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Read Ebook: A Week's Tramp in Dickens-Land Together with Personal Reminiscences of the 'Inimitable Boz' Therein Collected by Hughes William R William Richard Kitton Frederic George Illustrator
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Ebook has 667 lines and 61585 words, and 14 pages
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 , 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."
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 , attended by his dear little sister Fanny, could be overlooked." 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.
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 , 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.
"Mr. Cobb , 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 , 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."
"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."
FOOTNOTES:
A POSTHUMOUS POEM of the
late THOMAS DICKENS, ESQ.,
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."
Genealogy of the late Thomas Dickens, Esq.
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
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
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