A Week's Tramp in Dickens-Land Part 28

The "little Inn" (as recorded in the same chapter) where Mr. Micawber "put up" on his first visit to Canterbury, and where he "occupied a little room in it part.i.tioned off from the commercial, and strongly flavoured with tobacco smoke," is doubtless the "Sun Inn" in Sun Street, which is at the opposite corner of the square where the ancient "Chequers" in Mercery Lane--the Pilgrim's Inn of Chaucer--stood. It was a place of resort from afar, and was altered in the seventeenth century.

Dr. Sheppard calls attention to the interesting fact that the omnibus from Herne Bay stopped at the Sun; and probably, in his visits to Broadstairs, d.i.c.kens would often run over for a day's trip to Canterbury.

On their first visit to the "little Inn," Mr. and Mrs.

Micawber--notwithstanding their chronic impecuniosity--thus entertained David Copperfield:--

"We had a beautiful little dinner. Quite an elegant dish of fish; the kidney end of a loin of veal roasted; fried sausage-meat; a partridge and a pudding. There was wine, and there was strong ale; and after dinner Mrs. Micawber made us a bowl of hot punch with her own hands."

They spent a jolly evening, and ended with singing _Auld Lang Syne_.

The "little Inn" is again alluded to later in the story, where Mr.

Micawber announces his full determination to abstain from everything until he has exposed the machinations of, and blown to pieces, "the--a--detestable serpent--HEEP;" and finally, where David Copperfield "a.s.sisted at an explosion," and Mr. Micawber is triumphant, and the "transcendent and immortal hypocrite and perjurer, HEEP," is forced to succ.u.mb.

Speaking of the "little Inn" for the last time, David says:--"I looked at the old house from the corner of the street. . . . The early sun was striking edgewise on its gables and lattice-windows, touching them with gold; and some beams of its old peace seemed to touch my heart."

Dr. Sheppard subsequently told us that, when he was beginning to turn his attention to the deciphering and utilizing of ancient MSS., he was much impressed, when perusing some articles in _Household Words_, or some other papers written by d.i.c.kens, relating to the neglected state of public records, more particularly at Canterbury; and when many years after the very records of which he wrote came under his (Dr. Sheppard's) care, he was surprised to find the names of Snodgra.s.s, Sam Weller, and others therein. The records to which Dr. Sheppard referred were those in charge of the Archbishop's Registrar at Canterbury.

If time permits it would be pleasant to go on to Dover,[33] to see "Miss Betsey Trotwood's house," but this is impossible; and indeed, all that can be said about a tramp in search of "that very neat little cottage with cheerful bow windows in front of it, a small square gravelled court or garden full of flowers carefully tended, and smelling deliciously,"

has been well said by Mr. Ashby-Sterry in his delightful little volume, _Cuc.u.mber Chronicles_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "The Little Inn" Canterbury]

After much perseverance, and in spite of almost as many difficulties as beset poor little David Copperfield himself in his search for his aunt (who, as the Dover boatmen told him, "lived in the South Foreland Light, and had singed her whiskers by doing so"--"that she was made fast to the great buoy outside the harbour, and could only be visited at half-tide"--"that she was locked up in Maidstone Jail for child-stealing"--and that "she was seen to mount a broom in the last high wind and make direct for Calais"), Mr. Ashby-Sterry succeeded, although his greatest embarra.s.sment arose from that irrepressible nuisance, "Buggins the Builder," who cannot be controlled even in the neighbourhood of Dover, so "hugely does he delight to mar those spots that have been hallowed by antiquity, seclusion, or the pen of the novelist. Hence the abode of Betsey Trotwood is not so pleasant as it must have been formerly, for other houses have cl.u.s.tered about the back and the front." But Mr. Ashby-Sterry quite satisfied himself as to the ident.i.ty on Dover Heights of the very neat little cottage, and a.s.sures us that "the house, however, still stands high, the fresh breezes from over the sea and across the Down smite it. It still has a view of the sea, though perhaps not so uninterrupted as it was in the days of David Copperfield." He further states that it is, perhaps, not quite so neat as it was in Miss Betsey Trotwood's time, though there are no donkeys about. Here are the bow windows, with the room above, where Mr. d.i.c.k alarmed poor David by nodding and laughing at him on his first arrival.

The window on the right must have belonged to the neat room "with the drugget-covered carpet," and the old-fas.h.i.+oned furniture brightly polished, where might be found "the cat, the kettle-holder, the two canaries, the old china, the punch-bowl full of dried rose leaves, the tall press guarding all sorts of bottles and pots, and wonderfully out of keeping with the rest." On the strength of this description by an ardent lover of d.i.c.kens, we fully make up our minds to visit Dover at no distant date to see Miss Betsey Trotwood's house for ourselves.

_a propos_ of Miss Trotwood's domicile, we have been favoured by Mr. C.

K. Worsfold, an old resident of Dover, with a letter containing some interesting particulars, from which we extract the following:--

"d.i.c.kens's description of the local habitation of Betsey Trotwood is not consistent with the surroundings. The hills on either side of the town belong to the War Department, and are occupied as fortifications; on the eastern side is the Castle, and on the western side barracks and forts.

On the western heights there is a house somewhat answering to d.i.c.kens's description, having a garden in front of it, and a small plot of gra.s.s in front of the garden; and about forty years ago there lived in this house a lady of rather masculine character, who always resented any intrusion of boys, and perhaps donkeys, on the gra.s.s in front of her house and garden, and I believe she was occasionally rather rough with the boys; but there the likeness to Betsey Trotwood ends. This was a married lady living with her husband.

"I know it was a matter of conversation forty years ago that d.i.c.kens must have found his original in the lady in question, but I think he was rather in the habit of selecting his characters without reference to locality, and then adapting them to his requirements.

"d.i.c.kens was a frequent visitor to Dover, and he may possibly have been a witness of some encounter between this lady and the boys, and on that occasion donkeys may have been present.[34] I do not know of any relative of the lady answering to Miss Trotwood's worthy nephew."

"A moderate stroke," as Mr. Datchery said, "is all I am justified in scoring up"; and we reluctantly leave the "sunny street of Canterbury, dozing, as it were, in the hot light," and take our places in the train for Chatham, distant about twenty-seven miles.

The only new parts of interest which we go over, on our return journey by rail, are the green fields surrounding the ancient city, wherein are numbers of those beautiful and quiet-feeding cattle, which the eminent artist, Mr. T. Sidney Cooper, R.A. (who resides in the neighbourhood), loves to paint, and paints so well; and in due time we pa.s.s the chalk-topped hills called Harbledown, overlooking Canterbury, from whence the best view of the city is obtained, and safely reach our headquarters at Rochester.

FOOTNOTES:

[32] According to a "Note" in the _Rochester and Chatham Journal_, the derivation of this curious term is from _uro_ to burn (ustus).

[33] One of the "Five Cinque Ports, and two Ancient Towns" often referred to, but not always remembered--Hastings, Sandwich, Dover, New Romney, Hythe, Winchelsea and Rye.

[34] Mr. Charles d.i.c.kens kindly writes to me:--"The lady who objected to the donkeys lived at Broadstairs. I knew her when I was a boy."

CHAPTER XII.

COOLING, CLIFFE, AND HIGHAM.

"And now the range of marshes lay clear before us, with the sails of the s.h.i.+ps on the river growing out of it; and we went into the Churchyard . . .

and the light wind strewed it with beautiful shadows of clouds and trees."

"What might have been your opinion of the place?"

"A most beastly place. Mudbank, mist, swamp and work; work, swamp, mist, and mudbank."--_Great Expectations._

"They were now in the open country; the houses were very few and scattered at long intervals, often miles apart. Occasionally they came upon a cl.u.s.ter of poor cottages, some with a chair or low board put across the open door, to keep the scrambling children from the road; others shut up close, while all the family were working in the fields. These were often the commencement of a little village; and after an interval came a wheelwright's shed, or perhaps a blacksmith's forge; then a thriving farm, with sleepy cows lying about the yard, and horses peering over the low wall, and scampering away when harnessed horses pa.s.sed upon the road, as though in triumph at their freedom."--_The Old Curiosity Shop._

NOW for a long tramp in the country of the Marshes--the famous "Meshes"

of _Great Expectations_. The air is sultry on this Thursday afternoon, and there is thunder in the distance. The storm, however, does not pa.s.s over Rochester, but further on we find traces of it where the roadways have been washed up. Afterwards the air becomes deliciously cool, and that hum of all Nature which succeeds the quiet preceding the storm is distinctly perceptible. Crossing Rochester Bridge, keeping to the right along Strood and Frindsbury--the churchyard of which affords a splendid view of Rochester, Chatham, and the Medway--pa.s.sing up Four Elms Hill and through the little village of Wainscot, nothing of interest calls for notice until we have travelled some miles from Strood. After crossing a tramway belonging to Government, and utilized by the Royal Engineers as a means of communication between the powder-magazine and Chatham Barracks, we observe that vegetation, which is so rich in other parts of Kent, here appears to be dwarfed and stunted. A hop-garden presents a very miserable contrast, in its struggle for existence, to others we have seen in the more central parts of the county, and even some of these were far from being luxuriant, owing to such a peculiarly wet and cold season. The hedges in places are diversified with the small gold and violet star-like flowers and the green and scarlet berries of the climbing woody nightshade, or bitter-sweet (_Solanum Dulcamara_), often mistaken for the deadly nightshade (_Atropa Belladonna_--a fine bushy herbaceous perennial, with large ovate-shaped leaves, and lurid, purple bell-shaped flowers), quite a different plant, and happily somewhat rare in England. The delicate light-blue flowers of the chicory are very abundant here.

A tramp of upwards of six miles from Rochester, by way of Hoo,[35]

brings us to Lodge Hill, overlooking Perry Hill, which affords a magnificent view of the mouth of the Thames beyond the low-lying Marshes, and of Canvey Island, off the coast of Ess.e.x, on the opposite side. By the kindness of a farmer's wife we are allowed to take a short cut through the farm-garden and grounds, which leads direct to Cooling (or Cowling) Church, a cheerless, grey-stone structure, the tower standing out as a beacon long before we reach it.

Those unacquainted with this part of Kent may be interested in knowing that the Marshes, which stretch out over a considerable distance on either side of the Thames, on both the Kent and the Ess.e.x coasts, consist entirely of alluvial soil reclaimed at some time from the river.

They are intersected by ditches and water-courses, and covered with rank vegetation, chiefly of gra.s.s, rushes, and flags, where not cultivated.

Higher up the land is rich, and large tracts of it are planted with vegetables as market gardens. Sea-gulls, plovers, and herons are numerous; their call-notes in the still evening sounding shrill and uncanny over the long stretches of flat lands.

Dear old Michael Drayton, the Warwicks.h.i.+re poet, who touched upon almost everything, has not omitted to describe the Marshes in a somewhat similar locality, for in the _Polyolbion_ (Song XVIII.) he gracefully compares them to a female enamoured of the beauties of the River Rother, thus:--

"Appearing to the flood, most bravely like a Queen, Clad all from head to foot, in gaudy Summer's green, Her mantle richly wrought with sundry flow'rs and weeds; Her moistful temples bound with wreaths of quiv'ring reeds; And on her loins a frock, with many a swelling plait, Emboss'd with well-spread horse, large sheep, and full-fed neat; With villages amongst, oft powthered here and there; And (that the same more like to landscape should appear) With lakes and lesser fords, to mitigate the heat In summer, when the fly doth p.r.i.c.k the gadding neat."

Readers of _Great Expectations_ will remember that the scene in the first chapter between Pip and the convict, Magwitch, is laid in Cooling churchyard, and on reaching this spot we are instantly reminded of what doubtless gave origin to the idea of the five dead little brothers of poor Philip Pirrip, for there, on the left of the princ.i.p.al pathway, are indeed, not five stone lozenges, but _ten_ in one row and three more at the back of them, such peculiarly-shaped and curiously-arranged little monuments as we never before beheld. They consist of a grey stone (Kentish-rag, probably, but lichen-encrusted by time) of cylindrical shape, widening at the shoulders, coffin-like, and about a yard in length, the diameter being about eight inches, including the portion buried in the earth. Four little foot-stones are placed in front, and separating the ten little memorials from the three at the back is a large head-stone, bearing the name--"Comport of Cowling Court, 1771."

Cooling Church, which has the date 1615 on one of the bells, has an example of a Hagioscope, a curious, small, square, angular, tunnel-like opening through the wall, which divides the nave from the chancel. It is said to have been the place through which those members of the church, who were unworthy or unable to receive the sacred elements, might get a look at their more acceptable companions during the administration of the sacrament. The Rev. W. H. A. Leaver, the Rector, who kindly shows us over his church, in reply to our question as to whether he could give any information about Charles d.i.c.kens, said that he was a new-comer in the district, and that all he remembers is, that when his sister was a little baby in arms, her mother happened once to be travelling in the same train with the great novelist, who, with his usual kindness, gave the child an orange, which she acknowledged very ungratefully by scratching his face!

The following is a picture of the neighbourhood, given in the opening sentences of the story:--

"Ours was the marsh country, down by the river, within, as the river wound, twenty miles of the sea. My first most vivid and broad impression of the ident.i.ty of things, seems to me to have been gained on a memorable raw afternoon towards evening. At such a time, I found out for certain, that this bleak place overgrown with nettles was the churchyard; and that Philip Pirrip, late of this parish, and also Georgiana, wife of above, were dead and buried; and that Alexander, Bartholomew, Abraham, Tobias, and Roger, infant children of the aforesaid, were also dead and buried; and that the dark flat wilderness beyond the churchyard, intersected with d.y.k.es, and mounds, and gates, with scattered cattle feeding on it, was the marshes; and that the low leaden line beyond was the river; and that the distant savage lair, from which the wind was rus.h.i.+ng, was the sea; and that the small bundle of s.h.i.+vers growing afraid of it all, and beginning to cry, was Pip."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Graves of the Comport Family: in Cooling Churchyard]

Here follows the appearance of the awful convict, and the terrible threats by which he induces Pip to bring him "that file and them wittles" on the morrow; to enforce obedience the convict tilts Pip two or three times, "and then" [says Pip] "he gave me a most tremendous dip and roll, so that the church jumped over its own weatherc.o.c.k." Then he held him by the arms in an upright position on the top of the stone, finally threatening him "with having his heart and liver torn out," in case of non-compliance.

All the characters described in _Great Expectations_, and all the scenes wherein they played their parts--Pip, with and without his "great expectations"; his sister Mrs. Joe Gargery, "on the rampage with Tickler;" Joe Gargery, "ever the best of friends, dear Pip;" Mr. and Mrs. Hubble, the former fond of "a bit of savoury pork pie as would lay atop of anything you could mention and do no harm;" the stage-struck Wopsle, _alias_ "Mr. Waldengarver"; "the servile Pumblechook;" the two convicts, "Pip's convict," Magwitch, with "the great iron on his leg,"

and the "other convict," Compeyson, also ironed; "slouching old" Orlick; Biddy, simple-hearted and loving; "the Serjeant" and "party of soldiers"; Mr. Jaggers, "the Old Bailey lawyer"; Estella, Miss Havisham, Herbert Pocket, and Bentley Drummle at "the market town"; Joe's Forge (now converted into a dwelling-house); "The Three Jolly Bargemen"

(obviously taken from "The Three Horse-shoes," the present village inn); the "old Battery," "the little sluice-house by the lime-kiln;"--all centre round Cooling churchyard, and appear before us as though traced on a map.

Forster says in the _Life_:--"It is strange as I transcribe the words, with what wonderful vividness they bring back the very spot on which we stood when he said he meant to make it the scene of the opening of this story--Cooling Castle ruins and the desolate Church, lying out among the marshes seven miles from Gad's Hill!"

[Ill.u.s.tration: Cooling Church.]