross Waterloo or +London Bridge to get to the railroad when I come down +here, and I can certify that the offensive smells, even in +that short whiff, have been of a most head-and-stomach-distending +nature. Nobody knows what is to be done; at +least everybody knows a plan, and everybody else knows it +won't do; in the meantime cartloads of chloride of lime +are shot into the filthy stream, and do something I hope. +You will know, before you get this, that the American telegraph +line has parted again, at which most men are sorry, +but very few surprised. This is all the news, except that +there is an Italian Opera at Drury Lane, price eighteenpence +to the pit, where Viardot, by far the greatest artist +of them all, sings, and which is full when the dear opera +can't let a box; and except that the weather has been +exceptionally hot, but is now quite cool. On the top of +this hill it has been cold, actually cold at night, for more +than a week past.</p> + +<p>I am going over to Rochester to post this letter, and +must write another to Townshend before I go. My dear<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> +Cerjat, I have written lightly enough, because I want you +to know that I am becoming cheerful and hearty. God +bless you! I love you, and I know that you love me.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever your attached and affectionate.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">West Hoe, Plymouth</span>, <i>Thursday, Aug. 5th, 1858.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Georgy</span>,</div> + +<p>I received your letter this morning with the greatest +pleasure, and read it with the utmost interest in all its +domestic details.</p> + +<p>We had a most wonderful night at Exeter. It is to be +regretted that we cannot take the place again on our way +back. It was a prodigious cram, and we turned away no +end of people. But not only that, I think they were the +finest audience I have ever read to. I don't think I ever +read, in some respects, so well; and I never beheld anything +like the personal affection which they poured out +upon me at the end. It was really a very remarkable sight, +and I shall always look back upon it with pleasure.</p> + +<p>Last night here was not so bright. There are quarrels +of the strangest kind between the Plymouth people and the +Stonehouse people. The room is at Stonehouse (Tracy +says the wrong room; there being a Plymouth room in this +hotel, and he being a Plymouthite). We had a fair house, +but not at all a great one. All the notabilities come this +morning to "Little Dombey," for which we have let one +hundred and thirty stalls, which local admiration of local +greatness considers very large. For "Mrs. Gamp and the +Boots," to-night, we have also a very promising let. But +the races are on, and there are two public balls to-night, +and the yacht squadron are all at Cherbourg to boot. +Arthur is of opinion that "Two Sixties" will do very well<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> +for us. I doubt the "Two Sixties" myself. <i>Mais nous +verrons.</i></p> + +<p>The room is a very handsome one, but it is on the top +of a windy and muddy hill, leading (literally) to nowhere; +and it looks (except that it is new and <i>mortary</i>) as if the +subsidence of the waters after the Deluge might have left +it where it is. I have to go right through the company to +get to the platform. Big doors slam and resound when +anybody comes in; and all the company seem afraid of one +another. Nevertheless they were a sensible audience last +night, and much impressed and pleased.</p> + +<p>Tracy is in the room (wandering about, and never +finishing a sentence), and sends all manner of sea-loves to +you and the dear girls. I send all manner of land-loves to +you from myself, out of my heart of hearts, and also to my +dear Plorn and the boys.</p> + +<p>Arthur sends his kindest love. He knows only two +characters. He is either always corresponding, like a +Secretary of State, or he is transformed into a rout-furniture +dealer of Rathbone Place, and drags forms about +with the greatest violence, without his coat.</p> + +<p>I have no time to add another word.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever, dearest Georgy, your most affectionate.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">London</span>, <i>Saturday, Aug. 7th, 1858.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Mamey</span>,</div> + +<p>The closing night at Plymouth was a very great +scene, and the morning there was exceedingly good too. +You will be glad to hear that at Clifton last night, a torrent +of five hundred shillings bore Arthur away, pounded him +against the wall, flowed on to the seats over his body, +scratched him, and damaged his best dress suit. All to his +unspeakable joy.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span></p> + +<p>This is a very short letter, but I am going to the +Burlington Arcade, desperately resolved to have all those +wonderful instruments put into operation on my head, with +a view to refreshing it.</p> + +<p>Kindest love to Georgy and to all.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever your affectionate.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Shrewsbury</span>, <i>Thursday, Aug. 12th, 1858.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>A wonderful audience last night at Wolverhampton. +If such a thing can be, they were even quicker and more +intelligent than the audience I had in Edinburgh. They +were so wonderfully good and were so much on the alert +this morning by nine o'clock for another reading, that we +are going back there at about our Bradford time. I never +saw such people. And the local agent would take no +money, and charge no expenses of his own.</p> + +<p>This place looks what Plorn would call "ortily" dull. +Local agent predicts, however, "great satisfaction to +Mr. Dickens, and excellent attendance." I have just been +to look at the hall, where everything was wrong, and where +I have left Arthur making a platform for me out of dining-tables.</p> + +<p>If he comes back in time, I am not quite sure but that +he is himself going to write to Gad's Hill. We talk of +coming up from Chester <i>in the night to-morrow, after the +reading;</i> and of showing our precious selves at an apparently +impossibly early hour in the Gad's Hill breakfast-room +on Saturday morning.</p> + +<p>I have not felt the fatigue to any extent worth mentioning; +though I get, every night, into the most violent +heats. We are going to dine at three o'clock (it wants a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> +quarter now) and have not been here two hours, so I have +seen nothing of Clement.</p> + +<p>Tell Georgy with my love, that I read in the same room +in which we acted, but at the end opposite to that where +our stage was. We are not at the inn where the amateur +company put up, but at The Lion, where the fair Miss +Mitchell was lodged alone. We have the strangest little +rooms (sitting-room and two bed-rooms all together), the +ceilings of which I can touch with my hand. The windows +bulge out over the street, as if they were little stern-windows +in a ship. And a door opens out of the sitting-room +on to a little open gallery with plants in it, where one +leans over a queer old rail, and looks all downhill and slant-wise +at the crookedest black and yellow old houses, all +manner of shapes except straight shapes. To get into this +room we come through a china closet; and the man in +laying the cloth has actually knocked down, in that repository, +two geraniums and Napoleon Bonaparte.</p> + +<p>I think that's all I have to say, except that at the +Wolverhampton theatre they played "Oliver Twist" last +night (Mr. Toole the Artful Dodger), "in consequence of +the illustrious author honouring the town with his presence." +We heard that the device succeeded very well, and that they +got a good many people.</p> + +<p>John's spirits have been equable and good since we +rejoined him. Berry has always got something the matter +with his digestion—seems to me the male gender of Maria +Jolly, and ought to take nothing but Revalenta Arabica. +Bottled ale is not to be got in these parts, and Arthur is +thrown upon draught.</p> + +<p>My dearest love to Georgy and to Katey, also to +Marguerite. Also to all the boys and the noble Plorn.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever your affectionate Father.<br /> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Tavistock House, Tavistock Square, London, W.C.</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Wednesday Morning, Aug. 18th, 1858.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>I write this hurried line before starting, to report +that my cold is decidedly better, thank God (though still +bad), and that I hope to be able to stagger through to-night. +After dinner yesterday I began to recover my voice, +and I think I sang half the Irish Melodies to myself, as I +walked about to test it. I got home at half-past ten, and +mustard-poulticed and barley-watered myself tremendously.</p> + +<p>Love to the dear girls, and to all.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">The same.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool</span>, <i>Friday Night, Aug. 20th, 1858.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>I received your welcome and interesting letter to-day, +and I write you a very hurried and bad reply; but it +is <i>after the reading</i>, and you will take the will for the deed +under these trying circumstances, I know.</p> + +<p>We have had a tremendous night; the largest house I +have ever had since I first began—two thousand three +hundred people. To-morrow afternoon, at three, I read +again.</p> + +<p>My cold has been oppressive, and is not yet gone. I +have been very hard to sleep too, and last night I was all +but sleepless. This morning I was very dull and seedy; +but I got a good walk, and picked up again. It has been +blowing all day, and I fear we shall have a sick passage over +to Dublin to-morrow night.</p> + +<p>Tell Mamie (with my dear love to her and Katie) that I +will write to her from Dublin—probably on Sunday. Tell +her too that the stories she told me in her letter were not +only capital stories in themselves, but <i>excellently told</i> too.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span></p> + +<p>What Arthur's state has been to-night—he, John, Berry, +and Boylett, all taking money and going mad together—you +<i>cannot</i> imagine. They turned away hundreds, sold all +the books, rolled on the ground of my room knee-deep +in checks, and made a perfect pantomime of the whole +thing. He has kept quite well, I am happy to say, and +sends a hundred loves.</p> + +<p>In great haste and fatigue.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Morrison's Hotel, Dublin</span>, <i>Monday, Aug. 23rd, 1858.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>We had a nasty crossing here. We left Holyhead +at one in the morning, and got here at six. Arthur was +incessantly sick the whole way. I was not sick at all, but +was in as healthy a condition otherwise as humanity need +be. We are in a beautiful hotel. Our sitting-room is +exactly like the drawing-room at the Peschiere in all its +dimensions. I never saw two rooms so exactly resembling +one another in their proportions. Our bedrooms too are +excellent, and there are baths and all sorts of comforts.</p> + +<p>The Lord Lieutenant is away, and the place looks to me +as if its professional life were away too. Nevertheless, +there are numbers of people in the streets. Somehow, I +hardly seem to think we are going to do enormously here; +but I have scarcely any reason for supposing so (except +that a good many houses are shut up); and I <i>know</i> nothing +about it, for Arthur is now gone to the agent and to the +room. The men came by boat direct from Liverpool. They +had a rough passage, were all ill, and did not get here till +noon yesterday. Donnybrook Fair, or what remains of it, +is going on, within two or three miles of Dublin. They +went out there yesterday in a jaunting-car, and John<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> +described it to us at dinner-time (with his eyebrows lifted +up, and his legs well asunder), as "Johnny Brooks's Fair;" +at which Arthur, who was drinking bitter ale, nearly +laughed himself to death. Berry is always unfortunate, +and when I asked what had happened to Berry on board +the steamboat, it appeared that "an Irish gentleman which +was drunk, and fancied himself the captain, wanted to +knock Berry down."</p> + +<p>I am surprised by finding this place very much larger +than I had supposed it to be. Its bye-parts are bad enough, +but cleaner, too, than I had supposed them to be, and certainly +very much cleaner than the old town of Edinburgh. +The man who drove our jaunting-car yesterday hadn't a +piece in his coat as big as a penny roll, and had had his hat +on (apparently without brushing it) ever since he was grown +up. But he was remarkably intelligent and agreeable, with +something to say about everything. For instance, when I +asked him what a certain building was, he didn't say "courts +of law" and nothing else, but: "Av you plase, sir, it's the +foor coorts o' looyers, where Misther O'Connell stood his +trial wunst, ye'll remimber, sir, afore I tell ye of it." When +we got into the Phœnix Park, he looked round him as if it +were his own, and said: "<span class="smcap">That's</span> a park, sir, av yer plase." +I complimented it, and he said: "Gintlemen tills me as +they'r bin, sir, over Europe, and never see a park aqualling +ov it. 'Tis eight mile roond, sir, ten mile and a half long, +and in the month of May the hawthorn trees are as beautiful +as brides with their white jewels on. Yonder's the vice-regal +lodge, sir; in them two corners lives the two sicretirries, +wishing I was them, sir. There's air here, sir, av +yer plase! There's scenery here, sir! There's mountains—thim, +sir! Yer coonsider it a park, sir? It is that, sir!"</p> + +<p>You should have heard John in my bedroom this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> +morning endeavouring to imitate a bath-man, who had resented +his interference, and had said as to the shower-bath: +"Yer'll not be touching <i>that</i>, young man. Divil a touch +yer'll touch o' that insthrument, young man!" It was +more ridiculously unlike the reality than I can express to +you, yet he was so delighted with his powers that he went +off in the absurdest little gingerbeery giggle, backing into +my portmanteau all the time.</p> + +<p>My dear love to Katie and to Georgy, also to the noble +Plorn and all the boys. I shall write to Katie next, and +then to Aunty. My cold, I am happy to report, is very +much better. I lay in the wet all night on deck, on board +the boat, but am not as yet any the worse for it. Arthur +was quite insensible when we got to Dublin, and stared at +our luggage without in the least offering to claim it. He +left his kindest love for all before he went out. I will keep +the envelope open until he comes in.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;">Ever, my dearest Mamie,</span><br /> +Your most affectionate Father.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Morrison's Hotel, Dublin</span>, <i>Wednesday, Aug. 25th, 1858.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>I begin my letter to you to-day, though I don't know +when I may send it off. We had a very good house last +night, after all, that is to say, a great rush of shillings +and good half-crowns, though the stalls were comparatively +few. For "Little Dombey," this morning, we have an +immense stall let—already more than two hundred—and +people are now fighting in the agent's shop to take more. +Through some mistake of our printer's, the evening reading +for this present Wednesday was dropped, in a great part of +the announcements, and the agent opened no plan for it. I +have therefore resolved not to have it at all. Arthur Smith<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> +has waylaid me in all manner of ways, but I remain obdurate. +I am frightfully tired, and really relieved by the prospect +of an evening—overjoyed.</p> + +<p>They were a highly excitable audience last night, but +they certainly did not comprehend—internally and intellectually +comprehend—"The Chimes" as a London audience +do. I am quite sure of it. I very much doubt the Irish +capacity of receiving the pathetic; but of their quickness as +to the humorous there can be no doubt. I shall see how +they go along with Little Paul, in his death, presently.</p> + +<p>While I was at breakfast this morning, a general officer +was announced with great state—having a staff at the door—and +came in, booted and plumed, and covered with Crimean +decorations. It was Cunninghame, whom we knew in Genoa—then +a captain. He was very hearty indeed, and came to +ask me to dinner. Of course I couldn't go. Olliffe has a +brother at Cork, who has just now (noon) written to me, +proposing dinners and excursions in that neighbourhood +which would fill about a week; I being there a day and a +half, and reading three times. The work will be very severe +here, and I begin to feel depressed by it. (By "here," I +mean Ireland generally, please to observe.)</p> + +<p>We meant, as I said in a letter to Katie, to go to +Queenstown yesterday and bask on the seashore. But +there is always so much to do that we couldn't manage it +after all. We expect a tremendous house to-morrow night +as well as to-day; and Arthur is at the present instant up +to his eyes in business (and seats), and, between his regret +at losing to-night, and his desire to make the room hold +twice as many as it <i>will</i> hold, is half distracted. I have +become a wonderful Irishman—must play an Irish part +some day—and his only relaxation is when I enact "John +and the Boots," which I consequently do enact all day long.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> +The papers are full of remarks upon my white tie, and +describe it as being of enormous size, which is a wonderful +delusion, because, as you very well know, it is a small tie. +Generally, I am happy to report, the Emerald press is in +favour of my appearance, and likes my eyes. But one +gentleman comes out with a letter at Cork, wherein he says +that although only forty-six I look like an old man. <i>He</i> is +a rum customer, I think.</p> + +<p>The Rutherfords are living here, and wanted me to dine +with them, which, I needn't say, could not be done; all +manner of people have called, but I have seen only two. +John has given it up altogether as to rivalry with the +Boots, and did not come into my room this morning at all. +Boots appeared triumphant and alone. He was waiting for +me at the hotel-door last night. "Whaa't sart of a hoose, +sur?" he asked me. "Capital." "The Lard be praised +fur the 'onor o' Dooblin!"</p> + +<p>Arthur buys bad apples in the streets and brings them +home and doesn't eat them, and then I am obliged to put +them in the balcony because they make the room smell +faint. Also he meets countrymen with honeycomb on their +heads, and leads them (by the buttonhole when they have +one) to this gorgeous establishment and requests the bar to +buy honeycomb for his breakfast; then it stands upon the +sideboard uncovered and the flies fall into it. He buys +owls, too, and castles, and other horrible objects, made in +bog-oak (that material which is not appreciated at Gad's +Hill); and he is perpetually snipping pieces out of newspapers +and sending them all over the world. While I am +reading he conducts the correspondence, and his great +delight is to show me seventeen or eighteen letters when I +come, exhausted, into the retiring-place. Berry has not +got into any particular trouble for forty-eight hours, except<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> +that he is all over boils. I have prescribed the yeast, but +ineffectually. It is indeed a sight to see him and John +sitting in pay-boxes, and surveying Ireland out of pigeon-holes.</p> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<i>Same Evening before Bed-time.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>Everybody was at "Little Dombey" to-day, and +although I had some little difficulty to work them up +in consequence of the excessive crowding of the place, and +the difficulty of shaking the people into their seats, the +effect was unmistakable and profound. The crying was +universal, and they were extraordinarily affected. There is +no doubt we could stay here a week with that one reading, +and fill the place every night. Hundreds of people have +been there to-night, under the impression that it would come +off again. It was a most decided and complete success.</p> + +<p>Arthur has been imploring me to stop here on the Friday +after Limerick, and read "Little Dombey" again. But I +have positively said "No." The work is too hard. It is +not like doing it in one easy room, and always the same +room. With a different place every night, and a different +audience with its own peculiarity every night, it is a +tremendous strain. I was sick of it to-day before I began, +then got myself into wonderful train.</p> + +<p>Here follows a dialogue (but it requires imitation), which +I had yesterday morning with a little boy of the house—landlord's +son, I suppose—about Plorn's age. I am sitting +on the sofa writing, and find him sitting beside me.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Inimitable.</span> Holloa, old chap.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Young Ireland.</span> Hal-loo!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Inimitable</span> (<i>in his delightful way</i>). What a nice old fellow you are. I +am very fond of little boys.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Young Ireland.</span> Air yer? Ye'r right.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Inimitable.</span> What do you learn, old fellow?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Young Ireland</span> (<i>very intent on Inimitable, and always childish, except in +his brogue</i>). I lairn wureds of three sillibils, and wureds of two sillibils, +and wureds of one sillibil.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Inimitable</span> (<i>gaily</i>). Get out, you humbug! You learn only words of +one syllable.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Young Ireland</span> (<i>laughs heartily</i>). You may say that it is mostly +wureds of one sillibil.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Inimitable.</span> Can you write?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Young Ireland.</span> Not yet. Things comes by deegrays.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Inimitable.</span> Can you cipher?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Young Ireland</span> (<i>very quickly</i>). Wha'at's that?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Inimitable.</span> Can you make figures?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Young Ireland.</span> I can make a nought, which is not asy, being roond.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Inimitable.</span> I say, old boy, wasn't it you I saw on Sunday morning in +the hall, in a soldier's cap? You know—in a soldier's cap?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Young Ireland</span> (<i>cogitating deeply</i>). Was it a very good cap?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Inimitable.</span> Yes.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Young Ireland.</span> Did it fit unkommon?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Inimitable.</span> Yes.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Young Ireland.</span> Dat was me!</p></div> + +<p>There are two stupid old louts at the room, to show +people into their places, whom John calls "them two old +Paddies," and of whom he says, that he "never see nothing +like them (snigger) hold idiots" (snigger). They bow and +walk backwards before the grandees, and our men hustle +them while they are doing it.</p> + +<p>We walked out last night, with the intention of going +to the theatre; but the Piccolomini establishment (they were +doing the "Lucia") looked so horribly like a very bad jail, +and the Queen's looked so blackguardly, that we came back +again, and went to bed. I seem to be always either in a +railway carriage, or reading, or going to bed. I get so +knocked up, whenever I have a minute to remember it, that +then I go to bed as a matter of course.</p> + +<p>I send my love to the noble Plorn, and to all the boys. +To dear Mamie and Katie, and to yourself of course, in the +first degree. I am looking forward to the last Irish reading<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> +on Thursday, with great impatience. But when we shall +have turned this week, once knocked off Belfast, I shall see +land, and shall (like poor Timber in the days of old) "keep +up a good heart." I get so wonderfully hot every night in +my dress clothes, that they positively won't dry in the short +interval they get, and I have been obliged to write to +Doudney's to make me another suit, that I may have a +constant change.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever, my dearest Georgy, most affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Belfast</span>, <i>Saturday, Aug. 28th, 1858.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>When I went down to the Rotunda at Dublin on Thursday +night, I said to Arthur, who came rushing at me: "You +needn't tell me. I know all about it." The moment I had +come out of the door of the hotel (a mile off), I had come +against the stream of people turned away. I had struggled +against it to the room. There, the crowd in all the lobbies +and passages was so great, that I had a difficulty in getting +in. They had broken all the glass in the pay-boxes. They +had offered frantic prices for stalls. Eleven bank-notes were +thrust into that pay-box (Arthur saw them) at one time, for +eleven stalls. Our men were flattened against walls, and +squeezed against beams. Ladies stood all night with their +chins against my platform. Other ladies sat all night upon +my steps. You never saw such a sight. And the reading +went tremendously! It is much to be regretted that we +troubled ourselves to go anywhere else in Ireland. We +turned away people enough to make immense houses for a +week.</p> + +<p>We arrived here yesterday at two. The room will not +hold more than from eighty to ninety pounds. The same +scene was repeated with the additional feature, that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> +people are much rougher here than in Dublin, and that there +was a very great uproar at the opening of the doors, which, +the police in attendance being quite inefficient and only looking +on, it was impossible to check. Arthur was in the +deepest misery because shillings got into stalls, and half-crowns +got into shillings, and stalls got nowhere, and there +was immense confusion. It ceased, however, the moment I +showed myself; and all went most brilliantly, in spite of a +great piece of the cornice of the ceiling falling with a great +crash within four or five inches of the head of a young lady +on my platform (I was obliged to have people there), and in +spite of my gas suddenly going out at the time of the game +of forfeits at Scrooge's nephew's, through some Belfastian +gentleman accidentally treading on the flexible pipe, and +needing to be relighted.</p> + +<p>We shall not get to Cork before mid-day on Monday; it +being difficult to get from here on a Sunday. We hope to +be able to start away to-morrow morning to see the Giant's +Causeway (some sixteen miles off), and in that case we shall +sleep at Dublin to-morrow night, leaving here by the train +at half-past three in the afternoon. Dublin, you must +understand, is on the way to Cork. This is a fine place, +surrounded by lofty hills. The streets are very wide, and +the place is very prosperous. The whole ride from Dublin +here is through a very picturesque and various country; +and the amazing thing is, that it is all particularly neat and +orderly, and that the houses (outside at all events) are all +brightly whitewashed and remarkably clean. I want to +climb one of the neighbouring hills before this morning's +"Dombey." I am now waiting for Arthur, who has gone +to the bank to remit his last accumulation of treasure to +London.</p> + +<p>Our men are rather indignant with the Irish crowds,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> +because in the struggle they don't sell books, and because, +in the pressure, they can't force a way into the room afterwards +to sell them. They are deeply interested in the +success, however, and are as zealous and ardent as possible. +I shall write to Katie next. Give her my best love, and kiss +the darling Plorn for me, and give my love to all the boys.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 6em;">Ever, my dearest Mamie,</span><br /> +Your most affectionate Father.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Morrison's Hotel, Dublin,</span> <i>Sunday Night, Aug. 29th, 1858.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>I am so delighted to find your letter here to-night +(eleven o'clock), and so afraid that, in the wear and tear of +this strange life, I have written to Gad's Hill in the wrong +order, and have not written to you, as I should, that I +resolve to write this before going to bed. You will find it +a wretchedly stupid letter; but you may imagine, my +dearest girl, that I am tired.</p> + +<p>The success at Belfast has been equal to the success +here. Enormous! We turned away half the town. I +think them a better audience, on the whole, than Dublin; +and the personal affection there was something overwhelming. +I wish you and the dear girls could have seen the +people look at me in the street; or heard them ask me, as I +hurried to the hotel after reading last night, to "do me the +honour to shake hands, Misther Dickens, and God bless you, +sir; not ounly for the light you've been to me this night, +but for the light you've been in mee house, sir (and God +love your face), this many a year." Every night, by-the-bye, +since I have been in Ireland, the ladies have beguiled +John out of the bouquet from my coat. And yesterday +morning, as I had showered the leaves from my geranium<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> +in reading "Little Dombey," they mounted the platform, +after I was gone, and picked them all up as keepsakes!</p> + +<p>I have never seen <i>men</i> go in to cry so undisguisedly as +they did at that reading yesterday afternoon. They made +no attempt whatever to hide it, and certainly cried more +than the women. As to the "Boots" at night, and +"Mrs. Gamp" too, it was just one roar with me and them; +for they made me laugh so that sometimes I <i>could not</i> +compose my face to go on.</p> + +<p>You must not let the new idea of poor dear Landor efface +the former image of the fine old man. I wouldn't blot him +out, in his tender gallantry, as he sat upon that bed at +Forster's that night, for a million of wild mistakes at eighty +years of age.</p> + +<p>I hope to be at Tavistock House before five o'clock next +Saturday morning, and to lie in bed half the day, and +come home by the 10.50 on Sunday.</p> + +<p>Tell the girls that Arthur and I have each ordered at +Belfast a trim, sparkling, slap-up <i>Irish jaunting-car!!!</i> I +flatter myself we shall astonish the Kentish people. It is +the oddest carriage in the world, and you are always falling +off. But it is gay and bright in the highest degree. +Wonderfully Neapolitan.</p> + +<p>What with a sixteen mile ride before we left Belfast, +and a sea-beach walk, and a two o'clock dinner, and a seven +hours' railway ride since, I am—as we say here—"a thrifle +weary." But I really am in wonderful force, considering +the work. For which I am, as I ought to be, very thankful.</p> + +<p>Arthur was exceedingly unwell last night—could not +cheer up at all. He was so very unwell that he left the +hall(!) and became invisible after my five minutes' rest. +I found him at the hotel in a jacket and slippers, and with +a hot bath just ready. He was in the last stage of prostration.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> +The local agent was with me, and proposed that he +(the wretched Arthur) should go to his office and balance +the accounts then and there. He went, in the jacket and +slippers, and came back in twenty minutes, <i>perfectly well</i>, +in consequence of the admirable balance. He is now +sitting opposite to me <span class="smcap">on the bag of silver</span>, forty pounds +(it must be dreadfully hard), writing to Boulogne.</p> + +<p>I suppose it is clear that the next letter I write is +Katie's. Either from Cork or from Limerick, it shall report +further. At Limerick I read in the theatre, there being no +other place.</p> + +<p>Best love to Mamie and Katie, and dear Plorn, and all +the boys left when this comes to Gad's Hill; also to my +dear good Anne, and her little woman.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. +Wilkie +Collins.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Monday, Sept. 6th, 1858.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Wilkie</span>,</div> + +<p>First, let me report myself here for something less +than eight-and-forty hours. I come last (and direct—a +pretty hard journey) from Limerick. The success in Ireland +has been immense.</p> + +<p>The work is very hard, sometimes overpowering; but I +am none the worse for it, and arrived here quite fresh.</p> + +<p>Secondly, will you let me recommend the enclosed letter +from Wigan, as the groundwork of a capital article, in your +way, for H. W.? There is not the least objection to a plain +reference to him, or to Phelps, to whom the same thing +happened a year or two ago, near Islington, in the case of +a clever and capital little daughter of his. I think it a +capital opportunity for a discourse on gentility, with a +glance at those other schools which advertise that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> +"sons of gentlemen only" are admitted, and a just recognition +of the greater liberality of our public schools. There +are tradesmen's sons at Eton, and Charles Kean was at +Eton, and Macready (also an actor's son) was at Rugby. +Some such title as "Scholastic Flunkeydom," or anything +infinitely contemptuous, would help out the meaning. +Surely such a schoolmaster must swallow all the silver forks +that the pupils are expected to take when they come, and +are not expected to take away with them when they go. +And of course he could not exist, unless he had flunkey +customers by the dozen.</p> + +<p>Secondly—no, this is thirdly now—about the Christmas +number. I have arranged so to stop my readings, as to be +available for it on <i>the 15th of November</i>, which will leave +me time to write a good article, if I clear my way to one. +Do you see your way to our making a Christmas number of +this idea that I am going very briefly to hint? Some disappointed +person, man or woman, prematurely disgusted +with the world, for some reason or no reason (the person +should be young, I think) retires to an old lonely house, +or an old lonely mill, or anything you like, with one +attendant, resolved to shut out the world, and hold no +communion with it. The one attendant sees the absurdity +of the idea, pretends to humour it, but really thus to +slaughter it. Everything that happens, everybody that +comes near, every breath of human interest that floats into +the old place from the village, or the heath, or the four +cross-roads near which it stands, and from which belated +travellers stray into it, shows beyond mistake that you can't +shut out the world; that you are in it, to be of it; that you +get into a false position the moment you try to sever yourself +from it; and that you must mingle with it, and make the +best of it, and make the best of yourself into the bargain.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span></p> + +<p>If we could plot out a way of doing this together, I would +not be afraid to take my part. If we could not, could we +plot out a way of doing it, and taking in stories by other +hands? If we could not do either (but I think we could), +shall we fall back upon a round of stories again? That I +would rather not do, if possible. Will you think about it?</p> + +<p>And can you come and dine at Tavistock House <i>on +Monday, the 20th September, at half-past five?</i> I purpose +being at home there with the girls that day.</p> + +<p>Answer this, according to my printed list for the week. +I am off to Huddersfield on Wednesday morning.</p> + +<p>I think I will now leave off; merely adding that I have +got a splendid brogue (it really is exactly like the people), +and that I think of coming out as the only legitimate +successor of poor Power.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever, my dear Wilkie, affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss Mary +Boyle.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Station Hotel, York</span>, <i>Friday, Sept. 10th, 1858.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>Dearest Meery</span>,</div> + +<p>First let me tell you that all the magicians and +spirits in your employ have fulfilled the instructions of their +wondrous mistress to admiration. Flowers have fallen in +my path wherever I have trod; and when they rained upon +me at Cork I was more amazed than you ever saw me.</p> + +<p>Secondly, receive my hearty and loving thanks for that +same. (Excuse a little Irish in the turn of that sentence, +but I can't help it).</p> + +<p>Thirdly, I have written direct to Mr. Boddington, explaining +that I am bound to be in Edinburgh on the day +when he courteously proposes to do me honour.</p> + +<p>I really cannot tell you how truly and tenderly I feel +your letter, and how gratified I am by its contents. Your<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> +truth and attachment are always so precious to me that I +can<i>not</i> get my heart out on my sleeve to show it you. It +is like a child, and, at the sound of some familiar voices, +"goes and hides."</p> + +<p>You know what an affection I have for Mrs. Watson, +and how happy it made me to see her again—younger, +much, than when I first knew her in Switzerland.</p> + +<p>God bless you always!</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Royal Hotel, Scarborough</span>, <i>Sunday, Sept. 11th, 1858.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Georgy</span>,</div> + +<p>We had a very fine house indeed at York. All +kinds of applications have been made for another reading +there, and no doubt it would be exceedingly productive; +but it cannot be done. At Harrogate yesterday; the +queerest place, with the strangest people in it, leading the +oddest lives of dancing, newspaper reading, and tables +d'hôte. The piety of York obliging us to leave that place +for this at six this morning, and there being no night +train from Harrogate, we had to engage a special engine. +We got to bed at one, and were up again before five; +which, after yesterday's fatigues, leaves me a little worn +out at this present.</p> + +<p>I have no accounts of this place as yet, nor have I +received any letter here. But the post of this morning is +not yet delivered, I believe. We have a charming room, +overlooking the sea. Leech is here (living within a few +doors), with the partner of his bosom, and his young family. +I write at ten in the morning, having been here two hours; +and you will readily suppose that I have not seen him.</p> + +<p>Of news, I have not the faintest breath. I seem to have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> +been doing nothing all my life but riding in railway-carriages +and reading. The railway of the morning brought +us through Castle Howard, and under the woods of +Easthorpe, and then just below Malton Abbey, where I +went to poor Smithson's funeral. It was a most lovely +morning, and, tired as I was, I couldn't sleep for looking +out of window.</p> + +<p>Yesterday, at Harrogate, two circumstances occurred +which gave Arthur great delight. Firstly, he chafed his +legs sore with his black bag of silver. Secondly, the landlord +asked him as a favour, "If he could oblige him with a +little silver." He obliged him directly with some forty +pounds' worth; and I suspect the landlord to have repented +of having approached the subject. After the reading last +night we walked over the moor to the railway, three miles, +leaving our men to follow with the luggage in a light cart. +They passed us just short of the railway, and John was +making the night hideous and terrifying the sleeping country, +by <i>playing the horn</i> in prodigiously horrible and unmusical +blasts.</p> + +<p>My dearest love, of course, to the dear girls, and to the +noble Plorn. Apropos of children, there was one gentleman +at the "Little Dombey" yesterday morning, who exhibited, +or rather concealed, the profoundest grief. After crying a +good deal without hiding it, he covered his face with both +his hands, and laid it down on the back of the seat before +him, and really shook with emotion. He was not in mourning, +but I supposed him to have lost some child in old time. +There was a remarkably good fellow of thirty or so, too, who +found something so very ludicrous in "Toots," that he +<i>could not</i> compose himself at all, but laughed until he sat +wiping his eyes with his handkerchief. And whenever he +felt "Toots" coming again he began to laugh and wipe his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> +eyes afresh, and when he came he gave a kind of cry, as if +it were too much for him. It was uncommonly droll, and +made me laugh heartily.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever, dear Georgy, your most affectionate.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Scarborough Arms, Leeds</span>, <i>Wednesday, Sept. 15th, 1858.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Mamie</span>,</div> + + +<p>I have added a pound to the cheque. I would +recommend your seeing the poor railway man again and +giving him ten shillings, and telling him to let you see him +again in about a week. If he be then still unable to lift +weights and handle heavy things, I would then give him +another ten shillings, and so on.</p> + +<p>Since I wrote to Georgy from Scarborough, we have +had, thank God, nothing but success. The Hull people +(not generally considered excitable, even on their own showing) +were so enthusiastic, that we were obliged to promise +to go back there for two readings. I have positively +resolved not to lengthen out the time of my tour, so we are +now arranging to drop some small places, and substitute +Hull again and York again. But you will perhaps have +heard this in the main from Arthur. I know he wrote to +you after the reading last night. This place I have +always doubted, knowing that we should come here when +it was recovering from the double excitement of the festival +and the Queen. But there is a very large hall let indeed, +and the prospect of to-night consequently looks bright.</p> + +<p>Arthur told you, I suppose, that he had his shirt-front +and waistcoat torn off last night? He was perfectly +enraptured in consequence. Our men got so knocked +about that he gave them five shillings apiece on the spot. +John passed several minutes upside down against a wall,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> +with his head amongst the people's boots. He came out of +the difficulty in an exceedingly touzled condition, and with +his face much flushed. For all this, and their being packed +as you may conceive they would be packed, they settled +down the instant I went in, and never wavered in the +closest attention for an instant. It was a very high room, +and required a great effort.</p> + +<p>Oddly enough, I slept in this house three days last +year with Wilkie. Arthur has the bedroom I occupied +then, and I have one two doors from it, and Gordon +has the one between. Not only is he still with +us, but he <i>has</i> talked of going on to Manchester, going +on to London, and coming back with us to Darlington next +Tuesday!!!</p> + +<p>These streets look like a great circus with the season +just finished. All sorts of garish triumphal arches were +put up for the Queen, and they have got smoky, and have +been looked out of countenance by the sun, and are +blistered and patchy, and half up and half down, and are +hideous to behold. Spiritless men (evidently drunk for +some time in the royal honour) are slowly removing them, +and on the whole it is more like the clearing away of "The +Frozen Deep" at Tavistock House than anything within your +knowledge—with the exception that we are not in the least +sorry, as we were then. Vague ideas are in Arthur's head +that when we come back to Hull, we are to come here, and +are to have the Town Hall (a beautiful building), and read +to the million. I can't say yet. That depends. I remember +that when I was here before (I came from Rockingham +to make a speech), I thought them a dull and slow audience. +I hope I may have been mistaken. I never saw better +audiences than the Yorkshire audiences generally.</p> + +<p>I am so perpetually at work or asleep, that I have not a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> +scrap of news. I saw the Leech family at Scarboro', both in +my own house (that is to say, hotel) and in theirs. They +were not at either reading. Scarboro' is gay and pretty, +and I think Gordon had an idea that we were always at +some such place.</p> + +<p>Kiss the darling Plorn for me, and give him my love; +dear Katie too, giving her the same. I feel sorry that I +cannot get down to Gad's Hill this next time, but I shall +look forward to our being there with Georgy, after Scotland. +Tell the servants that I remember them, and hope they will +live with us many years.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 6em;">Ever, my dearest Mamie,</span><br /> +Your most affectionate Father.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">King's Head, Sheffield</span>, <i>Friday, Sept. 17th, 1858.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>I write you a few lines to Tavistock House, thinking +you may not be sorry to find a note from me there on your +arrival from Gad's Hill.</p> + +<p>Halifax was too small for us. I never saw such an +audience though. They were really worth reading to for +nothing, though I didn't do exactly that. It is as horrible +a place as I ever saw, I think.</p> + +<p>The run upon the tickets here is so immense that Arthur +is obliged to get great bills out, signifying that no more can +be sold. It will be by no means easy to get into the place +the numbers who have already paid. It is the hall we acted +in. Crammed to the roof and the passages. We must come +back here towards the end of October, and are again altering +the list and striking out small places.</p> + +<p>The trains are so strange and unintelligible in this part +of the country that we were obliged to leave Halifax at eight +this morning, and breakfast on the road—at Huddersfield<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> +again, where we had an hour's wait. Wills was in attendance +on the platform, and took me (here at Sheffield, I +mean) out to Frederick Lehmann's house to see Mrs. Wills. +She looked pretty much the same as ever, I thought, and +was taking care of a very pretty little boy. The house and +grounds are as nice as anything <i>can</i> be in this smoke. A +heavy thunderstorm is passing over the town, and it is raining +hard too.</p> + +<p>This is a stupid letter, my dearest Georgy, but I write +in a hurry, and in the thunder and lightning, and with the +crowd of to-night before me.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever most affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Station Hotel, Newcastle-on-Tyne</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Sunday, Sept. 26th, 1858.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='center'><small>EXTRACT.</small></div> + +<p>The girls (as I have no doubt they have already told you +for themselves) arrived here in good time yesterday, and +in very fresh condition. They persisted in going to the +room last night, though I had arranged for their remaining +quiet.</p> + +<p>We have done a vast deal here. I suppose you know +that we are going to Berwick, and that we mean to sleep +there and go on to Edinburgh on Monday morning, arriving +there before noon? If it be as fine to-morrow as it is +to-day, the girls will see the coast piece of railway between +Berwick and Edinburgh to great advantage. I was anxious +that they should, because that kind of pleasure is really +almost the only one they are likely to have in their present +trip.</p> + +<p>Stanfield and Roberts are in Edinburgh, and the Scottish +Royal Academy gave them a dinner on Wednesday, to which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> +I was very pressingly invited. But, of course, my going was +impossible. I read twice that day.</p> + +<p>Remembering what you do of Sunderland, you will be +surprised that our profit there was very considerable. I read +in a beautiful new theatre, and (I thought to myself) quite +wonderfully. Such an audience I never beheld for rapidity +and enthusiasm. The room in which we acted (converted +into a theatre afterwards) was burnt to the ground a year or +two ago. We found the hotel, so bad in our time, really +good. I walked from Durham to Sunderland, and from +Sunderland to Newcastle.</p> + +<p>Don't you think, as we shall be at home at eleven in the +forenoon this day fortnight, that it will be best for you and +Plornish to come to Tavistock House for that Sunday, and +for us all to go down to Gad's Hill next day? My best love +to the noble Plornish. If he is quite reconciled to the postponement +of his trousers, I should like to behold his first +appearance in them. But, if not, as he is such a good +fellow, I think it would be a pity to disappoint and try him.</p> + +<p>And now, my dearest Georgy, I think I have said all I +have to say before I go out for a little air. I had a very hard +day yesterday, and am tired.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever your most affectionate.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. John +Forster.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Tavistock House, Tavistock Square, London</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Sunday, Oct. 10th, 1858.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Forster</span>,</div> + +<p>As to the truth of the readings, I cannot tell you +what the demonstrations of personal regard and respect are. +How the densest and most uncomfortably-packed crowd +will be hushed in an instant when I show my face. How +the youth of colleges, and the old men of business in the +town, seem equally unable to get near enough to me when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> +they cheer me away at night. How common people and +gentlefolks will stop me in the streets and say: "Mr. Dickens, +will you let me touch the hand that has filled my home with +so many friends?" And if you saw the mothers, and fathers, +and sisters, and brothers in mourning, who invariably come +to "Little Dombey," and if you studied the wonderful +expression of comfort and reliance with which they hang +about me, as if I had been with them, all kindness and +delicacy, at their own little death-bed, you would think it +one of the strangest things in the world.</p> + +<p>As to the mere effect, of course I don't go on doing the +thing so often without carefully observing myself and the +people too in every little thing, and without (in consequence) +greatly improving in it.</p> + +<p>At Aberdeen, we were crammed to the street twice in +one day. At Perth (where I thought when I arrived there +literally could be nobody to come), the nobility came posting +in from thirty miles round, and the whole town came and +filled an immense hall. As to the effect, if you had seen them +after Lilian died, in "The Chimes," or when Scrooge woke and +talked to the boy outside the window, I doubt if you would +ever have forgotten it. And at the end of "Dombey" +yesterday afternoon, in the cold light of day, they all got +up, after a short pause, gentle and simple, and thundered +and waved their hats with that astonishing heartiness and +fondness for me, that for the first time in all my public +career they took me completely off my legs, and I saw the +whole eighteen hundred of them reel on one side as if a +shock from without had shaken the hall.</p> + +<p>The dear girls have enjoyed themselves immensely, and +their trip has been a great success. I hope I told you (but +I forget whether I did or no) how splendidly Newcastle<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span><a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> +came out. I am reminded of Newcastle at the moment +because they joined me there.</p> + +<p>I am anxious to get to the end of my readings, and to +be at home again, and able to sit down and think in my +own study. But the fatigue, though sometimes very great +indeed, hardly tells upon me at all. And although all our +people, from Smith downwards, have given in, more or less, +at times, I have never been in the least unequal to the +work, though sometimes sufficiently disinclined for it. My +kindest and best love to Mrs. Forster.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Royal Hotel, Derby,</span> <i>Friday, Oct. 22nd, 1858.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Mamie</span>,</div> + +<p>I am writing in a very poor condition; I have a bad +cold all over me, pains in my back and limbs, and a very +sensitive and uncomfortable throat. There was a great +draught up some stone steps near me last night, and I +daresay that caused it.</p> + +<p>The weather on my first two nights at Birmingham was +so intolerably bad—it blew hard, and never left off raining +for one single moment—that the houses were not what +they otherwise would have been. On the last night the +weather cleared, and we had a grand house.</p> + +<p>Last night at Nottingham was almost, if not quite, the +most amazing we have had. It is not a very large place, +and the room is by no means a very large one, but three +hundred and twenty stalls were let, and all the other tickets +were sold.</p> + +<p>Here we have two hundred and twenty stalls let for +to-night, and the other tickets are gone in proportion. It +is a pretty room, but not large.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span></p> + +<p>I have just been saying to Arthur that if there is not a +large let for York, I would rather give it up, and get +Monday at Gad's Hill. We have telegraphed to know. If +the answer comes (as I suppose it will) before post time, I +will tell you in a postscript what we decide to do. Coming +to London in the night of to-morrow (Saturday), and having +to see Mr. Ouvry on Sunday, and having to start for +York early on Monday, I fear I should not be able to get to +Gad's Hill at all. You won't expect me till you see me.</p> + +<p>Arthur and I have considered Plornish's joke in all the +immense number of aspects in which it presents itself to +reflective minds. We have come to the conclusion that it is +the best joke ever made. Give the dear boy my love, and +the same to Georgy, and the same to Katey, and take the +same yourself. Arthur (excessively low and inarticulate) +mutters that he "unites."</p> + +<p>[We knocked up Boylett, Berry, and John so frightfully +yesterday, by tearing the room to pieces and altogether +reversing it, as late as four o'clock, that we gave them a +supper last night. They shine all over to-day, as if it had +been entirely composed of grease.]</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 6em;">Ever, my dearest Mamie,</span><br /> +Your most affectionate Father.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Wolverhampton,</span> <i>Wednesday, Nov. 3rd, 1858.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>Little Leamington came out in the most amazing +manner yesterday—turned away hundreds upon hundreds +of people. They are represented as the dullest and worst +of audiences. I found them very good indeed, even in the +morning.</p> + +<p>There awaited me at the hotel, a letter from the +Rev. Mr. Young, Wentworth Watson's tutor, saying that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> +Mrs. Watson wished her boy to shake hands with me, and that +he would bring him in the evening. I expected him at the +hotel before the readings. But he did not come. He spoke +to John about it in the room at night. The crowd and +confusion, however, were very great, and I saw nothing of +him. In his letter he said that Mrs. Watson was at Paris on +her way home, and would be at Brighton at the end of this +week. I suppose I shall see her there at the end of next +week.</p> + +<p>We find a let of two hundred stalls here, which is very +large for this place. The evening being fine too, and blue +being to be seen in the sky beyond the smoke, we expect to +have a very full hall. Tell Mamey and Katey that if they +had been with us on the railway to-day between Leamington +and this place, they would have seen (though it is only an +hour and ten minutes by the express) fires and smoke +indeed. We came through a part of the Black Country that +you know, and it looked at its blackest. All the furnaces +seemed in full blast, and all the coal-pits to be working.</p> + +<p>It is market-day here, and the ironmasters are standing +out in the street (where they always hold high change), +making such an iron hum and buzz, that they confuse me +horribly. In addition, there is a bellman announcing something—not +the readings, I beg to say—and there is an +excavation being made in the centre of the open place, for +a statue, or a pump, or a lamp-post, or something or other, +round which all the Wolverhampton boys are yelling and +struggling.</p> + +<p>And here is Arthur, begging to have dinner at half-past +three instead of four, because he foresees "a wiry evening" +in store for him. Under which complication of distractions, +to which a waitress with a tray at this moment adds herself, +I sink, and leave off.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span></p> + +<p>My best love to the dear girls, and to the noble Plorn, +and to you. Marguerite and Ellen Stone not forgotten. +All yesterday and to-day I have been doing everything to +the tune of:</p> + +<div class='center'> +And the day is dark and dreary.<br /> +</div> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 6em;">Ever, dearest Georgy,</span><br /> +Your most affectionate and faithful.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—I hope the brazier is intolerably hot, and half +stifles all the family. Then, and not otherwise, I shall think +it in satisfactory work.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Rev. +James +White.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Tavistock House, Tavistock Square, London, W. C.,</span></span><br /> +<i>Friday, Nov. 5th, 1858.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear White</span>,</div> + +<p>May I entreat you to thank Mr. Carter very +earnestly and kindly in my name, for his proffered hospitality; +and, further, to explain to him that since my readings +began, I have known them to be incompatible with all +social enjoyments, and have neither set foot in a friend's +house nor sat down to a friend's table in any one of all the +many places I have been to, but have rigidly kept myself to +my hotels. To this resolution I must hold until the last. +There is not the least virtue in it. It is a matter of stern +necessity, and I submit with the worst grace possible.</p> + +<p>Will you let me know, either at Southampton or Portsmouth, +whether any of you, and how many of you, if any, +are coming over, so that Arthur Smith may reserve good +seats? Tell Lotty I hope she does not contemplate coming +to the morning reading; I always hate it so myself.</p> + +<p>Mary and Katey are down at Gad's Hill with Georgy +and Plornish, and they have Marguerite Power and Ellen +Stone staying there. I am sorry to say that even my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> +benevolence descries no prospect of their being able to +come to my native place.</p> + +<p>On Saturday week, the 13th, my tour, please God, ends.</p> + +<p>My best love to Mrs. White, and to Lotty, and to Clara.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever, my dear White, affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Frank +Stone, +A.R.A.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Tavistock House, Tavistock Square, London, W.C.</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Monday, Dec. 13th, 1858.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Stone</span>,</div> + +<p>Many thanks for these discourses. They are very +good, I think, as expressing what many men have felt and +thought; otherwise not specially remarkable. They have +one fatal mistake, which is a canker at the foot of their +ever being widely useful. Half the misery and hypocrisy +of the Christian world arises (as I take it) from a stubborn +determination to refuse the New Testament as a sufficient +guide in itself, and to force the Old Testament into alliance +with it—whereof comes all manner of camel-swallowing and +of gnat-straining. But so to resent this miserable error, or +to (by any implication) depreciate the divine goodness and +beauty of the New Testament, is to commit even a worse +error. And to class Jesus Christ with Mahomet is simply +audacity and folly. I might as well hoist myself on to a +high platform, to inform my disciples that the lives of King +George the Fourth and of King Alfred the Great belonged +to one and the same category.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. B. W. +Procter.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Sunday, Dec. 18th, 1858.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Procter</span>,</div> + +<p>A thousand thanks for the little song. I am charmed +with it, and shall be delighted to brighten "Household<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> +Words" with such a wise and genial light. I no more +believe that your poetical faculty has gone by, than I +believe that you have yourself passed to the better land. +You and it will travel thither in company, rely upon it. So +I still hope to hear more of the trade-songs, and to learn +that the blacksmith has hammered out no end of iron into +good fashion of verse, like a cunning workman, as I know +him of old to be.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Very faithfully yours, my dear Procter.<br /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>1859.</h2> + +<h3>NARRATIVE.</h3> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>During</span> the winter, Charles Dickens was living at Tavistock +House, removing to Gad's Hill for the summer early in +June, and returning to London in November. At this time +a change was made in his weekly journal. "Household +Words" became absolutely his own—Mr. Wills being his +partner and editor, as before—and was "incorporated with +'All the Year Round,'" under which title it was known +thenceforth. The office was still in Wellington Street, but +in a different house. The first number with the new name +appeared on the 30th April, and it contained the opening +of "A Tale of Two Cities."</div> + +<p>The first letter which follows shows that a proposal for +a series of readings in America had already been made to +him. It was carefully considered and abandoned for the +time. But the proposal was constantly renewed, and the +idea never wholly relinquished for many years before he +actually decided on making so distant a "reading tour."</p> + +<p>Mr. Procter contributed to the early numbers of "All +the Year Round" some very spirited "Songs of the Trades." +We give notes from Charles Dickens to the veteran poet, +both in the last year, and in this year, expressing his strong +approval of them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span></p> + +<p>The letter and two notes to Mr. (afterwards Sir Antonio) +Panizzi, for which we are indebted to Mr. Louis Fagan, one +of Sir A. Panizzi's executors, show the warm sympathy and +interest which he always felt for the cause of Italian liberty, +and for the sufferings of the State prisoners who at this +time took refuge in England.</p> + +<p>We give a little note to the dear friend and companion of +Charles Dickens's daughters, "Lotty" White, because it is a +pretty specimen of his writing, and because the young girl, +who is playfully "commanded" to get well and strong, died +early in July of this year. She was, at the time this note was +written, first attacked with the illness which was fatal to all +her sisters. Mamie and Kate Dickens went from Gad's Hill +to Bonchurch to pay a last visit to their friend, and he writes +to his eldest daughter there. Also we give notes of loving +sympathy and condolence to the bereaved father and mother.</p> + +<p>In the course of this summer Charles Dickens was not +well, and went for a week to his old favourite, Broadstairs—where +Mr. Wilkie Collins and his brother, Mr. Charles +Allston Collins, were staying—for sea-air and change, preparatory +to another reading tour, in England only. His +letter from Peterborough to Mr. Frank Stone, giving him +an account of a reading at Manchester (Mr. Stone's native +town), was one of the last ever addressed to that affectionate +friend, who died very suddenly, to the great grief of Charles +Dickens, in November. The letter to Mr. Thomas Longman, +which closes this year, was one of introduction to that +gentleman of young Marcus Stone, then just beginning his +career as an artist, and to whom the premature death of his +father made it doubly desirable that he should have powerful +helping hands.</p> + +<p>Charles Dickens refers, in a letter to Mrs. Watson, to his +portrait by Mr. Frith, which was finished at the end of 1858. +It was painted for Mr. Forster, and is now in the "Forster +Collection" at South Kensington Museum.</p> + +<p>The Christmas number of this year, again written by +several hands as well as his own, was "The Haunted +House." In November, his story of "A Tale of Two<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> +Cities" was finished in "All the Year Round," and in +December was published, complete, with dedication to Lord +John Russell.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Arthur +Smith.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Tavistock House, Tavistock Square, London, W.C.</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Wednesday, Jan. 26th, 1859.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Arthur</span>,</div> + +<p>Will you first read the enclosed letters, having previously +welcomed, with all possible cordiality, the bearer, +Mr. Thomas C. Evans, from New York?</p> + +<p>You having read them, let me explain that Mr. Fields is +a highly respectable and influential man, one of the heads +of the most classical and most respected publishing house +in America; that Mr. Richard Grant White is a man of +high reputation; and that Felton is the Greek Professor in +their Cambridge University, perhaps the most distinguished +scholar in the States.</p> + +<p>The address to myself, referred to in one of the letters, +being on its way, it is quite clear that I must give some +decided and definite answer to the American proposal. +Now, will you carefully discuss it with Mr. Evans before I +enter on it at all? Then, will you dine here with him on +Sunday—which I will propose to him—and arrange to meet +at half-past four for an hour's discussion?</p> + +<p>The points are these:</p> + +<p>First. I have a very grave question within myself +whether I could go to America at all.</p> + +<p>Secondly. If I did go, I could not possibly go before +the autumn.</p> + +<p>Thirdly. If I did go, how long must I stay?</p> + +<p>Fourthly. If the stay were a short one, could <i>you</i> go?</p> + +<p>Fifthly. What is his project? What could I make? +What occurs to you upon his proposal?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span></p> + +<p>I have told him that the business arrangements of the +readings have been from the first so entirely in your hands, +that I enter upon nothing connected with them without +previous reference to you.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">M. de +Cerjat.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Tuesday, Feb. 1st, 1859.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Cerjat</span>,</div> + +<p>I received your always welcome annual with even +more interest than usual this year, being (in common with +my two girls and their aunt) much excited and pleased by +your account of your daughter's engagement. Apart from +the high sense I have of the affectionate confidence with +which you tell me what lies so tenderly on your own heart, +I have followed the little history with a lively sympathy and +regard for her. I hope, with you, that it is full of promise, +and that you will all be happy in it. The separation, even +in the present condition of travel (and no man can say how +much the discovery of a day may advance it), is nothing. +And so God bless her and all of you, and may the rosy +summer bring her all the fulness of joy that we all wish her.</p> + +<p>To pass from the altar to Townshend (which is a long +way), let me report him severely treated by Bully, who +rules him with a paw of iron; and complaining, moreover, +of indigestion. He drives here every Sunday, but at all +other times is mostly shut up in his beautiful house, where +I occasionally go and dine with him <i>tête-à-tête</i>, and where +we always talk of you and drink to you. That is a rule +with us from which we never depart. He is "seeing a +volume of poems through the press;" rather an expensive +amusement. He has not been out at night (except to this +house) save last Friday, when he went to hear me read +"The Poor Traveller," "Mrs. Gamp," and "The Trial"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> +from "Pickwick." He came into my room at St. Martin's +Hall, and I fortified him with weak brandy-and-water. +You will be glad to hear that the said readings are a +greater <i>furore</i> than they ever have been, and that every +night on which they now take place—once a week—hundreds +go away, unable to get in, though the hall +holds thirteen hundred people. I dine with —— to-day, +by-the-bye, along with his agent; concerning whom I +observe him to be always divided between an unbounded +confidence and a little latent suspicion. He always tells me +that he is a gem of the first water; oh yes, the best of +business men! and then says that he did not quite like +his conduct respecting that farm-tenant and those hay-ricks.</p> + +<p>There is a general impression here, among the best-informed, +that war in Italy, to begin with, is inevitable, and +will break out before April. I know a gentleman at Genoa +(Swiss by birth), deeply in with the authorities at Turin, +who is already sending children home.</p> + +<p>In England we are quiet enough. There is a world of +talk, as you know, about Reform bills; but I don't believe +there is any general strong feeling on the subject. According +to my perceptions, it is undeniable that the public has +fallen into a state of indifference about public affairs, mainly +referable, as I think, to the people who administer them—and +there I mean the people of all parties—which is a very +bad sign of the times. The general mind seems weary of +debates and honourable members, and to have taken <i>laissez-aller</i> +for its motto.</p> + +<p>My affairs domestic (which I know are not without their +interest for you) flow peacefully. My eldest daughter is a +capital housekeeper, heads the table gracefully, delegates +certain appropriate duties to her sister and her aunt, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> +they are all three devotedly attached. Charley, my eldest +boy, remains in Barings' house. Your present correspondent +is more popular than he ever has been. I rather think that +the readings in the country have opened up a new public +who were outside before; but however that may be, his +books have a wider range than they ever had, and his public +welcomes are prodigious. Said correspondent is at present +overwhelmed with proposals to go and read in America. +Will never go, unless a small fortune be first paid down in +money on this side of the Atlantic. Stated the figure of +such payment, between ourselves, only yesterday. Expects +to hear no more of it, and assuredly will never go for less. +You don't say, my dear Cerjat, when you are coming to +England! Somehow I feel that this marriage ought to bring +you over, though I don't know why. You shall have a bed +here and a bed at Gad's Hill, and we will go and see strange +sights together. When I was in Ireland, I ordered the +brightest jaunting-car that ever was seen. It has just this +minute arrived per steamer from Belfast. Say you are +coming, and you shall be the first man turned over by it; +somebody must be (for my daughter Mary drives anything +that can be harnessed, and I know of no English horse that +would understand a jaunting-car coming down a Kentish +hill), and you shall be that somebody if you will. They +turned the basket-phaeton over, last summer, in a bye-road—Mary +and the other two—and had to get it up again; +which they did, and came home as if nothing had happened. +They send their loves to Mrs. Cerjat, and to you, and to +all, and particularly to the dear <i>fiancée</i>. So do I, with all +my heart, and am ever your attached and affectionate +friend.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Antonio +Panizzi.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Monday Night, March 14th, 1859.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Panizzi</span>,</div> + +<p>If you should feel no delicacy in mentioning, or +should see no objection to mentioning, to Signor Poerio, or +any of the wronged Neapolitan gentlemen to whom it is +your happiness and honour to be a friend on their arrival in +this country, an idea that has occurred to me, I should +regard it as a great kindness in you if you would be my +exponent. I think you will have no difficulty in believing +that I would not, on any consideration, obtrude my name or +projects upon any one of those noble souls, if there were +any reason of the slightest kind against it. And if you see +any such reason, I pray you instantly to banish my letter +from your thoughts.</p> + +<p>It seems to me probable that some narrative of their ten +years' suffering will, somehow or other, sooner or later, be +by some of them laid before the English people. The just +interest and indignation alive here, will (I suppose) elicit it. +False narratives and garbled stories will, in any case, of a +certainty get about. If the true history of the matter is to +be told, I have that sympathy with them and respect for +them which would, all other considerations apart, render it +unspeakably gratifying to me to be the means of its diffusion. +What I desire to lay before them is simply this. If +for my new successor to "Household Words" a narrative of +their ten years' trial could be written, I would take any +conceivable pains to have it rendered into English, and +presented in the sincerest and best way to a very large and +comprehensive audience. It should be published exactly as +you might think best for them, and remunerated in any way +that you might think generous and right. They want no +mouthpiece and no introducer, but perhaps they might have +no objection to be associated with an English writer, who is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> +possibly not unknown to them by some general reputation, +and who certainly would be animated by a strong public +and private respect for their honour, spirit, and unmerited +misfortunes. This is the whole matter; assuming that +such a thing is to be done, I long for the privilege of helping +to do it. These gentlemen might consider it an independent +means of making money, and I should be delighted +to pay the money.</p> + +<p>In my absence from town, my friend and sub-editor, +Mr. Wills (to whom I had expressed my feeling on the +subject), has seen, I think, three of the gentlemen together. +But as I hear, returning home to-night, that they are in +your good hands, and as nobody can be a better judge than +you of anything that concerns them, I at once decide to +write to you and to take no other step whatever. Forgive +me for the trouble I have occasioned you in the reading of +this letter, and never think of it again if you think that by +pursuing it you would cause them an instant's uneasiness.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Believe me, very faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Antonio +Panizzi.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Tuesday, March 15th, 1859.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Panizzi</span>,</div> + +<p>Let me thank you heartily for your kind and prompt +letter. I am really and truly sensible of your friendliness.</p> + +<p>I have not heard from Higgins, but of course I am ready +to serve on the Committee.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Always faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. B. W. +Procter.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Saturday, March 19th, 1859.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Procter</span>,</div> + +<p>I think the songs are simply ADMIRABLE! and I +have no doubt of this being a popular feature in "All the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> +Year Round." I would not omit the sexton, and I would +not omit the spinners and weavers; and I would omit +the hack-writers, and (I think) the alderman; but I am +not so clear about the chorister. The pastoral I a little +doubt finding audience for; but I am not at all sure yet +that my doubt is well founded.</p> + +<p>Had I not better send them all to the printer, and let +you have proofs kept by you for publishing? I shall not +have to make up the first number of "All the Year Round" +until early in April. I don't like to send the manuscript +back, and I never do like to do so when I get anything that +I know to be thoroughly, soundly, and unquestionably good. +I am hard at work upon my story, and expect a magnificent +start. With hearty thanks,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever yours affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Edmund +Yates.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Tavistock House, Tavistock Square, London, W.C.</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Tuesday, March 29th, 1859.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Edmund</span>,</div> + +<p>1. I think that no one seeing the place can well +doubt that my house at Gad's Hill is the place for the +letter-box. The wall is accessible by all sorts and conditions +of men, on the bold high road, and the house +altogether is the great landmark of the whole neighbourhood. +Captain Goldsmith's <i>house</i> is up a lane considerably +off the high road; but he has a garden <i>wall</i> abutting on +the road itself.</p> + +<p>2. "The Pic-Nic Papers" were originally sold to +Colburn, for the benefit of the widow of Mr. Macrone, of +St. James's Square, publisher, deceased. Two volumes +were contributed—of course gratuitously—by writers who +had had transactions with Macrone. Mr. Colburn, wanting +three volumes in all for trade purposes, added a third,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> +consisting of an American reprint. Of that volume I didn't +know, and don't know, anything. The other two I edited, +gratuitously as aforesaid, and wrote the Lamplighter's story +in. It was all done many years ago. There was a preface +originally, delicately setting forth how the book came to be.</p> + +<p>3. I suppose —— to be, as Mr. Samuel Weller expresses +it somewhere in "Pickwick," "ravin' mad with the consciousness +o' willany." Under their advertisement in <i>The +Times</i> to-day, you will see, without a word of comment, the +shorthand writer's verbatim report of the judgment.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Antonio +Panizzi.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">"All the Year Round" Office</span>, <i>Thursday, April 7th, 1859.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Panizzi</span>,</div> + +<p>If you don't know, I think you should know that a +number of letters are passing through the post-office, +purporting to be addressed to the charitable by "Italian +Exiles in London," asking for aid to raise a fund for a +tribute to "London's Lord Mayor," in grateful recognition +of the reception of the Neapolitan exiles. I know this to +be the case, and have no doubt in my own mind that the +whole thing is an imposture and a "do." The letters are +signed "Gratitudine Italiana."</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +White.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Tavistock House, Tavistock Square, London, W.C.</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Monday, April 18th, 1859.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Lotty</span>,</div> + +<p>This is merely a notice to you that I must positively +insist on your getting well, strong, and into good spirits, +with the least possible delay. Also, that I look forward to +seeing you at Gad's Hill sometime in the summer, staying +with the girls, and heartlessly putting down the Plorn<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span>. +You know that there is no appeal from the Plorn's inimitable +father. What <i>he</i> says must be done. Therefore I send +you my love (which please take care of), and my commands +(which please obey).</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever your affectionate.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">The Hon. +Mrs. +Watson.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Tavistock House, Tavistock Square, London, W.C.</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Tuesday, May 31st, 1859.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Mrs. Watson</span>,</div> + +<p>You surprise me by supposing that there is ever +latent a defiant and roused expression in the undersigned +lamb! Apart from this singular delusion of yours, and +wholly unaccountable departure from your usual accuracy +in all things, your satisfaction with the portrait is a great +pleasure to me. It has received every conceivable pains at +Frith's hands, and ought on his account to be good. It is +a little too much (to my thinking) as if my next-door neighbour +were my deadly foe, uninsured, and I had just received +tidings of his house being afire; otherwise very good.</p> + +<p>I cannot tell you how delighted we shall be if you would +come to Gad's Hill. You should see some charming woods +and a rare old castle, and you should have such a snug +room looking over a Kentish prospect, with every facility +in it for pondering on the beauties of its master's beard! +<i>Do</i> come, but you positively <i>must not</i> come and go on the +same day.</p> + +<p>We retreat there on Monday, and shall be there all the +summer.</p> + +<p>My small boy is perfectly happy at Southsea, and likes +the school very much. I had the finest letter two or three +days ago, from another of my boys—Frank Jeffrey—at +Hamburg. In this wonderful epistle he says: "Dear papa, +I write to tell you that I have given up all thoughts of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> +being a doctor. My conviction that I shall never get over +my stammering is the cause; all professions are barred +against me. The only thing I should like to be is a gentleman +farmer, either at the Cape, in Canada, or Australia. +With my passage paid, fifteen pounds, a horse, and a rifle, +I could go two or three hundred miles up country, sow +grain, buy cattle, and in time be very comfortable."</p> + +<p>Considering the consequences of executing the little +commission by the next steamer, I perceived that the first +consequence of the fifteen pounds would be that he would +be robbed of it—of the horse, that it would throw him—and +of the rifle, that it would blow his head off; which probabilities +I took the liberty of mentioning, as being against +the scheme. With best love from all,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Ever believe me, my dear Mrs. Watson,</span><br /> +Your faithful and affectionate.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +White.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Sunday, June 5th, 1859.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Mrs. White</span>,</div> + +<p>I do not write to you this morning because I have +anything to say—I well know where your consolation is +set, and to what beneficent figure your thoughts are raised—but +simply because you are so much in my mind that it is +a relief to send you and dear White my love. You are +always in our hearts and on our lips. May the great God +comfort you! You know that Mary and Katie are coming +on Thursday. They will bring dear Lotty what she little +needs with you by her side—love; and I hope their company +will interest and please her. There is nothing that +they, or any of us, would not do for her. She is a part of +us all, and has belonged to us, as well as to you, these many +years.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever your affectionate and faithful.<br /> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Monday, June 11th, 1859.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Mamie</span>,</div> + +<p>On Saturday night I found, very much to my surprise +and pleasure, the photograph on my table at Tavistock +House. It is not a very pleasant or cheerful presentation +of my daughters; but it is wonderfully like for all that, and +in some details remarkably good. When I came home here +yesterday I tried it in the large Townshend stereoscope, in +which it shows to great advantage. It is in the little stereoscope +at present on the drawing-room table. One of the +balustrades of the destroyed old Rochester bridge has been +(very nicely) presented to me by the contractor for the +works, and has been duly stonemasoned and set up on the +lawn behind the house. I have ordered a sun-dial for the +top of it, and it will be a very good object indeed. The +Plorn is highly excited to-day by reason of an institution +which he tells me (after questioning George) is called the +"Cobb, or Bodderin," holding a festival at The Falstaff. He +is possessed of some vague information that they go to +Higham Church, in pursuance of some old usage, and +attend service there, and afterwards march round the village. +It so far looks probable that they certainly started off at +eleven very spare in numbers, and came back considerably +recruited, which looks to me like the difference between +going to church and coming to dinner. They bore no end +of bright banners and broad sashes, and had a band with a +terrific drum, and are now (at half-past two) dining at The +Falstaff, partly in the side room on the ground-floor, and +partly in a tent improvised this morning. The drum is +hung up to a tree in The Falstaff garden, and looks like a +tropical sort of gourd. I have presented the band with five +shillings, which munificence has been highly appreciated.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> +Ices don't seem to be provided for the ladies in the gallery—I +mean the garden; they are prowling about there, endeavouring +to peep in at the beef and mutton through the +holes in the tent, on the whole, in a debased and degraded +manner.</p> + +<p>Turk somehow cut his foot in Cobham Lanes yesterday, +and Linda hers. They are both lame, and looking at each +other. Fancy Mr. Townshend not intending to go for +another three weeks, and designing to come down here for +a few days—with Henri and Bully—on Wednesday! I wish +you could have seen him alone with me on Saturday; he +was so extraordinarily earnest and affectionate on my belongings +and affairs in general, and not least of all on you +and Katie, that he cried in a most pathetic manner, and was +so affected that I was obliged to leave him among the flowerpots +in the long passage at the end of the dining-room. It +was a very good piece of truthfulness and sincerity, especially +in one of his years, able to take life so easily.</p> + +<p>Mr. and Mrs. Wills are here now (but I daresay you +know it from your aunt), and return to town with me to-morrow +morning. We are now going on to the castle. Mrs. +Wills was very droll last night, and told me some good +stories. My dear, I wish particularly to impress upon you +and dear Katie (to whom I send my other best love) that I +hope your stay will not be very long. I don't think it very +good for either of you, though of course I know that Lotty +will be, and must be, and should be the first consideration +with you both. I am very anxious to know how you found +her and how you are yourself.</p> + +<p>Best love to dear Lotty and Mrs. White. The same to +Mr. White and Clara. We are always talking about +you all.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever, dearest Mamie, your affectionate Father.<br /> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Rev. +James +White.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Thursday, July 7th, 1859.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear White</span>,</div> + +<p> I send my heartiest and most affectionate love to +Mrs. White and you, and to Clara. You know all that I +could add; you have felt it all; let it be unspoken and +unwritten—it is expressed within us.</p> + +<p>Do you not think that you could all three come here, +and stay with us? You and Mrs. White should have your +own large room and your own ways, and should be among +us when you felt disposed, and never otherwise. I do hope +you would find peace here. Can it not be done?</p> + +<p>We have talked very much about it among ourselves, +and the girls are strong upon it. Think of it—do!</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever your affectionate.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. John +Forster.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Gad's Hill</span>, <i>Thursday Night, Aug. 25th, 1859.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Forster</span>,</div> + +<div class='center'> +Heartily glad to get your letter this morning.<br /> +</div> + +<p>I cannot easily tell you how much interested I am by +what you tell me of our brave and excellent friend the +Chief Baron, in connection with that ruffian. I followed +the case with so much interest, and have followed the +miserable knaves and asses who have perverted it since, +with so much indignation, that I have often had more than +half a mind to write and thank the upright judge who tried +him. I declare to God that I believe such a service one of +the greatest that a man of intellect and courage can render +to society. Of course I saw the beast of a prisoner (with +my mind's eye) delivering his cut-and-dried speech, and +read in every word of it that no one but the murderer +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span>could have delivered or conceived it. Of course I have +been driving the girls out of their wits here, by incessantly +proclaiming that there needed no medical evidence either +way, and that the case was plain without it. Lastly, of +course (though a merciful man—because a merciful man I +mean), I would hang any Home Secretary (Whig, Tory, +Radical, or otherwise) who should step in between that +black scoundrel and the gallows. I can<i>not</i> believe—and my +belief in all wrong as to public matters is enormous—that +such a thing will be done.</p> + +<p>I am reminded of Tennyson, by thinking that King +Arthur would have made short work of the amiable +——, whom the newspapers strangely delight to make +a sort of gentleman of. How fine the "Idylls" are! +Lord! what a blessed thing it is to read a man who can +write! I thought nothing could be grander than the +first poem till I came to the third; but when I had read +the last, it seemed to be absolutely unapproached and +unapproachable.</p> + +<p>To come to myself. I have written and begged the +"All the Year Round" publisher to send you directly four +weeks' proofs beyond the current number, that are in type. +I hope you will like them. Nothing but the interest of the +subject, and the pleasure of striving with the difficulty of +the forms of treatment, nothing in the mere way of money, +I mean, could also repay the time and trouble of the incessant +condensation. But I set myself the little task of +making a <i>picturesque</i> story, rising in every chapter with +characters true to nature, but whom the story itself should express, +more than they should express themselves, by dialogue. +I mean, in other words, that I fancied a story of incident +might be written, in place of the bestiality that <i>is</i> written +under that pretence, pounding the characters out in its own +mortar, and beating their own interests out of them. If<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> +you could have read the story all at once, I hope you +wouldn't have stopped halfway.</p> + +<p>As to coming to your retreat, my dear Forster, think +how helpless I am. I am not well yet. I have an instinctive +feeling that nothing but the sea will restore me, and I +am planning to go and work at Ballard's, at Broadstairs, +from next Wednesday to Monday. I generally go to town +on Monday afternoon. All Tuesday I am at the office, on +Wednesday I come back here, and go to work again. I +don't leave off till Monday comes round once more. I am +fighting to get my story done by the first week in October. +On the 10th of October I am going away to read for a fortnight +at Ipswich, Norwich, Oxford, Cambridge, and a few +other places. Judge what my spare time is just now!</p> + +<p>I am very much surprised and very sorry to find from +the enclosed that Elliotson has been ill. I never heard a +word of it.</p> + +<p>Georgy sends best love to you and to Mrs. Forster, so +do I, so does Plorn, so does Frank. The girls are, for five +days, with the Whites at Ramsgate. It is raining, intensely +hot, and stormy. Eighteen creatures, like little tortoises, +have dashed in at the window and fallen on the paper since +I began this paragraph +<img src="images/ink.png" width="15" height="14" alt="ink-blot" title="ink-blot" /> (that was one!). I am a +wretched sort of creature in my way, but it is a way that +gets on somehow. And all ways have the same fingerpost +at the head of them, and at every turning in them.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens +and Miss +Katie +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Albion, Broadstairs</span>, <i>Friday, Sept. 2nd, 1859.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Mamie and Katie</span>,</div> + +<p>I have been "moved" here, and am now (Ballard +having added to the hotel a house we lived in three years)<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> +in our old dining-room and sitting-room, and our old +drawing-room as a bedroom. My cold is so bad, both in +my throat and in my chest, that I can't bathe in the sea; +Tom Collin dissuaded me—thought it "bad"—but I get a +heavy shower-bath at Mrs. Crampton's every morning. The +baths are still hers and her husband's, but they have retired +and live in "Nuckells"—are going to give a stained-glass +window, value three hundred pounds, to St. Peter's Church. +Tom Collin is of opinion that the Miss Dickenses has +growed two fine young women—leastwise, asking pardon, +ladies. An evangelical family of most disagreeable girls +prowl about here and trip people up with tracts, which they +put in the paths with stones upon them to keep them from +blowing away. Charles Collins and I having seen a bill +yesterday—about a mesmeric young lady who did feats, one +of which was set forth in the bill, in a line by itself, as</p> + +<div class='center'> +<span class="smcap">the rigid legs,</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>—were overpowered with curiosity, and resolved to go. It +came off in the Assembly Room, now more exquisitely +desolate than words can describe. Eighteen shillings was +the "take." Behind a screen among the company, we +heard mysterious gurglings of water before the entertainment +began, and then a slippery sound which occasioned +me to whisper C. C. (who laughed in the most ridiculous +manner), "Soap." It proved to be the young lady washing +herself. She must have been wonderfully dirty, for she +took a world of trouble, and didn't come out clean after all—in +a wretched dirty muslin frock, with blue ribbons. She +was the alleged mesmeriser, and a boy who distributed bills +the alleged mesmerised. It was a most preposterous imposition, +but more ludicrous than any poor sight I ever saw. +The boy is clearly out of pantomime, and when he pretended<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> +to be in the mesmeric state, made the company back +by going in among them head over heels, backwards, half-a-dozen +times, in a most insupportable way. The pianist +had struck; and the manner in which the lecturer implored +"some lady" to play a "polker," and the manner in which +no lady would; and in which the few ladies who were there +sat with their hats on, and the elastic under their chins, as if +it were going to blow, is never to be forgotten. I have +been writing all the morning, and am going for a walk to +Ramsgate. This is a beast of a letter, but I am not well, +and have been addling my head.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever, dear Girls, your affectionate Father.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. +Wilkie +Collins.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Friday Night, Sept. 16th, 1859.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Wilkie</span>,</div> + +<p>Just a word to say that I have received yours, and +that I look forward to the reunion on Thursday, when I +hope to have the satisfaction of recounting to you the plot +of a play that has been laid before me for commending +advice.</p> + +<p>Ditto to what you say respecting the <i>Great Eastern</i>. I +went right up to London Bridge by the boat that day, on +purpose that I might pass her. I thought her the ugliest +and most unshiplike thing these eyes ever beheld. I +wouldn't go to sea in her, shiver my ould timbers and +rouse me up with a monkey's tail (man-of-war metaphor), +not to chuck a biscuit into Davy Jones's weather eye, and +see double with my own old toplights.</p> + +<p>Turk has been so good as to produce from his mouth, +for the wholesome consternation of the family, eighteen +feet of worm. When he had brought it up, he seemed to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> +think it might be turned to account in the housekeeping +and was proud. Pony has kicked a shaft off the cart, and +is to be sold. Why don't you buy her? she'd never kick +with you.</p> + +<p>Barber's opinion is, that them fruit-trees, one and +all, is touchwood, and not fit for burning at any gentleman's +fire; also that the stocking of this here garden is +worth less than nothing, because you wouldn't have to +grub up nothing, and something takes a man to do it at +three-and-sixpence a day. Was "left desponding" by +your reporter.</p> + +<p>I have had immense difficulty to find a man for the +stable-yard here. Barber having at last engaged one this +morning, I enquired if he had a decent hat for driving in, +to which Barber returned this answer:</p> + +<p>"Why, sir, not to deceive you, that man flatly say that +he never have wore that article since man he was!"</p> + +<p>I am consequently fortified into my room, and am afraid +to go out to look at him. Love from all.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Monsieur +Regnier.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Saturday, Oct. 15th, 1859.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Regnier</span>,</div> + +<p>You will receive by railway parcel the proof-sheets +of a story of mine, that has been for some time in progress +in my weekly journal, and that will be published in a complete +volume about the middle of November. Nobody but +Forster has yet seen the latter portions of it, or will see +them until they are published. I want you to read it for +two reasons. Firstly, because I hope it is the best story +I have written. Secondly, because it treats of a very +remarkable time in France; and I should very much like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> +to know what you think of its being dramatised for a +French theatre. If you should think it likely to be done, +I should be glad to take some steps towards having it well +done. The story is an extraordinary success here, and I +think the end of it is certain to make a still greater +sensation.</p> + +<p>Don't trouble yourself to write to me, <i>mon ami</i>, until +you shall have had time to read the proofs. Remember, +they are <i>proofs</i>, and <i>private;</i> the latter chapters will not be +before the public for five or six weeks to come.</p> + +<p>With kind regards to Madame Regnier, in which my +daughters and their aunt unite,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Believe me, ever faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—The story (I daresay you have not seen any of it +yet) is called "A Tale of Two Cities."</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Frank +Stone, +A.R.A.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Peterborough</span>, <i>Wednesday Evening, Oct. 19th, 1859.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Stone</span>,</div> + +<p>We had a splendid rush last night—exactly as we +supposed, with the pressure on the two shillings, of whom +we turned a crowd away. They were a far finer audience +than on the previous night; I think the finest I have ever +read to. They took every word of the "Dombey" in quite +an amazing manner, and after the child's death, paused a +little, and then set up a shout that it did one good to hear. +Mrs. Gamp then set in with a roar, which lasted until I +had done. I think everybody for the time forgot everything +but the matter in hand. It was as fine an instance of +thorough absorption in a fiction as any of us are likely to +see ever again.</p> + +<p>—— (in an exquisite red mantle), accompanied by her +sister (in another exquisite red mantle) and by the deaf lady, +(who leaned a black head-dress, exactly like an old-fashioned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> +tea-urn without the top, against the wall), was charming. +HE couldn't get at her on account of the pressure. HE +tried to peep at her from the side door, but she (ha, ha, ha!) +was unconscious of his presence. I read to her, and goaded +him to madness. He is just sane enough to send his kindest +regards.</p> + +<p>This is a place which—except the cathedral, with the +loveliest front I ever saw—is like the back door to some +other place. It is, I should hope, the deadest and most +utterly inert little town in the British dominions. The +magnates have taken places, and the bookseller is of +opinion that "such is the determination to do honour to +Mr. Dickens, that the doors <i>must</i> be opened half an hour +before the appointed time." You will picture to yourself +Arthur's quiet indignation at this, and the manner in which +he remarked to me at dinner, "that he turned away twice +Peterborough last night."</p> + +<p>A very pretty room—though a Corn Exchange—and a +room we should have been glad of at Cambridge, as it is +large, bright, and cheerful, and wonderfully well lighted.</p> + +<p>The difficulty of getting to Bradford from here to-morrow, +at any time convenient to us, turned out to be so great, +that we are all going in for Leeds (only three-quarters of an +hour from Bradford) to-night after the reading, at a quarter-past +eleven. We are due at Leeds a quarter before three.</p> + +<p>So no more at present from,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Yours affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. R. +Sculthorpe.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Tavistock House, Tavistock Square, London, W.C.</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Thursday, Nov. 10th, 1859.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>Dear Sir</span>,</div> + +<p>Judgment must go by default. I have not a word +to plead against Dodson and Fogg. I am without any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> +defence to the action; and therefore, as law goes, ought to +win it.</p> + +<p>Seriously, the date of your hospitable note disturbs my +soul. But I have been incessantly writing in Kent and +reading in all sorts of places, and have done nothing in +my own personal character these many months; and now I +come to town and our friend<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> is away! Let me take that +defaulting miscreant into council when he comes back.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Monsieur +Regnier.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Tavistock House, Tavistock Square, London, W.C.</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Wednesday, Nov. 16th, 1859.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Regnier</span>,</div> + +<p>I send you ten thousand thanks for your kind and +explicit letter. What I particularly wished to ascertain from +you was, whether it is likely the Censor would allow such a +piece to be played in Paris. In the case of its being likely, +then I wished to have the piece as well done as possible, and +would even have proposed to come to Paris to see it rehearsed. +But I very much doubted whether the general +subject would not be objectionable to the Government, and +what you write with so much sagacity and with such care +convinces me at once that its representation would be prohibited. +Therefore I altogether abandon and relinquish the +idea. But I am just as heartily and cordially obliged to you +for your interest and friendship, as if the book had been +turned into a play five hundred times. I again thank you +ten thousand times, and am quite sure that you are right. +I only hope you will forgive my causing you so much trouble, +after your hard work.</p> + +<p>My girls and Georgina send their kindest regards to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> +Madame Regnier and to you. My Gad's Hill house (I +think I omitted to tell you, in reply to your enquiry) is on +the very scene of Falstaff's robbery. There is a little +<i>cabaret</i> at the roadside, still called The Sir John Falstaff. +And the country, in all its general features, is, at this time, +what it was in Shakespeare's. I hope you will see the +house before long. It is really a pretty place, and a good +residence for an English writer, is it not?</p> + +<p>Macready, we are all happy to hear from himself, is +going to leave the dreary tomb in which he lives, at +Sherborne, and to remove to Cheltenham, a large and +handsome place, about four or five hours' railway journey +from London, where his poor girls will at least see and +hear some life. Madame Céleste was with me yesterday, +wishing to dramatise "A Tale of Two Cities" for the +Lyceum, after bringing out the Christmas pantomime. I +gave her my permission and the book; but I fear that her +company (troupe) is a very poor one.</p> + +<p>This is all the news I have, except (which is no news at +all) that I feel as if I had not seen you for fifty years, and +that</p> + +<div class='sig'> +I am ever your attached and faithful Friend.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. T. +Longman.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Monday, Nov. 28th, 1859.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Longman</span>,</div> + +<p>I am very anxious to present to you, with the earnest +hope that you will hold him in your remembrance, young +Mr. Marcus Stone, son of poor Frank Stone, who died +suddenly but a little week ago. You know, I daresay, +what a start this young man made in the last exhibition, +and what a favourable notice his picture attracted. He +wishes to make an additional opening for himself in the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span>illustration of books. He is an admirable draughtsman, +has a most dexterous hand, a charming sense of grace and +beauty, and a capital power of observation. These qualities +in him I know well of my own knowledge. He is in all +things modest, punctual, and right; and I would answer +for him, if it were needful, with my head.</p> + +<p>If you will put anything in his way, you will do it a +second time, I am certain.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours always.<br /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>1860.</h2> + +<h3>NARRATIVE.</h3> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>This</span> winter was the last spent at Tavistock House. Charles +Dickens had for some time been inclining to the idea of +making his home altogether at Gad's Hill, giving up his +London house, and taking a furnished house for the sake of +his daughters for a few months of the London season. And, +as his daughter Kate was to be married this summer to +Mr. Charles Collins, this intention was confirmed and carried +out. He made arrangements for the sale of Tavistock House +to Mr. Davis, a Jewish gentleman, and he gave up possession +of it in September. Up to this time Gad's Hill had been +furnished merely as a temporary summer residence—pictures, +library, and all best furniture being left in the London +house. He now set about beautifying and making Gad's +Hill thoroughly comfortable and homelike. And there was +not a year afterwards, up to the year of his death, that he +did not make some addition or improvement to it. He also +furnished, as a private residence, a sitting-room and some +bedrooms at his office in Wellington Street, to be used, when +there was no house in London, as occasional town quarters +by himself, his daughter, and sister-in-law.</div> + +<p>He began in this summer his occasional papers for "All +the Year Round," which he called "The Uncommercial<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> +Traveller," and which were continued at intervals in his +journal until 1869.</p> + +<p>In the autumn of this year he began another story, to be +published weekly in "All the Year Round." The letter to +Mr. Forster, which we give, tells him of this beginning +and gives him the name of the book. The first number +of "Great Expectations" appeared on the 1st December. +The Christmas number, this time, was written jointly by +himself and Mr. Wilkie Collins. The scene was laid at +Clovelly, and they made a journey together into Devonshire +and Cornwall, for the purpose of this story, in +November.</p> + +<p>The letter to Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton is, unfortunately, +the only one we have as yet been able to procure. The +present Lord Lytton, the Viceroy of India, has kindly endeavoured +to help us even during his absence from England. +But it was found to be impossible without his own assistance +to make the necessary search among his father's +papers. And he has promised us that, on his return, he +will find and lend to us, many letters from Charles Dickens, +which are certainly in existence, to his distinguished fellow-writer +and great friend. We hope, therefore, it may be +possible for us at some future time to be able to publish +these letters, as well as those addressed to the present +Lord Lytton (when he was Mr. Robert Lytton, otherwise +"Owen Meredith," and frequent contributor to "Household +Words" and "All the Year Round"). We have the same +hope with regard to letters addressed to Sir Henry Layard, +at present Ambassador at Constantinople, which, of course, +for the same reason, cannot be lent to us at the present time.</p> + +<p>We give a letter to Mr. Forster on one of his books +on the Commonwealth, the "Impeachment of the Five +Members;" which, as with other letters which we are glad +to publish on the subject of Mr. Forster's own works, was +not used by himself for obvious reasons.</p> + +<p>A letter to his daughter Mamie (who, after her sister's +marriage, paid a visit with her dear friends the White family +to Scotland, where she had a serious illness) introduces a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> +recent addition to the family, who became an important +member of it, and one to whom Charles Dickens was very +tenderly attached—her little white Pomeranian dog "Mrs. +Bouncer" (so called after the celebrated lady of that name +in "Box and Cox"). It is quite necessary to make this +formal introduction of the little pet animal (who lived to +be a very old dog and died in 1874), because future letters +to his daughter contain constant references and messages +to "Mrs. Bouncer," which would be quite unintelligible +without this explanation. "Boy," also referred to in this +letter, was his daughter's horse. The little dog and the +horse were gifts to Mamie Dickens from her friends Mr. +and Mrs. Arthur Smith, and the sister of the latter, Miss +Craufurd.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Monday, Jan. 2nd, 1860.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>A happy New Year to you, and many happy years! +I cannot tell you how delighted I was to receive your +Christmas letter, or with what pleasure I have received +Forster's emphatic accounts of your health and spirits. +But when was I ever wrong? And when did I not tell +you that you were an impostor in pretending to grow +older as the rest of us do, and that you had a secret of your +own for reversing the usual process! It happened that I +read at Cheltenham a couple of months ago, and that I have +rarely seen a place that so attracted my fancy. I had +never seen it before. Also I believe the character of its +people to have greatly changed for the better. All sorts of +long-visaged prophets had told me that they were dull, +stolid, slow, and I don't know what more that is disagreeable. +I found them exactly the reverse in all respects; and +I saw an amount of beauty there—well—that is not to be +more specifically mentioned to you young fellows.</p> + +<p>Katie dined with us yesterday, looking wonderfully well,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> +and singing "Excelsior" with a certain dramatic fire in her, +whereof I seem to remember having seen sparks afore now. +Etc. etc. etc.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">With kindest love from all at home to all with you,</span><br /> +Ever, my dear Macready, your most affectionate.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. +Wilkie +Collins.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Tavistock House, Tavistock Square, London, W.C.</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Saturday Night, Jan. 7th, 1860.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Wilkie</span>,</div> + +<p>I have read this book with great care and attention. +There cannot be a doubt that it is a very great advance on +all your former writing, and most especially in respect of +tenderness. In character it is excellent. Mr. Fairlie as +good as the lawyer, and the lawyer as good as he. Mr. +Vesey and Miss Halcombe, in their different ways, equally +meritorious. Sir Percival, also, is most skilfully shown, +though I doubt (you see what small points I come to) whether +any man ever showed uneasiness by hand or foot without +being forced by nature to show it in his face too. The story +is very interesting, and the writing of it admirable.</p> + +<p>I seem to have noticed, here and there, that the great +pains you take express themselves a trifle too much, and +you know that I always contest your disposition to give an +audience credit for nothing, which necessarily involves the +forcing of points on their attention, and which I have always +observed them to resent when they find it out—as they +always will and do. But on turning to the book again, I +find it difficult to take out an instance of this. It rather +belongs to your habit of thought and manner of going about +the work. Perhaps I express my meaning best when I say +that the three people who write the narratives in these +proofs have a <span class="smcap">dissective</span> property in common, which is +essentially not theirs but yours; and that my own effort<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> +would be to strike more of what is got <i>that way</i> out of them +by collision with one another, and by the working of the +story.</p> + +<p>You know what an interest I have felt in your powers +from the beginning of our friendship, and how very high I +rate them? <i>I</i> know that this is an admirable book, and +that it grips the difficulties of the weekly portion and +throws them in masterly style. No one else could do it +half so well. I have stopped in every chapter to notice +some instance of ingenuity, or some happy turn of writing; +and I am absolutely certain that you never did half so well +yourself.</p> + +<p>So go on and prosper, and let me see some more, when +you have enough (for your own satisfaction) to show me. I +think of coming in to back you up if I can get an idea for +my series of gossiping papers. One of those days, please +God, we may do a story together; I have very odd half-formed +notions, in a mist, of something that might be done +that way.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. John +Forster.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">11, Wellington Street, North Strand, London, W.C.</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Wednesday, May 2nd, 1860.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Forster</span>,</div> + +<p>It did not occur to me in reading your most excellent, +interesting, and remarkable book, that it could with any +reason be called one-sided. If Clarendon had never written +his "History of the Rebellion," then I can understand that +it might be. But just as it would be impossible to answer +an advocate who had misstated the merits of a case for his +own purpose, without, in the interests of truth, and not of the +other side merely, re-stating the merits and showing them +in their real form, so I cannot see the practicability of telling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> +what you had to tell without in some sort championing the +misrepresented side, and I think that you don't do that as +an advocate, but as a judge.</p> + +<p>The evidence has been suppressed and coloured, and the +judge goes through it and puts it straight. It is not <i>his</i> +fault if it all goes one way and tends to one plain conclusion. +Nor is it his fault that it goes the further when it is laid out +straight, or seems to do so, because it was so knotted and +twisted up before.</p> + +<p>I can understand any man's, and particularly Carlyle's, +having a lingering respect that does not like to be disturbed +for those (in the best sense of the word) loyal gentlemen of +the country who went with the king and were so true to him. +But I don't think Carlyle sufficiently considers that the great +mass of those gentlemen <i>didn't know the truth</i>, that it was a +part of their loyalty to believe what they were told on the +king's behalf, and that it is reasonable to suppose that the +king was too artful to make known to <i>them</i> (especially after +failure) what were very acceptable designs to the desperate +soldiers of fortune about Whitehall. And it was to me a +curious point of adventitious interest arising out of your +book, to reflect on the probability of their having been as +ignorant of the real scheme in Charles's head, as their +descendants and followers down to this time, and to think +with pity and admiration that they believed the cause to be +so much better than it was. This is a notion I was anxious +to have expressed in our account of the book in these +pages. For I don't suppose Clarendon, or any other such +man to sit down and tell posterity something that he has +not "tried on" in his own time. Do you?</p> + +<p>In the whole narrative I saw nothing anywhere to which +I demurred. I admired it all, went with it all, and was +proud of my friend's having written it all. I felt it to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> +all square and sound and right, and to be of enormous +importance in these times. Firstly, to the people who (like +myself) are so sick of the shortcomings of representative +government as to have no interest in it. Secondly, to the +humbugs at Westminster who have come down—a long, +long way—from those men, as you know. When the great +remonstrance came out, I was in the thick of my story, and +was always busy with it; but I am very glad I didn't read +it then, as I shall read it now to much better purpose. All +the time I was at work on the "Two Cities," I read no +books but such as had the air of the time in them.</p> + +<p>To return for a final word to the Five Members. I +thought the marginal references overdone. Here and +there, they had a comical look to me for that reason, and +reminded me of shows and plays where everything is in +the bill.</p> + +<p>Lastly, I should have written to you—as I had a strong +inclination to do, and ought to have done, immediately after +reading the book—but for a weak reason; of all things in +the world I have lost heart in one—I hope no other—I +cannot, times out of calculation, make up my mind to write +a letter.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever, my dear Forster, affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">M. de +Cerjat.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tavistock House</span>, <i>Thursday, May 3rd, 1860.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Cerjat</span>,</div> + +<p>The date of this letter would make me horribly +ashamed of myself, if I didn't know that <i>you</i> know how +difficult letter-writing is to one whose trade it is to write.</p> + +<p>You asked me on Christmas Eve about my children. +My second daughter is going to be married in the course +of the summer to Charles Collins, the brother of Wilkie +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span>Collins, the novelist. The father was one of the most +famous painters of English green lanes and coast pieces. +He was bred an artist; is a writer, too, and does "The Eye +Witness," in "All the Year Round." He is a gentleman, +accomplished, and amiable. My eldest daughter has not +yet started any conveyance on the road to matrimony (that +I know of); but it is likely enough that she will, as she is +very agreeable and intelligent. They are both very pretty. +My eldest boy, Charley, has been in Barings' house for +three or four years, and is now going to Hong Kong, +strongly backed up by Barings, to buy tea on his own +account, as a means of forming a connection and seeing +more of the practical part of a merchant's calling, before +starting in London for himself. His brother Frank +(Jeffrey's godson) I have just recalled from France and +Germany, to come and learn business, and qualify himself +to join his brother on his return from the Celestial Empire. +The next boy, Sydney Smith, is designed for the navy, and +is in training at Portsmouth, awaiting his nomination. He +is about three foot high, with the biggest eyes ever seen, +and is known in the Portsmouth parts as "Young Dickens, +who can do everything."</p> + +<p>Another boy is at school in France; the youngest of all +has a private tutor at home. I have forgotten the second +in order, who is in India. He went out as ensign of a +non-existent native regiment, got attached to the 42nd +Highlanders, one of the finest regiments in the Queen's +service; has remained with them ever since, and got made +a lieutenant by the chances of the rebellious campaign, +before he was eighteen. Miss Hogarth, always Miss +Hogarth, is the guide, philosopher, and friend of all the +party, and a very close affection exists between her and the +girls. I doubt if she will ever marry. I don't know +whether to be glad of it or sorry for it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span></p> + +<p>I have laid down my pen and taken a long breath after +writing this family history. I have also considered whether +there are any more children, and I don't think there are. +If I should remember two or three others presently, I will +mention them in a postscript.</p> + +<p>We think Townshend looking a little the worse for the +winter, and we perceive Bully to be decidedly old upon his +legs, and of a most diabolical turn of mind. When they +first arrived the weather was very dark and cold, and kept +them indoors. It has since turned very warm and bright, +but with a dusty and sharp east wind. They are still kept +indoors by this change, and I begin to wonder what change +will let them out. Townshend dines with us every Sunday. +You may be sure that we always talk of you and yours, and +drink to you heartily.</p> + +<p>Public matters here are thought to be rather improving; +the deep mistrust of the gentleman in Paris being +counteracted by the vigorous state of preparation into +which the nation is getting. You will have observed, +of course, that we establish a new defaulter in respect +of some great trust, about once a quarter. The last +one, the cashier of a City bank, is considered to have +distinguished himself greatly, a quarter of a million of +money being high game.</p> + +<p>No, my friend, I have not shouldered my rifle yet, but I +should do so on more pressing occasion. Every other man +in the row of men I know—if they were all put in a row—is +a volunteer though. There is a tendency rather to +overdo the wearing of the uniform, but that is natural +enough in the case of the youngest men. The turn-out is +generally very creditable indeed. At the ball they had (in +a perfectly unventilated building), their new leather belts +and pouches smelt so fearfully that it was, as my eldest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> +daughter said, like shoemaking in a great prison. She, +consequently, distinguished herself by fainting away in the +most inaccessible place in the whole structure, and being +brought out (horizontally) by a file of volunteers, like some +slain daughter of Albion whom they were carrying into the +street to rouse the indignant valour of the populace.</p> + +<p>Lord, my dear Cerjat, when I turn to that page of your +letter where you write like an ancient sage in whom the +fire has paled into a meek-eyed state of coolness and virtue, +I half laugh and half cry! <i>You</i> old! <i>You</i> a sort of hermit? +Boh! Get out.</p> + +<p>With this comes my love and all our loves, to you and +Mrs. Cerjat, and your daughter. I add my special and +particular to the sweet "singing cousin." When shall you +and I meet, and where? Must I come to see Townshend? +I begin to think so.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever, my dear Cerjat, your affectionate and faithful.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Sir Edward +Bulwer +Lytton.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Gad's Hill</span>, <i>Tuesday, June 5th, 1860.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Bulwer Lytton</span>,</div> + +<p>I am very much interested and gratified by your +letter concerning "A Tale of Two Cities." I do not quite +agree with you on two points, but that is no deduction from +my pleasure.</p> + +<p>In the first place, although the surrender of the feudal +privileges (on a motion seconded by a nobleman of great +rank) was the occasion of a sentimental scene, I see no +reason to doubt, but on the contrary, many reasons to believe, +that some of these privileges had been used to the frightful +oppression of the peasant, quite as near to the time of the +Revolution as the doctor's narrative, which, you will remember, +dates long before the Terror. And surely when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> +the new philosophy was the talk of the salons and the slang +of the hour, it is not unreasonable or unallowable to suppose +a nobleman wedded to the old cruel ideas, and representing +the time going out, as his nephew represents the time coming +in; as to the condition of the peasant in France generally at +that day, I take it that if anything be certain on earth it is +certain that it was intolerable. No <i>ex post facto</i> enquiries +and provings by figures will hold water, surely, against the +tremendous testimony of men living at the time.</p> + +<p>There is a curious book printed at Amsterdam, written +to make out no case whatever, and tiresome enough in its +literal dictionary-like minuteness, scattered up and down +the pages of which is full authority for my marquis. This +is "Mercier's Tableau de Paris." Rousseau is the authority +for the peasant's shutting up his house when he had a bit of +meat. The tax-taker was the authority for the wretched +creature's impoverishment.</p> + +<p>I am not clear, and I never have been clear, respecting +that canon of fiction which forbids the interposition of +accident in such a case as Madame Defarge's death. +Where the accident is inseparable from the passion and +emotion of the character, where it is strictly consistent with +the whole design, and arises out of some culminating proceeding +on the part of the character which the whole story +has led up to, it seems to me to become, as it were, an act +of divine justice. And when I use Miss Pross (though this +is quite another question) to bring about that catastrophe, I +have the positive intention of making that half-comic intervention +a part of the desperate woman's failure, and of +opposing that mean death—instead of a desperate one in the +streets, which she wouldn't have minded—to the dignity of +Carton's wrong or right; this <i>was</i> the design, and seemed +to be in the fitness of things.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span></p> + +<p>Now, as to the reading. I am sorry to say that it is out +of the question this season. I have had an attack of +rheumatism—quite a stranger to me—which remains hovering +about my left side, after having doubled me up in the +back, and which would disable me from standing for two +hours. I have given up all dinners and town engagements, +and come to my little Falstaff House here, sensible of the +necessity of country training all through the summer. +Smith would have proposed any appointment to see you on +the subject, but he has been dreadfully ill with tic. Whenever +I read in London, I will gladly put a night aside for +your purpose, and we will plot to connect your name with +it, and give it some speciality. But this could not be before +Christmas time, as I should not be able to read sooner, for +in the hot weather it would be useless. Let me hear from +you about this when you have considered it. It would +greatly diminish the expenses, remember.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately and faithfully.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">The +Lord John +Russell.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Sunday, June 17th, 1860.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Lord John Russell</span>,</div> + +<p>I cannot thank you enough for your kind note and +its most welcome enclosure. My sailor-boy comes home +from Portsmouth to-morrow, and will be overjoyed. His +masters have been as anxious for getting his nomination as +though it were some distinction for themselves.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever your faithful and obliged.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">The Earl of +Carlisle.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Wednesday, Aug. 8th, 1860.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Lord Carlisle</span>,</div> + +<p>Coming back here after an absence of three days in +town, I find your kind and cordial letter lying on my table.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> +I heartily thank you for it, and highly esteem it. I understand +that the article on the spirits to which you refer was +written by —— (he played an Irish porter in one scene of +Bulwer's comedy at Devonshire House). Between ourselves, +I think it must be taken with a few grains of salt, +imperial measure. The experiences referred to "came off" +at ——, where the spirit of —— (among an extensive and +miscellaneous bodiless circle) <i>dines</i> sometimes! Mr. ——, +the high priest of the mysteries, I have some considerable +reason—derived from two honourable men—for mistrusting. +And that some of the disciples are very easy of belief +I know.</p> + +<p>This is Falstaff's own Gad's Hill, and I live on the top +of it. All goes well with me, thank God! I should be +thoroughly delighted to see you again, and to show you +where the robbery was done. My eldest daughter keeps +my house, and it is one I was extraordinarily fond of when +a child.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +My dear Lord Carlisle, ever affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—I am prowling about, meditating a new book.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. H. +Wills.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Office of "All the Year Round</span>,"</span><br /> +<i>Tuesday, Sept. 4th, 1860.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Wills</span>,</div> + +<p>Your description of your sea-castle makes your room +here look uncommonly dusty. Likewise the costermongers +in the street outside, and the one customer (drunk, with his +head on the table) in the Crown Coffee House over the way, +in York Street, have an earthy, and, as I may say, a land-lubberly +aspect. Cape Horn, to the best of <i>my</i> belief, is a +tremendous way off, and there are more bricks and cabbage-leaves +between this office and that dismal point of land than +<i>you</i> can possibly imagine.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span></p> + +<p>Coming here from the station this morning, I met, +coming from the execution of the Wentworth murderer, +such a tide of ruffians as never could have flowed from any +point but the gallows. Without any figure of speech it +turned one white and sick to behold them.</p> + +<p>Tavistock House is cleared to-day, and possession delivered +up. I must say that in all things the purchaser has +behaved thoroughly well, and that I cannot call to mind +any occasion when I have had money dealings with a +Christian that have been so satisfactory, considerate, and +trusting.</p> + +<p>I am ornamented at present with one of my most +intensely preposterous and utterly indescribable colds. If +you were to make a voyage from Cape Horn to Wellington +Street, you would scarcely recognise in the bowed form, +weeping eyes, rasped nose, and snivelling wretch whom you +would encounter here, the once gay and sparkling, etc. etc.</p> + +<p>Everything else here is as quiet as possible. Business +reports you receive from Holsworth. Wilkie looked in +to-day, going to Gloucestershire for a week. The office is +full of discarded curtains and coverings from Tavistock +House, which Georgina is coming up this evening to select +from and banish. Mary is in raptures with the beauties of +Dunkeld, but is not very well in health. The Admiral +(Sydney) goes up for his examination to-morrow. If he +fails to pass with credit, I will never believe in anybody +again, so in that case look out for your own reputation +with me.</p> + +<p>This is really all the news I have, except that I am lazy, +and that Wilkie dines here next Tuesday, in order that we +may have a talk about the Christmas number.</p> + +<p>I beg to send my kind regard to Mrs. Wills, and to +enquire how she likes wearing a hat, which of course she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> +does. I also want to know from her in confidence whether +<i>Crwllm festidiniog llymthll y wodd?</i></p> + +<p>Yesterday I burnt, in the field at Gad's Hill, the accumulated +letters and papers of twenty years. They sent up +a smoke like the genie when he got out of the casket on the +seashore; and as it was an exquisite day when I began, and +rained very heavily when I finished, I suspect my correspondence +of having overcast the face of the heavens.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—Kind regard to Mr. and Mrs. Novelli.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p> + +<p>I have just sent out for <i>The Globe</i>. No news.</p> + +<p>Hullah's daughter (an artist) tells me that certain female +students have addressed the Royal Academy, entreating +them to find a place for their education. I think it a +capital move, for which I can do something popular and +telling in <i>The Register</i>. Adelaide Procter is active in the +business, and has a copy of their letter. Will you write to +her for that, and anything else she may have about it, +telling her that I strongly approve, and want to help them +myself?</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">The Hon. +Mrs. +Watson.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Friday Night, Sept. 14th, 1860.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Mrs. Watson</span>,</div> + +<p>I lose no time in answering your letter; and first as +to business, the school in the High Town at Boulogne was +excellent. The boys all English, the two proprietors an old +Eton master and one of the Protestant clergymen of the +town. The teaching unusually sound and good. The +manner and conduct developed in the boys quite admirable.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> +But I have never seen a gentleman so perfectly acquainted +with boy-nature as the Eton master. There was a perfect +understanding between him and his charges; nothing +pedantic on his part, nothing slavish on their parts. The +result was, that either with him or away from him, the boys +combined an ease and frankness with a modesty and sense +of responsibility that was really above all praise. Alfred +went from there to a great school at Wimbledon, where they +train for India and the artillery and engineers. Sydney +went from there to Mr. Barrow, at Southsea. In both +instances the new masters wrote to me of their own accord, +bearing quite unsolicited testimony to the merits of the old, +and expressing their high recognition of what they had +done. These things speak for themselves.</p> + +<p>Sydney has just passed his examination as a naval cadet +and come home, all eyes and gold buttons. He has twelve +days' leave before going on board the training-ship. Katie +and her husband are in France, and seem likely to remain +there for an indefinite period. Mary is on a month's visit +in Scotland; Georgina, Frank, and Plorn are at home here; +and we all want Mary and her little dog back again. I +have sold Tavistock House, am making this rather complete +in its way, and am on the restless eve of beginning a new +big book; but mean to have a furnished house in town +(in some accessible quarter) from February or so to June. +May we meet there.</p> + +<p>Your handwriting is always so full of pleasant memories +to me, that when I took it out of the post-office at Rochester +this afternoon it quite stirred my heart. But we must not +think of old times as sad times, or regard them as anything +but the fathers and mothers of the present. We must all +climb steadily up the mountain after the talking bird, the +singing tree, and the yellow water, and must all bear in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> +mind that the previous climbers who were scared into +looking back got turned into black stone.</p> + +<p>Mary Boyle was here a little while ago, as affectionate at +heart as ever, as young, and as pleasant. Of course we +talked often of you. So let me know when you are established +in Halfmoon Street, and I shall be truly delighted +to come and see you.</p> + +<p>For my attachments are strong attachments and never +weaken. In right of bygones, I feel as if "all Northamptonshire" +belonged to me, as all Northumberland did to Lord +Bateman in the ballad. In memory of your warming your +feet at the fire in that waste of a waiting-room when I read +at Brighton, I have ever since taken that watering-place to +my bosom as I never did before. And you and Switzerland +are always one to me, and always inseparable.</p> + +<p>Charley was heard of yesterday, from Shanghai, going +to Japan, intending to meet his brother Walter at Calcutta, +and having an idea of beguiling the time between whiles by +asking to be taken as an amateur with the English Chinese +forces. Everybody caressed him and asked him everywhere, +and he seemed to go. With kind regards, my dear +Mrs. Watson,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Edmund +Yates.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Sunday, Sept. 23rd, 1860.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='center'> +<small>ON THE DEATH OF HIS MOTHER.</small><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear E. Y.</span>,</div> + +<p>I did not write to you in your bereavement, because +I knew that the girls had written to you, and because I +instinctively shrunk from making a form of what was so +real. <i>You</i> knew what a loving and faithful remembrance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> +I always had of your mother as a part of my youth—no +more capable of restoration than my youth itself. All the +womanly goodness, grace, and beauty of my drama went +out with her. To the last I never could hear her voice +without emotion. I think of her as of a beautiful part of +my own youth, and this dream that we are all dreaming +seems to darken.</p> + +<p>But it is not to say this that I write now. It comes to +the point of my pen in spite of me.</p> + +<p>"Holding up the Mirror" is in next week's number. I +have taken out all this funeral part of it. Not because I +disliked it (for, indeed, I thought it the best part of the +paper), but because it rather grated on me, going over the +proof at that time, as a remembrance that would be better +reserved a little while. Also because it made rather a +mixture of yourself as an individual, with something that +does not belong or attach to you as an individual. You +can have the MS.; and as a part of a paper describing your +own juvenile remembrances of a theatre, there it is, needing +no change or adaption.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Sunday, Sept. 23rd, 1860.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Mamie</span>,</div> + +<p>If you had been away from us and ill with anybody +in the world but our dear Mrs. White, I should have been +in a state of the greatest anxiety and uneasiness about you. +But as I know it to be impossible that you could be in +kinder or better hands, I was not in the least restless about +you, otherwise than as it grieved me to hear of my poor +dear girl's suffering such pain. I hope it is over now for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> +many a long day, and that you will come back to us a +thousand times better in health than you left us.</p> + +<p>Don't come back too soon. Take time and get well +restored. There is no hurry, the house is not near to-rights +yet, and though we all want you, and though Boy wants +you, we all (including Boy) deprecate a fatiguing journey +being taken too soon.</p> + +<p>As to the carpenters, they are absolutely maddening. +They are always at work, yet never seem to do anything. +Lillie was down on Friday, and said (his eye fixed on +Maidstone, and rubbing his hand to conciliate his moody +employer) that "he didn't think there would be very much +left to do after Saturday, the 29th."</p> + +<p>I didn't throw him out of the window. Your aunt tells +you all the news, and leaves me no chance of distinguishing +myself, I know. You have been told all about my brackets +in the drawing-room, all about the glass rescued from the +famous stage-wreck of Tavistock House, all about everything +here and at the office. The office is really a success. +As comfortable, cheerful, and private as anything of the +kind can possibly be.</p> + +<p>I took the Admiral (but this you know too, no doubt) +to Dollond's, the mathematical instrument maker's, last +Monday, to buy that part of his outfit. His sextant (which +is about the size and shape of a cocked hat), on being applied +to his eye, entirely concealed him. Not the faintest vestige +of the distinguished officer behind it was perceptible to the +human vision. All through the City, people turned round +and stared at him with the sort of pleasure people take in a +little model. We went on to Chatham this day week, in +search of some big man-of-war's-man who should be under +obligation to salute him—unfortunately found none. But +this no doubt you know too, and all my news falls flat.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span></p> + +<p>I am driven out of my room by paint, and am writing in +the best spare room. The whole prospect is excessively wet; +it does not rain now, but yesterday it did tremendously, and +it rained very heavily in the night. We are even muddy; +and that is saying a great deal in this dry country of chalk +and sand. Everywhere the corn is lying out and saturated +with wet. The hops (nearly everywhere) look as if they had +been burnt.</p> + +<p>In my mind's eye I behold Mrs. Bouncer, still with +some traces of her late anxiety on her faithful countenance, +balancing herself a little unequally on her bow fore-legs, +pricking up her ears, with her head on one side, and slightly +opening her intellectual nostrils. I send my loving and +respectful duty to her.</p> + +<p>To dear Mrs. White, and to White, and to Clara, say +anything from me that is loving and grateful.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 8em;">My dearest Mamie,</span><br /> +Ever and ever your most affectionate Father.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Office of "All the Year Round</span>,"</span><br /> +<i>Monday Night, Sept. 24th, 1860.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Georgy</span>,</div> + +<p>At the Waterloo station we were saluted with +"Hallo! here's Dickens!" from divers naval cadets, and +Sir Richard Bromley introduced himself to me, who had his +cadet son with him, a friend of Sydney's. We went down +together, and the boys were in the closest alliance. Bromley +being Accountant-General of the Navy, and having influence +on board, got their hammocks changed so that they would +be serving side by side, at which they were greatly pleased. +The moment we stepped on board, the "Hul-lo! here's +Dickens!" was repeated on all sides, and the Admiral +(evidently highly popular) shook hands with about fifty of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> +his messmates. Taking Bromley for my model (with whom +I fraternised in the most pathetic manner), I gave Sydney a +sovereign before stepping over the side. He was as little +overcome as it was possible for a boy to be, and stood +waving the gold-banded cap as we came ashore in a boat.</p> + +<p>There is no denying that he looks very small aboard a +great ship, and that a boy must have a strong and decided +speciality for the sea to take to such a life. Captain Harris +was not on board, but the other chief officers were, and were +highly obliging. We went over the ship. I should say +that there can be little or no individuality of address to any +particular boy, but that they all tumble through their education +in a crowded way. The Admiral's servant (I mean our +Admiral's) had an idiotic appearance, but perhaps it did him +injustice (a mahogany-faced marine by station). The Admiral's +washing apparatus is about the size of a muffin-plate, and he +could easily live in his chest. The meeting with Bromley +was a piece of great good fortune, and the dear old chap +could not have been left more happily.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever, my dearest Georgy, your most affectionate.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Power.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Office of "All the Year Round</span>,"</span><br /> +<i>Tuesday, Sept. 25th, 1860.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Marguerite</span>,</div> + +<p>I like the article exceedingly, and think the translations +<i>admirable</i>—spirited, fresh, bold, and evidently faithful. +I will get the paper into the next number I make up, +No. 78. I will send a proof to you for your correction, +either next Monday or this day week. Or would you like +to come here next Monday and dine with us at five, and +go over to Madame Céleste's opening? Then you could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> +correct your paper on the premises, as they drink their beer +at the beer-shops.</p> + +<p>Some of the introductory remarks on French literature +I propose to strike out, as a little too essayical for this +purpose, and likely to throw out a large portion of the large +audience at starting, as suggesting some very different kind +of article. My daring pen shall have imbued its murderous +heart with ink before you see the proof.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;">With kind regards,</span><br /> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. John +Forster.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Thursday, Oct. 4th, 1860.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Forster</span>,</div> + +<p>It would be a great pleasure to me to come to you, +an immense pleasure, and to sniff the sea I love (from the +shore); but I fear I must come down one morning and come +back at night. I will tell you why.</p> + +<p>Last week, I got to work on a new story. I called a +council of war at the office on Tuesday. It was perfectly +clear that the one thing to be done was, for me to strike +in. I have therefore decided to begin a story, the length +of the "Tale of Two Cities," on the 1st of December—begin +publishing, that is. I must make the most I can out +of the book. When I come down, I will bring you the +first two or three weekly parts. The name is, "<span class="smcap">Great +Expectations</span>." I think a good name?</p> + +<p>Now the preparations to get ahead, combined with the +absolute necessity of my giving a good deal of time to the +Christmas number, will tie me to the grindstone pretty +tightly. It will be just as much as I can hope to do. Therefore, +what I had hoped would be a few days at Eastbourne +diminish to a few hours.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span></p> + +<p>I took the Admiral down to Portsmouth. Every maritime +person in the town knew him. He seemed to know +every boy on board the <i>Britannia</i>, and was a tremendous +favourite evidently. It was very characteristic of him that +they good-naturedly helped him, he being so very small, +into his hammock at night. But he couldn't rest in it on +these terms, and got out again to learn the right way of +getting in independently. Official report stated that "after +a few spills, he succeeded perfectly, and went to sleep." +He is perfectly happy on board, takes tea with the captain, +leads choruses on Saturday nights, and has an immense +marine for a servant.</p> + +<p>I saw Edmund Yates at the office, and he told me that +during all his mother's wanderings of mind, which were +almost incessant at last, she never once went back to the +old Adelphi days until she was just dying, when he heard +her say, in great perplexity: "I can <i>not</i> get the words."</p> + +<p>Best love to Mrs. Forster.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever, my dear Forster, affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. +Wilkie +Collins.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Office of "All the Year Round</span>,"</span><br /> +<i>Wednesday, Oct. 24th, 1860.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Wilkie</span>,</div> + +<p>I have been down to Brighton to see Forster, and +found your letter there on arriving by express this morning. +I also found a letter from Georgina, describing that Mary's +horse went down suddenly on a stone, and how Mary was +thrown, and had her riding-habit torn to pieces, and has a +deep cut just above the knee—fortunately not in the knee +itself, which is doing exceedingly well, but which will +probably incapacitate her from walking for days and days +to come. It is well it was no worse. The accident occurred<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> +at Milton, near Gravesend, and they found Mary in a +public-house there, wonderfully taken care of and looked +after.</p> + +<p>I propose that we start on Thursday morning, the +1st of November. The train for Penzance leaves the Great +Western terminus at a quarter-past nine in the morning. +It is a twelve hours' journey. Shall we meet at the +terminus at nine? I shall be here all the previous day, +and shall dine here.</p> + +<p>Your account of your passage goes to my heart through +my stomach. What a pity I was not there on board to +present that green-visaged, but sweet-tempered and uncomplaining +spectacle of imbecility, at which I am so +expert under stormy circumstances, in the poet's phrase:</p> + +<div class='poem'> +As I sweep<br /> +Through the deep,<br /> +When the stormy winds do blow.<br /> +</div> + +<p>What a pity I am not there, at Meurice's, to sleep the +sleep of infancy through the long plays where the gentlemen +stand with their backs to the mantelpieces. What a +pity I am not with you to make a third at the Trois Frères, +and drink no end of bottles of Bordeaux, without ever +getting a touch of redness in my (poet's phrase again) +"innocent nose." But I must go down to Gad's to-night, +and get to work again. Four weekly numbers have been +ground off the wheel, and at least another must be turned +before we meet. They shall be yours in the slumberous +railway-carriage.</p> + +<p>I don't think Forster is at all in good health. He was +tremendously hospitable and hearty. I walked six hours +and a half on the downs yesterday, and never stopped or +sat. Early in the morning, before breakfast, I went to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span> +nearest baths to get a shower-bath. They kept me waiting +longer than I thought reasonable, and seeing a man in a +cap in the passage, I went to him and said: "I really must +request that you'll be good enough to see about this shower-bath;" +and it was Hullah! waiting for another bath.</p> + +<p>Rumours were brought into the house on Saturday +night, that there was a "ghost" up at Larkins's monument. +Plorn was frightened to death, and I was apprehensive of +the ghost's spreading and coming there, and causing +"warning" and desertion among the servants. Frank was +at home, and Andrew Gordon was with us. Time, nine +o'clock. Village talk and credulity, amazing. I armed the +two boys with a short stick apiece, and shouldered my +double-barrelled gun, well loaded with shot. "Now +observe," says I to the domestics, "if anybody is playing +tricks and has got a head, I'll blow it off." Immense +impression. New groom evidently convinced that he has +entered the service of a bloodthirsty demon. We ascend +to the monument. Stop at the gate. Moon is rising. +Heavy shadows. "Now, look out!" (from the bloodthirsty +demon, in a loud, distinct voice). "If the ghost is +here and I see him, so help me God I'll fire at him!" +Suddenly, as we enter the field, a most extraordinary noise +responds—terrific noise—human noise—and yet superhuman +noise. B. T. D. brings piece to shoulder. "Did +you hear that, pa?" says Frank. "I did," says I. Noise +repeated—portentous, derisive, dull, dismal, damnable. We +advance towards the sound. Something white comes +lumbering through the darkness. An asthmatic sheep! +Dead, as I judge, by this time. Leaving Frank to guard +him, I took Andrew with me, and went all round the +monument, and down into the ditch, and examined the field +well, thinking it likely that somebody might be taking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> +advantage of the sheep to frighten the village. Drama +ends with discovery of no one, and triumphant return to +rum-and-water.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Bideford, North Devon</span>, <i>Thursday Night, Nov. 1st, 1860.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Georgy</span>,</div> + +<p>I write (with the most impracticable iron pen on +earth) to report our safe arrival here, in a beastly hotel. +We start to-morrow morning at nine on a two days' posting +between this and Liskeard in Cornwall. We are due in +Liskeard (but nobody seems to know anything about the +roads) on Saturday afternoon, and we purpose making an +excursion in that neighbourhood on Sunday, and coming +up from Liskeard on Monday by Great Western fast train, +which will get us to London, please God, in good time on +Monday evening. There I shall hear from you, and know +whether dear Mamie will move to London too.</p> + +<p>We had a pleasant journey down here, and a beautiful +day. No adventures whatever. Nothing has happened to +Wilkie, and he sends love.</p> + +<p>We had stinking fish for dinner, and have been able to +drink nothing, though we have ordered wine, beer, and +brandy-and-water. There is nothing in the house but two +tarts and a pair of snuffers. The landlady is playing cribbage +with the landlord in the next room (behind a thin +partition), and they seem quite comfortable.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever, my dearest Georgy, your most affectionate.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss Mary +Boyle.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Office of "All the Year Round</span>,"</span><br /> +<i>Friday, Dec. 28th, 1860.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Mary</span>,</div> + +<p>I cannot tell you how much I thank you for the beautiful +cigar-case, and how seasonable, and friendly, and good,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> +and warm-hearted it looked when I opened it at Gad's Hill. +Besides which, it is a cigar-case, and will hold cigars; two +crowning merits that I never yet knew to be possessed by +any article claiming the same name. For all of these +reasons, but more than all because it comes from you, I love +it, and send you eighteen hundred and sixty kisses, with one +in for the new year.</p> + +<p>Both excellent stories and perfectly new. Your Joe +swears that he never heard either—never a word or +syllable of either—after he laughed at 'em this blessed +day.</p> + +<p>I have no news, except that I am not quite well, and am +being doctored. Pray read "Great Expectations." I think +it is very droll. It is a very great success, and seems +universally liked. I suppose because it opens funnily, and +with an interest too.</p> + +<p>I pass my time here (I am staying here alone) in working, +taking physic, and taking a stall at a theatre every +night. On Boxing Night I was at Covent Garden. A dull +pantomime was "worked" (as we say) better than I ever saw +a heavy piece worked on a first night, until suddenly and +without a moment's warning, every scene on that immense +stage fell over on its face, and disclosed chaos by gaslight +behind! There never was such a business; about sixty people +who were on the stage being extinguished in the most remarkable +manner. Not a soul was hurt. In the uproar, some +moon-calf rescued a porter pot, six feet high (out of which +the clown had been drinking when the accident happened), +and stood it on the cushion of the lowest proscenium box, +P.S., beside a lady and gentleman, who were dreadfully +ashamed of it. The moment the house knew that nobody +was injured, they directed their whole attention to this +gigantic porter pot in its genteel position (the lady and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> +gentleman trying to hide behind it), and roared with +laughter. When a modest footman came from behind the +curtain to clear it, and took it up in his arms like a Brobdingnagian +baby, we all laughed more than ever we had +laughed in our lives. I don't know why.</p> + +<p>We have had a fire here, but our people put it out +before the parish-engine arrived, like a drivelling perambulator, +with <i>the beadle in it</i>, like an imbecile baby. +Popular opinion, disappointed in the fire having been put +out, snowballed the beadle. God bless it!</p> + +<p>Over the way at the Lyceum, there is a very fair Christmas +piece, with one or two uncommonly well-done nigger +songs—one remarkably gay and mad, done in the finale to +a scene. Also a very nice transformation, though I don't +know what it means.</p> + +<p>The poor actors waylay me in Bow Street, to represent +their necessities; and I often see one cut down a court +when he beholds me coming, cut round Drury Lane to +face me, and come up towards me near this door in the +freshest and most accidental way, as if I was the last +person he expected to see on the surface of this globe. The +other day, there thus appeared before me (simultaneously +with a scent of rum in the air) one aged and greasy man, +with a pair of pumps under his arm. He said he thought if +he could get down to somewhere (I think it was Newcastle), +he would get "taken on" as Pantaloon, the existing Pantaloon +being "a stick, sir—a mere muff." I observed that I +was sorry times were so bad with him. "Mr. Dickens, you +know our profession, sir—no one knows it better, sir—there +is no right feeling in it. I was Harlequin on your own +circuit, sir, for five-and-thirty years, and was displaced by +a boy, sir!—a boy!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span></p> + +<p>So no more at present, except love to Mrs. Watson and +Bedgey Prig and all, from my dear Mary.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Your ever affectionate</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Joe</span>.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—DON'T I pine neither?</p> + +<p>P.P.S.—I did my best to arouse Forster's worst feelings; +but he had got into a Christmas habit of mind, and wouldn't +respond.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>NARRATIVE.</h3> + +<h2>1861.</h2> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>This</span>, as far as his movements were concerned, was again +a very unsettled year with Charles Dickens. He hired a +furnished house in the Regent's Park, which he, with his +household, occupied for some months. During the season +he gave several readings at St. James's Hall. After a short +summer holiday at Gad's Hill, he started, in the autumn, on +a reading tour in the English provinces. Mr. Arthur Smith, +being seriously ill, could not accompany him in this tour; +and Mr. Headland, who was formerly in office at the +St. Martin's Hall, was engaged as business-manager of +these readings. Mr. Arthur Smith died in October, and +Charles Dickens's distress at the loss of this loved friend +and companion is touchingly expressed in many of his letters +of this year.</div> + +<p>There are also sorrowful allusions to the death of his +brother-in-law, Mr. Henry Austin, which sad event likewise +happened in October. And the letter we give to Mrs. Austin +("Letitia") has reference to her sad affliction.</p> + +<p>In June of this year he paid a short visit to Sir E. B. +Lytton at Knebworth, accompanied by his daughter and +sister-in-law, who also during his autumn tour joined him in +Edinburgh. But this course of readings was brought rather<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> +suddenly to an end on account of the death of the Prince +Consort.</p> + +<p>Besides being constantly occupied with the business of +these readings, Charles Dickens was still at work on his +story of "Great Expectations," which was appearing +weekly in "All the Year Round." The story closed on +the 3rd of August, when it was published as a whole in +three volumes, and inscribed to Mr. Chauncey Hare Townshend. +The Christmas number of "All the Year Round" +was called "Tom Tiddler's Ground," to which Charles +Dickens contributed three stories.</p> + +<p>Our second letter in this year is given more as a specimen +of the claims which were constantly being made upon Charles +Dickens's time and patience, than because we consider the +letter itself to contain much public interest; excepting, +indeed, as showing his always considerate and courteous +replies to such constant applications.</p> + +<p>"The fire" mentioned in the letter to Mr. Forster was +the great fire in Tooley Street. The "Morgan" was an +American sea-captain, well known in those days, and greatly +liked and respected. It may interest our readers to know +that the character of Captain Jorgan, in the Christmas +number of the previous year, was suggested by this pleasant +sailor, for whom Charles Dickens had a hearty liking. +Young Mr. Morgan was, during the years he passed in +England, a constant visitor at Gad's Hill. The "Elwin" +mentioned in the letter written from Bury St. Edmunds, +was the Rev. Whitwell Elwin, a Norfolk gentleman, well +known in the literary world, and who was for many years +editor of "The Quarterly Review."</p> + +<p>The explanation of the letter to Mr. John Agate, of +Dover, we give in that gentleman's own words:</p> + +<p>"There are few public men with the strain upon their +time and energies which he had particularly (and which I +know better now that I have read his life), who would have +spared the time to have written such a long courteous letter.</p> + +<p>"I wrote to him rather in anger, and left the letter +myself at The Lord Warden, as I and my family were very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> +much disappointed, after having purchased our tickets so +long before, to find we could not got into the room, as money +was being received, but his kind letter explained all."</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Office of "All the Year Round</span>,"</span><br /> +<i>Wednesday, Jan. 9th, 1861.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Georgy</span>,</div> + +<p>"We" are in the full swing of stopping managers +from playing "A Message from the Sea." I privately +doubt the strength of our position in the Court of Chancery, +if we try it; but it is worth trying.</p> + +<p>I am aware that Mr. Lane of the Britannia sent an +emissary to Gad's Hill yesterday. It unfortunately happens +that the first man "we" have to assert the principle against +is a very good man, whom I really respect.</p> + +<p>I have no news, except that I really hope and believe I +am gradually getting well. If I have no check, I hope to +be soon discharged by the medico.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—Best love to Mamie, also to the boys and Miss +Craufurd.</p> + + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Office of "All the Year Round," 26, Wellington Street, W.C.,</span></span><br /> +<i>Tuesday Evening, Jan. 9th, 1861.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>Dear Sir</span>,</div> + +<p>I feel it quite hopeless to endeavour to present +my position before you, in reference to such a letter as +yours, in its plain and true light. When you suppose it +would have cost Mr. Thackeray "but a word" to use his +influence to obtain you some curatorship or the like, you fill +me with the sense of impossibility of leading you to a more +charitable judgment of Mr. Dickens.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, I will put the truth before you. Scarcely +a day of my life passes, or has passed for many years,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> +without bringing me some letters similar to yours. Often +they will come by dozens—scores—hundreds. My time and +attention would be pretty well occupied without them, and +the claims upon me (some very near home), for all the +influence and means of help that I do and do not possess, +are not commonly heavy. I have no power to aid you +towards the attainment of your object. It is the simple +exact truth, and nothing can alter it. So great is the disquietude +I constantly undergo from having to write to some +new correspondent in this strain, that, God knows, I would +resort to another relief if I could.</p> + +<p>Your studies from nature appear to me to express an +excellent observation of nature, in a loving and healthy +spirit. But what then? The dealers and dealers' prices of +which you complain will not be influenced by that honest +opinion. Nor will it have the least effect upon the President +of the Royal Academy, or the Directors of the School of +Design. Assuming your supposition to be correct that +these authorities are adverse to you, I have no more +power than you have to render them favourable. And +assuming them to be quite disinterested and dispassionate +towards you, I have no voice or weight in any appointment +that any of them make.</p> + +<p>I will retain your packet over to-morrow, and will then +cause it to be sent to your house. I write under the +pressure of occupation and business, and therefore write +briefly.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">M. de +Cerjat.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Office of "All the Year Round</span>," <i>Friday, Feb. 1st, 1861.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Cerjat</span>,</div> + +<p>You have read in the papers of our heavy English +frost. At Gad's Hill it was so intensely cold, that in our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> +warm dining-room on Christmas Day we could hardly sit at +the table. In my study on that morning, long after a great +fire of coal and wood had been lighted, the thermometer +was I don't know where below freezing. The bath froze, +and all the pipes froze, and remained in a stony state for +five or six weeks. The water in the bedroom-jugs froze, +and blew up the crockery. The snow on the top of the +house froze, and was imperfectly removed with axes. My +beard froze as I walked about, and I couldn't detach my +cravat and coat from it until I was thawed at the fire. My +boys and half the officers stationed at Chatham skated +away without a check to Gravesend—five miles off—and +repeated the performance for three or four weeks. At last +the thaw came, and then everything split, blew up, dripped, +poured, perspired, and got spoilt. Since then we have had +a small visitation of the plague of servants; the cook (in a +riding-habit) and the groom (in a dress-coat and jewels) +having mounted Mary's horse and mine, in our absence, +and scoured the neighbouring country at a rattling pace. +And when I went home last Saturday, I innocently wondered +how the horses came to be out of condition, and gravely +consulted the said groom on the subject, who gave it as his +opinion "which they wanted reg'lar work." We are now +coming to town until midsummer. Having sold my own +house, to be more free and independent, I have taken a very +pretty furnished house, No. 3, Hanover Terrace, Regent's +Park. This, of course, on my daughter's account. For I +have very good and cheerful bachelor rooms here, with an +old servant in charge, who is the cleverest man of his kind +in the world, and can do anything, from excellent carpentery +to excellent cookery, and has been with me three-and-twenty +years.</p> + +<p>The American business is the greatest English sensation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> +at present. I venture to predict that the struggle of violence +will be a very short one, and will be soon succeeded by some +new compact between the Northern and Southern States. +Meantime the Lancashire mill-owners are getting very +uneasy.</p> + +<p>The Italian state of things is not regarded as looking +very cheerful. What from one's natural sympathies with a +people so oppressed as the Italians, and one's natural antagonism +to a pope and a Bourbon (both of which superstitions +I do suppose the world to have had more than enough of), I +agree with you concerning Victor Emmanuel, and greatly +fear that the Southern Italians are much degraded. Still, +an united Italy would be of vast importance to the peace of +the world, and would be a rock in Louis Napoleon's way, as +he very well knows. Therefore the idea must be championed, +however much against hope.</p> + +<p>My eldest boy, just home from China, was descried by +Townshend's Henri the moment he landed at Marseilles, +and was by him borne in triumph to Townshend's rooms. +The weather was snowy, slushy, beastly; and Marseilles +was, as it usually is to my thinking, well-nigh intolerable. +My boy could not stay with Townshend, as he was coming on +by express train; but he says: "I sat with him and saw +him dine. He had a leg of lamb, and a tremendous cold." +That is the whole description I have been able to extract +from him.</p> + +<p>This journal is doing gloriously, and "Great Expectations" +is a great success. I have taken my third boy, Frank +(Jeffrey's godson), into this office. If I am not mistaken, +he has a natural literary taste and capacity, and may do +very well with a chance so congenial to his mind, and being +also entered at the Bar.</p> + +<p>Dear me, when I have to show you about London, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> +we dine <i>en garçon</i> at odd places, I shall scarcely know +where to begin. Only yesterday I walked out from here in +the afternoon, and thought I would go down by the Houses +of Parliament. When I got there, the day was so beautifully +bright and warm, that I thought I would walk on by +Millbank, to see the river. I walked straight on <i>for three +miles</i> on a splendid broad esplanade overhanging the +Thames, with immense factories, railway works, and what-not +erected on it, and with the strangest beginnings and +ends of wealthy streets pushing themselves into the very +Thames. When I was a rower on that river, it was all +broken ground and ditch, with here and there a public-house +or two, an old mill, and a tall chimney. I had never +seen it in any state of transition, though I suppose myself to +know this rather large city as well as anyone in it.</p> + +<div class='center'><b>* * * * * *</b></div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. E. M. +Ward, R.A.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">3, <span class="smcap">Hanover Terrace, Regent's Park</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Saturday Night, March 9th, 1861.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Ward</span>,</div> + +<p>I cannot tell you how gratified I have been by your +letter, and what a splendid recompense it is for any pleasure +I am giving you. Such generous and earnest sympathy +from such a brother-artist gives me true delight. I am +proud of it, believe me, and moved by it to do all the +better.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">"All the Year Round" Office</span>, <i>Tuesday, June 11th, 1861.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>There is little doubt, I think, of my reading at +Cheltenham somewhere about November. I submit myself +so entirely to Arthur Smith's arrangements for me, that I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> +express my sentiments on this head with modesty. But I +think there is scarcely a doubt of my seeing you then.</p> + +<p>I have just finished my book of "Great Expectations," +and am the worse for wear. Neuralgic pains in the face +have troubled me a good deal, and the work has been +pretty close. But I hope that the book is a good book, and +I have no doubt of very soon throwing off the little damage +it has done me.</p> + +<p>What with Blondin at the Crystal Palace and <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Leotard'">Léotard</ins> +at Leicester Square, we seem to be going back to barbaric +excitements. I have not seen, and don't intend to see, the +Hero of Niagara (as the posters call him), but I have been +beguiled into seeing <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Leotard'">Léotard</ins>, and it is at once the most +fearful and most graceful thing I have ever seen done.</p> + +<p>Clara White (grown pretty) has been staying with us.</p> + +<p>I am sore afraid that <i>The Times</i>, by playing fast and +loose with the American question, has very seriously compromised +this country. The Americans northward are +perfectly furious on the subject; and Motley the historian +(a very sensible man, strongly English in his sympathies) +assured me the other day that he thought the harm done +very serious indeed, and the dangerous nature of the daily +widening breach scarcely calculable.</p> + +<p>Kindest and best love to all. Wilkie Collins has just +come in, and sends best regard.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever most affectionately, my dearest Macready.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. John +Forster.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Gad's Hill</span>, <i>Monday, July 1st, 1861.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Forster</span>,</div> + +<div class='center'><b>* * * * * *</b></div> + +<p>You will be surprised to hear that I have changed the +end of "Great Expectations" from and after Pip's return to +Joe's, and finding his little likeness there.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span></p> + +<p>Bulwer (who has been, as I think I told you, extraordinarily +taken by the book), so strongly urged it upon me, +after reading the proofs, and supported his views with such +good reasons, that I resolved to make the change. You +shall have it when you come back to town. I have put in a +very pretty piece of writing, and I have no doubt the story +will be more acceptable through the alteration.</p> + +<p>I have not seen Bulwer's changed story. I brought back +the first month with me, and I know the nature of his changes +throughout; but I have not yet had the revised proofs. He +was in a better state at Knebworth than I have ever seen +him in all these years, a little weird occasionally regarding +magic and spirits, but perfectly fair and frank under opposition. +He was talkative, anecdotical, and droll; looked +young and well, laughed heartily, and enjoyed some games +we played with great zest. In his artist character and talk +he was full of interest and matter, but that he always is. +Socially, he seemed to me almost a new man. I thoroughly +enjoyed myself, and so did Georgina and Mary.</p> + +<p>The fire I did not see until the Monday morning, but it +was blazing fiercely then, and was blazing hardly less +furiously when I came down here again last Friday. I was +here on the night of its breaking out. If I had been in +London I should have been on the scene, pretty surely.</p> + +<p>You will be perhaps surprised to hear that it is Morgan's +conviction (his son was here yesterday), that the North will +put down the South, and that speedily. In his management +of his large business, he is proceeding steadily on that +conviction. He says that the South has no money and no +credit, and that it is impossible for it to make a successful +stand. He may be all wrong, but he is certainly a very +shrewd man, and he has never been, as to the United States, +an enthusiast of any class.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span></p> + +<p>Poor Lord Campbell's seems to me as easy and good a +death as one could desire. There must be a sweep of these +men very soon, and one feels as if it must fall out like the +breaking of an arch—one stone goes from a prominent +place, and then the rest begin to drop. So one looks +towards Brougham, and Lyndhurst, and Pollock.</p> + +<p>I will add no more to this, or I know I shall not send it; +for I am in the first desperate laziness of having done my +book, and think of offering myself to the village school as a +live example of that vice for the edification of youth.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever, my dear Forster, affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">The Hon. +Mrs. +Watson.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Monday, July 8th, 1861.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Mrs. Watson</span>,</div> + +<p>I have owed you a letter for so long a time that I fear +you may sometimes have misconstrued my silence. But I +hope that the sight of the handwriting of your old friend +will undeceive you, if you have, and will put that right.</p> + +<p>During the progress of my last story, I have been working +so hard that very, very little correspondence—except enforced +correspondence on business—has passed this pen. And now +that I am free again, I devote a few of my first leisure +moments to this note.</p> + +<p>You seemed in your last to think that I had forgotten +you in respect of the Christmas number. Not so at all. I +discussed with them here where you were, how you were to +be addressed, and the like; finally left the number in a +blank envelope, and did not add the address to it until it +would have been absurd to send you such stale bread. This +was my fault, but this was all. And I should be so pained +at heart if you supposed me capable of failing in my truth +and cordiality, or in the warm remembrance of the time we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span> +have passed together, that perhaps I make more of it than +you meant to do.</p> + +<p>My sailor-boy is at home—I was going to write, for the +holidays, but I suppose I must substitute "on leave." +Under the new regulations, he must not pass out of the +<i>Britannia</i> before December. The younger boys are all at +school, and coming home this week for the holidays. Mary +keeps house, of course, and Katie and her husband surprised +us yesterday, and are here now. Charley is holiday-making +at Guernsey and Jersey. He has been for some time seeking +a partnership in business, and has not yet found one. The +matter is in the hands of Mr. Bates, the managing partner +in Barings' house, and seems as slow a matter to adjust +itself as ever I looked on at. Georgina is, as usual, the +general friend and confidante and factotum of the whole +party.</p> + +<p>Your present correspondent read at St. James's Hall +in the beginning of the season, to perfectly astounding +audiences; but finding that fatigue and excitement very difficult +to manage in conjunction with a story, deemed it prudent +to leave off reading in high tide and mid-career, the rather +by reason of something like neuralgia in the face. At the +end of October I begin again; and if you are at Brighton +in November, I shall try to see you there. I deliver myself +up to Mr. Arthur Smith, and I know it is one of the places +for which he has put me down.</p> + +<p>This is all about me and mine, and next I want to know +why you never come to Gad's Hill, and whether you are +never coming. The stress I lay on these questions you will +infer from the size of the following note of interrogation +<img src="images/questionmark.png" width="10" height="17" alt="Handwritten: ?" title="Handwritten: ?" /></p> + + +<p>I am in the constant receipt of news from Lausanne. +Of Mary Boyle, I daresay you have seen and heard more +than I have lately. Rumours occasionally reach me of her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> +acting in every English shire incessantly, and getting in a +harvest of laurels all the year round. Cavendish I have not +seen for a long time, but when I did see him last, it was at +Tavistock House, and we dined together jovially. Mention +of that locality reminds me that when you <span class="smcap">do</span> come here, +you will see the pictures looking wonderfully better, and +more precious than they ever did in town. Brought together +in country light and air, they really are quite a baby +collection and very pretty.</p> + +<p>I direct this to Rockingham, supposing you to be there +in this summer time. If you are as leafy in Northamptonshire +as we are in Kent, you are greener than you have been +for some years. I hope you may have seen a large-headed +photograph with little legs, representing the undersigned, +pen in hand, tapping his forehead to knock an idea out. It +has just sprung up so abundantly in all the shops, that I +am ashamed to go about town looking in at the picture-windows, +which is my delight. It seems to me extraordinarily +ludicrous, and much more like than the grave +portrait done in earnest. It made me laugh when I first +came upon it, until I shook again, in open sunlighted +Piccadilly.</p> + +<p>Pray be a good Christian to me, and don't be retributive +in measuring out the time that shall pass before you write +to me. And believe me ever,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Your affectionate and faithful.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. +Wilkie +Collins.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Office of "All the Year Round</span>,"</span><br /> +<i>Wednesday, Aug. 28th, 1861.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Wilkie</span>,</div> + +<p>I have been going to write to you ever since I +received your letter from Whitby, and now I hear from +Charley that you are coming home, and must be addressed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span> +in the Rue Harley. Let me know whether you will dine +here this day week at the usual five. I am at present so +addle-headed (having hard Wednesday work in Wills's +absence) that I can't write much.</p> + +<p>I have got the "Copperfield" reading ready for delivery, +and am now going to blaze away at "Nickleby," +which I don't like half as well. Every morning I "go in" +at these marks for two or three hours, and then collapse +and do nothing whatever (counting as nothing much cricket +and rounders).</p> + +<p>In my time that curious railroad by the Whitby Moor +was so much the more curious, that you were balanced +against a counter-weight of water, and that you did it like +Blondin. But in these remote days the one inn of Whitby +was up a back-yard, and oyster-shell grottoes were the only +view from the best private room. Likewise, sir, I have +posted to Whitby. "Pity the sorrows of a poor old man."</p> + +<p>The sun is glaring in at these windows with an amount +of ferocity insupportable by one of the landed interest, who +lies upon his back with an imbecile hold on grass, from +lunch to dinner. Feebleness of mind and head are the result.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—The boys have multiplied themselves by fifty +daily, and have seemed to appear in hosts (especially in the +hottest days) round all the corners at Gad's Hill. I call +them the prowlers, and each has a distinguishing name +attached, derived from his style of prowling.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Arthur +Smith.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Tuesday, Sept. 3rd, 1861.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Arthur</span>,</div> + +<p>I cannot tell you how sorry I am to receive your bad +account of your health, or how anxious I shall be to receive +a better one as soon as you can possibly give it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span></p> + +<p>If you go away, don't you think in the main you would +be better here than anywhere? You know how well you +would be nursed, what care we should take of you, and how +perfectly quiet and at home you would be, until you become +strong enough to take to the Medway. Moreover, I think +you would be less anxious about the tour, here, than away +from such association. I would come to Worthing to fetch +you, I needn't say, and would take the most careful charge +of you. I will write no more about this, because I wish to +avoid giving you more to read than can be helped; but I +do sincerely believe it would be at once your wisest and +least anxious course. As to a long journey into Wales, or +any long journey, it would never do. Nice is not to be +thought of. Its dust, and its sharp winds (I know it well), +towards October are very bad indeed.</p> + +<p>I send you the enclosed letters, firstly, because I have +no circular to answer them with, and, secondly, because I +fear I might confuse your arrangements by interfering with +the correspondence. I shall hope to have a word from you +very soon. I am at work for the tour every day, except my +town Wednesdays.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—Kindest regards from all.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. John +Watkins.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Saturday Night, Sept. 28th, 1861.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>Dear Mr. Watkins</span>,</div> + +<p>In reply to your kind letter I must explain that I +have not yet brought down any of your large photographs +of myself, and therefore cannot report upon their effect +here. I think the "cartes" are all liked.</p> + +<p>A general howl of horror greeted the appearance of +No. 18, and a riotous attempt was made to throw it out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span> +of window. I calmed the popular fury by promising that +it should never again be beheld within these walls. I think +I mentioned to you when you showed it to me, that I felt +persuaded it would not be liked. It has a grim and wasted +aspect, and perhaps might be made useful as a portrait of +the Ancient Mariner.</p> + +<p>I feel that I owe you an apology for being (innocently) +a difficult subject. When I once excused myself to Ary +Scheffer while sitting to him, he received the apology as +strictly his due, and said with a vexed air: "At this moment, +<i>mon cher</i> Dickens, you look more like an energetic Dutch +admiral than anything else;" for which I apologised again.</p> + +<p>In the hope that the pains you have bestowed upon me +will not be thrown away, but that your success will prove +of some use to you, believe me,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Edmund +Yates.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Sunday, Oct. 6th, 1861.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='center'> +<small>AFTER THE DEATH OF MR. ARTHUR SMITH.</small><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Edmund</span>,</div> + +<p>Coming back here to-day, I find your letter.</p> + +<p>I was so very much distressed last night in thinking of +it all, and I find it so very difficult to preserve my composure +when I dwell in my mind on the many times fast +approaching when I shall sorely miss the familiar face, that +I am hardly steady enough yet to refer to the readings like +a man. But your kind reference to them makes me desirous +to tell you that I took Headland (formerly of St. Martin's +Hall, who has always been with us in London) to conduct +the business, when I knew that our poor dear fellow could +never do it, even if he had recovered strength to go; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> +that I consulted with himself about it when I saw him for +the last time on earth, and that it seemed to please him, +and he said: "We couldn't do better."</p> + +<p>Write to me before you come; and remember that I go +to town Wednesday mornings.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Office of "All the Year Round</span>,"</span><br /> +<i>Thursday, Oct. 10th, 1861.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Mamie</span>,</div> + +<p>I received your affectionate little letter here this +morning, and was very glad to get it. Poor dear Arthur is +a sad loss to me, and indeed I was very fond of him. But +the readings must be fought out, like all the rest of life.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever your affectionate.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Sunday, Oct. 13th, 1861.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>This is a short note. But the moment I know for +certain what is designed for me at Cheltenham, I write to +you in order that you may know it from me and not by +chance from anyone else.</p> + +<p>I am to read there on the evening of Friday, the 3rd of +January, and on the morning of Saturday, the 4th; as I +have nothing to do on Thursday, the 2nd, but come from +Leamington, I shall come to you, please God, for a quiet +dinner that day.</p> + +<p>The death of Arthur Smith has caused me great distress +and anxiety. I had a great regard for him, and he made +the reading part of my life as light and pleasant as it <i>could</i> +be made. I had hoped to bring him to see you, and had +pictured to myself how amused and interested you would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span> +have been with his wonderful tact and consummate mastery +of arrangement. But it's all over.</p> + +<p>I begin at Norwich on the 28th, and am going north in the +middle of November. I am going to do "Copperfield," and +shall be curious to test its effect on the Edinburgh people. +It has been quite a job so to piece portions of the long book +together as to make something continuous out of it; but I +hope I have got something varied and dramatic. I am also +(not to slight <i>your</i> book) going to do "Nickleby at Mr. +Squeers's." It is clear that both must be trotted out at +Cheltenham.</p> + +<p>With kindest love and regard to all your house,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever, my dearest Macready, your most affectionate.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—Fourth edition of "Great Expectations" almost +gone!</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Angel Hotel, Bury St. Edmunds</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Wednesday, Oct. 13th, 1861.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Georgy</span>,</div> + +<p>I have just now received your welcome letter, and I +hasten to report (having very little time) that we had a +splendid hall last night, and that I think "Nickleby" tops +all the readings. Somehow it seems to have got in it, by +accident, exactly the qualities best suited to the purpose, +and it went last night not only with roars, but with a +general hilarity and pleasure that I have never seen +surpassed.</p> + +<p>We are full here for to-night.</p> + +<p>Fancy this: last night at about six, who should walk in +but Elwin! He was exactly in his usual state, only more +demonstrative than ever, and had been driven in by some +neighbours who were coming to the reading. I had tea up<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> +for him, and he went down at seven with me to the dismal +den where I dressed, and sat by the fire while I dressed, and +was childishly happy in that great privilege! During the +reading he sat on a corner of the platform and roared incessantly. +He brought in a lady and gentleman to introduce +while I was undressing, and went away in a perfect and +absolute rapture.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Royal Hotel, Norwich</span>, <i>Tuesday, Oct. 29th, 1861.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>I cannot say that we began well last night. We had +not a good hall, and they were a very lumpish audience +indeed. This did not tend to cheer the strangeness I felt +in being without Arthur, and I was not at all myself. We +have a large let for to-night, I think two hundred and fifty +stalls, which is very large, and I hope that both they and I +will go better. I could have done perfectly last night, if +the audience had been bright, but they were an intent and +staring audience. They laughed though very well, and the +storm made them shake themselves again. But they were +not magnetic, and the great big place was out of sorts +somehow.</p> + +<p>To-morrow I will write you another short note, however +short. It is "Nickleby" and the "Trial" to-night; +"Copperfield" again to-morrow. A wet day here, with +glimpses of blue. I shall not forget Katey's health at +dinner. A pleasant journey down.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever, my dearest Georgy, your most affectionate.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">The same.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">The Great White Horse, Ipswich</span>, <i>Friday, Nov. 1st, 1861.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>I cannot quite remember in the whirl of travelling +and reading, whether or no I wrote you a line from Bury<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span> +St. Edmunds. But I think (and hope) I did. We had a +fine room there, and "Copperfield" made a great impression. +At mid-day we go on to Colchester, where I shall expect +the young Morgans. I sent a telegram on yesterday, after +receiving your note, to secure places for them. The answer +returned by telegraph was: "No box-seats left but on the +fourth row." If they prefer to sit on the stage (for I read +in the theatre, there being no other large public room), +they shall. Meantime I have told John, who went forward +this morning with the other men, to let the people at the +inn know that if three travellers answering that description +appear before my dinner-time, they are to dine +with me.</p> + +<p>Plorn's admission that he likes the school very much +indeed, is the great social triumph of modern times.</p> + +<p>I am looking forward to Sunday's rest at Gad's, and +shall be down by the ten o'clock train from town. I miss +poor Arthur dreadfully. It is scarcely possible to imagine +how much. It is not only that his loss to me socially is quite +irreparable, but that the sense I used to have of compactness +and comfort about me while I was reading is quite +gone. And when I come out for the ten minutes, when +I used to find him always ready for me with something +cheerful to say, it is forlorn. I cannot but fancy, too, that +the audience must miss the old speciality of a pervading +gentleman.</p> + +<p>Nobody I know has turned up yet except Elwin. I +have had many invitations to all sorts of houses in all sorts +of places, and have of course accepted them every one.</p> + +<p>Love to Mamie, if she has come home, and to Bouncer, +if <i>she</i> has come; also Marguerite, who I hope is by this +time much better.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever, my dear Georgy, your most affectionate.<br /> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Henry +Austin.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Gad's Hill</span>, <i>Sunday, Nov. 3rd, 1861.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='center'><small>EXTRACT.</small></div> + +<p>I am heartily glad to hear that you have been out in +the air, and I hope you will go again very soon and make a +point of continuing to go. There is a soothing influence in +the sight of the earth and sky, which God put into them for +our relief when He made the world in which we are all to +suffer, and strive, and die.</p> + +<p>I will not fail to write to you from many points of my +tour, and if you ever want to write to me you may be +sure of a quick response, and may be certain that I am +sympathetic and true.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Fountain Hotel, Canterbury</span>, <i>Windy Night, Nov. 4th, 1861.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Mamie</span>,</div> + +<p>A word of report before I go to bed. An excellent +house to-night, and an audience positively perfect. The +greatest part of it stalls, and an intelligent and delightful +response in them, like the touch of a beautiful instrument. +"Copperfield" wound up in a real burst of feeling and +delight.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. John +Agate.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Lord Warden Hotel, Dover</span>, <i>Wednesday, Nov. 6th, 1861.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>Sir</span>,</div> + +<p>I am exceedingly sorry to find, from the letter you +have addressed to me, that you had just cause of complaint +in being excluded from my reading here last night. It +will now and then unfortunately happen when the place of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> +reading is small (as in this case), that some confusion and +inconvenience arise from the local agents over-estimating, in +perfect good faith and sincerity, the capacity of the room. +Such a mistake, I am assured, was made last night; and +thus all the available space was filled before the people in +charge were at all prepared for that circumstance.</p> + +<p>You may readily suppose that I can have no personal +knowledge of the proceedings of the people in my employment +at such a time. But I wish to assure you very +earnestly, that they are all old servants, well acquainted +with my principles and wishes, and that they are under the +strongest injunction to avoid any approach to mercenary +dealing; and to behave to all comers equally with as much +consideration and politeness as they know I should myself +display. The recent death of a much-regretted friend of +mine, who managed this business for me, and on whom +these men were accustomed to rely in any little difficulty, +caused them (I have no doubt) to feel rather at a loss in +your case. Do me the favour to understand that under any +other circumstances you would, as a matter of course, have +been provided with any places whatever that could be +found, without the smallest reference to what you had +originally paid. This is scanty satisfaction to you, but it is +so strictly the truth, that yours is the first complaint of the +kind I have ever received.</p> + +<p>I hope to read in Dover again, but it is quite impossible +that I can make any present arrangement for that purpose. +Whenever I may return here, you may be sure I shall not +fail to remember that I owe you a recompense for a disappointment. +In the meanwhile I very sincerely regret it.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Bedford Hotel, Brighton</span>, <i>Thursday, Nov. 7th, 1861.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Georgy</span>,</div> + +<div class='center'><b>* * * * * *</b></div> + +<p>The Duchess of Cambridge comes to-night to "Copperfield." +The bad weather has not in the least touched +us, and beyond all doubt a great deal of money has been +left untaken at each place.</p> + +<p>The storm was most magnificent at Dover. All the +great side of The Lord Warden next the sea had to be +emptied, the break of the sea was so prodigious, and the +noise was so utterly confounding. The sea came in like +a great sky of immense clouds, for ever breaking suddenly +into furious rain. All kinds of wreck were washed in. +Miss Birmingham and I saw, among other things, a very +pretty brass-bound chest being thrown about like a feather. +On Tuesday night, the unhappy Ostend packet could not +get in, neither could she go back, and she beat about the +Channel until noon yesterday. I saw her come in then, +<i>with five men at the wheel;</i> such a picture of misery, as to +the crew (of passengers there were no signs), as you can +scarcely imagine.</p> + +<p>The effect at Hastings and at Dover really seems to have +outdone the best usual impression, and at Dover they +wouldn't go, but sat applauding like mad. The most delicate +audience I have seen in any provincial place is Canterbury. +The audience with the greatest sense of humour +certainly is Dover. The people in the stalls set the example +of laughing, in the most curiously unreserved way; and +they really laughed when Squeers read the boys' letters, +with such cordial enjoyment, that the contagion extended +to me, for one couldn't hear them without laughing too.</p> + +<p>So, thank God, all goes well, and the recompense for the +trouble is in every way great. There is rather an alarming<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> +breakdown at Newcastle, in respect of all the bills having +been, in some inscrutable way, lost on the road. I have +resolved to send Berry there, with full powers to do all +manner of things, early next week.</p> + +<p>The amended route-list is not printed yet, because I +am trying to get off Manchester and Liverpool; both of +which I strongly doubt, in the present state of American +affairs. Therefore I can't send it for Marguerite; but I +can, and do, send her my love and God-speed. This is +addressed to the office because I suppose you will be there +to-morrow.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">The Earl of +Carlisle.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>November 15th, 1861.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Lord Carlisle</span>,</div> + +<p>You know poor Austin, and what his work was, and +how he did it. If you have no private objection to signing +the enclosed memorial (which will receive the right signatures +before being presented), I think you will have no +public objection. I shall be heartily glad if you can put +your name to it, and shall esteem your doing so as a +very kind service. Will you return the memorial under +cover to Mr. Tom Taylor, at the Local Government Act +Office, Whitehall? He is generously exerting himself in +furtherance of it, and so delay will be avoided.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +My dear Lord Carlisle, faithfully yours always.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss Mary +Boyle.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Sunday, Nov. 17th, 1861.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Mary</span>,</div> + +<p>I am perfectly enraptured with the quilt. It is one +of the most tasteful, lively, elegant things I have ever seen;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> +and I need not tell you that while it is valuable to me for +its own ornamental sake, it is precious to me as a rainbow-hint +of your friendship and affectionate remembrance.</p> + +<p>Please God you shall see it next summer occupying its +allotted place of state in my brand-new bedroom here. You +shall behold it then, with all cheerful surroundings, the +envy of mankind.</p> + +<p>My readings have been doing absolute wonders. Your +Duchess and Princess came to hear first "Nickleby" and +the "Pickwick Trial," then "Copperfield," at Brighton. I +think they were pleased with me, and I am sure I was with +them; for they are the very best audience one could possibly +desire. I shall always have a pleasant remembrance +of them.</p> + +<p>On Wednesday I am away again for the longest part of +my trip.</p> + +<p>Yes, Mary dear, I must say that I like my Carton, and I +have a faint idea sometimes that if I had acted him, I could +have done something with his life and death.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Believe me, ever your affectionate and faithful</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Joe</span>.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Queen's Head, Newcastle</span>, <i>Friday, Nov. 22nd, 1861.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>I received your letter this morning, and grieve to report +that the unlucky Headland has broken down most awfully!</p> + +<p>First, as perhaps you remember, this is the place where +the bills were "lost" for a week or two. The consequence +has been that the agent could not announce all through the +"Jenny Lind" time (the most important for announcing), +and could but stand still and stare when people came to ask +what I was going to read. Last night I read "Copperfield" +to the most enthusiastic and appreciative audience<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> +imaginable, but in numbers about half what they might have +been. To-night we shall have a famous house; but we +might have had it last night too. To-morrow (knowing by +this time what can, of a certainty, be done with "Copperfield"), +I had, of course, given out "Copperfield" to be +read again. Conceive my amazement and dismay when I +find the printer to have announced "Little Dombey"!!! +This, I declare, I had no more intention of reading than I +had of reading an account of the solar system. And this, +after a sensation last night, of a really extraordinary nature +in its intensity and delight!</p> + +<p>Says the unlucky Headland to this first head of misery: +"Johnson's mistake" (Johnson being the printer).</p> + +<p>Second, I read at Edinburgh for the first time—observe +the day—<i>next Wednesday</i>. Jenny Lind's concert at Edinburgh +is to-night. This morning comes a frantic letter +from the Edinburgh agent. "I have no bills, no tickets; +I lose all the announcement I would have made to hundreds +upon hundreds of people to-night, all of the most desirable +class to be well informed beforehand. I can't announce +what Mr. Dickens is going to read; I can answer no question; +I have, upon my responsibility, put a dreary advertisement +into the papers announcing that he <i>is</i> going to +read so many times, and that particulars will shortly be +ready; and I stand bound hand and foot." "Johnson's +mistake," says the unlucky Headland.</p> + +<p>Of course, I know that the man who never made a mistake +in poor Arthur's time is not likely to be always making +mistakes now. But I have written by this post to Wills, to +go to him and investigate. I have also detached Berry +from here, and have sent him on by train at a few minutes' +notice to Edinburgh, and then to Glasgow (where I have no +doubt everything is wrong too). Glasgow we may save;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> +Edinburgh I hold to be irretrievably damaged. If it can +be picked up at all, it can only be at the loss of the two +first nights, and by the expenditure of no end of spirits +and force. And this is the harder, because it is impossible +not to see that the last readings polished and prepared the +audiences in general, and that I have not to work them +up in any place where I have been before, but that they +start with a London intelligence, and with a respect and +preparation for what they are going to hear.</p> + +<p>I hope by the time you and Mamie come to me, we shall +have got into some good method. I must take the thing +more into my own hands and look after it from hour to +hour. If such a thing as this Edinburgh business could +have happened under poor Arthur, I really believe he +would have fallen into a fit, or gone distracted. No one +can ever know what he was but I who have been with him +and without him. Headland is so anxious and so good-tempered +that I cannot be very stormy with him; but it +is the simple fact that he has no notion of the requirements +of such work as this. Without him, and with a +larger salary to Berry (though there are objections to the +latter as <i>first</i> man), I could have done a hundred times +better.</p> + +<p>As Forster will have a strong interest in knowing all +about the proceedings, perhaps you will send him this letter +to read. There is no very tremendous harm, indeed, done +as yet. At Edinburgh I <span class="smcap">know</span> what I can do with +"Copperfield." I think it is not too much to say that for +every one who does come to hear it on the first night, I can +get back fifty on the second. And whatever can be worked +up there will tell on Glasgow. Berry I shall continue to +send on ahead, and I shall take nothing on trust and more +as being done.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span></p> + +<p>On Sunday morning at six, I have to start for Berwick. +From Berwick, in the course of that day, I will write again; +to Mamie next time.</p> + +<p>With best love to her and Mrs. B.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Queen's Head, Newcastle-on-Tyne</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Saturday, Nov. 23rd, 1861.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>A most tremendous hall here last night; something +almost terrible in the cram. A fearful thing might have +happened. Suddenly, when they were all very still over +Smike, my gas batten came down, and it looked as if the +room was falling. There were three great galleries crammed +to the roof, and a high steep flight of stairs, and a panic +must have destroyed numbers of people. A lady in the +front row of stalls screamed, and ran out wildly towards +me, and for one instant there was a terrible wave in the +crowd. I addressed that lady laughing (for I knew she +was in sight of everybody there), and called out as if it +happened every night, "There's nothing the matter, I assure +you; don't be alarmed; pray sit down;" and she sat down +directly, and there was a thunder of applause. It took +some few minutes to mend, and I looked on with my hands +in my pockets; for I think if I had turned my back for a +moment there might still have been a move. My people +were dreadfully alarmed, Boylett in particular, who I +suppose had some notion that the whole place might have +taken fire.</p> + +<p>"But there stood the master," he did me the honour to +say afterwards, in addressing the rest, "as cool as ever I +see him a-lounging at a railway station."</p> + +<p>A telegram from Berry at Edinburgh yesterday evening,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> +to say that he had got the bills, and that they would all be +up and dispersed yesterday evening under his own eyes. +So no time was lost in setting things as right as they can +be set. He has now gone on to Glasgow.</p> + +<p>P.S.—Duty to Mrs. Bouncer.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Berwick-on-Tweed</span>, <i>Monday, Nov. 25th, 1861.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>I write (in a gale of wind, with a high sea running), to +let you know that we go on to Edinburgh at half-past +eight to-morrow morning.</p> + +<p>A most ridiculous room was designed for me in this odd +out-of-the-way place. An immense Corn Exchange made +of glass and iron, round, dome-topped, lofty, utterly absurd +for any such purpose, and full of thundering echoes, with a +little lofty crow's-nest of a stone gallery breast high, deep +in the wall, into which it was designed to put <i>me!</i> I instantly +struck, of course, and said I would either read in a +room attached to this house (a very snug one, capable of +holding five hundred people) or not at all. Terrified local +agents glowered, but fell prostrate.</p> + +<p>Berry has this moment come back from Edinburgh and +Glasgow with hopeful accounts. He seems to have done +the business extremely well, and he says that it was quite +curious and cheering to see how the Glasgow people +assembled round the bills the instant they were posted, and +evidently with a great interest in them.</p> + +<p>We left Newcastle yesterday morning in the dark, when +it was intensely cold and froze very hard. So it did here. +But towards night the wind went round to the S.W., and +all night it has been blowing very hard indeed. So it is +now.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span></p> + +<p>Tell Mamie that I have the same sitting-room as we +had when we came here with poor Arthur, and that my +bedroom is the room out of it which she and Katie had. +Surely it is the oddest town to read in! But it is taken on +poor Arthur's principle that a place in the way pays the +expenses of a through journey; and the people would seem +to be coming up to the scratch gallantly. It was a dull +Sunday, though; O it <i>was</i> a dull Sunday, without a book! +For I had forgotten to buy one at Newcastle, until it was +too late. So after dark I made a jug of whisky-punch, +and drowned the unlucky Headland's remembrance of his +failures.</p> + +<p>I shall hope to hear very soon that the workmen have +"broken through," and that you have been in the state +apartments, and that upholstery measurements have come +off.</p> + +<p>There has been a horrible accident in Edinburgh. One +of the seven-storey old houses in the High Street fell when +it was full of people. Berry was at the bill-poster's house, +a few doors off, waiting for him to come home, when he +heard what seemed like thunder, and then the air was +darkened with dust, "as if an immense quantity of steam +had been blown off," and then all that dismal quarter set +up shrieks, which he says were most dreadful.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Waterloo Hotel, Edinburgh</span>, <i>Wednesday, Nov. 27th, 1861.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>Mrs. Bouncer must decidedly come with you to Carlisle. +She shall be received with open arms. Apropos of Carlisle, +let me know <i>when</i> you purpose coming there. We shall be +there, please God, on the Saturday in good time, as I finish +at Glasgow on the Friday night.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span></p> + +<p>I have very little notion of the state of affairs here, as +Headland brought no more decisive information from the +agents yesterday (he never <i>can</i> get decisive information +from any agents), than "the teeckets air joost moving +reecht and left." I hope this may be taken as satisfactory. +Jenny Lind carried off a world of money from here. Miss +Glyn, or Mrs. Dallas, is playing Lady Macbeth at the theatre, +and Mr. Shirley Brooks is giving two lectures at the Philosophical +Society on the House of Commons and Horace +Walpole. Grisi's farewell benefits are (I think) on my last +two nights here.</p> + +<p>Gordon dined with me yesterday. He is, if anything, +rather better, I think, than when we last saw him in town. +He was immensely pleased to be with me. I went with him +(as his office goes anywhere) right into and among the ruins +of the fallen building yesterday. They were still at work +trying to find two men (brothers), a young girl, and an old +woman, known to be all lying there. On the walls two or +three common clocks are still hanging; one of them, judging +from the time at which it stopped, would seem to have gone +for an hour or so after the fall. Great interest had been +taken in a poor linnet in a cage, hanging in the wind and +rain high up against the broken wall. A fireman got it +down alive, and great exultation had been raised over it. +One woman, who was dug out unhurt, staggered into the +street, stared all round her, instantly ran away, and has +never been heard of since. It is a most extraordinary sight, +and of course makes a great sensation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Waterloo Hotel, Edinburgh</span>, <i>Friday, Nov. 29th, 1861.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>I think it is my turn to write to you, and I therefore +send a brief despatch, like a telegram, to let you know that +in a gale of wind and a fierce rain, last night, we turned +away a thousand people. There was no getting into the +hall, no getting near the hall, no stirring among the people, +no getting out, no possibility of getting rid of them. And +yet, in spite of all that, and of their being steaming wet, +they never flagged for an instant, never made a complaint, +and took up the trial upon their very shoulders, to the last +word, in a triumphant roar.</p> + +<p>The talk about "Copperfield" rings through the whole +place. It is done again to-morrow night. To-morrow +morning I read "Dombey." To-morrow morning is Grisi's +"farewell" morning concert, and last night was her "farewell" +evening concert. Neither she, nor Jenny Lind, nor +anything, nor anybody seems to make the least effect on +the draw of the readings.</p> + +<p>I lunch with Blackwood to-day. He was at the reading +last night; a capital audience. Young Blackwood has also +called here. A very good young fellow, I think.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Carrick's Royal Hotel, Glasgow</span>, <i>Tuesday, Dec. 3rd, 1861.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>I send you by this post another <i>Scotsman</i>. From a +paragraph in it, a letter, and an advertisement, you may be +able to form some dim guess of the scene at Edinburgh last +night. Such a pouring of hundreds into a place already +full to the throat, such indescribable confusion, such a +rending and tearing of dresses, and yet such a scene of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> +good humour on the whole. I never saw the faintest +approach to it. While I addressed the crowd in the room, +Gordon addressed the crowd in the street. Fifty frantic +men got up in all parts of the hall and addressed me all at +once. Other frantic men made speeches to the walls. The +whole Blackwood family were borne in on the top of a wave, +and landed with their faces against the front of the platform. +I read with the platform crammed with people. I got them +to lie down upon it, and it was like some impossible tableau +or gigantic picnic; one pretty girl in full dress lying on +her side all night, holding on to one of the legs of my table. +It was the most extraordinary sight. And yet from the +moment I began to the moment of my leaving off, they +never missed a point, and they ended with a burst of cheers.</p> + +<p>The confusion was decidedly owing to the local agents. +But I think it may have been a little heightened by Headland's +way of sending them the tickets to sell in the first +instance.</p> + +<p>Now, as I must read again in Edinburgh on Saturday +night, your travelling arrangements are affected. So observe +carefully (you and Mamie) all that I am going to say. It +appears to me that the best course will be for you to come +to <i>Edinburgh</i> on Saturday; taking the fast train from the +Great Northern station at nine in the morning. This would +bring you to the Waterloo at Edinburgh, at about nine or +so at night, and I should be home at ten. We could then +have a quiet Sunday in Edinburgh, and go over to Carlisle +on the Monday morning.</p> + +<p>The expenditure of lungs and spirits was (as you may +suppose) rather great last night, and to sleep well was out +of the question; I am therefore rather fagged to-day. And +as the hall in which I read to-night is a large one, I must +make my letter a short one.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span></p> + +<p>My people were torn to ribbons last night. They have +not a hat among them, and scarcely a coat.</p> + +<p>Give my love to Mamie. To her question, "Will there +be war with America?" I answer, "Yes;" I fear the North +to be utterly mad, and war to be unavoidable.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. H. +Wills.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Victoria Hotel, Preston</span>, <i>Friday, Dec. 13th, 1861.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Wills</span>,</div> + +<p>The news of the Christmas number is indeed glorious, +and nothing can look brighter or better than the prospects +of the illustrious publication.</p> + +<p>Both Carlisle and Lancaster have come out admirably, +though I doubted both, as you did. But, unlike you, I +always doubted this place. I do so still. It is a poor place +at the best (you remember?), and the mills are working half +time, and trade is very bad. The expenses, however, will +be a mere nothing. The accounts from Manchester for +to-morrow, and from Liverpool for the readings generally, +are very cheering indeed.</p> + +<p>The young lady who sells the papers at the station is just +the same as ever. Has orders for to-night, and is coming +"with a person." "<i>The</i> person?" said I. "Never <i>you</i> +mind," said she.</p> + +<p>I was so charmed with Robert Chambers's "Traditions +of Edinburgh" (which I read <i>in</i> Edinburgh), that I was +obliged to write to him and say so.</p> + +<p>Glasgow finished nobly, and the last night in Edinburgh +was signally successful and positively splendid.</p> + +<p>Will you give my small Admiral, on his personal application, +one sovereign? I have told him to come to you for +that recognition of his meritorious services.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully.<br /> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. H. +Wills.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool</span>, <i>Sunday, Dec. 15th, 1861.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Wills</span>,</div> + +<p>I sent you a telegram to-day, and I write before the +answer has come to hand.</p> + +<p>I have been very doubtful what to do here. We have a +great let for to-morrow night. The Mayor recommends +closing to-morrow, and going on on Tuesday and Wednesday, +so does the town clerk, so do the agents. But I have +a misgiving that they hardly understand what the public +general sympathy with the Queen will be. Further, I feel +personally that the Queen has always been very considerate +and gracious to me, and I would on no account do anything +that might seem unfeeling or disrespectful. I shall +attach great weight, in this state of indecision, to your +telegram.</p> + +<p>A capital audience at Preston. Not a capacious room, +but full. Great appreciation.</p> + +<p>The scene at Manchester last night was really magnificent. +I had had the platform carried forward to our +"Frozen Deep" point, and my table and screen built in +with a proscenium and room scenery. When I went in +(there was a very fine hall), they applauded in the most +tremendous manner; and the extent to which they were +taken aback and taken by storm by "Copperfield" was +really a thing to see.</p> + +<p>The post closes early here on a Sunday, and I shall close +this also without further reference to "a message from +the" W. H. W. being probably on the road.</p> + +<p>Radley is ill, and supposed to be fast declining, poor +fellow. The house is crammed, the assizes on, and troops +perpetually embarking for Canada, and their officers passing +through the hotel.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Kindest regards, ever faithfully.<br /> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss Mary +Boyle.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Saturday, Dec. 28th, 1861.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Mary</span>,</div> + +<p>On Monday (as you know) I am away again, but +I am not sorry to see land and a little rest before me; +albeit, these are great experiences of the public heart.</p> + +<p>The little Admiral has gone to visit America in the +<i>Orlando</i>, supposed to be one of the foremost ships in the +Service, and the best found, best manned, and best officered +that ever sailed from England. He went away much gamer +than any giant, attended by a chest in which he could easily +have stowed himself and a wife and family of his own +proportions.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Ever and always, your affectionate</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Joe</span>.<br /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>1862.</h2> + +<h3>NARRATIVE.</h3> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>At</span> the beginning of this year, Charles Dickens resumed the +reading tour which he had commenced at the close of the +previous year and continued up to Christmas. The first +letter which follows, to Mr. Wills, a New Year's greeting, is +written from a railway station between one town and +another on this journey. Mr. Macready, who had married +for the second time not very long before this, was now +settled at Cheltenham. Charles Dickens had arranged to +give readings there, chiefly for the pleasure of visiting him, +and of having him as one of his audience.</div> + +<p>This reading tour went on until the beginning of +February. One of the last of the series was in his favourite +"beautiful room," the St. George's Hall at Liverpool. In<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> +February, he made an exchange of houses with his friends +Mr. and Mrs. Hogge, they going to Gad's Hill, and he and +his family to Mr. Hogge's house in Hyde Park Gate South. +In March he commenced a series of readings at St. James's +Hall, which went on until the middle of June, when he, +very gladly, returned to his country home.</p> + +<p>A letter beginning "My dear Girls," addressed to some +American ladies who happened to be at Colchester, in the +same inn with him when he was reading there, was +published by one of them under the name of "Our Letter," +in the "St. Nicholas Magazine," New York, in 1877. We +think it best to explain it in the young lady's own words, +which are, therefore, appended to the letter.</p> + +<p>Mr. Walter Thornbury was one of Charles Dickens's +most valuable contributors to "All the Year Round." His +letters to him about the subjects of his articles for that +journal, are specimens of the minute and careful attention +and personal supervision, never neglected or distracted by +any other work on which he might be engaged, were it ever +so hard or engrossing.</p> + +<p>The letter addressed to Mr. Baylis we give chiefly +because it has, since Mr. Baylis's death, been added to the +collection of MSS. in the British Museum. He was a very +intimate and confidential friend of the late Lord Lytton, +and accompanied him on a visit to Gad's Hill in that year.</p> + +<p>We give an extract from another letter from Charles +Dickens to his sister, as a beautiful specimen of a letter +of condolence and encouragement to one who was striving, +very bravely, but by very slow degrees, to recover +from the overwhelming grief of her bereavement. Mr. +Wilkie Collins was at this time engaged on his novel +of "No Name," which appeared in "All the Year +Round," and was threatened with a very serious breakdown +in health. Charles Dickens wrote the letter which +we give, to relieve Mr. Collins's mind as to his work. +Happily he recovered sufficiently to make an end to his +own story without any help; but the true friendship +and kindness which suggested the offer were none the less<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span> +appreciated, and may, very likely, by lessening his anxiety, +have helped to restore his health. At the end of October in +this year, Charles Dickens, accompanied by his daughter and +sister-in-law, went to reside for a couple of months in Paris, +taking an apartment in the Rue du Faubourg St. Honoré. +From thence he writes to M. Charles Fechter. He had +been greatly interested in this fine artist from the time of +his first appearance in England, and was always one of his +warmest friends and supporters during his stay in this +country. M. Fechter was, at this time, preparing for the +opening of the Lyceum Theatre, under his own management, +at the beginning of the following year.</p> + +<p>Just before Christmas, Charles Dickens returned to +Gad's Hill. The Christmas number for this year was +"Somebody's Luggage."</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. H. +Wills.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">At the Birmingham Station</span>, <i>Thursday, Jan. 2nd, 1862.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Wills</span>,</div> + +<p>Being stationed here for an hour, on my way from +Leamington to Cheltenham, I write to you.</p> + +<p>Firstly, to reciprocate all your cordial and affectionate +wishes for the New Year, and to express my earnest hope +that we may go on through many years to come, as we have +gone on through many years that are gone. And I think +we can say that we doubt whether any two men can have +gone on more happily and smoothly, or with greater trust +and confidence in one another.</p> + +<p>A little packet will come to you from Hunt and Roskell's, +almost at the same time, I think, as this note.</p> + +<p>The packet will contain a claret-jug. I hope it is a +pretty thing in itself for your table, and I know that you +and Mrs. Wills will like it none the worse because it comes +from me.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span></p> + +<p>It is not made of a perishable material, and is so far +expressive of our friendship. I have had your name and +mine set upon it, in token of our many years of mutual +reliance and trustfulness. It will never be so full of wine +as it is to-day of affectionate regard.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Cheltenham</span>, <i>Friday, Jan. 3rd, 1862.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Georgy</span>,</div> + +<p>Mrs. Macready in voice is very like poor Mrs. +Macready dead and gone; not in the least like her otherwise. +She is perfectly satisfactory, and exceedingly winning. +Quite perfect in her manner with him and in her ease with +his children, sensible, gay, pleasant, sweet-tempered; not +in the faintest degree stiff or pedantic; accessible instantly. +I have very rarely seen a more agreeable woman. The house +is (on a smaller scale) any house we have known them in. +Furnished with the old furniture, pictures, engravings, +mirrors, tables, and chairs. Butty is too tall for strength, +I am afraid, but handsome, with a face of great power +and character, and a very nice girl. Katie you know +all about. Macready, decidedly much older and infirm. +Very much changed. His old force has gone out of +him strangely. I don't think I left off talking a minute +from the time of my entering the house to my going to +bed last night, and he was as much amused and interested +as ever I saw him; still he was, and is, unquestionably +aged.</p> + +<p>And even now I am obliged to cut this letter short by +having to go and look after Headland. It would never do +to be away from the rest of them. I have no idea what we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span> +are doing here; no notion whether things are right or wrong; +no conception where the room is; no hold of the business +at all. For which reason I cannot rest without going and +looking after the worthy man.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Torquay</span>, <i>Wednesday, Jan. 8th, 1862.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>You know, I think, that I was very averse to going to +Plymouth, and would not have gone there again but for poor +Arthur. But on the last night I read "Copperfield," and +positively enthralled the people. It was a most overpowering +effect, and poor Andrew<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> came behind the screen, after the +storm, and cried in the best and manliest manner. Also +there were two or three lines of his shipmates and other +sailors, and they were extraordinarily affected. But its +culminating effect was on Macready at Cheltenham. When +I got home after "Copperfield," I found him quite unable +to speak, and able to do nothing but square his dear old jaw +all on one side, and roll his eyes (half closed), like Jackson's +picture of him. And when I said something light about it, +he returned: "No—er—Dickens! I swear to Heaven that, +as a piece of passion and playfulness—er—indescribably mixed +up together, it does—er—no, really, Dickens!—amaze me as +profoundly as it moves me. But as a piece of art—and you +know—er—that I—no, Dickens! By ——! have seen the +best art in a great time—it is incomprehensible to me. +How is it got at—er—how is it done—er—how one man can—well? +It lays me on my—er—back, and it is of no use +talking about it!" With which he put his hand upon my +breast and pulled out his pocket-handkerchief, and I felt as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> +if I were doing somebody to his Werner. Katie, by-the-bye, +is a wonderful audience, and has a great fund of wild feeling +in her. Johnny not at all unlike Plorn.</p> + +<p>I have not yet seen the room here, but imagine it to be +very small. Exeter I know, and that is small also. I am +very much used up, on the whole, for I cannot bear this +moist warm climate. It would kill me very soon. And I +have now got to the point of taking so much out of +myself with "Copperfield," that I might as well do +Richard Wardour.</p> + +<p>You have now, my dearest Georgy, the fullest extent of +my tidings. This is a very pretty place—a compound of +Hastings, Tunbridge Wells, and little bits of the hills about +Naples; but I met four respirators as I came up from the +station, and three pale curates without them, who seemed in +a bad way.</p> + +<p>Frightful intelligence has just been brought in by +Boylett, concerning the small size of the room. I have terrified +Headland by sending him to look at it, and swearing +that if it's too small I will go away to Exeter.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool</span>, <i>Tuesday, Jan. 28th, 1862.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>The beautiful room was crammed to excess last night, +and numbers were turned away. Its beauty and completeness +when it is lighted up are most brilliant to behold, and +for a reading it is simply perfect. You remember that a +Liverpool audience is usually dull, but they put me on my +mettle last night, for I never saw such an audience—no, not +even in Edinburgh!</p> + +<p>I slept horribly last night, and have been over to +Birkenhead for a little change of air to-day. My head is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> +dazed and worn by gas and heat, and I fear that "Copperfield" +and "Bob" together to-night won't mend it.</p> + +<p>Best love to Mamie and Katie, if still at Gad's. I am +going to bring the boys some toffee.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">The Misses +Armstrong</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Monday, Feb. 10th, 1862.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Girls</span>,</div> + +<p>For if I were to write "young friends," it would +look like a schoolmaster; and if I were to write "young +ladies," it would look like a schoolmistress; and worse than +that, neither form of words would look familiar and natural, +or in character with our snowy ride that tooth-chattering +morning.</p> + +<p>I cannot tell you both how gratified I was by your +remembrance, or how often I think of you as I smoke +the admirable cigars. But I almost think you must +have had some magnetic consciousness across the Atlantic, +of my whiffing my love towards you from the garden +here.</p> + +<p>My daughter says that when you have settled those little +public affairs at home, she hopes you will come back to +England (possibly in united states) and give a minute or +two to this part of Kent. <i>Her</i> words are, "a day or two;" +but I remember your Italian flights, and correct the +message.</p> + +<p>I have only just now finished my country readings, and +have had nobody to make breakfast for me since the remote +ages of Colchester!</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span></p> + +<div class='center'> +OUR LETTER.<br /> +<br /> +By <span class="smcap">M. F. Armstrong</span>.<br /> +</div> + +<p>"From among all my treasures—to each one of which +some pleasant history is bound—I choose this letter, written +on coarse blue paper.</p> + +<p>The letter was received in answer to cigars sent from +America to Mr. Dickens.</p> + +<p>The 'little public affairs at home' refers to the war of +the Rebellion.</p> + +<p>At Colchester, he read 'The Trial' from 'Pickwick,' +and selections from 'Nicholas Nickleby.'</p> + +<p>The lady, her two sisters, and her brother were Mr. +Dickens's guests at the queer old English inn at Colchester.</p> + +<p>Through the softly falling snow we came back together +to London, and on the railway platform parted, with a hearty +hand-shaking, from the man who will for ever be enshrined +in our hearts as the kindest and most generous, not to say +most brilliant of hosts."</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">M. de +Cerjat.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">16, Hyde Park Gate, South Kensington Gore</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Sunday, March 16th, 1862.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Cerjat</span>,</div> + +<p>My daughter naturally liking to be in town at this +time of year, I have changed houses with a friend for three +months.</p> + +<p>My eldest boy is in business as an Eastern merchant in +the City, and will do well if he can find continuous energy; +otherwise not. My second boy is with the 42nd Highlanders<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span> +in India. My third boy, a good steady fellow, is +educating expressly for engineers or artillery. My fourth +(this sounds like a charade), a born little sailor, is a midshipman +in H.M.S. <i>Orlando</i>, now at Bermuda, and will +make his way anywhere. Remaining two at school, elder +of said remaining two very bright and clever. Georgina +and Mary keeping house for me; and Francis Jeffrey (I +ought to have counted him as the third boy, so we'll take +him in here as number two and a half) in my office at +present. Now you have the family bill of fare.</p> + +<p>You ask me about Fechter and his Hamlet. It was a +performance of extraordinary merit; by far the most coherent, +consistent, and intelligible Hamlet I ever saw. +Some of the delicacies with which he rendered his conception +clear were extremely subtle; and in particular he +avoided that brutality towards Ophelia which, with a greater +or less amount of coarseness, I have seen in all other +Hamlets. As a mere <i>tour de force</i>, it would have been very +remarkable in its disclosure of a perfectly wonderful knowledge +of the force of the English language; but its merit +was far beyond and above this. Foreign accent, of course, +but not at all a disagreeable one. And he was so obviously +safe and at ease, that you were never in pain for him as a +foreigner. Add to this a perfectly picturesque and romantic +"make up," and a remorseless destruction of all conventionalities, +and you have the leading virtues of the impersonation. +In Othello he did not succeed. In Iago he is very good. +He is an admirable artist, and far beyond anyone on our +stage. A real artist and a gentleman.</p> + +<p>Last Thursday I began reading again in London—a +condensation of "Copperfield," and "Mr. Bob Sawyer's +Party," from "Pickwick," to finish merrily. The success +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span>of "Copperfield" is astounding. It made an impression +that <i>I</i> must not describe. I may only remark that +I was half dead when I had done; and that although +I had looked forward, all through the summer, when I +was carefully getting it up, to its being a London sensation; +and that although Macready, hearing it at Cheltenham, +told me to be prepared for a great effect, it even went +beyond my hopes. I read again next Thursday, and +the rush for places is quite furious. Tell Townshend this +with my love, if you see him before I have time to write +to him; and tell him that I thought the people would +never let me go away, they became so excited, and showed +it so very warmly. I am trying to plan out a new book, +but have not got beyond trying.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Yours affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Walter +Thornbury.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Office of "All the Year Round</span>,"</span><br /> +<i>Friday, April 18th, 1862.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Thornbury</span>,</div> + +<p>The Bow Street runners ceased out of the land soon +after the introduction of the new police. I remember them +very well as standing about the door of the office in Bow +Street. They had no other uniform than a blue dress-coat, +brass buttons (I am not even now sure that that was necessary), +and a bright red cloth waistcoat. The waistcoat was +indispensable, and the slang name for them was "redbreasts," +in consequence.</p> + +<p>They kept company with thieves and the like, much +more than the detective police do. I don't know what +their pay was, but I have no doubt their principal complements +were got under the rose. It was a very slack institution, +and its head-quarters were The Brown Bear, in Bow<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span> +Street, a public-house of more than doubtful reputation, +opposite the police-office; and either the house which is +now the theatrical costume maker's, or the next door +to it.</p> + +<p>Field, who advertises the Secret Enquiry Office, was a +Bow Street runner, and can tell you all about it; Goddard, +who also advertises an enquiry office, was another of the +fraternity. They are the only two I know of as yet existing +in a "questionable shape."</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours always.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Baylis.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Gad's Hill, etc.</span>, <i>Wednesday, July 2nd, 1862.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Mr. Baylis</span>,</div> + +<p>I have been in France, and in London, and in other +parts of Kent than this, and everywhere but here, for weeks +and weeks. Pray excuse my not having (for this reason +specially) answered your kind note sooner.</p> + +<p>After carefully cross-examining my daughter, I do <span class="smcap">not</span> +believe her to be worthy of the fernery. Last autumn we +transplanted into the shrubbery a quantity of evergreens +previously clustered close to the front of the house, and +trained more ivy about the wall and the like. When I ask +her where she would have the fernery and what she would +do with it, the witness falters, turns pale, becomes confused, +and says: "Perhaps it would be better not to have it at all." +I am quite confident that the constancy of the young person +is not to be trusted, and that she had better attach her +fernery to one of her châteaux in Spain, or one of her +English castles in the air. None the less do I thank you +for your more than kind proposal.</p> + +<p>We have been in great anxiety respecting Miss Hogarth,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> +the sudden decline of whose health and spirits has greatly +distressed us. Although she is better than she was, and the +doctors are, on the whole, cheerful, she requires great care, +and fills us with apprehension. The necessity of providing +change for her will probably take us across the water very +early in the autumn; and this again unsettles home schemes +here, and withers many kinds of fern. If they knew (by +"they" I mean my daughter and Miss Hogarth) that I was +writing to you, they would charge me with many messages +of regard. But as I am shut up in my room in a ferocious +and unapproachable condition, owing to the great accumulation +of letters I have to answer, I will tell them at lunch +that I have anticipated their wish. As I know they have +bills for me to pay, and are at present shy of producing +them, I wish to preserve a gloomy and repellent reputation.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +My dear Mr. Baylis, faithfully yours always.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Henry +Austin.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Gad's Hill</span>, <i>Tuesday, Oct. 7th, 1862.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='center'><b>* * * * * *</b></div> + +<p>I do not preach consolation because I am unwilling to +preach at any time, and know my own weakness too well. +But in this world there is no stay but the hope of a better, +and no reliance but on the mercy and goodness of God. +Through those two harbours of a shipwrecked heart, I fully +believe that you will, in time, find a peaceful resting-place +even on this careworn earth. Heaven speed the time, and +do you try hard to help it on! It is impossible to say but +that our prolonged grief for the beloved dead may grieve +them in their unknown abiding-place, and give them trouble. +The one influencing consideration in all you do as to your<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span> +disposition of yourself (coupled, of course, with a real earnest +strenuous endeavour to recover the lost tone of spirit) is, +that you think and feel you <i>can</i> do. I do not in the least +regard your change of course in going to Havre as any +evidence of instability. But I rather hope it is likely that +through such restlessness you will come to a far quieter frame +of mind. The disturbed mind and affections, like the tossed +sea, seldom calm without an intervening time of confusion +and trouble.</p> + +<p>But nothing is to be attained without striving. In a +determined effort to settle the thoughts, to parcel out the +day, to find occupation regularly or to make it, to be up +and doing something, are chiefly to be found the mere +mechanical means which must come to the aid of the best +mental efforts.</p> + +<p>It is a wilderness of a day, here, in the way of blowing +and raining, and as darkly dismal, at four o'clock, as need +be. My head is but just now raised from a day's writing, +but I will not lose the post without sending you a word.</p> + +<p>Katie was here yesterday, just come back from Clara +White's (that was), in Scotland. In the midst of her +brilliant fortune, it is too clear to me that she is already +beckoned away to follow her dead sisters. Macready was +here from Saturday evening to yesterday morning, older +but looking wonderfully well, and (what is very rare in +these times) with the old thick sweep of hair upon his head. +Georgina being left alone here the other day, was done no +good to by a great consternation among the servants. On +going downstairs, <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'shefound'">she found</ins> Marsh (the stableman) seated with +great dignity and anguish in an arm-chair, and incessantly +crying out: "I am dead." To which the women servants +said with great pathos (and with some appearance of reason): +"No, you ain't, Marsh!" And to which he persisted in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span> +replying: "Yes, I am; I am dead!" Some neighbouring +vagabond was impressed to drive a cart over to Rochester +and fetch the doctor, who said (the patient and his consolers +being all very anxious that the heart should be the scene +of affliction): "Stomach."</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. +Wilkie +Collins.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Tuesday Night, Oct. 14th, 1862.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Wilkie</span>,</div> + +<p>Frank Beard has been here this evening, of course +since I posted my this day's letter to you, and has told me that +you are not at all well, and how he has given you something +which he hopes and believes will bring you round. It is +not to convey this insignificant piece of intelligence, or to +tell you how anxious I am that you should come up with a +wet sheet and a flowing sail (as we say at sea when we are +not sick), that I write. It is simply to say what follows, +which I hope may save you some mental uneasiness. For I +was stricken ill when I was doing "Bleak House," and I +shall not easily forget what I suffered under the fear of not +being able to come up to time.</p> + +<p>Dismiss that fear (if you have it) altogether from your +mind. Write to me at Paris at any moment, and say you +are unequal to your work, and want me, and I will come to +London straight and do your work. I am quite confident +that, with your notes and a few words of explanation, I +could take it up at any time and do it. Absurdly unnecessary +to say that it would be a makeshift! But I could do it at +a pinch, so like you as that no one should find out the difference. +Don't make much of this offer in your mind; it is +nothing, except to ease it. If you should want help, I am<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span> +as safe as the bank. The trouble would be nothing to me, +and the triumph of overcoming a difficulty great. Think it +a Christmas number, an "Idle Apprentice," a "Lighthouse," +a "Frozen Deep." I am as ready as in any of these cases to +strike in and hammer the hot iron out.</p> + +<p>You won't want me. You will be well (and thankless!) +in no time. But there I am; and I hope that the knowledge +may be a comfort to you. Call me, and I come.</p> + +<p>As Beard always has a sense of medical responsibility, +and says anything important about a patient in confidence, +I have merely remarked here that "Wilkie" is out of sorts. +Charley (who is here with Katie) has no other cue from me.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">M. Charles +Fechter.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Paris, Rue du Faubourg St. Honoré, 27</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Tuesday, Nov. 4th, 1862.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Fechter</span>,</div> + +<p>You know, I believe, how our letters crossed, and +that I am here until Christmas. Also, you know with what +pleasure and readiness I should have responded to your +invitation if I had been in London.</p> + +<p>Pray tell Paul Féval that I shall be charmed to know +him, and that I shall feel the strongest interest in making +his acquaintance. It almost puts me out of humour with +Paris (and it takes a great deal to do that!) to think that I +was not at home to prevail upon him to come with you, and +be welcomed to Gad's Hill; but either there or here, I hope +to become his friend before this present old year is out. +Pray tell him so.</p> + +<p>You say nothing in your note of your Lyceum preparations. +I trust they are all going on well. There is a fine<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> +opening for you, I am sure, with a good beginning; but +the importance of a good beginning is very great. If you +ever have time and inclination to tell me in a short note +what you are about, you can scarcely interest me more, as +my wishes and strongest sympathies are for and with your +success—<i>mais cela va sans dire</i>.</p> + +<p>I went to the Châtelet (a beautiful theatre!) the other +night to see "Rothomago," but was so mortally <i>gêné</i> with +the poor nature of the piece and of the acting, that I came +out again when there was a week or two (I mean an hour or +two, but the hours seemed weeks) yet to get through.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +My dear Fechter, very faithfully yours always.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Clarkson +Stanfield, +R.A.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Paris, Rue du Faubourg St. Honoré, 27</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Friday, Dec. 5th, 1862.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Stanny</span>,</div> + +<p>We have been here for two months, and I shall +probably come back here after Christmas (we go home for +Christmas week) and stay on into February. But I shall +write and propose a theatre before Christmas is out, so this +is to warn you to get yourself into working pantomime +order!</p> + +<p>I hope Wills has duly sent you our new Christmas +number. As you may like to know what I myself wrote of +it, understand the Dick contributions to be, <i>his leaving it +till called for</i>, and <i>his wonderful end</i>, <i>his boots</i>, and <i>his brown +paper parcel</i>.</p> + +<p>Since you were at Gad's Hill I have been travelling a +good deal, and looking up many odd things for use. I want +to know how you are in health and spirits, and it would be +the greatest of pleasures to me to have a line under your +hand.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span></p> + +<p>God bless you and yours with all the blessings of the +time of year, and of all times!</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Ever your affectionate and faithful</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Dick</span>.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">M. Charles +Fechter.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Paris</span>, <i>Saturday, Dec. 6th, 1862.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Fechter</span>,</div> + +<p>I have read "The White Rose" attentively, and +think it an extremely good play. It is vigorously written +with a great knowledge of the stage, and presents many +striking situations. I think the close particularly fine, +impressive, bold, and new.</p> + +<p>But I greatly doubt the expediency of your doing <i>any</i> +historical play early in your management. By the words +"historical play," I mean a play founded on any incident +in English history. Our public are accustomed to associate +historical plays with Shakespeare. In any other hands, I +believe they care very little for crowns and dukedoms. +What you want is something with an interest of a more +domestic and general nature—an interest as romantic as +you please, but having a more general and wider response +than a disputed succession to the throne can have for +Englishmen at this time of day. Such interest culminated +in the last Stuart, and has worn itself out. It would be +uphill work to evoke an interest in Perkin Warbeck.</p> + +<p>I do not doubt the play's being well received, but my +fear is that these people would be looked upon as mere +abstractions, and would have but a cold welcome in consequence, +and would not lay hold of your audience. Now, +when you <i>have</i> laid hold of your audience and have +accustomed them to your theatre, you may produce "The +White Rose," with far greater justice to the author, and to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span> +the manager also. Wait. Feel your way. Perkin Warbeck +is too far removed from analogy with the sympathies and +lives of the people for a beginning.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +My dear Fechter, ever faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss Mary +Boyle.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Saturday, Dec. 27th, 1862.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Mary</span>,</div> + +<p>I must send you my Christmas greeting and happy +New Year wishes in return for yours; most heartily and +fervently reciprocating your interest and affection. You are +among the few whom I most care for and best love.</p> + +<p>Being in London two evenings in the opening week, I +tried to persuade my legs (for whose judgment I have the +highest respect) to go to an evening party. But I <i>could not</i> +induce them to pass Leicester Square. The faltering presentiment +under which they laboured so impressed me, +that at that point I yielded to their terrors. They immediately +ran away to the east, and I accompanied them to +the Olympic, where I saw a very good play, "Camilla's +Husband," very well played. Real merit in Mr. Neville +and Miss Saville.</p> + +<p>We came across directly after the gale, with the Channel +all bestrewn with floating wreck, and with a hundred and +fifty sick schoolboys from Calais on board. I am going +back on the morning after Fechter's opening night, and +have promised to read "Copperfield" at the Embassy, for a +British charity.</p> + +<p>Georgy continues wonderfully well, and she and Mary +send you their best love. The house is pervaded by boys;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span> +and every boy has (as usual) an unaccountable and awful +power of producing himself in every part of the house at +every moment, apparently in fourteen pairs of creaking boots.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">My dear Mary, ever affectionately your</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Joe</span>.<br /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>1863.</h2> + +<h3>NARRATIVE.</h3> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>At</span> the beginning of this year, Charles Dickens was in +Paris for the purpose of giving a reading at the English +Embassy.</div> + +<p>He remained in Paris until the beginning of February, +staying with his servant "John" at the Hôtel du Helder. +There was a series of readings in London this season at +the Hanover Square Rooms. The Christmas number of +"All the Year Round" was entitled "Mrs. Lirriper's +Lodgings," to which Charles Dickens contributed the first +and last chapter.</p> + +<p>The Lyceum Theatre, under the management of M. +Fechter, was opened in January with "The Duke's Motto," +and the letter given here has reference to this first night.</p> + +<p>We regret very much having no letters to Lady Molesworth, +who was an old and dear friend of Charles Dickens. +But this lady explains to us that she has long ceased to +preserve any letters addressed to her.</p> + +<p>The "Mr. and Mrs. Humphery" (now Sir William and +Lady Humphery) mentioned in the first letter for this year, +were dear and intimate friends of his eldest daughter, +and were frequent guests in her father's house. Mrs. +Humphery and her sister Lady Olliffe were daughters of +the late Mr. William Cubitt, M.P.</p> + +<p>We have in this year the first letter of Charles Dickens +to Mr. Percy Fitzgerald. This gentleman had been a valuable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span> +contributor to his journal before he became personally +known to Charles Dickens. The acquaintance once made +soon ripened into friendship, and for the future Mr. Fitzgerald +was a constant and always a welcome visitor to Gad's +Hill.</p> + +<p>The letter to Mr. Charles Reade alludes to his story, +"Hard Cash," which was then appearing in "All the Year +Round." As a writer, and as a friend, he was held by +Charles Dickens in the highest estimation.</p> + +<p>Charles Dickens's correspondence with his solicitor and +excellent friend, Mr. Frederic Ouvry (now a vice-president +of the Society of Antiquaries), was almost entirely of a +business character; but we are glad to give one or two +notes to that gentleman, although of little public interest, +in order to have the name in our book of one of the kindest +of our own friends.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Paris, Hôtel du Helder, Rue du Helder</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Friday, Jan. 16th, 1863.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Mamie</span>,</div> + +<p>As I send a line to your aunt to-day and know that +you will not see it, I send another to you to report my safe +(and neuralgic) arrival here. My little rooms are perfectly +comfortable, and I like the hotel better than any I have +ever put up at in Paris. John's amazement at, and appreciation +of, Paris are indescribable. He goes about with his +mouth open, staring at everything and being tumbled over +by everybody.</p> + +<p>The state dinner at the Embassy, yesterday, coming off +in the room where I am to read, the carpenters did not get +in until this morning. But their platforms were ready—or +supposed to be—and the preparations are in brisk progress. +I think it will be a handsome affair to look at—a very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span> +handsome one. There seems to be great artistic curiosity +in Paris, to know what kind of thing the reading is.</p> + +<p>I know a "rela-shon" (with one weak eye), who is in +the gunmaking line, very near here. There is a strong +family resemblance—but no muzzle. Lady Molesworth +and I have not begun to "toddle" yet, but have exchanged +affectionate greetings. I am going round to see her +presently, and I dine with her on Sunday. The only +remaining news is, that I am beset by mysterious adorers, +and smuggle myself in and out of the house in the meanest +and basest manner.</p> + +<p>With kind regard to Mr. and Mrs. Humphery,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever, my dearest Mamey, your affectionate Father.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—<i>Hommage à Madame B.!</i></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Monsieur +Regnier.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Paris</span>, <i>Sunday, Feb. 1st, 1863.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Regnier</span>,</div> + +<p>I was charmed by the receipt of your cordial and +sympathetic letter, and I shall always preserve it carefully +as a most noble tribute from a great and real artist.</p> + +<p>I wished you had been at the Embassy on Friday evening. +The audience was a fine one, and the "Carol" is particularly +well adapted to the purpose. It is an uncommon pleasure +to me to learn that I am to meet you on Tuesday, for there +are not many men whom I meet with greater pleasure than +you. Heaven! how the years roll by! We are quite old +friends now, in counting by years. If we add sympathies, +we have been friends at least a thousand years.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Affectionately yours ever.<br /> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Hôtel du Helder, Paris</span>, <i>Sunday, Feb. 1st, 1863.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Mamie</span>,</div> + +<p>I cannot give you any idea of the success of the +readings here, because no one can imagine the scene of last +Friday night at the Embassy. Such audiences and such +enthusiasm I have never seen, but the thing culminated on +Friday night in a two hours' storm of excitement and +pleasure. They actually recommenced and applauded right +away into their carriages and down the street.</p> + +<p>You know your parent's horror of being lionised, and +will not be surprised to hear that I am half dead of it. I +cannot leave here until Thursday (though I am every hour +in danger of running away) because I have to dine out, to +say nothing of breakfasting—think of me breakfasting!—every +intervening day. But my project is to send John +home on Thursday, and then to go on a little perfectly quiet +tour for about ten days, touching the sea at Boulogne. +When I get there, I will write to your aunt (in case you +should not be at home), saying when I shall arrive at the +office. I must go to the office instead of Gad's, because I +have much to do with Forster about Elliotson.</p> + +<p>I enclose a short note for each of the little boys. Give +Harry ten shillings pocket-money, and Plorn six.</p> + +<p>The Olliffe girls, very nice. Florence at the readings, +prodigiously excited.</p> + + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Paris</span>, <i>Sunday, Feb. 1st, 1863.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>From my hurried note to Mamie, you will get some +faint general idea of a new star's having arisen in Paris. +But of its brightness you can have no adequate conception.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span></p> + +<p>[John has locked me up and gone out, and the little bell +at the door is ringing demoniacally while I write.]</p> + +<p>You have never heard me read yet. I have been twice +goaded and lifted out of myself into a state that astonished +<i>me</i> almost as much as the audience. I have a cold, but no +neuralgia, and am "as well as can be expected."</p> + +<p>I forgot to tell Mamie that I went (with Lady Molesworth) +to hear "Faust" last night. It is a splendid work, +in which that noble and sad story is most nobly and sadly +rendered, and perfectly delighted me. But I think it +requires too much of the audience to do for a London opera +house. The composer must be a very remarkable man +indeed. Some management of light throughout the story +is also very poetical and fine. We had Carvalho's box. I +could hardly bear the thing, it affected me so.</p> + +<p>But, as a certain Frenchman said, "No weakness, +Danton!" So I leave off.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">M. Charles +Fechter.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Paris</span>, <i>Wednesday, Feb. 4th, 1863.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Fechter</span>,</div> + +<p>A thousand congratulations on your great success! +Never mind what they say, or do, <i>pour vous écraser;</i> you +have the game in your hands. The romantic drama, +thoroughly well done (with a touch of Shakespeare now and +then), is the speciality of your theatre. Give the public +the picturesque, romantic drama, with yourself in it; and +(as I told you in the beginning) you may throw down your +gauntlet in defiance of all comers.</p> + +<p>It is a most brilliant success indeed, and it thoroughly +rejoices my heart!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span></p> + +<p>Unfortunately I cannot now hope to see "Maquet," +because I am packing up and going out to dinner (it is late +in the afternoon), and I leave to-morrow morning when all +sensible people, except myself, are in bed; and I do not +come back to Paris or near it. I had hoped to see him at +breakfast last Monday, but he was not there. Paul Féval +was there, and I found him a capital fellow. If I can do +anything to help you on with "Maquet"<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> when I come back +I will most gladly do it.</p> + +<p>My readings here have had the finest possible reception, +and have achieved a most noble success. I never before read +to such fine audiences, so very quick of perception, and so +enthusiastically responsive.</p> + +<p>I shall be heartily pleased to see you again, my dear +Fechter, and to share your triumphs with the real earnestness +of a real friend. And so go on and prosper, and believe +me, as I truly am,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Most cordially yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Office of "All the Year Round</span>,"</span><br /> +<i>Thursday, Feb. 19th, 1863.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>I have just come back from Paris, where the readings—"Copperfield," +"Dombey" and "Trial," and "Carol" +and "Trial"—have made a sensation which modesty (my +natural modesty) renders it impossible for me to describe. +You know what a noble audience the Paris audience is! +They were at their very noblest with me.</p> + +<p>I was very much concerned by hearing hurriedly from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span> +Georgy that you were ill. But when I came home at night, +she showed me Katie's letter, and that set me up again. +Ah, you have the best of companions and nurses, and can +afford to be ill now and then for the happiness of being so +brought through it. But don't do it again yet awhile for +all that.</p> + +<p>Legouvé (whom you remember in Paris as writing for the +Ristori) was anxious that I should bring you the enclosed. +A manly and generous effort, I think? Regnier desired +to be warmly remembered to you. He looks just as of yore.</p> + +<p>Paris generally is about as wicked and extravagant as in +the days of the Regency. Madame Viardot in the "Orphée," +most splendid. An opera of "Faust," a very sad and noble +rendering of that sad and noble story. Stage management +remarkable for some admirable, and really poetical, effects +of light. In the more striking situations, Mephistopheles +surrounded by an infernal red atmosphere of his own. Marguerite +by a pale blue mournful light. The two never blending. +After Marguerite has taken the jewels placed in her +way in the garden, a weird evening draws on, and the bloom +fades from the flowers, and the leaves of the trees droop +and lose their fresh green, and mournful shadows overhang +her chamber window, which was innocently bright and gay +at first. I couldn't bear it, and gave in completely.</p> + +<p>Fechter doing wonders over the way here, with a +picturesque French drama. Miss Kate Terry, in a small +part in it, perfectly charming. You may remember her +making a noise, years ago, doing a boy at an inn, in "The +Courier of Lyons"? She has a tender love-scene in this +piece, which is a really beautiful and artistic thing. I saw +her do it at about three in the morning of the day when +the theatre opened, surrounded by shavings and carpenters, +and (of course) with that inevitable hammer going; and I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span> +told Fechter: "That is the very best piece of womanly +tenderness I have ever seen on the stage, and you'll find +that no audience can miss it." It is a comfort to add that +it was instantly seized upon, and is much talked of.</p> + +<p>Stanfield was very ill for some months, then suddenly +picked up, and is really rosy and jovial again. Going to +see him when he was very despondent, I told him the story +of Fechter's piece (then in rehearsal) with appropriate +action; fighting a duel with the washing-stand, defying +the bedstead, and saving the life of the sofa-cushion. This +so kindled his old theatrical ardour, that I think he turned +the corner on the spot.</p> + +<p>With love to Mrs. Macready and Katie, and (be still my +heart!) Benvenuta, and the exiled Johnny (not too attentive +at school, I hope?), and the personally-unknown young +Parr,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever, my dearest Macready, your most affectionate.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Power.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Office of "All the Year Round</span>,"</span><br /> +<i>Thursday, Feb. 26th, 1863.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Marguerite</span>,</div> + +<p>I think I have found a first-rate title for your book, +with an early and a delightful association in most people's +minds, and a strong suggestion of Oriental pictures:</p> + +<div class='center'> +"<span class="smcap">Arabian Days and Nights</span>."<br /> +</div> + +<p>I have sent it to Low's. If they have the wit to see it, +do you in your first chapter touch that string, so as to +bring a fanciful explanation in aid of the title, and sound it +afterwards, now and again, when you come to anything +where Haroun al Raschid, and the Grand Vizier, and +Mesrour, the chief of the guard, and any of that wonderful +<i>dramatis personæ</i> are vividly brought to mind.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Charles +Knight.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Office of "All the Year Round</span>,"</span><br /> +<i>Wednesday, March 4th, 1863.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Charles Knight</span>,</div> + +<p>At a quarter to seven on Monday, the 16th, a +stately form will be descried breathing birthday cordialities +and affectionate amenities, as it descends the broken and +gently dipping ground by which the level country of the +Clifton Road is attained. A practised eye will be able to +discern two humble figures in attendance, which from their +flowing crinolines may, without exposing the prophet to the +imputation of rashness, be predicted to be women. Though +certes their importance, absorbed and as it were swallowed +up in the illustrious bearing and determined purpose of the +maturer stranger, will not enthrall the gaze that wanders +over the forest of San Giovanni as the night gathers in.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Ever affectionately,</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">G. P. R. James.</span><br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Dallas.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></div> + + +<div class='center'><small>EXTRACT.</small><br /><br /> + +<small>THE TIME OF THE PRINCESS ALEXANDRA'S ARRIVAL IN LONDON.</small></div> + +<p>It is curious to see London gone mad. Down in the +Strand here, the monomaniacal tricks it is playing are +grievous to behold, but along Fleet Street and Cheapside it +gradually becomes frenzied, dressing itself up in all sorts +of odds and ends, and knocking itself about in a most +amazing manner. At London Bridge it raves, principally +about the Kings of Denmark and their portraits. I have +been looking among them for Hamlet's uncle, and have +discovered one personage with a high nose, who I think is +the man.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours always.<br /> +</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span></p> + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Lehmann.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Office of "All the Year Round," No. 26, Wellington Street,</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;"><span class="smcap">Strand, London, W.C.</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Tuesday, March 10th, 1863.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>Dear Mrs. Lehmann</span>,</div> + +<p>Two stalls for to-morrow's reading were sent to you +by post before I heard from you this morning. Two will +always come to you while you remain a Gummidge, and I +hope I need not say that if you want more, none could be +better bestowed in my sight.</p> + +<p>Pray tell Lehmann, when you next write to him, that I +find I owe him a mint of money for the delightful Swedish +sleigh-bells. They are the wonder, awe, and admiration +of the whole country side, and I never go out without them.</p> + +<p>Let us make an exchange of child stories. I heard of +a little fellow the other day whose mamma had been telling +him that a French governess was coming over to him from +Paris, and had been expatiating on the blessings and advantages +of having foreign tongues. After leaning his plump +little cheek against the window glass in a dreary little way +for some minutes, he looked round and enquired in a general +way, and not as if it had any special application, whether +she didn't think "that the Tower of Babel was a great +mistake altogether?"</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Major.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Office of "All the Year Round," a Weekly Journal, etc. etc.,</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;"><span class="smcap">26, Wellington Street, Strand</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Thursday, March 12th, 1863.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Mary</span>,</div> + +<p>I am quite concerned to hear that you and your +party (including your brother Willie) paid for seats at my +reading last night. You must promise me never to do so +any more. My old affections and attachments are not so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span> +lightly cherished or so easily forgotten as that I can bear +the thought of you and yours coming to hear me like so +many strangers. It will at all times delight me if you will +send a little note to me, or to Georgina, or to Mary, saying +when you feel inclined to come, and how many stalls you +want. You may always be certain, even on the fullest +nights, of room being made for you. And I shall always +be interested and pleased by knowing that you are present.</p> + +<p>Mind! You are to be exceedingly penitent for last +night's offence, and to make me a promise that it shall +never be repeated. On which condition accept my noble +forgiveness.</p> + +<p>With kind regard to Mr. Major, my dear Mary,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Thursday, March 31st, 1863.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>I mean to go on reading into June. For the sake of +the finer effects (in "Copperfield" principally), I have changed +from St. James's Hall to the Hanover Square Room. The +latter is quite a wonderful room for sound, and so easy that +the least inflection will tell anywhere in the place exactly +as it leaves your lips; but I miss my dear old shilling +galleries—six or eight hundred strong—with a certain +roaring sea of response in them, that you have stood upon +the beach of many and many a time.</p> + +<p>The summer, I hope and trust, will quicken the pace at +which you grow stronger again. I am but in dull spirits +myself just now, or I should remonstrate with you on your +slowness.</p> + +<p>Having two little boys sent home from school "to see<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span> +the illuminations" on the marriage-night, I chartered an +enormous van, at a cost of five pounds, and we started in +majesty from the office in London, fourteen strong. We +crossed Waterloo Bridge with the happy design of beginning +the sight at London Bridge, and working our way +through the City to Regent Street. In a by-street in the +Borough, over against a dead wall and under a railway +bridge, we were blocked for four hours. We were obliged +to walk home at last, having seen nothing whatever. The +wretched van turned up in the course of the next morning; +and the best of it was that at Rochester here they illuminated +the fine old castle, and really made a very splendid and +picturesque thing (so my neighbours tell me).</p> + +<p>With love to Mrs. Macready and Katie,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever, my dearest Macready, your most affectionate.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. +Wilkie +Collins.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Wednesday, April 22nd, 1863.</i><br /> +</div> + + +<div class='center'><small>ON THE DEATH OF MR. EGG.</small><br /><br /> + +<small>EXTRACT.</small></div> + +<p>Ah, poor Egg! I knew what you would think and feel +about it. When we saw him in Paris on his way out I was +struck by his extreme nervousness, and derived from it an +uneasy foreboding of his state. What a large piece of a +good many years he seems to have taken with him! How +often have I thought, since the news of his death came, of +his putting his part in the saucepan (with the cover on) +when we rehearsed "The Lighthouse;" of his falling out of +the hammock when we rehearsed "The Frozen Deep;" +of his learning Italian numbers when he ate the garlic in +the carriage; of the thousands (I was going to say) of dark +mornings when I apostrophised him as "Kernel;" of his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span> +losing my invaluable knife in that beastly stage-coach; of +his posting up that mysterious book<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> every night! I +hardly know why, but I have always associated that volume +most with Venice. In my memory of the dear gentle little +fellow, he will be (as since those days he always has been) +eternally posting up that book at the large table in the +middle of our Venice sitting-room, incidentally asking the +name of an hotel three weeks back! And his pretty house +is to be laid waste and sold. If there be a sale on the spot +I shall try to buy something in loving remembrance of him, +good dear little fellow. Think what a great "Frozen +Deep" lay close under those boards we acted on! My +brother Alfred, Luard, Arthur, Albert, Austin, Egg. Even +among the audience, Prince Albert and poor Stone! "I +heard the"—I forget what it was I used to say—"come up +from the great deep;" and it rings in my ears now, like a +sort of mad prophecy.</p> + +<p>However, this won't do. We must close up the ranks +and march on.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Rev. W. +Brookfield.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Gad's Hill</span>, <i>May 17th, 1863.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Brookfield</span>,</div> + +<p>It occurs to me that you may perhaps know, or know +of, a kind of man that I want to discover.</p> + +<p>One of my boys (the youngest) now is at Wimbledon +School. He is a docile, amiable boy of fair abilities, but +sensitive and shy. And he writes me so very earnestly that +he feels the school to be confusingly large for him, and that +he is sure he could do better with some gentleman who gave +his own personal attention to the education of half-a-dozen +or a dozen boys, as to impress me with the belief that I ought +to heed his conviction.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span></p> +<p>Has any such phenomenon as a good and reliable man +in this wise ever come in your way? Forgive my troubling +you, and believe me,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Cordially yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Rev. W. +Brookfield.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>May 24th, 1863.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Brookfield</span>,</div> + +<p>I am most truly obliged to you for your kind and +ready help.</p> + +<p>When I am in town next week, I will call upon the +Bishop of Natal, more to thank him than with the hope of +profiting by that gentleman of whom he writes, as the limitation +to "little boys" seems to stop the way. I want to +find someone with whom this particular boy could remain; +if there were a mutual interest and liking, that would be a +great point gained.</p> + +<p>Why did the kings in the fairy tales want children? I +suppose in the weakness of the royal intellect.</p> + +<p>Concerning "Nickleby," I am so much of your mind +(comparing it with "Copperfield"), that it was a long time +before I could take a pleasure in reading it. But I got +better, as I found the audience always taking to it. I have +been trying, alone by myself, the "Oliver Twist" murder, but +have got something so horrible out of it that I am afraid to +try it in public.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">M. de +Cerjat.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Thursday, May 28th, 1863.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Cerjat</span>,</div> + +<p>I don't wonder at your finding it difficult to reconcile +your mind to a French Hamlet; but I assure you that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span> +Fechter's is a very remarkable performance perfectly consistent +with itself (whether it be my particular Hamlet, +or your particular Hamlet, or no), a coherent and intelligent +whole, and done by a true artist. I have never seen, +I think, an intelligent and clear view of the whole character +so well sustained throughout; and there is a very captivating +air of romance and picturesqueness added, which is +quite new. Rely upon it, the public were right. The thing +could not have been sustained by oddity; it would have +perished upon that, very soon. As to the mere accent, +there is far less drawback in that than you would suppose. +For this reason, he obviously knows English so thoroughly +that you feel he is safe. You are never in pain for him. +This sense of ease is gained directly, and then you think +very little more about it.</p> + +<p>The Colenso and Jowett matter is a more difficult question, +but here again I don't go with you. The position of +the writers of "Essays and Reviews" is, that certain parts +of the Old Testament have done their intended function in +the education of the world <i>as it was;</i> but that mankind, like +the individual man, is designed by the Almighty to have +an infancy and a maturity, and that as it advances, the +machinery of its education must advance too. For example: +inasmuch as ever since there was a sun and there was +vapour, there <i>must have</i> been a rainbow under certain +conditions, so surely it would be better now to recognise +that indisputable fact. Similarly, Joshua might command +the sun to stand still, under the impression that it moved +round the earth; but he could not possibly have inverted +the relations of the earth and the sun, whatever his +impressions were. Again, it is contended that the science +of geology is quite as much a revelation to man, as books +of an immense age and of (at the best) doubtful origin, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span> +that your consideration of the latter must reasonably be +influenced by the former. As I understand the importance +of timely suggestions such as these, it is, that the Church +should not gradually shock and lose the more thoughtful +and logical of human minds; but should be so gently and +considerately yielding as to retain them, and, through them, +hundreds of thousands. This seems to me, as I understand +the temper and tendency of the time, whether for good or +evil, to be a very wise and necessary position. And as I +understand the danger, it is not chargeable on those who +take this ground, but on those who in reply call names and +argue nothing. What these bishops and such-like say +about revelation, in assuming it to be finished and done +with, I can't in the least understand. Nothing is discovered +without God's intention and assistance, and I suppose every +new knowledge of His works that is conceded to man to be +distinctly a revelation by which men are to guide themselves. +Lastly, in the mere matter of religious doctrine and dogmas, +these men (Protestants—protestors—successors of the men +who protested against human judgment being set aside) talk +and write as if they were all settled by the direct act of +Heaven; not as if they had been, as we know they were, a +matter of temporary accommodation and adjustment among +disputing mortals as fallible as you or I.</p> + +<p>Coming nearer home, I hope that Georgina is almost +quite well. She has no attack of pain or flurry now, and is +in all respects immensely better. Mary is neither married +nor (that I know of) going to be. She and Katie and a lot +of them have been playing croquet outside my window here +for these last four days, to a mad and maddening extent. +My sailor-boy's ship, the <i>Orlando</i>, is fortunately in Chatham +Dockyard—so he is pretty constantly at home—while the +shipwrights are repairing a leak in her. I am reading in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span> +London every Friday just now. Great crams and great +enthusiasm. Townshend I suppose to have left Lausanne +somewhere about this day. His house in the park is hermetically +sealed, ready for him. The Prince and Princess +of Wales go about (wisely) very much, and have as fair a +chance of popularity as ever prince and princess had. The +City ball in their honour is to be a tremendously gorgeous +business, and Mary is highly excited by her father's being +invited, and she with him. Meantime the unworthy parent +is devising all kinds of subterfuges for sending her and +getting out of it himself. A very intelligent German friend +of mine, just home from America, maintains that the conscription +will succeed in the North, and that the war will be +indefinitely prolonged. <i>I</i> say "No," and that however mad +and villainous the North is, the war will finish by reason of +its not supplying soldiers. We shall see. The more they +brag the more I don't believe in them.</p> + +<div class='center'><b>* * * * * *</b></div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Percy +Fitzgerald.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place</span>, <i>Saturday Night, July 4th, 1863.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Mr. Fitzgerald</span>,</div> + +<p>I have been most heartily gratified by the perusal of +your article on my dogs. It has given me an amount and a +kind of pleasure very unusual, and for which I thank you +earnestly. The owner of the renowned dog Cæsar understands +me so sympathetically, that I trust with perfect confidence +to his feeling what I really mean in these few words. +You interest me very much by your kind promise, the +redemption of which I hereby claim, to send me your life of +Sterne when it comes out. If you should be in England +before this, I should be delighted to see you here on the top +of Falstaff's own Gad's Hill. It is a very pretty country,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span> +not thirty miles from London; and if you could spare a +day or two for its fine walks, I and my two latest dogs, a +St. Bernard and a bloodhound, would be charmed with your +company as one of ourselves.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Believe me, very faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<i>Friday, July 10th, 1863.</i><a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>Dear Madam</span>,</div> + +<p>I hope you will excuse this tardy reply to your letter. +It is often impossible for me, by any means, to keep pace +with my correspondents. I must take leave to say, that if +there be any general feeling on the part of the intelligent +Jewish people, that I have done them what you describe as +"a great wrong," they are a far less sensible, a far less just, +and a far less good-tempered people than I have always +supposed them to be. Fagin, in "Oliver Twist," is a Jew, +because it unfortunately was true of the time to which that +story refers, that that class of criminal almost invariably +was a Jew. But surely no sensible man or woman of your +persuasion can fail to observe—firstly, that all the rest of +the wicked <i>dramatis personæ</i> are Christians; and secondly, +that he is called the "Jew," not because of his religion, but +because of his race. If I were to write a story, in which +I described a Frenchman or a Spaniard as "the Roman +Catholic," I should do a very indecent and unjustifiable +thing; but I make mention of Fagin as the Jew, because he +is one of the Jewish people, and because it conveys that +kind of idea of him which I should give my readers of a +Chinaman, by calling him a Chinese.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span></p> +<p>The enclosed is quite a nominal subscription towards the +good object in which you are interested; but I hope it may +serve to show you that I have no feeling towards the Jewish +people but a friendly one. I always speak well of them, +whether in public or in private, and bear my testimony (as +I ought to do) to their perfect good faith in such transactions +as I have ever had with them; and in my "Child's +History of England," I have lost no opportunity of setting +forth their cruel persecution in old times.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Dear Madam, faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<p>In reply to this, the Jewish lady thanks him for +his kind letter and its enclosure, still remonstrating and +pointing out that though, as he observes, "all the other +criminal characters were Christians, they are, at least, contrasted +with characters of good Christians; this wretched +Fagin stands alone as the Jew."</p> + +<p>The reply to <i>this</i> letter afterwards was the character +of Riah, in "Our Mutual Friend," and some favourable +sketches of Jewish character in the lower class, in some +articles in "All the Year Round."</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Ouvry.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Wednesday Night, July 29th, 1863.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My Dear Ouvry</span>,</div> + +<p>I have had some undefined idea that you were to let +me know if you were coming to the archæologs at Rochester. +(I myself am keeping out of their way, as having had +enough of crowding and speech-making in London.) Will +you tell me where you are, whether you are in this neighbourhood +or out of it, whether you will come here on Saturday +and stay till Monday or till Tuesday morning? If you +will come, I <i>know</i> I can give you the heartiest welcome in +Kent, and I <i>think</i> I can give you the best wine in this part<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span> +of it. Send me a word in reply. I will fetch you from +anywhere, at any indicated time.</p> + +<p>We have very pretty places in the neighbourhood, and +are not uncomfortable people (I believe) to stay with.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours ever.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Charles +Reade.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Office of "All the Year Round</span>,"</span><br /> +<i>Wednesday, Sept. 30th, 1863.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Reade</span>,</div> + +<p>I <i>must</i> write you one line to say how interested I am +in your story, and to congratulate you upon its admirable +art and its surprising grace and vigour.</p> + +<p>And to hint my hope, at the same time, that you will be +able to find leisure for a little dash for the Christmas number. +It would be a really great and true pleasure to me if you +could.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours always.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Wednesday, Oct. 7th, 1863.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Georgy</span>,</div> + +<p>You will see by to-day's <i>Times</i> that it <i>was</i> an earthquake +that shook me, and that my watch showed exactly the +same time as the man's who writes from Blackheath so near +us—twenty minutes past three.</p> + +<p>It is a great satisfaction to me to make it out so precisely; +I wish you would enquire whether the servants felt +it. I thought it was the voice of the cook that answered +me, but that was nearly half an hour later. I am strongly +inclined to think that there is a peculiar susceptibility in +iron—at all events in our part of the country—to the shock, +as though there were something magnetic in it. For, whereas<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span> +my long iron bedstead was so violently shaken, I certainly +heard nothing rattle in the room.</p> + +<p>I will write about my return as soon as I get on with the +still unbegun "Uncommercial."</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. H. +Wills.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Gad's Hill</span>, <i>Sunday, Dec. 20th, 1863.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Wills</span>,</div> + +<p>I am clear that you took my cold. Why didn't you +do the thing completely, and take it away from me? for it +hangs by me still.</p> + +<p>Will you tell Mrs. Linton that in looking over her +admirable account (<i>most</i> admirable) of Mrs. Gordon's +book, I have taken out the references to Lockhart, not +because I in the least doubt their justice, but because I +knew him and he liked me; and because one bright day in +Rome, I walked about with him for some hours when he was +dying fast, and all the old faults had faded out of him, and +the now ghost of the handsome man I had first known +when Scott's daughter was at the head of his house, had +little more to do with this world than she in her grave, or +Scott in his, or small Hugh Littlejohn in his. Lockhart +had been anxious to see me all the previous day (when I +was away on the Campagna), and as we walked about I +knew very well that <i>he</i> knew very well why. He talked of +getting better, but I never saw him again. This makes me +stay Mrs. Linton's hand, gentle as it is.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Lirriper is indeed a most brilliant old lady. God +bless her.</p> + +<p>I am glad to hear of your being "haunted," and hope to +increase your stock of such ghosts pretty liberally.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully.<br /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span></p> +<h2>1864.</h2> + +<h3>NARRATIVE.</h3> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>Charles Dickens</span> was, as usual, at Gad's Hill, with a family +and friendly party, at the opening of this year, and had +been much shocked and distressed by the news of the +sudden death of Mr. Thackeray, brought to him by friends +arriving from London on the Christmas Eve of 1863, the +day on which the sad event happened. He writes of it, in +the first letter of the year, to Mr. Wilkie Collins, who was +passing the winter in Italy. He tells him, also, of his +having got well to work upon a new serial story, the first +number of which ("Our Mutual Friend") was published on +the 1st of May.</div> + +<p>The year began very sadly for Charles Dickens. On the +7th of February (his own birthday) he received the mournful +announcement of the death of his second son, Walter Landor +(a lieutenant in the 42nd Royal Highlanders), who had died +quite suddenly at Calcutta, on the last night of the year of +1863, at the age of twenty-three. His third son, Francis +Jeffrey, had started for India at the end of January.</p> + +<p>His annual letter to M. de Cerjat contains an allusion to +"another generation beginning to peep above the table"—the +children of his son Charles, who had been married +three years before, to Miss Bessie Evans.</p> + +<p>In the middle of February he removed to a house in +London (57, Gloucester Place, Hyde Park), where he made a +stay of the usual duration, up to the middle of June, all the +time being hard at work upon "Our Mutual Friend" and +"All the Year Round." Mr. Marcus Stone was the illustrator +of the new monthly work, and we give a specimen of one of +many letters which he wrote to him about his "subjects."</p> + +<p>His old friend, Mr. Charles Knight, with whom for many +years Charles Dickens had dined on his birthday, was staying, +this spring, in the Isle of Wight. To him he writes of the +death of Walter, and of another sad death which happened +at this time, and which affected him almost as much. Clara,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span> +the last surviving daughter of Mr. and Mrs. White, who had +been happily married to Mr. Gordon, of Cluny, not more +than two years, had just died at Bonchurch. Her father, +as will be seen by the touching allusion to him in this letter, +had died a short time after this daughter's marriage.</p> + +<p>A letter to Mr. Edmund Ollier has reference to certain +additions which Charles Dickens wished him to make to an +article (by Mr. Ollier) on Working Men's Clubs, published +in "All the Year Round."</p> + +<p>We are glad to have one letter to the Lord Chief Baron, +Sir Frederick Pollock, which shows the great friendship and +regard Charles Dickens had for him, and his admiration of +his qualities in his judicial capacity.</p> + +<p>We give a pleasant letter to Mrs. Storrar, for whom, +and for her husband, Dr. Storrar, Charles Dickens had affectionate +regard, because we are glad to have their names +in our book. The letter speaks for itself and needs no +explanation.</p> + +<p>The latter part of the year was uneventful. Hard at +work, he passed the summer and autumn at Gad's Hill, +taking holidays by receiving visitors at home (among them, +this year, Sir J. Emerson Tennent, his wife and daughter, +who were kindly urgent for his paying them a return visit +in Ireland) and occasional "runs" into France. The last +letters we give are his annual one to M. de Cerjat, and a +graceful little New Year's note to his dear old friend +"Barry Cornwall."</p> + +<p>The Christmas number was "Mrs. Lirriper's Legacy," +the first and last part written by himself, as in the case of +the previous year's "Mrs. Lirriper."</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. +Wilkie +Collins.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Gad's Hill</span>, <i>Monday, Jan. 24th, 1864.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='center'><small>EXTRACT.</small></div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Wilkie</span>,</div> + +<p>I am horribly behindhand in answering your welcome +letter; but I have been so busy, and have had the +house so full for Christmas and the New Year, and have had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span> +so much to see to in getting Frank out to India, that I have +not been able to settle down to a regular long letter, which +I mean this to be, but which it may not turn out to be, +after all.</p> + +<p>First, I will answer your enquiries about the Christmas +number and the new book. The Christmas number has +been the greatest success of all; has shot ahead of last +year; has sold about two hundred and twenty thousand; +and has made the name of Mrs. Lirriper so swiftly and +domestically famous as never was. I had a very strong +belief in her when I wrote about her, finding that she made +a great effect upon me; but she certainly has gone beyond +my hopes. (Probably you know nothing about her? which +is a very unpleasant consideration.) Of the new book, I +have done the two first numbers, and am now beginning +the third. It is a combination of drollery with romance +which requires a great deal of pains and a perfect throwing +away of points that might be amplified; but I hope it is +<i>very good</i>. I confess, in short, that I think it is. Strange +to say, I felt at first quite dazed in getting back to the large +canvas and the big brushes; and even now, I have a sensation +as of acting at the San Carlo after Tavistock House, +which I could hardly have supposed would have come upon +so old a stager.</p> + +<p>You will have read about poor Thackeray's death—sudden, +and yet not sudden, for he had long been alarmingly +ill. At the solicitation of Mr. Smith and some of his +friends, I have done what I would most gladly have excused +myself from doing, if I felt I could—written a couple of +pages about him in what was his own magazine.</p> + +<p>Concerning the Italian experiment, De la Rue is more +hopeful than you. He and his bank are closely leagued +with the powers at Turin, and he has long been devoted to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span> +Cavour; but he gave me the strongest assurances (with +illustrations) of the fusion between place and place, and of +the blending of small mutually antagonistic characters into +one national character, progressing cheeringly and certainly. +Of course there must be discouragements and discrepancies +in the first struggles of a country previously so degraded +and enslaved, and the time, as yet, has been very short.</p> + +<p>I should like to have a day with you at the Coliseum, +and on the Appian Way, and among the tombs, and with +the Orvieto. But Rome and I are wide asunder, physically +as well as morally. I wonder whether the dramatic stable, +where we saw the marionettes, still receives the Roman +public? And Lord! when I think of you in that hotel, how +I think of poor dear Egg in the long front drawing-room, +giving on to the piazza, posting up that wonderful necromantic +volume which we never shall see opened!</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Marcus +Stone.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">57, <span class="smcap">Gloucester Place, Hyde Park</span>,<br /></span> +<i>Tuesday, Feb. 23rd, 1864.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Marcus</span>,</div> + +<p>I think the design for the cover <i>excellent</i>, and do not +doubt its coming out to perfection. The slight alteration I +am going to suggest originates in a business consideration +not to be overlooked.</p> + +<p>The word "Our" in the title must be out in the open +like "Mutual Friend," making the title three distinct large +lines—"Our" as big as "Mutual Friend." This would +give you too much design at the bottom. I would therefore +take out the dustman, and put the Wegg and Boffin composition +(which is capital) in its place. I don't want +Mr. Inspector or the murder reward bill, because these +points are sufficiently indicated in the river at the top. +Therefore you can have an indication of the dustman in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span> +Mr. Inspector's place. Note, that the dustman's face +should be droll, and not horrible. Twemlow's elbow will +still go out of the frame as it does now, and the same with +Lizzie's skirts on the opposite side. With these changes, +work away!</p> + +<p>Mrs. Boffin, as I judge of her from the sketch, "very +good, indeed." I want Boffin's oddity, without being at all +blinked, to be an oddity of a very honest kind, that people +will like.</p> + +<p>The doll's dressmaker is immensely better than she was. +I think she should now come extremely well. A weird sharpness +not without beauty is the thing I want.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Affectionately always.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Charles +Knight.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +57, <span class="smcap">Gloucester Place</span>, W., <i>Tuesday, March 1st, 1864.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Knight</span>,</div> + +<p>We knew of your being in the Isle of Wight, and +had said that we should have this year to drink your health +in your absence. Rely on my being always ready and happy +to renew our old friendship in the flesh. In the spirit it +needs no renewal, because it has no break.</p> + +<p>Ah, poor Mrs. White! A sad, sad story! It is better +for poor White that that little churchyard by the sea +received his ashes a while ago, than that he should have +lived to this time.</p> + +<p>My poor boy was on his way home from an up-country +station, on sick leave. He had been very ill, but was not +so at the time. He was talking to some brother-officers in +the Calcutta hospital about his preparations for home, when +he suddenly became excited, had a rush of blood from the +mouth, and was dead. His brother Frank would arrive out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span> +at Calcutta, expecting to see him after six years, and he +would have been dead a month.</p> + +<p>My "working life" is resolving itself at the present +into another book, in twenty green leaves. You work like +a Trojan at Ventnor, but you do that everywhere; and +that's why you are so young.</p> + +<p>Mary and Georgina unite in kindest regard to you, and +to Mrs. Knight, and to your daughters. So do I. And I +am ever, my dear Knight,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—Serene View! What a placid address!</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Edmund +Ollier.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +"<span class="smcap">All the Year Round" Office</span>, <i>March, 1864.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='center'><small>EXTRACT.</small></div> + +<p>I want the article on "Working Men's Clubs" to refer +back to "The Poor Man and his Beer" in No. 1, and to +maintain the principle involved in that effort.</p> + +<p>Also, emphatically, to show that trustfulness is at the +bottom of all social institutions, and that to trust a man, as +one of a body of men, is to place him under a wholesome +restraint of social opinion, and is a very much better thing +than to make a baby of him.</p> + +<p>Also, to point out that the rejection of beer in this club, +tobacco in that club, dancing or what-not in another club, +are instances that such clubs are founded on mere whims, +and therefore cannot successfully address human nature in +the general, and hope to last.</p> + +<p>Also, again to urge that patronage is the curse and +blight of all such endeavours, and to impress upon the +working men that they must originate and manage for +themselves. And to ask them the question, can they possibly +show their detestation of drunkenness better, or better<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span> +strive to get rid of it from among them, than to make it a +hopeless disqualification in all their clubs, and a reason for +expulsion.</p> + +<p>Also, to encourage them to declare to themselves and +their fellow working men that they want social rest and +social recreation for themselves and their families; and that +these clubs are intended for that laudable and necessary +purpose, and do not need educational pretences or flourishes. +Do not let them be afraid or ashamed of wanting to be +amused and pleased.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">The Lord +Chief +Baron.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +57, <span class="smcap">Gloucester Place</span>, <i>Tuesday, March 15th, 1864.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Chief Baron</span>,</div> + +<p>Many thanks for your kind letter, which I find on my +return from a week's holiday.</p> + +<p>Your answer concerning poor Thackeray I will duly +make known to the active spirit in that matter, Mr. Shirley +Brooks.</p> + +<p>Your kind invitation to me to come and see you and +yours, and hear the nightingales, I shall not fail to discuss +with Forster, and with an eye to spring. I expect to see +him presently; the rather as I found a note from him +when I came back yesterday, describing himself somewhat +gloomily as not having been well, and as feeling a little out +of heart.</p> + +<p>It is not out of order, I hope, to remark that you have +been much in my thoughts and on my lips lately? For I +really have not been able to repress my admiration of the +vigorous dignity and sense and spirit, with which one of the +best of judges set right one of the dullest of juries in a +recent case.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Believe me ever, very faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. John +Forster.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +57, <span class="smcap">Gloucester Place</span>, <i>Tuesday, March 29th, 1864.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Forster</span>,</div> + +<p>I meant to write to you last night, but to enable +Wills to get away I had to read a book of Fitzgerald's +through before I went to bed.</p> + +<p>Concerning Eliot, I sat down, as I told you, and read +the book through with the strangest interest and the +highest admiration. I believe it to be as honest, spirited, +patient, reliable, and gallant a piece of biography as ever +was written, the care and pains of it astonishing, the completeness +of it masterly; and what I particularly feel about +it is that the dignity of the man, and the dignity of the +book that tells about the man, always go together, and fit +each other. This same quality has always impressed me as +the great leading speciality of the Goldsmith, and enjoins +sympathy with the subject, knowledge of it, and pursuit of +it in its own spirit; but I think it even more remarkable +here. I declare that apart from the interest of having been +so put into the time, and enabled to understand it, I personally +feel quite as much the credit and honour done to +literature by such a book. It quite clears out of the +remembrance a thousand pitiful things, and sets one up in +heart again. I am not surprised in the least by Bulwer's +enthusiasm. I was as confident about the effect of the book +when I closed the first volume, as I was when I closed the +second with a full heart. No man less in earnest than Eliot +himself could have done it, and I make bold to add that it +never could have been done by a man who was so distinctly +born to do the work as Eliot was to do his.</p> + +<p>Saturday at Hastings I must give up. I have wavered +and considered, and considered and wavered, but if I take +that sort of holiday, I must have a day to spare after it, +and at this critical time I have not. If I were to lose a page<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span> +of the five numbers I have purposed to myself to be ready +by the publication day, I should feel that I had fallen short. +I have grown hard to satisfy, and write very slowly, and I +have so much bad fiction, that <i>will</i> be thought of when I +don't want to think of it, that I am forced to take more +care than I ever took.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Storrar.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Sunday Morning, May 15th, 1864.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Mrs. Storrar</span>,</div> + +<p>Our family dinner must come off at Gad's Hill, where +I have improvements to exhibit, and where I shall be truly +pleased to see you and the doctor again. I have deferred +answering your note, while I have been scheming and +scheming for a day between this time and our departure. +But it is all in vain. My engagements have accumulated, +and become such a whirl, that no day is left me. Nothing +is left me but to get away. I look forward to my release +from this dining life with an inexpressible longing after +quiet and my own pursuits. What with public speechifying, +private eating and drinking, and perpetual simmering in hot +rooms, I have made London too hot to hold me and my work +together. Mary and Georgina acknowledge the condition of +imbecility to which we have become reduced in reference to +your kind reminder. They say, when I stare at them in a +forlorn way with your note in my hand: "What <span class="smcap">can</span> you +do!" To which I can only reply, implicating them: "See +what you have brought me to!"</p> + +<p>With our united kind regard to yourself and Dr. Storrar, +I entreat your pity and compassion for an unfortunate wretch +whom a too-confiding disposition has brought to this pass. If<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span> +I had not allowed my "cheeild" to pledge me to all manner +of fellow-creatures, I and my digestion might have been in +a state of honourable independence this day.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully and penitently yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Percy +Fitzgerald.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Office of "All the Year Round," etc. etc. etc.</span></span><br /> +<i>Wednesday, July 27th, 1864.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Mr. Fitzgerald</span>,</div> + +<p>First, let me assure you that it gave us all real pleasure +to see your sister and you at Gad's Hill, and that we +all hope you will both come and stay a day or two with us +when you are next in England.</p> + +<p>Next, let me convey to you the intelligence that I resolve +to launch "Miss Manuel," fully confiding in your conviction +of the power of the story. On all business points, +Wills will communicate with you. I purpose beginning its +publication in our first September number, therefore there +is no time to be lost.</p> + +<p>The only suggestion I have to make as to the MS. in +hand and type is, that Captain Fermor wants relief. It is a +disagreeable character, as you mean it to be, and I should +be afraid to do so much with him, if the case were mine, +without taking the taste of him, here and there, out of the +reader's mouth. It is remarkable that if you do not administer +a disagreeable character carefully, the public have +a decided tendency to think that the <i>story</i> is disagreeable, +and not merely the fictitious person.</p> + +<p>What do you think of the title,</p> + +<div class='center'> +<span class="smcap">Never Forgotten?</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>It is a good one in itself, would express the eldest sister's +pursuit, and glanced at now and then in the text, would hold +the reader in suspense. I would propose to add the line,</p> + +<div class='center'> +<span class="smcap">By the Author of Bella Donna</span>.<br /> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span></p> + +<p>Let me know your opinion as to the title. I need not +assure you that the greatest care will be taken of you here, +and that we shall make you as thoroughly well and widely +known as we possibly can.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Very faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Sir James +Emerson +Tennent.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Friday, Aug. 26th, 1864.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Tennent</span>,</div> + +<p>Believe me, I fully intended to come to you—did not +doubt that I should come—and have greatly disappointed +Mary and her aunt, as well as myself, by not coming. But +I do not feel safe in going out for a visit. The mere +knowledge that I had such a thing before me would put +me out. It is not the length of time consumed, or the +distance traversed, but it is the departure from a settled +habit and a continuous sacrifice of pleasures that comes in +question. This is an old story with me. I have never +divided a book of my writing with anything else, but have +always wrought at it to the exclusion of everything else; +and it is now too late to change.</p> + +<p>After receiving your kind note I resolved to make +another trial. But the hot weather and a few other drawbacks +did not mend the matter, for I have dropped astern +this month instead of going ahead. So I have seen Forster, +and shown him my chains, and am reduced to taking +exercise in them, like Baron Trenck.</p> + +<p>I am heartily pleased that you set so much store by the +dedication. You may be sure that it does not make me +the less anxious to take pains, and to work out well what I +have in my mind.</p> + +<p>Mary and Georgina unite with me in kindest regards<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span> +to Lady Tennent and Miss Tennent, and wish me to report +that while they are seriously disappointed, they still feel +there is no help for it. I can testify that they had great +pleasure in the anticipation of the visit, and that their faces +were very long and blank indeed when I began to hint my +doubts. They fought against them valiantly as long as +there was a chance, but they see my difficulty as well as +anyone not myself can.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Believe me, my dear Tennent, ever faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Clarkson +Stanfield, +R.A.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">The Athenæum</span>, <i>Wednesday, Sept. 21st, 1864.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Stanny</span>,</div> + +<p>I met George in the street a few days ago, and he +gave me a wonderful account of the effect of your natural +element upon you at Ramsgate. I expect you to come back +looking about twenty-nine, and feeling about nineteen.</p> + +<p>This morning I have looked in here to put down Fechter +as a candidate, on the chance of the committee's electing +him some day or other. He is a most devoted worshipper +of yours, and would take it as a great honour if you would +second him. Supposing you to have not the least objection +(of course, if you should have any, I can in a moment provide +a substitute), will you write your name in the candidates' +book as his seconder when you are next in town and +passing this way?</p> + +<p>Lastly, if you should be in town on his opening night (a +Saturday, and in all probability the 22nd of October), will +you come and dine at the office and see his new piece? You +have not yet "pronounced" in the matter of that new +French stage of his, on which Calcott for the said new piece +has built up all manner of villages, camps, Versailles gardens, +etc. etc. etc. etc., with no wings, no flies, no looking off in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span> +any direction. If you tell me that you are to be in town by +that time, I will not fail to refresh your memory as to the +precise day.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 10em;">With kind regard to Mrs. Stanfield,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Believe me, my dear old boy, ever your affectionate</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Dick</span>.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">M. de +Cerjat.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Tuesday, Oct. 25th, 1864.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Cerjat</span>,</div> + +<p>Here is a limping brute of a reply to your always-welcome +Christmas letter! But, as usual, when I have done +my day's work, I jump up from my desk and rush into air +and exercise, and find letter-writing the most difficult thing +in my daily life.</p> + +<p>I hope that your asthmatic tendencies may not be +strong just now; but Townshend's account of the premature +winter at Lausanne is not encouraging, and with us here +in England all such disorders have been aggravated this +autumn. However, a man of your dignity <i>must</i> have either +asthma or gout, and I hope you have got the better of the +two.</p> + +<p>In London there is, as you see by the papers, extraordinarily +little news. At present the apprehension (rather +less than it was thought) of a commercial crisis, and the trial +of Müller next Thursday, are the two chief sensations. I +hope that gentleman will be hanged, and have hardly a +doubt of it, though croakers contrariwise are not wanting. +It is difficult to conceive any other line of defence than +that the circumstances proved, taken separately, are slight. +But a sound judge will immediately charge the jury that +the strength of the circumstances lies in their being put +together, and will thread them together on a fatal rope.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span></p> + +<p>As to the Church, my friend, I am sick of it. The +spectacle presented by the indecent squabbles of priests of +most denominations, and the exemplary unfairness and +rancour with which they conduct their differences, utterly +repel me. And the idea of the Protestant establishment, +in the face of its own history, seeking to trample out discussion +and private judgment, is an enormity so cool, that I +wonder the Right Reverends, Very Reverends, and all other +Reverends, who commit it, can look in one another's faces +without laughing, as the old soothsayers did. Perhaps +they can't and don't. How our sublime and so-different +Christian religion is to be administered in the future I +cannot pretend to say, but that the Church's hand is at +its own throat I am fully convinced. Here, more Popery, +there, more Methodism—as many forms of consignment to +eternal damnation as there are articles, and all in one forever +quarrelling body—the Master of the New Testament put +out of sight, and the rage and fury almost always turning +on the letter of obscure parts of the Old Testament, which +itself has been the subject of accommodation, adaptation, +varying interpretation without end—these things cannot last. +The Church that is to have its part in the coming time must +be a more Christian one, with less arbitrary pretensions and +a stronger hold upon the mantle of our Saviour, as He +walked and talked upon this earth.</p> + +<p>Of family intelligence I have very little. Charles +Collins continuing in a very poor way, and showing no +signs of amendment. He and my daughter Katie went to +Wiesbaden and thence to Nice, where they are now. I +have strong apprehensions that he will never recover, and +that she will be left a young widow. All the rest are as they +were. Mary neither married nor going to be; Georgina +holding them all together and perpetually corresponding<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span> +with the distant ones; occasional rallyings coming off here, +in which another generation begins to peep above the table. +I once used to think what a horrible thing it was to be a +grandfather. Finding that the calamity falls upon me +without my perceiving any other change in myself, I bear it +like a man.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Watson has bought a house in town, to which she +repairs in the season, for the bringing out of her daughter. +She is now at Rockingham. Her eldest son is said to be +as good an eldest son as ever was, and to make her position +there a perfectly independent and happy one. I have not +seen him for some years; her I often see; but he ought to +be a good fellow, and is very popular in his neighbourhood.</p> + +<p>I have altered this place very much since you were here, +and have made a pretty (I think an unusually pretty) drawing-room. +I wish you would come back and see it. My +being on the Dover line, and my being very fond of France, +occasion me to cross the Channel perpetually. Whenever +I feel that I have worked too much, or am on the eve of overdoing +it, and want a change, away I go by the mail-train, +and turn up in Paris or anywhere else that suits my +humour, next morning. So I come back as fresh as a +daisy, and preserve as ruddy a face as though I never leant +over a sheet of paper. When I retire from a literary life I +think of setting up as a Channel pilot.</p> + +<p>Pray give my love to Mrs. Cerjat, and tell her that I +should like to go up the Great St. Bernard again, and shall +be glad to know if she is open to another ascent. Old +days in Switzerland are ever fresh to me, and sometimes +I walk with you again, after dark, outside the hotel at +Martigny, while Lady Mary Taylour (wasn't it?) sang +within very prettily. Lord, how the time goes! How +many years ago!</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span></p> + + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<i>Wednesday, Nov. 16th, 1864.</i><a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>Dear Madam</span>,</div> + +<p>I have received your letter with great pleasure, and +hope to be (as I have always been at heart) the best of +friends with the Jewish people. The error you point out to +me had occurred to me, as most errors do to most people, +when it was too late to correct it. But it will do no harm. +The peculiarities of dress and manner are fused together for +the sake of picturesqueness.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Dear Madam, faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. B. W. +Procter.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Saturday, Dec. 31st, 1864.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Procter</span>,</div> + +<p>I have reserved my acknowledgment of your delightful +note (the youngest note I have had in all this year) +until to-day, in order that I might send, most heartily and +affectionately, all seasonable good wishes to you and to +Mrs. Procter, and to those who are nearest and dearest to +you. Take them from an old friend who loves you.</p> + +<p>Mamie returns the tender compliments, and Georgina +does what the Americans call "endorse them." Mrs. +Lirriper is proud to be so remembered, and says over and +over again "that it's worth twenty times the trouble she +has taken with the narrative, since Barry Cornwall, Esquire, +is pleased to like it."</p> + +<p>I got rid of a touch of neuralgia in France (as I always +do there), but I found no old friends in my voyages of +discovery on that side, such as I have left on this.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +My dear Procter, ever your affectionate.<br /> +</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>1865.</h2> + +<h3>NARRATIVE.</h3> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>For</span> this spring a furnished house in Somer's Place, Hyde +Park, had been taken, which Charles Dickens occupied, with +his sister-in-law and daughter, from the beginning of March +until June.</div> + +<p>During the year he paid two short visits to France.</p> + +<p>He was still at work upon "Our Mutual Friend," two +numbers of which had been issued in January and February, +when the first volume was published, with dedication to Sir +James Emerson Tennent. The remaining numbers were +issued between March and November, when the complete +work was published in two volumes.</p> + +<p>The Christmas number, to which Charles Dickens contributed +three stories, was called "Doctor Marigold's +Prescriptions."</p> + +<p>Being out of health, and much overworked, Charles +Dickens, at the end of May, took his first short holiday trip +into France. And on his way home, and on a day afterwards +so fatal to him, the 9th of June, he was in that +most terrible railway accident at Staplehurst. Many of our +letters for this year have reference to this awful experience—an +experience from the effects of which his nerves never +wholly recovered. His letters to Mr. Thomas Mitton and +to Mrs. Hulkes (an esteemed friend and neighbour) are +graphic descriptions of this disaster. But they do <span class="smcap">not</span> tell +of the wonderful presence of mind and energy shown by +Charles Dickens when most of the terrified passengers were +incapable of thought or action, or of his gentleness and +goodness to the dead and dying. The Mr. Dickenson<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> mentioned +in the letter to Mrs. Hulkes soon recovered. He +always considers that he owes his life to Charles Dickens, +the latter having discovered and extricated him from beneath +a carriage before it was too late.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span></p> +<p>Our first letter to Mr. Kent is one of congratulation upon +his having become the proprietor of <i>The Sun</i> newspaper.</p> + +<p>Professor Owen has been so kind as to give us some +notes, which we publish for the sake of his great name. +Charles Dickens had not much correspondence with Professor +Owen, but there was a firm friendship and great +mutual admiration between them.</p> + +<p>The letter to Mrs. Procter is in answer to one from her, +asking Charles Dickens to write a memoir of her daughter +Adelaide, as a preface to a collected edition of her poems.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +William +Charles +Kent.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Tuesday, Jan. 17th, 1865.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Kent</span>,</div> + +<p>I meant to have written instantly on the appearance +of your paper in its beautiful freshness, to congratulate you +on its handsome appearance, and to send you my heartiest +good wishes for its thriving and prosperous career. Through +a mistake of the postman's, that remarkable letter has been +tesselated into the Infernal Pavement instead of being +delivered in the Strand.</p> + +<p>We have been looking and waiting for your being well +enough to propose yourself for a mouthful of fresh air. Are +you well enough to come on Sunday? We shall be coming +down from Charing Cross on Sunday morning, and I shall +be going up again at nine on Monday morning.</p> + +<p>It amuses me to find that you don't see your way with a +certain "Mutual Friend" of ours. I have a horrible suspicion +that you may begin to be fearfully knowing at somewhere +about No. 12 or 13. But you shan't if I can help it.</p> + +<p>Your note delighted me because it dwelt upon the places +in the number that <i>I</i> dwell on. Not that that is anything +new in your case, but it is always new to me in the pleasure +I derive from it, which is truly inexpressible.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever cordially yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Procter.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Wednesday, Feb. 15th, 1865.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Mrs. Procter</span>,</div> + +<p>Of course I will do it, and of course I will do it for +the love of you and Procter. You can give me my brief, +and we can speak about its details. Once again, of course +I will do it, and with all my heart.</p> + +<p>I have registered a vow (in which there is not the least +merit, for I couldn't help it) that when I am, as I am now, +very hard at work upon a book, I never will dine out more +than one day in a week. Why didn't you ask me for the +Wednesday, before I stood engaged to Lady Molesworth +for the Tuesday?</p> + +<p>It is so delightful to me to sit by your side anywhere +and be brightened up, that I lay a handsome sacrifice upon +the altar of "Our Mutual Friend" in writing this note, +very much against my will. But for as many years as can +be made consistent with my present juvenility, I always +have given my work the first place in my life, and what can +I do now at 35!—or at least at the two figures, never mind +their order.</p> + +<p>I send my love to Procter, hoping you may appropriate +a little of it by the way.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Office of "All the Year Round</span>,"</span><br /> +<i>Wednesday, March 1st, 1865.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>I have been laid up here with a frost-bitten foot +(from hard walking in the snow), or you would have heard +from me sooner.</p> + +<p>My reply to Professor Agassiz is short, but conclusive. +Daily seeing improper uses made of confidential letters in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span> +the addressing of them to a public audience that have no +business with them, I made not long ago a great fire in my +field at Gad's Hill, and burnt every letter I possessed. And +now I always destroy every letter I receive not on absolute +business, and my mind is so far at ease. Poor dear Felton's +letters went up into the air with the rest, or his highly +distinguished representative should have had them most +willingly.</p> + +<p>We never fail to drink old P.'s health on his birthday, +or to make him the subject of a thousand loving remembrances. +With best love to Mrs. Macready and Katie,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;">Ever, my dearest Macready,</span><br /> +Your most affectionate Friend.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">16, <span class="smcap">Somer's Place, Hyde Park</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Saturday Night, April 22nd, 1865.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>A thousand thanks for your kind letter, most heartily +welcome.</p> + +<p>My frost-bitten foot, after causing me great inconvenience +and much pain, has begun to conduct itself +amiably. I can now again walk my ten miles in the morning +without inconvenience, but am absurdly obliged to sit shoeless +all the evening—a very slight penalty, as I detest going +out to dinner (which killed the original old Parr by-the-bye).</p> + +<p>I am working like a dragon at my book, and am a terror +to the household, likewise to all the organs and brass bands +in this quarter. Gad's Hill is being gorgeously painted, +and we are here until the 1st of June. I wish I might +hope you would be there any time this summer; I really +<i>have</i> made the place comfortable and pretty by this time.</p> + +<p>It is delightful to us to hear such good news of Butty.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span> +She made so deep an impression on Fechter that he always +asks me what Ceylon has done for her, and always beams +when I tell him how thoroughly well it has made her. As +to <i>you</i>, you are the youngest man (worth mentioning as a +thorough man) that I know. Oh, let me be as young when +I am as——did you think I was going to write "old?" +No, sir—<ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'withdraw'">withdrawn</ins> from the wear and tear of busy life is +my expression.</p> + +<p>Poole still holds out at Kentish Town, and says he is +dying of solitude. His memory is astoundingly good. I +see him about once in two or three months, and in the +meantime he makes notes of questions to ask me when I +come. Having fallen in arrear of the time, these generally +refer to unknown words he has encountered in the newspapers. +His three last (he always reads them with tremendous +difficulty through an enormous magnifying-glass) +were as follows:</p> + +<div class='poem'> +1. What's croquet?<br /> +2. What's an Albert chain?<br /> +3. Let me know the state of mind of the Queen.<br /> +</div> + +<p>When I had delivered a neat exposition on these heads, +he turned back to his memoranda, and came to something +that the utmost power of the enormous magnifying-glass +couldn't render legible. After a quarter of an hour or so, +he said: "O yes, I know." And then rose and clasped +his hands above his head, and said: "Thank God, I am not +a dram-drinker."</p> + +<p>Do think of coming to Gad's in the summer; and do give +my love to Mrs. Macready, and tell her I know she can +make you come if she will. Mary and Georgy send best +and dearest loves to her, to you, and to Katie, and to baby.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span> +Johnny we suppose to be climbing the tree of knowledge +elsewhere.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +My dearest Macready, ever yours most affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Gad's Hill</span>, <i>Monday, June 12th</i>, 1865.<br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Macready</span>,</div> + +<div class='center'> +[<i>So far in his own writing.</i>]<br /> +</div> + +<p>Many thanks for your kind words of remembrance.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> +This is not all in my own hand, because I am too much +shaken to write many notes. Not by the beating and +dragging of the carriage in which I was—it did not go over, +but was caught on the turn, among the ruins of the bridge—but +by the work afterwards to get out the dying and +dead, which was terrible.</p> + +<div class='center'> +[<i>The rest in his own writing</i>.]<br /> +</div> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever your affectionate Friend.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—My love to Mrs. Macready.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Thomas +Mitton.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Tuesday, June 13th, 1865.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Mitton</span>,</div> + +<p>I should have written to you yesterday or the day +before, if I had been quite up to writing.</p> + +<p>I was in the only carriage that did not go over into the +stream. It was caught upon the turn by some of the ruin +of the bridge, and hung suspended and balanced in an +apparently impossible manner. Two ladies were my fellow-passengers, +an old one and a young one. This is exactly +what passed. You may judge from it the precise length of +the suspense: Suddenly we were off the rail, and beating<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span> +the ground as the car of a half-emptied balloon might. +The old lady cried out, "My God!" and the young one +screamed. I caught hold of them both (the old lady sat +opposite and the young one on my left), and said: "We can't +help ourselves, but we can be quiet and composed. Pray +don't cry out." The old lady immediately answered: "Thank +you. Rely upon me. Upon my soul I will be quiet." We +were then all tilted down together in a corner of the carriage, +and stopped. I said to them thereupon: "You may be sure +nothing worse can happen. Our danger <i>must</i> be over. +Will you remain here without stirring, while I get out of +the window?" They both answered quite collectedly, +"Yes," and I got out without the least notion what had +happened. Fortunately I got out with great caution and +stood upon the step. Looking down I saw the bridge gone, +and nothing below me but the line of rail. Some people in +the two other compartments were madly trying to plunge +out at window, and had no idea that there was an open +swampy field fifteen feet down below them, and nothing +else! The two guards (one with his face cut) were running +up and down on the down side of the bridge (which was not +torn up) quite wildly. I called out to them: "Look at me. +Do stop an instant and look at me, and tell me whether you +don't know me." One of them answered: "We know you +very well, Mr. Dickens." "Then," I said, "my good fellow, +for God's sake give me your key, and send one of those +labourers here, and I'll empty this carriage." We did it +quite safely, by means of a plank or two, and when it was +done I saw all the rest of the train, except the two baggage +vans, down in the stream. I got into the carriage again for +my brandy flask, took off my travelling hat for a basin, +climbed down the brickwork, and filled my hat with +water.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span></p> + +<p>Suddenly I came upon a staggering man covered with +blood (I think he must have been flung clean out of his +carriage), with such a frightful cut across the skull that I +couldn't bear to look at him. I poured some water over his +face and gave him some to drink, then gave him some +brandy, and laid him down on the grass, and he said, "I am +gone," and died afterwards. Then I stumbled over a lady +lying on her back against a little pollard-tree, with the +blood streaming over her face (which was lead colour) in a +number of distinct little streams from the head. I asked +her if she could swallow a little brandy and she just nodded, +and I gave her some and left her for somebody else. The +next time I passed her she was dead. Then a man, +examined at the inquest yesterday (who evidently had not +the least remembrance of what really passed), came running +up to me and implored me to help him find his wife, who +was afterwards found dead. No imagination can conceive +the ruin of the carriages, or the extraordinary weights +under which the people were lying, or the complications +into which they were twisted up among iron and wood, and +mud and water.</p> + +<p>I don't want to be examined at the inquest, and I don't +want to write about it. I could do no good either way, and +I could only seem to speak about myself, which, of course, +I would rather not do. I am keeping very quiet here. I +have a—I don't know what to call it—constitutional (I +suppose) presence of mind, and was not in the least fluttered +at the time. I instantly remembered that I had the MS. of +a number with me, and clambered back into the carriage +for it. But in writing these scanty words of recollection I +feel the shake and am obliged to stop.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully.<br /> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Walter +Jones.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Saturday, June 17th, 1865</i>.<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>Sir</span>,</div> + +<p>I beg you to assure the Committee of the Newsvendors' +Benevolent and Provident Institution, that I have +been deeply affected by their special remembrance of me in +my late escape from death or mutilation, and that I thank +them with my whole heart.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours and theirs.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Hulkes.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Gad's Hill</span>, <i>Sunday, June 18th, 1865.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Mrs. Hulkes</span>,</div> + +<p>I return the <i>Examiner</i> with many thanks. The +account is true, except that I <i>had</i> brandy. By an extraordinary +chance I had a bottle and a half with me. I slung +the half-bottle round my neck, and carried my hat full of +water in my hands. But I can understand the describer +(whoever he is) making the mistake in perfect good faith, +and supposing that I called for brandy, when I really called +to the others who were helping: "I have brandy here." +The Mr. Dickenson mentioned had changed places with a +Frenchman, who did not like the window down, a few +minutes before the accident. The Frenchman was killed, +and a labourer and I got Mr. Dickenson out of a most +extraordinary heap of dark ruins, in which he was jammed +upside down. He was bleeding at the eyes, ears, nose, +and mouth; but he didn't seem to know that afterwards, +and of course I didn't tell him. In the moment of going +over the viaduct the whole of his pockets were shaken +empty! He had no watch, no chain, no money, no pocket-book,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span> +no handkerchief, when we got him out. He had +been choking a quarter of an hour when I heard him groaning. +If I had not had the brandy to give him at the +moment, I think he would have been done for. As it was, +I brought him up to London in the carriage with me, and +couldn't make him believe he was hurt. He was the first +person whom the brandy saved. As I ran back to the +carriage for the whole full bottle, I saw the first two people +I had helped lying dead. A bit of shade from the hot sun, +into which we got the unhurt ladies, soon had as many dead +in it as living.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours always.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Arthur +Ryland.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Wednesday, June 21st, 1865.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Mr. Ryland</span>,</div> + +<p>I need not assure you that I regard the unanimous +desire of the Town Council Committee as a great honour, +and that I feel the strongest interest in the occasion, and +the strongest wish to associate myself with it.</p> + +<p>But, after careful consideration, I most unwillingly come +to the conclusion that I must decline. At the time in +question I shall, please God, either have just finished, or be +just finishing, my present book. Country rest and reflection +will then be invaluable to me, before casting about for +Christmas. I am a little shaken in my nervous system by +the terrible and affecting incidents of the late railway +accident, from which I bodily escaped. I am withdrawing +myself from engagements of all kinds, in order that I may +pursue my story with the comfortable sense of being +perfectly free while it is a-doing, and when it is done. The +consciousness of having made this engagement would, if I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span> +were to make it, render such sense incomplete, and so open +the way to others. This is the real state of the case, and +the whole reason for my declining.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours always.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Lehmann.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Tuesday, June 29th, 1865.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>Dear Mrs. Lehmann</span>,</div> + +<p>Come (with self and partner) on either of the days +you name, and you will be heartily welcomed by the humble +youth who now addresses you, and will then cast himself +at your feet.</p> + +<p>I am quite right again, I thank God, and have even got +my voice back; I most unaccountably brought somebody +else's out of that terrible scene. The directors have sent +me a Resolution of Thanks for assistance to the unhappy +passengers.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +With kind regards to Lehmann, ever yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Percy +Fitzgerald.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Office of "All the Year Round</span>,"</span><br /> +<i>Friday, July 7th, 1865.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Fitzgerald</span>,</div> + +<p>I shall be delighted to see you at Gad's Hill on +Sunday, and I hope you will bring a bag with you and will +not think of returning to London at night.</p> + +<p>We are a small party just now, for my daughter Mary +has been decoyed to Andover for the election week, in the +Conservative interest; think of my feelings as a Radical +parent! The wrong-headed member and his wife are the +friends with whom she hunts, and she helps to receive (and +<i>de</i>ceive) the voters, which is very awful!</p> + +<p>But in the week after next we shall be in great croquet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span> +force. I shall hope to persuade you to come back to us then +for a few days, and we will try to make you some amends +for a dull Sunday. Turn it over in your mind and try to +manage it.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Sincerely yours ever.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Professor +Owen, +F.R.S.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Gad's Hill</span>, <i>Wednesday, July 12th, 1865.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Owen</span>,</div> + +<p>Studying the gorilla last night for the twentieth +time, it suddenly came into my head that I had never +thanked you for that admirable treatise. This is to bear +witness to my blushes and repentance. If you knew how +much interest it has awakened in me, and how often it has +set me a-thinking, you would consider me a more thankless +beast than any gorilla that ever lived. But happily you do +<i>not</i> know, and I am not going to tell you.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Believe me, ever faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">The Earl +Russell.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Wednesday, Aug. 16th, 1865.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Lord Russell</span>,</div> + +<p>Mr. Dallas, who is a candidate for the Scotch professional +chair left vacant by Aytoun's death, has asked me +if I would object to introduce to you the first volume of a +book he has in the press with my publishers, on "The Gay +Science of Art and Criticism." I have replied I would <i>not</i> +object, as I have read as many of the sheets as I could get, +with extreme pleasure, and as I know you will find it a very +winning and brilliant piece of writing. Therefore he will +send the proofs of the volume to you as soon as he can get +them from the printer (at about the end of this week I take +it), and if you read them you will not be hard upon me for +bearing the responsibility of his doing so, I feel assured.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span></p> + +<p>I suppose Mr. Dallas to have some impression that his +pleasing you with his book might advance his Scottish suit. +But all I know is, that he is a gentleman of great attainments +and erudition, much distinguished as the writer of +the best critical literary pieces in <i>The Times</i>, and thoroughly +versed in the subjects which Professor Aytoun represented +officially.</p> + +<p>I beg to send my regard to Lady Russell and all the +house, and am ever, my dear Lord Russell,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Your faithful and obliged.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—I am happy to report that my sailor-boy's captain, +relinquishing his ship on sick leave, departs from the mere +form of certificate given to all the rest, and adds that his +obedience to orders is remarkable, and that he is a highly +intelligent and promising young officer.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Marcus +Stone.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Hôtel du Helder, Paris</span>, <i>Wednesday, Sept. 13th, 1865.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Marcus</span>,</div> + +<p>I leave here to-morrow, and propose going to the +office by tidal train <i>next Saturday evening</i>. Through the +whole of next week, on and off, I shall be at the office; when +not there, at Gad's; but much oftener at the office. The +sooner I can know about the subjects you take for illustration +the better, as I can then fill the list of illustrations to +the second volume for the printer, and enable him to make +up his last sheet. Necessarily that list is now left blank, +as I cannot give him the titles of the subjects, not knowing +them myself.</p> + +<p>It has been fearfully hot on this side, but is something +cooler.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—On glancing over this note, I find it very like the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span> +king's love-letter in "Ruy Blas." "Madam, there is a high +wind. I have shot six wolves."</p> + +<p>I think the frontispiece to the second volume should be +the dustyard with the three mounds, and Mr. Boffin digging +up the Dutch bottle, and Venus restraining Wegg's ardour +to get at him. Or Mr. Boffin might be coming down with +the bottle, and Venus might be dragging Wegg out of the +way as described.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Percy +Fitzgerald.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Office of "All the Year Round</span>,"</span><br /> +<i>Saturday, Sept. 23rd, 1865.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Fitzgerald</span>,</div> + +<p>I cannot thank you too much for Sultan. He is a +noble fellow, has fallen into the ways of the family with a +grace and dignity that denote the gentleman, and came +down to the railway a day or two since to welcome me home +(it was our first meeting), with a profound absence of +interest in my individual opinion of him which captivated +me completely. I am going home to-day to take him about +the country, and improve his acquaintance. You will find +a perfect understanding between us, I hope, when you next +come to Gad's Hill. (He has only swallowed Bouncer once, +and temporarily.)</p> + +<p>Your hint that you were getting on with your story and +liked it was more than golden intelligence to me in foreign +parts. The intensity of the heat, both in Paris and the +provinces, was such that I found nothing else so refreshing +in the course of my rambles.</p> + +<p>With many more thanks for the dog than my sheet of +paper would hold,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Believe me, ever very faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Procter.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Sept. 26th, 1865.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Mrs. Procter</span>,</div> + +<p>I have written the little introduction, and have sent +it to my printer, in order that you may read it without +trouble. But if you would like to keep the few pages of +MS., of course they are yours.</p> + +<p>It is brief, and I have aimed at perfect simplicity, and +an avoidance of all that your beloved Adelaide would have +wished avoided. Do not expect too much from it. If there +should be anything wrong in fact, or anything that you +would like changed for any reason, <i>of course you will tell +me so</i>, and of course you will not deem it possible that you +can trouble me by making any such request most freely.</p> + +<p>You will probably receive the proof either on Friday or +Saturday. Don't write to me until you have read it. In +the meantime I send you back the two books, with the two +letters in the bound one.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 6em;">With love to Procter,</span><br /> +Ever your affectionate Friend.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Edmund +Yates.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Hôtel du Helder, Paris</span>, <i>Wednesday, Sept. 30th, 1865.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Edmund</span>,</div> + +<p>I leave here to-morrow and purpose being at the +office on Saturday night; all next week I shall be there, off +and on—"off" meaning Gad's Hill; the office will be my +last address. The heat has been excessive on this side of +the Channel, and I got a slight sunstroke last Thursday, and +was obliged to be doctored and put to bed for a day; but, +thank God, I am all right again. The man who sells the +<i>tisane</i> on the Boulevards can't keep the flies out of his +glasses, and as he wears them on his red velvet bands, the +flies work themselves into the ends of the tumblers, trying<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span> +to get through and tickle the man. If fly life were long +enough, I think they would at last. Three paving blouses +came to work at the corner of this street last Monday, +pulled up a bit of road, sat down to look at it, and fell +asleep. On Tuesday one of the blouses spat on his hands +and seemed to be going to begin, but didn't. The other +two have shown no sign of life whatever. This morning +the industrious one ate a loaf. You may rely upon this as +the latest news from the French capital.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully ever.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +William +Charles +Kent.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +26, <span class="smcap">Wellington Street</span>, <i>Monday, Nov. 6th, 1865.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Kent</span>,</div> + +<p><i>No</i>, I <i>won't</i> write in this book, because I have sent +another to the binder's for you.</p> + +<p>I have been unwell with a relaxed throat, or I should +have written to you sooner to thank you for your dedication, +to assure you that it heartily, most heartily, gratifies me, as +the sincere tribute of a true and generous heart, and to tell +you that I have been charmed with your book itself. I am +proud of having given a name to anything so picturesque, +so sympathetic and spirited.</p> + +<p>I hope and believe the "Doctor" is nothing but a +good 'un. He has perfectly astonished Forster, who writes: +"Neither good, gooder, nor goodest, but super-excellent; +all through there is such a relish of you at your best, as I +could not have believed in, after a long story."</p> + +<p>I shall be charmed to see you to-night.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">M. de +Cerjat.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>November 13th, 1865.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='center'><small>EXTRACT.</small></div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Cerjat</span>,</div> + +<p>Having achieved my book and my Christmas +number, and having shaken myself after two years' work, +I send you my annual greeting. How are you? Asthmatic, +I know you will reply; but as my poor father (who was +asthmatic, too, and the jolliest of men) used philosophically +to say, "one must have something wrong, I suppose, and I +like to know what it is."</p> + +<p>In England we are groaning under the brigandage of the +butcher, which is being carried to that height that I think +I foresee resistance on the part of the middle-class, and +some combination in perspective for abolishing the middleman, +whensoever he turns up (which is everywhere) between +producer and consumer. The cattle plague is the butcher's +stalking-horse, and it is unquestionably worse than it was; +but seeing that the great majority of creatures lost or +destroyed have been cows, and likewise that the rise in +butchers' meat bears no reasonable proportion to the +market prices of the beasts, one comes to the conclusion +that the public is done. The commission has ended very +weakly and ineffectually, as such things in England rather +frequently do; and everybody writes to <i>The Times</i>, and +nobody does anything else.</p> + +<p>If the Americans don't embroil us in a war before long +it will not be their fault. What with their swagger and +bombast, what with their claims for indemnification, what +with Ireland and Fenianism, and what with Canada, I have +strong apprehensions. With a settled animosity towards +the French usurper, I believe him to have always been +sound in his desire to divide the States against themselves,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span> +and that we were unsound and wrong in "letting I dare +not wait upon I would." The Jamaica insurrection is +another hopeful piece of business. That platform-sympathy +with the black—or the native, or the devil—afar off, and +that platform indifference to our own countrymen at enormous +odds in the midst of bloodshed and savagery, makes +me stark wild. Only the other day, here was a meeting of +jawbones of asses at Manchester, to censure the Jamaica +Governor for his manner of putting down the insurrection! +So we are badgered about New Zealanders and Hottentots, +as if they were identical with men in clean shirts at Camberwell, +and were to be bound by pen and ink accordingly. +So Exeter Hall holds us in mortal submission to missionaries, +who (Livingstone always excepted) are perfect nuisances, +and leave every place worse than they found it.</p> + +<p>Of all the many evidences that are visible of our being +ill-governed, no one is so remarkable to me as our ignorance +of what is going on under our Government. What will +future generations think of that enormous Indian Mutiny +being ripened without suspicion, until whole regiments arose +and killed their officers? A week ago, red tape, half-bouncing +and half pooh-poohing what it bounced at, would +have scouted the idea of a Dublin jail not being able to +hold a political prisoner. But for the blacks in Jamaica +being over-impatient and before their time, the whites +might have been exterminated, without a previous hint or +suspicion that there was anything amiss. <i>Laissez aller</i>, and +Britons never, never, never!——</p> + +<p>Meantime, if your honour were in London, you would +see a great embankment rising high and dry out of the +Thames on the Middlesex shore, from Westminster Bridge +to Blackfriars. A really fine work, and really getting on. +Moreover, a great system of drainage. Another really fine<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span> +work, and likewise really getting on. Lastly, a muddle of +railways in all directions possible and impossible, with +no general public scheme, no general public supervision, +enormous waste of money, no fixable responsibility, no accountability +but under Lord Campbell's Act. I think of +that accident in which I was preserved. Before the most +furious and notable train in the four-and-twenty hours, the +head of a gang of workmen takes up the rails. That train +changes its time every day as the tide changes, and that +head workman is not provided by the railway company with +any clock or watch! Lord Shaftesbury wrote to me to ask +me what I thought of an obligation on railway companies to +put strong walls to all bridges and viaducts. I told him, of +course, that the force of such a shock would carry away anything +that any company could set up, and I added: "Ask +the minister what <i>he</i> thinks about the votes of the railway +interest in the House of Commons, and about his being afraid +to lay a finger on it with an eye to his majority."</p> + +<p>I seem to be grumbling, but I am in the best of humours. +All goes well with me and mine, thank God.</p> + +<p>Last night my gardener came upon a man in the garden +and fired. The man returned the compliment by kicking +him in the groin and causing him great pain. I set off, with +a great mastiff-bloodhound I have, in pursuit. Couldn't find +the evil-doer, but had the greatest difficulty in preventing +the dog from tearing two policemen down. They were +coming towards us with professional mystery, and he was +in the air on his way to the throat of an eminently respectable +constable when I caught him.</p> + +<p>My daughter Mary and her aunt Georgina send kindest +regard and remembrance. Katey and her husband are +going to try London this winter, but I rather doubt (for +they are both delicate) their being able to weather it out.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span> +It has been blowing here tremendously for a fortnight, but +to-day is like a spring day, and plenty of roses are growing +over the labourers' cottages. The <i>Great Eastern</i> lies at her +moorings beyond the window where I write these words; +looks very dull and unpromising. A dark column of smoke +from Chatham Dockyard, where the iron shipbuilding is in +progress, has a greater significance in it, I fancy.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Tuesday, Nov. 14th, 1865.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Mamie</span>,</div> + +<p>As you want to know my views of the Sphinx, here +they are. But I have only seen it once; and it is so extraordinarily +well done, that it ought to be observed closely +several times.</p> + +<p>Anyone who attentively notices the flower trick will see +that the two little high tables hung with drapery cover each +a trap. Each of those tables, during that trick, hides a +confederate, who changes the paper cone twice. When the +cone has been changed as often as is required, the trap is +closed and the table can be moved.</p> + +<p>When the curtain is removed for the performance of the +Sphinx trick, there is a covered, that is, draped table on the +stage, which is never seen before or afterwards. In front of +the middle of it, and between it and the audience, stands one +of those little draped tables covering a trap; this is a third +trap in the centre of the stage. The box for the head is +then upon <span class="smcap">it</span>, and the conjuror takes it off and shows it. +The man whose head is afterwards shown in that box is, I +conceive, in the table; that is to say, is lying on his chest in +the thickness of the table, in an extremely constrained attitude. +To get him into the table, and to enable him to use<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span> +the trap in the table through which his head comes into the +box, the two hands of a confederate are necessary. That +confederate comes up a trap, and stands in the space +afforded by the interval below the stage and the height of the +little draped table! his back is towards the audience. The +moment he has assisted the hidden man sufficiently, he closes +the trap, and the conjuror then immediately removes the +little draped table, and also the drapery of the larger table; +when he places the box on the last-named table <i>with the slide +on</i> for the head to come into it, he stands with his back to +the audience and his face to the box, and masks the box considerably +to facilitate the insertion of the head. As soon as +he knows the head to be in its place, he undraws the slide. +When the verses have been spoken and the trick is done, he +loses no time in replacing the slide. The curtain is then +immediately dropped, because the man cannot otherwise be +got out of the table, and has no doubt had quite enough of +it. With kindest regards to all at Penton,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever your most affectionate.<br /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>1866.</h2> + +<h3>NARRATIVE.</h3> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>The</span> furnished house hired by Charles Dickens in the spring +of this year was in Southwick Place, Hyde Park.</div> + +<p>Having entered into negotiations with the Messrs. +Chappell for a series of readings to be given in London, +in the English provinces, in Scotland and Ireland, Charles +Dickens had no leisure for more than his usual editorial +work for "All the Year Round." He contributed four +parts to the Christmas number, which was entitled, +"Mugby Junction."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span></p> + +<p>For the future all his English readings were given in +connection with the Messrs. Chappell, and never in all his +career had he more satisfactory or more pleasant business +relations than those connected with these gentlemen. +Moreover, out of this connection sprang a sincere friendship +on both sides.</p> + +<p>Mr. Dolby is so constantly mentioned in future letters, +that they themselves will tell of the cordial companionship +which existed between Charles Dickens and this able and +most obliging "manager."</p> + +<p>The letter to "Lily" was in answer to a child's letter +from Miss Lily Benzon, inviting him to a birthday party.</p> + +<p>The play alluded to in the letter to M. Fechter was +called "A Long Strike," and was performed at the Lyceum +Theatre.</p> + +<p>The "Sultan" mentioned in the letter to Mr. Fitzgerald +was a noble Irish bloodhound, presented by this gentleman +to Charles Dickens. The story of the dog's death is told in +a letter to M. de Cerjat, which we give in the following +year.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss Mary +Boyle.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Office of "All the Year Round</span>,"</span><br /> +<i>Saturday, Jan. 6th, 1866.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Mary</span>,</div> + +<p>Feeling pretty certain that I shall never answer your +letter unless I answer it at once (I got it this morning), +here goes!</p> + +<p>I did not dramatise "The Master of Ravenswood," +though I did a good deal towards and about the piece, +having an earnest desire to put Scott, for once, upon the +stage in his own gallant manner. It is <i>an enormous success</i>, +and increases in attraction nightly. I have never seen the +people in all parts of the house so leaning forward, in lines +sloping towards the stage, earnestly and intently attractive, +as while the story gradually unfolds itself. But the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span> +astonishing circumstance of all is, that Miss Leclercq (never +thought of for Lucy till all other Lucies had failed) is +marvellously good, highly pathetic, and almost unrecognisable +in person! What note it touches in her, always dumb +until now, I do not pretend to say, but there is no one on +the stage who could play the contract scene better, or more +simply and naturally, and I find it impossible to see it +without crying! Almost everyone plays well, the whole is +exceedingly picturesque, and there is scarcely a movement +throughout, or a look, that is not indicated by Scott. So +you get a life romance with beautiful illustrations, and I do +not expect ever again to see a book take up its bed and +walk in like manner.</p> + +<p>I am charmed to learn that you have had a freeze out +of my ghost story. It rather did give me a shiver up the +back in the writing. "Dr. Marigold" has just now accomplished +his two hundred thousand. My only other news +about myself is that I am doubtful whether to read or not +in London this season. If I decide to do it at all, I shall +probably do it on a large scale.</p> + +<p>Many happy years to you, my dear Mary. So prays</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Your ever affectionate</span><br /> +Jo.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +William +Charles +Kent.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Gad's Hill</span>, <i>Thursday, Jan. 18th, 1866.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Kent</span>,</div> + +<p>I cannot tell you how grieved we all are here to +know that you are suffering again. Your patient tone, +however, and the hopefulness and forbearance of Ferguson's +course, gives us some reassurance. Apropos of which latter +reference I dined with Ferguson at the Lord Mayor's, last +Tuesday, and had a grimly distracted impulse upon me to +defy the toast-master and rush into a speech about him and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span> +his noble art, when I sat pining under the imbecility of +constitutional and corporational idiots. I did seize him for a +moment by the hair of his head (in proposing the Lady +Mayoress), and derived some faint consolation from the +company's response to the reference. O! no man will ever +know under what provocation to contradiction and a savage +yell of repudiation I suffered at the hands of ——, feebly +complacent in the uniform of Madame Tussaud's own +military waxers, and almost the worst speaker I ever heard +in my life! Mary and Georgina, sitting on either side of +me, urged me to "look pleasant." I replied in expressions +not to be repeated. Shea (the judge) was just as good and +graceful, as he (the member) was bad and gawky.</p> + +<p>Bulwer's "Lost Tales of Miletus" is a most noble book! +He is an extraordinary fellow, and fills me with admiration +and wonder.</p> + +<p>It is of no use writing to you about yourself, my dear +Kent, because you are likely to be tired of that constant +companion, and so I have gone scratching (with an exceedingly +bad pen) about and about you. But I come back to +you to let you know that the reputation of this house as a +convalescent hospital stands (like the house itself) very +high, and that testimonials can be produced from credible +persons who have recovered health and spirits here swiftly. +Try us, only try us, and we are content to stake the reputation +of the establishment on the result.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Percy +Fitzgerald.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Gad's Hill</span>, <i>Friday, Feb. 2nd, 1866.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Fitzgerald</span>,</div> + +<p>I ought to have written to you days and days ago, +to thank you for your charming book on Charles Lamb, to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span> +tell you with what interest and pleasure I read it as soon as +it came here, and to add that I was honestly affected (far +more so than your modesty will readily believe) by your +intimate knowledge of those touches of mine concerning +childhood.</p> + +<p>Let me tell you now that I have not in the least cooled, +after all, either as to the graceful sympathetic book, or as to +the part in it with which I am honoured. It has become a +matter of real feeling with me, and I postponed its expression +because I couldn't satisfactorily get it out of myself, +and at last I came to the conclusion that it must be +left in.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +My dear Fitzgerald, faithfully yours always.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Office of "All the Year Round</span>," <i>Friday, Feb. 9th, 1866.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Georgy</span>,</div> + +<p>I found your letter here when I came back on +Wednesday evening, and was extremely glad to get it.</p> + +<p>Frank Beard wrote me word that with such a pulse as +I described, an examination of the heart was absolutely +necessary, and that I had better make an appointment with +him alone for the purpose. This I did. I was not at all +disconcerted, for I knew well beforehand that the effect +could not possibly be without that one cause at the bottom +of it. There seems to be degeneration of some functions of +the heart. It does not contract as it should. So I have +got a prescription of iron, quinine, and digitalis, to set it +a-going, and send the blood more quickly through the +system. If it should not seem to succeed on a reasonable +trial, I will then propose a consultation with someone else. +Of course I am not so foolish as to suppose that all my +work can have been achieved without <i>some</i> penalty, and I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span> +have noticed for some time a decided change in my buoyancy +and hopefulness—in other words, in my usual "tone."</p> + +<p>I shall wait to see Beard again on Monday, and shall +most probably come down that day. If I should not, I +will telegraph after seeing him. Best love to Mamie.</p> + + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Brookfield.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Office of "All the Year Round</span>,"</span><br /> +<i>Tuesday, Feb. 20th, 1866.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Mrs. Brookfield</span>,</div> + +<p>Having gone through your MS. (which I should have +done sooner, but that I have not been very well), I write +these few following words about it. Firstly, with a limited +reference to its unsuitability to these pages. Secondly, with +a more enlarged reference to the merits of the story itself.</p> + +<p>If you will take any part of it and cut it up (in fancy) +into the small portions into which it would have to be +divided here for only a month's supply, you will (I think) at +once discover the impossibility of publishing it in weekly +parts. The scheme of the chapters, the manner of introducing +the people, the progress of the interest, the places +in which the principal places fall, are all hopelessly against +it. It would seem as though the story were never coming, +and hardly ever moving. There must be a special design +to overcome that specially trying mode of publication, and I +cannot better express the difficulty and labour of it than by +asking you to turn over any two weekly numbers of "A +Tale of Two Cities," or "Great Expectations," or Bulwer's +story, or Wilkie Collins's, or Reade's, or "At the Bar," +and notice how patiently and expressly the thing has to be +planned for presentation in these fragments, and yet for +afterwards fusing together as an uninterrupted whole.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span></p> + +<p>Of the story itself I honestly say that I think highly. +The style is particularly easy and agreeable, infinitely above +ordinary writing, and sometimes reminds me of Mrs. Inchbald +at her best. The characters are remarkably well +observed, and with a rare mixture of delicacy and truthfulness. +I observe this particularly in the brother and sister, +and in Mrs. Neville. But it strikes me that you constantly +hurry your narrative (and yet without getting on) <i>by telling +it, in a sort of impetuous breathless way, in your own person, +when the people should tell it and act it for themselves</i>. My +notion always is, that when I have made the people to play +out the play, it is, as it were, their business to do it, and not +mine. Then, unless you really have led up to a great situation +like Basil's death, you are bound in art to make more +of it. Such a scene should form a chapter of itself. +Impressed upon the reader's memory, it would go far to +make the fortune of the book. Suppose yourself telling +that affecting incident in a letter to a friend. Wouldn't +you describe how you went through the life and stir of the +streets and roads to the sick-room? Wouldn't you say +what kind of room it was, what time of day it was, whether +it was sunlight, starlight, or moonlight? Wouldn't you +have a strong impression on your mind of how you were +received, when you first met the look of the dying man, +what strange contrasts were about you and struck you? I +don't want you, in a novel, to present <i>yourself</i> to tell such +things, but I want the things to be there. You make no +more of the situation than the index might, or a descriptive +playbill might in giving a summary of the tragedy under +representation.</p> + +<p>As a mere piece of mechanical workmanship, I think all +your chapters should be shorter; that is to say, that they +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span>should be subdivided. Also, when you change from narrative +to dialogue, or <i>vice versâ</i>, you should make the transition +more carefully. Also, taking the pains to sit down and +recall the principal landmarks in your story, you should then +make them far more elaborate and conspicuous than the +rest. Even with these changes I do not believe that the +story would attract the attention due to it, if it were published +even in such monthly portions as the space of +"Fraser" would admit of. Even so brightened, it would +not, to the best of my judgment, express itself piecemeal. +It seems to me to be so constituted as to require to be read +"off the reel." As a book in two volumes I think it would +have good claims to success, and good chances of obtaining +success. But I suppose the polishing I have hinted at +(not a meretricious adornment, but positively necessary to +good work and good art) to have been first thoroughly +administered.</p> + +<p>Now don't hate me if you can help it. I can afford to +be hated by some people, but I am not rich enough to put +you in possession of that luxury.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—The MS. shall be delivered at your house to-morrow. +And your petitioner again prays not to be, etc.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Adelphi, Liverpool</span>, <i>Friday, April 13th, 1866.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Georgy</span>,</div> + +<p>The reception at Manchester last night was quite a +magnificent sight; the whole of the immense audience +standing up and cheering. I thought them a little slow +with "Marigold," but believe it was only the attention +necessary in so vast a place. They gave a splendid burst<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span> +at the end. And after "Nickleby" (which went to perfection), +they set up such a call, that I was obliged to +go in again. The unfortunate gasman, a very steady +fellow, got a fall off a ladder and sprained his leg. He +was put to bed in a public opposite, and was left there, +poor man.</p> + +<p>This is the first very fine day we have had. I have taken +advantage of it by crossing to Birkenhead and getting some +air upon the water. It was fresh and beautiful.</p> + +<p>I send my best love to Mamie, and hope she is better. I +am, of course, tired (the pull of "Marigold" upon one's +energy, in the Free Trade Hall, was great); but I stick to +my tonic, and feel, all things considered, in very good tone. +The room here (I mean the hall) being my special favourite +and extraordinarily easy, is <i>almost</i> a rest!</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Adelphi, Liverpool</span>, <i>Saturday, April 14th, 1866.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Mamie</span>,</div> + +<p>The police reported officially that three thousand +people were turned away from the hall last night. I doubt +if they were so numerous as that, but they carried in the +outer doors and pitched into Dolby with great vigour. I +need not add that every corner of the place was crammed. +They were a very fine audience, and took enthusiastically +every point in "Copperfield" and the "Trial." They made +the reading a quarter of an hour longer than usual. One man +advertised in the morning paper that he would give thirty +shillings (double) for three stalls, but nobody would sell, +and he didn't get in.</p> + +<p>Except that I cannot sleep, I really think myself in +much better training than I had anticipated. A dozen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span> +oysters and a little champagne between the parts every +night, constitute the best restorative I have ever yet tried. +John appears low, but I don't know why. A letter comes +for him daily; the hand is female; whether Smudger's, or +a nearer one still and a dearer one, I don't know. So it +may or may not be the cause of his gloom.</p> + +<p>"Miss Emily" of Preston is married to a rich cotton +lord, rides in open carriages in gorgeous array, and is +altogether splendid. With this effective piece of news I +close.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Glasgow</span>, <i>April 17th, 1866.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>We arrived here at ten yesterday evening. I don't +think the journey shook me at all. Dolby provided a superb +cold collation and "the best of drinks," and we dined in +the carriage, and I made him laugh all the way.</p> + +<p>The let here is very large. Every precaution taken to +prevent my platform from being captured as it was last +time; but I don't feel at all sure that it will not be stormed +at one of the two readings. Wills is to do the genteel +to-night at the stalls, and Dolby is to stem the shilling tide +<i>if</i> he can. The poor gasman cannot come on, and we +have got a new one here who is to go to Edinburgh with +us. Of Edinburgh we know nothing, but as its first +night has always been shady, I suppose it will stick to its +antecedents.</p> + +<p>I like to hear about Harness and his freshness. The +let for the next reading at St. James's is "going," they +report, "admirably." Lady Russell asked me to dinner +to-morrow, and I have written her a note to-day. The rest +has certainly done me good. I slept thoroughly well last<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span> +night, and feel fresh. What to-night's work, and every +night's work this week, may do contrariwise, remains to be +seen.</p> + +<p>I hope Harry's knee may be in the way of mending, +from what you relate of it.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Waterloo Hotel, Edinburgh</span>, <i>Wednesday, April 18th, 1866.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>We had a tremendous house again last night at Glasgow; +and turned away great numbers. Not only that, but they +were a most brilliant and delicate audience, and took +"Marigold" with a fine sense and quickness not to be surpassed. +The shillings pitched into Dolby again, and one +man writes a sensible letter in one of the papers this morning, +showing to <i>my</i> satisfaction (?) that they really had, +through the local agent, some cause of complaint. Nevertheless, +the shilling tickets are sold for to-morrow, and it +seems to be out of the question to take any money at the +doors, the call for all parts is so enormous. The thundering +of applause last night was quite staggering, and my people +checked off my reception by the minute hand of a watch, +and stared at one another, thinking I should never begin. I +keep quite well, have happily taken to sleeping these last +three nights; and feel, all things considered, very little +conscious of fatigue. I cannot reconcile my town medicine +with the hours and journeys of reading life, and have therefore +given it up for the time. But for the moment, I think +I am better without it. What we are doing here I have not +yet heard. I write at half-past one, and we have been little +more than an hour in the house. But I am quite prepared +for the inevitable this first Edinburgh night. Endeavours<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span> +have been made (from Glasgow yesterday) to telegraph the +exact facts out of our local agent; but hydraulic pressure +wouldn't have squeezed a straight answer out of him. +"Friday and Saturday doing very well, Wednesday not so +good." This was all electricity could discover.</p> + +<p>I am going to write a line this post to Katie, from whom +I have a note. I hope Harry's leg will now step out in the +manner of the famous cork leg in the song.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Edinburgh</span>, <i>Thursday, April 19th, 1866.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>The house was more than twice better than any first +night here previously. They were, as usual here, remarkably +intelligent, and the reading went <i>brilliantly</i>. I have +not sent up any newspapers, as they are generally so poorly +written, that you may know beforehand all the commonplaces +that they will write. But <i>The Scotsman</i> has so +pretty an article this morning, and (so far as I know) so +true a one, that I will try to post it to you, either from here +or Glasgow. John and Dolby went over early, and Wills +and I follow them at half-past eleven. It is cold and wet +here. We have laid half-crown bets with Dolby, that he +will be assaulted to-night at Glasgow. He has a surprising +knowledge of what the receipts will be always, and wins +half-crowns every night. Chang is living in this house. +John (not knowing it) was rendered perfectly drivelling +last night, by meeting him on the stairs. The Tartar Dwarf +is always twining himself upstairs sideways, and drinks a +bottle of whisky per day, and is reported to be a surprising +little villain.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Waterloo Hotel, Edinburgh</span>, <i>Friday, April 20th, 1866.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>No row at Glasgow last night. Great placards were +posted about the town by the anxious Dolby, announcing +that no money would be taken at the doors. This kept the +crowd off. Two files of policemen and a double staff everywhere +did the rest, and nothing could be better-tempered or +more orderly. Tremendous enthusiasm with the "Carol" +and "Trial." I was dead beat afterwards, that reading +being twenty minutes longer than usual; but plucked up +again, had some supper, slept well, and am quite right to-day. +It is a bright day, and the express ride over from +Glasgow was very pleasant.</p> + +<p>Everything is gone here for to-night. But it is difficult +to describe what the readings have grown to be. The let +at St. James's Hall is not only immense for next Tuesday, +but so large for the next reading afterwards, that Chappell +writes: "That will be the greatest house of the three." +From Manchester this morning they write: "Send us more +tickets instantly, for we are sold out and don't know what +to do with the people." Last night the whole of my money +under the agreement had been taken. I notice that a great +bank has broken at Liverpool, which may hurt us there, +but when last heard of it was going as before. And the +audience, though so enormous, do somehow express a personal +affection, which makes them very strange and moving +to see.</p> + +<p>I have a story to answer you and your aunt with. Before +I left Southwick Place for Liverpool, I received a letter +from Glasgow, saying, "Your little Emily has been woo'd +and married and a'! since you last saw her;" and describing +her house within a mile or two of the city, and asking me<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span> +to stay there. I wrote the usual refusal, and supposed +Mrs. —— to be some romantic girl whom I had joked +with, perhaps at Allison's or where not. On the first night +at Glasgow I received a bouquet from ——, and wore +one of the flowers. This morning at the Glasgow station, +—— appeared, and proved to be the identical Miss Emily, +of whose marriage Dolby had told me on our coming through +Preston. She was attired in magnificent raiment, and +presented the happy ——.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Liverpool</span>, <i>Thursday, April 26th, 1866.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>We noticed between London and Rugby (the first +stoppage) something very odd in our carriage yesterday, +not so much in its motion as in its sound. We examined it +as well as we could out of both windows, but could make +nothing of it. On our arrival at Rugby, it was found to be +on fire. And as it was in the middle of the train, the train +had to be broken to get it off into a siding by itself and +get another carriage on. With this slight exception we +came down all right.</p> + +<p>My voice is much better, I am glad to report, and I +mean to try Beard's remedy after dinner to-day. This is +all my present news.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">The same.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Down Hotel, Clifton</span>, <i>Friday, May 11th, 1866.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>I received your note before I left Birmingham this +morning. It has been very heavy work getting up at half-past +six each morning after a heavy night, and I am not at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span> +all well to-day. We had a tremendous hall at Birmingham +last night—two thousand one hundred people. I made a +most ridiculous mistake. Had "Nickleby" on my list to +finish with, instead of "Trial." Read "Nickleby" with +great go, and the people remained. Went back again at +ten and explained the accident, and said if they liked, +I would give them the "Trial." They <i>did</i> like, and I had +another half-hour of it in that enormous place.</p> + +<p>This stoppage of Overend and Gurney in the City will +play the —— with all public gaieties, and with all the arts.</p> + +<p>My cold is no better. John fell off a platform about ten +feet high yesterday, and fainted. He looks all the colours +of the rainbow to-day, but does not seem much hurt beyond +being puffed up one hand, arm, and side.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss Lily +Benzon.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Monday, June 18th, 1866.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Lily</span>,</div> + +<p>I am sorry that I cannot come to read to you +"The Boots at the Holly Tree Inn," as you ask me to do; +but the truth is, that I am tired of reading at this present +time, and have come into the country to rest and hear the +birds sing. There are a good many birds, I daresay, in +Kensington Palace Gardens, and upon my word and honour +they are much better worth listening to than I am. So let +them sing to you as hard as ever they can, while their sweet +voices last (they will be silent when the winter comes); and +very likely after you and I have eaten our next Christmas +pudding and mince-pies, you and I and Uncle Harry may +all meet together at St. James's Hall; Uncle Harry to bring +you there, to hear the "Boots;" I to receive you there, and +read the "Boots;" and you (I hope) to applaud very much,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span> +and tell me that you like the "Boots." So, God bless you +and me, and Uncle Harry, and the "Boots," and long life +and happiness to us all!</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Your affectionate Friend.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—There's a flourish!</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. B. W. +Procter.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Monday, Aug. 13th, 1866.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Procter</span>,</div> + +<p>I have read your biography of Charles Lamb with +inexpressible pleasure and interest. I do not think it +possible to tell a pathetic story with a more unaffected and +manly tenderness. And as to the force and vigour of the +style, if I did not know you I should have made sure that +there was a printer's error in the opening of your introduction, +and that the word "seventy" occupied the place of +"forty."</p> + +<p>Let me, my dear friend, most heartily congratulate you +on your achievement. It is not an ordinary triumph to do +such justice to the memory of such a man. And I venture +to add, that the fresh spirit with which you have done it +impresses me as being perfectly wonderful.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Sir James +Emerson +Tennent.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Gad's Hill</span>, <i>Monday, Aug. 20th, 1866.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Tennent</span>,</div> + +<p>I have been very much interested by your extract, +and am strongly inclined to believe that the founder of the +Refuge for Poor Travellers meant the kind of man to which +it refers. Chaucer certainly meant the Pardonere to be a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span> +humbug, living on the credulity of the people. After +describing the sham reliques he carried, he says:</p> + +<div class='poem'> +But with these relikes whawne that he found<br /> +A poure personne dwelling up on lond<br /> +Upon a day he gat him more monnie<br /> +Than that the personne got in monthes time,<br /> +And thus, with fained flattering and japes<br /> +He made the personne, and the people, his apes.<br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>And the worthy Watts (founder of the charity) may have +had these very lines in his mind when he excluded such a man.</div> + +<p>When I last heard from my boy he was coming to you, +and was full of delight and dignity. My midshipman has +just been appointed to the <i>Bristol</i>, on the West Coast of +Africa, and is on his voyage out to join her. I wish it was +another ship and another station. She has been unlucky +in losing men.</p> + +<p>Kindest regard from all my house to yours.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours ever.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">M. Charles +Fechter.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Gad's Hill</span>, <i>Tuesday, Sept. 4th, 1866.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Fechter</span>,</div> + +<p>This morning I received the play to the end of the +telegraph scene, and I have since read it twice.</p> + +<p>I clearly see the <i>ground</i> of Mr. Boucicault's two objections; +but I do not see their <i>force</i>.</p> + +<p>First, as to the writing. If the characters did not +speak in a terse and homely way, their idea and language +would be inconsistent with their dress and station, and +they would lose, as characters, before the audience. The +dialogue seems to be exactly what is wanted. Its simplicity +(particularly in Mr. Boucicault's part) is often very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span> +effective; and throughout there is an honest, straight-to-the-purpose +ruggedness in it, like the real life and the +real people.</p> + +<p>Secondly, as to the absence of the comic element. I +really do not see how more of it could be got into the story, +and I think Mr. Boucicault underrates the pleasant effect of +his own part. The very notion of a sailor, whose life is not +among those little courts and streets, and whose business +does not lie with the monotonous machinery, but with the +four wild winds, is a relief to me in reading the play. I +am quite confident of its being an immense relief to the +audience when they see the sailor before them, with an +entirely different bearing, action, dress, complexion even, +from the rest of the men. I would make him the freshest +and airiest sailor that ever was seen; and through him I can +distinctly see my way out of "the Black Country" into +clearer air. (I speak as one of the audience, mind.) I +should like something of this contrast to be expressed in +the dialogue between the sailor and Jew, in the second +scene of the second act. Again, I feel Widdicomb's part +(which is charming, and ought to make the whole house cry) +most agreeable and welcome, much better than any amount +in such a story, of mere comicality.</p> + +<p>It is unnecessary to say that the play is done with a master's +hand. Its closeness and movement are quite surprising. +Its construction is admirable. I have the strongest belief +in its making a great success. But I must add this proviso: +I never saw a play so dangerously depending in critical +places on strict natural propriety in the manner and perfection +in the shaping of the small parts. Those small +parts cannot take the play up, but they can let it down. I +would not leave a hair on the head of one of them to the +chance of the first night, but I would see, to the minutest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span> +particular, the make-up of every one of them at a night +rehearsal.</p> + +<p>Of course you are free to show this note to Mr. Boucicault, +and I suppose you will do so; let me throw out this suggestion +to him and you. Might it not ease the way with +the Lord Chamberlain's office, and still more with the +audience, when there are Manchester champions in it, if +instead of "Manchester" you used a fictitious name? +When I did "Hard Times" I called the scene Coketown. +Everybody knew what was meant, but every cotton-spinning +town said it was the other cotton-spinning town.</p> + +<p>I shall be up on Saturday, and will come over about +mid-day, unless you name any other time.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever heartily.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Walter +Thornbury</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">"All the Year Round" Office</span>, <i>Saturday, Sept. 15th, 1866.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Thornbury</span>,</div> + +<p>Many thanks for your letter.</p> + +<p>In reference to your Shakespeare queries, I am not so +much enamoured of the first and third subjects as I am of +the Ariosto enquiry, which should be highly interesting. +But if you have so got the matter in your mind, as that its +execution would be incomplete and unsatisfactory to you +unless you write all the three papers, then by all means +write the three, and I will most gladly take them. For +some years I have had so much pleasure in reading you, +that I can honestly warrant myself as what actors call "a +good audience."</p> + +<p>The idea of old stories retold is decidedly a good one. +I greatly like the notion of that series. Of course you know +De Quincey's paper on the Ratcliffe Highway murderer? +Do you know also the illustration (I have it at Gad's Hill),<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span> +representing the horrible creature as his dead body lay on a +cart, with a piece of wood for a pillow, and a stake lying +by, ready to be driven through him?</p> + +<p>I don't <i>quite</i> like the title, "The Social History of +London." I should better like some title to the effect, +"The History of London's Social Changes in so many +Years." Such a title would promise more, and better +express your intention. What do you think of taking for a +first title, "London's Changes"? You could then add the +second title, "Being a History," etc.</p> + +<p>I don't at all desire to fix a limit to the series of old +stories retold. I would state the general intention at the +beginning of the first paper, and go on like Banquo's +line.</p> + +<p>Don't let your London title remind people, by so much +as the place of the word "civilisation," of Buckle. It seems +a ridiculous caution, but the indolent part of the public +(a large part!) on such points tumble into extraordinary +mistakes.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours always.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Percy +Fitzgerald.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Gad's Hill</span>, <i>Tuesday, Nov. 6th, 1866.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Fitzgerald</span>,</div> + +<p>It is always pleasant to me to hear from you, and I +hope you will believe that this is not a mere fashion of +speech.</p> + +<p>Concerning the green covers, I find the leaves to be +budding—on unquestionable newspaper authority; but, +upon my soul, I have no other knowledge of their being +in embryo! Really, I do not see a chance of my settling +myself to such work until after I have accomplished forty-two +readings, to which I stand pledged.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span></p> + +<p>I hope to begin this series somewhere about the middle +of January, in Dublin. Touching the details of the realisation +of this hope, will you tell me in a line as soon as you can—<i>Is +the exhibition room a good room for speaking in?</i></p> + +<p>Your mention of the late Sultan touches me nearly. +He was the finest dog I ever saw, and between him and +me there was a perfect understanding. But, to adopt the +popular phrase, it was so very confidential that it "went no +further." He would fly at anybody else with the greatest +enthusiasm for destruction. I saw him, muzzled, pound +into the heart of a regiment of the line; and I have +frequently seen him, muzzled, hold a great dog down with +his chest and feet. He has broken loose (muzzled) and +come home covered with blood, again and again. And yet +he never disobeyed me, unless he had first laid hold of +a dog.</p> + +<p>You heard of his going to execution, evidently supposing +the procession to be a party detached in pursuit of something +to kill or eat? It was very affecting. And also +of his bolting a blue-eyed kitten, and making me acquainted +with the circumstance by his agonies of remorse +(or indigestion)?</p> + +<p>I cannot find out that there is anyone in Rochester (a +sleepy old city) who has anything to tell about Garrick, +except what is not true. His brother, the wine merchant, +would be more in Rochester way, I think. How on earth +do you find time to do all these books?</p> + +<p>You make my hair stand on end; an agreeable sensation, +for I am charmed to find that I have any. Why don't you +come yourself and look after Garrick? I should be truly +delighted to receive you.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +My dear Fitzgerald, always faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Friday, Dec. 28th, 1866.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>I have received your letter with the utmost pleasure +and we all send our most affectionate love to you, Mrs. +Macready, Katie, Johnny, and the boy of boys. All good +Christmas and New Year greetings are to be understood as +included.</p> + +<p>You will be interested in knowing that, encouraged by +the success of summer cricket-matches, I got up a quantity +of foot-races and rustic sports in my field here on the 26th +last past: as I have never yet had a case of drunkenness, the +landlord of The Falstaff had a drinking-booth on the ground. +All the prizes I gave were in money, too. We had two +thousand people here. Among the crowd were soldiers, +navvies, and labourers of all kinds. Not a stake was pulled +up, or a rope slackened, or one farthing's-worth of damage +done. To every competitor (only) a printed bill of general +rules was given, with the concluding words: "Mr. Dickens +puts every man upon his honour to assist in preserving +order." There was not a dispute all day, and they went +away at sunset rending the air with cheers, and leaving +every flag on a six hundred yards' course as neat as they +found it when the gates were opened at ten in the morning. +Surely this is a bright sign in the neighbourhood of such a +place as Chatham!</p> + +<p>"Mugby Junction" turned, yesterday afternoon, the +extraordinary number of two hundred and fifty thousand!</p> + +<p>In the middle of next month I begin a new course of +forty-two readings. If any of them bring me within reach +of Cheltenham, with an hour to spare, I shall come on to +you, even for that hour. More of this when I am afield and +have my list, which Dolby (for Chappell) is now preparing.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span></p> + +<p>Forster and Mrs. Forster were to have come to us next +Monday, to stay until Saturday. I write "were," because +I hear that Forster (who had a touch of bronchitis when he +wrote to me on Christmas Eve) is in bed. Katie, who has +been ill of low nervous fever, was brought here yesterday +from London. She bore the journey much better than I +expected, and so I hope will soon recover. This is my little +stock of news.</p> + +<p>I begin to discover in your riper years, that you have +been secretly vain of your handwriting all your life. For +I swear I see no change in it! What it always was since I +first knew it (a year or two!) it <i>is</i>. This I will maintain +against all comers.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately, my dearest Macready.<br /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>1867.</h2> + +<h3>NARRATIVE.</h3> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>As</span> the London and provincial readings were to be resumed +early in the year and continued until the end of March, +Charles Dickens took no house in London this spring. He +came to his office quarters at intervals, for the series in town; +usually starting off again, on his country tour, the day after +a London reading. From some passages in his letters to his +daughter and sister-in-law during this country course, it +will be seen that (though he made very light of the fact) +the great exertion of the readings, combined with incessant +railway travelling, was beginning to tell upon his health, +and he was frequently "heavily beaten" after reading at +his best to an enthusiastic audience in a large hall.</div> + +<p>During the short intervals between his journeys, he was +as constantly and carefully at work upon the business of +"All the Year Round" as if he had no other work on hand. +A proof of this is given in a letter dated "5th February." +It is written to a young man (the son of a friend), who wrote<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span> +a long novel when far too juvenile for such a task, and had +submitted it to Charles Dickens for his opinion, with a view +to publication. In the midst of his own hard and engrossing +occupation he read the book, and the letter which he wrote +on the subject needs no remark beyond this, that the young +writer received the adverse criticism with the best possible +sense, and has since, in his literary profession, profited by +the advice so kindly given.</p> + +<p>At this time the proposals to Charles Dickens for reading +in America, which had been perpetually renewed from the +time of his first abandoning the idea, became so urgent +and so tempting, that he found at last he must, at all events, +give the subject his most serious consideration. He took +counsel with his two most confidential friends and advisers, +Mr. John Forster and Mr. W. H. Wills. They were both, +at first, strongly opposed to the undertaking, chiefly on the +ground of the trial to his health and strength which it would +involve. But they could not deny the counterbalancing +advantages. And, after much deliberation, it was resolved +that Mr. George Dolby should be sent out by the Messrs. +Chappell, to take an impression, on the spot, as to the feeling +of the United States about the Readings. His report as to +the undoubted enthusiasm and urgency on the other side of +the Atlantic it was impossible to resist. Even his friends +withdrew their opposition (though still with misgivings as +to the effect upon his health, which were but too well +founded!), and on the 30th September he telegraphed +"Yes" to America.</p> + +<p>The "Alfred" alluded to in a letter from Glasgow +was Charles Dickens's fourth son, Alfred Tennyson, who +had gone to Australia two years previously.</p> + +<p>We give, in April, the last letter to one of the friends +for whom Charles Dickens had always a most tender love—Mr. +Stanfield. He was then in failing health, and in May +he died.</p> + +<p>Another death which affected him very deeply happened +this summer. Miss Marguerite Power died in July. She +had long been very ill, but, until it became impossible for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span> +her to travel, she was a frequent and beloved guest at Gad's +Hill. The Mrs. Henderson to whom he writes was Miss +Power's youngest sister.</p> + +<p>Before he started for America it was proposed to wish +him God-speed by giving him a public dinner at the +Freemasons' Hall. The proposal was most warmly and +fully responded to. His zealous friend, Mr. Charles Kent, +willingly undertook the whole work of arrangement of this +banquet. It took place on the 2nd November, and Lord +Lytton presided.</p> + +<p>On the 8th he left London for Liverpool, accompanied +by his daughters, his sister-in-law, his eldest son, Mr. +Arthur Chappell, Mr. Charles Collins, Mr. Wilkie Collins, +Mr. Kent, and Mr. Wills. The next morning the whole +party took a final leave of Charles Dickens on board the +<i>Cuba</i>, which sailed that day.</p> + +<p>We give a letter which he wrote to Mr. J. L. Toole on +the morning of the dinner, thanking him for a parting gift +and an earnest letter. That excellent comedian was one of +his most appreciative admirers, and, in return, he had for +Mr. Toole the greatest admiration and respect.</p> + +<p>The Christmas number for this year, "No Thoroughfare," +was written by Charles Dickens and Mr. Wilkie +Collins. It was dramatised by Mr. Collins chiefly. But, in +the midst of all the work of preparation for departure, +Charles Dickens gave minute attention to as much of the +play as could be completed before he left England. It was +produced, after Christmas, at the Adelphi Theatre, where +M. Fechter was then acting, under the management of +Mr. Benjamin Webster.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">M. de +Cerjat.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>New Year's Day, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Cerjat</span>,</div> + +<p>Thoroughly determined to be beforehand with "the +middle of next summer," your penitent friend and remorseful +correspondent thus addresses you.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span></p> + +<p>The big dog, on a day last autumn, having seized a little +girl (sister to one of the servants) whom he knew, and was +bound to respect, was flogged by his master, and then sentenced +to be shot at seven next morning. He went out +very cheerfully with the half-dozen men told off for the purpose, +evidently thinking that they were going to be the +death of somebody unknown. But observing in the procession +an empty wheelbarrow and a double-barrelled gun, +he became meditative, and fixed the bearer of the gun with +his eyes. A stone deftly thrown across him by the village +blackguard (chief mourner) caused him to look round for +an instant, and he then fell dead, shot through the heart. +Two posthumous children are at this moment rolling on the +lawn; one will evidently inherit his ferocity, and will probably +inherit the gun. The pheasant was a little ailing +towards Christmas Day, and was found dead under some +ivy in his cage, with his head under his wing, on the morning +of the twenty-seventh of December, one thousand eight +hundred and sixty-six. I, proprietor of the remains of the +two deceased, am working hard, getting up "Barbox" and +"The Boy at Mugby," with which I begin a new series of +readings in London on the fifteenth. Next morning I believe +I start into the country. When I read, I <i>don't</i> write. I +only edit, and have the proof-sheets sent me for the purpose. +Here are your questions answered.</p> + +<p>As to the Reform question, it should have been, and +could have been, perfectly known to any honest man in +England that the more intelligent part of the great masses +were deeply dissatisfied with the state of representation, but +were in a very moderate and patient condition, awaiting the +better intellectual cultivation of numbers of their fellows. +The old insolent resource of assailing them and making the +most audaciously wicked statements that they are politically<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span> +indifferent, has borne the inevitable fruit. The perpetual +taunt, "Where are they?" has called them out with the +answer: "Well then, if you <i>must</i> know, here we are." +The intolerable injustice of vituperating the bribed to an +assembly of bribers, has goaded their sense of justice +beyond endurance. And now, what they would have taken +they won't take, and whatever they are steadily bent upon +having they will get. Rely upon it, this is the real state of +the case. As to your friend "Punch," you will find him begin +to turn at the very selfsame instant when the new game +shall manifestly become the losing one. You may notice his +shoes pinching him a little already.</p> + +<p>My dear fellow, I have no more power to stop that +mutilation of my books than you have. It is as certain as +that every inventor of anything designed for the public +good, and offered to the English Government, becomes <i>ipso +facto</i> a criminal, to have his heart broken on the circumlocutional +wheel. It is as certain as that the whole Crimean +story will be retold, whenever this country again goes +to war. And to tell the truth, I have such a very small +opinion of what the great genteel have done for us, that I +am very philosophical indeed concerning what the great +vulgar may do, having a decided opinion that they can't do +worse.</p> + +<p>This is the time of year when the theatres do best, there +being still numbers of people who make it a sort of religion +to see Christmas pantomimes. Having my annual +houseful, I have, as yet, seen nothing. Fechter has neither +pantomime nor burlesque, but is doing a new version of the +old "Trente Ans de la Vie d'un Joueur." I am afraid he +will not find his account in it. On the whole, the theatres, +except in the articles of scenery and pictorial effect, are +poor enough. But in some of the smaller houses there are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span> +actors who, if there were any dramatic head-quarters as a +school, might become very good. The most hopeless +feature is, that they have the smallest possible idea of an +effective and harmonious whole, each "going in" for +himself or herself. The music-halls attract an immense +public, and don't refine the general taste. But such things +as they do are well done of their kind, and always briskly +and punctually.</p> + +<p>The American yacht race is the last sensation. I hope +the general interest felt in it on this side will have a +wholesome interest on that. It will be a woeful day when +John and Jonathan throw their caps into the ring. The +French Emperor is indubitably in a dangerous state. His +Parisian popularity wanes, and his army are discontented +with him. I hear on high authority that his secret police +are always making discoveries that render him desperately +uneasy.</p> + +<p>You know how we have been swindling in these parts. +But perhaps you don't know that Mr. ——, the "eminent" +contractor, before he fell into difficulties settled <i>one +million of money</i> on his wife. Such a good and devoted +husband!</p> + +<p>My daughter Katie has been very ill of nervous fever. +On the 27th of December she was in a condition to be +brought down here (old high road and post-horses), and has +been steadily getting better ever since. Her husband is +here too, and is on the whole as well as he ever is or ever +will be, I fear.</p> + +<p>We played forfeit-games here, last night, and then pool. +For a billiard-room has been added to the house since you +were here. Come and play a match with me.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Always affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool</span>, <i>Monday, Jan. 21st, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Georgy</span>,</div> + +<p>First I send you my most affectionate wishes for +many, many happy returns of your birthday. That done, +from my heart of hearts, I go on to my small report of +myself.</p> + +<p>The readings have produced such an immense effect here +that we are coming back for two more in the middle of +February. "Marigold" and the "Trial," on Friday night, +and the "Carol," on Saturday afternoon, were a perfect +furore; and the surprise about "Barbox" has been amusingly +great. It is a most extraordinary thing, after the +enormous sale of that Christmas number, that the provincial +public seems to have combined to believe that it <i>won't</i> +make a reading. From Wolverhampton and Leeds we have +exactly the same expression of feelings <i>beforehand</i>. Exactly +as I made "Copperfield"—always to the poorest houses I +had with Headland, and against that luminary's entreaty—so +I should have to make this, if I hadn't "Marigold" +always in demand.</p> + +<p>It being next to impossible for people to come out at +night with horses, we have felt the weather in the stalls, +and expect to do so through this week. The half-crown +and shilling publics have crushed to their places most +splendidly. The enthusiasm has been unbounded. On +Friday night I quite astonished myself; but I was taken so +faint afterwards that they laid me on a sofa at the hall for +half an hour. I attribute it to my distressing inability to +sleep at night, and to nothing worse.</p> + +<p>Scott does very well indeed. As a dresser he is perfect. +In a quarter of an hour after I go into the retiring-room, +where all my clothes are airing and everything is set out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span> +neatly in its own allotted space, I am ready; and he then +goes softly out, and sits outside the door. In the morning +he is equally punctual, quiet, and quick. He has his +needles and thread, buttons, and so forth, always at hand; +and in travelling he is very systematic with the luggage. +What with Dolby and what with this skilful valet, everything +is made as easy to me as it possibly <i>can</i> be, and +Dolby would do anything to lighten the work, and does +everything.</p> + +<p>There is great distress here among the poor (four +thousand people relieved last Saturday at one workhouse), +and there is great anxiety concerning <i>seven mail-steamers +some days overdue</i>. Such a circumstance as this last has +never been known. It is supposed that some great revolving +storm has whirled them all out of their course. One +of these missing ships is an American mail, another an +Australian mail.</p> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<i>Same Afternoon.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>We have been out for four hours in the bitter east wind, +and walking on the sea-shore, where there is a broad strip +of great blocks of ice. My hands are so rigid that I write +with great difficulty.</p> + +<p>We have been constantly talking of the terrible Regent's +Park accident. I hope and believe that nearly the worst of +it is now known.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Chester</span>, <i>Tuesday, Jan. 22nd, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Mamie</span>,</div> + +<p>We came over here from Liverpool at eleven this +forenoon. There was a heavy swell in the Mersey breaking +over the boat; the cold was nipping, and all the roads we +saw as we came along were wretched. We find a very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span> +moderate let here; but I am myself rather surprised to +know that a hundred and twenty stalls have made up their +minds to the undertaking of getting to the hall. This seems +to be a very nice hotel, but it is an extraordinarily cold one. +Our reading for to-night is "Marigold" and "Trial." With +amazing perversity the local agent said to Dolby: "They +hoped that Mr. Dickens <i>might</i> have given them 'The Boy +at Mugby.'"</p> + +<p>Barton, the gasman who succeeded the man who sprained +his leg, sprained <i>his</i> leg yesterday!! And that, not at his +work, but in running downstairs at the hotel. However, he +has hobbled through it so far, and I hope will hobble on, for +he knows his work.</p> + +<p>I have seldom seen a place look more hopelessly frozen +up than this place does. The hall is like a Methodist chapel +in low spirits, and with a cold in its head. A few blue people +shiver at the corners of the streets. And this house, which +is outside the town, looks like an ornament on an immense +twelfth cake baked for 1847.</p> + +<p>I am now going to the fire to try to warm myself, but +have not the least expectation of succeeding. The sitting-room +has two large windows in it, down to the ground and +facing due east. The adjoining bedroom (mine) has also +two large windows in it, down to the ground and facing due +east. The very large doors are opposite the large windows, +and I feel as if I were something to eat in a pantry.</p> + + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Hen and Chickens, Birmingham</span>, <i>Thursday, Jan. 24th, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>At Chester we read in a snowstorm and a fall of ice. I +think it was the worst weather I ever saw. Nevertheless, +the people were enthusiastic. At Wolverhampton last night +the thaw had thoroughly set in, and it rained heavily. We<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span> +had not intended to go back there, but have arranged to do so +on the day after Ash Wednesday. Last night I was again +heavily beaten. We came on here after the reading (it is +only a ride of forty minutes), and it was as much as I could +do to hold out the journey. But I was not faint, as at +Liverpool; I was only exhausted. I am all right this +morning; and to-night, as you know, I have a rest. I +trust that Charley Collins is better, and that Mamie is +strong and well again. Yesterday I had a note from Katie, +which seemed hopeful and encouraging.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Hen and Chickens, Birmingham</span>, <i>Thursday, Jan. 24th, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>Since I wrote to your aunt just now, I have received +your note addressed to Wolverhampton. We left the men +there last night, and they brought it on with them at noon +to-day.</p> + +<p>The maimed gasman's foot is much swollen, but he +limps about and does his work. I have doctored him up +with arnica. During the "Boy" last night there was an +escape of gas from the side of my top batten, which caught +the copper-wire and was within a thread of bringing down +the heavy reflector into the stalls. It was a very ticklish +matter, though the audience knew nothing about it. I saw +it, and the gasman and Dolby saw it, and stood at that side +of the platform in agonies. We all three calculated that +there would be just time to finish and save it; when the gas +was turned out the instant I had done, the whole thing was +at its very last and utmost extremity. Whom it would +have tumbled on, or what might have been set on fire, it is +impossible to say.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span></p> + +<p>I hope you rewarded your police escort on Tuesday +night. It was the most tremendous night I ever saw at +Chester.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Leeds</span>, <i>Friday, Feb. 1st, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>We got here prosperously, and had a good (but not +great) house for "Barbox" and "Boy" last night. For +"Marigold" and "Trial," to-night, everything is gone. +And I even have my doubts of the possibility of Dolby's +cramming the people in. For "Marigold" and "Trial" +at Manchester, to-morrow, we also expect a fine hall.</p> + +<p>I shall be at the office for next Wednesday. If Charley +Collins should have been got to Gad's, I will come there for +that day. If not, I suppose we had best open the official +bower again.</p> + +<p>This is a beastly place, with a very good hotel. Except +Preston, it is one of the nastiest places I know. The room +is like a capacious coal cellar, and is incredibly filthy; but +for sound it is perfect.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote"><small>Anonymous.</small></div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Office of "All the Year Round</span>," <i>Tuesday, Feb. 5th, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>Dear Sir</span>,</div> + +<p>I have looked at the larger half of the first volume +of your novel, and have pursued the more difficult points of +the story through the other two volumes.</p> + +<p>You will, of course, receive my opinion as that of an +individual writer and student of art, who by no means claims +to be infallible.</p> + +<p>I think you are too ambitious, and that you have not +sufficient knowledge of life or character to venture on so +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span>comprehensive an attempt. Evidences of inexperience in +every way, and of your power being far below the situations +that you imagine, present themselves to me in almost every +page I have read. It would greatly surprise me if you +found a publisher for this story, on trying your fortune in +that line, or derived anything from it but weariness and +bitterness of spirit.</p> + +<p>On the evidence thus put before me, I cannot even +entirely satisfy myself that you have the faculty of authorship +latent within you. If you have not, and yet pursue a +vocation towards which you have no call, you cannot choose +but be a wretched man. Let me counsel you to have the +patience to form yourself carefully, and the courage to +renounce the endeavour if you cannot establish your case +on a very much smaller scale. You see around you every +day, how many outlets there are for short pieces of fiction +in all kinds. Try if you can achieve any success within +these modest limits (I have practised in my time what I +preach to you), and in the meantime put your three volumes +away.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—Your MS. will be returned separately from this +office.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Liverpool</span>, <i>Friday, Feb. 15th, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>My short report of myself is that we had an enormous +turn-away last night, and do not doubt about having a cram +to-night. The day has been very fine, and I have turned it +to the wholesomest account by walking on the sands at New +Brighton all the morning. I am not quite right, but believe +it to be an effect of the railway shaking. There is no doubt +of the fact that, after the Staplehurst experience, it tells<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span> +more and more, instead of (as one might have expected) less +and less.</p> + +<p>The charming room here greatly lessens the fatigue of +this fatiguing week. I read last night with no more exertion +than if I had been at Gad's, and yet to eleven hundred +people, and with astonishing effect. It is "Copperfield" +to-night, and Liverpool is the "Copperfield" +stronghold.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Glasgow</span>, <i>Sunday, Feb. 17th, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>We arrived here this morning at our time to the moment, +five minutes past ten. We turned away great numbers on +both nights at Liverpool; and Manchester last night was a +splendid spectacle. They cheered to that extent after it was +over, that I was obliged to huddle on my clothes (for I was +undressing to prepare for the journey), and go back +again.</p> + +<p>After so heavy a week, it <i>was</i> rather stiff to start on this +long journey at a quarter to two in the morning; but I got +more sleep than I ever got in a railway-carriage before, and +it really was not tedious. The travelling was admirable, +and a wonderful contrast to my friend the Midland.</p> + +<p>I am not by any means knocked up, though I have, as I +had in the last series of readings, a curious feeling of soreness +all round the body, which I suppose to arise from the +great exertion of voice. It is a mercy that we were not both +made really ill at Liverpool. On Friday morning I was taken +so faint and sick, that I was obliged to leave the table. On +the same afternoon the same thing happened to Dolby. We +then found that a part of the hotel close to us was dismantled +for painting, and that they were at that moment<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span> +painting a green passage leading to our rooms, with a most +horrible mixture of white lead and arsenic. On pursuing +the enquiry, I found that the four lady book-keepers in the +bar were all suffering from the poison.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Bridge of Allan</span>, <i>Tuesday, Feb. 19th, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>I was very glad to get your letter before leaving Glasgow +this morning. This is a poor return for it, but the post goes +out early, and we come in late.</p> + +<p>Yesterday morning I was so unwell that I wrote to +Frank Beard, from whom I shall doubtless hear to-morrow. +I mention it, only in case you should come in his way, for I +know how perversely such things fall out. I felt it a little +more exertion to read afterwards, and I passed a sleepless +night after that again; but otherwise I am in good force +and spirits to-day. I may say, in the best force.</p> + +<p>The quiet of this little place is sure to do me good. The +little inn in which we are established seems a capital house +of the best country sort.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Glasgow</span>, <i>Thursday, Feb. 21st, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>After two days' rest at the Bridge of Allan I am in +renewed force, and have nothing to complain of but inability +to sleep. I have been in excellent air all day since Tuesday +at noon, and made an interesting walk to Stirling yesterday, +and saw its lions, and (strange to relate) was not bored +by them. Indeed, they left me so fresh that I knocked at +the gate of the prison, presented myself to the governor, +and took Dolby over the jail, to his unspeakable interest.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span> +We then walked back again to our excellent country +inn.</p> + +<p>Enclosed is a letter from Alfred, which you and your +aunt will be interested in reading, and which I meant to +send you sooner but forgot it. Wonderful as it is to mention, +the sun shines here to-day! But to counterbalance +that phenomenon I am in close hiding from ——, who has +christened his infant son in my name, and, consequently, +haunts the building. He and Dolby have already nearly +come into collision, in consequence of the latter being +always under the dominion of the one idea that he is bound +to knock everybody down who asks for me.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="blockquot"><p>The "Jewish lady," wishing to mark her "appreciation +of Mr. Dickens's nobility of character," presented him with +a copy of Benisch's Hebrew and English Bible, with this +inscription: "Presented to Charles Dickens, in grateful and +admiring recognition of his having exercised the noblest +quality man can possess—that of atoning for an injury as +soon as conscious of having inflicted it."</p> + +<p>The acknowledgment of the gift is the following letter:</p></div> + +<div class="sidenote">Jewish +Lady.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Bradford, Yorkshire</span>, <i>Friday, March 1st, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Mrs. ——</span>,</div> + +<p>I am working through a series of readings, widely +dispersed through England, Scotland, and Ireland, and am +so constantly occupied that it is very difficult for me to write +letters. I have received your highly esteemed note (forwarded +from my home in Kent), and should have replied to +it sooner but that I had a hope of being able to get home +and see your present first. As I have not been able to do +so, however, and am hardly likely to do so for two months<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span> +to come, I delay no longer. It is safely awaiting me on my +own desk in my own quiet room. I cannot thank you for it +too cordially, and cannot too earnestly assure you that I +shall always prize it highly. The terms in which you send +me that mark of your remembrance are more gratifying to +me than I can possibly express to you; for they assure me +that there is nothing but goodwill left between you and me +and a people for whom I have a real regard, and to whom I +would not wilfully have given an offence or done an injustice +for any worldly consideration.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Believe me, very faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Newcastle-on-Tyne</span>, <i>Wednesday, March 6th, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>The readings have made an immense effect in this place, +and it is remarkable that although the people are individually +rough, collectively they are an unusually tender and +sympathetic audience; while their comic perception is quite +up to the high London standard. The atmosphere is so +very heavy that yesterday we escaped to Tynemouth for a +two hours' sea walk. There was a high north wind blowing +and a magnificent sea running. Large vessels were being +towed in and out over the stormy bar, with prodigious +waves breaking on it; and spanning the restless uproar of +the waters was a quiet rainbow of transcendent beauty. +The scene was quite wonderful. We were in the full enjoyment +of it when a heavy sea caught us, knocked us over, +and in a moment drenched us, and filled even our pockets. +We had nothing for it but to shake ourselves together (like +Doctor Marigold) and dry ourselves as well as we could by +hard walking in the wind and sunshine! But we were wet +through for all that when we came back here to dinner +after half an hour's railway ride.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span></p> + +<p>I am wonderfully well, and quite fresh and strong. +Have had to doctor Dolby for a bad cold; have not caught +it (yet), and have set him on his legs again.</p> + +<p>Scott is striking the tents and loading the baggages, so +I must deliver up my writing-desk. We meet, please God, +on Tuesday.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Shelbourne Hotel, Dublin</span>, <i>Friday, March 15th, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>We made our journey through an incessant snowstorm +on Wednesday night; at last got snowed up among the +Welsh mountains in a tremendous storm of wind, came to +a stop, and had to dig the engine out. We went to bed at +Holyhead at six in the morning of Thursday, and got aboard +the packet at two yesterday afternoon. It blew hard, but +as the wind was right astern, we only rolled and did not +pitch much. As I walked about on the bridge all the four +hours, and had cold salt beef and biscuit there and brandy-and-water, +you will infer that my Channel training has not +worn out.</p> + +<p>Our "business" here is <i>very bad</i>, though at Belfast it is +enormous. There is no doubt that great alarm prevails +here. This hotel is constantly filling and emptying as +families leave the country, and set in a current to the +steamers. There is apprehension of some disturbance +between to-morrow night and Monday night (both inclusive), +and I learn this morning that all the drinking-shops +are to be closed from to-night until Tuesday. It is +rumoured here that the Liverpool people are very uneasy +about some apprehended disturbance there at the same +time. Very likely you will know more about this than I +do, and very likely it may be nothing. There is no doubt<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span> +whatever that alarm prevails, and the manager of this +hotel, an intelligent German, is very gloomy on the subject. +On the other hand, there is feasting going on, and I have +been asked to dinner-parties by divers civil and military +authorities.</p> + +<p>Don't <i>you</i> be uneasy, I say once again. You may be +absolutely certain that there is no cause for it. We are +splendidly housed here, and in great comfort.</p> + +<p>Love to Charley and Katey.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Shelbourne Hotel, Dublin</span>, <i>Saturday, March 16th, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>I daresay you know already that I held many councils +in London about coming to Ireland at all, and was much +against it. Everything looked as bad here as need be, but +we did very well last night after all.</p> + +<p>There is considerable alarm here beyond all question, +and great depression in all kinds of trade and commerce. +To-morrow being St. Patrick's Day, there are apprehensions +of some disturbance, and croakers predict that it will come +off between to-night and Monday night. Of course there +are preparations on all sides, and large musters of soldiers +and police, though they are kept carefully out of sight. +One would not suppose, walking about the streets, that any +disturbance was impending; and yet there is no doubt that +the materials of one lie smouldering up and down the city +and all over the country. [I have a letter from Mrs. Bernal +Osborne this morning, describing the fortified way in which +she is living in her own house in the County Tipperary.]</p> + +<p>You may be quite sure that your venerable parent will +take good care of himself. If any riot were to break out,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span> +I should immediately stop the readings here. Should all +remain quiet, I begin to think they will be satisfactorily +remunerative after all. At Belfast, we shall have an +enormous house. I read "Copperfield" and "Bob" here +on Monday; "Marigold" and "Trial" at Belfast, on +Wednesday; and "Carol" and "Trial" here, on Friday. +This is all my news, except that I am in perfect force.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Shelbourne Hotel, Dublin</span>, <i>Sunday, March 17th, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>Everything remains in appearance perfectly quiet here. +The streets are gay all day, now that the weather is improved, +and singularly quiet and deserted at night. But +the whole place is secretly girt in with a military force. +To-morrow night is supposed to be a critical time; but +in view of the enormous preparations, I should say that +the chances are at least one hundred to one against any +disturbance.</p> + +<p>I cannot make sure whether I wrote to you yesterday, +and told you that we had done very well at the first reading +after all, even in money. The reception was prodigious, +and the readings are the town talk. But I rather think +I did actually write this to you. My doubt on the subject +arises from my having deliberated about writing on a +Saturday.</p> + +<p>The most curious, and for facilities of mere destruction, +such as firing houses in different quarters, the most dangerous +piece of intelligence imparted to me on authority +is, that the Dublin domestic men-servants as a class are all +Fenians.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Belfast</span>, <i>Wednesday, March 20th, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>The post goes out at twelve, and I have only time to +report myself. The snow not lying between this and Dublin, +we got here yesterday to our time, after a cold but pleasant +journey. Fitzgerald came on with us. I had a really charming +letter from Mrs. Fitzgerald, asking me to stay there. +She must be a perfectly unaffected and genuine lady. There +are kind messages to you and Mary in it. I have sent it on +to Mary, who will probably in her turn show it to you. We +had a wonderful crowd at Dublin on Monday, and the greatest +appreciation possible. We have a good let, in a large hall, +here to-night. But I am perfectly convinced that the worst +part of the Fenian business is to come yet.</p> + +<p>All about the Fitzgeralds and everything else when we +meet.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Belfast</span>, <i>Thursday, March 21st, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>In spite of public affairs and dismal weather, we are +doing wonders in Ireland.</p> + +<p>That the conspiracy is a far larger and more important +one than would seem from what it has done yet, there is no +doubt. I have had a good deal of talk with a certain +colonel, whose duty it has been to investigate it, day and +night, since last September. That it will give a world of +trouble, and cost a world of money, I take to be (after what +I have thus learned) beyond all question. One regiment +has been found to contain five hundred Fenian soldiers +every man of whom was sworn in the barrack-yard. How +information is swiftly and secretly conveyed all over the +country, the Government with all its means and money<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span> +cannot discover; but every hour it is found that instructions, +warnings, and other messages are circulated from end to +end of Ireland. It is a very serious business indeed.</p> + +<p>I have just time to send this off, and to report myself +quite well except for a slight cold.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Norwich</span>, <i>Friday, March 29th, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>The reception at Cambridge last night was something +to be proud of in such a place. The colleges +mustered in full force from the biggest guns to the smallest, +and went far beyond even Manchester in the roars of +welcome and the rounds of cheers. All through the +readings, the whole of the assembly, old men as well as +young, and women as well as men, took everything with a +heartiness of enjoyment not to be described. The place +was crammed, and the success the most brilliant I have +ever seen.</p> + +<p>What we are doing in this sleepy old place I don't +know, but I have no doubt it is mild enough.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Walter +Thornbury</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Office of "All the Year Round</span>,"</span><br /> +<i>Monday, April 1st, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Thornbury</span>,</div> + +<p>I am very doubtful indeed about "Vaux," and have +kept it out of the number in consequence. The mere +details of such a rascal's proceedings, whether recorded by +himself or set down by the Reverend Ordinary, are not +wholesome for a large audience, and are scarcely justifiable +(I think) as claiming to be a piece of literature. I can +understand Barrington to be a good subject, as involving +the representation of a period, a style of manners, an order<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span> +of dress, certain habits of street life, assembly-room life, +and coffee-room life, etc.; but there is a very broad distinction +between this and mere Newgate Calendar. The +latter would assuredly damage your book, and be protested +against to me. I have a conviction of it, founded on +constant observation and experience here.</p> + +<p>Your kind invitation is extremely welcome and acceptable +to me, but I am sorry to add that I must not go +a-visiting. For this reason: So incessantly have I been +"reading," that I have not once been at home at Gad's +Hill since last January, and am little likely to get there +before the middle of May. Judge how the master's eye +must be kept on the place when it does at length get a look +at it after so long an absence! I hope you will descry in +this a reason for coming to me again, instead of my coming +to you.</p> + +<p>The extinct prize-fighters, as a body, I take to be a +good subject, for much the same reason as George Barrington. +Their patrons were a class of men now extinct too, and the +whole ring of those days (not to mention Jackson's rooms +in Bond Street) is a piece of social history. Now Vaux +is not, nor is he even a phenomenon among thieves.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours always.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Clarkson +Stanfield, +R.A.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Thursday, April 18th, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Stanny</span>,</div> + +<p>The time of year reminds me how the months have +gone, since I last heard from you through Mrs. Stanfield.</p> + +<p>I hope you have not thought me unmindful of you in the +meanwhile. I have been almost constantly travelling and +reading. England, Ireland, and Scotland have laid hold +of me by turns, and I have had no rest. As soon as I had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span> +finished this kind of work last year, I had to fall to work +upon "All the Year Round" and the Christmas number. I +was no sooner quit of that task, and the Christmas season +was but run out to its last day, when I was tempted into +another course of fifty readings that are not yet over. I am +here now for two days, and have not seen the place since +Twelfth Night. When a reading in London has been done, +I have been brought up for it from some great distance, and +have next morning been carried back again. But the fifty +will be "paid out" (as we say at sea) by the middle of May, +and then I hope to see you.</p> + +<p>Reading at Cheltenham the other day, I saw Macready, +who sent his love to you. His face was much more massive +and as it used to be, than when I saw him previous to his +illness. His wife takes admirable care of him, and is on +the happiest terms with his daughter Katie. His boy by +the second marriage is a jolly little fellow, and leads a far +easier life than the children you and I remember, who used +to come in at dessert and have each a biscuit and a glass of +water, in which last refreshment I was always convinced +that they drank, with the gloomiest malignity, "Destruction +to the gormandising grown-up company!"</p> + +<p>I hope to look up your latest triumphs on the day of the +Academy dinner. Of course as yet I have had no opportunity +of even hearing of what anyone has done. I have +been (in a general way) snowed up for four months. The +locomotive with which I was going to Ireland was dug out +of the snow at midnight, in Wales. Both passages across +were made in a furious snowstorm. The snow lay ankle-deep +in Dublin, and froze hard at Belfast. In Scotland it +slanted before a perpetual east wind. In Yorkshire, it +derived novelty from thunder and lightning. Whirlwinds +everywhere I don't mention.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span></p> + +<p>God bless you and yours. If I look like some weather-beaten +pilot when we meet, don't be surprised. Any mahogany-faced +stranger who holds out his hand to you will +probably turn out, on inspection, to be the old original +Dick.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever, my dear Stanny, your faithful and affectionate.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—I wish you could have been with me (of course in +a snowstorm) one day on the pier at Tynemouth. There +was a very heavy sea running, and a perfect fleet of screw +merchantmen were plunging in and out on the turn of the +tide at high-water. Suddenly there came a golden horizon, +and a most glorious rainbow burst out, arching one large +ship, as if she were sailing direct for heaven. I was so +enchanted by the scene, that I became oblivious of a few +thousand tons of water coming on in an enormous roller, +and was knocked down and beaten by its spray when it +broke, and so completely wetted through and through, that +the very pockets in my pocket-book were full of sea.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. George +Stanfield.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Office of "All the Year Round</span>,"</span><br /> +<i>Sunday, May 19th, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='center'> +<small>ON THE DEATH OF HIS FATHER.</small><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear George</span>,</div> + +<p>When I came up to the house this afternoon and saw +what had happened, I had not the courage to ring, though +I had thought I was fully prepared by what I heard when I +called yesterday. No one of your father's friends can ever +have loved him more dearly than I always did, or can have +better known the worth of his noble character.</p> + +<p>It is idle to suppose that I can do anything for you; +and yet I cannot help saying that I am staying here for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span> +some days, and that if I could, it would be a much greater +relief to me than it could be a service to you.</p> + +<p>Your poor mother has been constantly in my thoughts +since I saw the quiet bravery with which she preserved her +composure. The beauty of her ministration sank into my +heart when I saw him for the last time on earth. May God +be with her, and with you all, in your great loss.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Affectionately yours always.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. H. +Wills.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<i>Thursday, June 6th, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Wills</span>,</div> + +<p>I cannot tell you how warmly I feel your letter, or +how deeply I appreciate the affection and regard in which +it originates. I thank you for it with all my heart.</p> + +<p>You will not suppose that I make light of any of your +misgivings if I present the other side of the question. Every +objection that you make strongly impresses me, and will be +revolved in my mind again and again.</p> + +<p>When I went to America in '42, I was so much younger, +but (I think) very much weaker too. I had had a painful +surgical operation performed shortly before going out, and +had had the labour from week to week of "Master Humphrey's +Clock." My life in the States was a life of continual +speech-making (quite as laborious as reading), and I was less +patient and more irritable then than I am now. My idea of +a course of readings in America is, that it would involve far +less travelling than you suppose, that the large first-class +rooms would absorb the whole course, and that the receipts +would be very much larger than your estimate, unless the +demand for the readings is <span class="smcap">enormously exaggerated on all +hands</span>. There is considerable reason for this view of the +case. And I can hardly think that all the speculators who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span> +beset, and all the private correspondents who urge me, are +in a conspiracy or under a common delusion.</p> + +<div class='center'><b>* * * * * *</b></div> + +<p>I shall never rest much while my faculties last, and +(if I know myself) have a certain something in me that +would still be active in rusting and corroding me, if I +flattered myself that I was in repose. On the other hand, +I think that my habit of easy self-abstraction and withdrawal +into fancies has always refreshed and strengthened +me in short intervals wonderfully. I always seem to myself +to have rested far more than I have worked; and I do +really believe that I have some exceptional faculty of accumulating +young feelings in short pauses, which obliterates a +quantity of wear and tear.</p> + +<p>My worldly circumstances (such a large family considered) +are very good. I don't want money. All my +possessions are free and in the best order. Still, at fifty-five +or fifty-six, the likelihood of making a very great addition +to one's capital in half a year is an immense consideration.... +I repeat the phrase, because there should be something +large to set against the objections.</p> + +<p>I dine with Forster to-day, to talk it over. I have no +doubt he will urge most of your objections and particularly +the last, though American friends and correspondents he +has, have undoubtedly staggered him more than I ever +knew him to be staggered on the money question. Be +assured that no one can present any argument to me which +will weigh more heartily with me than your kind words, +and that whatever comes of my present state of abeyance, I +shall never forget your letter or cease to be grateful for it.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever, my dear Wills, faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. H. +Wills.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Sunday, June 13th, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Wills</span>,</div> + +<p>I have read the first three numbers of Wilkie's +story this morning, and have gone minutely through the +plot of the rest to the last line. It gives a series of "narratives," +but it is a very curious story, wild, and yet domestic, +with excellent character in it, and great mystery. It is +prepared with extraordinary care, and has every chance of +being a hit. It is in many respects much better than anything +he has done. The question is, how shall we fill up +the blank between Mabel's progress and Wilkie? What +do you think of proposing to Fitzgerald to do a story +three months long? I daresay he has some unfinished or +projected something by him.</p> + +<p>I have an impression that it was not Silvester who tried +Eliza Fenning, but Knowles. One can hardly suppose +Thornbury to make such a mistake, but I wish you would +look into the Annual Register. I have added a final paragraph +about the unfairness of the judge, whoever he was. +I distinctly recollect to have read of his "putting down" of +Eliza Fenning's father when the old man made some +miserable suggestion in his daughter's behalf (this is not +noticed by Thornbury), and he also stopped some suggestion +that a knife thrust into a loaf adulterated with alum would +present the appearance that these knives presented. But I +may have got both these points from looking up some +pamphlets in Upcott's collection which I once had.</p> + +<p>Your account of your journey reminds me of one of the +latest American stories, how a traveller by stage-coach said +to the driver: "Did you ever see a snail, sir?" "Yes, +sir." "Where did you meet him, sir?" "I <i>didn't</i> meet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span> +him, sir!" "Wa'al, sir, I think you did, if you'll excuse +me, for I'm damned if you ever overtook him."</p> + +<p>Ever faithfully.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Henderson.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Gad's Hill</span>, <i>Thursday, July 4th, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Mrs. Henderson</span>,</div> + +<p>I was more shocked than surprised by the receipt of +your mother's announcement of our poor dear Marguerite's +death. When I heard of the consultation, and recalled +what had preceded it and what I have seen here, my hopes +were very slight.</p> + +<p>Your letter did not reach me until last night, and thus I +could not avoid remaining here to-day, to keep an American +appointment of unusual importance. You and your mother +both know, I think, that I had a great affection for +Marguerite, that we had many dear remembrances together, +and that her self-reliance and composed perseverance had +awakened my highest admiration in later times. No one +could have stood by her grave to-day with a better knowledge +of all that was great and good in her than I have, or +with a more loving remembrance of her through all her +phases since she first came to London a pretty timid +girl.</p> + +<p>I do not trouble your mother by writing to her separately. +It is a sad, sad task to write at all. God help us!</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Percy +Fitzgerald.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Gad's Hill</span>, <i>July 21st, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Fitzgerald</span>,</div> + +<p>I am heartily glad to get your letter, and shall be +thoroughly well pleased to study you again in the pages of +A. Y. R.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span></p> + +<p>I have settled nothing yet about America, but am going +to send Dolby out on the 3rd of next month to survey the +land, and come back with a report on some heads whereon +I require accurate information. Proposals (both from +American and English speculators) of a very tempting +nature have been repeatedly made to me; but I cannot +endure the thought of binding myself to give so many +readings there whether I like it or no; and if I go at all, +am bent on going with Dolby single-handed.</p> + +<p>I have been doing two things for America; one, the little +story to which you refer; the other, four little papers for a +child's magazine. I like them both, and think the latter a +queer combination of a child's mind with a grown-up joke. +I have had them printed to assure correct printing in the +United States. You shall have the proof to read, with the +greatest pleasure. On second thoughts, why shouldn't I +send you the children's proof by this same post? I will, +as I have it here, send it under another cover. When you +return it, you shall have the short story.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Believe me, always heartily yours.</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Percy +Fitzgerald.</div> + +<div class='center'><small>EXTRACT.</small></div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<i>July 28th, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>I am glad you like the children, and particularly glad +you like the pirate. I remember very well when I had a +general idea of occupying that place in history at the same +age. But I loved more desperately than Boldheart.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool</span>, <i>Friday Night, Aug. 2nd, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Georgy</span>,</div> + +<p>I cannot get a boot on—wear a slipper on my left +foot, and consequently am here under difficulties. My foot +is occasionally painful, but not very. I don't think it worth +while consulting anybody about it as yet. I make out so +many reasons against supposing it to be gouty, that I really +do not think it is.</p> + +<p>Dolby begs me to send all manner of apologetic messages +for his going to America. He is very cheerful and hopeful, +but evidently feels the separation from his wife and child +very much. His sister<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> was at Euston Square this morning, +looking very well. Sainton too, very light and jovial.</p> + +<p>With the view of keeping myself and my foot quiet, I +think I will not come to Gad's Hill until Monday. If I +don't appear before, send basket to Gravesend to meet me, +leaving town by the 12.10 on Monday. This is important, +as I couldn't walk a quarter of a mile to-night for five +hundred pounds.</p> + +<p>Love to all at Gad's.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. H. +Wills.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Gad's Hill</span>, <i>Monday, Sept. 2nd, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Wills</span>,</div> + +<p>Like you, I was shocked when this new discovery +burst upon me on Friday, though, unlike you, I never could +believe in ——, solely (I think) because, often as I have +tried him, I never found him standing by my desk when I +was writing a letter without trying to read it.</p> + +<p>I fear there is no doubt that since ——'s discharge,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span> +he (——) has stolen money at the readings. A case of an +abstracted shilling seems to have been clearly brought home +to him by Chappell's people, and they know very well what +<i>that</i> means. I supposed a very clear keeping off from +Anne's husband (whom I recommended for employment to +Chappell) to have been referable only to ——; but now I +see how hopeless and unjust it would be to expect belief +from him with two such cases within his knowledge.</p> + +<p>But don't let the thing spoil your holiday. If we try to +do our duty by people we employ, by exacting their proper +service from them on the one hand, and treating them with +all possible consistency, gentleness, and consideration on the +other, we know that we do right. Their doing wrong cannot +change our doing right, and that should be enough for us.</p> + +<p>So I have given <i>my</i> feathers a shake, and am all right +again. Give <i>your</i> feathers a shake, and take a cheery flutter +into the air of Hertfordshire.</p> + +<p>Great reports from Dolby and also from Fields! But I +keep myself quite calm, and hold my decision in abeyance +until I shall have book, chapter, and verse before me. +Dolby hoped he could leave Uncle Sam on the 11th of this +month.</p> + +<p>Sydney has passed as a lieutenant, and appeared at home +yesterday, all of a sudden, with the consequent golden garniture +on his sleeve, which I, God forgive me, stared at +without the least idea that it meant promotion.</p> + +<p>I am glad you see a certain unlikeness to anything in +the American story. Upon myself it has made the strangest +impression of reality and originality!! And I feel as if I +had read something (by somebody else), which I should +never get out of my mind!!! The main idea of the narrator's +position towards the other people was the idea that +I <i>had</i> for my next novel in A. Y. R. But it is very curious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span> +that I did not in the least see how to begin his state of +mind until I walked into Hoghton Towers one bright April +day with Dolby.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully ever.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. F. D. +Finlay.</div> + +<div class='center'><br /><br /> +<small>CONTRADICTING A NEWSPAPER REPORT OF HIS BEING IN A CRITICAL STATE OF HEALTH.</small><br /> +</div> + +<div class='date'><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Tuesday, Sept. 3rd, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>This is to certify that the undersigned victim of a +periodical paragraph-disease, which usually breaks out once +in every seven years (proceeding to England by the overland +route to India and per Cunard line to America, where it +strikes the base of the Rocky Mountains, and, rebounding to +Europe, perishes on the steppes of Russia), is <i>not</i> in a +"critical state of health," and has <i>not</i> consulted "eminent +surgeons," and never was better in his life, and is <i>not</i> +recommended to proceed to the United States for "cessation +from literary labour," and has not had so much as a +headache for twenty years.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span class="smcap">Charles Dickens</span>.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">M. Charles +Fechter.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;"><span class="smcap">"All the Year Round" Office</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Monday, Sept. 16th, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Fechter</span>,</div> + +<p>Going over the prompt-book carefully, I see one +change in your part to which (on Lytton's behalf) I +positively object, as I am quite certain he would not +consent to it. It is highly injudicious besides, as striking +out the best known line in the play.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span></p> + +<p>Turn to your part in Act III., the speech beginning</p> + +<div class='poem'> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;">Pauline,<i>by pride</i></span><br /> +<i>Angels have fallen ere thy time:</i> by pride——<br /> +</div> + +<p>You have made a passage farther on stand:</p> + +<div class='poem'> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;"><i>Then did I seek to rise</i></span><br /> +<i>Out of my mean estate. Thy bright image, etc.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>I must stipulate for your restoring it thus:</p> + +<div class='poem'> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;">Then did I seek to rise</span><br /> +Out of the prison of my mean estate;<br /> +And, with such jewels as the exploring mind<br /> +Brings from the caves of knowledge, buy my ransom<br /> +From those twin jailers of the daring heart—<br /> +Low birth and iron fortune. Thy bright image, etc. etc.<br /> +</div> + +<p>The last figure has been again and again quoted; is +identified with the play; is fine in itself; and above all, +I <span class="smcap">know</span> that Lytton would not let it go. In writing to him +to-day, fully explaining the changes in detail, and saying +that I disapprove of nothing else, I have told him that I +notice this change and that I immediately let you know +that it must not be made.</p> + +<p>(There will not be a man in the house from any newspaper +who would not detect mutilations in that speech, +moreover.)</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<i>Monday, Sept. 30th, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Georgy</span>,</div> + +<p>The telegram is despatched to Boston: "Yes. Go +ahead." After a very anxious consultation with Forster, +and careful heed of what is to be said for and against, I +have made up my mind to see it out. I do not expect as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span> +much money as the calculators estimate, but I cannot set +the hope of a large sum of money aside.</p> + +<p>I am so nervous with travelling and anxiety to decide +something, that I can hardly write. But I send you these +few words as my dearest and best friend.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Office of "All the Year Round," No. 26, Wellington Street, Strand,</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;"><span class="smcap">London, W.C.,</span></span><br /> +<i>Monday, Sept. 30th, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Mamie</span>,</div> + +<p>You will have had my telegram that I go to America. +After a long discussion with Forster, and consideration of +what is to be said on both sides, I have decided to go +through with it. I doubt the profit being as great as the +calculation makes it, but the prospect is sufficiently alluring +to turn the scale on the American side.</p> + +<p>Unless I telegraph to the contrary, I will come to +Gravesend (send basket there) by 12 train on Wednesday. +Love to all.</p> + +<p>We have telegraphed "Yes" to Boston.</p> + +<p>I begin to feel myself drawn towards America, as Darnay, +in the "Tale of Two Cities," was attracted to the Loadstone +Rock, Paris.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +William +Charles +Kent.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +26, <span class="smcap">Wellington Street</span>, <i>Saturday, Oct. 19th, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Kent</span>,</div> + +<p>In the midst of the great trouble you are taking in +the cause of your undersigned affectionate friend, I hope the +reading of the enclosed may be a sort of small godsend. Of +course it is very strictly private. The printers are not yet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span> +trusted with the name, but the name will be, "No Thoroughfare." +I have done the greater part of it; may you find it +interesting!</p> + +<p>My solicitor, a man of some mark and well known, is +anxious to be on the Committee:</p> + +<div class='poem'> +Frederic Ouvry, Esquire,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">66, Lincoln's Inn Fields.</span><br /> +</div> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—My sailor son!</p> + +<p>I forgot him!!</p> + +<p>Coming up from Portsmouth for the dinner!!!</p> + +<p>Der—er—oo not cur—ur—urse me, I implore.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Penitently.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Power.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Gad's Hill</span>, <i>Wednesday, Oct. 23rd, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Mrs. Power</span>,</div> + +<p>I have a sad pleasure in the knowledge that our dear +Marguerite so remembered her old friend, and I shall preserve +the token of her remembrance with loving care. The +sight of it has brought back many old days.</p> + +<p>With kind remembrance to Mrs. Henderson,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Believe me always, very faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. J. L. +Toole.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Saturday, Nov. 2nd, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Mr. Toole</span>,</div> + +<p>I heartily thank you for your elegant token of +remembrance, and for your earnest letter. Both have +afforded me real pleasure, and the first-named shall go with +me on my journey.</p> + +<p>Let me take this opportunity of saying that on receipt<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span> +of your letter concerning to-day's dinner, I immediately +forwarded your request to the honorary secretary. I hope +you will understand that I could not, in delicacy, otherwise +take part in the matter.</p> + +<p>Again thanking you most cordially,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Believe me, always faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. H. +Wills.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +26, <span class="smcap">Wellington Street</span>, <i>Sunday, Nov. 3rd, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Wills</span>,</div> + +<p>If you were to write me many such warm-hearted +letters as you send this morning, my heart would fail me! +There is nothing that so breaks down my determination, or +shows me what an iron force I put upon myself, and how +weak it is, as a touch of true affection from a tried friend.</p> + +<p>All that you so earnestly say about the goodwill and +devotion of all engaged, I perceived and deeply felt last +night. It moved me even more than the demonstration +itself, though I do suppose it was the most brilliant ever +seen. When I got up to speak, but for taking a desperate +hold of myself, I should have lost my sight and voice and +sat down again.</p> + +<p>God bless you, my dear fellow. I am, ever and ever,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Your affectionate.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">The Hon. +Mrs. +Watson.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Office of "All the Year Round</span>,"</span><br /> +<i>Tuesday, Nov. 5th, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Mrs. Watson</span>,</div> + +<p>A thousand thanks for your kind letter, and many +congratulations on your having successfully attained a +dignity which I never allow to be mentioned in my presence. +Charley's children are instructed from their tenderest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span> +months only to know me as "Wenerables," which they +sincerely believe to be my name, and a kind of title that I +have received from a grateful country.</p> + +<p>Alas! I cannot have the pleasure of seeing you before I +presently go to Liverpool. Every moment of my time is +preoccupied. But I send you my sincere love, and am +always truthful to the dear old days, and the memory of +one of the dearest friends I ever loved.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Aboard the "Cuba," Queenstown Harbour</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Sunday, Nov. 10th, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Mamie</span>,</div> + +<p>We arrived here at seven this morning, and shall +probably remain awaiting our mail, until four or five this +afternoon. The weather in the passage here was delightful, +and we had scarcely any motion beyond that of the screw.</p> + +<p>We are nearly but not quite full of passengers. At +table I sit next the captain, on his right, on the outside of +the table and close to the door. My little cabin is big enough +for everything but getting up in and going to bed in. As +it has a good window which I can leave open all night, and +a door which I can set open too, it suits my chief requirements +of it—plenty of air—admirably. On a writing-slab +in it, which pulls out when wanted, I now write in a majestic +manner.</p> + +<p>Many of the passengers are American, and I am already +on the best terms with nearly all the ship.</p> + +<p>We began our voyage yesterday a very little while after +you left us, which was a great relief. The wind is S.E. this +morning, and if it would keep so we should go along nobly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span> +My dearest love to your aunt, and also to Katie and all the +rest. I am in very good health, thank God, and as well as +possible.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Aboard the "Cuba," Five Days out</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Wednesday, Nov. 13th, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Georgy</span>,</div> + +<p>As I wrote to Mamie last, I now write to you, or +mean to do it, if the motion of the ship will let me.</p> + +<p>We are very nearly halfway to-day. The weather was +favourable for us until yesterday morning, when we got a +head-wind which still stands by us. We have rolled and +pitched, of course; but on the whole have been wonderfully +well off. I have had headache and have felt faint once or +twice, <i>but have not been sick at all</i>. My spacious cabin is +very noisy at night, as the most important working of the +ship goes on outside my window and over my head; but it +is very airy, and if the weather be bad and I can't open the +window, I can open the door all night. If the weather be +fine (as it is now), I can open both door and window, and +write between them. Last night, I got a foot-bath under +the dignified circumstances of sitting on a camp-stool in my +cabin, and having the bath (and my feet) in the passage outside. +The officers' quarters are close to me, and, as I know +them all, I get reports of the weather and the way we are +making when the watch is changed, and I am (as I usually +am) lying awake. The motion of the screw is at its slightest +vibration in my particular part of the ship. The silent +captain, reported gruff, is a very good fellow and an honest +fellow. Kelly has been ill all the time, and not of the +slightest use, and is ill now. Scott always cheerful, and +useful, and ready; a better servant for the kind of work<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span> +there never can have been. Young Lowndes has been fearfully +sick until mid-day yesterday. His cabin is pitch dark, +and full of blackbeetles. He shares mine until nine o'clock +at night, when Scott carries him off to bed. He also dines +with me in my magnificent chamber. This passage in +winter time cannot be said to be an enjoyable excursion, but +I certainly am making it under the best circumstances. (I +find Dolby to have been enormously popular on board, and +to have known everybody and gone everywhere.)</p> + +<p>So much for my news, except that I have been constantly +reading, and find that "Pierra" that Mrs. Hogge +sent me by Katie to be a very remarkable book, not only +for its grim and horrible story, but for its suggestion of +wheels within wheels, and sad human mysteries. Baker's +second book not nearly so good as his first, but his first +anticipated it.</p> + +<p>We hope to get to Halifax either on Sunday or Monday, +and to Boston either on Tuesday or Wednesday. The glass +is rising high to-day, and everybody on board is hopeful of +an easterly wind.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<i>Saturday, 16th.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>Last Thursday afternoon a heavy gale of wind sprang +up and blew hard until dark, when it seemed to lull. But +it then came on again with great violence, and blew tremendously +all night. The noise, and the rolling and plunging +of the ship, were awful. Nobody on board could get +any sleep, and numbers of passengers were rolled out of +their berths. Having a side-board to mine to keep me in, +like a baby, I lay still. But it was a dismal night indeed, +and it was curious to see the change it had made in the +faces of all the passengers yesterday. It cannot be denied +that these winter crossings are very trying and startling;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span> +while the personal discomfort of not being able to wash, +and the miseries of getting up and going to bed, with what +small means there are all sliding, and sloping, and slopping +about, are really in their way distressing.</p> + +<p>This forenoon we made Cape Race, and are now running +along at full speed with the land beside us. Kelly still +useless, and positively declining to show on deck. Scott, +with an eight-day-old moustache, more super like than ever. +My foot (I hope from walking on the boarded deck) in a +very shy condition to-day, and rather painful. I shaved this +morning for the first time since Liverpool; dodging at the +glass, very much like Fechter's imitation of ——. The white +cat that came off with us in the tender a general favourite. +She belongs to the daughter of a Southerner, returning +with his wife and family from a two-years' tour in Europe.</p> + + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<i>Sunday, 17th.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>At four o'clock this morning we got into bad weather +again, and the state of things at breakfast-time was unutterably +miserable. Nearly all the passengers in their +berths—no possibility of standing on deck—sickness and +groans—impracticable to pass a cup of tea from one pair of +hands to another. It has slightly moderated since (between +two and three in the afternoon I write), and the sun is +shining, but the rolling of the ship surpasses all imagination +or description.</p> + +<p>We expect to be at Halifax about an hour after midnight, +and this letter shall be posted there, to make certain of +catching the return mail on Wednesday. Boston is only +thirty hours from Halifax.</p> + +<p>Best love to Mamie, and to Katie and Charley. I know +you will report me and my love to Forster and Mrs. Forster.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span> +I write with great difficulty, wedged up in a corner, and +having my heels on the paper as often as the pen. Kelly +worse than ever, and Scott better than ever.</p> + +<p>My desk and I have just arisen from the floor.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Parker House, Boston</span>, <i>Thursday, Nov. 21st, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>I arrived here on Tuesday night, after a very slow +passage from Halifax against head-winds. All the tickets +for the first four readings here (all yet announced) were +sold immediately on their being issued.</p> + +<p>You know that I begin on the 2nd of December with +"Carol" and "Trial"? Shall be heartily glad to begin to +count the readings off.</p> + +<p>This is an immense hotel, with all manner of white +marble public passages and public rooms. I live in a +corner high up, and have a hot and cold bath in my bedroom +(communicating with the sitting-room), and comforts +not in existence when I was here before. The cost of living +is enormous, but happily we can afford it. I dine to-day +with Longfellow, Emerson, Holmes, and Agassiz. Longfellow +was here yesterday. Perfectly white in hair and +beard, but a remarkably handsome and notable-looking man. +The city has increased enormously in five-and-twenty years. +It has grown more mercantile—is like Leeds mixed with +Preston, and flavoured with New Brighton; but for smoke +and fog you substitute an exquisitely bright light air. I +found my rooms beautifully decorated (by Mrs. Fields) +with choice flowers, and set off by a number of good books. +I am not much persecuted by people in general, as Dolby +has happily made up his mind that the less I am exhibited +for nothing the better. So our men sit outside the room +door and wrestle with mankind.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span></p> + +<p>We had speech-making and singing in the saloon of the +<i>Cuba</i> after the last dinner of the voyage. I think I have +acquired a higher reputation from drawing out the captain, +and getting him to take the second in "All's Well," and +likewise in "There's not in the wide world" (your parent +taking first), than from anything previously known of me +on these shores. I hope the effect of these achievements +may not dim the lustre of the readings. We also sang (with +a Chicago lady, and a strong-minded woman from I don't +know where) "Auld Lang Syne," with a tender melancholy, +expressive of having all four been united from our cradles. +The more dismal we were, the more delighted the company +were. Once (when we paddled i' the burn) the captain took +a little cruise round the compass on his own account, touching +at the "Canadian Boat Song," and taking in supplies at +"Jubilate," "Seas between us braid ha' roared," and +roared like the seas themselves. Finally, I proposed the +ladies in a speech that convulsed the stewards, and we closed +with a brilliant success. But when you dine with Mr. Forster, +ask him to read to you how we got on at church in a heavy +sea. Hillard has just been in and sent his love "to those +dear girls." He has grown much older. He is now District +Attorney of the State of Massachusetts, which is a very good +office. Best love to your aunt and Katie, and Charley and +all his house, and all friends.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Parker House, Boston</span>, <i>Monday, Nov. 25th, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>I cannot remember to whom I wrote last, but it will not +much matter if I make a mistake; this being generally to +report myself so well, that I am constantly chafing at not +having begun to-night instead of this night week.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[308]</a></span></p> + +<p>The tickets being all sold for next week, and no other +announcement being yet made, there is nothing new in that +way to tell of. Dolby is over at New York, where we are +at our wits' end how to keep tickets out of the hands of +speculators. Morgan is staying with me; came yesterday +to breakfast, and goes home to-morrow. Fields and Mrs. +Fields also dined yesterday. She is a very nice woman, +with a rare relish for humour and a most contagious laugh. +The Bostonians having been duly informed that I wish to +be quiet, really leave me as much so as I should be in +Manchester or Liverpool. This I cannot expect to last elsewhere; +but it is a most welcome relief here, as I have all +the readings to get up. The people are perfectly kind and +perfectly agreeable. If I stop to look in at a shop-window, +a score of passers-by stop; and after I begin to read, I +cannot expect in the natural course of things to get off so +easily. But I every day take from seven to ten miles in +peace.</p> + +<p>Communications about readings incessantly come in +from all parts of the country. We take no offer whatever, +lying by with our plans until after the first series in +New York, and designing, if we make a furore there, to +travel as little as possible. I fear I shall have to take +Canada at the end of the whole tour. They make such +strong representations from Montreal and Toronto, and +from Nova Scotia—represented by St. John's and Halifax—of +the slight it would be to them, if I wound up with the +States, that I am shaken.</p> + +<p>It is sad to see Longfellow's house (the house in which his +wife was burnt) with his young daughters in it, and the +shadow of that terrible story. The young undergraduates +of Cambridge (he is a professor there) have made a representation +to him that they are five hundred strong, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[309]</a></span> +cannot get one ticket. I don't know what is to be done for +them; I suppose I must read there somehow. We are all +in the clouds until I shall have broken ground in New +York, as to where readings will be possible and where +impossible.</p> + +<p>Agassiz is one of the most natural and jovial of men. I +go out a-visiting as little as I can, but still have to dine, and +what is worse, sup pretty often. Socially, I am (as I was +here before) wonderfully reminded of Edinburgh when I had +many friends in it.</p> + +<p>Your account and Mamie's of the return journey to +London gave me great pleasure. I was delighted with +your report of Wilkie, and not surprised by Chappell's +coming out gallantly.</p> + +<p>My anxiety to get to work is greater than I can express, +because time seems to be making no movement towards +home until I shall be reading hard. Then I shall begin to +count and count and count the upward steps to May.</p> + +<p>If ever you should be in a position to advise a traveller +going on a sea voyage, remember that there is some mysterious +service done to the bilious system when it is shaken, +by baked apples. Noticing that they were produced on +board the <i>Cuba</i>, every day at lunch and dinner, I thought I +would make the experiment of always eating them freely. +I am confident that they did wonders, not only at the +time, but in stopping the imaginary pitching and rolling +after the voyage is over, from which many good amateur +sailors suffer. I have hardly had the sensation at all, +except in washing of a morning. At that time I still hold +on with one knee to the washing-stand, and could swear +that it rolls from left to right. The <i>Cuba</i> does not return +until Wednesday, the 4th December. You may suppose +that every officer on board is coming on Monday, and that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[310]</a></span> +Dolby has provided extra stools for them. His work is +very hard indeed. Cards are brought to him every minute +in the day; his correspondence is immense; and he is jerked +off to New York, and I don't know where else, on the +shortest notice and the most unreasonable times. Moreover, +he has to be at "the bar" every night, and to "liquor up +with all creation" in the small hours. He does it all with +the greatest good humour, and flies at everybody who waylays +the Chief, furiously. We have divided our men into +watches, so that one always sits outside the drawing-room +door. Dolby knows the whole Cunard line, and as we could +not get good English gin, went out in a steamer yesterday +and got two cases (twenty-four bottles) out of Cunard +officers. Osgood and he were detached together last evening +for New York, whence they telegraph every other hour +about some new point in this precious sale of tickets. So +distracted a telegram arrived at three that I have telegraphed +back, "Explain yourselves," and am now waiting +for the explanation. I think you know that Osgood is a +partner in Ticknor and Fields'.</p> + +<p>Tuesday morning.—Dolby has come back from New +York, where the prospects seem immense. We sell tickets +there next Friday and Saturday, and a tremendous rush +is expected.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Charles +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Parker House, Boston, U.S.</span>, <i>Saturday, Nov. 30th, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Charley</span>,</div> + +<p>You will have heard before now how fortunate I was +on my voyage, and how I was not sick for a moment. +These screws are tremendous ships for carrying on, and for +rolling, and their vibration is rather distressing. But my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[311]</a></span> +little cabin, being for'ard of the machinery, was in the best +part of the vessel, and I had as much air in it, night and +day, as I chose. The saloon being kept absolutely without +air, I mostly dined in my own den, in spite of my +being allotted the post of honour on the right hand of the +captain.</p> + +<p>The tickets for the first four readings here (the only +readings announced) were all sold immediately, and many +are now re-selling at a large premium. The tickets for +the first four readings in New York (the only readings +announced there also) were on sale yesterday, and were all +sold in a few hours. The receipts are very large indeed; +but engagements of any kind and every kind I steadily +refuse, being resolved to take what is to be taken myself. +Dolby is nearly worked off his legs, is now at New York, +and goes backwards and forwards between this place and +that (about the distance from London to Liverpool, though +they take nine hours to do it) incessantly. Nothing can +exceed his energy and good humour, and he is extremely +popular everywhere. My great desire is to avoid much +travelling, and to try to get the people to come to me, +instead of my going to them. If I can effect this to any +moderate extent, I shall be saved a great deal of knocking +about. My original purpose was not to go to Canada at +all; but Canada is so up in arms on the subject that I think +I shall be obliged to take it at last. In that case I should +work round to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and then take the +packet for home.</p> + +<p>As they don't seem (Americans who have heard me on +their travels excepted) to have the least idea here of what +the readings are like, and as they are accustomed to mere +readings out of a book, I am inclined to think the excitement +will increase when I shall have begun. Everybody<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[312]</a></span> +is very kind and considerate, and I have a number of old +friends here, at the Bar and connected with the University. +I am now negotiating to bring out the dramatic version of +"No Thoroughfare" at New York. It is quite upon the +cards that it may turn up trumps.</p> + +<p>I was interrupted in that place by a call from my old +secretary in the States, Mr. Putnam. It was quite affecting +to see his delight in meeting his old master again. And +when I told him that Anne was married, and that I had +(unacknowledged) grandchildren, he laughed and cried +together. I suppose you don't remember Longfellow, +though he remembers you in a black velvet frock very well. +He is now white-haired and white-bearded, but remarkably +handsome. He still lives in his old house, where his beautiful +wife was burnt to death. I dined with him the other day, +and could not get the terrific scene out of my imagination. +She was in a blaze in an instant, rushed into his arms with +a wild cry, and never spoke afterwards.</p> + +<p>My love to Bessie, and to Mekitty, and all the babbies. +I will lay this by until Tuesday morning, and then add a +final line to it.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever, my dear Charley, your affectionate Father.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<i>Tuesday, Dec. 3rd, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>Success last night beyond description or exaggeration. +The whole city is quite frantic about it to-day, and it is +impossible that prospects could be more brilliant.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[313]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Parker House, Boston</span>, <i>Sunday, Dec. 1st, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>I received yours of the 18th November, yesterday. As +I left Halifax in the <i>Cuba</i> that very day, you probably saw +us telegraphed in <i>The Times</i> on the 19th.</p> + +<p>Dolby came back from another run to New York, this +morning. The receipts are very large indeed, far exceeding +our careful estimate made at Gad's. I think +you had best in future (unless I give you intimation to the +contrary) address your letters to me, at the Westminster +Hotel, Irving Place, New York City. It is a more central +position than this, and we are likely to be much more there +than here. I am going to set up a brougham in New York, +and keep my rooms at that hotel. The account of Matilda +is a very melancholy one, and really distresses me. What +she must sink into, it is sad to consider. However, there +was nothing for it but to send her away, that is quite +clear.</p> + +<p>They are said to be a very quiet audience here, appreciative +but not demonstrative. I shall try to change their +character a little.</p> + +<p>I have been going on very well. A horrible custom obtains +in these parts of asking you to dinner somewhere at half-past +two, and to supper somewhere else about eight. I have +run this gauntlet more than once, and its effect is, that there +is no day for any useful purpose, and that the length of the +evening is multiplied by a hundred. Yesterday I dined +with a club at half-past two, and came back here at half-past +eight, with a general impression that it was at least two +o'clock in the morning. Two days before I dined with +Longfellow at half-past two, and came back at eight, supposing +it to be midnight. To-day we have a state dinner-party<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[314]</a></span> +in our rooms at six, Mr. and Mrs. Fields, and Mr. +and Mrs. Bigelow. (He is a friend of Forster's, and was +American Minister in Paris). There are no negro waiters +here, all the servants are Irish—willing, but not able. The +dinners and wines are very good. I keep our own rooms +well ventilated by opening the windows, but no window is +ever opened in the halls or passages, and they are so overheated +by a great furnace, that they make me faint and +sick. The air is like that of a pre-Adamite ironing-day in +full blast. Your respected parent is immensely popular in +Boston society, and its cordiality and unaffected heartiness +are charming. I wish I could carry it with me.</p> + +<p>The leading New York papers have sent men over for +to-morrow night with instructions to telegraph columns of +descriptions. Great excitement and expectation everywhere. +Fields says he has looked forward to it so long that he knows +he will die at five minutes to eight.</p> + +<p>At the New York barriers, where the tickets are on sale +and the people ranged as at the Paris theatres, speculators +went up and down offering "twenty dollars for anybody's +place." The money was in no case accepted. One man sold +two tickets for the second, third, and fourth night for "one +ticket for the first, fifty dollars" (about seven pounds ten +shillings), "and a brandy cocktail," which is an iced bitter +drink. The weather has been rather muggy and languid +until yesterday, when there was the coldest wind blowing +that I ever felt. In the night it froze very hard, and to-day +the sky is beautiful.</p> + + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<i>Tuesday, Dec. 3rd.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>Most magnificent reception last night, and most signal +and complete success. Nothing could be more triumphant.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[315]</a></span> +The people will hear of nothing else and talk of nothing +else. Nothing that was ever done here, they all agree, +evoked any approach to such enthusiasm. I was quite as +cool and quick as if I were reading at Greenwich, and went +at it accordingly. Tell your aunt, with my best love, that +I have this morning received hers of the 21st, and that I +will write to her next. That will be from New York. My +love to Mr. and Mrs. Hulkes and the boy, and to Mr. and +Mrs. Malleson.<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Boston</span>, <i>Wednesday, Dec. 4th, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>I find that by going off to the <i>Cuba</i> myself this morning +I can send you the enclosed for Mary Boyle (I don't know +how to address her), whose usual flower for my button-hole +was produced in the most extraordinary manner here last +Monday night! All well and prosperous. "Copperfield" +and "Bob" last night; great success.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss Mary +Boyle.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Boston</span>, <i>December 4th, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Meery</span>,</div> + +<p>You can have no idea of the glow of pleasure and +amazement with which I saw your remembrance of me +lying on my dressing-table here last Monday night. Whosoever +undertook that commission accomplished it to a +miracle. But you must go away four thousand miles, and +have such a token conveyed to <i>you</i>, before you can quite +appreciate the feeling of receiving it. Ten thousand loving +thanks.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[316]</a></span></p> +<p>Immense success here, and unbounded enthusiasm. My +largest expectations far surpassed.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Ever your affectionate</span><br /> +Jo.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Westminster Hotel, Irving Place, New York City</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Wednesday, Dec 11th, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>Amazing success here. A very fine audience; <i>far better +than that at Boston</i>. Great reception. Great, "Carol" and +"Trial," on the first night; still greater, "Copperfield" +and "Bob," on the second. Dolby sends you a few papers +by this post. You will see from their tone what a success +it is.</p> + +<p>I cannot pay this letter, because I give it at the latest +moment to the mail-officer, who is going on board the +Cunard packet in charge of the mails, and who is staying +in this house. We are now selling (at the hall) the tickets +for the four readings of next week. At nine o'clock this +morning there were two thousand people in waiting, and +they had begun to assemble in the bitter cold as early as +two o'clock. All night long Dolby and our man have been +stamping tickets. (Immediately over my head, by-the-bye, +and keeping me awake.) This hotel is quite as quiet as +Mivart's, in Brook Street. It is not very much larger. +There are American hotels close by, with five hundred bedrooms, +and I don't know how many boarders; but this is +conducted on what is called "the European principle," and +is an admirable mixture of a first-class French and English +house. I keep a very smart carriage and pair; and if you +were to behold me driving out, furred up to the moustache, +with furs on the coach-boy and on the driver, and with an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[317]</a></span> +immense white, red, and yellow striped rug for a covering, +you would suppose me to be of Hungarian or Polish +nationality.</p> + +<p>Will you report the success here to Mr. Forster with my +love, and tell him he shall hear from me by next mail?</p> + +<p>Dolby sends his kindest regards. He is just come in +from our ticket sales, and has put such an immense untidy +heap of paper money on the table that it looks like a family +wash. He hardly ever dines, and is always tearing about +at unreasonable hours. He works very hard.</p> + +<p>My best love to your aunt (to whom I will write next), +and to Katie, and to both the Charleys, and all the Christmas +circle, not forgetting Chorley, to whom give my special +remembrance. You may get this by Christmas Day. <i>We</i> +shall have to keep it travelling from Boston here; for I +read at Boston on the 23rd and 24th, and here again on +the 26th.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Westminster Hotel, Irving Place, New York City</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Monday, Dec. 16th, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>We have been snowed up here, and the communication +with Boston is still very much retarded. Thus we have +received no letters by the Cunard steamer that came in last +Wednesday, and are in a grim state of mind on that +subject.</p> + +<p>Last night I was getting into bed just at twelve o'clock, +when Dolby came to my door to inform me that the house +was on fire (I had previously smelt fire for two hours). I +got Scott up directly, told him to pack the books and +clothes for the readings first, dressed, and pocketed my +jewels and papers, while Dolby stuffed himself out with +money. Meanwhile the police and firemen were in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[318]</a></span> +house, endeavouring to find where the fire was. For some +time it baffled their endeavours, but at last, bursting out +through some stairs, they cut the stairs away, and traced it +to its source in a certain fire-grate. By this time the hose +was laid all through the house from a great tank on the +roof, and everybody turned out to help. It was the oddest +sight, and people had put the strangest things on! After +a little chopping and cutting with axes and handing about +of water, the fire was confined to a dining-room in which it +had originated, and then everybody talked to everybody +else, the ladies being particularly loquacious and cheerful. +And so we got to bed again at about two.</p> + +<p>The excitement of the readings continues unabated, the +tickets for readings are sold as soon as they are ready, and +the public pay treble prices to the speculators who buy +them up. They are a wonderfully fine audience, even +better than Edinburgh, and almost, if not quite, as good as +Paris.</p> + +<p>Dolby continues to be the most unpopular man in +America (mainly because he can't get four thousand people +into a room that holds two thousand), and is reviled in print +daily. Yesterday morning a newspaper proclaims of him: +"Surely it is time that the pudding-headed Dolby retired +into the native gloom from which he has emerged." He +takes it very coolly, and does his best. Mrs. Morgan sent +me, the other night, I suppose the finest and costliest basket +of flowers ever seen, made of white camellias, yellow roses, +pink roses, and I don't know what else. It is a yard and a +half round at its smallest part.</p> + +<p>I must bring this to a close, as I have to go to the hall +to try an enlarged background.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[319]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Boston</span>, <i>Sunday, Dec. 22nd, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>Coming here from New York last night (after a detestable +journey), I was delighted to find your letter of the 6th. +I read it at my ten o'clock dinner with the greatest interest +and pleasure, and then we talked of home till we went to +bed.</p> + +<p>Our tour is now being made out, and I hope to be able +to send it in my next letter home, which will be to Mamie, +from whom I have <i>not</i> heard (as you thought I had) by the +mail that brought out yours. After very careful consideration +I have reversed Dolby's original plan, and have decided +on taking Baltimore, Washington, Cincinnati, <i>Chicago</i> (!), +St. Louis, and a few other places nearer here, instead of +staying in New York. My reason is that we are doing +immensely, both at New York and here, and that I am sure +it is in the peculiar character of the people to prize a thing +the more the less easily attainable it is made. Therefore, I +want, by absence, to get the greatest rush and pressure upon +the five farewell readings in New York in April. All our +announced readings are already crammed.</p> + +<p>When we got here last Saturday night, we found that +Mrs. Fields had not only garnished the rooms with flowers, +but also with holly (with real red berries) and festoons of +moss dependent from the looking-glasses and picture +frames. She is one of the dearest little women in the +world. The homely Christmas look of the place quite +affected us. Yesterday we dined at her house, and there +was a plum-pudding, brought on blazing, and not to be +surpassed in any house in England. There is a certain +Captain Dolliver, belonging to the Boston Custom House, +who came off in the little steamer that brought me ashore<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[320]</a></span> +from the <i>Cuba</i>. He took it into his head that he would +have a piece of English mistletoe brought out in this +week's Cunard, which should be laid upon my breakfast-table. +And there it was this morning. In such affectionate +touches as this, these New England people are especially +amiable.</p> + +<p>As a general rule, you may lay it down that whatever +you see about me in the papers is not true. But although +my voyage out was of that highly hilarious description that +you first made known to me, you may <i>generally</i> lend a +more believing ear to the Philadelphia correspondent of +<i>The Times</i>. I don't know him, but I know the source +from which he derives his information, and it is a very +respectable one.</p> + +<p>Did I tell you in a former letter from here, to tell Anne, +with her old master's love, that I had seen Putnam, my old +secretary? Grey, and with several front teeth out, but I +would have known him anywhere. He is coming to +"Copperfield" to-night, accompanied by his wife and +daughter, and is in the seventh heaven at having his tickets +given him.</p> + +<p>Our hotel in New York was on fire <i>again</i> the other +night. But fires in this country are quite matters of course. +There was a large one there at four this morning, and I +don't think a single night has passed since I have been +under the protection of the Eagle, but I have heard the fire +bells dolefully clanging all over the city.</p> + +<p>Dolby sends his kindest regard. His hair has become +quite white, the effect, I suppose, of the climate. He is so +universally hauled over the coals (for no reason on earth), +that I fully expect to hear him, one of these nights, assailed +with a howl when he precedes me to the platform steps. +You may conceive what the low newspapers are here, when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[321]</a></span> +one of them yesterday morning had, as an item of news, +the intelligence: "Dickens's Readings. The chap calling +himself Dolby got drunk last night, and was locked up in a +police-station for fighting an Irishman." I don't find that +anybody is shocked by this liveliness.</p> + +<p>My love to all, and to Mrs. Hulkes and the boy. By-the-bye, +when we left New York for this place, Dolby called +my amazed attention to the circumstance that Scott was +leaning his head against the side of the carriage and weeping +bitterly. I asked him what was the matter, and he replied: +"The owdacious treatment of the luggage, which was more +outrageous than a man could bear." I told him not to make +a fool of himself; but they do knock it about cruelly. I +think every trunk we have is already broken.</p> + +<p>I must leave off, as I am going out for a walk in a bright +sunlight and a complete break-up of the frost and snow. I +am much better than I have been during the last week, but +have a cold.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Westminster Hotel, Irving Place, New York City</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Thursday, Dec. 26th, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>I got your aunt's last letter at Boston yesterday, +Christmas Day morning, when I was starting at eleven +o'clock to come back to this place. I wanted it very much, +for I had a frightful cold (English colds are nothing to those +of this country), and was exceedingly depressed and miserable. +Not that I had any reason but illness for being so, +since the Bostonians had been quite astounding in their +demonstrations. I never saw anything like them on +Christmas Eve. But it is a bad country to be unwell<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[322]</a></span> +and travelling in; you are one of say a hundred people +in a heated car, with a great stove in it, and all the little +windows closed, and the hurrying and banging about are +indescribable. The atmosphere is detestable, and the +motion often all but intolerable. However, we got our +dinner here at eight o'clock, and plucked up a little, and +I made some hot gin punch to drink a merry Christmas +to all at home in. But it must be confessed that we were +both very dull. I have been in bed all day until two +o'clock, and here I am now (at three o'clock) a little better. +But I am not fit to read, and I must read to-night. After +watching the general character pretty closely, I became +quite sure that Dolby was wrong on the length of the stay +and the number of readings we had proposed in this place. +I am quite certain that it is one of the national peculiarities +that what they want must be difficult of attainment. I +therefore a few days ago made a <i>coup d'état</i>, and altered +the whole scheme. We shall go to Philadelphia, Baltimore, +Washington, also some New England towns between Boston +and this place, away to the falls of Niagara, and off far +west to Chicago and St. Louis, before coming back for ten +farewell readings here, preceded by farewells at Boston, +leaving Canada altogether. This will not prolong the list +beyond eighty-four readings, the exact original number, +and will, please God, work it all out in April. In my next, +I daresay, I shall be able to send the exact list, so that you +may know every day where we are. There has been a +great storm here for a few days, and the streets, though +wet, are becoming passable again. Dolby and Osgood are +out in it to-day on a variety of business, and left in grave +and solemn state. Scott and the gasman are stricken with +dumb concern, not having received one single letter from +home since they left. What their wives can have done with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[323]</a></span> +the letters they take it for granted they have written, is +their stormy speculation at the door of my hall dressing-room +every night.</p> + +<p>If I do not send a letter to Katie by this mail, it will be +because I shall probably be obliged to go across the water +to Brooklyn to-morrow to see a church, in which it is proposed +that I shall read!!! Horrible visions of being put in +the pulpit already beset me. And whether the audience +will be in pews is another consideration which greatly disturbs +my mind. No paper ever comes out without a leader +on Dolby, who of course reads them all, and never can +understand why I don't, in which he is called all the bad +names in (and not in) the language.</p> + +<p>We always call him P. H. Dolby now, in consequence of +one of these graceful specimens of literature describing him +as the "pudding-headed."</p> + +<p>I fear that when we travel he will have to be always +before me, so that I may not see him six times in as many +weeks. However, I shall have done a fourth of the whole +this very next week!</p> + +<p>Best love to your aunt, and the boys, and Katie, and +Charley, and all true friends.</p> + + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<i>Friday.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>I managed to read last night, but it was as much as I +could do. To-day I am so very unwell, that I have sent for +a doctor; he has just been, and is in doubt whether I shall +not have to stop reading for a while.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[324]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Westminster Hotel, Irving Place, New York</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Monday, Dec. 30th, 1867.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>I am getting all right again. I have not been well, +been very low, and have been obliged to have a doctor; a +very agreeable fellow indeed, who soon turned out to be an +old friend of Olliffe's.<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> He has set me on my legs and taken +his leave "professionally," though he means to give me a +call now and then.</p> + +<p>In the library at Gad's is a bound book, "Remarkable +Criminal Trials," translated by Lady Duff Gordon, from +the original by Fauerbach. I want that book, and a +copy of Praed's poems, to be sent out to Boston, care of +Ticknor and Fields. If you will give the "Criminal +Trials" to Wills, and explain my wish, and ask him to buy +a copy of Praed's poems and add it to the parcel, he will +know how to send the packet out. I think the "Criminal +Trials" book is in the corner book-case, by the window, +opposite the door.</p> + +<p>No news here. All going on in the regular way. I +read in that church I told you of, about the middle of +January. It is wonderfully seated for two thousand people, +and is as easy to speak in as if they were two hundred. +The people are seated in pews, and we let the pews. I stood +on a small platform from which the pulpit will be removed +for the occasion!! I emerge from the vestry!!! Philadelphia, +Baltimore, and another two nights in Boston will +follow this coming month of January. On Friday next I +shall have read a fourth of my whole list, besides having +had twelve days' holiday when I first came out. So please +God I shall soon get to the half, and so begin to work +hopefully round.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[325]</a></span></p> +<p>I suppose you were at the Adelphi on Thursday night +last. They are pirating the bill as well as the play here, +everywhere. I have registered the play as the property of +an American citizen, but the law is by no means clear that +I established a right in it by so doing; and of course the +pirates knew very well that I could not, under existing circumstances, +try the question with them in an American +court of law. Nothing is being played here scarcely that is +not founded on my books—"Cricket," "Oliver Twist," +"Our Mutual Friend," and I don't know what else, every +night. I can't get down Broadway for my own portrait; +and yet I live almost as quietly in this hotel, as if I were at +the office, and go in and out by a side door just as I might +there.</p> + +<p>I go back to Boston on Saturday to read there on +Monday and Tuesday. Then I am back here, and keep within +six or seven hours' journey of hereabouts till February. +My further movements shall be duly reported as the details +are arranged.</p> + +<p>I shall be curious to know who were at Gad's Hill on +Christmas Day, and how you (as they say in this country) +"got along." It is exceedingly cold here again, after two +or three quite spring days.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>1868.</h2> + +<h3>NARRATIVE.</h3> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>Charles Dickens</span> remained in America through the winter, +returning home from New York in the <i>Russia</i>, on the 19th +of April. His letters show how entirely he gave himself up +to the business of the readings, how severely his health<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[326]</a></span> +suffered from the climate, and from the perpetual travelling +and hard work, and yet how he was able to battle through +to the end. These letters are also full of allusions to the +many kind and dear friends who contributed so largely to +the pleasure of this American visit, and whose love and +attention gave a touch of <i>home</i> to his private life, and left +such affection and gratitude in his heart as he could never +forget. Many of these friends paid visits to Gad's Hill; the +first to come during this summer being Mr. Longfellow, +his daughters, and Mr. Appleton, brother-in-law of Mr. +Longfellow, and Mr. and Mrs. Charles Eliot Norton, of +Cambridge.</div> + +<p>For the future, there were to be no more Christmas +numbers of "All the Year Round." Observing the extent +to which they were now copied in all directions, Charles +Dickens supposed them likely to become tiresome to the +public, and so determined that in his journal they should +be discontinued.</p> + +<p>While still in America, he made an agreement with the +Messrs. Chappell to give a series of farewell readings in +England, to commence in the autumn of this year. So, in +October, Charles Dickens started off again for a tour in the +provinces. He had for some time been planning, by way of +a novelty for this series, a reading from the murder in +"Oliver Twist," but finding it so very horrible, he was +fearful of trying its effect for the first time on a public +audience. It was therefore resolved, that a trial of it +should be made to a limited private audience in St. James's +Hall, on the evening of the 18th of November. This trial +proved eminently successful, and "The Murder from Oliver +Twist" became one of the most popular of his selections. +But the physical exertion it involved was far greater than +that of any of his previous readings, and added immensely +to the excitement and exhaustion which they caused him.</p> + +<p>One of the first letters of the year from America is +addressed to Mr. Samuel Cartwright, of surgical and +artistic reputation, and greatly esteemed by Charles Dickens, +both in his professional capacity and as a private friend.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[327]</a></span></p> + +<p>The letter written to Mrs. Cattermole, in May, tells of +the illness of Mr. George Cattermole. This dear old friend, +so associated with Charles Dickens and his works, died soon +afterwards, and the letter to his widow shows that Charles +Dickens was exerting himself in her behalf.</p> + +<p>The play of "No Thoroughfare" having been translated +into French under the title of "L'Abîme," Charles Dickens +went over to Paris to be present at the first night of its +production.</p> + +<p>On the 26th of September, his youngest son, Edward +Bulwer Lytton (the "Plorn" so often mentioned), started +for Australia, to join his brother Alfred Tennyson, who was +already established there. It will be seen by his own words +how deeply and how sadly Charles Dickens felt this parting. +In October of this year, his son Henry Fielding entered +Trinity Hall, Cambridge, as an undergraduate.</p> + +<p>The Miss Forster mentioned in the letter to his sister-in-law, +and for whom the kind and considerate arrangements +were suggested, was a sister of Mr. John Forster, and a +lady highly esteemed by Charles Dickens. The illness from +which she was then suffering was a fatal one. She died in +this same year, a few days before Christmas.</p> + +<p>Mr. J. C. Parkinson, to whom a letter is addressed, +was a gentleman holding a Government appointment, and +contributing largely to journalism and periodical literature.</p> + +<p>As our last letter for this year, we give one which +Charles Dickens wrote to his youngest son on his departure +for Australia.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Westminster Hotel, Irving Place, New York</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Friday, Jan. 3rd, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Georgy</span>,</div> + +<p>I received yours of the 19th from Gad's and the office +this morning. I read here to-night, and go back to Boston +to-morrow, to read there Monday and Tuesday.</p> + +<p>To-night, I read out the first quarter of my list. Our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[328]</a></span> +houses have been very fine here, but have never quite recovered +the Dolby uproar. It seems impossible to devise +any scheme for getting the tickets into the people's hands +without the intervention of speculators. The people <i>will +not</i> help themselves; and, of course, the speculators and all +other such prowlers throw as great obstacles in Dolby's way +(an Englishman's) as they possibly can. He may be a little +injudicious into the bargain. Last night, for instance, he +met one of the "ushers" (who show people to their seats) +coming in with Kelly. It is against orders that anyone employed +in front should go out during the readings, and he +took this man to task in the British manner. Instantly the +free and independent usher put on his hat and walked off. +Seeing which, all the other free and independent ushers (some +twenty in number) put on <i>their</i> hats and walked off, leaving +us absolutely devoid and destitute of a staff for to-night. +One has since been improvised; but it was a small matter +to raise a stir and ill will about, especially as one of our men +was equally in fault.</p> + +<p>We have a regular clerk, a Bostonian whose name is +Wild. He, Osgood, Dolby, Kelly, Scott, George the gasman, +and perhaps a boy or two, constitute my body-guard. +It seems a large number of people, but the business cannot +be done with fewer. The speculators buying the front seats +to sell at a premium (and we have found instances of this +being done by merchants in good position!), and the public +perpetually pitching into Dolby for selling them back seats, +the result is that they won't have the back seats, send back +their tickets, write and print volumes on the subject, and +deter others from coming.</p> + +<p>You may get an idea of the staff's work, by what is in +hand now. They are preparing, numbering, and stamping +six thousand tickets for Philadelphia, and eight thousand<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[329]</a></span> +tickets for Brooklyn. The moment those are done, +another eight thousand tickets will be wanted for Baltimore, +and probably another six thousand for Washington. +This in addition to the correspondence, advertisements, +accounts, travellings, and the mighty business of the reading +four times a week.</p> + +<p>The Cunard steamers being now removed from Halifax, +I have decided <i>not</i> to go there, or to St. John's, New +Brunswick. And as there would be a perfect uproar if I +picked out such a place in Canada as Quebec or Montreal, +and excluded those two places (which would guarantee +three hundred pounds a night), and further, as I don't want +places, having more than enough for my list of eighty-four, +I have finally resolved not to go to Canada either. This +will enable me to embark for home in April instead of +May.</p> + +<p>Tell Plorn, with my love, that I think he will find himself +much interested at that college,<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> and that it is very likely +he may make some acquaintances there that will thereafter +be pleasant and useful to him. Sir Sydney Dacres is the +best of friends. I have a letter from Mrs. Hulkes by this +post, wherein the boy encloses a violet, now lying on the +table before me. Let her know that it arrived safely, and +retaining its colour. I took it for granted that Mary would +have asked Chorley for Christmas Day, and am very glad +she ultimately did so. I am sorry that Harry lost his prize, +but believe it was not his fault. Let <i>him</i> know <i>that</i>, with +my love. I would have written to him by this mail in answer +to his, but for other occupation. Did I tell you that my +landlord made me a drink (brandy, rum, and snow the +principal ingredients) called a "Rocky Mountain sneezer"? +Or that the favourite drink before you get up is an "eye-opener"?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[330]</a></span> +Or that Roberts (second landlord), no sooner +saw me on the night of the first fire, than, with his property +blazing, he insisted on taking me down into a roomful of hot +smoke to drink brandy and water with him? We have not +been on fire again, by-the-bye, more than once.</p> + +<p>There has been another fall of snow, succeeded by a +heavy thaw. I have laid down my sledge, and taken up my +carriage again, in consequence. I am nearly all right, but +cannot get rid of an intolerable cold in the head. No more +news.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Parker House, Boston, U.S.</span>, <i>Jan. 4th, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>I write to you by this opportunity, though I really have +nothing to tell you. The work is hard and the climate is +hard. We made a tremendous hit last night with "Nickleby" +and "Boots," which the Bostonians certainly on the whole +appreciate more than "Copperfield"! Dolby is always going +about with an immense bundle that looks like a sofa cushion, +but it is in reality paper money; and always works like a +Trojan. His business at night is a mere nothing, for these +people are so accustomed to take care of themselves, that +one of these immense audiences will fall into their places +with an ease amazing to a frequenter of St. James's Hall. +And the certainty with which they are all in, before I go +on, is a very acceptable mark of respect. I must add, too, +that although there is a conventional familiarity in the use +of one's name in the newspapers as "Dickens," "Charlie," +and what not, I do not in the least see that familiarity in +the writers themselves. An inscrutable tone obtains in +journalism, which a stranger cannot understand. If I say +in common courtesy to one of them, when Dolby introduces, +"I am much obliged to you for your interest in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[331]</a></span> +me," or so forth, he seems quite shocked, and has a bearing +of perfect modesty and propriety. I am rather inclined to +think that they suppose their printed tone to be the public's +love of smartness, but it is immensely difficult to make out. +All I can as yet make out is, that my perfect freedom +from bondage, and at any moment to go on or leave off, +or otherwise do as I like, is the only safe position to +occupy.</p> + +<p>Again; there are two apparently irreconcilable contrasts +here. Down below in this hotel every night are the bar +loungers, dram drinkers, drunkards, swaggerers, loafers, +that one might find in a Boucicault play. Within half an +hour is Cambridge, where a delightful domestic life—simple, +self-respectful, cordial, and affectionate—is seen in +an admirable aspect. All New England is primitive and +puritanical. All about and around it is a puddle of mixed +human mud, with no such quality in it. Perhaps I may in +time sift out some tolerably intelligible whole, but I certainly +have not done so yet. It is a good sign, may be, that it all +seems immensely more difficult to understand than it was +when I was here before.</p> + +<p>Felton left two daughters. I have only seen the eldest, +a very sensible, frank, pleasant girl of eight-and-twenty, +perhaps, rather like him in the face. A striking-looking +daughter of Hawthorn's (who is also dead) came into my +room last night. The day has slipped on to three o'clock, +and I must get up "Dombey" for to-night. Hence this +sudden break off. Best love to Mamie, and to Katie and +Charley Collins.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[332]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. +Wilkie +Collins.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Westminster Hotel, New York</span>, <i>Sunday, Jan. 12th, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Wilkie</span>,</div> + +<p>First, of the play.<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> I am truly delighted to learn +that it made so great a success, and I hope I may yet +see it on the Adelphi boards. You have had a world +of trouble and work with it, but I hope will be repaid +in some degree by the pleasure of a triumph. Even for +the alteration at the end of the fourth act (of which you +tell me in your letter received yesterday), I was fully prepared, +for I <span class="smcap">could not</span> see the original effect in the reading +of the play, and <span class="smcap">could not</span> make it go. I agree with +Webster in thinking it best that Obenreizer should die on +the stage; but no doubt that point is disposed of. In reading +the play before the representation, I felt that it was too +long, and that there was a good deal of unnecessary explanation. +Those points are, no doubt, disposed of too by +this time.</p> + +<p>We shall do nothing with it on this side. Pirates are +producing their own wretched versions in all directions, +thus (as Wills would say) anticipating and glutting "the +market." I registered one play as the property of Ticknor +and Fields, American citizens. But, besides that the law +on the point is extremely doubtful, the manager of the +Museum Theatre, Boston, instantly announced his version. +(You may suppose what it is and how it is done, when I tell +you that it was playing within ten days of the arrival out +of the Christmas number.) Thereupon, Ticknor and Fields +gave him notice that he mustn't play it. Unto which he +replied, that he meant to play it and would play it. Of +course he knew very well that if an injunction were applied +for against him, there would be an immediate howl against<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[333]</a></span> +my persecution of an innocent, and he played it. Then +the noble host of pirates rushed in, and it is being done, +in some mangled form or other, everywhere.</p> + +<p>It touches me to read what you write of your poor mother. +But, of course, at her age, each winter counts heavily. Do +give her my love, and tell her that I asked you about her.</p> + +<p>I am going on here at the same great rate, but am +always counting the days that lie between me and home. I +got through the first fourth of my readings on Friday, +January 3rd. I leave for two readings at Philadelphia +this evening.</p> + +<p>Being at Boston last Sunday, I took it into my head to +go over the medical school, and survey the holes and corners +in which that extraordinary murder was done by Webster. +There was the furnace—stinking horribly, as if the dismembered +pieces were still inside it—and there are all the +grim spouts, and sinks, and chemical appliances, and what +not. At dinner, afterwards, Longfellow told me a terrific +story. He dined with Webster within a year of the murder, +one of a party of ten or twelve. As they sat at their wine, +Webster suddenly ordered the lights to be turned out, and +a bowl of some burning mineral to be placed on the table, +that the guests might see how ghostly it made them look. +As each man stared at all the rest in the weird light, all +were horrified to see Webster <i>with a rope round his neck</i>, +holding it up, over the bowl, with his head jerked on one +side, and his tongue lolled out, representing a man being +hanged!</p> + +<p>Poking into his life and character, I find (what I would +have staked my head upon) that he was always a cruel man.</p> + +<p>So no more at present from,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +My dear Wilkie, yours ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[334]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Westminster Hotel, New York</span>, <i>Sunday, Jan. 12th, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>As I am off to Philadelphia this evening, I may as well +post my letter here. I have scarcely a word of news. My +cold steadily refuses to leave me; but otherwise I am as +right as one can hope to be under this heavy work. My +New York readings are over (except four farewell nights in +April), and I look forward to the relief of being out of +my hardest hall. Last Friday night, though it was only +"Nickleby" and "Boots," I was again dead beat at the +end, and was once more laid upon a sofa. But the faintness +went off after a little while. We have now cold, +bright, frosty weather, without snow—the best weather +for me.</p> + +<p>Having been in great trepidation about the play, I am +correspondingly elated by the belief that it really <i>is</i> a success. +No doubt the unnecessary explanations will have been taken +out, and the flatness of the last act fetched up. At some +points I could have done wonders to it, in the way of +screwing it up sharply and picturesquely, if I could have +rehearsed it. Your account of the first night interested me +immensely, but I was afraid to open the letter until Dolby +rushed in with the opened <i>Times</i>.</p> + +<p>On Wednesday I come back here for my four church +readings at Brooklyn. Each evening an enormous ferryboat +will convey me and my state carriage (not to mention +half-a-dozen waggons, and any number of people, and a few +score of horses) across the river, and will bring me back +again. The sale of tickets there was an amazing scene. +The noble army of speculators are now furnished (this is +literally true, and I am quite serious), each man with a straw +mattress, a little bag of bread and meat, two blankets, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[335]</a></span> +a bottle of whisky. With this outfit <i>they lie down in line +on the pavement</i> the whole night before the tickets are sold, +generally taking up their position at about ten. It being +severely cold at Brooklyn, they made an immense bonfire in +the street—a narrow street of wooden houses!—which the +police turned out to extinguish. A general fight then took +place, out of which the people farthest off in the line rushed +bleeding when they saw a chance of displacing others near +the door, and put their mattresses in those places, and then +held on by the iron rails. At eight in the morning Dolby +appeared with the tickets in a portmanteau. He was +immediately saluted with a roar of "Halloa, Dolby! So +Charley has let you have the carriage, has he, Dolby! +How is he, Dolby! Don't drop the tickets, Dolby! Look +alive, Dolby!" etc. etc. etc., in the midst of which he +proceeded to business, and concluded (as usual) by giving +universal dissatisfaction.</p> + +<p>He is now going off upon a little journey "to look over +the ground and cut back again." This little journey (to +Chicago) is fifteen hundred miles on end, by railway, and +back again!</p> + +<p>We have an excellent gasman, who is well up to that +department. We have enlarged the large staff by another +clerk, yet even now the preparation of such an immense +number of new tickets constantly, and the keeping and +checking of the accounts, keep them hard at it. And they +get so oddly divided! Kelly is at Philadelphia, another +man at Baltimore, two others are stamping tickets at the +top of this house, another is cruising over New England, +and Osgood will come on duty to-morrow (when Dolby +starts off) to pick me up after the reading, and take me to +the hotel, and mount guard over me, and bring me back +here. You see that even such wretched domesticity as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[336]</a></span> +Dolby and self by a fireside is broken up under these +conditions.</p> + +<p>Dolby has been twice poisoned, and Osgood once. +Morgan's sharpness has discovered the cause. When the +snow is deep upon the ground, and the partridges cannot +get their usual food, they eat something (I don't know +what, if anybody does) which does not poison <i>them</i>, but +which poisons the people who eat them. The symptoms, +which last some twelve hours, are violent sickness, cold +perspiration, and the formation of some detestable mucus in +the stomach. You may infer that partridges have been +banished from our bill of fare. The appearance of our +sufferers was lamentable in the extreme.</p> + +<p>Did I tell you that the severity of the weather, and the +heat of the intolerable furnaces, dry the hair and break the +nails of strangers? There is not a complete nail in the +whole British suite, and my hair cracks again when I brush +it. (I am losing my hair with great rapidity, and what I +don't lose is getting very grey.)</p> + +<p>The <i>Cuba</i> will bring this. She has a jolly new captain—Moody, +of the <i>Java</i>—and her people rushed into the +reading, the other night, captain-headed, as if I were their +peculiar property. Please God I shall come home in her, +in my old cabin; leaving here on the 22nd of April, and +finishing my eighty-fourth reading on the previous night! +It is likely enough that I shall read and go straight on +board.</p> + +<p>I think this is all my poor stock of intelligence. By-the-bye, +on the last Sunday in the old year, I lost my old +year's pocket-book, "which," as Mr. Pepys would add, +"do trouble me mightily." Give me Katie's new address; +I haven't got it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[337]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Philadelphia</span>, <i>Monday, Jan. 13th, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>I write you this note, a day later than your aunt's, +not because I have anything to add to the little I have told +her, but because you may like to have it.</p> + +<p>We arrived here last night towards twelve o'clock, more +than an hour after our time. This is one of the immense +American hotels (it is called the Continental); but I find +myself just as quiet here as elsewhere. Everything is very +good indeed, the waiter is German, and the greater part +of the house servants seem to be coloured people. The +town is very clean, and the day as blue and bright as a fine +Italian day. But it freezes very hard. All the tickets +being sold here for six nights (three visits of two nights +each), the suite complain of want of excitement already, +having been here ten hours! Mr. and Mrs. Barney +Williams, with a couple of servants, and a pretty little +child-daughter, were in the train each night, and I talked +with them a good deal. They are reported to have made +an enormous fortune by acting among the Californian +gold-diggers. My cold is no better, for the cars are so +intolerably hot, that I was often obliged to go and stand +upon the break outside, and then the frosty air was biting +indeed. The great man of this place is one Mr. Childs, a +newspaper proprietor, and he is so exactly like Mr. Esse in +all conceivable respects except being an inch or so taller, +that I was quite confounded when I saw him waiting for me +at the station (always called depôt here) with his carriage. +During the last two or three days, Dolby and I have been +making up accounts, which are excellently kept by Mr. +Osgood, and I find them amazing, quite, in their results.</p> + +<p>I was very much interested in the home accounts of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[338]</a></span> +Christmas Day. I think I have already mentioned that we +were in very low spirits on that day. I began to be unwell +with my cold that morning, and a long day's travel did not +mend the matter. We scarcely spoke (except when we ate +our lunch), and sat dolefully staring out of window. I had +a few affectionate words from Chorley, dated from my room, +on Christmas morning, and will write him, probably by this +mail, a brief acknowledgment. I find it necessary (so +oppressed am I with this American catarrh, as they call it) +to dine at three o'clock instead of four, that I may have +more time to get voice, so that the days are cut short, and +letter-writing is not easy.</p> + +<p>My best love to Katie, and to Charley, and to our +Charley, and to all friends. If I could only get to the point +of being able to hold my head up and dispense with my +pocket-handkerchief for five minutes, I should be all right.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Charles +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Westminster Hotel, Irving Place, New York</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Wednesday, Jan. 15th, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Charley</span>,</div> + +<p>Finding your letter here this afternoon on my return +from Philadelphia (where I have been reading two nights), +I take advantage of a spare half-hour in which to answer it +at once, though it will not leave here until Saturday. I had +previously heard of the play, and had <i>The Times</i>. It was a +great relief and delight to me, for I had no confidence in its +success; being reduced to the confines of despair by its +length. If I could have rehearsed it, I should have taken +the best part of an hour out of it. Fechter must be very +fine, and I should greatly like to see him play the part.</p> + +<p>I have not been very well generally, and am oppressed +(and I begin to think that I probably shall be until I leave)<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[339]</a></span> +by a true American cold, which I hope, for the comfort of +human nature, may be peculiar to only one of the four +quarters of the world. The work, too, is very severe. But +I am going on at the same tremendous rate everywhere. +The staff, too, has had to be enlarged. Dolby was at Baltimore +yesterday, is at Washington to-day, and will come back +in the night, and start away again on Friday. We find it +absolutely necessary for him to go on ahead. We have not +printed or posted a single bill here, and have just sold ninety +pounds' worth of paper we had got ready for bills. In such +a rush a short newspaper advertisement is all we want. +"Doctor Marigold" made a great hit here, and is looked +forward to at Boston with especial interest. I go to Boston +for another fortnight, on end, the 24th of February. The +railway journeys distress me greatly. I get out into the open +air (upon the break), and it snows and blows, and the train +bumps, and the steam flies at me, until I am driven in again.</p> + +<p>I have finished here (except four farewell nights in +April), and begin four nights at Brooklyn, on the opposite +side of the river, to-night; and thus oscillate between +Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, and then cut into +New England, and so work my way back to Boston for a +fortnight, after which come Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit +and Cleveland, and Buffalo, and then Philadelphia, Boston, +and New York farewells. I will not pass my original bound +of eighty-four readings in all. My mind was made up as +to that long ago. It will be quite enough. Chicago is some +fifteen hundred miles from here. What with travelling, +and getting ready for reading, and reading, the days are +pretty fully occupied. Not the less so because I rest very +indifferently at night.</p> + +<p>The people are exceedingly kind and considerate, and +desire to be most hospitable besides. But I cannot accept<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[340]</a></span> +hospitality, and never go out, except at Boston, or I should +not be fit for the labour. If Dolby holds out well to the +last it will be a triumph, for he has to see everybody, drink +with everybody, sell all the tickets, take all the blame, and +go beforehand to all the places on the list. I shall not see +him after to-night for ten days or a fortnight, and he will +be perpetually on the road during the interval. When he +leaves me, Osgood, a partner in Ticknor and Fields' publishing +firm, mounts guard over me, and has to go into +the hall from the platform door every night, and see how +the public are seating themselves. It is very odd to see +how hard he finds it to look a couple of thousand people in +the face, on which head, by-the-bye, I notice the papers +to take "Mr. Dickens's extraordinary composure" (their +great phrase) rather ill, and on the whole to imply that it +would be taken as a suitable compliment if I would stagger +on to the platform and instantly drop, overpowered by the +spectacle before me.</p> + +<p>Dinner is announced (by Scott, with a stiff neck and a +sore throat), and I must break off with love to Bessie and +the incipient Wenerableses. You will be glad to hear of +your distinguished parent that Philadelphia has discovered +that "he is not like the descriptions we have read of him at +the little red desk. He is not at all foppish in appearance. +He wears a heavy moustache and a Vandyke beard, and +looks like a well-to-do Philadelphian gentleman."</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever, my dear Charley, your affectionate Father.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—Your paper is remarkably good. There is not the +least doubt that you can write constantly for A. Y. R. I +am very pleased with it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[341]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Westminster Hotel, New York</span>, <i>Friday, Jan, 18th, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>This will be but a very short report, as I must get out +for a little exercise before dinner.</p> + +<p>My "true American catarrh" (the people seem to have +a national pride in it) sticks to me, but I am otherwise +well. I began my church readings last night, and it was +very odd to see the pews crammed full of people, all in a +broad roar at the "Carol" and "Trial."</p> + +<p>Best love to all. I have written Charley a few lines by +this mail, and also Chorley.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Westminster Hotel, New York</span>, <i>Tuesday, Jan. 21st, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>I finished my church to-night. It is Mrs. Stowe's +brother's, and a most wonderful place to speak in. We had +it enormously full last night ("Marigold" and "Trial"), +but it scarcely required an effort. Mr. Ward Beecher (Mrs. +Stowe's brother's name) being present in his pew. I sent +to invite him to come round before he left; and I found +him to be an unostentatious, straightforward, and agreeable +fellow.</p> + +<p>My cold sticks to me, and I can scarcely exaggerate +what I sometimes undergo from sleeplessness. The day +before yesterday I could get no rest until morning, and +could not get up before twelve. This morning the same. I +rarely take any breakfast but an egg and a cup of tea, not +even toast or bread-and-butter. My dinner at three, and a +little quail or some such light thing when I come home at +night, is my daily fare. At the Hall I have established the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[342]</a></span> +custom of taking an egg beaten up in sherry before going +in, and another between the parts. I think that pulls me +up; at all events, I have since had no return of faintness.</p> + +<p>As the men work very hard, and always with their +hearts cheerfully in the business, I cram them into and +outside of the carriage, to bring them back from Brooklyn +with me. The other night, Scott (with a portmanteau +across his knees and a wideawake hat low down upon his +nose) told me that he had presented himself for admission +in the circus (as good as Franconi's, by-the-bye), and had +been refused. "The only theayter," he said in a melancholy +way, "as I was ever in my life turned from the door +of." Says Kelly: "There must have been some mistake, +Scott, because George and me went, and we said, 'Mr. +Dickens's staff,' and they passed us to the best seats in the +house. Go again, Scott." "No, I thank you, Kelly," says +Scott, more melancholy than before, "I'm not a-going to +put myself in the position of being refused again. It's the +only theayter as I was ever turned from the door of, and +it shan't be done twice. But it's a beastly country!" +"Scott," interposed Majesty, "don't you express your +opinions about the country." "No, sir," says Scott, "I +never do, please, sir, but when you are turned from the +door of the only theayter you was ever turned from, +sir, and when the beasts in railway cars spits tobacco +over your boots, you (privately) find yourself in a beastly +country."</p> + +<p>I expect shortly to get myself snowed up on some railway +or other, for it is snowing hard now, and I begin to +move to-morrow. There is so much floating ice in the +river that we are obliged to leave a pretty wide margin of +time for getting over the ferry to read. The dinner is +coming in, and I must leave off.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[343]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Philadelphia</span>, <i>Thursday, Jan. 23rd, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>When I wrote to your aunt by the last mail, I accidentally +omitted to touch upon the question of helping +Anne. So I will begin in this present writing with +reference to her sad position. I think it will be best for +you to be guided by an exact knowledge of her <i>wants</i>. +Try to ascertain from herself what means she has, whether +her sick husband gets what he ought to have, whether she +is pinched in the articles of necessary clothing, bedding, or +the like of that; add to this intelligence your own observation +of the state of things about her, and supply what +she most wants, and help her where you find the greatest +need. The question, in the case of so old and faithful a +servant, is not one of so much or so little money on my +side, but how <i>most efficiently</i> to ease her mind and help <i>her</i>. +To do this at once kindly and sensibly is the only consideration +by which you have to be guided. Take <i>carte blanche</i> +from me for all the rest.</p> + +<p>My Washington week is the first week in February, +beginning on Monday, 3rd. The tickets are sold, and the +President is coming, and the chief members of the Cabinet, +and the leaders of parties, and so forth, are coming; and, +as the Holly Tree Boots says: "That's where it is, don't +you see!"</p> + +<p>In my Washington doubts I recalled Dolby for conference, +and he joined me yesterday afternoon, and we have +been in great discussion ever since on the possibility of +giving up the Far West, and avoiding such immense distances +and fatigues as would be involved in travelling to +Chicago and Cincinnati. We have sketched another tour +for the last half of March, which would be infinitely easier<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[344]</a></span> +for me, though on the other hand less profitable, the places +and the halls being smaller. The worst of it is, that everybody +one advises with has a monomania respecting Chicago. +"Good heaven, sir," the great Philadelphian authority said +to me this morning, "if you don't read in Chicago, the +people will go into fits." In reference to fatigue, I +answered: "Well, I would rather they went into fits than I +did." But he didn't seem to see it at all. —— alone +constantly writes me: "Don't go to the West; you can get +what you want so much more easily." How we shall finally +decide, I don't yet know. My Brooklyn church has been +an immense success, and I found its minister was a bachelor, +a clever, unparsonic, and straightforward man, and a man +with a good knowledge of art into the bargain.</p> + +<p>We are not a bit too soon here, for the whole country is +beginning to be stirred and shaken by the presidential +election, and trade is exceedingly depressed, and will be +more so. Fanny Kemble lives near this place, but had +gone away a day before my first visit here. <i>She</i> is going to +read in February or March. Du Chaillu has been lecturing +out West about the gorilla, and has been to see me; I saw +the Cunard steamer <i>Persia</i> out in the stream, yesterday, +beautifully smart, her flags flying, all her steam up, and she +only waiting for her mails to slip away. She gave me a +horrible touch of home-sickness.</p> + +<p>When the 1st of March arrives, and I can say "next +month," I shall begin to grow brighter. A fortnight's +reading in Boston, too (last week of February and first +week of March), will help me on gaily, I hope (the work so +far off tells). It is impossible for the people to be more +affectionately attached to a third, I really believe, than +Fields and his wife are to me; and they are a landmark in +the prospect.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[345]</a></span></p> + +<p>Dolby sends kindest regards, and wishes it to be known +that he has not been bullied lately. We do <i>not</i> go West at +all, but take the easier plan.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Baltimore</span>, <i>Wednesday, Jan. 29th, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>As I have an hour to spare, before starting to Philadelphia, +I begin my letter this morning. It has been +snowing hard for four-and-twenty hours, though this place +is as far south as Valentia in Spain; and Dolby, being on +his way to New York, has a good chance of being snowed +up somewhere.</p> + +<p>They are a bright responsive people here, and very +pleasant to read to. I have rarely seen so many fine faces +in an audience. I read here in a charming little opera-house +built by a society of Germans, quite a delightful +place for the purpose. I stand on the stage, with a drop +curtain down, and my screen before it. The whole scene +is very pretty and complete, and the audience have a "ring" +in them that sounds in the ear. I go from here to Philadelphia +to read to-morrow night and Friday, come through +here again on Saturday on my way to Washington, come +back here on Saturday week for two finishing nights, then +go to Philadelphia for two farewells, and so turn my back +on the southern part of the country. Distances and +travelling have obliged us to reduce the list of readings by +two, leaving eighty-two in all. Of course we afterwards +discovered that we had finally settled the list on a Friday! +I shall be halfway through it at Washington, of course, on +a Friday also, and my birthday!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[346]</a></span></p> + +<p>Dolby and Osgood, who do the most ridiculous things to +keep me in spirits (I am often very heavy, and rarely sleep +much), have decided to have a walking-match at Boston, on +Saturday, February 29th. Beginning this design in joke, +they have become tremendously in earnest, and Dolby has +actually sent home (much to his opponent's terror) for +a pair of seamless socks to walk in. Our men are hugely +excited on the subject, and continually make bets on "the +men." Fields and I are to walk out six miles, and "the +men" are to turn and walk round us. Neither of them has +the least idea what twelve miles at a pace is. Being requested +by both to give them "a breather" yesterday, I +gave them a stiff one of five miles over a bad road in the +snow, half the distance uphill. I took them at a pace +of four miles and a half an hour, and you never beheld such +objects as they were when we got back; both smoking like +factories, and both obliged to change everything before +they could come to dinner. They have the absurdest ideas +of what are tests of walking power, and continually get up +in the maddest manner and see <i>how high they can kick</i> the +wall! The wainscot here, in one place, is scored all over +with their pencil-marks. To see them doing this—Dolby, a +big man, and Osgood, a very little one, is ridiculous beyond +description.</p> + + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Philadelphia</span>, <i>Same Night.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>We came on here through a snowstorm all the way, but +up to time. Fanny Kemble (who begins to read shortly) is +coming to "Marigold" and "Trial" to-morrow night. I +have written her a note, telling her that if it will at all assist +<i>her</i> movements to know <i>mine</i>, my list is at her service.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[347]</a></span> +Probably I shall see her to-morrow. Tell Mamie (to whom I +will write next), with my love, that I found her letter of the +10th of this month awaiting me here. The <i>Siberia</i> that +brought it is a new Cunarder, and made an unusually slow +passage out. Probably because it would be dangerous to +work new machinery too fast on the Atlantic.</p> + + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<i>Thursday, 30th.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>My cold still sticks to me. The heat of the railway +cars and their unventilated condition invariably brings it +back when I think it going. This morning my head is +as stuffed and heavy as ever! A superb sledge and four +horses have been offered me for a ride, but I am afraid to +take it, lest I should make the "true American catarrh" +worse, and should get hoarse. So I am going to give +Osgood another "breather" on foot instead.</p> + +<p>The communication with New York is not interrupted, +so we consider the zealous Dolby all right. You may +imagine what his work is, when you hear that he goes three +times to every place we visit. Firstly, to look at the hall, +arrange the numberings, and make five hundred acquaintances, +whom he immediately calls by their christian-names; +secondly, to sell the tickets—a very nice business, requiring +great tact and temper; thirdly, with me. He will probably +turn up at Washington next Sunday, but only for a little +while; for as soon as I am on the platform on Monday +night, he will start away again, probably to be seen no +more until we pass through New York in the middle of +February.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[348]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Samuel +Cartwright</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Baltimore</span>, <i>Wednesday, Jan. 29th, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Cartwright</span>,</div> + +<p>As I promised to report myself to you from this side +of the Atlantic, and as I have some leisure this morning, I +am going to lighten my conscience by keeping my word.</p> + +<p>I am going on at a great pace and with immense success. +Next week, at Washington, I shall, please God, have got +through half my readings. The remaining half are all +arranged, and they will carry me into the third week of +April. It is very hard work, but it is brilliantly paid. The +changes that I find in the country generally (this place is +the least changed of any I have yet seen) exceed my utmost +expectations. I had been in New York a couple of days +before I began to recognise it at all; and the handsomest +part of Boston was a black swamp when I saw it five-and-twenty +years ago. Considerable advances, too, have been +made socially. Strange to say, the railways and railway +arrangements (both exceedingly defective) seem to have +stood still while all other things have been moving.</p> + +<p>One of the most comical spectacles I have ever seen in +my life was "church," with a heavy sea on, in the saloon of +the Cunard steamer coming out. The officiating minister, +an extremely modest young man, was brought in between +two big stewards, exactly as if he were coming up to the +scratch in a prize-fight. The ship was rolling and pitching +so, that the two big stewards had to stop and watch their +opportunity of making a dart at the reading-desk with their +reverend charge, during which pause he held on, now by +one steward and now by the other, with the feeblest expression +of countenance and no legs whatever. At length they +made a dart at the wrong moment, and one steward was +immediately beheld alone in the extreme perspective, while<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[349]</a></span> +the other and the reverend gentleman <i>held on by the mast</i> +in the middle of the saloon—which the latter embraced with +both arms, as if it were his wife. All this time the congregation +was breaking up into sects and sliding away; every +sect (as in nature) pounding the other sect. And when at +last the reverend gentleman had been tumbled into his place, +the desk (a loose one, put upon the dining-table) deserted +from the church bodily, and went over to the purser. The +scene was so extraordinarily ridiculous, and was made so +much more so by the exemplary gravity of all concerned in +it, that I was obliged to leave before the service began.</p> + +<p>This is one of the places where Butler carried it with so +high a hand in the war, and where the ladies used to spit +when they passed a Northern soldier. It still wears, I fancy, +a look of sullen remembrance. (The ladies are remarkably +handsome, with an Eastern look upon them, dress with a +strong sense of colour, and make a brilliant audience.) The +ghost of slavery haunts the houses; and the old, untidy, +incapable, lounging, shambling black serves you as a free +man. Free of course he ought to be; but the stupendous +absurdity of making him a voter glares out of every roll of +his eye, stretch of his mouth, and bump of his head. I +have a strong impression that the race must fade out of the +States very fast. It never can hold its own against a +striving, restless, shifty people. In the penitentiary here, +the other day, in a room full of all blacks (too dull to be +taught any of the work in hand), was one young brooding +fellow, very like a black rhinoceros. He sat glowering at +life, as if it were just endurable at dinner time, until four of +his fellows began to sing, most unmelodiously, a part song. +He then set up a dismal howl, and pounded his face on +a form. I took him to have been rendered quite desperate +by having learnt anything. I send my kind regard to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[350]</a></span> +Mrs. Cartwright, and sincerely hope that she and you have no +new family distresses or anxieties. My standing address is +the Westminster Hotel, Irving Place, New York City. And +I am always, my dear Cartwright,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Cordially yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Philadelphia</span>, <i>Friday, Jan. 31st, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>Since writing to your aunt I have received yours of +the 7th, and am truly glad to have the last news of you +confirmed by yourself.</p> + +<p>From a letter Wilkie has written to me, it seems there +can be no doubt that the "No Thoroughfare" drama is a +real, genuine, and great success. It is drawing immensely, +and seems to "go" with great effect and applause.</p> + +<p>"Doctor Marigold" here last night (for the first time) +was an immense success, and all Philadelphia is going to +rush at once for tickets for the two Philadelphian farewells +the week after next. The tickets are to be sold to-morrow, +and great excitement is anticipated in the streets. Dolby +not being here, a clerk will sell, and will probably wish +himself dead before he has done with it.</p> + +<p>It appears to me that Chorley<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> writes to you on the +legacy question because he wishes you to understand that +there is no danger of his changing his mind, and at the +bottom I descry an honest desire to pledge himself as +strongly as possible. You may receive it in that better +spirit, or I am much mistaken. Tell your aunt, with my +best love, that I wrote to Chauncey weeks ago, in answer +to a letter from him. I am now going out in a sleigh (and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[351]</a></span> +four) with unconceivable dignity and grandeur; mentioning +which reminds me that I am informed by trusty scouts +that —— intends to waylay me at Washington, and may +even descend upon me in the train to-morrow.</p> + +<p>Best love to Katie, the two Charleys, and all.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Washington</span>, <i>Tuesday, Feb. 4th, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>I began here last night with great success. The hall +being small, the prices were raised to three dollars each +ticket. The audience was a superior one, composed of the +foremost public men and their families. At the end of the +"Carol" they gave a great break out, and applauded, I really +believe, for five minutes. You would suppose them to be +Manchester shillings instead of Washington half-sovereigns. +Immense enthusiasm.</p> + +<p>A devoted adherent in this place (an Englishman) had +represented to Dolby that if I were taken to an hotel here +it would be impossible to secure me a minute's rest, and he +undertook to get one Wheleker, a German, who keeps a +little Vérey's, to furnish his private dining-rooms for the +illustrious traveller's reception. Accordingly here we are, +on the first and second floor of a small house, with no one +else in it but our people, a French waiter, and a very good +French cuisine. Perfectly private, in the city of all the +world (I should say) where the hotels are intolerable, +and privacy the least possible, and quite comfortable. +"Wheleker's Restaurant" is our rather undignified address +for the present week.</p> + +<p>I dined (against my rules) with Charles Sumner on +Sunday, he having been an old friend of mine. Mr. +Secretary Staunton (War Minister) was there. He is a man<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[352]</a></span> +of a very remarkable memory, and famous for his acquaintance +with the minutest details of my books. Give him any +passage anywhere, and he will instantly cap it and go on +with the context. He was commander-in-chief of all the +Northern forces concentrated here, and never went to sleep +at night without first reading something from my books, +which were always with him. I put him through a pretty +severe examination, but he was better up than I was.</p> + +<p>The gas was very defective indeed last night, and I +began with a small speech, to the effect that I must trust +to the brightness of their faces for the illumination of +mine; this was taken greatly. In the "Carol," a most +ridiculous incident occurred all of a sudden. I saw a dog +look out from among the seats into the centre aisle, and look +very intently at me. The general attention being fixed on +me, I don't think anybody saw the dog; but I felt so sure +of his turning up again and barking, that I kept my eye +wandering about in search of him. He was a very comic +dog, and it was well for me that I was reading a very comic +part of the book. But when he bounced out into the centre +aisle again, in an entirely new place (still looking intently +at me) and tried the effect of a bark upon my proceedings, +I was seized with such a paroxysm of laughter, that it communicated +itself to the audience, and we roared at one +another loud and long.</p> + +<p>The President has sent to me twice, and I am going to +see him to-morrow. He has a whole row for his family +every night. Dolby rejoined his chief yesterday morning, +and will probably remain in the august presence until +Sunday night. He and Osgood, "training for the match," +are ludicrous beyond belief. I saw them just now coming +up a street, each trying to pass the other, and immediately +fled. Since I have been writing this, they have burst in at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[353]</a></span> +the door and sat down on the floor to blow. Dolby is now +writing at a neighbouring table, with his bald head smoking +as if he were on fire. Kelly (his great adherent) asked me, +when he was last away, whether it was quite fair that I +should take Mr. Osgood out for "breathers" when Mr. +Dolby had no such advantage. I begin to expect that half +Boston will turn out on the 29th to see the match. In +which case it will be unspeakably droll.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Washington</span>, <i>my Birthday</i>, 1868.</span><br /> +(<i>And my cold worse than ever.</i>)<br /> +</div> + +<p>This will be but a short letter, as I have been to see the +President this morning, and have little time before the post +goes. He had sent a gentleman to me, most courteously +begging me to make my own appointment, and I did so. A +man of very remarkable appearance indeed, of tremendous +firmness of purpose. Not to be turned or trifled with.</p> + +<p>As I mention my cold's being so bad, I will add that I +have never had anything the matter with me since I came +here <i>but</i> the cold. It is now in my throat, and slightly on +my chest. It occasions me great discomfort, and you would +suppose, seeing me in the morning, that I could not possibly +read at night. But I have always come up to the +scratch, have not yet missed one night, and have gradually +got used to that. I had got much the better of it; but the +dressing-room at the hall here is singularly cold and draughty, +and so I have slid back again.</p> + +<p>The papers here having written about this being my +birthday, the most exquisite flowers came pouring in at +breakfast time from all sorts of people. The room is covered +with them, made up into beautiful bouquets, and arranged<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[354]</a></span> +in all manner of green baskets. Probably I shall find plenty +more at the hall to-night. This is considered the dullest +and most apathetic place in America. <i>My</i> audiences have +been superb.</p> + +<p>I mentioned the dog on the first night here. Next night +I thought I heard (in "Copperfield") a suddenly suppressed +bark. It happened in this wise: Osgood, standing +just within the door, felt his leg touched, and looking down +beheld the dog staring intently at me, and evidently just +about to bark. In a transport of presence of mind and +fury, he instantly caught him up in both hands and threw +him over his own head out into the entry, where the check-takers +received him like a game at ball. Last night he came +again <i>with another dog;</i> but our people were so sharply on +the look-out for him that he didn't get in. He had +evidently promised to pass the other dog free.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Baltimore, U.S.</span>, <i>Tuesday, Feb. 11th, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>The weather has been desperately severe, and my cold +quite as bad as ever. I couldn't help laughing at myself +on my birthday at Washington. It was observed as much +as though I were a little boy. Flowers and garlands (of +the most exquisite kind) bloomed all over the room; letters +radiant with good wishes poured in; a shirt pin, a handsome +silver travelling bottle, a set of gold shirt studs, and a +set of gold sleeve links were on the dinner-table. After +"Boots," at night, the whole audience rose and remained +(Secretaries of State, President's family, Judges of Supreme +Court, and so forth) standing and cheering until I went +back to the table and made them a little speech. On the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[355]</a></span> +same august day of the year I was received by the President, +a man with a very remarkable and determined face. Each +of us looked at each other very hard, and each of us +managed the interview (I think) to the satisfaction of the +other. In the outer room was sitting a certain sunburnt +General Blair, with many evidences of the war upon him. +He got up to shake hands with me, and then I found he +had been out in the prairie with me five-and-twenty years +ago. That afternoon my "catarrh" was in such a state +that Charles Sumner, coming in at five o'clock and finding +me covered with mustard poultice, and apparently voiceless, +turned to Dolby and said: "Surely, Mr. Dolby, it is impossible +that he can read to-night." Says Dolby: "Sir, I have +told the dear Chief so four times to-day, and I have been +very anxious. But you have no idea how he will change when +he gets to the little table." After five minutes of the little +table, I was not (for the time) even hoarse. The frequent +experience of this return of force when it is wanted saves +me a vast amount of anxiety.</p> + +<p>I wish you would get from Homan and report to me, as +near as he can make, an approximate estimate is the right +term in the trade, I believe, of the following work:</p> + +<p>1. To re-cover, with red leather, all the dining-room +chairs.</p> + +<p>2. To ditto, with green leather, all the library chairs +and the couch.</p> + +<p>3. To provide and lay down new <i>Brussels</i> carpets in +the front spare and the two top spares. Quality of carpet, +quality of yours and mine.</p> + +<p>I have some doubts about the state of the hall floor-cloth, +and also the floor-cloth in the dining-room. Will you +and your aunt carefully examine both (calling in Homan +too, if necessary), <i>and report to me?</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[356]</a></span></p> + +<p>It would seem that "No Thoroughfare" has really +developed as a drama into an amazing success. I begin to +think that I shall see it. Dolby is away this morning, to +conquer or die in a terrific struggle with the Mayor of +Newhaven (where I am to read next week), who has assailed +him on a charge of false play in selling tickets. Osgood, +my other keeper, stands at the table to take me out, +and have a "breather" for the walking-match, so I must +leave off.</p> + +<p>Think of my dreaming of Mrs. Bouncer each night!!!</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Henry +Fielding +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Baltimore, U.S.</span>, <i>Tuesday, Feb. 11th, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Harry</span>,</div> + +<p>I should have written to you before now, but for +constant and arduous occupation.</p> + +<p>In reference to the cricket club's not being what it +might be, I agree with you in the main. There are some +things to be considered, however, which you have hardly +taken into account. The first thing to be avoided is, the +slightest appearance of patronage (one of the curses of +England). The second thing to be avoided is, the deprival +of the men of their just right to manage their own affairs. +I would rather have no club at all, than have either of these +great mistakes made. The way out of them is this: Call +the men together, and explain to them that the club might +be larger, richer, and better. Say that you think that more +of the neighbouring gentlemen could be got to be playing +members. That you submit to them that it would be +better to have a captain who could correspond with them, +and talk to them, and in some sort manage them; and that, +being perfectly acquainted with the game, and having long<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[357]</a></span> +played it at a great public school, you propose yourself as +captain, for the foregoing reasons. That you propose to +them to make the subscription of the gentlemen members +at least double that of the working men, for no other reason +than that the gentlemen can afford it better; but that both +classes of members shall have exactly the same right of +voting equally in all that concerns the club. Say that +you have consulted me upon the matter, and that I am +of these opinions, and am ready to become chairman of +the club, and to preside at their meetings, and to overlook +its business affairs, and to give it five pounds a +year, payable at the commencement of each season. Then, +having brought them to this point, draw up the club's +rules and regulations, amending them where they want +amendment.</p> + +<p>Discreetly done, I see no difficulty in this. But it can +only be honourably and hopefully done by having the men +together. And I would not have them at The Falstaff, but +in the hall or dining-room—the servants' hall, an excellent +place. Whatever you do, let the men ratify; and let them +feel their little importance, and at once perceive how much +better the business begins to be done.</p> + +<p>I am very glad to hear of the success of your reading, +and still more glad that you went at it in downright earnest. +I should never have made my success in life if I had been +shy of taking pains, or if I had not bestowed upon the +least thing I have ever undertaken exactly the same +attention and care that I have bestowed upon the greatest. +Do everything at your best. It was but this last year +that I set to and learned every word of my readings; and +from ten years ago to last night, I have never read to an +audience but I have watched for an opportunity of striking +out something better somewhere. Look at such of my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[358]</a></span> +manuscripts as are in the library at Gad's, and think of the +patient hours devoted year after year to single lines.</p> + +<div class='center'><b>* * * * * *</b></div> + +<p>The weather is very severe here, and the work is very +hard. Dolby, having been violently pitched into by the +Mayor of Newhaven (a town at which I am to read next +week), has gone bodily this morning with defiant written +instructions from me to inform the said mayor that, if he fail +to make out his case, he (Dolby) is to return all the money +taken, and to tell him that I will not set foot in his jurisdiction; +whereupon the Newhaven people will probably +fall upon the mayor in his turn, and lead him a pleasant +life.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever, my dear Harry, your affectionate Father.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Philadelphia</span>, <i>Thursday, Feb. 13th, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>We have got into an immense difficulty with the people +of Newhaven. I have a strong suspicion that one of our +men (who sold there) has been speculating all this while, +and that he must have put front seats in his pockets, +and sold back ones. He denies what the mayor charges, +but the mayor holds on grimly. Dolby set off from Baltimore +as soon as we found out what was amiss, to examine +and report; but some new feature of difficulty must have +come out, for this morning he telegraphs from New York +(where he had to sleep last night on his way to Newhaven), +that he is coming back for further consultation with the +Chief. It will certainly hurt us, and will of course be distorted +by the papers into all manner of shapes. My suspicion +<i>may not</i> be correct, but I have an instinctive belief<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[359]</a></span> +that it is. We shall probably have the old New York row +(and loss) over again, unless I can catch this mayor tripping +in an assertion.</p> + +<p>In this very place, we are half-distracted by the speculators. +They have been holding out for such high prices, +that the public have held out too; and now (frightened at +what they have done) the speculators are trying to sell their +worst seats at half the cost price, so that we are in the +ridiculous situation of having sold the room out, and yet not +knowing what empty seats there may be. <i>We</i> could sell at +our box-office to any extent; but <i>we</i> can't buy back of the +speculators, because we informed the public that all the +tickets were gone. And if we bought <i>under</i> our own price +and <i>sold</i> at our own price, we should at once be in treaty +with the speculators, and should be making money by it! +Dolby, the much bullied, will come back here presently, half +bereft of his senses; and I should be half bereft of mine, if +the situation were not comically disagreeable.</p> + +<p>Nothing will induce the people to believe in the farewells. +At Baltimore on Tuesday night (a very brilliant night indeed), +they asked as they came out: "When will Mr. Dickens read +here again?" "Never." "Nonsense! Not come back, +after such houses as these? Come. Say when he'll read +again." Just the same here. We could as soon persuade +them that I am the President, as that I am going to read +here, for the last time, to-morrow night.</p> + +<p>There is a child of the Barney Williams's in this house—a +little girl—to whom I presented a black doll when I was +here last. I have seen her eye at the keyhole since I began +writing this, and I think she and the doll are outside still. +"When you sent it up to me by the coloured boy," she said +after receiving it (coloured boy is the term for black waiter), +"I gave such a cream that ma came running in and creamed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[360]</a></span> +too, 'cos she fort I'd hurt myself. But I creamed a cream +of joy." <i>She</i> had a friend to play with her that day, and +brought the friend with her, to my infinite confusion. A +friend all stockings, and much too tall, who sat on the sofa +very far back, with her stockings sticking stiffly out in front +of her, and glared at me and never spake word. Dolby +found us confronted in a sort of fascination, like serpent and +bird.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">New York</span>, <i>Monday, Feb. 17th, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>I got your letter of the 3rd of February here this +morning. As I am off at seven to-morrow morning, I +answer it at once, though indeed I have nothing to say.</p> + +<p>"True American" still sticking to me. But I am always +ready for my work, and therefore don't much mind. Dolby +and the Mayor of Newhaven alternately embrace and exchange +mortal defiances. In writing out some advertisements +towards midnight last night, he made a very good +mistake. "The reading will be comprised within two +<i>minutes</i>, and the audience are earnestly entreated to be +seated ten <i>hours</i> before its commencement."</p> + +<p>The weather has been finer lately, but the streets are in +a horrible condition, through half-melted snow, and it is +now snowing again. The walking-match (next Saturday +week) is already in the Boston papers! I suppose half +Boston will turn out on the occasion. As a sure way of not +being conspicuous, "the men" are going to walk in flannel! +They are in a mingled state of comicality and gravity about +it that is highly ridiculous. Yesterday being a bright cool +day, I took Dolby for a "buster" of eight miles. As<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[361]</a></span> +everybody here knows me, the spectacle of our splitting up +the fashionable avenue (the only way out of town) excited +the greatest amazement. No doubt <i>that</i> will be in the +papers to-morrow. I give a gorgeous banquet to eighteen +(ladies and gentlemen) after the match. Mr. and Mrs. +Fields, Do. Ticknor, Longfellow and his daughter, Lowell, +Holmes and his wife, etc. etc. Sporting speeches to be +made, and the stakes (four hats) to be handed over to the +winner.</p> + +<p>My ship will not be the <i>Cuba</i> after all. She is to go +into dock, and the <i>Russia</i> (a larger ship, and the latest built +for the Cunard line) is to take her place.</p> + +<p>Very glad to hear of Plorn's success. Best love to +Mamie.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">M. Charles +Fechter.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Washington</span>, <i>February 24th, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Fechter</span>,</div> + +<p>Your letter reached me here yesterday. I have sent +you a telegram (addressed to the theatre) this morning, and +I write this by the earliest return mail.</p> + +<p>My dear fellow, consider yourself my representative. +Whatever you do, or desire to do, about the play, I fully +authorise beforehand. Tell Webster, with my regard, that +I think his proposal honest and fair; that I think it, in a +word, like himself; and that I have perfect confidence in +his good faith and liberality.</p> + +<p>As to making money of the play in the United States +here, Boucicault has filled Wilkie's head with golden dreams +that have <i>nothing</i> in them. He makes no account of the +fact that, wherever I go, the theatres (with my name in big +letters) instantly begin playing versions of my books, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[362]</a></span> +that the moment the Christmas number came over here they +pirated it and played "No Thoroughfare." Now, I have +enquired into the law, and am extremely doubtful whether +I <i>could</i> have prevented this. Why should they pay for the +piece as you act it, when they have no actors, and when +all they want is my name, and they can get that for +nothing?</p> + +<p>Wilkie has uniformly written of you enthusiastically. +In a letter I had from him, dated the 10th of January, he +described your conception and execution of the part in +the most glowing terms. "Here Fechter is magnificent." +"Here his superb playing brings the house down." "I +should call even his exit in the last act one of the subtlest +and finest things he does in the piece." "You can hardly +imagine what he gets out of the part, or what he makes of +his passionate love for Marguerite." These expressions, +and many others like them, crowded his letter.</p> + +<p>I never did so want to see a character played on the +stage as I want to see you play Obenreizer. As the play +was going when I last heard of it, I have some hopes that I +<span class="smcap">may</span> see it yet. Please God, your Adelphi dressing-room +will be irradiated with the noble presence of "Never +Wrong" (if you are acting), about the evening of Monday, +the 4th of May!</p> + +<p>I am doing enormous business. It is a wearying life, +away from all I love, but I hope that the time will soon +begin to spin away. Among the many changes that I find +here is the comfortable change that the people are in +general extremely considerate, and very observant of my +privacy. Even in this place, I am really almost as much +my own master as if I were in an English country town. +Generally, they are very good audiences indeed. They do +not (I think) perceive touches of art to <i>be</i> art; but they are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[363]</a></span> +responsive to the broad results of such touches. "Doctor +Marigold" is a great favourite, and they laugh so unrestrainedly +at "The Trial" from "Pickwick" (which you never +heard), that it has grown about half as long again as it used +to be.</p> + +<p>If I could send you a "brandy cocktail" by post I +would. It is a highly meritorious dram, which I hope to +present to you at Gad's. My New York landlord made me +a "Rocky Mountain sneezer," which appeared to me to +be compounded of all the spirits ever heard of in the +world, with bitters, lemon, sugar, and snow. You can +only make a true "sneezer" when the snow is lying on the +ground.</p> + +<p>There, my dear boy, my paper is out, and I am going to +read "Copperfield." Count always on my fidelity and true +attachment, and look out, as I have already said, for a +distinguished visitor about Monday, the 4th of May.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 8em;">Ever, my dear Fechter,</span><br /> +Your cordial and affectionate Friend.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Boston</span>, <i>Tuesday, Feb. 25th, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>It is so very difficult to know, by any exercise of +common sense, what turn or height the political excitement +may take next, and it may so easily, and so soon, swallow +up all other things, that I think I shall suppress my next +week's readings here (by good fortune not yet announced) +and watch the course of events. Dolby's sudden desponding +under these circumstances is so acute, that it is +actually swelling his head as I glance at him in the glass +while writing.</p> + +<p>The catarrh is no better and no worse. The weather is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[364]</a></span> +intensely cold. The walking-match (of which I will send +particulars) is to come off on Sunday. Mrs. Fields is more +delightful than ever, and Fields more hospitable. My +room is always radiant with brilliant flowers of their sending. +I don't know whether I told you that the walking-match +is to celebrate the extinction of February, and the +coming of the day when I can say "next month."</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Boston</span>, <i>Thursday, Feb. 27th, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>This morning at breakfast I received yours of the 11th +from Palace Gate House. I have very little news to give +you in return for your budget. The walking-match is to +come off on Saturday, and Fields and I went over the +ground yesterday to measure the miles. We went at a +tremendous pace. The condition of the ground is something +indescribable, from half-melted snow, running water, +and sheets and blocks of ice. The two performers have +not the faintest notion of the weight of the task they +have undertaken. I give a dinner afterwards, and have +just now been settling the bill of fare and selecting the +wines.</p> + +<p>In the first excitement of the presidential impeachment, +our houses instantly went down. After carefully considering +the subject, I decided to take advantage of the fact that +next week's four readings here have not yet been announced, +and to abolish them altogether. Nothing in this country +lasts long, and I think the public may be heartily tired of +the President's name by the 9th of March, when I read at +a considerable distance from here. So behold me with a +whole week's holiday in view! The Boston audiences have +come to regard the readings and the reader as their peculiar<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[365]</a></span> +property; and you would be at once amused and pleased if +you could see the curious way in which they seem to plume +themselves on both. They have taken to applauding too +whenever they laugh or cry, and the result is very inspiriting. +I shall remain here until Saturday, the 7th, but shall +not read here, after to-morrow night, until the 1st of April, +when I begin my Boston farewells, six in number.</p> + + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<i>Friday, 28th.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>It has been snowing all night, and the city is in a +miserable condition. We had a fine house last night for +"Carol" and "Trial," and such an enthusiastic one that +they persisted in a call after the "Carol," and, while I was out, +covered the little table with flowers. The "True American" +has taken a fresh start, as if it were quite a novelty, and is +on the whole rather worse than ever to-day. The Cunard +packet, the <i>Australasian</i> (a poor ship), is some days overdue, +and Dolby is anxiously looking out for her. There is a lull +in the excitement about the President, but the articles of +impeachment are to be produced this afternoon, and then it +may set in again. Osgood came into camp last night from +selling in remote places, and reports that at Rochester and +Buffalo (both places near the frontier), Canada people +bought tickets, who had struggled across the frozen river +and clambered over all sorts of obstructions to get them. +Some of those halls turn out to be smaller than represented, +but I have no doubt, to use an American expression, that we +shall "get along."</p> + +<p>To-morrow fortnight we purpose being at the Falls of +Niagara, and then we shall turn back and really begin to +wind up. I have got to know the "Carol" so well that I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[366]</a></span> +can't remember it, and occasionally go dodging about in +the wildest manner to pick up lost pieces. They took it +so tremendously last night that I was stopped every five +minutes. One poor young girl in mourning burst into a +passion of grief about Tiny Tim, and was taken out. This +is all my news.</p> + +<p>Each of the pedestrians is endeavouring to persuade +the other to take something unwholesome before starting.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Boston</span>, <i>Monday, March 2nd, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>A heavy gale of wind and a snowstorm oblige me to +write suddenly for the Cunard steamer a day earlier than +usual. The railroad between this and New York will +probably be stopped somewhere. After all the hard weather +we have had, this is the worst day we have seen.</p> + +<p>The walking-match came off on Saturday, over tremendously +difficult ground, against a biting wind, and +through deep snow-wreaths. It was so cold, too, that our +hair, beards, eyelashes, eyebrows, were frozen hard, and +hung with icicles. The course was thirteen miles. They +were close together at the turning-point, when Osgood went +ahead at a splitting pace and with extraordinary endurance, +and won by half a mile. Dolby did very well indeed, and +begs that he may not be despised. In the evening I gave a +very splendid dinner. Eighteen covers, most magnificent +flowers, such table decoration as was never seen in these +parts. The whole thing was a great success, and everybody +was delighted.</p> + +<p>I am holiday-making until Friday, when we start on the +round of travel that is to bring us back here for the 1st of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[367]</a></span> +April. My holiday-making is simply thorough resting, +except on Wednesday, when I dine with Longfellow. There +is still great political excitement, but I hope it may not hurt +us very much. My fear is that it may damage the farewell. +Dolby is not of my mind as to this, and I hope he may be +right. We are not quite determined whether Mrs. Fields +did not desert our colours, by coming on the ground in a +carriage, and having <i>bread soaked in brandy</i> put into the +winning man's mouth as he steamed along. She pleaded +that she would have done as much for Dolby, if <i>he</i> had been +ahead, so we are inclined to forgive her. As she had done +so much for me in the way of flowers, I thought I would +show her a sight in that line at the dinner. You never saw +anything like it. Two immense crowns; the base, of the +choicest exotics; and the loops, oval masses of violets. In +the centre of the table an immense basket, overflowing +with enormous bell-mouthed lilies; all round the table a +bright green border of wreathed creeper, with clustering +roses at intervals; a rose for every button-hole, and a +bouquet for every lady. They made an exhibition of the +table before dinner to numbers of people.</p> + +<p>P. H. has just come in with a newspaper, containing a +reference (in good taste!) to the walking-match. He posts +it to you by this post.</p> + +<p>It is telegraphed that the storm prevails over an immense +extent of country, and is just the same at Chicago as here. +I hope it may prove a wind-up. We are getting sick of the +sound of sleigh-bells even.</p> + +<p>Your account of Anne has greatly interested me.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[368]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">M. Charles +Fechter.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Syracuse, U.S. of America</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Sunday Night, March 8th, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Fechter</span>,</div> + +<p>I am here in a most wonderful out-of-the-world place, +which looks as if it had begun to be built yesterday, and +were going to be imperfectly knocked together with a nail +or two the day after to-morrow. I am in the worst inn +that ever was seen, and outside is a thaw that places the +whole country under water. I have looked out of window +for the people, and I can't find any people. I have tried +all the wines in the house, and there are only two wines, for +which you pay six shillings a bottle, or fifteen, according as +you feel disposed to change the name of the thing you ask +for. (The article never changes.) The bill of fare is "in +French," and the principal article (the carte is printed) is +"Paettie de shay." I asked the Irish waiter what this dish +was, and he said: "It was the name the steward giv' to +oyster patties—the Frinch name." These are the drinks +you are to wash it down with: "Mooseux," "Abasinthe," +"Curacco," "Marschine," "Annise," and "Margeaux"!</p> + +<p>I am growing very home-sick, and very anxious for the +22nd of April; on which day, please God, I embark for +home. I am beginning to be tired, and have been depressed +all the time (except when reading), and have lost my appetite. +I cannot tell you—but you know, and therefore why should +I?—how overjoyed I shall be to see you again, my dear boy, +and how sorely I miss a dear friend, and how sorely I miss +all art, in these parts. No disparagement to the country, +which has a great future in reserve, or to its people, who +are very kind to me.</p> + +<p>I mean to take my leave of readings in the autumn and +winter, in a final series in England with Chappell. This +will come into the way of literary work for a time, for, after<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[369]</a></span> +I have rested—don't laugh—it is a grim reality—I shall +have to turn my mind to—ha! ha! ha!—to—ha! ha! +ha! (more sepulchrally than before)—the—the <span class="smcap">Christmas +Number</span>!!! I feel as if I had murdered a Christmas +number years ago (perhaps I did!) and its ghost perpetually +haunted me. Nevertheless in some blessed rest at Gad's, +we will talk over stage matters, and all matters, in an even +way, and see what we can make of them, please God. Be +sure that I shall not be in London one evening, after disembarking, +without coming round to the theatre to embrace +you, my dear fellow.</p> + +<p>I have had an American cold (the worst in the world) +since Christmas Day. I read four times a week, with the +most tremendous energy I can bring to bear upon it. I +travel about pretty heavily. I am very resolute about +calling on people, or receiving people, or dining out, and so +save myself a great deal. I read in all sorts of places—churches, +theatres, concert rooms, lecture halls. Every +night I read I am described (mostly by people who have +not the faintest notion of observing) from the sole of my +boot to where the topmost hair of my head ought to be, +but is not. Sometimes I am described as being "evidently +nervous;" sometimes it is rather taken ill that "Mr. +Dickens is so extraordinarily composed." My eyes are +blue, red, grey, white, green, brown, black, hazel, violet, +and rainbow-coloured. I am like "a well-to-do American +gentleman," and the Emperor of the French, with an occasional +touch of the Emperor of China, and a deterioration +from the attributes of our famous townsman, Rufus W. B. D. +Dodge Grumsher Pickville. I say all sorts of things that I +never said, go to all sorts of places that I never saw or +heard of, and have done all manner of things (in some previous +state of existence I suppose) that have quite escaped<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[370]</a></span> +my memory. You ask your friend to describe what he is +about. This is what he is about, every day and hour of his +American life.</p> + +<p>I hope to be back with you before you write to me!</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 10em;">Ever, my dear Fechter,</span><br /> +Your most affectionate and hearty Friend.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—Don't let Madame Fechter, or Marie, or Paul +forget me!</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Syracuse</span>, <i>Sunday, March 8th, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>As we shall probably be busy all day to-morrow, I +write this to-day, though it will not leave New York until +Wednesday. This is a very grim place in a heavy thaw, +and a most depressing one. The hotel also is surprisingly +bad, quite a triumph in that way. We stood out for an +hour in the melting snow, and came in again, having to +change completely. Then we sat down by the stove (no +fireplace), and there we are now. We were so afraid to go +to bed last night, the rooms were so close and sour, that +we played whist, double dummy, till we couldn't bear each +other any longer. We had an old buffalo for supper, and +an old pig for breakfast, and we are going to have I +don't know what for dinner at six. In the public rooms +downstairs, a number of men (speechless) are sitting in +rocking-chairs, with their feet against the window-frames, +staring out at window and spitting dolefully at intervals. +Scott is in tears, and George the gasman is suborning +people to go and clean the hall, which is a marvel of dirt. +And yet we have taken considerably over three hundred +pounds for to-morrow night!</p> + +<p>We were at Albany the night before last and yesterday<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[371]</a></span> +morning; a very pretty town, where I am to read on the +18th and 19th. This day week we hope to wash out this +establishment with the Falls of Niagara. And there is my +news, except that your <i>last letters</i> to me in America must +be posted by the Cunard steamer, which will sail from +Liverpool on <i>Saturday, the 4th of April</i>. These I shall be +safe to get before embarking.</p> + +<p>I send a note to Katie (addressed to Mamie) by this +mail. I wrote to Harry some weeks ago, stating to him on +what principles he must act in remodelling the cricket +club, if he would secure success.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<i>Monday Morning, 9th.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>Nothing new. Weather cloudy, and town more dismal +than yesterday. It froze again last night, and thaws again +this morning. Somebody sent me an Australian newspaper +this morning—some citizen of Syracuse I mean—because of +a paragraph in it describing the taking of two freebooters, +at which taking Alfred was present. Though I do not +make out that he had anything in the world to do with it, +except having his name pressed into the service of the +newspaper.</p> + + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Buffalo</span>, <i>Thursday, March 12th, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>I hope this may be in time for next Saturday's mail; +but this is a long way from New York, and rivers are +swollen with melted snow, and travelling is unusually +slow.</p> + +<p>Just now (two o'clock in the afternoon) I received your +sad news of the death of poor dear Chauncey.<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> It naturally<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[372]</a></span> +goes to my heart. It is not a light thing to lose such a +friend, and I truly loved him. In the first unreasonable +train of feeling, I dwelt more than I should have thought +possible on my being unable to attend his funeral. I +know how little this really matters; but I know he would +have wished me to be there with real honest tears for his +memory, and I feel it very much. I never, never, never +was better loved by man than I was by him, I am sure. +Poor dear fellow, good affectionate gentle creature.</p> + +<p>I have not as yet received any letter from Henri, nor do +I think he can have written to New York by your mail. +I believe that I am—I know that I <i>was</i>—one of the executors. +In that case Mr. Jackson, his agent, will either +write to me very shortly on Henri's information of my +address, or enquiry will be made at Gad's or at the office +about it.</p> + +<p>It is difficult for me to write more just now. The news +is a real shock at such a distance, and I must read to-night, +and I must compose my mind. Let Mekitty know that I +received her violets with great pleasure, and that I sent her +my best love and my best thanks.</p> + +<p>On the 25th of February I read "Copperfield" and +"Bob" at Boston. Either on that very day, or very close +upon it, I was describing his (Townshend's) house to Fields, +and telling him about the great Danby picture that he +should see when he came to London.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Rochester</span>, <i>Sunday, March 16th, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>I found yours of the 28th February, when I came back +here last night. We have had two brilliant sunny days at +Niagara, and have seen that wonderful place under the finest +circumstances.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[373]</a></span></p> + +<p>Enclosed I return you Homan's estimate; let all that +work be done, including the curtains.</p> + +<p>As to the hall, I have my doubts whether one of the +parqueted floors made by Aaron Smith's, of Bond Street, +ought not to be better than tiles, for the reason that perhaps +the nature of the house's construction might render the +"bed" necessary for wooden flooring more easy to be made +than the "bed" necessary for tiles. I don't think you can +do better than call in the trusty Lillie to advise. Decide with +your aunt on which appears to be better, under the circumstances. +Have estimate made for <i>cash</i>, select patterns and +colours, and let the work be done out of hand. (Here's a +prompt order; now I draw breath.) Let it be thoroughly +well done—no half measures.</p> + +<p>There is a great thaw all over the country here, and I +think it has done the catarrh good. I am to read at the +famous Newhaven on Tuesday, the 24th. I hope without +a row, but cannot say. The readings are running out fast +now, and we are growing very restless.</p> + +<p>This is a short letter, but we are pressed for time. It is +two o'clock, and we dine at three, before reading. To-morrow +we rise at six, and have eleven hours' railway +or so. We have now come back from our farthest point, +and are steadily working towards home.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Springfield, Mass.</span>, <i>Saturday, March 21st, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>What with perpetual reading and travelling, what +with a "true American catarrh" (on which I am complimented +almost boastfully), and what with one of the severest +winters ever known, your coals of fire received by the last +mail did not burn my head so much as they might have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[374]</a></span> +done under less excusatory circumstances. But they +scorched it too!</p> + +<p>You would find the general aspect of America and +Americans decidedly much improved. You would find +immeasurably greater consideration and respect for your +privacy than of old. You would find a steady change for +the better everywhere, except (oddly enough) in the railroads +generally, which seem to have stood still, while +everything else has moved. But there is an exception +westward. There the express trains have now a very +delightful carriage called a "drawing-room car," literally +a series of little private drawing-rooms, with sofas and +a table in each, opening out of a little corridor. In each, +too, is a large plate-glass window, with which you can do as +you like. As you pay extra for this luxury, it may be regarded +as the first move towards two classes of passengers. +When the railroad straight away to San Francisco (in six +days) shall be opened through, it will not only have these +drawing-rooms, but sleeping-rooms too; a bell in every +little apartment communicating with a steward's pantry, a +restaurant, a staff of servants, marble washing-stands, and +a barber's shop! I looked into one of these cars a day or +two ago, and it was very ingeniously arranged and quite +complete.</p> + +<p>I left Niagara last Sunday, and travelled on to Albany, +through three hundred miles of flood, villages deserted, +bridges broken, fences drifting away, nothing but tearing +water, floating ice, and absolute wreck and ruin. The train +gave in altogether at Utica, and the passengers were let +loose there for the night. As I was due at Albany, a very +active superintendent of works did all he could to "get +Mr. Dickens along," and in the morning we resumed our +journey through the water, with a hundred men in seven-league<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[375]</a></span> +boots pushing the ice from before us with long poles. +How we got to Albany I can't say, but we got there somehow, +just in time for a triumphal "Carol" and "Trial." +All the tickets had been sold, and we found the Albanians +in a state of great excitement. You may imagine what the +flood was when I tell you that we took the passengers out +of two trains that had their fires put out by the water four-and-twenty +hours before, and cattle from trucks that had +been in the water I don't know how long, but so long that +the sheep had begun to eat each other! It was a horrible +spectacle, and the haggard human misery of their faces +was quite a new study. There was a fine breath of spring +in the air concurrently with the great thaw; but lo and +behold! last night it began to snow again with a strong +wind, and to-day a snowdrift covers this place with all the +desolation of winter once more. I never was so tired of +the sight of snow. As to sleighing, I have been sleighing +about to that extent, that I am sick of the sound of a +sleigh-bell.</p> + +<p>I have seen all our Boston friends, except Curtis. +Ticknor is dead. The rest are very little changed, except +that Longfellow has a perfectly white flowing beard and +long white hair. But he does not otherwise look old, and +is infinitely handsomer than he was. I have been constantly +with them all, and they have always talked much of you. +It is the established joke that Boston is my "native place," +and we hold all sorts of hearty foregatherings. They all +come to every reading, and are always in a most delightful +state of enthusiasm. They give me a parting dinner at the +club, on the Thursday before Good Friday. To pass from +Boston personal to New York theatrical, I will mention +here that one of the proprietors of my New York hotel is +one of the proprietors of Niblo's, and the most active.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[376]</a></span> +Consequently I have seen the "Black Crook" and the +"White Fawn," in majesty, from an arm-chair in the first +entrance, P.S., more than once. Of these astonishing +dramas, I beg to report (seriously) that I have found no +human creature "behind" who has the slightest idea what +they are about (upon my honour, my dearest Macready!), +and that having some amiable small talk with a neat little +Spanish woman, who is the <i>première danseuse</i>, I asked her, +in joke, to let me measure her skirt with my dress glove. +Holding the glove by the tip of the forefinger, I found the +skirt to be just three gloves long, and yet its length was +much in excess of the skirts of two hundred other ladies, +whom the carpenters were at that moment getting into their +places for a transformation scene, on revolving columns, on +wires and "travellers" in iron cradles, up in the flies, down +in the cellars, on every description of float that Wilmot, +gone distracted, could imagine!</p> + +<p>I have taken my passage for Liverpool from New York +in the Cunarder <i>Russia</i>, on the 22nd of April. I had the +second officer's cabin on deck coming out, and I have the +chief steward's cabin on deck going home, because it will +be on the sunny side of the ship. I have experienced nothing +here but good humour and cordiality. In the autumn and +winter I have arranged with Chappells to take my farewell +of reading in the United Kingdom for ever and ever.</p> + +<p>I am delighted to hear of Benvenuta's marriage, and I +think her husband a very lucky man. Johnnie has my profound +sympathy under his examinatorial woes. The noble +boy will give me Gavazzi revised and enlarged, I expect, +when I next come to Cheltenham. I will give you and Mrs. +Macready all my American experiences when you come to +London, or, better still, to Gad's. Meanwhile I send my +hearty love to all, not forgetting dear Katie.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[377]</a></span></p> + +<p>Niagara is not at all spoiled by a very dizzy-looking +suspension bridge. Is to have another still nearer to the +Horse-shoe opened in July. My last sight of that scene +(last Sunday) was thus: We went up to the rapids above +the Horse-shoe—say two miles from it—and through the +great cloud of spray. Everything in the magnificent valley—buildings, +forest, high banks, air, water, everything—was +<i>made of rainbow</i>. Turner's most imaginative drawing in +his finest day has nothing in it so ethereal, so gorgeous in +fancy, so celestial. We said to one another (Dolby and I), +"Let it for evermore remain so," and shut our eyes and +came away.</p> + +<p>God bless you and all dear to you, my dear old Friend!</p> + +<div class='sig'> +I am ever your affectionate and loving.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Portland</span>, <i>Sunday, March 29th, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>I should have written to you by the last mail, but I +really was too unwell to do it. The writing day was last +Friday, when I ought to have left Boston for New Bedford +(fifty-five miles) before eleven in the morning. But I was +so exhausted that I could not be got up, and had to take +my chance of an evening's train producing me in time to +read, which it just did. With the return of snow, nine +days ago, the "true American" (which had lulled) came +back as bad as ever. I have coughed from two or three in +the morning until five or six, and have been absolutely +sleepless. I have had no appetite besides, and no taste. +Last night here I took some laudanum, and it is the only +thing that has done me good. But the life in this climate +is so very hard. When I did manage to get from Boston +to New Bedford, I read with my utmost force and vigour.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[378]</a></span> +Next morning, well or ill, I must turn out at seven to get +back to Boston on my way here.</p> + +<p>I dine at Boston at three, and at five must come on here +(a hundred and thirty miles or so), for to-morrow night; +there being no Sunday train. To-morrow night I read here +in a very large place, and Tuesday morning at six I must +start again to get back to Boston once more. But after +to-morrow night, I have only the Boston and New York +farewells, thank God! I am most grateful to think that +when we came to devise the details of the tour, I foresaw +that it could never be done, as Dolby and Osgood proposed, +by one unassisted man, as if he were a machine. If I had +not cut out the work, and cut out Canada, I could never +have gone there, I am quite sure. Even as it is, I have just +now written to Dolby (who is in New York), to see my +doctor there, and ask him to send me some composing +medicine that I can take at night, inasmuch as without +sleep I cannot get through. However sympathetic and +devoted the people are about me, they <i>can not</i> be got to +comprehend that one's being able to do the two hours with +spirit when the time comes round, may be co-existent with +the consciousness of great depression and fatigue. I don't +mind saying all this, now that the labour is so nearly over. +You shall have a brighter account of me, please God, when +I close this at Boston.</p> + + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<i>Monday, March 30th.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>Without any artificial aid, I got a splendid night's rest +last night, and consequently am very much freshened up +to-day. Yesterday I had a fine walk by the sea, and to-day +I have had another on the heights overlooking it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[379]</a></span></p> + + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Boston</span>, <i>Tuesday, 31st.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>I have safely arrived here, just in time to add a line to +that effect, and get this off by to-morrow's English mail +from New York. Catarrh rather better. Everything +triumphant last night, except no sleep again. I suppose +Dolby to be now on his way back to join me here. I am +much mistaken if the political crisis do not damage the +farewells by almost one half.</p> + +<p>I hope that I am certainly better altogether.</p> + +<p>My room well decorated with flowers, of course, and +Mr. and Mrs. Fields coming to dinner. They are the +most devoted of friends, and never in the way and never +out of it.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Boston</span>, <i>Wednesday, April 1st, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>I received your letter of from the 14th to the 17th of +March, here, last night. My New York doctor has prescribed +for me promptly, and I hope I am better. I am +certainly no worse. We shall do (to the best of my belief) +<i>very well</i> with the farewells here and at New York, but not +greatly. Everything is at a standstill, pending the impeachment +and the next presidential election. I forgot whether +I told you that the New York press are going to give me a +public dinner, on Saturday, the 18th.</p> + +<p>I hear (but not from himself) that Wills has had a bad +fall in hunting, and is, or has been, laid up. I am supposed, +I take it, not to know this until I hear it from himself.</p> + + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<i>Thursday.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>My notion of the farewells is pretty certain now to turn +out right. It is not at all probable that we shall do anything +enormous. Every pulpit in Massachusetts will resound<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[380]</a></span> +to violent politics to-day and to-night. You remember the +Hutchinson family?<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> I have had a grateful letter from John +Hutchinson. He speaks of "my sister Abby" as living in +New York. The immediate object of his note is to invite +me to the marriage of his daughter, twenty-one years of age.</p> + +<p>You will see by the evidence of this piece of paper that +I am using up my stationery. Scott has just been making +anxious calculations as to our powers of holding out in the +articles of tooth-powder, etc. The calculations encourage +him to believe that we shall just hold out, and no more. I +think I am still better to-day than I was yesterday; but I +am far from strong, and have no appetite. To see me at +my little table at night, you would think me the freshest of +the fresh. And this is the marvel of Fields' life.</p> + +<p>I don't forget that this is Forster's birthday.</p> + + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<i>Friday Afternoon, 3rd.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>Catarrh worse than ever! And we don't know (at four) +whether I can read to-night or must stop. Otherwise all +well.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Boston</span>, <i>Tuesday, April 7th, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>I not only read last Friday, when I was doubtful of +being able to do so, but read as I never did before, and +astonished the audience quite as much as myself. You +never saw or heard such a scene of excitement.</p> + +<p>Longfellow and all the Cambridge men urged me to +give in. I have been very near doing so, but feel stronger +to-day. I cannot tell whether the catarrh may have done +me any lasting injury in the lungs or other breathing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[381]</a></span> +organs, until I shall have rested and got home. I hope +and believe not. Consider the weather. There have been +two snowstorms since I wrote last, and to-day the town is +blotted out in a ceaseless whirl of snow and wind.</p> + +<p>I cannot eat (to anything like the ordinary extent), and +have established this system: At seven in the morning, in +bed, a tumbler of new cream and two tablespoonsful of +rum. At twelve, a sherry cobbler and a biscuit. At three +(dinner time), a pint of champagne. At five minutes to +eight, an egg beaten up with a glass of sherry. Between +the parts, the strongest beef tea that can be made, drunk +hot. At a quarter-past ten, soup, and anything to drink +that I can fancy. I don't eat more than half a pound of +solid food in the whole four-and-twenty hours, if so much.</p> + +<p>If I hold out, as I hope to do, I shall be greatly pressed +in leaving here and getting over to New York before next +Saturday's mail from there. Do not, therefore, <i>if all be well</i>, +expect to hear from me by Saturday's mail, but look for +my last letter from America by the mail of the following +Wednesday, the 15th. <i>Be sure</i> that you shall hear, however, +by Saturday's mail, if I should knock up as to reading. I +am tremendously "beat," but I feel really and unaffectedly +so much stronger to-day, both in my body and hopes, that +I am much encouraged. I have a fancy that I turned my +worst time last night.</p> + +<p>Dolby is as tender as a woman and as watchful as a +doctor. He never leaves me during the reading now, but +sits at the side of the platform and keeps his eye upon me +all the time. Ditto George, the gasman, steadiest and most +reliable man I ever employed. I am the more hopeful of my +not having to relinquish a reading, because last night was +"Copperfield" and "Bob"—by a quarter of an hour the +longest, and, in consideration of the storm, by very much<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[382]</a></span> +the most trying. Yet I was far fresher afterwards than I +have been these three weeks.</p> + +<p>I have "Dombey" to do to-night, and must go through +it carefully; so here ends my report. The personal affection +of the people in this place is charming to the last.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">The Hon. +Mrs. +Watson.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place</span>, <i>Monday, May 11th, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Mrs. Watson</span>,</div> + +<p>I am delighted to have your letter. It comes to me +like a faithful voice from dear old Rockingham, and awakens +many memories.</p> + +<p>The work in America has been so very hard, and the winter +there has been so excessively severe, that I really have been +very unwell for some months. But I had not been at sea +three days on the passage home when I became myself +again.</p> + +<p>If you will arrange with Mary Boyle any time for coming +here, we shall be charmed to see you, and I will adapt my +arrangements accordingly. I make this suggestion because +she generally comes here early in the summer season. But +if you will propose yourself <i>anyhow</i>, giving me a margin of +a few days in case of my being pre-engaged for this day or +that, we will (as my American friends say) "fix it."</p> + +<p>What with travelling, reading night after night, and +speech-making day after day, I feel the peace of the country +beyond all expression. On board ship coming home, a +"deputation" (two in number, of whom only one could get +into my cabin, while the other looked in at my window) +came to ask me to read to the passengers that evening in +the saloon. I respectfully replied that sooner than do it, I +would assault the captain, and be put in irons.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[383]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +George +Cattermole.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Saturday, May 16th, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Mrs. Cattermole</span>,</div> + +<p>On my return from America just now, I accidentally +heard that George had been ill. My sister-in-law had heard +it from Forster, but vaguely. Until I received your letter +of Wednesday's date, I had no idea that he had been very +ill; and should have been greatly shocked by knowing it, +were it not for the hopeful and bright assurance you give +me that he is greatly better.</p> + +<p>My old affection for him has never cooled. The last +time he dined with me, I asked him to come again that day +ten years, for I was perfectly certain (this was my small +joke) that I should not set eyes upon him sooner. The +time being fully up, I hope you will remind him, with my +love, that he is due. His hand is upon these walls here, so +I should like him to see for himself, and <i>you</i> to see for +<i>yourself</i>, and in this hope I shall pursue his complete +recovery.</p> + +<p>I heartily sympathise with you in your terrible anxiety, +and in your vast relief; and, with many thanks for your +letter, am ever, my dear Mrs. Cattermole,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Gad's Hill</span>, <i>Wednesday, June 10th, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>Since my return from America, I have been so overwhelmed +with business that I have not had time even to +write to you. You may imagine what six months of arrear +are to dispose of; added to this, Wills has received a concussion +of the brain (from an accident in the hunting-field), +and is sent away by the doctors, and strictly prohibited<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[384]</a></span> +from even writing a note. Consequently all the business +and money details of "All the Year Round" devolve +upon me. And I have had to get them up, for I have never +had experience of them. Then I am suddenly entreated +to go to Paris, to look after the French version of "No +Thoroughfare" on the stage. And I go, and come back, +leaving it a great success.</p> + +<p>I hope Mrs. Macready and you have not abandoned the +idea of coming here? The expression of this hope is the +principal, if not the only, object of this present note. May +the amiable secretary vouchsafe a satisfactory reply!</p> + +<p>Katie, Mary, and Georgina send their very best love to +your Katie and Mrs. Macready. The undersigned is in his +usual brilliant condition, and indeed has greatly disappointed +them at home here, by coming back "so brown and looking +so well." They expected a wreck, and were, at first, much +mortified. But they are getting over it now.</p> + +<p>To my particular friends, the noble boy and Johnny, +I beg to be warmly remembered.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Ever, my dearest Macready,</span><br /> +Your most affectionate.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Henry +Austin.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Tuesday, July 21st, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='center'> +<small>ON THE DEATH OF MR. HENRY AUSTIN.</small><a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Letitia</span>,</div> + +<p>You will have had a telegram from me to-day. I +received your sad news by this morning's post. They +never, without express explanation, mind "Immediate" on +a letter addressed to the office, because half the people who +write there on business that does not press, or on no business +at all, so mark their letters.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[385]</a></span></p> +<p>On Thursday I have people to see and matters to attend +to, both at the office and at Coutts', which, in Wills's +absence, I cannot forego or depute to another. But, +<i>between ourselves</i>, I must add something else: I have the +greatest objection to attend a funeral in which my affections +are not strongly and immediately concerned. I have no +notion of a funeral as a matter of form or ceremony. And +just as I should expressly prohibit the summoning to my +own burial of anybody who was not very near or dear to me, +so I revolt from myself appearing at that solemn rite unless +the deceased were very near or dear to me. I cannot endure +being dressed up by an undertaker as part of his trade show. +I was not in this poor good fellow's house in his lifetime, +and I feel that I have no business there when he lies dead +in it. My mind is penetrated with sympathy and compassion +for the young widow, but that feeling is a real +thing, and my attendance as a mourner would not be—to +myself. It would be to you, I know, but it would not be to +myself. I know full well that you cannot delegate to me +your memories of and your associations with the deceased, +and the more true and tender they are the more invincible +is my objection to become a form in the midst of the most +awful realities.</p> + +<p>With love and condolence from Georgina, Mary, and +Katie,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Believe me, ever your affectionate Brother.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +George +Cattermole.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Gad's Hill</span>, <i>Wednesday, July 22nd, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Mrs. Cattermole</span>,</div> + +<p>Of course I will sign your memorial to the Academy. +If you take either of the Landseers, certainly take Edwin +(1, St. John's Wood Road, N.W.) But, if you would be +content with Frith, I have already spoken to him, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[386]</a></span> +believe that I can answer for him. I shall be at "All the +Year Round" Office, 26, Wellington Street, London, +to-morrow, from eleven to three. Frith will be here on +Saturday, and I shall be here too. I spoke to him a fortnight +ago, and I found him most earnest in the cause. He +said he felt absolutely sure that the whole profession in its +best and highest representation would do anything for +George. I sounded him, having the opportunity of meeting +him at dinner at Cartwright's.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever yours affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. H. +Wills.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<i>Friday, July 31st, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Wills</span>,</div> + +<p>I had such a hard day at the office yesterday, that I +had not time to write to you before I left. So I write +to-day.</p> + +<p>I am very unwilling to abandon the Christmas number, +though even in the case of my little Christmas books (which +were immensely profitable) I let the idea go when I thought +it was wearing out. Ever since I came home, I have hammered +at it, more or less, and have been uneasy about it. I +have begun something which is very droll, but it manifestly +shapes itself towards a book, and could not in the least admit +of even that shadowy approach to a congruous whole on the +part of other contributors which they have ever achieved at +the best. I have begun something else (aboard the American +mail-steamer); but I don't like it, because the stories must +come limping in after the old fashion, though, of course, +what I <i>have</i> done will be good for A. Y. R. In short, I +have cast about with the greatest pains and patience, and I +have been wholly unable to find what I want.</p> + +<p>And yet I cannot quite make up my mind to give in without +another fight for it. I offered one hundred pounds reward<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[387]</a></span> +at Gad's to anybody who could suggest a notion to satisfy +me. Charles Collins suggested one yesterday morning, in +which there is <i>something</i>, though not much. I will turn it +over and over, and try a few more starts on my own account. +Finally, I swear I will not give it up until August is out. +Vow registered.</p> + +<p>I am clear that a number by "various writers" would +not do. If we have not the usual sort of number, we must +call the current number for that date the Christmas number, +and make it as good as possible.</p> + +<p>I sit in the Châlet,<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> like Mariana in the Moated Grange, +and to as much purpose.</p> + +<p>I am buying the freehold of the meadow at Gad's, and of +an adjoining arable field, so that I shall now have about eight-and-twenty +freehold acres in a ring-fence. No more now.</p> + +<p>I made up a very good number yesterday. You will see +in it a very short article that I have called "Now!" which +is a highly remarkable piece of description. It is done by a +new man, from whom I have accepted another article; but +he will never do anything so good again.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">M. de +Cerjat.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Wednesday, Aug. 26th, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Cerjat</span>,</div> + +<p>I was happy to receive your esteemed letter a few +days ago.</p> + +<p>The severity of the winter in America (which was quite +exceptional even in that rigorous climate), combined with +the hard work I had to do, tried me a good deal. Neuralgia +and colds beset me, either by turns or both together, and I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[388]</a></span> +had often much to do to get through at night. But the sea +voyage home again did wonders in restoring me, and I +have been very well indeed, though a little fatigued, ever +since. I am now preparing for a final reading campaign in +England, Scotland, and Ireland. It will begin on the 6th +of October, and will probably last, with short occasional +intermissions, until June.</p> + +<p>The great subject in England for the moment is the +horrible accident to the Irish mail-train. It is now supposed +that the petroleum (known to be a powerful anæsthetic) +rendered the unfortunate people who were burnt almost +instantly insensible to any sensation. My escape in the +Staplehurst accident of three years ago is not to be +obliterated from my nervous system. To this hour I have +sudden vague rushes of terror, even when riding in a +hansom cab, which are perfectly unreasonable but quite +insurmountable. I used to make nothing of driving a pair +of horses habitually through the most crowded parts of +London. I cannot now drive, with comfort to myself, on +the country roads here; and I doubt if I could ride at all +in the saddle. My reading secretary and companion knows +so well when one of these odd momentary seizures comes +upon me in a railway carriage, that he instantly produces +a dram of brandy, which rallies the blood to the heart and +generally prevails. I forget whether I ever told you that +my watch (a chronometer) has never gone exactly since the +accident? So the Irish catastrophe naturally revives the +dreadful things I saw that day.</p> + +<p>The only other news here you know as well as I; to wit, +that the country is going to be ruined, and that the Church +is going to be ruined, and that both have become so used to +being ruined, that they will go on perfectly well.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[389]</a></span></p><div class='center'><b>* * * * * *</b></div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Office of "All the Year Round," No. 26, Wellington Street,</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;"><span class="smcap">Strand, London, W.C.</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Saturday, Sept. 26th, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Mamie</span>,</div> + +<p>I will add a line to this at the Athenæum, after +seeing Plorn off, to tell you how he went away.</p> + + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Athenæum</span>, <i>Quarter to Six.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>I can honestly report that he went away, poor dear +fellow, as well as could possibly be expected. He was pale, +and had been crying, and (Harry said) had broken down in +the railway carriage after leaving Higham station; but only +for a short time.</p> + +<p>Just before the train started he cried a good deal, but +not painfully. (Tell dear Georgy that I bought him his +cigars.) These are hard, hard things, but they might have +to be done without means or influence, and then they would +be far harder. God bless him!<br /><br /><br /></p> + + +<div class="hang1"><small>PARLIAMENT. REPLY TO A PROPOSAL MADE THROUGH ALEXANDER +RUSSEL, OF "THE SCOTSMAN," THAT HE SHOULD ALLOW +HIMSELF TO BE PUT FORWARD AS A CANDIDATE FOR THE +REPRESENTATION OF EDINBURGH.</small></div> + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. F. D. +Finlay.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Sunday, Oct. 4th, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Finlay</span>,</div> + +<p>I am much obliged to you in all friendship and +sincerity for your letter. I have a great respect for your +father-in-law and his paper, and I am much attached to the +Edinburgh people. You may suppose, therefore, that if +my mind were not fully made up on the parliamentary +question, I should waver now.</p> + +<p>But my conviction that I am more useful and more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[390]</a></span> +happy as I am than I could ever be in Parliament is not to +be shaken. I considered it some weeks ago, when I had a +stirring proposal from the Birmingham people, and I then +set it up on a rock for ever and a day.</p> + +<p>Do tell Mr. Russel that I truly feel this mark of confidence, +and that I hope to acknowledge it in person in +Edinburgh before Christmas. There is no man in Scotland +from whom I should consider his suggestion a greater +honour.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">M. Charles +Fechter.</div> + +<div class='center'><br /><br /><b>* * * * * *</b></div> + +<p>Poor Plorn is gone to Australia. It was a hard parting +at the last. He seemed to me to become once more my +youngest and favourite little child as the day drew near, +and I did not think I could have been so shaken. You +were his idol to the hour of his departure, and he asked me +to tell you how much he wanted to bid you good-bye.</p> + +<p>Kindest love from all.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever heartily.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">The same.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Office of "All the Year Round</span>,"</span><br /> +<i>Wednesday, Oct. 7th, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Fechter</span>,</div> + +<p>I got your letter sent to Gad's Hill this morning. +Until I received it, I supposed the piece to have been put +into English from your French by young Ben. If I understand +that the English is yours, then I say that it is +extraordinarily good, written by one in another country.</p> + +<p>I do not read again in London until the 20th; and then +"Copperfield." But by that time you will be at work +yourself.</p> + +<p>Let us dine at six to-day, in order that we may not have +to hurry for the comic dog.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully.<br /> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[391]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Queen's Hotel, Manchester</span>, <i>Sunday, Oct. 11th, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Georgy</span>,</div> + +<p>We had a fine audience last night in the Free Trade +Hall, though not what we consider a large money-house. +The let in Liverpool is extremely good, and we are going +over there at half-past one. We got down here pleasantly +enough and in good time; so all has gone well you see.</p> + +<p>Titiens, Santley, and an opera company of that class are +at the theatre here. They have been doing very poorly in +Manchester.</p> + +<p>There is the whole of my scanty news. I was in wonderful +voice last night, but croak a little this morning, after +so much speaking in so very large a place. Otherwise I am +all right. I find myself constantly thinking of Plorn.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool</span>, <i>Monday, Oct. 12th, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Mamie</span>,</div> + +<p>Our lets here are excellent, and we shall have a +great house to-night. We had a very fine and enthusiastic +audience in the Free Trade Hall, at Manchester, on +Saturday; but our first nights there never count up in +money, as the rest do. Yesterday, "Charlotte," Sainton, +and Piatti stayed with us here; and they went on to Hull +this morning. It was pleasant to be alone again, though +they were all very agreeable.</p> + +<p>The exertion of going on for two hours in that immense +place at Manchester being very great, I was hoarse all day +yesterday, though I was not much distressed on Saturday +night. I am becoming melodious again (at three in the +afternoon) rapidly, and count on being quite restored by a +basin of turtle at dinner.</p> + +<p>I am glad to hear about Armatage, and hope that a +service begun in a personal attachment to Plorn may go on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[392]</a></span> +well. I shall never be over-confident in such matters, I +think, any more.</p> + +<p>The day is delicious here. We have had a blow on +the Mersey this morning, and exulted over the American +steamers. With kind regard to Sir William and Lady +Humphery.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool</span>, <i>Tuesday, Oct. 13th, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>As I sent a line to Mary yesterday, I enclose you Alfred's +letter. Please send it on to her when you next write to +Penton.</p> + +<p>I have just now written to Mrs. Forster, asking her to +explain to Miss Forster how she could have an easy-chair +or a sofa behind my side screen on Tuesday, without +occasioning the smallest inconvenience to anybody. Also, +how she would have a door close at hand, leading at once +to cool passages and a quiet room, etc. etc. etc. It is a +sad story.</p> + +<p>We had a fine house here last night, and a large turn-away. +"Marigold" and "Trial" went immensely. I +doubt if "Marigold" were ever more enthusiastically received. +"Copperfield" and "Bob" to-night, and a large +let. This notwithstanding election meetings and all sorts +of things.</p> + +<p>My favourite room brought my voice round last night, +and I am in considerable force.</p> + +<p>Dolby sends kindest regard, and the message: "Everton +toffee shall not be forgotten."</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Henry +Fielding +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool</span>, <i>Thursday, Oct. 15th, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Harry</span>,</div> + +<p>I have your letter here this morning. I enclose you +another cheque for twenty-five pounds, and I write to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[393]</a></span> +London by this post, ordering three dozen sherry, two +dozen port, and three dozen light claret, to be sent down +to you.</p> + +<p>Now, observe attentively. We must have no shadow of +debt. Square up everything whatsoever that it has been +necessary to buy. Let not a farthing be outstanding on +any account, when we begin together with your allowance. +Be particular in the minutest detail.</p> + +<p>I wish to have no secret from you in the relations +we are to establish together, and I therefore send you Joe +Chitty's letter bodily. Reading it, you will know exactly +what I know, and will understand that I treat you with +perfect confidence. It appears to me that an allowance of +two hundred and fifty pounds a year will be handsome +for all your wants, if I send you your wines. I mean this +to include your tailor's bills as well as every other expense; +and I strongly recommend you to buy nothing in Cambridge, +and to take credit for nothing but the clothes with +which your tailor provides you. As soon as you have got +your furniture accounts in, let us wipe all those preliminary +expenses clean out, and I will then send you your first +quarter. We will count in it October, November, and +December; and your second quarter will begin with the +New Year. If you dislike, at first, taking charge of so +large a sum as sixty-two pounds ten shillings, you can have +your money from me half-quarterly.</p> + +<p>You know how hard I work for what I get, and I think +you know that I never had money help from any human +creature after I was a child. You know that you are one +of many heavy charges on me, and that I trust to your so +exercising your abilities and improving the advantages of +your past expensive education, as soon to diminish <i>this</i> +charge. I say no more on that head.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[394]</a></span></p> + +<p>Whatever you do, above all other things keep out of +debt and confide in me. If you ever find yourself on the +verge of any perplexity or difficulty, come to me. You will +never find me hard with you while you are manly and +truthful.</p> + +<p>As your brothers have gone away one by one, I have +written to each of them what I am now going to write to +you. You know that you have never been hampered with +religious forms of restraint, and that with mere unmeaning +forms I have no sympathy. But I most strongly and +affectionately impress upon you the priceless value of the +New Testament, and the study of that book as the one +unfailing guide in life. Deeply respecting it, and bowing +down before the character of our Saviour, as separated +from the vain constructions and inventions of men, you +cannot go very wrong, and will always preserve at heart a +true spirit of veneration and humility. Similarly I impress +upon you the habit of saying a Christian prayer every night +and morning. These things have stood by me all through +my life, and remember that I tried to render the New +Testament intelligible to you and lovable by you when you +were a mere baby.</p> + +<p>And so God bless you.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever your affectionate Father.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +William +Charles +Kent.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Office of "All the Year Round</span>,"</span><br /> +<i>Monday, Nov. 16th, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Kent</span>,</div> + +<p>I was on the eve of writing to you.</p> + +<p>We thought of keeping the trial private; but Oxenford +has suggested to Chappell that he would like to take the +opportunity of to-morrow night's reading, of saying something +about "Oliver" in <i>Wednesday's paper</i>. Chappell has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[395]</a></span> +told Levy of this, and also Mr. Tompkin, of <i>The Post</i>, who +was there. Consequently, on Wednesday evening your +charming article can come out to the best advantage.</p> + +<p>You have no idea of the difficulty of getting in the end +of Sikes. As to the man with the invaluable composition! +my dear fellow, believe me, no audience on earth could be +held for ten minutes after the girl's death. Give them time, +and they would be revengeful for having had such a strain +put upon them. Trust me to be right. I stand there, and +I know.</p> + +<p>Concerning Harry, I like to guide the boys to a distinct +choice, rather than to press it on them. That will be my +course as to the Middle Temple, of which I think as you do.</p> + +<p>With cordial thanks for every word in your letter,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Affectionately yours always.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. F. +Lehmann.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Kennedy's Hotel, Edinburgh</span>, <i>Sunday, Dec. 6th, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Mrs. Lehmann</span>,</div> + +<p>I hope you will see Nancy with the light of a great +audience upon her some time between this and May; always +supposing that she should not prove too weird and woeful +for the general public.</p> + +<p>You know the aspect of this city on a Sunday, and how +gay and bright it is. The merry music of the blithe bells, +the waving flags, the prettily-decorated houses with their +draperies of various colours, and the radiant countenances at +the windows and in the streets, how charming they are! +The usual preparations are making for the band in the open +air, in the afternoon; and the usual pretty children (selected +for that purpose) are at this moment hanging garlands +round the Scott monument, preparatory to the innocent +Sunday dance round that edifice, with which the diversions +invariably close. It is pleasant to think that these customs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[396]</a></span> +were themselves of the early Christians, those early birds +who <i>didn't</i> catch the worm—and nothing else—and choke +their young with it.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours always.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Kennedy's Hotel, Edinburgh</span>, <i>Sunday, Dec. 6th, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>We got down here to our time to the moment; and, +considering the length of the journey, very easily. I made +a calculation on the road, that the railway travelling over such +a distance involves something more than thirty thousand +shocks to the nerves. Dolby didn't like it at all.</p> + +<p>The signals for a gale were up at Berwick, and along the +road between there and here. It came on just as we arrived, +and blew tremendously hard all night. The wind is still +very high, though the sky is bright and the sun shining. +We couldn't sleep for the noise.</p> + +<p>We are very comfortably quartered. I fancy that the +"business" will be on the whole better here than in +Glasgow, where trade is said to be very bad. But I think +I shall be pretty correct in both places as to the run being +on the final readings.</p> + +<p>We are going up Arthur's Seat presently, which will be +a pull for our fat friend.</p> + +<p>Scott, in a new Mephistopheles hat, baffles imagination +and description.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. +Wilkie +Collins.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Kennedy's Hotel, Edinburgh</span>, <i>Tuesday, Dec. 8th, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Wilkie</span>,</div> + +<p>I am hard at it here as usual, though with an +audience so finely perceptive that the labour is much diminished. +I have got together in a very short space the +conclusion of "Oliver Twist" that you suggested, and am<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[397]</a></span> +trying it daily with the object of rising from that blank +state of horror into a fierce and passionate rush for the end. +As yet I cannot make a certain effect of it; but when I +shall have gone over it as many score of times as over the +rest of that reading, perhaps I may strike one out.</p> + +<p>I shall be very glad to hear when you have done your +play, and I <i>am</i> glad to hear that you like the steamer. I +agree with you about the reading perfectly. In No. 3 +you will see an exact account of some places I visited +at Ratcliffe. There are two little instances in it of something +comic rising up in the midst of the direst misery, that +struck me very humorously at the time.</p> + +<p>As I have determined not to do the "Oliver Murder" +until after the 5th of January, when I shall ascertain its +effect on a great audience, it is curious to notice how the +shadow of its coming affects the Scotch mind. There was +such a disposition to hold back for it here (until I return +to finish in February) that we had next to no "let" when +we arrived. It all came with a rush yesterday. They gave +me a most magnificent welcome back from America last +night.</p> + +<p>I am perpetually counting the weeks before me to be +"read" through, and am perpetually longing for the end of +them; and yet I sometimes wonder whether I shall miss +something when they are over.</p> + +<p>It is a very, very bad day here, very dark and very wet. +Dolby is over at Glasgow, and I am sitting at a side window +looking up the length of Prince's Street, watching the mist +change over the Castle and murdering Nancy by turns.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—I have read the whole of Fitzgerald's "Zero," +and the idea is exceedingly well wrought out.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[398]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Kennedy's Hotel, Edinburgh</span>, <i>Saturday, Dec. 12th, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>I send another <i>Scotsman</i> by this post, because it is +really a good newspaper, well written, and well managed. +We had an immense house here last night, and a very large +turn-away.</p> + +<p>We have four guests to dinner to-day: Peter Fraser, +Ballantyne, John Blackwood, and Mr. Russel. Immense +preparations are making in the establishment, "on account," +Mr. Kennedy says, "of a' four yon chiels being chiels wha' +ken a guid dinner." I enquired after poor Doctor Burt, not +having the least idea that he was dead.</p> + +<p>My voice holds out splendidly so far, and I have had no +return of the American. But I sleep very indifferently indeed.</p> + +<p>It blew appallingly here the night before last, but the +wind has since shifted northward, and it is now bright and +cold. The <i>Star of Hope</i>, that picked up those shipwrecked +people in the boat, came into Leith yesterday, and was +received with tremendous cheers. Her captain must be a +good man and a noble fellow.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">The same.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Kennedy's Hotel, Edinburgh</span>, <i>Monday, Dec. 14th, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>The dinner-party of Saturday last was an immense +success. Russel swore on the occasion that he would go +over to Belfast expressly to dine with me at the Finlays'. +Ballantyne informed me that he was going to send you some +Scotch remembrance (I don't know what) at Christmas!</p> + +<p>The Edinburgh houses are very fine. The Glasgow room +is a big wandering place, with five prices in it, which makes +it the more aggravating, as the people get into knots which +they can't break, as if they were afraid of one another.</p> + +<p>Forgery of my name is becoming popular. You sent +me, this morning, a letter from Russell Sturgis, answering<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[399]</a></span> +a supposed letter of mine (presented by "Miss Jefferies"), +and assuring me of his readiness to give not only the ten +pounds I asked for, but any contribution I wanted, towards +sending that lady and her family back to Boston.</p> + +<p>I wish you would take an opportunity of forewarning +Lady Tennent that the first night's reading she will attend +is an experiment quite out of the way, and that she may +find it rather horrible.</p> + +<p>The keeper of the Edinburgh Hall, a fine old soldier, +presented me, on Friday night, with the finest red camellia +for my button-hole that ever was seen. Nobody can +imagine how he came by it, as the florists had had a considerable +demand for that colour from ladies in the stalls, +and could get no such thing.</p> + +<p>The day is dark, wet, and windy. The weather is likely +to be vile indeed at Glasgow, where it always rains, and +where the sun is never seen through the smoke. We go +over there to-morrow at ten.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Carrick's Royal Hotel, Glasgow</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Tuesday, Dec. 15th, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>It occurs to me that my table at St. James's Hall +might be appropriately ornamented with a little holly next +Tuesday. If the two front legs were entwined with it, for +instance, and a border of it ran round the top of the fringe +in front, with a little sprig by way of bouquet at each +corner, it would present a seasonable appearance.</p> + +<p>If you will think of this, and will have the materials +ready in a little basket, I will call for you at the office at +half-past twelve on Tuesday, and take you up to the hall, +where the table will be ready for you.</p> + +<p>No news, except that we had a great crush and a +wonderful audience in Edinburgh last night.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[400]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Carrick's Royal Hotel, Glasgow</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Wednesday, Dec. 16th, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>This is to report all well, except that I have wretched +nights. The weather is diabolical here, and times are very +bad. I cut "Copperfield" with a bold dexterity that amazed +myself and utterly confounded George at the wing; knocking +off that and "Bob" by ten minutes to ten.</p> + +<p>I don't know anything about the Liverpool banquet, +except from <i>The Times</i>. As I don't finish there in February +(as they seem to have supposed), but in April, it may, +perhaps, stand over or blow over altogether. Such a thing +would be a serious addition to the work, and yet refusal on +my part would be too ungracious.</p> + +<p>The density and darkness of this atmosphere are fearful. +I shall be heartily glad to start for Edinburgh again on Friday +morning.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">The same.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Kennedy's Hotel, Edinburgh</span>, <i>Friday, Dec. 18th, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>I am heartily glad to get back here this afternoon. The +day is bright and cheerful, and the relief from Glasgow +inexpressible. The affectionate regard of the people exceeds +all bounds, and is shown in every way. The manager of +the railway being at the reading the other night, wrote to +me next morning, saying that a large saloon should be prepared +for my journey up, if I would let him know when I +purposed making the journey. On my accepting the offer +he wrote again, saying that he had inspected "our Northern +saloons," and not finding them so convenient for sleeping in +as the best English, had sent up to King's Cross for the best +of the latter; which I would please consider my own carriage +as long as I wanted it. The audiences do everything<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[401]</a></span> +but embrace me, and take as much pains with the readings +as I do.</p> + +<p>I find your Christmas present (just arrived) to be a +haggis and shortbread!</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. J. C. +Parkinson.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Christmas Day, 1868.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Parkinson</span>,</div> + +<p>When your letter was delivered at "All the Year +Round" Office yesterday, I was attending a funeral. It +comes to hand here consequently to-day.</p> + +<p>I am diffident of addressing Mr. Gladstone on the subject +of your desire to be appointed to the vacant Commissionership +of Inland Revenue, because, although my +respect for him and confidence in him are second to those +of no man in England (a bold word at this time, but a +truthful one), my personal acquaintance with him is very +slight. But you may make, through any of your friends, +any use you please of this letter, towards the end of +bringing its contents under Mr. Gladstone's notice.</p> + +<p>In expressing my conviction that you deserve the place, +and are in every way qualified for it, I found my testimony +upon as accurate a knowledge of your character and abilities +as anyone can possibly have acquired. In my editorship +both of "Household Words" and "All the Year Round," +you know very well that I have invariably offered you those +subjects of political and social interest to write upon, in +which integrity, exactness, a remarkable power of generalising +evidence and balancing facts, and a special clearness in +stating the case, were indispensable on the part of the +writer. My confidence in your powers has never been +misplaced, and through all our literary intercourse you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[402]</a></span> +have never been hasty or wrong. Whatever trust you have +undertaken has been so completely discharged, that it has +become my habit to read your proofs rather for my own +edification than (as in other cases) for the detection of some +slip here or there, or the more pithy presentation of the +subject.</p> + +<p>That your literary work has never interfered with the +discharge of your official duties, I may assume to be at least +as well known to your colleagues as it is to me. It is idle +to say that if the post were in my gift you should have it, +because you have had, for some years, most of the posts of +high trust that have been at my disposal. An excellent +public servant in your literary sphere of action, I should +be heartily glad if you could have this new opportunity of +distinguishing yourself in the same character. And this is +at least unselfish in me, for I suppose I should then lose +you?</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Always faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Edward +Bulwer +Lytton +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='center'><br /><br /> +<small>LETTER TO HIS YOUNGEST SON ON HIS DEPARTURE FOR AUSTRALIA IN 1868.</small><a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Plorn</span>,</div> + +<p>I write this note to-day because your going away is +much upon my mind, and because I want you to have a few +parting words from me to think of now and then at quiet +times. I need not tell you that I love you dearly, and am +very, very sorry in my heart to part with you. But this +life is half made up of partings, and these pains must be +borne. It is my comfort and my sincere conviction that +you are going to try the life for which you are best fitted. +I think its freedom and wildness more suited to you than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[403]</a></span> +any experiment in a study or office would ever have been; +and without that training, you could have followed no +other suitable occupation.</p> + +<p>What you have already wanted until now has been a +set, steady, constant purpose. I therefore exhort you to +persevere in a thorough determination to do whatever you +have to do as well as you can do it. I was not so old as +you are now when I first had to win my food, and do this +out of this determination, and I have never slackened in it +since.</p> + +<p>Never take a mean advantage of anyone in any transaction, +and never be hard upon people who are in your +power. Try to do to others, as you would have them do to +you, and do not be discouraged if they fail sometimes. It +is much better for you that they should fail in obeying the +greatest rule laid down by our Saviour, than that you +should.</p> + +<p>I put a New Testament among your books, for the very +same reasons, and with the very same hopes that made me +write an easy account of it for you, when you were a little +child; because it is the best book that ever was or will be +known in the world, and because it teaches you the best +lessons by which any human creature who tries to be +truthful and faithful to duty can possibly be guided. As +your brothers have gone away, one by one, I have written +to each such words as I am now writing to you, and have +entreated them all to guide themselves by this book, putting +aside the interpretations and inventions of men.</p> + +<p>You will remember that you have never at home been +wearied about religious observances or mere formalities. I +have always been anxious not to weary my children with +such things before they are old enough to form opinions +respecting them. You will therefore understand the better<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[404]</a></span> +that I now most solemnly impress upon you the truth and +beauty of the Christian religion, as it came from Christ Himself, +and the impossibility of your going far wrong if you +humbly but heartily respect it.</p> + +<p>Only one thing more on this head. The more we are in +earnest as to feeling it, the less we are disposed to hold forth +about it. Never abandon the wholesome practice of saying +your own private prayers, night and morning. I have never +abandoned it myself, and I know the comfort of it.</p> + +<p>I hope you will always be able to say in after life, that +you had a kind father. You cannot show your affection for +him so well, or make him so happy, as by doing your duty.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Your affectionate Father.<br /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>1869.</h2> + +<h3>NARRATIVE.</h3> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>The</span> "Farewell Readings" in town and country were resumed +immediately after the beginning of this year, and +were to have been continued until the end of May. The +work was even harder than it had ever been. Charles +Dickens began his country tour in Ireland early in January, +and read continuously in all parts of England and Scotland +until the end of April. A public dinner (in commemoration +of his last readings in the town) was given to him at Liverpool +on the 10th April. Besides all this severe country +work, he was giving a series of readings at St. James's +Hall, and reading the "Murder" from "Oliver Twist," in +London and in the country, frequently four times a week. +In the second week of February, a sudden and unusually +violent attack of the old trouble in his foot made it imperatively +necessary to postpone a reading at St. James's Hall, +and to delay for a day or two his departure for Scotland. +The foot continued to cause him pain and inconvenience, +but, as will be seen from his letters, he generally spoke of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[405]</a></span> +himself as otherwise well, until he arrived at Preston, where +he was to read on the 22nd of April. The day before this +appointed reading, he writes home of some grave symptoms +which he had observed in himself, and had reported to his +doctor, Mr. F. Carr Beard. That gentleman, taking alarm +at what he considered "indisputable evidences of overwork," +wisely resolved not to content himself with written consultations, +but went down to Preston on the day appointed for +the reading there, and, after seeing his patient, peremptorily +stopped it, carried him off to Liverpool, and the next +day to London. There he consulted Sir Thomas Watson, +who entirely corroborated Mr. Beard's opinion. And the +two doctors agreed that the course of readings must be +stopped for this year, and that reading, <i>combined with +travelling</i>, must be stopped <i>for ever</i>. Charles Dickens had +no alternative but to acquiesce in this verdict; but he felt +it keenly, not only for himself, but for the sake of the +Messrs. Chappell, who showed the most disinterested kindness +and solicitude on the occasion. He at once returned home +to Gad's Hill, and the rest and quiet of the country restored +him, for the time, to almost his usual condition of health +and spirits. But it was observed, by all who loved him, +that from this time forth he never regained his old vigour +and elasticity. The attack at Preston was the "beginning +of the end!"</div> + +<p>During the spring and summer of this year, he received +visits from many dearly valued American friends. In May, +he stayed with his daughter and sister-in-law for two or +three weeks at the St. James's Hotel, Piccadilly, having +promised to be in London at the time of the arrival of Mr. +and Mrs. Fields, of Boston, who visited Europe, accompanied +by Miss Mabel Lowell (the daughter of the famous American +poet) this year. Besides these friends, Mr. and Mrs. Childs, +of Philadelphia—from whom he had received the greatest +kindness and hospitality, and for whom he had a hearty +regard—Dr. Fordyce Barker and his son, Mr. Eytinge (an +illustrator of an American edition of Charles Dickens's +works), and Mr. Bayard Taylor paid visits to Gad's Hill,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[406]</a></span> +which were thoroughly enjoyed by Charles Dickens and his +family. This last summer was a very happy one. He had +the annual summer visitors and parties of his friends in the +neighbourhood. He was, as usual, projecting improvements +in his beloved country home; one, which he called the +"crowning improvement of all," was a large conservatory, +which was to be added during the absence of the family in +London in the following spring.</p> + +<p>The state of Mr. Wills's health made it necessary for +him now to retire altogether from the editorship of "All +the Year Round." Charles Dickens's own letters express the +regret which he felt at the dissolution of this long and +always pleasant association. Mr. Wills's place at the +office was filled by Charles Dickens's eldest son, now sole +editor and proprietor of the journal.</p> + +<p>In September Charles Dickens went to Birmingham, +accompanied by his son Harry, and presided at the opening +of the session of (what he calls in his letter to Mr. Arthur +Ryland, "<i>our</i> Institution") the Midland Institute. He +made a speech on education to the young students, and +promised to go back early in the following year and distribute +the prizes. In one of the letters which we give +to Mr. Ryland, he speaks of himself as "being in full force +again," and "going to finish his farewell readings soon after +Christmas." He had obtained the sanction of Sir Thomas +Watson to giving twelve readings, <i>in London only</i>, which he +had fixed for the beginning of the following year.</p> + +<p>The letter to his friend Mr. Finlay, which opens the +year, was in reply to a proposal for a public banquet at +Belfast, projected by the Mayor of that town, and conveyed +through Mr. Finlay. This gentleman was at that time +proprietor of <i>The Northern Whig</i> newspaper at Belfast, and +he was son-in-law to Mr. Alexander Russel, editor of <i>The +Scotsman</i>.</p> + +<p>Charles Dickens's letter this New Year to M. de Cerjat +was his last. That faithful and affectionate friend died very +shortly afterwards.</p> + +<p>To Miss Mary Boyle he writes to acknowledge a New<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[407]</a></span> +Year's gift, which he had been much touched by receiving +from her, at a time when he knew she was deeply afflicted +by the sudden death of her brother, Captain Cavendish +Boyle, for whom Charles Dickens had a true regard and +friendship.</p> + +<p>While he was giving his series of London readings in +the spring, he received a numerously signed circular letter +from actors and actresses of the various London theatres. +They were very curious about his new reading of the "Oliver +Twist" murder, and representing to him the impossibility of +their attending an evening, requested him to give a morning +reading, for their especial benefit. We give his answer, +complying with the request. And the occasion was, to him, +a most gratifying and deeply interesting one.</p> + +<p>The letter to Mr. Edmund Ollier was in answer to an +invitation to be present at the inauguration of a bust of +Mr. Leigh Hunt, which was to be placed over his grave at +Kensal Green.</p> + +<p>The letter to Mr. Shirley Brooks, the well-known writer, +who succeeded Mr. Mark Lemon as editor of "Punch," and +for whom Charles Dickens had a cordial regard, was on the +subject of a memorial on behalf of Mrs. Peter Cunningham, +whose husband had recently died.</p> + +<p>The "remarkable story," of which he writes to his +daughter in August, was called "An Experience." It was +written by a lady (who prefers to be anonymous) who had +been a contributor to "Household Words" from its first +starting, and was always highly valued in this capacity by +Charles Dickens.</p> + +<p>Our latest letters for this year are in October. One to +Mr. Charles Kent, sympathising with him on a disappointment +which he had experienced in a business undertaking, +and one to Mr. Macready, in which he tells him of his being +in the "preliminary agonies" of a new book. The first +number of "Edwin Drood" was to appear before the end +of his course of readings in March; and he was at work so +long beforehand with a view to sparing himself, and having +some numbers ready before the publication of the first one.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[408]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. F. D. +Finlay.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">The Athenæum (Club)</span>, <i>New Year's Day, 1869.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Finlay</span>,</div> + +<p>First my heartfelt wishes for many prosperous and +happy years. Next, as to the mayor's kind intentions. I +feel really grateful to him and gratified by the whole idea, +but acceptance of the distinction on my part would be impracticable. +My time in Ireland is all anticipated, and +I could not possibly prolong my stay, because I <i>must</i> be +back in London to read on Tuesday fortnight, and then +must immediately set forth for the West of England. It is +not likely, besides, that I shall get through these farewells +before the end of May. And the work is so hard, and my +voice is so precious, that I fear to add an ounce to the +fatigue, or I might be overweighted. The avoidance of +gas and crowds when I am not in the act of being cooked +before those lights of mine, is an essential part of the training +to which (as I think you know) I strictly adhere, and +although I have accepted the Liverpool invitation, I have +done so as an exception; the Liverpool people having always +treated me in our public relations with a kind of personal +affection.</p> + +<p>I am sincerely anxious that the Mayor of Belfast should +know how the case stands with me. If you will kindly set +me straight and right, I shall be truly obliged to you.</p> + +<p>My sister-in-law has been very unwell (though she is +now much better), and is recommended a brisk change. As +she is a good sailor, I mean to bring her to Ireland with me; +at which she is highly delighted.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours ever.<br /> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[409]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">M. de +Cerjat.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Monday, Jan. 4th, 1869.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Cerjat</span>,</div> + +<p>I will answer your question first. Have I done with +my farewell readings? Lord bless you, no; and I shall +think myself well out of it if I get done by the end of May. +I have undertaken one hundred and six, and have as yet +only vanquished twenty-eight. To-morrow night I read in +London for the first time the "Murder" from "Oliver Twist," +which I have re-arranged for the purpose. Next day I start +for Dublin and Belfast. I am just back from Scotland for +a few Christmas holidays. I go back there next month; +and in the meantime and afterwards go everywhere else.</p> + +<p>Take my guarantee for it, you may be quite comfortable +on the subject of papal aspirations and encroachments. +The English people are in unconquerable opposition to that +church. They have the animosity in the blood, derived +from the history of the past, though perhaps unconsciously. +But they do sincerely want to win Ireland over if they can. +They know that since the Union she has been hardly used. +They know that Scotland has <i>her</i> religion, and a very +uncomfortable one. They know that Scotland, though +intensely anti-papal, perceives it to be unjust that Ireland +has not <i>her</i> religion too, and has very emphatically declared +her opinion in the late elections. They know that a richly-endowed +church, forced upon a people who don't belong to +it, is a grievance with these people. They know that many +things, but especially an artfully and schemingly managed +institution like the Romish Church, thrive upon a grievance, +and that Rome has thriven exceedingly upon this, and made +the most of it. Lastly, the best among them know that +there is a gathering cloud in the West, considerably bigger +than a man's hand, under which a powerful Irish-American<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[410]</a></span> +body, rich and active, is always drawing Ireland in that +direction; and that these are not times in which other +powers would back our holding Ireland by force, unless we +could make our claim good in proving fair and equal +government.</p> + +<p>Poor Townshend charged me in his will "to publish +without alteration his religious opinions, which he sincerely +believed would tend to the happiness of mankind." To +publish them without alteration is absolutely impossible; +for they are distributed in the strangest fragments through +the strangest note-books, pocket-books, slips of paper and +what not, and produce a most incoherent and tautological +result. I infer that he must have held some always-postponed +idea of fitting them together. For these reasons I +would certainly publish nothing about them, if I had any +discretion in the matter. Having none, I suppose a book +must be made. His pictures and rings are gone to the +South Kensington Museum, and are now exhibiting there.</p> + +<p>Charley Collins is no better and no worse. Katie looks +very young and very pretty. Her sister and Miss Hogarth +(my joint housekeepers) have been on duty this Christmas, +and have had enough to do. My boys are now all dispersed +in South America, India, and Australia, except Charley, +whom I have taken on at "All the Year Round" Office, +and Henry, who is an undergraduate at Trinity Hall, and +I hope will make his mark there. All well.</p> + +<p>The Thames Embankment is (faults of ugliness in detail +apart) the finest public work yet done. From Westminster +Bridge to near Waterloo it is now lighted up at night, and +has a fine effect. They have begun to plant it with trees, +and the footway (not the road) is already open to the +Temple. Besides its beauty, and its usefulness in relieving +the crowded streets, it will greatly quicken and deepen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[411]</a></span> +what is learnedly called the "scour" of the river. But the +Corporation of London and some other nuisances have +brought the weirs above Twickenham into a very bare and +unsound condition, and they already begin to give and +vanish, as the stream runs faster and stronger.</p> + +<p>Your undersigned friend has had a few occasional +reminders of his "true American catarrh." Although I +have exerted my voice very much, it has not yet been +once touched. In America I was obliged to patch it up +constantly.</p> + +<p>I like to read your patriarchal account of yourself among +your Swiss vines and fig-trees. You wouldn't recognise +Gad's Hill now; I have so changed it, and bought land +about it. And yet I often think that if Mary were to marry +(which she won't) I should sell it and go genteelly vagabondising +over the face of the earth. Then indeed I might +see Lausanne again. But I don't seem in the way of it at +present, for the older I get, the more I do and the harder I +work.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Yours ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss Mary +Boyle.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Office of "All the Year Round,"</span></span><br /> +<i>Wednesday, Jan. 6th, 1869.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Mary</span>,</div> + +<p>I was more affected than you can easily believe, by +the sight of your gift lying on my dressing-table on the +morning of the new year. To be remembered in a friend's +heart when it is sore is a touching thing; and that and the +remembrance of the dead quite overpowered me, the one +being inseparable from the other.</p> + +<p>You may be sure that I shall attach a special interest +and value to the beautiful present, and shall wear it as a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[412]</a></span> +kind of charm. God bless you, and may we carry the +friendship through many coming years!</p> + +<p>My preparations for a certain murder that I had to do +last night have rendered me unfit for letter-writing these +last few days, or you would have heard from me sooner. +The crime being completely off my mind and the blood +spilled, I am (like many of my fellow-criminals) in a highly +edifying state to-day.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever believe me, your affectionate Friend.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Torquay</span>, <i>Wednesday, Jan. 27th, 1869.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Mamie</span>,</div> + +<p>We have been doing immensely.</p> + +<p>This place is most beautiful, though colder now than +one would expect. This hotel, an immense place, built +among picturesque broken rocks out in the blue sea, is +quite delicious. There are bright green trees in the garden, +and new peas a foot high. Our rooms are <i>en suite</i>, all +commanding the sea, and each with two very large plate-glass +windows. Everything good and well served.</p> + +<p>A <i>pantomime</i> was being done last night, in the place +where I am to read to-night. It is something between a +theatre, a circus, a riding-school, a Methodist chapel, and a +cow-house. I was so disgusted with its acoustic properties +on going in to look at it, that the whole unfortunate staff +have been all day, and now are, sticking up baize and +carpets in it to prevent echoes.</p> + +<p>I have rarely seen a more uncomfortable edifice than I +thought it last night.</p> + +<p>At Clifton, on Monday night, we had a contagion of +fainting. And yet the place was not hot. I should think +we had from a dozen to twenty ladies borne out, stiff and +rigid, at various times. It became quite ridiculous.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[413]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Bath</span>, <i>Friday, Jan. 29th, 1869.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Georgy</span>,</div> + +<p>You must not trust blank places in my list, because +many have been, and will be, gradually filled up. After +the Tuesday's reading in London, I have <span class="smcap">two</span> for that same +week in the country—Nottingham and Leicester. In the +following week I have none; but my arrangements are all +at sea as yet, for I must somehow and somewhere do an +"Uncommercial" in that week, and I also want to get poor +Chauncey's "opinions" to the printer.</p> + +<p>This mouldy old roosting-place comes out mouldily as to +let of course. I hate the sight of the bygone assembly-rooms, +and the Bath chairs trundling the dowagers about +the streets. As to to-morrow morning in the daylight!——</p> + +<p>I have no cold to speak of. Dolby sends kindest regard.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Lehmann.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Office</span>, <i>Wednesday, Feb. 3rd, 1869.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>Dear Mrs. Lehmann</span>,</div> + +<p>Before getting your kind note, I had written to +Lehmann, explaining why I cannot allow myself any social +pleasure while my farewell task is yet unfinished. The +work is so very hard, that every little scrap of rest <i>and +silence</i> I can pick up is precious. And even those morsels +are so flavoured with "All the Year Round," that they are +not quite the genuine article.</p> + +<p>Joachim<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> came round to see me at the hall last night, +and I told him how sorry I was to forego the pleasure of +meeting him (he is a noble fellow!) at your pleasant table.</p> + +<p>I am glad you are coming to the "Murder" on the 2nd +of March. (The house will be prodigious.) Such little +changes as I have made shall be carefully presented to your<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[414]</a></span> +critical notice, and I hope will be crowned with your +approval. But you are always such a fine audience that I +have no fear on that head. I saw Chorley yesterday in his +own room. A sad and solitary sight. The widowed Drake, +with a certain <i>gin</i>coherence of manner, presented a blooming +countenance and buxom form in the passage; so buxom +indeed that she was obliged to retire before me like a +modest stopper, before I could get into the dining decanter +where poor Chorley reposed.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours always.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—My love to Rudie.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Glasgow</span>, <i>Thursday, Feb. 25th, 1869.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>I received your letter at Edinburgh this morning. I +did not write to you yesterday, as there had been no reading +on the previous night.</p> + +<p>The foot bears the fatigue wonderfully well, and really +occasions me no inconvenience beyond the necessity of +wearing the big work of art. Syme saw me again this +morning, and utterly scouted the gout notion altogether. +I think the Edinburgh audience understood the "Murder" +better last night than any audience that has heard it yet. +"Business" is enormous, and Dolby jubilant.</p> + +<p>It is a most deplorable afternoon here, deplorable even +for Glasgow. A great wind blowing, and sleet driving +before it in a storm of heavy blobs. We had to drive our +train dead in the teeth of the wind, and got in here late, +and are pressed for time.</p> + +<p>Strange that in the North we have had absolutely no +snow. There was a very thin scattering on the Pentlands +for an hour or two, but no more.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[415]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Edinburgh</span>, <i>Friday, Feb. 26th, 1869.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>Writing to-morrow morning would be all but impracticable +for me; would be quite so for Dolby, who has to go +to the agents and "settle up" in the midst of his breakfast. +So I write to-day, in reply to your note received at +Glasgow this morning.</p> + +<p>The foot conducts itself splendidly. We had a most +enormous cram at Glasgow. Syme saw me again yesterday +(before I left here for Glasgow), and repeated "Gout!" +with the greatest indignation and contempt, several times. +The aching is going off as the day goes on, if it be worth +mentioning again. The ride from Glasgow was charming +this morning; the sun shining brilliantly, and the country +looking beautiful.</p> + +<p>I told you what the Nortons were. Mabel Lowell is a +charming little thing, and very retiring in manner and +expression.</p> + +<p>We shall have a scene here to-night, no doubt. The +night before last, Ballantyne, unable to get in, had a seat +behind the screen, and was nearly frightened off it by the +"Murder." Every vestige of colour had left his face when I +came off, and he sat staring over a glass of champagne in +the wildest way. I have utterly left off <i>my</i> champagne, and, +I think, with good results. Nothing during the readings +but a very little weak iced brandy-and-water.</p> + +<p>I hope you will find me greatly improved on Tuesday.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Birmingham</span>, <i>Friday, March 5th, 1869.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>This is to send you my best love, and to wish you many +and many happy returns of to-morrow, which I miraculously +remember to be your birthday.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[416]</a></span></p> + +<p>I saw this morning a very pretty fan here. I was going +to buy it as a remembrance of the occasion, when I was +checked by a dim misgiving that you had a fan not long +ago from Chorley. Tell me what you would like better, +and consider me your debtor in that article, whatever it +may be.</p> + +<p>I have had my usual left boot on this morning, and have +had an hour's walk. It was in a gale of wind and a simoom +of dust, but I greatly enjoyed it. Immense enthusiasm at +Wolverhampton last night over "Marigold." Scott made a +most amazing ass of himself yesterday. He reported that he +had left behind somewhere three books—"Boots," "Murder," +and "Gamp." We immediately telegraphed to the office. +Answer, no books there. As my impression was that he +must have left them at St. James's Hall, we then arranged +to send him up to London at seven this morning. Meanwhile +(though not reproached), he wept copiously and +audibly. I had asked him over and over again, was he sure +he had not put them in my large black trunk? Too sure, +too sure. Hadn't opened that trunk after Tuesday night's +reading. He opened it to get some clothes out when I +went to bed, and there the books were! He produced +them with an air of injured surprise, as if we had put +them there.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Queen's Hotel, Manchester</span>, <i>Sunday, March 7th, 1869.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>We have had our sitting-room chimney afire this +morning, and have had to turn out elsewhere to breakfast; +but the chamber has since been cleaned up, and we are +reinstated. Manchester is (<i>for</i> Manchester) bright and +fresh.</p> + +<p>Tell Russell that a crop of hay is to be got off the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[417]</a></span> +meadow this year, before the club use it. They did not +make such use of it last year as reconciles me to losing +another hay-crop. So they must wait until the hay is in, +before they commence active operations.</p> + +<p>Poor Olliffe! I am truly sorry to read those sad words +about his suffering, and fear that the end is not far off.</p> + +<p>We are very comfortably housed here, and certainly that +immense hall is a wonderful place for its size. Without +much greater expenditure of voice than usual, I a little +enlarged the action last night, and Dolby (who went to all +the distant points of view) reported that he could detect +no difference between it and any other place. As always +happens now—and did not at first—they were unanimously +taken by Noah Claypole's laugh. But the go, throughout, +was enormous. Sims Reeves was doing Henry Bertram at +the theatre, and of course took some of our shillings. It +was a night of excitement for Cottonopolis.</p> + +<p>I received from Mrs. Keeley this morning a very good +photograph of poor old Bob. Yesterday I had a letter from +Harry, reminding me that our intended Cambridge day is +the day next after that of the boat-race. Clearly it must +be changed.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Queen's Hotel, Manchester</span>, <i>Saturday, March 20th, 1869.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>Getting yours and its enclosure, Mary's note, at two +this afternoon, I write a line at once in order that you may +have it on Monday morning.</p> + +<p>The Theatre Royal, Liverpool, will be a charming place +to read in. Ladies are to dine at the dinner, and we hear it +is to be a very grand affair. Dolby is doubtful whether it +may not "hurt the business," by drawing a great deal of +money in another direction, which I think possible enough.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[418]</a></span> +Trade is very bad <i>here</i>, and the gloom of the Preston strike +seems to brood over the place. The Titiens Company have +been doing wretchedly. I should have a greater sympathy +with them if they were not practising in the next room now.</p> + +<p>My love to Letitia and Harriette,<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> wherein Dolby (highly +gratified by being held in remembrance) joins with the +same to you.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Manchester</span>, <i>Sunday, March 21st, 1869.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>Will you tell Mary that I have had a letter from Frith, +in which he says that he will be happy to show her his +pictures "any day in the first week of April"? I have +replied that she will be proud to receive his invitation. +His object in writing was to relieve his mind about the +"Murder," of which he cannot say enough.</p> + +<p>Tremendous enthusiasm here last night, calling in the +most thunderous manner after "Marigold," and again after +the "Trial," shaking the great hall, and cheering furiously.</p> + +<p>Love to all.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. John +Clarke.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Wednesday, March 24th, 1869.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>Ladies and Gentlemen</span>,</div> + +<p>I beg to assure you that I am much gratified by the +desire you do me the honour to express in your letter +handed to me by Mr. John Clarke.</p> + +<p>Before that letter reached me, I had heard of your wish, +and had mentioned to Messrs. Chappell that it would be +highly agreeable to me to anticipate it, if possible. They +readily responded, and we agreed upon having three morning<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[419]</a></span> +readings in London. As they are not yet publicly announced, +I add a note of the days and subjects:</p> + +<p>Saturday, May 1st. "Boots at the Holly-Tree Inn," +and "Sikes and Nancy" from "Oliver Twist."</p> + +<p>Saturday, May 8th. "The Christmas Carol."</p> + +<p>Saturday, May 22nd. "Sikes and Nancy" from "Oliver +Twist," and "The Trial" from "Pickwick."</p> + +<p>With the warmest interest in your art, and in its claims +upon the general gratitude and respect,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Believe me, always faithfully your Friend.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool</span>, <i>Sunday, April 4th, 1869.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>By this post I send to Mary the truly affecting account +of poor dear Katie Macready's death. It is as sorrowful as +anything so peaceful and trustful can be!</p> + +<p>Both my feet are very tender, and often feel as though +they were in hot water. But I was wonderfully well and +strong, thank God! and had no end of voice for the two +nights running in that great Birmingham hall. We had +enormous houses.</p> + +<p>So far as I understand the dinner arrangements here, +they are much too long. As to the acoustics of that hall, +and the position of the tables (both as bad as bad can be), +my only consolation is that, if anybody can be heard, <i>I</i> probably +can be. The honorary secretary tells me that six +hundred people are to dine. The mayor, being no speaker +and out of health besides, hands over the toast of the evening +to Lord Dufferin. The town is full of the festival. The +Theatre Royal, touched up for the occasion, will look remarkably +bright and well for the readings, and our lets are large. +It is remarkable that our largest let as yet is for Thursday,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[420]</a></span> +not Friday. I infer that the dinner damages Friday, but +Dolby does not think so. There appears to be great curiosity +to hear the "Murder." (On Friday night last I read to two +thousand people, and odd hundreds.)</p> + +<p>I hear that Anthony Trollope, Dixon, Lord Houghton, +Lemon, Esquiros (of the <i>Revue des Deux Mondes</i>), and Sala +are to be called upon to speak; the last, for the newspaper +press. All the Liverpool notabilities are to muster. And +Manchester is to be represented by its mayor with due +formality.</p> + +<p>I had been this morning to look at St. George's Hall, +and suggest what can be done to improve its acoustics. As +usually happens in such cases, their most important arrangements +are already made and unchangeable. I should not +have placed the tables in the committee's way at all, and +could certainly have placed the daïs to much greater advantage. +So all the good I could do was to show where banners +could be hung with some hope of stopping echoes. Such +is my small news, soon exhausted. We arrived here at three +yesterday afternoon; it is now mid-day; Chorley has not +yet appeared, but he had called at the local agent's while I +was at Birmingham.</p> + +<p>It is a curious little instance of the way in which things +fit together that there is a ship-of-war in the Mersey, whose +flags and so forth are to be brought up to St. George's +Hall for the dinner. She is the <i>Donegal</i>, of which Paynter +told me he had just been captain, when he told me all +about Sydney at Bath.</p> + +<p>One of the pleasantest things I have experienced here +this time, is the manner in which I am stopped in the streets +by working men, who want to shake hands with me, and tell +me they know my books. I never go out but this happens. +Down at the docks just now, a cooper with a fearful stutter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[421]</a></span> +presented himself in this way. His modesty, combined +with a conviction that if he were in earnest I would see it +and wouldn't repel him, made up as true a piece of natural +politeness as I ever saw.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Hogarth.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Imperial Hotel, Blackpool</span>, <i>Wednesday, April 21st, 1869.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>I send you this hasty line to let you know that I have +come to this sea-beach hotel (charming) for a day's rest. I +am much better than I was on Sunday, but shall want +careful looking to, to get through the readings. My weakness +and deadness are all <i>on the left side</i>, and if I don't +look at anything I try to touch with my left hand, I don't +know where it is. I am in (secret) consultation with Frank +Beard; he recognises, in the exact description I have given +him, indisputable evidences of overwork, which he would +wish to treat immediately. So I have said: "Go in and +win."</p> + +<p>I have had a delicious walk by the sea to-day, and I +sleep soundly, and have picked up amazingly in appetite. +My foot is greatly better too, and I wear my own boot.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Preston</span>, <i>Thursday Evening, April 22nd, 1869.</i><br /> +</div> + +<p><i>Don't be in the least alarmed.</i> Beard has come down, +and instantly echoes my impression (perfectly unknown to +him), that the readings must be <i>stopped</i>. I have had +symptoms that must not be disregarded. I go to Liverpool +to-night with him (to get away from here), and proceed to +the office to-morrow.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[422]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">The Lord +John +Russell.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Wednesday, May 26th, 1869.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Lord Russell</span>,</div> + +<p>I have delayed answering your kind letter, in order +that you might get home before I wrote. I am happy to +report myself quite well again, and I shall be charmed to +come to Pembroke Lodge on any day that may be most +convenient to Lady Russell and yourself after the middle of +June.</p> + +<p>You gratify me beyond expression by your reference to +the Liverpool dinner. I made the allusion to you with all +my heart at least, and it was most magnificently received.</p> + +<p>I beg to send my kind regard to Lady Russell, with +many thanks for her remembrance, and am ever,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +My dear Lord Russell, faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. H. +Wills.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Office of "All the Year Round</span>,"</span><br /> +<i>Thursday, June 24th, 1869.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Wills</span>,</div> + +<p>At a great meeting<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> compounded of your late +"Chief," Charley, Morley, Grieve, and Telbin, your letter +was read to-day, and a very sincere record of regret and +thanks was placed on the books of the great institution.</p> + +<p>Many thanks for the suggestion about the condition of +churches. I am so aweary of church questions of all sorts +that I am not quite clear as to tackling this. But I am +turning it in my mind. I am afraid of two things: firstly, +that the thing would not be picturesquely done; secondly, +that a general cucumber-coolness would pervade the mind +of our circulation.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">[423]</a></span></p> +<p>Nothing new here but a speaking-pipe, a post-box, and +a mouldy smell from some forgotten crypt—an extra mouldy +smell, mouldier than of yore. Lillie sniffs, projects one +eye into nineteen hundred and ninety-nine, and does no +more.</p> + +<p>I have been to Chadwick's, to look at a new kind of +cottage he has built (very ingenious and cheap).</p> + +<p>We were all much disappointed last Saturday afternoon +by a neighbouring fire being only at a carpenter's, and not +at Drury Lane Theatre. Ellen's<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> child having an eye nearly +poked out by a young friend, and being asked whether the +young friend was not very sorry afterwards, replied: "No. +<i>She</i> wasn't. <i>I</i> was."</p> + +<p>London execrable.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—Love to Mrs. Wills.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Shirley +Brooks.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Tuesday, July 12th, 1869.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Brooks</span>,</div> + +<p>I have appended my sign manual to the memorial, +which I think is very discreetly drawn up. I have a strong +feeling of sympathy with poor Mrs. Cunningham, for I +remember the pretty house she managed charmingly. She +has always done her duty well, and has had hard trials. +But I greatly doubt the success of the memorial, I am +sorry to add.</p> + +<p>It was hotter here yesterday on this Kentish chalk than +I have felt it anywhere for many a day. Now it is overcast +and raining hard, much to the satisfaction of great +farmers like myself.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[424]</a></span></p> +<p>I am glad to infer from your companionship with the +Cocked Hats, that there is no such thing as gout within +several miles of you. May it keep its distance.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever, my dear Brooks, faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Gad's Hill</span>, <i>Tuesday, July 20th, 1869.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>I have received your letter here to-day, and deeply +feel with you and for you the affliction of poor dear Katie's +loss. I was not unprepared for the sad news, but it comes +in such a rush of old remembrances and withered joys that +strikes to the heart.</p> + +<p>God bless you! Love and youth are still beside you, +and in that thought I take comfort for my dear old friend.</p> + +<p>I am happy to report myself perfectly well and flourishing. +We are just now announcing the resumption and conclusion +of the broken series of farewell readings in a London +course of twelve, beginning early in the new year.</p> + +<p>Scarcely a day has gone by this summer in which we +have not talked of you and yours. Georgina, Mary, and I +continually speak of you. In the spirit we certainly are +even more together than we used to be in the body in the +old times. I don't know whether you have heard that +Harry has taken the second scholarship (fifty pounds a +year) at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. The bigwigs expect him +to do a good deal there.</p> + +<p>Wills having given up in consequence of broken health +(he has been my sub-editor for twenty years), I have taken +Charley into "All the Year Round." He is a very good +man of business, and evinces considerable aptitude in sub-editing +work.</p> + +<p>This place is immensely improved since you were here,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[425]</a></span> +and really is now very pretty indeed. We are sorry that +there is no present prospect of your coming to see it; but I +like to know of your being at the sea, and having to do—<i>from +the beach</i>, as Mrs. Keeley used to say in "The Prisoner +of War"—with the winds and the waves and all their +freshening influences.</p> + +<p>I dined at Greenwich a few days ago with Delane. He +asked me about you with much interest. He looks as if he +had never seen a printing-office, and had never been out of +bed after midnight.</p> + +<p>Great excitement caused here by your capital news of +Butty. I suppose Willy has at least a dozen children by +this time.</p> + +<p>Our loves to the noble boy and to dear Mrs. Macready.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;">Ever, my dearest Macready,</span><br /> +Your attached and affectionate.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Edmund +Ollier.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Tuesday, Aug. 3rd, 1869.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Mr. Ollier</span>,</div> + +<p>I am very sensible of the feeling of the Committee +towards me; and I receive their invitation (conveyed +through you) as a most acceptable mark of their consideration.</p> + +<p>But I have a very strong objection to speech-making +beside graves. I do not expect or wish my feeling in this +wise to guide other men; still, it is so serious with me, and +the idea of ever being the subject of such a ceremony +myself is so repugnant to my soul, that I must decline to +officiate.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours always.<br /> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">[426]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Miss +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Office of "All the Year Round," No. 26, Wellington Street,</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;"><span class="smcap">Strand, London, W.C.</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Tuesday, Aug. 3rd, 1869.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Mamie</span>,</div> + +<p>I send you the second chapter of the remarkable +story. The printer is late with it, and I have not had time +to read it, and as I altered it considerably here and there, I +have no doubt there are some verbal mistakes in it. However, +they will probably express themselves.</p> + +<p>But I offer a prize of six pairs of gloves—between you, +and your aunt, and Ellen Stone, as competitors—to whomsoever +will tell me what idea in this second part is mine. I +don't mean an idea in language, in the turning of a sentence, +in any little description of an action, or a gesture, or +what not in a small way, but an idea, distinctly affecting the +whole story <i>as I found it</i>. You are all to assume that I +found it in the main as you read it, with one exception. If +I had written it, I should have made the woman love the +man at last. And I should have shadowed that possibility +out, by the child's bringing them a little more together on +that holiday Sunday.</p> + +<p>But I didn't write it. So, finding that it wanted something, +I put that something in. What was it?</p> + +<p>Love to Ellen Stone.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Arthur +Ryland.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Friday, Aug. 13th, 1869.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Mr. Ryland</span>,</div> + +<p>Many thanks for your letter.</p> + +<p>I have very strong opinions on the subject of speechification, +and hold that there is, everywhere, a vast amount +too much of it. A sense of absurdity would be so strong +upon me, if I got up at Birmingham to make a flourish on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">[427]</a></span> +the advantages of education in the abstract for all sorts +and conditions of men, that I should inevitably check +myself and present a surprising incarnation of the soul of +wit. But if I could interest myself in the practical usefulness +of the particular institution; in the ways of life of +the students; in their examples of perseverance and determination +to get on; in their numbers, their favourite studies, +the number of hours they must daily give to the work that +must be done for a livelihood, before they can devote +themselves to the acquisition of new knowledge, and so +forth, then I could interest others. This is the kind of +information I want. Mere holding forth "I utterly detest, +abominate, and abjure."</p> + +<p>I fear I shall not be in London next week. But if you +will kindly send me here, at your leisure, the roughest +notes of such points as I have indicated, I shall be heartily +obliged to you, and will take care of their falling into shape +and order in my mind. Meantime I "make a note of" +Monday, 27th September, and of writing to you touching +your kind offer of hospitality, three weeks before that date.</p> + +<p>I beg to send my kind regard to Mrs. and Miss Ryland, +and am always,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Very faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Frederic +Ouvry.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Sunday, Aug. 22nd, 1869.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Ouvry</span>,</div> + +<p>I will expect a call from you at the office, on +Thursday, at your own most convenient hour. I admit the +soft impeachment concerning Mrs. Gamp: I likes my payments +to be made reg'lar, and I likewise likes my publisher +to draw it mild.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[428]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +Arthur +Ryland.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Monday, Sept. 6th, 1869.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Mr. Ryland</span>,</div> + +<p>I am sorry to find—I had a foreshadowing of it +some weeks ago—that I shall not be able to profit by your +kind offer of hospitality when I come to Birmingham for +<i>our</i> Institution. I must come down in time for a quiet +dinner at the hotel with my "Readings" secretary, Mr. +Dolby, and must away next morning. Besides having a +great deal in hand just now (the title of a new book among +other things), I shall have visitors from abroad here at the +time, and am severely claimed by my daughter, who indeed +is disloyal to Birmingham in the matter of my going away +at all. Pray represent me to Mrs. Ryland as the innocent +victim of circumstances, and as sacrificing pleasure to the +work I have to do, and to the training under which alone I +can do it without feeling it.</p> + +<p>You will see from the enclosed that I am in full force, +and going to finish my readings, please God, after Christmas. +I am in the hope of receiving your promised notes +in due course, and continue in the irreverent condition in +which I last reported myself on the subject of speech-making. +Now that men not only make the nights of the +session hideous by what the Americans call "orating" in +Parliament, but trouble the peace of the vacation by saying +over again what they said there (with the addition of what +they <i>didn't</i> say there, and never will have the courage to +say there), I feel indeed that silence, like gold across the +Atlantic, is a rarity at a premium.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours always.<br /> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">[429]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +William +Charles +Kent.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Office of "All the Year Round</span>,"</span><br /> +<i>Thursday, Oct. 7th, 1869.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Kent</span>,</div> + +<p>I felt that you would be deeply disappointed. I +thought it better not to make the first sign while you were +depressed, but my mind has been constantly with you. And +not mine alone. You cannot think with what affection and +sympathy you have been made the subject of our family +dinner talk at Gad's Hill these last three days. Nothing +could exceed the interest of my daughters and my sister-in-law, +or the earnestness of their feeling about it. I have +been really touched by its warm and genuine expression.</p> + +<p>Cheer up, my dear fellow; cheer up, for God's sake. +That is, for the sake of all that is good in you and around +you.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever your affectionate Friend.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap">Gad's Hill</span>, <i>Monday, Oct. 18th, 1869.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>I duly received your letter nearly a fortnight ago, +with the greatest interest and pleasure. Above all things I +am delighted with the prospect of seeing you here next +summer; a prospect which has been received with nine +times nine and one more by the whole house. You will +hardly know the place again, it is so changed. You are +not expected to admire, but there <i>is</i> a conservatory building +at this moment—be still, my soul!</p> + +<p>This leaves me in the preliminary agonies of a new +book, which I hope to begin publishing (in twelve numbers, +not twenty) next March. The coming readings being all +in London, and being, after the first fortnight, only once a +week, will divert my attention very little, I hope.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">[430]</a></span></p> + +<p>Harry has just gone up to Cambridge again, and I hope +will get a fellowship in good time.</p> + +<p>Wills is much gratified by your remembrance, and +sends you his warm regard. He wishes me to represent +that he is very little to be pitied. That he suffers no pain, +scarcely inconvenience, even, so long as he is idle. That +he likes idleness exceedingly. He has bought a country +place by Welwyn in Hertfordshire, near Lytton's, and +takes possession presently.</p> + +<p>My boy Sydney is now a second lieutenant, the youngest +in the Service, I believe. He has the highest testimonials +as an officer.</p> + +<p>You may be quite sure there will be no international +racing in American waters. Oxford knows better, or I am +mistaken. The Harvard crew were a very good set of +fellows, and very modest.</p> + +<p>Ryland of Birmingham doesn't look a day older, and +was full of interest in you, and asked me to remind you of +him. By-the-bye, at Elkington's I saw a pair of immense +tea-urns from a railway station (Stafford), sent there to be +repaired. They were honeycombed within in all directions, +and had been supplying the passengers, under the active +agency of hot water, with decomposed lead, copper, and a +few other deadly poisons, for heaven knows how many +years!</p> + +<p>I must leave off in a hurry to catch the post, after a +hard day's work.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 6em;">Ever, my dearest Macready,</span><br /> +Your most affectionate and attached.<br /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">[431]</a></span></p> +<h2>1870.</h2> + +<h3>NARRATIVE.</h3> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>Charles Dickens</span> passed his last Christmas and New Year's +Day at Gad's Hill, with a party of family and friends, in the +usual way, except that he was suffering again from an +attack of the foot trouble, particularly on Christmas Day, +when he was quite disabled by it and unable to walk at +all—able only to join the party in the evening by keeping +his room all day. However, he was better in a day or two, +and early in January he went to London, where he had +taken the house of his friends, Mr. and Mrs. Milner Gibson, +for the season.</div> + +<p>His series of "Farewell Readings" at St. James's Hall +began in January, and ended on the 16th March. He was +writing "Edwin Drood" also, and was, of course, constantly +occupied with "All the Year Round" work. In the beginning +of January, he fulfilled his promise of paying a second +visit to Birmingham and making a speech, of which he +writes in his last letter to Mr. Macready.</p> + +<p>For his last reading he gave the "Christmas Carol" and +"The Trial" from "Pickwick," and at the end of the evening +he addressed a few farewell words to his audience. It was a +memorable and splendid occasion. He was very deeply +affected by the loving enthusiasm of his greeting, and it +was a real sorrow to him to give up for ever the personal +associations with thousands of the readers of his books. +But when the pain, mingled with pleasure, of this last reading +was over, he felt greatly the relief of having undisturbed +time for his own quieter pursuits, and looked forward to +writing the last numbers of "Edwin Drood" at Gad's Hill, +where he was to return in June.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">[432]</a></span></p> + +<p>The last public appearance of any kind that he made +was at the Royal Academy dinner in May. He was at the +time far from well, but he made a great effort to be present +and to speak, from his strong desire to pay a tribute to +the memory of his dear old friend Mr. Maclise, who died +in April.</p> + +<p>Her Majesty having expressed a wish, conveyed through +Mr. Helps (afterwards Sir Arthur Helps), to have a personal +interview with Charles Dickens, he accompanied Mr. Helps +to Buckingham Palace one afternoon in March. He was +most graciously and kindly received by her Majesty, and +came away with a hope that the visit had been mutually +agreeable. The Queen presented him with a copy of her +"Journal in the Highlands," with an autograph inscription. +And he had afterwards the pleasure of requesting her +acceptance of a set of his books. He attended a <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'levee'">levée</ins> held +by the Prince of Wales in April, and the last time he dined +out in London was at a party given by Lord Houghton for +the King of the Belgians and the Prince of Wales, who had +both expressed a desire to meet Charles Dickens. All +through the season he had been suffering, at intervals, from +the swollen foot, and on this occasion it was so bad, that up +to the last moment it was very doubtful whether he could +fulfil his engagement.</p> + +<p>We have very few letters for this year, and none of any +very particular interest, but we give them all, as they are +<i>the last</i>.</p> + +<p>Mr. S. L. Fildes was his "new illustrator," to whom he +alludes in a note to Mr. Frith; we also give a short note to +Mr. Fildes himself.</p> + +<p>The correspondence of Charles Dickens with Mrs. +Dallas Glyn, the celebrated actress, for whom he had a +great friendship, is so much on the subject of her own +business, that we have only been able to select two notes +of any public interest.</p> + +<p>In explanation of <i>the last letter</i>, we give an extract from +a letter addressed to <i>The Daily News</i> by Mr. J. M. Makeham, +soon after the death of Charles Dickens, as follows:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">[433]</a></span> +"That the public may exactly understand the circumstances +under which Charles Dickens's letter to me was written, I +am bound to explain that it is in reply to a letter which I +addressed to him in reference to a passage in the tenth +chapter of "Edwin Drood," respecting which I ventured to +suggest that he had, perhaps, forgotten that the figure of +speech alluded to by him, in a way which, to my certain +knowledge, was distasteful to some of his admirers, was +drawn from a passage of Holy Writ which is greatly +reverenced by a large number of his countrymen as a +prophetic description of the sufferings of our Saviour."</p> + +<p>The MS. of the little "History of the New Testament" +is now in the possession of his eldest daughter. She has +(together with her aunt) received many earnest entreaties, +both from friends and strangers, that this history might +be allowed to be published, for the benefit of other +children.</p> + +<p>These many petitions have his daughter's fullest sympathy. +But she knows that her father wrote this history +<span class="smcap">only</span> for his own children, that it was his particular wish +that it never should be published, and she therefore holds +this wish as sacred and irrevocable.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. H. +Wills.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +5, <span class="smcap">Hyde Park Place, London</span>, W., <i>Sunday, Jan. 23rd, 1870.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Wills</span>,</div> + +<p>In the note I had from you about Nancy and Sikes, +you seem to refer to some other note you had written me. +Therefore I think it well merely to mention that I have +received no other note.</p> + +<p>I do not wonder at your not being up to the undertaking +(even if you had had no cough) under the wearing +circumstances. It was a very curious scene. The actors +and actresses (most of the latter looking very pretty) +mustered in extraordinary force, and were a fine audience.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434">[434]</a></span> +I set myself to carrying out of themselves and their observation, +those who were bent on watching how the effects +were got; and I believe I succeeded. Coming back to it +again, however, I feel it was madness ever to do it so continuously. +My ordinary pulse is seventy-two, and it runs +up under this effort to one hundred and twelve. Besides +which, it takes me ten or twelve minutes to get my wind +back at all; I being, in the meantime, like the man who +lost the fight—in fact, his express image. Frank Beard was +in attendance to make divers experiments to report to +Watson; and although, as you know, he stopped it instantly +when he found me at Preston, he was very much astonished +by the effects of the reading on the reader.</p> + +<p>So I hope you may be able to come and hear it before it +is silent for ever. It is done again on the evenings of the +1st February, 15th February, and 8th March. I hope, now +I have got over the mornings, that I may be able to work +on my book. But up to this time the great preparation +required in getting the subjects up again, and the twice +a week besides, have almost exclusively occupied me.</p> + +<p>I have something the matter with my right thumb, and +can't (as you see) write plainly. I sent a word to poor +Robert Chambers,<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> and I send my love to Mrs. Wills.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever, my dear Wills, affectionately yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Dallas.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Office of "All the Year Round</span>,"</span><br /> +<i>Wednesday, Jan. 16th, 1870.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Mrs. Dallas</span>,</div> + +<p>It is perfectly delightful to me to get your fervent +and sympathetic note this morning. A thousand thanks<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435">[435]</a></span> +for it. I will take care that two places on the front row, by +my daughter, are reserved for your occasion next time. I +cannot see you in too good a seat, or too often.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Believe me, ever very faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. S. L. +Fildes.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Office of "All the Year Round</span>,"</span><br /> +<i>Wednesday, Jan. 16th, 1870.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>Dear Sir</span>,</div> + +<p>I beg to thank you for the highly meritorious and +interesting specimens of your art that you have had the +kindness to send me. I return them herewith, after having +examined them with the greatest pleasure.</p> + +<p>I am naturally curious to see your drawing from "David +Copperfield," in order that I may compare it with my own +idea. In the meanwhile, I can honestly assure you that +I entertain the greatest admiration for your remarkable +powers.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Henry +Fielding +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +5, <span class="smcap">Hyde Park Place</span>, W., <i>Thursday, Feb. 17th, 1870.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Harry</span>,</div> + +<p>I am extremely glad to hear that you have made a +good start at the Union. Take any amount of pains about +it; open your mouth well and roundly, speak to the last +person visible, and give yourself time.</p> + +<p>Loves from all.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436">[436]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. C. +Macready.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<i>Wednesday, March 2nd, 1870.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dearest Macready</span>,</div> + +<p>This is to wish you and yours all happiness and +prosperity at the well-remembered anniversary to-morrow. +You may be sure that loves and happy returns will not be +forgotten at <i>our</i> table.</p> + +<p>I have been getting on very well with my book, and we +are having immense audiences at St. James's Hall. Mary +has been celebrating the first glimpses of spring by having +the measles. She got over the disorder very easily, but a +weakness remains behind. Katie is blooming. Georgina +is in perfect order, and all send you their very best loves. +It gave me true pleasure to have your sympathy with me in +the second little speech at Birmingham. I was determined +that my Radicalism should not be called in question. The +electric wires are not very exact in their reporting, but at +all events the sense was there. Ryland, as usual, made all +sorts of enquiries about you.</p> + +<p>With love to dear Mrs. Macready and the noble boy my +particular friend, and a hearty embrace to you,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">I am ever, my dearest Macready,</span><br /> +Your most affectionate.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. ——.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Office of "All the Year Round</span>,"</span><br /> +<i>Wednesday, March 9th, 1870.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear ——</span>,</div> + +<p>You make me very uneasy on the subject of your +new long story here, by sowing your name broadcast in so +many fields at once, and undertaking such an impossible +amount of fiction at one time. Just as you are coming on +with us, you have another story in progress in "The +Gentleman's Magazine," and another announced in "Once<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437">[437]</a></span> +a Week." And so far as I know the art we both profess, +it cannot be reasonably pursued in this way. I think the +short story you are now finishing in these pages obviously +marked by traces of great haste and small consideration; +and a long story similarly blemished would really do the +publication irreparable harm.</p> + +<p>These considerations are so much upon my mind that I +cannot forbear representing them to you, in the hope that +they may induce you to take a little more into account the +necessity of care and preparation, and some self-denial in +the quantity done. I am quite sure that I write fully as +much in your interest as in that of "All the Year Round."</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Believe me, always faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">The same.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +5, <span class="smcap">Hyde Park Place</span>, W., <i>Friday, March 11th, 1870.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear ——</span>,</div> + +<p>Of course the engagement between us is to continue, +and I am sure you know me too well to suppose that I have +ever had a thought to the contrary. Your explanation is +(as it naturally would be, being yours) manly and honest, +and I am both satisfied and hopeful.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +William +Charles +Kent.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +5, <span class="smcap">Hyde Park Place</span>, W., <i>Saturday, March 26th, 1870.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Kent</span>,</div> + +<p>I received both copies of <i>The Sun</i>, with the tenderest +pleasure and gratification.</p> + +<p>Everything that I can let you have in aid of the proposed +record<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> (which, <i>of course</i>, would be far more agreeable to me<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_438" id="Page_438">[438]</a></span> +if done by you than by any other hand), shall be at your +service. Dolby has all the figures relating to America, and +you shall have for reference the books from which I read. +They are afterwards going into Forster's collection.<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a></p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Henry +Fielding +Dickens.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +5, <span class="smcap">Hyde Park Place</span>, W., <i>Tuesday, March 29th, 1870.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Harry</span>,</div> + +<p>Your next Tuesday's subject is a very good one. I +would not lose the point that narrow-minded fanatics, who +decry the theatre and defame its artists, are absolutely the +advocates of depraved and barbarous amusements. For +wherever a good drama and a well-regulated theatre decline, +some distorted form of theatrical entertainment will infallibly +arise in their place. In one of the last chapters of "Hard +Times," Mr. Sleary says something to the effect: "People +will be entertained thomehow, thquire. Make the betht of +uth, and not the wortht."</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever affectionately.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. Shirley +Brooks.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +5, <span class="smcap">Hyde Park Place</span>, W., <i>Friday, April 1st, 1870.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Shirley Brooks</span>,</div> + +<p>I have written to Mr. Low, expressing my regret +that I cannot comply with his request, backed as it is by +my friend S. B. But I have told him what is perfectly +true—that I leave town for the peaceful following of my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439">[439]</a></span> +own pursuits, at the end of next month; that I have +excused myself from filling all manner of claims, on the +ground that the public engagements I could make for the +season were very few and were all made; and that I cannot +bear hot rooms when I am at work. I have smoothed this +as you would have me smooth it.</p> + +<p>With your longing for fresh air I can thoroughly sympathise. +May you get it soon, and may you enjoy it, and +profit by it half as much as I wish!</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Ever faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. W. P. +Frith, R.A.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +5, <span class="smcap">Hyde Park Place</span>, W., <i>Saturday, April 16th, 1870.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Frith</span>,</div> + +<p>I shall be happy to go on Wednesday evening, if +convenient.</p> + +<p>You please me with what you say of my new illustrator, +of whom I have great hopes.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours ever.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +William +Charles +Kent.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<i>Monday Morning, April 25th, 1870.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Kent</span>,</div> + +<p>I received your book<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> with the greatest pleasure, and +heartily thank you for it. It is a volume of a highly prepossessing +appearance, and a most friendly look. I felt as +if I should have taken to it at sight; even (a very large +even) though I had known nothing of its contents, or of its +author!</p> + +<p>For the last week I have been most perseveringly and +ding-dong-doggedly at work, making headway but slowly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_440" id="Page_440">[440]</a></span> +The spring always has a restless influence over me; and I +weary, at any season, of this London dining-out beyond +expression; and I yearn for the country again. This is my +excuse for not having written to you sooner. Besides which, +I had a baseless conviction that I should see you at the +office last Thursday. Not having done so, I fear you must +be worse, or no better? If you <i>can</i> let me have a report of +yourself, pray do.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Frederick +Pollock.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +5, <span class="smcap">Hyde Park Place</span>, W., <i>Monday, May 2nd, 1870.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Mrs. Pollock</span>,</div> + +<p>Pray tell the illustrious Philip van Artevelde, that I +will deal with the nefarious case in question if I can. I am +a little doubtful of the practicability of doing so, and frisking +outside the bounds of the law of libel. I have that high +opinion of the law of England generally, which one is likely +to derive from the impression that it puts all the honest +men under the diabolical hoofs of all the scoundrels. It +makes me cautious of doing right; an admirable instance of +its wisdom!</p> + +<p>I was very sorry to have gone astray from you that +Sunday; but as the earlier disciples entertained angels +unawares, so the later often miss them haphazard.</p> + +<p>Your description of La Font's acting is the complete +truth in one short sentence: Nature's triumph over art; +reversing the copy-book axiom! But the Lord deliver us +from Plessy's mechanical ingenuousness!!</p> + +<p>And your petitioner will ever pray.</p> + +<p>And ever be,</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_441" id="Page_441">[441]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. E. M. +Ward.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +5, <span class="smcap">Hyde Park Place</span>, W., <i>Wednesday, May 11th, 1870.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Mrs. Ward</span>,</div> + +<p>I grieve to say that I am literally laid by the heels, +and incapable of dining with you to-morrow. A neuralgic +affection of the foot, which usually seizes me about twice a +year, and which will yield to nothing but days of fomentation +and horizontal rest, set in last night, and has caused +me very great pain ever since, and will too clearly be no +better until it has had its usual time in which to wear itself +out. I send my kindest regard to Ward, and beg to be +pitied.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Believe me, faithfully yours always.<br /> +</div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +William +Charles +Kent.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +5, <span class="smcap">Hyde Park Place</span>, W., <i>Tuesday, May 17th, 1870.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class='smcap'>My dear Kent</span>,</div> + +<p>Many, many thanks! It is only my neuralgic foot. +It has given me such a sharp twist this time that I have +not been able, in its extreme sensitiveness, to put any +covering upon it except scalding fomentations. Having +viciously bubbled and blistered it in all directions, I hope it +now begins to see the folly of its ways.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Affectionately ever.<br /> +</div> + +<p>P.S.—I hope the Sun shines.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mrs. +Bancroft.</div> + +<div class='date'><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>,</span><br /> +<i>Thursday, May 31st, 1870.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'><span class="smcap">My dear Mrs. Bancroft</span>,<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a></div> + +<p>I am most heartily obliged to you for your kind note, +which I received here only last night, having come here +from town circuitously to get a little change of air on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_442" id="Page_442">[442]</a></span> +road. My sense of your interest cannot be better proved +than by my trying the remedy you recommend, and that I +will do immediately. As I shall be in town on Thursday, +my troubling you to order it would be quite unjustifiable. +I will use your name in applying for it, and will report the +result after a fair trial. Whether this remedy succeeds or +fails as to the neuralgia, I shall always consider myself +under an obligation to it for having indirectly procured me +the great pleasure of receiving a communication from you; +for I hope I may lay claim to being one of the most earnest +and delighted of your many artistic admirers.</p> + +<div class='sig'> +Believe me, faithfully yours.<br /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_443" id="Page_443">[443]</a></span></p> +<h2>TWO LAST LETTERS.</h2> + + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +William +Charles +Kent.</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 445px;"><span class="caption">Gad's Hill Place,<br />Higham by Rochester, Kent.<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a></span> +<img src="images/8letter.png" width="445" height="600" alt="Handwritten Letter: Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent." title="Handwritten Letter: Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent." /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_444" id="Page_444">[444]</a></span></p> + +<div class="sidenote">Mr. +John M. +Makeham.</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 445px;"> +<img src="images/9letter.png" width="445" height="431" alt="Handwritten Letter" title="Handwritten Letter" /> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_445" id="Page_445">[445]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 445px;"> +<img src="images/10letter.png" width="445" height="542" alt="Handwritten Letter" title="Handwritten Letter" /> +</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_446" id="Page_446">[446]</a></span></p> +<p>All through this spring in London, Charles Dickens had +been ailing in health, and it was remarked by many friends +that he had a weary look, and was "aged" and altered. +But he was generally in good spirits, and his family had no +uneasiness about him, relying upon the country quiet and +comparative rest at Gad's Hill to have their usual influence +in restoring his health and strength. On the 2nd June he +attended a private play at the house of Mr. and Mrs. Freake, +where his two daughters were among the actresses. The +next day he went back to Gad's Hill. His daughter Kate +(whose home was there at all times when she chose, and +almost always through the summer months) went down on +Sunday, the 5th June, for a day's visit, to see the "great +improvement of the conservatory." Her father laughingly +assured her she had now seen "the last" improvement at +Gad's Hill. At this time he was tolerably well, but she +remarked to her sister and aunt how strangely he was tired, +and what a curious grey colour he had in his face after a +very short walk on that Sunday afternoon. However, he +seemed quite himself again in the evening. The next day +his daughter Kate went back, accompanied by her sister, +who was to pay her a short visit, to London.</p> + +<p>Charles Dickens was very hard at work on the sixth +number of "Edwin Drood." On the Monday and Tuesday +he was well, but he was unequal to much exercise. His last +walk was one of his greatest favourites—through Cobham +Park and Wood—on the afternoon of Tuesday.</p> + +<p>On the morning of Wednesday, the 8th (one of the +loveliest days of a lovely summer), he was very well; in +excellent spirits about his book, of which he said he <i>must</i> +finish his number that day—the next (Thursday) being the +day of his weekly visit to "All the Year Round" office. +Therefore, he would write all day in the Châlet, and take +no walk or drive until the evening. In the middle of the +day he came to the house for an hour's rest, and smoked a +cigar in the conservatory—out of which new addition to the +house he was taking the greatest personal enjoyment—and +seemed perfectly well, and exceedingly cheerful and hopeful.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_447" id="Page_447">[447]</a></span> +When he came again to the house, about an hour before the +time fixed for the early dinner, he seemed very tired, silent, +and absorbed. But this was so usual with him after a day +of engrossing work, that it caused no alarm or surprise to +his sister-in-law—the only member of his household who +happened to be at home. He wrote some letters—among +them, these last letters which we give—in the library of the +house, and also arranged many trifling business matters, +with a view to his departure for London the next morning. +He was to be accompanied, on his return at the end of the +week, by Mr. Fildes, to introduce the "new illustrator" to +the neighbourhood in which many of the scenes of this last +book of Charles Dickens, as of his first, were laid.</p> + +<p>It was not until they were seated at the dinner-table +that a striking change in the colour and expression of his +face startled his sister-in-law, and on her asking him if he +was ill, he said, "Yes, very ill; I have been very ill for the +last hour." But on her expressing an intention of sending +instantly for a doctor, he stopped her, and said: "No, he +would go on with dinner, and go afterwards to London." +And then he made an effort to struggle against the fit that +was fast coming on him, and talked, but incoherently, and +soon very indistinctly. It being now evident that he <i>was</i> +ill, and very seriously ill, his sister-in-law begged him to +come to his own room before she sent off for medical +help. "Come and lie down," she entreated. "Yes, on the +ground," he said, very distinctly—these were the last words +he spoke—and he slid from her arm, and fell upon the floor.</p> + +<p>The servants brought a couch into the dining-room, +where he was laid. A messenger was despatched for Mr. +Steele, the Rochester doctor, and with a telegram to his +doctor in London, and to his daughters. This was a few +minutes after six o'clock.</p> + +<p>His daughters arrived, with Mr. Frank Beard, this same +evening. His eldest son the next morning, and his son +Henry and his sister Letitia in the evening of the 9th—too +late, alas!</p> + +<p>All through the night, Charles Dickens never opened his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_448" id="Page_448">[448]</a></span> +eyes, or showed a sign of consciousness. In the afternoon +of the 9th, Dr. Russell Reynolds arrived at Gad's Hill, +having been summoned by Mr. Frank Beard to meet +himself and Mr. Steele. But he could only confirm their +hopeless verdict, and made his opinion known with much +kind sympathy, to the family, before returning to London.</p> + +<p>Charles Dickens remained in the same unconscious state +until the evening of this day, when, at ten minutes past six, +the watchers saw a shudder pass over him, heard him give +a deep sigh, saw one tear roll down his cheek, and he was +gone from them. And as they saw the dark shadow steal +across his calm, beautiful face, not one among them—could +they have been given such a power—would have recalled +his sweet spirit back to earth.</p> + +<p>As his family were aware that Charles Dickens had +a wish to be buried near Gad's Hill, arrangements were +made for his burial in the pretty churchyard of Shorne, a +neighbouring village, of which he was very fond. But +this intention was abandoned in consequence of a pressing +request from the Dean and Chapter of Rochester Cathedral +that his remains might be placed there. A grave was prepared +and everything arranged, when it was made known +to the family, through Dean Stanley, that there was a +general and very earnest desire that Charles Dickens should +find his resting-place in Westminster Abbey. To such a +fitting tribute to his memory they could make no possible +objection, although it was with great regret that they relinquished +the idea of laying him in a place so closely +identified with his life and his works. His name, notwithstanding, +is associated with Rochester, a tablet to his +memory having been placed by his executors on the wall +of Rochester Cathedral.</p> + +<p>With regard to Westminster Abbey, his family only +stipulated that the funeral might be made as private as +possible, and that the words of his will, "I emphatically +direct that I be buried in an inexpensive, unostentatious, +and strictly private manner," should be religiously adhered +to. And so they were. The solemn service in the vast<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_449" id="Page_449">[449]</a></span> +cathedral being as private as the most thoughtful consideration +could make it.</p> + +<p>The family of Charles Dickens were deeply grateful to +all in authority who so carried out his wishes. And more +especially to Dean Stanley and to the (late) Lady Augusta +Stanley, for the tender sympathy shown by them to the +mourners on this day, and also on Sunday, the 19th, when +the Dean preached his beautiful funeral sermon.</p> + +<p>As during his life Charles Dickens's fondness for air, +light, and gay colours amounted almost to a passion, so when +he lay dead in the home he had so dearly loved, these things +were not forgotten.</p> + +<p>The pretty room opening into the conservatory (from +which he had never been removed since his seizure) was +kept bright with the most beautiful of all kinds of flowers, +and flooded with the summer sun:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"And nothing stirred in the room. The old, old fashion. The +fashion that came in with our first garments, and will last unchanged +until our race has run its course, and the wide firmament is rolled up +like a scroll. The old, old fashion—death!</p> + +<p>"Oh, thank God, all who see it, for that older fashion yet, of +immortality!"</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_451" id="Page_451">[451]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_450" id="Page_450">[450]</a></span></p> +<h2>INDEX.</h2> + + +<div class='unindent'> +Actors, Dickens a friend to poor, ii. <a href="#Page_134">134</a><br /> +<br /> +Agassiz, Professor, ii. <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a><br /> +<br /> +Agate, John, ii. <a href="#Page_136">136</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to, ii. <a href="#Page_154">154</a></span><br /> +<br /> +"All the Year Round," commencement of, ii. <a href="#Page_83">83</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"The Uncommercial Traveller" in, ii. <a href="#Page_107">107</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Christmas Numbers of: "The Haunted House," ii. <a href="#Page_84">84</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"A Message from the Sea," ii. <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Tom Tiddler's Ground," ii. <a href="#Page_136">136</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Somebody's Luggage," ii. <a href="#Page_171">171</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Mrs. Lirriper's Lodgings," ii. <a href="#Page_187">187</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Mrs. Lirriper's Legacy," ii. <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Dr. Marigold's Prescriptions," ii. <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Mugby Junction," ii. <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"No Thoroughfare," ii. <a href="#Page_268">268</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see ii. <a href="#Page_386">386</a>,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see <a href="#Editor">Charles Dickens as an Editor</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<a name="America" id="America"></a>America, descriptions of Niagara, ii. <a href="#Page_372">372</a>, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the great war in, ii. <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">feeling between England and, ii. <a href="#Page_240">240</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dickens's second visit to—the journey, ii. <a href="#Page_302">302</a>-<a href="#Page_306">306</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dickens's letters on, ii. <a href="#Page_306">306</a>-<a href="#Page_382">382</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fires in, ii. <a href="#Page_317">317</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">treatment of luggage in, ii. <a href="#Page_321">321</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">drinks in, ii. <a href="#Page_329">329</a>, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">literary piracy in, ii. <a href="#Page_332">332</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">walking-match between Dolby and Osgood in, ii. <a href="#Page_346">346</a>, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>, <a href="#Page_366">366</a>, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">changes and improvements in since Dickens's first visit, ii. <a href="#Page_348">348</a>, <a href="#Page_374">374</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the negroes in, ii. <a href="#Page_349">349</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">personal descriptions of Dickens in, ii. <a href="#Page_369">369</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">travelling in, ii. <a href="#Page_375">375</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and <a href="#Readings">Readings</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Andersen, Hans Christian, ii. <a href="#Page_3">3</a><br /> +<br /> +Anne, Mrs. Dickens's maid, ii. <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_343">343</a><br /> +<br /> +"Apprentices, The Tour of the Two Idle," ii. <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a><br /> +<br /> +Armatage, Isaac, ii. <a href="#Page_391">391</a><br /> +<br /> +Armstrong, the Misses, letter to, ii. <a href="#Page_175">175</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see ii. <a href="#Page_176">176</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_452" id="Page_452">[452]</a></span>Austin, Henry, ii. <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and <a href="#Letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<a name="Henry" id="Henry"></a>Austin, Mrs. Henry, ii. <a href="#Page_447">447</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters to, ii. <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_384">384</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Autograph of Dickens<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">facsimile letters of Dickens written the day before his death, ii. <a href="#Page_443">443</a>-<a href="#Page_445">445</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Ballantyne, ii. <a href="#Page_415">415</a><br /> +<br /> +Bancroft, Mrs., letter to, ii. <a href="#Page_441">441</a><br /> +<br /> +Barber, Dickens's gardener, ii. <a href="#Page_102">102</a><br /> +<br /> +Barker, Dr. Fordyce, ii. <a href="#Page_378">378</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a><br /> +<br /> +Baylis, Mr., ii. <a href="#Page_170">170</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to, ii. <a href="#Page_179">179</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Beadle, a, in office, ii. <a href="#Page_134">134</a><br /> +<br /> +Beard, Frank, ii. <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>, <a href="#Page_434">434</a>, <a href="#Page_447">447</a><br /> +<br /> +Beecher, Ward, ii. <a href="#Page_341">341</a><br /> +<br /> +Belgians, the King of the, ii. <a href="#Page_432">432</a><br /> +<br /> +Benzon, Miss Lily, letter to, ii. <a href="#Page_258">258</a><br /> +<br /> +Berry, one of Dickens's readings men, ii. <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a><br /> +<br /> +Blackwood, Mr., ii. <a href="#Page_165">165</a><br /> +<br /> +Blair, General, ii. <a href="#Page_355">355</a><br /> +<br /> +Boucicault, Dion, ii. <a href="#Page_260">260</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a><br /> +<br /> +Bouncer, Mrs., Miss Dickens's dog, ii. <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_356">356</a><br /> +<br /> +Bow Street Runners, ii. <a href="#Page_178">178</a><br /> +<br /> +Boyle, Captain Cavendish, ii. <a href="#Page_407">407</a><br /> +<br /> +Boyle, Miss Mary, ii. <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and <a href="#Letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Broadstairs, Dickens at,ii. <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>;<br /> +<br /> +Bromley, Sir Richard, ii. <a href="#Page_126">126</a><br /> +<br /> +Brookfield, Mrs., letter to, ii. <a href="#Page_249">249</a><br /> +<br /> +Brookfield, The Rev. W., letters to, ii. <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a><br /> +<br /> +Brooks, Shirley, ii. <a href="#Page_407">407</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters to, ii. <a href="#Page_423">423</a>, <a href="#Page_438">438</a></span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_453" id="Page_453">[453]</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Campbell, Lord, ii.144<br /> +<br /> +<a name="Carlisle" id="Carlisle"></a>Carlisle, the Earl of, letters to, ii. <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a><br /> +<br /> +Carlyle, Thomas, ii. <a href="#Page_112">112</a><br /> +<br /> +Cartwright, Samuel, ii. <a href="#Page_326">326</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to, ii. <a href="#Page_348">348</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Cattermole, George, ii. <a href="#Page_327">327</a>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and <a href="#Letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Cattermole, Mrs., letters to, ii. <a href="#Page_383">383</a>, <a href="#Page_385">385</a><br /> +<br /> +<ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Celeste'">Céleste</ins>, Madame, ii. <a href="#Page_106">106</a><br /> +<br /> +Cerjat, M. de, ii. <a href="#Page_406">406</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and <a href="#Letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Chambers, Robert, ii. <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_434">434</a><br /> +<br /> +Chappell, Messrs., ii. <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a><br /> +<br /> +Charities, Dickens's sufferings from public, ii. <a href="#Page_47">47</a><br /> +<br /> +Children, stories of, ii. <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>, <a href="#Page_423">423</a><br /> +<br /> +Childs, Mr., ii. <a href="#Page_337">337</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a><br /> +<br /> +Chorley, H. F., ii. <a href="#Page_338">338</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a><br /> +<br /> +Church, Dickens on the, ii. <a href="#Page_221">221</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">service on board ship, ii. <a href="#Page_348">348</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dickens on the Romish, ii. <a href="#Page_409">409</a>, <a href="#Page_410">410</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Circumlocution, Dickens on, ii. <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a><br /> +<br /> +Clarke, John, letter to, ii. <a href="#Page_418">418</a><br /> +<br /> +Collins, C. A., ii. <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>, <a href="#Page_410">410</a><br /> +<br /> +Collins, Wilkie, ii. <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and <a href="#Letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Compton, Mrs., letter to, ii. <a href="#Page_22">22</a><br /> +<br /> +Conjuring feats, see ii. <a href="#Page_243">243</a><br /> +<br /> +Cooke, T. P., ii. <a href="#Page_4">4</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to, ii. <a href="#Page_21">21</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Covent Garden Theatre, a scene at, ii. <a href="#Page_133">133</a><br /> +<br /> +Cunningham, Mrs., ii. <a href="#Page_423">423</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Dacres, Sir Sydney, ii. <a href="#Page_329">329</a><br /> +<br /> +Dallas, Mrs., letters to, ii. <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_434">434</a><br /> +<br /> +Dallas, Mr., ii. <a href="#Page_235">235</a><br /> +<br /> +Delane, John, ii. <a href="#Page_425">425</a>;<br /> +<br /> +De la Rue, Mr., ii. <a href="#Page_210">210</a><br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_454" id="Page_454">[454]</a></span>Dickens, Charles, visits to Scotland, ii. <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, and see ii. <a href="#Page_395">395</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">declines to enter Parliament, ii. <a href="#Page_389">389</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">public dinners to, ii. <a href="#Page_268">268</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_404">404</a>, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>, <a href="#Page_419">419</a>, <a href="#Page_420">420</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">visits of to America, see <a href="#America">America</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fancy signatures to letters of, ii. <a href="#Page_195">195</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his theatrical performances, see <a href="#Theatrical">Theatrical Performances</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">effects of work on, ii. <a href="#Page_248">248</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his visits to Paris, see <a href="#Paris">Paris</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">as a stage, manager, ii. <a href="#Page_26">26</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tavistock House, see <a href="#Tavistock">Tavistock House</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><a name="Editor" id="Editor"></a>as an editor, ii. <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his readings, <a href="#Readings">Readings</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">illnesses of, ii. <a href="#Page_404">404</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>, <a href="#Page_446">446</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in America, ii. <a href="#Page_338">338</a>, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>, <a href="#Page_373">373</a>, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>, <a href="#Page_380">380</a>, <a href="#Page_381">381</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gad's Hill, see <a href="#Gad">Gad's Hill</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">tour of, in the North, ii. <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>-<a href="#Page_32">32</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his kindly criticisms of young writers, ii. <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, for other criticisms see ii. <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">elected a member of the Birmingham Institute, ii. <a href="#Page_34">34</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">religious views of, ii. <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>, <a href="#Page_444">444</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">visit of, to Cornwall, ii. <a href="#Page_108">108</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Hanover Terrace, Regent's Park, ii. <a href="#Page_135">135</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">visits Lord Lytton at Knebworth, ii. <a href="#Page_136">136</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Hyde Park Gate South, ii. <a href="#Page_170">170</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, Gloucester Place, Hyde Park, ii. <a href="#Page_208">208</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Somer's Place, Hyde Park, ii. <a href="#Page_224">224</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in the Staplehurst accident, ii. <a href="#Page_224">224</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Southwick Place, Hyde Park, ii. <a href="#Page_224">224</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his energy, ii. <a href="#Page_291">291</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">one of the secrets of the success of, ii. <a href="#Page_357">357</a>, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Midland Institute at Birmingham opened by, ii. <a href="#Page_406">406</a>, and see ii. <a href="#Page_427">427</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his last speech, at the Royal Academy dinner, ii. <a href="#Page_432">432</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his interview with the Queen, ii. <a href="#Page_432">432</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attends a levée of the Prince of Wales, ii. <a href="#Page_432">432</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his last illness, ii. <a href="#Page_446">446</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his death, ii. <a href="#Page_448">448</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">funeral of, ii. <a href="#Page_448">448</a>, <a href="#Page_449">449</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and <a href="#Letters">Letters</a> of</span><br /> +<br /> +Dickens, Charles, marriage of, ii. <a href="#Page_208">208</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on "All the Year Round," ii. <a href="#Page_406">406</a>, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>, <a href="#Page_424">424</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see ii. <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_447">447</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters to, ii. <a href="#Page_310">310</a>, <a href="#Page_338">338</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Dickens, Kate, marriage of, ii. <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">illness of, ii. <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>; </span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see ii. <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>, <a href="#Page_436">436</a>, <a href="#Page_446">446</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to, ii. <a href="#Page_99">99</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Dickens, Mamie, accident to, ii. <a href="#Page_129">129</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see ii. <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_411">411</a>, <a href="#Page_447">447</a>, and <a href="#Letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_455" id="Page_455">[455]</a></span><br /> +Dickens, Walter, goes to India, ii. <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attached to the 42nd Highlanders, ii. <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">death of, ii. <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>; </span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see ii. <a href="#Page_4">4</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Dickens, Frank, letter of, to Dickens, ii. <a href="#Page_93">93</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in India, ii. <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>; </span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see ii. <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Dickens, Alfred, at Wimbledon School, ii. <a href="#Page_122">122</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">settles in Australia, ii. <a href="#Page_327">327</a>; </span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see ii. <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_371">371</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Dickens, Sydney, a naval cadet, ii. <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on board H.M.S. <i>Orlando</i>, ii. <a href="#Page_169">169</a>; </span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see ii. <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>, <a href="#Page_430">430</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Dickens, Henry, entered at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, ii. <a href="#Page_327">327</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">wins a scholarship, ii. <a href="#Page_424">424</a>, <a href="#Page_430">430</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">and see ii. <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>, <a href="#Page_371">371</a>, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>, <a href="#Page_447">447</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters to, ii. <a href="#Page_356">356</a>, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>, <a href="#Page_435">435</a>, <a href="#Page_438">438</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Dickens, Edward, goes to Australia, ii. <a href="#Page_327">327</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dickens's love for, ii. <a href="#Page_389">389</a>-<a href="#Page_391">391</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see ii. <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to, ii. <a href="#Page_402">402</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Dickens, Alfred, ii. <a href="#Page_199">199</a><br /> +<br /> +Dickens, Mrs. Augustus, ii. <a href="#Page_418">418</a><br /> +<br /> +Dickens, John, ii. <a href="#Page_240">240</a><br /> +<br /> +Dickens, Mrs. John, ii. <a href="#Page_333">333</a><br /> +<br /> +Dickens, Letitia, see <a href="#Henry">Mrs. Henry Austin</a><br /> +<br /> +Dickenson, Captain, ii. <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a><br /> +<br /> +Dilke, C. W., ii. <a href="#Page_5">5</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to, ii. <a href="#Page_12">12</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Dillon, C., ii. <a href="#Page_42">42</a><br /> +<br /> +Dogs, Dickens's, ii. <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>; ii. <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>;<br /> +<br /> +Dolby, George, ii. <a href="#Page_245">245</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>-<a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>-<a href="#Page_323">323</a>, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>, <a href="#Page_340">340</a>, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>-<a href="#Page_347">347</a>, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>-<a href="#Page_360">360</a>, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>, <a href="#Page_381">381</a><br /> +<br /> +Dufferin, Lord, ii. <a href="#Page_419">419</a><br /> +<br /> +Dwarf, the Tartar, ii. <a href="#Page_255">255</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Earthquake, an, in England, ii. <a href="#Page_206">206</a><br /> +<br /> +Edinburgh on a Sunday, ii. <a href="#Page_395">395</a><br /> +<br /> +"Edwin Drood," ii. <a href="#Page_407">407</a>, <a href="#Page_431">431</a>, <a href="#Page_432">432</a>, <a href="#Page_446">446</a><br /> +<br /> +Egg, Augustus, ii. <a href="#Page_198">198</a><br /> +<br /> +Eliot, Sir John, Dickens on Forster's life of, ii. <a href="#Page_215">215</a><br /> +<br /> +Elliotson, Dr., ii. <a href="#Page_99">99</a><br /> +<br /> +Elwin, Rev. W., ii. <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a><br /> +<br /> +Emerson, Mr., ii. <a href="#Page_306">306</a><br /> +<br /> +Eytinge, Mr., ii. <a href="#Page_405">405</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +"Faust," Gounod's, ii. <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a><br /> +<br /> +<a name="Fechter" id="Fechter"></a>Fechter, Charles, ii. <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>; <br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and <a href="#Letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Felton, Mr., ii. <a href="#Page_85">85</a><br /> +<br /> +Ferguson, Sir William, ii. <a href="#Page_246">246</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a><br /> +<br /> +Féval, Paul, ii. <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a><br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_456" id="Page_456">[456]</a></span>Fields, Cyrus W., ii. <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a><br /> +<br /> +Fields, Mrs., ii. <a href="#Page_306">306</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a><br /> +<br /> +Fildes, S. L., ii. <a href="#Page_432">432</a>, <a href="#Page_447">447</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to, ii. <a href="#Page_435">435</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Finlay, F. D., ii. <a href="#Page_406">406</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters to, ii. <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>, <a href="#Page_408">408</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Fitzgerald, Mrs., ii. <a href="#Page_285">285</a><br /> +<br /> +Fitzgerald, Percy, ii. <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and <a href="#Letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Flunkeydom, scholastic, ii. <a href="#Page_68">68</a><br /> +<br /> +Forster, Miss, ii. <a href="#Page_327">327</a><br /> +<br /> +Forster, John, ii. <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and <a href="#Letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Freake, Mr. and Mrs., ii. <a href="#Page_446">446</a><br /> +<br /> +Frith, W. P., ii. <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to, ii. <a href="#Page_439">439</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Frost, the great, of 1861, ii. <a href="#Page_139">139</a><br /> +<br /> +Funerals, Dickens on state, ii. <a href="#Page_385">385</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="Gad" id="Gad"></a>Gad's Hill, Dickens takes possession of, ii. <a href="#Page_3">3</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his childish impressions of, ii. <a href="#Page_8">8</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">improvements in, ii. <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_373">373</a>, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>, <a href="#Page_446">446</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sports at, ii. <a href="#Page_205">205</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">cricket club at, ii. <a href="#Page_356">356</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters concerning, ii. <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Ghost, stalking a, ii. <a href="#Page_131">131</a><br /> +<br /> +Gibson, M., ii. <a href="#Page_121">121</a><br /> +<br /> +Gibson, Mr. and Mrs. Milner, ii. <a href="#Page_431">431</a><br /> +<br /> +Gladstone, Right Hon. W. E., ii. <a href="#Page_401">401</a><br /> +<br /> +Gordon, Andrew, ii. <a href="#Page_131">131</a><br /> +<br /> +Gordon, Mr. Sheriff, ii. <a href="#Page_164">164</a><br /> +<br /> +"Great Expectations," commenced, ii. <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters concerning, ii. <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Guild of Literature and Art, see ii. <a href="#Page_41">41</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Harness, Rev. W., ii. <a href="#Page_253">253</a>;<br /> +<br /> +Headland, Mr., ii. <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a><br /> +<br /> +Helps, Sir Arthur, ii. <a href="#Page_432">432</a><br /> +<br /> +Henderson, Mrs., letter to, ii. <a href="#Page_293">293</a><br /> +<br /> +Hogarth, Georgina, ii. <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_408">408</a>, <a href="#Page_436">436</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and <a href="#Letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Hogge, Mrs., letter to, ii. <a href="#Page_46">46</a><br /> +<br /> +Holmes, Mr., ii. <a href="#Page_306">306</a><br /> +<br /> +Hospital, Great Ormond Street, ii. <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a><br /> +<br /> +Houghton, Lord, ii. <a href="#Page_432">432</a>;<br /> +<br /> +"Household Words," "The Golden Mary," ii. <a href="#Page_11">11</a>,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"A House to Let," ii. <a href="#Page_40">40</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">incorporated with "All the Year Round," ii. <a href="#Page_83">83</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter concerning, ii. <a href="#Page_68">68</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Hulkes, Mrs., ii. <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to, ii. <a href="#Page_232">232</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Hullah, John, ii. <a href="#Page_131">131</a><br /> +<br /> +Humphery, Mr. and Mrs., afterwards Sir W. and Lady, ii. <a href="#Page_187">187</a><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_457" id="Page_457">[457]</a></span><br /> +Hunt, Leigh, ii. <a href="#Page_407">407</a><br /> +<br /> +Hutchinson, John, ii. <a href="#Page_380">380</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Illustrations of Dickens's works, his descriptions for, ii. <a href="#Page_237">237</a><br /> +<br /> +Impeachment of the Five Members, Dickens on Forster's, ii. <a href="#Page_14">14</a><br /> +<br /> +Ireland, a dialogue in, ii. <a href="#Page_61">61</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">feeling for Dickens in, ii. <a href="#Page_65">65</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fenianism in, ii. <a href="#Page_282">282</a>-<a href="#Page_286">286</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">proposed banquet to Dickens in, ii. <a href="#Page_406">406</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dickens on the Established Church in, ii. <a href="#Page_409">409</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see ii. <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Jamaica, the insurrection in, ii. <a href="#Page_241">241</a><br /> +<br /> +Jerrold, Douglas, ii. <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and <a href="#Letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Jews, Dickens's friendly feeling for, ii. <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_280">280</a><br /> +<br /> +Joachim, Joseph, ii. <a href="#Page_413">413</a><br /> +<br /> +John, Dickens's manservant, ii. <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a><br /> +<br /> +Jones, Walter, letter to, ii. <a href="#Page_232">232</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Keeley, Mrs., ii. <a href="#Page_417">417</a><br /> +<br /> +Kelly, one of Dickens's readings men, ii. <a href="#Page_305">305</a>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>, <a href="#Page_342">342</a><br /> +<br /> +Kemble, Fanny, ii. <a href="#Page_344">344</a>, <a href="#Page_346">346</a><br /> +<br /> +Kent, W. Charles, ii. <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>, <a href="#Page_407">407</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and <a href="#Letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Knight, Charles, ii. <a href="#Page_208">208</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and <a href="#Letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +"Lady of Lyons, The," ii. <a href="#Page_298">298</a><br /> +<br /> +La Font, ii. <a href="#Page_440">440</a><br /> +<br /> +Landor, Walter Savage, ii. <a href="#Page_66">66</a><br /> +<br /> +Law, Dickens's opinion of English, ii. <a href="#Page_440">440</a><br /> +<br /> +Layard, A. H., ii. <a href="#Page_108">108</a>;<br /> +<br /> +Leclercq, Miss, ii. <a href="#Page_246">246</a><br /> +<br /> +Lehmann, Mrs., ii. <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and <a href="#Letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Lehmann, F., ii. <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a><br /> +<br /> +Léotard, ii. <a href="#Page_142">142</a><br /> +<br /> +<a name="Letters" id="Letters"></a><span class="smcap">Letters of Charles Dickens to</span>:<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Agate, John, ii. <a href="#Page_154">154</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Anonymous, ii. <a href="#Page_276">276</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Armstrong, the Misses, ii. <a href="#Page_175">175</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Austin, Henry, ii. <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Austin, Mrs., ii. <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_384">384</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bancroft, Mrs., ii. <a href="#Page_441">441</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Baylis, Mr., ii. <a href="#Page_179">179</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Benzon, Miss, ii. <a href="#Page_258">258</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Boyle, Miss, ii. <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, <a href="#Page_411">411</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Brookfield, Mrs., ii. <a href="#Page_249">249</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Brookfield, Rev. W., ii. <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Brooks, Shirley, ii. <a href="#Page_423">423</a>, <a href="#Page_438">438</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Carlisle, the Earl of, ii. <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cartwright, Samuel, ii. <a href="#Page_348">348</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cattermole, Mrs., ii. <a href="#Page_383">383</a>, <a href="#Page_385">385</a></span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_458" id="Page_458">[458]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cerjat, M. de, ii. <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>, <a href="#Page_409">409</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Clarke, John, ii. <a href="#Page_418">418</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Collins, Wilkie, ii. <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>, <a href="#Page_397">397</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Compton, Mrs., ii. <a href="#Page_22">22</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cooke, T. P., ii. <a href="#Page_21">21</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dallas, Mrs., ii. <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_434">434</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dickens, Charles, ii. <a href="#Page_310">310</a>, <a href="#Page_338">338</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dickens, Edward, ii. <a href="#Page_402">402</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dickens, Henry, ii. <a href="#Page_356">356</a>, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>, <a href="#Page_435">435</a>, <a href="#Page_438">438</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dickens, Miss Kate, ii. <a href="#Page_99">99</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dickens, Miss, ii. <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>, <a href="#Page_354">354</a>, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>, <a href="#Page_366">366</a>, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>, <a href="#Page_380">380</a>, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>, <a href="#Page_426">426</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dilke, C. W., ii. <a href="#Page_12">12</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fechter, Charles, ii. <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>, <a href="#Page_390">390</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fildes, S. L., ii. <a href="#Page_435">435</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Finlay, F. D., ii. <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>, <a href="#Page_408">408</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fitzgerald, Percy, ii. <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Forster, John, ii. <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Frith, W. P., ii. <a href="#Page_439">439</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Henderson, Mrs., ii. <a href="#Page_293">293</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hogarth, Miss, ii. <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>-<a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>-<a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>, <a href="#Page_371">371</a>, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>-<a href="#Page_419">419</a>, <a href="#Page_421">421</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hogge, Mrs., ii. <a href="#Page_46">46</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hulkes, Mrs., ii. <a href="#Page_232">232</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Jewish Lady, a, ii. <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_280">280</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Jones, Walter, ii. <a href="#Page_232">232</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Kent, W. Charles, ii. <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>, <a href="#Page_429">429</a>, <a href="#Page_437">437</a>, <a href="#Page_439">439</a>, <a href="#Page_441">441</a>, <a href="#Page_443">443</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Knight, Charles, ii. <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lehmann, Mrs. F., ii. <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>, <a href="#Page_413">413</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Longman, Thomas, ii. <a href="#Page_106">106</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lytton, Sir E. B., ii. <a href="#Page_116">116</a></span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_459" id="Page_459">[459]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Macready, W. C., ii. <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>, <a href="#Page_373">373</a>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>, <a href="#Page_424">424</a>, <a href="#Page_429">429</a>, <a href="#Page_436">436</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Major, Mrs., ii. <a href="#Page_196">196</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Makeham, John, ii. <a href="#Page_444">444</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Marston, Dr. Westland, ii. <a href="#Page_43">43</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mitton, Thomas, ii. <a href="#Page_229">229</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Morpeth, Viscount, see <a href="#Carlisle">Carlisle, The Earl of Ollier,</a> Edmund, ii. <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_425">425</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ouvry, F., ii. <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_427">427</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Owen, Professor, ii. <a href="#Page_235">235</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Panizzi, Antonio, ii. <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Parkinson, J. C., ii. <a href="#Page_401">401</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pollock, Mrs. F., ii. <a href="#Page_440">440</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pollock, Sir F., ii. <a href="#Page_214">214</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Power, Miss, ii. <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Power, Mrs., ii. <a href="#Page_300">300</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Procter, B. W., ii. <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Procter, Mrs., ii. <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Reade, Charles, ii. <a href="#Page_206">206</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Regnier, Monsieur, ii. <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sculthorpe, W. R., ii. <a href="#Page_104">104</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Smith, Arthur, ii. <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Stanfield, Clarkson, ii. <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Stanfield, George, ii. <a href="#Page_289">289</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Stone, Marcus, ii. <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Stone, Frank, ii. <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Storrar, Mrs., ii. <a href="#Page_216">216</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tennent, Sir James Emerson, ii. <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thackeray, W. M., ii. <a href="#Page_41">41</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thornbury, Walter, ii. <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Toole, J. L., ii. <a href="#Page_300">300</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ward, E. M., ii. <a href="#Page_141">141</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ward, Mrs., ii. <a href="#Page_441">441</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Watkins, John, ii. <a href="#Page_148">148</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Watson, Hon. Mrs., ii. <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_382">382</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">White, Mrs., ii. <a href="#Page_94">94</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">White, Miss, ii. <a href="#Page_92">92</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">White, Rev. James, ii. <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Wills, W. H., ii. <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>, <a href="#Page_433">433</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Yates, Edmund, ii. <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Yates, Mrs., ii. <a href="#Page_48">48</a></span><br /> +<br /> +"Lighthouse, The," see ii. <a href="#Page_198">198</a><br /> +<br /> +Linton, Mrs., ii. <a href="#Page_207">207</a><br /> +<br /> +Literary Fund, the, ii. <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a><br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_460" id="Page_460">[460]</a></span>Lockhart, Mr., ii. <a href="#Page_207">207</a><br /> +<br /> +London, Dickens's opinion of the Corporation of, ii. <a href="#Page_411">411</a>;<br /> +<br /> +Longfellow, W. H., ii. <a href="#Page_306">306</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>, <a href="#Page_375">375</a><br /> +<br /> +Lowell, Miss Mabel, ii. <a href="#Page_405">405</a>, <a href="#Page_415">415</a><br /> +<br /> +Lyceum Theatre under Fechter, ii. <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see <a href="#Fechter">Fechter</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Lyndhurst, Lord,ii. <a href="#Page_144">144</a><br /> +<br /> +Lytton, the first Lord,ii. <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to, ii. <a href="#Page_116">116</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Lytton, Lord, ii. <a href="#Page_108">108</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Maclise, Daniel, ii. <a href="#Page_432">432</a>;<br /> +<br /> +Macready, W. C., ii. <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and <a href="#Letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Macready, Kate, ii. <a href="#Page_193">193</a><br /> +<br /> +Macready, Mrs., ii. <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a><br /> +<br /> +Macready, Jonathan, ii. <a href="#Page_376">376</a><br /> +<br /> +Macready, W., ii. <a href="#Page_425">425</a><br /> +<br /> +Major, Mrs., letter to, ii. <a href="#Page_196">196</a><br /> +<br /> +Makeham, J. M., ii. <a href="#Page_432">432</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dickens's last letter written to, ii. <a href="#Page_444">444</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Malleson, Mr. and Mrs., ii. <a href="#Page_315">315</a><br /> +<br /> +Marsh, Dickens's coachman, a story of, ii. <a href="#Page_181">181</a><br /> +<br /> +Marston, Dr. Westland, ii. <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to, ii. <a href="#Page_43">43</a></span><br /> +<br /> +"Martin Chuzzlewit," a story of Mrs. Harris, ii. <a href="#Page_41">41</a><br /> +<br /> +Mesmerism, a séance of, ii. <a href="#Page_100">100</a><br /> +<br /> +Missionaries, Dickens on, ii. <a href="#Page_241">241</a><br /> +<br /> +Mitton, Thomas, <a href="#Letters">Letters</a><br /> +<br /> +Molesworth, Lady, ii. <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a><br /> +<br /> +Morgan, Captain, ii. <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a><br /> +<br /> +Morgan, W., ii. <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a><br /> +<br /> +Morpeth, Viscount, see <a href="#Carlisle">Carlisle, The Earl of</a><br /> +<br /> +Motley, Mr., ii. <a href="#Page_142">142</a><br /> +<br /> +Mountain, a hazardous ascent of a, ii. <a href="#Page_29">29</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Narrative, ii. <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>, <a href="#Page_404">404</a>, <a href="#Page_431">431</a>, <a href="#Page_446">446</a><br /> +<br /> +Neville, Mr., ii. <a href="#Page_186">186</a><br /> +<br /> +Newsvendors' Benevolent Institution, ii. <a href="#Page_232">232</a><br /> +<br /> +New Testament, Dickens's love for the, ii. <a href="#Page_394">394</a>, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dickens writes a history of the, for his children, ii. <a href="#Page_433">433</a></span><br /> +<br /> +"Nicholas Nickleby," see ii. <a href="#Page_200">200</a><br /> +<br /> +Norton, C. E., ii. <a href="#Page_326">326</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +"Oliver Twist," the reading of "The Murder" from, ii. <a href="#Page_326">326</a>, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a><br /> +<br /> +Ollier, Edmund, ii. <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_407">407</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters to, ii. <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_425">425</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Olliffe, Lady, ii. <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a><br /> +<br /> +Olliffe, Sir J., ii. <a href="#Page_417">417</a><br /> +<br /> +Olliffe, the Misses, ii. <a href="#Page_190">190</a><br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_461" id="Page_461">[461]</a></span>Osgood, Mr., ii. <a href="#Page_310">310</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>, <a href="#Page_340">340</a>, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>, <a href="#Page_366">366</a><br /> +<br /> +"Our Mutual Friend," ii. <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and as to illustrations for, see ii. <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Ouvry, Frederic, ii. <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters to, ii. <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_427">427</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Owen, Professor, ii. <a href="#Page_235">235</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Panizzi, Antonio, ii. <a href="#Page_84">84</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters to, ii. <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<a name="Paris" id="Paris"></a>Paris, Dickens at, ii. <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dickens's reading at, ii. <a href="#Page_187">187</a>-<a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Parkinson, J. C., ii. <a href="#Page_327">327</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to, ii. <a href="#Page_401">401</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Patronage, the curse of England, ii. <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_356">356</a><br /> +<br /> +"Picnic Papers," Dickens's share of the, ii. <a href="#Page_91">91</a><br /> +<br /> +Plessy, Madame, ii. <a href="#Page_440">440</a><br /> +<br /> +Pollock, Sir F., ii. <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to, ii. <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Pollock, Mrs. F., letter to, ii. <a href="#Page_440">440</a><br /> +<br /> +Poole, John, ii. <a href="#Page_228">228</a>;<br /> +<br /> +Portraits of Dickens, by Frith, ii. <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">by John Watkins, ii. <a href="#Page_148">148</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">a caricature, ii. <a href="#Page_146">146</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Power, Miss, ii. <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and <a href="#Letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Power, Mrs., letter to, ii. <a href="#Page_300">300</a><br /> +<br /> +Presence of mind of Dickens, ii. <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a><br /> +<br /> +Procter, Adelaide, ii. <a href="#Page_238">238</a>;<br /> +<br /> +Procter, B. W., ii. <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and <a href="#Letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Procter, Mrs., letter to, ii. <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a><br /> +<br /> +Putnam, Mr., ii. <a href="#Page_312">312</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Queen, the, his feeling for, ii. <a href="#Page_168">168</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his interview with, ii. <a href="#Page_432">432</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Railways, ii. <a href="#Page_242">242</a><br /> +<br /> +Reade, Charles, ii. <a href="#Page_188">188</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to, ii. <a href="#Page_206">206</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Reader, Charles Dickens as a, ii. <a href="#Page_437">437</a><br /> +<br /> +<a name="Readings" id="Readings"></a>Readings, Dickens's public, for charities, ii. <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">first reading for his own benefit, ii. <a href="#Page_39">39</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Paris, ii. <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in America, ii. <a href="#Page_267">267</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">farewell series of readings in England, ii. <a href="#Page_326">326</a>, <a href="#Page_404">404</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">trial reading of "The Murder" from "Oliver Twist," ii. <a href="#Page_326">326</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reading to the actors, ii. <a href="#Page_407">407</a>, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">farewell reading, ii. <a href="#Page_431">431</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">effects of "The Murder" reading on Dickens, ii. <a href="#Page_434">434</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">books of the, ii. <a href="#Page_438">438</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters concerning the readings in England, Scotland, and Ireland, ii. <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>-<a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>-<a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>-<a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>-<a href="#Page_258">258</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>-<a href="#Page_286">286</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters concerning American, ii. <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>-<a href="#Page_382">382</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters concerning the farewell series of, ii. <a href="#Page_391">391</a>, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>-<a href="#Page_400">400</a>, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>-<a href="#Page_421">421</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Reform, Dickens on Parliamentary, ii. <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_462" id="Page_462">[462]</a></span><br /> +Regnier, M., <a href="#Letters">Letters</a><br /> +<br /> +Reynolds, Dr. Russell, ii. <a href="#Page_448">448</a><br /> +<br /> +Roberts, David, ii. <a href="#Page_75">75</a>;<br /> +<br /> +Rochester Cathedral, proposed burial of Dickens in, ii. <a href="#Page_448">448</a><br /> +<br /> +Royal Academy, female students at the, ii. <a href="#Page_121">121</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dickens's last public appearance, at the dinner of the, ii. <a href="#Page_431">431</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Russel, Alexander, ii. <a href="#Page_389">389</a>, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>, <a href="#Page_406">406</a><br /> +<br /> +Russell, Lord John, ii. <a href="#Page_85">85</a>;<br /> +<br /> +Russell, W. H., ii. <a href="#Page_4">4</a><br /> +<br /> +Ryland, Arthur, ii. <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_430">430</a>;<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Sainton-Dolby, Madame, ii. <a href="#Page_295">295</a>, <a href="#Page_391">391</a><br /> +<br /> +Saville, Miss, ii. <a href="#Page_186">186</a><br /> +<br /> +Scheffer, Ary, ii. <a href="#Page_149">149</a><br /> +<br /> +Scott, Dickens's dresser, ii. <a href="#Page_272">272</a>, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>, <a href="#Page_416">416</a><br /> +<br /> +Sculthorpe, W. R., letter to, ii. <a href="#Page_104">104</a><br /> +<br /> +Shaftesbury, Lord, ii. <a href="#Page_242">242</a><br /> +<br /> +<ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Shee'">Shea</ins>, Mr. Justice, ii. <a href="#Page_247">247</a><br /> +<br /> +Smith, Arthur, ii. <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>-<a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>-<a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>-<a href="#Page_153">153</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters to, ii. <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Speaking, Dickens on public, ii. <a href="#Page_426">426</a>, <a href="#Page_428">428</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">advice to his son Henry on public, ii. <a href="#Page_435">435</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Stage-coach, American story of a, ii. <a href="#Page_292">292</a><br /> +<br /> +Stanfield, Clarkson, ii. <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and <a href="#Letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Stanfield, George, letter to, ii. <a href="#Page_289">289</a><br /> +<br /> +Stanley, Dean, ii. <a href="#Page_448">448</a>, <a href="#Page_449">449</a><br /> +<br /> +Stanley, Lady Augusta, ii. <a href="#Page_449">449</a><br /> +<br /> +Staplehurst, Dickens in the railway accident at, ii. <a href="#Page_224">224</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">description of the accident, ii. <a href="#Page_229">229</a>-<a href="#Page_233">233</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">effects of the accident on Dickens, ii. <a href="#Page_388">388</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Staunton, Mr. Secretary, ii. <a href="#Page_351">351</a><br /> +<br /> +Steele, Mr., ii. <a href="#Page_447">447</a>, <a href="#Page_448">448</a><br /> +<br /> +Stone, Ellen, ii. <a href="#Page_81">81</a><br /> +<br /> +Stone, Frank, ii. <a href="#Page_84">84</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and <a href="#Letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Stone, Marcus, ii. <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters to, ii. <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Storrar, Mrs., ii. <a href="#Page_209">209</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to, ii. <a href="#Page_216">216</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Sumner, Charles, ii. <a href="#Page_351">351</a>, <a href="#Page_355">355</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Sun, The</i>, newspaper, ii. <a href="#Page_225">225</a>;<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_463" id="Page_463">[463]</a></span><br /> +Sympathy, letters of, ii. <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +"Tale of Two Cities, A," ii. <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters concerning, ii. <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<a name="Tavistock" id="Tavistock"></a>Tavistock House, sale of, ii. <a href="#Page_107">107</a>;<br /> +<br /> +Taylor, Bayard, ii. <a href="#Page_405">405</a><br /> +<br /> +Tennent, Sir James Emerson, ii. <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters to, ii. <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Tennyson, Alfred, Dickens's admiration for, ii. <a href="#Page_98">98</a><br /> +<br /> +Terry, Miss Kate, ii. <a href="#Page_193">193</a><br /> +<br /> +Thackeray, W. M., ii. <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to, ii. <a href="#Page_41">41</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Thames, drainage of the, ii. <a href="#Page_50">50</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">embankment of the, ii. <a href="#Page_410">410</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Theatre, Dickens on the, ii. <a href="#Page_271">271</a>, <a href="#Page_438">438</a><br /> +<br /> +Theatrical Fund, the, ii. <a href="#Page_35">35</a><br /> +<br /> +<a name="Theatrical" id="Theatrical"></a>Theatrical performances of Charles Dickens:<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">for the Jerrold Memorial Fund, ii. <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and see ii. <a href="#Page_3">3</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters concerning the, ii. <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Thornbury, Walter, ii. <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters to, ii. <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Toole, J. L., ii. <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to, ii. <a href="#Page_300">300</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Townshend, Chauncey Hare, ii. <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_371">371</a>, <a href="#Page_410">410</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +"Uncommercial Traveller, The," ii. <a href="#Page_107">107</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Viardot, Madame, ii. <a href="#Page_193">193</a>;<br /> +<br /> +Volunteers, Dickens on the, ii. <a href="#Page_115">115</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Wales, the Prince of, popularity of, ii. <a href="#Page_203">203</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dickens attends levée of, ii. <a href="#Page_432">432</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Wales, the Princess of, her arrival in England, ii. <a href="#Page_195">195</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the illuminations in honour of, ii. <a href="#Page_198">198</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">popularity of, ii. <a href="#Page_203">203</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Ward, E. M., letter to, ii. <a href="#Page_141">141</a><br /> +<br /> +Ward, Mrs., letter to, ii. <a href="#Page_441">441</a><br /> +<br /> +Watkins, John, ii. <a href="#Page_148">148</a><br /> +<br /> +Watson, Hon. Mrs., ii. <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and <a href="#Letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Watson, Sir Thomas, ii. <a href="#Page_405">405</a>, <a href="#Page_407">407</a><br /> +<br /> +Watson, Wentworth, ii. <a href="#Page_79">79</a><br /> +<br /> +Watts's refuge for poor travellers, ii. <a href="#Page_259">259</a><br /> +<br /> +Webster, Benjamin, ii. <a href="#Page_361">361</a><br /> +<br /> +Webster, a story of the murderer, ii. <a href="#Page_333">333</a><br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_464" id="Page_464">[464]</a></span>Westminster Abbey, burial of Dickens in, ii. <a href="#Page_448">448</a><br /> +<br /> +White, Clara, ii. <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a><br /> +<br /> +White, Rev. James, ii. <a href="#Page_209">209</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and <a href="#Letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +White, Mrs., ii. <a href="#Page_212">212</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to, ii. <a href="#Page_94">94</a></span><br /> +<br /> +White, Miss, ii. <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to, ii. <a href="#Page_92">92</a></span><br /> +<br /> +White, Richard Grant, ii. <a href="#Page_85">85</a><br /> +<br /> +Williams, Mr. and Mrs. Barney, ii. <a href="#Page_337">337</a>, <a href="#Page_359">359</a><br /> +<br /> +Wills, W. H., ii. <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>, <a href="#Page_430">430</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and <a href="#Letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Wills, Mrs., ii. <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a><br /> +<br /> +Working men, clubs for, ii. <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dickens on the management of such clubs, ii. <a href="#Page_356">356</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">feeling of, for Dickens, ii. <a href="#Page_420">420</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Yates, Edmund, ii. <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and <a href="#Letters">Letters</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Yates, Mrs., ii. <a href="#Page_129">129</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to, ii. <a href="#Page_48">48</a></span><br /> +</div> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<h2> +THE END.</h2> +<div class='center'> +<small>CHARLES DICKENS AND EVANS, CRYSTAL PALACE PRESS.</small><br /><br /><br /> +</div> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> The part played in "The Frozen Deep" by its author, Mr. Wilkie Collins.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> The Earl of Carlisle was at this time Viceroy of Ireland.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Niece to the Rev. W. Harness.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> The birthplace of Mr. Forster.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Mr. Edmund Yates.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> With whom Mr. and Mrs. Wills were staying at Aberystwith.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Lieutenant Andrew Gordon, R.N., son of the Sheriff of Midlothian.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Alluding to a translation of a play by M. Maquet, which M. Fechter +was then preparing for his theatre.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Now Mrs. Dallas Glyn.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Formerly Miss Talfourd.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> His travelling journal.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Answer to letter from Jewish lady, remonstrating with him on injustice +to the Jews, shown in the character of Fagin, and asking for subscription +for the benefit of the Jewish poor.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> In answer to another letter from the "Jewish lady," in which she +gives her reasons for still being dissatisfied with the character of Riah.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> Now Captain E. Newton Dickenson.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> This was a circular note which he sent in answer to innumerable +letters of enquiry, after the accident.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> This letter was written in reply to the Committee's congratulations +upon Mr. Dickens's escape from the accident to the tidal train from +Folkestone, at Staplehurst, just previous to this date.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> Madame Sainton Dolby.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> The nearest neighbour at Higham, and intimate friends.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Dr. Fordyce Barker.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> The Agricultural College, Cirencester.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> "No Thoroughfare."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> The Mr. H. F. Chorley so often mentioned was the well-known +musical critic, and a dear and intimate friend of Charles Dickens and his +family. We have no letters to him, Mr. Chorley having destroyed all his +correspondence before his death.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> Mr. Chauncey Hare Townshend. He was one of the dearest friends +of Charles Dickens and a very constant correspondent; but no letters +addressed to him are in existence.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> An American family of brothers and a sister who came to London +to give a musical entertainment shortly after Charles Dickens's return from +his first visit to America. He had a great interest in, and liking for, +these young people.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> Cousin and adopted child of Mr. and Mrs. Austin.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> A model of a Swiss châlet, and a present from M. Charles Fechter, +used by Charles Dickens as a summer writing-room.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> This letter has been already published by Mr. Forster in his "Life."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> Herr Joseph Joachim, the renowned violinist.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> His sister-in-law, Mrs. Augustus Dickens, always a welcome visitor at +Gad's Hill.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> Of the Guild of Literature and Art.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> The housekeeper at the office.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> On the death of his second wife.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> Of the Readings. The intention was carried out. Mr. Kent's book, +"Charles Dickens as a Reader," was published in 1872.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> No doubt Charles Dickens intended to add the Reading Books to the +legacy of his MSS. to Mr. Forster. But he did not do so, therefore the +"Readings" are not a part of the "Forster Collection" at the South +Kensington Museum.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> A new collective edition of "Kent's Poems," dedicated to his cousin, +Colonel Kent, of the 77th Regiment.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> Miss Marie Wilton.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> This letter has lately been presented by Mr. Charles Kent to the +British Museum.</p></div></div> + +<p><br /><br /> </p> +<div class='tnote'><h3>Transcriber's Notes:</h3> +<p>The index for this volume was originally references for +Volume I. To aid the reader, the parts referring to Volume I were +extracted and appended to the end of Volume I's html text. The +original index can be found in its entirety at the end of the plain text +version of these volumes.</p> +<p>Pages 454-455, entries for "Dickens, Mamie" and "Dickens, Kate" were originally not in alphabetically order. This was corrected.</p> + +<p>Obvious punctuation errors repaired.</p> + +<p>The remaining corrections made are indicated by dotted lines under the corrections. Scroll the mouse over the word and the original text will <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'apprear'">appear</ins>.</p></div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Letters of Charles Dickens, by Charles Dickens + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LETTERS OF CHARLES DICKENS *** + +***** This file should be named 25853-h.htm or 25853-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/8/5/25853/ + +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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