In the summer of this year Charles Dickens made, accompanied by Mrs.
Dickens, his first visit to Scotland, and was received in Edinburgh with
the greatest enthusiasm.
He was at Broadstairs with his family for the autumn, and at the close
of the year he went to Windsor for change of air after a serious
illness.
On the 17th January "The Old Curiosity Shop" was finished. In the
following week the first number of his story of "Barnaby Rudge"
appeared, in "Master Humphrey's Clock," and the last number of this
story was written at Windsor, in November of this year.
We have the first letters to his dear and valued friends the Rev.
William Harness and Mr. Harrison Ainsworth. Also his first letter to Mr.
Monckton Milnes (now Lord Houghton).
Of the letter to Mr. John Tomlin we would only remark, that it was
published in an American magazine, edited by Mr. E. A. Poe, in the year
1842.
"The New First Rate" (first letter to Mr. Harrison Ainsworth) must, we
think, be an allusion to the outside cover of "Bentley's Miscellany,"
which first appeared in this year, and of which Mr. Ainsworth was
editor.
The two letters to Mr. Lovejoy are in answer to a requisition from the
people of Reading that he would represent them in Parliament.
The letter to Mr. George Cattermole (26th June) refers to a dinner given
to Charles Dickens by the people of Edinburgh, on his first visit to
that city.
The "poor Overs," mentioned in the letter to Mr. Macready of 24th
August, was a carpenter dying of consumption, to whom Dr. Elliotson had
shown extraordinary kindness. "When poor Overs was dying" (wrote Charles
Dickens to Mr. Forster), "he suddenly asked for a pen and ink and some
paper, and made up a little parcel for me, which it was his last
conscious act to direct. She (his wife) told me this, and gave it me. I
opened it last night. It was a copy of his little book, in which he had
written my name, 'with his devotion.' I thought it simple and affecting
of the poor fellow."
"The Saloon," alluded to in our last letter of this year, was an
institution at Drury Lane Theatre during Mr. Macready's management. The
original purpose for which this saloon was established having become
perverted and degraded, Charles Dickens had it much at heart to remodel
and improve it. Hence this letter to Mr. Macready.
[Sidenote: Rev. William Harness.]