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.