Chapter XV: Part 15

But I offer a prize of six pairs of gloves--between you, and your aunt, and Ellen Stone, as competitors--to whomsoever will tell me what idea in this second part is mine. I don't mean an idea in language, in the turning of a sentence, in any little description of an action, or a gesture, or what not in a small way, but an idea, distinctly affecting the whole story _as I found it_. You are all to assume that I found it in the main as you read it, with one exception. If I had written it, I should have made the woman love the man at last. And I should have shadowed that possibility out, by the child's bringing them a little more together on that holiday Sunday.

But I didn't write it. So, finding that it wanted something, I put that something in. What was it?

Love to Ellen Stone.

[Sidenote: Mr. Arthur Ryland.]

GAD'S HILL PLACE, HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT,
_Friday, Aug. 13th, 1869._

MY DEAR MR. RYLAND,

Many thanks for your letter.

I have very strong opinions on the subject of speechification, and hold that there is, everywhere, a vast amount too much of it. A sense of absurdity would be so strong upon me, if I got up at Birmingham to make a flourish on the advantages of education in the abstract for all sorts and conditions of men, that I should inevitably check myself and present a surprising incarnation of the soul of wit. But if I could interest myself in the practical usefulness of the particular institution; in the ways of life of the students; in their examples of perseverance and determination to get on; in their numbers, their favourite studies, the number of hours they must daily give to the work that must be done for a livelihood, before they can devote themselves to the acquisition of new knowledge, and so forth, then I could interest others. This is the kind of information I want. Mere holding forth "I utterly detest, abominate, and abjure."

I fear I shall not be in London next week. But if you will kindly send me here, at your leisure, the roughest notes of such points as I have indicated, I shall be heartily obliged to you, and will take care of their falling into shape and order in my mind. Meantime I "make a note of" Monday, 27th September, and of writing to you touching your kind offer of hospitality, three weeks before that date.

I beg to send my kind regard to Mrs. and Miss Ryland, and am always,

Very faithfully yours.

[Sidenote: Mr. Frederic Ouvry.]

GAD'S HILL PLACE, HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT,
_Sunday, Aug. 22nd, 1869._

MY DEAR OUVRY,

I will expect a call from you at the office, on Thursday, at your own most convenient hour. I admit the soft impeachment concerning Mrs. Gamp: I likes my payments to be made reg'lar, and I likewise likes my publisher to draw it mild.

Ever yours.

[Sidenote: Mr. Arthur Ryland.]

GAD'S HILL PLACE, HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT,
_Monday, Sept. 6th, 1869._

MY DEAR MR. RYLAND,

I am sorry to find--I had a foreshadowing of it some weeks ago--that I shall not be able to profit by your kind offer of hospitality when I come to Birmingham for _our_ Institution. I must come down in time for a quiet dinner at the hotel with my "Readings" secretary, Mr. Dolby, and must away next morning. Besides having a great deal in hand just now (the title of a new book among other things), I shall have visitors from abroad here at the time, and am severely claimed by my daughter, who indeed is disloyal to Birmingham in the matter of my going away at all. Pray represent me to Mrs. Ryland as the innocent victim of circumstances, and as sacrificing pleasure to the work I have to do, and to the training under which alone I can do it without feeling it.

You will see from the enclosed that I am in full force, and going to finish my readings, please God, after Christmas. I am in the hope of receiving your promised notes in due course, and continue in the irreverent condition in which I last reported myself on the subject of speech-making. Now that men not only make the nights of the session hideous by what the Americans call "orating" in Parliament, but trouble the peace of the vacation by saying over again what they said there (with the addition of what they _didn't_ say there, and never will have the courage to say there), I feel indeed that silence, like gold across the Atlantic, is a rarity at a premium.

Faithfully yours always.

[Sidenote: Mr. William Charles Kent.]

OFFICE OF "ALL THE YEAR ROUND,"
_Thursday, Oct. 7th, 1869._

MY DEAR KENT,

I felt that you would be deeply disappointed. I thought it better not to make the first sign while you were depressed, but my mind has been constantly with you. And not mine alone. You cannot think with what affection and sympathy you have been made the subject of our family dinner talk at Gad's Hill these last three days. Nothing could exceed the interest of my daughters and my sister-in-law, or the earnestness of their feeling about it. I have been really touched by its warm and genuine expression.

Cheer up, my dear fellow; cheer up, for God's sake. That is, for the sake of all that is good in you and around you.

Ever your affectionate Friend.

[Sidenote: Mr. W. C. Macready.]

GAD'S HILL, _Monday, Oct. 18th, 1869._

MY DEAREST MACREADY,

I duly received your letter nearly a fortnight ago, with the greatest interest and pleasure. Above all things I am delighted with the prospect of seeing you here next summer; a prospect which has been received with nine times nine and one more by the whole house. You will hardly know the place again, it is so changed. You are not expected to admire, but there _is_ a conservatory building at this moment--be still, my soul!

This leaves me in the preliminary agonies of a new book, which I hope to begin publishing (in twelve numbers, not twenty) next March. The coming readings being all in London, and being, after the first fortnight, only once a week, will divert my attention very little, I hope.

Harry has just gone up to Cambridge again, and I hope will get a fellowship in good time.

Wills is much gratified by your remembrance, and sends you his warm regard. He wishes me to represent that he is very little to be pitied. That he suffers no pain, scarcely inconvenience, even, so long as he is idle. That he likes idleness exceedingly. He has bought a country place by Welwyn in Hertfordshire, near Lytton's, and takes possession presently.

My boy Sydney is now a second lieutenant, the youngest in the Service, I believe. He has the highest testimonials as an officer.

You may be quite sure there will be no international racing in American waters. Oxford knows better, or I am mistaken. The Harvard crew were a very good set of fellows, and very modest.

Ryland of Birmingham doesn't look a day older, and was full of interest in you, and asked me to remind you of him. By-the-bye, at Elkington's I saw a pair of immense tea-urns from a railway station (Stafford), sent there to be repaired. They were honeycombed within in all directions, and had been supplying the passengers, under the active agency of hot water, with decomposed lead, copper, and a few other deadly poisons, for heaven knows how many years!

I must leave off in a hurry to catch the post, after a hard day's work.

Ever, my dearest Macready,
Your most affectionate and attached.

FOOTNOTES:

[28] Herr Joseph Joachim, the renowned violinist.

[29] His sister-in-law, Mrs. Augustus Dickens, always a welcome visitor at Gad's Hill.

[30] Of the Guild of Literature and Art.

[31] The housekeeper at the office.

1870.

NARRATIVE.

Charles Dickens passed his last Christmas and New Year's Day at Gad's Hill, with a party of family and friends, in the usual way, except that he was suffering again from an attack of the foot trouble, particularly on Christmas Day, when he was quite disabled by it and unable to walk at all--able only to join the party in the evening by keeping his room all day. However, he was better in a day or two, and early in January he went to London, where he had taken the house of his friends, Mr. and Mrs. Milner Gibson, for the season.

His series of "Farewell Readings" at St. James's Hall began in January, and ended on the 16th March. He was writing "Edwin Drood" also, and was, of course, constantly occupied with "All the Year Round" work. In the beginning of January, he fulfilled his promise of paying a second visit to Birmingham and making a speech, of which he writes in his last letter to Mr. Macready.

For his last reading he gave the "Christmas Carol" and "The Trial" from "Pickwick," and at the end of the evening he addressed a few farewell words to his audience. It was a memorable and splendid occasion. He was very deeply affected by the loving enthusiasm of his greeting, and it was a real sorrow to him to give up for ever the personal associations with thousands of the readers of his books. But when the pain, mingled with pleasure, of this last reading was over, he felt greatly the relief of having undisturbed time for his own quieter pursuits, and looked forward to writing the last numbers of "Edwin Drood" at Gad's Hill, where he was to return in June.

The last public appearance of any kind that he made was at the Royal Academy dinner in May. He was at the time far from well, but he made a great effort to be present and to speak, from his strong desire to pay a tribute to the memory of his dear old friend Mr. Maclise, who died in April.

Her Majesty having expressed a wish, conveyed through Mr. Helps (afterwards Sir Arthur Helps), to have a personal interview with Charles Dickens, he accompanied Mr. Helps to Buckingham Palace one afternoon in March. He was most graciously and kindly received by her Majesty, and came away with a hope that the visit had been mutually agreeable. The Queen presented him with a copy of her "Journal in the Highlands," with an autograph inscription. And he had afterwards the pleasure of requesting her acceptance of a set of his books. He attended a levee held by the Prince of Wales in April, and the last time he dined out in London was at a party given by Lord Houghton for the King of the Belgians and the Prince of Wales, who had both expressed a desire to meet Charles Dickens. All through the season he had been suffering, at intervals, from the swollen foot, and on this occasion it was so bad, that up to the last moment it was very doubtful whether he could fulfil his engagement.

We have very few letters for this year, and none of any very particular interest, but we give them all, as they are _the last_.

Mr. S. L. Fildes was his "new illustrator," to whom he alludes in a note to Mr. Frith; we also give a short note to Mr. Fildes himself.

The correspondence of Charles Dickens with Mrs. Dallas Glyn, the celebrated actress, for whom he had a great friendship, is so much on the subject of her own business, that we have only been able to select two notes of any public interest.

In explanation of _the last letter_, we give an extract from a letter addressed to _The Daily News_ by Mr. J. M. Makeham, soon after the death of Charles Dickens, as follows: "That the public may exactly understand the circumstances under which Charles Dickens's letter to me was written, I am bound to explain that it is in reply to a letter which I addressed to him in reference to a passage in the tenth chapter of "Edwin Drood," respecting which I ventured to suggest that he had, perhaps, forgotten that the figure of speech alluded to by him, in a way which, to my certain knowledge, was distasteful to some of his admirers, was drawn from a passage of Holy Writ which is greatly reverenced by a large number of his countrymen as a prophetic description of the sufferings of our Saviour."

The MS. of the little "History of the New Testament" is now in the possession of his eldest daughter. She has (together with her aunt) received many earnest entreaties, both from friends and strangers, that this history might be allowed to be published, for the benefit of other children.

These many petitions have his daughter's fullest sympathy. But she knows that her father wrote this history ONLY for his own children, that it was his particular wish that it never should be published, and she therefore holds this wish as sacred and irrevocable.

[Sidenote: Mr. W. H. Wills.]

5, HYDE PARK PLACE, LONDON, W., _Sunday, Jan. 23rd, 1870._

MY DEAR WILLS,

In the note I had from you about Nancy and Sikes, you seem to refer to some other note you had written me. Therefore I think it well merely to mention that I have received no other note.

I do not wonder at your not being up to the undertaking (even if you had had no cough) under the wearing circumstances. It was a very curious scene. The actors and actresses (most of the latter looking very pretty) mustered in extraordinary force, and were a fine audience. I set myself to carrying out of themselves and their observation, those who were bent on watching how the effects were got; and I believe I succeeded. Coming back to it again, however, I feel it was madness ever to do it so continuously. My ordinary pulse is seventy-two, and it runs up under this effort to one hundred and twelve. Besides which, it takes me ten or twelve minutes to get my wind back at all; I being, in the meantime, like the man who lost the fight--in fact, his express image. Frank Beard was in attendance to make divers experiments to report to Watson; and although, as you know, he stopped it instantly when he found me at Preston, he was very much astonished by the effects of the reading on the reader.

So I hope you may be able to come and hear it before it is silent for ever. It is done again on the evenings of the 1st February, 15th February, and 8th March. I hope, now I have got over the mornings, that I may be able to work on my book. But up to this time the great preparation required in getting the subjects up again, and the twice a week besides, have almost exclusively occupied me.

I have something the matter with my right thumb, and can't (as you see) write plainly. I sent a word to poor Robert Chambers,[32] and I send my love to Mrs. Wills.

Ever, my dear Wills, affectionately yours.

[Sidenote: Mrs. Dallas.]

OFFICE OF "ALL THE YEAR ROUND,"
_Wednesday, Jan. 16th, 1870._

MY DEAR MRS. DALLAS,

It is perfectly delightful to me to get your fervent and sympathetic note this morning. A thousand thanks for it. I will take care that two places on the front row, by my daughter, are reserved for your occasion next time. I cannot see you in too good a seat, or too often.

Believe me, ever very faithfully yours.

[Sidenote: Mr. S. L. Fildes.]

OFFICE OF "ALL THE YEAR ROUND,"
_Wednesday, Jan. 16th, 1870._

DEAR SIR,

I beg to thank you for the highly meritorious and interesting specimens of your art that you have had the kindness to send me. I return them herewith, after having examined them with the greatest pleasure.

I am naturally curious to see your drawing from "David Copperfield," in order that I may compare it with my own idea. In the meanwhile, I can honestly assure you that I entertain the greatest admiration for your remarkable powers.

Faithfully yours.

[Sidenote: Mr. Henry Fielding Dickens.]

5, HYDE PARK PLACE, W., _Thursday, Feb. 17th, 1870._

MY DEAR HARRY,

I am extremely glad to hear that you have made a good start at the Union. Take any amount of pains about it; open your mouth well and roundly, speak to the last person visible, and give yourself time.

Loves from all.

Ever affectionately.

[Sidenote: Mr. W. C. Macready.]

_Wednesday, March 2nd, 1870._

MY DEAREST MACREADY,

This is to wish you and yours all happiness and prosperity at the well-remembered anniversary to-morrow. You may be sure that loves and happy returns will not be forgotten at _our_ table.

I have been getting on very well with my book, and we are having immense audiences at St. James's Hall. Mary has been celebrating the first glimpses of spring by having the measles. She got over the disorder very easily, but a weakness remains behind. Katie is blooming. Georgina is in perfect order, and all send you their very best loves. It gave me true pleasure to have your sympathy with me in the second little speech at Birmingham. I was determined that my Radicalism should not be called in question. The electric wires are not very exact in their reporting, but at all events the sense was there. Ryland, as usual, made all sorts of enquiries about you.

With love to dear Mrs. Macready and the noble boy my particular friend, and a hearty embrace to you,

I am ever, my dearest Macready,
Your most affectionate.

[Sidenote: Mr. ----.]

OFFICE OF "ALL THE YEAR ROUND,"
_Wednesday, March 9th, 1870._

MY DEAR ----,

You make me very uneasy on the subject of your new long story here, by sowing your name broadcast in so many fields at once, and undertaking such an impossible amount of fiction at one time. Just as you are coming on with us, you have another story in progress in "The Gentleman's Magazine," and another announced in "Once a Week." And so far as I know the art we both profess, it cannot be reasonably pursued in this way. I think the short story you are now finishing in these pages obviously marked by traces of great haste and small consideration; and a long story similarly blemished would really do the publication irreparable harm.

These considerations are so much upon my mind that I cannot forbear representing them to you, in the hope that they may induce you to take a little more into account the necessity of care and preparation, and some self-denial in the quantity done. I am quite sure that I write fully as much in your interest as in that of "All the Year Round."

Believe me, always faithfully yours.

[Sidenote: The same.]

5, HYDE PARK PLACE, W., _Friday, March 11th, 1870._

MY DEAR ----,

Of course the engagement between us is to continue, and I am sure you know me too well to suppose that I have ever had a thought to the contrary. Your explanation is (as it naturally would be, being yours) manly and honest, and I am both satisfied and hopeful.

Ever yours.

[Sidenote: Mr. William Charles Kent.]

5, HYDE PARK PLACE, W., _Saturday, March 26th, 1870._

MY DEAR KENT,

I received both copies of _The Sun_, with the tenderest pleasure and gratification.

Everything that I can let you have in aid of the proposed record[33] (which, _of course_, would be far more agreeable to me if done by you than by any other hand), shall be at your service. Dolby has all the figures relating to America, and you shall have for reference the books from which I read. They are afterwards going into Forster's collection.[34]

Ever affectionately.

[Sidenote: Mr. Henry Fielding Dickens.]

5, HYDE PARK PLACE, W., _Tuesday, March 29th, 1870._

MY DEAR HARRY,

Your next Tuesday's subject is a very good one. I would not lose the point that narrow-minded fanatics, who decry the theatre and defame its artists, are absolutely the advocates of depraved and barbarous amusements. For wherever a good drama and a well-regulated theatre decline, some distorted form of theatrical entertainment will infallibly arise in their place. In one of the last chapters of "Hard Times," Mr. Sleary says something to the effect: "People will be entertained thomehow, thquire. Make the betht of uth, and not the wortht."

Ever affectionately.

[Sidenote: Mr. Shirley Brooks.]

5, HYDE PARK PLACE, W., _Friday, April 1st, 1870._

MY DEAR SHIRLEY BROOKS,

I have written to Mr. Low, expressing my regret that I cannot comply with his request, backed as it is by my friend S. B. But I have told him what is perfectly true--that I leave town for the peaceful following of my own pursuits, at the end of next month; that I have excused myself from filling all manner of claims, on the ground that the public engagements I could make for the season were very few and were all made; and that I cannot bear hot rooms when I am at work. I have smoothed this as you would have me smooth it.

With your longing for fresh air I can thoroughly sympathise. May you get it soon, and may you enjoy it, and profit by it half as much as I wish!

Ever faithfully yours.

[Sidenote: Mr. W. P. Frith, R.A.]

5, HYDE PARK PLACE, W., _Saturday, April 16th, 1870._

MY DEAR FRITH,

I shall be happy to go on Wednesday evening, if convenient.

You please me with what you say of my new illustrator, of whom I have great hopes.

Faithfully yours ever.

[Sidenote: Mr. William Charles Kent.]

_Monday Morning, April 25th, 1870._

MY DEAR KENT,

I received your book[35] with the greatest pleasure, and heartily thank you for it. It is a volume of a highly prepossessing appearance, and a most friendly look. I felt as if I should have taken to it at sight; even (a very large even) though I had known nothing of its contents, or of its author!

For the last week I have been most perseveringly and ding-dong-doggedly at work, making headway but slowly. The spring always has a restless influence over me; and I weary, at any season, of this London dining-out beyond expression; and I yearn for the country again. This is my excuse for not having written to you sooner. Besides which, I had a baseless conviction that I should see you at the office last Thursday. Not having done so, I fear you must be worse, or no better? If you _can_ let me have a report of yourself, pray do.

[Sidenote: Mrs. Frederick Pollock.]

5, HYDE PARK PLACE, W., _Monday, May 2nd, 1870._

MY DEAR MRS. POLLOCK,

Pray tell the illustrious Philip van Artevelde, that I will deal with the nefarious case in question if I can. I am a little doubtful of the practicability of doing so, and frisking outside the bounds of the law of libel. I have that high opinion of the law of England generally, which one is likely to derive from the impression that it puts all the honest men under the diabolical hoofs of all the scoundrels. It makes me cautious of doing right; an admirable instance of its wisdom!

I was very sorry to have gone astray from you that Sunday; but as the earlier disciples entertained angels unawares, so the later often miss them haphazard.

Your description of La Font's acting is the complete truth in one short sentence: Nature's triumph over art; reversing the copy-book axiom! But the Lord deliver us from Plessy's mechanical ingenuousness!!

And your petitioner will ever pray.

And ever be,

Faithfully yours.

[Sidenote: Mrs. E. M. Ward.]

5, HYDE PARK PLACE, W., _Wednesday, May 11th, 1870._

MY DEAR MRS. WARD,

I grieve to say that I am literally laid by the heels, and incapable of dining with you to-morrow. A neuralgic affection of the foot, which usually seizes me about twice a year, and which will yield to nothing but days of fomentation and horizontal rest, set in last night, and has caused me very great pain ever since, and will too clearly be no better until it has had its usual time in which to wear itself out. I send my kindest regard to Ward, and beg to be pitied.

Believe me, faithfully yours always.

[Sidenote: Mr. William Charles Kent.]

5, HYDE PARK PLACE, W., _Tuesday, May 17th, 1870._

MY DEAR KENT,

Many, many thanks! It is only my neuralgic foot. It has given me such a sharp twist this time that I have not been able, in its extreme sensitiveness, to put any covering upon it except scalding fomentations. Having viciously bubbled and blistered it in all directions, I hope it now begins to see the folly of its ways.

Affectionately ever.

P.S.--I hope the Sun shines.

[Sidenote: Mrs. Bancroft.]

GAD'S HILL PLACE, HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT,
_Thursday, May 31st, 1870._

MY DEAR MRS. BANCROFT,[36]

I am most heartily obliged to you for your kind note, which I received here only last night, having come here from town circuitously to get a little change of air on the road. My sense of your interest cannot be better proved than by my trying the remedy you recommend, and that I will do immediately. As I shall be in town on Thursday, my troubling you to order it would be quite unjustifiable. I will use your name in applying for it, and will report the result after a fair trial. Whether this remedy succeeds or fails as to the neuralgia, I shall always consider myself under an obligation to it for having indirectly procured me the great pleasure of receiving a communication from you; for I hope I may lay claim to being one of the most earnest and delighted of your many artistic admirers.

Believe me, faithfully yours.

FOOTNOTES:

[32] On the death of his second wife.

[33] Of the Readings. The intention was carried out. Mr. Kent's book, "Charles Dickens as a Reader," was published in 1872.

[34] No doubt Charles Dickens intended to add the Reading Books to the legacy of his MSS. to Mr. Forster. But he did not do so, therefore the "Readings" are not a part of the "Forster Collection" at the South Kensington Museum.

[35] A new collective edition of "Kent's Poems," dedicated to his cousin, Colonel Kent, of the 77th Regiment.

[36] Miss Marie Wilton.

TWO LAST LETTERS.

[Sidenote: Mr. William Charles Kent.]

HW: Wednesday Eighth June 1870

HW: Dear Kent

Tomorrow is a very bad day for me to make a call, as, in addition to my usual office business, I have a mass of accounts to settle with Wills. But I hope I may be ready for you at 3 o'clock. If I can't be--why, then I shan't be.

You must really get rid of those Opal enjoyments. They are too overpowering:

"These violent delights have violent ends."

I think it was a father of your churches who made the wise remark to a young gentleman who got up early (or stayed out late) at Verona?

Ever affectionately
Signature: ChD]

[Sidenote: Mr. John M. Makeham.]

=Gad's Hill Place,=
=Higham by Rochester, Kent.=

Dear Sir

It would be quite inconceivable I think--but for your letter--that any reasonable reader could possibly attach a scriptural reference to a passage in a book of mine, reproducing a much abused social figure of speech, impressed into all sorts of service on all sorts of inappropriate occasions, without the faintest connexion of it with its original source. I am truly shocked to find that any reader can make the mistake

I have always striven in my writings to express veneration for the life and lessons of our Saviour; because I feel it; and because I re-wrote that history for my children--every one of whom knew it from having it repeated to them--long before they could read, and almost as soon as they could speak.

But I have never made proclamation of this from the house tops

Faithfully Yours,
Charles Dickens

John M. Markham Esq.]

All through this spring in London, Charles Dickens had been ailing in health, and it was remarked by many friends that he had a weary look, and was "aged" and altered. But he was generally in good spirits, and his family had no uneasiness about him, relying upon the country quiet and comparative rest at Gad's Hill to have their usual influence in restoring his health and strength. On the 2nd June he attended a private play at the house of Mr. and Mrs. Freake, where his two daughters were among the actresses. The next day he went back to Gad's Hill. His daughter Kate (whose home was there at all times when she chose, and almost always through the summer months) went down on Sunday, the 5th June, for a day's visit, to see the "great improvement of the conservatory." Her father laughingly assured her she had now seen "the last" improvement at Gad's Hill. At this time he was tolerably well, but she remarked to her sister and aunt how strangely he was tired, and what a curious grey colour he had in his face after a very short walk on that Sunday afternoon. However, he seemed quite himself again in the evening. The next day his daughter Kate went back, accompanied by her sister, who was to pay her a short visit, to London.

Charles Dickens was very hard at work on the sixth number of "Edwin Drood." On the Monday and Tuesday he was well, but he was unequal to much exercise. His last walk was one of his greatest favourites--through Cobham Park and Wood--on the afternoon of Tuesday.

On the morning of Wednesday, the 8th (one of the loveliest days of a lovely summer), he was very well; in excellent spirits about his book, of which he said he _must_ finish his number that day--the next (Thursday) being the day of his weekly visit to "All the Year Round" office. Therefore, he would write all day in the Chalet, and take no walk or drive until the evening. In the middle of the day he came to the house for an hour's rest, and smoked a cigar in the conservatory--out of which new addition to the house he was taking the greatest personal enjoyment--and seemed perfectly well, and exceedingly cheerful and hopeful. When he came again to the house, about an hour before the time fixed for the early dinner, he seemed very tired, silent, and absorbed. But this was so usual with him after a day of engrossing work, that it caused no alarm or surprise to his sister-in-law--the only member of his household who happened to be at home. He wrote some letters--among them, these last letters which we give--in the library of the house, and also arranged many trifling business matters, with a view to his departure for London the next morning. He was to be accompanied, on his return at the end of the week, by Mr. Fildes, to introduce the "new illustrator" to the neighbourhood in which many of the scenes of this last book of Charles Dickens, as of his first, were laid.

It was not until they were seated at the dinner-table that a striking change in the colour and expression of his face startled his sister-in-law, and on her asking him if he was ill, he said, "Yes, very ill; I have been very ill for the last hour." But on her expressing an intention of sending instantly for a doctor, he stopped her, and said: "No, he would go on with dinner, and go afterwards to London." And then he made an effort to struggle against the fit that was fast coming on him, and talked, but incoherently, and soon very indistinctly. It being now evident that he _was_ ill, and very seriously ill, his sister-in-law begged him to come to his own room before she sent off for medical help. "Come and lie down," she entreated. "Yes, on the ground," he said, very distinctly--these were the last words he spoke--and he slid from her arm, and fell upon the floor.

The servants brought a couch into the dining-room, where he was laid. A messenger was despatched for Mr. Steele, the Rochester doctor, and with a telegram to his doctor in London, and to his daughters. This was a few minutes after six o'clock.

His daughters arrived, with Mr. Frank Beard, this same evening. His eldest son the next morning, and his son Henry and his sister Letitia in the evening of the 9th--too late, alas!

All through the night, Charles Dickens never opened his eyes, or showed a sign of consciousness. In the afternoon of the 9th, Dr. Russell Reynolds arrived at Gad's Hill, having been summoned by Mr. Frank Beard to meet himself and Mr. Steele. But he could only confirm their hopeless verdict, and made his opinion known with much kind sympathy, to the family, before returning to London.

Charles Dickens remained in the same unconscious state until the evening of this day, when, at ten minutes past six, the watchers saw a shudder pass over him, heard him give a deep sigh, saw one tear roll down his cheek, and he was gone from them. And as they saw the dark shadow steal across his calm, beautiful face, not one among them--could they have been given such a power--would have recalled his sweet spirit back to earth.

As his family were aware that Charles Dickens had a wish to be buried near Gad's Hill, arrangements were made for his burial in the pretty churchyard of Shorne, a neighbouring village, of which he was very fond. But this intention was abandoned in consequence of a pressing request from the Dean and Chapter of Rochester Cathedral that his remains might be placed there. A grave was prepared and everything arranged, when it was made known to the family, through Dean Stanley, that there was a general and very earnest desire that Charles Dickens should find his resting-place in Westminster Abbey. To such a fitting tribute to his memory they could make no possible objection, although it was with great regret that they relinquished the idea of laying him in a place so closely identified with his life and his works. His name, notwithstanding, is associated with Rochester, a tablet to his memory having been placed by his executors on the wall of Rochester Cathedral.

With regard to Westminster Abbey, his family only stipulated that the funeral might be made as private as possible, and that the words of his will, "I emphatically direct that I be buried in an inexpensive, unostentatious, and strictly private manner," should be religiously adhered to. And so they were. The solemn service in the vast cathedral being as private as the most thoughtful consideration could make it.

The family of Charles Dickens were deeply grateful to all in authority who so carried out his wishes. And more especially to Dean Stanley and to the (late) Lady Augusta Stanley, for the tender sympathy shown by them to the mourners on this day, and also on Sunday, the 19th, when the Dean preached his beautiful funeral sermon.

As during his life Charles Dickens's fondness for air, light, and gay colours amounted almost to a passion, so when he lay dead in the home he had so dearly loved, these things were not forgotten.

The pretty room opening into the conservatory (from which he had never been removed since his seizure) was kept bright with the most beautiful of all kinds of flowers, and flooded with the summer sun:

"And nothing stirred in the room. The old, old
fashion. The fashion that came in with our
first garments, and will last unchanged until
our race has run its course, and the wide
firmament is rolled up like a scroll. The old,
old fashion--death!

"Oh, thank God, all who see it, for that older
fashion yet, of immortality!"

FOOTNOTES:

[37] This letter has lately been presented by Mr. Charles Kent to the British Museum.

INDEX.

A'Beckett, Gilbert, i. 134

Actors, Dickens a friend to poor, ii. 134

Affidavit, a facetious, i. 101

Agassiz, Professor, ii. 226, 309

Agate, John, ii. 136;
letter to, ii. 154

Ainsworth, W. H., letters to, i. 43, 75, 92

Alison, Sir Archibald, i. 170

"All the Year Round," commencement of, ii. 83;
"The Uncommercial Traveller" in, ii. 107;
Christmas Numbers of: "The Haunted House," ii. 84;
"A Message from the Sea," ii. 108, 137;
"Tom Tiddler's Ground," ii. 136;
"Somebody's Luggage," ii. 171;
"Mrs. Lirriper's Lodgings," ii. 187;
"Mrs. Lirriper's Legacy," ii. 209, 210;
"Dr. Marigold's Prescriptions," ii. 224, 239, 246;
"Mugby Junction," ii. 244, 265;
"No Thoroughfare," ii. 268, 300, 327, 332, 334, 338, 350, 356,
361, 362, 384;
and see ii. 386,
and see Charles Dickens as an Editor

America, feeling for Dickens in the backwoods of, i. 40, 41;
Dickens's first visit to, i. 53;
his welcome in, i. 59;
his opinion of, i. 60-64;
freedom of opinion in, i. 61;
Dickens's levees in, i. 66;
change of temperature in, i. 66;
hotel charges in, i. 67;
midnight rambles in New York, i. 67;
descriptions of Niagara, i. 69, 70; ii. 372, 377;
a maid's views on Niagara, i. 72;
copyright in, i. 71, 73, 74;
Dickens's tribute to Mrs. Trollope's book on, i. 81;
press-ridden, i. 97;
absence of quiet in, i. 98;
criticisms of Dickens in, i. 151;
the great war in, ii. 142, 143;
feeling between England and, ii. 240;
Dickens's second visit to--the journey, ii. 302-306;
Dickens's letters on, ii. 306-382;
fires in, ii. 317, 320;
treatment of luggage in, ii. 321;
drinks in, ii. 329, 363;
literary piracy in, ii. 332;
walking-match between Dolby and Osgood in, ii. 346, 352, 353,
360, 361, 364, 366, 377;
changes and improvements in since Dickens's first visit,
ii. 348, 374;
the negroes in, ii. 349;
personal descriptions of Dickens in, ii. 369;
travelling in, ii. 375;
and see Readings

"American Notes," publication of, i. 54

Andersen, Hans Christian, ii. 3

"Animal Magnetism," tag to, written by Dickens, i. 238

Anne, Mrs. Dickens's maid, i. 72, 414; ii. 18, 25, 28, 343

"Apprentices, The Tour of the Two Idle," ii. 5, 32, 33

"Arabian Nights," a mistake in the, i. 88, 89

Armatage, Isaac, ii. 391

Armstrong, the Misses, letter to, ii. 175;
and see ii. 176

Astley's Theatre, description of a clown at, i. 116

Austin, Henry, i. 240; ii. 135, 157;
and see Letters

Austin, Mrs. Henry, ii. 447;
letters to, ii. 154, 180, 384

Author, the highest reward of an, i. 41

Autobiography, a concise, of Dickens, i. 437

Autograph of Dickens in 1833, i. 2;
Dickens leaves his in Shakespeare's room, i. 13;
of Boz, i. 43;
of Dickens as Bobadil, i. 195;
facsimile of Dickens's handwriting in 1856, i. 421;
facsimile letters of Dickens written the day before his death,
ii. 443-445

Babbage, Charles, letters to, i. 86, 87, 186

Ballantyne, ii. 415

Bancroft, Mrs., letter to, ii. 441

Banks, G., i. 273; letter to, i. 296

Barber, Dickens's gardener, ii. 102

Barker, Dr. Fordyce, ii. 378, 405

"Barnaby Rudge" written and published, i. 36;
Dickens's descriptions of the illustrations of:
the raven, i. 38;
the locksmith's house, i. 39;
rioters in The Maypole, i. 45;
scene in the ruins of the Warren, i. 46;
abduction of Dolly Varden, i. 48;
Lord George Gordon in the Tower, the duel, frontispiece, i. 50;
Hugh taken to gaol, i. 51

"Battle of Life, The," dedication of, i. 147, 157;
Dickens superintends rehearsals of the play of, i. 163, 165, 167;
sale of, i. 166, 176;
reception of the play of, i. 167

Baylis, Mr., ii. 170;
letter to, ii. 179

Beadle, a, in office, ii. 134

Beard, Frank, ii. 182, 405, 421, 434, 447

Beaucourt, M., i. 297, 357, 439

Bedstead, a German, i. 128

Beecher, Ward, ii. 341

Begging letters, Dickens's answers to, i. 148-150

Belgians, the King of the, ii. 432

Benzon, Miss Lily, letter to, ii. 258

Berry, one of Dickens's readings men, ii. 54, 159, 160

Bicknell, Henry, i. 215;
letter to, i. 229

Biographers, Dickens on, i. 190;
his opinion of John Forster as a biographer, i. 188-191

Birthday wishes, i. 51

"Black-eyed Susan," Dickens as T. P. Cooke in, i. 113;
a new version of, i. 114

Blackwood, Mr., ii. 165

Blair, General, ii. 355

Blanchard, Laman, letter to, i. 99

"Bleak House," commenced, i. 241;
publication of, i. 272;
Dickens's opinion of, i. 279;
circulation of, i. 289, 309, 317

Blessington, Lady, i. 171

Bobadil, Captain, Dickens plays, i. 134;
Dickens's remarks on, i. 144;
a letter after, i. 195

Book-backs, Dickens's imitation, i. 265, 266

Book Clubs, established, i. 94;
Dickens on, i. 104

Boucicault, Dion, ii. 260, 261

Boulogne, Dickens at, i. 271, 297, 304-312, 341, 414, 439-448;
a Shakespearian performance at, i. 308;
_en fete_, i. 315;
illuminations at, on the occasion of the Prince Consort's visit,
i. 362;
fire at, i. 364;
condition of, during the Crimean war, i. 365;
letters descriptive of, i. 305, 306, 309, 312, 357, 358, 360, 372

Bouncer, Mrs., Miss Dickens's dog, ii. 109, 126, 189, 356

Bow Street Runners, ii. 178

Boxall, Sir William, i. 233, 237

Boyle, Captain Cavendish, ii. 407

Boyle, Miss Mary, i. 211, 214, 227, 414; ii. 123, 145, 315, 406;
and see Letters

Breach of Promise, a new sort of, i. 179

Breakfast, a Yorkshire, i. 9

Broadstairs, Dickens at, i. 4, 6, 17, 28, 36, 53, 134, 170, 185,
213, 240; ii. 84, 99;
description of lodgings at, i. 33;
amusements of, i. 180, 182;
size of Fort House at, i. 254

Bromley, Sir Richard, ii. 126

Brookfield, Mrs., letter to, ii. 249

Brookfield, The Rev. W., letters to, ii. 199, 200

Brooks, Shirley, ii. 407;
letters to, ii. 423, 438

Brougham, Lord, i. 182; ii. 144

Browne, H. K., i. 6, 13

Buckstone, J. B., i. 360

Burnett, Mrs., i. 185

Cabin, a, on board ship, i. 56

Campbell, Lord, ii, 144

Capital punishment, Dickens's views on, i. 209

Carlisle, the Earl of, letters to, i. 253, 281; ii. 12, 118, 157

Carlyle, Thomas, ii. 112

Cartwright, Samuel, ii. 326;
letter to, ii. 348

Castlereagh, Lord, i. 245

Cat-hunting, i. 449

Cattermole, George, i. 42, 143; ii. 327, 383;
and see Letters

Cattermole, Mrs., letters to, ii. 383, 385

Celeste, Madame, ii. 106

Cerjat, M. de, i. 147; ii. 406;
and see Letters

Chambers, Robert, ii. 167, 434

Chancery, Dickens on the Court of, i. 450

Chapman and Hall, Messrs., i. 3;
letter to, i. 55

Chappell, Messrs., ii. 244, 245, 267, 309, 326, 405

Charities, Dickens's sufferings from public, ii. 47

Children, stories of, i. 223, 365, 420; ii. 196, 359, 423

Childs, Mr., ii. 337, 405

"Chimes, The," written, i. 95;
an attack on cant, i. 118, 129;
Dickens's opinion of, i. 129, 133;
Dickens gives a private reading of, i. 133

Chorley, H. F., ii. 338, 350

"Christmas Carol, The," publication of, i. 85;
criticisms on, i. 99

Christmas greetings, i. 167

Church, Dickens on the, ii. 221;
service on board ship, ii. 348;
Dickens on the Romish, ii. 409, 410

Circumlocution, Dickens on, ii. 241, 270

Clarke, John, letter to, ii. 418

Cockspur Street Society, the, i. 85-87

Cold, effects of a, i. 92, 93;
remedy for a, i. 168

Colden, David, i. 64

Collins, C. A., ii. 84, 100, 113, 221, 242, 387, 410

Collins, Wilkie, i. 241, 272, 297, 332, 359, 376, 385, 388, 413,
414, 447; ii. 33, 84, 108, 170, 268, 292;
and see Letters

Comedy, Mr. Webster's offer for a prize, Dickens an imaginary
competitor, i. 86, 90

Compton, Mrs., letter to, ii. 22

Conjuring feats, i. 96;
and see ii. 243

Cooke, T. P., i. 113; ii. 4;
letter to, ii. 21

Copyright, i. 13;
Dickens's struggles to secure English, in America, i. 71, 73, 74

Costello, Dudley, i. 241;
letters to, i. 104, 205

Cottage, a cheap, i. 18

Coutts, Miss, i. 410

Covent Garden Theatre, Macready retires from management of, i. 18;
ruins of, i. 430;
a scene at, ii. 133

"Cricket on the Hearth, The," i. 135, 145

Croker, J. Crofton, i. 272;
letter to, i. 275

Cruikshank, George, i. 170

Cunningham, Mrs., ii. 423

Cunningham, Peter, i. 186, 407;
letters to, i. 195, 270, 312, 356

Dacres, Sir Sydney, ii. 329

_Daily News, The_, started, i. 135

Dallas, Mrs., letters to, ii. 195, 434

Dallas, Mr., ii. 235

"David Copperfield," dedication of, i. 147;
purpose of Little Emily in, i. 211;
success of, i. 211;
reading of, i. 377, 382;
Dickens's favourite work, i. 382;
and see i. 204, 221, 227, 279

Deane, F. H., letter to, i. 68

Delane, John, i. 298; ii. 425;
letter to, i. 314

De la Rue, Mr., ii. 210

Devonshire, the Duke of, letters to, i. 437, 443, 457

Devrient, Emil, i. 277

Dickens, Charles, at Furnival's Inn, i. 1;
his marriage, i. 1;
employed as a parliamentary reporter, i. 1;
spends his honeymoon at Chalk, Kent, i. 1;
employed on _The Morning Chronicle_, i. 2;
removes to Doughty Street, i. 4;
writes for the stage, i. 4, 5, 7, 16, 17;
his visit to the Yorkshire schools, i. 6;
at Twickenham Park, i. 6;
his visits to Broadstairs, see Broadstairs;
his visit to Stratford-on-Avon and Kenilworth, i. 6, 12;
in Shakespeare's room, i. 13;
elected at the Athenaeum Club, i. 12;
removes to Devonshire Terrace, i. 17;
portraits of, see Portraits;
visits to Scotland, i. 36, ii. 39, and see ii. 395;
personal feeling of for his characters, i. 36, 37, 42;
declines to enter Parliament, i. 37, 44; ii. 389;
public dinners to, i. 36, 53, 273; ii. 268, 301, 404, 406, 417,
419, 420;
an enemy of cant, i. 88, 118, 129;
visits of to America, see America;
expedition of to Cornwall, i. 54;
his travels in Italy, see Italy;
political opinions of, i. 62, 63, 88, 104;
fancy signatures to letters of, i. 91, 146, 152, 181, 206,
237, 425; ii. 195;
takes the chair at the opening of the Liverpool Mechanics'
Institute, i. 94, and see i. 100-102;
his theatrical performances, see Theatrical Performances;
effects of work on, i. 121,; ii. 248, 266, 325;
_The Daily News_, started by, i. 135;
his visits to Lausanne and Switzerland, i. 147, 297, and
see Switzerland;
his visits to Paris, see Paris;
as a stage, manager, i. 163, 167, 231, 232, 237; ii. 26;
at Chester Place, Regent's Park, i. 169;
takes the chair at the opening of the Leeds Mechanics' Institute,
and of the Glasgow Athenaeum, i. 170;
at Brighton, i. 185, 213;
at Bonchurch, i, 204;
purchases Tavistock House, i. 240, and see Tavistock House;
as an editor, i. 246, 259, 269, 270, 285; ii. 127, 217, 262, 286,
292;
his readings, see Readings;
illnesses of, i. 14, 297; ii. 404, 405, 421, 446;
in America, ii. 338, 341, 347, 353, 355, 360, 365, 373, 377, 380,
381;
his visits to Boulogne, see Boulogne;
presentation of plate to, at Birmingham, i. 348;
purchases Gad's Hill, i. 377, 414, and see Gad's Hill;
delivers a speech on Administrative Reform, i. 377;
at Folkestone, i. 377, 378;
restlessness of, when at work, i. 402, 425;
tour of, in the North, ii. 5, 29-32;
his kindly criticisms of young writers, ii. 16, 34, 267, 277,
for other criticisms see i. 152, 188; ii. 14, 43, 215, 249;
elected a member of the Birmingham Institute, ii. 34;
religious views of, ii. 82, 202, 221, 394, 403, 444;
visit of, to Cornwall, ii. 108;
at Hanover Terrace, Regent's Park, ii. 135;
visits Lord Lytton at Knebworth, ii. 136;
at Hyde Park Gate South, ii. 170;
at 57, Gloucester Place, Hyde Park, ii. 208;
at Somer's Place, Hyde Park, ii. 224;
in the Staplehurst accident, ii. 224;
at Southwick Place, Hyde Park, ii. 224;
his energy, ii. 291;
one of the secrets of the success of, ii. 357, 392;
the Midland Institute at Birmingham opened by, ii. 406, and
see ii. 427;
his last speech, at the Royal Academy dinner, ii. 432;
his interview with the Queen, ii. 432;
attends a levee of the Prince of Wales, ii. 432;
his last illness, ii. 446;
his death, ii. 448;
funeral of, ii. 448, 449;
and see Letters of

Dickens, Mrs. Charles, marriage of, i. 1;
visit of, to America, i. 53;
at Rome, i. 135;
accident to, i. 215;
at Malvern, i. 239;
present to, at Birmingham, i. 298;
and see Letters

Dickens, Charles, jun., birth of, i. 4;
nickname of, i. 76;
at Eton, i. 212, 240, 243, 255, 258;
at Leipsic, i. 297, 310, 319;
at Barings', i. 455;
marriage of, ii. 208;
on "All the Year Round," ii. 406, 410, 424;
and see i. 169, 233, 237, 243, 255, 258, 290, 347, 378, 405, 426;
ii. 88, 114, 123, 140, 145, 176, 447;
letters to, ii. 310, 338

Dickens, Kate, nickname of, i. 76;
marriage of, ii. 107, 113;
illness of, ii. 266, 271; and see ii. 39, 75, 77, 84, 221, 410,
436, 446;
letters to, i. 178; ii. 99

Dickens, Mamie, nickname of, i. 76;
illnesses of, i. 363, 436;
accident to, ii. 129;
and see ii. 39, 49, 55, 75, 77, 84, 87, 114, 116, 120, 145, 179,
234, 411, 447, and Letters

Dickens, Walter, nickname of, i. 76;
goes to India, ii. 19, 21;
attached to the 42nd Highlanders, ii. 114, 176;
death of, ii. 208, 212; and see i. 268, 314, 378, 443; ii. 4

Dickens, Frank, nickname of, i. 126;
letter of, to Dickens, ii. 93;
in India, ii. 208, 212; and see ii. 114, 131, 140, 177

Dickens, Alfred, at Wimbledon School, ii. 122;
settles in Australia, ii. 327; and see ii. 177, 371

Dickens, Sydney, birth of, i. 169;
nickname of, i. 170;
death of, i. 171;
story of, i. 223;
a naval cadet, ii. 125, 126, 145, 167;
on board H.M.S. _Orlando_, ii. 169; and see i. 363; ii. 114,
118, 122, 177, 202, 236, 260, 296, 430

Dickens, Henry, entered at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, ii. 327;
wins a scholarship, ii. 424, 430;
and see i. 363; ii. 177, 190, 254, 255, 329, 371, 389, 395,
406, 410, 447;
letters to, ii. 356, 392, 435, 438

Dickens, Edward, nicknames of, i. 322, 338;
goes to Australia, ii. 327, 329;
Dickens's love for, ii. 389-391;
and see i. 353, 359, 365, 403, 420, 426, 439; ii. 53, 76, 79,
92, 95, 153, 190, 199;
letter to, ii. 402

Dickens, Dora, birth of, i. 213;
death of, i. 240

Dickens, Alfred, sen., i. 184, 410; ii. 199

Dickens, Mrs. Augustus, ii. 418

Dickens, Fanny, see Mrs. Burnett

Dickens, Frederick, i. 9

Dickens, John, i. 240, 437; ii. 240

Dickens, Mrs. John, ii. 333

Dickens, Letitia, see Mrs. Henry Austin

Dickenson, Captain, ii. 224, 232

Dickson, David, letter to, i. 89

Diezman, S. A., letter to, i. 32

Dilke, C. W., ii. 5;
letter to, ii. 12

Dillon, C., ii. 42

Dinner, a search for a, i. 326;
ladies at public dinners, i. 103

Dogs, Dickens's, i. 67, 109, 110; ii. 50, 96, 101; ii. 203, 237,
242, 245, 264, 269;
a plague of, i. 292;
stories of, i. 109, 352, 354, 455

Dolby, George, ii. 245, 252-255, 267, 273, 280, 295, 296, 308, 310,
311, 317-323, 328, 330, 335, 336, 340, 345-347, 352-360, 363,
367, 381

"Dombey and Son," i. 147;
success of, i. 156, 176;
sale of, i. 162

D'Orsay, Comte, i. 171, 244

Driver, Dickens's estimate of himself as a, i. 2

Drury Lane Theatre, the saloon at, i. 37;
suggestions for the saloon at, i. 52, 53

Dufferin, Lord, ii. 419

Dwarf, the Tartar, ii. 255

Earthquake, an, in England, ii. 206

Edinburgh on a Sunday, ii. 395

Education, Dickens an advocate of, for the people, i. 104

"Edwin Drood," ii. 407, 431, 432, 446

Eeles, Mr., letters to, i. 265, 269

Egg, Augustus, i. 170, 172, 226, 297, 320, 332; ii. 198

Eliot, Sir John, Dickens on Forster's life of, ii. 215

Elliotson, Dr., i. 37, 149, ii. 99

Elton, Mr., i. 85, 92

Elwin, Rev. W., ii. 136, 151

Ely, Miss, letter to, i. 153

Emerson, Mr., ii. 306

Emery, Mr., i. 429

England, state of, in 1855, i. 391;
politically, i. 406

Epitaph, Dickens's, on a little child, i. 68

Executions, Dickens on public, i. 209, 212

Exhibition, an infant school at the, i. 257

Eytinge, Mr., ii. 405

Fairy Tales, Dickens on, i. 307

"Faust," Gounod's, ii. 191, 193

Fechter, Charles, ii. 171, 177, 187, 193, 201, 219, 270, 386; and
see Letters

Felton, Mr., ii. 85

Ferguson, Sir William, ii. 246, 247

Feval, Paul, ii. 183, 192

Fielding, Henry, i. 394

Fields, Cyrus W., ii. 85, 308, 344, 361, 364, 379, 405

Fields, Mrs., ii. 306, 308, 319, 344, 361, 364, 367, 379, 405

Fildes, S. L., ii. 432, 447;
letter to, ii. 435

Finlay, F. D., ii. 406;
letters to, ii. 297, 389, 408

Fitzgerald, Mrs., ii. 285

Fitzgerald, Percy, ii. 187, 397;
and see Letters

Flunkeydom, scholastic, ii. 68

Forgues, M., i. 415, 421

Forster, Miss, ii. 327

Forster, John, i. 7, 10, 134, 143, 225, 240, 268, 428; ii. 108, 130,
265;
and see Letters

Franklin, Sir John, i. 373

Freake, Mr. and Mrs., ii. 446

French portraits of the English, i. 175

Friday, Dickens's lucky day, i. 414, 429

Frith, W. P., ii. 84, 93, 385, 418;
letters to, i. 79; ii. 439