thoroughfare of CORNHILL; and at No. 73, on the opposite side, arrive at
Newman’s Court. It will be remembered that in “Pickwick” the offices of
_Messrs. Dodson and Fogg_ (Mrs. Bardell’s attorneys) are located in
Freeman’s Court, Cornhill. There is no such place in Cornhill; Freeman’s
Court being in Cheapside. It is evident, therefore, that Dickens, for
reasons of his own, emulated the special contributor to the _Eatanswill
Gazette_, and so “combined his information.” Taking Cornhill to be the
locality intended, we shall find Dodson and Fogg’s Office at the furthest
end of the Court, No. 4, still associated with legal business, being in
possession of Messrs. Witherby and Co., law stationers.
Passing onwards in Cornhill, past Bishopsgate Street, we come into
Leadenhall Street, and may be interested to note, at No. 157 (now an
outfitting establishment), the original position of the HOUSE OF SOL
GILLS, ships’ instrument maker, at whose door was displayed the figure of
“The Wooden Midshipman; eternally taking observations of the hackney
coaches.”
Here our eccentric friend _Captain Cuttle_ remained in charge during the
absence of old Sol Gills and his nephew; here _Florence_, accompanied by
the faithful Diogenes, found asylum; and here _Walter Gay_ returned after
shipwreck, to make everybody happy and marry the gentle heroine of the
story. (See “Dombey and Son” for information _in extenso._) Until
recent years, these premises were in occupation of Messrs. Norie and
Wilson, ships’ instrument makers and chart publishers. They have removed
to the Minories, No. 156, where the quaint effigy of _the Wooden
Midshipman_, with his cocked hat and quadrant complete, may now be seen,
as bright and brisk as in old days. “When found, make a note of.”
Farther on, on the same side of Leadenhall Street, we reach St. Mary Axe,
turning northward at No. 117, which we notice _en passant_ as the
thoroughfare in which _Pubsey and Co._ had their place of business; “a
yellow overhanging plaster-fronted house”—reconstructed, with many
others, some years since—at the top of which _Riah_ (the manager)
arranged his town garden; where the Dolls’ Dressmaker invited
_Fascination Fledgby_ to “come up and be dead.” All of which is duly set
forth in the pages of “Our Mutual Friend.” The position of the house
cannot now be localised.
Proceeding to the other end of St. Mary Axe, we may turn (right) into
_Bevis Marks_, where there once existed the House of Mr. Sampson Brass,
No. 10, but this and others have long since been rebuilt and
re-enumerated. Here lived that honourable attorney and his sister the
fair Sally; aided in their professional duties by a young gentleman of
eccentric habits and “prodigious talent of quotation.” Here the
_Marchioness_ lived, or rather starved, in attendance as
maid-of-all-work, and first made the acquaintance of Dick Swiveller, her
future husband; being by him initiated into the mysteries of cribbage and
the peculiarities of purl. Here lodged the “single gentleman,” who
evinced such exceptional interest in the national drama, and so
discovered a clue to the retreat of Little Nell and her grandfather.
On the north side of the street there still flourishes the old RED LION
INN, an establishment patronised in his time by Mr. Richard, and once
eulogised by that gentleman on the occasion of his specifying “the
contingent advantages” of the neighbourhood. “There is mild porter in
the immediate vicinity.”
For these and the other associations of this spot the tourist is referred
to the pages of the “Old Curiosity Shop.”
Following downwards through Bevis Marks and Duke Street beyond, we come
into _Aldgate_, keeping still on the left-hand side of the way to
_Aldgate High Street_, where at a short distance we pass the Station of
the Metropolitan Railway. At No. 24, just ahead, is the Bull Inn Yard,
once the City Terminus of Coaches travelling north-east. From this point
Mr. Pickwick started per coach for Ipswich, accompanied by the red-haired
Mr. Peter Magnus; Mr. Tony Weller officiating as driver. On which
occasion we read that Mr. Weller’s conversation, “possessing the
inestimable charm of blending amusement with instruction,” beguiled “the
tediousness of the journey during the greater part of the day.”
Returning westward on the other side of the way, the Rambler may turn, at
No. 81, into the _Minories_; and, at the second house on the right, may
observe the figure of _the Wooden Midshipman_, previously referred to as
removed from its original position in Leadenhall Street. The route being
continued (same side) from the Minories, we can note, as we pass into
_Fenchurch Street_, Aldgate Pump, standing at the top of Leadenhall
Street. There is a reference to this old pump in “Dombey,” as being a
stated object of _Mr. Toots’s_ special evening excursions from “The
Wooden Midshipman,” when that gentleman desired some temporary relief
from the hopeless contemplation of Walter Gay’s happiness.
The tourist will now soon arrive at (No. 42) Mincing Lane, leading to
Great Tower Street. This short street is entirely occupied by wholesale
merchants and brokers, and it will be remembered that _Messrs. Chicksey_,
_Veneering_, _and Stobbles_, wholesale druggists, flourished in this
locality in the days of the “Golden Dustman.” The fourth house on the
left from Fenchurch Street, next to _Dunster Court_, has been indicated
as the probable whereabouts of the firm. We may remember that R.
Wilfer’s office was on the ground-floor, next the gateway.
Here, then, in this prosaic neighbourhood, _John Rokesmith_, following
_Bella Wilfer_, came to the warehouse where Little _Rumty_ was sitting at
the open window at his tea, and much surprised that gentleman by a
declaration of love for his daughter; what time “The Feast of the Three
Hobgoblins” was so agreeably celebrated. This place is also associated
with other pleasant episodes connected with the history of the Wilfer
family, the details of which are fully furnished in the pages of “Our
Mutual Friend.”
Proceeding through Mincing Lane, we turn to the right through
_Eastcheap_, which leads westward to the top of FISH STREET HILL. The
tourist now proceeds southward, passing the _Monument_ on the left. At a
short distance beyond (No. 34) we arrive at _King’s Head Court_, “a small
paved yard,” in which are certain city warehouses and a dairy. On the
south side of the court, now occupied by the warehouses aforesaid, once
stood the Commercial Boarding-House of Mrs. Todgers—an old-fashioned
abode even in the days of Mr. Pecksniff—which has long since given place
to other commercial considerations. In the 9th chapter of “Martin
Chuzzlewit” full, true, and particular account is given of this
establishment as it used to be. We may here call to remembrance the
characters of _Bailey junior_, _Mr. Jinkins_, _Augustus Moddle_, and
others in connection with the domestic economy of Mrs. Todgers and the
several Pecksniffian associations of the place; notably, the festive
occasion of that Sunday’s dinner when Cherry and Merry were first
introduced to London society; the moral Mr. Pecksniff thereafter
exhibiting alarming symptoms of a chronic complaint. (See chapter 9.)
And we may indulge in a kindly reminiscence of good-hearted Mrs. Todgers
herself, worried with the anxieties of “gravy” and the eccentricities of
commercial gentlemen. “Perhaps the Good Samaritan was lean and lank, and
found it hard to live.” We now come to London Bridge, the scene of
Nancy’s interview with Mr. Brownlow and Rose Maylie (see “Oliver Twist”),
which took place on the steps near St. Saviour’s Church, on the Surrey
side of the river—
“These stairs are a part of the bridge; they consist of three
flights. Just below the end of the second, going down, the stone
wall on the left terminates in an ornamental pilaster, facing towards
the Thames.”
And it will be remembered that _Noah Claypole_ here ensconced himself as
an unseen listener.
As we come to the Surrey side of the Thames, a passing thought may be
given to _Mrs. Rudge_ and her son Barnaby, who lived near at hand “in a
by-street in Southwark, not far from London Bridge”; and we may recall
the incident of _Edward Chester_ being brought hither by _Gabriel
Varden_, having been found wounded by a highwayman on the other side of
the river. But it is altogether impossible to locate the house, the
neighbourhood having so entirely changed during the present century.
Onwards by the main thoroughfare of the Borough, we shall find, on the
left-hand side of the way (No. 61), the (former) location of “The White
Hart,” described in “Pickwick” as
“An old inn, which has preserved its external features unchanged, and
which has escaped alike the rage for public improvement and the
encroachments of private speculation. A great, rambling, queer old
place, with galleries and passages and staircases, wide enough and
antiquated enough to furnish materials for a hundred ghost stories.”
The old inn has been pulled down some years since; the original gateway
only remains, leading to White Hart Yard. A tavern and luncheon-bar of
modern erection now occupy one side of the old coach-yard in which
_Messrs. Pickwick_, _Wardle_, and _Perker_ made their first acquaintance
with _Mr. Samuel Weller_, on that memorable occasion when _Mr. Jingle_
had eloped from _Dingley Dell_ with _Miss Rachael Wardle_, and had
brought the lady to this establishment. Farther on, towards the end of
the Borough, we arrive at Angel Place, a narrow passage near to St.
George’s Church. It leads into _Marshalsea Place_, of which Dickens
writes as follows in his preface to “Little Dorrit”:—
“Whoever goes into Marshalsea Place, turning out of Angel Court,
leading to Bermondsey, will find his feet on the very paving-stones
of the extinct Marshalsea jail; will see its narrow yard to the
right, and to the left, very little altered if at all, except that
the walls were lowered when the place got free; will look upon the
rooms in which the debtors lived; and will stand among the crowding
ghosts of many miserable years.”
This, then, was The Marshalsea Prison, in which, during Dickens’s
youthful days, his father was imprisoned for debt; and the place is
intimately associated with the story of _Little Dorrit_ and her family.
We must be all familiar with the Father of the Marshalsea, his brother
Frederick, Maggie, and the several others of the _dramatis personæ_ of
that charming tale.
St. George’s Church, close at hand, will be remembered in connection with
the above, as once affording refuge in its vestry for Little Dorrit, when
the sexton accommodated her with a bed formed of the pew-cushions, the
book of registers doing service as a pillow. She was afterwards married
to Arthur Clennam in this church. Full particulars of the ceremony will
be found in the last chapter of the tale. At a short distance from this
point, down Blackman Street, on the right, is (No. 90) Lant Street. In
Forster’s Biography it is narrated that Dickens, when a boy, lodged in
this street what time his father was imprisoned in the Marshalsea. The
house stood on part of the site now occupied by the Board School
adjoining No. 46—
“A back attic was found for me at the house of an insolvent-court
agent, who lived in Lant Street, in the Borough, where _Bob Sawyer_
lodged many years afterwards. A bed and bedding were sent over for
me, and made up on the floor. The little window had a pleasant
prospect of a timber-yard; and when I took possession of my new
abode, I thought it was a Paradise.”
This opinion of his boyhood seems to have been somewhat modified fifteen
years later, when the “Pickwick Papers” were written, and Mr. Robert
Sawyer had taken residence in the locality. We read—
“There is an air of repose about Lant Street, in the Borough, which sheds
a gentle melancholy upon the soul. A house in Lant Street would not come
within the denomination of a first-rate residence, in the strict
acceptation of the term; but it is a most desirable spot, nevertheless.
If a man wished to extract himself from the world, to remove himself from
within the reach of temptation, to place himself beyond the possibility
of any inducement to look out of the window, he should by all means go to
Lant Street.”
Walking onwards from “this happy valley” past Suffolk Street, to the
westward, turning off _Borough Road_, we may note on the north corner the
site of the old King’s Bench Prison, in which _Mr. Micawber_ was
detained—in the top storey but one—pending the settlement of his
pecuniary liabilities. Later on in the Copperfield history, Micawber
appointed a meeting for David and Tom Traddles as follows:—
“Among other havens of domestic tranquillity and peace of mind, my
feet will naturally tend towards the King’s Bench Prison. In stating
that I shall be (D.V.) on the outside of the south wall of that place
of incarceration on civil process, the day after to-morrow, at seven
in the evening, precisely, my object in this epistolary communication
is accomplished.”
See chapter 49 for particulars of the subsequent interview. This “_dead
wall_” of the prison is also mentioned in the same book as the place
where young David requested “the long-legged young man”—who had charge of
his box for conveyance to the Dover coach-office—to stop for a minute
while he (David) tied on the address. It will be remembered that poor
David lost his box and his money on this occasion, when he started for
Dover,
“Taking very little more out of the world, towards the retreat of his
aunt, Miss Betsy, than he had brought into it on the night when his
arrival gave her so much umbrage;”
the total sum of his remaining cash amounting to three half-pence.—See
chapter 12.
The first reference of our author to King’s Bench Prison will be found in
“Nicholas Nickleby” (chapter 46), on the occasion of the hero’s first
visit to _Madeline Bray_, who resided with her father in one
“Of a row of mean and not over cleanly houses, situated within ‘the
rules’ of the King’s Bench Prison; . . . comprising some dozen
streets in which debtors who could raise money to pay large fees—from
which their creditors did not derive any benefit—were permitted to
reside.”
We learn from Allen’s “History of Surrey” that these rules comprehended
all St. George’s Fields, one side of Blackman Street, and part of the
Borough High Street, forming an area of about three miles in
circumference. They could be purchased by the prisoners at the rate of
five guineas for small debts, eight guineas for the first hundred pounds
of debt, and about half that sum for every subsequent hundred.
The site of the prison is now occupied by workmen’s model dwellings named
“Queen’s Buildings,” divided, north and south, by Scovell’s Road.
At the opposite side (east) of _Newington Causeway_, which here
commences, is _Union Road_, late _Horsemonger __Lane_; a short distance
down which, on its south side, is “THE PUBLIC PLAYGROUND FOR CHILDREN,”
formerly the site of Horsemonger Lane Gaol, erected at the back of the
Surrey Sessions House. Here the execution of the Mannings took place,
November 13th, 1849, on which occasion Charles Dickens was present. The
same day he sent a notable letter to the _Times_, directing general
attention to the demoralising effect of such public exhibitions; thus
setting on foot an agitation which shortly resulted in the adoption of
our present private mode of carrying out the last penalty of the law.
After giving a forcible and graphic picture of the night scenes enacted
by the disorderly crowd in waiting, the letter was thus continued:—
“When the sun rose brightly—as it did—it gilded thousands upon
thousands of upturned faces, so inexpressibly odious in their brutal
mirth or callousness, that a man had cause to shrink from himself as
fashioned in the image of the devil. When the two miserable
creatures who attracted all this ghastly sight about them, were
turned quivering into the air, there was no more emotion, no more
pity, no more thought that two immortal souls had gone to judgment,
no more restraint in any of the previous obscenities, than if the
name of Christ had never been heard in this world, and there was no
belief among men but that they perished like the beasts. 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.”
Mr. Chivery resided with his family in _Horsemonger Lane_, in close
proximity to the old prison, and kept a tobacconist’s shop for the supply
of his Marshalsea customers and the general public of the neighbourhood—
“A rural establishment one storey high, which had the benefit of the
air from the yards of Horsemonger Lane Jail, and the advantage of a
retired walk under the wall of that pleasant establishment. The
business was of too modest a character to support a life-size
Highlander, but it maintained a little one on a bracket on the
door-post, who looked like a fallen cherub that had found it
necessary to take to a kilt.”
In the little back-yard of the premises, “Young John”—disappointed in
love—was accustomed to sit and meditate; taking cold among the “tuneless
groves” of the newly-washed family linen, and composing suitable epitaphs
to his own memory, in melancholy anticipation of an early decease.
Proceeding along the Borough Road, we arrive in due course at St.
George’s Obelisk, which stands at the meeting-point of six roads. In the
twelfth chapter of “David Copperfield” we read of the Obelisk as the
place near to which the “long-legged young man with a very little empty
donkey-cart” was standing, whom David engaged to take his box to the
Dover coach-office for sixpence. And we all remember the sad
_dénouement_ of that engagement, as previously mentioned. Near at hand,
at the top of Blackfriars Road, stands The Surrey Theatre, at which
_Fanny Dorrit_ was engaged as a dancer, while her Uncle Frederick played
the clarionet in the orchestra.
Crossing over to the opposite thoroughfare of _Lambeth Road_, the Rambler
will find, at a short distance on the left, the entrance to Bethlehem
Hospital, familiarly known as Bedlam. A reference to this asylum will be
found in the pages of “The Uncommercial Traveller,” where our author
implies the idea that the sane and insane are, at all events, equal in
their dreams—
“Are not all of us outside this Hospital, who dream more or less, in
the condition of those inside it, every night of our lives?”
The question may afford us matter for speculation as the route is
continued through Lambeth Road, at the end of which we turn to the right,
in the direction of the river. At the angle of the roads, past the
Lambeth Police Office, we reach Christchurch, conspicuous for style and
position, at which the Rev. Newman Hall some years since officiated. We
may here recall the criticism given by Dickens with reference to this
popular preacher in the book above referred to. See “_Two Views of a
Cheap Theatre_,” as contained in “The Uncommercial Traveller.”
We now come onwards by _Westminster Bridge Road_, passing beneath the
span of the London and South-Western Railway. Near Westminster Bridge,
on the left, is the old site of Astley’s Theatre (non-existent since
1896). This establishment had cause to bless itself once a quarter, in
days gone by, when Christopher Nubbles, Barbara, and friends patronised
the performance. We may here remember the occasion when Kit knocked a
man over the head with his bundle of oranges for “scroudging his parent
with unnecessary violence;” also the happy evening that followed, when
little Jacob first saw a play and learnt what oysters meant (_vide_ the
“Old Curiosity Shop”). On the site formerly occupied by this favourite
place of entertainment, there now stand five handsome houses and shops,
Nos. 225 to 233 Westminster Bridge Road.
Past a few doors beyond these, above, on the same side, we reach Lambeth
Palace Road, turning by which we may walk (or ride by tramcar) a short
distance southward. Leaving on the right the seven handsome buildings of
ST. THOMAS’S HOSPITAL, we pass—on the left—farther on, LAMBETH EPISCOPAL
PALACE, and cross the Thames by LAMBETH SUSPENSION BRIDGE.
On the Middlesex shore we come into _Millbank Street_, and bestow a brief
thought on Poor “Martha,” following her in imagination as she took her
melancholy way southward in this same street, towards the waste riverside
locality, “near the great blank prison” of Millbank, long since replaced
by _Tate’s Gallery_.
Here it will be remembered that _David Copperfield_ and his trusty friend
_Mr. Peggotty_ saved the despairing girl from a self-sought and miserable
death.
At a few minutes’ distance northward from the bridge, _Church Street_
will be found, leading (left) to _Smith Square_. In this street lived
The Dolls’ Dressmaker, little _Jenny Wren_. The whimsical description of
the central church—ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST’S—as given in the pages of
“Our Mutual Friend,” may be worth comparison with the original—
“In this region are a certain little street called Church Street, and
a certain little blind square called Smith Square, in the centre of
which last retreat is a very hideous church, with four towers at the
four corners, generally resembling some petrified monster, frightful
and gigantic, on its back with its legs in the air.”
The house in which Jenny and her father lived is stated to have been one
of the modest little houses which stand at the point where the street
gives into Smith Square. The Rambler will observe four houses answering
this description on the north side of Church Street; No. 9 has been
indicated as the humble home in question, where “_the person of the
house_” and her “_bad boy_” resided. Here, also, _Lizzie Hexam_ lodged
for some time after the death of her father, during the days when her
uncertain lover, _Eugene Wrayburn_, was yet a bachelor.
We may now return to the main road and continue the northward route by
_Abingdon Street_, crossing _Old Palace Yard_. A passing thought may
here be given to Mr. John Harmon, the _Julius Handford_ of “Our Mutual
Friend,” who furnished the Police authorities with his address—The
Exchequer Coffee House, Palace Yard, Westminster. Such a house of resort
no longer exists in this vicinity.
On the west side the Rambler passes the precincts of Westminster Abbey,
beneath whose “high embowed roof” repose the sacred ashes of the
illustrious dead. To this venerable fane—the especial resting-place of
English literary genius—we will return after our concluding ramble to the
birthplace of our greatest English novelist.
The onward road takes us past the HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT, on the right, to
PARLIAMENT STREET, leading to Whitehall and Charing Cross. At a short
distance up this thoroughfare is Derby Street—the first turning on the
right; on the north corner of which there stood—until 1899—an old
public-house, “The Red Lion” (No. 48). This place may be specially noted
as the house at which _young David Copperfield_ gave his “magnificent
order” for a glass of the “Genuine Stunning,” and where the landlord’s
wife gave him back the money and a kiss besides. This was an actual
experience in the boyhood of Dickens, and is referred to in Mr. Forster’s
Biography, where the house is indicated as above. It is now being
rebuilt and modernised.