A Week's Tramp in Dickens-Land Part 2

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 pa.s.s in Mr. Calverley's _Pickwick_ Examination Paper is said to be diminis.h.i.+ng. Pathetic questions are sometimes put. Are we not too much cultivated? Can this fastidiousness be anything but a casual pa.s.sing phase of taste? Are all people over thirty who cling to their d.i.c.kens 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?"

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fountain Court, Temple.]

But this by the way. Turning down Ess.e.x Street, we visit the Temple, celebrated in several of d.i.c.kens'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 pa.s.s on our left Child's Bank, the "Tellson's Bank" of _A Tale of Two Cities_, "which was an old-fas.h.i.+oned 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 d.i.c.kens's London, has pa.s.sed 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 d.i.c.kens 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 d.i.c.kens 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 d.i.c.kens's novels, we leave on our left Bell Yard, where lodged the ruined suitor in Chancery, poor Gridley, "the man from Shrops.h.i.+re" 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 ident.i.ty.

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 embarra.s.sed 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 pa.s.sed 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 d.i.c.kens'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 d.i.c.kens 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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. d.i.c.kens humorously suggests "Perhaps John Thomas," "Perhaps Joe Tyler," and under hilarious circ.u.mstances, "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 a.s.surance 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 pa.s.sed 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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. d.i.c.kens 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 s.p.a.ces in London, where they thrive so luxuriantly--give a rural appearance to this crowded place, while the sparrows tenanting them enjoy the sunbeams pa.s.sing through the scanty branches.

Our next halting-place, Furnival's Inn, is one of profound interest to all pious pilgrims in "d.i.c.kens-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."

[Ill.u.s.tration: d.i.c.kens 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 d.i.c.kens 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 bra.s.s-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 d.i.c.kens, 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 d.i.c.kens, and thus described the meeting:--

"I can remember, when Mr. d.i.c.kens 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 ill.u.s.trate 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 Ill.u.s.trations"

to _Pickwick_ which have appeared, surely these (if they were such) which d.i.c.kens "did not find suitable," combining as they did the genius of d.i.c.kens 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 d.i.c.kENS, =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 pa.s.s 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 d.i.c.kens 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 d.i.c.kens'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 d.i.c.kens_, "while living at Doughty Street that he seems, in great measure, to have formed those habits of work and relaxation which every artist fas.h.i.+ons 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. . . ."

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 48, Doughty Street, Mecklenburgh Square.

_d.i.c.kens'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."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Tavistock House, Tavistock Square.

_d.i.c.kens'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 d.i.c.kens'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 d.i.c.kens's third London residence, No. 1, Devons.h.i.+re Terrace, but it will be more convenient to take his fourth residence on our way. We therefore retrace our steps into Theobald's Road, pa.s.s through Red Lion and Bloomsbury Squares, and along Great Russell Street as far as the British Museum, where d.i.c.kens 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 "d.i.c.kensiana," as is evidenced by the comprehensive Bibliography furnished by Mr. John P. Anderson, one of the librarians, to Mr. Marzials' _Life of d.i.c.kens_), 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, d.i.c.kens 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 d.i.c.kens had to entertain his friends.

Hans Christian Andersen, who visited d.i.c.kens 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 gra.s.s-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 pa.s.sage from street to garden hung pictures and engravings. Here stood a marble bust of d.i.c.kens, 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 d.i.c.kens 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 d.i.c.kens 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 d.i.c.kens, 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, d.i.c.kens 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 mult.i.tude 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 a.s.sistance.

Mrs. Arthur Ryland of The Linthurst, near Bromsgrove, Worcesters.h.i.+re, who was present at Tavistock House on the occasion of the performance of _The Frozen Deep_, informs me that when d.i.c.kens returned to the drawing-room after the play was over, the constrained expression of face which he had a.s.sumed 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.