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+Project Gutenberg's A Week's Tramp in Dickens-Land, by William R. Hughes
+
+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: A Week's Tramp in Dickens-Land
+
+Author: William R. Hughes
+
+Illustrator: F. G. Kitton
+
+Release Date: February 25, 2010 [EBook #31394]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A WEEK'S TRAMP IN DICKENS-LAND ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Chris Curnow, Emmy and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+A WEEK'S TRAMP
+
+IN
+
+DICKENS-LAND
+
+[Illustration: The Marshes, Cooling.]
+
+
+
+
+A WEEK'S TRAMP
+
+IN
+
+DICKENS-LAND
+
+TOGETHER WITH
+
+=Personal Reminiscences of the 'Inimitable Boz'=
+
+THEREIN COLLECTED.
+
+BY
+
+WILLIAM R. HUGHES, F.L.S.
+
+          _WITH MORE THAN A HUNDRED
+          ILLUSTRATIONS BY F. G. KITTON
+          AND OTHER ARTISTS._
+
+          LONDON: CHAPMAN & HALL, LIMITED.
+          BOSTON: ESTES AND LAURIAT.
+          1891.
+
+
+
+
+          RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED,
+          LONDON & BUNGAY.
+
+
+
+
+          [_All Rights reserved._]
+
+
+
+
+
+          TO
+
+          MY WIFE AND DAUGHTERS,
+
+          EMILY AND EDITH,
+
+          I DEDICATE
+
+          THIS RECORD OF "A WEEK'S TRAMP,"
+
+          TO REMIND THEM OF
+
+          THE MANY PLEASANT READINGS FROM DICKENS
+
+          WE HAVE ENJOYED TOGETHER
+
+          AT HOME.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"'I should like to show you a series of eight articles, Sir, that have
+appeared in the Eatanswill Gazette. I think I may venture to say that
+you would not be long in establishing your opinions on a firm and solid
+basis, Sir.'
+
+"'I dare say I should turn very blue long before I got to the end of
+them,' responded Bob.
+
+"Mr. Pott looked dubiously at Bob Sawyer for some seconds, and turning
+to Mr. Pickwick said:--
+
+"'You have seen the literary articles which have appeared at intervals
+in the Eatanswill Gazette in the course of the last three months, and
+which have excited such general--I may say such universal--attention and
+admiration?'
+
+"'Why,' replied Mr. Pickwick, slightly embarrassed by the question, 'the
+fact is, I have been so much engaged in other ways, that I really have
+not had an opportunity of perusing them.'
+
+"'You should do so, Sir,' said Pott with a severe countenance.
+
+"'I will,' said Mr. Pickwick.
+
+"'They appeared in the form of a copious review of a work on Chinese
+metaphysics, Sir,' said Pott.
+
+"'Oh,' observed Mr. Pickwick--'from your pen I hope?'
+
+"'From the pen of my critic, Sir,' rejoined Pott with dignity.
+
+"'An abstruse subject I should conceive,' said Mr. Pickwick.
+
+"'Very, Sir,' responded Pott, looking intensely sage. 'He _crammed_ for
+it, to use a technical but expressive term; he read up for the subject,
+at my desire, in the _Encyclop�dia Britannica_.'
+
+"'Indeed!' said Mr. Pickwick; 'I was not aware that that valuable work
+contained any information respecting Chinese metaphysics.'
+
+"'He read, Sir,' rejoined Mr. Pott, laying his hand on Mr. Pickwick's
+knee, and looking round with a smile of intellectual superiority, 'he
+read for metaphysics under the letter M, and for China under the letter
+C; and combined his information, Sir!'
+
+"Mr. Pott's features assumed so much additional grandeur at the
+recollection of the power and research displayed in the learned
+effusions in question, that some minutes elapsed before Mr. Pickwick
+felt emboldened to renew the conversation."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The above perennial extract from the immortal _Pickwick Papers_ suggests
+to some extent the nature of the contents of this Volume. It is the
+record of a pilgrimage made by two enthusiastic Dickensians during the
+late summer of 1888, together with "combined information,"--not indeed
+"crammed" from the ninth edition just completed of the valuable work
+above referred to, but gathered mostly from original sources,--respecting
+the places visited, the characters alluded to in some of the novels,
+personal reminiscences of their Author, appropriate passages from his
+works (for which acknowledgments are due to Messrs. Chapman and Hall),
+and some little mention of the thoughts developed by the associations of
+"Dickens-Land."
+
+Although the pilgrimage only extended to a week, and every spot referred
+to (save one) was actually visited during that time, it is but right to
+state that on three subsequent occasions the author has gone over the
+greater part of the same ground--once in the early winter, when the blue
+clematis and the aster had given place to the yellow jasmine and the
+chrysanthemum; once in the early spring, when those had been succeeded
+by the almond-blossom and the crocus; and again in the following year,
+when the beautiful county of Kent was rehabilitated in summer clothing,
+thus enabling him to verify observations, to correct possible errors
+arising from first impressions, and to gain new experiences.
+
+As our head-quarters were at Rochester, and most of the city and other
+parts were taken at odd times, it has not been found practicable to
+preserve in consecutive chapters a perfect sequence of the records of
+each day's tramp, although they appear in fairly chronological order
+throughout the work. "A preliminary tramp in London" will possibly be
+dull to those familiar with the great Metropolis, but it may be useful
+to foreign tramps in "Dickens-Land."
+
+Availing myself of the privilege adopted by most travellers at home and
+abroad, I have made occasional references to the weather. This is
+perhaps excusable when it is remembered that the year 1888 was a very
+remarkable one in that respect, so much so indeed, that the writer of a
+leading article in _The Times_ of January 18th, 1889, in commenting on
+Mr. G. J. Symons' report of the British rainfall of the previous year,
+remarked that "seldom within living memory had there been a twelve-month
+with more unpleasantness in it and less of genial sunshine." We were
+specially favoured, however, in getting more "sunshine" than
+"unpleasantness," thus adding to the enjoyment of our never-to-be-forgotten
+tramp.
+
+Upwards of three years have elapsed since this book was commenced, and
+the limited holiday leisure of a hard-working official life has
+necessarily prevented its completion for such a lengthened period, that
+it has come to be pleasantly referred to by my many Dickensian friends
+as the "Dictionary," in allusion to the important work of that nature
+contemplated by Dr. Strong, respecting which (says David Copperfield)
+"Adams, our head-boy, who had a turn for mathematics, had made a
+calculation, I was informed, of the time this Dictionary would take in
+completing, on the Doctor's plan, and at the Doctor's rate of going. He
+considered that it might be done in one thousand six hundred and
+forty-nine years, counting from the Doctor's last, or sixty-second,
+birthday."
+
+My hearty and sincere acknowledgments are due to the publishers, Messrs.
+Chapman and Hall, not only for the very handsome manner in which they
+have allowed my book to be got up as regards print, paper, and execution
+(to follow the model of their Victoria Edition of _Pickwick_ is indeed
+an honour to me), but especially for their great liberality in the
+matter of the Illustrations, which number more than a hundred. These
+were selected in conference by Mr. Fred Chapman, Mr. Kitton, and myself,
+and include about fifty original drawings by Mr. Kitton, from sketches
+specially made by him for this work. Of the remainder, six are from
+Forster's _Life of Dickens_, fifteen from Langton's _Childhood and Youth
+of Charles Dickens_, seven from _Charles Dickens by Pen and Pencil_, ten
+from the Jubilee Edition of _Pickwick_, and five from Rimmer's _About
+England with Dickens_. A few interesting fac-similes of handwriting,
+etc., have also been introduced. Surely such an eclectic series of
+Dickens Illustrations has never before been presented in one volume.
+
+To Messrs. Chapman and Hall, Mr. Robert Langton, F.R.H.S., Messrs. Frank
+T. Sabin and John F. Dexter, Messrs. Macmillan and Co., and Messrs.
+Chatto and Windus (the proprietors of the above-mentioned works), the
+author's acknowledgments are also due, and are hereby tendered. Mr.
+Stephen T. Aveling has kindly supplied an illustration of Restoration
+House as it appeared in Dickens's time, and Mr. William Ball, J.P.,
+generously commissioned a local artist to make a sketch of the Marshes,
+which forms the frontispiece to the book, and gives a good idea of the
+"long stretches of flat lands" on the Kent and Essex coasts.
+
+To those friends whom we then met for the first time, and from whom we
+subsequently received help, the author's most cordial acknowledgments
+are due, and are also tendered, for kind information and assistance.
+They are a goodly number, and include Mr. A. A. Arnold, Mr. Stephen T.
+Aveling, Mr. William Ball, J.P., Mr. James Baird, Mr. Charles Bird,
+F.G.S., Major and Mrs. Budden, Mr. W. J. Budden, Mr. R. L. Cobb, Mr. J.
+Couchman, The Misses Drage, Mrs. Easedown, Mr. Franklin Homan, Mr. James
+Hulkes, J.P., and Mrs. Hulkes, Mr. Apsley Kennette, Mrs. Latter, Mr. J.
+Lawrence, Mr. C. D. Levy, Mr. B. Lillie, Mr. J. E. Littlewood, Mr. J. N.
+Malleson, Rev. J. J. Marsham, M.A., Mrs. Masters, Mr. Miles, Mr. W.
+Millen, Mr. Geo. Payne, F.S.A., Mr. William Pearce, Mr. George Robinson,
+Mr. T. B. Rosseter, F.R.M.S., Dr. Sheppard, Mr. Henry Smetham, Dr.
+Steele, M.R.C.S., Mr. William Syms, Mrs. Taylor, Miss Taylor, Mr. W. S.
+Trood, Major Trousdell, Rev. Robert Whiston, M.A., Mr. W. T. Wildish,
+Mr. Humphrey Wood, Mr. C. K. Worsfold, and Mrs. Henry Wright. The late
+Mr. Roach Smith, F.S.A., took much interest in my work and gave valuable
+assistance. Mr. Luke Fildes, R.A., and Mrs. Lynn Linton generously
+contributed very interesting information. The Right Honourable the Earl
+of Darnley, Mr. Henry Fielding Dickens, Mr. W. P. Frith, R.A., and Lady
+Head, also kindly answered enquiries.
+
+Miss Hogarth has at my request very kindly consented to the publication
+of the original letters of the Novelist--about a dozen--now printed for
+the first time.
+
+My sincere thanks are due to Mr. E. W. Badger, F.R.H.S., the friend of
+many years, for valuable help.
+
+To my old friend and fellow-tramp, Mr. F. G. Kitton, with whose memory
+this delightful excursion will ever be pleasantly connected, my warmest
+thanks are due for reading proofs and for much kind help in many ways.
+"He wos werry good to me, he wos." As Pip wrote to another "Jo," "WOT
+LARX" we did have.
+
+Last, but not least, my cordial thanks are due to Mr. Charles Dickens
+for much kind information and valuable criticism.
+
+So long as readers continue to be, so long will our great English
+trilogy of cognate authors, Shakespeare, Scott, and Dickens, continue to
+be read. Indeed as regards Dickens, a writer in _Blackwood_, June, 1871
+(and _Blackwood_ was not always a sympathetic critic), said:--"We may
+apply to him, without doubt, the surest test to which the maker can be
+subject: were all his books swept by some intellectual catastrophe out
+of the world, there would still exist in the world some score at least
+of people, with all whose ways and sayings we are more intimately
+acquainted than with those of our brothers and sisters, who would owe to
+him their being. While we live Sam Weller and Dick Swiveller, Mr.
+Pecksniff and Mrs. Gamp, the Micawbers and the Squeerses, can never
+die. . . . They are more real than we are ourselves, and will outlive
+and outlast us, as they have outlived their creator. This is the one
+proof of genius which no critic, not the most carping or dissatisfied,
+can gainsay."
+
+So long also, the author ventures to think, will pilgrimages continue to
+be made to the shrines of Stratford-on-Avon, Abbotsford, and Gad's Hill
+Place, and to their vicinities. The modest aim of this Volume is, that
+it may add a humble unit in helping to keep _his_ memory green, and that
+it may be a useful and acceptable companion to pilgrims, not only of our
+own country, but also from that still "Greater Britain," where "All the
+Year Round" the name of Charles Dickens is almost a dearer "Household
+Word" than it is with us.
+
+                                                 WILLIAM R. HUGHES.
+
+   WOOD HOUSE, HANDSWORTH WOOD,
+          near BIRMINGHAM.
+          _30th September, 1891._
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+  CHAP.                                                    PAGE
+
+        PREFACE                                             vii
+
+     I. INTRODUCTORY                                          1
+
+    II. A PRELIMINARY TRAMP IN LONDON                         7
+
+   III. ROCHESTER CITY                                       51
+
+    IV. ROCHESTER CASTLE                                     98
+
+     V. ROCHESTER CATHEDRAL                                 111
+
+    VI. RICHARD WATTS'S CHARITY, ROCHESTER                  142
+
+   VII. AN AFTERNOON AT GAD'S HILL PLACE                    161
+
+  VIII. CHARLES DICKENS AND STROOD                          211
+
+    IX. CHATHAM:--ST. MARY'S CHURCH, ORDNANCE TERRACE,
+            THE HOUSE ON THE BROOK, THE MITRE HOTEL, AND
+            FORT PITT. LANDPORT:--PORTSEA, HANTS            251
+
+     X. AYLESFORD, TOWN MALLING, AND MAIDSTONE              288
+
+    XI. BROADSTAIRS, MARGATE, AND CANTERBURY                317
+
+   XII. COOLING, CLIFFE, AND HIGHAM                         349
+
+  XIII. COBHAM PARK AND HALL, THE LEATHER BOTTLE, SHORNE,
+            CHALK, AND THE DOVER ROAD                       376
+
+   XIV. A FINAL TRAMP IN ROCHESTER AND LONDON               405
+
+        INDEX                                               427
+
+
+
+
+LIST
+
+OF
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+  PAGE
+
+  THE MARSHES, COOLING                                  _Frontispiece_
+                _F. G. Kitton_ (from a Sketch by _E. L. Meadows_)
+
+  HEADPIECE, "HUMOUR" (From two Statuettes of "Mr. Pickwick"
+      and "Sam Weller" in Crown Derby Ware)
+                                       Engraved by _R. Langton_  xvii
+
+  THE GOLDEN CROSS                              _Herbert Railton_  10
+
+  YOUNG DICKENS AT THE BLACKING WAREHOUSE            _F. Barnard_  12
+
+  FOUNTAIN COURT, TEMPLE                       _C. A. Vanderhoof_  16
+
+  STAPLE INN, HOLBORN                             "      "         21
+
+  BARNARD'S INN                                 _Herbert Railton_  23
+
+  DICKENS'S HOUSE, FURNIVAL'S INN                   "      "       25
+
+  NO. 48, DOUGHTY STREET                               _J. Grego_  28
+
+  TAVISTOCK HOUSE, TAVISTOCK SQUARE                  _J. Liddell_  30
+
+  NO. 141, BAYHAM STREET                           _F. G. Kitton_  37
+
+  NO. 1, DEVONSHIRE TERRACE                    _D. Maclise, R.A._  40
+
+  FAC-SIMILE OF LETTER, CHARLES DICKENS                            43
+
+  APOTHEOSIS OF "GRIP" THE RAVEN               _D. Maclise, R.A._  45
+
+  "MY MAGNIFICENT ORDER AT THE PUBLIC HOUSE"               _Phiz_  49
+
+  BULL INN, ROCHESTER--"GOOD HOUSE, NICE BEDS"   _Herbert Railton_  56
+
+  STAIRCASE AT "THE BULL"                           _F. G. Kitton_  58
+
+  THE "ELEVATED DEN" IN THE BALL-ROOM, "BULL INN"   _F. G. Kitton_  61
+
+  OLD ROCHESTER BRIDGE                           _Herbert Railton_  68
+
+  THE GUILDHALL, ROCHESTER                           _F. G. Kitton_  71
+
+  THE "MOON-FACED" CLOCK IN HIGH STREET                "     "       72
+
+  IN HIGH STREET, ROCHESTER                            "     "       73
+
+  EASTGATE HOUSE, ROCHESTER                            "     "       74
+
+  MR. SAPSEA'S HOUSE, ROCHESTER                        "     "       76
+
+  MR. SAPSEA'S FATHER                (After sketch by _H. Wickham_)  77
+
+  RESTORATION HOUSE, ROCHESTER                       _F. G. Kitton_  79
+
+  OLD ROCHESTER THEATRE, STAR HILL                        _W. Hull_  84
+
+  THE CASTLE FROM ROCHESTER BRIDGE                   _F. G. Kitton_  99
+
+  THE KEEP OF ROCHESTER CASTLE                   _Herbert Railton_  101
+
+  INTERIOR OF ROCHESTER CASTLE                      _F. G. Kitton_  105
+
+  ROCHESTER CASTLE AND THE MEDWAY                     "      "      109
+
+  ROCHESTER CATHEDRAL                                 "      "      112
+
+  ROCHESTER CATHEDRAL, INTERIOR                       "      "      115
+
+  THE CRYPT, ROCHESTER CATHEDRAL                            _Phiz_  118
+
+  MINOR CANON ROW, ROCHESTER                        _F. G. Kitton_  123
+
+  COLLEGE GATE (OR "CHERTSEY'S" GATE), ROCHESTER       "     "      125
+
+  PRIOR'S GATE, ROCHESTER                              "     "      126
+
+  DEANERY GATE, ROCHESTER                              "     "      128
+
+  THE VINES AND RESTORATION HOUSE, ROCHESTER           "     "      131
+
+  RESTORATION HOUSE, AS IT APPEARED IN DICKENS'S TIME
+                           (Engraved from a Drawing by an Amateur)  133
+
+  ST. NICHOLAS' BURYING-GROUND                      _F. G. Kitton_  136
+
+  MEMORIAL BRASS IN ROCHESTER CATHEDRAL                             138
+
+  THE "SIX POOR TRAVELLERS"                         _F. G. Kitton_  143
+
+  RICHARD WATTS'S ALMSHOUSES, ROCHESTER                "     "      149
+
+  FAC-SIMILES OF SIGNATURES OF CHARLES DICKENS AND MARK LEMON       151
+
+  THE "SIX POOR TRAVELLERS" FROM THE REAR           _F. G. Kitton_  153
+
+  A DORMITORY IN THE "SIX POOR TRAVELLERS": GALLERY LEADING
+       TO THE DORMITORIES                           _F. G. Kitton_  154
+
+  SATIS HOUSE                                  (From a Photograph)  156
+
+  WATTS'S MONUMENT IN ROCHESTER CATHEDRAL             _R. Langton_  157
+
+  ROCHESTER FROM STROOD HILL                         _C. Marshall_  162
+
+  THE "SIR JOHN FALSTAFF" INN, GAD'S HILL            _F. G. Kitton_  164
+
+  GAD'S HILL PLACE                                     "     "       166
+
+  "THE EMPTY CHAIR." GAD'S HILL, NINTH OF JUNE, 1870
+          _F. G. Kitton_ (from the Drawing by _S. L. Fildes, R.A._)  170
+
+  COUNTERFEIT BOOK-BACKS ON STUDY DOOR                 _R. Langton_  172
+
+  GAD'S HILL PLACE FROM THE REAR                       _J. Liddell_  177
+
+  "THE GRAVE OF DICK, THE BEST OF BIRDS"             _F. G. Kitton_  178
+
+  THE WELL AT GAD'S HILL PLACE                         "     "       181
+
+  THE PORCH, GAD'S HILL PLACE                          _J. Liddell_  183
+
+  THE CEDARS, GAD'S HILL                                  _E. Hull_  185
+
+  VIEW FROM THE ROOF OF DICKENS'S HOUSE, GAD'S HILL  _F. G. Kitton_  189
+
+  FAC-SIMILES OF _GAD'S HILL GAZETTE_ AND FINAL NOTICE           199-203
+
+  TEMPLE FARM, STROOD                                _F. G. Kitton_  213
+
+  AT TEMPLE FARM, STROOD                               "     "       214
+
+  CRYPT, TEMPLE FARM                                   "     "       215
+
+  THE "CRISPIN AND CRISPIANUS," STROOD                 "     "       218
+
+  OLD QUARRY HOUSE, STROOD                             "     "       236
+
+  FRINDSBURY CHURCH                                    "     "       239
+
+  ROCHESTER FROM STROOD PIER                           "     "       245
+
+  ST. MARY'S CHURCH, CHATHAM                            _W. Dadson_  256
+
+  NO. 11, ORDNANCE TERRACE, CHATHAM                       _E. Hull_  259
+
+  THE HOUSE ON THE BROOK, CHATHAM                               "    260
+
+  GILES'S SCHOOL, CHATHAM                                       "    261
+
+  MITRE INN, CHATHAM                                            "    263
+
+  NAVY-PAY OFFICE, CHATHAM                                      "    275
+
+  FORT PITT, CHATHAM                              _Herbert Railton_  277
+
+  BIRTHPLACE OF CHARLES DICKENS, PORTSEA        (From a Photograph)  281
+
+  ST. MARY'S CHURCH, PORTSEA                           _R. Langton_  285
+
+  AYLESFORD                                          _F. G. Kitton_  289
+
+  AYLESFORD BRIDGE                                     "     "       291
+
+  THE HIGH STREET, TOWN MALLING                   _Herbert Railton_  293
+
+  COB TREE HALL                                      _F. G. Kitton_  297
+
+  CRICKET GROUND, TOWN MALLING                          "     "      302
+
+  THE MEDWAY AT MAIDSTONE                               "     "      307
+
+  CHILLINGTON MANOR HOUSE, MAIDSTONE                    "     "      310
+
+  KIT'S COTY HOUSE                                      "     "      312
+
+  KIT'S COTY HOUSE AND "BLUE BELL"                      "     "      315
+                                       (From the Painting by Gegan)
+  HOP-PICKING IN KENT                                _F. G. Kitton_  319
+
+  "BLEAK HOUSE," BROADSTAIRS                            "     "      328
+
+  OLD LOOK-OUT HOUSE, BROADSTAIRS                       "     "      332
+
+  THE "FALSTAFF," WESTGATE, CANTERBURY                  "     "      335
+
+  THE "DANE JOHN" FROM THE CITY WALL, CANTERBURY        "     "      337
+
+  BELL HARRY TOWER, CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL                "     "      339
+
+  SCENE OF THE MARTYRDOM, CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL          "     "      341
+
+  "BITS" OF OLD CANTERBURY                       _C. A. Vanderhoof_  342
+
+  "THE LITTLE INN," CANTERBURY                       _F. G. Kitton_  345
+
+  GRAVES OF THE COMPORT FAMILY, COOLING CHURCHYARD      "     "      353
+
+  COOLING CHURCH                                 _C. A. Vanderhoof_  355
+
+  GATEWAY, COOLING CASTLE                            _F. G. Kitton_  359
+
+  CLIFFE CHURCH                                         "     "      361
+
+  COBHAM HALL                                     _Herbert Railton_  381
+
+  DICKENS'S CH�LET, NOW IN COBHAM PARK                 _J. Liddell_  384
+
+  THE "LEATHER BOTTLE," COBHAM                       _F. G. Kitton_  387
+
+  THE OLD PARLOUR OF THE "LEATHER BOTTLE"                 _E. Hull_  389
+
+  COBHAM CHURCH                                   _Herbert Railton_  390
+
+  SHORNE CHURCH                                      _F. G. Kitton_  392
+
+  CURIOUS OLD FIGURE OVER THE PORCH, CHALK CHURCH    _F. G. Kitton_  394
+
+  "THERE'S MILESTONES ON THE DOVER ROAD"                "     "      400
+
+  DOORWAY, ROCHESTER CATHEDRAL                          "     "      407
+
+  FAC-SIMILES OF CHARLES DICKENS'S HANDWRITING 1837, 1850,
+      1854, 1870                                                  418-20
+
+  THE GRAVE IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY                     _F. G. Kitton_  425
+
+  TAILPIECE, "PATHOS"  (From two Plaques of the "Old Man"
+      and "Little Nell" in Wedgwood Ware)    Engraved by _R. Langton_ xx
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+A WEEK'S TRAMP
+
+IN
+
+DICKENS-LAND.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+INTRODUCTORY.
+
+        "So wishing you well in the way you go, we now
+          conclude with the observation, that perhaps you'll
+          go it."--_Our Mutual Friend._
+
+
+AMONG the many interesting books that have been published relating to
+Charles Dickens since his death, more than twenty years ago (it seems
+but yesterday to some of his admirers), there are at least half a dozen
+that describe the "country" peopled by the deathless characters created
+by his genius.
+
+Probably the pioneer in this class of literature was that comprehensive
+work, _Dickens's London, or London in the Works of Charles Dickens_, by
+my friend, that thorough Dickensian, Mr. T. Edgar Pemberton, 1876; this
+was followed by a very readable volume, _In Kent with Charles Dickens_,
+by Thomas Frost, 1880; then came a dainty tome from Boston, U.S.A.,
+entitled, _A Pickwickian Pilgrimage_, by John R. G. Hassard, 1881.
+Afterwards appeared _The Childhood and Youth of Charles Dickens_, by
+Robert Langton, 1883, beautifully illustrated by the late William Hull
+of Manchester, the author, and others--a work developed from the
+_brochure_ by the same author, _Charles Dickens and Rochester_, 1880,
+which has passed through five editions. Next to Forster's _Life of
+Dickens_, Mr. Robert Langton's larger work undoubtedly ranks--especially
+from the richness of the illustrations--as a very valuable original
+contribution to the biography of the great novelist. Another handsome
+volume, containing the illustrations to a series of papers in
+_Scribner's Monthly_--written by B. E. Martin--entitled _About England
+with Dickens_, came from the pen of Mr. Alfred Rimmer, 1883, and
+included additional illustrations drawn by the author, C. A. Vanderhoof,
+and others. Yet another little _brochure_ recently appeared, called
+_London Rambles en zigzag with Charles Dickens_, by Robert Allbut, 1886.
+Lastly, there was published in the Christmas Number of _Scribner's
+Magazine_, 1887, an article, "In Dickens-Land," by Edward Percy Whipple,
+in which this veteran and appreciative critic of the eminent English
+writer's works points out that, "In addition to the practical life that
+men and women lead, constantly vexed as it is by obstructive facts,
+there is an interior life which they _imagine_, in which facts smoothly
+give way to sentiments, ideas, and aspirations. Dickens has, in short,
+discovered and colonized one of the waste districts of 'Imagination,'
+which we may call 'Dickens-Land,' or 'Dickens-Ville,' . . . better known
+than such geographical countries as Canada and Australia, . . . and
+confirming us in the belief of the _reality_ of a population which has
+no _actual_ existence."
+
+It must not be assumed that the above list exhausts the literature on
+the subject of "Dickens-Land," many references to which are made in such
+high-class works as Augustus J. C. Hare's _Walks in London_, and
+Lawrence Hutton's _Literary Landmarks of London_.
+
+Since the above was written, a very interesting and prettily illustrated
+article has appeared in the _English Illustrated Magazine_ for October,
+1888, entitled "Charles Dickens and Southwark," by Mr. J. Ashby-Sterry,
+who is second to none as an enthusiastic admirer and loyal student of
+Dickens. There is also a paper in _Longman's Magazine_ for the same
+month, by the delightful essayist A. K. H. B., called "That Longest
+Day," in which there are several allusions to Dickens and
+"Dickens-Land." It, however, lacks the freshness of his earlier
+writings. Surely he must have lost his old love for Dickens, or things
+must have gone wrong at the Ecclesiastical Conference which took place
+at Gravesend on "That Longest Day." Altogether it is pitched in a minor
+key.
+
+None of these contributions (with the exception of Mr. Langton's book),
+interesting as they are, and indispensable to the collector, attempt in
+any way to give personal reminiscences of Charles Dickens from friends
+or others, nor do they in any way help to throw light on his everyday
+life at home, beyond what was known before.
+
+The circumstances narrated in this work do not concern the imaginary
+"Dickens-Land" of Mr. Whipple, but refer to the actual country in which
+the imaginary characters played their parts, and to that still more
+interesting actual country in which Dickens lived long and loved
+most--the county of Kent.
+
+On Friday, 24th August, 1888, two friends met in London--one of them,
+the writer of these lines, a Dickens collector of some years'
+experience; the other, Mr. F. G. Kitton, author of that sumptuous work,
+_Charles Dickens by Pen and Pencil_; both ardent admirers of "the
+inimitable 'Boz,'" and lovers of nature and art.
+
+We were a sort of self-constituted roving commission, to carry into
+effect a long-projected intention to make a week's tramp in
+"Dickens-Land," for purposes of health and recreation; to visit Gad's
+Hill, Rochester, Chatham, and neighbouring classical ground; to go over
+and verify some of the most important localities rendered famous in the
+novels; to identify, if possible, doubtful spots; and to glean, under
+whatever circumstances naturally developed in the progress of our tramp,
+additions in any form to the many interesting memorials already
+published, and still ever growing, relating to the renowned novelist.
+The idea of recording our reminiscences was not a primary consideration.
+It grew out of our experiences, generating a desire for others to become
+acquainted with the results of our enjoyable peregrinations; and the
+labour therein involved has been somewhat of the kind described by Lewis
+Morris:--
+
+          "For this of old is sure,
+           That change of toil is toil's sufficient cure."
+
+We mixed with representatives of the classes of domestics, labourers,
+artizans, traders, professional men, and scientists. Many of those whom
+we met were advanced in years,--several were octogenarians,--and there
+is no doubt that we have been the means of placing on record here and
+there an interesting item from the past generation (mostly told in the
+exact words of the narrators) that might otherwise have perished. This
+is a special feature of this work, which makes it different from all
+the preceding. In every instance we were received with very great
+kindness, courtesy, and attention. The replies to our questions were
+frank and generous, and in several cases permission was accorded us to
+make copies of original documents not hitherto made public.
+
+Considering that almost every inch of ground connected with Dickens has
+been so thoroughly explored, we were, on the whole, quite satisfied with
+our excursion: "the results were equal to the appliances."
+
+By a coincidence, the month which we selected (August) was Dickens's
+favourite month, if we may judge from the opening sentences of the
+sixteenth chapter of _Pickwick_:--
+
+          "There is no month in the whole year, in which
+          nature wears a more beautiful appearance than in
+          the month of August. Spring has many beauties, and
+          May is a fresh and blooming month, but the charms
+          of this time of year are enhanced by their
+          contrast with the winter season. August has no
+          such advantage. It comes when we remember nothing
+          but clear skies, green fields, and sweet-smelling
+          flowers--when the recollection of snow, and ice,
+          and bleak winds, has faded from our minds as
+          completely as they have disappeared from the
+          earth,--and yet what a pleasant time it is.
+          Orchards and cornfields ring with the hum of
+          labour; trees bend beneath the thick clusters of
+          rich fruit which bow their branches to the ground;
+          and the corn, piled in graceful sheaves, or waving
+          in every light breath that sweeps above it, as if
+          it wooed the sickle, tinges the landscape with a
+          golden hue. A mellow softness appears to hang over
+          the whole earth; the influence of the season seems
+          to extend itself to the very wagon, whose slow
+          motion across the well-reaped field, is
+          perceptible only to the eye, but strikes with no
+          harsh sound upon the ear."
+
+By another coincidence, the day which we selected to commence our tramp
+was Friday--the day upon which most of the important incidents of
+Dickens's life happened, as appears from frequent references in
+Forster's _Life_ to the subject.
+
+Provided with a selection of books inseparably connected with the
+subject of our tour, including, of course, copies of _Pickwick_, _Great
+Expectations_, _Edwin Drood_, _The Uncommercial Traveller_, Bevan's
+_Tourist's Guide to Kent_, one or two local Handbooks, one of Bacon's
+useful cycling maps, with a sketch map of the geology of the district
+(which greatly helped us to understand many of its picturesque effects,
+and was kindly furnished by Professor Lapworth, LL.D., F.R.S., of the
+Mason College, Birmingham), and with a pocket aneroid barometer, which
+every traveller should possess himself with if he wishes to make
+convenient arrangements as regards weather, we make a preliminary tramp
+in London.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+A PRELIMINARY TRAMP IN LONDON.
+
+        "We Britons had at that time particularly settled
+          that it was treasonable to doubt our having and
+          our being the best of everything: otherwise, while
+          I was scared by the immensity of London, I think I
+          might have had some faint doubts whether it was
+          not rather ugly, crooked, narrow, and
+          dirty."--_Great Expectations._
+
+
+SOME sixty or seventy years must have elapsed since Dickens (through the
+mouthpiece of Pip, as above) recorded his first impressions of London;
+and although he lived in it many years, and in after life he loved to
+study its people in every stratum of society and every phase of their
+existence, it seems doubtful, apart from these studies, whether he ever
+really liked London itself, for in the _Uncommercial Traveller_, on "The
+Boiled Beef of New England," in describing London as it existed
+subsequently, he contrasts it unfavourably in some respects, not only
+with such continental cities as Paris, Bordeaux, Frankfort, Milan,
+Geneva, and Rome, but also with such British cities as Edinburgh,
+Aberdeen, Exeter, and Liverpool, with such American cities as New York,
+Boston, and Philadelphia, and with "a bright little town like Bury St.
+Edmunds." Nevertheless, it is indubitable that his writings, beyond
+those of any other author, have done wonders to popularize our
+knowledge of London,--more particularly the London of the latter half of
+the last and the first half of the present century,--and that those
+writings have given it a hold on our affections which it might not
+otherwise have acquired. In almost all his works we are introduced to a
+fresh spot in the Metropolis, perhaps previously known to us, but to
+which the fidelity of his descriptions and the reality of the characters
+peopling it, certainly give a historical value never before understood
+or appreciated. In _The Life of Charles Dickens_, written by his devoted
+friend, John Forster, may be found a corroboration of this view:--
+
+"There seemed," says this biographer, "to be not much to add to our
+knowledge of London until his books came upon us, but each in this
+respect outstripped the other in its marvels. In _Nickleby_, the old
+city reappears under every aspect; and whether warmth and light are
+playing over what is good and cheerful in it, or the veil is uplifted
+from its darker scenes, it is at all times our privilege to see and feel
+it as it absolutely is. Its interior hidden life becomes familiar as its
+commonest outward forms, and we discover that we hardly knew anything of
+the places we supposed that we knew the best."
+
+What Scott did for Edinburgh and the Trossachs, Dickens did for London
+and the county of Kent. His fascination for the London streets has been
+dwelt on by many an author. Mr. Frank T. Marzials says in his
+interesting _Life of Charles Dickens_:--
+
+"London remained the walking-ground of his heart. As he liked best to
+walk in London, so he liked best to walk at night. The darkness of the
+great city had a strange fascination for him. He never grew tired of
+it."
+
+Mr. Sala records that he had been encountered "in the oddest places and
+in the most inclement weather: in Ratcliff Highway, on Haverstock Hill,
+on Camberwell Green, in Gray's Inn Lane, in the Wandsworth Road, at
+Hammersmith Broadway, in Norton Folgate, and at Kensal New Town. A
+hansom whirled you by the 'Bell and Horns' at Brompton, and there was
+Charles Dickens striding as with seven-leagued boots, seemingly in the
+direction of North End, Fulham. The Metropolitan Railway disgorged you
+at Lisson Grove, and you met Charles Dickens plodding sturdily towards
+the 'Yorkshire Stingo.' He was to be met rapidly skirting the grim brick
+wall of the prison in Coldbath Fields, or trudging along the Seven
+Sisters' Road at Holloway, or bearing under a steady press of sail
+through Highgate Archway, or pursuing the even tenor of his way up the
+Vauxhall Bridge Road."
+
+That his feelings were intensely sympathetic with all classes of
+humanity there is amply evidenced in the following lines, written so far
+back as 1841, which Master Humphrey, "from his clock side in the chimney
+corner," speaks in the last page before the opening of _Barnaby
+Rudge_:--
+
+          "Heart of London, there is a moral in thy every
+          stroke! as I look on at thy indomitable working,
+          which neither death, nor press of life, nor grief,
+          nor gladness out of doors will influence one jot,
+          I seem to hear a voice within thee which sinks
+          into my heart, bidding me, as I elbow my way among
+          the crowd, have some thought for the meanest
+          wretch that passes, and, being a man, to turn away
+          with scorn and pride from none that bear the human
+          shape."
+
+On a sultry day, such as this of Friday, the 24th August, 1888, with the
+thermometer at nearly 80 degrees in the shade, one needs some enthusiasm
+to undertake a tramp for a few hours over the hot and dusty streets of
+London, that we may glance at a few of the memorable spots that we have
+visited over and over again before. This preliminary tramp is therefore
+necessarily limited to visiting the houses where Dickens lived, from the
+year 1836 until he finally left it in 1860, on disposing of Tavistock
+House, and took up his residence at Gad's Hill Place. In our way we
+shall take a few of the places rendered famous in the novels, but it
+would require a "knowledge of London" as "extensive and peculiar" as
+that of Mr. Weller, and would occupy a week at least, to exhaust the
+interest of all these associations.
+
+[Illustration: The Golden Cross.]
+
+Our temporary quarters are at our favourite "Morley's," in Trafalgar
+Square, one of those old-fashioned, comfortable hotels of the last
+generation, where the guest is still known as "Mr. H.," and not as
+"Number 497." And what is very relevant to our present purpose, Morley's
+revives associations of the hotels, or "Inns," as they were more
+generally called in Charles Dickens's early days. Strolling from
+Morley's eastward along the Strand, to which busy thoroughfare there are
+numerous references in the works of Dickens, we pass on our left the
+Golden Cross Hotel, a great coaching-house half a century ago, from
+whence the Pickwickians and Mr. Jingle started, on the 13th of May,
+1827, by the "Commodore" coach for Rochester. "The low archway," against
+which Mr. Jingle thus prudently cautioned the passengers,--"Heads!
+Heads! Take care of your heads!" with the addition of a very tragic
+reference to the head of a family, was removed in 1851, and the hotel
+has the same appearance now that it presented after that alteration. The
+house was a favourite with David Copperfield, who stayed there with his
+friend Steerforth on his arrival "outside the Canterbury coach;" and it
+was in one of the public rooms here, approached by "a side entrance to
+the stable-yard," that the affecting interview took place with his
+humble friend Mr. Peggotty, as touchingly recorded in the fortieth
+chapter of _David Copperfield_. The two famous "pudding shops" in the
+Strand, so minutely described in connection with David's early days,
+have of course long been removed:--
+
+          "One was in a court close to St. Martin's
+          Church--at the back of the Church,--which is now
+          removed altogether. The pudding at that shop was
+          made of currants, and was rather a special
+          pudding, but was dear, two pennyworth not being
+          larger than a pennyworth of more ordinary pudding.
+          A good shop for the latter was in the
+          Strand,--somewhere in that part which has been
+          rebuilt since. It was a stout pale pudding, heavy
+          and flabby, and with great flat raisins in it,
+          stuck in whole at wide distances apart. It came up
+          hot at about my time every day, and many a day did
+          I dine off it."
+
+[Illustration: Young Dickens at the Blacking Warehouse.]
+
+Nearly opposite the Golden Cross Hotel is Craven Street, where (says Mr.
+Allbut), at No. 39, Mr. Brownlow in _Oliver Twist_ resided after
+removing from Pentonville, and where the villain Monks was confronted,
+and made a full confession of his guilt.
+
+"Ruminating on the strange mutability of human affairs," after the
+manner of Mr. Pickwick, we call to mind, on the same side of the way,
+Hungerford Stairs, Market, and Bridge, all well remembered in the days
+of our youth, but now swept away to make room for the commodious railway
+terminus at Charing Cross. Here poor David Copperfield "served as a
+labouring hind," and acquired his grim experience with poverty in
+Murdstone and Grinby's (_alias_ Lamert's) Blacking Warehouse. Hungerford
+Suspension Bridge many years ago was removed to Clifton, and we never
+pass by it on the Great Western line without recalling recollections of
+poor David's sorrows.
+
+Next in order comes Buckingham Street, at the end house of which, on the
+east side (No. 15), lived Mrs. Crupp, who let apartments to David
+Copperfield in happier days. Here he had his "first dissipation," and
+entertained Steerforth and his two friends, Mrs. Crupp imposing on him
+frightfully as regards the dinner; "the handy young man" and the "young
+gal" being equally troublesome as regards the waiting. The description
+of "my set of chambers" in _David Copperfield_ seems to point to the
+possibility of Dickens having resided here, but there is no evidence to
+prove it. At Osborn's Hotel, now the Adelphi, in John Street, Mr. Wardle
+and his daughter Emily stayed on their visit to London, after Mr.
+Pickwick was released from the Fleet Prison.
+
+Durham Street, a little further to the right, leads to the "dark
+arches," which had attractions for David Copperfield, who "was fond of
+wandering about the Adelphi, because it was a mysterious place with
+those dark arches." He says:--"I see myself emerging one evening from
+out of these arches, on a little public-house, close to the river, with
+a space before it, where some coal-heavers were dancing." Nearly
+opposite is the Adelphi Theatre, notable as having been the stage
+whereon most of the dramas founded on Dickens's works were first
+produced, from _Nicholas Nickleby_ in 1838, in which Mrs. Keeley, John
+Webster, and O. Smith took part, down to 1867, when _No Thoroughfare_
+was performed, "the only story," says Mr. Forster, "Dickens himself ever
+helped to dramatize," and which was rendered with such fine effect by
+Fechter, Benjamin Webster, Mrs. Alfred Mellon, and other important
+actors. He certainly assisted in Madame Celeste's production of _A Tale
+of Two Cities_, even if he had no actual part in the writing of the
+piece.
+
+Mr. Allbut thinks that the residence of Miss La Creevy, the good-natured
+miniature painter (whose prototype was Miss Barrow, Dickens's aunt on
+his mother's side) in _Nicholas Nickleby_, was probably at No. 111,
+Strand. It was "a private door about half-way down that crowded
+thoroughfare."
+
+We proceed onwards, passing Wellington Street North, where at No. 16,
+the office of the famous _Household Words_ formerly stood; _All the Year
+Round_, its successor, conducted by Mr. Charles Dickens, the novelist's
+eldest son, now being at No. 26 in the same street.
+
+A little further on, on the same side of the way, and almost facing
+Somerset House, at No. 332, was the office of the once celebrated
+_Morning Chronicle_, on the staff of which Dickens in early life worked
+as a reporter. The _Chronicle_ was a great power in its day, when Mr.
+John Black ("Dear old Black!" Dickens calls him, "my first hearty
+out-and-out appreciator, . . . with never-forgotten compliments . . .
+coming in the broadest of Scotch from the broadest of hearts I ever
+knew,") was editor, and Mr. J. Campbell, afterwards Lord Chief-Justice
+Campbell, its chief literary critic. The _Chronicle_ died in 1862.
+
+The west corner of Arundel Street (No. 186, Strand, where now stand the
+extensive premises of Messrs. W. H. Smith and Son) was formerly the
+office of Messrs. Chapman and Hall, the publishers of almost all the
+original works of Charles Dickens. After 1850 the firm removed to 193,
+Piccadilly, their present house being at 11, Henrietta Street, Covent
+Garden. They own the copyright, and publish all Dickens's works; and
+they estimate that two million copies of _Pickwick_[1] have been sold in
+England alone, exclusive of the almost innumerable popular editions,
+from one penny upwards, published by other firms, the copyright of this
+work having expired. The penny edition was sold by hundreds of thousands
+in the streets of London some years ago.
+
+This statement will probably be surprising to the remarkable class of
+readers thus described by that staunch admirer of Dickens, Mr. Andrew
+Lang, in "Phiz," one of his charming _Lost Leaders_. He says:--
+
+"It is a singular and gloomy feature in the character of young ladies
+and gentlemen of a particular type, that they have ceased to care for
+Dickens, as they have ceased to care for Scott. They say they cannot
+read Dickens. When Mr. Pickwick's adventures are presented to the modern
+maid, she behaves like the Cambridge freshman. 'Euclide viso, cohorruit
+et evasit.' When he was shown Euclid he evinced dismay, and sneaked off.
+Even so do most young people act when they are expected to read
+_Nicholas Nickleby_ and _Martin Chuzzlewit_. They call these
+master-pieces 'too gutterly gutter'; they cannot sympathize with this
+honest humour and conscious pathos. Consequently the innumerable
+references to Sam Weller, and Mrs. Gamp, and Mr. Pecksniff, and Mr.
+Winkle, which fill our ephemeral literature, are written for these
+persons in an unknown tongue. The number of people who could take a good
+pass in Mr. Calverley's _Pickwick_ Examination Paper is said to be
+diminishing. Pathetic questions are sometimes put. Are we not too much
+cultivated? Can this fastidiousness be anything but a casual passing
+phase of taste? Are all people over thirty who cling to their Dickens
+and their Scott old fogies? Are we wrong in preferring them to _Bootles'
+Baby_, and _The Quick or the Dead_, and the novels of M. Paul Bourget?"
+
+[Illustration: Fountain Court, Temple.]
+
+But this by the way. Turning down Essex Street, we visit the Temple,
+celebrated in several of Dickens's novels--_Barnaby Rudge_, _A Tale of
+Two Cities_, _Great Expectations_, and _Our Mutual Friend_,--but in none
+more graphically than in _Martin Chuzzlewit_, in which is described the
+fountain in Fountain Court, where Ruth Pinch goes to meet her lover,
+"coming briskly up, with the best little laugh upon her face that ever
+played in opposition to the fountain; and beat it all to nothing." And
+when John Westlock came at last, "merrily the fountain leaped and
+danced, and merrily the smiling dimples twinkled and expanded more and
+more, until they broke into a laugh against the basin's rim, and
+vanished." As we saw the fountain on the bright August morning of our
+tramp, the few shrubs, flowers, and ferns planted round it gave it quite
+a rural effect, and we wished long life to the solitary specimen of
+eucalyptus, whose glaucous-green leaves and tender shoots seemed
+ill-fitted to bear the nipping frosts of our variable climate.
+
+Coming out of the Temple by Middle Temple Lane, we pass on our left
+Child's Bank, the "Tellson's Bank" of _A Tale of Two Cities_, "which was
+an old-fashioned place even in the year 1780," but was replaced in 1878
+by the handsome building suitable to its imposing neighbours, the Law
+Courts. Temple Bar, which adjoined the Old Bank, and was one of the
+relics of Dickens's London, has passed away, having since been
+re-erected on "Theobalds," near Waltham Cross.
+
+"A walk down Fleet Street"--one of Dr. Johnson's enjoyments--leads us to
+Whitefriars Street, on the east side of which, at No. 67, is the office
+of _The Daily News_, edited by Dickens from 21 Jany. to 9 Feby., 1846,
+and for which he wrote the original prospectus, and subsequently, in a
+series of letters descriptive of his Italian travel, his delightful
+_Pictures from Italy_. St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet Street is supposed
+to have been that immortalized in _The Chimes_.
+
+It was in this street many years before (in the year 1833, when he was
+only twenty-one), as recorded in Forster's _Life_, that Dickens
+describes himself as dropping his first literary sketch, _Mrs. Joseph
+Porter over the Way_, "stealthily one evening at twilight, with fear and
+trembling, into a dark letter-box in a dark office up a dark court in
+Fleet Street; and he has told his agitation when it appeared in all the
+glory of print:--'On which occasion I walked down to Westminster Hall,
+and turned into it for half an hour, because my eyes were so dimmed with
+joy and pride, that they could not bear the street, and were not fit to
+be seen there.'" The "dark court" referred to was no doubt Johnson's
+Court, as the printers of the _Monthly Magazine_, Messrs. Baylis and
+Leighton, had their offices here. This contribution appeared in the
+January number 1834 of this magazine, published by Messrs. Cochrane and
+Macrone of 11 Waterloo Place.
+
+Turning up Chancery Lane, also celebrated in many of Charles Dickens's
+novels, we leave on our left Bell Yard, where lodged the ruined suitor
+in Chancery, poor Gridley, "the man from Shropshire" in _Bleak House_,
+but the yard has, through part of it being required for the New Law
+Courts and other modern improvements, almost lost its identity.
+
+On our right is Old Serjeant's Inn, which leads into Clifford's Inn,
+where the conference took place between John Rokesmith and Mr. Boffin,
+when the former, to the latter's amazement, said:--"If you would try me
+as your Secretary." The place is thus referred to in the eighth chapter
+of _Our Mutual Friend_:--
+
+          "Not very well knowing how to get rid of this
+          applicant, and feeling the more embarrassed
+          because his manner and appearance claimed a
+          delicacy in which the worthy Mr. Boffin feared he
+          himself might be deficient, that gentleman glanced
+          into the mouldy little plantation or cat preserve,
+          of Clifford's Inn, as it was that day, in search
+          of a suggestion. Sparrows were there, dry-rot and
+          wet-rot were there, but it was not otherwise a
+          suggestive spot."
+
+Symond's Inn, described as "a little, pale, wall-eyed, woebegone inn,
+like a large dust-bin of two compartments and a sifter,"--where Mr.
+Vholes had his chambers, and where Ada Clare came to live after her
+marriage, there tending lovingly the blighted life of the suitor in
+Jarndyce and Jarndyce, poor Richard Carstone,--exists no more. It
+formerly stood on the site of Nos. 25, 26, and 27, now handsome suites
+of offices.
+
+Lincoln's Inn, a little higher up on the opposite side of the way,
+claims our attention, in the Hall of which was formerly the Lord High
+Chancellor's Court, wherein the wire-drawn Chancery suit of Jarndyce and
+Jarndyce in _Bleak House_ dragged its course wearily along. The offices
+of Messrs. Kenge and Carboy, of Old Square, Solicitors in the famous
+suit, were visited by Esther Summerson, who says:--"We passed into
+sudden quietude, under an old gallery, and drove on through a silent
+square, until we came to an old nook in a corner, where there was an
+entrance up a steep broad flight of stairs like an entrance to a
+church." Mr. Serjeant Snubbin, Mr. Pickwick's counsel in the notorious
+cause of Bardell _v._ Pickwick, also had his chambers in this square. We
+then enter Lincoln's Inn Fields, and pay a visit to No. 58, on the
+furthest or west side near Portsmouth Street. This ancient mansion was
+the residence of Dickens's friend and biographer, John Forster, before
+he went to live at Palace Gate. It is minutely described in the tenth
+chapter of _Bleak House_ as the residence of Mr. Tulkinghorn, "a large
+house, formerly a house of state, . . . let off in sets of chambers now;
+and in those shrunken fragments of its greatness lawyers lie like
+maggots in nuts." The "foreshortened allegory in the person of one
+impossible Roman upside down," who afterwards points to the "new
+meaning" (_i. e._ the murder of Mr. Tulkinghorn) has, it is to be
+regretted, since been whitewashed. On the 30th November, 1844, here
+Dickens read _The Chimes_ to a few intimate friends, an event
+immortalized by Maclise's pencil, and, as appreciative of the feelings
+of the audience, Forster alludes "to the grave attention of Carlyle, the
+eager interest of Stanfield and Maclise, the keen look of poor Laman
+Blanchard, Fox's rapt solemnity, Jerrold's skyward gaze, and the tears
+of Harness and Dyce."
+
+That celebrated tavern called the "Magpie and Stump," referred to in the
+twenty-first chapter of _Pickwick_,--where that hero spent an
+interesting evening on the invitation of Lowten (Mr. Perker's clerk),
+and heard "the old man's tale about the queer client,"--is supposed to
+have been "The old George the IVth" in Clare Market, close by. Retracing
+our steps through Bishop's Court (where lived Krook the marine-store
+dealer, and in whose house lodged poor Miss Flite and Captain Hawdon,
+_alias_ Nemo) into Chancery Lane, we arrive at the point from whence we
+diverged, and turn into Cursitor Street. Like other places adjacent,
+this street has been subjected to "improvements," and it is scarcely
+possible to trace "Coavinses," so well known to Mr. Harold Skimpole, or
+indeed the place of business and residence of Mr. Snagsby, the
+good-natured law stationer, and his jealous "little woman." It will be
+remembered that it was here the Reverend Mr. Chadband more than once
+"improved a tough subject":--"toe your advantage, toe your profit, toe
+your gain, toe your welfare, toe your enrichment,"--and refreshed his
+own. Thackeray was partial to this neighbourhood, and Rawdon Crawley had
+some painful experiences in Cursitor Street.
+
+[Illustration: Staple Inn, Holborn.]
+
+Bearing round by Southampton Buildings, we reach Staple Inn,--behind the
+most ancient part of Holborn,--originally a hostelry of the merchants of
+the Wool-staple, who were removed to Westminster by Richard II. in 1378.
+At No. 10 in the first court, opposite the pleasant little garden and
+picturesque hall, resided the "angular" but kindly Mr. Grewgious,
+attended by his "gloomy" clerk, Mr. Bazzard, and on the front of the
+house over the door still remains the tablet with the mysterious
+initials:--
+
+              P.
+
+          J.     T.
+
+            1747.
+
+but our enquiries fail to discover their meaning. Dickens humorously
+suggests "Perhaps John Thomas," "Perhaps Joe Tyler," and under hilarious
+circumstances, "Pretty Jolly too," and "Possibly jabbered thus!" They
+are understood to be the initials of the treasurer of the Inn at the
+date above-mentioned. It is interesting to state that the Inn has been
+most appropriately restored by the enterprising Prudential Assurance
+Company, who have recently purchased it; and on the seat in the centre
+of the second Court (facing Holborn), under the plane trees which adorn
+it, were resting a few wayfarers, who seemed to enjoy this thoughtful
+provision made by the present owners. We can picture in one of the
+rooms on the first floor of P. J. T.'s house (very memorable to the
+writer of these lines, some brief part of his early life having been
+passed there), the conference described in the twentieth chapter of
+_Edwin Drood_, between Mr. Grewgious and his charming ward,--so aptly
+pourtrayed by Mr. Luke Fildes in his beautiful drawing, "Mr. Grewgious
+experiences a new sensation,"--as well as all the other scenes which
+took place here.
+
+[Illustration: Barnard's Inn]
+
+Turning into Holborn through the Archway of Staple Inn, and stopping for
+a minute to admire the fine effect of the recently restored
+fourteenth-century old-timbered houses of the Inn which face that
+thoroughfare, a few steps lower down take us to Barnard's Inn, where Pip
+in _Great Expectations_ lodged with his friend Herbert Pocket when he
+came to London. Dickens calls it, "the dingiest collection of shabby
+buildings ever squeezed together in a rank corner as a club for
+tom-cats." Simple-minded Joe Gargery, who visited Pip here, persisted
+for a time in calling it an "hotel," and after his visit thus recorded
+his impressions of the place:--
+
+          "The present may be a werry good inn, and I
+          believe its character do stand i; but I wouldn't
+          keep a pig in it myself--not in the case that I
+          wished him to fatten wholesome and to eat with a
+          meller flavour on him."
+
+A few plane trees--the glory of all squares and open spaces in London,
+where they thrive so luxuriantly--give a rural appearance to this
+crowded place, while the sparrows tenanting them enjoy the sunbeams
+passing through the scanty branches.
+
+Our next halting-place, Furnival's Inn, is one of profound interest to
+all pious pilgrims in "Dickens-Land," for there the genius of the young
+author was first recognized, not only by the novel-reading world, but
+also by his contemporaries in literature. Thackeray generously spoke of
+him as "the young man who came and took his place calmly at the head of
+the whole tribe, and who has kept it."
+
+[Illustration: Dickens House by Furnival's Inn]
+
+Furnival's Inn in Holborn, which stands midway between Barnard's Inn and
+Staple Inn on the opposite side of the way, is famous as having been the
+residence of Charles Dickens in his bachelor days, when a reporter for
+the _Morning Chronicle_. He removed here from his father's lodgings at
+No. 18, Bentinck Street, and had chambers, first the "three pair back"
+(rather gloomy rooms) of No. 13 from Christmas 1834 until Christmas
+1835, when he removed to the "three pair floor south" (bright little
+rooms) of No. 15, the house on the right-hand side of the square having
+Ionic ornamentations, which he occupied from 1835 until his removal to
+No. 48, Doughty Street, in March 1837. The brass-bound iron rail still
+remains, and the sixty stone steps which lead from the ground-floor to
+the top of each house are no doubt the same over which the eager feet
+of the youthful "Boz" often trod. He was married from Furnival's Inn on
+2nd April, 1836, to Catherine, eldest daughter of Mr. George Hogarth,
+his old colleague on the _Morning Chronicle_, the wedding taking place
+at St. Luke's Church, Chelsea, and doubtless lived here in his early
+matrimonial days much in the same way probably as Tommy Traddles did, as
+described in _David Copperfield_. Here the _Sketches by Boz_ were
+written, and most of the numbers of the immortal _Pickwick Papers_, as
+also the lesser works: _Sunday under Three Heads_, _The Strange
+Gentleman_, and _The Village Coquettes_. The quietude of this retired
+spot in the midst of a busy thoroughfare, and its accessibility to the
+_Chronicle_ offices in the Strand, must have been very attractive to the
+young author. His eldest son, the present Mr. Charles Dickens, was born
+here on the 6th January, 1837.
+
+It was in Furnival's Inn, probably in the year 1836, that Thackeray paid
+a visit to Dickens, and thus described the meeting:--
+
+"I can remember, when Mr. Dickens was a very young man, and had
+commenced delighting the world with some charming humorous works in
+covers which were coloured light green and came out once a month, that
+this young man wanted an artist to illustrate his writings; and I
+remember walking up to his chambers in Furnival's Inn, with two or three
+drawings in my hand, which, strange to say, he did not find suitable."
+
+How wonderfully interesting these "two or three drawings" would be now
+if they could be discovered! Of the score or so of "Extra Illustrations"
+to _Pickwick_ which have appeared, surely these (if they were such)
+which Dickens "did not find suitable," combining as they did the genius
+of Dickens and Thackeray, whatever their merits or defects may have
+been, would be most highly prized.
+
+John Westlock, in _Martin Chuzzlewit_, had apartments in Furnival's Inn,
+and was there visited by Tom Pinch. Wood's Hotel occupies a large
+portion of the square, and is mentioned in _The Mystery of Edwin Drood_
+as having been the Inn where Mr. Grewgious took rooms for his charming
+ward Rosa Bud, from whence he ordered for her refreshment, soon after
+her arrival at Staple Inn to escape Jasper's importunities, "a nice
+jumble of all meals," to which it is to be feared she did not do
+justice, and where "at the hotel door he afterwards confided her to the
+Unlimited head chamber-maid."
+
+The Society of Arts have considerately put up on the house No. 15 one of
+their neat terra-cotta memorial tablets with the following
+inscription:--
+
+          CHARLES
+          DICKENS,
+          =Novelist=,
+          Lived here.
+          B. 1812,
+          D. 1870.
+
+We proceed along Holborn, and go up Kingsgate Street, where "Poll
+Sweedlepipe, Barber and Bird Fancier," lived, "next door but one to the
+celebrated mutton-pie shop, and directly opposite the original
+cats'-meat warehouse." The immortal Sairey Gamp lodged on the first
+floor, where doubtless she helped herself from the "chimley-piece"
+whenever she felt "dispoged." Here also the quarrel took place between
+that old lady and her friend Betsey Prig anent that mythical personage,
+"Mrs. Harris." We pass through Red Lion Square and up Bedford Row, and
+after proceeding along Theobald's Road for a short distance, turn up
+John Street, which leads into Doughty Street, where, at No. 48, Charles
+Dickens lived from 1837 to 1839. The house, situated on the east side of
+the street, has twelve rooms, is single-fronted, three-storied, and not
+unlike No. 2, Ordnance Terrace, Chatham. A tiny little room on the
+ground-floor, with a bolt inside in addition to the usual fastening, is
+pointed out as having been the novelist's study. It has an outlook into
+a garden, but of late years this has been much reduced in size. A bill
+in the front window announces "Apartments to let," and they look very
+comfortable. Doughty Street, now a somewhat noisy thoroughfare, must
+have been in Charles Dickens's time a quiet, retired spot. A large pair
+of iron gates reach across the street, guarded by a gate-keeper in
+livery. "It was," says Mr. Marzials in his _Life of Dickens_, "while
+living at Doughty Street that he seems, in great measure, to have formed
+those habits of work and relaxation which every artist fashions so as to
+suit his own special needs and idiosyncrasies. His favourite time for
+work was the morning between the hours of breakfast and lunch; . . . he
+was essentially a day worker and not a night worker. . . . And for
+relaxation and sedative when he had thoroughly worn himself with mental
+toil, he would have recourse to the hardest bodily exercise. . . . At
+first riding seems to have contented him, . . . but soon walking took
+the place of riding, and he became an indefatigable pedestrian. He would
+think nothing of a walk of twenty or thirty miles, and that not merely
+in the vigorous hey-day of youth, but afterwards to the very last. . . ."
+
+[Illustration: No. 48, Doughty Street, Mecklenburgh Square.
+
+_Dickens's Residence_ 1837-9.]
+
+It was at Doughty Street that he experienced a bereavement which
+darkened his life for many years, and to which Forster thus alludes:--
+
+"His wife's next younger sister Mary, who lived with them, and by
+sweetness of nature even more than by graces of person had made herself
+the ideal of his life, died with a terrible suddenness that for a time
+completely bore him down. His grief and suffering were intense, and
+affected him . . . through many after years." _Pickwick_ was temporarily
+suspended, and he sought change of scene at Hampstead. Forster visited
+him there, and to him he opened his heart. He says:--"I left him as much
+his friend, and as entirely in his confidence, as if I had known him for
+years."
+
+[Illustration: Tavistock House, Tavistock Square.
+
+_Dickens's Residence_ 1851-60.]
+
+Some time afterwards, we find him inviting Forster "to join him at 11
+A.M. in a fifteen-mile ride out and ditto in, lunch on the road, with a
+six o'clock dinner in Doughty Street."
+
+Charles Dickens's residence in Doughty Street was but of short
+duration--from 1837 to 1840 only; but there he completed _Pickwick_, and
+wrote _Oliver Twist_, _Memoirs of Grimaldi_, _Sketches of Young
+Gentlemen_, _Sketches of Young Couples_, and _The Life and Adventures of
+Nicholas Nickleby_. His eldest daughter Mary was born here.
+
+In proper sequence we ought to proceed to Dickens's third London
+residence, No. 1, Devonshire Terrace, but it will be more convenient to
+take his fourth residence on our way. We therefore retrace our steps
+into Theobald's Road, pass through Red Lion and Bloomsbury Squares, and
+along Great Russell Street as far as the British Museum, where Dickens
+is still remembered as "a reader" (merely remarking that it of course
+contains a splendid collection of the original impressions of the
+novelist's works, and "Dickensiana," as is evidenced by the
+comprehensive Bibliography furnished by Mr. John P. Anderson, one of the
+librarians, to Mr. Marzials' _Life of Dickens_), which we leave on our
+left, and turn up Montague Street, go along Upper Montague Street,
+Woburn Square, Gordon Square, and reach Tavistock Square, at the upper
+end of which, on the east side, Gordon Place leads us into a retired
+spot cut off as it were from communication with the rest of this quiet
+neighbourhood. Three houses adjoin each other--handsome commodious
+houses, having stone porticos at entrance--and in the first of these,
+Tavistock House, Dickens lived from 1851 until 1860, with intervals at
+Gad's Hill Place. This beautiful house, which has eighteen rooms in it,
+is now the Jews' College. The drawing-room on the first floor still
+contains a dais at one end, and it is said that at a recent public
+meeting held here, three hundred and fifty people were accommodated in
+it, which serves to show what ample quarters Dickens had to entertain
+his friends.
+
+Hans Christian Andersen, who visited Dickens here in 1857, thus
+describes this fine mansion:--
+
+"In Tavistock Square stands Tavistock House. This and the strip of
+garden in front are shut out from the thoroughfare by an iron railing. A
+large garden with a grass-plat and high trees stretches behind the
+house, and gives it a countrified look, in the midst of this coal and
+gas steaming London. In the passage from street to garden hung pictures
+and engravings. Here stood a marble bust of Dickens, so like him, so
+youthful and handsome; and over a bedroom door were inserted the
+bas-reliefs of Night and Day, after Thorwaldsen. On the first floor was
+a rich library, with a fireplace and a writing-table, looking out on the
+garden; and here it was that in winter Dickens and his friends acted
+plays to the satisfaction of all parties. The kitchen was underground,
+and at the top of the house were the bedrooms."
+
+It appears that Andersen was wrong about the plays being acted in the
+"rich library," as I am informed by Mr. Charles Dickens that "the stage
+was in the school-room at the back of the ground-floor, with a platform
+built outside the window for scenic purposes."
+
+With reference to the private theatricals (or "plays," as Andersen calls
+them, including _The Frozen Deep_, by Wilkie Collins, in which Dickens,
+the author, Mark Lemon, and others performed, and for which in the
+matter of the scenery "the priceless help of Stanfield had again been
+secured"), on a temporary difficulty arising as to the arrangements,
+Dickens applied to Mr. Cooke of Astley's, "who drove up in an open
+phaeton drawn by two white ponies with black spots all over them
+(evidently stencilled), who came in at the gate with a little jolt and a
+rattle exactly as they come into the ring when they draw anything, and
+went round and round the centre bed (lilacs and evergreens) of the front
+court, apparently looking for the clown. A multitude of boys, who felt
+them to be no common ponies, rushed up in a breathless state--twined
+themselves like ivy about the railings, and were only deterred from
+storming the enclosure by the Inimitable's eye." Mr. Cooke was not,
+however, able to render any assistance.
+
+Mrs. Arthur Ryland of The Linthurst, near Bromsgrove, Worcestershire,
+who was present at Tavistock House on the occasion of the performance of
+_The Frozen Deep_, informs me that when Dickens returned to the
+drawing-room after the play was over, the constrained expression of face
+which he had assumed in presenting the character of Richard Wardour
+remained for some time afterwards, so strongly did he seem to realize
+the presentment. The other plays performed were _Tom Thumb_, 1854, and
+_The Lighthouse_ and _Fortunus_, 1855.
+
+The following copy of a play-bill--in my collection--of one of these
+performances is certainly worth preserving in a permanent form, for the
+double reason that it is extremely rare, and contains one of Dickens's
+few poetical contributions, _The Song of the Wreck_, which was written
+specially for the occasion.
+
+  The smallest Theatre in the World!
+
+  TAVISTOCK HOUSE.
+
+  _Lessee and Manager_ -- -- -- MR. CRUMMLES.
+
+  On Tuesday evening, June 19th, 1855, will be presented, at exactly
+  eight o'clock,
+  An entirely New and Original
+  Domestic Melo-drama, in Two Acts, by Mr. Wilkie Collins,
+  now first performed, called
+
+  THE LIGHTHOUSE.
+
+  The Scenery painted by Mr. Stanfield, R.A.
+
+  Aaron Gurnock, the head Light-keeper      MR. CRUMMLES.
+
+  Martin Gurnock, his son; the second
+      Light-keeper                          MR. WILKIE COLLINS.
+
+  Jacob Dale, the third Light-keeper        MR. MARK LEMON.
+
+  Samuel Furley, a Pilot                    MR. AUGUSTUS EGG, A.R.A.
+
+  The Relief of Light-keepers, by           MR. CHARLES DICKENS, JUNIOR,
+                                            MR. EDWARD HOGARTH,
+                                            MR. ALFRED AINGER, and
+                                            MR. WILLIAM WEBSTER.
+
+  The Shipwrecked Lady                      MISS HOGARTH.
+
+  Phoebe                                    MISS DICKENS,
+  Who will sing a new Ballad, the music by Mr. Linley, the words
+  by Mr. Crummles, entitled
+
+
+THE SONG OF THE WRECK.
+
+I.
+
+          "The wind blew high, the waters raved,
+             A Ship drove on the land,
+           A hundred human creatures saved,
+             Kneeled down upon the sand.
+           Three-score were drowned, three-score were thrown
+             Upon the black rocks wild;
+           And thus among them left alone,
+             They found one helpless child.
+
+II.
+
+          A Seaman rough, to shipwreck bred,
+            Stood out from all the rest,
+          And gently laid the lonely head
+            Upon his honest breast.
+          And trav'ling o'er the Desert wide,
+            It was a solemn joy,
+          To see them, ever side by side,
+            The sailor and the boy.
+
+III.
+
+          In famine, sickness, hunger, thirst,
+            The two were still but one,
+          Until the strong man drooped the first,
+            And felt his labours done.
+          Then to a trusty friend he spake:
+            'Across this Desert wide,
+          O take the poor boy for my sake!'
+            And kissed the child, and died.
+
+IV.
+
+          Toiling along in weary plight,
+            Through heavy jungle-mire,
+          These two came later every night
+            To warm them at the fire,
+          Until the Captain said one day:
+            'O seaman good and kind,
+          To save thyself now come away
+            And leave the boy behind!'
+
+V.
+
+          The child was slumb'ring near the blaze:
+            'O Captain let him rest
+          Until it sinks, when GOD'S own ways
+            Shall teach us what is best!'
+          They watched the whiten'd ashey heap,
+            They touched the child in vain,
+          They did not leave him there asleep,
+            He never woke again."
+
+
+  Half an hour for Refreshment.
+
+  To conclude with
+  The Guild Amateur Company's Farce, in one act, by Mr. Crummles
+  and Mr. Mark Lemon;
+
+  MR. NIGHTINGALE'S DIARY.
+
+  Mr. Nightingale                          MR. FRANK STONE, A.R.A.
+
+  Mr. Gabblewig, of the Middle Temple    }
+  Charley Bit, a Boots                   }
+  Mr. Poulter, a Pedestrian and cold     }
+    water drinker                        } MR. CRUMMLES.
+  Captain Blower, an invalid             }
+  A Respectable Female                   }
+  A Deaf Sexton                          }
+
+  Tip, Mr. Gabblewig's Tiger             } MR AUGUSTUS EGG, A.R.A.
+  Christopher, a Charity Boy             }
+
+  Slap, Professionally Mr. Flormiville,  }
+    a country actor                      }
+  Mr. Tickle, Inventor of the Celebrated }
+    Compounds                            } MR. MARK LEMON.
+  A Virtuous Young Person in the         }
+    confidence of Maria                  }
+
+  Lithers, Landlord of the Water-lily      MR. WILKIE COLLINS.
+
+  Rosina, Mr. Nightingale's niece          MISS KATE DICKENS.
+
+  Susan her Maid                           MISS HOGARTH.
+
+  Composer and Director of the music, MR. FRANCESCO BERGER, who
+  will preside at the pianoforte.
+
+  Costume makers, MESSRS. NATHAN of Titchbourne Street, Haymarket.
+
+  Perruquier, MR. WILSON, of the Strand.
+
+  Machinery and Properties by MR. IRELAND, of the Theatre Royal,
+  Adelphi.
+
+  _Doors open at half-past seven. Carriages may be ordered at a quarter
+  past eleven._
+
+It was from Tavistock House that Dickens received this startling message
+from a confidential servant:--
+
+"The gas-fitter says, sir, that he can't alter the fitting of your gas
+in your bedroom without taking up almost the ole of your bedroom floor,
+and pulling your room to pieces. He says of course you can have it done
+if you wish, and he'll do it for you and make a good job of it, but he
+would have to destroy your room first, and go entirely under the
+jistes."
+
+The same female, in allusion to Dickens's wardrobe, also said, "Well,
+sir, your clothes is all shabby, and your boots is all burst."
+
+[Illustration: No. 141, Bayham Street, Camden Town,
+
+_where the Dickens Family lived in 1823_.]
+
+Among the important works of Charles Dickens which were wholly or partly
+written at Tavistock House are:--_Bleak House_, _A Child's History of
+England_, _Hard Times_, _Little Dorrit_, _A Tale of Two Cities_, _The
+Uncommercial Traveller_, and _Great Expectations_. _All the Year Round_
+was also determined upon while he lived here, and the first number was
+dated 30th April, 1859.
+
+Tavistock House is the nearest point to Camden Town, interesting as
+being the place where, in 1823, at No. 16 (now No. 141) Bayham Street,
+the Dickens family resided for a short time[2] on leaving Chatham. There
+is an exquisite sketch of the humble little house by Mr. Kitton in his
+_Charles Dickens by Pen and Pencil_, and it is spoken of as being "in
+one of the then poorest parts of the London suburbs." We therefore
+proceed along Gordon Square, and reach Gower Street. At No. 147, Gower
+Street, formerly No. 4, Gower Street North, on the west side, was once
+the elder Mr. Dickens's establishment. The house, now occupied by Mr.
+M�ller, an artificial human eye-maker ("human eyes warious," says Mr.
+Venus), has six rooms, with kitchens in basement. The rooms are rather
+small, each front room having two windows, which in the case of the
+first floor reach from floor to ceiling. It seems to be a comfortable
+house, but has no garden. There is an old-fashioned brass knocker on the
+front door, probably the original one, and there is a dancing academy
+next door. (Query, Mr. Turveydrop's?) The family of the novelist, which
+had removed from Bayham Street, were at this time (1823) in such
+indifferent circumstances that poor Mrs. Dickens had to exert herself
+in adding to the finances by trying to teach, and a school was opened
+for young children at this house, which was decorated with a brass-plate
+on the door, lettered MRS. DICKENS'S ESTABLISHMENT, a faint description
+of which occurs in the fourth chapter of _Our Mutual Friend_, and of its
+abrupt removal "for the interests of all parties." These facts, and also
+that of young Charles Dickens's own efforts to obtain pupils for his
+mother, are alluded to in a letter written by Dickens to Forster in
+later life:--
+
+"I left, at a great many other doors, a great many circulars calling
+attention to the merits of the establishment. Yet nobody ever came to
+school, nor do I ever recollect that anybody ever proposed to come, or
+that the least preparation was made to receive anybody. But I know that
+we got on very badly with the butcher and baker; that very often we had
+not too much for dinner; and that at last my father was arrested."
+
+This period, subsequently most graphically described in _David
+Copperfield_ as the "blacking bottle period," was the darkest in young
+Charles's existence; but happier times and brighter prospects soon came
+to drown the recollections of that bitter experience.
+
+[Illustration: No. 1, Devonshire Terrace, Regent's Park.--_Dickens's
+Residence_ 1839-50.]
+
+Walking up Euston Road from Gower Street, we see St. Pancras Church (not
+the old church of "Saint Pancridge" in the Fields, by the bye, situated
+in the St. Pancras Road, where Mr. Jerry Cruncher and two friends went
+"fishing" on a memorable night, as recorded in _A Tale of Two Cities_,
+when their proceedings, and especially those of his "honoured parent,"
+were watched by young Jerry), and proceed westward along the Marylebone
+Road, called the New Road in Dickens's time, past Park Crescent,
+Regent's Park, and do not stop until we reach No. 1, Devonshire
+Terrace. This commodious double-fronted house, in which Dickens resided
+from 1839 to 1850, is entered at the side, and the front looks into the
+Marylebone Road. Maclise's beautiful sketch of the house (made in 1840),
+as given in Forster's _Life_, shows the windows of the lower and first
+floor rooms as largely bowed, while over the top flat of one of the
+former is a protective iron-work covering, thus allowing the children to
+come out of their nursery on the third floor freely to enjoy the air and
+watch the passers-by. In the sketch Maclise has characteristically put
+in a shuttlecock just over the wall, as though the little ones were
+playing in the garden. Forster calls it "a handsome house with a garden
+of considerable size, shut out from the New Road by a brick wall, facing
+the York Gate into Regent's Park;" and Dickens himself admitted it to be
+"a house of great promise (and great premium), undeniable situation, and
+excessive splendour." That he loved it well is shown by the passage in a
+letter which he addressed to Forster, "in full view of Genoa's perfect
+bay," when about to commence _The Chimes_ (1844); he says:--"Never did I
+stagger so upon a threshold before. I seem as if I had plucked myself
+out of my proper soil when I left Devonshire Terrace, and could take
+root no more until I return to it. . . . Did I tell you how many
+fountains we have here? No matter. If they played nectar, they wouldn't
+please me half so well as the West Middlesex water-works at Devonshire
+Terrace."
+
+Mr. Jonathan Clark, who resides here, kindly shows us over the house,
+which contains thirteen rooms. The polished mahogany doors in the hall,
+and the chaste Italian marble mantel-pieces in the principal rooms, are
+said to have been put up by the novelist. On the ground floor, the
+smaller room to the eastward of the house, with window facing north and
+looking into the pleasant garden where the plane trees and turf are
+beautifully green, is pointed out as having been his study.
+
+Mr. Benjamin Lillie, of 70, High Street, Marylebone, plumber and
+painter, remembers Mr. Dickens coming to Devonshire Terrace. He did a
+good deal of work for him while he lived there, and afterwards, when he
+removed to Tavistock House, including the fitting up of the library
+shelves and the curious counterfeit book-backs, made to conceal the
+backs of the doors. He also removed the furniture to Tavistock House,
+and subsequently to Gad's Hill Place. He spoke of the interest which Mr.
+Dickens used to take in the work generally, and said he would stand for
+hours with his back to the fire looking at the workmen. In the summer
+time he used to lie on the lawn with his pocket-handkerchief over his
+face, and when thoughts occurred to him, he would go into his study, and
+after making notes, would resume his position on the lawn. On the next
+page we give an illustration of the courteous and precise manner--not
+without a touch of humour--in which he issued his orders.
+
+Here it was that Dickens's favourite ravens were kept, in a stable on
+the south side of the garden, one of which died in 1841, it was supposed
+from the effects of paint, or owing to "a malicious butcher," who had
+been heard to say that he "would do for him." His death is described by
+Dickens in a long passage which thus concludes:--
+
+          "On the clock striking twelve he appeared slightly
+          agitated, but he soon recovered, walked twice or
+          thrice along the coach-house, stopped to bark,
+          staggered, exclaimed, '_Holloa, old girl!_' (his
+          favourite expression), and died."
+
+[Illustration:
+
+          3 Hanover Terrace
+                        Friday Tenth May, 1861.
+
+Mr. Lillie
+
+Please make the alteration in the two windows in Wellington Street,
+agreeably to the estimate you have sent me, and to have the work
+completed with all convenient speed. Be so good as to be careful that
+the bottom sashes are capable of being easily raised and the top sashes
+of being easily let down----
+
+                                            Faithfully yours
+                                                   Charles Dickens]
+
+In an interesting letter addressed to Mr. Angus Fletcher, recently in
+the possession of Mr. Arthur Hailstone of Manchester, Dickens further
+describes the event:--"Suspectful of a butcher who had been heard to
+threaten, I had the body opened. There were no traces of poison, and it
+appeared he died of influenza. He has left considerable property,
+chiefly in cheese and halfpence, buried in different parts of the
+garden. The new raven (I have a new one, but he is comparatively of weak
+intellect) administered to his effects, and turns up something every
+day. The last piece of _bijouterie_ was a hammer of considerable size,
+supposed to have been stolen from a vindictive carpenter, who had been
+heard to speak darkly of vengeance down the mews."
+
+Maclise on hearing the news sent to Forster a letter, and a pen-and-ink
+sketch, being the famous "Apotheosis." The second raven died in 1845,
+probably from "having indulged the same illicit taste for putty and
+paint, which had been fatal to his predecessor." Dickens says:--
+
+          "Voracity killed him, as it did Scott's; he died
+          unexpectedly by the kitchen fire. He kept his eye
+          to the last upon the meat as it roasted, and
+          suddenly turned over on his back with a sepulchral
+          cry of '_Cuckoo!_'"
+
+These ravens were of course the two "great originals" of which Grip in
+_Barnaby Rudge_ was the "compound." There was a third raven at Gad's
+Hill, but he "gave no evidence of ever cultivating his mind." The
+novelist's remarkable partiality for ravens called forth at the time the
+preposterous rumour that "Dickens had gone raving (raven) mad."
+
+Here Longfellow visited Dickens in 1841, and thus referred to his
+visit:--"I write this from Dickens's study, the focus from which so many
+luminous things have radiated. The raven croaks in the garden, and the
+ceaseless roar of London fills my ears."
+
+[Illustration: Apotheosis of "Grip" the Raven. Drawn by D. Maclise,
+R.A.]
+
+Dickens lived longer at Devonshire Terrace than he did at any other of
+his London homes, and a great deal of his best work was done here,
+including _Master Humphrey's Clock_ (I. _The Old Curiosity Shop_, II.
+_Barnaby Rudge_), _American Notes_, _Martin Chuzzlewit_, _A Christmas
+Carol_, _The Cricket on the Hearth_, _Dombey and Son_, _The Haunted
+Man_, and _David Copperfield_. _The Battle of Life_ was written at
+Geneva in 1846. All these were published from his twenty-eighth to his
+thirty-eighth year; and _Household Words_, his famous weekly popular
+serial of varied high-class literature, was determined upon here, the
+first number being issued on 30th March, 1850.
+
+From Devonshire Terrace we pass along High Street, and turn into
+Devonshire Street, which leads into Harley Street, minutely described in
+_Little Dorrit_ as the street wherein resided the great financier and
+"master-spirit" Mr. Merdle, who entertained "Bar, Bishop, and the
+Barnacle family" at the "Patriotic conference" recorded in the same
+work, in his noble mansion there, and he subsequently perishes "in the
+warm baths, in the neighbouring street"--as one may say--in the
+luxuriant style in which he had always lived.
+
+Harley Street leads us into Oxford Street, and a pleasant ride outside
+an omnibus--which, as everybody knows, is the best way of seeing
+London--takes us to Hyde Park Place, a row of tall stately houses facing
+Hyde Park. Here at No. 5, (formerly Mr. Milner Gibson's town residence)
+Charles Dickens temporarily resided during the winter months of 1869,
+and occasionally until May 1870, during his readings at St. James's
+Hall, and while he was engaged on _Edwin Drood_, part of which was
+written here; this being illustrative of Dickens's power of
+concentrating his thoughts even near the rattle of a public
+thoroughfare. In a letter addressed to Mr. James T. Fields from this
+house, under date of 14th January, 1870, he says:--"We live here
+(opposite the Marble Arch) in a charming house until the 1st of June,
+and then return to Gad's. . . . I have a large room here with three fine
+windows over-looking the park--unsurpassable for airiness and
+cheerfulness."
+
+A similar public conveyance takes us back to Morley's by way of Regent
+Street, about the middle of which, on the west side, is New Burlington
+Street, containing, at No. 8, the well-known publishing office of
+Messrs. Richard Bentley and Son, whose once celebrated magazine,
+_Bentley's Miscellany_, Dickens edited for a period of two years and two
+months, terminating, 1838, on his resignation of the editorship to Mr.
+W. Harrison Ainsworth; and we also pass lower down, at the bottom of
+Waterloo Place, that most select of clubs, "The Athen�um," at the corner
+of Pall Mall, of which Dickens was elected a member in 1838, and from
+which, on the 20th May, 1870, he wrote his last letter to his son, Mr.
+Alfred Tennyson Dickens, in Australia; and a tenderly loving letter it
+is, indicating the harmonious relations between father and son. It
+expresses the hope that the two (Alfred and "Plorn") "may become
+proprietors," and "aspire to the first positions in the colony without
+casting off the old connection," and thus concludes:--"From Mr. Bear I
+had the best accounts of you. I told him that they did not surprise me,
+for I had unbounded faith in you. For which take my love and blessing."
+Sad to say, a note to this (the last in the series of published letters)
+states:--"This letter did not reach Australia until after these two sons
+of Charles Dickens had heard, by telegraph, the news of their father's
+death."[3]
+
+At Morley's we refresh ourselves with Mr. Sam Weller's idea of a nice
+little dinner, consisting of "pair of fowls and a weal cutlet; French
+beans, taturs, tart and tidiness;" and then depart for Victoria Station,
+to take train by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway to Rochester.
+
+The weather forecast issued by that most valuable institution, the
+Meteorological Office (established since Mr. Pickwick's days, in which
+doubtless as a scientist and traveller he would have taken great
+interest), was verified to the letter, and we had "thunder locally." On
+our way down Parliament Street, we pass Inigo Jones's once splendid
+Whitehall--now looking very insignificant as compared with its grand
+neighbours the Government Offices opposite--remembering Mr. Jingle's
+joke about Whitehall, which seems to have been Dickens's first thought
+of "King Charles's head":--"Looking at Whitehall, Sir--fine
+place--little window--somebody else's head off there, eh, Sir?--he
+didn't keep a sharp look out enough either--eh, Sir, eh?"
+
+We also pass "The Red Lion," No. 48, Parliament Street, "at the corner
+of the very short street leading into Cannon Row," where David
+Copperfield ordered a glass of the very best ale--"The Genuine Stunning
+with a good head to it"--at twopence half-penny the glass, but the
+landlord hesitated to draw it, and gave him a glass of some which he
+suspected was _not_ the "genuine stunning"; and the landlady coming into
+the bar returned his money, and gave him a "kiss that was half-admiring
+and half-compassionate, but all womanly and good [he says], I'm sure."
+
+[Illustration: "My magnificent order at the Public House" (_vide_
+"_David Copperfield_").]
+
+The Horse-Guards' clock is the last noteworthy object, and reminds us
+that Mark Tapley noticed the time there, on the occasion of his last
+meeting with Mary Graham in St. James's Park, before starting for
+America. It also reminds us of Mr. Micawber's maxim, "Procrastination is
+the thief of time--collar him;"--a few minutes afterwards we are
+comfortably seated in the train, and can defy the storm, which overtakes
+us precisely in the manner described in _The Old Curiosity Shop_:--
+
+          "It had been gradually getting overcast, and now
+          the sky was dark and lowering, save where the
+          glory of the departing sun piled up masses of gold
+          and burning fire, decaying embers of which gleamed
+          here and there through the black veil, and shone
+          redly down upon the earth. The wind began to moan
+          in hollow murmurs, as the sun went down, carrying
+          glad day elsewhere; and a train of dull clouds
+          coming up against it menaced thunder and
+          lightning. Large drops of rain soon began to fall,
+          and, as the storm clouds came sailing onward,
+          others supplied the void they left behind, and
+          spread over all the sky. Then was heard the low
+          rumbling of distant thunder, then the lightning
+          quivered, and then the darkness of an hour seemed
+          to have gathered in an instant."
+
+We pass Dulwich,--where Mr. Snodgrass and Emily Wardle were married,--a
+fact that recalls kindly recollections of Mr. Pickwick and his
+retirement there, as recorded in the closing pages of the _Pickwick
+Papers_, where he is described as "employing his leisure hours in
+arranging the memoranda which he afterwards presented to the secretary
+of the once famous club, or in hearing Sam Weller read aloud, with such
+remarks as suggested themselves to his mind, which never failed to
+afford Mr. Pickwick great amusement." He is subsequently described as
+"somewhat infirm now, but he retains all his former juvenility of
+spirit, and may still be frequently seen contemplating the pictures in
+the Dulwich Gallery, or enjoying a walk about the pleasant neighbourhood
+on a fine day."
+
+Although it is but a short distance--under thirty miles--to Rochester,
+the journey seems tedious, as the "iron-horse" does not keep pace with
+the pleasurable feelings of eager expectation afloat in our minds on
+this our first visit to "Dickens-Land"; it is therefore with joyful
+steps that we leave the train, and, the storm having passed away, find
+ourselves in the cool of the summer evening on the platform of Strood
+and Rochester Bridge Station.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] In _The History of Pickwick_, a handsome octavo volume of nearly 400
+pages, just published (1891), Mr. Percy Fitzgerald, the author, who is
+one of the few surviving friends of Charles Dickens, mentions the
+interesting fact that there are 360 characters, 70 episodes, and 22
+inns, described in this wonderful book, written when the author was only
+twenty-four.
+
+[2] Forster (I. 14) infers that the family removed to London in 1821,
+but Mr. Langton considers (_Childhood and Youth of Charles Dickens_,
+1883, pp. 62-3), from the fact of the birth of Dickens's brother Alfred
+having been registered at Chatham on 3rd April, 1822, and from the
+further fact of there being no record of Mr. John Dickens's recall
+throughout this year to Somerset House, that the family did not remove
+to London until the winter of 1822-3, and I agree with Mr. Langton. Mr.
+Kitton in _Charles Dickens by Pen and Pencil_, 1890, also recognizes
+this period as the date of the removal of the Dickens family to London.
+
+[3] Mr. Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens, a son of the great Novelist, is a
+member of the New South Wales Parliament, having been elected in March
+1889. "He stood as a Protectionist for the representation of Wilcannia,
+an extensive pastoral district in the western portion of the colony. His
+father, it will be remembered, was an ardent Free Trader, and could not
+be prevailed upon to enter the British Parliament on any terms, and
+occasionally said some severe things of our Legislative Assembly. His
+two sons, Alfred Tennyson and Edward Bulwer Lytton, emigrated to
+Australia some years ago, and became successful pastoralists."--_Yorkshire
+Daily Post_, March 1889. A subsequent account states that Mr. Edward
+Bulwer Lytton Dickens is about to retire, having been, he remarks, "out
+of pocket, out of brains, out of health, and out of temper, by the
+pursuit of political glory."--_Pall Mall Gazette_, March 1891. I am
+since informed that Alfred is not a pastoralist, but in business, and
+that Edward has not retired up to date.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+ROCHESTER CITY.
+
+        "The silent High Street of Rochester is full of
+          gables, with old beams and timbers carved into
+          strange faces. It is oddly garnished with a queer
+          old clock that projects over the pavement out of a
+          grave red brick building, as if Time carried on
+          business there, and hung out his sign."--_The
+          Seven Poor Travellers._
+
+        "The town was glad with morning light."--_The Old
+          Curiosity Shop._
+
+
+MUDFOG, Our Town, Dullborough, the Market Town, and Cloisterham were the
+varied names that Charles Dickens bestowed upon the "ancient city" of
+Rochester. Every reader of his works knows how well he loved it in early
+youth, and how he returned to it with increased affection during the
+years of his ripened wisdom. Among the first pages of the first chapter
+of Forster's _Life_ we find references to it:--"That childhood
+exaggerates what it sees, too, has he not tenderly told? How he thought
+that the Rochester High-street must be at least as wide as Regent Street
+which he afterwards discovered to be little better than a lane; how the
+public clock in it, supposed to be the finest clock in the world, turned
+out to be as moon-faced and weak a clock as a man's eyes ever saw; and
+how in its Town Hall, which had appeared to him once so glorious a
+structure that he had set it up in his mind as the model from which the
+genie of the Lamp built the palace for Aladdin, he had painfully to
+recognize a mere mean little heap of bricks, like a chapel gone
+demented. Yet, not so painfully either when second thoughts wisely came.
+'Ah! who was I, [he says] that I should quarrel with the town for being
+changed to me, when I myself had come back, so changed, to it? All my
+early readings and early imaginations dated from this place, and I took
+them away so full of innocent construction and guileless belief, and I
+brought them back so worn and torn, so much the wiser and so much the
+worse!'"
+
+It would occupy too much space in this narrative to adequately give even
+a brief historical sketch of the City of Rochester, which is twenty-nine
+miles from London, situated on the river Medway, and stands on the chalk
+on the margin of the London basin; but we think lovers of Dickens will
+not object to a recapitulation of a few of the most noteworthy
+circumstances which have happened here, and which are not touched upon
+in the chapters relating to the Castle and Cathedral.
+
+According to the eminent local antiquary, Mr. Roach Smith, F.S.A., the
+name of the city has been thus evolved:--"The ceastre or chester is a
+Saxon affix to the Romano-British (DU)RO. The first two letters being
+dropped in sound, it became Duro or Dro, and then ROchester, and it was
+the Roman station Durobrovis." The ancient Britons called it "Dur-brif,"
+and the Saxons "Hrofe-ceastre"--Horf's castle, of which appellation some
+people think Rochester is a corruption.
+
+Rochester is a place of great antiquity, and so far back as A.D. 600 it
+seems to have been a walled city. Remains of the medi�val Wall exist in
+very perfect condition, at the back of the Eagle Inn in High Street, and
+in other parts of the city. In 676 Rochester was plundered by Ethelred,
+King of Mercia; and in 884 the Danes sailed up the Medway and besieged
+it, but were effectually repulsed by King Alfred. About 930, when three
+Mints were established there by Athelstan, it had grown to be one of the
+principal ports of the kingdom. William the Conqueror gave the town to
+his half-brother Odo, Bishop of Bayeux. Fires in 1130 and 1137 nearly
+destroyed it.
+
+Not a few royal and distinguished personages have visited Rochester on
+various occasions, among others Henry VIII., who came there in 1522,
+accompanied by the Emperor Charles V. Queen Elizabeth came in 1573, when
+she stayed five days, and attended the Cathedral service on Sunday. She
+came again in 1583, with the Duke of Anjou, and showed him her "mighty
+ships of war lying at Chatham." King James I. also visited the city in
+1604 and 1606. On the latter occasion His Majesty, who was accompanied
+by Christian IV., King of Denmark, attended the Cathedral, and
+afterwards inspected the Navy. Charles II. paid it a visit just before
+the restoration in 1660, and again subsequently. It is believed that on
+both occasions he stayed at Restoration House (the "Satis House" of
+_Great Expectations_) hereafter referred to. Mr. Richard Head presented
+His Majesty with a silver ewer and basin on the occasion of the
+restoration. James II. came down to the quiet old city December 19th,
+1688, and sojourned with Sir Richard Head for a week at a house (now No.
+46 High Street), from whence he ignominiously escaped to France by a
+smack moored off Sheerness. Mr. Stephen T. Aveling mentioned to us that
+"it is curious that Charles the Second 'came to his own' in Rochester,
+and that James the Second 'skedaddled' from the same city."[4] Her
+Majesty when Princess Victoria stayed at the Bull Inn in 1836 for a
+night with her mother, the Duchess of Kent, on their way from Dover to
+London. It was a very tempestuous night, some of the balustrades of
+Rochester Bridge having been blown into the river, and the Royal
+Princess was advised not to attempt to cross the bridge.
+
+"On the last day of June 1667 (says Mr. W. Brenchley Rye in his pleasant
+_Visits to Rochester_), Mr. Samuel Pepys, after examining the defences
+at Chatham shortly after the disastrous expedition by the Dutch up the
+Medway, walked into Rochester Cathedral, but he had no mind to stay to
+the service, . . . 'afterwards strolled into the fields, a fine walk,
+and there saw Sir F. Clarke's house (Restoration House), which is a
+pretty seat, and into the Cherry Garden, and here met with a young,
+plain, silly shopkeeper and his wife, a pretty young woman, and I did
+kiss her!'" David Garrick was living at Rochester in 1737, for the
+purpose of receiving instruction in mathematics, etc., from Mr. Colson.
+In 1742, Hogarth visited the city, in that celebrated peregrination with
+his four friends, and played hop-scotch in the courtyard of the
+Guildhall. Dr. Johnson came here in 1783, and "returned to London by
+water in a common boat, landing at Billingsgate."
+
+The city formerly possessed many ancient charters and privileges
+granted to the citizens, but these were superseded by the Municipal
+Corporations Act of 1835.
+
+The Guildhall, "marked by a gilt ship aloft,"--"where the mayor and
+corporation assemble together in solemn council for the public
+weal,"--is "a substantial and very suitable structure of brick,
+supported by stone columns in the Doric order," and was erected in 1687.
+It has several fine portraits by Sir Godfrey Kneller and other eminent
+painters, including those of King William III., Queen Anne, Sir
+Cloudesley Shovell, Richard Watts, M.P., and others. The Corporation
+also possess many interesting and valuable city regalia, namely, a large
+silver-gilt mace (1661), silver loving-cup (1719), silver oar and
+silver-gilt ornaments (typical of the Admiralty jurisdiction of the
+Corporation) (1748), two small maces of silver (1767), sword (1871--the
+Mayor being Constable of the Castle), and chain and badges of gold and
+enamel (1875), the last-mentioned commemorating many historical
+incidents connected with the city.
+
+Emerging from the railway station of the London, Chatham and Dover
+Company at Strood, a drive of a few minutes (over the bridge) brings us
+to the first object of our pilgrimage, the "Bull Inn,"--we beg pardon,
+the "Royal Victoria and Bull Hotel,"--in High Street, Rochester, which
+was visited by Mr. Pickwick, Mr. Tupman, Mr. Snodgrass, Mr. Winkle, and
+their newly-made friend, Mr. Jingle, on the 13th May, 1827. Our cabman
+is so satisfied with his fare ("only a bob's worth"), that he does not,
+as one of his predecessors did, on a very remarkable occasion, "fling
+the money on the pavement, and request in figurative terms to be allowed
+the pleasure of fighting us for the amount," which circumstance we take
+to be an improving sign of the times.
+
+Changed in name, but not in condition, it seems scarcely possible that
+we stand under the gateway of the charming old inn that we have known
+from our boyhood, when first we read our _Pickwick_, what time the two
+green leaves of _Martin Chuzzlewit_ were putting forth monthly, and when
+the name of Charles Dickens, although familiar, had not become the
+"household word" to us, and to the world, that it is now.
+
+[Illustration: Bull Inn Rochester Good house Nice beds. vide Pickwick.]
+
+We look round for evidence--"Good house, nice beds"--"(vide _Pickwick_)"
+appear on the two sign-boards fixed on either side of the entrance-gate.
+Only then are we quite sure our driver has not made a mistake and taken
+us to "Wright's next door," which every reader of _Pickwick_ knows, on
+the authority of Mr. Jingle, "was dear--very dear--half a crown in the
+bill if you look at the waiter--charge you more if you dine out at a
+friend's than they would if you dined in the coffee-room--rum
+fellows--very."
+
+Haunches of venison, saddles of mutton, ribs of beef, York hams, fowls
+and ducks, hang over our heads in the capacious covered gateway; cold
+viands are seen in a glass cupboard opposite, and silently promise that
+some good fare, like that which regaled Mr. Pickwick and his friends, is
+still to be found at the Bull. In the distance is seen the large
+old-fashioned coach-yard, surrounded by odd buildings, which on market
+days (Tuesdays) is crowded with all sorts of vehicles ancient and
+modern. On our right is the kitchen, "brilliant with glowing coals and
+rows of shining copper lying well open to view."
+
+By the kindness of Mr. Richard Prall, the town-clerk, beds have been
+secured for us, and the landlord meets us at the door with a hearty
+welcome. We are conducted to our rooms on the second floor looking
+front, on reaching which a strange feeling takes possession of us.
+Surely we have been here before? Not a bit of it! But the bedrooms are
+nevertheless familiar to us; we see it all in a minute--the writer's
+apartment is Mr. Tupman's, and his friend's is Mr. Winkle's!
+
+"Winkle's bedroom is inside mine," said Mr. Tupman, after that
+delightful dinner of "soles, broiled fowl, and mushrooms," in the
+private sitting-room at the Bull, when all the other Pickwickians had,
+"after the cosy couple of hours succeeding dinner, more or less
+succumbed to the somniferous influence which the wine had exerted over
+them," and he and Mr. Jingle alone remained wakeful, and were discussing
+the idea of attending the forthcoming ball in the evening.
+
+It is an unexpected and pleasant coincidence that we are located in
+these two rooms, and altogether a good omen for our tramp generally.
+They are numbered 13 and 19, and the reason why the numbers are not
+consecutive is because 19 (Mr. Winkle's room) is also approached by a
+back staircase. Mr. Pickwick's room, as befitted his years and his
+dignity as G.C.M.P.C., is a larger room, and is number 17. They are all
+comfortable chambers, with "nice beds."
+
+[Illustration: Staircase at "The Bull"]
+
+The principal staircase of the Bull, which is almost wide enough to
+drive a carriage and four up it, remains exactly as it was in Mr.
+Pickwick's days, as described by Dickens and delineated by Seymour. We
+could almost fancy we witnessed the memorable scene depicted in the
+illustration, where the irascible Dr. Slammer confronts the
+imperturbable Jingle. The staircase has on its walls a large number of
+pictures and engravings, some curious and valuable, a few of which are
+of purely local interest. A series of oil paintings represent the
+costumes of all nations. There is a copy of "The Empty Chair," from the
+drawing of Mr. Luke Fildes, R.A., and also one of the scarce proof
+lithographs of "Dickens as Captain Bobadil," after the painting by C. R.
+Leslie, R.A.
+
+Mr. Lawrence informed us that some years ago "The Owl Club" held its
+meetings at the Bull--a social club, reminding us strongly of one of the
+early papers in _Bentley's Miscellany_, illustrated by George
+Cruikshank, entitled the "Harmonious Owls," which has recently been
+reprinted in the collection called _Old Miscellany Days_, in which
+paper, by the bye, are several names from Dickens.
+
+In one of the cheerful private sitting-rooms, of which there are many,
+we find a portrait of Dickens that is new to us. Never have we seen one
+that so vividly reproduced the novelist as one of us saw him, and heard
+him read, in the Town Hall at Birmingham, on the 10th of May, 1866. It
+is a vignette photograph by Watkins, coloured by Mr. J. Hopper, a local
+artist, representing the face of the novelist in full, wearing afternoon
+dress--black coat, and white shirt-front, with gold studs--the attitude
+being perfectly natural and unconstrained, and a pleasant calm upon the
+otherwise firm features. The high forehead is surmounted by the
+well-remembered single curl of brown hair, the sole survival of those
+profuse locks which grace Maclise's beautiful portrait. The bright blue
+eyes, with the light reflected on the pupils like diamonds, seem to
+follow one in every direction. The lines, of course, are marked, but not
+too strongly; and the faint hectic flush which was apparent in later
+years--notably when we saw him again in Birmingham in 1869--shows signs
+of development. The beard hides the neck, and the white collar is
+conspicuous. Altogether it is one of the most successful portraits we
+remember to have seen. As witness of its popularity locally, we may
+mention that we saw copies of it at Major Budden's at Gad's Hill, at the
+Mitre Hotel, Chatham, and at the Leather Bottle Inn, Cobham. We are also
+informed that Mr. Henry Irving gave a good sum for a copy, in the spring
+of last year. Mr. Lawrence, our host, by good fortune, happening to
+possess a duplicate, kindly allows us the opportunity of purchasing it
+("portable property" as Mr. Wemmick remarks), as an addition to our
+Dickens collection which it adorns. "Beautiful!" "Splendid!" "Dickens to
+the life!" are the comments of friends to whom we show it, who
+personally knew, or remembered, the original.
+
+Here is the ball-room, entered from the first-floor landing of the
+principal staircase, and the card-room adjoining, precisely as it was in
+Mr. Pickwick's days:--
+
+          "It was a long room with crimson-covered benches,
+          and wax candles in glass chandeliers. The
+          musicians were confined in an elevated den, and
+          quadrilles were being systematically got through
+          by two or three sets of dancers. Two card-tables
+          were made up in the adjoining card-room, and two
+          pair of old ladies, and a corresponding number of
+          old gentlemen, were executing whist therein."
+
+A very little stretch of the imagination carries us back sixty years,
+and, _presto!_ the ball-room stands before us, with the wax candles
+lighted, and the room filled with the _�lite_ of Chatham and Rochester
+society, who, acting on the principle of "that general benevolence which
+was one of the leading features of the Pickwickian theory," had given
+their support to that "ball for the benefit of a charity," then being
+held there, and which was attended by Mr. Tracy Tupman, in his new
+dress-coat with the P. C. button and bust of Mr. Pickwick in the centre,
+and by Mr. Jingle, in the borrowed garments of the same nature belonging
+to Mr. Winkle.
+
+"P. C.," said the stranger.--"Queer set out--old fellow's likeness and
+'P. C.'--What does 'P. C.' stand for? 'Peculiar Coat,' eh?" Imagine the
+"rising indignation" and impatience of Mr. Tupman, as with "great
+importance" he explains the mystic device!
+
+[Illustration: The "Elevated Den" in the Ball Room: ("Bull" Inn)]
+
+Everybody remembers how, declining the usual introduction, the two
+entered the ball-room _incog._, as "Gentlemen from London--distinguished
+foreigners--anything;" how Mr. Jingle said in reply to Mr. Tupman's
+remark, "Wait a minute--fun presently--nobs not come yet--queer
+place--Dock-yard people of upper rank don't know Dock-yard people of
+lower rank--Dock-yard people of lower rank don't know small
+gentry--small gentry don't know tradespeople--Commissioner don't know
+anybody."
+
+The "man at the door,"--the local M.C.,--announces the arrivals.
+
+"Sir Thomas Clubber, Lady Clubber, and the Miss Clubbers!"
+"Commissioner--head of the yard--great man--remarkably great man,"
+whispers the stranger in Mr. Tupman's ear.
+
+"Colonel Bulder, Mrs. Colonel Bulder, and Miss Bulder," are announced.
+"Head of the garrison," says Mr. Jingle. "They exchanged snuff-boxes
+[how old-fashioned it appears to us who don't take snuff], and looked
+very much like a pair of Alexander Selkirks--Monarchs of all they
+surveyed."
+
+More arrivals are announced, and dancing begins in earnest; but the most
+interesting one to us is Dr. Slammer--"a little fat man, with a ring of
+upright black hair round his head, and an extensive bald plain on the
+top of it--Dr. Slammer, surgeon to the 97th, who is agreeable to
+everybody, especially to the Widow Budger.--'Lots of money--old
+girl--pompous doctor--not a bad idea--good fun,' says the stranger.
+'I'll dance with her--cut out the doctor--here goes.'" Then comes the
+flirtation, the dancing, the negus and biscuits, the coquetting, the
+leading of Mrs. Budger to her carriage. The volcano bursts with terrific
+energy. . . .
+
+"'You--you're a shuffler, sir,' gasps the furious doctor, 'a poltroon--a
+coward--a liar--a--a--will nothing induce you to give me your card,
+sir?'" and in the morning comes the challenge to the duel. It all passes
+before our delighted mental vision, as we picture the circumstances
+recorded in the beloved _Pickwick_ of our youth upwards.
+
+Here also is the bar, just opposite the coffee-room, where the "Tickets
+for the Ball" were purchased by Mr. Tupman for himself and Mr. Jingle at
+"half a guinea each" (Mr. Jingle having won the toss), and where Dr.
+Slammer's friend subsequently made inquiry for "the owner of the coat,
+who arrived here, with three gentlemen, yesterday afternoon." We find it
+to be a very cosy and comfortable bar-room too, wherein we subsequently
+enjoy many a social pipe and pleasant chat with its friendly
+frequenters, reminding us of the old tavern-life as described in Dr.
+Johnson's days.
+
+The coffee-room of the Bull, in which we take our supper, remains
+unaltered since the days of the Pickwickians. It is on the left-hand
+side as we enter the hotel from the covered gateway--not very large, but
+warm and comfortable, with three windows looking into the High Street.
+Many scenes in the novels have taken place in this memorable
+apartment--in fact, it is quite historical, from a Dickensian point of
+view.
+
+Here it was that the challenge to the duel from Dr. Slammer to Mr.
+Winkle was delivered; and, when Mr. Winkle appeared, in response to the
+call of the boots, that "a gentleman in the coffee-room" wanted to see
+him, and would not detain him a moment, but would take no denial, "an
+old woman and a couple of waiters were cleaning the coffee-room, and an
+officer in undress uniform was looking out of the window." Here also the
+Pickwickians assembled on that eventful morning when the party set out,
+three in a chaise and one on horseback, for Dingley Dell, and
+encountered such dire mishaps. "Mr. Pickwick had made his preliminary
+arrangements, and was looking over the coffee-room blinds at the
+passengers in the High Street, when the waiter entered, and announced
+that the chaise was ready--an announcement which the vehicle itself
+confirmed, by forthwith appearing before the coffee-room blinds
+aforesaid." Subsequently, as they prepare to start, "'Wo-o!' cried Mr.
+Pickwick, as the tall quadruped evinced a decided inclination to back
+into the coffee-room window."
+
+It is highly probable that the descriptions of "the little town of Great
+Winglebury," and "the Winglebury Arms," in "The Great Winglebury Duel"
+of the _Sketches by Boz_, one of the earliest works of the novelist,
+refer to the city of Rochester and the Bull Inn, for they fit in very
+well in many respects, although it _is_ stated therein that "the little
+town of Great Winglebury is exactly forty-two miles and three-quarters
+from Hyde Park Corner."
+
+The Blue Boar mentioned in _Great Expectations_--one of the most
+original, touching, and dramatic of Dickens's novels--is indubitably the
+Bull Hotel. Although there is an inn in High Street, Rochester, called
+the Blue Boar, its description does not at all correspond with the text.
+We find several instances like this, where, probably for purposes of
+concealment, the real identity of places and persons is masked.
+
+Our first introduction to the Blue Boar is on the occasion of Pip's
+being bound apprentice to Joe Gargery, the premium for whom was paid out
+of the twenty-five guineas given to Pip by Miss Havisham. Pip's sister
+"became so excited by the twenty-five guineas, that nothing would serve
+but we must have a dinner out of that windfall at the Blue Boar, and
+that Pumblechook must go over in his chaise cart, and bring the Hubbles
+and Mr. Wopsle." The dinner is duly disposed of, and although poor Pip
+was frequently enjoined to "enjoy himself," he certainly failed to do
+so on this occasion. "Among the festivities indulged in rather late in
+the evening," says Pip, "Mr. Wopsle gave us _Collins's Ode_, and 'threw
+his blood-stain'd sword in thunder down,' with such effect, that a
+waiter came in and said 'The Commercials underneath sent up their
+compliments, and it wasn't the Tumblers' Arms!'" from which we gather
+that the said dinner took place in a private sitting-room (No. 3) over
+the commercial room, on the opposite side of the gateway to the
+coffee-room.
+
+It will be remembered that on Pip's attaining "the second stage of his
+expectations," Pumblechook had grown very obsequious and fawning to
+him--pressed him to take refreshment, as who should say, "But, my dear
+young friend, you must be hungry, you must be exhausted. Be seated. Here
+is a chicken had round from the Boar, here is a tongue had round from
+the Boar, here's one or two little things had round from the Boar that I
+hope you may not despise. 'But do I,' said Mr. Pumblechook, getting up
+again the moment after he had sat down, 'see afore me him as I ever
+sported with in his times of happy infancy? And may I--_may_ I--?' This
+'May I?' meant might he shake hands? I consented, and he was fervent,
+and then sat down again."
+
+Returning to the coffee-room, we discover it was the identical apartment
+in which the unexpected and very peculiar meeting took place between Pip
+and "the spider," Bentley Drummle, "the sulky and red-looking young man,
+of a heavy order of architecture," both "Finches of the Grove," and
+rivals for the hand of Estella. Each stands shoulder to shoulder against
+the fire-place, and, but for Pip's forbearance, an explosion must have
+taken place.
+
+Through the same coffee-room windows, poor Pip looks under the reverses
+of his great expectations in consequence of the discovery and subsequent
+death of his patron. The "servile Pumblechook," who appears here
+uninvited, again changes his manner and conduct, becoming ostentatiously
+compassionate and forgiving, as he had been meanly servile in the time
+of Pip's new prosperity, thus:--"'Young man, I am sorry to see you
+brought low, but what else could be expected! what else could be
+expected! . . . This is him . . . as I have rode in my shay-cart; this
+is him as I have seen brought up by hand; this is him untoe the sister
+of which I was uncle by marriage, as her name was Georgiana M'ria from
+her own mother, let him deny it if he can.' . . ."
+
+Dickens takes leave of the Blue Boar, in the last chapter of the work,
+in these words:--
+
+          "The tidings of my high fortunes having had a
+          heavy fall, had got down to my native place and
+          its neighbourhood, before I got there. I found the
+          Blue Boar in possession of the intelligence, and I
+          found that it made a great change in the Boar's
+          demeanour. Whereas the Boar had cultivated my good
+          opinion with warm assiduity when I was coming into
+          property, the Boar was exceedingly cool on the
+          subject now that I was going out of property.
+
+          "It was evening when I arrived, much fatigued by
+          the journey I had so often made so easily. The
+          Boar could not put me into my usual bedroom, which
+          was engaged,--probably by some one who had
+          expectations,--and could only assign me a very
+          indifferent chamber among the pigeons and
+          post-chaises up the yard. But, I had as sound a
+          sleep in that lodging as in the most superior
+          accommodation the Boar could have given me, and
+          the quality of my dreams was about the same as in
+          the best bedroom."
+
+The visitors' book in the coffee-room, at the Bull--we never shall call
+it "The Royal Victoria and Bull Hotel"--abounds with complimentary
+remarks on the hospitable treatment received by its guests; and there
+are several poetical effusions, inspired by the classic nature of
+"Dickens-Land." One of these, under date of the 18th September, 1887, is
+worth recording:--
+
+          "The man who knows his Dickens as he should,
+           Enjoys a double pleasure in this place;
+           He loves to walk its ancient streets, and trace
+           The scenes where Dickens' characters have stood.
+           He reads _The Mystery of Edwin Drood_
+           In Jasper's Gatehouse, and, with Tope as guide,
+           Explores the old cathedral, Durdles' pride;
+           Descends into the Crypt, and even would
+           Ascend the Tower by moonlight, thence to see
+           Fair Cloisterham reposing at his feet,
+           And passing out, he almost hopes to meet
+           Crisparkle and the white-haired Datchery.
+           The gifted writer 'sleeps among our best
+           And noblest' in our Minster of the West;
+           Yet still he lives in this, his favourite scene,
+           Which for all time shall keep his memory green."
+
+[Illustration: Old Rochester Bridge]
+
+We follow Mr. Pickwick's example as regards early rising, and, taking a
+turn before breakfast, find ourselves on Rochester Bridge. Nature has
+not much changed since the memorable visit of that "truly great man,"
+who in the original announcement of _The Pickwick Papers_ is stated with
+his companions to have "fearlessly crossed the turbid Medway in an open
+boat;" but the march of civilization has effaced the old bridge, and lo!
+three bridges stand in the place thereof. The beautiful stone structure
+(temp. Edward III.) which Mr. Pickwick leant over, having become
+unsuitable, was blown up by the Royal Engineers in 1856, and a handsome
+iron bridge erected in its place. The d�bris was removed by Mr. J. H.
+Ball, the contractor, who presented Dickens with one of the balustrades,
+others having been utilized to form the coping of the embankment of the
+esplanade under the castle walls. The iron bridge was built by Messrs.
+Fox and Henderson, the foundations being laid in 1850. The machinery
+constituting "the swing-bridge or open ship canal (fifty feet wide) at
+the Strood end is very beautiful; the entire weight to be moved is two
+hundred tons, yet the bridge is readily swung by two men at a capstan."
+So says one of the Guide Books, but as a matter of fact we find that it
+is not now used! The other two bridges (useful, but certainly not
+ornamental) belong to the respective railway companies which have
+systems through Rochester, and absolutely shut out every prospect below
+stream. What _would_ Mr. Pickwick say, if his spirit ever visited the
+ancient city? Nevertheless, we realize for the first time, with all its
+freshness and beauty (although perhaps a little marred by the smoke of
+the lime-kilns, and by the "Medway coal trade," in which it will be
+remembered Mr. Micawber was temporarily interested, and which "he came
+down to see"), the charm of the prospect which Dickens describes, and
+which Mr. Pickwick saw, in the opening of the fifth chapter of the
+immortal _Posthumous Papers_:--
+
+          "Bright and pleasant was the sky, balmy the air,
+          and beautiful the appearance of every object
+          around, as Mr. Pickwick leant over the balustrades
+          of Rochester Bridge, contemplating nature, and
+          waiting for breakfast. The scene was indeed one,
+          which might well have charmed a far less
+          reflective mind, than that to which it was
+          presented.
+
+          "On the left of the spectator lay the ruined wall,
+          broken in many places, and in some, overhanging
+          the narrow beach below in rude and heavy masses.
+          Huge knots of sea-weed hung upon the jagged and
+          pointed stones, trembling in every breath of wind;
+          and the green ivy clung mournfully round the dark
+          and ruined battlements. Behind it rose the ancient
+          castle, its towers roofless, and its massive walls
+          crumbling away, but telling us proudly of its old
+          might and strength, as when, seven hundred years
+          ago, it rang with the clash of arms, or resounded
+          with the noise of feasting and revelry. On either
+          side, the banks of the Medway, covered with
+          corn-fields and pastures, with here and there a
+          windmill, or a distant church, stretched away as
+          far as the eye could see, presenting a rich and
+          varied landscape, rendered more beautiful by the
+          changing shadows which passed swiftly across it,
+          as the thin and half-formed clouds skimmed away in
+          the light of the morning sun. The river,
+          reflecting the clear blue of the sky, glistened
+          and sparkled as it flowed noiselessly on; and the
+          oars of the fishermen dipped into the water with a
+          clear and liquid sound, as their heavy but
+          picturesque boats glided slowly down the stream."
+
+It was over the same old bridge that poor Pip was pursued by that
+"unlimited miscreant" Trabb's boy in the days of his "great
+expectations." He says:--
+
+          "Words cannot state the amount of aggravation and
+          injury wreaked upon me by Trabb's boy, when,
+          passing abreast of me, he pulled up his
+          shirt-collar, twined his side hair, stuck an arm
+          akimbo, and smirked extravagantly by, wriggling
+          his elbows and body, and drawling to his
+          attendants: 'Don't know yah; don't know yah, 'pon
+          my soul, don't know yah!' The disgrace [continues
+          Pip] attendant on his immediately afterwards
+          taking to crowing and pursuing me across the
+          bridge with crows, as from an exceedingly dejected
+          fowl who had known me when I was a blacksmith,
+          culminated the disgrace with which I left the
+          town, and was, so to speak, ejected by it into the
+          open country."
+
+There is generally a stiff breeze blowing on the bridge, and the fact
+may probably have suggested to the artist the positions of the
+characters in the river scene, one of the plates of _Edwin Drood_, where
+Mr. Crisparkle is holding his hat on with much tenacity. One other
+reference to the bridge occurs in the _Seven Poor Travellers_, where
+Richard Doubledick, in the year 1799, "limped over the bridge here with
+half a shoe to his dusty foot on his way to Chatham."
+
+After a Pickwickian breakfast in the coffee-room of "broiled ham, eggs,
+tea, coffee, and sundries," we take a stroll up the High Street. We do
+not know what the feelings of other pilgrims in "Dickens-Land" may have
+been on the occasion of a first visit, but we are quite sure that to us
+it is a perfect revelation to ramble along this quaint street of "the
+ancient city," returning by way of Star Hill through the Vines, all
+crowded with associations of Charles Dickens. _Pickwick_, _Great
+Expectations_, _Edwin Drood_, and many of the minor works of the eminent
+novelist, had never before appeared so clear to us--they acquire new
+significance. The air is full of Dickens. At every corner, and almost at
+the door of every house, we half expect to be met by one or other of
+the characters who will claim acquaintance with us as their friends or
+admirers. We are simply delighted, and never tire of repeating our
+experience in the pleasant summer days of our week's tramp in
+"Dickens-Land."
+
+[Illustration: The Guildhall: Rochester]
+
+[Illustration: The "Moonfaced" Clock in High Street]
+
+[Illustration: In High Street: Rochester]
+
+[Illustration: Eastgate House]
+
+Starting from the Bull, and walking along the somewhat narrow but
+picturesque street towards Chatham,--"the streets of Cloisterham city
+are little more than one narrow street by which you get into it and get
+out of it: the rest being mostly disappointing yards with pumps in them
+and no thoroughfare--exception made of the Cathedral close, and a paved
+Quaker settlement, in color and general conformation very like a
+Quakeress's bonnet, up in a shady corner,"--we pass in succession the
+Guildhall, the City Clock, Richard Watts's Charity, the College Gate
+(Jasper's Gatehouse), Eastgate House (the Nuns' House), and, nearly
+opposite it, the residence of Mr. Sapsea, which, as we ourselves
+discover, was also the residence of "Uncle Pumblechook." The latter
+buildings are about a quarter of a mile from Rochester Bridge, and are
+splendid examples of sixteenth-century architecture, with carved
+oaken-timbered fronts and gables and latticed bay-windows. Eastgate
+House--the "Nuns' House" of _Edwin Drood_, described as "a venerable
+brick edifice, whose present appellation is doubtless derived from the
+legend of its conventual uses"--is especially beautiful, and its
+"resplendent brass plate on the trim gate" is still so "shining and
+staring." The date, 1591, is on one of the inside beams, and the fine
+old place abounds with quaint cosy rooms with carved oak mantel-pieces,
+and plaster enrichments to the ceilings, as well as mysterious back
+staircases and means of exit by secret passages. Charles II. is said to
+have been entertained here by Colonel Gibbons, the then owner, when he
+visited Chatham and inspected the _Royal George_; but this has been
+recently disputed. For many years during this century, the house has
+been occupied as a Ladies' School, and the old pianos used for practice
+by the pupils are there still, the keys being worn into holes. We wonder
+whether Rosa Bud and Helena Landless ever played on them! Looking round,
+we half expect to witness the famous courting scene in _Edwin Drood_,
+and afterwards "the matronly Tisher to heave in sight, rustling through
+the room like the legendary ghost of a dowager in silken skirts, [with
+her] 'I trust I disturb no one; but there _was_ a paper-knife--Oh,
+thank you, I am sure!'" An excellent local institution, called "The
+Rochester Men's Institute," has its home here. The house has been
+immortalized by Mr. Luke Fildes in one of the illustrations to _Edwin
+Drood_ ("Good-bye, Rosebud, darling!"), where, in the front garden, the
+girls are cordially embracing their charming school-fellow, and Miss
+Twinkleton looks on approvingly, but perhaps regretfully, at the
+possible non-return of some of the young ladies. Mrs. Tisher is saluting
+one of the girls. There is a gate opening into the street, with the lamp
+over it kept in position by an iron bracket, just as it is now, heaps of
+ladies' luggage are scattered about, which the housemaid and the
+coachman are removing to the car outside; and one pretty girl stands in
+the gateway waving a farewell to the others with her handkerchief.
+
+We feel morally certain that Eastgate House is also the prototype of
+Westgate House in the _Pickwick Papers_, although, for the purposes of
+the story, it is therein located at Bury St. Edmund's. The wall
+surrounding the garden is about seven feet high, and a drop from it into
+the garden would be uncommonly suggestive of the scene which took place
+between Sam Weller and his master in the sixteenth chapter, on the
+occasion of the supposed intended elopement of one of the young ladies
+of Miss Tomkins's Establishment--which also had the "name on a brass
+plate on a gate"--with Mr. Charles FitzMarshall, _alias_ Mr. Alfred
+Jingle. The very tree which Mr. Pickwick "considered a very dangerous
+neighbour in a thunderstorm" is there still--a pretty acacia.
+
+[Illustration: Mr. Sapsea's House.]
+
+[Illustration: Mr. Sapsea's Father.]
+
+The house opposite Eastgate House was of course Mr. Sapsea's
+dwelling--"Mr. Sapsea's premises are in the High Street over against
+the Nuns' House. They are of about the period of the Nuns' House,
+irregularly modernized here and there." A carved wooden figure of Mr.
+Sapsea's father in his rostrum as an auctioneer, with hammer poised in
+hand, and a countenance expressive of "Going--going--gone!" was many
+years ago fixed over a house (now the Savings Bank) in St. Margaret's,
+Rochester, and was a regular butt for practical jokes by the young
+officers of the period, although they never succeeded in their attempts
+to pull it down. To us the house appears to be an older building than
+Eastgate House, with much carved oak and timber work about it, and in
+its prime must have been a most delightful residence. The lower part is
+now used as business premises, and from the fact that it contains the
+little drawers of a seedsman's shop, it answers very well to the
+description of Mr. Pumblechook's "eminently convenient and commodious
+premises"--indeed there is not a little in common between the two
+characters. "Mr. Pumblechook's premises in the High Street of the market
+town [says Pip] were of a peppercorny and farinaceous character, as the
+premises of a corn chandler and seedsman should be. It appeared to me
+that he must be a very happy man indeed to have so many little drawers
+in his shop; and I wondered when I peeped into one or two of the lower
+tiers, and saw the tied-up brown paper packets inside, whether the
+flower seeds and bulbs ever wanted of a fine day to break out of those
+jails, and bloom." Part of these premises is used as a dwelling-house,
+and Mr. Apsley Kennette, the courteous assistant town-clerk, to whom we
+were indebted for much kind attention, has apartments on the upper
+floors of the old mansion, the views from which, looking into the
+ancient city, are very pretty. There is a good deal of oak panelling and
+plaster enrichment about the interior, restored by Mr. Kennette, who in
+the course of his renovations found an interesting wall fresco.
+
+He has had painted most appropriately in gilt letters over the
+mantel-piece of his charming old panelled chamber of carved and polished
+oak (with its quaint bay-window looking into the street) the pathetic
+and sombre lines of Dante Gabriel Rossetti:--
+
+          "May not this ancient room thou sitt'st in dwell
+           In separate living souls for joy or pain;
+           Nay, all its corners may be painted plain,
+           Where Heaven shows pictures of some life spent well;
+           And may be stamped a memory all in vain
+           Upon the site of lidless eyes in Hell."
+
+[Illustration: Restoration House.]
+
+The beautiful residence in Maidstone Road, formerly Crow Lane, opposite
+the Vines, called Restoration House, is the "Satis House" of _Great
+Expectations_--"Miss Havisham's up-town." "Everybody for miles round had
+heard of Miss Havisham up-town as an immensely rich and grim lady, who
+lived in a large and dismal house barricaded against robbers, and who
+led a life of seclusion." There is a veritable Satis House as well, on
+the opposite side of the Vines alluded to elsewhere. Restoration House,
+now occupied by Mr. Stephen T. Aveling, is a picturesque old
+Elizabethan structure, partly covered with ivy, having fine oak
+staircases, floors, and wainscoted rooms. Charles II. lodged here in
+1660, and he subsequently presented to his host, Sir Francis Clarke,
+several large tapestries, representing pastoral scenes, which the
+present owner kindly allowed us to see. The tapestry is said to have
+been made at Mortlake. It was the usual present from royalty in those
+days--just as Her present Majesty now gives an Indian shawl to a
+favoured subject. Like many houses of its kind, it contains a secret
+staircase for escape during times of political trouble.
+
+Mr. Aveling very kindly placed at our disposal the manuscript of an
+interesting and "true ghost story" written by him relating to
+Restoration House, which is introduced at the end of this chapter.
+
+Many names in Dickens's novels and tales appear to us as old friends,
+over the shops and elsewhere in Rochester. Looking through the list of
+Mayors of the city from 1654 to 1887, we notice nearly twenty of the
+names as having been given by Dickens to his characters, viz. Robinson,
+Wade, Brooker, Clarke, Harris, Burgess, Head, Weller, Baily, Gordon,
+Parsons, Pordage, Sparks, Simmons, Batten, Saunders, Thomson, Edwards,
+and Budden. The name of Jasper also occurs as a tradesman several times
+in the city, but we are informed that this is a recent introduction. In
+the Cathedral burying-ground occur the names of Fanny Dorr_ett_ and
+Richard Pordage. Dartle, we were informed, is an old Rochester name.
+
+The population of the "four towns" of Rochester, Strood, Chatham, and
+New Brompton, at the census of 1891, was upwards of 85,000. The
+principal industries of Rochester are lime and cement making, "the
+Medway coal trade," and boat and barge building.
+
+Rochester is very well off for educational institutions. In addition to
+the Board schools, there is the King's (or Cathedral) Grammar School
+founded by Henry VIII., a handsome building in the Vines. The tuition
+fee commences at �15 per annum for boys under 12, and there is a
+reduction made when there are brothers. There are two or three annual
+competitive Scholarships tenable for a period of years, and there are
+also two Exhibitions of �60 a year to University College, Oxford. There
+is also Sir J. Williamson's Mathematical School in the High Street,
+founded in 1701, having an income of �1500 a year from endowments, and
+the teaching, which has a wide range, includes physical science. The
+fees are very small, commencing at about �5 per annum, and there are
+foundation Scholarships and "Aveling Scholarships" to the value of �20
+per annum.
+
+In addition to the famous Richard Watts's Charity, which is described in
+another chapter, the city possesses several other important charities,
+viz.:--St. Catherine's Charity on Star Hill, founded by Simon Potyn in
+1316, which provides residences for sixteen aged females, with stipends
+varying from �24 to �28 each; St. Bartholomew's Hospital in New Road,
+which was founded in 1078 by Bishop Gundulph for the benefit of lepers
+returning from the Crusades (the present Hospital was erected in 1858,
+and is supported by voluntary contributions); Sir John Hawkins's
+Hospital for decayed seamen in Chatham, founded in 1592, and provides
+for twelve inmates with their wives; and Sir John Hayward's Charity on
+the Common, founded in 1651, which provides an asylum for twelve poor
+and aged females, parishioners of St. Nicholas.
+
+Not least noteworthy among the numerous objects of interest in the
+"ancient city" are the beautiful gardens belonging to several of the
+houses in the High Street, particularly those of Mr. Syms and Mr.
+Wildish. The fresh green turf, the profusion of flowers, and the rich
+growth of foliage and fruit, quite surprise and delight the stranger.
+Mr. Stephen T. Aveling's garden is a marvel of beauty to be seen in a
+town. "The Cloisterham gardens blush with ripening fruit."
+
+Some of the old-fashioned cries of street hawkers, as "hot rolls,"
+"herrings," "watercresses," and the like, similar to those in the London
+of Charles Dickens's early days, still survive at Rochester, and are
+very noticeable and quaint in the quiet morning.
+
+As illustrative of the many changes which have been brought about by
+steam, even in the quiet old city of Rochester, Mr. Syms called
+attention to the fact that fifty years ago he could count twenty-eight
+windmills on the surrounding heights, but now there are scarcely a dozen
+to be seen.
+
+In Rochester we heard frequent mention of "Gavelkind," one of the
+ancient customs of Kent, whereby the lands do not descend to the eldest
+son alone, but to the whole number of male children equally. Lambarde,
+the eminent lawyer and antiquary (born 1536), author of _A Perambulation
+of Kent_,[5] says:--"I gather by _Cornelius Tacitus_, and others, that
+the ancient Germans, (whose Offspring we be) suffered their lands to
+descend, not to their eldest Sonne alone, but to the whole number of
+their male Children: and I finde in the 75th Chapter of _Canutus_ Law (a
+King of this Realm before the Conquest), that after the death of the
+Father, his Heires should divide both his goods, and his lands amongst
+them. Now, for as much as all the next of the kinred did this inherit
+together, I conjecture, that therefore the land was called, either
+_Gavelkyn_ in meaning, _Give all kyn_, because it was given to all the
+next in one line of kinred, or _Give all kynd_, that is, to all the male
+Children: for _kynd_ in Dutch signifieth yet a male Childe." The learned
+historian suggests a second possible origin of this curious custom from
+the writ called "Gavelles," to recover "the rent and service arising out
+of these lands."
+
+The remarkable custom of "Borough English," whereby the youngest son
+inherits the lands, also survives in some parts of the county of Kent.
+
+Mr. Robert Langton has done good service by giving in his delightful
+book, _The Childhood and Youth of Charles Dickens_, an illustration by
+Mr. W. Hull, of the old Rochester Theatre, which formerly stood at the
+foot of Star Hill, and in which Jingle and Dismal Jemmy--"rum
+fellow--does the heavy business--no actor--strange man--all sorts of
+miseries--dismal Jemmy, we call him on the circuit"--were to play on the
+morrow after the duel. It exists no more, for the Conservative
+Association has its club-house and rooms on the site of the building.
+The theatre is referred to in _Edwin Drood:_--"Even its drooping and
+despondent little theatre has its poor strip of garden, receiving the
+foul fiend, when he ducks from its stage into the infernal regions,
+among scarlet beans or oyster-shells, according to the season of the
+year." And again in _The Uncommercial Traveller_, on "Dullborough
+Town," when the beginning of the end had appeared:--
+
+[Illustration: Old Rochester Theatre, Star Hill.]
+
+          "It was To Let, and hopelessly so, for its old
+          purposes; and there had been no entertainment
+          within its walls for a long time, except a
+          Panorama; and even that had been announced as
+          'pleasingly instructive,' and I knew too well the
+          fatal meaning and the leaden import of those
+          terrible expressions. No, there was no comfort in
+          the Theatre. It was mysteriously gone, like my own
+          youth. Unlike my own youth, it might be coming
+          back some day; but there was little promise of
+          it."
+
+We did not stay at the Bull during the whole of our visit, comfortable
+lodgings in Victoria Street having been secured for us by the courtesy
+of Mr. Prall, the landlady of which, from her kindness and consideration
+for our comfort, we are pleased to recognize as a veritable "Mrs.
+Lirriper."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Among many reminiscences of Charles Dickens obtained at Rochester, the
+following are the most noteworthy:--
+
+We had an interesting chat with Mr. Franklin Homan, Auctioneer,
+Cabinet-maker, and Upholsterer of High Street, Rochester. Our informant
+did a good deal of work for Charles Dickens at Gad's Hill Place, and
+remarked "he was one of the nicest customers I ever met in my life--so
+thoroughly precise and methodical. If anything had to be done, he knew
+exactly what he wanted, and gave his instructions accordingly. He
+expected every one who served him to be equally exact and punctual."
+
+The novelist wrote to Mr. Homan from America respecting the furnishing
+of two bedrooms, describing in detail how he wished them fitted up--one
+was maple, the other white with a red stripe. These rooms are referred
+to in another chapter. The curtains separating them from the
+dressing-rooms were ordered to be of Indian pattern chintz. When Dickens
+came home and saw them complete, he said, "It strikes me as if the room
+was about to have its hair cut,--but it's my fault, it must be altered;"
+so crimson damask curtains were substituted.
+
+In the little billiard-room near the dining-room was a one-sided couch
+standing by the window, which did not seem to please the master of Gad's
+Hill Place. He said to Mr. Homan one day, "Whenever I see that couch, it
+makes me think the window is squinting." The result was that Mr. Homan
+had to make a window-seat instead.
+
+On one occasion, when our informant was waiting in the dining-room for
+some orders from Miss Hogarth, he saw Dickens walking in the garden with
+a lady, to whom he was telling the story of how as a boy he longed to
+live in Gad's Hill Place, and determined to purchase it whenever he had
+an opportunity.
+
+Mr. Homan mentioned that the act drop painted by Clarkson Stanfield,
+R.A., for _The Lighthouse_ and the scene from _The Frozen Deep_, painted
+by the same artist, which adorned the hall at Gad's Hill Place, and
+which fetched such enormous sums at the sale, were technically the
+property of the purchaser of Tavistock House, but he said, "Perhaps you
+would like to have them, Mr. Dickens," and so they continued to be the
+property of the novelist.
+
+The valuation for Probate was made by Mr. Homan, and he subsequently
+sold for the executors the furniture and other domestic effects at Gad's
+Hill Place. The art collection was sold by Messrs. Christie, Manson, and
+Woods. There was a very fine cellar of wine, which included some magnums
+of port of rare vintage. Mr. Homan purchased a few bottles, and gave one
+to a friend, Dr. Tamplin of London, who had been kind to his daughter.
+At a dinner-party some time afterwards at the Doctor's, a connoisseur
+being present, the magnum in question was placed on the table, the
+guests being unaware from whence it came. Reference was made to the
+choice quality of the wine. "Yes," said the connoisseur, "it _is_
+good--very fine. I never tasted the like before, except once at Gad's
+Hill Place."
+
+Mr. Homan recollects seeing among the plate two oak cases which were not
+sold, containing the silver figures for dining-table emblematic of
+spring, summer, and autumn. These were the presents of a Liverpool
+admirer who wished to remain anonymous. The incident is alluded to in
+Forster's _Life_, the correspondent being described as "a self-raised
+man, attributing his prosperous career to what Dickens's writings had
+taught him at its outset of the wisdom of kindness and sympathy for
+others, and asking pardon for the liberty he took in hoping that he
+might be permitted to offer some acknowledgment of what not only had
+cheered and stimulated him through all his life, but had contributed so
+much to the success of it." The letter enclosed �500, but Dickens
+declined this, intimating to the writer that if he pleased to send him
+any small memorial in another form, he would be glad to receive it.
+
+The funeral was conducted by Mr. Homan, who mentioned that Dickens's
+instructions in his Will were implicitly followed, as regards privacy
+and unostentation. It was an anxious time to him, in consequence of the
+changes which were made in the arrangements, the interment being first
+suggested to take place at St. Nicholas's Cemetery, then at Shorne, then
+at Rochester Cathedral, and finally at Westminster Abbey. The mourners,
+together with the remains, travelled early in the morning by South
+Eastern Railway from Higham Station to Charing Cross, where a
+procession, consisting of three mourning-coaches and a hearse, was
+quietly formed. There was neither show nor public demonstration of any
+kind. On reaching Westminster Abbey, about half-past nine o'clock, the
+procession was met by Dean Stanley in the Cloisters, who performed the
+funeral service. A journalist being by accident in the Abbey at the time
+of the funeral, Mr. Homan remarked that he became almost frantic when he
+heard who had just been buried, at having missed such an opportunity.
+
+Mr. Homan possesses several souvenirs of Gad's Hill Place, presented to
+him by the family, including Charles Dickens's walking-stick, and
+photographs of the interior and exterior of the house and the ch�let.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We were courteously received by the Rev. Robert Whiston, M.A., who
+resides at the Old Palace, a beautiful seventeenth-century house,
+abounding with oak panelling and carving, on Boley Hill, bequeathed in
+1674, by Mr. Richard Head, after the death of his wife, to the then
+Bishop of Rochester and his successors, who were "to hold the same so
+long as the church was governed by Protestant Bishops." This residence
+was sold by permission of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, together
+with the mansion at Brinley, in order to help to pay for the new palace
+of Danbury in Essex.
+
+Mr. Whiston was a friend of Charles Dickens, and is one of the oldest
+inhabitants of Rochester. He was formerly Head-Master of the Cathedral
+Grammar, or King's, School of Henry VIII., an office which he resigned
+in 1877. Many years previously, Mr. Whiston published _Cathedral Trusts
+and their Fulfilment_, which ran through several editions, and was
+immediately followed by his dismissal from his mastership, on the ground
+that he had published "false, scandalous, and libellous" statements, and
+had libelled "the Chapter of Rochester and other Chapters, and also the
+Bishop." Much litigation followed--appeals to the Court of Chancery,
+the Court of Queen's Bench, and Doctors' Commons, which resulted in his
+replacement in office; and then a second dismissal, followed by his
+pleading his own cause for five days at Doctors' Commons against eminent
+counsel, and after three years of litigation he was fully reinstated in
+his office. The result at Rochester, for which Mr. Whiston contended,
+was "an increase of �19 for each of the twenty scholars, and of �35 for
+each of the four students, a total of �520 a year, and the restoration
+of the six bedesmen of the Cathedral, with �14 13_s._ 4_d._ a year each,
+who had disappeared since 1810, making altogether �608 a year." Reforms
+were effected at other cathedrals, and handsome testimonials--one from
+Australia--were presented to Mr. Whiston.
+
+A characteristic paper, entitled "The History of a certain Grammar
+School," in No. 72 of _Household Words_, dated 9th August, 1851, gives a
+sketch of Mr. Whiston's labours, and of the reforms which he effected.
+He is thus referred to:--
+
+"But the Reverend Adolphus Hardhead was not merely a scholar and a
+schoolmaster. He had fought his way against disadvantages, had gained a
+moderate independence by the fruits of early exertions and constant but
+by no means sordid economy; and, while disinterested enough to
+undervalue abundance, was too wise not to know the value of money. He
+was an undoubted financialist, and never gave a farthing without doing
+real good, because he always ascertained the purpose and probable effect
+of his charity beforehand. While he cautiously shunned the idle and
+undeserving, he would work like a slave, with and for those who would
+work for themselves; and he would smooth the way for those who had in
+the first instance been their own pioneers, and would help a man who
+had once been successful, to attain a yet greater success."
+
+Anthony Trollope, in _The Warden_, also thus refers to this
+gentleman:--"The struggles of Mr. Whiston have met with sympathy and
+support. Men are beginning to say that these things must be looked
+into."
+
+_Punch_ has also immortalized Mr. Whiston, for in the issue of 29th
+January, 1853, there is a burlesque account with designs of "A stained
+glass window for Rochester Cathedral." The design is divided into
+compartments; each containing a representation in the medi�val fashion
+of a "Fytte" in "Ye Gestes of Maister Whyston ye Confessour."
+
+Mr. Whiston had dined at Gad's Hill several times, and said that nothing
+could be more charming than Dickens's powers as a host. Some years after
+his death, by a fortunate circumstance, a large parcel of letters,
+written by the novelist, came into the hands of Mr. Whiston, who had the
+pleasure of handing them to Miss Hogarth and Miss Dickens, by whom they
+were published in the collection of letters of Charles Dickens.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Thomas Millen of Rochester informed us that he knew Charles Dickens. His
+(Millen's) father was a hop-farmer, and about the years 1864-5 lived at
+Bridgewood House, on the main road from Rochester to Maidstone. One
+afternoon in the autumn, Dickens, accompanied by Miss Hogarth and his
+daughters, Mary and Kate, drove along the road, and stopped to admire a
+pear tree which was covered with ripe fruit. Millen happened to be in
+the garden at the time, and while noticing the carriage, Dickens spoke
+to him, and referred to the very fine fruit. Millen said, "Will you
+have some, sir?" to which Dickens replied, "Thank you, you are very
+good, I will." He gave him some pears and some roses. Dickens then said,
+"You have not the pleasure of knowing me, and I have not the pleasure of
+knowing you. I am Charles Dickens; and when you pass Gad's Hill, I shall
+take it as a favour if you will look in and see my place." Millen
+replied, "I feel it to be a great honour to speak to you, sir. I have
+read most of your works, and I think _David Copperfield_ is the
+master-piece. I hope to avail myself of your kind invitation some day."
+Dickens laughed, wished Millen "Good-day," and the carriage drove on
+towards Maidstone.
+
+"Some little time after," said Millen, "I was going to visit an uncle at
+Gravesend, and drove over with a one-horse trap by way of Gad's Hill. As
+I came near the place, I saw Mr. Dickens in the road. He said, 'So you
+are here,' and I mentioned where I was going. He took me in, and we went
+through the tunnel, and by the cedars, to the ch�let, which stood in the
+shrubbery in front of the house. He showed me his work there--a
+manuscript on the table, and also some proofs. They were part of _Our
+Mutual Friend_, which was then appearing in monthly numbers; and on that
+morning a proof of one of the illustrations had arrived from Mr. Marcus
+Stone. It was the one in which 'Miss Wren fixes her idea.' I was then
+about sixteen or seventeen, and Dickens said, 'You are setting out in
+life; mind _you_ always fix your idea.' He asked me what I was going to
+be, and I said a farmer. He said, 'Better be that than an author or
+poet;' and after I had had two glasses of wine, he bade me 'good-bye.'"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We were kindly favoured with an interview by the Misses Drage, of No. 1
+Minor Canon Row, daughters of the late Rev. W. H. Drage, who was Curate
+of St. Mary's Church, Chatham, from 1820 to 1828, and lived during that
+time in apartments at No. 3 Ordnance Terrace, next door to the Dickens
+family. Afterwards their father was Vicar of St. Margaret's, Rochester,
+for many years, and resided in their present home. About the year 1850,
+the Vicar, being interested in the daughter of one of his parishioners,
+whom he was anxious to get admitted into a public institution in
+London--a penitentiary or something of the kind--wrote to Miss (now the
+Baroness) Burdett Coutts, who was a patroness or founder, or who
+occupied some position of influence in connection therewith. In answer
+to the reverend gentleman's application, a letter was received from
+Charles Dickens, then residing at Devonshire Terrace, who appeared to be
+associated with Miss Burdett Coutts in the management of the
+institution, proposing to call at Minor Canon Row on a certain day and
+hour. The letter then concluded with these remarkable words:--"I trust
+to my childish remembrance for putting your initials correctly."
+
+The letter was properly addressed "The Rev. _W. H._ Drage," and it is
+interesting to record this circumstance as showing Dickens's habitual
+precision and excellent memory. The future novelist was about eleven
+years old when he left Chatham (1823), consequently a period of
+twenty-seven years or more must have elapsed since he knew his father's
+neighbour as Curate there; yet, notwithstanding the multiplicity and
+diversity of his occupations during the interim, his recollection after
+this long period was perfectly accurate.
+
+It is scarcely necessary to add that the interview took place (probably
+Dickens came down from London specially), and that the Vicar obtained
+admission for his _prot�g�e_. The younger Miss Drage, who was in the
+room at the time of Dickens's visit, particularly noticed what a
+beautiful head the novelist's was, and in her enthusiasm she made a
+rough sketch of it while he was talking to her father.
+
+In conversation with the present Mr. Charles Dickens on a subsequent
+occasion regarding this circumstance, he informed me that there was an
+institution of the kind referred to, "A Home," at Shepherd's Bush, in
+which his father took much interest. Forster also says in the _Life_
+that this Home "largely and regularly occupied his time for several
+years."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We heard from a trustworthy authority, _Y. Z._, at Rochester, some
+particulars respecting an interesting custom at Gad's Hill Place. On New
+Year's Eve there was always a dinner-party with friends, and a dance,
+and games afterwards. Some of the games were called "Buzz," "Crambo,"
+"Spanish Merchant," etc. Claret-cup and other refreshments were
+introduced later, and at twelve o'clock all the servants came into the
+entrance-hall. Charles Dickens then went in, shook hands with them all
+round, wished them a Happy New Year ("A happy new year, God bless us
+all"), and gave each half-a-sovereign. This custom was maintained for
+many years, until a man-servant--who used to travel with
+Dickens--disgracefully betrayed his trust,--robbed his master, in
+fact,--when it was discontinued, and the name of the man who had thus
+disgraced himself was never allowed to be mentioned at Gad's Hill.
+
+The same authority spoke of the long walks that Dickens regularly took
+after breakfast--usually six miles,--but he gave these up after the
+railway accident at Staplehurst, which, it will be remembered,
+occurred, on the "fatal anniversary," the 9th June, 1865. During one of
+these walks, he fell in with a man driving a cart loaded with manure,
+and had a long chat with him, the sort of thing he frequently did (said
+our informant) in order to become acquainted with the brogue and
+feelings of the working people. When Dickens went on his way, one of the
+man's fellow-labourers said to him, "Do you know that that was Charles
+Dickens who spoke to you?" "I don't know who it was," replied the man,
+"but he was a d----d good fellow, for he gave me a shilling."
+
+Our informant also referred to a conversation between Dickens and some
+of his friends at Gad's Hill, respecting the unhappy marriages of
+actors. Twenty such marriages were instanced, and out of these only two
+turned out happily. He said that Charles Dickens at home was a quiet,
+unassuming man. He remembers on one occasion his saying, in relation to
+a war which was then going on, "What must the feelings of a soldier be,
+when alone and dying on the battle-field, and leaving his wife and
+children far away for ever?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+A TRUE GHOST STORY RELATING TO MISS HAVISHAM'S HOUSE.
+
+          "I live in an old red-brick mansion, nearly
+          covered with ivy--one of those picturesque
+          dwellings with high-pitched roofs and ornamental
+          gables, which were scattered broadcast over
+          England in the days of good Queen Bess. Every
+          stranger looking at it exclaims, 'That house must
+          have a history and a ghost!' Many a story has been
+          told of the ghost which has from time to time been
+          seen, or said to have been seen, within its walls;
+          and many a servant has, from fear, refused service
+          in this so-called haunted house.
+
+          "On the 28th May, one thousand six hundred and
+          sixty, Charles the Second sojourned and slept
+          here. This being the eve of 'The Restoration,' a
+          new name was given to the then old house, which
+          name it has since retained. Charles, having
+          knighted the owner (Sir Francis Clarke), departed
+          early the next morning for London.
+
+          "There are secret passages _in_ the house, and,
+          under ground, _from_ the house. From the room in
+          which the king slept, a secret passage through one
+          of the lower panels of the wainscot, leads to
+          various parts of the house. This passage is so
+          well concealed that I occupied the house some
+          years before it was discovered. I had occasion to
+          make a plan of the house, and the inside and
+          outside not agreeing, disclosed the space occupied
+          by the unexplored passage. The jackdaws had
+          forestalled me in my discovery, and had had
+          undisturbed possession for two centuries, having
+          got access through a hole under the eaves of the
+          roof. They had deposited _several bushels_ of
+          sticks. They had not been the only tenants, as
+          skeletons and mummies of birds, etc., were also
+          found.
+
+          "I came into possession of this old house in
+          December 1875, and on the 27th of April, 1876,
+          slept in it for the first time. At ten o'clock on
+          that night, my family retired to rest; having some
+          letters to write, I sat up later. At a quarter to
+          twelve, I was startled by a loud noise--a sort of
+          rumbling sound, which appeared to proceed from the
+          hall. I left my writing and went to the hall, and
+          found that the noise proceeded from the staircase,
+          but I could see nothing unusual.
+
+          "The staircase is one of those so often described
+          as being 'wide enough to drive a carriage and pair
+          up,' with massive oak posts and balustrades. The
+          walls are covered with tapestry, given to the
+          house by 'The Merry Monarch,' after his visit. An
+          oak chest or two, and some high-backed chairs on
+          the landings, picture to one a suitable habitation
+          for a ghost. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I had
+          no belief in ghosts, and commenced an
+          investigation of this extraordinary noise.
+
+          "Could it be rats, or mice, or owls? No; the noise
+          was ten times louder than could possibly proceed
+          from these creatures; besides, I knew there were
+          no rats in the house. The clever builder of the
+          house had filled all the space between the
+          ceilings and floors with silver sand, which
+          rendered it impossible for a rat or mouse to make
+          passages. To prick a hole in a ceiling is to have
+          a continuous stream of sand run down, as from an
+          hour-glass.
+
+          "The noise was repeated, but much louder (two
+          drum-sticks upon a large drum would not have made
+          more noise), and I was able to localize it, still
+          I could see nothing. I thought some one had fallen
+          on the stairs, and I shouted 'Who is there?' A
+          reply came 'Hush!'--first softly, and then very
+          loud--too loud for a human voice. As no person was
+          visible, I was puzzled, and went up-stairs by a
+          back staircase, and ascertained that none of my
+          family had left their bedrooms, and that certainly
+          no trick was being played me.
+
+          "The same rumbling, rolling sound was repeated;
+          and as I stood on the top of the great staircase,
+          I felt a little uncomfortable, but not frightened.
+          The noise seemed to proceed from a large carved
+          oak coffer or chest (as old as the house), which
+          stood on a landing, about half-way up the stairs.
+          I approached the chest, and from it appeared to
+          come again the word 'Hush!' Could it be the wind
+          whistling through a crack? No; it was far too loud
+          for any such explanation. I opened the lid of the
+          chest and found it empty. Again the noise, now
+          from _under_ the chest. I was just strong enough
+          to move the chest; I turned it over and slid it
+          down the stairs on to the next landing. Again the
+          noise, and again the 'Hush!' which now appeared to
+          come from the floor where the coffer had stood.
+
+          "I felt I would rather have had some one with me
+          to assist in my investigation, and to join me in
+          making the acquaintance of the ghost; but,
+          although my sensations were probably the most
+          uncomfortable I ever experienced, I was
+          determined, if possible, to unearth the mystery.
+
+          "The light was imperfect, and I went to another
+          part of the house for a candle to enable me to
+          examine the floor. In my absence the noise was
+          repeated louder than ever, and not unlike distant
+          thunder. On my return, I was saluted with 'Hush!'
+          which I felt convinced came from a voice
+          immediately under the floor. By the light of the
+          candle I examined the dark oak boards, and
+          discovered what appeared to be a trap door about
+          two feet six inches square. The floor at some time
+          had been varnished, and the cracks, or joints of
+          the trap, had been filled and sealed with the
+          varnish. I now hoped I had found the habitation of
+          my troublesome and noisy guest. I procured a
+          chisel and cut the varnished joint, and found that
+          there was a trap door, as I supposed. By the aid
+          of a long screwdriver I was able to move the door,
+          but at that moment a repetition of the noise,
+          immediately under me, made me hesitate for a
+          moment to try and raise it. With feelings better
+          imagined than described, I raised the lid, and
+          looked into a dark chasm. All was still, and I
+          heard the cathedral bell tolling the hour of
+          midnight. A long African spear was in the corner
+          near me, and I struck this into the opening. I
+          tied a string to the candlestick to lower it into
+          the opening, but at this moment I was startled,
+          and was for the first time nervous, or I may say,
+          frightened; but this had better remain for another
+          chapter.
+
+          "So far I have not in the smallest degree
+          exaggerated or overdrawn any one of the matters I
+          have recounted. Every word has been written with
+          the greatest care to truth and accuracy.
+
+                                                 "S. T. A."
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+To cut our ghost story short, without adding another chapter, Mr.
+Aveling, on looking into the dark chasm by the meagre light of the
+lowered candle, beheld, to his amazement, the reflection of his own face
+in the water of a large cistern underneath the staircase, the house
+having formerly been supplied from the "large brewery" a short distance
+off. The unearthly noise was no doubt caused by air in the pipes,
+through which the water rushed when suddenly turned on by the brewers,
+who were working late at night. In _Great Expectations_ it is stated
+that:--"The brewery buildings had a little lane of communication with
+it" [the courtyard of Satis House], "and the wooden gates of that lane
+stood open" [at the time of Pip's first visit, when Estella showed him
+over the premises], "and all the brewery beyond stood open, away to the
+high enclosing wall; and all was empty and disused. The cold wind seemed
+to blow colder there, than outside the gate; and it made a shrill noise
+in howling in and out at the open sides of the brewery, like the noise
+of wind in the rigging of a ship at sea."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[4] Mr. Aveling subsequently informed me that the vessel in which the
+king took his departure continued to be used in the Royal Navy for many
+years as a lighter--its name being altered to the "Royal Escape."
+Afterwards it was used as a watch-vessel in the Coastguard service at
+Chatham, and was eventually broken up at Sheerness Dockyard so recently
+as 1876.
+
+[5] "A Perambulation of Kent: Conteining the Description, Hystorie, and
+Customes of that Shire. Written in the yeere 1570 by William Lambarde of
+Lincoln's Inne Gent."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+ROCHESTER CASTLE.
+
+        "I took up my hat, and went out, climbed to the
+          top of the old Castle, and looked over the windy
+          hills that slope down to the Medway."--_The Seven
+          Poor Travellers._
+
+
+TO the lover of Dickens, both the Castle and Cathedral of Rochester
+appeal with almost equal interest. The Castle, however, which stands on
+an eminence on the right bank of the river Medway, close to the bridge,
+claims prior attention, and a few lines must therefore be devoted to an
+epitome of its history in the ante-Pickwickian days.
+
+Tradition says that the first castle was erected by command of Julius
+C�sar, when Cassivelaunus was Governor of Britain, "in order to awe the
+Britons." It was called the "Castle of the Medway," or "the Kentishmen's
+Castle," and it seems, with other antagonisms, to have awed the
+unfortunate Britons pretty effectively, for it lasted until decay and
+dissolution came to it and to them, as to all things. It was replaced by
+a new castle built by Hrofe (509), which in its turn succumbed to the
+ravages of time.
+
+[Illustration: The Castle from Rochester Bridge]
+
+Gundulph, Bishop of Rochester (1077), whose name still survives here and
+there in connection with charities and in other ways in the "ancient
+city," appears to be entitled to the credit of having commenced to build
+the present massive square Tower or Keep, the surviving portion of a
+magnificent whole, sometimes called "Gundulph's Tower," "towards which
+he was to expend the sum of sixty pounds," and this structure ranks as
+one of the most perfect examples of Norman architecture in existence.
+Other authorities ascribe the erection to Odo, Bishop of Bayeux and Earl
+of Kent, half-brother to William the Conqueror, who is described by
+Hasted as "a turbulent and ambitious prelate, who aimed at nothing less
+than the popedom." Later, in the reign of William Rufus, it was
+accounted "the strongest and most important castle of England." It was
+so important that Lambarde, in _A Perambulation of Kent_, says:--"It was
+much in the eie of such as were authors of troubles following within
+the realme, so that from time to time it had a part almost in every
+Tragedie."
+
+Mr. Robert Collins, in his compact and useful _Visitors' Handbook of
+Rochester and Neighbourhood_, quoting from another ancient historian,
+says that "In 1264, King Henry III. [who in 1251 held a grand tournament
+in the Castle] 'commanded that the Shyriffe of Kent do set aboute to
+finish and complete the great Tower which Gundulph had left imperfect.'"
+About 1463, Edward IV. repaired part of the Castle, after which it was
+allowed to fall into decay. The instructions to the "shyriffe" were no
+doubt necessary; for although �60 would probably go a great way in the
+time of Bishop Gundulph, the modern �sthetic builder would do very
+little indeed for that sum, towards the erection of such an impregnable
+fortress as Rochester Castle, the walls of which vary from eight to
+thirteen feet in thickness, whatever his progenitor may have done in
+1077.
+
+The Keep--the last resort of the garrison when all the outworks were
+taken--is considered so beautiful that it is selected, under the article
+"Castle" in the last edition of the _Encyclop�dia Britannica_, as an
+illustration of Norman architecture, showing "an embattled parapet often
+admitting of chambers and staircases being constructed," and showing
+also "embattled turrets carried one story higher than the parapet."
+There is also a fine woodcut of the Castle at p. 198 of vol. v. of that
+work.
+
+The Keep is seventy feet square and a hundred feet high, built of the
+native Kentish ragstone and Caen stone; and the adamantine mortar or
+cement used in its construction was made with sand, evidently procured
+at the seaside some distance from Rochester, for it contains remains of
+cardium, pecten, solen, and other marine shells, which would not be
+found in river sand. Mr. Roach Smith suggested that probably the sand
+may have been procured from "Cockle-shell Hard," near Sheerness. He
+called our attention to the fact that in Norman mortar sand is
+predominant, and in Roman mortar lime or chalk.
+
+[Illustration: Rochester Castle]
+
+The roof and the chambers are gone,--the Keep remains as a mere
+shell,--and where bishops, kings, and barons came and went, flocks of
+the common domestic pigeon, in countless numbers, fly about and make
+their home and multiply. One almost regrets the freedom which these
+graceful birds possess, although to grudge freedom to a pigeon is like
+grudging sunshine to a flower. But though the damage to the walls is
+really trifling, as they will stand for centuries to come, still the
+litter and mess which the birds naturally make is considerable and
+unsightly, and decidedly out of keeping in such a magnificent ruin. The
+pigeons exhibit what takes place when a species becomes dominant to the
+exclusion of other species, as witness the pest of the rabbits in New
+Zealand. With profound respect to his Worship the Mayor and the
+Corporation of Rochester, to whom the Castle and grounds now belong, the
+writer of these lines, as a naturalist, ventures to suggest that the
+Castle should be left to the jackdaws, its natural and doubtless its
+original tenants, which, although of higher organization, have been
+driven out by superior numbers in the "struggle for existence," and for
+whom it is a much more appropriate habitat in keeping with all
+traditions; and further, that the said pigeons be forthwith made into
+pies for the use and behoof of the deserving poor of the ancient city of
+Rochester.
+
+Mention has been made of the fact that the Castle and grounds are the
+property of the Corporation of Rochester. They were acquired by purchase
+in 1883 from the Earl of Jersey for �8,000, and the occasion was
+celebrated by great civic rejoicings.[6] The Corporation are not only to
+be congratulated on the wisdom of their purchase ("a thing of beauty is
+a joy for ever"), but also on the excellent manner in which the grounds
+are maintained--pigeons excepted. The gardens, with closely-cut lawns,
+abound with euonymus, laurustinus, bay, and other evergreens, together
+with many choice flowers. The single red, or Deptford pink (_Dianthus
+Armeria_), grows wild on the walls of the Castle. There is a tasteful
+statuette of her Majesty, under a Gothic canopy, near the entrance,
+which records her Jubilee in 1887. The inscriptions on three of the four
+corners are appropriately chosen from Lord Tennyson's _Carmen
+S�culare_:--
+
+                  To commemorate the
+
+               =Jubilee of Queen Victoria=,
+
+                          1887.
+
+                     L. LEVY, MAYOR.
+
+          "Fifty years of ever-broadening commerce!"
+
+          "Fifty years of ever-brightening science!"
+
+          "Fifty years of ever-widening empire!"
+
+There is free admission to the grounds through a handsome modern Norman
+gateway, but a trifling charge of a few pence is made for permission to
+enter the Keep, which has convenient steps ascending to the top. From
+the summit of the Keep, there are magnificent views of the valley of the
+river Medway, the adjacent hills, Rochester, Chatham, and the vicinity.
+The Cathedral, Jasper's Gatehouse, and Restoration House, are also
+noteworthy objects to the lover of Dickens. As Mr. Philips Bevan says,
+and as we verified, the views inside at midday, when the sun is
+streaming down, are "very peculiar and beautiful."
+
+Dickens's first and last great works are both associated with the
+Castle, and it is referred to in several other of his writings. We can
+fancy, more than sixty years ago, the eager and enthusiastic
+Pickwickians, in company with their newly-made acquaintance, Mr. Alfred
+Jingle, seated outside the four-horse coach,--the "Commodore," driven
+possibly by "Old Chumley,"--dashing over old Rochester Bridge, to "the
+lively notes of the guard's key-bugle," when the sight of the Castle
+first broke upon them.
+
+          "'Magnificent ruin!' said Mr. Augustus Snodgrass,
+          with all the poetic fervour that distinguished
+          him, when they came in sight of the fine old
+          Castle.
+
+          "'What a study for an antiquarian!' were the very
+          words which fell from Mr. Pickwick's mouth, as he
+          applied his telescope to his eye.
+
+          "'Ah, fine place!' said the stranger, 'glorious
+          pile--frowning walls--tottering arches--dark
+          nooks--crumbling staircases--'"
+
+Little did poor Mr. Winkle think that within twenty-four hours _his_
+feeling of admiration for Rochester Castle would be turned into
+astonishment, for does not the chronicle say that "if the upper tower of
+Rochester Castle had suddenly walked from its foundation and stationed
+itself opposite the coffee-room window [of the Bull Hotel], Mr. Winkle's
+surprise would have been as nothing compared with the perfect
+astonishment with which he had heard this address" (referring of course
+to the insult to Dr. Slammer, and the challenge in the matter of the
+duel).
+
+It was on the occasion of "a visit to the Castle" very soon afterwards
+that Mr. Winkle confided in, and sought the good offices of, his friend
+Mr. Snodgrass, in the "affair of honour" which was to take place at
+"sunset, in a lonely field beyond Fort Pitt." Poor fellow! how eagerly
+he tried, under a mask of the most perfect candour, and how miserably
+he failed, to arouse the energies of his friend to avert the impending
+catastrophe.
+
+[Illustration: INTERIOR OF ROCHESTER CASTLE]
+
+          "'Snodgrass,' he said, stopping suddenly, 'do
+          _not_ let me be baulked in this matter--do _not_
+          give information to the local authorities--do
+          _not_ obtain the assistance of several peace
+          officers to take either me or Doctor Slammer of
+          the 97th Regiment, at present quartered in Chatham
+          Barracks, into custody, and thus prevent this
+          duel;--I say, do _not_.'
+
+          "Mr. Snodgrass seized his friend's hand as he
+          enthusiastically replied, 'Not for worlds!'
+
+          "A thrill passed over Mr. Winkle's frame, as the
+          conviction that he had nothing to hope from his
+          friend's fears, and that he was destined to become
+          an animated target, rushed forcibly upon him."
+
+The state of the case having been formally explained to Mr. Snodgrass,
+they make arrangements, hire "a case of satisfaction pistols, with the
+satisfactory accompaniments of powder, ball, and caps," and "the two
+friends returned to their inn." The next ground which they traversed
+together to pursue the subject was at Fort Pitt. We will follow them
+presently.
+
+In _The Mystery of Edwin Drood_ there is no direct reference to the
+Castle itself, but the engraving of it, with the Cathedral in the
+background, after the pretty sketch by Mr. Luke Fildes, R.A., will ever
+be associated with that beautiful fragment.
+
+Another reference is contained in the preface to _Nicholas Nickleby_,
+where Dickens says:--"I cannot call to mind now how I came to hear about
+Yorkshire schools when I was a not very robust child, sitting in
+by-places near Rochester Castle, with a head full of 'Partridge,'
+'Strap,' 'Tom Pipes,' and 'Sancho Panza.'"
+
+A sympathetic notice of the Castle is also contained in the _Seven Poor
+Travellers_. It begins:--
+
+          "Sooth to say, he [Time] did an active stroke of
+          work in Rochester in the old days of the Romans,
+          and the Saxons, and the Normans, and down to the
+          times of King John, when the rugged Castle--I will
+          not undertake to say how many hundreds of years
+          old then--was abandoned to the centuries of
+          weather which have so defaced the dark apertures
+          in its walls, that the ruin looks as if the rooks
+          and daws had picked its eyes out."
+
+And this, the most touching reference of all, occurs in "One Man in a
+Dockyard," contributed by Dickens[7] to _Household Words_ in 1851:--
+
+          "There was Rochester Castle, to begin with. I
+          surveyed the massive ruin from the Bridge, and
+          thought what a brief little practical joke I
+          seemed to be, in comparison with its solidity,
+          stature, strength, and length of life. I went
+          inside; and, standing in the solemn shadow of its
+          walls, looking up at the blue sky, its only
+          remaining roof, (to the disturbance of the crows
+          and jackdaws who garrison the venerable fortress
+          now,) calculated how much wall of that thickness
+          I, or any other man, could build in his whole
+          life,--say from eight years old to eighty,--and
+          what a ridiculous result would be produced. I
+          climbed the rugged staircase, stopping now and
+          then to peep at great holes where the rafters and
+          floors were once,--bare as toothless gums now,--or
+          to enjoy glimpses of the Medway through dreary
+          apertures like sockets without eyes; and, looking
+          from the Castle ramparts on the Old Cathedral, and
+          on the crumbling remains of the old Priory, and on
+          the row of staid old red-brick houses where the
+          Cathedral dignitaries live, and on the shrunken
+          fragments of one of the old City gates, and on the
+          old trees with their high tops below me, felt
+          quite apologetic to the scene in general for my
+          own juvenility and insignificance. One of the
+          river boatmen had told me on the bridge, (as
+          country folks do tell of such places,) that in the
+          old times, when those buildings were in progress,
+          a labourer's wages 'were a penny a day, and enough
+          too.' Even as a solitary penny was to their whole
+          cost, it appeared to me, was the utmost strength
+          and exertion of one man towards the labour of
+          their erection."
+
+Dickens always took his friends to the Keep of Rochester Castle. He
+naturally considered it as one of the sights of the old city. It was
+equally attractive to his friends, for a curious adventure is recorded
+in Forster's _Life_, in connection with a visit which the poet
+Longfellow made there in 1842, and which he recollected a quarter of a
+century afterwards, and recounted to Forster during a second visit,
+together with a curious experience in the slums of London with Dickens.
+The first of these adventures is thus described by Forster:--"One of
+them was a day at Rochester, when, met by one of those prohibitions
+which are the wonder of visitors and the shame of Englishmen, we
+overleapt gates and barriers, and setting at defiance repeated threats
+of all the terrors of law, coarsely expressed to us by the custodian of
+the place, explored minutely the castle ruins." Happily such a
+circumstance could not now take place, for, by the present excellent
+regulations of the Corporation of the city of Rochester, every visitor
+can explore the Castle and grounds to his heart's content.
+
+On arriving at either railway station, Strood or Rochester Bridge, the
+Castle is the first object to claim attention. Our attention is
+constantly directed to it during our stay in the pleasant city; it is a
+landmark when we are on the tramp; and it is the last object to fade
+from our view as we regretfully take our departure.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+My fellow-tramp favours me with the following note:--
+
+
+THE DEDICATION OF ROCHESTER CASTLE TO THE PUBLIC.
+
+"I well remember the day of public rejoicing in the picturesque city of
+Rochester, on the occasion of the ceremony of formally presenting the
+old Castle and grounds to the inhabitants. I had received instructions
+from the manager of the _Graphic_ newspaper to make sketches of the
+principal incidents in connection with the day's proceedings, and I
+reached my destination just in time to obtain from the authorities some
+idea of the nature of those proceedings. With this object in view, I
+made my way through the surging crowd to the Guildhall, where, in one of
+the Corporation rooms, I found a large assembly of local magnates in
+official attire, including the Mayor, who was vainly endeavouring to
+properly adjust his sword, an operation in which I had the honour of
+assisting, much to his Worship's satisfaction, I hope.
+
+[Illustration: Rochester Castle and the Medway]
+
+"The streets of Rochester were thronged with excited people, and the
+houses were gaily decked with flags and bunting. When everything was
+ready, an imposing procession was formed, and proceeded to the Castle
+grounds, preceded by a military band; on arriving there, an address was
+read from the pagoda to an attentive audience, the subsequent
+proceedings being enlivened by musical strains.
+
+"It had been announced that, in the evening, the old Keep would be
+illuminated by the electric light, and I made a point of being present
+to witness the unusual sight. The night was very dark, and the ivy-clad
+ruin could barely be distinguished; presently, a burst of music from the
+band was immediately followed by a remarkably strong beam of light,
+which shot into the darkness with such effect as to fairly startle those
+present. Then it rested on the grey walls of the huge pile, bathing in
+brightness the massive stones and clinging ivy, the respective colours
+of each being vividly apparent. But the most striking feature was yet to
+come. The hundreds of pigeons which inhabited the nooks and crannies of
+the old Keep, being considerably alarmed by this sudden illumination of
+their domain, flew with one accord round and round their ancient
+tenement, now in the full blaze of light, now lost in the inky darkness
+beyond, and fluttering about in a state of the utmost bewilderment.
+Methinks even Mr. Pickwick, had he been present in the flesh, would have
+been equally amazed at this remarkable spectacle."
+
+                                                          F. G. K.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[6] Mr. Kitton was, by an interesting coincidence, present at the
+ceremony above referred to, and he has kindly given his impressions
+thereon, which appear at the end of this chapter.
+
+[7] This was a joint article; the description of the works of the
+dockyard being by R. H. Horne, and that of the fortifications and
+country around by Charles Dickens.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+ROCHESTER CATHEDRAL.
+
+        "That same afternoon, the massive grey square
+          tower of an old Cathedral rises before the sight
+          of a jaded traveller. The bells are going for
+          daily Vesper Service, and he must needs attend it,
+          one would say, from his haste to reach the open
+          Cathedral door. The choir are getting on their
+          sullied white robes, in a hurry, when he arrives
+          among them, gets on his own robe, and falls into
+          the procession filing in to Service. Then, the
+          Sacristan locks the iron-barred gates that divide
+          the Sanctuary from the Chancel, and all of the
+          procession having scuttled into their places, hide
+          their faces; and then the intoned words, 'WHEN THE
+          WICKED MAN--' rise among the groins of arches and
+          beams of roof, awakening muttered
+          thunder."--_Edwin Drood._
+
+
+THE readers of Dickens are first introduced to Rochester Cathedral, in
+the early pages of the immortal _Pickwick Papers_, by that audacious
+_raconteur_, Mr. Alfred Jingle:--
+
+          "Old Cathedral too--earthy smell--pilgrims' feet
+          worn away the old steps--little Saxon
+          doors--confessionals like money-takers' boxes at
+          theatres--queer customers those monks--Popes, and
+          Lord Treasurers, and all sorts of old fellows,
+          with great red faces, and broken noses, turning up
+          every day--buff jerkins
+          too--matchlocks--sarcophagus--fine place--old
+          legends too--strange stories: capital."
+
+But it was through the medium of _Edwin Drood_, and under the masked
+name of Cloisterham, that all the novel-reading world beyond the
+"ancient city" first recognized Rochester Cathedral--and indeed the
+ancient city too--as having been elevated to a degree of interest and
+importance far beyond that imparted to it by its own venerable history
+and ecclesiastical associations, numerous and varied as they are. The
+early portion of the story introduces us to Cloisterham in imperishable
+language:--
+
+[Illustration: Rochester Cathedral]
+
+          "An ancient city Cloisterham, and no meet
+          dwelling-place for any one with hankerings after
+          the noisy world. . . . A drowsy city Cloisterham,
+          whose inhabitants seem to suppose, with an
+          inconsistency more strange than rare, that all its
+          changes lie behind it, and that there are no more
+          to come. . . . In a word, a city of another and a
+          bygone time is Cloisterham, with its hoarse
+          cathedral bell, its hoarse rooks hovering about
+          the cathedral tower, its hoarser and less distinct
+          rooks in the stalls far beneath. . . ."
+
+The particulars in this chapter mainly relate to _The Mystery of Edwin
+Drood_, which Longfellow thought "certainly one of Dickens's most
+beautiful works, if not the most beautiful of all," but a few words may
+not be inappropriate respecting some of the principal events connected
+with the Cathedral. It was founded[8] A.D. 604, by Ethelbert, King of
+Kent, and the first bishop of the See (Bishop Justus) was ordained by
+Augustine, the Archbishop of the Britons. The See of Rochester is
+therefore, with the exception of Canterbury, at once the most ancient
+and also the smallest in England.
+
+The Cathedral, as well as the city, suffered from the attacks of
+Ethelred, King of Mercia, and in 1075, "when Arnot, a monk of Bec, came
+to the See, it was in a most deplorable condition." Bishop Gundulph, who
+succeeded him, and by whose efforts the Castle was erected, replaced the
+old English church by a Norman one (1080), and made other improvements.
+The Cathedral suffered from fire in 1138 and 1179. Its great north
+transept was built in 1235, and the great south transept in 1240. In
+1423, the parish altar of St. Nicholas, in the nave, was removed to a
+new Church for the citizens on the north side of the Cathedral. In 1470,
+the great west window was inserted. The Norman west front has a richly
+sculptured door of five receding arches, containing figures of the
+Saviour and the twelve apostles, and statues of Henry I. and his Queen,
+Matilda. There are monuments in the Cathedral to St. William of Perth, a
+baker of that town, who was murdered near here by his servant, on his
+way to the Holy Land (1201), and was canonized, to Bishop Gundulph,
+Bishop John de Sheppey, Bishop de Merton (the founder of Merton College,
+Oxford), and to many others.
+
+According to Mr. Phillips Bevan, "the chapter-house is remarkable for
+its magnificent Decorated Door (about 1344), of which there is a
+fac-simile at the Crystal Palace. The figures represent the Christian
+and the Jewish Churches, surrounded by Fathers and Angels. The figure at
+the top is the pure soul for whom the angels are supposed to be
+praying."
+
+Various alterations and additions have been made from time to time, the
+last of which appears to be the central tower, which is terribly mean
+and inappropriate, and altogether out of place with the ancient
+surroundings. It was built by Cottingham in 1825.
+
+We pass, at various times, several pleasant hours in the Cathedral and
+its precincts, admiring the beautiful Norman work, and recalling most
+delightful memories of Charles Dickens and his associations therewith.
+
+[Illustration: Rochester Cathedral Interior]
+
+Among the many friends we made at Rochester, was Mr. Syms, the
+respected Manager of the Gas Company, and an old resident in the city.
+To this gentleman we are indebted for several reminiscences of Dickens
+and his works. He fancies that _The Mystery of Edwin Drood_ owed its
+origin to the following strange local event that happened many years
+ago. A well-to-do person, a bachelor (who lived somewhere near the site
+of the present Savings Bank in High St., Rochester, Chatham end), was
+the guardian and trustee of a nephew (a minor), who was the inheritor of
+a large property. Business, pleasure, or a desire to seek health, took
+the nephew to the West Indies, from whence he returned somewhat
+unexpectedly. After his return he suddenly disappeared, and was supposed
+to have gone another voyage, but no one ever saw or heard of him again,
+and the matter was soon forgotten. When, however, certain excavations
+were being made for some improvements or additions to the Bank, the
+skeleton of a young man was discovered; and local tradition couples the
+circumstance with the probability of the murder of the nephew by the
+uncle.
+
+Mr. Syms thought that the "Crozier," which is probably a set off to the
+"Mitre," the orthodox hotel where Mr. Datchery put up with his
+"portmanteau," was probably the city coffee-house, an old hotel of the
+coaching days, which stood on the site now occupied by the London County
+Bank. "It was a hotel of a most retiring disposition," and "business was
+chronically slack at the 'Crozier,'" which probably accounts for its
+dissolution. Another suggestion is that the "Crozier" may have been "The
+Old Crown," a fifteenth-century house, which was pulled down in 1864. He
+could not identify the "Tilted Wagon," the "cool establishment on the
+top of a hill."
+
+It is generally admitted that "Mr. Thomas Sapsea, Auctioneer, &c.," was
+a compound of two originals well known in Rochester--a Mr. B. and a Mr.
+F., who had many of the characteristics of the quondam Mayor of
+Cloisterham. Mr. Sapsea's house is the fine old timbered building
+opposite Eastgate House, which has been previously alluded to.
+
+The "Travellers' Twopenny" of _Edwin Drood_, where Deputy, _alias_
+Winks, lodged, Mr. Syms thought to have been a cheap lodging-house well
+known in that locality, which stood at the junction of Frog Alley and
+Crow Lane, originally called "The Duck," and subsequently "Kitt's
+Lodging-house." But, like less interesting and more important relics of
+the past, this has disappeared, to make way for modern improvements. It
+had been partly burnt down before. To satisfy ourselves, we go over the
+ground, which is near Mr. Franklin Homan's furniture establishment.
+
+We are reminded, in reference to _Edwin Drood_, that the chief tenor
+singer never heads the procession of choristers. That place of honour
+belongs to the smaller boys of the choir. An enquiry from us, as to what
+was the opinion of the townsfolk generally respecting Dickens, elicited
+the reply that they thought him at times "rather masterful."
+
+We are most attentively shown over the Cathedral and its surroundings by
+Mr. Miles, the venerable verger. This faithful and devoted official, who
+began at the bottom of the ladder as a choir boy in the sacred edifice
+at the commencement of the present century, is much respected, and has
+recently celebrated his golden wedding. Few can therefore be more
+closely identified with the growth and development of its current
+history. Pleasant and instructive it is to hear him recount the many
+celebrated incidents which have marked its progress, and to see the
+beautiful memorials of past munificence or affection erected by friends
+or relatives, which he lovingly points out. It is in no perfunctory
+spirit, or as mere matter of routine, that he performs his office: we
+really feel that he takes a deep interest in his task, which makes it a
+privilege to walk under his guidance through the historic building, and
+into its famous crypt, so especially associated with Jasper and Durdles.
+
+[Illustration: The Crypt, Rochester Cathedral.]
+
+We enter "by a small side door, . . . descend the rugged steps, and are
+down in the crypt." It is very spacious, and vaulted with stone. Even by
+daylight, here and there, "the heavy pillars which support the roof
+engender masses of black shade, but between them there are lanes of
+light," and we walk "up and down these lanes," being strangely reminded
+of Durdles as we notice fragments of old broken stone ornaments
+carefully laid out on boards in several places. Formerly there were
+altars to St. Mary and St. Catherine in the crypt or undercroft, but Mr.
+Wildish's local guide-book says:--"They seem not to have been much
+frequented; consequently these saints were not very profitable to the
+priests."
+
+We "go up the winding staircase of the great tower, toilsomely turning
+and turning, and lowering [our] heads to avoid the stairs above, or the
+rough stone pivot around which they twist." About ninety steps bring us
+on to the roof of the Cathedral over the choir, and then, keeping along
+a passage by the parapet, we reach the belfry, and from thence go on by
+ladder to the bell-chamber, which contains six bells--dark--very--long
+ladders--trap-doors--very heavy--almost extinguish us when lowering
+them--more ladders from bell-chamber to roof of tower. The parapet of
+the tower is very high; we can just see over it when standing on a
+narrow ledge near the top-coping of the leaded roof. There are a number
+of curious carved heads on the pinnacles of the tower, and the parapet,
+to our surprise, appears to be about the same height as the top of the
+Castle Keep. A panoramic view of Cloisterham presents itself to our view
+(alas! not by moonlight, as in the story), "its ruined habitations and
+sanctuaries of the dead at the tower's base; its moss-softened,
+red-tiled roofs and red-brick houses of the living, clustered beyond."
+
+We are anxious to go round the triforium, but there is no passage
+through the arches; it was closed, we are told, at the time of the
+restoration, about fifteen years ago, when the walls of the Cathedral
+were pinned for safety. The verger, on being asked, said he did not call
+to mind that Dickens ever went round the triforium or ascended the
+tower. If this is so, then much of the wonderful description of that
+"unaccountable sort of expedition," in the twelfth chapter of _Edwin
+Drood_, must have been written from imagination.
+
+As it is Sunday, and as the summer is nearly over, Mr. Miles, with a
+feeling akin to that which George Eliot has expressed regarding
+imperfect work:--
+
+                  "but God be praised,
+          Antonio Stradivari has an eye
+          That winces at false work and loves the true,"--
+
+apologetically explains that one-half the choir are absent on leave, and
+perhaps we shall not have the musical portion of the service conducted
+with that degree of efficiency which, as visitors, we may have expected.
+Nevertheless we attend the afternoon service; and Mendelssohn's glorious
+anthem, "If with all your hearts," appeals to us with enhanced effect,
+from the exquisite rendering of it by the gifted pure tenor who takes
+the solo, followed by the delicate harmonies of the choir, as the sound
+waves carry them upwards through and around the arches, and from the
+sublime emotions called into being by the impassioned appeal of the
+Hebrew prophet.
+
+We study "the fantastic carvings on the under brackets of the stall
+seats," and examine the lectern described as "the big brass eagle
+holding the sacred books upon his wings," and in imagination can almost
+call up the last scene described in _The Mystery of Edwin Drood_, where
+Her Royal Highness, the Princess Puffer, "grins," and "shakes both fists
+at the leader of the choir," and "Deputy peeps, sharp-eyed, through the
+bars, and stares astounded from the threatener to the threatened."
+
+Upon being interrogated as to whether he knew Charles Dickens, our guide
+immediately answers with a smile--"Knew him! yes. He came here very
+often, and I knew him very well. The fact is, they want to make me out
+to be 'Tope.'" And indeed there appears to be such a relevancy in the
+association, that we frequently find ourselves addressing him as "Mr.
+Tope," at which he good-humouredly laughs. He further states that
+Dickens was frequently in Rochester, and especially so when writing
+_Edwin Drood_, and appeared to be studying the Cathedral and its
+surroundings very attentively.
+
+The next question we put is:--"Was there ever such a person as Durdles?"
+to which he replies, "Of course there was,--a drunken old German
+stonemason, about thirty years ago, who was always prowling about the
+Cathedral trying to pick up little bits of broken stone ornaments,
+carved heads, crockets, finials, and such like, which he carried about
+in a cotton handkerchief, and which may have suggested to Dickens the
+idea of the 'slouching' Durdles and his inseparable dinner bundle. He
+used to work for a certain Squire N----." His earnings mostly went to
+"The Fortune of War,"--now called "The Life-Boat,"--the inn where he
+lodged.
+
+Mr. Miles does not remember the prototypes of any other "cathedraly"
+characters--Crisparkle and the rest--but he quite agrees with the
+general opinion previously referred to as to the origin of Mr. Sapsea.
+He considers "Deputy" (the imp-like satellite of Durdles and the
+"Kinfreederel") to be decidedly a street Arab, the type of which is more
+common in London than in Rochester. He thinks that the fact of the rooms
+over the gatehouse having once been occupied by an organ-blower of the
+Cathedral may have prompted Dickens to make it the residence of the
+choir-master. He also throws out the suggestion that the discovery in
+1825 of the effigy of Bishop John de Sheppey, who died in 1360, may
+possibly have given rise to the idea of the "old 'uns" in the crypt, the
+frequent object of Durdles's search, _e.g._ "Durdles come upon the old
+chap (in reference to a buried magnate of ancient time and high degree)
+by striking right into the coffin with his pick. The old chap gave
+Durdles a look with his open eyes as much as to say, 'Is your name
+Durdles? Why, my man, I've been waiting for you a Devil of a time!' and
+then he turned to powder. With a two-foot rule always in his pocket, and
+a mason's hammer all but always in his hand, Durdles goes continually
+sounding and tapping all about and about the Cathedral; and whenever he
+says to Tope, 'Tope, here's another old 'un in here!' Tope announces it
+to the Dean as an established discovery."
+
+[Illustration: Minor Canon Row: Rochester]
+
+On the south side of the Cathedral is the curious little terrace of
+old-fashioned houses, about seven in number, called "Minor Canon
+Row"--"a wonderfully quaint row of red-brick tenements" (Dickens's name
+for it is "Minor Canon Corner"),--chiefly occupied by the officers and
+others attached to the Cathedral. Here it was that Mr. Crisparkle dwelt
+with his mother, and where the little party was held (after the dinner
+at which Mr. Luke Honeythunder, with his "Curse your souls and
+bodies--come here and be blessed" philanthropy, was present, and caused
+"a most doleful breakdown"), which included Miss Twinkleton, the
+Landlesses, Rosa Bud, and Edwin Drood, as shown in the illustration, "At
+the Piano." The Reverend Septimus Crisparkle's mother, who is the
+hostess (and celebrated for her wonderful closet with stores of pickles,
+jams, biscuits, and cordials), is beautifully described in the story:--
+
+          "What is prettier than an old lady--except a young
+          lady--when her eyes are bright, when her figure is
+          trim and compact, when her face is cheerful and
+          calm, when her dress is as the dress of a china
+          shepherdess: so dainty in its colours, so
+          individually assorted to herself, so neatly
+          moulded on her? Nothing is prettier, thought the
+          good Minor Canon frequently, when taking his seat
+          at table opposite his long-widowed mother. Her
+          thought at such times may be condensed into the
+          two words that oftenest did duty together in all
+          her conversations: 'My Sept.'"
+
+The backs of the houses have very pretty gardens, and, as evidence of
+the pleasant and healthy atmosphere of the locality, we notice beautiful
+specimens of the ilex, arbutus, euonymus, and fig, the last-named being
+in fruit. The wall-rue (_Asplenium ruta-muraria_) is found hereabout.
+There, too, is a Virginia creeper, but we do not observe one growing on
+the Cathedral walls, as described in _Edwin Drood_. Jackdaws fly about
+the tower, but there are no rooks, as also stated. Near Minor Canon Row,
+to the right of Boley Hill (or "Bully Hill," as it is sometimes called),
+is the "paved Quaker settlement," a sedate row of about a dozen houses
+"up in a shady corner."
+
+"Jasper's Gatehouse" of the work above mentioned is certainly an object
+of great interest to the lover of Dickens, as many of the remarkable
+scenes in _Edwin Drood_ took place there. It is briefly described as "an
+old stone gatehouse crossing the Close, with an arched thoroughfare
+passing beneath it. Through its latticed window, a fire shines out upon
+the fast-darkening scene, involving in shadow the pendent masses of ivy
+and creeper covering the building's front." There are _three_ Gatehouses
+near the Cathedral, a fact which proves somewhat embarrassing to those
+anxious to identify the original of that so carefully described in the
+story. A short description of these may not be uninteresting.
+
+[Illustration: College Gate--(or Chertsey's Gate) Rochester.]
+
+[Illustration: Prior's Gate: Rochester]
+
+(A) "College Yard Gate," "Cemetery Gate," and "Chertsey's Gate," are the
+respective names of what we know as "Jasper's Gatehouse." It is a
+picturesque stone structure, weather-boarded above the massive archway,
+and abuts on the High Street about a hundred yards north of the
+Cathedral. Some of the old houses near have recently been demolished,
+with the result that the Gatehouse now stands out in bold relief against
+the main thoroughfare of the city. No "pendent masses of ivy" or
+"creeper" cover it. The Gate was named "Chertsey" after Edward Chertsey,
+a gentleman who lived and owned property near in the time of Edward IV.,
+and the Cathedral authorities still continue to use the old name,
+"Chertsey's Gate." The place was recently the residence of the
+under-porter of the Cathedral, and is now occupied by poor people. There
+are four rooms, two below and two above.
+
+(B) "Prior's Gate" is a castellated stone structure partly covered with
+ivy, standing about a hundred yards south of the Cathedral, and is not
+now utilized in any way. There is only one room, approached by a winding
+staircase or "postern stair." The Gate was formerly used as a school for
+choristers, until the new building of the Choir School was opened in
+Minor Canon Row about three years ago.
+
+(C) The "Deanery Gatehouse" is the name of a quaint and very cosy old
+house, having ten rooms, some of which, together with the staircase, are
+beautifully panelled; its position is a little higher up to the eastward
+of the College Yard Gate, and adjoining the Cathedral, while a gateway
+passage under it leads to the Deanery. The house was formerly the
+official residence of the Hon. and Reverend Canon Hotham, who was
+appointed a Canon in residence in 1808, and lived here at intervals
+until about 1850, when the Canonry was suppressed. Of all the
+Gatehouses, this is the only one suitable for the residence of a person
+in Jasper's position, who was enabled to offer befitting hospitality to
+his nephew and Neville Landless. Formerly there was an entrance into the
+Cathedral from this house, which is now occupied by Mr. Day and his
+family, who kindly allowed us to inspect it. We were informed that
+locally it is sometimes called "Jasper's Gatehouse." The interior of the
+drawing-room on the upper floor presents a very strong resemblance to
+Mr. Luke Fildes's illustration, "On dangerous ground." Accordingly, to
+settle the question of identity, I wrote to Mr. Fildes, whose
+interesting and courteous reply to my inquiries is conclusive. Before
+giving it, however, I may mention that my fellow-tramp, Mr. Kitton,
+suggested, more particularly with reference to another illustration in
+_Edwin Drood_, viz., "Durdles cautions Mr. Sapsea against boasting,"
+that, for the purposes of the story, the Prior's Gate is placed where
+the College Yard Gate actually stands.
+
+[Illustration: Deanery Gate. Rochester]
+
+
+                                  "11, MELBURY ROAD, KENSINGTON, W.
+                                         "_25th October, 1890._
+
+          "DEAR SIR,
+
+          "The background of the drawing of 'Durdles
+          cautioning Sapsea,' I believe I sketched from what
+          you call A., _i. e._ The College Gate. I am almost
+          certain it was not taken from B., the Prior's.
+
+          "The room in the drawing, 'On dangerous ground,'
+          is imaginary.
+
+          "I do not believe I entered any of the Gatehouses.
+
+          "The resemblance you see in the drawing to the
+          room in the Deanery Gatehouse (C.), might not be
+          gained by actual observation of the _interior_.
+
+          "In many instances an artist can well judge what
+          the interior may be from studying the _outside_. I
+          only throw this out to show that the artist may
+          not have seen a thing even when a strong
+          resemblance occurs. I am sorry to leave any doubt
+          on the subject, though personally I feel none.
+
+          "You see I never felt the necessity or propriety
+          of being locally accurate to Rochester or its
+          buildings. Dickens, of course, meant Rochester;
+          yet, at the same time, he chose to be obscure on
+          that point, and I took my cue from him. I always
+          thought it was one of his most artistic pieces of
+          work; the vague, dreamy description of the
+          Cathedral in the opening chapter of the book. So
+          definite in one sense, yet so locally vague.
+
+                        "Very faithfully yours,
+                                          "LUKE FILDES.
+
+          "W. R. HUGHES, ESQ."
+
+
+
+The College Yard Gate (A) must therefore be regarded as the typical
+Jasper's Gatehouse, but, with the usual novelist's license, some points
+in all three Gatehouses have been utilized for effect. So we can imagine
+the three friends in succession going up the "postern stair;" and,
+further on in the story, we can picture that mysterious "single buffer,
+Dick Datchery, living on his means," as a lodger in the "venerable
+architectural and inconvenient" official dwelling of Mr. Tope, minutely
+described in the eighteenth chapter of _Edwin Drood_, as "communicating
+by an upper stair with Mr. Jasper's," watching the unsuspecting Jasper
+as he goes to and from the Cathedral.
+
+Chapters twelve, fourteen, and twenty-three refer to Jasper's Gatehouse,
+and its proximity to the busy hum of human life, in very vivid terms,
+especially chapter twelve:--
+
+          "Among these secluded nooks there is little stir
+          or movement after dark. There is little enough in
+          the high tide of the day, but there is next to
+          none at night. Besides that, the cheerfully
+          frequented High Street lies nearly parallel to the
+          spot (the old Cathedral rising between the two),
+          and is the natural channel in which the
+          Cloisterham traffic flows, a certain awful hush
+          pervades the ancient pile, the cloisters, and the
+          churchyard after dark, which not many people care
+          to encounter. . . . One might fancy that the tide
+          of life was stemmed by Mr. Jasper's own Gatehouse.
+          The murmur of the tide is heard beyond; but no
+          wave passes the archway, over which his lamp burns
+          red behind the curtain, as if the building were a
+          Lighthouse. . . .
+
+          "The red light burns steadily all the evening in
+          the Lighthouse on the margin of the tide of busy
+          life. Softened sounds and hum of traffic pass it,
+          and flow on irregularly into the lonely precincts;
+          but very little else goes by save violent rushes
+          of wind. It comes on to blow a boisterous gale. . . .
+          John Jasper's lamp is kindled, and his Lighthouse
+          is shining, when Mr. Datchery returns alone
+          towards it. As mariners on a dangerous voyage,
+          approaching an iron-bound coast, may look along
+          the beams of the warning light to the haven lying
+          beyond it that may never be reached, so Mr.
+          Datchery's wistful gaze is directed to this beacon
+          and beyond. . . ."
+
+The sensation of calm in passing suddenly out of the busy High Street of
+Rochester into the subdued precincts of the Cathedral, as above
+described, is very marked and peculiar, and must be experienced to be
+realized.
+
+Among the many interesting ancient buildings in "the lonely precincts"
+may be mentioned the old Episcopal Palace of the Bishops of Rochester.
+My friend Mr. George Payne, F.S.A., Hon. Sec. of the Kent Arch�ological
+Society, who now lives there, writes me that:--"it is impossible to say
+when it was first built, but it was rebuilt _circa_ 1200, the Palace
+which preceded it having been destroyed by fire. Bishop Fisher was
+appointed to the See in 1504, and mainly resided at Rochester. The
+learned prelate here entertained the great Erasmus in 1516, and Cardinal
+Wolsey in 1527. In 1534 Bishop Fisher left Rochester never to return,
+being beheaded on Tower Hill, June 22nd, 1535. The front of the Palace
+has been coated with rough plaster work dusted over with broken tile,
+but the rear walls are in their original state, being wholly composed of
+rag, tufa, and here and there Roman tiles. The cellars are of the most
+massive construction, and many of the rooms are panelled."
+
+[Illustration: The Vines and Restoration House]
+
+The Monks' Vineyard of _Edwin Drood_ exists as "The Vines," and is one
+of the "lungs" of Rochester, belonging to the Dean and Chapter, by whom
+it is liberally leased to the Corporation for a nominal consideration.
+It was a vineyard, or garden, in the days of the monks, and is now a
+fine open space, planted with trees, and has good walks and well-trimmed
+lawns and borders. Remains of the wall of the city, or abbey, previous
+to the Cathedral, constitute the northern boundary of "The Vines." There
+are commodious seats for the public, and it was doubtless on one of
+these, as represented in the illustration entitled "Under the Trees,"
+that Edwin Drood and Rosa sat, during that memorable discussion of their
+position and prospects, which began so childlike and ended so sadly.
+"'Can't you see a happy Future?' For certain, neither of them sees a
+happy Present, as the gate opens and closes, and one goes in and the
+other goes away." A fine clump of old elms (seven in number), called
+"The Seven Sisters," stands at the east end of the Vines, nearly
+opposite Restoration House, and it was under these trees that the
+conversation took place.
+
+So curiously exact at times does the description fit in with the places,
+that we notice opposite Eastgate House the "Lumps of Delight Shop," to
+which it will be remembered that after the discussion Rosa Bud directed
+Edwin Drood to take her.
+
+Dickens's last visit to Rochester was on Monday, 6th June, 1870, when he
+walked over from Gad's Hill Place with his dogs; and he appears to have
+been noticed by several persons in the Vines, and particularly by Mr.
+John Sweet, as he stood leaning against the wooden palings near
+Restoration House, contemplating the beautiful old Manor House. These
+palings have since been removed, and an iron fence substituted. The
+object of this visit subsequently became apparent, when it was found
+that, in those pages of _Edwin Drood_ written a few hours before his
+death, Datchery and the Princess Puffer held that memorable conference
+there. "They have arrived at the entrance to the Monks' Vineyard; an
+appropriate remembrance, presenting an exemplary model for imitation, is
+revived in the woman's mind by the sight of the place," in allusion of
+course to a present of "three shillings and sixpence" which Edwin Drood
+gave her Royal Highness on a previous occasion to buy opium.
+
+[Illustration: Restoration House, Rochester, as it appeared in Dickens's
+time. (From a sketch by an Amateur.)]
+
+The extensive promenade called the Esplanade (where in 1889 we saw the
+Regatta in which, after a series of annual defeats, Rochester maintained
+its supremacy), on the east side of the river Medway, under the Castle
+walls, pleasantly approached from the Cathedral Close, is memorable as
+having been the spot described in the thirteenth chapter where Edwin and
+Rosa met for the last time, and mutually agreed to terminate their
+unfortunate and ill-assorted engagement.
+
+          "They walked on by the river. They began to speak
+          of their separate plans. He would quicken his
+          departure from England, and she would remain where
+          she was, at least as long as Helena remained. The
+          poor dear girls should have their disappointment
+          broken to them gently, and, as the first
+          preliminary, Miss Twinkleton should be confided in
+          by Rosa, even in advance of the reappearance of
+          Mr. Grewgious. It should be made clear in all
+          quarters that she and Edwin were the best of
+          friends. There had never been so serene an
+          understanding between them since they were first
+          affianced."
+
+We are anxious to identify Cloisterham Weir, frequently mentioned in
+_Edwin Drood_, but more particularly as being the place where Minor
+Canon Crisparkle found Edwin's watch and shirt-pin. The Weir, we are
+told in the novel, "is full two miles above the spot to which the young
+men [Edwin and Neville] had repaired [presumably the Esplanade] to
+watch the storm." There is, however, no Weir nearer than Allington, at
+which place the tide of the Medway stops, and Allington is a
+considerable distance from Rochester, probably seven or eight miles. How
+well the good Minor Canon's propensity for "perpetually pitching himself
+headforemost into all the deep water in the surrounding country," and
+his "pilgrimages to Cloisterham Weir in the cold rimy mornings," are
+brought into requisition to enable him to obtain the watch and pin.
+
+          "He threw off his clothes, he plunged into the icy
+          water, and swam for the spot--a corner of the
+          Weir--where something glistened which did not move
+          and come over with the glistening water drops, but
+          remained stationary. . . . He brought the watch to
+          the bank, swam to the Weir again, climbed it, and
+          dived off. He knew every hole and corner of all
+          the depths, and dived and dived and dived, until
+          he could bear the cold no more. His notion was
+          that he would find the body; he only found a
+          shirt-pin sticking in some mud and ooze."
+
+Our failure to identify Cloisterham Weir exhibits another instance
+where, for the purposes of the story, an imaginary place is introduced.
+To Mr. William Ball is due the credit for subsequently suggesting that
+Snodland Brook and Snodland Weir may have possibly been in Dickens's
+mind in originating Cloisterham Weir; so we tramped over to inspect
+them. Near the village, the brook (or river, for it is of respectable
+width) is turbid and shallow, but higher up--a mile or so--we found it
+clearer and deeper, and we heard from some labourers, whom we saw
+regaling themselves by the side of a hayrick, that a local gentleman had
+some years ago been in the habit of bathing in the stream all the year
+round.
+
+[Illustration: St. Nicholas' Burying Ground]
+
+The ancient Church of St. Nicholas (1423) is on the north side of the
+Cathedral. In front of it is a narrow strip of ground, enclosed with
+iron railings, formerly the burial-ground of the Church, but now
+disused, referred to in _Edwin Drood_ as "a fragment of a burial-ground
+in which an unhappy sheep was grazing." In this enclosure, which is
+neatly kept, there are a weeping willow at each end, and in the centre
+an exquisite specimen of the catalpa tree (_Catalpa syringifolia_), the
+floral ornament of the Cathedral precincts. At the time of our visit it
+is in perfect condition, the large cordate bright green leaves, and the
+massive trusses of labiate flowers of white, yellow, and purple colours
+(not unlike those of the _Impatiens noli-me-tangere_ balsam, only
+handsomer) are worth walking miles to see. It is a North American plant,
+and in its native country sometimes grows to a height of forty feet.
+The specimen here described is about twenty feet high, and was planted
+about fifteen years ago.[9]
+
+On the opposite side of the way is the old cemetery of St. Nicholas'
+Church, originally part of the Castle moat, but which was converted to
+its present purpose about half a century ago. This quiet resting-place
+of the dead has intense interest for the lover of Dickens, as it was
+here that he desired to be buried; and his family would certainly have
+carried his wishes into effect, but that the place had been closed for
+years and no further interments were allowed. Pending other arrangements
+at Shorne, an admirable suggestion was made in the _Times_, which
+speedily found favour with the nation in its great affection for him,
+namely, that he should rest in Westminster Abbey; and, the Dean of
+Westminster promptly and wisely responding to the suggestion, it was at
+once carried into effect.
+
+As we pause, and look again and again at the sheltered nook in the old
+cemetery sanctified by his memory, and adorned by rich evergreens and
+other trees, among which the weeping willow and the almond are
+conspicuous, we quite understand and sympathize with Dickens's love for
+such a calm and secluded spot.
+
+The Dean and Chapter of Rochester, it will be recollected, were anxious
+that the great novelist's remains should be placed in or near their
+Cathedral, and that wish might have been gratified, except, as just
+explained, that the public decreed otherwise. However, they sanctioned
+the erection, by the executors, of a brass, which enriches the wall of
+the south transept of the edifice, and which has the following
+inscription:--
+
+[Illustration: CHARLES DICKENS
+
+BORN AT PORTSMOUTH SEVENTH OF FEBRUARY 1812 DIED AT GADSHILL PLACE BY
+ROCHESTER NINTH OF JUNE 1870 BURIED IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY
+
+TO CONNECT HIS MEMORY WITH THE SCENES IN WHICH HIS EARLIEST AND HIS
+LATEST YEARS WERE PASSED AND WITH THE ASSOCIATIONS OF ROCHESTER
+CATHEDRAL AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD WHICH EXTENDED OVER ALL HIS LIFE
+
+THIS TABLET WITH THE SANCTION OF THE DEAN AND CHAPTER IS PLACED BY HIS
+EXECUTORS]
+
+The unfinished novel of _Edwin Drood_, which, as we have seen, is so
+inseparably connected with Rochester Cathedral, has been _finished_ by
+at least half a dozen authors, probably to their own satisfaction; but
+it is a hard matter to the reader to struggle through any one of them.
+However, there is a little _brochure_ in this direction which we feel
+may here be appropriately noticed. It is called, _Watched by the Dead: A
+Loving Study of Charles Dickens's half-told Tale_, 1887, and was written
+by R. A. Proctor, F.R.A.S., the Astronomer, whose untimely death from
+fever in America was announced after our return from our week's tramp.
+The author had evidently studied the matter both lovingly and
+attentively, and starts with the assumption that it is an example of
+what he calls "Dickens's favourite theme," which more than any other had
+a fascination for him, and was apparently regarded by him as likely to
+be most potent in its influence on others. It was that of "a wrong-doer
+watched at every turn by one of whom he has no suspicion, for whom he
+even entertains a feeling of contempt," and Mr. Proctor has certainly
+evolved a very suggestive and not improbable conclusion to the story.
+Instances of Dickens's favourite theme are adduced from _Barnaby Rudge_,
+where Haredale, unsuspected, steadily waits and watches for Rudge,
+till, after more than twenty years, "At last! at last!" he cries, as he
+captures his brother's murderer on the very spot where the murder had
+been committed; from _The Old Curiosity Shop_, where Sampson and Sally
+Brass are watched by the Marchioness--their powerless victim as they
+supposed, and by whom their detection is brought about; from _Nicholas
+Nickleby_, where Ralph Nickleby is watched by Brooker; and from _Dombey
+and Son_, where Dombey is watched by Carker, and he in turn is watched
+by good Mrs. Brown and her unhappy daughter. Instances of this kind also
+appear in _David Copperfield_, _Bleak House_, and _Little Dorrit_.
+
+Reasoning from similar data, Mr. Proctor concludes that Jasper was
+watched by Edwin Drood in the person of Datchery, and thus he was to
+have been tracked remorselessly "to his death by the man whom he
+supposed he had slain." The _d�nouement_ as regards the other characters
+seems also not improbable. Rosa Bud was to have married Lieutenant
+Tartar, and Crisparkle, Helena Landless. Neville was to have died, but
+not before he had learned to understand the change which Edwin's
+character had undergone. As to Edwin Drood himself, "purified by trial,
+strengthened though saddened by his love for Rosa," Edwin would have
+been one of those characters Dickens loved to draw--a character entirely
+changed from a once careless, almost trivial self, to depth and
+earnestness. "All were to join in changing the ways of dear old
+Grewgious from the sadness and loneliness of the earlier scenes" in the
+story, "to the warmth and light of that kindly domestic life for which,
+angular though he thought himself, his true and genial nature fitted him
+so thoroughly." This attempt to solve _The Mystery of Edwin Drood_ will
+amply repay perusal. It was probably one of the last works of this very
+able and versatile author.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It is right to state that Mr. Luke Fildes, R.A., the illustrator of _The
+Mystery of Edwin Drood_, with whom we have had the pleasure of an
+interview, entirely rejects this theory. He does not favour the idea
+that Datchery is Edwin Drood; his opinion is that the ingenuous and
+kind-hearted Edwin, had he been living, would never have allowed his
+friend Neville to continue so long under the grave suspicion of murder.
+Nay more: he is convinced that Dickens intended that Edwin Drood should
+be killed by his uncle; and this opinion is supported by the fact of the
+introduction of a "large black scarf of strong close-woven silk," which
+Jasper wears for the first time in the fourteenth chapter of the story,
+and which was likely to have been the means of death, _i. e._ by
+strangulation. Mr. Fildes said that Dickens seemed much surprised when
+he called his attention to this change of dress--very noticeable and
+embarrassing to an artist who had studied the character--and appeared as
+though he had unintentionally disclosed the secret. He further stated
+that it was Dickens's intention to take him to a condemned cell in
+Maidstone or some other gaol, in order "that he might make a drawing,"
+"and," said Dickens, "do something better than Cruikshank;" in allusion,
+of course, to the famous drawing of "Fagin in the condemned cell."
+"Surely this," remarked our informant, "points to our witnessing the
+condemned culprit Jasper in his cell before he met his fate."[10]
+
+Mr. Fildes spoke with enthusiasm of the very great kindness and
+consideration which he received from Dickens, and the pains he took to
+introduce his young friend to the visitors at Gad's Hill, and in London
+at Hyde Park Place, who were his seniors. He was under an engagement to
+visit Dickens,--had his portmanteau packed in fact, almost ready to
+start on his journey--when he saw to his amazement the announcement of
+his death in the newspapers--and it was a very great shock to him. Not
+long afterwards, Mr. Fildes said, the family, with much kind
+thoughtfulness, renewed the invitation to him to stay a few days at
+Gad's Hill Place, and during that time he made the imperishable drawing
+of "The Empty Chair."
+
+Bearing in mind the above circumstances coming from so high an
+authority, a missing link has been supplied, but--_The Mystery of Edwin
+Drood_ is still unsolved!
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[8] It is interesting to record that the foundations of this Church were
+met with for the first time, in restoring the west front of the
+Cathedral, in 1889.
+
+[9] This was written in 1888; on a subsequent visit to Rochester we were
+sorry to find that the frost had made sad havoc with this beautiful
+tree.
+
+[10] Mr. Charles Dickens informs me that Mr. Fildes is right, and that
+Edwin Drood was dead. His (Mr. Dickens's) father told him so himself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+RICHARD WATTS'S CHARITY, ROCHESTER.
+
+        "Strictly speaking, there were only _six_ Poor
+          Travellers; but being a Traveller myself, though
+          an idle one, and being withal as poor as I hope to
+          be, I brought the number up to seven. . . . I, for
+          one, am so divided this night between fact and
+          fiction, that I scarce know which is which."--_The
+          Seven Poor Travellers._
+
+
+THE most unique Charity ever described in fiction, or founded on fact,
+well deserves a few pages to be devoted to a record of its interesting
+history and present position. We therefore occupy a short time in
+examining it on Thursday morning, before our visit to the Marshes.
+
+[Illustration: The "Six Poor Travellers"]
+
+Except for _The Seven Poor Travellers_, which was the title of the
+Christmas Number of _Household Words_ issued in 1854, it is possible
+that few beyond "the ancient city" would ever have heard, or indeed have
+cared to hear, anything about the Worshipful Master Richard Watts or his
+famous Charity; now, as all the world knows, it is a veritable
+"household word" to readers and admirers of Dickens. In the narrative,
+he, as the first Traveller, is supposed to have visited Rochester, and
+passed the evening with the six Poor Travellers, and thus to have made
+the seventh. After hearing the story of the Charity "from the decent
+body of a wholesome matronly presence" (this was Mrs. Cackett, a former
+matron, who is said to have been very much astonished at her appearance
+in the drama of _The Seven Poor Travellers_, which she subsequently
+witnessed at the Rochester Theatre), he obtains permission to treat the
+Travellers to a hot supper. The inn at which the first Traveller stayed
+was doubtless our old acquaintance, the Bull, "where the window of his
+adjoining bedroom looked down into the Inn yard, just where the lights
+of the kitchen redden a massive fragment of the Castle wall." Here was
+brewed the "wassail" contained in the "brown beauty," the "turkey" and
+"beef" roasted, and the "plum-pudding" boiled. As Mr. Robert Langton
+says, "the account of the treat to the poor Travellers is of course
+wholly fictitious, although it is accepted as sober truth by many
+people, both in Rochester and elsewhere."
+
+It is not our purpose to criticize the seven pretty stories which make
+up this Christmas Number, part of the first of which only relates to
+Watts's Charity; but we will venture to affirm that the concluding
+portion of that story, referring to "Richard Doubledick," "who was a
+Poor Traveller with not a farthing in his pocket, and who came limping
+down on foot to this town of Chatham," is one of the most touching
+instances of Christian forgiveness ever recorded, and hardened indeed
+must he be who reads it with dry eyes.
+
+To what extent Dickens himself was affected by this beautiful tale, is
+shown by the following extract from a letter addressed by him, on 22nd
+December, 1854, to the late Mr. Arthur Ryland, formerly Mayor of
+Birmingham, now treasured by his widow, Mrs. Arthur Ryland, who kindly
+allowed a copy to be taken:--
+
+"What you write with so much heartiness of my first Poor Traveller is
+quite delightful to me. The idea of that little story obtained such
+strong possession of me when it came into my head, that it cost me more
+time and tears than most people would consider likely. The response it
+meets with is payment for anything."
+
+It is also interesting to record that many years afterwards Mr. Ryland
+read this story at one of the Christmas gatherings of the Birmingham and
+Midland Institute, and subsequently received from an unknown
+correspondent--Sergeant A----, of the 106th Light Infantry, then
+stationed at Umballa, East Indies, who had noticed an account of the
+reading in a newspaper--a letter under date of 15th July, 1870, asking
+to be favoured with a copy of the story; "for," said the writer, "we
+have just started a Penny Reading Society (if I may call it so), and I'm
+sure that story would be the means of reclaiming many men from their
+vices--I mean drinking and low company." The story was of course sent,
+and Mr. Ryland subsequently communicated the circumstances to the
+present Mr. Charles Dickens, who replied--"I wish my dear father could
+have seen the sergeant's letter; it would have pleased him, I am sure."
+
+As we proceed along the High Street, on the north side towards Chatham,
+a walk of only a few yards from the Bull brings us to a curious Tudor
+stone-built house of two stories, with latticed windows and
+three-pointed gables. Under a lamp in the centre, which is over the
+"quaint old door"--the door-sill itself being (as is usual with some old
+houses) a little below the street, so that we drop by a step or two into
+the entrance-hall--is a tablet containing the following inscription:--
+
+                     (CENTRE.)
+               RICHARD WATTS, ESQUIRE,
+          by his Will dated 22nd August, 1579,
+                 founded this Charity
+               for Six Poor Travellers,
+          who, not being Rogues or Proctors,
+           May receive gratis for one Night
+               Lodging, Entertainment,
+                 and Fourpence each.
+
+"In testimony of his munificence, in honour of his memory, and
+inducement to his example, the Charitable Trustees of this City and
+Borough have caused this stone to be renewed and inscribed, A.D. 1865."
+
+And on the left and right-hand sides respectively of the preceding
+appear smaller tablets, with the following inscriptions:--
+
+                 (LEFT.)
+          The Charitable Trustees
+             of this City and
+            Borough appointed
+            by the Lord High
+              Chancellor,
+            16 December, 1836,
+               are to see
+             this Charity
+              executed.
+
+                     (RIGHT.)
+          Pagitt _Arms._[Illustration] Somers
+                  Thomas Pagitt,
+               second husband of
+              Mary, Daughter of
+                Thomas Somers
+                 of Halstow,
+            Widow of Richard Watts,
+              Deceased A.D. 1599.
+
+We enter the old-fashioned little parlour, or office, on the left-hand
+side, "warm in winter and cool in summer. It has a look of homely
+welcome and soothing rest. It has a remarkably cosy fireside, the very
+blink of which, gleaming out into the street upon a winter's night, is
+enough to warm all Rochester's heart." The matron receives us politely,
+and shows us two large books of foolscap size with ruled columns, one of
+these containing a record of the visitors to the Charity, and the other
+a list of the recipients thereof. A little pleasantry is caused by one
+of us entering his name in the wrong book, but this mistake is promptly
+rectified by the matron, who informs us that we are scarcely objects for
+relief as "Poor Travellers." She then kindly repeats to us the two
+legends respecting the origin of the Charity, the first of which is
+tolerably well known, but the other is less familiar. Before recording
+these, it may be well to give an extract from the will of Master Richard
+Watts (a very curious and lengthy document), which was industriously
+hunted up by the late Mr. Charles Bullard, author of the _Romance of
+Rochester_, and by him contributed to the _Rochester and Chatham
+Journal_, of which it fills a whole column.
+
+The will (dated, as previously stated, August 22nd, 1579) directs,
+_inter alia_, that "First the Alms-house already erected and standing
+beside the Markett Crosse, within the Citty of Rochester aforesaid,
+which Almshouses my Will Purpose and Desire is that there be reedified
+added and provided with such Roomes as be there already provided Six
+Severall Roomes with Chimneys for the Comfort placeing and abideing of
+the Poore within the said Citty, and alsoe to be made apt and convenient
+places therein for Six good Matrices or Flock Bedds and other good and
+sufficient Furniture to harbour or lodge in poore Travellers or
+Wayfareing Men being noe Common Rogues nor Proctors, and they the said
+Wayfareing Men to harbour and lodge therein noe longer than one Night
+unlesse Sickness be the farther Cause thereof and those poore Folkes
+there dwelling shall keepe the House sweete make the Bedds see to the
+Furniture keepe the same sweete and courteously intreate the said poore
+Travellers and to every of the said poore Travellers att their first
+comeing in to have fourpence and they shall warme them at the Fire of
+the Residents within the said House if Need be."
+
+The reason for the exception in the testator's will as regards rogues is
+sufficiently obvious, and therefore all the point of this singular
+bequest lies in the word "Proctors." Who were they? One of the legends
+has it that the obsolete word "Proctors" referred to certain sturdy
+mendicants who swarmed in the south of England, and went about
+extracting money from the charitable public under the pretence of
+collecting "Peter's Pence" for the Pope; or, as the compiler of Murray's
+_Handbook to the County of Kent_ suggests, "were probably the bearers of
+licences to collect alms for hospitals," etc. Possibly the worthy Master
+Richard Watts objected to the levying of this blackmail; or he may in
+his walks have been subjected to the proctors' importunities, and
+consequently in his will rigorously debarred them in all futurity from
+any share in his Charity.
+
+The other legend is that Master Watts, being grievously sick and sore to
+die, sent for his lawyer, who in those days acted as proctor as
+well,--Steerforth in _David Copperfield_ calls the proctor "a monkish
+kind of attorney,"--and bade him prepare his will according to certain
+instructions. The will was made, but not in the manner directed, and
+subsequently, on the testator regaining his health, he discovered the
+fraud which the crafty lawyer or proctor had tried to perpetrate--which
+was, in fact, to make himself the sole legatee. In his just indignation
+he made another will, and in it for ever excluded the fraternity of
+proctors from benefiting thereby. The reader is at liberty to accept
+whichever of the two legends he chooses. It is right to say that Mr.
+Roach Smith utterly rejects the second story. He says proctors were
+simply rogues, although some of them may have been licensed.
+
+The following is a foot-note to Fisher's _History and Antiquities of
+Rochester and its Environs_, MDCCLXXII.
+
+[Illustration: Watts' Almshouses: Rochester]
+
+"It is generally thought that the reason of Mr. Watts's excluding
+proctors from the benefit of the Charity, was that a proctor had been
+employed to make his will, whereby he had given all the estates to
+himself; but I am inclined to believe that the word proctor is derived
+from procurator, who was an itinerant priest, and had dispensations from
+the Pope to absolve the subjects of this realm from the oath of
+allegiance to Queen Elizabeth, in whose reign there were many such
+priests."
+
+When the identity of Miss Adelaide Anne Procter, the gifted author of
+the pure and pathetic _Legends and Lyrics_ (who had been an anonymous
+contributor to _Household Words_ for some time under the _nom de plume_
+of "Mary Berwick"), became known to Charles Dickens, he sent her a
+charming and kindly letter of congratulation and appreciation, dated
+17th December, 1854 (just at the time that the Christmas stories of the
+_Seven Poor Travellers_ were published), which thus concludes:--
+
+"You have given me so much pleasure, and have made me shed so many
+tears, that I can only think of you now in association with the
+sentiment and grace of your verses. Pray accept the blessing and
+forgiveness of Richard Watts, _though I am afraid you come under both
+his conditions of exclusion_."
+
+[Illustration: Signatures: Charles Dickens
+
+Mark Lemon]
+
+We are informed that the original bequest of the testator was only �36
+16_s._ 8_d._ per annum, being the rent of land; but now, owing to the
+improved letting of the land, for building and other purposes, the
+Revenues of the Charity are upwards of �4,000 per annum. The "fourpence"
+of the foundation would be equal to some three shillings and fourpence
+of our money. The trustees, about sixteen in number,--one of whom has
+filled the office for fifty years--have very wisely and prudently
+obtained an extension of their powers; and the Court of Chancery have
+twice (in 1855 and 1886) sanctioned schemes for the administration of
+the funds, which have largely benefited Rochester in many ways. As
+witness of this, there are a series of excellent almshouses on the
+Maidstone Road (which cost about �6,000), with appropriate
+entrance-gates and gardens, endowed for the support and maintenance of
+townsmen and townswomen. We subsequently go into several of the rooms,
+all beautifully clean, and in most cases tastefully decorated by the
+inmates with a few pictures, prints, and flowers, and find that the
+present occupants are ten almsmen and six women. We have a chat with one
+of the almsmen,--a hearty old man, once the beadle of St. Margaret's
+Church,--who rejoices in the name of Peter Weller, and whom we find to
+be well up in his _Pickwick_. There are a resident head-nurse and three
+other resident nurses in the establishment, who occasionally go out to
+nurse the sick in the city. In addition to these almshouses, a handsome
+new hospital has been erected in the New Road, and partly endowed
+(�1,000 a year) out of the funds. Contributions are also made annually
+from the same source towards the support of the Public Baths, and for
+apprenticing deserving lads. Such is the development of this remarkable
+Charity.
+
+The matron calls our attention to many interesting names in the
+Visitors' book. Under date of the 11th May, 1854, are the signatures, in
+good bold writing, of Charles Dickens and Mark Lemon; and in subsequent
+entries, extending over many years, appear the names of Wilkie Collins,
+W. H. Wills, W. G. Wills, Walter Besant, Thomas Adolphus Trollope, J.
+Henry Shorthouse, Augustus J. C. Hare, and other well-known
+_litt�rateurs_. As usual, there are also numerous names of Americans,
+including those of Miss Mary Anderson and party.
+
+There are many curious remarks recorded in this book, such as an entry
+dated 26th June, 1857, which says:--"Tossed by, and out of the Bull with
+a crumpled horn, as no one would lend me five shillings, therefore
+obliged to solicit the benefit of this excellent charity." There is an
+admirable testimony in Latin, by the late Bishop of Lincoln, Dr.
+Wordsworth, to the usefulness of the institution, which, dated 23rd
+August, 1883, is as follows:--"_Esto perpetua obstantibus Caritatis
+Commissionariis._" His Lordship's remark was probably in allusion to the
+fact that the Charity Commissioners were (as we were afterwards
+informed) inclined, some time ago, to abolish the Charity, but this
+proceeding was stoutly and successfully resisted by the trustees. But
+the most gratifying records which we see in the book consist of several
+entries by recipients of the Charity themselves, who have subsequently
+come again after prosperous times in the capacity of visitors, and thus
+testified to the benefits received. Here is one:--"Having once enjoyed
+the Charity, I wish it a long life."
+
+[Illustration: The "Six Poor Travellers" from the Rear]
+
+[Illustration: A DORMITORY in the "Six Poor Travellers"]
+
+[Illustration: Gallery Leading to the Dormitories]
+
+A clerk has the responsibility of making a careful selection of six from
+the number of applicants, and this appears to be no light task, inasmuch
+as the "prescribed number of Poor Travellers are forthcoming every
+night from year's end to year's end," and sometimes amount to fifty in a
+day. In selecting the persons to be admitted, care is taken that, unless
+under special circumstances, the same person be not admitted for more
+than one night, and in no case for more than two consecutive nights. A
+glance over the register shows that the names include almost all trades
+and occupations; and, as regards the fact of a great many coming from
+Kentish towns, Dartford, Greenwich, Canterbury, Maidstone, etc., we are
+informed, in reply to our enquiry, that this is no criterion of the real
+residence, because the place where the traveller last lodged is always
+entered. The matron told us a story of a clever attempt to obtain
+admission by a Poor Traveller "with a tin whistle and very gentlemanly
+hands," who subsequently turned out to be a reporter from the _Echo_, in
+which paper there afterwards appeared an account of the Charity, called
+_On Tramp by an Amateur_.
+
+We are shown over the premises--scrupulously neat and clean--and observe
+that there are excellent lavatories with foot-pans, and a pair of
+slippers provided for each recipient. We afterwards see the six Poor
+Travellers who have had their supper, and are comfortably smoking their
+pipes in a snug room, and we have a pleasant and interesting chat with
+them. They are much above the condition of ordinary tramps, and are
+lodged in six separate bedrooms, or "dormitories" which open out of a
+gallery at the back part of the building, a very curious structure,
+remaining just as it was in the days of Queen Elizabeth. For supper,
+each man is allowed half a pound of cooked meat, a pound of bread, and
+half-a-pint of porter, and receives fourpence in money on leaving. It is
+right to state that we heard complaints in the city relating to the evil
+effects of a number of poor travellers being attracted to the Charity
+daily, when but a few can obtain relief.
+
+[Illustration: Satis House.]
+
+Respecting the Worshipful Master Richard Watts himself very little is
+known, except that he was appointed by Queen Elizabeth in 1560 to be the
+surveyor and clerk of the works for the building of Upnor Castle; that
+he was paymaster to the Wardens of Rochester Bridge for some years
+previously; that he was recorder of Rochester, and represented the city
+in Parliament from 1563 to 1571, and that he resided at "Satis House,"
+which stood on the site of the modern residence bearing the same name,
+now occupied by Mrs. Booth, a little to the south of the Cathedral, but
+which must not, however, be confounded with the Satis House of _Great
+Expectations_, this latter, as has been previously explained, being
+identical with Restoration House, in Crow Lane. When Queen Elizabeth
+visited Rochester in 1573, Watts had the honour of entertaining Her
+Majesty there, on the last day of her residence in "the ancient city";
+and to his expressions of regret at having no better accommodation to
+offer, the Queen was pleased generously to reply, "Satis," by which name
+the house has ever since been known. Estella, in _Great Expectations_,
+gives another view of the origin of the name. She says:--"Its other
+name was Satis; which is Greek, or Latin, or Hebrew, or all three--or
+all one to me--for enough: but it meant more than it said. It meant,
+when it was given, that whoever had this house, could want nothing else.
+They must have been easily satisfied in those days, I should think."
+Archbishop Longley was born there in 1794.
+
+[Illustration: Watts's Monument in Rochester Cathedral.
+
+_Over the Memorial Brass of Charles Dickens._]
+
+There is a monument to the proctor-hating philanthropist on the wall of
+the south transept of the Cathedral over the brass to Charles Dickens,
+surmounted by a very curious painted marble half-figure effigy with
+flowing beard, of "worthy Master Richard starting out of it, like a
+ship's figurehead." Underneath is the following epitaph:--
+
+                     Sacred to the Memory of
+                      =Richard Watts, Esq.=,
+                  a principal Benefactor to this City,
+               who departed this life Sept. 10, 1579, at
+             his Mansion house on Bully Hill, called SATIS
+             (so named by Q. ELIZABETH of glorious memory),
+          and lies interr'd near this place, as by his Will doth
+            plainly appear. By which Will, dated Aug. 22, and
+              proved Sep. 25, 1579, he founded an Almshouse
+           for the relief of poor people and for the reception
+                of six poor Travelers every night, and for
+                   imploying the poor of this City.
+
+                 *       *       *       *       *
+
+                 The Mayor and Citizens of this City,
+              in testimony of their Gratitude and his Merit,
+                 have erected this Monument, A.D. 1736.
+                       RICHARD WATTS, ESQ.,
+                           then Mayor.
+
+Over and over again, in the various roads and lanes which we traverse,
+in the county famous for "apples, cherries, hops, and women," we have
+ample opportunities of verifying the experience of Dickens, and indeed
+of many other observers (including David Copperfield, who met numbers of
+"ferocious-looking ruffians"), as to the prevalence of tramps, not all
+of whom appear eligible as recipients of Watts's Charity! Our fraternity
+seems to be ubiquitous, and had we the purse of Fortunatus, it would
+hardly suffice to satisfy their requirements. What a wonderfully
+thoughtful, descriptive, and exhaustive chapter is that on "Tramps" in
+_The Uncommercial Traveller!_ We believe Rochester and Strood Hill must
+have been in Dickens's mind when he penned it. Every species and every
+variety of tramp is herein described,--The surly Tramp, The slinking
+Tramp, The well-spoken young-man Tramp, The John Anderson Tramp, Squire
+Pouncerby's Tramp, The show Tramp, The educated Tramp, The tramping
+Soldier, The tramping Sailor, The Tramp handicraft man, Clock-mending
+Tramps, Harvest Tramps, Hopping Tramps and Spectator Tramps--but perhaps
+the most amusing of all is the following:--
+
+          "The young fellows who trudge along barefoot, five
+          or six together, their boots slung over their
+          shoulders, their shabby bundles under their arms,
+          their sticks newly cut from some roadside wood,
+          are not eminently prepossessing, but are much less
+          objectionable. There is a tramp-fellowship among
+          them. They pick one another up at resting
+          stations, and go on in companies. They always go
+          at a fast swing--though they generally limp
+          too--and there is invariably one of the company
+          who has much ado to keep up with the rest. They
+          generally talk about horses, and any other means
+          of locomotion than walking: or, one of the company
+          relates some recent experiences of the road--which
+          are always disputes and difficulties. As for
+          example. So as I'm a standing at the pump in the
+          market, blest if there don't come up a Beadle, and
+          he ses, 'Mustn't stand here,' he ses. 'Why not?' I
+          ses. 'No beggars allowed in this town,' he ses.
+          'Who's a beggar?' I ses. 'You are,' he ses. 'Who
+          ever see _me_ beg? Did _you_?' I ses. 'Then you're
+          a tramp,' he ses. 'I'd rather be that than a
+          Beadle,' I ses. (The company express great
+          approval.) 'Would you?' he ses to me. 'Yes, I
+          would,' I ses to him. 'Well,' he ses, 'anyhow, get
+          out of this town.' 'Why, blow your little town!' I
+          ses, 'who wants to be in it? Wot does your dirty
+          little town mean by comin' and stickin' itself in
+          the road to anywhere? Why don't you get a shovel
+          and a barrer, and clear your town out o' people's
+          way?' (The company expressing the highest approval
+          and laughing aloud, they all go down the hill.)"
+
+It is worthy of consideration, and it is probably more than a mere
+coincidence, to observe that some of the reforms which have been
+effected in the management of the now munificent revenues of Richard
+Watts's Charity were instigated as a sequence to the appearance of
+Dickens's imperishable stories, published under the title of _The Seven
+Poor Travellers_. The Rev. Robert Whiston, with whom we chatted on the
+subject, is of opinion that the late Lord Brougham is entitled to the
+credit for reforms in this and other charities.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+AN AFTERNOON AT GAD'S HILL PLACE.
+
+        "It was just large enough, and no more; was as
+          pretty within as it was without, and was perfectly
+          arranged and comfortable."--_Little Dorrit._
+
+        "This has been a happy home. . . . I love
+          it. . . ."--_The Cricket on the Hearth._
+
+
+A NEVER-TO-BE-FORGOTTEN day was Saturday, the twenty-fifth of August,
+1888, a day remarkable, as were many of the closing days of the summer
+of that year, for its bright, sunny, and cheerful nature. The sky was a
+deep blue--usually described as an Italian sky--broken only by a few
+fleecy, cumulus clouds, which served to bring out more clearly the rich
+colour of the background. There was a fine bracing air coming from the
+north-west, for which the county of Kent is famous. Truly an enjoyable
+day for a holiday! and one that Dickens himself would have loved to
+describe. So after a desultory stroll about the streets of Rochester,
+one of many delightful strolls, we make our first outward tramp, and
+that of course to Gad's Hill. By the way, much attention has been
+devoted to the consideration of the derivation of the name, "Gad's
+Hill." It is no doubt a corruption of "God's Hill," of which there are
+two so-called places in the county, and there is also a veritable
+"God's Hill" a little further south, in the Isle of Wight.
+
+[Illustration: Rochester from Strood Hill.]
+
+Crossing Rochester Bridge, we enter the busy town of Strood, pass
+through its long thoroughfare, go up the Dover Road,--which was the
+ancient Roman military road afterwards called Watling Street, until a
+little above Strood it turned slightly to the left, passing through what
+is now Cobham Park,--and leave the windmill on Broomhill to the right.
+The ground rises gently, the chalk formation being exposed here and
+there in disused pits. A portion of the road higher up is cut through
+the Thanet sands, which rest on the chalk. Again and again we stop, and
+turn to admire the winding valley of the Medway. As we get more into the
+country and leave the town behind, we find the roadsides still decked
+with summer flowers, notably the fine dark blue Canterbury bell--the
+nettle-leaved Campanula (_Campanula Trachelium_)--and the exquisite
+light-blue chicory (_Cichorium Intybus_); but the flowers of the latter
+are so evanescent that, when gathered, they fade in an hour or two. This
+beautiful starlike-blossomed plant is abundant in many parts of Kent.
+We pass on the right the pretty high-standing grounds of Mr. Hulkes at
+the "Little Hermitage," and notice the obelisk further to the right on
+still higher land, erected about fifty years ago to the memory of
+Charles Larkin (a name very suggestive of "the eldest Miss Larkins") of
+Rochester,--"a parish orator and borough Hampden"--by his grateful
+fellow-citizens.
+
+A walk of less than three miles brings us to the "Sir John Falstaff"--"a
+delightfully old-fashioned roadside inn of the coaching days, which
+stands on the north side of the road a little below 'Gad's Hill Place,'
+and which no man possessed of a penny was ever known to pass in warm
+weather."
+
+Mr. Kitton relates in _Dickensiana_ the following amusing story of a
+former waiter at the "Falstaff":--
+
+"A few days after Dickens's death, an Englishman, deeply grieved at the
+event, made a sort of pilgrimage to Gad's Hill--to the home of the great
+novelist. He went into the famous 'Sir John Falstaff Inn' near at hand,
+and in the effusiveness of his honest emotions, he could not avoid
+taking the country waiter into his confidence.
+
+"'A great loss this of Mr. Dickens,' said the pilgrim.
+
+"'A very great loss to us, sir,' replied the waiter, shaking his head;
+'he had all his ale sent in from this house!'"
+
+One of the two lime-trees only remains, but the well and bucket--as
+recorded by the _Uncommercial Traveller_ in the chapter on "Tramps"--are
+there still, surrounded by a protective fence.
+
+[Illustration: The "Sir John Falstaff" Inn, Gad's Hill.]
+
+We have but little time to notice the "Falstaff," for our admiring gaze
+is presently fixed on Gad's Hill Place itself, the house in which
+Dickens resided happily--albeit trouble came to him as to most
+men--from the year 1856 till his death in 1870. Everybody knows the
+story of how, as a little boy, he cherished the idea of one day living
+in this house, and how that idea was gratified in after-life. It is from
+the _Uncommercial Traveller_, in the chapter on "Travelling Abroad," and
+the repetition is never stale. He says:--
+
+          "So smooth was the old high road, and so fresh
+          were the horses, and so fast went I, that it was
+          midway between Gravesend and Rochester, and the
+          widening river was bearing the ships, white-sailed
+          or black-smoked, out to sea, when I noticed by the
+          wayside a very queer small boy.
+
+          "'Holloa!' said I to the very queer small boy,
+          'where do you live?'
+
+          "'At Chatham,' says he.
+
+          "'What do you do there?' says I.
+
+          "'I go to school,' says he.
+
+          "I took him up in a moment, and we went on.
+          Presently, the very queer small boy says, 'This is
+          Gad's Hill we are coming to, where Falstaff went
+          out to rob those travellers, and ran away.'
+
+          "'You know something about Falstaff, eh?' said I.
+
+          "'All about him,' said the very queer small boy.
+          'I am old (I am nine), and I read all sorts of
+          books. But _do_ let us stop at the top of the
+          hill, and look at the house there, if you please!'
+
+          "'You admire that house?' said I.
+
+          "'Bless you, sir,' said the very queer small boy,
+          'when I was not more than half as old as nine, it
+          used to be a treat for me to be brought to look at
+          it. And now, I am nine, I come by myself to look
+          at it. And ever since I can recollect, my father,
+          seeing me so fond of it, has often said to me, 'If
+          you were to be very persevering, and were to work
+          hard, you might some day come to live in it.'
+          Though that's impossible!' said the very queer
+          small boy, drawing a low breath, and now staring
+          at the house out of window with all his might.
+
+          "I was rather amazed to be told this by the very
+          queer small boy; for that house happens to be _my_
+          house, and I have reason to believe that what he
+          said was true."
+
+[Illustration: Gadshill Place]
+
+Mrs. Lynn Linton, the celebrated novelist, who resided at Gad's Hill as
+a child, has very kindly given us her personal recollections of it sixty
+years ago, and of the interesting circumstances under which Charles
+Dickens subsequently purchased the property;--which will be found at the
+end of this chapter.
+
+Before seeking permission to enter the grounds of Gad's Hill Place,
+which are surrounded by a high wall, and screened externally by a row of
+well-topped lime-trees, we retrace our steps for a few minutes, in order
+to refresh ourselves with a homely luncheon, and what Mr. Richard
+Swiveller would call a "modest quencher," at the Sir John Falstaff. It
+may be certain that not much time is consumed in this operation. We then
+take a good look at the remarkable house opposite, the object of our
+pilgrimage, which has been made well known by countless photographs and
+engravings. It is a comfortable, but a not very attractive-looking
+red-brick house of two stories, with porch at entrance, partly covered
+with ivy. All the front windows, with the exception of the central ones,
+are bayed, and there are dormer windows in the roof, which is surmounted
+by a bell-turret and vane. What a strange fascination it has for
+admirers of Dickens when seen for the first time! According to Forster,
+in his _Life_ of the novelist, the house was built in 1780 by a
+well-known local character named James Stevens, who rose to a good
+position. He was the father-in-law of the late Professor Henslow, the
+Botanist, of Cambridge. Dickens paid for it the sum of �1,790, and the
+purchase was completed on Friday, 14th March, 1856. The present owner is
+Major Austin F. Budden,[11] of the 12th Kent Artillery Volunteers, who,
+we find, in the course of subsequent conversation, had also done good
+municipal service, having filled the office of Mayor of Rochester for
+two years,--from 1879 to 1881,--and that he was elected at the early age
+of twenty-eight.
+
+We ring the bell at the gate which shuts the house out from view, and
+are promptly answered by a pleasant-speaking housemaid, who takes our
+cards on a salver, and ushers us into the library. We are requested to
+enter our names in the visitors' book, and this is done with alacrity.
+We are under the impression that we shall only be allowed to see the
+hall and study, a privilege allowed to any visitor on presentation of a
+card; but fortunately for us the courteous owner appears, and says that,
+as he has half an hour to spare, he will show us entirely over the
+house. He is better than his word, and we, delighted with the prospect,
+commence our inspection of the late home of the great novelist with
+feelings of singular pleasure, which are altogether a new sensation. Do
+any readers remember, when perusing the Waverley novels in their youth,
+a certain longing (as the height of their ambition, possibly gratified
+in after-life) to see Abbotsford, the home of the "Wizard of the North"?
+_That_ is a feeling akin to the one which possesses us on the present
+occasion, a feeling of veneration almost amounting to awe as we recall,
+and seem to realize, not only the presence of Charles Dickens himself,
+but of the many eminent literary, artistic, and histrionic
+characters--his contemporaries--who assembled here, and shared the
+hospitality of the distinguished owner. "Dickens penetrates here--where
+does not his genial sunshine penetrate?"
+
+Turning over the leaves of the visitors' book, Major Budden calls our
+attention to the signatures of Americans, who constitute by far the
+majority of visitors. Among the more recent appears the name of that
+accomplished actress, Miss Mary Anderson--herself a great admirer of
+Charles Dickens--who came accompanied by a party of friends. We also
+found her name, with the same party, in the visitors' book at Richard
+Watts's Charity in Rochester. Major Budden spoke also of the great
+enthusiasm always exhibited by our American friends in regard to
+Dickens, some of whom had told him more than once that it was the custom
+to instruct their children in a knowledge of his works: they read them,
+in fact, in the schools.
+
+The library, or study, is a very cosy little room, made famous by Mr.
+Luke Fildes's picture of "The Empty Chair." It is situated on the west
+side of the porch, looking to the front, with the shrubbery in the
+distance; and among the most conspicuous objects contained in it are the
+curious counterfeit book-backs devised by Dickens and his friends, and
+arranged as shelves to fit the door of the room. They number nearly
+eighty, and a selection is given below of a few of the quaintest titles,
+viz.:--
+
+The Quarrelly Review. 4 vols.
+
+King Henry the Eighth's Evidences of Christianity. 5 vols.
+
+Noah's Arkitecture. 2 vols.
+
+[Illustration: PG from the Drawing of S. L. Fildes
+
+"The empty chair" Gad's Hill Ninth of June 1870.]
+
+Chickweed.
+
+Groundsel (by the Author of Chickweed).
+
+Cockatoo on Perch.
+
+History of a Short Chancery Suit. 21 vols.
+
+Cats' Lives. 9 vols.
+
+Hansard's Guide to Refreshing Sleep (many volumes).
+
+The Wisdom of our Ancestors--I. Ignorance. II. Superstition. III. The
+Block. IV. The Stake. V. The Rack. VI. Dirt. VII. Disease.
+
+Several of the titles were used for a similar purpose at Tavistock
+House, London--Dickens's former residence.
+
+We cannot help, as we sit down quietly for a few minutes, wondering how
+much of _Little Dorrit_, _Hunted Down_, _A Tale of Two Cities_, _Great
+Expectations_, _The Uncommercial Traveller_, _Our Mutual Friend_, and
+_The Mystery of Edwin Drood_ (which were all issued between 1856 and
+1870) was written in this famous room, to say nothing of those heaps of
+exquisite letters which so helped, cheered, interested, or amused many a
+correspondent, and have delighted the public since.
+
+In the hall, which has the famous parquet floor laid down by Dickens, is
+still hanging the framed illumination, artistically executed by Owen
+Jones, and placed there immediately after Dickens became the "Kentish
+freeholder on his native heath" as he called it. It is as follows:--
+
+                         This House,
+                      GAD'S HILL PLACE,
+          stands on the summit of Shakespeare's Gad's Hill,
+             ever memorable for its association with
+               Sir John Falstaff, in his noble fancy.
+
+[Illustration: Counterfeit Book-backs on Study Door.]
+
+"But, my lads, my lads, to-morrow morning by four o'clock early at Gad's
+Hill. There are pilgrims going to Canterbury with rich offerings, and
+traders riding to London with fat purses; I have vizards for you all;
+you have horses for yourselves."[12]
+
+From the hall we enter the dining-room, a cheerful apartment looking on
+to the beautiful lawn at the back, which has at the end the arched
+conservatory of lilac-tinted glass at top, in which the novelist took so
+much interest, and where he hung some Chinese lanterns, sent down from
+London the day before his death. We are informed that in this building
+he signed the last cheque which he drew, to pay his subscription to the
+Higham Cricket Club. The door of the dining-room is faced with
+looking-glass, so that it may reflect the contents of the conservatory.
+Among these are two or three New Zealand tree-ferns which Dickens
+himself purchased. In the dining-room Major Budden pointed out the exact
+spot where the fatal seizure from effusion on the brain took place, on
+the afternoon of Wednesday, 8th June, 1870, and where Dickens lay:
+first on the floor to the right of the door on entering, and afterwards
+to the left, when the couch was brought down (by order of Mr. Steele,
+the surgeon of Strood, as we subsequently learned), upon which he
+breathed his last.
+
+The drawing-room faces the front, and, like the dining-room, has been
+lengthened, and opens into the conservatory. In fact, Dickens was always
+improving Gad's Hill Place. There is a memorable reference to the
+conservatory by Forster in the third vol. of the _Life_. He says:--
+
+"This last addition had long been an object of desire with him, though
+he would hardly, even now, have given himself the indulgence but for the
+golden shower from America. He saw it first in a completed state on the
+Sunday before his death, when his youngest daughter was on a visit to
+him.
+
+"'Well, Katey,' he said to her, 'now you see POSITIVELY the last
+improvement at Gad's Hill,' and every one laughed at the joke against
+himself. The success of the new conservatory was unquestionable. It was
+the remark of all around him, that he was certainly, from this last of
+his improvements, drawing more enjoyment than from any of its
+predecessors, when the scene for ever closed!"
+
+This room is a long one, and, in common with all the others, gives us,
+under the auspices of the brilliantly fine day, some idea of the late
+owner's love of light, air, and cheerfulness. That the situation is also
+a healthy and bracing one is confirmed by the fact, that in a letter
+written on board the _Russia_, bound for Liverpool, on the 26th April,
+1868, after his second American tour, he speaks of having made a "Gad's
+Hill breakfast."
+
+Our most considerate cicerone next takes us into several of the
+bedrooms, these being of large size, and having a little dressing-room
+marked off with a partition, head-high, so that no cubic space is lost
+to the main chamber. As illustrative of Charles Dickens's care for the
+comfort of his friends, it is said that in the visitors' bedrooms there
+was always hot water and a little tea-table set out, so that each one
+could at any time make for himself a cup of the beverage "that cheers
+but not inebriates." The views from these rooms are very charming. Mr.
+W. T. Wildish afterwards told us, that during the novelist's life-time,
+Mr. Trood, the landlord of the Sir John Falstaff, once took him over
+Gad's Hill Place, and he was surprised to find Dickens's own bath-room
+covered with cuttings from _Punch_ and other comic papers. I have since
+learned that this was a screen of engravings which had originally been
+given him.
+
+The gardens, both flower and vegetable, are then pointed out--the
+approach thereto from the back lawn being by means of a flight of
+steps--as also the rosary, which occupies a portion of the front lawn to
+the westward. The roses are of course past their best, but the trees
+look very healthy.
+
+In the flower garden we are especially reminded of Dickens's love for
+flowers, the China-asters, single dahlias, and zinnias being of
+exceptional brightness. As to the violets, which are here in abundance,
+both the Neapolitan and Russian varieties, the Major shows us a method
+of cultivating them, first in frames, and then in single rows, so that
+he can get them in bloom for nearly nine months in the year!
+
+Adjoining the lawn and vegetable garden is "the much-coveted meadow,"
+which the master of Gad's Hill obtained by exchange of some land with
+the trustees of Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School at
+Rochester, and in which he planted "a number of limes and chestnuts,
+and other quick-growing trees." Four grass walks meet in the centre of
+the vegetable garden, where there is a fine old mulberry tree.
+
+It is stated in Forster's _Life_ of the novelist (Vol. iii. p. 188) that
+Dickens obtained the meadow by exchange of some land "with the Trustees
+of Watts's Charity." But this is not right. The distinguished historian
+of the Commonwealth, and the faithful friend of the novelist all through
+his life, is so habitually accurate, that it is an exceptional
+circumstance for any one to be able to correct him. However, I am
+indebted to Mr. A. A. Arnold, of Rochester, for the following authentic
+account of the transaction.
+
+Dickens was always anxious to obtain this meadow (which consists of
+about fourteen acres), and, believing that the Trustees of Sir Joseph
+Williamson's Mathematical School at Rochester were not empowered to sell
+their land, he purchased a field at the back of his own shrubbery from
+Mr. Brooker, of Higham, with a view--as appears from the following
+characteristically courteous and business-like letter--to effect an
+exchange.
+
+
+                                   "GAD'S HILL PLACE,
+                                HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT.
+                              _Monday, Thirtieth June, 1862._
+
+          "GENTLEMEN,
+
+          "Reverting to a proposal already made in general
+          terms by my solicitor, Mr. Ouvry, of Lincoln's Inn
+          Fields, to Messrs. Essel and Co., I beg to submit
+          my application to you in detail.
+
+          "It is that you will have the kindness to consider
+          the feasibility of exchanging the field at the
+          back of my property here (marked 404 in the
+          accompanying plan), for the plot of land marked
+          384 in the said plan.
+
+          [Illustration: Gad's Hill Place from the rear.]
+
+          "I believe it will appear to you, on inquiry, that
+          the land I offer in exchange for the meadow is
+          very advantageously situated, and is of greater
+          extent than the meadow, and would be of greater
+          value to the Institution, whose interests you
+          represent. On the other hand, the acquisition of
+          the meadow as a freehold would render my little
+          property more compact and complete.
+
+          "I have the honor to be, Gentlemen,
+                 Your faithful and obedient Servant,
+                                        CHARLES DICKENS.
+
+            "To the Governors of
+          Sir Joseph Williamson's Free School,
+            Rochester."
+
+The offer fell through at the time; but it was renewed in 1868 in a
+different form, and eventually the field was sold (by permission of the
+Charity Commissioners) to Charles Dickens at an "accommodation"
+price--�2,500--which really exceeded its actual market value.
+
+[Illustration: The Grave of Dick]
+
+But to resume our inspection. The whole of the back of the house,
+looking southward, is covered by a Virginia creeper (_Ampelopsis
+quinquefolia_) of profuse growth, which must be an object of singular
+beauty in the autumn when the crimson tints appear. As it now stands it
+is beautifully green, and there is scarcely more than a leaf or two here
+and there marking autumnal decay. The two famous hawthorn trees were
+blown down in a gale some years ago.
+
+In a quiet corner under a rose-tree (_Gloire de Dijon_), flanked by a
+_Yucca_ in bloom, the bed underneath consisting of deep blue lobelia,
+is a touching little memorial to a favourite canary. This consists of a
+narrow little board, made like a head-stone, and set aslant, on which is
+painted in neat letters the following epitaph:--
+
+                This is
+             the grave of
+                 DICK,
+          the best of birds,
+                 born
+             AT BROADSTAIRS,
+           _Midsummer_, 1851,
+                 died
+          AT GAD'S HILL PLACE,
+          _4th October, 1866_.
+
+No one can doubt who was the author of these simple lines. "Dick," it
+should be said, "was very dear both to Dickens and his eldest daughter,"
+and he has been immortalized in Forster's _Life_. There is a very
+humorous account given of the attacks which the cats in the
+neighbourhood made upon him, and which were frustrated by an organized
+defence. The following is the passage:--
+
+"Soon after the arrival of Dickens and his family at Gad's Hill Place, a
+household war broke out, in which the commander-in-chief was his man
+French, the bulk of the forces engaged being his children, and the
+invaders two cats." Writing to Forster, Dickens says:--"'The only thing
+new in this garden is that war is raging against two particularly
+tigerish and fearful cats (from the mill, I suppose), which are always
+glaring in dark corners after our wonderful little Dick. Keeping the
+house open at all points, it is impossible to shut them out, and they
+hide themselves in the most terrific manner: hanging themselves up
+behind draperies, like bats, and tumbling out in the dead of night with
+frightful caterwaulings. Hereupon French borrows Beaucourt's gun, loads
+the same to the muzzle, discharges it twice in vain, and throws himself
+over with the recoil, exactly like a clown. . . . About four pounds of
+powder and half a ton of shot have been fired off at the cat (and the
+public in general) during the week. The funniest thing is, that
+immediately after I have heard the noble sportsman blazing away at her
+in the garden in front, I look out of my room door into the
+drawing-room, and am pretty sure to see her coming in after the birds,
+in the calmest manner possible, by the back window.'"
+
+Passing on our way the large and well-lighted servants' hall, over which
+is the bachelors' room,--whence in days gone by that rare literary
+serial, _The Gad's Hill Gazette_,[13] issued from a little printing
+press, presented by a friend to the sixth son of the novelist, who
+encouraged his boy's literary tastes,--we next see the stables, as
+usual, like everything else, in excellent order. A small statue of Fame
+blowing her golden trumpet surmounts the bachelors' room, and looks down
+upon us encouragingly.
+
+Our attention is then turned to the well, which is stated to be two
+hundred and seventeen feet deep, in the shed, or pumping-room, over
+which is the Major's mare, "Tell-tale," cheerfully doing her daily
+twenty minutes' task of drawing water, which is pumped up to the cistern
+on the roof for the supply of the house. There is said to be never less
+than twenty feet of water in the well.
+
+[Illustration: The Well at Gad's Hill Place]
+
+It may be interesting to mention that Gad's Hill Place ("the title of my
+estate, sir, my place down in Kent"), which is in the parish of Higham,
+and about twenty-six miles from London, stands on an elevation two
+hundred and fifty feet above mean sea-level. The house itself is built
+on a bed of the Thanet sands. The well is bored right through these
+sands, which Mr. W. H. Whitaker, F.R.S., of H. M. Geological Survey (who
+has kindly given me some valuable information on the subject), states
+"may be about forty feet thick, and the water is drawn up from the bed
+of chalk beneath. This bed is of great thickness, probably six hundred
+or seven hundred feet, and the well simply reaches the level at which
+the chalk is charged with water, _i. e._ something a little higher than
+the level of the neighbouring river." The chalk is exposed on the lower
+bases of Gad's Hill, such as the Railway Station at Higham, the village
+of Chalk, the town of Strood, etc.
+
+There are humorous extracts from letters by Dickens in Forster's _Life_
+respecting the well, which may appropriately be introduced. He says:--
+
+"We are still (6th of July) boring for water here, at the rate of two
+pounds per day for wages. The men seem to like it very much, and to be
+perfectly comfortable." . . . And again, "Here are six men perpetually
+going up and down the well (I know that somebody will be killed), in the
+course of fitting a pump; which is quite a railway terminus--it is so
+iron, and so big. The process is much more like putting Oxford Street
+endwise, and laying gas along it, than anything else. By the time it is
+finished, the cost of this water will be something absolutely frightful.
+But of course it proportionately increases the value of the property,
+and that's my only comfort. . . . Five men have been looking attentively
+at the pump for a week, and (I should hope) may begin to fit it in the
+course of October." The depression caused by the prospect of the
+"absolutely frightful" cost of the water seems to have continued to the
+end of the letter, for it thus concludes:--"The horse has gone lame from
+a sprain, the big dog has run a tenpenny nail into one of his hind feet,
+the bolts have all flown out of the basket carriage, and the gardener
+says all the fruit trees want replacing with new ones."
+
+[Illustration: The Porch, Gad's Hill Place.]
+
+Two of the Major's dogs are chained in the places formerly occupied by
+Dickens's dogs, "Linda" and "Turk." The chains are very long, and allow
+the animals plenty of room for exercise. The space between the two
+permitted a person to walk past without their being able to come near
+him; and, as an instance of Dickens's thoughtful kindliness even to the
+lower animals, two holes were made in the wall so that the dogs could
+get through in hot weather, and lie in the shade of the trees on the
+other side. On the back gate entering into the lane at the side of the
+house was painted, "Beware of the dogs!" This caution appears to have
+been very necessary, for we heard more than once the story of an
+intrusive tramp who trespassed, and going too near the dogs, got sadly
+mauled. Dickens, with characteristic goodness, sent him at once to
+Chatham Hospital, and otherwise healed his wounds.
+
+We are next conducted round the grounds, and have an opportunity of
+examining the front of the house more in detail. The porch is flanked by
+two cosy seats, the pretty little spade-shaped shields, and lateral
+angular ornamental supports on the back of which, we are informed, were
+constructed of pieces of wood from Shakespeare's furniture given to
+Dickens by a friend. A large variegated holly grows on either side of
+the porch, and a semi-circular gravel walk leads to the door. There is a
+closely-cut lawn in front, and opposite the hollies are two fine
+specimens of _Aucuba Japonica_--the so-called variegated laurel.
+
+[Illustration: The Cedars, Gad's Hill.]
+
+It will be remembered that the master of Gad's Hill had a tunnel
+excavated under the Dover Road (which runs through the property), so as
+to approach the "shrubbery" previously referred to, without having to
+cross the open public road. We did not learn who constructed the tunnel,
+but it was designed either by his brother, Mr. Alfred L. Dickens, who
+died at Manchester in 1860, or by his brother-in-law, Mr. Henry Austin.
+The entrance to the tunnel is by a flight of about twenty steps, flanked
+by two beautifully-grown specimens of _Cedrus deodara_, the "deodar,"
+or god-tree of the Himalayas. The tunnel itself is cut through the
+sands, and, being only a little longer than the width of the road, it is
+not at all dark, but very pleasant and cool on a hot day. A
+corresponding flight of steps leads us into the shrubbery, which is shut
+off from the main road by iron railings only. Both ends of the tunnel
+are covered with ivy, which has the effect of partially concealing the
+openings. Readers of Forster's _Life_ will recollect that the Swiss
+ch�let presented to Dickens by his friend Fechter the actor, and in
+which he spent his last afternoon, formerly stood in the shrubbery. The
+ch�let now stands in the terrace-garden of Cobham Hall.
+
+Before we reach the exact place we have an opportunity of examining the
+two stately cedar trees (_Cedrus Libani_) which are the arboreal gems of
+the place. Major Budden informs us that they are about one hundred and
+twenty-eight years old, and were planted in their present position when
+they had attained about twenty years' growth. Some idea of their
+luxuriance may be formed when it is mentioned that the girth of each
+tree exceeds sixteen feet, and the longest branch of one of them
+measures eighty-four feet in length. In consequence of the habit of
+these trees "fastigiating" at the base, a very numerous series of
+lateral ramifying branches is the result. These branches spread out in
+terraces, and the rich green foliage, covered with exudations of resin,
+seems as though powdered silver had been lightly dusted over it. Each
+tree extends over a circular area of about eighty feet of ground in
+diameter. Under one of the cedars is the grave of "the big and beautiful
+Linda," Dickens's favourite St. Bernard dog. One of the trees has been
+injured, a large branch over-weighted with snow having broken off some
+years ago.
+
+Two or three noble ash trees also grace this spot, running straight up
+in a column some thirty-five feet before shooting out a canopy of
+branches and leaves. There are also a few Scotch firs, the trunks well
+covered with ivy, and a pretty specimen of the variegated sycamore. The
+undergrowth of laurel, laurustinus, briar, privet, holly, etc., is very
+luxuriant here, and the vacant ground is closely covered with the wood
+anemone (_Anemone nemorosa_), which must form a continuous mass of
+pearly white flowers in spring-time.
+
+The ground formerly occupied by the ch�let is pointed out to us, its
+site being marked by a bed of rich scarlet nasturtiums. It will be
+recollected that Dickens describes the interior of the building in a
+letter to an American friend, which is thus recorded in Forster's
+_Life_:--
+
+"Divers birds sing here all day, and the nightingales all night. The
+place is lovely and in perfect order. . . . I have put five mirrors in
+the ch�let where I write, and they reflect and refract, in all kinds of
+ways, the leaves that are quivering at the windows, and the great fields
+of waving corn, and the sail-dotted river. My room is up among the
+branches of the trees; and the birds and the butterflies fly in and out,
+and the green branches shoot in at the open windows, and the lights and
+shadows of the clouds come and go with the rest of the company. The
+scent of the flowers, and indeed of everything that is growing for miles
+and miles, is most delicious."
+
+But the glory of Gad's Hill Place is reserved for us until the close of
+our visit, when Major Budden very kindly takes us up to the roof, which
+is approached by a commodious flight of steps; and here, on this
+exceptionally fine day, we are privileged to behold a prospect of
+surpassing beauty. Right away to the westward is the great Metropolis,
+its presence being marked by the usual pall of greyish smoke. Opening
+from the town, and becoming wider and wider as the noble river
+approaches its estuary, is the Thames, now conspicuous by numerous
+vessels, showing masts and white and brown sails, and here and there by
+the smoky track of a steamer.
+
+We remember how often the city and the river have been the scene of many
+and many an exploit in Dickens's novels. Northward are the dreary
+marshes, the famous "meshes" of _Great Expectations_, hereafter to be
+noticed. Then far to the eastward runs the valley of the Medway, the
+picturesque city of Rochester thereon being crowned by those conspicuous
+landmarks, its magnificent Castle and ancient Cathedral. In the
+background is the busy town of Chatham, its heights being capped by an
+enormous square and lofty building erected by the sect called
+"Jezreelites," whatever that may be. We were informed that the so-called
+"immortal" leader had just died, and it has since been reported that the
+gloomy building is likely to be converted into a huge jam factory.
+Beyond, and nearly seven miles off, is the high land called "Blue Bell,"
+about three hundred feet above mean sea-level, and all along to the
+south the undulating grounds and beautiful woodland scenery of Cobham
+Park complete the picture.
+
+[Illustration: View from the Roof of Dickens's House at Gad's Hill]
+
+As Major Budden points out in detail these many natural beauties of the
+district, we can quite understand and sympathize with Dickens's love for
+this exquisite spot; and we heartily congratulate the present owner of
+Gad's Hill Place on the charming historical property which he possesses,
+and which, so far as we can perceive (all honour to him), is kept in the
+same excellent condition that characterized it during the novelist's
+lifetime. What is particularly striking about it is at once its
+compactness, completeness, and unpretentiousness.
+
+Descending to the library, whence we started nearly three hours
+previously, we refresh ourselves with a glass of water from the
+celebrated deep well--a draught deliciously cool and clear--which the
+hospitable Major presses us to "dilute" (as Professor Huxley has
+somewhere said) in any way we please, but which we prefer to drink, as
+Dickens himself drank it--pure. Before we rise to leave the spot we have
+so long wished to see, and which we have now gone over to our hearts'
+content, we sadly recall to memory for a moment the "last scene of all
+that ends this strange, eventful history,"--that tragic incident which
+occurred on Thursday, 9th June, 1870, when there was an "empty chair" at
+Gad's Hill Place, and all intelligent English-speaking nations
+experienced a personal sorrow.
+
+And so with many grateful acknowledgments to our kind and courteous
+host, who gives us some nice flowers and cuttings as a parting souvenir,
+we take our leave, having derived from our bright sunny visit to Gad's
+Hill Place that "wave of pleasure" which Mr. Herbert Spencer describes
+as "raising the rate of respiration,--raised respiration being an index
+of raised vital activities in general." In fine, the impression left on
+our minds is such as to induce us to feel that we understand and
+appreciate more of Dickens's old home than any illustration or written
+description of it, however excellent, had hitherto adequately conveyed
+to us. We have seen it for ourselves.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The reminiscences which follow are from Mrs. Lynn Linton and three of
+Charles Dickens's nearest neighbours.
+
+
+GAD'S HILL SIXTY YEARS AGO.
+
+The early love which Charles Dickens felt for Gad's Hill House, and his
+boyish ambition to be one day its owner, had been already anticipated by
+my father. As a boy and young man, my father's heart was set on this
+place; and when my grandfather's death put him in sufficient funds he
+bought it. Being a beneficed clergyman, both of whose livings were in
+the extreme north of England, he could not live in the house; but he
+kept it empty for many years, always hoping to get leave of absence from
+the Bishop for a term long enough to justify the removal of his large
+family from Keswick to Rochester. In 1831 a five years' leave of absence
+was granted; and we all came up by coach to this Mecca of my father's
+love. We were three days and three nights on the road; and I remember
+quite distinctly the square courtyard and outside balcony of the old
+Belle Sauvage Inn, where we put up on our arrival in London. I remember,
+too, the powerful scent of the Portugal laurel and the bay-tree which
+grew on the right-hand side of Gad's Hill House as we entered--brought
+out by the warm damp of the late autumn afternoon. In our time all the
+outhouses had leaden figures on the top. There was a cupola with an
+alarm bell, which one night was rung lustily, to the terror of the whole
+neighbourhood, and the ashamed discovery among ourselves that rats were
+not burglars. In the shrubbery were two large leaden figures of Pomona
+and Vertumnus, standing on each side of the walk leading up to the
+arbour. We had then two arbours--one opposite the house at the end of
+the green walk, and another in a dilapidated state further in the
+shrubbery. They were built of big flint stones, many of which had holes
+in them, where small birds made their nests. I remember in one was a
+tomtit which was quite tame, and used to fly in and out while we were
+watching it. The two cedars, which I believe are still there, were a
+little choked and overshadowed by a large oak-tree, which my father cut
+down. Between seventy and eighty coaches, "vans," and mail-carts passed
+our house during the day, besides private carriages, specially those of
+travellers posting to or from Dover. Regiments, too, often passed on
+their way to Gravesend, where they embarked for India; and ships'
+companies, paid off, rowdy and half-tipsy, made the road really
+dangerous for the time being. We used to lock the two gates when we
+heard them coming, shouting and singing up the hill; and we had to stand
+many a mimic siege from the blue-jackets trying to force their way in.
+Sweet-water grapes grew and ripened in the open air over the wash-house;
+and the back of the house was covered with a singularly fine and
+luscious jargonelle pear. The garden was rich in apples. We had many
+kinds, from the sweet and pulpy nonsuch, to the small tight little
+pearmain and lemon pippin. We had nonpareils, golden pippins, brown and
+golden russets, Ribstone pippins, and what we called a port-wine
+apple--the flesh red, like that of the "blood-oranges." The small
+orchard to the right was as rich in cherry-trees, filberts, and cobnuts.
+In the garden we had a fig-tree, and the mulberry-tree, which is still
+there, was in full bearing in our time. The garden altogether was
+wonderfully prolific in flowers as well as fruits--roses as well as
+strawberries and apples; and the green-house was full of grapes.
+Nightingales sang in the trees near the house, and the shrubbery was
+full of song birds. We had a grand view from the leads, where we used
+sometimes to go, and whence I remember seeing a farmyard fire over at
+Higham--which fire they said had been caused by an incendiary. There was
+a Low Church clergyman in the neighbourhood who might have been Chadband
+or Stiggins. He was fond of some girls we knew, and called them his
+"lambs." He used to put his arm round their waists, and they sat on his
+knees quite naturally. I myself heard him preach at Shorne against the
+institution of pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. He said it was not only
+superstitious but irreligious; as pancakes meant "pan Kakon," all evil.
+This I, then a girl of thirteen or so, heard and remember. When my
+father died his property had to be sold, as he did not make an eldest
+son. Mr. W. H. Wills, the trusty friend of Charles Dickens, and editor
+of _Household Words_ and _All The Year Round_, was also a friend of
+mine. We met at a dinner, and he spoke to me about Gad's Hill, but as if
+he wanted to buy it for himself. He was afraid to mention Charles
+Dickens's name, lest we should ask too much. So he told me afterwards. I
+had been left executrix under my father's will, being then the only
+unmarried daughter; and I took the news to our solicitor and
+co-executor, Mr. Loaden. He wrote to Mr. Wills, and the sale was
+effected. We scored a little triumph over the "ornamental timber." Mr.
+Dickens objected to our price; the case was submitted to an arbitrator,
+and we got more than we originally asked. But there was never one moment
+of pique on either side, nor a drop of bad blood as the consequence. It
+was always a matter for a laugh and a joke between Mr. Wills and myself.
+When we first went to Gad's Hill there was a fish-pond at the back; but
+my father had it filled up, lest one of his adventurous little ones
+should tumble in. Officers used to come up from Chatham to the Falstaff,
+and have pigeon matches in our big field; and one of the sights which
+used to delight our young eyes, was the gallant bearing and gay uniforms
+of the Commandant at Chatham, when he and his staff rode by. We were
+great walkers in those days, and used to ramble over Cobham Park, and
+round by Shorne, and down to the dreary marshes beyond Higham. But this
+was not a favourite walk with us, and we girls never went there alone.
+The banks on the Rochester road--past Davies's Straits--were full of
+sweet violets, white and purple; and the fungi, lichens, flowers, and
+ferns about Shorne and Cobham yet linger in my memory as things of
+rarest beauty. We always thought that the coachman, "Old Chumley," as he
+was called, was old Weller. He was a fine, cheery, trustworthy man; and
+once when my father was in London, he had one of my sisters and
+myself--girls then about fifteen and thirteen--put under his charge to
+be delivered to him at the end of the journey. The dear old fellow took
+as much care of us as if he had been our father himself. I remember my
+brothers gave him a new whip, and he was very fond of us all.
+
+                                                          E. L. L.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+* * * We had at a subsequent visit to Gad's Hill Place, on the
+invitation of our hospitable friends, Major and Mrs. Budden, the
+pleasure of a long and interesting conversation with Mr. James Hulkes,
+J.P., of the Little Hermitage, Frindsbury, a Kentish man, who came to
+live here more than sixty years ago, and who was thus a very near
+neighbour of Charles Dickens during the whole of the time that he
+resided at Gad's Hill Place. We were shown into a delightful room at the
+back of the house, overlooking the shrubberies of the mansion--in the
+distance appearing the high ground on which stands the monument to
+Charles Larkin. The room is a happy combination of part workshop, with a
+fine lathe and assortment of tools fitted round it--part study, with a
+nice collection of books, engravings and pictures (some of hunting
+scenes) on the walls--and part naturalist's den, with cases of stuffed
+birds and animals, guns and fishing-rods--the fragrant odour of tobacco
+breathing friendly welcome to a visitor of smoking proclivities. The
+varied tastes of the owner were sufficiently apparent, and a long chat
+of over two hours seemed to us but a few minutes.
+
+Mr. Hulkes said he just remembered the road from Strood to Gad's Hill
+being cut through the sands down to the chalk. It was for some time
+afterwards called "Davies's Straits," after the Rev. George Davies, the
+then Chairman of the Turnpike Road Board, and the term indicated the
+difficulty and expense of the operation. Before the new road was cut,
+the old highway constituting this part of the Dover Road was very hilly
+and dangerous.
+
+Reverting to the subject of Charles Dickens, our relator remarked, "I
+fear I cannot be of much use to you by giving information about Mr.
+Dickens, as I only knew him as a kind friend, a very genial host, and a
+most charming companion; to the poor he was always kind--a deserving
+beggar never went from his house unrelieved." What indeed could be said
+more! These few simple words, spoken so earnestly after a period of
+nearly twenty years, sufficed to bring before us the lost neighbour
+whose memory was so warmly cherished by his surviving friend.
+
+John Forster, in the _Life_, speaks of Mr. Hulkes as being "one of the
+two nearest country neighbours with whom the [Dickens] family had become
+very intimate," and mentions that both Mr. and Mrs. Hulkes were present
+at the wedding of the novelist's second daughter, Kate, with Mr. Charles
+Alston Collins. Mr. Hulkes spoke of the pleasant parties at Gad's Hill
+Place, at which he met Mr. Forster, Mr. Wilkie Collins, Mr. Percy
+Fitzgerald, Mr. Marcus Stone, Mr. H. F. Chorley, and many others; and
+observed that, on the occasion of charades and private theatricals
+there, Charles Dickens was always in fine form. He showed us an original
+manuscript programme (of which we were allowed to take a copy), written
+on half-a-sheet of foolscap; and from the fact that "_Gads Hill Gazette_
+Printing Office" appears in the corner it would seem that it was printed
+on the occasion for the guests. It is as follows:--
+
+
+                                          _December 31st, 1863._
+
+          "A night's exploit on Gad's Hill."--_Shakespeare._
+
+          =Her Majesty's Servants=
+          will have the honour of presenting
+          Three Charades!!!
+
+          Each Charade is a word of two syllables, arranged
+          in three Scenes. The first scene is the first
+          syllable; the second is the second syllable; the
+          third scene is the entire word.
+
+             (_At the end of each Charade the audience is
+               respectfully invited to name the word._)
+
+
+
+=Charade 1!=
+
+          Scene I.--The awful end of the Profligate Sailor.
+
+          Scene II.--On the way to foreign parts.
+
+          Scene III.--Miss Belinda Jane and the faithful
+                        policeman (Division Q).
+
+
+=Charade 2!!=
+
+          Scene I.--Archery at Castle Doodle.
+
+          Scene II.--Fra Diavolo a Dread Reality.
+
+          Scene III.--The Choice of a too Lowly Youth.
+
+
+=Charade 3!!!=
+
+          Scene I.--The Pathetic History of the Poor Little Sweep.
+
+          Scene II.--Mussulman Barbarity to Christians.
+
+          Scene III.--Merry England.
+
+          _Gad's Hill Gazette_ Printing Office.
+
+The various parts were taken by Dickens and his family, and the entire
+word of the last Charade is supposed to be "May Day."
+
+In connection with charades, Mr. Hulkes alluded to Dickens's remarkable
+facility for "guessing a subject fixed on when he was out of the room,
+in half a dozen questions;" and related the story of how at the young
+people's game of "Yes and No," he found out the proper answer to a
+random question fixed upon by Mr. Charles Collins, one of the company,
+in his absence, which was, "The top-boot of the left leg of the head
+post-boy at Newman's Yard, London." The squire sometimes took a stroll
+with his neighbour, but observed "he was too fast a walker for me--I
+couldn't keep up with him!"
+
+Mr. Hulkes possesses a nearly complete "file" (from 1862 to 1866) of the
+_Gad's Hill Gazette_, to which he was one of the subscribers, and which
+was edited by the novelist's son, Mr. Henry Fielding Dickens, and, as
+before stated, printed at Gad's Hill Place. It chronicled the arrivals
+and departures, the results of cricket matches and billiard games, with
+interesting gossip of events relating to the family and the
+neighbourhood. Occasionally there was a leading article, and now and
+then an acrostic appeared. Among the subscribers were the novelist and
+his family, The Lord Chief Justice, The Dean of Bristol, Lady
+Molesworth, Mrs. Milner Gibson, M. Stone, A. Halliday, J. Hulkes, C.
+Kent, W. H. Wills, H. F. Chorley, Edmund Yates, etc. The number for
+January 20th, 1866, contains a humorous correspondence on the management
+of the journal between "Jabez Skinner" and "Blackbury Jones." Mr. H. F.
+Dickens kindly allows a copy of the number for December 30th, 1865, to
+be reproduced, which is interesting as giving an account of the
+Staplehurst accident, and also the notice issued when the journal was
+discontinued.
+
+
+          THE
+
+          GAD'S HILL GAZETTE
+
+          Edited by H. F. Dickens
+
+          December 30th 1865      Price 2d
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We are very glad to meet our subscribers again after such a long lapse
+of time, and we hope that they will patronise us in the same kind and
+indulgent manner as they did, last season.
+
+In the circulars, we announced that some great improvements were to be
+made in the Gazette-- We are sorry that they cannot appear in this
+number (as our suppliers of type have disappointed us) but we hope that
+next week, we shall be able to publish this journal in quite a different
+form.
+
+Hoping that our subscribers will excuse us this week, we beg to wish
+them all A Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Christmas at Gad's Hill.
+
+During the past week, Gad's Hill has resounded with the sounds of
+festivity and merriment.
+
+          (Continued on the next page)
+
+As is usually the case, the house has been filled with the guests who
+have come to taste of Mr Dickens' hospitality. These consisted of Mr
+Mad, and Master Fechter, Mr & Mrs C. Collins, Mr Mrs and Master C.
+Dickens junr, Mr Morgan (who suddenly appeared on Christmas Day, having
+just returned from America) Mr M. Stone, Mr Chorley and Mr Dickenson.
+
+The latter gentleman has not yet entirely recovered from the effects of
+a most disastrous railway accident in which he was a sufferer, and had
+it not been for the courage and intrepidity of Mr Dickens, he would not
+now be spending his Christmas at Gad's Hill.
+
+A short time before the accident occurred, Mr Dickenson had a dispute
+with a French gentleman about the opening of the window when the former
+offered to change places, if the open window was disagreeable to his
+fellow traveller--this they did.--
+
+Then came the accident, accompanied by all its frightful incidents. The
+French gentleman was killed, Mr Dickenson was stunned and hurled with
+great violence under the debris of a carriage.
+
+Mr Dickens, who was in another compartment, managed to crawl out of the
+window and then, caring little for his own safety, busied himself in
+helping the wounded. Whilst engaged in doing this, he passed by a
+carriage, underneath which he saw a gentleman (Mr Dickenson) lying
+perfectly still, and bleeding from the eyes, ears, nose and mouth.
+
+He was immediately taken to the town of Staplehurst where he so far
+recovered as to be able to return to London, that evening.
+
+Next morning he was suffering from a very severe concussion of the brain
+and was ill for many weeks--But to our subject.
+
+On Christmas Day, Mr, Mrs & Miss Malleson came to dinner. At about 9, an
+ex tempore dance began and was kept up till about 2 o'clock Tuesday
+morning. During the week, billiards has been much resorted to. (See next
+page)
+
+All the visitors are still here, except Mr Fechter and family who left
+on December 26th, and Mr Morgan (who is to return on 31st. Talking of Mr
+Fechter, our readers will be glad to hear that he has made a most
+decided success in his new piece entitled--The Master of Ravenswood--
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+Sporting Intelligence.
+
+Billiards
+
+Of all the matches that have been played during the past week the most
+important was a Great Handicap on Christmas Day, the prize being a
+pewter. Annexed is an account of it.
+
+          Stone Scratch C Dickens jun 20 Harry 30
+          Fechter  5   Dickenson 20 C  Dickens 35
+          Morgan  10   Collins   30      Plorn 40
+
+Our space will not allow us to enter into the minute details of this
+match suffice it to say that Mr Dickenson won but that as regards good
+play, he was excelled by Mr Stone (who, however, was so heavily weighted
+that he could not win. Great credit is due to Mr Ch Dickens junr for the
+way in which he handicapped the men.
+
+On Saturday 30th a match is to be played between The Earl of Darnley and
+Mr M Stone.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                     Gad's Hill Gazette Office.
+                                               January--1867.
+
+In a circular issued last August, we announced that a final number of
+the Gad's Hill Gazette was to be published this Xmas. We are grieved
+however to state, that the shortening of the Wimbledon School holidays
+(in which establishment the Editor is a pupil) has rendered this
+impossible.
+
+It is with feelings of the deepest regret that we find ourselves obliged
+to conclude the publication of our Journal in this sudden and unexpected
+manner, but we feel sure that the great indulgence of the Public will
+overlook this, as it has done many other great errors in the Gad's Hill
+Gazette.
+
+In conclusion, we beg to take leave of our Subscribers in our public
+capacity of Editor, thanking them for their kindness in supporting our
+Journal, and wishing them all
+
+                   --"A Happy New Year."--
+
+                           [Illustration: Signature: A. F. Dickens]
+   (Signed)                                       Sole Editor
+
+Mrs. Hulkes had a number of pleasant recollections of Gad's Hill Place,
+and of Charles Dickens and his family. "As a girl," said this lady, "I
+was an admiring reader of his works, and I longed to see and know the
+author; but little did I think that my high ambition would ever be
+gratified." That a warm friendship existed between his admirer and
+Charles Dickens, who subsequently became her near neighbour, is
+evidenced by the fact that, in reply to her request, he allowed this
+lady the great privilege of reading the catastrophe of that
+exquisitely-pathetic and nobly-altruistic story of _A Tale of Two
+Cities_, some weeks before its publication, as appears from the
+following letter:--
+
+
+                                        "GAD'S HILL PLACE,
+                                    "HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT.
+                        "_Sunday evening, Sixteenth Oct., 1857._
+
+          "MY DEAR MRS. HULKES,
+
+          "My daughter has shown me your note, and it has
+          impressed me with the horrible determination to
+          become a new kind of Bluebeard, and lay an awful
+          injunction of secrecy on you for five mortal
+          weeks.
+
+          "Here is the remainder of the _Tale of Two
+          Cities_. Not half-a-dozen of my oldest and most
+          trusty literary friends have seen it. It is a real
+          pleasure to me to entrust you with the
+          catastrophe, and to ask you to keep a grim and
+          inflexible silence on the subject until it is
+          published. When you have read the proofs, will you
+          kindly return them to me?
+
+          "With my regard to Mr. Hulkes,
+
+                           "Believe me always,
+                                 "Faithfully yours,
+                                       "CHARLES DICKENS.
+
+          "MRS. HULKES."
+
+Mrs. Hulkes said that when Dickens went to Paris in 1863, he jokingly
+said to her, "I am going to Paris; what shall I bring you?" She replied,
+"A good photograph of yourself, as I do not like the one you gave me;
+and I hear the French people are more successful than the English, or
+their climate may help them." And he brought a photograph of himself, of
+which there were only four printed. It now graces Mrs. Hulkes'
+drawing-room, and represents the novelist very life-like in full face,
+head and bust. The photograph was taken by Alphonse Maze, and has been
+exquisitely engraved in Mr. Kitton's _Charles Dickens by Pen and
+Pencil_.
+
+Mrs. Hulkes mentioned a curious and interesting circumstance. On the
+night before the funeral of her friend, Miss Dickens sent down to the
+Little Hermitage to ask if she could kindly give her some roses. Mrs.
+Hulkes cut a quantity from one of the trees in the garden (Lamarque, she
+believes), and the tree never bloomed again, and soon after died. No
+doubt, as she observed, it bled to death from the excessive cutting. It
+was the second case only of the kind in her experience as a rose-grower
+during very many years.
+
+Charles Dickens also took interest in his friend's son (their only
+child, who has since finished his University career), and this gentleman
+prizes as a relic a copy of _A Child's History of England_, which was
+presented to him, with the following inscription written in the
+characteristic blue ink--"Charles Dickens. To his little friend, Cecil
+James Hulkes. Christmas Eve, 1864." In a letter to Miss Hogarth, written
+from New York, on Friday, 3rd January, 1868, he says:--"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."
+
+There are many interesting relics of Gad's Hill Place now in the
+possession of the family at the Little Hermitage, notably Charles
+Dickens's seal with his crest, and the initials C. D., his pen-tray, his
+desk, a photograph of the study on 8th June, 1870 (a present from Miss
+Hogarth), the portrait above referred to, an arm-chair, a drawing-room
+settee, a dressing-table, and a library writing-table.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On another occasion we were favoured with an interview by Mr. J. N.
+Malleson, of Brighton, who formerly resided at the Great Hermitage,
+Higham, and who was a neighbour of Charles Dickens for many years. Mr.
+Malleson came to the Great Hermitage in 1859, and a day or two after
+Christmas Day in that year--having previously been a guest at the
+wedding of Dickens's second daughter Kate, with Mr. Charles Alston
+Collins--he met the novelist, who, stopping to chat pleasantly, asked
+his neighbours where they dined at Christmas? "Oh, Darby and Joan," said
+our informant. Dickens laughingly replied:--"That shall never happen
+again"; and the following year, and every year afterwards, except when
+their friend was in America, Mr. and Mrs. Malleson received and accepted
+invitations to dine at Gad's Hill Place. On the exception in question,
+the family of Dickens dined at the Great Hermitage.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the autumn of the year 1889 we had a most interesting chat with Mr.
+William Stocker Trood, at his residence, Spearcehay Farm, Pitminster,
+pleasantly situated in the vale of Taunton, for many years landlord of
+the Sir John Falstaff at Gad's Hill. The first noteworthy circumstance
+to record is that his name is not _Edwin_ Trood, as commonly supposed,
+but William Stocker, as above stated, Stocker being an old family name.
+This fact disposes of the supposition that the former two names, with
+the alteration of a single letter, gave rise in Dickens's mind to the
+designation of the principal character in _The Mystery of Edwin Drood_.
+The name of "Trood" is by the substitution of one letter easily
+converted into Drood, and that word is perhaps more euphonious with
+"Edwin" as prefixed to it; but "William Stocker" is not by any means
+easily converted into "Edwin." The idea that "Edwin Drood" is derived
+from "William Stocker Trood" may therefore be dismissed as a popular
+fallacy. It may be mentioned, however, _en passant_, that Mr. Trood had
+a brother named Edward, who sometimes visited him at the Falstaff, and
+also a son who bore the name of his uncle.
+
+We found our informant to be wonderfully genial, hale and hearty,
+although in his eighty-fifth year. He had a perfect recollection of
+Charles Dickens, and remembered his first coming to Gad's Hill Place.
+Before the house was properly furnished and put in order, both Mr. and
+Mrs. Dickens sometimes slept at the Falstaff; and afterwards, when
+visitors were staying at Gad's Hill Place, and the bedrooms there were
+full, some of them slept at the Inn; in particular, John Forster, Wilkie
+Collins, and Marcus Stone. He said Mr. Dickens was a very nice man to
+speak to, and Mrs. Dickens was a very nice lady. They were always kind
+and pleasant as neighbours, but Mr. Dickens did not talk much. Said Mr.
+Trood:--"When I was at Higham, Mr. Dickens used to say no one could put
+in a word; I had all the talk to myself." The sons were all very
+pleasant; in fact, he liked the family very much indeed.
+
+Mr. Trood sometimes acted as local banker to Charles Dickens, and used
+to cash his cheques for him. Only the day before his death, he cashed a
+cheque for �22, and was subsequently offered �24 for it by an admirer of
+Dickens who desired the autograph; but to his credit it should be
+mentioned that he did not accept the offer.
+
+Our informant next spoke of the wonderful partiality of Dickens to
+cricket; he would stand out all night if he could watch a cricket match.
+The matches were always played in Mr. Dickens's field, and the business
+meetings of the club were held monthly at the Falstaff. Mr. Trood was
+Treasurer of the club. Occasionally there was a dinner.
+
+A circumstance was related which made a profound impression on our
+friend. The family at Gad's Hill Place were very fond of music, and on
+one occasion there were present as visitors two great violinists, one a
+German and the other an Italian, and it was a debated question among the
+listeners outside the gates, where the music could be distinctly heard,
+which played the better. Mr. Trood had just returned from Gravesend in
+the cool of the summer evening, about ten o'clock, and stood in the road
+opposite listening, "spellbound," to the delightful music. Miss Dickens
+played the accompaniments.
+
+Mr. Trood spoke with a lively and appreciative recollection of the
+Christmas sports that were held in a field at the back of Gad's Hill
+Place, and of the good order and nice feeling that prevailed at those
+gatherings, although several thousand people were present. Among the
+games that were played, the wheeling of barrows by blind-folded men
+seemed to tickle him most.
+
+Our octogenarian friend also spoke of the great love of Dickens for
+scarlet geraniums. Hundreds of the "Tom Thumb" variety were planted in
+the beds on the front lawn and in the back garden at Gad's Hill Place.
+
+Soon after the terrible railway accident at Staplehurst, Dickens came
+over to the Falstaff and spoke to Mr. Trood, who congratulated him. Said
+Dickens, "I never thought I should be here again." It is a wonderful
+coincidence to record, that a young gentleman named Dickenson, who
+subsequently became intimate with the novelist, changed places (so as to
+get the benefit of meeting the fresh air) with a French gentleman in the
+same carriage who was killed, and Mr. Dickenson escaped! The accident
+happened on the 9th June, 1865, and Dickens died on the "fatal
+anniversary," 9th June, 1870.
+
+Mr. Trood confirmed his daughter's (Mrs. Latter's) account of the
+_fra�as_ with the men and performing bears, given in another chapter,
+adding, "That _was_ a concern."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The beautiful city of Exeter is not far from Taunton, and we naturally
+avail ourselves of the opportunity of stopping there for a few hours,
+and stroll over to see the village of Alphington. It was here, in the
+year 1839, that Charles Dickens took and furnished Mile End Cottage for
+his father and mother and their youngest son. He thus describes the
+event in a letter to Forster:--"I took a little house for them this
+morning (5th March, 1839), and if they are not pleased with it I shall
+be grievously disappointed. Exactly a mile beyond the city on the
+Plymouth road there are two white cottages: one is theirs, and the
+other belongs to their landlady. I almost forget the number of rooms,
+but there is an excellent parlour with two other rooms on the ground
+floor, there is really a beautiful little room over the parlour which I
+am furnishing as a drawing-room, and there is a splendid garden. The
+paint and paper throughout is new and fresh and cheerful-looking, the
+place is clean beyond all description, and the neighbourhood I suppose
+the most beautiful in this most beautiful of English counties." The
+negotiations with the landlady and the operation of furnishing the house
+are most humorously pourtrayed in the same letter.
+
+The cottage is also described in _Nicholas Nickleby_, which he was
+writing at the time. Mrs. Nickleby, in allusion to her old home, calls
+it "the beautiful little thatched white house one storey high, covered
+all over with ivy and creeping plants, with an exquisite little porch
+with twining honeysuckles and all sorts of things."
+
+Fifty years have passed since the parents of the novelist went to live
+at Alphington, which, notwithstanding the subsequent growth of the city,
+still continues to be a pretty suburb with fine views of the Ide Hills
+to the westward, and Heavitree to the eastward. Our efforts to obtain
+any reminiscences of the Dickens family in the village were quite
+unsuccessful--so long a time had elapsed since their departure--although,
+to oblige us, the vicar of the place kindly made enquiries, and took
+some interest in the matter.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[11] Since this was written, Gad's Hill Place has been purchased by the
+Hon. F. G. Latham. Major Budden has resigned his commission locally, and
+now holds a commission in the Limerick City Artillery Militia. It is
+very pleasant to place on record that in subsequent visits to
+"Dickens-Land" I was always received with friendly kindness by Major and
+Mrs. Budden, whose hospitality I often enjoyed. Their enthusiasm for the
+late owner of Gad's Hill Place, and their willingness to show every part
+of their beautiful residence to any one specially interested, was most
+gratifying to a lover of Dickens. Like the novelist, Mrs. Budden is fond
+of private theatricals, and has published a little book on _Mrs.
+Farley's Wax-Works and How to Use Them_.
+
+[12] It has been suggested that the lines above quoted might give one
+the impression that they are those of Falstaff. This, of course, is not
+the case. They are spoken by Poins, when in company with Falstaff,
+Prince Henry, and others. They occur in Act I. Scene ii. of _King Henry
+IV._, Part 1.
+
+A Note to Charles Knight's Edition of Shakespeare, contained in the
+"Illustrations to Act I." of the same Play, states that Gad's Hill
+appears to have been a place notorious for robbers before the time of
+Shakespeare, for Stevens discovered an entry of the date of 1558 in the
+books of the Stationers' Company, of a ballad entitled, "The Robbery at
+Gad's Hill." And the late Sir Henry Ellis, of the British Museum,
+communicated to Mr. Boswell, Editor of Malone's Shakespeare, a narrative
+in the handwriting of Sir Roger Manwood, Chief Baron of the Exchequer,
+dated 5th July, 1590, which shows that Gad's Hill was at that period the
+resort of a band of well-mounted robbers of more than usual daring, as
+appears from the following extract:--
+
+"In the course of that Michaelmas term, I being at London, many
+robberies were done in the bye-ways at Gad's Hill, on the west part of
+Rochester, and at Chatham, down on the east part of Rochester, by horse
+thieves, with such fat and lusty horses, as were not like hackney horses
+nor far-journeying horses; and one of them sometimes wearing a vizard
+grey beard, he was by common report in the country called 'Justice Grey
+Beard;' and no man durst travel that way without great company."
+
+[13] At an interview with Mr. H. F. Dickens some time afterwards, he
+told me the story of the origin of _The Gad's Hill Gazette_. There was a
+good deal of sand exposed at the back of the house, and the sons of the
+novelist--who like other boys were full of energy,--were fond of playing
+at "burying" each other. Their father naturally feared that this kind of
+play might have some disastrous effects, and develop into burying in
+earnest. So he said one day to his sons, "Why not establish a newspaper,
+if you want a field for your energies?" _The Gad's Hill Gazette_ was the
+result. At first the tiny journal was written on a plain sheet and
+copies made; then a Manifold Writer was used; and afterwards came the
+Printing Press.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+CHARLES DICKENS AND STROOD.
+
+        "So altered was the battle-ground, where thousands
+          upon thousands had been killed in the great
+          fight."--_The Battle of Life._
+
+        "Keep me always at it, I'll keep you always at it,
+          you keep somebody else always at it. There you
+          are, with the Whole Duty of Man in a commercial
+          country."--_Little Dorrit._
+
+
+THE town of Strood,--the Roman _Strata_,--which stands on the left bank
+of the river Medway, has, like the city of Rochester, its interesting
+historical associations. Its Church, dedicated to St. Nicholas, stands
+high on the north side of the London road leading to Gad's Hill, and has
+a brass of T. Glover and his three wives. At one time there was a
+hospital for travellers, founded by Bishop Glanville (_temp._ Richard
+I.), near the Church. The most interesting remains are, however, those
+of the Temple Farm, distant about half a mile south, formerly (_temp._
+Henry II.) the mansion of the Knights Templars of the Teutonic order, to
+whom it, together with the lands thereto belonging, was given by that
+monarch. The gift was confirmed by King John and by Henry III. (1227);
+but the unfortunate brethren of the order did not retain possession more
+than a century, for in the reign of Edward II. they were dispossessed of
+their lands and goods, under pretence of their leading a vicious course
+of life, but in reality to satisfy the avarice of their dispossessors.
+The present building dates from about James I., has one fine room
+overlooking the river, and underneath is a spacious vault called by
+Grose the "Preceptory," excavated out of the chalk, and having fine
+groined stone arches and aisles--the walls are of very great thickness.
+Near Frindsbury Church--in which are three most interesting
+wall-paintings of St. William the Baker of Perth, St. Lawrence, and
+another figure, all three discovered on the jambs of the Norman windows
+only a few years ago--stands the Quarry House, a handsome old red-brick
+mansion, "described as more Jacobean than Elizabethan," built in the
+form of a capital E, each storey slightly receding behind the front
+level of that beneath it, the top tapering into pretty gables, the
+effect being enhanced by heavy buttresses.
+
+There is a dreadful legend of the ancient people of Strood common to
+several other parts of the kingdom, _e.g._ Auster in Dorsetshire, which
+the quaint and diligent Lambarde, quoting from Polydore Virgil,
+evidently regarded as serious, and takes immense pains to confute! It
+relates to St. Thomas � Becket and his contention with King Henry II.,
+whereby he began to be looked upon as the King's enemy, and as such
+began to be "so commonly neglected, contemned, and hated:--
+
+"That when as it happened him upon a time to come to _Stroude_, the
+Inhabitants thereabouts (being desirous to dispite that good Father)
+sticked not to cut the tail from the horse on which he road, binding
+themselves thereby with a perpetuall reproach: for afterward (by the
+will of God) it so happened, that every one which came of that kinred of
+men which plaied that naughty prank, were borne with tails, even as
+brute beasts be."
+
+[Illustration: Temple Farm Strood]
+
+Surely had the credulous historian lived in Darwinian times, he might
+have recorded this as a splendid instance of "degeneration"!
+
+[Illustration: At Temple Farm Strood]
+
+In a lecture delivered here some years ago, the Rev. Canon Scott
+Robertson, Editor of _Arch�ologia Cantiana_, gave a graphic picture of
+"Strood in the Olden Times." To this we are much indebted for the
+opportunity of giving an abstract of several of the most interesting
+details.
+
+In the thirteenth century Strood and Rochester were the scene of a
+severe struggle between Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, the
+leader of the Barons in their war against Henry III. to resist the
+aggressive encroachments of the King on the liberties of the subject,
+and the supporters of that monarch.
+
+[Illustration: Crypt Temple Farm]
+
+Simon de Montfort, who was a Strood landowner, and possessed of other
+large properties in Kent, took the lead, followed by several other
+nobles, in the siege of Rochester. Their first obstacle was the
+fortified gate-house at the Strood end of Rochester Bridge, and for some
+time their efforts were in vain, till at length, by means of small ships
+filled with inflammable matter, set on fire and driven towards the
+centre of the wooden bridge, causing "actual or expected ignition of the
+timbers," the King's soldiers were dismayed and retreated. The Earl of
+Gloucester simultaneously reached the south end of the city, and the
+Barons took possession thereof, sacking the town, monastery, and
+Cathedral Church. The garrison of the Castle shut themselves up in the
+strong Norman Keep, and held it till relieved by Prince Edward, the
+King's son.
+
+The Castle was subsequently taken by Simon de Montfort after the Battle
+of Lewes (1264), where Henry III. was taken prisoner and brought to
+Rochester, and a Proclamation was issued transferring the custody of the
+Royal Castle to the Barons.
+
+At the Battle of Evesham (1265) Simon de Montfort was slain; and the
+King, on becoming master of the situation, imposed a fine, equivalent to
+about �1,500 of our money, on Strood, because it was the headquarters of
+Simon during his assault on Rochester. The fine caused much ill-feeling
+between the two towns, which lasted until the reign of Edward I. Such
+was Strood in the olden times.
+
+Long years have since passed, and the amenities of an industrial age
+have succeeded to these turmoils. The town of Strood appears to be
+flourishing, and now possesses large engineering works, cement
+manufactories, flour mills, and other extensive industries.
+
+Allusion has been previously made to a very entertaining _brochure_,
+entitled _Charles Dickens and Rochester_, by Mr. Robert Langton, F. R.
+Hist. Soc. of Manchester (himself, we believe, a Rochester man). In it
+there is scarcely any reference to Strood, although the sister-town,
+Chatham, is freely mentioned. Our enquiries at Strood, on the Tuesday
+and subsequently, resulted in the discovery of many most interesting
+memorials of Charles Dickens in connection with that town, enough almost
+to fill a small volume. There was a general impression that Dickens had
+no great liking for Strood, and yet it was a doctor from that town who
+was one of his most intimate friends, and who attended him in his last
+illness; it was a builder in Strood who executed most of the alterations
+and repairs at Gad's Hill Place; it was a Strood contractor who gave him
+the souvenir of old Rochester Bridge; it was at Strood that an eminent
+local scientist lived, who was incidentally, but very importantly,
+associated with him in the movement connected with the Guild of
+Literature and Art; and it was at a quiet roadside inn at Strood that he
+sometimes called to refresh himself after one of those long walks, alone
+or with friends, for which he was famous.
+
+[Illustration: The "Crispin & Crispianus", Strood]
+
+Let us reverse the order of the above, and give a recollection from the
+last-mentioned. The "Crispin and Crispianus" is a very old-fashioned
+inn, which stands on the north side of the London road just out of
+Strood, and was, as we were informed, erected some centuries ago. It is
+a long building, of brick below, with an overhanging upper floor and
+weather-boarded front, surmounted by a single dormer window. The sanded
+floor of the common parlour is, as the saying goes, "as clean as a new
+pin." Round the room is a settle terminating with arms at each side of
+the door, which is opposite the fireplace. Mrs. Masters, the cheerful
+and obliging landlady, who has lived here thirty years, describes
+Dickens to us (as we sit in the seat he used now and then to occupy),
+when on one of his walks, as habited in low shoes not over-well mended,
+loose large check-patterned trousers that sometimes got entangled in the
+shoes when walking, a brown coat thrown open, sometimes without
+waistcoat, a belt instead of braces, a necktie which now and then got
+round towards his ear, and a large-brimmed felt hat, similar to an
+American's, set well at the back of his head. In his hand he carried by
+the middle an umbrella, which he was in the habit of constantly
+swinging, and if he had dogs (a not unfrequent occurrence), he had a
+small whip as well. He walked in the middle of the road at a rapid pace,
+upright, but with his eyes cast down as if in deep thought. When he
+called at the Crispin for refreshment, usually a glass of ale (mild
+sixpenny--bitter ale was not drawn in those days), or a little cold
+brandy and water, he walked straight in, and sat down at the corner of
+the settle on the right-hand side where the arm is, opposite the
+fire-place; he rarely spoke to any one, but looked round as though
+taking in everything at a glance. (In _David Copperfield_ he says, "I
+looked at nothing, that I know of, but I saw everything.") Once he and a
+friend were sheltering there during a thunderstorm (by a coincidence, a
+storm occurs at the time we are here), and while Dickens stood looking
+out of the window he saw opposite a poor woman with a baby, who appeared
+very worn, wet, and travel-stained. She too was sheltering from the
+rain.
+
+"Call her in here," said Dickens. Mrs. Masters obeyed.
+
+"Now," said he, "draw her some brandy."
+
+"How much?" she asked.
+
+"Never mind," he answered, "draw her some."
+
+The landlady drew her four-pennyworth, the quantity generally served.
+
+"Now," said Dickens to the woman, "drink that up," which she did, and
+soon seemed refreshed. Dickens gave her a shilling, and remarked to Mrs.
+Masters that "now she will go on her way rejoicing." The story is a
+trivial one, but the units make the aggregate, and it sufficiently
+indicates his kindness of heart and thoughtfulness for others.
+
+In some of his walks Dickens was accompanied either by his
+sister-in-law, Miss Hogarth, or by friends who were staying at "Gad's"
+(or the "Place," as it was sometimes called). Mrs. Masters, whose
+recollections of Dickens are very vivid, said--"Lor! we never thought
+much about him when he was alive; it was only when his death took place
+that we understood what a great man he was." Alas! it is not the first
+instance that "a prophet is not without honour, save in his own country,
+and in his own house." The news of his death was a great shock to Mrs.
+Masters, who heard of it from Edward, son of Mr. W. S. Trood, the
+landlord of the Sir John Falstaff, as he was bearing the intelligence to
+Rochester within half-an-hour after the event.
+
+In passing we should mention, that the Crispin and Crispianus has been
+immortalized in the chapter on "Tramps," in _The Uncommercial
+Traveller_, where, in reference to the handicrafts of certain tramps,
+Dickens imagines himself to be a travelling clockmaker, and after
+adjusting "t'ould clock" in the keeper's kitchen, "he sees to something
+wrong with the bell of the turret stable clock up at the Hall [Cobham
+Hall]. . . . Our task at length accomplished, we should be taken into an
+enormous servants'-hall, and there regaled with beef and bread, and
+powerful ale. Then, paid freely, we should be at liberty to go, and
+should be told by a pointing helper to keep round over yinder by the
+blasted ash, and so straight through the woods till we should see the
+town-lights right afore us. . . . So should we lie that night at the
+ancient sign of the Crispin and Crispianus [at Strood], and rise early
+next morning to be betimes on tramp again."[14]
+
+We are also indebted to Mrs. Masters for an introduction to our next
+informant, Mr. J. Couchman, master-builder and undertaker of Strood,
+who, though advanced in years and tried by illness, is very free and
+chatty; and from him and his son we obtained some interesting facts. He
+had worked for Charles Dickens at Gad's Hill Place, from the date of his
+going there ("which," says Mr. Couchman, "was on Whitsun Monday, 1856,")
+until the 11th June, 1870, two days after the sad occurrence "which
+eclipsed the gaiety of nations."
+
+From Mr. Couchman's standpoint as a tradesman, it is interesting to
+record his experience of Dickens in his own words. "Mr. Dickens," he
+says, "was always very straightforward, honourable, and kind, and paid
+his bills most regularly. The first work I did for him was to make a
+dog-kennel; I also put up the ch�let at Gad's Hill. When it was
+forwarded from London, which was by water, Mr. Fechter [whose name he
+did not at first remember] sent a Frenchman to assist in the erection.
+The ch�let consisted of ninety-four pieces, all fitting accurately
+together like a puzzle. The Frenchman did not understand it, and could
+not make out the fitting of the pieces. So I asked Mr. Henry [Mr. Henry
+Fielding Dickens, the novelist's sixth son, the present Recorder of
+Deal] if he understood French. He said 'Yes,' and told me the names of
+the different pieces, and I managed it without the Frenchman, who stayed
+the night, and went away next day." In conversation, we suggest that the
+circumstance of the ch�let having been made in Switzerland may have
+embarrassed the Frenchman, he not having been accustomed to that kind of
+work. In his letter to Forster of the 7th June, 1865, Dickens
+says:--"The ch�let is going on excellently, though the ornamental part
+is more slowly put together than the substantial. It will really be a
+very pretty thing; and in the summer (supposing it not to be blown away
+in the spring), the upper room will make a charming study. It is much
+higher than we supposed."
+
+Mr. Couchman also took down the ch�let after Charles Dickens's death,
+and erected it at the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, where it remained for
+a short time, and was subsequently presented to the Earl of Darnley by
+several members of the Dickens family. His lordship afterwards ordered
+him to fit it up at Cobham Hall, where, as previously stated, it now
+stands. The woods of which it is constructed he believed to be Baltic
+oak and a kind of pine, the lighter parts being of maple or sycamore. We
+saw it subsequently.
+
+Several contracts were entered into by Mr. Couchman with Charles Dickens
+for the extension and modification of Gad's Hill Place, notably during
+the year 1861. We are favoured with a sight of an original specification
+signed by both parties, which is as follows:--
+
+          "Specification of works proposed to be done at
+          Gad's Hill House, Higham, for C. Dickens, Esq.
+
+          "_Bricklayer._--To take off slates and copings and
+          heighten brick walls and chimneys, and build No. 2
+          new chimneys with stock and picking bricks laid in
+          cement. No. 2 chimney bars, to cope gable ends
+          with old stone. No. 2 hearthstones. No. 2 plain
+          stone chimney-pieces. No. 2--2 ft. 6 in. Register
+          stoves. To lath and plaster ceiling, side walls,
+          and partitions with lime and hair two coats, and
+          set to slate the new roof with good countess
+          slates and metal nails.
+
+          "_Carpenter._--To take off roof, to lay floor
+          joist with 7 � 2-1/2 in. yellow battens; to fix
+          roof, ceiling, joist and partitions of good fir
+          timber, 4 ft. � 2 ft.; to use old timber that is
+          sound and fit for use; to close board roof, lead
+          flat and gutters; to lay 1 in. � 9 in. white deal
+          floors, to skirt rooms with 8 in. � 3/4 in. deal;
+          to fix No. 4 pairs of 1-3/4 in. sashes and frames
+          for plate-glass as per order. _All the sashes to
+          have weights and pulleys for opening._ To fix No.
+          2--6 ft. 6 in. � 2 ft. 6 in. 1-1/2 in., four panel
+          doors, and encase frames with all necessary
+          mouldings; to fix window linings, and 1-1/2 in.
+          square framings and doors for No. 2 dressing-rooms;
+          to fix No. 2, 7 in. rim locks. No. 2 box latches,
+          sash fastenings, sash weights, to fix 4 in. O. G.
+          iron eaves, gutter with cistern heads, and 3 in.
+          iron leading pipes.
+
+          "_Plumber, Glazier, and Painter._--To take up old
+          lead guttering, and lay new gutters and lead flats
+          with 6lb. lead, ridge and flushings with 5lb.
+          lead; to paint all wood and iron-work that
+          requires painting 4 coats in oil, the windows to
+          be glazed with good plate glass; to paper rooms
+          and landings when the walls are dry with paper of
+          the value of 1_s._ 6_d._ per piece, the old lead
+          to be the property of the plumber. _The two
+          cisterns to be carried up and replaced on new
+          roof, the pipes attached to them to be lengthened
+          as required by the alterations; and a water tap to
+          be fitted in each dressing-room._
+
+          "All old materials not used and rubbish to be
+          carted away by the contractor. All the work to be
+          completed in a sound and workman-like manner to
+          the satisfaction of C. Dickens, Esq., for the sum
+          of �241. The roof to be slated and flat covered
+          with lead in one month from commencing the work.
+          The whole to be completed--paper excepted--and all
+          rubbish cleared away by the 30th day of November,
+          1861.
+
+                                "(Signed) J. COUCHMAN,
+                                                  "Builder.
+          "_High Street, Strood_,
+             "_Sep. 10th, 1861._"
+
+Then follows in Dickens's own handwriting:--
+
+          "_The above contract I accept on the stipulated
+          conditions; the specified _time_, in common with
+          all the other conditions, to be strictly
+          observed._
+
+                                 "(Signed) CHARLES DICKENS.
+
+          "_Gad's Hill Place,_
+               "_Saturday, 21st Sep., 1861._"
+
+What is most interesting to notice in the above specification, is the
+careful way in which Dickens appears to have mastered all the details,
+and the very sensible interlineations given in italics which he made,
+(1) as to the sashes and weights, (2) as to the two cisterns, and
+especially (3) in the final memorandum as to _time_.
+
+It is also worthy of remark, that the work _was_ completed in the
+specified time, the bill duly sent in, and the next day Dickens sent a
+cheque for the amount.
+
+Another contract, amounting to �393, was executed by Mr. Couchman, for
+extensions at Gad's Hill. On its completion, Mr. Dickens paid him by two
+cheques. He went up to London to the Bank (Coutts's in the Strand) to
+cash them. The clerk just looked at the cheques, the signature
+apparently being very familiar to him, and then put the usual
+question--"How will you have it?" to which he replied, "Notes, please."
+
+It appears that, as is frequently the case in large establishments,
+orders were sometimes given by the servants for work which the master
+knew nothing about until the bill was presented; and to prevent this,
+Dickens issued instructions to the tradesmen that they were not to
+execute any work for him without his written authority. The following is
+an illustration of this new arrangement:--
+
+
+                                    "GAD'S HILL PLACE,
+                                "HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT.
+                                   "_Thursday, 5th Nov., 1858._
+
+          "MR. COUCHMAN,
+
+          "Please to ease the coach-house doors, and to put
+          up some pegs, agreeably to George Belcher's
+          directions.
+
+                                     "CHARLES DICKENS."
+
+It should be mentioned that George Belcher was the coachman at the time.
+
+Mr. Couchman recalls an interesting custom that was maintained at Gad's
+Hill. There were a number of tin check plates, marked respectively 3_d._
+and 6_d._ each, which enabled the person to whom they were given to
+obtain an equivalent in refreshment of any kind at the Sir John
+Falstaff. The threepenny checks were for the workmen, and the sixpenny
+ones for the tradesmen. The chief housemaid had the distribution of
+these checks to persons employed in the house, the head-gardener to
+those engaged in the gardens, and the coachman to those in the stables.
+On one occasion, our informant remembers when his men were engaged upon
+some work at Gad's Hill, such checks were given out to them, and that he
+also had one offered to him; but, recollecting that his position as a
+master scarcely entitled him to the privilege, he stated his objections
+to the housemaid, who said in reply that it was a pity to break an old
+custom, he had better have one. "So," says our informant, "I had a
+sixpenny ticket with the others, and obtained my refreshment."
+
+He has in his photographic album a carte-de-visite of Charles Dickens,
+by Watkins. It is the well-known one in which the novelist is
+represented in a sitting position, dressed in a grey suit; and the owner
+considered it a very good likeness. He also showed us a funeral card
+which he thought had been sent to him by the family of Dickens at the
+time of his death, but judging by its contents, this seems impossible.
+It is, however, well worth transcribing:--
+
+                  To the Memory of
+                 =Charles Dickens=
+          (England's most popular author),
+               who died at his Residence,
+            Higham, near Rochester, Kent,
+                   June 9th, 1870.
+                   Aged 58 years.
+
+          He was a sympathizer with the poor, suffering, and
+            oppressed; and by his death one of England's
+               greatest writers is lost to the world.
+
+Mr. Couchman confirms the verbal sketch of Dickens as drawn by his
+neighbour, Mrs. Masters, and states that Dickens used to put up his dogs
+("Linda" and "Turk"), "boisterous companions as they always were," in
+the stables whenever he came to see him on business.
+
+Mr. William Ball, J.P., of Hillside, Strood, kindly favoured us with
+many interviews, and generally took great interest in the subject of our
+visit to "Dickens-Land," rendering invaluable assistance in our
+enquiries. This gentleman is the son of Mr. John H. Ball, the well-known
+contractor, who removed old Rochester Bridge; he is also a
+brother-in-law of the late gifted tenor, Mr. Joseph Maas, to whom a
+handsome memorial tablet, consisting of a marble medallion of the
+deceased, over which is a lyre with one of the strings broken, has since
+been erected on the east wall of the south transept of Rochester
+Cathedral. By Mr. Ball's considerate courtesy and that of his daughters,
+we are allowed to see many interesting relics of Charles Dickens and
+Gad's Hill.[15] When Mr. Ball's father removed the old bridge in 1859,
+it will be remembered that he offered to present the novelist with one
+of the balustrades as a souvenir, the offer being gracefully and
+promptly accepted, as the following letter testifies:--
+
+
+                                      "GAD'S HILL PLACE,
+                                 "HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT.
+                                "_Thursday, eighth June, 1859._
+
+          "SIR,
+
+          "I feel exceedingly obliged to you for your kind
+          and considerate offer of a remembrance of old
+          Rochester Bridge; that will interest me very much.
+          I accept the relic with many thanks, and with
+          great pleasure.
+
+          "Do me the favor to let it be delivered to a
+          workman who will receive instructions to bring it
+          away, and once again accept my acknowledgments.
+
+                              "Yours faithfully,
+                                           "CHARLES DICKENS.
+
+          "MR. JOHN H. BALL."
+
+
+The present Mr. William Ball, then a young lad, was the bearer of the
+gift, and on being asked by us why he didn't ask to see the great
+novelist, replies, "Yes, I ought to have done so, but I was afraid of
+the dogs!"
+
+The balustrade, which was placed on the back lawn at Gad's Hill, was
+mounted on a square pedestal, on the sides of which were representations
+of the four seasons, and a sun-dial crowned the capital. Something like
+it, but a little modified, appears in one of Mr. Luke Fildes's beautiful
+illustrations to the original edition of _Edwin Drood_, entitled
+"Jasper's Sacrifices." Three more of the balustrades now ornament Mr.
+Ball's garden at Hillside.
+
+Mr. Ball the elder was invited to send in a tender for the construction
+of the tunnel at Gad's Hill previously mentioned, but it was not
+accepted, as appears from a letter addressed to him by Mr. Alfred L.
+Dickens (Charles Dickens's brother), of which we are allowed to take a
+copy:--
+
+
+                                "8, RICHMOND TERRACE,
+                                        "WHITEHALL, S.W.
+                                          "_August 30th, 1859._
+
+          "DEAR SIR,
+
+          "I am very sorry that absence from home has
+          prevented my replying to your note as to the
+          tender for the Gad's Hill tunnel before.
+
+          "I much regret that the amount of your tender is
+          so much higher than my estimate, that I cannot
+          recommend my brother to accept it.
+
+                               "I am,
+                                "Dear Sir,
+                                  "Yours faithfully,
+                                        "ALFRED L. DICKENS.
+          "MR. BALL."
+
+Among the Dickens relics at Hillside, we are shown by Mr. Ball the
+pretty set of five silver bells presented by his friend Mr. F. Lehmann,
+to the novelist, who always used them when driving out in his basket
+pony-phaeton. They are fastened on to a leather pad, and make a pleasant
+musical sound when shaken. They are of graduated sizes, the largest
+being somewhat smaller than a tennis-ball, and appear to be in the key
+of C: comprising the Tonic, Third, Fifth, Octave, and Octave of the
+Third.
+
+There is also a hall clock with maker's name--"Bennett, Cheapside,
+London." This was the "werry identical" clock respecting which Dickens
+wrote the following characteristically humorous letter to Sir John
+Bennett:--
+
+          "MY DEAR SIR,
+
+          "Since my hall clock was sent to your
+          establishment to be cleaned it has gone (as indeed
+          it always had) perfectly well, but has struck the
+          hours with great reluctance, and after enduring
+          internal agonies of a most distressing nature, it
+          has now ceased striking altogether. Though a happy
+          release for the clock, this is not convenient to
+          the household. If you can send down any
+          confidential person with whom the clock can
+          confer, I think it may have something on its works
+          that it would be glad to make a clean breast of.
+
+                              "Faithfully yours,
+                                      "CHARLES DICKENS."
+
+Included among the relics are a very handsome mahogany fire-screen in
+three folds, of red morocco, with Grecian key-border, a musical
+Canterbury, and a bookcase. But the most interesting object from an art
+point of view is an India proof copy, "before letters," of Sir Edwin
+Landseer's beautiful picture of "King Charles's Spaniels," the original
+of which is said to have been painted for the late Mr. Vernon in two
+days, and is now in the National Gallery. The engraving of the picture
+is by Outram. It has the initials in pencil "E. L.," and a little ticket
+on the frame--"Lot 445," that being the number in the auctioneer's
+catalogue.
+
+The following is the story as recently told by Mr. W. P. Frith, R.A., in
+his most interesting and readable _Autobiography and Reminiscences_,
+1887:--
+
+"His" [Sir Edwin's] "rapidity of execution was extraordinary. In the
+National Gallery there is a picture of Two Spaniels, of what is
+erroneously called the Charles II. breed (the real dog of that time is
+of a different form and breed altogether, as may be seen in pictures of
+the period), the size of life, with appropriate accompaniments, painted
+by him in two days. An empty frame had been sent to the British
+Institution, where it was hung on the wall, waiting for its tenant--a
+picture of a lady with dogs--till Landseer felt the impossibility of
+finishing the picture satisfactorily. Time had passed, till two days
+only remained before the opening of the Exhibition. Something must be
+done; and in the time named those wonderfully life-like little dogs were
+produced."
+
+Mr. Ball has also an interesting photograph of the "Last Lot," some
+bottles of wine, evidently taken on the occasion of the sale at Gad's
+Hill Place after Dickens's death, the auctioneer being represented with
+his hammer raised ready to fall, and a smile upon his face. Among the
+crowd, consisting principally of London and local dealers, may be seen
+two local policemen with peaked caps, and auctioneer's porters in
+shirt-sleeves and aprons. The sale took place in a large tent at the
+back of the house and close to the well, which can be readily seen
+through an opening in the tent.
+
+The next person whom we meet at Strood is Mr. Charles Roach Smith,
+F.S.A., the eminent arch�ologist, who has achieved a European
+reputation, and from whom we get many interesting particulars relating
+to Dickens. We heard some idle gossip at Rochester to the effect that
+Mr. Roach Smith always felt a little "touchy" about the satire on
+arch�ology in _Pickwick_, _in re_ "Bill Stumps, his mark." That,
+however, we took _cum grano salis_, because this gentleman, from his
+delightful conversation and frank manner, is evidently above any such
+littleness. He is, however, free to confess, that Dickens had not much
+love for Strood, but infinitely preferred Chatham.
+
+There had been but little personal intercourse between Dickens and Mr.
+Roach Smith, though each respected the other. Our informant says that,
+soon after the novelist came to Gad's Hill Place, Mrs. Dickens called
+and left her husband's card, which he, whether rightly or not, took as
+an intimation that the acquaintance was not to be extended. He spoke
+with all the enthusiasm of a man of science, and rather bitterly too, of
+a certain reading given by Dickens at Chatham to an overflowing house,
+whereas on the same evening a distinguished Professor of Agriculture (a
+Mr. Roberts or Robinson, we believe), who came to instruct the people at
+Ashford (one of the neighbouring towns) by means of a lecture, failed to
+secure an audience, and only got a few pence for admissions. The learned
+Professor subsequently poured forth his troubles to Mr. Roach Smith,
+from whom he obtained sympathy and hospitality. We venture to remind
+our good friend that the public in general much prefer amusement to
+instruction, at which he laughs, and says that in this matter he
+perfectly agrees with us. He expresses his strong opinion as to
+Dickens's reading of the "Murder of Nancy" (_Oliver Twist_), which he
+characterizes as "repulsive and indecent."
+
+The most important communication made to us by Mr. Roach Smith is that
+contained in volume ii. of his recently published _Reminiscences and
+Retrospections, Social and Arch�ological_, 1886. As this interesting
+work may not be generally accessible, it is as well to quote the passage
+intact. It has reference to the Guild of Literature and Art, for the
+promotion of which Dickens, Lord Lytton, John Forster, Mark Lemon, John
+Leech, and others, gave so much valuable time and energy, in addition to
+liberal pecuniary support. The following is the extract:--
+
+"Of Mr. Dodd I knew much. He was one of my earliest friends when I lived
+in Liverpool Street--I may say, one of my earliest patrons; and the
+intimacy continued up to his death, a few years since. The story of his
+connection with the movement for a dramatic college, and of his rapid
+separation from it, a deposition by order of the projectors and
+directors, forms a curious episode in the history of our friendship; and
+especially so, as I had an important, though unseen, part to sustain.
+
+"In the summer of 1858 I was summoned to Mr. Dodd's residence at the
+City Wharf, New North Road, Hoxton, to give consent to be a trustee,
+with Messrs. Cobden and Bright, for five acres of land, which Mr. Dodd
+was about to give for the building of a dramatic college, which had been
+resolved on at a public meeting, held on the 21st of July in this year,
+in the Princess's Theatre, Mr. Charles Kean acting as chairman. 'I give
+this most freely,' said Mr. Dodd to me, 'for it is to the stage I am
+indebted for my education; to it I owe whatsoever may be good in me.'
+That there was much good in him, thousands can testify; and thousands
+yet to come will be evidence to his benevolence. Of course, I felt
+pleased in being selected to act as a trustee for this gift. I
+conceived, and I suppose I was correct, that Mr. Dodd intended that his
+gift was strictly for a dramatic college, and for no other purpose, then
+or thereafter. Having expressed my willingness and resolution to be
+faithful to the trust, I said, 'I presume, Mr. Dodd, you stipulate for a
+presentation?' He looked rather surprised; and asked his solicitor, who
+sat by him, how they came to overlook this? Both of them directly agreed
+that this simple return should be required.
+
+"I must leave such of my readers as feel inclined, to search in the
+public journals for the correspondence between the directors and Mr.
+Dodd up to the 13th of January, 1859, when, at a meeting held in the
+Adelphi Theatre, Lord Tenterden in the chair, it was stated that Mr.
+Dodd evinced, through his solicitor, a disposition to fence round his
+gift with legal restrictions and stipulations, which apprised the
+committee of coming difficulty; and the meeting unanimously agreed to
+decline Mr. Dodd's offer of land. Previously and subsequently to this,
+Mr. Dodd was most discourteously commented on and attacked in the
+newspapers, the editors of which, however, sided with him. I was told
+that the stipulation for a presentation was the great offence; but I
+should think that the provision made against the improper use of the
+land must have been the real grievance. In the very last letter I
+received from Mr. Dodd, not very long anterior to his death, he says
+that Mark Lemon told him that Charles Dickens had said he had never
+occasion to repent but of two things, one being his conduct to Mr. Dodd.
+That Dickens, Thackeray, and others sincerely believed they were taking
+the best steps for accomplishing their benevolent object, there can be
+no doubt; their judgment, not their heart, was wrong. The scheme was
+based upon a wrong principle, as was shown by its collapse in less than
+twenty years, after the expenditure of very large subscriptions, and the
+patronage of the Queen. Articles in _The Era_ of the 22nd July, 1877,
+leave no doubt, while they clearly reveal the causes of failure."
+
+It may be mentioned that the Mr. Henry Dodd above referred to, appears
+to have been a large city contractor, or something of that kind.
+According to Mr. Roach Smith, what with him led on to fortune was a long
+and heavy fall of snow, which had filled the streets of the city of
+London, and rendered traffic impossible. The city was blocked by snow,
+and there was no remedy at hand. Mr. Dodd boldly undertook a contract to
+remove the mighty obstruction in a given time. This he did thoroughly
+and within the limited number of days. Afterwards he appears to have
+undertaken brick-making and other works on a very large scale. In the
+opinion of Mr. Roach Smith, Mr. Dodd was the origin of the "golden
+dustman" in _Our Mutual Friend_, whom every reader of Dickens remembers
+as Mr. Nicodemus, _alias_ Noddy Boffin.
+
+Speaking of Dickens's readings, our informant relates a conversation
+with Charles Dickens's sixth son, Mr. Henry Fielding Dickens. The former
+gentleman asked the latter whose model he took?
+
+"Oh, my father's," said Mr. Henry Dickens.
+
+"I would not take any man's model," said Mr. Roach Smith, "I would take
+my own." And judging from the perfect intonation and thoroughly musical
+rhythm of his voice, there is no doubt whatever that his model, whoever
+it may have been, was one of very high standard.
+
+We have since learnt that Mr. Roach Smith is the President of the Strood
+Elocution Society, an almost unique institution of its kind. It has been
+established upwards of thirteen years; and at the weekly meetings "the
+various readers are subjected to an exhaustive and salutary criticism by
+the members present." Mr. Roach Smith has always taken immense interest
+in the progress of this Society. Miss Dickens occasionally helped at the
+above meetings.
+
+Mr. Roach Smith kindly favours us with the following extract from the
+third and forthcoming volume of his _Retrospections_ with reference to
+the late Mr. J. H. Ball, of Strood, which may appropriately be here
+introduced:--
+
+"Although I have said that I was the gainer by our acquaintance, yet now
+and then I had a chance of serving him. Soon after the death of the
+great novelist, Charles Dickens, and when people were speculating as to
+what would become of his residence at Gad's Hill, Mr. Ball, wishing to
+purchase it, commissioned me to call on the executrix, Miss Hogarth, and
+offer ten thousand pounds, for which he had written a cheque. I
+accordingly went, and sent in my card. Miss Hogarth, fortunately, could
+not see me; she was hastening to catch the train for London, the
+carriage being at the door, and not a moment to be lost; but she would
+be happy to see me on her return in a day or two. I then wrote to Mr.
+Forster, the other executor; and received a reply that the place was not
+for sale. I kept him ignorant of the sum that Mr. Ball was willing to
+give, and thus saved my friend some thousands of pounds, . . . for the
+house and land were not worth half the money."
+
+[Illustration: Old Quarry House Strood]
+
+After some further conversation with our kind octogenarian friend, who
+insists on showing us hospitality notwithstanding his sufferings from a
+trying illness, we take our departure with many pleasant memories of our
+visit.[16]
+
+We have, after one or two unsuccessful attempts, the good fortune to
+meet with Mr. Stephen Steele, M.R.C.S. and L.S.A., of Bridge House,
+Esplanade, Strood, who was admitted a member of the medical profession
+so far back as the year 1831, and has therefore been in practice nearly
+sixty years. It will be remembered that this experienced surgeon was
+sent for by Miss Hogarth, to see Dickens in his last illness. He is good
+enough to go over and describe to us in graphic and sympathetic language
+the whole of the circumstances attending that sorrowful event.
+Previously to doing so, he gives us some interesting details of his
+recollections of Charles Dickens. Dr. Steele had occupied the onerous
+post of Chairman of the Liberal Association at Rochester for thirty
+years, and believes that in politics Dickens was a Liberal, for he
+frequently prefaced his remarks in conversation with him on any subject
+of passing interest by the expression, "We Liberals, you know--"
+
+[Illustration: Frindsbury Church]
+
+As a matter of fact, Dickens discharged his conscience of his political
+creed in the remarks which followed his address as President of the
+Birmingham and Midland Institute,[17] delivered 27th September, 1869,
+when he said--"My political creed is contained in two articles, and has
+no reference to any party or persons. My faith in the 'people governing'
+is, on the whole, infinitesimal; my faith in the 'people governed' is,
+on the whole, illimitable." At a subsequent visit to Birmingham on the
+6th January, 1870, when giving out the prizes at the Institute, he
+further emphasized his political faith in these words:--"When I was here
+last autumn, I made a short confession of my political faith--or
+perhaps, I should better say, want of faith. It imported that I have
+very little confidence in the people who govern us--please to observe
+'people' with a small 'p,'--but I have very great confidence in the
+People whom they govern--please to observe 'People' with a large 'P.'"
+
+A few days after Charles Dickens's first visit, my friend Mr. Howard S.
+Pearson, Lecturer on English Literature at the Institute, addressed a
+letter to him on the subject of the remarks at the conclusion of his
+Presidential Address, and promptly received in reply the following
+communication, which Mr. Pearson kindly allows me to print, emphasizing
+his (Dickens's) observations:--
+
+                                        "GAD'S HILL PLACE,
+                                   "HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT.
+                                   "_Wednesday, 6th October, 1869._
+
+          "SIR,
+
+          "You are perfectly right in your construction of
+          my meaning at Birmingham. If a capital P be put to
+          the word People in its second use in the sentence,
+          and not in its first, I should suppose the passage
+          next to impossible to be mistaken, even if it were
+          read without any reference to the whole spirit of
+          my speech and the whole tenor of my writings.
+
+                                     "Faithfully yours,
+                                           "CHARLES DICKENS.
+          "H. S. PEARSON, ESQUIRE."
+
+Dr. Steele had dined several times at Gad's Hill Place, and was
+impressed with Dickens's wonderful powers as a host. He never absorbed
+the whole of the conversation to himself, but listened attentively when
+his guests were speaking, and endeavoured, as it were, to draw out any
+friends who were not generally talkative. He liked each one to chat
+about his own hobby in which he took most interest. Our informant was
+also present at Gad's Hill Place at several theatrical entertainments,
+and especially remembers some charades being given. After the
+performance of the latter was over, Dickens walked round among his
+guests in the drawing-room, and enquired if any one could guess the
+"word." Says the doctor, "We never seemed to do so, but there was always
+a hearty laugh when we were told what it was. There was a good deal of
+company at Gad's Hill at Christmas time."
+
+_� propos_ of private theatricals at Gad's Hill Place, Mr. T. Edgar
+Pemberton, in _Charles Dickens and the Stage_, calls attention to the
+fact that "Mr. Clarkson Stanfield's _Lighthouse_ Act drop subsequently
+decorated the walls of Gad's Hill Place; and although it took the
+painter less than a couple of days to execute, fetched a thousand
+guineas at the famous Dickens Sale in 1870." A cloth painted for _The
+Frozen Deep_, which was the next and last of these productions, also had
+a foremost place in the Gad's Hill picture-gallery.
+
+Dr. Steele mentions a conversation once with Dickens about Gad's Hill
+and Shakespeare's description of it. He (the doctor) considers that
+Shakespeare could not have described it so accurately if he had not been
+there, and Dickens agreed with him in this opinion. Possibly he may have
+stayed at the "Plough," which was an inn on the same spot as, or close
+to, the "Falstaff." The place must have been much wooded at that time,
+and Shakespeare might have been there on his way to Dover. A note in
+the _Rochester and Chatham Journal_, 1883, states that "Shakespeare's
+company made a tour in Sussex and Kent in the summer of 1597."
+
+Dr. Steele, in common with his friend Charles Dickens, strongly
+deprecated the action of certain parties in Rochester, by voting at a
+public meeting something to this effect:--"That the Theatre was an
+irreligious kind of institution, and, in the opinion of the meeting, it
+ought to be closed."
+
+The doctor observes that Dickens was not much of a Church-goer. He went
+occasionally to Higham, and used to give the vicar assistance for the
+poor and distressed. Dickens and Miss Hogarth asked Dr. Steele to point
+out objects of charity worthy of relief, and they gave him money for
+distribution.
+
+He remarks that Dickens did not care much about associating with the
+local residents, going out to dinners, &c. Most of the principal people
+of Rochester would have been glad of the honour of his presence as a
+guest, but he rarely accepted invitations, preferring the quietude of
+home.[18]
+
+As regards readings, our informant says he is under the impression that
+Dickens must have had some lessons or hints from some one of experience
+(possibly his friend Fechter, the actor), as he noticed from time to
+time a regular improvement, which was permanently maintained. On the
+subject of the American War, he thinks Dickens's sympathies were
+decidedly with the South. With respect to the American Readings, Dr.
+Steele expresses his opinion that the excitement, fatigue, and worry
+consequent thereon had considerably shortened Dickens's life, if it had
+not pretty well killed him. He considered him a most genial sort of
+man; "he always looked you straight in the face when speaking."
+
+Before referring to the closing chapter in Dickens's life, we have some
+interesting talk respecting Venesection,--_� propos_ of that memorable
+occasion on the ice at Dingley Dell, when "Mr. Benjamin Allen was
+holding a hurried consultation with Mr. Bob Sawyer on the advisability
+of bleeding the company generally, as an improving little bit of
+professional practice,"--and Dr. Steele gives us his opinion thereon,
+and on some points connected with the medical profession. He was a
+student of Guy's and St. Thomas's Hospitals, and was under the
+distinguished physicians Drs. Addison and Elliotson. He considered the
+characters of Bob Sawyer and Ben Allen not at all overdrawn. They were
+good representations of the medical students of those days. He believed
+the practice of Venesection commenced to be general about the year 1811,
+for his father was a medical practitioner before him, and he does not
+remember his (the father's) telling him that he practised it before that
+time. Says our friend, "We used to bleed regularly in my young days, and
+in cases of pneumonia and convulsions we never thought of omitting to
+bleed. We should have considered that to have done so would have been a
+grave instance of irregular practice. And," he adds, "I bleed in cases
+of convulsions now." The doctor did not think well of the change at the
+time, but, speaking generally, he says Venesection had had its turn, and
+has now given place to other treatment.
+
+The events in connection with the fatal illness of Dickens are then
+touchingly related as follows:--
+
+"I was sent for on Wednesday, the eighth of June, 1870, to attend at
+Gad's Hill Place, and arrived about 6.30 p.m. I found Dickens lying on
+the floor of the dining-room in a fit. He was unconscious, and never
+moved. The servants brought a couch down, on which he was placed. I
+applied clysters and other remedies to the patient without effect. Miss
+Hogarth, his sister-in-law, had already sent a telegram (by the same
+messenger on horseback who summoned me) to his old friend and family
+doctor, Mr. Frank Beard, who arrived about midnight. He relieved me in
+attendance at that time, and I came again in the morning. There was
+unhappily no change in the symptoms, and stertorous breathing, which had
+commenced before, now continued. In conversation Miss Hogarth and the
+family expressed themselves perfectly satisfied with the attendance of
+Mr. Beard and myself. I said, 'That may be so, and we are much obliged
+for your kind opinion; but we have a duty to perform, not only to you,
+my dear madam, and the family of Mr. Dickens, but also to the public.
+What will the public say if we allow Charles Dickens to pass away
+without further medical assistance? Our advice is to send for Dr.
+Russell Reynolds.' Mr. Beard first made the suggestion.
+
+"The family reiterated their expression of perfect satisfaction with the
+treatment of Mr. Beard and myself, but immediately gave way, Dr. Russell
+Reynolds was sent for, and came in the course of the day. This eminent
+physician without hesitation pronounced the case to be hopeless. He said
+at once on seeing him, 'He cannot live.' And so it proved. At a little
+past 6 o'clock on Thursday, the 9th of June, 1870, Charles Dickens
+passed quietly away without a word--about twenty-four hours after the
+seizure."
+
+[Illustration: Rochester: from Strood Pier:]
+
+Such is the simple narrative which the kind-hearted octogenarian
+surgeon, whom it is a delightful pleasure to meet and converse with,
+communicates to us, and then cordially wishes us "good-bye."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There is an annual pleasure fair at Strood, instituted, it is said, so
+far back as the reign of Edward III. It takes place during three days in
+the last week of August, and as it is going on while we are on our
+tramp, we just look in for a few minutes, the more especially as we were
+informed by Mr. William Ball, and others who had seen him, that Dickens
+used to be very fond of going there at times in an appropriate disguise,
+where perhaps he may have seen the prototype of the famous "Doctor
+Marigold." The fair is now held on a large piece of waste ground near
+the Railway Station. There are the usual set-out of booths, "Aunt
+Sallies," shooting-galleries, "Try your weight and strength, gentlemen"
+machines, a theatre, with a tragedy and comedy both performed in about
+an hour, and hot-sausage and gingerbread stalls in abundance. But the
+deafening martial music poured forth from a barrel-organ by means of a
+steam-engine, belonging to the proprietor of a huge "Merry-go-round,"
+and the wet and muddy condition of the ground from the effects of the
+recent thunderstorm, make us glad to get away.
+
+
+A MYSTERIOUS DICKENS-ITEM.
+
+Mr. C. D. Levy, Auctioneer, etc., of Strood, was good enough to lend me
+what at first sight, and indeed for some time afterwards, was supposed
+to be a most unique Dickens-item. It came into his possession in this
+way. At the sale of Charles Dickens's furniture and effects, which took
+place at Gad's Hill in 1870, Mr. Levy was authorized by a customer to
+purchase Dickens's writing-desk, which, however, he was unable to
+secure. In transferring the desk to the purchaser at the time of the
+sale, a few old and torn papers tumbled out, and being considered of no
+value, were disregarded and scattered. One of these scraps was picked up
+by Mr. Levy, and proved on further examination to be a sheet of headed
+note-paper having the stamp of "Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester,
+Kent."--On the first page were a few rough sketches drawn with pen and
+ink, which greatly resembled some of the characters in _The Mystery of
+Edwin Drood_--Durdles, Jasper, and Edwin Drood. At the side was a
+curious row of capital letters looking like a puzzle. On the second and
+third pages were short-hand notes, and on the fourth page a few lines
+written in long-hand, continued on the next page,--wonderfully like
+Charles Dickens's own handwriting,--being the commencement of a speech
+with reference to a cricket match. The sheet of paper had evidently been
+made to do double duty, for after the sketches had been drawn on the
+front page, the sheet was put aside, and when used again was turned
+over, so that what ordinarily would have been page 4 became page 1 for
+the second object. No "Daniel" in Strood or Rochester had ever been able
+to decipher the mysterious hieroglyphics, or make known the
+interpretation thereof, during twenty years, or give any explanation of
+the sketches. But everybody thought that in some way or other they
+related to _The Mystery of Edwin Drood_--and possibly contained a clue
+to the solution of that exquisite fragment. So, as a student and admirer
+of Dickens, Mr. Levy kindly left the matter in my hands to make out what
+I could of it. Reference was accordingly had to several learned pundits
+in the short-hand systems of "Pitman," "Odell," and "Harding," but
+without avail; and eventually Mr. Gurney Archer, of 20, Abingdon Street,
+Westminster (successor to the old-established and eminent firm of
+Messrs. W. B. Gurney and Sons, who have been the short-hand writers to
+the House of Lords from time immemorial), kindly transcribed the
+short-hand notes, which referred to a speech relating to a cricket
+match, a portion of which had already been written out in long-hand, as
+above stated,--but there was not a word in the short-hand about Edwin
+Drood!
+
+So far, one portion of the mystery had been explained--not so the
+sketches, which were still believed to contain the key to _The Mystery
+of Edwin Drood_. As a _dernier ressort_, application was made to the
+fountain-head--to Mr. Luke Fildes, R.A., the famous illustrator of that
+beautiful work. He received me most courteously, scrutinized the
+document closely; we had a long chat about Edwin Drood generally, the
+substance of which has been given in a previous chapter--but he admitted
+that the sketches failed to give any solution of the mystery.
+
+The document was subsequently sent by Mr. Kitton to Mrs. Perugini, who
+at once replied that it had caused some merriment when she saw it again,
+as she remembered it very well. It had been done by her brother, Mr.
+Henry Fielding Dickens, when a young man living at home at Gad's
+Hill--that the short-hand notes referred to his speech at a dinner after
+one of the numerous cricket matches held there, and that the sketches
+were rough portraits of some of the cricketers. The capital letters at
+the side referred to a double acrostic. The heads of the speech had been
+suggested by his father as being desirable to be brought before the
+cricket club, which at that time was in a rather drooping condition.
+
+Now although the original theory about this curious document entirely
+broke down, and not an atom has been added to what was already known
+about _The Mystery of Edwin Drood_, still there is one subject of much
+interest which the document has brought to light. The short-hand is the
+same system, "Gurney's," as that which Charles Dickens wrote as a
+reporter in his early newspaper days--a system not generally used now,
+but which he subsequently taught his son to write. Of the many sheets
+which Dickens covered with notes in days gone by not one remains. But
+there are two manuscripts by Dickens in Gurney's system of short-hand,
+now in the Dyce and Forster collection at South Kensington, which relate
+to some private matters in connection with publishing arrangements. The
+document is certainly interesting from this point of view (_i. e._ the
+system which Dickens used), and from its reference to life at Gad's
+Hill, and especially to cricket, the favourite game mentioned many times
+in this book, in which the novelist took so much interest. Mr. Henry
+Fielding Dickens, with whom I had on another occasion some conversation
+on the subject of this souvenir of his youth at Gad's Hill, remarked
+that many more important issues had hung upon much more slender
+evidence. It was done about the year 1865-6, before he went to college.
+
+At our interview Mr. H. F. Dickens told me the details of the following
+touching incident which happened at one of the cricket matches at Gad's
+Hill. His father was as usual attired in flannels, acting as umpire and
+energetically taking the score of the game, when there came out from
+among the bystanders a tall, grizzled, and sun-burnt Sergeant of the
+Guards. The Sergeant walked straight up to Mr. Dickens, saying, "May I
+look at you, sir?" "Oh, yes!" said the novelist, blushing up to the
+eyes. The Sergeant gazed intently at him for a minute or so, then stood
+at attention, gave the military salute, and said, "God bless you, sir."
+He then walked off and was seen no more. In recounting this anecdote,
+Mr. H. F. Dickens agreed with me that, reading between the lines, one
+can almost fancy some lingering reminiscences similar to those in the
+early experience of Private Richard Doubledick.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[14] Since our tramp in Dickens-Land, Messrs. Winch and Sons have, with
+liberality and good taste, restored the old sign at this historic
+hostelry with which the memory of Charles Dickens is associated. It has
+been suggested that the sign may possibly have had its origin from the
+Battle of Agincourt fought on the day of "Saints Crispin-Crispian," 25th
+October, 1415. Victories in more recent times have been thus
+commemorated on sign-boards, such as the _Vigo_ expedition, and the
+fights at Portobello, Trafalgar, Waterloo, Alma, and elsewhere, and the
+heroes who won them thus celebrated.
+
+The sign, which is very well painted, represents the patron saints of
+the shoe-making fraternity, the holy brothers, Crispin and Crispian, at
+work on their cobbler's bench. The legend runs that it was at Soissons,
+in the year 287, while they were so employed "labouring with their
+hands," that they were seized by the emissaries of the Emperor
+Maximinian, and led away to torture and to death. The sign is understood
+to have been faithfully copied from a well-known work preserved to this
+day, at the church of St. Pantal�on at Troyes.--Abstract of a note in
+the _Rochester and Chatham Journal_, October 5th, 1889.
+
+[15] Enthusiastic admirers of Dickens will doubtless envy me the
+possession of some remarkable memorials of the great writer. My friend
+Mr. Ball is kind enough to present me with a very curious souvenir of
+the novelist: his old garden hat! Mr. Ball's father obtained it from the
+gardener at Gad's Hill Place, to whom it had been given after his
+master's death. The hat is a "grey-bowler," size 7-1/4, maker's name
+"Hillhouse," Bond Street, and is the same hat that he is seen to wear in
+the photograph of him leaning against the entrance-porch, an engraving
+of which appears on page 183. Many hats from Shakespeare and Gesler have
+become historical, and there is no reason why Dickens's should not in
+the future be an equally interesting personal relic. The gift was
+accompanied by a couple of collars belonging to the novelist, with the
+initials "C. D." very neatly marked in red cotton. The collar is
+technically known as a "Persigny," and its size is 16. Last, not least,
+a small bottle of "very rare old Madeira" from Gad's Hill, which calls
+to mind pleasant recollections of "the last bottle of the old Madeira,"
+opened by dear old Sol. Gills in the final chapter of _Dombey and Son_.
+Needless to say, the consumption of the valued contents of Dickens's
+bottle is reserved for a very special and appropriate occasion.
+
+[16] This was written soon after our first visit to Strood at the end of
+August, 1888. Within little more than two years afterwards, on Thursday,
+7th August, 1890, I had the mournful pleasure of being present at the
+funeral of my friend, which took place at Frindsbury Church on that day,
+in the presence of the sorrowing relatives and of a large concourse of
+admirers, both local and from a distance. There were also present many
+representatives of distinguished scientific societies, including Dr.
+John Evans, F.R.S., Treasurer of the Royal Society, and President of the
+Society of Antiquaries.
+
+The kindness which I received from Mr. Roach Smith, to whom I presented
+myself in the first instance as a perfect stranger, and which was
+extended during the period of two years that I was privileged to enjoy
+his friendship, and at times his hospitality, would be ill requited if I
+did not here place on record my humble tribute of appreciation. Born
+about the commencement of the present century at Landguard Manor House,
+near Shanklin, Isle of Wight, after a somewhat diversified education and
+experience, he finally settled in London as a wholesale druggist, from
+which business he retired in 1856, and came to live at Temple Place,
+Strood. The bent of his mind was, however, distinctly in favour of
+arch�ology, and in this science, which he commenced in the early years
+of his business, his work has been enormous. In the matter of the
+identification of Roman remains he was _facile princeps_, and for many
+years stood without a rival, his investigations and explorations
+extending over England and Europe. His principal works are _Collectanea
+Antiqua_, seven volumes; _Illustrations of Roman London_; _Catalogue of
+London Antiquities_; _Richborough, Reculver, and Lymne_, and numberless
+contributions scattered over the journal of the Society of Antiquaries,
+the _Arch�ologia Cantiana_, and other publications. He was an
+enthusiastic Shakespearean, the author of the _Rural Life of
+Shakespeare_, and of a little work on _The Scarcity of Home-Grown
+Fruits_. He also published two volumes of _Retrospections: Social and
+Arch�ological_, and was engaged at his death in completing the third
+volume. He contributed many articles to Dr. William Smith's _Classical
+Dictionaries_, and other similar works.
+
+He was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries so far back as
+1836, and at the time of his death was an Honorary Member or Fellow of
+at least thirty learned societies of a kindred nature in Great Britain
+and on the continent, and had been honoured by his colleagues and
+admirers in having his medal struck on two occasions.
+
+"He was," says one of the highest of living scientists and writers, "one
+of the chief representatives of the _science_ of arch�ology as
+understood in its broadest and widest sense. He has never been a mere
+collector of remains of ancient art, regarded only as curiosities, but
+has always had in view their use as exponents of the great unwritten
+history--the history of the people--which is not to be obtained from
+other sources; his writings have tended to the same end. Hence he stands
+as one of the foremost amongst those few of the present day who
+understand the science in its best and widest sense, his works being
+referred to as _the_ authority at home and abroad."
+
+Speaking with his friend and companion for many years, Mr. George Payne,
+F.S.A., Hon. Sec. to the Kent Arch�ological Society, on my last visit,
+about several personal characteristics of our mutual friend, such as his
+persistent energy and his indomitable disposition to stoically resist
+the infirmities of approaching age, and decline any assistance in
+helplessness, and especially as to the _qu�stio vexata_, "Bill Stumps,
+his mark," Mr. Payne expressed his opinion, that at the bottom of his
+heart Mr. Roach Smith may probably have had a feeling that Dickens in
+some way (however unintentionally) slighted the science of arch�ology,
+which he (Mr. Roach Smith) had all his life tried to elevate.
+
+A most distinguished antiquarian, a thoroughly honourable man, a
+versatile and accomplished gentleman, and a kind-hearted and liberal
+friend, the town of Strood, to which he was for so many years endeared,
+will long and deservedly mourn his loss.
+
+[17] It is interesting to place on record here, that the germ of Charles
+Dickens's "Readings," which afterwards developed so marvellously both in
+England and America, originated in Birmingham. On the 27th of December,
+1853, he read his _Christmas Carol_ in the Town Hall in aid of the funds
+of the Institute. On the 29th he read _The Cricket on the Hearth_, and
+on the 30th he repeated the _Carol_ to an audience principally composed
+of working men. The success was overwhelming.
+
+[18] Miss Hogarth informs me that her brother-in-law frequently dined
+out in the neighbourhood, accompanied by his daughter and herself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+        CHATHAM:--ST. MARY'S CHURCH, ORDNANCE TERRACE, THE
+          HOUSE ON THE BROOK, THE MITRE HOTEL, AND FORT
+          PITT. LANDPORT:--PORTSEA, HANTS.
+
+        "The home of his infancy, to which his heart had
+          yearned with an intensity of affection not to be
+          described."--_The Pickwick Papers._
+
+        "I believe the power of observation in numbers of
+          very young children to be quite wonderful for its
+          closeness and accuracy. Indeed, I think that most
+          grown men who are remarkable in this respect, may,
+          with greater propriety, be said not to have lost
+          the faculty than to have acquired it; the rather,
+          as I generally observe such men to retain a
+          certain freshness, and gentleness, and capacity of
+          being pleased, which are also an inheritance they
+          have preserved from their childhood."--_David
+          Copperfield._
+
+
+THE naval and military town of Chatham, unlike the Cathedral city of
+Rochester, has, at first sight, few attractions for the lover of
+Dickens. Mr. Phillips Bevan calls it "a dirty, unpleasant town devoted
+to the interests of soldiers, sailors, and marines." We are not disposed
+to agree entirely with him; but we must admit that it has little of the
+picturesque to recommend it--no venerable Castle or Cathedral to attract
+attention, no scenes in the novels of much importance to visit, no
+characters therein of much interest to identify. Mr. Pickwick's own
+description of the four towns of Strood, Rochester, Chatham, and
+Brompton, certainly applies more nearly to Chatham than to the others;
+but things have improved in many ways since the days of that veracious
+chronicler, as we are glad to testify:--
+
+          "The principal productions of these towns," says
+          Mr. Pickwick, "appear to be soldiers, sailors,
+          Jews, chalk, shrimps, officers, and dockyard men.
+          The commodities chiefly exposed for sale in the
+          public streets are marine stores, hard-bake,
+          apples, flat-fish, and oysters. The streets
+          present a lively and animated appearance,
+          occasioned chiefly by the conviviality of the
+          military. . . .
+
+          "The consumption of tobacco in these towns,"
+          continues Mr. Pickwick, "must be very great; and
+          the smell which pervades the streets must be
+          exceedingly delicious to those who are extremely
+          fond of smoking. A superficial traveller might
+          object to the dirt, which is their leading
+          characteristic; but to those who view it as an
+          indication of traffic and commercial prosperity,
+          it is truly gratifying."
+
+And yet for all this, there are circumstances to be noticed of the
+deepest possible interest connected with Chatham, and spots therein to
+be visited, which every pilgrim to "Dickens-Land" must recognize. At
+Chatham,--"my boyhood's home," as he affectionately calls it,--many of
+the earlier years of Charles Dickens (probably from his fourth to his
+eleventh) were passed; here it was "that the most durable of his earlier
+impressions were received; and the associations around him when he died
+were those which at the outset of his life had affected him most
+strongly."
+
+Admirers of the great novelist are much indebted to Mr. Robert Langton,
+F. R. Hist. Soc., for his _Childhood and Youth of Charles Dickens_, a
+book quite indispensable to a tramp in this neighbourhood, the charming
+illustrations by the late Mr. William Hull, the author, and others
+rendering the identification of places perfectly easy. Dickens says, "If
+anybody knows to a nicety where Rochester ends and Chatham begins, it is
+more than I do." "It's of no consequence," as Mr. Toots would say, for
+the High Street is one continuous thoroughfare, but as a matter of fact,
+a narrow street called Boundary Lane on the north side of High Street
+separates the two places.
+
+A few words of recapitulation as to early family history[19] may be
+useful here. John Dickens, who is represented as "a fine portly man,"
+was a Navy pay-clerk, and Elizabeth his wife (_n�e_ Barrow), who is
+described as "a dear good mother and a fine woman," the parents of the
+future genius, resided in the beginning of this century at 387, Mile End
+Terrace, Commercial Road, Landport, Portsea,[20] "and is so far in
+Portsea as being in the island of that name." Here Charles Dickens was
+born, at twelve o'clock at night, on Friday, 7th February, 1812. He was
+the second child and eldest son of a rather numerous family consisting
+of eight sons and daughters, and was baptized at St. Mary's, Kingston
+(the parish church of Portsea), under the names of Charles John
+Huff_h_am; the last of these is no doubt a misspelling, as the name of
+his grandfather, from whom he took it, was Huffam, but Dickens himself
+scarcely ever used it. In the old family Bible now in possession of Mr.
+Charles Dickens it is Huffam in his father's own handwriting. The
+Dickens family left Mile End Terrace on 24th June, 1812, and went to
+live in Hawke Street, Portsea, from whence, in consequence of a change
+in official duties of the elder Dickens, they removed to Chatham in 1816
+or 1817, and resided there for six or seven years, until they went to
+live in London.
+
+Bearing these circumstances in mind, it is very natural that we should
+determine on an early pilgrimage to Chatham, and Sunday morning sees us
+at the old church--St. Mary's--where Dickens himself must often have
+been taken as a child, and where he saw the marriage of his aunt Fanny
+with James Lamert, a Staff Doctor in the Army,--the Doctor Slammer of
+_Pickwick_,--of whom Mr. Langton says:--"The regimental surgeon's
+kindly manner, and his short odd way of expressing himself, still
+survive in the recollections of a few old people." Dr. Lamert's son
+James, by a former wife, was a great crony of young Charles Dickens,
+taking him to the Rochester theatre, and getting up private theatricals
+in which they both acted.
+
+Surely there is a faint description of those times in the second chapter
+of _David Copperfield_:--
+
+[Illustration: St. Mary's Church, Chatham.]
+
+          "Here is our pew in the church. What a high-backed
+          pew! With a window near it, out of which our house
+          can be seen, and _is_ seen many times during the
+          morning's service by Peggotty, who likes to make
+          herself as sure as she can that it's not being
+          robbed, or is not in flames. But though Peggotty's
+          eye wanders, she is much offended if mine does,
+          and frowns to me, as I stand upon the seat, that I
+          am to look at the clergyman. But I can't always
+          look at him--I know him without that white thing
+          on, and I am afraid of his wondering why I stare
+          so, and perhaps stopping the service to
+          enquire--and what am I to do? It's a dreadful
+          thing to gape, but I must do something. I look at
+          my mother, but _she_ pretends not to see me. I
+          look at a boy in the aisle, and _he_ makes faces
+          at me. I look at the sunlight coming in at the
+          open door through the porch, and there I see a
+          stray sheep--I don't mean a sinner, but
+          mutton--half making up his mind to come into the
+          church. I feel that if I looked at him any longer,
+          I might be tempted to say something out loud; and
+          what would become of me then!"
+
+The church, now undergoing reconstruction, is not a very presentable
+structure, and has little of interest to recommend it, except a brass to
+a famous navigator named Stephen Borough, the discoverer of the northern
+passage to Russia (1584), and a monument to Sir John Cox, who was killed
+in an action with the Dutch (1672). The name of Weller occurs on a
+gravestone near the church door.
+
+We cross the High Street, proceed along Railway Street, formerly Rome
+Lane, pass the Chatham Railway Station (near which is a statue of
+Lieutenant Waghorn, R.N., "pioneer and founder of the Overland Route,"
+born at Chatham, 1800, and died 1850),[21] and find ourselves at
+Ordnance Terrace, a conspicuous row of two-storied houses, prominently
+situated on the higher ground facing us, beyond the Station. In one of
+these houses (No. 11--formerly No. 2) the Dickens family resided from
+1817 to 1821. The present occupier is a Mr. Roberts, who kindly allows
+us to inspect the interior. It has the dining-room on the left-hand side
+of the entrance and the drawing-room on the first floor, and is
+altogether a pleasantly-situated, comfortable, and respectable dwelling.
+No. 11, "the second house in the terrace," is overgrown with a Virginia
+creeper, which, from its possible association with Dickens's earliest
+years, may have induced him to plant the now magnificent one which
+exists at Gad's Hill. "Here it was," says Forster, "that his first
+desire for knowledge, and his greatest passion for reading, were
+awakened by his mother, who taught him the first rudiments, not only of
+English, but also, a little later, of Latin. She taught him regularly
+every day for a long time, and taught him, he was convinced, thoroughly
+well." Mr. Langton also says that "It was during his residence here that
+some of the happiest hours of the childhood of little Charles were
+passed, as his father was in a fairly good position in the Navy Pay
+Office, and they were a most genial, lovable family." Here it was that
+the theatrical entertainments and the genial parties took place, when,
+in addition to his brothers and sisters and his cousin, James Lamert,
+there were also present his friends and neighbours, George Stroughill,
+and Master and Miss Tribe.
+
+Mr. Langton further states that "Ordnance Terrace is known to have
+formed the locality and characters for some of the earlier _Sketches by
+Boz_." "The Old Lady" was a Miss Newnham, who lived at No. 5, and who
+was, by all accounts, very kind to the Dickens children. The "Half-pay
+Captain" was also a near neighbour, and he is supposed to have supplied
+one of the earliest characters to Dickens as a mere child. Some of the
+neighbours at the corner house next door (formerly No. 1) were named
+Stroughill,--pronounced Stro'hill (there was, it will be remembered, a
+_Struggles_ at the famous cricket-match at All-Muggleton)--and the son,
+George, is said to have had some of the characteristics of Steerforth in
+_David Copperfield_. He had a sister named Lucy, probably the "Golden
+Lucy," from her beautiful locks, and who, according to Mr. Langton, "was
+the special favourite and little sweetheart of Charles Dickens." She was
+possibly the prototype of her namesake, in the beautiful story of the
+_Wreck of the Golden Mary_.
+
+[Illustration: No. 11, Ordnance Terrace, Chatham. _Where the Dickens
+Family lived 1817-21._]
+
+About the year 1821 pecuniary embarrassments beset and tormented the
+Dickens family, which were afterwards to be "ascribed in fiction" in the
+histories of the Micawbers and the Dorrits, and the family removed to
+the House on the Brook. In order to follow their steps in perfect
+sequence, we have to return by the way we came from the church, cross
+the High Street, and proceed along Military Road, so as to visit the
+obscure dwelling, No. 18, St. Mary's Place, situated in the valley
+through which a brook, now covered over, flows from the higher lands
+adjacent, into the Medway.
+
+[Illustration: The House on the Brook, Chatham. _Where the Dickens
+Family lived 1821-3._]
+
+The House on the Brook--"plain-looking, whitewashed plaster front, and a
+small garden before and behind"--next door to the former Providence
+(Baptist) Chapel, now the Drill Hall of the Salvation Army, is a very
+humble and unpretentious six-roomed dwelling, and of a style very
+different to the one in Ordnance Terrace. Here the Dickens family lived
+from 1821 to 1823. The Reverend William Giles, the Baptist Minister,
+father of Mr. William Giles, the schoolmaster, formerly officiated at
+the chapel. This was the Mr. Giles who, when Dickens was half-way
+through _Pickwick_, sent him a silver snuff-box, with an admiring
+inscription to the "Inimitable Boz." Dickens went to school at Mr.
+Giles's Academy in Clover Lane (now Clover Street), Chatham, and boys of
+this and neighbouring schools were thus nicknamed:--
+
+          "Baker's Bull-dogs,
+          "Giles's Cats,
+          "New Road Scrubbers,
+          "Troy Town Rats."
+
+[Illustration: Giles's School, Chatham.]
+
+It was in the House on the Brook that he acquired those "readings and
+imaginings" which in "boyish recollections" he describes as having been
+brought away from Chatham:--"My father had left a small collection of
+books in a little room up-stairs, to which I had access (for it adjoined
+my own), and which nobody else in our house ever troubled. From that
+blessed little room _Roderick Random_, _Peregrine Pickle_, _Humphry
+Clinker_, _Tom Jones_, _The Vicar of Wakefield_, _Don Quixote_, _Gil
+Blas_, and _Robinson Crusoe_, came out, a glorious host to keep me
+company. They kept alive my fancy, and my hope of something beyond that
+place and time,--they and the _Arabian Nights_, and the _Tales of the
+Genii_,--and did me no harm; for whatever harm was in some of them was
+not there for me. _I_ knew nothing of it."
+
+It is very probable that his first literary effort, _The Tragedy of
+Misnar, the Sultan of India_, "founded" (says Forster), "and very
+literally founded, no doubt, on the _Tales of the Genii_," was composed
+after perusal of some of the works above referred to, but it is to be
+feared that it was never even rehearsed. The circumstances of the family
+had so changed for the worse, that here were neither juvenile parties
+nor theatrical entertainments.
+
+A view from one of the upper windows of the house in St. Mary's Place
+gives the parish church and churchyard precisely as described in that
+pathetic little story, _A Child's Dream of a Star_. Charles Dickens was
+the child who "strolled about a good deal, and thought of a number of
+things," and his little sister Fanny--or his younger sister Harriet
+Ellen--was doubtless "his constant companion" referred to in the story.
+
+[Illustration: Mitre Inn, Chatham.]
+
+We leave with feelings of respect the humble but famous little tenement,
+its condition now sadly degraded; proceed along the High Street, and
+soon reach "The Mitre Inn and Clarence Hotel," a solid-looking and
+comfortable house of entertainment, at which Lord Nelson and King
+William IV., when Duke of Clarence, frequently stayed, and (what is more
+to our purpose) where we find associations of Charles Dickens. There are
+a beautiful bowling-green and grounds at the back, approached by a
+series of terraces well planted with flowers, and the green is
+surrounded by fine elms which constitute quite an oasis in the desert of
+the somewhat prosaic Chatham. The Mitre is thus immortalized in the
+"Guest's Story" of the _Holly Tree Inn_:--
+
+          "There was an Inn in the Cathedral town where I
+          went to school, which had pleasanter recollections
+          about it than any of these. I took it next. It was
+          the Inn where friends used to put up, and where we
+          used to go to see parents, and to have salmon and
+          fowls, and be tipped. It had an ecclesiastical
+          sign--the 'Mitre'--and a bar that seemed to be the
+          next best thing to a Bishopric, it was so snug. I
+          loved the landlord's youngest daughter to
+          distraction--but let that pass. It was in this Inn
+          that I was cried over by my rosy little sister,
+          because I had acquired a black-eye in a fight. And
+          though she had been, that holly-tree night, for
+          many a long year where all tears are dried, the
+          Mitre softened me yet."
+
+About the year 1820 the landlord of the Mitre was Mr. John Tribe, and
+his family being intimate with the Dickenses, young Charles spent many
+pleasant evenings at the "genial parties" given at this fine old inn.
+Mr. Langton mentions that the late Mr. Alderman William Tribe, son of
+Mr. John Tribe, the former proprietor, perfectly recollected Charles
+Dickens and his sister Fanny coming to the Mitre, and on one occasion
+their being mounted on a dining-table for a stage, and singing what was
+then a popular duet, _i. e._--
+
+          "Long time I've courted you, miss,
+             And now I've come from sea;
+           We'll make no more ado, miss,
+             But quickly married be.
+                         Sing Fal-de-ral," &c.
+
+The worthy alderman is also stated to have had in his possession a card
+of invitation to spend the evening at Ordnance Terrace, addressed from
+Master and Miss Dickens to Master and Miss Tribe, which was dated about
+this time.
+
+In consequence of the elder Dickens being recalled from Chatham to
+Somerset House, to comply with official requirements, the family removed
+to London in 1823,[22] "and took up its abode in a house in Bayham
+Street, Camden Town." Dickens thus describes his journey to London in
+"Dullborough Town," one of the sketches in _The Uncommercial
+Traveller_:--
+
+          "As I left Dullborough in the days when there were
+          no railroads in the land, I left it in a
+          stage-coach. Through all the years that have since
+          passed, have I ever lost the smell of the damp
+          straw in which I was packed--like game--and
+          forwarded, carriage paid, to the Cross Keys, Wood
+          Street, Cheapside, London? There was no other
+          inside passenger, and I consumed my sandwiches in
+          solitude and dreariness, and it rained hard all
+          the way, and I thought life sloppier than I had
+          expected to find it. . . ."
+
+Mr. W. T. Wildish, the proprietor of the _Rochester and Chatham
+Journal_, kindly favours us with some interesting information which has
+recently appeared in his journal, relating to Charles Dickens's
+nurse--the Mary Weller of his boyhood (and perhaps the Peggotty as
+well), but known to later generations as Mrs. Mary Gibson of Front Row,
+Ordnance Place, Chatham, who died in the spring of the year 1888, at the
+advanced age of eighty-four. Very touchingly, but unknowingly, did
+Dickens write from Gad's Hill, 24th September, 1857, being unaware that
+she was still living:--
+
+"I feel much as I used to do when I was a small child, a few miles off,
+and somebody--_who_, I wonder, and which way did _she_ go when she
+died?--hummed the evening hymn, and I cried on the pillow--either with
+the remorseful consciousness of having kicked somebody else, or because
+still somebody else had hurt my feelings in the course of the day."
+
+Mrs. Gibson, when Mary Weller (what a host of pleasant recollections
+does the married name of the "pretty housemaid" bring up of the
+Pickwickian days!), lived with the family of Mr. John Dickens, at No.
+11, Ordnance Terrace, Chatham, and afterwards when they moved to the
+House on the Brook. Her recollections were most vivid and interesting.
+According to the testimony of her son, communicated to Mr. Wildish, Mrs.
+Gibson "used to be very fond of talking of the time she passed with the
+Dickens family, and one of her highest satisfactions in her later years
+was to hear Charles Dickens's works read by her son Robert; and while
+listening to the descriptions of characters read to her, his mother
+would detect likenesses unsuspected by other persons whom Dickens must
+have known when a boy; and she also agreed in thinking, with Dickens's
+biographer, that in Mr. Micawber's troubles were related some of the
+experiences of the elder Dickens, who is believed for a time to have
+occupied a debtor's prison. She, however, would never bring herself to
+believe that her hero was himself ever reduced to such great hardships
+as the blacking-bottle period in _David Copperfield_ would suggest if
+taken literally. She used to speak of the future author as always fond
+of reading, and said he was wont to retire to the top room of the House
+on the Brook, and spend what should have been his play-hours in poring
+over his books, or in acting to the furniture of the room the creatures
+that he had read about."
+
+Mr. Langton, who had a personal interview with Mrs. Gibson herself, has
+recorded the fact that she well remembered singing the Evening Hymn to
+the children of John Dickens, and seemed very much surprised at being
+asked such a question. She lived with the family when Dickens's little
+sister, Harriet Ellen, died--a circumstance that no doubt in after years
+inspired the _Child's Dream of a Star_ already referred to. When the
+family removed to London, Mary Weller was pressed to accompany them, but
+was not in a position to accept the offer, in consequence of her promise
+to marry Mr. Thomas Gibson, a shipwright of the Chatham Dockyard, with
+whom she lived happily until his death, in 1886, at the age of
+eighty-two.
+
+Mrs. Gibson modestly declined, on her son Robert's suggestion, to seek
+an introduction to Charles Dickens, when he read some of his works at
+the old Mechanics' Institute at Chatham, fearing that he had forgotten
+her. It is certain, however, that, from the reproduction of her name as
+the pretty housemaid at Mr. Nupkins's at Ipswich, and from the extract
+from the letter above referred to, she had a kindly place in his
+recollections.
+
+Poor David Copperfield, on his way to his aunt's at Dover, stopped at
+Chatham--"footsore and tired," he says, "and eating bread that I had
+bought for supper." He is afraid "because of the vicious looks of the
+trampers;" and even if he could have spared the few pence he possessed
+for a bed at the "one or two little houses" with the notice "lodgings
+for travellers," he would have hardly cared to go in, on account of the
+company he would have been thrown into. And so he says, "I sought no
+shelter, therefore, but the sky; and toiling into Chatham--which, in
+that night's aspect, is a mere dream of chalk, and draw-bridges, and
+mastless ships in a muddy river, roofed like Noah's arks,--crept, at
+last, upon a sort of grass-grown battery overhanging a lane, where a
+sentry was walking to and fro. Here" [he continues] "I lay down near a
+cannon; and, happy in the society of the sentry's footsteps, . . . slept
+soundly until morning." Of course it is not possible for us to identify
+this spot. "Very stiff and sore of foot," he says, "I was in the
+morning, and quite dazed by the beating of drums and marching of troops,
+which seemed to hem me in on every side when I went down towards the
+long narrow street." However, he has to reserve his strength for getting
+to his journey's end, and to this effect he resolves upon selling his
+jacket.
+
+There are plenty of marine-store dealers at Chatham, whom we notice on
+our tramp, but none of them would, we believe, now answer to the
+description of "an ugly old man, with the lower part of his face all
+covered with a stubbly grey beard, in a filthy flannel waistcoat, and
+smelling terribly of rum," such as he who assailed little David, in
+reply to his offer to sell the jacket, with, "Oh, what do you want? Oh,
+my eyes and limbs, what do you want? Oh, my lungs and liver, what do you
+want? Oh--goroo, goroo!" After losing his time, and being rated at and
+frightened by this "dreadful old man to look at," who in every way tries
+to avoid giving him the money asked for,--half-a-crown,--offering him in
+exchange such useless things to a hungry boy as "a fishing-rod, a
+fiddle, a cocked hat, and a flute," the poor lad is obliged to close
+with the offer of a few pence, "with which [he says] I soon refreshed
+myself completely; and, being in better spirits then, limped seven miles
+upon my road."
+
+The Convict Prison at Chatham is said to have been built on a piece of
+ground which, in the middle of the last century, belonged to one Thomas
+Clark, a singular character, who lived on the spot for many years by
+himself in a small cottage, and who used every night, as he went home,
+to sing or shout, "Tom's all alone! Tom's all alone!" This, according to
+the opinion of some, may have given rise to the "Tom all alone's" of
+_Bleak House_, more especially considering the fact that military
+operations were frequently going on at Chatham, which Dickens would
+notice in his early days. The circumstance is thus referred to in the
+novel:--"Twice lately there has been a crash, and a crowd of dust, like
+the springing of a mine, in Tom all alone's, and each time a house has
+fallen."
+
+Mr. George Robinson of Strood directs our attention to the fact that a
+"child's caul," such as that described in the first chapter of _David
+Copperfield_, which he was born with, and which was advertised "at the
+low price of fifteen guineas," would be a likely object to be sought
+after in a sea-faring town like Chatham, in Dickens's early days, when
+the schoolmaster was less abroad than he is now.
+
+In after years, memories of Chatham Dockyard appear in many of the
+sketches in the _Uncommercial Traveller_ and other stories. "One man in
+a Dockyard" describes it as having "a gravity upon its red brick offices
+and houses, a staid pretence of having nothing to do, an avoidance of
+display, which I never saw out of England." "Nurse's Stories" says that
+"nails and copper are shipwrights' sweethearts, and shipwrights will run
+away with them whenever they can." In _Great Expectations_ the refrain,
+"Beat it out, beat it out--old Clem! with a clink for the stout--old
+Clem!" which Pip and his friends sang, is from a song which the
+blacksmiths in the dockyard used to sing in procession on St. Clement's
+Day.
+
+By accident we make the acquaintance of Mr. William James Budden of
+Chatham, who informs us that Charles Dickens was better known there in
+his latter years for his efforts, by readings and otherwise, to place
+the Mechanics' Institute on a sound basis and free from debt.
+
+Dickens, as the _Uncommercial Traveller_, thus describes the Mechanics'
+Institute and its early efforts to succeed:--
+
+          "As the town was placarded with references to the
+          Dullborough Mechanics' Institution, I thought I
+          would go and look at that establishment next.
+          There had been no such thing in the town in my
+          young days, and it occurred to me that its extreme
+          prosperity might have brought adversity upon the
+          Drama. I found the Institution with some
+          difficulty, and should scarcely have known that I
+          had found it if I had judged from its external
+          appearance only; but this was attributable to its
+          never having been finished, and having no front:
+          consequently, it led a modest and retired
+          existence up a stable-yard. It was (as I learnt,
+          on enquiry) a most flourishing Institution, and of
+          the highest benefit to the town: two triumphs
+          which I was glad to understand were not at all
+          impaired by the seeming drawbacks that no
+          mechanics belonged to it, and that it was steeped
+          in debt to the chimney-pots. It had a large room,
+          which was approached by an infirm step-ladder: the
+          builder having declined to construct the intended
+          staircase, without a present payment in cash,
+          which Dullborough (though profoundly appreciative
+          of the Institution) seemed unaccountably bashful
+          about subscribing."
+
+Mr. Budden is of opinion that the origin of the "fat boy" in _Pickwick_
+was Mr. James Budden, late of the Red Lion Inn in Military Road, who
+afterwards acquired a competence, and who had the honour of entertaining
+Dickens at a subsequent period of his life. Mr. Budden is under the
+impression, from local hearsay, that Dingley Dell formerly existed
+somewhere in the neighbourhood of Burham.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We are obligingly favoured with an interview by Mr. John Baird of New
+Brompton, Chairman of the Chatham Waterworks Company, although he is
+suffering from serious indisposition at the time of our visit. This
+gentleman was born in 1810 (two years before Charles Dickens), and
+recollects reading with delight the famous _Sketches by Boz_, as they
+appeared in the _Morning Chronicle_. The most curious coincidence about
+Mr. Baird is, that in stature and facial appearance he is the very
+counterpart of the late Charles Dickens in the flesh--his double, so to
+speak. This remarkable resemblance, our informant says, is "something
+to be proud of, to be mistaken for so great a man, but it was very
+inconvenient at times."
+
+On one occasion, as Mr. Baird was hastening to catch a train at
+Rochester Bridge Station, a stout elderly lady, handsomely dressed,
+supposed to be Dean Scott's wife,--but to whom he was unknown,--bowed
+very politely to him, and in slackening his pace to return the
+compliment, which he naturally did not understand, he very nearly missed
+his train.
+
+Sir Arthur Otway told Mr. Baird that the Rev. Mr. Webster, late Vicar of
+Chatham, had always mistaken him for Charles Dickens.
+
+At one of the Readings given by Dickens on behalf of the Mechanics'
+Institute at Chatham, Mr. Charles Collins, his son-in-law, and his wife
+and her sister being present in the reserved seats in the gallery, Mr.
+Baird noticed that they looked very eagerly at him, and this pointed
+notice naturally made him feel very uncomfortable. Dickens himself,
+accompanied by his son and daughter, once passed our friend in the
+street, and scanned him very closely, and he fancies that Dickens called
+attention to the resemblance.
+
+At the last reading which the novelist gave at Chatham, Mr. Baird being
+present as one of the audience, the policeman at the door mistook him
+for Dickens, and shouted to those in attendance outside, "Mr. Dickens's
+carriage!" It is interesting to add, that after the reading a cordial
+vote of thanks to Dickens was proposed by Mr. H. G. Adams, the
+Naturalist, at one time editor of _The Kentish Coronal_, who recounted
+the well-known story of the novelist's father taking him, when a little
+boy, to see Gad's Hill Place, and of the strong impression it made upon
+his mind.
+
+Our informant had the honour of meeting Dickens at dinner at Mr. James
+Budden's, and states that he was standing against the mantel-piece in
+the drawing-room when the novelist arrived, and that he walked up to him
+and shook hands cordially, without the usual ceremony of introduction.
+Dickens was no doubt too polite to refer to the curious resemblance.
+
+But the most remarkable case remains to be told, illustrating the
+converse of the old proverb--"It is a wise father that knows his own
+child." This is given in Mr. Baird's own words:--
+
+"My daughter, when a little girl about six years old, was with her
+mother and some friends in a railway carriage at Strood station (next
+Rochester), and one of them called the child's attention to a gentleman
+standing on the platform, asking if she knew who he was. With surprised
+delight she at once exclaimed, 'That's my papa!' That same gentleman was
+Mr. Charles Dickens!"
+
+Mr. Baird speaks of the great appreciation which the people of Chatham
+had of Dickens's services at the readings, and says it was very good and
+kind of him to give those services gratuitously. He confirms the general
+opinion as to the origin of the "fat boy," and the "very fussy little
+man" at Fort Pitt, who was the prototype of Dr. Slammer.
+
+It struck us both forcibly that Mr. Baird's appearance at the time of
+our visit was very like the last American photograph of Dickens, taken
+by Gurney in 1867.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mr. J. E. Littlewood[23] of High Street, Chatham, knew Charles Dickens
+about the year 1845 or 1846 at the Royalty (Miss Kelly's) Theatre in
+Dean Street, Soho, our informant having been in times past a bit of an
+amateur actor, and played Bob Acres in _The Rivals_. He subsequently
+heard Dickens read at the Chatham Mechanics' Institute about 1861, and
+said that the facial display in the trial scene from _Pickwick_ (one of
+the pieces read) was wonderful. He had the honour of dining at the late
+Mr. Budden's in High Street, opposite Military Road, to meet Dickens.
+There was a large company present. In acknowledging the toast of his
+health, which had been proposed at the dinner--either by Sir Arthur
+Otway or Captain Fanshawe--Dickens said he was very pleased to read "in
+memory of the old place," meaning Chatham, but that he might be reading
+"all the year round" for charities.
+
+Mr. Littlewood also heard Dickens say, that "he had passed many happy
+hours in the House on the Brook" looking at "the Lines" opposite. "At
+that time" (said our informant) "the place was more rural--considered a
+decent spot--not so crowded up as now--nor so vulgar--many respectable
+people lived there in Dickens's boyhood. The place has sadly changed
+since for the worse."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mr. Humphrey Wood, Solicitor, of Chatham, was, about the year 1867,
+local Hon. Secretary to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty
+to Animals, and, having applied to Charles Dickens to give a Reading on
+behalf of the Society, received the following polite answer to his
+application. If only a few words had to be said, they were well said and
+to the purpose.
+
+
+                                      "GAD'S HILL PLACE,
+                                  "HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT.
+                               "_Thursday, 5th September, 1867._
+
+          "SIR,
+
+          "In reply to your letter, I beg to express my
+          regret that my compliance with the request it
+          communicates to me, is removed from within the
+          bounds of reasonable possibility by the nature of
+          my engagements, present and prospective.
+
+                      "Your faithful servant,
+                                 "CHARLES DICKENS.
+          "HUMPHREY WOOD, ESQ."
+
+Like other towns in Kent, Chatham contains many names which are
+suggestive of some of Dickens's characters, _viz._ Dowler, Whiffen,
+Kimmins, Wyles, Arkcoll, Perse, Winch, Wildish, Hockaday, Mowatt,
+Hunnisett, and others.
+
+It is, of course, scarcely necessary to mention, in passing, that
+Chatham is one of the most important centres of ship-building for the
+Royal Navy; the dockyards--often referred to in Dickens's minor
+works--cover more than seventy acres, and are most interesting. Here, at
+the Navy Pay-Office, the elder Dickens was employed during his residence
+at Chatham.
+
+Fort Pitt next claims our attention. It stands on the high ground above
+the Railway Station at Chatham, just beyond Ordnance Terrace. In Charles
+Dickens's early days, and indeed long after, until the establishment of
+the magnificent Institution at Netley, Fort Pitt was the principal
+military Hospital in England, and was visited by Her Majesty during the
+Crimean War. It is still used as a hospital, and contains about two
+hundred and fifty beds. The interesting museum which previously existed
+there has been removed to Netley.
+
+From Fort Pitt we see the famous "Chatham lines," which constitute the
+elaborate and almost impregnable fortifications of this important
+military and ship-building town. The "lines" were commenced as far back
+as 1758, and stretch from Gillingham to Brompton, a distance of several
+miles, enclosing the peninsula formed by the bend of the river Medway.
+Forster says:--
+
+[Illustration: Navy Pay-Office, Chatham.]
+
+"By Rochester and the Medway to the Chatham lines was a favourite walk
+with Charles Dickens. He would turn out of Rochester High Street through
+the Vines, . . . would pass round by Fort Pitt, and coming back by
+Frindsbury would bring himself by some cross-fields again into the
+high-road."
+
+The Chatham lines are locally understood as referring to a piece of
+ground about three or four hundred yards square, near Fort Pitt, used as
+an exercising-ground for the military.
+
+Chapter IV. of _Pickwick_, "describing a field day and bivouac," refers
+to the Chatham lines as the place where the review was held, on the
+third day of the visit of the Pickwickians to this neighbourhood, and
+which (having been relieved of the company of their quondam friend, Mr.
+Jingle, who had caused at least one of the party so much anxiety) they
+all attended, possibly at Mr. Pickwick's suggestion, as he is stated to
+have been "an enthusiastic admirer of the army." The programme is thus
+referred to:--
+
+          "The whole population of Rochester and the
+          adjoining towns, rose from their beds at an early
+          hour of the following morning, in a state of the
+          utmost bustle and excitement. A grand review was
+          to take place upon the lines. The manoeuvres of
+          half a dozen regiments were to be inspected by the
+          eagle eye of the commander-in-chief; temporary
+          fortifications had been erected, the citadel was
+          to be attacked and taken, and a mine was to be
+          sprung."
+
+The evolutions of this "ceremony of the utmost grandeur and importance"
+proceed. Mr. Pickwick and his two friends (Mr. Tupman "had suddenly
+disappeared, and was nowhere to be found"), who are told to keep back,
+get hustled and pushed by the crowd, and the unoffending Mr. Snodgrass,
+who is in "the very extreme of human torture," is derided and asked
+"vere he vos a shovin' to." Subsequently they get hemmed in by the
+crowd, "are exposed to a galling fire of blank cartridges, and harassed
+by the operations of the military." Mr. Pickwick loses his hat, and not
+only regains that useful article of dress, but finds the lost Mr.
+Tupman, and the Pickwickians make the acquaintance of old Wardle and his
+hospitable family from Dingley Dell, by whom they are heartily
+entertained, and from whom they receive a warm invitation to visit Manor
+Farm on the morrow.
+
+There is a fine view of Chatham and Rochester from the fields round Fort
+Pitt, and on a bright sunny morning the air coming over from the Kentish
+Hills is most refreshing, very different indeed to what it was on a
+certain evening in Mr. Winkle's life, when "a melancholy wind sounded
+through the deserted fields like a giant whistling for his house-dog."
+We ramble about for an hour or more, and in imagination call up the
+pleasant times which Charles Dickens, as a boy, spent here.
+
+[Illustration: Fort Pitt, Chatham.]
+
+Almost every inch of the ground must have been gone over by him. What a
+delightful "playing-field" this and the neighbouring meadows must have
+been to him and his young companions, before the railway and the builder
+took possession of some of the lower portions of the hill which forms
+the base of Fort Pitt. "Here," says Mr. Langton, "is the place where the
+schools of Rochester and Chatham used to meet to settle their
+differences, and to contend in the more friendly rivalry of cricket,"
+and no doubt Dickens frequently played when "Joe Specks" in Dullborough
+"kept wicket." In after life the memory of the past came back to
+Dickens with all its freshness, when he again visited the neighbourhood
+as the _Uncommercial Traveller_ in "Dullborough":--
+
+          "With this tender remembrance upon me" [that of
+          leaving Chatham as a boy], "I was cavalierly
+          shunted back into Dullborough the other day, by
+          train. My ticket had been previously collected,
+          like my taxes, and my shining new portmanteau had
+          had a great plaster stuck upon it, and I had been
+          defied by Act of Parliament to offer an objection
+          to anything that was done to it, or me, under a
+          penalty of not less than forty shillings or more
+          than five pounds, compoundable for a term of
+          imprisonment. When I had sent my disfigured
+          property on to the hotel, I began to look about
+          me; and the first discovery I made, was, that the
+          Station had swallowed up the playing-field.
+
+          "It was gone. The two beautiful hawthorn-trees,
+          the hedge, the turf, and all those buttercups and
+          daisies, had given place to the stoniest of
+          jolting roads; while, beyond the Station, an ugly
+          dark monster of a tunnel kept its jaws open, as if
+          it had swallowed them and were ravenous for more
+          destruction. The coach that had carried me away,
+          was melodiously called Timpson's Blue-eyed Maid,
+          and belonged to Timpson, at the coach-office up
+          street; the locomotive engine that had brought me
+          back was called severely No. 97, and belonged to
+          S.E.R., and was spitting ashes and hot-water over
+          the blighted ground.
+
+          "When I had been let out at the platform-door,
+          like a prisoner whom his turnkey grudgingly
+          released, I looked in again over the low wall, at
+          the scene of departed glories. Here, in the
+          haymaking time, had I been delivered from the
+          dungeons of Seringapatam, an immense pile (of
+          haycock), by my countrymen, the victorious British
+          (boy next door and his two cousins), and had been
+          recognized with ecstasy by my affianced one (Miss
+          Green), who had come all the way from England
+          (second house in the terrace) to ransom me, and
+          marry me."
+
+Fort Pitt must have had considerable attractions in Mr. Pickwick's time,
+as it would appear that it was visited by him and his friends on the
+first day of their arrival at Rochester. Lieutenant Tappleton (Dr.
+Slammer's second), when presenting the challenge for the duel, thus
+speaks to Mr. Winkle in the second chapter of _Pickwick_:--
+
+          "'You know Fort Pitt?'
+
+          "'Yes; I saw it yesterday.'
+
+          "'If you will take the trouble to turn into the
+          field which borders the trench, take the foot-path
+          to the left, when you arrive at an angle of the
+          fortification; and keep straight on till you see
+          me; I will precede you to a secluded place, where
+          the affair can be conducted without fear of
+          interruption.'
+
+          "'_Fear_ of interruption!' thought Mr. Winkle."
+
+Everybody remembers how the meeting took place on Fort Pitt. Mr. Winkle,
+attended by his friend Mr. Snodgrass, as second, is punctuality itself.
+
+          "'We are in excellent time,' said Mr. Snodgrass,
+          as they climbed the fence of the first field; 'the
+          sun is just going down.' Mr. Winkle looked up at
+          the declining orb, and painfully thought of the
+          probability of his 'going down' himself, before
+          long."
+
+Presently the officer appears, "the gentleman in the blue cloak," and
+"slightly beckoning with his hand to the two friends, they follow him
+for a little distance," and after climbing a paling and scaling a hedge,
+enter a secluded field.
+
+Dr. Slammer is already there with his friend Dr. Payne,--Dr. Payne of
+the 43rd, "the man with the camp-stool."
+
+The arrangements proceed, when suddenly a check is experienced.
+
+          "'What's all this?' said Dr. Slammer, as his
+          friend and Mr. Snodgrass came running up.--'That's
+          not the man.'
+
+          "'Not the man!' said Dr. Slammer's second.
+
+          "'Not the man!' said Mr. Snodgrass.
+
+          "'Not the man!' said the gentleman with the
+          camp-stool in his hand.
+
+          "'Certainly not,' replied the little doctor.
+          'That's not the person who insulted me last
+          night.'
+
+          "'Very extraordinary!' exclaimed the officer.
+
+          "'Very,' said the gentleman with the camp-stool."
+
+Mutual explanations follow, and, notwithstanding the temporary
+dissatisfaction of Dr. Payne, Mr. Winkle comes out like a trump--defends
+the honour of the Pickwick Club and its uniform, and wins the admiration
+of Dr. Slammer.
+
+          "'My dear sir,' said the good-humoured little
+          doctor, advancing with extended hand, 'I honour
+          your gallantry. Permit me to say, Sir, that I
+          highly admire your conduct, and extremely regret
+          having caused you the inconvenience of this
+          meeting, to no purpose.'
+
+          "'I beg you won't mention it, Sir,' said Mr.
+          Winkle.
+
+          "'I shall feel proud of your acquaintance, Sir,'
+          said the little doctor.
+
+          "'It will afford me the greatest pleasure to know
+          you, Sir,' replied Mr. Winkle.
+
+          "Thereupon the doctor and Mr. Winkle shook hands,
+          and then Mr. Winkle and Lieutenant Tappleton (the
+          doctor's second), and then Mr. Winkle and the man
+          with the camp-stool, and finally Mr. Winkle and
+          Mr. Snodgrass: the last-named gentleman in an
+          excess of admiration at the noble conduct of his
+          heroic friend.
+
+          "'I think we may adjourn,' said Lieutenant
+          Tappleton.
+
+          "'Certainly,' added the doctor."
+
+We ourselves also adjourn, taking with us many pleasant memories of
+Chatham and Fort Pitt, and of the period relating to "the childhood and
+youth of Charles Dickens."
+
+[Illustration: BIRTHPLACE OF CHARLES DICKENS,
+
+387 Mile End Terrace, Commercial Road, Landport.]
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+No tramp in "Dickens-Land" can possibly be complete without a visit to
+the birthplace of the great novelist, and on another occasion we
+therefore devote a day to Portsea, Hants. A fast train from Victoria by
+the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway takes us to Portsmouth
+Town, the nearest station, which is about half a mile from Commercial
+Road, and a tram-car puts us down at the door. We immediately recognize
+the house from the picture in Mr. Langton's book, but the first
+impression is that the illustration scarcely does justice to it. From
+the picture it appears to us to be a very ordinary house in a row, and
+to be situated rather low in a crowded and not over respectable
+neighbourhood. Nothing of the kind. The house, No. 387, Mile End
+Terrace, Commercial Road, Landport, where the parents of Charles Dickens
+resided before they removed to another part of Portsea, and subsequently
+went to live at Chatham, and where the future genius first saw light,
+was eighty years ago quite in a rural neighbourhood; and in those days
+must have been considered rather a genteel residence for a family of
+moderate means in the middle class. Even now, with the pressure which
+always attends the development of large towns, and their extension on
+the border-land of green country by the frequent conversion of
+dwelling-houses into shops, or the intrusion of shops where
+dwelling-houses are, this residence has escaped and remains unchanged to
+this day.
+
+There is another point of real importance to notice. Mr. Langton,
+referring to this house, says:--"The engraving shows the little
+fore-court or front garden, with the low kitchen window of the house,
+whence the movements of Charles [who is presumably represented in the
+engraving by the figure of a boy about two or three years old, with
+curly locks, dressed in a smart frock, and having a large ball in his
+right hand], attended by his dear little sister Fanny, could be
+overlooked."[24] Very pretty indeed, but alas! I am afraid, purely
+imaginary, considering, as will hereafter appear, that Charles was a
+baby in arms, aged about four months and sixteen days, when his parents
+quitted the house in which he was born.
+
+The house is now, and has been for many years, occupied by Miss Sarah
+Pearce, the surviving daughter of Mr. John Dickens's landlord, her
+sisters, who formerly lived with her, being all dead. It stands high on
+the west side of a good broad road, opposite an old-fashioned villa
+called Angus House, in the midst of well-trimmed grounds, and the
+situation is very open, pleasant, and cheerful. It is red-brick built,
+has a railing in front, and is approached by a little entrance-gate
+opening on to a lawn, whereon there are a few flower-beds; a hedge
+divides the fore-court from the next house,[25] and a few steps guarded
+by a handrail lead to the front door. It is a single-fronted,
+eight-roomed house, having two underground kitchens, two floors above,
+and a single dormer window high up in the sloping red-tiled roof. As is
+usual with old-fashioned houses of this type, the shutters to the lower
+windows are outside. Both the front and back parlours on the ground
+floor are very cheerful, cosy little rooms (in one of them we are glad
+to see a portrait of the novelist), and the view from the back parlour
+looking down into the well-kept garden, which abuts on other gardens, is
+very pretty, marred only by a large gasometer in the distance, which
+could hardly have been erected in young Charles Dickens's earliest days.
+In the garden we notice a lovely specimen of the _Lavatera arborea_, or
+tree-mallow, covered with hundreds of white and purple blossoms. It is a
+rarity to see such a handsome, well-grown tree, standing nearly eight
+feet high, and it is not unlikely, from the luxuriance of its growth,
+that it existed in Charles Dickens's infancy. From the pleasant
+surroundings of the place generally, and from the fact that flowers are
+much grown in the neighbourhood (especially roses), it is more than
+probable that Dickens's love for flowers was early developed by these
+associations. The road leads to Cosham, and to the picturesque old ruin
+of Porchester Castle, a nice walk from the town of Portsmouth, and
+probably often traversed by Dickens, his sister, and his nurse.
+
+Mr. Langton states that "it is said in after years Charles Dickens could
+remember places and things at Portsmouth that he had not seen since he
+was an infant of little more than two years old (he left Portsmouth when
+he was only four or five), and there is no doubt whatever that many of
+the earliest reminiscences of _David Copperfield_ were also tender
+childish memories of his own infancy at this place."
+
+Mr. William Pearce, solicitor of Portsea, son of the former landlord,
+and brother of Miss Sarah Pearce, the present occupant, has been kind
+enough to supply the following interesting information respecting No.
+387, Mile End Terrace:--
+
+"The celebrated novelist was born in the front bedroom of the above
+house, which my sisters many years ago converted into a drawing-room,
+and it is still used as such.
+
+"Mr. John Dickens, the father of the novelist, and his wife came to
+reside in the house directly after they were married. Mr. John Dickens
+rented the house of my father at �35 a-year, from the 24th June, 1808,
+until the 24th June, 1812, when he quitted, and moved into Hawke Street,
+in the town of Portsea. Miss Fanny Dickens, the novelist's sister, was
+the first child born in the house, and then the novelist.
+
+"I was born on the 22nd February, 1814, and have often heard my mother
+say that Mr. Gardner, the surgeon, and Mrs. Purkis, the monthly nurse
+(both of whom attended my mother with me and her six other children),
+attended Mrs. Dickens with her two children, Fanny and Charles, who were
+both born in the above house; besides this, Mrs. Purkis has often called
+on my sisters at the house in question, and alluded to the above
+circumstances.
+
+[Illustration: St. Mary's Church, Portsea.]
+
+"Mr. Cobb (whom I recollect), a fellow-clerk of Mr. John Dickens in the
+pay-office in the Portsmouth Dockyard, rented the same house of my
+father after Mr. John Dickens left, and often alluded to the many happy
+hours he spent in it while Mr. Dickens resided there."
+
+We next visit the site of old Kingston Parish Church,--St. Mary's,
+Portsea--where Charles Dickens was baptized on 4th March, 1812. A very
+handsome and large new church, costing nearly forty thousand pounds, and
+capable of seating over two thousand persons, has been erected, and
+occupies the place of the old church, where the ceremony took place.
+Mr. Langton has given a very pretty little drawing of the old church in
+his book, so that its associations are preserved to lovers of Dickens.
+The old church itself was the second edifice erected on the same spot,
+and thus the present one is the third parish church which has been built
+here. There is a large and crowded burial-ground attached to it; but a
+cursory examination does not disclose any names on the gravestones to
+indicate characters in the novels.
+
+It is right to note here, that the kind people of Portsmouth were
+desirous of inserting a stained-glass window in their beautiful new
+church to the memory of one of their most famous sons (the eminent
+novelist, Mr. Walter Besant, was born at Portsmouth, as also were
+Isambard K. Brunel, the engineer, and Messrs. George and Vicat Cole,
+Royal Academicians), but they were debarred by the conditions of
+Dickens's will, which expressly interdicted anything of the kind. It
+states:--
+
+"I conjure my friends on no account to make me the subject of any
+monument, memorial, or testimonial whatever. I rest my claim to the
+remembrance of my country upon my published works, and to the
+remembrance of my friends upon their experience of me in addition
+thereto."
+
+Before leaving Portsmouth, we just take a hasty glance at the Theatre
+Royal, which remains much as it was during the days of Mr. Vincent
+Crummles and his company, as graphically described in the twenty-second
+and following chapters of _Nicholas Nickleby_. Of that genial manager,
+Mr. T. Edgar Pemberton, in his _Charles Dickens and the Stage_,
+observes:--
+
+"Every line that is written about Mr. Crummles and his followers is
+instinct with good-natured humour, and from the moment when, in the
+road-side inn 'yet twelve miles short of Portsmouth,' the reader comes
+into contact with the kindly old circuit manager, he finds himself in
+the best of good company."
+
+Mr. Rimmer, in his _About England with Dickens_, referring to the
+"Common Hard" at Portsmouth, says that the "people there point out in a
+narrow lane leading to the wharf, the house where Nicholas is supposed
+to have sojourned."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[19] So far as I am aware, nothing has been done to trace the genealogy
+of the Dickens family, and it may therefore be of interest to place on
+record the title of, and an extract from, a very scarce and curious thin
+quarto volume (pp. 1-28) in my collection. Sir Walter Scott was
+immensely proud of his lineage and historical associations, but it would
+be a wonderful thing if we could trace the descent of Charles Dickens
+from King Edward III.
+
+In the _Rambler in Worcestershire_ (Longmans, 1854), Mr. John Noake, the
+author, in alluding to the parish of Churchill, Worcestershire,
+says:--"The Dickens family of Bobbington were lords of this manor from
+1432 to 1657, and it is said that from this family Mr. Dickens, the
+author, is descended."
+
+                       [Title.]
+
+                           A
+                     POSTHUMOUS POEM
+                        of the
+
+            late THOMAS DICKENS, ESQ.,
+
+  Lieut.-Colonel in the First Regiment of Foot Guards,
+               Dedicated, by permission,
+  to his Royal Highness, the Duke of Gloucester,
+                 to which is added
+  The genealogy of the Author from King Edward III.;
+                       also
+  A few grateful stanzas to the Deity, three months
+      previous to his death, _Sep. 21st, 1789_.
+
+
+                         CAMBRIDGE:
+      Printed by J. Archdeacon, Printer to the University.
+  And may be had of the Editor, C. DICKENS, LL.D., near Huntingdon,
+      and of T. PAYNE AND SON, Booksellers, London.
+                               MDCCXC.
+
+Above the title is written in ink: "Peter Cowling to Charles Robert
+Dickens, 3rd son to Sam. Trevor Dickens, this 10th August, 1807, and
+from said Chas. R. Dickens to his loved father, on the 16th June, 1832."
+
+  [EXTRACT.]
+
+  Genealogy of the late Thomas Dickens, Esq.
+
+  KING EDWARD III.
+
+  LIONEL, Duke of Clarence                                   his Son
+
+  PHILIPPA, married to EDMUND MORTIMER, Earl of March   his Daughter
+
+  ROGER, Earl of March                                       her Son
+
+  ANN, who married RICHARD, Duke of York and Earl of
+            Cambridge                                   his Daughter
+
+  RICHARD, Duke of York                                      her Son
+
+  GEORGE, Duke of Clarence, brother to Edward IV.            his Son
+
+  Countess of SALISBURY                                 his Daughter
+
+  Viscount MONTAGUE                                          her Son
+
+  Lady BARRINGTON                                       his Daughter
+
+  Sir Francis BARRINGTON                                     her Son
+
+  Lady MASHAM                                           his Daughter
+
+  William MASHAM, ESQ.                                       her Son
+
+  Sir FRANCIS MASHAM                                         her Son
+
+  JOHANNA MASHAM, who married Counsellor Hildesley      his Daughter
+
+  JOHN HILDESLEY, ESQ.                                       her Son
+
+  MARY HILDESLEY, who married the Reverend SAMUEL
+            DICKENS                                     his Daughter
+
+  THOMAS DICKENS, ESQ., the Author                           her Son
+
+  Opposite GEORGE, Duke of Clarence, is written in ink, "Drown'd in a
+  Butt of Malmsey Madeira," and following THOMAS DICKENS, ESQ., the
+  Author, also written in ink--
+
+  "Lieut.-Gen. Sir SAML. T. DICKENS, K.C.H.                  his Son
+
+  Capt. SAML. T. DICKENS, R.N.                              his Son"
+
+  And following the last-mentioned names written in pencil--
+
+  "Admiral SAMUEL TREVOR DICKENS, R.N.                       my Son"
+
+  Also written in pencil underneath the above--
+
+  "qy. CHARLES DICKENS the Novelist."
+
+
+[20] In a copy--in my collection--of the second edition 8vo of "_The
+History and Antiquities of Rochester and its Environs_, embellished with
+engravings (pp. i-xvii, 1-419), printed and sold by W. Wildash,
+Rochester, 1817," there occurs in the list of subscribers--about four
+hundred in number--the name:--DICKENS MR. JOHN, CHATHAM.
+
+[21] A most interesting paper entitled "The Life and Labours of
+Lieutenant Waghorn," appeared in _Household Words_ (No. 21), August
+17th, 1850.
+
+[22] See Note to Chapter ii. p. 38.
+
+[23] Since this was written, Mr. Littlewood has passed over to the great
+majority. He was found drowned near Chatham Pier in March, 1890.
+
+[24] This was taken from the first edition of Mr. Langton's book,
+published in 1883. In the new edition, 1891--a beautiful volume--this
+passage has been eliminated, but the engraving is untouched.
+
+[25] This house is appropriately named "Highland House," and was also
+the property of John Dickens's landlord, in which the family then and
+for many years after resided. At the time referred to Mr. Pearce owned
+not only the above-mentioned houses, but all the surrounding property.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+AYLESFORD, TOWN MALLING, AND MAIDSTONE.
+
+        "Its river winding down from the mist on the
+          horizon, as though that were its source, and
+          already heaving with a restless knowledge of its
+          approach towards the sea."--_Edwin Drood._
+
+          "Oh, the solemn woods over which the light and
+          shadow travelled swiftly, as if Heavenly wings
+          were sweeping on benignant errands through the
+          summer air; the smooth green slopes, the
+          glittering water, the garden where the flowers
+          were symmetrically arranged in clusters of the
+          richest colours, how beautiful they
+          looked!"--_Bleak House._
+
+
+ANOTHER delightful morning, fine but overcast, favours our tramp in this
+neighbourhood. We are up betimes on Monday, and take the train by the
+South-Eastern Railway from Strood station to Aylesford. It is a distance
+of nearly eight miles between these places; and the intermediate
+stations of any note which we pass on the way are Cuxton (about three
+miles) and Snodland (about two miles further on), which are two large
+villages. As the railway winds, we obtain excellent views of the chalk
+escarpments on the series of hills opposite, these being the result of
+centuries of quarrying. The land on either side of the river is marshy
+and intersected by numerous water-courses. These grounds are locally
+termed "saltings," caused by the overflow of the Medway at certain
+times, and are used as sanitaria for horses which require bracing.
+
+[Illustration: Aylesford]
+
+Cuxton is at the entrance of the valley between the two chalk ranges of
+hills which form the water-parting of the river Medway. As Mr Phillips
+Bevan rightly observes--"this valley is utilized for quarrying and
+lime-burning to such an extent, that it has almost the appearance of a
+northern manufacturing district," but it is a consolation, on the
+authority of Sir A. C. Ramsay, to know that "man cannot permanently
+disfigure nature!"
+
+At Snodland the river becomes narrower, and the scenery of the valley is
+more picturesque. Early British and Roman remains have been found in the
+district, and according to the authority previously quoted--"In one of
+the quarries, which are abundant, Dr. Mantell discovered some of the
+most interesting and rarest chalk fossils with which we are acquainted,
+including the fossil Turtle (_Chelonia Benstedi_)."
+
+Alighting from the train at Aylesford station, we have but a few minutes
+to ramble by the river, the banks of which are brightened by the
+handsome flowers of the purple loosestrife. We notice the charming
+position of the Norman church, which stands on an eminence on the right
+bank of the Medway, overlooking the main street, and is surrounded by
+fine old elm trees--the bells were chiming "Home, sweet home," a name
+very dear to Dickens. The Medway ceases to be a tidal river at Allington
+beyond Aylesford, and one or other of the weirs at Allington or Farleigh
+(further on) may have suggested the idea of "Cloisterham Weir" in _Edwin
+Drood_; but they are too far distant (as shown in Chapter V.) to fit in
+with the story. The ancient stone bridge which spans the Medway at
+Aylesford is seven-arched; a large central one, and three smaller ones
+on either side. One or two of the arches on the left bank are filled up,
+as though the river had silted on that side. Mr. Roach Smith considers
+the bridge to be a very fine specimen of medi�val architecture. It is
+somewhat narrow, but there are large abutments which afford shelter to
+foot passengers.
+
+[Illustration: Aylesford Bridge]
+
+We are much inclined to think that Aylesford Bridge was in the mind of
+Dickens when he makes the Pickwickians cross the Medway, only a wooden
+bridge is mentioned in the text for the purpose perhaps of concealing
+identity. The place is certainly worth visiting, and the approach to it
+by the river is exceedingly picturesque.
+
+Aylesford is supposed to be the place where the great battle between
+Hengist and Vortigern took place. Near to it, at a place called Horsted,
+is the tomb of Horsa, who fell in the battle between the Britons and
+Saxons, A.D. 455. Names of Dickens's characters, Brooks, Joy, etc.,
+occur at Aylesford. There is a very fine quarry here, from whence the
+famous Kentish rag-stone--"a concretionary limestone"--is obtained. It
+forms the base, and is overlaid by the Hassock sands and the river
+drift. In the distance is seen the bold series of chalk rocks
+constituting the ridge of the valley.
+
+Just outside Aylesford we pass Preston Hall, a fine modern Tudor mansion
+standing in very pretty grounds, and belonging to Mr. H. Brassey.
+
+We now resume our tramp towards the principal point of our destination,
+Town Malling,[26] or West Malling, as it is indifferently called (the
+"a" in Malling being pronounced long, as in "calling"). The walk from
+Aylesford lies through the village of Larkview, and is rather pretty,
+but there is nothing remarkable to notice until we approach Town
+Malling. Here it becomes beautifully wooded, especially in the
+neighbourhood of Clare House Park, the Spanish or edible chestnut, with
+its handsome dark green lanceolate serrate leaves, and clumps of Scotch
+firs, with their light red trunks and large cones, the result of healthy
+growth, which would have delighted the heart of Mr. Ruskin, being
+conspicuous. On the road we pass a field sown with maize, a novelty to
+one accustomed to the Midlands. The farmer to whom it belongs says that
+it is a poor crop this year, owing to the excess of wet and late summer,
+but in a good season it gives a fine yield. We are informed that it is
+used in the green state as food for cattle and chickens.
+
+[Illustration: The High St Town Malling]
+
+A pleasant tramp of about three miles brings us to Town Malling, which
+stands on the Kentish rag. The approach to Town Malling is by a
+waterfall, and there are the ruins of the old Nunnery, founded by Bishop
+Gundulph in 1090, in the place. East Malling is a smaller town, and lies
+nearer to Maidstone. Our object in visiting this pretty, old-fashioned
+Kentish country town, is to verify its identity with that of Muggleton
+of the _Pickwick Papers_. Great weight must be attached to the fact
+that the present Mr. Charles Dickens, in his annotated Jubilee Edition
+of the above work, introduces a very pretty woodcut of "High Street,
+Town Malling," with a note to the effect that--
+
+"Muggleton, perhaps, is only to be taken as a fancy sketch of a small
+country town; but it is generally supposed, and probably with sufficient
+accuracy, that, if it is in any degree a portrait of any Kentish town,
+Town Malling, a great place for cricket in Mr. Pickwick's time, sat for
+it."
+
+The reader will remember that when at the hospitable Mr. Wardle's
+residence at Manor Farm in Dingley Dell (by the bye, there is a
+veritable "Manor Farm" at Frindsbury, near Strood, with ponds adjacent,
+which may perhaps have suggested the episode of Mr. Pickwick on the
+ice), an excursion was determined on by the Pickwickians to witness a
+grand cricket match about to be played between the "All Muggleton" and
+the "Dingley Dellers," a conference first took place as to whether the
+invalid, Mr. Tupman, should remain or go with them.
+
+          "'Shall we be justified,' asked Mr. Pickwick, 'in
+          leaving our wounded friend to the care of the
+          ladies?'
+
+          "'You cannot leave me in better hands,' said Mr.
+          Tupman.
+
+          "'Quite impossible,' said Mr. Snodgrass."
+
+The result of the conference was satisfactory.
+
+          "It was therefore settled that Mr. Tupman should
+          be left at home in charge of the females, and that
+          the remainder of the guests under the guidance of
+          Mr. Wardle should proceed to the spot, where was
+          to be held that trial of skill, which had roused
+          all Muggleton from its torpor, and inoculated
+          Dingley Dell with a fever of excitement.
+
+          "As their walk, _which was not above two miles
+          long_,[27] lay through shady lanes and
+          sequestered footpaths, and as their conversation
+          turned upon the delightful scenery by which they
+          were on every side surrounded, Mr. Pickwick was
+          almost inclined to regret the expedition they had
+          used, when he found himself in the main street of
+          the town of Muggleton."
+
+The chronicle of _Pickwick_ then proceeds to state that--
+
+          "Muggleton is a corporate town, with a mayor,
+          burgesses, and freemen; . . . an ancient and loyal
+          borough, mingling a zealous advocacy of Christian
+          principles with a devoted attachment to commercial
+          rights; in demonstration whereof, the mayor,
+          corporation, and other inhabitants, have presented
+          at divers times, no fewer than one thousand four
+          hundred and twenty petitions, against the
+          continuance of negro slavery abroad, and an equal
+          number against any interference with the factory
+          system at home; sixty-eight in favour of the sales
+          of livings in the Church, and eighty-six for
+          abolishing Sunday trading in the streets."
+
+On the occasion of their second visit to Manor Farm to spend Christmas,
+the Pickwickians came by the "Muggleton Telegraph," which stopped at the
+"Blue Lion," and they walked over to Dingley Dell.
+
+Assuming, as has been suggested by Mr. Frost in his _In Kent with
+Charles Dickens_, that Dingley Dell is somewhere on the eastern side of
+the river Medway, within fifteen miles of Rochester,--Mr. William James
+Budden (a gentleman whom we met at Chatham) gave as his opinion that it
+was near Burham,[28]--then it would require a much greater walk than
+that ("which was not above two miles long") to reach Town Malling
+(leaving out of the question the fact that Burham is only about six
+miles from Rochester instead of fifteen miles, as the waiter at the Bull
+told Mr. Pickwick in reply to his enquiry), whereby we reluctantly for
+the time arrive at the conclusion,--as Mr. Frost did before us--that
+Dingley Dell as such near Town Malling cannot be identified.
+
+On another visit to "Dickens-Land" Mr. R. L. Cobb suggested that Cobtree
+Hall, near Aylesford, was the prototype of Dingley Dell. It may have
+been; but except one goes as the crow flies, it is more than two miles
+distant from Town Malling. But as Captain Cuttle would say--we "make a
+note of it."
+
+After all, Dingley Dell is no doubt a type of an English yeoman's
+hospitable home. There are numbers of such in Kent, Warwickshire,
+Worcestershire, Devonshire, and other counties, and the one in question
+may have been seen by Dickens almost anywhere.
+
+There is, at any rate, one objection to Muggleton being Town
+Malling--the latter is not, as mentioned in the text, "a corporate
+town." The neighbouring corporate towns which might be taken for it are
+Faversham, Tunbridge Wells, and Seven Oaks; but, as Mr. Rimmer, in his
+_About England with Dickens_, points out--"These have no feature in
+common with the enterprising borough which had so distinguished itself
+in the matter of petitions." On the other hand, there is _one_ very
+strong reason in favour of Town Malling, and that is its devotion to the
+noble old English game of cricket. So far as we could make out, no town
+in Kent has done better service in this respect. But more of this
+presently.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[Illustration: Cob Tree Hall]
+
+So many friends recommended us to see Cobtree Hall that, after the
+foregoing was written, we determined to follow their advice, and on a
+subsequent occasion we take the train to Aylesford and walk over, the
+distance being a pleasant stroll of about a mile. We were well repaid.
+The mansion, formerly called Coptray Friars, belonging to the Aylesford
+Friary, is an Elizabethan structure of red brick with stone facings
+prettily covered with creeping plants, standing on an elevated position
+in a beautifully wooded and undulating country overlooking the Medway
+and surrounded by cherry orchards and hop gardens. Major Trousdell was
+so courteous as to show us over the building, which has been altered and
+much enlarged during the last half century. Internally there is
+something to favour the hypothesis of its being the type of Manor Farm,
+Dingley Dell. Such portions of the old building remaining, as the
+kitchen, are highly suggestive of the gathering described in that
+good-humoured Christmas chapter of _Pickwick_ (xxviii.), and there is a
+veritable beam to correspond with Phiz's plate of "Christmas Eve at Mr.
+Wardle's." "The best sitting-room, [described as] a good long,
+dark-panelled room with a high chimney-piece, and a capacious chimney up
+which you could have driven one of the new patent cabs, wheels and all,"
+may still be discerned in the handsome modern dining-room, with carved
+marble mantel-piece of massive size formerly supplied with old-fashioned
+"dogs." The views from the bay-window are very extensive and
+picturesque. The mansion divides the two parishes of Boxley and
+Allington, the initials of which are carved on the beam in the kitchen.
+Externally, there is much more to commend it to our acceptance. Remains
+of a triangular piece of ground, with a few elm-trees, still survive as
+"the rookery," where Mr. Tupman met with his mishap, and to our delight
+there is "the pond," not indeed covered with ice, as on Mr. Pickwick's
+memorable adventure, but crowded with water-lilies on its surface; its
+banks surrounded by the fragrant meadow-sweet and the brilliant
+rose-coloured willow herb. Furthermore we were informed, by Mr. Franklin
+of Maidstone, that the "Red Lion," which formerly stood on the spot now
+occupied by Mercer's Stables, is locally considered to be the original
+of "a little roadside public-house, with two elm-trees, a horse-trough,
+and a sign-post in front;" where the Pickwickians sought assistance
+after the breakdown of the "four-wheeled chaise" which "separated the
+wheels from the body and the bin from the perch," but were inhospitably
+repulsed by the "red-headed man and the tall bony woman," who suggested
+that they had stolen the "immense horse" which had recently played Mr.
+Winkle such pranks. Finally, in a pleasant chat with the Rev. Cyril
+Grant, Vicar of Aylesford, and his curate, the Rev. H. B. Boyd (a son
+of A. K. H. B.), we elicited the fact that Cobtree Hall is locally
+recognized as the original of Manor Farm. Nay more, in Aylesford
+churchyard a tomb was pointed out on the west side with the
+inscription:--"Also to the memory of Mr. W. Spong, late of Cobtree, in
+the Parish of Boxley, who died Nov. 15th, 1839," who is said to have
+been the prototype of the genial and hospitable "old Wardle."
+
+True, neither the distance to Rochester nor to Town Malling fits in with
+the narrative, but this is not material. Dickens, with the usual
+"novelist's licence," found it convenient often-times to take a nucleus
+of fact, and surround it with a halo of fiction, and this may have been
+one of many similar instances. His wonderfully-gifted and ever-facile
+imagination was never at fault.
+
+So on our return journey we console ourselves by reading the following
+description, in chapter vi. of _Pickwick_, of the first gathering of the
+Pickwickians at their host's, one of the most delightful bits in the
+whole book, and "make-believe," as the Marchioness would say, that we
+have actually seen Manor Farm, Dingley Dell.
+
+          "Several guests who were assembled in the old
+          parlour, rose to greet Mr. Pickwick and his
+          friends upon their entrance; and during the
+          performance of the ceremony of introduction, with
+          all due formalities, Mr. Pickwick had leisure to
+          observe the appearance, and speculate upon the
+          characters and pursuits, of the persons by whom he
+          was surrounded--a habit in which he in common with
+          many other great men delighted to indulge.
+
+          "A very old lady, in a lofty cap and faded silk
+          gown,--no less a personage than Mr. Wardle's
+          mother,--occupied the post of honour on the
+          right-hand corner of the chimney-piece; and
+          various certificates of her having been brought up
+          in the way she should go when young, and of her
+          not having departed from it when old, ornamented
+          the walls, in the form of samplers of ancient
+          date, worsted landscapes of equal antiquity, and
+          crimson silk tea-kettle holders of a more modern
+          period. The aunt, the two young ladies, and Mr.
+          Wardle, each vying with the other in paying
+          zealous and unremitting attentions to the old
+          lady, crowded round her easy-chair, one holding
+          her ear-trumpet, another an orange, and a third a
+          smelling-bottle, while a fourth was busily engaged
+          in patting and punching the pillows, which were
+          arranged for her support. On the opposite side sat
+          a bald-headed old gentleman, with a good-humoured
+          benevolent face,--the clergyman of Dingley Dell;
+          and next him sat his wife, a stout, blooming old
+          lady, who looked as if she were well skilled, not
+          only in the art and mystery of manufacturing
+          home-made cordials, greatly to other people's
+          satisfaction, but of tasting them occasionally,
+          very much to her own. A little hard-headed,
+          Ripstone pippin-faced man, was conversing with a
+          fat old gentleman in one corner; and two or three
+          more old gentlemen, and two or three more old
+          ladies, sat bolt upright and motionless on their
+          chairs, staring very hard at Mr. Pickwick and his
+          fellow-voyagers.
+
+          "'Mr. Pickwick, mother,' said Mr. Wardle, at the
+          very top of his voice.
+
+          "'Ah!' said the old lady, shaking her head; 'I
+          can't hear you.'
+
+          "'Mr. Pickwick, grandma!' screamed both the young
+          ladies together.
+
+          "'Ah!' exclaimed the old lady. 'Well; it don't
+          much matter. He don't care for an old 'ooman like
+          me, I dare say.'
+
+          "'I assure you, madam,' said Mr. Pickwick,
+          grasping the old lady's hand, and speaking so loud
+          that the exertion imparted a crimson hue to his
+          benevolent countenance; 'I assure you, ma'am, that
+          nothing delights me more, than to see a lady of
+          your time of life heading so fine a family, and
+          looking so young and well.'
+
+          "'Ah!' said the old lady, after a short pause;
+          'it's all very fine, I dare say; but I can't hear
+          him.'
+
+          "'Grandma's rather put out now,' said Miss
+          Isabella Wardle, in a low tone; 'but she'll talk
+          to you presently.'
+
+          "Mr. Pickwick nodded his readiness to humour the
+          infirmities of age, and entered into a general
+          conversation with the other members of the
+          circle.
+
+          "'Delightful situation this,' said Mr. Pickwick.
+
+          "'Delightful!' echoed Messrs. Snodgrass, Tupman,
+          and Winkle.
+
+          "'Well, I think it is,' said Mr. Wardle.
+
+          "'There ain't a better spot o' ground in all Kent,
+          sir,' said the hard-headed man with the
+          pippin-face; 'there ain't indeed, sir--I'm sure
+          there ain't, sir,' and the hard-headed man looked
+          triumphantly round, as if he had been very much
+          contradicted by somebody, but had got the better
+          of him at last. 'There ain't a better spot o'
+          ground in all Kent,' said the hard-headed man
+          again after a pause.
+
+          "''Cept Mullins' meadows!' observed the fat man,
+          solemnly.
+
+          "'Mullins' meadows!' ejaculated the other, with
+          profound contempt.
+
+          "'Ah, Mullins' meadows,' repeated the fat man.
+
+          "'Reg'lar good land that,' interposed another fat
+          man.
+
+          "'And so it is, sure-ly,' said a third fat man.
+
+          "'Everybody knows that,' said the corpulent host.
+
+          "The hard-headed man looked dubiously round, but
+          finding himself in a minority, assumed a
+          compassionate air, and said no more.
+
+          "'What are they talking about?' inquired the old
+          lady of one of her grand-daughters, in a very
+          audible voice; for, like many deaf people, she
+          never seemed to calculate on the possibility of
+          other persons hearing what she said herself.
+
+          "'About the land, grandma.'
+
+          "'What about the land? Nothing the matter, is
+          there?'
+
+          "'No, no. Mr. Miller was saying our land was
+          better than Mullins' meadows.'
+
+          "'How should he know anything about it?' inquired
+          the old lady indignantly. 'Miller's a conceited
+          coxcomb, and you may tell him I said so.' Saying
+          which, the old lady, quite unconscious that she
+          had spoken above a whisper, drew herself up, and
+          looked carving-knives at the hard-headed
+          delinquent."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the course of our tramp we fall in with "a very queer small boy,"
+rejoicing in the Christian names of "Spencer Ray," upon which we
+congratulate him, and express a hope that he will do honour to the
+noble names which he bears, one being that of the great English
+philosopher, and the other that of the famous English naturalist. This
+boy, who is just such a bright intelligent lad as Dickens himself would
+have been at his age (twelve and a half years), gives us some
+interesting particulars respecting Town Malling and its proclivities for
+cricket, upon which he is very eloquent. It appears that in the year
+1887 the cricketers of Town Malling won eleven matches out of twelve;
+but during this year they have not been so successful. He directed us to
+the cricket-ground, which we visit, and find to be but a few minutes'
+walk from the centre of the town, bearing to the westward. It is a very
+fine field, nearly seven acres in extent, in splendid order, as level as
+a die, and as green as an emerald. It lies well open, and is flanked by
+the western range of hills of the Medway valley.
+
+[Illustration: CRICKET GROUND--TOWN MALLING.]
+
+The marquee into which Mr. Pickwick and his friends were invited, first
+by "one very stout gentleman, whose body and legs looked like half a
+gigantic roll of flannel, elevated on a couple of inflated
+pillow-cases," and then by the irrepressible Jingle with--"This
+way--this way--capital fun--lots of beer--hogsheads; rounds of
+beef--bullocks; mustard--cart-loads; glorious day--down with you--make
+yourself at home--glad to see you--very," has been replaced by a
+handsome pavilion.
+
+There is no cricket-playing going on at the time, but there are several
+cricketers in the field, and from them we learn confirmatory evidence of
+the long existence of the ground in its present condition, and the
+enthusiasm of the inhabitants for the old English game.
+
+Another proof of the long-established love of the people of Town Malling
+for cricket we subsequently find in the fact that the parlour of the
+Swan Hotel, which is an old cricketing house, and probably represents
+the "Blue Lion of Muggleton," has in it many very fine lithographic
+portraits of all the great cricketers of the middle of the nineteenth
+century, including:--Pilch, Lillywhite, Box, Cobbett, Hillyer (a native
+of Town Malling), A. Mynn, Taylor, Langdon, Kynaston, Felix (_Felix on
+the Bat_), Ward, Kingscote, and others. Several of these names will be
+recognized as those of eminent Kentish cricketers. About a quarter of a
+century ago--my friend and colleague Mr. E. Orford Smith (himself a
+Kentish man and a cricketer) informs me that--the Kentish eleven stood
+against all England, and retained their position for some years.
+
+As we stand on the warm day in the centre of the ground, and admire the
+lights and shadows passing over the surrounding scenery, we can almost
+conjure up the scene of the famous contest, when, on the occasion of the
+first innings of the All-Muggleton Club, "Mr. Dumkins and Mr. Podder,
+two of the most renowned members of that most distinguished club,
+walked, bat in hand, to their respective wickets. Mr. Luffey, the
+highest ornament of Dingley Dell, was pitched to bowl against the
+redoubtable Dumkins, and Mr. Struggles was selected to do the same kind
+office for the hitherto unconquered Podder."
+
+Everybody remembers how the game proceeded under circumstances of
+the greatest excitement, in which batters, bowlers, scouts, and
+umpires, all did their best under the encouraging shouts of the
+members:--"Run--run--another.--Now, then, throw her up--up with
+her--stop there--another--no--yes--no--throw her up! throw her up!" Mr.
+Jingle himself being as usual very profuse in his remarks, as--"'Ah,
+ah!--stupid'--'Now, butter-fingers'--'Muff'--'Humbug'--and so forth."
+"In short, when Dumkins was caught out, and Podder stumped out,
+All-Muggleton had notched some fifty-four, while the score of the
+Dingley Dellers was as blank as their faces." So "Dingley Dell gave in,
+and allowed the superior prowess of All-Muggleton," Mr. Jingle again
+expressing his views of the winners:--"'Capital game--well played--some
+strokes admirable,' as both sides crowded into the tent at the
+conclusion of the game."
+
+Yes! We are convinced that Muggleton and Town Malling (except for the
+mayor and corporation) are one. At any rate we feel quite safe in
+assuming that Town Malling was the type from which Muggleton was taken;
+and we confidently recommend all admirers of _Pickwick_ to include that
+pleasant Kentish country-town in their pilgrimage.
+
+Having exhausted, so far as our examination is concerned, the
+cricket-ground, by the kindness of our young friend who acts as guide,
+we see a little more of the town. It consists of a long wide street,
+with a few lateral approaches. The houses are well built, and the
+church, which is partly Norman, and, like most of the village churches
+in Kent, is but a little way from the village, stands on an eminence
+from whence a good view may be obtained. We observe, as indicative of
+the fine air and mild climate of the place, many beautiful specimens of
+magnolia, and wistaria (in second flower) in front of the better class
+of houses. One of these is named "Boley House," and as we are told that
+Sir Joseph Hawley resided near, our memories immediately revert to the
+cognomen of a well-known character in _The Chimes_. Other names in the
+place are suggestive of Dickens's worthies, _e.g._ Rudge, Styles,
+Briggs, Saunders, Brooker, and John Harman. The last-mentioned is the
+second instance in which Dickens has varied a local name by the
+alteration of a single letter. There is also the not uncommon name of
+"Brown," who, it will be remembered, was the maker of the shoes of the
+spinster aunt when she eloped with the faithless Jingle; "in a po-chay
+from the 'Blue Lion' at Muggleton," as one of Mr. Wardle's men said; and
+the discovery of the said shoes led to the identification of the errant
+pair at the "White Hart" in the Borough. After Sam Weller had described
+nearly all the visitors staying in the hotel from an examination of
+their boots:--
+
+          "'Stop a bit,' replied Sam, suddenly recollecting
+          himself. 'Yes; there's a pair of Vellingtons a
+          good deal vorn, and a pair o' lady's shoes, in
+          number five.' 'Country make.'
+
+          "'Any maker's name?'
+
+          "'Brown.'
+
+          "'Where of?'
+
+          "'Muggleton.'
+
+          "'It _is_ them,' exclaimed Wardle. 'By heavens,
+          we've found them.'"
+
+What happened afterwards every reader of _Pickwick_ very well knows.
+
+Near Town Malling there is a curious monument erected to the memory of
+Beadsman, the horse, belonging to Sir Joseph Hawley, which won the Derby
+in 1859, and which was bred in the place. The monument (an exceedingly
+practical one) consists of a useful pump for the supply of water.
+
+[Illustration: The Medway at Maidstone]
+
+After some luncheon at the Boar Inn, we are sorry to terminate our visit
+to this pleasant place; but time flies, and trains, like tides, "wait
+for no man." So we hurry to the railway station, passing on our way a
+fine hop-garden, and take tickets by the London, Chatham, and Dover
+Railway for Maidstone. We have a few minutes to spare, and our notice is
+attracted to a curious group in the waiting-room. It consists of a rural
+policeman, and what afterwards turned out, to be his prisoner, a
+slouching but good-humoured-looking labourer, with a "fur cap" like
+Rogue Riderhood. The officer leans against the mantelpiece, pleasantly
+chatting with his charge, who is seated on the bench, leisurely eating
+some bread and cheese with a large clasp-knife, in the intervals of
+which proceeding he recounts some experiences for the edification of the
+officer and bystanders. These are occasionally received with roars of
+laughter. One of his stories relates to a house-breaker who, being
+"caught in the act" by a policeman, and being asked what he was doing,
+coolly replied, "Attending to my business, of course!" (This must surely
+be taken "in a Pickwickian sense.") After finishing his bread and
+cheese, the charge eats an apple, and then regales himself with
+something from a large bottle. The unconcernedness of the man, whatever
+his offence may be (poaching perhaps), is in painful contrast to the
+careworn and anxious faces of his wife and little daughter (both
+decently dressed), the latter about seven years old, and made too
+familiar with crime at such an age. After we arrive at Maidstone (only a
+few minutes' run by railway), it is a wretched sight to witness the
+leave-taking at the gaol. First the man shakes hands with his wife, all
+his forced humour having left him, and then affectionately kisses the
+little girl, draws a cuff over his eyes, and walks heavily into the gaol
+after the officer. We are glad to notice that he is not degraded as a
+wild beast by being handcuffed. It was an episode that Dickens himself
+perhaps would have witnessed with interest, and possibly stored up for
+future use. What particularly strikes us is the difference in the
+relations between these people and what would be the case under similar
+circumstances in a large town. There is not that feature of hardness,
+that familiarity with crime which breeds contempt, in the rural
+incident. Poor man! let us hope his punishment will soon be finished,
+and that he may return to his family, and not become an old offender;
+but for the present, as Mr. Bagnet says, "discipline must be
+maintained."
+
+Maidstone, the county and assize town of Kent, appears to be a thriving
+and solid-looking place, as there are several paper-mills, saw-mills,
+stone quarries, and other indications of prosperity. There are but few
+historical associations connected with it, as Maidstone "has lived a
+quiet life." Sir Thomas Wyatt's rebellion, and the attack on the town by
+Fairfax in 1648, are among the principal incidents. Dickens frequently
+walked or drove over to this town from Gad's Hill. Many of the names
+which we notice over the shops in the principal street are very
+suggestive of, if not actually used for, some of the characters in his
+novels, _e.g._ Pell, Boozer, Hibling, Fowle, Stuffins, Bunyard, Edmed,
+Gregsbey, Dunmill, and Pobgee.
+
+It has been said that Maidstone possesses a gaol; it also has large
+barracks, and, what is better still, a Museum, Free Library, and Public
+Gardens. Chillington Manor House,--a highly picturesque and
+well-preserved Elizabethan structure, formerly the residence of the
+Cobhams,--contains the Museum and Library. Standing in a quiet nook in
+the Brenchley Gardens, the lines of George Macdonald, quoted in the
+local _Guide Book_, well describe its beauties:--
+
+          "Its windows were a�rial and latticed,
+             Lovely and wide and fair,
+           And its chimneys like clustered pillars
+             Stood up in the thin blue air."
+
+The Museum--the new wing of which was built as a memorial of his
+brother, by Mr. Samuel Bentlif--is the property of the Corporation, and
+owes much of its contents to the liberality of Mr. Pretty, the first
+curator, and to the naturalist and traveller, Mr. J. L. Brenchley. It
+contains excellent fine art, arch�ological, ethnological, natural
+history, and geological collections. Among the last-named, in addition
+to other interesting local specimens, are some fossil remains of the
+mammoth (_Elephas primigenius_) from the drift at Aylesford, obtained by
+its present able curator, Mr. Edward Bartlett, to whom we are indebted
+for a most pleasant ramble through the various rooms. We notice an
+original "Dickens-item" in the shape of a very good carved head of the
+novelist, forming the right top panel of an oak fire-place, the opposite
+side being one of Tennyson, by a local carver named W. Hughes, who was
+formerly employed at Gad's Hill Place. No pilgrim in "Dickens-Land"
+should omit visiting Maidstone and its treasures in Chillington Manor
+House; nor of seeing the splendid view of the Medway from the
+churchyard, looking towards Tovil.
+
+[Illustration: Chillingham Manor House Maidstone]
+
+We are particularly anxious to verify Dickens's experience of the walk
+from Maidstone to Rochester. In a letter to Forster, written soon after
+he came to reside at Gad's Hill Place, he says:--"I have discovered that
+the seven miles between Maidstone and Rochester is one of the most
+beautiful walks in England," and so indeed we find it to be. It is,
+however, a rather long seven miles; so, cheerfully leaving the
+gloomy-looking gaol to our right and proceeding along the raised terrace
+by the side of the turn-pike road, we pass through the little village of
+Sandling, and soon after commence the ascent of the great chalk range of
+hills which form the eastern water-parting of the Medway. The most
+noticeable object before we reach "Upper Bell" is "Kit's Coty (or
+Coity) House," about one and a half miles north-east from Aylesford,
+and not very far from the Bell Inn. According to Mr. Phillips Bevan, the
+peculiar name is derived from the Celtic "Ked," and "Coity" or "Coed"
+(Welsh), and means the Tomb in the Wood. Seymour considers the words a
+corruption of "Catigern's House." Below Kit's Coty House, Mr. Wright,
+the arch�ologist, found the remains of a Roman villa, with quantities of
+Samian ware, coins, and other articles.
+
+There are many excavations in the chalk above Kit's Coty House,
+apparently for interments; and the whole district appears in remote ages
+to have been a huge cemetery. Tradition states that "the hero Catigern
+was buried here, after the battle fought at Aylesford between Hengist
+and Vortigern."
+
+The Cromlech, which is now included in the provisions of the Ancient
+Monuments Protection Act, 1882, lies under the hillside, a few yards
+from the main road, and is fenced in with iron railings, and beautifully
+surrounded by woods, the yew,[29] said to have been one of the sacred
+trees of the Druids, being conspicuous here and there. That somewhat
+rare plant the juniper is also found in this neighbourhood. The
+"dolmens" which have been "set on end by a vanished people" are four in
+number, and consist of sandstone, three of them, measuring about eight
+feet each, forming the uprights, and the fourth, which is much larger,
+serving as the covering stone.
+
+In a field which we visit, not very far from Kit's Coty House, is
+another group of stones, called the "countless stones." As we pass some
+boys are trying to solve the arithmetical problem, which cannot be
+readily accomplished, as the stones lie intermingled in a very strange
+and irregular manner, and are overgrown with brushwood. The belief that
+these stones cannot be counted is one constantly found connected with
+similar remains, _e.g._ Stonehenge, Avebury, etc. We heard a local story
+of a baker, who once tried to effect the operation by placing a loaf on
+the top of each stone as a kind of check or tally; but a dog running
+away with one of his loaves, upset his calculations.
+
+[Illustration: Kit's Coty House]
+
+Both the "Coty House" and the "countless stones" consist of a silicious
+sandstone of the Eocene period, overlying the chalk, and are identical
+with the "Sarsens," or "Grey Wethers," which occur at the pre-historic
+town of Avebury, and at Stonehenge; the smaller stones of the latter
+are, however, of igneous origin, and "are believed by Mr. Fergusson to
+have been votive offerings." These masses, of what Sir A. C. Ramsay
+calls "tough and intractable silicious stone," have been, he says, "left
+on the ground, after the removal by denudation of other and softer parts
+of the Eocene strata." We subsequently saw several of these "grey
+wethers" in the grounds of Cobham Hall, and we noticed small masses of
+the same stone _in situ_ in Pear Tree Lane, near Gad's Hill Place.
+
+Speaking of Kit's Coty House in his _Short History of the English
+People_, the late Mr. J. R. Green, in describing the English Conquest
+and referring to this neighbourhood, says:--"It was from a steep knoll
+on which the grey weather-beaten stones of this monument are reared that
+the view of their first battle-field would break on the English
+warriors; and a lane which still leads down from it through peaceful
+homesteads would guide them across the ford which has left its name in
+the little village of Aylesford. The Chronicle of the conquering people
+tells nothing of the rush that may have carried the ford, or of the
+fight that went struggling up through the village. It only tells that
+Horsa fell in the moment of victory, and the flint heap of Horsted,
+which has long preserved his name, and was held in after-time to mark
+his grave, is thus the earliest of those monuments of English valour of
+which Westminster is the last and noblest shrine. The victory of
+Aylesford did more than give East Kent to the English; it struck the
+keynote of the whole English conquest of Britain."
+
+Dickens's visits to this locality in his early days may have suggested
+the discovery of the stone with the inscription:--
+
+[Illustration:
+
+              +
+          B I L S T
+             U M
+           P S H I
+            S. M.
+           A R K]
+
+In later life he was fond of bringing his friends here "by a couple of
+postilions in the old red jackets of the old red royal Dover road" to
+enjoy a picnic. Describing a visit here with Longfellow he says:--"It
+was like a holiday ride in England fifty years ago."
+
+Returning to the main road, we reach the high land of Blue Bell--"Upper
+Bell," as it is marked on the Ordnance Map. We are not quite on the
+highest range, but sufficiently high (about three hundred feet) to
+enable us to appreciate the splendid view that presents itself. In the
+valley below winds the Medway, broadening as it approaches
+Rochester.[30] The opposite heights consist of the western range of
+hills, the width of the valley from point to point being about ten
+miles. The "sky-line" of hills running from north to south cannot be
+less than sixty miles, extending to the famous Weald of Kent (weald,
+wald, or wolde, being literally "a wooded region, an open country"); all
+the intervening space of undulating slope and valley (river excepted) is
+filled up by hamlets, grass, root, and cornfields, hop-gardens, orchards
+and woodlands, the whole forming a picture of matchless beauty. No
+wonder Dickens was very fond of this delightful walk; it must be gone
+over to be appreciated.[31]
+
+[Illustration: Kits Coty House and "Blue Bell" From the Painting by
+Gegan]
+
+We tramp on through Boxley and Bridge Woods, down the hill, and pass
+Borstal Convict Prison and Fort Clarence, where there are guns which we
+were informed would carry a ball from this elevated ground right over
+the Thames into the county of Essex (a distance of seven miles); and so
+we get back again to Rochester.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[26] Lambarde says, "Malling, in Saxon Mealing, or Mealuing, that is,
+the Low place flourishing with Meal or Corne, for so it is everywhere
+accepted."
+
+[27] The italics are interpolated.
+
+[28] Burham, although now enshrouded in the smoke of lime-making, was
+probably sixty years ago a delightfully rural spot.
+
+[29] Mr. Roach Smith reminded us that the yew was in times past planted
+for its wood to be used as bows.
+
+[30] Professor Huxley, in his _Physiography_, has estimated that "at the
+present rate of wear and tear, denudation can have lowered the surface
+of the Thames Basin by hardly more than an inch since the Norman
+Conquest; and nearly a million years must elapse before the whole basin
+of the Thames will be worn down to the sea-level"; and Dr. A. Geikie,
+after a series of elaborate calculations, has postulated "as probably a
+fair average, a valley of 1000 feet deep may be excavated in 1,200,000
+years." Taking these estimates as a basis, and allowing for an average
+height of three hundred feet, we roughly arrive at a period of about
+four hundred thousand years as the possible length of time which it has
+taken to form this beautiful valley. Professor Huxley may well say that
+"the geologist has thoughts of time and space to which the ordinary mind
+is a stranger."
+
+[31] Mr. Kitton's illustration (from the painting by Gegan, a local
+artist, executed many years since) gives a good idea of the scenery of
+this beautiful district. It also reproduces the profile of a huge chalk
+cliff not now visible, but which existed about half a century ago,
+having a curious resemblance to the head of a lion, and forming at the
+time a conspicuous landmark to travellers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+BROADSTAIRS, MARGATE, AND CANTERBURY.
+
+        "We have a fine sea, wholesome for all people;
+          profitable for the body, profitable for the
+          mind."--_Our English Watering-Place._
+
+        "All is going on as it was wont. The waves are
+          hoarse with repetition of their mystery; the dust
+          lies piled upon the shore; the sea-birds soar and
+          hover; the winds and clouds go forth upon their
+          trackless flight; the white arms beckon in the
+          moonlight to the invisible country far
+          away."--_Dombey and Son._
+
+        "A moment, and I occupy my place in the Cathedral,
+          where we all went together every Sunday morning,
+          assembling first at school for that purpose. The
+          earthy smell, the sunless air, the sensation of
+          the world being shut out, the resounding of the
+          organ through the black and white arched galleries
+          and aisles, are wings that take me back and hold
+          me hovering above those days in a half-sleeping
+          and half-waking dream."--_David Copperfield._
+
+
+TAKING advantage of an excursion train (for tramps usually go on the
+cheap), we start early on Wednesday by the South-Eastern Railway from
+Chatham station for Broadstairs. As usual the weather favours us--it is
+a glorious day. Passing the stations of New Brompton, Rainham,
+Newington, and Sittingbourne, we soon get into open country, in the
+midst of hop gardens with their verdant aisles of the fragrant and
+tonic, tendril-like plants reaching in some instances perhaps to several
+hundred yards, and crowned with yellowish-green fruit-masses, which
+have a special charm for those unaccustomed to such scenery. The
+odd-looking "oast-houses,"[32] or drying-houses for the hops, are a
+noticeable feature of the neighbourhood, dotting it about here and there
+in pairs. They are mostly red-brick and cone-shaped, somewhat smaller
+than the familiar glass-houses of the Midland districts, and have a
+wooden cowl, painted white, at the apex for ventilation. We are rather
+too early for the hop-picking, and thus--but for a time only--miss an
+interesting sight. Dickens, in one of his letters to Forster, gives a
+dreary picture of this annual harvest:--
+
+"Hop-picking is going on, and people sleep in the garden, and breathe in
+at the key-hole of the house door. I have been amazed, before this year,
+by the number of miserable lean wretches, hardly able to crawl, who come
+hop-picking. I find it is a superstition that the dust of the
+newly-picked hop, falling freshly into the throat, is a cure for
+consumption. So the poor creatures drag themselves along the roads, and
+sleep under wet hedges, and get cured soon and finally."
+
+On the whole it is said to be a very indifferent season, but many
+plantations look promising. "If," as a grower remarks to us in the
+train, "we could have a little more of this fine weather! There has been
+too much rain, and too little sun this year." The apples also are a poor
+crop.
+
+[Illustration: Hop-picking in Kent]
+
+On a second visit to this pleasant neighbourhood, we see at Mear's Barr
+Farm, near Rainham, the whole process of hop-picking. True, it is not
+executed by that ragamuffinly crowd of strangers which Dickens had in
+his "mind's eye" when he wrote the words just quoted, and which
+usually takes possession of most of the hop-growing districts of Kent
+during the picking season, but by an assemblage of native villagers,
+mostly women, girls, and boys,--neat, clean, and homely,--together with
+a few men who do the heavier part of the work. They are of all ages,
+from the tottering old grandmother, careworn wife, and buxom maiden, to
+the child in perambulator and baby in arms; and in the bright sunlight,
+amid the groves of festooning green columns, form a most orderly,
+varied, and picturesque gathering--a regular picnic in fact, judging
+from the cheerful look on most of the faces, and the merry laugh that is
+occasionally heard.
+
+Mr. Fred Scott, tenant of the farm, of which Lord Hothfield is owner, is
+kind enough to go over the hop-garden with us, and describe all the
+details. When the hops are ripe (_i. e._ when the seeds are hard) and
+ready to be gathered, the pickers swarm on the ground, and a man divides
+the "bine" at the bottom of the "pole" by means of a bill-hook--not
+cutting it too close for fear of bleeding--leaving the root to sprout
+next year, and then draws out the pole, to which is attached the long,
+creeping bine, trailing over at top. If the pole sticks too fast in the
+ground, he eases it by means of a lever, or "hop-dog" (a long, stout
+wooden implement, having a toothed iron projection). "Mind my dog don't
+bite you, sir," says one of the men facetiously, as we step over this
+rough-looking tool. Women then carry the poles to, and lay them across,
+the "bin," a receptacle formed by four upright poles stuck in the ground
+and placed at an angle, supporting a framework from which depends the
+"bin-cloth," made of jute or hemp, holding from ten to twenty bushels of
+green hops, weighing about 1-1/2 lbs. per bushel when dry.
+
+The picking then commences, and nimble fingers of all sizes very soon
+strip the poles of the aromatically-smelling ripe hops, the poles being
+cast aside in heaps, to be afterwards cleared of the old bines and put
+into "stacks" of three hundred each, and used again next season.
+
+The bins, which vary in number according to the size of the hop-garden,
+are placed in rows on the margin of the plantation, and usually have ten
+"hop-hills" (_i. e._ plants) on each side, and are moved inside the
+plantation as the poles are pulled up. Each bin belongs to a "sett" (_i.
+e._ family or companionship), consisting of from five to seven persons,
+and is taken charge of by a "binman." When the bin is full, a "measurer"
+(either the farmer himself or his deputy) takes account of the quantity
+of hops picked, and records it in a book to the credit of each working
+family. Then the green hops are carted off in "pokes" or sacks to the
+"oast-houses" to be dried. For this purpose, anthracite coal and
+charcoal are used in the kiln, a shovelful or two of sulphur being added
+to the fire when the hops are put on. The process of drying takes eleven
+hours, and afterwards the dried hops are packed in pockets which, when
+full, weigh about a hundredweight and a half each, the packing being
+effected by hydraulic pressure. They are then sent to market, the
+earliest arrivals fetching very high prices. As much as �50 per cwt. was
+paid in 1882, but the ordinary price averages from �4 to �8 per cwt.
+
+_Humulus Lupulus_, the hop, belongs to the natural order _Urticace�_--a
+plant of rather wide distribution, but said to be absent in
+Scotland--and is a herbaceous, dioecious perennial, usually propagated
+by removal of the young shoots or by cuttings. According to Sowerby, the
+genus is derived from _humus_, the ground, as, unless supported or
+trained, the plant falls to the earth; and the common name "hop" from
+the Saxon _hoppan_, to climb. William King, in his _Art of Cookery_,
+says that "heresy and hops came in together"; while an old popular rhyme
+records that:--
+
+          "Hops, carp, pickerel, and beer,
+           Came into England all in one year."
+
+Tusser in his _Hondreth Good Points of Husbandrie_, published in 1557,
+gives sundry directions for the cultivation of hops, and quaintly
+advocates their use as follows:--
+
+          "The hop for his profit I thus do exalt,
+           It strengtheneth drink, and it savoureth malt;
+           And being well brewed, long kept it will last,
+           And drawing abide--if you draw not too fast."
+
+The hop has many varieties--thirty or more--among which may be mentioned
+prolifics, bramblings, goldings, common goldings, old goldings,
+Canterbury goldings, Meopham goldings, etc. When once planted they last
+for a hundred years, but some growers replace them every ten years or
+sooner.
+
+The principal enemies of the hop are "mould" caused by the fungus
+_Sph�rotheca Castagnei_, and several kinds of insects, especially the
+"green fly," _Aphis humuli_, but the high wind is most to be dreaded. It
+tears the hop-bines from the poles and throws the poles down, which in
+falling crush other bines, and thus bruise the hops and prevent their
+growth, besides obstructing the passage of air and sunlight, and causing
+the development of mould or mildew. The remedy for mould is dusting with
+sulphur, and for the green fly, syringing with tobacco or quassia water
+and soap, "Hop-wash," as it is called. Sometimes the lady-bird
+(_Coccinella septempunctata_) is present in sufficient numbers to
+consume the green fly. Very little can be done to obviate the effects of
+the wind, but a protective fence of the wild hop--called a "lee" or
+"loo"--is sometimes put up round very choice plantations.
+
+The hop-poles, the preparation of which constitutes a distinct industry,
+are either of larch, Spanish chestnut, ash, willow, birch, or
+beech--larch or chestnut being preferred. Women clear the poles of the
+bark, and men sharpen them at one end, which is dipped in creosote
+before being used. The ground is cleared, and the poles are stuck in
+against the old plants in February or March.
+
+We are informed that the hop-picking is much looked forward to by the
+villagers with pleasure as the means of supplying them with a little
+purse for clothing, etc., against winter-time. Each family or
+companionship earns from thirty shillings to two pounds per week during
+the season.
+
+We proceed on our excursion, and pass Faversham, which stands in a
+rather picturesque bit of country some way up Faversham Creek, and is
+sheltered on the west by a ridge of wooded hills where the hop country
+ceases, as the railway bends north-easterly for Margate and Ramsgate.
+Whitstable, the next station passed, is famous for the most delicate
+oysters in the market, the fishery of which is regulated by an annual
+court; and it is said that one grower alone sends fifty thousand barrels
+a year to London from this district. We speculate whether these
+delicious molluscs were supplied at that famous supper described in the
+thirty-ninth chapter of _The Old Curiosity Shop_, at which were present
+Kit, his mother, the baby, little Jacob, and Barbara, after the night at
+the play, when Kit told the waiter "to bring three dozen of his
+largest-sized oysters, and to look sharp about it," and fulfilled his
+promise "to let little Jacob know what oysters meant." All along, as the
+railway winds from Whitstable to Margate, glimpses of the sea are
+visible, and vary our excursion pleasantly.
+
+The next noteworthy place we pass is Reculver--the ancient
+Regulbium--which, according to Mr. Phillips Bevan, is "mentioned in the
+Itinerary of Antoninus as being garrisoned by the first cohort of
+Brabantois Belgians. After the Romans, it was occupied by the Saxon
+Ethelbert, who is said to have occupied it as a palace, and to have been
+buried there." "The two picturesque towers" (quoting Bevan again),
+"which form so conspicuous a land and sea mark, are called 'The
+Sisters,' and are in reality modern-built by the Trinity Board in place
+of two erected traditionally by an Abbess of Faversham, who was wrecked
+here with her sister on their way to Broadstairs." The sea is fast
+encroaching on the land here, notwithstanding the erection of a large
+sea-wall and piles.
+
+Passing Margate, we reach Broadstairs, about thirty-seven miles from
+Chatham. Broadstairs, immortalized in _Our English Watering Place_
+(which paper, says Forster, "appeared while I was there, and great was
+the local excitement"), is so inseparably associated with the earlier
+years of Charles Dickens's holiday-life, that it becomes most
+interesting to his admirers. Forster also says, "His later seaside
+holiday, September 1837, was passed at Broadstairs, as were those of
+many subsequent years; and the little watering-place has been made
+memorable by his pleasant sketch of it." At the time of his first visit
+(1837) he was writing a portion of _Pickwick_ (Part 18); in 1838 part of
+_Nicholas Nickleby_; and in 1839 part of _The Old Curiosity Shop_. He
+was also there in 1840, 1841, and 1842, when writing the _American
+Notes_; in 1845 and 1847, when writing _Dombey and Son_; in 1848 and
+1850, when engaged on _David Copperfield_; and in 1851, when he was
+drafting the outlines of _Bleak House_. At the end of November of that
+year, when he had settled himself in his new London abode (Tavistock
+House), the book was begun, "and, as so generally happened with the more
+important incidents of his life, but always accidentally, begun on a
+Friday." After 1851, he returned not again to Broadstairs until 1859,
+when he paid his last visit to the place, and stayed a week there. The
+reason for his forsaking it was that it had become too noisy for him.
+
+Broadstairs stands midway between the North Foreland and Ramsgate, and
+owes its name to the breadth of the sea-gate or "stair," which was
+originally defended by a gate or archway. An archway still survives on
+the road to the sea, and bears on it two inscriptions, (1) "Built by
+George Culenier about 1540"; (2) "Repaired by Sir John Henniker, Bart.,
+1795."
+
+Broadstairs has good sands, precipitous chalk cliffs, and a very fine
+sea-view. The railway station is about a mile from the pier, and the
+town is approached by a well-kept road ("the main street of our
+watering-place. . . . You may know it by its being always stopped up
+with donkey chaises. Whenever you come here and see the harnessed
+donkeys eating clover out of barrows drawn completely across a narrow
+thoroughfare, you may be quite sure you are in our High Street"), with
+villas standing in their own gardens, most of which are brightened by
+summer flowers, notably the blue clematis (_Clematis Jackmani_) and by
+those charming seaside evergreens the _Escallonia_ and the _Euonymus_.
+As we near the sea, the shops become more numerous, and, on the
+right-hand side, we have no difficulty in finding (although we heard it
+had been altered considerably) the house "No. 12, High Street," in which
+Dickens lived when he first visited Broadstairs. It is a plain little
+dwelling of single front, with a small parlour looking into the street,
+and has one story over--just the place that seems suited to the
+financial position of the novelist when he was commencing life. The
+house is now occupied by Mr. Bean, plumber and glazier, whose wife
+courteously shows us over it, and into the back yard and little garden,
+kindly giving us some pears from an old tree growing there, whereon we
+speculate as to whether Dickens himself had ever enjoyed the fruit from
+the same old tree. He appears to have lived in this house during his
+visits in 1837 and 1838. We ask the good lady if she is aware that
+Charles Dickens had formerly stayed in her house, and she replies in the
+negative, so we recommend her to get her husband to put up a tablet
+outside to the effect "Charles Dickens lived here, 1837," in imitation
+of the example of the Society of Arts in Furnival's Inn. There can be no
+doubt as to the identity of the house, for we take the precaution of
+ascertaining that the numbers have not been altered.
+
+Our efforts to discover "Lawn House," where Dickens stayed on his visits
+from 1838 to 1848, are attended with some difficulty. First we are told
+it lay this way, then that, and then the other; a smart villa in a new
+road is pointed out to us as the object of our search, which we at once
+reject, as being too recent. But we are patient and persevering,
+feeling, with Mr. F.'s aunt, that "you can't make a head and brains out
+of a brass knob with nothing in it. You couldn't do it when your Uncle
+George was living; much less when he's dead!" Finally, we appeal to some
+one who looks like the "oldest inhabitant," and obtain something like a
+clue. We are eventually directed to a veritable "Lawn House," which is
+the last house on the left as you approach "Fort House." It must have
+changed in respect of its surroundings since forty years have passed,
+and although there is nothing outside to indicate it as such, it seems
+fair to assume that this was the house described in the _Life_ as "a
+small villa between the hill and the cornfield." The present occupier,
+who has no recollection of Dickens ever having been there, courteously
+allows us to see the hall and dining-room. The house is of course a
+great improvement upon "No 12, High Street."
+
+A few steps from "Lawn House" lead us to the drive approaching "Fort
+House," pleasantly surrounded by a sloping lawn and shrubbery. John
+Forster, alluding to it in the _Life_, says:--
+
+"The residence he most desired there, 'Fort House,' stood prominently at
+the top of a breezy hill on the road to Kingsgate, with a cornfield
+between it and the sea, and this in many subsequent years he always
+occupied."
+
+Alas! the cornfield is no more, but "Fort House," or "Bleak House," as
+it is indifferently termed locally, remains intact. It is the most
+striking object of the place, standing on a cliff overlooking the sea,
+the harbour, and the town (made familiar by several photographs and
+engravings), with its curious verandahs and blinds, as seen in the
+vignette of J. C. Hotten's interesting book, _Charles Dickens: The Story
+of His Life_. An excellent photograph is published in the town, of which
+we are glad to secure a copy.
+
+[Illustration: "Bleak House" Broadstairs]
+
+In the sixth chapter of _Bleak House_ it is called "an old-fashioned
+house with three peaks in the roof in front, and a severe sweep leading
+to the porch." In the same chapter there is a minute account of the
+interior, too lengthy to be quoted; but the description does not
+resemble Fort House. We are kindly permitted by the occupier to see the
+study in which the novelist worked, a privilege long to be remembered.
+This room is approached by "a little staircase of shallow steps" from
+the first floor, as described in _Bleak House_; but it will be borne in
+mind that the "Bleak House" of the novel is placed in Hertfordshire,
+near St. Albans, and _not_ at Broadstairs, although many persons still
+believe that Fort House is the original of the story. From the study we
+have a lovely view of the sea--the balmy breeze of a summer's day
+lightly fanning the waves, and just sufficing to move the delicate
+filamentous foliage of the tamarisk trees now standing in the place
+where the cornfield was. Even at the time we see it, changed as all its
+surroundings are, we can imagine the enjoyment which Dickens had in this
+healthy spot on the North Downs.
+
+In that interesting "book for an idle hour" called _The Shuttlecock
+Papers_, Mr. J. Ashby-Sterry thus sympathetically alludes to "Bleak
+House":--"What a romantic place this is to write in, is it not? What a
+glorious study to work in! Indeed, both from situation and association,
+it would be impossible to find a better place for writing, were it not
+that one feels that so much superb work has been done on this very spot
+by so great an artist, that the mere craftsman is inclined to question
+whether it is worth while for him to write at all."
+
+How well Dickens loved Broadstairs is told in his letter of the 1st
+September, 1843, addressed to Professor Felton, of Cambridge, U. S. A.,
+as follows:--
+
+"This is a little fishing-place; intensely quiet; built on a cliff,
+whereon--in the centre of a tiny semi-circular bay--our house stands;
+the sea rolling and dashing under the windows. Seven miles out are the
+Goodwin Sands (you've heard of the Goodwin Sands?), whence floating
+lights perpetually wink after dark, as if they were carrying on
+intrigues with the servants. Also there is a lighthouse called the North
+Foreland on a hill behind the village, a severe parsonic light, which
+reproves the young and giddy floaters, and stares grimly out upon the
+sea. Under the cliff are rare good sands, where all the children
+assemble every morning and throw up impossible fortifications, which the
+sea throws down again at high-water. Old gentlemen and ancient ladies
+flirt after their own manner in two reading-rooms, and on a great many
+scattered seats in the open air. Other old gentlemen look all day long
+through telescopes and never see anything.
+
+"In a bay-window in a one-pair sits, from nine o'clock to one, a
+gentleman with rather long hair and no neckcloth, who writes and grins
+as if he thought he were very funny indeed. His name is Boz. At one he
+disappears, and presently emerges from a bathing machine, and may be
+seen--a kind of salmon-coloured porpoise--splashing about in the ocean.
+After that he may be seen in another bay-window on the ground-floor,
+eating a strong lunch; after that, walking a dozen miles or so, or lying
+on his back in the sand reading a book. Nobody bothers him unless they
+know he is disposed to be talked to; and I am told he is very
+comfortable indeed. He's as brown as a berry, and they _do_ say is a
+small fortune to the innkeeper who sells beer and cold punch. But this
+is mere rumour. Sometimes he goes up to London (eighty miles or so
+away), and then I'm told there is a sound in Lincoln's Inn Fields at
+night, as of men laughing, together with a clinking of knives and forks,
+and wine-glasses."
+
+And further in a letter to another correspondent recently made public:--
+
+"When you come to London, to assist at Miss Liston's sacrifice, don't
+forget to remind your uncle of our Broadstairs engagement to which I
+hold you bound. A good sea--fresh breezes--fine sands--and pleasant
+walks--with all manner of fishing-boats, lighthouses, piers,
+bathing-machines, are its only attractions, but it's one of the freshest
+little places in the world, consequently the proper place for you."
+
+In the year 1851, in a letter dated 8th September, addressed to Mr.
+Henry Austin, he thus alludes to a wreck which took place at
+Broadstairs:--
+
+"A great to-do here. A steamer lost on the Goodwins yesterday, and our
+men bringing in no end of dead cattle and sheep. I stood supper for them
+last night, to the unbounded gratification of Broadstairs. They came in
+from the wreck very wet and tired, and very much disconcerted by the
+nature of their prize--which, I suppose after all, will have to be
+recommitted to the sea, when the hides and tallow are secured. One
+lean-faced boatman murmured, when they were all ruminating over the
+bodies as they lay on the pier: 'Couldn't sassages be made on it?' but
+retired in confusion shortly afterwards, overwhelmed by the execrations
+of the bystanders."
+
+Dickens got tired of Broadstairs in 1847, for reasons given in the
+following letter to Forster, though he did not forsake it till some
+years after:--
+
+"Vagrant music is getting to that height here, and is so impossible to
+be escaped from, that I fear Broadstairs and I must part company in time
+to come. Unless it pours of rain, I cannot write half an hour without
+the most excruciating organs, fiddles, bells, or glee singers. There is
+a violin of the most torturing kind under the window now (time, ten in
+the morning), and an Italian box of music on the steps--both in full
+blast."
+
+By good luck we fall in with an "old salt," formerly one of the boatmen
+of _Our English Watering Place_ who are therein immortalized by much
+kindly mention, with whom we have a pleasant chat about Charles Dickens.
+Harry Ford (the name of our friend) well remembers the great novelist,
+when in early days he used to come on his annual excursions with his
+family to Broadstairs. "Bless your soul," he says, "I can see 'Old
+Charley,' as we used to call him among ourselves here, a-coming flying
+down from the cliff with a hop, step, and jump, with his hair all flying
+about. He used to sit sometimes on that rail" (pointing to the one
+surrounding the harbour), "with his legs lolling about, and sometimes on
+the seat that you're a-sitting on now" (adjoining the old Look-out
+House opposite the Tartar Frigate Inn), "and he was very fond of talking
+to us fellows and hearing our tales--he was very good-natured, and
+nobody was liked better. And if you'll read" (continues our informant)
+"that story that he wrote and printed about _Our Watering Place_, _I_
+was the man who's mentioned there as mending a little ship for a boy.
+_I_ held that child between my knees. And what's more, sir, _I_ took
+'Old Charley,' on the very last time that he came over to Broadstairs
+(he wasn't living here at the time), round the foreland to Margate, with
+a party of four friends. I took 'em in my boat, the _Irene_," pointing
+to a clinker-built strong boat lying in the harbour, capable of holding
+twenty people. "The wind was easterly--the weather was rather rough, and
+it took me three or four hours to get round. There was a good deal of
+chaffing going on, I can tell you."
+
+[Illustration: Old Look-out House Broadstairs]
+
+Mrs. Long, of Zion Place, Broadstairs, the wife of an old coastguardman,
+who was stationed at the Preventive Station when Dickens lodged at Fort
+House, also remembered the novelist. The coastguard men are also
+immortalized in _Our English Watering Place_, as "a steady, trusty,
+well-conditioned, well-conducted set of men, with no misgiving about
+looking you full in the face, and with a quiet, thorough-going way of
+passing along to their duty at night, carrying huge sou'wester clothing
+in reserve, that is fraught with all good prepossession. They are handy
+fellows--neat about their houses, industrious at gardening, would get on
+with their wives, one thinks, in a desert island--and people it too
+soon."
+
+Mrs. Long says "Mr. Dickens was a very nice sort of gentleman, but he
+didn't like a noise." The windows of Fort House, she reminds us,
+overlooked the coastguard station, and whenever the children playing
+about made more noise than usual, he used to tell her husband gently "to
+take the children away," or "to keep the people quiet." This little
+story fully confirms Dickens's often-expressed feeling of dislike, which
+subsequently grew intolerable, to Broadstairs as a watering-place.
+
+After taking a turn or two on the lively Promenade,--made bright by the
+rich masses of flesh-coloured flowers of the valerian which fringe its
+margin,--to enjoy the sunshine and air, and watch the holiday folks, we
+bid adieu to Broadstairs, and proceed to Margate.
+
+Of Margate there is not much to say. We reach it by an early afternoon
+train of the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway, to get the quickest
+service by the South-Eastern Railway on to Canterbury. Our stay at
+Margate is consequently very limited.
+
+To some minds this popular Cockney watering-place has great attractions;
+its broad sands, its beautiful air, and its boisterous amusements,
+negro-melodies, merry-go-rounds, and the like; but it was a place seldom
+visited by Dickens, although he was so often near it. Only twice in the
+_Life_ is it recorded that he came here; once being in 1844, when he
+wrote to Forster respecting the theatre as follows:--
+
+"'_Nota Bene._--The Margate Theatre is open every evening, and the four
+Patagonians (see Goldsmith's _Essays_) are performing thrice a week at
+Ranelagh.' A visit from me"--Forster goes on to say--"was at this time
+due, to which these were held out as inducements; and there followed
+what it was supposed I could not resist, a transformation into the
+broadest farce of a deep tragedy by a dear friend of ours. 'Now you
+really must come. Seeing only is believing, very often isn't that, and
+even Being the thing falls a long way short of believing it. Mrs.
+Nickleby herself once asked me, as you know, if I really believed there
+ever was such a woman; but there will be no more belief, either in me or
+my descriptions, after what I have to tell of our excellent friend's
+tragedy, if you don't come and have it played again for yourself, 'by
+particular desire.' We saw it last night, and oh! if you had but been
+with us! Young Betty, doing what the mind of man without my help never
+_can_ conceive, with his legs like padded boot-trees wrapped up in faded
+yellow drawers, was the hero. The comic man of the company, enveloped in
+a white sheet, with his head tied with red tape like a brief, and
+greeted with yells of laughter whenever he appeared, was the venerable
+priest. A poor toothless old idiot, at whom the very gallery roared with
+contempt when he was called a tyrant, was the remorseless and aged
+Creon. And Ismene, being arrayed in spangled muslin trousers very loose
+in the legs and very tight in the ankles, such as Fatima would wear in
+_Blue Beard_, was at her appearance immediately called upon for a song!
+After this can you longer--?'"
+
+[Illustration: The "Falstaff": Westgate Canterbury]
+
+He speaks in a letter to Forster, dated September, 1847, of
+"improvements in the Margate Theatre since his memorable first visit."
+It had been managed by a son of the great comedian Dowton, and the piece
+which Dickens then saw was _As You Like It_, "really very well done, and
+a most excellent house." It was Mr. Dowton's benefit, and "he made a
+sensible and modest kind of speech," which impressed Dickens, who thus
+concludes his letter:--"He really seems a most respectable man, and he
+has cleaned out this dusthole of a theatre into something like
+decency."
+
+There is also the following significant mention of Margate in chapter
+nineteen of _Bleak House_:--
+
+"It is the hottest long vacation known for many years. All the young
+clerks are madly in love, and according to their various degrees, pant
+for bliss with the beloved object at Margate, Ramsgate, or Gravesend."
+
+If Broadstairs was noisy, Margate must have been intensely so. We leave
+the crowded holiday-making place without much feeling of regret, and
+passing Ramsgate--of which there is but one mention in the _Life_--on
+our way, reach Canterbury in the afternoon.
+
+We are delighted with this exquisitely beautiful old city, our only
+regret being that our time is very limited, and our means of
+ascertaining places situated in "Dickens-Land" more so.
+
+Taking up our temporary quarters at the "Sir John Falstaff" Hotel, in
+remembrance of its namesake at Gad's Hill, after the refreshment of a
+meal, we commence our tramp through Canterbury, where David Copperfield
+passed some of his happiest days. Of the Falstaff here there is an
+excellent picture in Mr. Rimmer's _About England with Dickens_; a very
+quaint old inn with double front, and bay-windows top and bottom,
+possibly of the sixteenth century, and with a long swinging sign
+extending over the pavement, on which is painted a life-like presentment
+of the portly knight, the pretty ornamental ironwork supporting it
+reminding one of Washington Irving's description in _Bracebridge Hall_,
+"fancifully wrought at top into flourishes and flowers."
+
+[Illustration: The "Dane John" from the City Wall Canterbury]
+
+A few steps further on is the West Gate, "standing between two lofty and
+spacious round towers erected in the river," built by Archbishop
+Sudbury, who was barbarously murdered by Wat Tyler in the reign of
+Richard II., which is the sole remaining one of six gates formerly
+constituting the approaches to the city. From this gate, looking
+eastward, with the river Stour on either side, banked by neatly-trimmed
+private gardens, a beautiful view of the city is obtained. The High
+Street, crowded with gables of the sixteenth century and later timbered
+houses, slightly bends and rises as well, until the perspective seems to
+lose itself in a distant grove of trees, locally called the "Dane John,"
+a corruption of "Donjon." This view, especially when seen on a summer
+afternoon, is most picturesque. The present appearance of the quiet
+street is decidedly unlike that which it presented on that busy
+market-day when Miss Betsey Trotwood drove her nephew along it, for
+David says, "My aunt had a good opportunity of insinuating the grey pony
+among carts, baskets, vegetables, and hucksters' goods. The hair-breadth
+turns and twists we made drew down upon us a variety of speeches from
+the people standing about, which were not always complimentary; but my
+aunt drove on with perfect indifference."
+
+We notice in the windows and in many of the shops an abundance of
+brightly-coloured cut-flowers, a notable feature of the county of Kent;
+but we have little time to spare, and hasten on to the Cathedral
+precincts.
+
+"What a magnificent edifice!" is our first thought on beholding the
+Cathedral, a noble pile so well befitting the Metropolitan See of
+England, from which the Christianity of the Kingdom first flowed. Dating
+from Ethelbert, at the close of the sixth century, three structures have
+successively occupied the site, culminating in the present one, which,
+according to Mr. Phillips Bevan, was erected at different times between
+1070 and 1500; and he goes on to say:--"No wonder that it exhibits so
+many styles and peculiarities of detail, although the two most prominent
+architectural eras are those of 'Transition-Norman' and
+'Perpendicular.'"
+
+The appropriate stone figures in niches of distinguished Royal and
+Ecclesiastical personages associated with the Cathedral (which at the
+suggestion of Dean Alford in 1863 replaced those of the murderers of the
+martyr, Thomas � Becket), from King Ethelbert to Queen Victoria, and
+from Archbishop Lanfranc to Archbishop Longley; the lofty groined arches
+and stately towers, the beautiful carved screen, the noble monuments,
+the splendid choir (a hundred and eighty feet in length) approached by
+many steps, the rich stained-glass windows, all attract our admiring
+attention, and confirm our impression that a modern pilgrimage to
+Canterbury is a thing to be highly appreciated; and on no account would
+we have missed this part of our excursion. The murder of Thomas �
+Becket (1170) took place between the nave and the choir in a transept or
+cross aisle called "The Martyrdom."
+
+[Illustration: Bell Harry Tower: Canterbury Cathedral:]
+
+There is an interesting Sidney Cooper Gallery of Art, and also a Museum
+in the city, the latter containing some rare old Roman Mosaic pavement
+discovered in Burgate Street at a depth of ten feet.
+
+But our object is to identify spots made memorable in _David
+Copperfield_, and we walk round the spacious Cathedral Close and "make
+an effort" (as Mrs. Chick said) in trying to find the simple-minded and
+good Dr. Strong's House. It is described as "a grave building in a
+courtyard, with a learned air about it that seemed very well suited to
+the stray rooks and jackdaws who came down from the Cathedral towers,
+and walked with a clerkly bearing on the grass-plat."
+
+Alas! it is not here, although there are many such houses that
+correspond with it in some particulars. So we try several of the "dear
+old tranquil streets," but fail to discover the identical building.
+
+The next object of our search is Mr. Wickfield's residence, "a very old
+house bulging out over the road; a house with low latticed windows,
+bulging out still further, and beams with carved heads on the ends,
+bulging out too." How strongly the description in many parts tallies
+with the houses in Rochester opposite "Eastgate House"; but here again
+we are baffled, as other modern pilgrims have been before, and we cannot
+associate any particular building with either of the two houses. The
+house in Burgate Street now occupied as offices by Messrs. Plummer and
+Fielding, Diocesan Registrars, who obligingly permit an examination of
+it, is suggested to us as being Mr. Wickfield's house, but, after an
+inspection, on several grounds we are obliged to reject this suggestion.
+
+[Illustration: Scene of the Martyrdom Canterbury Cathedral]
+
+[Illustration: "Bits" of Old Canterbury.]
+
+There was many a "low old-fashioned room, walked straight into from the
+street," which would have served for the "umble" dwelling of Uriah Heep
+and his mother, but none can be pointed out with absolute certainty as
+being the veritable one.
+
+By the kindness of Dr. Sheppard and Mr. T. B. Rosseter, F.R.M.S., we
+are, however, enabled to identify two houses in Canterbury alluded to
+in _David Copperfield_. The "County Inn," where Mr. Dick slept on his
+visits to David "every alternate Wednesday," was no doubt The Royal
+Fountain Hotel in St. Margaret's Street (formerly the Watling Street),
+which is still recognized as such. A passage in the seventeenth chapter
+thus refers to these visits:--
+
+          "Mr. Dick was very partial to ginger-bread. To
+          render his visits the more agreeable, my aunt had
+          instructed me to open a credit for him at a
+          cake-shop, which was hampered with the stipulation
+          that he should not be served with more than one
+          shilling's-worth in the course of any one day.
+          This, and the reference of all his little bills at
+          the County Inn, where he slept, to my aunt before
+          they were paid, induced me to think that Mr. Dick
+          was only allowed to rattle his money, and not to
+          spend it."
+
+The "little Inn" (as recorded in the same chapter) where Mr. Micawber
+"put up" on his first visit to Canterbury, and where he "occupied a
+little room in it partitioned off from the commercial, and strongly
+flavoured with tobacco smoke," is doubtless the "Sun Inn" in Sun Street,
+which is at the opposite corner of the square where the ancient
+"Chequers" in Mercery Lane--the Pilgrim's Inn of Chaucer--stood. It was
+a place of resort from afar, and was altered in the seventeenth century.
+Dr. Sheppard calls attention to the interesting fact that the omnibus
+from Herne Bay stopped at the Sun; and probably, in his visits to
+Broadstairs, Dickens would often run over for a day's trip to
+Canterbury.
+
+On their first visit to the "little Inn," Mr. and Mrs.
+Micawber--notwithstanding their chronic impecuniosity--thus entertained
+David Copperfield:--
+
+          "We had a beautiful little dinner. Quite an
+          elegant dish of fish; the kidney end of a loin of
+          veal roasted; fried sausage-meat; a partridge and
+          a pudding. There was wine, and there was strong
+          ale; and after dinner Mrs. Micawber made us a bowl
+          of hot punch with her own hands."
+
+They spent a jolly evening, and ended with singing _Auld Lang Syne_.
+
+The "little Inn" is again alluded to later in the story, where Mr.
+Micawber announces his full determination to abstain from everything
+until he has exposed the machinations of, and blown to pieces,
+"the--a--detestable serpent--HEEP;" and finally, where David Copperfield
+"assisted at an explosion," and Mr. Micawber is triumphant, and the
+"transcendent and immortal hypocrite and perjurer, HEEP," is forced to
+succumb.
+
+Speaking of the "little Inn" for the last time, David says:--"I looked
+at the old house from the corner of the street. . . . The early sun was
+striking edgewise on its gables and lattice-windows, touching them with
+gold; and some beams of its old peace seemed to touch my heart."
+
+Dr. Sheppard subsequently told us that, when he was beginning to turn
+his attention to the deciphering and utilizing of ancient MSS., he was
+much impressed, when perusing some articles in _Household Words_, or
+some other papers written by Dickens, relating to the neglected state of
+public records, more particularly at Canterbury; and when many years
+after the very records of which he wrote came under his (Dr. Sheppard's)
+care, he was surprised to find the names of Snodgrass, Sam Weller, and
+others therein. The records to which Dr. Sheppard referred were those in
+charge of the Archbishop's Registrar at Canterbury.
+
+If time permits it would be pleasant to go on to Dover,[33] to see "Miss
+Betsey Trotwood's house," but this is impossible; and indeed, all that
+can be said about a tramp in search of "that very neat little cottage
+with cheerful bow windows in front of it, a small square gravelled court
+or garden full of flowers carefully tended, and smelling deliciously,"
+has been well said by Mr. Ashby-Sterry in his delightful little volume,
+_Cucumber Chronicles_.
+
+[Illustration: "The Little Inn" Canterbury]
+
+After much perseverance, and in spite of almost as many difficulties as
+beset poor little David Copperfield himself in his search for his aunt
+(who, as the Dover boatmen told him, "lived in the South Foreland Light,
+and had singed her whiskers by doing so"--"that she was made fast to the
+great buoy outside the harbour, and could only be visited at
+half-tide"--"that she was locked up in Maidstone Jail for
+child-stealing"--and that "she was seen to mount a broom in the last
+high wind and make direct for Calais"), Mr. Ashby-Sterry succeeded,
+although his greatest embarrassment arose from that irrepressible
+nuisance, "Buggins the Builder," who cannot be controlled even in the
+neighbourhood of Dover, so "hugely does he delight to mar those spots
+that have been hallowed by antiquity, seclusion, or the pen of the
+novelist. Hence the abode of Betsey Trotwood is not so pleasant as it
+must have been formerly, for other houses have clustered about the back
+and the front." But Mr. Ashby-Sterry quite satisfied himself as to the
+identity on Dover Heights of the very neat little cottage, and assures
+us that "the house, however, still stands high, the fresh breezes from
+over the sea and across the Down smite it. It still has a view of the
+sea, though perhaps not so uninterrupted as it was in the days of David
+Copperfield." He further states that it is, perhaps, not quite so neat
+as it was in Miss Betsey Trotwood's time, though there are no donkeys
+about. Here are the bow windows, with the room above, where Mr. Dick
+alarmed poor David by nodding and laughing at him on his first arrival.
+The window on the right must have belonged to the neat room "with the
+drugget-covered carpet," and the old-fashioned furniture brightly
+polished, where might be found "the cat, the kettle-holder, the two
+canaries, the old china, the punch-bowl full of dried rose leaves, the
+tall press guarding all sorts of bottles and pots, and wonderfully out
+of keeping with the rest." On the strength of this description by an
+ardent lover of Dickens, we fully make up our minds to visit Dover at no
+distant date to see Miss Betsey Trotwood's house for ourselves.
+
+_� propos_ of Miss Trotwood's domicile, we have been favoured by Mr. C.
+K. Worsfold, an old resident of Dover, with a letter containing some
+interesting particulars, from which we extract the following:--
+
+"Dickens's description of the local habitation of Betsey Trotwood is not
+consistent with the surroundings. The hills on either side of the town
+belong to the War Department, and are occupied as fortifications; on the
+eastern side is the Castle, and on the western side barracks and forts.
+On the western heights there is a house somewhat answering to Dickens's
+description, having a garden in front of it, and a small plot of grass
+in front of the garden; and about forty years ago there lived in this
+house a lady of rather masculine character, who always resented any
+intrusion of boys, and perhaps donkeys, on the grass in front of her
+house and garden, and I believe she was occasionally rather rough with
+the boys; but there the likeness to Betsey Trotwood ends. This was a
+married lady living with her husband.
+
+"I know it was a matter of conversation forty years ago that Dickens
+must have found his original in the lady in question, but I think he was
+rather in the habit of selecting his characters without reference to
+locality, and then adapting them to his requirements.
+
+"Dickens was a frequent visitor to Dover, and he may possibly have been
+a witness of some encounter between this lady and the boys, and on that
+occasion donkeys may have been present.[34] I do not know of any
+relative of the lady answering to Miss Trotwood's worthy nephew."
+
+"A moderate stroke," as Mr. Datchery said, "is all I am justified in
+scoring up"; and we reluctantly leave the "sunny street of Canterbury,
+dozing, as it were, in the hot light," and take our places in the train
+for Chatham, distant about twenty-seven miles.
+
+The only new parts of interest which we go over, on our return journey
+by rail, are the green fields surrounding the ancient city, wherein are
+numbers of those beautiful and quiet-feeding cattle, which the eminent
+artist, Mr. T. Sidney Cooper, R.A. (who resides in the neighbourhood),
+loves to paint, and paints so well; and in due time we pass the
+chalk-topped hills called Harbledown, overlooking Canterbury, from
+whence the best view of the city is obtained, and safely reach our
+headquarters at Rochester.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[32] According to a "Note" in the _Rochester and Chatham Journal_, the
+derivation of this curious term is from _uro_ to burn (ustus).
+
+[33] One of the "Five Cinque Ports, and two Ancient Towns" often
+referred to, but not always remembered--Hastings, Sandwich, Dover, New
+Romney, Hythe, Winchelsea and Rye.
+
+[34] Mr. Charles Dickens kindly writes to me:--"The lady who objected to
+the donkeys lived at Broadstairs. I knew her when I was a boy."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+COOLING, CLIFFE, AND HIGHAM.
+
+        "And now the range of marshes lay clear before us,
+          with the sails of the ships on the river growing
+          out of it; and we went into the Churchyard . . .
+          and the light wind strewed it with beautiful
+          shadows of clouds and trees."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+          "What might have been your opinion of the place?"
+
+          "A most beastly place. Mudbank, mist, swamp and
+          work; work, swamp, mist, and mudbank."--_Great
+          Expectations._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+        "They were now in the open country; the houses
+          were very few and scattered at long intervals,
+          often miles apart. Occasionally they came upon a
+          cluster of poor cottages, some with a chair or low
+          board put across the open door, to keep the
+          scrambling children from the road; others shut up
+          close, while all the family were working in the
+          fields. These were often the commencement of a
+          little village; and after an interval came a
+          wheelwright's shed, or perhaps a blacksmith's
+          forge; then a thriving farm, with sleepy cows
+          lying about the yard, and horses peering over the
+          low wall, and scampering away when harnessed
+          horses passed upon the road, as though in triumph
+          at their freedom."--_The Old Curiosity Shop._
+
+
+NOW for a long tramp in the country of the Marshes--the famous "Meshes"
+of _Great Expectations_. The air is sultry on this Thursday afternoon,
+and there is thunder in the distance. The storm, however, does not pass
+over Rochester, but further on we find traces of it where the roadways
+have been washed up. Afterwards the air becomes deliciously cool, and
+that hum of all Nature which succeeds the quiet preceding the storm is
+distinctly perceptible. Crossing Rochester Bridge, keeping to the right
+along Strood and Frindsbury--the churchyard of which affords a splendid
+view of Rochester, Chatham, and the Medway--passing up Four Elms Hill
+and through the little village of Wainscot, nothing of interest calls
+for notice until we have travelled some miles from Strood. After
+crossing a tramway belonging to Government, and utilized by the Royal
+Engineers as a means of communication between the powder-magazine and
+Chatham Barracks, we observe that vegetation, which is so rich in other
+parts of Kent, here appears to be dwarfed and stunted. A hop-garden
+presents a very miserable contrast, in its struggle for existence, to
+others we have seen in the more central parts of the county, and even
+some of these were far from being luxuriant, owing to such a peculiarly
+wet and cold season. The hedges in places are diversified with the small
+gold and violet star-like flowers and the green and scarlet berries of
+the climbing woody nightshade, or bitter-sweet (_Solanum Dulcamara_),
+often mistaken for the deadly nightshade (_Atropa Belladonna_--a fine
+bushy herbaceous perennial, with large ovate-shaped leaves, and lurid,
+purple bell-shaped flowers), quite a different plant, and happily
+somewhat rare in England. The delicate light-blue flowers of the chicory
+are very abundant here.
+
+A tramp of upwards of six miles from Rochester, by way of Hoo,[35]
+brings us to Lodge Hill, overlooking Perry Hill, which affords a
+magnificent view of the mouth of the Thames beyond the low-lying
+Marshes, and of Canvey Island, off the coast of Essex, on the opposite
+side. By the kindness of a farmer's wife we are allowed to take a short
+cut through the farm-garden and grounds, which leads direct to Cooling
+(or Cowling) Church, a cheerless, grey-stone structure, the tower
+standing out as a beacon long before we reach it.
+
+Those unacquainted with this part of Kent may be interested in knowing
+that the Marshes, which stretch out over a considerable distance on
+either side of the Thames, on both the Kent and the Essex coasts,
+consist entirely of alluvial soil reclaimed at some time from the river.
+They are intersected by ditches and water-courses, and covered with rank
+vegetation, chiefly of grass, rushes, and flags, where not cultivated.
+Higher up the land is rich, and large tracts of it are planted with
+vegetables as market gardens. Sea-gulls, plovers, and herons are
+numerous; their call-notes in the still evening sounding shrill and
+uncanny over the long stretches of flat lands.
+
+Dear old Michael Drayton, the Warwickshire poet, who touched upon almost
+everything, has not omitted to describe the Marshes in a somewhat
+similar locality, for in the _Polyolbion_ (Song XVIII.) he gracefully
+compares them to a female enamoured of the beauties of the River Rother,
+thus:--
+
+  "Appearing to the flood, most bravely like a Queen,
+   Clad all from head to foot, in gaudy Summer's green,
+   Her mantle richly wrought with sundry flow'rs and weeds;
+   Her moistful temples bound with wreaths of quiv'ring reeds;
+   And on her loins a frock, with many a swelling plait,
+   Emboss'd with well-spread horse, large sheep, and full-fed neat;
+   With villages amongst, oft powthered here and there;
+   And (that the same more like to landscape should appear)
+   With lakes and lesser fords, to mitigate the heat
+   In summer, when the fly doth prick the gadding neat."
+
+Readers of _Great Expectations_ will remember that the scene in the
+first chapter between Pip and the convict, Magwitch, is laid in Cooling
+churchyard, and on reaching this spot we are instantly reminded of what
+doubtless gave origin to the idea of the five dead little brothers of
+poor Philip Pirrip, for there, on the left of the principal pathway, are
+indeed, not five stone lozenges, but _ten_ in one row and three more at
+the back of them, such peculiarly-shaped and curiously-arranged little
+monuments as we never before beheld. They consist of a grey stone
+(Kentish-rag, probably, but lichen-encrusted by time) of cylindrical
+shape, widening at the shoulders, coffin-like, and about a yard in
+length, the diameter being about eight inches, including the portion
+buried in the earth. Four little foot-stones are placed in front, and
+separating the ten little memorials from the three at the back is a
+large head-stone, bearing the name--"Comport of Cowling Court, 1771."
+Cooling Church, which has the date 1615 on one of the bells, has an
+example of a Hagioscope, a curious, small, square, angular, tunnel-like
+opening through the wall, which divides the nave from the chancel. It is
+said to have been the place through which those members of the church,
+who were unworthy or unable to receive the sacred elements, might get a
+look at their more acceptable companions during the administration of
+the sacrament. The Rev. W. H. A. Leaver, the Rector, who kindly shows us
+over his church, in reply to our question as to whether he could give
+any information about Charles Dickens, said that he was a new-comer in
+the district, and that all he remembers is, that when his sister was a
+little baby in arms, her mother happened once to be travelling in the
+same train with the great novelist, who, with his usual kindness, gave
+the child an orange, which she acknowledged very ungratefully by
+scratching his face!
+
+The following is a picture of the neighbourhood, given in the opening
+sentences of the story:--
+
+          "Ours was the marsh country, down by the river,
+          within, as the river wound, twenty miles of the
+          sea. My first most vivid and broad impression of
+          the identity of things, seems to me to have been
+          gained on a memorable raw afternoon towards
+          evening. At such a time, I found out for certain,
+          that this bleak place overgrown with nettles was
+          the churchyard; and that Philip Pirrip, late of
+          this parish, and also Georgiana, wife of above,
+          were dead and buried; and that Alexander,
+          Bartholomew, Abraham, Tobias, and Roger, infant
+          children of the aforesaid, were also dead and
+          buried; and that the dark flat wilderness beyond
+          the churchyard, intersected with dykes, and
+          mounds, and gates, with scattered cattle feeding
+          on it, was the marshes; and that the low leaden
+          line beyond was the river; and that the distant
+          savage lair, from which the wind was rushing, was
+          the sea; and that the small bundle of shivers
+          growing afraid of it all, and beginning to cry,
+          was Pip."
+
+[Illustration: Graves of the Comport Family: in Cooling Churchyard]
+
+Here follows the appearance of the awful convict, and the terrible
+threats by which he induces Pip to bring him "that file and them
+wittles" on the morrow; to enforce obedience the convict tilts Pip two
+or three times, "and then" [says Pip] "he gave me a most tremendous dip
+and roll, so that the church jumped over its own weathercock." Then he
+held him by the arms in an upright position on the top of the stone,
+finally threatening him "with having his heart and liver torn out," in
+case of non-compliance.
+
+All the characters described in _Great Expectations_, and all the scenes
+wherein they played their parts--Pip, with and without his "great
+expectations"; his sister Mrs. Joe Gargery, "on the rampage with
+Tickler;" Joe Gargery, "ever the best of friends, dear Pip;" Mr. and
+Mrs. Hubble, the former fond of "a bit of savoury pork pie as would lay
+atop of anything you could mention and do no harm;" the stage-struck
+Wopsle, _alias_ "Mr. Waldengarver"; "the servile Pumblechook;" the two
+convicts, "Pip's convict," Magwitch, with "the great iron on his leg,"
+and the "other convict," Compeyson, also ironed; "slouching old" Orlick;
+Biddy, simple-hearted and loving; "the Serjeant" and "party of
+soldiers"; Mr. Jaggers, "the Old Bailey lawyer"; Estella, Miss Havisham,
+Herbert Pocket, and Bentley Drummle at "the market town"; Joe's Forge
+(now converted into a dwelling-house); "The Three Jolly Bargemen"
+(obviously taken from "The Three Horse-shoes," the present village inn);
+the "old Battery," "the little sluice-house by the lime-kiln;"--all
+centre round Cooling churchyard, and appear before us as though traced
+on a map.
+
+Forster says in the _Life_:--"It is strange as I transcribe the words,
+with what wonderful vividness they bring back the very spot on which we
+stood when he said he meant to make it the scene of the opening of
+this story--Cooling Castle ruins and the desolate Church, lying out
+among the marshes seven miles from Gad's Hill!"
+
+[Illustration: Cooling Church.]
+
+Beyond where the river runs to the sea, we conjure up the chase and
+recapture of Pip's convict, while poor Pip himself, assisted by his
+friend Herbert Pocket, is straining every nerve to get him away. As
+illustrative of the wonderfully careful way in which Dickens did all his
+work, we also read in Forster's _Life_:--
+
+"To make himself sure of the actual course of a boat in such
+circumstances, and what possible incidents the adventure might have,
+Dickens hired a steamer for the day from Blackwall to Southend. Eight or
+nine friends, and three or four members of his family, were on board,
+and he seemed to have no care, the whole of that summer day (22nd of
+May, 1861), except to enjoy their enjoyment and entertain them with his
+own in shape of a thousand whims and fancies; but his sleepless
+observation was at work all the time, and nothing had escaped his keen
+vision on either side of the river. The fifteenth chapter of the third
+volume is a masterpiece."
+
+Speaking generally of this fascinating story, which possesses a
+thousand-fold greater interest to us now we visit the country there
+described (not formerly very accessible, but now readily approached by
+the railway from Gravesend to Sheerness, alighting at Cliffe, the
+nearest station to Cooling), Forster says:--
+
+"It may be doubted if Dickens could better have established his right to
+the front rank among novelists claimed for him, than by the ease and
+mastery with which, in these two books of _Copperfield_ and _Great
+Expectations_, he kept perfectly distinct the two stories of a boy's
+childhood, both told in the form of autobiography."
+
+The marshes are also alluded to twice in _Bleak House_--first, in
+chapter one--"Fog on the Essex marshes, fog on the Kentish heights;" and
+secondly, in the twenty-sixth chapter, in the dialogue between Trooper
+George and his odd but kind-hearted attendant Phil Squod, the original
+of which, by the bye, was a Chatham character.
+
+          "'And so, Phil,' says George of the shooting
+          gallery, after several turns in silence; 'you were
+          dreaming of the country last night.'
+
+          "Phil, by the bye, said as much, in a tone of
+          surprise, as he scrambled out of bed.
+
+          "'Yes, guv'ner.'
+
+          "'What was it like?'
+
+          "'I hardly know what it was like, guv'ner,' said
+          Phil, considering.
+
+          "'How did you know it was the country?'
+
+          "'On accounts of the grass, I think. And the swans
+          upon it,' says Phil, after further consideration.
+
+          "'What were the swans doing on the grass?'
+
+          "'They was a eating of it, I expect,' says
+          Phil. . . .
+
+          "'The country,' says Mr. George, applying his
+          knife and fork, 'why I suppose you never clapped
+          your eyes on the country, Phil?'
+
+          "'I see the marshes once,' says Phil, contentedly
+          eating his breakfast.
+
+          "'What marshes?'
+
+          "'_The_ marshes, commander,' returns Phil.
+
+          "'Where are they?'
+
+          "'I don't know where they are,' says Phil, 'but I
+          see 'em, guv'ner. They was flat. And miste.'"
+
+Forster says:--"About the whole of this Cooling churchyard, indeed, and
+the neighbouring castle ruins, there was a weird strangeness that made
+it one of his [Dickens's] attractive walks in the late year or winter,
+when from Higham he could get to it across country, over the stubble
+fields; and, for a shorter summer walk, he was not less fond of going
+round the village of Shorne, and sitting on a hot afternoon in its
+pretty shady churchyard."
+
+Altogether, the place has a dreary and lonesome appearance in the close
+of the summer evening, and we can picture with wonderful vividness the
+remarkable scenes described in _Great Expectations_, as the lurid purple
+reflection from the setting sun spreads over the Thames valley, and
+lights up the marshes; the tall pollards standing out like spectres
+contribute to the weirdness and beauty of the scene.
+
+Dickens was not the only admirer of the Marshes. Turner also visited
+them, and painted some of his most famous pictures from observation
+there, namely "Stangate Creek," "Shrimping Sands," and "Off Sheerness."
+
+A few paces from the church brings us to Cooling Castle, built by Sir
+John de Cobham, the third Baron Cobham, in the reign of Richard II.,
+whose arms appear on the gatehouse, together with a very curious motto
+in early English characters. We extract the following interesting
+account of the tower from the _Arch�ologia Cantiana_ (vol. xi.):--
+
+[Illustration: Gateway Cooling Castle]
+
+"On the south face of the eastern Outer Gate Tower, we see the
+well-known inscription, which takes the form of a Charter, with Lord
+Cobham's seal appended to it. This is formed of fourteen copper plates
+exquisitely enamelled. The writing is in black, while the ground is of
+white enamel; the seal and silk cords are of the proper colours. The
+whole work is an exquisite example of enamel, which after five hundred
+years' exposure to the weather remains nearly as good as when it was put
+up. The inscription states very clearly why Lord Cobham erected a castle
+here, viz. for the safety of the country. The French invasion had shewn
+the need, and the inscription was perhaps intended to disarm the
+suspicions and hostility of the serfs by reminding them of that need.
+It runs thus, in four lines, each enamelled upon three plates of
+copper:--
+
+          "'Knoweth that beth and schul be
+            That i am mad in help of the cuntre
+            In knowyng of whyche thyng
+            Thys is chartre and witnessyng.'"
+
+"(Seal, 'gules', on a chevron 'or' three lions rampant 'sable'.)
+
+"Inscriptions are rare on Gothic buildings, especially on castles. This
+at Coulyng is remarkable from being in English, at a time when Latin was
+employed in all charters; it contains that early form of the plural
+'beth' instead of 'are.' The inscription measures thirty-two inches by
+fourteen, and the diameter of the seal is no less than seven and a
+quarter inches long."
+
+After stopping a short time to admire the imposing entrance gate and the
+remains of the ancient moat, we wend our way for two or three miles, by
+lanes and "over the stubble-fields," to the straggling village of
+Cliffe,[36] the houses of which are very old and mostly weather-boarded.
+The approach to the church is by a rare example of a lich-gate, having a
+room over it for muniments, and the church itself (which is very large,
+and seems to be out of proportion to the size of the village) stands in
+a commanding position on a ridge of chalk, overlooking the marshes, from
+whence the views of the river in the distance are very fine. It is
+supposed to be the place where the Saxon Church held its councils, and
+there is a local tradition of a ferry having once existed near here.
+Evidence of this seems to survive in the fact that all the roads both on
+the Kent and Essex shores appear to converge to this point. The church
+has some interesting _miserere_ stalls and brasses to the Faunce family
+(17th century). On the walls we find specimens of that somewhat rare
+fern, the scaly spleenwort (_Ceterach officinarum_).
+
+[Illustration: Cliffe Church]
+
+Time does not permit us to go on to Gravesend, which like this place
+was one of Dickens's favourite spots ("We come, you see" [says Mr.
+Peggotty, speaking of himself and Ham to David Copperfield, when they
+visited him at Salem House], "the wind and tide making in our favor, in
+one of our Yarmouth lugs to Gravesen'"), so we defer our visit to that
+popular resort until another occasion.
+
+We notice in places where the harvest has been cleared (which, alas!
+owing to excess of wet and absence of sun, has not been an abundant
+one), preparations for cultivation next year, exhibiting that peculiar
+effect from ploughing which that gifted writer and born naturalist, the
+late Richard Jeffreys, described in his book _Wild Life in a Southern
+County_, with that love for common things which was so characteristic of
+him:--
+
+"The ploughmen usually take special care with their work near public
+roads, so that the furrows end on to the base of the highway shall be
+mathematically straight. They often succeed so well that the furrows
+look as if traced with a ruler, and exhibit curious effects of vanishing
+perspective. Along the furrow, just as it is turned, there runs a
+shimmering light as the eye traces it up. The ploughshare, heavy and
+drawn with great force, smooths the earth as it cleaves it, giving it
+for a time a 'face,' as it were, the moisture on which reflects the
+light. If you watch the farmers driving to market, you will see that
+they glance up the furrows to note the workmanship and look for game;
+you may tell from a distance if they espy a hare, by the check of the
+rein and the extended hand pointing."
+
+Our destination is now Higham--"Higham by Rochester, Kent,"--Dickens's
+nearest village, in which, from his first coming to Gad's Hill, he took
+the deepest interest, and after a further long tramp of nearly four
+miles steadily maintained, we reach Lower Higham towards dusk; and in a
+lane we ask an old labourer (who looks as though he would be all the
+better for "Three Acres and a Cow") if we are on the right road to
+Higham Station. Curtly but civilly the man answers, "Keep straight on,"
+when an incident occurs which brightens up matters considerably. The
+questioner says to the labourer, "Do you remember the late Charles
+Dickens?" (We always spoke, when in the district, of "the _late_ Charles
+Dickens," to distinguish him from his eldest son, who lived at Gad's
+Hill for some years after his father's death. Frequently the great
+novelist was spoken of by residents as "old Mr. Dickens!")
+
+"Do I remember Muster Dickens?" responds the venerable rustic, and his
+eyes sparkle, and his face beams with such animation that he becomes a
+different being. "Of course I do; he used to have games--running,
+jumping, and such-like--for us working people, and I've often won a
+prize. He used to come among us and give us refreshments, and make
+himself very pleasant."
+
+"How long have you lived in this parish?" says the questioner.
+
+"Sixty-seven year," is the answer.
+
+Time prevents further inquiries, so we bid our friend "good-evening."
+
+In referring to the sports at Gad's Hill, Mr. Langton has recorded how a
+friend sent him a broadside of a portion of one day's amusements, which
+from its amateurish appearance was probably printed by Dickens's sons at
+the private printing-press before alluded to. The occasion was the 26th
+December, 1866, and the Christmas sports were held in a field at the
+back of Gad's Hill Place. Mr. Trood, a former landlord of the "Sir John
+Falstaff" (whose name has been previously mentioned), had, by permission
+of Charles Dickens, a booth erected for the refreshment of persons
+contesting. The attendance was between two and three thousand, and there
+was not a single case of misconduct or damage. Mr. A. H. Layard, M.P.
+(afterwards Sir Austin Layard), was present, and took great interest in
+the proceedings, Dickens having appointed him "chief commissioner of the
+domestic police." Sir Austin Layard said of the sports, "Dickens seemed
+to have bound every creature present upon what honour the creature had
+to keep order. What was the special means used, or the art employed, it
+might have been difficult to say, but that was the result." We made
+every effort to obtain one of the bills of these sports, but without
+success, and therefore take the liberty of quoting from Mr. Langton's
+copy:--
+
+                             =Christmas Sports.=
+                            The All-Comers' Race.
+                       Distance--Once round the field.
+           First Prize 10_s._; Second, 5_s._; Third, 2_s._ 6_d._
+          Entries to be made in MR. TROOD'S tent before 12 o'clock.
+                              To start at 2.45.
+                            Starter--M. STONE, ESQ.
+                      Judge and Referee--C. DICKENS, ESQ.
+                 Clerk of the Course--C. DICKENS, JUNR., ESQ.
+          Stewards and Keepers of the Course--MESSRS. A. H. LAYARD,
+                 M.P., H. CHORLEY, J. HULKES, and H. DICKENS.
+
+In a letter written to Mr. Forster next day, Dickens said, "The road
+between this and Chatham was like a fair all day, and surely it is a
+fine thing to get such perfect behaviour out of a reckless sea-port
+town."
+
+We presently meet with another representative of the class of village
+labourer at Upper Higham, a cheery old man, although, as is sadly too
+often the case in his class, he was suffering from "the Rheumatiz."
+"Those are nice chrysanthemums in your garden," we observe. "Yes, they
+are, sir," he replies; "but if they had been better attended to when
+they was young, they'd have been nicer." "Well, I suppose both of us
+would," is the rejoinder. We are in touch on the instant. Our new
+acquaintance laughs, and so a question or two is put to him, and the
+following is the substance of his answers, rendered _� la_ Jingle but
+very feelingly:--
+
+"Mr. Dickens was a nice sort of man--very much liked--missed a great
+deal when he died--poor people and the like felt the miss of him. He was
+a man as shifted a good deal of money in the place. You see, he had a
+lot of friends--kept a good many horses,--and then there was the men to
+attend to 'em, and the corn-chandler, the blacksmith, the wheelwright,
+and others to be paid--the poor--and such-like--felt the miss of him
+when he died."
+
+"How long have you lived here?"
+
+"Well, I come in '45, eleven years before Mr. Dickens."
+
+"And I suppose you are over sixty."
+
+"Well, sir, I shall never see seventy again."
+
+Wishing our friend "good-night," we continue our tramp. On another
+occasion we met, in the same place, a third specimen of village
+labourer, "a mender of roads," who knew Charles Dickens, and so we
+walked and chatted pleasantly with him for some distance. Said our
+informant, "You see, Mr. Dickens was a very liberal man; he held his
+head high up when he walked, and went at great strides." The "mender of
+roads" was some years ago a candidate for a vacant place as
+under-gardener at Gad's Hill, but the situation was filled up just an
+hour before he applied for it. He said Mr. Dickens gave him
+half-a-crown, and afterwards always recognized him when he met him with
+a pleasant nod, or cheerfully "passed the time of day." We heard in many
+places that Dickens was "always kindly" in this way to his own
+domestics, and to the villagers in a like station of life to our
+intelligent friend "the mender of roads." A fourth villager, a groom,
+who had been in his present situation for twenty years, said:--"Both the
+old gentleman and young Mr. Charles were very much liked in Higham.
+There wasn't a single person in the place, I believe, but what had a
+good word for them."
+
+It may be interesting to mention that Higham--the old name of which was
+Lillechurch--is an extensive parish divided into several hamlets. In a
+useful little book published in 1882, called _A Handbook of Higham_, the
+Rev. C. H. Fielding, M.A., the author, says:--"There are few parishes
+more interesting than Higham, as it provides food for the antiquarian
+and the student of Nature; while its position near the 'Medway smooth,
+and the Royal-masted Thame,' affords to the artist many an opportunity
+for a picture, while the idler has the privilege of lovely views." Mr.
+Roach Smith was of opinion that Higham was the seat of "a great Roman
+pottery." A Monastery of importance existed here for several centuries,
+Mary, daughter of King Stephen, being one of the Prioresses; but it was
+dissolved by Henry VIII. The list of flowering plants given in Mr.
+Fielding's book is extensive and interesting, and contains many
+rarities.
+
+A "Cheap Jack," a veritable Doctor Marigold, had taken up his quarters
+at Higham, and we loiter among the bystanders to hear his patter. We
+feel quite sure that had Dickens been present he would have listened and
+been as amused with him as ourselves. We heard a few days previously the
+public crier going round in his cart, announcing the arrival of this
+worthy by ringing his bell and proclaiming in a stentorian voice
+something to this effect:--
+
+"The public is respectfully informed that the Cheap Jack has arrived,
+bringing with him a large assortment of London, Birmingham, and
+Sheffield goods, together with a choice collection of glass and
+earthenware, which he will sell every evening at the most reasonable
+prices."
+
+On our arrival here we find him on his rostrum surrounded by some
+flaring naphtha lamps, and thus disposing of some penny books of songs:
+"Now, ladies and gentlemen, what shall we have the pleasure of saying
+for this handsome book, containing over a hundred songs sung by all the
+great singers of the day--Macdermott, Madam Langtry, Sims Reeves, and
+other eminent vocalists--besides numerous toasts and readings. Well, I
+won't ask sixpence, and I won't take fivepence, fourpence, threepence,
+twopence--no, I only ask a penny. Sold again, and got the money. Take
+care of the ha'pence" (to his assistant), "for we gives them to the
+blind when they can see to pick 'em up." We of course bought a copy of
+the famous collection as a "Dickens-item."
+
+Before returning to Rochester we are anxious to identify the
+blacksmith's shop where the _feu de joie_ was fired from "two smuggled
+cannons," in honour of the marriage of Miss Kate Dickens to Mr. Charles
+Collins. Alterations have taken place which render identification
+impossible; but a local blacksmith, who has established himself here,
+gives us some interesting particulars of the games in which he took
+part. He mentions also a circumstance relating to Dickens's favourite
+horse, Toby. It appears that it was an express wish of the novelist that
+when he died this horse should be shot; and according to our informant
+the horse was shod on the Tuesday before the 9th of June (the day of
+Dickens's death), and shot on the following Monday. The gun was loaded
+with small shot, and poor Toby died immediately it was fired. The
+blacksmith thoroughly confirms the opinion of the old labourers as to
+the kindness of Charles Dickens to his poorer neighbours. A curious
+episode occurs in our conference with this man: he seems under the
+impression, which no amount of assertion on our part can overcome, that
+my friend and fellow tramp, Mr. Kitton, is Mr. Henry Fielding Dickens.
+Whether there was any facial resemblance or likeness of manner did not
+transpire, but again and again he kept saying, "Now ain't you Harry
+Dickens?" Among the names at Higham we notice that of a well-remembered
+Dickens character--Mr. Stiggins!
+
+On arriving at Higham Railway Station, we chat a bit with the
+station-master and porter there, but both are comparatively fresh comers
+and knew not Charles Dickens. After an enjoyable but somewhat fatiguing
+tramp, we are glad to take a late evening train from Higham to Strood,
+and thus ends our inspection of the land of "the Meshes."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+By the kindness of Mr. Henry Smetham (locally famed as the "Laureate of
+Strood"), we subsequently had an introduction to Mrs. Taylor, formerly
+school-mistress at Higham, who came there in 1860, and remained until
+some years after the death of Charles Dickens. She knew the novelist
+well, and used to see him almost every day when he was at home. She
+said, "If I had met him and did not know who he was, I should have set
+him down as a good-hearted English gentleman." He was very popular and
+much liked in the neighbourhood. On his return from America, in the
+first week of May, 1868, garlands of flowers were put by the villagers
+across the road from the railway station to Gad's Hill. There was a flag
+at Gad's (a Union Jack, she thinks), which was always hoisted when
+Dickens was at home. He never read at Higham, and never came to the
+school; but he always allowed the use of the meadow at the back of Gad's
+Hill Place for the school treats, either of church or chapel, and
+contributed to such treats sweets and what not.
+
+Mrs. Taylor remembers that the carriage was sent down from Gad's Hill
+Place to the Higham railway station nearly every night at ten o'clock to
+meet either Charles Dickens or his friends. It passed the school, and
+she well recollects the pleasant sound made by the bells. She heard
+Dickens read _Sairey Gamp_ in London once, and did not like the dress he
+wore, but thought the reading very wonderful.
+
+This lady says she was in London at the time of the death of Charles
+Dickens, the announcement of which she saw on a newspaper placard, and
+was ill the whole of the day afterwards. It was a sorrowful day for her.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We are much indebted to Mrs. Budden of Gad's Hill Place for the
+following interesting particulars which she obtained from Mrs. Easedown,
+of Higham, "who was parlour-maid to Mr. Dickens, and left to be married
+on the 8th of June, the day he was seized with the fit. She says it was
+her duty to hoist the flag on the top of the house directly Mr. Dickens
+arrived at Gad's Hill. It was a small flag, not more than fourteen
+inches square, and was kept in the billiard-room. She says he was the
+dearest and best gentleman that ever lived, and the kindest of masters.
+He asked her to stay and wait at table the night he was taken ill; she
+said if he wished it she would, and then he said, 'Never mind; I don't
+feel well.' She saw him after he was dead, laid out in the dining-room,
+when his coffin was covered with scarlet geraniums--his favourite
+flower. The flower-beds on the lawns at Gad's Hill in his time were
+always filled with scarlet geraniums; they have since been done away
+with. Over the head of the coffin was the oil painting of himself as a
+young man (probably Maclise's portrait)--on one side a picture of 'Dolly
+Varden,' and on the other 'Kate Nickleby.' He gave Mrs. Easedown, on the
+day she left his service, a photograph of himself with his name written
+on the back. Each of the other servants at Gad's Hill Place was
+presented with a similar photograph. She said he was unusually busy at
+the time of his death, as on the Monday morning he ordered breakfast to
+be ready during the week at 7.30 ('Sharp, mind') instead of his usual
+time, 9 o'clock, as he said 'he had so much to do before Friday.'
+But--'Such a thing was never to be,' for on the Thursday he breathed his
+last!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mrs. Wright, the wife of Mr. Henry Wright, surveyor of Higham, lived
+four years at Gad's Hill Place as parlour-maid. She is the proud
+possessor of some interesting relics of her late master. These include
+his soup-plate, a meerschaum pipe (presented to him, but he chiefly
+smoked cigars--he was not a great smoker), a wool-worked kettle-holder
+(which he constantly used), and a pair of small bellows. When she was
+married Mr. Dickens presented her with a China tea service, "not a
+single piece of which," said Mrs. Wright proudly, "has been broken."
+
+She remembers, at the time of her engagement as parlour-maid, that the
+servants told her to let a gentleman in at the front door who was
+approaching. She didn't know who it was, as she had never seen Mr.
+Dickens before. She opened the door, and the gentleman entered in a very
+upright manner, and after thanking her, looked hard at her, and then
+walked up-stairs. On returning to the kitchen the servants asked who it
+was that had just come in. She replied, "I don't know, but I think it
+was the master." "Did he speak?" they asked. "No," said she, "but he
+looked at me in a very determined way." Said they, "He was reading your
+character, and he now knows you thoroughly," or words to that effect.
+
+As parlour-maid, it was part of her duty to carve and wait on her master
+specially. The dinner serviettes were wrapped up in a peculiar manner,
+and Mrs. Wright remembers that Lord Darnley's servants were always
+anxious to learn how the folding was done, but they never discovered the
+secret. At dinner-parties, it was the custom to place a little
+"button-hole" for each guest. This was mostly made up of scarlet
+geranium (Dickens's favourite flower), with a bit of the leaf and a
+frond of maidenhair fern. On one occasion in her early days, the
+dinner-lift (to the use of which she was unaccustomed) broke and ran
+down quickly, smashing the crockery and bruising her arm. Mr. Dickens
+jumped up quickly and said, "Never mind the breakage; is your arm
+hurt?" As it was painful, he immediately applied arnica to the bruise,
+and gave her a glass of port wine, "treating me," Mrs. Wright remarked,
+"more like a child of his own than a servant."
+
+When she was married, and left Gad's Hill, she brought her first child
+to show her former master. He took notice of it, and asked her what he
+could buy as a present. She thanked him, and said she did not want
+anything. On leaving he gently put a sovereign into the baby's little
+hand, and said, "Buy something with that."
+
+Mrs. Wright spoke of the great interest which Dickens took in the
+children's treats at Higham, lending his meadow for them, providing
+sweets and cakes for the little ones, and apples to be scrambled for. He
+took great delight in seeing the scrambles.
+
+She also referred to the cricket club, and said that when the matches
+were going on it was a regular holiday at Higham. Dickens used to take
+the scores, and at the end of the game he gave prizes and made little
+speeches. Her husband, Mr. Henry Wright, acted as secretary to the club,
+and is the possessor of a letter written by Mr. Dickens, in reply to an
+address which had been presented to him, of which letter the following
+is a copy:--
+
+
+                                  "GAD'S HILL PLACE,
+                               "HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT.
+                                 "_Tuesday, 29th July, 1862._
+
+          "DEAR SIR,
+
+          "As your name is the first on the list of
+          signatures to the little address I have had the
+          pleasure of receiving--on my return from a short
+          absence--from the greater part of the players in
+          the match the other day, I address my reply to
+          you.
+
+          "I beg you to assure the rest that it will always
+          give me great pleasure to lend my meadow for any
+          such good purpose, and that I feel a sincere
+          desire to be a good friend to the working men in
+          this neighbourhood. I am always interested in
+          their welfare, and am always heartily glad to see
+          them enjoying rational and healthful recreation.
+
+          "It did not escape my notice that some expressions
+          were used the other day which would have been
+          better avoided, but I dismiss them from my mind as
+          being probably unintentional, and certainly
+          opposed to the general good feeling and good
+          sense.
+
+                             "Faithfully yours,
+                                        "CHARLES DICKENS.
+          "MR. H. WRIGHT."
+
+Both Mrs. Easedown and Mrs. Wright informed us (through Mrs. Budden)
+that "Mr. Dickens was the best of masters, and a dear good man; that he
+gave a great deal away in the parish, and was very much missed; that he
+frequently went to church and sat in the chancel. . . . When he lived in
+Higham there used to be a great deal of ague, and he gave away an
+immense quantity of port wine and quinine. Since the Cement Works have
+been at Cliffe there has been very little ague at Higham."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mr. Robert Lake Cobb, of Mockbeggar House, Higham, a land agent of high
+position and a County Councillor, told us that he took in the _Pickwick
+Papers_ as they appeared in numbers, and he recollected how eagerly he
+read them, and how tiresome it was to have to wait month by month until
+the story was finished. The book made a tremendous sensation at the
+time. Many years afterwards Charles Dickens came to reside at Gad's Hill
+Place, and the families became intimate. "Mr. Dickens," observed our
+informant, "was a very pleasant neighbour, and had always got something
+nice to say. He was a dreadful man to walk--very few could keep up with
+him."
+
+Mr. Cobb had one son, Herbert, who was a playfellow of Dickens's boys;
+and as illustrative of the interest he took in his neighbours, on one
+occasion the novelist and our informant were talking over matters, when
+the former said, "What are you going to bring your boy up to?" "A land
+agent," replied Mr. Cobb. "Ah," said the novelist, "whatever you do,
+make him self-reliant." He thought that of all the sons Mr. Henry
+Fielding Dickens most resembled his father.
+
+Among the notable people Mr. Cobb met at Gad's Hill Place were Mr.
+Forster, Mr. Wilkie Collins, Mr. Fechter the actor, and others. When
+Hans Christian Andersen was visiting there, Dickens took him to Higham
+Church. Mr. Cobb spoke of the pleasant picnic parties which Dickens gave
+on Blue Bell Hill. He was of opinion that Cob-Tree Hall in that
+neighbourhood, about one and a half miles from Aylesford, nearly
+parallel with the river, suggested the original of Manor Farm, Dingley
+Dell. It formerly belonged to Mr. Franklin, and is now occupied by Major
+Trousdell. Mr. Cobb believed that Dickens took the title of _No
+Thoroughfare_--which he and Wilkie Collins contributed to the 1867
+number of _All the Year Round_, and in the dramatizing of which Dickens
+subsequently was so interested--from the notice-boards which were put up
+by Lord Darnley in many parts of Cobham Park.
+
+On one occasion our informant remembers a stoppage of the train in
+Higham tunnel, which caused some consternation to the passengers, as no
+explanation of the delay was forthcoming from any of the railway
+officials. The station-master coming up at the time, Dickens
+remarked--"Ah! an unwilling witness, Mr. Wood."
+
+Mr. Cobb mentioned that Miss Hogarth, Dickens's sister-in-law, was a
+great favourite in the neighbourhood, from her kindness and
+thoughtfulness for all with whom she came in contact, and especially the
+poor of Higham.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[35] Speaking of Hoo, Lambarde says (1570)--"Hoh in the old English
+signifieth sorrow or sickness, wherewith the Inhabitants of that
+unwholesome Hundred be very much exercised[!]."
+
+[36] Lambarde says, "The Town [of Cliffe at Hoo] is large, and hath
+hitherto a great Parish Church: and (as I have been told) many of the
+houses were casually burned (about the same time that the Emperor
+_Charles_ came into this Realme to visite King _Henry_ the eight), of
+which hurt it was never thorowly cured."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+COBHAM PARK AND HALL, THE LEATHER BOTTLE, SHORNE, CHALK, AND THE DOVER
+ROAD.
+
+        "It's a place you may well be fond of and attached
+          to, for it's the prettiest spot in all the country
+          round."--_The Village Coquettes._
+
+        "The last soft light of the setting sun had fallen
+          on the earth, casting a rich glow on the yellow
+          corn sheaves, and lengthening the shadows of the
+          orchard trees."--_The Pickwick Papers._
+
+
+WE reserve this, our last long tramp in "Dickens-Land," for the Friday
+before our departure. Mrs. Perugini, the novelist's second daughter, had
+recently told us that this was the most beautiful of all the beautiful
+parts of Kent, and so indeed it proves to be. Its sylvan scenery is
+truly unique.
+
+Mr. Charles Dickens the younger, in his valuable annotated Jubilee
+edition of _Pickwick_, has included this note relating to Cobham:--
+
+"As all the world knows, the neighbourhood of Rochester was dear to
+Charles Dickens. There it is that Gad's Hill Place stands, the house to
+which, as 'a queer, small boy,' he looked forward as the possible reward
+of an industrious career, and in which he passed the later years of his
+life; and near Rochester, still approached by the 'delightful walk'
+here described, is Cobham, one of the most charming villages in that
+part of Kent. Down the lanes, and through the park to Cobham, was always
+a favourite walk with Charles Dickens; and he never wearied of acting as
+_cicerone_ to his guests to its fine church and the quaint almshouses
+with the disused refectory behind it."
+
+Happily the weather again favours us on this delightful excursion. It is
+just such a day as that on which we made our visit to Gad's Hill. As we
+have had much tramping about Rochester during the morning, we prudently
+take an early afternoon train to Higham, to save our legs. The short
+distance of about four miles consists almost entirely of tunnels cut
+through the chalk.
+
+Alighting at Higham Station, we make our way for the Dover Road and
+reach Pear Tree Lane, which turns out of it for Cobham. We notice in
+passing through Higham by daylight that the lanes are much closed in by
+banks, in fact, the tertiary and chalk systems have been cut through to
+form the roads; but here and there one gets glimpses of the Thames, its
+course being marked by the white or brown wings of sailing-boats.
+
+The lane above alluded to, a little above Gad's Hill, is the direct road
+to Cobham, and on entering it we are immediately struck with the
+different scene presented, as compared with any part of the county we
+have previously gone over. It is cut through the Thanet Sands, which at
+first are of ashy gray colour, but after some distance are of a bright
+red hue, probably owing to infiltration, and the road rises gently until
+the woods are reached. The vegetation growing on the high banks consists
+of oak, hazel, beech, sycamore, and Spanish chestnut, in many places
+intermingled with wild clematis. The branches of the trees are not
+allowed to grow over into the road, but are kept well cut back so as
+practically to form a wall on either side, extending in some places to
+twelve feet high. The effect is to present an almost unbroken surface of
+various shades of green, deliciously cool and shady in the heat of
+summer, and brightened here and there in autumn by the rich
+orange-coloured fruit of the arum, the scarlet berries of the white
+bryony, and--deeper in the woods--by the pinky-waxen berries of the
+spindle-tree, described by Lord Tennyson as "the fruit which in our
+winter woodland looks a flower."
+
+As the road continually winds in its upward progress, and as no part
+within view extends beyond a few hundred yards before it turns again,
+the limit of perspective is frequently arrested by a number of evergreen
+arches. It was a Devonshire lane, so to speak, in a state of
+cultivation. Of course in the early spring, the delicacy of the fresh
+green foliage would give another picture; and again the autumnal tints
+would present a totally different effect under the influence of the rich
+colouring of decaying vegetation.
+
+No wonder Dickens and his friends had such admiration for this walk, the
+last, by the way, that he ever enjoyed, on Tuesday, 7th June, 1870, with
+his sister-in-law, Miss Hogarth, the day before the fatal seizure. In a
+letter written from Lausanne, so far back as the year 1846, he says:--
+
+"Green woods and green shades about here are more like Cobham, in Kent,
+than anything we dream of at the foot of Alpine passes."
+
+When we reach an elevation and are able to get an extended view of the
+country we have traversed, a magnificent prospect of the Thames valley
+on the west side, and of the Medway valley on the east, discloses
+itself. On a bank in this lane we find a rather rare plant, the
+long-stalked crane's-bill (_Geranium columbinum_), its rose-pink flowers
+standing out like rubies among the green foliage. _Pteris aquilina_, the
+common brake or bracken, is very luxuriant here; but we have met with
+few ferns in the part of Kent which we visited. We were afterwards
+informed that _asplenium_, _lastrea_, _scolopendrium_, and others are to
+be found in the neighbourhood. We pass at Shorne Ridgway a village inn
+with a curious sign, "Ye Olde See Ho Taverne." On inquiry, we learn that
+"See Ho" is the sportsman's cry in coursing, when a hare appears in
+sight.
+
+The woods surrounding the entrance to the park are presently reached,
+and here the vegetation, which in the lanes had been kept under, is
+allowed to grow unchecked. At intervals walks (or "rides," as they are
+called in some counties) are cut through the woods, the grass being well
+mown underneath, and each of these walks is a shaded grove, losing
+itself in the distance. The deep silence of the place is only broken by
+the cooing of the wood-pigeon, and the occasional piercing note of the
+green woodpecker. It is said that the nightingales appear here about the
+13th of April and continue singing until June, and that the best time
+for seeing this neighbourhood is during the blossoming season in May.
+
+The temptation to quote Dickens's own description of Cobham Park from
+_Pickwick_ cannot be resisted:--
+
+          "A delightful walk it was; for it was a pleasant
+          afternoon in June, and their way lay through a
+          deep and shady wood, cooled by the light wind
+          which gently rustled the thick foliage, and
+          enlivened by the songs of the birds that perched
+          upon the boughs. The ivy and the moss crept in
+          thick clusters over the old trees, and the soft
+          green turf overspread the ground like a silken
+          mat. They emerged upon an open park, with an
+          ancient hall, displaying the quaint and
+          picturesque architecture of Elizabeth's time. Long
+          vistas of stately oaks and elm trees appeared on
+          every side: large herds of deer were cropping the
+          fresh grass; and occasionally a startled hare
+          scoured along the ground with the speed of the
+          shadows thrown by the light clouds, which swept
+          across a sunny landscape like a passing breath of
+          summer."
+
+Another description of Cobham at another time of the year is found in
+the _Seven Poor Travellers_:--
+
+        "As for me, I was going to walk, by Cobham Woods,
+         as far upon my way to London as I fancied. . . .
+         And now the mists began to rise in the most
+         beautiful manner, and the sun to shine; and as I
+         went on through the bracing air, seeing the
+         hoar-frost sparkle everywhere, I felt as if all
+         Nature shared in the joy of the great Birthday. . . .
+         By Cobham Hall I came to the village, and the
+         churchyard where the dead had been quietly buried
+         'in the sure and certain hope' which Christmastide
+         inspired."
+
+We notice in our quiet tramp here a peculiarity in the foliage of the
+oaks which is worth recording. It will be remembered that in the late
+spring of 1888, anxiety was expressed by certain newspaper
+correspondents that the English oak would suffer extermination in
+consequence of caterpillars denuding it of its leaves. But naturalists
+who had studied the question knew better. The caterpillar, which is no
+doubt the larva of the green Tortrix moth (_Tortrix viridana_), spins
+its cocoon at the end of June or the beginning of July, and the effect
+of the heavy rains and warm sunny days since that time was to encourage
+the energy of the tree in putting forth its second growth of leaves.
+This second growth of delicate green almost covered the oaks in Cobham
+Park, and effectually concealed the devastation of the caterpillars on
+the old leaves. The effect was quite spring-like. Truly, as George Eliot
+says, "Nature repairs her ravages."
+
+[Illustration: Cobham Hall.]
+
+Cobham Park is nearly seven miles round, and its exquisitely varied
+scenery of wood and glade is conspicuous at the spot where the chestnut
+tree called "The Four Sisters" is placed. There is a lovely walk from
+Cobham Hall to Rochester through the "Long Avenue," so named in
+contradistinction to the "Grand Avenue," which opens into Cobham
+village. This walk, which slopes all the way down from the Mausoleum,
+leads to a seat placed midway in an open spot where charming views of
+the Medway valley are obtained. For rich sylvan scenery in the county of
+Kent, this is surely unrivalled.
+
+Admission to Cobham Hall, the seat of the Earl of Darnley (whose
+ancestors have resided here since the time of King John), is on Fridays
+only, and such admission is obtained by ticket, procurable from Mr.
+Wildish, bookseller, of Rochester. A nominal charge is made, the
+proceeds being devoted towards maintaining Cobham schools.
+
+The Hall is a red-brick edifice (temp. Elizabeth, 1587), consisting of
+two Tudor wings, connected by a central block designed by Inigo Jones.
+The most noticeable objects in the entrance corridor are a fine pair of
+columns of Cornish serpentine, nearly ten feet high, tapering from a
+base some two feet square. The white veining of the steatite (soapstone)
+is in beautiful contrast to the rich red and black colours of the
+marble. These columns were purchased at the great Exhibition of 1851. An
+enormous bath, hewn out of a solid block of granite said to have been
+brought from Egypt, is also a very noticeable object in this corridor.
+
+The housekeeper--a chatty, intelligent, and portly personage--shows
+visitors over the rooms and picture-galleries. There is a superb
+collection of pictures by the Old Masters, about which Dickens had
+always something facetious to say to his friends. They illustrate the
+schools of Venice, Florence, Rome, Netherlands, Spain, France, and
+England, and were formed mainly by purchases from the Orleans Gallery,
+and the Vetturi Gallery from Florence, and include Titian's 'Rape of
+Europa,' Rubens's 'Queen Tomyris dipping Cyrus's head into blood,'
+Salvator Rosa's 'Death of Regulus,' Vandyck's 'Duke of Lennox,' Sir
+Joshua Reynolds's 'The Call of Samuel,' and others. But the pictures in
+which we are most interested are the portraits of literary, scientific,
+and other worthies--an excellent collection, including Shakespeare, John
+Locke, Hobbes, Sir Richard Steele, Sir William Temple, Dean Swift,
+Dryden, Betterton, Pope, Gay, Thomson, Sir Hugh Middleton, Martin
+Luther, and the ill-fated Lord George Gordon.
+
+There is also an ornithological museum, with some very fine specimens of
+the order of grallatores (or waders). In reply to a letter of inquiry,
+the Earl of Darnley kindly informs us that the examples of ostrich
+(_Struthio camelus_), cassowary (_Casuarius galeatus_), and common emu
+(_Dromaius ater_), were once alive in the menagerie attached to the
+hall, which was broken up about fifty years ago.
+
+We are shown the music-room (which, by the bye, his late majesty King
+George IV., is said to have remarked was the finest room in England), a
+very handsome apartment facing the west, with a large organ, and capable
+of containing several hundred persons. The decorations are very chaste,
+being in white and gold; and, as the brilliant sun was setting in the
+summer evening, a delicate rose-coloured hue was diffused over
+everything in the room through the medium of the tinted blinds attached
+to the windows. It had a most peculiar and pretty effect, strongly
+recalling Mrs. Skewton and her "rose-coloured curtains for doctors."
+
+[Illustration: Dickens's Ch�let, now in Cobham Park.]
+
+By the special permission of his lordship, we see the famous Swiss
+ch�let, which is now erected in the terrace flower-garden at the back of
+Cobham Hall, having been removed to its present position some years ago
+from another part of the grounds. It stands on an elevated open space
+surrounded by beautiful trees--the rare Salisburia, tulip, cedar,
+chestnut and others--and makes a handsome addition to the garden,
+irrespective of its historical associations. The ch�let is of dark wood
+varnished, and has in the centre a large carving of Dickens's crest,
+which in heraldic terms is described as: "a lion couchant 'or,' holding
+in the gamb a cross patonce 'sable.'"
+
+There are two rooms in the ch�let, each about sixteen feet square, the
+one below having four windows and a door, and the one above (approached
+in the usual Swiss fashion by an external staircase), which is much the
+prettier, having six windows and a door. There are shutters outside, and
+the overhanging roof at first sight gives the building somewhat of a
+top-heavy appearance, but this impression wears off after a time, and it
+is found to be effective and well-proportioned. "The five mirrors" which
+Dickens placed in the ch�let have been removed from the upper room, but
+they are scarcely necessary, the views of rich and varied foliage and
+flowers seen from the open windows, through which the balmy air passes,
+forming a series of pictures in the bright sunlight of the August
+afternoon delightfully fresh and beautiful. We sit down quietly for a
+few minutes and enjoy the privilege; we ponder on the many happy and
+industrious hours spent by its late owner in this now classic building;
+and we leave it sadly, with the recollection that here were penned the
+last lines which the "vanished hand" was destined to give to the world.
+
+The Earl of Darnley generously allows his neighbours to have a key of
+his park, and Dickens had one of such keys, a privilege greatly
+appreciated by him and his friends. Recently his lordship has erected a
+staircase round one of the highest trees in the park, called the "crow's
+nest," from whence a very pretty peep at the surrounding country is
+obtained.
+
+During our visit we venture to ask the portly housekeeper if she
+remembers Charles Dickens? The ray of delight that illumines her
+good-natured countenance is simply magical.
+
+"Oh," she says, "I liked Mr. Dickens very much. He was always so full of
+fun. Oh! oh! oh!" the recollection of which causes a fit of suppressed
+laughter, which "communicates a blancmange-like motion to her fat
+cheeks," and she adds: "He used to dine here, and was always very
+popular with the family, and in the neighbourhood."
+
+We cannot help thinking that such delightful places as Cobham Hall were
+in Dickens's mind when, in _Bleak House_ (_� propos_ of Chesney Wold),
+he makes the volatile Harold Skimpole say to Sir Leicester Dedlock--"The
+owners of such places are public benefactors. They are good enough to
+maintain a number of delightful objects for the admiration and pleasure
+of us poor men, and not to reap all the admiration and pleasure that
+they yield, is to be ungrateful to our benefactors."
+
+Leaving the park by a pretty undulating walk, and passing on our way a
+large herd of deer, their brown and fawn-coloured coats contrasting
+prettily with the green-sward, we come upon the picturesque village of
+Cobham, where Mr. Tupman sought consolation after his little affair with
+the amatory spinster aunt. Of course the principal object of interest is
+the Leather Bottle, or "Dickens's old Pickwick Leather Bottle," as the
+sign of the present landlord now calls it, wherein Dickens slept a night
+in 1841, and visited it many times subsequently. There is a coloured
+portrait of the President of the Pickwick Club on the sign, as he
+appeared addressing the members. A fire occurred at the Leather Bottle a
+few years ago, but it was confined to a back portion of the building;
+unfortunately its restoration and so-called "improvements" have
+destroyed many of the picturesque features which characterized this
+quiet old inn when Dickens wrote the famous Papers. Here is his
+description of it after Mr. Pickwick, Mr. Snodgrass, and Mr. Winkle had
+walked through Cobham Park to seek their lost friend:--
+
+[Illustration: The "Leather Bottle" Cobham]
+
+          "'If this,' said Mr. Pickwick, looking about him;
+          'if this were the place to which all who are
+          troubled with our friend's complaint came, I fancy
+          their old attachment to this world would very soon
+          return.'
+
+          "'I think so too,' said Mr. Winkle.
+
+          "'And really,' added Mr. Pickwick, after half an
+          hour's walking had brought them to the village,
+          'really for a misanthrope's choice, this is one of
+          the prettiest and most desirable places of
+          residence I ever met with.'
+
+          "In this opinion also, both Mr. Winkle and Mr.
+          Snodgrass expressed their concurrence; and having
+          been directed to the Leather Bottle, a clean and
+          commodious village ale-house, the three
+          travellers entered, and at once inquired for a
+          gentleman of the name of Tupman.
+
+          "'Show the gentlemen into the parlour, Tom,' said
+          the landlady.
+
+          "A stout country lad opened a door at the end of
+          the passage, and the three friends entered a long,
+          low-roofed room, furnished with a large number of
+          high-backed leather-cushioned chairs, of fantastic
+          shapes, and embellished with a great variety of
+          old portraits, and roughly-coloured prints of some
+          antiquity. At the upper end of the room was a
+          table, with a white cloth upon it, well covered
+          with a roast fowl, bacon, ale, and etceteras; and
+          at the table sat Mr. Tupman, looking as unlike a
+          man who had taken his leave of the world, as
+          possible.
+
+          "On the entrance of his friends, that gentleman
+          laid down his knife and fork, and with a mournful
+          air advanced to meet them.
+
+          "'I did not expect to see you here,' he said, as
+          he grasped Mr. Pickwick's hand. 'It's very kind.'
+
+          "'Ah!' said Mr. Pickwick, sitting down, and wiping
+          from his forehead the perspiration which the walk
+          had engendered. 'Finish your dinner, and walk out
+          with me. I wish to speak to you alone.'
+
+          "Mr. Tupman did as he was desired; and Mr.
+          Pickwick having refreshed himself with a copious
+          draught of ale, waited his friend's leisure. The
+          dinner was quickly despatched, and they walked out
+          together.
+
+          "For half an hour, their forms might have been
+          seen pacing the churchyard to and fro, while Mr.
+          Pickwick was engaged in combating his companion's
+          resolution. Any repetition of his arguments would
+          be useless; for what language could convey to them
+          that energy and force which their great
+          originator's manner communicated? Whether Mr.
+          Tupman was already tired of retirement, or whether
+          he was wholly unable to resist the eloquent appeal
+          which was made to him, matters not; he did _not_
+          resist it at last.
+
+          "'It mattered little to him,' he said, 'where he
+          dragged out the miserable remainder of his days:
+          and since his friend laid so much stress upon his
+          humble companionship, he was willing to share his
+          adventures.'
+
+          "Mr. Pickwick smiled; they shook hands; and walked
+          back to rejoin their companions."
+
+[Illustration: The Old Parlour of the "Leather Bottle."]
+
+[Illustration: Cobham Church]
+
+In order to preserve the historical associations of the place, the
+landlord of the Leather Bottle has added to the art collection in the
+fine old parlour (that still contains "the high-backed leather-cushioned
+chairs of fantastic shapes") many portraits of Dickens and illustrations
+from his works, including a copy of the life-like coloured Watkins
+photograph previously referred to. It has been already suggested that
+the neighbourhood of Kit's Coty House probably gave rise to the famous
+arch�ological episode of the stone with the inscription--"Bill Stumps,
+his mark," in _Pickwick_, which occurred near here, rivalling the "A. D.
+L. L." discovery of the sage Monkbarns in Scott's _Antiquary_.
+
+Time presses with us, so, after a refreshing cup of tea, we just have a
+hasty glance at the beautiful old church, which contains some splendid
+examples of monumental brasses, which for number and preservation are
+said to be unique. They are erected to the memory of John Cobham,
+Constable of Rochester, 1354, his ancestors and others.[37] There are
+also some fine old almshouses which accommodate twenty pensioners. These
+almshouses are a survival of the ancient college. We then take our
+departure, returning through Cobham woods.
+
+Turning off at some distance on the left, and passing through the little
+village of Shorne, with its pretty churchyard, a very favourite spot of
+Charles Dickens, and probably described by him in _Pickwick_ as "one of
+the most peaceful and secluded churchyards in Kent, where wild flowers
+mingle with the grass, and the soft landscape around, forms the fairest
+spot in the garden of England"--we make for Chalk church. It will be
+remembered, that the first number of _Pickwick_ appeared on the 31st
+March, 1836, and on the 2nd of April following Charles Dickens was
+married, and came to spend his honeymoon at Chalk, and he visited it
+again in 1837, when doubtless the descriptions of Cobham and its
+vicinity were written. To this neighbourhood, "at all times of his life,
+he returned, with a strange recurring fondness."
+
+[Illustration: Shorne Church]
+
+Mr. Kitton has favoured me with permission to quote the following
+extract from his Supplement to _Charles Dickens by Pen and Pencil_,
+being the late Mr. E. Laman Blanchard's recollections of this pleasant
+neighbourhood:--
+
+"In the year Charles Dickens came to reside at Gad's Hill, I took
+possession of a country house at Rosherville, which I occupied for some
+seventeen years. During that period a favourite morning walk was along
+the high road, of many memories, leading from Gravesend to Rochester,
+and on repeated occasions I had the good fortune to encounter the great
+novelist making one of his pedestrian excursions towards the Gravesend
+or Greenhithe railway station, where he would take the train to travel
+up to town. Generally, by a curious coincidence, we passed each other,
+with an interchange of salutations, at about the same spot. This was on
+the outskirts of the village of Chalk, where a picturesque lane branched
+off towards Shorne and Cobham. Here the brisk walk of Charles Dickens
+was always slackened, and he never failed to glance meditatively for a
+few moments at the windows of a corner house on the southern side of the
+road, advantageously situated for commanding views of the river and the
+far-stretching landscape beyond. It was in that house he had lived
+immediately after his marriage, and there many of the earlier chapters
+of _Pickwick_ were written."
+
+It is a long walk from Cobham to Chalk church,--the church, by the bye,
+being about a mile from the village, as is usual in many places in
+Kent,--and as the shades of evening are coming upon us, and as we are
+desirous of having a sketch of the curious stone-carved figure over the
+entrance porch, we hurry on, and succeed in effecting our object, though
+under the difficulty of approaching darkness.
+
+[Illustration: Curious Old Figure over the Porch, Chalk Church.]
+
+This figure represents an old priest in a stooping position, with an
+upturned vessel (probably a jug), about which we were informed there is
+probably a legend. Dickens used to be a great admirer of this quaint
+carving, and it is said that whenever he passed it, he always took off
+his hat to it, or gave it a friendly nod, as to an old acquaintance. [We
+regretfully record the fact that since our visit, both porch and figure
+have been demolished.]
+
+Amid the many strange sounds peculiar to summer night in the country, a
+very weird and startling effect is produced in this lonely spot, in the
+dusk of the evening, by the shrill whistle of the common redshank
+(_Totanus calidris_), so called from the colour of its legs, which are
+of a crimson-red. This bird, as monotonous in its call-note as the
+corn-crake, to which it is closely allied, doubtless has its home in the
+marshes hereabout, in which, and in fen countries, it greatly delights.
+The peculiar whistle is almost ventriloquial in its ubiquity, and must
+be heard to be properly appreciated.
+
+We retrace our steps to the Dover road, and by the light of a match
+applied to our pipes, see that our pedometer marks upwards of fifteen
+miles for this tramp--"a rather busy afternoon," as Mr. Datchery once
+said.
+
+Since these lines were written, the third volume of the _Autobiography
+and Reminiscences_ of W. P. Frith, R.A., has been published, in which
+there is a most interesting reminiscence of Dickens; indeed, there are
+many scattered throughout the three volumes, but the one in question
+refers to "a stroll" which Dickens took with Mr. Frith and other friends
+in July 1868. Mr. Cartwright, the celebrated dentist, was one of the
+party, and the "stroll" was in reality, as the genial R. A. describes
+it, "a fearfully long walk" such as he shall never forget; nor the night
+he passed, without once closing his eyes in sleep, after it. "Dickens,"
+continues Mr. Frith, "was a great pedestrian. His strolling was at the
+rate of perhaps a little under four miles an hour. He was used to the
+place,--I was not, and suffered accordingly."
+
+Having a shrewd suspicion that this referred to one of the long walks
+taken in our tramp, the present writer communicated with Mr. Frith on
+the subject, and he was favoured with the following reply:--
+
+"The stroll I mentioned in my third volume was through Lord Darnley's
+park, but after that I remember nothing. As the time spent in walking
+was four hours at least, we must have covered ground far beyond the
+length of the park.
+
+"On another occasion,--Dickens, Miss Hogarth, and I went to Rochester to
+see the Castle, and the famous Pickwickian inn. On another day we went
+to the Leather Bottle at Cobham, where Dickens was eloquent on the
+subject of the Dadd parricide, showing us the place where the body was
+found, with many startling and interesting details of the discovery."
+
+The subject of the Dadd parricide alluded to by Mr. Frith was a very
+horrible case; the son--an artist--was a lunatic, and was subsequently
+confined in Bethlehem Hospital, London. There are two curious pictures
+by him in the Dyce and Forster collection at South Kensington; one is
+inscribed "Sketches to Illustrate the Passions--Patriotism. By Richard
+Dadd, Bethlehem Hospital, London, May 30, 1857, St. George's-in-the-Fields."
+It has much minute writing on it. The other is "Leonidas with the
+Wood-cutters," and illustrates Glover's poem, _Leonidas_. It is
+inscribed, "Rd. Dadd, 1873." He died in Bethlehem Hospital in 1887.
+
+The Dover Road! What a magic influence it has over us, as we tramp along
+it in the quiet summer evening, and recall an incident that happened
+nearly a hundred years ago, what time the Dover mail struggled up
+Shooter's Hill on that memorable Friday night, and Jerry Cruncher, who
+had temporarily suspended his "fishing" operations, and being free from
+the annoyances of the "Aggerawayter," caused consternation to the minds
+of coachman, guard, and passengers of the said mail, by riding abruptly
+up, _� la_ highwayman, and demanding to speak to a passenger named Mr.
+Jarvis Lorry, then on his way to Paris,--as faithfully chronicled in _A
+Tale of Two Cities_. Again, in the early part of the present century,
+when a certain friendless but dear and artless boy, named David
+Copperfield,--who having been first robbed by a "long-legged young man
+with a very little empty donkey-cart, which was nothing but a large
+wooden-tray on wheels," of "half a guinea and his box," under pretence
+of "driving him to the pollis," and subsequently defrauded by an
+unscrupulous tailor named one Mr. Dolloby ("Dolloby was the name over
+the shop-door at least") of the proper price of "a little weskit," for
+which he, Dolloby, gave poor David only ninepence,--trudged along that
+same Dover road footsore and hungry, "and got through twenty-three miles
+on the straight road" to Rochester and Chatham on a certain Sunday; all
+of which is duly recorded in _The Personal History of David
+Copperfield_.
+
+In after years, when happier times came to him, David made many journeys
+over the Dover road, between Canterbury and London, on the Canterbury
+Coach. Respecting the earliest of these (readers will remember Phiz's
+illustration, "My first fall in life"), he says:--
+
+"The main object on my mind, I remember, when we got fairly on the road,
+was to appear as old as possible to the coachman, and to speak extremely
+gruff. The latter point I achieved at great personal inconvenience; but
+I stuck to it, because I felt it was a grown-up sort of thing."
+
+In spite of this assumption, he is impudently chaffed by "William the
+coachman" on his "shooting"--on his "county" (Suffolk), its "dumplings,"
+and its "Punches," and finally, at William's suggestion, actually
+resigns his box-seat in favour of his (William's) friend, "the
+gentleman with a very unpromising squint and a prominent chin, who had a
+tall white hat on with a narrow flat brim, and whose close-fitting drab
+trousers seemed to button all the way up outside his legs from his boots
+to his hips." In reply to a remark of the coachman this worthy
+says:--"There ain't no sort of 'orse that I 'ain't bred, and no sort of
+dorg. 'Orses and dorgs is some men's fancy. They're wittles and drink to
+me--lodging, wife, and children--reading, writing, and 'rithmetic--snuff,
+tobacker, and sleep."
+
+"That ain't a sort of man to see sitting behind a coach-box, is it,
+though?" says William in David's ear. David construes this remark into
+an indication of a wish that "the gentleman" should have his place, so
+he blushingly offers to resign it.
+
+"Well, if you don't mind," says William, "I think it would be more
+correct."
+
+Poor David, "so very young!" gives up his box-seat, and thus moralizes
+on his action:--
+
+          "I have always considered this as the first fall I
+          had in life. When I booked my place at the
+          coach-office, I had had 'Box Seat' written against
+          the entry, and had given the book-keeper
+          half-a-crown. I was got up in a special great coat
+          and shawl, expressly to do honour to that
+          distinguished eminence; had glorified myself upon
+          it a good deal; and had felt that I was a credit
+          to the coach. And here, in the very first stage, I
+          was supplanted by a shabby man with a squint, who
+          had no other merit than smelling like a
+          livery-stables, and being able to walk across me,
+          more like a fly than a human being, while the
+          horses were at a canter."
+
+Pip, in _Great Expectations_, also made very many journeys to and from
+London, along the Dover road (the London road it is called in the
+novel), but the two most notable were, firstly, the occasion of his
+ride outside the coach with the two convicts as fellow-passengers on the
+back-seat--"bringing with them that curious flavour of bread-poultice,
+baize, rope-yarn, and hearth-stone, which attends the convict presence;"
+and secondly, that in which he walked all the way to London, after the
+sad interview at Miss Havisham's house, where he learns that Estella is
+to become the wife of Bentley Drummle:--
+
+          "All done, all gone! So much was done and gone,
+          that when I went out at the gate the light of day
+          seemed of a darker colour than when I went in. For
+          awhile I hid myself among some lanes and bypaths,
+          and then started off to walk all the way to
+          London. . . . It was past midnight when I crossed
+          London Bridge."
+
+One more reference is made to the Dover road in _Bleak House_, where
+that most lovable of the many lovable characters in Dickens's novels,
+Esther Summerson, makes her journey, with her faithful little maid
+Charley, to Deal, in order to comfort Richard Carstone:--
+
+          "It was a night's journey in those coach times;
+          but we had the mail to ourselves, and did not find
+          the night very tedious. It passed with me as I
+          suppose it would with most people under such
+          circumstances. At one while, my journey looked
+          hopeful, and at another hopeless. Now, I thought
+          that I should do some good, and now I wondered how
+          I could ever have supposed so."
+
+When speaking of Dickens's characters, some critics have said that "he
+never drew a gentleman." One ventures to ask, Where is there a more
+chivalrous, honourable, or kind-hearted gentleman than Mr. John
+Jarndyce? Sir Leicester Dedlock in the same novel too, with some few
+peculiarities, is a thoroughly high-minded and noble gentleman of the
+old school. This by the way.
+
+[Illustration: "There's Milestones on the Dover Road"]
+
+After walking some distance, we are able to verify one of those sage
+experiences of Mr. F.'s aunt:--"There's milestones on the Dover road!"
+for, by the light of another match, the darkness closing in, and there
+being no moon, we read "4 miles to Rochester." However, we tramp merrily
+on, with "the town lights right afore us," our minds being full of
+pleasant reminiscences of the scenes we have passed through, and this
+expedition, like many a weightier matter, "comes to an end for the
+time."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We had on another occasion the pleasure of a long chat with Mrs. Latter
+of Shorne, one of the daughters of Mr. W. S. Trood, for many years
+landlord of the Sir John Falstaff. She said her family came from
+Somersetshire to reside at Gad's Mill in the year 1849, and left in
+1872. The Falstaff was then a little homely place, but it has been much
+altered since. She knew Charles Dickens very well, and saw him
+constantly during his residence at Gad's Hill Place. Mrs. Latter lost
+two sisters while she lived at the Falstaff--one died at the age of
+eleven, and the other at nineteen. The last-mentioned was named Jane,
+and died in 1862 of brain fever. Dickens was very kind to the family at
+the time, took great interest in the poor girl, and offered help of
+"anything that his house could afford." She remembers her mother asking
+Dickens if it would be well to have the windows of the bedroom open. At
+those times people were fond of keeping invalids closed up from the air.
+Dickens said--"Certainly: give her plenty of air." He liked fresh air
+himself. Mrs. Latter said in proof of this that the curtains were always
+blowing about the open windows at Gad's Hill Place.
+
+When her sister Jane died, the funeral took place at Higham Church, and
+was very quiet, there being no show, only a little black pall trimmed
+with white placed over the coffin, which was carried by young men to the
+grave. Dickens afterwards commended what had been done, saying: "It
+showed good sense," and adding--"Not like an army of black beetles."
+
+It will be remembered that in _Great Expectations_ and elsewhere the
+ostentation, mummery, and extravagance of the "undertaking ceremony" are
+severely criticised. The same feeling, and a desire for funeral reform,
+no doubt prompted Dickens to insert the following clause in his Will:--
+
+"I emphatically direct that I be buried in an inexpensive,
+unostentatious, and strictly private manner; that no public announcement
+be made of the time or place of my burial; that at the utmost not more
+than three plain mourning-coaches be employed; and that those who attend
+my funeral wear no scarf, cloak, black bow, long hatband, or other such
+revolting absurdity."
+
+Mrs. Latter then told us the story of the two men with performing
+bears:--
+
+It appears that soon after Dickens came to Gad's Hill a lot of labourers
+from Strood--some thirty or forty in number--had been for an outing in
+breaks to Cobham to a "bean-feast," or something of the kind, and some
+of them had got "rather fresh." On the return journey they stopped at
+the Falstaff, and at the time two men, who were foreigners, were there
+with performing bears, a very large one and a smaller one. The labourers
+began to lark with the bears, teased them, and made them savage,
+"becalled" the two men to whom they belonged, and a regular row
+followed. The owners of the bears became exasperated, and were
+proceeding to unmuzzle the animals, when Dickens (hearing the noise)
+came out of his gate holding one of his St. Bernard dogs by a chain. He
+told Mrs. Latter's father to take the bears up a back lane, said a few
+words to the crowd, and remonstrated with the Strood men on their
+conduct. The effect was magical; the whole affair was stilled in a
+minute or two.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On a subsequent occasion we called upon the Rev. John Joseph Marsham of
+Overblow, near Shorne. This venerable clergyman, a bachelor, and in his
+eighty-fifth year, is totally blind, but in other respects is in the
+full possession of all his faculties, and remarked that he was much
+interested to hear anybody talk about old friends and times. He was
+inducted as Vicar of Shorne in the year 1837, came to live there in
+1845, and resigned his cure in 1888, after completing his jubilee. He is
+a "Kentish man," having been born at Rochester. In our tramp the
+question of "Kentish man," or "man of Kent," often cropped up, and we
+had an opportunity of having the difference explained to us. A "Kentish
+man" is one born on the east side of the river Medway, and a "man of
+Kent" is one born on the west side.
+
+The position of the residence "Overblow" is delightful. It stands on a
+little hill, the front having a fine view of the Thames valley and the
+marshes, the side looking on to the pretty hollow, in the centre of
+which stands Shorne Church, and the back being flanked in the distance
+by the beautiful Cobham Woods.
+
+The reverend gentleman told us that he was a schoolfellow of the Right
+Honourable W. E. Gladstone and Sir Thomas Gladstone, his brother, at
+Eton, and had dined with the former at Hawarden on the occasion of his
+being thrice Premier, although he helped to turn his old friend out at
+Oxford in 1865, when he was succeeded by the Right Honourable Gathorne
+Hardy, now Lord Cranbrook.
+
+Mr. Marsham was a neighbour of Charles Dickens, occasionally dined with
+him at Gad's Hill, and also met him at dinner sometimes at Mr. Hulkes's
+at the Little Hermitage. He spoke of him as a nice neighbour and a
+charming host, but he rarely talked except to his old friends. He
+frequently met Dickens in his walks, and had many a stroll with him, and
+always found him very interesting and amusing in his conversation. Once
+they were coming down from London together in a saloon carriage which
+contained about twelve or fourteen people. Dickens was sitting quietly
+in a corner. It was at the time that one of his serial novels was
+appearing, and most of the passengers were reading the current monthly
+number. No one noticed Dickens, and when the train stopped at Strood, he
+said--"We did not have much talk." "No," said Mr. Marsham, "the people
+were much better engaged," at which Dickens laughed. Charles Dickens
+did Mr. Marsham the kindness to send him early proofs of his Christmas
+stories before they were published.
+
+After Dickens's death (which he heard of in London, and never felt so
+grieved in his life) Mr. Charles Dickens the younger, and Mr. Charles
+Collins, his brother-in-law, came to select a piece of ground on the
+east side of Shorne churchyard, which was one of Dickens's favourite
+spots, but in consequence of the arrangements for the burial in
+Westminster Abbey this was of course given up.
+
+Mr. Marsham was staying in London, at Lord Penrhyn's, at the time of
+Dickens's death, and Lady Louisa Penrhyn told him that by accident she
+was in Westminster Abbey at about ten o'clock on the morning of 14th
+June, the day of the funeral, and noticing some persons standing round
+an open grave, her ladyship went to see it, and was greatly impressed on
+looking in to read the name of Charles Dickens on the coffin, on which
+were numerous wreaths of flowers.
+
+Our venerable friend possesses a souvenir of the novelist in the two
+exquisite plaster statuettes, about eighteen inches high, of "Night" and
+"Morning," which he purchased at the Gad's Hill sale.
+
+The reverend gentleman spoke of the great improvements in travelling as
+compared with times within his recollection. He said that before the
+railways were constructed he went to London by boat from Gravesend, and
+the river was so bad that he had to keep his handkerchief to his nose
+all the way to avoid the stench. This was long before the days of Thames
+Embankments and other improvements in travelling by river and road.
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[37] "Cobham Church [says a writer in the _Arch�ologia Cantiana_, 1877]
+is distinguished above all others as possessing the finest and most
+complete series of brasses in the kingdom. It contains some of the
+earliest and some of the latest, as well as some of the most beautiful
+in design. The inscriptions are also remarkable, and the heraldry for
+its intelligence is in itself a study. There is an interest also in the
+fact that for the most part they refer to one great family--the Lords of
+Cobham."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+A FINAL TRAMP IN ROCHESTER AND LONDON.
+
+        "You have been in every line I have ever read,
+          since I first came here, . . . you have been in
+          every prospect I have ever seen since--on the
+          river, on the sails of the ships, on the marshes,
+          in the clouds, in the light, in the darkness, in
+          the wind, in the woods, in the sea, in the
+          streets."--_Great Expectations._
+
+        "The magic reel, which, rolling on before, has led
+          the Chronicler thus far, now slackens in its pace,
+          and stops. It lies before the goal; the pursuit is
+          at an end. . . . Good-night, and heaven send our
+          journey may have a prosperous ending."--_The Old
+          Curiosity Shop._
+
+
+IT is the morning of Saturday, the first of September, 1888, when our
+wonderfully pleasant week's tramp in "Dickens-Land" comes to an end. We
+have carried out every detail of our programme, without a single
+_contretemps_ to mar the enjoyment of our delightful holiday; we have
+visited not only the spots where the childhood and youth of Charles
+Dickens were passed, and where the influence of the environment is
+specially traceable in the tone of both his earlier and later writings,
+but we have gone over and identified (as we proposed to do) a number of
+places in which he delighted, and often described in those writings,
+peopling them with airy characters (but to us most real), in whose
+footsteps we have walked. We have seen the place where he was born; we
+have seen nearly all the houses in which he lived in after life; and we
+have been over the charming home occupied by him for fourteen years,
+where his last moments passed away under the affectionate and
+reverential solicitude of his sons and daughters, and of Miss Hogarth,
+his sister-in-law, "the ever-useful, self-denying, and devoted friend."
+
+And now we linger lovingly about a few of the streets and places in "the
+ancient city," and especially in the precincts of the venerable
+Cathedral, all sanctified by the memory of the mighty dead. We fain
+would prolong our visit, but the "stern mandate of duty," as Immanuel
+Kant called it, prevails, and we bow to the inevitable; or as Mr.
+Herbert Spencer better puts it, "our duty is our pleasure, and our
+greatest happiness consists in achieving the happiness of others." We
+feel our departure to-day the more keenly, as everything tempts us to
+stay. Listening for a moment at the open door--the beautiful west
+door--of the Cathedral, in this glorious morning in early autumn, we
+hear the harmonies of the organ and choir softly wafted to us from
+within; we feel the delicious morning air, which comes over the old
+Castle and burial-ground from the Kentish hills; we see the bright and
+beautiful flowers and foliage of the lovely catalpa tree, through which
+the sunlight glints; a solemn calm pervades the spot as the hum of the
+city is hushed; and, although we have read them over and over again,
+now, for the first time, do we adequately realize the exquisitely
+touching lines on the last page of _Edwin Drood_, written by the
+master-hand that was so soon to be stilled for ever:--
+
+[Illustration: Doorway Rochester Cathedral]
+
+          "A brilliant morning shines on the old City. Its
+          antiquities and ruins are surpassingly beautiful,
+          with the lusty ivy gleaming in the sun, and the
+          rich trees waving in the balmy air. Changes of
+          glorious light from moving boughs, songs of birds,
+          scents from gardens, woods and fields--or,
+          rather, from the one great garden of the whole of
+          the cultivated island in its yielding
+          time--penetrate into the Cathedral, subdue its
+          earthy odour, and preach the Resurrection and the
+          Life. The cold stone tombs of centuries ago grow
+          warm; and flecks of brightness dart into the
+          sternest marble corners of the building,
+          fluttering there like wings."
+
+Having time to reflect on our experiences, we are able to understand how
+greatly our feelings and ideas have been influenced for good, both
+regarding the personality of the novelist and his writings.
+
+In the course of our rambles we have interviewed many people in various
+walks of life who knew Dickens well, and their interesting replies,
+mostly given in their own words, vividly bring before our mental vision
+the _man_ as he actually lived and moved among his neighbours, apart
+from any glamour with which we, as hero-worshippers, naturally invest
+him. We see him in his home, beloved by his family, taking kindly
+interest, as a country gentleman, in the poor of the district, entering
+into and personally encouraging their sports, and helping them in their
+distress. To his dependents and tradesmen he was kind, just, and
+honourable; to his friends genial, hospitable, and true; in himself
+eager, enthusiastic, and thorough. No man of his day had more friends,
+and he kept them as long as he lived. His favourite motto,
+"courage--persevere," comes before us constantly. All that we heard on
+the other side was contained in the expression--"rather masterful!"
+Rather masterful? Of course he was rather masterful--otherwise he would
+never have been Charles Dickens. What does he say in that unconscious
+description of himself, which he puts into the mouth of Boots at _The
+Holly-Tree Inn_, when referring to the father of Master Harry Walmers,
+Junior?
+
+          "He was a gentleman of spirit, and good-looking,
+          and held his head up when he walked, and had what
+          you may call Fire about him. He wrote poetry, and
+          he rode, and he ran, and he cricketed, and he
+          danced, and he acted, and he done it all equally
+          beautiful. . . . He was a gentleman that had a will
+          of his own and a eye of his own, and that would be
+          minded."
+
+Perfectly true do we find the summing up of his character, in his home
+at Gad's Hill, as given by Professor Minto in the last edition of the
+_Encyclop�dia Britannica_ (one of the most faithful, just, and
+appreciative articles ever written about Dickens):--"Here he worked, and
+walked, and saw his friends, and was loved and almost worshipped by his
+poorer neighbours, for miles around."
+
+Although tolerably familiar with most of the writings of Dickens from
+our youth, and, like many readers, having our favourites which may have
+absorbed our attention to the exclusion of others, we are bound to say
+that our little visit to Rochester and its neighbourhood--our
+"Dickens-Land"--rendered famous all the world over in the novels and
+minor works, gives a freshness, a brightness, and a reality to our
+conceptions scarcely expected, and never before experienced. The
+faithful descriptions of scenery witnessed by us for the first time in
+and about the "quaint city" of Rochester, the delightful neighbourhood
+of Cobham, the glorious old city of Canterbury, the dreary marshes and
+other localities: the more detailed pictures of particular places, like
+the Castle, the Cathedral, its crypt and tower, the Bull Inn, the Vines,
+Richard Watts's Charity, and others--the point of the situation in many
+of these cannot be realized without personal inspection and
+verification.
+
+And further, as by a sort of reflex action, another feeling comes
+uppermost in our minds, apart from the mere amusement and enjoyment of
+Dickens's works: we mean the actual benefits to humanity which, directly
+or indirectly, arise out of his writings; and we endorse the noble lines
+of dedication which his friend, Walter Savage Landor, addressed to him
+in his _Imaginary Conversations of Greeks and Romans_ (1853):--
+
+"Friends as we are, have long been, and ever shall be, I doubt whether I
+should have prefaced these pages with your name, were it not to register
+my judgment that, in breaking up and cultivating the unreclaimed wastes
+of Humanity, no labours have been so strenuous, so continuous, or half
+so successful, as yours. While the world admires in you an unlimited
+knowledge of mankind, deep thought, vivid imagination, and bursts of
+eloquence from unclouded heights, no less am I delighted when I see you
+at the school-room you have liberated from cruelty, and at the cottage
+you have purified from disease."
+
+We have before us--its edges browned by age--a reprint of a letter
+largely circulated at the time, addressed by Dickens to _The Times_,
+dated "Devonshire Terrace, 13th Novr., 1849," in which he describes, in
+graphic and powerful language, the ribald and disgusting scenes which he
+witnessed at Horsemonger Lane Gaol on the occasion of the execution of
+the Mannings. The letter is too long to quote in its entirety, but the
+following extract will suffice:--"I have seen habitually some of the
+worst sources of general contamination and corruption in this country,
+and I think there are not many phases of London life that could surprise
+me. I am solemnly convinced that nothing that ingenuity could devise to
+be done in this city in the same compass of time could work such ruin as
+one public execution, and I stand astounded and appalled by the
+wickedness it exhibits." The letter contains an urgent appeal to the
+then Home Secretary, Sir George Grey, "as a solemn duty which he owes to
+society, and a responsibility which he cannot for ever put away," to
+originate an immediate legislative change in this respect. Forster says
+in allusion to the above-mentioned letter:--"There began an active
+agitation against public executions, which never ceased until the
+salutary change was effected which has worked so well." Dickens happily
+lived to see the fruition of his labours, for the Private Execution Act
+was passed in 1868, and the last public execution took place at Newgate
+on 26th May of that year. As indicative of the new state of feeling at
+that time, it may be mentioned that the number of spectators was not
+large, and they were observed to conduct themselves with unusual
+decorum.
+
+It is valuable to record this as one of many public reforms which
+Dickens by his writings and influence certainly helped to accomplish. In
+his standard work on _Popular Government_ (1885), Sir Henry Sumner Maine
+says:-"Dickens, who spent his early manhood among the politicians of
+1832, trained in Bentham's school, [Bentham, by the bye, being quoted in
+_Edwin Drood_,] hardly ever wrote a novel without attacking an abuse.
+The procedure of the Court of Chancery and of the Ecclesiastical Courts,
+the delays of the Public Offices, the costliness of divorce, the state
+of the dwellings of the poor, and the condition of the cheap schools in
+the North of England, furnished him with what he seemed to consider, in
+all sincerity, the true moral of a series of fictions."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We bid a kindly adieu to the "dear old City" where so many genial
+friends have been made, so many happy hours have been passed, so many
+pleasant memories have been stored, and for the time leave
+
+                     "the pensive glory,
+          That fills the Kentish hills,"
+
+to take our seats in the train for London, with the intention of paying
+a brief visit to South Kensington, where, in the Forster Collection of
+the Museum, are treasured the greater portion of the manuscripts which
+constitute the principal works of Charles Dickens. It will be remembered
+that the Will of the great novelist contained the following simple but
+important clause:--"I also give to the said John Forster (whom he
+previously referred to as 'my dear and trusty friend') such manuscripts
+of my published works as may be in my possession at the time of my
+decease;" and that Mr. Forster by his Will bequeathed these priceless
+treasures to his wife for her life, in trust to pass over to the Nation
+at her decease. Mrs. Forster, who survives her husband, generously
+relinquished her life interest, in order to give immediate effect to his
+wishes; and thus in 1876, soon after Mr. Forster's death, they came into
+the undisturbed possession of the Nation for ever.
+
+Besides the manuscripts there are numbers of holograph letters, original
+sketches (including "The Apotheosis of Grip the Raven") by D. Maclise,
+R.A., and other interesting memorials relating to Charles Dickens. _The
+Handbook to the Dyce and Forster Collections_ rightly says that:--"This
+is a gift which will ever have the highest value, and be regarded with
+the deepest interest by people of every English-speaking nation, as long
+as the English language exists. Not only our own countrymen, but
+travellers from every country and colony into which Englishmen have
+spread, may here examine the original manuscripts of books which have
+been more widely read than any other uninspired writings throughout the
+world. Thousands, it cannot be doubted, who have been indebted for many
+an hour of pleasurable enjoyment when in health, for many an hour of
+solace when in weariness and pain, to these novels, will be glad to look
+upon them as each sheet was sent last to the printer, full of
+innumerable corrections from the hand of Charles Dickens."
+
+The manuscripts are fifteen in number, bound up into large quarto
+volumes, and comprise:--
+
+1. _Oliver Twist_--two Volumes, with Preface to the _Pickwick Papers_,
+and matter relating to _Master Humphrey's Clock_.
+
+2. _Sketches of Young Couples._
+
+3. _The Lamplighter_, a Farce. This MS. is not in the handwriting of
+Dickens.
+
+4. _The Old Curiosity Shop_--two Volumes, with Letter to Mr. Forster of
+17th January, 1841, and hints for some chapters.
+
+5. _Barnaby Rudge_--two Volumes.
+
+6. _American Notes._
+
+7. _Martin Chuzzlewit_--two Volumes, with various title-pages, notes as
+to the names, &c., and dedication to Miss Burdett Coutts.
+
+8. _The Chimes._
+
+9. _Dombey and Son_--two Volumes, with title-pages, headings of
+chapters, and memoranda.
+
+10. _David Copperfield_--two Volumes, with various title-pages, and
+memoranda as to names.
+
+11. _Bleak House_--two Volumes, with suggestions for title-pages and
+other memoranda.
+
+12. _Hard Times_--with memoranda.
+
+13. _Little Dorrit_--two Volumes, with memoranda, Dedication to Clarkson
+Stanfield, and Preface.
+
+14. _A Tale of Two Cities_--with Dedication to Lord John Russell, and
+Preface.
+
+15. _Edwin Drood_--unfinished, with memoranda, and headings for
+chapters.
+
+John Forster says:--"The last page of _Edwin Drood_ was written in the
+ch�let in the afternoon of his last day of consciousness."
+
+Of the above-mentioned, the calligraphy of Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4, is seen
+at a glance to be larger, bolder, and to have fewer corrections. In Nos.
+5 to 15 it is smaller, and more confused by numerous alterations.
+According to Forster--"His greater pains and elaboration of writing
+became first very obvious in the later parts of _Martin Chuzzlewit_."
+
+The manuscripts of the earliest works of the Author, _Sketches by Boz_,
+_Pickwick_, _Nicholas Nickleby_, &c., were evidently not considered at
+the time worth preserving. The manuscript of _Our Mutual Friend_, given
+by Dickens to Mr. E. S. Dallas--in grateful acknowledgment of an
+appreciative review which (according to an article in _Scribner_,
+entitled "Our Mutual Friend in Manuscript") Mr. Dallas wrote of the
+novel for _The Times_, which largely increased the sale of the book, and
+fully established its success,--is in the library of Mr. G. W. Childs of
+Philadelphia; and that of _A Christmas Carol_--given by Dickens to his
+old friend and school-fellow, Tom Mitton--was for sale in Birmingham a
+few years ago, and might have been purchased for two hundred and fifty
+guineas! It is now owned by Mr. Stuart M. Samuel, and has since been
+beautifully reproduced in fac-simile, with an Introduction by my friend
+and fellow-tramp, Mr. F. G. Kitton. Mr. Wright, of Paris, is the
+fortunate possessor of _The Battle of Life_. The proof-sheets of _Great
+Expectations_ are in the Museum at Wisbech. Messrs. Jarvis and Son, of
+King William Street, Strand, sold some time since four of the MSS. of
+minor articles contributed by Dickens to _Household Words_ in 1855-6,
+viz. _The Friend of the Lions_, _Demeanour of Murderers_, _That other
+Public_, and _Our Commission_, for �10 each.
+
+At the sale of the late Mr. Wilkie Collins's manuscripts and library by
+Messrs. Sotheby, Wilkinson, and Hodge, 18th June, 1890, the manuscript
+of _The Frozen Deep_, by Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens, 1856 (first
+performed at Tavistock House, 6th January, 1857), together with the
+narrative written for _Temple Bar_, 1874, and Prompt Book of the same
+play, was sold for �300. A poem written by Charles Dickens, as a
+Prologue to the same play, and _The Song of the Wreck_, also written by
+Charles Dickens, were sold for �11 11_s._ each. _The Perils of Certain
+English Prisoners_, a joint production of Wilkie Collins and Charles
+Dickens, for the Christmas number of _Household Words_, 1857, realized
+�200; and the drama of _No Thoroughfare_ (imperfect), also a joint
+production, fetched �22.
+
+The manuscripts now belonging to the Nation at South Kensington are
+placed in a glazed cabinet, standing in the middle of the room, on the
+right of which looks down the life-like portrait of the great novelist,
+painted by W. P. Frith, R.A., in 1859. The manuscript volumes are laid
+open in an appropriate manner, so that we have an opportunity of
+examining and comparing them with one another, and of observing how the
+precious thoughts which flowed from the fertile brain took shape and
+became realities.
+
+Where corrections have been made, the original ideas are so obscured
+that it is scarcely possible to decipher them. This is effected, not by
+the simple method of an obliteration of the words, as is common with
+some authors, by means of a line or two run through them at one stroke
+of the pen, but by a series of connected circles, or scroll-work
+flourishes, thus, [Illustration] which must have caused greater muscular
+labour in execution. Let any one try the two methods for himself.
+Dickens was fond of flourishes, as witness his first published
+autograph, under the portrait which was issued with _Nicholas Nickleby_
+(1839). Some evidence of "writer's cramp," as it is termed, appears
+where the C in Charles becomes almost a G, and where the line-like
+flourishes to the signature thirty years later, under the portrait
+forming the frontispiece to _Edwin Drood_, are much shorter and less
+elaborate. All the earlier manuscripts are in black ink--the
+characteristic _blue_ ink, which he was so fond of using in later years,
+not appearing until _Hard Times_ was written (1854), and this continued
+to be (with one exception, _Little Dorrit_) his favourite writing
+medium, for the reason, it is said, that it was fluent to write with and
+dried quickly.
+
+From a valuable collection of letters (more than a dozen--recently in
+the possession of Messrs. Noel Conway and Co., of Martineau Street,
+Birmingham, and kindly shown to me by Mr. Charles Fendelow), written by
+the novelist between 1832 and 1833 to a friend of his earlier years--Mr.
+W. H. Kolle--and not hitherto published, it appears that he had not then
+acquired that precise habit of inscribing the place, day of the week,
+month, and the year which marked his later correspondence (as has been
+pointed out by Miss Hogarth and Miss Dickens in the preface to the
+_Letters of Charles Dickens_), very few of the letters to Mr. Kolle
+bearing any record whatever except the day of the week, occasionally
+preceded by Fitzroy Street or Bentinck Street, where he resided at the
+time. It would be extremely interesting to ascertain the reason which
+subsequently led him to adopt the extraordinarily precise method which
+almost invariably marked his correspondence from the year 1840 until the
+close of his life. Possibly arrangements with publishers and others may
+have given him the exact habit which afterwards became automatic.
+
+In addition to the manuscripts in the Forster Collection in the Museum
+there are corrected proofs of a portion of the _Pickwick Papers_,
+_Dombey and Son_, _David Copperfield_, _Bleak House_, and _Little
+Dorrit_. Some of the corrections in _Dombey and Son_ are said to be in
+the handwriting of Mr. Forster. All these proofs show marvellous
+attention to detail--one of the most conspicuous of Dickens's
+characteristics. Nothing with him was worth doing unless it was done
+well. As an illustration of work in this direction, it may be mentioned
+that a proof copy of the speech delivered at the meeting of the
+Administrative Reform Association at Drury Lane Theatre on Wednesday,
+June 27th, 1855, in the possession of the writer of these lines, has
+over a hundred corrections on the nine pages of which it consists, and
+many of these occur in punctuation. On careful examination, the
+alterations show that the correction in every case is a decided
+improvement on the original. The following _fac-similes_ from the
+_Hand-Book_ to the _Dyce and Forster Collection_, and from Forster's
+_Life_, illustrate the earlier, later, and latest handwritings of
+Charles Dickens as shown in the MSS. of _Oliver Twist_, 1837, _Hard
+Times_, 1854, and _Edwin Drood_, 1870.
+
+[Illustration: "OLIVER TWIST," 1837, vol. i. ch. xii.]
+
+[Illustration: "HARD TIMES," 1854, vol. i. ch. i.]
+
+[Illustration: "DAVID COPPERFIELD," 1850 (corrected proof), ch. xiv.]
+
+[Illustration: "EDWIN DROOD," 1870, ch. xxiii. p. 189 (_last MS.
+page_).]
+
+A proof of the fourteenth Chapter of _David Copperfield_, 1850, shows
+that the allusion to "King Charles the First's head"--about which Mr.
+Dick was so much troubled--was _not_ contained in the first draft of the
+story, for the passage originally had reference to "the date when that
+bull got into the china warehouse and did so much mischief." The
+subsequent reference to King Charles's head was a happy thought of
+Dickens, and furthered Mr. Dick's idea of the mistake "of putting some
+of the trouble out of King Charles's head" into his own.
+
+Mr. R. F. Sketchley, the able and courteous custodian of the collection,
+allows us to see some of the other rarities in the museum not displayed
+in the cabinet--prefaces, dedications, and memoranda relating to the
+novels; letters addressed by Dickens to Forster, Maclise, and others;
+rare play-bills; and the originals of invitations to the public dinner
+and ball at New York, which Dickens received on the occasion of his
+first visit to America in 1842. After turning these over with
+reverential care, we regretfully leave behind us one of the most
+interesting and important literary collections ever presented to the
+Nation.
+
+We next visit the Prerogative Registry of the United Kingdom at Somerset
+House, wherein is filed the original Will of Charles Dickens. The search
+for this interesting document pursued by a stranger under pressure of
+time, strongly reminds one of the "Circumlocution Office" so graphically
+described in _Bleak House_. But we are enthusiastic, and at length
+obtain a clue to it in a folio volume (Letter D), containing the names
+of testators who died in the year 1870, where the Will is briefly
+recorded (at number 468) as that of "Dickens, Charles, otherwise Charles
+John Huffham, Esquire." We pay our fees, and take our seats in the
+reading-room, when the original is presently placed in our hands. It is
+one of a series of three documents fastened together by a bit of green
+silk cord, and secured by the seal of the office, as is customary when
+there are two or more papers filed. The first document is the Will
+itself, dated 12th May, 1869, written throughout by the novelist very
+plainly and closely in the characteristic blue ink on a medium sheet of
+faint blue quarto letter paper, having the usual legal folded margin,
+and exactly covering the four pages. It is free from corrections, and is
+signed, "Charles Dickens," under which is the never-to-be-mistaken
+flourish. The testatum is signed by G. Holsworth, 26 Wellington Street,
+Strand, and Henry Walker, 26 Wellington Street, Strand, which points to
+the fact that the Will was written and executed at the office of _All
+the Year Round_. He appoints "Georgina Hogarth and John Forster
+executrix and executor, and guardians of the persons of my children
+during their respective minorities."
+
+The second document is the Oath of John Forster, testifying that Charles
+Dickens, otherwise Charles John Huffham Dickens, is one and the same
+person. The third document is a Codicil dated 2nd June, 1870 (only a
+week before his death), in which the novelist bequeaths "to my son
+Charles Dickens, the younger, all my share and interest in the weekly
+journal called _All the Year Round_." The Codicil is witnessed by the
+same persons. The Will and Codicil are both given in extenso in vol.
+iii. of Forster's _Life_--the gross amount of the real and personal
+estate being calculated at �93,000.[38]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Avery short tramp from Somerset House brings us to the last object of our
+pilgrimage--the grave of Charles Dickens in Westminster Abbey. Surely no
+admirer of his genius can omit this final mark of honour to the memory
+of the mighty dead. Many years have rolled by since "the good, the
+gentle, highly gifted, ever friendly, noble Dickens" passed away; and we
+stand by the grave in the calm September evening, with "jewels cast upon
+the pavement of the nave from stained glass by the declining sun," and
+look down at the dark flat stone lying at our feet, on which is
+inscribed "in plain English letters," the simple record:--
+
+                CHARLES DICKENS,
+          BORN FEBRUARY THE SEVENTH, 1812.
+              DIED JUNE THE NINTH, 1870.
+
+We recall with profoundly sympathetic interest that quietly impressive
+ceremony as recorded by Forster in the final pages of his able
+biography. "Before mid-day on Tuesday, the 14th June, 1870, with
+knowledge of those only who took part in the burial, all was done. The
+solemnity had not lost by the simplicity. Nothing so grand or so
+touching could have accompanied it, as the stillness and the silence of
+the vast Cathedral." And he further describes the wonderful gathering
+subsequently:--"Then later in the day, and all the following day, came
+unbidden mourners in such crowds that the Dean had to request permission
+to keep open the grave until Thursday; but after it was closed they did
+not cease to come, and all day long." Dean Stanley wrote:--"On the 17th
+there was a constant pressure to the spot, and many flowers were strewn
+upon it by unknown hands, many tears shed from unknown eyes."
+
+What poet, what philosopher, what monarch even, might not envy this
+loving tribute to the influence of the great writer, to the personal
+respect for the man, and to the affection for the friend who, by the
+sterling nature of his work for nearly thirty-five years, had the power
+to create and sustain such sympathy?
+
+Forster thus admiringly concludes the memoir of his hero:
+
+"The highest associations of both the arts he loved surround him where
+he lies. Next to him is Richard Cumberland. Mrs. Pritchard's monument
+looks down upon him, and immediately behind is David Garrick's. Nor is
+the actor's delightful art more worthily represented than the nobler
+genius of the author. Facing the grave, and on its left and right, are
+the monuments of Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Dryden, the three immortals
+who did most to create and settle the language to which Charles Dickens
+has given another undying name."
+
+"Of making many books there is no end," said the wise man of old; and
+certainly, if we may estimate the popularity of Charles Dickens by the
+works of all kinds relating to him, written since his death, the number
+may be counted by hundreds. It may also be said that probably no other
+English writer save Shakespeare has been the cause of so much posthumous
+literature. The sayings of his characters permeate our everyday life,
+and they continue to be as fresh as when they were first recorded. The
+original editions of his writings in some cases realize high prices
+which are simply amazing, and--judging by statistics--his readers are as
+numerous as ever they were. Higher testimony to the worth "of the most
+popular novelist of the century, and one of the greatest humourists that
+England has produced," and to the continued interest which the reading
+public still evince in the minutest detail relating to him and to his
+books, can scarcely be uttered; but what is better still--"his
+sympathies were generally on the right side;"--he has left an example
+that all may follow;--he did his utmost to leave the world a little
+better than he found it;--as he said by one of his characters, "the best
+of men can do no more"--and now he peacefully rests as one
+
+          "Of those immortal dead who live again
+           In minds made better by their presence."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[38] Mr. Dolby, in his _Charles Dickens as I knew him_, estimates that
+�45,000 was realized by Dickens's Readings.
+
+
+
+
+L'ENVOI.
+
+
+WE--my fellow-tramp and I--naturally feel a pang of regret now that our
+pleasant visit to "Dickens-Land" is terminated. With a parting grasp of
+the hand I express to the companion of my travels a cordial wish that
+ere long we may, "PLEASE GOD," renew our delightful experience, and
+again go over the ground hallowed by Dickens associations; to which my
+friend, as cordially assenting, replies "SURELY, SURELY!"
+
+With these two favourite expressions of Charles Dickens (quoted above) I
+conclude the book, trusting that it will prove worthy of some kindly
+appreciation at the hands of my readers.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+CHIEFLY OF NAMES.
+
+
+          � BECKET THOMAS 212 338 340
+
+          Adams H. G. 271
+
+          Allington 135 290-8
+
+          _All the Year Round_ 37 193 374 422
+
+          Alphington 209 210
+
+          _American Notes_ 45 324
+
+          Andersen H. C. 32 374
+
+          Anderson Mary 152 169
+
+          Athen�um 47
+
+          Austin H. 184 330
+
+          Aveling S. T. 53-4 80-2 97
+
+          Aylesford 288 292 296;
+            Battle of 311 313;
+            Church 290;
+            Churchyard 299;
+            Bridge 290;
+            Friary 297
+
+
+          BAIRD J. 270-1-2
+
+          Ball J. H. 68 226-7 235;
+            William 135 226-7-8 230 246
+
+          _Barnaby Rudge_ 17 44-5 138
+
+          Barnard's Inn 24
+
+          _Battle of Life_ 45 211
+
+          Bayham Street 38 264
+
+          Bell Yard 18
+
+          Bentinck Street 25 417
+
+          _Bentley's Miscellany_ 47 59
+
+          Bevan P. 103 114 251 289 311 324 338
+
+          Birmingham 59 239 240;
+            Town Hall 59 239;
+            and Midland Institute 144 239 240
+
+          Bishop's Court 20
+
+          Blanchard E. L. 393
+
+          _Bleak House_ 18 19 20 37 139 268 288 325-7-8 336 357
+              380 399 421
+
+          Bleak House (or Fort House) Broadstairs 327-8-9 333
+
+          Bloomsbury Square 31
+
+          Blue Bell or Upper Bell 188 310 314 374
+
+          Boley (or "Bully") Hill 88 124 158
+
+          "Borough English" 83
+
+          Boundary Lane 253
+
+          British Museum 31
+
+          Broadstairs 317 324-333 343-8;
+            Dickens's Residence in High Street 326;
+            Fort House (or "Bleak House") 327-8-9 333;
+            Lawn House 326-7;
+            Look-out House 332
+
+          Brompton (New) 80 252 270-5
+
+          Brooker Mr. 176
+
+          Budden Major 60 167-8-9 173 186-7-8 190-5;
+            Mrs. 168 195 369;
+            James 270-2-3;
+            William J. 269 270 295
+
+          Burgate Street 340
+
+          Burham 270 295
+
+
+          CAMDEN TOWN 38 264
+
+          Canterbury 113 172 336-344 409
+            Burgate Street 340
+            Cathedral 338
+            "Chequers" 343
+            Dane John 337
+            "Fountain" 343
+            Harbledown 348
+            High Street 337
+            Museum 340
+            "Sir John Falstaff" 336
+            "Sun" 343-4
+            West Gate 336-7
+
+          Canvey Island 351
+
+          Chalk 182 391-3;
+            Church 393-4
+
+          Chancery Lane 18 20
+
+          Chatham 4 28 38 53-4 60 70-1 80 144 188 194 231 251-280 282
+            Barracks 105
+            Convict Prison 268
+            Dockyard 267-9 274
+            Fort Pitt 104-6 272-280
+            Giles's Academy 261
+            High Street 260-2 272-3
+            House on the Brook 260-1-5-6 273
+            Lines 273-5-6
+            Mechanics' Institute 267-9 270-1-3
+            "Mitre" 60 116 262-3-4
+            Navy Pay Office 258 274
+            Ordnance Place 265;
+              Terrace 28 92 257-8 265 274
+            St. Mary's Church 92 255;
+              Place 260-2
+
+          Chelsea--St. Luke's Church 26
+
+          Cherry Garden 54
+
+          _Child's Dream of a Star_ 262-6
+
+          _Child's History of England_ 37 205
+
+          Chillington Manor House 308-9 310
+
+          _Chimes_ 18 20 41 305
+
+          Chorley H. F. 196 200
+
+          _Christmas Carol_ 45 239 414
+
+          Cinque Ports 345
+
+          Cliffe 356 360 373;
+            Church 361
+
+          Clifford's Inn 18 19
+
+          Cobb R. L. 373-4-5
+
+          Cobham 377-8 380-2 386-391 393 409
+            Ch�let 222 384-5 414
+            Church 391
+            Hall 186 220-2 380-386
+            "Leather Bottle" 60 386-390 396
+            Park 188 194 374-9 380-2-6 396
+            Schools 382
+            Woods 380 391 403
+
+          Cobham Lord 358
+
+          Cobtree Hall 296-299 374
+
+          College Gate 72 124-130
+
+          Collins W. 32-3-6 152 196 207 374;
+            Sale of MSS. 415;
+            Charles A. 196-8 200-2-6 271 367 404;
+              Mrs. C. A. 200;
+            _and see_ Dickens Kate _and_ Perugini Mrs.
+
+          Cooling 349-360;
+            Castle 356-360;
+            Church 351-2;
+            Churchyard 354-7
+
+          Cooper T. Sidney 348
+
+          Cosham 284
+
+          Couchman J. 221-226
+
+          Countless Stones 311-2
+
+          _Cricket on the Hearth_ 45 161 239
+
+          "Crispin and Crispianus" 217-220
+
+          Crow Lane 78
+
+          "Crown Old" 116
+
+          "Crozier" 116
+
+          Cruikshank G. 59 140
+
+          Cursitor Street 20-2
+
+          Cuxton 288-9
+
+
+          DADD R. 396
+
+          _Daily News_ 17
+
+          "Dane John" 337
+
+          Darnley Earl of 202 222 374 382-385 396
+
+          _David Copperfield_ 26 39 45-8 91 139 148 219 251-6-8
+              266-269 284 317 325 340 343-347 356 396-7;
+            _Fac-simile_ 419 421
+
+          Davies Rev. G. 194-5;
+            Straits 194-5
+
+          Deal 399
+
+          Deanery Gatehouse 127-9
+
+          Devonshire Terrace 31 41-2-4-6;
+            Street 46
+
+          Dickens A. L. 38 184 228;
+            A. T. 47
+
+          Dickens Charles:--
+            Birth 255 285
+            Birthplace 280-287
+            Baptism 285
+            First literary effort 262
+            Short-hand 249
+            Marriage 391
+            and the Serjeant 249 250
+            and the Bears 402
+            and Public Executions 410-1
+            Genealogy (?) 253-4
+            Dogs 183-4-6 226-8
+            Ch�let 222 384-5 414
+            Crest 385
+            Ravens 44
+            Readings 239 242 271-2 422
+            Politics 239 240
+            Illness 243-4
+            Death 244 369 370 404
+            Funeral 87-8 401-4 423;
+              Card 226
+            Grave 423-4
+            Will 87 286 401 421-2
+            Manuscripts 412-421
+            Handwriting _fac-similes_ (1837 1850 1854 1870) 418-420
+            Corrected Proofs 417
+            Memorial Brass 137
+            Memorials 227-9 230 247 371 420
+            Portraits 59 205 225 272 370 390 415-6
+            Letters 416-7
+            Mysterious Dickens-item 246-249
+
+          Dickens Mrs. C. 207 231
+
+          Dickens C. Junr. 26 32-4 140-5 200-2 294 366 404 422;
+            Edward B. L. 47
+
+          Dickens Fanny 262-4 284-5;
+            Harriet E. 262-6
+
+          Dickens H. F. 180 198 202-3 221 234 248-9 250 368 374
+
+          Dickens J. 38 254-5 265-6 274 283-4-5;
+            Mrs. 38 254-5 285
+
+          Dickens Kate 36 90 196 206 367 370
+            (_and see_ Perugini Mrs. _and_ Collins Mrs. C. A.)
+
+          Dickens Miss 31-4 416
+
+          Dickenson Mr. 200-1-2-9
+
+          Dodd H. 232-3-4
+
+          _Dombey and Son_ 45 139 227 317 325
+
+          Doughty Street 25-8-9 30
+
+          Dover 54 192 345-348;
+            Castle 347;
+            Heights 346;
+            Road 396-400
+
+          Drage Rev. W. H. 92;
+            Misses 92-3
+
+          "Duck" 117
+
+
+          EASEDOWN MRS. 369-371 373
+
+          Eastgate House 72-77 132
+
+          East Malling 293
+
+          _Edwin Drood_ 6 23-7 46 70-3-4-5 83 106 111 113 115 117 119
+              120-1-4-8-9 131-4 6-8-9 140-1 171 207 228 247-8-9 288
+              290 406 411 414 416-7;
+            _Fac-simile_ 420
+
+          Exeter 209
+
+
+          "FALSTAFF Sir John" (at Gad's Hill) 163-5-7 175 207-8-9 400;
+            (At Canterbury) 336
+
+          Farleigh 290
+
+          Faversham 323-4
+
+          Fechter Mr. 106 201 221 242
+
+          Fildes Luke 23 59 75 106 127-9 140-1 169 228 248
+
+          Fisher Bishop 131
+
+          Fitzroy Street 417
+
+          Fleet Street 17 18
+
+          Ford H. 330
+
+          Forster J. 2 6 8 19 20 30-8-9 41-4 51 87 93 107 167 174
+              176-9 182-6-7 196 207-9 221 232-5 258 262 275 310 324-7
+              335 356-7 364 412-4-7 421-424;
+            Bequest 412-416
+
+          Fort Clarence 316
+
+          Fort Pitt 104-6 272-280
+
+          _Fortunus_ 33
+
+          Fountain Court 17
+
+          Fox 20
+
+          Frindsbury 195 275 294;
+            Church 212 236 350
+
+          Frith W. P. 230 395-6 415
+
+          Frog Alley 117
+
+          _Frozen Deep_ 32-3 86 241
+
+          Furnival's Inn 24-27
+
+
+          GAD'S HILL 4 44 60 90-1-3 141 161 _et seq._ 241-8-9 265
+              393 400
+            Sixty years ago 191-195
+            "Falstaff Sir John" 163-5-7 175 207-8-9 400
+
+          Gad's Hill Place 31 42-6 85-88 93 132 161-209 217 221-2-3
+              224-5-7 240-1-3 271 310 363-4-9 370-1 376 400-9
+            Cedars at 186 192
+            Ch�let 186-7 221-2
+            Charades at 197 241
+            Clock 229
+            Cricket at 208 248-9 372-3
+            Dick's Grave at 179
+            _Gazette_ 180 196-8-9
+            "Plough" 241
+            Porch at 184
+            Sale of 235-6 241-6 404
+            Sale Photograph of 230
+            Shrubbery at 186
+            Specification for alterations at 222-3
+            Sports at 363-4
+            Sun-dial 228
+            Theatricals at 241
+            Tunnel at 184-6 228
+            Well at 181-2
+
+          "Gavelkind" 82
+
+          Gibson Mary 46 265-6-7;
+              (_and see_ Weller Mary)
+            Robert 266-7;
+            Thomas 266
+
+          Giles Rev. W. 261;
+            Academy 261
+
+          Gillingham 275
+
+          Gordon Square 31-8;
+            Place 31
+
+          Gower Street 38-9
+
+          Gravesend 3 91 192 336 361-2 393
+
+          _Great Expectations_ 6 7 17 24 37 53 64 70-8 97 156 171
+              188 269 348 351-354 356-8 398 401-5
+
+          _Grimaldi Memoirs of_ 31
+
+          Grip the Raven 44
+
+
+          HARBLEDOWN 348
+
+          Hard Times 37 416;
+            _Fac-simile_ 419
+
+          Hastings 345
+
+          _Haunted Man_ 45
+
+          Hawke Street 255 284
+
+          Head R. 53 88
+
+          Higham 87 173-6 182 194 242 362-375 377
+
+          Hogarth G. 25;
+            Catherine 26;
+              (_and see_ Dickens Mrs. Charles) E. 34;
+            Mary 29;
+            Georgina 34 86 90 205-6 235-8 242-4 370-5-8 396 406 416
+              422;
+            William 54
+
+          Holborn 22-4-7
+
+          _Holly Tree Inn_ 263 408
+
+          Homan F. 85-88 117
+
+          Hoo 350
+
+          Hop-Picking and Cultivation 318-323
+
+          Horse Guards 49
+
+          Horsted 292
+
+          _Household Words_ 45 89 106 142 150 193 257 344 415
+
+          House on the Brook 260 1-5-6 273
+
+          Hulkes J. 163 195-198 403;
+            Mrs. 196 204-5;
+            C. J. 205
+
+          _Hunted Down_ 171
+
+          Hyde Park 46;
+            Corner 64;
+            Place 141
+
+          Hythe 345
+
+
+          JOHNSON'S COURT 18
+
+          John Street 28
+
+
+          KENNETTE A. 78
+
+          Kingsgate Street 27
+
+          Kit's Coty House 310-313 391
+
+          Kitton F. G. 4 38 102 110 127 163 205 248 316 368 393 415
+
+          Kolle W. H. 416-7
+
+
+          LAMERT DR. 255;
+            J. 256-8
+
+          Landport 255 280-286;
+            Commercial Road 281-2
+
+          Lang Andrew 15
+
+          Langton R. 2 3 38 83 144 216 252-5-8 264-6 277 281-2-4-6
+
+          Lapworth Prof. 6
+
+          Larkin C. 163 195
+
+          Latter Mrs. 209 400-1-2
+
+          Lawn House 326-7
+
+          Lawrence J. 59 60
+
+          "Leather Bottle" 60 386-390 396
+
+          Lemon Mark 32-4-5-6 151 232-4
+
+          Levy C. D. 246-7
+
+          _Lighthouse_ 33 86 241
+
+          Lincoln's Inn 19;
+            Fields 19
+
+          Linton Mrs. Lynn 167 191-195
+
+          _Little Dorrit_ 37 46 139 161 171 211 416
+
+          Littlewood J. E. 272-3
+
+          Long Mrs. 333
+
+          "Look-out House" 232
+
+
+          MACLISE D. 20 41-4 59 412 421
+
+          Maidstone 90-1 140 293 306-310;
+            Road 78 151;
+            Chillington Manor House 308-9 310;
+            Brenchley Gardens 309
+
+          Malleson J. N. 201-6
+
+          Margate 324 333-4-6;
+            Theatre 334-5
+
+          Marsham Rev J. J. 402-3-4
+
+          Marshes 142 188 349 350-1-7-8 403-9
+
+          _Martin Chuzzlewit_ 17 27 45 56 414
+
+          Marzials F. T. 8 29 31
+
+          _Master Humphrey's Clock_ 45
+
+          Masters Mrs. 217 219 221-6
+
+          Mechanics' Institute 267-9 270-1-3
+
+          Medway River 52-3-4 67-9 98 103 134-5 162 188 211 253 275
+              288-9 290-2 309 310-6;
+            Valley 379 382
+
+          _Memoirs of Grimaldi_ 31
+
+          Middle Temple Lane 17
+
+          Mile End Cottage 209 210
+
+          Miles Mr. 117 120
+
+          Millen T. 90-1
+
+          Minor Canon Row 92 122-4-7
+
+          Minto Prof. 409
+
+          "Mitre" 60 116 262-3-4
+
+          Mitton T. 414
+
+          Montague Street 31
+
+          _Monthly Magazine_ 18
+
+          Morgan Mr. 200-1-2
+
+          _Morning Chronicle_ 24 26 270
+
+          _Mr. Nightingale's Diary_ 35
+
+          _Mrs. Joseph Porter over the way_ 18
+
+          Mysterious Dickens-item 246-249
+
+
+          NAVY PAY OFFICE CHATHAM 258 274
+
+          New Brompton 80 252 270-5
+
+          New Romney 345
+
+          _Nicholas Nickleby_ 8 31 106 139 210 286 324 416
+
+          _No Thoroughfare_ 374
+
+
+          _OLD CURIOSITY SHOP_ 45-9 139 323 349 405
+
+          Old Sergeants' Inn 18
+
+          _Oliver Twist_ 31 232;
+            _Fac-simile_ 418
+
+          Ordnance Terrace 28 92 257-8 265 274;
+            Place 265
+
+          _Our English Watering-Place_ 317 324-31
+
+          _Our Mutual Friend_ 1 17 18 39 91 171 234 414
+
+          Overblow 402-3
+
+          Owl Club 59;
+            Harmonious Owls 59
+
+
+          PARLIAMENT STREET 48
+
+          Payne G. 130 238
+
+          Pearce Sarah 283-4;
+            Mr. 283;
+            William 284
+
+          Pear Tree Lane 313 377-8
+
+          Pemberton T. Edgar 1 241 286
+
+          Perugini Mrs. 248;
+            (_and see_ Dickens Kate _and_ Collins Mrs. C. A.)
+
+          _Pickwick Papers_ 5 6 20-6-9 31 50-6 62-7 70-5 111 151 231
+              251-5 261 273-6-9 293-5 297-306 324 373-6-9 387-8 391-3
+
+          _Pictures from Italy_ 18
+
+          "Plorn" 202
+
+          Porchester Castle 284
+
+          Portsea 255 281-2;
+            St. Mary's Church 255 285-6;
+            Hawke Street 255 284
+
+          Portsmouth 281-4-6-7;
+            Common Hard 287;
+            Dockyard 285;
+            Theatre 286
+
+          Portsmouth Street 19
+
+          Prall R. 57 85
+
+          Prior's Gate 127-8
+
+          Proctor R. A. 138-9
+
+          Proctors 148
+
+          _Punch_ 90 175
+
+          Purkis Mrs. 285
+
+
+          QUARRY HOUSE 212
+
+
+          RAINHAM 317-8;
+            Mear's Barr Farm 318
+
+          Ramsgate 336
+
+          Reculver 324;
+            The Sisters 324
+
+          Red Lion Square 28 31
+
+          Regent's Park 39;
+            Street 46 51
+
+          Restoration House 53-4 78 80 94-97 132 156
+
+          Robertson Rev. Canon 214
+
+          Robinson G. 269
+
+          Rochester 4 48 51-97 376 396 406-9
+            "Blue Boar" 64
+            Boley (or Bully) Hill 88 124 158
+            Boundary Lane 253
+            Bridge 50-4 67-70 104 215 217 226-7
+            "Bull Inn" 54-5 _et seq._ 104 143-5 409
+            Castle 69 98-110 137 216 396 406-9
+            Cathedral 53-4 87 90 111-141 216 406-9
+            Cherry Garden 54
+            College (or Jasper's) Gate 72 124-130
+            Crow Lane 78 117 156
+            "Crozier" 116
+            Deanery Gatehouse 127-9
+            "Duck" 117
+            Eastgate House 72-77 132
+            Episcopal Palace 130-1
+            Esplanade 134
+            Frog Alley 117
+            Grammar School 81-8
+            Guildhall 54-5 72 108
+            High Street 51-3-5 63-4 70 82 116 125 130 145 275 287
+              296 336
+            London and County Bank 116
+            Maidstone Road 78 151
+            Mathematical School 81 175-6
+            Men's Institute 75
+            Minor Canon Row 92 122-4-7
+            New Road 152
+            "Old Crown" 116
+            Prior's Gate 127-8
+            Restoration House 53-4 78 80 132 156;
+              Ghost Story 94-97
+            Sapsea's House 72-5-6 117
+            Satis House 78 97 156-8
+            Savings Bank 76 116
+            Sir J. Hawkins's Hospital 81
+            Sir J. Hayward's Charity 82
+            Star Hill 70 83
+            St. Bartholomew's Hospital 81
+            St. Catherine's Charity 81
+            St. Margaret's 92;
+              Church 151
+            St. Nicholas' 81 11
+              Cemetery 87 136-7
+              Church 136-7
+            Theatre 83 143 242 256
+            Vines (or Monks' Vineyard) 70-8 81 131-2-4 275 409
+            Watts's Almshouses 151
+              "  Charity 72 142-160 176 409
+
+          Rye 345
+
+          Ryland Mr. Arthur 144-5;
+            Mrs. 33 144
+
+
+          SANDLING 310
+
+          Sandwich 345
+
+          Sapsea's House 72-5-6 117
+
+          Satis House 78 97 156-8
+
+          _Seven Poor Travellers_ 70 98 106 142-3 150 160 380
+
+          Seymour R. 58
+
+          Sheerness 54;
+            Cockle-shell Hard 101
+
+          Sheppard Dr. 342-3-4
+
+          Shorne 87 137 194 358 391-3 400-2;
+            Church 403-4;
+            Ridgway 379
+
+          Sisters Reculver 324
+
+          _Sketches by Boz_ 26 64 258 270
+
+          _Sketches of Young Gentlemen_ 31;
+            _of Young Couples_ 31
+
+          Smetham Henry 368
+
+          Smith C. Roach 52 101 148 231-238 290 311 366
+
+          Smith E. Orford 303
+
+          Snodland 288 290;
+            Brook 135;
+            Weir 135
+
+          Somerset House 38 264 421-3
+
+          _Song of the Wreck_ 33-4-5 415
+
+          South Kensington Museum 249 396 412
+
+          Spencer Herbert 190 406
+
+          Stanfield C. 20 32-3 86 241
+
+          Stanley Dean 88 137 423
+
+          Staplehurst 93;
+            Accident 198 200-1-9
+
+          Staple Inn 22-4-7
+
+          Star Hill 70 83
+
+          Steele Dr. 174 237-246
+
+          Sterry J. Ashby 3 329 345-6
+
+          Stone F. 36;
+            M. 91 196 200-2-7
+
+          _Strange Gentleman_ 26
+
+          St. Luke's Church Chelsea 26
+
+          St. Margaret's 92;
+            Church 151
+
+          St. Mary's Church Chatham 92 255;
+            Place 260-2
+
+          St. Mary's Church Portsea 255 285-6
+
+          St. Nicholas' Church Rochester 81 114 136-7;
+            Cemetery 87 136-7
+
+          St. Nicholas' Church Strood 211
+
+          St. Pancras' Road 39;
+            Church 39
+
+          Strood 50-5 68 80 162 182 195 211-250
+            "Crispin and Crispianus" 217-220
+            Elocution Society 235
+            St. Nicholas' Church 211
+            Preceptory 212
+            Quarry House 212
+            Temple Farm 211
+
+          _Sunday under Three Heads_ 26
+
+          Symond's Inn 19
+
+          Syms Mr. 82 115-117
+
+
+          _TALE OF TWO CITIES_ 17 37-9 171 204 397
+
+          Tavistock Square 32;
+            House 32-3-6-7 42 86 171 325
+
+          Taylor Mrs. 368-9
+
+          Temple 17;
+            Bar 17;
+            Middle Temple Lane 17;
+            Fountain Court 17
+
+          Temple Farm 211
+
+          Thackeray W. M. 24-6-7 234
+
+          Thames River 188 314 350;
+            Valley 358 378 403
+
+          _Times_ 410-414
+
+          Tom-All-Alone's 268
+
+          _Tom Thumb_ 33
+
+          Town Malling 292-3-4 302-306
+
+          Tribe Ald. 264;
+            Master and Miss 258 264;
+            John 264
+
+          Trood W. S. 175 206-209 400;
+            Edward 2 7 220
+
+
+          _UNCOMMERCIAL TRAVELLER_ 6 7 37 83 159 163-5 171 220 264-9
+              278
+
+          Upnor Castle 155
+
+
+          _VILLAGE COQUETTES_ 376
+
+          Vines The 70-8 81 131-2-4 275
+
+
+          WAGHORN LIEUT. 257
+
+          Watts Richard 55 142;
+            Almshouses 151;
+            Charity 72 142-160 176;
+            Memorial 157-8
+
+          Weald of Kent 316
+
+          Weller Mary 265-6;
+            (_and see_ Gibson Mary)
+
+          Westminster Abbey 87-8 137 404 423-4
+
+          Whiston Rev. R. 88-90 160
+
+          Whitefriars Street 17
+
+          Whitehall 48
+
+          Whitstable 323
+
+          Wildish W. T. 82 118 175 265 382
+
+          Wills W. H. 152;
+            W. G. 152 193-4
+
+          Winchelsea 345
+
+          Woburn Square 31
+
+          Wood H. 273-4
+
+          Worsfold C. K. 347
+
+          _Wreck of the Golden Mary_ 260
+
+          Wright Mr. 372-3 415;
+            Mrs. 370-373
+
+
+THE END.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Richard Clay & Sons, Limited, London & Bungay._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Obvious punctuation errors repaired with the exception of the rounded
+brackets on pages 224 and 225 as those were replicas of printings. These
+two instances were left open but not closed.
+
+Page xiv, "round" changed to "Round" (where "All the Year Round")
+
+Page 132, "entited" changed to "entitled" (the illustration entitled)
+
+Page 414, "caligraphy" changed to "calligraphy" (the calligraphy of)
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Week's Tramp in Dickens-Land, by 
+William R. Hughes
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A WEEK'S TRAMP IN DICKENS-LAND ***
+
+***** This file should be named 31394-8.txt or 31394-8.zip *****
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+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Week's Tramp in Dickens-Land, by William R. Hughes, F.L.S.
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+<pre>
+
+Project Gutenberg's A Week's Tramp in Dickens-Land, by William R. Hughes
+
+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: A Week's Tramp in Dickens-Land
+
+Author: William R. Hughes
+
+Illustrator: F. G. Kitton
+
+Release Date: February 25, 2010 [EBook #31394]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A WEEK'S TRAMP IN DICKENS-LAND ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Chris Curnow, Emmy and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[i]</a></span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">[ii]</a></span></p>
+<h2>A WEEK'S TRAMP</h2>
+
+<h3>IN</h3>
+<h1>DICKENS-LAND</h1>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[iii]</a></span>
+
+<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[iv]</a></span></p><div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/i_005.jpg" width="600" height="390" alt="The Marshes, Cooling." title="" />
+<span class="caption">The Marshes, Cooling.</span>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>A WEEK'S TRAMP</h2>
+
+<h3>IN</h3>
+<h1>DICKENS-LAND</h1>
+
+<div class='center'>TOGETHER WITH<br />
+
+<b>Personal Reminiscences of the 'Inimitable Boz'</b><br />
+
+THEREIN COLLECTED.</div>
+
+<h3>BY</h3>
+
+<h2>WILLIAM R. HUGHES, F.L.S.</h2>
+
+<div class='center'><br /><br /><br />
+<i>WITH MORE THAN A HUNDRED<br />
+ILLUSTRATIONS BY F. G. KITTON<br />
+<small>AND OTHER ARTISTS.</small></i><br />
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+LONDON: CHAPMAN &amp; HALL, <span class="smcap">Limited</span>.<br />
+<small>BOSTON: ESTES AND LAURIAT.</small><br />
+<small>1891.</small><br /></div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class='copyright'>
+<span class="smcap">Richard Clay &amp; Sons, Limited,<br />
+London &amp; Bungay.</span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+[<i>All Rights reserved.</i>]<br /></div>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[vi]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+TO<br />
+<br />
+<big>MY WIFE AND DAUGHTERS,</big><br />
+<br />
+EMILY AND EDITH,<br />
+<br />
+I DEDICATE<br />
+<br />
+THIS RECORD OF "A WEEK'S TRAMP,"<br />
+<br />
+TO REMIND THEM OF<br />
+<br />
+THE MANY PLEASANT READINGS FROM DICKENS<br />
+<br />
+WE HAVE ENJOYED TOGETHER<br />
+<br />
+AT HOME.<br /></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>PREFACE.</h2>
+
+
+<div class='center'><big>*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</big></div>
+
+<p>"'I should like to show you a series of eight
+articles, Sir, that have appeared in the Eatanswill
+Gazette. I think I may venture to say that you
+would not be long in establishing your opinions on a
+firm and solid basis, Sir.'</p>
+
+<p>"'I dare say I should turn very blue long before I
+got to the end of them,' responded Bob.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Pott looked dubiously at Bob Sawyer for
+some seconds, and turning to Mr. Pickwick said:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"'You have seen the literary articles which have
+appeared at intervals in the Eatanswill Gazette in the
+course of the last three months, and which have excited
+such general&mdash;I may say such universal&mdash;attention
+and admiration?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Why,' replied Mr. Pickwick, slightly embarrassed
+by the question, 'the fact is, I have been so much
+engaged in other ways, that I really have not had an
+opportunity of perusing them.'</p>
+
+<p>"'You should do so, Sir,' said Pott with a severe
+countenance.</p>
+
+<p>"'I will,' said Mr. Pickwick.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"'They appeared in the form of a copious review of
+a work on Chinese metaphysics, Sir,' said Pott.</p>
+
+<p>"'Oh,' observed Mr. Pickwick&mdash;'from your pen I
+hope?'</p>
+
+<p>"'From the pen of my critic, Sir,' rejoined Pott
+with dignity.</p>
+
+<p>"'An abstruse subject I should conceive,' said Mr.
+Pickwick.</p>
+
+<p>"'Very, Sir,' responded Pott, looking intensely
+sage. 'He <i>crammed</i> for it, to use a technical but expressive
+term; he read up for the subject, at my
+desire, in the <i>Encyclop&aelig;dia Britannica</i>.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Indeed!' said Mr. Pickwick; 'I was not aware
+that that valuable work contained any information
+respecting Chinese metaphysics.'</p>
+
+<p>"'He read, Sir,' rejoined Mr. Pott, laying his hand
+on Mr. Pickwick's knee, and looking round with a
+smile of intellectual superiority, 'he read for metaphysics
+under the letter M, and for China under the
+letter C; and combined his information, Sir!'</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Pott's features assumed so much additional
+grandeur at the recollection of the power and research
+displayed in the learned effusions in question, that
+some minutes elapsed before Mr. Pickwick felt emboldened
+to renew the conversation."</p>
+
+<div class='center'><big>*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</big></div>
+
+<p>The above perennial extract from the immortal
+<i>Pickwick Papers</i> suggests to some extent the nature
+of the contents of this Volume. It is the record of
+a pilgrimage made by two enthusiastic Dickensians
+during the late summer of 1888, together with "combined<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[ix]</a></span>
+information,"&mdash;not indeed "crammed" from the
+ninth edition just completed of the valuable work
+above referred to, but gathered mostly from original
+sources,&mdash;respecting the places visited, the characters
+alluded to in some of the novels, personal
+reminiscences of their Author, appropriate passages
+from his works (for which acknowledgments are due
+to Messrs. Chapman and Hall), and some little
+mention of the thoughts developed by the associations
+of "Dickens-Land."</p>
+
+<p>Although the pilgrimage only extended to a week,
+and every spot referred to (save one) was actually visited
+during that time, it is but right to state that on three
+subsequent occasions the author has gone over the
+greater part of the same ground&mdash;once in the early
+winter, when the blue clematis and the aster had given
+place to the yellow jasmine and the chrysanthemum;
+once in the early spring, when those had been succeeded
+by the almond-blossom and the crocus; and
+again in the following year, when the beautiful county
+of Kent was rehabilitated in summer clothing, thus
+enabling him to verify observations, to correct possible
+errors arising from first impressions, and to gain new
+experiences.</p>
+
+<p>As our head-quarters were at Rochester, and most
+of the city and other parts were taken at odd times, it
+has not been found practicable to preserve in consecutive
+chapters a perfect sequence of the records
+of each day's tramp, although they appear in fairly
+chronological order throughout the work. "A preliminary
+tramp in London" will possibly be dull to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[x]</a></span>
+those familiar with the great Metropolis, but it may be
+useful to foreign tramps in "Dickens-Land."</p>
+
+<p>Availing myself of the privilege adopted by most
+travellers at home and abroad, I have made occasional
+references to the weather. This is perhaps excusable
+when it is remembered that the year 1888 was a very
+remarkable one in that respect, so much so indeed,
+that the writer of a leading article in <i>The Times</i> of
+January 18th, 1889, in commenting on Mr. G. J.
+Symons' report of the British rainfall of the previous
+year, remarked that "seldom within living memory
+had there been a twelve-month with more unpleasantness
+in it and less of genial sunshine." We
+were specially favoured, however, in getting more
+"sunshine" than "unpleasantness," thus adding to the
+enjoyment of our never-to-be-forgotten tramp.</p>
+
+<p>Upwards of three years have elapsed since this book
+was commenced, and the limited holiday leisure of a
+hard-working official life has necessarily prevented its
+completion for such a lengthened period, that it has
+come to be pleasantly referred to by my many
+Dickensian friends as the "Dictionary," in allusion to
+the important work of that nature contemplated by
+Dr. Strong, respecting which (says David Copperfield)
+"Adams, our head-boy, who had a turn for mathematics,
+had made a calculation, I was informed, of the
+time this Dictionary would take in completing, on the
+Doctor's plan, and at the Doctor's rate of going. He
+considered that it might be done in one thousand six
+hundred and forty-nine years, counting from the
+Doctor's last, or sixty-second, birthday."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[xi]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>My hearty and sincere acknowledgments are due
+to the publishers, Messrs. Chapman and Hall, not
+only for the very handsome manner in which they
+have allowed my book to be got up as regards
+print, paper, and execution (to follow the model of
+their Victoria Edition of <i>Pickwick</i> is indeed an
+honour to me), but especially for their great liberality
+in the matter of the Illustrations, which number more
+than a hundred. These were selected in conference
+by Mr. Fred Chapman, Mr. Kitton, and myself, and
+include about fifty original drawings by Mr. Kitton,
+from sketches specially made by him for this work.
+Of the remainder, six are from Forster's <i>Life of
+Dickens</i>, fifteen from Langton's <i>Childhood and Youth
+of Charles Dickens</i>, seven from <i>Charles Dickens by
+Pen and Pencil</i>, ten from the Jubilee Edition of
+<i>Pickwick</i>, and five from Rimmer's <i>About England
+with Dickens</i>. A few interesting fac-similes of handwriting,
+etc., have also been introduced. Surely such
+an eclectic series of Dickens Illustrations has never
+before been presented in one volume.</p>
+
+<p>To Messrs. Chapman and Hall, Mr. Robert
+Langton, F.R.H.S., Messrs. Frank T. Sabin and
+John F. Dexter, Messrs. Macmillan and Co., and
+Messrs. Chatto and Windus (the proprietors of the
+above-mentioned works), the author's acknowledgments
+are also due, and are hereby tendered. Mr.
+Stephen T. Aveling has kindly supplied an illustration
+of Restoration House as it appeared in Dickens's time,
+and Mr. William Ball, J.P., generously commissioned
+a local artist to make a sketch of the Marshes, which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[xii]</a></span>
+forms the frontispiece to the book, and gives a good
+idea of the "long stretches of flat lands" on the Kent
+and Essex coasts.</p>
+
+<p>To those friends whom we then met for the first
+time, and from whom we subsequently received help,
+the author's most cordial acknowledgments are due,
+and are also tendered, for kind information and
+assistance. They are a goodly number, and include
+Mr. A. A. Arnold, Mr. Stephen T. Aveling, Mr.
+William Ball, J.P., Mr. James Baird, Mr. Charles Bird,
+F.G.S., Major and Mrs. Budden, Mr. W. J. Budden,
+Mr. R. L. Cobb, Mr. J. Couchman, The Misses
+Drage, Mrs. Easedown, Mr. Franklin Homan, Mr.
+James Hulkes, J.P., and Mrs. Hulkes, Mr. Apsley
+Kennette, Mrs. Latter, Mr. J. Lawrence, Mr. C. D.
+Levy, Mr. B. Lillie, Mr. J. E. Littlewood, Mr. J. N.
+Malleson, Rev. J. J. Marsham, M.A., Mrs. Masters,
+Mr. Miles, Mr. W. Millen, Mr. Geo. Payne, F.S.A.,
+Mr. William Pearce, Mr. George Robinson, Mr. T.
+B. Rosseter, F.R.M.S., Dr. Sheppard, Mr. Henry
+Smetham, Dr. Steele, M.R.C.S., Mr. William Syms,
+Mrs. Taylor, Miss Taylor, Mr. W. S. Trood, Major
+Trousdell, Rev. Robert Whiston, M.A., Mr. W. T.
+Wildish, Mr. Humphrey Wood, Mr. C. K. Worsfold,
+and Mrs. Henry Wright. The late Mr. Roach Smith,
+F.S.A., took much interest in my work and gave valuable
+assistance. Mr. Luke Fildes, R.A., and Mrs. Lynn
+Linton generously contributed very interesting information.
+The Right Honourable the Earl of Darnley,
+Mr. Henry Fielding Dickens, Mr. W. P. Frith, R.A.,
+and Lady Head, also kindly answered enquiries.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[xiii]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Miss Hogarth has at my request very kindly consented
+to the publication of the original letters of the
+Novelist&mdash;about a dozen&mdash;now printed for the first
+time.</p>
+
+<p>My sincere thanks are due to Mr. E. W. Badger,
+F.R.H.S., the friend of many years, for valuable help.</p>
+
+<p>To my old friend and fellow-tramp, Mr. F. G. Kitton,
+with whose memory this delightful excursion will ever
+be pleasantly connected, my warmest thanks are due
+for reading proofs and for much kind help in many
+ways. "He wos werry good to me, he wos." As Pip
+wrote to another "Jo," "<span class="smcap">woT larX</span>" we did have.</p>
+
+<p>Last, but not least, my cordial thanks are due to
+Mr. Charles Dickens for much kind information and
+valuable criticism.</p>
+
+<p>So long as readers continue to be, so long
+will our great English trilogy of cognate authors,
+Shakespeare, Scott, and Dickens, continue to be read.
+Indeed as regards Dickens, a writer in <i>Blackwood</i>,
+June, 1871 (and <i>Blackwood</i> was not always a sympathetic
+critic), said:&mdash;"We may apply to him, without
+doubt, the surest test to which the maker can be
+subject: were all his books swept by some intellectual
+catastrophe out of the world, there would still exist
+in the world some score at least of people, with all
+whose ways and sayings we are more intimately acquainted
+than with those of our brothers and sisters,
+who would owe to him their being. While we live
+Sam Weller and Dick Swiveller, Mr. Pecksniff and
+Mrs. Gamp, the Micawbers and the Squeerses, can
+never die.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. They are more real than we are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[xiv]</a></span>
+ourselves, and will outlive and outlast us, as they
+have outlived their creator. This is the one proof of
+genius which no critic, not the most carping or
+dissatisfied, can gainsay."</p>
+
+<p>So long also, the author ventures to think,
+will pilgrimages continue to be made to the shrines
+of Stratford-on-Avon, Abbotsford, and Gad's Hill
+Place, and to their vicinities. The modest aim of
+this Volume is, that it may add a humble unit
+in helping to keep <i>his</i> memory green, and that it
+may be a useful and acceptable companion to pilgrims,
+not only of our own country, but also from that
+still "Greater Britain," where "All the Year <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'round'">Round</ins>"
+the name of Charles Dickens is almost a dearer
+"Household Word" than it is with us.</p>
+
+<div class='sig'>
+<span class="smcap">William R. Hughes.</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='secsig'>
+<span class="smcap">Wood House, Handsworth Wood</span>,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">near <span class="smcap">Birmingham</span>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;"><i>30th September, 1891.</i></span><br /></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">[xv]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents">
+<tr><td align='left' colspan='2'><small>CHAP.</small></td><td align='right'><small>PAGE</small></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Preface</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_vii">vii</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>I.</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Introductory</span></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>II.</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;<span class="smcap">A Preliminary Tramp in London</span></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_7">7</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>III.</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Rochester City</span></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_51">51</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>IV.</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Rochester Castle</span></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_98">98</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>V.</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Rochester Cathedral</span></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_111">111</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>VI.</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Richard Watts's Charity, Rochester</span></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_142">142</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>VII.</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;<span class="smcap">An Afternoon at Gad's Hill Place</span></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_161">161</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>VIII.</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Charles Dickens and Strood</span></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_211">211</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>IX.</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Chatham:&mdash;St. Mary's Church, Ordnance Terrace, The House on the Brook, The Mitre Hotel, and Fort Pitt. Landport:&mdash;Portsea, Hants</span></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_251">251</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>X.</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Aylesford, Town Malling, and Maidstone</span></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_288">288</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XI.</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Broadstairs, Margate, and Canterbury</span></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_317">317</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XII.</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Cooling, Cliffe, and Higham</span></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_349">349</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XIII.</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Cobham Park and Hall, The Leather Bottle, Shorne, Chalk, and the Dover Road</span></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_376">376</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XIV.</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;<span class="smcap">A Final Tramp in Rochester and London</span></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_405">405</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Index</span></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_427">427</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xvii" id="Page_xvii">[xvii]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="List of illustrations heading">
+<tr><td align='left'><img src="images/i_020a.png" width="131" height="264" alt="Statue 1" title="" />
+</td><td align='left'><h2>LIST</h2>
+
+<h3>OF</h3>
+
+<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2></td><td align='left'><img src="images/i_020b.png" width="122" height="257" alt="Statue 2" title="" />
+</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="List of illustrations">
+<tr><td align='left' colspan='2'>&nbsp;</td><td align='right'><small>PAGE</small></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left' valign='top'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">The Marshes, Cooling</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>F. G. Kitton</i><br />(from a Sketch by <i>E. L. Meadows</i>)</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<i><a href="#Page_iv">Frontispiece</a></i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Headpiece, "Humour"</span> (From two Statuettes of "Mr. Pickwick" and "Sam Weller" in Crown Derby Ware)</div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>Engraved by <i>R. Langton</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_xvii">xvii</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">The Golden Cross</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>Herbert Railton</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_10">10</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Young Dickens at the Blacking Warehouse</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>F. Barnard</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_12">12</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Fountain Court, Temple</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>C. A. Vanderhoof</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_16">16</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Staple Inn, Holborn</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_21">21</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Barnard's Inn</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>Herbert Railton</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_23">23</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Dickens's House, Furnival's Inn</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#furnivals">25</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">No. 48, Doughty Street</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>J. Grego</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_28">28</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Tavistock House, Tavistock Square</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>J. Liddell</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_30">30</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">No. 141, Bayham Street</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>F. G. Kitton</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_37">37</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">No. 1, Devonshire Terrace</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>D. Maclise, R.A.</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_40">40</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Fac-simile of Letter, Charles Dickens</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_43">43</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Apotheosis of "Grip" the Raven</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>D. Maclise, R.A.</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#raven">45</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>"<span class="smcap">My magnificent order at the Public House</span>"</div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>Phiz</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_49">49</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Bull Inn, Rochester&mdash;"good house, nice beds"</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>Herbert Railton</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_56">56</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Staircase at "the Bull"</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>F. G. Kitton</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_58">58</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">The "Elevated Den" in the Ball-room, "Bull Inn"</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>F. G. Kitton</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_61">61</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Old Rochester Bridge</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>Herbert Railton</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#bridge">68</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">The Guildhall, Rochester</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>F. G. Kitton</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Guildhall">71</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">The "Moon-faced" Clock in High Street</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#moonfaced">72</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xviii" id="Page_xviii">[xviii]</a></span><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">In High Street, Rochester</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#high">73</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Eastgate House, Rochester</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>F. G. Kitton</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#eastgate">74</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Mr. Sapsea's House, Rochester</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#sapseahouse">76</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Mr. Sapsea's Father</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>(After sketch by <i>H. Wickham</i>)</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_77">77</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Restoration House, Rochester</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>F. G. Kitton</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#restoration">79</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Old Rochester Theatre, Star Hill</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>W. Hull</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_84">84</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">The Castle from Rochester Bridge</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>F. G. Kitton</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#castle">99</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">The Keep of Rochester Castle</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>Herbert Railton</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_101">101</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Interior of Rochester Castle</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>F. G. Kitton</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_105">105</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Rochester Castle and the Medway</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_109">109</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Rochester Cathedral</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_112">112</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Rochester Cathedral, Interior</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_115">115</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">The Crypt, Rochester Cathedral</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>Phiz</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_118">118</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Minor Canon Row, Rochester</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>F. G. Kitton</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_123">123</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">College Gate (or "Chertsey's" Gate), Rochester</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>F. G. Kitton</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#college">125</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Prior's Gate, Rochester</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_126">126</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Deanery Gate, Rochester</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_128">128</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">The Vines and Restoration House, Rochester</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_131">131</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Restoration House, as it appeared in Dickens's time</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>(Engraved from a Drawing by an Amateur)</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_133">133</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">St. Nicholas' Burying-ground</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>F. G. Kitton</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_136">136</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Memorial Brass in Rochester Cathedral</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_138">138</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">The "Six Poor Travellers"</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>F. G. Kitton</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_143">143</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Richard Watts's Almshouses, Rochester</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_149">149</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Fac-similes of Signatures of Charles Dickens and Mark Lemon</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#signatures">151</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">The "Six Poor Travellers" from the Rear</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>F. G. Kitton</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_153">153</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">A Dormitory in the "Six Poor Travellers": Gallery leading to the Dormitories</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>F. G. Kitton</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#gallery">154</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Satis House</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>(From a Photograph)</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#satis">156</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Watts's Monument in Rochester Cathedral</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>R. Langton</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_157">157</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Rochester from Strood Hill</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>C. Marshall</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_162">162</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">The "Sir John Falstaff" Inn, Gad's Hill</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>F. G. Kitton</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_164">164</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_166">166</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">"The Empty Chair." Gad's Hill, Ninth of June, 1870</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>F. G. Kitton</i> (from the Drawing by <i>S. L. Fildes, R.A.</i>)</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_170">170</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Counterfeit Book-backs on Study Door</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>R. Langton</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_172">172</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xix" id="Page_xix">[xix]</a></span><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place from the Rear</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>J. Liddell</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_177">177</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>"<span class="smcap">The Grave of Dick, the best of Birds</span>"</div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>F. G. Kitton</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_178">178</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">The Well at Gad's Hill Place</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_181">181</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">The Porch, Gad's Hill Place</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>J. Liddell</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_183">183</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">The Cedars, Gad's Hill</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>E. Hull</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_185">185</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">View from the Roof of Dickens's House, Gad's Hill</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>F. G. Kitton</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_189">189</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Fac-similes of <i>Gad's Hill Gazette</i> and Final Notice</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_199">199</a>-<a href="#Page_203">203</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Temple Farm, Strood</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>F. G. Kitton</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_213">213</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">At Temple Farm, Strood</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_214">214</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Crypt, Temple Farm</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_215">215</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">The "Crispin and Crispianus," Strood</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#crispin">218</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Old Quarry House, Strood</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_236">236</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Frindsbury Church</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_239">239</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Rochester from Strood Pier</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_245">245</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">St. Mary's Church, Chatham</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>W. Dadson</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_256">256</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">No. 11, Ordnance Terrace, Chatham</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>E. Hull</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_259">259</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">The House on the Brook, Chatham</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_260">260</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Giles's School, Chatham</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_261">261</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Mitre Inn, Chatham</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_263">263</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Navy-Pay Office, Chatham</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_275">275</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Fort Pitt, Chatham</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>Herbert Railton</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_277">277</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Birthplace of Charles Dickens, Portsea</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>(From a Photograph)</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_281">281</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">St. Mary's Church, Portsea</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>R. Langton</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_285">285</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Aylesford</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>F. G. Kitton</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_289">289</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Aylesford Bridge</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_291">291</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">The High Street, Town Malling</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>Herbert Railton</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_293">293</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Cob Tree Hall</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>F. G. Kitton</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#cobb">297</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Cricket Ground, Town Malling</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_302">302</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">The Medway at Maidstone</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#medway">307</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Chillington Manor House, Maidstone</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#manor">310</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Kit's Coty House</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_312">312</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Kit's Coty House and "Blue Bell"</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='right'>(From the Painting by Gegan)</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_315">315</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Hop-picking in Kent</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>F. G. Kitton</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_319">319</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">"Bleak House," Broadstairs</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_328">328</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Old Look-out House, Broadstairs</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_332">332</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xx" id="Page_xx">[xx]</a></span><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">The "Falstaff," Westgate, Canterbury</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_335">335</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">The "Dane John" from the City Wall, Canterbury</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>F. G. Kitton</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_337">337</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Bell Harry Tower, Canterbury Cathedral</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_339">339</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Scene of the Martyrdom, Canterbury Cathedral</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>F. G. Kitton</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_341">341</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">"Bits" of Old Canterbury</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>C. A. Vanderhoof</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_342">342</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">"The Little Inn," Canterbury</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>F. G. Kitton</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_345">345</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Graves of the Comport Family, Cooling Churchyard</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>F. G. Kitton</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_353">353</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Cooling Church</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>C. A. Vanderhoof</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_355">355</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Gateway, Cooling Castle</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>F. G. Kitton</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_359">359</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Cliffe Church</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_361">361</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Cobham Hall</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>Herbert Railton</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_381">381</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Dickens's Ch&acirc;let, now in Cobham Park</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>J. Liddell</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_384">384</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">The "Leather Bottle," Cobham</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>F. G. Kitton</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_387">387</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">The Old Parlour of the "Leather Bottle"</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>E. Hull</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_389">389</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Cobham Church</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>Herbert Railton</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_390">390</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Shorne Church</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>F. G. Kitton</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_392">392</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Curious Old Figure over the Porch, Chalk Church</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>F. G. Kitton</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_394">394</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">"There's Milestones on the Dover Road"</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_400">400</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Doorway, Rochester Cathedral</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_407">407</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Fac-similes of Charles Dickens's Handwriting</span> 1837, 1850, 1854, 1870</div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_418">418</a>-<a href="#Page_420">20</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">The Grave in Westminster Abbey</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><i>F. G. Kitton</i></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>&nbsp;<a href="#Page_425">425</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left' valign='top'><div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Tailpiece, "Pathos"</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'>(From two Plaques of the "Old Man" and "Little Nell" in Wedgwood Ware)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='right'>Engraved by <i>R. Langton</i></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_xx">xx</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Tailpieces">
+<tr><td align='left'><img src="images/i_023a.png" width="156" height="244" alt="Old Man" title="" />
+</td><td align='left'><img src="images/i_023b.png" width="160" height="244" alt="Little Nell" title="" />
+</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p>
+<h2>A WEEK'S TRAMP</h2>
+
+<h3>IN</h3>
+
+<h2>DICKENS-LAND.</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+
+<h3>INTRODUCTORY.</h3>
+
+<div class="hang2">"So wishing you well in the way you go, we now conclude with the
+observation, that perhaps you'll go it."&mdash;<i>Our Mutual Friend.</i></div>
+
+
+<div class='unindent'><span class="smcap">Among</span> the many interesting books that have been published
+relating to Charles Dickens since his death, more than
+twenty years ago (it seems but yesterday to some of his
+admirers), there are at least half a dozen that describe the
+"country" peopled by the deathless characters created by his
+genius.</div>
+
+<p>Probably the pioneer in this class of literature was that
+comprehensive work, <i>Dickens's London, or London in the
+Works of Charles Dickens</i>, by my friend, that thorough
+Dickensian, Mr. T. Edgar Pemberton, 1876; this was followed
+by a very readable volume, <i>In Kent with Charles Dickens</i>, by
+Thomas Frost, 1880; then came a dainty tome from Boston,
+U.S.A., entitled, <i>A Pickwickian Pilgrimage</i>, by John R. G.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span>
+Hassard, 1881. Afterwards appeared <i>The Childhood and
+Youth of Charles Dickens</i>, by Robert Langton, 1883, beautifully
+illustrated by the late William Hull of Manchester, the
+author, and others&mdash;a work developed from the <i>brochure</i> by
+the same author, <i>Charles Dickens and Rochester</i>, 1880, which
+has passed through five editions. Next to Forster's <i>Life
+of Dickens</i>, Mr. Robert Langton's larger work undoubtedly
+ranks&mdash;especially from the richness of the illustrations&mdash;as a
+very valuable original contribution to the biography of the
+great novelist. Another handsome volume, containing the
+illustrations to a series of papers in <i>Scribner's Monthly</i>&mdash;written
+by B. E. Martin&mdash;entitled <i>About England with
+Dickens</i>, came from the pen of Mr. Alfred Rimmer, 1883,
+and included additional illustrations drawn by the author,
+C. A. Vanderhoof, and others. Yet another little <i>brochure</i>
+recently appeared, called <i>London Rambles en zigzag with
+Charles Dickens</i>, by Robert Allbut, 1886. Lastly, there
+was published in the Christmas Number of <i>Scribner's
+Magazine</i>, 1887, an article, "In Dickens-Land," by Edward
+Percy Whipple, in which this veteran and appreciative critic
+of the eminent English writer's works points out that, "In
+addition to the practical life that men and women lead,
+constantly vexed as it is by obstructive facts, there is an
+interior life which they <i>imagine</i>, in which facts smoothly give
+way to sentiments, ideas, and aspirations. Dickens has, in
+short, discovered and colonized one of the waste districts of
+'Imagination,' which we may call 'Dickens-Land,' or
+'Dickens-Ville,' .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. better known than such geographical
+countries as Canada and Australia, .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. and confirming us
+in the belief of the <i>reality</i> of a population which has no <i>actual</i>
+existence."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It must not be assumed that the above list exhausts the
+literature on the subject of "Dickens-Land," many references
+to which are made in such high-class works as Augustus J. C.
+Hare's <i>Walks in London</i>, and Lawrence Hutton's <i>Literary
+Landmarks of London</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Since the above was written, a very interesting and prettily
+illustrated article has appeared in the <i>English Illustrated
+Magazine</i> for October, 1888, entitled "Charles Dickens and
+Southwark," by Mr. J. Ashby-Sterry, who is second to none
+as an enthusiastic admirer and loyal student of Dickens.
+There is also a paper in <i>Longman's Magazine</i> for the same
+month, by the delightful essayist A. K. H. B., called "That
+Longest Day," in which there are several allusions to Dickens
+and "Dickens-Land." It, however, lacks the freshness of his
+earlier writings. Surely he must have lost his old love for
+Dickens, or things must have gone wrong at the Ecclesiastical
+Conference which took place at Gravesend on "That Longest
+Day." Altogether it is pitched in a minor key.</p>
+
+<p>None of these contributions (with the exception of Mr.
+Langton's book), interesting as they are, and indispensable
+to the collector, attempt in any way to give personal
+reminiscences of Charles Dickens from friends or others,
+nor do they in any way help to throw light on his everyday
+life at home, beyond what was known before.</p>
+
+<p>The circumstances narrated in this work do not concern the
+imaginary "Dickens-Land" of Mr. Whipple, but refer to the
+actual country in which the imaginary characters played their
+parts, and to that still more interesting actual country in which
+Dickens lived long and loved most&mdash;the county of Kent.</p>
+
+<p>On Friday, 24th August, 1888, two friends met in London&mdash;one
+of them, the writer of these lines, a Dickens collector of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span>
+some years' experience; the other, Mr. F. G. Kitton, author
+of that sumptuous work, <i>Charles Dickens by Pen and
+Pencil;</i> both ardent admirers of "the inimitable 'Boz,'" and
+lovers of nature and art.</p>
+
+<p>We were a sort of self-constituted roving commission, to
+carry into effect a long-projected intention to make a week's
+tramp in "Dickens-Land," for purposes of health and
+recreation; to visit Gad's Hill, Rochester, Chatham, and
+neighbouring classical ground; to go over and verify some of
+the most important localities rendered famous in the novels;
+to identify, if possible, doubtful spots; and to glean, under
+whatever circumstances naturally developed in the progress
+of our tramp, additions in any form to the many interesting
+memorials already published, and still ever growing,
+relating to the renowned novelist. The idea of recording our
+reminiscences was not a primary consideration. It grew out
+of our experiences, generating a desire for others to become
+acquainted with the results of our enjoyable peregrinations;
+and the labour therein involved has been somewhat of the
+kind described by Lewis Morris:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"For this of old is sure,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">That change of toil is toil's sufficient cure."</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>We mixed with representatives of the classes of domestics,
+labourers, artizans, traders, professional men, and scientists.
+Many of those whom we met were advanced in years,&mdash;several
+were octogenarians,&mdash;and there is no doubt that we have been
+the means of placing on record here and there an interesting
+item from the past generation (mostly told in the exact words
+of the narrators) that might otherwise have perished. This is
+a special feature of this work, which makes it different from all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span>
+the preceding. In every instance we were received with
+very great kindness, courtesy, and attention. The replies to
+our questions were frank and generous, and in several cases
+permission was accorded us to make copies of original
+documents not hitherto made public.</p>
+
+<p>Considering that almost every inch of ground connected
+with Dickens has been so thoroughly explored, we were, on
+the whole, quite satisfied with our excursion: "the results
+were equal to the appliances."</p>
+
+<p>By a coincidence, the month which we selected (August)
+was Dickens's favourite month, if we may judge from the
+opening sentences of the sixteenth chapter of <i>Pickwick:</i>&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"There is no month in the whole year, in which nature wears a
+more beautiful appearance than in the month of August. Spring has
+many beauties, and May is a fresh and blooming month, but the
+charms of this time of year are enhanced by their contrast with the
+winter season. August has no such advantage. It comes when we
+remember nothing but clear skies, green fields, and sweet-smelling
+flowers&mdash;when the recollection of snow, and ice, and bleak winds,
+has faded from our minds as completely as they have disappeared
+from the earth,&mdash;and yet what a pleasant time it is. Orchards and
+cornfields ring with the hum of labour; trees bend beneath the thick
+clusters of rich fruit which bow their branches to the ground; and
+the corn, piled in graceful sheaves, or waving in every light breath
+that sweeps above it, as if it wooed the sickle, tinges the landscape
+with a golden hue. A mellow softness appears to hang over the
+whole earth; the influence of the season seems to extend itself to
+the very wagon, whose slow motion across the well-reaped field, is
+perceptible only to the eye, but strikes with no harsh sound upon
+the ear."</p></div>
+
+<p>By another coincidence, the day which we selected to
+commence our tramp was Friday&mdash;the day upon which most
+of the important incidents of Dickens's life happened, as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span>
+appears from frequent references in Forster's <i>Life</i> to the
+subject.</p>
+
+<p>Provided with a selection of books inseparably connected
+with the subject of our tour, including, of course, copies of
+<i>Pickwick</i>, <i>Great Expectations</i>, <i>Edwin Drood</i>, <i>The Uncommercial
+Traveller</i>, Bevan's <i>Tourist's Guide to Kent</i>, one or two local
+Handbooks, one of Bacon's useful cycling maps, with a sketch
+map of the geology of the district (which greatly helped us
+to understand many of its picturesque effects, and was kindly
+furnished by Professor Lapworth, LL.D., F.R.S., of the
+Mason College, Birmingham), and with a pocket aneroid
+barometer, which every traveller should possess himself with
+if he wishes to make convenient arrangements as regards
+weather, we make a preliminary tramp in London.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+
+<h3>A PRELIMINARY TRAMP IN LONDON.</h3>
+
+<div class="hang2">"We Britons had at that time particularly settled that it was treasonable
+to doubt our having and our being the best of everything: otherwise,
+while I was scared by the immensity of London, I think I might
+have had some faint doubts whether it was not rather ugly, crooked,
+narrow, and dirty."&mdash;<i>Great Expectations.</i></div>
+
+
+<div class='unindent'><span class="smcap">Some</span> sixty or seventy years must have elapsed since Dickens
+(through the mouthpiece of Pip, as above) recorded his first
+impressions of London; and although he lived in it many
+years, and in after life he loved to study its people in every
+stratum of society and every phase of their existence, it
+seems doubtful, apart from these studies, whether he ever really
+liked London itself, for in the <i>Uncommercial Traveller</i>, on
+"The Boiled Beef of New England," in describing London as
+it existed subsequently, he contrasts it unfavourably in some
+respects, not only with such continental cities as Paris,
+Bordeaux, Frankfort, Milan, Geneva, and Rome, but also
+with such British cities as Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Exeter, and
+Liverpool, with such American cities as New York, Boston,
+and Philadelphia, and with "a bright little town like Bury
+St. Edmunds." Nevertheless, it is indubitable that his writings,
+beyond those of any other author, have done wonders<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span>
+to popularize our knowledge of London,&mdash;more particularly
+the London of the latter half of the last and the first half of
+the present century,&mdash;and that those writings have given it a
+hold on our affections which it might not otherwise have
+acquired. In almost all his works we are introduced to a fresh
+spot in the Metropolis, perhaps previously known to us, but to
+which the fidelity of his descriptions and the reality of the
+characters peopling it, certainly give a historical value never
+before understood or appreciated. In <i>The Life of Charles
+Dickens</i>, written by his devoted friend, John Forster, may be
+found a corroboration of this view:&mdash;</div>
+
+<p>"There seemed," says this biographer, "to be not much to
+add to our knowledge of London until his books came upon
+us, but each in this respect outstripped the other in its
+marvels. In <i>Nickleby</i>, the old city reappears under every
+aspect; and whether warmth and light are playing over what
+is good and cheerful in it, or the veil is uplifted from its darker
+scenes, it is at all times our privilege to see and feel it as it
+absolutely is. Its interior hidden life becomes familiar as its
+commonest outward forms, and we discover that we hardly
+knew anything of the places we supposed that we knew the
+best."</p>
+
+<p>What Scott did for Edinburgh and the Trossachs, Dickens
+did for London and the county of Kent. His fascination for
+the London streets has been dwelt on by many an author.
+Mr. Frank T. Marzials says in his interesting <i>Life of Charles
+Dickens:</i>&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"London remained the walking-ground of his heart. As
+he liked best to walk in London, so he liked best to walk at
+night. The darkness of the great city had a strange fascination
+for him. He never grew tired of it."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Mr. Sala records that he had been encountered "in the
+oddest places and in the most inclement weather: in Ratcliff
+Highway, on Haverstock Hill, on Camberwell Green, in
+Gray's Inn Lane, in the Wandsworth Road, at Hammersmith
+Broadway, in Norton Folgate, and at Kensal New Town. A
+hansom whirled you by the 'Bell and Horns' at Brompton,
+and there was Charles Dickens striding as with seven-leagued
+boots, seemingly in the direction of North End, Fulham.
+The Metropolitan Railway disgorged you at Lisson Grove,
+and you met Charles Dickens plodding sturdily towards the
+'Yorkshire Stingo.' He was to be met rapidly skirting the
+grim brick wall of the prison in Coldbath Fields, or trudging
+along the Seven Sisters' Road at Holloway, or bearing under
+a steady press of sail through Highgate Archway, or pursuing
+the even tenor of his way up the Vauxhall Bridge Road."</p>
+
+<p>That his feelings were intensely sympathetic with all classes
+of humanity there is amply evidenced in the following lines,
+written so far back as 1841, which Master Humphrey, "from
+his clock side in the chimney corner," speaks in the last page
+before the opening of <i>Barnaby Rudge:</i>&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Heart of London, there is a moral in thy every stroke! as I look
+on at thy indomitable working, which neither death, nor press of life,
+nor grief, nor gladness out of doors will influence one jot, I seem to
+hear a voice within thee which sinks into my heart, bidding me, as I
+elbow my way among the crowd, have some thought for the meanest
+wretch that passes, and, being a man, to turn away with scorn and
+pride from none that bear the human shape."</p></div>
+
+<p>On a sultry day, such as this of Friday, the 24th August,
+1888, with the thermometer at nearly 80 degrees in the shade,
+one needs some enthusiasm to undertake a tramp for a few
+hours over the hot and dusty streets of London, that we may<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span>
+glance at a few of the memorable spots that we have visited
+over and over again before. This preliminary tramp is therefore
+necessarily limited to visiting the houses where Dickens
+lived, from the year 1836 until he finally left it in 1860, on
+disposing of Tavistock House, and took up his residence at
+Gad's Hill Place. In our way we shall take a few of the
+places rendered famous in the novels, but it would require a
+"knowledge of London" as "extensive and peculiar" as that
+of Mr. Weller, and would occupy a week at least, to exhaust
+the interest of all these associations.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 558px;">
+<img src="images/i_033.png" width="558" height="620" alt="The Golden Cross." title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>Our temporary quarters are at our favourite "Morley's," in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span>
+Trafalgar Square, one of those old-fashioned, comfortable
+hotels of the last generation, where the guest is still known
+as "Mr. H.," and not as "Number 497." And what is very
+relevant to our present purpose, Morley's revives associations
+of the hotels, or "Inns," as they were more generally
+called in Charles Dickens's early days. Strolling from Morley's
+eastward along the Strand, to which busy thoroughfare there
+are numerous references in the works of Dickens, we pass on
+our left the Golden Cross Hotel, a great coaching-house half
+a century ago, from whence the Pickwickians and Mr. Jingle
+started, on the 13th of May, 1827, by the "Commodore"
+coach for Rochester. "The low archway," against which Mr.
+Jingle thus prudently cautioned the passengers,&mdash;"Heads!
+Heads! Take care of your heads!" with the addition of a
+very tragic reference to the head of a family, was removed
+in 1851, and the hotel has the same appearance now that it
+presented after that alteration. The house was a favourite
+with David Copperfield, who stayed there with his friend
+Steerforth on his arrival "outside the Canterbury coach;"
+and it was in one of the public rooms here, approached by
+"a side entrance to the stable-yard," that the affecting
+interview took place with his humble friend Mr. Peggotty,
+as touchingly recorded in the fortieth chapter of <i>David
+Copperfield</i>. The two famous "pudding shops" in the Strand,
+so minutely described in connection with David's early days,
+have of course long been removed:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"One was in a court close to St. Martin's Church&mdash;at the back
+of the Church,&mdash;which is now removed altogether. The pudding at
+that shop was made of currants, and was rather a special pudding,
+but was dear, two pennyworth not being larger than a pennyworth
+of more ordinary pudding. A good shop for the latter was in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>
+Strand,&mdash;somewhere in that part which has been rebuilt since. It
+was a stout pale pudding, heavy and flabby, and with great flat
+raisins in it, stuck in whole at wide distances apart. It came up
+hot at about my time every day, and many a day did I dine off it."</p></div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 423px;">
+<img src="images/i_035.png" width="423" height="567" alt="Young Dickens at the Blacking Warehouse." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Young Dickens at the Blacking Warehouse.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Nearly opposite the Golden Cross Hotel is Craven Street,
+where (says Mr. Allbut), at No. 39, Mr. Brownlow in <i>Oliver
+Twist</i> resided after removing from Pentonville, and where
+the villain Monks was confronted, and made a full confession
+of his guilt.</p>
+
+<p>"Ruminating on the strange mutability of human affairs,"
+after the manner of Mr. Pickwick, we call to mind, on the
+same side of the way, Hungerford Stairs, Market, and Bridge,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span>
+all well remembered in the days of our youth, but now
+swept away to make room for the commodious railway
+terminus at Charing Cross. Here poor David Copperfield
+"served as a labouring hind," and acquired his grim experience
+with poverty in Murdstone and Grinby's (<i>alias</i> Lamert's)
+Blacking Warehouse. Hungerford Suspension Bridge many
+years ago was removed to Clifton, and we never pass by it
+on the Great Western line without recalling recollections of
+poor David's sorrows.</p>
+
+<p>Next in order comes Buckingham Street, at the end house
+of which, on the east side (No. 15), lived Mrs. Crupp, who let
+apartments to David Copperfield in happier days. Here he
+had his "first dissipation," and entertained Steerforth and
+his two friends, Mrs. Crupp imposing on him frightfully as
+regards the dinner; "the handy young man" and the
+"young gal" being equally troublesome as regards the
+waiting. The description of "my set of chambers" in
+<i>David Copperfield</i> seems to point to the possibility of Dickens
+having resided here, but there is no evidence to prove it.
+At Osborn's Hotel, now the Adelphi, in John Street, Mr.
+Wardle and his daughter Emily stayed on their visit to
+London, after Mr. Pickwick was released from the Fleet
+Prison.</p>
+
+<p>Durham Street, a little further to the right, leads to the
+"dark arches," which had attractions for David Copperfield,
+who "was fond of wandering about the Adelphi, because it
+was a mysterious place with those dark arches." He says:&mdash;"I
+see myself emerging one evening from out of these arches,
+on a little public-house, close to the river, with a space before
+it, where some coal-heavers were dancing." Nearly opposite
+is the Adelphi Theatre, notable as having been the stage<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>
+whereon most of the dramas founded on Dickens's works were
+first produced, from <i>Nicholas Nickleby</i> in 1838, in which
+Mrs. Keeley, John Webster, and O. Smith took part, down
+to 1867, when <i>No Thoroughfare</i> was performed, "the only
+story," says Mr. Forster, "Dickens himself ever helped to
+dramatize," and which was rendered with such fine effect
+by Fechter, Benjamin Webster, Mrs. Alfred Mellon, and
+other important actors. He certainly assisted in Madame
+Celeste's production of <i>A Tale of Two Cities</i>, even if he had
+no actual part in the writing of the piece.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Allbut thinks that the residence of Miss La Creevy, the
+good-natured miniature painter (whose prototype was Miss
+Barrow, Dickens's aunt on his mother's side) in <i>Nicholas
+Nickleby</i>, was probably at No. 111, Strand. It was "a private
+door about half-way down that crowded thoroughfare."</p>
+
+<p>We proceed onwards, passing Wellington Street North,
+where at No. 16, the office of the famous <i>Household Words</i>
+formerly stood; <i>All the Year Round</i>, its successor, conducted
+by Mr. Charles Dickens, the novelist's eldest son, now being
+at No. 26 in the same street.</p>
+
+<p>A little further on, on the same side of the way, and almost
+facing Somerset House, at No. 332, was the office of the once
+celebrated <i>Morning Chronicle</i>, on the staff of which Dickens
+in early life worked as a reporter. The <i>Chronicle</i> was a great
+power in its day, when Mr. John Black ("Dear old Black!"
+Dickens calls him, "my first hearty out-and-out appreciator,
+.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. with never-forgotten compliments .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. coming in the
+broadest of Scotch from the broadest of hearts I ever knew,")
+was editor, and Mr. J. Campbell, afterwards Lord Chief-Justice
+Campbell, its chief literary critic. The <i>Chronicle</i> died in 1862.</p>
+
+<p>The west corner of Arundel Street (No. 186, Strand, where<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span>
+now stand the extensive premises of Messrs. W. H. Smith
+and Son) was formerly the office of Messrs. Chapman and
+Hall, the publishers of almost all the original works of Charles
+Dickens. After 1850 the firm removed to 193, Piccadilly,
+their present house being at 11, Henrietta Street, Covent
+Garden. They own the copyright, and publish all Dickens's
+works; and they estimate that two million copies of <i>Pickwick</i><a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a>
+have been sold in England alone, exclusive of the almost
+innumerable popular editions, from one penny upwards,
+published by other firms, the copyright of this work having
+expired. The penny edition was sold by hundreds of
+thousands in the streets of London some years ago.</p>
+
+<p>This statement will probably be surprising to the remarkable
+class of readers thus described by that staunch
+admirer of Dickens, Mr. Andrew Lang, in "Phiz," one of his
+charming <i>Lost Leaders</i>. He says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"It is a singular and gloomy feature in the character of
+young ladies and gentlemen of a particular type, that they
+have ceased to care for Dickens, as they have ceased to
+care for Scott. They say they cannot read Dickens. When
+Mr. Pickwick's adventures are presented to the modern
+maid, she behaves like the Cambridge freshman. 'Euclide
+viso, cohorruit et evasit.' When he was shown Euclid he
+evinced dismay, and sneaked off. Even so do most young
+people act when they are expected to read <i>Nicholas
+Nickleby</i> and <i>Martin Chuzzlewit</i>. They call these master-pieces<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span>
+'too gutterly gutter'; they cannot sympathize with
+this honest humour and conscious pathos. Consequently the
+innumerable references to Sam Weller, and Mrs. Gamp, and
+Mr. Pecksniff, and Mr. Winkle, which fill our ephemeral
+literature, are written for these persons in an unknown tongue.
+The number of people who could take a good pass in Mr.
+Calverley's <i>Pickwick</i> Examination Paper is said to be
+diminishing. Pathetic questions are sometimes put. Are we
+not too much cultivated? Can this fastidiousness be anything
+but a casual passing phase of taste? Are all people
+over thirty who cling to their Dickens and their Scott old
+fogies? Are we wrong in preferring them to <i>Bootles' Baby</i>,
+and <i>The Quick or the Dead</i>, and the novels of M. Paul
+Bourget?"</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/i_039.png" width="500" height="370" alt="Fountain Court, Temple." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Fountain Court, Temple.</span>
+</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But this by the way. Turning down Essex Street, we
+visit the Temple, celebrated in several of Dickens's novels&mdash;<i>Barnaby
+Rudge</i>, <i>A Tale of Two Cities</i>, <i>Great Expectations</i>,
+and <i>Our Mutual Friend</i>,&mdash;but in none more graphically
+than in <i>Martin Chuzzlewit</i>, in which is described the
+fountain in Fountain Court, where Ruth Pinch goes to
+meet her lover, "coming briskly up, with the best little laugh
+upon her face that ever played in opposition to the fountain;
+and beat it all to nothing." And when John Westlock
+came at last, "merrily the fountain leaped and danced, and
+merrily the smiling dimples twinkled and expanded more and
+more, until they broke into a laugh against the basin's rim,
+and vanished." As we saw the fountain on the bright August
+morning of our tramp, the few shrubs, flowers, and ferns
+planted round it gave it quite a rural effect, and we wished
+long life to the solitary specimen of eucalyptus, whose
+glaucous-green leaves and tender shoots seemed ill-fitted to
+bear the nipping frosts of our variable climate.</p>
+
+<p>Coming out of the Temple by Middle Temple Lane, we
+pass on our left Child's Bank, the "Tellson's Bank" of <i>A Tale
+of Two Cities</i>, "which was an old-fashioned place even in the
+year 1780," but was replaced in 1878 by the handsome building
+suitable to its imposing neighbours, the Law Courts.
+Temple Bar, which adjoined the Old Bank, and was one of
+the relics of Dickens's London, has passed away, having
+since been re-erected on "Theobalds," near Waltham Cross.</p>
+
+<p>"A walk down Fleet Street"&mdash;one of Dr. Johnson's
+enjoyments&mdash;leads us to Whitefriars Street, on the east side
+of which, at No. 67, is the office of <i>The Daily News</i>, edited by
+Dickens from 21 Jany. to 9 Feby., 1846, and for which he
+wrote the original prospectus, and subsequently, in a series of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span>
+letters descriptive of his Italian travel, his delightful <i>Pictures
+from Italy</i>. St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet Street is supposed
+to have been that immortalized in <i>The Chimes</i>.</p>
+
+<p>It was in this street many years before (in the year 1833,
+when he was only twenty-one), as recorded in Forster's <i>Life</i>,
+that Dickens describes himself as dropping his first literary
+sketch, <i>Mrs. Joseph Porter over the Way</i>, "stealthily one
+evening at twilight, with fear and trembling, into a dark
+letter-box in a dark office up a dark court in Fleet Street;
+and he has told his agitation when it appeared in all the
+glory of print:&mdash;'On which occasion I walked down to
+Westminster Hall, and turned into it for half an hour, because
+my eyes were so dimmed with joy and pride, that they could
+not bear the street, and were not fit to be seen there.'" The
+"dark court" referred to was no doubt Johnson's Court, as
+the printers of the <i>Monthly Magazine</i>, Messrs. Baylis and
+Leighton, had their offices here. This contribution appeared
+in the January number 1834 of this magazine, published by
+Messrs. Cochrane and Macrone of 11 Waterloo Place.</p>
+
+<p>Turning up Chancery Lane, also celebrated in many of
+Charles Dickens's novels, we leave on our left Bell Yard,
+where lodged the ruined suitor in Chancery, poor Gridley,
+"the man from Shropshire" in <i>Bleak House</i>, but the yard has,
+through part of it being required for the New Law Courts
+and other modern improvements, almost lost its identity.</p>
+
+<p>On our right is Old Serjeant's Inn, which leads into
+Clifford's Inn, where the conference took place between
+John Rokesmith and Mr. Boffin, when the former, to the
+latter's amazement, said:&mdash;"If you would try me as your
+Secretary." The place is thus referred to in the eighth
+chapter of <i>Our Mutual Friend:</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Not very well knowing how to get rid of this applicant, and
+feeling the more embarrassed because his manner and appearance
+claimed a delicacy in which the worthy Mr. Boffin feared he himself
+might be deficient, that gentleman glanced into the mouldy little
+plantation or cat preserve, of Clifford's Inn, as it was that day, in
+search of a suggestion. Sparrows were there, dry-rot and wet-rot
+were there, but it was not otherwise a suggestive spot."</p></div>
+
+<p>Symond's Inn, described as "a little, pale, wall-eyed, woebegone
+inn, like a large dust-bin of two compartments and a
+sifter,"&mdash;where Mr. Vholes had his chambers, and where Ada
+Clare came to live after her marriage, there tending lovingly
+the blighted life of the suitor in Jarndyce and Jarndyce, poor
+Richard Carstone,&mdash;exists no more. It formerly stood on the
+site of Nos. 25, 26, and 27, now handsome suites of offices.</p>
+
+<p>Lincoln's Inn, a little higher up on the opposite side of the
+way, claims our attention, in the Hall of which was formerly
+the Lord High Chancellor's Court, wherein the wire-drawn
+Chancery suit of Jarndyce and Jarndyce in <i>Bleak House</i>
+dragged its course wearily along. The offices of Messrs.
+Kenge and Carboy, of Old Square, Solicitors in the famous
+suit, were visited by Esther Summerson, who says:&mdash;"We
+passed into sudden quietude, under an old gallery, and drove
+on through a silent square, until we came to an old nook
+in a corner, where there was an entrance up a steep broad
+flight of stairs like an entrance to a church." Mr. Serjeant
+Snubbin, Mr. Pickwick's counsel in the notorious cause of
+Bardell <i>v.</i> Pickwick, also had his chambers in this square.
+We then enter Lincoln's Inn Fields, and pay a visit to No.
+58, on the furthest or west side near Portsmouth Street.
+This ancient mansion was the residence of Dickens's friend
+and biographer, John Forster, before he went to live at Palace<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>
+Gate. It is minutely described in the tenth chapter of <i>Bleak
+House</i> as the residence of Mr. Tulkinghorn, "a large house,
+formerly a house of state, .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. let off in sets of chambers
+now; and in those shrunken fragments of its greatness lawyers
+lie like maggots in nuts." The "foreshortened allegory in
+the person of one impossible Roman upside down," who
+afterwards points to the "new meaning" (<i>i. e.</i> the murder of
+Mr. Tulkinghorn) has, it is to be regretted, since been whitewashed.
+On the 30th November, 1844, here Dickens read
+<i>The Chimes</i> to a few intimate friends, an event immortalized
+by Maclise's pencil, and, as appreciative of the feelings of the
+audience, Forster alludes "to the grave attention of Carlyle,
+the eager interest of Stanfield and Maclise, the keen look of
+poor Laman Blanchard, Fox's rapt solemnity, Jerrold's skyward
+gaze, and the tears of Harness and Dyce."</p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21"></a>
+<img src="images/i_044.png" width="600" height="405" alt="Staple Inn, Holborn." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Staple Inn, Holborn.</span>
+</div>
+<p>That celebrated tavern called the "Magpie and Stump,"
+referred to in the twenty-first chapter of <i>Pickwick</i>,&mdash;where that
+hero spent an interesting evening on the invitation of Lowten
+(Mr. Perker's clerk), and heard "the old man's tale about the
+queer client,"&mdash;is supposed to have been "The old George the
+IVth" in Clare Market, close by. Retracing our steps through
+Bishop's Court (where lived Krook the marine-store dealer,
+and in whose house lodged poor Miss Flite and Captain
+Hawdon, <i>alias</i> Nemo) into Chancery Lane, we arrive at the
+point from whence we diverged, and turn into Cursitor Street.
+Like other places adjacent, this street has been subjected
+to "improvements," and it is scarcely possible to trace
+"Coavinses," so well known to Mr. Harold Skimpole, or
+indeed the place of business and residence of Mr. Snagsby,
+the good-natured law stationer, and his jealous "little woman."
+It will be remembered that it was here the Reverend Mr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>
+Chadband more than once "improved a tough subject":&mdash;"toe
+your advantage, toe your profit, toe your gain, toe
+your welfare, toe your enrichment,"&mdash;and refreshed his own.
+Thackeray was partial to this neighbourhood, and Rawdon
+Crawley had some painful experiences in Cursitor Street.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>Bearing round by Southampton Buildings, we reach Staple
+Inn,&mdash;behind the most ancient part of Holborn,&mdash;originally a
+hostelry of the merchants of the Wool-staple, who were
+removed to Westminster by Richard II. in 1378. At No.
+10 in the first court, opposite the pleasant little garden
+and picturesque hall, resided the "angular" but kindly Mr.
+Grewgious, attended by his "gloomy" clerk, Mr. Bazzard, and
+on the front of the house over the door still remains the
+tablet with the mysterious initials:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 188px;">
+<img src="images/i_045.png" width="188" height="114" alt="Mysterious initials" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<div class='unindent'>but our enquiries fail to discover their meaning. Dickens
+humorously suggests "Perhaps John Thomas," "Perhaps Joe
+Tyler," and under hilarious circumstances, "Pretty Jolly too,"
+and "Possibly jabbered thus!" They are understood to be
+the initials of the treasurer of the Inn at the date above-mentioned.
+It is interesting to state that the Inn has been
+most appropriately restored by the enterprising Prudential
+Assurance Company, who have recently purchased it; and on
+the seat in the centre of the second Court (facing Holborn),
+under the plane trees which adorn it, were resting a few wayfarers,
+who seemed to enjoy this thoughtful provision made
+by the present owners. We can picture in one of the rooms<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span>
+on the first floor of P. J. T.'s house (very memorable to the
+writer of these lines, some brief part of his early life having
+been passed there), the conference described in the twentieth
+chapter of <i>Edwin Drood</i>, between Mr. Grewgious and his
+charming ward,&mdash;so aptly pourtrayed by Mr. Luke Fildes in
+his beautiful drawing, "Mr. Grewgious experiences a new sensation,"&mdash;as
+well as all the other scenes which took place here.</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 379px;">
+<img src="images/i_046.png" width="379" height="500" alt="Barnard&#39;s Inn" title="" />
+</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Turning into Holborn through the Archway of Staple Inn,
+and stopping for a minute to admire the fine effect of the
+recently restored fourteenth-century old-timbered houses of
+the Inn which face that thoroughfare, a few steps lower down
+take us to Barnard's Inn, where Pip in <i>Great Expectations</i>
+lodged with his friend Herbert Pocket when he came to
+London. Dickens calls it, "the dingiest collection of shabby
+buildings ever squeezed together in a rank corner as a club for
+tom-cats." Simple-minded Joe Gargery, who visited Pip here,
+persisted for a time in calling it an "hotel," and after his
+visit thus recorded his impressions of the place:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"The present may be a werry good inn, and I believe its
+character do stand i; but I wouldn't keep a pig in it myself&mdash;not in
+the case that I wished him to fatten wholesome and to eat with a
+meller flavour on him."</p></div>
+
+<p>A few plane trees&mdash;the glory of all squares and open spaces
+in London, where they thrive so luxuriantly&mdash;give a rural
+appearance to this crowded place, while the sparrows tenanting
+them enjoy the sunbeams passing through the scanty
+branches.</p>
+
+<p>Our next halting-place, Furnival's Inn, is one of profound
+interest to all pious pilgrims in "Dickens-Land," for there
+the genius of the young author was first recognized, not only
+by the novel-reading world, but also by his contemporaries
+in literature. Thackeray generously spoke of him as "the
+young man who came and took his place calmly at the head
+of the whole tribe, and who has kept it."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 301px;"><a name="furnivals" id="furnivals"></a>
+<img src="images/i_048.png" width="301" height="550" alt="Dickens House by Furnival&#39;s Inn" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>Furnival's Inn in Holborn, which stands midway between
+Barnard's Inn and Staple Inn on the opposite side of the way,
+is famous as having been the residence of Charles Dickens in
+his bachelor days, when a reporter for the <i>Morning Chronicle</i>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>
+He removed here from his father's lodgings at No. 18, Bentinck
+Street, and had chambers, first the "three pair back" (rather
+gloomy rooms) of No. 13 from Christmas 1834 until Christmas
+1835, when he removed to the "three pair floor south" (bright
+little rooms) of No. 15, the house on the right-hand side of
+the square having Ionic ornamentations, which he occupied
+from 1835 until his removal to No. 48, Doughty Street, in
+March 1837. The brass-bound iron rail still remains, and the
+sixty stone steps which lead from the ground-floor to the top<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span>
+of each house are no doubt the same over which the eager
+feet of the youthful "Boz" often trod. He was married from
+Furnival's Inn on 2nd April, 1836, to Catherine, eldest
+daughter of Mr. George Hogarth, his old colleague on the
+<i>Morning Chronicle</i>, the wedding taking place at St. Luke's
+Church, Chelsea, and doubtless lived here in his early matrimonial
+days much in the same way probably as Tommy
+Traddles did, as described in <i>David Copperfield</i>. Here the
+<i>Sketches by Boz</i> were written, and most of the numbers of the
+immortal <i>Pickwick Papers</i>, as also the lesser works: <i>Sunday
+under Three Heads</i>, <i>The Strange Gentleman</i>, and <i>The Village
+Coquettes</i>. The quietude of this retired spot in the midst of a
+busy thoroughfare, and its accessibility to the <i>Chronicle</i> offices
+in the Strand, must have been very attractive to the young
+author. His eldest son, the present Mr. Charles Dickens,
+was born here on the 6th January, 1837.</p>
+
+<p>It was in Furnival's Inn, probably in the year 1836, that
+Thackeray paid a visit to Dickens, and thus described the
+meeting:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I can remember, when Mr. Dickens was a very young man,
+and had commenced delighting the world with some charming
+humorous works in covers which were coloured light green
+and came out once a month, that this young man wanted an
+artist to illustrate his writings; and I remember walking up
+to his chambers in Furnival's Inn, with two or three drawings
+in my hand, which, strange to say, he did not find suitable."</p>
+
+<p>How wonderfully interesting these "two or three drawings"
+would be now if they could be discovered! Of the
+score or so of "Extra Illustrations" to <i>Pickwick</i> which have
+appeared, surely these (if they were such) which Dickens "did
+not find suitable," combining as they did the genius of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span>
+Dickens and Thackeray, whatever their merits or defects
+may have been, would be most highly prized.</p>
+
+<p>John Westlock, in <i>Martin Chuzzlewit</i>, had apartments in
+Furnival's Inn, and was there visited by Tom Pinch. Wood's
+Hotel occupies a large portion of the square, and is mentioned
+in <i>The Mystery of Edwin Drood</i> as having been the Inn
+where Mr. Grewgious took rooms for his charming ward Rosa
+Bud, from whence he ordered for her refreshment, soon after
+her arrival at Staple Inn to escape Jasper's importunities, "a
+nice jumble of all meals," to which it is to be feared she did
+not do justice, and where "at the hotel door he afterwards
+confided her to the Unlimited head chamber-maid."</p>
+
+<p>The Society of Arts have considerately put up on the house
+No. 15 one of their neat terra-cotta memorial tablets with the
+following inscription:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='center'>
+CHARLES<br />
+DICKENS,<br />
+<b>Novelist</b>,<br />
+Lived here.<br />
+B. 1812,<br />
+D. 1870.<br />
+</div>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 241px;">
+<img src="images/i_051.png" width="241" height="450" alt="No. 48, Doughty Street, Mecklenburgh Square. Dickens&#39;s Residence 1837-9." title="" />
+<span class="caption">No. 48, Doughty Street, Mecklenburgh Square.<br />
+Dickens&#39;s Residence 1837-9.</span>
+</div><p>We proceed along Holborn, and go up Kingsgate Street,
+where "Poll Sweedlepipe, Barber and Bird Fancier," lived,
+"next door but one to the celebrated mutton-pie shop, and
+directly opposite the original cats'-meat warehouse." The
+immortal Sairey Gamp lodged on the first floor, where
+doubtless she helped herself from the "chimley-piece" whenever
+she felt "dispoged." Here also the quarrel took place
+between that old lady and her friend Betsey Prig anent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span>
+that mythical personage, "Mrs. Harris." We pass through
+Red Lion Square and up Bedford Row, and after proceeding
+along Theobald's Road for a short distance, turn up John
+Street, which leads into Doughty Street, where, at No. 48,
+Charles Dickens lived from 1837 to 1839. The house,
+situated on the east side of the street, has twelve rooms, is
+single-fronted, three-storied, and not unlike No. 2, Ordnance
+Terrace, Chatham. A tiny little room on the ground-floor,
+with a bolt inside in addition to the usual fastening, is pointed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>
+out as having been the novelist's study. It has an outlook
+into a garden, but of late years this has been much reduced in
+size. A bill in the front window announces "Apartments
+to let," and they look very comfortable. Doughty Street, now
+a somewhat noisy thoroughfare, must have been in Charles
+Dickens's time a quiet, retired spot. A large pair of iron
+gates reach across the street, guarded by a gate-keeper
+in livery. "It was," says Mr. Marzials in his <i>Life of
+Dickens</i>, "while living at Doughty Street that he seems, in
+great measure, to have formed those habits of work and
+relaxation which every artist fashions so as to suit his own
+special needs and idiosyncrasies. His favourite time for
+work was the morning between the hours of breakfast and
+lunch; .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. he was essentially a day worker and not a night
+worker.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. And for relaxation and sedative when he had
+thoroughly worn himself with mental toil, he would have
+recourse to the hardest bodily exercise.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. At first riding
+seems to have contented him, .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. but soon walking took the
+place of riding, and he became an indefatigable pedestrian.
+He would think nothing of a walk of twenty or thirty miles,
+and that not merely in the vigorous hey-day of youth, but
+afterwards to the very last.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;."</p>
+
+
+
+<p>It was at Doughty Street that he experienced a bereavement
+which darkened his life for many years, and to which
+Forster thus alludes:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"His wife's next younger sister Mary, who lived with them,
+and by sweetness of nature even more than by graces of
+person had made herself the ideal of his life, died with a
+terrible suddenness that for a time completely bore him down.
+His grief and suffering were intense, and affected him .&nbsp;.&nbsp;.
+through many after years." <i>Pickwick</i> was temporarily<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>
+suspended, and he sought change of scene at Hampstead.
+Forster visited him there, and to him he opened his heart.
+He says:&mdash;"I left him as much his friend, and as entirely
+in his confidence, as if I had known him for years."</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 331px;">
+<img src="images/i_053.png" width="331" height="500" alt="Tavistock House, Tavistock Square. Dickens&#39;s Residence 1851-60." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Tavistock House, Tavistock Square.<br />
+Dickens&#39;s Residence 1851-60.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Some time afterwards, we find him inviting Forster "to join
+him at 11 <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> in a fifteen-mile ride out and ditto in, lunch
+on the road, with a six o'clock dinner in Doughty Street."</p>
+
+<p>Charles Dickens's residence in Doughty Street was but of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span>
+short duration&mdash;from 1837 to 1840 only; but there he completed
+<i>Pickwick</i>, and wrote <i>Oliver Twist</i>, <i>Memoirs of Grimaldi</i>,
+<i>Sketches of Young Gentlemen</i>, <i>Sketches of Young Couples</i>, and
+<i>The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby</i>. His eldest
+daughter Mary was born here.</p>
+
+<p>In proper sequence we ought to proceed to Dickens's third
+London residence, No. 1, Devonshire Terrace, but it will be
+more convenient to take his fourth residence on our way.
+We therefore retrace our steps into Theobald's Road, pass
+through Red Lion and Bloomsbury Squares, and along Great
+Russell Street as far as the British Museum, where Dickens
+is still remembered as "a reader" (merely remarking that it
+of course contains a splendid collection of the original impressions
+of the novelist's works, and "Dickensiana," as is
+evidenced by the comprehensive Bibliography furnished by
+Mr. John P. Anderson, one of the librarians, to Mr. Marzials'
+<i>Life of Dickens</i>), which we leave on our left, and turn up
+Montague Street, go along Upper Montague Street, Woburn
+Square, Gordon Square, and reach Tavistock Square, at the
+upper end of which, on the east side, Gordon Place leads us
+into a retired spot cut off as it were from communication with
+the rest of this quiet neighbourhood. Three houses adjoin
+each other&mdash;handsome commodious houses, having stone
+porticos at entrance&mdash;and in the first of these, Tavistock
+House, Dickens lived from 1851 until 1860, with intervals at
+Gad's Hill Place. This beautiful house, which has eighteen
+rooms in it, is now the Jews' College. The drawing-room on
+the first floor still contains a dais at one end, and it is said
+that at a recent public meeting held here, three hundred and
+fifty people were accommodated in it, which serves to show
+what ample quarters Dickens had to entertain his friends.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Hans Christian Andersen, who visited Dickens here in 1857,
+thus describes this fine mansion:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"In Tavistock Square stands Tavistock House. This and
+the strip of garden in front are shut out from the thoroughfare
+by an iron railing. A large garden with a grass-plat
+and high trees stretches behind the house, and gives it a
+countrified look, in the midst of this coal and gas steaming
+London. In the passage from street to garden hung pictures
+and engravings. Here stood a marble bust of Dickens, so
+like him, so youthful and handsome; and over a bedroom
+door were inserted the bas-reliefs of Night and Day, after
+Thorwaldsen. On the first floor was a rich library, with a
+fireplace and a writing-table, looking out on the garden;
+and here it was that in winter Dickens and his friends acted
+plays to the satisfaction of all parties. The kitchen was
+underground, and at the top of the house were the bedrooms."</p>
+
+<p>It appears that Andersen was wrong about the plays being
+acted in the "rich library," as I am informed by Mr. Charles
+Dickens that "the stage was in the school-room at the back
+of the ground-floor, with a platform built outside the window
+for scenic purposes."</p>
+
+<p>With reference to the private theatricals (or "plays," as
+Andersen calls them, including <i>The Frozen Deep</i>, by Wilkie
+Collins, in which Dickens, the author, Mark Lemon, and others
+performed, and for which in the matter of the scenery "the
+priceless help of Stanfield had again been secured"), on a
+temporary difficulty arising as to the arrangements, Dickens
+applied to Mr. Cooke of Astley's, "who drove up in an open
+phaeton drawn by two white ponies with black spots all over
+them (evidently stencilled), who came in at the gate with a
+little jolt and a rattle exactly as they come into the ring when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>
+they draw anything, and went round and round the centre
+bed (lilacs and evergreens) of the front court, apparently
+looking for the clown. A multitude of boys, who felt them
+to be no common ponies, rushed up in a breathless state&mdash;twined
+themselves like ivy about the railings, and were only
+deterred from storming the enclosure by the Inimitable's eye."
+Mr. Cooke was not, however, able to render any assistance.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Arthur Ryland of The Linthurst, near Bromsgrove,
+Worcestershire, who was present at Tavistock House on the
+occasion of the performance of <i>The Frozen Deep</i>, informs me
+that when Dickens returned to the drawing-room after the
+play was over, the constrained expression of face which he
+had assumed in presenting the character of Richard Wardour
+remained for some time afterwards, so strongly did he seem to
+realize the presentment. The other plays performed were
+<i>Tom Thumb</i>, 1854, and <i>The Lighthouse</i> and <i>Fortunus</i>, 1855.</p>
+
+<p>The following copy of a play-bill&mdash;in my collection&mdash;of one
+of these performances is certainly worth preserving in a permanent
+form, for the double reason that it is extremely rare,
+and contains one of Dickens's few poetical contributions, <i>The
+Song of the Wreck</i>, which was written specially for the occasion.</p>
+
+<div class='center'>
+The smallest Theatre in the World!<br />
+<br />
+TAVISTOCK HOUSE.<br />
+&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;<br />
+<i>Lessee and Manager</i>  &nbsp; &nbsp; &mdash; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &mdash; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &mdash;  &nbsp; &nbsp; <span class="smcap">Mr. Crummles.</span><br />
+&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;<br />
+On Tuesday evening, June 19th, 1855, will be presented, at exactly<br />
+eight o'clock,<br />
+An entirely New and Original<br />
+Domestic Melo-drama, in Two Acts, by Mr. Wilkie Collins,<br />
+now first performed, called<br />
+<br />
+THE LIGHTHOUSE.<br />
+
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>The Scenery painted by Mr. Stanfield, R.A.<br /><br />
+</div>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Cast">
+<tr><td align='left'>Aaron Gurnock, the head Light-keeper</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Mr. Crummles.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Martin Gurnock, his son; the second Light-keeper&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Mr. Wilkie Collins.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Jacob Dale, the third Light-keeper</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Mr. Mark Lemon.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Samuel Furley, a Pilot</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Mr. Augustus Egg, A.R.A.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Relief of Light-keepers, by</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Mr. Charles Dickens, Junior</span>,</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Mr. Edward Hogarth</span>,</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Mr. Alfred Ainger</span>, and</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Mr. William Webster</span>.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Shipwrecked Lady</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Miss Hogarth.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Ph&oelig;be</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Miss Dickens</span>,</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class='center'>Who will sing a new Ballad, the music by Mr. Linley, the words<br />
+by Mr. Crummles, entitled<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+THE SONG OF THE WRECK.<br />
+<br />
+I.<br /></div>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"The wind blew high, the waters raved,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">A Ship drove on the land,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">A hundred human creatures saved,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Kneeled down upon the sand.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Three-score were drowned, three-score were thrown</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Upon the black rocks wild;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">And thus among them left alone,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">They found one helpless child.</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='center'><br />II.</div>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">A Seaman rough, to shipwreck bred,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Stood out from all the rest,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">And gently laid the lonely head</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Upon his honest breast.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">And trav'ling o'er the Desert wide,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">It was a solemn joy,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">To see them, ever side by side,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">The sailor and the boy.</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span></div>
+
+<div class='center'><br />III.</div>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">In famine, sickness, hunger, thirst,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">The two were still but one,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Until the strong man drooped the first,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">And felt his labours done.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Then to a trusty friend he spake:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">'Across this Desert wide,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">O take the poor boy for my sake!'</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">And kissed the child, and died.</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='center'><br />IV.</div>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Toiling along in weary plight,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Through heavy jungle-mire,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">These two came later every night</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">To warm them at the fire,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Until the Captain said one day:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">'O seaman good and kind,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">To save thyself now come away</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">And leave the boy behind!'</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='center'><br />V.</div>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">The child was slumb'ring near the blaze:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">'O Captain let him rest</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Until it sinks, when <span class="smcap">God's</span> own ways</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Shall teach us what is best!'</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">They watched the whiten'd ashey heap,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">They touched the child in vain,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">They did not leave him there asleep,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">He never woke again."</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='center'><br />
+&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;<br />
+Half an hour for Refreshment.<br />
+&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;<br />
+<br />To conclude with<br />
+The Guild Amateur Company's Farce, in one act, by Mr. Crummles<br />
+and Mr. Mark Lemon;<br />
+<br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span><span class="smcap">Mr. NIGHTINGALE'S DIARY.</span><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align='left'>Mr. Nightingale</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Mr. Frank Stone, A.R.A.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Mr. Gabblewig, of the Middle Temple</td><td align='left' rowspan='6'><img src="images/i_059-bracket_large.png" width="7" height="116" alt="Large Bracket" title="" />
+</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Charley Bit, a Boots</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Mr. Poulter, a Pedestrian and cold water drinker</td><td align='left' valign='middle'><span class="smcap">Mr. Crummles.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Captain Blower, an invalid</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A Respectable Female</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A Deaf Sexton</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Tip, Mr. Gabblewig's Tiger</td><td align='left' rowspan='2'><img src="images/i_059-bracket_small.png" width="6" height="29" alt="small Bracket" title="" />
+</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Mr Augustus Egg, A.R.A.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Christopher, a Charity Boy</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Slap, Professionally Mr. Flormiville, a country actors</td><td align='left' rowspan='3'><img src="images/i_059-bracket_medium.png" width="8" height="80" alt="Medium Bracket" title="" />
+</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Mr. Tickle, Inventor of the Celebrated Compounds</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Mr. Mark Lemon.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A Virtuous Young Person in the confidence of Maria</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Lithers, Landlord of the Water-lily</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Mr. Wilkie Collins.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Rosina, Mr. Nightingale's niece</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Miss Kate Dickens.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Susan her Maid</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Miss Hogarth.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class='center'>&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;<br />
+
+Composer and Director of the music, <span class="smcap">Mr. Francesco Berger</span>, who<br />
+will preside at the pianoforte.<br />
+
+Costume makers, <span class="smcap">Messrs. Nathan</span> of Titchbourne Street, Haymarket.<br />
+
+Perruquier, <span class="smcap">Mr. Wilson</span>, of the Strand.<br />
+
+Machinery and Properties by <span class="smcap">Mr. Ireland</span>, of the Theatre Royal,<br />
+Adelphi.<br />
+
+<i>Doors open at half-past seven. Carriages may be ordered at a quarter<br />
+past eleven.</i><br /><br /><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>It was from Tavistock House that Dickens received this
+startling message from a confidential servant:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"The gas-fitter says, sir, that he can't alter the fitting of
+your gas in your bedroom without taking up almost the ole
+of your bedroom floor, and pulling your room to pieces. He
+says of course you can have it done if you wish, and he'll do
+it for you and make a good job of it, but he would have to
+destroy your room first, and go entirely under the jistes."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The same female, in allusion to Dickens's wardrobe, also
+said, "Well, sir, your clothes is all shabby, and your boots
+is all burst."</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 390px;">
+<img src="images/i_060.png" width="390" height="490" alt="No. 141, Bayham Street, Camden Town, where the Dickens Family lived in 1823." title="" />
+<span class="caption">No. 141, Bayham Street, Camden Town,<br />
+where the Dickens Family lived in 1823.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Among the important works of Charles Dickens which were
+wholly or partly written at Tavistock House are:&mdash;<i>Bleak
+House</i>, <i>A Child's History of England</i>, <i>Hard Times</i>, <i>Little
+Dorrit</i>, <i>A Tale of Two Cities</i>, <i>The Uncommercial Traveller</i>,
+and <i>Great Expectations</i>. <i>All the Year Round</i> was also determined<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>
+upon while he lived here, and the first number was
+dated 30th April, 1859.</p>
+
+<p>Tavistock House is the nearest point to Camden Town,
+interesting as being the place where, in 1823, at No. 16 (now
+No. 141) Bayham Street, the Dickens family resided for a
+short time<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> on leaving Chatham. There is an exquisite
+sketch of the humble little house by Mr. Kitton in his
+<i>Charles Dickens by Pen and Pencil</i>, and it is spoken of as
+being "in one of the then poorest parts of the London
+suburbs." We therefore proceed along Gordon Square,
+and reach Gower Street. At No. 147, Gower Street,
+formerly No. 4, Gower Street North, on the west side, was
+once the elder Mr. Dickens's establishment. The house,
+now occupied by Mr. M&uuml;ller, an artificial human eye-maker
+("human eyes warious," says Mr. Venus), has six rooms,
+with kitchens in basement. The rooms are rather small,
+each front room having two windows, which in the case of
+the first floor reach from floor to ceiling. It seems to be
+a comfortable house, but has no garden. There is an old-fashioned
+brass knocker on the front door, probably the
+original one, and there is a dancing academy next door.
+(Query, Mr. Turveydrop's?) The family of the novelist, which
+had removed from Bayham Street, were at this time (1823) in
+such indifferent circumstances that poor Mrs. Dickens had to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span>
+exert herself in adding to the finances by trying to teach, and
+a school was opened for young children at this house, which
+was decorated with a brass-plate on the door, lettered <span class="smcap">Mrs.
+Dickens's Establishment</span>, a faint description of which
+occurs in the fourth chapter of <i>Our Mutual Friend</i>, and of
+its abrupt removal "for the interests of all parties." These
+facts, and also that of young Charles Dickens's own efforts
+to obtain pupils for his mother, are alluded to in a letter
+written by Dickens to Forster in later life:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I left, at a great many other doors, a great many circulars
+calling attention to the merits of the establishment. Yet
+nobody ever came to school, nor do I ever recollect that
+anybody ever proposed to come, or that the least preparation
+was made to receive anybody. But I know that we got on
+very badly with the butcher and baker; that very often we
+had not too much for dinner; and that at last my father was
+arrested."</p>
+
+<p>This period, subsequently most graphically described in
+<i>David Copperfield</i> as the "blacking bottle period," was the
+darkest in young Charles's existence; but happier times and
+brighter prospects soon came to drown the recollections of
+that bitter experience.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40"></a>
+<img src="images/i_063.png" width="600" height="377" alt="No. 1, Devonshire Terrace, Regent&#39;s Park.&mdash;Dickens&#39;s Residence 1839-50." title="" />
+<span class="caption">No. 1, Devonshire Terrace, Regent&#39;s Park.&mdash;Dickens&#39;s Residence 1839-50.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Walking up Euston Road from Gower Street, we see St.
+Pancras Church (not the old church of "Saint Pancridge" in
+the Fields, by the bye, situated in the St. Pancras Road,
+where Mr. Jerry Cruncher and two friends went "fishing" on
+a memorable night, as recorded in <i>A Tale of Two Cities</i>, when
+their proceedings, and especially those of his "honoured parent,"
+were watched by young Jerry), and proceed westward along
+the Marylebone Road, called the New Road in Dickens's time,
+past Park Crescent, Regent's Park, and do not stop until we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>
+reach No. 1, Devonshire Terrace. This commodious double-fronted
+house, in which Dickens resided from 1839 to 1850, is
+entered at the side, and the front looks into the Marylebone
+Road. Maclise's beautiful sketch of the house (made in 1840),
+as given in Forster's <i>Life</i>, shows the windows of the lower and
+first floor rooms as largely bowed, while over the top flat of
+one of the former is a protective iron-work covering, thus
+allowing the children to come out of their nursery on the
+third floor freely to enjoy the air and watch the passers-by.
+In the sketch Maclise has characteristically put in a shuttlecock
+just over the wall, as though the little ones were playing
+in the garden. Forster calls it "a handsome house with a
+garden of considerable size, shut out from the New Road by
+a brick wall, facing the York Gate into Regent's Park;" and
+Dickens himself admitted it to be "a house of great promise
+(and great premium), undeniable situation, and excessive
+splendour." That he loved it well is shown by the passage in
+a letter which he addressed to Forster, "in full view of
+Genoa's perfect bay," when about to commence <i>The Chimes</i>
+(1844); he says:&mdash;"Never did I stagger so upon a threshold
+before. I seem as if I had plucked myself out of my proper
+soil when I left Devonshire Terrace, and could take root no
+more until I return to it.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. Did I tell you how many
+fountains we have here? No matter. If they played nectar,
+they wouldn't please me half so well as the West Middlesex
+water-works at Devonshire Terrace."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Jonathan Clark, who resides here, kindly shows us
+over the house, which contains thirteen rooms. The polished
+mahogany doors in the hall, and the chaste Italian marble
+mantel-pieces in the principal rooms, are said to have been
+put up by the novelist. On the ground floor, the smaller<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span>
+room to the eastward of the house, with window facing
+north and looking into the pleasant garden where the plane
+trees and turf are beautifully green, is pointed out as having
+been his study.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Benjamin Lillie, of 70, High Street, Marylebone,
+plumber and painter, remembers Mr. Dickens coming to
+Devonshire Terrace. He did a good deal of work for him
+while he lived there, and afterwards, when he removed to
+Tavistock House, including the fitting up of the library
+shelves and the curious counterfeit book-backs, made to
+conceal the backs of the doors. He also removed the furniture
+to Tavistock House, and subsequently to Gad's Hill
+Place. He spoke of the interest which Mr. Dickens used to
+take in the work generally, and said he would stand for hours
+with his back to the fire looking at the workmen. In the
+summer time he used to lie on the lawn with his pocket-handkerchief
+over his face, and when thoughts occurred to him,
+he would go into his study, and after making notes, would
+resume his position on the lawn. On the next page we give
+an illustration of the courteous and precise manner&mdash;not
+without a touch of humour&mdash;in which he issued his orders.</p>
+
+<p>Here it was that Dickens's favourite ravens were kept, in
+a stable on the south side of the garden, one of which died
+in 1841, it was supposed from the effects of paint, or owing
+to "a malicious butcher," who had been heard to say that he
+"would do for him." His death is described by Dickens in
+a long passage which thus concludes:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"On the clock striking twelve he appeared slightly agitated, but
+he soon recovered, walked twice or thrice along the coach-house,
+stopped to bark, staggered, exclaimed, '<i>Holloa, old girl!</i>' (his
+favourite expression), and died."</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 514px;">
+<img src="images/i_066.png" width="514" height="600" alt="Letter to Mr. Lillie. Friday Tenth May 1861" title="" />
+</div>
+
+
+<p>In an interesting letter addressed to Mr. Angus Fletcher,
+recently in the possession of Mr. Arthur Hailstone of
+Manchester, Dickens further describes the event:&mdash;"Suspectful
+of a butcher who had been heard to threaten, I had the body
+opened. There were no traces of poison, and it appeared he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>
+died of influenza. He has left considerable property, chiefly
+in cheese and halfpence, buried in different parts of the
+garden. The new raven (I have a new one, but he is comparatively
+of weak intellect) administered to his effects, and
+turns up something every day. The last piece of <i>bijouterie</i>
+was a hammer of considerable size, supposed to have been
+stolen from a vindictive carpenter, who had been heard to
+speak darkly of vengeance down the mews."</p>
+
+<p>Maclise on hearing the news sent to Forster a letter, and
+a pen-and-ink sketch, being the famous "Apotheosis." The
+second raven died in 1845, probably from "having indulged
+the same illicit taste for putty and paint, which had been fatal
+to his predecessor." Dickens says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Voracity killed him, as it did Scott's; he died unexpectedly by
+the kitchen fire. He kept his eye to the last upon the meat as it
+roasted, and suddenly turned over on his back with a sepulchral cry
+of '<i>Cuckoo!</i>'"</p></div>
+
+<p>These ravens were of course the two "great originals" of
+which Grip in <i>Barnaby Rudge</i> was the "compound." There
+was a third raven at Gad's Hill, but he "gave no evidence
+of ever cultivating his mind." The novelist's remarkable
+partiality for ravens called forth at the time the preposterous
+rumour that "Dickens had gone raving (raven) mad."</p>
+
+<p>Here Longfellow visited Dickens in 1841, and thus referred
+to his visit:&mdash;"I write this from Dickens's study, the focus
+from which so many luminous things have radiated. The
+raven croaks in the garden, and the ceaseless roar of London
+fills my ears."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 502px;"><a name="raven" id="raven"></a>
+<img src="images/i_068.png" width="502" height="600" alt="Apotheosis of &quot;Grip&quot; the Raven. Drawn by D. Maclise, R.A." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Apotheosis of &quot;Grip&quot; the Raven. Drawn by D. Maclise, R.A.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Dickens lived longer at Devonshire Terrace than he did
+at any other of his London homes, and a great deal of his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span>
+best work was done here, including <i>Master Humphrey's
+Clock</i> (I. <i>The Old Curiosity Shop</i>, II. <i>Barnaby Rudge</i>),
+<i>American Notes</i>, <i>Martin Chuzzlewit</i>, <i>A Christmas Carol</i>, <i>The
+Cricket on the Hearth</i>, <i>Dombey and Son</i>, <i>The Haunted Man</i>,
+and <i>David Copperfield</i>. <i>The Battle of Life</i> was written at
+Geneva in 1846. All these were published from his twenty-eighth
+to his thirty-eighth year; and <i>Household Words</i>, his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span>
+famous weekly popular serial of varied high-class literature,
+was determined upon here, the first number being issued on
+30th March, 1850.</p>
+
+<p>From Devonshire Terrace we pass along High Street, and
+turn into Devonshire Street, which leads into Harley Street,
+minutely described in <i>Little Dorrit</i> as the street wherein
+resided the great financier and "master-spirit" Mr. Merdle,
+who entertained "Bar, Bishop, and the Barnacle family" at
+the "Patriotic conference" recorded in the same work, in
+his noble mansion there, and he subsequently perishes "in
+the warm baths, in the neighbouring street"&mdash;as one may
+say&mdash;in the luxuriant style in which he had always lived.</p>
+
+<p>Harley Street leads us into Oxford Street, and a pleasant
+ride outside an omnibus&mdash;which, as everybody knows, is the
+best way of seeing London&mdash;takes us to Hyde Park Place,
+a row of tall stately houses facing Hyde Park. Here at
+No. 5, (formerly Mr. Milner Gibson's town residence) Charles
+Dickens temporarily resided during the winter months of
+1869, and occasionally until May 1870, during his readings
+at St. James's Hall, and while he was engaged on <i>Edwin
+Drood</i>, part of which was written here; this being illustrative
+of Dickens's power of concentrating his thoughts even near
+the rattle of a public thoroughfare. In a letter addressed
+to Mr. James T. Fields from this house, under date of 14th
+January, 1870, he says:&mdash;"We live here (opposite the Marble
+Arch) in a charming house until the 1st of June, and then
+return to Gad's.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. I have a large room here with three
+fine windows over-looking the park&mdash;unsurpassable for
+airiness and cheerfulness."</p>
+
+<p>A similar public conveyance takes us back to Morley's by
+way of Regent Street, about the middle of which, on the west<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>
+side, is New Burlington Street, containing, at No. 8, the well-known
+publishing office of Messrs. Richard Bentley and Son,
+whose once celebrated magazine, <i>Bentley's Miscellany</i>, Dickens
+edited for a period of two years and two months, terminating,
+1838, on his resignation of the editorship to Mr. W. Harrison
+Ainsworth; and we also pass lower down, at the bottom of
+Waterloo Place, that most select of clubs, "The Athen&aelig;um,"
+at the corner of Pall Mall, of which Dickens was elected a
+member in 1838, and from which, on the 20th May, 1870, he
+wrote his last letter to his son, Mr. Alfred Tennyson Dickens,
+in Australia; and a tenderly loving letter it is, indicating the
+harmonious relations between father and son. It expresses
+the hope that the two (Alfred and "Plorn") "may become
+proprietors," and "aspire to the first positions in the colony
+without casting off the old connection," and thus concludes:&mdash;"From
+Mr. Bear I had the best accounts of you. I told him
+that they did not surprise me, for I had unbounded faith
+in you. For which take my love and blessing." Sad to say,
+a note to this (the last in the series of published letters)
+states:&mdash;"This letter did not reach Australia until after these
+two sons of Charles Dickens had heard, by telegraph, the
+news of their father's death."<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span></p>
+<p>At Morley's we refresh ourselves with Mr. Sam Weller's
+idea of a nice little dinner, consisting of "pair of fowls and a
+weal cutlet; French beans, taturs, tart and tidiness;" and
+then depart for Victoria Station, to take train by the London,
+Chatham and Dover Railway to Rochester.</p>
+
+<p>The weather forecast issued by that most valuable institution,
+the Meteorological Office (established since Mr.
+Pickwick's days, in which doubtless as a scientist and
+traveller he would have taken great interest), was verified to
+the letter, and we had "thunder locally." On our way down
+Parliament Street, we pass Inigo Jones's once splendid
+Whitehall&mdash;now looking very insignificant as compared with
+its grand neighbours the Government Offices opposite&mdash;remembering
+Mr. Jingle's joke about Whitehall, which seems to
+have been Dickens's first thought of "King Charles's head":&mdash;"Looking
+at Whitehall, Sir&mdash;fine place&mdash;little window&mdash;somebody
+else's head off there, eh, Sir?&mdash;he didn't keep a
+sharp look out enough either&mdash;eh, Sir, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>We also pass "The Red Lion," No. 48, Parliament Street,
+"at the corner of the very short street leading into Cannon
+Row," where David Copperfield ordered a glass of the very
+best ale&mdash;"The Genuine Stunning with a good head to it"&mdash;at
+twopence half-penny the glass, but the landlord hesitated
+to draw it, and gave him a glass of some which he suspected
+was <i>not</i> the "genuine stunning"; and the landlady coming
+into the bar returned his money, and gave him a "kiss that
+was half-admiring and half-compassionate, but all womanly
+and good [he says], I'm sure."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/i_072.png" width="500" height="397" alt="&quot;My magnificent order at the Public House&quot; (vide &quot;David Copperfield&quot;)." title="" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;My magnificent order at the Public House&quot; (vide &quot;David Copperfield&quot;).</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The Horse-Guards' clock is the last noteworthy object, and
+reminds us that Mark Tapley noticed the time there, on the
+occasion of his last meeting with Mary Graham in St. James's
+Park, before starting for America. It also reminds us of Mr.
+Micawber's maxim, "Procrastination is the thief of time&mdash;collar
+him;"&mdash;a few minutes afterwards we are comfortably seated
+in the train, and can defy the storm, which overtakes us
+precisely in the manner described in <i>The Old Curiosity
+Shop:</i>&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"It had been gradually getting overcast, and now the sky was
+dark and lowering, save where the glory of the departing sun piled
+up masses of gold and burning fire, decaying embers of which
+gleamed here and there through the black veil, and shone redly
+down upon the earth. The wind began to moan in hollow murmurs,
+as the sun went down, carrying glad day elsewhere; and a train of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span>
+dull clouds coming up against it menaced thunder and lightning.
+Large drops of rain soon began to fall, and, as the storm clouds
+came sailing onward, others supplied the void they left behind, and
+spread over all the sky. Then was heard the low rumbling of
+distant thunder, then the lightning quivered, and then the darkness
+of an hour seemed to have gathered in an instant."</p></div>
+
+<p>We pass Dulwich,&mdash;where Mr. Snodgrass and Emily
+Wardle were married,&mdash;a fact that recalls kindly recollections
+of Mr. Pickwick and his retirement there, as recorded in the
+closing pages of the <i>Pickwick Papers</i>, where he is described
+as "employing his leisure hours in arranging the memoranda
+which he afterwards presented to the secretary of the once
+famous club, or in hearing Sam Weller read aloud, with such
+remarks as suggested themselves to his mind, which never
+failed to afford Mr. Pickwick great amusement." He is
+subsequently described as "somewhat infirm now, but he
+retains all his former juvenility of spirit, and may still be
+frequently seen contemplating the pictures in the Dulwich
+Gallery, or enjoying a walk about the pleasant neighbourhood
+on a fine day."</p>
+
+<p>Although it is but a short distance&mdash;under thirty miles&mdash;to
+Rochester, the journey seems tedious, as the "iron-horse" does
+not keep pace with the pleasurable feelings of eager expectation
+afloat in our minds on this our first visit to "Dickens-Land";
+it is therefore with joyful steps that we leave the train,
+and, the storm having passed away, find ourselves in the cool
+of the summer evening on the platform of Strood and
+Rochester Bridge Station.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+
+<h3>ROCHESTER CITY.</h3>
+
+<div class="hang2">"The silent High Street of Rochester is full of gables, with old beams
+and timbers carved into strange faces. It is oddly garnished with a
+queer old clock that projects over the pavement out of a grave red
+brick building, as if Time carried on business there, and hung out his
+sign."&mdash;<i>The Seven Poor Travellers.</i></div>
+
+<div class="hang2">"The town was glad with morning light."&mdash;<i>The Old Curiosity Shop.</i></div>
+
+
+<div class='unindent'><span class="smcap">Mudfog</span>, Our Town, Dullborough, the Market Town, and
+Cloisterham were the varied names that Charles Dickens
+bestowed upon the "ancient city" of Rochester. Every reader
+of his works knows how well he loved it in early youth, and
+how he returned to it with increased affection during the
+years of his ripened wisdom. Among the first pages of the
+first chapter of Forster's <i>Life</i> we find references to it:&mdash;"That
+childhood exaggerates what it sees, too, has he not tenderly
+told? How he thought that the Rochester High-street must
+be at least as wide as Regent Street which he afterwards discovered
+to be little better than a lane; how the public clock
+in it, supposed to be the finest clock in the world, turned out to
+be as moon-faced and weak a clock as a man's eyes ever saw;
+and how in its Town Hall, which had appeared to him once
+so glorious a structure that he had set it up in his mind as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span>
+the model from which the genie of the Lamp built the palace
+for Aladdin, he had painfully to recognize a mere mean little
+heap of bricks, like a chapel gone demented. Yet, not so
+painfully either when second thoughts wisely came. 'Ah!
+who was I, [he says] that I should quarrel with the town
+for being changed to me, when I myself had come back, so
+changed, to it? All my early readings and early imaginations
+dated from this place, and I took them away so full
+of innocent construction and guileless belief, and I brought
+them back so worn and torn, so much the wiser and so much
+the worse!'"</div>
+
+<p>It would occupy too much space in this narrative to
+adequately give even a brief historical sketch of the City of
+Rochester, which is twenty-nine miles from London, situated
+on the river Medway, and stands on the chalk on the margin
+of the London basin; but we think lovers of Dickens will
+not object to a recapitulation of a few of the most noteworthy
+circumstances which have happened here, and which are not
+touched upon in the chapters relating to the Castle and
+Cathedral.</p>
+
+<p>According to the eminent local antiquary, Mr. Roach
+Smith, F.S.A., the name of the city has been thus evolved:&mdash;"The
+ceastre or chester is a Saxon affix to the Romano-British
+(DU)RO. The first two letters being dropped in
+sound, it became Duro or Dro, and then ROchester, and it
+was the Roman station Durobrovis." The ancient Britons
+called it "Dur-brif," and the Saxons "Hrofe-ceastre"&mdash;Horf's
+castle, of which appellation some people think Rochester is a
+corruption.</p>
+
+<p>Rochester is a place of great antiquity, and so far back as
+<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 600 it seems to have been a walled city. Remains of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>
+the medi&aelig;val Wall exist in very perfect condition, at the
+back of the Eagle Inn in High Street, and in other parts of
+the city. In 676 Rochester was plundered by Ethelred,
+King of Mercia; and in 884 the Danes sailed up the Medway
+and besieged it, but were effectually repulsed by King Alfred.
+About 930, when three Mints were established there by
+Athelstan, it had grown to be one of the principal ports of
+the kingdom. William the Conqueror gave the town to his
+half-brother Odo, Bishop of Bayeux. Fires in 1130 and 1137
+nearly destroyed it.</p>
+
+<p>Not a few royal and distinguished personages have visited
+Rochester on various occasions, among others Henry VIII.,
+who came there in 1522, accompanied by the Emperor
+Charles V. Queen Elizabeth came in 1573, when she stayed
+five days, and attended the Cathedral service on Sunday.
+She came again in 1583, with the Duke of Anjou, and showed
+him her "mighty ships of war lying at Chatham." King
+James I. also visited the city in 1604 and 1606. On the
+latter occasion His Majesty, who was accompanied by
+Christian IV., King of Denmark, attended the Cathedral, and
+afterwards inspected the Navy. Charles II. paid it a visit
+just before the restoration in 1660, and again subsequently.
+It is believed that on both occasions he stayed at Restoration
+House (the "Satis House" of <i>Great Expectations</i>) hereafter
+referred to. Mr. Richard Head presented His Majesty with
+a silver ewer and basin on the occasion of the restoration.
+James II. came down to the quiet old city December 19th,
+1688, and sojourned with Sir Richard Head for a week at
+a house (now No. 46 High Street), from whence he ignominiously
+escaped to France by a smack moored off Sheerness.
+Mr. Stephen T. Aveling mentioned to us that "it is curious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>
+that Charles the Second 'came to his own' in Rochester, and
+that James the Second 'skedaddled' from the same city."<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a>
+Her Majesty when Princess Victoria stayed at the Bull Inn
+in 1836 for a night with her mother, the Duchess of Kent,
+on their way from Dover to London. It was a very
+tempestuous night, some of the balustrades of Rochester
+Bridge having been blown into the river, and the Royal
+Princess was advised not to attempt to cross the bridge.</p>
+
+<p>"On the last day of June 1667 (says Mr. W. Brenchley
+Rye in his pleasant <i>Visits to Rochester</i>), Mr. Samuel Pepys,
+after examining the defences at Chatham shortly after the
+disastrous expedition by the Dutch up the Medway, walked
+into Rochester Cathedral, but he had no mind to stay to the
+service, .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. 'afterwards strolled into the fields, a fine walk,
+and there saw Sir F. Clarke's house (Restoration House),
+which is a pretty seat, and into the Cherry Garden, and here
+met with a young, plain, silly shopkeeper and his wife, a
+pretty young woman, and I did kiss her!'" David Garrick
+was living at Rochester in 1737, for the purpose of receiving
+instruction in mathematics, etc., from Mr. Colson. In 1742,
+Hogarth visited the city, in that celebrated peregrination
+with his four friends, and played hop-scotch in the courtyard
+of the Guildhall. Dr. Johnson came here in 1783, and
+"returned to London by water in a common boat, landing at
+Billingsgate."</p>
+
+<p>The city formerly possessed many ancient charters and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>
+privileges granted to the citizens, but these were superseded
+by the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835.</p>
+
+<p>The Guildhall, "marked by a gilt ship aloft,"&mdash;"where the
+mayor and corporation assemble together in solemn council
+for the public weal,"&mdash;is "a substantial and very suitable
+structure of brick, supported by stone columns in the Doric
+order," and was erected in 1687. It has several fine portraits
+by Sir Godfrey Kneller and other eminent painters, including
+those of King William III., Queen Anne, Sir Cloudesley
+Shovell, Richard Watts, M.P., and others. The Corporation
+also possess many interesting and valuable city regalia,
+namely, a large silver-gilt mace (1661), silver loving-cup
+(1719), silver oar and silver-gilt ornaments (typical of the
+Admiralty jurisdiction of the Corporation) (1748), two small
+maces of silver (1767), sword (1871&mdash;the Mayor being
+Constable of the Castle), and chain and badges of gold and
+enamel (1875), the last-mentioned commemorating many
+historical incidents connected with the city.</p>
+
+<p>Emerging from the railway station of the London, Chatham
+and Dover Company at Strood, a drive of a few minutes (over
+the bridge) brings us to the first object of our pilgrimage,
+the "Bull Inn,"&mdash;we beg pardon, the "Royal Victoria and
+Bull Hotel,"&mdash;in High Street, Rochester, which was visited
+by Mr. Pickwick, Mr. Tupman, Mr. Snodgrass, Mr. Winkle,
+and their newly-made friend, Mr. Jingle, on the 13th May,
+1827. Our cabman is so satisfied with his fare ("only a bob's
+worth"), that he does not, as one of his predecessors did,
+on a very remarkable occasion, "fling the money on the
+pavement, and request in figurative terms to be allowed the
+pleasure of fighting us for the amount," which circumstance
+we take to be an improving sign of the times.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Changed in name, but not in condition, it seems scarcely
+possible that we stand under the gateway of the charming old
+inn that we have known from our boyhood, when first we
+read our <i>Pickwick</i>, what time the two green leaves of <i>Martin
+Chuzzlewit</i> were putting forth monthly, and when the name
+of Charles Dickens, although familiar, had not become the
+"household word" to us, and to the world, that it is now.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/i_079.png" width="500" height="424" alt="Bull Inn Rochester Good house Nice beds. vide Pickwick." title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>We look round for evidence&mdash;"Good house, nice beds"&mdash;"(vide
+<i>Pickwick</i>)" appear on the two sign-boards fixed on
+either side of the entrance-gate. Only then are we quite
+sure our driver has not made a mistake and taken us to
+"Wright's next door," which every reader of <i>Pickwick</i>
+knows, on the authority of Mr. Jingle, "was dear&mdash;very dear&mdash;half
+a crown in the bill if you look at the waiter&mdash;charge<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span>
+you more if you dine out at a friend's than they would if you
+dined in the coffee-room&mdash;rum fellows&mdash;very."</p>
+
+<p>Haunches of venison, saddles of mutton, ribs of beef, York
+hams, fowls and ducks, hang over our heads in the capacious
+covered gateway; cold viands are seen in a glass cupboard
+opposite, and silently promise that some good fare, like that
+which regaled Mr. Pickwick and his friends, is still to be
+found at the Bull. In the distance is seen the large old-fashioned
+coach-yard, surrounded by odd buildings, which on
+market days (Tuesdays) is crowded with all sorts of vehicles
+ancient and modern. On our right is the kitchen, "brilliant
+with glowing coals and rows of shining copper lying well
+open to view."</p>
+
+<p>By the kindness of Mr. Richard Prall, the town-clerk, beds
+have been secured for us, and the landlord meets us at the
+door with a hearty welcome. We are conducted to our rooms
+on the second floor looking front, on reaching which a strange
+feeling takes possession of us. Surely we have been here
+before? Not a bit of it! But the bedrooms are nevertheless
+familiar to us; we see it all in a minute&mdash;the writer's apartment
+is Mr. Tupman's, and his friend's is Mr. Winkle's!</p>
+
+<p>"Winkle's bedroom is inside mine," said Mr. Tupman, after
+that delightful dinner of "soles, broiled fowl, and mushrooms,"
+in the private sitting-room at the Bull, when all the other
+Pickwickians had, "after the cosy couple of hours succeeding
+dinner, more or less succumbed to the somniferous influence
+which the wine had exerted over them," and he and Mr.
+Jingle alone remained wakeful, and were discussing the idea
+of attending the forthcoming ball in the evening.</p>
+
+<p>It is an unexpected and pleasant coincidence that we are
+located in these two rooms, and altogether a good omen for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span>
+our tramp generally. They are numbered 13 and 19, and the
+reason why the numbers are not consecutive is because 19
+(Mr. Winkle's room) is also approached by a back staircase.
+Mr. Pickwick's room, as befitted his years and his dignity as
+G.C.M.P.C., is a larger room, and is number 17. They are all
+comfortable chambers, with "nice beds."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/i_081.png" width="500" height="393" alt="Staircase at &quot;The Bull&quot;" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>The principal staircase of the Bull, which is almost wide
+enough to drive a carriage and four up it, remains exactly
+as it was in Mr. Pickwick's days, as described by Dickens and
+delineated by Seymour. We could almost fancy we witnessed
+the memorable scene depicted in the illustration, where the
+irascible Dr. Slammer confronts the imperturbable Jingle.
+The staircase has on its walls a large number of pictures and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>
+engravings, some curious and valuable, a few of which are
+of purely local interest. A series of oil paintings represent
+the costumes of all nations. There is a copy of "The Empty
+Chair," from the drawing of Mr. Luke Fildes, R.A., and also
+one of the scarce proof lithographs of "Dickens as Captain
+Bobadil," after the painting by C. R. Leslie, R.A.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Lawrence informed us that some years ago "The
+Owl Club" held its meetings at the Bull&mdash;a social club, reminding
+us strongly of one of the early papers in <i>Bentley's
+Miscellany</i>, illustrated by George Cruikshank, entitled the
+"Harmonious Owls," which has recently been reprinted in
+the collection called <i>Old Miscellany Days</i>, in which paper, by
+the bye, are several names from Dickens.</p>
+
+<p>In one of the cheerful private sitting-rooms, of which there
+are many, we find a portrait of Dickens that is new to us.
+Never have we seen one that so vividly reproduced the
+novelist as one of us saw him, and heard him read, in the
+Town Hall at Birmingham, on the 10th of May, 1866. It is a
+vignette photograph by Watkins, coloured by Mr. J. Hopper,
+a local artist, representing the face of the novelist in full,
+wearing afternoon dress&mdash;black coat, and white shirt-front, with
+gold studs&mdash;the attitude being perfectly natural and unconstrained,
+and a pleasant calm upon the otherwise firm features.
+The high forehead is surmounted by the well-remembered
+single curl of brown hair, the sole survival of those profuse
+locks which grace Maclise's beautiful portrait. The bright
+blue eyes, with the light reflected on the pupils like diamonds,
+seem to follow one in every direction. The lines, of course,
+are marked, but not too strongly; and the faint hectic flush
+which was apparent in later years&mdash;notably when we saw him
+again in Birmingham in 1869&mdash;shows signs of development.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>
+The beard hides the neck, and the white collar is conspicuous.
+Altogether it is one of the most successful portraits we
+remember to have seen. As witness of its popularity locally,
+we may mention that we saw copies of it at Major Budden's
+at Gad's Hill, at the Mitre Hotel, Chatham, and at the
+Leather Bottle Inn, Cobham. We are also informed that
+Mr. Henry Irving gave a good sum for a copy, in the spring
+of last year. Mr. Lawrence, our host, by good fortune,
+happening to possess a duplicate, kindly allows us the opportunity
+of purchasing it ("portable property" as Mr. Wemmick
+remarks), as an addition to our Dickens collection which it
+adorns. "Beautiful!" "Splendid!" "Dickens to the life!"
+are the comments of friends to whom we show it, who
+personally knew, or remembered, the original.</p>
+
+<p>Here is the ball-room, entered from the first-floor landing
+of the principal staircase, and the card-room adjoining,
+precisely as it was in Mr. Pickwick's days:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"It was a long room with crimson-covered benches, and wax
+candles in glass chandeliers. The musicians were confined in an
+elevated den, and quadrilles were being systematically got through
+by two or three sets of dancers. Two card-tables were made up in
+the adjoining card-room, and two pair of old ladies, and a corresponding
+number of old gentlemen, were executing whist therein."</p></div>
+
+<p>A very little stretch of the imagination carries us back
+sixty years, and, <i>presto!</i> the ball-room stands before us, with
+the wax candles lighted, and the room filled with the <i>&eacute;lite</i> of
+Chatham and Rochester society, who, acting on the principle
+of "that general benevolence which was one of the leading
+features of the Pickwickian theory," had given their support to
+that "ball for the benefit of a charity," then being held there,
+and which was attended by Mr. Tracy Tupman, in his new<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span>
+dress-coat with the P. C. button and bust of Mr. Pickwick in
+the centre, and by Mr. Jingle, in the borrowed garments of
+the same nature belonging to Mr. Winkle.</p>
+
+<p>"P. C.," said the stranger.&mdash;"Queer set out&mdash;old fellow's
+likeness and 'P. C.'&mdash;What does 'P. C.' stand for? 'Peculiar
+Coat,' eh?" Imagine the "rising indignation" and impatience
+of Mr. Tupman, as with "great importance" he explains the
+mystic device!</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/i_084.png" width="500" height="384" alt="The &quot;Elevated Den&quot; in the Ball Room: (&quot;Bull&quot; Inn)" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>Everybody remembers how, declining the usual introduction,
+the two entered the ball-room <i>incog.</i>, as "Gentlemen
+from London&mdash;distinguished foreigners&mdash;anything;" how Mr.
+Jingle said in reply to Mr. Tupman's remark, "Wait a
+minute&mdash;fun presently&mdash;nobs not come yet&mdash;queer place&mdash;Dock-yard
+people of upper rank don't know Dock-yard people<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>
+of lower rank&mdash;Dock-yard people of lower rank don't know
+small gentry&mdash;small gentry don't know tradespeople&mdash;Commissioner
+don't know anybody."</p>
+
+<p>The "man at the door,"&mdash;the local M.C.,&mdash;announces the
+arrivals.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir Thomas Clubber, Lady Clubber, and the Miss
+Clubbers!" "Commissioner&mdash;head of the yard&mdash;great man&mdash;remarkably
+great man," whispers the stranger in Mr.
+Tupman's ear.</p>
+
+<p>"Colonel Bulder, Mrs. Colonel Bulder, and Miss Bulder,"
+are announced. "Head of the garrison," says Mr. Jingle.
+"They exchanged snuff-boxes [how old-fashioned it appears
+to us who don't take snuff], and looked very much like a
+pair of Alexander Selkirks&mdash;Monarchs of all they surveyed."</p>
+
+<p>More arrivals are announced, and dancing begins in earnest;
+but the most interesting one to us is Dr. Slammer&mdash;"a little
+fat man, with a ring of upright black hair round his head,
+and an extensive bald plain on the top of it&mdash;Dr. Slammer,
+surgeon to the 97th, who is agreeable to everybody, especially
+to the Widow Budger.&mdash;'Lots of money&mdash;old girl&mdash;pompous
+doctor&mdash;not a bad idea&mdash;good fun,' says the stranger. 'I'll
+dance with her&mdash;cut out the doctor&mdash;here goes.'" Then comes
+the flirtation, the dancing, the negus and biscuits, the coquetting,
+the leading of Mrs. Budger to her carriage. The volcano
+bursts with terrific energy.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.</p>
+
+<p>"'You&mdash;you're a shuffler, sir,' gasps the furious doctor, 'a
+poltroon&mdash;a coward&mdash;a liar&mdash;a&mdash;a&mdash;will nothing induce you
+to give me your card, sir?'" and in the morning comes the
+challenge to the duel. It all passes before our delighted
+mental vision, as we picture the circumstances recorded in
+the beloved <i>Pickwick</i> of our youth upwards.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Here also is the bar, just opposite the coffee-room, where
+the "Tickets for the Ball" were purchased by Mr. Tupman
+for himself and Mr. Jingle at "half a guinea each" (Mr.
+Jingle having won the toss), and where Dr. Slammer's friend
+subsequently made inquiry for "the owner of the coat, who
+arrived here, with three gentlemen, yesterday afternoon." We
+find it to be a very cosy and comfortable bar-room too,
+wherein we subsequently enjoy many a social pipe and
+pleasant chat with its friendly frequenters, reminding us of
+the old tavern-life as described in Dr. Johnson's days.</p>
+
+<p>The coffee-room of the Bull, in which we take our supper,
+remains unaltered since the days of the Pickwickians. It
+is on the left-hand side as we enter the hotel from the
+covered gateway&mdash;not very large, but warm and comfortable,
+with three windows looking into the High Street. Many
+scenes in the novels have taken place in this memorable
+apartment&mdash;in fact, it is quite historical, from a Dickensian
+point of view.</p>
+
+<p>Here it was that the challenge to the duel from Dr.
+Slammer to Mr. Winkle was delivered; and, when Mr.
+Winkle appeared, in response to the call of the boots, that
+"a gentleman in the coffee-room" wanted to see him, and
+would not detain him a moment, but would take no denial,
+"an old woman and a couple of waiters were cleaning the
+coffee-room, and an officer in undress uniform was looking
+out of the window." Here also the Pickwickians assembled
+on that eventful morning when the party set out, three in a
+chaise and one on horseback, for Dingley Dell, and encountered
+such dire mishaps. "Mr. Pickwick had made his
+preliminary arrangements, and was looking over the coffee-room
+blinds at the passengers in the High Street, when the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span>
+waiter entered, and announced that the chaise was ready&mdash;an
+announcement which the vehicle itself confirmed, by forthwith
+appearing before the coffee-room blinds aforesaid."
+Subsequently, as they prepare to start, "'Wo-o!' cried Mr.
+Pickwick, as the tall quadruped evinced a decided inclination
+to back into the coffee-room window."</p>
+
+<p>It is highly probable that the descriptions of "the little
+town of Great Winglebury," and "the Winglebury Arms," in
+"The Great Winglebury Duel" of the <i>Sketches by Boz</i>, one of
+the earliest works of the novelist, refer to the city of Rochester
+and the Bull Inn, for they fit in very well in many respects,
+although it <i>is</i> stated therein that "the little town of Great
+Winglebury is exactly forty-two miles and three-quarters from
+Hyde Park Corner."</p>
+
+<p>The Blue Boar mentioned in <i>Great Expectations</i>&mdash;one of
+the most original, touching, and dramatic of Dickens's novels&mdash;is
+indubitably the Bull Hotel. Although there is an inn
+in High Street, Rochester, called the Blue Boar, its description
+does not at all correspond with the text. We find
+several instances like this, where, probably for purposes of
+concealment, the real identity of places and persons is
+masked.</p>
+
+<p>Our first introduction to the Blue Boar is on the occasion
+of Pip's being bound apprentice to Joe Gargery, the premium
+for whom was paid out of the twenty-five guineas given to
+Pip by Miss Havisham. Pip's sister "became so excited by
+the twenty-five guineas, that nothing would serve but we must
+have a dinner out of that windfall at the Blue Boar, and
+that Pumblechook must go over in his chaise cart, and bring
+the Hubbles and Mr. Wopsle." The dinner is duly disposed
+of, and although poor Pip was frequently enjoined to "enjoy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span>
+himself," he certainly failed to do so on this occasion. "Among
+the festivities indulged in rather late in the evening," says
+Pip, "Mr. Wopsle gave us <i>Collins's Ode</i>, and 'threw his
+blood-stain'd sword in thunder down,' with such effect, that
+a waiter came in and said 'The Commercials underneath sent
+up their compliments, and it wasn't the Tumblers' Arms!'"
+from which we gather that the said dinner took place in a
+private sitting-room (No. 3) over the commercial room, on
+the opposite side of the gateway to the coffee-room.</p>
+
+<p>It will be remembered that on Pip's attaining "the second
+stage of his expectations," Pumblechook had grown very
+obsequious and fawning to him&mdash;pressed him to take refreshment,
+as who should say, "But, my dear young friend,
+you must be hungry, you must be exhausted. Be seated.
+Here is a chicken had round from the Boar, here is a tongue
+had round from the Boar, here's one or two little things had
+round from the Boar that I hope you may not despise.
+'But do I,' said Mr. Pumblechook, getting up again the
+moment after he had sat down, 'see afore me him as I ever
+sported with in his times of happy infancy? And may I&mdash;<i>may</i>
+I&mdash;?' This 'May I?' meant might he shake hands?
+I consented, and he was fervent, and then sat down again."</p>
+
+<p>Returning to the coffee-room, we discover it was the
+identical apartment in which the unexpected and very peculiar
+meeting took place between Pip and "the spider," Bentley
+Drummle, "the sulky and red-looking young man, of a heavy
+order of architecture," both "Finches of the Grove," and
+rivals for the hand of Estella. Each stands shoulder to
+shoulder against the fire-place, and, but for Pip's forbearance,
+an explosion must have taken place.</p>
+
+<p>Through the same coffee-room windows, poor Pip looks<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span>
+under the reverses of his great expectations in consequence of
+the discovery and subsequent death of his patron. The "servile
+Pumblechook," who appears here uninvited, again changes
+his manner and conduct, becoming ostentatiously compassionate
+and forgiving, as he had been meanly servile in the time
+of Pip's new prosperity, thus:&mdash;"'Young man, I am sorry to
+see you brought low, but what else could be expected! what
+else could be expected!&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. This is him .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. as I have rode
+in my shay-cart; this is him as I have seen brought up by
+hand; this is him untoe the sister of which I was uncle by
+marriage, as her name was Georgiana M'ria from her own
+mother, let him deny it if he can.' .&nbsp;.&nbsp;."</p>
+
+<p>Dickens takes leave of the Blue Boar, in the last chapter
+of the work, in these words:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"The tidings of my high fortunes having had a heavy fall, had got
+down to my native place and its neighbourhood, before I got there.
+I found the Blue Boar in possession of the intelligence, and I found
+that it made a great change in the Boar's demeanour. Whereas the
+Boar had cultivated my good opinion with warm assiduity when I
+was coming into property, the Boar was exceedingly cool on the
+subject now that I was going out of property.</p>
+
+<p>"It was evening when I arrived, much fatigued by the journey I
+had so often made so easily. The Boar could not put me into my
+usual bedroom, which was engaged,&mdash;probably by some one who had
+expectations,&mdash;and could only assign me a very indifferent chamber
+among the pigeons and post-chaises up the yard. But, I had as
+sound a sleep in that lodging as in the most superior accommodation
+the Boar could have given me, and the quality of my dreams was
+about the same as in the best bedroom."</p></div>
+
+<p>The visitors' book in the coffee-room, at the Bull&mdash;we
+never shall call it "The Royal Victoria and Bull Hotel"&mdash;abounds
+with complimentary remarks on the hospitable treatment<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>
+received by its guests; and there are several poetical
+effusions, inspired by the classic nature of "Dickens-Land."
+One of these, under date of the 18th September, 1887, is
+worth recording:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"The man who knows his Dickens as he should,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Enjoys a double pleasure in this place;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">He loves to walk its ancient streets, and trace</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">The scenes where Dickens' characters have stood.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">He reads <i>The Mystery of Edwin Drood</i></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">In Jasper's Gatehouse, and, with Tope as guide,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Explores the old cathedral, Durdles' pride;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Descends into the Crypt, and even would</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Ascend the Tower by moonlight, thence to see</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Fair Cloisterham reposing at his feet,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">And passing out, he almost hopes to meet</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Crisparkle and the white-haired Datchery.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">The gifted writer 'sleeps among our best</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">And noblest' in our Minster of the West;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Yet still he lives in this, his favourite scene,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Which for all time shall keep his memory green."</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="bridge" id="bridge"></a>
+<img src="images/i_091.png" width="500" height="398" alt="Old Rochester Bridge" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>We follow Mr. Pickwick's example as regards early rising,
+and, taking a turn before breakfast, find ourselves on Rochester
+Bridge. Nature has not much changed since the memorable
+visit of that "truly great man," who in the original announcement
+of <i>The Pickwick Papers</i> is stated with his companions
+to have "fearlessly crossed the turbid Medway in an open
+boat;" but the march of civilization has effaced the old
+bridge, and lo! three bridges stand in the place thereof. The
+beautiful stone structure (temp. Edward III.) which Mr.
+Pickwick leant over, having become unsuitable, was blown up<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span>
+by the Royal Engineers in 1856, and a handsome iron bridge
+erected in its place. The d&eacute;bris was removed by Mr. J. H.
+Ball, the contractor, who presented Dickens with one of the
+balustrades, others having been utilized to form the coping
+of the embankment of the esplanade under the castle walls.
+The iron bridge was built by Messrs. Fox and Henderson,
+the foundations being laid in 1850. The machinery constituting
+"the swing-bridge or open ship canal (fifty feet
+wide) at the Strood end is very beautiful; the entire weight
+to be moved is two hundred tons, yet the bridge is readily
+swung by two men at a capstan." So says one of the Guide
+Books, but as a matter of fact we find that it is not now used!
+The other two bridges (useful, but certainly not ornamental)
+belong to the respective railway companies which have
+systems through Rochester, and absolutely shut out every
+prospect below stream. What <i>would</i> Mr. Pickwick say, if his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>
+spirit ever visited the ancient city? Nevertheless, we realize
+for the first time, with all its freshness and beauty (although
+perhaps a little marred by the smoke of the lime-kilns, and
+by the "Medway coal trade," in which it will be remembered
+Mr. Micawber was temporarily interested, and which "he
+came down to see"), the charm of the prospect which Dickens
+describes, and which Mr. Pickwick saw, in the opening of the
+fifth chapter of the immortal <i>Posthumous Papers:</i>&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Bright and pleasant was the sky, balmy the air, and beautiful the
+appearance of every object around, as Mr. Pickwick leant over the
+balustrades of Rochester Bridge, contemplating nature, and waiting
+for breakfast. The scene was indeed one, which might well have
+charmed a far less reflective mind, than that to which it was presented.</p>
+
+<p>"On the left of the spectator lay the ruined wall, broken in many
+places, and in some, overhanging the narrow beach below in rude and
+heavy masses. Huge knots of sea-weed hung upon the jagged and
+pointed stones, trembling in every breath of wind; and the green ivy
+clung mournfully round the dark and ruined battlements. Behind it
+rose the ancient castle, its towers roofless, and its massive walls
+crumbling away, but telling us proudly of its old might and strength,
+as when, seven hundred years ago, it rang with the clash of arms, or
+resounded with the noise of feasting and revelry. On either side, the
+banks of the Medway, covered with corn-fields and pastures, with
+here and there a windmill, or a distant church, stretched away as far
+as the eye could see, presenting a rich and varied landscape, rendered
+more beautiful by the changing shadows which passed swiftly across
+it, as the thin and half-formed clouds skimmed away in the light of
+the morning sun. The river, reflecting the clear blue of the sky,
+glistened and sparkled as it flowed noiselessly on; and the oars of
+the fishermen dipped into the water with a clear and liquid sound, as
+their heavy but picturesque boats glided slowly down the stream."</p></div>
+
+<p>It was over the same old bridge that poor Pip was pursued
+by that "unlimited miscreant" Trabb's boy in the days of his
+"great expectations." He says:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Words cannot state the amount of aggravation and injury
+wreaked upon me by Trabb's boy, when, passing abreast of me,
+he pulled up his shirt-collar, twined his side hair, stuck an arm
+akimbo, and smirked extravagantly by, wriggling his elbows and
+body, and drawling to his attendants: 'Don't know yah; don't
+know yah, 'pon my soul, don't know yah!' The disgrace [continues
+Pip] attendant on his immediately afterwards taking to crowing and
+pursuing me across the bridge with crows, as from an exceedingly
+dejected fowl who had known me when I was a blacksmith, culminated
+the disgrace with which I left the town, and was, so to speak,
+ejected by it into the open country."</p></div>
+
+<p>There is generally a stiff breeze blowing on the bridge, and
+the fact may probably have suggested to the artist the positions
+of the characters in the river scene, one of the plates of
+<i>Edwin Drood</i>, where Mr. Crisparkle is holding his hat on
+with much tenacity. One other reference to the bridge occurs
+in the <i>Seven Poor Travellers</i>, where Richard Doubledick, in
+the year 1799, "limped over the bridge here with half a shoe
+to his dusty foot on his way to Chatham."</p>
+
+<p>After a Pickwickian breakfast in the coffee-room of "broiled
+ham, eggs, tea, coffee, and sundries," we take a stroll up the
+High Street. We do not know what the feelings of other
+pilgrims in "Dickens-Land" may have been on the occasion
+of a first visit, but we are quite sure that to us it is a perfect
+revelation to ramble along this quaint street of "the ancient
+city," returning by way of Star Hill through the Vines, all
+crowded with associations of Charles Dickens. <i>Pickwick</i>,
+<i>Great Expectations</i>, <i>Edwin Drood</i>, and many of the minor
+works of the eminent novelist, had never before appeared so
+clear to us&mdash;they acquire new significance. The air is full of
+Dickens. At every corner, and almost at the door of every
+house, we half expect to be met by one or other of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span>
+characters who will claim acquaintance with us as their
+friends or admirers. We are simply delighted, and never tire
+of repeating our experience in the pleasant summer days of
+our week's tramp in "Dickens-Land."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 399px;"><a name="Guildhall" id="Guildhall"></a>
+<img src="images/i_094.png" width="399" height="550" alt="The Guildhall: Rochester" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 396px;"><a name="moonfaced" id="moonfaced"></a>
+<img src="images/i_095.png" width="396" height="500" alt="The &quot;Moonfaced&quot; Clock in High Street" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 469px;"><a name="high" id="high"></a>
+<img src="images/i_096.png" width="469" height="500" alt="In High Street: Rochester" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;"><a name="eastgate" id="eastgate"></a>
+<img src="images/i_097.png" width="550" height="415" alt="Eastgate House" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>Starting from the Bull, and walking along the somewhat
+narrow but picturesque street towards Chatham,&mdash;"the streets
+of Cloisterham city are little more than one narrow street by
+which you get into it and get out of it: the rest being mostly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span>
+disappointing yards with pumps in them and no thoroughfare&mdash;exception
+made of the Cathedral close, and a paved Quaker
+settlement, in color and general conformation very like a
+Quakeress's bonnet, up in a shady corner,"&mdash;we pass in
+succession the Guildhall, the City Clock, Richard Watts's
+Charity, the College Gate (Jasper's Gatehouse), Eastgate
+House (the Nuns' House), and, nearly opposite it, the
+residence of Mr. Sapsea, which, as we ourselves discover, was
+also the residence of "Uncle Pumblechook." The latter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>
+buildings are about a quarter of a mile from Rochester Bridge,
+and are splendid examples of sixteenth-century architecture,
+with carved oaken-timbered fronts and gables and latticed
+bay-windows. Eastgate House&mdash;the "Nuns' House" of
+<i>Edwin Drood</i>, described as "a venerable brick edifice, whose
+present appellation is doubtless derived from the legend of
+its conventual uses"&mdash;is especially beautiful, and its "resplendent
+brass plate on the trim gate" is still so "shining
+and staring." The date, 1591, is on one of the inside beams,
+and the fine old place abounds with quaint cosy rooms with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span>
+carved oak mantel-pieces, and plaster enrichments to the
+ceilings, as well as mysterious back staircases and means of
+exit by secret passages. Charles II. is said to have been
+entertained here by Colonel Gibbons, the then owner, when
+he visited Chatham and inspected the <i>Royal George;</i> but
+this has been recently disputed. For many years during
+this century, the house has been occupied as a Ladies' School,
+and the old pianos used for practice by the pupils are there
+still, the keys being worn into holes. We wonder whether
+Rosa Bud and Helena Landless ever played on them! Looking
+round, we half expect to witness the famous courting
+scene in <i>Edwin Drood</i>, and afterwards "the matronly Tisher
+to heave in sight, rustling through the room like the legendary
+ghost of a dowager in silken skirts, [with her] 'I trust I disturb<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span>
+no one; but there <i>was</i> a paper-knife&mdash;Oh, thank you, I am
+sure!'" An excellent local institution, called "The Rochester
+Men's Institute," has its home here. The house has been
+immortalized by Mr. Luke Fildes in one of the illustrations
+to <i>Edwin Drood</i> ("Good-bye, Rosebud, darling!"), where, in
+the front garden, the girls are cordially embracing their
+charming school-fellow, and Miss Twinkleton looks on approvingly,
+but perhaps regretfully, at the possible non-return
+of some of the young ladies. Mrs. Tisher is saluting one
+of the girls. There is a gate opening into the street, with
+the lamp over it kept in position by an iron bracket, just as
+it is now, heaps of ladies' luggage are scattered about, which
+the housemaid and the coachman are removing to the car
+outside; and one pretty girl stands in the gateway waving
+a farewell to the others with her handkerchief.</p>
+
+<p>We feel morally certain that Eastgate House is also
+the prototype of Westgate House in the <i>Pickwick Papers</i>,
+although, for the purposes of the story, it is therein located
+at Bury St. Edmund's. The wall surrounding the garden is
+about seven feet high, and a drop from it into the garden
+would be uncommonly suggestive of the scene which took
+place between Sam Weller and his master in the sixteenth
+chapter, on the occasion of the supposed intended elopement
+of one of the young ladies of Miss Tomkins's Establishment&mdash;which
+also had the "name on a brass plate on a gate"&mdash;with
+Mr. Charles FitzMarshall, <i>alias</i> Mr. Alfred Jingle.
+The very tree which Mr. Pickwick "considered a very
+dangerous neighbour in a thunderstorm" is there still&mdash;a
+pretty acacia.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 489px;"><a name="sapseahouse" id="sapseahouse"></a>
+<img src="images/i_099.png" width="489" height="550" alt="Mr. Sapsea&#39;s House." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Mr. Sapsea&#39;s House.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 342px;">
+<img src="images/i_100.png" width="342" height="400" alt="Mr. Sapsea&#39;s Father." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Mr. Sapsea&#39;s Father.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The house opposite Eastgate House was of course Mr.
+Sapsea's dwelling&mdash;"Mr. Sapsea's premises are in the High<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span>
+Street over against the Nuns' House. They are of about the
+period of the Nuns' House, irregularly modernized here and
+there." A carved wooden figure of Mr. Sapsea's father in his
+rostrum as an auctioneer, with hammer poised in hand, and a
+countenance expressive of "Going&mdash;going&mdash;gone!" was many
+years ago fixed over a house (now the Savings Bank) in St.
+Margaret's, Rochester, and was a regular butt for practical
+jokes by the young officers of the period, although they never<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>
+succeeded in their attempts to pull it down. To us the house
+appears to be an older building than Eastgate House, with
+much carved oak and timber work about it, and in its prime
+must have been a most delightful residence. The lower part
+is now used as business premises, and from the fact that it
+contains the little drawers of a seedsman's shop, it answers
+very well to the description of Mr. Pumblechook's "eminently
+convenient and commodious premises"&mdash;indeed there is not a
+little in common between the two characters. "Mr. Pumblechook's
+premises in the High Street of the market town [says
+Pip] were of a peppercorny and farinaceous character, as the
+premises of a corn chandler and seedsman should be. It
+appeared to me that he must be a very happy man indeed
+to have so many little drawers in his shop; and I wondered
+when I peeped into one or two of the lower tiers, and saw
+the tied-up brown paper packets inside, whether the flower<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span>
+seeds and bulbs ever wanted of a fine day to break out of
+those jails, and bloom." Part of these premises is used as
+a dwelling-house, and Mr. Apsley Kennette, the courteous
+assistant town-clerk, to whom we were indebted for much
+kind attention, has apartments on the upper floors of the
+old mansion, the views from which, looking into the ancient
+city, are very pretty. There is a good deal of oak panelling
+and plaster enrichment about the interior, restored by Mr.
+Kennette, who in the course of his renovations found an
+interesting wall fresco.</p>
+
+<p>He has had painted most appropriately in gilt letters over
+the mantel-piece of his charming old panelled chamber of
+carved and polished oak (with its quaint bay-window looking
+into the street) the pathetic and sombre lines of Dante
+Gabriel Rossetti:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"May not this ancient room thou sitt'st in dwell<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">In separate living souls for joy or pain;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Nay, all its corners may be painted plain,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Where Heaven shows pictures of some life spent well;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">And may be stamped a memory all in vain</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Upon the site of lidless eyes in Hell."</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="restoration" id="restoration"></a>
+<img src="images/i_102.png" width="600" height="402" alt="Restoration House." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Restoration House.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The beautiful residence in Maidstone Road, formerly Crow
+Lane, opposite the Vines, called Restoration House, is the
+"Satis House" of <i>Great Expectations</i>&mdash;"Miss Havisham's up-town."
+"Everybody for miles round had heard of Miss
+Havisham up-town as an immensely rich and grim lady, who
+lived in a large and dismal house barricaded against robbers,
+and who led a life of seclusion." There is a veritable Satis
+House as well, on the opposite side of the Vines alluded to
+elsewhere. Restoration House, now occupied by Mr. Stephen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>
+T. Aveling, is a picturesque old Elizabethan structure, partly
+covered with ivy, having fine oak staircases, floors, and wainscoted
+rooms. Charles II. lodged here in 1660, and he
+subsequently presented to his host, Sir Francis Clarke, several
+large tapestries, representing pastoral scenes, which the present
+owner kindly allowed us to see. The tapestry is said to have
+been made at Mortlake. It was the usual present from
+royalty in those days&mdash;just as Her present Majesty now gives
+an Indian shawl to a favoured subject. Like many houses of
+its kind, it contains a secret staircase for escape during times
+of political trouble.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Aveling very kindly placed at our disposal the manuscript
+of an interesting and "true ghost story" written by
+him relating to Restoration House, which is introduced at
+the end of this chapter.</p>
+
+<p>Many names in Dickens's novels and tales appear to us
+as old friends, over the shops and elsewhere in Rochester.
+Looking through the list of Mayors of the city from 1654 to
+1887, we notice nearly twenty of the names as having been
+given by Dickens to his characters, viz. Robinson, Wade,
+Brooker, Clarke, Harris, Burgess, Head, Weller, Baily, Gordon,
+Parsons, Pordage, Sparks, Simmons, Batten, Saunders,
+Thomson, Edwards, and Budden. The name of Jasper
+also occurs as a tradesman several times in the city, but we
+are informed that this is a recent introduction. In the
+Cathedral burying-ground occur the names of Fanny Dorr<i>ett</i>
+and Richard Pordage. Dartle, we were informed, is an old
+Rochester name.</p>
+
+<p>The population of the "four towns" of Rochester, Strood,
+Chatham, and New Brompton, at the census of 1891, was
+upwards of 85,000. The principal industries of Rochester<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>
+are lime and cement making, "the Medway coal trade," and
+boat and barge building.</p>
+
+<p>Rochester is very well off for educational institutions. In
+addition to the Board schools, there is the King's (or
+Cathedral) Grammar School founded by Henry VIII., a
+handsome building in the Vines. The tuition fee commences
+at &pound;15 per annum for boys under 12, and there is a
+reduction made when there are brothers. There are two or
+three annual competitive Scholarships tenable for a period of
+years, and there are also two Exhibitions of &pound;60 a year to
+University College, Oxford. There is also Sir J. Williamson's
+Mathematical School in the High Street, founded in
+1701, having an income of &pound;1500 a year from endowments,
+and the teaching, which has a wide range, includes physical
+science. The fees are very small, commencing at about &pound;5
+per annum, and there are foundation Scholarships and
+"Aveling Scholarships" to the value of &pound;20 per annum.</p>
+
+<p>In addition to the famous Richard Watts's Charity, which
+is described in another chapter, the city possesses several
+other important charities, viz.:&mdash;St. Catherine's Charity on
+Star Hill, founded by Simon Potyn in 1316, which provides
+residences for sixteen aged females, with stipends varying
+from &pound;24 to &pound;28 each; St. Bartholomew's Hospital in New
+Road, which was founded in 1078 by Bishop Gundulph for
+the benefit of lepers returning from the Crusades (the present
+Hospital was erected in 1858, and is supported by voluntary
+contributions); Sir John Hawkins's Hospital for decayed
+seamen in Chatham, founded in 1592, and provides for twelve
+inmates with their wives; and Sir John Hayward's Charity
+on the Common, founded in 1651, which provides an asylum
+for twelve poor and aged females, parishioners of St. Nicholas.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Not least noteworthy among the numerous objects of
+interest in the "ancient city" are the beautiful gardens
+belonging to several of the houses in the High Street,
+particularly those of Mr. Syms and Mr. Wildish. The fresh
+green turf, the profusion of flowers, and the rich growth of
+foliage and fruit, quite surprise and delight the stranger.
+Mr. Stephen T. Aveling's garden is a marvel of beauty to be
+seen in a town. "The Cloisterham gardens blush with
+ripening fruit."</p>
+
+<p>Some of the old-fashioned cries of street hawkers, as "hot
+rolls," "herrings," "watercresses," and the like, similar to
+those in the London of Charles Dickens's early days, still
+survive at Rochester, and are very noticeable and quaint in
+the quiet morning.</p>
+
+<p>As illustrative of the many changes which have been
+brought about by steam, even in the quiet old city of
+Rochester, Mr. Syms called attention to the fact that fifty
+years ago he could count twenty-eight windmills on the
+surrounding heights, but now there are scarcely a dozen to
+be seen.</p>
+
+<p>In Rochester we heard frequent mention of "Gavelkind,"
+one of the ancient customs of Kent, whereby the lands do not
+descend to the eldest son alone, but to the whole number of
+male children equally. Lambarde, the eminent lawyer and
+antiquary (born 1536), author of <i>A Perambulation of Kent</i>,<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a>
+says:&mdash;"I gather by <i>Cornelius Tacitus</i>, and others, that
+the ancient Germans, (whose Offspring we be) suffered their
+lands to descend, not to their eldest Sonne alone, but to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span>
+whole number of their male Children: and I finde in the
+75th Chapter of <i>Canutus</i> Law (a King of this Realm before
+the Conquest), that after the death of the Father, his Heires
+should divide both his goods, and his lands amongst them.
+Now, for as much as all the next of the kinred did this
+inherit together, I conjecture, that therefore the land was
+called, either <i>Gavelkyn</i> in meaning, <i>Give all kyn</i>, because it
+was given to all the next in one line of kinred, or <i>Give
+all kynd</i>, that is, to all the male Children: for <i>kynd</i> in Dutch
+signifieth yet a male Childe." The learned historian suggests
+a second possible origin of this curious custom from the writ
+called "Gavelles," to recover "the rent and service arising
+out of these lands."</p>
+
+<p>The remarkable custom of "Borough English," whereby the
+youngest son inherits the lands, also survives in some parts of
+the county of Kent.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Robert Langton has done good service by giving in
+his delightful book, <i>The Childhood and Youth of Charles
+Dickens</i>, an illustration by Mr. W. Hull, of the old Rochester
+Theatre, which formerly stood at the foot of Star Hill, and in
+which Jingle and Dismal Jemmy&mdash;"rum fellow&mdash;does the
+heavy business&mdash;no actor&mdash;strange man&mdash;all sorts of miseries&mdash;dismal
+Jemmy, we call him on the circuit"&mdash;were to play
+on the morrow after the duel. It exists no more, for the Conservative
+Association has its club-house and rooms on the
+site of the building. The theatre is referred to in <i>Edwin
+Drood:</i>&mdash;"Even its drooping and despondent little theatre
+has its poor strip of garden, receiving the foul fiend, when
+he ducks from its stage into the infernal regions, among
+scarlet beans or oyster-shells, according to the season of
+the year." And again in <i>The Uncommercial Traveller</i>, on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span>
+"Dullborough Town," when the beginning of the end had
+appeared:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 389px;">
+<img src="images/i_107.png" width="389" height="575" alt="Old Rochester Theatre, Star Hill." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Old Rochester Theatre, Star Hill.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"It was To Let, and hopelessly so, for its old purposes; and there
+had been no entertainment within its walls for a long time, except a
+Panorama; and even that had been announced as 'pleasingly
+instructive,' and I knew too well the fatal meaning and the leaden<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span>
+import of those terrible expressions. No, there was no comfort in
+the Theatre. It was mysteriously gone, like my own youth. Unlike
+my own youth, it might be coming back some day; but there was
+little promise of it."</p></div>
+
+<p>We did not stay at the Bull during the whole of our visit,
+comfortable lodgings in Victoria Street having been secured
+for us by the courtesy of Mr. Prall, the landlady of which,
+from her kindness and consideration for our comfort, we are
+pleased to recognize as a veritable "Mrs. Lirriper."</p>
+
+<div class='center'><big>*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</big></div>
+
+<p>Among many reminiscences of Charles Dickens obtained
+at Rochester, the following are the most noteworthy:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>We had an interesting chat with Mr. Franklin Homan,
+Auctioneer, Cabinet-maker, and Upholsterer of High Street,
+Rochester. Our informant did a good deal of work for
+Charles Dickens at Gad's Hill Place, and remarked "he was
+one of the nicest customers I ever met in my life&mdash;so
+thoroughly precise and methodical. If anything had to be
+done, he knew exactly what he wanted, and gave his instructions
+accordingly. He expected every one who served him to
+be equally exact and punctual."</p>
+
+<p>The novelist wrote to Mr. Homan from America respecting
+the furnishing of two bedrooms, describing in detail how he
+wished them fitted up&mdash;one was maple, the other white with
+a red stripe. These rooms are referred to in another chapter.
+The curtains separating them from the dressing-rooms were
+ordered to be of Indian pattern chintz. When Dickens came
+home and saw them complete, he said, "It strikes me as if
+the room was about to have its hair cut,&mdash;but it's my fault,
+it must be altered;" so crimson damask curtains were
+substituted.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In the little billiard-room near the dining-room was a one-sided
+couch standing by the window, which did not seem to
+please the master of Gad's Hill Place. He said to Mr.
+Homan one day, "Whenever I see that couch, it makes me
+think the window is squinting." The result was that Mr.
+Homan had to make a window-seat instead.</p>
+
+<p>On one occasion, when our informant was waiting in the
+dining-room for some orders from Miss Hogarth, he saw
+Dickens walking in the garden with a lady, to whom he was
+telling the story of how as a boy he longed to live in Gad's
+Hill Place, and determined to purchase it whenever he had
+an opportunity.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Homan mentioned that the act drop painted by
+Clarkson Stanfield, R.A., for <i>The Lighthouse</i> and the scene
+from <i>The Frozen Deep</i>, painted by the same artist, which
+adorned the hall at Gad's Hill Place, and which fetched such
+enormous sums at the sale, were technically the property
+of the purchaser of Tavistock House, but he said, "Perhaps
+you would like to have them, Mr. Dickens," and so they
+continued to be the property of the novelist.</p>
+
+<p>The valuation for Probate was made by Mr. Homan, and
+he subsequently sold for the executors the furniture and
+other domestic effects at Gad's Hill Place. The art collection
+was sold by Messrs. Christie, Manson, and Woods. There
+was a very fine cellar of wine, which included some magnums
+of port of rare vintage. Mr. Homan purchased a few bottles,
+and gave one to a friend, Dr. Tamplin of London, who had
+been kind to his daughter. At a dinner-party some time
+afterwards at the Doctor's, a connoisseur being present, the
+magnum in question was placed on the table, the guests being
+unaware from whence it came. Reference was made to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span>
+choice quality of the wine. "Yes," said the connoisseur, "it
+<i>is</i> good&mdash;very fine. I never tasted the like before, except
+once at Gad's Hill Place."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Homan recollects seeing among the plate two oak
+cases which were not sold, containing the silver figures for
+dining-table emblematic of spring, summer, and autumn.
+These were the presents of a Liverpool admirer who wished
+to remain anonymous. The incident is alluded to in Forster's
+<i>Life</i>, the correspondent being described as "a self-raised man,
+attributing his prosperous career to what Dickens's writings
+had taught him at its outset of the wisdom of kindness and
+sympathy for others, and asking pardon for the liberty he
+took in hoping that he might be permitted to offer some
+acknowledgment of what not only had cheered and stimulated
+him through all his life, but had contributed so much
+to the success of it." The letter enclosed &pound;500, but Dickens
+declined this, intimating to the writer that if he pleased
+to send him any small memorial in another form, he would
+be glad to receive it.</p>
+
+<p>The funeral was conducted by Mr. Homan, who mentioned
+that Dickens's instructions in his Will were implicitly followed,
+as regards privacy and unostentation. It was an anxious
+time to him, in consequence of the changes which were made
+in the arrangements, the interment being first suggested to
+take place at St. Nicholas's Cemetery, then at Shorne, then
+at Rochester Cathedral, and finally at Westminster Abbey.
+The mourners, together with the remains, travelled early in
+the morning by South Eastern Railway from Higham Station
+to Charing Cross, where a procession, consisting of three
+mourning-coaches and a hearse, was quietly formed. There
+was neither show nor public demonstration of any kind. On<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span>
+reaching Westminster Abbey, about half-past nine o'clock,
+the procession was met by Dean Stanley in the Cloisters,
+who performed the funeral service. A journalist being by
+accident in the Abbey at the time of the funeral, Mr. Homan
+remarked that he became almost frantic when he heard who
+had just been buried, at having missed such an opportunity.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Homan possesses several souvenirs of Gad's Hill Place,
+presented to him by the family, including Charles Dickens's
+walking-stick, and photographs of the interior and exterior of
+the house and the ch&acirc;let.</p>
+
+<div class='center'><big>*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</big></div>
+
+<p>We were courteously received by the Rev. Robert Whiston,
+M.A., who resides at the Old Palace, a beautiful seventeenth-century
+house, abounding with oak panelling and carving,
+on Boley Hill, bequeathed in 1674, by Mr. Richard Head,
+after the death of his wife, to the then Bishop of Rochester
+and his successors, who were "to hold the same so long as
+the church was governed by Protestant Bishops." This
+residence was sold by permission of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners,
+together with the mansion at Brinley, in order to
+help to pay for the new palace of Danbury in Essex.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Whiston was a friend of Charles Dickens, and is one
+of the oldest inhabitants of Rochester. He was formerly
+Head-Master of the Cathedral Grammar, or King's, School of
+Henry VIII., an office which he resigned in 1877. Many
+years previously, Mr. Whiston published <i>Cathedral Trusts
+and their Fulfilment</i>, which ran through several editions, and
+was immediately followed by his dismissal from his mastership,
+on the ground that he had published "false, scandalous,
+and libellous" statements, and had libelled "the Chapter of
+Rochester and other Chapters, and also the Bishop." Much<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span>
+litigation followed&mdash;appeals to the Court of Chancery, the
+Court of Queen's Bench, and Doctors' Commons, which
+resulted in his replacement in office; and then a second
+dismissal, followed by his pleading his own cause for five
+days at Doctors' Commons against eminent counsel, and
+after three years of litigation he was fully reinstated in his
+office. The result at Rochester, for which Mr. Whiston
+contended, was "an increase of &pound;19 for each of the twenty
+scholars, and of &pound;35 for each of the four students, a total of
+&pound;520 a year, and the restoration of the six bedesmen of the
+Cathedral, with &pound;14 13<i>s.</i> 4<i>d.</i> a year each, who had disappeared
+since 1810, making altogether &pound;608 a year." Reforms were
+effected at other cathedrals, and handsome testimonials&mdash;one
+from Australia&mdash;were presented to Mr. Whiston.</p>
+
+<p>A characteristic paper, entitled "The History of a certain
+Grammar School," in No. 72 of <i>Household Words</i>, dated 9th
+August, 1851, gives a sketch of Mr. Whiston's labours, and
+of the reforms which he effected. He is thus referred to:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"But the Reverend Adolphus Hardhead was not merely a
+scholar and a schoolmaster. He had fought his way against
+disadvantages, had gained a moderate independence by the
+fruits of early exertions and constant but by no means
+sordid economy; and, while disinterested enough to undervalue
+abundance, was too wise not to know the value of
+money. He was an undoubted financialist, and never gave
+a farthing without doing real good, because he always
+ascertained the purpose and probable effect of his charity
+beforehand. While he cautiously shunned the idle and
+undeserving, he would work like a slave, with and for those
+who would work for themselves; and he would smooth the
+way for those who had in the first instance been their own<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span>
+pioneers, and would help a man who had once been successful,
+to attain a yet greater success."</p>
+
+<p>Anthony Trollope, in <i>The Warden</i>, also thus refers to
+this gentleman:&mdash;"The struggles of Mr. Whiston have met
+with sympathy and support. Men are beginning to say that
+these things must be looked into."</p>
+
+<p><i>Punch</i> has also immortalized Mr. Whiston, for in the
+issue of 29th January, 1853, there is a burlesque account with
+designs of "A stained glass window for Rochester Cathedral."
+The design is divided into compartments; each containing a
+representation in the medi&aelig;val fashion of a "Fytte" in "Ye
+Gestes of Maister Whyston ye Confessour."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Whiston had dined at Gad's Hill several times, and
+said that nothing could be more charming than Dickens's
+powers as a host. Some years after his death, by a fortunate
+circumstance, a large parcel of letters, written by the novelist,
+came into the hands of Mr. Whiston, who had the pleasure
+of handing them to Miss Hogarth and Miss Dickens, by
+whom they were published in the collection of letters of
+Charles Dickens.</p>
+
+<div class='center'><big>*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</big></div>
+
+<p>Thomas Millen of Rochester informed us that he knew
+Charles Dickens. His (Millen's) father was a hop-farmer,
+and about the years 1864-5 lived at Bridgewood House, on
+the main road from Rochester to Maidstone. One afternoon
+in the autumn, Dickens, accompanied by Miss Hogarth and
+his daughters, Mary and Kate, drove along the road, and
+stopped to admire a pear tree which was covered with ripe
+fruit. Millen happened to be in the garden at the time,
+and while noticing the carriage, Dickens spoke to him, and
+referred to the very fine fruit. Millen said, "Will you have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span>
+some, sir?" to which Dickens replied, "Thank you, you are
+very good, I will." He gave him some pears and some roses.
+Dickens then said, "You have not the pleasure of knowing me,
+and I have not the pleasure of knowing you. I am Charles
+Dickens; and when you pass Gad's Hill, I shall take it
+as a favour if you will look in and see my place." Millen
+replied, "I feel it to be a great honour to speak to you, sir.
+I have read most of your works, and I think <i>David Copperfield</i>
+is the master-piece. I hope to avail myself of your kind
+invitation some day." Dickens laughed, wished Millen
+"Good-day," and the carriage drove on towards Maidstone.</p>
+
+<p>"Some little time after," said Millen, "I was going to visit
+an uncle at Gravesend, and drove over with a one-horse trap
+by way of Gad's Hill. As I came near the place, I saw Mr.
+Dickens in the road. He said, 'So you are here,' and I
+mentioned where I was going. He took me in, and we went
+through the tunnel, and by the cedars, to the ch&acirc;let, which
+stood in the shrubbery in front of the house. He showed me
+his work there&mdash;a manuscript on the table, and also some
+proofs. They were part of <i>Our Mutual Friend</i>, which was
+then appearing in monthly numbers; and on that morning
+a proof of one of the illustrations had arrived from Mr.
+Marcus Stone. It was the one in which 'Miss Wren fixes
+her idea.' I was then about sixteen or seventeen, and
+Dickens said, 'You are setting out in life; mind <i>you</i> always
+fix your idea.' He asked me what I was going to be, and I
+said a farmer. He said, 'Better be that than an author or
+poet;' and after I had had two glasses of wine, he bade me
+'good-bye.'"</p>
+
+<div class='center'><big>*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</big></div>
+
+<p>We were kindly favoured with an interview by the Misses<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span>
+Drage, of No. 1 Minor Canon Row, daughters of the late Rev.
+W. H. Drage, who was Curate of St. Mary's Church, Chatham,
+from 1820 to 1828, and lived during that time in apartments
+at No. 3 Ordnance Terrace, next door to the Dickens family.
+Afterwards their father was Vicar of St. Margaret's, Rochester,
+for many years, and resided in their present home. About
+the year 1850, the Vicar, being interested in the daughter of
+one of his parishioners, whom he was anxious to get admitted
+into a public institution in London&mdash;a penitentiary or something
+of the kind&mdash;wrote to Miss (now the Baroness) Burdett
+Coutts, who was a patroness or founder, or who occupied
+some position of influence in connection therewith. In answer
+to the reverend gentleman's application, a letter was received
+from Charles Dickens, then residing at Devonshire Terrace,
+who appeared to be associated with Miss Burdett Coutts in
+the management of the institution, proposing to call at Minor
+Canon Row on a certain day and hour. The letter then
+concluded with these remarkable words:&mdash;"I trust to my
+childish remembrance for putting your initials correctly."</p>
+
+<p>The letter was properly addressed "The Rev. <i>W. H.</i>
+Drage," and it is interesting to record this circumstance as
+showing Dickens's habitual precision and excellent memory.
+The future novelist was about eleven years old when he left
+Chatham (1823), consequently a period of twenty-seven years
+or more must have elapsed since he knew his father's neighbour
+as Curate there; yet, notwithstanding the multiplicity
+and diversity of his occupations during the interim, his
+recollection after this long period was perfectly accurate.</p>
+
+<p>It is scarcely necessary to add that the interview took
+place (probably Dickens came down from London specially),
+and that the Vicar obtained admission for his <i>prot&eacute;g&eacute;e</i>. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span>
+younger Miss Drage, who was in the room at the time of
+Dickens's visit, particularly noticed what a beautiful head the
+novelist's was, and in her enthusiasm she made a rough sketch
+of it while he was talking to her father.</p>
+
+<p>In conversation with the present Mr. Charles Dickens on
+a subsequent occasion regarding this circumstance, he informed
+me that there was an institution of the kind referred
+to, "A Home," at Shepherd's Bush, in which his father took
+much interest. Forster also says in the <i>Life</i> that this
+Home "largely and regularly occupied his time for several
+years."</p>
+
+<div class='center'><big>*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</big></div>
+
+<p>We heard from a trustworthy authority, <i>Y. Z.</i>, at Rochester,
+some particulars respecting an interesting custom at Gad's
+Hill Place. On New Year's Eve there was always a dinner-party
+with friends, and a dance, and games afterwards.
+Some of the games were called "Buzz," "Crambo," "Spanish
+Merchant," etc. Claret-cup and other refreshments were
+introduced later, and at twelve o'clock all the servants came
+into the entrance-hall. Charles Dickens then went in, shook
+hands with them all round, wished them a Happy New Year
+("A happy new year, God bless us all"), and gave each half-a-sovereign.
+This custom was maintained for many years,
+until a man-servant&mdash;who used to travel with Dickens&mdash;disgracefully
+betrayed his trust,&mdash;robbed his master, in fact,&mdash;when
+it was discontinued, and the name of the man who
+had thus disgraced himself was never allowed to be mentioned
+at Gad's Hill.</p>
+
+<p>The same authority spoke of the long walks that Dickens
+regularly took after breakfast&mdash;usually six miles,&mdash;but he
+gave these up after the railway accident at Staplehurst, which,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span>
+it will be remembered, occurred, on the "fatal anniversary,"
+the 9th June, 1865. During one of these walks, he fell in
+with a man driving a cart loaded with manure, and had a
+long chat with him, the sort of thing he frequently did (said
+our informant) in order to become acquainted with the brogue
+and feelings of the working people. When Dickens went on
+his way, one of the man's fellow-labourers said to him, "Do
+you know that that was Charles Dickens who spoke to you?"
+"I don't know who it was," replied the man, "but he was a
+d&mdash;&mdash;d good fellow, for he gave me a shilling."</p>
+
+<p>Our informant also referred to a conversation between
+Dickens and some of his friends at Gad's Hill, respecting the
+unhappy marriages of actors. Twenty such marriages were
+instanced, and out of these only two turned out happily. He
+said that Charles Dickens at home was a quiet, unassuming
+man. He remembers on one occasion his saying, in relation
+to a war which was then going on, "What must the feelings
+of a soldier be, when alone and dying on the battle-field, and
+leaving his wife and children far away for ever?"</p>
+
+<div class='center'><big>*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</big></div>
+
+
+<div class='center'><br />A TRUE GHOST STORY RELATING TO MISS HAVISHAM'S HOUSE.</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"I live in an old red-brick mansion, nearly covered with ivy&mdash;one
+of those picturesque dwellings with high-pitched roofs and ornamental
+gables, which were scattered broadcast over England in the days
+of good Queen Bess. Every stranger looking at it exclaims, 'That
+house must have a history and a ghost!' Many a story has been
+told of the ghost which has from time to time been seen, or said to
+have been seen, within its walls; and many a servant has, from fear,
+refused service in this so-called haunted house.</p>
+
+<p>"On the 28th May, one thousand six hundred and sixty, Charles<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span>
+the Second sojourned and slept here. This being the eve of 'The
+Restoration,' a new name was given to the then old house, which
+name it has since retained. Charles, having knighted the owner (Sir
+Francis Clarke), departed early the next morning for London.</p>
+
+<p>"There are secret passages <i>in</i> the house, and, under ground, <i>from</i>
+the house. From the room in which the king slept, a secret passage
+through one of the lower panels of the wainscot, leads to various
+parts of the house. This passage is so well concealed that I occupied
+the house some years before it was discovered. I had occasion to
+make a plan of the house, and the inside and outside not agreeing,
+disclosed the space occupied by the unexplored passage. The
+jackdaws had forestalled me in my discovery, and had had undisturbed
+possession for two centuries, having got access through a
+hole under the eaves of the roof. They had deposited <i>several bushels</i>
+of sticks. They had not been the only tenants, as skeletons and
+mummies of birds, etc., were also found.</p>
+
+<p>"I came into possession of this old house in December 1875, and
+on the 27th of April, 1876, slept in it for the first time. At ten
+o'clock on that night, my family retired to rest; having some letters
+to write, I sat up later. At a quarter to twelve, I was startled by a
+loud noise&mdash;a sort of rumbling sound, which appeared to proceed from
+the hall. I left my writing and went to the hall, and found that the
+noise proceeded from the staircase, but I could see nothing unusual.</p>
+
+<p>"The staircase is one of those so often described as being 'wide
+enough to drive a carriage and pair up,' with massive oak posts and
+balustrades. The walls are covered with tapestry, given to the house
+by 'The Merry Monarch,' after his visit. An oak chest or two, and
+some high-backed chairs on the landings, picture to one a suitable
+habitation for a ghost. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I had no belief
+in ghosts, and commenced an investigation of this extraordinary
+noise.</p>
+
+<p>"Could it be rats, or mice, or owls? No; the noise was ten
+times louder than could possibly proceed from these creatures;
+besides, I knew there were no rats in the house. The clever builder
+of the house had filled all the space between the ceilings and floors
+with silver sand, which rendered it impossible for a rat or mouse to
+make passages. To prick a hole in a ceiling is to have a continuous
+stream of sand run down, as from an hour-glass.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"The noise was repeated, but much louder (two drum-sticks upon
+a large drum would not have made more noise), and I was able to
+localize it, still I could see nothing. I thought some one had fallen
+on the stairs, and I shouted 'Who is there?' A reply came
+'Hush!'&mdash;first softly, and then very loud&mdash;too loud for a human
+voice. As no person was visible, I was puzzled, and went up-stairs
+by a back staircase, and ascertained that none of my family had left
+their bedrooms, and that certainly no trick was being played me.</p>
+
+<p>"The same rumbling, rolling sound was repeated; and as I stood
+on the top of the great staircase, I felt a little uncomfortable, but not
+frightened. The noise seemed to proceed from a large carved oak
+coffer or chest (as old as the house), which stood on a landing, about
+half-way up the stairs. I approached the chest, and from it appeared
+to come again the word 'Hush!' Could it be the wind whistling
+through a crack? No; it was far too loud for any such explanation.
+I opened the lid of the chest and found it empty. Again the noise,
+now from <i>under</i> the chest. I was just strong enough to move the
+chest; I turned it over and slid it down the stairs on to the next
+landing. Again the noise, and again the 'Hush!' which now
+appeared to come from the floor where the coffer had stood.</p>
+
+<p>"I felt I would rather have had some one with me to assist in my
+investigation, and to join me in making the acquaintance of the
+ghost; but, although my sensations were probably the most uncomfortable
+I ever experienced, I was determined, if possible, to unearth
+the mystery.</p>
+
+<p>"The light was imperfect, and I went to another part of the house
+for a candle to enable me to examine the floor. In my absence the
+noise was repeated louder than ever, and not unlike distant thunder.
+On my return, I was saluted with 'Hush!' which I felt convinced
+came from a voice immediately under the floor. By the light of the
+candle I examined the dark oak boards, and discovered what appeared
+to be a trap door about two feet six inches square. The floor
+at some time had been varnished, and the cracks, or joints of the
+trap, had been filled and sealed with the varnish. I now hoped I
+had found the habitation of my troublesome and noisy guest. I
+procured a chisel and cut the varnished joint, and found that there
+was a trap door, as I supposed. By the aid of a long screwdriver I
+was able to move the door, but at that moment a repetition of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span>
+noise, immediately under me, made me hesitate for a moment to try
+and raise it. With feelings better imagined than described, I raised
+the lid, and looked into a dark chasm. All was still, and I heard the
+cathedral bell tolling the hour of midnight. A long African spear
+was in the corner near me, and I struck this into the opening. I
+tied a string to the candlestick to lower it into the opening, but at
+this moment I was startled, and was for the first time nervous, or
+I may say, frightened; but this had better remain for another chapter.</p>
+
+<p>"So far I have not in the smallest degree exaggerated or overdrawn
+any one of the matters I have recounted. Every word has
+been written with the greatest care to truth and accuracy.</p>
+
+<div class='sig'>
+"S. T. A."<br />
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div class='center'><big>*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</big></div>
+
+<p>To cut our ghost story short, without adding another
+chapter, Mr. Aveling, on looking into the dark chasm by the
+meagre light of the lowered candle, beheld, to his amazement,
+the reflection of his own face in the water of a large cistern
+underneath the staircase, the house having formerly been
+supplied from the "large brewery" a short distance off. The
+unearthly noise was no doubt caused by air in the pipes,
+through which the water rushed when suddenly turned on by
+the brewers, who were working late at night. In <i>Great
+Expectations</i> it is stated that:&mdash;"The brewery buildings had
+a little lane of communication with it" [the courtyard of
+Satis House], "and the wooden gates of that lane stood open"
+[at the time of Pip's first visit, when Estella showed him over
+the premises], "and all the brewery beyond stood open, away
+to the high enclosing wall; and all was empty and disused.
+The cold wind seemed to blow colder there, than outside the
+gate; and it made a shrill noise in howling in and out at
+the open sides of the brewery, like the noise of wind in the
+rigging of a ship at sea."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+
+<h3>ROCHESTER CASTLE.</h3>
+
+<div class="hang2">"I took up my hat, and went out, climbed to the top of the old Castle, and
+looked over the windy hills that slope down to the Medway."&mdash;<i>The
+Seven Poor Travellers.</i></div>
+
+
+<div class='unindent'><span class="smcap">To</span> the lover of Dickens, both the Castle and Cathedral of
+Rochester appeal with almost equal interest. The Castle,
+however, which stands on an eminence on the right bank of
+the river Medway, close to the bridge, claims prior attention,
+and a few lines must therefore be devoted to an epitome of its
+history in the ante-Pickwickian days.</div>
+
+<p>Tradition says that the first castle was erected by command
+of Julius C&aelig;sar, when Cassivelaunus was Governor of Britain,
+"in order to awe the Britons." It was called the "Castle of
+the Medway," or "the Kentishmen's Castle," and it seems,
+with other antagonisms, to have awed the unfortunate Britons
+pretty effectively, for it lasted until decay and dissolution
+came to it and to them, as to all things. It was replaced
+by a new castle built by Hrofe (509), which in its turn
+succumbed to the ravages of time.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 575px;"><a name="castle" id="castle"></a>
+<img src="images/i_122.png" width="575" height="432" alt="The Castle from Rochester Bridge" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>Gundulph, Bishop of Rochester (1077), whose name still
+survives here and there in connection with charities and in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span>
+other ways in the "ancient city," appears to be entitled to the
+credit of having commenced to build the present massive
+square Tower or Keep, the surviving portion of a magnificent
+whole, sometimes called "Gundulph's Tower," "towards which
+he was to expend the sum of sixty pounds," and this structure
+ranks as one of the most perfect examples of Norman architecture
+in existence. Other authorities ascribe the erection to
+Odo, Bishop of Bayeux and Earl of Kent, half-brother to
+William the Conqueror, who is described by Hasted as "a
+turbulent and ambitious prelate, who aimed at nothing less
+than the popedom." Later, in the reign of William Rufus, it
+was accounted "the strongest and most important castle of
+England." It was so important that Lambarde, in <i>A
+Perambulation of Kent</i>, says:&mdash;"It was much in the eie of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span>
+such as were authors of troubles following within the realme,
+so that from time to time it had a part almost in every
+Tragedie."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Robert Collins, in his compact and useful <i>Visitors'
+Handbook of Rochester and Neighbourhood</i>, quoting from
+another ancient historian, says that "In 1264, King Henry
+III. [who in 1251 held a grand tournament in the Castle]
+'commanded that the Shyriffe of Kent do set aboute to
+finish and complete the great Tower which Gundulph
+had left imperfect.'" About 1463, Edward IV. repaired
+part of the Castle, after which it was allowed to fall into
+decay. The instructions to the "shyriffe" were no doubt
+necessary; for although &pound;60 would probably go a great way
+in the time of Bishop Gundulph, the modern &aelig;sthetic builder
+would do very little indeed for that sum, towards the erection
+of such an impregnable fortress as Rochester Castle, the
+walls of which vary from eight to thirteen feet in thickness,
+whatever his progenitor may have done in 1077.</p>
+
+<p>The Keep&mdash;the last resort of the garrison when all the
+outworks were taken&mdash;is considered so beautiful that it is
+selected, under the article "Castle" in the last edition of
+the <i>Encyclop&aelig;dia Britannica</i>, as an illustration of Norman
+architecture, showing "an embattled parapet often admitting
+of chambers and staircases being constructed," and showing
+also "embattled turrets carried one story higher than the
+parapet." There is also a fine woodcut of the Castle at
+p. 198 of vol. v. of that work.</p>
+
+<p>The Keep is seventy feet square and a hundred feet high,
+built of the native Kentish ragstone and Caen stone; and the
+adamantine mortar or cement used in its construction was
+made with sand, evidently procured at the seaside some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span>
+distance from Rochester, for it contains remains of cardium,
+pecten, solen, and other marine shells, which would not be
+found in river sand. Mr. Roach Smith suggested that probably
+the sand may have been procured from "Cockle-shell
+Hard," near Sheerness. He called our attention to the fact
+that in Norman mortar sand is predominant, and in Roman
+mortar lime or chalk.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/i_124.png" width="500" height="508" alt="Rochester Castle" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>The roof and the chambers are gone,&mdash;the Keep remains as
+a mere shell,&mdash;and where bishops, kings, and barons came and
+went, flocks of the common domestic pigeon, in countless
+numbers, fly about and make their home and multiply. One
+almost regrets the freedom which these graceful birds possess,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span>
+although to grudge freedom to a pigeon is like grudging
+sunshine to a flower. But though the damage to the walls is
+really trifling, as they will stand for centuries to come, still
+the litter and mess which the birds naturally make is considerable
+and unsightly, and decidedly out of keeping in such a
+magnificent ruin. The pigeons exhibit what takes place when
+a species becomes dominant to the exclusion of other species,
+as witness the pest of the rabbits in New Zealand. With
+profound respect to his Worship the Mayor and the Corporation
+of Rochester, to whom the Castle and grounds now
+belong, the writer of these lines, as a naturalist, ventures to
+suggest that the Castle should be left to the jackdaws, its
+natural and doubtless its original tenants, which, although of
+higher organization, have been driven out by superior numbers
+in the "struggle for existence," and for whom it is a much
+more appropriate habitat in keeping with all traditions; and
+further, that the said pigeons be forthwith made into pies for
+the use and behoof of the deserving poor of the ancient city
+of Rochester.</p>
+
+<p>Mention has been made of the fact that the Castle and
+grounds are the property of the Corporation of Rochester.
+They were acquired by purchase in 1883 from the Earl of
+Jersey for &pound;8,000, and the occasion was celebrated by great
+civic rejoicings.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> The Corporation are not only to be congratulated
+on the wisdom of their purchase ("a thing of
+beauty is a joy for ever"), but also on the excellent manner
+in which the grounds are maintained&mdash;pigeons excepted.
+The gardens, with closely-cut lawns, abound with euonymus,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span>
+laurustinus, bay, and other evergreens, together with many
+choice flowers. The single red, or Deptford pink (<i>Dianthus
+Armeria</i>), grows wild on the walls of the Castle. There is a
+tasteful statuette of her Majesty, under a Gothic canopy, near
+the entrance, which records her Jubilee in 1887. The inscriptions
+on three of the four corners are appropriately chosen
+from Lord Tennyson's <i>Carmen S&aelig;culare:</i>&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='center'>
+To commemorate the<br />
+
+<b><big>Jubilee of Queen Victoria</big></b>,<br />
+
+1887.<br />
+
+<span class="smcap">L. Levy, Mayor.</span><br />
+
+"Fifty years of ever-broadening commerce!"<br />
+
+"Fifty years of ever-brightening science!"<br />
+
+"Fifty years of ever-widening empire!"<br />
+</div>
+
+<p>There is free admission to the grounds through a handsome
+modern Norman gateway, but a trifling charge of a few pence
+is made for permission to enter the Keep, which has convenient
+steps ascending to the top. From the summit of the
+Keep, there are magnificent views of the valley of the river
+Medway, the adjacent hills, Rochester, Chatham, and the
+vicinity. The Cathedral, Jasper's Gatehouse, and Restoration
+House, are also noteworthy objects to the lover of Dickens.
+As Mr. Philips Bevan says, and as we verified, the views inside
+at midday, when the sun is streaming down, are "very peculiar
+and beautiful."</p>
+
+<p>Dickens's first and last great works are both associated
+with the Castle, and it is referred to in several other of his
+writings. We can fancy, more than sixty years ago, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span>
+eager and enthusiastic Pickwickians, in company with their
+newly-made acquaintance, Mr. Alfred Jingle, seated outside
+the four-horse coach,&mdash;the "Commodore," driven possibly by
+"Old Chumley,"&mdash;dashing over old Rochester Bridge, to
+"the lively notes of the guard's key-bugle," when the sight
+of the Castle first broke upon them.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"'Magnificent ruin!' said Mr. Augustus Snodgrass, with all the
+poetic fervour that distinguished him, when they came in sight of
+the fine old Castle.</p>
+
+<p>"'What a study for an antiquarian!' were the very words which
+fell from Mr. Pickwick's mouth, as he applied his telescope to
+his eye.</p>
+
+<p>"'Ah, fine place!' said the stranger, 'glorious pile&mdash;frowning
+walls&mdash;tottering arches&mdash;dark nooks&mdash;crumbling staircases&mdash;'"</p></div>
+
+<p>Little did poor Mr. Winkle think that within twenty-four
+hours <i>his</i> feeling of admiration for Rochester Castle would be
+turned into astonishment, for does not the chronicle say that
+"if the upper tower of Rochester Castle had suddenly walked
+from its foundation and stationed itself opposite the coffee-room
+window [of the Bull Hotel], Mr. Winkle's surprise
+would have been as nothing compared with the perfect
+astonishment with which he had heard this address" (referring
+of course to the insult to Dr. Slammer, and the challenge in
+the matter of the duel).</p>
+
+<p>It was on the occasion of "a visit to the Castle" very soon
+afterwards that Mr. Winkle confided in, and sought the good
+offices of, his friend Mr. Snodgrass, in the "affair of honour"
+which was to take place at "sunset, in a lonely field beyond
+Fort Pitt." Poor fellow! how eagerly he tried, under a
+mask of the most perfect candour, and how miserably he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span>
+failed, to arouse the energies of his friend to avert the
+impending catastrophe.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 389px;">
+<img src="images/i_128.png" width="389" height="500" alt="Interior of Rochester Castle" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"'Snodgrass,' he said, stopping suddenly, 'do <i>not</i> let me be
+baulked in this matter&mdash;do <i>not</i> give information to the local
+authorities&mdash;do <i>not</i> obtain the assistance of several peace officers
+to take either me or Doctor Slammer of the 97th Regiment, at
+present quartered in Chatham Barracks, into custody, and thus prevent
+this duel;&mdash;I say, do <i>not</i>.'</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Snodgrass seized his friend's hand as he enthusiastically
+replied, 'Not for worlds!'</p>
+
+<p>"A thrill passed over Mr. Winkle's frame, as the conviction that
+he had nothing to hope from his friend's fears, and that he was
+destined to become an animated target, rushed forcibly upon him."</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The state of the case having been formally explained to
+Mr. Snodgrass, they make arrangements, hire "a case of
+satisfaction pistols, with the satisfactory accompaniments of
+powder, ball, and caps," and "the two friends returned to
+their inn." The next ground which they traversed together
+to pursue the subject was at Fort Pitt. We will follow
+them presently.</p>
+
+<p>In <i>The Mystery of Edwin Drood</i> there is no direct reference
+to the Castle itself, but the engraving of it, with the Cathedral
+in the background, after the pretty sketch by Mr. Luke Fildes,
+R.A., will ever be associated with that beautiful fragment.</p>
+
+<p>Another reference is contained in the preface to <i>Nicholas
+Nickleby</i>, where Dickens says:&mdash;"I cannot call to mind now
+how I came to hear about Yorkshire schools when I was a
+not very robust child, sitting in by-places near Rochester
+Castle, with a head full of 'Partridge,' 'Strap,' 'Tom Pipes,'
+and 'Sancho Panza.'"</p>
+
+<p>A sympathetic notice of the Castle is also contained in the
+<i>Seven Poor Travellers</i>. It begins:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Sooth to say, he [Time] did an active stroke of work in Rochester
+in the old days of the Romans, and the Saxons, and the Normans,
+and down to the times of King John, when the rugged Castle&mdash;I will
+not undertake to say how many hundreds of years old then&mdash;was
+abandoned to the centuries of weather which have so defaced the
+dark apertures in its walls, that the ruin looks as if the rooks and
+daws had picked its eyes out."</p></div>
+
+<p>And this, the most touching reference of all, occurs in
+"One Man in a Dockyard," contributed by Dickens<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> to
+<i>Household Words</i> in 1851:&mdash;</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span></p>
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"There was Rochester Castle, to begin with. I surveyed the
+massive ruin from the Bridge, and thought what a brief little practical
+joke I seemed to be, in comparison with its solidity, stature, strength,
+and length of life. I went inside; and, standing in the solemn
+shadow of its walls, looking up at the blue sky, its only remaining
+roof, (to the disturbance of the crows and jackdaws who garrison
+the venerable fortress now,) calculated how much wall of that thickness
+I, or any other man, could build in his whole life,&mdash;say from
+eight years old to eighty,&mdash;and what a ridiculous result would be
+produced. I climbed the rugged staircase, stopping now and then
+to peep at great holes where the rafters and floors were once,&mdash;bare
+as toothless gums now,&mdash;or to enjoy glimpses of the Medway
+through dreary apertures like sockets without eyes; and, looking from
+the Castle ramparts on the Old Cathedral, and on the crumbling
+remains of the old Priory, and on the row of staid old red-brick
+houses where the Cathedral dignitaries live, and on the shrunken
+fragments of one of the old City gates, and on the old trees with
+their high tops below me, felt quite apologetic to the scene in
+general for my own juvenility and insignificance. One of the river
+boatmen had told me on the bridge, (as country folks do tell of such
+places,) that in the old times, when those buildings were in
+progress, a labourer's wages 'were a penny a day, and enough too.'
+Even as a solitary penny was to their whole cost, it appeared to
+me, was the utmost strength and exertion of one man towards the
+labour of their erection."</p></div>
+
+<p>Dickens always took his friends to the Keep of Rochester
+Castle. He naturally considered it as one of the sights of
+the old city. It was equally attractive to his friends, for a
+curious adventure is recorded in Forster's <i>Life</i>, in connection
+with a visit which the poet Longfellow made there in 1842,
+and which he recollected a quarter of a century afterwards,
+and recounted to Forster during a second visit, together with
+a curious experience in the slums of London with Dickens.
+The first of these adventures is thus described by Forster:&mdash;"One
+of them was a day at Rochester, when, met by one of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span>
+those prohibitions which are the wonder of visitors and the
+shame of Englishmen, we overleapt gates and barriers, and
+setting at defiance repeated threats of all the terrors of law,
+coarsely expressed to us by the custodian of the place,
+explored minutely the castle ruins." Happily such a circumstance
+could not now take place, for, by the present excellent
+regulations of the Corporation of the city of Rochester, every
+visitor can explore the Castle and grounds to his heart's
+content.</p>
+
+<p>On arriving at either railway station, Strood or Rochester
+Bridge, the Castle is the first object to claim attention.
+Our attention is constantly directed to it during our stay
+in the pleasant city; it is a landmark when we are on the
+tramp; and it is the last object to fade from our view as we
+regretfully take our departure.</p>
+
+<div class='center'><big>*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</big></div>
+
+<p>My fellow-tramp favours me with the following note:&mdash;</p>
+
+
+<div class='center'><span class="smcap">The Dedication of Rochester Castle to
+the Public.</span></div>
+
+<p>"I well remember the day of public rejoicing in the
+picturesque city of Rochester, on the occasion of the ceremony
+of formally presenting the old Castle and grounds to the
+inhabitants. I had received instructions from the manager
+of the <i>Graphic</i> newspaper to make sketches of the principal
+incidents in connection with the day's proceedings, and I
+reached my destination just in time to obtain from the
+authorities some idea of the nature of those proceedings.
+With this object in view, I made my way through the surging
+crowd to the Guildhall, where, in one of the Corporation
+rooms, I found a large assembly of local magnates in official<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span>
+attire, including the Mayor, who was vainly endeavouring to
+properly adjust his sword, an operation in which I had the
+honour of assisting, much to his Worship's satisfaction, I
+hope.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/i_132.png" width="500" height="328" alt="Rochester Castle and the Medway" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>"The streets of Rochester were thronged with excited
+people, and the houses were gaily decked with flags and
+bunting. When everything was ready, an imposing procession
+was formed, and proceeded to the Castle grounds,
+preceded by a military band; on arriving there, an address
+was read from the pagoda to an attentive audience, the
+subsequent proceedings being enlivened by musical strains.</p>
+
+<p>"It had been announced that, in the evening, the old Keep
+would be illuminated by the electric light, and I made a
+point of being present to witness the unusual sight. The
+night was very dark, and the ivy-clad ruin could barely be
+distinguished; presently, a burst of music from the band was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span>
+immediately followed by a remarkably strong beam of light,
+which shot into the darkness with such effect as to fairly
+startle those present. Then it rested on the grey walls of the
+huge pile, bathing in brightness the massive stones and
+clinging ivy, the respective colours of each being vividly
+apparent. But the most striking feature was yet to come.
+The hundreds of pigeons which inhabited the nooks and
+crannies of the old Keep, being considerably alarmed by this
+sudden illumination of their domain, flew with one accord
+round and round their ancient tenement, now in the full blaze
+of light, now lost in the inky darkness beyond, and fluttering
+about in a state of the utmost bewilderment. Methinks even
+Mr. Pickwick, had he been present in the flesh, would have
+been equally amazed at this remarkable spectacle."</p>
+
+<div class='sig'>
+F. G. K.<br />
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+
+<h3>ROCHESTER CATHEDRAL.</h3>
+
+<div class="hang2">"That same afternoon, the massive grey square tower of an old Cathedral
+rises before the sight of a jaded traveller. The bells are going for
+daily Vesper Service, and he must needs attend it, one would say, from
+his haste to reach the open Cathedral door. The choir are getting on
+their sullied white robes, in a hurry, when he arrives among them,
+gets on his own robe, and falls into the procession filing in to Service.
+Then, the Sacristan locks the iron-barred gates that divide the
+Sanctuary from the Chancel, and all of the procession having scuttled
+into their places, hide their faces; and then the intoned words,
+'<span class="smcap">When the wicked man</span>&mdash;' rise among the groins of arches and
+beams of roof, awakening muttered thunder."&mdash;<i>Edwin Drood.</i></div>
+
+
+<div class='unindent'><span class="smcap">The</span> readers of Dickens are first introduced to Rochester
+Cathedral, in the early pages of the immortal <i>Pickwick Papers</i>,
+by that audacious <i>raconteur</i>, Mr. Alfred Jingle:&mdash;</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Old Cathedral too&mdash;earthy smell&mdash;pilgrims' feet worn away the
+old steps&mdash;little Saxon doors&mdash;confessionals like money-takers'
+boxes at theatres&mdash;queer customers those monks&mdash;Popes, and Lord
+Treasurers, and all sorts of old fellows, with great red faces, and
+broken noses, turning up every day&mdash;buff jerkins too&mdash;matchlocks&mdash;sarcophagus&mdash;fine
+place&mdash;old legends too&mdash;strange stories: capital."</p></div>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112"></a>
+<img src="images/i_135.png" width="600" height="381" alt="Rochester Cathedral" title="" />
+</div>
+<p>But it was through the medium of <i>Edwin Drood</i>, and
+under the masked name of Cloisterham, that all the novel-reading
+world beyond the "ancient city" first recognized<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span>
+Rochester Cathedral&mdash;and indeed the ancient city too&mdash;as
+having been elevated to a degree of interest and importance
+far beyond that imparted to it by its own venerable history
+and ecclesiastical associations, numerous and varied as they
+are. The early portion of the story introduces us to
+Cloisterham in imperishable language:&mdash;</p>
+
+
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"An ancient city Cloisterham, and no meet dwelling-place for any
+one with hankerings after the noisy world.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. A drowsy city
+Cloisterham, whose inhabitants seem to suppose, with an inconsistency
+more strange than rare, that all its changes lie behind it, and
+that there are no more to come.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. In a word, a city of another and
+a bygone time is Cloisterham, with its hoarse cathedral bell, its hoarse
+rooks hovering about the cathedral tower, its hoarser and less distinct
+rooks in the stalls far beneath.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;."</p></div>
+
+<p>The particulars in this chapter mainly relate to <i>The
+Mystery of Edwin Drood</i>, which Longfellow thought "certainly
+one of Dickens's most beautiful works, if not the most beautiful
+of all," but a few words may not be inappropriate respecting
+some of the principal events connected with the Cathedral.
+It was founded<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 604, by Ethelbert, King of Kent, and
+the first bishop of the See (Bishop Justus) was ordained by
+Augustine, the Archbishop of the Britons. The See of
+Rochester is therefore, with the exception of Canterbury, at
+once the most ancient and also the smallest in England.</p>
+
+<p>The Cathedral, as well as the city, suffered from the attacks
+of Ethelred, King of Mercia, and in 1075, "when Arnot, a
+monk of Bec, came to the See, it was in a most deplorable
+condition." Bishop Gundulph, who succeeded him, and by
+whose efforts the Castle was erected, replaced the old English<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span>
+church by a Norman one (1080), and made other improvements.
+The Cathedral suffered from fire in 1138 and 1179.
+Its great north transept was built in 1235, and the great
+south transept in 1240. In 1423, the parish altar of St.
+Nicholas, in the nave, was removed to a new Church for the
+citizens on the north side of the Cathedral. In 1470, the
+great west window was inserted. The Norman west front
+has a richly sculptured door of five receding arches, containing
+figures of the Saviour and the twelve apostles, and statues of
+Henry I. and his Queen, Matilda. There are monuments in
+the Cathedral to St. William of Perth, a baker of that town,
+who was murdered near here by his servant, on his way
+to the Holy Land (1201), and was canonized, to Bishop
+Gundulph, Bishop John de Sheppey, Bishop de Merton (the
+founder of Merton College, Oxford), and to many others.</p>
+
+<p>According to Mr. Phillips Bevan, "the chapter-house is
+remarkable for its magnificent Decorated Door (about 1344), of
+which there is a fac-simile at the Crystal Palace. The figures
+represent the Christian and the Jewish Churches, surrounded
+by Fathers and Angels. The figure at the top is the pure
+soul for whom the angels are supposed to be praying."</p>
+
+<p>Various alterations and additions have been made from
+time to time, the last of which appears to be the central
+tower, which is terribly mean and inappropriate, and altogether
+out of place with the ancient surroundings. It was built by
+Cottingham in 1825.</p>
+
+<p>We pass, at various times, several pleasant hours in the
+Cathedral and its precincts, admiring the beautiful Norman
+work, and recalling most delightful memories of Charles
+Dickens and his associations therewith.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 438px;">
+<img src="images/i_138.png" width="438" height="600" alt="Rochester Cathedral Interior" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>Among the many friends we made at Rochester, was Mr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span>
+Syms, the respected Manager of the Gas Company, and an old
+resident in the city. To this gentleman we are indebted for
+several reminiscences of Dickens and his works. He fancies
+that <i>The Mystery of Edwin Drood</i> owed its origin to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span>
+following strange local event that happened many years ago.
+A well-to-do person, a bachelor (who lived somewhere near
+the site of the present Savings Bank in High St., Rochester,
+Chatham end), was the guardian and trustee of a nephew
+(a minor), who was the inheritor of a large property. Business,
+pleasure, or a desire to seek health, took the nephew to the
+West Indies, from whence he returned somewhat unexpectedly.
+After his return he suddenly disappeared, and
+was supposed to have gone another voyage, but no one ever
+saw or heard of him again, and the matter was soon forgotten.
+When, however, certain excavations were being made for
+some improvements or additions to the Bank, the skeleton of
+a young man was discovered; and local tradition couples the
+circumstance with the probability of the murder of the nephew
+by the uncle.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Syms thought that the "Crozier," which is probably a
+set off to the "Mitre," the orthodox hotel where Mr. Datchery
+put up with his "portmanteau," was probably the city coffee-house,
+an old hotel of the coaching days, which stood on the
+site now occupied by the London County Bank. "It was a
+hotel of a most retiring disposition," and "business was
+chronically slack at the 'Crozier,'" which probably accounts
+for its dissolution. Another suggestion is that the "Crozier"
+may have been "The Old Crown," a fifteenth-century house,
+which was pulled down in 1864. He could not identify the
+"Tilted Wagon," the "cool establishment on the top of
+a hill."</p>
+
+<p>It is generally admitted that "Mr. Thomas Sapsea,
+Auctioneer, &amp;c.," was a compound of two originals well
+known in Rochester&mdash;a Mr. B. and a Mr. F., who had many
+of the characteristics of the quondam Mayor of Cloisterham.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span>
+Mr. Sapsea's house is the fine old timbered building opposite
+Eastgate House, which has been previously alluded to.</p>
+
+<p>The "Travellers' Twopenny" of <i>Edwin Drood</i>, where
+Deputy, <i>alias</i> Winks, lodged, Mr. Syms thought to have been
+a cheap lodging-house well known in that locality, which
+stood at the junction of Frog Alley and Crow Lane,
+originally called "The Duck," and subsequently "Kitt's
+Lodging-house." But, like less interesting and more important
+relics of the past, this has disappeared, to make way
+for modern improvements. It had been partly burnt down
+before. To satisfy ourselves, we go over the ground, which is
+near Mr. Franklin Homan's furniture establishment.</p>
+
+<p>We are reminded, in reference to <i>Edwin Drood</i>, that the
+chief tenor singer never heads the procession of choristers.
+That place of honour belongs to the smaller boys of the
+choir. An enquiry from us, as to what was the opinion of
+the townsfolk generally respecting Dickens, elicited the reply
+that they thought him at times "rather masterful."</p>
+
+<p>We are most attentively shown over the Cathedral and its
+surroundings by Mr. Miles, the venerable verger. This
+faithful and devoted official, who began at the bottom of the
+ladder as a choir boy in the sacred edifice at the commencement
+of the present century, is much respected, and has
+recently celebrated his golden wedding. Few can therefore
+be more closely identified with the growth and development
+of its current history. Pleasant and instructive it is to hear
+him recount the many celebrated incidents which have marked
+its progress, and to see the beautiful memorials of past
+munificence or affection erected by friends or relatives, which
+he lovingly points out. It is in no perfunctory spirit, or as
+mere matter of routine, that he performs his office: we really<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>
+feel that he takes a deep interest in his task, which makes it a
+privilege to walk under his guidance through the historic
+building, and into its famous crypt, so especially associated
+with Jasper and Durdles.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 475px;">
+<img src="images/i_141.png" width="475" height="355" alt="The Crypt, Rochester Cathedral." title="" />
+<span class="caption">The Crypt, Rochester Cathedral.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>We enter "by a small side door, .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. descend the rugged
+steps, and are down in the crypt." It is very spacious, and
+vaulted with stone. Even by daylight, here and there, "the
+heavy pillars which support the roof engender masses of
+black shade, but between them there are lanes of light," and
+we walk "up and down these lanes," being strangely reminded
+of Durdles as we notice fragments of old broken stone ornaments
+carefully laid out on boards in several places. Formerly
+there were altars to St. Mary and St. Catherine in the crypt
+or undercroft, but Mr. Wildish's local guide-book says:&mdash;"They<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span>
+seem not to have been much frequented; consequently these
+saints were not very profitable to the priests."</p>
+
+<p>We "go up the winding staircase of the great tower, toilsomely
+turning and turning, and lowering [our] heads to
+avoid the stairs above, or the rough stone pivot around which
+they twist." About ninety steps bring us on to the roof of
+the Cathedral over the choir, and then, keeping along a
+passage by the parapet, we reach the belfry, and from thence
+go on by ladder to the bell-chamber, which contains six bells&mdash;dark&mdash;very&mdash;long
+ladders&mdash;trap-doors&mdash;very heavy&mdash;almost
+extinguish us when lowering them&mdash;more ladders from bell-chamber
+to roof of tower. The parapet of the tower is very
+high; we can just see over it when standing on a narrow
+ledge near the top-coping of the leaded roof. There are a
+number of curious carved heads on the pinnacles of the tower,
+and the parapet, to our surprise, appears to be about the same
+height as the top of the Castle Keep. A panoramic view
+of Cloisterham presents itself to our view (alas! not by
+moonlight, as in the story), "its ruined habitations and sanctuaries
+of the dead at the tower's base; its moss-softened,
+red-tiled roofs and red-brick houses of the living, clustered
+beyond."</p>
+
+<p>We are anxious to go round the triforium, but there is no
+passage through the arches; it was closed, we are told, at the
+time of the restoration, about fifteen years ago, when the walls
+of the Cathedral were pinned for safety. The verger, on
+being asked, said he did not call to mind that Dickens ever
+went round the triforium or ascended the tower. If this is so,
+then much of the wonderful description of that "unaccountable
+sort of expedition," in the twelfth chapter of <i>Edwin
+Drood</i>, must have been written from imagination.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>As it is Sunday, and as the summer is nearly over, Mr.
+Miles, with a feeling akin to that which George Eliot has
+expressed regarding imperfect work:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">"but God be praised,</span><br />
+Antonio Stradivari has an eye<br />
+That winces at false work and loves the true,"&mdash;<br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='unindent'>apologetically explains that one-half the choir are absent on
+leave, and perhaps we shall not have the musical portion of
+the service conducted with that degree of efficiency which, as
+visitors, we may have expected. Nevertheless we attend the
+afternoon service; and Mendelssohn's glorious anthem, "If
+with all your hearts," appeals to us with enhanced effect, from
+the exquisite rendering of it by the gifted pure tenor who
+takes the solo, followed by the delicate harmonies of the
+choir, as the sound waves carry them upwards through and
+around the arches, and from the sublime emotions called
+into being by the impassioned appeal of the Hebrew prophet.</div>
+
+<p>We study "the fantastic carvings on the under brackets of
+the stall seats," and examine the lectern described as "the
+big brass eagle holding the sacred books upon his wings," and
+in imagination can almost call up the last scene described in
+<i>The Mystery of Edwin Drood</i>, where Her Royal Highness,
+the Princess Puffer, "grins," and "shakes both fists at the
+leader of the choir," and "Deputy peeps, sharp-eyed, through
+the bars, and stares astounded from the threatener to the
+threatened."</p>
+
+<p>Upon being interrogated as to whether he knew Charles
+Dickens, our guide immediately answers with a smile&mdash;"Knew
+him! yes. He came here very often, and I knew<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span>
+him very well. The fact is, they want to make me out to
+be 'Tope.'" And indeed there appears to be such a relevancy
+in the association, that we frequently find ourselves addressing
+him as "Mr. Tope," at which he good-humouredly laughs.
+He further states that Dickens was frequently in Rochester,
+and especially so when writing <i>Edwin Drood</i>, and appeared
+to be studying the Cathedral and its surroundings very
+attentively.</p>
+
+<p>The next question we put is:&mdash;"Was there ever such a
+person as Durdles?" to which he replies, "Of course there
+was,&mdash;a drunken old German stonemason, about thirty years
+ago, who was always prowling about the Cathedral trying to
+pick up little bits of broken stone ornaments, carved heads,
+crockets, finials, and such like, which he carried about in
+a cotton handkerchief, and which may have suggested to
+Dickens the idea of the 'slouching' Durdles and his inseparable
+dinner bundle. He used to work for a certain Squire
+N&mdash;&mdash;." His earnings mostly went to "The Fortune of
+War,"&mdash;now called "The Life-Boat,"&mdash;the inn where he
+lodged.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Miles does not remember the prototypes of any other
+"cathedraly" characters&mdash;Crisparkle and the rest&mdash;but he
+quite agrees with the general opinion previously referred to
+as to the origin of Mr. Sapsea. He considers "Deputy" (the
+imp-like satellite of Durdles and the "Kinfreederel") to be
+decidedly a street Arab, the type of which is more common
+in London than in Rochester. He thinks that the fact of
+the rooms over the gatehouse having once been occupied by
+an organ-blower of the Cathedral may have prompted Dickens
+to make it the residence of the choir-master. He also throws
+out the suggestion that the discovery in 1825 of the effigy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span>
+of Bishop John de Sheppey, who died in 1360, may possibly
+have given rise to the idea of the "old 'uns" in the crypt,
+the frequent object of Durdles's search, <i>e.g.</i> "Durdles come
+upon the old chap (in reference to a buried magnate of
+ancient time and high degree) by striking right into the coffin
+with his pick. The old chap gave Durdles a look with his
+open eyes as much as to say, 'Is your name Durdles? Why,
+my man, I've been waiting for you a Devil of a time!' and
+then he turned to powder. With a two-foot rule always in
+his pocket, and a mason's hammer all but always in his hand,
+Durdles goes continually sounding and tapping all about and
+about the Cathedral; and whenever he says to Tope, 'Tope,
+here's another old 'un in here!' Tope announces it to the
+Dean as an established discovery."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123"></a>
+<img src="images/i_146.png" width="600" height="415" alt="Minor Canon Row: Rochester" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>On the south side of the Cathedral is the curious little
+terrace of old-fashioned houses, about seven in number, called
+"Minor Canon Row"&mdash;"a wonderfully quaint row of red-brick
+tenements" (Dickens's name for it is "Minor Canon
+Corner"),&mdash;chiefly occupied by the officers and others attached
+to the Cathedral. Here it was that Mr. Crisparkle dwelt with
+his mother, and where the little party was held (after the
+dinner at which Mr. Luke Honeythunder, with his "Curse
+your souls and bodies&mdash;come here and be blessed" philanthropy,
+was present, and caused "a most doleful breakdown"),
+which included Miss Twinkleton, the Landlesses, Rosa Bud,
+and Edwin Drood, as shown in the illustration, "At the
+Piano." The Reverend Septimus Crisparkle's mother, who
+is the hostess (and celebrated for her wonderful closet with
+stores of pickles, jams, biscuits, and cordials), is beautifully
+described in the story:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"What is prettier than an old lady&mdash;except a young lady&mdash;when
+her eyes are bright, when her figure is trim and compact, when her
+face is cheerful and calm, when her dress is as the dress of a china
+shepherdess: so dainty in its colours, so individually assorted to
+herself, so neatly moulded on her? Nothing is prettier, thought
+the good Minor Canon frequently, when taking his seat at table
+opposite his long-widowed mother. Her thought at such times may
+be condensed into the two words that oftenest did duty together in
+all her conversations: 'My Sept.'"</p></div>
+
+<p>The backs of the houses have very pretty gardens, and,
+as evidence of the pleasant and healthy atmosphere of the
+locality, we notice beautiful specimens of the ilex, arbutus,
+euonymus, and fig, the last-named being in fruit. The
+wall-rue (<i>Asplenium ruta-muraria</i>) is found hereabout. There,
+too, is a Virginia creeper, but we do not observe one growing
+on the Cathedral walls, as described in <i>Edwin Drood</i>. Jackdaws
+fly about the tower, but there are no rooks, as also
+stated. Near Minor Canon Row, to the right of Boley Hill
+(or "Bully Hill," as it is sometimes called), is the "paved
+Quaker settlement," a sedate row of about a dozen houses
+"up in a shady corner."</p>
+
+<p>"Jasper's Gatehouse" of the work above mentioned is
+certainly an object of great interest to the lover of Dickens,
+as many of the remarkable scenes in <i>Edwin Drood</i> took
+place there. It is briefly described as "an old stone gatehouse
+crossing the Close, with an arched thoroughfare passing
+beneath it. Through its latticed window, a fire shines out
+upon the fast-darkening scene, involving in shadow the
+pendent masses of ivy and creeper covering the building's
+front." There are <i>three</i> Gatehouses near the Cathedral, a
+fact which proves somewhat embarrassing to those anxious
+to identify the original of that so carefully described in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span>
+the story. A short description of these may not be uninteresting.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="college" id="college"></a>
+<img src="images/i_148.png" width="500" height="529" alt="College Gate&mdash;(or Chertsey&#39;s Gate) Rochester." title="" />
+</div>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 449px;">
+<img src="images/i_149.png" width="449" height="500" alt="Prior&#39;s Gate: Rochester" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>(<span class="smcap">a</span>) "College Yard Gate," "Cemetery Gate," and "Chertsey's
+Gate," are the respective names of what we know as "Jasper's
+Gatehouse." It is a picturesque stone structure, weather-boarded
+above the massive archway, and abuts on the High
+Street about a hundred yards north of the Cathedral. Some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span>
+of the old houses near have recently been demolished, with
+the result that the Gatehouse now stands out in bold relief
+against the main thoroughfare of the city. No "pendent
+masses of ivy" or "creeper" cover it. The Gate was named
+"Chertsey" after Edward Chertsey, a gentleman who lived
+and owned property near in the time of Edward IV., and
+the Cathedral authorities still continue to use the old name,
+"Chertsey's Gate." The place was recently the residence of
+the under-porter of the Cathedral, and is now occupied by
+poor people. There are four rooms, two below and two above.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>(<span class="smcap">b</span>) "Prior's Gate" is a castellated stone structure partly
+covered with ivy, standing about a hundred yards south
+of the Cathedral, and is not now utilized in any way.
+There is only one room, approached by a winding staircase
+or "postern stair." The Gate was formerly used
+as a school for choristers, until the new building of the
+Choir School was opened in Minor Canon Row about three
+years ago.</p>
+
+<p>(<span class="smcap">c</span>) The "Deanery Gatehouse" is the name of a quaint
+and very cosy old house, having ten rooms, some of which,
+together with the staircase, are beautifully panelled; its
+position is a little higher up to the eastward of the College
+Yard Gate, and adjoining the Cathedral, while a gateway
+passage under it leads to the Deanery. The house was
+formerly the official residence of the Hon. and Reverend
+Canon Hotham, who was appointed a Canon in residence in
+1808, and lived here at intervals until about 1850, when the
+Canonry was suppressed. Of all the Gatehouses, this is the
+only one suitable for the residence of a person in Jasper's
+position, who was enabled to offer befitting hospitality to
+his nephew and Neville Landless. Formerly there was an
+entrance into the Cathedral from this house, which is now
+occupied by Mr. Day and his family, who kindly allowed us
+to inspect it. We were informed that locally it is sometimes
+called "Jasper's Gatehouse." The interior of the drawing-room
+on the upper floor presents a very strong resemblance
+to Mr. Luke Fildes's illustration, "On dangerous ground."
+Accordingly, to settle the question of identity, I wrote to
+Mr. Fildes, whose interesting and courteous reply to my
+inquiries is conclusive. Before giving it, however, I may
+mention that my fellow-tramp, Mr. Kitton, suggested, more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span>
+particularly with reference to another illustration in <i>Edwin
+Drood</i>, viz., "Durdles cautions Mr. Sapsea against boasting,"
+that, for the purposes of the story, the Prior's Gate is placed
+where the College Yard Gate actually stands.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/i_151.png" width="600" height="450" alt="Deanery Gate. Rochester" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<div class='right'>
+"<span class="smcap">11, Melbury Road, Kensington, W.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-right: 2em;">"<i>25th October, 1890.</i></span><br /></div>
+
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,</p>
+
+<p>"The background of the drawing of 'Durdles
+cautioning Sapsea,' I believe I sketched from what you call
+A., <i>i. e.</i> The College Gate. I am almost certain it was not
+taken from B., the Prior's.</p>
+
+<p>"The room in the drawing, 'On dangerous ground,' is
+imaginary.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I do not believe I entered any of the Gatehouses.</p>
+
+<p>"The resemblance you see in the drawing to the room
+in the Deanery Gatehouse (C.), might not be gained by
+actual observation of the <i>interior</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"In many instances an artist can well judge what the
+interior may be from studying the <i>outside</i>. I only throw
+this out to show that the artist may not have seen a thing
+even when a strong resemblance occurs. I am sorry to leave
+any doubt on the subject, though personally I feel none.</p>
+
+<p>"You see I never felt the necessity or propriety of being
+locally accurate to Rochester or its buildings. Dickens, of
+course, meant Rochester; yet, at the same time, he chose
+to be obscure on that point, and I took my cue from him.
+I always thought it was one of his most artistic pieces of
+work; the vague, dreamy description of the Cathedral in the
+opening chapter of the book. So definite in one sense, yet
+so locally vague.</p>
+
+<div class='sig'>
+<span style="margin-right: 2em;">"Very faithfully yours,</span><br />
+"<span class="smcap">Luke Fildes</span>.<br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='secsig'>
+"<span class="smcap">W. R. Hughes, Esq.</span>"<br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The College Yard Gate (<span class="smcap">a</span>) must therefore be regarded
+as the typical Jasper's Gatehouse, but, with the usual novelist's
+license, some points in all three Gatehouses have been
+utilized for effect. So we can imagine the three friends in
+succession going up the "postern stair;" and, further on in
+the story, we can picture that mysterious "single buffer, Dick
+Datchery, living on his means," as a lodger in the "venerable
+architectural and inconvenient" official dwelling of Mr. Tope,
+minutely described in the eighteenth chapter of <i>Edwin Drood</i>,
+as "communicating by an upper stair with Mr. Jasper's,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span>
+watching the unsuspecting Jasper as he goes to and from
+the Cathedral.</p>
+
+<p>Chapters twelve, fourteen, and twenty-three refer to
+Jasper's Gatehouse, and its proximity to the busy hum of
+human life, in very vivid terms, especially chapter twelve:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Among these secluded nooks there is little stir or movement
+after dark. There is little enough in the high tide of the day, but
+there is next to none at night. Besides that, the cheerfully frequented
+High Street lies nearly parallel to the spot (the old Cathedral rising
+between the two), and is the natural channel in which the Cloisterham
+traffic flows, a certain awful hush pervades the ancient pile, the
+cloisters, and the churchyard after dark, which not many people
+care to encounter.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. One might fancy that the tide of life was
+stemmed by Mr. Jasper's own Gatehouse. The murmur of the tide
+is heard beyond; but no wave passes the archway, over which his
+lamp burns red behind the curtain, as if the building were a
+Lighthouse.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.</p>
+
+<p>"The red light burns steadily all the evening in the Lighthouse on
+the margin of the tide of busy life. Softened sounds and hum of
+traffic pass it, and flow on irregularly into the lonely precincts; but
+very little else goes by save violent rushes of wind. It comes on to
+blow a boisterous gale.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. John Jasper's lamp is kindled, and his
+Lighthouse is shining, when Mr. Datchery returns alone towards it.
+As mariners on a dangerous voyage, approaching an iron-bound
+coast, may look along the beams of the warning light to the haven
+lying beyond it that may never be reached, so Mr. Datchery's wistful
+gaze is directed to this beacon and beyond.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;."</p></div>
+
+<p>The sensation of calm in passing suddenly out of the busy
+High Street of Rochester into the subdued precincts of the
+Cathedral, as above described, is very marked and peculiar,
+and must be experienced to be realized.</p>
+
+<p>Among the many interesting ancient buildings in "the
+lonely precincts" may be mentioned the old Episcopal Palace
+of the Bishops of Rochester. My friend Mr. George Payne,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>
+F.S.A., Hon. Sec. of the Kent Arch&aelig;ological Society, who now
+lives there, writes me that:&mdash;"it is impossible to say when it
+was first built, but it was rebuilt <i>circa</i> 1200, the Palace which
+preceded it having been destroyed by fire. Bishop Fisher
+was appointed to the See in 1504, and mainly resided at
+Rochester. The learned prelate here entertained the great
+Erasmus in 1516, and Cardinal Wolsey in 1527. In 1534
+Bishop Fisher left Rochester never to return, being beheaded
+on Tower Hill, June 22nd, 1535. The front of the Palace has
+been coated with rough plaster work dusted over with broken
+tile, but the rear walls are in their original state, being wholly
+composed of rag, tufa, and here and there Roman tiles. The
+cellars are of the most massive construction, and many of the
+rooms are panelled."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/i_154.png" width="550" height="372" alt="The Vines and Restoration House" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>The Monks' Vineyard of <i>Edwin Drood</i> exists as "The
+Vines," and is one of the "lungs" of Rochester, belonging to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span>
+the Dean and Chapter, by whom it is liberally leased to the
+Corporation for a nominal consideration. It was a vineyard,
+or garden, in the days of the monks, and is now a fine open
+space, planted with trees, and has good walks and well-trimmed
+lawns and borders. Remains of the wall of the city,
+or abbey, previous to the Cathedral, constitute the northern
+boundary of "The Vines." There are commodious seats for
+the public, and it was doubtless on one of these, as represented
+in the illustration <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'entited'">entitled</ins> "Under the Trees," that Edwin
+Drood and Rosa sat, during that memorable discussion of
+their position and prospects, which began so childlike and
+ended so sadly. "'Can't you see a happy Future?' For
+certain, neither of them sees a happy Present, as the gate
+opens and closes, and one goes in and the other goes away."
+A fine clump of old elms (seven in number), called "The
+Seven Sisters," stands at the east end of the Vines, nearly
+opposite Restoration House, and it was under these trees
+that the conversation took place.</p>
+
+<p>So curiously exact at times does the description fit in with
+the places, that we notice opposite Eastgate House the
+"Lumps of Delight Shop," to which it will be remembered
+that after the discussion Rosa Bud directed Edwin Drood to
+take her.</p>
+
+<p>Dickens's last visit to Rochester was on Monday, 6th June,
+1870, when he walked over from Gad's Hill Place with his
+dogs; and he appears to have been noticed by several persons
+in the Vines, and particularly by Mr. John Sweet, as he stood
+leaning against the wooden palings near Restoration House,
+contemplating the beautiful old Manor House. These palings
+have since been removed, and an iron fence substituted. The
+object of this visit subsequently became apparent, when it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span>
+was found that, in those pages of <i>Edwin Drood</i> written a few
+hours before his death, Datchery and the Princess Puffer held
+that memorable conference there. "They have arrived at the
+entrance to the Monks' Vineyard; an appropriate remembrance,
+presenting an exemplary model for imitation, is
+revived in the woman's mind by the sight of the place," in
+allusion of course to a present of "three shillings and sixpence"
+which Edwin Drood gave her Royal Highness on a previous
+occasion to buy opium.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133"></a>
+<img src="images/i_156.png" width="600" height="388" alt="Restoration House, Rochester, as it appeared in Dickens&#39;s time. (From a sketch by an Amateur.)" title="" />
+<span class="caption">Restoration House, Rochester, as it appeared in Dickens&#39;s time. (From a sketch by an Amateur.)</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The extensive promenade called the Esplanade (where
+in 1889 we saw the Regatta in which, after a series of annual
+defeats, Rochester maintained its supremacy), on the east
+side of the river Medway, under the Castle walls, pleasantly
+approached from the Cathedral Close, is memorable as having
+been the spot described in the thirteenth chapter where
+Edwin and Rosa met for the last time, and mutually agreed
+to terminate their unfortunate and ill-assorted engagement.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"They walked on by the river. They began to speak of their
+separate plans. He would quicken his departure from England, and
+she would remain where she was, at least as long as Helena remained.
+The poor dear girls should have their disappointment broken to them
+gently, and, as the first preliminary, Miss Twinkleton should be
+confided in by Rosa, even in advance of the reappearance of Mr.
+Grewgious. It should be made clear in all quarters that she and
+Edwin were the best of friends. There had never been so serene an
+understanding between them since they were first affianced."</p></div>
+
+<p>We are anxious to identify Cloisterham Weir, frequently
+mentioned in <i>Edwin Drood</i>, but more particularly as being
+the place where Minor Canon Crisparkle found Edwin's watch
+and shirt-pin. The Weir, we are told in the novel, "is full
+two miles above the spot to which the young men [Edwin<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span>
+and Neville] had repaired [presumably the Esplanade] to
+watch the storm." There is, however, no Weir nearer than
+Allington, at which place the tide of the Medway stops, and
+Allington is a considerable distance from Rochester, probably
+seven or eight miles. How well the good Minor Canon's
+propensity for "perpetually pitching himself headforemost into
+all the deep water in the surrounding country," and his "pilgrimages
+to Cloisterham Weir in the cold rimy mornings,"
+are brought into requisition to enable him to obtain the watch
+and pin.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"He threw off his clothes, he plunged into the icy water, and
+swam for the spot&mdash;a corner of the Weir&mdash;where something glistened
+which did not move and come over with the glistening water drops,
+but remained stationary.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. He brought the watch to the bank,
+swam to the Weir again, climbed it, and dived off. He knew
+every hole and corner of all the depths, and dived and dived and
+dived, until he could bear the cold no more. His notion was that he
+would find the body; he only found a shirt-pin sticking in some mud
+and ooze."</p></div>
+
+<p>Our failure to identify Cloisterham Weir exhibits another
+instance where, for the purposes of the story, an imaginary
+place is introduced. To Mr. William Ball is due the credit
+for subsequently suggesting that Snodland Brook and Snodland
+Weir may have possibly been in Dickens's mind in
+originating Cloisterham Weir; so we tramped over to inspect
+them. Near the village, the brook (or river, for it is
+of respectable width) is turbid and shallow, but higher up&mdash;a
+mile or so&mdash;we found it clearer and deeper, and we heard
+from some labourers, whom we saw regaling themselves by the
+side of a hayrick, that a local gentleman had some years ago
+been in the habit of bathing in the stream all the year round.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/i_159.png" width="550" height="414" alt="St. Nicholas&#39; Burying Ground" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>The ancient Church of St. Nicholas (1423) is on the north
+side of the Cathedral. In front of it is a narrow strip of ground,
+enclosed with iron railings, formerly the burial-ground of the
+Church, but now disused, referred to in <i>Edwin Drood</i> as "a
+fragment of a burial-ground in which an unhappy sheep was
+grazing." In this enclosure, which is neatly kept, there
+are a weeping willow at each end, and in the centre an
+exquisite specimen of the catalpa tree (<i>Catalpa syringifolia</i>),
+the floral ornament of the Cathedral precincts. At the
+time of our visit it is in perfect condition, the large cordate
+bright green leaves, and the massive trusses of labiate flowers
+of white, yellow, and purple colours (not unlike those of the
+<i>Impatiens noli-me-tangere</i> balsam, only handsomer) are worth
+walking miles to see. It is a North American plant, and in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span>
+its native country sometimes grows to a height of forty feet.
+The specimen here described is about twenty feet high, and
+was planted about fifteen years ago.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p>
+
+<p>On the opposite side of the way is the old cemetery of St.
+Nicholas' Church, originally part of the Castle moat, but which
+was converted to its present purpose about half a century ago.
+This quiet resting-place of the dead has intense interest for the
+lover of Dickens, as it was here that he desired to be buried;
+and his family would certainly have carried his wishes into
+effect, but that the place had been closed for years and no
+further interments were allowed. Pending other arrangements
+at Shorne, an admirable suggestion was made in the <i>Times</i>,
+which speedily found favour with the nation in its great
+affection for him, namely, that he should rest in Westminster
+Abbey; and, the Dean of Westminster promptly and wisely
+responding to the suggestion, it was at once carried into effect.</p>
+
+<p>As we pause, and look again and again at the sheltered
+nook in the old cemetery sanctified by his memory, and
+adorned by rich evergreens and other trees, among which the
+weeping willow and the almond are conspicuous, we quite
+understand and sympathize with Dickens's love for such a
+calm and secluded spot.</p>
+
+<p>The Dean and Chapter of Rochester, it will be recollected,
+were anxious that the great novelist's remains should be
+placed in or near their Cathedral, and that wish might have
+been gratified, except, as just explained, that the public
+decreed otherwise. However, they sanctioned the erection,
+by the executors, of a brass, which enriches the wall of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span>
+south transept of the edifice, and which has the following
+inscription:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/i_161.png" width="550" height="148" alt="Charles Dickens Plaque" title="" />
+</div>
+
+
+<p>The unfinished novel of <i>Edwin Drood</i>, which, as we have
+seen, is so inseparably connected with Rochester Cathedral,
+has been <i>finished</i> by at least half a dozen authors, probably to
+their own satisfaction; but it is a hard matter to the reader
+to struggle through any one of them. However, there is a
+little <i>brochure</i> in this direction which we feel may here be
+appropriately noticed. It is called, <i>Watched by the Dead:
+A Loving Study of Charles Dickens's half-told Tale</i>, 1887, and
+was written by R. A. Proctor, F.R.A.S., the Astronomer,
+whose untimely death from fever in America was announced
+after our return from our week's tramp. The author had
+evidently studied the matter both lovingly and attentively,
+and starts with the assumption that it is an example of what
+he calls "Dickens's favourite theme," which more than any
+other had a fascination for him, and was apparently regarded
+by him as likely to be most potent in its influence on others.
+It was that of "a wrong-doer watched at every turn by one
+of whom he has no suspicion, for whom he even entertains a
+feeling of contempt," and Mr. Proctor has certainly evolved a
+very suggestive and not improbable conclusion to the story.
+Instances of Dickens's favourite theme are adduced from
+<i>Barnaby Rudge</i>, where Haredale, unsuspected, steadily waits<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span>
+and watches for Rudge, till, after more than twenty years,
+"At last! at last!" he cries, as he captures his brother's
+murderer on the very spot where the murder had been committed;
+from <i>The Old Curiosity Shop</i>, where Sampson and
+Sally Brass are watched by the Marchioness&mdash;their powerless
+victim as they supposed, and by whom their detection is
+brought about; from <i>Nicholas Nickleby</i>, where Ralph Nickleby
+is watched by Brooker; and from <i>Dombey and Son</i>, where
+Dombey is watched by Carker, and he in turn is watched by
+good Mrs. Brown and her unhappy daughter. Instances of
+this kind also appear in <i>David Copperfield</i>, <i>Bleak House</i>,
+and <i>Little Dorrit</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Reasoning from similar data, Mr. Proctor concludes that
+Jasper was watched by Edwin Drood in the person of
+Datchery, and thus he was to have been tracked remorselessly
+"to his death by the man whom he supposed he had
+slain." The <i>d&eacute;nouement</i> as regards the other characters seems
+also not improbable. Rosa Bud was to have married Lieutenant
+Tartar, and Crisparkle, Helena Landless. Neville was
+to have died, but not before he had learned to understand the
+change which Edwin's character had undergone. As to
+Edwin Drood himself, "purified by trial, strengthened though
+saddened by his love for Rosa," Edwin would have been one
+of those characters Dickens loved to draw&mdash;a character
+entirely changed from a once careless, almost trivial self, to
+depth and earnestness. "All were to join in changing the
+ways of dear old Grewgious from the sadness and loneliness
+of the earlier scenes" in the story, "to the warmth and light
+of that kindly domestic life for which, angular though he
+thought himself, his true and genial nature fitted him so
+thoroughly." This attempt to solve <i>The Mystery of Edwin<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span>
+Drood</i> will amply repay perusal. It was probably one of the
+last works of this very able and versatile author.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>It is right to state that Mr. Luke Fildes, R.A., the
+illustrator of <i>The Mystery of Edwin Drood</i>, with whom we
+have had the pleasure of an interview, entirely rejects this
+theory. He does not favour the idea that Datchery is Edwin
+Drood; his opinion is that the ingenuous and kind-hearted
+Edwin, had he been living, would never have allowed his
+friend Neville to continue so long under the grave suspicion
+of murder. Nay more: he is convinced that Dickens intended
+that Edwin Drood should be killed by his uncle; and
+this opinion is supported by the fact of the introduction of
+a "large black scarf of strong close-woven silk," which
+Jasper wears for the first time in the fourteenth chapter of the
+story, and which was likely to have been the means of death,
+<i>i. e.</i> by strangulation. Mr. Fildes said that Dickens seemed
+much surprised when he called his attention to this change of
+dress&mdash;very noticeable and embarrassing to an artist who had
+studied the character&mdash;and appeared as though he had unintentionally
+disclosed the secret. He further stated that it
+was Dickens's intention to take him to a condemned cell in
+Maidstone or some other gaol, in order "that he might make
+a drawing," "and," said Dickens, "do something better than
+Cruikshank;" in allusion, of course, to the famous drawing
+of "Fagin in the condemned cell." "Surely this," remarked
+our informant, "points to our witnessing the condemned
+culprit Jasper in his cell before he met his fate."<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p>
+
+<p>Mr. Fildes spoke with enthusiasm of the very great kindness<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span>
+and consideration which he received from Dickens, and the
+pains he took to introduce his young friend to the visitors at
+Gad's Hill, and in London at Hyde Park Place, who were his
+seniors. He was under an engagement to visit Dickens,&mdash;had
+his portmanteau packed in fact, almost ready to start on his
+journey&mdash;when he saw to his amazement the announcement
+of his death in the newspapers&mdash;and it was a very great shock
+to him. Not long afterwards, Mr. Fildes said, the family,
+with much kind thoughtfulness, renewed the invitation to him
+to stay a few days at Gad's Hill Place, and during that time
+he made the imperishable drawing of "The Empty Chair."</p>
+
+<p>Bearing in mind the above circumstances coming from so
+high an authority, a missing link has been supplied, but&mdash;<i>The
+Mystery of Edwin Drood</i> is still unsolved!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+
+<h3>RICHARD WATTS'S CHARITY, ROCHESTER.</h3>
+
+<div class="hang2">"Strictly speaking, there were only <i>six</i> Poor Travellers; but being a
+Traveller myself, though an idle one, and being withal as poor as I
+hope to be, I brought the number up to seven.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. I, for one, am
+so divided this night between fact and fiction, that I scarce know
+which is which."&mdash;<i>The Seven Poor Travellers.</i></div>
+
+
+<div class='unindent'><span class="smcap">The</span> most unique Charity ever described in fiction, or
+founded on fact, well deserves a few pages to be devoted
+to a record of its interesting history and present position.
+We therefore occupy a short time in examining it on
+Thursday morning, before our visit to the Marshes.</div>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 381px;">
+<img src="images/i_166.png" width="381" height="550" alt="The &quot;Six Poor Travellers&quot;" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>Except for <i>The Seven Poor Travellers</i>, which was the title
+of the Christmas Number of <i>Household Words</i> issued in
+1854, it is possible that few beyond "the ancient city" would
+ever have heard, or indeed have cared to hear, anything about
+the Worshipful Master Richard Watts or his famous Charity;
+now, as all the world knows, it is a veritable "household
+word" to readers and admirers of Dickens. In the narrative,
+he, as the first Traveller, is supposed to have visited Rochester,
+and passed the evening with the six Poor Travellers, and
+thus to have made the seventh. After hearing the story of
+the Charity "from the decent body of a wholesome matronly
+presence" (this was Mrs. Cackett, a former matron, who is said<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span>
+to have been very much astonished at her appearance in the
+drama of <i>The Seven Poor Travellers</i>, which she subsequently
+witnessed at the Rochester Theatre), he obtains permission
+to treat the Travellers to a hot supper. The inn at which the
+first Traveller stayed was doubtless our old acquaintance, the
+Bull, "where the window of his adjoining bedroom looked
+down into the Inn yard, just where the lights of the kitchen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span>
+redden a massive fragment of the Castle wall." Here was
+brewed the "wassail" contained in the "brown beauty," the
+"turkey" and "beef" roasted, and the "plum-pudding"
+boiled. As Mr. Robert Langton says, "the account of the
+treat to the poor Travellers is of course wholly fictitious,
+although it is accepted as sober truth by many people, both
+in Rochester and elsewhere."</p>
+
+<p>It is not our purpose to criticize the seven pretty stories
+which make up this Christmas Number, part of the first of
+which only relates to Watts's Charity; but we will venture
+to affirm that the concluding portion of that story, referring
+to "Richard Doubledick," "who was a Poor Traveller with
+not a farthing in his pocket, and who came limping down
+on foot to this town of Chatham," is one of the most touching
+instances of Christian forgiveness ever recorded, and hardened
+indeed must he be who reads it with dry eyes.</p>
+
+<p>To what extent Dickens himself was affected by this beautiful
+tale, is shown by the following extract from a letter
+addressed by him, on 22nd December, 1854, to the late
+Mr. Arthur Ryland, formerly Mayor of Birmingham, now
+treasured by his widow, Mrs. Arthur Ryland, who kindly
+allowed a copy to be taken:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"What you write with so much heartiness of my first Poor
+Traveller is quite delightful to me. The idea of that little
+story obtained such strong possession of me when it came
+into my head, that it cost me more time and tears than most
+people would consider likely. The response it meets with is
+payment for anything."</p>
+
+<p>It is also interesting to record that many years afterwards
+Mr. Ryland read this story at one of the Christmas gatherings
+of the Birmingham and Midland Institute, and subsequently<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>
+received from an unknown correspondent&mdash;Sergeant A&mdash;&mdash;,
+of the 106th Light Infantry, then stationed at Umballa, East
+Indies, who had noticed an account of the reading in a newspaper&mdash;a
+letter under date of 15th July, 1870, asking to be
+favoured with a copy of the story; "for," said the writer,
+"we have just started a Penny Reading Society (if I may
+call it so), and I'm sure that story would be the means of
+reclaiming many men from their vices&mdash;I mean drinking and
+low company." The story was of course sent, and Mr.
+Ryland subsequently communicated the circumstances to the
+present Mr. Charles Dickens, who replied&mdash;"I wish my dear
+father could have seen the sergeant's letter; it would have
+pleased him, I am sure."</p>
+
+<p>As we proceed along the High Street, on the north side
+towards Chatham, a walk of only a few yards from the Bull
+brings us to a curious Tudor stone-built house of two stories,
+with latticed windows and three-pointed gables. Under a
+lamp in the centre, which is over the "quaint old door"&mdash;the
+door-sill itself being (as is usual with some old houses) a
+little below the street, so that we drop by a step or two
+into the entrance-hall&mdash;is a tablet containing the following
+inscription:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='center'>
+(CENTRE.)<br />
+<span class="smcap">Richard Watts, Esquire</span>,<br />
+by his Will dated 22nd August, 1579,<br />
+founded this Charity<br />
+for Six Poor Travellers,<br />
+who, not being Rogues or Proctors,<br />
+May receive gratis for one Night<br />
+Lodging, Entertainment,<br />
+and Fourpence each.<br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span></div>
+
+<p>"In testimony of his munificence, in honour of his memory,
+and inducement to his example, the Charitable Trustees of
+this City and Borough have caused this stone to be renewed
+and inscribed, <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1865."</p>
+
+<p>And on the left and right-hand sides respectively of the
+preceding appear smaller tablets, with the following inscriptions:&mdash;</p>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align='center'>(LEFT.)<br />
+<br />
+The Charitable Trustees<br />
+of this City and<br />
+Borough appointed<br />
+by the Lord High<br />
+Chancellor,<br />
+16 December, 1836,<br />
+are to see<br />
+this Charity<br />
+executed.<br /></td><td align='center'>(RIGHT.)<br />
+<br />
+Pagitt <img src="images/i_169.png" width="50" height="40" alt="Arms" title="" />
+ Somers<br />
+Thomas Pagitt,<br />
+second husband of<br />
+Mary, Daughter of<br />
+Thomas Somers<br />
+of Halstow,<br />
+Widow of Richard Watts,<br />
+Deceased <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1599.<br />
+</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<p>We enter the old-fashioned little parlour, or office, on the
+left-hand side, "warm in winter and cool in summer. It has
+a look of homely welcome and soothing rest. It has a
+remarkably cosy fireside, the very blink of which, gleaming
+out into the street upon a winter's night, is enough to warm
+all Rochester's heart." The matron receives us politely, and
+shows us two large books of foolscap size with ruled columns,
+one of these containing a record of the visitors to the Charity,
+and the other a list of the recipients thereof. A little
+pleasantry is caused by one of us entering his name in the
+wrong book, but this mistake is promptly rectified by the
+matron, who informs us that we are scarcely objects for relief<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span>
+as "Poor Travellers." She then kindly repeats to us the two
+legends respecting the origin of the Charity, the first of which
+is tolerably well known, but the other is less familiar. Before
+recording these, it may be well to give an extract from the
+will of Master Richard Watts (a very curious and lengthy
+document), which was industriously hunted up by the late
+Mr. Charles Bullard, author of the <i>Romance of Rochester</i>,
+and by him contributed to the <i>Rochester and Chatham
+Journal</i>, of which it fills a whole column.</p>
+
+<p>The will (dated, as previously stated, August 22nd, 1579)
+directs, <i>inter alia</i>, that "First the Alms-house already erected
+and standing beside the Markett Crosse, within the Citty of
+Rochester aforesaid, which Almshouses my Will Purpose
+and Desire is that there be reedified added and provided
+with such Roomes as be there already provided Six Severall
+Roomes with Chimneys for the Comfort placeing and abideing
+of the Poore within the said Citty, and alsoe to be made
+apt and convenient places therein for Six good Matrices or
+Flock Bedds and other good and sufficient Furniture to
+harbour or lodge in poore Travellers or Wayfareing Men
+being noe Common Rogues nor Proctors, and they the said
+Wayfareing Men to harbour and lodge therein noe longer
+than one Night unlesse Sickness be the farther Cause thereof
+and those poore Folkes there dwelling shall keepe the House
+sweete make the Bedds see to the Furniture keepe the same
+sweete and courteously intreate the said poore Travellers
+and to every of the said poore Travellers att their first comeing
+in to have fourpence and they shall warme them at the
+Fire of the Residents within the said House if Need be."</p>
+
+<p>The reason for the exception in the testator's will as
+regards rogues is sufficiently obvious, and therefore all the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span>
+point of this singular bequest lies in the word "Proctors."
+Who were they? One of the legends has it that the obsolete
+word "Proctors" referred to certain sturdy mendicants who
+swarmed in the south of England, and went about extracting
+money from the charitable public under the pretence of
+collecting "Peter's Pence" for the Pope; or, as the compiler
+of Murray's <i>Handbook to the County of Kent</i> suggests, "were
+probably the bearers of licences to collect alms for hospitals,"
+etc. Possibly the worthy Master Richard Watts
+objected to the levying of this blackmail; or he may in his
+walks have been subjected to the proctors' importunities, and
+consequently in his will rigorously debarred them in all
+futurity from any share in his Charity.</p>
+
+<p>The other legend is that Master Watts, being grievously
+sick and sore to die, sent for his lawyer, who in those days
+acted as proctor as well,&mdash;Steerforth in <i>David Copperfield</i>
+calls the proctor "a monkish kind of attorney,"&mdash;and bade
+him prepare his will according to certain instructions. The
+will was made, but not in the manner directed, and subsequently,
+on the testator regaining his health, he discovered
+the fraud which the crafty lawyer or proctor had tried to
+perpetrate&mdash;which was, in fact, to make himself the sole
+legatee. In his just indignation he made another will, and
+in it for ever excluded the fraternity of proctors from benefiting
+thereby. The reader is at liberty to accept whichever
+of the two legends he chooses. It is right to say that Mr.
+Roach Smith utterly rejects the second story. He says
+proctors were simply rogues, although some of them may
+have been licensed.</p>
+
+<p>The following is a foot-note to Fisher's <i>History and
+Antiquities of Rochester and its Environs</i>, MDCCLXXII.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149"></a>
+<img src="images/i_172.png" width="600" height="421" alt="Watts&#39; Almshouses: Rochester" title="" />
+</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It is generally thought that the reason of Mr. Watts's
+excluding proctors from the benefit of the Charity, was that
+a proctor had been employed to make his will, whereby he
+had given all the estates to himself; but I am inclined to
+believe that the word proctor is derived from procurator, who
+was an itinerant priest, and had dispensations from the Pope
+to absolve the subjects of this realm from the oath of allegiance
+to Queen Elizabeth, in whose reign there were many
+such priests."</p>
+
+<p>When the identity of Miss Adelaide Anne Procter, the
+gifted author of the pure and pathetic <i>Legends and Lyrics</i>
+(who had been an anonymous contributor to <i>Household
+Words</i> for some time under the <i>nom de plume</i> of "Mary
+Berwick"), became known to Charles Dickens, he sent her a
+charming and kindly letter of congratulation and appreciation,
+dated 17th December, 1854 (just at the time that the
+Christmas stories of the <i>Seven Poor Travellers</i> were published),
+which thus concludes:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You have given me so much pleasure, and have made
+me shed so many tears, that I can only think of you now in
+association with the sentiment and grace of your verses.
+Pray accept the blessing and forgiveness of Richard Watts,
+<i>though I am afraid you come under both his conditions of
+exclusion</i>."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="signatures" id="signatures"></a>
+<img src="images/i_174.png" width="400" height="345" alt="Signatures: Charles Dickens and Mark Lemon" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>We are informed that the original bequest of the testator
+was only &pound;36 16<i>s.</i> 8<i>d.</i> per annum, being the rent of land;
+but now, owing to the improved letting of the land, for
+building and other purposes, the Revenues of the Charity are
+upwards of &pound;4,000 per annum. The "fourpence" of the
+foundation would be equal to some three shillings and fourpence
+of our money. The trustees, about sixteen in number,&mdash;one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span>
+of whom has filled the office for fifty years&mdash;have
+very wisely and prudently obtained an extension of their
+powers; and the Court of Chancery have twice (in 1855
+and 1886) sanctioned schemes for the administration of the
+funds, which have largely benefited Rochester in many ways.
+As witness of this, there are a series of excellent almshouses
+on the Maidstone Road (which cost about &pound;6,000), with
+appropriate entrance-gates and gardens, endowed for the
+support and maintenance of townsmen and townswomen.
+We subsequently go into several of the rooms, all beautifully
+clean, and in most cases tastefully decorated by the inmates
+with a few pictures, prints, and flowers, and find that the
+present occupants are ten almsmen and six women. We
+have a chat with one of the almsmen,&mdash;a hearty old man,
+once the beadle of St. Margaret's Church,&mdash;who rejoices in
+the name of Peter Weller, and whom we find to be well
+up in his <i>Pickwick</i>. There are a resident head-nurse and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span>
+three other resident nurses in the establishment, who occasionally
+go out to nurse the sick in the city. In addition to
+these almshouses, a handsome new hospital has been erected
+in the New Road, and partly endowed (&pound;1,000 a year) out
+of the funds. Contributions are also made annually from
+the same source towards the support of the Public Baths,
+and for apprenticing deserving lads. Such is the development
+of this remarkable Charity.</p>
+
+<p>The matron calls our attention to many interesting names
+in the Visitors' book. Under date of the 11th May, 1854, are
+the signatures, in good bold writing, of Charles Dickens and
+Mark Lemon; and in subsequent entries, extending over
+many years, appear the names of Wilkie Collins, W. H. Wills,
+W. G. Wills, Walter Besant, Thomas Adolphus Trollope,
+J. Henry Shorthouse, Augustus J. C. Hare, and other well-known
+<i>litt&eacute;rateurs</i>. As usual, there are also numerous names
+of Americans, including those of Miss Mary Anderson and
+party.</p>
+
+<p>There are many curious remarks recorded in this book,
+such as an entry dated 26th June, 1857, which says:&mdash;"Tossed
+by, and out of the Bull with a crumpled horn, as no
+one would lend me five shillings, therefore obliged to solicit
+the benefit of this excellent charity." There is an admirable
+testimony in Latin, by the late Bishop of Lincoln, Dr.
+Wordsworth, to the usefulness of the institution, which, dated
+23rd August, 1883, is as follows:&mdash;"<i>Esto perpetua obstantibus
+Caritatis Commissionariis.</i>" His Lordship's remark was
+probably in allusion to the fact that the Charity Commissioners
+were (as we were afterwards informed) inclined,
+some time ago, to abolish the Charity, but this proceeding
+was stoutly and successfully resisted by the trustees. But<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span>
+the most gratifying records which we see in the book consist
+of several entries by recipients of the Charity themselves, who
+have subsequently come again after prosperous times in the
+capacity of visitors, and thus testified to the benefits received.
+Here is one:&mdash;"Having once enjoyed the Charity, I wish it
+a long life."</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 387px;">
+<img src="images/i_176.png" width="387" height="500" alt="The &quot;Six Poor Travellers&quot; from the Rear" title="" />
+</div>
+
+
+
+<p>A clerk has the responsibility of making a careful selection
+of six from the number of applicants, and this appears to be
+no light task, inasmuch as the "prescribed number of Poor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span>
+Travellers are forthcoming every night from year's end to
+year's end," and sometimes amount to fifty in a day. In
+selecting the persons to be admitted, care is taken that,
+unless under special circumstances, the same person be not
+admitted for more than one night, and in no case for more
+than two consecutive nights. A glance over the register
+shows that the names include almost all trades and occupa<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span>tions;
+and, as regards the fact of a great many coming from
+Kentish towns, Dartford, Greenwich, Canterbury, Maidstone,
+etc., we are informed, in reply to our enquiry, that this is no
+criterion of the real residence, because the place where the
+traveller last lodged is always entered. The matron told us
+a story of a clever attempt to obtain admission by a Poor
+Traveller "with a tin whistle and very gentlemanly hands,"
+who subsequently turned out to be a reporter from the
+<i>Echo</i>, in which paper there afterwards appeared an account
+of the Charity, called <i>On Tramp by an Amateur</i>.</p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 475px;"><a name="gallery" id="gallery"></a>
+<img src="images/i_177.png" width="475" height="534" alt="A Dormitory in the &quot;Six Poor Travellers&quot; and Gallery Leading to the Dormitories" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>We are shown over the premises&mdash;scrupulously neat and
+clean&mdash;and observe that there are excellent lavatories with
+foot-pans, and a pair of slippers provided for each recipient.
+We afterwards see the six Poor Travellers who have had their
+supper, and are comfortably smoking their pipes in a snug
+room, and we have a pleasant and interesting chat with them.
+They are much above the condition of ordinary tramps, and
+are lodged in six separate bedrooms, or "dormitories" which
+open out of a gallery at the back part of the building,
+a very curious structure, remaining just as it was in the
+days of Queen Elizabeth. For supper, each man is allowed
+half a pound of cooked meat, a pound of bread, and half-a-pint
+of porter, and receives fourpence in money on leaving.
+It is right to state that we heard complaints in the city
+relating to the evil effects of a number of poor travellers
+being attracted to the Charity daily, when but a few can
+obtain relief.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="satis" id="satis"></a>
+<img src="images/i_179.png" width="450" height="299" alt="Satis House." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Satis House.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Respecting the Worshipful Master Richard Watts himself
+very little is known, except that he was appointed by Queen
+Elizabeth in 1560 to be the surveyor and clerk of the works
+for the building of Upnor Castle; that he was paymaster to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span>
+the Wardens of Rochester Bridge for some years previously;
+that he was recorder of Rochester, and represented the city
+in Parliament from 1563 to 1571, and that he resided at
+"Satis House," which stood on the site of the modern residence
+bearing the same name, now occupied by Mrs. Booth,
+a little to the south of the Cathedral, but which must not,
+however, be confounded with the Satis House of <i>Great
+Expectations</i>, this latter, as has been previously explained,
+being identical with Restoration House, in Crow Lane.
+When Queen Elizabeth visited Rochester in 1573, Watts
+had the honour of entertaining Her Majesty there, on the last
+day of her residence in "the ancient city"; and to his expressions
+of regret at having no better accommodation to
+offer, the Queen was pleased generously to reply, "Satis," by
+which name the house has ever since been known. Estella,
+in <i>Great Expectations</i>, gives another view of the origin of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span>
+name. She says:&mdash;"Its other name was Satis; which is
+Greek, or Latin, or Hebrew, or all three&mdash;or all one to me&mdash;for
+enough: but it meant more than it said. It meant,
+when it was given, that whoever had this house, could want
+nothing else. They must have been easily satisfied in those
+days, I should think." Archbishop Longley was born there
+in 1794.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 168px;">
+<img src="images/i_180.png" width="168" height="400" alt="Watts&#39;s Monument in Rochester Cathedral. Over the Memorial Brass of Charles Dickens." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Watts&#39;s Monument in Rochester Cathedral.<br />
+Over the Memorial Brass of Charles Dickens.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>There is a monument to the proctor-hating philanthropist
+on the wall of the south transept of the Cathedral over the
+brass to Charles Dickens, surmounted by a very curious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span>
+painted marble half-figure effigy with flowing beard, of
+"worthy Master Richard starting out of it, like a ship's figurehead."
+Underneath is the following epitaph:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='center'>
+Sacred to the Memory of<br />
+<b>Richard Watts, Esq.</b>,<br />
+a principal Benefactor to this City,<br />
+who departed this life Sept. 10, 1579, at<br />
+his Mansion house on Bully Hill, called <span class="smcap">Satis</span><br />
+(so named by <span class="smcap">Q. Elizabeth</span> of glorious memory),<br />
+and lies interr'd near this place, as by his Will doth<br />
+plainly appear. By which Will, dated Aug. 22, and<br />
+proved Sep. 25, 1579, he founded an Almshouse<br />
+for the relief of poor people and for the reception<br />
+of six poor Travelers every night, and for<br />
+imploying the poor of this City.<br />
+<br />
+<big>*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</big><br />
+<br />
+The Mayor and Citizens of this City,<br />
+in testimony of their Gratitude and his Merit,<br />
+have erected this Monument, <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1736.<br />
+<span class="smcap">Richard Watts, Esq.</span>,<br />
+then Mayor.<br />
+</div>
+
+<p>Over and over again, in the various roads and lanes which
+we traverse, in the county famous for "apples, cherries, hops,
+and women," we have ample opportunities of verifying the
+experience of Dickens, and indeed of many other observers
+(including David Copperfield, who met numbers of "ferocious-looking
+ruffians"), as to the prevalence of tramps, not all of
+whom appear eligible as recipients of Watts's Charity! Our
+fraternity seems to be ubiquitous, and had we the purse
+of Fortunatus, it would hardly suffice to satisfy their requirements.
+What a wonderfully thoughtful, descriptive, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span>
+exhaustive chapter is that on "Tramps" in <i>The Uncommercial
+Traveller!</i> We believe Rochester and Strood Hill must
+have been in Dickens's mind when he penned it. Every
+species and every variety of tramp is herein described,&mdash;The
+surly Tramp, The slinking Tramp, The well-spoken
+young-man Tramp, The John Anderson Tramp, Squire
+Pouncerby's Tramp, The show Tramp, The educated Tramp,
+The tramping Soldier, The tramping Sailor, The Tramp
+handicraft man, Clock-mending Tramps, Harvest Tramps,
+Hopping Tramps and Spectator Tramps&mdash;but perhaps the
+most amusing of all is the following:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"The young fellows who trudge along barefoot, five or six together,
+their boots slung over their shoulders, their shabby bundles under
+their arms, their sticks newly cut from some roadside wood, are not
+eminently prepossessing, but are much less objectionable. There is
+a tramp-fellowship among them. They pick one another up at
+resting stations, and go on in companies. They always go at a fast
+swing&mdash;though they generally limp too&mdash;and there is invariably one
+of the company who has much ado to keep up with the rest. They
+generally talk about horses, and any other means of locomotion than
+walking: or, one of the company relates some recent experiences of
+the road&mdash;which are always disputes and difficulties. As for example.
+So as I'm a standing at the pump in the market, blest if there don't
+come up a Beadle, and he ses, 'Mustn't stand here,' he ses. 'Why
+not?' I ses. 'No beggars allowed in this town,' he ses. 'Who's a
+beggar?' I ses. 'You are,' he ses. 'Who ever see <i>me</i> beg? Did
+<i>you?</i>' I ses. 'Then you're a tramp,' he ses. 'I'd rather be that
+than a Beadle,' I ses. (The company express great approval.)
+'Would you?' he ses to me. 'Yes, I would,' I ses to him. 'Well,'
+he ses, 'anyhow, get out of this town.' 'Why, blow your little
+town!' I ses, 'who wants to be in it? Wot does your dirty little
+town mean by comin' and stickin' itself in the road to anywhere?
+Why don't you get a shovel and a barrer, and clear your town out
+o' people's way?' (The company expressing the highest approval
+and laughing aloud, they all go down the hill.)"</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It is worthy of consideration, and it is probably more than
+a mere coincidence, to observe that some of the reforms
+which have been effected in the management of the now
+munificent revenues of Richard Watts's Charity were instigated
+as a sequence to the appearance of Dickens's
+imperishable stories, published under the title of <i>The Seven
+Poor Travellers</i>. The Rev. Robert Whiston, with whom we
+chatted on the subject, is of opinion that the late Lord
+Brougham is entitled to the credit for reforms in this and
+other charities.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+
+<h3>AN AFTERNOON AT GAD'S HILL PLACE.</h3>
+
+<div class="hang2">"It was just large enough, and no more; was as pretty within as it was
+without, and was perfectly arranged and comfortable."&mdash;<i>Little Dorrit.</i><br /><br /></div>
+
+<div class="hang2">"This has been a happy home.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. I love it.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;."&mdash;<i>The Cricket on the
+Hearth.</i></div>
+
+
+<div class='unindent'><span class="smcap">A never-to-be-forgotten</span> day was Saturday, the twenty-fifth
+of August, 1888, a day remarkable, as were many of the
+closing days of the summer of that year, for its bright, sunny,
+and cheerful nature. The sky was a deep blue&mdash;usually
+described as an Italian sky&mdash;broken only by a few fleecy,
+cumulus clouds, which served to bring out more clearly the
+rich colour of the background. There was a fine bracing air
+coming from the north-west, for which the county of Kent is
+famous. Truly an enjoyable day for a holiday! and one
+that Dickens himself would have loved to describe. So after
+a desultory stroll about the streets of Rochester, one of many
+delightful strolls, we make our first outward tramp, and that
+of course to Gad's Hill. By the way, much attention has
+been devoted to the consideration of the derivation of the
+name, "Gad's Hill." It is no doubt a corruption of "God's
+Hill," of which there are two so-called places in the county,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span>
+and there is also a veritable "God's Hill" a little further
+south, in the Isle of Wight.</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/i_185.png" width="400" height="202" alt="Rochester from Strood Hill." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Rochester from Strood Hill.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Crossing Rochester Bridge, we enter the busy town of
+Strood, pass through its long thoroughfare, go up the Dover
+Road,&mdash;which was the ancient Roman military road afterwards
+called Watling Street, until a little above Strood it
+turned slightly to the left, passing through what is now
+Cobham Park,&mdash;and leave the windmill on Broomhill to the
+right. The ground rises gently, the chalk formation being
+exposed here and there in disused pits. A portion of the
+road higher up is cut through the Thanet sands, which rest
+on the chalk. Again and again we stop, and turn to admire
+the winding valley of the Medway. As we get more into
+the country and leave the town behind, we find the roadsides
+still decked with summer flowers, notably the fine dark blue
+Canterbury bell&mdash;the nettle-leaved Campanula (<i>Campanula
+Trachelium</i>)&mdash;and the exquisite light-blue chicory (<i>Cichorium
+Intybus</i>); but the flowers of the latter are so evanescent that,
+when gathered, they fade in an hour or two. This beautiful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span>
+starlike-blossomed plant is abundant in many parts of Kent.
+We pass on the right the pretty high-standing grounds of Mr.
+Hulkes at the "Little Hermitage," and notice the obelisk
+further to the right on still higher land, erected about fifty
+years ago to the memory of Charles Larkin (a name very
+suggestive of "the eldest Miss Larkins") of Rochester,&mdash;"a
+parish orator and borough Hampden"&mdash;by his grateful
+fellow-citizens.</p>
+
+<p>A walk of less than three miles brings us to the "Sir John
+Falstaff"&mdash;"a delightfully old-fashioned roadside inn of the
+coaching days, which stands on the north side of the road a
+little below 'Gad's Hill Place,' and which no man possessed
+of a penny was ever known to pass in warm weather."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Kitton relates in <i>Dickensiana</i> the following amusing
+story of a former waiter at the "Falstaff":&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"A few days after Dickens's death, an Englishman, deeply
+grieved at the event, made a sort of pilgrimage to Gad's Hill&mdash;to
+the home of the great novelist. He went into the
+famous 'Sir John Falstaff Inn' near at hand, and in the
+effusiveness of his honest emotions, he could not avoid taking
+the country waiter into his confidence.</p>
+
+<p>"'A great loss this of Mr. Dickens,' said the pilgrim.</p>
+
+<p>"'A very great loss to us, sir,' replied the waiter, shaking
+his head; 'he had all his ale sent in from this house!'"</p>
+
+<p>One of the two lime-trees only remains, but the well and
+bucket&mdash;as recorded by the <i>Uncommercial Traveller</i> in the
+chapter on "Tramps"&mdash;are there still, surrounded by a
+protective fence.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164"></a>
+<img src="images/i_187.png" width="600" height="362" alt="The &quot;Sir John Falstaff&quot; Inn, Gad&#39;s Hill." title="" />
+<span class='caption'>The &quot;Sir John Falstaff&quot; Inn, Gad&#39;s Hill.</span></div>
+
+<p>We have but little time to notice the "Falstaff," for our
+admiring gaze is presently fixed on Gad's Hill Place itself,
+the house in which Dickens resided happily&mdash;albeit trouble<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span>
+came to him as to most men&mdash;from the year 1856 till his
+death in 1870. Everybody knows the story of how, as a little
+boy, he cherished the idea of one day living in this house,
+and how that idea was gratified in after-life. It is from
+the <i>Uncommercial Traveller</i>, in the chapter on "Travelling
+Abroad," and the repetition is never stale. He says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"So smooth was the old high road, and so fresh were the horses,
+and so fast went I, that it was midway between Gravesend and
+Rochester, and the widening river was bearing the ships, white-sailed
+or black-smoked, out to sea, when I noticed by the wayside a very
+queer small boy.</p>
+
+<p>"'Holloa!' said I to the very queer small boy, 'where do you
+live?'</p>
+
+<p>"'At Chatham,' says he.</p>
+
+<p>"'What do you do there?' says I.</p>
+
+<p>"'I go to school,' says he.</p>
+
+<p>"I took him up in a moment, and we went on. Presently, the
+very queer small boy says, 'This is Gad's Hill we are coming to,
+where Falstaff went out to rob those travellers, and ran away.'</p>
+
+<p>"'You know something about Falstaff, eh?' said I.</p>
+
+<p>"'All about him,' said the very queer small boy. 'I am old (I
+am nine), and I read all sorts of books. But <i>do</i> let us stop at the top
+of the hill, and look at the house there, if you please!'</p>
+
+<p>"'You admire that house?' said I.</p>
+
+<p>"'Bless you, sir,' said the very queer small boy, 'when I was not
+more than half as old as nine, it used to be a treat for me to be
+brought to look at it. And now, I am nine, I come by myself to
+look at it. And ever since I can recollect, my father, seeing me
+so fond of it, has often said to me, 'If you were to be very persevering,
+and were to work hard, you might some day come to live
+in it.' Though that's impossible!' said the very queer small boy,
+drawing a low breath, and now staring at the house out of window
+with all his might.</p>
+
+<p>"I was rather amazed to be told this by the very queer small boy;
+for that house happens to be <i>my</i> house, and I have reason to believe
+that what he said was true."</p></div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166"></a>
+<img src="images/i_189.png" width="600" height="422" alt="Gadshill Place" title="" />
+<span class="caption">Gadshill Place</span>
+</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lynn Linton, the celebrated novelist, who resided at
+Gad's Hill as a child, has very kindly given us her personal
+recollections of it sixty years ago, and of the interesting
+circumstances under which Charles Dickens subsequently
+purchased the property;&mdash;which will be found at the end of
+this chapter.</p>
+
+<p>Before seeking permission to enter the grounds of Gad's
+Hill Place, which are surrounded by a high wall, and screened
+externally by a row of well-topped lime-trees, we retrace our
+steps for a few minutes, in order to refresh ourselves with a
+homely luncheon, and what Mr. Richard Swiveller would call
+a "modest quencher," at the Sir John Falstaff. It may be
+certain that not much time is consumed in this operation.
+We then take a good look at the remarkable house opposite,
+the object of our pilgrimage, which has been made well
+known by countless photographs and engravings. It is a
+comfortable, but a not very attractive-looking red-brick house
+of two stories, with porch at entrance, partly covered with ivy.
+All the front windows, with the exception of the central ones,
+are bayed, and there are dormer windows in the roof, which is
+surmounted by a bell-turret and vane. What a strange
+fascination it has for admirers of Dickens when seen for the
+first time! According to Forster, in his <i>Life</i> of the novelist,
+the house was built in 1780 by a well-known local character
+named James Stevens, who rose to a good position. He was
+the father-in-law of the late Professor Henslow, the Botanist,
+of Cambridge. Dickens paid for it the sum of &pound;1,790, and the
+purchase was completed on Friday, 14th March, 1856. The
+present owner is Major Austin F. Budden,<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> of the 12th Kent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span>
+Artillery Volunteers, who, we find, in the course of subsequent
+conversation, had also done good municipal service,
+having filled the office of Mayor of Rochester for two years,&mdash;from
+1879 to 1881,&mdash;and that he was elected at the early age
+of twenty-eight.</p>
+
+<p>We ring the bell at the gate which shuts the house out
+from view, and are promptly answered by a pleasant-speaking
+housemaid, who takes our cards on a salver, and ushers us
+into the library. We are requested to enter our names in the
+visitors' book, and this is done with alacrity. We are under
+the impression that we shall only be allowed to see the hall
+and study, a privilege allowed to any visitor on presentation
+of a card; but fortunately for us the courteous owner appears,
+and says that, as he has half an hour to spare, he will show
+us entirely over the house. He is better than his word, and
+we, delighted with the prospect, commence our inspection of
+the late home of the great novelist with feelings of singular
+pleasure, which are altogether a new sensation. Do any
+readers remember, when perusing the Waverley novels in
+their youth, a certain longing (as the height of their ambition,
+possibly gratified in after-life) to see Abbotsford,
+the home of the "Wizard of the North"? <i>That</i> is a feeling
+akin to the one which possesses us on the present occasion,
+a feeling of veneration almost amounting to awe as we recall,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span>
+and seem to realize, not only the presence of Charles Dickens
+himself, but of the many eminent literary, artistic, and histrionic
+characters&mdash;his contemporaries&mdash;who assembled here,
+and shared the hospitality of the distinguished owner.
+"Dickens penetrates here&mdash;where does not his genial sunshine
+penetrate?"</p>
+
+<p>Turning over the leaves of the visitors' book, Major Budden
+calls our attention to the signatures of Americans, who
+constitute by far the majority of visitors. Among the more
+recent appears the name of that accomplished actress, Miss
+Mary Anderson&mdash;herself a great admirer of Charles Dickens&mdash;who
+came accompanied by a party of friends. We also
+found her name, with the same party, in the visitors' book at
+Richard Watts's Charity in Rochester. Major Budden spoke
+also of the great enthusiasm always exhibited by our American
+friends in regard to Dickens, some of whom had told him
+more than once that it was the custom to instruct their
+children in a knowledge of his works: they read them, in
+fact, in the schools.</p>
+
+<p>The library, or study, is a very cosy little room, made famous
+by Mr. Luke Fildes's picture of "The Empty Chair." It is
+situated on the west side of the porch, looking to the front,
+with the shrubbery in the distance; and among the most
+conspicuous objects contained in it are the curious counterfeit
+book-backs devised by Dickens and his friends, and
+arranged as shelves to fit the door of the room. They
+number nearly eighty, and a selection is given below of a
+few of the quaintest titles, viz.:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>The Quarrelly Review. 4 vols.</p>
+
+<p>King Henry the Eighth's Evidences of Christianity. 5 vols.</p>
+
+<p>Noah's Arkitecture. 2 vols.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170"></a>
+<img src="images/i_193.png" width="600" height="400" alt="PG from the Drawing of S. L. Fildes &quot;The empty chair&quot; Gad&#39;s Hill Ninth of June 1870." title="" />
+</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Chickweed.</p>
+
+<p>Groundsel (by the Author of Chickweed).</p>
+
+<p>Cockatoo on Perch.</p>
+
+<p>History of a Short Chancery Suit. 21 vols.</p>
+
+<p>Cats' Lives. 9 vols.</p>
+
+<p>Hansard's Guide to Refreshing Sleep (many volumes).</p>
+
+<p>The Wisdom of our Ancestors&mdash;I. Ignorance. II. Superstition.
+III. The Block. IV. The Stake. V. The Rack.
+VI. Dirt. VII. Disease.</p>
+
+<p>Several of the titles were used for a similar purpose at
+Tavistock House, London&mdash;Dickens's former residence.</p>
+
+<p>We cannot help, as we sit down quietly for a few minutes,
+wondering how much of <i>Little Dorrit</i>, <i>Hunted Down</i>, <i>A Tale
+of Two Cities</i>, <i>Great Expectations</i>, <i>The Uncommercial Traveller</i>,
+<i>Our Mutual Friend</i>, and <i>The Mystery of Edwin Drood</i> (which
+were all issued between 1856 and 1870) was written in this
+famous room, to say nothing of those heaps of exquisite
+letters which so helped, cheered, interested, or amused many
+a correspondent, and have delighted the public since.</p>
+
+<p>In the hall, which has the famous parquet floor laid down
+by Dickens, is still hanging the framed illumination, artistically
+executed by Owen Jones, and placed there immediately
+after Dickens became the "Kentish freeholder on his native
+heath" as he called it. It is as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='center'>
+This House,<br />
+<span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place</span>,<br />
+stands on the summit of Shakespeare's Gad's Hill,<br />
+ever memorable for its association with<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Sir John Falstaff, in his noble fancy.<br /></span></div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 369px;">
+<img src="images/i_195.png" width="369" height="500" alt="Counterfeit Book-backs on Study Door." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Counterfeit Book-backs on Study Door.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"But, my lads, my lads, to-morrow morning by four o'clock
+early at Gad's Hill. There are pilgrims going to Canterbury
+with rich offerings, and traders riding to London with fat
+purses; I have vizards for you all; you have horses for
+yourselves."<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span></p>
+<p>From the hall we enter the dining-room, a cheerful apartment
+looking on to the beautiful lawn at the back, which has
+at the end the arched conservatory of lilac-tinted glass at top,
+in which the novelist took so much interest, and where he
+hung some Chinese lanterns, sent down from London the day
+before his death. We are informed that in this building he
+signed the last cheque which he drew, to pay his subscription
+to the Higham Cricket Club. The door of the dining-room
+is faced with looking-glass, so that it may reflect the contents
+of the conservatory. Among these are two or three New
+Zealand tree-ferns which Dickens himself purchased. In the
+dining-room Major Budden pointed out the exact spot where
+the fatal seizure from effusion on the brain took place, on the
+afternoon of Wednesday, 8th June, 1870, and where Dickens<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span>
+lay: first on the floor to the right of the door on entering,
+and afterwards to the left, when the couch was brought down
+(by order of Mr. Steele, the surgeon of Strood, as we subsequently
+learned), upon which he breathed his last.</p>
+
+<p>The drawing-room faces the front, and, like the dining-room,
+has been lengthened, and opens into the conservatory.
+In fact, Dickens was always improving Gad's Hill Place.
+There is a memorable reference to the conservatory by
+Forster in the third vol. of the <i>Life</i>. He says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"This last addition had long been an object of desire with
+him, though he would hardly, even now, have given himself
+the indulgence but for the golden shower from America.
+He saw it first in a completed state on the Sunday before his
+death, when his youngest daughter was on a visit to him.</p>
+
+<p>"'Well, Katey,' he said to her, 'now you see <span class="smcap">positively</span>
+the last improvement at Gad's Hill,' and every one laughed
+at the joke against himself. The success of the new conservatory
+was unquestionable. It was the remark of all
+around him, that he was certainly, from this last of his
+improvements, drawing more enjoyment than from any of its
+predecessors, when the scene for ever closed!"</p>
+
+<p>This room is a long one, and, in common with all the
+others, gives us, under the auspices of the brilliantly fine
+day, some idea of the late owner's love of light, air, and
+cheerfulness. That the situation is also a healthy and
+bracing one is confirmed by the fact, that in a letter written
+on board the <i>Russia</i>, bound for Liverpool, on the 26th April,
+1868, after his second American tour, he speaks of having
+made a "Gad's Hill breakfast."</p>
+
+<p>Our most considerate cicerone next takes us into several
+of the bedrooms, these being of large size, and having a little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span>
+dressing-room marked off with a partition, head-high, so that
+no cubic space is lost to the main chamber. As illustrative
+of Charles Dickens's care for the comfort of his friends, it is
+said that in the visitors' bedrooms there was always hot
+water and a little tea-table set out, so that each one could
+at any time make for himself a cup of the beverage "that
+cheers but not inebriates." The views from these rooms are
+very charming. Mr. W. T. Wildish afterwards told us, that
+during the novelist's life-time, Mr. Trood, the landlord of
+the Sir John Falstaff, once took him over Gad's Hill Place,
+and he was surprised to find Dickens's own bath-room covered
+with cuttings from <i>Punch</i> and other comic papers. I have
+since learned that this was a screen of engravings which had
+originally been given him.</p>
+
+<p>The gardens, both flower and vegetable, are then pointed
+out&mdash;the approach thereto from the back lawn being by
+means of a flight of steps&mdash;as also the rosary, which occupies
+a portion of the front lawn to the westward. The roses are
+of course past their best, but the trees look very healthy.</p>
+
+<p>In the flower garden we are especially reminded of
+Dickens's love for flowers, the China-asters, single dahlias,
+and zinnias being of exceptional brightness. As to the
+violets, which are here in abundance, both the Neapolitan
+and Russian varieties, the Major shows us a method of
+cultivating them, first in frames, and then in single rows, so
+that he can get them in bloom for nearly nine months in
+the year!</p>
+
+<p>Adjoining the lawn and vegetable garden is "the much-coveted
+meadow," which the master of Gad's Hill obtained by
+exchange of some land with the trustees of Sir Joseph
+Williamson's Mathematical School at Rochester, and in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span>
+which he planted "a number of limes and chestnuts, and
+other quick-growing trees." Four grass walks meet in the
+centre of the vegetable garden, where there is a fine old
+mulberry tree.</p>
+
+<p>It is stated in Forster's <i>Life</i> of the novelist (Vol. iii.
+p. 188) that Dickens obtained the meadow by exchange of
+some land "with the Trustees of Watts's Charity." But this
+is not right. The distinguished historian of the Commonwealth,
+and the faithful friend of the novelist all through
+his life, is so habitually accurate, that it is an exceptional
+circumstance for any one to be able to correct him. However,
+I am indebted to Mr. A. A. Arnold, of Rochester, for the
+following authentic account of the transaction.</p>
+
+<p>Dickens was always anxious to obtain this meadow (which
+consists of about fourteen acres), and, believing that the
+Trustees of Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School
+at Rochester were not empowered to sell their land, he
+purchased a field at the back of his own shrubbery from
+Mr. Brooker, of Higham, with a view&mdash;as appears from the
+following characteristically courteous and business-like letter&mdash;to
+effect an exchange.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<div class='right'>
+<span style="margin-right: 3em;">"<span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place,</span></span><br />
+<span style="margin-right: 1em;"><span class="smcap">Higham by Rochester, Kent.</span></span><br />
+<i>Monday, Thirtieth June, 1862.</i><br /></div>
+
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Gentlemen</span>,</p>
+
+<p>"Reverting to a proposal already made in general
+terms by my solicitor, Mr. Ouvry, of Lincoln's Inn Fields,
+to Messrs. Essel and Co., I beg to submit my application
+to you in detail.</p>
+
+<p>"It is that you will have the kindness to consider the
+feasibility of exchanging the field at the back of my property<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span>
+here (marked 404 in the accompanying plan), for the plot of
+land marked 384 in the said plan.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/i_200.png" width="450" height="324" alt="Gad&#39;s Hill Place from the rear." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Gad&#39;s Hill Place from the rear.</span>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>"I believe it will appear to you, on inquiry, that the land
+I offer in exchange for the meadow is very advantageously
+situated, and is of greater extent than the meadow, and
+would be of greater value to the Institution, whose interests
+you represent. On the other hand, the acquisition of the
+meadow as a freehold would render my little property
+more compact and complete.</p>
+
+<p>"I have the honor to be, Gentlemen,<br /></p>
+<div class='sig'>
+<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Your faithful and obedient Servant,</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">Charles Dickens</span>.<br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='secsig'>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"To the Governors of</span><br />
+Sir Joseph Williamson's Free School,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Rochester."</span><br />
+</div></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The offer fell through at the time; but it was renewed in
+1868 in a different form, and eventually the field was sold
+(by permission of the Charity Commissioners) to Charles
+Dickens at an "accommodation" price&mdash;&pound;2,500&mdash;which really
+exceeded its actual market value.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 300px;">
+<img src="images/i_201.png" width="300" height="348" alt="The Grave of Dick" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>But to resume our inspection. The whole of the back
+of the house, looking southward, is covered by a Virginia
+creeper (<i>Ampelopsis quinquefolia</i>) of profuse growth, which
+must be an object of singular beauty in the autumn when
+the crimson tints appear. As it now stands it is beautifully
+green, and there is scarcely more than a leaf or two here
+and there marking autumnal decay. The two famous
+hawthorn trees were blown down in a gale some years
+ago.</p>
+
+<p>In a quiet corner under a rose-tree (<i>Gloire de Dijon</i>),
+flanked by a <i>Yucca</i> in bloom, the bed underneath consisting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span>
+of deep blue lobelia, is a touching little memorial to a
+favourite canary. This consists of a narrow little board,
+made like a head-stone, and set aslant, on which is painted
+in neat letters the following epitaph:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='center'><br /><br />
+This is<br />
+the grave of<br />
+DICK,<br />
+the best of birds,<br />
+born<br />
+<span class="smcap">at Broadstairs</span>,<br />
+<i>Midsummer</i>, 1851,<br />
+died<br />
+<span class="smcap">at Gad's Hill Place</span>,<br />
+<i>4th October, 1866</i>.<br />
+</div>
+
+<p>No one can doubt who was the author of these simple lines.
+"Dick," it should be said, "was very dear both to Dickens
+and his eldest daughter," and he has been immortalized in
+Forster's <i>Life</i>. There is a very humorous account given of
+the attacks which the cats in the neighbourhood made upon
+him, and which were frustrated by an organized defence.
+The following is the passage:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Soon after the arrival of Dickens and his family at Gad's
+Hill Place, a household war broke out, in which the commander-in-chief
+was his man French, the bulk of the forces
+engaged being his children, and the invaders two cats."
+Writing to Forster, Dickens says:&mdash;"'The only thing new
+in this garden is that war is raging against two particularly
+tigerish and fearful cats (from the mill, I suppose), which are
+always glaring in dark corners after our wonderful little
+Dick. Keeping the house open at all points, it is impossible<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span>
+to shut them out, and they hide themselves in the most
+terrific manner: hanging themselves up behind draperies, like
+bats, and tumbling out in the dead of night with frightful
+caterwaulings. Hereupon French borrows Beaucourt's gun,
+loads the same to the muzzle, discharges it twice in vain,
+and throws himself over with the recoil, exactly like a
+clown.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. About four pounds of powder and half a ton
+of shot have been fired off at the cat (and the public in
+general) during the week. The funniest thing is, that immediately
+after I have heard the noble sportsman blazing away at
+her in the garden in front, I look out of my room door into
+the drawing-room, and am pretty sure to see her coming in
+after the birds, in the calmest manner possible, by the back
+window.'"</p>
+
+<p>Passing on our way the large and well-lighted servants'
+hall, over which is the bachelors' room,&mdash;whence in days gone
+by that rare literary serial, <i>The Gad's Hill Gazette</i>,<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> issued from
+a little printing press, presented by a friend to the sixth son
+of the novelist, who encouraged his boy's literary tastes,&mdash;we
+next see the stables, as usual, like everything else, in
+excellent order. A small statue of Fame blowing her golden
+trumpet surmounts the bachelors' room, and looks down upon
+us encouragingly.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span></p>
+<p>Our attention is then turned to the well, which is stated
+to be two hundred and seventeen feet deep, in the shed, or
+pumping-room, over which is the Major's mare, "Tell-tale,"
+cheerfully doing her daily twenty minutes' task of drawing
+water, which is pumped up to the cistern on the roof for the
+supply of the house. There is said to be never less than
+twenty feet of water in the well.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/i_204.png" width="500" height="366" alt="The Well at Gad&#39;s Hill Place" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>It may be interesting to mention that Gad's Hill Place
+("the title of my estate, sir, my place down in Kent"), which
+is in the parish of Higham, and about twenty-six miles from
+London, stands on an elevation two hundred and fifty feet
+above mean sea-level. The house itself is built on a bed
+of the Thanet sands. The well is bored right through these
+sands, which Mr. W. H. Whitaker, F.R.S., of H. M. Geological
+Survey (who has kindly given me some valuable
+information on the subject), states "may be about forty feet
+thick, and the water is drawn up from the bed of chalk<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span>
+beneath. This bed is of great thickness, probably six
+hundred or seven hundred feet, and the well simply reaches
+the level at which the chalk is charged with water, <i>i. e.</i> something
+a little higher than the level of the neighbouring river."
+The chalk is exposed on the lower bases of Gad's Hill, such
+as the Railway Station at Higham, the village of Chalk, the
+town of Strood, etc.</p>
+
+<p>There are humorous extracts from letters by Dickens in
+Forster's <i>Life</i> respecting the well, which may appropriately
+be introduced. He says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"We are still (6th of July) boring for water here, at the
+rate of two pounds per day for wages. The men seem to
+like it very much, and to be perfectly comfortable.".&nbsp;.&nbsp;. And
+again, "Here are six men perpetually going up and down the
+well (I know that somebody will be killed), in the course of
+fitting a pump; which is quite a railway terminus&mdash;it is so
+iron, and so big. The process is much more like putting
+Oxford Street endwise, and laying gas along it, than anything
+else. By the time it is finished, the cost of this water
+will be something absolutely frightful. But of course it
+proportionately increases the value of the property, and
+that's my only comfort.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. Five men have been looking
+attentively at the pump for a week, and (I should hope) may
+begin to fit it in the course of October." The depression
+caused by the prospect of the "absolutely frightful" cost of
+the water seems to have continued to the end of the letter, for
+it thus concludes:&mdash;"The horse has gone lame from a sprain,
+the big dog has run a tenpenny nail into one of his hind feet,
+the bolts have all flown out of the basket carriage, and the
+gardener says all the fruit trees want replacing with new
+ones."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 327px;">
+<img src="images/i_206.png" width="327" height="500" alt="The Porch, Gad&#39;s Hill Place." title="" />
+<span class="caption">The Porch, Gad&#39;s Hill Place.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Two of the Major's dogs are chained in the places
+formerly occupied by Dickens's dogs, "Linda" and "Turk."
+The chains are very long, and allow the animals plenty of
+room for exercise. The space between the two permitted a
+person to walk past without their being able to come near<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span>
+him; and, as an instance of Dickens's thoughtful kindliness
+even to the lower animals, two holes were made in the wall so
+that the dogs could get through in hot weather, and lie in the
+shade of the trees on the other side. On the back gate entering
+into the lane at the side of the house was painted,
+"Beware of the dogs!" This caution appears to have been
+very necessary, for we heard more than once the story of an
+intrusive tramp who trespassed, and going too near the dogs,
+got sadly mauled. Dickens, with characteristic goodness,
+sent him at once to Chatham Hospital, and otherwise healed
+his wounds.</p>
+
+<p>We are next conducted round the grounds, and have an
+opportunity of examining the front of the house more in
+detail. The porch is flanked by two cosy seats, the pretty
+little spade-shaped shields, and lateral angular ornamental
+supports on the back of which, we are informed, were constructed
+of pieces of wood from Shakespeare's furniture given
+to Dickens by a friend. A large variegated holly grows on
+either side of the porch, and a semi-circular gravel walk leads
+to the door. There is a closely-cut lawn in front, and opposite
+the hollies are two fine specimens of <i>Aucuba Japonica</i>&mdash;the
+so-called variegated laurel.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185"></a>
+<img src="images/i_208.png" width="500" height="382" alt="The Cedars, Gad&#39;s Hill." title="" />
+<span class="caption">The Cedars, Gad&#39;s Hill.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>It will be remembered that the master of Gad's Hill had a
+tunnel excavated under the Dover Road (which runs through
+the property), so as to approach the "shrubbery" previously
+referred to, without having to cross the open public road. We
+did not learn who constructed the tunnel, but it was designed
+either by his brother, Mr. Alfred L. Dickens, who died at
+Manchester in 1860, or by his brother-in-law, Mr. Henry
+Austin. The entrance to the tunnel is by a flight of about
+twenty steps, flanked by two beautifully-grown specimens of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span>
+<i>Cedrus deodara</i>, the "deodar," or god-tree of the Himalayas.
+The tunnel itself is cut through the sands, and, being only a
+little longer than the width of the road, it is not at all dark,
+but very pleasant and cool on a hot day. A corresponding
+flight of steps leads us into the shrubbery, which is shut
+off from the main road by iron railings only. Both ends
+of the tunnel are covered with ivy, which has the effect of
+partially concealing the openings. Readers of Forster's
+<i>Life</i> will recollect that the Swiss ch&acirc;let presented to
+Dickens by his friend Fechter the actor, and in which he
+spent his last afternoon, formerly stood in the shrubbery.
+The ch&acirc;let now stands in the terrace-garden of Cobham
+Hall.</p>
+
+<p>Before we reach the exact place we have an opportunity
+of examining the two stately cedar trees (<i>Cedrus Libani</i>)
+which are the arboreal gems of the place. Major Budden
+informs us that they are about one hundred and twenty-eight
+years old, and were planted in their present position
+when they had attained about twenty years' growth. Some
+idea of their luxuriance may be formed when it is mentioned
+that the girth of each tree exceeds sixteen feet, and the longest
+branch of one of them measures eighty-four feet in length.
+In consequence of the habit of these trees "fastigiating" at
+the base, a very numerous series of lateral ramifying branches
+is the result. These branches spread out in terraces, and the
+rich green foliage, covered with exudations of resin, seems as
+though powdered silver had been lightly dusted over it.
+Each tree extends over a circular area of about eighty feet
+of ground in diameter. Under one of the cedars is the
+grave of "the big and beautiful Linda," Dickens's favourite
+St. Bernard dog. One of the trees has been injured, a large<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span>
+branch over-weighted with snow having broken off some
+years ago.</p>
+
+<p>Two or three noble ash trees also grace this spot, running
+straight up in a column some thirty-five feet before shooting
+out a canopy of branches and leaves. There are also a few
+Scotch firs, the trunks well covered with ivy, and a pretty
+specimen of the variegated sycamore. The undergrowth of
+laurel, laurustinus, briar, privet, holly, etc., is very luxuriant
+here, and the vacant ground is closely covered with the wood
+anemone (<i>Anemone nemorosa</i>), which must form a continuous
+mass of pearly white flowers in spring-time.</p>
+
+<p>The ground formerly occupied by the ch&acirc;let is pointed
+out to us, its site being marked by a bed of rich scarlet
+nasturtiums. It will be recollected that Dickens describes the
+interior of the building in a letter to an American friend,
+which is thus recorded in Forster's <i>Life:</i>&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Divers birds sing here all day, and the nightingales all
+night. The place is lovely and in perfect order.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. I have put
+five mirrors in the ch&acirc;let where I write, and they reflect and
+refract, in all kinds of ways, the leaves that are quivering at
+the windows, and the great fields of waving corn, and the
+sail-dotted river. My room is up among the branches of
+the trees; and the birds and the butterflies fly in and out,
+and the green branches shoot in at the open windows, and
+the lights and shadows of the clouds come and go with
+the rest of the company. The scent of the flowers, and
+indeed of everything that is growing for miles and miles, is
+most delicious."</p>
+
+<p>But the glory of Gad's Hill Place is reserved for us until
+the close of our visit, when Major Budden very kindly takes
+us up to the roof, which is approached by a commodious flight<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span>
+of steps; and here, on this exceptionally fine day, we are
+privileged to behold a prospect of surpassing beauty. Right
+away to the westward is the great Metropolis, its presence
+being marked by the usual pall of greyish smoke. Opening
+from the town, and becoming wider and wider as the noble
+river approaches its estuary, is the Thames, now conspicuous
+by numerous vessels, showing masts and white
+and brown sails, and here and there by the smoky track
+of a steamer.</p>
+
+<p>We remember how often the city and the river have been
+the scene of many and many an exploit in Dickens's novels.
+Northward are the dreary marshes, the famous "meshes" of
+<i>Great Expectations</i>, hereafter to be noticed. Then far to
+the eastward runs the valley of the Medway, the picturesque
+city of Rochester thereon being crowned by those conspicuous
+landmarks, its magnificent Castle and ancient Cathedral. In
+the background is the busy town of Chatham, its heights being
+capped by an enormous square and lofty building erected
+by the sect called "Jezreelites," whatever that may be. We
+were informed that the so-called "immortal" leader had
+just died, and it has since been reported that the gloomy
+building is likely to be converted into a huge jam factory.
+Beyond, and nearly seven miles off, is the high land
+called "Blue Bell," about three hundred feet above mean
+sea-level, and all along to the south the undulating grounds
+and beautiful woodland scenery of Cobham Park complete
+the picture.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189"></a>
+<img src="images/i_212.png" width="600" height="382" alt="View from the Roof of Dickens&#39;s House at Gad&#39;s Hill" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>As Major Budden points out in detail these many natural
+beauties of the district, we can quite understand and sympathize
+with Dickens's love for this exquisite spot; and we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span>
+heartily congratulate the present owner of Gad's Hill Place
+on the charming historical property which he possesses, and
+which, so far as we can perceive (all honour to him), is
+kept in the same excellent condition that characterized it
+during the novelist's lifetime. What is particularly striking
+about it is at once its compactness, completeness, and
+unpretentiousness.</p>
+
+<p>Descending to the library, whence we started nearly three
+hours previously, we refresh ourselves with a glass of water
+from the celebrated deep well&mdash;a draught deliciously cool
+and clear&mdash;which the hospitable Major presses us to "dilute"
+(as Professor Huxley has somewhere said) in any way we
+please, but which we prefer to drink, as Dickens himself
+drank it&mdash;pure. Before we rise to leave the spot we have so
+long wished to see, and which we have now gone over to our
+hearts' content, we sadly recall to memory for a moment the
+"last scene of all that ends this strange, eventful history,"&mdash;that
+tragic incident which occurred on Thursday, 9th June,
+1870, when there was an "empty chair" at Gad's Hill Place,
+and all intelligent English-speaking nations experienced a
+personal sorrow.</p>
+
+<p>And so with many grateful acknowledgments to our kind
+and courteous host, who gives us some nice flowers and
+cuttings as a parting souvenir, we take our leave, having
+derived from our bright sunny visit to Gad's Hill Place that
+"wave of pleasure" which Mr. Herbert Spencer describes as
+"raising the rate of respiration,&mdash;raised respiration being
+an index of raised vital activities in general." In fine, the
+impression left on our minds is such as to induce us to
+feel that we understand and appreciate more of Dickens's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span>
+old home than any illustration or written description of it,
+however excellent, had hitherto adequately conveyed to us.
+We have seen it for ourselves.</p>
+
+<div class='center'><big>*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</big></div>
+
+<p>The reminiscences which follow are from Mrs. Lynn
+Linton and three of Charles Dickens's nearest neighbours.</p>
+
+
+<div class='center'><br />GAD'S HILL SIXTY YEARS AGO.</div>
+
+<p>The early love which Charles Dickens felt for Gad's Hill
+House, and his boyish ambition to be one day its owner, had
+been already anticipated by my father. As a boy and young
+man, my father's heart was set on this place; and when my
+grandfather's death put him in sufficient funds he bought it.
+Being a beneficed clergyman, both of whose livings were in
+the extreme north of England, he could not live in the house;
+but he kept it empty for many years, always hoping to get
+leave of absence from the Bishop for a term long enough to
+justify the removal of his large family from Keswick to
+Rochester. In 1831 a five years' leave of absence was
+granted; and we all came up by coach to this Mecca of
+my father's love. We were three days and three nights on
+the road; and I remember quite distinctly the square courtyard
+and outside balcony of the old Belle Sauvage Inn,
+where we put up on our arrival in London. I remember,
+too, the powerful scent of the Portugal laurel and the bay-tree
+which grew on the right-hand side of Gad's Hill House as
+we entered&mdash;brought out by the warm damp of the late
+autumn afternoon. In our time all the outhouses had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span>
+leaden figures on the top. There was a cupola with an
+alarm bell, which one night was rung lustily, to the terror
+of the whole neighbourhood, and the ashamed discovery
+among ourselves that rats were not burglars. In the shrubbery
+were two large leaden figures of Pomona and Vertumnus,
+standing on each side of the walk leading up to the arbour.
+We had then two arbours&mdash;one opposite the house at the
+end of the green walk, and another in a dilapidated state
+further in the shrubbery. They were built of big flint stones,
+many of which had holes in them, where small birds made
+their nests. I remember in one was a tomtit which was
+quite tame, and used to fly in and out while we were watching
+it. The two cedars, which I believe are still there, were a
+little choked and overshadowed by a large oak-tree, which
+my father cut down. Between seventy and eighty coaches,
+"vans," and mail-carts passed our house during the day,
+besides private carriages, specially those of travellers posting
+to or from Dover. Regiments, too, often passed on their
+way to Gravesend, where they embarked for India; and
+ships' companies, paid off, rowdy and half-tipsy, made the
+road really dangerous for the time being. We used to lock
+the two gates when we heard them coming, shouting and
+singing up the hill; and we had to stand many a mimic
+siege from the blue-jackets trying to force their way in.
+Sweet-water grapes grew and ripened in the open air over
+the wash-house; and the back of the house was covered with
+a singularly fine and luscious jargonelle pear. The garden
+was rich in apples. We had many kinds, from the sweet
+and pulpy nonsuch, to the small tight little pearmain and
+lemon pippin. We had nonpareils, golden pippins, brown<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span>
+and golden russets, Ribstone pippins, and what we called a
+port-wine apple&mdash;the flesh red, like that of the "blood-oranges."
+The small orchard to the right was as rich in
+cherry-trees, filberts, and cobnuts. In the garden we had a
+fig-tree, and the mulberry-tree, which is still there, was in
+full bearing in our time. The garden altogether was wonderfully
+prolific in flowers as well as fruits&mdash;roses as well as
+strawberries and apples; and the green-house was full of
+grapes. Nightingales sang in the trees near the house, and
+the shrubbery was full of song birds. We had a grand view
+from the leads, where we used sometimes to go, and whence
+I remember seeing a farmyard fire over at Higham&mdash;which
+fire they said had been caused by an incendiary. There
+was a Low Church clergyman in the neighbourhood who
+might have been Chadband or Stiggins. He was fond of
+some girls we knew, and called them his "lambs." He used
+to put his arm round their waists, and they sat on his knees
+quite naturally. I myself heard him preach at Shorne
+against the institution of pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. He
+said it was not only superstitious but irreligious; as pancakes
+meant "pan Kakon," all evil. This I, then a girl of thirteen
+or so, heard and remember. When my father died his
+property had to be sold, as he did not make an eldest son.
+Mr. W. H. Wills, the trusty friend of Charles Dickens, and
+editor of <i>Household Words</i> and <i>All The Year Round</i>, was
+also a friend of mine. We met at a dinner, and he spoke
+to me about Gad's Hill, but as if he wanted to buy it for
+himself. He was afraid to mention Charles Dickens's name,
+lest we should ask too much. So he told me afterwards. I
+had been left executrix under my father's will, being then<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span>
+the only unmarried daughter; and I took the news to our
+solicitor and co-executor, Mr. Loaden. He wrote to Mr.
+Wills, and the sale was effected. We scored a little triumph
+over the "ornamental timber." Mr. Dickens objected to our
+price; the case was submitted to an arbitrator, and we got
+more than we originally asked. But there was never one
+moment of pique on either side, nor a drop of bad blood as
+the consequence. It was always a matter for a laugh and a
+joke between Mr. Wills and myself. When we first went
+to Gad's Hill there was a fish-pond at the back; but my
+father had it filled up, lest one of his adventurous little ones
+should tumble in. Officers used to come up from Chatham
+to the Falstaff, and have pigeon matches in our big field; and
+one of the sights which used to delight our young eyes, was
+the gallant bearing and gay uniforms of the Commandant
+at Chatham, when he and his staff rode by. We were great
+walkers in those days, and used to ramble over Cobham
+Park, and round by Shorne, and down to the dreary marshes
+beyond Higham. But this was not a favourite walk with us,
+and we girls never went there alone. The banks on the
+Rochester road&mdash;past Davies's Straits&mdash;were full of sweet
+violets, white and purple; and the fungi, lichens, flowers, and
+ferns about Shorne and Cobham yet linger in my memory
+as things of rarest beauty. We always thought that the
+coachman, "Old Chumley," as he was called, was old Weller.
+He was a fine, cheery, trustworthy man; and once when my
+father was in London, he had one of my sisters and myself&mdash;girls
+then about fifteen and thirteen&mdash;put under his charge to
+be delivered to him at the end of the journey. The dear old
+fellow took as much care of us as if he had been our father<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span>
+himself. I remember my brothers gave him a new whip, and
+he was very fond of us all.</p>
+
+<div class='sig'>
+E. L. L.<br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='center'><big>*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</big></div>
+
+<p>*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;* We had at a subsequent visit to Gad's Hill
+Place, on the invitation of our hospitable friends, Major and
+Mrs. Budden, the pleasure of a long and interesting conversation
+with Mr. James Hulkes, J.P., of the Little Hermitage,
+Frindsbury, a Kentish man, who came to live here more than
+sixty years ago, and who was thus a very near neighbour
+of Charles Dickens during the whole of the time that he
+resided at Gad's Hill Place. We were shown into a delightful
+room at the back of the house, overlooking the shrubberies
+of the mansion&mdash;in the distance appearing the high ground
+on which stands the monument to Charles Larkin. The room
+is a happy combination of part workshop, with a fine lathe
+and assortment of tools fitted round it&mdash;part study, with a
+nice collection of books, engravings and pictures (some of
+hunting scenes) on the walls&mdash;and part naturalist's den, with
+cases of stuffed birds and animals, guns and fishing-rods&mdash;the
+fragrant odour of tobacco breathing friendly welcome to
+a visitor of smoking proclivities. The varied tastes of the
+owner were sufficiently apparent, and a long chat of over two
+hours seemed to us but a few minutes.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hulkes said he just remembered the road from Strood
+to Gad's Hill being cut through the sands down to the chalk.
+It was for some time afterwards called "Davies's Straits,"
+after the Rev. George Davies, the then Chairman of the
+Turnpike Road Board, and the term indicated the difficulty
+and expense of the operation. Before the new road was cut,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span>
+the old highway constituting this part of the Dover Road
+was very hilly and dangerous.</p>
+
+<p>Reverting to the subject of Charles Dickens, our relator
+remarked, "I fear I cannot be of much use to you by giving
+information about Mr. Dickens, as I only knew him as a
+kind friend, a very genial host, and a most charming
+companion; to the poor he was always kind&mdash;a deserving
+beggar never went from his house unrelieved." What indeed
+could be said more! These few simple words, spoken so
+earnestly after a period of nearly twenty years, sufficed to
+bring before us the lost neighbour whose memory was so
+warmly cherished by his surviving friend.</p>
+
+<p>John Forster, in the <i>Life</i>, speaks of Mr. Hulkes as being
+"one of the two nearest country neighbours with whom the
+[Dickens] family had become very intimate," and mentions
+that both Mr. and Mrs. Hulkes were present at the wedding of
+the novelist's second daughter, Kate, with Mr. Charles Alston
+Collins. Mr. Hulkes spoke of the pleasant parties at Gad's
+Hill Place, at which he met Mr. Forster, Mr. Wilkie Collins,
+Mr. Percy Fitzgerald, Mr. Marcus Stone, Mr. H. F. Chorley,
+and many others; and observed that, on the occasion of
+charades and private theatricals there, Charles Dickens was
+always in fine form. He showed us an original manuscript
+programme (of which we were allowed to take a copy),
+written on half-a-sheet of foolscap; and from the fact that
+"<i>Gads Hill Gazette</i> Printing Office" appears in the corner
+it would seem that it was printed on the occasion for the
+guests. It is as follows:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span>&mdash;</p>
+
+
+<div class='right'><br />
+<i>December 31st, 1863.</i><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='center'>
+"A night's exploit on Gad's Hill."&mdash;<i>Shakespeare.</i><br />
+<br />
+<b>Her Majesty's Servants</b><br />
+will have the honour of presenting<br />
+Three Charades!!!<br />
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Each Charade is a word of two syllables, arranged in three Scenes.
+The first scene is the first syllable; the second is the second syllable;
+the third scene is the entire word.</p></div>
+
+<div class='center'>
+(<i>At the end of each Charade the audience is respectfully invited to<br />
+name the word.</i>)<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<b>Charade 1!</b></div>
+
+<div class="hang2">Scene I.&mdash;The awful end of the Profligate Sailor.</div>
+
+<div class='hang2'>Scene II.&mdash;On the way to foreign parts.</div>
+
+<div class='hang2'>Scene III.&mdash;Miss Belinda Jane and the faithful policeman
+(Division Q).</div>
+
+
+<div class='center'><br /><b>Charade 2!!</b></div>
+
+<div class='hang2'>Scene I.&mdash;Archery at Castle Doodle.</div>
+
+<div class='hang2'>Scene II.&mdash;Fra Diavolo a Dread Reality.</div>
+
+<div class='hang2'>Scene III.&mdash;The Choice of a too Lowly Youth.</div>
+
+
+<div class='center'><br /><b>Charade 3!!!</b></div>
+
+<div class="hang2">Scene I.&mdash;The Pathetic History of the Poor Little Sweep.</div>
+
+<div class='hang2'>Scene II.&mdash;Mussulman Barbarity to Christians.</div>
+
+<div class='hang2'>Scene III.&mdash;Merry England.</div>
+
+<div class='sig'>
+<i>Gad's Hill Gazette</i> Printing Office.<br />
+</div>
+
+<p>The various parts were taken by Dickens and his family,
+and the entire word of the last Charade is supposed to be
+"May Day."</p>
+
+<p>In connection with charades, Mr. Hulkes alluded to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span>
+Dickens's remarkable facility for "guessing a subject fixed
+on when he was out of the room, in half a dozen questions;"
+and related the story of how at the young people's game of
+"Yes and No," he found out the proper answer to a random
+question fixed upon by Mr. Charles Collins, one of the
+company, in his absence, which was, "The top-boot of the
+left leg of the head post-boy at Newman's Yard, London."
+The squire sometimes took a stroll with his neighbour, but
+observed "he was too fast a walker for me&mdash;I couldn't keep
+up with him!"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hulkes possesses a nearly complete "file" (from 1862
+to 1866) of the <i>Gad's Hill Gazette</i>, to which he was one of the
+subscribers, and which was edited by the novelist's son, Mr.
+Henry Fielding Dickens, and, as before stated, printed at
+Gad's Hill Place. It chronicled the arrivals and departures,
+the results of cricket matches and billiard games, with
+interesting gossip of events relating to the family and the
+neighbourhood. Occasionally there was a leading article,
+and now and then an acrostic appeared. Among the subscribers
+were the novelist and his family, The Lord Chief
+Justice, The Dean of Bristol, Lady Molesworth, Mrs. Milner
+Gibson, M. Stone, A. Halliday, J. Hulkes, C. Kent, W. H.
+Wills, H. F. Chorley, Edmund Yates, etc. The number for
+January 20th, 1866, contains a humorous correspondence on
+the management of the journal between "Jabez Skinner" and
+"Blackbury Jones." Mr. H. F. Dickens kindly allows a copy
+of the number for December 30th, 1865, to be reproduced,
+which is interesting as giving an account of the Staplehurst
+accident, and also the notice issued when the journal was
+discontinued.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199"></a>[<a href="images/i_p_199.png">199</a>]</span></p>
+
+<div class='tnote'><b>Transcriber's Note:</b> Copies of the original fascimilies can be
+seen by clicking on the Gazette's page numbers</div>
+
+<h3>THE<br /></h3>
+
+<h2>GAD'S HILL GAZETTE</h2>
+<div class='bigger'>
+<div class='right'>
+Edited by H. F. Dickens<br /></div>
+<div class='center'>
+December 30th 1865  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Price 2d<br />
+</div></div>
+
+<div class='center'>&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</div>
+<div class='bigger'>We are very glad to meet our subscribers
+again after such a long lapse of
+time, and we hope that they will patronise
+us in the same kind and indulgent
+manner as they did, last season.<br />
+
+In the circulars, we announced that
+some great improvements were to be
+made in the Gazette&mdash; We are sorry
+that they cannot appear in this number
+(as our suppliers of type have disappointed
+us) but we hope that next
+week, we shall be able to publish this
+journal in quite a different form.<br />
+
+Hoping that our subscribers will excuse
+us this week, we beg to wish them all
+A Merry Christmas &amp; a Happy New Year!</div>
+
+<div class='center'>&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</div>
+<div class='bigger'>
+<div class='center'>Christmas at Gad's Hill.</div>
+
+&nbsp;During the past week, Gad's Hill has resounded
+with the sounds of festivity and merriment.<br />
+
+<div class='right'>
+(Continued on the next page)<br /></div></div>
+<div class='center'>&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200"></a>[<a href="images/i_p_200.png">200</a>]</span></p>
+
+<div class='bigger'>&nbsp;As is usually the case, the house has
+been filled with the guests who have
+come to taste of Mr Dickens' hospitality.
+These consisted of Mr Mad, and
+Master Fechter, Mr &amp; Mrs C. Collins, Mr
+Mrs and Master C. Dickens junr, Mr Morgan
+(who suddenly appeared on Christmas
+Day, having just returned from America)
+Mr M. Stone, Mr Chorley and
+Mr Dickenson.<br />
+
+&nbsp;The latter gentleman has not yet entirely
+recovered from the effects of a
+most disastrous railway accident in
+which he was a sufferer, and had it not
+been for the courage and intrepidity
+of Mr Dickens, he would not now be
+spending his Christmas at Gad's Hill.
+A short time before the accident occurred,
+Mr Dickenson had a dispute with a French
+gentleman about the opening of the window
+when the former offered to change places, if
+the open window was disagreeable to his fellow
+traveller&mdash;this they did.&mdash;<br />
+
+&nbsp;Then came the accident, accompanied by all
+its frightful incidents. The French gentleman
+was killed, Mr Dickenson was stunned and
+hurled with great violence under the debris
+of a carriage.</div>
+<div class='center'>&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201"></a>[<a href="images/i_p_201.png">201</a>]</span></p>
+
+<div class='bigger'>&nbsp;Mr Dickens, who was in another compartment,
+managed to crawl out of the window
+and then, caring little for his own safety, busied
+himself in helping the wounded. Whilst
+engaged in doing this, he passed by a carriage,
+underneath which he saw a gentleman
+(Mr Dickenson) lying perfectly still, and bleeding
+from the eyes, ears, nose and mouth.<br />
+
+&nbsp;He was immediately taken to the town
+of Staplehurst where he so far recovered as to
+be able to return to London, that evening.<br />
+
+&nbsp;Next morning he was suffering from a very
+severe concussion of the brain and was ill for
+many weeks&mdash;But to our subject.<br />
+
+&nbsp;On Christmas Day, Mr, Mrs &amp; Miss Malleson
+came to dinner. At about 9, an
+ex tempore dance began and was kept
+up till about 2 o'clock Tuesday morning.
+During the week, billiards has
+been much resorted to. (See next page)<br />
+
+&nbsp;All the visitors are still here, except
+Mr Fechter and family who left on December
+26th, and Mr Morgan (who
+is to return on 31st. Talking of Mr Fechter,
+our readers will be glad to hear
+that he has made a most decided success
+in his new piece entitled&mdash;The
+Master of Ravenswood&mdash;</div>
+<div class='center'>&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202"></a>[<a href="images/i_p_202.png">202</a>]</span></p>
+<div class='bigger'>
+<div class='center'>Sporting Intelligence.<br />
+Billiards</div>
+
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Of all the matches that have been
+played during the past week the most
+important was a Great Handicap on
+Christmas Day, the prize being a pewter.
+Annexed is an account of it.<br />
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Scores">
+<tr><td align='left'>Stone</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Scratch</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;C Dickens jun&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;20</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Harry</td><td align='right'>30</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Fechter&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right'>5</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Dickenson</td><td align='right'>20</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;C Dickens&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right'>35</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Morgan</td><td align='right'>10</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Collins</td><td align='right'>30</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Plorn</td><td align='right'>40</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p>Our space will not allow us to enter
+into the minute details of this match
+suffice it to say that Mr Dickenson won
+but that as regards good play, he was
+excelled by Mr Stone (who, however,
+was so heavily weighted that he could
+not win. Great credit is due to Mr Ch
+Dickens junr for the way in which he
+handicapped the men.</p>
+
+&nbsp;&nbsp;On Saturday 30th a match is to be played
+between The Earl of Darnley and Mr
+M Stone.
+</div>
+<div class='center'>&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</div>
+<div class='center'>&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203"></a>[<a href="images/i_p_203.png">203</a>]</span></p>
+
+
+<div class='right'>
+Gad's Hill Gazette Office.<br />
+<span style="margin-right: 2em;">January&mdash;1867.</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; In a circular issued last August, we announced
+that a final number of the Gad's Hill Gazette was to be published
+this Xmas. We are grieved however to state, that the
+shortening of the Wimbledon School holidays (in which establishment
+the Editor is a pupil) has rendered this impossible.</p>
+
+<p>It is with feelings of the deepest regret that we find ourselves
+obliged to conclude the publication of our Journal in
+this sudden and unexpected manner, but we feel sure that
+the great indulgence of the Public will overlook this, as it
+has done many other great errors in the Gad's Hill Gazette.</p>
+
+<p>In conclusion, we beg to take leave of our Subscribers in
+our public capacity of Editor, thanking them for their kindness
+in supporting our Journal, and wishing them all</p>
+
+<div class='center'>
+&mdash;"A Happy New Year."&mdash;<br />
+</div>
+<div class='sig'><img src="images/i_226.png" width="200" height="61" alt="Signature: A. F. Dickens" title="" />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-right: 6em;">(Signed) &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;          Sole Editor</span><br /></div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Hulkes had a number of pleasant recollections of
+Gad's Hill Place, and of Charles Dickens and his family.
+"As a girl," said this lady, "I was an admiring reader of his
+works, and I longed to see and know the author; but little
+did I think that my high ambition would ever be gratified."
+That a warm friendship existed between his admirer and
+Charles Dickens, who subsequently became her near neighbour,
+is evidenced by the fact that, in reply to her request, he
+allowed this lady the great privilege of reading the catastrophe
+of that exquisitely-pathetic and nobly-altruistic story of <i>A
+Tale of Two Cities</i>, some weeks before its publication, as
+appears from the following letter:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<div class='right'>
+<span style="margin-right: 3em;">"<span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place</span>,</span><br />
+"<span class="smcap">Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>.<br />
+"<i>Sunday evening, Sixteenth Oct., 1857.</i><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">My dear Mrs. Hulkes</span>,</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; "My daughter has shown me your note, and it has
+impressed me with the horrible determination to become
+a new kind of Bluebeard, and lay an awful injunction of
+secrecy on you for five mortal weeks.</p>
+
+<p>"Here is the remainder of the <i>Tale of Two Cities</i>. Not
+half-a-dozen of my oldest and most trusty literary friends
+have seen it. It is a real pleasure to me to entrust you with
+the catastrophe, and to ask you to keep a grim and inflexible
+silence on the subject until it is published. When you have
+read the proofs, will you kindly return them to me?</p>
+
+<p>"With my regard to Mr. Hulkes,</p>
+
+<div class='sig'>
+<span style="margin-right: 6em;">"Believe me always,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-right: 4em;">"Faithfully yours,</span><br />
+"<span class="smcap">Charles Dickens</span>.<br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='secsig'>"<span class="smcap">Mrs. Hulkes.</span>"</div></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Hulkes said that when Dickens went to Paris in
+1863, he jokingly said to her, "I am going to Paris; what
+shall I bring you?" She replied, "A good photograph of
+yourself, as I do not like the one you gave me; and I hear
+the French people are more successful than the English, or
+their climate may help them." And he brought a photograph
+of himself, of which there were only four printed.
+It now graces Mrs. Hulkes' drawing-room, and represents
+the novelist very life-like in full face, head and bust. The
+photograph was taken by Alphonse Maze, and has been
+exquisitely engraved in Mr. Kitton's <i>Charles Dickens by Pen
+and Pencil</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Hulkes mentioned a curious and interesting circumstance.
+On the night before the funeral of her friend, Miss
+Dickens sent down to the Little Hermitage to ask if she
+could kindly give her some roses. Mrs. Hulkes cut a
+quantity from one of the trees in the garden (Lamarque,
+she believes), and the tree never bloomed again, and soon
+after died. No doubt, as she observed, it bled to death from
+the excessive cutting. It was the second case only of the
+kind in her experience as a rose-grower during very many
+years.</p>
+
+<p>Charles Dickens also took interest in his friend's son (their
+only child, who has since finished his University career),
+and this gentleman prizes as a relic a copy of <i>A Child's
+History of England</i>, which was presented to him, with the
+following inscription written in the characteristic blue ink&mdash;"Charles
+Dickens. To his little friend, Cecil James
+Hulkes. Christmas Eve, 1864." In a letter to Miss Hogarth,
+written from New York, on Friday, 3rd January, 1868, he
+says:&mdash;"I have a letter from Mrs. Hulkes by this post,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span>
+wherein the boy encloses a violet, now lying on the table
+before me. Let her know that it arrived safely and retaining
+its colour."</p>
+
+<p>There are many interesting relics of Gad's Hill Place now
+in the possession of the family at the Little Hermitage,
+notably Charles Dickens's seal with his crest, and the initials
+C. D., his pen-tray, his desk, a photograph of the study on
+8th June, 1870 (a present from Miss Hogarth), the portrait
+above referred to, an arm-chair, a drawing-room settee, a
+dressing-table, and a library writing-table.</p>
+
+<div class='center'><big>*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</big></div>
+
+<p>On another occasion we were favoured with an interview
+by Mr. J. N. Malleson, of Brighton, who formerly resided at
+the Great Hermitage, Higham, and who was a neighbour of
+Charles Dickens for many years. Mr. Malleson came to the
+Great Hermitage in 1859, and a day or two after Christmas
+Day in that year&mdash;having previously been a guest at the
+wedding of Dickens's second daughter Kate, with Mr. Charles
+Alston Collins&mdash;he met the novelist, who, stopping to chat
+pleasantly, asked his neighbours where they dined at Christmas?
+"Oh, Darby and Joan," said our informant. Dickens
+laughingly replied:&mdash;"That shall never happen again"; and
+the following year, and every year afterwards, except when
+their friend was in America, Mr. and Mrs. Malleson received
+and accepted invitations to dine at Gad's Hill Place. On
+the exception in question, the family of Dickens dined at
+the Great Hermitage.</p>
+
+<div class='center'><big>*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</big></div>
+
+<p>In the autumn of the year 1889 we had a most interesting
+chat with Mr. William Stocker Trood, at his residence,
+Spearcehay Farm, Pitminster, pleasantly situated in the vale<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span>
+of Taunton, for many years landlord of the Sir John Falstaff
+at Gad's Hill. The first noteworthy circumstance to record
+is that his name is not <i>Edwin</i> Trood, as commonly supposed,
+but William Stocker, as above stated, Stocker being an old
+family name. This fact disposes of the supposition that the
+former two names, with the alteration of a single letter, gave
+rise in Dickens's mind to the designation of the principal
+character in <i>The Mystery of Edwin Drood</i>. The name of
+"Trood" is by the substitution of one letter easily converted
+into Drood, and that word is perhaps more euphonious with
+"Edwin" as prefixed to it; but "William Stocker" is not
+by any means easily converted into "Edwin." The idea that
+"Edwin Drood" is derived from "William Stocker Trood"
+may therefore be dismissed as a popular fallacy. It may be
+mentioned, however, <i>en passant</i>, that Mr. Trood had a brother
+named Edward, who sometimes visited him at the Falstaff,
+and also a son who bore the name of his uncle.</p>
+
+<p>We found our informant to be wonderfully genial, hale and
+hearty, although in his eighty-fifth year. He had a perfect
+recollection of Charles Dickens, and remembered his first
+coming to Gad's Hill Place. Before the house was properly
+furnished and put in order, both Mr. and Mrs. Dickens sometimes
+slept at the Falstaff; and afterwards, when visitors
+were staying at Gad's Hill Place, and the bedrooms there
+were full, some of them slept at the Inn; in particular, John
+Forster, Wilkie Collins, and Marcus Stone. He said Mr.
+Dickens was a very nice man to speak to, and Mrs. Dickens
+was a very nice lady. They were always kind and pleasant
+as neighbours, but Mr. Dickens did not talk much. Said
+Mr. Trood:&mdash;"When I was at Higham, Mr. Dickens used to
+say no one could put in a word; I had all the talk to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span>
+myself." The sons were all very pleasant; in fact, he
+liked the family very much indeed.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Trood sometimes acted as local banker to Charles
+Dickens, and used to cash his cheques for him. Only the
+day before his death, he cashed a cheque for &pound;22, and was
+subsequently offered &pound;24 for it by an admirer of Dickens
+who desired the autograph; but to his credit it should be
+mentioned that he did not accept the offer.</p>
+
+<p>Our informant next spoke of the wonderful partiality
+of Dickens to cricket; he would stand out all night if he
+could watch a cricket match. The matches were always
+played in Mr. Dickens's field, and the business meetings
+of the club were held monthly at the Falstaff. Mr. Trood
+was Treasurer of the club. Occasionally there was a
+dinner.</p>
+
+<p>A circumstance was related which made a profound impression
+on our friend. The family at Gad's Hill Place were
+very fond of music, and on one occasion there were present
+as visitors two great violinists, one a German and the other an
+Italian, and it was a debated question among the listeners
+outside the gates, where the music could be distinctly heard,
+which played the better. Mr. Trood had just returned from
+Gravesend in the cool of the summer evening, about ten
+o'clock, and stood in the road opposite listening, "spellbound,"
+to the delightful music. Miss Dickens played the
+accompaniments.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Trood spoke with a lively and appreciative recollection
+of the Christmas sports that were held in a field at the back
+of Gad's Hill Place, and of the good order and nice feeling
+that prevailed at those gatherings, although several thousand
+people were present. Among the games that were played,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span>
+the wheeling of barrows by blind-folded men seemed to
+tickle him most.</p>
+
+<p>Our octogenarian friend also spoke of the great love of
+Dickens for scarlet geraniums. Hundreds of the "Tom
+Thumb" variety were planted in the beds on the front lawn
+and in the back garden at Gad's Hill Place.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after the terrible railway accident at Staplehurst,
+Dickens came over to the Falstaff and spoke to Mr. Trood,
+who congratulated him. Said Dickens, "I never thought I
+should be here again." It is a wonderful coincidence to
+record, that a young gentleman named Dickenson, who
+subsequently became intimate with the novelist, changed
+places (so as to get the benefit of meeting the fresh air) with
+a French gentleman in the same carriage who was killed, and
+Mr. Dickenson escaped! The accident happened on the 9th
+June, 1865, and Dickens died on the "fatal anniversary," 9th
+June, 1870.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Trood confirmed his daughter's (Mrs. Latter's) account
+of the <i>fra&ccedil;as</i> with the men and performing bears, given in
+another chapter, adding, "That <i>was</i> a concern."</p>
+
+<div class='center'><big>*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</big></div>
+
+<p>The beautiful city of Exeter is not far from Taunton, and
+we naturally avail ourselves of the opportunity of stopping
+there for a few hours, and stroll over to see the village of
+Alphington. It was here, in the year 1839, that Charles
+Dickens took and furnished Mile End Cottage for his father
+and mother and their youngest son. He thus describes the
+event in a letter to Forster:&mdash;"I took a little house for them
+this morning (5th March, 1839), and if they are not pleased
+with it I shall be grievously disappointed. Exactly a mile
+beyond the city on the Plymouth road there are two white<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span>
+cottages: one is theirs, and the other belongs to their landlady.
+I almost forget the number of rooms, but there is
+an excellent parlour with two other rooms on the ground
+floor, there is really a beautiful little room over the parlour
+which I am furnishing as a drawing-room, and there is a
+splendid garden. The paint and paper throughout is new
+and fresh and cheerful-looking, the place is clean beyond all
+description, and the neighbourhood I suppose the most
+beautiful in this most beautiful of English counties." The
+negotiations with the landlady and the operation of furnishing
+the house are most humorously pourtrayed in the same
+letter.</p>
+
+<p>The cottage is also described in <i>Nicholas Nickleby</i>, which
+he was writing at the time. Mrs. Nickleby, in allusion to her
+old home, calls it "the beautiful little thatched white house
+one storey high, covered all over with ivy and creeping
+plants, with an exquisite little porch with twining honeysuckles
+and all sorts of things."</p>
+
+<p>Fifty years have passed since the parents of the novelist
+went to live at Alphington, which, notwithstanding the subsequent
+growth of the city, still continues to be a pretty suburb
+with fine views of the Ide Hills to the westward, and Heavitree
+to the eastward. Our efforts to obtain any reminiscences
+of the Dickens family in the village were quite unsuccessful&mdash;so
+long a time had elapsed since their departure&mdash;although,
+to oblige us, the vicar of the place kindly made enquiries,
+and took some interest in the matter.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>CHARLES DICKENS AND STROOD.</h3>
+
+<div class="hang2">"So altered was the battle-ground, where thousands upon thousands had
+been killed in the great fight."&mdash;<i>The Battle of Life.</i></div>
+
+<div class="hang2">"Keep me always at it, I'll keep you always at it, you keep somebody
+else always at it. There you are, with the Whole Duty of Man in a
+commercial country."&mdash;<i>Little Dorrit.</i></div>
+
+
+<div class='unindent'><span class="smcap">The</span> town of Strood,&mdash;the Roman <i>Strata</i>,&mdash;which stands on
+the left bank of the river Medway, has, like the city of
+Rochester, its interesting historical associations. Its Church,
+dedicated to St. Nicholas, stands high on the north side of
+the London road leading to Gad's Hill, and has a brass of
+T. Glover and his three wives. At one time there was a
+hospital for travellers, founded by Bishop Glanville (<i>temp.</i>
+Richard I.), near the Church. The most interesting remains
+are, however, those of the Temple Farm, distant about half
+a mile south, formerly (<i>temp.</i> Henry II.) the mansion of the
+Knights Templars of the Teutonic order, to whom it, together
+with the lands thereto belonging, was given by that monarch.
+The gift was confirmed by King John and by Henry III.
+(1227); but the unfortunate brethren of the order did not
+retain possession more than a century, for in the reign of
+Edward II. they were dispossessed of their lands and goods,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span>
+under pretence of their leading a vicious course of life, but in
+reality to satisfy the avarice of their dispossessors. The
+present building dates from about James I., has one fine room
+overlooking the river, and underneath is a spacious vault
+called by Grose the "Preceptory," excavated out of the chalk,
+and having fine groined stone arches and aisles&mdash;the walls are
+of very great thickness. Near Frindsbury Church&mdash;in which
+are three most interesting wall-paintings of St. William the
+Baker of Perth, St. Lawrence, and another figure, all three
+discovered on the jambs of the Norman windows only a
+few years ago&mdash;stands the Quarry House, a handsome old
+red-brick mansion, "described as more Jacobean than
+Elizabethan," built in the form of a capital E, each storey
+slightly receding behind the front level of that beneath it,
+the top tapering into pretty gables, the effect being enhanced
+by heavy buttresses.</div>
+
+<p>There is a dreadful legend of the ancient people of Strood
+common to several other parts of the kingdom, <i>e.g.</i> Auster
+in Dorsetshire, which the quaint and diligent Lambarde,
+quoting from Polydore Virgil, evidently regarded as serious,
+and takes immense pains to confute! It relates to St.
+Thomas &agrave; Becket and his contention with King Henry II.,
+whereby he began to be looked upon as the King's enemy,
+and as such began to be "so commonly neglected, contemned,
+and hated:&mdash;</p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213"></a>
+<img src="images/i_236.png" width="600" height="354" alt="Temple Farm Strood" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>"That when as it happened him upon a time to come to
+<i>Stroude</i>, the Inhabitants thereabouts (being desirous to dispite
+that good Father) sticked not to cut the tail from the
+horse on which he road, binding themselves thereby with a
+perpetuall reproach: for afterward (by the will of God) it so
+happened, that every one which came of that kinred of men<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span>
+which plaied that naughty prank, were borne with tails, even
+as brute beasts be."</p>
+
+
+<p>Surely had the credulous historian lived in Darwinian
+times, he might have recorded this as a splendid instance of
+"degeneration"!</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/i_237.png" width="450" height="392" alt="At Temple Farm Strood" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>In a lecture delivered here some years ago, the Rev. Canon
+Scott Robertson, Editor of <i>Arch&aelig;ologia Cantiana</i>, gave a
+graphic picture of "Strood in the Olden Times." To this
+we are much indebted for the opportunity of giving an
+abstract of several of the most interesting details.</p>
+
+<p>In the thirteenth century Strood and Rochester were the
+scene of a severe struggle between Simon de Montfort, Earl<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span>
+of Leicester, the leader of the Barons in their war against
+Henry III. to resist the aggressive encroachments of the King
+on the liberties of the subject, and the supporters of that
+monarch.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/i_238.png" width="400" height="331" alt="Crypt Temple Farm" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>Simon de Montfort, who was a Strood landowner, and
+possessed of other large properties in Kent, took the lead,
+followed by several other nobles, in the siege of Rochester.
+Their first obstacle was the fortified gate-house at the Strood
+end of Rochester Bridge, and for some time their efforts were
+in vain, till at length, by means of small ships filled with
+inflammable matter, set on fire and driven towards the centre
+of the wooden bridge, causing "actual or expected ignition of
+the timbers," the King's soldiers were dismayed and retreated.
+The Earl of Gloucester simultaneously reached the south end<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span>
+of the city, and the Barons took possession thereof, sacking
+the town, monastery, and Cathedral Church. The garrison
+of the Castle shut themselves up in the strong Norman
+Keep, and held it till relieved by Prince Edward, the King's
+son.</p>
+
+<p>The Castle was subsequently taken by Simon de Montfort
+after the Battle of Lewes (1264), where Henry III. was taken
+prisoner and brought to Rochester, and a Proclamation was
+issued transferring the custody of the Royal Castle to the
+Barons.</p>
+
+<p>At the Battle of Evesham (1265) Simon de Montfort was
+slain; and the King, on becoming master of the situation,
+imposed a fine, equivalent to about &pound;1,500 of our money, on
+Strood, because it was the headquarters of Simon during his
+assault on Rochester. The fine caused much ill-feeling
+between the two towns, which lasted until the reign of
+Edward I. Such was Strood in the olden times.</p>
+
+<p>Long years have since passed, and the amenities of
+an industrial age have succeeded to these turmoils. The
+town of Strood appears to be flourishing, and now possesses
+large engineering works, cement manufactories, flour mills,
+and other extensive industries.</p>
+
+<p>Allusion has been previously made to a very entertaining
+<i>brochure</i>, entitled <i>Charles Dickens and Rochester</i>, by Mr.
+Robert Langton, F. R. Hist. Soc. of Manchester (himself, we
+believe, a Rochester man). In it there is scarcely any
+reference to Strood, although the sister-town, Chatham, is
+freely mentioned. Our enquiries at Strood, on the Tuesday
+and subsequently, resulted in the discovery of many most
+interesting memorials of Charles Dickens in connection with
+that town, enough almost to fill a small volume. There was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span>
+a general impression that Dickens had no great liking for
+Strood, and yet it was a doctor from that town who was one
+of his most intimate friends, and who attended him in his last
+illness; it was a builder in Strood who executed most of the
+alterations and repairs at Gad's Hill Place; it was a Strood
+contractor who gave him the souvenir of old Rochester
+Bridge; it was at Strood that an eminent local scientist lived,
+who was incidentally, but very importantly, associated with
+him in the movement connected with the Guild of Literature
+and Art; and it was at a quiet roadside inn at Strood that
+he sometimes called to refresh himself after one of those
+long walks, alone or with friends, for which he was famous.</p>
+
+<p>Let us reverse the order of the above, and give a recollection
+from the last-mentioned. The "Crispin and Crispianus"
+is a very old-fashioned inn, which stands on the north side
+of the London road just out of Strood, and was, as we were
+informed, erected some centuries ago. It is a long building,
+of brick below, with an overhanging upper floor and weather-boarded
+front, surmounted by a single dormer window.
+The sanded floor of the common parlour is, as the saying
+goes, "as clean as a new pin." Round the room is a settle
+terminating with arms at each side of the door, which is
+opposite the fireplace. Mrs. Masters, the cheerful and
+obliging landlady, who has lived here thirty years, describes
+Dickens to us (as we sit in the seat he used now and then
+to occupy), when on one of his walks, as habited in low shoes
+not over-well mended, loose large check-patterned trousers
+that sometimes got entangled in the shoes when walking, a
+brown coat thrown open, sometimes without waistcoat, a belt
+instead of braces, a necktie which now and then got round
+towards his ear, and a large-brimmed felt hat, similar to an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span>
+American's, set well at the back of his head. In his hand he
+carried by the middle an umbrella, which he was in the habit
+of constantly swinging, and if he had dogs (a not unfrequent
+occurrence), he had a small
+whip as well. He walked in
+the middle of the road at a
+rapid pace, upright, but with
+his eyes cast down as if
+in deep thought. When he
+called at the Crispin for refreshment, usually a glass of ale
+(mild sixpenny&mdash;bitter ale was not drawn in those days), or
+a little cold brandy and water, he walked straight in, and sat
+down at the corner of the settle on the right-hand side where<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span>
+the arm is, opposite the fire-place; he rarely spoke to any one,
+but looked round as though taking in everything at a glance.
+(In <i>David Copperfield</i> he says, "I looked at nothing, that I
+know of, but I saw everything.") Once he and a friend were
+sheltering there during a thunderstorm (by a coincidence, a
+storm occurs at the time we are here), and while Dickens
+stood looking out of the window he saw opposite a poor
+woman with a baby, who appeared very worn, wet, and
+travel-stained. She too was sheltering from the rain.</p>
+<div class='center'> <a name="crispin" id="crispin"></a><table class="crispin" summary="crispin">
+<tr><td align='left'><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+<br /><br /><br /><br /> <br /><br /><br /><br />
+<div class='blockquot2'>
+<p>"Call her in here," said Dickens. Mrs. Masters obeyed.</p>
+
+
+<p>"Now," said he, "draw her some brandy."</p>
+
+<p>"How much?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind," he answered, "draw her some."</p>
+
+<p>The landlady drew her four-pennyworth, the quantity
+generally served.</p></div>
+</td>
+</tr></table></div>
+
+<p>"Now," said Dickens to the woman, "drink that up," which
+she did, and soon seemed refreshed. Dickens gave her a
+shilling, and remarked to Mrs. Masters that "now she will go
+on her way rejoicing." The story is a trivial one, but the
+units make the aggregate, and it sufficiently indicates his
+kindness of heart and thoughtfulness for others.</p>
+
+<p>In some of his walks Dickens was accompanied either by
+his sister-in-law, Miss Hogarth, or by friends who were staying
+at "Gad's" (or the "Place," as it was sometimes called).
+Mrs. Masters, whose recollections of Dickens are very vivid,
+said&mdash;"Lor! we never thought much about him when he
+was alive; it was only when his death took place that we
+understood what a great man he was." Alas! it is not the
+first instance that "a prophet is not without honour, save in his
+own country, and in his own house." The news of his death
+was a great shock to Mrs. Masters, who heard of it from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span>
+Edward, son of Mr. W. S. Trood, the landlord of the Sir
+John Falstaff, as he was bearing the intelligence to Rochester
+within half-an-hour after the event.</p>
+
+<p>In passing we should mention, that the Crispin and Crispianus
+has been immortalized in the chapter on "Tramps,"
+in <i>The Uncommercial Traveller</i>, where, in reference to the
+handicrafts of certain tramps, Dickens imagines himself to be
+a travelling clockmaker, and after adjusting "t'ould clock" in
+the keeper's kitchen, "he sees to something wrong with the
+bell of the turret stable clock up at the Hall [Cobham Hall].&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.
+Our task at length accomplished, we should be taken
+into an enormous servants'-hall, and there regaled with beef
+and bread, and powerful ale. Then, paid freely, we should be
+at liberty to go, and should be told by a pointing helper to
+keep round over yinder by the blasted ash, and so straight
+through the woods till we should see the town-lights right
+afore us.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. So should we lie that night at the ancient sign
+of the Crispin and Crispianus [at Strood], and rise early next
+morning to be betimes on tramp again."<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span></p>
+<p>We are also indebted to Mrs. Masters for an introduction
+to our next informant, Mr. J. Couchman, master-builder
+and undertaker of Strood, who, though advanced in years
+and tried by illness, is very free and chatty; and from him
+and his son we obtained some interesting facts. He had
+worked for Charles Dickens at Gad's Hill Place, from the
+date of his going there ("which," says Mr. Couchman, "was on
+Whitsun Monday, 1856,") until the 11th June, 1870, two days
+after the sad occurrence "which eclipsed the gaiety of nations."</p>
+
+<p>From Mr. Couchman's standpoint as a tradesman, it is
+interesting to record his experience of Dickens in his own
+words. "Mr. Dickens," he says, "was always very straightforward,
+honourable, and kind, and paid his bills most regularly.
+The first work I did for him was to make a dog-kennel;
+I also put up the ch&acirc;let at Gad's Hill. When it was
+forwarded from London, which was by water, Mr. Fechter
+[whose name he did not at first remember] sent a Frenchman
+to assist in the erection. The ch&acirc;let consisted of ninety-four
+pieces, all fitting accurately together like a puzzle. The
+Frenchman did not understand it, and could not make out
+the fitting of the pieces. So I asked Mr. Henry [Mr. Henry
+Fielding Dickens, the novelist's sixth son, the present Recorder
+of Deal] if he understood French. He said 'Yes,' and
+told me the names of the different pieces, and I managed it
+without the Frenchman, who stayed the night, and went away
+next day." In conversation, we suggest that the circumstance
+of the ch&acirc;let having been made in Switzerland may
+have embarrassed the Frenchman, he not having been accustomed
+to that kind of work. In his letter to Forster of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span>
+7th June, 1865, Dickens says:&mdash;"The ch&acirc;let is going on
+excellently, though the ornamental part is more slowly put
+together than the substantial. It will really be a very pretty
+thing; and in the summer (supposing it not to be blown
+away in the spring), the upper room will make a charming
+study. It is much higher than we supposed."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Couchman also took down the ch&acirc;let after Charles
+Dickens's death, and erected it at the Crystal Palace at
+Sydenham, where it remained for a short time, and was
+subsequently presented to the Earl of Darnley by several
+members of the Dickens family. His lordship afterwards
+ordered him to fit it up at Cobham Hall, where, as previously
+stated, it now stands. The woods of which it is constructed
+he believed to be Baltic oak and a kind of pine, the lighter
+parts being of maple or sycamore. We saw it subsequently.</p>
+
+<p>Several contracts were entered into by Mr. Couchman with
+Charles Dickens for the extension and modification of Gad's
+Hill Place, notably during the year 1861. We are favoured
+with a sight of an original specification signed by both parties,
+which is as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><div class='center'>"Specification of works proposed to be done at Gad's Hill House,
+Higham, for C. Dickens, Esq.</div>
+
+<p>"<i>Bricklayer.</i>&mdash;To take off slates and copings and heighten brick
+walls and chimneys, and build No. 2 new chimneys with stock and
+picking bricks laid in cement. No. 2 chimney bars, to cope gable
+ends with old stone. No. 2 hearthstones. No. 2 plain stone chimney-pieces.
+No. 2&mdash;2 ft. 6 in. Register stoves. To lath and
+plaster ceiling, side walls, and partitions with lime and hair two
+coats, and set to slate the new roof with good countess slates and
+metal nails.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Carpenter.</i>&mdash;To take off roof, to lay floor joist with 7 &times; 2&frac12; in.
+yellow battens; to fix roof, ceiling, joist and partitions of good fir<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span>
+timber, 4 ft. &times; 2 ft.; to use old timber that is sound and fit for use;
+to close board roof, lead flat and gutters; to lay 1 in. &times; 9 in. white
+deal floors, to skirt rooms with 8 in. &times; &frac34; in. deal; to fix No. 4 pairs of
+1&frac34; in. sashes and frames for plate-glass as per order. <i>All the sashes
+to have weights and pulleys for opening.</i> To fix No. 2&mdash;6 ft. 6 in. &times;
+2 ft. 6 in. 1&frac12; in., four panel doors, and encase frames with all necessary
+mouldings; to fix window linings, and 1&frac12; in. square framings
+and doors for No. 2 dressing-rooms; to fix No. 2, 7 in. rim locks.
+No. 2 box latches, sash fastenings, sash weights, to fix 4 in. O. G.
+iron eaves, gutter with cistern heads, and 3 in. iron leading pipes.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Plumber, Glazier, and Painter.</i>&mdash;To take up old lead guttering,
+and lay new gutters and lead flats with 6lb. lead, ridge and flushings
+with 5lb. lead; to paint all wood and iron-work that requires painting
+4 coats in oil, the windows to be glazed with good plate glass; to
+paper rooms and landings when the walls are dry with paper of the
+value of 1<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> per piece, the old lead to be the property of the
+plumber. <i>The two cisterns to be carried up and replaced on new roof,
+the pipes attached to them to be lengthened as required by the alterations;
+and a water tap to be fitted in each dressing-room.</i></p>
+
+<p>"All old materials not used and rubbish to be carted away by the
+contractor. All the work to be completed in a sound and workman-like
+manner to the satisfaction of C. Dickens, Esq., for the sum
+of &pound;241. The roof to be slated and flat covered with lead in one
+month from commencing the work. The whole to be completed&mdash;paper
+excepted&mdash;and all rubbish cleared away by the 30th day of
+November, 1861.</p>
+
+<div class='sig'>
+<span style="margin-right: 2em;">"(Signed) <span class="smcap">J. Couchman</span>,</span><br />
+"Builder.<br />
+</div><div class='secsig'>
+"<i>High Street, Strood</i>,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"<i>Sep. 10th, 1861.</i>"</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Then follows in Dickens's own handwriting:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"<i>The above contract I accept on the stipulated conditions; the
+specified </i>time<i>, in common with all the other conditions, to be strictly
+observed.</i></p>
+
+<div class='sig'>
+"(Signed) <span class="smcap">Charles Dickens.</span><br />
+</div><div class='secsig'>
+"<i>Gad's Hill Place,</i><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"<i>Saturday, 21st Sep., 1861.</i>"</span><br />
+</div></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>What is most interesting to notice in the above specification,
+is the careful way in which Dickens appears to have
+mastered all the details, and the very sensible interlineations
+given in italics which he made, (1) as to the sashes and
+weights, (2) as to the two cisterns, and especially (3) in the
+final memorandum as to <i>time</i>.</p>
+
+<p>It is also worthy of remark, that the work <i>was</i> completed in
+the specified time, the bill duly sent in, and the next day
+Dickens sent a cheque for the amount.</p>
+
+<p>Another contract, amounting to &pound;393, was executed by Mr.
+Couchman, for extensions at Gad's Hill. On its completion,
+Mr. Dickens paid him by two cheques. He went up to
+London to the Bank (Coutts's in the Strand) to cash them.
+The clerk just looked at the cheques, the signature apparently
+being very familiar to him, and then put the usual question&mdash;"How
+will you have it?" to which he replied, "Notes,
+please."</p>
+
+<p>It appears that, as is frequently the case in large establishments,
+orders were sometimes given by the servants for work
+which the master knew nothing about until the bill was
+presented; and to prevent this, Dickens issued instructions
+to the tradesmen that they were not to execute any work
+for him without his written authority. The following is an
+illustration of this new arrangement:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<div class='right'>
+<span style="margin-right: 4em;">"<span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place</span>,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-right: 1em;">"<span class="smcap">Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>.</span><br />
+"<i>Thursday, 5th Nov., 1858.</i><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Mr. Couchman</span>,</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; "Please to ease the coach-house doors, and to put up
+some pegs, agreeably to George Belcher's directions.</p>
+
+<div class='sig'>
+"<span class="smcap">Charles Dickens</span>."<br />
+</div></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It should be mentioned that George Belcher was the coachman
+at the time.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Couchman recalls an interesting custom that was
+maintained at Gad's Hill. There were a number of tin check
+plates, marked respectively 3<i>d.</i> and 6<i>d.</i> each, which enabled the
+person to whom they were given to obtain an equivalent in
+refreshment of any kind at the Sir John Falstaff. The
+threepenny checks were for the workmen, and the sixpenny
+ones for the tradesmen. The chief housemaid had the distribution
+of these checks to persons employed in the house,
+the head-gardener to those engaged in the gardens, and the
+coachman to those in the stables. On one occasion, our
+informant remembers when his men were engaged upon some
+work at Gad's Hill, such checks were given out to them, and
+that he also had one offered to him; but, recollecting that
+his position as a master scarcely entitled him to the privilege,
+he stated his objections to the housemaid, who said in reply
+that it was a pity to break an old custom, he had better have
+one. "So," says our informant, "I had a sixpenny ticket with
+the others, and obtained my refreshment."</p>
+
+<p>He has in his photographic album a carte-de-visite of
+Charles Dickens, by Watkins. It is the well-known one in
+which the novelist is represented in a sitting position, dressed
+in a grey suit; and the owner considered it a very good
+likeness. He also showed us a funeral card which he thought
+had been sent to him by the family of Dickens at the time of
+his death, but judging by its contents, this seems impossible.
+It is, however, well worth transcribing:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span>&mdash;</p>
+<div class='bbox'>
+<div class='center'>
+To the Memory of<br />
+<b>Charles Dickens</b><br />
+(England's most popular author),<br />
+who died at his Residence,<br />
+Higham, near Rochester, Kent,<br />
+June 9th, 1870.<br />
+Aged 58 years.<br />
+
+<br />
+<small>He was a sympathizer with the poor, suffering, and<br />
+oppressed; and by his death one of England's<br />
+greatest writers is lost to the world.</small></div>
+</div>
+<p>Mr. Couchman confirms the verbal sketch of Dickens
+as drawn by his neighbour, Mrs. Masters, and states that
+Dickens used to put up his dogs ("Linda" and "Turk"),
+"boisterous companions as they always were," in the stables
+whenever he came to see him on business.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. William Ball, J.P., of Hillside, Strood, kindly favoured
+us with many interviews, and generally took great interest
+in the subject of our visit to "Dickens-Land," rendering
+invaluable assistance in our enquiries. This gentleman is the
+son of Mr. John H. Ball, the well-known contractor, who
+removed old Rochester Bridge; he is also a brother-in-law of
+the late gifted tenor, Mr. Joseph Maas, to whom a handsome
+memorial tablet, consisting of a marble medallion of the
+deceased, over which is a lyre with one of the strings
+broken, has since been erected on the east wall of the south
+transept of Rochester Cathedral. By Mr. Ball's considerate
+courtesy and that of his daughters, we are allowed to
+see many interesting relics of Charles Dickens and Gad's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span>
+Hill.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> When Mr. Ball's father removed the old bridge in
+1859, it will be remembered that he offered to present the
+novelist with one of the balustrades as a souvenir, the offer
+being gracefully and promptly accepted, as the following
+letter testifies:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<div class='right'>
+<span style="margin-right: 4em;">"<span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place</span>,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-right: 2em;">"<span class="smcap">Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>.</span><br />
+"<i>Thursday, eighth June, 1859.</i><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Sir</span>,</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; "I feel exceedingly obliged to you for your kind and
+considerate offer of a remembrance of old Rochester Bridge;
+that will interest me very much. I accept the relic with
+many thanks, and with great pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>"Do me the favor to let it be delivered to a workman who
+will receive instructions to bring it away, and once again
+accept my acknowledgments.</p>
+
+<div class='sig'>
+<span style="margin-right: 3em;">"Yours faithfully,</span><br />
+"<span class="smcap">Charles Dickens</span>.<br />
+</div><div class='secsig'>
+"<span class="smcap">Mr. John H. Ball.</span>"<br />
+</div></div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span></p>
+<p>The present Mr. William Ball, then a young lad, was the
+bearer of the gift, and on being asked by us why he didn't ask
+to see the great novelist, replies, "Yes, I ought to have done
+so, but I was afraid of the dogs!"</p>
+
+<p>The balustrade, which was placed on the back lawn at Gad's
+Hill, was mounted on a square pedestal, on the sides of which
+were representations of the four seasons, and a sun-dial
+crowned the capital. Something like it, but a little modified,
+appears in one of Mr. Luke Fildes's beautiful illustrations
+to the original edition of <i>Edwin Drood</i>, entitled "Jasper's
+Sacrifices." Three more of the balustrades now ornament
+Mr. Ball's garden at Hillside.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ball the elder was invited to send in a tender for the
+construction of the tunnel at Gad's Hill previously mentioned,
+but it was not accepted, as appears from a letter addressed to
+him by Mr. Alfred L. Dickens (Charles Dickens's brother), of
+which we are allowed to take a copy:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><div class='right'>
+<span style="margin-right: 4em;">"8, <span class="smcap">Richmond Terrace</span>,</span><br />
+
+<span style="margin-right: 2em;">"<span class="smcap">Whitehall, S.W.</span></span><br />
+
+"<i>August 30th, 1859.</i><br />
+</div>
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; "I am very sorry that absence from home has prevented
+my replying to your note as to the tender for the
+Gad's Hill tunnel before.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; "I much regret that the amount of your tender is so
+much higher than my estimate, that I cannot recommend my
+brother to accept it.</p>
+
+<div class='sig'>
+<span style="margin-right: 10em;">"I am,</span><br />
+
+<span style="margin-right: 8em;">"Dear Sir,</span><br />
+
+<span style="margin-right: 4em;">"Yours faithfully,</span><br />
+
+"<span class="smcap">Alfred L. Dickens</span>.<br />
+</div>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Mr. Ball.</span>"</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Among the Dickens relics at Hillside, we are shown by
+Mr. Ball the pretty set of five silver bells presented by his
+friend Mr. F. Lehmann, to the novelist, who always used
+them when driving out in his basket pony-phaeton. They
+are fastened on to a leather pad, and make a pleasant musical
+sound when shaken. They are of graduated sizes, the largest
+being somewhat smaller than a tennis-ball, and appear to be
+in the key of C: comprising the Tonic, Third, Fifth, Octave,
+and Octave of the Third.</p>
+
+<p>There is also a hall clock with maker's name&mdash;"Bennett,
+Cheapside, London." This was the "werry identical" clock
+respecting which Dickens wrote the following characteristically
+humorous letter to Sir John Bennett:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"<span class="smcap">My Dear Sir</span>,</p>
+
+<p>"Since my hall clock was sent to your establishment
+to be cleaned it has gone (as indeed it always had)
+perfectly well, but has struck the hours with great reluctance,
+and after enduring internal agonies of a most
+distressing nature, it has now ceased striking altogether.
+Though a happy release for the clock, this is not convenient
+to the household. If you can send down any confidential
+person with whom the clock can confer, I think it may have
+something on its works that it would be glad to make a clean
+breast of.</p>
+
+<div class='sig'>
+<span style="margin-right: 2em;">"Faithfully yours,</span><br />
+"<span class="smcap">Charles Dickens</span>."<br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Included among the relics are a very handsome mahogany
+fire-screen in three folds, of red morocco, with Grecian key-border,
+a musical Canterbury, and a bookcase. But the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span>
+most interesting object from an art point of view is an
+India proof copy, "before letters," of Sir Edwin Landseer's
+beautiful picture of "King Charles's Spaniels," the original of
+which is said to have been painted for the late Mr. Vernon in
+two days, and is now in the National Gallery. The engraving
+of the picture is by Outram. It has the initials in pencil
+"E. L.," and a little ticket on the frame&mdash;"Lot 445," that being
+the number in the auctioneer's catalogue.</p>
+
+<p>The following is the story as recently told by Mr. W. P.
+Frith, R.A., in his most interesting and readable <i>Autobiography
+and Reminiscences</i>, 1887:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"His" [Sir Edwin's] "rapidity of execution was extraordinary.
+In the National Gallery there is a picture of Two
+Spaniels, of what is erroneously called the Charles II. breed
+(the real dog of that time is of a different form and breed
+altogether, as may be seen in pictures of the period), the size
+of life, with appropriate accompaniments, painted by him in
+two days. An empty frame had been sent to the British
+Institution, where it was hung on the wall, waiting for its
+tenant&mdash;a picture of a lady with dogs&mdash;till Landseer felt the
+impossibility of finishing the picture satisfactorily. Time had
+passed, till two days only remained before the opening of the
+Exhibition. Something must be done; and in the time
+named those wonderfully life-like little dogs were produced."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ball has also an interesting photograph of the "Last
+Lot," some bottles of wine, evidently taken on the occasion of
+the sale at Gad's Hill Place after Dickens's death, the auctioneer
+being represented with his hammer raised ready to fall,
+and a smile upon his face. Among the crowd, consisting
+principally of London and local dealers, may be seen two
+local policemen with peaked caps, and auctioneer's porters<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span>
+in shirt-sleeves and aprons. The sale took place in a large
+tent at the back of the house and close to the well, which can
+be readily seen through an opening in the tent.</p>
+
+<p>The next person whom we meet at Strood is Mr. Charles
+Roach Smith, F.S.A., the eminent arch&aelig;ologist, who has
+achieved a European reputation, and from whom we get
+many interesting particulars relating to Dickens. We heard
+some idle gossip at Rochester to the effect that Mr. Roach
+Smith always felt a little "touchy" about the satire on
+arch&aelig;ology in <i>Pickwick</i>, <i>in re</i> "Bill Stumps, his mark."
+That, however, we took <i>cum grano salis</i>, because this gentleman,
+from his delightful conversation and frank manner, is
+evidently above any such littleness. He is, however, free
+to confess, that Dickens had not much love for Strood, but
+infinitely preferred Chatham.</p>
+
+<p>There had been but little personal intercourse between
+Dickens and Mr. Roach Smith, though each respected the
+other. Our informant says that, soon after the novelist came
+to Gad's Hill Place, Mrs. Dickens called and left her husband's
+card, which he, whether rightly or not, took as an intimation
+that the acquaintance was not to be extended. He spoke
+with all the enthusiasm of a man of science, and rather
+bitterly too, of a certain reading given by Dickens at Chatham
+to an overflowing house, whereas on the same evening a
+distinguished Professor of Agriculture (a Mr. Roberts or
+Robinson, we believe), who came to instruct the people at
+Ashford (one of the neighbouring towns) by means of a
+lecture, failed to secure an audience, and only got a few
+pence for admissions. The learned Professor subsequently
+poured forth his troubles to Mr. Roach Smith, from whom he
+obtained sympathy and hospitality. We venture to remind<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span>
+our good friend that the public in general much prefer
+amusement to instruction, at which he laughs, and says that
+in this matter he perfectly agrees with us. He expresses his
+strong opinion as to Dickens's reading of the "Murder of
+Nancy" (<i>Oliver Twist</i>), which he characterizes as "repulsive
+and indecent."</p>
+
+<p>The most important communication made to us by Mr.
+Roach Smith is that contained in volume ii. of his recently
+published <i>Reminiscences and Retrospections, Social and Arch&aelig;ological</i>,
+1886. As this interesting work may not be generally
+accessible, it is as well to quote the passage intact. It has
+reference to the Guild of Literature and Art, for the promotion
+of which Dickens, Lord Lytton, John Forster, Mark Lemon,
+John Leech, and others, gave so much valuable time and
+energy, in addition to liberal pecuniary support. The following
+is the extract:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Of Mr. Dodd I knew much. He was one of my earliest
+friends when I lived in Liverpool Street&mdash;I may say, one of
+my earliest patrons; and the intimacy continued up to his
+death, a few years since. The story of his connection with
+the movement for a dramatic college, and of his rapid
+separation from it, a deposition by order of the projectors
+and directors, forms a curious episode in the history of our
+friendship; and especially so, as I had an important, though
+unseen, part to sustain.</p>
+
+<p>"In the summer of 1858 I was summoned to Mr. Dodd's
+residence at the City Wharf, New North Road, Hoxton, to
+give consent to be a trustee, with Messrs. Cobden and Bright,
+for five acres of land, which Mr. Dodd was about to give for
+the building of a dramatic college, which had been resolved
+on at a public meeting, held on the 21st of July in this year,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span>
+in the Princess's Theatre, Mr. Charles Kean acting as chairman.
+'I give this most freely,' said Mr. Dodd to me, 'for it is to
+the stage I am indebted for my education; to it I owe whatsoever
+may be good in me.' That there was much good in
+him, thousands can testify; and thousands yet to come will be
+evidence to his benevolence. Of course, I felt pleased in being
+selected to act as a trustee for this gift. I conceived, and I
+suppose I was correct, that Mr. Dodd intended that his gift
+was strictly for a dramatic college, and for no other purpose,
+then or thereafter. Having expressed my willingness and
+resolution to be faithful to the trust, I said, 'I presume, Mr.
+Dodd, you stipulate for a presentation?' He looked rather
+surprised; and asked his solicitor, who sat by him, how they
+came to overlook this? Both of them directly agreed that this
+simple return should be required.</p>
+
+<p>"I must leave such of my readers as feel inclined, to search
+in the public journals for the correspondence between the
+directors and Mr. Dodd up to the 13th of January, 1859, when,
+at a meeting held in the Adelphi Theatre, Lord Tenterden in
+the chair, it was stated that Mr. Dodd evinced, through his
+solicitor, a disposition to fence round his gift with legal
+restrictions and stipulations, which apprised the committee of
+coming difficulty; and the meeting unanimously agreed to
+decline Mr. Dodd's offer of land. Previously and subsequently
+to this, Mr. Dodd was most discourteously commented on
+and attacked in the newspapers, the editors of which, however,
+sided with him. I was told that the stipulation for a
+presentation was the great offence; but I should think that
+the provision made against the improper use of the land must
+have been the real grievance. In the very last letter I
+received from Mr. Dodd, not very long anterior to his death,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span>
+he says that Mark Lemon told him that Charles Dickens
+had said he had never occasion to repent but of two things,
+one being his conduct to Mr. Dodd. That Dickens,
+Thackeray, and others sincerely believed they were taking
+the best steps for accomplishing their benevolent object, there
+can be no doubt; their judgment, not their heart, was wrong.
+The scheme was based upon a wrong principle, as was shown
+by its collapse in less than twenty years, after the expenditure
+of very large subscriptions, and the patronage of the Queen.
+Articles in <i>The Era</i> of the 22nd July, 1877, leave no doubt,
+while they clearly reveal the causes of failure."</p>
+
+<p>It may be mentioned that the Mr. Henry Dodd above
+referred to, appears to have been a large city contractor, or
+something of that kind. According to Mr. Roach Smith,
+what with him led on to fortune was a long and heavy fall of
+snow, which had filled the streets of the city of London, and
+rendered traffic impossible. The city was blocked by snow,
+and there was no remedy at hand. Mr. Dodd boldly undertook
+a contract to remove the mighty obstruction in a given
+time. This he did thoroughly and within the limited number
+of days. Afterwards he appears to have undertaken brick-making
+and other works on a very large scale. In the
+opinion of Mr. Roach Smith, Mr. Dodd was the origin of
+the "golden dustman" in <i>Our Mutual Friend</i>, whom every
+reader of Dickens remembers as Mr. Nicodemus, <i>alias</i> Noddy
+Boffin.</p>
+
+<p>Speaking of Dickens's readings, our informant relates
+a conversation with Charles Dickens's sixth son, Mr. Henry
+Fielding Dickens. The former gentleman asked the latter
+whose model he took?</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my father's," said Mr. Henry Dickens.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I would not take any man's model," said Mr. Roach
+Smith, "I would take my own." And judging from the perfect
+intonation and thoroughly musical rhythm of his voice, there
+is no doubt whatever that his model, whoever it may have
+been, was one of very high standard.</p>
+
+<p>We have since learnt that Mr. Roach Smith is the President
+of the Strood Elocution Society, an almost unique institution
+of its kind. It has been established upwards of thirteen years;
+and at the weekly meetings "the various readers are subjected
+to an exhaustive and salutary criticism by the members
+present." Mr. Roach Smith has always taken immense
+interest in the progress of this Society. Miss Dickens occasionally
+helped at the above meetings.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Roach Smith kindly favours us with the following
+extract from the third and forthcoming volume of his <i>Retrospections</i>
+with reference to the late Mr. J. H. Ball, of Strood,
+which may appropriately be here introduced:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Although I have said that I was the gainer by our acquaintance,
+yet now and then I had a chance of serving him.
+Soon after the death of the great novelist, Charles Dickens,
+and when people were speculating as to what would become
+of his residence at Gad's Hill, Mr. Ball, wishing to purchase it,
+commissioned me to call on the executrix, Miss Hogarth,
+and offer ten thousand pounds, for which he had written
+a cheque. I accordingly went, and sent in my card. Miss
+Hogarth, fortunately, could not see me; she was hastening to
+catch the train for London, the carriage being at the door,
+and not a moment to be lost; but she would be happy to see
+me on her return in a day or two. I then wrote to Mr.
+Forster, the other executor; and received a reply that the
+place was not for sale. I kept him ignorant of the sum that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span>
+Mr. Ball was willing to give, and thus saved my friend some
+thousands of pounds, .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. for the house and land were not
+worth half the money."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/i_259.png" width="400" height="436" alt="Old Quarry House Strood" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>After some further conversation with our kind octogenarian
+friend, who insists on showing us hospitality notwithstanding
+his sufferings from a trying illness, we take our departure
+with many pleasant memories of our visit.<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span></p>
+<p>We have, after one or two unsuccessful attempts, the good
+fortune to meet with Mr. Stephen Steele, M.R.C.S. and L.S.A.,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span>
+of Bridge House, Esplanade, Strood, who was admitted a
+member of the medical profession so far back as the year
+1831, and has therefore been in practice nearly sixty years.
+It will be remembered that this experienced surgeon was sent
+for by Miss Hogarth, to see Dickens in his last illness. He
+is good enough to go over and describe to us in graphic and
+sympathetic language the whole of the circumstances attending
+that sorrowful event. Previously to doing so, he gives us
+some interesting details of his recollections of Charles Dickens.
+Dr. Steele had occupied the onerous post of Chairman of the
+Liberal Association at Rochester for thirty years, and believes
+that in politics Dickens was a Liberal, for he frequently
+prefaced his remarks in conversation with him on any subject
+of passing interest by the expression, "We Liberals, you
+know&mdash;"</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 337px;">
+<img src="images/i_262.png" width="337" height="400" alt="Frindsbury Church" title="" />
+
+</div>
+
+<p>As a matter of fact, Dickens discharged his conscience of
+his political creed in the remarks which followed his address<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span>
+as President of the Birmingham and Midland Institute,<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> delivered
+27th September, 1869, when he said&mdash;"My political
+creed is contained in two articles, and has no reference to any
+party or persons. My faith in the 'people governing' is, on
+the whole, infinitesimal; my faith in the 'people governed'
+is, on the whole, illimitable." At a subsequent visit to
+Birmingham on the 6th January, 1870, when giving out the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span>
+prizes at the Institute, he further emphasized his political
+faith in these words:&mdash;"When I was here last autumn, I
+made a short confession of my political faith&mdash;or perhaps, I
+should better say, want of faith. It imported that I have
+very little confidence in the people who govern us&mdash;please to
+observe 'people' with a small 'p,'&mdash;but I have very great confidence
+in the People whom they govern&mdash;please to observe
+'People' with a large 'P.'"</p>
+
+<p>A few days after Charles Dickens's first visit, my friend Mr.
+Howard S. Pearson, Lecturer on English Literature at the
+Institute, addressed a letter to him on the subject of the
+remarks at the conclusion of his Presidential Address, and
+promptly received in reply the following communication,
+which Mr. Pearson kindly allows me to print, emphasizing his
+(Dickens's) observations:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><div class='right'>
+<span style="margin-right: 4em;">"<span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place</span>,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-right: 2em;">"<span class="smcap">Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>.</span><br />
+"<i>Wednesday, 6th October, 1869.</i><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Sir</span>,</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; "You are perfectly right in your construction of my
+meaning at Birmingham. If a capital P be put to the word
+People in its second use in the sentence, and not in its first,
+I should suppose the passage next to impossible to be mistaken,
+even if it were read without any reference to the whole
+spirit of my speech and the whole tenor of my writings.</p>
+
+<div class='sig'>
+<span style="margin-right: 4em;">"Faithfully yours,</span><br />
+"<span class="smcap">Charles Dickens</span>.<br />
+</div>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">H. S. Pearson, Esquire.</span>"</p></div>
+
+<p>Dr. Steele had dined several times at Gad's Hill Place, and
+was impressed with Dickens's wonderful powers as a host. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span>
+never absorbed the whole of the conversation to himself, but
+listened attentively when his guests were speaking, and
+endeavoured, as it were, to draw out any friends who were
+not generally talkative. He liked each one to chat about his
+own hobby in which he took most interest. Our informant
+was also present at Gad's Hill Place at several theatrical
+entertainments, and especially remembers some charades
+being given. After the performance of the latter was over,
+Dickens walked round among his guests in the drawing-room,
+and enquired if any one could guess the "word." Says the
+doctor, "We never seemed to do so, but there was always a
+hearty laugh when we were told what it was. There was
+a good deal of company at Gad's Hill at Christmas time."</p>
+
+<p><i>&Agrave; propos</i> of private theatricals at Gad's Hill Place, Mr. T.
+Edgar Pemberton, in <i>Charles Dickens and the Stage</i>, calls
+attention to the fact that "Mr. Clarkson Stanfield's <i>Lighthouse</i>
+Act drop subsequently decorated the walls of Gad's
+Hill Place; and although it took the painter less than a
+couple of days to execute, fetched a thousand guineas at the
+famous Dickens Sale in 1870." A cloth painted for <i>The
+Frozen Deep</i>, which was the next and last of these productions,
+also had a foremost place in the Gad's Hill picture-gallery.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Steele mentions a conversation once with Dickens
+about Gad's Hill and Shakespeare's description of it. He (the
+doctor) considers that Shakespeare could not have described
+it so accurately if he had not been there, and Dickens agreed
+with him in this opinion. Possibly he may have stayed at the
+"Plough," which was an inn on the same spot as, or close to,
+the "Falstaff." The place must have been much wooded at
+that time, and Shakespeare might have been there on his way<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span>
+to Dover. A note in the <i>Rochester and Chatham Journal</i>,
+1883, states that "Shakespeare's company made a tour in
+Sussex and Kent in the summer of 1597."</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Steele, in common with his friend Charles Dickens,
+strongly deprecated the action of certain parties in Rochester,
+by voting at a public meeting something to this effect:&mdash;"That
+the Theatre was an irreligious kind of institution, and,
+in the opinion of the meeting, it ought to be closed."</p>
+
+<p>The doctor observes that Dickens was not much of a
+Church-goer. He went occasionally to Higham, and used
+to give the vicar assistance for the poor and distressed.
+Dickens and Miss Hogarth asked Dr. Steele to point
+out objects of charity worthy of relief, and they gave him
+money for distribution.</p>
+
+<p>He remarks that Dickens did not care much about associating
+with the local residents, going out to dinners, &amp;c.
+Most of the principal people of Rochester would have been
+glad of the honour of his presence as a guest, but he rarely
+accepted invitations, preferring the quietude of home.<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p>
+
+<p>As regards readings, our informant says he is under the
+impression that Dickens must have had some lessons or hints
+from some one of experience (possibly his friend Fechter, the
+actor), as he noticed from time to time a regular improvement,
+which was permanently maintained. On the subject of the
+American War, he thinks Dickens's sympathies were decidedly
+with the South. With respect to the American
+Readings, Dr. Steele expresses his opinion that the excitement,
+fatigue, and worry consequent thereon had considerably
+shortened Dickens's life, if it had not pretty well killed him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span>
+He considered him a most genial sort of man; "he always
+looked you straight in the face when speaking."</p>
+
+<p>Before referring to the closing chapter in Dickens's life, we
+have some interesting talk respecting Venesection,&mdash;<i>&agrave; propos</i>
+of that memorable occasion on the ice at Dingley Dell, when
+"Mr. Benjamin Allen was holding a hurried consultation with
+Mr. Bob Sawyer on the advisability of bleeding the company
+generally, as an improving little bit of professional practice,"&mdash;and
+Dr. Steele gives us his opinion thereon, and on some
+points connected with the medical profession. He was a
+student of Guy's and St. Thomas's Hospitals, and was under
+the distinguished physicians Drs. Addison and Elliotson. He
+considered the characters of Bob Sawyer and Ben Allen not
+at all overdrawn. They were good representations of the
+medical students of those days. He believed the practice of
+Venesection commenced to be general about the year 1811,
+for his father was a medical practitioner before him, and he
+does not remember his (the father's) telling him that he
+practised it before that time. Says our friend, "We used to
+bleed regularly in my young days, and in cases of pneumonia
+and convulsions we never thought of omitting to bleed.
+We should have considered that to have done so would have
+been a grave instance of irregular practice. And," he adds,
+"I bleed in cases of convulsions now." The doctor did not
+think well of the change at the time, but, speaking generally,
+he says Venesection had had its turn, and has now given
+place to other treatment.</p>
+
+<p>The events in connection with the fatal illness of Dickens
+are then touchingly related as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I was sent for on Wednesday, the eighth of June, 1870, to
+attend at Gad's Hill Place, and arrived about 6.30 p.m. I found<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span>
+Dickens lying on the floor of the dining-room in a fit. He
+was unconscious, and never moved. The servants brought
+a couch down, on which he was placed. I applied clysters
+and other remedies to the patient without effect. Miss
+Hogarth, his sister-in-law, had already sent a telegram (by
+the same messenger on horseback who summoned me) to
+his old friend and family doctor, Mr. Frank Beard, who
+arrived about midnight. He relieved me in attendance at
+that time, and I came again in the morning. There was
+unhappily no change in the symptoms, and stertorous breathing,
+which had commenced before, now continued. In conversation
+Miss Hogarth and the family expressed themselves
+perfectly satisfied with the attendance of Mr. Beard
+and myself. I said, 'That may be so, and we are much
+obliged for your kind opinion; but we have a duty to perform,
+not only to you, my dear madam, and the family of
+Mr. Dickens, but also to the public. What will the public
+say if we allow Charles Dickens to pass away without further
+medical assistance? Our advice is to send for Dr. Russell
+Reynolds.' Mr. Beard first made the suggestion.</p>
+
+<p>"The family reiterated their expression of perfect satisfaction
+with the treatment of Mr. Beard and myself, but immediately
+gave way, Dr. Russell Reynolds was sent for, and
+came in the course of the day. This eminent physician without
+hesitation pronounced the case to be hopeless. He said
+at once on seeing him, 'He cannot live.' And so it proved.
+At a little past 6 o'clock on Thursday, the 9th of June, 1870,
+Charles Dickens passed quietly away without a word&mdash;about
+twenty-four hours after the seizure."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245"></a>
+<img src="images/i_268.png" width="550" height="410" alt="Rochester: from Strood Pier:" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>Such is the simple narrative which the kind-hearted
+octogenarian surgeon, whom it is a delightful pleasure to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span>
+meet and converse with, communicates to us, and then
+cordially wishes us "good-bye."</p>
+
+<div class='center'><big>*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</big></div>
+
+<p>There is an annual pleasure fair at Strood, instituted, it is
+said, so far back as the reign of Edward III. It takes place
+during three days in the last week of August, and as it is
+going on while we are on our tramp, we just look in for a
+few minutes, the more especially as we were informed by Mr.
+William Ball, and others who had seen him, that Dickens used
+to be very fond of going there at times in an appropriate
+disguise, where perhaps he may have seen the prototype of
+the famous "Doctor Marigold." The fair is now held on a
+large piece of waste ground near the Railway Station.
+There are the usual set-out of booths, "Aunt Sallies,"
+shooting-galleries, "Try your weight and strength, gentlemen"
+machines, a theatre, with a tragedy and comedy both
+performed in about an hour, and hot-sausage and gingerbread
+stalls in abundance. But the deafening martial music
+poured forth from a barrel-organ by means of a steam-engine,
+belonging to the proprietor of a huge "Merry-go-round," and
+the wet and muddy condition of the ground from the effects
+of the recent thunderstorm, make us glad to get away.</p>
+
+
+<div class='center'><br />A MYSTERIOUS DICKENS-ITEM.</div>
+
+<p>Mr. C. D. Levy, Auctioneer, etc., of Strood, was good enough
+to lend me what at first sight, and indeed for some time
+afterwards, was supposed to be a most unique Dickens-item.
+It came into his possession in this way. At the sale of
+Charles Dickens's furniture and effects, which took place at
+Gad's Hill in 1870, Mr. Levy was authorized by a customer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span>
+to purchase Dickens's writing-desk, which, however, he was
+unable to secure. In transferring the desk to the purchaser
+at the time of the sale, a few old and torn papers
+tumbled out, and being considered of no value, were disregarded
+and scattered. One of these scraps was picked up by
+Mr. Levy, and proved on further examination to be a sheet of
+headed note-paper having the stamp of "Gad's Hill Place,
+Higham by Rochester, Kent."&mdash;On the first page were a few
+rough sketches drawn with pen and ink, which greatly resembled
+some of the characters in <i>The Mystery of Edwin Drood</i>&mdash;Durdles,
+Jasper, and Edwin Drood. At the side was a
+curious row of capital letters looking like a puzzle. On the
+second and third pages were short-hand notes, and on the
+fourth page a few lines written in long-hand, continued on
+the next page,&mdash;wonderfully like Charles Dickens's own
+handwriting,&mdash;being the commencement of a speech with
+reference to a cricket match. The sheet of paper had evidently
+been made to do double duty, for after the sketches
+had been drawn on the front page, the sheet was put aside,
+and when used again was turned over, so that what ordinarily
+would have been page 4 became page 1 for the second object.
+No "Daniel" in Strood or Rochester had ever been able to
+decipher the mysterious hieroglyphics, or make known the
+interpretation thereof, during twenty years, or give any
+explanation of the sketches. But everybody thought that in
+some way or other they related to <i>The Mystery of Edwin
+Drood</i>&mdash;and possibly contained a clue to the solution of that
+exquisite fragment. So, as a student and admirer of Dickens,
+Mr. Levy kindly left the matter in my hands to make out
+what I could of it. Reference was accordingly had to several
+learned pundits in the short-hand systems of "Pitman,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span>
+"Odell," and "Harding," but without avail; and eventually
+Mr. Gurney Archer, of 20, Abingdon Street, Westminster
+(successor to the old-established and eminent firm of Messrs.
+W. B. Gurney and Sons, who have been the short-hand writers
+to the House of Lords from time immemorial), kindly transcribed
+the short-hand notes, which referred to a speech
+relating to a cricket match, a portion of which had already
+been written out in long-hand, as above stated,&mdash;but there was
+not a word in the short-hand about Edwin Drood!</p>
+
+<p>So far, one portion of the mystery had been explained&mdash;not
+so the sketches, which were still believed to contain the
+key to <i>The Mystery of Edwin Drood</i>. As a <i>dernier ressort</i>,
+application was made to the fountain-head&mdash;to Mr. Luke
+Fildes, R.A., the famous illustrator of that beautiful work.
+He received me most courteously, scrutinized the document
+closely; we had a long chat about Edwin Drood generally,
+the substance of which has been given in a previous chapter&mdash;but
+he admitted that the sketches failed to give any solution
+of the mystery.</p>
+
+<p>The document was subsequently sent by Mr. Kitton to
+Mrs. Perugini, who at once replied that it had caused some
+merriment when she saw it again, as she remembered it very
+well. It had been done by her brother, Mr. Henry Fielding
+Dickens, when a young man living at home at Gad's Hill&mdash;that
+the short-hand notes referred to his speech at a dinner
+after one of the numerous cricket matches held there, and
+that the sketches were rough portraits of some of the
+cricketers. The capital letters at the side referred to a double
+acrostic. The heads of the speech had been suggested by his
+father as being desirable to be brought before the cricket club,
+which at that time was in a rather drooping condition.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Now although the original theory about this curious
+document entirely broke down, and not an atom has been
+added to what was already known about <i>The Mystery of
+Edwin Drood</i>, still there is one subject of much interest which
+the document has brought to light. The short-hand is the
+same system, "Gurney's," as that which Charles Dickens
+wrote as a reporter in his early newspaper days&mdash;a system
+not generally used now, but which he subsequently taught
+his son to write. Of the many sheets which Dickens covered
+with notes in days gone by not one remains. But there are
+two manuscripts by Dickens in Gurney's system of short-hand,
+now in the Dyce and Forster collection at South Kensington,
+which relate to some private matters in connection with publishing
+arrangements. The document is certainly interesting
+from this point of view (<i>i. e.</i> the system which Dickens used),
+and from its reference to life at Gad's Hill, and especially to
+cricket, the favourite game mentioned many times in this
+book, in which the novelist took so much interest. Mr.
+Henry Fielding Dickens, with whom I had on another
+occasion some conversation on the subject of this souvenir
+of his youth at Gad's Hill, remarked that many more
+important issues had hung upon much more slender evidence.
+It was done about the year 1865-6, before he went
+to college.</p>
+
+<p>At our interview Mr. H. F. Dickens told me the details of
+the following touching incident which happened at one of the
+cricket matches at Gad's Hill. His father was as usual attired
+in flannels, acting as umpire and energetically taking the
+score of the game, when there came out from among the
+bystanders a tall, grizzled, and sun-burnt Sergeant of the
+Guards. The Sergeant walked straight up to Mr. Dickens,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span>
+saying, "May I look at you, sir?" "Oh, yes!" said the
+novelist, blushing up to the eyes. The Sergeant gazed intently
+at him for a minute or so, then stood at attention, gave the
+military salute, and said, "God bless you, sir." He then
+walked off and was seen no more. In recounting this
+anecdote, Mr. H. F. Dickens agreed with me that, reading
+between the lines, one can almost fancy some lingering
+reminiscences similar to those in the early experience of
+Private Richard Doubledick.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
+
+<div class="hang2"><b>CHATHAM:&mdash;ST. MARY'S CHURCH, ORDNANCE TERRACE,
+THE HOUSE ON THE BROOK, THE MITRE HOTEL, AND
+FORT PITT. LANDPORT:&mdash;PORTSEA, HANTS.</b><br /><br /></div>
+
+<div class='hang2'>"The home of his infancy, to which his heart had yearned with an
+intensity of affection not to be described."&mdash;<i>The Pickwick Papers.</i></div>
+
+<div class="hang2">"I believe the power of observation in numbers of very young children to
+be quite wonderful for its closeness and accuracy. Indeed, I think that
+most grown men who are remarkable in this respect, may, with greater
+propriety, be said not to have lost the faculty than to have acquired
+it; the rather, as I generally observe such men to retain a certain
+freshness, and gentleness, and capacity of being pleased, which are
+also an inheritance they have preserved from their childhood."&mdash;<i>David
+Copperfield.</i></div>
+
+
+<div class='unindent'><span class="smcap">The</span> naval and military town of Chatham, unlike the
+Cathedral city of Rochester, has, at first sight, few attractions
+for the lover of Dickens. Mr. Phillips Bevan calls it "a dirty,
+unpleasant town devoted to the interests of soldiers, sailors,
+and marines." We are not disposed to agree entirely with
+him; but we must admit that it has little of the picturesque
+to recommend it&mdash;no venerable Castle or Cathedral to attract
+attention, no scenes in the novels of much importance to
+visit, no characters therein of much interest to identify. Mr.
+Pickwick's own description of the four towns of Strood,
+Rochester, Chatham, and Brompton, certainly applies more
+nearly to Chatham than to the others; but things have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span>
+improved in many ways since the days of that veracious
+chronicler, as we are glad to testify:&mdash;</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"The principal productions of these towns," says Mr. Pickwick,
+"appear to be soldiers, sailors, Jews, chalk, shrimps, officers, and
+dockyard men. The commodities chiefly exposed for sale in the
+public streets are marine stores, hard-bake, apples, flat-fish, and
+oysters. The streets present a lively and animated appearance,
+occasioned chiefly by the conviviality of the military.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.</p>
+
+<p>"The consumption of tobacco in these towns," continues Mr.
+Pickwick, "must be very great; and the smell which pervades the
+streets must be exceedingly delicious to those who are extremely
+fond of smoking. A superficial traveller might object to the dirt,
+which is their leading characteristic; but to those who view it as an
+indication of traffic and commercial prosperity, it is truly gratifying."</p></div>
+
+<p>And yet for all this, there are circumstances to be noticed
+of the deepest possible interest connected with Chatham, and
+spots therein to be visited, which every pilgrim to "Dickens-Land"
+must recognize. At Chatham,&mdash;"my boyhood's
+home," as he affectionately calls it,&mdash;many of the earlier
+years of Charles Dickens (probably from his fourth to his
+eleventh) were passed; here it was "that the most durable
+of his earlier impressions were received; and the associations
+around him when he died were those which at the outset of
+his life had affected him most strongly."</p>
+
+<p>Admirers of the great novelist are much indebted to Mr.
+Robert Langton, F. R. Hist. Soc., for his <i>Childhood and Youth
+of Charles Dickens</i>, a book quite indispensable to a tramp in
+this neighbourhood, the charming illustrations by the late Mr.
+William Hull, the author, and others rendering the identification
+of places perfectly easy. Dickens says, "If anybody
+knows to a nicety where Rochester ends and Chatham begins,
+it is more than I do." "It's of no consequence," as Mr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span>
+Toots would say, for the High Street is one continuous
+thoroughfare, but as a matter of fact, a narrow street called
+Boundary Lane on the north side of High Street separates
+the two places.</p>
+
+<p>A few words of recapitulation as to early family history<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span><a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a>
+may be useful here. John Dickens, who is represented as "a
+fine portly man," was a Navy pay-clerk, and Elizabeth his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span>
+wife (<i>n&eacute;e</i> Barrow), who is described as "a dear good mother
+and a fine woman," the parents of the future genius, resided in
+the beginning of this century at 387, Mile End Terrace, Commercial
+Road, Landport, Portsea,<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> "and is so far in Portsea as
+being in the island of that name." Here Charles Dickens was
+born, at twelve o'clock at night, on Friday, 7th February,
+1812. He was the second child and eldest son of a rather
+numerous family consisting of eight sons and daughters, and
+was baptized at St. Mary's, Kingston (the parish church of
+Portsea), under the names of Charles John Huff<i>h</i>am; the
+last of these is no doubt a misspelling, as the name of his
+grandfather, from whom he took it, was Huffam, but Dickens
+himself scarcely ever used it. In the old family Bible now in
+possession of Mr. Charles Dickens it is Huffam in his father's
+own handwriting. The Dickens family left Mile End Terrace
+on 24th June, 1812, and went to live in Hawke Street, Portsea,
+from whence, in consequence of a change in official duties of
+the elder Dickens, they removed to Chatham in 1816 or 1817,
+and resided there for six or seven years, until they went to
+live in London.</p>
+
+<p>Bearing these circumstances in mind, it is very natural that
+we should determine on an early pilgrimage to Chatham, and
+Sunday morning sees us at the old church&mdash;St. Mary's&mdash;where
+Dickens himself must often have been taken as a child, and
+where he saw the marriage of his aunt Fanny with James
+Lamert, a Staff Doctor in the Army,&mdash;the Doctor Slammer
+of <i>Pickwick</i>,&mdash;of whom Mr. Langton says:&mdash;"The regimental<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span>
+surgeon's kindly manner, and his short odd way of expressing
+himself, still survive in the recollections of a few old people."
+Dr. Lamert's son James, by a former wife, was a great crony
+of young Charles Dickens, taking him to the Rochester
+theatre, and getting up private theatricals in which they both
+acted.</p>
+
+<p>Surely there is a faint description of those times in the
+second chapter of <i>David Copperfield:</i>&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/i_279.png" width="400" height="249" alt="St. Mary&#39;s Church, Chatham." title="" />
+<span class="caption">St. Mary&#39;s Church, Chatham.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Here is our pew in the church. What a high-backed pew! With
+a window near it, out of which our house can be seen, and <i>is</i> seen
+many times during the morning's service by Peggotty, who likes to
+make herself as sure as she can that it's not being robbed, or is not
+in flames. But though Peggotty's eye wanders, she is much offended
+if mine does, and frowns to me, as I stand upon the seat, that I am
+to look at the clergyman. But I can't always look at him&mdash;I know
+him without that white thing on, and I am afraid of his wondering
+why I stare so, and perhaps stopping the service to enquire&mdash;and
+what am I to do? It's a dreadful thing to gape, but I must do
+something. I look at my mother, but <i>she</i> pretends not to see me. I
+look at a boy in the aisle, and <i>he</i> makes faces at me. I look at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span>
+sunlight coming in at the open door through the porch, and there I
+see a stray sheep&mdash;I don't mean a sinner, but mutton&mdash;half making
+up his mind to come into the church. I feel that if I looked at him
+any longer, I might be tempted to say something out loud; and
+what would become of me then!"</p></div>
+
+<p>The church, now undergoing reconstruction, is not a very
+presentable structure, and has little of interest to recommend
+it, except a brass to a famous navigator named Stephen
+Borough, the discoverer of the northern passage to Russia
+(1584), and a monument to Sir John Cox, who was killed in
+an action with the Dutch (1672). The name of Weller occurs
+on a gravestone near the church door.</p>
+
+<p>We cross the High Street, proceed along Railway Street,
+formerly Rome Lane, pass the Chatham Railway Station
+(near which is a statue of Lieutenant Waghorn, R.N., "pioneer
+and founder of the Overland Route," born at Chatham, 1800,
+and died 1850),<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> and find ourselves at Ordnance Terrace, a
+conspicuous row of two-storied houses, prominently situated
+on the higher ground facing us, beyond the Station. In one
+of these houses (No. 11&mdash;formerly No. 2) the Dickens family
+resided from 1817 to 1821. The present occupier is a Mr.
+Roberts, who kindly allows us to inspect the interior. It has
+the dining-room on the left-hand side of the entrance and the
+drawing-room on the first floor, and is altogether a pleasantly-situated,
+comfortable, and respectable dwelling. No. 11, "the
+second house in the terrace," is overgrown with a Virginia
+creeper, which, from its possible association with Dickens's
+earliest years, may have induced him to plant the now<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span>
+magnificent one which exists at Gad's Hill. "Here it was,"
+says Forster, "that his first desire for knowledge, and his
+greatest passion for reading, were awakened by his mother,
+who taught him the first rudiments, not only of English, but
+also, a little later, of Latin. She taught him regularly every
+day for a long time, and taught him, he was convinced,
+thoroughly well." Mr. Langton also says that "It was
+during his residence here that some of the happiest hours of
+the childhood of little Charles were passed, as his father was
+in a fairly good position in the Navy Pay Office, and they
+were a most genial, lovable family." Here it was that the
+theatrical entertainments and the genial parties took place,
+when, in addition to his brothers and sisters and his cousin,
+James Lamert, there were also present his friends and
+neighbours, George Stroughill, and Master and Miss Tribe.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259"></a>
+<img src="images/i_282.png" width="600" height="424" alt="No. 11, Ordnance Terrace, Chatham. Where the Dickens Family lived 1817-21." title="" />
+<span class="caption">No. 11, Ordnance Terrace, Chatham. &nbsp; &nbsp;<i>Where the Dickens Family lived 1817-21.</i></span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Mr. Langton further states that "Ordnance Terrace is known
+to have formed the locality and characters for some of the
+earlier <i>Sketches by Boz</i>." "The Old Lady" was a Miss
+Newnham, who lived at No. 5, and who was, by all accounts,
+very kind to the Dickens children. The "Half-pay Captain"
+was also a near neighbour, and he is supposed to have supplied
+one of the earliest characters to Dickens as a mere child.
+Some of the neighbours at the corner house next door
+(formerly No. 1) were named Stroughill,&mdash;pronounced Stro'hill
+(there was, it will be remembered, a <i>Struggles</i> at the
+famous cricket-match at All-Muggleton)&mdash;and the son, George,
+is said to have had some of the characteristics of Steerforth in
+<i>David Copperfield</i>. He had a sister named Lucy, probably
+the "Golden Lucy," from her beautiful locks, and who, according
+to Mr. Langton, "was the special favourite and little
+sweetheart of Charles Dickens." She was possibly the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span>
+prototype of her namesake, in the beautiful story of the
+<i>Wreck of the Golden Mary</i>.</p>
+
+
+<p>About the year 1821 pecuniary embarrassments beset and
+tormented the Dickens family, which were afterwards to be
+"ascribed in fiction" in the histories of the Micawbers and the
+Dorrits, and the family removed to the House on the Brook.
+In order to follow their steps in perfect sequence, we have to
+return by the way we came from the church, cross the High
+Street, and proceed along Military Road, so as to visit the
+obscure dwelling, No. 18, St. Mary's Place, situated in the
+valley through which a brook, now covered over, flows from
+the higher lands adjacent, into the Medway.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/i_283.png" width="400" height="290" alt="The House on the Brook, Chatham. Where the Dickens Family lived 1821-3." title="" />
+<span class="caption">The House on the Brook, Chatham. &nbsp;&nbsp;<i>Where the Dickens Family lived 1821-3.</i></span>
+</div>
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 300px;">
+<img src="images/i_284.png" width="300" height="254" alt="Giles&#39;s School, Chatham." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Giles&#39;s School, Chatham.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The House on the Brook&mdash;"plain-looking, whitewashed
+plaster front, and a small garden before and behind"&mdash;next
+door to the former Providence (Baptist) Chapel, now the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span>
+Drill Hall of the Salvation Army, is a very humble and unpretentious
+six-roomed dwelling, and of a style very different
+to the one in Ordnance Terrace. Here the Dickens family
+lived from 1821 to 1823. The Reverend William Giles, the
+Baptist Minister, father of Mr. William Giles, the schoolmaster,
+formerly officiated at the chapel. This was the Mr.
+Giles who, when Dickens was half-way through <i>Pickwick</i>,
+sent him a silver snuff-box, with an admiring inscription to
+the "Inimitable Boz." Dickens went to school at Mr. Giles's
+Academy in Clover Lane (now Clover Street), Chatham,
+and boys of this and neighbouring schools were thus
+nicknamed:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"Baker's Bull-dogs,<br />
+"Giles's Cats,<br />
+"New Road Scrubbers,<br />
+"Troy Town Rats."<br />
+</div>
+
+
+<p>It was in the House on the Brook that he acquired those
+"readings and imaginings" which in "boyish recollections"
+he describes as having been brought away from Chatham:&mdash;"My<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span>
+father had left a small collection of books in a little
+room up-stairs, to which I had access (for it adjoined my own),
+and which nobody else in our house ever troubled. From
+that blessed little room <i>Roderick Random</i>, <i>Peregrine Pickle</i>,
+<i>Humphry Clinker</i>, <i>Tom Jones</i>, <i>The Vicar of Wakefield</i>, <i>Don
+Quixote</i>, <i>Gil Blas</i>, and <i>Robinson Crusoe</i>, came out, a glorious
+host to keep me company. They kept alive my fancy, and
+my hope of something beyond that place and time,&mdash;they and
+the <i>Arabian Nights</i>, and the <i>Tales of the Genii</i>,&mdash;and did me
+no harm; for whatever harm was in some of them was not
+there for me. <i>I</i> knew nothing of it."</p>
+
+<p>It is very probable that his first literary effort, <i>The Tragedy
+of Misnar, the Sultan of India</i>, "founded" (says Forster), "and
+very literally founded, no doubt, on the <i>Tales of the Genii</i>,"
+was composed after perusal of some of the works above
+referred to, but it is to be feared that it was never even
+rehearsed. The circumstances of the family had so changed
+for the worse, that here were neither juvenile parties nor
+theatrical entertainments.</p>
+
+<p>A view from one of the upper windows of the house in
+St. Mary's Place gives the parish church and churchyard
+precisely as described in that pathetic little story, <i>A
+Child's Dream of a Star</i>. Charles Dickens was the child who
+"strolled about a good deal, and thought of a number
+of things," and his little sister Fanny&mdash;or his younger sister
+Harriet Ellen&mdash;was doubtless "his constant companion"
+referred to in the story.</p>
+
+
+<p>We leave with feelings of respect the humble but famous
+little tenement, its condition now sadly degraded; proceed
+along the High Street, and soon reach "The Mitre Inn and
+Clarence Hotel," a solid-looking and comfortable house of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span>
+entertainment, at which Lord Nelson and King William IV.,
+when Duke of Clarence, frequently stayed, and (what is more
+to our purpose) where we find associations of Charles Dickens.
+There are a beautiful bowling-green and grounds at the back,
+approached by a series of terraces well planted with flowers,
+and the green is surrounded by fine elms which constitute
+quite an oasis in the desert of the somewhat prosaic Chatham.
+The Mitre is thus immortalized in the "Guest's Story" of the
+<i>Holly Tree Inn:</i>&mdash;</p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/i_286.png" width="400" height="274" alt="Mitre Inn, Chatham." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Mitre Inn, Chatham.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"There was an Inn in the Cathedral town where I went to school,
+which had pleasanter recollections about it than any of these. I took
+it next. It was the Inn where friends used to put up, and where we
+used to go to see parents, and to have salmon and fowls, and be
+tipped. It had an ecclesiastical sign&mdash;the 'Mitre'&mdash;and a bar that
+seemed to be the next best thing to a Bishopric, it was so snug. I
+loved the landlord's youngest daughter to distraction&mdash;but let that
+pass. It was in this Inn that I was cried over by my rosy little sister,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span>
+because I had acquired a black-eye in a fight. And though she had
+been, that holly-tree night, for many a long year where all tears are
+dried, the Mitre softened me yet."</p></div>
+
+<p>About the year 1820 the landlord of the Mitre was Mr.
+John Tribe, and his family being intimate with the Dickenses,
+young Charles spent many pleasant evenings at the "genial
+parties" given at this fine old inn. Mr. Langton mentions that
+the late Mr. Alderman William Tribe, son of Mr. John Tribe,
+the former proprietor, perfectly recollected Charles Dickens
+and his sister Fanny coming to the Mitre, and on one
+occasion their being mounted on a dining-table for a stage,
+and singing what was then a popular duet, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i>&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"Long time I've courted you, miss,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">And now I've come from sea;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">We'll make no more ado, miss,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">But quickly married be.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5.5em;">Sing Fal-de-ral," &amp;c.</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>The worthy alderman is also stated to have had in his
+possession a card of invitation to spend the evening at
+Ordnance Terrace, addressed from Master and Miss Dickens
+to Master and Miss Tribe, which was dated about this
+time.</p>
+
+<p>In consequence of the elder Dickens being recalled from
+Chatham to Somerset House, to comply with official requirements,
+the family removed to London in 1823,<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> "and took
+up its abode in a house in Bayham Street, Camden Town."
+Dickens thus describes his journey to London in "Dullborough
+Town," one of the sketches in <i>The Uncommercial Traveller:</i>&mdash;</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span></p>
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"As I left Dullborough in the days when there were no railroads
+in the land, I left it in a stage-coach. Through all the years that
+have since passed, have I ever lost the smell of the damp straw in
+which I was packed&mdash;like game&mdash;and forwarded, carriage paid, to the
+Cross Keys, Wood Street, Cheapside, London? There was no other
+inside passenger, and I consumed my sandwiches in solitude and
+dreariness, and it rained hard all the way, and I thought life sloppier
+than I had expected to find it.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;."</p></div>
+
+<p>Mr. W. T. Wildish, the proprietor of the <i>Rochester and
+Chatham Journal</i>, kindly favours us with some interesting
+information which has recently appeared in his journal,
+relating to Charles Dickens's nurse&mdash;the Mary Weller of his
+boyhood (and perhaps the Peggotty as well), but known
+to later generations as Mrs. Mary Gibson of Front Row,
+Ordnance Place, Chatham, who died in the spring of the
+year 1888, at the advanced age of eighty-four. Very touchingly,
+but unknowingly, did Dickens write from Gad's
+Hill, 24th September, 1857, being unaware that she was
+still living:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I feel much as I used to do when I was a small child, a
+few miles off, and somebody&mdash;<i>who</i>, I wonder, and which way
+did <i>she</i> go when she died?&mdash;hummed the evening hymn, and I
+cried on the pillow&mdash;either with the remorseful consciousness
+of having kicked somebody else, or because still somebody
+else had hurt my feelings in the course of the day."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Gibson, when Mary Weller (what a host of pleasant
+recollections does the married name of the "pretty housemaid"
+bring up of the Pickwickian days!), lived with the family of
+Mr. John Dickens, at No. 11, Ordnance Terrace, Chatham,
+and afterwards when they moved to the House on the
+Brook. Her recollections were most vivid and interesting.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span>
+According to the testimony of her son, communicated to Mr.
+Wildish, Mrs. Gibson "used to be very fond of talking of the
+time she passed with the Dickens family, and one of her
+highest satisfactions in her later years was to hear Charles
+Dickens's works read by her son Robert; and while listening
+to the descriptions of characters read to her, his mother would
+detect likenesses unsuspected by other persons whom Dickens
+must have known when a boy; and she also agreed in thinking,
+with Dickens's biographer, that in Mr. Micawber's troubles
+were related some of the experiences of the elder Dickens,
+who is believed for a time to have occupied a debtor's prison.
+She, however, would never bring herself to believe that her
+hero was himself ever reduced to such great hardships as the
+blacking-bottle period in <i>David Copperfield</i> would suggest if
+taken literally. She used to speak of the future author as
+always fond of reading, and said he was wont to retire to the
+top room of the House on the Brook, and spend what should
+have been his play-hours in poring over his books, or in acting
+to the furniture of the room the creatures that he had read
+about."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Langton, who had a personal interview with Mrs.
+Gibson herself, has recorded the fact that she well remembered
+singing the Evening Hymn to the children of John Dickens,
+and seemed very much surprised at being asked such a
+question. She lived with the family when Dickens's little
+sister, Harriet Ellen, died&mdash;a circumstance that no doubt in
+after years inspired the <i>Child's Dream of a Star</i> already
+referred to. When the family removed to London, Mary
+Weller was pressed to accompany them, but was not in
+a position to accept the offer, in consequence of her promise
+to marry Mr. Thomas Gibson, a shipwright of the Chatham<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span>
+Dockyard, with whom she lived happily until his death, in
+1886, at the age of eighty-two.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Gibson modestly declined, on her son Robert's suggestion,
+to seek an introduction to Charles Dickens, when he
+read some of his works at the old Mechanics' Institute at
+Chatham, fearing that he had forgotten her. It is certain,
+however, that, from the reproduction of her name as the pretty
+housemaid at Mr. Nupkins's at Ipswich, and from the extract
+from the letter above referred to, she had a kindly place in
+his recollections.</p>
+
+<p>Poor David Copperfield, on his way to his aunt's at Dover,
+stopped at Chatham&mdash;"footsore and tired," he says, "and
+eating bread that I had bought for supper." He is afraid
+"because of the vicious looks of the trampers;" and even if he
+could have spared the few pence he possessed for a bed at the
+"one or two little houses" with the notice "lodgings for travellers,"
+he would have hardly cared to go in, on account of the
+company he would have been thrown into. And so he says,
+"I sought no shelter, therefore, but the sky; and toiling into
+Chatham&mdash;which, in that night's aspect, is a mere dream of
+chalk, and draw-bridges, and mastless ships in a muddy river,
+roofed like Noah's arks,&mdash;crept, at last, upon a sort of grass-grown
+battery overhanging a lane, where a sentry was walking
+to and fro. Here" [he continues] "I lay down near a cannon;
+and, happy in the society of the sentry's footsteps, .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. slept
+soundly until morning." Of course it is not possible for us to
+identify this spot. "Very stiff and sore of foot," he says, "I
+was in the morning, and quite dazed by the beating of drums
+and marching of troops, which seemed to hem me in on every
+side when I went down towards the long narrow street."
+However, he has to reserve his strength for getting to his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span>
+journey's end, and to this effect he resolves upon selling his
+jacket.</p>
+
+<p>There are plenty of marine-store dealers at Chatham, whom
+we notice on our tramp, but none of them would, we believe,
+now answer to the description of "an ugly old man, with the
+lower part of his face all covered with a stubbly grey beard,
+in a filthy flannel waistcoat, and smelling terribly of rum,"
+such as he who assailed little David, in reply to his offer to
+sell the jacket, with, "Oh, what do you want? Oh, my eyes
+and limbs, what do you want? Oh, my lungs and liver,
+what do you want? Oh&mdash;goroo, goroo!" After losing his
+time, and being rated at and frightened by this "dreadful old
+man to look at," who in every way tries to avoid giving him
+the money asked for,&mdash;half-a-crown,&mdash;offering him in exchange
+such useless things to a hungry boy as "a fishing-rod,
+a fiddle, a cocked hat, and a flute," the poor lad is obliged
+to close with the offer of a few pence, "with which [he says]
+I soon refreshed myself completely; and, being in better
+spirits then, limped seven miles upon my road."</p>
+
+<p>The Convict Prison at Chatham is said to have been built
+on a piece of ground which, in the middle of the last century,
+belonged to one Thomas Clark, a singular character, who lived
+on the spot for many years by himself in a small cottage, and
+who used every night, as he went home, to sing or shout,
+"Tom's all alone! Tom's all alone!" This, according to
+the opinion of some, may have given rise to the "Tom all
+alone's" of <i>Bleak House</i>, more especially considering the fact
+that military operations were frequently going on at Chatham,
+which Dickens would notice in his early days. The circumstance
+is thus referred to in the novel:&mdash;"Twice lately there
+has been a crash, and a crowd of dust, like the springing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span>
+of a mine, in Tom all alone's, and each time a house has
+fallen."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. George Robinson of Strood directs our attention to the
+fact that a "child's caul," such as that described in the first
+chapter of <i>David Copperfield</i>, which he was born with, and
+which was advertised "at the low price of fifteen guineas,"
+would be a likely object to be sought after in a sea-faring
+town like Chatham, in Dickens's early days, when the schoolmaster
+was less abroad than he is now.</p>
+
+<p>In after years, memories of Chatham Dockyard appear in
+many of the sketches in the <i>Uncommercial Traveller</i> and
+other stories. "One man in a Dockyard" describes it as having
+"a gravity upon its red brick offices and houses, a staid
+pretence of having nothing to do, an avoidance of display,
+which I never saw out of England." "Nurse's Stories" says
+that "nails and copper are shipwrights' sweethearts, and shipwrights
+will run away with them whenever they can." In
+<i>Great Expectations</i> the refrain, "Beat it out, beat it out&mdash;old
+Clem! with a clink for the stout&mdash;old Clem!" which Pip and
+his friends sang, is from a song which the blacksmiths in the
+dockyard used to sing in procession on St. Clement's Day.</p>
+
+<p>By accident we make the acquaintance of Mr. William James
+Budden of Chatham, who informs us that Charles Dickens
+was better known there in his latter years for his efforts, by
+readings and otherwise, to place the Mechanics' Institute on
+a sound basis and free from debt.</p>
+
+<p>Dickens, as the <i>Uncommercial Traveller</i>, thus describes the
+Mechanics' Institute and its early efforts to succeed:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"As the town was placarded with references to the Dullborough
+Mechanics' Institution, I thought I would go and look at that establishment
+next. There had been no such thing in the town in my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span>
+young days, and it occurred to me that its extreme prosperity might
+have brought adversity upon the Drama. I found the Institution
+with some difficulty, and should scarcely have known that I had
+found it if I had judged from its external appearance only; but this
+was attributable to its never having been finished, and having no
+front: consequently, it led a modest and retired existence up a stable-yard.
+It was (as I learnt, on enquiry) a most flourishing Institution,
+and of the highest benefit to the town: two triumphs which I was
+glad to understand were not at all impaired by the seeming
+drawbacks that no mechanics belonged to it, and that it was steeped
+in debt to the chimney-pots. It had a large room, which was approached
+by an infirm step-ladder: the builder having declined to
+construct the intended staircase, without a present payment in cash,
+which Dullborough (though profoundly appreciative of the Institution)
+seemed unaccountably bashful about subscribing."</p></div>
+
+<p>Mr. Budden is of opinion that the origin of the "fat boy"
+in <i>Pickwick</i> was Mr. James Budden, late of the Red Lion
+Inn in Military Road, who afterwards acquired a competence,
+and who had the honour of entertaining Dickens at a
+subsequent period of his life. Mr. Budden is under the
+impression, from local hearsay, that Dingley Dell formerly
+existed somewhere in the neighbourhood of Burham.</p>
+
+<div class='center'><big>*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</big></div>
+
+<p>We are obligingly favoured with an interview by Mr. John
+Baird of New Brompton, Chairman of the Chatham Waterworks
+Company, although he is suffering from serious
+indisposition at the time of our visit. This gentleman was
+born in 1810 (two years before Charles Dickens), and recollects
+reading with delight the famous <i>Sketches by Boz</i>, as
+they appeared in the <i>Morning Chronicle</i>. The most curious
+coincidence about Mr. Baird is, that in stature and facial
+appearance he is the very counterpart of the late Charles
+Dickens in the flesh&mdash;his double, so to speak. This remarkable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span>
+resemblance, our informant says, is "something to be
+proud of, to be mistaken for so great a man, but it was very
+inconvenient at times."</p>
+
+<p>On one occasion, as Mr. Baird was hastening to catch a
+train at Rochester Bridge Station, a stout elderly lady,
+handsomely dressed, supposed to be Dean Scott's wife,&mdash;but
+to whom he was unknown,&mdash;bowed very politely to him, and
+in slackening his pace to return the compliment, which he
+naturally did not understand, he very nearly missed his train.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Arthur Otway told Mr. Baird that the Rev. Mr.
+Webster, late Vicar of Chatham, had always mistaken him
+for Charles Dickens.</p>
+
+<p>At one of the Readings given by Dickens on behalf of the
+Mechanics' Institute at Chatham, Mr. Charles Collins, his son-in-law,
+and his wife and her sister being present in the reserved
+seats in the gallery, Mr. Baird noticed that they looked very
+eagerly at him, and this pointed notice naturally made him
+feel very uncomfortable. Dickens himself, accompanied by
+his son and daughter, once passed our friend in the street,
+and scanned him very closely, and he fancies that Dickens
+called attention to the resemblance.</p>
+
+<p>At the last reading which the novelist gave at Chatham,
+Mr. Baird being present as one of the audience, the policeman
+at the door mistook him for Dickens, and shouted to those
+in attendance outside, "Mr. Dickens's carriage!" It is
+interesting to add, that after the reading a cordial vote of
+thanks to Dickens was proposed by Mr. H. G. Adams, the
+Naturalist, at one time editor of <i>The Kentish Coronal</i>, who
+recounted the well-known story of the novelist's father taking
+him, when a little boy, to see Gad's Hill Place, and of the
+strong impression it made upon his mind.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Our informant had the honour of meeting Dickens at dinner
+at Mr. James Budden's, and states that he was standing
+against the mantel-piece in the drawing-room when the novelist
+arrived, and that he walked up to him and shook hands
+cordially, without the usual ceremony of introduction.
+Dickens was no doubt too polite to refer to the curious
+resemblance.</p>
+
+<p>But the most remarkable case remains to be told, illustrating
+the converse of the old proverb&mdash;"It is a wise father
+that knows his own child." This is given in Mr. Baird's own
+words:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"My daughter, when a little girl about six years old, was
+with her mother and some friends in a railway carriage at
+Strood station (next Rochester), and one of them called the
+child's attention to a gentleman standing on the platform,
+asking if she knew who he was. With surprised delight she
+at once exclaimed, 'That's my papa!' That same gentleman
+was Mr. Charles Dickens!"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Baird speaks of the great appreciation which the people
+of Chatham had of Dickens's services at the readings, and
+says it was very good and kind of him to give those services
+gratuitously. He confirms the general opinion as to the
+origin of the "fat boy," and the "very fussy little man" at
+Fort Pitt, who was the prototype of Dr. Slammer.</p>
+
+<p>It struck us both forcibly that Mr. Baird's appearance at
+the time of our visit was very like the last American photograph
+of Dickens, taken by Gurney in 1867.</p>
+
+<div class='center'><big>*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</big></div>
+
+<p>Mr. J. E. Littlewood<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> of High Street, Chatham, knew<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span>
+Charles Dickens about the year 1845 or 1846 at the Royalty
+(Miss Kelly's) Theatre in Dean Street, Soho, our informant
+having been in times past a bit of an amateur actor, and
+played Bob Acres in <i>The Rivals</i>. He subsequently heard
+Dickens read at the Chatham Mechanics' Institute about 1861,
+and said that the facial display in the trial scene from
+<i>Pickwick</i> (one of the pieces read) was wonderful. He had
+the honour of dining at the late Mr. Budden's in High Street,
+opposite Military Road, to meet Dickens. There was a large
+company present. In acknowledging the toast of his health,
+which had been proposed at the dinner&mdash;either by Sir Arthur
+Otway or Captain Fanshawe&mdash;Dickens said he was very
+pleased to read "in memory of the old place," meaning
+Chatham, but that he might be reading "all the year round"
+for charities.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Littlewood also heard Dickens say, that "he had passed
+many happy hours in the House on the Brook" looking at
+"the Lines" opposite. "At that time" (said our informant)
+"the place was more rural&mdash;considered a decent spot&mdash;not so
+crowded up as now&mdash;nor so vulgar&mdash;many respectable people
+lived there in Dickens's boyhood. The place has sadly
+changed since for the worse."</p>
+
+<div class='center'><big>*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</big></div>
+
+<p>Mr. Humphrey Wood, Solicitor, of Chatham, was, about
+the year 1867, local Hon. Secretary to the Royal Society for
+the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and, having applied to
+Charles Dickens to give a Reading on behalf of the Society,
+received the following polite answer to his application. If
+only a few words had to be said, they were well said and
+to the purpose.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><div class='right'>
+<span style="margin-right: 3em;">"<span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place</span>,</span><br />
+"<span class="smcap">Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>.<br />
+"<i>Thursday, 5th September, 1867.</i><br />
+<br /></div>
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Sir</span>,<br /></p>
+
+<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; "In reply to your letter, I beg to express my regret
+that my compliance with the request it communicates to me,
+is removed from within the bounds of reasonable possibility
+by the nature of my engagements, present and prospective.</p>
+
+<div class='sig'>
+<span style="margin-right: 4em;">"Your faithful servant,</span><br />
+"<span class="smcap">Charles Dickens</span>.<br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='secsig'>"<span class="smcap">Humphrey Wood, Esq.</span>"</div></div>
+
+<p>Like other towns in Kent, Chatham contains many names
+which are suggestive of some of Dickens's characters, <i>viz.</i>
+Dowler, Whiffen, Kimmins, Wyles, Arkcoll, Perse, Winch,
+Wildish, Hockaday, Mowatt, Hunnisett, and others.</p>
+
+<p>It is, of course, scarcely necessary to mention, in passing,
+that Chatham is one of the most important centres of ship-building
+for the Royal Navy; the dockyards&mdash;often referred
+to in Dickens's minor works&mdash;cover more than seventy acres,
+and are most interesting. Here, at the Navy Pay-Office,
+the elder Dickens was employed during his residence at
+Chatham.</p>
+
+<p>Fort Pitt next claims our attention. It stands on the high
+ground above the Railway Station at Chatham, just beyond
+Ordnance Terrace. In Charles Dickens's early days, and
+indeed long after, until the establishment of the magnificent
+Institution at Netley, Fort Pitt was the principal military
+Hospital in England, and was visited by Her Majesty during
+the Crimean War. It is still used as a hospital, and contains
+about two hundred and fifty beds. The interesting museum
+which previously existed there has been removed to Netley.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>From Fort Pitt we see the famous "Chatham lines," which
+constitute the elaborate and almost impregnable fortifications
+of this important military and ship-building town. The
+"lines" were commenced as far back as 1758, and stretch
+from Gillingham to Brompton, a distance of several miles,
+enclosing the peninsula formed by the bend of the river
+Medway. Forster says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/i_298.png" width="400" height="284" alt="Navy Pay-Office, Chatham." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Navy Pay-Office, Chatham.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"By Rochester and the Medway to the Chatham lines was
+a favourite walk with Charles Dickens. He would turn out
+of Rochester High Street through the Vines, .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. would pass
+round by Fort Pitt, and coming back by Frindsbury would
+bring himself by some cross-fields again into the high-road."</p>
+
+<p>The Chatham lines are locally understood as referring to a
+piece of ground about three or four hundred yards square, near
+Fort Pitt, used as an exercising-ground for the military.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Chapter IV. of <i>Pickwick</i>, "describing a field day and
+bivouac," refers to the Chatham lines as the place where the
+review was held, on the third day of the visit of the Pickwickians
+to this neighbourhood, and which (having been
+relieved of the company of their quondam friend, Mr. Jingle,
+who had caused at least one of the party so much anxiety)
+they all attended, possibly at Mr. Pickwick's suggestion, as
+he is stated to have been "an enthusiastic admirer of the
+army." The programme is thus referred to:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"The whole population of Rochester and the adjoining towns,
+rose from their beds at an early hour of the following morning, in a
+state of the utmost bustle and excitement. A grand review was to
+take place upon the lines. The man&oelig;uvres of half a dozen regiments
+were to be inspected by the eagle eye of the commander-in-chief;
+temporary fortifications had been erected, the citadel was to be
+attacked and taken, and a mine was to be sprung."</p></div>
+
+<p>The evolutions of this "ceremony of the utmost grandeur
+and importance" proceed. Mr. Pickwick and his two friends
+(Mr. Tupman "had suddenly disappeared, and was nowhere
+to be found"), who are told to keep back, get hustled and
+pushed by the crowd, and the unoffending Mr. Snodgrass, who
+is in "the very extreme of human torture," is derided and
+asked "vere he vos a shovin' to." Subsequently they get
+hemmed in by the crowd, "are exposed to a galling fire of
+blank cartridges, and harassed by the operations of the
+military." Mr. Pickwick loses his hat, and not only regains
+that useful article of dress, but finds the lost Mr. Tupman,
+and the Pickwickians make the acquaintance of old Wardle
+and his hospitable family from Dingley Dell, by whom they
+are heartily entertained, and from whom they receive a warm
+invitation to visit Manor Farm on the morrow.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>There is a fine view of Chatham and Rochester from the
+fields round Fort Pitt, and on a bright sunny morning the air
+coming over from the Kentish Hills is most refreshing, very
+different indeed to what it was on a certain evening in Mr.
+Winkle's life, when "a melancholy wind sounded through the
+deserted fields like a giant whistling for his house-dog." We
+ramble about for an hour or more, and in imagination call
+up the pleasant times which Charles Dickens, as a boy, spent
+here.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/i_300.png" width="400" height="235" alt="Fort Pitt, Chatham." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Fort Pitt, Chatham.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Almost every inch of the ground must have been gone over
+by him. What a delightful "playing-field" this and the
+neighbouring meadows must have been to him and his young
+companions, before the railway and the builder took possession
+of some of the lower portions of the hill which forms
+the base of Fort Pitt. "Here," says Mr. Langton, "is the
+place where the schools of Rochester and Chatham used to
+meet to settle their differences, and to contend in the more
+friendly rivalry of cricket," and no doubt Dickens frequently
+played when "Joe Specks" in Dullborough "kept wicket."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span>
+In after life the memory of the past came back to Dickens
+with all its freshness, when he again visited the neighbourhood
+as the <i>Uncommercial Traveller</i> in "Dullborough":&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"With this tender remembrance upon me" [that of leaving
+Chatham as a boy], "I was cavalierly shunted back into Dullborough
+the other day, by train. My ticket had been previously collected,
+like my taxes, and my shining new portmanteau had had a great
+plaster stuck upon it, and I had been defied by Act of Parliament to
+offer an objection to anything that was done to it, or me, under a
+penalty of not less than forty shillings or more than five pounds,
+compoundable for a term of imprisonment. When I had sent my
+disfigured property on to the hotel, I began to look about me; and
+the first discovery I made, was, that the Station had swallowed up the
+playing-field.</p>
+
+<p>"It was gone. The two beautiful hawthorn-trees, the hedge, the
+turf, and all those buttercups and daisies, had given place to the
+stoniest of jolting roads; while, beyond the Station, an ugly dark
+monster of a tunnel kept its jaws open, as if it had swallowed them
+and were ravenous for more destruction. The coach that had
+carried me away, was melodiously called Timpson's Blue-eyed Maid,
+and belonged to Timpson, at the coach-office up street; the locomotive
+engine that had brought me back was called severely No. 97,
+and belonged to S.E.R., and was spitting ashes and hot-water over
+the blighted ground.</p>
+
+<p>"When I had been let out at the platform-door, like a prisoner
+whom his turnkey grudgingly released, I looked in again over the
+low wall, at the scene of departed glories. Here, in the haymaking
+time, had I been delivered from the dungeons of Seringapatam, an
+immense pile (of haycock), by my countrymen, the victorious British
+(boy next door and his two cousins), and had been recognized with
+ecstasy by my affianced one (Miss Green), who had come all the way
+from England (second house in the terrace) to ransom me, and
+marry me."</p></div>
+
+<p>Fort Pitt must have had considerable attractions in Mr.
+Pickwick's time, as it would appear that it was visited by him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span>
+and his friends on the first day of their arrival at Rochester.
+Lieutenant Tappleton (Dr. Slammer's second), when presenting
+the challenge for the duel, thus speaks to Mr. Winkle in
+the second chapter of <i>Pickwick:</i>&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"'You know Fort Pitt?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Yes; I saw it yesterday.'</p>
+
+<p>"'If you will take the trouble to turn into the field which borders
+the trench, take the foot-path to the left, when you arrive at an angle
+of the fortification; and keep straight on till you see me; I will
+precede you to a secluded place, where the affair can be conducted
+without fear of interruption.'</p>
+
+<p>"'<i>Fear</i> of interruption!' thought Mr. Winkle."</p></div>
+
+<p>Everybody remembers how the meeting took place on Fort
+Pitt. Mr. Winkle, attended by his friend Mr. Snodgrass,
+as second, is punctuality itself.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"'We are in excellent time,' said Mr. Snodgrass, as they climbed
+the fence of the first field; 'the sun is just going down.' Mr.
+Winkle looked up at the declining orb, and painfully thought of the
+probability of his 'going down' himself, before long."</p></div>
+
+<p>Presently the officer appears, "the gentleman in the blue
+cloak," and "slightly beckoning with his hand to the two
+friends, they follow him for a little distance," and after
+climbing a paling and scaling a hedge, enter a secluded
+field.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Slammer is already there with his friend Dr. Payne,&mdash;Dr.
+Payne of the 43rd, "the man with the camp-stool."</p>
+
+<p>The arrangements proceed, when suddenly a check is
+experienced.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"'What's all this?' said Dr. Slammer, as his friend and Mr.
+Snodgrass came running up.&mdash;'That's not the man.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Not the man!' said Dr. Slammer's second.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"'Not the man!' said Mr. Snodgrass.</p>
+
+<p>"'Not the man!' said the gentleman with the camp-stool in his
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>"'Certainly not,' replied the little doctor. 'That's not the person
+who insulted me last night.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Very extraordinary!' exclaimed the officer.</p>
+
+<p>"'Very,' said the gentleman with the camp-stool."</p></div>
+
+<p>Mutual explanations follow, and, notwithstanding the
+temporary dissatisfaction of Dr. Payne, Mr. Winkle comes out
+like a trump&mdash;defends the honour of the Pickwick Club and
+its uniform, and wins the admiration of Dr. Slammer.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"'My dear sir,' said the good-humoured little doctor, advancing
+with extended hand, 'I honour your gallantry. Permit me to say,
+Sir, that I highly admire your conduct, and extremely regret having
+caused you the inconvenience of this meeting, to no purpose.'</p>
+
+<p>"'I beg you won't mention it, Sir,' said Mr. Winkle.</p>
+
+<p>"'I shall feel proud of your acquaintance, Sir,' said the little
+doctor.</p>
+
+<p>"'It will afford me the greatest pleasure to know you, Sir,' replied
+Mr. Winkle.</p>
+
+<p>"Thereupon the doctor and Mr. Winkle shook hands, and then
+Mr. Winkle and Lieutenant Tappleton (the doctor's second), and then
+Mr. Winkle and the man with the camp-stool, and finally Mr.
+Winkle and Mr. Snodgrass: the last-named gentleman in an excess
+of admiration at the noble conduct of his heroic friend.</p>
+
+<p>"'I think we may adjourn,' said Lieutenant Tappleton.</p>
+
+<p>"'Certainly,' added the doctor."</p></div>
+
+<p>We ourselves also adjourn, taking with us many pleasant
+memories of Chatham and Fort Pitt, and of the period relating
+to "the childhood and youth of Charles Dickens."</p>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'><big>*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</big></div>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 372px;">
+<img src="images/i_304.png" width="372" height="500" alt="Birthplace of Charles Dickens, 387 Mile End Terrace, Commercial Road, Landport." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Birthplace of Charles Dickens,<br />
+387 Mile End Terrace, Commercial Road, Landport.</span>
+</div>
+<p>No tramp in "Dickens-Land" can possibly be complete
+without a visit to the birthplace of the great novelist, and on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span>
+another occasion we therefore devote a day to Portsea, Hants.
+A fast train from Victoria by the London, Brighton, and South
+Coast Railway takes us to Portsmouth Town, the nearest
+station, which is about half a mile from Commercial Road,
+and a tram-car puts us down at the door. We immediately
+recognize the house from the picture in Mr. Langton's book,
+but the first impression is that the illustration scarcely does
+justice to it. From the picture it appears to us to be a very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span>
+ordinary house in a row, and to be situated rather low in
+a crowded and not over respectable neighbourhood. Nothing
+of the kind. The house, No. 387, Mile End Terrace, Commercial
+Road, Landport, where the parents of Charles Dickens
+resided before they removed to another part of Portsea, and
+subsequently went to live at Chatham, and where the future
+genius first saw light, was eighty years ago quite in a rural
+neighbourhood; and in those days must have been considered
+rather a genteel residence for a family of moderate means in
+the middle class. Even now, with the pressure which always
+attends the development of large towns, and their extension
+on the border-land of green country by the frequent conversion
+of dwelling-houses into shops, or the intrusion of shops
+where dwelling-houses are, this residence has escaped and
+remains unchanged to this day.</p>
+
+<p>There is another point of real importance to notice. Mr.
+Langton, referring to this house, says:&mdash;"The engraving
+shows the little fore-court or front garden, with the low
+kitchen window of the house, whence the movements of
+Charles [who is presumably represented in the engraving by
+the figure of a boy about two or three years old, with curly
+locks, dressed in a smart frock, and having a large ball in his
+right hand], attended by his dear little sister Fanny, could be
+overlooked."<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> Very pretty indeed, but alas! I am afraid,
+purely imaginary, considering, as will hereafter appear, that
+Charles was a baby in arms, aged about four months and
+sixteen days, when his parents quitted the house in which
+he was born.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span></p>
+<p>The house is now, and has been for many years, occupied
+by Miss Sarah Pearce, the surviving daughter of Mr. John
+Dickens's landlord, her sisters, who formerly lived with her,
+being all dead. It stands high on the west side of a good
+broad road, opposite an old-fashioned villa called Angus
+House, in the midst of well-trimmed grounds, and the situation
+is very open, pleasant, and cheerful. It is red-brick built,
+has a railing in front, and is approached by a little entrance-gate
+opening on to a lawn, whereon there are a few flower-beds;
+a hedge divides the fore-court from the next house,<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a>
+and a few steps guarded by a handrail lead to the front door.
+It is a single-fronted, eight-roomed house, having two underground
+kitchens, two floors above, and a single dormer
+window high up in the sloping red-tiled roof. As is usual
+with old-fashioned houses of this type, the shutters to the
+lower windows are outside. Both the front and back parlours
+on the ground floor are very cheerful, cosy little rooms (in
+one of them we are glad to see a portrait of the novelist),
+and the view from the back parlour looking down into the
+well-kept garden, which abuts on other gardens, is very pretty,
+marred only by a large gasometer in the distance, which
+could hardly have been erected in young Charles Dickens's
+earliest days. In the garden we notice a lovely specimen of
+the <i>Lavatera arborea</i>, or tree-mallow, covered with hundreds
+of white and purple blossoms. It is a rarity to see such a
+handsome, well-grown tree, standing nearly eight feet high,
+and it is not unlikely, from the luxuriance of its growth, that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span>
+it existed in Charles Dickens's infancy. From the pleasant
+surroundings of the place generally, and from the fact that
+flowers are much grown in the neighbourhood (especially
+roses), it is more than probable that Dickens's love for flowers
+was early developed by these associations. The road leads
+to Cosham, and to the picturesque old ruin of Porchester
+Castle, a nice walk from the town of Portsmouth, and
+probably often traversed by Dickens, his sister, and his
+nurse.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Langton states that "it is said in after years Charles
+Dickens could remember places and things at Portsmouth
+that he had not seen since he was an infant of little more
+than two years old (he left Portsmouth when he was only
+four or five), and there is no doubt whatever that many of
+the earliest reminiscences of <i>David Copperfield</i> were also
+tender childish memories of his own infancy at this place."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. William Pearce, solicitor of Portsea, son of the former
+landlord, and brother of Miss Sarah Pearce, the present
+occupant, has been kind enough to supply the following
+interesting information respecting No. 387, Mile End
+Terrace:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"The celebrated novelist was born in the front bedroom
+of the above house, which my sisters many years ago converted
+into a drawing-room, and it is still used as such.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. John Dickens, the father of the novelist, and his wife
+came to reside in the house directly after they were married.
+Mr. John Dickens rented the house of my father at &pound;35
+a-year, from the 24th June, 1808, until the 24th June, 1812,
+when he quitted, and moved into Hawke Street, in the town
+of Portsea. Miss Fanny Dickens, the novelist's sister, was
+the first child born in the house, and then the novelist.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I was born on the 22nd February, 1814, and have often
+heard my mother say that Mr. Gardner, the surgeon, and
+Mrs. Purkis, the monthly nurse (both of whom attended my
+mother with me and her six other children), attended Mrs.
+Dickens with her two children, Fanny and Charles, who were
+both born in the above house; besides this, Mrs. Purkis has
+often called on my sisters at the house in question, and
+alluded to the above circumstances.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 350px;">
+<img src="images/i_308.png" width="350" height="341" alt="St. Mary&#39;s Church, Portsea." title="" />
+<span class="caption">St. Mary&#39;s Church, Portsea.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Mr. Cobb (whom I recollect), a fellow-clerk of Mr. John
+Dickens in the pay-office in the Portsmouth Dockyard,
+rented the same house of my father after Mr. John Dickens
+left, and often alluded to the many happy hours he spent in
+it while Mr. Dickens resided there."</p>
+
+<p>We next visit the site of old Kingston Parish Church,&mdash;St.
+Mary's, Portsea&mdash;where Charles Dickens was baptized on 4th
+March, 1812. A very handsome and large new church, costing
+nearly forty thousand pounds, and capable of seating over two
+thousand persons, has been erected, and occupies the place of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span>
+the old church, where the ceremony took place. Mr. Langton
+has given a very pretty little drawing of the old church in
+his book, so that its associations are preserved to lovers of
+Dickens. The old church itself was the second edifice erected
+on the same spot, and thus the present one is the third
+parish church which has been built here. There is a large
+and crowded burial-ground attached to it; but a cursory
+examination does not disclose any names on the gravestones
+to indicate characters in the novels.</p>
+
+<p>It is right to note here, that the kind people of Portsmouth
+were desirous of inserting a stained-glass window in their
+beautiful new church to the memory of one of their most
+famous sons (the eminent novelist, Mr. Walter Besant, was
+born at Portsmouth, as also were Isambard K. Brunel, the
+engineer, and Messrs. George and Vicat Cole, Royal Academicians),
+but they were debarred by the conditions of Dickens's
+will, which expressly interdicted anything of the kind. It
+states:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I conjure my friends on no account to make me the
+subject of any monument, memorial, or testimonial whatever.
+I rest my claim to the remembrance of my country upon
+my published works, and to the remembrance of my friends
+upon their experience of me in addition thereto."</p>
+
+<p>Before leaving Portsmouth, we just take a hasty glance at
+the Theatre Royal, which remains much as it was during the
+days of Mr. Vincent Crummles and his company, as graphically
+described in the twenty-second and following chapters of
+<i>Nicholas Nickleby</i>. Of that genial manager, Mr. T. Edgar
+Pemberton, in his <i>Charles Dickens and the Stage</i>, observes:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Every line that is written about Mr. Crummles and his
+followers is instinct with good-natured humour, and from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span>
+moment when, in the road-side inn 'yet twelve miles short
+of Portsmouth,' the reader comes into contact with the kindly
+old circuit manager, he finds himself in the best of good
+company."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Rimmer, in his <i>About England with Dickens</i>, referring
+to the "Common Hard" at Portsmouth, says that the
+"people there point out in a narrow lane leading to the
+wharf, the house where Nicholas is supposed to have
+sojourned."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER X.</h2>
+
+<h3>AYLESFORD, TOWN MALLING, AND MAIDSTONE.</h3>
+
+<div class="hang2">"Its river winding down from the mist on the horizon, as though that
+were its source, and already heaving with a restless knowledge of its
+approach towards the sea."&mdash;<i>Edwin Drood.</i></div>
+
+<div class="hang2">"Oh, the solemn woods over which the light and shadow travelled swiftly,
+as if Heavenly wings were sweeping on benignant errands through the
+summer air; the smooth green slopes, the glittering water, the garden
+where the flowers were symmetrically arranged in clusters of the richest
+colours, how beautiful they looked!"&mdash;<i>Bleak House.</i></div>
+
+
+<div class='unindent'><span class="smcap">Another</span> delightful morning, fine but overcast, favours our
+tramp in this neighbourhood. We are up betimes on Monday,
+and take the train by the South-Eastern Railway from Strood
+station to Aylesford. It is a distance of nearly eight miles
+between these places; and the intermediate stations of any
+note which we pass on the way are Cuxton (about three miles)
+and Snodland (about two miles further on), which are two
+large villages. As the railway winds, we obtain excellent
+views of the chalk escarpments on the series of hills opposite,
+these being the result of centuries of quarrying. The land
+on either side of the river is marshy and intersected by
+numerous water-courses. These grounds are locally termed
+"saltings," caused by the overflow of the Medway at certain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span>
+times, and are used as sanitaria for horses which require
+bracing.</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/i_312.png" width="500" height="507" alt="Aylesford" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>Cuxton is at the entrance of the valley between the two
+chalk ranges of hills which form the water-parting of the
+river Medway. As Mr Phillips Bevan rightly observes&mdash;"this
+valley is utilized for quarrying and lime-burning to
+such an extent, that it has almost the appearance of a
+northern manufacturing district," but it is a consolation, on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span>
+the authority of Sir A. C. Ramsay, to know that "man cannot
+permanently disfigure nature!"</p>
+
+<p>At Snodland the river becomes narrower, and the scenery
+of the valley is more picturesque. Early British and Roman
+remains have been found in the district, and according to
+the authority previously quoted&mdash;"In one of the quarries,
+which are abundant, Dr. Mantell discovered some of the
+most interesting and rarest chalk fossils with which we are
+acquainted, including the fossil Turtle (<i>Chelonia Benstedi</i>)."</p>
+
+<p>Alighting from the train at Aylesford station, we have but
+a few minutes to ramble by the river, the banks of which
+are brightened by the handsome flowers of the purple loosestrife.
+We notice the charming position of the Norman
+church, which stands on an eminence on the right bank of
+the Medway, overlooking the main street, and is surrounded
+by fine old elm trees&mdash;the bells were chiming "Home, sweet
+home," a name very dear to Dickens. The Medway ceases
+to be a tidal river at Allington beyond Aylesford, and one
+or other of the weirs at Allington or Farleigh (further on)
+may have suggested the idea of "Cloisterham Weir" in
+<i>Edwin Drood;</i> but they are too far distant (as shown in
+Chapter V.) to fit in with the story. The ancient stone bridge
+which spans the Medway at Aylesford is seven-arched; a
+large central one, and three smaller ones on either side. One
+or two of the arches on the left bank are filled up, as though
+the river had silted on that side. Mr. Roach Smith considers
+the bridge to be a very fine specimen of medi&aelig;val architecture.
+It is somewhat narrow, but there are large abutments
+which afford shelter to foot passengers.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291"></a>
+<img src="images/i_314.png" width="600" height="443" alt="Aylesford Bridge" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>We are much inclined to think that Aylesford Bridge was
+in the mind of Dickens when he makes the Pickwickians<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span>
+cross the Medway, only a wooden bridge is mentioned in
+the text for the purpose perhaps of concealing identity. The
+place is certainly worth visiting, and the approach to it by
+the river is exceedingly picturesque.</p>
+
+<p>Aylesford is supposed to be the place where the great
+battle between Hengist and Vortigern took place. Near to
+it, at a place called Horsted, is the tomb of Horsa, who fell
+in the battle between the Britons and Saxons, <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 455.
+Names of Dickens's characters, Brooks, Joy, etc., occur at
+Aylesford. There is a very fine quarry here, from whence
+the famous Kentish rag-stone&mdash;"a concretionary limestone"&mdash;is
+obtained. It forms the base, and is overlaid by the
+Hassock sands and the river drift. In the distance is seen the
+bold series of chalk rocks constituting the ridge of the valley.</p>
+
+<p>Just outside Aylesford we pass Preston Hall, a fine modern
+Tudor mansion standing in very pretty grounds, and belonging
+to Mr. H. Brassey.</p>
+
+<p>We now resume our tramp towards the principal point of
+our destination, Town Malling,<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> or West Malling, as it is
+indifferently called (the "a" in Malling being pronounced
+long, as in "calling"). The walk from Aylesford lies through
+the village of Larkview, and is rather pretty, but there is
+nothing remarkable to notice until we approach Town
+Malling. Here it becomes beautifully wooded, especially in
+the neighbourhood of Clare House Park, the Spanish or
+edible chestnut, with its handsome dark green lanceolate
+serrate leaves, and clumps of Scotch firs, with their light red
+trunks and large cones, the result of healthy growth, which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span>
+would have delighted the heart of Mr. Ruskin, being conspicuous.
+On the road we pass a field sown with maize, a
+novelty to one accustomed to the Midlands. The farmer to
+whom it belongs says that it is a poor crop this year,
+owing to the excess of wet and late summer, but in a good
+season it gives a fine yield. We are informed that it is used
+in the green state as food for cattle and chickens.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/i_316.png" width="450" height="359" alt="The High St Town Malling" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>A pleasant tramp of about three miles brings us to Town
+Malling, which stands on the Kentish rag. The approach
+to Town Malling is by a waterfall, and there are the ruins of
+the old Nunnery, founded by Bishop Gundulph in 1090, in
+the place. East Malling is a smaller town, and lies nearer
+to Maidstone. Our object in visiting this pretty, old-fashioned
+Kentish country town, is to verify its identity with that of
+Muggleton of the <i>Pickwick Papers</i>. Great weight must be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span>
+attached to the fact that the present Mr. Charles Dickens, in
+his annotated Jubilee Edition of the above work, introduces
+a very pretty woodcut of "High Street, Town Malling," with
+a note to the effect that&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Muggleton, perhaps, is only to be taken as a fancy sketch
+of a small country town; but it is generally supposed, and
+probably with sufficient accuracy, that, if it is in any degree
+a portrait of any Kentish town, Town Malling, a great place
+for cricket in Mr. Pickwick's time, sat for it."</p>
+
+<p>The reader will remember that when at the hospitable
+Mr. Wardle's residence at Manor Farm in Dingley Dell
+(by the bye, there is a veritable "Manor Farm" at Frindsbury,
+near Strood, with ponds adjacent, which may perhaps have
+suggested the episode of Mr. Pickwick on the ice), an excursion
+was determined on by the Pickwickians to witness a
+grand cricket match about to be played between the "All
+Muggleton" and the "Dingley Dellers," a conference first
+took place as to whether the invalid, Mr. Tupman, should
+remain or go with them.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"'Shall we be justified,' asked Mr. Pickwick, 'in leaving our
+wounded friend to the care of the ladies?'</p>
+
+<p>"'You cannot leave me in better hands,' said Mr. Tupman.</p>
+
+<p>"'Quite impossible,' said Mr. Snodgrass."</p></div>
+
+<p>The result of the conference was satisfactory.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"It was therefore settled that Mr. Tupman should be left at home
+in charge of the females, and that the remainder of the guests under
+the guidance of Mr. Wardle should proceed to the spot, where was
+to be held that trial of skill, which had roused all Muggleton from
+its torpor, and inoculated Dingley Dell with a fever of excitement.</p>
+
+<p>"As their walk, <i>which was not above two miles long</i>,<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> lay through<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span>
+shady lanes and sequestered footpaths, and as their conversation
+turned upon the delightful scenery by which they were on every side
+surrounded, Mr. Pickwick was almost inclined to regret the expedition
+they had used, when he found himself in the main street of the
+town of Muggleton."</p></div>
+
+<p>The chronicle of <i>Pickwick</i> then proceeds to state that&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Muggleton is a corporate town, with a mayor, burgesses, and
+freemen; .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. an ancient and loyal borough, mingling a zealous
+advocacy of Christian principles with a devoted attachment to commercial
+rights; in demonstration whereof, the mayor, corporation,
+and other inhabitants, have presented at divers times, no fewer than
+one thousand four hundred and twenty petitions, against the continuance
+of negro slavery abroad, and an equal number against any
+interference with the factory system at home; sixty-eight in favour of
+the sales of livings in the Church, and eighty-six for abolishing
+Sunday trading in the streets."</p></div>
+
+<p>On the occasion of their second visit to Manor Farm to
+spend Christmas, the Pickwickians came by the "Muggleton
+Telegraph," which stopped at the "Blue Lion," and they
+walked over to Dingley Dell.</p>
+
+<p>Assuming, as has been suggested by Mr. Frost in his <i>In
+Kent with Charles Dickens</i>, that Dingley Dell is somewhere on
+the eastern side of the river Medway, within fifteen miles of
+Rochester,&mdash;Mr. William James Budden (a gentleman whom
+we met at Chatham) gave as his opinion that it was near
+Burham,<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a>&mdash;then it would require a much greater walk than that
+("which was not above two miles long") to reach Town
+Malling (leaving out of the question the fact that Burham is
+only about six miles from Rochester instead of fifteen miles,
+as the waiter at the Bull told Mr. Pickwick in reply to his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span>
+enquiry), whereby we reluctantly for the time arrive at the
+conclusion,&mdash;as Mr. Frost did before us&mdash;that Dingley Dell as
+such near Town Malling cannot be identified.</p>
+
+<p>On another visit to "Dickens-Land" Mr. R. L. Cobb
+suggested that Cobtree Hall, near Aylesford, was the prototype
+of Dingley Dell. It may have been; but except one
+goes as the crow flies, it is more than two miles distant
+from Town Malling. But as Captain Cuttle would say&mdash;we
+"make a note of it."</p>
+
+<p>After all, Dingley Dell is no doubt a type of an English
+yeoman's hospitable home. There are numbers of such in
+Kent, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Devonshire, and other
+counties, and the one in question may have been seen by
+Dickens almost anywhere.</p>
+
+<p>There is, at any rate, one objection to Muggleton being
+Town Malling&mdash;the latter is not, as mentioned in the text, "a
+corporate town." The neighbouring corporate towns which
+might be taken for it are Faversham, Tunbridge Wells, and
+Seven Oaks; but, as Mr. Rimmer, in his <i>About England with
+Dickens</i>, points out&mdash;"These have no feature in common
+with the enterprising borough which had so distinguished
+itself in the matter of petitions." On the other hand, there is
+<i>one</i> very strong reason in favour of Town Malling, and that is
+its devotion to the noble old English game of cricket. So far
+as we could make out, no town in Kent has done better
+service in this respect. But more of this presently.</p>
+
+<div class='center'><big>*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</big></div>
+
+
+<p>So many friends recommended us to see Cobtree Hall
+that, after the foregoing was written, we determined to follow
+their advice, and on a subsequent occasion we take the train
+to Aylesford and walk over, the distance being a pleasant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span>
+stroll of about a mile. We were well repaid. The mansion,
+formerly called Coptray Friars, belonging to the Aylesford
+Friary, is an Elizabethan structure of red brick with stone
+facings prettily covered with creeping plants, standing
+on an elevated position in a beautifully wooded and undulating
+country overlooking the Medway
+and surrounded by cherry
+orchards and hop gardens. Major
+Trousdell was so courteous as to
+show us over the building, which
+has been altered and much enlarged during the last half
+century. Internally there is something to favour the hypothesis
+of its being the type of Manor Farm, Dingley Dell.
+Such portions of the old building remaining, as the kitchen,
+are highly suggestive of the gathering described in that good-humoured
+Christmas chapter of <i>Pickwick</i> (xxviii.), and there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span>
+is a veritable beam to correspond with Phiz's plate of "Christmas
+Eve at Mr. Wardle's." "The best sitting-room, [described
+as] a good long, dark-panelled room with a high chimney-piece,
+and a capacious chimney up which you could have
+driven one of the new patent cabs, wheels and all," may still
+be discerned in the handsome modern dining-room, with
+carved marble mantel-piece of massive size formerly supplied
+with old-fashioned "dogs." The views from the bay-window
+are very extensive and picturesque. The mansion divides the
+two parishes of Boxley and Allington, the initials of which
+are carved on the beam in the kitchen. Externally, there is
+much more to commend it to our acceptance. Remains of a
+triangular piece of ground, with a few elm-trees, still survive
+as "the rookery," where Mr. Tupman met with his mishap,
+and to our delight there is "the pond," not indeed covered
+with ice, as on Mr. Pickwick's memorable adventure, but
+crowded with water-lilies on its surface; its banks surrounded
+by the fragrant meadow-sweet and the brilliant rose-coloured
+willow herb. Furthermore we were informed, by Mr. Franklin
+of Maidstone, that the "Red Lion," which formerly stood on
+the spot now occupied by Mercer's Stables, is locally considered
+to be the original of "a little roadside public-house,
+with two elm-trees, a horse-trough, and a sign-post in front;"
+where the Pickwickians sought assistance after the breakdown
+of the "four-wheeled chaise" which "separated the
+wheels from the body and the bin from the perch," but were
+inhospitably repulsed by the "red-headed man and the tall
+bony woman," who suggested that they had stolen the
+"immense horse" which had recently played Mr. Winkle
+such pranks. Finally, in a pleasant chat with the Rev. Cyril
+Grant, Vicar of Aylesford, and his curate, the Rev. H. B. Boyd<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span>
+(a son of A. K. H. B.), we elicited the fact that Cobtree Hall
+is locally recognized as the original of Manor Farm. Nay
+more, in Aylesford churchyard a tomb was pointed out on the
+west side with the inscription:&mdash;"Also to the memory of Mr.
+W. Spong, late of Cobtree, in the Parish of Boxley, who died
+Nov. 15th, 1839," who is said to have been the prototype of
+the genial and hospitable "old Wardle."</p>
+<div class='center'><a name="cobb" id="cobb"></a> <table class="cobb" summary="cobb">
+<tr><td align='left'><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+<div class='blockquot3'><p>True, neither the distance to Rochester nor to Town
+Malling fits in with the narrative, but this is not material.
+Dickens, with the usual "novelist's licence," found it convenient
+often-times to take a nucleus of fact, and surround
+it with a halo of fiction, and this may have been one of
+many similar instances. His wonderfully-gifted and ever-facile
+imagination was never at fault.</p></div>
+</td>
+</tr></table></div>
+
+
+<p>So on our return journey we console ourselves by reading
+the following description, in chapter vi. of <i>Pickwick</i>, of
+the first gathering of the Pickwickians at their host's, one
+of the most delightful bits in the whole book, and "make-believe,"
+as the Marchioness would say, that we have actually
+seen Manor Farm, Dingley Dell.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Several guests who were assembled in the old parlour, rose to
+greet Mr. Pickwick and his friends upon their entrance; and during
+the performance of the ceremony of introduction, with all due
+formalities, Mr. Pickwick had leisure to observe the appearance, and
+speculate upon the characters and pursuits, of the persons by whom
+he was surrounded&mdash;a habit in which he in common with many
+other great men delighted to indulge.</p>
+
+<p>"A very old lady, in a lofty cap and faded silk gown,&mdash;no less a
+personage than Mr. Wardle's mother,&mdash;occupied the post of honour
+on the right-hand corner of the chimney-piece; and various certificates
+of her having been brought up in the way she should go when
+young, and of her not having departed from it when old, ornamented<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span>
+the walls, in the form of samplers of ancient date, worsted landscapes
+of equal antiquity, and crimson silk tea-kettle holders of a more
+modern period. The aunt, the two young ladies, and Mr. Wardle,
+each vying with the other in paying zealous and unremitting attentions
+to the old lady, crowded round her easy-chair, one holding her
+ear-trumpet, another an orange, and a third a smelling-bottle, while
+a fourth was busily engaged in patting and punching the pillows,
+which were arranged for her support. On the opposite side sat a
+bald-headed old gentleman, with a good-humoured benevolent face,&mdash;the
+clergyman of Dingley Dell; and next him sat his wife, a stout,
+blooming old lady, who looked as if she were well skilled, not only
+in the art and mystery of manufacturing home-made cordials, greatly
+to other people's satisfaction, but of tasting them occasionally, very
+much to her own. A little hard-headed, Ripstone pippin-faced man,
+was conversing with a fat old gentleman in one corner; and two or
+three more old gentlemen, and two or three more old ladies, sat bolt
+upright and motionless on their chairs, staring very hard at Mr.
+Pickwick and his fellow-voyagers.</p>
+
+<p>"'Mr. Pickwick, mother,' said Mr. Wardle, at the very top of his
+voice.</p>
+
+<p>"'Ah!' said the old lady, shaking her head; 'I can't hear
+you.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Mr. Pickwick, grandma!' screamed both the young ladies
+together.</p>
+
+<p>"'Ah!' exclaimed the old lady. 'Well; it don't much matter.
+He don't care for an old 'ooman like me, I dare say.'</p>
+
+<p>"'I assure you, madam,' said Mr. Pickwick, grasping the old
+lady's hand, and speaking so loud that the exertion imparted a
+crimson hue to his benevolent countenance; 'I assure you, ma'am,
+that nothing delights me more, than to see a lady of your time of
+life heading so fine a family, and looking so young and well.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Ah!' said the old lady, after a short pause; 'it's all very fine,
+I dare say; but I can't hear him.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Grandma's rather put out now,' said Miss Isabella Wardle, in
+a low tone; 'but she'll talk to you presently.'</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Pickwick nodded his readiness to humour the infirmities of
+age, and entered into a general conversation with the other members
+of the circle.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"'Delightful situation this,' said Mr. Pickwick.</p>
+
+<p>"'Delightful!' echoed Messrs. Snodgrass, Tupman, and Winkle.</p>
+
+<p>"'Well, I think it is,' said Mr. Wardle.</p>
+
+<p>"'There ain't a better spot o' ground in all Kent, sir,' said the
+hard-headed man with the pippin-face; 'there ain't indeed, sir&mdash;I'm
+sure there ain't, sir,' and the hard-headed man looked triumphantly
+round, as if he had been very much contradicted by somebody,
+but had got the better of him at last. 'There ain't a better
+spot o' ground in all Kent,' said the hard-headed man again after a
+pause.</p>
+
+<p>"''Cept Mullins' meadows!' observed the fat man, solemnly.</p>
+
+<p>"'Mullins' meadows!' ejaculated the other, with profound
+contempt.</p>
+
+<p>"'Ah, Mullins' meadows,' repeated the fat man.</p>
+
+<p>"'Reg'lar good land that,' interposed another fat man.</p>
+
+<p>"'And so it is, sure-ly,' said a third fat man.</p>
+
+<p>"'Everybody knows that,' said the corpulent host.</p>
+
+<p>"The hard-headed man looked dubiously round, but finding
+himself in a minority, assumed a compassionate air, and said no
+more.</p>
+
+<p>"'What are they talking about?' inquired the old lady of one of
+her grand-daughters, in a very audible voice; for, like many deaf
+people, she never seemed to calculate on the possibility of other
+persons hearing what she said herself.</p>
+
+<p>"'About the land, grandma.'</p>
+
+<p>"'What about the land? Nothing the matter, is there?'</p>
+
+<p>"'No, no. Mr. Miller was saying our land was better than
+Mullins' meadows.'</p>
+
+<p>"'How should he know anything about it?' inquired the old lady
+indignantly. 'Miller's a conceited coxcomb, and you may tell him
+I said so.' Saying which, the old lady, quite unconscious that she
+had spoken above a whisper, drew herself up, and looked carving-knives
+at the hard-headed delinquent."</p></div>
+
+<div class='center'><big>*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</big></div>
+
+<p>In the course of our tramp we fall in with "a very queer
+small boy," rejoicing in the Christian names of "Spencer
+Ray," upon which we congratulate him, and express a hope<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span>
+that he will do honour to the noble names which he bears,
+one being that of the great English philosopher, and the
+other that of the famous English naturalist. This boy, who
+is just such a bright intelligent lad as Dickens himself would
+have been at his age (twelve and a half years), gives us some
+interesting particulars respecting Town Malling and its
+proclivities for cricket, upon which he is very eloquent. It
+appears that in the year 1887 the cricketers of Town Malling
+won eleven matches out of twelve; but during this year they
+have not been so successful. He directed us to the cricket-ground,
+which we visit, and find to be but a few minutes'
+walk from the centre of the town, bearing to the westward.
+It is a very fine field, nearly seven acres in extent, in splendid
+order, as level as a die, and as green as an emerald. It lies
+well open, and is flanked by the western range of hills of the
+Medway valley.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/i_325.png" width="500" height="197" alt="CRICKET GROUND&mdash;TOWN MALLING." title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>The marquee into which Mr. Pickwick and his friends were
+invited, first by "one very stout gentleman, whose body and
+legs looked like half a gigantic roll of flannel, elevated on a
+couple of inflated pillow-cases," and then by the irrepressible
+Jingle with&mdash;"This way&mdash;this way&mdash;capital fun&mdash;lots of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span>
+beer&mdash;hogsheads; rounds of beef&mdash;bullocks; mustard&mdash;cart-loads;
+glorious day&mdash;down with you&mdash;make yourself at
+home&mdash;glad to see you&mdash;very," has been replaced by a
+handsome pavilion.</p>
+
+<p>There is no cricket-playing going on at the time, but
+there are several cricketers in the field, and from them we
+learn confirmatory evidence of the long existence of the
+ground in its present condition, and the enthusiasm of the
+inhabitants for the old English game.</p>
+
+<p>Another proof of the long-established love of the people of
+Town Malling for cricket we subsequently find in the fact
+that the parlour of the Swan Hotel, which is an old cricketing
+house, and probably represents the "Blue Lion of Muggleton,"
+has in it many very fine lithographic portraits of all the great
+cricketers of the middle of the nineteenth century, including:&mdash;Pilch,
+Lillywhite, Box, Cobbett, Hillyer (a native of Town
+Malling), A. Mynn, Taylor, Langdon, Kynaston, Felix
+(<i>Felix on the Bat</i>), Ward, Kingscote, and others. Several
+of these names will be recognized as those of eminent Kentish
+cricketers. About a quarter of a century ago&mdash;my friend
+and colleague Mr. E. Orford Smith (himself a Kentish man
+and a cricketer) informs me that&mdash;the Kentish eleven stood
+against all England, and retained their position for some
+years.</p>
+
+<p>As we stand on the warm day in the centre of the ground,
+and admire the lights and shadows passing over the surrounding
+scenery, we can almost conjure up the scene of the
+famous contest, when, on the occasion of the first innings of
+the All-Muggleton Club, "Mr. Dumkins and Mr. Podder, two
+of the most renowned members of that most distinguished
+club, walked, bat in hand, to their respective wickets. Mr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span>
+Luffey, the highest ornament of Dingley Dell, was pitched to
+bowl against the redoubtable Dumkins, and Mr. Struggles
+was selected to do the same kind office for the hitherto
+unconquered Podder."</p>
+
+<p>Everybody remembers how the game proceeded under
+circumstances of the greatest excitement, in which batters,
+bowlers, scouts, and umpires, all did their best under the
+encouraging shouts of the members:&mdash;"Run&mdash;run&mdash;another.&mdash;Now,
+then, throw her up&mdash;up with her&mdash;stop there&mdash;another&mdash;no&mdash;yes&mdash;no&mdash;throw
+her up! throw her up!" Mr. Jingle
+himself being as usual very profuse in his remarks, as&mdash;"'Ah,
+ah!&mdash;stupid'&mdash;'Now, butter-fingers'&mdash;'Muff'&mdash;'Humbug'&mdash;and
+so forth." "In short, when Dumkins was caught out,
+and Podder stumped out, All-Muggleton had notched some
+fifty-four, while the score of the Dingley Dellers was as blank
+as their faces." So "Dingley Dell gave in, and allowed the
+superior prowess of All-Muggleton," Mr. Jingle again expressing
+his views of the winners:&mdash;"'Capital game&mdash;well played&mdash;some
+strokes admirable,' as both sides crowded into the
+tent at the conclusion of the game."</p>
+
+<p>Yes! We are convinced that Muggleton and Town Malling
+(except for the mayor and corporation) are one. At any
+rate we feel quite safe in assuming that Town Malling was
+the type from which Muggleton was taken; and we confidently
+recommend all admirers of <i>Pickwick</i> to include that
+pleasant Kentish country-town in their pilgrimage.</p>
+
+<p>Having exhausted, so far as our examination is concerned,
+the cricket-ground, by the kindness of our young friend who
+acts as guide, we see a little more of the town. It consists
+of a long wide street, with a few lateral approaches. The
+houses are well built, and the church, which is partly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span>
+Norman, and, like most of the village churches in Kent,
+is but a little way from the village, stands on an eminence
+from whence a good view may be obtained. We observe, as
+indicative of the fine air and mild climate of the place, many
+beautiful specimens of magnolia, and wistaria (in second
+flower) in front of the better class of houses. One of these is
+named "Boley House," and as we are told that Sir Joseph
+Hawley resided near, our memories immediately revert to the
+cognomen of a well-known character in <i>The Chimes</i>. Other
+names in the place are suggestive of Dickens's worthies, <i>e.g.</i>
+Rudge, Styles, Briggs, Saunders, Brooker, and John Harman.
+The last-mentioned is the second instance in which Dickens
+has varied a local name by the alteration of a single letter.
+There is also the not uncommon name of "Brown," who, it
+will be remembered, was the maker of the shoes of the
+spinster aunt when she eloped with the faithless Jingle; "in
+a po-chay from the 'Blue Lion' at Muggleton," as one of Mr.
+Wardle's men said; and the discovery of the said shoes led to
+the identification of the errant pair at the "White Hart" in
+the Borough. After Sam Weller had described nearly all the
+visitors staying in the hotel from an examination of their
+boots:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"'Stop a bit,' replied Sam, suddenly recollecting himself. 'Yes;
+there's a pair of Vellingtons a good deal vorn, and a pair o' lady's
+shoes, in number five.' 'Country make.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Any maker's name?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Brown.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Where of?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Muggleton.'</p>
+
+<p>"'It <i>is</i> them,' exclaimed Wardle. 'By heavens, we've found
+them.'"</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>What happened afterwards every reader of <i>Pickwick</i> very
+well knows.</p>
+
+<p>Near Town Malling there is a curious monument erected
+to the memory of Beadsman, the horse, belonging to Sir
+Joseph Hawley, which won the Derby in 1859, and which
+was bred in the place. The monument (an exceedingly
+practical one) consists of a useful pump for the supply of
+water.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="medway" id="medway"></a>
+<img src="images/i_330.png" width="500" height="544" alt="The Medway at Maidstone" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>After some luncheon at the Boar Inn, we are sorry to
+terminate our visit to this pleasant place; but time flies, and
+trains, like tides, "wait for no man." So we hurry to the
+railway station, passing on our way a fine hop-garden, and
+take tickets by the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway for
+Maidstone. We have a few minutes to spare, and our notice
+is attracted to a curious group in the waiting-room. It
+consists of a rural policeman, and what afterwards turned out,
+to be his prisoner, a slouching but good-humoured-looking
+labourer, with a "fur cap" like Rogue Riderhood. The officer
+leans against the mantelpiece, pleasantly chatting with his
+charge, who is seated on the bench, leisurely eating some
+bread and cheese with a large clasp-knife, in the intervals
+of which proceeding he recounts some experiences for the
+edification of the officer and bystanders. These are occasionally
+received with roars of laughter. One of his stories
+relates to a house-breaker who, being "caught in the act" by
+a policeman, and being asked what he was doing, coolly
+replied, "Attending to my business, of course!" (This must
+surely be taken "in a Pickwickian sense.") After finishing
+his bread and cheese, the charge eats an apple, and then
+regales himself with something from a large bottle. The
+unconcernedness of the man, whatever his offence may be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span>
+(poaching perhaps), is in painful contrast to the careworn
+and anxious faces of his wife and little daughter (both
+decently dressed), the latter about seven years old, and
+made too familiar with crime at such an age. After we
+arrive at Maidstone (only a few minutes' run by railway),
+it is a wretched sight to witness the leave-taking at the
+gaol. First the man shakes hands with his wife, all his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[308]</a></span>
+forced humour having left him, and then affectionately kisses
+the little girl, draws a cuff over his eyes, and walks heavily
+into the gaol after the officer. We are glad to notice that he
+is not degraded as a wild beast by being handcuffed. It
+was an episode that Dickens himself perhaps would have
+witnessed with interest, and possibly stored up for future use.
+What particularly strikes us is the difference in the relations
+between these people and what would be the case under
+similar circumstances in a large town. There is not that
+feature of hardness, that familiarity with crime which breeds
+contempt, in the rural incident. Poor man! let us hope
+his punishment will soon be finished, and that he may
+return to his family, and not become an old offender; but
+for the present, as Mr. Bagnet says, "discipline must be
+maintained."</p>
+
+<p>Maidstone, the county and assize town of Kent, appears to
+be a thriving and solid-looking place, as there are several
+paper-mills, saw-mills, stone quarries, and other indications of
+prosperity. There are but few historical associations connected
+with it, as Maidstone "has lived a quiet life." Sir
+Thomas Wyatt's rebellion, and the attack on the town by
+Fairfax in 1648, are among the principal incidents. Dickens
+frequently walked or drove over to this town from Gad's
+Hill. Many of the names which we notice over the shops in
+the principal street are very suggestive of, if not actually
+used for, some of the characters in his novels, <i>e.g.</i> Pell,
+Boozer, Hibling, Fowle, Stuffins, Bunyard, Edmed, Gregsbey,
+Dunmill, and Pobgee.</p>
+
+<p>It has been said that Maidstone possesses a gaol; it also
+has large barracks, and, what is better still, a Museum, Free
+Library, and Public Gardens. Chillington Manor House,&mdash;a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[309]</a></span>
+highly picturesque and well-preserved Elizabethan structure,
+formerly the residence of the Cobhams,&mdash;contains the Museum
+and Library. Standing in a quiet nook in the Brenchley
+Gardens, the lines of George Macdonald, quoted in the local
+<i>Guide Book</i>, well describe its beauties:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"Its windows were a&euml;rial and latticed,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Lovely and wide and fair,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">And its chimneys like clustered pillars</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Stood up in the thin blue air."</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>The Museum&mdash;the new wing of which was built as a
+memorial of his brother, by Mr. Samuel Bentlif&mdash;is the property
+of the Corporation, and owes much of its contents to the
+liberality of Mr. Pretty, the first curator, and to the naturalist
+and traveller, Mr. J. L. Brenchley. It contains excellent
+fine art, arch&aelig;ological, ethnological, natural history, and
+geological collections. Among the last-named, in addition
+to other interesting local specimens, are some fossil remains
+of the mammoth (<i>Elephas primigenius</i>) from the drift at
+Aylesford, obtained by its present able curator, Mr. Edward
+Bartlett, to whom we are indebted for a most pleasant
+ramble through the various rooms. We notice an original
+"Dickens-item" in the shape of a very good carved head of
+the novelist, forming the right top panel of an oak fire-place,
+the opposite side being one of Tennyson, by a local carver
+named W. Hughes, who was formerly employed at Gad's Hill
+Place. No pilgrim in "Dickens-Land" should omit visiting
+Maidstone and its treasures in Chillington Manor House;
+nor of seeing the splendid view of the Medway from the
+churchyard, looking towards Tovil.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="manor" id="manor"></a>
+<img src="images/i_333.png" width="500" height="419" alt="Chillingham Manor House Maidstone" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>We are particularly anxious to verify Dickens's experience<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[310]</a></span>
+of the walk from Maidstone to Rochester. In a letter to
+Forster, written soon after he came to reside at Gad's Hill
+Place, he says:&mdash;"I have discovered that the seven miles
+between Maidstone and Rochester is one of the most beautiful
+walks in England," and so indeed we find it to be. It is,
+however, a rather long seven miles; so, cheerfully leaving the
+gloomy-looking gaol to our right and proceeding along the
+raised terrace by the side of the turn-pike road, we pass
+through the little village of Sandling, and soon after commence
+the ascent of the great chalk range of hills which form
+the eastern water-parting of the Medway. The most noticeable
+object before we reach "Upper Bell" is "Kit's Coty (or Coity)<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[311]</a></span>
+House," about one and a half miles north-east from Aylesford,
+and not very far from the Bell Inn. According to Mr. Phillips
+Bevan, the peculiar name is derived from the Celtic "Ked," and
+"Coity" or "Coed" (Welsh), and means the Tomb in the Wood.
+Seymour considers the words a corruption of "Catigern's
+House." Below Kit's Coty House, Mr. Wright, the arch&aelig;ologist,
+found the remains of a Roman villa, with quantities
+of Samian ware, coins, and other articles.</p>
+
+<p>There are many excavations in the chalk above Kit's Coty
+House, apparently for interments; and the whole district
+appears in remote ages to have been a huge cemetery.
+Tradition states that "the hero Catigern was buried here,
+after the battle fought at Aylesford between Hengist and
+Vortigern."</p>
+
+<p>The Cromlech, which is now included in the provisions of
+the Ancient Monuments Protection Act, 1882, lies under the
+hillside, a few yards from the main road, and is fenced in
+with iron railings, and beautifully surrounded by woods, the
+yew,<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> said to have been one of the sacred trees of the Druids,
+being conspicuous here and there. That somewhat rare
+plant the juniper is also found in this neighbourhood. The
+"dolmens" which have been "set on end by a vanished
+people" are four in number, and consist of sandstone, three
+of them, measuring about eight feet each, forming the uprights,
+and the fourth, which is much larger, serving as the covering
+stone.</p>
+
+<p>In a field which we visit, not very far from Kit's Coty
+House, is another group of stones, called the "countless stones."
+As we pass some boys are trying to solve the arithmetical<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[312]</a></span>
+problem, which cannot be readily accomplished, as the stones
+lie intermingled in a very strange and irregular manner, and
+are overgrown with brushwood. The belief that these stones
+cannot be counted is one constantly found connected with
+similar remains, <i>e.g.</i> Stonehenge, Avebury, etc. We heard a
+local story of a baker, who once tried to effect the operation
+by placing a loaf on the top of each stone as a kind of check
+or tally; but a dog running away with one of his loaves,
+upset his calculations.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/i_335.png" width="500" height="420" alt="Kit&#39;s Coty House" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>Both the "Coty House" and the "countless stones" consist
+of a silicious sandstone of the Eocene period, overlying the
+chalk, and are identical with the "Sarsens," or "Grey Wethers,"
+which occur at the pre-historic town of Avebury, and at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[313]</a></span>
+Stonehenge; the smaller stones of the latter are, however, of
+igneous origin, and "are believed by Mr. Fergusson to have
+been votive offerings." These masses, of what Sir A. C.
+Ramsay calls "tough and intractable silicious stone," have
+been, he says, "left on the ground, after the removal by denudation
+of other and softer parts of the Eocene strata." We
+subsequently saw several of these "grey wethers" in the
+grounds of Cobham Hall, and we noticed small masses
+of the same stone <i>in situ</i> in Pear Tree Lane, near Gad's
+Hill Place.</p>
+
+<p>Speaking of Kit's Coty House in his <i>Short History of the
+English People</i>, the late Mr. J. R. Green, in describing the
+English Conquest and referring to this neighbourhood,
+says:&mdash;"It was from a steep knoll on which the grey
+weather-beaten stones of this monument are reared that the
+view of their first battle-field would break on the English
+warriors; and a lane which still leads down from it through
+peaceful homesteads would guide them across the ford which
+has left its name in the little village of Aylesford. The
+Chronicle of the conquering people tells nothing of the
+rush that may have carried the ford, or of the fight that
+went struggling up through the village. It only tells that
+Horsa fell in the moment of victory, and the flint heap
+of Horsted, which has long preserved his name, and was
+held in after-time to mark his grave, is thus the earliest
+of those monuments of English valour of which Westminster
+is the last and noblest shrine. The victory of
+Aylesford did more than give East Kent to the English;
+it struck the keynote of the whole English conquest of
+Britain."</p>
+
+<p>Dickens's visits to this locality in his early days may<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[314]</a></span>
+have suggested the discovery of the stone with the inscription:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;">
+<img src="images/i_337.png" width="200" height="208" alt="Inscription" title="" />
+</div>
+
+
+
+<p>In later life he was fond of bringing his friends here "by a
+couple of postilions in the old red jackets of the old red
+royal Dover road" to enjoy a picnic. Describing a visit
+here with Longfellow he says:&mdash;"It was like a holiday ride
+in England fifty years ago."</p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315"></a>
+<img src="images/i_338.png" width="600" height="345" alt="Kits Coty House and &quot;Blue Bell&quot; From the Painting by Gegan" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>Returning to the main road, we reach the high land of Blue
+Bell&mdash;"Upper Bell," as it is marked on the Ordnance Map.
+We are not quite on the highest range, but sufficiently high
+(about three hundred feet) to enable us to appreciate the
+splendid view that presents itself. In the valley below winds
+the Medway, broadening as it approaches Rochester.<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> The
+opposite heights consist of the western range of hills, the
+width of the valley from point to point being about ten miles.
+The "sky-line" of hills running from north to south cannot<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[316]</a></span>
+be less than sixty miles, extending to the famous Weald of
+Kent (weald, wald, or wolde, being literally "a wooded
+region, an open country"); all the intervening space of
+undulating slope and valley (river excepted) is filled up by
+hamlets, grass, root, and cornfields, hop-gardens, orchards
+and woodlands, the whole forming a picture of matchless
+beauty. No wonder Dickens was very fond of this delightful
+walk; it must be gone over to be appreciated.<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a></p>
+
+
+<p>We tramp on through Boxley and Bridge Woods, down the
+hill, and pass Borstal Convict Prison and Fort Clarence, where
+there are guns which we were informed would carry a ball
+from this elevated ground right over the Thames into the
+county of Essex (a distance of seven miles); and so we get
+back again to Rochester.</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[317]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XI.</h2>
+
+<h3>BROADSTAIRS, MARGATE, AND CANTERBURY.</h3>
+
+<div class="hang2">"We have a fine sea, wholesome for all people; profitable for the body,
+profitable for the mind."&mdash;<i>Our English Watering-Place.</i></div>
+
+<div class="hang2">"All is going on as it was wont. The waves are hoarse with repetition
+of their mystery; the dust lies piled upon the shore; the sea-birds
+soar and hover; the winds and clouds go forth upon their trackless
+flight; the white arms beckon in the moonlight to the invisible country
+far away."&mdash;<i>Dombey and Son.</i></div>
+
+<div class="hang2">"A moment, and I occupy my place in the Cathedral, where we all went
+together every Sunday morning, assembling first at school for that
+purpose. The earthy smell, the sunless air, the sensation of the
+world being shut out, the resounding of the organ through the black
+and white arched galleries and aisles, are wings that take me back
+and hold me hovering above those days in a half-sleeping and half-waking
+dream."&mdash;<i>David Copperfield.</i></div>
+
+
+<div class='unindent'><span class="smcap">Taking</span> advantage of an excursion train (for tramps usually
+go on the cheap), we start early on Wednesday by the
+South-Eastern Railway from Chatham station for Broadstairs.
+As usual the weather favours us&mdash;it is a glorious
+day. Passing the stations of New Brompton, Rainham,
+Newington, and Sittingbourne, we soon get into open country,
+in the midst of hop gardens with their verdant aisles of the
+fragrant and tonic, tendril-like plants reaching in some
+instances perhaps to several hundred yards, and crowned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[318]</a></span>
+with yellowish-green fruit-masses, which have a special charm
+for those unaccustomed to such scenery. The odd-looking
+"oast-houses,"<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> or drying-houses for the hops, are a noticeable
+feature of the neighbourhood, dotting it about here and there
+in pairs. They are mostly red-brick and cone-shaped, somewhat
+smaller than the familiar glass-houses of the Midland districts,
+and have a wooden cowl, painted white, at the apex for
+ventilation. We are rather too early for the hop-picking,
+and thus&mdash;but for a time only&mdash;miss an interesting sight.
+Dickens, in one of his letters to Forster, gives a dreary
+picture of this annual harvest:&mdash;</div>
+
+<p>"Hop-picking is going on, and people sleep in the garden,
+and breathe in at the key-hole of the house door. I have
+been amazed, before this year, by the number of miserable
+lean wretches, hardly able to crawl, who come hop-picking.
+I find it is a superstition that the dust of the newly-picked
+hop, falling freshly into the throat, is a cure for consumption.
+So the poor creatures drag themselves along the roads, and
+sleep under wet hedges, and get cured soon and finally."</p>
+
+<p>On the whole it is said to be a very indifferent season,
+but many plantations look promising. "If," as a grower
+remarks to us in the train, "we could have a little more of
+this fine weather! There has been too much rain, and too
+little sun this year." The apples also are a poor crop.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 575px;"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319"></a>
+<img src="images/i_342.png" width="575" height="375" alt="Hop-picking in Kent" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>On a second visit to this pleasant neighbourhood, we see
+at Mear's Barr Farm, near Rainham, the whole process of
+hop-picking. True, it is not executed by that ragamuffinly
+crowd of strangers which Dickens had in his "mind's eye"
+when he wrote the words just quoted, and which usually<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[320]</a></span>
+takes possession of most of the hop-growing districts of Kent
+during the picking season, but by an assemblage of native
+villagers, mostly women, girls, and boys,&mdash;neat, clean, and
+homely,&mdash;together with a few men who do the heavier part
+of the work. They are of all ages, from the tottering old
+grandmother, careworn wife, and buxom maiden, to the child
+in perambulator and baby in arms; and in the bright sunlight,
+amid the groves of festooning green columns, form
+a most orderly, varied, and picturesque gathering&mdash;a regular
+picnic in fact, judging from the cheerful look on most of the
+faces, and the merry laugh that is occasionally heard.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Fred Scott, tenant of the farm, of which Lord Hothfield
+is owner, is kind enough to go over the hop-garden with
+us, and describe all the details. When the hops are ripe
+(<i>i. e.</i> when the seeds are hard) and ready to be gathered, the
+pickers swarm on the ground, and a man divides the "bine"
+at the bottom of the "pole" by means of a bill-hook&mdash;not
+cutting it too close for fear of bleeding&mdash;leaving the root to
+sprout next year, and then draws out the pole, to which is
+attached the long, creeping bine, trailing over at top. If the
+pole sticks too fast in the ground, he eases it by means of a
+lever, or "hop-dog" (a long, stout wooden implement, having
+a toothed iron projection). "Mind my dog don't bite you,
+sir," says one of the men facetiously, as we step over this
+rough-looking tool. Women then carry the poles to, and
+lay them across, the "bin," a receptacle formed by four
+upright poles stuck in the ground and placed at an angle,
+supporting a framework from which depends the "bin-cloth,"
+made of jute or hemp, holding from ten to twenty bushels
+of green hops, weighing about 1&frac12; lbs. per bushel when dry.</p>
+
+<p>The picking then commences, and nimble fingers of all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[321]</a></span>
+sizes very soon strip the poles of the aromatically-smelling
+ripe hops, the poles being cast aside in heaps, to be afterwards
+cleared of the old bines and put into "stacks" of three
+hundred each, and used again next season.</p>
+
+<p>The bins, which vary in number according to the size of
+the hop-garden, are placed in rows on the margin of the
+plantation, and usually have ten "hop-hills" (<i>i. e.</i> plants) on
+each side, and are moved inside the plantation as the poles
+are pulled up. Each bin belongs to a "sett" (<i>i. e.</i> family or
+companionship), consisting of from five to seven persons, and
+is taken charge of by a "binman." When the bin is full, a
+"measurer" (either the farmer himself or his deputy) takes
+account of the quantity of hops picked, and records it in a
+book to the credit of each working family. Then the green
+hops are carted off in "pokes" or sacks to the "oast-houses"
+to be dried. For this purpose, anthracite coal and charcoal
+are used in the kiln, a shovelful or two of sulphur being added
+to the fire when the hops are put on. The process of drying
+takes eleven hours, and afterwards the dried hops are packed
+in pockets which, when full, weigh about a hundredweight
+and a half each, the packing being effected by hydraulic
+pressure. They are then sent to market, the earliest arrivals
+fetching very high prices. As much as &pound;50 per cwt. was
+paid in 1882, but the ordinary price averages from &pound;4 to
+&pound;8 per cwt.</p>
+
+<p><i>Humulus Lupulus</i>, the hop, belongs to the natural order
+<i>Urticace&aelig;</i>&mdash;a plant of rather wide distribution, but said to be
+absent in Scotland&mdash;and is a herbaceous, di&oelig;cious perennial,
+usually propagated by removal of the young shoots or by
+cuttings. According to Sowerby, the genus is derived from
+<i>humus</i>, the ground, as, unless supported or trained, the plant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[322]</a></span>
+falls to the earth; and the common name "hop" from the
+Saxon <i>hoppan</i>, to climb. William King, in his <i>Art of Cookery</i>,
+says that "heresy and hops came in together"; while an old
+popular rhyme records that:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"Hops, carp, pickerel, and beer,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Came into England all in one year."</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>Tusser in his <i>Hondreth Good Points of Husbandrie</i>, published
+in 1557, gives sundry directions for the cultivation of
+hops, and quaintly advocates their use as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"The hop for his profit I thus do exalt,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">It strengtheneth drink, and it savoureth malt;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">And being well brewed, long kept it will last,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">And drawing abide&mdash;if you draw not too fast."</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>The hop has many varieties&mdash;thirty or more&mdash;among which
+may be mentioned prolifics, bramblings, goldings, common
+goldings, old goldings, Canterbury goldings, Meopham goldings,
+etc. When once planted they last for a hundred years,
+but some growers replace them every ten years or sooner.</p>
+
+<p>The principal enemies of the hop are "mould" caused by
+the fungus <i>Sph&aelig;rotheca Castagnei</i>, and several kinds of insects,
+especially the "green fly," <i>Aphis humuli</i>, but the high wind
+is most to be dreaded. It tears the hop-bines from the poles
+and throws the poles down, which in falling crush other bines,
+and thus bruise the hops and prevent their growth, besides
+obstructing the passage of air and sunlight, and causing the
+development of mould or mildew. The remedy for mould
+is dusting with sulphur, and for the green fly, syringing with
+tobacco or quassia water and soap, "Hop-wash," as it is
+called. Sometimes the lady-bird (<i>Coccinella septempunctata</i>)<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[323]</a></span>
+is present in sufficient numbers to consume the green fly.
+Very little can be done to obviate the effects of the wind,
+but a protective fence of the wild hop&mdash;called a "lee" or
+"loo"&mdash;is sometimes put up round very choice plantations.</p>
+
+<p>The hop-poles, the preparation of which constitutes a
+distinct industry, are either of larch, Spanish chestnut, ash,
+willow, birch, or beech&mdash;larch or chestnut being preferred.
+Women clear the poles of the bark, and men sharpen them
+at one end, which is dipped in creosote before being used.
+The ground is cleared, and the poles are stuck in against the
+old plants in February or March.</p>
+
+<p>We are informed that the hop-picking is much looked
+forward to by the villagers with pleasure as the means of
+supplying them with a little purse for clothing, etc., against
+winter-time. Each family or companionship earns from thirty
+shillings to two pounds per week during the season.</p>
+
+<p>We proceed on our excursion, and pass Faversham, which
+stands in a rather picturesque bit of country some way up
+Faversham Creek, and is sheltered on the west by a ridge
+of wooded hills where the hop country ceases, as the railway
+bends north-easterly for Margate and Ramsgate. Whitstable,
+the next station passed, is famous for the most delicate
+oysters in the market, the fishery of which is regulated by an
+annual court; and it is said that one grower alone sends fifty
+thousand barrels a year to London from this district. We
+speculate whether these delicious molluscs were supplied at
+that famous supper described in the thirty-ninth chapter of
+<i>The Old Curiosity Shop</i>, at which were present Kit, his
+mother, the baby, little Jacob, and Barbara, after the night
+at the play, when Kit told the waiter "to bring three dozen
+of his largest-sized oysters, and to look sharp about it," and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[324]</a></span>
+fulfilled his promise "to let little Jacob know what oysters
+meant." All along, as the railway winds from Whitstable to
+Margate, glimpses of the sea are visible, and vary our
+excursion pleasantly.</p>
+
+<p>The next noteworthy place we pass is Reculver&mdash;the
+ancient Regulbium&mdash;which, according to Mr. Phillips Bevan,
+is "mentioned in the Itinerary of Antoninus as being garrisoned
+by the first cohort of Brabantois Belgians. After the Romans,
+it was occupied by the Saxon Ethelbert, who is said to have
+occupied it as a palace, and to have been buried there." "The
+two picturesque towers" (quoting Bevan again), "which form
+so conspicuous a land and sea mark, are called 'The Sisters,'
+and are in reality modern-built by the Trinity Board in place
+of two erected traditionally by an Abbess of Faversham, who
+was wrecked here with her sister on their way to Broadstairs."
+The sea is fast encroaching on the land here, notwithstanding
+the erection of a large sea-wall and piles.</p>
+
+<p>Passing Margate, we reach Broadstairs, about thirty-seven
+miles from Chatham. Broadstairs, immortalized in <i>Our
+English Watering Place</i> (which paper, says Forster, "appeared
+while I was there, and great was the local excitement"),
+is so inseparably associated with the earlier years of Charles
+Dickens's holiday-life, that it becomes most interesting to his
+admirers. Forster also says, "His later seaside holiday,
+September 1837, was passed at Broadstairs, as were those of
+many subsequent years; and the little watering-place has
+been made memorable by his pleasant sketch of it." At the
+time of his first visit (1837) he was writing a portion of
+<i>Pickwick</i> (Part 18); in 1838 part of <i>Nicholas Nickleby;</i> and
+in 1839 part of <i>The Old Curiosity Shop</i>. He was also there in
+1840, 1841, and 1842, when writing the <i>American Notes;</i> in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[325]</a></span>
+1845 and 1847, when writing <i>Dombey and Son;</i> in 1848 and
+1850, when engaged on <i>David Copperfield;</i> and in 1851,
+when he was drafting the outlines of <i>Bleak House</i>. At the
+end of November of that year, when he had settled himself
+in his new London abode (Tavistock House), the book was
+begun, "and, as so generally happened with the more important
+incidents of his life, but always accidentally, begun
+on a Friday." After 1851, he returned not again to Broadstairs
+until 1859, when he paid his last visit to the place,
+and stayed a week there. The reason for his forsaking it
+was that it had become too noisy for him.</p>
+
+<p>Broadstairs stands midway between the North Foreland
+and Ramsgate, and owes its name to the breadth of the sea-gate
+or "stair," which was originally defended by a gate or
+archway. An archway still survives on the road to the sea,
+and bears on it two inscriptions, (1) "Built by George Culenier
+about 1540"; (2) "Repaired by Sir John Henniker, Bart., 1795."</p>
+
+<p>Broadstairs has good sands, precipitous chalk cliffs, and a
+very fine sea-view. The railway station is about a mile from
+the pier, and the town is approached by a well-kept road
+("the main street of our watering-place.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. You may know
+it by its being always stopped up with donkey chaises.
+Whenever you come here and see the harnessed donkeys
+eating clover out of barrows drawn completely across a narrow
+thoroughfare, you may be quite sure you are in our High
+Street"), with villas standing in their own gardens, most of
+which are brightened by summer flowers, notably the blue
+clematis (<i>Clematis Jackmani</i>) and by those charming seaside
+evergreens the <i>Escallonia</i> and the <i>Euonymus</i>. As we near the
+sea, the shops become more numerous, and, on the right-hand
+side, we have no difficulty in finding (although we heard it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[326]</a></span>
+had been altered considerably) the house "No. 12, High
+Street," in which Dickens lived when he first visited Broadstairs.
+It is a plain little dwelling of single front, with a small
+parlour looking into the street, and has one story over&mdash;just
+the place that seems suited to the financial position of the
+novelist when he was commencing life. The house is now
+occupied by Mr. Bean, plumber and glazier, whose wife
+courteously shows us over it, and into the back yard and
+little garden, kindly giving us some pears from an old tree
+growing there, whereon we speculate as to whether Dickens
+himself had ever enjoyed the fruit from the same old tree. He
+appears to have lived in this house during his visits in 1837
+and 1838. We ask the good lady if she is aware that Charles
+Dickens had formerly stayed in her house, and she replies in
+the negative, so we recommend her to get her husband to put
+up a tablet outside to the effect "Charles Dickens lived here,
+1837," in imitation of the example of the Society of Arts in
+Furnival's Inn. There can be no doubt as to the identity of
+the house, for we take the precaution of ascertaining that the
+numbers have not been altered.</p>
+
+<p>Our efforts to discover "Lawn House," where Dickens
+stayed on his visits from 1838 to 1848, are attended with
+some difficulty. First we are told it lay this way, then that,
+and then the other; a smart villa in a new road is pointed
+out to us as the object of our search, which we at once reject,
+as being too recent. But we are patient and persevering,
+feeling, with Mr. F.'s aunt, that "you can't make a head and
+brains out of a brass knob with nothing in it. You couldn't
+do it when your Uncle George was living; much less when
+he's dead!" Finally, we appeal to some one who looks like
+the "oldest inhabitant," and obtain something like a clue.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[327]</a></span>
+We are eventually directed to a veritable "Lawn House,"
+which is the last house on the left as you approach "Fort
+House." It must have changed in respect of its surroundings
+since forty years have passed, and although there is nothing
+outside to indicate it as such, it seems fair to assume that this
+was the house described in the <i>Life</i> as "a small villa between
+the hill and the cornfield." The present occupier, who has
+no recollection of Dickens ever having been there, courteously
+allows us to see the hall and dining-room. The house is of
+course a great improvement upon "No 12, High Street."</p>
+
+<p>A few steps from "Lawn House" lead us to the drive approaching
+"Fort House," pleasantly surrounded by a sloping
+lawn and shrubbery. John Forster, alluding to it in the <i>Life</i>,
+says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"The residence he most desired there, 'Fort House,' stood
+prominently at the top of a breezy hill on the road to Kingsgate,
+with a cornfield between it and the sea, and this in many
+subsequent years he always occupied."</p>
+
+<p>Alas! the cornfield is no more, but "Fort House," or "Bleak
+House," as it is indifferently termed locally, remains intact.
+It is the most striking object of the place, standing on a cliff
+overlooking the sea, the harbour, and the town (made familiar
+by several photographs and engravings), with its curious
+verandahs and blinds, as seen in the vignette of J. C. Hotten's
+interesting book, <i>Charles Dickens: The Story of His Life</i>. An
+excellent photograph is published in the town, of which we
+are glad to secure a copy.</p>
+
+
+<p>In the sixth chapter of <i>Bleak House</i> it is called "an old-fashioned
+house with three peaks in the roof in front, and a
+severe sweep leading to the porch." In the same chapter there
+is a minute account of the interior, too lengthy to be quoted;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[328]</a></span>
+but the description does not resemble Fort House. We are
+kindly permitted by the occupier to see the study in which the
+novelist worked, a privilege long to be remembered. This
+room is approached by "a little staircase of shallow steps"
+from the first floor, as described in <i>Bleak House;</i> but it will be
+borne in mind that the "Bleak House" of the novel is placed
+in Hertfordshire, near St. Albans, and <i>not</i> at Broadstairs,
+although many persons still believe that Fort House is the
+original of the story. From the study we have a lovely view
+of the sea&mdash;the balmy breeze of a summer's day lightly fanning
+the waves, and just sufficing to move the delicate filamentous
+foliage of the tamarisk trees now standing in the place
+where the cornfield was. Even at the time we see it, changed
+as all its surroundings are, we can imagine the enjoyment
+which Dickens had in this healthy spot on the North Downs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[329]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/i_351.png" width="500" height="351" alt="&quot;Bleak House&quot; Broadstairs" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>In that interesting "book for an idle hour" called <i>The
+Shuttlecock Papers</i>, Mr. J. Ashby-Sterry thus sympathetically
+alludes to "Bleak House":&mdash;"What a romantic place this is
+to write in, is it not? What a glorious study to work in!
+Indeed, both from situation and association, it would be impossible
+to find a better place for writing, were it not that one
+feels that so much superb work has been done on this very
+spot by so great an artist, that the mere craftsman is inclined
+to question whether it is worth while for him to write at all."</p>
+
+<p>How well Dickens loved Broadstairs is told in his letter of
+the 1st September, 1843, addressed to Professor Felton, of
+Cambridge, U. S. A., as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"This is a little fishing-place; intensely quiet; built on a
+cliff, whereon&mdash;in the centre of a tiny semi-circular bay&mdash;our
+house stands; the sea rolling and dashing under the windows.
+Seven miles out are the Goodwin Sands (you've heard of the
+Goodwin Sands?), whence floating lights perpetually wink
+after dark, as if they were carrying on intrigues with the
+servants. Also there is a lighthouse called the North Foreland
+on a hill behind the village, a severe parsonic light, which
+reproves the young and giddy floaters, and stares grimly out
+upon the sea. Under the cliff are rare good sands, where all
+the children assemble every morning and throw up impossible
+fortifications, which the sea throws down again at high-water.
+Old gentlemen and ancient ladies flirt after their own manner
+in two reading-rooms, and on a great many scattered seats in
+the open air. Other old gentlemen look all day long through
+telescopes and never see anything.</p>
+
+<p>"In a bay-window in a one-pair sits, from nine o'clock to
+one, a gentleman with rather long hair and no neckcloth, who
+writes and grins as if he thought he were very funny indeed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[330]</a></span>
+His name is Boz. At one he disappears, and presently
+emerges from a bathing machine, and may be seen&mdash;a kind
+of salmon-coloured porpoise&mdash;splashing about in the ocean.
+After that he may be seen in another bay-window on the
+ground-floor, eating a strong lunch; after that, walking a
+dozen miles or so, or lying on his back in the sand reading a
+book. Nobody bothers him unless they know he is disposed
+to be talked to; and I am told he is very comfortable indeed.
+He's as brown as a berry, and they <i>do</i> say is a small fortune
+to the innkeeper who sells beer and cold punch. But this is
+mere rumour. Sometimes he goes up to London (eighty
+miles or so away), and then I'm told there is a sound in
+Lincoln's Inn Fields at night, as of men laughing, together
+with a clinking of knives and forks, and wine-glasses."</p>
+
+<p>And further in a letter to another correspondent recently
+made public:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"When you come to London, to assist at Miss Liston's
+sacrifice, don't forget to remind your uncle of our Broadstairs
+engagement to which I hold you bound. A good sea&mdash;fresh
+breezes&mdash;fine sands&mdash;and pleasant walks&mdash;with all manner of
+fishing-boats, lighthouses, piers, bathing-machines, are its only
+attractions, but it's one of the freshest little places in the
+world, consequently the proper place for you."</p>
+
+<p>In the year 1851, in a letter dated 8th September, addressed
+to Mr. Henry Austin, he thus alludes to a wreck which took
+place at Broadstairs:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"A great to-do here. A steamer lost on the Goodwins
+yesterday, and our men bringing in no end of dead cattle and
+sheep. I stood supper for them last night, to the unbounded
+gratification of Broadstairs. They came in from the wreck
+very wet and tired, and very much disconcerted by the nature<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[331]</a></span>
+of their prize&mdash;which, I suppose after all, will have to be
+recommitted to the sea, when the hides and tallow are
+secured. One lean-faced boatman murmured, when they
+were all ruminating over the bodies as they lay on the pier:
+'Couldn't sassages be made on it?' but retired in confusion
+shortly afterwards, overwhelmed by the execrations of the
+bystanders."</p>
+
+<p>Dickens got tired of Broadstairs in 1847, for reasons given
+in the following letter to Forster, though he did not forsake
+it till some years after:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Vagrant music is getting to that height here, and is so
+impossible to be escaped from, that I fear Broadstairs and
+I must part company in time to come. Unless it pours of
+rain, I cannot write half an hour without the most excruciating
+organs, fiddles, bells, or glee singers. There is a violin
+of the most torturing kind under the window now (time, ten
+in the morning), and an Italian box of music on the steps&mdash;both
+in full blast."</p>
+
+<p>By good luck we fall in with an "old salt," formerly one
+of the boatmen of <i>Our English Watering Place</i> who are
+therein immortalized by much kindly mention, with whom
+we have a pleasant chat about Charles Dickens. Harry Ford
+(the name of our friend) well remembers the great novelist,
+when in early days he used to come on his annual excursions
+with his family to Broadstairs. "Bless your soul," he says,
+"I can see 'Old Charley,' as we used to call him among ourselves
+here, a-coming flying down from the cliff with a hop,
+step, and jump, with his hair all flying about. He used to
+sit sometimes on that rail" (pointing to the one surrounding
+the harbour), "with his legs lolling about, and sometimes
+on the seat that you're a-sitting on now" (adjoining the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[332]</a></span>
+old Look-out House opposite the Tartar Frigate Inn), "and
+he was very fond of talking to us fellows and hearing our
+tales&mdash;he was very good-natured, and nobody was liked
+better. And if you'll read" (continues our informant) "that
+story that he wrote and printed about <i>Our Watering Place</i>,
+<i>I</i> was the man who's mentioned there as mending a little
+ship for a boy. <i>I</i> held that child between my knees. And
+what's more, sir, <i>I</i> took 'Old Charley,' on the very last
+time that he came over to Broadstairs (he wasn't living
+here at the time), round the foreland to Margate, with a
+party of four friends. I took 'em in my boat, the <i>Irene</i>,"
+pointing to a clinker-built strong boat lying in the harbour,
+capable of holding twenty people. "The wind was easterly&mdash;the
+weather was rather rough, and it took me three or
+four hours to get round. There was a good deal of chaffing
+going on, I can tell you."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/i_355.png" width="500" height="318" alt="Old Look-out House Broadstairs" title="" />
+</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[333]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Long, of Zion Place, Broadstairs, the wife of an old
+coastguardman, who was stationed at the Preventive Station
+when Dickens lodged at Fort House, also remembered the
+novelist. The coastguard men are also immortalized in <i>Our
+English Watering Place</i>, as "a steady, trusty, well-conditioned,
+well-conducted set of men, with no misgiving about looking
+you full in the face, and with a quiet, thorough-going way
+of passing along to their duty at night, carrying huge sou'wester
+clothing in reserve, that is fraught with all good prepossession.
+They are handy fellows&mdash;neat about their houses,
+industrious at gardening, would get on with their wives, one
+thinks, in a desert island&mdash;and people it too soon."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Long says "Mr. Dickens was a very nice sort of
+gentleman, but he didn't like a noise." The windows of Fort
+House, she reminds us, overlooked the coastguard station, and
+whenever the children playing about made more noise than
+usual, he used to tell her husband gently "to take the children
+away," or "to keep the people quiet." This little story fully
+confirms Dickens's often-expressed feeling of dislike, which
+subsequently grew intolerable, to Broadstairs as a watering-place.</p>
+
+<p>After taking a turn or two on the lively Promenade,&mdash;made
+bright by the rich masses of flesh-coloured flowers of the
+valerian which fringe its margin,&mdash;to enjoy the sunshine and
+air, and watch the holiday folks, we bid adieu to Broadstairs,
+and proceed to Margate.</p>
+
+<p>Of Margate there is not much to say. We reach it by an
+early afternoon train of the London, Chatham, and Dover
+Railway, to get the quickest service by the South-Eastern
+Railway on to Canterbury. Our stay at Margate is consequently
+very limited.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[334]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>To some minds this popular Cockney watering-place has
+great attractions; its broad sands, its beautiful air, and its
+boisterous amusements, negro-melodies, merry-go-rounds, and
+the like; but it was a place seldom visited by Dickens,
+although he was so often near it. Only twice in the <i>Life</i>
+is it recorded that he came here; once being in 1844, when
+he wrote to Forster respecting the theatre as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"'<i>Nota Bene.</i>&mdash;The Margate Theatre is open every evening,
+and the four Patagonians (see Goldsmith's <i>Essays</i>) are performing
+thrice a week at Ranelagh.' A visit from me"&mdash;Forster
+goes on to say&mdash;"was at this time due, to which these
+were held out as inducements; and there followed what it was
+supposed I could not resist, a transformation into the broadest
+farce of a deep tragedy by a dear friend of ours. 'Now
+you really must come. Seeing only is believing, very often
+isn't that, and even Being the thing falls a long way short of
+believing it. Mrs. Nickleby herself once asked me, as you
+know, if I really believed there ever was such a woman; but
+there will be no more belief, either in me or my descriptions,
+after what I have to tell of our excellent friend's tragedy, if
+you don't come and have it played again for yourself, 'by
+particular desire.' We saw it last night, and oh! if you had
+but been with us! Young Betty, doing what the mind of man
+without my help never <i>can</i> conceive, with his legs like padded
+boot-trees wrapped up in faded yellow drawers, was the hero.
+The comic man of the company, enveloped in a white sheet,
+with his head tied with red tape like a brief, and greeted with
+yells of laughter whenever he appeared, was the venerable
+priest. A poor toothless old idiot, at whom the very gallery
+roared with contempt when he was called a tyrant, was the
+remorseless and aged Creon. And Ismene, being arrayed in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[335]</a></span>
+spangled muslin trousers very loose in the legs and very tight
+in the ankles, such as Fatima would wear in <i>Blue Beard</i>, was
+at her appearance immediately called upon for a song! After
+this can you longer&mdash;?'"</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/i_358.png" width="500" height="349" alt="The &quot;Falstaff&quot;: Westgate Canterbury" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>He speaks in a letter to Forster, dated September, 1847,
+of "improvements in the Margate Theatre since his memorable
+first visit." It had been managed by a son of the great
+comedian Dowton, and the piece which Dickens then saw was
+<i>As You Like It</i>, "really very well done, and a most excellent
+house." It was Mr. Dowton's benefit, and "he made a sensible
+and modest kind of speech," which impressed Dickens,
+who thus concludes his letter:&mdash;"He really seems a most
+respectable man, and he has cleaned out this dusthole of a
+theatre into something like decency."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[336]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>There is also the following significant mention of Margate
+in chapter nineteen of <i>Bleak House:</i>&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"It is the hottest long vacation known for many years. All
+the young clerks are madly in love, and according to their
+various degrees, pant for bliss with the beloved object at
+Margate, Ramsgate, or Gravesend."</p>
+
+<p>If Broadstairs was noisy, Margate must have been intensely
+so. We leave the crowded holiday-making place without
+much feeling of regret, and passing Ramsgate&mdash;of which
+there is but one mention in the <i>Life</i>&mdash;on our way, reach
+Canterbury in the afternoon.</p>
+
+<p>We are delighted with this exquisitely beautiful old city,
+our only regret being that our time is very limited, and our
+means of ascertaining places situated in "Dickens-Land"
+more so.</p>
+
+<p>Taking up our temporary quarters at the "Sir John Falstaff"
+Hotel, in remembrance of its namesake at Gad's Hill, after
+the refreshment of a meal, we commence our tramp through
+Canterbury, where David Copperfield passed some of his
+happiest days. Of the Falstaff here there is an excellent
+picture in Mr. Rimmer's <i>About England with Dickens;</i> a
+very quaint old inn with double front, and bay-windows top
+and bottom, possibly of the sixteenth century, and with a
+long swinging sign extending over the pavement, on which is
+painted a life-like presentment of the portly knight, the
+pretty ornamental ironwork supporting it reminding one of
+Washington Irving's description in <i>Bracebridge Hall</i>, "fancifully
+wrought at top into flourishes and flowers."</p>
+
+<p>A few steps further on is the West Gate, "standing between
+two lofty and spacious round towers erected in the river,"
+built by Archbishop Sudbury, who was barbarously murdered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[337]</a></span>
+by Wat Tyler in the reign of Richard II., which is the sole
+remaining one of six gates formerly constituting the approaches
+to the city. From this gate, looking eastward,
+with the river Stour on either side, banked by neatly-trimmed
+private gardens, a beautiful view of the city is obtained. The
+High Street, crowded with gables of the sixteenth century
+and later timbered houses, slightly bends and rises as well,
+until the perspective seems to lose itself in a distant grove
+of trees, locally called the "Dane John," a corruption of
+"Donjon." This view, especially when seen on a summer
+afternoon, is most picturesque. The present appearance of the
+quiet street is decidedly unlike that which it presented on
+that busy market-day when Miss Betsey Trotwood drove her
+nephew along it, for David says, "My aunt had a good
+opportunity of insinuating the grey pony among carts,
+baskets, vegetables, and hucksters' goods. The hair-breadth
+turns and twists we made drew down upon us a variety of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[338]</a></span>
+speeches from the people standing about, which were not
+always complimentary; but my aunt drove on with perfect
+indifference."</p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/i_360.png" width="500" height="306" alt="The &quot;Dane John&quot; from the City Wall Canterbury" title="" />
+</div>
+
+
+<p>We notice in the windows and in many of the shops an
+abundance of brightly-coloured cut-flowers, a notable feature
+of the county of Kent; but we have little time to spare, and
+hasten on to the Cathedral precincts.</p>
+
+<p>"What a magnificent edifice!" is our first thought on
+beholding the Cathedral, a noble pile so well befitting the
+Metropolitan See of England, from which the Christianity of
+the Kingdom first flowed. Dating from Ethelbert, at the
+close of the sixth century, three structures have successively
+occupied the site, culminating in the present one, which,
+according to Mr. Phillips Bevan, was erected at different
+times between 1070 and 1500; and he goes on to say:&mdash;"No
+wonder that it exhibits so many styles and peculiarities of
+detail, although the two most prominent architectural eras
+are those of 'Transition-Norman' and 'Perpendicular.'"</p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 399px;"><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339"></a>
+<img src="images/i_362.png" width="399" height="600" alt="Bell Harry Tower: Canterbury Cathedral:" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>The appropriate stone figures in niches of distinguished
+Royal and Ecclesiastical personages associated with the
+Cathedral (which at the suggestion of Dean Alford in 1863
+replaced those of the murderers of the martyr, Thomas &agrave;
+Becket), from King Ethelbert to Queen Victoria, and from
+Archbishop Lanfranc to Archbishop Longley; the lofty
+groined arches and stately towers, the beautiful carved screen,
+the noble monuments, the splendid choir (a hundred and
+eighty feet in length) approached by many steps, the rich
+stained-glass windows, all attract our admiring attention, and
+confirm our impression that a modern pilgrimage to Canterbury
+is a thing to be highly appreciated; and on no account would
+we have missed this part of our excursion. The murder of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[340]</a></span>
+Thomas &agrave; Becket (1170) took place between the nave
+and the choir in a transept or cross aisle called "The
+Martyrdom."</p>
+
+
+<p>There is an interesting Sidney Cooper Gallery of Art, and
+also a Museum in the city, the latter containing some rare old
+Roman Mosaic pavement discovered in Burgate Street at a
+depth of ten feet.</p>
+
+<p>But our object is to identify spots made memorable in
+<i>David Copperfield</i>, and we walk round the spacious Cathedral
+Close and "make an effort" (as Mrs. Chick said) in trying to
+find the simple-minded and good Dr. Strong's House. It is
+described as "a grave building in a courtyard, with a learned
+air about it that seemed very well suited to the stray rooks
+and jackdaws who came down from the Cathedral towers,
+and walked with a clerkly bearing on the grass-plat."</p>
+
+<p>Alas! it is not here, although there are many such houses
+that correspond with it in some particulars. So we try
+several of the "dear old tranquil streets," but fail to discover
+the identical building.</p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 575px;"><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341"></a>
+<img src="images/i_364.png" width="575" height="457" alt="Scene of the Martyrdom Canterbury Cathedral" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>The next object of our search is Mr. Wickfield's residence,
+"a very old house bulging out over the road; a house with
+low latticed windows, bulging out still further, and beams
+with carved heads on the ends, bulging out too." How
+strongly the description in many parts tallies with the houses
+in Rochester opposite "Eastgate House"; but here again we
+are baffled, as other modern pilgrims have been before, and
+we cannot associate any particular building with either of
+the two houses. The house in Burgate Street now occupied
+as offices by Messrs. Plummer and Fielding, Diocesan
+Registrars, who obligingly permit an examination of it,
+is suggested to us as being Mr. Wickfield's house, but, after<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[342]</a></span>
+an inspection, on several grounds we are obliged to reject this
+suggestion.</p>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/i_365.png" width="600" height="870" alt="&quot;Bits&quot; of Old Canterbury." title="" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;Bits&quot; of Old Canterbury.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>There was many a "low
+old-fashioned room, walked
+straight into from the
+street," which would have
+served for the "umble"
+dwelling of Uriah Heep
+and his mother, but none
+can be pointed out with
+absolute certainty
+as being the
+veritable one.</p>
+
+<p>By the
+kindness of
+Dr. Sheppard
+and Mr. T. B. Rosseter, F.R.M.S., we are, however, enabled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[343]</a></span>
+to identify two houses in Canterbury alluded to in <i>David
+Copperfield</i>. The "County Inn," where Mr. Dick slept on
+his visits to David "every alternate Wednesday," was no
+doubt The Royal Fountain Hotel in St. Margaret's Street
+(formerly the Watling Street), which is still recognized as
+such. A passage in the seventeenth chapter thus refers to
+these visits:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Mr. Dick was very partial to ginger-bread. To render his visits
+the more agreeable, my aunt had instructed me to open a credit for
+him at a cake-shop, which was hampered with the stipulation that he
+should not be served with more than one shilling's-worth in the
+course of any one day. This, and the reference of all his little bills
+at the County Inn, where he slept, to my aunt before they were
+paid, induced me to think that Mr. Dick was only allowed to rattle
+his money, and not to spend it."</p></div>
+
+<p>The "little Inn" (as recorded in the same chapter) where
+Mr. Micawber "put up" on his first visit to Canterbury, and
+where he "occupied a little room in it partitioned off from
+the commercial, and strongly flavoured with tobacco smoke,"
+is doubtless the "Sun Inn" in Sun Street, which is at the
+opposite corner of the square where the ancient "Chequers"
+in Mercery Lane&mdash;the Pilgrim's Inn of Chaucer&mdash;stood. It
+was a place of resort from afar, and was altered in the
+seventeenth century. Dr. Sheppard calls attention to the
+interesting fact that the omnibus from Herne Bay stopped at
+the Sun; and probably, in his visits to Broadstairs, Dickens
+would often run over for a day's trip to Canterbury.</p>
+
+<p>On their first visit to the "little Inn," Mr. and Mrs.
+Micawber&mdash;notwithstanding their chronic impecuniosity&mdash;thus
+entertained David Copperfield:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[344]</a></span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"We had a beautiful little dinner. Quite an elegant dish of fish;
+the kidney end of a loin of veal roasted; fried sausage-meat; a
+partridge and a pudding. There was wine, and there was strong
+ale; and after dinner Mrs. Micawber made us a bowl of hot punch
+with her own hands."</p></div>
+
+<p>They spent a jolly evening, and ended with singing <i>Auld
+Lang Syne</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The "little Inn" is again alluded to later in the story,
+where Mr. Micawber announces his full determination to
+abstain from everything until he has exposed the machinations
+of, and blown to pieces, "the&mdash;a&mdash;detestable serpent&mdash;<span class="smcap">Heep</span>;"
+and finally, where David Copperfield "assisted at
+an explosion," and Mr. Micawber is triumphant, and the
+"transcendent and immortal hypocrite and perjurer, <span class="smcap">Heep</span>,"
+is forced to succumb.</p>
+
+<p>Speaking of the "little Inn" for the last time, David
+says:&mdash;"I looked at the old house from the corner of the
+street.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. The early sun was striking edgewise on its gables
+and lattice-windows, touching them with gold; and some
+beams of its old peace seemed to touch my heart."</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Sheppard subsequently told us that, when he was
+beginning to turn his attention to the deciphering and
+utilizing of ancient MSS., he was much impressed, when
+perusing some articles in <i>Household Words</i>, or some other
+papers written by Dickens, relating to the neglected state
+of public records, more particularly at Canterbury; and
+when many years after the very records of which he wrote
+came under his (Dr. Sheppard's) care, he was surprised to
+find the names of Snodgrass, Sam Weller, and others therein.
+The records to which Dr. Sheppard referred were those in
+charge of the Archbishop's Registrar at Canterbury.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[345]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>If time permits it would be pleasant to go on to Dover,<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a>
+to see "Miss Betsey Trotwood's house," but this is impossible;
+and indeed, all that can be said about a tramp
+in search of "that very neat little cottage with cheerful
+bow windows in front of it, a small square gravelled court
+or garden full of flowers carefully tended, and smelling
+deliciously," has been well said by Mr. Ashby-Sterry in his
+delightful little volume, <i>Cucumber Chronicles</i>.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/i_368.png" width="500" height="466" alt="&quot;The Little Inn&quot; Canterbury" title="" />
+</div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[346]</a></span></p>
+<p>After much perseverance, and in spite of almost as many difficulties
+as beset poor little David Copperfield himself in his
+search for his aunt (who, as the Dover boatmen told him, "lived
+in the South Foreland Light, and had singed her whiskers by
+doing so"&mdash;"that she was made fast to the great buoy outside
+the harbour, and could only be visited at half-tide"&mdash;"that
+she was locked up in Maidstone Jail for child-stealing"&mdash;and
+that "she was seen to mount a broom in the last high wind
+and make direct for Calais"), Mr. Ashby-Sterry succeeded,
+although his greatest embarrassment arose from that irrepressible
+nuisance, "Buggins the Builder," who cannot be
+controlled even in the neighbourhood of Dover, so "hugely
+does he delight to mar those spots that have been hallowed
+by antiquity, seclusion, or the pen of the novelist. Hence the
+abode of Betsey Trotwood is not so pleasant as it must have
+been formerly, for other houses have clustered about the back
+and the front." But Mr. Ashby-Sterry quite satisfied himself
+as to the identity on Dover Heights of the very neat little
+cottage, and assures us that "the house, however, still stands
+high, the fresh breezes from over the sea and across the Down
+smite it. It still has a view of the sea, though perhaps not so
+uninterrupted as it was in the days of David Copperfield."
+He further states that it is, perhaps, not quite so neat as it
+was in Miss Betsey Trotwood's time, though there are no
+donkeys about. Here are the bow windows, with the room
+above, where Mr. Dick alarmed poor David by nodding and
+laughing at him on his first arrival. The window on the
+right must have belonged to the neat room "with the drugget-covered
+carpet," and the old-fashioned furniture brightly
+polished, where might be found "the cat, the kettle-holder,
+the two canaries, the old china, the punch-bowl full of dried<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[347]</a></span>
+rose leaves, the tall press guarding all sorts of bottles and
+pots, and wonderfully out of keeping with the rest." On the
+strength of this description by an ardent lover of Dickens, we
+fully make up our minds to visit Dover at no distant date to
+see Miss Betsey Trotwood's house for ourselves.</p>
+
+<p><i>&Agrave; propos</i> of Miss Trotwood's domicile, we have been
+favoured by Mr. C. K. Worsfold, an old resident of Dover,
+with a letter containing some interesting particulars, from
+which we extract the following:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Dickens's description of the local habitation of Betsey
+Trotwood is not consistent with the surroundings. The hills
+on either side of the town belong to the War Department,
+and are occupied as fortifications; on the eastern side is the
+Castle, and on the western side barracks and forts. On the
+western heights there is a house somewhat answering to
+Dickens's description, having a garden in front of it, and a
+small plot of grass in front of the garden; and about forty
+years ago there lived in this house a lady of rather masculine
+character, who always resented any intrusion of boys, and
+perhaps donkeys, on the grass in front of her house and
+garden, and I believe she was occasionally rather rough with
+the boys; but there the likeness to Betsey Trotwood ends.
+This was a married lady living with her husband.</p>
+
+<p>"I know it was a matter of conversation forty years ago
+that Dickens must have found his original in the lady in
+question, but I think he was rather in the habit of selecting
+his characters without reference to locality, and then adapting
+them to his requirements.</p>
+
+<p>"Dickens was a frequent visitor to Dover, and he may
+possibly have been a witness of some encounter between this
+lady and the boys, and on that occasion donkeys may have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[348]</a></span>
+been present.<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> I do not know of any relative of the lady
+answering to Miss Trotwood's worthy nephew."</p>
+
+<p>"A moderate stroke," as Mr. Datchery said, "is all I am
+justified in scoring up"; and we reluctantly leave the "sunny
+street of Canterbury, dozing, as it were, in the hot light," and
+take our places in the train for Chatham, distant about
+twenty-seven miles.</p>
+
+<p>The only new parts of interest which we go over, on our
+return journey by rail, are the green fields surrounding the
+ancient city, wherein are numbers of those beautiful and
+quiet-feeding cattle, which the eminent artist, Mr. T. Sidney
+Cooper, R.A. (who resides in the neighbourhood), loves to
+paint, and paints so well; and in due time we pass the
+chalk-topped hills called Harbledown, overlooking Canterbury,
+from whence the best view of the city is obtained, and
+safely reach our headquarters at Rochester.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[349]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XII.</h2>
+
+<h3>COOLING, CLIFFE, AND HIGHAM.</h3>
+
+<div class="hang2">"And now the range of marshes lay clear before us, with the sails of the
+ships on the river growing out of it; and we went into the Churchyard
+.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. and the light wind strewed it with beautiful shadows of
+clouds and trees."</div>
+
+<div class='center'><br /><big>*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</big></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"What might have been your opinion of the place?"</p>
+
+<p>"A most beastly place. Mudbank, mist, swamp and work; work,
+swamp, mist, and mudbank."&mdash;<i>Great Expectations.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class='center'><big>*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</big></div>
+
+<div class="hang2">"They were now in the open country; the houses were very few and
+scattered at long intervals, often miles apart. Occasionally they came
+upon a cluster of poor cottages, some with a chair or low board put
+across the open door, to keep the scrambling children from the road;
+others shut up close, while all the family were working in the fields.
+These were often the commencement of a little village; and after an
+interval came a wheelwright's shed, or perhaps a blacksmith's forge;
+then a thriving farm, with sleepy cows lying about the yard, and horses
+peering over the low wall, and scampering away when harnessed horses
+passed upon the road, as though in triumph at their freedom."&mdash;<i>The Old
+Curiosity Shop.</i></div>
+
+
+<div class='unindent'><span class="smcap">Now</span> for a long tramp in the country of the Marshes&mdash;the
+famous "Meshes" of <i>Great Expectations</i>. The air is sultry
+on this Thursday afternoon, and there is thunder in the
+distance. The storm, however, does not pass over Rochester,
+but further on we find traces of it where the roadways have
+been washed up. Afterwards the air becomes deliciously
+cool, and that hum of all Nature which succeeds the quiet
+preceding the storm is distinctly perceptible. Crossing
+Rochester Bridge, keeping to the right along Strood and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[350]</a></span>
+Frindsbury&mdash;the churchyard of which affords a splendid
+view of Rochester, Chatham, and the Medway&mdash;passing
+up Four Elms Hill and through the little village of
+Wainscot, nothing of interest calls for notice until we
+have travelled some miles from Strood. After crossing
+a tramway belonging to Government, and utilized by the
+Royal Engineers as a means of communication between
+the powder-magazine and Chatham Barracks, we observe
+that vegetation, which is so rich in other parts of Kent,
+here appears to be dwarfed and stunted. A hop-garden
+presents a very miserable contrast, in its struggle for existence,
+to others we have seen in the more central parts of
+the county, and even some of these were far from being
+luxuriant, owing to such a peculiarly wet and cold season.
+The hedges in places are diversified with the small gold and
+violet star-like flowers and the green and scarlet berries of
+the climbing woody nightshade, or bitter-sweet (<i>Solanum
+Dulcamara</i>), often mistaken for the deadly nightshade (<i>Atropa
+Belladonna</i>&mdash;a fine bushy herbaceous perennial, with large
+ovate-shaped leaves, and lurid, purple bell-shaped flowers),
+quite a different plant, and happily somewhat rare in
+England. The delicate light-blue flowers of the chicory are
+very abundant here.</div>
+
+<p>A tramp of upwards of six miles from Rochester, by way of
+Hoo,<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> brings us to Lodge Hill, overlooking Perry Hill, which
+affords a magnificent view of the mouth of the Thames
+beyond the low-lying Marshes, and of Canvey Island, off the
+coast of Essex, on the opposite side. By the kindness of a
+farmer's wife we are allowed to take a short cut through<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[351]</a></span>
+the farm-garden and grounds, which leads direct to Cooling
+(or Cowling) Church, a cheerless, grey-stone structure, the
+tower standing out as a beacon long before we reach it.</p>
+
+<p>Those unacquainted with this part of Kent may be interested
+in knowing that the Marshes, which stretch out over
+a considerable distance on either side of the Thames, on both
+the Kent and the Essex coasts, consist entirely of alluvial soil
+reclaimed at some time from the river. They are intersected by
+ditches and water-courses, and covered with rank vegetation,
+chiefly of grass, rushes, and flags, where not cultivated. Higher
+up the land is rich, and large tracts of it are planted with
+vegetables as market gardens. Sea-gulls, plovers, and herons
+are numerous; their call-notes in the still evening sounding
+shrill and uncanny over the long stretches of flat lands.</p>
+
+<p>Dear old Michael Drayton, the Warwickshire poet, who
+touched upon almost everything, has not omitted to describe
+the Marshes in a somewhat similar locality, for in the
+<i>Polyolbion</i> (Song XVIII.) he gracefully compares them to a
+female enamoured of the beauties of the River Rother, thus:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='poem2'>
+"Appearing to the flood, most bravely like a Queen,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Clad all from head to foot, in gaudy Summer's green,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Her mantle richly wrought with sundry flow'rs and weeds;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Her moistful temples bound with wreaths of quiv'ring reeds;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">And on her loins a frock, with many a swelling plait,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Emboss'd with well-spread horse, large sheep, and full-fed neat;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">With villages amongst, oft powthered here and there;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">And (that the same more like to landscape should appear)</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">With lakes and lesser fords, to mitigate the heat</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">In summer, when the fly doth prick the gadding neat."</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>Readers of <i>Great Expectations</i> will remember that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[352]</a></span>
+scene in the first chapter between Pip and the convict,
+Magwitch, is laid in Cooling churchyard, and on reaching
+this spot we are instantly reminded of what doubtless gave
+origin to the idea of the five dead little brothers of poor
+Philip Pirrip, for there, on the left of the principal pathway,
+are indeed, not five stone lozenges, but <i>ten</i> in one row and
+three more at the back of them, such peculiarly-shaped and
+curiously-arranged little monuments as we never before beheld.
+They consist of a grey stone (Kentish-rag, probably,
+but lichen-encrusted by time) of cylindrical shape, widening
+at the shoulders, coffin-like, and about a yard in length, the
+diameter being about eight inches, including the portion
+buried in the earth. Four little foot-stones are placed in
+front, and separating the ten little memorials from the three
+at the back is a large head-stone, bearing the name&mdash;"Comport
+of Cowling Court, 1771." Cooling Church, which
+has the date 1615 on one of the bells, has an example of
+a Hagioscope, a curious, small, square, angular, tunnel-like
+opening through the wall, which divides the nave from the
+chancel. It is said to have been the place through which
+those members of the church, who were unworthy or unable
+to receive the sacred elements, might get a look at their
+more acceptable companions during the administration of
+the sacrament. The Rev. W. H. A. Leaver, the Rector, who
+kindly shows us over his church, in reply to our question as
+to whether he could give any information about Charles
+Dickens, said that he was a new-comer in the district, and
+that all he remembers is, that when his sister was a little
+baby in arms, her mother happened once to be travelling in
+the same train with the great novelist, who, with his usual
+kindness, gave the child an orange, which she acknowledged
+very ungratefully by scratching his face!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[353]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The following is a picture of the neighbourhood, given in
+the opening sentences of the story:&mdash;</p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 475px;">
+<img src="images/i_376.png" width="475" height="363" alt="Graves of the Comport Family: in Cooling Churchyard" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Ours was the marsh country, down by the river, within, as the
+river wound, twenty miles of the sea. My first most vivid and broad
+impression of the identity of things, seems to me to have been gained
+on a memorable raw afternoon towards evening. At such a time, I
+found out for certain, that this bleak place overgrown with nettles was
+the churchyard; and that Philip Pirrip, late of this parish, and also
+Georgiana, wife of above, were dead and buried; and that Alexander,
+Bartholomew, Abraham, Tobias, and Roger, infant children of the
+aforesaid, were also dead and buried; and that the dark flat wilderness
+beyond the churchyard, intersected with dykes, and mounds,
+and gates, with scattered cattle feeding on it, was the marshes; and
+that the low leaden line beyond was the river; and that the distant
+savage lair, from which the wind was rushing, was the sea; and that
+the small bundle of shivers growing afraid of it all, and beginning to
+cry, was Pip."</p></div>
+
+
+<p>Here follows the appearance of the awful convict, and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[354]</a></span>
+terrible threats by which he induces Pip to bring him "that
+file and them wittles" on the morrow; to enforce obedience
+the convict tilts Pip two or three times, "and then" [says Pip]
+"he gave me a most tremendous dip and roll, so that the
+church jumped over its own weathercock." Then he held
+him by the arms in an upright position on the top of the
+stone, finally threatening him "with having his heart and liver
+torn out," in case of non-compliance.</p>
+
+<p>All the characters described in <i>Great Expectations</i>, and all
+the scenes wherein they played their parts&mdash;Pip, with and
+without his "great expectations"; his sister Mrs. Joe
+Gargery, "on the rampage with Tickler;" Joe Gargery, "ever
+the best of friends, dear Pip;" Mr. and Mrs. Hubble, the
+former fond of "a bit of savoury pork pie as would lay atop of
+anything you could mention and do no harm;" the stage-struck
+Wopsle, <i>alias</i> "Mr. Waldengarver"; "the servile
+Pumblechook;" the two convicts, "Pip's convict," Magwitch,
+with "the great iron on his leg," and the "other convict,"
+Compeyson, also ironed; "slouching old" Orlick; Biddy,
+simple-hearted and loving; "the Serjeant" and "party of
+soldiers"; Mr. Jaggers, "the Old Bailey lawyer"; Estella,
+Miss Havisham, Herbert Pocket, and Bentley Drummle at
+"the market town"; Joe's Forge (now converted into a
+dwelling-house); "The Three Jolly Bargemen" (obviously
+taken from "The Three Horse-shoes," the present village
+inn); the "old Battery," "the little sluice-house by the lime-kiln;"&mdash;all
+centre round Cooling churchyard, and appear
+before us as though traced on a map.</p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355"></a>
+<img src="images/i_378.png" width="500" height="392" alt="Cooling Church." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Cooling Church.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Forster says in the <i>Life:</i>&mdash;"It is strange as I transcribe the
+words, with what wonderful vividness they bring back the very
+spot on which we stood when he said he meant to make it the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[356]</a></span>
+scene of the opening of this story&mdash;Cooling Castle ruins and
+the desolate Church, lying out among the marshes seven miles
+from Gad's Hill!"</p>
+
+
+<p>Beyond where the river runs to the sea, we conjure up the
+chase and recapture of Pip's convict, while poor Pip himself,
+assisted by his friend Herbert Pocket, is straining every nerve
+to get him away. As illustrative of the wonderfully careful
+way in which Dickens did all his work, we also read in
+Forster's <i>Life:</i>&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"To make himself sure of the actual course of a boat in
+such circumstances, and what possible incidents the adventure
+might have, Dickens hired a steamer for the day from Blackwall
+to Southend. Eight or nine friends, and three or four
+members of his family, were on board, and he seemed to have
+no care, the whole of that summer day (22nd of May, 1861),
+except to enjoy their enjoyment and entertain them with his
+own in shape of a thousand whims and fancies; but his sleepless
+observation was at work all the time, and nothing had
+escaped his keen vision on either side of the river. The
+fifteenth chapter of the third volume is a masterpiece."</p>
+
+<p>Speaking generally of this fascinating story, which possesses
+a thousand-fold greater interest to us now we visit the country
+there described (not formerly very accessible, but now readily
+approached by the railway from Gravesend to Sheerness, alighting
+at Cliffe, the nearest station to Cooling), Forster says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"It may be doubted if Dickens could better have established
+his right to the front rank among novelists claimed for
+him, than by the ease and mastery with which, in these two
+books of <i>Copperfield</i> and <i>Great Expectations</i>, he kept perfectly
+distinct the two stories of a boy's childhood, both told in the
+form of autobiography."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[357]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The marshes are also alluded to twice in <i>Bleak House</i>&mdash;first,
+in chapter one&mdash;"Fog on the Essex marshes, fog on the
+Kentish heights;" and secondly, in the twenty-sixth chapter,
+in the dialogue between Trooper George and his odd but kind-hearted
+attendant Phil Squod, the original of which, by the
+bye, was a Chatham character.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"'And so, Phil,' says George of the shooting gallery, after several
+turns in silence; 'you were dreaming of the country last night.'</p>
+
+<p>"Phil, by the bye, said as much, in a tone of surprise, as he
+scrambled out of bed.</p>
+
+<p>"'Yes, guv'ner.'</p>
+
+<p>"'What was it like?'</p>
+
+<p>"'I hardly know what it was like, guv'ner,' said Phil, considering.</p>
+
+<p>"'How did you know it was the country?'</p>
+
+<p>"'On accounts of the grass, I think. And the swans upon it,' says
+Phil, after further consideration.</p>
+
+<p>"'What were the swans doing on the grass?'</p>
+
+<p>"'They was a eating of it, I expect,' says Phil.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.</p>
+
+<p>"'The country,' says Mr. George, applying his knife and fork,
+'why I suppose you never clapped your eyes on the country, Phil?'</p>
+
+<p>"'I see the marshes once,' says Phil, contentedly eating his
+breakfast.</p>
+
+<p>"'What marshes?'</p>
+
+<p>"'<i>The</i> marshes, commander,' returns Phil.</p>
+
+<p>"'Where are they?'</p>
+
+<p>"'I don't know where they are,' says Phil, 'but I see 'em, guv'ner.
+They was flat. And miste.'"</p></div>
+
+<p>Forster says:&mdash;"About the whole of this Cooling churchyard,
+indeed, and the neighbouring castle ruins, there was a
+weird strangeness that made it one of his [Dickens's] attractive
+walks in the late year or winter, when from Higham he could
+get to it across country, over the stubble fields; and, for a
+shorter summer walk, he was not less fond of going round the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[358]</a></span>
+village of Shorne, and sitting on a hot afternoon in its pretty
+shady churchyard."</p>
+
+<p>Altogether, the place has a dreary and lonesome appearance
+in the close of the summer evening, and we can picture
+with wonderful vividness the remarkable scenes described in
+<i>Great Expectations</i>, as the lurid purple reflection from the
+setting sun spreads over the Thames valley, and lights up the
+marshes; the tall pollards standing out like spectres contribute
+to the weirdness and beauty of the scene.</p>
+
+<p>Dickens was not the only admirer of the Marshes. Turner
+also visited them, and painted some of his most famous
+pictures from observation there, namely "Stangate Creek,"
+"Shrimping Sands," and "Off Sheerness."</p>
+
+<p>A few paces from the church brings us to Cooling Castle,
+built by Sir John de Cobham, the third Baron Cobham, in
+the reign of Richard II., whose arms appear on the gatehouse,
+together with a very curious motto in early English
+characters. We extract the following interesting account of
+the tower from the <i>Arch&aelig;ologia Cantiana</i> (vol. xi.):&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;"><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359"></a>
+<img src="images/i_382.png" width="550" height="406" alt="Gateway Cooling Castle" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>"On the south face of the eastern Outer Gate Tower, we
+see the well-known inscription, which takes the form of a
+Charter, with Lord Cobham's seal appended to it. This is
+formed of fourteen copper plates exquisitely enamelled. The
+writing is in black, while the ground is of white enamel; the
+seal and silk cords are of the proper colours. The whole work
+is an exquisite example of enamel, which after five hundred
+years' exposure to the weather remains nearly as good as
+when it was put up. The inscription states very clearly why
+Lord Cobham erected a castle here, viz. for the safety of the
+country. The French invasion had shewn the need, and the
+inscription was perhaps intended to disarm the suspicions and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[360]</a></span>
+hostility of the serfs by reminding them of that need. It
+runs thus, in four lines, each enamelled upon three plates of
+copper:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"'Knoweth that beth and schul be<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">That i am mad in help of the cuntre</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">In knowyng of whyche thyng</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Thys is chartre and witnessyng.'"</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>"(Seal, 'gules', on a chevron 'or' three lions rampant
+'sable'.)</p>
+
+<p>"Inscriptions are rare on Gothic buildings, especially on
+castles. This at Coulyng is remarkable from being in English,
+at a time when Latin was employed in all charters; it
+contains that early form of the plural 'beth' instead of 'are.'
+The inscription measures thirty-two inches by fourteen, and
+the diameter of the seal is no less than seven and a quarter
+inches long."</p>
+
+<p>After stopping a short time to admire the imposing entrance
+gate and the remains of the ancient moat, we wend our way
+for two or three miles, by lanes and "over the stubble-fields,"
+to the straggling village of Cliffe,<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> the houses of which are
+very old and mostly weather-boarded. The approach to the
+church is by a rare example of a lich-gate, having a room
+over it for muniments, and the church itself (which is very
+large, and seems to be out of proportion to the size of the
+village) stands in a commanding position on a ridge of chalk,
+overlooking the marshes, from whence the views of the river<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[361]</a></span>
+in the distance are very fine. It is supposed to be the place
+where the Saxon Church held its councils, and there is a local
+tradition of a ferry having once existed near here. Evidence
+of this seems to survive in the fact that all the roads both on
+the Kent and Essex shores appear to converge to this point.
+The church has some interesting <i>miserere</i> stalls and brasses
+to the Faunce family (17th century). On the walls we find
+specimens of that somewhat rare fern, the scaly spleenwort
+(<i>Ceterach officinarum</i>).</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/i_384.png" width="500" height="475" alt="Cliffe Church" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>Time does not permit us to go on to Gravesend, which like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[362]</a></span>
+this place was one of Dickens's favourite spots ("We come,
+you see" [says Mr. Peggotty, speaking of himself and Ham
+to David Copperfield, when they visited him at Salem House],
+"the wind and tide making in our favor, in one of our
+Yarmouth lugs to Gravesen'"), so we defer our visit to that
+popular resort until another occasion.</p>
+
+<p>We notice in places where the harvest has been cleared
+(which, alas! owing to excess of wet and absence of sun, has
+not been an abundant one), preparations for cultivation next
+year, exhibiting that peculiar effect from ploughing which
+that gifted writer and born naturalist, the late Richard Jeffreys,
+described in his book <i>Wild Life in a Southern County</i>, with
+that love for common things which was so characteristic of
+him:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"The ploughmen usually take special care with their work
+near public roads, so that the furrows end on to the base of
+the highway shall be mathematically straight. They often
+succeed so well that the furrows look as if traced with a ruler,
+and exhibit curious effects of vanishing perspective. Along
+the furrow, just as it is turned, there runs a shimmering light
+as the eye traces it up. The ploughshare, heavy and drawn
+with great force, smooths the earth as it cleaves it, giving it
+for a time a 'face,' as it were, the moisture on which reflects
+the light. If you watch the farmers driving to market, you
+will see that they glance up the furrows to note the workmanship
+and look for game; you may tell from a distance if
+they espy a hare, by the check of the rein and the extended
+hand pointing."</p>
+
+<p>Our destination is now Higham&mdash;"Higham by Rochester,
+Kent,"&mdash;Dickens's nearest village, in which, from his first
+coming to Gad's Hill, he took the deepest interest, and after<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[363]</a></span>
+a further long tramp of nearly four miles steadily maintained,
+we reach Lower Higham towards dusk; and in a lane we
+ask an old labourer (who looks as though he would be all
+the better for "Three Acres and a Cow") if we are on the
+right road to Higham Station. Curtly but civilly the man
+answers, "Keep straight on," when an incident occurs
+which brightens up matters considerably. The questioner
+says to the labourer, "Do you remember the late Charles
+Dickens?" (We always spoke, when in the district, of "the
+<i>late</i> Charles Dickens," to distinguish him from his eldest son,
+who lived at Gad's Hill for some years after his father's death.
+Frequently the great novelist was spoken of by residents as
+"old Mr. Dickens!")</p>
+
+<p>"Do I remember Muster Dickens?" responds the venerable
+rustic, and his eyes sparkle, and his face beams with such
+animation that he becomes a different being. "Of course I
+do; he used to have games&mdash;running, jumping, and such-like&mdash;for
+us working people, and I've often won a prize. He
+used to come among us and give us refreshments, and make
+himself very pleasant."</p>
+
+<p>"How long have you lived in this parish?" says the
+questioner.</p>
+
+<p>"Sixty-seven year," is the answer.</p>
+
+<p>Time prevents further inquiries, so we bid our friend
+"good-evening."</p>
+
+<p>In referring to the sports at Gad's Hill, Mr. Langton has
+recorded how a friend sent him a broadside of a portion of
+one day's amusements, which from its amateurish appearance
+was probably printed by Dickens's sons at the private printing-press
+before alluded to. The occasion was the 26th December,
+1866, and the Christmas sports were held in a field at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[364]</a></span>
+the back of Gad's Hill Place. Mr. Trood, a former landlord
+of the "Sir John Falstaff" (whose name has been previously
+mentioned), had, by permission of Charles Dickens, a booth
+erected for the refreshment of persons contesting. The attendance
+was between two and three thousand, and there was not
+a single case of misconduct or damage. Mr. A. H. Layard,
+M.P. (afterwards Sir Austin Layard), was present, and took
+great interest in the proceedings, Dickens having appointed
+him "chief commissioner of the domestic police." Sir Austin
+Layard said of the sports, "Dickens seemed to have bound
+every creature present upon what honour the creature had
+to keep order. What was the special means used, or the art
+employed, it might have been difficult to say, but that was
+the result." We made every effort to obtain one of the bills
+of these sports, but without success, and therefore take the
+liberty of quoting from Mr. Langton's copy:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<b><big>Christmas Sports.</big></b><br />
+
+The All-Comers' Race.<br />
+
+Distance&mdash;Once round the field.<br />
+
+First Prize 10<i>s.;</i> Second, 5<i>s.;</i> Third, 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i><br />
+
+Entries to be made in <span class="smcap">Mr. Trood's</span> tent before 12 o'clock.<br />
+
+To start at 2.45.<br />
+
+Starter&mdash;<span class="smcap">M. Stone, Esq.</span><br />
+
+Judge and Referee&mdash;<span class="smcap">C. Dickens, Esq.</span><br />
+
+Clerk of the Course&mdash;<span class="smcap">C. Dickens, Junr., Esq.</span><br />
+
+Stewards and Keepers of the Course&mdash;<span class="smcap">Messrs. A. H. Layard</span>,<br />
+<span class="smcap">M.P., H. Chorley, J. Hulkes</span>, and <span class="smcap">H. Dickens</span>.<br />
+</div>
+
+<p>In a letter written to Mr. Forster next day, Dickens said,
+"The road between this and Chatham was like a fair all day,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[365]</a></span>
+and surely it is a fine thing to get such perfect behaviour out
+of a reckless sea-port town."</p>
+
+<p>We presently meet with another representative of the class
+of village labourer at Upper Higham, a cheery old man,
+although, as is sadly too often the case in his class, he was
+suffering from "the Rheumatiz." "Those are nice chrysanthemums
+in your garden," we observe. "Yes, they are, sir," he
+replies; "but if they had been better attended to when they
+was young, they'd have been nicer." "Well, I suppose both
+of us would," is the rejoinder. We are in touch on the
+instant. Our new acquaintance laughs, and so a question
+or two is put to him, and the following is the substance
+of his answers, rendered <i>&agrave; la</i> Jingle but very feelingly:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Dickens was a nice sort of man&mdash;very much liked&mdash;missed
+a great deal when he died&mdash;poor people and the like
+felt the miss of him. He was a man as shifted a good deal
+of money in the place. You see, he had a lot of friends&mdash;kept
+a good many horses,&mdash;and then there was the men to attend
+to 'em, and the corn-chandler, the blacksmith, the wheelwright,
+and others to be paid&mdash;the poor&mdash;and such-like&mdash;felt the
+miss of him when he died."</p>
+
+<p>"How long have you lived here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I come in '45, eleven years before Mr. Dickens."</p>
+
+<p>"And I suppose you are over sixty."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, sir, I shall never see seventy again."</p>
+
+<p>Wishing our friend "good-night," we continue our tramp.
+On another occasion we met, in the same place, a third specimen
+of village labourer, "a mender of roads," who knew Charles
+Dickens, and so we walked and chatted pleasantly with him
+for some distance. Said our informant, "You see, Mr.
+Dickens was a very liberal man; he held his head high up<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[366]</a></span>
+when he walked, and went at great strides." The "mender of
+roads" was some years ago a candidate for a vacant place as
+under-gardener at Gad's Hill, but the situation was filled up
+just an hour before he applied for it. He said Mr. Dickens
+gave him half-a-crown, and afterwards always recognized him
+when he met him with a pleasant nod, or cheerfully "passed
+the time of day." We heard in many places that Dickens
+was "always kindly" in this way to his own domestics, and
+to the villagers in a like station of life to our intelligent friend
+"the mender of roads." A fourth villager, a groom, who had
+been in his present situation for twenty years, said:&mdash;"Both
+the old gentleman and young Mr. Charles were very much
+liked in Higham. There wasn't a single person in the place,
+I believe, but what had a good word for them."</p>
+
+<p>It may be interesting to mention that Higham&mdash;the old
+name of which was Lillechurch&mdash;is an extensive parish
+divided into several hamlets. In a useful little book published
+in 1882, called <i>A Handbook of Higham</i>, the Rev. C. H.
+Fielding, M.A., the author, says:&mdash;"There are few parishes
+more interesting than Higham, as it provides food for the
+antiquarian and the student of Nature; while its position
+near the 'Medway smooth, and the Royal-masted Thame,'
+affords to the artist many an opportunity for a picture,
+while the idler has the privilege of lovely views." Mr. Roach
+Smith was of opinion that Higham was the seat of "a great
+Roman pottery." A Monastery of importance existed here
+for several centuries, Mary, daughter of King Stephen, being
+one of the Prioresses; but it was dissolved by Henry VIII.
+The list of flowering plants given in Mr. Fielding's book is
+extensive and interesting, and contains many rarities.</p>
+
+<p>A "Cheap Jack," a veritable Doctor Marigold, had taken up<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[367]</a></span>
+his quarters at Higham, and we loiter among the bystanders
+to hear his patter. We feel quite sure that had Dickens been
+present he would have listened and been as amused with
+him as ourselves. We heard a few days previously the
+public crier going round in his cart, announcing the arrival
+of this worthy by ringing his bell and proclaiming in a
+stentorian voice something to this effect:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"The public is respectfully informed that the Cheap Jack
+has arrived, bringing with him a large assortment of London,
+Birmingham, and Sheffield goods, together with a choice
+collection of glass and earthenware, which he will sell every
+evening at the most reasonable prices."</p>
+
+<p>On our arrival here we find him on his rostrum surrounded
+by some flaring naphtha lamps, and thus disposing of some
+penny books of songs: "Now, ladies and gentlemen, what
+shall we have the pleasure of saying for this handsome book,
+containing over a hundred songs sung by all the great singers
+of the day&mdash;Macdermott, Madam Langtry, Sims Reeves, and
+other eminent vocalists&mdash;besides numerous toasts and readings.
+Well, I won't ask sixpence, and I won't take fivepence,
+fourpence, threepence, twopence&mdash;no, I only ask a penny.
+Sold again, and got the money. Take care of the ha'pence"
+(to his assistant), "for we gives them to the blind when they
+can see to pick 'em up." We of course bought a copy of the
+famous collection as a "Dickens-item."</p>
+
+<p>Before returning to Rochester we are anxious to identify
+the blacksmith's shop where the <i>feu de joie</i> was fired from
+"two smuggled cannons," in honour of the marriage of Miss
+Kate Dickens to Mr. Charles Collins. Alterations have taken
+place which render identification impossible; but a local
+blacksmith, who has established himself here, gives us some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[368]</a></span>
+interesting particulars of the games in which he took part.
+He mentions also a circumstance relating to Dickens's favourite
+horse, Toby. It appears that it was an express wish of
+the novelist that when he died this horse should be shot;
+and according to our informant the horse was shod on the
+Tuesday before the 9th of June (the day of Dickens's death),
+and shot on the following Monday. The gun was loaded
+with small shot, and poor Toby died immediately it was fired.
+The blacksmith thoroughly confirms the opinion of the old
+labourers as to the kindness of Charles Dickens to his poorer
+neighbours. A curious episode occurs in our conference
+with this man: he seems under the impression, which no
+amount of assertion on our part can overcome, that my
+friend and fellow tramp, Mr. Kitton, is Mr. Henry Fielding
+Dickens. Whether there was any facial resemblance or likeness
+of manner did not transpire, but again and again he
+kept saying, "Now ain't you Harry Dickens?" Among the
+names at Higham we notice that of a well-remembered
+Dickens character&mdash;Mr. Stiggins!</p>
+
+<p>On arriving at Higham Railway Station, we chat a bit
+with the station-master and porter there, but both are
+comparatively fresh comers and knew not Charles Dickens.
+After an enjoyable but somewhat fatiguing tramp, we are
+glad to take a late evening train from Higham to Strood,
+and thus ends our inspection of the land of "the Meshes."</p>
+
+<div class='center'><big>*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</big></div>
+
+<p>By the kindness of Mr. Henry Smetham (locally famed as
+the "Laureate of Strood"), we subsequently had an introduction
+to Mrs. Taylor, formerly school-mistress at Higham,
+who came there in 1860, and remained until some years after
+the death of Charles Dickens. She knew the novelist well,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[369]</a></span>
+and used to see him almost every day when he was at home.
+She said, "If I had met him and did not know who he was,
+I should have set him down as a good-hearted English
+gentleman." He was very popular and much liked in the
+neighbourhood. On his return from America, in the first
+week of May, 1868, garlands of flowers were put by the
+villagers across the road from the railway station to Gad's
+Hill. There was a flag at Gad's (a Union Jack, she thinks),
+which was always hoisted when Dickens was at home.
+He never read at Higham, and never came to the school;
+but he always allowed the use of the meadow at the
+back of Gad's Hill Place for the school treats, either of
+church or chapel, and contributed to such treats sweets
+and what not.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Taylor remembers that the carriage was sent down
+from Gad's Hill Place to the Higham railway station nearly
+every night at ten o'clock to meet either Charles Dickens or
+his friends. It passed the school, and she well recollects the
+pleasant sound made by the bells. She heard Dickens read
+<i>Sairey Gamp</i> in London once, and did not like the dress he
+wore, but thought the reading very wonderful.</p>
+
+<p>This lady says she was in London at the time of the death
+of Charles Dickens, the announcement of which she saw on a
+newspaper placard, and was ill the whole of the day afterwards.
+It was a sorrowful day for her.</p>
+
+<div class='center'><big>*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</big></div>
+
+<p>We are much indebted to Mrs. Budden of Gad's Hill Place
+for the following interesting particulars which she obtained
+from Mrs. Easedown, of Higham, "who was parlour-maid
+to Mr. Dickens, and left to be married on the 8th of June,
+the day he was seized with the fit. She says it was her duty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[370]</a></span>
+to hoist the flag on the top of the house directly Mr. Dickens
+arrived at Gad's Hill. It was a small flag, not more than
+fourteen inches square, and was kept in the billiard-room.
+She says he was the dearest and best gentleman that ever
+lived, and the kindest of masters. He asked her to stay and
+wait at table the night he was taken ill; she said if he wished
+it she would, and then he said, 'Never mind; I don't feel
+well.' She saw him after he was dead, laid out in the dining-room,
+when his coffin was covered with scarlet geraniums&mdash;his
+favourite flower. The flower-beds on the lawns at Gad's
+Hill in his time were always filled with scarlet geraniums;
+they have since been done away with. Over the head
+of the coffin was the oil painting of himself as a young
+man (probably Maclise's portrait)&mdash;on one side a picture
+of 'Dolly Varden,' and on the other 'Kate Nickleby.'
+He gave Mrs. Easedown, on the day she left his service,
+a photograph of himself with his name written on the
+back. Each of the other servants at Gad's Hill Place was
+presented with a similar photograph. She said he was unusually
+busy at the time of his death, as on the Monday
+morning he ordered breakfast to be ready during the week
+at 7.30 ('Sharp, mind') instead of his usual time, 9 o'clock, as
+he said 'he had so much to do before Friday.' But&mdash;'Such
+a thing was never to be,' for on the Thursday he
+breathed his last!"</p>
+
+<div class='center'><big>*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</big></div>
+
+<p>Mrs. Wright, the wife of Mr. Henry Wright, surveyor of
+Higham, lived four years at Gad's Hill Place as parlour-maid.
+She is the proud possessor of some interesting relics of her
+late master. These include his soup-plate, a meerschaum
+pipe (presented to him, but he chiefly smoked cigars&mdash;he was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[371]</a></span>
+not a great smoker), a wool-worked kettle-holder (which he
+constantly used), and a pair of small bellows. When she was
+married Mr. Dickens presented her with a China tea service,
+"not a single piece of which," said Mrs. Wright proudly, "has
+been broken."</p>
+
+<p>She remembers, at the time of her engagement as parlour-maid,
+that the servants told her to let a gentleman in at the
+front door who was approaching. She didn't know who it
+was, as she had never seen Mr. Dickens before. She opened
+the door, and the gentleman entered in a very upright
+manner, and after thanking her, looked hard at her, and then
+walked up-stairs. On returning to the kitchen the servants
+asked who it was that had just come in. She replied, "I
+don't know, but I think it was the master." "Did he speak?"
+they asked. "No," said she, "but he looked at me in a very
+determined way." Said they, "He was reading your character,
+and he now knows you thoroughly," or words to that
+effect.</p>
+
+<p>As parlour-maid, it was part of her duty to carve and wait
+on her master specially. The dinner serviettes were wrapped
+up in a peculiar manner, and Mrs. Wright remembers that
+Lord Darnley's servants were always anxious to learn how
+the folding was done, but they never discovered the secret.
+At dinner-parties, it was the custom to place a little "button-hole"
+for each guest. This was mostly made up of scarlet
+geranium (Dickens's favourite flower), with a bit of the leaf
+and a frond of maidenhair fern. On one occasion in her
+early days, the dinner-lift (to the use of which she was unaccustomed)
+broke and ran down quickly, smashing the
+crockery and bruising her arm. Mr. Dickens jumped up
+quickly and said, "Never mind the breakage; is your arm<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[372]</a></span>
+hurt?" As it was painful, he immediately applied arnica
+to the bruise, and gave her a glass of port wine, "treating
+me," Mrs. Wright remarked, "more like a child of his own
+than a servant."</p>
+
+<p>When she was married, and left Gad's Hill, she brought her
+first child to show her former master. He took notice of it,
+and asked her what he could buy as a present. She thanked
+him, and said she did not want anything. On leaving he
+gently put a sovereign into the baby's little hand, and said,
+"Buy something with that."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Wright spoke of the great interest which Dickens took
+in the children's treats at Higham, lending his meadow for
+them, providing sweets and cakes for the little ones, and
+apples to be scrambled for. He took great delight in seeing
+the scrambles.</p>
+
+<p>She also referred to the cricket club, and said that when
+the matches were going on it was a regular holiday at
+Higham. Dickens used to take the scores, and at the end
+of the game he gave prizes and made little speeches. Her
+husband, Mr. Henry Wright, acted as secretary to the club,
+and is the possessor of a letter written by Mr. Dickens, in
+reply to an address which had been presented to him, of
+which letter the following is a copy:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><div class='right'>
+<span style="margin-right: 4em;">"<span class="smcap">Gad's Hill Place</span>,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-right: 2em;">"<span class="smcap">Higham by Rochester, Kent</span>.</span><br />
+"<i>Tuesday, 29th July, 1862.</i><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;"As your name is the first on the list of signatures
+to the little address I have had the pleasure of receiving&mdash;on
+my return from a short absence&mdash;from the greater part of the
+players in the match the other day, I address my reply to you.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[373]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I beg you to assure the rest that it will always give me
+great pleasure to lend my meadow for any such good purpose,
+and that I feel a sincere desire to be a good friend to the
+working men in this neighbourhood. I am always interested
+in their welfare, and am always heartily glad to see them
+enjoying rational and healthful recreation.</p>
+
+<p>"It did not escape my notice that some expressions were
+used the other day which would have been better avoided, but
+I dismiss them from my mind as being probably unintentional,
+and certainly opposed to the general good feeling and good
+sense.</p>
+
+<div class='sig'>
+<span style="margin-right: 4em;">"Faithfully yours,</span><br />
+"<span class="smcap">Charles Dickens</span>.<br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='secsig'>"<span class="smcap">Mr. H. Wright.</span>"</div></div>
+
+<p>Both Mrs. Easedown and Mrs. Wright informed us (through
+Mrs. Budden) that "Mr. Dickens was the best of masters, and
+a dear good man; that he gave a great deal away in the
+parish, and was very much missed; that he frequently went
+to church and sat in the chancel.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. When he lived in
+Higham there used to be a great deal of ague, and he gave
+away an immense quantity of port wine and quinine. Since
+the Cement Works have been at Cliffe there has been very
+little ague at Higham."</p>
+
+<div class='center'><big>*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</big></div>
+
+<p>Mr. Robert Lake Cobb, of Mockbeggar House, Higham, a
+land agent of high position and a County Councillor, told us
+that he took in the <i>Pickwick Papers</i> as they appeared in
+numbers, and he recollected how eagerly he read them, and
+how tiresome it was to have to wait month by month until
+the story was finished. The book made a tremendous sensation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[374]</a></span>
+at the time. Many years afterwards Charles Dickens
+came to reside at Gad's Hill Place, and the families became
+intimate. "Mr. Dickens," observed our informant, "was a
+very pleasant neighbour, and had always got something nice
+to say. He was a dreadful man to walk&mdash;very few could
+keep up with him."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Cobb had one son, Herbert, who was a playfellow of
+Dickens's boys; and as illustrative of the interest he took in
+his neighbours, on one occasion the novelist and our informant
+were talking over matters, when the former said, "What are
+you going to bring your boy up to?" "A land agent,"
+replied Mr. Cobb. "Ah," said the novelist, "whatever you
+do, make him self-reliant." He thought that of all the sons
+Mr. Henry Fielding Dickens most resembled his father.</p>
+
+<p>Among the notable people Mr. Cobb met at Gad's Hill
+Place were Mr. Forster, Mr. Wilkie Collins, Mr. Fechter the
+actor, and others. When Hans Christian Andersen was
+visiting there, Dickens took him to Higham Church. Mr.
+Cobb spoke of the pleasant picnic parties which Dickens gave
+on Blue Bell Hill. He was of opinion that Cob-Tree Hall
+in that neighbourhood, about one and a half miles from
+Aylesford, nearly parallel with the river, suggested the original
+of Manor Farm, Dingley Dell. It formerly belonged to Mr.
+Franklin, and is now occupied by Major Trousdell. Mr.
+Cobb believed that Dickens took the title of <i>No Thoroughfare</i>&mdash;which
+he and Wilkie Collins contributed to the 1867
+number of <i>All the Year Round</i>, and in the dramatizing of
+which Dickens subsequently was so interested&mdash;from the
+notice-boards which were put up by Lord Darnley in many
+parts of Cobham Park.</p>
+
+<p>On one occasion our informant remembers a stoppage of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[375]</a></span>
+the train in Higham tunnel, which caused some consternation
+to the passengers, as no explanation of the delay was
+forthcoming from any of the railway officials. The station-master
+coming up at the time, Dickens remarked&mdash;"Ah! an
+unwilling witness, Mr. Wood."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Cobb mentioned that Miss Hogarth, Dickens's sister-in-law,
+was a great favourite in the neighbourhood, from her
+kindness and thoughtfulness for all with whom she came in
+contact, and especially the poor of Higham.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[376]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>COBHAM PARK AND HALL, THE LEATHER BOTTLE, SHORNE, CHALK, AND THE DOVER ROAD.</h3>
+
+<div class="hang2">"It's a place you may well be fond of and attached to, for it's the prettiest
+spot in all the country round."&mdash;<i>The Village Coquettes.</i></div>
+
+<div class="hang2">"The last soft light of the setting sun had fallen on the earth, casting a
+rich glow on the yellow corn sheaves, and lengthening the shadows of
+the orchard trees."&mdash;<i>The Pickwick Papers.</i></div>
+
+
+<div class='unindent'><span class="smcap">We</span> reserve this, our last long tramp in "Dickens-Land," for
+the Friday before our departure. Mrs. Perugini, the novelist's
+second daughter, had recently told us that this was the most
+beautiful of all the beautiful parts of Kent, and so indeed it
+proves to be. Its sylvan scenery is truly unique.</div>
+
+<p>Mr. Charles Dickens the younger, in his valuable annotated
+Jubilee edition of <i>Pickwick</i>, has included this note relating to
+Cobham:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"As all the world knows, the neighbourhood of Rochester
+was dear to Charles Dickens. There it is that Gad's Hill
+Place stands, the house to which, as 'a queer, small boy,' he
+looked forward as the possible reward of an industrious
+career, and in which he passed the later years of his life;
+and near Rochester, still approached by the 'delightful walk'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[377]</a></span>
+here described, is Cobham, one of the most charming villages
+in that part of Kent. Down the lanes, and through the park
+to Cobham, was always a favourite walk with Charles Dickens;
+and he never wearied of acting as <i>cicerone</i> to his guests to
+its fine church and the quaint almshouses with the disused
+refectory behind it."</p>
+
+<p>Happily the weather again favours us on this delightful
+excursion. It is just such a day as that on which we made
+our visit to Gad's Hill. As we have had much tramping
+about Rochester during the morning, we prudently take an
+early afternoon train to Higham, to save our legs. The
+short distance of about four miles consists almost entirely of
+tunnels cut through the chalk.</p>
+
+<p>Alighting at Higham Station, we make our way for the
+Dover Road and reach Pear Tree Lane, which turns out of it
+for Cobham. We notice in passing through Higham by
+daylight that the lanes are much closed in by banks, in fact,
+the tertiary and chalk systems have been cut through to
+form the roads; but here and there one gets glimpses of the
+Thames, its course being marked by the white or brown
+wings of sailing-boats.</p>
+
+<p>The lane above alluded to, a little above Gad's Hill, is the
+direct road to Cobham, and on entering it we are immediately
+struck with the different scene presented, as compared with
+any part of the county we have previously gone over. It
+is cut through the Thanet Sands, which at first are of ashy
+gray colour, but after some distance are of a bright red
+hue, probably owing to infiltration, and the road rises gently
+until the woods are reached. The vegetation growing
+on the high banks consists of oak, hazel, beech, sycamore,
+and Spanish chestnut, in many places intermingled with wild<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[378]</a></span>
+clematis. The branches of the trees are not allowed to grow
+over into the road, but are kept well cut back so as practically
+to form a wall on either side, extending in some places to
+twelve feet high. The effect is to present an almost unbroken
+surface of various shades of green, deliciously cool and shady
+in the heat of summer, and brightened here and there in
+autumn by the rich orange-coloured fruit of the arum, the
+scarlet berries of the white bryony, and&mdash;deeper in the
+woods&mdash;by the pinky-waxen berries of the spindle-tree,
+described by Lord Tennyson as "the fruit which in our
+winter woodland looks a flower."</p>
+
+<p>As the road continually winds in its upward progress, and
+as no part within view extends beyond a few hundred yards
+before it turns again, the limit of perspective is frequently
+arrested by a number of evergreen arches. It was a Devonshire
+lane, so to speak, in a state of cultivation. Of course
+in the early spring, the delicacy of the fresh green foliage
+would give another picture; and again the autumnal tints
+would present a totally different effect under the influence of
+the rich colouring of decaying vegetation.</p>
+
+<p>No wonder Dickens and his friends had such admiration
+for this walk, the last, by the way, that he ever enjoyed, on
+Tuesday, 7th June, 1870, with his sister-in-law, Miss Hogarth,
+the day before the fatal seizure. In a letter written from
+Lausanne, so far back as the year 1846, he says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Green woods and green shades about here are more like
+Cobham, in Kent, than anything we dream of at the foot of
+Alpine passes."</p>
+
+<p>When we reach an elevation and are able to get an extended
+view of the country we have traversed, a magnificent
+prospect of the Thames valley on the west side, and of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[379]</a></span>
+Medway valley on the east, discloses itself. On a bank in
+this lane we find a rather rare plant, the long-stalked crane's-bill
+(<i>Geranium columbinum</i>), its rose-pink flowers standing
+out like rubies among the green foliage. <i>Pteris aquilina</i>, the
+common brake or bracken, is very luxuriant here; but we
+have met with few ferns in the part of Kent which we
+visited. We were afterwards informed that <i>asplenium</i>, <i>lastrea</i>,
+<i>scolopendrium</i>, and others are to be found in the neighbourhood.
+We pass at Shorne Ridgway a village inn with a
+curious sign, "Ye Olde See Ho Taverne." On inquiry, we
+learn that "See Ho" is the sportsman's cry in coursing, when
+a hare appears in sight.</p>
+
+<p>The woods surrounding the entrance to the park are
+presently reached, and here the vegetation, which in the
+lanes had been kept under, is allowed to grow unchecked.
+At intervals walks (or "rides," as they are called in some
+counties) are cut through the woods, the grass being well
+mown underneath, and each of these walks is a shaded grove,
+losing itself in the distance. The deep silence of the place
+is only broken by the cooing of the wood-pigeon, and the
+occasional piercing note of the green woodpecker. It is said
+that the nightingales appear here about the 13th of April
+and continue singing until June, and that the best time for
+seeing this neighbourhood is during the blossoming season in
+May.</p>
+
+<p>The temptation to quote Dickens's own description of
+Cobham Park from <i>Pickwick</i> cannot be resisted:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"A delightful walk it was; for it was a pleasant afternoon in June,
+and their way lay through a deep and shady wood, cooled by the
+light wind which gently rustled the thick foliage, and enlivened by
+the songs of the birds that perched upon the boughs. The ivy and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[380]</a></span>
+the moss crept in thick clusters over the old trees, and the soft green
+turf overspread the ground like a silken mat. They emerged upon
+an open park, with an ancient hall, displaying the quaint and
+picturesque architecture of Elizabeth's time. Long vistas of stately
+oaks and elm trees appeared on every side: large herds of deer were
+cropping the fresh grass; and occasionally a startled hare scoured
+along the ground with the speed of the shadows thrown by the light
+clouds, which swept across a sunny landscape like a passing breath
+of summer."</p></div>
+
+<p>Another description of Cobham at another time of the year
+is found in the <i>Seven Poor Travellers:</i>&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"As for me, I was going to walk, by Cobham Woods, as far upon
+my way to London as I fancied.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. And now the mists began to
+rise in the most beautiful manner, and the sun to shine; and as I went
+on through the bracing air, seeing the hoar-frost sparkle everywhere,
+I felt as if all Nature shared in the joy of the great Birthday.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. By
+Cobham Hall I came to the village, and the churchyard where the
+dead had been quietly buried 'in the sure and certain hope' which
+Christmastide inspired."</p></div>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381"></a>
+<img src="images/i_404.png" width="600" height="326" alt="Cobham Hall." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Cobham Hall.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>We notice in our quiet tramp here a peculiarity in the
+foliage of the oaks which is worth recording. It will be
+remembered that in the late spring of 1888, anxiety was
+expressed by certain newspaper correspondents that the
+English oak would suffer extermination in consequence of
+caterpillars denuding it of its leaves. But naturalists who had
+studied the question knew better. The caterpillar, which is no
+doubt the larva of the green Tortrix moth (<i>Tortrix viridana</i>),
+spins its cocoon at the end of June or the beginning of July,
+and the effect of the heavy rains and warm sunny days since
+that time was to encourage the energy of the tree in putting
+forth its second growth of leaves. This second growth of
+delicate green almost covered the oaks in Cobham Park, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[382]</a></span>
+effectually concealed the devastation of the caterpillars
+on the old leaves. The effect was quite spring-like. Truly,
+as George Eliot says, "Nature repairs her ravages."</p>
+
+
+<p>Cobham Park is nearly seven miles round, and its exquisitely
+varied scenery of wood and glade is conspicuous at the spot
+where the chestnut tree called "The Four Sisters" is placed.
+There is a lovely walk from Cobham Hall to Rochester
+through the "Long Avenue," so named in contradistinction
+to the "Grand Avenue," which opens into Cobham village.
+This walk, which slopes all the way down from the Mausoleum,
+leads to a seat placed midway in an open spot where charming
+views of the Medway valley are obtained. For rich
+sylvan scenery in the county of Kent, this is surely unrivalled.</p>
+
+<p>Admission to Cobham Hall, the seat of the Earl of Darnley
+(whose ancestors have resided here since the time of King
+John), is on Fridays only, and such admission is obtained by
+ticket, procurable from Mr. Wildish, bookseller, of Rochester.
+A nominal charge is made, the proceeds being devoted
+towards maintaining Cobham schools.</p>
+
+<p>The Hall is a red-brick edifice (temp. Elizabeth, 1587),
+consisting of two Tudor wings, connected by a central block
+designed by Inigo Jones. The most noticeable objects in the
+entrance corridor are a fine pair of columns of Cornish
+serpentine, nearly ten feet high, tapering from a base some
+two feet square. The white veining of the steatite (soapstone)
+is in beautiful contrast to the rich red and black colours
+of the marble. These columns were purchased at the great
+Exhibition of 1851. An enormous bath, hewn out of a solid
+block of granite said to have been brought from Egypt, is
+also a very noticeable object in this corridor.</p>
+
+<p>The housekeeper&mdash;a chatty, intelligent, and portly personage&mdash;shows<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[383]</a></span>
+visitors over the rooms and picture-galleries. There
+is a superb collection of pictures by the Old Masters, about
+which Dickens had always something facetious to say to his
+friends. They illustrate the schools of Venice, Florence,
+Rome, Netherlands, Spain, France, and England, and were
+formed mainly by purchases from the Orleans Gallery, and
+the Vetturi Gallery from Florence, and include Titian's
+'Rape of Europa,' Rubens's 'Queen Tomyris dipping Cyrus's
+head into blood,' Salvator Rosa's 'Death of Regulus,' Vandyck's
+'Duke of Lennox,' Sir Joshua Reynolds's 'The Call of
+Samuel,' and others. But the pictures in which we are most
+interested are the portraits of literary, scientific, and other
+worthies&mdash;an excellent collection, including Shakespeare,
+John Locke, Hobbes, Sir Richard Steele, Sir William Temple,
+Dean Swift, Dryden, Betterton, Pope, Gay, Thomson, Sir
+Hugh Middleton, Martin Luther, and the ill-fated Lord
+George Gordon.</p>
+
+<p>There is also an ornithological museum, with some very fine
+specimens of the order of grallatores (or waders). In reply
+to a letter of inquiry, the Earl of Darnley kindly informs us
+that the examples of ostrich (<i>Struthio camelus</i>), cassowary
+(<i>Casuarius galeatus</i>), and common emu (<i>Dromaius ater</i>), were
+once alive in the menagerie attached to the hall, which was
+broken up about fifty years ago.</p>
+
+<p>We are shown the music-room (which, by the bye, his late
+majesty King George IV., is said to have remarked was
+the finest room in England), a very handsome apartment
+facing the west, with a large organ, and capable of containing
+several hundred persons. The decorations are very chaste,
+being in white and gold; and, as the brilliant sun was setting
+in the summer evening, a delicate rose-coloured hue was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[384]</a></span>
+diffused over everything in the room through the medium of
+the tinted blinds attached to the windows. It had a most
+peculiar and pretty effect, strongly recalling Mrs. Skewton and
+her "rose-coloured curtains for doctors."</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 335px;">
+<img src="images/i_407.png" width="335" height="450" alt="Dickens&#39;s Ch&acirc;let, now in Cobham Park." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Dickens&#39;s Ch&acirc;let, now in Cobham Park.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>By the special permission of his lordship, we see the famous
+Swiss ch&acirc;let, which is now erected in the terrace flower-garden
+at the back of Cobham Hall, having been removed to
+its present position some years ago from another part of the
+grounds. It stands on an elevated open space surrounded by
+beautiful trees&mdash;the rare Salisburia, tulip, cedar, chestnut and
+others&mdash;and makes a handsome addition to the garden, irrespective<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[385]</a></span>
+of its historical associations. The ch&acirc;let is of dark
+wood varnished, and has in the centre a large carving of
+Dickens's crest, which in heraldic terms is described as: "a
+lion couchant 'or,' holding in the gamb a cross patonce
+'sable.'"</p>
+
+<p>There are two rooms in the ch&acirc;let, each about sixteen feet
+square, the one below having four windows and a door, and
+the one above (approached in the usual Swiss fashion by an
+external staircase), which is much the prettier, having six
+windows and a door. There are shutters outside, and the
+overhanging roof at first sight gives the building somewhat of
+a top-heavy appearance, but this impression wears off after a
+time, and it is found to be effective and well-proportioned.
+"The five mirrors" which Dickens placed in the ch&acirc;let have
+been removed from the upper room, but they are scarcely
+necessary, the views of rich and varied foliage and flowers
+seen from the open windows, through which the balmy air
+passes, forming a series of pictures in the bright sunlight of
+the August afternoon delightfully fresh and beautiful. We
+sit down quietly for a few minutes and enjoy the privilege;
+we ponder on the many happy and industrious hours spent
+by its late owner in this now classic building; and we leave
+it sadly, with the recollection that here were penned the last
+lines which the "vanished hand" was destined to give to the
+world.</p>
+
+<p>The Earl of Darnley generously allows his neighbours to
+have a key of his park, and Dickens had one of such keys, a
+privilege greatly appreciated by him and his friends. Recently
+his lordship has erected a staircase round one of the highest
+trees in the park, called the "crow's nest," from whence a
+very pretty peep at the surrounding country is obtained.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[386]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>During our visit we venture to ask the portly housekeeper
+if she remembers Charles Dickens? The ray of delight that
+illumines her good-natured countenance is simply magical.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," she says, "I liked Mr. Dickens very much. He was
+always so full of fun. Oh! oh! oh!" the recollection
+of which causes a fit of suppressed laughter, which "communicates
+a blancmange-like motion to her fat cheeks," and
+she adds: "He used to dine here, and was always very
+popular with the family, and in the neighbourhood."</p>
+
+<p>We cannot help thinking that such delightful places as
+Cobham Hall were in Dickens's mind when, in <i>Bleak House</i>
+(<i>&agrave; propos</i> of Chesney Wold), he makes the volatile Harold
+Skimpole say to Sir Leicester Dedlock&mdash;"The owners of such
+places are public benefactors. They are good enough to
+maintain a number of delightful objects for the admiration
+and pleasure of us poor men, and not to reap all the admiration
+and pleasure that they yield, is to be ungrateful to our
+benefactors."</p>
+
+<p>Leaving the park by a pretty undulating walk, and passing
+on our way a large herd of deer, their brown and fawn-coloured
+coats contrasting prettily with the green-sward, we
+come upon the picturesque village of Cobham, where Mr.
+Tupman sought consolation after his little affair with the
+amatory spinster aunt. Of course the principal object of
+interest is the Leather Bottle, or "Dickens's old Pickwick
+Leather Bottle," as the sign of the present landlord now calls
+it, wherein Dickens slept a night in 1841, and visited it many
+times subsequently. There is a coloured portrait of the
+President of the Pickwick Club on the sign, as he appeared
+addressing the members. A fire occurred at the Leather
+Bottle a few years ago, but it was confined to a back portion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[387]</a></span>
+of the building; unfortunately its restoration and so-called
+"improvements" have destroyed many of the picturesque
+features which characterized this quiet old inn when Dickens
+wrote the famous Papers. Here is his description of it after
+Mr. Pickwick, Mr. Snodgrass, and Mr. Winkle had walked
+through Cobham Park to seek their lost friend:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/i_410.png" width="500" height="351" alt="The &quot;Leather Bottle&quot; Cobham" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"'If this,' said Mr. Pickwick, looking about him; 'if this were the
+place to which all who are troubled with our friend's complaint came,
+I fancy their old attachment to this world would very soon return.'</p>
+
+<p>"'I think so too,' said Mr. Winkle.</p>
+
+<p>"'And really,' added Mr. Pickwick, after half an hour's walking
+had brought them to the village, 'really for a misanthrope's choice,
+this is one of the prettiest and most desirable places of residence I
+ever met with.'</p>
+
+<p>"In this opinion also, both Mr. Winkle and Mr. Snodgrass expressed
+their concurrence; and having been directed to the Leather Bottle,
+a clean and commodious village ale-house, the three travellers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[388]</a></span>
+entered, and at once inquired for a gentleman of the name of
+Tupman.</p>
+
+<p>"'Show the gentlemen into the parlour, Tom,' said the landlady.</p>
+
+<p>"A stout country lad opened a door at the end of the passage, and
+the three friends entered a long, low-roofed room, furnished with a
+large number of high-backed leather-cushioned chairs, of fantastic
+shapes, and embellished with a great variety of old portraits, and
+roughly-coloured prints of some antiquity. At the upper end of the
+room was a table, with a white cloth upon it, well covered with a
+roast fowl, bacon, ale, and etceteras; and at the table sat Mr. Tupman,
+looking as unlike a man who had taken his leave of the world, as
+possible.</p>
+
+<p>"On the entrance of his friends, that gentleman laid down his
+knife and fork, and with a mournful air advanced to meet them.</p>
+
+<p>"'I did not expect to see you here,' he said, as he grasped Mr.
+Pickwick's hand. 'It's very kind.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Ah!' said Mr. Pickwick, sitting down, and wiping from his
+forehead the perspiration which the walk had engendered. 'Finish
+your dinner, and walk out with me. I wish to speak to you
+alone.'</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Tupman did as he was desired; and Mr. Pickwick having
+refreshed himself with a copious draught of ale, waited his friend's
+leisure. The dinner was quickly despatched, and they walked out
+together.</p>
+
+<p>"For half an hour, their forms might have been seen pacing the
+churchyard to and fro, while Mr. Pickwick was engaged in combating
+his companion's resolution. Any repetition of his arguments would
+be useless; for what language could convey to them that energy and
+force which their great originator's manner communicated? Whether
+Mr. Tupman was already tired of retirement, or whether he was
+wholly unable to resist the eloquent appeal which was made to him,
+matters not; he did <i>not</i> resist it at last.</p>
+
+<p>"'It mattered little to him,' he said, 'where he dragged out the
+miserable remainder of his days: and since his friend laid so much
+stress upon his humble companionship, he was willing to share his
+adventures.'</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Pickwick smiled; they shook hands; and walked back to
+rejoin their companions."</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[389]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 575px;">
+<img src="images/i_412.png" width="575" height="356" alt="The Old Parlour of the &quot;Leather Bottle.&quot;" title="" />
+<span class="caption">The Old Parlour of the &quot;Leather Bottle.&quot;</span>
+</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[390]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 412px;">
+<img src="images/i_413.png" width="412" height="525" alt="Cobham Church" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>In order to preserve the historical associations of the place,
+the landlord of the Leather Bottle has added to the art
+collection in the fine old parlour (that still contains "the high-backed
+leather-cushioned chairs of fantastic shapes") many
+portraits of Dickens and illustrations from his works, including
+a copy of the life-like coloured Watkins photograph previously
+referred to. It has been already suggested that the neighbourhood<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[391]</a></span>
+of Kit's Coty House probably gave rise to the
+famous arch&aelig;ological episode of the stone with the inscription&mdash;"Bill
+Stumps, his mark," in <i>Pickwick</i>, which occurred
+near here, rivalling the "A. D. L. L." discovery of the sage
+Monkbarns in Scott's <i>Antiquary</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Time presses with us, so, after a refreshing cup of tea, we
+just have a hasty glance at the beautiful old church, which
+contains some splendid examples of monumental brasses, which
+for number and preservation are said to be unique. They
+are erected to the memory of John Cobham, Constable of
+Rochester, 1354, his ancestors and others.<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> There are also
+some fine old almshouses which accommodate twenty
+pensioners. These almshouses are a survival of the ancient
+college. We then take our departure, returning through
+Cobham woods.</p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 575px;"><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392"></a>
+<img src="images/i_415.png" width="575" height="374" alt="Shorne Church" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>Turning off at some distance on the left, and passing
+through the little village of Shorne, with its pretty churchyard,
+a very favourite spot of Charles Dickens, and probably
+described by him in <i>Pickwick</i> as "one of the most peaceful
+and secluded churchyards in Kent, where wild flowers mingle
+with the grass, and the soft landscape around, forms the fairest
+spot in the garden of England"&mdash;we make for Chalk church.
+It will be remembered, that the first number of <i>Pickwick</i>
+appeared on the 31st March, 1836, and on the 2nd of April
+following Charles Dickens was married, and came to spend<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[393]</a></span>
+his honeymoon at Chalk, and he visited it again in 1837,
+when doubtless the descriptions of Cobham and its vicinity
+were written. To this neighbourhood, "at all times of his
+life, he returned, with a strange recurring fondness."</p>
+
+
+<p>Mr. Kitton has favoured me with permission to quote the
+following extract from his Supplement to <i>Charles Dickens
+by Pen and Pencil</i>, being the late Mr. E. Laman Blanchard's
+recollections of this pleasant neighbourhood:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"In the year Charles Dickens came to reside at Gad's Hill,
+I took possession of a country house at Rosherville, which I
+occupied for some seventeen years. During that period a
+favourite morning walk was along the high road, of many
+memories, leading from Gravesend to Rochester, and on
+repeated occasions I had the good fortune to encounter the
+great novelist making one of his pedestrian excursions
+towards the Gravesend or Greenhithe railway station, where
+he would take the train to travel up to town. Generally, by
+a curious coincidence, we passed each other, with an interchange
+of salutations, at about the same spot. This was on
+the outskirts of the village of Chalk, where a picturesque lane
+branched off towards Shorne and Cobham. Here the brisk
+walk of Charles Dickens was always slackened, and he never
+failed to glance meditatively for a few moments at the
+windows of a corner house on the southern side of the road,
+advantageously situated for commanding views of the river
+and the far-stretching landscape beyond. It was in that
+house he had lived immediately after his marriage, and there
+many of the earlier chapters of <i>Pickwick</i> were written."</p>
+
+<p>It is a long walk from Cobham to Chalk church,&mdash;the
+church, by the bye, being about a mile from the village, as
+is usual in many places in Kent,&mdash;and as the shades of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[394]</a></span>
+evening are coming upon us, and as we are desirous of
+having a sketch of the curious stone-carved figure over the
+entrance porch, we hurry on, and succeed in effecting our
+object, though under the difficulty of approaching darkness.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 300px;">
+<img src="images/i_417.png" width="300" height="356" alt="Curious Old Figure over the Porch, Chalk Church." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Curious Old Figure over the Porch, Chalk Church.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>This figure represents an old priest in a stooping position,
+with an upturned vessel (probably a jug), about which we
+were informed there is probably a legend. Dickens used to
+be a great admirer of this quaint carving, and it is said that
+whenever he passed it, he always took off his hat to it, or gave
+it a friendly nod, as to an old acquaintance. [We regretfully
+record the fact that since our visit, both porch and figure
+have been demolished.]</p>
+
+<p>Amid the many strange sounds peculiar to summer night<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[395]</a></span>
+in the country, a very weird and startling effect is produced
+in this lonely spot, in the dusk of the evening, by the shrill
+whistle of the common redshank (<i>Totanus calidris</i>), so
+called from the colour of its legs, which are of a crimson-red.
+This bird, as monotonous in its call-note as the corn-crake,
+to which it is closely allied, doubtless has its home
+in the marshes hereabout, in which, and in fen countries, it
+greatly delights. The peculiar whistle is almost ventriloquial
+in its ubiquity, and must be heard to be properly appreciated.</p>
+
+<p>We retrace our steps to the Dover road, and by the light
+of a match applied to our pipes, see that our pedometer
+marks upwards of fifteen miles for this tramp&mdash;"a rather
+busy afternoon," as Mr. Datchery once said.</p>
+
+<p>Since these lines were written, the third volume of the
+<i>Autobiography and Reminiscences</i> of W. P. Frith, R.A., has been
+published, in which there is a most interesting reminiscence of
+Dickens; indeed, there are many scattered throughout the
+three volumes, but the one in question refers to "a stroll"
+which Dickens took with Mr. Frith and other friends in July
+1868. Mr. Cartwright, the celebrated dentist, was one of the
+party, and the "stroll" was in reality, as the genial R. A.
+describes it, "a fearfully long walk" such as he shall never
+forget; nor the night he passed, without once closing his
+eyes in sleep, after it. "Dickens," continues Mr. Frith, "was
+a great pedestrian. His strolling was at the rate of perhaps
+a little under four miles an hour. He was used to the place,&mdash;I
+was not, and suffered accordingly."</p>
+
+<p>Having a shrewd suspicion that this referred to one of the
+long walks taken in our tramp, the present writer communicated
+with Mr. Frith on the subject, and he was favoured
+with the following reply:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[396]</a></span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"The stroll I mentioned in my third volume was through
+Lord Darnley's park, but after that I remember nothing. As
+the time spent in walking was four hours at least, we must have
+covered ground far beyond the length of the park.</p>
+
+<p>"On another occasion,&mdash;Dickens, Miss Hogarth, and I went
+to Rochester to see the Castle, and the famous Pickwickian
+inn. On another day we went to the Leather Bottle at
+Cobham, where Dickens was eloquent on the subject of the
+Dadd parricide, showing us the place where the body was
+found, with many startling and interesting details of the
+discovery."</p>
+
+<p>The subject of the Dadd parricide alluded to by Mr.
+Frith was a very horrible case; the son&mdash;an artist&mdash;was
+a lunatic, and was subsequently confined in Bethlehem
+Hospital, London. There are two curious pictures by him
+in the Dyce and Forster collection at South Kensington;
+one is inscribed "Sketches to Illustrate the Passions&mdash;Patriotism.
+By Richard Dadd, Bethlehem Hospital, London,
+May 30, 1857, St. George's-in-the-Fields." It has much minute
+writing on it. The other is "Leonidas with the Wood-cutters,"
+and illustrates Glover's poem, <i>Leonidas</i>. It is inscribed,
+"Rd. Dadd, 1873." He died in Bethlehem Hospital in
+1887.</p>
+
+<p>The Dover Road! What a magic influence it has over us,
+as we tramp along it in the quiet summer evening, and recall an
+incident that happened nearly a hundred years ago, what time
+the Dover mail struggled up Shooter's Hill on that memorable
+Friday night, and Jerry Cruncher, who had temporarily
+suspended his "fishing" operations, and being free from the
+annoyances of the "Aggerawayter," caused consternation to
+the minds of coachman, guard, and passengers of the said<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[397]</a></span>
+mail, by riding abruptly up, <i>&agrave; la</i> highwayman, and demanding
+to speak to a passenger named Mr. Jarvis Lorry, then on
+his way to Paris,&mdash;as faithfully chronicled in <i>A Tale of Two
+Cities</i>. Again, in the early part of the present century, when
+a certain friendless but dear and artless boy, named David
+Copperfield,&mdash;who having been first robbed by a "long-legged
+young man with a very little empty donkey-cart,
+which was nothing but a large wooden-tray on wheels," of
+"half a guinea and his box," under pretence of "driving him to
+the pollis," and subsequently defrauded by an unscrupulous
+tailor named one Mr. Dolloby ("Dolloby was the name over
+the shop-door at least") of the proper price of "a little weskit,"
+for which he, Dolloby, gave poor David only ninepence,&mdash;trudged
+along that same Dover road footsore and hungry,
+"and got through twenty-three miles on the straight road"
+to Rochester and Chatham on a certain Sunday; all of which
+is duly recorded in <i>The Personal History of David Copperfield</i>.</p>
+
+<p>In after years, when happier times came to him, David made
+many journeys over the Dover road, between Canterbury
+and London, on the Canterbury Coach. Respecting the
+earliest of these (readers will remember Phiz's illustration,
+"My first fall in life"), he says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"The main object on my mind, I remember, when we got
+fairly on the road, was to appear as old as possible to the
+coachman, and to speak extremely gruff. The latter point I
+achieved at great personal inconvenience; but I stuck to it,
+because I felt it was a grown-up sort of thing."</p>
+
+<p>In spite of this assumption, he is impudently chaffed by
+"William the coachman" on his "shooting"&mdash;on his "county"
+(Suffolk), its "dumplings," and its "Punches," and finally, at
+William's suggestion, actually resigns his box-seat in favour<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[398]</a></span>
+of his (William's) friend, "the gentleman with a very unpromising
+squint and a prominent chin, who had a tall white hat on
+with a narrow flat brim, and whose close-fitting drab trousers
+seemed to button all the way up outside his legs from his
+boots to his hips." In reply to a remark of the coachman
+this worthy says:&mdash;"There ain't no sort of 'orse that I 'ain't
+bred, and no sort of dorg. 'Orses and dorgs is some men's
+fancy. They're wittles and drink to me&mdash;lodging, wife, and
+children&mdash;reading, writing, and 'rithmetic&mdash;snuff, tobacker, and
+sleep."</p>
+
+<p>"That ain't a sort of man to see sitting behind a coach-box,
+is it, though?" says William in David's ear. David construes
+this remark into an indication of a wish that "the gentleman"
+should have his place, so he blushingly offers to resign it.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if you don't mind," says William, "I think it would
+be more correct."</p>
+
+<p>Poor David, "so very young!" gives up his box-seat, and
+thus moralizes on his action:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"I have always considered this as the first fall I had in life. When
+I booked my place at the coach-office, I had had 'Box Seat' written
+against the entry, and had given the book-keeper half-a-crown. I was
+got up in a special great coat and shawl, expressly to do honour to
+that distinguished eminence; had glorified myself upon it a good deal;
+and had felt that I was a credit to the coach. And here, in the very
+first stage, I was supplanted by a shabby man with a squint, who had
+no other merit than smelling like a livery-stables, and being able to
+walk across me, more like a fly than a human being, while the horses
+were at a canter."</p></div>
+
+<p>Pip, in <i>Great Expectations</i>, also made very many journeys
+to and from London, along the Dover road (the London
+road it is called in the novel), but the two most notable were,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[399]</a></span>
+firstly, the occasion of his ride outside the coach with the two
+convicts as fellow-passengers on the back-seat&mdash;"bringing
+with them that curious flavour of bread-poultice, baize, rope-yarn,
+and hearth-stone, which attends the convict presence;"
+and secondly, that in which he walked all the way to
+London, after the sad interview at Miss Havisham's house,
+where he learns that Estella is to become the wife of Bentley
+Drummle:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"All done, all gone! So much was done and gone, that when I
+went out at the gate the light of day seemed of a darker colour than
+when I went in. For awhile I hid myself among some lanes and bypaths,
+and then started off to walk all the way to London.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. It
+was past midnight when I crossed London Bridge."</p></div>
+
+<p>One more reference is made to the Dover road in <i>Bleak
+House</i>, where that most lovable of the many lovable characters
+in Dickens's novels, Esther Summerson, makes her journey,
+with her faithful little maid Charley, to Deal, in order to
+comfort Richard Carstone:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"It was a night's journey in those coach times; but we had the
+mail to ourselves, and did not find the night very tedious. It passed
+with me as I suppose it would with most people under such circumstances.
+At one while, my journey looked hopeful, and at another
+hopeless. Now, I thought that I should do some good, and now I
+wondered how I could ever have supposed so."</p></div>
+
+<p>When speaking of Dickens's characters, some critics have
+said that "he never drew a gentleman." One ventures to ask,
+Where is there a more chivalrous, honourable, or kind-hearted
+gentleman than Mr. John Jarndyce? Sir Leicester Dedlock
+in the same novel too, with some few peculiarities, is a
+thoroughly high-minded and noble gentleman of the old
+school. This by the way.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[400]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 350px;">
+<img src="images/i_423.png" width="350" height="239" alt="&quot;There&#39;s Milestones on the Dover Road&quot;" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>After walking some distance, we are able to verify one of
+those sage experiences of Mr. F.'s aunt:&mdash;"There's milestones
+on the Dover road!" for, by the light of another match, the
+darkness closing in, and there being no moon, we read
+"4 miles to Rochester." However, we tramp merrily on, with
+"the town lights right afore us," our minds being full of
+pleasant reminiscences of the scenes we have passed through,
+and this expedition, like many a weightier matter, "comes to
+an end for the time."</p>
+
+<div class='center'><big>*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</big></div>
+
+<p>We had on another occasion the pleasure of a long chat
+with Mrs. Latter of Shorne, one of the daughters of Mr. W.
+S. Trood, for many years landlord of the Sir John Falstaff.
+She said her family came from Somersetshire to reside at
+Gad's Mill in the year 1849, and left in 1872. The Falstaff
+was then a little homely place, but it has been much altered
+since. She knew Charles Dickens very well, and saw him
+constantly during his residence at Gad's Hill Place. Mrs.
+Latter lost two sisters while she lived at the Falstaff&mdash;one
+died at the age of eleven, and the other at nineteen. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[401]</a></span>
+last-mentioned was named Jane, and died in 1862 of brain
+fever. Dickens was very kind to the family at the time, took
+great interest in the poor girl, and offered help of "anything
+that his house could afford." She remembers her mother
+asking Dickens if it would be well to have the windows of
+the bedroom open. At those times people were fond of
+keeping invalids closed up from the air. Dickens said&mdash;"Certainly:
+give her plenty of air." He liked fresh air
+himself. Mrs. Latter said in proof of this that the curtains
+were always blowing about the open windows at Gad's
+Hill Place.</p>
+
+<p>When her sister Jane died, the funeral took place at Higham
+Church, and was very quiet, there being no show, only a
+little black pall trimmed with white placed over the coffin,
+which was carried by young men to the grave. Dickens
+afterwards commended what had been done, saying: "It
+showed good sense," and adding&mdash;"Not like an army of black
+beetles."</p>
+
+<p>It will be remembered that in <i>Great Expectations</i> and
+elsewhere the ostentation, mummery, and extravagance of
+the "undertaking ceremony" are severely criticised. The
+same feeling, and a desire for funeral reform, no doubt
+prompted Dickens to insert the following clause in his
+Will:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I emphatically direct that I be buried in an inexpensive,
+unostentatious, and strictly private manner; that no public
+announcement be made of the time or place of my burial;
+that at the utmost not more than three plain mourning-coaches
+be employed; and that those who attend my funeral
+wear no scarf, cloak, black bow, long hatband, or other such
+revolting absurdity."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[402]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Latter then told us the story of the two men with
+performing bears:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>It appears that soon after Dickens came to Gad's Hill a
+lot of labourers from Strood&mdash;some thirty or forty in number&mdash;had
+been for an outing in breaks to Cobham to a "bean-feast,"
+or something of the kind, and some of them had got
+"rather fresh." On the return journey they stopped at the
+Falstaff, and at the time two men, who were foreigners, were
+there with performing bears, a very large one and a smaller
+one. The labourers began to lark with the bears, teased
+them, and made them savage, "becalled" the two men to
+whom they belonged, and a regular row followed. The
+owners of the bears became exasperated, and were proceeding
+to unmuzzle the animals, when Dickens (hearing the noise)
+came out of his gate holding one of his St. Bernard dogs by
+a chain. He told Mrs. Latter's father to take the bears up
+a back lane, said a few words to the crowd, and remonstrated
+with the Strood men on their conduct. The effect was
+magical; the whole affair was stilled in a minute or two.</p>
+
+<div class='center'><big>*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</big></div>
+
+<p>On a subsequent occasion we called upon the Rev. John
+Joseph Marsham of Overblow, near Shorne. This venerable
+clergyman, a bachelor, and in his eighty-fifth year, is totally
+blind, but in other respects is in the full possession of all
+his faculties, and remarked that he was much interested to
+hear anybody talk about old friends and times. He was
+inducted as Vicar of Shorne in the year 1837, came to live there
+in 1845, and resigned his cure in 1888, after completing his
+jubilee. He is a "Kentish man," having been born at
+Rochester. In our tramp the question of "Kentish man,"
+or "man of Kent," often cropped up, and we had an opportunity<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[403]</a></span>
+of having the difference explained to us. A "Kentish
+man" is one born on the east side of the river Medway, and a
+"man of Kent" is one born on the west side.</p>
+
+<p>The position of the residence "Overblow" is delightful.
+It stands on a little hill, the front having a fine view of the
+Thames valley and the marshes, the side looking on to the
+pretty hollow, in the centre of which stands Shorne Church,
+and the back being flanked in the distance by the beautiful
+Cobham Woods.</p>
+
+<p>The reverend gentleman told us that he was a schoolfellow
+of the Right Honourable W. E. Gladstone and Sir Thomas
+Gladstone, his brother, at Eton, and had dined with the
+former at Hawarden on the occasion of his being thrice
+Premier, although he helped to turn his old friend out at
+Oxford in 1865, when he was succeeded by the Right
+Honourable Gathorne Hardy, now Lord Cranbrook.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Marsham was a neighbour of Charles Dickens, occasionally
+dined with him at Gad's Hill, and also met him at
+dinner sometimes at Mr. Hulkes's at the Little Hermitage.
+He spoke of him as a nice neighbour and a charming host,
+but he rarely talked except to his old friends. He frequently
+met Dickens in his walks, and had many a stroll with him,
+and always found him very interesting and amusing in his
+conversation. Once they were coming down from London
+together in a saloon carriage which contained about twelve
+or fourteen people. Dickens was sitting quietly in a corner.
+It was at the time that one of his serial novels was appearing,
+and most of the passengers were reading the current monthly
+number. No one noticed Dickens, and when the train
+stopped at Strood, he said&mdash;"We did not have much talk."
+"No," said Mr. Marsham, "the people were much better<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[404]</a></span>
+engaged," at which Dickens laughed. Charles Dickens did
+Mr. Marsham the kindness to send him early proofs of his
+Christmas stories before they were published.</p>
+
+<p>After Dickens's death (which he heard of in London, and
+never felt so grieved in his life) Mr. Charles Dickens the
+younger, and Mr. Charles Collins, his brother-in-law, came
+to select a piece of ground on the east side of Shorne
+churchyard, which was one of Dickens's favourite spots, but
+in consequence of the arrangements for the burial in Westminster
+Abbey this was of course given up.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Marsham was staying in London, at Lord Penrhyn's,
+at the time of Dickens's death, and Lady Louisa Penrhyn
+told him that by accident she was in Westminster Abbey
+at about ten o'clock on the morning of 14th June, the day
+of the funeral, and noticing some persons standing round an
+open grave, her ladyship went to see it, and was greatly
+impressed on looking in to read the name of Charles Dickens
+on the coffin, on which were numerous wreaths of flowers.</p>
+
+<p>Our venerable friend possesses a souvenir of the novelist
+in the two exquisite plaster statuettes, about eighteen inches
+high, of "Night" and "Morning," which he purchased at the
+Gad's Hill sale.</p>
+
+<p>The reverend gentleman spoke of the great improvements
+in travelling as compared with times within his recollection.
+He said that before the railways were constructed he went
+to London by boat from Gravesend, and the river was so
+bad that he had to keep his handkerchief to his nose all the
+way to avoid the stench. This was long before the days of
+Thames Embankments and other improvements in travelling
+by river and road.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[405]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIV.</h2>
+
+<h3>A FINAL TRAMP IN ROCHESTER AND LONDON.</h3>
+
+<div class="hang2">"You have been in every line I have ever read, since I first came here, .&nbsp;.&nbsp;.
+you have been in every prospect I have ever seen since&mdash;on the river,
+on the sails of the ships, on the marshes, in the clouds, in the light,
+in the darkness, in the wind, in the woods, in the sea, in the streets."&mdash;<i>Great
+Expectations.</i></div>
+
+<div class="hang2">"The magic reel, which, rolling on before, has led the Chronicler thus far,
+now slackens in its pace, and stops. It lies before the goal; the
+pursuit is at an end.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. Good-night, and heaven send our journey
+may have a prosperous ending."&mdash;<i>The Old Curiosity Shop.</i></div>
+
+
+<div class='unindent'><span class="smcap">It</span> is the morning of Saturday, the first of September, 1888,
+when our wonderfully pleasant week's tramp in "Dickens-Land"
+comes to an end. We have carried out every detail of
+our programme, without a single <i>contretemps</i> to mar the enjoyment
+of our delightful holiday; we have visited not only
+the spots where the childhood and youth of Charles Dickens
+were passed, and where the influence of the environment is
+specially traceable in the tone of both his earlier and later
+writings, but we have gone over and identified (as we proposed
+to do) a number of places in which he delighted, and often
+described in those writings, peopling them with airy characters
+(but to us most real), in whose footsteps we have walked.
+We have seen the place where he was born; we have seen
+nearly all the houses in which he lived in after life; and we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[406]</a></span>
+have been over the charming home occupied by him for fourteen
+years, where his last moments passed away under the
+affectionate and reverential solicitude of his sons and daughters,
+and of Miss Hogarth, his sister-in-law, "the ever-useful, self-denying,
+and devoted friend."</div>
+
+<p>And now we linger lovingly about a few of the streets and
+places in "the ancient city," and especially in the precincts
+of the venerable Cathedral, all sanctified by the memory of
+the mighty dead. We fain would prolong our visit, but the
+"stern mandate of duty," as Immanuel Kant called it, prevails,
+and we bow to the inevitable; or as Mr. Herbert Spencer
+better puts it, "our duty is our pleasure, and our greatest
+happiness consists in achieving the happiness of others." We
+feel our departure to-day the more keenly, as everything
+tempts us to stay. Listening for a moment at the open door&mdash;the
+beautiful west door&mdash;of the Cathedral, in this glorious
+morning in early autumn, we hear the harmonies of the organ
+and choir softly wafted to us from within; we feel the
+delicious morning air, which comes over the old Castle and
+burial-ground from the Kentish hills; we see the bright and
+beautiful flowers and foliage of the lovely catalpa tree,
+through which the sunlight glints; a solemn calm pervades
+the spot as the hum of the city is hushed; and, although
+we have read them over and over again, now, for the first
+time, do we adequately realize the exquisitely touching lines
+on the last page of <i>Edwin Drood</i>, written by the master-hand
+that was so soon to be stilled for ever:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 361px;"><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407"></a>
+<img src="images/i_430.png" width="361" height="600" alt="Doorway Rochester Cathedral" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"A brilliant morning shines on the old City. Its antiquities and
+ruins are surpassingly beautiful, with the lusty ivy gleaming in the
+sun, and the rich trees waving in the balmy air. Changes of glorious
+light from moving boughs, songs of birds, scents from gardens, woods<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[408]</a></span>
+and fields&mdash;or, rather, from the one great garden of the whole of the
+cultivated island in its yielding time&mdash;penetrate into the Cathedral,
+subdue its earthy odour, and preach the Resurrection and the Life.
+The cold stone tombs of centuries ago grow warm; and flecks of
+brightness dart into the sternest marble corners of the building,
+fluttering there like wings."</p></div>
+
+<p>Having time to reflect on our experiences, we are able
+to understand how greatly our feelings and ideas have
+been influenced for good, both regarding the personality
+of the novelist and his writings.</p>
+
+<p>In the course of our rambles we have interviewed many
+people in various walks of life who knew Dickens well, and
+their interesting replies, mostly given in their own words,
+vividly bring before our mental vision the <i>man</i> as he actually
+lived and moved among his neighbours, apart from any
+glamour with which we, as hero-worshippers, naturally invest
+him. We see him in his home, beloved by his family, taking
+kindly interest, as a country gentleman, in the poor of the
+district, entering into and personally encouraging their sports,
+and helping them in their distress. To his dependents and
+tradesmen he was kind, just, and honourable; to his friends
+genial, hospitable, and true; in himself eager, enthusiastic,
+and thorough. No man of his day had more friends, and
+he kept them as long as he lived. His favourite motto,
+"courage&mdash;persevere," comes before us constantly. All that
+we heard on the other side was contained in the expression&mdash;"rather
+masterful!" Rather masterful? Of course he
+was rather masterful&mdash;otherwise he would never have been
+Charles Dickens. What does he say in that unconscious
+description of himself, which he puts into the mouth of Boots
+at <i>The Holly-Tree Inn</i>, when referring to the father of Master
+Harry Walmers, Junior?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[409]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"He was a gentleman of spirit, and good-looking, and held his
+head up when he walked, and had what you may call Fire about him.
+He wrote poetry, and he rode, and he ran, and he cricketed, and he
+danced, and he acted, and he done it all equally beautiful.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. He
+was a gentleman that had a will of his own and a eye of his own, and
+that would be minded."</p></div>
+
+<p>Perfectly true do we find the summing up of his character,
+in his home at Gad's Hill, as given by Professor Minto in the
+last edition of the <i>Encyclop&aelig;dia Britannica</i> (one of the most
+faithful, just, and appreciative articles ever written about
+Dickens):&mdash;"Here he worked, and walked, and saw his
+friends, and was loved and almost worshipped by his poorer
+neighbours, for miles around."</p>
+
+<p>Although tolerably familiar with most of the writings of
+Dickens from our youth, and, like many readers, having our
+favourites which may have absorbed our attention to the
+exclusion of others, we are bound to say that our little visit
+to Rochester and its neighbourhood&mdash;our "Dickens-Land"&mdash;rendered
+famous all the world over in the novels and minor
+works, gives a freshness, a brightness, and a reality to our
+conceptions scarcely expected, and never before experienced.
+The faithful descriptions of scenery witnessed by us for the
+first time in and about the "quaint city" of Rochester, the
+delightful neighbourhood of Cobham, the glorious old city of
+Canterbury, the dreary marshes and other localities: the more
+detailed pictures of particular places, like the Castle, the
+Cathedral, its crypt and tower, the Bull Inn, the Vines,
+Richard Watts's Charity, and others&mdash;the point of the situation
+in many of these cannot be realized without personal
+inspection and verification.</p>
+
+<p>And further, as by a sort of reflex action, another feeling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[410]</a></span>
+comes uppermost in our minds, apart from the mere amusement
+and enjoyment of Dickens's works: we mean the actual
+benefits to humanity which, directly or indirectly, arise out of
+his writings; and we endorse the noble lines of dedication
+which his friend, Walter Savage Landor, addressed to him in
+his <i>Imaginary Conversations of Greeks and Romans</i> (1853):&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Friends as we are, have long been, and ever shall be, I
+doubt whether I should have prefaced these pages with your
+name, were it not to register my judgment that, in breaking
+up and cultivating the unreclaimed wastes of Humanity, no
+labours have been so strenuous, so continuous, or half so
+successful, as yours. While the world admires in you an
+unlimited knowledge of mankind, deep thought, vivid imagination,
+and bursts of eloquence from unclouded heights, no
+less am I delighted when I see you at the school-room you
+have liberated from cruelty, and at the cottage you have
+purified from disease."</p>
+
+<p>We have before us&mdash;its edges browned by age&mdash;a reprint
+of a letter largely circulated at the time, addressed by Dickens
+to <i>The Times</i>, dated "Devonshire Terrace, 13th Novr., 1849,"
+in which he describes, in graphic and powerful language, the
+ribald and disgusting scenes which he witnessed at Horsemonger
+Lane Gaol on the occasion of the execution of the
+Mannings. The letter is too long to quote in its entirety, but
+the following extract will suffice:&mdash;"I have seen habitually
+some of the worst sources of general contamination and
+corruption in this country, and I think there are not many
+phases of London life that could surprise me. I am solemnly
+convinced that nothing that ingenuity could devise to be done
+in this city in the same compass of time could work such ruin
+as one public execution, and I stand astounded and appalled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[411]</a></span>
+by the wickedness it exhibits." The letter contains an urgent
+appeal to the then Home Secretary, Sir George Grey, "as a
+solemn duty which he owes to society, and a responsibility
+which he cannot for ever put away," to originate an
+immediate legislative change in this respect. Forster says
+in allusion to the above-mentioned letter:&mdash;"There began
+an active agitation against public executions, which never
+ceased until the salutary change was effected which has
+worked so well." Dickens happily lived to see the fruition
+of his labours, for the Private Execution Act was passed in
+1868, and the last public execution took place at Newgate
+on 26th May of that year. As indicative of the new state
+of feeling at that time, it may be mentioned that the number
+of spectators was not large, and they were observed to
+conduct themselves with unusual decorum.</p>
+
+<p>It is valuable to record this as one of many public reforms
+which Dickens by his writings and influence certainly helped
+to accomplish. In his standard work on <i>Popular Government</i>
+(1885), Sir Henry Sumner Maine says:-"Dickens, who spent
+his early manhood among the politicians of 1832, trained in
+Bentham's school, [Bentham, by the bye, being quoted in
+<i>Edwin Drood</i>,] hardly ever wrote a novel without attacking
+an abuse. The procedure of the Court of Chancery and of
+the Ecclesiastical Courts, the delays of the Public Offices, the
+costliness of divorce, the state of the dwellings of the poor,
+and the condition of the cheap schools in the North of England,
+furnished him with what he seemed to consider, in all sincerity,
+the true moral of a series of fictions."</p>
+
+<div class='center'><big>*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</big></div>
+
+<p>We bid a kindly adieu to the "dear old City" where so
+many genial friends have been made, so many happy hours<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[412]</a></span>
+have been passed, so many pleasant memories have been
+stored, and for the time leave</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">"the pensive glory,</span><br />
+That fills the Kentish hills,"<br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='unindent'>to take our seats in the train for London, with the intention
+of paying a brief visit to South Kensington, where, in the
+Forster Collection of the Museum, are treasured the greater
+portion of the manuscripts which constitute the principal
+works of Charles Dickens. It will be remembered that the
+Will of the great novelist contained the following simple but
+important clause:&mdash;"I also give to the said John Forster
+(whom he previously referred to as 'my dear and trusty
+friend') such manuscripts of my published works as may be
+in my possession at the time of my decease;" and that Mr.
+Forster by his Will bequeathed these priceless treasures to
+his wife for her life, in trust to pass over to the Nation at her
+decease. Mrs. Forster, who survives her husband, generously
+relinquished her life interest, in order to give immediate effect
+to his wishes; and thus in 1876, soon after Mr. Forster's
+death, they came into the undisturbed possession of the
+Nation for ever.</div>
+
+<p>Besides the manuscripts there are numbers of holograph
+letters, original sketches (including "The Apotheosis of Grip
+the Raven") by D. Maclise, R.A., and other interesting
+memorials relating to Charles Dickens. <i>The Handbook to
+the Dyce and Forster Collections</i> rightly says that:&mdash;"This
+is a gift which will ever have the highest value, and be regarded
+with the deepest interest by people of every English-speaking
+nation, as long as the English language exists. Not
+only our own countrymen, but travellers from every country<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[413]</a></span>
+and colony into which Englishmen have spread, may here
+examine the original manuscripts of books which have been
+more widely read than any other uninspired writings throughout
+the world. Thousands, it cannot be doubted, who have
+been indebted for many an hour of pleasurable enjoyment
+when in health, for many an hour of solace when in weariness
+and pain, to these novels, will be glad to look upon them as
+each sheet was sent last to the printer, full of innumerable
+corrections from the hand of Charles Dickens."</p>
+
+<p>The manuscripts are fifteen in number, bound up into large
+quarto volumes, and comprise:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>1. <i>Oliver Twist</i>&mdash;two Volumes, with Preface to the <i>Pickwick
+Papers</i>, and matter relating to <i>Master Humphrey's Clock</i>.</p>
+
+<p>2. <i>Sketches of Young Couples.</i></p>
+
+<p>3. <i>The Lamplighter</i>, a Farce. This MS. is not in the
+handwriting of Dickens.</p>
+
+<p>4. <i>The Old Curiosity Shop</i>&mdash;two Volumes, with Letter to
+Mr. Forster of 17th January, 1841, and hints for some
+chapters.</p>
+
+<p>5. <i>Barnaby Rudge</i>&mdash;two Volumes.</p>
+
+<p>6. <i>American Notes.</i></p>
+
+<p>7. <i>Martin Chuzzlewit</i>&mdash;two Volumes, with various title-pages,
+notes as to the names, &amp;c., and dedication to Miss
+Burdett Coutts.</p>
+
+<p>8. <i>The Chimes.</i></p>
+
+<p>9. <i>Dombey and Son</i>&mdash;two Volumes, with title-pages, headings
+of chapters, and memoranda.</p>
+
+<p>10. <i>David Copperfield</i>&mdash;two Volumes, with various title-pages,
+and memoranda as to names.</p>
+
+<p>11. <i>Bleak House</i>&mdash;two Volumes, with suggestions for title-pages
+and other memoranda.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[414]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>12. <i>Hard Times</i>&mdash;with memoranda.</p>
+
+<p>13. <i>Little Dorrit</i>&mdash;two Volumes, with memoranda, Dedication
+to Clarkson Stanfield, and Preface.</p>
+
+<p>14. <i>A Tale of Two Cities</i>&mdash;with Dedication to Lord John
+Russell, and Preface.</p>
+
+<p>15. <i>Edwin Drood</i>&mdash;unfinished, with memoranda, and headings
+for chapters.</p>
+
+<p>John Forster says:&mdash;"The last page of <i>Edwin Drood</i> was
+written in the ch&acirc;let in the afternoon of his last day of
+consciousness."</p>
+
+<p>Of the above-mentioned, the <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'caligraphy'">calligraphy</ins> of Nos. 1, 2, 3
+and 4, is seen at a glance to be larger, bolder, and to have
+fewer corrections. In Nos. 5 to 15 it is smaller, and more
+confused by numerous alterations. According to Forster&mdash;"His
+greater pains and elaboration of writing became first
+very obvious in the later parts of <i>Martin Chuzzlewit</i>."</p>
+
+<p>The manuscripts of the earliest works of the Author,
+<i>Sketches by Boz</i>, <i>Pickwick</i>, <i>Nicholas Nickleby</i>, &amp;c., were
+evidently not considered at the time worth preserving. The
+manuscript of <i>Our Mutual Friend</i>, given by Dickens to Mr.
+E. S. Dallas&mdash;in grateful acknowledgment of an appreciative
+review which (according to an article in <i>Scribner</i>, entitled
+"Our Mutual Friend in Manuscript") Mr. Dallas wrote of the
+novel for <i>The Times</i>, which largely increased the sale of the
+book, and fully established its success,&mdash;is in the library of
+Mr. G. W. Childs of Philadelphia; and that of <i>A Christmas
+Carol</i>&mdash;given by Dickens to his old friend and school-fellow,
+Tom Mitton&mdash;was for sale in Birmingham a few years ago,
+and might have been purchased for two hundred and fifty
+guineas! It is now owned by Mr. Stuart M. Samuel, and
+has since been beautifully reproduced in fac-simile, with an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[415]</a></span>
+Introduction by my friend and fellow-tramp, Mr. F. G. Kitton.
+Mr. Wright, of Paris, is the fortunate possessor of <i>The Battle
+of Life</i>. The proof-sheets of <i>Great Expectations</i> are in the
+Museum at Wisbech. Messrs. Jarvis and Son, of King
+William Street, Strand, sold some time since four of the MSS.
+of minor articles contributed by Dickens to <i>Household Words</i>
+in 1855-6, viz. <i>The Friend of the Lions</i>, <i>Demeanour of Murderers</i>,
+<i>That other Public</i>, and <i>Our Commission</i>, for &pound;10 each.</p>
+
+<p>At the sale of the late Mr. Wilkie Collins's manuscripts and
+library by Messrs. Sotheby, Wilkinson, and Hodge, 18th
+June, 1890, the manuscript of <i>The Frozen Deep</i>, by Wilkie
+Collins and Charles Dickens, 1856 (first performed at
+Tavistock House, 6th January, 1857), together with the narrative
+written for <i>Temple Bar</i>, 1874, and Prompt Book of the
+same play, was sold for &pound;300. A poem written by Charles
+Dickens, as a Prologue to the same play, and <i>The Song of
+the Wreck</i>, also written by Charles Dickens, were sold for &pound;11
+11<i>s.</i> each. <i>The Perils of Certain English Prisoners</i>, a joint
+production of Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens, for the
+Christmas number of <i>Household Words</i>, 1857, realized &pound;200;
+and the drama of <i>No Thoroughfare</i> (imperfect), also a joint
+production, fetched &pound;22.</p>
+
+<p>The manuscripts now belonging to the Nation at South
+Kensington are placed in a glazed cabinet, standing in the
+middle of the room, on the right of which looks down the
+life-like portrait of the great novelist, painted by W. P. Frith,
+R.A., in 1859. The manuscript volumes are laid open in an
+appropriate manner, so that we have an opportunity of examining
+and comparing them with one another, and of
+observing how the precious thoughts which flowed from the
+fertile brain took shape and became realities.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[416]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Where corrections have been made, the original ideas are
+so obscured that it is scarcely possible to decipher them.
+This is effected, not by the simple method of an obliteration
+of the words, as is common with some authors, by means of a
+line or two run through them at one stroke of the pen, but
+by a series of connected circles, or scroll-work flourishes,
+thus, <img src="images/i_439.png" width="100" height="29" alt="flourishes" title="" />
+which must have caused greater muscular
+labour in execution. Let any one try the two methods for
+himself. Dickens was fond of flourishes, as witness his
+first published autograph, under the portrait which was issued
+with <i>Nicholas Nickleby</i> (1839). Some evidence of "writer's
+cramp," as it is termed, appears where the C in Charles becomes
+almost a G, and where the line-like flourishes to the signature
+thirty years later, under the portrait forming the frontispiece
+to <i>Edwin Drood</i>, are much shorter and less elaborate. All the
+earlier manuscripts are in black ink&mdash;the characteristic <i>blue</i>
+ink, which he was so fond of using in later years, not appearing
+until <i>Hard Times</i> was written (1854), and this continued
+to be (with one exception, <i>Little Dorrit</i>) his favourite writing
+medium, for the reason, it is said, that it was fluent to write
+with and dried quickly.</p>
+
+<p>From a valuable collection of letters (more than a dozen&mdash;recently
+in the possession of Messrs. Noel Conway and Co.,
+of Martineau Street, Birmingham, and kindly shown to me by
+Mr. Charles Fendelow), written by the novelist between 1832
+and 1833 to a friend of his earlier years&mdash;Mr. W. H. Kolle&mdash;and
+not hitherto published, it appears that he had not then
+acquired that precise habit of inscribing the place, day of the
+week, month, and the year which marked his later correspondence
+(as has been pointed out by Miss Hogarth and Miss
+Dickens in the preface to the <i>Letters of Charles Dickens</i>), very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[417]</a></span>
+few of the letters to Mr. Kolle bearing any record whatever
+except the day of the week, occasionally preceded by
+Fitzroy Street or Bentinck Street, where he resided at the
+time. It would be extremely interesting to ascertain the
+reason which subsequently led him to adopt the extraordinarily
+precise method which almost invariably marked
+his correspondence from the year 1840 until the close of his
+life. Possibly arrangements with publishers and others may
+have given him the exact habit which afterwards became
+automatic.</p>
+
+<p>In addition to the manuscripts in the Forster Collection
+in the Museum there are corrected proofs of a portion of the
+<i>Pickwick Papers</i>, <i>Dombey and Son</i>, <i>David Copperfield</i>, <i>Bleak
+House</i>, and <i>Little Dorrit</i>. Some of the corrections in <i>Dombey
+and Son</i> are said to be in the handwriting of Mr. Forster.
+All these proofs show marvellous attention to detail&mdash;one of
+the most conspicuous of Dickens's characteristics. Nothing
+with him was worth doing unless it was done well. As an
+illustration of work in this direction, it may be mentioned
+that a proof copy of the speech delivered at the meeting
+of the Administrative Reform Association at Drury Lane
+Theatre on Wednesday, June 27th, 1855, in the possession
+of the writer of these lines, has over a hundred corrections
+on the nine pages of which it consists, and many of these occur
+in punctuation. On careful examination, the alterations show
+that the correction in every case is a decided improvement
+on the original. The following <i>fac-similes</i> from the <i>Hand-Book</i>
+to the <i>Dyce and Forster Collection</i>, and from Forster's
+<i>Life</i>, illustrate the earlier, later, and latest handwritings of
+Charles Dickens as shown in the MSS. of <i>Oliver Twist</i>, 1837,
+<i>Hard Times</i>, 1854, and <i>Edwin Drood</i>, 1870.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[418]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/i_441.png" width="600" height="313" alt="&quot;Oliver Twist,&quot; 1837, vol. i. ch. xii." title="" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;Oliver Twist,&quot; 1837, vol. i. ch. xii.</span>
+</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[419]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a href="images/i_442a-big.png"><img src="images/i_442a.png" width="600" height="185" alt="&quot;Hard Times,&quot; 1854, vol. i. ch. i." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">&quot;Hard Times,&quot; 1854, vol. i. ch. i.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<a href="images/i_442b-big.png"><img src="images/i_442b.png" width="400" height="122" alt="&quot;David Copperfield,&quot; 1850 (corrected proof), ch. xiv." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">&quot;David Copperfield,&quot; 1850 (corrected proof), ch. xiv.</span>
+</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[420]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a href="images/i_443-big.png"><img src="images/i_443.png" width="600" height="373" alt="&quot;Edwin Drood,&quot; 1870, ch. xxiii. p. 189 (last MS. page)." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">&quot;Edwin Drood,&quot; 1870, ch. xxiii. p. 189 (last MS. page).</span>
+</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[421]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class='tnote'><b>Transcriber's Note:</b> Clicking on the images of the facsimilies
+in smaller print will show a larger edition of the same image.</div>
+<p>A proof of the fourteenth Chapter of <i>David Copperfield</i>, 1850,
+shows that the allusion to "King Charles the First's head"&mdash;about
+which Mr. Dick was so much troubled&mdash;was <i>not</i> contained
+in the first draft of the story, for the passage originally
+had reference to "the date when that bull got into the china
+warehouse and did so much mischief." The subsequent reference
+to King Charles's head was a happy thought of Dickens,
+and furthered Mr. Dick's idea of the mistake "of putting
+some of the trouble out of King Charles's head" into his own.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. R. F. Sketchley, the able and courteous custodian of
+the collection, allows us to see some of the other rarities in
+the museum not displayed in the cabinet&mdash;prefaces, dedications,
+and memoranda relating to the novels; letters addressed
+by Dickens to Forster, Maclise, and others; rare play-bills;
+and the originals of invitations to the public dinner and ball
+at New York, which Dickens received on the occasion of his
+first visit to America in 1842. After turning these over with
+reverential care, we regretfully leave behind us one of the
+most interesting and important literary collections ever
+presented to the Nation.</p>
+
+<p>We next visit the Prerogative Registry of the United Kingdom
+at Somerset House, wherein is filed the original Will
+of Charles Dickens. The search for this interesting document
+pursued by a stranger under pressure of time, strongly
+reminds one of the "Circumlocution Office" so graphically
+described in <i>Bleak House</i>. But we are enthusiastic, and at
+length obtain a clue to it in a folio volume (Letter D), containing
+the names of testators who died in the year 1870,
+where the Will is briefly recorded (at number 468) as that
+of "Dickens, Charles, otherwise Charles John Huffham,
+Esquire." We pay our fees, and take our seats in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[422]</a></span>
+reading-room, when the original is presently placed in our
+hands. It is one of a series of three documents fastened
+together by a bit of green silk cord, and secured by the seal
+of the office, as is customary when there are two or more
+papers filed. The first document is the Will itself, dated
+12th May, 1869, written throughout by the novelist very
+plainly and closely in the characteristic blue ink on a
+medium sheet of faint blue quarto letter paper, having the
+usual legal folded margin, and exactly covering the four
+pages. It is free from corrections, and is signed, "Charles
+Dickens," under which is the never-to-be-mistaken flourish.
+The testatum is signed by G. Holsworth, 26 Wellington
+Street, Strand, and Henry Walker, 26 Wellington Street,
+Strand, which points to the fact that the Will was written
+and executed at the office of <i>All the Year Round</i>. He appoints
+"Georgina Hogarth and John Forster executrix and
+executor, and guardians of the persons of my children
+during their respective minorities."</p>
+
+<p>The second document is the Oath of John Forster, testifying
+that Charles Dickens, otherwise Charles John Huffham
+Dickens, is one and the same person. The third document is
+a Codicil dated 2nd June, 1870 (only a week before his death),
+in which the novelist bequeaths "to my son Charles Dickens,
+the younger, all my share and interest in the weekly journal
+called <i>All the Year Round</i>." The Codicil is witnessed by the
+same persons. The Will and Codicil are both given in extenso
+in vol. iii. of Forster's <i>Life</i>&mdash;the gross amount of the real and
+personal estate being calculated at &pound;93,000.<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a></p>
+
+<div class='center'><big>*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</big></div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">[423]</a></span></p>
+<p>A very short tramp from Somerset House brings us to the
+last object of our pilgrimage&mdash;the grave of Charles Dickens
+in Westminster Abbey. Surely no admirer of his genius can
+omit this final mark of honour to the memory of the mighty
+dead. Many years have rolled by since "the good, the
+gentle, highly gifted, ever friendly, noble Dickens" passed
+away; and we stand by the grave in the calm September
+evening, with "jewels cast upon the pavement of the nave
+from stained glass by the declining sun," and look down at
+the dark flat stone lying at our feet, on which is inscribed "in
+plain English letters," the simple record:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<big>CHARLES DICKENS,</big><br />
+BORN FEBRUARY THE SEVENTH, 1812.<br />
+DIED JUNE THE NINTH, 1870.<br />
+</div>
+
+<p>We recall with profoundly sympathetic interest that quietly
+impressive ceremony as recorded by Forster in the final pages
+of his able biography. "Before mid-day on Tuesday, the 14th
+June, 1870, with knowledge of those only who took part in
+the burial, all was done. The solemnity had not lost by the
+simplicity. Nothing so grand or so touching could have accompanied
+it, as the stillness and the silence of the vast Cathedral."
+And he further describes the wonderful gathering
+subsequently:&mdash;"Then later in the day, and all the following
+day, came unbidden mourners in such crowds that the Dean
+had to request permission to keep open the grave until
+Thursday; but after it was closed they did not cease to
+come, and all day long." Dean Stanley wrote:&mdash;"On the
+17th there was a constant pressure to the spot, and many<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[424]</a></span>
+flowers were strewn upon it by unknown hands, many tears
+shed from unknown eyes."</p>
+
+<p>What poet, what philosopher, what monarch even, might
+not envy this loving tribute to the influence of the great
+writer, to the personal respect for the man, and to the
+affection for the friend who, by the sterling nature of his
+work for nearly thirty-five years, had the power to create
+and sustain such sympathy?</p>
+
+<p>Forster thus admiringly concludes the memoir of his hero:</p>
+
+<p>"The highest associations of both the arts he loved surround
+him where he lies. Next to him is Richard Cumberland.
+Mrs. Pritchard's monument looks down upon him,
+and immediately behind is David Garrick's. Nor is the
+actor's delightful art more worthily represented than the
+nobler genius of the author. Facing the grave, and on its
+left and right, are the monuments of Chaucer, Shakespeare,
+and Dryden, the three immortals who did most to create
+and settle the language to which Charles Dickens has given
+another undying name."</p>
+
+<p>"Of making many books there is no end," said the wise
+man of old; and certainly, if we may estimate the popularity
+of Charles Dickens by the works of all kinds relating to him,
+written since his death, the number may be counted by
+hundreds. It may also be said that probably no other
+English writer save Shakespeare has been the cause of so
+much posthumous literature. The sayings of his characters
+permeate our everyday life, and they continue to be as fresh
+as when they were first recorded. The original editions of
+his writings in some cases realize high prices which are simply
+amazing, and&mdash;judging by statistics&mdash;his readers are as
+numerous as ever they were. Higher testimony to the worth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[425]</a></span>
+"of the most popular novelist of the century, and one of the
+greatest humourists that England has produced," and to
+the continued interest which the reading public still evince
+in the minutest detail relating to him and to his books, can
+scarcely be uttered; but what is better still&mdash;"his sympathies
+were generally on the right side;"&mdash;he has left an
+example that all may follow;&mdash;he did his utmost to leave the
+world a little better than he found it;&mdash;as he said by one
+of his characters, "the best of men can do no more"&mdash;and
+now he peacefully rests as one</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"Of those immortal dead who live again<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">In minds made better by their presence."</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 375px;">
+<img src="images/i_448.png" width="375" height="471" alt="Tailpiece: &quot;Pathos&quot;" title="" />
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">[426]</a></span></p>
+<h2>L'ENVOI.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">We</span>&mdash;my fellow-tramp and I&mdash;naturally feel a pang of
+regret now that our pleasant visit to "Dickens-Land" is
+terminated. With a parting grasp of the hand I express to
+the companion of my travels a cordial wish that ere long
+we may, "<span class="smcap">please God</span>," renew our delightful experience,
+and again go over the ground hallowed by Dickens associations;
+to which my friend, as cordially assenting, replies
+"<span class="smcap">surely, surely!</span>"</p>
+
+<p>With these two favourite expressions of Charles Dickens
+(quoted above) I conclude the book, trusting that it will
+prove worthy of some kindly appreciation at the hands of
+my readers.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">[427]</a></span></p>
+<h2>INDEX.</h2>
+
+<h3>CHIEFLY OF NAMES.</h3>
+
+
+<div>
+<span class="smcap">&Agrave; Becket Thomas</span> <a href="#Page_212">212</a> <a href="#Page_338">338</a> <a href="#Page_340">340</a><br />
+<br />
+Adams H. G. <a href="#Page_271">271</a><br />
+<br />
+Allington <a href="#Page_135">135</a> <a href="#Page_290">290</a>-<a href="#Page_298">8</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>All the Year Round</i> <a href="#Page_37">37</a> <a href="#Page_193">193</a> <a href="#Page_374">374</a> <a href="#Page_422">422</a><br />
+<br />
+Alphington <a href="#Page_209">209</a> <a href="#Page_210">210</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>American Notes</i> <a href="#Page_45">45</a> <a href="#Page_324">324</a><br />
+<br />
+Andersen H. C. <a href="#Page_32">32</a> <a href="#Page_374">374</a><br />
+<br />
+Anderson Mary <a href="#Page_152">152</a> <a href="#Page_169">169</a><br />
+<br />
+Athen&aelig;um <a href="#Page_47">47</a><br />
+<br />
+Austin H. <a href="#Page_184">184</a> <a href="#Page_330">330</a><br />
+<br />
+Aveling S. T. <a href="#Page_53">53</a>-<a href="#Page_54">4</a> <a href="#Page_80">80</a>-<a href="#Page_82">2</a> <a href="#Page_97">97</a><br />
+<br />
+Aylesford <a href="#Page_288">288</a> <a href="#Page_292">292</a> <a href="#Page_296">296</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Battle of <a href="#Page_311">311</a> <a href="#Page_313">313</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Church <a href="#Page_290">290</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Churchyard <a href="#Page_299">299</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bridge <a href="#Page_290">290</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Friary <a href="#Page_297">297</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Baird J.</span> <a href="#Page_270">270</a>-<a href="#Page_271">1</a>-<a href="#Page_272">2</a><br />
+<br />
+Ball J. H. <a href="#Page_68">68</a> <a href="#Page_226">226</a>-<a href="#Page_227">7</a> <a href="#Page_235">235</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">William <a href="#Page_135">135</a> <a href="#Page_226">226</a>-<a href="#Page_227">7</a>-<a href="#Page_228">8</a> <a href="#Page_230">230</a> <a href="#Page_246">246</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<i>Barnaby Rudge</i> <a href="#Page_17">17</a> <a href="#Page_44">44</a>-<a href="#Page_45">5</a> <a href="#Page_138">138</a><br />
+<br />
+Barnard's Inn <a href="#Page_24">24</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Battle of Life</i> <a href="#Page_45">45</a> <a href="#Page_211">211</a><br />
+<br />
+Bayham Street <a href="#Page_38">38</a> <a href="#Page_264">264</a><br />
+<br />
+Bell Yard <a href="#Page_18">18</a><br />
+<br />
+Bentinck Street <a href="#Page_25">25</a> <a href="#Page_417">417</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Bentley's Miscellany</i> <a href="#Page_47">47</a> <a href="#Page_59">59</a><br />
+<br />
+Bevan P. <a href="#Page_103">103</a> <a href="#Page_114">114</a> <a href="#Page_251">251</a> <a href="#Page_289">289</a> <a href="#Page_311">311</a> <a href="#Page_324">324</a> <a href="#Page_338">338</a><br />
+<br />
+Birmingham <a href="#Page_59">59</a> <a href="#Page_239">239</a> <a href="#Page_240">240</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Town Hall <a href="#Page_59">59</a> <a href="#Page_239">239</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and Midland Institute <a href="#Page_144">144</a> <a href="#Page_239">239</a> <a href="#Page_240">240</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Bishop's Court <a href="#Page_20">20</a><br />
+<br />
+Blanchard E. L. <a href="#Page_393">393</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Bleak House</i> <a href="#Page_18">18</a> <a href="#Page_19">19</a> <a href="#Page_20">20</a> <a href="#Page_37">37</a> <a href="#Page_139">139</a> <a href="#Page_268">268</a> <a href="#Page_288">288</a> <a href="#Page_325">325</a>-<a href="#Page_327">7</a>-<a href="#Page_328">8</a> <a href="#Page_336">336</a> <a href="#Page_357">357</a> <a href="#Page_380">380</a> <a href="#Page_399">399</a> <a href="#Page_421">421</a><br />
+<br />
+Bleak House (or Fort House) Broadstairs <a href="#Page_327">327</a>-<a href="#Page_328">8</a>-<a href="#Page_329">9</a> <a href="#Page_333">333</a><br />
+<br />
+Bloomsbury Square <a href="#Page_31">31</a><br />
+<br />
+Blue Bell or Upper Bell <a href="#Page_188">188</a> <a href="#Page_310">310</a> <a href="#Page_314">314</a> <a href="#Page_374">374</a><br />
+<br />
+Boley (or "Bully") Hill <a href="#Page_88">88</a> <a href="#Page_124">124</a> <a href="#Page_158">158</a><br />
+<br />
+"Borough English" <a href="#Page_83">83</a><br />
+<br />
+Boundary Lane <a href="#Page_253">253</a><br />
+<br />
+British Museum <a href="#Page_31">31</a><br />
+<br />
+Broadstairs <a href="#Page_317">317</a> <a href="#Page_324">324</a>-<a href="#Page_333">333</a> <a href="#Page_343">343</a>-<a href="#Page_348">8</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dickens's Residence in High Street <a href="#Page_326">326</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fort House (or "Bleak House") <a href="#Page_327">327</a>-<a href="#Page_328">8</a>-<a href="#Page_39">9</a> <a href="#Page_333">333</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lawn House <a href="#Page_326">326</a>-<a href="#Page_327">7</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Look-out House <a href="#Page_332">332</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Brompton (New) <a href="#Page_80">80</a> <a href="#Page_252">252</a> <a href="#Page_270">270</a>-<a href="#Page_275">5</a><br />
+<br />
+Brooker Mr. <a href="#Page_176">176</a><br />
+<br />
+Budden Major <a href="#Page_60">60</a> <a href="#Page_167">167</a>-<a href="#Page_168">8</a>-<a href="#Page_169">9</a> <a href="#Page_173">173</a> <a href="#Page_186">186</a>-<a href="#Page_187">7</a>-<a href="#Page_8">188</a> <a href="#Page_190">190</a>-<a href="#Page_195">5</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mrs. <a href="#Page_168">168</a> <a href="#Page_195">195</a> <a href="#Page_369">369</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">James <a href="#Page_270">270</a>-<a href="#Page_272">2</a>-<a href="#Page_273">3</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">William J. <a href="#Page_269">269</a> <a href="#Page_270">270</a> <a href="#Page_295">295</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Burgate Street <a href="#Page_340">340</a><br />
+<br />
+Burham <a href="#Page_270">270</a> <a href="#Page_295">295</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Camden Town</span> <a href="#Page_38">38</a> <a href="#Page_264">264</a><br />
+<br />
+Canterbury <a href="#Page_113">113</a> <a href="#Page_172">172</a> <a href="#Page_336">336</a>-<a href="#Page_344">344</a> <a href="#Page_409">409</a><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Burgate Street <a href="#Page_340">340</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cathedral <a href="#Page_338">338</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Chequers" <a href="#Page_343">343</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dane John <a href="#Page_337">337</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Fountain" <a href="#Page_343">343</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Harbledown <a href="#Page_348">348</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">High Street <a href="#Page_337">337</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Museum <a href="#Page_340">340</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Sir John Falstaff" <a href="#Page_336">336</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Sun" <a href="#Page_343">343</a>-<a href="#Page_344">4</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">West Gate <a href="#Page_336">336</a>-<a href="#Page_337">7</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Canvey Island <a href="#Page_351">351</a><br />
+<br />
+Chalk <a href="#Page_182">182</a> <a href="#Page_391">391</a>-<a href="#Page_393">3</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Church <a href="#Page_393">393</a>-<a href="#Page_394">4</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Chancery Lane <a href="#Page_18">18</a> <a href="#Page_20">20</a><br />
+<br />
+Chatham <a href="#Page_4">4</a> <a href="#Page_28">28</a> <a href="#Page_38">38</a> <a href="#Page_53">53</a>-<a href="#Page_54">4</a> <a href="#Page_60">60</a> <a href="#Page_70">70</a>-<a href="#Page_71">1</a> <a href="#Page_80">80</a> <a href="#Page_144">144</a> <a href="#Page_188">188</a> <a href="#Page_194">194</a> <a href="#Page_231">231</a> <a href="#Page_251">251</a>-<a href="#Page_280">280</a> <a href="#Page_282">282</a><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Barracks <a href="#Page_105">105</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Convict Prison <a href="#Page_268">268</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dockyard <a href="#Page_267">267</a>-<a href="#Page_269">9</a> <a href="#Page_274">274</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fort Pitt <a href="#Page_104">104</a>-<a href="#Page_106">6</a> <a href="#Page_272">272</a>-<a href="#Page_280">280</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Giles's Academy <a href="#Page_261">261</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">High Street <a href="#Page_260">260</a>-<a href="#Page_262">2</a> <a href="#Page_272">272</a>-<a href="#Page_273">3</a></span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[428]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">House on the Brook <a href="#Page_260">260</a>-<a href="#Page_261">1</a>-<a href="#Page_265">5</a>-<a href="#Page_266">6</a> <a href="#Page_273">273</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lines <a href="#Page_273">273</a>-<a href="#Page_5">275</a>-<a href="#Page_276">6</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mechanics' Institute <a href="#Page_267">267</a>-<a href="#Page_269">9</a> <a href="#Page_270">270</a>-<a href="#Page_271">1</a>-<a href="#Page_273">3</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Mitre" <a href="#Page_60">60</a> <a href="#Page_116">116</a> <a href="#Page_262">262</a>-<a href="#Page_263">3</a>-<a href="#Page_264">4</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Navy Pay Office <a href="#Page_258">258</a> <a href="#Page_274">274</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ordnance Place <a href="#Page_265">265</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Terrace <a href="#Page_28">28</a> <a href="#Page_92">92</a> <a href="#Page_257">257</a>-<a href="#Page_258">8</a> <a href="#Page_265">265</a> <a href="#Page_274">274</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">St. Mary's Church <a href="#Page_92">92</a> <a href="#Page_255">255</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Place <a href="#Page_260">260</a>-<a href="#Page_262">2</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Chelsea&mdash;St. Luke's Church <a href="#Page_26">26</a><br />
+<br />
+Cherry Garden <a href="#Page_54">54</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Child's Dream of a Star</i> <a href="#Page_262">262</a>-<a href="#Page_266">6</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Child's History of England</i> <a href="#Page_37">37</a> <a href="#Page_205">205</a><br />
+<br />
+Chillington Manor House <a href="#Page_308">308</a>-<a href="#Page_309">9</a> <a href="#Page_310">310</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Chimes</i> <a href="#Page_18">18</a> <a href="#Page_20">20</a> <a href="#Page_41">41</a> <a href="#Page_305">305</a><br />
+<br />
+Chorley H. F. <a href="#Page_196">196</a> <a href="#Page_200">200</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Christmas Carol</i> <a href="#Page_45">45</a> <a href="#Page_239">239</a> <a href="#Page_414">414</a><br />
+<br />
+Cinque Ports <a href="#Page_345">345</a><br />
+<br />
+Cliffe <a href="#Page_356">356</a> <a href="#Page_360">360</a> <a href="#Page_373">373</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Church <a href="#Page_361">361</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Clifford's Inn <a href="#Page_18">18</a> <a href="#Page_19">19</a><br />
+<br />
+Cobb R. L. <a href="#Page_373">373</a>-<a href="#Page_374">4</a>-<a href="#Page_375">5</a><br />
+<br />
+Cobham <a href="#Page_377">377</a>-<a href="#Page_378">8</a> <a href="#Page_380">380</a>-<a href="#Page_282">2</a> <a href="#Page_386">386</a>-<a href="#Page_391">391</a> <a href="#Page_393">393</a> <a href="#Page_409">409</a><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ch&acirc;let <a href="#Page_222">222</a> <a href="#Page_384">384</a>-<a href="#Page_385">5</a> <a href="#Page_414">414</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Church <a href="#Page_391">391</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hall <a href="#Page_186">186</a> <a href="#Page_220">220</a>-<a href="#Page_222">2</a> <a href="#Page_380">380</a>-<a href="#Page_386">386</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Leather Bottle" <a href="#Page_60">60</a> <a href="#Page_386">386</a>-<a href="#Page_390">390</a> <a href="#Page_396">396</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Park <a href="#Page_188">188</a> <a href="#Page_194">194</a> <a href="#Page_374">374</a>-<a href="#Page_279">9</a> <a href="#Page_380">380</a>-<a href="#Page_382">2</a>-<a href="#Page_386">6</a> <a href="#Page_396">396</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Schools <a href="#Page_382">382</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Woods <a href="#Page_380">380</a> <a href="#Page_391">391</a> <a href="#Page_403">403</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Cobham Lord <a href="#Page_358">358</a><br />
+<br />
+Cobtree Hall <a href="#Page_296">296</a>-<a href="#Page_299">299</a> <a href="#Page_374">374</a><br />
+<br />
+College Gate <a href="#Page_72">72</a> <a href="#Page_124">124</a>-<a href="#Page_130">130</a><br />
+<br />
+Collins W. <a href="#Page_32">32</a>-<a href="#Page_33">3</a>-<a href="#Page_36">6</a> <a href="#Page_152">152</a> <a href="#Page_196">196</a> <a href="#Page_207">207</a> <a href="#Page_374">374</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sale of MSS. <a href="#Page_415">415</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Charles A. <a href="#Page_196">196</a>-<a href="#Page_198">8</a> <a href="#Page_200">200</a>-<a href="#Page_202">2</a>-<a href="#Page_6">206</a> <a href="#Page_271">271</a> <a href="#Page_367">367</a> <a href="#Page_404">404</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><a name="Mrs_C_A" id="Mrs_C_A"></a>Mrs. C. A. <a href="#Page_200">200</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>and see</i> <a href="#Dickens_Kate">Dickens Kate</a> <i>and</i> <a href="#Perugini_Mrs">Perugini Mrs.</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Cooling <a href="#Page_349">349</a>-<a href="#Page_360">360</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Castle <a href="#Page_356">356</a>-<a href="#Page_360">360</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Church <a href="#Page_351">351</a>-<a href="#Page_352">2</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Churchyard <a href="#Page_354">354</a>-<a href="#Page_357">7</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Cooper T. Sidney <a href="#Page_348">348</a><br />
+<br />
+Cosham <a href="#Page_284">284</a><br />
+<br />
+Couchman J. <a href="#Page_221">221</a>-<a href="#Page_226">226</a><br />
+<br />
+Countless Stones <a href="#Page_311">311</a>-<a href="#Page_312">2</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Cricket on the Hearth</i> <a href="#Page_45">45</a> <a href="#Page_161">161</a> <a href="#Page_239">239</a><br />
+<br />
+"Crispin and Crispianus" <a href="#Page_217">217</a>-<a href="#Page_220">220</a><br />
+<br />
+Crow Lane <a href="#Page_78">78</a><br />
+<br />
+"Crown Old" <a href="#Page_116">116</a><br />
+<br />
+"Crozier" <a href="#Page_116">116</a><br />
+<br />
+Cruikshank G. <a href="#Page_59">59</a> <a href="#Page_140">140</a><br />
+<br />
+Cursitor Street <a href="#Page_20">20</a>-<a href="#Page_22">2</a><br />
+<br />
+Cuxton <a href="#Page_288">288</a>-<a href="#Page_289">9</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Dadd R.</span> <a href="#Page_396">396</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Daily News</i> <a href="#Page_17">17</a><br />
+<br />
+"Dane John" <a href="#Page_337">337</a><br />
+<br />
+Darnley Earl of <a href="#Page_202">202</a> <a href="#Page_222">222</a> <a href="#Page_374">374</a> <a href="#Page_382">382</a>-<a href="#Page_385">385</a> <a href="#Page_396">396</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>David Copperfield</i> <a href="#Page_26">26</a> <a href="#Page_39">39</a> <a href="#Page_45">45</a>-<a href="#Page_48">8</a> <a href="#Page_91">91</a> <a href="#Page_139">139</a> <a href="#Page_148">148</a> <a href="#Page_219">219</a> <a href="#Page_251">251</a>-<a href="#Page_256">6</a>-<a href="#Page_258">8</a> <a href="#Page_266">266</a>-<a href="#Page_269">269</a> <a href="#Page_284">284</a> <a href="#Page_317">317</a> <a href="#Page_325">325</a> <a href="#Page_340">340</a> <a href="#Page_343">343</a>-<a href="#Page_347">347</a> <a href="#Page_356">356</a> <a href="#Page_396">396</a>-<a href="#Page_397">7</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Fac-simile</i> <a href="#Page_419">419</a> <a href="#Page_421">421</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Davies Rev. G. <a href="#Page_194">194</a>-<a href="#Page_195">5</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Straits <a href="#Page_194">194</a>-<a href="#Page_195">5</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Deal <a href="#Page_399">399</a><br />
+<br />
+Deanery Gatehouse <a href="#Page_127">127</a>-<a href="#Page_129">9</a><br />
+<br />
+Devonshire Terrace <a href="#Page_31">31</a> <a href="#Page_41">41</a>-<a href="#Page_42">2</a>-<a href="#Page_44">4</a>-<a href="#Page_46">6</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Street <a href="#Page_46">46</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Dickens A. L. <a href="#Page_38">38</a> <a href="#Page_184">184</a> <a href="#Page_228">228</a>; <br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A. T. <a href="#Page_47">47</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Dickens Charles:&mdash;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Birth <a href="#Page_255">255</a> <a href="#Page_285">285</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Birthplace <a href="#Page_280">280</a>-<a href="#Page_287">287</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Baptism <a href="#Page_285">285</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">First literary effort <a href="#Page_262">262</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Short-hand <a href="#Page_249">249</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Marriage <a href="#Page_391">391</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and the Serjeant <a href="#Page_249">249</a> <a href="#Page_250">250</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and the Bears <a href="#Page_402">402</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and Public Executions <a href="#Page_410">410</a>-<a href="#Page_411">1</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Genealogy (?) <a href="#Page_253">253</a>-<a href="#Page_254">4</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dogs <a href="#Page_183">183</a>-<a href="#Page_184">4</a>-<a href="#Page_186">6</a> <a href="#Page_226">226</a>-<a href="#Page_228">8</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ch&acirc;let <a href="#Page_222">222</a> <a href="#Page_384">384</a>-<a href="#Page_385">5</a> <a href="#Page_414">414</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Crest <a href="#Page_385">385</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ravens <a href="#Page_44">44</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Readings <a href="#Page_239">239</a> <a href="#Page_242">242</a> <a href="#Page_271">271</a>-<a href="#Page_272">2</a> <a href="#Page_422">422</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Politics <a href="#Page_239">239</a> <a href="#Page_240">240</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Illness <a href="#Page_243">243</a>-<a href="#Page_244">4</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Death <a href="#Page_244">244</a> <a href="#Page_369">369</a> <a href="#Page_370">370</a> <a href="#Page_404">404</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Funeral <a href="#Page_87">87</a>-<a href="#Page_88">8</a> <a href="#Page_401">401</a>-<a href="#Page_404">4</a> <a href="#Page_423">423</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Card <a href="#Page_226">226</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Grave <a href="#Page_423">423</a>-<a href="#Page_424">4</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Will <a href="#Page_87">87</a> <a href="#Page_286">286</a> <a href="#Page_401">401</a> <a href="#Page_421">421</a>-<a href="#Page_422">2</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Manuscripts <a href="#Page_412">412</a>-<a href="#Page_421">421</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Handwriting <i>fac-similes</i> (1837 1850 1854 1870) <a href="#Page_418">418</a>-<a href="#Page_420">420</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Corrected Proofs <a href="#Page_417">417</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Memorial Brass <a href="#Page_137">137</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Memorials <a href="#Page_227">227</a>-<a href="#Page_229">9</a> <a href="#Page_230">230</a> <a href="#Page_247">247</a> <a href="#Page_371">371</a> <a href="#Page_420">420</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Portraits <a href="#Page_59">59</a> <a href="#Page_205">205</a> <a href="#Page_225">225</a> <a href="#Page_272">272</a> <a href="#Page_370">370</a> <a href="#Page_390">390</a> <a href="#Page_415">415</a>-<a href="#Page_416">6</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Letters <a href="#Page_416">416</a>-<a href="#Page_417">7</a></span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">[429]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mysterious Dickens-item <a href="#Page_246">246</a>-<a href="#Page_249">249</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<a name="Dickens_Mrs_C" id="Dickens_Mrs_C"></a>Dickens Mrs. C. <a href="#Page_207">207</a> <a href="#Page_231">231</a><br />
+<br />
+Dickens C. Junr. <a href="#Page_26">26</a> <a href="#Page_32">32</a>-<a href="#Page_34">4</a> <a href="#Page_140">140</a>-<a href="#Page_145">5</a> <a href="#Page_200">200</a>-<a href="#Page_202">2</a> <a href="#Page_294">294</a> <a href="#Page_366">366</a> <a href="#Page_404">404</a> <a href="#Page_422">422</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Edward B. L. <a href="#Page_47">47</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Dickens Fanny <a href="#Page_262">262</a>-<a href="#Page_264">4</a> <a href="#Page_284">284</a>-<a href="#Page_285">5</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Harriet E. <a href="#Page_262">262</a>-<a href="#Page_266">6</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Dickens H. F. <a href="#Page_180">180</a> <a href="#Page_198">198</a> <a href="#Page_202">202</a>-<a href="#Page_203">3</a> <a href="#Page_221">221</a> <a href="#Page_234">234</a> <a href="#Page_248">248</a>-<a href="#Page_249">9</a> <a href="#Page_250">250</a> <a href="#Page_368">368</a> <a href="#Page_374">374</a><br />
+<br />
+Dickens J. <a href="#Page_38">38</a> <a href="#Page_254">254</a>-<a href="#Page_255">5</a> <a href="#Page_265">265</a>-<a href="#Page_266">6</a> <a href="#Page_274">274</a> <a href="#Page_283">283</a>-<a href="#Page_284">4</a>-<a href="#Page_285">5</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mrs. <a href="#Page_38">38</a> <a href="#Page_254">254</a>-<a href="#Page_255">5</a> <a href="#Page_285">285</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<a name="Dickens_Kate" id="Dickens_Kate"></a>Dickens Kate <a href="#Page_36">36</a> <a href="#Page_90">90</a> <a href="#Page_196">196</a> <a href="#Page_206">206</a> <a href="#Page_367">367</a> <a href="#Page_370">370</a><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(<i>and see</i> <a href="#Perugini_Mrs">Perugini Mrs.</a> <i>and</i> <a href="#Mrs_C_A">Collins Mrs. C. A.</a>)</span><br />
+<br />
+Dickens Miss <a href="#Page_31">31</a>-<a href="#Page_34">4</a> <a href="#Page_416">416</a><br />
+<br />
+Dickenson Mr. <a href="#Page_200">200</a>-<a href="#Page_201">1</a>-<a href="#Page_202">2</a>-<a href="#Page_209">9</a><br />
+<br />
+Dodd H. <a href="#Page_232">232</a>-<a href="#Page_233">3</a>-<a href="#Page_234">4</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Dombey and Son</i> <a href="#Page_45">45</a> <a href="#Page_139">139</a> <a href="#Page_227">227</a> <a href="#Page_317">317</a> <a href="#Page_325">325</a><br />
+<br />
+Doughty Street <a href="#Page_25">25</a>-<a href="#Page_28">8</a>-<a href="#Page_29">9</a> <a href="#Page_30">30</a><br />
+<br />
+Dover <a href="#Page_54">54</a> <a href="#Page_192">192</a> <a href="#Page_345">345</a>-<a href="#Page_348">348</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Castle <a href="#Page_347">347</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Heights <a href="#Page_346">346</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Road <a href="#Page_396">396</a>-<a href="#Page_400">400</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Drage Rev. W. H. <a href="#Page_92">92</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Misses <a href="#Page_92">92</a>-<a href="#Page_93">3</a></span><br />
+<br />
+"Duck" <a href="#Page_117">117</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Easedown Mrs.</span> <a href="#Page_369">369</a>-<a href="#Page_371">371</a> <a href="#Page_373">373</a><br />
+<br />
+Eastgate House <a href="#Page_72">72</a>-<a href="#Page_77">77</a> <a href="#Page_132">132</a><br />
+<br />
+East Malling <a href="#Page_293">293</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Edwin Drood</i> <a href="#Page_6">6</a> <a href="#Page_23">23</a>-<a href="#Page_27">7</a> <a href="#Page_46">46</a> <a href="#Page_70">70</a>-<a href="#Page_73">3</a>-<a href="#Page_74">4</a>-<a href="#Page_75">5</a> <a href="#Page_83">83</a> <a href="#Page_106">106</a> <a href="#Page_111">111</a> <a href="#Page_113">113</a> <a href="#Page_115">115</a> <a href="#Page_117">117</a> <a href="#Page_119">119</a> <a href="#Page_120">120</a>-<a href="#Page_121">1</a>-<a href="#Page_124">4</a>-<a href="#Page_128">8</a>-<a href="#Page_129">9</a> <a href="#Page_131">131</a>-<a href="#Page_134">4</a> <a href="#Page_6">6</a>-<a href="#Page_8">8</a>-<a href="#Page_9">9</a> <a href="#Page_140">140</a>-<a href="#Page_141">1</a> <a href="#Page_171">171</a> <a href="#Page_207">207</a> <a href="#Page_228">228</a> <a href="#Page_247">247</a>-<a href="#Page_248">8</a>-<a href="#Page_249">9</a> <a href="#Page_288">288</a> <a href="#Page_290">290</a> <a href="#Page_406">406</a> <a href="#Page_411">411</a> <a href="#Page_414">414</a> <a href="#Page_416">416</a>-<a href="#Page_417">7</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Fac-simile</i> <a href="#Page_420">420</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Exeter <a href="#Page_209">209</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+"<span class="smcap">Falstaff</span> Sir John" (at Gad's Hill) <a href="#Page_163">163</a>-<a href="#Page_165">5</a>-<a href="#Page_167">7</a> <a href="#Page_175">175</a> <a href="#Page_207">207</a>-<a href="#Page_208">8</a>-<a href="#Page_209">9</a> <a href="#Page_400">400</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(At Canterbury) <a href="#Page_336">336</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Farleigh <a href="#Page_290">290</a><br />
+<br />
+Faversham <a href="#Page_323">323</a>-<a href="#Page_324">4</a><br />
+<br />
+Fechter Mr. <a href="#Page_106">106</a> <a href="#Page_201">201</a> <a href="#Page_221">221</a> <a href="#Page_242">242</a><br />
+<br />
+Fildes Luke <a href="#Page_23">23</a> <a href="#Page_59">59</a> <a href="#Page_75">75</a> <a href="#Page_106">106</a> <a href="#Page_127">127</a>-<a href="#Page_129">9</a> <a href="#Page_140">140</a>-<a href="#Page_141">1</a> <a href="#Page_169">169</a> <a href="#Page_228">228</a> <a href="#Page_248">248</a><br />
+<br />
+Fisher Bishop <a href="#Page_131">131</a><br />
+<br />
+Fitzroy Street <a href="#Page_417">417</a><br />
+<br />
+Fleet Street <a href="#Page_17">17</a> <a href="#Page_18">18</a><br />
+<br />
+Ford H. <a href="#Page_330">330</a><br />
+<br />
+Forster J. <a href="#Page_2">2</a> <a href="#Page_6">6</a> <a href="#Page_8">8</a> <a href="#Page_19">19</a> <a href="#Page_20">20</a> <a href="#Page_30">30</a>-<a href="#Page_38">8</a>-<a href="#Page_39">9</a> <a href="#Page_41">41</a>-<a href="#Page_44">4</a> <a href="#Page_51">51</a> <a href="#Page_87">87</a> <a href="#Page_93">93</a> <a href="#Page_107">107</a> <a href="#Page_167">167</a> <a href="#Page_174">174</a> <a href="#Page_176">176</a>-<a href="#Page_179">9</a> <a href="#Page_182">182</a>-<a href="#Page_186">6</a>-<a href="#Page_187">7</a> <a href="#Page_196">196</a> <a href="#Page_207">207</a>-<a href="#Page_209">9</a> <a href="#Page_221">221</a> <a href="#Page_232">232</a>-<a href="#Page_235">5</a> <a href="#Page_258">258</a> <a href="#Page_262">262</a> <a href="#Page_275">275</a> <a href="#Page_310">310</a> <a href="#Page_324">324</a>-<a href="#Page_327">7</a> <a href="#Page_335">335</a> <a href="#Page_356">356</a>-<a href="#Page_357">7</a> <a href="#Page_364">364</a> <a href="#Page_412">412</a>-<a href="#Page_414">4</a>-<a href="#Page_417">7</a> <a href="#Page_421">421</a>-<a href="#Page_424">424</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bequest <a href="#Page_412">412</a>-<a href="#Page_416">416</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Fort Clarence <a href="#Page_316">316</a><br />
+<br />
+Fort Pitt <a href="#Page_104">104</a>-<a href="#Page_106">6</a> <a href="#Page_272">272</a>-<a href="#Page_280">280</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Fortunus</i> <a href="#Page_33">33</a><br />
+<br />
+Fountain Court <a href="#Page_17">17</a><br />
+<br />
+Fox <a href="#Page_20">20</a><br />
+<br />
+Frindsbury <a href="#Page_195">195</a> <a href="#Page_275">275</a> <a href="#Page_294">294</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Church <a href="#Page_212">212</a> <a href="#Page_236">236</a> <a href="#Page_350">350</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Frith W. P. <a href="#Page_230">230</a> <a href="#Page_395">395</a>-<a href="#Page_396">6</a> <a href="#Page_415">415</a><br />
+<br />
+Frog Alley <a href="#Page_117">117</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Frozen Deep</i> <a href="#Page_32">32</a>-<a href="#Page_33">3</a> <a href="#Page_86">86</a> <a href="#Page_241">241</a><br />
+<br />
+Furnival's Inn <a href="#Page_24">24</a>-<a href="#Page_27">27</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Gad's Hill</span> <a href="#Page_4">4</a> <a href="#Page_44">44</a> <a href="#Page_60">60</a> <a href="#Page_90">90</a>-<a href="#Page_91">1</a>-<a href="#Page_93">3</a> <a href="#Page_141">141</a> <a href="#Page_161">161</a> <i>et seq.</i> <a href="#Page_241">241</a>-<a href="#Page_248">8</a>-<a href="#Page_249">9</a> <a href="#Page_265">265</a> <a href="#Page_393">393</a> <a href="#Page_400">400</a><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sixty years ago <a href="#Page_191">191</a>-<a href="#Page_195">195</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Falstaff Sir John" <a href="#Page_163">163</a>-<a href="#Page_165">5</a>-<a href="#Page_167">7</a> <a href="#Page_175">175</a> <a href="#Page_207">207</a>-<a href="#Page_208">8</a>-<a href="#Page_209">9</a> <a href="#Page_400">400</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Gad's Hill Place <a href="#Page_31">31</a> <a href="#Page_42">42</a>-<a href="#Page_46">6</a> <a href="#Page_85">85</a>-<a href="#Page_88">88</a> <a href="#Page_93">93</a> <a href="#Page_132">132</a> <a href="#Page_161">161</a>-<a href="#Page_209">209</a> <a href="#Page_217">217</a> <a href="#Page_221">221</a>-<a href="#Page_222">2</a>-<a href="#Page_223">3</a> <a href="#Page_224">224</a>-<a href="#Page_225">5</a>-<a href="#Page_227">7</a> <a href="#Page_240">240</a>-<a href="#Page_241">1</a>-<a href="#Page_243">3</a> <a href="#Page_271">271</a> <a href="#Page_310">310</a> <a href="#Page_363">363</a>-<a href="#Page_364">4</a>-<a href="#Page_369">9</a> <a href="#Page_370">370</a>-<a href="#Page_371">1</a> <a href="#Page_376">376</a> <a href="#Page_400">400</a>-<a href="#Page_409">9</a><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cedars at <a href="#Page_186">186</a> <a href="#Page_192">192</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ch&acirc;let <a href="#Page_186">186</a>-<a href="#Page_187">7</a> <a href="#Page_221">221</a>-<a href="#Page_222">2</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Charades at <a href="#Page_197">197</a> <a href="#Page_241">241</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Clock <a href="#Page_229">229</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cricket at <a href="#Page_208">208</a> <a href="#Page_248">248</a>-<a href="#Page_249">9</a> <a href="#Page_372">372</a>-<a href="#Page_373">3</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dick's Grave at <a href="#Page_179">179</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Gazette</i> <a href="#Page_180">180</a> <a href="#Page_196">196</a>-<a href="#Page_198">8</a>-<a href="#Page_199">9</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Plough" <a href="#Page_241">241</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Porch at <a href="#Page_184">184</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sale of <a href="#Page_235">235</a>-<a href="#Page_236">6</a> <a href="#Page_241">241</a>-<a href="#Page_246">6</a> <a href="#Page_404">404</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sale Photograph of <a href="#Page_230">230</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Shrubbery at <a href="#Page_186">186</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Specification for alterations at <a href="#Page_222">222</a>-<a href="#Page_223">3</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sports at <a href="#Page_363">363</a>-<a href="#Page_364">4</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sun-dial <a href="#Page_228">228</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Theatricals at <a href="#Page_241">241</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tunnel at <a href="#Page_184">184</a>-<a href="#Page_186">6</a> <a href="#Page_228">228</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Well at <a href="#Page_181">181</a>-<a href="#Page_182">2</a></span><br />
+<br />
+"Gavelkind" <a href="#Page_82">82</a><br />
+<br />
+<a name="Gibson_Mary" id="Gibson_Mary"></a>Gibson Mary <a href="#Page_46">46</a> <a href="#Page_265">265</a>-<a href="#Page_266">6</a>-<a href="#Page_267">7</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">(<i>and see</i> <a href="#Weller_Mary">Weller Mary</a>)</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Robert <a href="#Page_266">266</a>-<a href="#Page_267">7</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thomas <a href="#Page_266">266</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Giles Rev. W. <a href="#Page_261">261</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Academy <a href="#Page_261">261</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Gillingham <a href="#Page_275">275</a><br />
+<br />
+Gordon Square <a href="#Page_31">31</a>-<a href="#Page_38">8</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Place <a href="#Page_31">31</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Gower Street <a href="#Page_38">38</a>-<a href="#Page_39">9</a><br />
+<br />
+Gravesend <a href="#Page_3">3</a> <a href="#Page_91">91</a> <a href="#Page_192">192</a> <a href="#Page_336">336</a> <a href="#Page_361">361</a>-<a href="#Page_2">362</a> <a href="#Page_393">393</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Great Expectations</i> <a href="#Page_6">6</a> <a href="#Page_7">7</a> <a href="#Page_17">17</a> <a href="#Page_24">24</a> <a href="#Page_37">37</a> <a href="#Page_53">53</a> <a href="#Page_64">64</a> <a href="#Page_70">70</a>-<a href="#Page_78">8</a> <a href="#Page_97">97</a> <a href="#Page_156">156</a> <a href="#Page_171">171</a> <a href="#Page_188">188</a> <a href="#Page_269">269</a> <a href="#Page_348">348</a> <a href="#Page_351">351</a>-<a href="#Page_354">354</a> <a href="#Page_356">356</a>-<a href="#Page_358">8</a> <a href="#Page_398">398</a> <a href="#Page_401">401</a>-<a href="#Page_5">405</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Grimaldi Memoirs of</i> <a href="#Page_31">31</a><br />
+<br />
+Grip the Raven <a href="#Page_44">44</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Harbledown</span> <a href="#Page_348">348</a><br />
+<br />
+Hard Times <a href="#Page_37">37</a> <a href="#Page_416">416</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Fac-simile</i> <a href="#Page_419">419</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Hastings <a href="#Page_345">345</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Haunted Man</i> <a href="#Page_45">45</a><br />
+<br />
+Hawke Street <a href="#Page_255">255</a> <a href="#Page_284">284</a><br />
+<br />
+Head R. <a href="#Page_53">53</a> <a href="#Page_88">88</a><br />
+<br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">[430]</a></span>Higham <a href="#Page_87">87</a> <a href="#Page_173">173</a>-<a href="#Page_176">6</a> <a href="#Page_182">182</a> <a href="#Page_194">194</a> <a href="#Page_242">242</a> <a href="#Page_362">362</a>-<a href="#Page_375">375</a> <a href="#Page_377">377</a><br />
+<br />
+Hogarth G. <a href="#Page_25">25</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Catherine <a href="#Page_26">26</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">(<i>and see</i> <a href="#Dickens_Mrs_C">Dickens Mrs. Charles</a>) E. <a href="#Page_34">34</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mary <a href="#Page_29">29</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Georgina <a href="#Page_34">34</a> <a href="#Page_86">86</a> <a href="#Page_90">90</a> <a href="#Page_205">205</a>-<a href="#Page_206">6</a> <a href="#Page_235">235</a>-<a href="#Page_238">8</a> <a href="#Page_242">242</a>-<a href="#Page_244">4</a> <a href="#Page_370">370</a>-<a href="#Page_375">5</a>-<a href="#Page_378">8</a> <a href="#Page_396">396</a> <a href="#Page_406">406</a> <a href="#Page_416">416</a> <a href="#Page_422">422</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">William <a href="#Page_54">54</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Holborn <a href="#Page_22">22</a>-<a href="#Page_24">4</a>-<a href="#Page_27">7</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Holly Tree Inn</i> <a href="#Page_263">263</a> <a href="#Page_408">408</a><br />
+<br />
+Homan F. <a href="#Page_85">85</a>-<a href="#Page_88">88</a> <a href="#Page_117">117</a><br />
+<br />
+Hoo <a href="#Page_350">350</a><br />
+<br />
+Hop-Picking and Cultivation <a href="#Page_318">318</a>-<a href="#Page_323">323</a><br />
+<br />
+Horse Guards <a href="#Page_49">49</a><br />
+<br />
+Horsted <a href="#Page_292">292</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Household Words</i> <a href="#Page_45">45</a> <a href="#Page_89">89</a> <a href="#Page_106">106</a> <a href="#Page_142">142</a> <a href="#Page_150">150</a> <a href="#Page_193">193</a> <a href="#Page_257">257</a> <a href="#Page_344">344</a> <a href="#Page_415">415</a><br />
+<br />
+House on the Brook <a href="#Page_260">260</a> <a href="#Page_1">1</a>-<a href="#Page_5">5</a>-<a href="#Page_6">6</a> <a href="#Page_273">273</a><br />
+<br />
+Hulkes J. <a href="#Page_163">163</a> <a href="#Page_195">195</a>-<a href="#Page_198">198</a> <a href="#Page_403">403</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mrs. <a href="#Page_196">196</a> <a href="#Page_204">204</a>-<a href="#Page_205">5</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">C. J. <a href="#Page_205">205</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<i>Hunted Down</i> <a href="#Page_171">171</a><br />
+<br />
+Hyde Park <a href="#Page_46">46</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Corner <a href="#Page_64">64</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Place <a href="#Page_141">141</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Hythe <a href="#Page_345">345</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Johnson's Court</span> <a href="#Page_18">18</a><br />
+<br />
+John Street <a href="#Page_28">28</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Kennette A.</span> <a href="#Page_78">78</a><br />
+<br />
+Kingsgate Street <a href="#Page_27">27</a><br />
+<br />
+Kit's Coty House <a href="#Page_310">310</a>-<a href="#Page_313">313</a> <a href="#Page_391">391</a><br />
+<br />
+Kitton F. G. <a href="#Page_4">4</a> <a href="#Page_38">38</a> <a href="#Page_102">102</a> <a href="#Page_110">110</a> <a href="#Page_127">127</a> <a href="#Page_163">163</a> <a href="#Page_205">205</a> <a href="#Page_248">248</a> <a href="#Page_316">316</a> <a href="#Page_368">368</a> <a href="#Page_393">393</a> <a href="#Page_415">415</a><br />
+<br />
+Kolle W. H. <a href="#Page_416">416</a>-<a href="#Page_417">7</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Lamert Dr.</span> <a href="#Page_255">255</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">J. <a href="#Page_256">256</a>-<a href="#Page_258">8</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Landport <a href="#Page_255">255</a> <a href="#Page_280">280</a>-<a href="#Page_286">286</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Commercial Road <a href="#Page_281">281</a>-<a href="#Page_282">2</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Lang Andrew <a href="#Page_15">15</a><br />
+<br />
+Langton R. <a href="#Page_2">2</a> <a href="#Page_3">3</a> <a href="#Page_38">38</a> <a href="#Page_83">83</a> <a href="#Page_144">144</a> <a href="#Page_216">216</a> <a href="#Page_252">252</a>-<a href="#Page_255">5</a>-<a href="#Page_258">8</a> <a href="#Page_264">264</a>-<a href="#Page_266">6</a> <a href="#Page_277">277</a> <a href="#Page_281">281</a>-<a href="#Page_282">2</a>-<a href="#Page_284">4</a>-<a href="#Page_286">6</a><br />
+<br />
+Lapworth Prof. <a href="#Page_6">6</a><br />
+<br />
+Larkin C. <a href="#Page_163">163</a> <a href="#Page_195">195</a><br />
+<br />
+Latter Mrs. <a href="#Page_209">209</a> <a href="#Page_400">400</a>-<a href="#Page_401">1</a>-<a href="#Page_402">2</a><br />
+<br />
+Lawn House <a href="#Page_326">326</a>-<a href="#Page_327">7</a><br />
+<br />
+Lawrence J. <a href="#Page_59">59</a> <a href="#Page_60">60</a><br />
+<br />
+"Leather Bottle" <a href="#Page_60">60</a> <a href="#Page_386">386</a>-<a href="#Page_390">390</a> <a href="#Page_396">396</a><br />
+<br />
+Lemon Mark <a href="#Page_32">32</a>-<a href="#Page_34">4</a>-<a href="#Page_35">5</a>-<a href="#Page_36">6</a> <a href="#Page_151">151</a> <a href="#Page_232">232</a>-<a href="#Page_234">4</a><br />
+<br />
+Levy C. D. <a href="#Page_246">246</a>-<a href="#Page_247">7</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Lighthouse</i> <a href="#Page_33">33</a> <a href="#Page_86">86</a> <a href="#Page_241">241</a><br />
+<br />
+Lincoln's Inn <a href="#Page_19">19</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fields <a href="#Page_19">19</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Linton Mrs. Lynn <a href="#Page_167">167</a> <a href="#Page_191">191</a>-<a href="#Page_195">195</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Little Dorrit</i> <a href="#Page_37">37</a> <a href="#Page_46">46</a> <a href="#Page_139">139</a> <a href="#Page_161">161</a> <a href="#Page_171">171</a> <a href="#Page_211">211</a> <a href="#Page_416">416</a><br />
+<br />
+Littlewood J. E. <a href="#Page_272">272</a>-<a href="#Page_273">3</a><br />
+<br />
+Long Mrs. <a href="#Page_333">333</a><br />
+<br />
+"Look-out House" <a href="#Page_232">232</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Maclise D.</span> <a href="#Page_20">20</a> <a href="#Page_41">41</a>-<a href="#Page_44">4</a> <a href="#Page_59">59</a> <a href="#Page_412">412</a> <a href="#Page_421">421</a><br />
+<br />
+Maidstone <a href="#Page_90">90</a>-<a href="#Page_91">1</a> <a href="#Page_140">140</a> <a href="#Page_293">293</a> <a href="#Page_306">306</a>-<a href="#Page_310">310</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Road <a href="#Page_78">78</a> <a href="#Page_151">151</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Chillington Manor House <a href="#Page_308">308</a>-<a href="#Page_309">9</a> <a href="#Page_310">310</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Brenchley Gardens <a href="#Page_309">309</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Malleson J. N. <a href="#Page_201">201</a>-<a href="#Page_206">6</a><br />
+<br />
+Margate <a href="#Page_324">324</a> <a href="#Page_333">333</a>-<a href="#Page_334">4</a>-<a href="#Page_336">6</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Theatre <a href="#Page_334">334</a>-<a href="#Page_335">5</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Marsham Rev J. J. <a href="#Page_402">402</a>-<a href="#Page_403">3</a>-<a href="#Page_404">4</a><br />
+<br />
+Marshes <a href="#Page_142">142</a> <a href="#Page_188">188</a> <a href="#Page_349">349</a> <a href="#Page_350">350</a>-<a href="#Page_351">1</a>-<a href="#Page_357">7</a>-<a href="#Page_358">8</a> <a href="#Page_403">403</a>-<a href="#Page_409">9</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Martin Chuzzlewit</i> <a href="#Page_17">17</a> <a href="#Page_27">27</a> <a href="#Page_45">45</a> <a href="#Page_56">56</a> <a href="#Page_414">414</a><br />
+<br />
+Marzials F. T. <a href="#Page_8">8</a> <a href="#Page_29">29</a> <a href="#Page_31">31</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Master Humphrey's Clock</i> <a href="#Page_45">45</a><br />
+<br />
+Masters Mrs. <a href="#Page_217">217</a> <a href="#Page_219">219</a> <a href="#Page_221">221</a>-<a href="#Page_226">6</a><br />
+<br />
+Mechanics' Institute <a href="#Page_267">267</a>-<a href="#Page_269">9</a> <a href="#Page_270">270</a>-<a href="#Page_271">1</a>-<a href="#Page_273">3</a><br />
+<br />
+Medway River <a href="#Page_52">52</a>-<a href="#Page_53">3</a>-<a href="#Page_54">4</a> <a href="#Page_67">67</a>-<a href="#Page_69">9</a> <a href="#Page_98">98</a> <a href="#Page_103">103</a> <a href="#Page_134">134</a>-<a href="#Page_135">5</a> <a href="#Page_162">162</a> <a href="#Page_188">188</a> <a href="#Page_211">211</a> <a href="#Page_253">253</a> <a href="#Page_275">275</a> <a href="#Page_288">288</a>-<a href="#Page_289">9</a> <a href="#Page_290">290</a>-<a href="#Page_292">2</a> <a href="#Page_309">309</a> <a href="#Page_310">310</a>-<a href="#Page_316">6</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Valley <a href="#Page_379">379</a> <a href="#Page_382">382</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<i>Memoirs of Grimaldi</i> <a href="#Page_31">31</a><br />
+<br />
+Middle Temple Lane <a href="#Page_17">17</a><br />
+<br />
+Mile End Cottage <a href="#Page_209">209</a> <a href="#Page_210">210</a><br />
+<br />
+Miles Mr. <a href="#Page_117">117</a> <a href="#Page_120">120</a><br />
+<br />
+Millen T. <a href="#Page_90">90</a>-<a href="#Page_91">1</a><br />
+<br />
+Minor Canon Row <a href="#Page_92">92</a> <a href="#Page_122">122</a>-<a href="#Page_124">4</a>-<a href="#Page_127">7</a><br />
+<br />
+Minto Prof. <a href="#Page_409">409</a><br />
+<br />
+"Mitre" <a href="#Page_60">60</a> <a href="#Page_116">116</a> <a href="#Page_262">262</a>-<a href="#Page_263">3</a>-<a href="#Page_264">4</a><br />
+<br />
+Mitton T. <a href="#Page_414">414</a><br />
+<br />
+Montague Street <a href="#Page_31">31</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Monthly Magazine</i> <a href="#Page_18">18</a><br />
+<br />
+Morgan Mr. <a href="#Page_200">200</a>-<a href="#Page_201">1</a>-<a href="#Page_202">2</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Morning Chronicle</i> <a href="#Page_24">24</a> <a href="#Page_26">26</a> <a href="#Page_270">270</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Mr. Nightingale's Diary</i> <a href="#Page_35">35</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Mrs. Joseph Porter over the way</i> <a href="#Page_18">18</a><br />
+<br />
+Mysterious Dickens-item <a href="#Page_246">246</a>-<a href="#Page_249">249</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Navy Pay Office Chatham</span> <a href="#Page_258">258</a> <a href="#Page_274">274</a><br />
+<br />
+New Brompton <a href="#Page_80">80</a> <a href="#Page_252">252</a> <a href="#Page_270">270</a>-<a href="#Page_275">5</a><br />
+<br />
+New Romney <a href="#Page_345">345</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Nicholas Nickleby</i> <a href="#Page_8">8</a> <a href="#Page_31">31</a> <a href="#Page_106">106</a> <a href="#Page_139">139</a> <a href="#Page_210">210</a> <a href="#Page_286">286</a> <a href="#Page_324">324</a> <a href="#Page_416">416</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>No Thoroughfare</i> <a href="#Page_374">374</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<i><span class="smcap">Old Curiosity Shop</span></i> <a href="#Page_45">45</a>-<a href="#Page_49">9</a> <a href="#Page_139">139</a> <a href="#Page_323">323</a> <a href="#Page_349">349</a> <a href="#Page_405">405</a><br />
+<br />
+Old Sergeants' Inn <a href="#Page_18">18</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Oliver Twist</i> <a href="#Page_31">31</a> <a href="#Page_232">232</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Fac-simile</i> <a href="#Page_418">418</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Ordnance Terrace <a href="#Page_28">28</a> <a href="#Page_92">92</a> <a href="#Page_257">257</a>-<a href="#Page_258">8</a> <a href="#Page_265">265</a> <a href="#Page_274">274</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Place <a href="#Page_265">265</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<i>Our English Watering-Place</i> <a href="#Page_317">317</a> <a href="#Page_324">324</a>-<a href="#Page_331">31</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Our Mutual Friend</i> <a href="#Page_1">1</a> <a href="#Page_17">17</a> <a href="#Page_18">18</a> <a href="#Page_39">39</a> <a href="#Page_91">91</a> <a href="#Page_171">171</a><br />
+234 <a href="#Page_414">414</a><br />
+<br />
+Overblow <a href="#Page_402">402</a>-<a href="#Page_403">3</a><br />
+<br />
+Owl Club <a href="#Page_59">59</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Harmonious Owls <a href="#Page_59">59</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Parliament Street</span> <a href="#Page_48">48</a><br />
+<br />
+Payne G. <a href="#Page_130">130</a> <a href="#Page_238">238</a><br />
+<br />
+Pearce Sarah <a href="#Page_283">283</a>-<a href="#Page_284">4</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mr. <a href="#Page_283">283</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">William <a href="#Page_284">284</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Pear Tree Lane <a href="#Page_313">313</a> <a href="#Page_377">377</a>-<a href="#Page_378">8</a><br />
+<br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">[431]</a></span>Pemberton T. Edgar <a href="#Page_1">1</a> <a href="#Page_241">241</a> <a href="#Page_286">286</a><br />
+<br />
+<a name="Perugini_Mrs" id="Perugini_Mrs"></a>Perugini Mrs. <a href="#Page_248">248</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(<i>and see</i> <a href="#Dickens_Kate">Dickens Kate</a> <i>and</i> <a href="#Mrs_C_A">Collins Mrs. C. A.</a>)</span><br />
+<br />
+<i>Pickwick Papers</i> <a href="#Page_5">5</a> <a href="#Page_6">6</a> <a href="#Page_20">20</a>-<a href="#Page_26">6</a>-<a href="#Page_29">9</a> <a href="#Page_31">31</a> <a href="#Page_50">50</a>-<a href="#Page_56">6</a> <a href="#Page_62">62</a>-<a href="#Page_67">7</a> <a href="#Page_70">70</a>-<a href="#Page_75">5</a> <a href="#Page_111">111</a> <a href="#Page_151">151</a> <a href="#Page_231">231</a> <a href="#Page_251">251</a>-<a href="#Page_255">5</a> <a href="#Page_261">261</a> <a href="#Page_273">273</a>-<a href="#Page_276">6</a>-<a href="#Page_279">9</a> <a href="#Page_293">293</a>-<a href="#Page_295">5</a> <a href="#Page_297">297</a>-<a href="#Page_306">306</a> <a href="#Page_324">324</a> <a href="#Page_373">373</a>-<a href="#Page_376">6</a>-<a href="#Page_379">9</a> <a href="#Page_387">387</a>-<a href="#Page_388">8</a> <a href="#Page_391">391</a>-<a href="#Page_393">3</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Pictures from Italy</i> <a href="#Page_18">18</a><br />
+<br />
+"Plorn" <a href="#Page_202">202</a><br />
+<br />
+Porchester Castle <a href="#Page_284">284</a><br />
+<br />
+Portsea <a href="#Page_255">255</a> <a href="#Page_281">281</a>-<a href="#Page_282">2</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">St. Mary's Church <a href="#Page_255">255</a> <a href="#Page_285">285</a>-<a href="#Page_286">6</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hawke Street <a href="#Page_255">255</a> <a href="#Page_284">284</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Portsmouth <a href="#Page_281">281</a>-<a href="#Page_284">4</a>-<a href="#Page_286">6</a>-<a href="#Page_287">7</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Common Hard <a href="#Page_287">287</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dockyard <a href="#Page_285">285</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Theatre <a href="#Page_286">286</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Portsmouth Street <a href="#Page_19">19</a><br />
+<br />
+Prall R. <a href="#Page_57">57</a> <a href="#Page_85">85</a><br />
+<br />
+Prior's Gate <a href="#Page_127">127</a>-<a href="#Page_128">8</a><br />
+<br />
+Proctor R. A. <a href="#Page_138">138</a>-<a href="#Page_139">9</a><br />
+<br />
+Proctors <a href="#Page_148">148</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Punch</i> <a href="#Page_90">90</a> <a href="#Page_175">175</a><br />
+<br />
+Purkis Mrs. <a href="#Page_285">285</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Quarry House</span> <a href="#Page_212">212</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Rainham</span> <a href="#Page_317">317</a>-<a href="#Page_318">8</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mear's Barr Farm <a href="#Page_318">318</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Ramsgate <a href="#Page_336">336</a><br />
+<br />
+Reculver <a href="#Page_324">324</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The Sisters <a href="#Page_324">324</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Red Lion Square <a href="#Page_28">28</a> <a href="#Page_31">31</a><br />
+<br />
+Regent's Park <a href="#Page_39">39</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Street <a href="#Page_46">46</a> <a href="#Page_51">51</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Restoration House <a href="#Page_53">53</a>-<a href="#Page_54">4</a> <a href="#Page_78">78</a> <a href="#Page_80">80</a> <a href="#Page_94">94</a>-<a href="#Page_97">97</a> <a href="#Page_132">132</a> <a href="#Page_156">156</a><br />
+<br />
+Robertson Rev. Canon <a href="#Page_214">214</a><br />
+<br />
+Robinson G. <a href="#Page_269">269</a><br />
+<br />
+Rochester <a href="#Page_4">4</a> <a href="#Page_48">48</a> <a href="#Page_51">51</a>-<a href="#Page_97">97</a> <a href="#Page_376">376</a> <a href="#Page_396">396</a> <a href="#Page_406">406</a>-<a href="#Page_409">9</a><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Blue Boar" <a href="#Page_64">64</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Boley (or Bully) Hill <a href="#Page_88">88</a> <a href="#Page_124">124</a> <a href="#Page_158">158</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Boundary Lane <a href="#Page_253">253</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bridge <a href="#Page_50">50</a>-<a href="#Page_54">4</a> <a href="#Page_67">67</a>-<a href="#Page_70">70</a> <a href="#Page_104">104</a> <a href="#Page_215">215</a> <a href="#Page_217">217</a> <a href="#Page_226">226</a>-<a href="#Page_227">7</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Bull Inn" <a href="#Page_54">54</a>-<a href="#Page_55">5</a> <i>et seq.</i> <a href="#Page_104">104</a> <a href="#Page_143">143</a>-<a href="#Page_145">5</a> <a href="#Page_409">409</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Castle <a href="#Page_69">69</a> <a href="#Page_98">98</a>-<a href="#Page_110">110</a> <a href="#Page_137">137</a> <a href="#Page_216">216</a> <a href="#Page_396">396</a> <a href="#Page_406">406</a>-<a href="#Page_409">9</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cathedral <a href="#Page_53">53</a>-<a href="#Page_54">4</a> <a href="#Page_87">87</a> <a href="#Page_90">90</a> <a href="#Page_111">111</a>-<a href="#Page_141">141</a> <a href="#Page_216">216</a> <a href="#Page_406">406</a>-<a href="#Page_409">9</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cherry Garden <a href="#Page_54">54</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">College (or Jasper's) Gate <a href="#Page_72">72</a> <a href="#Page_124">124</a>-<a href="#Page_130">130</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Crow Lane <a href="#Page_78">78</a> <a href="#Page_117">117</a> <a href="#Page_156">156</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Crozier" <a href="#Page_116">116</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Deanery Gatehouse <a href="#Page_127">127</a>-<a href="#Page_129">9</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Duck" <a href="#Page_117">117</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Eastgate House <a href="#Page_72">72</a>-<a href="#Page_77">77</a> <a href="#Page_132">132</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Episcopal Palace <a href="#Page_130">130</a>-<a href="#Page_131">1</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Esplanade <a href="#Page_134">134</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Frog Alley <a href="#Page_117">117</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Grammar School <a href="#Page_81">81</a>-<a href="#Page_88">8</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Guildhall <a href="#Page_54">54</a>-<a href="#Page_55">5</a> <a href="#Page_72">72</a> <a href="#Page_108">108</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">High Street <a href="#Page_51">51</a>-<a href="#Page_53">3</a>-<a href="#Page_55">5</a> <a href="#Page_63">63</a>-<a href="#Page_64">4</a> <a href="#Page_70">70</a> <a href="#Page_82">82</a> <a href="#Page_116">116</a> <a href="#Page_125">125</a> <a href="#Page_130">130</a> <a href="#Page_145">145</a> <a href="#Page_275">275</a> <a href="#Page_287">287</a> <a href="#Page_296">296</a> <a href="#Page_336">336</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">London and County Bank <a href="#Page_116">116</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Maidstone Road <a href="#Page_78">78</a> <a href="#Page_151">151</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mathematical School <a href="#Page_81">81</a> <a href="#Page_175">175</a>-<a href="#Page_176">6</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Men's Institute <a href="#Page_75">75</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Minor Canon Row <a href="#Page_92">92</a> <a href="#Page_122">122</a>-<a href="#Page_124">4</a>-<a href="#Page_127">7</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">New Road <a href="#Page_152">152</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Old Crown" <a href="#Page_116">116</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Prior's Gate <a href="#Page_127">127</a>-<a href="#Page_128">8</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Restoration House <a href="#Page_53">53</a>-<a href="#Page_54">4</a> <a href="#Page_78">78</a> <a href="#Page_80">80</a> <a href="#Page_132">132</a> <a href="#Page_156">156</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Ghost Story <a href="#Page_94">94</a>-<a href="#Page_97">97</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sapsea's House <a href="#Page_72">72</a>-<a href="#Page_75">5</a>-<a href="#Page_76">6</a> <a href="#Page_117">117</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Satis House <a href="#Page_78">78</a> <a href="#Page_97">97</a> <a href="#Page_156">156</a>-<a href="#Page_158">8</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Savings Bank <a href="#Page_76">76</a> <a href="#Page_116">116</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sir J. Hawkins's Hospital <a href="#Page_81">81</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sir J. Hayward's Charity <a href="#Page_82">82</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Star Hill <a href="#Page_70">70</a> <a href="#Page_83">83</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">St. Bartholomew's Hospital <a href="#Page_81">81</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">St. Catherine's Charity <a href="#Page_81">81</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">St. Margaret's <a href="#Page_92">92</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Church <a href="#Page_151">151</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">St. Nicholas' <a href="#Page_81">81</a> <a href="#Page_11">11</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Cemetery <a href="#Page_87">87</a> <a href="#Page_136">136</a>-<a href="#Page_137">7</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Church <a href="#Page_136">136</a>-<a href="#Page_137">7</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Theatre <a href="#Page_83">83</a> <a href="#Page_143">143</a> <a href="#Page_242">242</a> <a href="#Page_256">256</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Vines (or Monks' Vineyard) <a href="#Page_70">70</a>-<a href="#Page_78">8</a> <a href="#Page_81">81</a> <a href="#Page_131">131</a>-<a href="#Page_132">2</a>-<a href="#Page_134">4</a> <a href="#Page_275">275</a> <a href="#Page_409">409</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Watts's Almshouses <a href="#Page_151">151</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Charity <a href="#Page_72">72</a> <a href="#Page_142">142</a>-<a href="#Page_160">160</a> <a href="#Page_176">176</a> <a href="#Page_409">409</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Rye <a href="#Page_345">345</a><br />
+<br />
+Ryland Mr. Arthur <a href="#Page_144">144</a>-<a href="#Page_145">5</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mrs. <a href="#Page_33">33</a> <a href="#Page_144">144</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Sandling</span> <a href="#Page_310">310</a><br />
+<br />
+Sandwich <a href="#Page_345">345</a><br />
+<br />
+Sapsea's House <a href="#Page_72">72</a>-<a href="#Page_75">5</a>-<a href="#Page_76">6</a> <a href="#Page_117">117</a><br />
+<br />
+Satis House <a href="#Page_78">78</a> <a href="#Page_97">97</a> <a href="#Page_156">156</a>-<a href="#Page_158">8</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Seven Poor Travellers</i> <a href="#Page_70">70</a> <a href="#Page_98">98</a> <a href="#Page_106">106</a> <a href="#Page_142">142</a>-<a href="#Page_143">3</a> <a href="#Page_150">150</a> <a href="#Page_160">160</a> <a href="#Page_380">380</a><br />
+<br />
+Seymour R. <a href="#Page_58">58</a><br />
+<br />
+Sheerness <a href="#Page_54">54</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cockle-shell Hard <a href="#Page_101">101</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Sheppard Dr. <a href="#Page_342">342</a>-<a href="#Page_343">3</a>-<a href="#Page_344">4</a><br />
+<br />
+Shorne <a href="#Page_87">87</a> <a href="#Page_137">137</a> <a href="#Page_194">194</a> <a href="#Page_358">358</a> <a href="#Page_391">391</a>-<a href="#Page_393">3</a> <a href="#Page_400">400</a>-<a href="#Page_402">2</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Church <a href="#Page_403">403</a>-<a href="#Page_404">4</a>;</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">[432]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ridgway <a href="#Page_379">379</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Sisters Reculver <a href="#Page_324">324</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Sketches by Boz</i> <a href="#Page_26">26</a> <a href="#Page_64">64</a> <a href="#Page_258">258</a> <a href="#Page_270">270</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Sketches of Young Gentlemen</i> <a href="#Page_31">31</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>of Young Couples</i> <a href="#Page_31">31</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Smetham Henry <a href="#Page_368">368</a><br />
+<br />
+Smith C. Roach <a href="#Page_52">52</a> <a href="#Page_101">101</a> <a href="#Page_148">148</a> <a href="#Page_231">231</a>-<a href="#Page_238">238</a> <a href="#Page_290">290</a> <a href="#Page_311">311</a> <a href="#Page_366">366</a><br />
+<br />
+Smith E. Orford <a href="#Page_303">303</a><br />
+<br />
+Snodland <a href="#Page_288">288</a> <a href="#Page_290">290</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Brook <a href="#Page_135">135</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Weir <a href="#Page_135">135</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Somerset House <a href="#Page_38">38</a> <a href="#Page_264">264</a> <a href="#Page_421">421</a>-<a href="#Page_423">3</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Song of the Wreck</i> <a href="#Page_33">33</a>-<a href="#Page_34">4</a>-<a href="#Page_35">5</a> <a href="#Page_415">415</a><br />
+<br />
+South Kensington Museum <a href="#Page_249">249</a> <a href="#Page_396">396</a> <a href="#Page_412">412</a><br />
+<br />
+Spencer Herbert <a href="#Page_190">190</a> <a href="#Page_406">406</a><br />
+<br />
+Stanfield C. <a href="#Page_20">20</a> <a href="#Page_32">32</a>-<a href="#Page_33">3</a> <a href="#Page_86">86</a> <a href="#Page_241">241</a><br />
+<br />
+Stanley Dean <a href="#Page_88">88</a> <a href="#Page_137">137</a> <a href="#Page_423">423</a><br />
+<br />
+Staplehurst <a href="#Page_93">93</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Accident <a href="#Page_198">198</a> <a href="#Page_200">200</a>-<a href="#Page_201">1</a>-<a href="#Page_209">9</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Staple Inn <a href="#Page_22">22</a>-<a href="#Page_24">4</a>-<a href="#Page_27">7</a><br />
+<br />
+Star Hill <a href="#Page_70">70</a> <a href="#Page_83">83</a><br />
+<br />
+Steele Dr. <a href="#Page_174">174</a> <a href="#Page_237">237</a>-<a href="#Page_246">246</a><br />
+<br />
+Sterry J. Ashby <a href="#Page_3">3</a> <a href="#Page_329">329</a> <a href="#Page_345">345</a>-<a href="#Page_346">6</a><br />
+<br />
+Stone F. <a href="#Page_36">36</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">M. <a href="#Page_91">91</a> <a href="#Page_196">196</a> <a href="#Page_200">200</a>-<a href="#Page_202">2</a>-<a href="#Page_207">7</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<i>Strange Gentleman</i> <a href="#Page_26">26</a><br />
+<br />
+St. Luke's Church Chelsea <a href="#Page_26">26</a><br />
+<br />
+St. Margaret's <a href="#Page_92">92</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Church <a href="#Page_151">151</a></span><br />
+<br />
+St. Mary's Church Chatham <a href="#Page_92">92</a> <a href="#Page_255">255</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Place <a href="#Page_260">260</a>-<a href="#Page_262">2</a></span><br />
+<br />
+St. Mary's Church Portsea <a href="#Page_255">255</a> <a href="#Page_285">285</a>-<a href="#Page_286">6</a><br />
+<br />
+St. Nicholas' Church Rochester <a href="#Page_81">81</a> <a href="#Page_114">114</a> <a href="#Page_136">136</a>-<a href="#Page_137">7</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cemetery <a href="#Page_87">87</a> <a href="#Page_136">136</a>-<a href="#Page_137">7</a></span><br />
+<br />
+St. Nicholas' Church Strood <a href="#Page_211">211</a><br />
+<br />
+St. Pancras' Road <a href="#Page_39">39</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Church <a href="#Page_39">39</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Strood <a href="#Page_50">50</a>-<a href="#Page_55">5</a> <a href="#Page_68">68</a> <a href="#Page_80">80</a> <a href="#Page_162">162</a> <a href="#Page_182">182</a> <a href="#Page_195">195</a> <a href="#Page_211">211</a>-<a href="#Page_250">250</a><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Crispin and Crispianus" <a href="#Page_217">217</a>-<a href="#Page_220">220</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Elocution Society <a href="#Page_235">235</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">St. Nicholas' Church <a href="#Page_211">211</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Preceptory <a href="#Page_212">212</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Quarry House <a href="#Page_212">212</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Temple Farm <a href="#Page_211">211</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<i>Sunday under Three Heads</i> <a href="#Page_26">26</a><br />
+<br />
+Symond's Inn <a href="#Page_19">19</a><br />
+<br />
+Syms Mr. <a href="#Page_82">82</a> <a href="#Page_115">115</a>-<a href="#Page_117">117</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<i><span class="smcap">Tale of Two Cities</span></i> <a href="#Page_17">17</a> <a href="#Page_37">37</a>-<a href="#Page_39">9</a> <a href="#Page_171">171</a> <a href="#Page_204">204</a> <a href="#Page_397">397</a><br />
+<br />
+Tavistock Square <a href="#Page_32">32</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">House <a href="#Page_32">32</a>-<a href="#Page_33">3</a>-<a href="#Page_36">6</a>-<a href="#Page_37">7</a> <a href="#Page_42">42</a> <a href="#Page_86">86</a> <a href="#Page_171">171</a> <a href="#Page_325">325</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Taylor Mrs. <a href="#Page_368">368</a>-<a href="#Page_369">9</a><br />
+<br />
+Temple <a href="#Page_17">17</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bar <a href="#Page_17">17</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Middle Temple Lane <a href="#Page_17">17</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fountain Court <a href="#Page_17">17</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Temple Farm <a href="#Page_211">211</a><br />
+<br />
+Thackeray W. M. <a href="#Page_24">24</a>-<a href="#Page_26">6</a>-<a href="#Page_27">7</a> <a href="#Page_234">234</a><br />
+<br />
+Thames River <a href="#Page_188">188</a> <a href="#Page_314">314</a> <a href="#Page_350">350</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Valley <a href="#Page_358">358</a> <a href="#Page_378">378</a> <a href="#Page_403">403</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<i>Times</i> <a href="#Page_410">410</a>-<a href="#Page_414">414</a><br />
+<br />
+Tom-All-Alone's <a href="#Page_268">268</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Tom Thumb</i> <a href="#Page_33">33</a><br />
+<br />
+Town Malling <a href="#Page_292">292</a>-<a href="#Page_293">3</a>-<a href="#Page_294">4</a> <a href="#Page_302">302</a>-<a href="#Page_306">306</a><br />
+<br />
+Tribe Ald. <a href="#Page_264">264</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Master and Miss <a href="#Page_258">258</a> <a href="#Page_264">264</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">John <a href="#Page_264">264</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Trood W. S. <a href="#Page_175">175</a> <a href="#Page_206">206</a>-<a href="#Page_209">209</a> <a href="#Page_400">400</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Edward <a href="#Page_2">2</a> <a href="#Page_7">7</a> <a href="#Page_220">220</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<i><span class="smcap">Uncommercial Traveller</span></i> <a href="#Page_6">6</a> <a href="#Page_7">7</a> <a href="#Page_37">37</a> <a href="#Page_83">83</a> <a href="#Page_159">159</a> <a href="#Page_163">163</a>-<a href="#Page_165">5</a> <a href="#Page_171">171</a> <a href="#Page_220">220</a> <a href="#Page_264">264</a>-<a href="#Page_269">9</a> <a href="#Page_278">278</a><br />
+<br />
+Upnor Castle <a href="#Page_155">155</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<i><span class="smcap">Village Coquettes</span></i> <a href="#Page_376">376</a><br />
+<br />
+Vines The <a href="#Page_70">70</a>-<a href="#Page_78">8</a> <a href="#Page_81">81</a> <a href="#Page_131">131</a>-<a href="#Page_132">2</a>-<a href="#Page_134">4</a> <a href="#Page_275">275</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Waghorn Lieut.</span> <a href="#Page_257">257</a><br />
+<br />
+Watts Richard <a href="#Page_55">55</a> <a href="#Page_142">142</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Almshouses <a href="#Page_151">151</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Charity <a href="#Page_72">72</a> <a href="#Page_142">142</a>-<a href="#Page_160">160</a> <a href="#Page_176">176</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Memorial <a href="#Page_157">157</a>-<a href="#Page_158">8</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Weald of Kent <a href="#Page_316">316</a><br />
+<br />
+<a name="Weller_Mary" id="Weller_Mary"></a>Weller Mary <a href="#Page_265">265</a>-<a href="#Page_266">6</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(<i>and see</i> <a href="#Gibson_Mary">Gibson Mary</a>)</span><br />
+<br />
+Westminster Abbey <a href="#Page_87">87</a>-<a href="#Page_88">8</a> <a href="#Page_137">137</a> <a href="#Page_404">404</a> <a href="#Page_423">423</a>-<a href="#Page_424">4</a><br />
+<br />
+Whiston Rev. R. <a href="#Page_88">88</a>-<a href="#Page_90">90</a> <a href="#Page_160">160</a><br />
+<br />
+Whitefriars Street <a href="#Page_17">17</a><br />
+<br />
+Whitehall <a href="#Page_48">48</a><br />
+<br />
+Whitstable <a href="#Page_323">323</a><br />
+<br />
+Wildish W. T. <a href="#Page_82">82</a> <a href="#Page_118">118</a> <a href="#Page_175">175</a> <a href="#Page_265">265</a> <a href="#Page_382">382</a><br />
+<br />
+Wills W. H. <a href="#Page_152">152</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">W. G. <a href="#Page_152">152</a> <a href="#Page_193">193</a>-<a href="#Page_194">4</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Winchelsea <a href="#Page_345">345</a><br />
+<br />
+Woburn Square <a href="#Page_31">31</a><br />
+<br />
+Wood H. <a href="#Page_273">273</a>-<a href="#Page_274">4</a><br />
+<br />
+Worsfold C. K. <a href="#Page_347">347</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Wreck of the Golden Mary</i> <a href="#Page_260">260</a><br />
+<br />
+Wright Mr. <a href="#Page_372">372</a>-<a href="#Page_373">3</a> <a href="#Page_415">415</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mrs. <a href="#Page_370">370</a>-<a href="#Page_373">373</a></span><br />
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<h3>THE END.</h3>
+
+<div class='center'><br /><br /><br />&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;<br />
+
+<i>Richard Clay &amp; Sons, Limited, London &amp; Bungay.</i><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> In <i>The History of Pickwick</i>, a handsome octavo volume of nearly
+400 pages, just published (1891), Mr. Percy Fitzgerald, the author, who
+is one of the few surviving friends of Charles Dickens, mentions the
+interesting fact that there are 360 characters, 70 episodes, and 22 inns,
+described in this wonderful book, written when the author was only
+twenty-four.</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> Forster (I. 14) infers that the family removed to London in 1821,
+but Mr. Langton considers (<i>Childhood and Youth of Charles Dickens</i>, 1883,
+pp. 62-3), from the fact of the birth of Dickens's brother Alfred having been
+registered at Chatham on 3rd April, 1822, and from the further fact of
+there being no record of Mr. John Dickens's recall throughout this year to
+Somerset House, that the family did not remove to London until the
+winter of 1822-3, and I agree with Mr. Langton. Mr. Kitton in <i>Charles
+Dickens by Pen and Pencil</i>, 1890, also recognizes this period as the date
+of the removal of the Dickens family to London.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Mr. Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens, a son of the great Novelist, is
+a member of the New South Wales Parliament, having been elected in
+March 1889. "He stood as a Protectionist for the representation of
+Wilcannia, an extensive pastoral district in the western portion of the
+colony. His father, it will be remembered, was an ardent Free Trader,
+and could not be prevailed upon to enter the British Parliament on any
+terms, and occasionally said some severe things of our Legislative
+Assembly. His two sons, Alfred Tennyson and Edward Bulwer Lytton,
+emigrated to Australia some years ago, and became successful pastoralists."&mdash;<i>Yorkshire
+Daily Post</i>, March 1889. A subsequent account states that
+Mr. Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens is about to retire, having been, he
+remarks, "out of pocket, out of brains, out of health, and out of temper,
+by the pursuit of political glory."&mdash;<i>Pall Mall Gazette</i>, March 1891. I am
+since informed that Alfred is not a pastoralist, but in business, and that
+Edward has not retired up to date.</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> Mr. Aveling subsequently informed me that the vessel in which the
+king took his departure continued to be used in the Royal Navy for
+many years as a lighter&mdash;its name being altered to the "Royal Escape."
+Afterwards it was used as a watch-vessel in the Coastguard service at
+Chatham, and was eventually broken up at Sheerness Dockyard so recently
+as 1876.</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> "A Perambulation of Kent: Conteining the Description, Hystorie,
+and Customes of that Shire. Written in the yeere 1570 by William
+Lambarde of Lincoln's Inne Gent."</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> Mr. Kitton was, by an interesting coincidence, present at the
+ceremony above referred to, and he has kindly given his impressions
+thereon, which appear at the end of this chapter.</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> This was a joint article; the description of the works of the dockyard
+being by R. H. Horne, and that of the fortifications and country around
+by Charles Dickens.</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> It is interesting to record that the foundations of this Church were
+met with for the first time, in restoring the west front of the Cathedral,
+in 1889.</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> This was written in 1888; on a subsequent visit to Rochester we
+were sorry to find that the frost had made sad havoc with this beautiful
+tree.</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> Mr. Charles Dickens informs me that Mr. Fildes is right, and that
+Edwin Drood was dead. His (Mr. Dickens's) father told him so himself.</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> Since this was written, Gad's Hill Place has been purchased by the
+Hon. F. G. Latham. Major Budden has resigned his commission
+locally, and now holds a commission in the Limerick City Artillery
+Militia. It is very pleasant to place on record that in subsequent visits
+to "Dickens-Land" I was always received with friendly kindness by
+Major and Mrs. Budden, whose hospitality I often enjoyed. Their
+enthusiasm for the late owner of Gad's Hill Place, and their willingness
+to show every part of their beautiful residence to any one specially
+interested, was most gratifying to a lover of Dickens. Like the novelist,
+Mrs. Budden is fond of private theatricals, and has published a little
+book on <i>Mrs. Farley's Wax-Works and How to Use Them</i>.</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> It has been suggested that the lines above quoted might give one the
+impression that they are those of Falstaff. This, of course, is not the
+case. They are spoken by Poins, when in company with Falstaff, Prince
+Henry, and others. They occur in Act I. Scene ii. of <i>King Henry IV.</i>,
+Part 1.
+</p><p>
+A Note to Charles Knight's Edition of Shakespeare, contained in the
+"Illustrations to Act I." of the same Play, states that Gad's Hill appears
+to have been a place notorious for robbers before the time of Shakespeare,
+for Stevens discovered an entry of the date of 1558 in the books of the
+Stationers' Company, of a ballad entitled, "The Robbery at Gad's Hill."
+And the late Sir Henry Ellis, of the British Museum, communicated to
+Mr. Boswell, Editor of Malone's Shakespeare, a narrative in the handwriting
+of Sir Roger Manwood, Chief Baron of the Exchequer, dated 5th
+July, 1590, which shows that Gad's Hill was at that period the resort of a
+band of well-mounted robbers of more than usual daring, as appears from
+the following extract:&mdash;
+</p><p>
+"In the course of that Michaelmas term, I being at London, many
+robberies were done in the bye-ways at Gad's Hill, on the west part of
+Rochester, and at Chatham, down on the east part of Rochester, by
+horse thieves, with such fat and lusty horses, as were not like hackney
+horses nor far-journeying horses; and one of them sometimes wearing
+a vizard grey beard, he was by common report in the country called
+'Justice Grey Beard;' and no man durst travel that way without great
+company."</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> At an interview with Mr. H. F. Dickens some time afterwards, he
+told me the story of the origin of <i>The Gad's Hill Gazette</i>. There was a
+good deal of sand exposed at the back of the house, and the sons of the
+novelist&mdash;who like other boys were full of energy,&mdash;were fond of playing
+at "burying" each other. Their father naturally feared that this kind of
+play might have some disastrous effects, and develop into burying in
+earnest. So he said one day to his sons, "Why not establish a newspaper,
+if you want a field for your energies?" <i>The Gad's Hill Gazette</i> was the
+result. At first the tiny journal was written on a plain sheet and copies
+made; then a Manifold Writer was used; and afterwards came the
+Printing Press.</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> Since our tramp in Dickens-Land, Messrs. Winch and Sons have,
+with liberality and good taste, restored the old sign at this historic
+hostelry with which the memory of Charles Dickens is associated. It has
+been suggested that the sign may possibly have had its origin from the
+Battle of Agincourt fought on the day of "Saints Crispin-Crispian," 25th
+October, 1415. Victories in more recent times have been thus commemorated
+on sign-boards, such as the <i>Vigo</i> expedition, and the fights at
+Portobello, Trafalgar, Waterloo, Alma, and elsewhere, and the heroes
+who won them thus celebrated.
+</p><p>
+The sign, which is very well painted, represents the patron saints of the
+shoe-making fraternity, the holy brothers, Crispin and Crispian, at work
+on their cobbler's bench. The legend runs that it was at Soissons, in the
+year 287, while they were so employed "labouring with their hands," that
+they were seized by the emissaries of the Emperor Maximinian, and led
+away to torture and to death. The sign is understood to have been
+faithfully copied from a well-known work preserved to this day, at the
+church of St. Pantal&eacute;on at Troyes.&mdash;Abstract of a note in the <i>Rochester
+and Chatham Journal</i>, October 5th, 1889.</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> Enthusiastic admirers of Dickens will doubtless envy me the possession
+of some remarkable memorials of the great writer. My friend
+Mr. Ball is kind enough to present me with a very curious souvenir of
+the novelist: his old garden hat! Mr. Ball's father obtained it from the
+gardener at Gad's Hill Place, to whom it had been given after his master's
+death. The hat is a "grey-bowler," size 7&frac14;, maker's name "Hillhouse,"
+Bond Street, and is the same hat that he is seen to wear in the photograph
+of him leaning against the entrance-porch, an engraving of which
+appears on page 183. Many hats from Shakespeare and Gesler have
+become historical, and there is no reason why Dickens's should not in
+the future be an equally interesting personal relic. The gift was accompanied
+by a couple of collars belonging to the novelist, with the initials
+"C. D." very neatly marked in red cotton. The collar is technically
+known as a "Persigny," and its size is 16. Last, not least, a small bottle
+of "very rare old Madeira" from Gad's Hill, which calls to mind pleasant
+recollections of "the last bottle of the old Madeira," opened by dear old
+Sol. Gills in the final chapter of <i>Dombey and Son</i>. Needless to say, the
+consumption of the valued contents of Dickens's bottle is reserved for a
+very special and appropriate occasion.</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 was written soon after our first visit to Strood at the end of
+August, 1888. Within little more than two years afterwards, on Thursday,
+7th August, 1890, I had the mournful pleasure of being present at the
+funeral of my friend, which took place at Frindsbury Church on that day,
+in the presence of the sorrowing relatives and of a large concourse of
+admirers, both local and from a distance. There were also present many
+representatives of distinguished scientific societies, including Dr. John
+Evans, F.R.S., Treasurer of the Royal Society, and President of the
+Society of Antiquaries.
+</p><p>
+The kindness which I received from Mr. Roach Smith, to whom I
+presented myself in the first instance as a perfect stranger, and which
+was extended during the period of two years that I was privileged to
+enjoy his friendship, and at times his hospitality, would be ill requited if I
+did not here place on record my humble tribute of appreciation. Born
+about the commencement of the present century at Landguard Manor
+House, near Shanklin, Isle of Wight, after a somewhat diversified education
+and experience, he finally settled in London as a wholesale druggist,
+from which business he retired in 1856, and came to live at Temple Place,
+Strood. The bent of his mind was, however, distinctly in favour of
+arch&aelig;ology, and in this science, which he commenced in the early years
+of his business, his work has been enormous. In the matter of the identification
+of Roman remains he was <i>facile princeps</i>, and for many years
+stood without a rival, his investigations and explorations extending over
+England and Europe. His principal works are <i>Collectanea Antiqua</i>,
+seven volumes; <i>Illustrations of Roman London;</i> <i>Catalogue of London
+Antiquities;</i> <i>Richborough, Reculver, and Lymne</i>, and numberless contributions
+scattered over the journal of the Society of Antiquaries, the
+<i>Arch&aelig;ologia Cantiana</i>, and other publications. He was an enthusiastic
+Shakespearean, the author of the <i>Rural Life of Shakespeare</i>, and of a
+little work on <i>The Scarcity of Home-Grown Fruits</i>. He also published
+two volumes of <i>Retrospections: Social and Arch&aelig;ological</i>, and was
+engaged at his death in completing the third volume. He contributed
+many articles to Dr. William Smith's <i>Classical Dictionaries</i>, and other
+similar works.
+</p><p>
+He was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries so far back as
+1836, and at the time of his death was an Honorary Member or Fellow of
+at least thirty learned societies of a kindred nature in Great Britain and
+on the continent, and had been honoured by his colleagues and admirers
+in having his medal struck on two occasions.
+</p><p>
+"He was," says one of the highest of living scientists and writers, "one
+of the chief representatives of the <i>science</i> of arch&aelig;ology as understood in
+its broadest and widest sense. He has never been a mere collector of
+remains of ancient art, regarded only as curiosities, but has always had in
+view their use as exponents of the great unwritten history&mdash;the history of
+the people&mdash;which is not to be obtained from other sources; his writings
+have tended to the same end. Hence he stands as one of the foremost
+amongst those few of the present day who understand the science in its
+best and widest sense, his works being referred to as <i>the</i> authority at
+home and abroad."</p>
+
+<p>Speaking with his friend and companion for many years, Mr. George
+Payne, F.S.A., Hon. Sec. to the Kent Arch&aelig;ological Society, on my last
+visit, about several personal characteristics of our mutual friend, such as
+his persistent energy and his indomitable disposition to stoically resist
+the infirmities of approaching age, and decline any assistance in helplessness,
+and especially as to the <i>qu&aelig;stio vexata</i>, "Bill Stumps, his mark," Mr.
+Payne expressed his opinion, that at the bottom of his heart Mr. Roach
+Smith may probably have had a feeling that Dickens in some way
+(however unintentionally) slighted the science of arch&aelig;ology, which he
+(Mr. Roach Smith) had all his life tried to elevate.
+</p><p>
+A most distinguished antiquarian, a thoroughly honourable man, a
+versatile and accomplished gentleman, and a kind-hearted and liberal
+friend, the town of Strood, to which he was for so many years endeared,
+will long and deservedly mourn his loss.</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> It is interesting to place on record here, that the germ of Charles
+Dickens's "Readings," which afterwards developed so marvellously both
+in England and America, originated in Birmingham. On the 27th
+of December, 1853, he read his <i>Christmas Carol</i> in the Town Hall in aid
+of the funds of the Institute. On the 29th he read <i>The Cricket on the
+Hearth</i>, and on the 30th he repeated the <i>Carol</i> to an audience principally
+composed of working men. The success was overwhelming.</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> Miss Hogarth informs me that her brother-in-law frequently dined
+out in the neighbourhood, accompanied by his daughter and herself.</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> So far as I am aware, nothing has been done to trace the genealogy of
+the Dickens family, and it may therefore be of interest to place on record
+the title of, and an extract from, a very scarce and curious thin quarto
+volume (pp. 1-28) in my collection. Sir Walter Scott was immensely
+proud of his lineage and historical associations, but it would be a
+wonderful thing if we could trace the descent of Charles Dickens from
+King Edward III.</p>
+<p>In the <i>Rambler in Worcestershire</i> (Longmans, 1854), Mr. John Noake,
+the author, in alluding to the parish of Churchill, Worcestershire, says:&mdash;"The
+Dickens family of Bobbington were lords of this manor from 1432
+to 1657, and it is said that from this family Mr. Dickens, the author, is
+descended."
+</p>
+<div class='center'>
+[Title.]<br />
+
+A<br />
+
+POSTHUMOUS POEM<br />
+
+of the<br />
+
+late <span class="smcap">Thomas Dickens, Esq.</span>,<br />
+
+Lieut.-Colonel in the First Regiment of Foot Guards,<br />
+Dedicated, by permission,<br />
+to his Royal Highness, the Duke of Gloucester,<br />
+to which is added<br />
+The genealogy of the Author from King Edward III.;<br />
+also<br />
+A few grateful stanzas to the Deity, three months<br />
+previous to his death, <i>Sep. 21st, 1789</i>.<br />
+&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;<br />
+<span class="smcap">Cambridge</span>:<br />
+Printed by J. Archdeacon, Printer to the University.<br />
+And may be had of the Editor, <span class="smcap">C. Dickens, LL.D.</span>, near Huntingdon,<br />
+and of <span class="smcap">T. Payne and Son</span>, Booksellers, London.<br />
+MDCCXC.<br />
+</div>
+
+<p>Above the title is written in ink: "Peter Cowling to Charles Robert
+Dickens, 3rd son to Sam. Trevor Dickens, this 10th August, 1807, and
+from said Chas. R. Dickens to his loved father, on the 16th June,
+1832."</p>
+<div class='center'>
+[<span class="smcap">Extract.</span>]<br />
+
+Genealogy of the late Thomas Dickens, Esq.<br />
+KING EDWARD III.<br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Geneology">
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Lionel</span>, Duke of Clarence</td><td align='right'>his Son</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Philippa</span>, married to <span class="smcap">Edmund Mortimer</span>, Earl of March</td><td align='right'>his Daughter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Roger</span>, Earl of March</td><td align='right'>her Son</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Ann</span>, who married <span class="smcap">Richard</span>, Duke of York and Earl of Cambridge</td><td align='right'>his Daughter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Richard</span>, Duke of York</td><td align='right'>her Son</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">George</span>, Duke of Clarence, brother to Edward IV.</td><td align='right'>his Son</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Countess of <span class="smcap">Salisbury</span></td><td align='right'>his Daughter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Viscount <span class="smcap">Montague</span></td><td align='right'>her Son</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Lady <span class="smcap">Barrington</span></td><td align='right'>his Daughter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Sir Francis <span class="smcap">Barrington</span></td><td align='right'>her Son</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Lady <span class="smcap">Masham</span></td><td align='right'>his Daughter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>William <span class="smcap">Masham</span>, <span class="smcap">Esq.</span></td><td align='right'>her Son</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Sir <span class="smcap">Francis Masham</span></td><td align='right'>her Son</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Johanna Masham</span>, who married Counsellor Hildesley</td><td align='right'>his Daughter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">John Hildesley, Esq.</span></td><td align='right'>her Son</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Mary Hildesley</span>, who married the Reverend <span class="smcap">Samuel Dickens</span></td><td align='right'>his Daughter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Thomas Dickens, Esq.</span>, the Author</td><td align='right'>her Son</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left' colspan='2'><p>Opposite <span class="smcap">George</span>, Duke of Clarence, is written in ink, "Drown'd in a Butt of Malmsey Madeira," and following <span class="smcap">Thomas Dickens, Esq.</span>, the Author, also written in ink&mdash;</p></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>&nbsp; &nbsp; "Lieut.-Gen. Sir <span class="smcap">Saml. T. Dickens, K.C.H.</span></td><td align='right'>his Son</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>&nbsp; &nbsp; Capt. <span class="smcap">Saml. T. Dickens, R.N.</span></td><td align='right'>his Son"</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>And following the last-mentioned names written in pencil&mdash;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>&nbsp; &nbsp; "Admiral <span class="smcap">Samuel Trevor Dickens, R.N.</span></td><td align='right'>my Son"</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Also written in pencil underneath the above&mdash;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>&nbsp; &nbsp; "qy. <span class="smcap">Charles Dickens</span> the Novelist."</td></tr>
+</table></div></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> In a copy&mdash;in my collection&mdash;of the second edition 8vo of "<i>The
+History and Antiquities of Rochester and its Environs</i>, embellished with
+engravings (pp. i-xvii, 1-419), printed and sold by W. Wildash,
+Rochester, 1817," there occurs in the list of subscribers&mdash;about four
+hundred in number&mdash;the name:&mdash;<span class="smcap">Dickens Mr. John, Chatham.</span></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> A most interesting paper entitled "The Life and Labours of Lieutenant
+Waghorn," appeared in <i>Household Words</i> (No. 21), August 17th,
+1850.</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> See <a href="#Footnote_2_2">Note</a>  to Chapter ii. <a href="#Page_38">p. 38</a>.</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> Since this was written, Mr. Littlewood has passed over to the great
+majority. He was found drowned near Chatham Pier in March, 1890.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> This was taken from the first edition of Mr. Langton's book, published
+in 1883. In the new edition, 1891&mdash;a beautiful volume&mdash;this passage has
+been eliminated, but the engraving is untouched.</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> This house is appropriately named "Highland House," and was
+also the property of John Dickens's landlord, in which the family then and
+for many years after resided. At the time referred to Mr. Pearce owned
+not only the above-mentioned houses, but all the surrounding property.</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> Lambarde says, "Malling, in Saxon Mealing, or Mealuing, that is,
+the Low place flourishing with Meal or Corne, for so it is everywhere
+accepted."</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> The italics are interpolated.</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> Burham, although now enshrouded in the smoke of lime-making, was
+probably sixty years ago a delightfully rural spot.</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> Mr. Roach Smith reminded us that the yew was in times past planted
+for its wood to be used as bows.</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> Professor Huxley, in his <i>Physiography</i>, has estimated that "at the
+present rate of wear and tear, denudation can have lowered the surface
+of the Thames Basin by hardly more than an inch since the Norman
+Conquest; and nearly a million years must elapse before the whole basin
+of the Thames will be worn down to the sea-level"; and Dr. A. Geikie,
+after a series of elaborate calculations, has postulated "as probably a fair
+average, a valley of 1000 feet deep may be excavated in 1,200,000 years."
+Taking these estimates as a basis, and allowing for an average height
+of three hundred feet, we roughly arrive at a period of about four hundred
+thousand years as the possible length of time which it has taken to form
+this beautiful valley. Professor Huxley may well say that "the geologist
+has thoughts of time and space to which the ordinary mind is a stranger."</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> Mr. Kitton's illustration (from the painting by Gegan, a local artist,
+executed many years since) gives a good idea of the scenery of this
+beautiful district. It also reproduces the profile of a huge chalk cliff
+not now visible, but which existed about half a century ago, having a
+curious resemblance to the head of a lion, and forming at the time a
+conspicuous landmark to travellers.</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> According to a "Note" in the <i>Rochester and Chatham Journal</i>, the
+derivation of this curious term is from <i>uro</i> to burn (ustus).</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> One of the "Five Cinque Ports, and two Ancient Towns" often
+referred to, but not always remembered&mdash;Hastings, Sandwich, Dover,
+New Romney, Hythe, Winchelsea and Rye.</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> Mr. Charles Dickens kindly writes to me:&mdash;"The lady who objected
+to the donkeys lived at Broadstairs. I knew her when I was a boy."</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> Speaking of Hoo, Lambarde says (1570)&mdash;"Hoh in the old English
+signifieth sorrow or sickness, wherewith the Inhabitants of that unwholesome
+Hundred be very much exercised[!]."</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> Lambarde says, "The Town [of Cliffe at Hoo] is large, and hath
+hitherto a great Parish Church: and (as I have been told) many of the
+houses were casually burned (about the same time that the Emperor
+<i>Charles</i> came into this Realme to visite King <i>Henry</i> the eight), of which
+hurt it was never thorowly cured."</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> "Cobham Church [says a writer in the <i>Arch&aelig;ologia Cantiana</i>, 1877]
+is distinguished above all others as possessing the finest and most
+complete series of brasses in the kingdom. It contains some of the
+earliest and some of the latest, as well as some of the most beautiful in
+design. The inscriptions are also remarkable, and the heraldry for its
+intelligence is in itself a study. There is an interest also in the fact that
+for the most part they refer to one great family&mdash;the Lords of Cobham."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> Mr. Dolby, in his <i>Charles Dickens as I knew him</i>, estimates that
+&pound;45,000 was realized by Dickens's Readings.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class='tnote'><h3>Transcriber's Notes:</h3>
+
+<p>To ease reading of the text, illustrations were moved out of the middle of
+paragraphs. Sometimes this resulted in the illustration moving to a different
+page than the list of illustrations noted. In these cases, the page reference on
+the list of illustrations will link to the illustration itself.</p>
+<p>Obvious punctuation errors repaired with the exception of the rounded brackets on pages 224
+and 225 as those were replicas of printings. These two instances were left open but not closed.</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 the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Week's Tramp in Dickens-Land, by 
+William R. Hughes
+
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+Project Gutenberg's A Week's Tramp in Dickens-Land, by William R. Hughes
+
+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: A Week's Tramp in Dickens-Land
+
+Author: William R. Hughes
+
+Illustrator: F. G. Kitton
+
+Release Date: February 25, 2010 [EBook #31394]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A WEEK'S TRAMP IN DICKENS-LAND ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Chris Curnow, Emmy and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+A WEEK'S TRAMP
+
+IN
+
+DICKENS-LAND
+
+[Illustration: The Marshes, Cooling.]
+
+
+
+
+A WEEK'S TRAMP
+
+IN
+
+DICKENS-LAND
+
+TOGETHER WITH
+
+=Personal Reminiscences of the 'Inimitable Boz'=
+
+THEREIN COLLECTED.
+
+BY
+
+WILLIAM R. HUGHES, F.L.S.
+
+          _WITH MORE THAN A HUNDRED
+          ILLUSTRATIONS BY F. G. KITTON
+          AND OTHER ARTISTS._
+
+          LONDON: CHAPMAN & HALL, LIMITED.
+          BOSTON: ESTES AND LAURIAT.
+          1891.
+
+
+
+
+          RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED,
+          LONDON & BUNGAY.
+
+
+
+
+          [_All Rights reserved._]
+
+
+
+
+
+          TO
+
+          MY WIFE AND DAUGHTERS,
+
+          EMILY AND EDITH,
+
+          I DEDICATE
+
+          THIS RECORD OF "A WEEK'S TRAMP,"
+
+          TO REMIND THEM OF
+
+          THE MANY PLEASANT READINGS FROM DICKENS
+
+          WE HAVE ENJOYED TOGETHER
+
+          AT HOME.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"'I should like to show you a series of eight articles, Sir, that have
+appeared in the Eatanswill Gazette. I think I may venture to say that
+you would not be long in establishing your opinions on a firm and solid
+basis, Sir.'
+
+"'I dare say I should turn very blue long before I got to the end of
+them,' responded Bob.
+
+"Mr. Pott looked dubiously at Bob Sawyer for some seconds, and turning
+to Mr. Pickwick said:--
+
+"'You have seen the literary articles which have appeared at intervals
+in the Eatanswill Gazette in the course of the last three months, and
+which have excited such general--I may say such universal--attention and
+admiration?'
+
+"'Why,' replied Mr. Pickwick, slightly embarrassed by the question, 'the
+fact is, I have been so much engaged in other ways, that I really have
+not had an opportunity of perusing them.'
+
+"'You should do so, Sir,' said Pott with a severe countenance.
+
+"'I will,' said Mr. Pickwick.
+
+"'They appeared in the form of a copious review of a work on Chinese
+metaphysics, Sir,' said Pott.
+
+"'Oh,' observed Mr. Pickwick--'from your pen I hope?'
+
+"'From the pen of my critic, Sir,' rejoined Pott with dignity.
+
+"'An abstruse subject I should conceive,' said Mr. Pickwick.
+
+"'Very, Sir,' responded Pott, looking intensely sage. 'He _crammed_ for
+it, to use a technical but expressive term; he read up for the subject,
+at my desire, in the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_.'
+
+"'Indeed!' said Mr. Pickwick; 'I was not aware that that valuable work
+contained any information respecting Chinese metaphysics.'
+
+"'He read, Sir,' rejoined Mr. Pott, laying his hand on Mr. Pickwick's
+knee, and looking round with a smile of intellectual superiority, 'he
+read for metaphysics under the letter M, and for China under the letter
+C; and combined his information, Sir!'
+
+"Mr. Pott's features assumed so much additional grandeur at the
+recollection of the power and research displayed in the learned
+effusions in question, that some minutes elapsed before Mr. Pickwick
+felt emboldened to renew the conversation."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The above perennial extract from the immortal _Pickwick Papers_ suggests
+to some extent the nature of the contents of this Volume. It is the
+record of a pilgrimage made by two enthusiastic Dickensians during the
+late summer of 1888, together with "combined information,"--not indeed
+"crammed" from the ninth edition just completed of the valuable work
+above referred to, but gathered mostly from original sources,--respecting
+the places visited, the characters alluded to in some of the novels,
+personal reminiscences of their Author, appropriate passages from his
+works (for which acknowledgments are due to Messrs. Chapman and Hall),
+and some little mention of the thoughts developed by the associations of
+"Dickens-Land."
+
+Although the pilgrimage only extended to a week, and every spot referred
+to (save one) was actually visited during that time, it is but right to
+state that on three subsequent occasions the author has gone over the
+greater part of the same ground--once in the early winter, when the blue
+clematis and the aster had given place to the yellow jasmine and the
+chrysanthemum; once in the early spring, when those had been succeeded
+by the almond-blossom and the crocus; and again in the following year,
+when the beautiful county of Kent was rehabilitated in summer clothing,
+thus enabling him to verify observations, to correct possible errors
+arising from first impressions, and to gain new experiences.
+
+As our head-quarters were at Rochester, and most of the city and other
+parts were taken at odd times, it has not been found practicable to
+preserve in consecutive chapters a perfect sequence of the records of
+each day's tramp, although they appear in fairly chronological order
+throughout the work. "A preliminary tramp in London" will possibly be
+dull to those familiar with the great Metropolis, but it may be useful
+to foreign tramps in "Dickens-Land."
+
+Availing myself of the privilege adopted by most travellers at home and
+abroad, I have made occasional references to the weather. This is
+perhaps excusable when it is remembered that the year 1888 was a very
+remarkable one in that respect, so much so indeed, that the writer of a
+leading article in _The Times_ of January 18th, 1889, in commenting on
+Mr. G. J. Symons' report of the British rainfall of the previous year,
+remarked that "seldom within living memory had there been a twelve-month
+with more unpleasantness in it and less of genial sunshine." We were
+specially favoured, however, in getting more "sunshine" than
+"unpleasantness," thus adding to the enjoyment of our never-to-be-forgotten
+tramp.
+
+Upwards of three years have elapsed since this book was commenced, and
+the limited holiday leisure of a hard-working official life has
+necessarily prevented its completion for such a lengthened period, that
+it has come to be pleasantly referred to by my many Dickensian friends
+as the "Dictionary," in allusion to the important work of that nature
+contemplated by Dr. Strong, respecting which (says David Copperfield)
+"Adams, our head-boy, who had a turn for mathematics, had made a
+calculation, I was informed, of the time this Dictionary would take in
+completing, on the Doctor's plan, and at the Doctor's rate of going. He
+considered that it might be done in one thousand six hundred and
+forty-nine years, counting from the Doctor's last, or sixty-second,
+birthday."
+
+My hearty and sincere acknowledgments are due to the publishers, Messrs.
+Chapman and Hall, not only for the very handsome manner in which they
+have allowed my book to be got up as regards print, paper, and execution
+(to follow the model of their Victoria Edition of _Pickwick_ is indeed
+an honour to me), but especially for their great liberality in the
+matter of the Illustrations, which number more than a hundred. These
+were selected in conference by Mr. Fred Chapman, Mr. Kitton, and myself,
+and include about fifty original drawings by Mr. Kitton, from sketches
+specially made by him for this work. Of the remainder, six are from
+Forster's _Life of Dickens_, fifteen from Langton's _Childhood and Youth
+of Charles Dickens_, seven from _Charles Dickens by Pen and Pencil_, ten
+from the Jubilee Edition of _Pickwick_, and five from Rimmer's _About
+England with Dickens_. A few interesting fac-similes of handwriting,
+etc., have also been introduced. Surely such an eclectic series of
+Dickens Illustrations has never before been presented in one volume.
+
+To Messrs. Chapman and Hall, Mr. Robert Langton, F.R.H.S., Messrs. Frank
+T. Sabin and John F. Dexter, Messrs. Macmillan and Co., and Messrs.
+Chatto and Windus (the proprietors of the above-mentioned works), the
+author's acknowledgments are also due, and are hereby tendered. Mr.
+Stephen T. Aveling has kindly supplied an illustration of Restoration
+House as it appeared in Dickens's time, and Mr. William Ball, J.P.,
+generously commissioned a local artist to make a sketch of the Marshes,
+which forms the frontispiece to the book, and gives a good idea of the
+"long stretches of flat lands" on the Kent and Essex coasts.
+
+To those friends whom we then met for the first time, and from whom we
+subsequently received help, the author's most cordial acknowledgments
+are due, and are also tendered, for kind information and assistance.
+They are a goodly number, and include Mr. A. A. Arnold, Mr. Stephen T.
+Aveling, Mr. William Ball, J.P., Mr. James Baird, Mr. Charles Bird,
+F.G.S., Major and Mrs. Budden, Mr. W. J. Budden, Mr. R. L. Cobb, Mr. J.
+Couchman, The Misses Drage, Mrs. Easedown, Mr. Franklin Homan, Mr. James
+Hulkes, J.P., and Mrs. Hulkes, Mr. Apsley Kennette, Mrs. Latter, Mr. J.
+Lawrence, Mr. C. D. Levy, Mr. B. Lillie, Mr. J. E. Littlewood, Mr. J. N.
+Malleson, Rev. J. J. Marsham, M.A., Mrs. Masters, Mr. Miles, Mr. W.
+Millen, Mr. Geo. Payne, F.S.A., Mr. William Pearce, Mr. George Robinson,
+Mr. T. B. Rosseter, F.R.M.S., Dr. Sheppard, Mr. Henry Smetham, Dr.
+Steele, M.R.C.S., Mr. William Syms, Mrs. Taylor, Miss Taylor, Mr. W. S.
+Trood, Major Trousdell, Rev. Robert Whiston, M.A., Mr. W. T. Wildish,
+Mr. Humphrey Wood, Mr. C. K. Worsfold, and Mrs. Henry Wright. The late
+Mr. Roach Smith, F.S.A., took much interest in my work and gave valuable
+assistance. Mr. Luke Fildes, R.A., and Mrs. Lynn Linton generously
+contributed very interesting information. The Right Honourable the Earl
+of Darnley, Mr. Henry Fielding Dickens, Mr. W. P. Frith, R.A., and Lady
+Head, also kindly answered enquiries.
+
+Miss Hogarth has at my request very kindly consented to the publication
+of the original letters of the Novelist--about a dozen--now printed for
+the first time.
+
+My sincere thanks are due to Mr. E. W. Badger, F.R.H.S., the friend of
+many years, for valuable help.
+
+To my old friend and fellow-tramp, Mr. F. G. Kitton, with whose memory
+this delightful excursion will ever be pleasantly connected, my warmest
+thanks are due for reading proofs and for much kind help in many ways.
+"He wos werry good to me, he wos." As Pip wrote to another "Jo," "WOT
+LARX" we did have.
+
+Last, but not least, my cordial thanks are due to Mr. Charles Dickens
+for much kind information and valuable criticism.
+
+So long as readers continue to be, so long will our great English
+trilogy of cognate authors, Shakespeare, Scott, and Dickens, continue to
+be read. Indeed as regards Dickens, a writer in _Blackwood_, June, 1871
+(and _Blackwood_ was not always a sympathetic critic), said:--"We may
+apply to him, without doubt, the surest test to which the maker can be
+subject: were all his books swept by some intellectual catastrophe out
+of the world, there would still exist in the world some score at least
+of people, with all whose ways and sayings we are more intimately
+acquainted than with those of our brothers and sisters, who would owe to
+him their being. While we live Sam Weller and Dick Swiveller, Mr.
+Pecksniff and Mrs. Gamp, the Micawbers and the Squeerses, can never
+die. . . . They are more real than we are ourselves, and will outlive
+and outlast us, as they have outlived their creator. This is the one
+proof of genius which no critic, not the most carping or dissatisfied,
+can gainsay."
+
+So long also, the author ventures to think, will pilgrimages continue to
+be made to the shrines of Stratford-on-Avon, Abbotsford, and Gad's Hill
+Place, and to their vicinities. The modest aim of this Volume is, that
+it may add a humble unit in helping to keep _his_ memory green, and that
+it may be a useful and acceptable companion to pilgrims, not only of our
+own country, but also from that still "Greater Britain," where "All the
+Year Round" the name of Charles Dickens is almost a dearer "Household
+Word" than it is with us.
+
+                                                 WILLIAM R. HUGHES.
+
+   WOOD HOUSE, HANDSWORTH WOOD,
+          near BIRMINGHAM.
+          _30th September, 1891._
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+  CHAP.                                                    PAGE
+
+        PREFACE                                             vii
+
+     I. INTRODUCTORY                                          1
+
+    II. A PRELIMINARY TRAMP IN LONDON                         7
+
+   III. ROCHESTER CITY                                       51
+
+    IV. ROCHESTER CASTLE                                     98
+
+     V. ROCHESTER CATHEDRAL                                 111
+
+    VI. RICHARD WATTS'S CHARITY, ROCHESTER                  142
+
+   VII. AN AFTERNOON AT GAD'S HILL PLACE                    161
+
+  VIII. CHARLES DICKENS AND STROOD                          211
+
+    IX. CHATHAM:--ST. MARY'S CHURCH, ORDNANCE TERRACE,
+            THE HOUSE ON THE BROOK, THE MITRE HOTEL, AND
+            FORT PITT. LANDPORT:--PORTSEA, HANTS            251
+
+     X. AYLESFORD, TOWN MALLING, AND MAIDSTONE              288
+
+    XI. BROADSTAIRS, MARGATE, AND CANTERBURY                317
+
+   XII. COOLING, CLIFFE, AND HIGHAM                         349
+
+  XIII. COBHAM PARK AND HALL, THE LEATHER BOTTLE, SHORNE,
+            CHALK, AND THE DOVER ROAD                       376
+
+   XIV. A FINAL TRAMP IN ROCHESTER AND LONDON               405
+
+        INDEX                                               427
+
+
+
+
+LIST
+
+OF
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+  PAGE
+
+  THE MARSHES, COOLING                                  _Frontispiece_
+                _F. G. Kitton_ (from a Sketch by _E. L. Meadows_)
+
+  HEADPIECE, "HUMOUR" (From two Statuettes of "Mr. Pickwick"
+      and "Sam Weller" in Crown Derby Ware)
+                                       Engraved by _R. Langton_  xvii
+
+  THE GOLDEN CROSS                              _Herbert Railton_  10
+
+  YOUNG DICKENS AT THE BLACKING WAREHOUSE            _F. Barnard_  12
+
+  FOUNTAIN COURT, TEMPLE                       _C. A. Vanderhoof_  16
+
+  STAPLE INN, HOLBORN                             "      "         21
+
+  BARNARD'S INN                                 _Herbert Railton_  23
+
+  DICKENS'S HOUSE, FURNIVAL'S INN                   "      "       25
+
+  NO. 48, DOUGHTY STREET                               _J. Grego_  28
+
+  TAVISTOCK HOUSE, TAVISTOCK SQUARE                  _J. Liddell_  30
+
+  NO. 141, BAYHAM STREET                           _F. G. Kitton_  37
+
+  NO. 1, DEVONSHIRE TERRACE                    _D. Maclise, R.A._  40
+
+  FAC-SIMILE OF LETTER, CHARLES DICKENS                            43
+
+  APOTHEOSIS OF "GRIP" THE RAVEN               _D. Maclise, R.A._  45
+
+  "MY MAGNIFICENT ORDER AT THE PUBLIC HOUSE"               _Phiz_  49
+
+  BULL INN, ROCHESTER--"GOOD HOUSE, NICE BEDS"   _Herbert Railton_  56
+
+  STAIRCASE AT "THE BULL"                           _F. G. Kitton_  58
+
+  THE "ELEVATED DEN" IN THE BALL-ROOM, "BULL INN"   _F. G. Kitton_  61
+
+  OLD ROCHESTER BRIDGE                           _Herbert Railton_  68
+
+  THE GUILDHALL, ROCHESTER                           _F. G. Kitton_  71
+
+  THE "MOON-FACED" CLOCK IN HIGH STREET                "     "       72
+
+  IN HIGH STREET, ROCHESTER                            "     "       73
+
+  EASTGATE HOUSE, ROCHESTER                            "     "       74
+
+  MR. SAPSEA'S HOUSE, ROCHESTER                        "     "       76
+
+  MR. SAPSEA'S FATHER                (After sketch by _H. Wickham_)  77
+
+  RESTORATION HOUSE, ROCHESTER                       _F. G. Kitton_  79
+
+  OLD ROCHESTER THEATRE, STAR HILL                        _W. Hull_  84
+
+  THE CASTLE FROM ROCHESTER BRIDGE                   _F. G. Kitton_  99
+
+  THE KEEP OF ROCHESTER CASTLE                   _Herbert Railton_  101
+
+  INTERIOR OF ROCHESTER CASTLE                      _F. G. Kitton_  105
+
+  ROCHESTER CASTLE AND THE MEDWAY                     "      "      109
+
+  ROCHESTER CATHEDRAL                                 "      "      112
+
+  ROCHESTER CATHEDRAL, INTERIOR                       "      "      115
+
+  THE CRYPT, ROCHESTER CATHEDRAL                            _Phiz_  118
+
+  MINOR CANON ROW, ROCHESTER                        _F. G. Kitton_  123
+
+  COLLEGE GATE (OR "CHERTSEY'S" GATE), ROCHESTER       "     "      125
+
+  PRIOR'S GATE, ROCHESTER                              "     "      126
+
+  DEANERY GATE, ROCHESTER                              "     "      128
+
+  THE VINES AND RESTORATION HOUSE, ROCHESTER           "     "      131
+
+  RESTORATION HOUSE, AS IT APPEARED IN DICKENS'S TIME
+                           (Engraved from a Drawing by an Amateur)  133
+
+  ST. NICHOLAS' BURYING-GROUND                      _F. G. Kitton_  136
+
+  MEMORIAL BRASS IN ROCHESTER CATHEDRAL                             138
+
+  THE "SIX POOR TRAVELLERS"                         _F. G. Kitton_  143
+
+  RICHARD WATTS'S ALMSHOUSES, ROCHESTER                "     "      149
+
+  FAC-SIMILES OF SIGNATURES OF CHARLES DICKENS AND MARK LEMON       151
+
+  THE "SIX POOR TRAVELLERS" FROM THE REAR           _F. G. Kitton_  153
+
+  A DORMITORY IN THE "SIX POOR TRAVELLERS": GALLERY LEADING
+       TO THE DORMITORIES                           _F. G. Kitton_  154
+
+  SATIS HOUSE                                  (From a Photograph)  156
+
+  WATTS'S MONUMENT IN ROCHESTER CATHEDRAL             _R. Langton_  157
+
+  ROCHESTER FROM STROOD HILL                         _C. Marshall_  162
+
+  THE "SIR JOHN FALSTAFF" INN, GAD'S HILL            _F. G. Kitton_  164
+
+  GAD'S HILL PLACE                                     "     "       166
+
+  "THE EMPTY CHAIR." GAD'S HILL, NINTH OF JUNE, 1870
+          _F. G. Kitton_ (from the Drawing by _S. L. Fildes, R.A._)  170
+
+  COUNTERFEIT BOOK-BACKS ON STUDY DOOR                 _R. Langton_  172
+
+  GAD'S HILL PLACE FROM THE REAR                       _J. Liddell_  177
+
+  "THE GRAVE OF DICK, THE BEST OF BIRDS"             _F. G. Kitton_  178
+
+  THE WELL AT GAD'S HILL PLACE                         "     "       181
+
+  THE PORCH, GAD'S HILL PLACE                          _J. Liddell_  183
+
+  THE CEDARS, GAD'S HILL                                  _E. Hull_  185
+
+  VIEW FROM THE ROOF OF DICKENS'S HOUSE, GAD'S HILL  _F. G. Kitton_  189
+
+  FAC-SIMILES OF _GAD'S HILL GAZETTE_ AND FINAL NOTICE           199-203
+
+  TEMPLE FARM, STROOD                                _F. G. Kitton_  213
+
+  AT TEMPLE FARM, STROOD                               "     "       214
+
+  CRYPT, TEMPLE FARM                                   "     "       215
+
+  THE "CRISPIN AND CRISPIANUS," STROOD                 "     "       218
+
+  OLD QUARRY HOUSE, STROOD                             "     "       236
+
+  FRINDSBURY CHURCH                                    "     "       239
+
+  ROCHESTER FROM STROOD PIER                           "     "       245
+
+  ST. MARY'S CHURCH, CHATHAM                            _W. Dadson_  256
+
+  NO. 11, ORDNANCE TERRACE, CHATHAM                       _E. Hull_  259
+
+  THE HOUSE ON THE BROOK, CHATHAM                               "    260
+
+  GILES'S SCHOOL, CHATHAM                                       "    261
+
+  MITRE INN, CHATHAM                                            "    263
+
+  NAVY-PAY OFFICE, CHATHAM                                      "    275
+
+  FORT PITT, CHATHAM                              _Herbert Railton_  277
+
+  BIRTHPLACE OF CHARLES DICKENS, PORTSEA        (From a Photograph)  281
+
+  ST. MARY'S CHURCH, PORTSEA                           _R. Langton_  285
+
+  AYLESFORD                                          _F. G. Kitton_  289
+
+  AYLESFORD BRIDGE                                     "     "       291
+
+  THE HIGH STREET, TOWN MALLING                   _Herbert Railton_  293
+
+  COB TREE HALL                                      _F. G. Kitton_  297
+
+  CRICKET GROUND, TOWN MALLING                          "     "      302
+
+  THE MEDWAY AT MAIDSTONE                               "     "      307
+
+  CHILLINGTON MANOR HOUSE, MAIDSTONE                    "     "      310
+
+  KIT'S COTY HOUSE                                      "     "      312
+
+  KIT'S COTY HOUSE AND "BLUE BELL"                      "     "      315
+                                       (From the Painting by Gegan)
+  HOP-PICKING IN KENT                                _F. G. Kitton_  319
+
+  "BLEAK HOUSE," BROADSTAIRS                            "     "      328
+
+  OLD LOOK-OUT HOUSE, BROADSTAIRS                       "     "      332
+
+  THE "FALSTAFF," WESTGATE, CANTERBURY                  "     "      335
+
+  THE "DANE JOHN" FROM THE CITY WALL, CANTERBURY        "     "      337
+
+  BELL HARRY TOWER, CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL                "     "      339
+
+  SCENE OF THE MARTYRDOM, CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL          "     "      341
+
+  "BITS" OF OLD CANTERBURY                       _C. A. Vanderhoof_  342
+
+  "THE LITTLE INN," CANTERBURY                       _F. G. Kitton_  345
+
+  GRAVES OF THE COMPORT FAMILY, COOLING CHURCHYARD      "     "      353
+
+  COOLING CHURCH                                 _C. A. Vanderhoof_  355
+
+  GATEWAY, COOLING CASTLE                            _F. G. Kitton_  359
+
+  CLIFFE CHURCH                                         "     "      361
+
+  COBHAM HALL                                     _Herbert Railton_  381
+
+  DICKENS'S CHALET, NOW IN COBHAM PARK                 _J. Liddell_  384
+
+  THE "LEATHER BOTTLE," COBHAM                       _F. G. Kitton_  387
+
+  THE OLD PARLOUR OF THE "LEATHER BOTTLE"                 _E. Hull_  389
+
+  COBHAM CHURCH                                   _Herbert Railton_  390
+
+  SHORNE CHURCH                                      _F. G. Kitton_  392
+
+  CURIOUS OLD FIGURE OVER THE PORCH, CHALK CHURCH    _F. G. Kitton_  394
+
+  "THERE'S MILESTONES ON THE DOVER ROAD"                "     "      400
+
+  DOORWAY, ROCHESTER CATHEDRAL                          "     "      407
+
+  FAC-SIMILES OF CHARLES DICKENS'S HANDWRITING 1837, 1850,
+      1854, 1870                                                  418-20
+
+  THE GRAVE IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY                     _F. G. Kitton_  425
+
+  TAILPIECE, "PATHOS"  (From two Plaques of the "Old Man"
+      and "Little Nell" in Wedgwood Ware)    Engraved by _R. Langton_ xx
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+A WEEK'S TRAMP
+
+IN
+
+DICKENS-LAND.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+INTRODUCTORY.
+
+        "So wishing you well in the way you go, we now
+          conclude with the observation, that perhaps you'll
+          go it."--_Our Mutual Friend._
+
+
+AMONG the many interesting books that have been published relating to
+Charles Dickens since his death, more than twenty years ago (it seems
+but yesterday to some of his admirers), there are at least half a dozen
+that describe the "country" peopled by the deathless characters created
+by his genius.
+
+Probably the pioneer in this class of literature was that comprehensive
+work, _Dickens's London, or London in the Works of Charles Dickens_, by
+my friend, that thorough Dickensian, Mr. T. Edgar Pemberton, 1876; this
+was followed by a very readable volume, _In Kent with Charles Dickens_,
+by Thomas Frost, 1880; then came a dainty tome from Boston, U.S.A.,
+entitled, _A Pickwickian Pilgrimage_, by John R. G. Hassard, 1881.
+Afterwards appeared _The Childhood and Youth of Charles Dickens_, by
+Robert Langton, 1883, beautifully illustrated by the late William Hull
+of Manchester, the author, and others--a work developed from the
+_brochure_ by the same author, _Charles Dickens and Rochester_, 1880,
+which has passed through five editions. Next to Forster's _Life of
+Dickens_, Mr. Robert Langton's larger work undoubtedly ranks--especially
+from the richness of the illustrations--as a very valuable original
+contribution to the biography of the great novelist. Another handsome
+volume, containing the illustrations to a series of papers in
+_Scribner's Monthly_--written by B. E. Martin--entitled _About England
+with Dickens_, came from the pen of Mr. Alfred Rimmer, 1883, and
+included additional illustrations drawn by the author, C. A. Vanderhoof,
+and others. Yet another little _brochure_ recently appeared, called
+_London Rambles en zigzag with Charles Dickens_, by Robert Allbut, 1886.
+Lastly, there was published in the Christmas Number of _Scribner's
+Magazine_, 1887, an article, "In Dickens-Land," by Edward Percy Whipple,
+in which this veteran and appreciative critic of the eminent English
+writer's works points out that, "In addition to the practical life that
+men and women lead, constantly vexed as it is by obstructive facts,
+there is an interior life which they _imagine_, in which facts smoothly
+give way to sentiments, ideas, and aspirations. Dickens has, in short,
+discovered and colonized one of the waste districts of 'Imagination,'
+which we may call 'Dickens-Land,' or 'Dickens-Ville,' . . . better known
+than such geographical countries as Canada and Australia, . . . and
+confirming us in the belief of the _reality_ of a population which has
+no _actual_ existence."
+
+It must not be assumed that the above list exhausts the literature on
+the subject of "Dickens-Land," many references to which are made in such
+high-class works as Augustus J. C. Hare's _Walks in London_, and
+Lawrence Hutton's _Literary Landmarks of London_.
+
+Since the above was written, a very interesting and prettily illustrated
+article has appeared in the _English Illustrated Magazine_ for October,
+1888, entitled "Charles Dickens and Southwark," by Mr. J. Ashby-Sterry,
+who is second to none as an enthusiastic admirer and loyal student of
+Dickens. There is also a paper in _Longman's Magazine_ for the same
+month, by the delightful essayist A. K. H. B., called "That Longest
+Day," in which there are several allusions to Dickens and
+"Dickens-Land." It, however, lacks the freshness of his earlier
+writings. Surely he must have lost his old love for Dickens, or things
+must have gone wrong at the Ecclesiastical Conference which took place
+at Gravesend on "That Longest Day." Altogether it is pitched in a minor
+key.
+
+None of these contributions (with the exception of Mr. Langton's book),
+interesting as they are, and indispensable to the collector, attempt in
+any way to give personal reminiscences of Charles Dickens from friends
+or others, nor do they in any way help to throw light on his everyday
+life at home, beyond what was known before.
+
+The circumstances narrated in this work do not concern the imaginary
+"Dickens-Land" of Mr. Whipple, but refer to the actual country in which
+the imaginary characters played their parts, and to that still more
+interesting actual country in which Dickens lived long and loved
+most--the county of Kent.
+
+On Friday, 24th August, 1888, two friends met in London--one of them,
+the writer of these lines, a Dickens collector of some years'
+experience; the other, Mr. F. G. Kitton, author of that sumptuous work,
+_Charles Dickens by Pen and Pencil_; both ardent admirers of "the
+inimitable 'Boz,'" and lovers of nature and art.
+
+We were a sort of self-constituted roving commission, to carry into
+effect a long-projected intention to make a week's tramp in
+"Dickens-Land," for purposes of health and recreation; to visit Gad's
+Hill, Rochester, Chatham, and neighbouring classical ground; to go over
+and verify some of the most important localities rendered famous in the
+novels; to identify, if possible, doubtful spots; and to glean, under
+whatever circumstances naturally developed in the progress of our tramp,
+additions in any form to the many interesting memorials already
+published, and still ever growing, relating to the renowned novelist.
+The idea of recording our reminiscences was not a primary consideration.
+It grew out of our experiences, generating a desire for others to become
+acquainted with the results of our enjoyable peregrinations; and the
+labour therein involved has been somewhat of the kind described by Lewis
+Morris:--
+
+          "For this of old is sure,
+           That change of toil is toil's sufficient cure."
+
+We mixed with representatives of the classes of domestics, labourers,
+artizans, traders, professional men, and scientists. Many of those whom
+we met were advanced in years,--several were octogenarians,--and there
+is no doubt that we have been the means of placing on record here and
+there an interesting item from the past generation (mostly told in the
+exact words of the narrators) that might otherwise have perished. This
+is a special feature of this work, which makes it different from all
+the preceding. In every instance we were received with very great
+kindness, courtesy, and attention. The replies to our questions were
+frank and generous, and in several cases permission was accorded us to
+make copies of original documents not hitherto made public.
+
+Considering that almost every inch of ground connected with Dickens has
+been so thoroughly explored, we were, on the whole, quite satisfied with
+our excursion: "the results were equal to the appliances."
+
+By a coincidence, the month which we selected (August) was Dickens's
+favourite month, if we may judge from the opening sentences of the
+sixteenth chapter of _Pickwick_:--
+
+          "There is no month in the whole year, in which
+          nature wears a more beautiful appearance than in
+          the month of August. Spring has many beauties, and
+          May is a fresh and blooming month, but the charms
+          of this time of year are enhanced by their
+          contrast with the winter season. August has no
+          such advantage. It comes when we remember nothing
+          but clear skies, green fields, and sweet-smelling
+          flowers--when the recollection of snow, and ice,
+          and bleak winds, has faded from our minds as
+          completely as they have disappeared from the
+          earth,--and yet what a pleasant time it is.
+          Orchards and cornfields ring with the hum of
+          labour; trees bend beneath the thick clusters of
+          rich fruit which bow their branches to the ground;
+          and the corn, piled in graceful sheaves, or waving
+          in every light breath that sweeps above it, as if
+          it wooed the sickle, tinges the landscape with a
+          golden hue. A mellow softness appears to hang over
+          the whole earth; the influence of the season seems
+          to extend itself to the very wagon, whose slow
+          motion across the well-reaped field, is
+          perceptible only to the eye, but strikes with no
+          harsh sound upon the ear."
+
+By another coincidence, the day which we selected to commence our tramp
+was Friday--the day upon which most of the important incidents of
+Dickens's life happened, as appears from frequent references in
+Forster's _Life_ to the subject.
+
+Provided with a selection of books inseparably connected with the
+subject of our tour, including, of course, copies of _Pickwick_, _Great
+Expectations_, _Edwin Drood_, _The Uncommercial Traveller_, Bevan's
+_Tourist's Guide to Kent_, one or two local Handbooks, one of Bacon's
+useful cycling maps, with a sketch map of the geology of the district
+(which greatly helped us to understand many of its picturesque effects,
+and was kindly furnished by Professor Lapworth, LL.D., F.R.S., of the
+Mason College, Birmingham), and with a pocket aneroid barometer, which
+every traveller should possess himself with if he wishes to make
+convenient arrangements as regards weather, we make a preliminary tramp
+in London.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+A PRELIMINARY TRAMP IN LONDON.
+
+        "We Britons had at that time particularly settled
+          that it was treasonable to doubt our having and
+          our being the best of everything: otherwise, while
+          I was scared by the immensity of London, I think I
+          might have had some faint doubts whether it was
+          not rather ugly, crooked, narrow, and
+          dirty."--_Great Expectations._
+
+
+SOME sixty or seventy years must have elapsed since Dickens (through the
+mouthpiece of Pip, as above) recorded his first impressions of London;
+and although he lived in it many years, and in after life he loved to
+study its people in every stratum of society and every phase of their
+existence, it seems doubtful, apart from these studies, whether he ever
+really liked London itself, for in the _Uncommercial Traveller_, on "The
+Boiled Beef of New England," in describing London as it existed
+subsequently, he contrasts it unfavourably in some respects, not only
+with such continental cities as Paris, Bordeaux, Frankfort, Milan,
+Geneva, and Rome, but also with such British cities as Edinburgh,
+Aberdeen, Exeter, and Liverpool, with such American cities as New York,
+Boston, and Philadelphia, and with "a bright little town like Bury St.
+Edmunds." Nevertheless, it is indubitable that his writings, beyond
+those of any other author, have done wonders to popularize our
+knowledge of London,--more particularly the London of the latter half of
+the last and the first half of the present century,--and that those
+writings have given it a hold on our affections which it might not
+otherwise have acquired. In almost all his works we are introduced to a
+fresh spot in the Metropolis, perhaps previously known to us, but to
+which the fidelity of his descriptions and the reality of the characters
+peopling it, certainly give a historical value never before understood
+or appreciated. In _The Life of Charles Dickens_, written by his devoted
+friend, John Forster, may be found a corroboration of this view:--
+
+"There seemed," says this biographer, "to be not much to add to our
+knowledge of London until his books came upon us, but each in this
+respect outstripped the other in its marvels. In _Nickleby_, the old
+city reappears under every aspect; and whether warmth and light are
+playing over what is good and cheerful in it, or the veil is uplifted
+from its darker scenes, it is at all times our privilege to see and feel
+it as it absolutely is. Its interior hidden life becomes familiar as its
+commonest outward forms, and we discover that we hardly knew anything of
+the places we supposed that we knew the best."
+
+What Scott did for Edinburgh and the Trossachs, Dickens did for London
+and the county of Kent. His fascination for the London streets has been
+dwelt on by many an author. Mr. Frank T. Marzials says in his
+interesting _Life of Charles Dickens_:--
+
+"London remained the walking-ground of his heart. As he liked best to
+walk in London, so he liked best to walk at night. The darkness of the
+great city had a strange fascination for him. He never grew tired of
+it."
+
+Mr. Sala records that he had been encountered "in the oddest places and
+in the most inclement weather: in Ratcliff Highway, on Haverstock Hill,
+on Camberwell Green, in Gray's Inn Lane, in the Wandsworth Road, at
+Hammersmith Broadway, in Norton Folgate, and at Kensal New Town. A
+hansom whirled you by the 'Bell and Horns' at Brompton, and there was
+Charles Dickens striding as with seven-leagued boots, seemingly in the
+direction of North End, Fulham. The Metropolitan Railway disgorged you
+at Lisson Grove, and you met Charles Dickens plodding sturdily towards
+the 'Yorkshire Stingo.' He was to be met rapidly skirting the grim brick
+wall of the prison in Coldbath Fields, or trudging along the Seven
+Sisters' Road at Holloway, or bearing under a steady press of sail
+through Highgate Archway, or pursuing the even tenor of his way up the
+Vauxhall Bridge Road."
+
+That his feelings were intensely sympathetic with all classes of
+humanity there is amply evidenced in the following lines, written so far
+back as 1841, which Master Humphrey, "from his clock side in the chimney
+corner," speaks in the last page before the opening of _Barnaby
+Rudge_:--
+
+          "Heart of London, there is a moral in thy every
+          stroke! as I look on at thy indomitable working,
+          which neither death, nor press of life, nor grief,
+          nor gladness out of doors will influence one jot,
+          I seem to hear a voice within thee which sinks
+          into my heart, bidding me, as I elbow my way among
+          the crowd, have some thought for the meanest
+          wretch that passes, and, being a man, to turn away
+          with scorn and pride from none that bear the human
+          shape."
+
+On a sultry day, such as this of Friday, the 24th August, 1888, with the
+thermometer at nearly 80 degrees in the shade, one needs some enthusiasm
+to undertake a tramp for a few hours over the hot and dusty streets of
+London, that we may glance at a few of the memorable spots that we have
+visited over and over again before. This preliminary tramp is therefore
+necessarily limited to visiting the houses where Dickens lived, from the
+year 1836 until he finally left it in 1860, on disposing of Tavistock
+House, and took up his residence at Gad's Hill Place. In our way we
+shall take a few of the places rendered famous in the novels, but it
+would require a "knowledge of London" as "extensive and peculiar" as
+that of Mr. Weller, and would occupy a week at least, to exhaust the
+interest of all these associations.
+
+[Illustration: The Golden Cross.]
+
+Our temporary quarters are at our favourite "Morley's," in Trafalgar
+Square, one of those old-fashioned, comfortable hotels of the last
+generation, where the guest is still known as "Mr. H.," and not as
+"Number 497." And what is very relevant to our present purpose, Morley's
+revives associations of the hotels, or "Inns," as they were more
+generally called in Charles Dickens's early days. Strolling from
+Morley's eastward along the Strand, to which busy thoroughfare there are
+numerous references in the works of Dickens, we pass on our left the
+Golden Cross Hotel, a great coaching-house half a century ago, from
+whence the Pickwickians and Mr. Jingle started, on the 13th of May,
+1827, by the "Commodore" coach for Rochester. "The low archway," against
+which Mr. Jingle thus prudently cautioned the passengers,--"Heads!
+Heads! Take care of your heads!" with the addition of a very tragic
+reference to the head of a family, was removed in 1851, and the hotel
+has the same appearance now that it presented after that alteration. The
+house was a favourite with David Copperfield, who stayed there with his
+friend Steerforth on his arrival "outside the Canterbury coach;" and it
+was in one of the public rooms here, approached by "a side entrance to
+the stable-yard," that the affecting interview took place with his
+humble friend Mr. Peggotty, as touchingly recorded in the fortieth
+chapter of _David Copperfield_. The two famous "pudding shops" in the
+Strand, so minutely described in connection with David's early days,
+have of course long been removed:--
+
+          "One was in a court close to St. Martin's
+          Church--at the back of the Church,--which is now
+          removed altogether. The pudding at that shop was
+          made of currants, and was rather a special
+          pudding, but was dear, two pennyworth not being
+          larger than a pennyworth of more ordinary pudding.
+          A good shop for the latter was in the
+          Strand,--somewhere in that part which has been
+          rebuilt since. It was a stout pale pudding, heavy
+          and flabby, and with great flat raisins in it,
+          stuck in whole at wide distances apart. It came up
+          hot at about my time every day, and many a day did
+          I dine off it."
+
+[Illustration: Young Dickens at the Blacking Warehouse.]
+
+Nearly opposite the Golden Cross Hotel is Craven Street, where (says Mr.
+Allbut), at No. 39, Mr. Brownlow in _Oliver Twist_ resided after
+removing from Pentonville, and where the villain Monks was confronted,
+and made a full confession of his guilt.
+
+"Ruminating on the strange mutability of human affairs," after the
+manner of Mr. Pickwick, we call to mind, on the same side of the way,
+Hungerford Stairs, Market, and Bridge, all well remembered in the days
+of our youth, but now swept away to make room for the commodious railway
+terminus at Charing Cross. Here poor David Copperfield "served as a
+labouring hind," and acquired his grim experience with poverty in
+Murdstone and Grinby's (_alias_ Lamert's) Blacking Warehouse. Hungerford
+Suspension Bridge many years ago was removed to Clifton, and we never
+pass by it on the Great Western line without recalling recollections of
+poor David's sorrows.
+
+Next in order comes Buckingham Street, at the end house of which, on the
+east side (No. 15), lived Mrs. Crupp, who let apartments to David
+Copperfield in happier days. Here he had his "first dissipation," and
+entertained Steerforth and his two friends, Mrs. Crupp imposing on him
+frightfully as regards the dinner; "the handy young man" and the "young
+gal" being equally troublesome as regards the waiting. The description
+of "my set of chambers" in _David Copperfield_ seems to point to the
+possibility of Dickens having resided here, but there is no evidence to
+prove it. At Osborn's Hotel, now the Adelphi, in John Street, Mr. Wardle
+and his daughter Emily stayed on their visit to London, after Mr.
+Pickwick was released from the Fleet Prison.
+
+Durham Street, a little further to the right, leads to the "dark
+arches," which had attractions for David Copperfield, who "was fond of
+wandering about the Adelphi, because it was a mysterious place with
+those dark arches." He says:--"I see myself emerging one evening from
+out of these arches, on a little public-house, close to the river, with
+a space before it, where some coal-heavers were dancing." Nearly
+opposite is the Adelphi Theatre, notable as having been the stage
+whereon most of the dramas founded on Dickens's works were first
+produced, from _Nicholas Nickleby_ in 1838, in which Mrs. Keeley, John
+Webster, and O. Smith took part, down to 1867, when _No Thoroughfare_
+was performed, "the only story," says Mr. Forster, "Dickens himself ever
+helped to dramatize," and which was rendered with such fine effect by
+Fechter, Benjamin Webster, Mrs. Alfred Mellon, and other important
+actors. He certainly assisted in Madame Celeste's production of _A Tale
+of Two Cities_, even if he had no actual part in the writing of the
+piece.
+
+Mr. Allbut thinks that the residence of Miss La Creevy, the good-natured
+miniature painter (whose prototype was Miss Barrow, Dickens's aunt on
+his mother's side) in _Nicholas Nickleby_, was probably at No. 111,
+Strand. It was "a private door about half-way down that crowded
+thoroughfare."
+
+We proceed onwards, passing Wellington Street North, where at No. 16,
+the office of the famous _Household Words_ formerly stood; _All the Year
+Round_, its successor, conducted by Mr. Charles Dickens, the novelist's
+eldest son, now being at No. 26 in the same street.
+
+A little further on, on the same side of the way, and almost facing
+Somerset House, at No. 332, was the office of the once celebrated
+_Morning Chronicle_, on the staff of which Dickens in early life worked
+as a reporter. The _Chronicle_ was a great power in its day, when Mr.
+John Black ("Dear old Black!" Dickens calls him, "my first hearty
+out-and-out appreciator, . . . with never-forgotten compliments . . .
+coming in the broadest of Scotch from the broadest of hearts I ever
+knew,") was editor, and Mr. J. Campbell, afterwards Lord Chief-Justice
+Campbell, its chief literary critic. The _Chronicle_ died in 1862.
+
+The west corner of Arundel Street (No. 186, Strand, where now stand the
+extensive premises of Messrs. W. H. Smith and Son) was formerly the
+office of Messrs. Chapman and Hall, the publishers of almost all the
+original works of Charles Dickens. After 1850 the firm removed to 193,
+Piccadilly, their present house being at 11, Henrietta Street, Covent
+Garden. They own the copyright, and publish all Dickens's works; and
+they estimate that two million copies of _Pickwick_[1] have been sold in
+England alone, exclusive of the almost innumerable popular editions,
+from one penny upwards, published by other firms, the copyright of this
+work having expired. The penny edition was sold by hundreds of thousands
+in the streets of London some years ago.
+
+This statement will probably be surprising to the remarkable class of
+readers thus described by that staunch admirer of Dickens, Mr. Andrew
+Lang, in "Phiz," one of his charming _Lost Leaders_. He says:--
+
+"It is a singular and gloomy feature in the character of young ladies
+and gentlemen of a particular type, that they have ceased to care for
+Dickens, as they have ceased to care for Scott. They say they cannot
+read Dickens. When Mr. Pickwick's adventures are presented to the modern
+maid, she behaves like the Cambridge freshman. 'Euclide viso, cohorruit
+et evasit.' When he was shown Euclid he evinced dismay, and sneaked off.
+Even so do most young people act when they are expected to read
+_Nicholas Nickleby_ and _Martin Chuzzlewit_. They call these
+master-pieces 'too gutterly gutter'; they cannot sympathize with this
+honest humour and conscious pathos. Consequently the innumerable
+references to Sam Weller, and Mrs. Gamp, and Mr. Pecksniff, and Mr.
+Winkle, which fill our ephemeral literature, are written for these
+persons in an unknown tongue. The number of people who could take a good
+pass in Mr. Calverley's _Pickwick_ Examination Paper is said to be
+diminishing. Pathetic questions are sometimes put. Are we not too much
+cultivated? Can this fastidiousness be anything but a casual passing
+phase of taste? Are all people over thirty who cling to their Dickens
+and their Scott old fogies? Are we wrong in preferring them to _Bootles'
+Baby_, and _The Quick or the Dead_, and the novels of M. Paul Bourget?"
+
+[Illustration: Fountain Court, Temple.]
+
+But this by the way. Turning down Essex Street, we visit the Temple,
+celebrated in several of Dickens's novels--_Barnaby Rudge_, _A Tale of
+Two Cities_, _Great Expectations_, and _Our Mutual Friend_,--but in none
+more graphically than in _Martin Chuzzlewit_, in which is described the
+fountain in Fountain Court, where Ruth Pinch goes to meet her lover,
+"coming briskly up, with the best little laugh upon her face that ever
+played in opposition to the fountain; and beat it all to nothing." And
+when John Westlock came at last, "merrily the fountain leaped and
+danced, and merrily the smiling dimples twinkled and expanded more and
+more, until they broke into a laugh against the basin's rim, and
+vanished." As we saw the fountain on the bright August morning of our
+tramp, the few shrubs, flowers, and ferns planted round it gave it quite
+a rural effect, and we wished long life to the solitary specimen of
+eucalyptus, whose glaucous-green leaves and tender shoots seemed
+ill-fitted to bear the nipping frosts of our variable climate.
+
+Coming out of the Temple by Middle Temple Lane, we pass on our left
+Child's Bank, the "Tellson's Bank" of _A Tale of Two Cities_, "which was
+an old-fashioned place even in the year 1780," but was replaced in 1878
+by the handsome building suitable to its imposing neighbours, the Law
+Courts. Temple Bar, which adjoined the Old Bank, and was one of the
+relics of Dickens's London, has passed away, having since been
+re-erected on "Theobalds," near Waltham Cross.
+
+"A walk down Fleet Street"--one of Dr. Johnson's enjoyments--leads us to
+Whitefriars Street, on the east side of which, at No. 67, is the office
+of _The Daily News_, edited by Dickens from 21 Jany. to 9 Feby., 1846,
+and for which he wrote the original prospectus, and subsequently, in a
+series of letters descriptive of his Italian travel, his delightful
+_Pictures from Italy_. St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet Street is supposed
+to have been that immortalized in _The Chimes_.
+
+It was in this street many years before (in the year 1833, when he was
+only twenty-one), as recorded in Forster's _Life_, that Dickens
+describes himself as dropping his first literary sketch, _Mrs. Joseph
+Porter over the Way_, "stealthily one evening at twilight, with fear and
+trembling, into a dark letter-box in a dark office up a dark court in
+Fleet Street; and he has told his agitation when it appeared in all the
+glory of print:--'On which occasion I walked down to Westminster Hall,
+and turned into it for half an hour, because my eyes were so dimmed with
+joy and pride, that they could not bear the street, and were not fit to
+be seen there.'" The "dark court" referred to was no doubt Johnson's
+Court, as the printers of the _Monthly Magazine_, Messrs. Baylis and
+Leighton, had their offices here. This contribution appeared in the
+January number 1834 of this magazine, published by Messrs. Cochrane and
+Macrone of 11 Waterloo Place.
+
+Turning up Chancery Lane, also celebrated in many of Charles Dickens's
+novels, we leave on our left Bell Yard, where lodged the ruined suitor
+in Chancery, poor Gridley, "the man from Shropshire" in _Bleak House_,
+but the yard has, through part of it being required for the New Law
+Courts and other modern improvements, almost lost its identity.
+
+On our right is Old Serjeant's Inn, which leads into Clifford's Inn,
+where the conference took place between John Rokesmith and Mr. Boffin,
+when the former, to the latter's amazement, said:--"If you would try me
+as your Secretary." The place is thus referred to in the eighth chapter
+of _Our Mutual Friend_:--
+
+          "Not very well knowing how to get rid of this
+          applicant, and feeling the more embarrassed
+          because his manner and appearance claimed a
+          delicacy in which the worthy Mr. Boffin feared he
+          himself might be deficient, that gentleman glanced
+          into the mouldy little plantation or cat preserve,
+          of Clifford's Inn, as it was that day, in search
+          of a suggestion. Sparrows were there, dry-rot and
+          wet-rot were there, but it was not otherwise a
+          suggestive spot."
+
+Symond's Inn, described as "a little, pale, wall-eyed, woebegone inn,
+like a large dust-bin of two compartments and a sifter,"--where Mr.
+Vholes had his chambers, and where Ada Clare came to live after her
+marriage, there tending lovingly the blighted life of the suitor in
+Jarndyce and Jarndyce, poor Richard Carstone,--exists no more. It
+formerly stood on the site of Nos. 25, 26, and 27, now handsome suites
+of offices.
+
+Lincoln's Inn, a little higher up on the opposite side of the way,
+claims our attention, in the Hall of which was formerly the Lord High
+Chancellor's Court, wherein the wire-drawn Chancery suit of Jarndyce and
+Jarndyce in _Bleak House_ dragged its course wearily along. The offices
+of Messrs. Kenge and Carboy, of Old Square, Solicitors in the famous
+suit, were visited by Esther Summerson, who says:--"We passed into
+sudden quietude, under an old gallery, and drove on through a silent
+square, until we came to an old nook in a corner, where there was an
+entrance up a steep broad flight of stairs like an entrance to a
+church." Mr. Serjeant Snubbin, Mr. Pickwick's counsel in the notorious
+cause of Bardell _v._ Pickwick, also had his chambers in this square. We
+then enter Lincoln's Inn Fields, and pay a visit to No. 58, on the
+furthest or west side near Portsmouth Street. This ancient mansion was
+the residence of Dickens's friend and biographer, John Forster, before
+he went to live at Palace Gate. It is minutely described in the tenth
+chapter of _Bleak House_ as the residence of Mr. Tulkinghorn, "a large
+house, formerly a house of state, . . . let off in sets of chambers now;
+and in those shrunken fragments of its greatness lawyers lie like
+maggots in nuts." The "foreshortened allegory in the person of one
+impossible Roman upside down," who afterwards points to the "new
+meaning" (_i. e._ the murder of Mr. Tulkinghorn) has, it is to be
+regretted, since been whitewashed. On the 30th November, 1844, here
+Dickens read _The Chimes_ to a few intimate friends, an event
+immortalized by Maclise's pencil, and, as appreciative of the feelings
+of the audience, Forster alludes "to the grave attention of Carlyle, the
+eager interest of Stanfield and Maclise, the keen look of poor Laman
+Blanchard, Fox's rapt solemnity, Jerrold's skyward gaze, and the tears
+of Harness and Dyce."
+
+That celebrated tavern called the "Magpie and Stump," referred to in the
+twenty-first chapter of _Pickwick_,--where that hero spent an
+interesting evening on the invitation of Lowten (Mr. Perker's clerk),
+and heard "the old man's tale about the queer client,"--is supposed to
+have been "The old George the IVth" in Clare Market, close by. Retracing
+our steps through Bishop's Court (where lived Krook the marine-store
+dealer, and in whose house lodged poor Miss Flite and Captain Hawdon,
+_alias_ Nemo) into Chancery Lane, we arrive at the point from whence we
+diverged, and turn into Cursitor Street. Like other places adjacent,
+this street has been subjected to "improvements," and it is scarcely
+possible to trace "Coavinses," so well known to Mr. Harold Skimpole, or
+indeed the place of business and residence of Mr. Snagsby, the
+good-natured law stationer, and his jealous "little woman." It will be
+remembered that it was here the Reverend Mr. Chadband more than once
+"improved a tough subject":--"toe your advantage, toe your profit, toe
+your gain, toe your welfare, toe your enrichment,"--and refreshed his
+own. Thackeray was partial to this neighbourhood, and Rawdon Crawley had
+some painful experiences in Cursitor Street.
+
+[Illustration: Staple Inn, Holborn.]
+
+Bearing round by Southampton Buildings, we reach Staple Inn,--behind the
+most ancient part of Holborn,--originally a hostelry of the merchants of
+the Wool-staple, who were removed to Westminster by Richard II. in 1378.
+At No. 10 in the first court, opposite the pleasant little garden and
+picturesque hall, resided the "angular" but kindly Mr. Grewgious,
+attended by his "gloomy" clerk, Mr. Bazzard, and on the front of the
+house over the door still remains the tablet with the mysterious
+initials:--
+
+              P.
+
+          J.     T.
+
+            1747.
+
+but our enquiries fail to discover their meaning. Dickens humorously
+suggests "Perhaps John Thomas," "Perhaps Joe Tyler," and under hilarious
+circumstances, "Pretty Jolly too," and "Possibly jabbered thus!" They
+are understood to be the initials of the treasurer of the Inn at the
+date above-mentioned. It is interesting to state that the Inn has been
+most appropriately restored by the enterprising Prudential Assurance
+Company, who have recently purchased it; and on the seat in the centre
+of the second Court (facing Holborn), under the plane trees which adorn
+it, were resting a few wayfarers, who seemed to enjoy this thoughtful
+provision made by the present owners. We can picture in one of the
+rooms on the first floor of P. J. T.'s house (very memorable to the
+writer of these lines, some brief part of his early life having been
+passed there), the conference described in the twentieth chapter of
+_Edwin Drood_, between Mr. Grewgious and his charming ward,--so aptly
+pourtrayed by Mr. Luke Fildes in his beautiful drawing, "Mr. Grewgious
+experiences a new sensation,"--as well as all the other scenes which
+took place here.
+
+[Illustration: Barnard's Inn]
+
+Turning into Holborn through the Archway of Staple Inn, and stopping for
+a minute to admire the fine effect of the recently restored
+fourteenth-century old-timbered houses of the Inn which face that
+thoroughfare, a few steps lower down take us to Barnard's Inn, where Pip
+in _Great Expectations_ lodged with his friend Herbert Pocket when he
+came to London. Dickens calls it, "the dingiest collection of shabby
+buildings ever squeezed together in a rank corner as a club for
+tom-cats." Simple-minded Joe Gargery, who visited Pip here, persisted
+for a time in calling it an "hotel," and after his visit thus recorded
+his impressions of the place:--
+
+          "The present may be a werry good inn, and I
+          believe its character do stand i; but I wouldn't
+          keep a pig in it myself--not in the case that I
+          wished him to fatten wholesome and to eat with a
+          meller flavour on him."
+
+A few plane trees--the glory of all squares and open spaces in London,
+where they thrive so luxuriantly--give a rural appearance to this
+crowded place, while the sparrows tenanting them enjoy the sunbeams
+passing through the scanty branches.
+
+Our next halting-place, Furnival's Inn, is one of profound interest to
+all pious pilgrims in "Dickens-Land," for there the genius of the young
+author was first recognized, not only by the novel-reading world, but
+also by his contemporaries in literature. Thackeray generously spoke of
+him as "the young man who came and took his place calmly at the head of
+the whole tribe, and who has kept it."
+
+[Illustration: Dickens House by Furnival's Inn]
+
+Furnival's Inn in Holborn, which stands midway between Barnard's Inn and
+Staple Inn on the opposite side of the way, is famous as having been the
+residence of Charles Dickens in his bachelor days, when a reporter for
+the _Morning Chronicle_. He removed here from his father's lodgings at
+No. 18, Bentinck Street, and had chambers, first the "three pair back"
+(rather gloomy rooms) of No. 13 from Christmas 1834 until Christmas
+1835, when he removed to the "three pair floor south" (bright little
+rooms) of No. 15, the house on the right-hand side of the square having
+Ionic ornamentations, which he occupied from 1835 until his removal to
+No. 48, Doughty Street, in March 1837. The brass-bound iron rail still
+remains, and the sixty stone steps which lead from the ground-floor to
+the top of each house are no doubt the same over which the eager feet
+of the youthful "Boz" often trod. He was married from Furnival's Inn on
+2nd April, 1836, to Catherine, eldest daughter of Mr. George Hogarth,
+his old colleague on the _Morning Chronicle_, the wedding taking place
+at St. Luke's Church, Chelsea, and doubtless lived here in his early
+matrimonial days much in the same way probably as Tommy Traddles did, as
+described in _David Copperfield_. Here the _Sketches by Boz_ were
+written, and most of the numbers of the immortal _Pickwick Papers_, as
+also the lesser works: _Sunday under Three Heads_, _The Strange
+Gentleman_, and _The Village Coquettes_. The quietude of this retired
+spot in the midst of a busy thoroughfare, and its accessibility to the
+_Chronicle_ offices in the Strand, must have been very attractive to the
+young author. His eldest son, the present Mr. Charles Dickens, was born
+here on the 6th January, 1837.
+
+It was in Furnival's Inn, probably in the year 1836, that Thackeray paid
+a visit to Dickens, and thus described the meeting:--
+
+"I can remember, when Mr. Dickens was a very young man, and had
+commenced delighting the world with some charming humorous works in
+covers which were coloured light green and came out once a month, that
+this young man wanted an artist to illustrate his writings; and I
+remember walking up to his chambers in Furnival's Inn, with two or three
+drawings in my hand, which, strange to say, he did not find suitable."
+
+How wonderfully interesting these "two or three drawings" would be now
+if they could be discovered! Of the score or so of "Extra Illustrations"
+to _Pickwick_ which have appeared, surely these (if they were such)
+which Dickens "did not find suitable," combining as they did the genius
+of Dickens and Thackeray, whatever their merits or defects may have
+been, would be most highly prized.
+
+John Westlock, in _Martin Chuzzlewit_, had apartments in Furnival's Inn,
+and was there visited by Tom Pinch. Wood's Hotel occupies a large
+portion of the square, and is mentioned in _The Mystery of Edwin Drood_
+as having been the Inn where Mr. Grewgious took rooms for his charming
+ward Rosa Bud, from whence he ordered for her refreshment, soon after
+her arrival at Staple Inn to escape Jasper's importunities, "a nice
+jumble of all meals," to which it is to be feared she did not do
+justice, and where "at the hotel door he afterwards confided her to the
+Unlimited head chamber-maid."
+
+The Society of Arts have considerately put up on the house No. 15 one of
+their neat terra-cotta memorial tablets with the following
+inscription:--
+
+          CHARLES
+          DICKENS,
+          =Novelist=,
+          Lived here.
+          B. 1812,
+          D. 1870.
+
+We proceed along Holborn, and go up Kingsgate Street, where "Poll
+Sweedlepipe, Barber and Bird Fancier," lived, "next door but one to the
+celebrated mutton-pie shop, and directly opposite the original
+cats'-meat warehouse." The immortal Sairey Gamp lodged on the first
+floor, where doubtless she helped herself from the "chimley-piece"
+whenever she felt "dispoged." Here also the quarrel took place between
+that old lady and her friend Betsey Prig anent that mythical personage,
+"Mrs. Harris." We pass through Red Lion Square and up Bedford Row, and
+after proceeding along Theobald's Road for a short distance, turn up
+John Street, which leads into Doughty Street, where, at No. 48, Charles
+Dickens lived from 1837 to 1839. The house, situated on the east side of
+the street, has twelve rooms, is single-fronted, three-storied, and not
+unlike No. 2, Ordnance Terrace, Chatham. A tiny little room on the
+ground-floor, with a bolt inside in addition to the usual fastening, is
+pointed out as having been the novelist's study. It has an outlook into
+a garden, but of late years this has been much reduced in size. A bill
+in the front window announces "Apartments to let," and they look very
+comfortable. Doughty Street, now a somewhat noisy thoroughfare, must
+have been in Charles Dickens's time a quiet, retired spot. A large pair
+of iron gates reach across the street, guarded by a gate-keeper in
+livery. "It was," says Mr. Marzials in his _Life of Dickens_, "while
+living at Doughty Street that he seems, in great measure, to have formed
+those habits of work and relaxation which every artist fashions so as to
+suit his own special needs and idiosyncrasies. His favourite time for
+work was the morning between the hours of breakfast and lunch; . . . he
+was essentially a day worker and not a night worker. . . . And for
+relaxation and sedative when he had thoroughly worn himself with mental
+toil, he would have recourse to the hardest bodily exercise. . . . At
+first riding seems to have contented him, . . . but soon walking took
+the place of riding, and he became an indefatigable pedestrian. He would
+think nothing of a walk of twenty or thirty miles, and that not merely
+in the vigorous hey-day of youth, but afterwards to the very last. . . ."
+
+[Illustration: No. 48, Doughty Street, Mecklenburgh Square.
+
+_Dickens's Residence_ 1837-9.]
+
+It was at Doughty Street that he experienced a bereavement which
+darkened his life for many years, and to which Forster thus alludes:--
+
+"His wife's next younger sister Mary, who lived with them, and by
+sweetness of nature even more than by graces of person had made herself
+the ideal of his life, died with a terrible suddenness that for a time
+completely bore him down. His grief and suffering were intense, and
+affected him . . . through many after years." _Pickwick_ was temporarily
+suspended, and he sought change of scene at Hampstead. Forster visited
+him there, and to him he opened his heart. He says:--"I left him as much
+his friend, and as entirely in his confidence, as if I had known him for
+years."
+
+[Illustration: Tavistock House, Tavistock Square.
+
+_Dickens's Residence_ 1851-60.]
+
+Some time afterwards, we find him inviting Forster "to join him at 11
+A.M. in a fifteen-mile ride out and ditto in, lunch on the road, with a
+six o'clock dinner in Doughty Street."
+
+Charles Dickens's residence in Doughty Street was but of short
+duration--from 1837 to 1840 only; but there he completed _Pickwick_, and
+wrote _Oliver Twist_, _Memoirs of Grimaldi_, _Sketches of Young
+Gentlemen_, _Sketches of Young Couples_, and _The Life and Adventures of
+Nicholas Nickleby_. His eldest daughter Mary was born here.
+
+In proper sequence we ought to proceed to Dickens's third London
+residence, No. 1, Devonshire Terrace, but it will be more convenient to
+take his fourth residence on our way. We therefore retrace our steps
+into Theobald's Road, pass through Red Lion and Bloomsbury Squares, and
+along Great Russell Street as far as the British Museum, where Dickens
+is still remembered as "a reader" (merely remarking that it of course
+contains a splendid collection of the original impressions of the
+novelist's works, and "Dickensiana," as is evidenced by the
+comprehensive Bibliography furnished by Mr. John P. Anderson, one of the
+librarians, to Mr. Marzials' _Life of Dickens_), which we leave on our
+left, and turn up Montague Street, go along Upper Montague Street,
+Woburn Square, Gordon Square, and reach Tavistock Square, at the upper
+end of which, on the east side, Gordon Place leads us into a retired
+spot cut off as it were from communication with the rest of this quiet
+neighbourhood. Three houses adjoin each other--handsome commodious
+houses, having stone porticos at entrance--and in the first of these,
+Tavistock House, Dickens lived from 1851 until 1860, with intervals at
+Gad's Hill Place. This beautiful house, which has eighteen rooms in it,
+is now the Jews' College. The drawing-room on the first floor still
+contains a dais at one end, and it is said that at a recent public
+meeting held here, three hundred and fifty people were accommodated in
+it, which serves to show what ample quarters Dickens had to entertain
+his friends.
+
+Hans Christian Andersen, who visited Dickens here in 1857, thus
+describes this fine mansion:--
+
+"In Tavistock Square stands Tavistock House. This and the strip of
+garden in front are shut out from the thoroughfare by an iron railing. A
+large garden with a grass-plat and high trees stretches behind the
+house, and gives it a countrified look, in the midst of this coal and
+gas steaming London. In the passage from street to garden hung pictures
+and engravings. Here stood a marble bust of Dickens, so like him, so
+youthful and handsome; and over a bedroom door were inserted the
+bas-reliefs of Night and Day, after Thorwaldsen. On the first floor was
+a rich library, with a fireplace and a writing-table, looking out on the
+garden; and here it was that in winter Dickens and his friends acted
+plays to the satisfaction of all parties. The kitchen was underground,
+and at the top of the house were the bedrooms."
+
+It appears that Andersen was wrong about the plays being acted in the
+"rich library," as I am informed by Mr. Charles Dickens that "the stage
+was in the school-room at the back of the ground-floor, with a platform
+built outside the window for scenic purposes."
+
+With reference to the private theatricals (or "plays," as Andersen calls
+them, including _The Frozen Deep_, by Wilkie Collins, in which Dickens,
+the author, Mark Lemon, and others performed, and for which in the
+matter of the scenery "the priceless help of Stanfield had again been
+secured"), on a temporary difficulty arising as to the arrangements,
+Dickens applied to Mr. Cooke of Astley's, "who drove up in an open
+phaeton drawn by two white ponies with black spots all over them
+(evidently stencilled), who came in at the gate with a little jolt and a
+rattle exactly as they come into the ring when they draw anything, and
+went round and round the centre bed (lilacs and evergreens) of the front
+court, apparently looking for the clown. A multitude of boys, who felt
+them to be no common ponies, rushed up in a breathless state--twined
+themselves like ivy about the railings, and were only deterred from
+storming the enclosure by the Inimitable's eye." Mr. Cooke was not,
+however, able to render any assistance.
+
+Mrs. Arthur Ryland of The Linthurst, near Bromsgrove, Worcestershire,
+who was present at Tavistock House on the occasion of the performance of
+_The Frozen Deep_, informs me that when Dickens returned to the
+drawing-room after the play was over, the constrained expression of face
+which he had assumed in presenting the character of Richard Wardour
+remained for some time afterwards, so strongly did he seem to realize
+the presentment. The other plays performed were _Tom Thumb_, 1854, and
+_The Lighthouse_ and _Fortunus_, 1855.
+
+The following copy of a play-bill--in my collection--of one of these
+performances is certainly worth preserving in a permanent form, for the
+double reason that it is extremely rare, and contains one of Dickens's
+few poetical contributions, _The Song of the Wreck_, which was written
+specially for the occasion.
+
+  The smallest Theatre in the World!
+
+  TAVISTOCK HOUSE.
+
+  _Lessee and Manager_ -- -- -- MR. CRUMMLES.
+
+  On Tuesday evening, June 19th, 1855, will be presented, at exactly
+  eight o'clock,
+  An entirely New and Original
+  Domestic Melo-drama, in Two Acts, by Mr. Wilkie Collins,
+  now first performed, called
+
+  THE LIGHTHOUSE.
+
+  The Scenery painted by Mr. Stanfield, R.A.
+
+  Aaron Gurnock, the head Light-keeper      MR. CRUMMLES.
+
+  Martin Gurnock, his son; the second
+      Light-keeper                          MR. WILKIE COLLINS.
+
+  Jacob Dale, the third Light-keeper        MR. MARK LEMON.
+
+  Samuel Furley, a Pilot                    MR. AUGUSTUS EGG, A.R.A.
+
+  The Relief of Light-keepers, by           MR. CHARLES DICKENS, JUNIOR,
+                                            MR. EDWARD HOGARTH,
+                                            MR. ALFRED AINGER, and
+                                            MR. WILLIAM WEBSTER.
+
+  The Shipwrecked Lady                      MISS HOGARTH.
+
+  Phoebe                                    MISS DICKENS,
+  Who will sing a new Ballad, the music by Mr. Linley, the words
+  by Mr. Crummles, entitled
+
+
+THE SONG OF THE WRECK.
+
+I.
+
+          "The wind blew high, the waters raved,
+             A Ship drove on the land,
+           A hundred human creatures saved,
+             Kneeled down upon the sand.
+           Three-score were drowned, three-score were thrown
+             Upon the black rocks wild;
+           And thus among them left alone,
+             They found one helpless child.
+
+II.
+
+          A Seaman rough, to shipwreck bred,
+            Stood out from all the rest,
+          And gently laid the lonely head
+            Upon his honest breast.
+          And trav'ling o'er the Desert wide,
+            It was a solemn joy,
+          To see them, ever side by side,
+            The sailor and the boy.
+
+III.
+
+          In famine, sickness, hunger, thirst,
+            The two were still but one,
+          Until the strong man drooped the first,
+            And felt his labours done.
+          Then to a trusty friend he spake:
+            'Across this Desert wide,
+          O take the poor boy for my sake!'
+            And kissed the child, and died.
+
+IV.
+
+          Toiling along in weary plight,
+            Through heavy jungle-mire,
+          These two came later every night
+            To warm them at the fire,
+          Until the Captain said one day:
+            'O seaman good and kind,
+          To save thyself now come away
+            And leave the boy behind!'
+
+V.
+
+          The child was slumb'ring near the blaze:
+            'O Captain let him rest
+          Until it sinks, when GOD'S own ways
+            Shall teach us what is best!'
+          They watched the whiten'd ashey heap,
+            They touched the child in vain,
+          They did not leave him there asleep,
+            He never woke again."
+
+
+  Half an hour for Refreshment.
+
+  To conclude with
+  The Guild Amateur Company's Farce, in one act, by Mr. Crummles
+  and Mr. Mark Lemon;
+
+  MR. NIGHTINGALE'S DIARY.
+
+  Mr. Nightingale                          MR. FRANK STONE, A.R.A.
+
+  Mr. Gabblewig, of the Middle Temple    }
+  Charley Bit, a Boots                   }
+  Mr. Poulter, a Pedestrian and cold     }
+    water drinker                        } MR. CRUMMLES.
+  Captain Blower, an invalid             }
+  A Respectable Female                   }
+  A Deaf Sexton                          }
+
+  Tip, Mr. Gabblewig's Tiger             } MR AUGUSTUS EGG, A.R.A.
+  Christopher, a Charity Boy             }
+
+  Slap, Professionally Mr. Flormiville,  }
+    a country actor                      }
+  Mr. Tickle, Inventor of the Celebrated }
+    Compounds                            } MR. MARK LEMON.
+  A Virtuous Young Person in the         }
+    confidence of Maria                  }
+
+  Lithers, Landlord of the Water-lily      MR. WILKIE COLLINS.
+
+  Rosina, Mr. Nightingale's niece          MISS KATE DICKENS.
+
+  Susan her Maid                           MISS HOGARTH.
+
+  Composer and Director of the music, MR. FRANCESCO BERGER, who
+  will preside at the pianoforte.
+
+  Costume makers, MESSRS. NATHAN of Titchbourne Street, Haymarket.
+
+  Perruquier, MR. WILSON, of the Strand.
+
+  Machinery and Properties by MR. IRELAND, of the Theatre Royal,
+  Adelphi.
+
+  _Doors open at half-past seven. Carriages may be ordered at a quarter
+  past eleven._
+
+It was from Tavistock House that Dickens received this startling message
+from a confidential servant:--
+
+"The gas-fitter says, sir, that he can't alter the fitting of your gas
+in your bedroom without taking up almost the ole of your bedroom floor,
+and pulling your room to pieces. He says of course you can have it done
+if you wish, and he'll do it for you and make a good job of it, but he
+would have to destroy your room first, and go entirely under the
+jistes."
+
+The same female, in allusion to Dickens's wardrobe, also said, "Well,
+sir, your clothes is all shabby, and your boots is all burst."
+
+[Illustration: No. 141, Bayham Street, Camden Town,
+
+_where the Dickens Family lived in 1823_.]
+
+Among the important works of Charles Dickens which were wholly or partly
+written at Tavistock House are:--_Bleak House_, _A Child's History of
+England_, _Hard Times_, _Little Dorrit_, _A Tale of Two Cities_, _The
+Uncommercial Traveller_, and _Great Expectations_. _All the Year Round_
+was also determined upon while he lived here, and the first number was
+dated 30th April, 1859.
+
+Tavistock House is the nearest point to Camden Town, interesting as
+being the place where, in 1823, at No. 16 (now No. 141) Bayham Street,
+the Dickens family resided for a short time[2] on leaving Chatham. There
+is an exquisite sketch of the humble little house by Mr. Kitton in his
+_Charles Dickens by Pen and Pencil_, and it is spoken of as being "in
+one of the then poorest parts of the London suburbs." We therefore
+proceed along Gordon Square, and reach Gower Street. At No. 147, Gower
+Street, formerly No. 4, Gower Street North, on the west side, was once
+the elder Mr. Dickens's establishment. The house, now occupied by Mr.
+Mueller, an artificial human eye-maker ("human eyes warious," says Mr.
+Venus), has six rooms, with kitchens in basement. The rooms are rather
+small, each front room having two windows, which in the case of the
+first floor reach from floor to ceiling. It seems to be a comfortable
+house, but has no garden. There is an old-fashioned brass knocker on the
+front door, probably the original one, and there is a dancing academy
+next door. (Query, Mr. Turveydrop's?) The family of the novelist, which
+had removed from Bayham Street, were at this time (1823) in such
+indifferent circumstances that poor Mrs. Dickens had to exert herself
+in adding to the finances by trying to teach, and a school was opened
+for young children at this house, which was decorated with a brass-plate
+on the door, lettered MRS. DICKENS'S ESTABLISHMENT, a faint description
+of which occurs in the fourth chapter of _Our Mutual Friend_, and of its
+abrupt removal "for the interests of all parties." These facts, and also
+that of young Charles Dickens's own efforts to obtain pupils for his
+mother, are alluded to in a letter written by Dickens to Forster in
+later life:--
+
+"I left, at a great many other doors, a great many circulars calling
+attention to the merits of the establishment. Yet nobody ever came to
+school, nor do I ever recollect that anybody ever proposed to come, or
+that the least preparation was made to receive anybody. But I know that
+we got on very badly with the butcher and baker; that very often we had
+not too much for dinner; and that at last my father was arrested."
+
+This period, subsequently most graphically described in _David
+Copperfield_ as the "blacking bottle period," was the darkest in young
+Charles's existence; but happier times and brighter prospects soon came
+to drown the recollections of that bitter experience.
+
+[Illustration: No. 1, Devonshire Terrace, Regent's Park.--_Dickens's
+Residence_ 1839-50.]
+
+Walking up Euston Road from Gower Street, we see St. Pancras Church (not
+the old church of "Saint Pancridge" in the Fields, by the bye, situated
+in the St. Pancras Road, where Mr. Jerry Cruncher and two friends went
+"fishing" on a memorable night, as recorded in _A Tale of Two Cities_,
+when their proceedings, and especially those of his "honoured parent,"
+were watched by young Jerry), and proceed westward along the Marylebone
+Road, called the New Road in Dickens's time, past Park Crescent,
+Regent's Park, and do not stop until we reach No. 1, Devonshire
+Terrace. This commodious double-fronted house, in which Dickens resided
+from 1839 to 1850, is entered at the side, and the front looks into the
+Marylebone Road. Maclise's beautiful sketch of the house (made in 1840),
+as given in Forster's _Life_, shows the windows of the lower and first
+floor rooms as largely bowed, while over the top flat of one of the
+former is a protective iron-work covering, thus allowing the children to
+come out of their nursery on the third floor freely to enjoy the air and
+watch the passers-by. In the sketch Maclise has characteristically put
+in a shuttlecock just over the wall, as though the little ones were
+playing in the garden. Forster calls it "a handsome house with a garden
+of considerable size, shut out from the New Road by a brick wall, facing
+the York Gate into Regent's Park;" and Dickens himself admitted it to be
+"a house of great promise (and great premium), undeniable situation, and
+excessive splendour." That he loved it well is shown by the passage in a
+letter which he addressed to Forster, "in full view of Genoa's perfect
+bay," when about to commence _The Chimes_ (1844); he says:--"Never did I
+stagger so upon a threshold before. I seem as if I had plucked myself
+out of my proper soil when I left Devonshire Terrace, and could take
+root no more until I return to it. . . . Did I tell you how many
+fountains we have here? No matter. If they played nectar, they wouldn't
+please me half so well as the West Middlesex water-works at Devonshire
+Terrace."
+
+Mr. Jonathan Clark, who resides here, kindly shows us over the house,
+which contains thirteen rooms. The polished mahogany doors in the hall,
+and the chaste Italian marble mantel-pieces in the principal rooms, are
+said to have been put up by the novelist. On the ground floor, the
+smaller room to the eastward of the house, with window facing north and
+looking into the pleasant garden where the plane trees and turf are
+beautifully green, is pointed out as having been his study.
+
+Mr. Benjamin Lillie, of 70, High Street, Marylebone, plumber and
+painter, remembers Mr. Dickens coming to Devonshire Terrace. He did a
+good deal of work for him while he lived there, and afterwards, when he
+removed to Tavistock House, including the fitting up of the library
+shelves and the curious counterfeit book-backs, made to conceal the
+backs of the doors. He also removed the furniture to Tavistock House,
+and subsequently to Gad's Hill Place. He spoke of the interest which Mr.
+Dickens used to take in the work generally, and said he would stand for
+hours with his back to the fire looking at the workmen. In the summer
+time he used to lie on the lawn with his pocket-handkerchief over his
+face, and when thoughts occurred to him, he would go into his study, and
+after making notes, would resume his position on the lawn. On the next
+page we give an illustration of the courteous and precise manner--not
+without a touch of humour--in which he issued his orders.
+
+Here it was that Dickens's favourite ravens were kept, in a stable on
+the south side of the garden, one of which died in 1841, it was supposed
+from the effects of paint, or owing to "a malicious butcher," who had
+been heard to say that he "would do for him." His death is described by
+Dickens in a long passage which thus concludes:--
+
+          "On the clock striking twelve he appeared slightly
+          agitated, but he soon recovered, walked twice or
+          thrice along the coach-house, stopped to bark,
+          staggered, exclaimed, '_Holloa, old girl!_' (his
+          favourite expression), and died."
+
+[Illustration:
+
+          3 Hanover Terrace
+                        Friday Tenth May, 1861.
+
+Mr. Lillie
+
+Please make the alteration in the two windows in Wellington Street,
+agreeably to the estimate you have sent me, and to have the work
+completed with all convenient speed. Be so good as to be careful that
+the bottom sashes are capable of being easily raised and the top sashes
+of being easily let down----
+
+                                            Faithfully yours
+                                                   Charles Dickens]
+
+In an interesting letter addressed to Mr. Angus Fletcher, recently in
+the possession of Mr. Arthur Hailstone of Manchester, Dickens further
+describes the event:--"Suspectful of a butcher who had been heard to
+threaten, I had the body opened. There were no traces of poison, and it
+appeared he died of influenza. He has left considerable property,
+chiefly in cheese and halfpence, buried in different parts of the
+garden. The new raven (I have a new one, but he is comparatively of weak
+intellect) administered to his effects, and turns up something every
+day. The last piece of _bijouterie_ was a hammer of considerable size,
+supposed to have been stolen from a vindictive carpenter, who had been
+heard to speak darkly of vengeance down the mews."
+
+Maclise on hearing the news sent to Forster a letter, and a pen-and-ink
+sketch, being the famous "Apotheosis." The second raven died in 1845,
+probably from "having indulged the same illicit taste for putty and
+paint, which had been fatal to his predecessor." Dickens says:--
+
+          "Voracity killed him, as it did Scott's; he died
+          unexpectedly by the kitchen fire. He kept his eye
+          to the last upon the meat as it roasted, and
+          suddenly turned over on his back with a sepulchral
+          cry of '_Cuckoo!_'"
+
+These ravens were of course the two "great originals" of which Grip in
+_Barnaby Rudge_ was the "compound." There was a third raven at Gad's
+Hill, but he "gave no evidence of ever cultivating his mind." The
+novelist's remarkable partiality for ravens called forth at the time the
+preposterous rumour that "Dickens had gone raving (raven) mad."
+
+Here Longfellow visited Dickens in 1841, and thus referred to his
+visit:--"I write this from Dickens's study, the focus from which so many
+luminous things have radiated. The raven croaks in the garden, and the
+ceaseless roar of London fills my ears."
+
+[Illustration: Apotheosis of "Grip" the Raven. Drawn by D. Maclise,
+R.A.]
+
+Dickens lived longer at Devonshire Terrace than he did at any other of
+his London homes, and a great deal of his best work was done here,
+including _Master Humphrey's Clock_ (I. _The Old Curiosity Shop_, II.
+_Barnaby Rudge_), _American Notes_, _Martin Chuzzlewit_, _A Christmas
+Carol_, _The Cricket on the Hearth_, _Dombey and Son_, _The Haunted
+Man_, and _David Copperfield_. _The Battle of Life_ was written at
+Geneva in 1846. All these were published from his twenty-eighth to his
+thirty-eighth year; and _Household Words_, his famous weekly popular
+serial of varied high-class literature, was determined upon here, the
+first number being issued on 30th March, 1850.
+
+From Devonshire Terrace we pass along High Street, and turn into
+Devonshire Street, which leads into Harley Street, minutely described in
+_Little Dorrit_ as the street wherein resided the great financier and
+"master-spirit" Mr. Merdle, who entertained "Bar, Bishop, and the
+Barnacle family" at the "Patriotic conference" recorded in the same
+work, in his noble mansion there, and he subsequently perishes "in the
+warm baths, in the neighbouring street"--as one may say--in the
+luxuriant style in which he had always lived.
+
+Harley Street leads us into Oxford Street, and a pleasant ride outside
+an omnibus--which, as everybody knows, is the best way of seeing
+London--takes us to Hyde Park Place, a row of tall stately houses facing
+Hyde Park. Here at No. 5, (formerly Mr. Milner Gibson's town residence)
+Charles Dickens temporarily resided during the winter months of 1869,
+and occasionally until May 1870, during his readings at St. James's
+Hall, and while he was engaged on _Edwin Drood_, part of which was
+written here; this being illustrative of Dickens's power of
+concentrating his thoughts even near the rattle of a public
+thoroughfare. In a letter addressed to Mr. James T. Fields from this
+house, under date of 14th January, 1870, he says:--"We live here
+(opposite the Marble Arch) in a charming house until the 1st of June,
+and then return to Gad's. . . . I have a large room here with three fine
+windows over-looking the park--unsurpassable for airiness and
+cheerfulness."
+
+A similar public conveyance takes us back to Morley's by way of Regent
+Street, about the middle of which, on the west side, is New Burlington
+Street, containing, at No. 8, the well-known publishing office of
+Messrs. Richard Bentley and Son, whose once celebrated magazine,
+_Bentley's Miscellany_, Dickens edited for a period of two years and two
+months, terminating, 1838, on his resignation of the editorship to Mr.
+W. Harrison Ainsworth; and we also pass lower down, at the bottom of
+Waterloo Place, that most select of clubs, "The Athenaeum," at the corner
+of Pall Mall, of which Dickens was elected a member in 1838, and from
+which, on the 20th May, 1870, he wrote his last letter to his son, Mr.
+Alfred Tennyson Dickens, in Australia; and a tenderly loving letter it
+is, indicating the harmonious relations between father and son. It
+expresses the hope that the two (Alfred and "Plorn") "may become
+proprietors," and "aspire to the first positions in the colony without
+casting off the old connection," and thus concludes:--"From Mr. Bear I
+had the best accounts of you. I told him that they did not surprise me,
+for I had unbounded faith in you. For which take my love and blessing."
+Sad to say, a note to this (the last in the series of published letters)
+states:--"This letter did not reach Australia until after these two sons
+of Charles Dickens had heard, by telegraph, the news of their father's
+death."[3]
+
+At Morley's we refresh ourselves with Mr. Sam Weller's idea of a nice
+little dinner, consisting of "pair of fowls and a weal cutlet; French
+beans, taturs, tart and tidiness;" and then depart for Victoria Station,
+to take train by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway to Rochester.
+
+The weather forecast issued by that most valuable institution, the
+Meteorological Office (established since Mr. Pickwick's days, in which
+doubtless as a scientist and traveller he would have taken great
+interest), was verified to the letter, and we had "thunder locally." On
+our way down Parliament Street, we pass Inigo Jones's once splendid
+Whitehall--now looking very insignificant as compared with its grand
+neighbours the Government Offices opposite--remembering Mr. Jingle's
+joke about Whitehall, which seems to have been Dickens's first thought
+of "King Charles's head":--"Looking at Whitehall, Sir--fine
+place--little window--somebody else's head off there, eh, Sir?--he
+didn't keep a sharp look out enough either--eh, Sir, eh?"
+
+We also pass "The Red Lion," No. 48, Parliament Street, "at the corner
+of the very short street leading into Cannon Row," where David
+Copperfield ordered a glass of the very best ale--"The Genuine Stunning
+with a good head to it"--at twopence half-penny the glass, but the
+landlord hesitated to draw it, and gave him a glass of some which he
+suspected was _not_ the "genuine stunning"; and the landlady coming into
+the bar returned his money, and gave him a "kiss that was half-admiring
+and half-compassionate, but all womanly and good [he says], I'm sure."
+
+[Illustration: "My magnificent order at the Public House" (_vide_
+"_David Copperfield_").]
+
+The Horse-Guards' clock is the last noteworthy object, and reminds us
+that Mark Tapley noticed the time there, on the occasion of his last
+meeting with Mary Graham in St. James's Park, before starting for
+America. It also reminds us of Mr. Micawber's maxim, "Procrastination is
+the thief of time--collar him;"--a few minutes afterwards we are
+comfortably seated in the train, and can defy the storm, which overtakes
+us precisely in the manner described in _The Old Curiosity Shop_:--
+
+          "It had been gradually getting overcast, and now
+          the sky was dark and lowering, save where the
+          glory of the departing sun piled up masses of gold
+          and burning fire, decaying embers of which gleamed
+          here and there through the black veil, and shone
+          redly down upon the earth. The wind began to moan
+          in hollow murmurs, as the sun went down, carrying
+          glad day elsewhere; and a train of dull clouds
+          coming up against it menaced thunder and
+          lightning. Large drops of rain soon began to fall,
+          and, as the storm clouds came sailing onward,
+          others supplied the void they left behind, and
+          spread over all the sky. Then was heard the low
+          rumbling of distant thunder, then the lightning
+          quivered, and then the darkness of an hour seemed
+          to have gathered in an instant."
+
+We pass Dulwich,--where Mr. Snodgrass and Emily Wardle were married,--a
+fact that recalls kindly recollections of Mr. Pickwick and his
+retirement there, as recorded in the closing pages of the _Pickwick
+Papers_, where he is described as "employing his leisure hours in
+arranging the memoranda which he afterwards presented to the secretary
+of the once famous club, or in hearing Sam Weller read aloud, with such
+remarks as suggested themselves to his mind, which never failed to
+afford Mr. Pickwick great amusement." He is subsequently described as
+"somewhat infirm now, but he retains all his former juvenility of
+spirit, and may still be frequently seen contemplating the pictures in
+the Dulwich Gallery, or enjoying a walk about the pleasant neighbourhood
+on a fine day."
+
+Although it is but a short distance--under thirty miles--to Rochester,
+the journey seems tedious, as the "iron-horse" does not keep pace with
+the pleasurable feelings of eager expectation afloat in our minds on
+this our first visit to "Dickens-Land"; it is therefore with joyful
+steps that we leave the train, and, the storm having passed away, find
+ourselves in the cool of the summer evening on the platform of Strood
+and Rochester Bridge Station.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] In _The History of Pickwick_, a handsome octavo volume of nearly 400
+pages, just published (1891), Mr. Percy Fitzgerald, the author, who is
+one of the few surviving friends of Charles Dickens, mentions the
+interesting fact that there are 360 characters, 70 episodes, and 22
+inns, described in this wonderful book, written when the author was only
+twenty-four.
+
+[2] Forster (I. 14) infers that the family removed to London in 1821,
+but Mr. Langton considers (_Childhood and Youth of Charles Dickens_,
+1883, pp. 62-3), from the fact of the birth of Dickens's brother Alfred
+having been registered at Chatham on 3rd April, 1822, and from the
+further fact of there being no record of Mr. John Dickens's recall
+throughout this year to Somerset House, that the family did not remove
+to London until the winter of 1822-3, and I agree with Mr. Langton. Mr.
+Kitton in _Charles Dickens by Pen and Pencil_, 1890, also recognizes
+this period as the date of the removal of the Dickens family to London.
+
+[3] Mr. Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens, a son of the great Novelist, is a
+member of the New South Wales Parliament, having been elected in March
+1889. "He stood as a Protectionist for the representation of Wilcannia,
+an extensive pastoral district in the western portion of the colony. His
+father, it will be remembered, was an ardent Free Trader, and could not
+be prevailed upon to enter the British Parliament on any terms, and
+occasionally said some severe things of our Legislative Assembly. His
+two sons, Alfred Tennyson and Edward Bulwer Lytton, emigrated to
+Australia some years ago, and became successful pastoralists."--_Yorkshire
+Daily Post_, March 1889. A subsequent account states that Mr. Edward
+Bulwer Lytton Dickens is about to retire, having been, he remarks, "out
+of pocket, out of brains, out of health, and out of temper, by the
+pursuit of political glory."--_Pall Mall Gazette_, March 1891. I am
+since informed that Alfred is not a pastoralist, but in business, and
+that Edward has not retired up to date.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+ROCHESTER CITY.
+
+        "The silent High Street of Rochester is full of
+          gables, with old beams and timbers carved into
+          strange faces. It is oddly garnished with a queer
+          old clock that projects over the pavement out of a
+          grave red brick building, as if Time carried on
+          business there, and hung out his sign."--_The
+          Seven Poor Travellers._
+
+        "The town was glad with morning light."--_The Old
+          Curiosity Shop._
+
+
+MUDFOG, Our Town, Dullborough, the Market Town, and Cloisterham were the
+varied names that Charles Dickens bestowed upon the "ancient city" of
+Rochester. Every reader of his works knows how well he loved it in early
+youth, and how he returned to it with increased affection during the
+years of his ripened wisdom. Among the first pages of the first chapter
+of Forster's _Life_ we find references to it:--"That childhood
+exaggerates what it sees, too, has he not tenderly told? How he thought
+that the Rochester High-street must be at least as wide as Regent Street
+which he afterwards discovered to be little better than a lane; how the
+public clock in it, supposed to be the finest clock in the world, turned
+out to be as moon-faced and weak a clock as a man's eyes ever saw; and
+how in its Town Hall, which had appeared to him once so glorious a
+structure that he had set it up in his mind as the model from which the
+genie of the Lamp built the palace for Aladdin, he had painfully to
+recognize a mere mean little heap of bricks, like a chapel gone
+demented. Yet, not so painfully either when second thoughts wisely came.
+'Ah! who was I, [he says] that I should quarrel with the town for being
+changed to me, when I myself had come back, so changed, to it? All my
+early readings and early imaginations dated from this place, and I took
+them away so full of innocent construction and guileless belief, and I
+brought them back so worn and torn, so much the wiser and so much the
+worse!'"
+
+It would occupy too much space in this narrative to adequately give even
+a brief historical sketch of the City of Rochester, which is twenty-nine
+miles from London, situated on the river Medway, and stands on the chalk
+on the margin of the London basin; but we think lovers of Dickens will
+not object to a recapitulation of a few of the most noteworthy
+circumstances which have happened here, and which are not touched upon
+in the chapters relating to the Castle and Cathedral.
+
+According to the eminent local antiquary, Mr. Roach Smith, F.S.A., the
+name of the city has been thus evolved:--"The ceastre or chester is a
+Saxon affix to the Romano-British (DU)RO. The first two letters being
+dropped in sound, it became Duro or Dro, and then ROchester, and it was
+the Roman station Durobrovis." The ancient Britons called it "Dur-brif,"
+and the Saxons "Hrofe-ceastre"--Horf's castle, of which appellation some
+people think Rochester is a corruption.
+
+Rochester is a place of great antiquity, and so far back as A.D. 600 it
+seems to have been a walled city. Remains of the mediaeval Wall exist in
+very perfect condition, at the back of the Eagle Inn in High Street, and
+in other parts of the city. In 676 Rochester was plundered by Ethelred,
+King of Mercia; and in 884 the Danes sailed up the Medway and besieged
+it, but were effectually repulsed by King Alfred. About 930, when three
+Mints were established there by Athelstan, it had grown to be one of the
+principal ports of the kingdom. William the Conqueror gave the town to
+his half-brother Odo, Bishop of Bayeux. Fires in 1130 and 1137 nearly
+destroyed it.
+
+Not a few royal and distinguished personages have visited Rochester on
+various occasions, among others Henry VIII., who came there in 1522,
+accompanied by the Emperor Charles V. Queen Elizabeth came in 1573, when
+she stayed five days, and attended the Cathedral service on Sunday. She
+came again in 1583, with the Duke of Anjou, and showed him her "mighty
+ships of war lying at Chatham." King James I. also visited the city in
+1604 and 1606. On the latter occasion His Majesty, who was accompanied
+by Christian IV., King of Denmark, attended the Cathedral, and
+afterwards inspected the Navy. Charles II. paid it a visit just before
+the restoration in 1660, and again subsequently. It is believed that on
+both occasions he stayed at Restoration House (the "Satis House" of
+_Great Expectations_) hereafter referred to. Mr. Richard Head presented
+His Majesty with a silver ewer and basin on the occasion of the
+restoration. James II. came down to the quiet old city December 19th,
+1688, and sojourned with Sir Richard Head for a week at a house (now No.
+46 High Street), from whence he ignominiously escaped to France by a
+smack moored off Sheerness. Mr. Stephen T. Aveling mentioned to us that
+"it is curious that Charles the Second 'came to his own' in Rochester,
+and that James the Second 'skedaddled' from the same city."[4] Her
+Majesty when Princess Victoria stayed at the Bull Inn in 1836 for a
+night with her mother, the Duchess of Kent, on their way from Dover to
+London. It was a very tempestuous night, some of the balustrades of
+Rochester Bridge having been blown into the river, and the Royal
+Princess was advised not to attempt to cross the bridge.
+
+"On the last day of June 1667 (says Mr. W. Brenchley Rye in his pleasant
+_Visits to Rochester_), Mr. Samuel Pepys, after examining the defences
+at Chatham shortly after the disastrous expedition by the Dutch up the
+Medway, walked into Rochester Cathedral, but he had no mind to stay to
+the service, . . . 'afterwards strolled into the fields, a fine walk,
+and there saw Sir F. Clarke's house (Restoration House), which is a
+pretty seat, and into the Cherry Garden, and here met with a young,
+plain, silly shopkeeper and his wife, a pretty young woman, and I did
+kiss her!'" David Garrick was living at Rochester in 1737, for the
+purpose of receiving instruction in mathematics, etc., from Mr. Colson.
+In 1742, Hogarth visited the city, in that celebrated peregrination with
+his four friends, and played hop-scotch in the courtyard of the
+Guildhall. Dr. Johnson came here in 1783, and "returned to London by
+water in a common boat, landing at Billingsgate."
+
+The city formerly possessed many ancient charters and privileges
+granted to the citizens, but these were superseded by the Municipal
+Corporations Act of 1835.
+
+The Guildhall, "marked by a gilt ship aloft,"--"where the mayor and
+corporation assemble together in solemn council for the public
+weal,"--is "a substantial and very suitable structure of brick,
+supported by stone columns in the Doric order," and was erected in 1687.
+It has several fine portraits by Sir Godfrey Kneller and other eminent
+painters, including those of King William III., Queen Anne, Sir
+Cloudesley Shovell, Richard Watts, M.P., and others. The Corporation
+also possess many interesting and valuable city regalia, namely, a large
+silver-gilt mace (1661), silver loving-cup (1719), silver oar and
+silver-gilt ornaments (typical of the Admiralty jurisdiction of the
+Corporation) (1748), two small maces of silver (1767), sword (1871--the
+Mayor being Constable of the Castle), and chain and badges of gold and
+enamel (1875), the last-mentioned commemorating many historical
+incidents connected with the city.
+
+Emerging from the railway station of the London, Chatham and Dover
+Company at Strood, a drive of a few minutes (over the bridge) brings us
+to the first object of our pilgrimage, the "Bull Inn,"--we beg pardon,
+the "Royal Victoria and Bull Hotel,"--in High Street, Rochester, which
+was visited by Mr. Pickwick, Mr. Tupman, Mr. Snodgrass, Mr. Winkle, and
+their newly-made friend, Mr. Jingle, on the 13th May, 1827. Our cabman
+is so satisfied with his fare ("only a bob's worth"), that he does not,
+as one of his predecessors did, on a very remarkable occasion, "fling
+the money on the pavement, and request in figurative terms to be allowed
+the pleasure of fighting us for the amount," which circumstance we take
+to be an improving sign of the times.
+
+Changed in name, but not in condition, it seems scarcely possible that
+we stand under the gateway of the charming old inn that we have known
+from our boyhood, when first we read our _Pickwick_, what time the two
+green leaves of _Martin Chuzzlewit_ were putting forth monthly, and when
+the name of Charles Dickens, although familiar, had not become the
+"household word" to us, and to the world, that it is now.
+
+[Illustration: Bull Inn Rochester Good house Nice beds. vide Pickwick.]
+
+We look round for evidence--"Good house, nice beds"--"(vide _Pickwick_)"
+appear on the two sign-boards fixed on either side of the entrance-gate.
+Only then are we quite sure our driver has not made a mistake and taken
+us to "Wright's next door," which every reader of _Pickwick_ knows, on
+the authority of Mr. Jingle, "was dear--very dear--half a crown in the
+bill if you look at the waiter--charge you more if you dine out at a
+friend's than they would if you dined in the coffee-room--rum
+fellows--very."
+
+Haunches of venison, saddles of mutton, ribs of beef, York hams, fowls
+and ducks, hang over our heads in the capacious covered gateway; cold
+viands are seen in a glass cupboard opposite, and silently promise that
+some good fare, like that which regaled Mr. Pickwick and his friends, is
+still to be found at the Bull. In the distance is seen the large
+old-fashioned coach-yard, surrounded by odd buildings, which on market
+days (Tuesdays) is crowded with all sorts of vehicles ancient and
+modern. On our right is the kitchen, "brilliant with glowing coals and
+rows of shining copper lying well open to view."
+
+By the kindness of Mr. Richard Prall, the town-clerk, beds have been
+secured for us, and the landlord meets us at the door with a hearty
+welcome. We are conducted to our rooms on the second floor looking
+front, on reaching which a strange feeling takes possession of us.
+Surely we have been here before? Not a bit of it! But the bedrooms are
+nevertheless familiar to us; we see it all in a minute--the writer's
+apartment is Mr. Tupman's, and his friend's is Mr. Winkle's!
+
+"Winkle's bedroom is inside mine," said Mr. Tupman, after that
+delightful dinner of "soles, broiled fowl, and mushrooms," in the
+private sitting-room at the Bull, when all the other Pickwickians had,
+"after the cosy couple of hours succeeding dinner, more or less
+succumbed to the somniferous influence which the wine had exerted over
+them," and he and Mr. Jingle alone remained wakeful, and were discussing
+the idea of attending the forthcoming ball in the evening.
+
+It is an unexpected and pleasant coincidence that we are located in
+these two rooms, and altogether a good omen for our tramp generally.
+They are numbered 13 and 19, and the reason why the numbers are not
+consecutive is because 19 (Mr. Winkle's room) is also approached by a
+back staircase. Mr. Pickwick's room, as befitted his years and his
+dignity as G.C.M.P.C., is a larger room, and is number 17. They are all
+comfortable chambers, with "nice beds."
+
+[Illustration: Staircase at "The Bull"]
+
+The principal staircase of the Bull, which is almost wide enough to
+drive a carriage and four up it, remains exactly as it was in Mr.
+Pickwick's days, as described by Dickens and delineated by Seymour. We
+could almost fancy we witnessed the memorable scene depicted in the
+illustration, where the irascible Dr. Slammer confronts the
+imperturbable Jingle. The staircase has on its walls a large number of
+pictures and engravings, some curious and valuable, a few of which are
+of purely local interest. A series of oil paintings represent the
+costumes of all nations. There is a copy of "The Empty Chair," from the
+drawing of Mr. Luke Fildes, R.A., and also one of the scarce proof
+lithographs of "Dickens as Captain Bobadil," after the painting by C. R.
+Leslie, R.A.
+
+Mr. Lawrence informed us that some years ago "The Owl Club" held its
+meetings at the Bull--a social club, reminding us strongly of one of the
+early papers in _Bentley's Miscellany_, illustrated by George
+Cruikshank, entitled the "Harmonious Owls," which has recently been
+reprinted in the collection called _Old Miscellany Days_, in which
+paper, by the bye, are several names from Dickens.
+
+In one of the cheerful private sitting-rooms, of which there are many,
+we find a portrait of Dickens that is new to us. Never have we seen one
+that so vividly reproduced the novelist as one of us saw him, and heard
+him read, in the Town Hall at Birmingham, on the 10th of May, 1866. It
+is a vignette photograph by Watkins, coloured by Mr. J. Hopper, a local
+artist, representing the face of the novelist in full, wearing afternoon
+dress--black coat, and white shirt-front, with gold studs--the attitude
+being perfectly natural and unconstrained, and a pleasant calm upon the
+otherwise firm features. The high forehead is surmounted by the
+well-remembered single curl of brown hair, the sole survival of those
+profuse locks which grace Maclise's beautiful portrait. The bright blue
+eyes, with the light reflected on the pupils like diamonds, seem to
+follow one in every direction. The lines, of course, are marked, but not
+too strongly; and the faint hectic flush which was apparent in later
+years--notably when we saw him again in Birmingham in 1869--shows signs
+of development. The beard hides the neck, and the white collar is
+conspicuous. Altogether it is one of the most successful portraits we
+remember to have seen. As witness of its popularity locally, we may
+mention that we saw copies of it at Major Budden's at Gad's Hill, at the
+Mitre Hotel, Chatham, and at the Leather Bottle Inn, Cobham. We are also
+informed that Mr. Henry Irving gave a good sum for a copy, in the spring
+of last year. Mr. Lawrence, our host, by good fortune, happening to
+possess a duplicate, kindly allows us the opportunity of purchasing it
+("portable property" as Mr. Wemmick remarks), as an addition to our
+Dickens collection which it adorns. "Beautiful!" "Splendid!" "Dickens to
+the life!" are the comments of friends to whom we show it, who
+personally knew, or remembered, the original.
+
+Here is the ball-room, entered from the first-floor landing of the
+principal staircase, and the card-room adjoining, precisely as it was in
+Mr. Pickwick's days:--
+
+          "It was a long room with crimson-covered benches,
+          and wax candles in glass chandeliers. The
+          musicians were confined in an elevated den, and
+          quadrilles were being systematically got through
+          by two or three sets of dancers. Two card-tables
+          were made up in the adjoining card-room, and two
+          pair of old ladies, and a corresponding number of
+          old gentlemen, were executing whist therein."
+
+A very little stretch of the imagination carries us back sixty years,
+and, _presto!_ the ball-room stands before us, with the wax candles
+lighted, and the room filled with the _elite_ of Chatham and Rochester
+society, who, acting on the principle of "that general benevolence which
+was one of the leading features of the Pickwickian theory," had given
+their support to that "ball for the benefit of a charity," then being
+held there, and which was attended by Mr. Tracy Tupman, in his new
+dress-coat with the P. C. button and bust of Mr. Pickwick in the centre,
+and by Mr. Jingle, in the borrowed garments of the same nature belonging
+to Mr. Winkle.
+
+"P. C.," said the stranger.--"Queer set out--old fellow's likeness and
+'P. C.'--What does 'P. C.' stand for? 'Peculiar Coat,' eh?" Imagine the
+"rising indignation" and impatience of Mr. Tupman, as with "great
+importance" he explains the mystic device!
+
+[Illustration: The "Elevated Den" in the Ball Room: ("Bull" Inn)]
+
+Everybody remembers how, declining the usual introduction, the two
+entered the ball-room _incog._, as "Gentlemen from London--distinguished
+foreigners--anything;" how Mr. Jingle said in reply to Mr. Tupman's
+remark, "Wait a minute--fun presently--nobs not come yet--queer
+place--Dock-yard people of upper rank don't know Dock-yard people of
+lower rank--Dock-yard people of lower rank don't know small
+gentry--small gentry don't know tradespeople--Commissioner don't know
+anybody."
+
+The "man at the door,"--the local M.C.,--announces the arrivals.
+
+"Sir Thomas Clubber, Lady Clubber, and the Miss Clubbers!"
+"Commissioner--head of the yard--great man--remarkably great man,"
+whispers the stranger in Mr. Tupman's ear.
+
+"Colonel Bulder, Mrs. Colonel Bulder, and Miss Bulder," are announced.
+"Head of the garrison," says Mr. Jingle. "They exchanged snuff-boxes
+[how old-fashioned it appears to us who don't take snuff], and looked
+very much like a pair of Alexander Selkirks--Monarchs of all they
+surveyed."
+
+More arrivals are announced, and dancing begins in earnest; but the most
+interesting one to us is Dr. Slammer--"a little fat man, with a ring of
+upright black hair round his head, and an extensive bald plain on the
+top of it--Dr. Slammer, surgeon to the 97th, who is agreeable to
+everybody, especially to the Widow Budger.--'Lots of money--old
+girl--pompous doctor--not a bad idea--good fun,' says the stranger.
+'I'll dance with her--cut out the doctor--here goes.'" Then comes the
+flirtation, the dancing, the negus and biscuits, the coquetting, the
+leading of Mrs. Budger to her carriage. The volcano bursts with terrific
+energy. . . .
+
+"'You--you're a shuffler, sir,' gasps the furious doctor, 'a poltroon--a
+coward--a liar--a--a--will nothing induce you to give me your card,
+sir?'" and in the morning comes the challenge to the duel. It all passes
+before our delighted mental vision, as we picture the circumstances
+recorded in the beloved _Pickwick_ of our youth upwards.
+
+Here also is the bar, just opposite the coffee-room, where the "Tickets
+for the Ball" were purchased by Mr. Tupman for himself and Mr. Jingle at
+"half a guinea each" (Mr. Jingle having won the toss), and where Dr.
+Slammer's friend subsequently made inquiry for "the owner of the coat,
+who arrived here, with three gentlemen, yesterday afternoon." We find it
+to be a very cosy and comfortable bar-room too, wherein we subsequently
+enjoy many a social pipe and pleasant chat with its friendly
+frequenters, reminding us of the old tavern-life as described in Dr.
+Johnson's days.
+
+The coffee-room of the Bull, in which we take our supper, remains
+unaltered since the days of the Pickwickians. It is on the left-hand
+side as we enter the hotel from the covered gateway--not very large, but
+warm and comfortable, with three windows looking into the High Street.
+Many scenes in the novels have taken place in this memorable
+apartment--in fact, it is quite historical, from a Dickensian point of
+view.
+
+Here it was that the challenge to the duel from Dr. Slammer to Mr.
+Winkle was delivered; and, when Mr. Winkle appeared, in response to the
+call of the boots, that "a gentleman in the coffee-room" wanted to see
+him, and would not detain him a moment, but would take no denial, "an
+old woman and a couple of waiters were cleaning the coffee-room, and an
+officer in undress uniform was looking out of the window." Here also the
+Pickwickians assembled on that eventful morning when the party set out,
+three in a chaise and one on horseback, for Dingley Dell, and
+encountered such dire mishaps. "Mr. Pickwick had made his preliminary
+arrangements, and was looking over the coffee-room blinds at the
+passengers in the High Street, when the waiter entered, and announced
+that the chaise was ready--an announcement which the vehicle itself
+confirmed, by forthwith appearing before the coffee-room blinds
+aforesaid." Subsequently, as they prepare to start, "'Wo-o!' cried Mr.
+Pickwick, as the tall quadruped evinced a decided inclination to back
+into the coffee-room window."
+
+It is highly probable that the descriptions of "the little town of Great
+Winglebury," and "the Winglebury Arms," in "The Great Winglebury Duel"
+of the _Sketches by Boz_, one of the earliest works of the novelist,
+refer to the city of Rochester and the Bull Inn, for they fit in very
+well in many respects, although it _is_ stated therein that "the little
+town of Great Winglebury is exactly forty-two miles and three-quarters
+from Hyde Park Corner."
+
+The Blue Boar mentioned in _Great Expectations_--one of the most
+original, touching, and dramatic of Dickens's novels--is indubitably the
+Bull Hotel. Although there is an inn in High Street, Rochester, called
+the Blue Boar, its description does not at all correspond with the text.
+We find several instances like this, where, probably for purposes of
+concealment, the real identity of places and persons is masked.
+
+Our first introduction to the Blue Boar is on the occasion of Pip's
+being bound apprentice to Joe Gargery, the premium for whom was paid out
+of the twenty-five guineas given to Pip by Miss Havisham. Pip's sister
+"became so excited by the twenty-five guineas, that nothing would serve
+but we must have a dinner out of that windfall at the Blue Boar, and
+that Pumblechook must go over in his chaise cart, and bring the Hubbles
+and Mr. Wopsle." The dinner is duly disposed of, and although poor Pip
+was frequently enjoined to "enjoy himself," he certainly failed to do
+so on this occasion. "Among the festivities indulged in rather late in
+the evening," says Pip, "Mr. Wopsle gave us _Collins's Ode_, and 'threw
+his blood-stain'd sword in thunder down,' with such effect, that a
+waiter came in and said 'The Commercials underneath sent up their
+compliments, and it wasn't the Tumblers' Arms!'" from which we gather
+that the said dinner took place in a private sitting-room (No. 3) over
+the commercial room, on the opposite side of the gateway to the
+coffee-room.
+
+It will be remembered that on Pip's attaining "the second stage of his
+expectations," Pumblechook had grown very obsequious and fawning to
+him--pressed him to take refreshment, as who should say, "But, my dear
+young friend, you must be hungry, you must be exhausted. Be seated. Here
+is a chicken had round from the Boar, here is a tongue had round from
+the Boar, here's one or two little things had round from the Boar that I
+hope you may not despise. 'But do I,' said Mr. Pumblechook, getting up
+again the moment after he had sat down, 'see afore me him as I ever
+sported with in his times of happy infancy? And may I--_may_ I--?' This
+'May I?' meant might he shake hands? I consented, and he was fervent,
+and then sat down again."
+
+Returning to the coffee-room, we discover it was the identical apartment
+in which the unexpected and very peculiar meeting took place between Pip
+and "the spider," Bentley Drummle, "the sulky and red-looking young man,
+of a heavy order of architecture," both "Finches of the Grove," and
+rivals for the hand of Estella. Each stands shoulder to shoulder against
+the fire-place, and, but for Pip's forbearance, an explosion must have
+taken place.
+
+Through the same coffee-room windows, poor Pip looks under the reverses
+of his great expectations in consequence of the discovery and subsequent
+death of his patron. The "servile Pumblechook," who appears here
+uninvited, again changes his manner and conduct, becoming ostentatiously
+compassionate and forgiving, as he had been meanly servile in the time
+of Pip's new prosperity, thus:--"'Young man, I am sorry to see you
+brought low, but what else could be expected! what else could be
+expected! . . . This is him . . . as I have rode in my shay-cart; this
+is him as I have seen brought up by hand; this is him untoe the sister
+of which I was uncle by marriage, as her name was Georgiana M'ria from
+her own mother, let him deny it if he can.' . . ."
+
+Dickens takes leave of the Blue Boar, in the last chapter of the work,
+in these words:--
+
+          "The tidings of my high fortunes having had a
+          heavy fall, had got down to my native place and
+          its neighbourhood, before I got there. I found the
+          Blue Boar in possession of the intelligence, and I
+          found that it made a great change in the Boar's
+          demeanour. Whereas the Boar had cultivated my good
+          opinion with warm assiduity when I was coming into
+          property, the Boar was exceedingly cool on the
+          subject now that I was going out of property.
+
+          "It was evening when I arrived, much fatigued by
+          the journey I had so often made so easily. The
+          Boar could not put me into my usual bedroom, which
+          was engaged,--probably by some one who had
+          expectations,--and could only assign me a very
+          indifferent chamber among the pigeons and
+          post-chaises up the yard. But, I had as sound a
+          sleep in that lodging as in the most superior
+          accommodation the Boar could have given me, and
+          the quality of my dreams was about the same as in
+          the best bedroom."
+
+The visitors' book in the coffee-room, at the Bull--we never shall call
+it "The Royal Victoria and Bull Hotel"--abounds with complimentary
+remarks on the hospitable treatment received by its guests; and there
+are several poetical effusions, inspired by the classic nature of
+"Dickens-Land." One of these, under date of the 18th September, 1887, is
+worth recording:--
+
+          "The man who knows his Dickens as he should,
+           Enjoys a double pleasure in this place;
+           He loves to walk its ancient streets, and trace
+           The scenes where Dickens' characters have stood.
+           He reads _The Mystery of Edwin Drood_
+           In Jasper's Gatehouse, and, with Tope as guide,
+           Explores the old cathedral, Durdles' pride;
+           Descends into the Crypt, and even would
+           Ascend the Tower by moonlight, thence to see
+           Fair Cloisterham reposing at his feet,
+           And passing out, he almost hopes to meet
+           Crisparkle and the white-haired Datchery.
+           The gifted writer 'sleeps among our best
+           And noblest' in our Minster of the West;
+           Yet still he lives in this, his favourite scene,
+           Which for all time shall keep his memory green."
+
+[Illustration: Old Rochester Bridge]
+
+We follow Mr. Pickwick's example as regards early rising, and, taking a
+turn before breakfast, find ourselves on Rochester Bridge. Nature has
+not much changed since the memorable visit of that "truly great man,"
+who in the original announcement of _The Pickwick Papers_ is stated with
+his companions to have "fearlessly crossed the turbid Medway in an open
+boat;" but the march of civilization has effaced the old bridge, and lo!
+three bridges stand in the place thereof. The beautiful stone structure
+(temp. Edward III.) which Mr. Pickwick leant over, having become
+unsuitable, was blown up by the Royal Engineers in 1856, and a handsome
+iron bridge erected in its place. The debris was removed by Mr. J. H.
+Ball, the contractor, who presented Dickens with one of the balustrades,
+others having been utilized to form the coping of the embankment of the
+esplanade under the castle walls. The iron bridge was built by Messrs.
+Fox and Henderson, the foundations being laid in 1850. The machinery
+constituting "the swing-bridge or open ship canal (fifty feet wide) at
+the Strood end is very beautiful; the entire weight to be moved is two
+hundred tons, yet the bridge is readily swung by two men at a capstan."
+So says one of the Guide Books, but as a matter of fact we find that it
+is not now used! The other two bridges (useful, but certainly not
+ornamental) belong to the respective railway companies which have
+systems through Rochester, and absolutely shut out every prospect below
+stream. What _would_ Mr. Pickwick say, if his spirit ever visited the
+ancient city? Nevertheless, we realize for the first time, with all its
+freshness and beauty (although perhaps a little marred by the smoke of
+the lime-kilns, and by the "Medway coal trade," in which it will be
+remembered Mr. Micawber was temporarily interested, and which "he came
+down to see"), the charm of the prospect which Dickens describes, and
+which Mr. Pickwick saw, in the opening of the fifth chapter of the
+immortal _Posthumous Papers_:--
+
+          "Bright and pleasant was the sky, balmy the air,
+          and beautiful the appearance of every object
+          around, as Mr. Pickwick leant over the balustrades
+          of Rochester Bridge, contemplating nature, and
+          waiting for breakfast. The scene was indeed one,
+          which might well have charmed a far less
+          reflective mind, than that to which it was
+          presented.
+
+          "On the left of the spectator lay the ruined wall,
+          broken in many places, and in some, overhanging
+          the narrow beach below in rude and heavy masses.
+          Huge knots of sea-weed hung upon the jagged and
+          pointed stones, trembling in every breath of wind;
+          and the green ivy clung mournfully round the dark
+          and ruined battlements. Behind it rose the ancient
+          castle, its towers roofless, and its massive walls
+          crumbling away, but telling us proudly of its old
+          might and strength, as when, seven hundred years
+          ago, it rang with the clash of arms, or resounded
+          with the noise of feasting and revelry. On either
+          side, the banks of the Medway, covered with
+          corn-fields and pastures, with here and there a
+          windmill, or a distant church, stretched away as
+          far as the eye could see, presenting a rich and
+          varied landscape, rendered more beautiful by the
+          changing shadows which passed swiftly across it,
+          as the thin and half-formed clouds skimmed away in
+          the light of the morning sun. The river,
+          reflecting the clear blue of the sky, glistened
+          and sparkled as it flowed noiselessly on; and the
+          oars of the fishermen dipped into the water with a
+          clear and liquid sound, as their heavy but
+          picturesque boats glided slowly down the stream."
+
+It was over the same old bridge that poor Pip was pursued by that
+"unlimited miscreant" Trabb's boy in the days of his "great
+expectations." He says:--
+
+          "Words cannot state the amount of aggravation and
+          injury wreaked upon me by Trabb's boy, when,
+          passing abreast of me, he pulled up his
+          shirt-collar, twined his side hair, stuck an arm
+          akimbo, and smirked extravagantly by, wriggling
+          his elbows and body, and drawling to his
+          attendants: 'Don't know yah; don't know yah, 'pon
+          my soul, don't know yah!' The disgrace [continues
+          Pip] attendant on his immediately afterwards
+          taking to crowing and pursuing me across the
+          bridge with crows, as from an exceedingly dejected
+          fowl who had known me when I was a blacksmith,
+          culminated the disgrace with which I left the
+          town, and was, so to speak, ejected by it into the
+          open country."
+
+There is generally a stiff breeze blowing on the bridge, and the fact
+may probably have suggested to the artist the positions of the
+characters in the river scene, one of the plates of _Edwin Drood_, where
+Mr. Crisparkle is holding his hat on with much tenacity. One other
+reference to the bridge occurs in the _Seven Poor Travellers_, where
+Richard Doubledick, in the year 1799, "limped over the bridge here with
+half a shoe to his dusty foot on his way to Chatham."
+
+After a Pickwickian breakfast in the coffee-room of "broiled ham, eggs,
+tea, coffee, and sundries," we take a stroll up the High Street. We do
+not know what the feelings of other pilgrims in "Dickens-Land" may have
+been on the occasion of a first visit, but we are quite sure that to us
+it is a perfect revelation to ramble along this quaint street of "the
+ancient city," returning by way of Star Hill through the Vines, all
+crowded with associations of Charles Dickens. _Pickwick_, _Great
+Expectations_, _Edwin Drood_, and many of the minor works of the eminent
+novelist, had never before appeared so clear to us--they acquire new
+significance. The air is full of Dickens. At every corner, and almost at
+the door of every house, we half expect to be met by one or other of
+the characters who will claim acquaintance with us as their friends or
+admirers. We are simply delighted, and never tire of repeating our
+experience in the pleasant summer days of our week's tramp in
+"Dickens-Land."
+
+[Illustration: The Guildhall: Rochester]
+
+[Illustration: The "Moonfaced" Clock in High Street]
+
+[Illustration: In High Street: Rochester]
+
+[Illustration: Eastgate House]
+
+Starting from the Bull, and walking along the somewhat narrow but
+picturesque street towards Chatham,--"the streets of Cloisterham city
+are little more than one narrow street by which you get into it and get
+out of it: the rest being mostly disappointing yards with pumps in them
+and no thoroughfare--exception made of the Cathedral close, and a paved
+Quaker settlement, in color and general conformation very like a
+Quakeress's bonnet, up in a shady corner,"--we pass in succession the
+Guildhall, the City Clock, Richard Watts's Charity, the College Gate
+(Jasper's Gatehouse), Eastgate House (the Nuns' House), and, nearly
+opposite it, the residence of Mr. Sapsea, which, as we ourselves
+discover, was also the residence of "Uncle Pumblechook." The latter
+buildings are about a quarter of a mile from Rochester Bridge, and are
+splendid examples of sixteenth-century architecture, with carved
+oaken-timbered fronts and gables and latticed bay-windows. Eastgate
+House--the "Nuns' House" of _Edwin Drood_, described as "a venerable
+brick edifice, whose present appellation is doubtless derived from the
+legend of its conventual uses"--is especially beautiful, and its
+"resplendent brass plate on the trim gate" is still so "shining and
+staring." The date, 1591, is on one of the inside beams, and the fine
+old place abounds with quaint cosy rooms with carved oak mantel-pieces,
+and plaster enrichments to the ceilings, as well as mysterious back
+staircases and means of exit by secret passages. Charles II. is said to
+have been entertained here by Colonel Gibbons, the then owner, when he
+visited Chatham and inspected the _Royal George_; but this has been
+recently disputed. For many years during this century, the house has
+been occupied as a Ladies' School, and the old pianos used for practice
+by the pupils are there still, the keys being worn into holes. We wonder
+whether Rosa Bud and Helena Landless ever played on them! Looking round,
+we half expect to witness the famous courting scene in _Edwin Drood_,
+and afterwards "the matronly Tisher to heave in sight, rustling through
+the room like the legendary ghost of a dowager in silken skirts, [with
+her] 'I trust I disturb no one; but there _was_ a paper-knife--Oh,
+thank you, I am sure!'" An excellent local institution, called "The
+Rochester Men's Institute," has its home here. The house has been
+immortalized by Mr. Luke Fildes in one of the illustrations to _Edwin
+Drood_ ("Good-bye, Rosebud, darling!"), where, in the front garden, the
+girls are cordially embracing their charming school-fellow, and Miss
+Twinkleton looks on approvingly, but perhaps regretfully, at the
+possible non-return of some of the young ladies. Mrs. Tisher is saluting
+one of the girls. There is a gate opening into the street, with the lamp
+over it kept in position by an iron bracket, just as it is now, heaps of
+ladies' luggage are scattered about, which the housemaid and the
+coachman are removing to the car outside; and one pretty girl stands in
+the gateway waving a farewell to the others with her handkerchief.
+
+We feel morally certain that Eastgate House is also the prototype of
+Westgate House in the _Pickwick Papers_, although, for the purposes of
+the story, it is therein located at Bury St. Edmund's. The wall
+surrounding the garden is about seven feet high, and a drop from it into
+the garden would be uncommonly suggestive of the scene which took place
+between Sam Weller and his master in the sixteenth chapter, on the
+occasion of the supposed intended elopement of one of the young ladies
+of Miss Tomkins's Establishment--which also had the "name on a brass
+plate on a gate"--with Mr. Charles FitzMarshall, _alias_ Mr. Alfred
+Jingle. The very tree which Mr. Pickwick "considered a very dangerous
+neighbour in a thunderstorm" is there still--a pretty acacia.
+
+[Illustration: Mr. Sapsea's House.]
+
+[Illustration: Mr. Sapsea's Father.]
+
+The house opposite Eastgate House was of course Mr. Sapsea's
+dwelling--"Mr. Sapsea's premises are in the High Street over against
+the Nuns' House. They are of about the period of the Nuns' House,
+irregularly modernized here and there." A carved wooden figure of Mr.
+Sapsea's father in his rostrum as an auctioneer, with hammer poised in
+hand, and a countenance expressive of "Going--going--gone!" was many
+years ago fixed over a house (now the Savings Bank) in St. Margaret's,
+Rochester, and was a regular butt for practical jokes by the young
+officers of the period, although they never succeeded in their attempts
+to pull it down. To us the house appears to be an older building than
+Eastgate House, with much carved oak and timber work about it, and in
+its prime must have been a most delightful residence. The lower part is
+now used as business premises, and from the fact that it contains the
+little drawers of a seedsman's shop, it answers very well to the
+description of Mr. Pumblechook's "eminently convenient and commodious
+premises"--indeed there is not a little in common between the two
+characters. "Mr. Pumblechook's premises in the High Street of the market
+town [says Pip] were of a peppercorny and farinaceous character, as the
+premises of a corn chandler and seedsman should be. It appeared to me
+that he must be a very happy man indeed to have so many little drawers
+in his shop; and I wondered when I peeped into one or two of the lower
+tiers, and saw the tied-up brown paper packets inside, whether the
+flower seeds and bulbs ever wanted of a fine day to break out of those
+jails, and bloom." Part of these premises is used as a dwelling-house,
+and Mr. Apsley Kennette, the courteous assistant town-clerk, to whom we
+were indebted for much kind attention, has apartments on the upper
+floors of the old mansion, the views from which, looking into the
+ancient city, are very pretty. There is a good deal of oak panelling and
+plaster enrichment about the interior, restored by Mr. Kennette, who in
+the course of his renovations found an interesting wall fresco.
+
+He has had painted most appropriately in gilt letters over the
+mantel-piece of his charming old panelled chamber of carved and polished
+oak (with its quaint bay-window looking into the street) the pathetic
+and sombre lines of Dante Gabriel Rossetti:--
+
+          "May not this ancient room thou sitt'st in dwell
+           In separate living souls for joy or pain;
+           Nay, all its corners may be painted plain,
+           Where Heaven shows pictures of some life spent well;
+           And may be stamped a memory all in vain
+           Upon the site of lidless eyes in Hell."
+
+[Illustration: Restoration House.]
+
+The beautiful residence in Maidstone Road, formerly Crow Lane, opposite
+the Vines, called Restoration House, is the "Satis House" of _Great
+Expectations_--"Miss Havisham's up-town." "Everybody for miles round had
+heard of Miss Havisham up-town as an immensely rich and grim lady, who
+lived in a large and dismal house barricaded against robbers, and who
+led a life of seclusion." There is a veritable Satis House as well, on
+the opposite side of the Vines alluded to elsewhere. Restoration House,
+now occupied by Mr. Stephen T. Aveling, is a picturesque old
+Elizabethan structure, partly covered with ivy, having fine oak
+staircases, floors, and wainscoted rooms. Charles II. lodged here in
+1660, and he subsequently presented to his host, Sir Francis Clarke,
+several large tapestries, representing pastoral scenes, which the
+present owner kindly allowed us to see. The tapestry is said to have
+been made at Mortlake. It was the usual present from royalty in those
+days--just as Her present Majesty now gives an Indian shawl to a
+favoured subject. Like many houses of its kind, it contains a secret
+staircase for escape during times of political trouble.
+
+Mr. Aveling very kindly placed at our disposal the manuscript of an
+interesting and "true ghost story" written by him relating to
+Restoration House, which is introduced at the end of this chapter.
+
+Many names in Dickens's novels and tales appear to us as old friends,
+over the shops and elsewhere in Rochester. Looking through the list of
+Mayors of the city from 1654 to 1887, we notice nearly twenty of the
+names as having been given by Dickens to his characters, viz. Robinson,
+Wade, Brooker, Clarke, Harris, Burgess, Head, Weller, Baily, Gordon,
+Parsons, Pordage, Sparks, Simmons, Batten, Saunders, Thomson, Edwards,
+and Budden. The name of Jasper also occurs as a tradesman several times
+in the city, but we are informed that this is a recent introduction. In
+the Cathedral burying-ground occur the names of Fanny Dorr_ett_ and
+Richard Pordage. Dartle, we were informed, is an old Rochester name.
+
+The population of the "four towns" of Rochester, Strood, Chatham, and
+New Brompton, at the census of 1891, was upwards of 85,000. The
+principal industries of Rochester are lime and cement making, "the
+Medway coal trade," and boat and barge building.
+
+Rochester is very well off for educational institutions. In addition to
+the Board schools, there is the King's (or Cathedral) Grammar School
+founded by Henry VIII., a handsome building in the Vines. The tuition
+fee commences at L15 per annum for boys under 12, and there is a
+reduction made when there are brothers. There are two or three annual
+competitive Scholarships tenable for a period of years, and there are
+also two Exhibitions of L60 a year to University College, Oxford. There
+is also Sir J. Williamson's Mathematical School in the High Street,
+founded in 1701, having an income of L1500 a year from endowments, and
+the teaching, which has a wide range, includes physical science. The
+fees are very small, commencing at about L5 per annum, and there are
+foundation Scholarships and "Aveling Scholarships" to the value of L20
+per annum.
+
+In addition to the famous Richard Watts's Charity, which is described in
+another chapter, the city possesses several other important charities,
+viz.:--St. Catherine's Charity on Star Hill, founded by Simon Potyn in
+1316, which provides residences for sixteen aged females, with stipends
+varying from L24 to L28 each; St. Bartholomew's Hospital in New Road,
+which was founded in 1078 by Bishop Gundulph for the benefit of lepers
+returning from the Crusades (the present Hospital was erected in 1858,
+and is supported by voluntary contributions); Sir John Hawkins's
+Hospital for decayed seamen in Chatham, founded in 1592, and provides
+for twelve inmates with their wives; and Sir John Hayward's Charity on
+the Common, founded in 1651, which provides an asylum for twelve poor
+and aged females, parishioners of St. Nicholas.
+
+Not least noteworthy among the numerous objects of interest in the
+"ancient city" are the beautiful gardens belonging to several of the
+houses in the High Street, particularly those of Mr. Syms and Mr.
+Wildish. The fresh green turf, the profusion of flowers, and the rich
+growth of foliage and fruit, quite surprise and delight the stranger.
+Mr. Stephen T. Aveling's garden is a marvel of beauty to be seen in a
+town. "The Cloisterham gardens blush with ripening fruit."
+
+Some of the old-fashioned cries of street hawkers, as "hot rolls,"
+"herrings," "watercresses," and the like, similar to those in the London
+of Charles Dickens's early days, still survive at Rochester, and are
+very noticeable and quaint in the quiet morning.
+
+As illustrative of the many changes which have been brought about by
+steam, even in the quiet old city of Rochester, Mr. Syms called
+attention to the fact that fifty years ago he could count twenty-eight
+windmills on the surrounding heights, but now there are scarcely a dozen
+to be seen.
+
+In Rochester we heard frequent mention of "Gavelkind," one of the
+ancient customs of Kent, whereby the lands do not descend to the eldest
+son alone, but to the whole number of male children equally. Lambarde,
+the eminent lawyer and antiquary (born 1536), author of _A Perambulation
+of Kent_,[5] says:--"I gather by _Cornelius Tacitus_, and others, that
+the ancient Germans, (whose Offspring we be) suffered their lands to
+descend, not to their eldest Sonne alone, but to the whole number of
+their male Children: and I finde in the 75th Chapter of _Canutus_ Law (a
+King of this Realm before the Conquest), that after the death of the
+Father, his Heires should divide both his goods, and his lands amongst
+them. Now, for as much as all the next of the kinred did this inherit
+together, I conjecture, that therefore the land was called, either
+_Gavelkyn_ in meaning, _Give all kyn_, because it was given to all the
+next in one line of kinred, or _Give all kynd_, that is, to all the male
+Children: for _kynd_ in Dutch signifieth yet a male Childe." The learned
+historian suggests a second possible origin of this curious custom from
+the writ called "Gavelles," to recover "the rent and service arising out
+of these lands."
+
+The remarkable custom of "Borough English," whereby the youngest son
+inherits the lands, also survives in some parts of the county of Kent.
+
+Mr. Robert Langton has done good service by giving in his delightful
+book, _The Childhood and Youth of Charles Dickens_, an illustration by
+Mr. W. Hull, of the old Rochester Theatre, which formerly stood at the
+foot of Star Hill, and in which Jingle and Dismal Jemmy--"rum
+fellow--does the heavy business--no actor--strange man--all sorts of
+miseries--dismal Jemmy, we call him on the circuit"--were to play on the
+morrow after the duel. It exists no more, for the Conservative
+Association has its club-house and rooms on the site of the building.
+The theatre is referred to in _Edwin Drood:_--"Even its drooping and
+despondent little theatre has its poor strip of garden, receiving the
+foul fiend, when he ducks from its stage into the infernal regions,
+among scarlet beans or oyster-shells, according to the season of the
+year." And again in _The Uncommercial Traveller_, on "Dullborough
+Town," when the beginning of the end had appeared:--
+
+[Illustration: Old Rochester Theatre, Star Hill.]
+
+          "It was To Let, and hopelessly so, for its old
+          purposes; and there had been no entertainment
+          within its walls for a long time, except a
+          Panorama; and even that had been announced as
+          'pleasingly instructive,' and I knew too well the
+          fatal meaning and the leaden import of those
+          terrible expressions. No, there was no comfort in
+          the Theatre. It was mysteriously gone, like my own
+          youth. Unlike my own youth, it might be coming
+          back some day; but there was little promise of
+          it."
+
+We did not stay at the Bull during the whole of our visit, comfortable
+lodgings in Victoria Street having been secured for us by the courtesy
+of Mr. Prall, the landlady of which, from her kindness and consideration
+for our comfort, we are pleased to recognize as a veritable "Mrs.
+Lirriper."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Among many reminiscences of Charles Dickens obtained at Rochester, the
+following are the most noteworthy:--
+
+We had an interesting chat with Mr. Franklin Homan, Auctioneer,
+Cabinet-maker, and Upholsterer of High Street, Rochester. Our informant
+did a good deal of work for Charles Dickens at Gad's Hill Place, and
+remarked "he was one of the nicest customers I ever met in my life--so
+thoroughly precise and methodical. If anything had to be done, he knew
+exactly what he wanted, and gave his instructions accordingly. He
+expected every one who served him to be equally exact and punctual."
+
+The novelist wrote to Mr. Homan from America respecting the furnishing
+of two bedrooms, describing in detail how he wished them fitted up--one
+was maple, the other white with a red stripe. These rooms are referred
+to in another chapter. The curtains separating them from the
+dressing-rooms were ordered to be of Indian pattern chintz. When Dickens
+came home and saw them complete, he said, "It strikes me as if the room
+was about to have its hair cut,--but it's my fault, it must be altered;"
+so crimson damask curtains were substituted.
+
+In the little billiard-room near the dining-room was a one-sided couch
+standing by the window, which did not seem to please the master of Gad's
+Hill Place. He said to Mr. Homan one day, "Whenever I see that couch, it
+makes me think the window is squinting." The result was that Mr. Homan
+had to make a window-seat instead.
+
+On one occasion, when our informant was waiting in the dining-room for
+some orders from Miss Hogarth, he saw Dickens walking in the garden with
+a lady, to whom he was telling the story of how as a boy he longed to
+live in Gad's Hill Place, and determined to purchase it whenever he had
+an opportunity.
+
+Mr. Homan mentioned that the act drop painted by Clarkson Stanfield,
+R.A., for _The Lighthouse_ and the scene from _The Frozen Deep_, painted
+by the same artist, which adorned the hall at Gad's Hill Place, and
+which fetched such enormous sums at the sale, were technically the
+property of the purchaser of Tavistock House, but he said, "Perhaps you
+would like to have them, Mr. Dickens," and so they continued to be the
+property of the novelist.
+
+The valuation for Probate was made by Mr. Homan, and he subsequently
+sold for the executors the furniture and other domestic effects at Gad's
+Hill Place. The art collection was sold by Messrs. Christie, Manson, and
+Woods. There was a very fine cellar of wine, which included some magnums
+of port of rare vintage. Mr. Homan purchased a few bottles, and gave one
+to a friend, Dr. Tamplin of London, who had been kind to his daughter.
+At a dinner-party some time afterwards at the Doctor's, a connoisseur
+being present, the magnum in question was placed on the table, the
+guests being unaware from whence it came. Reference was made to the
+choice quality of the wine. "Yes," said the connoisseur, "it _is_
+good--very fine. I never tasted the like before, except once at Gad's
+Hill Place."
+
+Mr. Homan recollects seeing among the plate two oak cases which were not
+sold, containing the silver figures for dining-table emblematic of
+spring, summer, and autumn. These were the presents of a Liverpool
+admirer who wished to remain anonymous. The incident is alluded to in
+Forster's _Life_, the correspondent being described as "a self-raised
+man, attributing his prosperous career to what Dickens's writings had
+taught him at its outset of the wisdom of kindness and sympathy for
+others, and asking pardon for the liberty he took in hoping that he
+might be permitted to offer some acknowledgment of what not only had
+cheered and stimulated him through all his life, but had contributed so
+much to the success of it." The letter enclosed L500, but Dickens
+declined this, intimating to the writer that if he pleased to send him
+any small memorial in another form, he would be glad to receive it.
+
+The funeral was conducted by Mr. Homan, who mentioned that Dickens's
+instructions in his Will were implicitly followed, as regards privacy
+and unostentation. It was an anxious time to him, in consequence of the
+changes which were made in the arrangements, the interment being first
+suggested to take place at St. Nicholas's Cemetery, then at Shorne, then
+at Rochester Cathedral, and finally at Westminster Abbey. The mourners,
+together with the remains, travelled early in the morning by South
+Eastern Railway from Higham Station to Charing Cross, where a
+procession, consisting of three mourning-coaches and a hearse, was
+quietly formed. There was neither show nor public demonstration of any
+kind. On reaching Westminster Abbey, about half-past nine o'clock, the
+procession was met by Dean Stanley in the Cloisters, who performed the
+funeral service. A journalist being by accident in the Abbey at the time
+of the funeral, Mr. Homan remarked that he became almost frantic when he
+heard who had just been buried, at having missed such an opportunity.
+
+Mr. Homan possesses several souvenirs of Gad's Hill Place, presented to
+him by the family, including Charles Dickens's walking-stick, and
+photographs of the interior and exterior of the house and the chalet.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We were courteously received by the Rev. Robert Whiston, M.A., who
+resides at the Old Palace, a beautiful seventeenth-century house,
+abounding with oak panelling and carving, on Boley Hill, bequeathed in
+1674, by Mr. Richard Head, after the death of his wife, to the then
+Bishop of Rochester and his successors, who were "to hold the same so
+long as the church was governed by Protestant Bishops." This residence
+was sold by permission of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, together
+with the mansion at Brinley, in order to help to pay for the new palace
+of Danbury in Essex.
+
+Mr. Whiston was a friend of Charles Dickens, and is one of the oldest
+inhabitants of Rochester. He was formerly Head-Master of the Cathedral
+Grammar, or King's, School of Henry VIII., an office which he resigned
+in 1877. Many years previously, Mr. Whiston published _Cathedral Trusts
+and their Fulfilment_, which ran through several editions, and was
+immediately followed by his dismissal from his mastership, on the ground
+that he had published "false, scandalous, and libellous" statements, and
+had libelled "the Chapter of Rochester and other Chapters, and also the
+Bishop." Much litigation followed--appeals to the Court of Chancery,
+the Court of Queen's Bench, and Doctors' Commons, which resulted in his
+replacement in office; and then a second dismissal, followed by his
+pleading his own cause for five days at Doctors' Commons against eminent
+counsel, and after three years of litigation he was fully reinstated in
+his office. The result at Rochester, for which Mr. Whiston contended,
+was "an increase of L19 for each of the twenty scholars, and of L35 for
+each of the four students, a total of L520 a year, and the restoration
+of the six bedesmen of the Cathedral, with L14 13_s._ 4_d._ a year each,
+who had disappeared since 1810, making altogether L608 a year." Reforms
+were effected at other cathedrals, and handsome testimonials--one from
+Australia--were presented to Mr. Whiston.
+
+A characteristic paper, entitled "The History of a certain Grammar
+School," in No. 72 of _Household Words_, dated 9th August, 1851, gives a
+sketch of Mr. Whiston's labours, and of the reforms which he effected.
+He is thus referred to:--
+
+"But the Reverend Adolphus Hardhead was not merely a scholar and a
+schoolmaster. He had fought his way against disadvantages, had gained a
+moderate independence by the fruits of early exertions and constant but
+by no means sordid economy; and, while disinterested enough to
+undervalue abundance, was too wise not to know the value of money. He
+was an undoubted financialist, and never gave a farthing without doing
+real good, because he always ascertained the purpose and probable effect
+of his charity beforehand. While he cautiously shunned the idle and
+undeserving, he would work like a slave, with and for those who would
+work for themselves; and he would smooth the way for those who had in
+the first instance been their own pioneers, and would help a man who
+had once been successful, to attain a yet greater success."
+
+Anthony Trollope, in _The Warden_, also thus refers to this
+gentleman:--"The struggles of Mr. Whiston have met with sympathy and
+support. Men are beginning to say that these things must be looked
+into."
+
+_Punch_ has also immortalized Mr. Whiston, for in the issue of 29th
+January, 1853, there is a burlesque account with designs of "A stained
+glass window for Rochester Cathedral." The design is divided into
+compartments; each containing a representation in the mediaeval fashion
+of a "Fytte" in "Ye Gestes of Maister Whyston ye Confessour."
+
+Mr. Whiston had dined at Gad's Hill several times, and said that nothing
+could be more charming than Dickens's powers as a host. Some years after
+his death, by a fortunate circumstance, a large parcel of letters,
+written by the novelist, came into the hands of Mr. Whiston, who had the
+pleasure of handing them to Miss Hogarth and Miss Dickens, by whom they
+were published in the collection of letters of Charles Dickens.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Thomas Millen of Rochester informed us that he knew Charles Dickens. His
+(Millen's) father was a hop-farmer, and about the years 1864-5 lived at
+Bridgewood House, on the main road from Rochester to Maidstone. One
+afternoon in the autumn, Dickens, accompanied by Miss Hogarth and his
+daughters, Mary and Kate, drove along the road, and stopped to admire a
+pear tree which was covered with ripe fruit. Millen happened to be in
+the garden at the time, and while noticing the carriage, Dickens spoke
+to him, and referred to the very fine fruit. Millen said, "Will you
+have some, sir?" to which Dickens replied, "Thank you, you are very
+good, I will." He gave him some pears and some roses. Dickens then said,
+"You have not the pleasure of knowing me, and I have not the pleasure of
+knowing you. I am Charles Dickens; and when you pass Gad's Hill, I shall
+take it as a favour if you will look in and see my place." Millen
+replied, "I feel it to be a great honour to speak to you, sir. I have
+read most of your works, and I think _David Copperfield_ is the
+master-piece. I hope to avail myself of your kind invitation some day."
+Dickens laughed, wished Millen "Good-day," and the carriage drove on
+towards Maidstone.
+
+"Some little time after," said Millen, "I was going to visit an uncle at
+Gravesend, and drove over with a one-horse trap by way of Gad's Hill. As
+I came near the place, I saw Mr. Dickens in the road. He said, 'So you
+are here,' and I mentioned where I was going. He took me in, and we went
+through the tunnel, and by the cedars, to the chalet, which stood in the
+shrubbery in front of the house. He showed me his work there--a
+manuscript on the table, and also some proofs. They were part of _Our
+Mutual Friend_, which was then appearing in monthly numbers; and on that
+morning a proof of one of the illustrations had arrived from Mr. Marcus
+Stone. It was the one in which 'Miss Wren fixes her idea.' I was then
+about sixteen or seventeen, and Dickens said, 'You are setting out in
+life; mind _you_ always fix your idea.' He asked me what I was going to
+be, and I said a farmer. He said, 'Better be that than an author or
+poet;' and after I had had two glasses of wine, he bade me 'good-bye.'"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We were kindly favoured with an interview by the Misses Drage, of No. 1
+Minor Canon Row, daughters of the late Rev. W. H. Drage, who was Curate
+of St. Mary's Church, Chatham, from 1820 to 1828, and lived during that
+time in apartments at No. 3 Ordnance Terrace, next door to the Dickens
+family. Afterwards their father was Vicar of St. Margaret's, Rochester,
+for many years, and resided in their present home. About the year 1850,
+the Vicar, being interested in the daughter of one of his parishioners,
+whom he was anxious to get admitted into a public institution in
+London--a penitentiary or something of the kind--wrote to Miss (now the
+Baroness) Burdett Coutts, who was a patroness or founder, or who
+occupied some position of influence in connection therewith. In answer
+to the reverend gentleman's application, a letter was received from
+Charles Dickens, then residing at Devonshire Terrace, who appeared to be
+associated with Miss Burdett Coutts in the management of the
+institution, proposing to call at Minor Canon Row on a certain day and
+hour. The letter then concluded with these remarkable words:--"I trust
+to my childish remembrance for putting your initials correctly."
+
+The letter was properly addressed "The Rev. _W. H._ Drage," and it is
+interesting to record this circumstance as showing Dickens's habitual
+precision and excellent memory. The future novelist was about eleven
+years old when he left Chatham (1823), consequently a period of
+twenty-seven years or more must have elapsed since he knew his father's
+neighbour as Curate there; yet, notwithstanding the multiplicity and
+diversity of his occupations during the interim, his recollection after
+this long period was perfectly accurate.
+
+It is scarcely necessary to add that the interview took place (probably
+Dickens came down from London specially), and that the Vicar obtained
+admission for his _protegee_. The younger Miss Drage, who was in the
+room at the time of Dickens's visit, particularly noticed what a
+beautiful head the novelist's was, and in her enthusiasm she made a
+rough sketch of it while he was talking to her father.
+
+In conversation with the present Mr. Charles Dickens on a subsequent
+occasion regarding this circumstance, he informed me that there was an
+institution of the kind referred to, "A Home," at Shepherd's Bush, in
+which his father took much interest. Forster also says in the _Life_
+that this Home "largely and regularly occupied his time for several
+years."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We heard from a trustworthy authority, _Y. Z._, at Rochester, some
+particulars respecting an interesting custom at Gad's Hill Place. On New
+Year's Eve there was always a dinner-party with friends, and a dance,
+and games afterwards. Some of the games were called "Buzz," "Crambo,"
+"Spanish Merchant," etc. Claret-cup and other refreshments were
+introduced later, and at twelve o'clock all the servants came into the
+entrance-hall. Charles Dickens then went in, shook hands with them all
+round, wished them a Happy New Year ("A happy new year, God bless us
+all"), and gave each half-a-sovereign. This custom was maintained for
+many years, until a man-servant--who used to travel with
+Dickens--disgracefully betrayed his trust,--robbed his master, in
+fact,--when it was discontinued, and the name of the man who had thus
+disgraced himself was never allowed to be mentioned at Gad's Hill.
+
+The same authority spoke of the long walks that Dickens regularly took
+after breakfast--usually six miles,--but he gave these up after the
+railway accident at Staplehurst, which, it will be remembered,
+occurred, on the "fatal anniversary," the 9th June, 1865. During one of
+these walks, he fell in with a man driving a cart loaded with manure,
+and had a long chat with him, the sort of thing he frequently did (said
+our informant) in order to become acquainted with the brogue and
+feelings of the working people. When Dickens went on his way, one of the
+man's fellow-labourers said to him, "Do you know that that was Charles
+Dickens who spoke to you?" "I don't know who it was," replied the man,
+"but he was a d----d good fellow, for he gave me a shilling."
+
+Our informant also referred to a conversation between Dickens and some
+of his friends at Gad's Hill, respecting the unhappy marriages of
+actors. Twenty such marriages were instanced, and out of these only two
+turned out happily. He said that Charles Dickens at home was a quiet,
+unassuming man. He remembers on one occasion his saying, in relation to
+a war which was then going on, "What must the feelings of a soldier be,
+when alone and dying on the battle-field, and leaving his wife and
+children far away for ever?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+A TRUE GHOST STORY RELATING TO MISS HAVISHAM'S HOUSE.
+
+          "I live in an old red-brick mansion, nearly
+          covered with ivy--one of those picturesque
+          dwellings with high-pitched roofs and ornamental
+          gables, which were scattered broadcast over
+          England in the days of good Queen Bess. Every
+          stranger looking at it exclaims, 'That house must
+          have a history and a ghost!' Many a story has been
+          told of the ghost which has from time to time been
+          seen, or said to have been seen, within its walls;
+          and many a servant has, from fear, refused service
+          in this so-called haunted house.
+
+          "On the 28th May, one thousand six hundred and
+          sixty, Charles the Second sojourned and slept
+          here. This being the eve of 'The Restoration,' a
+          new name was given to the then old house, which
+          name it has since retained. Charles, having
+          knighted the owner (Sir Francis Clarke), departed
+          early the next morning for London.
+
+          "There are secret passages _in_ the house, and,
+          under ground, _from_ the house. From the room in
+          which the king slept, a secret passage through one
+          of the lower panels of the wainscot, leads to
+          various parts of the house. This passage is so
+          well concealed that I occupied the house some
+          years before it was discovered. I had occasion to
+          make a plan of the house, and the inside and
+          outside not agreeing, disclosed the space occupied
+          by the unexplored passage. The jackdaws had
+          forestalled me in my discovery, and had had
+          undisturbed possession for two centuries, having
+          got access through a hole under the eaves of the
+          roof. They had deposited _several bushels_ of
+          sticks. They had not been the only tenants, as
+          skeletons and mummies of birds, etc., were also
+          found.
+
+          "I came into possession of this old house in
+          December 1875, and on the 27th of April, 1876,
+          slept in it for the first time. At ten o'clock on
+          that night, my family retired to rest; having some
+          letters to write, I sat up later. At a quarter to
+          twelve, I was startled by a loud noise--a sort of
+          rumbling sound, which appeared to proceed from the
+          hall. I left my writing and went to the hall, and
+          found that the noise proceeded from the staircase,
+          but I could see nothing unusual.
+
+          "The staircase is one of those so often described
+          as being 'wide enough to drive a carriage and pair
+          up,' with massive oak posts and balustrades. The
+          walls are covered with tapestry, given to the
+          house by 'The Merry Monarch,' after his visit. An
+          oak chest or two, and some high-backed chairs on
+          the landings, picture to one a suitable habitation
+          for a ghost. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I had
+          no belief in ghosts, and commenced an
+          investigation of this extraordinary noise.
+
+          "Could it be rats, or mice, or owls? No; the noise
+          was ten times louder than could possibly proceed
+          from these creatures; besides, I knew there were
+          no rats in the house. The clever builder of the
+          house had filled all the space between the
+          ceilings and floors with silver sand, which
+          rendered it impossible for a rat or mouse to make
+          passages. To prick a hole in a ceiling is to have
+          a continuous stream of sand run down, as from an
+          hour-glass.
+
+          "The noise was repeated, but much louder (two
+          drum-sticks upon a large drum would not have made
+          more noise), and I was able to localize it, still
+          I could see nothing. I thought some one had fallen
+          on the stairs, and I shouted 'Who is there?' A
+          reply came 'Hush!'--first softly, and then very
+          loud--too loud for a human voice. As no person was
+          visible, I was puzzled, and went up-stairs by a
+          back staircase, and ascertained that none of my
+          family had left their bedrooms, and that certainly
+          no trick was being played me.
+
+          "The same rumbling, rolling sound was repeated;
+          and as I stood on the top of the great staircase,
+          I felt a little uncomfortable, but not frightened.
+          The noise seemed to proceed from a large carved
+          oak coffer or chest (as old as the house), which
+          stood on a landing, about half-way up the stairs.
+          I approached the chest, and from it appeared to
+          come again the word 'Hush!' Could it be the wind
+          whistling through a crack? No; it was far too loud
+          for any such explanation. I opened the lid of the
+          chest and found it empty. Again the noise, now
+          from _under_ the chest. I was just strong enough
+          to move the chest; I turned it over and slid it
+          down the stairs on to the next landing. Again the
+          noise, and again the 'Hush!' which now appeared to
+          come from the floor where the coffer had stood.
+
+          "I felt I would rather have had some one with me
+          to assist in my investigation, and to join me in
+          making the acquaintance of the ghost; but,
+          although my sensations were probably the most
+          uncomfortable I ever experienced, I was
+          determined, if possible, to unearth the mystery.
+
+          "The light was imperfect, and I went to another
+          part of the house for a candle to enable me to
+          examine the floor. In my absence the noise was
+          repeated louder than ever, and not unlike distant
+          thunder. On my return, I was saluted with 'Hush!'
+          which I felt convinced came from a voice
+          immediately under the floor. By the light of the
+          candle I examined the dark oak boards, and
+          discovered what appeared to be a trap door about
+          two feet six inches square. The floor at some time
+          had been varnished, and the cracks, or joints of
+          the trap, had been filled and sealed with the
+          varnish. I now hoped I had found the habitation of
+          my troublesome and noisy guest. I procured a
+          chisel and cut the varnished joint, and found that
+          there was a trap door, as I supposed. By the aid
+          of a long screwdriver I was able to move the door,
+          but at that moment a repetition of the noise,
+          immediately under me, made me hesitate for a
+          moment to try and raise it. With feelings better
+          imagined than described, I raised the lid, and
+          looked into a dark chasm. All was still, and I
+          heard the cathedral bell tolling the hour of
+          midnight. A long African spear was in the corner
+          near me, and I struck this into the opening. I
+          tied a string to the candlestick to lower it into
+          the opening, but at this moment I was startled,
+          and was for the first time nervous, or I may say,
+          frightened; but this had better remain for another
+          chapter.
+
+          "So far I have not in the smallest degree
+          exaggerated or overdrawn any one of the matters I
+          have recounted. Every word has been written with
+          the greatest care to truth and accuracy.
+
+                                                 "S. T. A."
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+To cut our ghost story short, without adding another chapter, Mr.
+Aveling, on looking into the dark chasm by the meagre light of the
+lowered candle, beheld, to his amazement, the reflection of his own face
+in the water of a large cistern underneath the staircase, the house
+having formerly been supplied from the "large brewery" a short distance
+off. The unearthly noise was no doubt caused by air in the pipes,
+through which the water rushed when suddenly turned on by the brewers,
+who were working late at night. In _Great Expectations_ it is stated
+that:--"The brewery buildings had a little lane of communication with
+it" [the courtyard of Satis House], "and the wooden gates of that lane
+stood open" [at the time of Pip's first visit, when Estella showed him
+over the premises], "and all the brewery beyond stood open, away to the
+high enclosing wall; and all was empty and disused. The cold wind seemed
+to blow colder there, than outside the gate; and it made a shrill noise
+in howling in and out at the open sides of the brewery, like the noise
+of wind in the rigging of a ship at sea."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[4] Mr. Aveling subsequently informed me that the vessel in which the
+king took his departure continued to be used in the Royal Navy for many
+years as a lighter--its name being altered to the "Royal Escape."
+Afterwards it was used as a watch-vessel in the Coastguard service at
+Chatham, and was eventually broken up at Sheerness Dockyard so recently
+as 1876.
+
+[5] "A Perambulation of Kent: Conteining the Description, Hystorie, and
+Customes of that Shire. Written in the yeere 1570 by William Lambarde of
+Lincoln's Inne Gent."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+ROCHESTER CASTLE.
+
+        "I took up my hat, and went out, climbed to the
+          top of the old Castle, and looked over the windy
+          hills that slope down to the Medway."--_The Seven
+          Poor Travellers._
+
+
+TO the lover of Dickens, both the Castle and Cathedral of Rochester
+appeal with almost equal interest. The Castle, however, which stands on
+an eminence on the right bank of the river Medway, close to the bridge,
+claims prior attention, and a few lines must therefore be devoted to an
+epitome of its history in the ante-Pickwickian days.
+
+Tradition says that the first castle was erected by command of Julius
+Caesar, when Cassivelaunus was Governor of Britain, "in order to awe the
+Britons." It was called the "Castle of the Medway," or "the Kentishmen's
+Castle," and it seems, with other antagonisms, to have awed the
+unfortunate Britons pretty effectively, for it lasted until decay and
+dissolution came to it and to them, as to all things. It was replaced by
+a new castle built by Hrofe (509), which in its turn succumbed to the
+ravages of time.
+
+[Illustration: The Castle from Rochester Bridge]
+
+Gundulph, Bishop of Rochester (1077), whose name still survives here and
+there in connection with charities and in other ways in the "ancient
+city," appears to be entitled to the credit of having commenced to build
+the present massive square Tower or Keep, the surviving portion of a
+magnificent whole, sometimes called "Gundulph's Tower," "towards which
+he was to expend the sum of sixty pounds," and this structure ranks as
+one of the most perfect examples of Norman architecture in existence.
+Other authorities ascribe the erection to Odo, Bishop of Bayeux and Earl
+of Kent, half-brother to William the Conqueror, who is described by
+Hasted as "a turbulent and ambitious prelate, who aimed at nothing less
+than the popedom." Later, in the reign of William Rufus, it was
+accounted "the strongest and most important castle of England." It was
+so important that Lambarde, in _A Perambulation of Kent_, says:--"It was
+much in the eie of such as were authors of troubles following within
+the realme, so that from time to time it had a part almost in every
+Tragedie."
+
+Mr. Robert Collins, in his compact and useful _Visitors' Handbook of
+Rochester and Neighbourhood_, quoting from another ancient historian,
+says that "In 1264, King Henry III. [who in 1251 held a grand tournament
+in the Castle] 'commanded that the Shyriffe of Kent do set aboute to
+finish and complete the great Tower which Gundulph had left imperfect.'"
+About 1463, Edward IV. repaired part of the Castle, after which it was
+allowed to fall into decay. The instructions to the "shyriffe" were no
+doubt necessary; for although L60 would probably go a great way in the
+time of Bishop Gundulph, the modern aesthetic builder would do very
+little indeed for that sum, towards the erection of such an impregnable
+fortress as Rochester Castle, the walls of which vary from eight to
+thirteen feet in thickness, whatever his progenitor may have done in
+1077.
+
+The Keep--the last resort of the garrison when all the outworks were
+taken--is considered so beautiful that it is selected, under the article
+"Castle" in the last edition of the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, as an
+illustration of Norman architecture, showing "an embattled parapet often
+admitting of chambers and staircases being constructed," and showing
+also "embattled turrets carried one story higher than the parapet."
+There is also a fine woodcut of the Castle at p. 198 of vol. v. of that
+work.
+
+The Keep is seventy feet square and a hundred feet high, built of the
+native Kentish ragstone and Caen stone; and the adamantine mortar or
+cement used in its construction was made with sand, evidently procured
+at the seaside some distance from Rochester, for it contains remains of
+cardium, pecten, solen, and other marine shells, which would not be
+found in river sand. Mr. Roach Smith suggested that probably the sand
+may have been procured from "Cockle-shell Hard," near Sheerness. He
+called our attention to the fact that in Norman mortar sand is
+predominant, and in Roman mortar lime or chalk.
+
+[Illustration: Rochester Castle]
+
+The roof and the chambers are gone,--the Keep remains as a mere
+shell,--and where bishops, kings, and barons came and went, flocks of
+the common domestic pigeon, in countless numbers, fly about and make
+their home and multiply. One almost regrets the freedom which these
+graceful birds possess, although to grudge freedom to a pigeon is like
+grudging sunshine to a flower. But though the damage to the walls is
+really trifling, as they will stand for centuries to come, still the
+litter and mess which the birds naturally make is considerable and
+unsightly, and decidedly out of keeping in such a magnificent ruin. The
+pigeons exhibit what takes place when a species becomes dominant to the
+exclusion of other species, as witness the pest of the rabbits in New
+Zealand. With profound respect to his Worship the Mayor and the
+Corporation of Rochester, to whom the Castle and grounds now belong, the
+writer of these lines, as a naturalist, ventures to suggest that the
+Castle should be left to the jackdaws, its natural and doubtless its
+original tenants, which, although of higher organization, have been
+driven out by superior numbers in the "struggle for existence," and for
+whom it is a much more appropriate habitat in keeping with all
+traditions; and further, that the said pigeons be forthwith made into
+pies for the use and behoof of the deserving poor of the ancient city of
+Rochester.
+
+Mention has been made of the fact that the Castle and grounds are the
+property of the Corporation of Rochester. They were acquired by purchase
+in 1883 from the Earl of Jersey for L8,000, and the occasion was
+celebrated by great civic rejoicings.[6] The Corporation are not only to
+be congratulated on the wisdom of their purchase ("a thing of beauty is
+a joy for ever"), but also on the excellent manner in which the grounds
+are maintained--pigeons excepted. The gardens, with closely-cut lawns,
+abound with euonymus, laurustinus, bay, and other evergreens, together
+with many choice flowers. The single red, or Deptford pink (_Dianthus
+Armeria_), grows wild on the walls of the Castle. There is a tasteful
+statuette of her Majesty, under a Gothic canopy, near the entrance,
+which records her Jubilee in 1887. The inscriptions on three of the four
+corners are appropriately chosen from Lord Tennyson's _Carmen
+Saeculare_:--
+
+                  To commemorate the
+
+               =Jubilee of Queen Victoria=,
+
+                          1887.
+
+                     L. LEVY, MAYOR.
+
+          "Fifty years of ever-broadening commerce!"
+
+          "Fifty years of ever-brightening science!"
+
+          "Fifty years of ever-widening empire!"
+
+There is free admission to the grounds through a handsome modern Norman
+gateway, but a trifling charge of a few pence is made for permission to
+enter the Keep, which has convenient steps ascending to the top. From
+the summit of the Keep, there are magnificent views of the valley of the
+river Medway, the adjacent hills, Rochester, Chatham, and the vicinity.
+The Cathedral, Jasper's Gatehouse, and Restoration House, are also
+noteworthy objects to the lover of Dickens. As Mr. Philips Bevan says,
+and as we verified, the views inside at midday, when the sun is
+streaming down, are "very peculiar and beautiful."
+
+Dickens's first and last great works are both associated with the
+Castle, and it is referred to in several other of his writings. We can
+fancy, more than sixty years ago, the eager and enthusiastic
+Pickwickians, in company with their newly-made acquaintance, Mr. Alfred
+Jingle, seated outside the four-horse coach,--the "Commodore," driven
+possibly by "Old Chumley,"--dashing over old Rochester Bridge, to "the
+lively notes of the guard's key-bugle," when the sight of the Castle
+first broke upon them.
+
+          "'Magnificent ruin!' said Mr. Augustus Snodgrass,
+          with all the poetic fervour that distinguished
+          him, when they came in sight of the fine old
+          Castle.
+
+          "'What a study for an antiquarian!' were the very
+          words which fell from Mr. Pickwick's mouth, as he
+          applied his telescope to his eye.
+
+          "'Ah, fine place!' said the stranger, 'glorious
+          pile--frowning walls--tottering arches--dark
+          nooks--crumbling staircases--'"
+
+Little did poor Mr. Winkle think that within twenty-four hours _his_
+feeling of admiration for Rochester Castle would be turned into
+astonishment, for does not the chronicle say that "if the upper tower of
+Rochester Castle had suddenly walked from its foundation and stationed
+itself opposite the coffee-room window [of the Bull Hotel], Mr. Winkle's
+surprise would have been as nothing compared with the perfect
+astonishment with which he had heard this address" (referring of course
+to the insult to Dr. Slammer, and the challenge in the matter of the
+duel).
+
+It was on the occasion of "a visit to the Castle" very soon afterwards
+that Mr. Winkle confided in, and sought the good offices of, his friend
+Mr. Snodgrass, in the "affair of honour" which was to take place at
+"sunset, in a lonely field beyond Fort Pitt." Poor fellow! how eagerly
+he tried, under a mask of the most perfect candour, and how miserably
+he failed, to arouse the energies of his friend to avert the impending
+catastrophe.
+
+[Illustration: INTERIOR OF ROCHESTER CASTLE]
+
+          "'Snodgrass,' he said, stopping suddenly, 'do
+          _not_ let me be baulked in this matter--do _not_
+          give information to the local authorities--do
+          _not_ obtain the assistance of several peace
+          officers to take either me or Doctor Slammer of
+          the 97th Regiment, at present quartered in Chatham
+          Barracks, into custody, and thus prevent this
+          duel;--I say, do _not_.'
+
+          "Mr. Snodgrass seized his friend's hand as he
+          enthusiastically replied, 'Not for worlds!'
+
+          "A thrill passed over Mr. Winkle's frame, as the
+          conviction that he had nothing to hope from his
+          friend's fears, and that he was destined to become
+          an animated target, rushed forcibly upon him."
+
+The state of the case having been formally explained to Mr. Snodgrass,
+they make arrangements, hire "a case of satisfaction pistols, with the
+satisfactory accompaniments of powder, ball, and caps," and "the two
+friends returned to their inn." The next ground which they traversed
+together to pursue the subject was at Fort Pitt. We will follow them
+presently.
+
+In _The Mystery of Edwin Drood_ there is no direct reference to the
+Castle itself, but the engraving of it, with the Cathedral in the
+background, after the pretty sketch by Mr. Luke Fildes, R.A., will ever
+be associated with that beautiful fragment.
+
+Another reference is contained in the preface to _Nicholas Nickleby_,
+where Dickens says:--"I cannot call to mind now how I came to hear about
+Yorkshire schools when I was a not very robust child, sitting in
+by-places near Rochester Castle, with a head full of 'Partridge,'
+'Strap,' 'Tom Pipes,' and 'Sancho Panza.'"
+
+A sympathetic notice of the Castle is also contained in the _Seven Poor
+Travellers_. It begins:--
+
+          "Sooth to say, he [Time] did an active stroke of
+          work in Rochester in the old days of the Romans,
+          and the Saxons, and the Normans, and down to the
+          times of King John, when the rugged Castle--I will
+          not undertake to say how many hundreds of years
+          old then--was abandoned to the centuries of
+          weather which have so defaced the dark apertures
+          in its walls, that the ruin looks as if the rooks
+          and daws had picked its eyes out."
+
+And this, the most touching reference of all, occurs in "One Man in a
+Dockyard," contributed by Dickens[7] to _Household Words_ in 1851:--
+
+          "There was Rochester Castle, to begin with. I
+          surveyed the massive ruin from the Bridge, and
+          thought what a brief little practical joke I
+          seemed to be, in comparison with its solidity,
+          stature, strength, and length of life. I went
+          inside; and, standing in the solemn shadow of its
+          walls, looking up at the blue sky, its only
+          remaining roof, (to the disturbance of the crows
+          and jackdaws who garrison the venerable fortress
+          now,) calculated how much wall of that thickness
+          I, or any other man, could build in his whole
+          life,--say from eight years old to eighty,--and
+          what a ridiculous result would be produced. I
+          climbed the rugged staircase, stopping now and
+          then to peep at great holes where the rafters and
+          floors were once,--bare as toothless gums now,--or
+          to enjoy glimpses of the Medway through dreary
+          apertures like sockets without eyes; and, looking
+          from the Castle ramparts on the Old Cathedral, and
+          on the crumbling remains of the old Priory, and on
+          the row of staid old red-brick houses where the
+          Cathedral dignitaries live, and on the shrunken
+          fragments of one of the old City gates, and on the
+          old trees with their high tops below me, felt
+          quite apologetic to the scene in general for my
+          own juvenility and insignificance. One of the
+          river boatmen had told me on the bridge, (as
+          country folks do tell of such places,) that in the
+          old times, when those buildings were in progress,
+          a labourer's wages 'were a penny a day, and enough
+          too.' Even as a solitary penny was to their whole
+          cost, it appeared to me, was the utmost strength
+          and exertion of one man towards the labour of
+          their erection."
+
+Dickens always took his friends to the Keep of Rochester Castle. He
+naturally considered it as one of the sights of the old city. It was
+equally attractive to his friends, for a curious adventure is recorded
+in Forster's _Life_, in connection with a visit which the poet
+Longfellow made there in 1842, and which he recollected a quarter of a
+century afterwards, and recounted to Forster during a second visit,
+together with a curious experience in the slums of London with Dickens.
+The first of these adventures is thus described by Forster:--"One of
+them was a day at Rochester, when, met by one of those prohibitions
+which are the wonder of visitors and the shame of Englishmen, we
+overleapt gates and barriers, and setting at defiance repeated threats
+of all the terrors of law, coarsely expressed to us by the custodian of
+the place, explored minutely the castle ruins." Happily such a
+circumstance could not now take place, for, by the present excellent
+regulations of the Corporation of the city of Rochester, every visitor
+can explore the Castle and grounds to his heart's content.
+
+On arriving at either railway station, Strood or Rochester Bridge, the
+Castle is the first object to claim attention. Our attention is
+constantly directed to it during our stay in the pleasant city; it is a
+landmark when we are on the tramp; and it is the last object to fade
+from our view as we regretfully take our departure.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+My fellow-tramp favours me with the following note:--
+
+
+THE DEDICATION OF ROCHESTER CASTLE TO THE PUBLIC.
+
+"I well remember the day of public rejoicing in the picturesque city of
+Rochester, on the occasion of the ceremony of formally presenting the
+old Castle and grounds to the inhabitants. I had received instructions
+from the manager of the _Graphic_ newspaper to make sketches of the
+principal incidents in connection with the day's proceedings, and I
+reached my destination just in time to obtain from the authorities some
+idea of the nature of those proceedings. With this object in view, I
+made my way through the surging crowd to the Guildhall, where, in one of
+the Corporation rooms, I found a large assembly of local magnates in
+official attire, including the Mayor, who was vainly endeavouring to
+properly adjust his sword, an operation in which I had the honour of
+assisting, much to his Worship's satisfaction, I hope.
+
+[Illustration: Rochester Castle and the Medway]
+
+"The streets of Rochester were thronged with excited people, and the
+houses were gaily decked with flags and bunting. When everything was
+ready, an imposing procession was formed, and proceeded to the Castle
+grounds, preceded by a military band; on arriving there, an address was
+read from the pagoda to an attentive audience, the subsequent
+proceedings being enlivened by musical strains.
+
+"It had been announced that, in the evening, the old Keep would be
+illuminated by the electric light, and I made a point of being present
+to witness the unusual sight. The night was very dark, and the ivy-clad
+ruin could barely be distinguished; presently, a burst of music from the
+band was immediately followed by a remarkably strong beam of light,
+which shot into the darkness with such effect as to fairly startle those
+present. Then it rested on the grey walls of the huge pile, bathing in
+brightness the massive stones and clinging ivy, the respective colours
+of each being vividly apparent. But the most striking feature was yet to
+come. The hundreds of pigeons which inhabited the nooks and crannies of
+the old Keep, being considerably alarmed by this sudden illumination of
+their domain, flew with one accord round and round their ancient
+tenement, now in the full blaze of light, now lost in the inky darkness
+beyond, and fluttering about in a state of the utmost bewilderment.
+Methinks even Mr. Pickwick, had he been present in the flesh, would have
+been equally amazed at this remarkable spectacle."
+
+                                                          F. G. K.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[6] Mr. Kitton was, by an interesting coincidence, present at the
+ceremony above referred to, and he has kindly given his impressions
+thereon, which appear at the end of this chapter.
+
+[7] This was a joint article; the description of the works of the
+dockyard being by R. H. Horne, and that of the fortifications and
+country around by Charles Dickens.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+ROCHESTER CATHEDRAL.
+
+        "That same afternoon, the massive grey square
+          tower of an old Cathedral rises before the sight
+          of a jaded traveller. The bells are going for
+          daily Vesper Service, and he must needs attend it,
+          one would say, from his haste to reach the open
+          Cathedral door. The choir are getting on their
+          sullied white robes, in a hurry, when he arrives
+          among them, gets on his own robe, and falls into
+          the procession filing in to Service. Then, the
+          Sacristan locks the iron-barred gates that divide
+          the Sanctuary from the Chancel, and all of the
+          procession having scuttled into their places, hide
+          their faces; and then the intoned words, 'WHEN THE
+          WICKED MAN--' rise among the groins of arches and
+          beams of roof, awakening muttered
+          thunder."--_Edwin Drood._
+
+
+THE readers of Dickens are first introduced to Rochester Cathedral, in
+the early pages of the immortal _Pickwick Papers_, by that audacious
+_raconteur_, Mr. Alfred Jingle:--
+
+          "Old Cathedral too--earthy smell--pilgrims' feet
+          worn away the old steps--little Saxon
+          doors--confessionals like money-takers' boxes at
+          theatres--queer customers those monks--Popes, and
+          Lord Treasurers, and all sorts of old fellows,
+          with great red faces, and broken noses, turning up
+          every day--buff jerkins
+          too--matchlocks--sarcophagus--fine place--old
+          legends too--strange stories: capital."
+
+But it was through the medium of _Edwin Drood_, and under the masked
+name of Cloisterham, that all the novel-reading world beyond the
+"ancient city" first recognized Rochester Cathedral--and indeed the
+ancient city too--as having been elevated to a degree of interest and
+importance far beyond that imparted to it by its own venerable history
+and ecclesiastical associations, numerous and varied as they are. The
+early portion of the story introduces us to Cloisterham in imperishable
+language:--
+
+[Illustration: Rochester Cathedral]
+
+          "An ancient city Cloisterham, and no meet
+          dwelling-place for any one with hankerings after
+          the noisy world. . . . A drowsy city Cloisterham,
+          whose inhabitants seem to suppose, with an
+          inconsistency more strange than rare, that all its
+          changes lie behind it, and that there are no more
+          to come. . . . In a word, a city of another and a
+          bygone time is Cloisterham, with its hoarse
+          cathedral bell, its hoarse rooks hovering about
+          the cathedral tower, its hoarser and less distinct
+          rooks in the stalls far beneath. . . ."
+
+The particulars in this chapter mainly relate to _The Mystery of Edwin
+Drood_, which Longfellow thought "certainly one of Dickens's most
+beautiful works, if not the most beautiful of all," but a few words may
+not be inappropriate respecting some of the principal events connected
+with the Cathedral. It was founded[8] A.D. 604, by Ethelbert, King of
+Kent, and the first bishop of the See (Bishop Justus) was ordained by
+Augustine, the Archbishop of the Britons. The See of Rochester is
+therefore, with the exception of Canterbury, at once the most ancient
+and also the smallest in England.
+
+The Cathedral, as well as the city, suffered from the attacks of
+Ethelred, King of Mercia, and in 1075, "when Arnot, a monk of Bec, came
+to the See, it was in a most deplorable condition." Bishop Gundulph, who
+succeeded him, and by whose efforts the Castle was erected, replaced the
+old English church by a Norman one (1080), and made other improvements.
+The Cathedral suffered from fire in 1138 and 1179. Its great north
+transept was built in 1235, and the great south transept in 1240. In
+1423, the parish altar of St. Nicholas, in the nave, was removed to a
+new Church for the citizens on the north side of the Cathedral. In 1470,
+the great west window was inserted. The Norman west front has a richly
+sculptured door of five receding arches, containing figures of the
+Saviour and the twelve apostles, and statues of Henry I. and his Queen,
+Matilda. There are monuments in the Cathedral to St. William of Perth, a
+baker of that town, who was murdered near here by his servant, on his
+way to the Holy Land (1201), and was canonized, to Bishop Gundulph,
+Bishop John de Sheppey, Bishop de Merton (the founder of Merton College,
+Oxford), and to many others.
+
+According to Mr. Phillips Bevan, "the chapter-house is remarkable for
+its magnificent Decorated Door (about 1344), of which there is a
+fac-simile at the Crystal Palace. The figures represent the Christian
+and the Jewish Churches, surrounded by Fathers and Angels. The figure at
+the top is the pure soul for whom the angels are supposed to be
+praying."
+
+Various alterations and additions have been made from time to time, the
+last of which appears to be the central tower, which is terribly mean
+and inappropriate, and altogether out of place with the ancient
+surroundings. It was built by Cottingham in 1825.
+
+We pass, at various times, several pleasant hours in the Cathedral and
+its precincts, admiring the beautiful Norman work, and recalling most
+delightful memories of Charles Dickens and his associations therewith.
+
+[Illustration: Rochester Cathedral Interior]
+
+Among the many friends we made at Rochester, was Mr. Syms, the
+respected Manager of the Gas Company, and an old resident in the city.
+To this gentleman we are indebted for several reminiscences of Dickens
+and his works. He fancies that _The Mystery of Edwin Drood_ owed its
+origin to the following strange local event that happened many years
+ago. A well-to-do person, a bachelor (who lived somewhere near the site
+of the present Savings Bank in High St., Rochester, Chatham end), was
+the guardian and trustee of a nephew (a minor), who was the inheritor of
+a large property. Business, pleasure, or a desire to seek health, took
+the nephew to the West Indies, from whence he returned somewhat
+unexpectedly. After his return he suddenly disappeared, and was supposed
+to have gone another voyage, but no one ever saw or heard of him again,
+and the matter was soon forgotten. When, however, certain excavations
+were being made for some improvements or additions to the Bank, the
+skeleton of a young man was discovered; and local tradition couples the
+circumstance with the probability of the murder of the nephew by the
+uncle.
+
+Mr. Syms thought that the "Crozier," which is probably a set off to the
+"Mitre," the orthodox hotel where Mr. Datchery put up with his
+"portmanteau," was probably the city coffee-house, an old hotel of the
+coaching days, which stood on the site now occupied by the London County
+Bank. "It was a hotel of a most retiring disposition," and "business was
+chronically slack at the 'Crozier,'" which probably accounts for its
+dissolution. Another suggestion is that the "Crozier" may have been "The
+Old Crown," a fifteenth-century house, which was pulled down in 1864. He
+could not identify the "Tilted Wagon," the "cool establishment on the
+top of a hill."
+
+It is generally admitted that "Mr. Thomas Sapsea, Auctioneer, &c.," was
+a compound of two originals well known in Rochester--a Mr. B. and a Mr.
+F., who had many of the characteristics of the quondam Mayor of
+Cloisterham. Mr. Sapsea's house is the fine old timbered building
+opposite Eastgate House, which has been previously alluded to.
+
+The "Travellers' Twopenny" of _Edwin Drood_, where Deputy, _alias_
+Winks, lodged, Mr. Syms thought to have been a cheap lodging-house well
+known in that locality, which stood at the junction of Frog Alley and
+Crow Lane, originally called "The Duck," and subsequently "Kitt's
+Lodging-house." But, like less interesting and more important relics of
+the past, this has disappeared, to make way for modern improvements. It
+had been partly burnt down before. To satisfy ourselves, we go over the
+ground, which is near Mr. Franklin Homan's furniture establishment.
+
+We are reminded, in reference to _Edwin Drood_, that the chief tenor
+singer never heads the procession of choristers. That place of honour
+belongs to the smaller boys of the choir. An enquiry from us, as to what
+was the opinion of the townsfolk generally respecting Dickens, elicited
+the reply that they thought him at times "rather masterful."
+
+We are most attentively shown over the Cathedral and its surroundings by
+Mr. Miles, the venerable verger. This faithful and devoted official, who
+began at the bottom of the ladder as a choir boy in the sacred edifice
+at the commencement of the present century, is much respected, and has
+recently celebrated his golden wedding. Few can therefore be more
+closely identified with the growth and development of its current
+history. Pleasant and instructive it is to hear him recount the many
+celebrated incidents which have marked its progress, and to see the
+beautiful memorials of past munificence or affection erected by friends
+or relatives, which he lovingly points out. It is in no perfunctory
+spirit, or as mere matter of routine, that he performs his office: we
+really feel that he takes a deep interest in his task, which makes it a
+privilege to walk under his guidance through the historic building, and
+into its famous crypt, so especially associated with Jasper and Durdles.
+
+[Illustration: The Crypt, Rochester Cathedral.]
+
+We enter "by a small side door, . . . descend the rugged steps, and are
+down in the crypt." It is very spacious, and vaulted with stone. Even by
+daylight, here and there, "the heavy pillars which support the roof
+engender masses of black shade, but between them there are lanes of
+light," and we walk "up and down these lanes," being strangely reminded
+of Durdles as we notice fragments of old broken stone ornaments
+carefully laid out on boards in several places. Formerly there were
+altars to St. Mary and St. Catherine in the crypt or undercroft, but Mr.
+Wildish's local guide-book says:--"They seem not to have been much
+frequented; consequently these saints were not very profitable to the
+priests."
+
+We "go up the winding staircase of the great tower, toilsomely turning
+and turning, and lowering [our] heads to avoid the stairs above, or the
+rough stone pivot around which they twist." About ninety steps bring us
+on to the roof of the Cathedral over the choir, and then, keeping along
+a passage by the parapet, we reach the belfry, and from thence go on by
+ladder to the bell-chamber, which contains six bells--dark--very--long
+ladders--trap-doors--very heavy--almost extinguish us when lowering
+them--more ladders from bell-chamber to roof of tower. The parapet of
+the tower is very high; we can just see over it when standing on a
+narrow ledge near the top-coping of the leaded roof. There are a number
+of curious carved heads on the pinnacles of the tower, and the parapet,
+to our surprise, appears to be about the same height as the top of the
+Castle Keep. A panoramic view of Cloisterham presents itself to our view
+(alas! not by moonlight, as in the story), "its ruined habitations and
+sanctuaries of the dead at the tower's base; its moss-softened,
+red-tiled roofs and red-brick houses of the living, clustered beyond."
+
+We are anxious to go round the triforium, but there is no passage
+through the arches; it was closed, we are told, at the time of the
+restoration, about fifteen years ago, when the walls of the Cathedral
+were pinned for safety. The verger, on being asked, said he did not call
+to mind that Dickens ever went round the triforium or ascended the
+tower. If this is so, then much of the wonderful description of that
+"unaccountable sort of expedition," in the twelfth chapter of _Edwin
+Drood_, must have been written from imagination.
+
+As it is Sunday, and as the summer is nearly over, Mr. Miles, with a
+feeling akin to that which George Eliot has expressed regarding
+imperfect work:--
+
+                  "but God be praised,
+          Antonio Stradivari has an eye
+          That winces at false work and loves the true,"--
+
+apologetically explains that one-half the choir are absent on leave, and
+perhaps we shall not have the musical portion of the service conducted
+with that degree of efficiency which, as visitors, we may have expected.
+Nevertheless we attend the afternoon service; and Mendelssohn's glorious
+anthem, "If with all your hearts," appeals to us with enhanced effect,
+from the exquisite rendering of it by the gifted pure tenor who takes
+the solo, followed by the delicate harmonies of the choir, as the sound
+waves carry them upwards through and around the arches, and from the
+sublime emotions called into being by the impassioned appeal of the
+Hebrew prophet.
+
+We study "the fantastic carvings on the under brackets of the stall
+seats," and examine the lectern described as "the big brass eagle
+holding the sacred books upon his wings," and in imagination can almost
+call up the last scene described in _The Mystery of Edwin Drood_, where
+Her Royal Highness, the Princess Puffer, "grins," and "shakes both fists
+at the leader of the choir," and "Deputy peeps, sharp-eyed, through the
+bars, and stares astounded from the threatener to the threatened."
+
+Upon being interrogated as to whether he knew Charles Dickens, our guide
+immediately answers with a smile--"Knew him! yes. He came here very
+often, and I knew him very well. The fact is, they want to make me out
+to be 'Tope.'" And indeed there appears to be such a relevancy in the
+association, that we frequently find ourselves addressing him as "Mr.
+Tope," at which he good-humouredly laughs. He further states that
+Dickens was frequently in Rochester, and especially so when writing
+_Edwin Drood_, and appeared to be studying the Cathedral and its
+surroundings very attentively.
+
+The next question we put is:--"Was there ever such a person as Durdles?"
+to which he replies, "Of course there was,--a drunken old German
+stonemason, about thirty years ago, who was always prowling about the
+Cathedral trying to pick up little bits of broken stone ornaments,
+carved heads, crockets, finials, and such like, which he carried about
+in a cotton handkerchief, and which may have suggested to Dickens the
+idea of the 'slouching' Durdles and his inseparable dinner bundle. He
+used to work for a certain Squire N----." His earnings mostly went to
+"The Fortune of War,"--now called "The Life-Boat,"--the inn where he
+lodged.
+
+Mr. Miles does not remember the prototypes of any other "cathedraly"
+characters--Crisparkle and the rest--but he quite agrees with the
+general opinion previously referred to as to the origin of Mr. Sapsea.
+He considers "Deputy" (the imp-like satellite of Durdles and the
+"Kinfreederel") to be decidedly a street Arab, the type of which is more
+common in London than in Rochester. He thinks that the fact of the rooms
+over the gatehouse having once been occupied by an organ-blower of the
+Cathedral may have prompted Dickens to make it the residence of the
+choir-master. He also throws out the suggestion that the discovery in
+1825 of the effigy of Bishop John de Sheppey, who died in 1360, may
+possibly have given rise to the idea of the "old 'uns" in the crypt, the
+frequent object of Durdles's search, _e.g._ "Durdles come upon the old
+chap (in reference to a buried magnate of ancient time and high degree)
+by striking right into the coffin with his pick. The old chap gave
+Durdles a look with his open eyes as much as to say, 'Is your name
+Durdles? Why, my man, I've been waiting for you a Devil of a time!' and
+then he turned to powder. With a two-foot rule always in his pocket, and
+a mason's hammer all but always in his hand, Durdles goes continually
+sounding and tapping all about and about the Cathedral; and whenever he
+says to Tope, 'Tope, here's another old 'un in here!' Tope announces it
+to the Dean as an established discovery."
+
+[Illustration: Minor Canon Row: Rochester]
+
+On the south side of the Cathedral is the curious little terrace of
+old-fashioned houses, about seven in number, called "Minor Canon
+Row"--"a wonderfully quaint row of red-brick tenements" (Dickens's name
+for it is "Minor Canon Corner"),--chiefly occupied by the officers and
+others attached to the Cathedral. Here it was that Mr. Crisparkle dwelt
+with his mother, and where the little party was held (after the dinner
+at which Mr. Luke Honeythunder, with his "Curse your souls and
+bodies--come here and be blessed" philanthropy, was present, and caused
+"a most doleful breakdown"), which included Miss Twinkleton, the
+Landlesses, Rosa Bud, and Edwin Drood, as shown in the illustration, "At
+the Piano." The Reverend Septimus Crisparkle's mother, who is the
+hostess (and celebrated for her wonderful closet with stores of pickles,
+jams, biscuits, and cordials), is beautifully described in the story:--
+
+          "What is prettier than an old lady--except a young
+          lady--when her eyes are bright, when her figure is
+          trim and compact, when her face is cheerful and
+          calm, when her dress is as the dress of a china
+          shepherdess: so dainty in its colours, so
+          individually assorted to herself, so neatly
+          moulded on her? Nothing is prettier, thought the
+          good Minor Canon frequently, when taking his seat
+          at table opposite his long-widowed mother. Her
+          thought at such times may be condensed into the
+          two words that oftenest did duty together in all
+          her conversations: 'My Sept.'"
+
+The backs of the houses have very pretty gardens, and, as evidence of
+the pleasant and healthy atmosphere of the locality, we notice beautiful
+specimens of the ilex, arbutus, euonymus, and fig, the last-named being
+in fruit. The wall-rue (_Asplenium ruta-muraria_) is found hereabout.
+There, too, is a Virginia creeper, but we do not observe one growing on
+the Cathedral walls, as described in _Edwin Drood_. Jackdaws fly about
+the tower, but there are no rooks, as also stated. Near Minor Canon Row,
+to the right of Boley Hill (or "Bully Hill," as it is sometimes called),
+is the "paved Quaker settlement," a sedate row of about a dozen houses
+"up in a shady corner."
+
+"Jasper's Gatehouse" of the work above mentioned is certainly an object
+of great interest to the lover of Dickens, as many of the remarkable
+scenes in _Edwin Drood_ took place there. It is briefly described as "an
+old stone gatehouse crossing the Close, with an arched thoroughfare
+passing beneath it. Through its latticed window, a fire shines out upon
+the fast-darkening scene, involving in shadow the pendent masses of ivy
+and creeper covering the building's front." There are _three_ Gatehouses
+near the Cathedral, a fact which proves somewhat embarrassing to those
+anxious to identify the original of that so carefully described in the
+story. A short description of these may not be uninteresting.
+
+[Illustration: College Gate--(or Chertsey's Gate) Rochester.]
+
+[Illustration: Prior's Gate: Rochester]
+
+(A) "College Yard Gate," "Cemetery Gate," and "Chertsey's Gate," are the
+respective names of what we know as "Jasper's Gatehouse." It is a
+picturesque stone structure, weather-boarded above the massive archway,
+and abuts on the High Street about a hundred yards north of the
+Cathedral. Some of the old houses near have recently been demolished,
+with the result that the Gatehouse now stands out in bold relief against
+the main thoroughfare of the city. No "pendent masses of ivy" or
+"creeper" cover it. The Gate was named "Chertsey" after Edward Chertsey,
+a gentleman who lived and owned property near in the time of Edward IV.,
+and the Cathedral authorities still continue to use the old name,
+"Chertsey's Gate." The place was recently the residence of the
+under-porter of the Cathedral, and is now occupied by poor people. There
+are four rooms, two below and two above.
+
+(B) "Prior's Gate" is a castellated stone structure partly covered with
+ivy, standing about a hundred yards south of the Cathedral, and is not
+now utilized in any way. There is only one room, approached by a winding
+staircase or "postern stair." The Gate was formerly used as a school for
+choristers, until the new building of the Choir School was opened in
+Minor Canon Row about three years ago.
+
+(C) The "Deanery Gatehouse" is the name of a quaint and very cosy old
+house, having ten rooms, some of which, together with the staircase, are
+beautifully panelled; its position is a little higher up to the eastward
+of the College Yard Gate, and adjoining the Cathedral, while a gateway
+passage under it leads to the Deanery. The house was formerly the
+official residence of the Hon. and Reverend Canon Hotham, who was
+appointed a Canon in residence in 1808, and lived here at intervals
+until about 1850, when the Canonry was suppressed. Of all the
+Gatehouses, this is the only one suitable for the residence of a person
+in Jasper's position, who was enabled to offer befitting hospitality to
+his nephew and Neville Landless. Formerly there was an entrance into the
+Cathedral from this house, which is now occupied by Mr. Day and his
+family, who kindly allowed us to inspect it. We were informed that
+locally it is sometimes called "Jasper's Gatehouse." The interior of the
+drawing-room on the upper floor presents a very strong resemblance to
+Mr. Luke Fildes's illustration, "On dangerous ground." Accordingly, to
+settle the question of identity, I wrote to Mr. Fildes, whose
+interesting and courteous reply to my inquiries is conclusive. Before
+giving it, however, I may mention that my fellow-tramp, Mr. Kitton,
+suggested, more particularly with reference to another illustration in
+_Edwin Drood_, viz., "Durdles cautions Mr. Sapsea against boasting,"
+that, for the purposes of the story, the Prior's Gate is placed where
+the College Yard Gate actually stands.
+
+[Illustration: Deanery Gate. Rochester]
+
+
+                                  "11, MELBURY ROAD, KENSINGTON, W.
+                                         "_25th October, 1890._
+
+          "DEAR SIR,
+
+          "The background of the drawing of 'Durdles
+          cautioning Sapsea,' I believe I sketched from what
+          you call A., _i. e._ The College Gate. I am almost
+          certain it was not taken from B., the Prior's.
+
+          "The room in the drawing, 'On dangerous ground,'
+          is imaginary.
+
+          "I do not believe I entered any of the Gatehouses.
+
+          "The resemblance you see in the drawing to the
+          room in the Deanery Gatehouse (C.), might not be
+          gained by actual observation of the _interior_.
+
+          "In many instances an artist can well judge what
+          the interior may be from studying the _outside_. I
+          only throw this out to show that the artist may
+          not have seen a thing even when a strong
+          resemblance occurs. I am sorry to leave any doubt
+          on the subject, though personally I feel none.
+
+          "You see I never felt the necessity or propriety
+          of being locally accurate to Rochester or its
+          buildings. Dickens, of course, meant Rochester;
+          yet, at the same time, he chose to be obscure on
+          that point, and I took my cue from him. I always
+          thought it was one of his most artistic pieces of
+          work; the vague, dreamy description of the
+          Cathedral in the opening chapter of the book. So
+          definite in one sense, yet so locally vague.
+
+                        "Very faithfully yours,
+                                          "LUKE FILDES.
+
+          "W. R. HUGHES, ESQ."
+
+
+
+The College Yard Gate (A) must therefore be regarded as the typical
+Jasper's Gatehouse, but, with the usual novelist's license, some points
+in all three Gatehouses have been utilized for effect. So we can imagine
+the three friends in succession going up the "postern stair;" and,
+further on in the story, we can picture that mysterious "single buffer,
+Dick Datchery, living on his means," as a lodger in the "venerable
+architectural and inconvenient" official dwelling of Mr. Tope, minutely
+described in the eighteenth chapter of _Edwin Drood_, as "communicating
+by an upper stair with Mr. Jasper's," watching the unsuspecting Jasper
+as he goes to and from the Cathedral.
+
+Chapters twelve, fourteen, and twenty-three refer to Jasper's Gatehouse,
+and its proximity to the busy hum of human life, in very vivid terms,
+especially chapter twelve:--
+
+          "Among these secluded nooks there is little stir
+          or movement after dark. There is little enough in
+          the high tide of the day, but there is next to
+          none at night. Besides that, the cheerfully
+          frequented High Street lies nearly parallel to the
+          spot (the old Cathedral rising between the two),
+          and is the natural channel in which the
+          Cloisterham traffic flows, a certain awful hush
+          pervades the ancient pile, the cloisters, and the
+          churchyard after dark, which not many people care
+          to encounter. . . . One might fancy that the tide
+          of life was stemmed by Mr. Jasper's own Gatehouse.
+          The murmur of the tide is heard beyond; but no
+          wave passes the archway, over which his lamp burns
+          red behind the curtain, as if the building were a
+          Lighthouse. . . .
+
+          "The red light burns steadily all the evening in
+          the Lighthouse on the margin of the tide of busy
+          life. Softened sounds and hum of traffic pass it,
+          and flow on irregularly into the lonely precincts;
+          but very little else goes by save violent rushes
+          of wind. It comes on to blow a boisterous gale. . . .
+          John Jasper's lamp is kindled, and his Lighthouse
+          is shining, when Mr. Datchery returns alone
+          towards it. As mariners on a dangerous voyage,
+          approaching an iron-bound coast, may look along
+          the beams of the warning light to the haven lying
+          beyond it that may never be reached, so Mr.
+          Datchery's wistful gaze is directed to this beacon
+          and beyond. . . ."
+
+The sensation of calm in passing suddenly out of the busy High Street of
+Rochester into the subdued precincts of the Cathedral, as above
+described, is very marked and peculiar, and must be experienced to be
+realized.
+
+Among the many interesting ancient buildings in "the lonely precincts"
+may be mentioned the old Episcopal Palace of the Bishops of Rochester.
+My friend Mr. George Payne, F.S.A., Hon. Sec. of the Kent Archaeological
+Society, who now lives there, writes me that:--"it is impossible to say
+when it was first built, but it was rebuilt _circa_ 1200, the Palace
+which preceded it having been destroyed by fire. Bishop Fisher was
+appointed to the See in 1504, and mainly resided at Rochester. The
+learned prelate here entertained the great Erasmus in 1516, and Cardinal
+Wolsey in 1527. In 1534 Bishop Fisher left Rochester never to return,
+being beheaded on Tower Hill, June 22nd, 1535. The front of the Palace
+has been coated with rough plaster work dusted over with broken tile,
+but the rear walls are in their original state, being wholly composed of
+rag, tufa, and here and there Roman tiles. The cellars are of the most
+massive construction, and many of the rooms are panelled."
+
+[Illustration: The Vines and Restoration House]
+
+The Monks' Vineyard of _Edwin Drood_ exists as "The Vines," and is one
+of the "lungs" of Rochester, belonging to the Dean and Chapter, by whom
+it is liberally leased to the Corporation for a nominal consideration.
+It was a vineyard, or garden, in the days of the monks, and is now a
+fine open space, planted with trees, and has good walks and well-trimmed
+lawns and borders. Remains of the wall of the city, or abbey, previous
+to the Cathedral, constitute the northern boundary of "The Vines." There
+are commodious seats for the public, and it was doubtless on one of
+these, as represented in the illustration entitled "Under the Trees,"
+that Edwin Drood and Rosa sat, during that memorable discussion of their
+position and prospects, which began so childlike and ended so sadly.
+"'Can't you see a happy Future?' For certain, neither of them sees a
+happy Present, as the gate opens and closes, and one goes in and the
+other goes away." A fine clump of old elms (seven in number), called
+"The Seven Sisters," stands at the east end of the Vines, nearly
+opposite Restoration House, and it was under these trees that the
+conversation took place.
+
+So curiously exact at times does the description fit in with the places,
+that we notice opposite Eastgate House the "Lumps of Delight Shop," to
+which it will be remembered that after the discussion Rosa Bud directed
+Edwin Drood to take her.
+
+Dickens's last visit to Rochester was on Monday, 6th June, 1870, when he
+walked over from Gad's Hill Place with his dogs; and he appears to have
+been noticed by several persons in the Vines, and particularly by Mr.
+John Sweet, as he stood leaning against the wooden palings near
+Restoration House, contemplating the beautiful old Manor House. These
+palings have since been removed, and an iron fence substituted. The
+object of this visit subsequently became apparent, when it was found
+that, in those pages of _Edwin Drood_ written a few hours before his
+death, Datchery and the Princess Puffer held that memorable conference
+there. "They have arrived at the entrance to the Monks' Vineyard; an
+appropriate remembrance, presenting an exemplary model for imitation, is
+revived in the woman's mind by the sight of the place," in allusion of
+course to a present of "three shillings and sixpence" which Edwin Drood
+gave her Royal Highness on a previous occasion to buy opium.
+
+[Illustration: Restoration House, Rochester, as it appeared in Dickens's
+time. (From a sketch by an Amateur.)]
+
+The extensive promenade called the Esplanade (where in 1889 we saw the
+Regatta in which, after a series of annual defeats, Rochester maintained
+its supremacy), on the east side of the river Medway, under the Castle
+walls, pleasantly approached from the Cathedral Close, is memorable as
+having been the spot described in the thirteenth chapter where Edwin and
+Rosa met for the last time, and mutually agreed to terminate their
+unfortunate and ill-assorted engagement.
+
+          "They walked on by the river. They began to speak
+          of their separate plans. He would quicken his
+          departure from England, and she would remain where
+          she was, at least as long as Helena remained. The
+          poor dear girls should have their disappointment
+          broken to them gently, and, as the first
+          preliminary, Miss Twinkleton should be confided in
+          by Rosa, even in advance of the reappearance of
+          Mr. Grewgious. It should be made clear in all
+          quarters that she and Edwin were the best of
+          friends. There had never been so serene an
+          understanding between them since they were first
+          affianced."
+
+We are anxious to identify Cloisterham Weir, frequently mentioned in
+_Edwin Drood_, but more particularly as being the place where Minor
+Canon Crisparkle found Edwin's watch and shirt-pin. The Weir, we are
+told in the novel, "is full two miles above the spot to which the young
+men [Edwin and Neville] had repaired [presumably the Esplanade] to
+watch the storm." There is, however, no Weir nearer than Allington, at
+which place the tide of the Medway stops, and Allington is a
+considerable distance from Rochester, probably seven or eight miles. How
+well the good Minor Canon's propensity for "perpetually pitching himself
+headforemost into all the deep water in the surrounding country," and
+his "pilgrimages to Cloisterham Weir in the cold rimy mornings," are
+brought into requisition to enable him to obtain the watch and pin.
+
+          "He threw off his clothes, he plunged into the icy
+          water, and swam for the spot--a corner of the
+          Weir--where something glistened which did not move
+          and come over with the glistening water drops, but
+          remained stationary. . . . He brought the watch to
+          the bank, swam to the Weir again, climbed it, and
+          dived off. He knew every hole and corner of all
+          the depths, and dived and dived and dived, until
+          he could bear the cold no more. His notion was
+          that he would find the body; he only found a
+          shirt-pin sticking in some mud and ooze."
+
+Our failure to identify Cloisterham Weir exhibits another instance
+where, for the purposes of the story, an imaginary place is introduced.
+To Mr. William Ball is due the credit for subsequently suggesting that
+Snodland Brook and Snodland Weir may have possibly been in Dickens's
+mind in originating Cloisterham Weir; so we tramped over to inspect
+them. Near the village, the brook (or river, for it is of respectable
+width) is turbid and shallow, but higher up--a mile or so--we found it
+clearer and deeper, and we heard from some labourers, whom we saw
+regaling themselves by the side of a hayrick, that a local gentleman had
+some years ago been in the habit of bathing in the stream all the year
+round.
+
+[Illustration: St. Nicholas' Burying Ground]
+
+The ancient Church of St. Nicholas (1423) is on the north side of the
+Cathedral. In front of it is a narrow strip of ground, enclosed with
+iron railings, formerly the burial-ground of the Church, but now
+disused, referred to in _Edwin Drood_ as "a fragment of a burial-ground
+in which an unhappy sheep was grazing." In this enclosure, which is
+neatly kept, there are a weeping willow at each end, and in the centre
+an exquisite specimen of the catalpa tree (_Catalpa syringifolia_), the
+floral ornament of the Cathedral precincts. At the time of our visit it
+is in perfect condition, the large cordate bright green leaves, and the
+massive trusses of labiate flowers of white, yellow, and purple colours
+(not unlike those of the _Impatiens noli-me-tangere_ balsam, only
+handsomer) are worth walking miles to see. It is a North American plant,
+and in its native country sometimes grows to a height of forty feet.
+The specimen here described is about twenty feet high, and was planted
+about fifteen years ago.[9]
+
+On the opposite side of the way is the old cemetery of St. Nicholas'
+Church, originally part of the Castle moat, but which was converted to
+its present purpose about half a century ago. This quiet resting-place
+of the dead has intense interest for the lover of Dickens, as it was
+here that he desired to be buried; and his family would certainly have
+carried his wishes into effect, but that the place had been closed for
+years and no further interments were allowed. Pending other arrangements
+at Shorne, an admirable suggestion was made in the _Times_, which
+speedily found favour with the nation in its great affection for him,
+namely, that he should rest in Westminster Abbey; and, the Dean of
+Westminster promptly and wisely responding to the suggestion, it was at
+once carried into effect.
+
+As we pause, and look again and again at the sheltered nook in the old
+cemetery sanctified by his memory, and adorned by rich evergreens and
+other trees, among which the weeping willow and the almond are
+conspicuous, we quite understand and sympathize with Dickens's love for
+such a calm and secluded spot.
+
+The Dean and Chapter of Rochester, it will be recollected, were anxious
+that the great novelist's remains should be placed in or near their
+Cathedral, and that wish might have been gratified, except, as just
+explained, that the public decreed otherwise. However, they sanctioned
+the erection, by the executors, of a brass, which enriches the wall of
+the south transept of the edifice, and which has the following
+inscription:--
+
+[Illustration: CHARLES DICKENS
+
+BORN AT PORTSMOUTH SEVENTH OF FEBRUARY 1812 DIED AT GADSHILL PLACE BY
+ROCHESTER NINTH OF JUNE 1870 BURIED IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY
+
+TO CONNECT HIS MEMORY WITH THE SCENES IN WHICH HIS EARLIEST AND HIS
+LATEST YEARS WERE PASSED AND WITH THE ASSOCIATIONS OF ROCHESTER
+CATHEDRAL AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD WHICH EXTENDED OVER ALL HIS LIFE
+
+THIS TABLET WITH THE SANCTION OF THE DEAN AND CHAPTER IS PLACED BY HIS
+EXECUTORS]
+
+The unfinished novel of _Edwin Drood_, which, as we have seen, is so
+inseparably connected with Rochester Cathedral, has been _finished_ by
+at least half a dozen authors, probably to their own satisfaction; but
+it is a hard matter to the reader to struggle through any one of them.
+However, there is a little _brochure_ in this direction which we feel
+may here be appropriately noticed. It is called, _Watched by the Dead: A
+Loving Study of Charles Dickens's half-told Tale_, 1887, and was written
+by R. A. Proctor, F.R.A.S., the Astronomer, whose untimely death from
+fever in America was announced after our return from our week's tramp.
+The author had evidently studied the matter both lovingly and
+attentively, and starts with the assumption that it is an example of
+what he calls "Dickens's favourite theme," which more than any other had
+a fascination for him, and was apparently regarded by him as likely to
+be most potent in its influence on others. It was that of "a wrong-doer
+watched at every turn by one of whom he has no suspicion, for whom he
+even entertains a feeling of contempt," and Mr. Proctor has certainly
+evolved a very suggestive and not improbable conclusion to the story.
+Instances of Dickens's favourite theme are adduced from _Barnaby Rudge_,
+where Haredale, unsuspected, steadily waits and watches for Rudge,
+till, after more than twenty years, "At last! at last!" he cries, as he
+captures his brother's murderer on the very spot where the murder had
+been committed; from _The Old Curiosity Shop_, where Sampson and Sally
+Brass are watched by the Marchioness--their powerless victim as they
+supposed, and by whom their detection is brought about; from _Nicholas
+Nickleby_, where Ralph Nickleby is watched by Brooker; and from _Dombey
+and Son_, where Dombey is watched by Carker, and he in turn is watched
+by good Mrs. Brown and her unhappy daughter. Instances of this kind also
+appear in _David Copperfield_, _Bleak House_, and _Little Dorrit_.
+
+Reasoning from similar data, Mr. Proctor concludes that Jasper was
+watched by Edwin Drood in the person of Datchery, and thus he was to
+have been tracked remorselessly "to his death by the man whom he
+supposed he had slain." The _denouement_ as regards the other characters
+seems also not improbable. Rosa Bud was to have married Lieutenant
+Tartar, and Crisparkle, Helena Landless. Neville was to have died, but
+not before he had learned to understand the change which Edwin's
+character had undergone. As to Edwin Drood himself, "purified by trial,
+strengthened though saddened by his love for Rosa," Edwin would have
+been one of those characters Dickens loved to draw--a character entirely
+changed from a once careless, almost trivial self, to depth and
+earnestness. "All were to join in changing the ways of dear old
+Grewgious from the sadness and loneliness of the earlier scenes" in the
+story, "to the warmth and light of that kindly domestic life for which,
+angular though he thought himself, his true and genial nature fitted him
+so thoroughly." This attempt to solve _The Mystery of Edwin Drood_ will
+amply repay perusal. It was probably one of the last works of this very
+able and versatile author.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It is right to state that Mr. Luke Fildes, R.A., the illustrator of _The
+Mystery of Edwin Drood_, with whom we have had the pleasure of an
+interview, entirely rejects this theory. He does not favour the idea
+that Datchery is Edwin Drood; his opinion is that the ingenuous and
+kind-hearted Edwin, had he been living, would never have allowed his
+friend Neville to continue so long under the grave suspicion of murder.
+Nay more: he is convinced that Dickens intended that Edwin Drood should
+be killed by his uncle; and this opinion is supported by the fact of the
+introduction of a "large black scarf of strong close-woven silk," which
+Jasper wears for the first time in the fourteenth chapter of the story,
+and which was likely to have been the means of death, _i. e._ by
+strangulation. Mr. Fildes said that Dickens seemed much surprised when
+he called his attention to this change of dress--very noticeable and
+embarrassing to an artist who had studied the character--and appeared as
+though he had unintentionally disclosed the secret. He further stated
+that it was Dickens's intention to take him to a condemned cell in
+Maidstone or some other gaol, in order "that he might make a drawing,"
+"and," said Dickens, "do something better than Cruikshank;" in allusion,
+of course, to the famous drawing of "Fagin in the condemned cell."
+"Surely this," remarked our informant, "points to our witnessing the
+condemned culprit Jasper in his cell before he met his fate."[10]
+
+Mr. Fildes spoke with enthusiasm of the very great kindness and
+consideration which he received from Dickens, and the pains he took to
+introduce his young friend to the visitors at Gad's Hill, and in London
+at Hyde Park Place, who were his seniors. He was under an engagement to
+visit Dickens,--had his portmanteau packed in fact, almost ready to
+start on his journey--when he saw to his amazement the announcement of
+his death in the newspapers--and it was a very great shock to him. Not
+long afterwards, Mr. Fildes said, the family, with much kind
+thoughtfulness, renewed the invitation to him to stay a few days at
+Gad's Hill Place, and during that time he made the imperishable drawing
+of "The Empty Chair."
+
+Bearing in mind the above circumstances coming from so high an
+authority, a missing link has been supplied, but--_The Mystery of Edwin
+Drood_ is still unsolved!
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[8] It is interesting to record that the foundations of this Church were
+met with for the first time, in restoring the west front of the
+Cathedral, in 1889.
+
+[9] This was written in 1888; on a subsequent visit to Rochester we were
+sorry to find that the frost had made sad havoc with this beautiful
+tree.
+
+[10] Mr. Charles Dickens informs me that Mr. Fildes is right, and that
+Edwin Drood was dead. His (Mr. Dickens's) father told him so himself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+RICHARD WATTS'S CHARITY, ROCHESTER.
+
+        "Strictly speaking, there were only _six_ Poor
+          Travellers; but being a Traveller myself, though
+          an idle one, and being withal as poor as I hope to
+          be, I brought the number up to seven. . . . I, for
+          one, am so divided this night between fact and
+          fiction, that I scarce know which is which."--_The
+          Seven Poor Travellers._
+
+
+THE most unique Charity ever described in fiction, or founded on fact,
+well deserves a few pages to be devoted to a record of its interesting
+history and present position. We therefore occupy a short time in
+examining it on Thursday morning, before our visit to the Marshes.
+
+[Illustration: The "Six Poor Travellers"]
+
+Except for _The Seven Poor Travellers_, which was the title of the
+Christmas Number of _Household Words_ issued in 1854, it is possible
+that few beyond "the ancient city" would ever have heard, or indeed have
+cared to hear, anything about the Worshipful Master Richard Watts or his
+famous Charity; now, as all the world knows, it is a veritable
+"household word" to readers and admirers of Dickens. In the narrative,
+he, as the first Traveller, is supposed to have visited Rochester, and
+passed the evening with the six Poor Travellers, and thus to have made
+the seventh. After hearing the story of the Charity "from the decent
+body of a wholesome matronly presence" (this was Mrs. Cackett, a former
+matron, who is said to have been very much astonished at her appearance
+in the drama of _The Seven Poor Travellers_, which she subsequently
+witnessed at the Rochester Theatre), he obtains permission to treat the
+Travellers to a hot supper. The inn at which the first Traveller stayed
+was doubtless our old acquaintance, the Bull, "where the window of his
+adjoining bedroom looked down into the Inn yard, just where the lights
+of the kitchen redden a massive fragment of the Castle wall." Here was
+brewed the "wassail" contained in the "brown beauty," the "turkey" and
+"beef" roasted, and the "plum-pudding" boiled. As Mr. Robert Langton
+says, "the account of the treat to the poor Travellers is of course
+wholly fictitious, although it is accepted as sober truth by many
+people, both in Rochester and elsewhere."
+
+It is not our purpose to criticize the seven pretty stories which make
+up this Christmas Number, part of the first of which only relates to
+Watts's Charity; but we will venture to affirm that the concluding
+portion of that story, referring to "Richard Doubledick," "who was a
+Poor Traveller with not a farthing in his pocket, and who came limping
+down on foot to this town of Chatham," is one of the most touching
+instances of Christian forgiveness ever recorded, and hardened indeed
+must he be who reads it with dry eyes.
+
+To what extent Dickens himself was affected by this beautiful tale, is
+shown by the following extract from a letter addressed by him, on 22nd
+December, 1854, to the late Mr. Arthur Ryland, formerly Mayor of
+Birmingham, now treasured by his widow, Mrs. Arthur Ryland, who kindly
+allowed a copy to be taken:--
+
+"What you write with so much heartiness of my first Poor Traveller is
+quite delightful to me. The idea of that little story obtained such
+strong possession of me when it came into my head, that it cost me more
+time and tears than most people would consider likely. The response it
+meets with is payment for anything."
+
+It is also interesting to record that many years afterwards Mr. Ryland
+read this story at one of the Christmas gatherings of the Birmingham and
+Midland Institute, and subsequently received from an unknown
+correspondent--Sergeant A----, of the 106th Light Infantry, then
+stationed at Umballa, East Indies, who had noticed an account of the
+reading in a newspaper--a letter under date of 15th July, 1870, asking
+to be favoured with a copy of the story; "for," said the writer, "we
+have just started a Penny Reading Society (if I may call it so), and I'm
+sure that story would be the means of reclaiming many men from their
+vices--I mean drinking and low company." The story was of course sent,
+and Mr. Ryland subsequently communicated the circumstances to the
+present Mr. Charles Dickens, who replied--"I wish my dear father could
+have seen the sergeant's letter; it would have pleased him, I am sure."
+
+As we proceed along the High Street, on the north side towards Chatham,
+a walk of only a few yards from the Bull brings us to a curious Tudor
+stone-built house of two stories, with latticed windows and
+three-pointed gables. Under a lamp in the centre, which is over the
+"quaint old door"--the door-sill itself being (as is usual with some old
+houses) a little below the street, so that we drop by a step or two into
+the entrance-hall--is a tablet containing the following inscription:--
+
+                     (CENTRE.)
+               RICHARD WATTS, ESQUIRE,
+          by his Will dated 22nd August, 1579,
+                 founded this Charity
+               for Six Poor Travellers,
+          who, not being Rogues or Proctors,
+           May receive gratis for one Night
+               Lodging, Entertainment,
+                 and Fourpence each.
+
+"In testimony of his munificence, in honour of his memory, and
+inducement to his example, the Charitable Trustees of this City and
+Borough have caused this stone to be renewed and inscribed, A.D. 1865."
+
+And on the left and right-hand sides respectively of the preceding
+appear smaller tablets, with the following inscriptions:--
+
+                 (LEFT.)
+          The Charitable Trustees
+             of this City and
+            Borough appointed
+            by the Lord High
+              Chancellor,
+            16 December, 1836,
+               are to see
+             this Charity
+              executed.
+
+                     (RIGHT.)
+          Pagitt _Arms._[Illustration] Somers
+                  Thomas Pagitt,
+               second husband of
+              Mary, Daughter of
+                Thomas Somers
+                 of Halstow,
+            Widow of Richard Watts,
+              Deceased A.D. 1599.
+
+We enter the old-fashioned little parlour, or office, on the left-hand
+side, "warm in winter and cool in summer. It has a look of homely
+welcome and soothing rest. It has a remarkably cosy fireside, the very
+blink of which, gleaming out into the street upon a winter's night, is
+enough to warm all Rochester's heart." The matron receives us politely,
+and shows us two large books of foolscap size with ruled columns, one of
+these containing a record of the visitors to the Charity, and the other
+a list of the recipients thereof. A little pleasantry is caused by one
+of us entering his name in the wrong book, but this mistake is promptly
+rectified by the matron, who informs us that we are scarcely objects for
+relief as "Poor Travellers." She then kindly repeats to us the two
+legends respecting the origin of the Charity, the first of which is
+tolerably well known, but the other is less familiar. Before recording
+these, it may be well to give an extract from the will of Master Richard
+Watts (a very curious and lengthy document), which was industriously
+hunted up by the late Mr. Charles Bullard, author of the _Romance of
+Rochester_, and by him contributed to the _Rochester and Chatham
+Journal_, of which it fills a whole column.
+
+The will (dated, as previously stated, August 22nd, 1579) directs,
+_inter alia_, that "First the Alms-house already erected and standing
+beside the Markett Crosse, within the Citty of Rochester aforesaid,
+which Almshouses my Will Purpose and Desire is that there be reedified
+added and provided with such Roomes as be there already provided Six
+Severall Roomes with Chimneys for the Comfort placeing and abideing of
+the Poore within the said Citty, and alsoe to be made apt and convenient
+places therein for Six good Matrices or Flock Bedds and other good and
+sufficient Furniture to harbour or lodge in poore Travellers or
+Wayfareing Men being noe Common Rogues nor Proctors, and they the said
+Wayfareing Men to harbour and lodge therein noe longer than one Night
+unlesse Sickness be the farther Cause thereof and those poore Folkes
+there dwelling shall keepe the House sweete make the Bedds see to the
+Furniture keepe the same sweete and courteously intreate the said poore
+Travellers and to every of the said poore Travellers att their first
+comeing in to have fourpence and they shall warme them at the Fire of
+the Residents within the said House if Need be."
+
+The reason for the exception in the testator's will as regards rogues is
+sufficiently obvious, and therefore all the point of this singular
+bequest lies in the word "Proctors." Who were they? One of the legends
+has it that the obsolete word "Proctors" referred to certain sturdy
+mendicants who swarmed in the south of England, and went about
+extracting money from the charitable public under the pretence of
+collecting "Peter's Pence" for the Pope; or, as the compiler of Murray's
+_Handbook to the County of Kent_ suggests, "were probably the bearers of
+licences to collect alms for hospitals," etc. Possibly the worthy Master
+Richard Watts objected to the levying of this blackmail; or he may in
+his walks have been subjected to the proctors' importunities, and
+consequently in his will rigorously debarred them in all futurity from
+any share in his Charity.
+
+The other legend is that Master Watts, being grievously sick and sore to
+die, sent for his lawyer, who in those days acted as proctor as
+well,--Steerforth in _David Copperfield_ calls the proctor "a monkish
+kind of attorney,"--and bade him prepare his will according to certain
+instructions. The will was made, but not in the manner directed, and
+subsequently, on the testator regaining his health, he discovered the
+fraud which the crafty lawyer or proctor had tried to perpetrate--which
+was, in fact, to make himself the sole legatee. In his just indignation
+he made another will, and in it for ever excluded the fraternity of
+proctors from benefiting thereby. The reader is at liberty to accept
+whichever of the two legends he chooses. It is right to say that Mr.
+Roach Smith utterly rejects the second story. He says proctors were
+simply rogues, although some of them may have been licensed.
+
+The following is a foot-note to Fisher's _History and Antiquities of
+Rochester and its Environs_, MDCCLXXII.
+
+[Illustration: Watts' Almshouses: Rochester]
+
+"It is generally thought that the reason of Mr. Watts's excluding
+proctors from the benefit of the Charity, was that a proctor had been
+employed to make his will, whereby he had given all the estates to
+himself; but I am inclined to believe that the word proctor is derived
+from procurator, who was an itinerant priest, and had dispensations from
+the Pope to absolve the subjects of this realm from the oath of
+allegiance to Queen Elizabeth, in whose reign there were many such
+priests."
+
+When the identity of Miss Adelaide Anne Procter, the gifted author of
+the pure and pathetic _Legends and Lyrics_ (who had been an anonymous
+contributor to _Household Words_ for some time under the _nom de plume_
+of "Mary Berwick"), became known to Charles Dickens, he sent her a
+charming and kindly letter of congratulation and appreciation, dated
+17th December, 1854 (just at the time that the Christmas stories of the
+_Seven Poor Travellers_ were published), which thus concludes:--
+
+"You have given me so much pleasure, and have made me shed so many
+tears, that I can only think of you now in association with the
+sentiment and grace of your verses. Pray accept the blessing and
+forgiveness of Richard Watts, _though I am afraid you come under both
+his conditions of exclusion_."
+
+[Illustration: Signatures: Charles Dickens
+
+Mark Lemon]
+
+We are informed that the original bequest of the testator was only L36
+16_s._ 8_d._ per annum, being the rent of land; but now, owing to the
+improved letting of the land, for building and other purposes, the
+Revenues of the Charity are upwards of L4,000 per annum. The "fourpence"
+of the foundation would be equal to some three shillings and fourpence
+of our money. The trustees, about sixteen in number,--one of whom has
+filled the office for fifty years--have very wisely and prudently
+obtained an extension of their powers; and the Court of Chancery have
+twice (in 1855 and 1886) sanctioned schemes for the administration of
+the funds, which have largely benefited Rochester in many ways. As
+witness of this, there are a series of excellent almshouses on the
+Maidstone Road (which cost about L6,000), with appropriate
+entrance-gates and gardens, endowed for the support and maintenance of
+townsmen and townswomen. We subsequently go into several of the rooms,
+all beautifully clean, and in most cases tastefully decorated by the
+inmates with a few pictures, prints, and flowers, and find that the
+present occupants are ten almsmen and six women. We have a chat with one
+of the almsmen,--a hearty old man, once the beadle of St. Margaret's
+Church,--who rejoices in the name of Peter Weller, and whom we find to
+be well up in his _Pickwick_. There are a resident head-nurse and three
+other resident nurses in the establishment, who occasionally go out to
+nurse the sick in the city. In addition to these almshouses, a handsome
+new hospital has been erected in the New Road, and partly endowed
+(L1,000 a year) out of the funds. Contributions are also made annually
+from the same source towards the support of the Public Baths, and for
+apprenticing deserving lads. Such is the development of this remarkable
+Charity.
+
+The matron calls our attention to many interesting names in the
+Visitors' book. Under date of the 11th May, 1854, are the signatures, in
+good bold writing, of Charles Dickens and Mark Lemon; and in subsequent
+entries, extending over many years, appear the names of Wilkie Collins,
+W. H. Wills, W. G. Wills, Walter Besant, Thomas Adolphus Trollope, J.
+Henry Shorthouse, Augustus J. C. Hare, and other well-known
+_litterateurs_. As usual, there are also numerous names of Americans,
+including those of Miss Mary Anderson and party.
+
+There are many curious remarks recorded in this book, such as an entry
+dated 26th June, 1857, which says:--"Tossed by, and out of the Bull with
+a crumpled horn, as no one would lend me five shillings, therefore
+obliged to solicit the benefit of this excellent charity." There is an
+admirable testimony in Latin, by the late Bishop of Lincoln, Dr.
+Wordsworth, to the usefulness of the institution, which, dated 23rd
+August, 1883, is as follows:--"_Esto perpetua obstantibus Caritatis
+Commissionariis._" His Lordship's remark was probably in allusion to the
+fact that the Charity Commissioners were (as we were afterwards
+informed) inclined, some time ago, to abolish the Charity, but this
+proceeding was stoutly and successfully resisted by the trustees. But
+the most gratifying records which we see in the book consist of several
+entries by recipients of the Charity themselves, who have subsequently
+come again after prosperous times in the capacity of visitors, and thus
+testified to the benefits received. Here is one:--"Having once enjoyed
+the Charity, I wish it a long life."
+
+[Illustration: The "Six Poor Travellers" from the Rear]
+
+[Illustration: A DORMITORY in the "Six Poor Travellers"]
+
+[Illustration: Gallery Leading to the Dormitories]
+
+A clerk has the responsibility of making a careful selection of six from
+the number of applicants, and this appears to be no light task, inasmuch
+as the "prescribed number of Poor Travellers are forthcoming every
+night from year's end to year's end," and sometimes amount to fifty in a
+day. In selecting the persons to be admitted, care is taken that, unless
+under special circumstances, the same person be not admitted for more
+than one night, and in no case for more than two consecutive nights. A
+glance over the register shows that the names include almost all trades
+and occupations; and, as regards the fact of a great many coming from
+Kentish towns, Dartford, Greenwich, Canterbury, Maidstone, etc., we are
+informed, in reply to our enquiry, that this is no criterion of the real
+residence, because the place where the traveller last lodged is always
+entered. The matron told us a story of a clever attempt to obtain
+admission by a Poor Traveller "with a tin whistle and very gentlemanly
+hands," who subsequently turned out to be a reporter from the _Echo_, in
+which paper there afterwards appeared an account of the Charity, called
+_On Tramp by an Amateur_.
+
+We are shown over the premises--scrupulously neat and clean--and observe
+that there are excellent lavatories with foot-pans, and a pair of
+slippers provided for each recipient. We afterwards see the six Poor
+Travellers who have had their supper, and are comfortably smoking their
+pipes in a snug room, and we have a pleasant and interesting chat with
+them. They are much above the condition of ordinary tramps, and are
+lodged in six separate bedrooms, or "dormitories" which open out of a
+gallery at the back part of the building, a very curious structure,
+remaining just as it was in the days of Queen Elizabeth. For supper,
+each man is allowed half a pound of cooked meat, a pound of bread, and
+half-a-pint of porter, and receives fourpence in money on leaving. It is
+right to state that we heard complaints in the city relating to the evil
+effects of a number of poor travellers being attracted to the Charity
+daily, when but a few can obtain relief.
+
+[Illustration: Satis House.]
+
+Respecting the Worshipful Master Richard Watts himself very little is
+known, except that he was appointed by Queen Elizabeth in 1560 to be the
+surveyor and clerk of the works for the building of Upnor Castle; that
+he was paymaster to the Wardens of Rochester Bridge for some years
+previously; that he was recorder of Rochester, and represented the city
+in Parliament from 1563 to 1571, and that he resided at "Satis House,"
+which stood on the site of the modern residence bearing the same name,
+now occupied by Mrs. Booth, a little to the south of the Cathedral, but
+which must not, however, be confounded with the Satis House of _Great
+Expectations_, this latter, as has been previously explained, being
+identical with Restoration House, in Crow Lane. When Queen Elizabeth
+visited Rochester in 1573, Watts had the honour of entertaining Her
+Majesty there, on the last day of her residence in "the ancient city";
+and to his expressions of regret at having no better accommodation to
+offer, the Queen was pleased generously to reply, "Satis," by which name
+the house has ever since been known. Estella, in _Great Expectations_,
+gives another view of the origin of the name. She says:--"Its other
+name was Satis; which is Greek, or Latin, or Hebrew, or all three--or
+all one to me--for enough: but it meant more than it said. It meant,
+when it was given, that whoever had this house, could want nothing else.
+They must have been easily satisfied in those days, I should think."
+Archbishop Longley was born there in 1794.
+
+[Illustration: Watts's Monument in Rochester Cathedral.
+
+_Over the Memorial Brass of Charles Dickens._]
+
+There is a monument to the proctor-hating philanthropist on the wall of
+the south transept of the Cathedral over the brass to Charles Dickens,
+surmounted by a very curious painted marble half-figure effigy with
+flowing beard, of "worthy Master Richard starting out of it, like a
+ship's figurehead." Underneath is the following epitaph:--
+
+                     Sacred to the Memory of
+                      =Richard Watts, Esq.=,
+                  a principal Benefactor to this City,
+               who departed this life Sept. 10, 1579, at
+             his Mansion house on Bully Hill, called SATIS
+             (so named by Q. ELIZABETH of glorious memory),
+          and lies interr'd near this place, as by his Will doth
+            plainly appear. By which Will, dated Aug. 22, and
+              proved Sep. 25, 1579, he founded an Almshouse
+           for the relief of poor people and for the reception
+                of six poor Travelers every night, and for
+                   imploying the poor of this City.
+
+                 *       *       *       *       *
+
+                 The Mayor and Citizens of this City,
+              in testimony of their Gratitude and his Merit,
+                 have erected this Monument, A.D. 1736.
+                       RICHARD WATTS, ESQ.,
+                           then Mayor.
+
+Over and over again, in the various roads and lanes which we traverse,
+in the county famous for "apples, cherries, hops, and women," we have
+ample opportunities of verifying the experience of Dickens, and indeed
+of many other observers (including David Copperfield, who met numbers of
+"ferocious-looking ruffians"), as to the prevalence of tramps, not all
+of whom appear eligible as recipients of Watts's Charity! Our fraternity
+seems to be ubiquitous, and had we the purse of Fortunatus, it would
+hardly suffice to satisfy their requirements. What a wonderfully
+thoughtful, descriptive, and exhaustive chapter is that on "Tramps" in
+_The Uncommercial Traveller!_ We believe Rochester and Strood Hill must
+have been in Dickens's mind when he penned it. Every species and every
+variety of tramp is herein described,--The surly Tramp, The slinking
+Tramp, The well-spoken young-man Tramp, The John Anderson Tramp, Squire
+Pouncerby's Tramp, The show Tramp, The educated Tramp, The tramping
+Soldier, The tramping Sailor, The Tramp handicraft man, Clock-mending
+Tramps, Harvest Tramps, Hopping Tramps and Spectator Tramps--but perhaps
+the most amusing of all is the following:--
+
+          "The young fellows who trudge along barefoot, five
+          or six together, their boots slung over their
+          shoulders, their shabby bundles under their arms,
+          their sticks newly cut from some roadside wood,
+          are not eminently prepossessing, but are much less
+          objectionable. There is a tramp-fellowship among
+          them. They pick one another up at resting
+          stations, and go on in companies. They always go
+          at a fast swing--though they generally limp
+          too--and there is invariably one of the company
+          who has much ado to keep up with the rest. They
+          generally talk about horses, and any other means
+          of locomotion than walking: or, one of the company
+          relates some recent experiences of the road--which
+          are always disputes and difficulties. As for
+          example. So as I'm a standing at the pump in the
+          market, blest if there don't come up a Beadle, and
+          he ses, 'Mustn't stand here,' he ses. 'Why not?' I
+          ses. 'No beggars allowed in this town,' he ses.
+          'Who's a beggar?' I ses. 'You are,' he ses. 'Who
+          ever see _me_ beg? Did _you_?' I ses. 'Then you're
+          a tramp,' he ses. 'I'd rather be that than a
+          Beadle,' I ses. (The company express great
+          approval.) 'Would you?' he ses to me. 'Yes, I
+          would,' I ses to him. 'Well,' he ses, 'anyhow, get
+          out of this town.' 'Why, blow your little town!' I
+          ses, 'who wants to be in it? Wot does your dirty
+          little town mean by comin' and stickin' itself in
+          the road to anywhere? Why don't you get a shovel
+          and a barrer, and clear your town out o' people's
+          way?' (The company expressing the highest approval
+          and laughing aloud, they all go down the hill.)"
+
+It is worthy of consideration, and it is probably more than a mere
+coincidence, to observe that some of the reforms which have been
+effected in the management of the now munificent revenues of Richard
+Watts's Charity were instigated as a sequence to the appearance of
+Dickens's imperishable stories, published under the title of _The Seven
+Poor Travellers_. The Rev. Robert Whiston, with whom we chatted on the
+subject, is of opinion that the late Lord Brougham is entitled to the
+credit for reforms in this and other charities.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+AN AFTERNOON AT GAD'S HILL PLACE.
+
+        "It was just large enough, and no more; was as
+          pretty within as it was without, and was perfectly
+          arranged and comfortable."--_Little Dorrit._
+
+        "This has been a happy home. . . . I love
+          it. . . ."--_The Cricket on the Hearth._
+
+
+A NEVER-TO-BE-FORGOTTEN day was Saturday, the twenty-fifth of August,
+1888, a day remarkable, as were many of the closing days of the summer
+of that year, for its bright, sunny, and cheerful nature. The sky was a
+deep blue--usually described as an Italian sky--broken only by a few
+fleecy, cumulus clouds, which served to bring out more clearly the rich
+colour of the background. There was a fine bracing air coming from the
+north-west, for which the county of Kent is famous. Truly an enjoyable
+day for a holiday! and one that Dickens himself would have loved to
+describe. So after a desultory stroll about the streets of Rochester,
+one of many delightful strolls, we make our first outward tramp, and
+that of course to Gad's Hill. By the way, much attention has been
+devoted to the consideration of the derivation of the name, "Gad's
+Hill." It is no doubt a corruption of "God's Hill," of which there are
+two so-called places in the county, and there is also a veritable
+"God's Hill" a little further south, in the Isle of Wight.
+
+[Illustration: Rochester from Strood Hill.]
+
+Crossing Rochester Bridge, we enter the busy town of Strood, pass
+through its long thoroughfare, go up the Dover Road,--which was the
+ancient Roman military road afterwards called Watling Street, until a
+little above Strood it turned slightly to the left, passing through what
+is now Cobham Park,--and leave the windmill on Broomhill to the right.
+The ground rises gently, the chalk formation being exposed here and
+there in disused pits. A portion of the road higher up is cut through
+the Thanet sands, which rest on the chalk. Again and again we stop, and
+turn to admire the winding valley of the Medway. As we get more into the
+country and leave the town behind, we find the roadsides still decked
+with summer flowers, notably the fine dark blue Canterbury bell--the
+nettle-leaved Campanula (_Campanula Trachelium_)--and the exquisite
+light-blue chicory (_Cichorium Intybus_); but the flowers of the latter
+are so evanescent that, when gathered, they fade in an hour or two. This
+beautiful starlike-blossomed plant is abundant in many parts of Kent.
+We pass on the right the pretty high-standing grounds of Mr. Hulkes at
+the "Little Hermitage," and notice the obelisk further to the right on
+still higher land, erected about fifty years ago to the memory of
+Charles Larkin (a name very suggestive of "the eldest Miss Larkins") of
+Rochester,--"a parish orator and borough Hampden"--by his grateful
+fellow-citizens.
+
+A walk of less than three miles brings us to the "Sir John Falstaff"--"a
+delightfully old-fashioned roadside inn of the coaching days, which
+stands on the north side of the road a little below 'Gad's Hill Place,'
+and which no man possessed of a penny was ever known to pass in warm
+weather."
+
+Mr. Kitton relates in _Dickensiana_ the following amusing story of a
+former waiter at the "Falstaff":--
+
+"A few days after Dickens's death, an Englishman, deeply grieved at the
+event, made a sort of pilgrimage to Gad's Hill--to the home of the great
+novelist. He went into the famous 'Sir John Falstaff Inn' near at hand,
+and in the effusiveness of his honest emotions, he could not avoid
+taking the country waiter into his confidence.
+
+"'A great loss this of Mr. Dickens,' said the pilgrim.
+
+"'A very great loss to us, sir,' replied the waiter, shaking his head;
+'he had all his ale sent in from this house!'"
+
+One of the two lime-trees only remains, but the well and bucket--as
+recorded by the _Uncommercial Traveller_ in the chapter on "Tramps"--are
+there still, surrounded by a protective fence.
+
+[Illustration: The "Sir John Falstaff" Inn, Gad's Hill.]
+
+We have but little time to notice the "Falstaff," for our admiring gaze
+is presently fixed on Gad's Hill Place itself, the house in which
+Dickens resided happily--albeit trouble came to him as to most
+men--from the year 1856 till his death in 1870. Everybody knows the
+story of how, as a little boy, he cherished the idea of one day living
+in this house, and how that idea was gratified in after-life. It is from
+the _Uncommercial Traveller_, in the chapter on "Travelling Abroad," and
+the repetition is never stale. He says:--
+
+          "So smooth was the old high road, and so fresh
+          were the horses, and so fast went I, that it was
+          midway between Gravesend and Rochester, and the
+          widening river was bearing the ships, white-sailed
+          or black-smoked, out to sea, when I noticed by the
+          wayside a very queer small boy.
+
+          "'Holloa!' said I to the very queer small boy,
+          'where do you live?'
+
+          "'At Chatham,' says he.
+
+          "'What do you do there?' says I.
+
+          "'I go to school,' says he.
+
+          "I took him up in a moment, and we went on.
+          Presently, the very queer small boy says, 'This is
+          Gad's Hill we are coming to, where Falstaff went
+          out to rob those travellers, and ran away.'
+
+          "'You know something about Falstaff, eh?' said I.
+
+          "'All about him,' said the very queer small boy.
+          'I am old (I am nine), and I read all sorts of
+          books. But _do_ let us stop at the top of the
+          hill, and look at the house there, if you please!'
+
+          "'You admire that house?' said I.
+
+          "'Bless you, sir,' said the very queer small boy,
+          'when I was not more than half as old as nine, it
+          used to be a treat for me to be brought to look at
+          it. And now, I am nine, I come by myself to look
+          at it. And ever since I can recollect, my father,
+          seeing me so fond of it, has often said to me, 'If
+          you were to be very persevering, and were to work
+          hard, you might some day come to live in it.'
+          Though that's impossible!' said the very queer
+          small boy, drawing a low breath, and now staring
+          at the house out of window with all his might.
+
+          "I was rather amazed to be told this by the very
+          queer small boy; for that house happens to be _my_
+          house, and I have reason to believe that what he
+          said was true."
+
+[Illustration: Gadshill Place]
+
+Mrs. Lynn Linton, the celebrated novelist, who resided at Gad's Hill as
+a child, has very kindly given us her personal recollections of it sixty
+years ago, and of the interesting circumstances under which Charles
+Dickens subsequently purchased the property;--which will be found at the
+end of this chapter.
+
+Before seeking permission to enter the grounds of Gad's Hill Place,
+which are surrounded by a high wall, and screened externally by a row of
+well-topped lime-trees, we retrace our steps for a few minutes, in order
+to refresh ourselves with a homely luncheon, and what Mr. Richard
+Swiveller would call a "modest quencher," at the Sir John Falstaff. It
+may be certain that not much time is consumed in this operation. We then
+take a good look at the remarkable house opposite, the object of our
+pilgrimage, which has been made well known by countless photographs and
+engravings. It is a comfortable, but a not very attractive-looking
+red-brick house of two stories, with porch at entrance, partly covered
+with ivy. All the front windows, with the exception of the central ones,
+are bayed, and there are dormer windows in the roof, which is surmounted
+by a bell-turret and vane. What a strange fascination it has for
+admirers of Dickens when seen for the first time! According to Forster,
+in his _Life_ of the novelist, the house was built in 1780 by a
+well-known local character named James Stevens, who rose to a good
+position. He was the father-in-law of the late Professor Henslow, the
+Botanist, of Cambridge. Dickens paid for it the sum of L1,790, and the
+purchase was completed on Friday, 14th March, 1856. The present owner is
+Major Austin F. Budden,[11] of the 12th Kent Artillery Volunteers, who,
+we find, in the course of subsequent conversation, had also done good
+municipal service, having filled the office of Mayor of Rochester for
+two years,--from 1879 to 1881,--and that he was elected at the early age
+of twenty-eight.
+
+We ring the bell at the gate which shuts the house out from view, and
+are promptly answered by a pleasant-speaking housemaid, who takes our
+cards on a salver, and ushers us into the library. We are requested to
+enter our names in the visitors' book, and this is done with alacrity.
+We are under the impression that we shall only be allowed to see the
+hall and study, a privilege allowed to any visitor on presentation of a
+card; but fortunately for us the courteous owner appears, and says that,
+as he has half an hour to spare, he will show us entirely over the
+house. He is better than his word, and we, delighted with the prospect,
+commence our inspection of the late home of the great novelist with
+feelings of singular pleasure, which are altogether a new sensation. Do
+any readers remember, when perusing the Waverley novels in their youth,
+a certain longing (as the height of their ambition, possibly gratified
+in after-life) to see Abbotsford, the home of the "Wizard of the North"?
+_That_ is a feeling akin to the one which possesses us on the present
+occasion, a feeling of veneration almost amounting to awe as we recall,
+and seem to realize, not only the presence of Charles Dickens himself,
+but of the many eminent literary, artistic, and histrionic
+characters--his contemporaries--who assembled here, and shared the
+hospitality of the distinguished owner. "Dickens penetrates here--where
+does not his genial sunshine penetrate?"
+
+Turning over the leaves of the visitors' book, Major Budden calls our
+attention to the signatures of Americans, who constitute by far the
+majority of visitors. Among the more recent appears the name of that
+accomplished actress, Miss Mary Anderson--herself a great admirer of
+Charles Dickens--who came accompanied by a party of friends. We also
+found her name, with the same party, in the visitors' book at Richard
+Watts's Charity in Rochester. Major Budden spoke also of the great
+enthusiasm always exhibited by our American friends in regard to
+Dickens, some of whom had told him more than once that it was the custom
+to instruct their children in a knowledge of his works: they read them,
+in fact, in the schools.
+
+The library, or study, is a very cosy little room, made famous by Mr.
+Luke Fildes's picture of "The Empty Chair." It is situated on the west
+side of the porch, looking to the front, with the shrubbery in the
+distance; and among the most conspicuous objects contained in it are the
+curious counterfeit book-backs devised by Dickens and his friends, and
+arranged as shelves to fit the door of the room. They number nearly
+eighty, and a selection is given below of a few of the quaintest titles,
+viz.:--
+
+The Quarrelly Review. 4 vols.
+
+King Henry the Eighth's Evidences of Christianity. 5 vols.
+
+Noah's Arkitecture. 2 vols.
+
+[Illustration: PG from the Drawing of S. L. Fildes
+
+"The empty chair" Gad's Hill Ninth of June 1870.]
+
+Chickweed.
+
+Groundsel (by the Author of Chickweed).
+
+Cockatoo on Perch.
+
+History of a Short Chancery Suit. 21 vols.
+
+Cats' Lives. 9 vols.
+
+Hansard's Guide to Refreshing Sleep (many volumes).
+
+The Wisdom of our Ancestors--I. Ignorance. II. Superstition. III. The
+Block. IV. The Stake. V. The Rack. VI. Dirt. VII. Disease.
+
+Several of the titles were used for a similar purpose at Tavistock
+House, London--Dickens's former residence.
+
+We cannot help, as we sit down quietly for a few minutes, wondering how
+much of _Little Dorrit_, _Hunted Down_, _A Tale of Two Cities_, _Great
+Expectations_, _The Uncommercial Traveller_, _Our Mutual Friend_, and
+_The Mystery of Edwin Drood_ (which were all issued between 1856 and
+1870) was written in this famous room, to say nothing of those heaps of
+exquisite letters which so helped, cheered, interested, or amused many a
+correspondent, and have delighted the public since.
+
+In the hall, which has the famous parquet floor laid down by Dickens, is
+still hanging the framed illumination, artistically executed by Owen
+Jones, and placed there immediately after Dickens became the "Kentish
+freeholder on his native heath" as he called it. It is as follows:--
+
+                         This House,
+                      GAD'S HILL PLACE,
+          stands on the summit of Shakespeare's Gad's Hill,
+             ever memorable for its association with
+               Sir John Falstaff, in his noble fancy.
+
+[Illustration: Counterfeit Book-backs on Study Door.]
+
+"But, my lads, my lads, to-morrow morning by four o'clock early at Gad's
+Hill. There are pilgrims going to Canterbury with rich offerings, and
+traders riding to London with fat purses; I have vizards for you all;
+you have horses for yourselves."[12]
+
+From the hall we enter the dining-room, a cheerful apartment looking on
+to the beautiful lawn at the back, which has at the end the arched
+conservatory of lilac-tinted glass at top, in which the novelist took so
+much interest, and where he hung some Chinese lanterns, sent down from
+London the day before his death. We are informed that in this building
+he signed the last cheque which he drew, to pay his subscription to the
+Higham Cricket Club. The door of the dining-room is faced with
+looking-glass, so that it may reflect the contents of the conservatory.
+Among these are two or three New Zealand tree-ferns which Dickens
+himself purchased. In the dining-room Major Budden pointed out the exact
+spot where the fatal seizure from effusion on the brain took place, on
+the afternoon of Wednesday, 8th June, 1870, and where Dickens lay:
+first on the floor to the right of the door on entering, and afterwards
+to the left, when the couch was brought down (by order of Mr. Steele,
+the surgeon of Strood, as we subsequently learned), upon which he
+breathed his last.
+
+The drawing-room faces the front, and, like the dining-room, has been
+lengthened, and opens into the conservatory. In fact, Dickens was always
+improving Gad's Hill Place. There is a memorable reference to the
+conservatory by Forster in the third vol. of the _Life_. He says:--
+
+"This last addition had long been an object of desire with him, though
+he would hardly, even now, have given himself the indulgence but for the
+golden shower from America. He saw it first in a completed state on the
+Sunday before his death, when his youngest daughter was on a visit to
+him.
+
+"'Well, Katey,' he said to her, 'now you see POSITIVELY the last
+improvement at Gad's Hill,' and every one laughed at the joke against
+himself. The success of the new conservatory was unquestionable. It was
+the remark of all around him, that he was certainly, from this last of
+his improvements, drawing more enjoyment than from any of its
+predecessors, when the scene for ever closed!"
+
+This room is a long one, and, in common with all the others, gives us,
+under the auspices of the brilliantly fine day, some idea of the late
+owner's love of light, air, and cheerfulness. That the situation is also
+a healthy and bracing one is confirmed by the fact, that in a letter
+written on board the _Russia_, bound for Liverpool, on the 26th April,
+1868, after his second American tour, he speaks of having made a "Gad's
+Hill breakfast."
+
+Our most considerate cicerone next takes us into several of the
+bedrooms, these being of large size, and having a little dressing-room
+marked off with a partition, head-high, so that no cubic space is lost
+to the main chamber. As illustrative of Charles Dickens's care for the
+comfort of his friends, it is said that in the visitors' bedrooms there
+was always hot water and a little tea-table set out, so that each one
+could at any time make for himself a cup of the beverage "that cheers
+but not inebriates." The views from these rooms are very charming. Mr.
+W. T. Wildish afterwards told us, that during the novelist's life-time,
+Mr. Trood, the landlord of the Sir John Falstaff, once took him over
+Gad's Hill Place, and he was surprised to find Dickens's own bath-room
+covered with cuttings from _Punch_ and other comic papers. I have since
+learned that this was a screen of engravings which had originally been
+given him.
+
+The gardens, both flower and vegetable, are then pointed out--the
+approach thereto from the back lawn being by means of a flight of
+steps--as also the rosary, which occupies a portion of the front lawn to
+the westward. The roses are of course past their best, but the trees
+look very healthy.
+
+In the flower garden we are especially reminded of Dickens's love for
+flowers, the China-asters, single dahlias, and zinnias being of
+exceptional brightness. As to the violets, which are here in abundance,
+both the Neapolitan and Russian varieties, the Major shows us a method
+of cultivating them, first in frames, and then in single rows, so that
+he can get them in bloom for nearly nine months in the year!
+
+Adjoining the lawn and vegetable garden is "the much-coveted meadow,"
+which the master of Gad's Hill obtained by exchange of some land with
+the trustees of Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School at
+Rochester, and in which he planted "a number of limes and chestnuts,
+and other quick-growing trees." Four grass walks meet in the centre of
+the vegetable garden, where there is a fine old mulberry tree.
+
+It is stated in Forster's _Life_ of the novelist (Vol. iii. p. 188) that
+Dickens obtained the meadow by exchange of some land "with the Trustees
+of Watts's Charity." But this is not right. The distinguished historian
+of the Commonwealth, and the faithful friend of the novelist all through
+his life, is so habitually accurate, that it is an exceptional
+circumstance for any one to be able to correct him. However, I am
+indebted to Mr. A. A. Arnold, of Rochester, for the following authentic
+account of the transaction.
+
+Dickens was always anxious to obtain this meadow (which consists of
+about fourteen acres), and, believing that the Trustees of Sir Joseph
+Williamson's Mathematical School at Rochester were not empowered to sell
+their land, he purchased a field at the back of his own shrubbery from
+Mr. Brooker, of Higham, with a view--as appears from the following
+characteristically courteous and business-like letter--to effect an
+exchange.
+
+
+                                   "GAD'S HILL PLACE,
+                                HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT.
+                              _Monday, Thirtieth June, 1862._
+
+          "GENTLEMEN,
+
+          "Reverting to a proposal already made in general
+          terms by my solicitor, Mr. Ouvry, of Lincoln's Inn
+          Fields, to Messrs. Essel and Co., I beg to submit
+          my application to you in detail.
+
+          "It is that you will have the kindness to consider
+          the feasibility of exchanging the field at the
+          back of my property here (marked 404 in the
+          accompanying plan), for the plot of land marked
+          384 in the said plan.
+
+          [Illustration: Gad's Hill Place from the rear.]
+
+          "I believe it will appear to you, on inquiry, that
+          the land I offer in exchange for the meadow is
+          very advantageously situated, and is of greater
+          extent than the meadow, and would be of greater
+          value to the Institution, whose interests you
+          represent. On the other hand, the acquisition of
+          the meadow as a freehold would render my little
+          property more compact and complete.
+
+          "I have the honor to be, Gentlemen,
+                 Your faithful and obedient Servant,
+                                        CHARLES DICKENS.
+
+            "To the Governors of
+          Sir Joseph Williamson's Free School,
+            Rochester."
+
+The offer fell through at the time; but it was renewed in 1868 in a
+different form, and eventually the field was sold (by permission of the
+Charity Commissioners) to Charles Dickens at an "accommodation"
+price--L2,500--which really exceeded its actual market value.
+
+[Illustration: The Grave of Dick]
+
+But to resume our inspection. The whole of the back of the house,
+looking southward, is covered by a Virginia creeper (_Ampelopsis
+quinquefolia_) of profuse growth, which must be an object of singular
+beauty in the autumn when the crimson tints appear. As it now stands it
+is beautifully green, and there is scarcely more than a leaf or two here
+and there marking autumnal decay. The two famous hawthorn trees were
+blown down in a gale some years ago.
+
+In a quiet corner under a rose-tree (_Gloire de Dijon_), flanked by a
+_Yucca_ in bloom, the bed underneath consisting of deep blue lobelia,
+is a touching little memorial to a favourite canary. This consists of a
+narrow little board, made like a head-stone, and set aslant, on which is
+painted in neat letters the following epitaph:--
+
+                This is
+             the grave of
+                 DICK,
+          the best of birds,
+                 born
+             AT BROADSTAIRS,
+           _Midsummer_, 1851,
+                 died
+          AT GAD'S HILL PLACE,
+          _4th October, 1866_.
+
+No one can doubt who was the author of these simple lines. "Dick," it
+should be said, "was very dear both to Dickens and his eldest daughter,"
+and he has been immortalized in Forster's _Life_. There is a very
+humorous account given of the attacks which the cats in the
+neighbourhood made upon him, and which were frustrated by an organized
+defence. The following is the passage:--
+
+"Soon after the arrival of Dickens and his family at Gad's Hill Place, a
+household war broke out, in which the commander-in-chief was his man
+French, the bulk of the forces engaged being his children, and the
+invaders two cats." Writing to Forster, Dickens says:--"'The only thing
+new in this garden is that war is raging against two particularly
+tigerish and fearful cats (from the mill, I suppose), which are always
+glaring in dark corners after our wonderful little Dick. Keeping the
+house open at all points, it is impossible to shut them out, and they
+hide themselves in the most terrific manner: hanging themselves up
+behind draperies, like bats, and tumbling out in the dead of night with
+frightful caterwaulings. Hereupon French borrows Beaucourt's gun, loads
+the same to the muzzle, discharges it twice in vain, and throws himself
+over with the recoil, exactly like a clown. . . . About four pounds of
+powder and half a ton of shot have been fired off at the cat (and the
+public in general) during the week. The funniest thing is, that
+immediately after I have heard the noble sportsman blazing away at her
+in the garden in front, I look out of my room door into the
+drawing-room, and am pretty sure to see her coming in after the birds,
+in the calmest manner possible, by the back window.'"
+
+Passing on our way the large and well-lighted servants' hall, over which
+is the bachelors' room,--whence in days gone by that rare literary
+serial, _The Gad's Hill Gazette_,[13] issued from a little printing
+press, presented by a friend to the sixth son of the novelist, who
+encouraged his boy's literary tastes,--we next see the stables, as
+usual, like everything else, in excellent order. A small statue of Fame
+blowing her golden trumpet surmounts the bachelors' room, and looks down
+upon us encouragingly.
+
+Our attention is then turned to the well, which is stated to be two
+hundred and seventeen feet deep, in the shed, or pumping-room, over
+which is the Major's mare, "Tell-tale," cheerfully doing her daily
+twenty minutes' task of drawing water, which is pumped up to the cistern
+on the roof for the supply of the house. There is said to be never less
+than twenty feet of water in the well.
+
+[Illustration: The Well at Gad's Hill Place]
+
+It may be interesting to mention that Gad's Hill Place ("the title of my
+estate, sir, my place down in Kent"), which is in the parish of Higham,
+and about twenty-six miles from London, stands on an elevation two
+hundred and fifty feet above mean sea-level. The house itself is built
+on a bed of the Thanet sands. The well is bored right through these
+sands, which Mr. W. H. Whitaker, F.R.S., of H. M. Geological Survey (who
+has kindly given me some valuable information on the subject), states
+"may be about forty feet thick, and the water is drawn up from the bed
+of chalk beneath. This bed is of great thickness, probably six hundred
+or seven hundred feet, and the well simply reaches the level at which
+the chalk is charged with water, _i. e._ something a little higher than
+the level of the neighbouring river." The chalk is exposed on the lower
+bases of Gad's Hill, such as the Railway Station at Higham, the village
+of Chalk, the town of Strood, etc.
+
+There are humorous extracts from letters by Dickens in Forster's _Life_
+respecting the well, which may appropriately be introduced. He says:--
+
+"We are still (6th of July) boring for water here, at the rate of two
+pounds per day for wages. The men seem to like it very much, and to be
+perfectly comfortable." . . . And again, "Here are six men perpetually
+going up and down the well (I know that somebody will be killed), in the
+course of fitting a pump; which is quite a railway terminus--it is so
+iron, and so big. The process is much more like putting Oxford Street
+endwise, and laying gas along it, than anything else. By the time it is
+finished, the cost of this water will be something absolutely frightful.
+But of course it proportionately increases the value of the property,
+and that's my only comfort. . . . Five men have been looking attentively
+at the pump for a week, and (I should hope) may begin to fit it in the
+course of October." The depression caused by the prospect of the
+"absolutely frightful" cost of the water seems to have continued to the
+end of the letter, for it thus concludes:--"The horse has gone lame from
+a sprain, the big dog has run a tenpenny nail into one of his hind feet,
+the bolts have all flown out of the basket carriage, and the gardener
+says all the fruit trees want replacing with new ones."
+
+[Illustration: The Porch, Gad's Hill Place.]
+
+Two of the Major's dogs are chained in the places formerly occupied by
+Dickens's dogs, "Linda" and "Turk." The chains are very long, and allow
+the animals plenty of room for exercise. The space between the two
+permitted a person to walk past without their being able to come near
+him; and, as an instance of Dickens's thoughtful kindliness even to the
+lower animals, two holes were made in the wall so that the dogs could
+get through in hot weather, and lie in the shade of the trees on the
+other side. On the back gate entering into the lane at the side of the
+house was painted, "Beware of the dogs!" This caution appears to have
+been very necessary, for we heard more than once the story of an
+intrusive tramp who trespassed, and going too near the dogs, got sadly
+mauled. Dickens, with characteristic goodness, sent him at once to
+Chatham Hospital, and otherwise healed his wounds.
+
+We are next conducted round the grounds, and have an opportunity of
+examining the front of the house more in detail. The porch is flanked by
+two cosy seats, the pretty little spade-shaped shields, and lateral
+angular ornamental supports on the back of which, we are informed, were
+constructed of pieces of wood from Shakespeare's furniture given to
+Dickens by a friend. A large variegated holly grows on either side of
+the porch, and a semi-circular gravel walk leads to the door. There is a
+closely-cut lawn in front, and opposite the hollies are two fine
+specimens of _Aucuba Japonica_--the so-called variegated laurel.
+
+[Illustration: The Cedars, Gad's Hill.]
+
+It will be remembered that the master of Gad's Hill had a tunnel
+excavated under the Dover Road (which runs through the property), so as
+to approach the "shrubbery" previously referred to, without having to
+cross the open public road. We did not learn who constructed the tunnel,
+but it was designed either by his brother, Mr. Alfred L. Dickens, who
+died at Manchester in 1860, or by his brother-in-law, Mr. Henry Austin.
+The entrance to the tunnel is by a flight of about twenty steps, flanked
+by two beautifully-grown specimens of _Cedrus deodara_, the "deodar,"
+or god-tree of the Himalayas. The tunnel itself is cut through the
+sands, and, being only a little longer than the width of the road, it is
+not at all dark, but very pleasant and cool on a hot day. A
+corresponding flight of steps leads us into the shrubbery, which is shut
+off from the main road by iron railings only. Both ends of the tunnel
+are covered with ivy, which has the effect of partially concealing the
+openings. Readers of Forster's _Life_ will recollect that the Swiss
+chalet presented to Dickens by his friend Fechter the actor, and in
+which he spent his last afternoon, formerly stood in the shrubbery. The
+chalet now stands in the terrace-garden of Cobham Hall.
+
+Before we reach the exact place we have an opportunity of examining the
+two stately cedar trees (_Cedrus Libani_) which are the arboreal gems of
+the place. Major Budden informs us that they are about one hundred and
+twenty-eight years old, and were planted in their present position when
+they had attained about twenty years' growth. Some idea of their
+luxuriance may be formed when it is mentioned that the girth of each
+tree exceeds sixteen feet, and the longest branch of one of them
+measures eighty-four feet in length. In consequence of the habit of
+these trees "fastigiating" at the base, a very numerous series of
+lateral ramifying branches is the result. These branches spread out in
+terraces, and the rich green foliage, covered with exudations of resin,
+seems as though powdered silver had been lightly dusted over it. Each
+tree extends over a circular area of about eighty feet of ground in
+diameter. Under one of the cedars is the grave of "the big and beautiful
+Linda," Dickens's favourite St. Bernard dog. One of the trees has been
+injured, a large branch over-weighted with snow having broken off some
+years ago.
+
+Two or three noble ash trees also grace this spot, running straight up
+in a column some thirty-five feet before shooting out a canopy of
+branches and leaves. There are also a few Scotch firs, the trunks well
+covered with ivy, and a pretty specimen of the variegated sycamore. The
+undergrowth of laurel, laurustinus, briar, privet, holly, etc., is very
+luxuriant here, and the vacant ground is closely covered with the wood
+anemone (_Anemone nemorosa_), which must form a continuous mass of
+pearly white flowers in spring-time.
+
+The ground formerly occupied by the chalet is pointed out to us, its
+site being marked by a bed of rich scarlet nasturtiums. It will be
+recollected that Dickens describes the interior of the building in a
+letter to an American friend, which is thus recorded in Forster's
+_Life_:--
+
+"Divers birds sing here all day, and the nightingales all night. The
+place is lovely and in perfect order. . . . I have put five mirrors in
+the chalet where I write, and they reflect and refract, in all kinds of
+ways, the leaves that are quivering at the windows, and the great fields
+of waving corn, and the sail-dotted river. My room is up among the
+branches of the trees; and the birds and the butterflies fly in and out,
+and the green branches shoot in at the open windows, and the lights and
+shadows of the clouds come and go with the rest of the company. The
+scent of the flowers, and indeed of everything that is growing for miles
+and miles, is most delicious."
+
+But the glory of Gad's Hill Place is reserved for us until the close of
+our visit, when Major Budden very kindly takes us up to the roof, which
+is approached by a commodious flight of steps; and here, on this
+exceptionally fine day, we are privileged to behold a prospect of
+surpassing beauty. Right away to the westward is the great Metropolis,
+its presence being marked by the usual pall of greyish smoke. Opening
+from the town, and becoming wider and wider as the noble river
+approaches its estuary, is the Thames, now conspicuous by numerous
+vessels, showing masts and white and brown sails, and here and there by
+the smoky track of a steamer.
+
+We remember how often the city and the river have been the scene of many
+and many an exploit in Dickens's novels. Northward are the dreary
+marshes, the famous "meshes" of _Great Expectations_, hereafter to be
+noticed. Then far to the eastward runs the valley of the Medway, the
+picturesque city of Rochester thereon being crowned by those conspicuous
+landmarks, its magnificent Castle and ancient Cathedral. In the
+background is the busy town of Chatham, its heights being capped by an
+enormous square and lofty building erected by the sect called
+"Jezreelites," whatever that may be. We were informed that the so-called
+"immortal" leader had just died, and it has since been reported that the
+gloomy building is likely to be converted into a huge jam factory.
+Beyond, and nearly seven miles off, is the high land called "Blue Bell,"
+about three hundred feet above mean sea-level, and all along to the
+south the undulating grounds and beautiful woodland scenery of Cobham
+Park complete the picture.
+
+[Illustration: View from the Roof of Dickens's House at Gad's Hill]
+
+As Major Budden points out in detail these many natural beauties of the
+district, we can quite understand and sympathize with Dickens's love for
+this exquisite spot; and we heartily congratulate the present owner of
+Gad's Hill Place on the charming historical property which he possesses,
+and which, so far as we can perceive (all honour to him), is kept in the
+same excellent condition that characterized it during the novelist's
+lifetime. What is particularly striking about it is at once its
+compactness, completeness, and unpretentiousness.
+
+Descending to the library, whence we started nearly three hours
+previously, we refresh ourselves with a glass of water from the
+celebrated deep well--a draught deliciously cool and clear--which the
+hospitable Major presses us to "dilute" (as Professor Huxley has
+somewhere said) in any way we please, but which we prefer to drink, as
+Dickens himself drank it--pure. Before we rise to leave the spot we have
+so long wished to see, and which we have now gone over to our hearts'
+content, we sadly recall to memory for a moment the "last scene of all
+that ends this strange, eventful history,"--that tragic incident which
+occurred on Thursday, 9th June, 1870, when there was an "empty chair" at
+Gad's Hill Place, and all intelligent English-speaking nations
+experienced a personal sorrow.
+
+And so with many grateful acknowledgments to our kind and courteous
+host, who gives us some nice flowers and cuttings as a parting souvenir,
+we take our leave, having derived from our bright sunny visit to Gad's
+Hill Place that "wave of pleasure" which Mr. Herbert Spencer describes
+as "raising the rate of respiration,--raised respiration being an index
+of raised vital activities in general." In fine, the impression left on
+our minds is such as to induce us to feel that we understand and
+appreciate more of Dickens's old home than any illustration or written
+description of it, however excellent, had hitherto adequately conveyed
+to us. We have seen it for ourselves.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The reminiscences which follow are from Mrs. Lynn Linton and three of
+Charles Dickens's nearest neighbours.
+
+
+GAD'S HILL SIXTY YEARS AGO.
+
+The early love which Charles Dickens felt for Gad's Hill House, and his
+boyish ambition to be one day its owner, had been already anticipated by
+my father. As a boy and young man, my father's heart was set on this
+place; and when my grandfather's death put him in sufficient funds he
+bought it. Being a beneficed clergyman, both of whose livings were in
+the extreme north of England, he could not live in the house; but he
+kept it empty for many years, always hoping to get leave of absence from
+the Bishop for a term long enough to justify the removal of his large
+family from Keswick to Rochester. In 1831 a five years' leave of absence
+was granted; and we all came up by coach to this Mecca of my father's
+love. We were three days and three nights on the road; and I remember
+quite distinctly the square courtyard and outside balcony of the old
+Belle Sauvage Inn, where we put up on our arrival in London. I remember,
+too, the powerful scent of the Portugal laurel and the bay-tree which
+grew on the right-hand side of Gad's Hill House as we entered--brought
+out by the warm damp of the late autumn afternoon. In our time all the
+outhouses had leaden figures on the top. There was a cupola with an
+alarm bell, which one night was rung lustily, to the terror of the whole
+neighbourhood, and the ashamed discovery among ourselves that rats were
+not burglars. In the shrubbery were two large leaden figures of Pomona
+and Vertumnus, standing on each side of the walk leading up to the
+arbour. We had then two arbours--one opposite the house at the end of
+the green walk, and another in a dilapidated state further in the
+shrubbery. They were built of big flint stones, many of which had holes
+in them, where small birds made their nests. I remember in one was a
+tomtit which was quite tame, and used to fly in and out while we were
+watching it. The two cedars, which I believe are still there, were a
+little choked and overshadowed by a large oak-tree, which my father cut
+down. Between seventy and eighty coaches, "vans," and mail-carts passed
+our house during the day, besides private carriages, specially those of
+travellers posting to or from Dover. Regiments, too, often passed on
+their way to Gravesend, where they embarked for India; and ships'
+companies, paid off, rowdy and half-tipsy, made the road really
+dangerous for the time being. We used to lock the two gates when we
+heard them coming, shouting and singing up the hill; and we had to stand
+many a mimic siege from the blue-jackets trying to force their way in.
+Sweet-water grapes grew and ripened in the open air over the wash-house;
+and the back of the house was covered with a singularly fine and
+luscious jargonelle pear. The garden was rich in apples. We had many
+kinds, from the sweet and pulpy nonsuch, to the small tight little
+pearmain and lemon pippin. We had nonpareils, golden pippins, brown and
+golden russets, Ribstone pippins, and what we called a port-wine
+apple--the flesh red, like that of the "blood-oranges." The small
+orchard to the right was as rich in cherry-trees, filberts, and cobnuts.
+In the garden we had a fig-tree, and the mulberry-tree, which is still
+there, was in full bearing in our time. The garden altogether was
+wonderfully prolific in flowers as well as fruits--roses as well as
+strawberries and apples; and the green-house was full of grapes.
+Nightingales sang in the trees near the house, and the shrubbery was
+full of song birds. We had a grand view from the leads, where we used
+sometimes to go, and whence I remember seeing a farmyard fire over at
+Higham--which fire they said had been caused by an incendiary. There was
+a Low Church clergyman in the neighbourhood who might have been Chadband
+or Stiggins. He was fond of some girls we knew, and called them his
+"lambs." He used to put his arm round their waists, and they sat on his
+knees quite naturally. I myself heard him preach at Shorne against the
+institution of pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. He said it was not only
+superstitious but irreligious; as pancakes meant "pan Kakon," all evil.
+This I, then a girl of thirteen or so, heard and remember. When my
+father died his property had to be sold, as he did not make an eldest
+son. Mr. W. H. Wills, the trusty friend of Charles Dickens, and editor
+of _Household Words_ and _All The Year Round_, was also a friend of
+mine. We met at a dinner, and he spoke to me about Gad's Hill, but as if
+he wanted to buy it for himself. He was afraid to mention Charles
+Dickens's name, lest we should ask too much. So he told me afterwards. I
+had been left executrix under my father's will, being then the only
+unmarried daughter; and I took the news to our solicitor and
+co-executor, Mr. Loaden. He wrote to Mr. Wills, and the sale was
+effected. We scored a little triumph over the "ornamental timber." Mr.
+Dickens objected to our price; the case was submitted to an arbitrator,
+and we got more than we originally asked. But there was never one moment
+of pique on either side, nor a drop of bad blood as the consequence. It
+was always a matter for a laugh and a joke between Mr. Wills and myself.
+When we first went to Gad's Hill there was a fish-pond at the back; but
+my father had it filled up, lest one of his adventurous little ones
+should tumble in. Officers used to come up from Chatham to the Falstaff,
+and have pigeon matches in our big field; and one of the sights which
+used to delight our young eyes, was the gallant bearing and gay uniforms
+of the Commandant at Chatham, when he and his staff rode by. We were
+great walkers in those days, and used to ramble over Cobham Park, and
+round by Shorne, and down to the dreary marshes beyond Higham. But this
+was not a favourite walk with us, and we girls never went there alone.
+The banks on the Rochester road--past Davies's Straits--were full of
+sweet violets, white and purple; and the fungi, lichens, flowers, and
+ferns about Shorne and Cobham yet linger in my memory as things of
+rarest beauty. We always thought that the coachman, "Old Chumley," as he
+was called, was old Weller. He was a fine, cheery, trustworthy man; and
+once when my father was in London, he had one of my sisters and
+myself--girls then about fifteen and thirteen--put under his charge to
+be delivered to him at the end of the journey. The dear old fellow took
+as much care of us as if he had been our father himself. I remember my
+brothers gave him a new whip, and he was very fond of us all.
+
+                                                          E. L. L.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+* * * We had at a subsequent visit to Gad's Hill Place, on the
+invitation of our hospitable friends, Major and Mrs. Budden, the
+pleasure of a long and interesting conversation with Mr. James Hulkes,
+J.P., of the Little Hermitage, Frindsbury, a Kentish man, who came to
+live here more than sixty years ago, and who was thus a very near
+neighbour of Charles Dickens during the whole of the time that he
+resided at Gad's Hill Place. We were shown into a delightful room at the
+back of the house, overlooking the shrubberies of the mansion--in the
+distance appearing the high ground on which stands the monument to
+Charles Larkin. The room is a happy combination of part workshop, with a
+fine lathe and assortment of tools fitted round it--part study, with a
+nice collection of books, engravings and pictures (some of hunting
+scenes) on the walls--and part naturalist's den, with cases of stuffed
+birds and animals, guns and fishing-rods--the fragrant odour of tobacco
+breathing friendly welcome to a visitor of smoking proclivities. The
+varied tastes of the owner were sufficiently apparent, and a long chat
+of over two hours seemed to us but a few minutes.
+
+Mr. Hulkes said he just remembered the road from Strood to Gad's Hill
+being cut through the sands down to the chalk. It was for some time
+afterwards called "Davies's Straits," after the Rev. George Davies, the
+then Chairman of the Turnpike Road Board, and the term indicated the
+difficulty and expense of the operation. Before the new road was cut,
+the old highway constituting this part of the Dover Road was very hilly
+and dangerous.
+
+Reverting to the subject of Charles Dickens, our relator remarked, "I
+fear I cannot be of much use to you by giving information about Mr.
+Dickens, as I only knew him as a kind friend, a very genial host, and a
+most charming companion; to the poor he was always kind--a deserving
+beggar never went from his house unrelieved." What indeed could be said
+more! These few simple words, spoken so earnestly after a period of
+nearly twenty years, sufficed to bring before us the lost neighbour
+whose memory was so warmly cherished by his surviving friend.
+
+John Forster, in the _Life_, speaks of Mr. Hulkes as being "one of the
+two nearest country neighbours with whom the [Dickens] family had become
+very intimate," and mentions that both Mr. and Mrs. Hulkes were present
+at the wedding of the novelist's second daughter, Kate, with Mr. Charles
+Alston Collins. Mr. Hulkes spoke of the pleasant parties at Gad's Hill
+Place, at which he met Mr. Forster, Mr. Wilkie Collins, Mr. Percy
+Fitzgerald, Mr. Marcus Stone, Mr. H. F. Chorley, and many others; and
+observed that, on the occasion of charades and private theatricals
+there, Charles Dickens was always in fine form. He showed us an original
+manuscript programme (of which we were allowed to take a copy), written
+on half-a-sheet of foolscap; and from the fact that "_Gads Hill Gazette_
+Printing Office" appears in the corner it would seem that it was printed
+on the occasion for the guests. It is as follows:--
+
+
+                                          _December 31st, 1863._
+
+          "A night's exploit on Gad's Hill."--_Shakespeare._
+
+          =Her Majesty's Servants=
+          will have the honour of presenting
+          Three Charades!!!
+
+          Each Charade is a word of two syllables, arranged
+          in three Scenes. The first scene is the first
+          syllable; the second is the second syllable; the
+          third scene is the entire word.
+
+             (_At the end of each Charade the audience is
+               respectfully invited to name the word._)
+
+
+
+=Charade 1!=
+
+          Scene I.--The awful end of the Profligate Sailor.
+
+          Scene II.--On the way to foreign parts.
+
+          Scene III.--Miss Belinda Jane and the faithful
+                        policeman (Division Q).
+
+
+=Charade 2!!=
+
+          Scene I.--Archery at Castle Doodle.
+
+          Scene II.--Fra Diavolo a Dread Reality.
+
+          Scene III.--The Choice of a too Lowly Youth.
+
+
+=Charade 3!!!=
+
+          Scene I.--The Pathetic History of the Poor Little Sweep.
+
+          Scene II.--Mussulman Barbarity to Christians.
+
+          Scene III.--Merry England.
+
+          _Gad's Hill Gazette_ Printing Office.
+
+The various parts were taken by Dickens and his family, and the entire
+word of the last Charade is supposed to be "May Day."
+
+In connection with charades, Mr. Hulkes alluded to Dickens's remarkable
+facility for "guessing a subject fixed on when he was out of the room,
+in half a dozen questions;" and related the story of how at the young
+people's game of "Yes and No," he found out the proper answer to a
+random question fixed upon by Mr. Charles Collins, one of the company,
+in his absence, which was, "The top-boot of the left leg of the head
+post-boy at Newman's Yard, London." The squire sometimes took a stroll
+with his neighbour, but observed "he was too fast a walker for me--I
+couldn't keep up with him!"
+
+Mr. Hulkes possesses a nearly complete "file" (from 1862 to 1866) of the
+_Gad's Hill Gazette_, to which he was one of the subscribers, and which
+was edited by the novelist's son, Mr. Henry Fielding Dickens, and, as
+before stated, printed at Gad's Hill Place. It chronicled the arrivals
+and departures, the results of cricket matches and billiard games, with
+interesting gossip of events relating to the family and the
+neighbourhood. Occasionally there was a leading article, and now and
+then an acrostic appeared. Among the subscribers were the novelist and
+his family, The Lord Chief Justice, The Dean of Bristol, Lady
+Molesworth, Mrs. Milner Gibson, M. Stone, A. Halliday, J. Hulkes, C.
+Kent, W. H. Wills, H. F. Chorley, Edmund Yates, etc. The number for
+January 20th, 1866, contains a humorous correspondence on the management
+of the journal between "Jabez Skinner" and "Blackbury Jones." Mr. H. F.
+Dickens kindly allows a copy of the number for December 30th, 1865, to
+be reproduced, which is interesting as giving an account of the
+Staplehurst accident, and also the notice issued when the journal was
+discontinued.
+
+
+          THE
+
+          GAD'S HILL GAZETTE
+
+          Edited by H. F. Dickens
+
+          December 30th 1865      Price 2d
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We are very glad to meet our subscribers again after such a long lapse
+of time, and we hope that they will patronise us in the same kind and
+indulgent manner as they did, last season.
+
+In the circulars, we announced that some great improvements were to be
+made in the Gazette-- We are sorry that they cannot appear in this
+number (as our suppliers of type have disappointed us) but we hope that
+next week, we shall be able to publish this journal in quite a different
+form.
+
+Hoping that our subscribers will excuse us this week, we beg to wish
+them all A Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Christmas at Gad's Hill.
+
+During the past week, Gad's Hill has resounded with the sounds of
+festivity and merriment.
+
+          (Continued on the next page)
+
+As is usually the case, the house has been filled with the guests who
+have come to taste of Mr Dickens' hospitality. These consisted of Mr
+Mad, and Master Fechter, Mr & Mrs C. Collins, Mr Mrs and Master C.
+Dickens junr, Mr Morgan (who suddenly appeared on Christmas Day, having
+just returned from America) Mr M. Stone, Mr Chorley and Mr Dickenson.
+
+The latter gentleman has not yet entirely recovered from the effects of
+a most disastrous railway accident in which he was a sufferer, and had
+it not been for the courage and intrepidity of Mr Dickens, he would not
+now be spending his Christmas at Gad's Hill.
+
+A short time before the accident occurred, Mr Dickenson had a dispute
+with a French gentleman about the opening of the window when the former
+offered to change places, if the open window was disagreeable to his
+fellow traveller--this they did.--
+
+Then came the accident, accompanied by all its frightful incidents. The
+French gentleman was killed, Mr Dickenson was stunned and hurled with
+great violence under the debris of a carriage.
+
+Mr Dickens, who was in another compartment, managed to crawl out of the
+window and then, caring little for his own safety, busied himself in
+helping the wounded. Whilst engaged in doing this, he passed by a
+carriage, underneath which he saw a gentleman (Mr Dickenson) lying
+perfectly still, and bleeding from the eyes, ears, nose and mouth.
+
+He was immediately taken to the town of Staplehurst where he so far
+recovered as to be able to return to London, that evening.
+
+Next morning he was suffering from a very severe concussion of the brain
+and was ill for many weeks--But to our subject.
+
+On Christmas Day, Mr, Mrs & Miss Malleson came to dinner. At about 9, an
+ex tempore dance began and was kept up till about 2 o'clock Tuesday
+morning. During the week, billiards has been much resorted to. (See next
+page)
+
+All the visitors are still here, except Mr Fechter and family who left
+on December 26th, and Mr Morgan (who is to return on 31st. Talking of Mr
+Fechter, our readers will be glad to hear that he has made a most
+decided success in his new piece entitled--The Master of Ravenswood--
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+Sporting Intelligence.
+
+Billiards
+
+Of all the matches that have been played during the past week the most
+important was a Great Handicap on Christmas Day, the prize being a
+pewter. Annexed is an account of it.
+
+          Stone Scratch C Dickens jun 20 Harry 30
+          Fechter  5   Dickenson 20 C  Dickens 35
+          Morgan  10   Collins   30      Plorn 40
+
+Our space will not allow us to enter into the minute details of this
+match suffice it to say that Mr Dickenson won but that as regards good
+play, he was excelled by Mr Stone (who, however, was so heavily weighted
+that he could not win. Great credit is due to Mr Ch Dickens junr for the
+way in which he handicapped the men.
+
+On Saturday 30th a match is to be played between The Earl of Darnley and
+Mr M Stone.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                     Gad's Hill Gazette Office.
+                                               January--1867.
+
+In a circular issued last August, we announced that a final number of
+the Gad's Hill Gazette was to be published this Xmas. We are grieved
+however to state, that the shortening of the Wimbledon School holidays
+(in which establishment the Editor is a pupil) has rendered this
+impossible.
+
+It is with feelings of the deepest regret that we find ourselves obliged
+to conclude the publication of our Journal in this sudden and unexpected
+manner, but we feel sure that the great indulgence of the Public will
+overlook this, as it has done many other great errors in the Gad's Hill
+Gazette.
+
+In conclusion, we beg to take leave of our Subscribers in our public
+capacity of Editor, thanking them for their kindness in supporting our
+Journal, and wishing them all
+
+                   --"A Happy New Year."--
+
+                           [Illustration: Signature: A. F. Dickens]
+   (Signed)                                       Sole Editor
+
+Mrs. Hulkes had a number of pleasant recollections of Gad's Hill Place,
+and of Charles Dickens and his family. "As a girl," said this lady, "I
+was an admiring reader of his works, and I longed to see and know the
+author; but little did I think that my high ambition would ever be
+gratified." That a warm friendship existed between his admirer and
+Charles Dickens, who subsequently became her near neighbour, is
+evidenced by the fact that, in reply to her request, he allowed this
+lady the great privilege of reading the catastrophe of that
+exquisitely-pathetic and nobly-altruistic story of _A Tale of Two
+Cities_, some weeks before its publication, as appears from the
+following letter:--
+
+
+                                        "GAD'S HILL PLACE,
+                                    "HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT.
+                        "_Sunday evening, Sixteenth Oct., 1857._
+
+          "MY DEAR MRS. HULKES,
+
+          "My daughter has shown me your note, and it has
+          impressed me with the horrible determination to
+          become a new kind of Bluebeard, and lay an awful
+          injunction of secrecy on you for five mortal
+          weeks.
+
+          "Here is the remainder of the _Tale of Two
+          Cities_. Not half-a-dozen of my oldest and most
+          trusty literary friends have seen it. It is a real
+          pleasure to me to entrust you with the
+          catastrophe, and to ask you to keep a grim and
+          inflexible silence on the subject until it is
+          published. When you have read the proofs, will you
+          kindly return them to me?
+
+          "With my regard to Mr. Hulkes,
+
+                           "Believe me always,
+                                 "Faithfully yours,
+                                       "CHARLES DICKENS.
+
+          "MRS. HULKES."
+
+Mrs. Hulkes said that when Dickens went to Paris in 1863, he jokingly
+said to her, "I am going to Paris; what shall I bring you?" She replied,
+"A good photograph of yourself, as I do not like the one you gave me;
+and I hear the French people are more successful than the English, or
+their climate may help them." And he brought a photograph of himself, of
+which there were only four printed. It now graces Mrs. Hulkes'
+drawing-room, and represents the novelist very life-like in full face,
+head and bust. The photograph was taken by Alphonse Maze, and has been
+exquisitely engraved in Mr. Kitton's _Charles Dickens by Pen and
+Pencil_.
+
+Mrs. Hulkes mentioned a curious and interesting circumstance. On the
+night before the funeral of her friend, Miss Dickens sent down to the
+Little Hermitage to ask if she could kindly give her some roses. Mrs.
+Hulkes cut a quantity from one of the trees in the garden (Lamarque, she
+believes), and the tree never bloomed again, and soon after died. No
+doubt, as she observed, it bled to death from the excessive cutting. It
+was the second case only of the kind in her experience as a rose-grower
+during very many years.
+
+Charles Dickens also took interest in his friend's son (their only
+child, who has since finished his University career), and this gentleman
+prizes as a relic a copy of _A Child's History of England_, which was
+presented to him, with the following inscription written in the
+characteristic blue ink--"Charles Dickens. To his little friend, Cecil
+James Hulkes. Christmas Eve, 1864." In a letter to Miss Hogarth, written
+from New York, on Friday, 3rd January, 1868, he says:--"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."
+
+There are many interesting relics of Gad's Hill Place now in the
+possession of the family at the Little Hermitage, notably Charles
+Dickens's seal with his crest, and the initials C. D., his pen-tray, his
+desk, a photograph of the study on 8th June, 1870 (a present from Miss
+Hogarth), the portrait above referred to, an arm-chair, a drawing-room
+settee, a dressing-table, and a library writing-table.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On another occasion we were favoured with an interview by Mr. J. N.
+Malleson, of Brighton, who formerly resided at the Great Hermitage,
+Higham, and who was a neighbour of Charles Dickens for many years. Mr.
+Malleson came to the Great Hermitage in 1859, and a day or two after
+Christmas Day in that year--having previously been a guest at the
+wedding of Dickens's second daughter Kate, with Mr. Charles Alston
+Collins--he met the novelist, who, stopping to chat pleasantly, asked
+his neighbours where they dined at Christmas? "Oh, Darby and Joan," said
+our informant. Dickens laughingly replied:--"That shall never happen
+again"; and the following year, and every year afterwards, except when
+their friend was in America, Mr. and Mrs. Malleson received and accepted
+invitations to dine at Gad's Hill Place. On the exception in question,
+the family of Dickens dined at the Great Hermitage.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the autumn of the year 1889 we had a most interesting chat with Mr.
+William Stocker Trood, at his residence, Spearcehay Farm, Pitminster,
+pleasantly situated in the vale of Taunton, for many years landlord of
+the Sir John Falstaff at Gad's Hill. The first noteworthy circumstance
+to record is that his name is not _Edwin_ Trood, as commonly supposed,
+but William Stocker, as above stated, Stocker being an old family name.
+This fact disposes of the supposition that the former two names, with
+the alteration of a single letter, gave rise in Dickens's mind to the
+designation of the principal character in _The Mystery of Edwin Drood_.
+The name of "Trood" is by the substitution of one letter easily
+converted into Drood, and that word is perhaps more euphonious with
+"Edwin" as prefixed to it; but "William Stocker" is not by any means
+easily converted into "Edwin." The idea that "Edwin Drood" is derived
+from "William Stocker Trood" may therefore be dismissed as a popular
+fallacy. It may be mentioned, however, _en passant_, that Mr. Trood had
+a brother named Edward, who sometimes visited him at the Falstaff, and
+also a son who bore the name of his uncle.
+
+We found our informant to be wonderfully genial, hale and hearty,
+although in his eighty-fifth year. He had a perfect recollection of
+Charles Dickens, and remembered his first coming to Gad's Hill Place.
+Before the house was properly furnished and put in order, both Mr. and
+Mrs. Dickens sometimes slept at the Falstaff; and afterwards, when
+visitors were staying at Gad's Hill Place, and the bedrooms there were
+full, some of them slept at the Inn; in particular, John Forster, Wilkie
+Collins, and Marcus Stone. He said Mr. Dickens was a very nice man to
+speak to, and Mrs. Dickens was a very nice lady. They were always kind
+and pleasant as neighbours, but Mr. Dickens did not talk much. Said Mr.
+Trood:--"When I was at Higham, Mr. Dickens used to say no one could put
+in a word; I had all the talk to myself." The sons were all very
+pleasant; in fact, he liked the family very much indeed.
+
+Mr. Trood sometimes acted as local banker to Charles Dickens, and used
+to cash his cheques for him. Only the day before his death, he cashed a
+cheque for L22, and was subsequently offered L24 for it by an admirer of
+Dickens who desired the autograph; but to his credit it should be
+mentioned that he did not accept the offer.
+
+Our informant next spoke of the wonderful partiality of Dickens to
+cricket; he would stand out all night if he could watch a cricket match.
+The matches were always played in Mr. Dickens's field, and the business
+meetings of the club were held monthly at the Falstaff. Mr. Trood was
+Treasurer of the club. Occasionally there was a dinner.
+
+A circumstance was related which made a profound impression on our
+friend. The family at Gad's Hill Place were very fond of music, and on
+one occasion there were present as visitors two great violinists, one a
+German and the other an Italian, and it was a debated question among the
+listeners outside the gates, where the music could be distinctly heard,
+which played the better. Mr. Trood had just returned from Gravesend in
+the cool of the summer evening, about ten o'clock, and stood in the road
+opposite listening, "spellbound," to the delightful music. Miss Dickens
+played the accompaniments.
+
+Mr. Trood spoke with a lively and appreciative recollection of the
+Christmas sports that were held in a field at the back of Gad's Hill
+Place, and of the good order and nice feeling that prevailed at those
+gatherings, although several thousand people were present. Among the
+games that were played, the wheeling of barrows by blind-folded men
+seemed to tickle him most.
+
+Our octogenarian friend also spoke of the great love of Dickens for
+scarlet geraniums. Hundreds of the "Tom Thumb" variety were planted in
+the beds on the front lawn and in the back garden at Gad's Hill Place.
+
+Soon after the terrible railway accident at Staplehurst, Dickens came
+over to the Falstaff and spoke to Mr. Trood, who congratulated him. Said
+Dickens, "I never thought I should be here again." It is a wonderful
+coincidence to record, that a young gentleman named Dickenson, who
+subsequently became intimate with the novelist, changed places (so as to
+get the benefit of meeting the fresh air) with a French gentleman in the
+same carriage who was killed, and Mr. Dickenson escaped! The accident
+happened on the 9th June, 1865, and Dickens died on the "fatal
+anniversary," 9th June, 1870.
+
+Mr. Trood confirmed his daughter's (Mrs. Latter's) account of the
+_fracas_ with the men and performing bears, given in another chapter,
+adding, "That _was_ a concern."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The beautiful city of Exeter is not far from Taunton, and we naturally
+avail ourselves of the opportunity of stopping there for a few hours,
+and stroll over to see the village of Alphington. It was here, in the
+year 1839, that Charles Dickens took and furnished Mile End Cottage for
+his father and mother and their youngest son. He thus describes the
+event in a letter to Forster:--"I took a little house for them this
+morning (5th March, 1839), and if they are not pleased with it I shall
+be grievously disappointed. Exactly a mile beyond the city on the
+Plymouth road there are two white cottages: one is theirs, and the
+other belongs to their landlady. I almost forget the number of rooms,
+but there is an excellent parlour with two other rooms on the ground
+floor, there is really a beautiful little room over the parlour which I
+am furnishing as a drawing-room, and there is a splendid garden. The
+paint and paper throughout is new and fresh and cheerful-looking, the
+place is clean beyond all description, and the neighbourhood I suppose
+the most beautiful in this most beautiful of English counties." The
+negotiations with the landlady and the operation of furnishing the house
+are most humorously pourtrayed in the same letter.
+
+The cottage is also described in _Nicholas Nickleby_, which he was
+writing at the time. Mrs. Nickleby, in allusion to her old home, calls
+it "the beautiful little thatched white house one storey high, covered
+all over with ivy and creeping plants, with an exquisite little porch
+with twining honeysuckles and all sorts of things."
+
+Fifty years have passed since the parents of the novelist went to live
+at Alphington, which, notwithstanding the subsequent growth of the city,
+still continues to be a pretty suburb with fine views of the Ide Hills
+to the westward, and Heavitree to the eastward. Our efforts to obtain
+any reminiscences of the Dickens family in the village were quite
+unsuccessful--so long a time had elapsed since their departure--although,
+to oblige us, the vicar of the place kindly made enquiries, and took
+some interest in the matter.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[11] Since this was written, Gad's Hill Place has been purchased by the
+Hon. F. G. Latham. Major Budden has resigned his commission locally, and
+now holds a commission in the Limerick City Artillery Militia. It is
+very pleasant to place on record that in subsequent visits to
+"Dickens-Land" I was always received with friendly kindness by Major and
+Mrs. Budden, whose hospitality I often enjoyed. Their enthusiasm for the
+late owner of Gad's Hill Place, and their willingness to show every part
+of their beautiful residence to any one specially interested, was most
+gratifying to a lover of Dickens. Like the novelist, Mrs. Budden is fond
+of private theatricals, and has published a little book on _Mrs.
+Farley's Wax-Works and How to Use Them_.
+
+[12] It has been suggested that the lines above quoted might give one
+the impression that they are those of Falstaff. This, of course, is not
+the case. They are spoken by Poins, when in company with Falstaff,
+Prince Henry, and others. They occur in Act I. Scene ii. of _King Henry
+IV._, Part 1.
+
+A Note to Charles Knight's Edition of Shakespeare, contained in the
+"Illustrations to Act I." of the same Play, states that Gad's Hill
+appears to have been a place notorious for robbers before the time of
+Shakespeare, for Stevens discovered an entry of the date of 1558 in the
+books of the Stationers' Company, of a ballad entitled, "The Robbery at
+Gad's Hill." And the late Sir Henry Ellis, of the British Museum,
+communicated to Mr. Boswell, Editor of Malone's Shakespeare, a narrative
+in the handwriting of Sir Roger Manwood, Chief Baron of the Exchequer,
+dated 5th July, 1590, which shows that Gad's Hill was at that period the
+resort of a band of well-mounted robbers of more than usual daring, as
+appears from the following extract:--
+
+"In the course of that Michaelmas term, I being at London, many
+robberies were done in the bye-ways at Gad's Hill, on the west part of
+Rochester, and at Chatham, down on the east part of Rochester, by horse
+thieves, with such fat and lusty horses, as were not like hackney horses
+nor far-journeying horses; and one of them sometimes wearing a vizard
+grey beard, he was by common report in the country called 'Justice Grey
+Beard;' and no man durst travel that way without great company."
+
+[13] At an interview with Mr. H. F. Dickens some time afterwards, he
+told me the story of the origin of _The Gad's Hill Gazette_. There was a
+good deal of sand exposed at the back of the house, and the sons of the
+novelist--who like other boys were full of energy,--were fond of playing
+at "burying" each other. Their father naturally feared that this kind of
+play might have some disastrous effects, and develop into burying in
+earnest. So he said one day to his sons, "Why not establish a newspaper,
+if you want a field for your energies?" _The Gad's Hill Gazette_ was the
+result. At first the tiny journal was written on a plain sheet and
+copies made; then a Manifold Writer was used; and afterwards came the
+Printing Press.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+CHARLES DICKENS AND STROOD.
+
+        "So altered was the battle-ground, where thousands
+          upon thousands had been killed in the great
+          fight."--_The Battle of Life._
+
+        "Keep me always at it, I'll keep you always at it,
+          you keep somebody else always at it. There you
+          are, with the Whole Duty of Man in a commercial
+          country."--_Little Dorrit._
+
+
+THE town of Strood,--the Roman _Strata_,--which stands on the left bank
+of the river Medway, has, like the city of Rochester, its interesting
+historical associations. Its Church, dedicated to St. Nicholas, stands
+high on the north side of the London road leading to Gad's Hill, and has
+a brass of T. Glover and his three wives. At one time there was a
+hospital for travellers, founded by Bishop Glanville (_temp._ Richard
+I.), near the Church. The most interesting remains are, however, those
+of the Temple Farm, distant about half a mile south, formerly (_temp._
+Henry II.) the mansion of the Knights Templars of the Teutonic order, to
+whom it, together with the lands thereto belonging, was given by that
+monarch. The gift was confirmed by King John and by Henry III. (1227);
+but the unfortunate brethren of the order did not retain possession more
+than a century, for in the reign of Edward II. they were dispossessed of
+their lands and goods, under pretence of their leading a vicious course
+of life, but in reality to satisfy the avarice of their dispossessors.
+The present building dates from about James I., has one fine room
+overlooking the river, and underneath is a spacious vault called by
+Grose the "Preceptory," excavated out of the chalk, and having fine
+groined stone arches and aisles--the walls are of very great thickness.
+Near Frindsbury Church--in which are three most interesting
+wall-paintings of St. William the Baker of Perth, St. Lawrence, and
+another figure, all three discovered on the jambs of the Norman windows
+only a few years ago--stands the Quarry House, a handsome old red-brick
+mansion, "described as more Jacobean than Elizabethan," built in the
+form of a capital E, each storey slightly receding behind the front
+level of that beneath it, the top tapering into pretty gables, the
+effect being enhanced by heavy buttresses.
+
+There is a dreadful legend of the ancient people of Strood common to
+several other parts of the kingdom, _e.g._ Auster in Dorsetshire, which
+the quaint and diligent Lambarde, quoting from Polydore Virgil,
+evidently regarded as serious, and takes immense pains to confute! It
+relates to St. Thomas a Becket and his contention with King Henry II.,
+whereby he began to be looked upon as the King's enemy, and as such
+began to be "so commonly neglected, contemned, and hated:--
+
+"That when as it happened him upon a time to come to _Stroude_, the
+Inhabitants thereabouts (being desirous to dispite that good Father)
+sticked not to cut the tail from the horse on which he road, binding
+themselves thereby with a perpetuall reproach: for afterward (by the
+will of God) it so happened, that every one which came of that kinred of
+men which plaied that naughty prank, were borne with tails, even as
+brute beasts be."
+
+[Illustration: Temple Farm Strood]
+
+Surely had the credulous historian lived in Darwinian times, he might
+have recorded this as a splendid instance of "degeneration"!
+
+[Illustration: At Temple Farm Strood]
+
+In a lecture delivered here some years ago, the Rev. Canon Scott
+Robertson, Editor of _Archaeologia Cantiana_, gave a graphic picture of
+"Strood in the Olden Times." To this we are much indebted for the
+opportunity of giving an abstract of several of the most interesting
+details.
+
+In the thirteenth century Strood and Rochester were the scene of a
+severe struggle between Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, the
+leader of the Barons in their war against Henry III. to resist the
+aggressive encroachments of the King on the liberties of the subject,
+and the supporters of that monarch.
+
+[Illustration: Crypt Temple Farm]
+
+Simon de Montfort, who was a Strood landowner, and possessed of other
+large properties in Kent, took the lead, followed by several other
+nobles, in the siege of Rochester. Their first obstacle was the
+fortified gate-house at the Strood end of Rochester Bridge, and for some
+time their efforts were in vain, till at length, by means of small ships
+filled with inflammable matter, set on fire and driven towards the
+centre of the wooden bridge, causing "actual or expected ignition of the
+timbers," the King's soldiers were dismayed and retreated. The Earl of
+Gloucester simultaneously reached the south end of the city, and the
+Barons took possession thereof, sacking the town, monastery, and
+Cathedral Church. The garrison of the Castle shut themselves up in the
+strong Norman Keep, and held it till relieved by Prince Edward, the
+King's son.
+
+The Castle was subsequently taken by Simon de Montfort after the Battle
+of Lewes (1264), where Henry III. was taken prisoner and brought to
+Rochester, and a Proclamation was issued transferring the custody of the
+Royal Castle to the Barons.
+
+At the Battle of Evesham (1265) Simon de Montfort was slain; and the
+King, on becoming master of the situation, imposed a fine, equivalent to
+about L1,500 of our money, on Strood, because it was the headquarters of
+Simon during his assault on Rochester. The fine caused much ill-feeling
+between the two towns, which lasted until the reign of Edward I. Such
+was Strood in the olden times.
+
+Long years have since passed, and the amenities of an industrial age
+have succeeded to these turmoils. The town of Strood appears to be
+flourishing, and now possesses large engineering works, cement
+manufactories, flour mills, and other extensive industries.
+
+Allusion has been previously made to a very entertaining _brochure_,
+entitled _Charles Dickens and Rochester_, by Mr. Robert Langton, F. R.
+Hist. Soc. of Manchester (himself, we believe, a Rochester man). In it
+there is scarcely any reference to Strood, although the sister-town,
+Chatham, is freely mentioned. Our enquiries at Strood, on the Tuesday
+and subsequently, resulted in the discovery of many most interesting
+memorials of Charles Dickens in connection with that town, enough almost
+to fill a small volume. There was a general impression that Dickens had
+no great liking for Strood, and yet it was a doctor from that town who
+was one of his most intimate friends, and who attended him in his last
+illness; it was a builder in Strood who executed most of the alterations
+and repairs at Gad's Hill Place; it was a Strood contractor who gave him
+the souvenir of old Rochester Bridge; it was at Strood that an eminent
+local scientist lived, who was incidentally, but very importantly,
+associated with him in the movement connected with the Guild of
+Literature and Art; and it was at a quiet roadside inn at Strood that he
+sometimes called to refresh himself after one of those long walks, alone
+or with friends, for which he was famous.
+
+[Illustration: The "Crispin & Crispianus", Strood]
+
+Let us reverse the order of the above, and give a recollection from the
+last-mentioned. The "Crispin and Crispianus" is a very old-fashioned
+inn, which stands on the north side of the London road just out of
+Strood, and was, as we were informed, erected some centuries ago. It is
+a long building, of brick below, with an overhanging upper floor and
+weather-boarded front, surmounted by a single dormer window. The sanded
+floor of the common parlour is, as the saying goes, "as clean as a new
+pin." Round the room is a settle terminating with arms at each side of
+the door, which is opposite the fireplace. Mrs. Masters, the cheerful
+and obliging landlady, who has lived here thirty years, describes
+Dickens to us (as we sit in the seat he used now and then to occupy),
+when on one of his walks, as habited in low shoes not over-well mended,
+loose large check-patterned trousers that sometimes got entangled in the
+shoes when walking, a brown coat thrown open, sometimes without
+waistcoat, a belt instead of braces, a necktie which now and then got
+round towards his ear, and a large-brimmed felt hat, similar to an
+American's, set well at the back of his head. In his hand he carried by
+the middle an umbrella, which he was in the habit of constantly
+swinging, and if he had dogs (a not unfrequent occurrence), he had a
+small whip as well. He walked in the middle of the road at a rapid pace,
+upright, but with his eyes cast down as if in deep thought. When he
+called at the Crispin for refreshment, usually a glass of ale (mild
+sixpenny--bitter ale was not drawn in those days), or a little cold
+brandy and water, he walked straight in, and sat down at the corner of
+the settle on the right-hand side where the arm is, opposite the
+fire-place; he rarely spoke to any one, but looked round as though
+taking in everything at a glance. (In _David Copperfield_ he says, "I
+looked at nothing, that I know of, but I saw everything.") Once he and a
+friend were sheltering there during a thunderstorm (by a coincidence, a
+storm occurs at the time we are here), and while Dickens stood looking
+out of the window he saw opposite a poor woman with a baby, who appeared
+very worn, wet, and travel-stained. She too was sheltering from the
+rain.
+
+"Call her in here," said Dickens. Mrs. Masters obeyed.
+
+"Now," said he, "draw her some brandy."
+
+"How much?" she asked.
+
+"Never mind," he answered, "draw her some."
+
+The landlady drew her four-pennyworth, the quantity generally served.
+
+"Now," said Dickens to the woman, "drink that up," which she did, and
+soon seemed refreshed. Dickens gave her a shilling, and remarked to Mrs.
+Masters that "now she will go on her way rejoicing." The story is a
+trivial one, but the units make the aggregate, and it sufficiently
+indicates his kindness of heart and thoughtfulness for others.
+
+In some of his walks Dickens was accompanied either by his
+sister-in-law, Miss Hogarth, or by friends who were staying at "Gad's"
+(or the "Place," as it was sometimes called). Mrs. Masters, whose
+recollections of Dickens are very vivid, said--"Lor! we never thought
+much about him when he was alive; it was only when his death took place
+that we understood what a great man he was." Alas! it is not the first
+instance that "a prophet is not without honour, save in his own country,
+and in his own house." The news of his death was a great shock to Mrs.
+Masters, who heard of it from Edward, son of Mr. W. S. Trood, the
+landlord of the Sir John Falstaff, as he was bearing the intelligence to
+Rochester within half-an-hour after the event.
+
+In passing we should mention, that the Crispin and Crispianus has been
+immortalized in the chapter on "Tramps," in _The Uncommercial
+Traveller_, where, in reference to the handicrafts of certain tramps,
+Dickens imagines himself to be a travelling clockmaker, and after
+adjusting "t'ould clock" in the keeper's kitchen, "he sees to something
+wrong with the bell of the turret stable clock up at the Hall [Cobham
+Hall]. . . . Our task at length accomplished, we should be taken into an
+enormous servants'-hall, and there regaled with beef and bread, and
+powerful ale. Then, paid freely, we should be at liberty to go, and
+should be told by a pointing helper to keep round over yinder by the
+blasted ash, and so straight through the woods till we should see the
+town-lights right afore us. . . . So should we lie that night at the
+ancient sign of the Crispin and Crispianus [at Strood], and rise early
+next morning to be betimes on tramp again."[14]
+
+We are also indebted to Mrs. Masters for an introduction to our next
+informant, Mr. J. Couchman, master-builder and undertaker of Strood,
+who, though advanced in years and tried by illness, is very free and
+chatty; and from him and his son we obtained some interesting facts. He
+had worked for Charles Dickens at Gad's Hill Place, from the date of his
+going there ("which," says Mr. Couchman, "was on Whitsun Monday, 1856,")
+until the 11th June, 1870, two days after the sad occurrence "which
+eclipsed the gaiety of nations."
+
+From Mr. Couchman's standpoint as a tradesman, it is interesting to
+record his experience of Dickens in his own words. "Mr. Dickens," he
+says, "was always very straightforward, honourable, and kind, and paid
+his bills most regularly. The first work I did for him was to make a
+dog-kennel; I also put up the chalet at Gad's Hill. When it was
+forwarded from London, which was by water, Mr. Fechter [whose name he
+did not at first remember] sent a Frenchman to assist in the erection.
+The chalet consisted of ninety-four pieces, all fitting accurately
+together like a puzzle. The Frenchman did not understand it, and could
+not make out the fitting of the pieces. So I asked Mr. Henry [Mr. Henry
+Fielding Dickens, the novelist's sixth son, the present Recorder of
+Deal] if he understood French. He said 'Yes,' and told me the names of
+the different pieces, and I managed it without the Frenchman, who stayed
+the night, and went away next day." In conversation, we suggest that the
+circumstance of the chalet having been made in Switzerland may have
+embarrassed the Frenchman, he not having been accustomed to that kind of
+work. In his letter to Forster of the 7th June, 1865, Dickens
+says:--"The chalet is going on excellently, though the ornamental part
+is more slowly put together than the substantial. It will really be a
+very pretty thing; and in the summer (supposing it not to be blown away
+in the spring), the upper room will make a charming study. It is much
+higher than we supposed."
+
+Mr. Couchman also took down the chalet after Charles Dickens's death,
+and erected it at the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, where it remained for
+a short time, and was subsequently presented to the Earl of Darnley by
+several members of the Dickens family. His lordship afterwards ordered
+him to fit it up at Cobham Hall, where, as previously stated, it now
+stands. The woods of which it is constructed he believed to be Baltic
+oak and a kind of pine, the lighter parts being of maple or sycamore. We
+saw it subsequently.
+
+Several contracts were entered into by Mr. Couchman with Charles Dickens
+for the extension and modification of Gad's Hill Place, notably during
+the year 1861. We are favoured with a sight of an original specification
+signed by both parties, which is as follows:--
+
+          "Specification of works proposed to be done at
+          Gad's Hill House, Higham, for C. Dickens, Esq.
+
+          "_Bricklayer._--To take off slates and copings and
+          heighten brick walls and chimneys, and build No. 2
+          new chimneys with stock and picking bricks laid in
+          cement. No. 2 chimney bars, to cope gable ends
+          with old stone. No. 2 hearthstones. No. 2 plain
+          stone chimney-pieces. No. 2--2 ft. 6 in. Register
+          stoves. To lath and plaster ceiling, side walls,
+          and partitions with lime and hair two coats, and
+          set to slate the new roof with good countess
+          slates and metal nails.
+
+          "_Carpenter._--To take off roof, to lay floor
+          joist with 7 x 2-1/2 in. yellow battens; to fix
+          roof, ceiling, joist and partitions of good fir
+          timber, 4 ft. x 2 ft.; to use old timber that is
+          sound and fit for use; to close board roof, lead
+          flat and gutters; to lay 1 in. x 9 in. white deal
+          floors, to skirt rooms with 8 in. x 3/4 in. deal;
+          to fix No. 4 pairs of 1-3/4 in. sashes and frames
+          for plate-glass as per order. _All the sashes to
+          have weights and pulleys for opening._ To fix No.
+          2--6 ft. 6 in. x 2 ft. 6 in. 1-1/2 in., four panel
+          doors, and encase frames with all necessary
+          mouldings; to fix window linings, and 1-1/2 in.
+          square framings and doors for No. 2 dressing-rooms;
+          to fix No. 2, 7 in. rim locks. No. 2 box latches,
+          sash fastenings, sash weights, to fix 4 in. O. G.
+          iron eaves, gutter with cistern heads, and 3 in.
+          iron leading pipes.
+
+          "_Plumber, Glazier, and Painter._--To take up old
+          lead guttering, and lay new gutters and lead flats
+          with 6lb. lead, ridge and flushings with 5lb.
+          lead; to paint all wood and iron-work that
+          requires painting 4 coats in oil, the windows to
+          be glazed with good plate glass; to paper rooms
+          and landings when the walls are dry with paper of
+          the value of 1_s._ 6_d._ per piece, the old lead
+          to be the property of the plumber. _The two
+          cisterns to be carried up and replaced on new
+          roof, the pipes attached to them to be lengthened
+          as required by the alterations; and a water tap to
+          be fitted in each dressing-room._
+
+          "All old materials not used and rubbish to be
+          carted away by the contractor. All the work to be
+          completed in a sound and workman-like manner to
+          the satisfaction of C. Dickens, Esq., for the sum
+          of L241. The roof to be slated and flat covered
+          with lead in one month from commencing the work.
+          The whole to be completed--paper excepted--and all
+          rubbish cleared away by the 30th day of November,
+          1861.
+
+                                "(Signed) J. COUCHMAN,
+                                                  "Builder.
+          "_High Street, Strood_,
+             "_Sep. 10th, 1861._"
+
+Then follows in Dickens's own handwriting:--
+
+          "_The above contract I accept on the stipulated
+          conditions; the specified _time_, in common with
+          all the other conditions, to be strictly
+          observed._
+
+                                 "(Signed) CHARLES DICKENS.
+
+          "_Gad's Hill Place,_
+               "_Saturday, 21st Sep., 1861._"
+
+What is most interesting to notice in the above specification, is the
+careful way in which Dickens appears to have mastered all the details,
+and the very sensible interlineations given in italics which he made,
+(1) as to the sashes and weights, (2) as to the two cisterns, and
+especially (3) in the final memorandum as to _time_.
+
+It is also worthy of remark, that the work _was_ completed in the
+specified time, the bill duly sent in, and the next day Dickens sent a
+cheque for the amount.
+
+Another contract, amounting to L393, was executed by Mr. Couchman, for
+extensions at Gad's Hill. On its completion, Mr. Dickens paid him by two
+cheques. He went up to London to the Bank (Coutts's in the Strand) to
+cash them. The clerk just looked at the cheques, the signature
+apparently being very familiar to him, and then put the usual
+question--"How will you have it?" to which he replied, "Notes, please."
+
+It appears that, as is frequently the case in large establishments,
+orders were sometimes given by the servants for work which the master
+knew nothing about until the bill was presented; and to prevent this,
+Dickens issued instructions to the tradesmen that they were not to
+execute any work for him without his written authority. The following is
+an illustration of this new arrangement:--
+
+
+                                    "GAD'S HILL PLACE,
+                                "HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT.
+                                   "_Thursday, 5th Nov., 1858._
+
+          "MR. COUCHMAN,
+
+          "Please to ease the coach-house doors, and to put
+          up some pegs, agreeably to George Belcher's
+          directions.
+
+                                     "CHARLES DICKENS."
+
+It should be mentioned that George Belcher was the coachman at the time.
+
+Mr. Couchman recalls an interesting custom that was maintained at Gad's
+Hill. There were a number of tin check plates, marked respectively 3_d._
+and 6_d._ each, which enabled the person to whom they were given to
+obtain an equivalent in refreshment of any kind at the Sir John
+Falstaff. The threepenny checks were for the workmen, and the sixpenny
+ones for the tradesmen. The chief housemaid had the distribution of
+these checks to persons employed in the house, the head-gardener to
+those engaged in the gardens, and the coachman to those in the stables.
+On one occasion, our informant remembers when his men were engaged upon
+some work at Gad's Hill, such checks were given out to them, and that he
+also had one offered to him; but, recollecting that his position as a
+master scarcely entitled him to the privilege, he stated his objections
+to the housemaid, who said in reply that it was a pity to break an old
+custom, he had better have one. "So," says our informant, "I had a
+sixpenny ticket with the others, and obtained my refreshment."
+
+He has in his photographic album a carte-de-visite of Charles Dickens,
+by Watkins. It is the well-known one in which the novelist is
+represented in a sitting position, dressed in a grey suit; and the owner
+considered it a very good likeness. He also showed us a funeral card
+which he thought had been sent to him by the family of Dickens at the
+time of his death, but judging by its contents, this seems impossible.
+It is, however, well worth transcribing:--
+
+                  To the Memory of
+                 =Charles Dickens=
+          (England's most popular author),
+               who died at his Residence,
+            Higham, near Rochester, Kent,
+                   June 9th, 1870.
+                   Aged 58 years.
+
+          He was a sympathizer with the poor, suffering, and
+            oppressed; and by his death one of England's
+               greatest writers is lost to the world.
+
+Mr. Couchman confirms the verbal sketch of Dickens as drawn by his
+neighbour, Mrs. Masters, and states that Dickens used to put up his dogs
+("Linda" and "Turk"), "boisterous companions as they always were," in
+the stables whenever he came to see him on business.
+
+Mr. William Ball, J.P., of Hillside, Strood, kindly favoured us with
+many interviews, and generally took great interest in the subject of our
+visit to "Dickens-Land," rendering invaluable assistance in our
+enquiries. This gentleman is the son of Mr. John H. Ball, the well-known
+contractor, who removed old Rochester Bridge; he is also a
+brother-in-law of the late gifted tenor, Mr. Joseph Maas, to whom a
+handsome memorial tablet, consisting of a marble medallion of the
+deceased, over which is a lyre with one of the strings broken, has since
+been erected on the east wall of the south transept of Rochester
+Cathedral. By Mr. Ball's considerate courtesy and that of his daughters,
+we are allowed to see many interesting relics of Charles Dickens and
+Gad's Hill.[15] When Mr. Ball's father removed the old bridge in 1859,
+it will be remembered that he offered to present the novelist with one
+of the balustrades as a souvenir, the offer being gracefully and
+promptly accepted, as the following letter testifies:--
+
+
+                                      "GAD'S HILL PLACE,
+                                 "HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT.
+                                "_Thursday, eighth June, 1859._
+
+          "SIR,
+
+          "I feel exceedingly obliged to you for your kind
+          and considerate offer of a remembrance of old
+          Rochester Bridge; that will interest me very much.
+          I accept the relic with many thanks, and with
+          great pleasure.
+
+          "Do me the favor to let it be delivered to a
+          workman who will receive instructions to bring it
+          away, and once again accept my acknowledgments.
+
+                              "Yours faithfully,
+                                           "CHARLES DICKENS.
+
+          "MR. JOHN H. BALL."
+
+
+The present Mr. William Ball, then a young lad, was the bearer of the
+gift, and on being asked by us why he didn't ask to see the great
+novelist, replies, "Yes, I ought to have done so, but I was afraid of
+the dogs!"
+
+The balustrade, which was placed on the back lawn at Gad's Hill, was
+mounted on a square pedestal, on the sides of which were representations
+of the four seasons, and a sun-dial crowned the capital. Something like
+it, but a little modified, appears in one of Mr. Luke Fildes's beautiful
+illustrations to the original edition of _Edwin Drood_, entitled
+"Jasper's Sacrifices." Three more of the balustrades now ornament Mr.
+Ball's garden at Hillside.
+
+Mr. Ball the elder was invited to send in a tender for the construction
+of the tunnel at Gad's Hill previously mentioned, but it was not
+accepted, as appears from a letter addressed to him by Mr. Alfred L.
+Dickens (Charles Dickens's brother), of which we are allowed to take a
+copy:--
+
+
+                                "8, RICHMOND TERRACE,
+                                        "WHITEHALL, S.W.
+                                          "_August 30th, 1859._
+
+          "DEAR SIR,
+
+          "I am very sorry that absence from home has
+          prevented my replying to your note as to the
+          tender for the Gad's Hill tunnel before.
+
+          "I much regret that the amount of your tender is
+          so much higher than my estimate, that I cannot
+          recommend my brother to accept it.
+
+                               "I am,
+                                "Dear Sir,
+                                  "Yours faithfully,
+                                        "ALFRED L. DICKENS.
+          "MR. BALL."
+
+Among the Dickens relics at Hillside, we are shown by Mr. Ball the
+pretty set of five silver bells presented by his friend Mr. F. Lehmann,
+to the novelist, who always used them when driving out in his basket
+pony-phaeton. They are fastened on to a leather pad, and make a pleasant
+musical sound when shaken. They are of graduated sizes, the largest
+being somewhat smaller than a tennis-ball, and appear to be in the key
+of C: comprising the Tonic, Third, Fifth, Octave, and Octave of the
+Third.
+
+There is also a hall clock with maker's name--"Bennett, Cheapside,
+London." This was the "werry identical" clock respecting which Dickens
+wrote the following characteristically humorous letter to Sir John
+Bennett:--
+
+          "MY DEAR SIR,
+
+          "Since my hall clock was sent to your
+          establishment to be cleaned it has gone (as indeed
+          it always had) perfectly well, but has struck the
+          hours with great reluctance, and after enduring
+          internal agonies of a most distressing nature, it
+          has now ceased striking altogether. Though a happy
+          release for the clock, this is not convenient to
+          the household. If you can send down any
+          confidential person with whom the clock can
+          confer, I think it may have something on its works
+          that it would be glad to make a clean breast of.
+
+                              "Faithfully yours,
+                                      "CHARLES DICKENS."
+
+Included among the relics are a very handsome mahogany fire-screen in
+three folds, of red morocco, with Grecian key-border, a musical
+Canterbury, and a bookcase. But the most interesting object from an art
+point of view is an India proof copy, "before letters," of Sir Edwin
+Landseer's beautiful picture of "King Charles's Spaniels," the original
+of which is said to have been painted for the late Mr. Vernon in two
+days, and is now in the National Gallery. The engraving of the picture
+is by Outram. It has the initials in pencil "E. L.," and a little ticket
+on the frame--"Lot 445," that being the number in the auctioneer's
+catalogue.
+
+The following is the story as recently told by Mr. W. P. Frith, R.A., in
+his most interesting and readable _Autobiography and Reminiscences_,
+1887:--
+
+"His" [Sir Edwin's] "rapidity of execution was extraordinary. In the
+National Gallery there is a picture of Two Spaniels, of what is
+erroneously called the Charles II. breed (the real dog of that time is
+of a different form and breed altogether, as may be seen in pictures of
+the period), the size of life, with appropriate accompaniments, painted
+by him in two days. An empty frame had been sent to the British
+Institution, where it was hung on the wall, waiting for its tenant--a
+picture of a lady with dogs--till Landseer felt the impossibility of
+finishing the picture satisfactorily. Time had passed, till two days
+only remained before the opening of the Exhibition. Something must be
+done; and in the time named those wonderfully life-like little dogs were
+produced."
+
+Mr. Ball has also an interesting photograph of the "Last Lot," some
+bottles of wine, evidently taken on the occasion of the sale at Gad's
+Hill Place after Dickens's death, the auctioneer being represented with
+his hammer raised ready to fall, and a smile upon his face. Among the
+crowd, consisting principally of London and local dealers, may be seen
+two local policemen with peaked caps, and auctioneer's porters in
+shirt-sleeves and aprons. The sale took place in a large tent at the
+back of the house and close to the well, which can be readily seen
+through an opening in the tent.
+
+The next person whom we meet at Strood is Mr. Charles Roach Smith,
+F.S.A., the eminent archaeologist, who has achieved a European
+reputation, and from whom we get many interesting particulars relating
+to Dickens. We heard some idle gossip at Rochester to the effect that
+Mr. Roach Smith always felt a little "touchy" about the satire on
+archaeology in _Pickwick_, _in re_ "Bill Stumps, his mark." That,
+however, we took _cum grano salis_, because this gentleman, from his
+delightful conversation and frank manner, is evidently above any such
+littleness. He is, however, free to confess, that Dickens had not much
+love for Strood, but infinitely preferred Chatham.
+
+There had been but little personal intercourse between Dickens and Mr.
+Roach Smith, though each respected the other. Our informant says that,
+soon after the novelist came to Gad's Hill Place, Mrs. Dickens called
+and left her husband's card, which he, whether rightly or not, took as
+an intimation that the acquaintance was not to be extended. He spoke
+with all the enthusiasm of a man of science, and rather bitterly too, of
+a certain reading given by Dickens at Chatham to an overflowing house,
+whereas on the same evening a distinguished Professor of Agriculture (a
+Mr. Roberts or Robinson, we believe), who came to instruct the people at
+Ashford (one of the neighbouring towns) by means of a lecture, failed to
+secure an audience, and only got a few pence for admissions. The learned
+Professor subsequently poured forth his troubles to Mr. Roach Smith,
+from whom he obtained sympathy and hospitality. We venture to remind
+our good friend that the public in general much prefer amusement to
+instruction, at which he laughs, and says that in this matter he
+perfectly agrees with us. He expresses his strong opinion as to
+Dickens's reading of the "Murder of Nancy" (_Oliver Twist_), which he
+characterizes as "repulsive and indecent."
+
+The most important communication made to us by Mr. Roach Smith is that
+contained in volume ii. of his recently published _Reminiscences and
+Retrospections, Social and Archaeological_, 1886. As this interesting
+work may not be generally accessible, it is as well to quote the passage
+intact. It has reference to the Guild of Literature and Art, for the
+promotion of which Dickens, Lord Lytton, John Forster, Mark Lemon, John
+Leech, and others, gave so much valuable time and energy, in addition to
+liberal pecuniary support. The following is the extract:--
+
+"Of Mr. Dodd I knew much. He was one of my earliest friends when I lived
+in Liverpool Street--I may say, one of my earliest patrons; and the
+intimacy continued up to his death, a few years since. The story of his
+connection with the movement for a dramatic college, and of his rapid
+separation from it, a deposition by order of the projectors and
+directors, forms a curious episode in the history of our friendship; and
+especially so, as I had an important, though unseen, part to sustain.
+
+"In the summer of 1858 I was summoned to Mr. Dodd's residence at the
+City Wharf, New North Road, Hoxton, to give consent to be a trustee,
+with Messrs. Cobden and Bright, for five acres of land, which Mr. Dodd
+was about to give for the building of a dramatic college, which had been
+resolved on at a public meeting, held on the 21st of July in this year,
+in the Princess's Theatre, Mr. Charles Kean acting as chairman. 'I give
+this most freely,' said Mr. Dodd to me, 'for it is to the stage I am
+indebted for my education; to it I owe whatsoever may be good in me.'
+That there was much good in him, thousands can testify; and thousands
+yet to come will be evidence to his benevolence. Of course, I felt
+pleased in being selected to act as a trustee for this gift. I
+conceived, and I suppose I was correct, that Mr. Dodd intended that his
+gift was strictly for a dramatic college, and for no other purpose, then
+or thereafter. Having expressed my willingness and resolution to be
+faithful to the trust, I said, 'I presume, Mr. Dodd, you stipulate for a
+presentation?' He looked rather surprised; and asked his solicitor, who
+sat by him, how they came to overlook this? Both of them directly agreed
+that this simple return should be required.
+
+"I must leave such of my readers as feel inclined, to search in the
+public journals for the correspondence between the directors and Mr.
+Dodd up to the 13th of January, 1859, when, at a meeting held in the
+Adelphi Theatre, Lord Tenterden in the chair, it was stated that Mr.
+Dodd evinced, through his solicitor, a disposition to fence round his
+gift with legal restrictions and stipulations, which apprised the
+committee of coming difficulty; and the meeting unanimously agreed to
+decline Mr. Dodd's offer of land. Previously and subsequently to this,
+Mr. Dodd was most discourteously commented on and attacked in the
+newspapers, the editors of which, however, sided with him. I was told
+that the stipulation for a presentation was the great offence; but I
+should think that the provision made against the improper use of the
+land must have been the real grievance. In the very last letter I
+received from Mr. Dodd, not very long anterior to his death, he says
+that Mark Lemon told him that Charles Dickens had said he had never
+occasion to repent but of two things, one being his conduct to Mr. Dodd.
+That Dickens, Thackeray, and others sincerely believed they were taking
+the best steps for accomplishing their benevolent object, there can be
+no doubt; their judgment, not their heart, was wrong. The scheme was
+based upon a wrong principle, as was shown by its collapse in less than
+twenty years, after the expenditure of very large subscriptions, and the
+patronage of the Queen. Articles in _The Era_ of the 22nd July, 1877,
+leave no doubt, while they clearly reveal the causes of failure."
+
+It may be mentioned that the Mr. Henry Dodd above referred to, appears
+to have been a large city contractor, or something of that kind.
+According to Mr. Roach Smith, what with him led on to fortune was a long
+and heavy fall of snow, which had filled the streets of the city of
+London, and rendered traffic impossible. The city was blocked by snow,
+and there was no remedy at hand. Mr. Dodd boldly undertook a contract to
+remove the mighty obstruction in a given time. This he did thoroughly
+and within the limited number of days. Afterwards he appears to have
+undertaken brick-making and other works on a very large scale. In the
+opinion of Mr. Roach Smith, Mr. Dodd was the origin of the "golden
+dustman" in _Our Mutual Friend_, whom every reader of Dickens remembers
+as Mr. Nicodemus, _alias_ Noddy Boffin.
+
+Speaking of Dickens's readings, our informant relates a conversation
+with Charles Dickens's sixth son, Mr. Henry Fielding Dickens. The former
+gentleman asked the latter whose model he took?
+
+"Oh, my father's," said Mr. Henry Dickens.
+
+"I would not take any man's model," said Mr. Roach Smith, "I would take
+my own." And judging from the perfect intonation and thoroughly musical
+rhythm of his voice, there is no doubt whatever that his model, whoever
+it may have been, was one of very high standard.
+
+We have since learnt that Mr. Roach Smith is the President of the Strood
+Elocution Society, an almost unique institution of its kind. It has been
+established upwards of thirteen years; and at the weekly meetings "the
+various readers are subjected to an exhaustive and salutary criticism by
+the members present." Mr. Roach Smith has always taken immense interest
+in the progress of this Society. Miss Dickens occasionally helped at the
+above meetings.
+
+Mr. Roach Smith kindly favours us with the following extract from the
+third and forthcoming volume of his _Retrospections_ with reference to
+the late Mr. J. H. Ball, of Strood, which may appropriately be here
+introduced:--
+
+"Although I have said that I was the gainer by our acquaintance, yet now
+and then I had a chance of serving him. Soon after the death of the
+great novelist, Charles Dickens, and when people were speculating as to
+what would become of his residence at Gad's Hill, Mr. Ball, wishing to
+purchase it, commissioned me to call on the executrix, Miss Hogarth, and
+offer ten thousand pounds, for which he had written a cheque. I
+accordingly went, and sent in my card. Miss Hogarth, fortunately, could
+not see me; she was hastening to catch the train for London, the
+carriage being at the door, and not a moment to be lost; but she would
+be happy to see me on her return in a day or two. I then wrote to Mr.
+Forster, the other executor; and received a reply that the place was not
+for sale. I kept him ignorant of the sum that Mr. Ball was willing to
+give, and thus saved my friend some thousands of pounds, . . . for the
+house and land were not worth half the money."
+
+[Illustration: Old Quarry House Strood]
+
+After some further conversation with our kind octogenarian friend, who
+insists on showing us hospitality notwithstanding his sufferings from a
+trying illness, we take our departure with many pleasant memories of our
+visit.[16]
+
+We have, after one or two unsuccessful attempts, the good fortune to
+meet with Mr. Stephen Steele, M.R.C.S. and L.S.A., of Bridge House,
+Esplanade, Strood, who was admitted a member of the medical profession
+so far back as the year 1831, and has therefore been in practice nearly
+sixty years. It will be remembered that this experienced surgeon was
+sent for by Miss Hogarth, to see Dickens in his last illness. He is good
+enough to go over and describe to us in graphic and sympathetic language
+the whole of the circumstances attending that sorrowful event.
+Previously to doing so, he gives us some interesting details of his
+recollections of Charles Dickens. Dr. Steele had occupied the onerous
+post of Chairman of the Liberal Association at Rochester for thirty
+years, and believes that in politics Dickens was a Liberal, for he
+frequently prefaced his remarks in conversation with him on any subject
+of passing interest by the expression, "We Liberals, you know--"
+
+[Illustration: Frindsbury Church]
+
+As a matter of fact, Dickens discharged his conscience of his political
+creed in the remarks which followed his address as President of the
+Birmingham and Midland Institute,[17] delivered 27th September, 1869,
+when he said--"My political creed is contained in two articles, and has
+no reference to any party or persons. My faith in the 'people governing'
+is, on the whole, infinitesimal; my faith in the 'people governed' is,
+on the whole, illimitable." At a subsequent visit to Birmingham on the
+6th January, 1870, when giving out the prizes at the Institute, he
+further emphasized his political faith in these words:--"When I was here
+last autumn, I made a short confession of my political faith--or
+perhaps, I should better say, want of faith. It imported that I have
+very little confidence in the people who govern us--please to observe
+'people' with a small 'p,'--but I have very great confidence in the
+People whom they govern--please to observe 'People' with a large 'P.'"
+
+A few days after Charles Dickens's first visit, my friend Mr. Howard S.
+Pearson, Lecturer on English Literature at the Institute, addressed a
+letter to him on the subject of the remarks at the conclusion of his
+Presidential Address, and promptly received in reply the following
+communication, which Mr. Pearson kindly allows me to print, emphasizing
+his (Dickens's) observations:--
+
+                                        "GAD'S HILL PLACE,
+                                   "HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT.
+                                   "_Wednesday, 6th October, 1869._
+
+          "SIR,
+
+          "You are perfectly right in your construction of
+          my meaning at Birmingham. If a capital P be put to
+          the word People in its second use in the sentence,
+          and not in its first, I should suppose the passage
+          next to impossible to be mistaken, even if it were
+          read without any reference to the whole spirit of
+          my speech and the whole tenor of my writings.
+
+                                     "Faithfully yours,
+                                           "CHARLES DICKENS.
+          "H. S. PEARSON, ESQUIRE."
+
+Dr. Steele had dined several times at Gad's Hill Place, and was
+impressed with Dickens's wonderful powers as a host. He never absorbed
+the whole of the conversation to himself, but listened attentively when
+his guests were speaking, and endeavoured, as it were, to draw out any
+friends who were not generally talkative. He liked each one to chat
+about his own hobby in which he took most interest. Our informant was
+also present at Gad's Hill Place at several theatrical entertainments,
+and especially remembers some charades being given. After the
+performance of the latter was over, Dickens walked round among his
+guests in the drawing-room, and enquired if any one could guess the
+"word." Says the doctor, "We never seemed to do so, but there was always
+a hearty laugh when we were told what it was. There was a good deal of
+company at Gad's Hill at Christmas time."
+
+_A propos_ of private theatricals at Gad's Hill Place, Mr. T. Edgar
+Pemberton, in _Charles Dickens and the Stage_, calls attention to the
+fact that "Mr. Clarkson Stanfield's _Lighthouse_ Act drop subsequently
+decorated the walls of Gad's Hill Place; and although it took the
+painter less than a couple of days to execute, fetched a thousand
+guineas at the famous Dickens Sale in 1870." A cloth painted for _The
+Frozen Deep_, which was the next and last of these productions, also had
+a foremost place in the Gad's Hill picture-gallery.
+
+Dr. Steele mentions a conversation once with Dickens about Gad's Hill
+and Shakespeare's description of it. He (the doctor) considers that
+Shakespeare could not have described it so accurately if he had not been
+there, and Dickens agreed with him in this opinion. Possibly he may have
+stayed at the "Plough," which was an inn on the same spot as, or close
+to, the "Falstaff." The place must have been much wooded at that time,
+and Shakespeare might have been there on his way to Dover. A note in
+the _Rochester and Chatham Journal_, 1883, states that "Shakespeare's
+company made a tour in Sussex and Kent in the summer of 1597."
+
+Dr. Steele, in common with his friend Charles Dickens, strongly
+deprecated the action of certain parties in Rochester, by voting at a
+public meeting something to this effect:--"That the Theatre was an
+irreligious kind of institution, and, in the opinion of the meeting, it
+ought to be closed."
+
+The doctor observes that Dickens was not much of a Church-goer. He went
+occasionally to Higham, and used to give the vicar assistance for the
+poor and distressed. Dickens and Miss Hogarth asked Dr. Steele to point
+out objects of charity worthy of relief, and they gave him money for
+distribution.
+
+He remarks that Dickens did not care much about associating with the
+local residents, going out to dinners, &c. Most of the principal people
+of Rochester would have been glad of the honour of his presence as a
+guest, but he rarely accepted invitations, preferring the quietude of
+home.[18]
+
+As regards readings, our informant says he is under the impression that
+Dickens must have had some lessons or hints from some one of experience
+(possibly his friend Fechter, the actor), as he noticed from time to
+time a regular improvement, which was permanently maintained. On the
+subject of the American War, he thinks Dickens's sympathies were
+decidedly with the South. With respect to the American Readings, Dr.
+Steele expresses his opinion that the excitement, fatigue, and worry
+consequent thereon had considerably shortened Dickens's life, if it had
+not pretty well killed him. He considered him a most genial sort of
+man; "he always looked you straight in the face when speaking."
+
+Before referring to the closing chapter in Dickens's life, we have some
+interesting talk respecting Venesection,--_a propos_ of that memorable
+occasion on the ice at Dingley Dell, when "Mr. Benjamin Allen was
+holding a hurried consultation with Mr. Bob Sawyer on the advisability
+of bleeding the company generally, as an improving little bit of
+professional practice,"--and Dr. Steele gives us his opinion thereon,
+and on some points connected with the medical profession. He was a
+student of Guy's and St. Thomas's Hospitals, and was under the
+distinguished physicians Drs. Addison and Elliotson. He considered the
+characters of Bob Sawyer and Ben Allen not at all overdrawn. They were
+good representations of the medical students of those days. He believed
+the practice of Venesection commenced to be general about the year 1811,
+for his father was a medical practitioner before him, and he does not
+remember his (the father's) telling him that he practised it before that
+time. Says our friend, "We used to bleed regularly in my young days, and
+in cases of pneumonia and convulsions we never thought of omitting to
+bleed. We should have considered that to have done so would have been a
+grave instance of irregular practice. And," he adds, "I bleed in cases
+of convulsions now." The doctor did not think well of the change at the
+time, but, speaking generally, he says Venesection had had its turn, and
+has now given place to other treatment.
+
+The events in connection with the fatal illness of Dickens are then
+touchingly related as follows:--
+
+"I was sent for on Wednesday, the eighth of June, 1870, to attend at
+Gad's Hill Place, and arrived about 6.30 p.m. I found Dickens lying on
+the floor of the dining-room in a fit. He was unconscious, and never
+moved. The servants brought a couch down, on which he was placed. I
+applied clysters and other remedies to the patient without effect. Miss
+Hogarth, his sister-in-law, had already sent a telegram (by the same
+messenger on horseback who summoned me) to his old friend and family
+doctor, Mr. Frank Beard, who arrived about midnight. He relieved me in
+attendance at that time, and I came again in the morning. There was
+unhappily no change in the symptoms, and stertorous breathing, which had
+commenced before, now continued. In conversation Miss Hogarth and the
+family expressed themselves perfectly satisfied with the attendance of
+Mr. Beard and myself. I said, 'That may be so, and we are much obliged
+for your kind opinion; but we have a duty to perform, not only to you,
+my dear madam, and the family of Mr. Dickens, but also to the public.
+What will the public say if we allow Charles Dickens to pass away
+without further medical assistance? Our advice is to send for Dr.
+Russell Reynolds.' Mr. Beard first made the suggestion.
+
+"The family reiterated their expression of perfect satisfaction with the
+treatment of Mr. Beard and myself, but immediately gave way, Dr. Russell
+Reynolds was sent for, and came in the course of the day. This eminent
+physician without hesitation pronounced the case to be hopeless. He said
+at once on seeing him, 'He cannot live.' And so it proved. At a little
+past 6 o'clock on Thursday, the 9th of June, 1870, Charles Dickens
+passed quietly away without a word--about twenty-four hours after the
+seizure."
+
+[Illustration: Rochester: from Strood Pier:]
+
+Such is the simple narrative which the kind-hearted octogenarian
+surgeon, whom it is a delightful pleasure to meet and converse with,
+communicates to us, and then cordially wishes us "good-bye."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There is an annual pleasure fair at Strood, instituted, it is said, so
+far back as the reign of Edward III. It takes place during three days in
+the last week of August, and as it is going on while we are on our
+tramp, we just look in for a few minutes, the more especially as we were
+informed by Mr. William Ball, and others who had seen him, that Dickens
+used to be very fond of going there at times in an appropriate disguise,
+where perhaps he may have seen the prototype of the famous "Doctor
+Marigold." The fair is now held on a large piece of waste ground near
+the Railway Station. There are the usual set-out of booths, "Aunt
+Sallies," shooting-galleries, "Try your weight and strength, gentlemen"
+machines, a theatre, with a tragedy and comedy both performed in about
+an hour, and hot-sausage and gingerbread stalls in abundance. But the
+deafening martial music poured forth from a barrel-organ by means of a
+steam-engine, belonging to the proprietor of a huge "Merry-go-round,"
+and the wet and muddy condition of the ground from the effects of the
+recent thunderstorm, make us glad to get away.
+
+
+A MYSTERIOUS DICKENS-ITEM.
+
+Mr. C. D. Levy, Auctioneer, etc., of Strood, was good enough to lend me
+what at first sight, and indeed for some time afterwards, was supposed
+to be a most unique Dickens-item. It came into his possession in this
+way. At the sale of Charles Dickens's furniture and effects, which took
+place at Gad's Hill in 1870, Mr. Levy was authorized by a customer to
+purchase Dickens's writing-desk, which, however, he was unable to
+secure. In transferring the desk to the purchaser at the time of the
+sale, a few old and torn papers tumbled out, and being considered of no
+value, were disregarded and scattered. One of these scraps was picked up
+by Mr. Levy, and proved on further examination to be a sheet of headed
+note-paper having the stamp of "Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester,
+Kent."--On the first page were a few rough sketches drawn with pen and
+ink, which greatly resembled some of the characters in _The Mystery of
+Edwin Drood_--Durdles, Jasper, and Edwin Drood. At the side was a
+curious row of capital letters looking like a puzzle. On the second and
+third pages were short-hand notes, and on the fourth page a few lines
+written in long-hand, continued on the next page,--wonderfully like
+Charles Dickens's own handwriting,--being the commencement of a speech
+with reference to a cricket match. The sheet of paper had evidently been
+made to do double duty, for after the sketches had been drawn on the
+front page, the sheet was put aside, and when used again was turned
+over, so that what ordinarily would have been page 4 became page 1 for
+the second object. No "Daniel" in Strood or Rochester had ever been able
+to decipher the mysterious hieroglyphics, or make known the
+interpretation thereof, during twenty years, or give any explanation of
+the sketches. But everybody thought that in some way or other they
+related to _The Mystery of Edwin Drood_--and possibly contained a clue
+to the solution of that exquisite fragment. So, as a student and admirer
+of Dickens, Mr. Levy kindly left the matter in my hands to make out what
+I could of it. Reference was accordingly had to several learned pundits
+in the short-hand systems of "Pitman," "Odell," and "Harding," but
+without avail; and eventually Mr. Gurney Archer, of 20, Abingdon Street,
+Westminster (successor to the old-established and eminent firm of
+Messrs. W. B. Gurney and Sons, who have been the short-hand writers to
+the House of Lords from time immemorial), kindly transcribed the
+short-hand notes, which referred to a speech relating to a cricket
+match, a portion of which had already been written out in long-hand, as
+above stated,--but there was not a word in the short-hand about Edwin
+Drood!
+
+So far, one portion of the mystery had been explained--not so the
+sketches, which were still believed to contain the key to _The Mystery
+of Edwin Drood_. As a _dernier ressort_, application was made to the
+fountain-head--to Mr. Luke Fildes, R.A., the famous illustrator of that
+beautiful work. He received me most courteously, scrutinized the
+document closely; we had a long chat about Edwin Drood generally, the
+substance of which has been given in a previous chapter--but he admitted
+that the sketches failed to give any solution of the mystery.
+
+The document was subsequently sent by Mr. Kitton to Mrs. Perugini, who
+at once replied that it had caused some merriment when she saw it again,
+as she remembered it very well. It had been done by her brother, Mr.
+Henry Fielding Dickens, when a young man living at home at Gad's
+Hill--that the short-hand notes referred to his speech at a dinner after
+one of the numerous cricket matches held there, and that the sketches
+were rough portraits of some of the cricketers. The capital letters at
+the side referred to a double acrostic. The heads of the speech had been
+suggested by his father as being desirable to be brought before the
+cricket club, which at that time was in a rather drooping condition.
+
+Now although the original theory about this curious document entirely
+broke down, and not an atom has been added to what was already known
+about _The Mystery of Edwin Drood_, still there is one subject of much
+interest which the document has brought to light. The short-hand is the
+same system, "Gurney's," as that which Charles Dickens wrote as a
+reporter in his early newspaper days--a system not generally used now,
+but which he subsequently taught his son to write. Of the many sheets
+which Dickens covered with notes in days gone by not one remains. But
+there are two manuscripts by Dickens in Gurney's system of short-hand,
+now in the Dyce and Forster collection at South Kensington, which relate
+to some private matters in connection with publishing arrangements. The
+document is certainly interesting from this point of view (_i. e._ the
+system which Dickens used), and from its reference to life at Gad's
+Hill, and especially to cricket, the favourite game mentioned many times
+in this book, in which the novelist took so much interest. Mr. Henry
+Fielding Dickens, with whom I had on another occasion some conversation
+on the subject of this souvenir of his youth at Gad's Hill, remarked
+that many more important issues had hung upon much more slender
+evidence. It was done about the year 1865-6, before he went to college.
+
+At our interview Mr. H. F. Dickens told me the details of the following
+touching incident which happened at one of the cricket matches at Gad's
+Hill. His father was as usual attired in flannels, acting as umpire and
+energetically taking the score of the game, when there came out from
+among the bystanders a tall, grizzled, and sun-burnt Sergeant of the
+Guards. The Sergeant walked straight up to Mr. Dickens, saying, "May I
+look at you, sir?" "Oh, yes!" said the novelist, blushing up to the
+eyes. The Sergeant gazed intently at him for a minute or so, then stood
+at attention, gave the military salute, and said, "God bless you, sir."
+He then walked off and was seen no more. In recounting this anecdote,
+Mr. H. F. Dickens agreed with me that, reading between the lines, one
+can almost fancy some lingering reminiscences similar to those in the
+early experience of Private Richard Doubledick.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[14] Since our tramp in Dickens-Land, Messrs. Winch and Sons have, with
+liberality and good taste, restored the old sign at this historic
+hostelry with which the memory of Charles Dickens is associated. It has
+been suggested that the sign may possibly have had its origin from the
+Battle of Agincourt fought on the day of "Saints Crispin-Crispian," 25th
+October, 1415. Victories in more recent times have been thus
+commemorated on sign-boards, such as the _Vigo_ expedition, and the
+fights at Portobello, Trafalgar, Waterloo, Alma, and elsewhere, and the
+heroes who won them thus celebrated.
+
+The sign, which is very well painted, represents the patron saints of
+the shoe-making fraternity, the holy brothers, Crispin and Crispian, at
+work on their cobbler's bench. The legend runs that it was at Soissons,
+in the year 287, while they were so employed "labouring with their
+hands," that they were seized by the emissaries of the Emperor
+Maximinian, and led away to torture and to death. The sign is understood
+to have been faithfully copied from a well-known work preserved to this
+day, at the church of St. Pantaleon at Troyes.--Abstract of a note in
+the _Rochester and Chatham Journal_, October 5th, 1889.
+
+[15] Enthusiastic admirers of Dickens will doubtless envy me the
+possession of some remarkable memorials of the great writer. My friend
+Mr. Ball is kind enough to present me with a very curious souvenir of
+the novelist: his old garden hat! Mr. Ball's father obtained it from the
+gardener at Gad's Hill Place, to whom it had been given after his
+master's death. The hat is a "grey-bowler," size 7-1/4, maker's name
+"Hillhouse," Bond Street, and is the same hat that he is seen to wear in
+the photograph of him leaning against the entrance-porch, an engraving
+of which appears on page 183. Many hats from Shakespeare and Gesler have
+become historical, and there is no reason why Dickens's should not in
+the future be an equally interesting personal relic. The gift was
+accompanied by a couple of collars belonging to the novelist, with the
+initials "C. D." very neatly marked in red cotton. The collar is
+technically known as a "Persigny," and its size is 16. Last, not least,
+a small bottle of "very rare old Madeira" from Gad's Hill, which calls
+to mind pleasant recollections of "the last bottle of the old Madeira,"
+opened by dear old Sol. Gills in the final chapter of _Dombey and Son_.
+Needless to say, the consumption of the valued contents of Dickens's
+bottle is reserved for a very special and appropriate occasion.
+
+[16] This was written soon after our first visit to Strood at the end of
+August, 1888. Within little more than two years afterwards, on Thursday,
+7th August, 1890, I had the mournful pleasure of being present at the
+funeral of my friend, which took place at Frindsbury Church on that day,
+in the presence of the sorrowing relatives and of a large concourse of
+admirers, both local and from a distance. There were also present many
+representatives of distinguished scientific societies, including Dr.
+John Evans, F.R.S., Treasurer of the Royal Society, and President of the
+Society of Antiquaries.
+
+The kindness which I received from Mr. Roach Smith, to whom I presented
+myself in the first instance as a perfect stranger, and which was
+extended during the period of two years that I was privileged to enjoy
+his friendship, and at times his hospitality, would be ill requited if I
+did not here place on record my humble tribute of appreciation. Born
+about the commencement of the present century at Landguard Manor House,
+near Shanklin, Isle of Wight, after a somewhat diversified education and
+experience, he finally settled in London as a wholesale druggist, from
+which business he retired in 1856, and came to live at Temple Place,
+Strood. The bent of his mind was, however, distinctly in favour of
+archaeology, and in this science, which he commenced in the early years
+of his business, his work has been enormous. In the matter of the
+identification of Roman remains he was _facile princeps_, and for many
+years stood without a rival, his investigations and explorations
+extending over England and Europe. His principal works are _Collectanea
+Antiqua_, seven volumes; _Illustrations of Roman London_; _Catalogue of
+London Antiquities_; _Richborough, Reculver, and Lymne_, and numberless
+contributions scattered over the journal of the Society of Antiquaries,
+the _Archaeologia Cantiana_, and other publications. He was an
+enthusiastic Shakespearean, the author of the _Rural Life of
+Shakespeare_, and of a little work on _The Scarcity of Home-Grown
+Fruits_. He also published two volumes of _Retrospections: Social and
+Archaeological_, and was engaged at his death in completing the third
+volume. He contributed many articles to Dr. William Smith's _Classical
+Dictionaries_, and other similar works.
+
+He was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries so far back as
+1836, and at the time of his death was an Honorary Member or Fellow of
+at least thirty learned societies of a kindred nature in Great Britain
+and on the continent, and had been honoured by his colleagues and
+admirers in having his medal struck on two occasions.
+
+"He was," says one of the highest of living scientists and writers, "one
+of the chief representatives of the _science_ of archaeology as
+understood in its broadest and widest sense. He has never been a mere
+collector of remains of ancient art, regarded only as curiosities, but
+has always had in view their use as exponents of the great unwritten
+history--the history of the people--which is not to be obtained from
+other sources; his writings have tended to the same end. Hence he stands
+as one of the foremost amongst those few of the present day who
+understand the science in its best and widest sense, his works being
+referred to as _the_ authority at home and abroad."
+
+Speaking with his friend and companion for many years, Mr. George Payne,
+F.S.A., Hon. Sec. to the Kent Archaeological Society, on my last visit,
+about several personal characteristics of our mutual friend, such as his
+persistent energy and his indomitable disposition to stoically resist
+the infirmities of approaching age, and decline any assistance in
+helplessness, and especially as to the _quaestio vexata_, "Bill Stumps,
+his mark," Mr. Payne expressed his opinion, that at the bottom of his
+heart Mr. Roach Smith may probably have had a feeling that Dickens in
+some way (however unintentionally) slighted the science of archaeology,
+which he (Mr. Roach Smith) had all his life tried to elevate.
+
+A most distinguished antiquarian, a thoroughly honourable man, a
+versatile and accomplished gentleman, and a kind-hearted and liberal
+friend, the town of Strood, to which he was for so many years endeared,
+will long and deservedly mourn his loss.
+
+[17] It is interesting to place on record here, that the germ of Charles
+Dickens's "Readings," which afterwards developed so marvellously both in
+England and America, originated in Birmingham. On the 27th of December,
+1853, he read his _Christmas Carol_ in the Town Hall in aid of the funds
+of the Institute. On the 29th he read _The Cricket on the Hearth_, and
+on the 30th he repeated the _Carol_ to an audience principally composed
+of working men. The success was overwhelming.
+
+[18] Miss Hogarth informs me that her brother-in-law frequently dined
+out in the neighbourhood, accompanied by his daughter and herself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+        CHATHAM:--ST. MARY'S CHURCH, ORDNANCE TERRACE, THE
+          HOUSE ON THE BROOK, THE MITRE HOTEL, AND FORT
+          PITT. LANDPORT:--PORTSEA, HANTS.
+
+        "The home of his infancy, to which his heart had
+          yearned with an intensity of affection not to be
+          described."--_The Pickwick Papers._
+
+        "I believe the power of observation in numbers of
+          very young children to be quite wonderful for its
+          closeness and accuracy. Indeed, I think that most
+          grown men who are remarkable in this respect, may,
+          with greater propriety, be said not to have lost
+          the faculty than to have acquired it; the rather,
+          as I generally observe such men to retain a
+          certain freshness, and gentleness, and capacity of
+          being pleased, which are also an inheritance they
+          have preserved from their childhood."--_David
+          Copperfield._
+
+
+THE naval and military town of Chatham, unlike the Cathedral city of
+Rochester, has, at first sight, few attractions for the lover of
+Dickens. Mr. Phillips Bevan calls it "a dirty, unpleasant town devoted
+to the interests of soldiers, sailors, and marines." We are not disposed
+to agree entirely with him; but we must admit that it has little of the
+picturesque to recommend it--no venerable Castle or Cathedral to attract
+attention, no scenes in the novels of much importance to visit, no
+characters therein of much interest to identify. Mr. Pickwick's own
+description of the four towns of Strood, Rochester, Chatham, and
+Brompton, certainly applies more nearly to Chatham than to the others;
+but things have improved in many ways since the days of that veracious
+chronicler, as we are glad to testify:--
+
+          "The principal productions of these towns," says
+          Mr. Pickwick, "appear to be soldiers, sailors,
+          Jews, chalk, shrimps, officers, and dockyard men.
+          The commodities chiefly exposed for sale in the
+          public streets are marine stores, hard-bake,
+          apples, flat-fish, and oysters. The streets
+          present a lively and animated appearance,
+          occasioned chiefly by the conviviality of the
+          military. . . .
+
+          "The consumption of tobacco in these towns,"
+          continues Mr. Pickwick, "must be very great; and
+          the smell which pervades the streets must be
+          exceedingly delicious to those who are extremely
+          fond of smoking. A superficial traveller might
+          object to the dirt, which is their leading
+          characteristic; but to those who view it as an
+          indication of traffic and commercial prosperity,
+          it is truly gratifying."
+
+And yet for all this, there are circumstances to be noticed of the
+deepest possible interest connected with Chatham, and spots therein to
+be visited, which every pilgrim to "Dickens-Land" must recognize. At
+Chatham,--"my boyhood's home," as he affectionately calls it,--many of
+the earlier years of Charles Dickens (probably from his fourth to his
+eleventh) were passed; here it was "that the most durable of his earlier
+impressions were received; and the associations around him when he died
+were those which at the outset of his life had affected him most
+strongly."
+
+Admirers of the great novelist are much indebted to Mr. Robert Langton,
+F. R. Hist. Soc., for his _Childhood and Youth of Charles Dickens_, a
+book quite indispensable to a tramp in this neighbourhood, the charming
+illustrations by the late Mr. William Hull, the author, and others
+rendering the identification of places perfectly easy. Dickens says, "If
+anybody knows to a nicety where Rochester ends and Chatham begins, it is
+more than I do." "It's of no consequence," as Mr. Toots would say, for
+the High Street is one continuous thoroughfare, but as a matter of fact,
+a narrow street called Boundary Lane on the north side of High Street
+separates the two places.
+
+A few words of recapitulation as to early family history[19] may be
+useful here. John Dickens, who is represented as "a fine portly man,"
+was a Navy pay-clerk, and Elizabeth his wife (_nee_ Barrow), who is
+described as "a dear good mother and a fine woman," the parents of the
+future genius, resided in the beginning of this century at 387, Mile End
+Terrace, Commercial Road, Landport, Portsea,[20] "and is so far in
+Portsea as being in the island of that name." Here Charles Dickens was
+born, at twelve o'clock at night, on Friday, 7th February, 1812. He was
+the second child and eldest son of a rather numerous family consisting
+of eight sons and daughters, and was baptized at St. Mary's, Kingston
+(the parish church of Portsea), under the names of Charles John
+Huff_h_am; the last of these is no doubt a misspelling, as the name of
+his grandfather, from whom he took it, was Huffam, but Dickens himself
+scarcely ever used it. In the old family Bible now in possession of Mr.
+Charles Dickens it is Huffam in his father's own handwriting. The
+Dickens family left Mile End Terrace on 24th June, 1812, and went to
+live in Hawke Street, Portsea, from whence, in consequence of a change
+in official duties of the elder Dickens, they removed to Chatham in 1816
+or 1817, and resided there for six or seven years, until they went to
+live in London.
+
+Bearing these circumstances in mind, it is very natural that we should
+determine on an early pilgrimage to Chatham, and Sunday morning sees us
+at the old church--St. Mary's--where Dickens himself must often have
+been taken as a child, and where he saw the marriage of his aunt Fanny
+with James Lamert, a Staff Doctor in the Army,--the Doctor Slammer of
+_Pickwick_,--of whom Mr. Langton says:--"The regimental surgeon's
+kindly manner, and his short odd way of expressing himself, still
+survive in the recollections of a few old people." Dr. Lamert's son
+James, by a former wife, was a great crony of young Charles Dickens,
+taking him to the Rochester theatre, and getting up private theatricals
+in which they both acted.
+
+Surely there is a faint description of those times in the second chapter
+of _David Copperfield_:--
+
+[Illustration: St. Mary's Church, Chatham.]
+
+          "Here is our pew in the church. What a high-backed
+          pew! With a window near it, out of which our house
+          can be seen, and _is_ seen many times during the
+          morning's service by Peggotty, who likes to make
+          herself as sure as she can that it's not being
+          robbed, or is not in flames. But though Peggotty's
+          eye wanders, she is much offended if mine does,
+          and frowns to me, as I stand upon the seat, that I
+          am to look at the clergyman. But I can't always
+          look at him--I know him without that white thing
+          on, and I am afraid of his wondering why I stare
+          so, and perhaps stopping the service to
+          enquire--and what am I to do? It's a dreadful
+          thing to gape, but I must do something. I look at
+          my mother, but _she_ pretends not to see me. I
+          look at a boy in the aisle, and _he_ makes faces
+          at me. I look at the sunlight coming in at the
+          open door through the porch, and there I see a
+          stray sheep--I don't mean a sinner, but
+          mutton--half making up his mind to come into the
+          church. I feel that if I looked at him any longer,
+          I might be tempted to say something out loud; and
+          what would become of me then!"
+
+The church, now undergoing reconstruction, is not a very presentable
+structure, and has little of interest to recommend it, except a brass to
+a famous navigator named Stephen Borough, the discoverer of the northern
+passage to Russia (1584), and a monument to Sir John Cox, who was killed
+in an action with the Dutch (1672). The name of Weller occurs on a
+gravestone near the church door.
+
+We cross the High Street, proceed along Railway Street, formerly Rome
+Lane, pass the Chatham Railway Station (near which is a statue of
+Lieutenant Waghorn, R.N., "pioneer and founder of the Overland Route,"
+born at Chatham, 1800, and died 1850),[21] and find ourselves at
+Ordnance Terrace, a conspicuous row of two-storied houses, prominently
+situated on the higher ground facing us, beyond the Station. In one of
+these houses (No. 11--formerly No. 2) the Dickens family resided from
+1817 to 1821. The present occupier is a Mr. Roberts, who kindly allows
+us to inspect the interior. It has the dining-room on the left-hand side
+of the entrance and the drawing-room on the first floor, and is
+altogether a pleasantly-situated, comfortable, and respectable dwelling.
+No. 11, "the second house in the terrace," is overgrown with a Virginia
+creeper, which, from its possible association with Dickens's earliest
+years, may have induced him to plant the now magnificent one which
+exists at Gad's Hill. "Here it was," says Forster, "that his first
+desire for knowledge, and his greatest passion for reading, were
+awakened by his mother, who taught him the first rudiments, not only of
+English, but also, a little later, of Latin. She taught him regularly
+every day for a long time, and taught him, he was convinced, thoroughly
+well." Mr. Langton also says that "It was during his residence here that
+some of the happiest hours of the childhood of little Charles were
+passed, as his father was in a fairly good position in the Navy Pay
+Office, and they were a most genial, lovable family." Here it was that
+the theatrical entertainments and the genial parties took place, when,
+in addition to his brothers and sisters and his cousin, James Lamert,
+there were also present his friends and neighbours, George Stroughill,
+and Master and Miss Tribe.
+
+Mr. Langton further states that "Ordnance Terrace is known to have
+formed the locality and characters for some of the earlier _Sketches by
+Boz_." "The Old Lady" was a Miss Newnham, who lived at No. 5, and who
+was, by all accounts, very kind to the Dickens children. The "Half-pay
+Captain" was also a near neighbour, and he is supposed to have supplied
+one of the earliest characters to Dickens as a mere child. Some of the
+neighbours at the corner house next door (formerly No. 1) were named
+Stroughill,--pronounced Stro'hill (there was, it will be remembered, a
+_Struggles_ at the famous cricket-match at All-Muggleton)--and the son,
+George, is said to have had some of the characteristics of Steerforth in
+_David Copperfield_. He had a sister named Lucy, probably the "Golden
+Lucy," from her beautiful locks, and who, according to Mr. Langton, "was
+the special favourite and little sweetheart of Charles Dickens." She was
+possibly the prototype of her namesake, in the beautiful story of the
+_Wreck of the Golden Mary_.
+
+[Illustration: No. 11, Ordnance Terrace, Chatham. _Where the Dickens
+Family lived 1817-21._]
+
+About the year 1821 pecuniary embarrassments beset and tormented the
+Dickens family, which were afterwards to be "ascribed in fiction" in the
+histories of the Micawbers and the Dorrits, and the family removed to
+the House on the Brook. In order to follow their steps in perfect
+sequence, we have to return by the way we came from the church, cross
+the High Street, and proceed along Military Road, so as to visit the
+obscure dwelling, No. 18, St. Mary's Place, situated in the valley
+through which a brook, now covered over, flows from the higher lands
+adjacent, into the Medway.
+
+[Illustration: The House on the Brook, Chatham. _Where the Dickens
+Family lived 1821-3._]
+
+The House on the Brook--"plain-looking, whitewashed plaster front, and a
+small garden before and behind"--next door to the former Providence
+(Baptist) Chapel, now the Drill Hall of the Salvation Army, is a very
+humble and unpretentious six-roomed dwelling, and of a style very
+different to the one in Ordnance Terrace. Here the Dickens family lived
+from 1821 to 1823. The Reverend William Giles, the Baptist Minister,
+father of Mr. William Giles, the schoolmaster, formerly officiated at
+the chapel. This was the Mr. Giles who, when Dickens was half-way
+through _Pickwick_, sent him a silver snuff-box, with an admiring
+inscription to the "Inimitable Boz." Dickens went to school at Mr.
+Giles's Academy in Clover Lane (now Clover Street), Chatham, and boys of
+this and neighbouring schools were thus nicknamed:--
+
+          "Baker's Bull-dogs,
+          "Giles's Cats,
+          "New Road Scrubbers,
+          "Troy Town Rats."
+
+[Illustration: Giles's School, Chatham.]
+
+It was in the House on the Brook that he acquired those "readings and
+imaginings" which in "boyish recollections" he describes as having been
+brought away from Chatham:--"My father had left a small collection of
+books in a little room up-stairs, to which I had access (for it adjoined
+my own), and which nobody else in our house ever troubled. From that
+blessed little room _Roderick Random_, _Peregrine Pickle_, _Humphry
+Clinker_, _Tom Jones_, _The Vicar of Wakefield_, _Don Quixote_, _Gil
+Blas_, and _Robinson Crusoe_, came out, a glorious host to keep me
+company. They kept alive my fancy, and my hope of something beyond that
+place and time,--they and the _Arabian Nights_, and the _Tales of the
+Genii_,--and did me no harm; for whatever harm was in some of them was
+not there for me. _I_ knew nothing of it."
+
+It is very probable that his first literary effort, _The Tragedy of
+Misnar, the Sultan of India_, "founded" (says Forster), "and very
+literally founded, no doubt, on the _Tales of the Genii_," was composed
+after perusal of some of the works above referred to, but it is to be
+feared that it was never even rehearsed. The circumstances of the family
+had so changed for the worse, that here were neither juvenile parties
+nor theatrical entertainments.
+
+A view from one of the upper windows of the house in St. Mary's Place
+gives the parish church and churchyard precisely as described in that
+pathetic little story, _A Child's Dream of a Star_. Charles Dickens was
+the child who "strolled about a good deal, and thought of a number of
+things," and his little sister Fanny--or his younger sister Harriet
+Ellen--was doubtless "his constant companion" referred to in the story.
+
+[Illustration: Mitre Inn, Chatham.]
+
+We leave with feelings of respect the humble but famous little tenement,
+its condition now sadly degraded; proceed along the High Street, and
+soon reach "The Mitre Inn and Clarence Hotel," a solid-looking and
+comfortable house of entertainment, at which Lord Nelson and King
+William IV., when Duke of Clarence, frequently stayed, and (what is more
+to our purpose) where we find associations of Charles Dickens. There are
+a beautiful bowling-green and grounds at the back, approached by a
+series of terraces well planted with flowers, and the green is
+surrounded by fine elms which constitute quite an oasis in the desert of
+the somewhat prosaic Chatham. The Mitre is thus immortalized in the
+"Guest's Story" of the _Holly Tree Inn_:--
+
+          "There was an Inn in the Cathedral town where I
+          went to school, which had pleasanter recollections
+          about it than any of these. I took it next. It was
+          the Inn where friends used to put up, and where we
+          used to go to see parents, and to have salmon and
+          fowls, and be tipped. It had an ecclesiastical
+          sign--the 'Mitre'--and a bar that seemed to be the
+          next best thing to a Bishopric, it was so snug. I
+          loved the landlord's youngest daughter to
+          distraction--but let that pass. It was in this Inn
+          that I was cried over by my rosy little sister,
+          because I had acquired a black-eye in a fight. And
+          though she had been, that holly-tree night, for
+          many a long year where all tears are dried, the
+          Mitre softened me yet."
+
+About the year 1820 the landlord of the Mitre was Mr. John Tribe, and
+his family being intimate with the Dickenses, young Charles spent many
+pleasant evenings at the "genial parties" given at this fine old inn.
+Mr. Langton mentions that the late Mr. Alderman William Tribe, son of
+Mr. John Tribe, the former proprietor, perfectly recollected Charles
+Dickens and his sister Fanny coming to the Mitre, and on one occasion
+their being mounted on a dining-table for a stage, and singing what was
+then a popular duet, _i. e._--
+
+          "Long time I've courted you, miss,
+             And now I've come from sea;
+           We'll make no more ado, miss,
+             But quickly married be.
+                         Sing Fal-de-ral," &c.
+
+The worthy alderman is also stated to have had in his possession a card
+of invitation to spend the evening at Ordnance Terrace, addressed from
+Master and Miss Dickens to Master and Miss Tribe, which was dated about
+this time.
+
+In consequence of the elder Dickens being recalled from Chatham to
+Somerset House, to comply with official requirements, the family removed
+to London in 1823,[22] "and took up its abode in a house in Bayham
+Street, Camden Town." Dickens thus describes his journey to London in
+"Dullborough Town," one of the sketches in _The Uncommercial
+Traveller_:--
+
+          "As I left Dullborough in the days when there were
+          no railroads in the land, I left it in a
+          stage-coach. Through all the years that have since
+          passed, have I ever lost the smell of the damp
+          straw in which I was packed--like game--and
+          forwarded, carriage paid, to the Cross Keys, Wood
+          Street, Cheapside, London? There was no other
+          inside passenger, and I consumed my sandwiches in
+          solitude and dreariness, and it rained hard all
+          the way, and I thought life sloppier than I had
+          expected to find it. . . ."
+
+Mr. W. T. Wildish, the proprietor of the _Rochester and Chatham
+Journal_, kindly favours us with some interesting information which has
+recently appeared in his journal, relating to Charles Dickens's
+nurse--the Mary Weller of his boyhood (and perhaps the Peggotty as
+well), but known to later generations as Mrs. Mary Gibson of Front Row,
+Ordnance Place, Chatham, who died in the spring of the year 1888, at the
+advanced age of eighty-four. Very touchingly, but unknowingly, did
+Dickens write from Gad's Hill, 24th September, 1857, being unaware that
+she was still living:--
+
+"I feel much as I used to do when I was a small child, a few miles off,
+and somebody--_who_, I wonder, and which way did _she_ go when she
+died?--hummed the evening hymn, and I cried on the pillow--either with
+the remorseful consciousness of having kicked somebody else, or because
+still somebody else had hurt my feelings in the course of the day."
+
+Mrs. Gibson, when Mary Weller (what a host of pleasant recollections
+does the married name of the "pretty housemaid" bring up of the
+Pickwickian days!), lived with the family of Mr. John Dickens, at No.
+11, Ordnance Terrace, Chatham, and afterwards when they moved to the
+House on the Brook. Her recollections were most vivid and interesting.
+According to the testimony of her son, communicated to Mr. Wildish, Mrs.
+Gibson "used to be very fond of talking of the time she passed with the
+Dickens family, and one of her highest satisfactions in her later years
+was to hear Charles Dickens's works read by her son Robert; and while
+listening to the descriptions of characters read to her, his mother
+would detect likenesses unsuspected by other persons whom Dickens must
+have known when a boy; and she also agreed in thinking, with Dickens's
+biographer, that in Mr. Micawber's troubles were related some of the
+experiences of the elder Dickens, who is believed for a time to have
+occupied a debtor's prison. She, however, would never bring herself to
+believe that her hero was himself ever reduced to such great hardships
+as the blacking-bottle period in _David Copperfield_ would suggest if
+taken literally. She used to speak of the future author as always fond
+of reading, and said he was wont to retire to the top room of the House
+on the Brook, and spend what should have been his play-hours in poring
+over his books, or in acting to the furniture of the room the creatures
+that he had read about."
+
+Mr. Langton, who had a personal interview with Mrs. Gibson herself, has
+recorded the fact that she well remembered singing the Evening Hymn to
+the children of John Dickens, and seemed very much surprised at being
+asked such a question. She lived with the family when Dickens's little
+sister, Harriet Ellen, died--a circumstance that no doubt in after years
+inspired the _Child's Dream of a Star_ already referred to. When the
+family removed to London, Mary Weller was pressed to accompany them, but
+was not in a position to accept the offer, in consequence of her promise
+to marry Mr. Thomas Gibson, a shipwright of the Chatham Dockyard, with
+whom she lived happily until his death, in 1886, at the age of
+eighty-two.
+
+Mrs. Gibson modestly declined, on her son Robert's suggestion, to seek
+an introduction to Charles Dickens, when he read some of his works at
+the old Mechanics' Institute at Chatham, fearing that he had forgotten
+her. It is certain, however, that, from the reproduction of her name as
+the pretty housemaid at Mr. Nupkins's at Ipswich, and from the extract
+from the letter above referred to, she had a kindly place in his
+recollections.
+
+Poor David Copperfield, on his way to his aunt's at Dover, stopped at
+Chatham--"footsore and tired," he says, "and eating bread that I had
+bought for supper." He is afraid "because of the vicious looks of the
+trampers;" and even if he could have spared the few pence he possessed
+for a bed at the "one or two little houses" with the notice "lodgings
+for travellers," he would have hardly cared to go in, on account of the
+company he would have been thrown into. And so he says, "I sought no
+shelter, therefore, but the sky; and toiling into Chatham--which, in
+that night's aspect, is a mere dream of chalk, and draw-bridges, and
+mastless ships in a muddy river, roofed like Noah's arks,--crept, at
+last, upon a sort of grass-grown battery overhanging a lane, where a
+sentry was walking to and fro. Here" [he continues] "I lay down near a
+cannon; and, happy in the society of the sentry's footsteps, . . . slept
+soundly until morning." Of course it is not possible for us to identify
+this spot. "Very stiff and sore of foot," he says, "I was in the
+morning, and quite dazed by the beating of drums and marching of troops,
+which seemed to hem me in on every side when I went down towards the
+long narrow street." However, he has to reserve his strength for getting
+to his journey's end, and to this effect he resolves upon selling his
+jacket.
+
+There are plenty of marine-store dealers at Chatham, whom we notice on
+our tramp, but none of them would, we believe, now answer to the
+description of "an ugly old man, with the lower part of his face all
+covered with a stubbly grey beard, in a filthy flannel waistcoat, and
+smelling terribly of rum," such as he who assailed little David, in
+reply to his offer to sell the jacket, with, "Oh, what do you want? Oh,
+my eyes and limbs, what do you want? Oh, my lungs and liver, what do you
+want? Oh--goroo, goroo!" After losing his time, and being rated at and
+frightened by this "dreadful old man to look at," who in every way tries
+to avoid giving him the money asked for,--half-a-crown,--offering him in
+exchange such useless things to a hungry boy as "a fishing-rod, a
+fiddle, a cocked hat, and a flute," the poor lad is obliged to close
+with the offer of a few pence, "with which [he says] I soon refreshed
+myself completely; and, being in better spirits then, limped seven miles
+upon my road."
+
+The Convict Prison at Chatham is said to have been built on a piece of
+ground which, in the middle of the last century, belonged to one Thomas
+Clark, a singular character, who lived on the spot for many years by
+himself in a small cottage, and who used every night, as he went home,
+to sing or shout, "Tom's all alone! Tom's all alone!" This, according to
+the opinion of some, may have given rise to the "Tom all alone's" of
+_Bleak House_, more especially considering the fact that military
+operations were frequently going on at Chatham, which Dickens would
+notice in his early days. The circumstance is thus referred to in the
+novel:--"Twice lately there has been a crash, and a crowd of dust, like
+the springing of a mine, in Tom all alone's, and each time a house has
+fallen."
+
+Mr. George Robinson of Strood directs our attention to the fact that a
+"child's caul," such as that described in the first chapter of _David
+Copperfield_, which he was born with, and which was advertised "at the
+low price of fifteen guineas," would be a likely object to be sought
+after in a sea-faring town like Chatham, in Dickens's early days, when
+the schoolmaster was less abroad than he is now.
+
+In after years, memories of Chatham Dockyard appear in many of the
+sketches in the _Uncommercial Traveller_ and other stories. "One man in
+a Dockyard" describes it as having "a gravity upon its red brick offices
+and houses, a staid pretence of having nothing to do, an avoidance of
+display, which I never saw out of England." "Nurse's Stories" says that
+"nails and copper are shipwrights' sweethearts, and shipwrights will run
+away with them whenever they can." In _Great Expectations_ the refrain,
+"Beat it out, beat it out--old Clem! with a clink for the stout--old
+Clem!" which Pip and his friends sang, is from a song which the
+blacksmiths in the dockyard used to sing in procession on St. Clement's
+Day.
+
+By accident we make the acquaintance of Mr. William James Budden of
+Chatham, who informs us that Charles Dickens was better known there in
+his latter years for his efforts, by readings and otherwise, to place
+the Mechanics' Institute on a sound basis and free from debt.
+
+Dickens, as the _Uncommercial Traveller_, thus describes the Mechanics'
+Institute and its early efforts to succeed:--
+
+          "As the town was placarded with references to the
+          Dullborough Mechanics' Institution, I thought I
+          would go and look at that establishment next.
+          There had been no such thing in the town in my
+          young days, and it occurred to me that its extreme
+          prosperity might have brought adversity upon the
+          Drama. I found the Institution with some
+          difficulty, and should scarcely have known that I
+          had found it if I had judged from its external
+          appearance only; but this was attributable to its
+          never having been finished, and having no front:
+          consequently, it led a modest and retired
+          existence up a stable-yard. It was (as I learnt,
+          on enquiry) a most flourishing Institution, and of
+          the highest benefit to the town: two triumphs
+          which I was glad to understand were not at all
+          impaired by the seeming drawbacks that no
+          mechanics belonged to it, and that it was steeped
+          in debt to the chimney-pots. It had a large room,
+          which was approached by an infirm step-ladder: the
+          builder having declined to construct the intended
+          staircase, without a present payment in cash,
+          which Dullborough (though profoundly appreciative
+          of the Institution) seemed unaccountably bashful
+          about subscribing."
+
+Mr. Budden is of opinion that the origin of the "fat boy" in _Pickwick_
+was Mr. James Budden, late of the Red Lion Inn in Military Road, who
+afterwards acquired a competence, and who had the honour of entertaining
+Dickens at a subsequent period of his life. Mr. Budden is under the
+impression, from local hearsay, that Dingley Dell formerly existed
+somewhere in the neighbourhood of Burham.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We are obligingly favoured with an interview by Mr. John Baird of New
+Brompton, Chairman of the Chatham Waterworks Company, although he is
+suffering from serious indisposition at the time of our visit. This
+gentleman was born in 1810 (two years before Charles Dickens), and
+recollects reading with delight the famous _Sketches by Boz_, as they
+appeared in the _Morning Chronicle_. The most curious coincidence about
+Mr. Baird is, that in stature and facial appearance he is the very
+counterpart of the late Charles Dickens in the flesh--his double, so to
+speak. This remarkable resemblance, our informant says, is "something
+to be proud of, to be mistaken for so great a man, but it was very
+inconvenient at times."
+
+On one occasion, as Mr. Baird was hastening to catch a train at
+Rochester Bridge Station, a stout elderly lady, handsomely dressed,
+supposed to be Dean Scott's wife,--but to whom he was unknown,--bowed
+very politely to him, and in slackening his pace to return the
+compliment, which he naturally did not understand, he very nearly missed
+his train.
+
+Sir Arthur Otway told Mr. Baird that the Rev. Mr. Webster, late Vicar of
+Chatham, had always mistaken him for Charles Dickens.
+
+At one of the Readings given by Dickens on behalf of the Mechanics'
+Institute at Chatham, Mr. Charles Collins, his son-in-law, and his wife
+and her sister being present in the reserved seats in the gallery, Mr.
+Baird noticed that they looked very eagerly at him, and this pointed
+notice naturally made him feel very uncomfortable. Dickens himself,
+accompanied by his son and daughter, once passed our friend in the
+street, and scanned him very closely, and he fancies that Dickens called
+attention to the resemblance.
+
+At the last reading which the novelist gave at Chatham, Mr. Baird being
+present as one of the audience, the policeman at the door mistook him
+for Dickens, and shouted to those in attendance outside, "Mr. Dickens's
+carriage!" It is interesting to add, that after the reading a cordial
+vote of thanks to Dickens was proposed by Mr. H. G. Adams, the
+Naturalist, at one time editor of _The Kentish Coronal_, who recounted
+the well-known story of the novelist's father taking him, when a little
+boy, to see Gad's Hill Place, and of the strong impression it made upon
+his mind.
+
+Our informant had the honour of meeting Dickens at dinner at Mr. James
+Budden's, and states that he was standing against the mantel-piece in
+the drawing-room when the novelist arrived, and that he walked up to him
+and shook hands cordially, without the usual ceremony of introduction.
+Dickens was no doubt too polite to refer to the curious resemblance.
+
+But the most remarkable case remains to be told, illustrating the
+converse of the old proverb--"It is a wise father that knows his own
+child." This is given in Mr. Baird's own words:--
+
+"My daughter, when a little girl about six years old, was with her
+mother and some friends in a railway carriage at Strood station (next
+Rochester), and one of them called the child's attention to a gentleman
+standing on the platform, asking if she knew who he was. With surprised
+delight she at once exclaimed, 'That's my papa!' That same gentleman was
+Mr. Charles Dickens!"
+
+Mr. Baird speaks of the great appreciation which the people of Chatham
+had of Dickens's services at the readings, and says it was very good and
+kind of him to give those services gratuitously. He confirms the general
+opinion as to the origin of the "fat boy," and the "very fussy little
+man" at Fort Pitt, who was the prototype of Dr. Slammer.
+
+It struck us both forcibly that Mr. Baird's appearance at the time of
+our visit was very like the last American photograph of Dickens, taken
+by Gurney in 1867.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mr. J. E. Littlewood[23] of High Street, Chatham, knew Charles Dickens
+about the year 1845 or 1846 at the Royalty (Miss Kelly's) Theatre in
+Dean Street, Soho, our informant having been in times past a bit of an
+amateur actor, and played Bob Acres in _The Rivals_. He subsequently
+heard Dickens read at the Chatham Mechanics' Institute about 1861, and
+said that the facial display in the trial scene from _Pickwick_ (one of
+the pieces read) was wonderful. He had the honour of dining at the late
+Mr. Budden's in High Street, opposite Military Road, to meet Dickens.
+There was a large company present. In acknowledging the toast of his
+health, which had been proposed at the dinner--either by Sir Arthur
+Otway or Captain Fanshawe--Dickens said he was very pleased to read "in
+memory of the old place," meaning Chatham, but that he might be reading
+"all the year round" for charities.
+
+Mr. Littlewood also heard Dickens say, that "he had passed many happy
+hours in the House on the Brook" looking at "the Lines" opposite. "At
+that time" (said our informant) "the place was more rural--considered a
+decent spot--not so crowded up as now--nor so vulgar--many respectable
+people lived there in Dickens's boyhood. The place has sadly changed
+since for the worse."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mr. Humphrey Wood, Solicitor, of Chatham, was, about the year 1867,
+local Hon. Secretary to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty
+to Animals, and, having applied to Charles Dickens to give a Reading on
+behalf of the Society, received the following polite answer to his
+application. If only a few words had to be said, they were well said and
+to the purpose.
+
+
+                                      "GAD'S HILL PLACE,
+                                  "HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT.
+                               "_Thursday, 5th September, 1867._
+
+          "SIR,
+
+          "In reply to your letter, I beg to express my
+          regret that my compliance with the request it
+          communicates to me, is removed from within the
+          bounds of reasonable possibility by the nature of
+          my engagements, present and prospective.
+
+                      "Your faithful servant,
+                                 "CHARLES DICKENS.
+          "HUMPHREY WOOD, ESQ."
+
+Like other towns in Kent, Chatham contains many names which are
+suggestive of some of Dickens's characters, _viz._ Dowler, Whiffen,
+Kimmins, Wyles, Arkcoll, Perse, Winch, Wildish, Hockaday, Mowatt,
+Hunnisett, and others.
+
+It is, of course, scarcely necessary to mention, in passing, that
+Chatham is one of the most important centres of ship-building for the
+Royal Navy; the dockyards--often referred to in Dickens's minor
+works--cover more than seventy acres, and are most interesting. Here, at
+the Navy Pay-Office, the elder Dickens was employed during his residence
+at Chatham.
+
+Fort Pitt next claims our attention. It stands on the high ground above
+the Railway Station at Chatham, just beyond Ordnance Terrace. In Charles
+Dickens's early days, and indeed long after, until the establishment of
+the magnificent Institution at Netley, Fort Pitt was the principal
+military Hospital in England, and was visited by Her Majesty during the
+Crimean War. It is still used as a hospital, and contains about two
+hundred and fifty beds. The interesting museum which previously existed
+there has been removed to Netley.
+
+From Fort Pitt we see the famous "Chatham lines," which constitute the
+elaborate and almost impregnable fortifications of this important
+military and ship-building town. The "lines" were commenced as far back
+as 1758, and stretch from Gillingham to Brompton, a distance of several
+miles, enclosing the peninsula formed by the bend of the river Medway.
+Forster says:--
+
+[Illustration: Navy Pay-Office, Chatham.]
+
+"By Rochester and the Medway to the Chatham lines was a favourite walk
+with Charles Dickens. He would turn out of Rochester High Street through
+the Vines, . . . would pass round by Fort Pitt, and coming back by
+Frindsbury would bring himself by some cross-fields again into the
+high-road."
+
+The Chatham lines are locally understood as referring to a piece of
+ground about three or four hundred yards square, near Fort Pitt, used as
+an exercising-ground for the military.
+
+Chapter IV. of _Pickwick_, "describing a field day and bivouac," refers
+to the Chatham lines as the place where the review was held, on the
+third day of the visit of the Pickwickians to this neighbourhood, and
+which (having been relieved of the company of their quondam friend, Mr.
+Jingle, who had caused at least one of the party so much anxiety) they
+all attended, possibly at Mr. Pickwick's suggestion, as he is stated to
+have been "an enthusiastic admirer of the army." The programme is thus
+referred to:--
+
+          "The whole population of Rochester and the
+          adjoining towns, rose from their beds at an early
+          hour of the following morning, in a state of the
+          utmost bustle and excitement. A grand review was
+          to take place upon the lines. The manoeuvres of
+          half a dozen regiments were to be inspected by the
+          eagle eye of the commander-in-chief; temporary
+          fortifications had been erected, the citadel was
+          to be attacked and taken, and a mine was to be
+          sprung."
+
+The evolutions of this "ceremony of the utmost grandeur and importance"
+proceed. Mr. Pickwick and his two friends (Mr. Tupman "had suddenly
+disappeared, and was nowhere to be found"), who are told to keep back,
+get hustled and pushed by the crowd, and the unoffending Mr. Snodgrass,
+who is in "the very extreme of human torture," is derided and asked
+"vere he vos a shovin' to." Subsequently they get hemmed in by the
+crowd, "are exposed to a galling fire of blank cartridges, and harassed
+by the operations of the military." Mr. Pickwick loses his hat, and not
+only regains that useful article of dress, but finds the lost Mr.
+Tupman, and the Pickwickians make the acquaintance of old Wardle and his
+hospitable family from Dingley Dell, by whom they are heartily
+entertained, and from whom they receive a warm invitation to visit Manor
+Farm on the morrow.
+
+There is a fine view of Chatham and Rochester from the fields round Fort
+Pitt, and on a bright sunny morning the air coming over from the Kentish
+Hills is most refreshing, very different indeed to what it was on a
+certain evening in Mr. Winkle's life, when "a melancholy wind sounded
+through the deserted fields like a giant whistling for his house-dog."
+We ramble about for an hour or more, and in imagination call up the
+pleasant times which Charles Dickens, as a boy, spent here.
+
+[Illustration: Fort Pitt, Chatham.]
+
+Almost every inch of the ground must have been gone over by him. What a
+delightful "playing-field" this and the neighbouring meadows must have
+been to him and his young companions, before the railway and the builder
+took possession of some of the lower portions of the hill which forms
+the base of Fort Pitt. "Here," says Mr. Langton, "is the place where the
+schools of Rochester and Chatham used to meet to settle their
+differences, and to contend in the more friendly rivalry of cricket,"
+and no doubt Dickens frequently played when "Joe Specks" in Dullborough
+"kept wicket." In after life the memory of the past came back to
+Dickens with all its freshness, when he again visited the neighbourhood
+as the _Uncommercial Traveller_ in "Dullborough":--
+
+          "With this tender remembrance upon me" [that of
+          leaving Chatham as a boy], "I was cavalierly
+          shunted back into Dullborough the other day, by
+          train. My ticket had been previously collected,
+          like my taxes, and my shining new portmanteau had
+          had a great plaster stuck upon it, and I had been
+          defied by Act of Parliament to offer an objection
+          to anything that was done to it, or me, under a
+          penalty of not less than forty shillings or more
+          than five pounds, compoundable for a term of
+          imprisonment. When I had sent my disfigured
+          property on to the hotel, I began to look about
+          me; and the first discovery I made, was, that the
+          Station had swallowed up the playing-field.
+
+          "It was gone. The two beautiful hawthorn-trees,
+          the hedge, the turf, and all those buttercups and
+          daisies, had given place to the stoniest of
+          jolting roads; while, beyond the Station, an ugly
+          dark monster of a tunnel kept its jaws open, as if
+          it had swallowed them and were ravenous for more
+          destruction. The coach that had carried me away,
+          was melodiously called Timpson's Blue-eyed Maid,
+          and belonged to Timpson, at the coach-office up
+          street; the locomotive engine that had brought me
+          back was called severely No. 97, and belonged to
+          S.E.R., and was spitting ashes and hot-water over
+          the blighted ground.
+
+          "When I had been let out at the platform-door,
+          like a prisoner whom his turnkey grudgingly
+          released, I looked in again over the low wall, at
+          the scene of departed glories. Here, in the
+          haymaking time, had I been delivered from the
+          dungeons of Seringapatam, an immense pile (of
+          haycock), by my countrymen, the victorious British
+          (boy next door and his two cousins), and had been
+          recognized with ecstasy by my affianced one (Miss
+          Green), who had come all the way from England
+          (second house in the terrace) to ransom me, and
+          marry me."
+
+Fort Pitt must have had considerable attractions in Mr. Pickwick's time,
+as it would appear that it was visited by him and his friends on the
+first day of their arrival at Rochester. Lieutenant Tappleton (Dr.
+Slammer's second), when presenting the challenge for the duel, thus
+speaks to Mr. Winkle in the second chapter of _Pickwick_:--
+
+          "'You know Fort Pitt?'
+
+          "'Yes; I saw it yesterday.'
+
+          "'If you will take the trouble to turn into the
+          field which borders the trench, take the foot-path
+          to the left, when you arrive at an angle of the
+          fortification; and keep straight on till you see
+          me; I will precede you to a secluded place, where
+          the affair can be conducted without fear of
+          interruption.'
+
+          "'_Fear_ of interruption!' thought Mr. Winkle."
+
+Everybody remembers how the meeting took place on Fort Pitt. Mr. Winkle,
+attended by his friend Mr. Snodgrass, as second, is punctuality itself.
+
+          "'We are in excellent time,' said Mr. Snodgrass,
+          as they climbed the fence of the first field; 'the
+          sun is just going down.' Mr. Winkle looked up at
+          the declining orb, and painfully thought of the
+          probability of his 'going down' himself, before
+          long."
+
+Presently the officer appears, "the gentleman in the blue cloak," and
+"slightly beckoning with his hand to the two friends, they follow him
+for a little distance," and after climbing a paling and scaling a hedge,
+enter a secluded field.
+
+Dr. Slammer is already there with his friend Dr. Payne,--Dr. Payne of
+the 43rd, "the man with the camp-stool."
+
+The arrangements proceed, when suddenly a check is experienced.
+
+          "'What's all this?' said Dr. Slammer, as his
+          friend and Mr. Snodgrass came running up.--'That's
+          not the man.'
+
+          "'Not the man!' said Dr. Slammer's second.
+
+          "'Not the man!' said Mr. Snodgrass.
+
+          "'Not the man!' said the gentleman with the
+          camp-stool in his hand.
+
+          "'Certainly not,' replied the little doctor.
+          'That's not the person who insulted me last
+          night.'
+
+          "'Very extraordinary!' exclaimed the officer.
+
+          "'Very,' said the gentleman with the camp-stool."
+
+Mutual explanations follow, and, notwithstanding the temporary
+dissatisfaction of Dr. Payne, Mr. Winkle comes out like a trump--defends
+the honour of the Pickwick Club and its uniform, and wins the admiration
+of Dr. Slammer.
+
+          "'My dear sir,' said the good-humoured little
+          doctor, advancing with extended hand, 'I honour
+          your gallantry. Permit me to say, Sir, that I
+          highly admire your conduct, and extremely regret
+          having caused you the inconvenience of this
+          meeting, to no purpose.'
+
+          "'I beg you won't mention it, Sir,' said Mr.
+          Winkle.
+
+          "'I shall feel proud of your acquaintance, Sir,'
+          said the little doctor.
+
+          "'It will afford me the greatest pleasure to know
+          you, Sir,' replied Mr. Winkle.
+
+          "Thereupon the doctor and Mr. Winkle shook hands,
+          and then Mr. Winkle and Lieutenant Tappleton (the
+          doctor's second), and then Mr. Winkle and the man
+          with the camp-stool, and finally Mr. Winkle and
+          Mr. Snodgrass: the last-named gentleman in an
+          excess of admiration at the noble conduct of his
+          heroic friend.
+
+          "'I think we may adjourn,' said Lieutenant
+          Tappleton.
+
+          "'Certainly,' added the doctor."
+
+We ourselves also adjourn, taking with us many pleasant memories of
+Chatham and Fort Pitt, and of the period relating to "the childhood and
+youth of Charles Dickens."
+
+[Illustration: BIRTHPLACE OF CHARLES DICKENS,
+
+387 Mile End Terrace, Commercial Road, Landport.]
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+No tramp in "Dickens-Land" can possibly be complete without a visit to
+the birthplace of the great novelist, and on another occasion we
+therefore devote a day to Portsea, Hants. A fast train from Victoria by
+the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway takes us to Portsmouth
+Town, the nearest station, which is about half a mile from Commercial
+Road, and a tram-car puts us down at the door. We immediately recognize
+the house from the picture in Mr. Langton's book, but the first
+impression is that the illustration scarcely does justice to it. From
+the picture it appears to us to be a very ordinary house in a row, and
+to be situated rather low in a crowded and not over respectable
+neighbourhood. Nothing of the kind. The house, No. 387, Mile End
+Terrace, Commercial Road, Landport, where the parents of Charles Dickens
+resided before they removed to another part of Portsea, and subsequently
+went to live at Chatham, and where the future genius first saw light,
+was eighty years ago quite in a rural neighbourhood; and in those days
+must have been considered rather a genteel residence for a family of
+moderate means in the middle class. Even now, with the pressure which
+always attends the development of large towns, and their extension on
+the border-land of green country by the frequent conversion of
+dwelling-houses into shops, or the intrusion of shops where
+dwelling-houses are, this residence has escaped and remains unchanged to
+this day.
+
+There is another point of real importance to notice. Mr. Langton,
+referring to this house, says:--"The engraving shows the little
+fore-court or front garden, with the low kitchen window of the house,
+whence the movements of Charles [who is presumably represented in the
+engraving by the figure of a boy about two or three years old, with
+curly locks, dressed in a smart frock, and having a large ball in his
+right hand], attended by his dear little sister Fanny, could be
+overlooked."[24] Very pretty indeed, but alas! I am afraid, purely
+imaginary, considering, as will hereafter appear, that Charles was a
+baby in arms, aged about four months and sixteen days, when his parents
+quitted the house in which he was born.
+
+The house is now, and has been for many years, occupied by Miss Sarah
+Pearce, the surviving daughter of Mr. John Dickens's landlord, her
+sisters, who formerly lived with her, being all dead. It stands high on
+the west side of a good broad road, opposite an old-fashioned villa
+called Angus House, in the midst of well-trimmed grounds, and the
+situation is very open, pleasant, and cheerful. It is red-brick built,
+has a railing in front, and is approached by a little entrance-gate
+opening on to a lawn, whereon there are a few flower-beds; a hedge
+divides the fore-court from the next house,[25] and a few steps guarded
+by a handrail lead to the front door. It is a single-fronted,
+eight-roomed house, having two underground kitchens, two floors above,
+and a single dormer window high up in the sloping red-tiled roof. As is
+usual with old-fashioned houses of this type, the shutters to the lower
+windows are outside. Both the front and back parlours on the ground
+floor are very cheerful, cosy little rooms (in one of them we are glad
+to see a portrait of the novelist), and the view from the back parlour
+looking down into the well-kept garden, which abuts on other gardens, is
+very pretty, marred only by a large gasometer in the distance, which
+could hardly have been erected in young Charles Dickens's earliest days.
+In the garden we notice a lovely specimen of the _Lavatera arborea_, or
+tree-mallow, covered with hundreds of white and purple blossoms. It is a
+rarity to see such a handsome, well-grown tree, standing nearly eight
+feet high, and it is not unlikely, from the luxuriance of its growth,
+that it existed in Charles Dickens's infancy. From the pleasant
+surroundings of the place generally, and from the fact that flowers are
+much grown in the neighbourhood (especially roses), it is more than
+probable that Dickens's love for flowers was early developed by these
+associations. The road leads to Cosham, and to the picturesque old ruin
+of Porchester Castle, a nice walk from the town of Portsmouth, and
+probably often traversed by Dickens, his sister, and his nurse.
+
+Mr. Langton states that "it is said in after years Charles Dickens could
+remember places and things at Portsmouth that he had not seen since he
+was an infant of little more than two years old (he left Portsmouth when
+he was only four or five), and there is no doubt whatever that many of
+the earliest reminiscences of _David Copperfield_ were also tender
+childish memories of his own infancy at this place."
+
+Mr. William Pearce, solicitor of Portsea, son of the former landlord,
+and brother of Miss Sarah Pearce, the present occupant, has been kind
+enough to supply the following interesting information respecting No.
+387, Mile End Terrace:--
+
+"The celebrated novelist was born in the front bedroom of the above
+house, which my sisters many years ago converted into a drawing-room,
+and it is still used as such.
+
+"Mr. John Dickens, the father of the novelist, and his wife came to
+reside in the house directly after they were married. Mr. John Dickens
+rented the house of my father at L35 a-year, from the 24th June, 1808,
+until the 24th June, 1812, when he quitted, and moved into Hawke Street,
+in the town of Portsea. Miss Fanny Dickens, the novelist's sister, was
+the first child born in the house, and then the novelist.
+
+"I was born on the 22nd February, 1814, and have often heard my mother
+say that Mr. Gardner, the surgeon, and Mrs. Purkis, the monthly nurse
+(both of whom attended my mother with me and her six other children),
+attended Mrs. Dickens with her two children, Fanny and Charles, who were
+both born in the above house; besides this, Mrs. Purkis has often called
+on my sisters at the house in question, and alluded to the above
+circumstances.
+
+[Illustration: St. Mary's Church, Portsea.]
+
+"Mr. Cobb (whom I recollect), a fellow-clerk of Mr. John Dickens in the
+pay-office in the Portsmouth Dockyard, rented the same house of my
+father after Mr. John Dickens left, and often alluded to the many happy
+hours he spent in it while Mr. Dickens resided there."
+
+We next visit the site of old Kingston Parish Church,--St. Mary's,
+Portsea--where Charles Dickens was baptized on 4th March, 1812. A very
+handsome and large new church, costing nearly forty thousand pounds, and
+capable of seating over two thousand persons, has been erected, and
+occupies the place of the old church, where the ceremony took place.
+Mr. Langton has given a very pretty little drawing of the old church in
+his book, so that its associations are preserved to lovers of Dickens.
+The old church itself was the second edifice erected on the same spot,
+and thus the present one is the third parish church which has been built
+here. There is a large and crowded burial-ground attached to it; but a
+cursory examination does not disclose any names on the gravestones to
+indicate characters in the novels.
+
+It is right to note here, that the kind people of Portsmouth were
+desirous of inserting a stained-glass window in their beautiful new
+church to the memory of one of their most famous sons (the eminent
+novelist, Mr. Walter Besant, was born at Portsmouth, as also were
+Isambard K. Brunel, the engineer, and Messrs. George and Vicat Cole,
+Royal Academicians), but they were debarred by the conditions of
+Dickens's will, which expressly interdicted anything of the kind. It
+states:--
+
+"I conjure my friends on no account to make me the subject of any
+monument, memorial, or testimonial whatever. I rest my claim to the
+remembrance of my country upon my published works, and to the
+remembrance of my friends upon their experience of me in addition
+thereto."
+
+Before leaving Portsmouth, we just take a hasty glance at the Theatre
+Royal, which remains much as it was during the days of Mr. Vincent
+Crummles and his company, as graphically described in the twenty-second
+and following chapters of _Nicholas Nickleby_. Of that genial manager,
+Mr. T. Edgar Pemberton, in his _Charles Dickens and the Stage_,
+observes:--
+
+"Every line that is written about Mr. Crummles and his followers is
+instinct with good-natured humour, and from the moment when, in the
+road-side inn 'yet twelve miles short of Portsmouth,' the reader comes
+into contact with the kindly old circuit manager, he finds himself in
+the best of good company."
+
+Mr. Rimmer, in his _About England with Dickens_, referring to the
+"Common Hard" at Portsmouth, says that the "people there point out in a
+narrow lane leading to the wharf, the house where Nicholas is supposed
+to have sojourned."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[19] So far as I am aware, nothing has been done to trace the genealogy
+of the Dickens family, and it may therefore be of interest to place on
+record the title of, and an extract from, a very scarce and curious thin
+quarto volume (pp. 1-28) in my collection. Sir Walter Scott was
+immensely proud of his lineage and historical associations, but it would
+be a wonderful thing if we could trace the descent of Charles Dickens
+from King Edward III.
+
+In the _Rambler in Worcestershire_ (Longmans, 1854), Mr. John Noake, the
+author, in alluding to the parish of Churchill, Worcestershire,
+says:--"The Dickens family of Bobbington were lords of this manor from
+1432 to 1657, and it is said that from this family Mr. Dickens, the
+author, is descended."
+
+                       [Title.]
+
+                           A
+                     POSTHUMOUS POEM
+                        of the
+
+            late THOMAS DICKENS, ESQ.,
+
+  Lieut.-Colonel in the First Regiment of Foot Guards,
+               Dedicated, by permission,
+  to his Royal Highness, the Duke of Gloucester,
+                 to which is added
+  The genealogy of the Author from King Edward III.;
+                       also
+  A few grateful stanzas to the Deity, three months
+      previous to his death, _Sep. 21st, 1789_.
+
+
+                         CAMBRIDGE:
+      Printed by J. Archdeacon, Printer to the University.
+  And may be had of the Editor, C. DICKENS, LL.D., near Huntingdon,
+      and of T. PAYNE AND SON, Booksellers, London.
+                               MDCCXC.
+
+Above the title is written in ink: "Peter Cowling to Charles Robert
+Dickens, 3rd son to Sam. Trevor Dickens, this 10th August, 1807, and
+from said Chas. R. Dickens to his loved father, on the 16th June, 1832."
+
+  [EXTRACT.]
+
+  Genealogy of the late Thomas Dickens, Esq.
+
+  KING EDWARD III.
+
+  LIONEL, Duke of Clarence                                   his Son
+
+  PHILIPPA, married to EDMUND MORTIMER, Earl of March   his Daughter
+
+  ROGER, Earl of March                                       her Son
+
+  ANN, who married RICHARD, Duke of York and Earl of
+            Cambridge                                   his Daughter
+
+  RICHARD, Duke of York                                      her Son
+
+  GEORGE, Duke of Clarence, brother to Edward IV.            his Son
+
+  Countess of SALISBURY                                 his Daughter
+
+  Viscount MONTAGUE                                          her Son
+
+  Lady BARRINGTON                                       his Daughter
+
+  Sir Francis BARRINGTON                                     her Son
+
+  Lady MASHAM                                           his Daughter
+
+  William MASHAM, ESQ.                                       her Son
+
+  Sir FRANCIS MASHAM                                         her Son
+
+  JOHANNA MASHAM, who married Counsellor Hildesley      his Daughter
+
+  JOHN HILDESLEY, ESQ.                                       her Son
+
+  MARY HILDESLEY, who married the Reverend SAMUEL
+            DICKENS                                     his Daughter
+
+  THOMAS DICKENS, ESQ., the Author                           her Son
+
+  Opposite GEORGE, Duke of Clarence, is written in ink, "Drown'd in a
+  Butt of Malmsey Madeira," and following THOMAS DICKENS, ESQ., the
+  Author, also written in ink--
+
+  "Lieut.-Gen. Sir SAML. T. DICKENS, K.C.H.                  his Son
+
+  Capt. SAML. T. DICKENS, R.N.                              his Son"
+
+  And following the last-mentioned names written in pencil--
+
+  "Admiral SAMUEL TREVOR DICKENS, R.N.                       my Son"
+
+  Also written in pencil underneath the above--
+
+  "qy. CHARLES DICKENS the Novelist."
+
+
+[20] In a copy--in my collection--of the second edition 8vo of "_The
+History and Antiquities of Rochester and its Environs_, embellished with
+engravings (pp. i-xvii, 1-419), printed and sold by W. Wildash,
+Rochester, 1817," there occurs in the list of subscribers--about four
+hundred in number--the name:--DICKENS MR. JOHN, CHATHAM.
+
+[21] A most interesting paper entitled "The Life and Labours of
+Lieutenant Waghorn," appeared in _Household Words_ (No. 21), August
+17th, 1850.
+
+[22] See Note to Chapter ii. p. 38.
+
+[23] Since this was written, Mr. Littlewood has passed over to the great
+majority. He was found drowned near Chatham Pier in March, 1890.
+
+[24] This was taken from the first edition of Mr. Langton's book,
+published in 1883. In the new edition, 1891--a beautiful volume--this
+passage has been eliminated, but the engraving is untouched.
+
+[25] This house is appropriately named "Highland House," and was also
+the property of John Dickens's landlord, in which the family then and
+for many years after resided. At the time referred to Mr. Pearce owned
+not only the above-mentioned houses, but all the surrounding property.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+AYLESFORD, TOWN MALLING, AND MAIDSTONE.
+
+        "Its river winding down from the mist on the
+          horizon, as though that were its source, and
+          already heaving with a restless knowledge of its
+          approach towards the sea."--_Edwin Drood._
+
+          "Oh, the solemn woods over which the light and
+          shadow travelled swiftly, as if Heavenly wings
+          were sweeping on benignant errands through the
+          summer air; the smooth green slopes, the
+          glittering water, the garden where the flowers
+          were symmetrically arranged in clusters of the
+          richest colours, how beautiful they
+          looked!"--_Bleak House._
+
+
+ANOTHER delightful morning, fine but overcast, favours our tramp in this
+neighbourhood. We are up betimes on Monday, and take the train by the
+South-Eastern Railway from Strood station to Aylesford. It is a distance
+of nearly eight miles between these places; and the intermediate
+stations of any note which we pass on the way are Cuxton (about three
+miles) and Snodland (about two miles further on), which are two large
+villages. As the railway winds, we obtain excellent views of the chalk
+escarpments on the series of hills opposite, these being the result of
+centuries of quarrying. The land on either side of the river is marshy
+and intersected by numerous water-courses. These grounds are locally
+termed "saltings," caused by the overflow of the Medway at certain
+times, and are used as sanitaria for horses which require bracing.
+
+[Illustration: Aylesford]
+
+Cuxton is at the entrance of the valley between the two chalk ranges of
+hills which form the water-parting of the river Medway. As Mr Phillips
+Bevan rightly observes--"this valley is utilized for quarrying and
+lime-burning to such an extent, that it has almost the appearance of a
+northern manufacturing district," but it is a consolation, on the
+authority of Sir A. C. Ramsay, to know that "man cannot permanently
+disfigure nature!"
+
+At Snodland the river becomes narrower, and the scenery of the valley is
+more picturesque. Early British and Roman remains have been found in the
+district, and according to the authority previously quoted--"In one of
+the quarries, which are abundant, Dr. Mantell discovered some of the
+most interesting and rarest chalk fossils with which we are acquainted,
+including the fossil Turtle (_Chelonia Benstedi_)."
+
+Alighting from the train at Aylesford station, we have but a few minutes
+to ramble by the river, the banks of which are brightened by the
+handsome flowers of the purple loosestrife. We notice the charming
+position of the Norman church, which stands on an eminence on the right
+bank of the Medway, overlooking the main street, and is surrounded by
+fine old elm trees--the bells were chiming "Home, sweet home," a name
+very dear to Dickens. The Medway ceases to be a tidal river at Allington
+beyond Aylesford, and one or other of the weirs at Allington or Farleigh
+(further on) may have suggested the idea of "Cloisterham Weir" in _Edwin
+Drood_; but they are too far distant (as shown in Chapter V.) to fit in
+with the story. The ancient stone bridge which spans the Medway at
+Aylesford is seven-arched; a large central one, and three smaller ones
+on either side. One or two of the arches on the left bank are filled up,
+as though the river had silted on that side. Mr. Roach Smith considers
+the bridge to be a very fine specimen of mediaeval architecture. It is
+somewhat narrow, but there are large abutments which afford shelter to
+foot passengers.
+
+[Illustration: Aylesford Bridge]
+
+We are much inclined to think that Aylesford Bridge was in the mind of
+Dickens when he makes the Pickwickians cross the Medway, only a wooden
+bridge is mentioned in the text for the purpose perhaps of concealing
+identity. The place is certainly worth visiting, and the approach to it
+by the river is exceedingly picturesque.
+
+Aylesford is supposed to be the place where the great battle between
+Hengist and Vortigern took place. Near to it, at a place called Horsted,
+is the tomb of Horsa, who fell in the battle between the Britons and
+Saxons, A.D. 455. Names of Dickens's characters, Brooks, Joy, etc.,
+occur at Aylesford. There is a very fine quarry here, from whence the
+famous Kentish rag-stone--"a concretionary limestone"--is obtained. It
+forms the base, and is overlaid by the Hassock sands and the river
+drift. In the distance is seen the bold series of chalk rocks
+constituting the ridge of the valley.
+
+Just outside Aylesford we pass Preston Hall, a fine modern Tudor mansion
+standing in very pretty grounds, and belonging to Mr. H. Brassey.
+
+We now resume our tramp towards the principal point of our destination,
+Town Malling,[26] or West Malling, as it is indifferently called (the
+"a" in Malling being pronounced long, as in "calling"). The walk from
+Aylesford lies through the village of Larkview, and is rather pretty,
+but there is nothing remarkable to notice until we approach Town
+Malling. Here it becomes beautifully wooded, especially in the
+neighbourhood of Clare House Park, the Spanish or edible chestnut, with
+its handsome dark green lanceolate serrate leaves, and clumps of Scotch
+firs, with their light red trunks and large cones, the result of healthy
+growth, which would have delighted the heart of Mr. Ruskin, being
+conspicuous. On the road we pass a field sown with maize, a novelty to
+one accustomed to the Midlands. The farmer to whom it belongs says that
+it is a poor crop this year, owing to the excess of wet and late summer,
+but in a good season it gives a fine yield. We are informed that it is
+used in the green state as food for cattle and chickens.
+
+[Illustration: The High St Town Malling]
+
+A pleasant tramp of about three miles brings us to Town Malling, which
+stands on the Kentish rag. The approach to Town Malling is by a
+waterfall, and there are the ruins of the old Nunnery, founded by Bishop
+Gundulph in 1090, in the place. East Malling is a smaller town, and lies
+nearer to Maidstone. Our object in visiting this pretty, old-fashioned
+Kentish country town, is to verify its identity with that of Muggleton
+of the _Pickwick Papers_. Great weight must be attached to the fact
+that the present Mr. Charles Dickens, in his annotated Jubilee Edition
+of the above work, introduces a very pretty woodcut of "High Street,
+Town Malling," with a note to the effect that--
+
+"Muggleton, perhaps, is only to be taken as a fancy sketch of a small
+country town; but it is generally supposed, and probably with sufficient
+accuracy, that, if it is in any degree a portrait of any Kentish town,
+Town Malling, a great place for cricket in Mr. Pickwick's time, sat for
+it."
+
+The reader will remember that when at the hospitable Mr. Wardle's
+residence at Manor Farm in Dingley Dell (by the bye, there is a
+veritable "Manor Farm" at Frindsbury, near Strood, with ponds adjacent,
+which may perhaps have suggested the episode of Mr. Pickwick on the
+ice), an excursion was determined on by the Pickwickians to witness a
+grand cricket match about to be played between the "All Muggleton" and
+the "Dingley Dellers," a conference first took place as to whether the
+invalid, Mr. Tupman, should remain or go with them.
+
+          "'Shall we be justified,' asked Mr. Pickwick, 'in
+          leaving our wounded friend to the care of the
+          ladies?'
+
+          "'You cannot leave me in better hands,' said Mr.
+          Tupman.
+
+          "'Quite impossible,' said Mr. Snodgrass."
+
+The result of the conference was satisfactory.
+
+          "It was therefore settled that Mr. Tupman should
+          be left at home in charge of the females, and that
+          the remainder of the guests under the guidance of
+          Mr. Wardle should proceed to the spot, where was
+          to be held that trial of skill, which had roused
+          all Muggleton from its torpor, and inoculated
+          Dingley Dell with a fever of excitement.
+
+          "As their walk, _which was not above two miles
+          long_,[27] lay through shady lanes and
+          sequestered footpaths, and as their conversation
+          turned upon the delightful scenery by which they
+          were on every side surrounded, Mr. Pickwick was
+          almost inclined to regret the expedition they had
+          used, when he found himself in the main street of
+          the town of Muggleton."
+
+The chronicle of _Pickwick_ then proceeds to state that--
+
+          "Muggleton is a corporate town, with a mayor,
+          burgesses, and freemen; . . . an ancient and loyal
+          borough, mingling a zealous advocacy of Christian
+          principles with a devoted attachment to commercial
+          rights; in demonstration whereof, the mayor,
+          corporation, and other inhabitants, have presented
+          at divers times, no fewer than one thousand four
+          hundred and twenty petitions, against the
+          continuance of negro slavery abroad, and an equal
+          number against any interference with the factory
+          system at home; sixty-eight in favour of the sales
+          of livings in the Church, and eighty-six for
+          abolishing Sunday trading in the streets."
+
+On the occasion of their second visit to Manor Farm to spend Christmas,
+the Pickwickians came by the "Muggleton Telegraph," which stopped at the
+"Blue Lion," and they walked over to Dingley Dell.
+
+Assuming, as has been suggested by Mr. Frost in his _In Kent with
+Charles Dickens_, that Dingley Dell is somewhere on the eastern side of
+the river Medway, within fifteen miles of Rochester,--Mr. William James
+Budden (a gentleman whom we met at Chatham) gave as his opinion that it
+was near Burham,[28]--then it would require a much greater walk than
+that ("which was not above two miles long") to reach Town Malling
+(leaving out of the question the fact that Burham is only about six
+miles from Rochester instead of fifteen miles, as the waiter at the Bull
+told Mr. Pickwick in reply to his enquiry), whereby we reluctantly for
+the time arrive at the conclusion,--as Mr. Frost did before us--that
+Dingley Dell as such near Town Malling cannot be identified.
+
+On another visit to "Dickens-Land" Mr. R. L. Cobb suggested that Cobtree
+Hall, near Aylesford, was the prototype of Dingley Dell. It may have
+been; but except one goes as the crow flies, it is more than two miles
+distant from Town Malling. But as Captain Cuttle would say--we "make a
+note of it."
+
+After all, Dingley Dell is no doubt a type of an English yeoman's
+hospitable home. There are numbers of such in Kent, Warwickshire,
+Worcestershire, Devonshire, and other counties, and the one in question
+may have been seen by Dickens almost anywhere.
+
+There is, at any rate, one objection to Muggleton being Town
+Malling--the latter is not, as mentioned in the text, "a corporate
+town." The neighbouring corporate towns which might be taken for it are
+Faversham, Tunbridge Wells, and Seven Oaks; but, as Mr. Rimmer, in his
+_About England with Dickens_, points out--"These have no feature in
+common with the enterprising borough which had so distinguished itself
+in the matter of petitions." On the other hand, there is _one_ very
+strong reason in favour of Town Malling, and that is its devotion to the
+noble old English game of cricket. So far as we could make out, no town
+in Kent has done better service in this respect. But more of this
+presently.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[Illustration: Cob Tree Hall]
+
+So many friends recommended us to see Cobtree Hall that, after the
+foregoing was written, we determined to follow their advice, and on a
+subsequent occasion we take the train to Aylesford and walk over, the
+distance being a pleasant stroll of about a mile. We were well repaid.
+The mansion, formerly called Coptray Friars, belonging to the Aylesford
+Friary, is an Elizabethan structure of red brick with stone facings
+prettily covered with creeping plants, standing on an elevated position
+in a beautifully wooded and undulating country overlooking the Medway
+and surrounded by cherry orchards and hop gardens. Major Trousdell was
+so courteous as to show us over the building, which has been altered and
+much enlarged during the last half century. Internally there is
+something to favour the hypothesis of its being the type of Manor Farm,
+Dingley Dell. Such portions of the old building remaining, as the
+kitchen, are highly suggestive of the gathering described in that
+good-humoured Christmas chapter of _Pickwick_ (xxviii.), and there is a
+veritable beam to correspond with Phiz's plate of "Christmas Eve at Mr.
+Wardle's." "The best sitting-room, [described as] a good long,
+dark-panelled room with a high chimney-piece, and a capacious chimney up
+which you could have driven one of the new patent cabs, wheels and all,"
+may still be discerned in the handsome modern dining-room, with carved
+marble mantel-piece of massive size formerly supplied with old-fashioned
+"dogs." The views from the bay-window are very extensive and
+picturesque. The mansion divides the two parishes of Boxley and
+Allington, the initials of which are carved on the beam in the kitchen.
+Externally, there is much more to commend it to our acceptance. Remains
+of a triangular piece of ground, with a few elm-trees, still survive as
+"the rookery," where Mr. Tupman met with his mishap, and to our delight
+there is "the pond," not indeed covered with ice, as on Mr. Pickwick's
+memorable adventure, but crowded with water-lilies on its surface; its
+banks surrounded by the fragrant meadow-sweet and the brilliant
+rose-coloured willow herb. Furthermore we were informed, by Mr. Franklin
+of Maidstone, that the "Red Lion," which formerly stood on the spot now
+occupied by Mercer's Stables, is locally considered to be the original
+of "a little roadside public-house, with two elm-trees, a horse-trough,
+and a sign-post in front;" where the Pickwickians sought assistance
+after the breakdown of the "four-wheeled chaise" which "separated the
+wheels from the body and the bin from the perch," but were inhospitably
+repulsed by the "red-headed man and the tall bony woman," who suggested
+that they had stolen the "immense horse" which had recently played Mr.
+Winkle such pranks. Finally, in a pleasant chat with the Rev. Cyril
+Grant, Vicar of Aylesford, and his curate, the Rev. H. B. Boyd (a son
+of A. K. H. B.), we elicited the fact that Cobtree Hall is locally
+recognized as the original of Manor Farm. Nay more, in Aylesford
+churchyard a tomb was pointed out on the west side with the
+inscription:--"Also to the memory of Mr. W. Spong, late of Cobtree, in
+the Parish of Boxley, who died Nov. 15th, 1839," who is said to have
+been the prototype of the genial and hospitable "old Wardle."
+
+True, neither the distance to Rochester nor to Town Malling fits in with
+the narrative, but this is not material. Dickens, with the usual
+"novelist's licence," found it convenient often-times to take a nucleus
+of fact, and surround it with a halo of fiction, and this may have been
+one of many similar instances. His wonderfully-gifted and ever-facile
+imagination was never at fault.
+
+So on our return journey we console ourselves by reading the following
+description, in chapter vi. of _Pickwick_, of the first gathering of the
+Pickwickians at their host's, one of the most delightful bits in the
+whole book, and "make-believe," as the Marchioness would say, that we
+have actually seen Manor Farm, Dingley Dell.
+
+          "Several guests who were assembled in the old
+          parlour, rose to greet Mr. Pickwick and his
+          friends upon their entrance; and during the
+          performance of the ceremony of introduction, with
+          all due formalities, Mr. Pickwick had leisure to
+          observe the appearance, and speculate upon the
+          characters and pursuits, of the persons by whom he
+          was surrounded--a habit in which he in common with
+          many other great men delighted to indulge.
+
+          "A very old lady, in a lofty cap and faded silk
+          gown,--no less a personage than Mr. Wardle's
+          mother,--occupied the post of honour on the
+          right-hand corner of the chimney-piece; and
+          various certificates of her having been brought up
+          in the way she should go when young, and of her
+          not having departed from it when old, ornamented
+          the walls, in the form of samplers of ancient
+          date, worsted landscapes of equal antiquity, and
+          crimson silk tea-kettle holders of a more modern
+          period. The aunt, the two young ladies, and Mr.
+          Wardle, each vying with the other in paying
+          zealous and unremitting attentions to the old
+          lady, crowded round her easy-chair, one holding
+          her ear-trumpet, another an orange, and a third a
+          smelling-bottle, while a fourth was busily engaged
+          in patting and punching the pillows, which were
+          arranged for her support. On the opposite side sat
+          a bald-headed old gentleman, with a good-humoured
+          benevolent face,--the clergyman of Dingley Dell;
+          and next him sat his wife, a stout, blooming old
+          lady, who looked as if she were well skilled, not
+          only in the art and mystery of manufacturing
+          home-made cordials, greatly to other people's
+          satisfaction, but of tasting them occasionally,
+          very much to her own. A little hard-headed,
+          Ripstone pippin-faced man, was conversing with a
+          fat old gentleman in one corner; and two or three
+          more old gentlemen, and two or three more old
+          ladies, sat bolt upright and motionless on their
+          chairs, staring very hard at Mr. Pickwick and his
+          fellow-voyagers.
+
+          "'Mr. Pickwick, mother,' said Mr. Wardle, at the
+          very top of his voice.
+
+          "'Ah!' said the old lady, shaking her head; 'I
+          can't hear you.'
+
+          "'Mr. Pickwick, grandma!' screamed both the young
+          ladies together.
+
+          "'Ah!' exclaimed the old lady. 'Well; it don't
+          much matter. He don't care for an old 'ooman like
+          me, I dare say.'
+
+          "'I assure you, madam,' said Mr. Pickwick,
+          grasping the old lady's hand, and speaking so loud
+          that the exertion imparted a crimson hue to his
+          benevolent countenance; 'I assure you, ma'am, that
+          nothing delights me more, than to see a lady of
+          your time of life heading so fine a family, and
+          looking so young and well.'
+
+          "'Ah!' said the old lady, after a short pause;
+          'it's all very fine, I dare say; but I can't hear
+          him.'
+
+          "'Grandma's rather put out now,' said Miss
+          Isabella Wardle, in a low tone; 'but she'll talk
+          to you presently.'
+
+          "Mr. Pickwick nodded his readiness to humour the
+          infirmities of age, and entered into a general
+          conversation with the other members of the
+          circle.
+
+          "'Delightful situation this,' said Mr. Pickwick.
+
+          "'Delightful!' echoed Messrs. Snodgrass, Tupman,
+          and Winkle.
+
+          "'Well, I think it is,' said Mr. Wardle.
+
+          "'There ain't a better spot o' ground in all Kent,
+          sir,' said the hard-headed man with the
+          pippin-face; 'there ain't indeed, sir--I'm sure
+          there ain't, sir,' and the hard-headed man looked
+          triumphantly round, as if he had been very much
+          contradicted by somebody, but had got the better
+          of him at last. 'There ain't a better spot o'
+          ground in all Kent,' said the hard-headed man
+          again after a pause.
+
+          "''Cept Mullins' meadows!' observed the fat man,
+          solemnly.
+
+          "'Mullins' meadows!' ejaculated the other, with
+          profound contempt.
+
+          "'Ah, Mullins' meadows,' repeated the fat man.
+
+          "'Reg'lar good land that,' interposed another fat
+          man.
+
+          "'And so it is, sure-ly,' said a third fat man.
+
+          "'Everybody knows that,' said the corpulent host.
+
+          "The hard-headed man looked dubiously round, but
+          finding himself in a minority, assumed a
+          compassionate air, and said no more.
+
+          "'What are they talking about?' inquired the old
+          lady of one of her grand-daughters, in a very
+          audible voice; for, like many deaf people, she
+          never seemed to calculate on the possibility of
+          other persons hearing what she said herself.
+
+          "'About the land, grandma.'
+
+          "'What about the land? Nothing the matter, is
+          there?'
+
+          "'No, no. Mr. Miller was saying our land was
+          better than Mullins' meadows.'
+
+          "'How should he know anything about it?' inquired
+          the old lady indignantly. 'Miller's a conceited
+          coxcomb, and you may tell him I said so.' Saying
+          which, the old lady, quite unconscious that she
+          had spoken above a whisper, drew herself up, and
+          looked carving-knives at the hard-headed
+          delinquent."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the course of our tramp we fall in with "a very queer small boy,"
+rejoicing in the Christian names of "Spencer Ray," upon which we
+congratulate him, and express a hope that he will do honour to the
+noble names which he bears, one being that of the great English
+philosopher, and the other that of the famous English naturalist. This
+boy, who is just such a bright intelligent lad as Dickens himself would
+have been at his age (twelve and a half years), gives us some
+interesting particulars respecting Town Malling and its proclivities for
+cricket, upon which he is very eloquent. It appears that in the year
+1887 the cricketers of Town Malling won eleven matches out of twelve;
+but during this year they have not been so successful. He directed us to
+the cricket-ground, which we visit, and find to be but a few minutes'
+walk from the centre of the town, bearing to the westward. It is a very
+fine field, nearly seven acres in extent, in splendid order, as level as
+a die, and as green as an emerald. It lies well open, and is flanked by
+the western range of hills of the Medway valley.
+
+[Illustration: CRICKET GROUND--TOWN MALLING.]
+
+The marquee into which Mr. Pickwick and his friends were invited, first
+by "one very stout gentleman, whose body and legs looked like half a
+gigantic roll of flannel, elevated on a couple of inflated
+pillow-cases," and then by the irrepressible Jingle with--"This
+way--this way--capital fun--lots of beer--hogsheads; rounds of
+beef--bullocks; mustard--cart-loads; glorious day--down with you--make
+yourself at home--glad to see you--very," has been replaced by a
+handsome pavilion.
+
+There is no cricket-playing going on at the time, but there are several
+cricketers in the field, and from them we learn confirmatory evidence of
+the long existence of the ground in its present condition, and the
+enthusiasm of the inhabitants for the old English game.
+
+Another proof of the long-established love of the people of Town Malling
+for cricket we subsequently find in the fact that the parlour of the
+Swan Hotel, which is an old cricketing house, and probably represents
+the "Blue Lion of Muggleton," has in it many very fine lithographic
+portraits of all the great cricketers of the middle of the nineteenth
+century, including:--Pilch, Lillywhite, Box, Cobbett, Hillyer (a native
+of Town Malling), A. Mynn, Taylor, Langdon, Kynaston, Felix (_Felix on
+the Bat_), Ward, Kingscote, and others. Several of these names will be
+recognized as those of eminent Kentish cricketers. About a quarter of a
+century ago--my friend and colleague Mr. E. Orford Smith (himself a
+Kentish man and a cricketer) informs me that--the Kentish eleven stood
+against all England, and retained their position for some years.
+
+As we stand on the warm day in the centre of the ground, and admire the
+lights and shadows passing over the surrounding scenery, we can almost
+conjure up the scene of the famous contest, when, on the occasion of the
+first innings of the All-Muggleton Club, "Mr. Dumkins and Mr. Podder,
+two of the most renowned members of that most distinguished club,
+walked, bat in hand, to their respective wickets. Mr. Luffey, the
+highest ornament of Dingley Dell, was pitched to bowl against the
+redoubtable Dumkins, and Mr. Struggles was selected to do the same kind
+office for the hitherto unconquered Podder."
+
+Everybody remembers how the game proceeded under circumstances of
+the greatest excitement, in which batters, bowlers, scouts, and
+umpires, all did their best under the encouraging shouts of the
+members:--"Run--run--another.--Now, then, throw her up--up with
+her--stop there--another--no--yes--no--throw her up! throw her up!" Mr.
+Jingle himself being as usual very profuse in his remarks, as--"'Ah,
+ah!--stupid'--'Now, butter-fingers'--'Muff'--'Humbug'--and so forth."
+"In short, when Dumkins was caught out, and Podder stumped out,
+All-Muggleton had notched some fifty-four, while the score of the
+Dingley Dellers was as blank as their faces." So "Dingley Dell gave in,
+and allowed the superior prowess of All-Muggleton," Mr. Jingle again
+expressing his views of the winners:--"'Capital game--well played--some
+strokes admirable,' as both sides crowded into the tent at the
+conclusion of the game."
+
+Yes! We are convinced that Muggleton and Town Malling (except for the
+mayor and corporation) are one. At any rate we feel quite safe in
+assuming that Town Malling was the type from which Muggleton was taken;
+and we confidently recommend all admirers of _Pickwick_ to include that
+pleasant Kentish country-town in their pilgrimage.
+
+Having exhausted, so far as our examination is concerned, the
+cricket-ground, by the kindness of our young friend who acts as guide,
+we see a little more of the town. It consists of a long wide street,
+with a few lateral approaches. The houses are well built, and the
+church, which is partly Norman, and, like most of the village churches
+in Kent, is but a little way from the village, stands on an eminence
+from whence a good view may be obtained. We observe, as indicative of
+the fine air and mild climate of the place, many beautiful specimens of
+magnolia, and wistaria (in second flower) in front of the better class
+of houses. One of these is named "Boley House," and as we are told that
+Sir Joseph Hawley resided near, our memories immediately revert to the
+cognomen of a well-known character in _The Chimes_. Other names in the
+place are suggestive of Dickens's worthies, _e.g._ Rudge, Styles,
+Briggs, Saunders, Brooker, and John Harman. The last-mentioned is the
+second instance in which Dickens has varied a local name by the
+alteration of a single letter. There is also the not uncommon name of
+"Brown," who, it will be remembered, was the maker of the shoes of the
+spinster aunt when she eloped with the faithless Jingle; "in a po-chay
+from the 'Blue Lion' at Muggleton," as one of Mr. Wardle's men said; and
+the discovery of the said shoes led to the identification of the errant
+pair at the "White Hart" in the Borough. After Sam Weller had described
+nearly all the visitors staying in the hotel from an examination of
+their boots:--
+
+          "'Stop a bit,' replied Sam, suddenly recollecting
+          himself. 'Yes; there's a pair of Vellingtons a
+          good deal vorn, and a pair o' lady's shoes, in
+          number five.' 'Country make.'
+
+          "'Any maker's name?'
+
+          "'Brown.'
+
+          "'Where of?'
+
+          "'Muggleton.'
+
+          "'It _is_ them,' exclaimed Wardle. 'By heavens,
+          we've found them.'"
+
+What happened afterwards every reader of _Pickwick_ very well knows.
+
+Near Town Malling there is a curious monument erected to the memory of
+Beadsman, the horse, belonging to Sir Joseph Hawley, which won the Derby
+in 1859, and which was bred in the place. The monument (an exceedingly
+practical one) consists of a useful pump for the supply of water.
+
+[Illustration: The Medway at Maidstone]
+
+After some luncheon at the Boar Inn, we are sorry to terminate our visit
+to this pleasant place; but time flies, and trains, like tides, "wait
+for no man." So we hurry to the railway station, passing on our way a
+fine hop-garden, and take tickets by the London, Chatham, and Dover
+Railway for Maidstone. We have a few minutes to spare, and our notice is
+attracted to a curious group in the waiting-room. It consists of a rural
+policeman, and what afterwards turned out, to be his prisoner, a
+slouching but good-humoured-looking labourer, with a "fur cap" like
+Rogue Riderhood. The officer leans against the mantelpiece, pleasantly
+chatting with his charge, who is seated on the bench, leisurely eating
+some bread and cheese with a large clasp-knife, in the intervals of
+which proceeding he recounts some experiences for the edification of the
+officer and bystanders. These are occasionally received with roars of
+laughter. One of his stories relates to a house-breaker who, being
+"caught in the act" by a policeman, and being asked what he was doing,
+coolly replied, "Attending to my business, of course!" (This must surely
+be taken "in a Pickwickian sense.") After finishing his bread and
+cheese, the charge eats an apple, and then regales himself with
+something from a large bottle. The unconcernedness of the man, whatever
+his offence may be (poaching perhaps), is in painful contrast to the
+careworn and anxious faces of his wife and little daughter (both
+decently dressed), the latter about seven years old, and made too
+familiar with crime at such an age. After we arrive at Maidstone (only a
+few minutes' run by railway), it is a wretched sight to witness the
+leave-taking at the gaol. First the man shakes hands with his wife, all
+his forced humour having left him, and then affectionately kisses the
+little girl, draws a cuff over his eyes, and walks heavily into the gaol
+after the officer. We are glad to notice that he is not degraded as a
+wild beast by being handcuffed. It was an episode that Dickens himself
+perhaps would have witnessed with interest, and possibly stored up for
+future use. What particularly strikes us is the difference in the
+relations between these people and what would be the case under similar
+circumstances in a large town. There is not that feature of hardness,
+that familiarity with crime which breeds contempt, in the rural
+incident. Poor man! let us hope his punishment will soon be finished,
+and that he may return to his family, and not become an old offender;
+but for the present, as Mr. Bagnet says, "discipline must be
+maintained."
+
+Maidstone, the county and assize town of Kent, appears to be a thriving
+and solid-looking place, as there are several paper-mills, saw-mills,
+stone quarries, and other indications of prosperity. There are but few
+historical associations connected with it, as Maidstone "has lived a
+quiet life." Sir Thomas Wyatt's rebellion, and the attack on the town by
+Fairfax in 1648, are among the principal incidents. Dickens frequently
+walked or drove over to this town from Gad's Hill. Many of the names
+which we notice over the shops in the principal street are very
+suggestive of, if not actually used for, some of the characters in his
+novels, _e.g._ Pell, Boozer, Hibling, Fowle, Stuffins, Bunyard, Edmed,
+Gregsbey, Dunmill, and Pobgee.
+
+It has been said that Maidstone possesses a gaol; it also has large
+barracks, and, what is better still, a Museum, Free Library, and Public
+Gardens. Chillington Manor House,--a highly picturesque and
+well-preserved Elizabethan structure, formerly the residence of the
+Cobhams,--contains the Museum and Library. Standing in a quiet nook in
+the Brenchley Gardens, the lines of George Macdonald, quoted in the
+local _Guide Book_, well describe its beauties:--
+
+          "Its windows were aerial and latticed,
+             Lovely and wide and fair,
+           And its chimneys like clustered pillars
+             Stood up in the thin blue air."
+
+The Museum--the new wing of which was built as a memorial of his
+brother, by Mr. Samuel Bentlif--is the property of the Corporation, and
+owes much of its contents to the liberality of Mr. Pretty, the first
+curator, and to the naturalist and traveller, Mr. J. L. Brenchley. It
+contains excellent fine art, archaeological, ethnological, natural
+history, and geological collections. Among the last-named, in addition
+to other interesting local specimens, are some fossil remains of the
+mammoth (_Elephas primigenius_) from the drift at Aylesford, obtained by
+its present able curator, Mr. Edward Bartlett, to whom we are indebted
+for a most pleasant ramble through the various rooms. We notice an
+original "Dickens-item" in the shape of a very good carved head of the
+novelist, forming the right top panel of an oak fire-place, the opposite
+side being one of Tennyson, by a local carver named W. Hughes, who was
+formerly employed at Gad's Hill Place. No pilgrim in "Dickens-Land"
+should omit visiting Maidstone and its treasures in Chillington Manor
+House; nor of seeing the splendid view of the Medway from the
+churchyard, looking towards Tovil.
+
+[Illustration: Chillingham Manor House Maidstone]
+
+We are particularly anxious to verify Dickens's experience of the walk
+from Maidstone to Rochester. In a letter to Forster, written soon after
+he came to reside at Gad's Hill Place, he says:--"I have discovered that
+the seven miles between Maidstone and Rochester is one of the most
+beautiful walks in England," and so indeed we find it to be. It is,
+however, a rather long seven miles; so, cheerfully leaving the
+gloomy-looking gaol to our right and proceeding along the raised terrace
+by the side of the turn-pike road, we pass through the little village of
+Sandling, and soon after commence the ascent of the great chalk range of
+hills which form the eastern water-parting of the Medway. The most
+noticeable object before we reach "Upper Bell" is "Kit's Coty (or
+Coity) House," about one and a half miles north-east from Aylesford,
+and not very far from the Bell Inn. According to Mr. Phillips Bevan, the
+peculiar name is derived from the Celtic "Ked," and "Coity" or "Coed"
+(Welsh), and means the Tomb in the Wood. Seymour considers the words a
+corruption of "Catigern's House." Below Kit's Coty House, Mr. Wright,
+the archaeologist, found the remains of a Roman villa, with quantities of
+Samian ware, coins, and other articles.
+
+There are many excavations in the chalk above Kit's Coty House,
+apparently for interments; and the whole district appears in remote ages
+to have been a huge cemetery. Tradition states that "the hero Catigern
+was buried here, after the battle fought at Aylesford between Hengist
+and Vortigern."
+
+The Cromlech, which is now included in the provisions of the Ancient
+Monuments Protection Act, 1882, lies under the hillside, a few yards
+from the main road, and is fenced in with iron railings, and beautifully
+surrounded by woods, the yew,[29] said to have been one of the sacred
+trees of the Druids, being conspicuous here and there. That somewhat
+rare plant the juniper is also found in this neighbourhood. The
+"dolmens" which have been "set on end by a vanished people" are four in
+number, and consist of sandstone, three of them, measuring about eight
+feet each, forming the uprights, and the fourth, which is much larger,
+serving as the covering stone.
+
+In a field which we visit, not very far from Kit's Coty House, is
+another group of stones, called the "countless stones." As we pass some
+boys are trying to solve the arithmetical problem, which cannot be
+readily accomplished, as the stones lie intermingled in a very strange
+and irregular manner, and are overgrown with brushwood. The belief that
+these stones cannot be counted is one constantly found connected with
+similar remains, _e.g._ Stonehenge, Avebury, etc. We heard a local story
+of a baker, who once tried to effect the operation by placing a loaf on
+the top of each stone as a kind of check or tally; but a dog running
+away with one of his loaves, upset his calculations.
+
+[Illustration: Kit's Coty House]
+
+Both the "Coty House" and the "countless stones" consist of a silicious
+sandstone of the Eocene period, overlying the chalk, and are identical
+with the "Sarsens," or "Grey Wethers," which occur at the pre-historic
+town of Avebury, and at Stonehenge; the smaller stones of the latter
+are, however, of igneous origin, and "are believed by Mr. Fergusson to
+have been votive offerings." These masses, of what Sir A. C. Ramsay
+calls "tough and intractable silicious stone," have been, he says, "left
+on the ground, after the removal by denudation of other and softer parts
+of the Eocene strata." We subsequently saw several of these "grey
+wethers" in the grounds of Cobham Hall, and we noticed small masses of
+the same stone _in situ_ in Pear Tree Lane, near Gad's Hill Place.
+
+Speaking of Kit's Coty House in his _Short History of the English
+People_, the late Mr. J. R. Green, in describing the English Conquest
+and referring to this neighbourhood, says:--"It was from a steep knoll
+on which the grey weather-beaten stones of this monument are reared that
+the view of their first battle-field would break on the English
+warriors; and a lane which still leads down from it through peaceful
+homesteads would guide them across the ford which has left its name in
+the little village of Aylesford. The Chronicle of the conquering people
+tells nothing of the rush that may have carried the ford, or of the
+fight that went struggling up through the village. It only tells that
+Horsa fell in the moment of victory, and the flint heap of Horsted,
+which has long preserved his name, and was held in after-time to mark
+his grave, is thus the earliest of those monuments of English valour of
+which Westminster is the last and noblest shrine. The victory of
+Aylesford did more than give East Kent to the English; it struck the
+keynote of the whole English conquest of Britain."
+
+Dickens's visits to this locality in his early days may have suggested
+the discovery of the stone with the inscription:--
+
+[Illustration:
+
+              +
+          B I L S T
+             U M
+           P S H I
+            S. M.
+           A R K]
+
+In later life he was fond of bringing his friends here "by a couple of
+postilions in the old red jackets of the old red royal Dover road" to
+enjoy a picnic. Describing a visit here with Longfellow he says:--"It
+was like a holiday ride in England fifty years ago."
+
+Returning to the main road, we reach the high land of Blue Bell--"Upper
+Bell," as it is marked on the Ordnance Map. We are not quite on the
+highest range, but sufficiently high (about three hundred feet) to
+enable us to appreciate the splendid view that presents itself. In the
+valley below winds the Medway, broadening as it approaches
+Rochester.[30] The opposite heights consist of the western range of
+hills, the width of the valley from point to point being about ten
+miles. The "sky-line" of hills running from north to south cannot be
+less than sixty miles, extending to the famous Weald of Kent (weald,
+wald, or wolde, being literally "a wooded region, an open country"); all
+the intervening space of undulating slope and valley (river excepted) is
+filled up by hamlets, grass, root, and cornfields, hop-gardens, orchards
+and woodlands, the whole forming a picture of matchless beauty. No
+wonder Dickens was very fond of this delightful walk; it must be gone
+over to be appreciated.[31]
+
+[Illustration: Kits Coty House and "Blue Bell" From the Painting by
+Gegan]
+
+We tramp on through Boxley and Bridge Woods, down the hill, and pass
+Borstal Convict Prison and Fort Clarence, where there are guns which we
+were informed would carry a ball from this elevated ground right over
+the Thames into the county of Essex (a distance of seven miles); and so
+we get back again to Rochester.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[26] Lambarde says, "Malling, in Saxon Mealing, or Mealuing, that is,
+the Low place flourishing with Meal or Corne, for so it is everywhere
+accepted."
+
+[27] The italics are interpolated.
+
+[28] Burham, although now enshrouded in the smoke of lime-making, was
+probably sixty years ago a delightfully rural spot.
+
+[29] Mr. Roach Smith reminded us that the yew was in times past planted
+for its wood to be used as bows.
+
+[30] Professor Huxley, in his _Physiography_, has estimated that "at the
+present rate of wear and tear, denudation can have lowered the surface
+of the Thames Basin by hardly more than an inch since the Norman
+Conquest; and nearly a million years must elapse before the whole basin
+of the Thames will be worn down to the sea-level"; and Dr. A. Geikie,
+after a series of elaborate calculations, has postulated "as probably a
+fair average, a valley of 1000 feet deep may be excavated in 1,200,000
+years." Taking these estimates as a basis, and allowing for an average
+height of three hundred feet, we roughly arrive at a period of about
+four hundred thousand years as the possible length of time which it has
+taken to form this beautiful valley. Professor Huxley may well say that
+"the geologist has thoughts of time and space to which the ordinary mind
+is a stranger."
+
+[31] Mr. Kitton's illustration (from the painting by Gegan, a local
+artist, executed many years since) gives a good idea of the scenery of
+this beautiful district. It also reproduces the profile of a huge chalk
+cliff not now visible, but which existed about half a century ago,
+having a curious resemblance to the head of a lion, and forming at the
+time a conspicuous landmark to travellers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+BROADSTAIRS, MARGATE, AND CANTERBURY.
+
+        "We have a fine sea, wholesome for all people;
+          profitable for the body, profitable for the
+          mind."--_Our English Watering-Place._
+
+        "All is going on as it was wont. The waves are
+          hoarse with repetition of their mystery; the dust
+          lies piled upon the shore; the sea-birds soar and
+          hover; the winds and clouds go forth upon their
+          trackless flight; the white arms beckon in the
+          moonlight to the invisible country far
+          away."--_Dombey and Son._
+
+        "A moment, and I occupy my place in the Cathedral,
+          where we all went together every Sunday morning,
+          assembling first at school for that purpose. The
+          earthy smell, the sunless air, the sensation of
+          the world being shut out, the resounding of the
+          organ through the black and white arched galleries
+          and aisles, are wings that take me back and hold
+          me hovering above those days in a half-sleeping
+          and half-waking dream."--_David Copperfield._
+
+
+TAKING advantage of an excursion train (for tramps usually go on the
+cheap), we start early on Wednesday by the South-Eastern Railway from
+Chatham station for Broadstairs. As usual the weather favours us--it is
+a glorious day. Passing the stations of New Brompton, Rainham,
+Newington, and Sittingbourne, we soon get into open country, in the
+midst of hop gardens with their verdant aisles of the fragrant and
+tonic, tendril-like plants reaching in some instances perhaps to several
+hundred yards, and crowned with yellowish-green fruit-masses, which
+have a special charm for those unaccustomed to such scenery. The
+odd-looking "oast-houses,"[32] or drying-houses for the hops, are a
+noticeable feature of the neighbourhood, dotting it about here and there
+in pairs. They are mostly red-brick and cone-shaped, somewhat smaller
+than the familiar glass-houses of the Midland districts, and have a
+wooden cowl, painted white, at the apex for ventilation. We are rather
+too early for the hop-picking, and thus--but for a time only--miss an
+interesting sight. Dickens, in one of his letters to Forster, gives a
+dreary picture of this annual harvest:--
+
+"Hop-picking is going on, and people sleep in the garden, and breathe in
+at the key-hole of the house door. I have been amazed, before this year,
+by the number of miserable lean wretches, hardly able to crawl, who come
+hop-picking. I find it is a superstition that the dust of the
+newly-picked hop, falling freshly into the throat, is a cure for
+consumption. So the poor creatures drag themselves along the roads, and
+sleep under wet hedges, and get cured soon and finally."
+
+On the whole it is said to be a very indifferent season, but many
+plantations look promising. "If," as a grower remarks to us in the
+train, "we could have a little more of this fine weather! There has been
+too much rain, and too little sun this year." The apples also are a poor
+crop.
+
+[Illustration: Hop-picking in Kent]
+
+On a second visit to this pleasant neighbourhood, we see at Mear's Barr
+Farm, near Rainham, the whole process of hop-picking. True, it is not
+executed by that ragamuffinly crowd of strangers which Dickens had in
+his "mind's eye" when he wrote the words just quoted, and which
+usually takes possession of most of the hop-growing districts of Kent
+during the picking season, but by an assemblage of native villagers,
+mostly women, girls, and boys,--neat, clean, and homely,--together with
+a few men who do the heavier part of the work. They are of all ages,
+from the tottering old grandmother, careworn wife, and buxom maiden, to
+the child in perambulator and baby in arms; and in the bright sunlight,
+amid the groves of festooning green columns, form a most orderly,
+varied, and picturesque gathering--a regular picnic in fact, judging
+from the cheerful look on most of the faces, and the merry laugh that is
+occasionally heard.
+
+Mr. Fred Scott, tenant of the farm, of which Lord Hothfield is owner, is
+kind enough to go over the hop-garden with us, and describe all the
+details. When the hops are ripe (_i. e._ when the seeds are hard) and
+ready to be gathered, the pickers swarm on the ground, and a man divides
+the "bine" at the bottom of the "pole" by means of a bill-hook--not
+cutting it too close for fear of bleeding--leaving the root to sprout
+next year, and then draws out the pole, to which is attached the long,
+creeping bine, trailing over at top. If the pole sticks too fast in the
+ground, he eases it by means of a lever, or "hop-dog" (a long, stout
+wooden implement, having a toothed iron projection). "Mind my dog don't
+bite you, sir," says one of the men facetiously, as we step over this
+rough-looking tool. Women then carry the poles to, and lay them across,
+the "bin," a receptacle formed by four upright poles stuck in the ground
+and placed at an angle, supporting a framework from which depends the
+"bin-cloth," made of jute or hemp, holding from ten to twenty bushels of
+green hops, weighing about 1-1/2 lbs. per bushel when dry.
+
+The picking then commences, and nimble fingers of all sizes very soon
+strip the poles of the aromatically-smelling ripe hops, the poles being
+cast aside in heaps, to be afterwards cleared of the old bines and put
+into "stacks" of three hundred each, and used again next season.
+
+The bins, which vary in number according to the size of the hop-garden,
+are placed in rows on the margin of the plantation, and usually have ten
+"hop-hills" (_i. e._ plants) on each side, and are moved inside the
+plantation as the poles are pulled up. Each bin belongs to a "sett" (_i.
+e._ family or companionship), consisting of from five to seven persons,
+and is taken charge of by a "binman." When the bin is full, a "measurer"
+(either the farmer himself or his deputy) takes account of the quantity
+of hops picked, and records it in a book to the credit of each working
+family. Then the green hops are carted off in "pokes" or sacks to the
+"oast-houses" to be dried. For this purpose, anthracite coal and
+charcoal are used in the kiln, a shovelful or two of sulphur being added
+to the fire when the hops are put on. The process of drying takes eleven
+hours, and afterwards the dried hops are packed in pockets which, when
+full, weigh about a hundredweight and a half each, the packing being
+effected by hydraulic pressure. They are then sent to market, the
+earliest arrivals fetching very high prices. As much as L50 per cwt. was
+paid in 1882, but the ordinary price averages from L4 to L8 per cwt.
+
+_Humulus Lupulus_, the hop, belongs to the natural order _Urticaceae_--a
+plant of rather wide distribution, but said to be absent in
+Scotland--and is a herbaceous, dioecious perennial, usually propagated
+by removal of the young shoots or by cuttings. According to Sowerby, the
+genus is derived from _humus_, the ground, as, unless supported or
+trained, the plant falls to the earth; and the common name "hop" from
+the Saxon _hoppan_, to climb. William King, in his _Art of Cookery_,
+says that "heresy and hops came in together"; while an old popular rhyme
+records that:--
+
+          "Hops, carp, pickerel, and beer,
+           Came into England all in one year."
+
+Tusser in his _Hondreth Good Points of Husbandrie_, published in 1557,
+gives sundry directions for the cultivation of hops, and quaintly
+advocates their use as follows:--
+
+          "The hop for his profit I thus do exalt,
+           It strengtheneth drink, and it savoureth malt;
+           And being well brewed, long kept it will last,
+           And drawing abide--if you draw not too fast."
+
+The hop has many varieties--thirty or more--among which may be mentioned
+prolifics, bramblings, goldings, common goldings, old goldings,
+Canterbury goldings, Meopham goldings, etc. When once planted they last
+for a hundred years, but some growers replace them every ten years or
+sooner.
+
+The principal enemies of the hop are "mould" caused by the fungus
+_Sphaerotheca Castagnei_, and several kinds of insects, especially the
+"green fly," _Aphis humuli_, but the high wind is most to be dreaded. It
+tears the hop-bines from the poles and throws the poles down, which in
+falling crush other bines, and thus bruise the hops and prevent their
+growth, besides obstructing the passage of air and sunlight, and causing
+the development of mould or mildew. The remedy for mould is dusting with
+sulphur, and for the green fly, syringing with tobacco or quassia water
+and soap, "Hop-wash," as it is called. Sometimes the lady-bird
+(_Coccinella septempunctata_) is present in sufficient numbers to
+consume the green fly. Very little can be done to obviate the effects of
+the wind, but a protective fence of the wild hop--called a "lee" or
+"loo"--is sometimes put up round very choice plantations.
+
+The hop-poles, the preparation of which constitutes a distinct industry,
+are either of larch, Spanish chestnut, ash, willow, birch, or
+beech--larch or chestnut being preferred. Women clear the poles of the
+bark, and men sharpen them at one end, which is dipped in creosote
+before being used. The ground is cleared, and the poles are stuck in
+against the old plants in February or March.
+
+We are informed that the hop-picking is much looked forward to by the
+villagers with pleasure as the means of supplying them with a little
+purse for clothing, etc., against winter-time. Each family or
+companionship earns from thirty shillings to two pounds per week during
+the season.
+
+We proceed on our excursion, and pass Faversham, which stands in a
+rather picturesque bit of country some way up Faversham Creek, and is
+sheltered on the west by a ridge of wooded hills where the hop country
+ceases, as the railway bends north-easterly for Margate and Ramsgate.
+Whitstable, the next station passed, is famous for the most delicate
+oysters in the market, the fishery of which is regulated by an annual
+court; and it is said that one grower alone sends fifty thousand barrels
+a year to London from this district. We speculate whether these
+delicious molluscs were supplied at that famous supper described in the
+thirty-ninth chapter of _The Old Curiosity Shop_, at which were present
+Kit, his mother, the baby, little Jacob, and Barbara, after the night at
+the play, when Kit told the waiter "to bring three dozen of his
+largest-sized oysters, and to look sharp about it," and fulfilled his
+promise "to let little Jacob know what oysters meant." All along, as the
+railway winds from Whitstable to Margate, glimpses of the sea are
+visible, and vary our excursion pleasantly.
+
+The next noteworthy place we pass is Reculver--the ancient
+Regulbium--which, according to Mr. Phillips Bevan, is "mentioned in the
+Itinerary of Antoninus as being garrisoned by the first cohort of
+Brabantois Belgians. After the Romans, it was occupied by the Saxon
+Ethelbert, who is said to have occupied it as a palace, and to have been
+buried there." "The two picturesque towers" (quoting Bevan again),
+"which form so conspicuous a land and sea mark, are called 'The
+Sisters,' and are in reality modern-built by the Trinity Board in place
+of two erected traditionally by an Abbess of Faversham, who was wrecked
+here with her sister on their way to Broadstairs." The sea is fast
+encroaching on the land here, notwithstanding the erection of a large
+sea-wall and piles.
+
+Passing Margate, we reach Broadstairs, about thirty-seven miles from
+Chatham. Broadstairs, immortalized in _Our English Watering Place_
+(which paper, says Forster, "appeared while I was there, and great was
+the local excitement"), is so inseparably associated with the earlier
+years of Charles Dickens's holiday-life, that it becomes most
+interesting to his admirers. Forster also says, "His later seaside
+holiday, September 1837, was passed at Broadstairs, as were those of
+many subsequent years; and the little watering-place has been made
+memorable by his pleasant sketch of it." At the time of his first visit
+(1837) he was writing a portion of _Pickwick_ (Part 18); in 1838 part of
+_Nicholas Nickleby_; and in 1839 part of _The Old Curiosity Shop_. He
+was also there in 1840, 1841, and 1842, when writing the _American
+Notes_; in 1845 and 1847, when writing _Dombey and Son_; in 1848 and
+1850, when engaged on _David Copperfield_; and in 1851, when he was
+drafting the outlines of _Bleak House_. At the end of November of that
+year, when he had settled himself in his new London abode (Tavistock
+House), the book was begun, "and, as so generally happened with the more
+important incidents of his life, but always accidentally, begun on a
+Friday." After 1851, he returned not again to Broadstairs until 1859,
+when he paid his last visit to the place, and stayed a week there. The
+reason for his forsaking it was that it had become too noisy for him.
+
+Broadstairs stands midway between the North Foreland and Ramsgate, and
+owes its name to the breadth of the sea-gate or "stair," which was
+originally defended by a gate or archway. An archway still survives on
+the road to the sea, and bears on it two inscriptions, (1) "Built by
+George Culenier about 1540"; (2) "Repaired by Sir John Henniker, Bart.,
+1795."
+
+Broadstairs has good sands, precipitous chalk cliffs, and a very fine
+sea-view. The railway station is about a mile from the pier, and the
+town is approached by a well-kept road ("the main street of our
+watering-place. . . . You may know it by its being always stopped up
+with donkey chaises. Whenever you come here and see the harnessed
+donkeys eating clover out of barrows drawn completely across a narrow
+thoroughfare, you may be quite sure you are in our High Street"), with
+villas standing in their own gardens, most of which are brightened by
+summer flowers, notably the blue clematis (_Clematis Jackmani_) and by
+those charming seaside evergreens the _Escallonia_ and the _Euonymus_.
+As we near the sea, the shops become more numerous, and, on the
+right-hand side, we have no difficulty in finding (although we heard it
+had been altered considerably) the house "No. 12, High Street," in which
+Dickens lived when he first visited Broadstairs. It is a plain little
+dwelling of single front, with a small parlour looking into the street,
+and has one story over--just the place that seems suited to the
+financial position of the novelist when he was commencing life. The
+house is now occupied by Mr. Bean, plumber and glazier, whose wife
+courteously shows us over it, and into the back yard and little garden,
+kindly giving us some pears from an old tree growing there, whereon we
+speculate as to whether Dickens himself had ever enjoyed the fruit from
+the same old tree. He appears to have lived in this house during his
+visits in 1837 and 1838. We ask the good lady if she is aware that
+Charles Dickens had formerly stayed in her house, and she replies in the
+negative, so we recommend her to get her husband to put up a tablet
+outside to the effect "Charles Dickens lived here, 1837," in imitation
+of the example of the Society of Arts in Furnival's Inn. There can be no
+doubt as to the identity of the house, for we take the precaution of
+ascertaining that the numbers have not been altered.
+
+Our efforts to discover "Lawn House," where Dickens stayed on his visits
+from 1838 to 1848, are attended with some difficulty. First we are told
+it lay this way, then that, and then the other; a smart villa in a new
+road is pointed out to us as the object of our search, which we at once
+reject, as being too recent. But we are patient and persevering,
+feeling, with Mr. F.'s aunt, that "you can't make a head and brains out
+of a brass knob with nothing in it. You couldn't do it when your Uncle
+George was living; much less when he's dead!" Finally, we appeal to some
+one who looks like the "oldest inhabitant," and obtain something like a
+clue. We are eventually directed to a veritable "Lawn House," which is
+the last house on the left as you approach "Fort House." It must have
+changed in respect of its surroundings since forty years have passed,
+and although there is nothing outside to indicate it as such, it seems
+fair to assume that this was the house described in the _Life_ as "a
+small villa between the hill and the cornfield." The present occupier,
+who has no recollection of Dickens ever having been there, courteously
+allows us to see the hall and dining-room. The house is of course a
+great improvement upon "No 12, High Street."
+
+A few steps from "Lawn House" lead us to the drive approaching "Fort
+House," pleasantly surrounded by a sloping lawn and shrubbery. John
+Forster, alluding to it in the _Life_, says:--
+
+"The residence he most desired there, 'Fort House,' stood prominently at
+the top of a breezy hill on the road to Kingsgate, with a cornfield
+between it and the sea, and this in many subsequent years he always
+occupied."
+
+Alas! the cornfield is no more, but "Fort House," or "Bleak House," as
+it is indifferently termed locally, remains intact. It is the most
+striking object of the place, standing on a cliff overlooking the sea,
+the harbour, and the town (made familiar by several photographs and
+engravings), with its curious verandahs and blinds, as seen in the
+vignette of J. C. Hotten's interesting book, _Charles Dickens: The Story
+of His Life_. An excellent photograph is published in the town, of which
+we are glad to secure a copy.
+
+[Illustration: "Bleak House" Broadstairs]
+
+In the sixth chapter of _Bleak House_ it is called "an old-fashioned
+house with three peaks in the roof in front, and a severe sweep leading
+to the porch." In the same chapter there is a minute account of the
+interior, too lengthy to be quoted; but the description does not
+resemble Fort House. We are kindly permitted by the occupier to see the
+study in which the novelist worked, a privilege long to be remembered.
+This room is approached by "a little staircase of shallow steps" from
+the first floor, as described in _Bleak House_; but it will be borne in
+mind that the "Bleak House" of the novel is placed in Hertfordshire,
+near St. Albans, and _not_ at Broadstairs, although many persons still
+believe that Fort House is the original of the story. From the study we
+have a lovely view of the sea--the balmy breeze of a summer's day
+lightly fanning the waves, and just sufficing to move the delicate
+filamentous foliage of the tamarisk trees now standing in the place
+where the cornfield was. Even at the time we see it, changed as all its
+surroundings are, we can imagine the enjoyment which Dickens had in this
+healthy spot on the North Downs.
+
+In that interesting "book for an idle hour" called _The Shuttlecock
+Papers_, Mr. J. Ashby-Sterry thus sympathetically alludes to "Bleak
+House":--"What a romantic place this is to write in, is it not? What a
+glorious study to work in! Indeed, both from situation and association,
+it would be impossible to find a better place for writing, were it not
+that one feels that so much superb work has been done on this very spot
+by so great an artist, that the mere craftsman is inclined to question
+whether it is worth while for him to write at all."
+
+How well Dickens loved Broadstairs is told in his letter of the 1st
+September, 1843, addressed to Professor Felton, of Cambridge, U. S. A.,
+as follows:--
+
+"This is a little fishing-place; intensely quiet; built on a cliff,
+whereon--in the centre of a tiny semi-circular bay--our house stands;
+the sea rolling and dashing under the windows. Seven miles out are the
+Goodwin Sands (you've heard of the Goodwin Sands?), whence floating
+lights perpetually wink after dark, as if they were carrying on
+intrigues with the servants. Also there is a lighthouse called the North
+Foreland on a hill behind the village, a severe parsonic light, which
+reproves the young and giddy floaters, and stares grimly out upon the
+sea. Under the cliff are rare good sands, where all the children
+assemble every morning and throw up impossible fortifications, which the
+sea throws down again at high-water. Old gentlemen and ancient ladies
+flirt after their own manner in two reading-rooms, and on a great many
+scattered seats in the open air. Other old gentlemen look all day long
+through telescopes and never see anything.
+
+"In a bay-window in a one-pair sits, from nine o'clock to one, a
+gentleman with rather long hair and no neckcloth, who writes and grins
+as if he thought he were very funny indeed. His name is Boz. At one he
+disappears, and presently emerges from a bathing machine, and may be
+seen--a kind of salmon-coloured porpoise--splashing about in the ocean.
+After that he may be seen in another bay-window on the ground-floor,
+eating a strong lunch; after that, walking a dozen miles or so, or lying
+on his back in the sand reading a book. Nobody bothers him unless they
+know he is disposed to be talked to; and I am told he is very
+comfortable indeed. He's as brown as a berry, and they _do_ say is a
+small fortune to the innkeeper who sells beer and cold punch. But this
+is mere rumour. Sometimes he goes up to London (eighty miles or so
+away), and then I'm told there is a sound in Lincoln's Inn Fields at
+night, as of men laughing, together with a clinking of knives and forks,
+and wine-glasses."
+
+And further in a letter to another correspondent recently made public:--
+
+"When you come to London, to assist at Miss Liston's sacrifice, don't
+forget to remind your uncle of our Broadstairs engagement to which I
+hold you bound. A good sea--fresh breezes--fine sands--and pleasant
+walks--with all manner of fishing-boats, lighthouses, piers,
+bathing-machines, are its only attractions, but it's one of the freshest
+little places in the world, consequently the proper place for you."
+
+In the year 1851, in a letter dated 8th September, addressed to Mr.
+Henry Austin, he thus alludes to a wreck which took place at
+Broadstairs:--
+
+"A great to-do here. A steamer lost on the Goodwins yesterday, and our
+men bringing in no end of dead cattle and sheep. I stood supper for them
+last night, to the unbounded gratification of Broadstairs. They came in
+from the wreck very wet and tired, and very much disconcerted by the
+nature of their prize--which, I suppose after all, will have to be
+recommitted to the sea, when the hides and tallow are secured. One
+lean-faced boatman murmured, when they were all ruminating over the
+bodies as they lay on the pier: 'Couldn't sassages be made on it?' but
+retired in confusion shortly afterwards, overwhelmed by the execrations
+of the bystanders."
+
+Dickens got tired of Broadstairs in 1847, for reasons given in the
+following letter to Forster, though he did not forsake it till some
+years after:--
+
+"Vagrant music is getting to that height here, and is so impossible to
+be escaped from, that I fear Broadstairs and I must part company in time
+to come. Unless it pours of rain, I cannot write half an hour without
+the most excruciating organs, fiddles, bells, or glee singers. There is
+a violin of the most torturing kind under the window now (time, ten in
+the morning), and an Italian box of music on the steps--both in full
+blast."
+
+By good luck we fall in with an "old salt," formerly one of the boatmen
+of _Our English Watering Place_ who are therein immortalized by much
+kindly mention, with whom we have a pleasant chat about Charles Dickens.
+Harry Ford (the name of our friend) well remembers the great novelist,
+when in early days he used to come on his annual excursions with his
+family to Broadstairs. "Bless your soul," he says, "I can see 'Old
+Charley,' as we used to call him among ourselves here, a-coming flying
+down from the cliff with a hop, step, and jump, with his hair all flying
+about. He used to sit sometimes on that rail" (pointing to the one
+surrounding the harbour), "with his legs lolling about, and sometimes on
+the seat that you're a-sitting on now" (adjoining the old Look-out
+House opposite the Tartar Frigate Inn), "and he was very fond of talking
+to us fellows and hearing our tales--he was very good-natured, and
+nobody was liked better. And if you'll read" (continues our informant)
+"that story that he wrote and printed about _Our Watering Place_, _I_
+was the man who's mentioned there as mending a little ship for a boy.
+_I_ held that child between my knees. And what's more, sir, _I_ took
+'Old Charley,' on the very last time that he came over to Broadstairs
+(he wasn't living here at the time), round the foreland to Margate, with
+a party of four friends. I took 'em in my boat, the _Irene_," pointing
+to a clinker-built strong boat lying in the harbour, capable of holding
+twenty people. "The wind was easterly--the weather was rather rough, and
+it took me three or four hours to get round. There was a good deal of
+chaffing going on, I can tell you."
+
+[Illustration: Old Look-out House Broadstairs]
+
+Mrs. Long, of Zion Place, Broadstairs, the wife of an old coastguardman,
+who was stationed at the Preventive Station when Dickens lodged at Fort
+House, also remembered the novelist. The coastguard men are also
+immortalized in _Our English Watering Place_, as "a steady, trusty,
+well-conditioned, well-conducted set of men, with no misgiving about
+looking you full in the face, and with a quiet, thorough-going way of
+passing along to their duty at night, carrying huge sou'wester clothing
+in reserve, that is fraught with all good prepossession. They are handy
+fellows--neat about their houses, industrious at gardening, would get on
+with their wives, one thinks, in a desert island--and people it too
+soon."
+
+Mrs. Long says "Mr. Dickens was a very nice sort of gentleman, but he
+didn't like a noise." The windows of Fort House, she reminds us,
+overlooked the coastguard station, and whenever the children playing
+about made more noise than usual, he used to tell her husband gently "to
+take the children away," or "to keep the people quiet." This little
+story fully confirms Dickens's often-expressed feeling of dislike, which
+subsequently grew intolerable, to Broadstairs as a watering-place.
+
+After taking a turn or two on the lively Promenade,--made bright by the
+rich masses of flesh-coloured flowers of the valerian which fringe its
+margin,--to enjoy the sunshine and air, and watch the holiday folks, we
+bid adieu to Broadstairs, and proceed to Margate.
+
+Of Margate there is not much to say. We reach it by an early afternoon
+train of the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway, to get the quickest
+service by the South-Eastern Railway on to Canterbury. Our stay at
+Margate is consequently very limited.
+
+To some minds this popular Cockney watering-place has great attractions;
+its broad sands, its beautiful air, and its boisterous amusements,
+negro-melodies, merry-go-rounds, and the like; but it was a place seldom
+visited by Dickens, although he was so often near it. Only twice in the
+_Life_ is it recorded that he came here; once being in 1844, when he
+wrote to Forster respecting the theatre as follows:--
+
+"'_Nota Bene._--The Margate Theatre is open every evening, and the four
+Patagonians (see Goldsmith's _Essays_) are performing thrice a week at
+Ranelagh.' A visit from me"--Forster goes on to say--"was at this time
+due, to which these were held out as inducements; and there followed
+what it was supposed I could not resist, a transformation into the
+broadest farce of a deep tragedy by a dear friend of ours. 'Now you
+really must come. Seeing only is believing, very often isn't that, and
+even Being the thing falls a long way short of believing it. Mrs.
+Nickleby herself once asked me, as you know, if I really believed there
+ever was such a woman; but there will be no more belief, either in me or
+my descriptions, after what I have to tell of our excellent friend's
+tragedy, if you don't come and have it played again for yourself, 'by
+particular desire.' We saw it last night, and oh! if you had but been
+with us! Young Betty, doing what the mind of man without my help never
+_can_ conceive, with his legs like padded boot-trees wrapped up in faded
+yellow drawers, was the hero. The comic man of the company, enveloped in
+a white sheet, with his head tied with red tape like a brief, and
+greeted with yells of laughter whenever he appeared, was the venerable
+priest. A poor toothless old idiot, at whom the very gallery roared with
+contempt when he was called a tyrant, was the remorseless and aged
+Creon. And Ismene, being arrayed in spangled muslin trousers very loose
+in the legs and very tight in the ankles, such as Fatima would wear in
+_Blue Beard_, was at her appearance immediately called upon for a song!
+After this can you longer--?'"
+
+[Illustration: The "Falstaff": Westgate Canterbury]
+
+He speaks in a letter to Forster, dated September, 1847, of
+"improvements in the Margate Theatre since his memorable first visit."
+It had been managed by a son of the great comedian Dowton, and the piece
+which Dickens then saw was _As You Like It_, "really very well done, and
+a most excellent house." It was Mr. Dowton's benefit, and "he made a
+sensible and modest kind of speech," which impressed Dickens, who thus
+concludes his letter:--"He really seems a most respectable man, and he
+has cleaned out this dusthole of a theatre into something like
+decency."
+
+There is also the following significant mention of Margate in chapter
+nineteen of _Bleak House_:--
+
+"It is the hottest long vacation known for many years. All the young
+clerks are madly in love, and according to their various degrees, pant
+for bliss with the beloved object at Margate, Ramsgate, or Gravesend."
+
+If Broadstairs was noisy, Margate must have been intensely so. We leave
+the crowded holiday-making place without much feeling of regret, and
+passing Ramsgate--of which there is but one mention in the _Life_--on
+our way, reach Canterbury in the afternoon.
+
+We are delighted with this exquisitely beautiful old city, our only
+regret being that our time is very limited, and our means of
+ascertaining places situated in "Dickens-Land" more so.
+
+Taking up our temporary quarters at the "Sir John Falstaff" Hotel, in
+remembrance of its namesake at Gad's Hill, after the refreshment of a
+meal, we commence our tramp through Canterbury, where David Copperfield
+passed some of his happiest days. Of the Falstaff here there is an
+excellent picture in Mr. Rimmer's _About England with Dickens_; a very
+quaint old inn with double front, and bay-windows top and bottom,
+possibly of the sixteenth century, and with a long swinging sign
+extending over the pavement, on which is painted a life-like presentment
+of the portly knight, the pretty ornamental ironwork supporting it
+reminding one of Washington Irving's description in _Bracebridge Hall_,
+"fancifully wrought at top into flourishes and flowers."
+
+[Illustration: The "Dane John" from the City Wall Canterbury]
+
+A few steps further on is the West Gate, "standing between two lofty and
+spacious round towers erected in the river," built by Archbishop
+Sudbury, who was barbarously murdered by Wat Tyler in the reign of
+Richard II., which is the sole remaining one of six gates formerly
+constituting the approaches to the city. From this gate, looking
+eastward, with the river Stour on either side, banked by neatly-trimmed
+private gardens, a beautiful view of the city is obtained. The High
+Street, crowded with gables of the sixteenth century and later timbered
+houses, slightly bends and rises as well, until the perspective seems to
+lose itself in a distant grove of trees, locally called the "Dane John,"
+a corruption of "Donjon." This view, especially when seen on a summer
+afternoon, is most picturesque. The present appearance of the quiet
+street is decidedly unlike that which it presented on that busy
+market-day when Miss Betsey Trotwood drove her nephew along it, for
+David says, "My aunt had a good opportunity of insinuating the grey pony
+among carts, baskets, vegetables, and hucksters' goods. The hair-breadth
+turns and twists we made drew down upon us a variety of speeches from
+the people standing about, which were not always complimentary; but my
+aunt drove on with perfect indifference."
+
+We notice in the windows and in many of the shops an abundance of
+brightly-coloured cut-flowers, a notable feature of the county of Kent;
+but we have little time to spare, and hasten on to the Cathedral
+precincts.
+
+"What a magnificent edifice!" is our first thought on beholding the
+Cathedral, a noble pile so well befitting the Metropolitan See of
+England, from which the Christianity of the Kingdom first flowed. Dating
+from Ethelbert, at the close of the sixth century, three structures have
+successively occupied the site, culminating in the present one, which,
+according to Mr. Phillips Bevan, was erected at different times between
+1070 and 1500; and he goes on to say:--"No wonder that it exhibits so
+many styles and peculiarities of detail, although the two most prominent
+architectural eras are those of 'Transition-Norman' and
+'Perpendicular.'"
+
+The appropriate stone figures in niches of distinguished Royal and
+Ecclesiastical personages associated with the Cathedral (which at the
+suggestion of Dean Alford in 1863 replaced those of the murderers of the
+martyr, Thomas a Becket), from King Ethelbert to Queen Victoria, and
+from Archbishop Lanfranc to Archbishop Longley; the lofty groined arches
+and stately towers, the beautiful carved screen, the noble monuments,
+the splendid choir (a hundred and eighty feet in length) approached by
+many steps, the rich stained-glass windows, all attract our admiring
+attention, and confirm our impression that a modern pilgrimage to
+Canterbury is a thing to be highly appreciated; and on no account would
+we have missed this part of our excursion. The murder of Thomas a
+Becket (1170) took place between the nave and the choir in a transept or
+cross aisle called "The Martyrdom."
+
+[Illustration: Bell Harry Tower: Canterbury Cathedral:]
+
+There is an interesting Sidney Cooper Gallery of Art, and also a Museum
+in the city, the latter containing some rare old Roman Mosaic pavement
+discovered in Burgate Street at a depth of ten feet.
+
+But our object is to identify spots made memorable in _David
+Copperfield_, and we walk round the spacious Cathedral Close and "make
+an effort" (as Mrs. Chick said) in trying to find the simple-minded and
+good Dr. Strong's House. It is described as "a grave building in a
+courtyard, with a learned air about it that seemed very well suited to
+the stray rooks and jackdaws who came down from the Cathedral towers,
+and walked with a clerkly bearing on the grass-plat."
+
+Alas! it is not here, although there are many such houses that
+correspond with it in some particulars. So we try several of the "dear
+old tranquil streets," but fail to discover the identical building.
+
+The next object of our search is Mr. Wickfield's residence, "a very old
+house bulging out over the road; a house with low latticed windows,
+bulging out still further, and beams with carved heads on the ends,
+bulging out too." How strongly the description in many parts tallies
+with the houses in Rochester opposite "Eastgate House"; but here again
+we are baffled, as other modern pilgrims have been before, and we cannot
+associate any particular building with either of the two houses. The
+house in Burgate Street now occupied as offices by Messrs. Plummer and
+Fielding, Diocesan Registrars, who obligingly permit an examination of
+it, is suggested to us as being Mr. Wickfield's house, but, after an
+inspection, on several grounds we are obliged to reject this suggestion.
+
+[Illustration: Scene of the Martyrdom Canterbury Cathedral]
+
+[Illustration: "Bits" of Old Canterbury.]
+
+There was many a "low old-fashioned room, walked straight into from the
+street," which would have served for the "umble" dwelling of Uriah Heep
+and his mother, but none can be pointed out with absolute certainty as
+being the veritable one.
+
+By the kindness of Dr. Sheppard and Mr. T. B. Rosseter, F.R.M.S., we
+are, however, enabled to identify two houses in Canterbury alluded to
+in _David Copperfield_. The "County Inn," where Mr. Dick slept on his
+visits to David "every alternate Wednesday," was no doubt The Royal
+Fountain Hotel in St. Margaret's Street (formerly the Watling Street),
+which is still recognized as such. A passage in the seventeenth chapter
+thus refers to these visits:--
+
+          "Mr. Dick was very partial to ginger-bread. To
+          render his visits the more agreeable, my aunt had
+          instructed me to open a credit for him at a
+          cake-shop, which was hampered with the stipulation
+          that he should not be served with more than one
+          shilling's-worth in the course of any one day.
+          This, and the reference of all his little bills at
+          the County Inn, where he slept, to my aunt before
+          they were paid, induced me to think that Mr. Dick
+          was only allowed to rattle his money, and not to
+          spend it."
+
+The "little Inn" (as recorded in the same chapter) where Mr. Micawber
+"put up" on his first visit to Canterbury, and where he "occupied a
+little room in it partitioned off from the commercial, and strongly
+flavoured with tobacco smoke," is doubtless the "Sun Inn" in Sun Street,
+which is at the opposite corner of the square where the ancient
+"Chequers" in Mercery Lane--the Pilgrim's Inn of Chaucer--stood. It was
+a place of resort from afar, and was altered in the seventeenth century.
+Dr. Sheppard calls attention to the interesting fact that the omnibus
+from Herne Bay stopped at the Sun; and probably, in his visits to
+Broadstairs, Dickens would often run over for a day's trip to
+Canterbury.
+
+On their first visit to the "little Inn," Mr. and Mrs.
+Micawber--notwithstanding their chronic impecuniosity--thus entertained
+David Copperfield:--
+
+          "We had a beautiful little dinner. Quite an
+          elegant dish of fish; the kidney end of a loin of
+          veal roasted; fried sausage-meat; a partridge and
+          a pudding. There was wine, and there was strong
+          ale; and after dinner Mrs. Micawber made us a bowl
+          of hot punch with her own hands."
+
+They spent a jolly evening, and ended with singing _Auld Lang Syne_.
+
+The "little Inn" is again alluded to later in the story, where Mr.
+Micawber announces his full determination to abstain from everything
+until he has exposed the machinations of, and blown to pieces,
+"the--a--detestable serpent--HEEP;" and finally, where David Copperfield
+"assisted at an explosion," and Mr. Micawber is triumphant, and the
+"transcendent and immortal hypocrite and perjurer, HEEP," is forced to
+succumb.
+
+Speaking of the "little Inn" for the last time, David says:--"I looked
+at the old house from the corner of the street. . . . The early sun was
+striking edgewise on its gables and lattice-windows, touching them with
+gold; and some beams of its old peace seemed to touch my heart."
+
+Dr. Sheppard subsequently told us that, when he was beginning to turn
+his attention to the deciphering and utilizing of ancient MSS., he was
+much impressed, when perusing some articles in _Household Words_, or
+some other papers written by Dickens, relating to the neglected state of
+public records, more particularly at Canterbury; and when many years
+after the very records of which he wrote came under his (Dr. Sheppard's)
+care, he was surprised to find the names of Snodgrass, Sam Weller, and
+others therein. The records to which Dr. Sheppard referred were those in
+charge of the Archbishop's Registrar at Canterbury.
+
+If time permits it would be pleasant to go on to Dover,[33] to see "Miss
+Betsey Trotwood's house," but this is impossible; and indeed, all that
+can be said about a tramp in search of "that very neat little cottage
+with cheerful bow windows in front of it, a small square gravelled court
+or garden full of flowers carefully tended, and smelling deliciously,"
+has been well said by Mr. Ashby-Sterry in his delightful little volume,
+_Cucumber Chronicles_.
+
+[Illustration: "The Little Inn" Canterbury]
+
+After much perseverance, and in spite of almost as many difficulties as
+beset poor little David Copperfield himself in his search for his aunt
+(who, as the Dover boatmen told him, "lived in the South Foreland Light,
+and had singed her whiskers by doing so"--"that she was made fast to the
+great buoy outside the harbour, and could only be visited at
+half-tide"--"that she was locked up in Maidstone Jail for
+child-stealing"--and that "she was seen to mount a broom in the last
+high wind and make direct for Calais"), Mr. Ashby-Sterry succeeded,
+although his greatest embarrassment arose from that irrepressible
+nuisance, "Buggins the Builder," who cannot be controlled even in the
+neighbourhood of Dover, so "hugely does he delight to mar those spots
+that have been hallowed by antiquity, seclusion, or the pen of the
+novelist. Hence the abode of Betsey Trotwood is not so pleasant as it
+must have been formerly, for other houses have clustered about the back
+and the front." But Mr. Ashby-Sterry quite satisfied himself as to the
+identity on Dover Heights of the very neat little cottage, and assures
+us that "the house, however, still stands high, the fresh breezes from
+over the sea and across the Down smite it. It still has a view of the
+sea, though perhaps not so uninterrupted as it was in the days of David
+Copperfield." He further states that it is, perhaps, not quite so neat
+as it was in Miss Betsey Trotwood's time, though there are no donkeys
+about. Here are the bow windows, with the room above, where Mr. Dick
+alarmed poor David by nodding and laughing at him on his first arrival.
+The window on the right must have belonged to the neat room "with the
+drugget-covered carpet," and the old-fashioned furniture brightly
+polished, where might be found "the cat, the kettle-holder, the two
+canaries, the old china, the punch-bowl full of dried rose leaves, the
+tall press guarding all sorts of bottles and pots, and wonderfully out
+of keeping with the rest." On the strength of this description by an
+ardent lover of Dickens, we fully make up our minds to visit Dover at no
+distant date to see Miss Betsey Trotwood's house for ourselves.
+
+_A propos_ of Miss Trotwood's domicile, we have been favoured by Mr. C.
+K. Worsfold, an old resident of Dover, with a letter containing some
+interesting particulars, from which we extract the following:--
+
+"Dickens's description of the local habitation of Betsey Trotwood is not
+consistent with the surroundings. The hills on either side of the town
+belong to the War Department, and are occupied as fortifications; on the
+eastern side is the Castle, and on the western side barracks and forts.
+On the western heights there is a house somewhat answering to Dickens's
+description, having a garden in front of it, and a small plot of grass
+in front of the garden; and about forty years ago there lived in this
+house a lady of rather masculine character, who always resented any
+intrusion of boys, and perhaps donkeys, on the grass in front of her
+house and garden, and I believe she was occasionally rather rough with
+the boys; but there the likeness to Betsey Trotwood ends. This was a
+married lady living with her husband.
+
+"I know it was a matter of conversation forty years ago that Dickens
+must have found his original in the lady in question, but I think he was
+rather in the habit of selecting his characters without reference to
+locality, and then adapting them to his requirements.
+
+"Dickens was a frequent visitor to Dover, and he may possibly have been
+a witness of some encounter between this lady and the boys, and on that
+occasion donkeys may have been present.[34] I do not know of any
+relative of the lady answering to Miss Trotwood's worthy nephew."
+
+"A moderate stroke," as Mr. Datchery said, "is all I am justified in
+scoring up"; and we reluctantly leave the "sunny street of Canterbury,
+dozing, as it were, in the hot light," and take our places in the train
+for Chatham, distant about twenty-seven miles.
+
+The only new parts of interest which we go over, on our return journey
+by rail, are the green fields surrounding the ancient city, wherein are
+numbers of those beautiful and quiet-feeding cattle, which the eminent
+artist, Mr. T. Sidney Cooper, R.A. (who resides in the neighbourhood),
+loves to paint, and paints so well; and in due time we pass the
+chalk-topped hills called Harbledown, overlooking Canterbury, from
+whence the best view of the city is obtained, and safely reach our
+headquarters at Rochester.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[32] According to a "Note" in the _Rochester and Chatham Journal_, the
+derivation of this curious term is from _uro_ to burn (ustus).
+
+[33] One of the "Five Cinque Ports, and two Ancient Towns" often
+referred to, but not always remembered--Hastings, Sandwich, Dover, New
+Romney, Hythe, Winchelsea and Rye.
+
+[34] Mr. Charles Dickens kindly writes to me:--"The lady who objected to
+the donkeys lived at Broadstairs. I knew her when I was a boy."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+COOLING, CLIFFE, AND HIGHAM.
+
+        "And now the range of marshes lay clear before us,
+          with the sails of the ships on the river growing
+          out of it; and we went into the Churchyard . . .
+          and the light wind strewed it with beautiful
+          shadows of clouds and trees."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+          "What might have been your opinion of the place?"
+
+          "A most beastly place. Mudbank, mist, swamp and
+          work; work, swamp, mist, and mudbank."--_Great
+          Expectations._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+        "They were now in the open country; the houses
+          were very few and scattered at long intervals,
+          often miles apart. Occasionally they came upon a
+          cluster of poor cottages, some with a chair or low
+          board put across the open door, to keep the
+          scrambling children from the road; others shut up
+          close, while all the family were working in the
+          fields. These were often the commencement of a
+          little village; and after an interval came a
+          wheelwright's shed, or perhaps a blacksmith's
+          forge; then a thriving farm, with sleepy cows
+          lying about the yard, and horses peering over the
+          low wall, and scampering away when harnessed
+          horses passed upon the road, as though in triumph
+          at their freedom."--_The Old Curiosity Shop._
+
+
+NOW for a long tramp in the country of the Marshes--the famous "Meshes"
+of _Great Expectations_. The air is sultry on this Thursday afternoon,
+and there is thunder in the distance. The storm, however, does not pass
+over Rochester, but further on we find traces of it where the roadways
+have been washed up. Afterwards the air becomes deliciously cool, and
+that hum of all Nature which succeeds the quiet preceding the storm is
+distinctly perceptible. Crossing Rochester Bridge, keeping to the right
+along Strood and Frindsbury--the churchyard of which affords a splendid
+view of Rochester, Chatham, and the Medway--passing up Four Elms Hill
+and through the little village of Wainscot, nothing of interest calls
+for notice until we have travelled some miles from Strood. After
+crossing a tramway belonging to Government, and utilized by the Royal
+Engineers as a means of communication between the powder-magazine and
+Chatham Barracks, we observe that vegetation, which is so rich in other
+parts of Kent, here appears to be dwarfed and stunted. A hop-garden
+presents a very miserable contrast, in its struggle for existence, to
+others we have seen in the more central parts of the county, and even
+some of these were far from being luxuriant, owing to such a peculiarly
+wet and cold season. The hedges in places are diversified with the small
+gold and violet star-like flowers and the green and scarlet berries of
+the climbing woody nightshade, or bitter-sweet (_Solanum Dulcamara_),
+often mistaken for the deadly nightshade (_Atropa Belladonna_--a fine
+bushy herbaceous perennial, with large ovate-shaped leaves, and lurid,
+purple bell-shaped flowers), quite a different plant, and happily
+somewhat rare in England. The delicate light-blue flowers of the chicory
+are very abundant here.
+
+A tramp of upwards of six miles from Rochester, by way of Hoo,[35]
+brings us to Lodge Hill, overlooking Perry Hill, which affords a
+magnificent view of the mouth of the Thames beyond the low-lying
+Marshes, and of Canvey Island, off the coast of Essex, on the opposite
+side. By the kindness of a farmer's wife we are allowed to take a short
+cut through the farm-garden and grounds, which leads direct to Cooling
+(or Cowling) Church, a cheerless, grey-stone structure, the tower
+standing out as a beacon long before we reach it.
+
+Those unacquainted with this part of Kent may be interested in knowing
+that the Marshes, which stretch out over a considerable distance on
+either side of the Thames, on both the Kent and the Essex coasts,
+consist entirely of alluvial soil reclaimed at some time from the river.
+They are intersected by ditches and water-courses, and covered with rank
+vegetation, chiefly of grass, rushes, and flags, where not cultivated.
+Higher up the land is rich, and large tracts of it are planted with
+vegetables as market gardens. Sea-gulls, plovers, and herons are
+numerous; their call-notes in the still evening sounding shrill and
+uncanny over the long stretches of flat lands.
+
+Dear old Michael Drayton, the Warwickshire poet, who touched upon almost
+everything, has not omitted to describe the Marshes in a somewhat
+similar locality, for in the _Polyolbion_ (Song XVIII.) he gracefully
+compares them to a female enamoured of the beauties of the River Rother,
+thus:--
+
+  "Appearing to the flood, most bravely like a Queen,
+   Clad all from head to foot, in gaudy Summer's green,
+   Her mantle richly wrought with sundry flow'rs and weeds;
+   Her moistful temples bound with wreaths of quiv'ring reeds;
+   And on her loins a frock, with many a swelling plait,
+   Emboss'd with well-spread horse, large sheep, and full-fed neat;
+   With villages amongst, oft powthered here and there;
+   And (that the same more like to landscape should appear)
+   With lakes and lesser fords, to mitigate the heat
+   In summer, when the fly doth prick the gadding neat."
+
+Readers of _Great Expectations_ will remember that the scene in the
+first chapter between Pip and the convict, Magwitch, is laid in Cooling
+churchyard, and on reaching this spot we are instantly reminded of what
+doubtless gave origin to the idea of the five dead little brothers of
+poor Philip Pirrip, for there, on the left of the principal pathway, are
+indeed, not five stone lozenges, but _ten_ in one row and three more at
+the back of them, such peculiarly-shaped and curiously-arranged little
+monuments as we never before beheld. They consist of a grey stone
+(Kentish-rag, probably, but lichen-encrusted by time) of cylindrical
+shape, widening at the shoulders, coffin-like, and about a yard in
+length, the diameter being about eight inches, including the portion
+buried in the earth. Four little foot-stones are placed in front, and
+separating the ten little memorials from the three at the back is a
+large head-stone, bearing the name--"Comport of Cowling Court, 1771."
+Cooling Church, which has the date 1615 on one of the bells, has an
+example of a Hagioscope, a curious, small, square, angular, tunnel-like
+opening through the wall, which divides the nave from the chancel. It is
+said to have been the place through which those members of the church,
+who were unworthy or unable to receive the sacred elements, might get a
+look at their more acceptable companions during the administration of
+the sacrament. The Rev. W. H. A. Leaver, the Rector, who kindly shows us
+over his church, in reply to our question as to whether he could give
+any information about Charles Dickens, said that he was a new-comer in
+the district, and that all he remembers is, that when his sister was a
+little baby in arms, her mother happened once to be travelling in the
+same train with the great novelist, who, with his usual kindness, gave
+the child an orange, which she acknowledged very ungratefully by
+scratching his face!
+
+The following is a picture of the neighbourhood, given in the opening
+sentences of the story:--
+
+          "Ours was the marsh country, down by the river,
+          within, as the river wound, twenty miles of the
+          sea. My first most vivid and broad impression of
+          the identity of things, seems to me to have been
+          gained on a memorable raw afternoon towards
+          evening. At such a time, I found out for certain,
+          that this bleak place overgrown with nettles was
+          the churchyard; and that Philip Pirrip, late of
+          this parish, and also Georgiana, wife of above,
+          were dead and buried; and that Alexander,
+          Bartholomew, Abraham, Tobias, and Roger, infant
+          children of the aforesaid, were also dead and
+          buried; and that the dark flat wilderness beyond
+          the churchyard, intersected with dykes, and
+          mounds, and gates, with scattered cattle feeding
+          on it, was the marshes; and that the low leaden
+          line beyond was the river; and that the distant
+          savage lair, from which the wind was rushing, was
+          the sea; and that the small bundle of shivers
+          growing afraid of it all, and beginning to cry,
+          was Pip."
+
+[Illustration: Graves of the Comport Family: in Cooling Churchyard]
+
+Here follows the appearance of the awful convict, and the terrible
+threats by which he induces Pip to bring him "that file and them
+wittles" on the morrow; to enforce obedience the convict tilts Pip two
+or three times, "and then" [says Pip] "he gave me a most tremendous dip
+and roll, so that the church jumped over its own weathercock." Then he
+held him by the arms in an upright position on the top of the stone,
+finally threatening him "with having his heart and liver torn out," in
+case of non-compliance.
+
+All the characters described in _Great Expectations_, and all the scenes
+wherein they played their parts--Pip, with and without his "great
+expectations"; his sister Mrs. Joe Gargery, "on the rampage with
+Tickler;" Joe Gargery, "ever the best of friends, dear Pip;" Mr. and
+Mrs. Hubble, the former fond of "a bit of savoury pork pie as would lay
+atop of anything you could mention and do no harm;" the stage-struck
+Wopsle, _alias_ "Mr. Waldengarver"; "the servile Pumblechook;" the two
+convicts, "Pip's convict," Magwitch, with "the great iron on his leg,"
+and the "other convict," Compeyson, also ironed; "slouching old" Orlick;
+Biddy, simple-hearted and loving; "the Serjeant" and "party of
+soldiers"; Mr. Jaggers, "the Old Bailey lawyer"; Estella, Miss Havisham,
+Herbert Pocket, and Bentley Drummle at "the market town"; Joe's Forge
+(now converted into a dwelling-house); "The Three Jolly Bargemen"
+(obviously taken from "The Three Horse-shoes," the present village inn);
+the "old Battery," "the little sluice-house by the lime-kiln;"--all
+centre round Cooling churchyard, and appear before us as though traced
+on a map.
+
+Forster says in the _Life_:--"It is strange as I transcribe the words,
+with what wonderful vividness they bring back the very spot on which we
+stood when he said he meant to make it the scene of the opening of
+this story--Cooling Castle ruins and the desolate Church, lying out
+among the marshes seven miles from Gad's Hill!"
+
+[Illustration: Cooling Church.]
+
+Beyond where the river runs to the sea, we conjure up the chase and
+recapture of Pip's convict, while poor Pip himself, assisted by his
+friend Herbert Pocket, is straining every nerve to get him away. As
+illustrative of the wonderfully careful way in which Dickens did all his
+work, we also read in Forster's _Life_:--
+
+"To make himself sure of the actual course of a boat in such
+circumstances, and what possible incidents the adventure might have,
+Dickens hired a steamer for the day from Blackwall to Southend. Eight or
+nine friends, and three or four members of his family, were on board,
+and he seemed to have no care, the whole of that summer day (22nd of
+May, 1861), except to enjoy their enjoyment and entertain them with his
+own in shape of a thousand whims and fancies; but his sleepless
+observation was at work all the time, and nothing had escaped his keen
+vision on either side of the river. The fifteenth chapter of the third
+volume is a masterpiece."
+
+Speaking generally of this fascinating story, which possesses a
+thousand-fold greater interest to us now we visit the country there
+described (not formerly very accessible, but now readily approached by
+the railway from Gravesend to Sheerness, alighting at Cliffe, the
+nearest station to Cooling), Forster says:--
+
+"It may be doubted if Dickens could better have established his right to
+the front rank among novelists claimed for him, than by the ease and
+mastery with which, in these two books of _Copperfield_ and _Great
+Expectations_, he kept perfectly distinct the two stories of a boy's
+childhood, both told in the form of autobiography."
+
+The marshes are also alluded to twice in _Bleak House_--first, in
+chapter one--"Fog on the Essex marshes, fog on the Kentish heights;" and
+secondly, in the twenty-sixth chapter, in the dialogue between Trooper
+George and his odd but kind-hearted attendant Phil Squod, the original
+of which, by the bye, was a Chatham character.
+
+          "'And so, Phil,' says George of the shooting
+          gallery, after several turns in silence; 'you were
+          dreaming of the country last night.'
+
+          "Phil, by the bye, said as much, in a tone of
+          surprise, as he scrambled out of bed.
+
+          "'Yes, guv'ner.'
+
+          "'What was it like?'
+
+          "'I hardly know what it was like, guv'ner,' said
+          Phil, considering.
+
+          "'How did you know it was the country?'
+
+          "'On accounts of the grass, I think. And the swans
+          upon it,' says Phil, after further consideration.
+
+          "'What were the swans doing on the grass?'
+
+          "'They was a eating of it, I expect,' says
+          Phil. . . .
+
+          "'The country,' says Mr. George, applying his
+          knife and fork, 'why I suppose you never clapped
+          your eyes on the country, Phil?'
+
+          "'I see the marshes once,' says Phil, contentedly
+          eating his breakfast.
+
+          "'What marshes?'
+
+          "'_The_ marshes, commander,' returns Phil.
+
+          "'Where are they?'
+
+          "'I don't know where they are,' says Phil, 'but I
+          see 'em, guv'ner. They was flat. And miste.'"
+
+Forster says:--"About the whole of this Cooling churchyard, indeed, and
+the neighbouring castle ruins, there was a weird strangeness that made
+it one of his [Dickens's] attractive walks in the late year or winter,
+when from Higham he could get to it across country, over the stubble
+fields; and, for a shorter summer walk, he was not less fond of going
+round the village of Shorne, and sitting on a hot afternoon in its
+pretty shady churchyard."
+
+Altogether, the place has a dreary and lonesome appearance in the close
+of the summer evening, and we can picture with wonderful vividness the
+remarkable scenes described in _Great Expectations_, as the lurid purple
+reflection from the setting sun spreads over the Thames valley, and
+lights up the marshes; the tall pollards standing out like spectres
+contribute to the weirdness and beauty of the scene.
+
+Dickens was not the only admirer of the Marshes. Turner also visited
+them, and painted some of his most famous pictures from observation
+there, namely "Stangate Creek," "Shrimping Sands," and "Off Sheerness."
+
+A few paces from the church brings us to Cooling Castle, built by Sir
+John de Cobham, the third Baron Cobham, in the reign of Richard II.,
+whose arms appear on the gatehouse, together with a very curious motto
+in early English characters. We extract the following interesting
+account of the tower from the _Archaeologia Cantiana_ (vol. xi.):--
+
+[Illustration: Gateway Cooling Castle]
+
+"On the south face of the eastern Outer Gate Tower, we see the
+well-known inscription, which takes the form of a Charter, with Lord
+Cobham's seal appended to it. This is formed of fourteen copper plates
+exquisitely enamelled. The writing is in black, while the ground is of
+white enamel; the seal and silk cords are of the proper colours. The
+whole work is an exquisite example of enamel, which after five hundred
+years' exposure to the weather remains nearly as good as when it was put
+up. The inscription states very clearly why Lord Cobham erected a castle
+here, viz. for the safety of the country. The French invasion had shewn
+the need, and the inscription was perhaps intended to disarm the
+suspicions and hostility of the serfs by reminding them of that need.
+It runs thus, in four lines, each enamelled upon three plates of
+copper:--
+
+          "'Knoweth that beth and schul be
+            That i am mad in help of the cuntre
+            In knowyng of whyche thyng
+            Thys is chartre and witnessyng.'"
+
+"(Seal, 'gules', on a chevron 'or' three lions rampant 'sable'.)
+
+"Inscriptions are rare on Gothic buildings, especially on castles. This
+at Coulyng is remarkable from being in English, at a time when Latin was
+employed in all charters; it contains that early form of the plural
+'beth' instead of 'are.' The inscription measures thirty-two inches by
+fourteen, and the diameter of the seal is no less than seven and a
+quarter inches long."
+
+After stopping a short time to admire the imposing entrance gate and the
+remains of the ancient moat, we wend our way for two or three miles, by
+lanes and "over the stubble-fields," to the straggling village of
+Cliffe,[36] the houses of which are very old and mostly weather-boarded.
+The approach to the church is by a rare example of a lich-gate, having a
+room over it for muniments, and the church itself (which is very large,
+and seems to be out of proportion to the size of the village) stands in
+a commanding position on a ridge of chalk, overlooking the marshes, from
+whence the views of the river in the distance are very fine. It is
+supposed to be the place where the Saxon Church held its councils, and
+there is a local tradition of a ferry having once existed near here.
+Evidence of this seems to survive in the fact that all the roads both on
+the Kent and Essex shores appear to converge to this point. The church
+has some interesting _miserere_ stalls and brasses to the Faunce family
+(17th century). On the walls we find specimens of that somewhat rare
+fern, the scaly spleenwort (_Ceterach officinarum_).
+
+[Illustration: Cliffe Church]
+
+Time does not permit us to go on to Gravesend, which like this place
+was one of Dickens's favourite spots ("We come, you see" [says Mr.
+Peggotty, speaking of himself and Ham to David Copperfield, when they
+visited him at Salem House], "the wind and tide making in our favor, in
+one of our Yarmouth lugs to Gravesen'"), so we defer our visit to that
+popular resort until another occasion.
+
+We notice in places where the harvest has been cleared (which, alas!
+owing to excess of wet and absence of sun, has not been an abundant
+one), preparations for cultivation next year, exhibiting that peculiar
+effect from ploughing which that gifted writer and born naturalist, the
+late Richard Jeffreys, described in his book _Wild Life in a Southern
+County_, with that love for common things which was so characteristic of
+him:--
+
+"The ploughmen usually take special care with their work near public
+roads, so that the furrows end on to the base of the highway shall be
+mathematically straight. They often succeed so well that the furrows
+look as if traced with a ruler, and exhibit curious effects of vanishing
+perspective. Along the furrow, just as it is turned, there runs a
+shimmering light as the eye traces it up. The ploughshare, heavy and
+drawn with great force, smooths the earth as it cleaves it, giving it
+for a time a 'face,' as it were, the moisture on which reflects the
+light. If you watch the farmers driving to market, you will see that
+they glance up the furrows to note the workmanship and look for game;
+you may tell from a distance if they espy a hare, by the check of the
+rein and the extended hand pointing."
+
+Our destination is now Higham--"Higham by Rochester, Kent,"--Dickens's
+nearest village, in which, from his first coming to Gad's Hill, he took
+the deepest interest, and after a further long tramp of nearly four
+miles steadily maintained, we reach Lower Higham towards dusk; and in a
+lane we ask an old labourer (who looks as though he would be all the
+better for "Three Acres and a Cow") if we are on the right road to
+Higham Station. Curtly but civilly the man answers, "Keep straight on,"
+when an incident occurs which brightens up matters considerably. The
+questioner says to the labourer, "Do you remember the late Charles
+Dickens?" (We always spoke, when in the district, of "the _late_ Charles
+Dickens," to distinguish him from his eldest son, who lived at Gad's
+Hill for some years after his father's death. Frequently the great
+novelist was spoken of by residents as "old Mr. Dickens!")
+
+"Do I remember Muster Dickens?" responds the venerable rustic, and his
+eyes sparkle, and his face beams with such animation that he becomes a
+different being. "Of course I do; he used to have games--running,
+jumping, and such-like--for us working people, and I've often won a
+prize. He used to come among us and give us refreshments, and make
+himself very pleasant."
+
+"How long have you lived in this parish?" says the questioner.
+
+"Sixty-seven year," is the answer.
+
+Time prevents further inquiries, so we bid our friend "good-evening."
+
+In referring to the sports at Gad's Hill, Mr. Langton has recorded how a
+friend sent him a broadside of a portion of one day's amusements, which
+from its amateurish appearance was probably printed by Dickens's sons at
+the private printing-press before alluded to. The occasion was the 26th
+December, 1866, and the Christmas sports were held in a field at the
+back of Gad's Hill Place. Mr. Trood, a former landlord of the "Sir John
+Falstaff" (whose name has been previously mentioned), had, by permission
+of Charles Dickens, a booth erected for the refreshment of persons
+contesting. The attendance was between two and three thousand, and there
+was not a single case of misconduct or damage. Mr. A. H. Layard, M.P.
+(afterwards Sir Austin Layard), was present, and took great interest in
+the proceedings, Dickens having appointed him "chief commissioner of the
+domestic police." Sir Austin Layard said of the sports, "Dickens seemed
+to have bound every creature present upon what honour the creature had
+to keep order. What was the special means used, or the art employed, it
+might have been difficult to say, but that was the result." We made
+every effort to obtain one of the bills of these sports, but without
+success, and therefore take the liberty of quoting from Mr. Langton's
+copy:--
+
+                             =Christmas Sports.=
+                            The All-Comers' Race.
+                       Distance--Once round the field.
+           First Prize 10_s._; Second, 5_s._; Third, 2_s._ 6_d._
+          Entries to be made in MR. TROOD'S tent before 12 o'clock.
+                              To start at 2.45.
+                            Starter--M. STONE, ESQ.
+                      Judge and Referee--C. DICKENS, ESQ.
+                 Clerk of the Course--C. DICKENS, JUNR., ESQ.
+          Stewards and Keepers of the Course--MESSRS. A. H. LAYARD,
+                 M.P., H. CHORLEY, J. HULKES, and H. DICKENS.
+
+In a letter written to Mr. Forster next day, Dickens said, "The road
+between this and Chatham was like a fair all day, and surely it is a
+fine thing to get such perfect behaviour out of a reckless sea-port
+town."
+
+We presently meet with another representative of the class of village
+labourer at Upper Higham, a cheery old man, although, as is sadly too
+often the case in his class, he was suffering from "the Rheumatiz."
+"Those are nice chrysanthemums in your garden," we observe. "Yes, they
+are, sir," he replies; "but if they had been better attended to when
+they was young, they'd have been nicer." "Well, I suppose both of us
+would," is the rejoinder. We are in touch on the instant. Our new
+acquaintance laughs, and so a question or two is put to him, and the
+following is the substance of his answers, rendered _a la_ Jingle but
+very feelingly:--
+
+"Mr. Dickens was a nice sort of man--very much liked--missed a great
+deal when he died--poor people and the like felt the miss of him. He was
+a man as shifted a good deal of money in the place. You see, he had a
+lot of friends--kept a good many horses,--and then there was the men to
+attend to 'em, and the corn-chandler, the blacksmith, the wheelwright,
+and others to be paid--the poor--and such-like--felt the miss of him
+when he died."
+
+"How long have you lived here?"
+
+"Well, I come in '45, eleven years before Mr. Dickens."
+
+"And I suppose you are over sixty."
+
+"Well, sir, I shall never see seventy again."
+
+Wishing our friend "good-night," we continue our tramp. On another
+occasion we met, in the same place, a third specimen of village
+labourer, "a mender of roads," who knew Charles Dickens, and so we
+walked and chatted pleasantly with him for some distance. Said our
+informant, "You see, Mr. Dickens was a very liberal man; he held his
+head high up when he walked, and went at great strides." The "mender of
+roads" was some years ago a candidate for a vacant place as
+under-gardener at Gad's Hill, but the situation was filled up just an
+hour before he applied for it. He said Mr. Dickens gave him
+half-a-crown, and afterwards always recognized him when he met him with
+a pleasant nod, or cheerfully "passed the time of day." We heard in many
+places that Dickens was "always kindly" in this way to his own
+domestics, and to the villagers in a like station of life to our
+intelligent friend "the mender of roads." A fourth villager, a groom,
+who had been in his present situation for twenty years, said:--"Both the
+old gentleman and young Mr. Charles were very much liked in Higham.
+There wasn't a single person in the place, I believe, but what had a
+good word for them."
+
+It may be interesting to mention that Higham--the old name of which was
+Lillechurch--is an extensive parish divided into several hamlets. In a
+useful little book published in 1882, called _A Handbook of Higham_, the
+Rev. C. H. Fielding, M.A., the author, says:--"There are few parishes
+more interesting than Higham, as it provides food for the antiquarian
+and the student of Nature; while its position near the 'Medway smooth,
+and the Royal-masted Thame,' affords to the artist many an opportunity
+for a picture, while the idler has the privilege of lovely views." Mr.
+Roach Smith was of opinion that Higham was the seat of "a great Roman
+pottery." A Monastery of importance existed here for several centuries,
+Mary, daughter of King Stephen, being one of the Prioresses; but it was
+dissolved by Henry VIII. The list of flowering plants given in Mr.
+Fielding's book is extensive and interesting, and contains many
+rarities.
+
+A "Cheap Jack," a veritable Doctor Marigold, had taken up his quarters
+at Higham, and we loiter among the bystanders to hear his patter. We
+feel quite sure that had Dickens been present he would have listened and
+been as amused with him as ourselves. We heard a few days previously the
+public crier going round in his cart, announcing the arrival of this
+worthy by ringing his bell and proclaiming in a stentorian voice
+something to this effect:--
+
+"The public is respectfully informed that the Cheap Jack has arrived,
+bringing with him a large assortment of London, Birmingham, and
+Sheffield goods, together with a choice collection of glass and
+earthenware, which he will sell every evening at the most reasonable
+prices."
+
+On our arrival here we find him on his rostrum surrounded by some
+flaring naphtha lamps, and thus disposing of some penny books of songs:
+"Now, ladies and gentlemen, what shall we have the pleasure of saying
+for this handsome book, containing over a hundred songs sung by all the
+great singers of the day--Macdermott, Madam Langtry, Sims Reeves, and
+other eminent vocalists--besides numerous toasts and readings. Well, I
+won't ask sixpence, and I won't take fivepence, fourpence, threepence,
+twopence--no, I only ask a penny. Sold again, and got the money. Take
+care of the ha'pence" (to his assistant), "for we gives them to the
+blind when they can see to pick 'em up." We of course bought a copy of
+the famous collection as a "Dickens-item."
+
+Before returning to Rochester we are anxious to identify the
+blacksmith's shop where the _feu de joie_ was fired from "two smuggled
+cannons," in honour of the marriage of Miss Kate Dickens to Mr. Charles
+Collins. Alterations have taken place which render identification
+impossible; but a local blacksmith, who has established himself here,
+gives us some interesting particulars of the games in which he took
+part. He mentions also a circumstance relating to Dickens's favourite
+horse, Toby. It appears that it was an express wish of the novelist that
+when he died this horse should be shot; and according to our informant
+the horse was shod on the Tuesday before the 9th of June (the day of
+Dickens's death), and shot on the following Monday. The gun was loaded
+with small shot, and poor Toby died immediately it was fired. The
+blacksmith thoroughly confirms the opinion of the old labourers as to
+the kindness of Charles Dickens to his poorer neighbours. A curious
+episode occurs in our conference with this man: he seems under the
+impression, which no amount of assertion on our part can overcome, that
+my friend and fellow tramp, Mr. Kitton, is Mr. Henry Fielding Dickens.
+Whether there was any facial resemblance or likeness of manner did not
+transpire, but again and again he kept saying, "Now ain't you Harry
+Dickens?" Among the names at Higham we notice that of a well-remembered
+Dickens character--Mr. Stiggins!
+
+On arriving at Higham Railway Station, we chat a bit with the
+station-master and porter there, but both are comparatively fresh comers
+and knew not Charles Dickens. After an enjoyable but somewhat fatiguing
+tramp, we are glad to take a late evening train from Higham to Strood,
+and thus ends our inspection of the land of "the Meshes."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+By the kindness of Mr. Henry Smetham (locally famed as the "Laureate of
+Strood"), we subsequently had an introduction to Mrs. Taylor, formerly
+school-mistress at Higham, who came there in 1860, and remained until
+some years after the death of Charles Dickens. She knew the novelist
+well, and used to see him almost every day when he was at home. She
+said, "If I had met him and did not know who he was, I should have set
+him down as a good-hearted English gentleman." He was very popular and
+much liked in the neighbourhood. On his return from America, in the
+first week of May, 1868, garlands of flowers were put by the villagers
+across the road from the railway station to Gad's Hill. There was a flag
+at Gad's (a Union Jack, she thinks), which was always hoisted when
+Dickens was at home. He never read at Higham, and never came to the
+school; but he always allowed the use of the meadow at the back of Gad's
+Hill Place for the school treats, either of church or chapel, and
+contributed to such treats sweets and what not.
+
+Mrs. Taylor remembers that the carriage was sent down from Gad's Hill
+Place to the Higham railway station nearly every night at ten o'clock to
+meet either Charles Dickens or his friends. It passed the school, and
+she well recollects the pleasant sound made by the bells. She heard
+Dickens read _Sairey Gamp_ in London once, and did not like the dress he
+wore, but thought the reading very wonderful.
+
+This lady says she was in London at the time of the death of Charles
+Dickens, the announcement of which she saw on a newspaper placard, and
+was ill the whole of the day afterwards. It was a sorrowful day for her.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We are much indebted to Mrs. Budden of Gad's Hill Place for the
+following interesting particulars which she obtained from Mrs. Easedown,
+of Higham, "who was parlour-maid to Mr. Dickens, and left to be married
+on the 8th of June, the day he was seized with the fit. She says it was
+her duty to hoist the flag on the top of the house directly Mr. Dickens
+arrived at Gad's Hill. It was a small flag, not more than fourteen
+inches square, and was kept in the billiard-room. She says he was the
+dearest and best gentleman that ever lived, and the kindest of masters.
+He asked her to stay and wait at table the night he was taken ill; she
+said if he wished it she would, and then he said, 'Never mind; I don't
+feel well.' She saw him after he was dead, laid out in the dining-room,
+when his coffin was covered with scarlet geraniums--his favourite
+flower. The flower-beds on the lawns at Gad's Hill in his time were
+always filled with scarlet geraniums; they have since been done away
+with. Over the head of the coffin was the oil painting of himself as a
+young man (probably Maclise's portrait)--on one side a picture of 'Dolly
+Varden,' and on the other 'Kate Nickleby.' He gave Mrs. Easedown, on the
+day she left his service, a photograph of himself with his name written
+on the back. Each of the other servants at Gad's Hill Place was
+presented with a similar photograph. She said he was unusually busy at
+the time of his death, as on the Monday morning he ordered breakfast to
+be ready during the week at 7.30 ('Sharp, mind') instead of his usual
+time, 9 o'clock, as he said 'he had so much to do before Friday.'
+But--'Such a thing was never to be,' for on the Thursday he breathed his
+last!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mrs. Wright, the wife of Mr. Henry Wright, surveyor of Higham, lived
+four years at Gad's Hill Place as parlour-maid. She is the proud
+possessor of some interesting relics of her late master. These include
+his soup-plate, a meerschaum pipe (presented to him, but he chiefly
+smoked cigars--he was not a great smoker), a wool-worked kettle-holder
+(which he constantly used), and a pair of small bellows. When she was
+married Mr. Dickens presented her with a China tea service, "not a
+single piece of which," said Mrs. Wright proudly, "has been broken."
+
+She remembers, at the time of her engagement as parlour-maid, that the
+servants told her to let a gentleman in at the front door who was
+approaching. She didn't know who it was, as she had never seen Mr.
+Dickens before. She opened the door, and the gentleman entered in a very
+upright manner, and after thanking her, looked hard at her, and then
+walked up-stairs. On returning to the kitchen the servants asked who it
+was that had just come in. She replied, "I don't know, but I think it
+was the master." "Did he speak?" they asked. "No," said she, "but he
+looked at me in a very determined way." Said they, "He was reading your
+character, and he now knows you thoroughly," or words to that effect.
+
+As parlour-maid, it was part of her duty to carve and wait on her master
+specially. The dinner serviettes were wrapped up in a peculiar manner,
+and Mrs. Wright remembers that Lord Darnley's servants were always
+anxious to learn how the folding was done, but they never discovered the
+secret. At dinner-parties, it was the custom to place a little
+"button-hole" for each guest. This was mostly made up of scarlet
+geranium (Dickens's favourite flower), with a bit of the leaf and a
+frond of maidenhair fern. On one occasion in her early days, the
+dinner-lift (to the use of which she was unaccustomed) broke and ran
+down quickly, smashing the crockery and bruising her arm. Mr. Dickens
+jumped up quickly and said, "Never mind the breakage; is your arm
+hurt?" As it was painful, he immediately applied arnica to the bruise,
+and gave her a glass of port wine, "treating me," Mrs. Wright remarked,
+"more like a child of his own than a servant."
+
+When she was married, and left Gad's Hill, she brought her first child
+to show her former master. He took notice of it, and asked her what he
+could buy as a present. She thanked him, and said she did not want
+anything. On leaving he gently put a sovereign into the baby's little
+hand, and said, "Buy something with that."
+
+Mrs. Wright spoke of the great interest which Dickens took in the
+children's treats at Higham, lending his meadow for them, providing
+sweets and cakes for the little ones, and apples to be scrambled for. He
+took great delight in seeing the scrambles.
+
+She also referred to the cricket club, and said that when the matches
+were going on it was a regular holiday at Higham. Dickens used to take
+the scores, and at the end of the game he gave prizes and made little
+speeches. Her husband, Mr. Henry Wright, acted as secretary to the club,
+and is the possessor of a letter written by Mr. Dickens, in reply to an
+address which had been presented to him, of which letter the following
+is a copy:--
+
+
+                                  "GAD'S HILL PLACE,
+                               "HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT.
+                                 "_Tuesday, 29th July, 1862._
+
+          "DEAR SIR,
+
+          "As your name is the first on the list of
+          signatures to the little address I have had the
+          pleasure of receiving--on my return from a short
+          absence--from the greater part of the players in
+          the match the other day, I address my reply to
+          you.
+
+          "I beg you to assure the rest that it will always
+          give me great pleasure to lend my meadow for any
+          such good purpose, and that I feel a sincere
+          desire to be a good friend to the working men in
+          this neighbourhood. I am always interested in
+          their welfare, and am always heartily glad to see
+          them enjoying rational and healthful recreation.
+
+          "It did not escape my notice that some expressions
+          were used the other day which would have been
+          better avoided, but I dismiss them from my mind as
+          being probably unintentional, and certainly
+          opposed to the general good feeling and good
+          sense.
+
+                             "Faithfully yours,
+                                        "CHARLES DICKENS.
+          "MR. H. WRIGHT."
+
+Both Mrs. Easedown and Mrs. Wright informed us (through Mrs. Budden)
+that "Mr. Dickens was the best of masters, and a dear good man; that he
+gave a great deal away in the parish, and was very much missed; that he
+frequently went to church and sat in the chancel. . . . When he lived in
+Higham there used to be a great deal of ague, and he gave away an
+immense quantity of port wine and quinine. Since the Cement Works have
+been at Cliffe there has been very little ague at Higham."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mr. Robert Lake Cobb, of Mockbeggar House, Higham, a land agent of high
+position and a County Councillor, told us that he took in the _Pickwick
+Papers_ as they appeared in numbers, and he recollected how eagerly he
+read them, and how tiresome it was to have to wait month by month until
+the story was finished. The book made a tremendous sensation at the
+time. Many years afterwards Charles Dickens came to reside at Gad's Hill
+Place, and the families became intimate. "Mr. Dickens," observed our
+informant, "was a very pleasant neighbour, and had always got something
+nice to say. He was a dreadful man to walk--very few could keep up with
+him."
+
+Mr. Cobb had one son, Herbert, who was a playfellow of Dickens's boys;
+and as illustrative of the interest he took in his neighbours, on one
+occasion the novelist and our informant were talking over matters, when
+the former said, "What are you going to bring your boy up to?" "A land
+agent," replied Mr. Cobb. "Ah," said the novelist, "whatever you do,
+make him self-reliant." He thought that of all the sons Mr. Henry
+Fielding Dickens most resembled his father.
+
+Among the notable people Mr. Cobb met at Gad's Hill Place were Mr.
+Forster, Mr. Wilkie Collins, Mr. Fechter the actor, and others. When
+Hans Christian Andersen was visiting there, Dickens took him to Higham
+Church. Mr. Cobb spoke of the pleasant picnic parties which Dickens gave
+on Blue Bell Hill. He was of opinion that Cob-Tree Hall in that
+neighbourhood, about one and a half miles from Aylesford, nearly
+parallel with the river, suggested the original of Manor Farm, Dingley
+Dell. It formerly belonged to Mr. Franklin, and is now occupied by Major
+Trousdell. Mr. Cobb believed that Dickens took the title of _No
+Thoroughfare_--which he and Wilkie Collins contributed to the 1867
+number of _All the Year Round_, and in the dramatizing of which Dickens
+subsequently was so interested--from the notice-boards which were put up
+by Lord Darnley in many parts of Cobham Park.
+
+On one occasion our informant remembers a stoppage of the train in
+Higham tunnel, which caused some consternation to the passengers, as no
+explanation of the delay was forthcoming from any of the railway
+officials. The station-master coming up at the time, Dickens
+remarked--"Ah! an unwilling witness, Mr. Wood."
+
+Mr. Cobb mentioned that Miss Hogarth, Dickens's sister-in-law, was a
+great favourite in the neighbourhood, from her kindness and
+thoughtfulness for all with whom she came in contact, and especially the
+poor of Higham.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[35] Speaking of Hoo, Lambarde says (1570)--"Hoh in the old English
+signifieth sorrow or sickness, wherewith the Inhabitants of that
+unwholesome Hundred be very much exercised[!]."
+
+[36] Lambarde says, "The Town [of Cliffe at Hoo] is large, and hath
+hitherto a great Parish Church: and (as I have been told) many of the
+houses were casually burned (about the same time that the Emperor
+_Charles_ came into this Realme to visite King _Henry_ the eight), of
+which hurt it was never thorowly cured."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+COBHAM PARK AND HALL, THE LEATHER BOTTLE, SHORNE, CHALK, AND THE DOVER
+ROAD.
+
+        "It's a place you may well be fond of and attached
+          to, for it's the prettiest spot in all the country
+          round."--_The Village Coquettes._
+
+        "The last soft light of the setting sun had fallen
+          on the earth, casting a rich glow on the yellow
+          corn sheaves, and lengthening the shadows of the
+          orchard trees."--_The Pickwick Papers._
+
+
+WE reserve this, our last long tramp in "Dickens-Land," for the Friday
+before our departure. Mrs. Perugini, the novelist's second daughter, had
+recently told us that this was the most beautiful of all the beautiful
+parts of Kent, and so indeed it proves to be. Its sylvan scenery is
+truly unique.
+
+Mr. Charles Dickens the younger, in his valuable annotated Jubilee
+edition of _Pickwick_, has included this note relating to Cobham:--
+
+"As all the world knows, the neighbourhood of Rochester was dear to
+Charles Dickens. There it is that Gad's Hill Place stands, the house to
+which, as 'a queer, small boy,' he looked forward as the possible reward
+of an industrious career, and in which he passed the later years of his
+life; and near Rochester, still approached by the 'delightful walk'
+here described, is Cobham, one of the most charming villages in that
+part of Kent. Down the lanes, and through the park to Cobham, was always
+a favourite walk with Charles Dickens; and he never wearied of acting as
+_cicerone_ to his guests to its fine church and the quaint almshouses
+with the disused refectory behind it."
+
+Happily the weather again favours us on this delightful excursion. It is
+just such a day as that on which we made our visit to Gad's Hill. As we
+have had much tramping about Rochester during the morning, we prudently
+take an early afternoon train to Higham, to save our legs. The short
+distance of about four miles consists almost entirely of tunnels cut
+through the chalk.
+
+Alighting at Higham Station, we make our way for the Dover Road and
+reach Pear Tree Lane, which turns out of it for Cobham. We notice in
+passing through Higham by daylight that the lanes are much closed in by
+banks, in fact, the tertiary and chalk systems have been cut through to
+form the roads; but here and there one gets glimpses of the Thames, its
+course being marked by the white or brown wings of sailing-boats.
+
+The lane above alluded to, a little above Gad's Hill, is the direct road
+to Cobham, and on entering it we are immediately struck with the
+different scene presented, as compared with any part of the county we
+have previously gone over. It is cut through the Thanet Sands, which at
+first are of ashy gray colour, but after some distance are of a bright
+red hue, probably owing to infiltration, and the road rises gently until
+the woods are reached. The vegetation growing on the high banks consists
+of oak, hazel, beech, sycamore, and Spanish chestnut, in many places
+intermingled with wild clematis. The branches of the trees are not
+allowed to grow over into the road, but are kept well cut back so as
+practically to form a wall on either side, extending in some places to
+twelve feet high. The effect is to present an almost unbroken surface of
+various shades of green, deliciously cool and shady in the heat of
+summer, and brightened here and there in autumn by the rich
+orange-coloured fruit of the arum, the scarlet berries of the white
+bryony, and--deeper in the woods--by the pinky-waxen berries of the
+spindle-tree, described by Lord Tennyson as "the fruit which in our
+winter woodland looks a flower."
+
+As the road continually winds in its upward progress, and as no part
+within view extends beyond a few hundred yards before it turns again,
+the limit of perspective is frequently arrested by a number of evergreen
+arches. It was a Devonshire lane, so to speak, in a state of
+cultivation. Of course in the early spring, the delicacy of the fresh
+green foliage would give another picture; and again the autumnal tints
+would present a totally different effect under the influence of the rich
+colouring of decaying vegetation.
+
+No wonder Dickens and his friends had such admiration for this walk, the
+last, by the way, that he ever enjoyed, on Tuesday, 7th June, 1870, with
+his sister-in-law, Miss Hogarth, the day before the fatal seizure. In a
+letter written from Lausanne, so far back as the year 1846, he says:--
+
+"Green woods and green shades about here are more like Cobham, in Kent,
+than anything we dream of at the foot of Alpine passes."
+
+When we reach an elevation and are able to get an extended view of the
+country we have traversed, a magnificent prospect of the Thames valley
+on the west side, and of the Medway valley on the east, discloses
+itself. On a bank in this lane we find a rather rare plant, the
+long-stalked crane's-bill (_Geranium columbinum_), its rose-pink flowers
+standing out like rubies among the green foliage. _Pteris aquilina_, the
+common brake or bracken, is very luxuriant here; but we have met with
+few ferns in the part of Kent which we visited. We were afterwards
+informed that _asplenium_, _lastrea_, _scolopendrium_, and others are to
+be found in the neighbourhood. We pass at Shorne Ridgway a village inn
+with a curious sign, "Ye Olde See Ho Taverne." On inquiry, we learn that
+"See Ho" is the sportsman's cry in coursing, when a hare appears in
+sight.
+
+The woods surrounding the entrance to the park are presently reached,
+and here the vegetation, which in the lanes had been kept under, is
+allowed to grow unchecked. At intervals walks (or "rides," as they are
+called in some counties) are cut through the woods, the grass being well
+mown underneath, and each of these walks is a shaded grove, losing
+itself in the distance. The deep silence of the place is only broken by
+the cooing of the wood-pigeon, and the occasional piercing note of the
+green woodpecker. It is said that the nightingales appear here about the
+13th of April and continue singing until June, and that the best time
+for seeing this neighbourhood is during the blossoming season in May.
+
+The temptation to quote Dickens's own description of Cobham Park from
+_Pickwick_ cannot be resisted:--
+
+          "A delightful walk it was; for it was a pleasant
+          afternoon in June, and their way lay through a
+          deep and shady wood, cooled by the light wind
+          which gently rustled the thick foliage, and
+          enlivened by the songs of the birds that perched
+          upon the boughs. The ivy and the moss crept in
+          thick clusters over the old trees, and the soft
+          green turf overspread the ground like a silken
+          mat. They emerged upon an open park, with an
+          ancient hall, displaying the quaint and
+          picturesque architecture of Elizabeth's time. Long
+          vistas of stately oaks and elm trees appeared on
+          every side: large herds of deer were cropping the
+          fresh grass; and occasionally a startled hare
+          scoured along the ground with the speed of the
+          shadows thrown by the light clouds, which swept
+          across a sunny landscape like a passing breath of
+          summer."
+
+Another description of Cobham at another time of the year is found in
+the _Seven Poor Travellers_:--
+
+        "As for me, I was going to walk, by Cobham Woods,
+         as far upon my way to London as I fancied. . . .
+         And now the mists began to rise in the most
+         beautiful manner, and the sun to shine; and as I
+         went on through the bracing air, seeing the
+         hoar-frost sparkle everywhere, I felt as if all
+         Nature shared in the joy of the great Birthday. . . .
+         By Cobham Hall I came to the village, and the
+         churchyard where the dead had been quietly buried
+         'in the sure and certain hope' which Christmastide
+         inspired."
+
+We notice in our quiet tramp here a peculiarity in the foliage of the
+oaks which is worth recording. It will be remembered that in the late
+spring of 1888, anxiety was expressed by certain newspaper
+correspondents that the English oak would suffer extermination in
+consequence of caterpillars denuding it of its leaves. But naturalists
+who had studied the question knew better. The caterpillar, which is no
+doubt the larva of the green Tortrix moth (_Tortrix viridana_), spins
+its cocoon at the end of June or the beginning of July, and the effect
+of the heavy rains and warm sunny days since that time was to encourage
+the energy of the tree in putting forth its second growth of leaves.
+This second growth of delicate green almost covered the oaks in Cobham
+Park, and effectually concealed the devastation of the caterpillars on
+the old leaves. The effect was quite spring-like. Truly, as George Eliot
+says, "Nature repairs her ravages."
+
+[Illustration: Cobham Hall.]
+
+Cobham Park is nearly seven miles round, and its exquisitely varied
+scenery of wood and glade is conspicuous at the spot where the chestnut
+tree called "The Four Sisters" is placed. There is a lovely walk from
+Cobham Hall to Rochester through the "Long Avenue," so named in
+contradistinction to the "Grand Avenue," which opens into Cobham
+village. This walk, which slopes all the way down from the Mausoleum,
+leads to a seat placed midway in an open spot where charming views of
+the Medway valley are obtained. For rich sylvan scenery in the county of
+Kent, this is surely unrivalled.
+
+Admission to Cobham Hall, the seat of the Earl of Darnley (whose
+ancestors have resided here since the time of King John), is on Fridays
+only, and such admission is obtained by ticket, procurable from Mr.
+Wildish, bookseller, of Rochester. A nominal charge is made, the
+proceeds being devoted towards maintaining Cobham schools.
+
+The Hall is a red-brick edifice (temp. Elizabeth, 1587), consisting of
+two Tudor wings, connected by a central block designed by Inigo Jones.
+The most noticeable objects in the entrance corridor are a fine pair of
+columns of Cornish serpentine, nearly ten feet high, tapering from a
+base some two feet square. The white veining of the steatite (soapstone)
+is in beautiful contrast to the rich red and black colours of the
+marble. These columns were purchased at the great Exhibition of 1851. An
+enormous bath, hewn out of a solid block of granite said to have been
+brought from Egypt, is also a very noticeable object in this corridor.
+
+The housekeeper--a chatty, intelligent, and portly personage--shows
+visitors over the rooms and picture-galleries. There is a superb
+collection of pictures by the Old Masters, about which Dickens had
+always something facetious to say to his friends. They illustrate the
+schools of Venice, Florence, Rome, Netherlands, Spain, France, and
+England, and were formed mainly by purchases from the Orleans Gallery,
+and the Vetturi Gallery from Florence, and include Titian's 'Rape of
+Europa,' Rubens's 'Queen Tomyris dipping Cyrus's head into blood,'
+Salvator Rosa's 'Death of Regulus,' Vandyck's 'Duke of Lennox,' Sir
+Joshua Reynolds's 'The Call of Samuel,' and others. But the pictures in
+which we are most interested are the portraits of literary, scientific,
+and other worthies--an excellent collection, including Shakespeare, John
+Locke, Hobbes, Sir Richard Steele, Sir William Temple, Dean Swift,
+Dryden, Betterton, Pope, Gay, Thomson, Sir Hugh Middleton, Martin
+Luther, and the ill-fated Lord George Gordon.
+
+There is also an ornithological museum, with some very fine specimens of
+the order of grallatores (or waders). In reply to a letter of inquiry,
+the Earl of Darnley kindly informs us that the examples of ostrich
+(_Struthio camelus_), cassowary (_Casuarius galeatus_), and common emu
+(_Dromaius ater_), were once alive in the menagerie attached to the
+hall, which was broken up about fifty years ago.
+
+We are shown the music-room (which, by the bye, his late majesty King
+George IV., is said to have remarked was the finest room in England), a
+very handsome apartment facing the west, with a large organ, and capable
+of containing several hundred persons. The decorations are very chaste,
+being in white and gold; and, as the brilliant sun was setting in the
+summer evening, a delicate rose-coloured hue was diffused over
+everything in the room through the medium of the tinted blinds attached
+to the windows. It had a most peculiar and pretty effect, strongly
+recalling Mrs. Skewton and her "rose-coloured curtains for doctors."
+
+[Illustration: Dickens's Chalet, now in Cobham Park.]
+
+By the special permission of his lordship, we see the famous Swiss
+chalet, which is now erected in the terrace flower-garden at the back of
+Cobham Hall, having been removed to its present position some years ago
+from another part of the grounds. It stands on an elevated open space
+surrounded by beautiful trees--the rare Salisburia, tulip, cedar,
+chestnut and others--and makes a handsome addition to the garden,
+irrespective of its historical associations. The chalet is of dark wood
+varnished, and has in the centre a large carving of Dickens's crest,
+which in heraldic terms is described as: "a lion couchant 'or,' holding
+in the gamb a cross patonce 'sable.'"
+
+There are two rooms in the chalet, each about sixteen feet square, the
+one below having four windows and a door, and the one above (approached
+in the usual Swiss fashion by an external staircase), which is much the
+prettier, having six windows and a door. There are shutters outside, and
+the overhanging roof at first sight gives the building somewhat of a
+top-heavy appearance, but this impression wears off after a time, and it
+is found to be effective and well-proportioned. "The five mirrors" which
+Dickens placed in the chalet have been removed from the upper room, but
+they are scarcely necessary, the views of rich and varied foliage and
+flowers seen from the open windows, through which the balmy air passes,
+forming a series of pictures in the bright sunlight of the August
+afternoon delightfully fresh and beautiful. We sit down quietly for a
+few minutes and enjoy the privilege; we ponder on the many happy and
+industrious hours spent by its late owner in this now classic building;
+and we leave it sadly, with the recollection that here were penned the
+last lines which the "vanished hand" was destined to give to the world.
+
+The Earl of Darnley generously allows his neighbours to have a key of
+his park, and Dickens had one of such keys, a privilege greatly
+appreciated by him and his friends. Recently his lordship has erected a
+staircase round one of the highest trees in the park, called the "crow's
+nest," from whence a very pretty peep at the surrounding country is
+obtained.
+
+During our visit we venture to ask the portly housekeeper if she
+remembers Charles Dickens? The ray of delight that illumines her
+good-natured countenance is simply magical.
+
+"Oh," she says, "I liked Mr. Dickens very much. He was always so full of
+fun. Oh! oh! oh!" the recollection of which causes a fit of suppressed
+laughter, which "communicates a blancmange-like motion to her fat
+cheeks," and she adds: "He used to dine here, and was always very
+popular with the family, and in the neighbourhood."
+
+We cannot help thinking that such delightful places as Cobham Hall were
+in Dickens's mind when, in _Bleak House_ (_a propos_ of Chesney Wold),
+he makes the volatile Harold Skimpole say to Sir Leicester Dedlock--"The
+owners of such places are public benefactors. They are good enough to
+maintain a number of delightful objects for the admiration and pleasure
+of us poor men, and not to reap all the admiration and pleasure that
+they yield, is to be ungrateful to our benefactors."
+
+Leaving the park by a pretty undulating walk, and passing on our way a
+large herd of deer, their brown and fawn-coloured coats contrasting
+prettily with the green-sward, we come upon the picturesque village of
+Cobham, where Mr. Tupman sought consolation after his little affair with
+the amatory spinster aunt. Of course the principal object of interest is
+the Leather Bottle, or "Dickens's old Pickwick Leather Bottle," as the
+sign of the present landlord now calls it, wherein Dickens slept a night
+in 1841, and visited it many times subsequently. There is a coloured
+portrait of the President of the Pickwick Club on the sign, as he
+appeared addressing the members. A fire occurred at the Leather Bottle a
+few years ago, but it was confined to a back portion of the building;
+unfortunately its restoration and so-called "improvements" have
+destroyed many of the picturesque features which characterized this
+quiet old inn when Dickens wrote the famous Papers. Here is his
+description of it after Mr. Pickwick, Mr. Snodgrass, and Mr. Winkle had
+walked through Cobham Park to seek their lost friend:--
+
+[Illustration: The "Leather Bottle" Cobham]
+
+          "'If this,' said Mr. Pickwick, looking about him;
+          'if this were the place to which all who are
+          troubled with our friend's complaint came, I fancy
+          their old attachment to this world would very soon
+          return.'
+
+          "'I think so too,' said Mr. Winkle.
+
+          "'And really,' added Mr. Pickwick, after half an
+          hour's walking had brought them to the village,
+          'really for a misanthrope's choice, this is one of
+          the prettiest and most desirable places of
+          residence I ever met with.'
+
+          "In this opinion also, both Mr. Winkle and Mr.
+          Snodgrass expressed their concurrence; and having
+          been directed to the Leather Bottle, a clean and
+          commodious village ale-house, the three
+          travellers entered, and at once inquired for a
+          gentleman of the name of Tupman.
+
+          "'Show the gentlemen into the parlour, Tom,' said
+          the landlady.
+
+          "A stout country lad opened a door at the end of
+          the passage, and the three friends entered a long,
+          low-roofed room, furnished with a large number of
+          high-backed leather-cushioned chairs, of fantastic
+          shapes, and embellished with a great variety of
+          old portraits, and roughly-coloured prints of some
+          antiquity. At the upper end of the room was a
+          table, with a white cloth upon it, well covered
+          with a roast fowl, bacon, ale, and etceteras; and
+          at the table sat Mr. Tupman, looking as unlike a
+          man who had taken his leave of the world, as
+          possible.
+
+          "On the entrance of his friends, that gentleman
+          laid down his knife and fork, and with a mournful
+          air advanced to meet them.
+
+          "'I did not expect to see you here,' he said, as
+          he grasped Mr. Pickwick's hand. 'It's very kind.'
+
+          "'Ah!' said Mr. Pickwick, sitting down, and wiping
+          from his forehead the perspiration which the walk
+          had engendered. 'Finish your dinner, and walk out
+          with me. I wish to speak to you alone.'
+
+          "Mr. Tupman did as he was desired; and Mr.
+          Pickwick having refreshed himself with a copious
+          draught of ale, waited his friend's leisure. The
+          dinner was quickly despatched, and they walked out
+          together.
+
+          "For half an hour, their forms might have been
+          seen pacing the churchyard to and fro, while Mr.
+          Pickwick was engaged in combating his companion's
+          resolution. Any repetition of his arguments would
+          be useless; for what language could convey to them
+          that energy and force which their great
+          originator's manner communicated? Whether Mr.
+          Tupman was already tired of retirement, or whether
+          he was wholly unable to resist the eloquent appeal
+          which was made to him, matters not; he did _not_
+          resist it at last.
+
+          "'It mattered little to him,' he said, 'where he
+          dragged out the miserable remainder of his days:
+          and since his friend laid so much stress upon his
+          humble companionship, he was willing to share his
+          adventures.'
+
+          "Mr. Pickwick smiled; they shook hands; and walked
+          back to rejoin their companions."
+
+[Illustration: The Old Parlour of the "Leather Bottle."]
+
+[Illustration: Cobham Church]
+
+In order to preserve the historical associations of the place, the
+landlord of the Leather Bottle has added to the art collection in the
+fine old parlour (that still contains "the high-backed leather-cushioned
+chairs of fantastic shapes") many portraits of Dickens and illustrations
+from his works, including a copy of the life-like coloured Watkins
+photograph previously referred to. It has been already suggested that
+the neighbourhood of Kit's Coty House probably gave rise to the famous
+archaeological episode of the stone with the inscription--"Bill Stumps,
+his mark," in _Pickwick_, which occurred near here, rivalling the "A. D.
+L. L." discovery of the sage Monkbarns in Scott's _Antiquary_.
+
+Time presses with us, so, after a refreshing cup of tea, we just have a
+hasty glance at the beautiful old church, which contains some splendid
+examples of monumental brasses, which for number and preservation are
+said to be unique. They are erected to the memory of John Cobham,
+Constable of Rochester, 1354, his ancestors and others.[37] There are
+also some fine old almshouses which accommodate twenty pensioners. These
+almshouses are a survival of the ancient college. We then take our
+departure, returning through Cobham woods.
+
+Turning off at some distance on the left, and passing through the little
+village of Shorne, with its pretty churchyard, a very favourite spot of
+Charles Dickens, and probably described by him in _Pickwick_ as "one of
+the most peaceful and secluded churchyards in Kent, where wild flowers
+mingle with the grass, and the soft landscape around, forms the fairest
+spot in the garden of England"--we make for Chalk church. It will be
+remembered, that the first number of _Pickwick_ appeared on the 31st
+March, 1836, and on the 2nd of April following Charles Dickens was
+married, and came to spend his honeymoon at Chalk, and he visited it
+again in 1837, when doubtless the descriptions of Cobham and its
+vicinity were written. To this neighbourhood, "at all times of his life,
+he returned, with a strange recurring fondness."
+
+[Illustration: Shorne Church]
+
+Mr. Kitton has favoured me with permission to quote the following
+extract from his Supplement to _Charles Dickens by Pen and Pencil_,
+being the late Mr. E. Laman Blanchard's recollections of this pleasant
+neighbourhood:--
+
+"In the year Charles Dickens came to reside at Gad's Hill, I took
+possession of a country house at Rosherville, which I occupied for some
+seventeen years. During that period a favourite morning walk was along
+the high road, of many memories, leading from Gravesend to Rochester,
+and on repeated occasions I had the good fortune to encounter the great
+novelist making one of his pedestrian excursions towards the Gravesend
+or Greenhithe railway station, where he would take the train to travel
+up to town. Generally, by a curious coincidence, we passed each other,
+with an interchange of salutations, at about the same spot. This was on
+the outskirts of the village of Chalk, where a picturesque lane branched
+off towards Shorne and Cobham. Here the brisk walk of Charles Dickens
+was always slackened, and he never failed to glance meditatively for a
+few moments at the windows of a corner house on the southern side of the
+road, advantageously situated for commanding views of the river and the
+far-stretching landscape beyond. It was in that house he had lived
+immediately after his marriage, and there many of the earlier chapters
+of _Pickwick_ were written."
+
+It is a long walk from Cobham to Chalk church,--the church, by the bye,
+being about a mile from the village, as is usual in many places in
+Kent,--and as the shades of evening are coming upon us, and as we are
+desirous of having a sketch of the curious stone-carved figure over the
+entrance porch, we hurry on, and succeed in effecting our object, though
+under the difficulty of approaching darkness.
+
+[Illustration: Curious Old Figure over the Porch, Chalk Church.]
+
+This figure represents an old priest in a stooping position, with an
+upturned vessel (probably a jug), about which we were informed there is
+probably a legend. Dickens used to be a great admirer of this quaint
+carving, and it is said that whenever he passed it, he always took off
+his hat to it, or gave it a friendly nod, as to an old acquaintance. [We
+regretfully record the fact that since our visit, both porch and figure
+have been demolished.]
+
+Amid the many strange sounds peculiar to summer night in the country, a
+very weird and startling effect is produced in this lonely spot, in the
+dusk of the evening, by the shrill whistle of the common redshank
+(_Totanus calidris_), so called from the colour of its legs, which are
+of a crimson-red. This bird, as monotonous in its call-note as the
+corn-crake, to which it is closely allied, doubtless has its home in the
+marshes hereabout, in which, and in fen countries, it greatly delights.
+The peculiar whistle is almost ventriloquial in its ubiquity, and must
+be heard to be properly appreciated.
+
+We retrace our steps to the Dover road, and by the light of a match
+applied to our pipes, see that our pedometer marks upwards of fifteen
+miles for this tramp--"a rather busy afternoon," as Mr. Datchery once
+said.
+
+Since these lines were written, the third volume of the _Autobiography
+and Reminiscences_ of W. P. Frith, R.A., has been published, in which
+there is a most interesting reminiscence of Dickens; indeed, there are
+many scattered throughout the three volumes, but the one in question
+refers to "a stroll" which Dickens took with Mr. Frith and other friends
+in July 1868. Mr. Cartwright, the celebrated dentist, was one of the
+party, and the "stroll" was in reality, as the genial R. A. describes
+it, "a fearfully long walk" such as he shall never forget; nor the night
+he passed, without once closing his eyes in sleep, after it. "Dickens,"
+continues Mr. Frith, "was a great pedestrian. His strolling was at the
+rate of perhaps a little under four miles an hour. He was used to the
+place,--I was not, and suffered accordingly."
+
+Having a shrewd suspicion that this referred to one of the long walks
+taken in our tramp, the present writer communicated with Mr. Frith on
+the subject, and he was favoured with the following reply:--
+
+"The stroll I mentioned in my third volume was through Lord Darnley's
+park, but after that I remember nothing. As the time spent in walking
+was four hours at least, we must have covered ground far beyond the
+length of the park.
+
+"On another occasion,--Dickens, Miss Hogarth, and I went to Rochester to
+see the Castle, and the famous Pickwickian inn. On another day we went
+to the Leather Bottle at Cobham, where Dickens was eloquent on the
+subject of the Dadd parricide, showing us the place where the body was
+found, with many startling and interesting details of the discovery."
+
+The subject of the Dadd parricide alluded to by Mr. Frith was a very
+horrible case; the son--an artist--was a lunatic, and was subsequently
+confined in Bethlehem Hospital, London. There are two curious pictures
+by him in the Dyce and Forster collection at South Kensington; one is
+inscribed "Sketches to Illustrate the Passions--Patriotism. By Richard
+Dadd, Bethlehem Hospital, London, May 30, 1857, St. George's-in-the-Fields."
+It has much minute writing on it. The other is "Leonidas with the
+Wood-cutters," and illustrates Glover's poem, _Leonidas_. It is
+inscribed, "Rd. Dadd, 1873." He died in Bethlehem Hospital in 1887.
+
+The Dover Road! What a magic influence it has over us, as we tramp along
+it in the quiet summer evening, and recall an incident that happened
+nearly a hundred years ago, what time the Dover mail struggled up
+Shooter's Hill on that memorable Friday night, and Jerry Cruncher, who
+had temporarily suspended his "fishing" operations, and being free from
+the annoyances of the "Aggerawayter," caused consternation to the minds
+of coachman, guard, and passengers of the said mail, by riding abruptly
+up, _a la_ highwayman, and demanding to speak to a passenger named Mr.
+Jarvis Lorry, then on his way to Paris,--as faithfully chronicled in _A
+Tale of Two Cities_. Again, in the early part of the present century,
+when a certain friendless but dear and artless boy, named David
+Copperfield,--who having been first robbed by a "long-legged young man
+with a very little empty donkey-cart, which was nothing but a large
+wooden-tray on wheels," of "half a guinea and his box," under pretence
+of "driving him to the pollis," and subsequently defrauded by an
+unscrupulous tailor named one Mr. Dolloby ("Dolloby was the name over
+the shop-door at least") of the proper price of "a little weskit," for
+which he, Dolloby, gave poor David only ninepence,--trudged along that
+same Dover road footsore and hungry, "and got through twenty-three miles
+on the straight road" to Rochester and Chatham on a certain Sunday; all
+of which is duly recorded in _The Personal History of David
+Copperfield_.
+
+In after years, when happier times came to him, David made many journeys
+over the Dover road, between Canterbury and London, on the Canterbury
+Coach. Respecting the earliest of these (readers will remember Phiz's
+illustration, "My first fall in life"), he says:--
+
+"The main object on my mind, I remember, when we got fairly on the road,
+was to appear as old as possible to the coachman, and to speak extremely
+gruff. The latter point I achieved at great personal inconvenience; but
+I stuck to it, because I felt it was a grown-up sort of thing."
+
+In spite of this assumption, he is impudently chaffed by "William the
+coachman" on his "shooting"--on his "county" (Suffolk), its "dumplings,"
+and its "Punches," and finally, at William's suggestion, actually
+resigns his box-seat in favour of his (William's) friend, "the
+gentleman with a very unpromising squint and a prominent chin, who had a
+tall white hat on with a narrow flat brim, and whose close-fitting drab
+trousers seemed to button all the way up outside his legs from his boots
+to his hips." In reply to a remark of the coachman this worthy
+says:--"There ain't no sort of 'orse that I 'ain't bred, and no sort of
+dorg. 'Orses and dorgs is some men's fancy. They're wittles and drink to
+me--lodging, wife, and children--reading, writing, and 'rithmetic--snuff,
+tobacker, and sleep."
+
+"That ain't a sort of man to see sitting behind a coach-box, is it,
+though?" says William in David's ear. David construes this remark into
+an indication of a wish that "the gentleman" should have his place, so
+he blushingly offers to resign it.
+
+"Well, if you don't mind," says William, "I think it would be more
+correct."
+
+Poor David, "so very young!" gives up his box-seat, and thus moralizes
+on his action:--
+
+          "I have always considered this as the first fall I
+          had in life. When I booked my place at the
+          coach-office, I had had 'Box Seat' written against
+          the entry, and had given the book-keeper
+          half-a-crown. I was got up in a special great coat
+          and shawl, expressly to do honour to that
+          distinguished eminence; had glorified myself upon
+          it a good deal; and had felt that I was a credit
+          to the coach. And here, in the very first stage, I
+          was supplanted by a shabby man with a squint, who
+          had no other merit than smelling like a
+          livery-stables, and being able to walk across me,
+          more like a fly than a human being, while the
+          horses were at a canter."
+
+Pip, in _Great Expectations_, also made very many journeys to and from
+London, along the Dover road (the London road it is called in the
+novel), but the two most notable were, firstly, the occasion of his
+ride outside the coach with the two convicts as fellow-passengers on the
+back-seat--"bringing with them that curious flavour of bread-poultice,
+baize, rope-yarn, and hearth-stone, which attends the convict presence;"
+and secondly, that in which he walked all the way to London, after the
+sad interview at Miss Havisham's house, where he learns that Estella is
+to become the wife of Bentley Drummle:--
+
+          "All done, all gone! So much was done and gone,
+          that when I went out at the gate the light of day
+          seemed of a darker colour than when I went in. For
+          awhile I hid myself among some lanes and bypaths,
+          and then started off to walk all the way to
+          London. . . . It was past midnight when I crossed
+          London Bridge."
+
+One more reference is made to the Dover road in _Bleak House_, where
+that most lovable of the many lovable characters in Dickens's novels,
+Esther Summerson, makes her journey, with her faithful little maid
+Charley, to Deal, in order to comfort Richard Carstone:--
+
+          "It was a night's journey in those coach times;
+          but we had the mail to ourselves, and did not find
+          the night very tedious. It passed with me as I
+          suppose it would with most people under such
+          circumstances. At one while, my journey looked
+          hopeful, and at another hopeless. Now, I thought
+          that I should do some good, and now I wondered how
+          I could ever have supposed so."
+
+When speaking of Dickens's characters, some critics have said that "he
+never drew a gentleman." One ventures to ask, Where is there a more
+chivalrous, honourable, or kind-hearted gentleman than Mr. John
+Jarndyce? Sir Leicester Dedlock in the same novel too, with some few
+peculiarities, is a thoroughly high-minded and noble gentleman of the
+old school. This by the way.
+
+[Illustration: "There's Milestones on the Dover Road"]
+
+After walking some distance, we are able to verify one of those sage
+experiences of Mr. F.'s aunt:--"There's milestones on the Dover road!"
+for, by the light of another match, the darkness closing in, and there
+being no moon, we read "4 miles to Rochester." However, we tramp merrily
+on, with "the town lights right afore us," our minds being full of
+pleasant reminiscences of the scenes we have passed through, and this
+expedition, like many a weightier matter, "comes to an end for the
+time."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We had on another occasion the pleasure of a long chat with Mrs. Latter
+of Shorne, one of the daughters of Mr. W. S. Trood, for many years
+landlord of the Sir John Falstaff. She said her family came from
+Somersetshire to reside at Gad's Mill in the year 1849, and left in
+1872. The Falstaff was then a little homely place, but it has been much
+altered since. She knew Charles Dickens very well, and saw him
+constantly during his residence at Gad's Hill Place. Mrs. Latter lost
+two sisters while she lived at the Falstaff--one died at the age of
+eleven, and the other at nineteen. The last-mentioned was named Jane,
+and died in 1862 of brain fever. Dickens was very kind to the family at
+the time, took great interest in the poor girl, and offered help of
+"anything that his house could afford." She remembers her mother asking
+Dickens if it would be well to have the windows of the bedroom open. At
+those times people were fond of keeping invalids closed up from the air.
+Dickens said--"Certainly: give her plenty of air." He liked fresh air
+himself. Mrs. Latter said in proof of this that the curtains were always
+blowing about the open windows at Gad's Hill Place.
+
+When her sister Jane died, the funeral took place at Higham Church, and
+was very quiet, there being no show, only a little black pall trimmed
+with white placed over the coffin, which was carried by young men to the
+grave. Dickens afterwards commended what had been done, saying: "It
+showed good sense," and adding--"Not like an army of black beetles."
+
+It will be remembered that in _Great Expectations_ and elsewhere the
+ostentation, mummery, and extravagance of the "undertaking ceremony" are
+severely criticised. The same feeling, and a desire for funeral reform,
+no doubt prompted Dickens to insert the following clause in his Will:--
+
+"I emphatically direct that I be buried in an inexpensive,
+unostentatious, and strictly private manner; that no public announcement
+be made of the time or place of my burial; that at the utmost not more
+than three plain mourning-coaches be employed; and that those who attend
+my funeral wear no scarf, cloak, black bow, long hatband, or other such
+revolting absurdity."
+
+Mrs. Latter then told us the story of the two men with performing
+bears:--
+
+It appears that soon after Dickens came to Gad's Hill a lot of labourers
+from Strood--some thirty or forty in number--had been for an outing in
+breaks to Cobham to a "bean-feast," or something of the kind, and some
+of them had got "rather fresh." On the return journey they stopped at
+the Falstaff, and at the time two men, who were foreigners, were there
+with performing bears, a very large one and a smaller one. The labourers
+began to lark with the bears, teased them, and made them savage,
+"becalled" the two men to whom they belonged, and a regular row
+followed. The owners of the bears became exasperated, and were
+proceeding to unmuzzle the animals, when Dickens (hearing the noise)
+came out of his gate holding one of his St. Bernard dogs by a chain. He
+told Mrs. Latter's father to take the bears up a back lane, said a few
+words to the crowd, and remonstrated with the Strood men on their
+conduct. The effect was magical; the whole affair was stilled in a
+minute or two.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On a subsequent occasion we called upon the Rev. John Joseph Marsham of
+Overblow, near Shorne. This venerable clergyman, a bachelor, and in his
+eighty-fifth year, is totally blind, but in other respects is in the
+full possession of all his faculties, and remarked that he was much
+interested to hear anybody talk about old friends and times. He was
+inducted as Vicar of Shorne in the year 1837, came to live there in
+1845, and resigned his cure in 1888, after completing his jubilee. He is
+a "Kentish man," having been born at Rochester. In our tramp the
+question of "Kentish man," or "man of Kent," often cropped up, and we
+had an opportunity of having the difference explained to us. A "Kentish
+man" is one born on the east side of the river Medway, and a "man of
+Kent" is one born on the west side.
+
+The position of the residence "Overblow" is delightful. It stands on a
+little hill, the front having a fine view of the Thames valley and the
+marshes, the side looking on to the pretty hollow, in the centre of
+which stands Shorne Church, and the back being flanked in the distance
+by the beautiful Cobham Woods.
+
+The reverend gentleman told us that he was a schoolfellow of the Right
+Honourable W. E. Gladstone and Sir Thomas Gladstone, his brother, at
+Eton, and had dined with the former at Hawarden on the occasion of his
+being thrice Premier, although he helped to turn his old friend out at
+Oxford in 1865, when he was succeeded by the Right Honourable Gathorne
+Hardy, now Lord Cranbrook.
+
+Mr. Marsham was a neighbour of Charles Dickens, occasionally dined with
+him at Gad's Hill, and also met him at dinner sometimes at Mr. Hulkes's
+at the Little Hermitage. He spoke of him as a nice neighbour and a
+charming host, but he rarely talked except to his old friends. He
+frequently met Dickens in his walks, and had many a stroll with him, and
+always found him very interesting and amusing in his conversation. Once
+they were coming down from London together in a saloon carriage which
+contained about twelve or fourteen people. Dickens was sitting quietly
+in a corner. It was at the time that one of his serial novels was
+appearing, and most of the passengers were reading the current monthly
+number. No one noticed Dickens, and when the train stopped at Strood, he
+said--"We did not have much talk." "No," said Mr. Marsham, "the people
+were much better engaged," at which Dickens laughed. Charles Dickens
+did Mr. Marsham the kindness to send him early proofs of his Christmas
+stories before they were published.
+
+After Dickens's death (which he heard of in London, and never felt so
+grieved in his life) Mr. Charles Dickens the younger, and Mr. Charles
+Collins, his brother-in-law, came to select a piece of ground on the
+east side of Shorne churchyard, which was one of Dickens's favourite
+spots, but in consequence of the arrangements for the burial in
+Westminster Abbey this was of course given up.
+
+Mr. Marsham was staying in London, at Lord Penrhyn's, at the time of
+Dickens's death, and Lady Louisa Penrhyn told him that by accident she
+was in Westminster Abbey at about ten o'clock on the morning of 14th
+June, the day of the funeral, and noticing some persons standing round
+an open grave, her ladyship went to see it, and was greatly impressed on
+looking in to read the name of Charles Dickens on the coffin, on which
+were numerous wreaths of flowers.
+
+Our venerable friend possesses a souvenir of the novelist in the two
+exquisite plaster statuettes, about eighteen inches high, of "Night" and
+"Morning," which he purchased at the Gad's Hill sale.
+
+The reverend gentleman spoke of the great improvements in travelling as
+compared with times within his recollection. He said that before the
+railways were constructed he went to London by boat from Gravesend, and
+the river was so bad that he had to keep his handkerchief to his nose
+all the way to avoid the stench. This was long before the days of Thames
+Embankments and other improvements in travelling by river and road.
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[37] "Cobham Church [says a writer in the _Archaeologia Cantiana_, 1877]
+is distinguished above all others as possessing the finest and most
+complete series of brasses in the kingdom. It contains some of the
+earliest and some of the latest, as well as some of the most beautiful
+in design. The inscriptions are also remarkable, and the heraldry for
+its intelligence is in itself a study. There is an interest also in the
+fact that for the most part they refer to one great family--the Lords of
+Cobham."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+A FINAL TRAMP IN ROCHESTER AND LONDON.
+
+        "You have been in every line I have ever read,
+          since I first came here, . . . you have been in
+          every prospect I have ever seen since--on the
+          river, on the sails of the ships, on the marshes,
+          in the clouds, in the light, in the darkness, in
+          the wind, in the woods, in the sea, in the
+          streets."--_Great Expectations._
+
+        "The magic reel, which, rolling on before, has led
+          the Chronicler thus far, now slackens in its pace,
+          and stops. It lies before the goal; the pursuit is
+          at an end. . . . Good-night, and heaven send our
+          journey may have a prosperous ending."--_The Old
+          Curiosity Shop._
+
+
+IT is the morning of Saturday, the first of September, 1888, when our
+wonderfully pleasant week's tramp in "Dickens-Land" comes to an end. We
+have carried out every detail of our programme, without a single
+_contretemps_ to mar the enjoyment of our delightful holiday; we have
+visited not only the spots where the childhood and youth of Charles
+Dickens were passed, and where the influence of the environment is
+specially traceable in the tone of both his earlier and later writings,
+but we have gone over and identified (as we proposed to do) a number of
+places in which he delighted, and often described in those writings,
+peopling them with airy characters (but to us most real), in whose
+footsteps we have walked. We have seen the place where he was born; we
+have seen nearly all the houses in which he lived in after life; and we
+have been over the charming home occupied by him for fourteen years,
+where his last moments passed away under the affectionate and
+reverential solicitude of his sons and daughters, and of Miss Hogarth,
+his sister-in-law, "the ever-useful, self-denying, and devoted friend."
+
+And now we linger lovingly about a few of the streets and places in "the
+ancient city," and especially in the precincts of the venerable
+Cathedral, all sanctified by the memory of the mighty dead. We fain
+would prolong our visit, but the "stern mandate of duty," as Immanuel
+Kant called it, prevails, and we bow to the inevitable; or as Mr.
+Herbert Spencer better puts it, "our duty is our pleasure, and our
+greatest happiness consists in achieving the happiness of others." We
+feel our departure to-day the more keenly, as everything tempts us to
+stay. Listening for a moment at the open door--the beautiful west
+door--of the Cathedral, in this glorious morning in early autumn, we
+hear the harmonies of the organ and choir softly wafted to us from
+within; we feel the delicious morning air, which comes over the old
+Castle and burial-ground from the Kentish hills; we see the bright and
+beautiful flowers and foliage of the lovely catalpa tree, through which
+the sunlight glints; a solemn calm pervades the spot as the hum of the
+city is hushed; and, although we have read them over and over again,
+now, for the first time, do we adequately realize the exquisitely
+touching lines on the last page of _Edwin Drood_, written by the
+master-hand that was so soon to be stilled for ever:--
+
+[Illustration: Doorway Rochester Cathedral]
+
+          "A brilliant morning shines on the old City. Its
+          antiquities and ruins are surpassingly beautiful,
+          with the lusty ivy gleaming in the sun, and the
+          rich trees waving in the balmy air. Changes of
+          glorious light from moving boughs, songs of birds,
+          scents from gardens, woods and fields--or,
+          rather, from the one great garden of the whole of
+          the cultivated island in its yielding
+          time--penetrate into the Cathedral, subdue its
+          earthy odour, and preach the Resurrection and the
+          Life. The cold stone tombs of centuries ago grow
+          warm; and flecks of brightness dart into the
+          sternest marble corners of the building,
+          fluttering there like wings."
+
+Having time to reflect on our experiences, we are able to understand how
+greatly our feelings and ideas have been influenced for good, both
+regarding the personality of the novelist and his writings.
+
+In the course of our rambles we have interviewed many people in various
+walks of life who knew Dickens well, and their interesting replies,
+mostly given in their own words, vividly bring before our mental vision
+the _man_ as he actually lived and moved among his neighbours, apart
+from any glamour with which we, as hero-worshippers, naturally invest
+him. We see him in his home, beloved by his family, taking kindly
+interest, as a country gentleman, in the poor of the district, entering
+into and personally encouraging their sports, and helping them in their
+distress. To his dependents and tradesmen he was kind, just, and
+honourable; to his friends genial, hospitable, and true; in himself
+eager, enthusiastic, and thorough. No man of his day had more friends,
+and he kept them as long as he lived. His favourite motto,
+"courage--persevere," comes before us constantly. All that we heard on
+the other side was contained in the expression--"rather masterful!"
+Rather masterful? Of course he was rather masterful--otherwise he would
+never have been Charles Dickens. What does he say in that unconscious
+description of himself, which he puts into the mouth of Boots at _The
+Holly-Tree Inn_, when referring to the father of Master Harry Walmers,
+Junior?
+
+          "He was a gentleman of spirit, and good-looking,
+          and held his head up when he walked, and had what
+          you may call Fire about him. He wrote poetry, and
+          he rode, and he ran, and he cricketed, and he
+          danced, and he acted, and he done it all equally
+          beautiful. . . . He was a gentleman that had a will
+          of his own and a eye of his own, and that would be
+          minded."
+
+Perfectly true do we find the summing up of his character, in his home
+at Gad's Hill, as given by Professor Minto in the last edition of the
+_Encyclopaedia Britannica_ (one of the most faithful, just, and
+appreciative articles ever written about Dickens):--"Here he worked, and
+walked, and saw his friends, and was loved and almost worshipped by his
+poorer neighbours, for miles around."
+
+Although tolerably familiar with most of the writings of Dickens from
+our youth, and, like many readers, having our favourites which may have
+absorbed our attention to the exclusion of others, we are bound to say
+that our little visit to Rochester and its neighbourhood--our
+"Dickens-Land"--rendered famous all the world over in the novels and
+minor works, gives a freshness, a brightness, and a reality to our
+conceptions scarcely expected, and never before experienced. The
+faithful descriptions of scenery witnessed by us for the first time in
+and about the "quaint city" of Rochester, the delightful neighbourhood
+of Cobham, the glorious old city of Canterbury, the dreary marshes and
+other localities: the more detailed pictures of particular places, like
+the Castle, the Cathedral, its crypt and tower, the Bull Inn, the Vines,
+Richard Watts's Charity, and others--the point of the situation in many
+of these cannot be realized without personal inspection and
+verification.
+
+And further, as by a sort of reflex action, another feeling comes
+uppermost in our minds, apart from the mere amusement and enjoyment of
+Dickens's works: we mean the actual benefits to humanity which, directly
+or indirectly, arise out of his writings; and we endorse the noble lines
+of dedication which his friend, Walter Savage Landor, addressed to him
+in his _Imaginary Conversations of Greeks and Romans_ (1853):--
+
+"Friends as we are, have long been, and ever shall be, I doubt whether I
+should have prefaced these pages with your name, were it not to register
+my judgment that, in breaking up and cultivating the unreclaimed wastes
+of Humanity, no labours have been so strenuous, so continuous, or half
+so successful, as yours. While the world admires in you an unlimited
+knowledge of mankind, deep thought, vivid imagination, and bursts of
+eloquence from unclouded heights, no less am I delighted when I see you
+at the school-room you have liberated from cruelty, and at the cottage
+you have purified from disease."
+
+We have before us--its edges browned by age--a reprint of a letter
+largely circulated at the time, addressed by Dickens to _The Times_,
+dated "Devonshire Terrace, 13th Novr., 1849," in which he describes, in
+graphic and powerful language, the ribald and disgusting scenes which he
+witnessed at Horsemonger Lane Gaol on the occasion of the execution of
+the Mannings. The letter is too long to quote in its entirety, but the
+following extract will suffice:--"I have seen habitually some of the
+worst sources of general contamination and corruption in this country,
+and I think there are not many phases of London life that could surprise
+me. I am solemnly convinced that nothing that ingenuity could devise to
+be done in this city in the same compass of time could work such ruin as
+one public execution, and I stand astounded and appalled by the
+wickedness it exhibits." The letter contains an urgent appeal to the
+then Home Secretary, Sir George Grey, "as a solemn duty which he owes to
+society, and a responsibility which he cannot for ever put away," to
+originate an immediate legislative change in this respect. Forster says
+in allusion to the above-mentioned letter:--"There began an active
+agitation against public executions, which never ceased until the
+salutary change was effected which has worked so well." Dickens happily
+lived to see the fruition of his labours, for the Private Execution Act
+was passed in 1868, and the last public execution took place at Newgate
+on 26th May of that year. As indicative of the new state of feeling at
+that time, it may be mentioned that the number of spectators was not
+large, and they were observed to conduct themselves with unusual
+decorum.
+
+It is valuable to record this as one of many public reforms which
+Dickens by his writings and influence certainly helped to accomplish. In
+his standard work on _Popular Government_ (1885), Sir Henry Sumner Maine
+says:-"Dickens, who spent his early manhood among the politicians of
+1832, trained in Bentham's school, [Bentham, by the bye, being quoted in
+_Edwin Drood_,] hardly ever wrote a novel without attacking an abuse.
+The procedure of the Court of Chancery and of the Ecclesiastical Courts,
+the delays of the Public Offices, the costliness of divorce, the state
+of the dwellings of the poor, and the condition of the cheap schools in
+the North of England, furnished him with what he seemed to consider, in
+all sincerity, the true moral of a series of fictions."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We bid a kindly adieu to the "dear old City" where so many genial
+friends have been made, so many happy hours have been passed, so many
+pleasant memories have been stored, and for the time leave
+
+                     "the pensive glory,
+          That fills the Kentish hills,"
+
+to take our seats in the train for London, with the intention of paying
+a brief visit to South Kensington, where, in the Forster Collection of
+the Museum, are treasured the greater portion of the manuscripts which
+constitute the principal works of Charles Dickens. It will be remembered
+that the Will of the great novelist contained the following simple but
+important clause:--"I also give to the said John Forster (whom he
+previously referred to as 'my dear and trusty friend') such manuscripts
+of my published works as may be in my possession at the time of my
+decease;" and that Mr. Forster by his Will bequeathed these priceless
+treasures to his wife for her life, in trust to pass over to the Nation
+at her decease. Mrs. Forster, who survives her husband, generously
+relinquished her life interest, in order to give immediate effect to his
+wishes; and thus in 1876, soon after Mr. Forster's death, they came into
+the undisturbed possession of the Nation for ever.
+
+Besides the manuscripts there are numbers of holograph letters, original
+sketches (including "The Apotheosis of Grip the Raven") by D. Maclise,
+R.A., and other interesting memorials relating to Charles Dickens. _The
+Handbook to the Dyce and Forster Collections_ rightly says that:--"This
+is a gift which will ever have the highest value, and be regarded with
+the deepest interest by people of every English-speaking nation, as long
+as the English language exists. Not only our own countrymen, but
+travellers from every country and colony into which Englishmen have
+spread, may here examine the original manuscripts of books which have
+been more widely read than any other uninspired writings throughout the
+world. Thousands, it cannot be doubted, who have been indebted for many
+an hour of pleasurable enjoyment when in health, for many an hour of
+solace when in weariness and pain, to these novels, will be glad to look
+upon them as each sheet was sent last to the printer, full of
+innumerable corrections from the hand of Charles Dickens."
+
+The manuscripts are fifteen in number, bound up into large quarto
+volumes, and comprise:--
+
+1. _Oliver Twist_--two Volumes, with Preface to the _Pickwick Papers_,
+and matter relating to _Master Humphrey's Clock_.
+
+2. _Sketches of Young Couples._
+
+3. _The Lamplighter_, a Farce. This MS. is not in the handwriting of
+Dickens.
+
+4. _The Old Curiosity Shop_--two Volumes, with Letter to Mr. Forster of
+17th January, 1841, and hints for some chapters.
+
+5. _Barnaby Rudge_--two Volumes.
+
+6. _American Notes._
+
+7. _Martin Chuzzlewit_--two Volumes, with various title-pages, notes as
+to the names, &c., and dedication to Miss Burdett Coutts.
+
+8. _The Chimes._
+
+9. _Dombey and Son_--two Volumes, with title-pages, headings of
+chapters, and memoranda.
+
+10. _David Copperfield_--two Volumes, with various title-pages, and
+memoranda as to names.
+
+11. _Bleak House_--two Volumes, with suggestions for title-pages and
+other memoranda.
+
+12. _Hard Times_--with memoranda.
+
+13. _Little Dorrit_--two Volumes, with memoranda, Dedication to Clarkson
+Stanfield, and Preface.
+
+14. _A Tale of Two Cities_--with Dedication to Lord John Russell, and
+Preface.
+
+15. _Edwin Drood_--unfinished, with memoranda, and headings for
+chapters.
+
+John Forster says:--"The last page of _Edwin Drood_ was written in the
+chalet in the afternoon of his last day of consciousness."
+
+Of the above-mentioned, the calligraphy of Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4, is seen
+at a glance to be larger, bolder, and to have fewer corrections. In Nos.
+5 to 15 it is smaller, and more confused by numerous alterations.
+According to Forster--"His greater pains and elaboration of writing
+became first very obvious in the later parts of _Martin Chuzzlewit_."
+
+The manuscripts of the earliest works of the Author, _Sketches by Boz_,
+_Pickwick_, _Nicholas Nickleby_, &c., were evidently not considered at
+the time worth preserving. The manuscript of _Our Mutual Friend_, given
+by Dickens to Mr. E. S. Dallas--in grateful acknowledgment of an
+appreciative review which (according to an article in _Scribner_,
+entitled "Our Mutual Friend in Manuscript") Mr. Dallas wrote of the
+novel for _The Times_, which largely increased the sale of the book, and
+fully established its success,--is in the library of Mr. G. W. Childs of
+Philadelphia; and that of _A Christmas Carol_--given by Dickens to his
+old friend and school-fellow, Tom Mitton--was for sale in Birmingham a
+few years ago, and might have been purchased for two hundred and fifty
+guineas! It is now owned by Mr. Stuart M. Samuel, and has since been
+beautifully reproduced in fac-simile, with an Introduction by my friend
+and fellow-tramp, Mr. F. G. Kitton. Mr. Wright, of Paris, is the
+fortunate possessor of _The Battle of Life_. The proof-sheets of _Great
+Expectations_ are in the Museum at Wisbech. Messrs. Jarvis and Son, of
+King William Street, Strand, sold some time since four of the MSS. of
+minor articles contributed by Dickens to _Household Words_ in 1855-6,
+viz. _The Friend of the Lions_, _Demeanour of Murderers_, _That other
+Public_, and _Our Commission_, for L10 each.
+
+At the sale of the late Mr. Wilkie Collins's manuscripts and library by
+Messrs. Sotheby, Wilkinson, and Hodge, 18th June, 1890, the manuscript
+of _The Frozen Deep_, by Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens, 1856 (first
+performed at Tavistock House, 6th January, 1857), together with the
+narrative written for _Temple Bar_, 1874, and Prompt Book of the same
+play, was sold for L300. A poem written by Charles Dickens, as a
+Prologue to the same play, and _The Song of the Wreck_, also written by
+Charles Dickens, were sold for L11 11_s._ each. _The Perils of Certain
+English Prisoners_, a joint production of Wilkie Collins and Charles
+Dickens, for the Christmas number of _Household Words_, 1857, realized
+L200; and the drama of _No Thoroughfare_ (imperfect), also a joint
+production, fetched L22.
+
+The manuscripts now belonging to the Nation at South Kensington are
+placed in a glazed cabinet, standing in the middle of the room, on the
+right of which looks down the life-like portrait of the great novelist,
+painted by W. P. Frith, R.A., in 1859. The manuscript volumes are laid
+open in an appropriate manner, so that we have an opportunity of
+examining and comparing them with one another, and of observing how the
+precious thoughts which flowed from the fertile brain took shape and
+became realities.
+
+Where corrections have been made, the original ideas are so obscured
+that it is scarcely possible to decipher them. This is effected, not by
+the simple method of an obliteration of the words, as is common with
+some authors, by means of a line or two run through them at one stroke
+of the pen, but by a series of connected circles, or scroll-work
+flourishes, thus, [Illustration] which must have caused greater muscular
+labour in execution. Let any one try the two methods for himself.
+Dickens was fond of flourishes, as witness his first published
+autograph, under the portrait which was issued with _Nicholas Nickleby_
+(1839). Some evidence of "writer's cramp," as it is termed, appears
+where the C in Charles becomes almost a G, and where the line-like
+flourishes to the signature thirty years later, under the portrait
+forming the frontispiece to _Edwin Drood_, are much shorter and less
+elaborate. All the earlier manuscripts are in black ink--the
+characteristic _blue_ ink, which he was so fond of using in later years,
+not appearing until _Hard Times_ was written (1854), and this continued
+to be (with one exception, _Little Dorrit_) his favourite writing
+medium, for the reason, it is said, that it was fluent to write with and
+dried quickly.
+
+From a valuable collection of letters (more than a dozen--recently in
+the possession of Messrs. Noel Conway and Co., of Martineau Street,
+Birmingham, and kindly shown to me by Mr. Charles Fendelow), written by
+the novelist between 1832 and 1833 to a friend of his earlier years--Mr.
+W. H. Kolle--and not hitherto published, it appears that he had not then
+acquired that precise habit of inscribing the place, day of the week,
+month, and the year which marked his later correspondence (as has been
+pointed out by Miss Hogarth and Miss Dickens in the preface to the
+_Letters of Charles Dickens_), very few of the letters to Mr. Kolle
+bearing any record whatever except the day of the week, occasionally
+preceded by Fitzroy Street or Bentinck Street, where he resided at the
+time. It would be extremely interesting to ascertain the reason which
+subsequently led him to adopt the extraordinarily precise method which
+almost invariably marked his correspondence from the year 1840 until the
+close of his life. Possibly arrangements with publishers and others may
+have given him the exact habit which afterwards became automatic.
+
+In addition to the manuscripts in the Forster Collection in the Museum
+there are corrected proofs of a portion of the _Pickwick Papers_,
+_Dombey and Son_, _David Copperfield_, _Bleak House_, and _Little
+Dorrit_. Some of the corrections in _Dombey and Son_ are said to be in
+the handwriting of Mr. Forster. All these proofs show marvellous
+attention to detail--one of the most conspicuous of Dickens's
+characteristics. Nothing with him was worth doing unless it was done
+well. As an illustration of work in this direction, it may be mentioned
+that a proof copy of the speech delivered at the meeting of the
+Administrative Reform Association at Drury Lane Theatre on Wednesday,
+June 27th, 1855, in the possession of the writer of these lines, has
+over a hundred corrections on the nine pages of which it consists, and
+many of these occur in punctuation. On careful examination, the
+alterations show that the correction in every case is a decided
+improvement on the original. The following _fac-similes_ from the
+_Hand-Book_ to the _Dyce and Forster Collection_, and from Forster's
+_Life_, illustrate the earlier, later, and latest handwritings of
+Charles Dickens as shown in the MSS. of _Oliver Twist_, 1837, _Hard
+Times_, 1854, and _Edwin Drood_, 1870.
+
+[Illustration: "OLIVER TWIST," 1837, vol. i. ch. xii.]
+
+[Illustration: "HARD TIMES," 1854, vol. i. ch. i.]
+
+[Illustration: "DAVID COPPERFIELD," 1850 (corrected proof), ch. xiv.]
+
+[Illustration: "EDWIN DROOD," 1870, ch. xxiii. p. 189 (_last MS.
+page_).]
+
+A proof of the fourteenth Chapter of _David Copperfield_, 1850, shows
+that the allusion to "King Charles the First's head"--about which Mr.
+Dick was so much troubled--was _not_ contained in the first draft of the
+story, for the passage originally had reference to "the date when that
+bull got into the china warehouse and did so much mischief." The
+subsequent reference to King Charles's head was a happy thought of
+Dickens, and furthered Mr. Dick's idea of the mistake "of putting some
+of the trouble out of King Charles's head" into his own.
+
+Mr. R. F. Sketchley, the able and courteous custodian of the collection,
+allows us to see some of the other rarities in the museum not displayed
+in the cabinet--prefaces, dedications, and memoranda relating to the
+novels; letters addressed by Dickens to Forster, Maclise, and others;
+rare play-bills; and the originals of invitations to the public dinner
+and ball at New York, which Dickens received on the occasion of his
+first visit to America in 1842. After turning these over with
+reverential care, we regretfully leave behind us one of the most
+interesting and important literary collections ever presented to the
+Nation.
+
+We next visit the Prerogative Registry of the United Kingdom at Somerset
+House, wherein is filed the original Will of Charles Dickens. The search
+for this interesting document pursued by a stranger under pressure of
+time, strongly reminds one of the "Circumlocution Office" so graphically
+described in _Bleak House_. But we are enthusiastic, and at length
+obtain a clue to it in a folio volume (Letter D), containing the names
+of testators who died in the year 1870, where the Will is briefly
+recorded (at number 468) as that of "Dickens, Charles, otherwise Charles
+John Huffham, Esquire." We pay our fees, and take our seats in the
+reading-room, when the original is presently placed in our hands. It is
+one of a series of three documents fastened together by a bit of green
+silk cord, and secured by the seal of the office, as is customary when
+there are two or more papers filed. The first document is the Will
+itself, dated 12th May, 1869, written throughout by the novelist very
+plainly and closely in the characteristic blue ink on a medium sheet of
+faint blue quarto letter paper, having the usual legal folded margin,
+and exactly covering the four pages. It is free from corrections, and is
+signed, "Charles Dickens," under which is the never-to-be-mistaken
+flourish. The testatum is signed by G. Holsworth, 26 Wellington Street,
+Strand, and Henry Walker, 26 Wellington Street, Strand, which points to
+the fact that the Will was written and executed at the office of _All
+the Year Round_. He appoints "Georgina Hogarth and John Forster
+executrix and executor, and guardians of the persons of my children
+during their respective minorities."
+
+The second document is the Oath of John Forster, testifying that Charles
+Dickens, otherwise Charles John Huffham Dickens, is one and the same
+person. The third document is a Codicil dated 2nd June, 1870 (only a
+week before his death), in which the novelist bequeaths "to my son
+Charles Dickens, the younger, all my share and interest in the weekly
+journal called _All the Year Round_." The Codicil is witnessed by the
+same persons. The Will and Codicil are both given in extenso in vol.
+iii. of Forster's _Life_--the gross amount of the real and personal
+estate being calculated at L93,000.[38]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Avery short tramp from Somerset House brings us to the last object of our
+pilgrimage--the grave of Charles Dickens in Westminster Abbey. Surely no
+admirer of his genius can omit this final mark of honour to the memory
+of the mighty dead. Many years have rolled by since "the good, the
+gentle, highly gifted, ever friendly, noble Dickens" passed away; and we
+stand by the grave in the calm September evening, with "jewels cast upon
+the pavement of the nave from stained glass by the declining sun," and
+look down at the dark flat stone lying at our feet, on which is
+inscribed "in plain English letters," the simple record:--
+
+                CHARLES DICKENS,
+          BORN FEBRUARY THE SEVENTH, 1812.
+              DIED JUNE THE NINTH, 1870.
+
+We recall with profoundly sympathetic interest that quietly impressive
+ceremony as recorded by Forster in the final pages of his able
+biography. "Before mid-day on Tuesday, the 14th June, 1870, with
+knowledge of those only who took part in the burial, all was done. The
+solemnity had not lost by the simplicity. Nothing so grand or so
+touching could have accompanied it, as the stillness and the silence of
+the vast Cathedral." And he further describes the wonderful gathering
+subsequently:--"Then later in the day, and all the following day, came
+unbidden mourners in such crowds that the Dean had to request permission
+to keep open the grave until Thursday; but after it was closed they did
+not cease to come, and all day long." Dean Stanley wrote:--"On the 17th
+there was a constant pressure to the spot, and many flowers were strewn
+upon it by unknown hands, many tears shed from unknown eyes."
+
+What poet, what philosopher, what monarch even, might not envy this
+loving tribute to the influence of the great writer, to the personal
+respect for the man, and to the affection for the friend who, by the
+sterling nature of his work for nearly thirty-five years, had the power
+to create and sustain such sympathy?
+
+Forster thus admiringly concludes the memoir of his hero:
+
+"The highest associations of both the arts he loved surround him where
+he lies. Next to him is Richard Cumberland. Mrs. Pritchard's monument
+looks down upon him, and immediately behind is David Garrick's. Nor is
+the actor's delightful art more worthily represented than the nobler
+genius of the author. Facing the grave, and on its left and right, are
+the monuments of Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Dryden, the three immortals
+who did most to create and settle the language to which Charles Dickens
+has given another undying name."
+
+"Of making many books there is no end," said the wise man of old; and
+certainly, if we may estimate the popularity of Charles Dickens by the
+works of all kinds relating to him, written since his death, the number
+may be counted by hundreds. It may also be said that probably no other
+English writer save Shakespeare has been the cause of so much posthumous
+literature. The sayings of his characters permeate our everyday life,
+and they continue to be as fresh as when they were first recorded. The
+original editions of his writings in some cases realize high prices
+which are simply amazing, and--judging by statistics--his readers are as
+numerous as ever they were. Higher testimony to the worth "of the most
+popular novelist of the century, and one of the greatest humourists that
+England has produced," and to the continued interest which the reading
+public still evince in the minutest detail relating to him and to his
+books, can scarcely be uttered; but what is better still--"his
+sympathies were generally on the right side;"--he has left an example
+that all may follow;--he did his utmost to leave the world a little
+better than he found it;--as he said by one of his characters, "the best
+of men can do no more"--and now he peacefully rests as one
+
+          "Of those immortal dead who live again
+           In minds made better by their presence."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[38] Mr. Dolby, in his _Charles Dickens as I knew him_, estimates that
+L45,000 was realized by Dickens's Readings.
+
+
+
+
+L'ENVOI.
+
+
+WE--my fellow-tramp and I--naturally feel a pang of regret now that our
+pleasant visit to "Dickens-Land" is terminated. With a parting grasp of
+the hand I express to the companion of my travels a cordial wish that
+ere long we may, "PLEASE GOD," renew our delightful experience, and
+again go over the ground hallowed by Dickens associations; to which my
+friend, as cordially assenting, replies "SURELY, SURELY!"
+
+With these two favourite expressions of Charles Dickens (quoted above) I
+conclude the book, trusting that it will prove worthy of some kindly
+appreciation at the hands of my readers.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+CHIEFLY OF NAMES.
+
+
+          A BECKET THOMAS 212 338 340
+
+          Adams H. G. 271
+
+          Allington 135 290-8
+
+          _All the Year Round_ 37 193 374 422
+
+          Alphington 209 210
+
+          _American Notes_ 45 324
+
+          Andersen H. C. 32 374
+
+          Anderson Mary 152 169
+
+          Athenaeum 47
+
+          Austin H. 184 330
+
+          Aveling S. T. 53-4 80-2 97
+
+          Aylesford 288 292 296;
+            Battle of 311 313;
+            Church 290;
+            Churchyard 299;
+            Bridge 290;
+            Friary 297
+
+
+          BAIRD J. 270-1-2
+
+          Ball J. H. 68 226-7 235;
+            William 135 226-7-8 230 246
+
+          _Barnaby Rudge_ 17 44-5 138
+
+          Barnard's Inn 24
+
+          _Battle of Life_ 45 211
+
+          Bayham Street 38 264
+
+          Bell Yard 18
+
+          Bentinck Street 25 417
+
+          _Bentley's Miscellany_ 47 59
+
+          Bevan P. 103 114 251 289 311 324 338
+
+          Birmingham 59 239 240;
+            Town Hall 59 239;
+            and Midland Institute 144 239 240
+
+          Bishop's Court 20
+
+          Blanchard E. L. 393
+
+          _Bleak House_ 18 19 20 37 139 268 288 325-7-8 336 357
+              380 399 421
+
+          Bleak House (or Fort House) Broadstairs 327-8-9 333
+
+          Bloomsbury Square 31
+
+          Blue Bell or Upper Bell 188 310 314 374
+
+          Boley (or "Bully") Hill 88 124 158
+
+          "Borough English" 83
+
+          Boundary Lane 253
+
+          British Museum 31
+
+          Broadstairs 317 324-333 343-8;
+            Dickens's Residence in High Street 326;
+            Fort House (or "Bleak House") 327-8-9 333;
+            Lawn House 326-7;
+            Look-out House 332
+
+          Brompton (New) 80 252 270-5
+
+          Brooker Mr. 176
+
+          Budden Major 60 167-8-9 173 186-7-8 190-5;
+            Mrs. 168 195 369;
+            James 270-2-3;
+            William J. 269 270 295
+
+          Burgate Street 340
+
+          Burham 270 295
+
+
+          CAMDEN TOWN 38 264
+
+          Canterbury 113 172 336-344 409
+            Burgate Street 340
+            Cathedral 338
+            "Chequers" 343
+            Dane John 337
+            "Fountain" 343
+            Harbledown 348
+            High Street 337
+            Museum 340
+            "Sir John Falstaff" 336
+            "Sun" 343-4
+            West Gate 336-7
+
+          Canvey Island 351
+
+          Chalk 182 391-3;
+            Church 393-4
+
+          Chancery Lane 18 20
+
+          Chatham 4 28 38 53-4 60 70-1 80 144 188 194 231 251-280 282
+            Barracks 105
+            Convict Prison 268
+            Dockyard 267-9 274
+            Fort Pitt 104-6 272-280
+            Giles's Academy 261
+            High Street 260-2 272-3
+            House on the Brook 260-1-5-6 273
+            Lines 273-5-6
+            Mechanics' Institute 267-9 270-1-3
+            "Mitre" 60 116 262-3-4
+            Navy Pay Office 258 274
+            Ordnance Place 265;
+              Terrace 28 92 257-8 265 274
+            St. Mary's Church 92 255;
+              Place 260-2
+
+          Chelsea--St. Luke's Church 26
+
+          Cherry Garden 54
+
+          _Child's Dream of a Star_ 262-6
+
+          _Child's History of England_ 37 205
+
+          Chillington Manor House 308-9 310
+
+          _Chimes_ 18 20 41 305
+
+          Chorley H. F. 196 200
+
+          _Christmas Carol_ 45 239 414
+
+          Cinque Ports 345
+
+          Cliffe 356 360 373;
+            Church 361
+
+          Clifford's Inn 18 19
+
+          Cobb R. L. 373-4-5
+
+          Cobham 377-8 380-2 386-391 393 409
+            Chalet 222 384-5 414
+            Church 391
+            Hall 186 220-2 380-386
+            "Leather Bottle" 60 386-390 396
+            Park 188 194 374-9 380-2-6 396
+            Schools 382
+            Woods 380 391 403
+
+          Cobham Lord 358
+
+          Cobtree Hall 296-299 374
+
+          College Gate 72 124-130
+
+          Collins W. 32-3-6 152 196 207 374;
+            Sale of MSS. 415;
+            Charles A. 196-8 200-2-6 271 367 404;
+              Mrs. C. A. 200;
+            _and see_ Dickens Kate _and_ Perugini Mrs.
+
+          Cooling 349-360;
+            Castle 356-360;
+            Church 351-2;
+            Churchyard 354-7
+
+          Cooper T. Sidney 348
+
+          Cosham 284
+
+          Couchman J. 221-226
+
+          Countless Stones 311-2
+
+          _Cricket on the Hearth_ 45 161 239
+
+          "Crispin and Crispianus" 217-220
+
+          Crow Lane 78
+
+          "Crown Old" 116
+
+          "Crozier" 116
+
+          Cruikshank G. 59 140
+
+          Cursitor Street 20-2
+
+          Cuxton 288-9
+
+
+          DADD R. 396
+
+          _Daily News_ 17
+
+          "Dane John" 337
+
+          Darnley Earl of 202 222 374 382-385 396
+
+          _David Copperfield_ 26 39 45-8 91 139 148 219 251-6-8
+              266-269 284 317 325 340 343-347 356 396-7;
+            _Fac-simile_ 419 421
+
+          Davies Rev. G. 194-5;
+            Straits 194-5
+
+          Deal 399
+
+          Deanery Gatehouse 127-9
+
+          Devonshire Terrace 31 41-2-4-6;
+            Street 46
+
+          Dickens A. L. 38 184 228;
+            A. T. 47
+
+          Dickens Charles:--
+            Birth 255 285
+            Birthplace 280-287
+            Baptism 285
+            First literary effort 262
+            Short-hand 249
+            Marriage 391
+            and the Serjeant 249 250
+            and the Bears 402
+            and Public Executions 410-1
+            Genealogy (?) 253-4
+            Dogs 183-4-6 226-8
+            Chalet 222 384-5 414
+            Crest 385
+            Ravens 44
+            Readings 239 242 271-2 422
+            Politics 239 240
+            Illness 243-4
+            Death 244 369 370 404
+            Funeral 87-8 401-4 423;
+              Card 226
+            Grave 423-4
+            Will 87 286 401 421-2
+            Manuscripts 412-421
+            Handwriting _fac-similes_ (1837 1850 1854 1870) 418-420
+            Corrected Proofs 417
+            Memorial Brass 137
+            Memorials 227-9 230 247 371 420
+            Portraits 59 205 225 272 370 390 415-6
+            Letters 416-7
+            Mysterious Dickens-item 246-249
+
+          Dickens Mrs. C. 207 231
+
+          Dickens C. Junr. 26 32-4 140-5 200-2 294 366 404 422;
+            Edward B. L. 47
+
+          Dickens Fanny 262-4 284-5;
+            Harriet E. 262-6
+
+          Dickens H. F. 180 198 202-3 221 234 248-9 250 368 374
+
+          Dickens J. 38 254-5 265-6 274 283-4-5;
+            Mrs. 38 254-5 285
+
+          Dickens Kate 36 90 196 206 367 370
+            (_and see_ Perugini Mrs. _and_ Collins Mrs. C. A.)
+
+          Dickens Miss 31-4 416
+
+          Dickenson Mr. 200-1-2-9
+
+          Dodd H. 232-3-4
+
+          _Dombey and Son_ 45 139 227 317 325
+
+          Doughty Street 25-8-9 30
+
+          Dover 54 192 345-348;
+            Castle 347;
+            Heights 346;
+            Road 396-400
+
+          Drage Rev. W. H. 92;
+            Misses 92-3
+
+          "Duck" 117
+
+
+          EASEDOWN MRS. 369-371 373
+
+          Eastgate House 72-77 132
+
+          East Malling 293
+
+          _Edwin Drood_ 6 23-7 46 70-3-4-5 83 106 111 113 115 117 119
+              120-1-4-8-9 131-4 6-8-9 140-1 171 207 228 247-8-9 288
+              290 406 411 414 416-7;
+            _Fac-simile_ 420
+
+          Exeter 209
+
+
+          "FALSTAFF Sir John" (at Gad's Hill) 163-5-7 175 207-8-9 400;
+            (At Canterbury) 336
+
+          Farleigh 290
+
+          Faversham 323-4
+
+          Fechter Mr. 106 201 221 242
+
+          Fildes Luke 23 59 75 106 127-9 140-1 169 228 248
+
+          Fisher Bishop 131
+
+          Fitzroy Street 417
+
+          Fleet Street 17 18
+
+          Ford H. 330
+
+          Forster J. 2 6 8 19 20 30-8-9 41-4 51 87 93 107 167 174
+              176-9 182-6-7 196 207-9 221 232-5 258 262 275 310 324-7
+              335 356-7 364 412-4-7 421-424;
+            Bequest 412-416
+
+          Fort Clarence 316
+
+          Fort Pitt 104-6 272-280
+
+          _Fortunus_ 33
+
+          Fountain Court 17
+
+          Fox 20
+
+          Frindsbury 195 275 294;
+            Church 212 236 350
+
+          Frith W. P. 230 395-6 415
+
+          Frog Alley 117
+
+          _Frozen Deep_ 32-3 86 241
+
+          Furnival's Inn 24-27
+
+
+          GAD'S HILL 4 44 60 90-1-3 141 161 _et seq._ 241-8-9 265
+              393 400
+            Sixty years ago 191-195
+            "Falstaff Sir John" 163-5-7 175 207-8-9 400
+
+          Gad's Hill Place 31 42-6 85-88 93 132 161-209 217 221-2-3
+              224-5-7 240-1-3 271 310 363-4-9 370-1 376 400-9
+            Cedars at 186 192
+            Chalet 186-7 221-2
+            Charades at 197 241
+            Clock 229
+            Cricket at 208 248-9 372-3
+            Dick's Grave at 179
+            _Gazette_ 180 196-8-9
+            "Plough" 241
+            Porch at 184
+            Sale of 235-6 241-6 404
+            Sale Photograph of 230
+            Shrubbery at 186
+            Specification for alterations at 222-3
+            Sports at 363-4
+            Sun-dial 228
+            Theatricals at 241
+            Tunnel at 184-6 228
+            Well at 181-2
+
+          "Gavelkind" 82
+
+          Gibson Mary 46 265-6-7;
+              (_and see_ Weller Mary)
+            Robert 266-7;
+            Thomas 266
+
+          Giles Rev. W. 261;
+            Academy 261
+
+          Gillingham 275
+
+          Gordon Square 31-8;
+            Place 31
+
+          Gower Street 38-9
+
+          Gravesend 3 91 192 336 361-2 393
+
+          _Great Expectations_ 6 7 17 24 37 53 64 70-8 97 156 171
+              188 269 348 351-354 356-8 398 401-5
+
+          _Grimaldi Memoirs of_ 31
+
+          Grip the Raven 44
+
+
+          HARBLEDOWN 348
+
+          Hard Times 37 416;
+            _Fac-simile_ 419
+
+          Hastings 345
+
+          _Haunted Man_ 45
+
+          Hawke Street 255 284
+
+          Head R. 53 88
+
+          Higham 87 173-6 182 194 242 362-375 377
+
+          Hogarth G. 25;
+            Catherine 26;
+              (_and see_ Dickens Mrs. Charles) E. 34;
+            Mary 29;
+            Georgina 34 86 90 205-6 235-8 242-4 370-5-8 396 406 416
+              422;
+            William 54
+
+          Holborn 22-4-7
+
+          _Holly Tree Inn_ 263 408
+
+          Homan F. 85-88 117
+
+          Hoo 350
+
+          Hop-Picking and Cultivation 318-323
+
+          Horse Guards 49
+
+          Horsted 292
+
+          _Household Words_ 45 89 106 142 150 193 257 344 415
+
+          House on the Brook 260 1-5-6 273
+
+          Hulkes J. 163 195-198 403;
+            Mrs. 196 204-5;
+            C. J. 205
+
+          _Hunted Down_ 171
+
+          Hyde Park 46;
+            Corner 64;
+            Place 141
+
+          Hythe 345
+
+
+          JOHNSON'S COURT 18
+
+          John Street 28
+
+
+          KENNETTE A. 78
+
+          Kingsgate Street 27
+
+          Kit's Coty House 310-313 391
+
+          Kitton F. G. 4 38 102 110 127 163 205 248 316 368 393 415
+
+          Kolle W. H. 416-7
+
+
+          LAMERT DR. 255;
+            J. 256-8
+
+          Landport 255 280-286;
+            Commercial Road 281-2
+
+          Lang Andrew 15
+
+          Langton R. 2 3 38 83 144 216 252-5-8 264-6 277 281-2-4-6
+
+          Lapworth Prof. 6
+
+          Larkin C. 163 195
+
+          Latter Mrs. 209 400-1-2
+
+          Lawn House 326-7
+
+          Lawrence J. 59 60
+
+          "Leather Bottle" 60 386-390 396
+
+          Lemon Mark 32-4-5-6 151 232-4
+
+          Levy C. D. 246-7
+
+          _Lighthouse_ 33 86 241
+
+          Lincoln's Inn 19;
+            Fields 19
+
+          Linton Mrs. Lynn 167 191-195
+
+          _Little Dorrit_ 37 46 139 161 171 211 416
+
+          Littlewood J. E. 272-3
+
+          Long Mrs. 333
+
+          "Look-out House" 232
+
+
+          MACLISE D. 20 41-4 59 412 421
+
+          Maidstone 90-1 140 293 306-310;
+            Road 78 151;
+            Chillington Manor House 308-9 310;
+            Brenchley Gardens 309
+
+          Malleson J. N. 201-6
+
+          Margate 324 333-4-6;
+            Theatre 334-5
+
+          Marsham Rev J. J. 402-3-4
+
+          Marshes 142 188 349 350-1-7-8 403-9
+
+          _Martin Chuzzlewit_ 17 27 45 56 414
+
+          Marzials F. T. 8 29 31
+
+          _Master Humphrey's Clock_ 45
+
+          Masters Mrs. 217 219 221-6
+
+          Mechanics' Institute 267-9 270-1-3
+
+          Medway River 52-3-4 67-9 98 103 134-5 162 188 211 253 275
+              288-9 290-2 309 310-6;
+            Valley 379 382
+
+          _Memoirs of Grimaldi_ 31
+
+          Middle Temple Lane 17
+
+          Mile End Cottage 209 210
+
+          Miles Mr. 117 120
+
+          Millen T. 90-1
+
+          Minor Canon Row 92 122-4-7
+
+          Minto Prof. 409
+
+          "Mitre" 60 116 262-3-4
+
+          Mitton T. 414
+
+          Montague Street 31
+
+          _Monthly Magazine_ 18
+
+          Morgan Mr. 200-1-2
+
+          _Morning Chronicle_ 24 26 270
+
+          _Mr. Nightingale's Diary_ 35
+
+          _Mrs. Joseph Porter over the way_ 18
+
+          Mysterious Dickens-item 246-249
+
+
+          NAVY PAY OFFICE CHATHAM 258 274
+
+          New Brompton 80 252 270-5
+
+          New Romney 345
+
+          _Nicholas Nickleby_ 8 31 106 139 210 286 324 416
+
+          _No Thoroughfare_ 374
+
+
+          _OLD CURIOSITY SHOP_ 45-9 139 323 349 405
+
+          Old Sergeants' Inn 18
+
+          _Oliver Twist_ 31 232;
+            _Fac-simile_ 418
+
+          Ordnance Terrace 28 92 257-8 265 274;
+            Place 265
+
+          _Our English Watering-Place_ 317 324-31
+
+          _Our Mutual Friend_ 1 17 18 39 91 171 234 414
+
+          Overblow 402-3
+
+          Owl Club 59;
+            Harmonious Owls 59
+
+
+          PARLIAMENT STREET 48
+
+          Payne G. 130 238
+
+          Pearce Sarah 283-4;
+            Mr. 283;
+            William 284
+
+          Pear Tree Lane 313 377-8
+
+          Pemberton T. Edgar 1 241 286
+
+          Perugini Mrs. 248;
+            (_and see_ Dickens Kate _and_ Collins Mrs. C. A.)
+
+          _Pickwick Papers_ 5 6 20-6-9 31 50-6 62-7 70-5 111 151 231
+              251-5 261 273-6-9 293-5 297-306 324 373-6-9 387-8 391-3
+
+          _Pictures from Italy_ 18
+
+          "Plorn" 202
+
+          Porchester Castle 284
+
+          Portsea 255 281-2;
+            St. Mary's Church 255 285-6;
+            Hawke Street 255 284
+
+          Portsmouth 281-4-6-7;
+            Common Hard 287;
+            Dockyard 285;
+            Theatre 286
+
+          Portsmouth Street 19
+
+          Prall R. 57 85
+
+          Prior's Gate 127-8
+
+          Proctor R. A. 138-9
+
+          Proctors 148
+
+          _Punch_ 90 175
+
+          Purkis Mrs. 285
+
+
+          QUARRY HOUSE 212
+
+
+          RAINHAM 317-8;
+            Mear's Barr Farm 318
+
+          Ramsgate 336
+
+          Reculver 324;
+            The Sisters 324
+
+          Red Lion Square 28 31
+
+          Regent's Park 39;
+            Street 46 51
+
+          Restoration House 53-4 78 80 94-97 132 156
+
+          Robertson Rev. Canon 214
+
+          Robinson G. 269
+
+          Rochester 4 48 51-97 376 396 406-9
+            "Blue Boar" 64
+            Boley (or Bully) Hill 88 124 158
+            Boundary Lane 253
+            Bridge 50-4 67-70 104 215 217 226-7
+            "Bull Inn" 54-5 _et seq._ 104 143-5 409
+            Castle 69 98-110 137 216 396 406-9
+            Cathedral 53-4 87 90 111-141 216 406-9
+            Cherry Garden 54
+            College (or Jasper's) Gate 72 124-130
+            Crow Lane 78 117 156
+            "Crozier" 116
+            Deanery Gatehouse 127-9
+            "Duck" 117
+            Eastgate House 72-77 132
+            Episcopal Palace 130-1
+            Esplanade 134
+            Frog Alley 117
+            Grammar School 81-8
+            Guildhall 54-5 72 108
+            High Street 51-3-5 63-4 70 82 116 125 130 145 275 287
+              296 336
+            London and County Bank 116
+            Maidstone Road 78 151
+            Mathematical School 81 175-6
+            Men's Institute 75
+            Minor Canon Row 92 122-4-7
+            New Road 152
+            "Old Crown" 116
+            Prior's Gate 127-8
+            Restoration House 53-4 78 80 132 156;
+              Ghost Story 94-97
+            Sapsea's House 72-5-6 117
+            Satis House 78 97 156-8
+            Savings Bank 76 116
+            Sir J. Hawkins's Hospital 81
+            Sir J. Hayward's Charity 82
+            Star Hill 70 83
+            St. Bartholomew's Hospital 81
+            St. Catherine's Charity 81
+            St. Margaret's 92;
+              Church 151
+            St. Nicholas' 81 11
+              Cemetery 87 136-7
+              Church 136-7
+            Theatre 83 143 242 256
+            Vines (or Monks' Vineyard) 70-8 81 131-2-4 275 409
+            Watts's Almshouses 151
+              "  Charity 72 142-160 176 409
+
+          Rye 345
+
+          Ryland Mr. Arthur 144-5;
+            Mrs. 33 144
+
+
+          SANDLING 310
+
+          Sandwich 345
+
+          Sapsea's House 72-5-6 117
+
+          Satis House 78 97 156-8
+
+          _Seven Poor Travellers_ 70 98 106 142-3 150 160 380
+
+          Seymour R. 58
+
+          Sheerness 54;
+            Cockle-shell Hard 101
+
+          Sheppard Dr. 342-3-4
+
+          Shorne 87 137 194 358 391-3 400-2;
+            Church 403-4;
+            Ridgway 379
+
+          Sisters Reculver 324
+
+          _Sketches by Boz_ 26 64 258 270
+
+          _Sketches of Young Gentlemen_ 31;
+            _of Young Couples_ 31
+
+          Smetham Henry 368
+
+          Smith C. Roach 52 101 148 231-238 290 311 366
+
+          Smith E. Orford 303
+
+          Snodland 288 290;
+            Brook 135;
+            Weir 135
+
+          Somerset House 38 264 421-3
+
+          _Song of the Wreck_ 33-4-5 415
+
+          South Kensington Museum 249 396 412
+
+          Spencer Herbert 190 406
+
+          Stanfield C. 20 32-3 86 241
+
+          Stanley Dean 88 137 423
+
+          Staplehurst 93;
+            Accident 198 200-1-9
+
+          Staple Inn 22-4-7
+
+          Star Hill 70 83
+
+          Steele Dr. 174 237-246
+
+          Sterry J. Ashby 3 329 345-6
+
+          Stone F. 36;
+            M. 91 196 200-2-7
+
+          _Strange Gentleman_ 26
+
+          St. Luke's Church Chelsea 26
+
+          St. Margaret's 92;
+            Church 151
+
+          St. Mary's Church Chatham 92 255;
+            Place 260-2
+
+          St. Mary's Church Portsea 255 285-6
+
+          St. Nicholas' Church Rochester 81 114 136-7;
+            Cemetery 87 136-7
+
+          St. Nicholas' Church Strood 211
+
+          St. Pancras' Road 39;
+            Church 39
+
+          Strood 50-5 68 80 162 182 195 211-250
+            "Crispin and Crispianus" 217-220
+            Elocution Society 235
+            St. Nicholas' Church 211
+            Preceptory 212
+            Quarry House 212
+            Temple Farm 211
+
+          _Sunday under Three Heads_ 26
+
+          Symond's Inn 19
+
+          Syms Mr. 82 115-117
+
+
+          _TALE OF TWO CITIES_ 17 37-9 171 204 397
+
+          Tavistock Square 32;
+            House 32-3-6-7 42 86 171 325
+
+          Taylor Mrs. 368-9
+
+          Temple 17;
+            Bar 17;
+            Middle Temple Lane 17;
+            Fountain Court 17
+
+          Temple Farm 211
+
+          Thackeray W. M. 24-6-7 234
+
+          Thames River 188 314 350;
+            Valley 358 378 403
+
+          _Times_ 410-414
+
+          Tom-All-Alone's 268
+
+          _Tom Thumb_ 33
+
+          Town Malling 292-3-4 302-306
+
+          Tribe Ald. 264;
+            Master and Miss 258 264;
+            John 264
+
+          Trood W. S. 175 206-209 400;
+            Edward 2 7 220
+
+
+          _UNCOMMERCIAL TRAVELLER_ 6 7 37 83 159 163-5 171 220 264-9
+              278
+
+          Upnor Castle 155
+
+
+          _VILLAGE COQUETTES_ 376
+
+          Vines The 70-8 81 131-2-4 275
+
+
+          WAGHORN LIEUT. 257
+
+          Watts Richard 55 142;
+            Almshouses 151;
+            Charity 72 142-160 176;
+            Memorial 157-8
+
+          Weald of Kent 316
+
+          Weller Mary 265-6;
+            (_and see_ Gibson Mary)
+
+          Westminster Abbey 87-8 137 404 423-4
+
+          Whiston Rev. R. 88-90 160
+
+          Whitefriars Street 17
+
+          Whitehall 48
+
+          Whitstable 323
+
+          Wildish W. T. 82 118 175 265 382
+
+          Wills W. H. 152;
+            W. G. 152 193-4
+
+          Winchelsea 345
+
+          Woburn Square 31
+
+          Wood H. 273-4
+
+          Worsfold C. K. 347
+
+          _Wreck of the Golden Mary_ 260
+
+          Wright Mr. 372-3 415;
+            Mrs. 370-373
+
+
+THE END.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Richard Clay & Sons, Limited, London & Bungay._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Obvious punctuation errors repaired with the exception of the rounded
+brackets on pages 224 and 225 as those were replicas of printings. These
+two instances were left open but not closed.
+
+Page xiv, "round" changed to "Round" (where "All the Year Round")
+
+Page 132, "entited" changed to "entitled" (the illustration entitled)
+
+Page 414, "caligraphy" changed to "calligraphy" (the calligraphy of)
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Week's Tramp in Dickens-Land, by
+William R. Hughes
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A WEEK'S TRAMP IN DICKENS-LAND ***
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
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author	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-14 19:55:43 -0700
committer	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-14 19:55:43 -0700
commit	352a2a7da8206bd92542c0ff78775a700b726f12 (patch)
tree	178286695a3bb2cce0434cbe3ba686fa9fbeabd9