A Week's Tramp in Dickens-Land Part 19

According to Mr. Roach Smith, what with him led on to fortune was a long and heavy fall of snow, which had filled the streets of the city of London, and rendered traffic impossible. The city was blocked by snow, and there was no remedy at hand. Mr. Dodd boldly undertook a contract to remove the mighty obstruction in a given time. This he did thoroughly and within the limited number of days. Afterwards he appears to have undertaken brick-making and other works on a very large scale. In the opinion of Mr. Roach Smith, Mr. Dodd was the origin of the "golden dustman" in _Our Mutual Friend_, whom every reader of d.i.c.kens remembers as Mr. Nicodemus, _alias_ Noddy Boffin.

Speaking of d.i.c.kens's readings, our informant relates a conversation with Charles d.i.c.kens's sixth son, Mr. Henry Fielding d.i.c.kens. The former gentleman asked the latter whose model he took?

"Oh, my father's," said Mr. Henry d.i.c.kens.

"I would not take any man's model," said Mr. Roach Smith, "I would take my own." And judging from the perfect intonation and thoroughly musical rhythm of his voice, there is no doubt whatever that his model, whoever it may have been, was one of very high standard.

We have since learnt that Mr. Roach Smith is the President of the Strood Elocution Society, an almost unique inst.i.tution of its kind. It has been established upwards of thirteen years; and at the weekly meetings "the various readers are subjected to an exhaustive and salutary criticism by the members present." Mr. Roach Smith has always taken immense interest in the progress of this Society. Miss d.i.c.kens occasionally helped at the above meetings.

Mr. Roach Smith kindly favours us with the following extract from the third and forthcoming volume of his _Retrospections_ with reference to the late Mr. J. H. Ball, of Strood, which may appropriately be here introduced:--

"Although I have said that I was the gainer by our acquaintance, yet now and then I had a chance of serving him. Soon after the death of the great novelist, Charles d.i.c.kens, and when people were speculating as to what would become of his residence at Gad's Hill, Mr. Ball, wis.h.i.+ng to purchase it, commissioned me to call on the executrix, Miss Hogarth, and offer ten thousand pounds, for which he had written a cheque. I accordingly went, and sent in my card. Miss Hogarth, fortunately, could not see me; she was hastening to catch the train for London, the carriage being at the door, and not a moment to be lost; but she would be happy to see me on her return in a day or two. I then wrote to Mr.

Forster, the other executor; and received a reply that the place was not for sale. I kept him ignorant of the sum that Mr. Ball was willing to give, and thus saved my friend some thousands of pounds, . . . for the house and land were not worth half the money."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Old Quarry House Strood]

After some further conversation with our kind octogenarian friend, who insists on showing us hospitality notwithstanding his sufferings from a trying illness, we take our departure with many pleasant memories of our visit.[16]

We have, after one or two unsuccessful attempts, the good fortune to meet with Mr. Stephen Steele, M.R.C.S. and L.S.A., of Bridge House, Esplanade, Strood, who was admitted a member of the medical profession so far back as the year 1831, and has therefore been in practice nearly sixty years. It will be remembered that this experienced surgeon was sent for by Miss Hogarth, to see d.i.c.kens in his last illness. He is good enough to go over and describe to us in graphic and sympathetic language the whole of the circ.u.mstances attending that sorrowful event.

Previously to doing so, he gives us some interesting details of his recollections of Charles d.i.c.kens. Dr. Steele had occupied the onerous post of Chairman of the Liberal a.s.sociation at Rochester for thirty years, and believes that in politics d.i.c.kens was a Liberal, for he frequently prefaced his remarks in conversation with him on any subject of pa.s.sing interest by the expression, "We Liberals, you know--"

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

As a matter of fact, d.i.c.kens discharged his conscience of his political creed in the remarks which followed his address as President of the Birmingham and Midland Inst.i.tute,[17] delivered 27th September, 1869, when he said--"My political creed is contained in two articles, and has no reference to any party or persons. My faith in the 'people governing'

is, on the whole, infinitesimal; my faith in the 'people governed' is, on the whole, illimitable." At a subsequent visit to Birmingham on the 6th January, 1870, when giving out the prizes at the Inst.i.tute, he further emphasized his political faith in these words:--"When I was here last autumn, I made a short confession of my political faith--or perhaps, I should better say, want of faith. It imported that I have very little confidence in the people who govern us--please to observe 'people' with a small 'p,'--but I have very great confidence in the People whom they govern--please to observe 'People' with a large 'P.'"

A few days after Charles d.i.c.kens's first visit, my friend Mr. Howard S.

Pearson, Lecturer on English Literature at the Inst.i.tute, addressed a letter to him on the subject of the remarks at the conclusion of his Presidential Address, and promptly received in reply the following communication, which Mr. Pearson kindly allows me to print, emphasizing his (d.i.c.kens's) observations:--

"GAD'S HILL PLACE, "HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT.

"_Wednesday, 6th October, 1869._

"SIR,

"You are perfectly right in your construction of my meaning at Birmingham. If a capital P be put to the word People in its second use in the sentence, and not in its first, I should suppose the pa.s.sage next to impossible to be mistaken, even if it were read without any reference to the whole spirit of my speech and the whole tenor of my writings.

"Faithfully yours, "CHARLES d.i.c.kENS.

"H. S. PEARSON, ESQUIRE."

Dr. Steele had dined several times at Gad's Hill Place, and was impressed with d.i.c.kens's wonderful powers as a host. He never absorbed the whole of the conversation to himself, but listened attentively when his guests were speaking, and endeavoured, as it were, to draw out any friends who were not generally talkative. He liked each one to chat about his own hobby in which he took most interest. Our informant was also present at Gad's Hill Place at several theatrical entertainments, and especially remembers some charades being given. After the performance of the latter was over, d.i.c.kens walked round among his guests in the drawing-room, and enquired if any one could guess the "word." Says the doctor, "We never seemed to do so, but there was always a hearty laugh when we were told what it was. There was a good deal of company at Gad's Hill at Christmas time."

_a propos_ of private theatricals at Gad's Hill Place, Mr. T. Edgar Pemberton, in _Charles d.i.c.kens and the Stage_, calls attention to the fact that "Mr. Clarkson Stanfield's _Lighthouse_ Act drop subsequently decorated the walls of Gad's Hill Place; and although it took the painter less than a couple of days to execute, fetched a thousand guineas at the famous d.i.c.kens Sale in 1870." A cloth painted for _The Frozen Deep_, which was the next and last of these productions, also had a foremost place in the Gad's Hill picture-gallery.

Dr. Steele mentions a conversation once with d.i.c.kens about Gad's Hill and Shakespeare's description of it. He (the doctor) considers that Shakespeare could not have described it so accurately if he had not been there, and d.i.c.kens agreed with him in this opinion. Possibly he may have stayed at the "Plough," which was an inn on the same spot as, or close to, the "Falstaff." The place must have been much wooded at that time, and Shakespeare might have been there on his way to Dover. A note in the _Rochester and Chatham Journal_, 1883, states that "Shakespeare's company made a tour in Suss.e.x and Kent in the summer of 1597."

Dr. Steele, in common with his friend Charles d.i.c.kens, strongly deprecated the action of certain parties in Rochester, by voting at a public meeting something to this effect:--"That the Theatre was an irreligious kind of inst.i.tution, and, in the opinion of the meeting, it ought to be closed."

The doctor observes that d.i.c.kens was not much of a Church-goer. He went occasionally to Higham, and used to give the vicar a.s.sistance for the poor and distressed. d.i.c.kens and Miss Hogarth asked Dr. Steele to point out objects of charity worthy of relief, and they gave him money for distribution.

He remarks that d.i.c.kens did not care much about a.s.sociating with the local residents, going out to dinners, &c. Most of the princ.i.p.al people of Rochester would have been glad of the honour of his presence as a guest, but he rarely accepted invitations, preferring the quietude of home.[18]

As regards readings, our informant says he is under the impression that d.i.c.kens must have had some lessons or hints from some one of experience (possibly his friend Fechter, the actor), as he noticed from time to time a regular improvement, which was permanently maintained. On the subject of the American War, he thinks d.i.c.kens's sympathies were decidedly with the South. With respect to the American Readings, Dr.

Steele expresses his opinion that the excitement, fatigue, and worry consequent thereon had considerably shortened d.i.c.kens's life, if it had not pretty well killed him. He considered him a most genial sort of man; "he always looked you straight in the face when speaking."

Before referring to the closing chapter in d.i.c.kens's life, we have some interesting talk respecting Venesection,--_a propos_ of that memorable occasion on the ice at Dingley Dell, when "Mr. Benjamin Allen was holding a hurried consultation with Mr. Bob Sawyer on the advisability of bleeding the company generally, as an improving little bit of professional practice,"--and Dr. Steele gives us his opinion thereon, and on some points connected with the medical profession. He was a student of Guy's and St. Thomas's Hospitals, and was under the distinguished physicians Drs. Addison and Elliotson. He considered the characters of Bob Sawyer and Ben Allen not at all overdrawn. They were good representations of the medical students of those days. He believed the practice of Venesection commenced to be general about the year 1811, for his father was a medical pract.i.tioner before him, and he does not remember his (the father's) telling him that he practised it before that time. Says our friend, "We used to bleed regularly in my young days, and in cases of pneumonia and convulsions we never thought of omitting to bleed. We should have considered that to have done so would have been a grave instance of irregular practice. And," he adds, "I bleed in cases of convulsions now." The doctor did not think well of the change at the time, but, speaking generally, he says Venesection had had its turn, and has now given place to other treatment.

The events in connection with the fatal illness of d.i.c.kens are then touchingly related as follows:--

"I was sent for on Wednesday, the eighth of June, 1870, to attend at Gad's Hill Place, and arrived about 6.30 p.m. I found d.i.c.kens lying on the floor of the dining-room in a fit. He was unconscious, and never moved. The servants brought a couch down, on which he was placed. I applied clysters and other remedies to the patient without effect. Miss Hogarth, his sister-in-law, had already sent a telegram (by the same messenger on horseback who summoned me) to his old friend and family doctor, Mr. Frank Beard, who arrived about midnight. He relieved me in attendance at that time, and I came again in the morning. There was unhappily no change in the symptoms, and stertorous breathing, which had commenced before, now continued. In conversation Miss Hogarth and the family expressed themselves perfectly satisfied with the attendance of Mr. Beard and myself. I said, 'That may be so, and we are much obliged for your kind opinion; but we have a duty to perform, not only to you, my dear madam, and the family of Mr. d.i.c.kens, but also to the public.

What will the public say if we allow Charles d.i.c.kens to pa.s.s away without further medical a.s.sistance? Our advice is to send for Dr.

Russell Reynolds.' Mr. Beard first made the suggestion.

"The family reiterated their expression of perfect satisfaction with the treatment of Mr. Beard and myself, but immediately gave way, Dr. Russell Reynolds was sent for, and came in the course of the day. This eminent physician without hesitation p.r.o.nounced the case to be hopeless. He said at once on seeing him, 'He cannot live.' And so it proved. At a little past 6 o'clock on Thursday, the 9th of June, 1870, Charles d.i.c.kens pa.s.sed quietly away without a word--about twenty-four hours after the seizure."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Rochester: from Strood Pier:]

Such is the simple narrative which the kind-hearted octogenarian surgeon, whom it is a delightful pleasure to meet and converse with, communicates to us, and then cordially wishes us "good-bye."

There is an annual pleasure fair at Strood, inst.i.tuted, it is said, so far back as the reign of Edward III. It takes place during three days in the last week of August, and as it is going on while we are on our tramp, we just look in for a few minutes, the more especially as we were informed by Mr. William Ball, and others who had seen him, that d.i.c.kens used to be very fond of going there at times in an appropriate disguise, where perhaps he may have seen the prototype of the famous "Doctor Marigold." The fair is now held on a large piece of waste ground near the Railway Station. There are the usual set-out of booths, "Aunt Sallies," shooting-galleries, "Try your weight and strength, gentlemen"

machines, a theatre, with a tragedy and comedy both performed in about an hour, and hot-sausage and gingerbread stalls in abundance. But the deafening martial music poured forth from a barrel-organ by means of a steam-engine, belonging to the proprietor of a huge "Merry-go-round,"

and the wet and muddy condition of the ground from the effects of the recent thunderstorm, make us glad to get away.

A MYSTERIOUS d.i.c.kENS-ITEM.

Mr. C. D. Levy, Auctioneer, etc., of Strood, was good enough to lend me what at first sight, and indeed for some time afterwards, was supposed to be a most unique d.i.c.kens-item. It came into his possession in this way. At the sale of Charles d.i.c.kens's furniture and effects, which took place at Gad's Hill in 1870, Mr. Levy was authorized by a customer to purchase d.i.c.kens's writing-desk, which, however, he was unable to secure. In transferring the desk to the purchaser at the time of the sale, a few old and torn papers tumbled out, and being considered of no value, were disregarded and scattered. One of these sc.r.a.ps was picked up by Mr. Levy, and proved on further examination to be a sheet of headed note-paper having the stamp of "Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent."--On the first page were a few rough sketches drawn with pen and ink, which greatly resembled some of the characters in _The Mystery of Edwin Drood_--Durdles, Jasper, and Edwin Drood. At the side was a curious row of capital letters looking like a puzzle. On the second and third pages were short-hand notes, and on the fourth page a few lines written in long-hand, continued on the next page,--wonderfully like Charles d.i.c.kens's own handwriting,--being the commencement of a speech with reference to a cricket match. The sheet of paper had evidently been made to do double duty, for after the sketches had been drawn on the front page, the sheet was put aside, and when used again was turned over, so that what ordinarily would have been page 4 became page 1 for the second object. No "Daniel" in Strood or Rochester had ever been able to decipher the mysterious hieroglyphics, or make known the interpretation thereof, during twenty years, or give any explanation of the sketches. But everybody thought that in some way or other they related to _The Mystery of Edwin Drood_--and possibly contained a clue to the solution of that exquisite fragment. So, as a student and admirer of d.i.c.kens, Mr. Levy kindly left the matter in my hands to make out what I could of it. Reference was accordingly had to several learned pundits in the short-hand systems of "Pitman," "Odell," and "Harding," but without avail; and eventually Mr. Gurney Archer, of 20, Abingdon Street, Westminster (successor to the old-established and eminent firm of Messrs. W. B. Gurney and Sons, who have been the short-hand writers to the House of Lords from time immemorial), kindly transcribed the short-hand notes, which referred to a speech relating to a cricket match, a portion of which had already been written out in long-hand, as above stated,--but there was not a word in the short-hand about Edwin Drood!

So far, one portion of the mystery had been explained--not so the sketches, which were still believed to contain the key to _The Mystery of Edwin Drood_. As a _dernier ressort_, application was made to the fountain-head--to Mr. Luke Fildes, R.A., the famous ill.u.s.trator of that beautiful work. He received me most courteously, scrutinized the doc.u.ment closely; we had a long chat about Edwin Drood generally, the substance of which has been given in a previous chapter--but he admitted that the sketches failed to give any solution of the mystery.

The doc.u.ment was subsequently sent by Mr. Kitton to Mrs. Perugini, who at once replied that it had caused some merriment when she saw it again, as she remembered it very well. It had been done by her brother, Mr.

Henry Fielding d.i.c.kens, when a young man living at home at Gad's Hill--that the short-hand notes referred to his speech at a dinner after one of the numerous cricket matches held there, and that the sketches were rough portraits of some of the cricketers. The capital letters at the side referred to a double acrostic. The heads of the speech had been suggested by his father as being desirable to be brought before the cricket club, which at that time was in a rather drooping condition.

Now although the original theory about this curious doc.u.ment entirely broke down, and not an atom has been added to what was already known about _The Mystery of Edwin Drood_, still there is one subject of much interest which the doc.u.ment has brought to light. The short-hand is the same system, "Gurney's," as that which Charles d.i.c.kens wrote as a reporter in his early newspaper days--a system not generally used now, but which he subsequently taught his son to write. Of the many sheets which d.i.c.kens covered with notes in days gone by not one remains. But there are two ma.n.u.scripts by d.i.c.kens in Gurney's system of short-hand, now in the Dyce and Forster collection at South Kensington, which relate to some private matters in connection with publis.h.i.+ng arrangements. The doc.u.ment is certainly interesting from this point of view (_i. e._ the system which d.i.c.kens used), and from its reference to life at Gad's Hill, and especially to cricket, the favourite game mentioned many times in this book, in which the novelist took so much interest. Mr. Henry Fielding d.i.c.kens, with whom I had on another occasion some conversation on the subject of this souvenir of his youth at Gad's Hill, remarked that many more important issues had hung upon much more slender evidence. It was done about the year 1865-6, before he went to college.

At our interview Mr. H. F. d.i.c.kens told me the details of the following touching incident which happened at one of the cricket matches at Gad's Hill. His father was as usual attired in flannels, acting as umpire and energetically taking the score of the game, when there came out from among the bystanders a tall, grizzled, and sun-burnt Sergeant of the Guards. The Sergeant walked straight up to Mr. d.i.c.kens, saying, "May I look at you, sir?" "Oh, yes!" said the novelist, blus.h.i.+ng up to the eyes. The Sergeant gazed intently at him for a minute or so, then stood at attention, gave the military salute, and said, "G.o.d bless you, sir."

He then walked off and was seen no more. In recounting this anecdote, Mr. H. F. d.i.c.kens agreed with me that, reading between the lines, one can almost fancy some lingering reminiscences similar to those in the early experience of Private Richard Doubled.i.c.k.

FOOTNOTES:

[14] Since our tramp in d.i.c.kens-Land, Messrs. Winch and Sons have, with liberality and good taste, restored the old sign at this historic hostelry with which the memory of Charles d.i.c.kens is a.s.sociated. It has been suggested that the sign may possibly have had its origin from the Battle of Agincourt fought on the day of "Saints Crispin-Crispian," 25th October, 1415. Victories in more recent times have been thus commemorated on sign-boards, such as the _Vigo_ expedition, and the fights at Portobello, Trafalgar, Waterloo, Alma, and elsewhere, and the heroes who won them thus celebrated.

The sign, which is very well painted, represents the patron saints of the shoe-making fraternity, the holy brothers, Crispin and Crispian, at work on their cobbler's bench. The legend runs that it was at Soissons, in the year 287, while they were so employed "labouring with their hands," that they were seized by the emissaries of the Emperor Maximinian, and led away to torture and to death. The sign is understood to have been faithfully copied from a well-known work preserved to this day, at the church of St. Pantaleon at Troyes.--Abstract of a note in the _Rochester and Chatham Journal_, October 5th, 1889.

[15] Enthusiastic admirers of d.i.c.kens will doubtless envy me the possession of some remarkable memorials of the great writer. My friend Mr. Ball is kind enough to present me with a very curious souvenir of the novelist: his old garden hat! Mr. Ball's father obtained it from the gardener at Gad's Hill Place, to whom it had been given after his master's death. The hat is a "grey-bowler," size 7-1/4, maker's name "Hillhouse," Bond Street, and is the same hat that he is seen to wear in the photograph of him leaning against the entrance-porch, an engraving of which appears on page 183. Many hats from Shakespeare and Gesler have become historical, and there is no reason why d.i.c.kens's should not in the future be an equally interesting personal relic. The gift was accompanied by a couple of collars belonging to the novelist, with the initials "C. D." very neatly marked in red cotton. The collar is technically known as a "Persigny," and its size is 16. Last, not least, a small bottle of "very rare old Madeira" from Gad's Hill, which calls to mind pleasant recollections of "the last bottle of the old Madeira,"

opened by dear old Sol. Gills in the final chapter of _Dombey and Son_.

Needless to say, the consumption of the valued contents of d.i.c.kens's bottle is reserved for a very special and appropriate occasion.