THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 FROM THE LIBRARY OF 
 
 JIM TULLY 
 
 GIFT OF 
 MRS. JIM TULLY
 
 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR
 
 CHARLES DICKENS 
 AS EDITOR 
 
 BEING LETTERS WRITTEN BY HIM TO 
 WILLIAM HENRY WILLS 
 HIS SUB-EDITOR 
 
 SELECTED AND EDITED 
 
 BY 
 
 R. C. LEHMANN 
 
 WITH PORTRAITS 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 STURGIS & WALTON 
 
 COMPANY 
 
 1912
 
 BRADBURY, AGNEW, & CO. LD., PRINTEKS, 
 LONDON AND TONBRIDGK.
 
 College 
 Library 
 
 PR 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THK letters printed in this volume were written by 
 Charles Dickens to my great-uncle, William Henry 
 Wills, who first became closely connected with him at 
 the time of the foundation of the Daily News in 1846, 
 and was afterwards for nearly twenty years his sub- 
 editor on Household Words and All the Year Bound. 
 With the exception of a certain number (relatively 
 small) which have already appeared in whole or in 
 part in the three volumes of the " Letters of Charles 
 Dickens " published by Miss Hogarth and Miss Dickens 
 in 1880 and 1882 these letters are new.* They were 
 carefully preserved by Wills, and at his death passed 
 to his widow. She left them to her niece, Lady 
 Priestley, from whose eldest son, my cousin Mr. E. C. 
 Priestley, they have now come to me. I desire to 
 express my warm thanks to Miss Hogarth and Mr. 
 H. F. Dickens, K.C., for their permission to publish 
 this selection from the 450 letters in my possession. 
 
 It may be said of these letters that their effect is to 
 concentrate the light upon one side of Dickens's mani- 
 fold and unceasing activities. They show him as an 
 editor, ardent, but patient ; sometimes impulsive, but 
 always immovably steadfast in the execution of his 
 purpose ; firm in his grasp of principles, but resolutely 
 careful in every detail which might serve to carry 
 those principles into execution ; himself an indefatig- 
 able worker, and not content with anything short of 
 hard and honest work on the part of his fellow 
 
 * I ought, perhaps, to add that, two were printed by me in " Memories of 
 Half a Century." 
 
 823478
 
 vi PREFACE. 
 
 labourers ; generously warm in his gratitude for good 
 service loyally rendered, but merciless to sham, sloven- 
 liness or incapacity ; always devoted to good causes 
 and perfectly fearless in his efforts to promote them. 
 He had a consuming desire to do whatever he under- 
 took as thoroughly as it was capable of being done, 
 and his performance rarely fell short of his desire. 
 This is no small thing to say when all that he did in 
 addition to his editorial work is remembered. Indeed, 
 one cannot conceive him as ever taking any real rest. 
 He speaks of himself in one of his letters as " Coming 
 off his back (and the grass) " in order to consider 
 some business matter, but even in that position he 
 was, I am sure, devising new plans and novel methods 
 for giving effect to them. In a letter of June 6th, 
 1867, he says, " I shall never rest much while my 
 faculties last, and (if I know myself) have a certain 
 something in me that would still be active in rusting 
 and corroding me if I nattered myself that it was in 
 repose." 
 
 In regard to his relations with Wills these letters 
 form a very remarkable record, for they show how a 
 mere official connection, involving at first a little 
 friction, gradually developed into a perfect confidence 
 and a warm and enduring friendship. Wills did not 
 hesitate, when the occasion, as he thought, arose, to 
 tender advice which ran counter to Dickens's own 
 inclinations not a light matter with a man who held 
 and expressed his inclinations so strongly as Dickens. 
 He did this notably when Dickens was debating with 
 himself the question of going to America (see letter of 
 June 6th, 1867, and the note to the letter of Septem- 
 ber 24th of the same year), and neither on that 
 occasion nor on any other was their friendship clouded
 
 PREFACE. vii 
 
 for a moment. I may bo pardoned, perhaps, for 
 devoting a few pages to the career of this friend of 
 Dickens : 
 
 William Henry Wills was born in Plymouth on 
 January 13th, 1810. His father had been at one 
 time wealthy, his business being that of a ship-owner 
 and prize agent. No doubt the close of the great war 
 with France had a depressing effect upon his under- 
 takings. At any rate he suffered misfortunes and lost 
 the greater part of his money. Towards the end of 
 1819 or the beginning of 1820 he transferred himself 
 and his family to London. Many years afterwards 
 Wills described his journey to London (" Forty Years 
 in London," All the Year Round, April 8th, 1865) : 
 
 " My mother," lie writes, " brought me from the West of Eng- 
 land in the middle of the severe winter during which the present 
 century glided out of its teens. At that time stage-coach travelling 
 was one of the loudest boasts of this modest country. Peers 
 horsed, and baronets drove, the 'crack' conveyances of that day. 
 Yet we were a week on the road in the mail, having been snowed 
 up at a village on the edge of Salisbury Plain ; our guard perish- 
 ing in a gallant attempt to push on with the mail-bags on the 
 back of one of the leaders. How well I remember the hasty 
 dinners at the great inns we stopped at on the road ; all alike ! 
 the long table, the big joints, the invariable pigeon pie, the 
 selfish scrambling of the passengers to get their full three-and- 
 sixpence-worth tucked in in time for the warning notes of the 
 guard's horn ; the tin, thin tripod plate-warmer at the fire, the 
 nimble waiters in white cotton stockings and pumps, who were 
 constantly wiping plates with napkins whipped in and out of the 
 side-pockets of their natty striped jackets. Then once more 
 inside the coach, don't I gasp at the recollection of the smell 
 like bad nuts occasioned by four human beings performing 
 asphyxia upon themselves from prudent dread of ' the night air ' ; 
 the word ventilation having been at that time hardly invented ? I 
 shiver to think of the cold blast that woke us two or three times 
 each night when a change of coachman forced shilling subscrip- 
 tions at the open door from each passenger, and shall I ever forget 
 the awe with which I regarded, during that tedious journey, the 
 helpful good-natured fellow-traveller a real live Londoner who
 
 viii PREFACE. 
 
 told us, modestly, as if it were a mere commonplace, that he had 
 actually, spoken with the Lord Mayor of the City of London, face to 
 face ? Every word he dropped aboxit London was caught in my 
 eager ear as greedily as gold let fall into a miser's purse : How 
 that trees could actually be seen even in the City ; how that 
 there were one thousand hackney-coaches allowed by government 
 no more and no less ; how that the cries of London were attuned 
 by Act of Parliament, and that milk and mackerel were the 
 only articles permitted to be cried on Sundays, because of their 
 perishable nature ; how that crossing-sweepers disguised them- 
 selves as noblemen after business hours, married rich wives 
 whom they maintained splendidly in suburban palaces, ignorant 
 of their profession, and went to town and returned home each 
 day with the punctuality of bank-clerks, changing their clothes 
 on the way to and fro ; how that public opinion fell crushingly 
 upon any person who dared to light fires or wear a great-coat 
 until the fifth of November, however soon the winter may set in 
 before the great bonfire day ; how that nobody could appear out of 
 mourning in Lent, nor face the world pleasantly at Easter without 
 bran new clothes ; how every country visitor was bound, within 
 the first week of his sojourn in London to ascend St. Paul's and 
 to the top of the Monument, to inspect the water-works at London 
 Bridge, the lions in the Tower, Mr. Crosse's menagerie at Exeter 
 Change, Miss Linwood's Exhibition in Leicester Square, and 
 Mrs. Salmon's shilling wax-works in Fleet Street. They must 
 also wait in the narrow part of the same thoroughfare to sec the 
 hour struck on the big bells of St. Dunstan's Church by the iron 
 giants. All these ideas, with others derived from a fat little 
 green volume in vogue before the word ' Hand-book ' had 
 been imported from Germany, and known as ' Leigh's Picture of 
 London,' filled the childish imagination with a wonder and 
 impatience that became almost insupportable as the stages 
 towards the metropolis diminished. In the hazy twilight of 
 morning congealed breath was wiped from the windows ; and a 
 huge lump of the mist, densified into shape dimly in the distance, 
 was pointed out as Windsor Castle. Then came tearful stories of 
 a blind old king, sometimes bemoaning his mental eclipse, some- 
 times flinging his coat over his shoulder and crying old clothes 
 round a padded room. 
 
 " By-and-by, bright, sunshiny, breezy morning. What enormous 
 draft-horses, and what little houses ! Surely this can't be London ! 
 Not quite ; only Hammersmith. 
 
 " Out of the bewildering excitement of being actually in London, 
 and the distracting succession of new objects passed by, and 
 passing us, only two recollections can be revived, at this very 
 long distance of time, from the scene at the White Horse Cellar, 
 Piccadilly ; first, the endless succession of old clothes-men ; second, 
 the number and perseverance of hawkers of pale, sour, cold-looking
 
 PREFACE. ix 
 
 oranges, which marie even my young teeth chatter to behold. 
 The sound of ' Ole Clo ! " Ole Clo ! " Old Clo ! ' never left the 
 ear an instant's respite : an endless procession of Jews with 
 empty black bags under their arms, walking rapidly, uttering 
 exactly the same sound, but on different notes. That was no time 
 to ask questions, and story-book lore supplied the childish notion 
 that they were all wicked wandering Jews, bound to let the world 
 know they were duly performing their penance by incessantly 
 exclaiming ' Ole Clo ! ' as watchmen cried the hour in the night. 
 The prodigious number of these candidates for cast clothing is not 
 so wonderful when we remember that the poor could get at that time 
 nothing else to wear. Amongst the great benefits conferred by 
 machinery and free trade on the present generation is cheap new 
 clothing, and the extinction of a race of disreputable hawkers. 
 
 " We start for the City. What a glory of shops on both sides of 
 the way ! A street full of scaffolding half-built Regent Street ; 
 Charing Cross ; the statue of a man on horseback close to the 
 gates of the King's stables ; Temple Bar ; St. Paul's. At length 
 St. Martins-le-Grand a ' cheat,' I thought ; for, being then a 
 squalid-looking lane, it was the reverse of grand, no removal of 
 the Post Office from the ample premises in Lombard Street being 
 then dreamt of. Finally, the yard of the Bull and Mouth Inn, 
 up a narrow turning. Here my father had lived for three days, 
 expecting us every minute, and was in the coffee-room with 
 groups of other persons waiting for friends from all parts of the 
 country, discussing chances and possibilities of their having 
 perished in the snow, like the mail guard. No post letters could 
 precede us, and the joy of that meeting, now nearly half a 
 century old, swells my heart, even as I write these words." 
 
 The family made their home in Somers Town, and 
 there, at " The Polygon," in the middle of Clarendon 
 Square, Wills was put to school with "a genteel old 
 lady, professing in her prospectuses the strictest 
 exclusion of the sons of tradesmen." Of the immedi- 
 ately succeeding stages of Wills's history I have 
 no accurate details. He tells us in the article from 
 which I have quoted that, after leaving school, he 
 had to take the walk to the Strand every day. In 
 the sketch of his life, which appears in the "Dic- 
 tionary of National Biography," it is stated that at 
 his father's death the support of the family devolved 
 upon Wills, and it is added that he became a
 
 x PREFACE. 
 
 journalist and contributed to periodicals. I know he 
 did not go to a university, and I think it is likely 
 that, having been placed in some office (whether 
 mercantile or journalistic I cannot say), he was 
 gradually drawn into the vocation of literature. I 
 suppose he bombarded editors in the usual way. He 
 is known to have contributed to the Penny and 
 Saturday Magazines. At any rate the first letter in 
 this book shows that in 1837 he had sent two contri- 
 butions to Dickens, then editor of Bentley's Miscellany, 
 that one of these was accepted, and that further 
 contributions were invited. After this the first 
 authentic news I can obtain of him is that he had 
 made a sufficient literary reputation to warrant his 
 being asked to join the enterprising company of those 
 who, under Landells, Henry Mayhew and Mark 
 Lemon, were in 1841 engaged in founding Punch. 
 From the first he was a member of the literary staff 
 of that paper, he is believed to have helped in the 
 drafting of its prospectus, and he is known to have 
 contributed to its first number. Many years ago he 
 himself showed me the early volumes of Punch in 
 which he had marked his own contributions, and I 
 can remember that the epigram on Lord Cardigan 
 ("The Blackballed of the United Service Club") was 
 amongst them. He became the dramatic critic of the 
 paper, and his contributions in prose and verse, though 
 latterly in decreasing quantities, seem to have continued 
 until 1848. 
 
 In the meantime, however (in 1842), he had gone 
 to Edinburgh, having been appointed assistant editor 
 of Chambers's Journal. I have a copy of a letter 
 written by him to William Chambers in Edinburgh, 
 on November 4th, 1842, in which he says: "I
 
 PREFACE. xi 
 
 cheerfully accept your offer of the situation of literary 
 assistant in your office at .300 per ann. . . . Before 
 taking a long farewell of London I have arrange- 
 ments to make which will occupy me at least a 
 week; so that I shall not have the pleasure of 
 meeting you in Edinburgh till about the 12th inst." 
 This position he retained for three years, but his 
 literaiy connection with the journal, though inter- 
 rupted for a time, was resumed again, for the records 
 of the publishing office show that in 1849, when he 
 was in London, he was a pretty regular contributor 
 and was receiving the handsome remuneration of 
 10 a week for his articles. In 1845, I think I 
 am sorry I cannot fix the date with any greater 
 precision he married Janet, the sister of William 
 and Eobert Chambers. 
 
 Towards the end of 1845 he was back in London 
 to take part in another journalistic venture. The 
 Daily Neivs was in process of establishment under the 
 editorship of Dickens, and Wills was appointed a 
 member (probably the chief) of the sub-editorial staff 
 and secretary to the editor. The first number appeared 
 on January 21st, 1846, but in less than three weeks 
 Dickens resigned his editorship to John Forster, who 
 continued to hold it during the greater part of what 
 he himself describes as " that weary, anxious, laborious 
 year." Wills remained on the paper, and must have 
 proved his ability to the new editor's satisfaction, for 
 it was Forster who, when Household Words was 
 established, suggested to Dickens that Wills should 
 be his assistant. " There remained," says Forster 
 (" Life," II., 422), " only a title and an assistant editor : 
 and I am happy now to remember that for the latter 
 important duty Mr. Wills was chosen at my suggestion.
 
 xii PREFACE. 
 
 He discharged its duties with admirable patience 
 and ability for twenty years, and Dickon s's later life 
 had no more intimate friend." When, in 1859, 
 Household Words gave way to All the Year Round, 
 Wills went on as u sub-editor " to the new publication. 
 
 From the moment of his appointment on Household 
 Words Wills was drawn more and more closely within 
 the orbit of Dickens. The letters in this book suffi- 
 ciently show that Dickens, in spite of all his other 
 work and his frequent absences abroad, kept a very 
 close hold on all that concerned his weekly journal. 
 Wills, however, was his alter ego, and a large part of 
 the heavy burden of work and responsibility fell on 
 his shoulders. The letters themselves prove how 
 generously Dickens appreciated his sub-editor's 
 work. Their pages are brightened by frequent expres- 
 sions of confidence, regard and affection.* 
 
 Wills was secretary to the Guild of Literature and 
 Art, and at the end of 1851 he accompanied Dickens 
 during a part of the theatrical tour undertaken for 
 the benefit of that institution. So far as I can discover, 
 there was only one other piece of "outside" work 
 that Wills took, and that was when, in 1855, at 
 Dickens's recommendation, he accepted the position 
 of almoner-secretary to Miss Coutts (afterwards the 
 Baroness Burdett- Coutts). 
 
 Wills, though his opportunities for indulging his 
 tastes had been few, had always had a great liking for 
 country life and, in particular, for the sport of fox- 
 hunting, of which, like John Leech, he was an 
 ardent follower. In 18G7 he decided to move his 
 
 * I refer particularly to December 14th, 1853; October 27th, 1854 ; 
 February 15th, 185f. ; January 2nd, 1862 ; April 5th, 1802; May 20l,h, 18(54, 
 and Noveml)cr 3rd, 1867 (in the Introduction to that year).
 
 PREFACE. xiii 
 
 headquarters from London into Hertfordshire, having 
 taken a pleasant house named " Sherrards," near 
 Welwyn. Here he was able to hunt to his heart's 
 content with the Hertfordshire hounds. He was an 
 absolutely fearless rider, and his preference was for 
 large and powerful horses, to the control of which his 
 muscular strength for he was very thin and slightly 
 built was not always quite adequate. His thinness, 
 indeed, was the constant object of his friends' chaff. 
 One story related how someone, noticing his absence 
 from a gathering and asking where he was, had been 
 advised to look for him in the flute-case and had found 
 him snugly tucked up there. Another told how an 
 absent-minded old lady, sitting next him at dinner, had 
 mistaken his leg for the leg of her chair and had 
 curled her own leg comfortably round it. As to his 
 mounts, I remember that on one occasion I rode on a 
 pleasure jaunt with him, and I noticed, at first with 
 some surprise, that his horse, a great bony animal with 
 a Eoman nose, would suddenly put its head down 
 between its knees and, without any previous consulta- 
 tion with its rider, go off for a hundred yards or so 
 at a gallop, thereupon calmly resuming its solemn 
 walk. This happened over and over again, but it 
 provoked no comment from my uncle, who thoroughly 
 enjoyed his outing. In 1868, while Dickens was in 
 America, Wills did, however, meet with a bad accident 
 in the hunting-field. He was thrown on his head and 
 was for some time in great danger, and even after he 
 had recovered he felt the effects of the concussion. 
 In the following year he decided to retire from active 
 journalistic work, being then in his sixtieth year. 
 
 He settled down very comfortably at " Sherrards " 
 and took his part in the life of the country-side. He
 
 xiv PREFACE. 
 
 became a member of the Committee of the Hunt, was 
 appointed a magistrate, and elected Chairman of the 
 Board of Guardians. He survived his great friend 
 and chieftain more than ten years, and died on Septem- 
 ber 1st, 1880. 
 
 In 1850 he edited " Sir Eoger de Coverley, by the 
 Spectator." In 1861 he published "Old Leaves 
 Gathered from Household Words," a collection of 
 his contributions, affectionately inscribed " To The 
 Other Hand, whose masterly touches gave to the Old 
 Leaves here freshly gathered their brightest tints." 
 In the same year he published an anthology entitled 
 "Poets' Wit and Humour," with illustrations. This 
 contained two specimens from his own pen. He also 
 published, under the title of " Light and Dark," a 
 selection from his articles in Chambers' s Journal. 
 
 Mrs. Wills survived her husband for twelve years. 
 Dickens had a great regard for her and much 
 appreciated her delightful qualities her wit, her 
 humour, her gift for the telling of a Scotch story or 
 the singing of a Scotch song. One of her sayings is 
 recorded by Mr. Spielmann in his " History of 
 Punch " : how she had noticed that those who 
 advocated the rights of women were generally the 
 left of men. Of a small and spindle-shanked boy 
 relation in a Highland suit, she remarked that his 
 legs, no doubt, would be better in the breech than in 
 the observance. 
 
 After her husband's death Mrs. Wills came to 
 London, and died there on October 24th, 1892. 
 
 I have prefixed introductions to the letters of each 
 year, not with any intention of giving an exhaustive
 
 PREFACE. xv 
 
 account of Dickens's life, but solely for the purpose of 
 explaining the story of the letters and making clear 
 the allusions they contain. In order to carry out this 
 purpose more fully I have also added footnotes 
 wherever it seemed desirable. 
 
 For the identification of the authors of contributions 
 to Household Words I have availed myself of the 
 Office Book of that journal. This book, which is now 
 in my possession, was kept and posted up week by 
 week by my uncle. In one column he wrote the 
 name of the author, in another the title of the article, in 
 a third its length in columns, in a fourth the amount 
 paid for it, while in a fifth he showed in what manner 
 and when the payment was made. This book covers 
 every issue of Household Words. Unfortunately no 
 such book is available for All the Year Round. 
 
 I have referred frequently to Forster's " Life of 
 Charles Dickens " in three volumes and to the 
 " Letters of Charles Dickens " published (also in 
 three volumes) by Miss Hogarth and Miss Dickens. 
 In referring to the former I have used the word 
 " Life " (e.g., " Life," II., 190) ; for the latter I have 
 used the term " Letters " (e.g., " Letters," III., 137). 
 In the " Letters " I have been able to note a few 
 minor inaccuracies in regard to dates, and a few 
 cases in which by an error due, doubtless, to con- 
 fusion in a great mass of loose sheets, a paragraph 
 from one letter has been incorporated into another of 
 a different date. 
 
 Wills's letters, five of which (to Dickens) will be 
 found in the course of this book, while parts of a few
 
 xvi PREFACE. 
 
 others have been quoted, are taken from an old MS. 
 book in which Wills entered copies of some of his 
 letters. 
 
 The photographs reproduced in this book are from a 
 collection formerly in the possession of Dudley Costello, 
 one of the actors in the " Guild " performances of 
 1851, and a contributor to Household Words. 
 
 R. C. L. 
 
 January, 1912.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAQB 
 
 PREFACE v 
 
 BENTLEY'S MISCELLANY 
 
 18371845 3 
 
 THE DAILY NEWS 
 
 18461849 9 
 
 HOUSEHOLD WORDS 
 
 1850 19 
 
 1851 44 
 
 1852 76 
 
 1853 96 
 
 1854 121 
 
 1855 157 
 
 1856 192 
 
 1857 225 
 
 1858 238 
 
 ALL THE YEAR ROUND 
 
 1859 261 
 
 1860 276 
 
 1861 283 
 
 1862 .... 301 
 
 1863 321 
 
 1864 331 
 
 1865 340 
 
 1866 347 
 
 1867 353 
 
 1868 377 
 
 1869 389 
 
 1870 394 
 
 INDEX 397 
 
 D.E. I)
 
 PORTRAITS. 
 
 CHARLES DICKENS Frontispiece 
 
 WILLIAM HENRY WILLS To face p. 4 
 
 WILKIE COLLINS ,, 96 
 
 WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKEBAY . 176
 
 I 
 
 BENTLEY'S MISCELLANY 
 
 D.E.
 
 BENTLETS MISCELLANY. 
 
 1837. 
 
 DICKENS was editor of Bentleifs Miscellany from 
 January, 1837, for two years. In a letter to 
 Mr. W. L. Sammins ("Letters," III., 12), dated 
 January 31st, 1839, lie speaks of himself as being 
 "no longer its editor." His successor was Harrison 
 Ainsworth. 
 
 The original of the following letter, the first 
 written by Dickens to Wills, is undated and is written 
 on black-edged paper. "Wills has added to it this 
 pencil note: "Date probably 1837. Mourning for 
 Mary Hogarth, his sister-in-law, who died in his 
 house May 7th. The ' first great grief of his life.' ' 
 This letter, therefore, in which Dickens proposes to 
 insert Wills's " little poetic tale " in the July number, 
 must have been written after May 7th, but before the 
 middle of June, when the July number would pre- 
 sumably be made up. At this time " Pickwick " was 
 still running in monthly parts, and " Oliver Twist," 
 begun in January of this year, was continuing its 
 appearance in Bentleifs Miscellany. 
 
 48, DOUGHTY STREET, MECKLENBUHGH SQUARE, 
 
 Wednesday Morning. 
 
 Mr. Dickens presents his compliments to Mr. W. H. 
 Wills, and begs to apologise to him for the delay which 
 has occurred in returning the inclosed paper, which 
 has been quite accidental. Mr. Dickens would have 
 accepted it with much pleasure, had not so many 
 papers founded on the same idea (translations and 
 
 B 2
 
 4 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1837 
 
 otherwise) appeared in our periodical Literature of 
 late years. It is curious that he has by him at this 
 moment no less than three which have been offered 
 for the Miscellany, and the main feature of each of 
 which, is, the very same delusion that Mr. Wills 
 describes. 
 
 The little poetic tale pleases Mr. Dickens very much, 
 and he proposes to insert it in the July Number. He 
 will be happy at all times to pay the promptest 
 attention to anything Mr. Wills may send him. 
 
 For the next eight years I find no letters, and I 
 assume that Wills did not become actually acquainted 
 with Dickens until he met him in 1845 1846 in con- 
 nection with the establishment and issue of the 
 Daily News. 
 
 I append a short summary of the chief events in 
 Dickens's literary career during these years : 
 
 1838. 
 
 " Oliver Twist," which ran in Bentleys Miscellany 
 during 1837 and this year, was published in three 
 volumes. 
 
 Nine monthly parts of " Nicholas Nickleby " 
 appeared, April to December. 
 
 1839. 
 
 Monthly parts of "Nicholas Nickleby" appeared 
 from January to October. The book was published 
 complete in October.
 
 1845J SIX YEARS. 5 
 
 1840 and 1841. 
 
 "Master Humphrey's Clock," containing "The 
 Old Curiosity Shop " and " Barnaby Rudge," ran in 
 eighty-eight weekly parts. 
 
 (In 1841 Wills helped to found Punch and 
 became a member of its staff.) 
 
 1842. 
 
 Dickens went to America in January and returned 
 home in July. The " American Notes ' ' were published. 
 
 (Wills went to Edinburgh to help in editing 
 Chambers's Journal.) 
 
 1843. 
 
 Twelve monthly parts of "Martin Chuzzlewit" 
 were issued from January to December. 
 
 1844. 
 
 " Martin Chuzzlewit" continued to run in monthly 
 parts until July, when the complete volume was 
 published. 
 
 In the summer Dickens went to Italy, returning to 
 England for a short visit towards the end of the year. 
 "The Chimes " published. 
 
 1845. 
 
 Dickens returned to Italy, coming back to England 
 in June. 
 
 (Wills returned to London to join the staff of the 
 Daily Neivs.)
 
 II 
 
 THE DAILY NEWS
 
 THE DAILY NEWS. 
 
 1846. 
 
 IN this year Dickens, who during the autumn of 
 the previous year had been actively engaged in pre- 
 parations for the establishment of the Daily News, 
 became its first editor. Wills was at this time, and 
 had been since its foundation in 1841, a member of 
 the staff of Punch. He was appointed a member 
 of the sub-editorial staff of the Daily News and secre- 
 tary to Dickens. The first number of the Daily Ncivs 
 was issued on January 21st, its price being 5d. 
 Dickens resigned his editorship on February 9th, 
 after a tenure of less than three weeks, and went 
 abroad. 
 
 Clarkson Stanfield, K.A. (17941867), who is 
 mentioned in the letter of March 2nd, as wishing to 
 become a subscriber to the Daily Neivs, was one of 
 Dickens's best friends and his frequent assistant in 
 his theatrical enterprises. Before becoming distin- 
 guished as a marine painter, he had been in the 
 Navy and had served as a sailor on the same ship on 
 which Douglas Jerrold was a midshipman. Subse- 
 quently he became a theatrical scene-painter. In 1832 
 he founded the Society of British Artists in conjunc- 
 tion with David Eoberts and others. 
 
 The letter of April 22nd refers to the following 
 account in the Daily News of April 7th of the first 
 dinner of the General Theatrical Fund, held under the 
 chairmanship of Dickens on the previous evening 
 (" Life," II., 195) :- 
 
 GENERAL THEATRICAL FUND. 
 
 Last evening the first dinner, and the seventh anniversary of 
 the establishment of the General Theatrical Fund was celebrated 
 at the London Tavern. Charles Dickens, Esq. presiding.
 
 10 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1846 
 
 After the usual loyal and preliminary toasts, the Chairman, in 
 proposing " Prosperity to the General Theatrical Fund," explained 
 its objects. The theatrical funds already in existence those 
 attached to Drury Lane and Covent Garden Theatres, which only 
 extend their benefits to persons having long engagements at those 
 theatres. But it was now nearly impossible to comply with the 
 conditions for sharing the advantages of those funds. Covent 
 Garden is, in a dramatic point of view, a vision of the past ; and 
 as to Drury Lane, it is so exclusively devoted to opera and ballet, 
 that the statue of Shakspeare which is placed on its portico serves 
 as emphatically to mark Shakspeare's tomb as that at Stratford-on- 
 Avon. The life of the country performer, who has not been able 
 to command a high position, is not passed on a bed of roses, but 
 of very artificial flowers, indeed. He who often gives away magnifi- 
 cent fortunes has to exist upon fifteen shillings per week. Yet 
 it is good to know, that for the seven years during which the fund 
 has existed, the members have, despite all their struggles, paid up 
 their subscriptions. These are especially the class of performers 
 who stand in need of such a fund as the one whose anniversary 
 is now being kept. When they have passed from before the 
 glittering row of lights, let us aid them in retiring to comfort, 
 and, if possible, sufficiency. Having taught many a wholesome 
 lesson, and beguiled us of many a pleasing smile, they have been 
 our benefactors and friends, let us not therefore forget them in 
 their old age. 
 
 The Hon. FITZHARDING BERKELEY, M.P., proposed the " Health of 
 the Chairman," which was drunk with great enthusiasm. 
 
 Mr. C. DICKENS felt deeply grateful for the manner in which the 
 toast had been received, the more so as he felt a great interest in 
 the association. 
 
 The chairman having sat down, 
 
 Mr. CULLENFOKD, the Secretary of the Society, read a list of sub- 
 scriptions, amongst which were the lion. F. Berkeley, 51. ; the 
 Hon. Dr. Hope, 10Z. ; Sir Bellingham Graham, 10Z. ; Luke 
 Hansard, Esq., 251. ; B. B. Cabbell, Esq., 211. ; James Strutt, Esq., 
 10Z. ; T. P. Cooke, Esq., 51. ; D. W. Osbaldiston, Esq., 5L, besides 
 many others. 
 
 The CHAIRMAN next proposed the health of Mr. B. Webster, but 
 that gentleman being absent, Mr. Douglas Jerrold having been 
 called on returned thanks. 
 
 Mr. DICKENS then proposed the health of Mr. J. B. Buckstone, 
 the Treasurer of the fund, the solvency of which had, he was
 
 1846] GENERAL THEATRICAL FUND. 11 
 
 happy to say, not _been at all impaired by the treasurer having of 
 late been constantly asking a great many persons to " Lend him 
 Five Shillings." 
 
 Mr. BUCKSTONE, in returning thanks, adverted to the advantages 
 of the society. To the other theatrical funds no individuals, even 
 though they were attached to the two large houses, could share 
 their benefits, if they were dancers or pantomimists, whilst the 
 length of time required to elapse before the regular performer 
 could become eligible for the fund, made him eligible for the 
 workhouse. The General Theatrical Fund, however, provided 
 for all sorts and conditions of actors, provided they shall have 
 paid their subscriptions during seven years. But for this institu- 
 tion, where could the decayed English performer turn for 
 support? Nowhere but to the General Theatrical Fund, and the 
 treasurer hoped that, by the liberality of the public, the demands 
 of the fund would never exceed the means of meeting them. 
 
 Several toasts were drunk, the whole under the experienced 
 generalship of the well-known O'Toole. The meeting separated 
 at a convivial hour, after enjoying an excellent dinner. 
 
 Between the speeches several musical performances were given 
 by the Misses Rainsforth, Williams, M. Williams, Kate Loder, and 
 Madame Albertazzi, Mr. Godefroid elicited great applause by his 
 performance on the harp, and Mr. Hobbs by his clear and 
 agreeable singing. 
 
 OFFICES OF THE DAILY NEWS, 
 WHITEFRIARS, 
 
 Tuesday Night. 
 
 (Date added in pencil by W. H. W., 4f/i Feb., 1846). 
 
 MY DEAR MR. WILLS: I dine out to-morrow 
 (Wednesday) and next day (Thursday) and shall not 
 be here either evening until rather late. Will you 
 have the goodness to let the Sub Editors know this 
 and as I shall not wish to be detained here unneces- 
 sarily, to ask them to have ready for me anything (if 
 anything) requiring my attention. 
 
 You may tell them at the same time, if you please,
 
 12 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1846 
 
 that I shall not be here, generally, on Sunday nights ; 
 and that I shall always wish to let them know of the 
 general arrangements for Sunday nights, on Fridays 
 before I go away. 
 
 Faithfully yours always, 
 
 CHARLES DICKENS. 
 
 DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, 
 
 Sixteenth February, 1846. 
 
 MY DEAR MR. WILLS : I miss you a great deal 
 more than I miss the Paper. 
 
 May I ask you to reply to all strange letters coming 
 to the office addressed personally to me, that my 
 connection with the D.N. does not extend to the 
 consideration or settlement of such matters, and that 
 I have forwarded the letter to the Editor dating, in 
 all such cases, from here. I have sent this answer to 
 all the enclosed documents that I have marked with a X. 
 
 Among them, is an uncrossed epistle from one 
 
 Mrs. , referring to a first letter which I have not 
 
 received. Do you know what it is about ? If she 
 wants money, I do not like her style of correspondence 
 at all, and would rather plead (as well I may) the 
 immense number of similar appeals. 
 Always believe me, 
 
 (The signature has been cut off). 
 
 DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, 
 
 Eighteenth February, 1846. 
 
 MY DEAR MR. WILLS : I have written to Howitt, 
 and to Mr. Manly, and to Keynard the Fox. I think 
 the pamphlet by the latter gentleman had better " be 
 dealt with," favourably, " on the premises."
 
 1846J APPEALS FOR CHARITY. 18 
 
 Do look at the enclosed from Mrs. What's-her- 
 name. For a surprising audacity, it is remarkable 
 even to me, who am positively bullied, and all but 
 beaten, by these people. I wish you would do me 
 the favour to write to her (in your own name and 
 from your own address) stating that you answered her 
 letter as you did, because if I were the wealthiest 
 nobleman in England I could not keep pace with one- 
 twentieth part of the demands upon me and because 
 you saw no internal evidence in her application to 
 induce you to single it out for any especial notice. 
 That the tone of this letter renders you exceedingly 
 glad you did so ; and that you decline, for me, holding 
 any correspondence with her. Something to that 
 effect, after what nourish your nature will. 
 
 Faithfully yours always, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, 
 
 Monday Morning, Second March, 1846. 
 
 MY DEAR MR. WILLS : I really don't know what 
 to say, about the New Brunswicker. The idea will 
 obtrude itself on my mind that he had no business to 
 come here on such an expedition ; and that it is a 
 piece of the wild conceit for which his countrymen 
 are so remarkable ; and that I can hardly afford to be 
 steward to such adventurers. On the other hand, your 
 description of him pleases me. Then that purse which 
 I never could keep shut in my life makes mouths at 
 me, saying " See how empty I am ! " Then I fill it; 
 and it looks very rich indeed. 
 
 I think the best way is, to say, that if you think 
 you can do him any permanent good with five pounds 
 (that is, get him home again) I will give you the
 
 14 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1846 
 
 money. But I should be very much indisposed to 
 give it him, merely to linger on here about town for 
 a little time, and then be hard up again. 
 
 As to employment, I do in my soul believe that 
 if I were Lord Chancellor of England, I should 
 have been aground long ago, for the patronage of a 
 messenger's place. 
 
 Say all that is civil for me to the proprietor of the 
 Illustrated London News, who really seems to be very 
 liberal. " Other engagements," &c., &c., " prevent 
 me from entertaining," &c., &c. 
 
 Faithfully yours ever, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 Will you tell the publisher to cause to be sent to 
 Clarkson Stanfield, Esquire, R.A., 48, Mornington 
 Place, Hampstead Eoad, a complete set of the D.N. 
 to this time and to be regularly continued. He 
 wishes to be a Subscriber. 
 
 DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, 
 
 Fourth March, 184G. 
 
 MY DEAR MR. WILLS : I assure you I am very 
 truly and unaffectedly sensible of your earnest friendli- 
 ness and in proof of my feeling its worth, I shall 
 unhesitatingly trouble you sometimes, in the fullest 
 reliance on your meaning what you say. 
 
 The letter from Nelson Square is a very manly and 
 touching one. But I am more helpless in such a case 
 as that, than in any other : having really fewer means 
 of helping such a gentleman to employment, than I 
 have of firing off the Guns in the Tower. Such 
 appeals come to me here in scores upon scores.
 
 184G] AMERICAN NOTICES. 15 
 
 The letter from Little White Lion Street does not 
 impress me favourably. It is not written in a simple 
 and truthful manner I am afraid. And Mr. Thomas 
 Cooper is not a good reference. Moreover, I think 
 it probable that the writer may have deserted some 
 pursuit for which he is qualified, for vague and less 
 laborious strivings which he has no pretensions to 
 make. However, I will certainly act on your impres- 
 sion of him, whatever it may be. 
 
 And if you could explain to the gentleman in 
 Nelson Square, that I am not evading his request, 
 but that I do not know of anything to which I can 
 recommend him, it would be a great relief to me. 
 
 I trust the new Printer is a Tartar ; and I hope to 
 God he will so proclaim and assert his Tartar breeding 
 
 as to excommunicate from the " chapel " over 
 
 which he presides. 
 
 Tell Powell (with my regards) that he needn't 
 " deal with " the American notices of the Cricket. 
 I never read one word of their abuse, and I should 
 think it base to read their praises. It is something 
 to know that one is righted so soon; and knowing 
 that, I can afford to know no more. 
 
 Ever faithfully yours, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, 
 
 Twenty-second April, 1846. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I meant to have written to you 
 long ago, to tell you in reference to the Theatrical 
 Dinner, that I am sure you wrote the account in a 
 spirit of regard for me : and that I care a great deal 
 more for that, than for any number of columns of any 
 number of newspapers, and rate it much higher. Do
 
 1C CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1846 
 
 not think I say so the less heartily, because I say it 
 after some delay. 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 CHARLES DICKENS. 
 
 After this there is another gap of three years in 
 the correspondence except for one unimportant letter 
 of June, 1847. 
 
 1847. 
 
 "Dombey," which had started in the previous 
 October, ran in monthly parts all through this year. 
 
 1848. 
 
 " Dombey " continued to run till April, when it 
 was published in book-form. 
 
 "The Ilaunted Man" was published at Christmas. 
 
 1849. 
 
 " David Copperfield " started in May and ran 
 through the year in monthly parts.
 
 Ill 
 
 HOUSEHOLD WORDS 
 
 D.E.
 
 HOUSEHOLD WORDS. 19 
 
 1850. 
 
 THIS year saw the establishment of Household Words, 
 a project which had for some time occupied Dickens's 
 attention. A copy of the agreement made between 
 Charles Dickens, William Bradbury, Frederick Mullett 
 Evans, John Forster, and William Henry Wills is 
 among Wills's papers. It is dated March 28th, 
 and its stipulations are briefly to the following 
 effect : 
 
 (1) The aforesaid parties are to be joint proprietors of the 
 periodical in the following proportions both as to sharing the profits 
 and as to paying the losses : 
 
 (a) Dickens one half share ; 
 
 (6) Bradbury and Evans one quarter share ; 
 
 (c) Forster one eighth share ; 
 
 (d) Wills one eighth share. 
 
 (2) Dickens is to be editor at a salary of 500 a year, with 
 an additional sum to be paid for any literary articles he may 
 contribute. This to be in addition to his share of profits. 
 
 (3) Bradbury and Evans are to be printers and publishers and 
 managers of the Commercial Department. 
 
 (4) In consideration of his eighth share Forster is from time to 
 time to contribute literary articles to the periodical without any 
 additional remuneration. 
 
 (5) In consideration of his eighth share Wills is to act as 
 sub-editor at a remuneration of 8 a week to be paid weekly in 
 addition to his share of profits. He can withdraw on giving 
 twelve months' notice, and full power is given to Dickens to 
 dismiss him on giving him six months' notice or an equivalent 
 amount of salary. 
 
 The first number of Household Words is dated 
 Saturday, March 30th, 1850. It should be noted 
 that, though every number bore date a Saturday, it 
 
 c 2
 
 20 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOE. [1850 
 
 was actually issued to the public on the previous 
 Wednesday, like Punch during a considerable part of 
 its career. The price was 2d. 
 
 Writing to Mrs. Gaskell on January 31st (" Letters," 
 I., 216), Dickens describes the characters and aim of 
 his proposed " new cheap weekly journal of general 
 literature. . . . No writer's name," he says, " will be 
 used, neither my own, nor any other ; every paper 
 will be published without any signature, and all 
 will seem to express the general mind and purpose 
 of the journal, which is the raising up of those that 
 are down, and the general improvement of our social 
 condition." 
 
 During a large part of this year Dickens was also 
 working at " David Copperfield," which he finished 
 in October. 
 
 Home, who is mentioned in two of the letters this 
 year, was Eichard Henry (afterwards Hengist) Home 
 (18031884), the author of " Orion," an epic poem 
 which he published in 1843 at the price of a farthing. 
 His life was an adventurous and a pugnacious one. He 
 was now on the staff of Plousehold Words, and Wills 
 considered that his salary was too high for the work 
 he actually performed. The letter of August ICth 
 from Dickens to Wills is the only one in the course 
 of the whole correspondence that shows any serious 
 difference between the two men. In 1852 Home 
 went with William Howitt to Australia, and on his 
 return in 18G9 he substituted Hengist for Henry as 
 his second name. 
 
 Morley, referred to in the letter of December 12th, 
 was Henry Morley (1822 1894), a very busy and 
 useful member of the Household Words staff. Later 
 on he edited several literary series. From 1865 
 to 1889 he was Professor of Literature at King's 
 College, London. 
 
 Miss Martineau, whose story is mentioned in the 
 letter of March 29th, was Harriet Martineau (1802
 
 1850] SUGGESTED TITLES. 21 
 
 1876), novelist, story-writer, political-economist, his- 
 torian, writer on religion, journalist (she was a regular 
 contributor to the Daily News from 1852 to I860), and 
 condenser of Comte's " Positive Philosophy." James 
 Payn, who knew her and liked her, gives a very 
 pleasant account of her (and her celebrated ear-trumpet) 
 in his " Literary Recollections." In 1856 there came 
 a rupture between her and Dickens, the causes of 
 which are explained in the introduction to the letters 
 of that year. 
 
 The following suggestions for the title of the new 
 weekly are in Dickens's handwriting on two slips of 
 paper : 
 
 The Hearth. 
 
 The Forge. 
 
 The Crucible. 
 
 The Anvil of the Time. 
 
 Charles Dickens's Own. 
 
 Seasonable Leaves. 
 
 Evergreen Leaves. 
 
 Home. 
 
 Home-Music. 
 
 Change. 
 
 Time and Tide. 
 
 Twopence. 
 
 English Bells. 
 
 Weekly Bells. 
 
 The Rocket. 
 
 Good Humour. 
 
 Thus at the glowing FORGE of life our actions must be wrought ; 
 
 Thus on its sounding anvil shaped 
 
 Each burning deed and thought. Longfellow. 
 
 THE FORGE, 
 
 A WEEKLY JOURNAL, 
 
 CONDUCTED BY CHARLES DICKENS.
 
 22 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1850 
 
 DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, 
 
 Twenty-second January, 1850. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS: I have fully discussed the 
 matter with Bradbury and Evans, on which we spoke 
 to-day. We have concluded to make you the offer 
 (which I hope may be satisfactory) of Eight Pounds a 
 week absolutely, and one eighth share in all the profits 
 of the work, as well as of any other works that we 
 may publish in connexion with it. 
 
 If you can let me know your decision on this 
 proposal before we meet on Thursday it may facilitate 
 our business. Faithfully yours always, 
 
 CHARLES DICKENS. 
 
 DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, 
 
 Monday, Eleventh February, 1850. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I send the book. I observe 
 (in reference to something you said on Saturday night) 
 that Chambers' use the single inverted comma for 
 quotations, and I think its adoption by us decidedly 
 objectionable on that account. There is nothing I am 
 more desirous to avoid, than imitation. 
 
 Faithfully always, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 HOUSEHOLD WORDS OFFICE. 
 A Weekly Journal conducted by Charles Dickens. 
 
 No. 16, WELLINGTON STREET NORTH, STRAND, 
 
 Twenty-eighth February, 1850. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I think the addresses I enclose 
 in this, the best. I would certainly give all these in 
 the article. If you have afac-simile of any, I recom- 
 mend Valparaiso.* 
 
 * An allusion to an article, entitled " Valentine's Day at the Post Office " 
 in the first number of Jlotucholtl Words. It was written by Wills, with
 
 1850] PRINTING ARRANGEMENTS. 23 
 
 There are several letters and proffered articles, 
 waiting your attention here. I have put them in the 
 right hand drawer of your table. 
 
 "We must have a great reform in the printing 
 arrangements, without which it will be quite impossible 
 to go on. I have not yet seen one line in prooj. The 
 consequence will be that I shall be worried and fretted 
 to death by being overwhelmed with proofs, when I 
 am turning to Copperfield that I shall not have 
 leisure to look at them as carefully as I would 
 that the public is not more at sea than I am, as to 
 what we are doing and that I cannot, with my 
 occupations, do work in this way. I get into a 
 state of irritation quite incompatible with it. 
 
 Mrs. Crowe's* story I have read. It is horribly 
 dismal ; but with an alteration in that part about the 
 sister's madness (which must not on any account 
 remain) I should not be afraid of it. I could alter it 
 myself in ten minutes. This, too, is in your drawer here. 
 
 A great part of Mrs. Gaskell's storyf has come in. 
 It is very good, but long. It will require to be 
 printed either in three or in four numbers. 
 
 I have written two articles the opening one, and 
 another and sent them to Mr. Stacey. I suppose I 
 might almost as profitably have put them on the top 
 of the theatre opposite. 
 
 At 3 on Saturday. 
 
 Faithfully always, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 touches from Dickens's hand. The fac-simile address given was "For 
 George Miller, boy on board H.M.S. Amphirtrite, Voillop a Jtayzar, or 
 Ellesware." 
 
 * Mrs. Catherine Crowe, authoress of " The Night Side of Nature." The 
 story referred to was " Loaded Dice," which appeared in Household Words 
 of April 20th following. 
 
 f " Lizzie Leigh " appeared in the first three numbers of Household 
 Words.
 
 24 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1850 
 
 DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, 
 
 Sixth March, 1850. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I should wish Hogarth to see 
 that article before it is used. Will you see him, and 
 set him. to work on something else ? He has nothing 
 in hand now. And will you name to me, certain 
 days and hours when you can always be found in 
 Wellington Street. So that I may know, for my own 
 guidance, and that of any one whom I may want to 
 send to you. 
 
 I have given Greening a little article of my own, 
 called " A Bundle of Emigrants' Letters,"* introduc- 
 ing some five or six originals, which are extremely 
 good. 
 
 I don't feel your objection to " Lizzie Leigh " so 
 much, for this reason. She had seen and watched 
 Susan, before she deserted the child ; and she has yet 
 to give her own account of that transaction. 
 
 To-morrow I am going to Brighton (148, King's 
 Road), whence I shall come up, of course, for Satur- 
 day. I should like to have a proof of the Funeral 
 article sent down to me. I understood it to be quite 
 arranged that we were only to make up one number at 
 this next meeting. Will you tell them to have the 
 fire lighted at the office, at 10 on Saturday ? 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 I understand my father went on like the Steam Leg 
 (oratorically speaking) at your dinner. 
 
 * This article appeared in the first number of Household Wordx. It was 
 written in support of a scheme, propounded by Mrs. Chisholm, for the 
 establishment of " A Family Colonisation Loan Society." Its authorship is 
 attributed in the Office Book to Dickens and Mrs. Chisholm, the latter 
 having probably contributed the letters contained in it.
 
 1850] A SCOTCH SHORTNESS. 25 
 
 BRIGHTON, 148, KING'S KOAD, 
 
 Tuesday Night, Twelfth March, 1850. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : My objection to entering into 
 the Sunday business* is, that whatever we state, is 
 sure to be contradicted ; and I observed Eowland Hill 
 to be a very cautious and reserved man, whom I should 
 strongly doubt as to his backing qualities in such a 
 case. If the passage stand at all, I should wish it to 
 stand as I have altered it. But I should be glad if 
 you would show it to Forster, as a casting opinion. 
 We will abide by his black or white ball. 
 
 I have made a correction or two in my part of the 
 Post Office article. I still observe the top heavy 
 " Household Words " in the title. The title of " The 
 Amusements of the People " f has to be altered as I 
 have marked it. 1 would as soon have my hair cut 
 off, as an intolerable Scotch shortness put into my 
 titles by the elision of little words. "The Seasons" 
 wants a little punctuation. Will the " Incident in 
 the Life of Madlle. Olairon " go into those two pages ? 
 I fear not, but one article would be infinitely better, I 
 am quite certain, than two or three short ones. If it 
 will go in, in with it. 
 
 I shall be back, please God, by dinner time to- 
 morrow week. I will be ready for Smithfield, 
 cither on the following Monday morning at 4, or on 
 any other morning you may arrange for. 
 
 Would it do, to make up No. 2 on Wednesday the 
 
 * Probably the question of the Sunday delivery of letters. There is no 
 allusion to it in the article, " Valentine's Day at the Post Office " (by Wills 
 and Dickens), which appeared in the first number. 
 
 f By Dickens, in the first number. Another article with the same title 
 followed in No. 3. Sixteen years afterwards the scheme of these articles 
 was taken up again (presumably by Dickens) in All the Year Round, of 
 June Itith, June 30th, July 7th, and July 21st, 180(5. These four articles, 
 however, are not included amongst the miscellanies from All the Year 
 Round in Vol. 36 of " The National Edition " of Dickeus's Works.
 
 26 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1850 
 
 20th instead of Saturday ? If so, it would be an 
 immense convenience to me. But if it be distinctly 
 necessary to make it up on Saturday, say so by return, 
 and I am to be relied on. Don't fail in this. 
 
 Supposing you had a place for the Household Narra- 
 tive,* and we could come distinctly to the understanding 
 of it, I should incline to Forster's opinion. But I 
 apprehended, last Saturday, that neither was your 
 plan sufficiently matured, nor were the materials for 
 its execution sufficiently considered (as to assistance 
 and so forth) to admit of our beginning now, other- 
 wise than short-sightedly say with a blindness of 
 one eye. 
 
 Thanks for the prison facts. 
 
 Faithfully always, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, 
 
 Twenty -ninth March, 1850. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I have sent a note to you, just 
 now, in Wellington Street. I suppose you'll get it 
 before you get this ? 
 
 I really can't promise to be comic. Indeed your 
 note puts me out a little, for I had just sat down to 
 begin " It will last my time." I will shake my 
 head a little, and see if I can shake a more comic 
 substitute out of it. 
 
 The first part of Miss Martineau's t story is in 
 Greening's hands. It is heavy. 
 
 * This was an allusion to a proposal to publish at the end of every month 
 "A Household Narrative of Current Events," at the price of 2d., as a 
 Supplement to Household Words. The first narrative was accordingly 
 published at the end of April. 
 
 f " Sickness and Health," by Miss Martineau, ran through four numbers 
 of Household Words, from May 25th to June 15th.
 
 1850] HEAT IN PARIS. 27 
 
 As to two comic articles, or two any sort of articles, 
 out of me, that's the intensest extreme of nogoism. 
 
 Faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 [In " Letters," I., 221, this letter, owing to the 
 obscurity of the handwriting, is wrongly dated July 
 27th. The "Model Paper" was an article, by Dickens, 
 entitled, "The Ghost of Art," which appeared in House- 
 hold Words, July 27th. See also "Life," II., 452, note, 
 where Forster gives a letter from Dickens to himself 
 dated Paris, June 24th. In that letter Dickens states 
 his intention of going to the Francois on Wednesday, 
 for "Rachel's last performance before she goes to 
 London."] 
 
 HOTEL WINDSOR, PABIS, 
 
 Thursday, June Twenty-seventh, 1850 
 (after Post-time). 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I send you the Model paper, 
 with a good title. Its place in the No. we can discuss 
 when I come home. I have had much ado to get 
 to work ; the heat here being so intense that I can 
 do nothing but lie on the bare floor all day. I never 
 felt it anything like so hot, in Italy. 
 
 I am afraid this will floor the Whelks* ideas, as 
 far as Paris is concerned. There is nothing doing at 
 the Theatres, and the atmosphere is so horribly 
 oppressive there, that one can hardly endure it. I 
 came out of the Franc,ais last night, half dead. I am 
 writing at this moment with nothing on but a shirt 
 and pair of white trousers, and have been sitting four 
 
 * In " The Amusements of the People " (by Dickens, in the first and third 
 numbers of Hounehold Words) Joe Whelks was the character whom the 
 writer followed to various places of popular entertainment.
 
 28 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1850 
 
 hours at this paper, but am as faint with the heat as 
 if I had been at some tremendous gymnastics. And 
 yet we had a thunderstorm last night 1 
 
 I hope we are doing pretty well in Wellington 
 Street ? My anxiety makes me feel as if I had been 
 away a year. I hope to be home on Tuesday evening 
 or night at latest. I have picked up a very curious 
 book of French statistics that will suit us and an 
 odd proposal for a company connected with the 
 gambling in California of which you will also be 
 able to make something. 
 
 I can correct the proof of this paper when I come 
 home. You will see in the proof that I speak of forty 
 associates belonging to the Royal Academy. I am 
 not sure that their constitution includes so many 
 and I don't like to ask Maclise, lest we should stumble 
 on any point of difference. 
 
 I saw a certain " Lord Spleen " mentioned in a 
 playbill yesterday, and will look after that distinguished 
 English nobleman to-night, if possible, llachel played 
 last night for the last time before going to London, and 
 has not so much in her as some of our friends suppose. 
 
 Poole* is staggering about like a bad automaton, 
 and the English people are perpetually squeezing 
 themselves into courtyards, doorways, blind alleys, 
 closed edifices, and other places where they have no 
 sort of business. The French people, as usual, are 
 making as much noise as possible about everything 
 that is of no importance, but seem (as far as one can 
 judge) pretty quiet and good-humoured. They made 
 a mighty hallaballoo at the Theatre last night, when 
 
 * John Poole, the dramatic author, then residing in Paris. Dickens, in 
 the course of this year, obtained for him a Civil List pension of 100 a 
 year, Dickens being appointed trustee and sending it to him every quarter.
 
 1850] SMITHFIELD. 29 
 
 Brutus (the play was " Lucretia " ) declaimed about 
 Liberty. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, 
 
 Twelfth July, 1850. 
 Friday. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I observe a report in The Times 
 this morning of a most intolerably asinine speech about 
 Smithfield,* made in the Common Council by one 
 Taylor. It would be a good beginning of our Play- 
 ing at Parliament. If you will look to the other 
 papers, and send me the best report, or a collation of 
 the greatest absurdities enunciated by this wiseacre, I 
 will try to make something of it in any case, to 
 enshrine it in a chip, but perhaps to do something 
 better. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, 
 
 Twelfth July, 1850. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : You remember, I suppose, that 
 the statement in question is NOT OURS ? It is in the 
 records of that Establishment which is described, and 
 is I am quite certain unmitigated gammon. I 
 must consider whether it is worth while to alter the 
 
 * A strong attack on the organisation and methods of the Smithfield 
 Cattle Market and on the treatment of cattle there was published in llouse.- 
 Iwld Words of May 4th this year. It was written by Wills, with touches 
 from Dickens's hand. The subject was again referred to in a " Chip " 
 (Chips were a collection, under one heading, of short articles) in the issue 
 of July 13th. I do not think Dickens wrote anything further on the matter.
 
 30 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1850 
 
 making up by putting it in again ; but in future don't 
 touch my articles without first consulting me.* 
 
 I wonder you think " A Night with the Detective 
 Police " would do for a title ! t After all those 
 nights with Burns, and the Industrious Fleas, and 
 Heaven knows what else ! ! I don't think there could 
 be a worse one within the range of the human under- 
 standing. 
 
 Will have another night, certainly, I suppose 
 Forster has corrected my Detective proof ? I think 
 the Bank NoteJ very good indeed. Do the Hippopota- 
 mus^ Do Swinging the Ship.|| 
 
 Faithfully always, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 Yes, to Mason. I have learned to be suspicious, in 
 spite of myself, of all such things. 
 
 [Wills to Dickens. In answer to the preceding 
 letter. From Wills's " Letter Book."] 
 
 ATHOLL COTTAGE, 
 Twelfth July, 1850. 
 
 MY DEAR DICKENS : I hope you will understand 
 what I endeavour always to intimate : that when I 
 make an objection to any article I do it suggestively. 
 I am exceeding jealous of anything appearing which 
 might have the remotest tendency to damage the 
 
 * This referred, as the subjoined reply from Wills shows, to an article in 
 the issue of June 22nd, entitled " The Devil's Acre," written by Alexander 
 Mackay. I presume Dickens wished to make some statement in a subsequent 
 number casting doubt on it. It described some reformatory schools in 
 Westminster. 
 
 f The title chosen was "A Detective Police Party," Household Words, 
 July 27th and August 10th. The articles were by Dickens. 
 
 }" Review of a Popular Publication," by Wills, Household Words, 
 y 27th. 
 
 " The Hippopotamus," by R. H. Home, Ifouwhold Words, August 3rd. 
 || ''Swinging the Ship," by F. K. Hunt, Household Words, July 27th.
 
 1850] EDITOR AND SUB-EDITOR. 31 
 
 name which appears at the top of each page ; and 
 which is responsible for every word printed below it, 
 unless the contrary be specifically stated. The 
 story at p. 300 [of Vol. I. of Household Words] 
 although said to be derived from the Institution, is 
 adapted by the editor; it is not quoted from the 
 Master's Record (like a former one), but is set 
 forth editorially ; and if the editor doubted its truth 
 the statement ought to have been accompanied with 
 that doubt. If it be contradicted afterwards without 
 excuse or explanation confidence would be commonly 
 shaken in his other statements. 
 
 I ordered the passage to remain in type: because it is 
 more easy to expunge a few lines from another article, 
 when a passage is required to be inserted, than to add 
 matter when one has to be taken out. I did not 
 suppose you would wish me to consult you upon so 
 simple a matter of mechanical convenience. As your 
 injunction is strong as to this I must mention that 
 in Eike's Case I have added that he was " accused " of 
 stealing the debentures instead of that he actually 
 stole them* and struck out that Field said " he is sure 
 to be transported." Eike is just now sub judice and, 
 besides the manifest injustice of these passages, 
 he would have a good case against us in his 
 defence, f 
 
 Now for the third count. The title for the 
 Detective article I merely submitted, as usual as a 
 " mild suggestion," for I think it useless to hint what 
 may strike me as a defect without indicating a 
 remedy. I said " A Night with the Detectives " was 
 
 * In "A Detective Police Party," Household Words, July 27th (Vol. I., 
 p. 413). 
 
 f In the art ide as it appeared in Household Word*, Wills's emendations 
 were maintained.
 
 32 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1850 
 
 the best title I could think of. I still think it is 
 better than " The Detectives " merely, though cer- 
 tainly not the title ; but I am sure it is not the worst 
 one within the range of human understanding. For- 
 give me for claiming for my worst suggestion a locus 
 within that pale. . . . 
 
 Lots of articles have come in. We have now 
 enough for a number and a half. I have wrought so 
 hard and anxiously lately that I am a little done up. 
 If possible I shall rush off to-morrow night all the way 
 to Walthamstow till Thursday. On Tuesday I shall 
 be in Wellington Street and will have letters, etc., 
 brought to me every night. My address is at W. S. 
 Orr, Esq., Church Hill, Walthamstow. 
 
 W. H. WILLS. 
 
 DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, 
 
 Ninth August, 1850. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I shall be obliged to you if you 
 will write to this man, and tell him that what he asks, 
 I never do firstly, because I have no kind of con- 
 nexion with any manager or theatre ; secondly, because 
 I am asked to read so many manuscripts, that compliance 
 is impossible, or I should have no other occupation or 
 relaxation in the world. 
 
 A foreign gentleman with a beard name un- 
 known, but signing himself "A Fellow Man," and 
 dating from nowhere declined, twice yesterday, to 
 leave this house for any less consideration than the 
 insignificant one of " twenty pounds." I have had a 
 policeman waiting for him all day. 
 
 Faithfully always, 
 
 C. D.
 
 1850] STARVERS. 33 
 
 DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, 
 
 Tenth August, 1850. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I have written to Home. The 
 idea is a good one. The execution the main thing. 
 
 My travels are chiefly old, and I have none of those 
 books. But I have told him you will get them. 
 
 I will consider about Port Natal. I think I do 
 know somebody but he might lie, or favour lies. 
 
 The New Zealand sketch is exactly the kind of 
 thing that weighs upon my mind, frightfully. I don't 
 know where to put it. I haven't the courage to 
 destroy it and it reappears awfully, every now and 
 then, like an evidence of crime. 
 
 I send you a communication from one of our 
 innumerable starvers. 
 
 Ever yours, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, 
 
 Wednesday, Fourteenth August, 1850. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I have gone down to Maiden- 
 head this afternoon. Will you come, to make up, AT 
 10 TO-MORROW MORNING, before I begin a good day's 
 work. 
 
 You will find, on this paper, two proofs, in which I 
 have made some alterations. " Evil is Wrought,"* I 
 have touched at the end. It left off with a disagree- 
 able impression as to the feeling between the sisters. 
 Mr. - - I have shorn of his humour in the emetical 
 line, and also of his account of a calm which is less 
 correct than I hope his other facts are. I have seen 
 
 * " Evil is Wrought by Want of Thought," by Coventry Patmorc, appeared 
 in Household Wordy, September 14th. 
 
 D.E. D
 
 34 CHARLES DICKENS AS, EDITOR. [18M) 
 
 a calm on the Atlantic, three or four days long, when 
 the ship had no more motion than this table. 
 
 Faithfully ever, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 DEVONSHIRE TEKBACE, 
 
 Sixteenth August, 1850. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I will not enter on that ques- 
 tion of comparison which you raise in your note, 
 because I do not think my doing so would at all 
 facilitate or soften our business. 
 
 I have not the least intention, at present, of making 
 any change in Home's engagement. I think (as you 
 know) highly of his abilities, and I have always seen 
 him most willing and anxious to work. If, on its 
 being distinctly shewn to him what he is required to 
 do, it should appear, either that he dislikes doing it, 
 or cannot do it, the case would be different. But I do 
 not feel that it would become me to assume any such 
 thing from your premises. 
 
 If you will write me such a letter as I can put before 
 him, distinctly stating what assistance you require 
 from him, which you have not, I will write to him 
 immediately, and enclose that communication. And I 
 have no doubt the matter will be easily arranged. 
 
 But you must excuse my saying that I think you 
 arc hardly so disposed to accommodate matters with 
 Home (and never have been) as it would be pleasant 
 and advantageous for all of us that you should be. 
 
 I send you an " Illustration of Cheapness," * and 
 some papers you left here yesterday. 
 
 * A scries of articles appoarcd umler this title. They were by Charles 
 Knight.
 
 1850] A SOFT ANSWER. 35 
 
 Mrs. Dickens being happily confined,* I go to 
 Broadstairs this afternoon. My address there, is Fort 
 House. 
 
 Ever faithfully yours, 
 
 CHARLES DICKENS. 
 
 [Wills to Dickens. In answer to the preceding 
 letter. From Wills's " Letter Book."] 
 
 HOUSEHOLD WORDS OFFICE, 
 
 Seventeenth August, 1850. 
 
 MY DEAR DICKENS : Your letter gives me both 
 surprise and pain. There is nothing to " soften." 
 What I have proved is merely a matter of business 
 calculation, and should be discussed as such. 
 
 It was my duty to show you that Home's articles 
 had cost us something like 8 apiece, even when his 
 other services are taken into account. If you believe 
 the work [i.e., Household Words] can afford such 
 terms I have nothing more to say on that head, but I 
 cannot afford to make up, as I have been obliged to 
 do, his deficiency of service by extra services of my 
 own. The limit for the cost of contributions is 16 
 per average week. Unless I write as much as I have 
 done and more than I can promise myself to write for 
 the future, it is impossible to adhere to that limit 
 until Home's engagement is modified. 
 
 I feel that you mistake me, but have no fear that 
 by and bye you will [not] unreservedly understand 
 that in all I do I aim at one only object : the 
 welfare and success of the property in which we have 
 embarked. Anything I perceive which tends to 
 
 * Dickcns's third daughter, Dora Annie. She died suddenly on April 14th, 
 1851, and the news was brought to Diekens while he was presiding at the 
 dinner of the General Theatrical Fund at the " London " Tavern 
 
 D 2
 
 36 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1850 
 
 impede that success no personal considerations prevent 
 me from pointing out. Personally I have a liking for 
 Home which (personally) is growing upon me, but 
 officially I cannot be satisfied with any man who does 
 not, I conceive, come forward with his quid pro quo. 
 Indeed I quite agree with you that if it were put to 
 him from the computations I have given you that he 
 is receiving some 5 5 for what other contributors 
 arc not paid half that sum for he would be as ready 
 as anyone to acknowledge that it is a great injustice 
 not only to me (who have to bear the brunt of all 
 deficiencies) but to every contributor to the work, and 
 would be as ready to discuss any more equitable 
 arrangement as I am. 
 
 It is not for me, however, to urge such a point to 
 him, and for that reason I placed data in your hands 
 to make some such communication. I have nothing 
 special to suggest. All I wish is that Home should 
 mitigate my occasional agonies for articles by writing 
 more articles by, in short giving five guineas' worth 
 of services per week in exchange for 5 : 5 : 0. His 
 three months' engagement terminates tomorrow.* 
 
 Yours, &c., &c., 
 
 W. H. WILLS. 
 
 BROADSTAIRS, 
 
 Nineteenth August, 1850. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Yes very gently as to Miss 
 Martincau. And say I want to cut the end of 
 Woodruffe.f (I have no proof.) 
 
 * A letter in Wills's "Letter Book" of March fith, 1S:>1, shows that 
 Wills returned to the charge and again pressed this matter on Dickens's 
 attention. What happened I do not know. Home went to Australia in 
 1852. 
 
 f Miss Martincau's story, " The Home of Wood ruffe," appeared in House- 
 hold Wurdt, from August 24th to September 7th.
 
 1850] A ROAST LOIN OF MUTTON. 37 
 
 What shall we do about the making up? What 
 Mrs. Micawber calls " the unconscious strauger" has 
 so put me out, that I can't leave here before Friday, 
 clearly. 
 
 In great haste, 
 
 Faithfully always, 
 
 C.I). 
 
 BROADSTAIKS, 
 
 Wednesday Night, Twenty-first August, 1850. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I have cut Woodruff e as 
 scientifically as I can, and I don't think Miss Martineau 
 would exactly know where. 
 
 The " Illustrations of Cheapness " having become 
 known to our readers, I think I would put the Steel 
 Pen first. It has an Educational reference is very 
 good and I think upon the whole might exchange 
 places with the Forgery chapters to advantage, as we 
 have already had the Bank first, in a former No. 
 
 Of course they have NOT sent me the Forgery 
 Proofs.* 
 
 The contents otherwise, are very fair, I think. Of 
 course I proceed on the idea that you have not found 
 any new first article. 
 
 If I have a favorable day's work to-morrow (it may 
 be a wayward one, as I am particularly ready to do it, 
 and have considered it a long time) I shall be at the 
 office all day on Friday. Also, I shall be happy to 
 have Downing Bruce to dinner on Friday at G. That 
 subject should be nailed. Have a roast loin of mutton 
 for one thing. We had nothing to cut and come 
 again at, last time. 
 
 * Two chapters on " Bank Note Forgeries," by Wills, with touches by 
 Dickeiis, Himseliold Words, September 7th and 21at.
 
 38 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1850 
 
 I received both the letters you mention. Ask 
 Forster to dine on Friday. 
 
 What do you and Mrs. Wills say to coining down 
 about to-morrow week' as soon as you have got that 
 week's number off your hands ? 
 
 I enclose a note, which I don't understand. What 
 on earth does the man mean, by returning an incivility ? 
 
 Faithfully always, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 BROADSTAIRS, KENT, 
 
 Twenty-seventh August, 1850. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I enclose you some papers I 
 have received in connexion with the H. W. Among 
 them, a letter from Home, in answer to one from me, 
 pointing out to him the heads of your statement. You 
 will see that he is willing and anxious to do anything, 
 and to render you assistance in any way in which you 
 will allow yourself to be assisted. 
 
 I have been in a kind of prostrated condition, as to 
 any power of thinking about anything, since I finished 
 my last Copperfield. Consequently, what I am to do 
 for H. W. is still a sheet of blank paper. I suppose 
 (like Mr. Micawber) that Something will turn up. 
 
 When I know, for certain, on what day I shall be 
 in town, I will write to you again probably by to- 
 morrow's Post. You remain in the same mind about 
 Saturday ? 
 
 Always faithfully yours, 
 
 C. 13. 
 
 BROADSTAIRS, 
 
 Thursday, Twenty-ninth August, 1850. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I send you the best resume my 
 used-up-ed-ness will yield, of the three best Police
 
 1850] "THE DOOM OF ENGLISH WILLS." 39 
 
 stories.* Will you please look carefully at the Proof, 
 and be particular with the turned comma in the 
 Dialogue. 
 
 Stanfield being here, I shall come to town on 
 Saturday Morning, and be at the H. W. at 11 o'clock, 
 to dispatch all needful business. I purpose returning 
 by the Boat on Sunday Morning, Is there anything 
 in the Presbyterian way, to prevent you and Mrs. Wills 
 coming back with me ? If so, and you would prefer 
 preceding me by a train on Saturday afternoon, write 
 to that effect (to my little housekeeper Miss Hogarth) 
 by return, and she will expect you. 
 
 In haste, 
 
 Always faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 BROADSTAIIIS, 
 
 Sunday, Eighth September, 1850. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I send you the beginning of 
 our joint articlef on Gumming Bruce's theme. I have 
 endeavoured to make it picturesque, and to leave the 
 ground open for you. I return your notes. You are 
 wrong about the 45 in a day. I have stated it as I 
 understood the fact to have been. 
 
 I don't like the name I have given the subject. 
 What do you think of " The Fate of Wills, in Eng- 
 land " instead ? Or something of that sort? If you 
 will send the proof to me when you have done I will 
 try to put a few lines at the end, so as to wind up 
 with an effect. I think we shall make a great hit 
 with the subject. 
 
 * " Three ' Detective ' Anecdotes," by Dickens, Household Words, 
 September 14th. 
 
 f " The Doom of English Wills," by C. D. and W. U. W., ILmwhold 
 Words, September 28th, October 5th, November 2nd, IGth (Chip), and 23rd.
 
 40 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1850 
 
 The " Diplomacy," splendid. I should like to begin 
 that with a sketch of an aristocratic attache* and so 
 forth. I know the reality very well, having seen a 
 good deal of it abroad. 
 
 Home spoke to me wrote to me, I mean about 
 the " Steam Plough";* and I meant to have called 
 your attention to it, but forgot it. You have done 
 quite right. 
 
 The parcel is a clean set of curtains for the office 
 windows, when wanted, and the glass-cloths we 
 bought. 
 
 Will you tell Vale to receive and pay for two 
 dozen champagne and two dozen claret ? They 
 will come in cases, and had better be put in the top 
 room. 
 
 The 14th of October, impossible. I am afraid I 
 shall not be available for the 2Gth either, having 
 made a pledge to Bulwer. But the event may not 
 come off. I can't say, yet. 
 
 Looking back to your letter, I observe that you 
 speak of my letting you have "the first article." 
 You understood, I suppose, that we agreed I should 
 send you the opening of the first article for you to go 
 on with ? 
 
 I am very glad to hear of the Edinburgh man 
 again. 
 
 Faithfully always, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 Even Paxton must be second-fiddle to the Eccle- 
 siastical subject, in case you do perceive there, a 
 divided duty. Remember me to him, with congratu- 
 lations. 
 
 * An article by Home in the issue of September 21st.
 
 1850] A COPPERFIELD PAROXYSM. 41 
 
 BROADSTAIRS, 
 
 Friday, September Seventeenth, 1850. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I am extremely sorry to hear 
 about your brain but if you suppose that our Number 
 went down, because the Illustration was first, and 
 wouldn't have gone down if the Forgery had been first, 
 I think the disease must be, the gigantic strength of 
 your imagination. 
 
 You'll find Broadstairs do you more good, than 
 anything could. 
 
 I am in that tremendous paroxysm of Copperfield 
 having my most powerful effect in all the Story on the 
 Anvil that you might as well ask me to manufacture 
 a Cannon seventy-four pounder, as to finish the Turtle, 
 or do the Junk, or do anything NOW. But I will be 
 at the office, please God, at eleven on Friday Morning ; 
 and if we have, as I fear we must have, in default of 
 anything else, the second Will article in the No. 
 I will write the introduction then and there. I have 
 arranged to go over the asylum for Idiots, that day, 
 which ought to afford a fine description. 
 
 I will look over "Hints on Emergencies,"' with 
 the view you suggest, if it comes. 
 
 You may tell Mr. Field that the only word in that 
 passage which he did not use, is " slow " as applied to 
 " Justices." I put that in, to express what his manner 
 expressed, f But that if he means to say he didn't 
 mention about " while they were looking over the 
 
 * By Wills and Dr. Stone, October 5th. 
 
 f The allusion is to Inspector Field, of the Detective Police, who had 
 supplied Dickens with material for his "Three 'Detective' Anecdotes " in 
 Household Words, September 14th. The passage to which the Inspector appears 
 to have objected is at the end of the second " Anecdote " : " Well, if you'll 
 believe me, while them slow Justices were looking over the Acts of Parlia- 
 ment to see what they could do to him, I'm blowed if he didn't cut out of 
 the dock before their faces."
 
 42 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1850 
 
 Acts of Parliament," he means to say the thing which 
 is not. Lemon's recollection, and Leech's, be my 
 judge ! There would be no objection to a facetious 
 chip about the " slow," but what Mr. Field did say 
 shall not be unsaid can't be. 
 
 I enclose you, from a correspondent, a Post Office 
 order for a Sovereign in favor of that Westminster 
 Eeclamatory Institution whereof we have treated. 
 
 Also a communication from Mr. , another name 
 
 for Blight, and Locust. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, 
 
 Thursday , Twelfth December, 1850. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : This proof of Morley's, when 
 corrected, will require to be very carefully looked to. 
 I had better go over it myself. I can't make out 
 whether he means Mr. Buster to be actually a prize- 
 fighter, or a person in the position of a gentleman with 
 prize-fighting tastes. I have adopted the latter hypo- 
 thesis, as involving less inconsistency and incongruity.* 
 
 Mrs. Gaskell's story,f I enclose, with two or three 
 slight corrections. The name I have given it, expresses 
 it better than any other I can think of. Withal, it is 
 not a common name. The story is very clever I 
 think the best thing of hers I have seen, not excepting 
 Mary Barton and if it had ended happily (which is 
 the whole meaning of it) would have been a great 
 success. As it is, it had better go into the next 
 but will not do much, and will link itself 
 
 * " Mr. Bendigo Buster oil our National Defences against Education," 
 by Morley and Dickens, Household Word*, December 28th. 
 
 f " The Hearty John Middletou," Household Words, December 28th.
 
 1850] AUGUSTUS EGG. 43 
 
 painfully, with the girl who fell down at the Well, 
 and the child who tumbled down stairs. I wish to 
 Heaven her people would keep a little firmer on their 
 legs ! 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, 
 
 Saturday, Fourteenth December, 1850. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I heard something last night, 
 which makes me averse to reviving the Good Hippo- 
 potamus."* I must therefore trouble you to take out 
 that article after all, and put in another chip. 
 
 I could not think of making so important an altera- 
 tion in Mrs. Graskell's story without her consent. It 
 must therefore stand as it is. 
 
 I forgot to tell you yesterday that Egg j 1 proposes to 
 meet us at the Blackwall Railway at 3 on Monday to 
 go down (by appointment with the Proprietors) to 
 those Plate Glass Works. He says the visit will 
 occupy some three hours. Therefore our friend 
 H[ousehold] W\ords] must improvise a city dinner 
 afterwards. I shall be at the office on Monday, 
 between 12 and 1. 
 
 I have taken out the cripple in the Railway paper, 
 because he has hobbled bodily out of Head's book. 
 
 There are a few alterations elsewhere. 
 
 Ever yours, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 * By Dickens, Hovse/wld Wordg, October 12th. 
 
 t Augustus Egg, A.R.A. (afterwards R.A.), the painter of historical 
 pictures. He and Wilkie Collins went with Dickens on a tour through 
 Switzerland and Italy in 1853.
 
 44 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1851 
 
 1851. 
 
 During this year Dickens' s time and his energies 
 were largely absorbed by the Guild of Literature and 
 Art, in the foundation of which lie took a leading 
 share. Lytton, then Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, 
 wrote a comedy in five acts, "Not So Bad As We 
 Seem; or, Many Sides to a Character," for the per- 
 formances to be given in aid of the institution. The 
 first performance took place on May 16th, by permis- 
 sion of the Duke of Devonshire, at Devonshire House. 
 Wills, to whom Dickens offered a small part, did not 
 act, but he became the Secretary of the scheme, 
 and later in the year, when Dickens took his 
 company into the provinces, he sometimes went 
 with them. The following advertisement of the 
 project was published in the daily papers of the 
 time : 
 
 GUILD of LITERATURE and ART: to encourage life 
 assurance and other provident habits among authors and 
 artists ; to render such assistance to both as shall never com- 
 promise their independence ; and to found a new Institution 
 where honourable rest from arduous labour shall still be associated 
 with the discharge of congenial duties. To bring this project into 
 general notice, and to form the commencement of the necessary 
 funds, Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, one of its originators, has 
 written and presented to his fellow -labourers in the cause, a New 
 Comedy in Five Acts. It will be produced under the manage- 
 ment of Mr. Charles Dickens, in a theatre constructed for the 
 purpose ; and will be performed by Mr. Robert Bell, Mr. Wilkie 
 Collins, Mr. Dudley Costello, Mr. Peter Cunningham, Mr. Charles 
 Dickens, Mr. Augustus Egg, A.R.A., Mr. John Forster, Mr. R. H. 
 Home, Mr. Douglas Jerrold, Mr. Charles Knight, Mr. Mark Lemon, 
 Mr. J. Westland Marston, Mr. Frank Stone, Mr. John Tenniel, 
 Mr. F. W. Topham, and others. Portions of the scenery have 
 been presented by Mr. Absolon, Mr. Thomas Grieve, Mr. Lewis
 
 1851] E. C. GRENVILLE MURRAY. 45 
 
 Haglie, and Mr. Telbin. The first representation of the Comedy, 
 which is entitled " Not So Bad As We Seem ; or, Many Sides to 
 a Character," will take place at Devonshire House, on Friday, 
 l(5th May, before Her Majesty the Queen, and His Royal Highness 
 the Prince Albert. Ladies and gentlemen wishing tickets for the 
 performance at Devonshire House, price 5 each this sum being 
 regarded as a contribution in support of the design will, on 
 a written application to his Grace the Duke of Devonshire, at 
 Devonshire House, receive a voucher for the same, exchangeable 
 at Mr. Mitchell's library, 33, Old Bond-street. Prospectuses of 
 the scheme can be had after Thursday, on application, at the 
 office of the Guild, Wellington-chambers, 10, Lancaster-place, 
 Strand ; of Mr. Mitchel, 33, Old Bond-street ; Messrs. Ebers, 
 27, Old Bond-street ; Mr. Hookham, 15, Old Bond-street ; and 
 Mr. Sams, 1, St. James's-street. 
 
 WILLIAM HENRY WELLS, Hon. Sec. 
 
 Though launched under these brilliant auspices the 
 institution never attained any great success. 
 
 In March Mrs. Dickens was at Malvern, and Dickens 
 too was sometimes there, though his headquarters 
 remained in London. 
 
 Dickens's father, John Dickens, died on March 31st, 
 and his daughter, Dora Annie, on April 14th. From 
 May to November Dickens was at Fort House, 
 Broadstairs. 
 
 In the letter of March 29th there is an allusion to 
 a paper contributed by E. C. Grenville Murray. In 
 the following year this writer began his brilliant series 
 of articles in Household Words, entitled " The lioving 
 Englishman," and went on with them until 185G. 
 Some of them were published as a book in 1854. He 
 was a natural son of the second Duke of Buckingham 
 and Chandos. Entering the Diplomatic Service under 
 the protection of Lord Palmerston, he was appointed 
 an attache* at Vienna in 1851 ; was transferred to 
 Constantinople (after a short interval at Hanover) in 
 1852 ; quarrelled with the ambassador, Sir Stratford 
 Canning, whom he afterwards ridiculed as Sir Hector 
 Stubble; and in 1855 was sent to Odessa as British
 
 46 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1851 
 
 Consul-General. Thence, after some disagreeable 
 controversies, he returned to England in 1868. In 
 1869 he started the Queens Messenger, the first 
 "Society" journal published in this country. On 
 June 22nd, 1869, he was horsewhipped in St. James's 
 Street by Lord Carrington on account of some reflec- 
 tions on Lord Carrington' s father. He prosecuted 
 Lord Carrington, who was convicted, but only ordered 
 to come up for judgment when called up. Thereupon 
 Grenville Murray was himself prosecuted for perjury 
 in having on oath denied the authorship of the article 
 in dispute. He was remanded on bail, but did not 
 appear again, having fled to Paris. He continued to 
 write, and helped Edmund Yates to found the World 
 in 1874. He died at Passy in 1881. 
 
 Charles Knight, mentioned in the letter of 
 April 20th, was an intimate friend of Dickens, and 
 was at this time contributing a series of papers under 
 the title of " Shadows " to Household Words. As 
 publisher, author and editor he was equally well 
 known. His most popular compilations were "Half 
 Hours with the Best Authors," " Half Hours of 
 English History," and " Half Hours with the Best 
 Letter - Writers." He died in 1873, at the age 
 of 82. 
 
 In the letter of August 13th occurs the first mention 
 of George Augustus Sala, then a young man of twenty- 
 three. He was never one of Dickens 's close friends, 
 but until 1856 he was a fairly regular contributor to 
 Household Words, and Dickens had a considerable 
 admiration for much of his work. In April, 1856, 
 Dickens sent him to Kussia to write descriptive articles 
 for Household Words. He returned in September, when 
 a disagreement with Dickens as to the rcpublication of 
 his articles in volume form led to Sala's withdrawal from 
 Household Words. He renewed his connection witli 
 the paper two years later and contributed many articles 
 to its successor, All the Year Hound. His association
 
 1851] G. A. SALA. 47 
 
 with the Daily Telegraph began in 1857, and for many 
 years his well-known style Matthew Arnold whetted 
 his satire on it in " Friendship's Garland " lent colour 
 and animation to the columns of that paper. He 
 founded and edited two monthly magazines, The Train 
 (January, 1856) and Temple Bar (December, 1860), 
 Edmund Yates being associated with him on both 
 publications. He died in 1895. 
 
 DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, 
 
 Monday, Tenth February, 1851. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : There is a small part in 
 Bulwer's comedy but very good, what there is not 
 much my servant, who opens the play which I 
 should be very glad if you would like to do. 
 
 Pray understand that there is no end of men who 
 would do it, and that if you have the least objection 
 to the trouble, I don't make this the expression of a 
 wish even. Otherwise, I should like you to be in the 
 scheme, which is a very great and important one, and 
 which cannot have too many men who are steadily 
 not flightily, like some of our friends in earnest, and 
 who are not to be lightly discouraged. 
 
 If you do the part, I should like to have a talk with 
 you about the secretarial duties. They must be per- 
 formed by some one, I clearly see, and will require 
 good business direction. I should like to put some 
 young fellow to whom such work, and its remunera- 
 tion would be an object, under your eye, if we could 
 find one entire and perfect chrysolite anywhere. 
 
 Let me know whether I am to rate you on the 
 ship's books, or not. If yes, consider yourself
 
 48 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1851 
 
 " called " to the Reading (by Macready) at Forster's 
 rooms on Wednesday, the 19th at 3. 
 
 And in the meantine you shall have a proof of the 
 plan. 
 
 Ever yours, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 [Wills to Dickens. In answer to the preceding 
 letter. From Wills's Letter Book."] 
 
 HOUSEHOLD WORDS OFFICE, 
 
 Twelfth February, 1851. 
 
 MY DEAR DICKENS : I have considered your letter 
 well over, and think it better that I should not take a 
 part in the play. I will not bore you with all my 
 reasons against it. One will suffice, for that is a 
 strong one : there will be, as I understand, not a few 
 provincial performances ; and under present arrange- 
 ments I think it would be extremely inexpedient 
 for us both to be absent from Household Words 
 together and so often as the performances will require. 
 
 It is no affectation to say that this is a great sacri- 
 fice of pleasure to me, for I should enjoy the fun of 
 acting and the greater glorification of being one of the 
 corps dramatique ; and, as you know, the smaller the 
 part the better I should like it. 
 
 I shall, however, feel very great disappointment 
 indeed if any disinclination to act in the play (brought 
 about chiefly by business considerations) deprive me 
 of the privilege of giving any help in my power to the 
 general scheme. It is one I have long wished to see 
 brought forward, and I have felt a very great interest
 
 1851] THEATRICAL PREPARATIONS. 49 
 
 in it from the moment you mentioned it. If I can be 
 of any service in the way you suggest in your letter, 
 or in any of the business generalities or details of the 
 project I will give my services zealously. 
 
 I do hope, therefore, that ridding you of a bad actor 
 will not bar me out from all the co-operation I can 
 give to the other parts of the scheme. 
 
 W. H. W. 
 
 [The day of the mouth is not given, but the refer- 
 ence to the cabmen disposes me to attribute the 
 following letter to March 27th (see next letter, and 
 that of March 29th)]. 
 
 DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, 
 
 Thursday Morning. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I think it not unlikely that 
 Home may unintentionally commit us to some mistake 
 on the Series question, without careful revision, 
 
 Will you show Henry Austin* the proof, and read 
 it with him ? We shall then be quite safe. 
 
 The cabmen I shall expect to-morrow. 
 
 Mr. Sloman, and also Pitt the scene painter, are 
 instructed that you will fork out from, time to time as 
 they require money for their work. You will receive 
 a certain list of properties to-day, which please put in 
 your letter to me to-night. I think Pitt had better 
 have rehearsal notices, in order that ^he may know 
 where to find us. 
 
 In case my poor father should take any bad turn, 
 and they should want me hurriedly, I have given my 
 mother a paper, which in that case she would send to 
 you. It contains a memorandum of the best way of 
 
 * Henry Austin was Dickcns's brother-in-law, and intimate friend. He 
 was secretary to the Sanitary Commission ; he died in 1861. 
 
 D.E. E
 
 50 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1851 
 
 sending a messenger clown to Malvern. I saw him 
 last night, and he was then doing quite well. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 GREAT MALVERN, 
 
 Twenty-eighth March, 1851. 
 
 Friday. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I will read the Execution 
 Paper by young Dumas, this evening. I am not able 
 to do so before post-time (early here) having an arrear 
 of letters to get through, but I will return it by the 
 morning post to-morrow, in case you should desire to 
 know what I think about it at the office to-morrow 
 afternoon. Generally, I don't like, for such a purpose, 
 descriptions of executions and that kind of French- 
 man is not likely to enlighten one's mind about them. 
 But we shall see. 
 
 I find in the letter of yours which I missed when 
 I came up, a begging letter (about the twentieth from 
 the same hand) signed Thomas Lewis. I can't make 
 out whether the man's mad or only an unusual 
 vagabond. I merely mention him as a caution to you 
 not to give him anything. 
 
 The cabs I will do what I can for, tomorrow. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 GREAT MALVERN, 
 
 Friday Night, Twenty -eighth March, 1851. 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I don't like young Dumas' 
 paper at all. Nothing can justify such a subject, but 
 some exceedingly vigorous treatment of it and this 
 is in the last degree flat and poor. Add to the nature 
 of the thing itself, that it is a translation from a French
 
 1851] CABS. 51 
 
 newspaper, and it is yet more objectionable. I am 
 quite clear against it. 
 
 I send a paper by Chesterton which has not much 
 in it, but which, called 
 
 " Coolness among Thieves "* 
 
 and altered by the softening of some of his hardest 
 words and finest writing, will do. I can't say more 
 for it. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 GREAT MALVERN, 
 
 Saturday, Twenty -ninth March, 1851, 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I find there is no day -post from 
 here, so you will only get the rejected Guillotine 
 paper with this. 
 
 Enclosed, the cab paper. I have done what I can 
 Avith it, but it is a poor opportunity. I hope the 
 information generally, is more correct than that 
 appertaining to Paris, as I found it.t 
 
 I think I shall come to town on Monday, and be at 
 the office in good time on Tuesday morning. 
 
 I keep this note open until the arrival of to-morrow's 
 Post. But I must not forget to say that you exercised 
 the soundest possible discretion in the matter of 
 Chambers, and that I think very well of him indeed, 
 for his wholesome view of the subject. 
 
 Sunday. 
 
 I am coming up this afternoon, with the view of 
 dashing over to Bulwer's somehow or other, to confer 
 with him upon some points in reference to which he 
 
 * It appeared in the number of May 17th. 
 
 f "Common Sense on Wheels," by Dickens, Wills and E. C. Grenville 
 Murray, Ifuuwhold Words, April 12th. 
 
 E 2
 
 52 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1851 
 
 is in suddeii agonies. In good time on Tuesday, I 
 shall see you at the office. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 GREAT MALVERN, 
 
 Monday, Seventh April, 1851. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Don't you think it will be best 
 for us to breakfast together with a general view to 
 H . W. on Wednesday morning ? Will you break- 
 fast with me in Devonshire Terrace at 10 ? I shall 
 see you to-morrow night of course, but I send this 
 note in case I should otherwise interfere with your 
 arrangements. 
 
 I shall also want to take counsel with you about my 
 prospective occupation of the two back rooms in 
 Wellington Street, with iron bedsteads, during the 
 Expositional absence of myself and family. I have 
 an idea (if the Broadstairs people be not made, 
 Expositionally, more than usually sharkish) of taking 
 the Fort House from May to October. And in that 
 case I shall want occasionally to make niy tent 
 comfortable at the office. 
 
 Faithfully ever, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, 
 
 I write it naturally meaning 
 GREAT MALVERN, 
 
 Sunday, Thirteenth April, 1851. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I enclose you the Police Article. 
 I have cut down the number of cases, to save tedious- 
 ness. Two drunken men, for example, could scarcely 
 have been done with. It occurs to me that I have not
 
 1851J NINE HOURS' WORK 53 
 
 described the cells. But I had better "put in that," 
 and any other line or so that occurs to me, when I get 
 the proof. For the present slips are horribly mauled. 
 I have done all I could sat at it nine hours without 
 stirring and hope it will come out well.* 
 
 I preside at the Fund Dinner tomorrow. I suppose 
 you don't go. Will you breakfast with me again, on 
 Tuesday morning, to talk over things in general ? 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 C. D. 
 
 DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, 
 
 Sunday, Twentieth April, 1851. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Charles Knight left the enclosed 
 here, to-day. 
 
 I am taking Mrs. Dickens out, under a variety of 
 pretences. I make one now, that I am not decided 
 whether to go to Wellington Street for our barrack 
 quarters, or to Lancaster Place. Will you instruct 
 Johnson to be at the latter Chambers to morrow 
 (Monday) at a quarter past 4, and wait till I come ? 
 I will show them to her. We are going to look at 
 Stone's house just before. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 H. W, 
 
 Wednesday Evening, Fourteenth May, 1851. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Thornton asked for you here, 
 at 5. I sent word through Mr. Iloldsworth that 
 you would be at Devonshire House after 7, and could 
 
 * " The Metropolitan Protectivcs." by Dickens and Wills, Household 
 Win-tin, April 2(ith. This artiele is republishod by Wills in his " Old Leaves," 
 it being, however, indicated that Dickens h;id a part in it.
 
 54 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1851 
 
 be seen on demand. You had best instruct the 
 Devonshire House servants, accordingly, on receipt 
 of this. 
 
 I have had it in my mind to say to you and may 
 as well do it now, as at another time that if your 
 removal really should have put you out for a hundred 
 pounds or so, and you would prefer to borrow where 
 you can certainly incur no obligation rather than 
 where you possibly might incur one without meaning 
 it I shall be truly pleased to become your banker. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 [The following letter is wrongly dated by Dickens 
 "Thursday, Twenty-ninth March." (1) It is written 
 on black-edged paper, and must, therefore, have been 
 subsequent to March 81st, when John Dickens died ; 
 
 (2) Dickens did not go to Broadstairs till May ; 
 
 (3) on March 29th, which was a Saturday, Dickens 
 was at Malvern (sec previous letter of that date).] 
 
 BROADSTAIRS, 
 
 Thursday, Tivcnty -ninth [May], 1851. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I think we shall now have a 
 very good article. I have two requests to make in 
 connexion with the enclosed copy. First, that you 
 will severely reprove the Whitefriars people in my 
 name, for having the negligence to send me yesterday 
 the uncorrccted proof after all. Secondly that you 
 will very carefully correct the proof of the new matter, 
 and, if you have any doubt, refer to the manuscript. 
 
 The cheques I enclose, signed. 
 
 This is all I have to say about Household Words.
 
 1851] A PLAIN COLD SUPPER. 55 
 
 GUILD. 
 
 I enclose a Memorandum for Foster, the Property 
 man. 
 
 Will you ask at Simpson's what they will put on a 
 plain cold supper upstairs in their own place, for, on the 
 next Play night at about 12, running the chance of 
 the number who may come, and of what each man 
 may order to drink for himself ? I would merely 
 have cold joints, lobsters, salad, and plenty of clean 
 ice. Perhaps there might be one hot dish, as broiled 
 bones. But I would have only one, and I would have 
 it cheap. 
 
 Then I think Johnson might send round this to 
 the company. 
 
 NOTICE. 
 
 There will be a plain cold supper ready at Mr. 
 Simpson's, the Albion, by Drury Lane Theatre, after 
 the Farce on Tuesday, at per head ; not includ- 
 
 ing wine, spirits, or beer, which each gentleman will 
 order for himself. 
 
 I hope to begin the Police Article tomorrow. I 
 have gone to Epsom very freshly. Weather beautiful. 
 Wife not so well. 
 
 Faithfully ever, 
 
 C. D. 
 BBOADSTAIES, 
 
 Thirtieth May, 1851. 
 Friday. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Since you feel that objection, 
 perhaps it will be best to alter the heading of the 
 advertisement. But it did not occur to me when I 
 saw it in The Times yesterday. I thought it well 
 placed, and very good.
 
 56 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1851 
 
 Of course I shall not answer the begging letter 
 enclosed. If you should receive another from the 
 same man, I should like the Mendicity Society to have 
 them. 
 
 Have you heard from Land ? 
 
 Don't you think some one should supply refresh- 
 ments as tea, coffee, soda water, and ices at 
 Hanover Square, for the audience if they choose, as at 
 other places of entertainment. 
 
 If the house should be bad on Monday Morning, I 
 would immediately issue, per Johnson, four tickets to 
 every member of the Company. I would also send 
 four to Stanfield, The Green Hill, Hampstead, four to 
 Eoberts, 7, Fitzroy Street, Fitzroy Square, four to 
 Austin, Board of Health, four to Beard (Private) 
 Herald Office. It is most important that we should 
 be full, whatever we do, and these would all be safe. 
 Perhaps you will confer with Mark,* according to 
 circumstances. 
 
 I have begun the Night article, and hope to bring it 
 up with me, finished. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 BROADSTAIRS, KENT, 
 
 Fourth July, 1851. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : The enclosed will do. I have 
 written to the Author, accepting it. It wants a few 
 new paragraphs, and the omission of a familiar slang 
 phrase here and there. 
 
 Paxton suggested to me, through Evans, a good 
 
 * Mark Lemon, one of the founders of Punch and its first editor. He 
 and Dickens were great friends.
 
 1851] ICE. 57 
 
 subject. Ice, and why should its use be confined to 
 great towns.* How useful to the Farmer, for his 
 butter and so forth how easily an ice-house con- 
 structed and why don't he construct one, and have it 
 filled on odd winter's days when his men are lounging 
 about the stable door. 
 
 Baincs. Don't forget Baines. 
 
 I am astonished to find that I had put the letter 
 about my poor father's bill, into my dispatch box. I 
 must have taken it out of the drawer, specially, but 
 I have not the least remembrance of having done so. 
 I enclose it, but suppose the bill will probably have 
 been paid from the Memorandum left at the D. N. 
 office. 
 
 Will you kindly read the enclosed and see the man ? 
 I have communicated with him before, and (if I 
 remember right) given him money. The books he 
 speaks of are bad, but it seems an affecting history, 
 and I should be glad to give him ,5 or so, if you 
 thought it would do him real service. 
 
 Will you, further, send Callaghanf to Eeeves the 
 Stationers in Cheapside for two red solid blotters,/ofo'o 
 size, which Mark [Lemon] will bring me down if 
 Callaghan will leave them addressed to me, to his care, 
 in the course of the day at the Bedford. 
 
 Will you, further, ask Charles Knight if he 
 remembers the address of the agent to be communi- 
 cated with about the two new houses on Hampstead 
 Heath he gave me an advertisement during the 
 Play, which I mislaid for want of a pocket and, 
 if he does, will you write a note to the man in my 
 
 * An article on this subject, by Morlcy and Wills, appeared in Household 
 Words on August Kith, 
 t Callaghan was the attendant at the Household \Vurds office.
 
 58 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1851 
 
 name, asking extent of accommodation, and purchase- 
 particulars. 
 
 I think this is trouble enough, for one note ! 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 BROADSTAIRS, 
 
 Friday Morning. In led. 
 
 [No further date, but it was probably July llth.J 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I am laid up with a most 
 severe cold, and pains all over me. I received yester- 
 day, only the enclosed bit of proof, instead of the 
 whole. The morning's post is not come in when I 
 send this. I suppose it will bring the rest. 
 
 I wish Hannay * would not imitate Carlyle. Pray 
 take some of the innumerable dashes out of his article 
 and for God's sake don't leave in anything about 
 such a man believing in himself which he has no 
 right to do and which would by inference justify 
 almost anything. Yankee does not mean American 
 but New England merely, I think. 
 
 " In the name of the prophet Smith !"f 
 
 would be a better title. 
 
 Faithfully ever, 
 
 C. I). 
 
 KENT, 
 
 Sixteenth July, 1851. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : The cheque you have to pay to 
 my account for the Greenwich dinner, is 12. 10. fi. 
 The enclosed note and its enclosed papers are from 
 
 * James Hannay (1827 1873), the novelist and essayist. 
 t An account of Mormonism and its prophet, Joseph Smith, hy Wills and 
 Hunnay. It appeared in llouxt'liold Words, July I'.Jth.
 
 1851J THE GUILD. 59 
 
 Lady Grey (Lord Grey's wife). I have written to her. 
 Can you make a chip out of them, and correct our 
 orthography of the place ? 
 
 You know that I have no faith in advertising 
 beyond a certain reasonable extent. I think it a 
 popular delusion altogether. But I do not desire to 
 stand in the way of what you and Evans may concur 
 in deeming a business idea. And if the expense 
 would be advisable, the Household Narrative decision 
 given, I think it is little less advisable, the decision 
 not given. Therefore you had better summon the 
 Lincolnian Mammoth * to a meeting at 3 on Saturday, 
 and Evans too, if he be come back. We will then 
 decide what shall be done, and have it done immediately. 
 
 GUILD. 
 
 Miss Boy let changes her mind, and wants a family 
 ticket. I have therefore directed her to burn the one 
 you have sent her. Will you tell Johnson to send 
 her a family ticket, for 3 places together near the 
 Stage, to 3 Hamilton Place, Piccadilly, instead ? 
 
 In writing to Ireland, I would propound two 
 questions what is the best time (if any) before 
 Christmas ? What is the best time after Christmas ? 
 
 I have a letter from Bulwer this morning, in which 
 he expresses a great solicitude that in case of the 
 house being very good on Monday, there should be 
 (with a view to the effect upon the Provinces) another 
 last night but only if the house should decidedly 
 seem to justify it. Will you take counsel and con- 
 fidence with Mitchell upon this ? If it were decided 
 to be done, I would give it out at the end of the 
 
 * John Forster, who lived in Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 t The Hon. Mary Boyle, an intimate friend of Dickens, and an occasional 
 contributor to Household \Vordn.
 
 GO CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1851 
 
 Comedy. Or can Mitchell suggest any other place in 
 London where we could make one dash ? 
 
 Have Lady Bulwer looked after. A last chance 
 might stimulate her Ladyship to desperate action. 
 
 Faithfully always, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 Tho meeting with a view to the Country, Monday 
 the 28th, at 4 exactly. 
 
 Of course they are to be called to Rehearsal on the 
 stage, next Monday at 12. 
 
 BROADSTAIRS, KENT, 
 
 Seventeenth July, 1851. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : You cannot have remarked it 
 but I spoke to you, before leaving, about those 
 parcels. It is all right. They were to go to their 
 respective addresses. 
 
 I am glad of Brockcdon's note. He knows a good 
 deal about some curious places is very ingenious 
 and may be very useful. 
 
 A Name for the Custom-House article ? Hum ! 
 Let me see. 
 
 What do you say to 
 
 The Great House of Detention. 
 
 The Castle of Giant Despair. 
 
 The Dull End of the Broad Arrow. 
 
 Her Majesty's only Disagreeable Customs. 
 
 The Great Bar in the Harbour of London.* 
 
 They arc all pretty good. 
 
 Faithfully ever, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 * This was the title eventually chosen for the article, which was by Wills. 
 It appeared in J/ousetntld Words on July 2Gth.
 
 1851] THE "CHILD'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND." Gl 
 
 BHOADSTAIRS, KENT, 
 
 Sunday, Twenty -seventh July, 1851. 
 
 H. W. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I am sorry the Brockedon 
 business (though almost unavoidable) should have 
 arisen. I have written to the wrathful being, with 
 a view to mollification. 
 
 Bamford (returned herewith) won't do. " The 
 Right One " * poor but I think just passable. 
 
 I enclose you another Shadow from Charles Knight. 
 Have it put in type at once, and send him a proof. 
 I have suggested to him some slight alterations in the 
 beginning of a tense here and there which will 
 make it more fanciful. He can easily make them 
 in the proof. They are a mere nothing. 
 
 I send the " History of England "f with a very 
 pretty bit in it, describing the drowning of the son of 
 Henry the First. Proof to me for correction. 
 
 Also a proof of that whole No. I have had none 
 whatever, of next Wednesday's No. 
 
 I am glad you like the Watering Place so much. 
 It pleased me exceedingly. 
 
 How about Haunay and the Dreadnought ? I am 
 in correspondence with Home, about some articles 
 that I think he will do very well indeed. Have you 
 told Morloy about the Phantom Ship ? 
 
 I should like a day or so to consider about the 
 advertising. In the meantime go on as at present, 
 and don't alter the arrangement. Why is it not (as 
 agreed] across the page in the Examiner ? It is not 
 unwise, I suppose, to speak of those matters in the 
 
 * It appeared on August 9th. 
 
 t The " Child's History of England," by Dickens, was appearing in House- 
 hold Words.
 
 02 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1851 
 
 Row ? ? ? I don't wonder at Punch falling ; for any- 
 thing so bad, I suppose, never was done. But H. W. 
 really is so good, that it is hardly a parallel case. 
 Never mind. "We must stand to our guns in the 
 most indomitable manner, and make it better yet. I 
 have always had an instinctive feeling against the 
 Exhibition, of a faint, inexplicable sort. I have a 
 great confidence in its being a correct one somehow 
 or other perhaps it was a foreshadowing of its 
 bewilderment of the public. My apprehension and 
 prediction is, that they will come out of it at last, 
 with that feeling of boredom and lassitude (to say 
 nothing of having spent their money) that the re- 
 action will not be as wholesome and vigorous and 
 quick, as folks expect. 
 
 When do you go to Paris ? I can't remember. 
 And by what train ? And when do you come back ? 
 Grammar-school paper returned herewith. 
 
 GUILD. 
 
 Of course Costello's * idea about postponing the 
 next night is simply frenzy. 
 
 What I want to be able to do at the meeting is to 
 be able to say, " At such a time I propose such a trip 
 at such another time such another trip at such 
 another time, such another. Derby V Have you 
 made any enquiries about Derby say, for April ? 
 Paxton f is the man. 
 
 Keep in view the making of the house on Monday 
 night by the Company, if need for it. 
 
 * Dudley Costcllo was one of the actors in the Guild perforrnaiices and a 
 contributor to House/mid Words. 
 
 f Sir Joseph 1'axton, the creator of the Crystal Palace, was the Duke of 
 Devonshire's agent and chief gardener at Gliatsworth.
 
 1851] A WOULD-BE CONTRIBUTOR. 03 
 
 General Botheration. 
 
 It is impossible to go on with that unfortunate 
 
 Mr. . I met him in the street the last time I 
 
 was in town, and told him that if I could ever give 
 him anything to do, I would. But that I saw no 
 means or opening. 
 
 Pray explain to him that his condition can have 
 nothing to do with him in the character of a con- 
 tributor as between us and the public that whatever 
 goes into the Journal goes in for its own sake, and 
 not through any interest of any sort otherwise I 
 should make contributors of a legion of clients, 
 including all my poor relations. 
 
 I think this is all at present. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 P.S. To my large letter. 
 
 Don't lose sight of the " Playing at Parliament." 
 I don't see why you took out that allusion to the 
 Hotel de Londres (in the Chamounix paper), as it is a 
 most respectable house ; and the non-gaming house 
 certainly deserves a lift against the gaming house. 
 It was not quite judicious. What about Ice ? It 
 won't do so well by and by. 
 
 BBOAJDSTAIBS, 
 
 Wednesday night, Thirtieth July, 1851. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I went over to Dover having 
 no other trip on hand to see you. Was at the 
 railway this morning. But could hear nothing of the 
 train you mention in your note. It is no matter. I 
 had nothing of any moment to say- merely wished to 
 pat you on the back. 
 
 I have gone through the No. since returning
 
 64 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1851 
 
 home. Again I observe one or two of the articles in 
 a very slovenly state, both as to the Queen's English 
 and pointing. I have not had time to set them quite 
 right. I wish you would look at the proof I have 
 sent Greening, to understand what I mean. 
 
 The notion I think of trying with Home is a kind 
 of adaptation of an old idea I once had (when I was 
 making my name) of a fanciful and picturesque 
 " Beauties of England and Wales." For I never look 
 at the grimgriffinhoof " Beauties " without thinking 
 what might be done. I have not told Home what 
 my general idea is I have a notion that it might be 
 made a tremendous card for us but I have proposed 
 to him to come down with me to Chatham after the 
 next play (on my way back) and take certain bits of 
 the Dockyard and fortifications.* Don't you think a 
 Series of Places, ivell chosen, and described well, with 
 their peculiarities and popularities thoroughly seized, 
 would be a very promising Series ? And one that 
 people would be particularly likely to identify with me ? 
 
 In haste to save the Post. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 If I found the Chatham paper come out well, I 
 would cast about for a way of making a splash with 
 it, as a new branch of the H. W. Tree. 
 
 BllOADSTAIRS, 
 
 Sunday , Tenth August, 1851. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I send you two slight notes for 
 corrections in proofs I have been reading, t 
 
 * "One Man iu a Dockyard," by Dickens and Home, appeared in Ifmixe- 
 htild Worth, September Gth of this year. I cannot rind, however, that the 
 subject wan pursued as Dickens suggests. 
 
 t For Household Wortlx, August 23rd, in which number the articles
 
 1851] "THE KEY OF THE STREET." G5 
 
 In Hannay's "Dreadnought," for Yankees read 
 Americans. 
 
 In the " May Festival " of Miss Ilowitt (very good) 
 for the Lord's love don't let us have any allusion to 
 the Great Exhibition. Make the first sentence the 
 first paragraph, and then go on with the second para- 
 graph as it stands. Also substitute names for those 
 initial letters, Mr. G. and the like. 
 
 I don't know what to write about, in the absence of 
 your Paris-trip notes, but I think of a paper on 
 " Whole Hogs " Peace Society, Temperance Do., 
 and Vegetarians all of whom have lately been making 
 stupendous fools of themselves. 
 
 Faithfully ever, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 BROADSTAIRS, KENT, 
 
 Thirteenth August, 1851. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I have written to the Author of 
 the " Key of the Street," accepting his paper. It is 
 a very remarkable piece of description, and (although 
 there is little fancy in it) exceedingly superior to the 
 usual run of such writing. I have delicately altered 
 it myself, so as to leave no offence in it whatever. If 
 the young man can write, generally, as well as that, 
 he will be an acquisition to us. I think it quite good 
 enough for a first article but we will not put it first, 
 for fear we should spoil him in the beginning. It is 
 sure to tell. Will you send him a Proof ? George 
 A. Sala, 17, Upper Wellington Street.* 
 
 mentioned, as well as an article by Dickens entitled " Whole Hogs," 
 appeared. Dickens used that term to imply misdirected effort inspired by 
 wrong-headed zeal (see letter of September 25th, 1854). 
 * The article appeared September 6th. 
 
 D.E. F
 
 66 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1851 
 
 I expect the proof of "Whole Hogs" to-morrow 
 morning, and will send it back by return. 
 
 I am now going at once to do the " Flight to 
 France." I think I shall call it merely " A Flight " * 
 which will be a good name for a fanciful paper. 
 Let me have your notes by return. Don't fail. 
 
 Can you give me any facts about Waste of money 
 at Chatham ? If so do. 
 
 Miss Martineau all right. Send Howitt f his proof 
 to correct. 
 
 You will find (I think) that my other half's invita- 
 tion refers to next month when I hope you will be 
 better able to accept it. 
 
 GUILD. 
 Lemon will look into all those matters. 
 
 MYSELF. 
 
 I wish, when you can, you would take an oppor- 
 tunity of seeing our friend the Eegistrar of Merchant 
 Seamen, and ask him from me whether he is ever 
 acquainted with the individual characters of Australian 
 Emigrant Ships and their Discipline, and could say to 
 me, (this is with a view to Miss Coutts's Home) such 
 a Ship going to sail at such a time, is a good one- 
 Captain may be trusted. If he has such means of 
 knowledge, and would favour me by communicating 
 them (of course in confidence) he could render me 
 just the help we want and do a great deal of good. 
 
 Will you send Callaghan twice a week to Devon- 
 
 * It appeared August 30th. 
 
 f William Howitt (1792 1879), poet, novelist and descriptive writer, 
 mainly in collaboration with his wife, Mary Howitt. He went to Australia 
 with It. H. Home in 1852.
 
 1851] TITLES IN ENGLAND. 67 
 
 shire Terrace to see whether there are in the [? any] 
 letters in the hall or in the garden letter box. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 BROADSTAIRS, KENT, 
 
 Twenty -Second August, 1851. 
 Friday. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS: I want the enclosed change 
 made in the " Work of the World." * 
 
 The introduction to " Soldiers' Wives " f must be 
 entirely re-written, and should be a plain and earnest 
 representation of an obvious impropriety. Pray take 
 out of the correspondent's part the message about 
 11 quivering at the smell of gin" which makes me 
 shudder from head to foot, in its unspeakable badness. 
 
 " The Whitsuntide Festival " is so horribly maudlin 
 and washy, that nothing can be done with it. 
 
 I want a great paper done, on the distribution of 
 Titles in England. It would be a very remarkable 
 thing to take the list of the House of Peers, the list 
 of Baronets and Knights, and (without personality) 
 divide the more recent titles into classes and ascertain 
 what they were given for. How many chemists, how 
 many men of Science, how many writers, how many 
 aldermen. 
 
 How much intellect represented. 
 
 How much imagination. 
 
 How much learning. 
 
 How much expression of the great progress of the 
 country. How much of Kailway construction, of 
 Electric Telegraph discovery, of improvements in 
 machinery, of any sort of contribution to the happiness 
 
 * By Morley, Household Words, September 13th. 
 f House/told Words, September 6th (chip). 
 
 F 2
 
 G8 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1851 
 
 of mankind. How much soldiering. How much 
 Law. 
 
 I think this well done, would make a prodigious 
 impression. And if you can get a powerful array of 
 the facts together, plainly stated for my use, I will do 
 the Paper, and (I feel confident) with great advantage 
 to us, and to the question. 
 
 What is Brown's address ? Is he Commodore or 
 what ? Tell me and I will write to him. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 BEOADSTAIRS, KENT, 
 
 Monday, -September Sixth, 1851. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS: Let me have a note of what 
 you propose for the next No. reserving the " History 
 of England " for the No. afterwards. Let us have the 
 best Nos. now, that we possibly can have. Also let 
 me see a made-up Proof. 
 
 Morley's "Gold"* requires looking over, for a 
 little carelessness here and there the repetition of 
 buts and howevers, &c. 
 
 In Home's " Ballooning," f always insert " Mr." 
 before " Green." Also insert " Mr." before " Poole," 
 and call him the well-known Author. At the end of 
 the third paragraph from the commencement, instead 
 of " fanatical sentence was carried into execution," 
 read " Sentence of the Holy Catholic Church was 
 carried into Christian execution." 
 
 I think of deciding to return to town on the 20th 
 
 perhaps remaining a week or so at the office, before 
 
 I remove my furniture, and restore the Second Floor 
 
 * Household Words, October 18th. 
 f Household Words, October 25th.
 
 1851] THE GUILD. C9 
 
 room. Therefore, any time after that, (you getting 
 up in the meanwhile all the preliminary part of the 
 subject) you may appoint with the Pawnbroker. On 
 Saturday the 25th we had better dine at the office 
 with Morley, Home, and (I suppose) Forster to 
 decide upon the form and idea of the Christmas No. 
 I think it would be well to let Morley and Horrie 
 know beforehand what we are going to meet for ; as 
 they might then have some suggestion to make. On 
 second thoughts Monday the 27th might be better. 
 The Saturday might be required for the Pawnbroker. 
 
 In lt The London Tavern," * dele " the actor," after 
 " Mr. Macready." 
 
 I wish Forster to try the marking of the Extracts. 
 I write to him to that effect, and inform him that you 
 will let him know ivlien it must always be done. 
 
 GUILD. 
 
 I return Proofs of the bills, now to be referred to 
 Mr. Chute. 
 
 Will you write Webster a note, asking for Miss 
 Young and Mr. and Mrs. Coe on the Monday, Tues- 
 day, and Wednesday ? 
 
 I have not yet got Coe's Property List, and conse- 
 quently cannot instruct Mr. Chute, as to the Furniture 
 we shall want hired. 
 
 I have written to the Secretary of the Great 
 Western. 
 
 Nathan's bill, I will look over and refer to Mark. 
 
 PERSONAL. 
 
 I have told the Gardener to see you, and you will 
 explain to him exactly what I want done at Tavistock 
 
 * By Hannay and Wills, Household Word*, October 18th.
 
 70 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1851 
 
 House. He will then make an estimate of the probable 
 cost, and send it to me. On a separate piece of paper, 
 I make a rough plan, which I hope you may compre- 
 hend without difficulty. 
 
 Faithfully always, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 I have told the Gardener, in writing to him for his 
 estimate, that punctuality and dispatch are conditions 
 on which I always insist. Will you bear testimony to 
 him that I usually am in earnest on these heads ? 
 
 BROADSTAIRS, 
 
 Twenty -seventh September, 1851. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I send this by Topping who 
 comes to town, partly for H. W. and partly for me, and 
 whose costs and charges I shall divide between the 
 two concerned. 
 
 I have gone through Mr. Sala's paper, and have cut 
 a great deal out, and made it compact and telling. I 
 wish you would see him and tell him that I have kept 
 it as close as I could to his title not because the 
 omitted parts were bad (indeed they are very good) 
 but because they refer to used-up aspects of the sub- 
 ject. It had better go into the next No.* 
 
 There is nobody about us whom we can use, in his 
 way, more advantageously than this young man. It 
 will be exceedingly desirable to set him on some sub- 
 jects. I will endeavour to think of a few, suited to 
 him. Suggest to him Saturday night in London, or 
 London Markets Newport Market, Tottenham Court 
 Road, Whitechapel Road (where there are the most 
 extraordinary men holding forth on Saturday night 
 
 * " The Foreign Invasion," by Sala, appeared October llth.
 
 1851] SUBJECTS. 71 
 
 about Corn Plaister the most extraordinary things 
 sold, near Whitechapel workhouse the strangest 
 Shows and the wildest cheap Johns) the New Cut, 
 &c., &c., &c. I think he would make a capital paper 
 out of it. 
 
 I enclose a curious chip from Peter Cunningham. 
 
 Also a note and cutting from Jerrold. You might 
 get hold of the man. Mr. Sala would do him capitally. 
 Scott of the Advertiser will give you any information 
 that he possesses, if you ask in my name. 
 
 I want Miss Jeivsbury's * paper. I must read it 
 myself, and write to her. 
 
 Topping returns early to-morrow morning. If he 
 should not find you when he brings this, he shall 
 arrange with Callaghan that he will call at the office 
 for anything you have to send, to-morrow morning at 8. 
 
 I have not thought of anything yet. But I hope 
 to cudgel something out of myself yet. 
 
 Faithfully always, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 BROADSTAIRS, KENT, 
 
 Monday ', Twenty-ninth September, 1851. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : The " sparkling " Muse has not 
 been at all propitious. I didn't like " Eising with the 
 Subject " put it away. Began another paper called 
 the " Steam Soliloquy" didn't like that either, and 
 put it away too. To-day I have begun another, called 
 " Our School " t like that better, but don't know 
 when I may be able to finish it doubt doing so, 
 tomorrow, for next No. can't say may be may 
 not. 
 
 * Miss Gerahline Endsor Jewsbury (1812 1880), the friend of Mrs. 
 Carlyle. The paper referred to was probably " A Curious Page of Family 
 History," in Household Worth of December 6th. 
 
 f Household Words, October llth.
 
 72 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1851 
 
 I have had such an affectionate note of invitation 
 from the Duke [of Devonshire], that I can't help 
 running down to Chatsworth howsoever short the time 
 I can spare for the purpose. I shall go down on 
 Thursday, and return on Saturday. If you have no 
 engagement in the way, let us dine at the office at 
 J past 5 on Wednesday next the day after tomorrow. 
 We can dine, arrange the No. and break up the 
 meeting, in two or three hours. I shall want the 
 evening after 9 o'clock and cannot make any other 
 appointment. 
 
 The Guild matters we will dispose of on Wednesday. 
 
 The paper you mention, is (as I told you, but you 
 have forgotten) in the left hand drawer of my writing 
 table at the office. The case has been examined, but 
 no such note can be found here. 
 
 Faithfully ever, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 BROADSTAIRS, KENT, 
 
 Thursday, Ninth October, 1851. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Perhaps you will answer the 
 enclosed letters. To Miss Bunbury, I should be 
 inclined to say that we don't want her papers, and 
 that I cannot undertake the responsibility of mediat- 
 ing in such a matter with any other Editor. Mr. 
 Keith you will perhaps appoint to see yourself. If 
 his proposal involves my sitting to anybody, acceptance 
 is quite out of the question. 
 
 Market Gardens near London, is a fine subject. 
 Chadwick can open the way to a first-rate Market 
 Gardener, if you will consult him in my name. This 
 is another subject you might get ready by the time 
 of my return.
 
 1851] ELEGANCE OF FANCY. 73 
 
 I purpose being at the office between 1 and 2 on 
 Saturday. If Erasmus Wilson * should call, will you 
 see him? I understand he has something to com- 
 municate. 
 
 Mrs. 's story will be very good now, I think. 
 
 It would be as easy (almost) to write one, as I found 
 it to get point and terseness out of such an infernal 
 hash. 
 
 I think I have no more to say, today except that 
 the Gardener has sent a very business-like, prompt, 
 plain, and not unreasonable estimate. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 BKOADSTAIES, 
 
 Thursday, Sixteenth October, 1851. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I send the proof of " The 
 Child's History " by the cheap train. 
 
 I have been looking over the back Numbers. 
 Wherever they fail, it is in wanting elegance of fancy. 
 They lapse too much into a dreary, arithmetical, 
 Cocker-cum-Walkingame dustyness that is powerfully 
 depressing. 
 
 Faithfully always, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 [Wills to Dickens. Answer to the preceding letter. 
 From Wills's " Letter Book."] 
 
 Seventeenth October, 1851. 
 
 MY DEAR DICKENS : The only fair way of judging 
 of the contents of Household Words is, I think, to 
 
 * Afterwards Sir Erasmus Wilson (1809 1884), dermatologist, Egypto- 
 logist and philanthropist. He brought Cleopatra's Needle to England at a 
 cost of 10,000.
 
 74 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1851 
 
 compare them with those of other publications of its 
 class. From such a comparison we come out 
 brilliantly in the very excellence which you say we 
 want fancy. It is universally acknowledged that 
 subjects of an uninviting nature are treated as a 
 rule in Household Words in a more playful, ingenious 
 and readable manner than similar subjects have been 
 hitherto presented in other weekly periodicals ; but to 
 such a rule there must necessarily be large exceptions 
 in all works which demand a certain space to be filled 
 by a certain time every week. ISTo one, not even 
 yourself (as you said the other day) * can sparkle to 
 order, especially writers who have only an occasional 
 sparkle in them. As to the " Elegance of Fancy " 
 you desiderate, that, I apprehend, is simply impossible 
 as the prevailing characteristic of twenty-four pages 
 of print published fifty-two times a year. Elegance 
 of fancy cannot be thrown broadcast over such an 
 acreage of letter-press ; although, happily for Household 
 Words (and for Household Words alone) it can be 
 sprinkled over its pages. If you could regularly see 
 and go over each sheet before it is put to press there 
 would be a very thick sprinkling of the excellence in 
 which you say Household Words is deficient. When 
 the number has had the benefit of your revision the 
 touches you have given to it have improved it to a 
 degree that has seemed to me marvellous. I was 
 delighted with your proposal of coming from Broad- 
 stairs every Wednesday, to give 'a finishing touch, for 
 a reason personal to myself. It would be most 
 gratifying to me if my own judgment could be 
 brought to some corrective test. I should go on with 
 more confidence because with less uncertainty. I 
 
 * See, ante, letter of September 29tb.
 
 1851] THE CHRISTMAS NUMBER. 75 
 
 have my own notions of what such a publication as 
 Household Words should be ; and, although I have 
 good reason to suppose from the latitude of confidence 
 you give me, that my notions square with your own 
 generally, yet I cannot (less perhaps than many other 
 men) be always right ; and it would lift a great weight 
 of responsibility from me if everything which passes 
 into the columns of Household Words had the systematic 
 benefit of another judgment before publication. 
 Believe me ever faithfully yours, 
 
 W. EL WILLS. 
 
 TAVISTOCK HOUSE, 
 
 Eighth December, 1851. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I can't begin the Xmas article 
 and am going out to walk, after vain trials.* 
 
 I send you some papers that I have, and the book 
 from Willis's (did you pay for it ?) out of which I 
 think Morley can make a good article as to the Science 
 of our ancestors. I don't agree with you about Law's 
 article. Eeading it this morning before going to 
 return it, I thought it sensible and useful and quite 
 in our way. I send it to you with a new name, to be 
 set up. 
 
 It seems to me that what the Xmas No. wants, is 
 something with no detail in it, but a tender fancy 
 that shall hit a great many people. This is what I 
 am trying for. If I can get it, it will not be lengthy. 
 
 I am much obliged to you for the Chancery informa- 
 tion. I had got to that Number of Solicitors by a 
 sort of instinct I suppose but had modestly limited 
 my costs to from forty to fifty thousand pounds. 
 
 * Dickens's contribution to the Christmas number this ye.ir was the 
 article entitled " What Christmas Is As We Grow Older."
 
 76 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1851 
 
 I have not received a proof of Sydney's article 
 intact and uncut. Let me have it. 
 
 Faithfully always, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 Thursday Night, Tenth December, 1851. 
 
 " You are quite right my Dear "Wills " (as a friend 
 of ours would say) * about St. Michael's Mount. I 
 had associated with the place in Cornwall, for which I 
 have a romantic tenderness, another little historical 
 passage and so firmly settled in my own mind that 
 this passage occurred there, that I take it very ill it 
 didn't. Your suggestion fired (in half an hour) a 
 train of damp gunpowder, which blew my belief to 
 shivers. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 1852. 
 
 The provincial performances of Lytton's comedy on 
 behalf of the Guild of Literature and Art continued 
 this year, Dickens being still the master-spirit. Three 
 summer months he spent at Dover, and then crossed 
 the Channel on a short visit to Boulogne. This was a 
 very strenuous year for him. He was busy with 
 u Bleak House "; was dictating "The Child's His- 
 tory," which was continuing in Household Words ; and 
 was both editing that journal and writing various 
 articles for it. 
 
 * Who this friend was I cannot say with certainty, but I incline (and 
 Mr. H. F. Dickens, K.C., agrees with me) to think it was John Forster. He 
 appears to have used this "My Dear" style of allocution. See the letter 
 of April 24th, 18.H. Dickens quotes these words again in the letter of 
 August 12th, 1852.
 
 1852] STANDING FOE PARLIAMENT. 77 
 
 In the first letter (February 28th), he refers to some 
 suggestion which had been made to him to stand for 
 Parliament. Such proposals were more than once 
 repeated, but he never seriously entertained them 
 (see "Life," III., 460). 
 
 The " dear friend," to whose death he refers in the 
 letter of August 1st, was Mr. E. Watson, of Rocking- 
 ham Castle, Northants. Dickens had first met him 
 and his wife at Lausanne in 1846, and a very warm 
 friendship had sprung up between them. 
 
 TAVISTOCK HOUSE, 
 
 Tiventy- eighth February , 1852. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : These people have really 
 managed the expenses most admirably, and deserve 
 our best consideration. 
 
 I immediately replied to the enclosed about the 
 Light Buoys. I wish you would go down, see the 
 nature of the thing, and make an appointment for 
 Home, unless it seems to you something that you and 
 I could decidedly do better together. If Home does 
 it, tell him that the question of the Trinity House, or 
 the Corporation, has no need to be touched at all 
 that we want a piece of good description. 
 
 Miss Zornlevin, or whatever her name is have you 
 asked about her ? Miss Coutts* is coming here this 
 evening, and I should like to be able to give her some 
 information, or Miss N.'s address, or something. 
 
 In the Parliamentary matter it is impossible that 
 I could go into it with the new book in hand. If I 
 had only H. W. I might possibly make the dash, 
 
 * Afterwards the Baroness Burdett-Coutts. Dickens had a high regard 
 for her, and often helped her in her charitable undertakings.
 
 78 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1852 
 
 but I should be worried to death if I did it now. 
 And I don't know but I am far more useful (and 
 certainly far more happy) in my own sphere of 
 service than among the bellowers and prosers of 
 St. Stephen's. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 TAVISTOCK HOUSE, 
 
 Saturday, Thirteenth March, 1852. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I am happy to say that Mrs. 
 Dickens is just confined with a brilliant boy of 
 unheard-of dimensions,* and is wonderfully well. 
 
 Will you send Callaghan round with the enclosed, 
 and give him the money to pay for their insertion. 
 
 And don't you think Home and Morley had best 
 dine with us on Thursday, with a view to the possible 
 collision of ideas ? 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 [To the above letter Wills has added the following 
 note : 
 
 " FAME ! 
 
 " When John 7 (Callaghan didn't go) called with the 
 notice at the Morning Advertiser office, pointing out 
 that no newspaper ever charged Mr. Charles Dickens 
 for inserting such announcements, the clerk replied, 
 ' Charles Dickens ? Charles Dickens ? What house 
 does he keep ? ' "] 
 
 * His seventh son and last child, Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens. He 
 was nicknamed " Flemish" or "the Plornishghentcr." 
 
 f John was Dickens's servant. His name occurs frequently in the letters.
 
 1852] "HOPE, AN EPIGRAM." 79 
 
 TAVISTOCK HOUSE, 
 
 Twenty-ninth April, 1852. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : We forgot to speak, yesterday, 
 about the begging letters. I send with this a black 
 surtout. That and 2 will be sufficient, I think, 
 for the Rathbone Place man. 
 
 2 for Macpherson, the orphan. 
 
 1 for the Needlewoman. 
 
 And after this, I really must pull up. For I have 
 no funds but my own in hand or in reversion ; and 
 I get these letters by hundreds not counting those 
 that you get. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 TAVISTOCK HOUSE, 
 
 Third June, 1852. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : A hasty note, for I have been 
 at work the whole day, and am (for my sins) engaged 
 
 to dine with . 
 
 H. W. 
 
 I went over the proof. I could not conceive what 
 " Hope, An Epigram,"* meant, and I declare to you 
 I have not the least idea now ! Having nothing to 
 put in its place, I could not disturb the Make-up 
 by taking it out. 
 
 GUILD. 
 
 You are doing nobly ! ! ! The York idea is a most 
 admirable one, and will keep us quite right in any 
 case. We must get at least another Thousand 
 Pounds clear. 
 
 * This appeared in Household Words, June 12th, but no name is attached 
 to it iu the office book.
 
 80 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1852 
 
 HORNE'S DINNER.* 
 
 We shall be 10, I think. Coote is coming as a 
 guest and a piano. I would on no account intro- 
 duce strangers such as Mr. Hunt with so small a 
 party. I know it would never do : most especially 
 with Home, under the circumstances. I have made a 
 tardy exception in favor of Evans as one of the 
 Proprietors of H. W. 
 
 Place the Albion our Albion time 6 for \ past. 
 
 Again let me sound the loud timbrel in your 
 Guild praises. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 I am not quite sure of your Cork calculations. We 
 will discuss before I answer the letter. 
 
 Fieldf I postponed until next Wednesday. It was 
 of little use after all, my going alone and horribly 
 boreing. 
 
 DOVER, 
 
 Thursday, Twenty-Ninth July, 1852, 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS: Miss Coutts writes me this 
 morning, that she will willingly assist this case if it 
 should turn out to be perfectly genuine. Will you, 
 on receipt of this, write a letter to the applicant, 
 stating that you are in my confidence, and making an 
 appointment with him not delaying it, as the matter 
 seems to press. The thing is, to have such proofs 
 and references and documents or something, from him, 
 as shall render deception perfectly impossible. The 
 thing to be said to him, is, that the case is beyond my 
 
 * Probably a dinner giren to Home before his departure for Australia, 
 f Inspector Field, of the Detective Police. See letters of September 17th, 
 1850, note.
 
 1852] THE DEATH OP A FRIEND. 81 
 
 means, but that I have an affluent and generous friend 
 to whom I think I can recommend it usefully, if it be 
 thoroughly proved. Bear in mind that he may be a 
 begging letter writer of the worst suit. 
 
 If you will send me your account of him by any 
 convenient means you like, I will lose no time in 
 communicating with Miss Coutts again. But we 
 must be thoroughly sure of the facts before I can 
 take any money from her. 
 
 The Sunderlarid bill (if we play there) and like- 
 wise the Liverpool bill, I must see a proof of before 
 they are issued. Two parts will have to be changed 
 in each. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 10, CAMDEN CRESCENT, DOVER, 
 
 Sunday, First August, 1852. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS: You have anticipated how 
 deeply grieved I have been by the loss of my dear 
 friend.* I had heard from Mrs. Watson's brother of 
 his lying at the point of death, before it was mentioned 
 in the paper. He dined with us this day three weeks, 
 full of projects for future happiness in the house 
 where we have been so merry, and which is now so 
 desolate. I loved him in my heart, as one of the 
 truest and most affectionate of men. 
 
 I am very much obliged to you for taking so much 
 trouble about that afflicted clergyman. I have now 
 reported favorably of his case, and have no doubt that 
 you may make a final appointment with him at the 
 office, for Wednesday afternoon. 
 
 * See Introduction to this year. 
 D.E. G
 
 82 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1852 
 
 H. W. 
 
 I thought our " Honourable Friend "* would be a 
 success. It seems to be making a great noise. 
 
 I don't agree with you as to the " Angel" sketch, 
 which is very curious and good. I have accepted it 
 by itself, but not as one of a series. 
 
 The Liverpool bill I have altered. As to Sunder- 
 land (supposing that performance to come off) Costello 
 will write to you directly (at my request) to say if he 
 can play there. If yes, the bill will require no 
 alteration. If no, then Coe for Lord Lof tus in that bill 
 (Smart, Mr. Miller), and Stone for Mr. Nightingale. 
 
 I shall be glad to know as soon as possible about 
 Sunderland, with a view to Lord Carlisle. 
 
 Ever faithfully yours, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 [The first paragraph of the following letter is printed 
 in "Letters," III., 137, as the first paragraph of a 
 letter dated "1, Junction Parade, Brighton, Thursday 
 night, 4th March, 1853." The rest of the letter there 
 printed is taken from one written on the tenth March, 
 1853 (aid. post).'] 
 
 10, CAMDEN CRESCENT, DOVER, 
 
 Twelfth August, 1852, Thursday. 
 
 H. W. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I am sorry, but Brutus sacrifices 
 unborn children of his own as well as those of other 
 people the " Sorrows of Childhood," long in type and 
 long a mere mysterious name, must come out. The 
 paper really is, like the celebrated ambassadorial 
 appointment, " too bad." 
 
 * By Dickens, Household IF ~ordx, July 31st.
 
 1852] W. MOY THOMAS. 83 
 
 Sitting down this morning to Morley's " Boys to 
 Mend,"* I couldn't take to it on the short notice, and 
 thought of the enclosed instead. You shall have the 
 rest (about three slips) by tomorrow's post. 
 
 I will also go over the No. and send it at the same 
 time. 
 
 That Hop subject of last year. Is Sala in town ? 
 He might do it very well, if he be. The time is 
 coming on again. If he be not in town, could Thomas f 
 be got up to it ? 
 
 GUILD. 
 
 I am delighted to hear such cheering accounts. 
 
 After reading the enclosed letter from Coote, will 
 you instruct Johnson to get the music mentioned in 
 it, and take it down when we all go. 
 
 You are " quite right my dear "Wills," about 
 Sloman and his extra man. 
 
 ASPECTS OF NATURE. 
 
 We have had a tremendous sea here steam packets 
 in the harbour, frantic, and dashing their brains out 
 
 against the stone walls. 
 
 ART. 
 
 Stone harassing himself, with doubts whether 
 he shall have Mrs. Stone to Manchester also with 
 Charles XII. 
 
 * " Boys to Mend," by C. D. and Morley, appeared in Household Words, 
 September llth. 
 
 f This was William Moy Thomas, who had become a contributor in 1851. 
 lie was on the staff of the Athenaeum. From 1868 1'JOl he was on the staff 
 of the Daily News, for a great part of the time as dramatic critic. He 
 died in 1910, aged 82. 
 
 J See letter of December 10th, 1851. 
 
 This paragraph is printed in " Letters," III., 141, as part of a letter of 
 August 7th, 1853, from Boulogne. 
 
 G 2
 
 84 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1852 
 
 EMINENT AUTHOR. 
 
 Women in blue veils, turning out at 6 A.M. and 
 waylaying him as he goes to the Shower Bath. 
 
 DOVER THEATRE. 
 Open. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 HOTEL DES BAINS, BOULOGNE, 
 
 Tuesday, Fifth October, 1852. 
 
 H. W. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I don't intend to come to town 
 as long as I remain here. I thought you understood 
 this from our conversations at Dover. I am curious 
 to see Home's MS., and hope it will come out well. 
 
 I observe that Tauchnitz's bill appears to be due 
 today. I enclose it. Will you pay it to my account 
 at Coutts's, enquiring whether its non-presentation 
 today affects it, and explaining how it is. 
 
 GUILD. 
 
 I would certainly proceed according to Phillips's 
 advice. 
 
 If you got 's account from Henry's statement or 
 
 in Henry's writing, don't pay it. I will write to him 
 myself in that case, assuming that it is an unauthorized 
 proceeding. I think it monstrous, and doubt whether 
 in any case we ought to pay it without protest, out of 
 money that is not ours. Upon my word I do not 
 think it would be an endurable item to place on record 
 in the accounts. Conceive twelve men doing the like. 
 "To one hundred and forty -four lace cravats, and 72 
 pairs of lace ruffles, 74. 8. 0. Washing, 12. 12. 0."
 
 1852] "A DIGGER'S DIARY." 85 
 
 WEATHER. 
 Very stormy, and a prodigious sea running. 
 
 " BLEAK HOUSE."* 
 Just begun. 
 
 Remembrances to Mrs. Wills aod you from my t\vo 
 ladies. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 HOTEL DBS BAINS, BOULOGNE, 
 Thursday, Seventh October, 1852. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I send you the proof of the No. 
 
 Taboo (for the present, certainly) the Poem. I 
 think it very bad. 
 
 See to the dashes in the article on " Epitaphs, "f 
 They are at present innumerable. " Graves and 
 Epitaphs " would be a better name. 
 
 I have been very carefully considering the question 
 of Home's " Diary."J It is clear to me that nobody 
 might, could, would or should understand what it 
 means, if we were to print this portion by itself, quite 
 ignorant of what is to follow or when it is to come. 
 It would never do without something at least some- 
 thing of the "Voyage," either in the same Number 
 or in the following one. Therefore, at any risk of 
 Howitt's MS. making its appearance in print some- 
 where, hold this portion back, and insert " Penny 
 Wisdom " (which is very interesting and good) in its 
 stead. 
 
 * The first number of " Bleak House " had appeared in the previous March. 
 The last (a double) number appeared in September, 1853. 
 
 f " Graves and Epitaphs," by Hannay, Household Words, October 16th. 
 
 j R. H. Home had gone to Australia with William Howitt. "A Digger's 
 Diary," by Home, began in Hintsthold Words, January 2'Jth, 1853, and 
 continued intermittently through that year.
 
 8G CHAELES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1852 
 
 I shall be glad to hear whether my general objection 
 has already presented itself to you ? 
 
 Morley's (I suppose) resume of the " Prairie " book 
 is as well done as a paper of that kind can be."* Quite 
 a model. 
 
 The " Babbleton Book Club," very weak. A kind 
 of imbecile thing that seems to want crutches. 
 
 I never heard of such a business altogether, as you 
 unfold in that Morton case. When I met him 
 in Fleet Street, he told me the whole story of the 
 Duel : I know the murderer too. 
 
 Ever yours, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 HOTEL DES BAINS, BOULOGNE, 
 
 Thursday night, Seventh October, 1852. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I think it best, in case of any 
 miscarriage, to advise you that I returned the proof 
 of the next No. in a packet by steamboat from here 
 to Folkestone this afternoon. 
 
 I don't quite understand from your letter what 
 Tauchnitz wants to know. Will you answer him, in 
 English, and give him the explanation he requires 
 for me, in my absence ? 
 
 "The Shot Tower of Waterloo Bridge" ought to 
 make a good article. The Bridge itself bridges of 
 London in general would be a fine subject for Sala, 
 in another article. If the Waterloo Bridge people 
 would give us a little information about the change 
 in their affairs since the Eailroad and would let us 
 lay hold of one of their Night Toll-takers, a very 
 fine thing might perhaps be made of it. I wish you 
 
 * "Picnics in the Prairie," Household Words, October J)th.
 
 1852] POLITICAL MEEKNESS. 87 
 
 would look into the subject, and see whether it will do 
 for me, before you lay Sala on. Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 HOTEL DES BAINS, BOULOGNE, 
 
 Tuesday Twelfth October, 1852. 
 
 H. W. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : The No. to which you refer in 
 your letter of yesterday's date received this morning, 
 has not yet reached me. I will go over it when it comes. 
 
 I have thought of the Christmas No., but not very 
 successfully, because I have been (and still am) con- 
 stantly occupied with " Bleak House." I purpose 
 returning home either on Sunday or Monday, as my 
 work permits, and we will, immediately thereafter, 
 dine at the office and talk it over so that you may 
 get all the men to their work. 
 
 The fault of Prince's* poem, besides its intrinsic 
 meanness as a composition, is, that it goes too glibly 
 with the comfortable idea (of which we have had a 
 great deal too much in England since the Continental 
 commotions) that a man is to sit down and make him- 
 self domestic and meek, no matter what is done to 
 him. It wants a stronger appeal to rulers in general 
 to let men do this, fairly, by governing them thoroughly 
 well. As it stands, it is about the Tract Mark 
 (Dairyman's daughter, &c.) of political morality. 
 And don't think that it is necessary to write down to 
 any part of our audience. I always hold that to be 
 as great a mistake as can be made. 
 
 * This was, probably, John Critchley Prince (1808 1860). He was the 
 son of a Wigan reed-maker for weavers, and worked for some time with his 
 father. Afterwards he kept a small shop in Manchester. In 1S40 he 
 published his first volume of poems, " Hours With the Muses." Four other 
 books cam,e from his pen.
 
 88 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOK. [1852 
 
 I wish you would mention to Thomas,* that I think 
 the paper on " Hops " extremely well done.^ He has 
 quite caught the tone we want, and caught it in the 
 best way. 
 
 In pursuing the Bridge subject, I think it would 
 be advisable to look up the Thames Police. I 
 have a misty notion of some capital papers coming out 
 of it. Will you see to this branch of the tree, among 
 the other branches. 
 
 GUILD. 
 
 I hope Gye didn't let you have Covent Garden ; 
 for the effect of our Proscenium within that one would 
 be so vehemently ludicrous that I think Peek would 
 be grinned out of the field by our own carpenters. 
 
 Talking of whom, I am quite delighted with the 
 idea of Sloman's house. 
 
 MYSELF. 
 
 To Chapman I will write. My impression is that I 
 shall not subscribe to the projected Hood monument, J 
 as I am not at all favourable to such posthumous 
 honours. Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 HOTEL DES BAINS, BOULOGNE, 
 
 Wednesday Niyht, October Thirteenth, 1852. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : The No. coming in after dinner, 
 since my letter was written and posted, I have gone 
 over it. 
 
 I am grievously depressed by it ; it is so exceedingly 
 bad. If you have anything else to put first, don't put 
 
 * Sec Letter of August 12th, 1852, and note. 
 
 { Household Words, October 16th. 
 
 j He did not subscribe to it ; see " Letters," I., 287.
 
 1852] "SPORTING" AMUSEMENTS. 89 
 
 Sala's paper first.* (There is nothing better for a 
 beginning in the No. as it stands, but this is very 
 bad). It is a mistake to think of it as a first article. 
 The article itself is in the main a mistake. Firstly, 
 the subject requires the greatest discretion and 
 nicety of touch. And secondly, it is all wrong and 
 self-contradictory. Nobody can for a moment suppose 
 that "Sporting" amusements are the sports of the 
 PEOPLE the whole gist of the best part of the descrip- 
 tion is to show that they are the amusements of a 
 peculiar and limited class. The greater part of them 
 are at a miserable discount (horse-racing excepted, 
 which has already been sufficiently done in H. W.), 
 and there is no reason for running a-muck at them at 
 all. I have endeavoured to remove much of my 
 objection (and I think have done so), but, both in 
 purpose and in any general address, it is as wide of 
 a first article as anything can well be. It would do 
 best in the opening of the No. 
 
 About " Sunday in Paris " there is no kind of doubt. 
 Take it out. Such a thing as that " Crucifixion," 
 unless it were done in a masterly manner, we have no 
 business to stagger families with. Besides, the name 
 is a comprehensive one, and should include a 
 quantity of fine matter. Lord bless me, what I could 
 write under that head ! 
 
 Strengthen the Number, pray, by anything good you 
 may have. It is a very dreary business as it stands. 
 
 The proofs want a thorough revision. 
 
 In haste, going to bed, 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 * " The Sporting World," Household Words, October 23rd. It appeared 
 as the fourth paper in the number.
 
 90 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1852 
 
 I returned the wretched man's letter evidently 
 mad I know nothing about him. 
 
 I want a name for Miss Martineau's paper. 
 
 " Triumphant Carriages " (or Triumphal)*. 
 
 " Dublin Stoutheartedness." 
 
 " Patience and Prejudice." 
 Take which you like best. 
 
 TAVISTOCK HOUSE, 
 
 Third November, 1852. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Forster wants the book 
 " Ecclesia," in which the ballad is, sent to his chambers 
 for him. Of course he makes out that there is a positive 
 merit in having made the blunder, and that if it really 
 had been the old ballad, his intention would have rather 
 failed upon the whole. I have taken the liberty of 
 assaulting this conclusion between the eyes, and 
 knocking it over heads and heels.f 
 
 1 send with this, the sheet of " Bleak House" paper. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 TAVISTOCK HOUSE, 
 
 Friday, Fifth November, 1852. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Do you think it would be worth 
 while to publish the enclosed, with an alteration here 
 
 * " Triumphant Carriages," Household Words, October 23rd. 
 
 t Tn Household Words of October 30th there was a short article by 
 Forster (" The Reason Why ") in which he had called attention to the 
 Trelawney ballad (" And shall Trelawney die," &c.), and had quoted it 
 in extenso as a genuine old ballad. As a matter of fact only three lines are 
 old. The rest was written by the Rev. R. S. Hawker, Vicar of Morwenstow, 
 in Cornwall, as he himself said, " after much fruitless endeavour to recover 
 the old song, but without the slightest success." He had heard the three 
 lines as "a choral fragment current in Cornwall" in 1824. Mr. Hawker 
 wrote to explain this, and Forster, in a "Chip" in Hmixehold Words of 
 November 20th, admitted (with some qualification) his mistake.! " Ecclesia " 
 was a volume of poems by Mr. Huwker, published in 1840.
 
 1852] SPIRIT RAPPING. 91 
 
 and there, in next "Wednesday week's Number 
 so as just to catch the Funeral ? * I hate the thing 
 myself, but it might go down with a good many. I 
 can't quite decide. "What do you think ? Let me 
 know, and let me have the MS. back, in the course of 
 this morning. The sooner, the better. 
 
 Further, let me see the proof of the No. we did 
 last night, before it goes to press. I have a misgiving 
 that I altered a word in Morley's paper, which I 
 intended to re-alter, but did not. 
 
 In the matter of the rappings, I think a good name 
 for the paper would be " The Ghost of the Cock Lane 
 Ghost."f If Morley looks to that precious business, 
 in the Annual Register, he will find (if I understand 
 your account) that the two spirits are greatly alike. 
 I was thinking that 
 
 " Spirits Far Above Proof " 
 
 would be a good title. But it is a great thing in 
 such a case to shew that the imposition is an old and 
 
 exploded one. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 C. D. 
 
 [The following letter is undated, but it must be later 
 than the preceding letter of November 5th, because in 
 that letter " The Deeds of Wellington " is spoken of 
 as being in MS. whereas in this letter it is mentioned 
 as being in " slip " proof.] 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : You were to have sent me 
 the rapping advertisement, and have forgotten it. 
 
 * The funeral of the Duke of Wellington. A long piece of verse entitled 
 " The Deeds of Wellington" appeared in Household, Words, November 20th. 
 In the Office Book the author's name is entered as " Bennett (Cheiipside)," 
 no doubt W. C. Bennett. 
 
 t By Henry Morley, in the issue of November 20th.
 
 92 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1852 
 
 Therefore you must go over the enclosed slip carefully, 
 before you return it to the Printers, and fill in such 
 blanks as I have indicated in my alterations on the 
 margin. I will go through the No. tonight at 7, 
 either here or at the office as you prefer or if you 
 will dine here at \ past 5, better still, and we will 
 do it after dinner. Let me know. 
 
 Faithfully ever, 
 C.D. 
 
 I have just got the enclosed from Lord Normanby's 
 brother at Florence. There is not much in it, but 
 the subject the Bible prisoners, man and wife 
 attracts so much attention just now, that I think it 
 worth a push to get it into this Number.* 
 
 Will you send the enclosed slip of " The Deeds of 
 Wellington " to Mr. Bennett, 65, Cheapside, saying 
 that I have not time to write to suggest any slight 
 alterations, but will he correct and return it, and if he 
 should observe a line halting anywhere, make it bolder 
 if he can. 
 
 [This letter, to which Wills has prefixed the note 
 " A curiosity from him. No date, no signature," is 
 printed in " Letters," I., 299, at the beginning of the 
 1853 letters. I place it among the 1852 letters 
 because there is a story by Miss Martineau, " The 
 Deaf Playmate's Story," in the Christmas number of 
 that year, and there is none by her in the Christmas 
 number of 1853.] 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I don't think there's enough in 
 Thomas's story. 
 
 * "An Interview with the Madiai," Hottsehold Words, November 20th. 
 Francesco and Kosa Madiai were imprisoned in Tuscany for possessing a Bible.
 
 1852] A MIND ON SPIKES. 93 
 
 Miss Craik's * (an improvement) will do perfectly 
 for one of our ordinary Nos. We won't put it in the 
 Xmas No. if we can get a better. Her imitation of 
 me is too glaring I never saw anything so curious. 
 She takes the very words in which Esther [Summerson] 
 speaks, without seeming to know it. 
 
 I have not a shadow of a doubt about Miss 
 Martineau's story. It is certain to tell. I think it 
 very affecting admirably done a fine plain purpose 
 in it quite a singular novelty. For the last story in 
 the Xmas No. it will be great. I couldn't wish for a 
 better. 
 
 Mrs. Gaskell's ghost story, I have got this 
 morning have not yet read. It is long. 
 
 OFFICE OF HOUSEHOLD WORDS. 
 A Weekly Journal conducted by Charles Dickens. 
 
 No. 16, WELLINGTON STREET NORTH, STRAND, 
 
 Christmas Eve, 1852. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I have gone carefully through 
 the Number an awful one for the amount of correction 
 required and have made everything right. If my 
 mind could have been materialised, and drawn along 
 the tops of all the spikes on the outside of the Queen's 
 Bench prison, it could not have been more agonized 
 
 than by ; which for imbecility, carelessness, 
 
 slovenly composition, relatives without antecedents, 
 universal chaos, and one absorbing whirlpool of jolter- 
 headedness, beats anything in print and paper I have 
 ever " gone at " in my life. 
 
 I shall come and see how you are tomorrow. 
 
 * " Berthalde Reimer's Voice," by Miss Gcorgiana M. Craik, appeared in 
 Household Words, February 12th, 1853.
 
 94 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1852 
 
 Meantime everything is in perfect trim in these parts, 
 and I have sent down to Stacey to come here and top 
 up with a final interview before I go. 
 
 Just after I had sent the Messenger off to you 
 yesterday concerning the toll-taker Memoranda, the 
 other idea came into my head and, in the most 
 obliging manner, came out of it. 
 
 Ever faithfully yours, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 Here is Mark perpetually flitting about Brydges 
 Street and hovering in the neighbourhood with a 
 veil of secresy drawn down over his chin, so ludicrously 
 transparent, that I can't help laughing while he looks 
 at me. 
 
 TAVISTOCK HOUSE, 
 
 Wednesday, Twenty -ninth December , 1852. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : It is evident that Home (not- 
 withstanding his outfit of tent, cart, and what not) 
 has abandoned the Digging idea, and already begun 
 to live upon the reserved Fund sent out to insure his 
 capability of return. I am afraid this looks un- 
 promising. 
 
 One of his poems very indifferent. The other (a 
 Christmas piece) must of course stand over now. 
 
 I am concerned to see that he supposes the arrange- 
 ment with Mrs. Home never to have been discontinued. 
 I think it would be best if you would send for her 
 and see her on the subject ; seriously representing to 
 her that her secresy and reserve have rendered it 
 impossible for either you or me to approach the 
 question, or at all to divine what has been in her 
 mind respecting it. I have not the least objection to 
 your saying this as strongly as you like, and repre-
 
 1852] MANY OCCUPATIONS. 95 
 
 senting to her that you know you express my opinion. 
 The arrangement I suppose must be resumed. She is 
 staying with Miss Gillies at Highgate and was here 
 the day before yesterday. If it will give you no 
 inconvenience to see her, don't delay. She may 
 otherwise write to Home with the matter in abeyance, 
 and involve us in the Devil's own confusion (Here I 
 fall upon my knees, and ask your fair Secretary's 
 pardon for my intemperate language). 
 
 I was obliged to go yesterday, to an Annual one 
 o'clock dinner to poor people, given by Miss Coutts, 
 which detained me later than I expected and prevented 
 my calling on you. Today I have to get to work on 
 the Child's History, and afterwards to go to Shepherd's 
 Bush, and after that to preside at the dinner which 
 you ought to assist at. The whole of the perform- 
 ances to conclude with a whitlow on my right 
 forefinger, which makes it difficult for me to write, to 
 dress myself, to brush my hair, take my bath, shake 
 hands with anybody, or do anything. 
 
 I number all the papers I send, to prevent you 
 falling into pits of confusion. 
 
 No. 1 is from one Caudle to whom I have a dim 
 idea that we gave some money for Emigration 
 purposes. The two papers (newspapers) along with 
 it, are, I suppose, the papers to which he refers. 
 There is nothing to be done on that head, as I take it. 
 
 No. 2 are Murray's hints.* I see no objection to 
 using chapter 5 as final Hints, and not using chapter 4 
 at all. Please to observe that these chapter numerals 
 belong to his MSS., and have nothing to do with my 
 present indexing for your clearer understanding. 
 
 * "The Roving Englishman," by Grenville Murray, was appearing in 
 Household Words.
 
 96 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1852 
 
 No. 3 is a letter, referring (I suppose) to the nine 
 hundred and ninety-nine thousandth Colonial ass who 
 wanted us to print in H. W. some saw-dusty Literature 
 out of the Port- Something Journal. You may recollect 
 the case. It is needless for me to see the man who 
 writes. So I hand him over to you. 
 
 I don't think I can finish the " Child's History " in 
 one morning, for I have got my favourite ruffian Henry 
 the Eighth to deal with. Will you let me know, by 
 John, your proposed Make-Up for the next No. I 
 don't see, among my proofs, any good first article. 
 " Child's Play " is the smallest beer I ever saw brewed 
 from such strong materials. Don't leave out the 
 " Dirty Old Man." * He is capital. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 1853. 
 
 During a great part of this year Dickens was at 
 work on " Bleak House," which was published in 
 book-form in September. It is curious to note that, 
 in spite of Harold Skimpole, Leigh Hunt was a 
 contributor to Household Words, both this year and 
 last (see the letters of August 5th and 7th this 
 year). The titles of his articles were " Kilspindie," 
 September 4th, 1852 (a poem) ; " The Trumpets of 
 Doolkarnein," September 18th, 1852 (a poem); 
 "Lounging Through Kensington," August 6th, 1853, 
 August 20th, 1853; "Kensington," September 3rd, 
 1853; " Kensington Church," November 19th, 1853 ; 
 and " Kensington Worthies," December 3rd, 1853. 
 
 * Household Words, January 8th, 1853, by William Allingham, the poet 
 (18241889). He was a friend of Dickens and frequently contributed to 
 Household Words. A volume of letters addressed him by Dickens and 
 many others has recently been published.
 
 1853] WILKIE COLLINS. 97 
 
 In the spring Dickens was at 1, Junction Parade, 
 Brighton ; and in the summer he established himself 
 at Boulogne, at the Villa des Moulineaux, his landlord 
 being M. Beaucourt, for whom he conceived a warm 
 regard. Here he dictated parts of the " Child's 
 History of England," the conclusion of which appeared 
 in Household Words of December 10th. It began 
 in the number of January 25th, 1851. 
 
 In September Dickens started with Augustus Egg, 
 A.E.A., and Wilkie Collins on a tour through 
 Switzerland and Italy, returning to Tavistock House 
 in December. I can find no letters written by 
 Dickens to Wills during this tour. A long letter 
 from Florence, dated November 21st and printed in 
 "Letters," I., 334, is lost. From October 15th to 
 December 24th there are no contributions by Dickens 
 to Household Words except the instalments of the 
 " Child's History of England." 
 
 This year saw the addition of Wilkie Collins to the 
 list of contributors to Household Words. His story, 
 " Gabriel's Marriage," appeared in the numbers of 
 April 16th and 23rd. In the previous year he had 
 taken part in the provincial theatrical tour on behalf 
 of the lt Guild," and thenceforth he became one of 
 Dickens's best friends and, eventually, his most 
 intimate fellow worker. He died in 1889 in his 66th 
 year. 
 
 OFFICE OF HOUSEHOLD WORDS. 
 A Weekly Journal conducted by Charles Dickens. 
 
 No. 16, WELLINGTON STREET NORTH, STRAND, 
 
 Tuesday, Eighth February, 1853. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I think the best way will be 
 for you to make an appointment with Collins, and talk 
 to him on the subject of the enclosed. I don't quite 
 
 D.E. H
 
 98 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1853 
 
 understand from his letter that you explained to him 
 that I doubt the subject of hereditary insanity not 
 with an eye to the feelings of the public in general, 
 but with a consideration for those numerous families 
 in which there is such a taint. The force of my 
 objection lies in that range of the subject only. 
 
 On the whole I am disposed to think that it will be 
 best to accept his offer of a new story instead. And it 
 is desirable to explain to him that a story within a 
 story as this is is complicated and difficult for our 
 peculiar purpose. 
 
 I think there are many things, both in the inventive 
 and descriptive way, that he could do for us if he 
 would like to work in our direction. And I particu- 
 larly wish him to understand this, and to have every 
 possible assurance conveyed to him that I think so, 
 and that I should particularly like to have his aid. 
 See if he cannot strike out one or two subjects while 
 with you, to begin upon. 
 
 Will you give Mr. Brownlow a call one day 
 when you are near there? Seeing in the enclosed 
 card that he was interested in a child's election for 
 the St. Ann's Schools, I got Miss Coutts's votes 
 also enclosed. But I can't find the child's name in 
 the List, and consequently can't set a No. against 
 his name. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 No. 16, WELLINGTON STREET NORTH, STRAND, 
 
 Thursday Night, Seventeenth February, 1853. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I have gone over the proofs 
 and made the best of the names. I don't like 
 Forster's paper to lead off with, but don't think Sala's
 
 1858] PET PRISONERS. 99 
 
 better.* Also I am restless about Hobson and doubt 
 the expediency of going back to so poor a thing as, 
 if I had a weak leg, or a game eye, I don't think I 
 would call attention to it. But I leave Hobson, not 
 to confuse the Proof. There are awful haltings in 
 the Poem, but I have made the best of it. 
 
 Faithfully ever, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 [The following letter is printed in " Letters," III., 
 137 (wrongly dated 4th March, 1853), but a para- 
 graph from a letter of 12th August, 1852, has there 
 been substituted for the first two paragraphs.] 
 
 1, JUNCTION PARADE, BRIGHTON, 
 
 Thursday Night, Tenth March, 1853. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I have gone through this No. 
 carefully (as you will see, on looking through my 
 marks I have been obliged to query twice or thrice, 
 really not understanding what is meant) and am quite 
 out of heart with it. 
 
 Sala, very poor. One of the noblest subjects that 
 can be written on, with really nothing in its treatment. 
 Quite above him. 
 
 " A Doctor of Morals," impossible of insertion as it 
 stands. A mere puff for Hill, with all the difficult 
 parts of the question blinked, and many statements 
 utterly at variance with what I am known to have 
 written. It is exactly because the great bulk of 
 offences in a great number of places are committed 
 
 * The reference probably was to proofs of the number for March 5th, in 
 which Forster's " Seventy-eight Years Ago " was the first article. Sala 
 contributed " The Last Crusade," and there was a poem by " Miss Berwick " 
 (Adelaide 1'rocter) . There is no trace of Hobson. 
 
 H 2
 
 100 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1853 
 
 by professed thieves, that it will not do to have Pet 
 Prisoning advocated,* without grave remonstrance 
 and great care. That class of prisoner is not to be 
 reformed. We must begin at the beginning and 
 prevent by stringent education and supervision of 
 wicked parents, that class of prisoner from being 
 regularly supplied as if he were a human necessity. 
 
 Do they teach trades in workhouses, and try to fit 
 their people (the worst part of them) for Society ? 
 Come with me to Tothill Fields, Bridewell, or to 
 Shepherd's Bush, and I will show you what a work- 
 house girl is. Or look to my " Walk in a Work- 
 house" (in H. JF.f) and to the glance at the youths 
 I saw in one place, positively kept like wolves. 
 
 Mr. Hill thinks prisons could be made nearly self- 
 supporting. Have you any idea of the difficulty that 
 is found in disposing of Prison- Work ? Or does he 
 know that the Treadmills didn't grind the air because 
 the State or the Magistracy objected to the competition 
 of prison labour with free labour, but because the 
 work could not be got ? 
 
 I never can have any kind of prison discipline 
 disquisition in H. W. that does not start with the 
 first great principle I have laid down, and that does 
 not protest against prisons being considered per se. 
 Whatever chance is given to a man in a prison, must 
 be given to a man in a refuge for distress. 
 
 The article in itself is very good, but it must have 
 these points in it ; otherwise I am not only compro- 
 mising opinions I am known to hold, but the journal 
 itself is blowing hot and cold and playing fast and 
 loose, in a ridiculous way. 
 
 * " Pet Prisoners," by Dickens, Hmixeliold Words, April 27th, 1850. 
 J Household Wflrfa, May 25tb, 1850.
 
 1853] "ONE AND INDIVISIBLE:" 101 
 
 That heap of chips is quite out of the question. 
 11 Vegetable Miracles " had better be made a separate 
 article, and called " Receipt of Fern Seed " which is a 
 phrase of Falstaff's. 
 
 The Australian article had better be called, I think, 
 " Lost and Found at the Gold Diggings." It, too, is 
 very poor. 
 
 As to " La Galite,"* it looks like a wretched trans- 
 lation from a wretched original, and I can say no 
 more of it. But observe the horrible injudiciousness 
 of leaving in it, at page 89, that reference to the 
 Slave Dealer, after all the howling there has been 
 about that infernal African who could wear his chains 
 in peace and be damned to him. 
 
 Starting a paper in India is very droll to us. 
 But it is full of references that the public don't 
 understand, and don't in the least care for. Bour- 
 geois, brevier, minion, and nonpareil, long primer, 
 turn-ups, dummy advertisements and reprints, back 
 form, imposing stone, and locking up, are all quite 
 out of their way and a sort of slang that they have 
 no interest in. 
 
 Let me see a revise when you have got it together, 
 and if you can strengthen it do. I mention all the 
 objections that occur to me as I go on not because 
 you can obviate them (except in the case of the 
 Prison paper) but because if I make a point of 
 doing so always, you will feel and judge the 
 more readily both for yourself and me too, at the 
 same time, " one and indivisible," when I take an 
 Italian flight. 
 
 * " Hermit Island," Household Words, March 26th. The writer was 
 W. Hepworth Dixon, a fairly regular contributor to the paper. From 1853 
 to 18G'J he was editor of the Athenaeum. He wrote " Spiritual Wives," " Her 
 Majesty's Tower," and many other books. He died in 1879.
 
 102 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1853 
 
 You. 
 
 How are the a/cs getting on ? 
 
 ME. 
 
 I have been at work all day. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 TAVISTOCK HOUSE, 
 
 Friday, Eighteenth March, 1853. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : When I came home last night, 
 I found the enclosed from Brockedon on the ' ' India 
 Rubber " article. 
 
 It must be closely enquired into, and I should 
 wish to have, separately, whatever Mr. Dodd may 
 have to say on each head in which the fact is stated 
 to be distinctly against him. Because if it should 
 turn out which it may not that he has again com- 
 mitted and misled us, immediately after the " Gold 
 and Silver Diets,"* it is quite clear it won't do. Nothing 
 can be so damaging to Household Words as carelessness 
 about facts. It is as hideous as dulness. 
 
 Ever yours, 
 
 C. D. 
 BOULOGNE, 
 
 Monday, Thirteenth June, 1853. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : You will be glad, I know, to 
 hear that we had a delightful passage yesterday, and 
 that I made a perfect phenomenon of a dinner. It is 
 raining hard to-day, and my back feels the damp ; 
 but I am otherwise still mending. 
 
 I have signed, sealed, and delivered, a contract for 
 a house (once occupied for t\vo years by a man I 
 knew in Switzerland), which is not a large one, but 
 
 * ILmtelwld Word*, March 5th, 1853.
 
 1853] CHATEAU DES MOULTNEAUX. 103 
 
 stands in the midst of a great garden, with what the 
 landlord calls a "forest" at the back; and is now 
 surrounded by flowers, vegetables, and all manner of 
 growth. A queer, odd, French place but extremely 
 well supplied with all table and other conveniences, 
 and strongly recommended. The address is 
 
 Chateau des Moulineaux, 
 Eue Beaurepaire, 
 
 Boulogne. 
 
 There is a coach-house, stabling for half a dozen 
 horses, and I don't know what. 
 
 We take possession this afternoon, and are now 
 laying in a good stock of creature-comforts. So no 
 more at present from 
 
 Yours ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 Mrs. Dickens and her sister unite in kindest 
 regards. 
 
 CHATEAU DES MOULINEAUX, BOULOGNE, 
 
 Saturday Night, Eighteenth June, 1853. 
 
 H. W. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I have gone over the No. and 
 now return it. " Thomas," very well but might 
 have been a little more picturesque. Costello 
 good enough as far as it goes, but it don't go to the 
 Camp, and therefore is at present a coup manque. If 
 you put Forster in his place, call it "The Power- 
 Loom."* If you have a tolerably lively process 
 article, it would be better than " Country News." 
 Look well to that portion yet to come of Sala's, 
 which I have not got. 
 
 * Household Words, July 9th.
 
 104 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1853 
 
 " BLEAK HOUSE." 
 
 Thank God I have done half the No. with great 
 ease, and hope to finish on Thursday or Friday next. 
 
 how thankful I feel to be able to have done it, and 
 what a relief to get the No. out ! 
 
 MONEY. 
 I enclose a cheque for <20. 
 
 GENERAL MOVEMENTS OF INIMITABLE. 
 
 I don't think (I am not sure) I shall come to London 
 until after the completion of "Bleak House" No. 18 
 the No. after this now in hand for it strikes me that 
 
 1 am better here at present. I have picked up in the 
 most extraordinary manner, and I believe you would 
 never suppose to look at me that I had had that week 
 or half an hour of it. If there should be any occasion 
 for our meeting in the meantime, a run over here 
 would do you no harm, and we should be delighted to 
 see you at any time. If you suppose this place to be 
 in a street, you are hugely mistaken. It is in the 
 country, though not more than ten minutes' walk 
 from the Post Office, and is the best doll's house of 
 many rooms in the prettiest French grounds and the 
 most charming situation I have ever seen the best 
 place I have ever lived in, abroad, except at Genoa. 
 You can scarcely imagine the beauty of the air on 
 this richly wooded hill side. As to comforts in the 
 house, there are all sorts of things, beginning with no 
 end of the coldest water and running through the 
 most beautiful flowers down to English footbaths 
 and a Parisian liqueur-stand. Your parcel (frantic 
 enclosures and all) arrived quite safely last night. 
 This will leave by steamer to-morrow, Sunday,
 
 1853] UNDER GOLDEN DOMES. 105 
 
 evening. There is a boat in the morning, but 
 having no one to send to-night 1 can't reach it ; 
 and to-morrow being Sunday it will come to much 
 the same thing. 
 
 I think that's all at present. 
 
 Ever, my .Dear Wills, 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 BOULOGNE, 
 
 Monday, Twenty-seventh June, 1853. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : There was no letter from you 
 in the parcel that came last night with the enclosed. 
 That was all right, I suppose ? 
 
 I have made various marks here. The Poem is 
 so very poor, that it had better come out bodily 
 until we have a very strong number. The metre is 
 so wretchedly made out. 
 
 " Pull at the Pagoda Tree,"" very good. " Pro- 
 visionally Eegistered,"* very good. It is rather 
 unfortunate that we have so many foreign subjects, 
 but it can't be helped I suppose. If we have never 
 had CAUSE and EFFECT, I think it a better title for 
 the Carlsruhe story. " St. Vorax's Singing Birds " 
 will stand over. With a chip, you won't want it.f 
 
 I am sorry that a corrected proof I once gave you 
 of young Jerrold's " Two Gentlemen " has been mislaid. 
 I recollect it, and my corrections, perfectly, by one 
 stupendous absurdity that stands in the paper as it is. 
 I wish you would tell me in what part of the town or 
 country you know gentlemen of the present day to 
 live under " Golden Domes." Because it is new to 
 
 * Wills was part author of all these articles. 
 
 t The references are to articles which appeared in Household Words of 
 July 9th.
 
 106 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1853 
 
 me, and I think a description of these Mansions might 
 make a good paper. 
 
 I will send you the " History of England " in good 
 time for the next No. and will afterwards write another 
 paper if I can think of a subject. I will then refer to 
 the letters you sent me yesterday, which I have not 
 time to do this morning. Will you post the enclosed. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 It has been blowing so hard here, that I am going 
 down to look at the sea with the intention of 
 stopping the children at Folkestone by telegraphic 
 message if feasible. 
 
 BOULOGNE, 
 
 Monday, Fourth July, 1853. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : This No. will require a good 
 deal of alteration. 
 
 In the first place, Morley must go first, beyond all 
 question. In the second place, Morley and Sala 
 should by no manner of means go together. In the 
 third place the " Roving Englishman " must come 
 out bodily ; since apart from the slovenliness of the 
 article, some of the statements are much too strong 
 for me to commit myself to without a positive know- 
 ledge of the facts. Lastly, I think you have too 
 much u History of England " at one time, and would do 
 better to print one chapter in this No. and one after a 
 week's interval. 
 
 Be very careful what you fill up with. And also, 
 if you please, to revise the revise of the " Child's 
 History " taking care that it is pointed for sense. 
 
 How two men can have gone, one after the other, 
 to the camp, and have written nothing about it, passes
 
 1853] WOMAN AND DEFENCE. 107 
 
 my comprehension. I have been in great doubt about 
 the end of Sala. I wish you would suggest to him 
 from me, when you see him, how wrong it is. Surely 
 he cannot be insensible to the fact that military pre- 
 paration in England at this time means Defence. 
 Woman, says Sala, means Home, love, children, 
 mother. Does he not find any protection of these 
 things in a wise and moderate means of Defence ; and 
 is not the union between these things and those means 
 one of the most natural, significant, and plain in the 
 world.* 
 
 Mrs. Dickens and her sister have gone to look after 
 Peter, f while I prepare my parcel. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 Pray get something done in notice of the enclosed. 
 I have forgotten it this long time. 
 
 BOULOGNE, 
 
 Sunday, Seventeenth July, 1853. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : You will find a great many 
 corrections of mine in the enclosed proof.J 
 
 Nothing can improve the design of Miss Lynn's 
 story || (which I think very bad), but I have altered 
 the wording of it, to avoid its looking, as it did, 
 exactly like an indifferent translation. Unless you 
 have promised anyone to put in that letter of Charles 
 the First, leave it out. 
 
 * This paragraph is printed in " Letters," III., 1 10 (together with other 
 matter wrongly dated), under date Sunday, August 7th, 1853. 
 
 f Peter Cunningham (181G 18(i'J). For an account of him, see ' Life," III., 
 52, 53. 
 
 J The proof of the number for July 30th. 
 
 || " Marie's Fever," Household Words, July 30th. Miss Lynn contributed 
 a great deal to Household Words. In 1858 she married William James 
 Liuton, the wood-engraver, and afterwards became widely known, as Mrs. 
 Lynn-Linton, for her novels and her satirical articles on certain mtxlern 
 tendencies, c.y., her "Girl of the Period " articles iii the Suturday llci-'tcw.
 
 108 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1853 
 
 See that your corrections are all attended to. 
 
 You say you have a stronger Poem. If so, and 
 you can get it into this No. instead of the Sonnet, it 
 will be a decided improvement. " Marie's Fever " is 
 so twaddly that I should like to see something 
 stronger in the place of a " Literary Lady's Maid." 
 The No. becomes horribly weak in that place. 
 
 Will you be so kind as to hand the enclosed yourself 
 to the little bright red round man in the inner room 
 at Coutts's. I generally hand them the Paymaster 
 General's Draft for Poole's quarterly pension, but, as 
 it is payable to me, I cannot receive it until I come 
 to town. Therefore I had best advance the money. 
 
 I will probably write you on one or two other small 
 matters tomorrow. 
 
 Look at the enclosed from Hunt. I declare I don't 
 know what to say, and have not answered it ! Can 
 you devise any means of getting out of the matter 
 "privately and confidentially " ? 
 
 The 22nd of August will suit us perfectly ; but you 
 had better come on the Saturday or Sunday previous, 
 in case the passage should be queer. And we hope 
 you will both be able to stay longer than a week. 
 
 Leech * and Mrs. Leech arrived here yesterday 
 eveniag in a Devil of a gale. Everybody ill doctors 
 called in upon the boat (but not for them, I am glad 
 to say) and a most miserable scene altogether. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 " Lounging through Kensington " 
 is the best name, I think, for that paper, f 
 
 * John Leech, the Punch nrtifit. 
 
 t By Leigh Hunt, llomehold Word*, August Cth and 20th, 1853.
 
 1853] JOHN FORSTER'S HEALTH. 109 
 
 BOULOGNE, 
 
 Monday, July Twenty -fifth, 1853. 
 
 H. W. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I received your parcel last 
 night and return the proof * by this afternoon's boat, 
 with a good many corrections in it. Sala's article is 
 so badly printed that I have been obliged to put a 
 query here and there, really not understanding what 
 is meant. 
 
 If I can write an article this week, I will. But I 
 am so full of the close of " Bleak House " that I can't, 
 for the life of me, get at a good subject for H. W. 
 as yet. 
 
 Dixon's paper admirably told, though nothing new 
 in it. 
 
 GUILD. 
 
 I think the reduction of Johnson necessary but I 
 would do it on not less than a month's notice. 
 
 THINGS IN GENERAL. 
 
 I hope to begin my double No. next Monday. If I 
 can get it done in good time, that is to say by the 
 18th or 19th, I shall come over with it myself. Of 
 this I will advise you, however, in due course. 
 
 Dr. Storrar's opinion of Forster gives me great 
 concern, though it has (as I think you know) certainly 
 been mine for some time. I do not myself believe 
 that Elliotson, pre-occupied with other things, has 
 the least idea of the serious nature of his position. 
 
 * The number for August 6th.
 
 110 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR, [1853 
 
 And I am strongly inclined to think that the best 
 course I can take is to write privately to Elliotson, 
 and represent to him my impression of the necessity 
 of his positively ordering Forster away. What do 
 you think of that ? 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 Haydn is the Dictionary of Dates man. This is (I 
 think) the third time he has acted towards me in that 
 honorable, and, in my experience, unprecedented 
 manner. 
 
 u A Literary Lady's Maid " and " Corporation 
 Dreams," coming together,* make me thrill and 
 shudder with indescribable anguish. 
 
 BOULOGNE, 
 
 Wednesday, Twenty -seventh July, 1853. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : There will be either three or 
 four more as nearly as I can judge, four more of 
 these slips, to complete this article.f I will send you 
 the rest, please God, to-morrow, by the post at night. 
 
 I have also thought of another, to be called 
 " FRAUDS UPON THE FAIRIES " $ apropos of George 
 Cruikshank's editing. Half playfully and half 
 seriously, I mean to protest most strongly against 
 alteration for any purpose of the beautiful little 
 stories which are so tenderly and humanly useful to 
 us in these times when the world is too much with us, 
 early and late; and then to re-write "Cinderella'' 
 according to Total-abstinence, Peace Society, and 
 
 * In Household Words, July 30th. 
 
 f Probably "Gone Astray," by Dickens, Household Worda, August 13th. 
 
 j This article, by Dickens, appeared in Jlouwhold Word*, October 1st.
 
 1853] "FRAUDS UPON THE FAIRIES." Ill 
 
 Bloomer principles, and expressly for their propaga- 
 tion. 
 
 I shall want his book of " Hop o' My Thumb " 
 (Forster noticed it in the last Examiner) and the 
 most simple and popular version of " Cinderella" you 
 can get me. I shall not be able to do it until after 
 finishing " Bleak House/ 5 but I shall do it the more 
 easily for having the books by me. So send them, if 
 convenient, in your next parcel. 
 
 Acknowledge the safe receipt of this MS. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 BOULOGNE, 
 
 First August , 1853. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I return the No.,* which is a 
 very good one indeed. Look to the general printing 
 and punctuation of the second article, and also of 
 " Sick Grapes." 
 
 Enclosed is a chapter of " Child's History." 
 In your next parcel will you send me 
 "Vergani's Italian Grammar." 
 " A Pocket Italian and English and English and 
 
 Italian Dictionary." 
 " An Italian Dialogue Book." 
 
 You will get them all at De Torquet's in Tavistock 
 Street, by the office. Don't send Punch in my 
 parcels. 
 
 I am now going tooth and nail at " Bleak House." 
 If I get done in time, I shall certainly come over. 
 But it entirely depends upon my work. 
 
 I have just come back from Amiens, after a two 
 
 * The issue for August 27th.
 
 112 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1853 
 
 days' trip. Your parcel was delivered here last 
 night, just as I came home. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 BOULOGNE, 
 
 Friday Evening, Fifth August, 1853. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I am too much occupied with 
 the conclusion of " Bleak House " just getting fairly 
 into it to go, with a pen, over the No. without 
 delaying it. I therefore send the corrections of the 
 " Child's History " chapter enclosed, and, without 
 returning the proof in a parcel, will herein note my 
 objections. 
 
 In the first place the No. is an awfully and solemnly 
 heavy one and, if you have any kind of means to 
 that end by you, must really be lightened. I read it 
 last night, and had a Nightmare. I doubt if any- 
 thing so heavy (except stewed lead) could possibly be 
 taken, before going to bed. 
 
 1st. " Justice to Bears." The name won't do. 
 We have already had "Justice to the Hyaena." 
 " BROTHER BRUIN " * would be a capital name, I think 
 thus introduced : 
 
 " The bear symbolises savage and primitive equality, 
 and is therefore the aversion of the aristocracy." 
 Such is the clue to ursine facts, according to Passional 
 Zoology, which subject, and M. Toussenel's treat- 
 ment of it, we now resume. It would appear that 
 Mr. Sneak, t in " The Mayor of Garratt," had much 
 reason in him when he addressed the rough personage 
 
 * Household Word*, August 20th, by Dixon. 
 
 t Jerry Sneak is a character in Samuel Foote's play, "The Mayor of 
 Garratt."
 
 1853] SKIMPOLE. 113 
 
 of the piece as Brother Bruin. Was he not a Bear 
 and a Brother ? 
 
 11 Here again " M. Toussenel exclaims " is 
 another " 
 
 Then read the proof you, W. H. W. with an 
 eye to this fact that it wants to be made clearer all 
 the way through, that it is M. Toussenel who is 
 speaking, and not H. W. conducted by C. D. 
 
 Secondly, the first stage to Australia.* There is 
 a forlorn attempt at humour about the Deputy In- 
 spector General (page 584) that cannot be too 
 ferociously decapitated. Pray have nothing about a 
 detective in that connection ; it looks like weakly and 
 palely hanging on Mr. Bucket. Damn "here they 
 are " at page 585 and dele it too. " And the onus 
 of the idea task strangles every newly born smile that 
 struggles for existence " at page 584 again strike 
 out with a pen of iron. Look at the whole paper. 
 
 If the "Glimpse of Dublin "t be not by 
 Allingham, strike it out. If it be, hold it over. 
 
 "Gore House"]: is very poor. Page 591, first 
 column. Stop at the Graces, and dele the rest of that 
 paragraph. It is Skimpole, you know the whole 
 passage. I couldn't write it more like him. 
 
 I have forgotten " Licensed to Juggle." Look to 
 the slang talk of it, and don't let " Ya" stand for 
 "You." 
 
 " The Stereoscope " is dreadfully literal. Some 
 fancy must be got into the No. if John writes an 
 article for it himself ( I mean our John : not Forster). 
 
 * This must, I think, refer to " A Digger's Diary," by R. H. Home. It 
 did not, however, appear till September 3rd. 
 
 t Presumably " The Length of the Quays," which, though written by Sala 
 and not by Allingham, did appear on August 20th. 
 
 J " Gore House " was by Leigh Hunt, August 20th. 
 
 D.E. I
 
 114 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1853 
 
 I should have thought the greater part of it written 
 by McCulloch, edited by Eintoul.* 
 
 I am going out for a walk, after a punishing day's 
 work. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C.D. 
 P.S. Brighten it, brighten it, brighten it ! 
 
 Sunday, Seventh dugust, 1853. 
 BOULOGNE. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : On the night of the day I wrote 
 to you about there being no letter in the parcel no, 
 the next night I received the letter from Barnard's 
 office, by itself, " without note or comment." 
 
 I like the notion of the u Snow Giant " (which would 
 be a good name) though the end is out of the question. 
 It begins to trail off, at the smallpox part. Ask Miss 
 Costello what it is translated from, and whether it is 
 literally translated. If otherwise (of which there is 
 very little hope) I think it might be well altered for 
 the Xmas No. 
 
 Oilier 's ballad will do. 
 
 I would hold " Kensington " f over, certainly for a 
 No. Heaven, Hunt's not lounging, and being in 
 earnest ! 
 
 Can't possibly write autographs, until I have 
 written " Bleak House." My work has been very hard 
 since I have been here ; and when I throw down my 
 
 * John Ramsay McCulloch (1789 1864) was a, Scotsman, a political 
 economist and a statistician. He wrote a great deal 011 taxation, the 
 National Debt, currency and weights and measures. 
 
 Robert Stephen Rintoul (17871858), also a Scotsman, was a journalist 
 and an advocate of political reform, emigration and colonisation. He 
 founded The Spectator, and edited it from its first number, July 6th, 1828, 
 till 1858, when he sold it. 
 
 f "Kensington," by Leigh Hunt, Household Word*, September 3rd.
 
 1853] THE COURT OF CHANCERY. 115 
 
 pen of a day, I throw down myself and can take up 
 neither article.* 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 P.S. My head is so pre-occupied, that I have for- 
 gotten two leading points of my note. 
 
 First. Will you send me, in a post letter, a 20 
 note for the enclosed. 
 
 Secondly. Will you at once make an enquiry into 
 the Day Chancery cause, as 
 
 (1) When was it instituted ? 
 
 (2) How much nearer is it now to its completion. 
 
 (3) What has been spent in costs ? 
 
 (4) How many Counsel appear about when- 
 
 ever the Court is moved."]" 
 
 You did ask this for me before, but I made no note of it. 
 I should like to glance at it in the Preface. Of course 
 I will in no degree whatever commit your informant ; 
 nor shall I even mention the cause by name. But I 
 wish to be ivithin the facts. 
 
 BOULOGNE, 
 
 Fifteenth August, 1853. 
 Monday. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS: No. 179. Want Places not 
 in inverted commas as a title.J Pray substitute 
 something for "Houses of Business," which is wretched 
 
 * This paragraph is printed in "Letters," III., 140, as the beginning of a 
 totally different letter of the same date which letter has no actual existence, 
 being made up of extracts from five separate letters. 
 
 f To these queries Wills has appended the following answers in pencil : 
 
 (1) About 1834, as near as I know. 
 
 (2) As far off as ever. 
 
 (3) At least 70,000. 
 
 (4) Formerly always 17, sometimes 30 or 40 ; it used to be said the 
 
 whole Bar. The number has been much reduced. 
 J By Sala, Household Words, August 27th. 
 
 i 2
 
 116 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1853 
 
 and contradictory. (I fear I am writing it just 
 strikes me about a No. that is worked.) 
 
 No. 180 I will try to return tomorrow. 
 
 I see no objection whatever to Sala's pursuing that 
 subject, as long as his matter is good. 
 
 I hope to dine at H. W. on Thursday at ^ past 6. I 
 shall be due at London Bridge at 6 purposing to 
 write the last little three-page chapter of " Bleak 
 House," in town and will come straight on in a 
 constitutional cab. Perhaps Forster will like to dine 
 with us. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 BOULOGNE, 
 
 Fourteenth September, 1853. 
 
 H . W. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I send you " Frauds on the 
 Fairies"* which I think (between ourselves) 
 ADMIRABLE. Both merry and wise. When you send 
 proofs, send two. 
 
 You shall have some more " Child's History " in the 
 next parcel. 
 
 COURIER. 
 
 I have been greatly diverted by your account of 
 the Impracticable applicants. I await Kamb with 
 interest. Mrs. Watson has written to me of another 
 strongly recommended (by her father Lord George 
 Quin with whom he travelled) and now at Paris ; but 
 Kamb shall have his fair chance, and if I fully like 
 him, I will take him, supposing the other not to 
 precede him. 
 
 * Household Words, October 1st. See ante, p. 110.
 
 1853] "FRAUDS ON THE FAIRIES." 117 
 
 FAMILY 
 
 Send kindest regards. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 BOULOGNE, 
 
 Sunday, Eighteenth September, 1853. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I return you the No.* with a 
 good many corrections in pencil on it some queries, 
 where it is so badly printed that I cannot understand 
 what is meant. 
 
 I have put two crosses against an expression in 
 Ollier's poem 
 
 "and yet it is not night" 
 
 which you may remember in an older line, preceded 
 by the words " The moon is up." If he be accessible, 
 ask him to alter it. 
 
 The titles will stand 
 
 " Frauds on the Fairies." 
 " Tribunals of Commerce." 
 
 (here again I have queried the concluding paragraph 
 which should be rather a suggestion, I think, than 
 such an absolute statement) 
 
 " Bucharest." 
 
 " Starlight in the Garden." 
 
 " The Great Saddleworth Exhibition." 
 
 " Dead Beckoning at the Morgue." 
 
 " A Child's History of England." 
 
 The whole requires to be carefully gone over. 
 I send you another short article for the next No., 
 chiefly apropos of Mr. Dunn's case. 
 
 * The number for October 1st.
 
 118 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1853 
 
 The enclosed letter to Mr. Henry Morley came in 
 yesterday's parcel I suppose clearly by mistake. I 
 send it back again. 
 
 COURIER. 
 
 Edward Kamb will bring this. He turned up 
 yesterday, accounting for his delay by waiting for a 
 written recommendation, and having at the last 
 moment (as a foreigner not being an Englishman) a 
 passport to get. I quite agree with you as to his 
 appearance and manner, and have engaged him. It 
 strikes me that it would be an excellent beginning if 
 you would deliver him a neat and appropriate address, 
 telling him what in your conscience you can find to 
 tell of me favourably as a master, and particularly 
 impressing upon him readiness and punctuality on his 
 part as the great things to be observed. I think it 
 would have a much better effect than anything I 
 could say in this stage, of and from myself. And I 
 shall be much obliged to you if you will act upon this 
 hint forthwith. 
 
 W. H. WILLS. 
 
 No letter having arrived from the popular author 
 of the " Larboard Fin "* by this morning's post, I 
 rather think one must be on the way in the pocket of 
 Gordon's son whom, between ourselves, I don't at 
 all want. If Kamb calls for this before Young 
 Scotland arrives, you will understand if I do not refer 
 to an unreceived letter. But I shall leave this open 
 until Kamb comes first. 
 
 X Y 
 
 is of course an evasive humbug. Accept that story 
 
 * A wholly imaginary nautical drama alleged (by Dickens) to have boon 
 written by Wills.
 
 1853] KAMB, THE COURIER. 119 
 
 but Lord to see how he has spoilt it ! ! ! I will re-write 
 it, and send it you back. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 BOULOGNE, Tuesday Evening, 
 (Just before dinner), 
 
 Tiventieth September, 1853. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I have just received your letter 
 and think Kamb appears so completely to mistake his 
 position and functions in that ridiculous charge for 
 expenses, that I wish you would be so kind as to send 
 for him at once and tell him that I shall not take him 
 unless it is distinctly understood between you and him 
 that I shall hereafter reduce them, and deduct as much 
 of this bill from his wages as I know to be right. 
 Otherwise I know this bill to be ample ground for 
 declaring off, and I most positively do so. I am 
 thoroughly well acquainted with the practice and the 
 expectations of the best Couriers, and on all grounds 
 of common sense and justice I reject such extortion. 
 Therefore unless you find that he perfectly under- 
 stands and that he unconditionally submits, please see 
 one of the other applicants of whom you thought 
 favourably. His address is 4, King Street, Grosvenor 
 Square. 
 
 I write hastily for this express purpose, and will 
 write again to-morrow. Faithfully ever, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 BOULOGNE, 
 
 Sunday, Ninth October^ 1853. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Many thanks for your kind 
 letter, both on my own behalf, and on that of the unpro- 
 tected females. They are sincerely sensible of your
 
 120 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1853 
 
 offer, and Mrs. Dickens begs me to say that she will 
 not hesitate to give you all the trouble in her power ! 
 
 I write before the arrival of Mark [Lemon], but 
 leave this open in the meanwhile in case I should then 
 have anything to add. On the second half of this 
 sheet,* I send my line of march as far as Lausanne, 
 whence I will write again. I shall not expect (unless 
 in some extraordinary case) to hear from you before 
 I get there. 
 
 When the sheets of the 3rd Volume of the " Child's 
 History " come to you (as they will) will you put a 
 few words into His Sowship'sf life, where his writ- 
 ings are referred to, to the effect that he wrote, among 
 other things, about "Witches, in whom he was (as such 
 a wrong-headed Dolt ought to have been) a strong 
 believer. I somehow forgot to put this in to the 
 MS. Likewise, you will find it stated that after the 
 Gunpowder Plot some Catholics were for safety in 
 the fens of Lincolnshire. It ought to be, the fens of 
 Ely. 
 
 I don't remember that I have anything more to add 
 except that the moustaches don't look a bit better 
 than they did. The failures desire their kindest 
 regards. I shall come back, I hope, with no end of 
 good things in my mind for H. W. Meanwhile and 
 always, believe me, 
 
 Very heartily yours, 
 
 [To Mrs. Wills.] C. D. 
 
 TAVISTOCK HOUSE, 
 
 Fourteenth December, 1853. 
 
 MY DEAR MBS. WILLS : I have brought you home 
 a trifling brooch in the silver filigree -work, which has 
 
 * This has been torn off. 
 t James the First.
 
 1854] "MISS BERWICK." 121 
 
 no value of itself, but which I hope may find some in 
 your honest eyes, as a little sign of remembrance from 
 your excellent husband's attached friend and fellow- 
 workman. 
 
 Always very faithfully yours, 
 
 CHAELES DICKENS. 
 Mrs. Wills. 
 
 1854. 
 
 During the early part of this year Dickens gave 
 several readings in large provincial towns for charit- 
 able purposes. 
 
 In the summer ho again went to Boulogne, to a 
 different house, the Villa du Camp de Droite, which he 
 rented from the same landlord, M. Beaucourt. 
 
 " Hard Times " ran through Household Words from 
 April 1st to August 12th, when it was published in 
 book-form. Forster ("Life," III., 45) says that with 
 u Hard Times" Dickens more than doubled the circu- 
 lation of his journal. 
 
 [Wills was staying at Malvern for the benefit of his 
 health.] 
 
 OFFICE OF HOUSEHOLD WORDS. 
 A Weekly Journal conducted by Charles Dickens. 
 
 No. 16, WELLINGTON STKEET NORTH, STRAND, 
 
 Wednesday, Twelfth April, 1854. 
 
 H. W. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I have given Miss Berwick's* 
 " Knight Errant," the benefit of the doubt, and sent 
 
 * " Miss Berwick " was the pseudonym of Adelaide Procter, Barry 
 Cornwall's daughter. Her first contribution (" Old Echoes ") appeared in 
 Household Ward* of February 5th, 1853.
 
 122 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1854 
 
 it to the Printers. The Spring lines I re-enclose. 
 I would decline them, on the ground that after the 
 Spring Sonnet we have settled Spring for this year. 
 
 Look at this letter from Mrs. Gaskell. Did you 
 send it this morning omit all mention of it by mis- 
 take and send it in consequence of having received 
 it with the missing paper ? It has no date, but it must 
 be old, I infer, because the Mr. Fairbairn matter is all 
 arranged with her. I had a number of letters by this 
 morning's post, and did not look at this until I had 
 destroyed the envelope. I can't answer it without 
 first communicating thus with you, for I can't in the 
 least understand it. 
 
 I know all the walks for many and many miles 
 round you, and delightful walks they are. I suppose 
 you are already getting very stout, very red, very 
 jovial (in a physical point of view) altogether. 
 
 Mark and I walked to Dartford from Greenwich, 
 last Monday, and found Mrs. Homer acting " The 
 Stranger " (with a strolling company from the Standard 
 Theatre) in " Mr. Munns's Schoolroom." The stage 
 was a little wider than your table here, and its surface 
 was composed of loose boards laid on the school forms. 
 Dogs sniffed about it during the performances, and the 
 carpenter's highlows were ostentatiously taken off and 
 displayed in the Proscenium. We stayed until a 
 quarter to ten, when we were obliged to fly to the 
 Railroad, but we sent the landlord of the hotel down 
 with the following articles : 
 
 1 Bottle superior Old Port. 
 
 1 Do. Do. Gold Sherry. 
 
 1 Do. Do. best French Brandy. 
 
 1 Do. Do. 1st quality Old Tom Gin. 
 
 1 Do. Do. Prime Jamaica Rum.
 
 1854] A TREAT AT DARTFORD. 123 
 
 1 Bottle superior small still Isla Whiskey. 
 
 1 Kettle boiling water. 
 
 Two pounds finest white lump sugar. 
 
 Our cards. 
 
 1 Lemon, and 
 
 Our compliments. 
 
 The effect we had previously made upon the Theatrical 
 Company by being beheld in the first two chairs 
 there was nearly a pound in the house was altogether 
 electrical. 
 
 My ladies send their kindest regards, and are dis- 
 appointed at your not saying that you drink two and 
 twenty tumblers of the limpid element, every day. 
 The children also unite in " loves," and the Plornish- 
 ghenter on being asked if he would send his, replied 
 " Yes Man," which we understand to signify cordial 
 acquiescence. 
 
 Forster just come back from lecturing at Sherborne. 
 Describes said lecture as " Blaze of Triumph." 
 
 H. W. AGAIN. 
 
 Miss I mean Mrs. Bell's story very nice. I have 
 sent it to the Printer, and entitled it " The Green Eing 
 and the Gold Eing." * 
 
 This apartment looks desolate in your absence but 
 Heavens how tidy ! 
 
 J. W. 
 
 Mrs. Wills supposed to have gone into a convent at 
 Somers Town. 
 
 B. AND E. 
 
 Never paid the 500 ! Consequently I had notice 
 
 * It appeared May Gth.
 
 124 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1854 
 
 yesterday that I had overdrawn ray account at Coutts'. 
 Whereof I have given them notice to-day, in strong 
 terms. 
 
 My Dear Wills, 
 
 Ever faithfully yours, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 TAVISTOCK HOUSE, 
 
 Tuesday, Eighteenth April, 1854. 
 
 H. W. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I will go over the No. when it 
 comes, and write to you again after doing so. There 
 is a capital paper by Salain proof, called " Tatterboy's 
 Rents."* I wish you would write to him from me, 
 and tell him by all means to pursue the subject, as he 
 intimates an idea of doing at the close of the article. 
 
 C. D. 
 
 I am in a dreary state, planning and planning the 
 story of " Hard Times " (out of materials for I don't 
 know how long a story), and consequently writing 
 little. Mark and I had it in contemplation to come 
 down to Worcester next Monday and ask you to meet 
 us there instead of our coming to Malvern: which 
 would have given us from five to six hours together 
 at the Inn. But I am afraid I shall not be able to 
 spare the day. Macready is coming to town to-day, 
 and I have unavoidable engagements all the week 
 which will greatly hamper me. Moreover I am greatly 
 anxious to keep ahead. But 
 
 W. H. W. 
 
 It appears to me that you must most decidedly stay 
 at Malvern a full month. I don't think you can put 
 
 * " Tattyboy's Rents," by Sala, appeared May 13th.
 
 1854] THE T. R., HAYMARKET. 125 
 
 the cure to any rational and fair test in a shorter time. 
 If you decide to do that, Mark and I will overhaul our 
 respective logs (excuse nauticality, but I have been 
 reading a soul-stirring Drama called the "Larboard 
 Fin," * which looks to me like an undiscovered play by 
 Shakespeare, surreptitiously modernized), and will 
 make another appointment for next week. You are 
 now in the Black and Blue stage. I don't apprehend 
 that you are likely to come to a Flesh-coloured com- 
 plexion in less than four weeks. You are not green 
 yet and that takes time. 
 
 "W. H. W. (BROUGHT UP). 
 
 You refer in a maddening manner, to something 
 you dorit enclose in your letter. What do you mean 
 by it? 
 
 T. R., HAYMARKET. 
 
 I went there to see the Easter piece last night, and 
 I never beheld anything so dreary. The agonies of 
 Mrs. Fitzwilliam and Buckstone were positively most 
 distressing to see. Everything went wrong, and was 
 bad if it had gone right. Once, before a pair of flats 
 (clouds), Mrs. F. waved a golden patent hearthbroom 
 about five and twenty minutes, without anything 
 happening. Then she and Miss Featherstone and 
 Young Farren came down to the Float, and sang and 
 pattered all the rest of the piece got it off at once 
 and after another long interval a carpenter was dis- 
 closed in a celestial place (but swearing awfully) and 
 a man in black, supposed to be unseen, seized some 
 red fire and wildly lighted it up. Buckstone mean- 
 time, perfectly idiotic and imbecile with grief, laid his 
 head on Mrs. Fitzwilliam's bosom. 
 
 * See ante, p. 118, note.
 
 12G CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1854 
 
 J[OHN] F[ORSTER] 
 
 was there, and perpetually said, "My dear Dickens, 
 Good God, what does this mean ? " To which that 
 eminent man replied, after the manner of Commodore 
 Trunnion, " Hold your tongue and be damned ! " 
 For we were sitting over the stage. 
 
 B. AND E. 
 
 Have paid the 500. 
 
 ALL THE FAMILY 
 
 send kindest regards. 
 
 Ever, My Dear Wills, 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 CHARLES DICKENS. 
 
 No. 16, WELLINGTON STREET NORTH, 
 
 STRAND, 
 Thursday, Twentieth April, 1854. 
 
 H. W. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I have gone very carefully 
 over the whole No. and sent it down to Any. It is 
 a very good one, I think, and I see no occasion to 
 alter the course of the making-up, or to change any 
 paper. The titles are improved. I think I must 
 have taken out almost as much as is required. If you 
 have to take out more, take it from " Dr. Pablo " * after 
 his marriage and the loss of his wife's fortune. 
 
 Mrs. Gaskell's missing paper has turned up at last, 
 and is in the printer's hands. 
 
 * By Morley, Iloutehold Words, May 6th.
 
 1854] THE "BONUS." 127 
 
 W. H. W. 
 
 It is quite clear that you must stay at Malvern a 
 month, and come back a miracle of health. There is 
 not the least difficulty in the way, nor have I, really, 
 more to do than at another time, though I need not 
 say to you that I should be more than willing to do 
 it if I had. It appears to me from the materials on 
 hand that we are quite safe for good numbers. 
 
 GENERAL INTELLIGENCE. 
 
 You know my man Cooper ? Steady stupid sort of 
 highly respectable creature ? Seven children. Eldest 
 boy 13 years old, " working" (I can't conceive how) 
 at a mathematical instrument maker's " down at 
 Westminster." On Tuesday night, the boy did not 
 come home. Mother half distracted, and getting up 
 at 5 in the morning to go and look for him. Father 
 went out after breakfast to do likewise. Boy had 
 been sent on an errand, had punctually performed the 
 errand, and been heard of no more. Father conferring 
 with Policeman on disappearance, up comes strange 
 boy saying that how he has eerd tell as a boy is a lyin 
 in the " Bonus," as was run over. Wretched father 
 goes to the Bonus (attached to the Workhouse, I 
 suppose), and finds his child with his head smashed to 
 pieces ! He was walking on some planks by the road- 
 side, a plank tilted, he fell under a coal waggon as it 
 was advancing, and was picked up as Dead as Adam. 
 I cannot get it out of my mind as Forster would say. 
 
 My neighbour's, Mr. Cardale's, daughter married 
 this morning, and I was obliged to leave home at what 
 the newspapers always call " an early hour of the 
 morning " to avoid distraction. All the women and 
 girls in my house, stark mad on the subject. Despotic
 
 128 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1854 
 
 conjugal influence exerted to keep Mrs-. Dickens out 
 of the church. Caught putting bonnet on for that 
 purpose, and sternly commanded to renounce idiotic 
 intentions. Bride reported by our confectioner 
 (envious and a Roman Catholic) to have the gift of 
 Tongues. It probably will disappear now. 
 
 Mark has just come in, and sends all manner of 
 regards. Time of our visit is still uncertain, in conse- 
 quence of " Hard Times," and great pressure of 
 Wooden-Headedness on gifted author. 
 Kindest remembrances from all at home. 
 Ever, My Dear Wills, 
 
 Most faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 TAVISTOCK HOUSE, 
 
 Tuesday , Thirtieth May, 1854. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I think Thomas's story * very 
 good indeed. Close, original, vigorous, and graphic. 
 It strikes me that I see better things in it than he has 
 done yet. 
 
 An alteration occurs to me easily made which I 
 think would greatly improve it, in respect of interest 
 and quiet pathos, and a closing sentiment of pleasure 
 to the reader. It should be delicately expressed that 
 the man (admirably described) who comes a- courting 
 Miss Furbey is the old lover who has always been 
 faithful. I think Miss Furbey might have always 
 had a miniature of him, hanging up, or in a pet drawer 
 and sometimes brought out, taken when he was a 
 young man; and that when the narrator begins to 
 observe him and his visits, she should still see in the 
 
 * " Miss Furbey " appeared in Housetwld Words, June 17th.
 
 1851] THE VILLA AT BOULOGNE. 129 
 
 grey hair and the worn face something of that 
 portrait. 
 
 I wish you would make the suggestion in my words. 
 Beg him not to delay the story, for I don't like to 
 keep anything of so much merit out of print. 
 
 The young poet is not quite to any purpose at 
 present, but I would certainly encourage him. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 "Death's Doors" 
 
 will be a better name for Morley's paper than the one 
 I gave it yesterday. 
 
 VILLA DU CAMP DE DHOITE, 
 
 Thursday, Twenty-second June, 1854. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I have nothing to say, but, 
 having heard from you this morning, think I may as 
 well report all well. 
 
 We have a most charming place here. I think the 
 finest situation (Genoa excepted) I have lived in, and 
 the best cottage house. It beats the former residence 
 all to nothing. We have a beautiful garden with all 
 its fruits and flowers, and a field of our own, and a 
 road of our own away to the Columns, and everything 
 that is airy and fresh. The great Beaucourt hovers 
 about us like a guardian genius, and I imagine that 
 no English person in a carriage could by any possibility 
 find the place. 
 
 Of the wonderful inventions and contrivances with 
 which a certain Inimitable creature has made the most 
 of it, I will say nothing until you have an opportunity 
 of inspecting the same. At present I will only observe 
 
 D.E. K
 
 130 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1854 
 
 that I have written exactly 72 words of "Hard 
 Times " since I have been here. 
 
 Many thanks for the Cranstone information which 
 is quite conclusive. 
 
 As to your account of , though it makes me 
 
 laugh, it makes me feel disposed to tear my hair off. 
 That he should ever have been such a double-distilled 
 ass as to marry that girl, or have anything on earth to 
 do with that Family ! The great thing to be hoped 
 is, that she will never go back to him, and that her 
 father and mother may fly with her and the Devil 
 with all of 'em to the Antipodes. 
 
 The children arrived on Tuesday night per London 
 boat, in every stage and aspect of sea-sickness. With 
 them, Lally and Betty Lemon, whose parents and 
 guardians had discreetly packed two dozen pairs of 
 bran new stockings in their luggage. Duty on said 
 stockings, 8 francs. 
 
 The camp is about a mile off, and huts are now 
 building for (they say) 60,000 soldiers. I don't 
 imagine it to be near enough to bother us. 
 
 If the weather ever should be fine, it might do you 
 good sometimes to come over with the proofs on a 
 Saturday when the tide served well, before you and 
 Mrs. W. make your annual visit. Recollect, there is 
 always a bed, and no sudden appearance will put 
 us out. 
 
 Kind regards, 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 Mr. Davcy may well stand over till I return. I 
 will tell you something apropos of that. 
 
 I shall be curious to hear the end of - 's domes- 
 ticity. Get him, if you can, to shew you the letter he
 
 1854] "HARD TIMES." 131 
 
 will receive from his wife's father. what a letter 
 that will be ! 
 
 BOULOGNE, 
 Thursday, Fourteenth [Thirteenth] July, 1854. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Your note received, and your 
 parcel expected. 
 
 I am so stunned with work, that I really am not 
 able (in sending off my own parcel hurriedly) to 
 answer your questions I mean, not able to consider 
 them. I doubt if there will not be too much of 
 "Hard Times," to admit of the conclusion all going 
 in together. There will probably be either 14 or 15 
 sides of my writing. But the best thing will be for 
 me to come over with it, the moment I have finished. 
 On Wednesday night at a quarter past ten, I hope to be 
 at London Bridge. But if I should find on Monday 
 (though I hardly expect it) that I can come on 
 Tuesday night instead I will let you know as much by 
 Monday's post. 
 
 The MS. now sent, contains what I have looked 
 forward to through many weeks. 
 
 The advertisement will simply be 
 
 On such a day will be published complete in 
 One Volume, price five shillings, 
 
 HAUD TIMES, 
 By Charles Dickens. 
 
 I will send B. and E. the two first books in your 
 returned parcel. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 Call the Guild again, for Monday Week. 
 
 K 2
 
 132 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1854 
 
 BOULOGNE, 
 
 Saturday Night, Fourteenth \_Fiftcentli] July, 1854. 
 "HARD TIMES." 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : The enclosed batch of print 
 tied up with string, to "Whitefriars at once, if you 
 please. 
 
 H. W. 
 
 My corrections are rather slightly made, and the 
 No. wants carefully going over for plain pointing and 
 setting out. 
 
 The " C. P." by K. 8.* is very well done, but I 
 cannot make up my mind to lend my blow to the great 
 Forge-bellows of puffery at work. I so heartily 
 desire to have nothing to do with it, that I wish you 
 would cancel this article altogether, and substitute 
 something else. As to the guide-books, I think they 
 are a sufficiently flatulent botheration in themselves, 
 without being discussed. A lurking desire is always 
 upon me to put Mr. Laing's speech on Accidents to the 
 public, as Chairman of the Brighton Eailwny, against 
 his pretensions as a chairman of public Instructors 
 and guardians. And I don't know but what I may 
 come to it at some odd time. This strengthens me in 
 my wish to avoid the bellows, f 
 
 When you want a parcel to reach me at once (if 
 ever) I think you had better write outside, so much 
 for Immediate Delivery. Because my friend Barnard 
 keeps them all cooling, four or five hours. And I 
 don't know that he can be reasonably expected under 
 the circumstances, to do anything else. 
 
 * Probably an article on the Crystal Palace, the erection of which, at 
 Sydenham, was completed this year. 
 
 t This paragraph is printed in " Letters," III., ItO, as part of the supposed 
 letter of August 7th, 1853.
 
 1854] " HARD TIMES " FINISHED. 133 
 
 I 
 
 hope to get up to town on Tuesday night with the 
 close of " Hard Times." Will write again on Monday 
 night. Meanwhile, all other matters stand over 
 without mention except 
 
 GUILD. 
 
 The table of Sickness Fund premiums requires exten- 
 sion or a plain explanation appended that it presents 
 the Minimum of Provident Investment under that 
 head, and that so much is the Maximum. Without 
 such addition it looks ludicrous. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 BOULOGNE, 
 Monday, July Seventeenth, 1854. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I am happy to say that I have 
 finished " Hard Times " this morning. I purpose 
 coming over to-morrow, arriving at London Bridge 
 at a quarter past 10 at Night. Will you tell Cooper 
 to he there, in waiting for me. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 BOULOGNE, 
 
 Sunday, Thirtieth July, 1854. 
 
 H. W. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I return the No. The over- 
 matter was not in the parcel. Therefore I don't know 
 what it is. 
 
 " Turkish Seamanship," as a separate article of one 
 column, is ridiculous. It must be a chip.
 
 134 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1854 
 
 If you have anything else of any merit, I greatly 
 doubt the expediency of closing the No. with that 
 "Back Ways to Fame."* I suppose it to be by 
 Morley. But it is dreadfully heavy. It would do in 
 another place and at another time, but I feel it to drag 
 most wearily here. 
 
 You had better get into this No. the following 
 advertisement 
 
 NEW TALE, by the author of "MARY BARTON," to 
 
 he published weekly in Household Words. 
 On Wednesday, the 30th day of August will be 
 published, in Household Words, the First Portion 
 of a New Work of Fiction, called 
 " NORTH AND SOUTH." 
 By The Author of " Mary Barton." 
 The publication of this story, &c. 
 
 (according to the first announcement of " Hard Times," 
 at the end of No. 206). 
 
 The advertisement must always stand, afterwards, 
 like the old " Hard Times " advertisement. 
 
 I have begged Mrs. Gaskcll to send you some 
 MS. for the printers to get up. B. and E. must do 
 what they think necessary in the advertising way, 
 but, if they bill the walls, they must be very careful 
 only to have the plain, good, sensible bills used in the 
 case of "Hard Times," that we had at the office. 
 She objects to any title if it can be dispensed with ; 
 and altogether refuses (and no wonder) to be connected 
 with a hideous placard all askew, invented in White - 
 friars for " Hard Times," and concerning which 
 phenomenon I wrote to Bradbury on its appearance. 
 
 Parcel for Whitefriars, enclosed. Also two letters 
 for post. 
 
 * By Morley, Household Words, Aupust 19th.
 
 1854] THE METEOR FLAG STOLEN. 135 
 
 FAMILY. 
 
 All well, and the Meteor Flag a tremendous 
 success. Collins sends regards. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 BOULOGNE, 
 
 Wednesday, Second August, 1854. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : In the next parcel will you 
 send me both volumes of this book ? 
 
 I will endeavour to come off my back (and the 
 grass) to do an opening paper for the starting No. 
 of " North and South." I can't positively answer for 
 such a victory over the idleness into which I have 
 delightfully sunk, as the achievement of this feat ; but 
 let us hope. 
 
 During a fete on Monday night, the Meteor Flag 
 of England (forgotten to be struck at sunset) was 
 stolen ! ! ! 
 
 seems to have brought his career to a noble 
 
 conclusion at last. When the united bores (and the 
 political economists) give him a piece of plate and a 
 dinner, will you put me down for Twenty-five Pounds 
 and a Speech. 
 
 Manage the proofs of H. W. so that I may not have 
 to correct them on a Sunday. I am not going over 
 to the Sabbatarians, but like the haystack (particu- 
 larly) on a Sunday morning. 
 
 I should like John to call on M. Henri, Townshend's 
 servant, 21, Norfolk Street, Park Lane, and ask him 
 if, when he comes over here with his master, he can 
 take charge of a trap, bat, and ball. If yea, then I 
 should like John to proceed to Mr. Darke's, Lord's 
 Cricket Ground, and purchase said trap, bat, and ball,
 
 136 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1854 
 
 of the best quality. Townshend* is coming here on 
 the 15th probably will leave town a day or two 
 before. 
 
 Pray be in a condition to drink a glass of the 1846 
 champagne, when you come. 
 
 I think I have no more to say at present. I cannot 
 sufficiently admire my prodigious energy in coming 
 out of a stupor to write this letter. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 BOULOGNE, 
 
 Monday, Seventh August, 1854. 
 
 H. W. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : The No.f is very poor as it 
 stands. I would make it up as follows. Whatever 
 you want to take out, you can take from Miss Lynn. 
 The punctuation and dashing of whose story require 
 particular attention. 
 
 " A Little More Harmony." J 
 
 " Catchpennies" (without the chip heading). 
 
 " Pastimes and Plays." 
 
 " Lile Jack " (new name on the proof). 
 
 " Faithful Margaret " (Miss Lynn). 
 
 " More Splendid than a Badger." 
 
 " Back "Ways to Fame." 
 
 Of the omitted articles, I have to observe : First of 
 Sidney's, that it is such careless slip-slop as to be 
 almost unintelligible, and quite unsuitable unless the 
 second part be much better ; secondly of the poem, 
 
 * Chauncy Hare Townshend, a valued friend of Diekcns. lie diod in 
 18P>8, and bequeathed to Dickens for selection and publication sonic papers 
 on religious belief. They were published in a volume in 18(10. 
 
 t The number for August l!)th. 
 
 J By Sala.
 
 1854] ANOTHER METEOR FLAG. 137 
 
 that there is absolutely nothing whatever in it ; and 
 thirdly, of the " Eoving Englishman " that it is of the 
 same order, besides being conceited and consequently 
 had better be distributed at once. 
 
 Sala is very good. Don't run him too close in 
 the money way. I can't bear the thought of making 
 anything like a hard bargain with him. 
 
 If you have received copy from Mrs. Gaskell (as I 
 suppose you have by this time) add the advertisement 
 I sent you to this Number. 
 
 I am turning the Xmas No. in my mind. 
 
 And am very anxious to know whether Morley has 
 really come into his fortune. 
 
 " HARD TIMES." 
 
 I was vexed to see in the Examiner the advertise- 
 ment of the PI. W. volume, with the parenthesis in 
 it which I took out. I suppose it stood in all the 
 weekly papers ? Surely there was time to correct it. 
 
 GENERALITIES. 
 
 The Meteor Flag was received with rapture and is 
 now flying at the Masthead to the honour and 
 glory of England, and the confusion of the thief. 
 
 I have had a violent cold in my right ear, and am 
 executing the present act of correspondence with my 
 head tied up. Had poppy-heads at a boiling tempera- 
 ture appended to my own imaginative sconce, all day 
 yesterday. 
 
 I have a notion of an article for H. W. (by myself, 
 to be called " IT is NOT GENERALLY KNOWN ")* for which 
 I want somebody to go over the file of The TimcSj and 
 note in the Debates every night all through the 
 
 * Household Wordx, September 2nd.
 
 138 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1854 
 
 Session, every personal attack and personal discussion 
 between Hon. Mems. who they were on what night 
 it happened and what it was about. The fewest 
 words of description will suffice for me. Now do 
 you think you can get me such a thing done, at 
 once ? Otherwise the article would be out of date. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 VILLA DU CAMP DE DROITE, BOULOGNE, 
 
 Wednesday, Ninth August, 1854. 
 
 H. W. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I would decidedly put in the 
 advertisement of " North and South." Then I would 
 write to Mrs. Gaskell, saying that you had heard from 
 me you were to receive a batch of MS. for press ; and 
 that not having done so, you were uneasy (fearing it 
 might have miscarried) and therefore wrote to say 
 none had come to hand. 
 
 I will not maintain my opinion of the volume- 
 advertisement against yours and Evans's united. 
 But I should like it better, if the parenthesis were 
 not so excessively demonstrative, and stood simply 
 thus : (containing HARD TIMES). 
 
 Sorry to hear that there is not so much personality 
 on record as I had hoped for, because it may damage 
 the idea of the article. But Nil Desperandum I You 
 may find more as you advance in your labors. 
 
 I wish you would send friend Barnard here, a set 
 of Household Words in a paid parcel (on the other side 
 is an inscription to be neatly posted into Vol. I. 
 before sending) with a post letter beforehand from 
 yourself, saying that I had begged you to forward
 
 1854] A POEM. 139 
 
 the books : feeling so much obliged to him for his 
 uniform attention and politeness. Also, that you 
 will not fail to continue his set, as successive volumes 
 appear.* 
 
 Your account on Bradbury authority of the Volume 
 is capital. 
 
 I 
 
 think that's all at present. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 VILLA DU CAMP DE DROITE, BOULOGNE, 
 
 Saturday , Twelfth August, 1854. 
 
 INCLOSURES. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : There is a letter for John in 
 the parcel, also a letter for Evans, also the Barnard 
 inscription. The rest are for the post ; the American 
 letter to be paid. 
 
 H. W. 
 
 A much better No. than the two or three last. 
 
 I enclose a list of the new names, involving one 
 change in the order of the articles. I have bothered 
 and worried at the Poem (which is neither English, 
 nor verse) hoping to make something of it, but have 
 not succeeded after all. Strike it out. If I can fuse 
 into it an idea I have of its natural end, you shall 
 have it in the next parcel. If you hear no more of it, 
 give it up as unmendable. 
 
 I am not sure whether we have used the title, 
 "A FLIGHT WITH THE BIRDS." If we have, call the 
 paper " WINGS AND TOES." f But the name I have 
 
 * This paragraph is printed in " Letters," III., 141, as forming part of the 
 supposed letter of August 7th, 1853. 
 
 | "Wings and Toes," by Hepworth Dixon, Household Words, August 26th
 
 140 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1854 
 
 given it is a much better one if I have not used 
 it before. 
 
 Leave three pages or a column less open for me 
 in the next No. I will write an article at once, and 
 post it to you. Of course I would do anything I 
 could, to make your holiday the easier and longer. 
 Therefore, count upon me for two articles (which will 
 relieve you of the first article for two numbers) in the 
 intervening time. You shall have the first one 
 probably on Tuesday. The second, I will buckle to 
 as soon as Townshend shall be gone from here. He 
 comes, that day. -" 
 
 GUILD. 
 
 It is discouraging and vexatious, that the men 
 should be so unreasonable though I think the 
 National Provident very like the-as-yet-unchanged- 
 inan in not making it easier to the members of the 
 Council. As to Forster, if he ever makes that 
 rheumatic remark to me, I'll choke him with a highly 
 indigestible piece of my mind. 
 
 HOLIDAY. 
 
 I shall be glad to hear, as soon as you know, 
 whether you arrange to come with Mrs. Home on the 
 28th. If not, I must meet her at Folkestone, for I 
 would not on any account that she should lose a day 
 of her short vacation after her hard work. Neither 
 must she be allowed to pay her own charges. 
 
 I 
 
 write in a hurry to get the parcel off. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 0. IX
 
 1854] "NORTH AND SOUTH." 141 
 
 BOULOGNE, 
 
 Saturday, Nineteenth August, 1854. 
 
 H. W. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I have gone over the No.* 
 and now return it. Look to the punctuation of Miss 
 Martineau and Miss Lynn. 
 
 I don't see anything in the " Children in the 
 Wood " except a power of making nothing out of a 
 most beautiful story. The enclosed little poem by 
 Townshendf is far better (I have two more in hand), 
 and will improve the No. as a substitution for the 
 present. 
 
 It is clear that " North and South " must begin at 
 the top of page 61 and on Mrs. Gaskell's title page 
 (now in her possession) there is a motto from Tenny- 
 son, which I think ought to be prefixed to it. Will 
 you write and ask her for it immediately. 
 
 It must always be resumed on the top of that 
 page. 
 
 I am alarmed by the quantity of " North and 
 South." It is not objectionable for a beginning, but 
 would become so in the progress of a not compactly 
 written and artfully devised story. It suggests to 
 me (but I may be wrong) that the Whitcfriars 
 castmg-off was incorrect. Therefore will you do 
 what follows. 
 
 The enclosed key is the key of the round writing 
 table in my study. In the drawer of that table, 
 facing you as you stand looking at the table, in front 
 of it with your back towards the windows, are two 
 bunches of keys. One has only three cellar keys 
 
 * The number for September 2nd. Mrs. Gaskell's " North and South " 
 began in it. 
 
 f "The True Voice," by Townsheud, appeared September 9th.
 
 U2 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1854 
 
 which you have nothing to do with (unless you are 
 thirsty) ; the other is a bunch of several keys. When 
 you have found which key on that bunch will open 
 the drawers of the writing table with the cabinet on 
 it, by which I always sit to work and on which my 
 envelope case always stands when I am at home, 
 apply that key to the third drawer from the top, 
 nearest to the fireplace, and in that drawer you will 
 find a rough slip of notes in my writing, concerning 
 the divisions of Mrs. Gaskell's story : and (if I do not 
 mistake) a note from yourself, stating the Whitefriars 
 estimate of quantity. If you cannot read my notes 
 for your own guidance, let me have them in the next 
 parcel ; and at any rate bring them when you come. 
 
 I will go to work, please God, on my new article, 
 next Monday. 
 
 GENERAL NEWS. 
 
 We have had three short but strange illnesses here 
 two among the women servants and the third last 
 night in Georginu, who seemed to be suddenly 
 attacked with tic in the head, but is greatly better 
 this morning. The rest of the story when you come. 
 I enclose some letters for the post. 
 Cooper and his charges came to haud lust night. 
 
 Ever faitlif ully, 
 
 C. 1). 
 
 VILLA DU CAMP DE DROITE, BOULOGNE, 
 
 Sunday, Tiventieth August, 1854. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : It is perfectly plain to me that 
 if we put in more, every week, of " North and South "
 
 1854] "LEGAL AND EQUITABLE JOKES." 143 
 
 than we did of " Hard Times," we shall ruin Household 
 Words. Therefore it must at all hazards be kept down. 
 
 I hope the first portion is not printed " Part " I. 
 It ought to be "Chapter." The amount you have 
 got into 233 is quite out of the question. But this is 
 the part from which a great deal was to be taken out. 
 You may possibly have received the Proof from Mrs. 
 Graskell so altered. But in case you should not have 
 received it, I wrote to her by this post, begging her 
 to send you the cut down proof immediately. 
 
 Sala's " Sunday Out,"* is poor enough. 
 
 I will return the No. probably by tomorrow's 
 boat. 
 
 You 
 
 will let me know in the course of the week, how you 
 decide to come on Monday the 28th, so that we may 
 be on the look-out for you. 
 
 write hastily : having several letters to despatch. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 BOULOGNE, 
 
 Wednesday, Twenty-third August, 1854. 
 
 H. W. 
 
 MY DEAH WILLS : I send you my second article, f 
 A new subject with us, and founded upon some 
 excellent evidence you forwarded to me a little while 
 ago, in reference to the county courts. 
 
 * In tho issue of September 9th. 
 
 t " Legal and Equitable Jokes," printed in Uouselwld Words, September 
 23rd. i
 
 144 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1854 
 
 The enclosed from Mrs. Gaskell, I received this 
 morning. Don't run beyond the present end of the 
 second part, whatever she takes out. She can't take 
 out too much. And bring me all of her story that is 
 in proof, with you. 
 
 C. D. 
 
 Will you tell John to take from the bottom drawer 
 of my wardrobe in my dressing room at home, the red 
 shirts and the buff shirts, and to ask Mrs. Wills (on 
 his knees) if she can find a place to pack them in, 
 when she comes over ? Further, will you bring me 
 a little bottle of our friend Sainsbury's essence of 
 ginger and as large a bottle as you can stow away 
 anywhere, of Burnett's Disinfecting Fluid ? 
 
 XMAS No. 
 We will, please God, settle together here. 
 
 ALL 
 well. I expected to have heard from you. 
 
 WEATHEK 
 charming. With cool breezes. 
 
 EVER 
 
 Faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 Evans has again made me overdraw my account, by 
 not paying the " Hard Times" money. I was inexpres- 
 sibly vexed to receive Coutts's notice this morning, 
 and have written to Whitefriars.
 
 1854] CASTING OFF. 145 
 
 P.S. Your P.S. informs me that all the 45 Cols, 
 are set up. If they are in your parcel, I will divide 
 them and return them with this proof. 
 
 BOULOGNE, 
 
 Thursday, Twenty-Fourth August, 1854. 
 
 H. W. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : There seems to me to be far 
 less difficulty about Mrs. Gaskell's story than you 
 suppose. You know what we want in a No. You 
 can have of the 45 columns as much set up as will 
 make about 2 Nos. and send it to me to divide. As 
 to waiting for the Proofs, it simply cannot be done. 
 You must tell Mrs. Gaskell, in so many words, when 
 you must have the proof back, or go to Press without 
 it. As to Forster, put him entirely out of the ques- 
 tion and leave the settlement of any such dispute to 
 me : saying to him merely that it was necessary to go 
 to press, and that I persisted in going to press. (See 
 P.S. above.) 
 
 The real difficulty is in the reckless casting-ofF at 
 Whitefriars, and upon this point I must beg you to 
 make, from me, a grave representation that it is 
 impossible to proceed if such tricks are played with 
 us. When I read the beginning of this story of 
 Mrs. Gaskell's, I felt that its means of being of service 
 or disservice to us, mainly lay in its capacity of being 
 divided at such points of interest as it possesses. 
 Eejccting my own estimate on that subject, I referred 
 it to them, the Printers (of course) for a correct one. 
 A statement was furnished to me in reply, which 
 turns out to be entirely wrong. If I had known how 
 it was to turn out, and that when they said in 
 
 D.E. L
 
 146 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1854 
 
 Whitefriars "white," they meant "black," or when 
 they said "Ten" meant "Twenty," I could not, in 
 my senses, have accepted the story. I want to know 
 what the Masters in Whitefriars say to this mode of 
 doing business. It is a matter of perfect indifference 
 to me what anybody else says. They enter into a 
 certain agreement with us, upon their fidelity and 
 exactness in discharging which, we rely. I want to 
 know what they say to not discharging it and to 
 shirking and shuffling it off, anyhow. And I say to 
 them that I am perfectly convinced there is not 
 another house in the trade to which I could refer a 
 question so vital to a periodical, who would lazily 
 mislead me altogether. 
 
 You will have received an article from me this 
 morning. You have in hand the " Eastern Tale " you 
 think so well of (I have not seen it yet, the parcel 
 not having arrived), and (I suppose) other available 
 matter. Can't you make up another No. at once ; 
 assuming u North and South " not to exceed an average 
 portion of " Hard Times " by more than a column or 
 two ? Then, if you bring another No. with you, surely 
 you will be easy and well beforehand. 
 
 I arn unspeakably vexed by all this needless trouble 
 and bewilderment. There is no more reason for it, 
 than there is for a calomel pill on the top of the Cross 
 of St. Paul's. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 BOULOGNE, 
 
 Thursday Niyht, Twenty- first Scptr., 1854. 
 //. W. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I return you the No. which is 
 a very fair one. Some of Mrs. Gaskcll's dialogue
 
 1854] CIGARETTES. 147 
 
 open to criticism, but I will not bring a correspondence 
 upon you by touching it. 
 
 To " Holidays at Madame Grondet's " * yes. I 
 have altered it a little here and there, and return the 
 proof. 
 
 Costello really good. 
 
 SELF AND FAMILY. 
 
 Mary is quite well again, thank God, and has never 
 had the slightest unfavourable symptom since she 
 turned the awful corner. 
 
 I enclose a letter to be posted for Augustus. | 
 
 In your next parcel will you send me the 2nd 
 edition of Forster's Goldsmith from the last bookcase 
 against the wall opposite the fireplace, in my study. 
 If I remember, it is on the second shelf from the 
 mahogany slab outside the glass on the second above 
 it, I mean. 
 
 I have nearly exhausted the cigarettes I brought 
 here. Will you use the enclosed key to open the 
 drawer in the round table you opened before take 
 out the same bunch as before find another key on it, 
 that opens the corresponding table nearest to the 
 drawing room and in a drawer (I think the middle 
 drawer on the lefthand side, nearest to the sliding 
 book-door) you will find a cigar box with bundles of 
 cigarettes in it. If you take out 4, tell John to put 
 them in some little common box, go to the Herald 
 Office, and ask Beard if he will bring them over ; he 
 will doubtless do so, unless he should have already 
 
 * This appeared on October 21st. There had been a previous article, 
 " Madame Grondet's," on September 23rd. They were written by Miss Lee. 
 f His youngest brother. 
 
 L '2
 
 148 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1854 
 
 left to come to us. In that case, please send them in 
 your next parcel. 
 
 Ever, My Dear Wills, faithfully yours, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 BOULOGNE, 
 
 Monday, Twenty-Fifth September, 1854. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I really am quite shocked and 
 ashamed on looking at the new No. to find nothing in 
 it appropriate to the memorable time. I have written 
 a little paper "To Working Men,"* which I hope 
 may do good, and I send it to you enclosed. 
 
 But I am so painfully impressed with a sense of 
 our being frivolous that IF YOU HAVE NOT ALREADY GOT 
 TO PRESS WITH No. 237, I entreat you to unmake it and 
 put this article first. Forster will correct it, if you give 
 him the copy, quite accurately I am sure ; therefore 
 it would only involve a delay of a few hours. Even 
 if but a few 237's were printed, it would be better to 
 cancel them stop and get this paper in. 
 
 No. 238 and the parcel, I will send by tomorrow 
 morning's boat. 
 
 In haste, ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 BOULOGNE, 
 
 Monday Night, Twenty-Fifth September, 1854. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I have gone over the No. 
 which is so badly printed and so villainously read, 
 that I have been obliged to query here and there ; the 
 sense being somewhere else. 
 
 * An appeal to working men to insist on better sanitary conditions. It 
 was printed in Iltmseludd Words of Octolwr 7th. The recent visitation of 
 cholera had caused more than 20,000 deaths in England and Wales.
 
 1854] MORE "WHOLE HOG." 149 
 
 " The Ghost of Pit Pond " * is not the thing for a 
 first article. 
 
 Morley has done what he could for the " Cookery," f 
 but it is inherently conceited and stupid. I went 
 over it before reading the " Conscript " article, and put 
 in a clause respecting the inferior strength of the 
 French people as compared with the English. Now, 
 do look at those two articles, with a reference to the 
 consistency and reliability of the Journal in which 
 they appear ! Says " Cookery," the wonderful 
 Maltese labourers (whom I don't in the least believe 
 in) live on coarse barley bread. Says " Cookery " 
 further, English people neglect oatmeal. Says " Con- 
 script," French soldiers live on barley and oats, and 
 are therefore below the mark ! The whole bestiality 
 of the " Cookery " thing, from first to last, being 
 dull whole Hog.J Not content with showing that we 
 might improve our commonest cookery, cheaply, and 
 make enforced short commons at least savoury, it sets 
 up the notorious short-comings and weaknesses of 
 other countries as a model for us, and is more ignorant 
 of the enormous difference made by the different 
 requirements of different climates, than the Plornish 
 Maroon is. Moreover, the exaggerated praise of the 
 meatless dishes is done in a wooden-headed ignorance 
 of the English ways of thinking, which is a recipe 
 for raising up antagonism the only sound recipe in 
 the paper. I don't even find in it the common humble 
 usefulness of the Liebig recipe for making beef tea. 
 Ex-gra : Steep a pound of beef in a pint of cold 
 water, for four hours. Then put the beef and water 
 on a brisk fire for a few minutes until they begin to 
 
 * By Dudley Costello, October 7th. 
 
 f I cannot trace this article. 
 
 j See iiote to letter of August 10th, 1851.
 
 150 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1854 
 
 bubble and boil. Then take them off, and let them 
 stand until cool, when the beef is to be taken out. It 
 will be found by that time to have deposited its utmost 
 virtue in the water which is the strongest and most 
 nutritious beef tea that can possibly be made. 
 
 I think this bit of common sense might be insinuated 
 into the article when you soften down the points so 
 glaringly objectionable. 
 
 There are 6 &c.'s in the compass of one column of 
 the Chinese Francis Moore.* 
 
 The Poem is a thousand times worse than nothing 
 and won't do. 
 
 GUILD. 
 
 I return the cheque book, with several cheques 
 signed. 
 
 HOME. 
 
 All quite well, thank God. The Theatre took fire 
 yesterday at about half past eleven, and is burnt down. 
 Weather, cool, bright, and delicious. Empress arrived 
 this afternoon. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 BOULOGNE, 
 
 Friday, Twenty-ninth September, 1854. 
 
 MY DEAH WILLS : I somehow lost a day, and con- 
 ceived indeed, still mistily believe that I sent you 
 the " Address to Working Men " on the Monday 
 Night. The No. will be greatly improved by the 
 changes you mention. 
 
 Evans will bring you this, and two letters for the 
 
 * " Francis Moore in China," October 1 1th, by Mylnc, according to the 
 Office Book.
 
 1854] MANCHESTER MANUFACTURERS. 151 
 
 post, enclosed, and one for Forster. Will you pay the 
 enclosed 10 0. 10. at your convenience, and ask at 
 the same time how many Terms I have to keep before 
 being qualified to be called ? * I have no belief what- 
 ever that I shall ever keep them now ; but I should 
 like for the gratification of an innocent curiosity to 
 know how many I have kept, after all the boredom 
 I have suffered in that noble Institution of my country. 
 
 Mr. Gaskell's letter raises a rather difficult ques- 
 tion. I think I would reply to him that Mrs. Graskell 
 is free to act in the matter so far as we are concerned 
 as she thinks best ; always supposing that her pre- 
 cautions as to time, render it impossible, that whatever 
 she sends out there in advance, can get back here, 
 before its ordinary publication here. But I would 
 add that we (I, if you like) think it very doubtful 
 whether she would ever derive any pecuniary benefit 
 from such an arrangement which would counterbalance 
 the risk of such a transaction with such people. 
 
 Wonderful fine weather here. Kindest regards 
 from all. 
 
 Eeverting to H. W., I observed a paragraph, 
 either in the Examiner or the Illustrated London 
 Neivs the other day, to the effect that there 
 had been " a large and influential meeting at Man- 
 chester " with a view to the prevention of Boiler 
 explosions, and their consequent injuries to workpeople. 
 Now, as we opened that subject, plainly and boldly, 
 we ought to pursue it ; commending the Manufac- 
 turers for any endeavour in that wise that deserves 
 commendation, and enforcing the principle of the 
 workpeople being always protected from accident, by 
 
 * Dickens entered his mime as :i student at tlie Middle Temple in 1839, 
 but did not eat dinners till many years later. " Life," I., 1GU, 103.
 
 152 CHAKLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1854 
 
 every human precaution. By losing or delaying so 
 apposite an occasion for pursuing a subject we have 
 opened, we lose a chance and waste our power. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 VILLA DU CAMP DE DROITE, BOULOGNE, 
 
 Wednesday, October Fourth, 1854. 
 
 H. W. 
 
 MY DEAB WILLS : It is quite clear that 
 Mr. Carleton's request cannot be complied with. 
 I think it will be best for you to reply that you 
 have forwarded his letter to me, as he requested ; and 
 that you write, as if I wrote, participating in the pain 
 I should myself feel in having to convey to him the 
 assurance that the publication is burdened with as 
 much expense in the way of such advance, as it can 
 possibly bear ; and that, in the discharge of my first 
 duty towards my fellow proprietors, I cannot increase 
 the outlay. 
 
 I am very much afraid that whatever business 
 
 comes within Mr. H. 's sphere of action must be 
 
 very badly done. It is important to see to this. It 
 is not likely that other people are punctually and pre- 
 cisely dealt with, if I am not. Besides the absurd 
 way in which I have received our numbers through 
 the whole summer getting the stamped edition, over 
 and over again, by post, on the very day after, or on 
 the day but one after, I have received a parcel which 
 should have contained the unstamped No. I have at 
 this moment not received the last week's No. at all (I 
 don't speak of to-day's last week's) and have had 
 two " Narratives."
 
 1854] THE EMPRESS EUGENIE. 153 
 
 There is a suggestion of bungling and messing in 
 all this, which alarms me. There is no such thing as 
 a man who does one part of a plain business ill, and 
 the rest well. 
 
 I will return you Carleton's letter when I return the 
 parcel now to come. 
 
 GUILD. 
 
 I have not executed the Warrant of Attorney, 
 because the Consul is an old fool (and a Scotch fool) 
 and I hate to go to him. I suppose I shall be home 
 in about a fortnight. Will that do ? If you really 
 want it sooner why then I must encounter the 
 Scotchman, very much against my will. 
 
 SEBASTOPOL. 
 
 The announcement* of its being taken, at the 
 Review here last Saturday, was very fine. We were 
 very near the Emperor and Empress, and she kissed 
 the dispatch (she is a pretty, graceful, slight little 
 woman) in a very natural and good way. It is extra- 
 ordinary to know through the evidence of one's own 
 senses, however, that the personal enthusiasm and 
 devotion of the Troops, is enormously exaggerated in 
 the London papers. Their coldness was, to me, 
 astonishing so much so, as to be, under all the 
 circumstances, almost irritating. 
 
 EGG AND MUBTEB BEARD 
 beg to be kindly remembered. 
 
 ALL THE FAMILY 
 
 ditto, and all well. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 C. D. 
 
 * A premature announcement.
 
 154 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1854 
 
 BOULOGNE, 
 
 Saturday , October Fourteenth, 1854. 
 
 H. W. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Bather a gloomy No. Miss 
 Martineau pretty well, but grimly bent upon the 
 enlightenment of mankind, and quite absurdly over- 
 doing American Education. I have taken out that 
 passage about paper instantly rising 20 per cent, if 
 the Newspaper Stamp were taken off, for I think it 
 a hazardous assumption to broach so very positively. 
 
 Dodd as bad as need be. Nothing in it. 
 
 We are better without a Poem than with a Poem 
 without an idea. Don't put in " The Best." 
 
 It appears to me that this is not only a very bad 
 No. for Miss Lynn's paper,* but a very bad time. 
 Somehow, this Balzac-imitation in poking a little 
 knife into the social peculiarities of France seems 
 ungraceful, ungracious, and inopportune just now. 
 We can't afford to make mistakes which people feel 
 to be mistakes almost without knowing why. " Mars 
 h la Mode " f comes painfully upon the Battle Field 
 accounts in The Times ; and as I don't think that an 
 Englishman wants to dissect a Frenchman's love, at 
 present, I would rather say nothing about France 
 unless I had plenty to say about its gallantry and 
 spirit. I cannot remember the subject of the paper 
 I returned you in proof last week ; marked No. 1 
 but it would be much better than Miss Lynn. 
 I have a confidence in this " French Love " awaken- 
 ing a vague impression of our being ill-conditioned 
 and inopportune. Pay for it, and let it stand over. 
 
 * Apparently entitled " French Love." It was not published, 
 t In the number of October 14th, by Sala.
 
 1854] A DROP IN THE SALE. 155 
 
 I ain sorry to hear of the Sale dropping, but I am 
 not surprised. Mrs. Gaskell's story, so divided, is 
 wearisome in the last degree. It would have scant 
 attraction enough if the casting in Whitefriars had 
 been correct ; but thus wire-drawn it is a dreary 
 business. Never mind ! I am ready to come up to 
 the scratch on my return, and to shoulder the wheel. 
 
 FAMILY. 
 
 All well. I hope to be at Tavistock Ilouse about 
 midnight on Tuesday. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 C.D. 
 
 Possibly the note marked "Lady Dell" may 
 suggest a subject for Morley. Her brother is Sir 
 Charles Shaw, for many years the first surgeon at the 
 Middlesex Ilospital. She lives with him. If you 
 want the Keport alluded to, write to hirn for it. 
 
 TAVISTOCK HOUSE, 
 
 Friday Night, Twenty -seventh October, 1854. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I am truly sorry to hear of 
 your poor Mother's death. What you said last night 
 had prepared me to receive the sad news ; and when 
 I was told of a messenger being sent here to enquire 
 for you this morning, I felt that the end was come. 
 
 Don't worry yourself about a first article for the 
 next N"o. I will have one ready, please God. 
 
 Mrs. Dickens and Georgina unite with me in kindest 
 regards to Mrs. Wills. Pray let me say that if in this 
 sudden emergency you want any ready money, I shall 
 consider it a breach of the confidence and friendship
 
 156 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1854 
 
 between us, if you seek it in any quarter where you 
 have to pay interest for it. 
 
 Ever faithfully yours, 
 
 CHABLES DICKENS. 
 
 OFFICE OF HOUSEHOLD WORDS. 
 A Weekly Journal conducted by Charles Dickens. 
 
 No. 16, WELLINGTON STREET NORTH, STRAND, 
 
 Monday , November Twentieth, 1854. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : It has occurred to me that I am 
 rather strong on Voyages and Cannibalism, and might 
 do an interesting little paper for next No. on that part 
 of Dr. Eae's report ; taking the arguments against its 
 probabilities. Can you get me a newspaper cutting 
 containing his report ? If not, will you have it 
 copied for me and sent up to Tavistock House straight- 
 way.* 
 
 I don't know what Forster quite expects to ensue 
 from " Mr. Bull's Somnambulist," f but, I think, the 
 Downfall of the Ministry at least. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 TAVISTOCK IIousE, 
 
 Monday, Twenty-seventh November, 1854. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : As I have had a letter from no 
 less a person than Leigh Hunt (!) asking me to give 
 him something soft to eat to-morrow, let us dine at 
 the office, if convenient to you, on Wednesday a day 
 later than our usual day. 
 
 * Two articles on "The Lost Arctic Voyagers " (Sir John Franklin and 
 his party) were written by Dickens, and appeared in Household Words, 
 December 2nd and 9th. 
 
 f By Dickens, llouxflwld Words, November 25th.
 
 1855] "LITTLE DORRIT." 157 
 
 Do you think you can manage to discover by any 
 means where Lady Franklin is now ? I should like 
 to send her those articles, when I have revised the 
 second one. Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 1855. 
 
 In February Dickens spent a short time in Paris 
 with Wilkie Collins. In July he was at Folkestone, 
 where he remained till October, and where he began 
 to write u Little Dorrit." Thence he took his family 
 to Paris. In December he rushed back to England (he 
 writes to Mrs. Watson on December 23rd from Tavi- 
 stock House: " Letters," I., 412) in order to give read- 
 ings at Peterborough and Sheffield. The end of the 
 year saw him back in Paris. 
 
 The "little Freehold" about which he writes to 
 Wills on February 9th was not Gad's Hill, but a 
 house opposite to it. The negotiations for the pur- 
 chase of this house came to nothing. Later in the 
 year, having discovered that Gad's Hill (which 
 belonged to Miss Lynn) was for sale, he opened 
 negotiations, and in the following year bought it. 
 
 In a letter of November 16th Dickens suggests to 
 Wills that he should become secretary and almoner 
 to Miss Coutts. Wills was eventually, as will have 
 been seen, appointed to this position and filled it for 
 many years. 
 
 OFFICE OF HOUSEHOLD WORDS. 
 A Weekly Journal conducted by Charles Dickens. 
 
 No. 16, WELLINGTON STREET NORTH, STRAND, 
 
 Friday, Ninth February, 1855. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I want to alter our arrangements 
 tomorrow, and put you to some inconvenience.
 
 158 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1855 
 
 When I was at Gravesend t'other day, I saw, at 
 Gad's Hill just opposite to the Hermitage where 
 your charmer Miss Lynn used to live a little Free- 
 hold to be sold. The spot and the very house are 
 literally " a dream of my childhood," and I should 
 like to look at it before I go to Paris. "With that 
 purpose I must go to Strood by the North Kent at 
 ^ past 10 tomorrow morning. And I want you, 
 strongly booted, to go with me ! (I have the particu- 
 lars from the Agent.) 
 
 Can you ? Let me know. If you can, can you 
 manage so that we can take the Proofs with us ? If 
 you can't, will you bring them to Tavistock House 
 at dinner time to-morrow, past 5. Forster will 
 dine with us, but no one else. 
 
 I am uncertain of your being in town tonight, but 
 I send John up with this. Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 TAVISTOCK HOUSE, 
 
 Saturday Morning [10i/i February, 1855]. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : You will find a letter from me 
 at the office when you come this morning, which I 
 wrote on the chance of your being at home last night. 
 
 This present note, I beg to say, contains 
 
 THE LATEST INTELLIGENCE. 
 
 I have resolved (the Snow considered) not to go to 
 Gad's Hill today, but to come to the office as we at 
 first arranged. I will then speak to you about the 
 little Freehold perhaps ask you to look at it for me ! 
 Don't mention it to Charley.* 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 * His eldest son.
 
 1855] THE LITTLE FREEHOLD. 159 
 
 HOTEL MEURICE, PARIS, 
 
 Friday , Sixteenth February, 1855. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I received your letter yesterday 
 evening. The posts are delayed, the roads feet deep 
 in snow, the cold is intense, and going on to Bordeaux 
 appears to be out of question. I have not yet seen 
 the list of trains and boats, but purpose arranging to 
 return about Tuesday or Wednesday. In the mean- 
 time I am living like Gil Bias and doing nothing. 
 
 I am very much obliged to you indeed, for the 
 trouble you have kindly and promptly taken about 
 the little Freehold. It is clear to me that its merits 
 resolve themselves into the view and the spot. If I had 
 more money, these considerations might with me 
 over-top all others. But as it is, I consider the matter 
 quite disposed of finally settled in the negative 
 and to be thought no more about. I shall not go down 
 and look at it, as I could add nothing to your report. 
 
 Paris is finer than ever, and I go wandering about 
 it all day. We dine at all manner of places, and go 
 to two or three Theatres in the evening. I suppose, 
 as an old Farmer said of Scott, I am " makin mysel " 
 all the time ; but I seem to be rather a free and easy 
 sort of superior vagabond. 
 
 I live in continual terror of Poole,* and am strongly 
 fortified within doors ; with a means of retreat into 
 my bedroom always ready. Up to the present blessed 
 moment his staggering form has not appeared. 
 
 As to yesterday's post from England I have not 
 at the present time the slightest idea where it may 
 be. It is under the snow somewhere, I suppose, 
 but nobody expects it and Galignani reprints eveiy 
 
 * Sec Letter of June 27th, 1850, note.
 
 160 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1855 
 
 morning leaders from The Times of about a fortnight 
 or three weeks old. 
 
 Collins, who is not very well, sends his " penitent 
 regards," and says he is enjoying himself as much as 
 a man with the weight of a broken promise on his 
 conscience can. 
 
 Ever, My Dear Wills, 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 CHARLES DICKENS. 
 
 TAVISTOCK HOUSE, 
 
 Friday, Thirteenth April, 1855. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I send you the No. with some 
 corrections in the "Thousand and One Humbugs." * 
 Look to the punctuation of " Soldiers' Wives." f 
 
 Do you suppose the letter I enclose to be from the 
 Mr. Holt one has heard of ? Send it me back, with 
 a Yes or No. 
 
 I have read your MS. attentively, and return it 
 herewith. It has interest, but it seems to me to have 
 one great want which I cannot overcome. It is all 
 working machinery, and the people are not alive. 
 I see the wheels going and hear them going, and the 
 people are as like life as machinery can make them 
 but they don't get beyond the point of the moving 
 waxwork. It is very difficult to explain how this is, 
 because it is a matter of intuitive perception and 
 feeling ; but perhaps I may give two slight examples. 
 If the scene, where the woman who dies is lying in 
 bed, were truly done, the conversation between the 
 heroine and the boy would belong to it could do no 
 
 By Dickens, Household Wards, April 21at, 28th, and May 5th. 
 
 t " The Soldier's Wife," by Morley and Wills, Uuuteltold Wordt, April 21st.
 
 1855] CRITICISM. 161 
 
 violence to it and whatever it might be about, would 
 inevitably associate itself in the reader's mind with 
 the figure on the bed, and would lead up to the 
 catastrophe that soon happens. If the boy on the 
 outside of the Coach were naturally done, his illness 
 would be a natural thing and one would receive it 
 accordingly. Now, the conversation by the bed is an 
 interruption to the idea of the dying woman, and the 
 dying woman is an interruption to the conversation, 
 and they don't fit. And it is plain that you, the 
 author, make the boy ill because you want him to 
 be ill for, if the few closing lines of the chapter, 
 referring to him, were taken away, the reader would 
 have no reason whatever to suppose that anything 
 was the matter with him. The Sir Leicester Dedlock 
 of the story and his Mr. Tulkinghorn are open to 
 similar objections, and the whole of the opening 
 is much too long for what it contains. 
 
 The scene outside the Coach has a good deal of 
 merit in it, but the same direful want. Consider if 
 you had been outside that coach, and had been 
 suddenly carried into the midst of a Torchlight 
 meeting of that time, whether you would have 
 brought away no other impression of it than you 
 give the reader. Imagine it a remembrance of your 
 own, and look at the passage. And exactly because 
 that is not true, the conduct of the men who clamber 
 up is in the last degree improbable. Whereas if the 
 scene were truly and powerfully rendered, the impro- 
 bability more or less necessary to all tales and allow- 
 able in them, would become a part of a thing so true 
 and vivid, that the reader must accept it whether he 
 likes it or not. 
 
 D.E. M
 
 102 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1855 
 
 There is merit too in the scene on the top of 
 St. Paul's, and in the Engraver's house but I still 
 feel that Frankenstein has made the people. You are 
 always getting into the footsteps, too, of a writer I 
 know; and when your own shoes might otherwise 
 leave a plain bold mark, they get so entangled with 
 prints of his, that the reader, following on the track 
 of both, gets confused and bothered. 
 
 I know it to be in the nature of the case that these 
 objections to the story must inevitably become stronger 
 as it advances, because there the difficulties grow 
 greater. I mention them honestly ; firstly, because 
 you want me to do so ; and secondly, because I usually 
 accept so much and suppose so much, in reading 
 Fiction, that I do not think I find more fault than 
 another, but rather the reverse. 
 
 Faithfully ever, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 [Wills had been asked to undertake the editorship 
 of the Civil Service Gazette, and had submitted the 
 matter to Dickens.] 
 
 TAVISTOCK HOUSE, 
 
 Tenth June, 1855. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS: I have taken time (as I told 
 you I would), to consider the case you put to me 
 the other day ; because, although it immediately 
 presented itself to my mind in one plain light, I 
 wished to be as sure as further consideration could 
 make me, of being right. 
 
 My opinion of the matter is formed, you will 
 presently see, entirely with a reference to Household 
 Words. If I do not put your inclinations and desires
 
 1855] A DIFFERENCE OF OPINION. 163 
 
 in a separate place, it is because I assume your best 
 interests to be identified with Household Words. 
 
 I think your impulse to take the offer made to you 
 is altogether a mistake. I think your undertaking 
 the conduct of any other periodical quite incompatible 
 with your position at Household Words dangerous to 
 its individuality and responsibility and in every way 
 prejudicial to its interests. I have no course that I 
 can see, but decidedly to object to such an idea. 
 
 When you proposed to me the terms of your asso- 
 ciation with Household Words, you expressly set forth 
 to me necessity of your giving yourself wholly up 
 to it. Since its establishment, you have frequently 
 shown me that the demands made by its business 
 on your time, have prevented your writing in it. 
 I am perfectly sure of my own knowledge that it 
 must always draw sufficiently on all the energies and 
 qualities you possess for the management and conduct 
 of any periodical work. And although I can imagine 
 your having leisure for some literary labour apart 
 from it, now and then, I must hold to the position 
 that its claims are engrossing, and that it must not 
 be put into double-harness with any other periodical 
 editing or sub-editing. 
 
 In the case of " Hard Times," you made a specula- 
 tion with the hope of a large profit. However natural 
 it may be in you to confound the temporary sequestra- 
 tion of the profits on your share in Household Words, 
 with the worth of the share itself, it is not so reason- 
 able as that it can at all influence me in this case. 
 
 If, in addition to what you now do for Household 
 Words, you were to help in the execution of articles 
 that would admit of such assistance, I should think 
 it quite fair that you should be paid extra for such 
 
 M 2
 
 164 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOE. [1855 
 
 work. But I am clear to repeat it for the last time 
 that your entertainment of such a proposal as that 
 made to you by Mr. Bruce is out of the question, and 
 that I must ask you to abandon it. 
 
 I have considered the matter in every aspect, with 
 the greatest desire to be moderate, and to make all 
 generous allowance. I have not the least doubt that 
 you are mistaken, and that in saying what I now do, 
 I accept an absolute necessity which (in a mistake) 
 you impose upon me. 
 
 Ever faithfully yours, 
 
 CHARLES DICKENS. 
 
 [Wills to Dickens. In answer to the preceding 
 letter. From Wills's " Letter Book."] 
 
 June 11 th t 1855. 
 
 MY DEAR DICKENS : In deference to your wishes 
 I have written to Mr. Bruce declining connexion with 
 his paper altogether. 
 
 The two years during which I have engaged my 
 whole mind and energies in the affairs of Household 
 Words must have convinced you that my professional 
 inclinations and desires are solely identified with it ; 
 but do I make a mistake in violating them however 
 reluctantly by fulfilling other claims and duties, and 
 attempting, without any abatement of my usefulness 
 to Household Words, some additional means of income ? 
 
 It is quite true that I did set forth at the com- 
 mencement of our associations, that all my faculties 
 would be absorbed while Household Words was being 
 established; but once thoroughly organised I never 
 for a moment doubted that, so long as my duties to it
 
 1855] WILLS'S WORK. 165 
 
 were zealously performed, I could follow another not 
 incompatible pursuit concurrently even when I asked 
 the same sum, as salary, as that which I was then 
 receiving from the Daily News. I ceased volunteer- 
 ing articles most of which I wrote to make up the 
 deficiencies of others because I could not have kept 
 up the high pressure which the first two years of my 
 Household Words career imposed upon me. At the 
 end of that time an efficient corps of contributors 
 came to be formed, and it was more convenient for 
 me to make suggestions to, and provide materials for, 
 them to confine myself more strictly to the duties of 
 a sub-editor. 
 
 The Civil Service Gazette scheme would have made 
 demands upon me so light that neither time nor 
 attention would have been abstracted from my House- 
 hold Words duties. Other projects which I have been 
 offered I have unhesitatingly rejected because they 
 would have absorbed too much of both. I should not 
 have agreed to take the labouring oar in the House- 
 hold Narrative newspaper if even that had impaired 
 my Household Words strength, but would have asked 
 for a higher berth in it. 
 
 I should never have referred to the " Hard Times " 
 speculation, for I accept that case as it stands most 
 cheerfully, but the fact is that my income is smaller 
 than it has been for the last twelve years, and I 
 cannot think that I make a very grave mistake in 
 trying legitimately to increase it. I therefore embrace 
 your offer of payment for helping in the execution 
 of articles that would admit of such assistance with 
 alacrity, for I suppose you intend to include in that 
 expression such articles written entirely by me as you 
 think worth printing.
 
 166 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1855 
 
 I have said all this because I know I may say any- 
 thing to you that is frank and honestly intended. So 
 completely is my whole life bound up in Household 
 Words and in the connexion into which it brings me 
 with you, that I feel the giving up of any project 
 apart from it as an escape from a grim necessity, and 
 anything that brings me into closer association with 
 it and with you as an increase of my best inclinations 
 and desires. 
 
 Believe me to remain, my dear Dickens, 
 
 Ever faithfully yours, 
 
 W. H. WILLS. 
 
 TAVISTOCK HOUSE, 
 
 Tuesday, Twelfth June, 1855. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : There is no fear of our mis- 
 understanding one another. 
 
 I should be heartily glad for you to increase your 
 income, and hope I have suggested a means by which 
 you may do so. My letter (as I thought I expressed 
 in it) does not apply to every conceivable kind of 
 literary occupation, but particularizes the editing or 
 sub-editing of a periodical not associated with Household 
 Words. 
 
 Your zeal and fidelity in all respects, of course I 
 have never doubted. How could I ! 
 
 Faithfully yours ever, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 TAVISTOCK HOUSE, 
 
 Thursday , Twelfth July, 1855. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : There is no doubt whatever, that 
 the " Wife's Stoiy " is written by a very remarkable
 
 1855] MISS EMILY JOLLY. 167 
 
 woman.* I am quite clear that there is a strong 
 reason to believe that a great writer is coming up in 
 this person, whoever it is. 
 
 The story is extremely difficult of adaptation to our 
 purpose, but I think I see a way to doing it in four 
 parts. It would require, however, to be condensed in 
 the beginning, and I believe the catastrophe to be 
 altogether wrong. That part must be re-written if I 
 accept it, and I should particularly like to see the 
 writer on that subject. 
 
 If you have the means of communicating readily 
 with the lady I assume the writer to be a lady I 
 will see her at the office on Monday at 11, if that day 
 and hour should suit her convenience. In the event 
 of her living in the country, I suppose I must write ; 
 but I would prefer an interview. I think there is a 
 surprising knowledge of one dark phase of human 
 nature throughout this composition ; and that it is 
 expressed, generally, with uncommon passion and 
 power. 
 
 You may quote as much of this part or all, as you 
 like in writing to this author, and I particularly 
 wish you would add that the story only came under 
 my perusal this morning. 
 
 I enclose another MS. which will be inquired for at 
 the office. The lady's name and address I have 
 marked in pencil upon it. I have written to her and 
 declined it. 
 
 Faithfully ever, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 I have seen Evans here just now, about their change 
 
 * Miss Emily Jolly, authoress of "Mr. Arlc " and other novels. "A 
 Wife's Story " appeared in Household Words, September 1st to 22nd of this 
 year. Two letters from Dickens to Miss Jolly (July 17th and July 21st, 
 1855) are printed in " Letters," III., 173 175.
 
 168 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1855 
 
 in the Heading. It must stand as it is until the end 
 of the Volume, and I will tell you on Monday how I 
 propose it shall then be. 
 
 Enclosed is a draft for 12/6 which you can place to 
 my credit in our account. 
 
 FOLKESTONE, 
 
 Sunday , Twenty-second July, 1855. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I have been so very much 
 affected by the long story without a title * which I 
 have read this morning that I am scarcely fit for a 
 business letter. It is more painfully pathetic than 
 anything I have read for I know not how long. I am 
 not at all of your opinion about the details. It seems 
 to me to be so thoroughly considered, that they are all 
 essential and in perfect keeping. I could not in my 
 conscience recommend the writer to cut the story 
 down in any material degree. I think it would be 
 decidedly wrong to do so ; and I see next to nothing 
 in the MS., which is otherwise than an essential part 
 of the sad picture. 
 
 Two difficulties then remain, which I fear are 
 insurmountable as to Household Words. The first is, 
 the length of the story. The next is, the nature of 
 the idea on which it turns. So many unhappy people 
 are, by no fault of their own, linked to a similar 
 terrible possibility or even probability that I am 
 afraid it might cause prodigious unhappiness, if we 
 could address it to our large audience. I shrink from 
 the responsibility of awakening so much slumbering 
 fear and despair. Most unwilling therefore, I come 
 
 * This story was " Gilbert Masscnger," by Holme Lee (Miss Harriett 
 Parr). A letter from Dickens to her in reference to this story is printed in 
 " Life," III., 455, note.
 
 1855] MISS LYNN. 1G9 
 
 to the apprehension that there is no course but to 
 return it to the authoress. I wish however that you 
 would in the strongest language convey to her my 
 opinion of its great merits, while you explain the 
 difficulties I now set forth. I honestly think it a 
 work of extraordinary power, and will gladly address 
 a letter to her, if she should desire it, describing the 
 impression it has made upon me. It might, perhaps, 
 help to soften a publisher. 
 
 Miss Lynn's story* shews to considerable disad- 
 vantage, after such writing. But it is what she 
 represented it in her draft, and it is very clever. 
 Now, as it presents (to cursory readers) almost the 
 reverse of the Medal whereof Miss Jolly presents the 
 other side, I think it will be best to pay for it at once, 
 and, for the present (say even for a few months), to 
 hold it back ; not telling her the exact reason, but 
 merely saying that we are pledged first to the insertion 
 of other stories in four parts, already accepted. 
 Miss Jolly's is more wholesome and more powerful, 
 because it hits the target, which Miss Lynn goes a 
 little about, with a rifle-shot in the centre of the Bull's 
 eye, and knocks it clean over. Therefore it should 
 have precedence both on its own account and ours. 
 
 But observe. I do not conceive it possible that 
 Miss Jolly can alter her story within the time you 
 mention. What I want done to it, is much too 
 delicate for such swift jobbing-work. I question on 
 the other hand, whether it may not be politic just 
 now, to have one monthly part ivithout a long story 
 merely for the sake of variety. 
 
 My thoughts have been upon my bookf since I 
 
 * " Sentiment and Action," Household Word*, November 3rd to 2-lth, 1855. 
 t " Little Dorrit," the first number of which appeared in December of 
 this year.
 
 170 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1855 
 
 came down, and I do not know that I can hit upon a 
 subject for the opening of the new Volume. I will 
 let you know, however, by tomorrow night's post. 
 
 When I came back from Oxford last Sunday night, 
 I found a letter from the Mr. Meriton you speak of 
 (dated either on that day or the Saturday night) 
 coolly requesting to have the then enclosed MS. read 
 and returned by the Monday evening, ivhen he would 
 send for it. I wrote a short note, declining to under- 
 take to peruse it on such terms and put it up at the 
 office on the Monday Morning and there gave it to 
 John to take to Tavistock House in the course of the 
 day, " where it would be called for." Pray see who 
 is to blame for there being any more trouble about it. 
 
 I have written to Mr. Brough, whose paper will do. 
 I expect my brother down today, and, if he comes, 
 will send it and the pathetic story up to you by him. 
 
 Miss Lynn's notions of a criminal trial are of the 
 Nightmarest description. The prisoner makes state- 
 ments on oath, and is examined besides ! 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 FOLKESTONE, 
 
 Wednesday , Fifth September, 1855. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I have a very strong misgiving 
 that the " White Feather " is plagiarised from an old 
 paper in Blackwood one of the stories in the " Nights 
 at Mess," I think. I am perfectly sure that there is a 
 well-known paper, originally published in Blacfacood, 
 working out the same idea. White is coming here to 
 a Lodging to-night, and I will consult his remembrance 
 about it indeed, I don't know but it was his writing 
 in the meantime the " White Feather " must stand
 
 1855] A MILITARY WOMAN. 171 
 
 over, and I have put in, in its place, Miss Lynn's 
 " Winifred's Vow." * "Which is a very pretty story 
 indeed. 
 
 It is, however, three columns shorter ; and as you 
 have not sent me any list of the articles in hand, I 
 cannot suggest how to fill up the deficiency. There 
 is, however, ample time for you to communicate with 
 Morley on the subject. They shall have my paper at 
 Whitefriars, I hope on Saturday morning at latest 
 on Monday. 
 
 I hope you are enjoying your holiday. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 FOLKESTONE, 
 
 Tuesday, Eleventh September, 1855. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I do not write because I have 
 anything to say for I have nothing but merely 
 to let you know that I have received your unanswered 
 letters. 
 
 The " White Feather " taboo, on the ground of its 
 strong resemblance, in idea, to the " Sir Frizzle 
 Pumpkin " story. I don't think it all trenching on 
 the " Fair Maid of Perth," but in respect of the 
 " Frizzle " it is a plagiarism. 
 
 As the French Editorial Phalanx do not reply to 
 your letter, but write as if they had never received it, 
 I think it will be best not to answer this letter at all. 
 
 Mrs. Wills can answer the military woman as she 
 thinks best either to the effect that she knows it is 
 of no use to ask me, or that she has asked me, and 
 finds me to be much too busily engaged with my own 
 
 * Household Words, September 29th.
 
 172 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1855 
 
 pursuits. Anyhow, I am not going to do what the 
 martial woman wants. 
 
 I am just now trying to settle to No. 3 of the new 
 book a hideous state of mind in which I walk down 
 stairs once in every five minutes, look out of window 
 once in every two, and do nothing else. 
 
 Peter Cunningham has been staying at the Pavilion 
 (and dining here) since Friday. He went up by 
 Maidstone and Eochester yesterday, and we walked 
 over Blue Bell Hill with him. At Paddock Wood 
 we found that his own particular Audit Office 
 messenger had been cut to pieces by a locomotive 
 on Friday night. 
 
 So no more at present from 
 
 Yours always, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 FOLKESTONE, 
 
 Sixteenth September, 1855. 
 
 MY DEAB WILLS : Scrooge is delighted to find 
 that Bob Cratchit is enjoying his holiday in such a 
 delightful situation ; and he says (with that warmth 
 of nature which has distinguished him ever since his 
 conversion) "Make the most of it, Bob; make the 
 most of it ! " 
 
 (I am just getting to work on No. 3 of the new 
 book, and am in the hideous state of mind belonging 
 to that condition.) 
 
 Among the list of matter in hand, you will find 
 " Peter the Great," by Peter of the Audit Office. He 
 says there are some " new and curious facts" in it. 
 I have not read it, but sent it straight to Arry. 
 
 What about the Paris paper ? 
 
 I have not a word of news. I am steeped in my
 
 1855] "OUT OF TOWN." 173 
 
 story, and rise and fall by turns into enthusiasm and 
 depression. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 FOLKESTONE, 
 
 Tuesday Night, September Eighteenth, 1855. 
 
 11 THE ERARDS." 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I don't know that I have the 
 least knowledge of Mr. Robertson, though he addresses 
 me as " Dear Dickens." I send you his letter. Will 
 you answer it to the effect that the article* is accepted 
 (it is a very good one for us). I send it to Arry to be 
 printed, by this post. It should go into the next 
 No. made up, as it is apropos of the Queen's late visit 
 to Paris and will get out of date. Will you take care 
 that Hogarth has it to look over, in order that there 
 may be nothing in it against his positive knowledge. 
 
 " THE RIVAL QUEENS." 
 
 I am sorry to say, Taboo. I will enclose it to 
 Holdsworth, with instructions to retain it for your 
 directions. 
 
 " THE OLD CATHEDRAL CITY." 
 
 I will try to read to-morrow. 
 
 " OUT OF TowN."f 
 
 (an article of mine for next week's No.). I sent 
 Breach of the Pavilion a proof it, and he is in the 
 Seventh Heaven of Delight and wants 500 copies 
 
 * "Pierre Erard," Household Words, October 6th, 1855. In the Office 
 Book it is ascribed to " liobinson." See, however, the letter of Noyember 10th, 
 this year. 
 
 f Household Words, September 29th. In the article Folkestone is called 
 " 1'avilionstone."
 
 174 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOE. [1855 
 
 of the No. Will you instruct Holdsworth to send 
 them down on the Tuesday night by the mail train, 
 so that Breach may have them on the Wednesday 
 morning; and will you forward him a note from 
 yourself to Breach, to go in the parcel, to the effect 
 that you have the pleasure of forwarding them at my 
 request and begging his acceptance of them. (He 
 was so extraordinarily kind to me when I was ill, that 
 I am glad of the opportunity of being able to make 
 the little present.) 
 
 You 
 
 I suppose are fat and rosy. 
 
 I 
 
 am in the variable state consequent on the beginning 
 of a new story. 
 
 You AND I 
 
 I suppose will foregather before long. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 FOLKESTONE, 
 
 Sunday, Twenty-third September, 1855. 
 
 H. W. 289. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : " Sportsmanship in Earnest "* 
 for the first article most decidedly. 
 
 I wish you would ask Sala so to remodel that paper 
 on the Kensington Gardens Band,f as not to argue 
 the question with so ridiculous an antagonist as the 
 Sentinel, and not to refer to the verses. What their 
 writer wants is notoriety, and why should we give it 
 
 * By Dixon, Household Words, October 6th, 1855. 
 
 f "Sunday Music," Household Words, October 13th, 1855.
 
 1855J CHARLES DICKENS, JUNIOR. 175 
 
 to the blockhead ? Sala's description is very pretty 
 perhaps he may see something else, to amplify it a 
 little. But what I wish to do, is, not to argue the 
 question and elevate these Sentinels and their pre- 
 posterous sentry-boxes. I wish you would explain to 
 him what I mean, and tell him that I want to rest the 
 subject upon its common sense and common humanity, 
 without reference to any braying jackass with a head 
 and nothing in it. 
 
 You have something to substitute, no doubt V 
 
 Nor would I just now put in " From Kraiova 
 through Orsova " * though it may be paid for. If 
 for no other reason, because there is a reference to 
 Mazzini in it. I have a great regard for him, but 
 this is not exactly the time to call him " a keen 
 player " with his " Manifesto to the Neapolitans " in 
 our hands. 
 
 Where is " Peter the Great " ? Where is 
 "Erard"? 
 
 I should like to see the re-modelled No. 
 
 cannot very well come up to town before Saturday, as 
 I am very hard at work, and rather slowly. But I 
 will arrange to come on Saturday, and on Saturday 
 week. Will that do for you, Bob ? 
 
 I send you No. 2 not corrected. When you have 
 read it, let Forster have it. 
 
 And I think that's all I have to say this morning. 
 Except 
 
 CHARLEY.f 
 
 On Wednesday I got a letter from Mr. Bates saying 
 
 * " From Kraiova to London," Household Wards, October 20th, by E. C. 
 Grenville Murray. 
 
 f Dickeus's eldest son,
 
 176 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1855 
 
 that when he recommended Charley's going to the 
 Brokers, he could not foresee that so good an opening 
 would arise in Baring's as had suddenly presented 
 itself. That the Brokers gave Charley the highest 
 character for ability and zeal, and that he would be 
 glad to take him into Baring's (instantly if I pleased), 
 beginning at 50 a year. I immediately sent off to 
 Charley, and he goes to Baring's tomorrow. I 
 expect the Brokers to have been a device and trial 
 altogether to get a telescopic view of a youth with 
 the double suspicion on him arising out of his being 
 an author's son and an Eton boy. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 FOLKESTONE, 
 
 Tuesday, Twenty-fifth September, 1855. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I write hastily, after a day's 
 work. 
 
 " Half a Life Time Ago " * will be well divided, I 
 think, as you propose. I have marked a place at 
 page 235 where the effect would be obviously served 
 by making a new chapter. Is such a thing to be 
 done with that lady ? If so, do it. 
 
 I don't like three such short articles in one No. 
 as " London Stones," " The Caitiff Postman," and 
 " The Erards." Can't you remedy this ? It looks so 
 patchy. 
 
 I think you ought to set your want of participation 
 in No. 288 right by reading " Out of Town " in every 
 one of Breach's 500 copies. 
 
 It would be particularly well-timed if we could hit 
 
 * By Mrs. Gaskel), Household Words, October 6th to 20th, 1855.
 
 1855] W. M. THACKERAY. 177 
 
 the Charter House again, hard. Can anything be 
 done out of private information, young Hale's 
 pamphlet, and a communication in reference to 
 Thackeray's distorted praise of it (which I remon- 
 strated with him about), in the Examiner two Sundays 
 ago ? I should particularly, of course with all respect 
 for and praise of Thackeray, [like] to knock that 
 destructive bit of sentiment in connexion with the 
 poor brothers slap over as with a rifle-shot.* 
 Yours always faithfully 
 
 (and at present addle-headedly), 
 
 C. D. 
 
 49, AVENUE DBS CHAMPS ELYSEES, PARIS, 
 
 Friday, October Nineteenth, 1855. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : After going through unheard- 
 of bedevilments (of which you shall have further 
 particulars as soon as I come right side upwards 
 which may happen in a day or two) we are at last 
 established here in a series of closets, but a great 
 many of them with all Paris perpetually passing 
 under the windows. Letters may have been wander- 
 ing after me to that house in the Rue de Balzac, 
 which is to be the subject of more law suits between 
 the man who let it to me and the man who wouldn't 
 let me have possession, than any other house that 
 ever was built. But I have had no letters at all, and 
 have been ha ha ! a maniac, since last Monday. 
 
 Will you give my address to B. and E. without 
 loss of time, and tell them that although I have com- 
 municated at full explanatory length with Browne, I 
 have heard nothing of or from him. Will you add 
 
 * See "The Charter-House Charity," by Morley, Household Words, 
 December 1st, 1855. 
 
 D.E. N
 
 178 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1855 
 
 that I am uneasy and wish they would communicate 
 with Mr. Young, his partner, at once. Also that I 
 beg them to be so good as send Browne my present 
 address. 
 
 I will try my hand at that paper for H. W. 
 tomorrow, if I can get a yard of flooring to sit upon. 
 But we have really been in that state of topsy-turvy- 
 hood, that even that has been an unattainable luxury 
 and may yet be for eight and forty hours or so, for 
 anything I see to the contrary. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 49, AVENUE DES CHAMPS ELYSEES, PAEIS, 
 
 Sunday Night, Twenty-first October, 1855. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Coming home from a walk 
 this afternoon, I found your letter of yesterday 
 awaiting me. I send this reply by my brother Alfred 
 who is here, and who returns home tomorrow. You 
 should get it at the office, early on Tuesday. 
 
 I will go to work tomorrow, and will send you, 
 please God, an article by Tuesday's post which you will 
 get on Wednesday forenoon. Look carefully to the 
 Proof, as I shall not have time to receive it for 
 correction. When you arrange about sending your 
 parcels, will you ascertain and communicate to me the 
 prices of Telegraph messages ? It will save me trouble, 
 having no foreign servant (though French is in that 
 respect a Trump), and may be useful on an emergency. 
 
 I have two floors here entresol and first in a 
 Doll's house, but really pretty within, and the view 
 without, astounding as you will say when you come. 
 Thellouscis on the Exposition side, about half a quarter 
 of a mile above Franconi's, of course on the other side
 
 1855] REFOEMING A ROOM. 179 
 
 of the way, and close to the Jardin d'Hiver. Each 
 room has but one window in it, but we have no fewer 
 than six rooms (besides the back ones) looking on the 
 Champs Elyse'es, with the wonderful life perpetually 
 flowing up and down. We have no spare-room, but 
 excellent stowage for the whole family, including a 
 capital dressing room for me, and a really slap-up 
 Kitchen near the stars ! Damage for the whole, 700 
 francs a month. 
 
 But Sir but when Georgina, the servants, and 
 I, were here for the first night (Catherine and the 
 rest being at Boulogne,) I heard Georgy restless- 
 turned out asked "What's the matter ? " " Oh it's 
 dreadfully dirty. I can't sleep for the smell of my 
 room." Imagine all my stage-managerial energies 
 multiplied, at daybreak by 1,000. Imagine the 
 porter, the porter's wife, the porter's wife's sister, a 
 feeble upholsterer of enormous age from round the 
 corner, and all his workmen (4 boys) summoned. 
 Imagine the partners in the proprietorship of the 
 apartment old lady, and martial little man with 
 Fra^ois Premier beard also summoned. Imagine 
 your inimitable chief briefly explaining that Dirt is not 
 in his way, and that he is driven to madness, and that 
 he devotes himself to no coat and a dirty face until 
 the apartment is thoroughly purified. Imagine co- 
 proprietors at first astounded then urging that " it's 
 not the custom " then wavering then affected 
 then confiding their utmost private sorrows to the 
 Inimitable offering new carpets (accepted), embraces 
 (not accepted), and really responding like French 
 Bricks. Sallow, unbrushed, unshorn, awful, stalks 
 the Inimitable through the apartment until last night. 
 Then all the improvements were concluded, and I do 
 
 N 2
 
 180 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1855 
 
 really believe the place to be now worth 800 or 900 
 francs per month. You must picture it as the 
 smallest place you ever saw, but as exquisitely cheerful 
 and vivacious clean as anything human can be and 
 with a moving panorama always outside, which is 
 Paris in itself. 
 
 If this should cross a letter and projected No. from 
 you tomorrow night, I shall of course understand 
 that this announcement of my coming article governs 
 everything else, and that you will arrange accordingly. 
 I mention this now, as I may have no time to write 
 with the MS. 
 
 You mention a letter from Miss Coutts as to Mrs. 
 Brown's * illness, which you say is ' ' enclosed to Mrs. 
 C. D." 
 
 It is not enclosed 
 
 and I am mad to know where she writes from that 
 I may write to her. Pray set this right, for her 
 uneasiness will be greatly intensified, if she hears no 
 word from me. 
 
 I thought we were to give 1,700 for the house at 
 Gad's Hill. Are we bound to 1,800 ? Considering 
 the improvements to be made, it is a little too much, 
 isn't it ? I have a strong impression that at the 
 utmost we were only to divide the difference, and not 
 to pass 1,750. You will set me right if I am wrong. 
 But I don't think I am. 
 
 I write very hastily, with a Piano playing and 
 Alfred looking for this. 
 
 Ever, my Dear Wills, 
 
 Faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 * Mrs. Brown was for. many years Miss Coutts's companion and intimate 
 friend.
 
 1855] FAME IN PARIS. 181 
 
 49, AVENUE DBS CHAMPS ELYSEES, 
 
 Wednesdaij, Twenty-fourth October, 1855. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I infer from your letter just now 
 received (the Foreign Post is not delivered in this 
 part of Paris until between 1 and 2), that you 
 had not then got my letter posted by Alfred. This 
 morning you will have received my article, promised 
 therein. And this, I hope, will have set you up. 
 
 No news whatever, of the missing Miss Coutts 
 letter. 
 
 In the Gad's Hill matter, I too would like to try 
 the effect of " not budging.'' So do not go beyond the 
 1,700. Considering what I should have to expend 
 on the one hand, and the low price of stock on the 
 other, I do not feel disposed to go beyond that mark. 
 They won't let a purchaser escape, for the sake of 
 100, I think. And Austin was strongly of opinion, 
 when I saw him last, that 1,700 was enough. 
 
 You cannot be in any doubt about this place, if you 
 will only recall it as the great main road from the 
 Place de la Concorde to the Barriere de TEtoile. 
 Immediately above the Jardin d'Hiver, is this house. 
 
 You cannot think how pleasant it is to me to find 
 myself generally known and liked here. If I go into 
 a shop to buy anything and give my card, the officiating 
 priest or priestess brightens up, and says, " Ah ! C'est 
 1'ecrivain celebre ! Monsieur porte une nomme tres 
 distingue". Mais ! Je suis honore* et intercsse* de voir 
 Monsieur Dick-in. Je lis un des livres de Monsieur 
 tous les jours." (In the Moniteur). And a man who 
 brought some little vases home last night, said, " On 
 connalt bien, en France, que Monsieur Dickin prend 
 sa position sur la dignite" de la Litte"rature. Ah ! C'est
 
 182 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1855 
 
 grande chose ! Et ses caracteres (this was to Georgina 
 while he unpacked), " sont si spirituellement tourne's ! 
 Cette Madame Tojair (Todgers) Ah ! Qu'elle est drolc, 
 et precisemcnt comme une dame que je connais a 
 Calais!" 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 Great haste to save post. 
 
 49, AVENUE DES CHAMPS ELYSEES, 
 
 Sunday, Twenty-eighth October, 1855. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Don't be uneasy about the 
 letters. All has come right. Miss Coutts is here 
 and poor Mrs. Brown* with her. The instant I 
 received the two notes, I wrote to her at Montpellier. 
 She crossed that letter on her way here. Enquiring 
 at the Hotel Bristol, I found they were coming 
 directly, and I immediately guessed what had hap- 
 pened. The body has been embalmed, and has been 
 sent home to Stratton Street. She will be able, it 
 being in that condition, to bury it under her own 
 Church which is a comforting idea to her, and which 
 she thinks Mrs. Brown will like. I shall have to 
 come over to the Funeral, but I hope it will be so 
 long delayed as to bring me near to our Audit day. 
 
 All right as to No. 293, also as to getting a Number 
 ahead which stormy weather may make desirable ; 
 though it but rarely happens that the Mail Boat 
 doesn't cross. 
 
 I will in future acknowledge the receipt of your 
 letters, and you will do the like by me. We shall 
 then be sure that we miss nothing. 
 
 You may imagine that I have been put out by this 
 
 * Sec letter of October 21st, 1855, note.
 
 1855] GIN PUNCH. 183 
 
 unexpected event. In Miss Coutts's peculiar circum- 
 stances so isolated in the midst of her goodness and 
 wealth it has been a great blow to her. And I have 
 that respect and admiration for her, that I cannot 
 bear to see her distressed. They are both as quiet 
 and well as it is possible to hope, however. 
 
 Faithfully always, C. D. 
 
 PARIS, 49, AVENUE DES CHAMPS ELYSEES, 
 
 Saturday, Tenth November, 1855. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I had a rather heavy passage, 
 but was not even squeamish. Arrived here in very 
 good time, and with great success. 
 
 Will you tell Mark [Lemon] with my love, that I 
 found them playing that piece in Boulogne, and that 
 I observed it to be becoming very well known, not 
 only among the French, but among our countrymen 
 going to and fro. Consequently, if he do anything 
 with it, it should be done at once. 
 
 There has called on me in my absence, a Mr. John 
 Eobertson,* 15, Eue de Monceau, Faubourg St. Koule. 
 I believe this to be the writer of the " Erard " paper. 
 Will you address a letter to him, explaining that in a 
 multiplicity of communications his letter was unfor- 
 tunately mislaid, but that you have heard from me 
 that I think that is his address. And that you beg the 
 favour of knowing whether you are right, in order 
 that you may remit him the amount due to him for 
 his contribution. 
 
 Don't forget the early almanac for Miss Coutts. 
 
 I am impatient to know how the Gin Punch 
 succeeded with you. It is the most wonderful 
 beverage in the world, and I think ought to be laid 
 
 * See ante, p. 173.
 
 184 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1855 
 
 on at high pressure by the Board of Health. After 
 sleeping only two hours on the H. W. sofa, I arose 
 yesterday morning like a dewy flower. 
 
 Mentioning which object, I am reminded by con- 
 trast that your friend Wheatstone was on board 
 yesterday ; and that at Boulogne with his boredom 
 developed, and his visage creased by abject sea-sick- 
 ness, he was the most terrific phantom the shrunken 
 spectre of the Ancient Mariner. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 P.S. 1. I think I gave you, sometime ago, some 
 Xmas Verses of Townshend's.* If you will send 
 them me in type when you send other things, I will 
 try to put them into shape for the ordinary No. 
 
 P.S. 2. About the 1st or 2nd of next month, it 
 will be well to write to the hotel at Peterboro',t order- 
 ing our accommodation; as Mrs. WatsonJ and (I 
 believe) her two boys, will be with us. I have written 
 to her about it, and will prime you with our require- 
 ments in good time. 
 
 PARIS, 49, AVENUE DBS CHAMPS ELYSEES, 
 
 Thursday, Fifteenth November, 1855. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I return the No. a most alarm- 
 ingly shy one, and really requiring something better 
 to bring it up at last than that " Much Ado About 
 Nothing." Pray overhaul your stock, and see if you 
 can't find something better than that at any rate. 
 
 " Charter House Charity, "|| most decidedly first. I 
 
 * Probably " Work for Heaven," by Townshend, in Household Words of 
 November 24th. For Townshend, see letter of August 12th, 1854, note, 
 f Dickens was engaged to give a reading there. 
 j The Hon. Mrs. K. Watson, of Rockingham Castle. 
 || See ante, p. 177.
 
 1855] WILLS AND MISS COUTTS. 185 
 
 would make that the name, and have so altered it in 
 the No. Look to my corrections, and particularly in 
 " Literal Claims," where the Italics (of which, take 
 care that not one is left), and the marks of elision where 
 the vowels are omitted, are as irritating and vulgar as 
 the offences complained of. I suppose it to be Dixon. 
 It is as weak as the Paris flies are in this post. 
 
 I hope, by Monday's post, to send you my part of 
 the Xmas No.* 
 
 My people are all gone to see the distribution of 
 prizes at the Exposition (I recusant) ; in reference to 
 which demonstration I have been driving Landseer 
 out of his senses by telling him, that, no matter 
 what the Queen and Lords tell him, if they give him 
 money (as it is said they will), he is bound in self- 
 respect and in respect for his art and his country to 
 send it politely to the Prefect tomorrow for the Poor 
 of Paris. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 49, AVENUE DBS CHAMPS ELYSEES, 
 
 Friday , November Sixteenth, 1855. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : A very short note I am driven 
 into the smallest corner for time. 
 
 You will probably receive a note from Miss Coutts, 
 asking you to call upon her. She wants to have, for 
 the present, a confidential Secretary, to write her 
 letters, and see that the money she gives away is well 
 bestowed. For the two things, Saunders has occurred 
 to me ; for the last thing only, Johnson. Since then, 
 for both and on all grounds, You. And if she tells 
 
 * " The Holly Tree," to which Dickens contributed three parts " Myself," 
 " The Boots," and " The Bill."
 
 186 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1855 
 
 you that she has communicated with me on the 
 subject, and that I replied I would write to you and 
 tell you my views and the people I had thought of, 
 then I counsel you (if you see no personal objection) 
 to propose yourself. The duties would not be incon- 
 venient at all the connexion would be extremely 
 valuable and pleasant to you the money would not 
 be unacceptable and the post is fit for any gentle- 
 man, in association with such a lady. Don't be 
 amazed by the suddenness of this note. I have an 
 idea that it may possibly be useful to you. "Will 
 write again on Sunday. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 49, AVENUE DES CHAMPS ELYSEES, PARIS, 
 
 Sunday , Eighteenth November, 1855. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I have just received your letter 
 of yesterday. 
 
 XMAS No. 
 
 I send you my paper complete. The title of the 
 next one, after we arrange the order, will follow on 
 at the end of it. There will be a page and a half or 
 two pages, to carry out the idea and close the 
 Number. These you shall have in the course of the 
 week. 
 
 You are mistaken in supposing White to be here. 
 They are not coming until next Friday. Perhaps 
 you may as well address a line to him at once, at 
 Bonchurch. 
 
 SHEFFIELD. 
 
 I think it highly desirable, under the circumstances, 
 to avoid going there which will be a great relief to
 
 1855] GAD'S HILL. 187 
 
 me, and will enable me to get back in better time. 
 Will you write a careful note, to the effect that I 
 highly esteem the plain-dealing of the communication, 
 and that as the particular usefulness I had proposed 
 to myself does not appear to be attainable, I shall con- 
 sider the redemption of the promise Mr. What's-his- 
 name obtained from me, postponed for a time. 
 
 THE HOME. 
 
 I would take Mr. Jephson's case, if you see no 
 reason to the contrary. 
 
 THE LITERARY FUND 
 may be paid, if you please. 
 
 THE TAILORS' SOCIETY 
 
 I cannot of course render the required service to, now. 
 Similar answer to all such applications. 
 
 GAD'S HILL 
 
 bothers me, because Austin was so strongly of opinion 
 that jl,SOO would be too much. I should think 
 he has by this time returned from Scotland. Will 
 you write to him a note, and let him know how the 
 case stands. If he thinks it advisable, let us finally 
 offer ,1,750. If he docs not let it go, since they 
 won't take our money. I think myself that, all things 
 considered, ,1,700 is quite enough. Let my opinion 
 be as one Vote among three. Observe. They are 
 building on that spot have begun since you saw it. 
 
 Miss COUTTS. 
 
 I am anxious to hear if it be brought to bear. It 
 may not be within her plans, but I have strongly 
 recommended it to her.
 
 188 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1855 
 
 H. W. 
 
 Will you tell Holdsworth to post me 2 copies of 
 the missing No. the No. for November third. 
 
 FORSTER'S BULLETINS 
 
 about things in general, you know pretty well by this 
 time. He certainly doesn't find [found] this one on any 
 report of mine, for I have held no communication what- 
 ever with him on the subject of the great G. P. Night. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 49, AVENUE DES CHAMPS ELYSEES, PARIS, 
 
 Saturday Night, November Twenty-fourth, 1855. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS: I begin my letter to you to- 
 night, under the impression that one from you is on 
 its way to me. The post has been so irregular lately, 
 that I may not get it before I shall be obliged to send 
 this off. If I do, I shall of course reply to it on this 
 sheet. 
 
 I have received for the Xmas No. with very 
 blank feelings besides your paper and " The Inn 
 Pensioner," " A Question of Mistaken Identity," " The 
 Landlady " and " The Actor," all running, by an extra- 
 ordinary fatality, on criminal actions and criminal trials. 
 
 " The Actor " is altogether out of the question. By 
 Miss Lynn, I suppose. By whomsoever unmitigated 
 Eot. 
 
 " The Question of Identity," I can make do, by 
 cancelling at least a page. (I suppose to be Sidney's.) 
 
 Do., " The Landlady,'' by cancelling about half a 
 column. 
 
 I trust in our good stars that we shall get better 
 matter than this, or by Heaven we shall come poorly
 
 1855J A SHOWER-BATH CAP. 189 
 
 off! The way they don't fit into that elaborately 
 described plan, so simple in itself, amazes me. 
 
 I return the No. The Poem must really be polished 
 before it can appear : it is so painfully defective and 
 broken. Make the best change you can taking 
 it out. 
 
 Another Poem received, " Amy's Eeturn," is so full 
 of strange conceits and strange metre, that I am very 
 doubtful of it. Don't put it in, until I mention it 
 again. I take it to be by Oilier. Tennyson is 
 ruining all these writers. 
 
 My corrected Proof of my own Papers (which I do 
 think suitable to the purpose), I return in one letter; 
 the Proof of the new No. in another letter. 
 
 MYSELF. 
 
 Will you tell John to get me a new Shower Bath cap 
 made at the Ironmonger's like the old one ? Any 
 old hat of mine in the Schoolroom cupboard, will give 
 him the size. It will then be ready for me at home, 
 when I come to town. My former one reposes in the 
 Pavilion at Folkestone. 
 
 PETERBORO'. 
 
 Mrs. Watson warns me that the best Inn is small, 
 and that we had best order our accommodations at 
 once. She also tells me the name of it, but Mrs. 
 Dickens has cleverly lost her letter, and for the soul 
 of me I can't remember. Will you write her one 
 line (Hon. Mrs. Watson, Rockingham Castle, North- 
 amptonshire), and ask her ? Then, what we shall 
 want at the hotel will be 
 
 A Bedroom for each of us You and me. 
 
 The largest sitting-room for all of us.
 
 190 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1855 
 
 A bedroom for Mrs. Watson. 
 
 Some sort of sitting-room attached, if possible, 
 for do. 
 
 A double bedded room for her 2 boys. 
 
 Dinner at 4 certainly for 5 probably for 7 or 8. 
 
 But of this we may perhaps apprise them 2 days 
 before. 
 
 Sunday, Twenty-fifth. 
 
 I want to give Scheffer the Painter, a complete set 
 of H. W. Will you direct one in the Double Volumes 
 as far as they go to be sent to me in a Parcel. 
 
 I have received your letter of yesterday, and shall 
 expect you on Wednesday night. Come straight 
 here. We will have a bed ready, near at hand. We 
 shall have the Olliffes and young Bulwer at dinner 
 that day, but you can go straight into my dressing- 
 room, and preen your feathers. I fully expected your 
 announcement of your intended arrival : feeling that 
 we could never get thro' the "No. without it. 
 
 THE ALMANACK 
 
 ought to have done more. It is a pity (I observe now) 
 that my name is nowhere upon it. 
 
 CEILINGS 
 all right. Everything in the apartment right now. 
 
 Miss COUTTS 
 I have heard no more from. 
 
 MYSELF. 
 
 Not working very well at " Little Dorrit," since I 
 went back to her from the Xmas No. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 More Proofs have arrived by this last Post.
 
 1855] "LITTLE DORRIT," No. 4. 191 
 
 PARIS, 
 
 Sunday, Thirtieth December, 1855. 
 
 H. W. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : No. 203 [303] is not yet arrived, 
 but I think the Post has not come in. I will go over 
 it on Tuesday (shall be busy tomorrow, finishing 
 " Little Dorrit," No. 4), and will write a paper for the 
 following No. and will also think of your enquiry 
 concerning subjects. 
 
 Delighted to hear of the Xmas No. 
 
 If an article comes to the office from Charles 
 Whitehead,* will you immediately read it, and 
 unless it be out of the question : which I hope it 
 won't be immediately get it cast off, and immediately 
 pay for it : with a turn of the scale in his favour ? 
 He is going to New Zealand. 
 
 To this man (envelope enclosed) who wrote about a 
 case of Distress that he don't know what to do with, 
 will you write that you forwarded his letter to me at 
 present in Paris, and that I begged you to say, with 
 great regret, that after giving the subject my best 
 consideration, I could think of no Institution applic- 
 able to such a peculiar case, and could not from this 
 distance, and without personal observation of the 
 unfortunate young lady advise him what to do. 
 
 THE TURKEY 
 seems to have been a stunner. 
 
 THE HAM 
 Ditto. 
 
 * " Nemesis," by Whitehead, appeared in Hmisfhold Words, April 19th, 
 2Cth, 1850.
 
 192 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1855 
 
 WHITE * 
 
 is in one of his fits of depression, and talks of going 
 home the moment his time is up. 
 
 DlCKf 
 
 is in one of his fits of depression rather uncommon 
 with him. Thinks he has overworked himself. 
 
 Many happy years, 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 1856. 
 
 Dickens remained in Paris until the middle of May, 
 Wilkie Collins being also there during part of the time. 
 Dickens, however, made several visits to London. In 
 the summer he was again at Boulogne at the Villa des 
 Moulineaux. The purchase of Gad's Hill was con- 
 cluded on March 14th, but he did not move into it 
 until the following June. 
 
 He was working hard at " Little Dorrit " through- 
 out this year. 
 
 The mention of Miss Martineau in the letters of 
 January 3rd and 6th deserves something more than a 
 passing word. During the year 1855 a striking series 
 of five articles had appeared in Household Words. % 
 They were all written by Henry Morley, as I learn 
 from the Office Book, and they dealt trenchantly and 
 vigorously with the question of accidents to life and 
 
 * The Rev. James White, of Bonchurch, historian and writer of tragedies. 
 "With Dickens," says Forster ("Life," II., 395), "White was supremely 
 popular for his eager good fellowship." 
 
 {One of his names for himself. 
 Their titles and the dates of their appearance were : "Fencing with 
 Humanity," April Hth ; "Death's Cyphering Book," May 12th; "Deadly 
 Shafts," June 23rd ; " More Grist to the Mill," July 28th ; and " Two 
 Shillings per Horse-Tower," September 8th.
 
 1856] MISS MARTINEAU'S ATTACK. 193 
 
 limb in factories, and the combination of manufacturers 
 in the North of England " in what they are pleasant 
 enough " so runs the second article " to call a 
 National Association for resistance to the law which 
 requires accidents to be prevented by the fencing of 
 their dangerous machinery. ' ' Hereupon Miss Martineau 
 took up her pen for the manufacturers. She wrote 
 an essay for the Westminster Review, which, how- 
 ever, declined it on account of its manner of treatment. 
 It was then issued as a pamphlet by the aforesaid 
 National Association of Manufacturers. 
 
 In this pamphlet Miss Martineau accused Household 
 Words of " unscrupulous statements, insolence, arro- 
 gance, and cant." She abused "Mr. Dickens or his 
 contributor," whom she called " his partner in the dis- 
 grace," and she charged Dickens personally with 
 11 conceit, insolence, and wilful one-sidedness." She 
 said, " I like courtesy as well as anybody can do ; but 
 when vicious legislation and social oppression are 
 upheld by men in high places, the vindication of 
 principle and exposure of the mischief must come 
 before the consideration of private feeling." Vicious 
 legislation meant the provisions of the Factory Law ; 
 its enforcement was social oppression ! She bade 
 Dickens, "if he must give the first place to his 
 idealism and his sensibilities," to " confine himself to 
 fiction ; and if he will put himself forward as a social 
 reformer, let him do the only honest thing study 
 both sides of the question he takes up. . . . The 
 issue," she added, " to which the question is now 
 brought is that of the supersession of either the textile 
 manufacturers or the existing factory law. The two 
 cannot longer coexist." 
 
 To this pamphlet Morley replied in an article 
 entitled " Our Wicked Mis- Statements," which was 
 printed in Household Words of January 19th, 1856. 
 In language which is all the more forcible on account 
 of its studious moderation and courtesy, he takes up 
 
 D.E. o
 
 194 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOE. [1856 
 
 Miss Martineau's challenge, and demolishes her 
 figures, her statements of fact, and her arguments. It 
 is to the proof of this article that Dickens refers in his 
 letter of January 6th. It is not difficult, in reading 
 the article itself, to perceive that he himself added 
 some touches to it. 
 
 In the letter of January 10th Dickens says that 
 " Mr. Paine might do this," i.e., an article on the old 
 coaching houses. The reference must have been to 
 James Payn, the novelist, who was at this time a fairly 
 regular contributor to Household Words. His first 
 article, "Gentleman Cadet" it is entered in the 
 Office Book, by the way, as being by " J. Payne and 
 Morley " had appeared in the issue of April 9th, 
 1853. He speaks of it in his book, " Some Literary 
 Eecollections " : "My first prose article," he says, 
 "found acceptance in Household Words. It was the 
 forerunner of scores and scores contributed to the same 
 periodical, but no other gave me a tithe of the pleasure 
 this one did. ... I don't know how many attempts 
 I had made to obtain that status [of being an author, 
 not a mere private person] before I succeeded ; the 
 perseverance of Bruce's spider as compared with 
 mine was mere impatience. If I could have foreseen 
 how long it would be before I was fated to be success- 
 ful again, my happiness would have been not a little 
 dashed ;* but as it was I was in the seventh heaven. 
 Up to this day, when I look back upon the letter 
 I received, announcing the acceptance of ' Gentleman 
 Cadet ' (a short sketch of life at the Academy), it 
 awakens emotions. The writer was W. H. Wills, who 
 assisted Dickens in his editorship, a man of kindly 
 nature and (of this I was especially convinced just 
 then) of excellent judgment. He was devoted to his 
 chief, conscientious to his contributors, and an 
 excellent fellow, as I had afterwards good reason to 
 
 * Payn's next contribution appeared on November 5th of the same year.
 
 1856] THE BERKSHIRE PIG. 195 
 
 know ; but it was a disappointment to me that I had 
 not heard from ' the Master ' himself. Even that, 
 however, I almost forgot when I received the 
 honorarium (three guineas) * for my little paper. It 
 seemed to me that fame and fortune had both opened 
 wide their gates to me at once." Payn then goes on to 
 describe how he invested this money in the purchase 
 of a genuine Berkshire pig as a gift for his tutor in 
 Devonshire, where, he declares, " there are no pigs 
 worthy of the name, only a kind of dog with a pigskin 
 on it." Eeturning after the next vacation he took the 
 pig with him in a large hamper by train to Devonshire. 
 It was a hot day in August, and when Payn got out of 
 the train at Bristol for some liquid refreshment, it struck 
 him that the pig must be thirsty. A porter fetched a 
 pan of water and together they got the hamper and 
 opened it. " There was a cry of panic, rage and fear 
 a squeal is no word for it a broken pan, a prostrate 
 porter, and a mad pig gone I . . . The next moment 
 the creature was in the market the ' open market,' as 
 it is called, but altogether out of my reach. He had 
 joined a great band of pigs (though the owner denied it), 
 and identification was out of the question. Such was 
 the fate of the pecuniary proceeds of my first article." 
 Payii, who was a most prolific and successful novelist, 
 became editor of Chambers' s Journal, and afterwards 
 editor of The Cornhill, and " reader " to Messrs. Smith, 
 Elder & Co. He died in 1898. There is a charming 
 biographical account of him, by Sir Leslie Stephen, 
 prefixed as an introduction to " The Backwater of 
 Life," a book of Payn's essays, published in 1900. 
 
 The references in the letters of February 12th and 
 14th to Forster's share require some explanation. 
 The original agreement for the establishment of 
 Household Words (March 28th, 1850) was made, as I 
 
 * The actual sum paid, as I find from the Office Book, was half-a-guinea 
 more. 
 
 o 2
 
 19G CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1856 
 
 have already mentioned, between Dickens, William 
 Bradbury, Frederick Mullett Evans, Forster, and 
 Wills. Dickens was to take a half share of the 
 profits, Bradbury and Evans together one-quarter, 
 Forster an eighth, and Wills an eighth, it being 
 stipulated ' ' that in consideration of the share hereby 
 reserved to him the said John Forster shall from time 
 to time contribute literary articles to the said publica- 
 tion without any additional remuneration for the 
 same." Later on there appears to have been a further 
 agreement, for I find amongst Wills's papers an un- 
 signed copy of a memorandum of agreement purporting 
 to be made on February 22nd, 1854. Herein it is 
 recited that Forster has communicated to his co-pro- 
 prietors his inability henceforth to contribute literary 
 articles to Household Words ; and it is agreed, not- 
 withstanding, that he shall retain his eighth share 
 on condition that he shall, on February 22nd, 
 1856, pay to his co-proprietors the sum of 1,100. 
 Failing this payment, Forster's share is to revert to 
 the other proprietors. Whether this agreement was 
 executed in those very terms I cannot say. It will 
 be noted that in the letter of February 12th Dickens 
 assumes to control the disposal of Forster's share, and 
 it is possible that he may have made some subsequent 
 and subsidiary arrangement with Bradbury and Evans. 
 Be that as it may, it appears that half the share was 
 conferred upon Wills, whose pecuniary interest in the 
 profits of Household Words was thus raised from one- 
 eighth to three-sixteenths, while Dickens retained the 
 other sixteenth for himself. 
 
 As bearing upon this matter, I add here a copy of a 
 loose fragment, in Dickens's handwriting, which I 
 found amongst Wills's papers. There is no date to it : 
 
 RESOLVED, 
 
 That the one-eighth share in the property of Household Words 
 relinquished on the 23rd day of February in the present year 
 by Mr. John Forster, has become the property of Mr. Charles
 
 185G] "NOB AND SNOB." 197 
 
 Dickens, and is hereby declared to belong to him during his 
 life. 
 
 That one-half of that one-eighth share, is, on the proposal of 
 Mr. Charles Dickens, now by him conferred upon and made over 
 to Mr. William Henry Wills (in addition to the share Mr. W. H. 
 Wills already holds), to remain his property so long as he shall 
 continue to be Sub-Editor of Household Words, or so long as 
 he and Mr. Charles Dickens shall both live. 
 
 That in the event of the death of Mr. W. H. Wills, or of his 
 ceasing to be Sub-Editor of Household Words, this said one-half 
 of the one-eighth share now allotted to him by Mr. Charles 
 Dickens, shall revert to Mr. Charles Dickens ; who will then 
 exercise his own discretion as to retaining it, or bestowing it, or 
 any part of it upon any future Sub-Editor ; as he may think 
 most advantageous to the interests of Household Words, and the 
 efficiency of his own connexion with it. 
 
 That in the event of the death of Mr. Charles Dickens, the 
 whole one-eighth share referred to in the first paragraph of this 
 Memorandum shall become the property of his successors in his 
 half proprietorship of Household Words under the deed of 
 partnership, and of the other surviving partners, jointly ; in trust 
 honorably to employ it, according to their discretion, in reward- 
 ing future Editors, or Sub-Editors, or both, with an interest, 
 beyond and over and above a salary in the character and success 
 of Household Words. 
 
 PARIS, 
 
 First January, 185G. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Many Happy New Years ! 
 And so, as Tiny Tim observed, &c. 
 
 I return the Proofs. As you observe in your note, 
 they will want to be looked over, very carefully. 
 
 "The Flag of England "Taboo. 
 
 "Across the Street" highly desirable to be post- 
 poned for the present. It is too manifestly a remnant 
 from the Xmas No. and would now come too near 
 that story of Thomas's. 
 
 Lead off the No. with " The Guards and the Line." * 
 
 * " Nob arid Snob," Household Words, January 12th, 1856 ; ascribed to 
 Measom in the Office Book. This was Malcolm Ronald Lain<j Measom 
 (born in 1824), formerly a soldier he served in the Afghan and Gwalior 
 campaigns.
 
 198 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [185G 
 
 With the new name I have given it (see to the proof, 
 the punctuation, and slovenly composition here and 
 there), it is the best thing we can do. It has a 
 distinct and appropriate purpose. 
 
 Howitt, all right. But take his German poetry out 
 altogether, or make him render it in English also. 
 
 " Zoological Auction,"* also licensed and returned 
 herewith. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 I will write again in a day or two. 
 
 49, CHAMPS ELYSEES, 
 
 Thursday, Third January, 1856. 
 (After Post time.) 
 
 H. W. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I am sufficiently irritable 
 though, as you know, the most amiable of men ! to 
 desire to avoid reading Miss Martiiieau's outpouring 
 of conceit, unless I should feel myself positively 
 obliged to do so. I have therefore put the precious 
 packet by, without opening it. I will come to a 
 decision upon Morley's notice of it, when I see the 
 Proof of his article. But my present impression is, 
 that I would rather (if only for the mortification it 
 will cause her), not notice it at all. The Proof has 
 not yet arrived. 
 
 BONBONS. 
 
 Mrs. Dickens has already sent to her sister at 
 Tavistock House, instructions there anent. It is to 
 go back there. 
 
 * By Frank Buckland, Household Words, Jimuary 12th, 1856.
 
 1850] MISS MARTINEAU. 199 
 
 POOLE'S* 
 
 quarter I have paid him. Enclosed is his proof of 
 life. After you shall have sent me the receipt to 
 sign, and after I shall have signed it, please pay the 
 usual Paymaster General order, to my account at 
 Coutts's. 
 
 Friday Afternoon. 
 
 The Proof has arrived. I will read it and write to 
 you about it, when I have done my article. Expect it 
 on Monday morning. From 3 to 4 pages. 
 
 I send by this post a paper of White's. I have not 
 read it, but I know the design and it is a good subject. 
 
 He wants an order on Lafitte's for all we owe him, 
 including " Old Blois" and this paper an order to 
 pay Eevd. James White f so many pounds sterling. 
 This will be as advantageous to him as gold and if 
 you will make a parcel of those books and so send 
 them to him, he will Ever Pray, &c. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 C. D. 
 
 [The original of this letter is wrongly dated 1855.J 
 
 49, CHAMPS ELYS&ES, 
 
 Sunday, January Sixth, 185G. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I have read Morley's article, 
 and gone very carefully over that part of it which 
 refers to Miss Martineau. Supposing the facts to be 
 closely examined and verified, I think it should be 
 printed, and should go into the opening of the next 
 No. as I have arranged it in the enclosed proof. I do 
 not quite distinctly see how it is proved that the 
 
 * See letter of June 27th, 1850, note. 
 
 f See letter of December 30th, 1855, note.
 
 200 CHARLES DCKENS AS EDITOR. [185G 
 
 renunciation of the idea of paying the penalties dates 
 from that seventh of August beyond all doubt. I 
 should like it made clearer. 
 
 Miss Martineau, in this, is precisely what I always 
 knew her to be, and have always impressed her upon 
 you as being. I was so convinced that it was impos- 
 sible that she could be anything else, having seen and 
 heard her, that I am not in the least triumphant at 
 her justifying my opinion. I do suppose that there 
 never was such a wrong-headed woman born such 
 a vain one or such a Humbug. 
 
 If you think any little thing I have put in, too 
 hard, consult Forster. If you both think so, take it 
 out. Not otherwise. 
 
 I should like Morley to do a Strike article,"* and to 
 work into it the greater part of what is here. But I 
 cannot represent myself as holding the opinion that 
 all strikes among this unhappy class of society who 
 find it so difficult to get a peaceful hearing, are always 
 necessarily wrong ; because I don't think so. To 
 open a discussion of the question by saying that the 
 men are " of course entirely and painfully in the 
 wrong," surely would be monstrous in any one. Shew 
 them to be in the wrong here, but in the name of the 
 Eternal Heavens shew only, upon the merits of this 
 question. Nor can I possibly adopt the representation 
 that these men are wrong because, by throwing them- 
 selves out of work, they throw other people, possibly 
 without their consent. If such a principle had any- 
 thing in it, there would have been no civil war; no 
 raising by Hampdcn of a troop of Horse, to the 
 detriment of Buckinghamshire Agriculture ; no self 
 
 * See " The Manchester Strike," by Morley, Household Words, 
 February 2nd, 1850.
 
 1850] MISS COUTTS. 201 
 
 sacrifice in the political world. And Good God 
 when Morley treats of the suffering of wife and 
 children, can he suppose that these mistaken men 
 don't feel it in the depths of their hearts, and don't 
 honestly and honorably most devoutly and faithfully 
 believe that for those very children when they 
 shall have children, they are bearing all these miseries 
 now ! 
 
 I hear from Mrs. Fillonneau that her husband was 
 obliged to leave town suddenly, before he could get 
 your parcel. Consequently he has not brought it, and 
 White's sovereigns unless you have got them back 
 again are either lying out of circulation somewhere, 
 or are being spent by somebody else. 
 
 I will write again on Tuesday. My article to begin 
 the Vol. enclosed. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 49, CHAMPS ELYSEES, 
 
 Thursday , January Tenth, 1856. 
 
 Miss COUTTS. 
 
 MY DEAK WILLS : I am happy to find from the 
 enclosed letter (which you are to read, after reading 
 this), that I exercised a wise discretion in saying 
 nothing to you of a conversation I had with Miss 
 Coutts on the day after my arrival in town last time. 
 She then told me that she was under particular articles 
 of agreement with her Partners in the Bank, never to 
 associate herself with anyone, in any kind of engage- 
 ment or business, who was connected with any House 
 or Enterprize ; and that she had doubted, since her 
 interview with you, whether your position in respect
 
 202 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1856 
 
 to Household Words might not be construed in the 
 Strand as coming within the line drawn. Observing 
 my invariable custom of taking the perfectly indepen- 
 dent course in any such matter, and of justifying no 
 jealousy or suspicion, and of having nothing in 
 common with anybody's intrigues or approaches 
 towards her, I told her that if she had that doubt it 
 was enough that it was enough for me that it 
 would be enough for you and that there was an end 
 of it. She then begged me to explain it to you. But 
 I thought I saw so distinctly that her mind was not 
 made up and that there was a strong probability of her 
 coming to an opposite conclusion, that I resolved to 
 make no explanation to you for some little time. All 
 this I now disclose to you in the strictest confidence 
 my confidence with her, being involved therein. 
 You will see from her letter that she now contemplates 
 the kind of relation I pointed out to you as desirable. 
 I have told her in reply that I expect to be in town 
 again about the 10th of February, and that I shall 
 then be very happy to pursue, and I hope settle, the 
 subject with her. 
 
 ME. 
 
 When you write next, will you enclose some stamps 
 for cheques ? 
 
 Is there any news of Gad's Hill Place ? 
 
 Will you send John to Mr. Morgan, our family 
 apothecary (John knows his house near Russell Square), 
 with a note asking him to call upon you at the office 
 at a certain time ? When he comes, will you tell him 
 that you have it in charge from me to beg him to 
 charge his attendance, medicines, &c., for Mrs. Hogarth 
 in her illness to my account, and just to say nothing
 
 185G] A REQUEST FOR MONEY. 203 
 
 at all about the matter to her, or her family, or any 
 one else. 
 
 X. Y. 
 
 came here at 12 o'clock on Tuesday, by appointment, 
 at his solicitation. It was the second appointment. 
 On the first occasion he was 20 minutes behind his 
 time (but I really believe by an accident), and of 
 course I had gone out. He sat here two hours, telling 
 me about his reputable friends at Erith, and so forth. 
 I had no suspicion that he was postponing a request 
 for money and couldn't make up his mind to make it, 
 until he at last stammered out a petition for 5. I 
 gave it him. Please place that sum to his debit 
 and my credit. He told me he had sent two articles 
 to you. 
 
 I derived the idea that he was living very queerly 
 here, and not doing himself much good. He knew 
 nothing, I observed, about the pieces at the Theatres, 
 and suggested a strong flavour of the wine shop and 
 the billiard table. In Galignani, I see a quotation 
 from the Leader, which unless my memory deceives 
 me (which I don't think it does), is a part of that 
 article he wrote about the Young Man and his Uncle, 
 and called, I think, " Parisian Nights Entertainments." 
 You didn't give it back to him, did you ? If you did, 
 it was a mistake. I meant it to stand over, until 
 Collins should come here. 
 
 H. W. 
 
 Forster does not think those two little poems are 
 otherwise than original. That is to say, he cannot 
 find them anywhere, though he has my general 
 impression about them. Therefore get them back 
 from him and insert them.
 
 204 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1856 
 
 My head is necessarily so full of my own subjects, 
 that I have not thought of that point to any advantage, 
 though I have thought of it at various times. The 
 " Police Enquiry " was never done, though I spoke to 
 you about it when you were here. Accounts of the 
 constitution of foreign armies, especially as to their 
 officering, and as to the officer's professional business 
 being his professional pride and study and not a bore, 
 are highly desirable. An article on the prices of fares 
 on Foreign Railways, on the cost of making them, on 
 the public accommodation and the nature of the 
 carriages, &c. contrasting their law with our law, 
 and their management with our management would 
 be highly desirable. I suppose Dixon could do it 
 directly. Would it be possible to strike out a new 
 man, to write popularly about the monstrous absurdity 
 of our laws, and to compare them with the Code 
 Napoleon ? Or has Morley knowledge enough in that 
 direction, or could he get it ? It is curious to observe 
 here that Lord Campbell's Acts for making compensa- 
 tion to bodily- injured people, are mere shreds of the 
 Code Napoleon. That business of the Duke of 
 Northumberland and his tenantry. Couldn't Sydney 
 do something about it ? It would be worth sending 
 anybody to that recusant Farmer who leads the 
 opposition. Similarly, the Duke of Argyll, whom the 
 papers drove out of his mind by agreeing to consider 
 him a Phenomenon, simply because he wasn't a born 
 ass. Is there no Scotch source from whence we can 
 get some information about that Island where he had 
 the notice stuck upon the Church Door that " no 
 tenant under 30 a year, was to be allowed to use 
 spirits, at any marriage, christening, funeral, or other 
 Gathering." It would be a capital illustration of the
 
 185G] JAMES PAYN. 205 
 
 monstrous nonsense of a Maine Law. Life Assurance. 
 Are proposals ever refused if so, often because of 
 their suspicious character as engendering notions that 
 the assured life may possibly be taken ? I know of 
 Policies being refused to be paid, on the ground that 
 the person was murdered and could insert an anecdote 
 or two. Poisoning. Can't Morley do something 
 about the Sale of Poisons I suppose Miss Martineau's 
 doctrine of never never never interfering with trade, 
 is not a Gospel from Heaven in this case. 
 
 For a light article, suppose Thomas went round, for 
 a walk, to a number of the old coaching houses, and 
 were to tell us what they are about now, and how 
 they look. Those great stables down in Lad Lane 
 whence the horses belonging to the " Swan with two 
 Necks," used to come up an inclined plane. What are 
 they doing? the "Golden Cross," the "Belle Sauvage," 
 the Houses in Goswell Street, the " Peacock " at 
 Islington, what are they all about ? How do they bear 
 the little ricketty omnibuses and so forth ? What on 
 earth were the coaches made into ? What comes into 
 the Yard of the General Post Office now, at 5 o'clock in 
 the morning ? What's up the yard of the u Angel," 
 St. Clement's? I don't know. What's in the 
 two " Saracen's Heads" ? Any of the old brains at 
 all? 
 
 Mr. Paine* might do this, if Thomas | couldn't. 
 But Thomas would do it best. 
 
 Your letter of yesterday has just arrived as I close 
 this. Morley always wants a little screwing up 
 and tightening. It is his habit to write in a loose 
 way. 
 
 * See introduction for this yenr. 
 
 f See letter of August 12th, 1852, note.
 
 206 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1856 
 
 Certainly not the Burns at that price for White,* I 
 undertake to say. The Xmas Bills in the parcel, if 
 you please. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 49, CHAMPS ELYSEES, PARIS, 
 
 Monday, Fourteenth January, 1856. 
 
 H.W. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I enclose the Proof of " The 
 Friend of the Lions, "f Will you have the 
 corrections made at once, and then enclose a revise, 
 by post, to Sir Edwin Landseer, 1, St. John's Wood 
 Eoad. I have told him that you will send it to him, 
 and that he need not answer. He is not a ready 
 writer. 
 
 I think I have a good idea for a series of Paris 
 papers into which I can infuse a good deal of myself, 
 if Collins comes here (as I think he will) for some 
 time. 
 
 If X. Y. really has not sent those papers, it is a 
 very, very bad business. But he described one of 
 them to me ; and I shall still hope that they may turn 
 out to have been on the road while we have been 
 communicating about them. 
 
 POOLE. 
 
 I enclose the document duly signed. It is to go to 
 my account at Coutts's, you observe ; and 710 remittance 
 is to be made to Paris. 
 
 * See letter of December 30th, 1855, note. 
 
 t " The Friend of the Lions," by Dickens, Household Words, February 2nd, 
 1856.
 
 1856] APPEALS FOR CHARITY. 207 
 
 BEGGING LETTERS. 
 
 I return three (see P.S.) ; retaining Miss Walpole's, 
 late of the St. James's Theatre. She has been a 
 begging-letter writer, within my knowledge, these 
 fifteen years. 
 
 Mrs. Eamo Samee is a case that there is no doubt 
 about. John has been there once, and can do the 
 needful again. Something like a couple of guineas, I 
 should think, would be the sum most useful to her. 
 But if there were any hope (I fear there is not) of 
 doing her any real good with more, I should not object 
 to more. 
 
 The other two letters I really cannot form a judg- 
 ment upon. But I a little distrust " E. Martell " who 
 advertised in the Chronicle. Do you think them 
 worth enquiring into ? 
 
 I bear such a long, long train, that I am never rich, 
 and never was, and never shall be. But ( 
 excepted), I always want to make some approach 
 towards doing my duty, and I could give away .20 in 
 all just now to alleviate real distress should be as happy 
 to do that, as I should be the reverse in lazily 
 purchasing false comfort for myself under the specious 
 name of charity. 
 
 Miss COUTTS. 
 
 When you next see her, will you mention, if you 
 remember it, that there was a sum she was to have 
 paid to my account at the bank, which I had laid out 
 for her (I forget whether it was forty pounds or sixty, 
 but I gave her the Memorandum), which was not 
 entered in my book when I last saw it. I have 
 forgotten to mention it in writing to her ; but 
 I know she will prefer its being recalled to her
 
 208 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1856 
 
 recollection, in case there should have been any 
 mistake. 
 
 I 
 
 think that's all at present. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 P.8. To save postage, I return no letter, but 
 describe them. 
 
 1. Mrs. Eamo Samee lives at John knows where. 
 
 2. Mrs. or Miss E. Martell lives at 18, John Street, 
 Holland Street, Blackfriars. 
 
 3. Mrs. Mortlock poor woman, unable to pay her 
 rent husband ran away from her four years ago, and 
 left her with two small children lives at 8, Molyneux 
 Street, Bryanstone Square. Says she never wrote a 
 begging letter before. 
 
 49, CHAMPS ELYSEES, PAEIS, 
 
 Saturday Night, Nineteenth January, 1856. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : 
 
 You 
 
 have forgotten that I asked you to send, in the next 
 letter you should write me, some stamps for cheques. 
 I am demented for want of them. 
 
 H. W. 
 
 The No. did not arrive today. Will come, I suppose, 
 tomorrow. 
 
 Albert Smith has sent me a proof of his pamphlet 
 about hotels. I, in my turn, have sent it to Sala, and 
 suggested to him that he may write an article on the 
 subject. I have begged him to send it to me, here ; 
 thinking that may expedite him.
 
 185G] PARIS MUD. 209 
 
 I 
 
 report that White's parcel arrived safely. 
 
 Also that if B. and E. want to buy the collection of 
 criticisms, for themelves, they are heartily welcome. 
 As to me, I don't want it. 
 
 MARK 
 
 with his usual depth of diplomacy has made no 
 mention to me of the Boots at the Adelphi. Though 
 I had a letter from him two days ago, with a deal 
 about the Adelphi in it. 
 
 MUD 
 
 at Paris, is 3 feet and deep. 
 
 Sunday, 20th. 
 
 The No. having arrived this morning, I have gone 
 over it, and here it is. It wants careful correction (as 
 usual) for pointing, avoidance of confusion in meaning, 
 and making clear. I never saw such confused writers 
 as we seem to vaccinate. 
 
 The Cricket Club paper is desperately poor ; but I 
 have no Taboo to interpose. 
 
 BUCKSTONE. 
 
 Does he ask whether I can recommend them to a 
 chairman, or what they are to do for a chairman ? 
 Have I anything to answer on that head ? 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 49, CHAMPS ELYSEES, 
 
 Monday, Twenty-eighth January, 1856. 
 
 H. W. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : This is a very shy No. and 
 White's is a very bad first paper. I suppose there is 
 nothing else ? 
 
 D.E. p
 
 210 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1856 
 
 My corrections (which are pretty numerous) are 
 made in pencil, but I hope you will find them legible. 
 " The Rector Abroad," most relentlessly and ruthlessly 
 Taboo. 
 
 In your Programme of the No. something called 
 "The Eussian Budget" is in that place. Anyway, 
 the " Eector " is out of the question. 
 
 GAD'S HILL. 
 
 I must come to town sooner than I intended, because 
 February is the short month, and I want to get back 
 to my work. I think I shall come on Monday or 
 Tuesday in next week. Will you tell Ouvry* there- 
 fore that I shall be glad to complete the purchase at 
 the end of next week, if he will make the arrangements 
 accordingly. 
 
 Miss COUTTS 
 
 I will write to, as soon as I can positively fix any 
 day. 
 
 No MOKE 
 
 at present. 
 
 From yours ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 H. W. OFFICE, 
 
 Friday, Eighth February, 185G. 
 
 MY DEAR, WILLS : I think you may like to know 
 the result of my talk with Miss Coutts, without 
 waiting until tomorrow. 
 
 She asked me if I had thought of any precise 
 acknowledgement for the services you rendered her, as 
 she felt it very difficult to suggest an amount herself 
 much greater than she would have felt if she had been 
 
 * Frederic Ouvry, Dickens's solicitor and friend.
 
 1856] A KNIFE AND A HALFPENNY. 211 
 
 able to place everything in your hands. I said that 
 whatever I might have thought, it seemed right that 
 she should form her own opinion on the subject and 
 suggest her own proposition. She then said, as there 
 would be some little expenses incurred now and then 
 in going about, and as she wished her offer to include 
 everything, what did I think of 200 a year ? I 
 replied that I thought it was handsome, and that I 
 would communicate it to you.* 
 
 I hope you approve ? You will have a friend for 
 life, who is worth having. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 C. D. 
 
 [To Mrs. Wills.] 
 
 H. W. OFFICE, 
 
 Friday, Eighth February, 1856. 
 
 MY DEAR MRS. WILLS : Pray acccept my hearty 
 thanks (and a half penny, f or we shall quarrel) for 
 your welcome remembrance of me yesterday. It gave 
 me the greatest pleasure, and the pretty knife shall be 
 my constant companion. 
 
 Always, My Dear Mrs. Wills, 
 
 Yery faithfully yours, 
 CHARLES DICKENS. 
 
 49, AVENUE DBS CHAMPS ELYSEES, PARIS, 
 
 Tuesday, Twelfth February, 1856. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I arrived here in the most 
 brilliant and pleasant manner, to dinner yesterday. 
 
 * In Wills's " Letter Book " there is a copy of a letter from him to Miss 
 Coutts accepting this arrangement. 
 
 j- The coin, which bears date 1806, is attached by white silk ribbon to the 
 back sheet of the original of this letter. 
 
 p 2
 
 212 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [185G 
 
 H . W. 
 
 It seems to me that when you meet to return 
 Forster's bills and note the end of that transaction, the 
 future disposal of that share had better be arranged. 
 What I propose to do with it, is, to divide it between 
 you and me, equally, so long as we both live and you 
 are the Sub-Editor of the Journal. That in the event of 
 your death or your ceasing to be Sub-Editor, the whole 
 of it shall revert to me, in trust to bestow it or part of 
 it upon any other Sub-Editor as I may think best and 
 most to the advantage of the property. And that in 
 the event of my death, the whole of it shall revert to 
 the other proprietors, in trust to be similarly employed 
 at their discretion. 
 
 MY BIRTHDAY. 
 
 Stanfield called at the office on Saturday as I was 
 dressing to go out to dinner, and had not the least 
 idea that I was in town. The note of invitation he 
 received did not mention that I was coming, and had 
 no signature to it. He addressed his answer to you at 
 random, and called on Saturday to ask you if he had 
 done right. 
 
 Faithfully ever, 
 C. D. 
 
 49, CHAMPS ELYSEES, 
 
 Friday, February Fifteenth, 1856. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I enclose you the promised article 
 for H. W. 
 
 I have just received your letter, and am truly 
 pleased to know that you are gratified by what I have 
 done respecting the share. I hoped you would be ; 
 and in this, and in all other little ways in which I can
 
 185G] PEOOFS. 213 
 
 ever testify my affection for you and my sense of the 
 value of your friendship and support, I merely gratify 
 myself by doing what you more than merit. 
 
 In haste, 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 49, CHAMPS ELYSEES, 
 
 Sunday Night, Seventeenth February , 1856. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : On the principle that one XX 
 number is better than two X ones always, I could so 
 re-arrange this No. as to begin with " Why," and get 
 Collins (who, so far, is admirable) into the opening. I 
 have taken some things out of Sala, where he is 
 wrong. He has not been in Italy, I feel sure. 
 
 The Poem, very good. But it is a remarkable thing, 
 especially when that contrast is to be presented between 
 the nourishing and the wasted Babylon, that the 
 thriving city has not a single living figure in it ! 
 It is a .very curious example of the incomplete way 
 in which some writers seem to see their pictures. 
 
 "Looking Out of Window,'' is so ridiculously printed 
 in the huddling up of the sentences, that I really 
 cannot understand it. There appears to be a good 
 idea in it, but I have become hopelessly confused by it 
 and have given it up in despair. 
 
 The same remark applies to "Far East," which, in 
 one place especially, I can't at all understand. Pray 
 look to the Proof and the Copy. 
 
 Keverting to my article, "Why," I am not sure but 
 that in a former article called " A Few Conventionali- 
 ties," I noticed the theatrical way of opening a letter. 
 Will you refer back ? And if I did notice it, take that 
 passage out.* 
 
 * The various articles above referred to appeared in Household Word*,
 
 214 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1856 
 
 I wish you would write, for 311, a temperate but 
 strong article about the cost of administering the 
 Literary Fund.* It will be the No. before the 
 Annual Meeting. I would recite the object and 
 intention of the Institution, recite the monstrous 
 expenditure, and plainly call upon the Subscribers to 
 look into the thing at the next Annual Meeting on 
 such a day. If you are too busy to do it get 
 Morley to do it ; but let us have it in that No. I 
 will go carefully over it. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C.D. 
 
 To Mr. Snow, say it was a mistake of Mr. Carlyle's. 
 We have made no investment in the Mitre Office, and 
 I know nothing about it. 
 
 49, CHAMPS ELYSEES, PARIS, 
 
 Seventeenth February, 1856, Sunday. 
 
 H. W. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS ; I will go over the proof tonight, 
 and write you what I think we had best do in respect 
 of Collins's story tomorrow. At the same time I will 
 return my Proof. 
 
 Pray take care that they always strike out that 
 infernal dash which I myself have taken out five 
 hundred times, between the heading "In so many 
 Chapters," and the numbering of the chapter. I am 
 vexed to see it in the last No. after all. 
 
 March 1st. " Why," was by Dickens. Wilkie Collins's " A Rogue's Life " 
 began in this number and was concluded in the number of March 2'Jth. 
 Sala's article was " The Great Hotel Question." The poem was " A Vision 
 of Old Babylon," by Oilier. " Looking Out of Window " and " Far East " 
 were by Morley. 
 
 * This was written by Morley, and appeared in the number of March 8th.
 
 1856] A FEENCH TRANSLATION. 215 
 
 C.D. 
 
 My agreement with the French booksellers for the 
 complete translation, binds me to let them have a 
 copy of everything I have written. Will you have, 
 in the course of a week, a complete collection made of 
 my papers in If. W. ? (It would be no bad thing, 
 while our people are about it, to have it made in dupli- 
 cate, so that we may keep one at the office and regularly 
 keep it up to the time) ; and when it is finished will 
 you label it " From Mr. Charles Dickens's contributions 
 to Household Words," and send it to B. and E., to go into 
 a parcel they are making for the said French book- 
 sellers ? You will of course except all composite articles 
 and all such pieces de circonstance as the opening address 
 and the reference to the almanack. 
 
 And will you ascertain from Augustus what wine of 
 mine has come to hand ? There is some very precious 
 champagne wandering about, somewhere. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 49, CHAMPS ELYSEES, PARIS, 
 
 Sunday, March Second, 1856. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I have been so occupied with 
 " Little Dorrit'' that I could not return you the revise 
 of No. 311, in time for it to be of any use. I am 
 sorry to see the Cold Water cure classed in Morley's 
 article among the humbugs of the time. Firstly, 
 because I believe that in reason there is a good deal 
 in it. Secondly, because you were at one of the great 
 Malvern Doctors' and my wife was at another's. 
 Perhaps this may have occurred to you and you may 
 have taken it out.
 
 216 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1856 
 
 The Gad's Hill purchase seems to me to be a sort 
 of amateur Chancery suit which will never be settled. 
 
 Will you tell John that Walter* is coming home on 
 Tuesday, and that I shall be glad if he will meet him 
 at the London Bridge station on Tuesday night at 10. 
 
 If Johnson has not acquitted himself of that 
 selection-job, the parcel (tell Bradbury and Evans) 
 must come at once without it. The French book- 
 sellers are impatient for it, and worry me like sharp 
 dogs. Pray tell B. and E. to get it dispatched at 
 once. Ever faithfully, 
 
 C.D. 
 
 P.S. Your letter received, since I wrote the fore- 
 going. 
 
 You remember my telling you some time ago that I 
 greatly mistrusted 's affairs. 
 
 To the Gentleman who wants to play "The Light- 
 house " please say that I am in Paris that I have 
 referred his request to Mr. Collins the Author of the 
 piece and that Mr. Collins, with every disposition 
 to oblige him, would desire to keep the MS. in his desk 
 where it now lies. 
 
 49, CHAMPS ELYSEES, PARIS, 
 
 Thursday, March Sixth, 1856. 
 
 C. G. T. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I am deeply grieved that such 
 a Firef should have come off in my absence. Am 
 inconsolable. 
 
 * His second son, Walter Landor Dickens. 
 
 t An allusion to the great lire at Covent Garden Theatre on March 6th, 
 1856. There had been a Hal Masqu6 all night ; it was not quite 
 ended when the fire broke out in the carpenter's shop, between ceiling and 
 roof, just before 5 a.m., as the band was being bidden to strike up " God 
 Save the Queen." Two hundred revellers were still there : a stampede 
 where no guest behaved well was curbed by the police.
 
 1850] "THE GIANT PROPERTY." 217 
 
 I 
 
 think I shall come to town in the night of Sunday ; 
 being so abominably used up as to the Calais Eailway, 
 that I feel desirous to be relieved from the contempla- 
 tion of that enterprise by daylight. After brightening 
 myself up in my usual beaming manner I will come 
 down to the office ; and as I shall be dining out 
 every day that week if we dine together in peace at 
 the Office that day (meaning Monday) it will perhaps 
 be the usefullest thing we can do. Come and dine 
 with me at Gravesend on the following Sunday. 
 Forster and Charley are coming down to take a 
 respectful look at the outside of the Giant Property. 
 
 MARK, 
 
 I understand, is helping the country to that noble 
 representative, Mr. Herbert Ingram. In case he 
 should return before I come, will you tell him of the 
 change in my arrangements (he supposes me to be due 
 at London Bridge on Monday Night, which was my 
 original intention), and that I am his, at Household 
 Words at 8 on Monday Evening. 
 
 JOHN 
 
 perhaps will come to the Station to receive me, at 
 about 8 on Monday Morning. I purpose being there, 
 unless it should blow Great Guns. 
 
 GAD'S HILL 
 I suppose stands where it did ? 
 
 " LITTLE DORRIT " 
 
 has completed her sixth ; and that wonderful man the 
 writer thereof is in that state of weary excitement 
 which is a part of him at such periods.
 
 218 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOE. [1856 
 
 Will you tear off, put in an envelope, address to 
 my bootmakers, Hall & Co., Quadrant, Eegent Street, 
 and send at once by John (he knows the place), 
 t'other side. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 49, CHAMPS ELYSEES, 
 
 First April, 1856. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : You will have seen by a letter 
 from me received this morning, that we are all right. 
 
 I think, in such a case as that of Collins's, the 
 right thing is to give 50.* I think it right, 
 abstractedly, in the case of a careful and good writer 
 on whom we can depend for Xmas Nos. and the like. 
 But further, I know of offers for stories going about 
 to Collins himself for instance which make it 
 additionally desirable that we should not shave close 
 in such a case. I therefore tell him. that you have 
 paid in 50. 
 
 In great haste (at work), 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 49, CHAMPS ELYSEES, PARIS, 
 
 Sunday, Sixth April, 1856. 
 MY DEAR WILLS: 
 
 FIFTY POUNDS IN ALL ITS ASPECTS 
 all right. 
 
 SALA. 
 
 I enclose my reply. Need not repeat its terms, as 
 you will open and read it for your own guidance. I 
 
 * This was the sum paid for " A Rogue's Life."
 
 185G] "THE FROZEN DEEP." 219 
 
 wonder whether you anticipate its contents. I shall 
 be curious to know. 
 
 " THE SIGN." 
 I think not. I am doubtful, but I think not. 
 
 CHRISTMAS. 
 
 Collins and I have a mighty original notion (mine 
 in the beginning) for another Play* at Tavistock 
 House. I purpose opening on Twelfth night, the 
 theatrical season of that great establishment. But 
 now a tremendous question. Is 
 
 MRS. WILLS ! 
 
 game to do a Scotch Housekeeper, in a supposed 
 country-house with Mary, Katey, Georgina, &c. If 
 she can screw her courage up to saying Yes, that 
 country house opens the piece in a singular way, and 
 that Scotch housekeeper's part shall flow from the 
 present pen. If she says No (but she won't), f no 
 Scotch Housekeeper can be. The Tavistock House 
 Season of 4 nights pauses for a reply. Scotch song 
 (new and original) of Scotch Housekeeper, would 
 pervade the piece. 
 
 You 
 
 had better pause for breath. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. I). 
 
 POOLE. 
 
 I have paid him his money. Here is the 
 Proof of life. If you will get the receipt for 
 
 * "The Frozen Deep," 
 t She didn't.
 
 220 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1856 
 
 me to sign, the money can go to my account at 
 
 Coutts's. 
 
 BOULOGNE, 
 
 Thursday, Seventh August, 1856. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I do not feel disposed to record 
 those two Chancery cases ; firstly, because I would 
 rather have no part in engendering in the mind of any 
 human creature a hopeful confidence in that den of 
 iniquity. 
 
 And Secondly, because it seems to me that the real 
 philosophy of the facts is altogether missed in the 
 narrative. The wrong which chanced to be set right 
 in these two cases was done, as all such wrong is, 
 mainly because these wicked Courts of Equity, with 
 all their means of evasion and postponement, give 
 scoundrels confidence in cheating. If justice were 
 cheap, sure, and speedy, few such things would be. 
 It is because it has become (through the vile dealing 
 of those Courts and the vermin they have called into 
 existence) a positive precept of experience that a man 
 had better endure a great wrong than go, or suffer 
 himself to be taken, into Chancery with the dream of 
 setting it right it is because of this, that such 
 nefarious speculations are made. 
 
 Therefore I see nothing at all to the credit of 
 Chancery in these cases, but everything to its dis- 
 credit. And as to " owing "it to Chancery to bear 
 testimony to its having rendered justice in two such 
 plain matters, I have no debt of the kind upon my 
 conscience. 
 
 In haste, 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D.
 
 185G] WILKIE COLLINS. 221 
 
 TAVISTOCK HOUSE, 
 
 Tuesday, Sixteenth September, 1856. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I have been thinking a good 
 deal ahout Collins, and it strikes me that the best 
 thing we can just now do for H. W. is to add him on 
 to Morley, and offer him Five Guineas a week. He 
 is very suggestive, and exceedingly quick to take my 
 notions. Being industrious and reliable besides, I 
 don't think we should be at an additional expense of 
 20 in the year by the transaction. 
 
 I observe that to a man in his position who is fight- 
 ing to get on, the getting his name before the public 
 is important. Some little compensation for its not 
 being constantly announced is needed, and that I 
 fancy might be afforded by a certain engagement. If 
 you are of my mind, I wish you would go up to 
 him this morning, and tell him this is what we 
 have to propose to him today, and that I wish 
 him, if he can, to consider beforehand. You could 
 explain the nature of such an engagement to him, 
 in half a dozen words, far more easily than we 
 could all open it together. And he would then come 
 prepared. 
 
 Of course he should have permission to collect his 
 writings, and would be handsomely and generously 
 considered in all respects. I think it would do him, 
 in the long run, a world of good ; and I am certain 
 that by meeting together dining three instead of 
 two and sometimes calling in Morley to boot we 
 should knock out much new fire. 
 
 What it is desirable to put before him, is the regular 
 association with the work, and the means he already 
 has of considering whether it would be pleasant and
 
 2-22 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [185G 
 
 useful to him to work with me, and whether any mere 
 trading engagement would be likely to render him 
 as good service.* 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 TAVISTOCK HOUSE, 
 
 Thursday , Eighteenth September, 1856. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Don't conclude anything un- 
 favourable with Collins, without previous reference of 
 the subject, and the matter of your consultation, to 
 me. And again put before him clearly, when he 
 comes to you, that I do not interpose myself in this 
 stage of the business, solely because I think it right 
 that he should consider and decide without any 
 personal influence on my part. 
 
 I think him wrong in his objection, and have not 
 the slightest doubt that such a confusion of authorship 
 (which I don't believe to obtain in half a dozen minds 
 out of half a dozen hundred) would be a far greater 
 service than dis-service to him. This I clearly see. 
 But, as far as a long story is concerned, I see not the 
 least objection to our advertising, at once, before it 
 begins, that it is by him. I do see an objection to 
 departing from our custom of not putting names to 
 the papers in H. W. itself ; but to our advertising the 
 authorship of a long story, as a Eider to all our 
 advertisements, I see none whatever. 
 
 Now, as to a long stoiy itself, I doubt its value to 
 
 * I think some arrangement of this kind was made between Dickens 
 and Wilkie Collins, for I observe that from October 4th of this year onward 
 no entry of any payment is made in the Office Book opposite his contributions. 
 This would, I presume, signify that he was paid a regular salary as a member 
 of the Household Words staff.
 
 1850] MESMERISM. 223 
 
 us. And I feel perfectly convinced that it is not one 
 quarter so useful to us as detached papers, or short 
 stories in four parts. But I am quite content to try 
 the experiment.* The story should not, however, go 
 beyond six months, and the engagement should be 
 for twelve. 
 
 Faithfully ever, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 TAVISTOCK HOUSE, 
 
 Sunday Morning, Twenty-eighth September, 1856. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I suddenly remember this 
 morning, that in Mr. Carter's article, " Health and 
 Education," I left a line which must come out. It is, 
 in effect, that the want of Healthy Training leaves 
 girls in a fit state to be the subjects of Mesmerism. 
 I would not on any consideration hurt Elliotson's feel- 
 ings (as I should deeply) by leaving that depreciatory 
 kind of reference in any page of H. W. He has 
 suffered quite enough, without a stab from a friend. 
 So pray, whatever the inconvenience may be in what 
 Bradbury calls " The Friars," take that passage out. 
 By some extraordinary accident, after observing it I 
 forgot to do it. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 0. D. 
 
 TAVISTOCK HOUSE, 
 
 Wednesday, October Fifteenth, 1856. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Will you and Mrs. Wills come 
 to the reading of the Play,f next Monday Evening at 
 
 * Wilkic Collins's " The Dead Secret " ran in Household Words from 
 January 3rd to June 13th, 1857. 
 f " The Frozen Deep."
 
 224 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [185G 
 
 a quarter before 8. Stanfield has not returned yet; 
 but there is so much to do with it that I think it best 
 not to wait for him, so far as the Dram : Pers : is 
 concerned. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 OFFICE OF HOUSEHOLD WORDS, 
 A Weeldy Journal conducted by Charles Dickens. 
 
 No. 16, WELLINGTON STREET NORTH, STRAND, 
 Thursday Evg., 12th Novr., 1856. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Yes, to the " Christmas Carol." 
 No, to the " Song of the Stars." 
 
 I am glad you like "The Wreck/'* though you 
 have not seen all of it, I think. I find the " Narrative " 
 too strong (speaking as a reader of it, not as its writer) 
 to be broken by the stories. I have therefore devised 
 with Collins for getting the stories in between his 
 " Narrative " and mine, and breaking neither. 
 
 I never wrote anything more easily, or I think with 
 greater interest and stronger belief. 
 
 The almanack I returned to the Printer tonight. I 
 chose the longer quotation, because the quotation 
 without the Sun seems to want its source of Life. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 C. D. 
 
 TAVISTOCK HOUSE, 
 
 Nineteenth Novembei', 1856. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : On the lists being added up, I 
 find that we can still (as I hope), book some more 
 
 * The Christmas number this year was " The Wreck of the Qolden Mary" 
 in which Dickens wrote " The Wreck," while Collins wrote " John Steadman's 
 Account " and " The Deliverance."
 
 1857] G. A. SALA. 225 
 
 names. I have therefore put down Mr. Payn. And 
 if you have any names to suggest, now is the time. 
 
 Of course if you have any at any time, wherein you 
 may be interested or not, you will let me know what 
 they are. But this is the time at which such lines 
 have the best chance of falling into pleasant places. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 TAVISTOCK HOUSE, 
 
 Twenty-fourth December, 1856. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Will you represent to Mr. Sala 
 the necessity and vital importance quite as much to 
 himself as to Household Words of his being punctual 
 and faithful in the performance of the work he has 
 undertaken. 
 
 Pray take care that he distinctly understands beyond 
 all possibility of misconception, that he can have 
 money from you while he is at work, as he wants it ; 
 and that when we come, on the completion of " Due 
 North," to close our accounts I shall arrange all things 
 with him for his advantage, in exactly the same spirit 
 as if he had not given me occasion to decide that 
 Household Words must not do him the injury of 
 accepting any further service at his hands.* 
 
 Faithfully always, 
 
 CHARLES DICKENS. 
 
 1857. 
 
 In January of this year several performances of 
 Wilkie Collins's play, " The Frozen Deep/' were given 
 at Tavistock House, where a special stage had been 
 
 * See ante, p. 46. Sala's "A Journey Due North" ran through House- 
 hold Words from October 4th, 1856, to March 14th, 1857. 
 
 D.E. Q
 
 226 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1857 
 
 constructed. Dickens, who took the part of Richard 
 Wardour, was the stage -manager ; the audiences were 
 crowded and enthusiastic, and everything went off 
 with brilliant success. " The Frozen Deep,'' I may 
 add, was produced at the Olympic Theatre in 18G6, 
 but it failed to draw the public, and had only a short 
 run. 
 
 On June 1st Dickens took up his residence at Gad's 
 Hill Place. In that month Douglas Jerrold, his 
 intimate friend, died, and Dickens at once set about 
 organising a series of entertainments for the benefit 
 of Jerrold's family. These included performances of 
 "The Frozen Deep" in London and Manchester; 
 readings of the " Christmas Carol " in both these 
 towns ; performances of two of Jerrold's plays by pro- 
 fessional actors, and a lecture by Thackeray. Dickens 
 (" Life," III., 145) had expressed a " confident hope 
 that we shall get close upon two thousand pounds," 
 and Forster declares that " the result did not fall short 
 of his expectations." 
 
 For the business management of these various 
 entertainments Dickens had secured Arthur Smith, 
 brother of Albert Smith. " I have got hold," he 
 writes ("Life," III., 145), "of Arthur Smith as the 
 best man of business I know, and go to work with 
 him tomorrow." Arthur Smith's services in this 
 capacity were invaluable, and when Dickens in the 
 following year gave his public readings Smith again 
 became his business assistant, and so remained until 
 his death in October, 1801. Dickens had a great 
 regard and liking for him. 
 
 On September 7th (see letter of September 6th, post) 
 Dickens and Wilkie Collins set off together on a tour 
 in the North of England, the object being to gather 
 notes for a series of articles to appear in Household 
 Words, under the title "The Lazy Tour of Two Idle
 
 1857] THE UNINVITED GUEST. 227 
 
 Apprentices " (Household Words, October 3rd, 10th, 
 17th, 24th, and 31st). On September 9th they 
 climbed Carrick Fell, and lost their way in coming 
 down. To make matters worse Collins fell and sprained 
 his ankle, and could hardly manage to move. They 
 got down eventually, after running great risks. (See 
 a letter from Dickens to Forster, " Life," III., 147). 
 
 TAVISTOCK HOUSE, 
 
 Saturday, Third January, 1857. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I am sorry that I cannot do 
 
 what Mr. asks. But the substitution of an 
 
 uninvited visitor for an invited one* is really put out 
 of the question by the large reserved list of friends 
 whom we have been unable to ask for want of room. 
 No longer ago than Thursday, I could not do exactly 
 the same thing for my old and intimate friend Maclise. 
 His place falling in (through his being unable to move 
 his leg, which is injured), I could not accept his pro- 
 posed substitute, but gave it to the first on our old 
 neglected list. And I must beg to exercise the same 
 
 privilege in respect of Mrs. 's. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 CHARLES DICKENS. 
 
 TAVISTOCK HOUSE, 
 
 Sunday, Fourth January, 1857. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I have of course no other reply 
 to your note than that I cheerfully acquiesce. I wish 
 however, in thorough good humour, that you did not 
 argue the principle with me, because it does not 
 
 * At the performance of " The Frozen Deep," at Tavistock House. The 
 next letter refers to the same matter. 
 
 Q 2
 
 228 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1857 
 
 reasonably admit of any discussion out of myself. 
 The less I know of the people concerned, the more 
 unreasonable such a substitution is in my mind, and the 
 greater the liberty is of so misusing an act of attention. 
 
 (This remark applies solely, I need not add, to Mr. .) 
 
 It is worth remembering that among nearly four 
 hundred people no such thing has been thought of 
 except by Maclise, who expressly said in his note that 
 he still did not consider it a kind of thing to be done. 
 
 I should like to see you sometime tomorrow morning 
 about the seats ; which will require a little manage- 
 ment when you have got the Theatre nearly full, and 
 will need to be perfectly understood beforehand. I 
 am going to Newgate Market with Mrs. Dickens after 
 breakfast to shew her where to buy fowls ; but I shall 
 be back directly. Shall we appoint 12 o'clock? 
 
 I shall then have one or two things to give you for 
 H. W. also, and a question to ask you about Frederick.* 
 
 "Will you impress upon Mrs. Wills f from me, this 
 last never-to-be-departed-from rule. Imagine it 
 written in Golden characters. 
 
 WHEN THEY APPLAUD, INVARIABLY STOP, UNTIL THE 
 APPLAUSE IS OVER. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 Yes to the Poems too golden-haired, and marble, 
 and all that ; but meritorious I think. 
 
 TAVISTOCK HOUSE, 
 
 Wednesday, Seventh January, 1857. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : All right. Half past one to- 
 morrow ! 
 
 * His second brother, 
 f Mrs. Wills was acting the part of Nurse Esther in " The Frozen Deep."
 
 1857J A PRESENT FROM NURSE ESTHER. 229 
 
 I am in perfect order. Calm perfectly happy 
 with the success about to make more Gin Punch. 
 Draught of that article enormous. 
 
 Macready has just been here, perfectly raging 
 because Forster took him. away, and positively 
 shouldered him out of the Green Room Supper, on 
 which he had set his heart. 
 
 You write Diabolically plain this morning. I can't 
 do that. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 C. D. 
 
 [To Mrs. Wills.] 
 
 TAVISTOCK HOUSE, 
 
 Eighth February, 1857. 
 
 MY DEAR MRS. WILLS : Pray accept my cordial 
 thanks for your elegant little present. It has a 
 treble value to me. Firstly as a mark of your remem- 
 brance. Secondly, as replacing a loss that I have 
 much regretted. Thirdly, as a gift from Nurse 
 Esther, and an association with the pleasant times in 
 which I made that worthy woman's acquaintance, and 
 conveyed to her previously benighted mind the com- 
 plete assurance that I am not a Dragon, but a villified 
 Lamb. (Note. An L too many in the last word 
 but one.) 
 
 Believe me always, 
 
 Very faithfully yours, 
 
 CHARLES DICKENS. 
 
 TAVISTOCK HOUSE, 
 
 Monday Night t Ninth February, 1857. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Will you be so kind as to make 
 an expedition to the India House for me ? I get so
 
 230 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR, [1857 
 
 mobbed if I go to a place of that sort myself, that 
 I ask the favor. I did not know of the necessity 
 when you were here to-day. 
 
 Walter Landor Dickens,* being now of an age to 
 go up to be examined for a Direct appointment as a 
 Cadet, to which he is nominated (the Director nomi- 
 nating him, being, as I remember Mr. Lock), the 
 business merely is to ask for his necessary papers. 
 I suppose the Secretary's office to be the right one ; 
 but the name Walter sends me this morning as the 
 name of the gentleman to be asked for is Mr. Hollyer. 
 
 It is a mere matter of form. Walter is going 
 up in about a fortnight. He is now with Messrs. 
 Brackenbury and Wynne at Wimbledon (if that be 
 anything to the purpose). The papers are wanted, I 
 believe, directly or at all events should be applied 
 for directly. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 TAVISTOCK HOUSE, 
 
 Sunday , Second August, 1857. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : 
 
 I 
 
 write hurriedly, on my way back to Gad's Hill. 
 
 You 
 
 I suppose arc somewhere in Cheshire or Staffordshire, 
 as you didn't turn up yesterday. 
 
 "FROZEN DEEP." 
 Get the Circular out, directly. Nights of acting, 
 
 * I>ic.kens's second son. lie went to India in .Inly of this year as a cadet 
 in the East India Company's serrice, was then transferred to the 42nd 
 Highlanders, and died in India on December 31st, 18<3.
 
 1857] NAMES. 231 
 
 Friday, 21st and Saturday, 22nd.* Company to go 
 down on the afternoon of Thursday, 20th. Rehearsal 
 of 3rd Act to be called in town beforehand, on account 
 of Actresses instead of Amateur ladies. Also in the 
 Free Trade Hall on the Friday morning at 11. 
 
 H. W. 
 
 Can you come down to Gad's Hill with the next 
 proofs? If yes, when? I purpose not coming up 
 (unless obliged) before Friday. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 Thursday, Thirteenth August, 1857. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I send this up to town to be 
 posted by our Doctor come down to see Mrs. Dickens 
 still very poorly. 
 
 I have altered the names thus : 
 
 " A Journey in Search of Nothing." 
 
 " The Self-made Potter." 
 
 " Burning, and Burying." 
 
 " The Leaf." 
 
 " Sepoy Symbols of Mutiny." 
 
 " Eleanor Clare's Journal." 
 
 " On Her Majesty's Service." f 
 But I have a misgiving that we have used the last 
 title before. If we have not, retain it. If we have, 
 call the article either 
 
 " PUBLIC BUSINESS." 
 or 
 
 " How THE WRITER WAS DISPATCH-BOXED." J 
 
 * At the Free Trade Hall, Manchester. 
 
 f These articles formed the contents of the issue of September 5th. 
 
 j This was the title chosen.
 
 232 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOE. [1857 
 
 Perhaps the latter is the better title of the two. " On 
 Her Majesty's Service " is the best title of the three, 
 if we have not anticipated it. 
 
 I will try to knock out a subject or two. In the 
 event of my Sleepy Head engendering anything, the 
 great suggestion shall come to you by Post. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 Sunday , Sixth September, 1857. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS: 
 
 MRS. WILLS 
 
 I hope is better. I have filled them with sympathy 
 here, by my vivid descriptions of your descriptions. 
 They all send loves and messages. Don't forget to 
 let me know how she goes on when you write. 
 
 H. W. 
 
 I find in my official drawer, the card of the Writer 
 of some foreign paper I left for you on your table. 
 In case his address should not be attached to the 
 paper, I send the card to you. 
 
 JERROLD REMEMBRANCE. 
 
 In the left hand drawer of my table at the office, is 
 a roll of the usual Theatrical MS. " The Spendthrift," 
 by poor Jerrold. Will you have it put up in a parcel 
 for Buckstone with the enclosed note, and left at the 
 Haymarket Theatre ? 
 
 11 THE IDLE APPRENTICES " * 
 
 go straight to Carlisle, by 9 A.M. North Western Train 
 on Monday Morning. After casting about a good 
 
 * Wilkie Collins and Dickens. See Introduction to this year.
 
 1857] THE LAZY TOUR. 233 
 
 deal, the Cumberland Fells look promising to them. 
 I will write you one line from Carlisle on Tuesday, 
 giving you any new address we may fix on. Until 
 you have a new address from me, write (if you have 
 occasion to write) to me at the Post Office there 
 that is to say, at Carlisle. 
 
 I 
 think I am becoming rather inventive again. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 CARLISLE, 
 
 Monday Night, Seventh September, 1857. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Conglomeration prevailing in 
 the Maps and our minds to an alarming extent, I 
 have the faintest idea of our trip. But I think I am 
 perfectly right in this direction : You writing to me 
 from London not later than Wednesday night, address 
 me at the Post Office, Maryport, Cumberland. After 
 that, address me at the Post Office, Doncaster. I think 
 we shall leave the Maryport (that is to say, the coast) 
 regions, about Friday or so. We shall not arrive at 
 Doncaster until Sunday night. It is quite uncertain 
 what we may be about in the interval. Once at 
 Doncaster, the address is always Doncaster until you 
 hear to the contrary. 
 
 Of course you will expect copy (as we agreed) on 
 Saturday morning. 
 
 You will be charmed to hear that two bedrooms and 
 a sitting room are not to be got at Doncaster for the 
 race week at less than the moderate charge of 
 
 TWELVE GUINEAS ! 
 But we have a grotesque idea of describing the
 
 234 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1857 
 
 town under those circumstances, which I hope 
 may be worth (if anything can be worth) that 
 money. 
 
 Will you let Evans know the directions I give 
 you, as he will probably wish to write to me while 
 we are out. 
 
 Collins' s kind regard. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 CHARLES DICKENS. 
 
 ANGEL HOTEL, DONCASTER, 
 
 Thursday, Seventeenth September, 1857. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : The day post has brought me 
 your note, and I write you by return a few words 
 in reply. 
 
 The other halves of the notes I believe are all safe. 
 One in Arthur Smith's hands ; one in mine. I cannot 
 remember the correspondent's name, or anything about 
 him, except that he dated from Exchange Buildings, 
 Liverpool. 
 
 All of my part three pages and a half of the 
 second portion of the " Lazy Tour " is already here, 
 and in corrected type. Collins is sticking a little with 
 his story, but I hope will come through it tomorrow, 
 lie is much obliged by your enquiries and sympathy, 
 and sends his kind regard. He can't walk out, but 
 can limp about the room, and has had two Doncaster 
 rides in a carriage. Is to be treated to another 
 tomorrow if he has done. 
 
 Happy to hear so good an account of Mrs. Wills. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D.
 
 1857] END OF THE LAZY TOUR. 235 
 
 ANGEL, DONCASTER, 
 
 Sunday, Twentieth September, 1857. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I am going into the country 
 this morning ; and I answer your letter briefly, before 
 starting. 
 
 I see no other objection to the Manchester article * 
 than that it is commonplace. 
 
 " The Bristol Prayer Monger " f I have never had 
 sent me, and therefore can do nothing to. But the 
 name suggests care and caution. 
 
 You will see that the second part of the " Lazy 
 Tour " is very long. The third will be much 
 shorter not more than half this quantity, if so 
 much. 
 
 My next address will be Gad's Hill. I think I 
 shall leave here on Tuesday, but I cannot positively 
 say. Collins and I part company tomorrow. 
 (He can walk now walked a mile yesterday, 
 with a stick.) I did intend to return home 
 tomorrow, but have no idea now of doing that. 
 Whatever I do, I shall of course come up to the 
 scratch with the third part. Indeed I have half 
 done it. 
 
 I am very sorry to hear of Mrs. Wills, to whom my 
 kind regard again. But you know how constantly it 
 happens that the first effect of the sea is to exaggerate 
 and stimulate an illness. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 CHARLES DICKENS. 
 Collins sends kind regard. 
 
 * Presumably " The Manchester Rcluxil of Art," by Wills, JfinntelnM 
 Words, October 10th. 
 f 1 cannot I race this article.
 
 236 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1857 
 
 OFFICE OF HOUSEHOLD WORDS. 
 A Weekly Journal conducted by Charles Dickens. 
 
 No. 16, WELLINGTON STREET NORTH, 
 
 STRAND, 
 Saturday, Twenty- Sixth September, 1857. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I write you a line with such 
 slight official intelligence as I have. 
 
 Part 3 of " The Lazy Tour " I have corrected, and 
 introduced Collins's copy (received this morning) in to 
 [it]. I have instructed B. and E. to send him down 
 proof to Scarborough to-night and have instructed 
 him to send back proof to B. and E. tomorrow night. 
 There are some descriptions of mine in it (particularly 
 one, of a Eailway Station), that I think very good 
 indeed. 
 
 Part 4, I am at work on. 
 
 Oxenford* has sent a paper " Touching the Lord 
 Hamlet, "t giving a very good account of the old 
 Saxo Grammaticus history. I have sent it to the 
 Printer, with instructions to send proof to him. 
 
 I have, at Gad's Hill, a pretty little paper ^ of a 
 good deal of merit, by one Mr. llollingshead, who 
 addressed me as having tried his hand in The Train$ 
 This, too, I will send to the Printer's. (I ought to 
 have brought it from Gad's Hill this morning, but 
 forgot it.) I am inclined to hope that the writer may 
 be very serviceable to us. 
 
 * John Oxenford (1812 1877) wrote many articles for Household Words. 
 He was the dramatic critic of Tlte Times from 1X50 for more than a quarter 
 of a century. 
 
 f Household Words, October 17th. 
 
 j "Poor Tom," Household Words, October 17th. The author was John 
 Hollingshead, who became a regular contributor to the periodical. Later on 
 he become celebrated as lessee of the Gaiety Theatre, where to use his own 
 words he kept the sacred lamp of burlesque burning. 
 
 In January, 185(5, (J. A. Sala and I'M muni I Yatiw established a monthly 
 magazine called The Turin, which did not survive long.
 
 1857] EXPENSES. 237 
 
 Collins I have made the new proposal to, as we 
 agreed.* 
 
 Evans has been with me this morning, to ask me, 
 
 Would I have a Posting-Bill of " The Lazy Tour " ? 
 
 I replied, most decidedly Yes. I think it will give us 
 
 a good push into the public mind, at a very dull time 
 
 will probably do us good at Christmas. 
 
 I spent while I was away, <75. 1 shall make a 
 very handsome deduction indeed, if I take off 15 for 
 any personal peculiarities in the order of march. 
 That I will do, however, and therefore H. W. has to 
 pay <10 to my account at Coutts's. 
 
 Which reminds me: Will you make a memo- 
 randum that whenever you settle accounts with Miss 
 Coutts, I have to receive <5 for her subscription to 
 the Reverend Mr. Ford, which I have paid. 
 
 Trusting that Mrs. Wills continues to improve, 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 Friday, Second October, 1857. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I have yours of yesterday, this 
 morning. 
 
 Know, that I yesterday sent to B. and E. the 
 greater part of " The Lazy Tour," Part IY. ; and that 
 by this post I send the rest having stuck to it and 
 finished it this morning. A very odd story, with a 
 wild, picturesque fancy in it. 
 
 I write to John, to tell him not to come, if he has 
 only to come for copy. 
 
 Monday, so far as I know at this moment, will suit 
 me very well. In case I should have occasion to go 
 to town that day (possible, but not probable), I will 
 write to you again in the meantime. 
 
 * Sec next letter.
 
 238 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1857 
 
 I don't remember whether I have told you that I 
 have made the arrangement with Collins that he is 
 extremely sensible of the extra Fifty, and was rather 
 unwilling to take it and that I have no doubt of his 
 being devoted to H. W. t and doing great service. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 C. D. 
 
 1858. 
 
 In May of this year Dickens and his wife separated. 
 Out of this private matter there arose between him 
 and his publishers, Messrs. Bradbury and Evans, 
 certain differences of opinion. These led to negotia- 
 tions (which are referred to in some of the letters 
 towards the end of the year) and resulted ultimately 
 in Dickens's decision to wind up Household Words and 
 to start All the Year Bound in its place. 
 
 Hitherto Dickens had given readings either for a 
 charity or for some other public purpose. This year 
 he decided to read for his own profit. With the 
 assistance of Mr. Arthur Smith as his business 
 manager he planned and carried out a tour through 
 England, Scotland and Ireland, which began on 
 August 2nd and ended on November 13th. I append 
 a copy of the printed list setting out the places at 
 which he was to read and the dates of his visits. 
 
 Charles Allston Collins, who is referred to in the 
 letter of August 9th, was the younger brother of 
 Wilkie Collins, and was born in 1828. In early life 
 he devoted himself to painting and became attached 
 to the Pre-Kaphaelite Brotherhood. He then turned 
 to literature, became a contributor to Household Words 
 and All the Year Round, and published essays, novels, 
 and books of description, amongst which may be 
 mentioned "A New Sentimental Journey" and "A 
 Cruise upon Wheels." In 1860 he married Dickens's, 
 younger daughter, Kate. He died in 1873.
 
 1858] 
 
 THE READINGS. 
 
 239 
 
 MR. CHARLES DICKENS'S TOUR, 
 DURING THE AUTUMN OF 1858. 
 
 Cl.IFTON .... 
 
 .. Monday, Au 
 
 g. 2.. .8 o'cl 
 , 3...S 
 , 4.. .8 , 
 
 )ck Bath Hotel. 
 , London Hotel. 
 
 ' I Elliot's Royal Hotel. 
 
 Bath Hotel. 
 , Mr. Stratford's Music Warehouse, The Cross, Worcester. 
 , Swan Hotel. 
 , Mr. Leake, Bookseller. 
 Royal Hotel. 
 
 I Radley's Adelphi Hotel. 
 
 1 
 r Morrison's Hotel. 
 
 [ Imperial Hotel. 
 ' i Imperial Hotel. 
 
 ' [ Cruise's Hotel. 
 
 , George Hotel. 
 , Stafford Arms. 
 , Mr. Henry Banks, Music Warehouse, Stonegate. 
 , Mr. W. Dawson, Cheltenham Pump Room. 
 
 EXKTER 
 
 .. Tuesday, 
 
 PLYMOUTH 
 
 .. Wednesday, 
 
 
 . Thursday, 
 
 , 5...3&S , 
 , 6.. .8 , 
 , 10.. .8 , 
 , 11. ..8 , 
 , 12. ..8 , 
 , 13... 8 
 18.. .8 , 
 
 
 . Friday, , 
 
 WORCESTER ... 
 
 .. Tuesday, , 
 N Wednesday, 
 ... Thursday, 
 ... Friday, 
 
 SHREWSBURY 
 CHESTER 
 
 
 ... Wednesday, 
 
 
 ... Thuisday, 
 
 19.. .8 , 
 20.. .8 , 
 21 3 
 
 
 ... Friday 
 
 11 
 
 Saturday, 
 
 DUBLIN 
 
 ... Monday, 
 
 23.. .8 
 
 
 ... Tuesday, 
 
 24. ..8 
 
 
 ... Wednesday, 
 
 25...3&S 
 26.. .8 
 
 " 
 
 .. Thursday, 
 
 BELFAST 
 
 ... Friday, 
 
 27.. .8 
 28.. 3&S 
 30.. .8 
 31..1J&8 
 ept. 1...8 
 
 
 . Saturday, 
 
 
 ... Monday, 
 
 
 ... Tuesday, 
 
 LIMERICK .... 
 
 ... Wednesday, H 
 
 
 ... Thursday, 
 
 2.. .8 
 
 HUDDERSFIELD 
 WAKEFIELD .. 
 YORK 
 
 ... Wednesday, 
 ... Thursday, 
 ... Friday, 
 
 8.. .8 , 
 9...S 
 10.. 8 
 11...3&8 
 
 HARROOATE 
 
 ... Saturday, 
 
 SCARBOROUGH 
 HULL 
 
 ... Monday, 
 ... Tuesday, 
 
 13...3&8 
 14. ..8 
 
 , Assembly Rooms. 
 , Mr. R. Bowser, Music Hall. 
 Scarboro' Arms Hotel. 
 White Swan Hotel. 
 , King's Head Hotel. 
 , Royal Hotel. 
 Mr. Robert Swale, Bookseller. 
 , Mr. Procter, Bookseller, Market Place. 
 , Bridge House Hotel. 
 
 1 1 Mr. T. Horn, Music Warehouse, Grey-street. 
 , \ 
 ' L Waterloo Hotel. 
 | ) 
 ' [ Mr. Chalmers, Bookseller. 
 
 , Mr. John Marr, Music Saloon. 
 , Mr. Drummond, Bookseller. 
 , \ 
 ' [ Mr. John Muir Wood, Music Warehouse 
 
 ) Mr. C. Ollivier, St. George's Hall. 
 , Radley's Adelphi Hotel. 
 , Royal Hotel. 
 
 , ! Hen and Chickens Hotel. 
 
 , Mr. T. Forman, Guardian Office. 
 , Royal Hotel. 
 , Royal Hotel, Manchester. 
 , Royal Station Hotel. 
 
 ' I Royal Station Hotel. 
 
 ' White Horse Hotel. 
 , King's Head Hotel. 
 , Assembly Rooms, Leamington. 
 , Swan Hotel. 
 , Bell Hotel. 
 
 ' I Star Hotel, Oxford. 
 
 ' [ Mr. Sharland, Bookseller, High Street. 
 , Mr. Atkins, Music Warehouse, Portsea. 
 
 ' I Bedford Hotel. 
 i 
 
 LEEDS 
 
 ... Wednesday 
 
 15.. .8 , 
 
 HALIFAX 
 
 Thursday 
 
 16.. .8 , 
 
 SHEFFIELD .. .. 
 
 .... Friday , 
 
 , 17.. .8 , 
 
 MANCHESTER .. 
 DARLINGTON .. 
 DURHAM 
 
 .... Saturday, , 
 .... Tuesday, , 
 Wednesday, , 
 
 18.. .8 , 
 , 21. ..8 , 
 , 22.. .8 , 
 
 SUNDERLAND .. 
 
 .... Thursday, 
 Friday, 
 
 , 23 ..8 , 
 , 24. ..8 
 , 25...3&S 
 27.. .8 
 28... 8 
 ,, 29...3&S 
 , 30... 8 
 ;t. 1...8 
 
 
 .... Saturday, 
 
 EDINBURGH .. 
 DUNDEE 
 
 .... Monday, 
 ... Tuesday, 
 .... Wednesday, 
 .... Thursday, 
 .... Friday, O< 
 
 
 Saturday, 
 
 , 2. .8 
 4...3&S 
 , 5.. .8 
 , 6.. .8 
 , 7...S 
 , 8.. .8 
 , 9.. .3 
 , 14 8 
 
 ABERDEEN .... 
 
 .... Monday, 
 
 PERTH 
 
 .... Tuesday, 
 
 GLASGOW 
 
 .... Wednesday, 
 
 
 .... Thursday, 
 
 J) 
 
 .... Friday, 
 
 " 
 
 . ... Saturday 
 
 BRADFORD .. . 
 
 Thursday, 
 
 LIVERPOOL .... 
 
 .... Friday, 
 
 , 15...3&S 
 , 16.. .8 
 18.. .8 
 , 19.. .8 
 , 20.. .8 
 21. ..8 
 , 22.. .8 
 , 23... 8 
 25.. .8 
 26.. .8 
 27. ..3 
 28.. .8 
 29.. .8 
 ov. 2...3&S 
 3.. .8 
 4.. .8 
 5...S 
 6.. .3 
 9.. .8 
 10.. .3 
 11...3&8 
 12.. .8 
 
 MANCHESTER . 
 BIRMINGHAM . 
 
 NOTTINGHAM . 
 DERBY 
 MANCHESTER . 
 YORK 
 HULL 
 
 .... Saturday, 
 .... Monday, 
 .... Tuesday, 
 .... Wednesday, 
 .... Thursday, 
 .... Friday, 
 .... Saturday, 
 .... Monday, 
 Tuesday. 
 
 ,, Wednesday, 
 LEEDS Thursday, 
 SHEFFIELD Friday, 
 LEAMINOTON Tuesday, N 
 WOLVERHAMPTON Wednesday, 
 LEICESTER Thursday, 
 OXFORD Fridav. 
 
 
 .... Saturday, 
 
 SOUTHAMPTON. 
 
 PORTSMOUTH . 
 BRIGHTON ... 
 
 Tuesday, 
 Wednesday, 
 Thursday, 
 Friday, 
 
 
 Saturday 
 
 ,, 13...3&8
 
 240 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1858 
 
 TAVISTOCK HOUSE, 
 
 Monday Night, 
 Twenty-second February, 1858. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Letter No. 1, enclosed, is the 
 Stereoscope people's favour that I spoke to you 
 of this morning. Will you kindly write them an 
 obliging reply, to the effect we mentioned ? 
 
 Letter No. 2 is the usual thing. I know no more 
 about it. 
 
 Collins wishes to read his new play to me, next 
 Thursday. I mean to propose to him that you be of 
 the party, and I have no doubt the idea will give him 
 much pleasure. If all things else should be "in a 
 concatenation accordingly," what do you say to our 
 dining at Gad's Hill (under John convoy), reading 
 there after dinner, sleeping there, and coming up next 
 morning ? I have broached this notion to our respected 
 contributor. 
 
 I will be in Wellington Street on Wednesday in 
 good time, and we can arrange details then. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 0. D. 
 
 TAVISTOCK HOUSE, TAVISTOCK SQUARE, 
 
 LONDON, W.C., 
 Saturday, Third April, 1858. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I have been so hustled by a 
 crowd of cares since I came home, that I have not 
 written to you the rather because, until I received 
 yours from Edinburgh, I had nothing to say. 
 
 Yours arrived very opportunely. Oil the previous
 
 1858] THE QUEEN AND "THE CAROL." 241 
 
 night, I had been going through Arthur Smith's 
 suggested list of readings, and had demurred to his 
 idea of returning to several large places. His reason 
 for this, was exactly yours. I felt bound to send 
 him your unconscious confirmation of his opinion, 
 immediately. And he was extremely glad to 
 receive it. 
 
 It is an unspeakable satisfaction to me, to have left 
 such an impression in Edinburgh. I felt that night, 
 that it was a very great success ; but your account of 
 it, even exceeds my hopes. 
 
 Arthur Smith told me on my return, that he had 
 written to you in Edinburgh. I suppose you received 
 his letters ? I believe he had nothing important to 
 say, in consequence of the Glasgow man, the brother 
 of the Edinburgh music seller, having communicated 
 with him direct. 
 
 The Queen wants to hear the " Carol." I have 
 represented my dutiful hope that she will form one 
 of an audience, as I consider an audience necessary.* 
 
 I have not a scrap of news. The usual papers 
 come tumbling into the office in the usual way, and 
 John cleans the windows all day in a kind of melan- 
 choly stagnation of mind. Holdsworth smiles on me 
 with a limp and sickly benevolence. 
 
 All the chance men who have been got in to help 
 the gardener at Gad's Hill ply the pump, have run 
 away, one after another (I am serious) and been heard 
 of no more in that country. The last man became so 
 desperate as to work seven hours, and fly without his 
 money. The machinery must be altered, and I must 
 establish a revolving pony. 
 
 * A difficulty arose about this matter, and it was eventually found 
 impossible to gratify the Queen's wish. See " Life," III., 466. 
 
 D.E. R
 
 242 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1858 
 
 All the rest of my world turns as it did, and that's 
 not saying much. for it. 
 
 With kind regards to Mrs. Wills and all about 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 HlGHAM BY KOCHESTER, KENT, 
 
 Monday , Ninth August, 1858. 
 
 H . W. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I was at the office on Saturday 
 at Noon, but did not expect to find you there. 
 
 Send me a Proof of the next No. you make up. I 
 must put a new name to Charles Collins's story.* 
 
 I hope Mrs. Gaskell will not stop, for more than a 
 week at all events.'!' 
 
 I am very glad to heard from Wilkie that he is at 
 work again. 
 
 have done exceedingly well, I think, so far. It is 
 out of season at Clifton, and half the houses are shut 
 up. The Yacht Squadron too, was gone from Ply- 
 mouth to Cherbourg, and there were races at Plymouth, 
 and public balls. Nevertheless we took nearly <400 
 last week. Exeter was tremendous. You never saw 
 such a reception, and we might have stayed there a 
 week. The first night at Plymouth (very wet) not 
 good. The next morning (great talk about it spread- 
 ing in the town) admirable. That night (greater talk 
 
 * " Her Face," Household Words, August 28th. 
 
 f Mrs. Gaskell's " My Lady Ludlow " was appearing in Household Wordt.
 
 1858] LIVERPOOL. 243 
 
 about it spreading in the town) enormous. Similarly 
 at Clifton. There was a very great increase of 
 Numbers on the second night, and the local Magnate 
 said " Now they know what it is, Mr. Dickens might 
 stay a month and always have a cram." Contrary to 
 my impression of those Western people, I have never 
 seen a finer or more subtly apprehensive audience than 
 at Exeter. Nor did I ever know the minutest touches 
 in " Little Dombey," go better in London than at Ply- 
 mouth. As to the " Boots " at Plymouth, the people 
 gave themselves up altogether (Generals, Mayors, 
 and Shillings, equally) to a perfect transport of enjoy- 
 ment of him and the two children. 
 
 Arthur shall have the packet tomorrow morning 
 (when we start for Worcester), that T received from 
 you this morning. 
 
 I have no printed lists of my tooir here, but will 
 send Miss Coutts one straight. 
 
 I think that's all at present, 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 ADELPHI HOTEL, LIVERPOOL, 
 
 Saturdaij, Twenty -first August, 1858. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I send this to Sheffield at a 
 flying venture. 
 
 The Liverpool audience has been altogether differ- 
 ent from our Theatrical experience of it. Quite as 
 good as St. Martin's Hall. A great call, every night. 
 Every point taken. The nicest and finest bits in 
 " Little Dombey," hitting like chain shot. Last 
 night, we had the greatest house, both in numbers 
 
 R 2
 
 244 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1858 
 
 and money, we have ever had : London included. 
 There were 2,300 and 200 guineas. The turn-away 
 from the shilling part was very large. On each of 
 the two previous nights we had 100 guineas, and (if 
 the day should keep moderately fine) we expect a very 
 good afternoon to-day at 3. 
 
 The crossing to Ireland to-night is not likely to be 
 very agreeable, for it has been exceedingly squally 
 these last two days. 
 
 I observe in H. W. that that ' ' Eunning the Gaunt- 
 let "* (an article with good stuff in it) has been very 
 badly looked over. "That" is constantly put for 
 ' ' who, ' ' which is a great vulgarity. Such an expression 
 too as " vowed him revenge " is extremely bad. 
 
 Wilkie's paper, very funny, f Just what we 
 want. 
 
 With kind regard to Mrs. Wills, and all kinds of 
 remembrances from Arthur, 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 P.S. As new places are constantly proposing 
 themselves to be brought into the Tour, 1 have 
 arranged with Arthur that it shall now be wound up, 
 so that I may be able to get to work in London, on the 
 ~L5th of November, with a view to the Xmas No.J I 
 will talk over my idea with Wilkie, and ascertain if 
 he feels up to it. If he should not, when I expound 
 it to him, then perhaps it might be best to have a 
 round of Stones. But nous verrons. 
 
 * " The Last Victim of the Gauntlet," by Von Goetznitz, Household 
 Words, August 21st. 
 
 j- "The Unknown Public," Ilmisehold Words, August 21st. 
 
 J "A House to Let," containing one contribution by Dickens, two by 
 Collins, and one by Dickens and Collins jointly.
 
 1858] A EUSH OF THREE DUCKS. 245 
 
 ROYAL HOTEL, LIMERICK, 
 
 Thursday, Second September, 1858. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I purpose being at the 
 office next Tuesday afternoon, before starting again. 
 I hope to be at Tavistock House at noon on 
 Saturday, and to start for Gad's Hill oti Sunday 
 forenoon. 
 
 Belfast and Cork, as great successes as Dublin. 
 Fancy, at Cork (by 110 means a large place) more than 
 1,000 stalls being engaged for the three readings. I 
 made last week clear profit, ,340 ; and have made 
 in the month of August, a profit of one Thousand 
 Guineas ! This, after paying our expenses back to 
 London, and halfway to Huddersfield. Pretty well, I 
 think ? 
 
 This is the oddest place of which nobody in any 
 other part of Ireland seems to know anything. 
 Nobody could answer a single question we asked 
 about it. There is no large room, and I read in the 
 Theatre a charming Theatre. The best I ever saw, 
 to see and hear in. Arthur says that when he opened 
 the doors last night, there was a rush of three 
 Ducks ! We expect a Pig to-night. We had only 
 c40 ; but they seemed to think that, amazing ! If 
 the two nights bring ,100, it will be as much as we 
 expected. I am bound to say that they are an admir- 
 able audience. As hearty and demonstrative as it is 
 possible to be. It is a very odd place in its lower- 
 order aspects, and I am very glad we came though we 
 could have made heaps of money by going to Dublin 
 instead. 
 
 Arthur sends you his kindest regard. He has been 
 nearly torn to pieces in the shilling rushes, and has
 
 246 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1858 
 
 been so flattened against the walls that he is only now 
 beginning to " come round " again. 
 
 My kindest remembrance to Mrs. Wills. 
 
 Ever cordially, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 STATION HOTEL, NEWCASTLE, 
 
 Friday afternoon. 
 Twenty -fourth September, 1858. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I return the cheque, duly 
 signed. 
 
 I have just now walked over here from Sunderland 
 (1 o'clock) and have barely had time to look at the 
 room. It is new since we acted here large and 
 capable of holding a good deal of money. I hope it 
 will have a good deal to hold, tonight and tomorrow. 
 The Let is a very good one, and we expect a large 
 Take in payment at the doors. 
 
 You will be amazed to hear that we reaped very 
 little profit at Sunderland last night ! I read in a 
 very beautiful new Theatre, and it looked a fine house. 
 But it was not fine enough to pay well. Half a 
 million of money, belonging to Sunderland alone, was 
 lost in the last Bank-Smash there ; and the town has 
 never held up its head since, they say. 
 
 I suppose the people who were there, had either 
 not lost any money, or had found it again. I never 
 beheld such a rapturous audience. And they and 
 the stage together : which I never can resist made 
 me do such a vast number of new things in the 
 " Carol," that Arthur and our men stood in amaze- 
 ment at the Wing, and roared and stamped as if it 
 were an entirely new book, topping all the others.
 
 1858] A HIGHLY SENSITIVE PLATE. 247 
 
 You must come to some good place and hear the 
 11 Carol." I think you will hardly know it again. 
 
 Little Darlington in a mouldy old Assembly 
 Eoom without a Lamp abutting on the street, so that 
 I passed it a dozen times and looked for it, when I 
 went down to read covered itself with glory. All 
 sorts of people came in from outlying places, and the 
 town was drunk with the " Carol " far into the night. 
 At Durham we had a capital audience too led by 
 Dean and Chapter, and humbly followed up by Mayor 
 and local Bores but the Hall not large enough, and 
 the City not large enough, for such a purpose as your 
 friend's. 
 
 So, we are working our way further North. I 
 walked from Durham to Sunderland, and made a little 
 fanciful photograph in my mind of Pit Country, which 
 will come well into H. W. one day. I couldn't help 
 looking upon my mind as I was doing it, as a sort of 
 capitally prepared and highly sensitive plate. And 
 I said, without the least conceit (as Watkins might 
 have said of a plate of his) " it really is a pleasure 
 to work with you, you receive the impression so 
 nicely." 
 
 I mark this note " Immediate," because I forgot to 
 mention that I particularly wish you to look well to 
 Wilkie's article about the Wigan schoolmaster, and 
 not to leave anything in it that may be sweeping, and 
 unnecessarily offensive to the middle class.* He has 
 always a tendency to overdo that and such a subject 
 gives him a fresh temptation. Don't be afraid of the 
 Truth, in the least ; but don't be unjust. 
 
 * "Highly Proper," Household Words, October 2nd, 1858. The article 
 protested against the conduct of a schoolmaster who had refused to keep 
 Mr. Alfred Wigan 's son at his school on the ground that Mr. Wigan was 
 an actor.
 
 248 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1858 
 
 Arthur sends kindest regards. Give my love to 
 Mrs. Wills. I hope my wholesome influence lasts ? 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 CHARLES DICKENS. 
 
 TAVISTOCK HOUSE, 
 
 TAVISTOCK SQUARE, LONDON, W.C., 
 That is to say : 
 
 DUNDEE, 
 
 Saturday, Second October, 1858. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Pray, pray, pra?/, don't have 
 Poems unless they are good. We are immeasurably 
 better without them: "Beyond," is really Beyond 
 anything I ever saw, in utter badness. 
 
 You instructed Payn and White, that no story- 
 Teller must have been a Lodger in the House.* I 
 don't understand that, at all. A Lodger may give 
 variety to the thing, and cannot possibly (that I see) 
 weaken the carrying out of the Idea. 
 
 To Wilkie's queries I reply : 
 
 1. I think I had best write the framework in the 
 first person unless I should think of any new and 
 odd way of doing it. I will certainly avoid the plain 
 third person in which the stories will be narrated. 
 
 2. I am not clear about following up the old 
 Materials, and making them doomed and destructive. 
 I think it would end the thing with unseasonable 
 grimness. If I could build them into a good school, 
 or infirmary, or child's hospital, or something of that 
 sort, it might be a more pleasant end, and a working 
 round of the thing to something brighter. 
 
 * An allusion to the Christmas number, " A House to Let." Neither 
 Payn nor White, however, contributed to it.
 
 1858] PROFITS. 249 
 
 3. If I were Wilkie, unless I got an idea which 
 would not admit of it, I would certainly make the 
 story of some people who kept the house, the story. 
 Indeed, I supposed that to have been understood. 
 
 There was certainly in Edinburgh, a coldness before- 
 hand, about the Headings. I mention it, to let you 
 know that I consider the triumph there, by far the 
 greatest I have made. The city was taken by storm, 
 and carried. " The Chimes " shook it ; " Little 
 Dombey " blew it up. On the two last nights, the 
 crowd was immense, and the turn-away enormous. 
 Everywhere, nothing was heard but praises nowhere 
 more than at Blackwood's shop, where there certainly 
 was no predisposition to praise. It was a brilliant 
 victory, and could have been represented in no mere 
 money whatever. 
 
 My profit there was .200. My profit at Newcastle 
 .170 (the room in the latter place, very large). My 
 profit in September is ,900. No doubt in reason this 
 sum will have passed 1,000 before I begin the next 
 Thousand in Glasgow. 
 
 " The Carol " will be read one night at Birming- 
 ham, and at Nottingham. Those are the places nearest 
 to your hand I think. 
 
 My love to Mrs. Wills, in which the girls unite. 
 They were delighted with Edinburgh, and saw it, and 
 all about it, on beautiful days. Payn went with us to 
 Hawthornden, and we laughed all day. Conceive his 
 telling me that Miss Martineau once told him and a 
 certain Lake Doctor, face to face, that the reason 
 why Tfie Times succeeded with their Foreign corre- 
 spondence was because they kept a clairvoyante to do
 
 250 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1858 
 
 it!!! "You may observe," says she, " that the 
 Daily News is rapidly improving in that particular. 
 Why? Because they have lately engaged a clair- 
 voyante, too ! " 
 
 With which large button of arrogant conceit from 
 the head and front of a strait waistcoat, I beg to 
 subscribe myself, 
 
 Ever Anti Politico-Economically, 
 
 Anti De Morganically, 
 
 and the like, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 [James Payn was at this time in Edinburgh as 
 editor of Chambers^ Journal. He describes this, 
 his first, meeting with Dickens in " Some Literary 
 Recollections " : 
 
 " He was full of fun and brightness, and in five minutes I felt 
 as much at my ease with him as though I had known him as long 
 as I had known his books. It was not one of the days on which 
 Hawthornden was open to the public, and we had much difficulty 
 in obtaining admittance at the lodge ; and when we got to the 
 house we were detained there again, and there was a difficulty 
 about seeing the glen. I went within doors and expostulated ; 
 but for a long time without success : the inmates, I am sorry to 
 say, did not seem to be acquainted with Dickens's name a cir- 
 cumstance which, though it would only have made him laugh the 
 more, I did not venture to disclose. The fancy picture which he 
 drew of my detention in that feudal abode, and of the mediaeval 
 tortures which had probably been inflicted upon me, made ample 
 amends, however, for what I had suffered on behalf of the party. 
 In the end we saw all that was to be seen : and never shall I 
 forget the face of the hereditary guide and gatekeeper when 
 Dickens tipped him in his usual lavish manner. This retainer 
 had not thought much of him before indeed, had obviously 
 never heard of him but his salute at parting could not have 
 been more deferential had the author of ' Pickwick ' been the 
 Lord of the Isles. The humours of the day must have made some 
 impression upon Dickens himself, for in a letter two years after- 
 wards he reminds me of the imprisonment I had suffered for
 
 1858] CHARLES COLLINS. 251 
 
 his sake in the gloomy cells of Hawthornden. Late that night 
 I supped with him after his reading at his hotel, alone ; after 
 which I discarded for ever the picture which I had made in my 
 mind of him, and substituted for it a still pleasanter one, taken 
 from life."] 
 
 HEN AND CHICKENS HOTEL, BIRMINGHAM, 
 
 Monday Night, Eighteenth October, 1858. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I forgot three things in my 
 hurried note of to-day from London. 
 
 1. After the " Smallport Monte Christo "* (which 
 is very whimsical and good), I think the " Great 
 Dunkerque Failure "| may go in. It should be in 
 the next No. you make up. (Let me see the Proof 
 of any other printed paper by him. A very little 
 erasure here and there, makes a considerable difference 
 in his case.) 
 
 2. When you come to advertise in H. W. my read- 
 ings for November, put, and keep as long as the 
 advertisement stands, this line after Brighton, 13th 
 Nov., in small caps. in a line by itself 
 
 WHICH WILL TERMINATE THE SERIES OF HEADINGS. 
 
 3. The " Carol " is not read here. It is read at 
 Nottingham on Thursday, and at Manchester on 
 Saturday. 
 
 A very, very, wet night. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 O.D. 
 
 KOYAL HOTEL, DERBY, 
 
 Friday, Twenty-Second October, 1858. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : If you look at the passage in 
 Macready's letter, which refers to Mrs. Meredith, 
 
 * By Charles Collins, Ifowehold Words, October 16th. 
 
 f Also by Charles Collins, Household Words, October 30th.
 
 252 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1858 
 
 you will see what I mean when I ask you if you will 
 write to him, and enquire whether he will receive the 
 money for the paper, or what is to be done with it ; 
 telling him at the same time how much the 
 sum is. 
 
 Was she paid for her former paper or papers ? That 
 passage in her note looks to me as if she never had 
 been paid. 
 
 Immense at Nottingham last night. Immense final 
 night at Birmingham. Let, very good here. 
 
 I have a bad cold all over me. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 WOLVERHAMPTON, 
 
 Wednesday, Third November ', 1858. 
 H. W. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : You remember that at one of 
 our Audit Meetings I think, the last I suggested to 
 Mr. Evans that we ought to have the vouchers for the 
 payments made, and charged as being made, by their 
 Firm, on account of H. W. It arose out of our speak- 
 ing of paying for the paper in ready money. 
 
 Mr. Evans replied to that, that we, the other pro- 
 prietors in H. W. were not responsible for the paper. 
 He said so, with confidence ; and I did not urge the 
 point, though I had great doubts of his being legally 
 right. 
 
 I have now ascertained that we are legally respon- 
 sible. Will you therefore let Mr. Evans know that 
 at the Audit of next week, we wish to have produced 
 to us, the Vouchers for their payments on account of 
 Household Words. There can be no Audit, I am
 
 1858] DICKENS AND HIS PUBLISHERS. 253 
 
 assured, without such Touchers, except in the mere 
 name. 
 
 Pray do not fail to see to this. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 CHARLES DICKENS. 
 
 SWAN, WOLVERHAMPTON, 
 
 Wednesday Third November, 1858. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I enclose you the note that I 
 think best calculated to be shewn or sent by you to 
 33. and E. on the voucher question. 
 
 In reference to my own copyrights, you seem to 
 have omitted by accident, the most important question 
 of all. It is, whether I, being the largest proprietor in 
 the books, can change the printer and publisher of them if 
 I choose ? On this, the whole question of the extent 
 of our power and the manner of its exercise, depends. 
 There is no sub-agreement whatever, as to printing 
 and publishing. 
 
 Now, will you again see Ouvry* on this vital ques- 
 tion which absolutely governs our proceeding as to 
 Household Words and communicate his opinion on 
 that point, to Forster, along with his opinion on the 
 other points ? I cannot consult with Forster to any 
 purpose, until we know exactly how we stand on this 
 head. 
 
 As to Wilkie's paper I see no necessity whatever, 
 for altering Fauntleroy's name. But I wouldn't use 
 it in the Title. I would call it a "A Paradoxical 
 Experience " | or " A Curiosity of Life " or some- 
 thing like that. 
 
 I purpose being at the office, at 1 on Friday. 
 Little Leamington came out amazingly yesterday. 
 
 * See ante, p. 210, note. 
 
 f Hotuehold Words, November 13th.
 
 254 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1858 
 
 We took ,130, and turned away many hundreds 
 of people. We have 200 stalls let here for to-night ; 
 which, considering the size of the town, is unusually 
 large. 
 
 And I think that's all I have to say, at present. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 EOYAL HOTEL, SOUTHAMPTON, 
 
 Wednesday, Tenth November, 1858. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : The Audit Meeting appears to 
 have gone off, pretty much as I expected it would. 
 I felt sure of their producing the documents I meant 
 to have written, Vouchers. 
 
 In the Forster matter I do not agree with you. For 
 this reason. It is clear to my mind that no discussion 
 can take place between me and Bradbury and Evans. 
 My being there would shut up any approach to it, 
 simply because I have steadily refused to enter on any 
 approach to it, however distant, and have left Evans's 
 advances disregarded. Now, with Forster they are 
 under no such restraint, and even in the event of no 
 discussion taking place with him at the meeting 
 (which is the most probable aspect of Monday), they 
 still have him legitimately in the business, and can at 
 any time go to him or write to him. They could not 
 do so with me, because they have already found it to 
 be unavailing. 
 
 As to his management of the interview, I have not 
 a doubt of his arranging it as I shall entreat him to 
 do, and I can write to him from Brighton, expressly 
 laying down the course that I want him to take. That 
 course shall be, accommodation if it be possible. It is 
 not possible with me, in a matter in which I have so
 
 1858] NEGOTIATIONS. 255 
 
 deep a personal feeling. It never can come about, 
 unless they have a third person before them, without 
 seeking such person. 
 
 For these reasons, I would get the Power of 
 Attorney a Power to Forster to act for me, in matters 
 relating to H. W. I must execute it. Could you not 
 come down to Brighton with it ? We shall be there 
 by mid-day on Friday. I would write my letter to 
 Forster then and there, and you should see it, and see 
 that it is to your satisfaction. I feel convinced that 
 he would not depart from a course agreed upon. You 
 know how emphatically he feels that the first thing 
 above all others, is, not to injure the property. 
 
 In order to avoid unnecessary conglomeration of our 
 accounts, let me give you a check for your part of the 
 Audit Day balance. It is enclosed. 
 
 Don't go to press with Wilkie's paper about 
 Sidney Herbert, Guizot, The Heir of Redclyffe, and 
 Dr. Dulcamara,* without my seeing it. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 OFFICE OF HOUSEHOLD WOEDS. 
 A Weekly Journal conducted by Charles Dickens. 
 
 No. 16, WELLINGTON STREET NORTH, 
 
 STRAND, W.C., 
 Saturday, Twentieth Novr., 1858. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : As I find you are not coming 
 here to-day, I post this to let you know that we have 
 returned to Tavistock House. 
 
 * " Dr. Dulcamara, M.P.," by Dickens and Wilkie Collins, Household 
 Words, December 18th, 1858. The article was directed against some 
 opinions on literature expressed by Sidney Herbert in an address at the 
 Warminster Athenaeum, in which he had quoted with approval M. Guizot's 
 praise of " The Heir of lledclyft'e."
 
 256 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1858 
 
 Also, that Wilkie and I have arranged to pass the 
 whole day here, on Monday Week, the Z9th, to connect 
 the various portions of the Xmas No. and get it 
 finally together. If you arrange to have them ready 
 at the Printers, for such cuts and such short bits of 
 copy as we shall send them from time to time in the 
 course of that day, we can finally correct it before we 
 leave here that night, and you can send your last revise 
 for Press next day. 
 
 This will enable you, now to settle on what day the 
 Xmas No. shall be published, and to announce the 
 said day in our No. sent to Press next week. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 C. D. 
 
 No. 16, WELLINGTON STREET NORTH, 
 
 STRAND, W.C. 
 Thursday, Twenty-fifth Novr., 1858. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I want to prepare you for an 
 H. W. disappointment, in case it should come off. 
 My introduced paper for the Xmas No. involves such 
 an odd idea which appears to me so humorous, and 
 so available at greater length that I am debating 
 whether or no I shall cancel the paper (it has gone to 
 the Printers today) and make it the Pivot round 
 which my next book shall revolve. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 TAVISTOCK HOUSE, TAVISTOCK SQUARE, 
 
 LONDON, W.C., 
 Monday, Twentieth December, 1858. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : You will see from the enclosed, 
 that we are quite right.
 
 1858] WINDING UP HOUSEHOLD WORDS. 257 
 
 Will you go round to Ouvry's, and ask them to 
 write the notice they recommend, for me to sign. If 
 they approve, I should wish it to be served on B. and 
 E. from their office, and it certainly had best be served 
 at once today. A duplicate of it should be served 
 upon you. I am finishing my little paper for the 
 New Year, and will wait at home until you bring or 
 send me the legally copied notices for my signature. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 1XE.
 
 IV 
 ALL THE YEAR ROUND 
 
 s 2
 
 THE AGREEMENT FOE ALL THE YEAR ROUND. 
 
 1859. 
 
 THE last number of Household Words was published 
 on Saturday, May 28th, and the first number of All 
 the Year Bound on Saturday, April 30th. The two 
 periodicals thus overlapped one another by five num- 
 bers. The office of Household Words had been at 16, 
 Wellington Street ; the office of All the Year Bound 
 was at I^o. 11 in the same street. The price of the 
 new periodical was the same as that of the old 2d. 
 As a consequence of the differences, previously referred 
 to, between Dickens and Messrs. Bradbury and Evans, 
 a bill in Chancery had been filed, and by order of the 
 Court " the right to use the name of the periodical 
 Household Words, together with the printed stock and 
 stereotyped plates of the same," was put up to auction 
 in one lot on Monday, May 16th. Dickens himself 
 was the purchaser. Accordingly the words "with 
 which is incorporated Household Words " were added 
 to the title of All the Year Bound" in the fifth number 
 (May 28th). The formal legal agreement (of which I 
 have a copy) " for the carrying on of a Periodical 
 called All the Year Bound" was not executed until 
 August 2nd. It is made between Dickens and "Wills, 
 and the following are its chief provisions : 
 
 (1) Dickens and Wills are to be the proprietors. 
 
 (2) Both in regard to profits and losses Dickens is to be 
 interested as to f and Wills as to . 
 
 (3) Dickens is to be Editor at a yearly salary of 504. 
 
 (4) Wills is to be General Manager with control (subject to 
 powers reserved to Dickens) of the Commercial Department. 
 
 (5) Wills is to be Sub-Editor at a yearly salary of 420. 
 
 (6) If Wills retires from the Sub-Editorship Dickens is to have 
 a | share, Wills retaining \. 
 
 (7) The name All the Year Round and the goodwill attached to 
 the publication to be the exclusive property of Dickens.
 
 262 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1859 
 
 " A Tale of Two Cities " ran in All the Year Round 
 from April 30th to November 26th. It also appeared 
 concurrently in monthly parts from June to December. 
 In October Dickens went on another reading tour in 
 England. 
 
 Edmund Yates (1831 1894), who is referred to in 
 the letter of April llth, was a contributor both to the 
 old and the new periodicals. For many years he had 
 a place in the Post Office, but left in 1872. In 1858 
 Dickens had taken the part of Yates in a dispute with 
 Thackeray, which led to Yates' s expulsion from the 
 Garrick Club, and Dickens and Thackeray consequently 
 became temporarily estranged. Yates wrote several 
 novels, and in 1874 founded The World, which he 
 continued to edit until he died. 
 
 I have no Office Book for All the Year Round such 
 as I have used for the references in the letters to 
 Household Words. It will, therefore, be impossible for 
 me to identify the authors of articles in the former 
 publication, except in the case of Dickens himself. 
 His contributions to All the Year Round were, I 
 believe, identified from the office " set " of the 
 journal by the late Mr. F. J. Kitton. Where that set 
 may now be I do not know. Dickens' s contributions 
 to both journals were included by Mr. B. W. Matz in 
 Vols 35 and 36 of "The National Edition of the 
 Works of Charles Dickens " (Chapman & Hall, 1908). 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT, 
 
 Saturday, Eighth January, 1859. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : This is the first of some papers 
 by " The Clergyman's Wife " I told you of.* Get it 
 printed for the next No. we make up. 
 
 * Mrs. Blacker. She contributed two papers under the title of "The
 
 1859] TAVISTOCK HOUSE. 263 
 
 I have rather a strong hope that she may turn out 
 a very useful contributor. I have read several of her 
 papers, and have generally advised her how to make 
 them better. She will have another to follow this 
 with. She has an excellent knowledge of a poor 
 country parish, some very pretty womanly humour, 
 some very good womanly observation, and a decided 
 faculty for writing. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 0. D. 
 
 [This letter is written on the back of the letter from 
 John Forster which follows. Dickens had an idea of 
 letting Tavistock House on a long lease, and from 
 this Forster and Wills dissuaded him.] 
 
 Friday Evening, 
 
 Fourteenth January, 1859. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I will no longer doubt that you 
 are right, and I thank you heartily for the affectionate 
 earnestness with which you have represented me to 
 myself, as wrong. Will you, as early as practicable 
 tomorrow morning, communicate to the agent, That I 
 find my daughters so averse to the long term that I 
 must withdraw from that proposal, even if the other 
 party should make it. But that I beg him to complete 
 the Inventory (if it be not already done), and to take 
 the house upon his books, as being to Let from and 
 after next June inclusive, for any term not less than 
 6 months, or more than 12. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. 1). 
 
 Clergyman's Wife " to Household Words, January 22nd and 29th. Another 
 paper from her pen was " The Highest Testimonials," in Household Words, 
 March 5th,
 
 264 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1859 
 
 [From John Forster to Dickens.] 
 
 19, WHITEHALL PLACE, 
 
 \kth January, 1859. 
 
 MY DEAR DICKENS ; Lizzie* must judge for herself, 
 and I will not utter a word to influence her. But at 
 once I must say for myself that I entertain no doubt 
 whatever that such a step would most decidedly be very 
 damaging indeed. With you I say, it is not matter of 
 reasoning so much as of feeling : and I would not have 
 you at this moment do such a thing for 8,000, far less 
 800 pounds. Do not laugh at this. I feel it very 
 strongly. 
 
 Nay, I cannot tell you how I would grieve if you 
 did not give the girls some society at Tavistock 
 llouse before you think of letting it at all. Only 
 this morning at breakfast I was talking to Lizzie about 
 it, and I must ask her to tell you exactly what I 
 said. 
 
 You read in a very masterly way last night, indeed. 
 I was immensely moved altogether by your execution 
 of both pieces of reading. 
 
 Always affectionately, 
 
 JOHN FOESTER. 
 
 TAVISTOCK HOUSE, TAVISTOCK SQUARE, 
 LONDON, W.C., 
 
 Monday, Eleventh April, 1859. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Wilkie has done a few very 
 good paragraphs for the " Eegister. " f You will have 
 them from him to-day. 
 
 * Mrs. John Forster. 
 
 t The " Occasional Register," a series of crisp paragraphs on matters of 
 current interest, was a feature of the carl}- numbers of All the Year Round.
 
 1859] "A TALE OF TWO CITIES." 265 
 
 It occurs to me that for that purpose Edmund Yates 
 is likely to be very useful. He reads all the news- 
 papers and periodicals, and is smart. I have told him 
 that you will write to him on the subject. But perhaps 
 the best way will be if you will make an appointment 
 with him say for today or tomorrow then shew him 
 the proof and explain the little idea, and see if he can 
 get some paragraphs ready for No. 2. (He will be at 
 the Post Office all today.) 
 
 "Wilkie has a notion that if he could see what 
 matter we have at the Printers, he might find out for 
 himself what kind of articles would be most useful for 
 No. 2. He will join us at the office at about 2 to- 
 morrow. Will you have your slips there ? 
 
 IF I should find to-day that the St. Alban's business 
 yields any good notion, I will come down to the office 
 early tomorrow morning, and write another short paper 
 for No. I. to strengthen it. But this is, of course, contin- 
 gent on there being anything in what I am going to see. 
 
 I send with this, for Whiting's, two more weekly 
 parts of the " Tale of Two Cities." 
 
 I have just heard from an excellent practical man, 
 that nothing could be better done than our posting in 
 the great towns. At Birmingham particularly it is 
 described as quite wonderful. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 C. D. 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT, 
 
 Thursday, Twenty-eighth April, 1859. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Very glad to get your letter this 
 morning, and to receive the latest possible report of our 
 goings on.
 
 266 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1859 
 
 The result of the Whitefriars circulars will be, in 
 the main as we pretty well know to heap over 
 them, a vast accumulation of expensive miscellaneous 
 matter. 
 
 But, there can be no harm in your writing to as 
 many people as come into your mind, from time to 
 time, some such letter as this, 
 
 " DEAR SIR : I beg, on behalf of Mr. Charles 
 Dickens, to inform you that if it should be com- 
 patible with your engagements to write for this 
 Journal, it would afford him the greatest pleasure 
 to secure your valuable co-operation. 
 
 Now, or at any other time, I shall be happy to 
 pursue this subject and to enter into details with 
 you, if you will allow me." 
 
 I would send this, at once, to both the Trollopes, and 
 to George Eliot, care of Blackwood with a private 
 seal on the latter letter. I would also address it to 
 Buffini,* with a note to Mrs. Carlyle, asking her if 
 she can direct the envelope. I would also write to 
 Mrs. Gaskell, referring back to that story she 
 mentioned. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT, 
 
 Thursday Night, Twenty-Eighth April, 1859. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I write this, for John to bring 
 up in the morning. 
 
 * Giovanni Ruffini, an Italian refugee and an English novelist : author of 
 ' Dr. Antonio, &c." A slight account of him and a longer one of his 
 brother, Agostino, appears in the late Professor Masson s " Memories of Two 
 Cities," recently published.
 
 1859] EDUCATION OF WOMEN. 267 
 
 It grieves me to hear that you are still so unwell. 
 Pray tell me by next post how you are. I am quite 
 remorseful that you should have had to go down to the 
 Rolls Court. 
 
 Hullah's* daughter (an artist, who is here), tells me 
 that certain female students have addressed the Royal 
 Academy, entreating them to find a place for their 
 education. I think it a capital move, for which I can 
 do something popular and telling, in the " Register." 
 Adelaide Procter is active in the business, and has a 
 copy of their letter. Will you write to her for that, 
 and anything else she may have about it : telling her 
 that I strongly approve, and want to help them 
 myself. 
 
 Do get better, 
 
 And believe me ever, 
 
 Yours, 
 C.D. 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT, 
 
 Saturday, Thirtieth April, 1859. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I hope and trust you are better 
 today. I cannot tell you how distressed I am to think 
 ot your being ill at this time, with its anxieties 
 necessarily upon you. 
 
 Referring to the Liverpool newspaper and its Piracy, 
 I find it expressly stated in the Piracy that the act is 
 not to be repeated. I think, therefore, that I should 
 not communicate with Ouvry. What I recommend is 
 
 * John Pykc Hullah (1813 1884), musical composer and teacher of 
 singing. Ho had, in 183fi, composed the music of " The Village Coquettes " 
 to the libretto of Dickens.
 
 268 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1859 
 
 your writing to Mr. Whitly, telling him you have 
 received this from me : 
 
 tl I received this morning, the Liverpool paper 
 you sent me, and, at first, felt with you the 
 imperative necessity of stopping that injustice. 
 But on looking to Mr. Whitly's introduction of 
 the reprint, I observe that he expressly states that 
 he does not mean to repeat the offence. Under 
 these circumstances I think it would be ungene- 
 rous though I most strongly object to his pro- 
 ceeding to put him to any expense. And if you 
 will tell him so from me, good-humouredly, I 
 hope the matter may be considered as ended." 
 
 Very sorry to hear of Chapman and Hall's confusion. 
 I shall be at Tavistock House again on Monday 
 afternoon. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 OFFICE OF ALL THE YEAR ROUND. 
 A Weekly Journal conducted by Charles Dickens. 
 
 No. 11, WELLINGTON STREET NORTH, 
 
 STRAND, LONDON, W.C., 
 Tuesday Evening, Third May, 1859. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : All right. 
 
 I have corrected Yates's article carefully, and it 
 really is very good. Morley's so so. Also corrected. 
 
 Thombury's* is only this moment come in, and 
 (not having yet read it), I cannot yet say whether it is 
 good or no. I thought Mrs. Blacker's article so very 
 
 * George Walter Thornbury (18281876), novelist, writer of books of 
 travel, &c. He was a frequent contributor to House/told Words.
 
 1859] "PROOFS" AND "REVISES." 269 
 
 good the Nurse's story so exceedingly well done 
 that I considered it best to send it to the Printer's at 
 once. I shall not have it for another hour. I will 
 then decide between it and Thornbury's ; selecting for 
 this No. the better of the two. I have prepared 
 Whitings for the uncertainty between them. 
 
 I send a few letters thinking I may confuse you, 
 if I answer them myself. Perhaps we had best see 
 the Russian papers referred to in one of them. 
 
 I shall see you again tomorrow. 
 
 Be quite comfortable. All as right as possible. 
 
 Love to Mrs. "Wills. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 HlGHAM BY ROCHESTEE, KENT, 
 
 Thursday, First July, 1859. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Very funny indeed, about the 
 amiable Mr. Joyce. What fools they are ! As if a 
 mole couldn't see that their only chance was in a 
 careful separation of themselves from the faintest 
 approach or assimilation to All the Year Bound I* 
 
 I am very much relieved by finding that you had 
 Parts enough yesterday. Shall I still write that note 
 to Chapman and Hall ? Or issue solemnly friendly 
 summons to council at the office next Tuesday ? son 
 
 Whitings have made a mistake this morning, for 
 which I dare say I am myself mainly responsible, 
 through having used the word " Proofs," instead of 
 "revises." 
 
 They have sent me my own soiled and cut-about 
 
 * An allusion, no doubt, to Once a Week, the periodical started by 
 Messrs. Tiradbnry and Evans after their breach with Dickens.
 
 270 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1859 
 
 Proofs of Chapters X., XL, XII., and XIII. What I 
 wanted, was, fair revises of those chapters. Will you 
 send round for them, and then post them. 
 
 I don't think I am any better to-day. I am rather 
 disposed to feel it in my general health, and am 
 languid and short of starch. Original complaint, 
 much where it was. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 P. S. I once asked you, or thought of asking you 
 (I cannot recollect which), if you would let the house 
 agent know that I would now let Tavistock House, for 
 not less than 4 months or more than 12 ? Also that 
 the Stanfield room has been done since he saw it ? 
 Also that the house is generally dismantled for the 
 preservation of the furniture, but that he himself 
 knows what its normal state is. 
 
 Have you ever done so ? If not, will you give him 
 a call when near ? 
 
 CRIPPLE'S ARMS, 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 HIGHAM BY EC-CHESTER, KENT, 
 
 Friday, Eighth Julij, 1859. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : A line to say that I got your 
 letter this morning, and that Wilkie and I have been 
 much delighted by your account of Meredith's* Poem. 
 It is too hot to do much, but I am at work, and see 
 the storyf in a wonderful glass. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 * George Meredith had been an occasional contributor to Household Words. 
 f " A Tale of Two Cities."
 
 1859J "THE TITLE IS MINE." 271 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT, 
 
 Saturday, Twenty-third July, 1859. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : First, as to the agreement. I 
 have had a letter from Ouvry, in which he said that 
 Hobhouse did not see the possibility of making you 
 Sub-Editor in any other way. I told him that as he 
 knew what was meant, he had best explain his diffi- 
 culties to you which he seems not to have done. 
 
 If the other points about your share and salary, 
 are really as you take them to be, they are wrong, of 
 course. But as to the Title, I must be quite positive 
 and immoveable, and place myself at once beyond the 
 possibility of mistake with you. My design is, and 
 always has been (I have purchased the experience on 
 which I formed it, rather dear) that if I choose to 
 abolish the thing it is abolished, and that the Title is 
 Mine. Nothing would induce me to depart from this. 
 
 In the matter of petitioning the Court, I quite 
 understood what you had done, but was alarmed by 
 Ouvry's having given them to understand that we had 
 any idea of doing such a thing. 
 
 As to Evans I have some reason to believe that 
 what he reports in reference to Harper's is quite true. 
 I do not think it at all discouraging or surprising, but 
 I believe it to be true. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 c. D. 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT, 
 
 Sunday Evening, Sixteenth October, 1859. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I found the enclosed letter 
 marked A with a lot of printed documents, and six
 
 272 
 
 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. 
 
 [1859 
 
 pints of eau de Cologne, and two small boxes of 
 eau de Cologne, at Tavistock House last night. 
 Will you return the article, saying that it is not 
 admissible, and that the eau de Cologne awaits his 
 directions. 
 
 In reference next to the enclosed marked B. 
 
 I have a letter from Poole reminding me that I 
 have not remitted his quarter's pension, and that he is 
 aground for the means of going on. Will you 
 kindly at once hand the order to Coutts's for its 
 remittance to him by Monday night's post. 
 
 My Readings List is on the other side. 
 
 The missing letter to you, I posted at the Ipswich 
 chief Post Office, last Tuesday morning about 11. 
 
 Will you have the enclosed for Lever posted and 
 prepaid. 
 
 Will you remind Whitings that I have not yet seen 
 a Proof of my own No. 6. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 [In Dickens's handwriting on the back-sheet of the 
 
 preceding 
 
 DATE. 
 Monday, 
 Tuesday, 
 Wednesday, 
 Thursday, 
 Friday, 
 Saturday, 
 Sunday, 
 Monday, 
 Tuesday, 
 Wednesday, 
 Thursday, 
 
 letter.] 
 
 17th Oct 
 
 18th 
 
 19th 
 
 20th 
 
 21st 
 
 22nd 
 
 23rd 
 
 24th 
 
 25th 
 
 26th 
 
 27th 
 
 PLACE. ADDRESS. 
 
 . . . Cambri dge Post Office. 
 
 . . Cambridge Post Office. 
 
 ... Peterborough... Railway Hotel. 
 
 ... Bradford George Hotel. 
 
 . . . Nottingham . . . George Hotel. 
 
 ... Nottingham ... George Hotel. 
 
 ... London Office. 
 
 ... Oxford Star Hotel. 
 
 ... Oxford Star Hotel. 
 
 ... Birmingham ... Hen and Chickens. 
 
 ... Cheltenham ... Messrs. Hale & Son, 
 Piano Forte Ware- 
 house.
 
 1859] GREAT DOINGS AT OXFORD. 273 
 
 HEN AND CHICKENS, BIRMINGHAM, 
 
 Wednesday, Tiventy-sixth October, 1859. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : The wonderful thing in your 
 letter is, that you don't say whether Evans has paid 
 any money ! I take it for granted that he has paid 
 none, but you don't say so. The rest of the prospects 
 and projects all right. 
 
 Great doings at Oxford. Princes of Wales, and 
 what not. Last night there, was as bad a night as 
 ever you saw, but the people really came up nobly. 
 It has rained here ever since last Wednesday is 
 raining now is all mud and water and I do not 
 think it possible that we can have a good room 
 tonight. 
 
 I shall come up from Cheltenham in the night 
 tomorrow, and shall be at the office about 1 or 2. Of 
 course you won't come out, or think of coming out, 
 unless and until you are quite well. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 OFFICE OF ALL TEE YEAR ROUND. 
 A Weekly Journal conducted by Charles Dickens. 
 
 No. 11, WELLINGTON STREET NORTH, 
 
 STRAND, LONDON, W.C., 
 Friday , Twenty -eighth October, 1859. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I have read the letter to Evans 
 (which is as plain as a pike staff), and have duly given 
 it out to Johnson to be posted with the account. 
 
 We felt the bad weather at Birmingham, though 
 the people did really, under the circumstances, ' ' tumble 
 up " extremely well. At Cheltenham yesterday we 
 
 D.E. T
 
 274 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1859 
 
 had a splendid day and a great go. My share after 
 Arthur's percentage and all the large expenses, was 
 some 70 for the day's work. We came up by the 
 Mail at night got to town at 5 and even I feel a 
 little tired (though really not much) today. 
 
 Oxford came out brilliantly. Princes of Wales and 
 the like attended. 
 
 I go down to Gad's Hill early tomorrow morning, 
 as it is Katie's birthday. I am not quite sure whether 
 I may or may not propose to defer our making-up till 
 Wednesday. It depends on how long the Forsters 
 stay with us. I will write you again from Gad's Hill, 
 as soon as I know. 
 
 Your cold could scarcely be expected to be better, 
 under such trying circumstances of weather. Write 
 me a line tomorrow night to Gad's Hill, and tell me 
 how you are. 
 
 I didn't tell Arthur the Printing joke, because I 
 thought it better to keep the name quite close, 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 HlGHAM BY EOCHESTER, KENT, 
 
 Sunday, Thirtieth October, 1859. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS ; I say Decidedly No to the 
 Stephenson paper solely on the ground, as to Sidney, 
 that I consider it will be behind the time and after the 
 Fair as between you and me, on the additional 
 ground that the thing has already been done in Once 
 a Week (wretchedly) and quoted in The Times further, 
 that I really do honestly think enough has been said 
 and sung on the subject. Pay well for the article 
 nevertheless. Certainly don't use it.
 
 1859] DEATH OF FRANK STONE. 275 
 
 I am glad to hear such good accounts of the cough. 
 I will come up on Wednesday by the Train that 
 arrives at London Bridge at 10 minutes past 10. If 
 I don't find you at the office, or coming to the office, 
 I will come on to your house. It makes not the least 
 difference to me where we make up the No. 
 
 All here, including the Forsters and Wilkie, send 
 kindest regard to Mrs. Wills and you. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 OFFICE OF ALL THE YEAR ROUND. 
 A Weekly Journal conducted by Charles Dickens. 
 
 No. 11, WELLINGTON STREET NORTH, 
 
 STRAND, LONDON, W.C., 
 Saturday, Nineteenth November, 1859. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I don't see my way through 
 this letter of Lewis's at all. 
 
 I shall be back here at 3 today to meet Alfred. 
 Don't wait for me if you have anything else to do. 
 If you have nothing else to do why, then I shall 
 find you. 
 
 On what strange, sad, errand do you think I am 
 going now ? To Highgate, to choose a Grave for 
 poor Stone,* who died yesterday ! 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 * Frank Stone, A.R.A., an intimate friend of Dickens, and father of 
 Mr. Marcus Stone, R.A. The son succeeded " Phiz " as Dickens's illustrator. 
 He drew the design for the cover of " Our Mutual Friend." 
 
 T 2
 
 276 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1860 
 
 1860. 
 
 Dickens began " The Uncommercial Traveller " in 
 All the Year Round of April 21st. These papers 
 continued to appear until 1869. 
 
 " Great Expectations" began in All the Year Round 
 of December 1st. 
 
 In September Dickens finally disposed of Tavistock 
 House to a Mr. Davis, a Jewish gentleman (see letter 
 of September 4th). 
 
 On November 1st Dickens and Wilkie Collins 
 started for a tour in Cornwall and Devon, one of 
 their objects being a visit to Clovelly, where the 
 scene of the Christmas story, " A Message from the 
 Sea," was to be laid. 
 
 TAVISTOCK HOUSE, TAVISTOCK SQUARE, 
 
 LONDON, W.C., 
 
 Wednesday, Twenty-eighth March, 1860. 
 MY DEAR WILLS : There is not a hope of my 
 doing the "Uncommercial," in time for Saturday's 
 American Mail. When I got home last night, I 
 found a note from the lady with whom my mother 
 lives, who is terrified by the responsibility of her 
 charge and utterly relinquishes it. Consequently I 
 must at once devote myself to the difficult task of 
 finding good hands for my mother, and getting her 
 into them without alarming her, and how this is to be 
 done, and done at once, I am at a great loss to settle. 
 The " Uncommercial" being announced, I am very 
 unwilling to postpone it as to England. Can we make 
 up the No. without it, for America, and afterwards 
 re-make it up, with it, for this country ? I will come 
 to the office in the course of this afternoon. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D.
 
 1860] "WARIOUS GAMMON." 277 
 
 OFFICE OF ALL THE YEAR ROUND. 
 A Weekly Journal conducted by Charles Dickens. 
 
 No. 11, WELLINGTON STREET NORTH, 
 
 STRAND, LONDON, W.C., 
 Monday, Twenty-third April, 1860. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : This is only a word, to say 
 that I have received your letter here today and that 
 all is well in the official regions. 
 
 When I came to make up the No. I found it 
 impossible to get in the "Eye Witness," * and was forced 
 to substitute " Friends on all Fours. " f I wish you 
 would write the distinguished E. W. a line, explaining 
 that it was driven out at last by impossibility of 
 fitting, and that it is in the following No. I make a 
 rule of never speaking to him on Editorial topics. 
 
 I have had a very admirable letter from Mrs. Linton 
 which shall be yours when you come back. 
 
 The newspaper extracts for the current No. I duly 
 made out. I have also read "Warious Gammon" 
 addressed to myself, in the way of contributions, and 
 have returned the same. 
 
 It is cold and wretched here, and hails every five 
 minutes. But I always believe Paris to be one of the 
 coldest and hottest places on earth. J 
 
 They are carrying the P. R. interest to such a 
 preposterous height, that I begin to doubt the pro- 
 priety of inserting " Collars." All depends, of course, 
 upon the treatment. The noble C. has not yet 
 11 entered an appearance " with his copy. We adopt 
 that legal phraseology, at our Sporting Houses. 
 
 * Occasional papers, entitled "Our Eye Witness " at this or the other 
 place or spectacle, bejran to appear in the first volume of All the; Year 
 Round. Charles Collins was the author. He was then engaged to be 
 married to Dirkens's your per daughter. 
 
 f All the Year Hound. May JJih. 
 
 \ I suppose Wills \\MH in I'arid.
 
 278 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1860 
 
 With kind regard to Mrs. Wills, in which all at 
 home join. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 HlGHAM BY EOCHESTER, KENT, 
 Thursday, Twelfth July, 1860. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS: My active and intelligent mind 
 has reverted twice or thrice to the close of that Spirit- 
 article of Mrs. Linton's, and is not quite easy about it. 
 If you will look back to the last paragraph of the 
 paper, you will find it said that after deduction for 
 imposition, lies, and so forth, there remains a " large 
 residuum " of something to be accounted for. I think 
 this wants qualifying. At all events I would take out 
 " large," and let her know it. 
 
 In haste, 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 26, WELLINGTON STREET, W.C. 
 OFFICE OF ALL THE YEAR ROUND. 
 A Weekly Journal conducted by Charles Dickens. 
 
 Late 
 No. 11, WELLINGTON STREET NORTH, 
 
 STRAND, LONDON, W.C., 
 Tuesday, Fourth September, 1860. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Your description of your sea- 
 castle^ makes your room here look uncommonly dusty. 
 Likewise the Costermongers in the street outside, and 
 the one Customer (drunk with his head on the table) 
 in the Crown Coffee House over the way in York 
 
 * Wills was away at Llandndno, I think.
 
 1860] A GRIM HOUSE. 279 
 
 Street, have an earthy and, as I may say, a Land- 
 lubberly aspect. Cape Horn to the best of my belief 
 is a tremendous way off ; and there are more bricks 
 and cabbage leaves between this office and that dismal 
 point of land than you can possibly imagine. 
 
 Some demon sprite will somehow have informed you 
 
 before I write this letter, that Mr. has poisoned 
 
 himself. Frederick Chapman wrote me last night 
 that he had done it " in his father's house." A gloomy 
 professional purchaser of Nos., with a dirty face, whom 
 Johnson presented to me in the shop today as " this 
 young man who is always down in Whitefriars," at 
 J past 11 A.M. of this day offered to make oath " wot 
 he dun it in Cre-morne in a bottle o' Soda Water. It 
 wos last Sunday, wot he knowed Mr. Simpson well, 
 and he dun it there." I cannot say which account is 
 correct probably neither but the wretched creature 
 is doubtless dead. And when I came along just now 
 from Haverstock Hill the house looked grim and dry, 
 with all the blinds down, brooding in a hot, dusty, tear- 
 less, frozen kind of way, at the unsympathetic street. 
 Nothing having appeared in the papers, I suppose 
 strong influence to have been used in that wise, to 
 keep the dismal story quiet. Holdsworth (in a cracked 
 voice and with a great deal more hair on his head 
 than he can possibly govern) said that he, the deceased, 
 
 " had been laying it at Miss 's door for her getting 
 
 married." God knows whether any blurred vision of 
 that most undesirable female with the brass-headed 
 eyes, ever crossed his drunken mind. Frederick 
 Chapman seemed to think it an extraordinarily 
 unpolite thing that he hadn't waited over tomorrow, 
 " when he knew his brother was going to be married." 
 And that's all I know of the ghastly story.
 
 280 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [i860 
 
 Coming here from the Station this morning, I met, 
 coming from the Execution of the Walworth Murderer, 
 such a tide of ruffians as never could have flowed from 
 any point but the Gallows. Without any figure of 
 speech, it turned one white and sick to behold 
 them. 
 
 Tavistock House is cleared today, and possession 
 delivered up to the new tenant. I must say that 
 in all things the purchaser has behaved thoroughly 
 well, and that I cannot call to mind any occasion 
 when I have had money-dealings with any one that 
 have been so satisfactory, considerate, and trusting. 
 
 I am ornamented at present with one of my most 
 intensely preposterous and utterly indescribable colds. 
 If you were to make a Voyage from Cape Horn to 
 Wellington Street, you would scarcely recognise in 
 the bowed form, weeping eyes, rasped nose, and 
 snivelling wretch whom you would encounter here, the 
 once gay and sparkling &c., &c. 
 
 Everything else here is as quiet as possible. 
 Business reports you receive from Holdsworth. Wilkie 
 looked in today, going to Gloucestershire for a week. 
 The office is full of discarded curtains and coverings 
 from Tavistock House, which Georgina is coming up 
 this evening to select from and banish. Mary is in 
 raptures with the beauties of Dunk eld, but is not very 
 well in health. The Admiral (Sydney)* goes up for 
 his examination tomorrow. If he fails to pass with 
 credit, I will never believe in anybody again so in 
 that case look out for your own reputation with me. 
 
 This is really all the news I have except that I 
 am lazy, and that Wilkie dines here next Tuesday in 
 
 * Sydney Smith Ilaklimniul Dickens, the fifth son. lie was born in 1847, 
 entered the lloyal Navy, arid died at sea in 1872.
 
 1860] CHARLES READE. 281 
 
 order that we may have a talk about the Christmas 
 Number ! 
 
 I beg to send my kind regards to Mrs. Wills, and 
 to inquire how she likes wearing a hat, which of 
 course she does. I also want to know from her, in 
 confidence, whether 
 
 Crwllm festidiniog llynythll y wodd ? 
 
 Yesterday I burnt, in the field at Gad's Hill, the 
 accumulated letters and papers of twenty years. They 
 sent up a smoke like the Genie when he got out of 
 the casket on the sea- shore ; and as it was an exquisite 
 day when I began, and rained very heavily when I 
 finished, I suspect my correspondence of having over- 
 cast the face of the Heavens. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 Kind regard to Mr. and Mrs. Novelli. 
 
 I have just sent out for the Globe. No news. 
 
 Wednesday, Twenty-sixth September, 1860. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Many thanks for your news of 
 Mary, received here this morning. (I mean that 
 illegible proper name for Mary.) 
 
 I have both heard from Eeade* and seen him. 
 There is only one obstacle, and that is a treaty he has 
 with Ticknor and Fields. It is possible the obstacle 
 may be overcome. We must have a talk about it. I 
 have engaged him to dine here on Saturday in next 
 week at 6. Will you book it ? I write by this post 
 to Wilkie, in order that notice of the Feast may reach 
 him on his coming to town. 
 
 * Charles Reade. I think this is an allusion to a suggestion that Reade 
 should write a novel for All the Year Round or join the staff. It was 
 revived later (see letter of January 5th, 18(>2, post).
 
 282 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR [I860 
 
 The Times of this morning having a mention of 
 Ingram' s death in the leader, I suppose there is little 
 or no doubt of the fact. 
 
 The No. is made up, and the " Uncommercial" is in, 
 and all is right. Will you mention to Mrs. Wills 
 with my kind regard, that I ought to have been born 
 at Peebles,* but (owing to the constitutional perversity 
 of my mother) was not ? 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 LlSKEAKD, 
 
 Saturday, Third November, 1860. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : We have had two days posting 
 from Bideford here, and have arrived (at a quarter 
 past 3) about half an hour before the going out of the 
 Post. I have not written sooner, because of our 
 having been in inaccessible places. We have now 
 struck the Eailway, and, making a little posting 
 expedition from here tomorrow, will be safe in town, 
 I hope, on Monday evening. 
 
 We have got everything we want, I think, and 
 have arranged and parcelled out the Xmas No. t 
 
 On Tuesday we will make up as usual. 
 
 So no more at present from 
 
 Yours ever faithfully, 
 
 C. I). 
 
 Wilkie sends kind regard. 
 
 * Mrs. Wills, like her brothers, William and Robert Chabmcrs, was born 
 at Peebles. 
 
 f " A Message from The Sea."
 
 A BEGGING LETTER. 283 
 
 1861. 
 
 Dickens' s second series of public readings occupied 
 most of his time and attention this year. He read in 
 London, at St. James's Hall, during the season, took 
 a short summer holiday at Gad's Hill, and read in 
 the provinces and Scotland in the autumn, the tour 
 being prematurely interrupted owing to the death of 
 the Prince Consort. 
 
 3, HANOVER TERRACE, 
 
 Monday, Eleventh March, 1861. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I have had a begging letter 
 from that Eobert Barrow a very bad one by the 
 way with an awful affectation of Christian piety in 
 it a pretence of having known me and offended me, 
 which is altogether a Lie and the usual blaring 
 assumption (of which I shall die at last) that I am 
 immensely rich. 
 
 If you would not object to see him, I shall be very 
 much obliged to you if you will do so once more, at 
 that same wretched lodging hard by Holborn. He 
 seems to have no idea of my having already relieved 
 him. I wish you would tell him that you have already 
 given him 2 and that you have <3 more in hand ; 
 but that you must impress upon him in the strongest 
 manner that he has no hope in making any further 
 appeal to me that it is quite impossible and monstrous 
 that I am quite weighed down and loaded and 
 chained in life, by the enormous drags upon me which 
 are already added to the charges of my own large 
 family and that he must not deceive himself with 
 the notion of my assisting him further. It is very
 
 284 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1861 
 
 important indeed that lie should be got to under- 
 stand this, quite apart from the question of his own 
 necessities. 
 
 I declare to you that what with my mother and 
 
 Alfred's family and my wife and a Saunders or so 
 
 I seem to stop sometimes like a steamer in a storm, 
 
 and deliberate whether I shall go on whirling, or 
 
 go down. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 LORD WARDEN, DOVER, 
 
 Sunday, Twenty-sixth May, 1861. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Many thanks for your report 
 of Wilkie, which amused and interested me very 
 much. His quality of taking pains, united to natural 
 quickness, will always get him on. He was delighted 
 with the success, and wrote to me that night before 
 going to bed. 
 
 I hope I am really and permanently better. I work 
 here, like a Steam Engine, and walk like Captain 
 Barclay.* 
 
 Enclosed, a letter forwarded here this morning. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 HlGHAM BY KOCHESTER, KENT, 
 
 Saturday, Thirty-first August, 18G1. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I have received your letter this 
 morning, and not to lose a post write to you before 
 
 * Robert Barclay-Allardice (1779 1854) was famed for his powers as a 
 pedestrian. His greatest feat took place in 180'J, when he walked 1,000 
 miles in 1,000 consecutive hours at Newmarket. Chambers'* Encyclopedia 
 says of him that he "devoted himself to agriculture, cattle-breeding, and 
 the claiming of earldoms."
 
 1861] ALL THE YEAR ROUND. 285 
 
 going to Sheerness for the day with Miss Boyle, 
 Charley Collins, Marcus Stone, and the rest of them. 
 You will, doubtless, hear from Holdsworth the 
 Brilliant that the Sale keeps up well, and that Bulwer 
 seems so far to succeed capitally. In the maldng-up, 
 I find Morley very helpful indeed always there early 
 on the Wednesdays, always ready with his proofs and 
 scheme, and always prepared for any kind of altera- 
 tions on my part. The two Nos. we have made up 
 since you left are very good indeed. In last Wednes- 
 day's make-up, is a paper which I have called " Four 
 Stories,"' by Gleig's fair friend. They are Ghost 
 Stories. The first (by far the best) is a remarkably 
 good and original one. I nearly rewrote them all. 
 In the same making-up, we had the tl Cinque Ports." 
 But I was so disgusted by the preposterous homage 
 to the Palmerston nonsense in The Times, and with the 
 base flunkeyship of Punch, that I told Morley to take 
 the article out again and for ever cancel the same. 
 The Solicitor employed by the Minister for Saxony 
 in that suspected Murder case, has written me a very 
 intelligent letter, to say that it was an exceedingly 
 curious case of circumstantial evidence, where there 
 was always a destructive and more or less quashing 
 circumstance to oppose to the suspicious circumstance ; 
 and that he believes he could write an interesting 
 picture narrative of it. I have replied that with 
 fictitious names, and with no assumption of the 
 prisoner's innocence, and no championing of either 
 side, I shall be glad to have it. Sala has offered a 
 heap of rubbish by some brother of his at Southampton, 
 which I have declined. Spicer writes to know whether 
 his " Polly '' is Burked or is to appear ? I have 
 
 * All the Year Round, September 14th.
 
 286 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1861 
 
 replied, Is to appear 'twixt this and Christmas. He 
 also mentions (his letter is addressed to you) that he 
 has not been paid for " The First of April."* I have 
 paid him therefore. All else goes on regularly and 
 well perfectly well. 
 
 From Frederick Chapman concerning " Great 
 Expectations," I have a note this very morning. 
 There are only 90 copies left of the Third Edition, 
 and we are going to Press with the Fourth. 
 
 I work every day for two or three hours on my 
 Readings. Have a very considerable hope that 
 "Copperfield" will do a great deal in London. Am 
 hopeful of seeing Arthur [Smith] soon ; who has 
 been ill at Worthing, but is better. Charley f has 
 been here, and is going to start in business for him- 
 self on the First of October. He stayed here a week, 
 and looked very much the better for it. Cricket 
 came off, and the " Governor " your present corre- 
 spondent got a hit high over the apple tree, for 
 which he scored three, and which covered him with 
 glory. C.H.O.E.L.E.Y. was here before starting 
 for Spain, and walked with me at my pace two 
 and twenty miles, without appearing in the least the 
 worse for it. At which I stood amazed, and have 
 ever since remained in that attitude. 
 
 The weather here is perfect, the beauty of the 
 country marvellous, and the harvest abundant. My 
 old enemy, that infernal bushel of wheat, will have 
 a great deal to say for himself in the Money Market 
 shortly, I suppose. 
 
 * All the Year Hound, March 30th, where the title is " A Very Likely 
 Story." 
 
 f His eldest son. 
 
 j Henry Fothergill Chorley, musical critic of the Athrnawn, writer of 
 novels and libretti for operas.
 
 1861] THE HOTEL "JIBBONE." 287 
 
 I stick to my prediction that the people of the 
 North (in America) will neither raise the money nor 
 the men required by the Government ; and that an 
 ignoble and contemptible compromise will be made soon. 
 
 I wish you were in some hostelry, with more comfort 
 about you. My belief in the efficacy of comfort is 
 very great. I am rather disappointed that you didn't 
 go to Chamounix from Geneva, and come down to 
 Martigny, and then go to the great St. Bernard, and 
 then over one of the great Passes. But I know that 
 " Our Bore " always found the places his friends had 
 omitted to visit, to be the best places in the Universe. 
 
 You don't mention how many ancient cripples are 
 
 in Miss Coutts's party. I can imagine and Co. 
 
 toddling sinuously up and down the ten thousand 
 stairs of the Gibbon which the natives pronounce 
 Jibbone and corkscrewing themselves down the 
 stony-hearted ways to the Lake. 
 
 Frank * shall have your remembrance when he 
 comes home to-night. His holiday dates from Monday 
 next I believe. 
 
 This is all my news, and little enough. Mary, 
 Katie, Georgina, and all, unite with me in kind regard 
 to Mrs. Wills and to you. 
 
 Ever, My Dear Wills, 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 HlGHAM BY KOCHESTEK, KENT, 
 
 Friday, Twenty-fifth October, 1861. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Bulwer, in a note I meant to 
 have enclosed herein but have inadvertently destroyed, 
 
 * Francis Jeffrey Dickens, his third son.
 
 288 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1861 
 
 asks, " Would it be very inconvenient to set up and 
 print off the whole of i Strange Story ' * from No. 20 
 to the End. In that case I could give the final revises 
 up to ~No. 19. But the revise of No. 20 necessitates 
 the survey of all the numbers that have gone before." 
 I have told him that I think we can do it that I 
 write to you and that you will stir up the printer and 
 tell him about and when he may expect. He writes 
 from Marine Parade, Ventnor. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 Miss Power is going to Alexandria, and no doubt 
 wants all the money she has earned, or can earn. 
 
 Was she paid for " Things I Can't Stand " ? 
 
 And was she paid for the poem now in type ? I 
 forget its name. 
 
 Will you let her have a cheque, at once, for anything 
 we may owe her. She is here. 
 
 ANGEL HOTEL, BURY ST. EDMUNDS, 
 
 Wednesday, Thirtieth October, 1861. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I do not remember accurately 
 (though I have a general impression) what was done 
 at the office before, concerning John, when he was 
 away with me. But I wish whatever was done before 
 to be done now. His salary from the Eeadings is 
 paid by Headland. 
 
 It may save some discomfort hereafter if I beg you 
 not to allow my old servant to be the subject of any 
 kind of officiousness on the part of Holdsworth or 
 Johnson. I have lately observed a little thing or two 
 
 * Lytton's "A Strange Story" began in All the Year Round, August 10th, 
 18G1, and ended in the issue of March 8th, 1862.
 
 1861] THE READINGS. 289 
 
 in that direction, not at all consistent with my notion 
 of my supremacy. And I have not noticed it, because 
 I could possibly take no notice of it but one final and 
 conclusive one. 
 
 We opened ill at Norwich. (There had been great 
 mismanagement, but perhaps poor Arthur's illness* 
 may have had to do with it.) We had not a good hall, 
 and the audience were heavy, and put me out of sorts. 
 Last night was brilliant, and I think " Nickleby " tops 
 all the readings in its astounding Go. 
 
 We are full here for tonight. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT, 
 Sunday, Third November, 1861. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Excellent work both at Ipswich 
 and Colchester. I start again tomorrow morning from 
 here. 
 
 It is " Copperfield " at Brighton on Thursday 
 evening. Let me know whether I am to expect you. 
 Dinner hour, 4. We hear of a great Let at Hastings, 
 but know nothing yet of Brighton. Probably we shall 
 find this time, as poor Arthur and I did last, that the 
 first reading in a place where there are more readings 
 than one, is invariably the poorest Let. 
 
 I was amused by a letter in The Times yesterday 
 (though it was unnecessary and ill-natured) about 
 Bulwer. When I looked over the proceedings in 
 Fenwick's first examination and subsequent release 
 (which were very wrong), I particularly wrote to him : 
 
 * Arthur Smith died early in this month. Dickens had had a last inter- 
 view with him on September 28th. 
 
 D.E. U
 
 290 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1861 
 
 " Whatever you do, remember that under the English 
 criminal law, nothing can be done without the 
 accused. The accused must be present." He wrote 
 back, saying that he quite understood that, and would 
 not forget it. 
 
 There was a rush at Colchester, in which John was 
 nearly swept into space. The rest were obliged to 
 dive at him, and drag him out of the crowd. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 LORD WARDEN HOTEL, DOVER, 
 
 Wednesday, Sixth November, 1861. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I have received your letter here 
 this morning, and the satisfactory account, but not 
 the proof. What have you done with Eobert Lytton's 
 " Dead Pope " ? There can be no doubt, you know, 
 of its being far better than any make- weight. 
 
 The Brighton " fixture " stands thus : 
 
 Thursday evening, " Copperfield." 
 
 Friday evening, " Nickleby " and " Trial." 
 
 Saturday afternoon, " Copperfield." 
 
 There was a tremendous storm here yesterday, so 
 that all that side of this house which fronted the 
 gale had to be emptied of guests. The sea was 
 prodigiously high, and the uproar deafening. 
 Between 4 and 5 in the afternoon, the wind shifted 
 to the north, and it became fine. We had a great 
 squeeze at night, and turned away money. Koom 
 small, but not ill-constructed. Audience, most capital 
 - faultless ! There was a ditto audience at Canterbury, 
 where they took " Copperfield " most delightfully. 
 From Hastings we have a telegram that they have
 
 1861] CONFUSION. 291 
 
 sold for tonight nearly 300 stalls ! We go over there, 
 at noon. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 QUEEN'S HEAD, NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE, 
 Friday, Twenty-second November, 1861. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I am horribly afraid that 
 Headland * has broken down, and I want you to take 
 the trouble to go round to St. Martin's Lane see 
 Johnson the Printer and ascertain if you can, how 
 this state of things that I am going to describe has 
 been brought about. 
 
 Observe first of all, that the posting bills, shop- 
 bills, &c., sent off by Johnson for this place, all in one 
 parcel and (necessarily) to this place, were for days 
 and days "lost." At last they were found to have 
 been sent by Johnson to the place of reading the 
 hall instead of to the local agent, where they had 
 been lying in some vault or other, and might 
 have lain there until Doomsday. This had previously 
 occurred at some other place I forget which I think 
 Ipswich but it is not material; at some place, 
 indubitably. 
 
 When I come here, I find, to my astonishment that 
 I am announced on Saturday to read " Little Dombey " 
 and the "Trial" which I had no notion of doing, 
 having given directions to Headland to put up 
 " Copperfield " for Saturday : well knowing that 
 " Copperfield " of last night would make Saturday's 
 " Johnson's mistake," he says. 
 
 I begin to read at Edinburgh on Wednesday. This 
 
 * His manager for the readings. 
 
 u 2
 
 292 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1861 
 
 morning comes a letter from the agent there, with the 
 dismal news that he has not got the bills, tickets, and 
 so forth in a parcel from Johnson again known to 
 have been sent somewhere ! and that whereas all 
 Edinburgh ought to be now acquainted with every- 
 thing that is going to be done, nothing whatever is 
 known. Conceive this, and I beginning on "Wednesday ! 
 Moreover, he has one of our printed cards of the 
 Edinburgh course in his possession, and on that printed 
 card there is no morning reading of " Little Dombey " 
 which I had given out to Headland and knew would 
 be very valuable. Again he says, ' ' Johnson's mistake. ' ' 
 But I cannot readily make out how Johnson can be 
 always making mistakes now and never made them 
 before. This is what I want you kindly to ascertain 
 from him. 
 
 I do not know what is to be done. It is too plain 
 that the business is most awfully mismanaged, and I 
 cannot see my way to putting it right. I am so 
 perfectly helpless in the matter : having my own hard 
 work in it to do, and having of course supposed all 
 these things to be done already. I have detached 
 Berry to Edinburgh he is off directly but I do not 
 believe that anything he can do, can now make that 
 place what it ought to have been. I have instructed 
 him to go on to Glasgow, and put everything right 
 there. I have scarcely a doubt that everything is wrong. 
 
 Here, the local Agent of course complains that he 
 was absolutely powerless when he ought to have been 
 busiest that when Jenny Lind was here, and he was 
 sending her circulars out, and ought to have been 
 sending mine he had none to send, had no notion 
 what I was going to do, could answer no enquiry. 
 "We had a most enthusiastic audience last night for
 
 1861] BERWICK-ON-TWEED. 293 
 
 " Copperfield " but in numbers they were about half 
 what they should have been and would have been. 
 
 If all these rooms at all these places in the List were 
 not taken, I would not go on. But the mischief is, 
 that I must go on. 
 
 Bulwer's proof enclosed. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 KING'S ARMS HOTEL, BERWICK-ON-TWEED, 
 
 Sunday, Twenty-fourth November -, 1861. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Just a line to say that I received 
 yours here this morning, and thank you for it. We 
 have done extremely well at Newcastle, and made a 
 very remarkable impression beyond all doubt. Berry 
 telegraphed from Edinburgh that he had got the bills 
 and was issuing them in all proper directions after- 
 wards from Glasgow, ditto, ditto. Gordon writes from 
 Edinburgh that he " thinks no harm has been done." 
 This must of course be taken with a qualification; 
 but he had been to Wood's, and seemed to have 
 earnestly looked about him. Of course he is waiting 
 for me as a comrade. 
 
 This is a dull place for a long Sunday, and as I 
 have no book (no, not one I forgot to buy one yester- 
 day, through going to look at the Pitmen as they came 
 from work), I think I shall learn your account of the 
 " Octoroon." Before beginning to learn it, I send 
 you on the other side my list for the Xmas No. as well 
 as I can remember it.* 
 
 Will you write to the enclosed man in confidence, 
 saying that I am away in Scotland ? 
 
 * This has been torn off.
 
 294 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [18G1 
 
 This seems a most extraordinary place to read in, 
 and one would think it contained nobody to read to ; 
 bnt I believe the sale of tickets is quite surprising, 
 considering the town. I don't know the details yet, 
 and don't want to know them ; for I was up at 5, and 
 have exerted myself very much, at Newcastle. I mean, 
 please God, to do the same in Edinburgh where I 
 begin with " Copperfield," and hope to make a great 
 effect in the beginning, intellectually in the end, 
 pecuniarily. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 WATERLOO HOTEL, EDINBURGH, 
 
 Thursday, Twenty-eighth November, 1861. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : A brief report, for I was not 
 well in the night and am out of sorts today. 
 
 We had in the hall last night exactly double 
 what we had on the first night last time. " Copper- 
 field," beyond all possibility of doubt, a wonderful 
 success here. The impression on the audience, 
 without precedent in the reading chronicles. Four 
 rounds when I went in laughing and crying and 
 thundering all the time and a great burst of cheering 
 at last. They lost nothing not the minutest detail 
 and I almost think it would have been better to have 
 done u Copperfield" every night. 
 
 I do not return the proofs of the No. as I doubt 
 my ability to get through them today. I will try 
 fresh air instead. Bulwer's proofs enclosed, are (he 
 says) " not for press, but for final revision to be sent 
 to me and then returned for press." 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D.
 
 1861] BLAZES OF TKIUMPH. 295 
 
 WATERLOO HOTEL, EDINBURGH, 
 
 Sunday, First December, 1861. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Blazes of triumph ! Immense 
 turn-away. Cram yesterday morning (almost un- 
 precedented in the morning), and general Go of 
 Readings really indescribable. 
 
 They write from Glasgow this morning for " more 
 tickets." 
 
 In your last, when you write of Mrs. Linton, you 
 say nothing of the book on the American Union in 
 Morley's hands. I hope and trust his article will be 
 ready for the next No. made up. There will not be 
 the least objection to having two American papers in it.* 
 
 I am rather tired. For I read twice yesterday and 
 took unusual pains. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 CARRICK'S EOYAL HOTEL, GLASGOW, 
 
 Tuesday, Third December, 1861. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : From a paragraph, a letter, and 
 an advertisement, in a Scotsman I send you with 
 this, you may form some dim guess at the scene we 
 had in Edinburgh last night. I think I may say that 
 I never saw a crowd before. 
 
 As I was quietly dressing, I heard the people (when 
 the doors were opened) come in with a most unusual 
 crash ; and I was very much struck by the place's 
 obviously filling to the throat within five minutes. 
 But I thought no more of it, dressed placidly, and 
 
 * In All tfte Year Hound of December 21st there were two American 
 papers : " American Disunion " and " An English-American Sea Duel," the 
 latter being an account of the fight between the Shannon and the C'/tesapeake. 
 The former was, evidently, by Morley. It was followed up by another, 
 entitled " The Morrill Tariff," in the next issue.
 
 296 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1861 
 
 went in at the usual time. I then found that there 
 was a tearing mad crowd in all the passages and in 
 the street, and that they were forcing a great turbid 
 stream of people into the already crammed hall. The 
 moment I appeared, 50 frantic men addressed me at 
 once, and 50 other frantic men got upon ledges and 
 cornices, and tried to find private audiences of their 
 own. Meantime the crowd outside still forced the 
 turbid stream in, and I began to have some general 
 idea that the platform would be driven through the 
 wall behind it, and the wall into the street. You 
 know that your Respected Chief has a spice of cool- 
 ness in him, and is not altogether unaccustomed to 
 public speaking. Without the exercise of the two 
 qualities, I think we should all have been there now. 
 But when the uproarious spirits (who, as we strongly 
 suspect, didn't pay at all) saw that it was quite 
 impossible to disturb me, they gave in, and there was 
 a dead silence. Then I told them, of course in the 
 best way I could think of, that I was heartily sorry, 
 but that this was the fault of their own townsman 
 (it was decidedly the fault of Wood's people, with 
 maybe a trifle of preliminary assistance from Head- 
 land) ; that I would do anything to set it right ; that 
 I would at once adjourn to the Music Hall, if they 
 thought it best ; or that I would alter my arrangements 
 and come back and read to all Edinburgh if they 
 would. (Meantime Gordon, if you please, is softening 
 the crowd outside, and dim reverberations of his 
 stentorian roars are audible.) At this there is great 
 cheering, and they cry, " Go on, Mr. Dickens. 
 Everybody will be quiet now." Uproarious spirit 
 exclaims, " We wont be quiet. We won't let the 
 reading be heard. We're ill-treated." llespected
 
 1861] A SCENE IN EDINBURGH. 297 
 
 Chief says, "There's plenty of time, and you may 
 rely upon it that the reading is in no danger of 
 being heard until we are agreed." Thereupon good- 
 humouredly shuts up book. Laugh turned against 
 uproarious spirit, and uproarious spirit shouldered 
 out. Respected Chief prepares, amidst calm, to begin, 
 when gentleman (with full dressed lady torn to 
 ribbons on his arm) cries out : " Mr. Dickens! " 
 " Sir." " Couldn't some people, at all events ladies, 
 be accommodated on your platform ? " " Most 
 certainly." Loud cheering. " Which way can they 
 come to the platform, Mr. Dickens ? " " Eound here 
 to my left." In a minute the platform was crowded. 
 Everybody who came up, laughed, and said it was 
 nothing when I told them in a low voice how sorry I 
 was ; but the moment they were there, the sides began 
 to roar, because they couldn't see ! At least half the 
 people were ladies, and I then proposed to them to sit 
 down or lie clown. Instantly they all dropped into 
 recumbent groups, with Respected Chief standing up 
 in the centre. I don't know what it looked like 
 most a battle field an impossible tableau a 
 gigantic picnic. There was one very pretty girl in 
 full dress lying down on her side all night, and hold- 
 ing on to one leg of my table. So I read " Nickleby " 
 and the " Trial." From the beginning to the end they 
 didn't lose one point, and they ended with a great 
 burst of cheering. 
 
 Very glad to hear that Morley's American article 
 is done. Rather fagged today, but not very. So no 
 more at present. Ever faithfiill} 7 , 
 
 C. D. 
 
 Will you reply to enclosed letter. 
 
 200 Stalls let here for tonight.
 
 298 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1861 
 
 CARRICK'S BOYAL, GLASGOW, 
 
 Friday, Sixth December, 1861. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS: I enclose three letters. On 
 two I have endorsed the kind of reply I want sent. 
 The third is in your way and speaks for itself. 
 
 It rained last night and came on at 6 o'clock too 
 sheets of water. Under which adverse circum- 
 stances you will be concerned to hear that we had 
 only one thousand eight hundred and sixteen persons 
 in the Hall, and that the night's receipts were only 
 one hundred and eighty-six pounds, nine shillings ! ! ! 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 WATERLOO HOTEL, EDINBURGH, 
 
 Sunday, Eighth December, 1861. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Before I can answer or consider 
 Bulwer's letter that you enclosed me this morning, I 
 must have proofs of the rest of his story. Will you 
 send them on to me when ready ? 
 
 Glasgow finished nobly, and last night here was 
 signally successful and positively splendid. 
 
 Mary and Georgina arrived punctual to the minute, 
 and send you their kindest regard. 
 
 Will you give my small Admiral, on his personal 
 application, one Sovereign ? I have told him to come 
 to you for that recognition of his meritorious services. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 CARLISLE, 
 
 Wednesday, Eleventh December, 1861. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : No to the Poem. There is no 
 good in it ; it is conceited and morbid ; directly
 
 1861] THE CHRISTMAS NUMBEE. 299 
 
 counter to the spirit of the Xmas No. The man who 
 talks of himself as " the poet" is really not to be 
 endured in this age especially when he isn't one. 
 
 I don't like either. Exactly for the reason 
 
 which has led to our leaving Xmas alone in the Xmas 
 No. we should avoid it if we can in the regular 
 No. I put in that saving clause, because you may 
 have nothing else by you. But I don't like it, and 
 would rather have something else. 
 
 It is scarcely possible to make less of Mr. Spence's 
 book than Morley has done.* 
 
 Costello very amusing. Lever extremely dangerous 
 in places. I have taken out the most dangerous 
 and really unfair bits. Look to it again in the 
 Revise. 
 
 Carlisle has done its best, and crammed its room (a 
 sort of cellar, and very mouldy) twice. One would 
 not have expected it in this place, but it is indis- 
 putable that they took " Copperfield " last night as 
 well as the Edinburgh people. We go on to Lancaster 
 at 1 today. 
 
 Kindest regard. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C.D. 
 
 The Proofs returned separately. 
 
 VICTORIA HOTEL, PRESTON, 
 
 Friday, Thirteenth December, 1861. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : The news of the Xmas No.f is 
 indeed Glorious, and nothing can look brighter or 
 
 * Mr. Spence's book on the American Union is mentioned in the last 
 paragraph of the article entitled " American Disunion," All the Year Round, 
 December 21st. 
 
 f " Tom Tiddler's Ground," to which Dickens contributed the first, sixth 
 and seventh chapters.
 
 300 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [18G1 
 
 better than the prospects of the Illustrious Publi- 
 cation. 
 
 Both Carlisle and Lancaster have come out 
 admirably, though I doubted both, as you did. But, 
 unlike you, I always doubted this place. I do so still. 
 We have a hundred stalls let, but it is a poor place at 
 the best (you remember ?) and the Mills are working 
 half-time, and trade is very bad. The expenses how- 
 ever will be a mere nothing. The accounts from 
 Manchester for to-morrow, and from Liverpool for the 
 Eeadings generally, very cheery indeed. 
 
 The young lady who sells the papers at the Station 
 is just the same as ever. Has orders for tonight, and 
 is coming, " with a person." " The person ? " said I. 
 " Never you mind," said she. 
 
 I was so charmed with Robert Chambers's " Tra- 
 ditions of Edinburgh " (which I read in Edinburgh), 
 that I was obliged to write to him and say so. 
 
 Kindest regard from the Ladies. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 ADELPHI HOTEL, LIVERPOOL, 
 
 Sunday, Fifteenth December, 18G1. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I sent you a Telegram today, 
 arid I write before the answer has come to hand. 
 
 I have been very doubtful what to do here. We 
 have a great Let for tomorrow night. The Mayor 
 recommends closing tomorrow, and going on on 
 Tuesday and Wednesday ; so does the Town Clerk ; so 
 do the Agents. But I have a misgiving that they 
 hardly understand what the public general sympathy 
 with the Queen will be.* Further, I feel personally 
 
 * The Prince Consort had died on the previous day.
 
 18G2] THE QUEEN. 301 
 
 that the Queen has always been very considerate and 
 gracious to me, and I would on no account do any- 
 thing that might seem unfeeling or disrespectful. I 
 shall attach great weight, in this state of indecision, 
 to your Telegram. 
 
 A capital audience at Preston. Not a capacious 
 room, but full. Great appreciation. 
 
 The scene at Manchester last night was really 
 magnificent. I had had the platform carried forward 
 to our " Frozen Deep " point, and my table and screen 
 built in with a Proscenium and room Scenery. When 
 I went in (there was a very fine hall), they applauded 
 in the most tremendous manner ; and the extent to 
 which they were taken aback and taken by storm, by 
 " Copperfield," was really a thing to see. It was a 
 most signal and remarkable success. 
 
 The Post closes early here on a Sunday, and I shall 
 close this also, without further reference to " a message 
 from the " W. H. W. being probably on the road. 
 
 Kadley is ill, and supposed to be fast declining, poor 
 fellow. This House is crammed. The assizes on. 
 And Troops perpetually embarking for Canada, and 
 their officers passing through the Hotel. 
 
 Kindest regard. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 1862. 
 
 At the beginning of the year Dickens resumed his 
 interrupted readings and continued them until Feb- 
 ruary, when he came to London. From March until 
 June he gave a series of readings in St. James's Hall. 
 
 At the end of October he went to Paris, taking 
 with him his sister-in-law, Miss Hogarth, and his
 
 302 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1862 
 
 elder daughter, Mamie. In the middle of November 
 Wills joined them there for a short visit. He had 
 been charged by Miss Coutts to carry a box of flowers 
 to the Empress Eugenie at Compiegne Dickens refers 
 to this as tl your Imperial charge " in a letter of 
 November 7th and in a letter to Mrs. Wills, which I 
 printed in " Memories of Half a Century," he gives an 
 account of how he accomplished his mission, and adds, 
 "here I am in the middle of the Christmas number, 
 writing this between whiles as Dick goes over his 
 proofs." My father and mother joined the Dickens 
 party in Paris. I have a memento of their visit in 
 the shape of a carte of the " Cafe* Voisin," on which are 
 written in pencil these words, " 19th Nov. 1862. In 
 grateful memory of a wonderful dinner at the " Cafe' 
 Voisin," from [here follow the signatures] Nina 
 Lehmann, Charles Dickens, Georgina Hogarth, 
 Frederick Lehmann, W. H. Wills, Mamie Dickens." 
 This was sent to Mrs. Wills in London. This was, no 
 doubt, the " Kestaurant Dinner," for which Wills, in 
 the letter of November llth, was requested to " bring 
 treasure " with him. 
 
 [To the second paragraph of this letter Wills has 
 appended the following note in pencil: " It would 
 gratify me to see this passage in print. The whole is 
 worth publishing, I think."] 
 
 AT THE BIRMINGHAM STATION, 
 
 Thursday, Second January, 1862. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Being stranded here for an 
 hour, on my way from Leamington to Cheltenham, I 
 write to you. 
 
 Firstly to reciprocate all your cordial and affectionate 
 wishes for the New Year, and to express my earnest 
 hope that we may go on through many years to come,
 
 1862] CHARLES READE. 303 
 
 as we have gone on through many years that are gone. 
 And I think we can say that we doubt whether any 
 two men can have gone on more happily and smoothly, 
 or with greater trust and confidence in one another.* 
 
 Secondly : As the Proofs reached me yesterday at 
 Leamington, where I had a double day, I was not able 
 to look at them. I have eyed them on the Eailway 
 today, but necessarily in a cursory way. Look to the 
 Eussian paper for clearness. In Robert Ly tton's poem 
 at the end the word " both " is used as applied to 
 several things. The word " all," with a slight altera- 
 tion in the pointing, will express what he means. 
 
 Keep articles which will have the first person 
 singular, inveterately, as wide asunder as you can. 
 
 Birmingham is in a very depressed state, with very 
 few of its trades at work. Nevertheless we did 
 extremely well here. At Leamington yesterday, 
 immense. " Copperfield " in the morning absolutely 
 stunned the people : and at "Nickleby" and the 
 " Trial " at night, they roared and roared until I think 
 they must have shaken all the air in Warwickshire. 
 
 Faithfully ever, 
 
 C.D. 
 
 KOYAL HOTEL, PLYMOUTH, 
 
 Sunday, Fifth January, 1862. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I couldn't answer your letter 
 about Eeade f until I had it. Could I now ? 
 
 He seems to me, to be the best man to be got for 
 our purpose. But I think his terms will be rather 
 
 * The first two paragraphs of this letter are printed in " Letters," II., 171 ; 
 but the rest of the letter there printed is made up of a letter dated April 5th 
 of this year (see post*). 
 
 t This refers, I think, to the suggestion that Charles Eeade should join 
 the staff of All Hie Year Round. His novel, " Very Hard Cash," began to 
 appear in the issue of March 28th of the following year.
 
 304 CHAELES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1862 
 
 higher than yours. Seeing that we shall not be pay- 
 ing Wilkie's salary then, I think you might at once 
 (if you saw it to be necessary) go up to five and 
 twenty pounds a week. But he may not be used to 
 such receipts as I suppose. I would decidedly pursue 
 the idea, with the intention of getting him, as the best 
 man to be got. No doubt he would be glad to work 
 with me. I believe he has a respect for me. 
 
 I shall be here until after post time on Wednesday 
 morning, and at Torquay until after post time on 
 Friday morning. Any word from you concerning 
 Reade, by letter or telegram, shall be answered 
 immediately. 
 
 (His singing, I know. Yery innocent and harmless.) 
 
 Your heavy debt here shall be paid in full. I doubt 
 the judiciousness of Frank's taking a ticket for a 
 month, because, unless I am mistaken, he will be a 
 week of the time in London. But I suppose three 
 weeks' single tickets might have cost him as much too. 
 I ought to have written to him about it. Will you 
 tell him. with my love, that I have been too busy. 
 
 Macready's amazement at " Copper field" really was 
 something to see. He told me, with the tears running 
 down his face, that " as a piece of art it er laid him 
 on his er back ; and that as a piece of passion and 
 pathos and playfulness, it er well ! there was 
 nothing to be said about it. N no, Dickens, 
 Nothing ! " Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 TORQUAY, 
 
 Wednesday, Eighth January, 1862. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : First, as to the No. I return 
 all the proofs in which I have made marks pencil
 
 1862] A BET. 305 
 
 marks, because done on the Railway. There is only one 
 in Murray's (poor) and all the rest are in the American 
 story. I conclude " John Ray " to be out, as I see so 
 much matter over. I hope he is out, because he is 
 the dreariest of the dreary. 
 
 Your account of the wretched business (which I 
 have sent to Forster) made me roar with laughter at 
 Plymouth this morning and then inspired me with a 
 sort of pity though the fellow is as poor and mean a 
 Hound as lives. 
 
 I think you remember that I did not approve of 
 your townsmen when I was last there ? * We had 
 one good night, and one bad one. The bad one was 
 last night. But I perfectly bowled them over and 
 over and over too : it was " Copperfield." Plymouth 
 is a bad place for any such purpose, with a room I 
 hate, in a perfectly inaccessible position. 
 
 Good Lets here, but a very small room. The room 
 at Exeter also, is small. 
 
 Delighted to find that we start fair with All the 
 Year Round again. 
 
 Reade, good. I would give him what he asks, 
 holding him to a certain space within which the story 
 shall be comprised. Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 OFFICE OF ALL THE YEAE ROUND. 
 A Weekly Journal conducted by Charles Dickens. 
 
 No. 11, WELLINGTON STREET NORTH, 
 
 STRAND, LONDON, W.C., 
 Wednesday, Twenty-second January, 1862. 
 
 Dick bets Stanny that "Masaniello" was produced, AS 
 AN OPERA, at Drury Lane Theatre thirty years ago ; 
 
 * Plymouth. 
 D.E. X
 
 306 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1862 
 
 reference is supposed to be had to the date of the year, 
 without reference to months. 
 
 The bet is, a dinner for four at Greenwich, Eich- 
 mond, or elsewhere, for the party present, that is to 
 say : 
 
 Stanfield. 
 Dickens. 
 Wilkie Collins. 
 Wills. 
 Witnesses : 
 
 Wilkie Collins. C. STANFIELD. 
 
 W. H. Wills. CHARLES DICKENS. 
 
 [Wills has added in pencil, " I think C. D. lost, for 
 Masaniello ' was produced as a ballet."] 
 
 RADLEY'S ADELPHI HOTEL, LIVERPOOL, 
 
 Wednesday, Twenty-ninth January, 1862. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I have gone over the Proofs. 
 In the 1st Vol. of Household Words, Morley did a paper 
 (from my books and suggestions), or two papers, con- 
 cerning Pirates. As I see in Spicer's article, several 
 cases that I know to be in the same books, just glance 
 back at Morley and see that there is no repetition. 
 
 The longer Charley Collins's paper is, if it be really 
 good, the better. I was going to telegraph to you by 
 all means to keep the No. open for it, if I had not had 
 the information contained in your note of this morning. 
 It would be quite thrown away and lost, if it were 
 delayed. 
 
 I think you had best pay B. and E's cheque at 
 once to my account at Coutts's. 
 
 I come up from Chester in the night tomorrow.
 
 1862] "NO NAME." 307 
 
 Another tremendous cram here last night ; and every- 
 thing let, out and out, for tonight. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 ADELPHI HOTEL, LIVERPOOL, 
 
 Tuesday, Twenty-eighth January, 1862. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : The 12th of February will suit 
 me perfectly. 
 
 A tremendous cram here last night, and a great 
 turn-away. 
 
 My suggestions to Wilkie * as to altering what he 
 has done, were very slight indeed ; because he cannot 
 alter it in any essential particular. They went mainly 
 to the warning that it must inevitably come to pass 
 that the more severely and persistently he tells the 
 story, unrelieved by whimsical playing about it, the 
 more he will detract from the steadiness and inflexi- 
 bility of purpose in the girl. Contrast in that wise is 
 most essential. She cannot possibly be brought out 
 as he wants to bring her out, without it. 
 
 " Under a Cloud " was one of my names on my list, 
 but I did not send it to Wilkie because it has a semi- 
 slang-acceptation that is dead against it and makes it 
 small. Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 16, HYDE PARK GATE, SOUTH, 
 KENSINGTON GORE, W., 
 
 Saturday, Fifth April, 1862. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : A little packet will come to you 
 to-day from Hunt and Roskell's : almost at the same 
 time, I think, as this note. 
 
 * Wilkie Collins's novel, " No Name," began in All the Year Round, 
 March loth, this year. 
 
 x 2
 
 308 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1862 
 
 The packet will contain a Claret Jug.* I hope it 
 is a pretty thing in itself for your table, and I know 
 that you and Mrs. Wills will like it none the worse 
 because it comes from me. 
 
 It is not made of a perishable material, and is so 
 far expressive of our friendship. I have had your 
 name and mine set upon it, in token of our many years 
 of mutual reliance and trustfulness. It will never 
 be so full of wine, as it is to-day of affectionate 
 regard, t 
 
 Ever faithfully yours, 
 CHARLES DICKENS. 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 HlGHAM BY EoCHESTER, KENT, 
 
 Sunday, Fourteenth September, 1862. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I have received yours from the 
 shores of Lethe, and expect you to come back in the 
 fat and rank condition of the Weed that rots upon 
 the Wharf there. 
 
 It will be a convenience to me to make up 2 Nos. 
 on Thursday (subject, of course, to any substitution 
 in the second, of a better or more appropriate paper, if 
 any should come in), and towards this end, I shall 
 appear with a host of proofs. 
 
 Trollope's story is exceedingly good ; highly 
 picturesque and full of interest. But he mars the 
 end by over-anticipating it, and I have changed it 
 there, a good deal. 
 
 I think Lever will be fair : at any rate I will take 
 
 * This claret jug, fashioned in silver after the model of an Etruscan jug, 
 is now in my possession, having been bequeathed to me by Mrs. Wills. 
 
 f This letter is printed in " Letters." II., 171 ; but it is there given as 
 forming part of a letter dated January 2nd of this year (see ante).
 
 1862] "SOMEBODY'S LUGGAGE." 309 
 
 good care that he is not foul. Have ready for me, all 
 that is come of his narrative. 
 
 You will be perhaps a little surprised (and not dis- 
 agreeably) to learn that I have done the opening and 
 end of the Xmas No. (!) * and that I mean soon to be 
 at work on a pretty story for it. I think what I have 
 done is exceedingly droll, and new. Circular letter to 
 contributors, for said No. enclosed. 
 
 After the astounding and brilliant intelligence of 
 " Somebody's Luggage " being already on and off the 
 anvil, I leave you to take breath if you can, in your 
 (necessarily) breathless admiration of 
 
 Yours, 
 
 Ever Illustriously, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 HlGHAM BY KOCHESTER, KENT, 
 
 Wednesday Night, Fifteenth October, 1862. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I am to be at Boulogne on 
 Sunday to meet Mary and Georgina, and I hope to 
 post you from thence my corrections in the proofs for 
 next Wednesday's make-up. 
 
 Wilkie has been thrown into a state of inexpressible 
 enthusiasm by " His Boots." f He is rather knocked 
 up by the bye. Don't seem to know it, for he is nervous. 
 I have told him to have no fear of failure, for if he 
 should break down, I would go on with his story so 
 that nobody should be any the wiser ! 
 
 Poole's receipt enclosed. 
 
 What on earth can you be going to Skibbereen for ? 
 
 * " Somebody's Luggage." Dickens wrote for it four chapters and a portion 
 of another, 
 f One of Dickens's chapters in " Somebody's Luggage."
 
 310 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [18G2 
 
 I am glad you put in Morley's waste-article. * I 
 thought it very good. Is he getting on with the 
 Laboratory one ? f It would be well-timed soon after 
 this poisoning case. 
 
 Faithfully always, 
 
 CHARLES DICKENS. 
 
 HAZEBROUCKE, FRANCE, 
 
 Friday, Seventeenth October, 1862. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Without waiting until I get to 
 Boulogne, I make up my parcel of corrections here en 
 route, and will post it somewhere or other, when I have 
 got the last proofs in. 
 
 I find " Princely Travel in America " and " An Old 
 Country Town" among my proofs. I presume you 
 returned them to me in mistake ? It is because I find 
 them, that I write to you sooner than I intended. 
 They are enclosed. 
 
 Both the enclosed printer's lists are wrong. Each 
 of them contains an article "What's the use of that" 
 which is already used. If the list be not kept 
 correctly while I am away, we shall get into great 
 difficulty. 
 
 It is absolutely impossible to put in " Our Last 
 Attempt " J until Lever has corrected the proofs. I 
 have spent a couple of hours on it, but there is 
 scarcely one single name accurately printed. And I 
 am not sufficiently acquainted with some of the names 
 to know even what is meant. It must positively 
 stand over until you have got corrections back from 
 Lever, or we shall be ridiculous. In its place, insert 
 
 * I think this is " Victoria's Ironsides" (October llth), an impeachment 
 of the waste caused by our dockyard system, 
 f " The Modern Alchemist," December 22nd. 
 j " Our Last Attempt," in All the Year Round, November 8th and 15th.
 
 1862] IN PARTS. 311 
 
 "Only One Koom"* cut down from my corrected 
 proof (I corrected the paper some time ago) to the 
 length you want. 
 
 The Poem is very good. I can see nothing at all in 
 the Persian paper. I hope its successors may be 
 better. 
 
 As I have leisure for adventure before meeting 
 Mary and Georgina, I am now going to have a look at 
 Dunquerque in the "Uncommercial" f interest. And 
 by the bye I must say that I find the French fortified 
 town in " His Boots " to be amazingly accurate. I 
 have been lazily checking it off at two old Yauban- 
 defended towns since I came over yesterday. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 PARIS, RUE DU FAUBOURG ST. HONOR, 27, 
 
 Friday, Twenty-fourth October, 1862. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : First as to Miss Parr's story. 
 It is very pretty, and decidedly accepted but whether 
 for the Xmas ISTo. or no, I cannot yet positively say. 
 Because the best of the papers that come in must be 
 taken for that, and some may come in that would fit 
 better both to the general idea and the demand for 
 variety in the contents. 
 
 I don't much like the scheme for the next No., it 
 looks so excessively patch-worky. But I will go 
 carefully over it and the printer's list, in good time 
 for "Wednesday. 
 
 The " Foray in the Ballad Country," I think may be 
 distributed. 
 
 * November 29th. 
 
 t " The Uncommercial Traveller " papers which Dickens was writing in 
 All the Year Round.
 
 312 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1862 
 
 Pay Miss Power, and also for her sister's u At 
 Home at Panama." 
 
 I find the enclosed two A.Y.R. papers among my 
 letters brought away from England. I have nothing 
 else. 
 
 We have a most elegant little apartment here ; the 
 lively street in front, and a splendid courtyard of great 
 private hotels behind, between us and the Champs 
 Elyse*es. I have never seen anything in Paris, so 
 pretty, airy, and light. But house rent is fearfully 
 and wonderfully dear. 
 
 High upon the Boulevard, the old group of Theatres 
 that used to be so characteristic is knocked to pieces, 
 and preparations for some amazing new street are in 
 rapid progress. I couldn't find my way yesterday to 
 the Poste Eestante, without looking at a Map ! I 
 suppose I have been there, at least 50 times before. 
 Wherever I turn, I see some astounding new work, 
 doing or done. When you come over here for the 
 Xmas No. (as I think you must !) you shall see 
 sights. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 Love to Frank.* 
 
 PARIS, EUE DU FAUBOURG ST. HONORS, 27, 
 
 Tuesday, Fourth November, 1862. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I find that my means of 
 suggesting the contents of the next No.t are extremely 
 limited, for I have proofs only of " Windbags" 
 " Under the Black and Yellow " " The Shamrock," 
 and some of the " Persian Papers." 
 
 * His third son. 
 
 f The number of November 22nd.
 
 1862] A MAKE-UP. 313 
 
 11 Windbags " may go in ; but call it 
 
 " Critical Bulls 
 In Historical China-Shops." 
 
 " The Shamrock " is just nothing at all, and really 
 not worth inserting. " Under the Black and Yellow " 
 will just do, but will not more than just do, because 
 the writer always does the same thing and rides some- 
 where to save somebody. When it goes in, observe 
 (besides looking it well over for the pointing) that 
 " vetturino " in the fourth paragraph, ought to be 
 " vetturim" ; and that " Ingleseo " at the bottom of 
 the same slip, ought to be "Inglesi." But I think 
 that for this No. Sala's " Bleeding Diamond " (out of 
 the question for the Xmas No.) may be better than 
 "Under the Black and Yellow." I would put it last. 
 
 I should like a Natural History sort of article in 
 the middle of the No. Unless I am mistaken, " Down 
 from the Clouds " has not yet gone in ? That would 
 do very well. If you have Morley's Laboratory 
 paper in connection with the Poisoning question, by 
 all means get that in, and don't delay it. (I wrote to 
 Morley last Wednesday, telling him to hold over the 
 " English Convict's Progress," because I have never 
 seen the paper, and it is a subject on which I have 
 written strongly.) 
 
 Therefore you have in hand 
 
 " No Name." 
 
 "Down from the Clouds." 
 
 " Critical Bulls in Historical China-Shops." 
 
 Perhaps Morley's article on the Poison-Test 
 
 Laboratory. 
 
 " Legend of the Bleeding Diamond." 
 "Persian Papers."
 
 314 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1862 
 
 Taking "No Name " for the beginning, and "The 
 Legend of the Bleeding Diamond " for the end, and 
 following "No Name" with " Critical Bulls" or, if 
 the varying of foreign subjects with English should 
 render it more advisable, with " Persian Papers " (not 
 overmuch of them) take Morley (if you have him), 
 or " Down from the Clouds " for the middle, and so 
 make up. On no consideration put in any Poem that 
 I have not seen. "When I come upon a strange Poem 
 in print and publication, my distress is abject. 
 
 According to my Diary, Monday the 17th is the day 
 for making up the Xmas No. As soon as you know 
 for certain when you will come over, let me know. It 
 will be a very difficult making-up, because I have 
 written 20 pages (I suppose), and already there must 
 be no end of Xmas Nos. got and getting, into type, 
 and generally the things run long. But I read every 
 paper as soon as it comes here, and keep myself well 
 primed about them all, to make selection easier by 
 and bye. 
 
 Will you ask whether my watch has come to the 
 office from Hunt and BoskelPs ? And if not, will you 
 send there for it ? It went to have a new spring, and 
 in the meantime they lent me one which goes like the 
 Clown's in a Pantomime. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 PARIS, HUE DU FAUBOURG ST. HONORE, 27, 
 
 Friday j Seventh November , 1862. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : We certainly are getting the 
 columns up, to an amazing extent! But I cannot 
 release any of the matter until you come, because the 
 Xmas No. can only be made up, on a careful comparison
 
 18G2] JOHN GIBSON LOCKHART. 315 
 
 of the relative merits and possibilities of the best 
 things we have. 
 
 Let me know whether, when you arrive, you propose 
 to come straight here. If so, we will try to get you a 
 bedroom close at hand, and I think we can do it 
 without difficulty at a clean little hotel over the way. 
 But if your Imperial charge should involve your going 
 to any other Hotel at first, then let me know as much, 
 so that we may not provide for you in vain. I will 
 ask you to bring my watch, and perhaps a pair of 
 trousers ; but on this head, more in due course. 
 
 I saw the advertisement yesterday, at the top of 
 OllifiVs Times. 
 
 ( And I am again revolving restlessly, Australia 
 in my head !) 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 PAEIS, 
 
 Tuesday, Eleventh November, 1862. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Will you tell Mrs. Linton that, 
 in looking over her admirable account (most admirable) 
 of Mrs. Gordon's book, I have taken out the refer- 
 ences to Lockhart, not because I in the least doubt 
 their justice, but because I knew him and he liked me. 
 And because, one bright day in Rome, I walked about 
 with him for some hours when he was dying fast, and 
 all the old faults had faded out of him, and the mere 
 ghost of the handsome man I had first known when 
 Scott's daughter was at the head of his house had 
 little more to do with this world than she in her 
 grave, or Scott in his, or small Hugh Littlejohn in his. 
 Lockhart had been anxious to see me all the 
 previous day (when I was away on the Campagna),
 
 316 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1862 
 
 and as we walked about I knew very well that he 
 knew very well, why. He talked of getting better, 
 but I never saw him again. This makes me stay 
 Mrs. Linton's hand, gentle as it is.* 
 
 Next as to your coming. In order that you may 
 be over the way, just opposite (an immense convenience 
 compared with having to go round to the Rue de 
 Eivoli or elsewhere) I have taken you a room for a week 
 from next Thursday. On Saturday morning, unless 
 you advise me to the contrary, you will find it ready 
 for you, and a good fire there. We will breakfast 
 here at half past 9. Observe : Your number is 38 Eue 
 du Faubourg St. Honore* ; ours is 27. The No. of 
 your room itself is 7. Your house is called "The 
 Hotel St. HonoreV' 
 
 Bring treasure with you, because I think A.Y.R. 
 must stand a Restaurant Dinner, and a Box at the 
 Play. 
 
 Also will you bring me, if you conveniently can, 
 the following articles : 
 
 1. Cash for the enclosed cheque, in gold. 
 
 2. My watch. 
 
 3. The Nos. of A.Y.R. from No. 182 inclusive. 
 
 4. A pair of new trousers from Skinners my Tailors, 
 
 if John has received such a parcel since I left. 
 Your idea of our title being taken hold of by " sharks 
 and pirates " (see " Larboard Fin "f ) had also come into 
 my head, and when you wrote to me, I was going to 
 write to you ! ! I wonder the reeling brain of Holds- 
 worth bears all this pressure. But its weakness 
 (excessive) is probably its strength. 
 
 * This paragraph is printed in " Letters," II., 207, as part of a letter of 
 December 20th, 1863. 
 
 t Another allusion to the imaginary drama, the authorship of which was 
 imputed by Dickens to Wills.
 
 18G2J "A FEENCH SOLDIER." 317 
 
 I write all that concerns tomorrow's make-up on the 
 other side, in order that you may have it by itself for 
 reference. 
 
 For your guidance when you come over, I enclose a 
 list of the Xmas No. papers, received from Birtles 
 this morning. I have put a mark X against all the 
 papers that have come to me. 
 
 Faithfully ever, 
 C. D. 
 
 [This is part of the preceding letter.] 
 CONCERNING No. 188. 
 
 I cannot take your make-up as it stands, because 
 two of the papers included in it, are perfectly unknown 
 to me; and at least one of them "A French 
 Soldier " is on a very important subject indeed. 
 Because I have convinced myself in my French 
 wanderings this summer, that the French Soldier is 
 being improved, in a most alarming manner, every 
 day, and that ours is at least a century behind him. 
 
 You will understand from the foregoing, that I have 
 no proof of " A French Soldier," or of "A Clear Title 
 to Land." If the latter be a useful article (as I suppose), 
 some such make-up as this, would be the best. 
 
 "No Name" 14f 
 
 "John Wilson" 9 
 
 " A Clear Title to Land '"| 
 
 or V say ... ... ... 5 
 
 " At Home at Teheran " J 
 
 "Small Beer Chronicles" 9 
 
 One of Mr. Harwood's stories, 
 reduced to the cols, wanting. 
 
 I think " A Cheap Passage Home " is the best of 
 his Stories. I have no corrections to make in 
 " Virgilius the Enchanter," so that too is available.
 
 318 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [18G2 
 
 PARIS, 
 
 Friday, Twenty-first November, 1862. 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I see that Mrs. Gaskell has put 
 a name to her story at the end, instead of the 
 beginning which is characteristic. The addition of 
 one word will make it a striking name. Call the 
 story 
 
 "A Dark Night's Work." 
 
 and don't confound it with a cold night's work : 
 which you must have had last night. 
 
 You got to London safe and sound, and found Mrs. 
 Wills ditto ditto ? All send kindest regard. The 
 breakfast-corner looked quite unfurnished this morning 
 when I went in, without you and Galignani. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 PARIS, 
 
 Tuesday , Twenty-fifth November, 1862. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : With the alteration I am going 
 to mention, I prefer the enclosed make-up. 
 
 It is not a No. strong enough for Ollier's Poem 
 (which is maudlin), if anything can be put into its 
 place. What I should like best, would be to get in 
 some reasonably good prose article, after Murray ; get- 
 ting the excess it would occasion, out of the " Cotton " 
 paper.* I see no such article in the List, but perhaps 
 you may have one in MS. Something light and 
 pleasant in that place and no poem would be a 
 great improvement. 
 
 It is not worth while my posting the proofs this 
 time ; I go on to add all I have to say respecting 
 them. 
 
 * " State and Prospects of Cotton," December 13th.
 
 1802] RULE BRITANNIA BRITONS. 819 
 
 Take out of Murray anything u swell" such as 
 the word " shindy," or any similar yaw-yawdom. 
 Take out his last paragraph, touching his gallant 
 steed, altogether. 
 
 In cutting the "Cotton" paper to such dimensions 
 as you can find room for, take nothing out of the first 
 slip. Because the Manchester School deserves all the 
 schooling it can get, touching its reduction to the 
 grossest absurdity of the supply-and-demand dogma- 
 tism, and its pig-headed reliance on men's not going 
 to war against their interest. As if the vices and 
 passions of men had not been running counter to 
 their interests since the Creation of the "World ! 
 
 Miss Edwards I have done. 
 
 " Tire " had best be distributed paid for, of course. 
 It is a mere dilution and a very dry one of a very 
 well-known paper in H. W. 
 
 If Spicer is in town, couldn't he do a droll paper 
 representing himself, a Londoner, as having say 
 seven quiet visitors from the country (Rule Britannia 
 Britons every one of them, regarding other Empires 
 and States as in mere outer darkness) ; and giving 
 the particulars of their all being knocked down, 
 garrotted, choked, robbed, and half murdered, in one 
 day ? Or Mr. Halliday might do such a thing. 
 
 The more 1 think of "Never Say Die," the less I 
 like it. There is no weight in it, and it is weakly open 
 to all kinds of joking. Something more expressive of 
 No Surrender would be better. Something like 
 " Thorough " True to the Death " " Onward "- 
 " Firm as a Bock " " Perseverance " lt Nailed to 
 the Mast " " True to the Colours " would be more 
 like it, if I understand the intention. 
 
 I mean to cross over on Friday afternoon, so as to
 
 320 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1862 
 
 get all Saturday in town. I want to see about 
 Frank's* prospects and other things. Will you tell 
 John to have ready for my dinner, at G on Friday, a 
 bit of fish and a nice little joint of mutton, and will 
 you tell him that Edmund Yates will probably dine 
 with me. I shall expect the honor of Frank's com- 
 pany, of course (please tell him), unless he is otherwise 
 engaged. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 PARIS, 
 
 Thursday, Fourth December, 1862. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I am so apprehensive of some 
 pervading mistake (which may involve other things) 
 having been made at the office about the Xmas No. 
 that I send you another letter today, to let you know 
 that no presentation Xmas No. has arrived here. We 
 have none, Lady Molesworth has none, Lady Olliffe 
 has none. I have sent round this morning to make 
 sure of the fact. It has made me rather ridiculous, 
 as they besieged me for the No. on my return, and I 
 had brought none, in order that I might not confuse 
 the office arrangements. But this is nothing : the 
 grave thing is the break- down of three packets 
 which suggests thirty or three hundred or three 
 thousand. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 Since writing the above, I have seen Lehmann. 
 He too has none. 
 
 * His third son.
 
 1863] "A DARK NIGHT'S WORK." 321 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT, 
 
 Saturday, Twenty-seventh December, 1862. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I should very much like to 
 help Miss Power to publish her " Pictures from 
 Egypt," if I could. As well as I can make out, it 
 will form a good octavo volume about 6/- or 7/-. 
 Will you mind asking Sampson Low if he would treat 
 for it ? He can see the MS. of course, and I shall 
 have it on Monday. I would give him a good title 
 for it, if he bought it. Miss Power wants to set her 
 mind at rest about the book as soon as she can. Of 
 course Low may know that I am interested in it.* 
 
 Faithfully always, 
 C. D. 
 
 1863. 
 
 At the beginning of this year Dickens again went 
 to Paris for the purpose of giving readings at the 
 British Embassy on behalf of a charity. He left 
 Paris on February 5th, and after a ten days' tour 
 went home. Later on he gave another series of 
 readings in London at the Hanover Square Rooms. 
 
 HOTEL DU HELDER, PARIS, 
 
 Sunday, Eighteenth January, 1863. 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Your Thursday's letter did not 
 arrive here until after post time on Friday night. 
 Therefore I could not answer it until today. 
 
 I am in a mess with " A Dark Night's Work,"| for 
 
 * Writing to Miss Power on February 26th, 18(>3 (" Letters," II., 194), 
 Dickens tells her he has found a " first-rate title " for her book : " Arabian 
 Days and Nights." 
 
 t Mrs. Gaskell's story. It began in All the Year Round, January 24th. 
 
 D.E. Y
 
 322 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1863 
 
 I find it difficult to understand where we are. Follow 
 me with the eye of your mind. 
 
 The 3rd portion consists of chapters 7 and 8. 
 
 The 4th portion begins with the printed slip, 
 numbered 27. Turn the slips over, until you come 
 to the one numbered 32. At the end of the first 
 paragraph, after the words " happened at a sadder 
 time," insert Chapter X. which will then begin, 
 " Before the June roses were in full bloom." Turn 
 on again until you come to slip numbered 34, and 
 stop that portion at the end of the first paragraph on 
 it, after the words " except Dixon, could have gone 
 straight to her grave." 
 
 The 5th portion will begin, ''Chapter XI. In a 
 few days Miss Monroe obtained." The story must be 
 altogether, in 6 portions, and I will send you the 
 dividing of the two last, tomorrow. 
 
 The Eeading here last night was a most tremendous 
 and brilliant success, paling all 
 
 PARIS, 
 
 Monday, Nineteenth January, 1863. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Looking at your letter again 
 and finding a Make Up in it, I think it best to confine 
 my today's attention to the Proofs you want. You 
 will find them enclosed and corrected. In another 
 letter you will find Robert Lytton's Poem, to which I 
 say decidedly Yes, as being novel and picturesque. 
 
 I cannot bear the notion of the "Academy for Cooks" 
 going next to " Illiberal Doctors."! Lytton's Poem 
 would be far better there, or the article (not returned, 
 
 * The rest of this letter is missing, 
 f Alt the Year Round, February 7th.
 
 1863] READING IN PARIS. 323 
 
 for I see nothing to change in it) called " Giving 
 Up."* 
 
 "A Dark Night's Work," concluding portions, I 
 also sound [send]. 
 
 Home could not no, even Home could not have 
 chosen a more wonderful subject for his Lecture. 
 
 The Eeading here so stuns and oversets the 
 Parisians, that I shall have to do it again. Blazes of 
 Triumph ! 
 
 All proofs on hand here shall follow presently. 
 (Take out the " Academy for Cooks " ; don't forget.) 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 C. D. 
 
 PARIS, 
 
 Wednesday, Twenty-first [January^, 1863. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : As I shall have an opportunity 
 of sending over what proofs I have, by hand, so that 
 you may get them about Saturday, I put them up 
 now. I am chased out of Paris by enthusiasm, and 
 shall not come back for some five days. 
 
 " How we began the War " I keep back, because it 
 ivorit do : it is so dismally out of date. Nor can I 
 point " Eule Britannia " j" better than I have done. In 
 all our years of work, I never saw such an intolerably 
 slovenly paper, as " Our Tillage on the Mediterranean."^: 
 Look well to the revise, for I have made more correc- 
 tion than there is proof. The more I think of Eeade's 
 story the more I think that " Very Hard Cash," or "As 
 Safe as the Bank" one of the two would be a capital 
 title. 
 
 * All the Year Round, February 7th. 
 
 f This was rechristened "Very Free and Very Easy," and appeared in the 
 issue of February 21st (see letter of February 4th, jwst"). 
 J All the Year Hound, January 31st. 
 
 Y 2
 
 324 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1863 
 
 I have no more important news than the astounding 
 intelligence that John * has no British prejudices ! 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 How were the Surrey Hounds when last heard of ? 
 
 PARIS, HOTEL DU HELDER, 
 
 Thursday, Twenty-ninth January, 1863. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I knew and I think I mentioned 
 in the letter accompanying them that you would not 
 get these proofs until after an interval. But as they 
 did not press, I thought it useless to forego the safe 
 and slow opportunity. I am very sorry that " Our 
 Village on the Mediterranean " went in without my 
 corrections. It was so horribly in need of them. 
 
 You did beyond all question perfectly right in 
 Harper's matter. For my part, I think the gain at 
 the best, not equal to the loss. The perpetual sliding 
 away of temporary subjects at which I could dash with 
 effect, is a great loss. 
 
 From (not one of the wise men of the East, or 
 
 any other quarter of the compass), I have a letter 
 about what could be done for us in the printing way, 
 at what low charges, by if I remember the name 
 right Harrison's house. It will keep till I come 
 back. It is curiously appropriate to your uneasiness 
 in that regard. 
 
 I will turn to at the proofs as soon as the Readings 
 are over. The first at 10 francs is tonight ; the second, 
 tomorrow night. I believe everything is let out. 
 Imagine my being so entirely out of " Dombey," that I 
 
 * John was his servant.
 
 18G3] "VERY HARD CASH." 325 
 
 have been obliged to go down this morning and 
 rehearse it in the room ! 
 
 Many thanks for your consideration in the matter 
 of the boys' fares. But Alfred's will be a short spell, 
 and I hope the money is well spent. 
 
 The rise, I take to be consequent on the Xmas No. 
 So no more at present from 
 
 Yours ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 P.S. Except that you had best do with " A Dark 
 Night's Work," the best you can always trying to 
 begin a chapter where I have begun one, and sub- 
 dividing afterwards, if you can. Write me a line by 
 tomorrow (Friday) night's post, if you have anything 
 you think it necessary to suggest or ask, respecting 
 the said "Dark Night's Work." 
 
 The title for Reade is decidedly a good one. 
 
 HOTEL DU HELDER, PARIS, 
 
 Sunday, First February, 1863. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS: As to the No.* "Street Terrors" 
 
 I have already seen. Do., "Before the Trial by Combat." 
 
 II FromtheLife of Horace Vernet" all right, except that 
 " I said," should be " I have said," towards the bottom 
 of slip 2. " Small Beer Chronicles " I return herewith 
 corrected. "A Cheap Passage Home " I corrected long 
 ago. Herewith I return all slips of " A Dark Night's 
 Work " that have marks of mine upon them. The rest 
 I retain and destroy, to save postage. 
 
 John will be back in London next Thursday night. 
 He shall bring with him, corrected ready for use, all 
 the proofs I have, or may have, here. 
 
 * All the Year ftiwnd, February 14th.
 
 326 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1863 
 
 Then observe my movements, which involve the 
 necessity of Gad's Hill impatience (if it be impatient) 
 being curbed yet a little while. I too shall leave here 
 on Thursday, and shall take about a ten days' tour. 
 Then I shall return for good, and come straight to the 
 office. As I don't want to fix myself to any particular 
 place during the ten days, I do not know that I can 
 give you any reasonable idea where to address me. 
 Therefore will you write to me here concerning the 
 next No. so that I may get your letter before John leaves 
 me, and answer it per John aforesaid. 
 
 Never was anything like the last Eeading here. 
 Never, Never, Never ! 
 
 Murmurs of Kinglake's book * have crossed the 
 water. If he ever comes to Paris, he will have a trifle 
 of fighting on his hands. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 Please report how we are going. 
 
 HOTEL DU HELDER, PARIS, 
 
 Wednesday, Fourth February, 1863. 
 
 OURSELVES AND A. Y. E. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I send by John, with this, all 
 the miscellaneous proofs I have. To wit, " Skin Deep,"f 
 (called originally, " Sontorio and His Theories)," 
 "Small Beer Chronicles," " Some Curious Lights," J 
 (called originally "Light-Bearing"), "Dress in Paris, "J 
 (done with great fidelity from a book I have been reading 
 here, and which everybody here reads, because it has been 
 
 * " The Invasion of the Crimea," the first portion of which, containing 
 severe criticisms of Napoleon III., appeared this year, 
 f Appeared February 21st. 
 J Appeared February 28th.
 
 1863] THE PARIS AUDIENCE. 327 
 
 suppressed), " Fur Hunters,"* and "What a Bad 
 Hand"; the last named article to be remorselessly 
 distributed, and given to any of the four winds of 
 Heaven that will accept it. I have omitted to mention 
 " Voltaire's Heart," f but that I also send. 
 
 For the most part, I think these articles are better 
 than those you mention in your letter received this 
 morning; excepting "Bule Britannia" which you call 
 by its old name, forgetting that I have rechristened 
 it, "Very Free and Very Easy."J 
 
 Make the last No. of the Volume and the first No. 
 of the Volume as strong as you can. 
 
 A most noble month's balance certainly ! ! 1 
 
 IN RE FRANK. 
 
 Perhaps it would be a damaging thing, suddenly to 
 withhold from him money that he expects. Therefore 
 I would give him his month's three pounds with a 
 caution that the Settling Day is near at hand, and that 
 I shall soon be home. 
 
 MYSELF AND PARIS. 
 
 It is really the general Parisian impression that 
 such a hit was never made here. The curiosity and 
 interest and general buzz about it are quite indescrib- 
 able. They are so extraordinarily quick to understand 
 a face and gesture, going together, that one of the 
 remarkable points is, that people who don't understand 
 English, positively understand the Eeadings ! I 
 suppose that such an audience for a piece of Art is 
 not to be found in the world. I wish you could have 
 seen them firstly, for my effect upon them secondly, 
 
 * Appeared March 14th. 
 t Appeared March 21st. 
 j Appeared February 21st.
 
 328 CHABLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [18G3 
 
 for their effect upon me. You have no idea what 
 they made of me. I got things out of the old " Carol" 
 effects I mean so entirely new and so very strong, 
 thai I quite amazed myself and wondered where I was 
 going next. I really listened to Mr. Peggotty's 
 narrative in " Copperfield," with admiration. When 
 Little Emily's letter was read, a low murmur of irre- 
 pressible emotion went about like a sort of sea. When 
 Steerforth made a pause in shaking hands with Ham, 
 they all lighted up as if the notion fired an electric 
 chain. When David proposed to Dora, gorgeous 
 beauties all radiant with diamonds, clasped their fans 
 between their two hands, and rolled about in ecstasy. 
 They took the storm as if they were in it. As to the 
 " Trial," their perception of the Witnesses, and par- 
 ticularly of Mr. Winkle, was quite extraordinary. 
 And whenever they saw the old Judge coming in, they 
 tapped one another and laughed with that amazing 
 relish that I could hardly help laughing as much 
 myself. All this culminated on the last night, when 
 they positively applauded and called out expressions 
 of delight, out of the room into the cloak room, out 
 of the cloak room into their carriages, and in their 
 carriages away down the Faubourg. 
 
 Of course, if I had gone on, I could have made a 
 great deal of money. But I thought the dignified 
 course was to stop. I could not reconcile myself to 
 the notion of making the charitable help, the stepping- 
 stone. So, for the present, I have done here. 
 
 Does it strike you, however, that there is nothing 
 against taking advantage of the general notoriety of 
 this unusual success, in London ? Would you, if you 
 were I, go on at St. James's Hall as of yore ? If you 
 should be quite satisfied on this head not otherwise
 
 18G3] "MRS. LIRRIPER'S LODGINGS." 329 
 
 would you write for me to Blockheadland * (Sussex 
 Hotel, Eastbourne) telling him that I shall be back for 
 good, within a fortnight, and that I want him to be 
 prepared with six or nine evenings for choice, about 
 once a week, or two within eight days, and holding to 
 the old Thursdays, if possible ? Beginning about the 
 end of the month. Of course he is to understand that 
 he commits me to nothing until he has seen me at the 
 office. 
 
 I leave here tomorrow morning long before post 
 time. 
 
 Ever, My Dear Wills, 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 HlGHAM BY EOCHESTER, KENT, 
 
 Monday, Fourteenth September, 1863. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : As I am sending over to 
 Eochester tonight, and as I got your note before 
 dinner, and as you will perhaps be glad to have a line 
 from me, and as the local post will probably let you 
 have it in the course of a week or so, I send these 
 lines : 
 
 To report that Charley Collins sends assurance of 
 his " Mechanical Horse " f arriving in a hand-gallop, 
 and that I jobbed up an "Uncommercial" and sent 
 Revise to Birtles today per messenger, and that I have 
 begun the Xmas No., and that the title is : 
 
 "MRS. LIRRIPER'S LODGINGS." 
 I am going to do "Mrs. Lirriper," and hope to 
 
 * Sec letter of November 22nd, 18C.1, note, 
 t All the Year Jtimnd, October 3rd.
 
 330 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [18G3 
 
 make something of her. I think the title is a good 
 one? 
 
 Kind regard to Mrs. Wills. 
 
 Ever affectionately, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 My poor mother died quite suddenly at last. Her 
 condition was frightful. 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT, 
 
 Sunday, Twentieth December, 1863. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I am clear that you took my 
 cold. Why didn't you do the thing completely, and 
 take it away from me ? For it hangs by me still. 
 
 I have restored Spicer's incident (sending the proof 
 and insertion straight to Birtles), and have also 
 written to Spicer and told him what is curious to me 
 that he does not in the least suspect why I took it 
 out. I did so, because it tells his story. His main 
 incident is gone disclosed to any sharp reader the 
 moment that passage is read. It occurs in the first 
 portion. 
 
 Mrs. Lirriper is indeed a most brilliant old lady. 
 God bless her ! * 
 
 I am glad to hear of your being " haunted," and 
 hope to increase your stock of such Ghosts pretty 
 liberally.* 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 0. D. 
 
 I shall be at the office on Wednesday morning from 
 i before 11 to 12. 
 
 * These two paragraphs are printed in " Letters," II., 207, with an 
 interpolated paragraph taken from a letter of November llth, 1802.
 
 18C4] "OUR MUTUAL FRIEND." 331 
 
 1864. 
 
 During this year Dickens was at work on " Our 
 Mutual Friend," the first monthly number of which 
 appeared on May 1st. Mr. Marcus Stone was the 
 illustrator. 
 
 From February to June he was in London, at 57, 
 Gloucester Place, Hyde Park, after that at Gad's 
 Hill. 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 HlGHAM BY EOCHESTER, KENT, 
 
 Friday, Eighteenth March, 1864. 
 57, GLOSTEB PLACE. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I hope you won't send the 
 price of Brandy up, for I want to buy a cask. 
 
 Yesterday I went to the office and wrote to Morley, 
 about the No. begging him to send me the Proofs 
 here. For I have given a meeting to Forster today, 
 who wants to see me. All is right and straight, no 
 doubt. We will take counsel together (I can come 
 to you any day in the afternoon, mind) when Lilie's 
 estimate comes in. The office at present is simply 
 hideous. 
 
 I send you the first 3 Nos. of " Our Mutual Friend." 
 When you have done with them let me have them 
 again, as they contain my marks for the Printer. 
 
 Edmund [Yates] wrote to ask me what I thought 
 of his going to the Volunteer night attack and defence 
 in Kent. I told him he might try it* 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 * The original of this letter is written on black-edrred paper. Dickens's 
 second sou, Walter Landor, a lieutenant in the 42nd Highlanders, had died 
 in India on December 31st of the previous year. The news readied Dickens 
 only on February 7th.
 
 332 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOE. [1864 
 
 OFFICE OF ALL THE YEAE EOUND. 
 A Weekly Journal conducted by Charles Dickens. 
 
 No. 26, WELLINGTON STEEET, 
 STRAND, LONDON, W.C., 
 
 Saturday, Second April, 1864. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I hope you are deriving 
 benefit from the sea and the shore and the young 
 ladies on horseback and the Jews and the riding 
 masters and the schools and the gallant seamen 
 who never do what England expects of them, in the 
 least. 
 
 As next week will not be my working-time at 
 " Our Mutual Friend," I shall devote the day of 
 Friday (not the evening) to making up here. There- 
 fore I write to say that if you would rather stay 
 where you are, than come to London, don't come. I 
 shall throw my hat into the ring at 11, and shall 
 receive all the punishment that can be administered 
 by two Nos. on end, like a British glutton.* 
 
 Ever, 
 C. D. 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 HlGHAM BY EOCHESTER, KENT, 
 
 Friday, Fifteenth April, 1864. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : By all means. Any time after 
 3 on Wednesday afternoon. But don't you think 
 you had best come and dine here, and make up the 
 No. ? The office is the Abode of Desolation. 
 
 There was no letter of mine to Thackeray about the 
 
 * This paragraph is printed in " Letters," III., 218, but is wrongly incor- 
 porated in a letter dated October 10th, 18(il.
 
 1864] JOHN. 333 
 
 Yates matter (that I can remember), but one and 
 that was published at the time, in Yates's pamphlet.* 
 I hope John will get his voice on the margin of the 
 sounding deep. 
 
 - But Lord bless you, you have no idea of what I 
 said, from those wretched accounts. I hate the thought 
 of anybody's reading them. 
 Kindest regards to the Ladies. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 We'll have a bet on " Our Mutual Friend," when 
 we meet. 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT. 
 57, GLOSTER PLACE, HYDE PARK GARDENS, 
 
 Sunday Evening, Eighth May, 1864. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : You have heard, I daresay, of 
 the deplorable condition of poor John. His life still 
 hangs on a hair, but there seemed a shade of hope 
 this afternoon. I am going out to him again tonight. 
 Beard is really a Guardian Angel to him. 
 
 But it is not to say this, that I write ; but to tell 
 you that that diabolical wife and her sister, being left 
 last night to watch him, got blind drunk together on 
 Gin omitted everything they had undertaken to do- 
 dropped Gin and God knows what over his poor dying 
 figure and pitched into the landlady and attendant 
 
 * A reference to bis controversy with Thackeray about Edmund Yates's 
 expulsion from the Garrick Club. Yates had in a published article com- 
 mented on Thackeray both were members of the Garrick in a manner 
 which the latter resented. Thackeray brought the matter before the com- 
 mittee of the club, who expelled Yates. Dickons, thinking expulsion too 
 severe a penalty, took Yates's part, and Thackeray was annoyed at his 
 interference. There was a reconciliation between them before Thackeray's 
 death.
 
 334 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1864 
 
 gossips when with natural indignation they found 
 them this morning and took their gin away. John 
 was then doubled up, his knees to his head, sinking 
 out of life. And so Beard found him. Of course we 
 take care that he is not left to those amicable mercies 
 any more. 
 
 Pray have this made known in its fullest atrocity 
 to everybody at the office, and let everybody be strictly 
 charged never on any pretence to let the woman into 
 the house. If she wants anything out of the house, 
 the children must come for it, or she must go without 
 it ; but she is never to be let in. And pray let them 
 understand that we would immediately discharge any- 
 body who even in mistaken compassion, or for any 
 other mistakenly good reason disobeyed this injunc- 
 tion. I tumbled her out of the sick chamber just 
 now, and will at least (John lost or saved) have done 
 with that abominable wretch. 
 
 I find that she has been perpetually drunk ever 
 since they have been to Kentish Town. I hope to 
 deposit her (with the Lord's help) in Kentish Town 
 Station House yet ! 
 
 Ever, 
 C. D. 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT, 
 
 Fridaij, Twentieth May, 1864. 
 57, GLOSTER PLACE. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : The statement is indeed astound- 
 ing, and no doubt expresses in every figure that goes 
 to make up every result, your incessant vigilance and 
 care in every department of A. Y. P. business. This I 
 feel strongly, and am thoroughly well assured of.
 
 1864] " CIRCUMLOCUTIONALLY." 335 
 
 When we get into our places again, and often meet 
 at the office, we must dive into that question of the 
 falliug-off. Of course we have to consider that Sala's 
 is not a good name, and that he is accustomed to 
 address a lower audience. I am inclined to believe 
 that an anonymous story depending on its own merits 
 would be better for us than he. 
 
 We must drink a glass of wine together tomorrow, 
 to the next balance sheet. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 HlGHAM BY KOCHESTER, KENT, 
 
 Sunday, Twenty -sixth June, 1864. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I have carefully gone over all 
 the Proofs, and here they are. The No. as it stands 
 is a very fair one indeed. 
 
 I have complied with all the necessary forms about 
 Mrs. Austin's"' pension, and am Circumlocutionally 
 apprised that on application at the Paymaster 
 General's Department I shall " receive the necessary 
 instructions as to obtaining the first payment." Will 
 you instruct whosoever goes about Poole's pension 
 after the 1st of July, to make enquiries ? I hope there 
 may be arrears to receive. 
 
 You will get proof of " Our Mutual Friend," 
 No. VI., in a note from Townshend. As I shall want 
 it on my return, please have it ready for me in an 
 envelope on my table. I expect to be at the office 
 on Thursday the 7th or Friday the 8th at latest. 
 
 I have been working desperately hard to get away. 
 
 It has occurred to me that the next " Mrs. Lirriper " 
 
 * Dickcns's sister, widow of Henry Austin.
 
 336 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1864 
 
 might have a mixing in it of Paris and London she 
 and the Major, and the boy, all working out the little 
 story in the two places. As my present Mysterious 
 Disappearance is in that direction, I will turn this 
 over on French ground with great ease. I seem 
 to have a sort of inspiration that may blend the 
 undiminished attractions of Mrs. Lirriper with those 
 of the Babelle life in Paris. 
 
 Ever, 
 C.D. 
 
 [To Mrs. Wills.] 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT, 
 
 Sunday, Seventh August, 1864. 
 
 MY DEAR MRS. WILLS : I am exceedingly relieved 
 by your account of the invalid which came to hand this 
 morning. I read it aloud at breakfast, to the great 
 gratification of an attentive audience, and it made 
 so great a sensation that you really might have 
 thought him rather a popular personage ! Yesterday 
 I had it in my mind, somehow, that he was not so 
 well, and was in two minds whether to stay quiet here, 
 or come or send. 
 
 Will you tell him with my love that I shall try to 
 work at my book (for I can't do it in this heat, though 
 I make believe every day) until well on in the week 
 say Friday, when I shall of course be ready to do 
 all office needful. Also, that I am producible there, 
 at any time, day or hour. Also, that I have gone 
 over Mrs. Sartoris's* story carefully, and sent her 
 
 * Adelaide Kemble, younger daughter of Charles Kcmble, married 
 Edward John Sartoris in 184H. She was famous as a singer. Her "A Week 
 in a French Country House " appeared in the Cornhill, and was published 
 in book-form in 1867.
 
 18G4] "MRS. LIRRIPER'S" CAP. 337 
 
 for correction my marked proofs. Lastly, will you 
 congratulate him on his nurse, and tell him that like 
 the Americans I " defy cre-ation " to produce a better. 
 Believe me always, 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 CHARLES DICKENS. 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 HlGHAM BY KOCHESTER, KENT, 
 
 Saturday , First October, 1864. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I wrote to Holds worth yesterday 
 about the fire, saying that I hoped you would not go 
 up to town and that I would be at the office on Monday 
 morning. However you went, and did all. It is 
 
 much to be regretted that we could not take to 
 
 Bow Street. In the case of so nefarious an offence 
 there really is a duty to be done to Society though 
 I am almost afraid to use the phrase : it is so horribly 
 abused. It is curious that I anticipated the facts here, 
 on receiving the news. 
 
 I don't like " Bees " as a subject : having had my 
 honey turned into Gall by " Bee Masters" in The 
 Times. I think I have a better paper a musical 
 one of Chorley's. I will see to it the first thing on 
 Monday and will see Morley. All next week (except 
 Thursday) I expect to be at the office. 
 
 " Mrs. Lirriper " is again in hand. I have flown 
 off from the finish of No. IX. of " Our Mutual," to 
 perch upon her cap. I hope to make way apace with 
 her at the office. 
 
 You asked me for Plorn's address. Here it is : 
 The Eev. W. C. Sawyer, 
 Cambridge House, 
 Tunbridge Wells. 
 
 D.E. z
 
 338 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1864 
 
 I hope and trust you are by this time getting better. 
 Set yourself up for the Xmas No. campaign, and don't 
 come back too soon. 
 
 Kind regard to Mrs. Wills, 
 
 Ever yours, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 OFFICE OF ALL THE YEAR ROUND. 
 A Weekly Journal conducted by Charles Dickens. 
 
 No. 26, WELLINGTON STREET, 
 STRAND, LONDON, W.C., 
 
 Saturday, Eighth October, 1864. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Pray let me know how the leg 
 comes out. I am very anxious to be informed that 
 it's " only " a boil ! 
 
 I have gone through the No. carefully, and have 
 been down upon Chorley's paper* in particular, which 
 was u a little bit " too personal. It is all right now, 
 and good, and them's my sentiments too of "The 
 Music of the Future." 
 
 " Mrs. Lirriper "f will be in your arms, I trust two 
 or three days hence. I have enjoined Birtles to the 
 greatest caution in setting it up, and have told him to 
 lock up the type and pull no proof but on a written 
 instruction from me. I have done the opening 
 paper (longer than the last, I fancy), and am now 
 knocking off the couple of pages or so for the end. I 
 am something the worse for work, and have an idea 
 of going to the sea for a day or two about Friday 
 next. But I shall be here until further notice. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 * Presumably "Old, New, and No Music," in All the Year Round, 
 October 22nd and November 6th. 
 
 f " Mrs. Lirriper's Legacy," the Christmas number.
 
 18G4] THE BROUGHAM. 339 
 
 LORD WARDEN HOTEL, DOVER, 
 
 Sunday, Sixteenth October, 1864. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I was unspeakably relieved and 
 most agreeably surprised to get your letter this morn- 
 ing. I had pictured you as lying there waiting, full 
 another week. Whereas Please God you will now 
 come up with a wet sheet and a flowing sail, as we 
 say in these parts. 
 
 My expectations of " Mrs. Lirriper's " sale, are not so 
 mighty as yours. But I am heartily glad and grateful 
 to be honestly able to believe that she is nothing but 
 a good 'un. It is the condensation of a quantity of 
 subject and the very greatest pains. 
 
 George Russell knew nothing whatever of the 
 slightest doubt of your being elected at The Garrick. 
 Rely on my probing the matter to the bottom, and 
 ascertaining everything about it, and giving you the 
 fullest information in ample time to decide what shall 
 be done. Don't bother yourself about it. I have 
 spoken. On my eyes be it. 
 
 Wilkie sends kindest regard. Ditto Georgina. Mrs. 
 Wills included in all remembrances.* 
 
 Ever, My Dear Wills, 
 
 Affectionately yours, 
 
 0. D. 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT, 
 
 Wednesday, Thirtieth November, 1864. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I found the beautiful and 
 perfect brougham^ awaiting me in triumph at the 
 
 * This letter is printed in "Letters," III., 218, but in place of the last 
 paragraph it has a paragraph transferred from a letter of April 2nd, 1864. 
 { A present from Wills. 
 
 z 2
 
 340 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1864 
 
 station when I came down yesterday afternoon ; 
 Georgina and Marsh both highly mortified that it had 
 fallen dark, and the beauties of the carriage were 
 obscured. But of course I had it out in the yard the 
 first thing this morning, and got in and out at both 
 doors, and let down and pulled up the windows, and 
 checked an imaginary coachman, and leaned back in 
 a state of placid contemplation. 
 
 It is the lightest and prettiest and best carriage of 
 the class, ever made. But you know that I value it 
 for higher reasons than these. It will always be dear 
 to me far dearer than anything on wheels could ever 
 be for its own sake as a proof of your ever generous 
 friendship and appreciation, and a memorial of a 
 happy intercourse and a perfect confidence that have 
 never had a break, and that surely never can have 
 any break now (after all these years) but one. 
 
 Ever your faithful, 
 
 CHAKLES DICKENS. 
 
 1865. 
 
 Dickens was in London from March to the end of 
 May, when he went to France for a short holiday. 
 On his way home, on June 9th, he was in the railway 
 accident at Staplehurst. He refers to this in the 
 letter of June 13th. At the end of August he took 
 another trip to France. 
 
 During a great part of the year he was working at 
 " Our Mutual Friend," the last number of which was 
 issued in November. The Christmas number of All 
 the Year Round was "Dr. Marigold's Prescriptions," 
 Dickens contributing to it three portions and part of 
 another. 
 
 The letter of March 17th refers to Wills's non-
 
 1865] CHURCH ARTICLES. 341 
 
 election to the Garrick Club. He had been proposed 
 by Dickens and seconded by Wilkie Collins. On 
 Wills's rejection they both resigned membership of 
 the club, and were followed by Fechter, the actor. 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 HlGHAM BY KOCHESTER, KENT, 
 
 Sunday, Twenty-ninth January, 1865. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Birtles is too cavalier in his 
 posting of the proofs. To send them to me on a 
 Sunday morning, when you want them posted back 
 on Sunday night, and when our post goes out at noon, 
 is something like impertinence. Not to mention our 
 being snowed up. 
 
 I am excessively doubtful about Yauxhall Illumina- 
 tions.* It is fully as long again as it ought to be. 
 However estimable these Clergymen are, it is quite 
 out of the question for us to go on spinning out dry 
 catalogues of what they do. I have as much real 
 interest in such deeds as anyone can have, I think ; 
 but my soul is weary of this sort of paper. Ever the 
 same, ever the same. Paganini's one string, and no 
 Pagaiiini. From the time when we did " What a 
 London Curate Can Do if He Tries," it is but one 
 perpetual drowsy repetition, generally with anything 
 good in the original treatment left out. Pray hold 
 this paper over, and remind Morley of the great 
 number of similar papers that we have had, and the 
 necessity, if they be still pursued, of more grace of 
 handling and less statement of sums of money, and 
 what an income was and is at a dozen periods, and 
 
 * " Through Lambeth to Vauxhall," an account of the district and of 
 Church work in it appeared in All the Year Itound, April 15th, 1805.
 
 342 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1865 
 
 what is wanted for a Church Tower, and what was 
 got from this Church Aid Society, and what from the 
 other. All, like a Tract, like the Saturday Magazine, 
 like speeches at Exeter Hall, like the Ecclesiastical- 
 Tackle Shops in Southampton Street, like Mrs. Brown. 
 
 If you are so driven for matter as that you want 
 this paper in a sort of famine, then please re-read it 
 with an eye to my objections, and put the whole of 
 the second slip and half the third into a column. 
 
 I will order dinner at 5 on Tuesday. 
 
 Never have I seen such a thing as the cutting from 
 the Sheffield paper ! 
 
 Ever, 
 0. D. 
 
 GAD'S HILL, 
 
 Sunday, Twelfth February, 1865. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Miss Power's little story is so 
 much more meritorious than anything else in the 
 No. that I propose to alter the No. as I have marked 
 on your making up. But as that will probably not 
 be matter enough, you can substitute "The Danes" 
 for "Coaching." I think highly of Miss Power's 
 story.* 
 
 Bowring scrambles in the strangest way. I will 
 try to put the paper together in some endurable 
 manner, at the office on Tuesday morning. 
 
 I am exceedingly doubtful about Edmund's paper 
 on the Crystal Palace. It is so mechanically done, 
 and in the old Household Words days we did that class 
 of papers so well (when you and I did them, and 
 
 * "The Danes at Home, by a Frenchman Abroad " appeared in All the 
 Year Motind, February 25th, 1865. The only " story " in this number is 
 "In the Untrodden Ways." "Coaching" appeared in the next number.
 
 1865] THE GARRICK CLUB. 343 
 
 when Home did them), that I think it suggests to 
 our public, falling off. I wish you would tell this to 
 Edmund when you see him, and say that unless that 
 sort of article has some fancy and literary merit, I am 
 against it. 
 
 To Halliday's " Poetry of the Pantomimes" - No. 
 Pay him for it, of course. But the game is really not 
 worth the candle. If the East end part of it could be 
 quite separated, by himself, from the rest, it might 
 just possibly be worth using. I have an idea, 
 however, that it would spoil an excellent subject for 
 me a year hence. On the ivhole therefore, distribute it. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 16, SOMERS PLACE, HYDE PARK, W., 
 
 Friday , Seventeenth March, 1865. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : You ought to know that 
 Fechter has done a very manly thing in a very 
 delicate way. 
 
 I discovered last night, quite incidentally, that he 
 heard of your being blackballed and of my having 
 resigned with Wilkie, a week ago. He instantly sent 
 in his resignation. It caused some consternation in 
 the Club, and Palgrave Simpson was deputed to ask 
 him what his offence was. He requested Simpson to 
 reply for him that he resigned "because they had 
 blackballed Mr. Wills, and he would trust himself to 
 no community of men in which such things were 
 done." 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D,
 
 344 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1865 
 
 16, SOMERS PLACE. 
 
 Sunday, Twenty-sixth March, 1865. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I am rather at sea about the 
 No. because I only assume that you propose to put in 
 half of the "Lottery Dreamer,"* and because the 
 printers have (of course) not put the quantity on your 
 "Forty Years in London "f which is very good 
 indeed. 
 
 But such a list as the enclosed is the best. " My 
 Idea"f could come out, if there were not room. Or, 
 " The Lottery Dreamer " could be cut anywhere to 
 make room. 
 
 I return all the proofs corrected. You will see that 
 I have taken a quantity out of " Talk."J 
 
 In your " Forty Years," you have got the maiden 
 name of Mrs. Kelly wrong. I have put it right. If 
 you refer to Gale Jones, he kept a little chemist's 
 shop, and sold Ginger Beer Powders, then rather a 
 crack sort of novelty. The shop was very like the 
 apothecary's in " Romeo and Juliet," and (I suppose 
 in consequence of the masters being politically 
 occupied) always had the door locked. An old 
 woman appeared on a bell being rung, and if you 
 wanted Ginger Beer Powders, and could point them 
 out in the window, and didn't want change, she 
 would sometimes sell them. He was a lean, polite, 
 inoffensive, much-enduring Eadical of the peacefulest 
 sort. Ever yours, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 P.S. I hope to get away on Friday or Saturday, 
 and should like to see you before I go. Shall we dine 
 
 * All the Tear Round, April 8th, 15th and 22nd. 
 t All the Year Round, April 8th. 
 | All tlie Year Round, April 15th.
 
 1865] THE STAPLEHURST ACCIDENT. 345 
 
 at the office, Wednesday or Thursday ? If so, appoint 
 day and hour. 
 
 P.P.S. You anticipated me about the '34 Port. I 
 had put aside a dozen to ask you to put in your cellar. 
 It is on its way from Gad's much shaken, of course. 
 Keep the bottles lying down ; but stand one up for 3 
 or 4 days before using. Decant with great care 
 through a strainer, and a quantity of crust and bee's 
 wing will remain in the bottle. I am assured that 
 the wine is unapproachable. 
 
 16, SOMERS PLACE, 
 
 Twenty-second April, 1865. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Cheque enclosed, with thanks. 
 
 You want to bid for something at poor Leech's 
 sale.* I ditto. Forster (as he writes to me from 
 Bath this morning) ditto. Let us three go into one 
 boat, and charter Schloss accordingly. I take it we 
 each want a good pencil or water colour drawing. 
 What maximum shall we go to ? Twenty pounds, 
 Thirty pounds, what ? If you will settle that, accord- 
 ing to your lights on the subject rely (in this as in all 
 other matters) on the staunchness of the undersigned. 
 
 C. D. 
 
 Tell Mrs. Wills that I have undergone great 
 unhappiness on the subject of the Port, but am 
 more cheerful as I hope she is. 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT, 
 
 Tuesday, Thirteenth June, 1865. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I feel it rather more in my 
 head to-day than I have done yet. Quiet is the 
 
 * John Leech, the Punch artist, a great friend of Dickens, had died on 
 October 29th of the previous year.
 
 346 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1865 
 
 main thing. I write two or three notes and turn 
 faint and sick.* 
 
 Ever heartily, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 HlGHAM BY KOCHESTER, KENT, 
 
 Sunday Night, Twenty-seventh August, 1865. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : No news, except that I am 
 working like a Dragon, f and that 1 hope something 
 near a week may bring me through it. In the course 
 of this next week, I will appoint a day (probably 
 Monday, 4th September, or Tuesday, 5th) for our 
 Meeting at the office, before I decamp for about one 
 fortnight. But observe. If you should want to go 
 away before either of those days, then try to come 
 down here on a little visit, and we will Do, after 
 my day's work, what we may have to do. 
 
 I am already buckling myself up for A. Y. R. 
 
 Enclosed is the MS. story that I did not send the 
 other day. 
 
 Ever, 
 C. D. 
 
 Mary Boyle's " Madeira "J may go; it must be 
 throughout either " I " or " We." And the Fortnightly 
 needn't be called " one of our leading Reviews " but 
 one of the Reviews." 
 
 * Dickens was a passenger in the train which was wrecked at Staplehurst 
 on June 9th. He escaped without injury, and displayed great presence of 
 mind and energy in rescue-work. 
 
 f At " Our Mutual Friend," the last number of which appeared in November 
 of this year. 
 
 J "Will You Take Madeira," All t/ie Year Round, September 16th. 
 It was " I."
 
 1866] HEADINGS. 347 
 
 [To Mrs. Wills.] 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 HlGHAM BY ROCHESTEK, KENT, 
 
 Thursday, Twenty-eighth December, 1865. 
 
 MY DEAR MRS. WILLS : I am very sorry indeed 
 to receive this poor account of Wills, and am truly 
 grieved to know that he is again enduring pain. 
 
 Will you kindly tell him with my love, that when 
 I have made up the No. at the office tomorrow, I 
 shall come to Regents Park Terrace to enquire about 
 him of you. But pray add that I shall not in the 
 least expect or want to see him, if he prefer (as he 
 very likely will) to remain undisturbed. Do impress 
 this upon him, as being sincerely meant. 
 
 Faithfully yours always, 
 
 CHARLES DICKENS. 
 
 1866. 
 
 After some negotiations Dickens came to an agree- 
 ment with Messrs. Chappell for a series of readings 
 in England, Scotland and Ireland. I gather that 
 Wills went with him during part of the time (letter 
 of April 20th to Mrs. Wills). His manager during 
 these readings, and afterwards in America, was 
 Mr. George Dolby. 
 
 OFFICE OF ALL THE YEAR ROUND. 
 A Weekly Journal conducted by Charles Dickens. 
 
 No. 26, WELLINGTON STREET, 
 
 STRAND, LONDON, W.C., 
 Monday, Fifteenth January, 1866. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Coming here this afternoon, 
 and finding your letter dated yesterday, I suppose
 
 348 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1866 
 
 the railroads to have recovered, and the British Post 
 to have asserted itself triumphantly. 
 
 As soon as I read yours, I sent for Birtles and 
 the making up. The latter was all right and even 
 (wonderful to relate !) and stood in no need of change 
 whatever. Sala has sent a paper on the Havannah,* 
 which has duly gone to Beaufort House f the Sprightly. 
 All things else, official, are in statu quo. 
 
 In the matter of Beale, it occurs to me that he may, 
 perhaps, ask for 30 readings instead of 25. I should 
 not be indisposed (for I should not think it unfair) to 
 let him have 30 for 2,000 Guineas. Perhaps he may 
 not come near the mark at all. In such case I think 
 I will resolve to keep quiet and not read at all. 
 
 I send my kindest regard to Miss Coutts and 
 am ever, 
 
 Heartily yours, 
 C.D. 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 HlGHAM BY KOCHESTER, KENT, 
 
 Sunday, Twenty-eighth January, 1866. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : After we parted yesterday I 
 chance-lighted on the information that Mitchell, 
 having of yore burnt his fingers a good deal, 
 speculates very little now, yet likes to be con- 
 sidered as doing much in that way. 
 
 This is worth bearing in mind. Also, that he may 
 have some dread of giving offence to Fanny Kemble. 
 
 Proceeding on your own judgment and observation, 
 of course you will more than satisfy me. I suggest 
 
 * Probably " The Humours of Havana," All t/ie Year Round, February 
 UOth. 
 
 t Beaufort House, Strand, the printing office of All the Year Hound.
 
 1866] NEGOTIATIONS ABOUT READINGS. 349 
 
 that perhaps it would be best to keep our figures 
 back, always, if you approve. I would take up the 
 ground thus : There is Mr. Dickens, whose position 
 you understand probably at least as well as I do, 
 constantly entreated to read, and proposed to in all 
 manner of ways. He is enough at leisure to under- 
 take in town and country (suggesting the country 
 places) 30 readings, or 20, or 15. The business of 
 such things is not in our way since the death of 
 Mr. Arthur Smith. He is willing to undertake them 
 for a sum of money. Are you willing to enter into a 
 negotiation with me for buying him ? 
 
 Questions of detail to be agreed upon, if terms 
 agreed upon. They are chiefly, avoidance of morning 
 readings as much as possible, both as distasteful to 
 me, and as not addressing my large miscellaneous 
 following, which is limited to no class limitation 
 of country places to those first-class ones which I 
 have proved to be the best for me and agreement 
 beforehand, between us, on the rooms to be engaged, 
 according as I have also proved them. 
 
 I would lead him to an offer, if he should be 
 disposed to make one ; but I would throw the terms 
 of it, in money, upon him. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 [To Mrs. Wills.] 
 
 EDINBURGH, 
 
 Friday, Twentieth April, 18GG. 
 
 MY DEAR MRS. WILLS: As a reminder of my 
 having deprived you of your husband (not that you 
 are likely to need any !) I bring you from Edinburgh
 
 350 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [18GG 
 
 a shepherd's plaid silk dress, which I shall entrust to 
 his care. When you wear it, forgive me as nearly as 
 you can. 
 
 There are 20 yards of the dress, in order that there 
 may be something in the nature of a jacket superadded. 
 At least, I believe that is the intention, but your 
 excellent housewifery will know all about it. 
 
 Faithfully yours ever, 
 
 CHARLES DICKENS. 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 HlGHAM BY KOCHESTER, KENT, 
 
 Monday, Thirtieth July, 1866. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Forster, being here yesterday, 
 asked me what there was amiss between him and you ? 
 I said that I did not know from you that anything was 
 amiss. He rejoined that he had made such and such 
 approaches to you, which you had avoided, and that 
 if there were something wrong between you, it was 
 quite unconsciously on his part. I repeated what I 
 had already said. He then asked me if I would let 
 you know that he had spoken to me ? I replied, Most 
 willingly. Hence this note. 
 
 I shall look in at the office at one on Wednesday 
 (in case any Writer of transcendent genius should have 
 turned up since Saturday). 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C.D. 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 HlGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT, 
 
 Tuesday, Eleventh August, 1866. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Many thanks for the informa- 
 tion concerning that loose fish. Ouvry held it best to
 
 18GG] "THE BOY AT MUGBY." 351 
 
 wait until the half year's accounts come in next month, 
 before taking action. I think he must already have 
 paid the balance due upon them, if not more. He has 
 been paying 300 per month on account, since the last 
 settlement. 
 
 The picture of the Tinsley fete, magnificent ! 
 
 I don't think I shall come to town (there being 
 things to look after here) until Thursday ; but I may, 
 if I can get away, look in at the office to-morrow 
 evening. Will you leave the proofs for me ? If I 
 come on Thursday, it will be soon after 11 A.M. to 
 remain until after lunch. 
 
 The Xmas No. continues to reside in the Limbo 
 of the Unborn as Tinsley's friend Tom Carlyle would 
 say.* 
 
 Ever, 
 C.D. 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 HlGHAM BY KOCHESTER, KENT, 
 
 Sunday , Twenty-first October, 1866. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I have mislaid the proof of the 
 Xmas No. advertisement. But it was wrong, I 
 remember. The important word " stories " was omitted 
 altogether. Let it stand in this way " will continue, 
 in addition to other stories to be announced shortly " and 
 then my list. 
 
 I read " The Boy "t to Miss Boyle, my two girls, 
 and Georgina, last night, with such extraordinary 
 peals and tears of laughter, that I think I foresee 
 
 * It was born as " Mugby Junction." Dickens contributed four parts to it. 
 Some 2(15,000 copies of it were sold (see letter of January 24th, 1867, post). 
 
 f " The Boy at Mugby," one of the four parts written by Dickens for the 
 Christmas number, "Mugby Junction."
 
 352 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [18GG 
 
 a great success. I don't think I ever saw people laugh 
 so much under the prosiest of circumstances. 
 
 Mr. Horace Wigan so presses me about Wilkie's 
 play,* that I must come up on Tuesday, and go to 
 rehearsal at 12. I will call at the office about \ 
 past 11, in case you would care to go with me. Will 
 you tell Birtles to have two things ready for me. First, 
 the exact cast-off in pages of what I have done for 
 Xmas No. Second, a complete proof of ' ' Katchen's 
 Caprices, "f 
 
 Many thanks for the Ouvry and Farrer report. It 
 will not do to bear this kind of insolence, as a conse- 
 quence of a perfectly independent and moderate piece 
 of criticism. He must apologise in the papers, or we 
 positively must go on with our action for libel. It is 
 nothing to say that the man is insignificant. The 
 precedent is dangerous and compromising. I wish 
 you would impress this on Lincoln's Inn Fields. 
 
 The secret concerning our Vestiges friend remains 
 a secret.:}: 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 0. D. 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT, 
 
 Tuesday, Thirteenth November, 1866. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS ; It is curious I should not have 
 noticed that mistake. The substitution of " today " 
 for " yesterday " makes all right. I have sent the 
 correction to Birtles in a parcel. 
 
 * " Armadale." 
 
 f All the Year Round, November 24th. 
 
 J Probably an allusion to the approaching second marriage of Robert 
 Chambers, Wills's brother-in-law. In an introduction to the 12th edition 
 of the "Vestiges of Creation," published in 1884, Alexander Ireland has 
 explained how Robert Chambers wrote the book and how and why the 
 ame of the author was concealed.
 
 1807] A "TATTOO'D STARING MONSTER." 353 
 
 Ellen* has been here. She has " very nice furni- 
 ture," she says, for her own rooms. I told her that 
 she would find the Kitchen furnished for her. I think 
 it better not to summon her before Saturday. I will 
 be at the office that day, to make it easier for her. 
 Let us make up the No. at the same time. There is 
 not a doubt, I hope, of her being exactly the person 
 we want. 
 
 Tomorrow (Wednesday) I am due at the office at 
 half past eleven, and am to sit to Mason in Bond Street 
 (for some tattoo 'd staring monster to be displayed in 
 the Paris Exhibition) at 12. At 1, 1 go with Chappell 
 to explain a notion I have for improving the acoustics 
 of St. James's Hall. After that, I shall look in at the 
 office again. 
 
 Tell Miss Coutts with my kindest regards and 
 remembrance, that I shall be delighted to try my hand 
 promptly at the inscription. 
 
 What do you mean by this passage in one of your 
 notes received this morning ? "I sent a despatch last 
 night, one Xmas ISTo." Do you mean sent it to me? 
 I have never had it. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 1867. 
 
 Dickens continued his English reading tour during 
 the early part of the year. Proposals more and more 
 tempting from a pecuniary point of view were now 
 made to him for a tour in America, and it is evident 
 
 * Tin; servant engaged to look after the rooms at the office. 
 D.E. A A
 
 354 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1867 
 
 that before the year was half through his mind had 
 become engrossed by the idea. In answer to Wills's 
 strong remonstrance he wrote the letter of June 6th, 
 setting out the reasons that moved him to undertake 
 such a venture. Dolby was sent out to make prelimi- 
 nary enquiries. His report was favourable, and on 
 September 30th Dickens made up his mind and 
 telegraphed his acceptance to America. 
 
 On Saturday, November 2nd, Dickens was enter- 
 tained by his friends at a farewell dinner at the Free- 
 masons' Tavern. A week afterwards he sailed, and 
 landed in Boston, after an unadventurous voyage, on 
 Tuesday, November 19th. 
 
 In "Letters," II., 301, there is published a letter 
 from Dickens to Wills, which I cannot find in my 
 collection. It was written on the morning after the 
 dinner at the Freemasons' Tavern, and throws so 
 pleasant a light on the relations between the two 
 men that I venture to transcribe it here : 
 
 26, WELLINGTON STBEET, 
 
 Sunday, November 3rd, 1867. 
 
 MY DEAK WILLS : If you were to write me many 
 such warm-hearted letters as you sent this morning, my 
 heart would fail me ! There is nothing that so breaks 
 down my determination, or shows me what an iron force 
 I put upon myself, and how weak it is, as a touch of 
 true affection from a tried friend. 
 
 All that you so earnestly say about the goodwill and 
 devotion of all engaged, I perceived and deeply felt last 
 night. It moved me even more than the demonstration 
 itself, though I do suppose it was the most brilliant 
 ever seen. When I got up to speak, but for taking a 
 desperate hold of myself, I should have lost my sight 
 and voice and sat down again.
 
 1867] "WHY ISN'T WILLS HERE?" 355 
 
 God bless you, my dear fellow. I am ever and 
 ever, 
 
 Your affectionate. 
 
 ADELPHI HOTEL, LIVERPOOL, 
 
 Sunday, Twentieth January, 1867. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : The second and third readings 
 here have gone with such wonderful enthusiasm and 
 have so astonished the natives, that we are coming 
 back here for two more in the middle of next month. 
 The weather continues so severe, and the suburban 
 roads are so heavy, that we feel it in the stalls, but 
 the half-crowns and ones (who don't come in from 
 distances, with horses) crowd their places splendidly. 
 
 We have been over to Eock Ferry today, to see 
 the Great Eastern lying high and dry there for 
 repairs. She looks hideous, and (strange to say) not 
 very big, so situated ! A very large and strong pack 
 of Ice is on that side of the river, and the general 
 appearance of things is Arctic. 
 
 Will you kindly read the enclosed letter? Is it 
 hopeless ? Or can any reasonable thing be done ? I 
 am afraid it is a weary and intangible case. 
 
 Dolby is always talking about you, and said to me 
 on Friday night (when I did exactly one million one 
 hundred thousand and one newthings with " Marigold," 
 which the audience seized each with exactly one 
 million one hundred thousand and one rounds), " Why 
 isn't Wills here ? " I told him he reminded mo of 
 Collingwood and Nelson. In terms disrespectful to 
 both of those great English Worthies, he rejoined : 
 " Neither of them was Wills, and I want Wills .! " 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 A A 2
 
 356 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [18G7 
 
 HEN AND CHICKENS, BIRMINGHAM, 
 
 Thursday, Twenty-fourth January, 1867. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : We shall evidently sell our 
 265,000.* Expect me at the office on Monday after- 
 noon, say at 4 o'clock. Also on Tuesday. 
 
 We have been reading in snow-storms, and down- 
 pourings of sheets of solid ice. At Chester it was 
 such a night as one sees once in half a century. 
 Nevertheless we had close upon 70, and the people 
 were enchanted. Last night at Wolverhampton the 
 thaw had set in thoroughly, and it rained heavily. 
 There we had close upon 80. The Mersey was like 
 the Channel on a bad day, between England and 
 France, when we came across. The cold was 
 stupendous. To-day is pleasant here, and quite 
 warm. I have been fainter of a night, after leaving 
 off, than I like. This, on two occasions. 
 
 The Ci-dcvant Miss Marry at' s letter, I shall not 
 answer. Concerning the letter of the lady who 
 referred to Halliday, what is to be done ? I am very 
 much afraid, from its terms, that it is quite beyond 
 my reasonable reach. Would you mind writing to 
 her with that express caution, and telling her that you 
 will see her at the office at such or such a time ? 
 
 Dolby's legs stand as they did. His right eye 
 becomes inflamed of a morning, only when he goes 
 out, after I go to bed, to treat the local agent. He 
 appeared at breakfast one morning at Liverpool, with 
 three glasses of gin and water and two cigars distinctly 
 to be seen under his right eye-lid. Our pervading 
 joke is " Schloss's Solicitor." We recognize him in 
 
 * Of "Miifjby Junction," the Christinas numluT of All the Year Round 
 (see " Letters," II., 205).
 
 18G7] WILLS'S OBJECTIONS. 357 
 
 all sorts of shabby genteel people at stations and 
 elsewhere. This mild recreation keeps us going. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 C. D. 
 
 [At the top of the following letter Wills has written 
 in pencil : " This letter, so illustrative of one of the 
 strong sides of C. D.'s character powerful will I 
 think ought decidedly to be published in justice to 
 Forster and myself, who dissuaded him from America 
 which killed him eventually. W. H. W."] 
 
 Thursday, Sixth Jane, 1867. 
 
 MY BEAU WILLS : I cannot tell you how warmly 
 I feel your letter, or how deeply I appreciate the 
 affection and regard in which it originates. I thank 
 you for it with all my heart. 
 
 You will not suppose that I make light of any of 
 your misgivings if I present the other side of the 
 question. Every objection that you make, strongly 
 impresses me, and will be revolved in my mind again 
 and again. 
 
 When I went to America in '42, I was so much 
 younger, but (I think) very much weaker, too. I had 
 had a painful surgical operation performed, shortly 
 before going out, and had had the labour from week 
 to week of "Master Humphrey's Clock." My life in the 
 States was a life of continual speech-making (quite as 
 laborious as Eeading), and I was less patient and 
 more irritable then, than I am now. My idea of a 
 course of Eeadings in America, is, that it would involve 
 far less travelling than you suppose that the large 
 first class towns would absorb the whole course and 
 that the receipts would be very much larger than
 
 358 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1867 
 
 your Estimate. Unless the demand for the Readings 
 is enormously exaggerated on all hands, there is consider- 
 able reason for this view of the case. And I can 
 hardly think that all the Speculators who beset me, 
 and all the private correspondents who urge me, are in 
 a conspiracy or under a common delusion. 
 
 I also believe that an immense impulse would be 
 given to the C. D. Edition by my going out. 
 
 If you were to work out the question of Reading 
 profits here, with Dolby, you would find that it would 
 take years to get ,10,000.* To get that sum in 
 a heap so soon is an immense consideration to me. 
 
 I shall never rest much while my faculties last, and 
 (if I know myself) have a certain something in me that 
 would still be active in rusting and corroding me, if I 
 flattered myself that it was in repose. On the other 
 hand, I think that my habit of easy self-abstraction 
 and withdrawal into fancies, has always refreshed and 
 strengthened me in short intervals wonderfully. I 
 always seem to myself to have rested far more than I 
 have worked, and I do really believe that I have some 
 exceptional faculty of accumulating young feelings in 
 short pauses, which obliterates a quantity of wear and 
 tear. 
 
 My worldly circumstances (such a family considered) 
 are very good. I don't want money. All my posses- 
 sions are free, and in the best order. Still, at 55 or 
 56, the likelihood of making a very great addition to 
 one's capital in half a year, is an immense considera- 
 tion. I repeat the phrase because there should be 
 something large, to set against the objections. 
 
 I dine with Forster today to talk it over. I have 
 
 * His profit in America was eventually within a hundred or so of 
 20,000 (" Life," III., 410).
 
 1867] "GEORGE SILVERMAN'S EXPLANATION." 359 
 
 no doubt he will urge most of your objections, and 
 particularly the last though American friends and 
 correspondents he has, have undoubtedly staggered 
 him more than I ever knew him to be staggered, on 
 the money question. Be assured that no one can 
 present any argument to me, which will weigh more 
 heavily with me than your kind words, and that, 
 whatever comes of my present state of abeyance, I 
 shall never forget your letter or cease to be grateful 
 for it. 
 
 Ever, My Dear Wills, 
 
 Faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 [In " Letters " II., 295, the second paragraph of the 
 following letter is printed as the concluding paragraph 
 of a letter of September 2nd.] 
 
 OFFICE OF ALL THE YEAR ROUND. 
 A Weekly Journal conducted by Charles Dickens. 
 
 No. 26, WELLINGTON STREET, 
 
 STRAND, LONDON, W.C., 
 Friday , Twenty -eighth June, 1867. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS: No doubt "Eliza Penning" * will 
 come down to Gad's. I will return her by post to 
 you. I did not mean to negative her. Merely raised 
 my eyebrows at a subject so well known. 
 
 I am glad you see a certain unlikeness to anything, 
 in the American storyt ; and I hope that when you 
 
 * This appeared in All tlie Year Round, July 13th, 1867, being one of a 
 series of papers under the general title of " Old Stories He-told," "written by 
 Walter Thornbury. Eli/,a Fenning was executed in 1815 for poisoning her 
 employers. Thornbury argues strongly for her innocence. 
 
 f "George Silverman's Explanation," which, together with "A Holiday 
 Romance," Dickens wrote for first publication in America.
 
 360 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1807 
 
 see it complete, you will think still better of it. Upon 
 myself, it has made the strangest impression of reality 
 and originality ! ! And I feel as if I had read some- 
 thing (by somebody else) which I should never get out 
 of my head ! ! The main idea of the narrator's position 
 towards the other people, was the idea 1 had for my 
 next novel in A. Y. E. 13 ut it is very curious that I 
 did not in the least see how to begin his state of mind, 
 until I walked into Hoghton Towers one bright April 
 day with Dolby. 
 
 Faithfully ever, 
 C. I). 
 
 [The following letter is wrongly dated June 13th in 
 "Letters," II., 292. Parts of this letter only are there 
 printed, and it closes with a paragraph taken from a 
 letter of August 3rd, 1SG9.] 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT, 
 Sunday, Thirtieth June, 1867. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I have heard read the first 
 3 Nos. of Wilkie's story * this morning, and have 
 gone minutely through the plot of the rest to the last 
 line. Of course it is a series of " Narratives," and of 
 course such and so many modes of action are open to 
 such and such people ; but it is a very curious story 
 wild, and yet domestic with excellent character in 
 it, great mystery, and nothing belonging to disguised 
 women or the like. It is prepared with extraordinary 
 care, and has every chance of being a hit. It is in 
 many respects much better than anything he has done. 
 
 We have talked over the time of beginning to 
 
 * "The Moonstone." It began its appearance in All the Year Round, 
 January 4th, 1868.
 
 18G7J ELIZA PENNING. 361 
 
 publish, and it is evidently desirable not to begin, if 
 we can possibly help it, until the Xrnas No. is out- 
 say, the middle of December. The question then is, 
 how shall we fill up the blank between " Mabel " * and 
 Wilkie ? What do you think of proposing to Fitz- 
 gerald f to do a story three months long ? I dare say 
 he has some unfinished or projected something by him. 
 
 I have an impression that it was not Silvester who 
 tried Eliza Fcnning, J but Knowles can hardly suppose 
 Thornbury to make such a mistake, but I wish you 
 would look into the "Annual Register." I have added 
 a final paragraph about the unfairness of the Judge, 
 whoever he was. I distinctly recollect to have read 
 of his "putting down" of Eliza Fenning's father when 
 the old man made some miserable suggestion in his 
 daughter's behalf (this is not noticed by Thornbury), 
 and he also stopped some suggestion that a knife 
 thrust into a loaf adulterated with alum, would present 
 the appearance that these knives presented. But I 
 may have got both these points from looking up some 
 pamphlets in Upcott's collection. Which I once did. 
 
 If you would not object to take my packet to 
 Brown and Shipley's on Tuesday, I should be very 
 much obliged to you if you would do so. I shall be 
 at the office at 5 tomorrow (Monday), or will meet 
 you there if you leave a note to me to that effect, at 
 11 on Tuesday. I have told Birtles to send you 
 complete revise, thinking Mrs. Wills may like to 
 see it. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 * " Mabel's Progress " ended in All the Year lloitnd, November 2nd, 1807. 
 t Mr. Percy Fitzgerald, a frequent and valued contributor. 
 j She was tried by the Recorder, Silvester. 
 This is in the paper as printed.
 
 362 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1867 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 HlGHAM BY KOCHESTER, KENT, 
 Monday , Second September, 1867. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Like you, I was shocked when 
 this new discovery burst upon me on Friday though, 
 unlike you, I never could believe in - solely (I 
 think) because, often as I have tried him, I never 
 found him standing by my desk, when I was writing 
 a letter, without trying to read it. 
 
 I fear there is no doubt that, since John's discharge, 
 he ( ) has stolen money at the Readings. A case 
 of an abstracted shilling seems to have been clearly 
 brought home to him by Chappell's people, and they 
 know very well what that means. I supposed a very 
 clear keeping off from Anne's husband (whom I 
 recommended for employment to Chappcll) to have 
 been referable only to John ; but now I see how 
 hopeless and unjust it would be to expect belief from 
 him with two such cases within his knowledge. 
 
 But don't let the thing spoil your holiday. If we 
 try to do our duty by people we employ ; by exacting 
 their proper service from them on the one hand, and 
 treating them with all possible consistency, gentleness, 
 and consideration, on the other ; we know that we do 
 right. Their doing wrong cannot change our doing 
 right, and that should be enough for us. 
 
 So I have given my feathers a shake, and am all 
 right again. Give your feathers a shake, and take a 
 cheery flutter into the air of Hertfordshire. 
 
 Great reports from Dolby,* and also from Fields, f 
 But I keep myself quite calm, and hold my decision in 
 abeyance, until I shall have book, chapter, and verse, 
 
 * Dolby had gone to America to investigate matters on the spot. 
 
 t Mr. James T. Fields, the publisher, of Boston, an old friend of Dickens.
 
 1867] DICKENS'S HEALTH. 363 
 
 before me. Dolby hoped he could leave Uncle Sara 
 on the llth of this month. 
 
 Sydney* has passed as a Lieutenant and appeared 
 at home yesterday, all of a sudden, with the con- 
 sequent golden garniture on his sleeve. Which I, 
 God forgive me, stared at, without the least idea that 
 it meant promotion. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 HlGHAM BY EOCHESTER, KENT, 
 Tuesday, Third September, 1867. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I am glad that the misconduct 
 of - - has given us the opportunity of advancing 
 people whose conduct has been good. May we have 
 got at the bottom and the end of it at last ! 
 
 So overwhelmed am I by letters concerning this 
 absurd newspaper paragraph about my being out of 
 health which has now swelled out into my being 
 recommended by " eminent surgeons " to go to 
 America for "cessation from literary labour "(!) that 
 I have deemed it necessary to write a line to The 
 Times. I have also written to the Sunday Gazette, the 
 of tenest-quoted authority, and I think I will have a few 
 words ready for Thursday to go in before " Mabel, "f 
 
 The best answer to your U.S. enquiry, is the 
 enclosed from Fields this very morning. Preserve it 
 
 for return, please. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 * Dickens's fifth son. He died at sea in May, 1872. 
 j- No such words were printed.
 
 364 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1867 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 HlGHAM BY KOCHESTEB, KENT, 
 
 Tuesday , Twenty -fourth September, 1867. 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I send you, enclosed, a plain 
 statement of the American question, deduced from a 
 mass of notes and figures. Give me your opinion on 
 it. To go, or not to go ? 
 
 I have sent it to Forster in exactly the same way, 
 with exactly the same request, and no hint of my own 
 tending either way. 
 
 On Saturday I will call at the office sometime in 
 the day, for a letter from you. I would rather make 
 up on Monday morning, as on that day I must be in 
 town to send off the decisive Telegram to Boston. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 [I cannot find the draft of this plain statement ; * 
 but there is in Wills's "Letter Book " a copy of a letter 
 written by him in answer to the above, under date Sep- 
 tember 27th. In this Wills makes another strong effort 
 to dissuade Dickens from the American enterprise. He 
 argues against the accuracy of Dickens's figures, warns 
 him that, in the present condition of American feeling 
 about England, he may not be so well received as he 
 anticipates, and ends thus: " Now is it worth .10,000 
 to face such a state of things although they may be 
 out of the pale of possibility, yet, being possible, they 
 have to be dreaded. Is it worth ,1 0,000 to risk not 
 only your bodily health but your mental comfort in a 
 country where success will be a penance ; for the 
 more excitement you occasion the more you will be 
 bored. Is it worth going to America for four months 
 when you can ensure in double the time quite as large 
 a sum at home. However, until Monday, when, all 
 well, I shall meet you at the office."] 
 
 * It is printed in " Life," III., 290, note.
 
 18G7] MEMORANDA. 365 
 
 OFFICE OF ALL THE YEAR ROUND. 
 
 No. 26, WELLINGTON STREET, 
 
 STRAND, LONDON, W.C., 
 Saturday, Twenty-eighth September, 1867. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : There are two respects (worth 
 mentioning perhaps), in which you are wrong. 1. If 
 I were to go to America, the Heading months would 
 be December, January, February, March, April five 
 in all. 2. Extra payments on reserved seats, does 
 not mean run-up prices and jobbery, but simply this : 
 There will be two prices : a dollar and a half, and (for 
 reserved seat) two dollars. The calculation is always 
 made at one price only, and that the lowest. It is 
 made on the assumption that all places let, are places 
 of the lowest price. You understand ? 
 
 I am off to Eoss, to see Forster and Dolby together. 
 Forster notices the absence of margin that you notice, 
 in the calculation. I will return to the office, Monday 
 forenoon. Final telegraph to America, Yes or No, 
 that day ! 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 [This paper is in Dickens's handwriting.] 
 
 MEMORANDA. 
 A. Y. E. 
 
 Remember that no reference, however slight is to 
 be made to America in any article whatever, unless by 
 myself. 
 
 Remember that the same remark applies to the 
 subject of the Fenians. 
 
 Remember that a Poem by Mrs. Cowden Clarke is
 
 366 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1867 
 
 accepted for the ordinary current No. at Christmas 
 time.* 
 
 Remember that a narrative from official documents 
 of the Webster Murder case, is to come in from Sir 
 James Emerson Tennent.f 
 
 JOHN POOLE. 
 
 His address is 8, Fitzroy Place, Kentish Town. He 
 will be very thankful if you will sometimes give him 
 a call as you go by on Holly Lodge:}: affairs. He has 
 six envelopes addressed to you at the office, in my 
 writing, with " John Poole " in the corner. This is 
 in case of his wanting any looking after. He is to 
 have 25 sent to him on the 24th of December, and 
 25 on the 25th of March. In case of his death I have 
 <25 of his money in iny hands for funeral expenses. 
 
 LETTERS. 
 
 Any that may come to Gad's Hill will be forwarded 
 to you to open and dispose of. Similarly, open all 
 letters addressed to me that may come here. 
 
 PLORN 
 
 After the Christmas Holidays is to go to a Sheep- 
 Farmer for a few months. He, or his tutor, or Mary, 
 or Georgina, will ask you to settle that matter. I 
 suppose that through Sidney and his Agricultural Hall 
 connexion we can know reasonably well whether any 
 suggested person and terms would be likely to act 
 well ; or could find out the right person and terms, 
 if none were suggested. 
 
 * Presumably "The Yule Log," December 27tli. 
 t " The Killing of Dr. Parkman," December 7th. 
 j Miss Coutts's residence at Highgate. 
 His youngest son, Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens.
 
 1867] ARRIVAL IN BOSTON. 367 
 
 MRS. SCOTT AND MRS. KELLY AND MRS. ALLISON. 
 
 Mrs. Scott is to be paid One Pound every Saturday, 
 down in the office ; beginning this next Saturday, the 
 day of my leaving Liverpool. Mrs. Mary Kelly, 21 
 Leigh Street, Charles Street, Manchester, is to have 
 a P.O. order for 1 every Saturday. Mrs. Allison, 
 at Mrs. Spreights, Kirkgate, Wakefield, Ditto. 
 
 FORSTER 
 
 Has an ample Power of Attorney from me, in case 
 you should want any legal authority to act in my 
 name. 
 
 MY PRIVATE ACCOUNT AT COUTTS'S 
 
 Is subject, in my absence, to the joint cheques of 
 Mary and Georgina. 
 
 THE ELECTRIC AND INTERNATIONAL TELEGRAPH 
 COMPANY. 
 
 The following Message has been received at G. D. Station. 
 
 22. 11. 1867. 
 From 
 DICKENS, 
 
 To 
 
 WILLS, Twenty-six Wellington Street, Strand, London. 
 Safe and well expect good letter full of hope. 
 
 PARKER HOUSE, BOSTON, 
 
 Thursday, Twenty-first November, 1867. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : A winter passage out here is, 
 under the best circumstances (not to put too fine a 
 point upon it) odious. But I had, in the Cuba, a fine
 
 3G8 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1867 
 
 run was not sick for a moment was highly popular 
 on board made no end of speeches after the last 
 dinner of the voyage sang no end of duets with the 
 Captain (never known to come out before) and came 
 over the side into the arms of Dolby (in a steam tug) 
 illuminated with a blaze of triumph. 
 
 The Pilot brought the news on board that the 
 people had stood with the greatest good temper in 
 the freezing street, 12 hours, to buy tickets for the 
 first four readings here (the only Readings announced), 
 and that every ticket for every night was sold. I 
 found it to be literally true. The gross receipts of 
 those 4 nights are .250 beyond our calculation. New 
 York tickets are not on sale until next week, but there 
 are signs of the same excitement there. The Hall 
 here is charming I never saw a better. If I can 
 only hit them hard with the Carol and Trial, I think 
 our expectations may be far overpassed. Longfellow, 
 Emerson, Holmes, Agassiz, and all Cambridge Pro- 
 fessors and Students are booked in a phalanx for the 
 body of the Hall on the 1st night, Monday, December 
 the Second. Nothing can exceed the interest and 
 heartiness of these men. 
 
 Boston, as a City, is enormously changed since I 
 was here, and is far more mercantile. I do not yet 
 notice any special difference in manners and customs 
 between my old time and this time except that there 
 is more of New York in this fine City than there was 
 of yore. The Hotel* I stayed at in my first visit has 
 now become contemptible. This is an establishment 
 like one of our Termini Hotels, with the addition of 
 an immense quantity of white mar hie floors. 1 live 
 on the third storey our three rooms together and 
 
 * The Tremont House.
 
 1867] THE PARKER HOUSE. 369 
 
 have hot and cold water laid on in a bath in my bed- 
 room, and other comforts not known in my fprmer 
 experience. The cuisine is very good. The cost of 
 living is enormous. Ten Pounds sterling a day for 
 Dolby and me is by no means a large estimate. (It 
 was our original calculation.) Happily, Dolby has 
 seen reason to make up his mind that the less I am 
 shown for nothing the better for the Readings ! 
 So I am fended off and kept so far unexpectedly 
 quiet. In addition to which I must say that I have 
 experienced so far not the slightest intrusiveness, 
 and everywhere the greatest respect and consideration. 
 There is the utmost curiosity about the Readings, and 
 I should not wonder if they proved to be a great 
 surprise, seeing that the general notion stops at a mere 
 " Reading," book in hand. 
 
 Even you, I think, will find it difficult to believe 
 
 that at this moment has not sent out the 
 
 pamphlet with the Dinner Speeches ! ! ! !* Of course 
 when it does come, it will be waste paper. The 
 American journals all over the country have taken the 
 account from the English Journals, and I am assured 
 that my speech has given the highest satisfaction to 
 the American people. 
 
 This is all my news at present except that I am so 
 well and so free of the ship, that I am worried by not 
 having arranged to begin reading next Monday for 
 I yearn to begin to check the Readings off, and feel 
 myself tending towards Home. 
 
 My love to Mrs. Wills, and my love to the personal 
 and official Wilkie.f Fields does not begin to publish 
 the Holiday Romance until January. I will advise 
 
 * The farewell dinner to Dickens which had been given at the Free- 
 masons' Tavern, under the chairmanship of Lord Lytton, on November 2nd. 
 f Wilkie Collins was helping Wills in the work of All the Fear Rimnd, 
 
 D.E. B B
 
 370 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1867 
 
 you in good time, when you can begin with it in 
 A. Y.R. Take all my confidence and trust now and 
 ever, 
 
 And Believe me, 
 
 Affectionately Yours always, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 PARKER HOUSE, BOSTON, 
 
 Tuesday , Tiventy -sixth November, 1867. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : This morning I got yours of 
 the 14th, just in time to send you an answer by the 
 Cunard Steamer. Our prospects here are MOST 
 BRILLIANT all people, public and private, seem in the 
 best frame of mind for the Eeadings and the Eeader 
 and I am so well, thank God, after the voyage, that 
 I am continually chafing at not having begun last 
 Monday instead of next. Will you write Townshend 
 a line giving him my best love, and telling him that 
 I will write to him on the day after my first Beading 
 here. My love to Wilkie. Your account of your 
 getting on together is delightful to me, though I never 
 doubted it. 
 
 Ever, my Dear fellow, 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 THE ELECTRIC AND INTERNATIONAL TELEGRAPH 
 COMPANY. 
 
 The following Message has been received at Strand Station. 
 
 Dec. 4th, 1867. 
 From 
 DICKENS, 
 
 To 
 
 WILLS, All the Year Round Office, London. 
 
 Tremendous success greatest enthusiasm all well.
 
 1867] SUCCESS. 371 
 
 PARKER HOUSE, BOSTON, 
 
 Tuesday, Third December, 1867. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I cannot convey to yon an 
 adequate idea of last night's tremendous success. The 
 City is absolutely mad about it. The reception was 
 magnificent, and the " go " of the Heading without 
 any approach to a precedent in these parts. Nothing 
 that we could have imagined or hoped for, could have 
 surpassed the reality. There was (at the reduced rate 
 of money even) 450 in the house. And the New 
 York House (which is also sold out for every announced 
 night) holds fully 500 people more ! 
 
 Write to me in future at the Westminster Hotel, 
 Irving Place, New York City. It is a more central 
 address than this, and we shall probably be much 
 oftener there. My present intention is to keep rooms 
 there, and I have also started a Brougham beforehand. 
 
 We shall not be able to begin the children* or 
 George Silverman before March, as Fields does not 
 begin either until January. This will come to you 
 by my ship, the Cuba, returning home. I am very 
 well indeed, and in great voice and force. You may 
 be absolutely certain that the success here COULD 
 NOT be greater. 
 
 Ever, My Dear fellow, 
 
 Your affectionate, 
 C. D. 
 
 PARKER HOUSE, BOSTON, U.S., 
 
 Friday, Sixth December, 1867. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I am going on (between our- 
 selves) at a clear profit of .1,300 per week ! And it 
 
 * " A Holiday Romance " was written for " Our Young Folks," a children's 
 magazine published in Boston. 
 
 B B2
 
 372 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1867 
 
 is quite upon the cards that an occasional morning in 
 New York will raise even these figures. Nickleby 
 and Boots made a tremendous hit here last night, and 
 certainly topped my favourite Copperfield which 
 may perhaps be a thought too delicate for them, though 
 it went finely too. We had 500 in the House 500 
 English at the handsome rate of 7 Dollars to the 
 pound ! 
 
 I have received 3 Nos. of A. Y. E. all good, and 
 Murray very good. Be extremely chary of using 
 those Mugby Junction stories. 
 
 To-morrow at 11 we start for New York, being due 
 there at 8 in the evening. On Monday I open there, 
 with Carol and Trial. Tickets at a premium, and 
 we cannot by any means keep out the speculators 
 or prevent their making large profits. 
 
 With kind love to Mrs. Wills, Ever, My Dear boy, 
 Your faithful and affectionate, 
 
 C. D. 
 Address me until further notice : 
 
 Westminster Hotel, 
 Irving Place, 
 
 New York City. 
 
 WESTMINSTER HOTEL, IRVING PLACE, 
 NEW YORK CITY, 
 
 Tuesday Evening, Tenth December, 1867. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : It is absolutely impossible that 
 we could have made a more brilliant success than we 
 made here last night. The reception was splendid, 
 the audience bright and perceptive. I believe that I 
 never read so well since I began, and the general 
 delight was most enthusiastic. And now I may tell 
 you that before I came away, I received at the office
 
 18G7] NEW YORK HOTELS. 373 
 
 by two or three mails from here, various letters about 
 Danger, Anti-Dickens feeling, Anti-English feeling, 
 New York rowdyism, and I don't know what else. 
 As I was in for coming, I resolved to say no word 
 about it to anyone. Nor did I, until I came off from 
 the " Trial " last night, when I told Dolby. 
 
 This Hotel is quieter than Mivart's in Brook 
 Street! It is quite as comfortable, and the French 
 cuisine is immensely better. I go in and out by a side 
 door and a little staircase that leads straight to my 
 bedroom. The platform absorbs my individuality, and 
 I am very little troubled. We have on the first floor, 
 a pretty drawing-room, my bedroom, bathroom, and 
 Scott's bedroom. Dolby has his bedroom and another 
 room in which to see his clients, on the floor above. 
 There are Hotels (on the American principle) very 
 near, with 500 bedrooms and I don't know how many 
 boarders. This Hotel (on the Europian principle) is 
 almost faultless, and is as singularly unlike your idea 
 of an American Hotel as unlike can be. New York 
 has grown out of my knowledge, and is enormous. 
 Everything in it looks as if the order of nature were 
 reversed, and everything grew newer every day, 
 instead of older. The Room very much larger than 
 its capacity of holding people is about as trying as 
 St. James's Hall. I am in capital health and voice. 
 
 It has been intensely cold. But to-day it has 
 thawed, after a fall of snow. Nothing more to 
 report at present, except my love to Mrs. Wills, and 
 my affectionate and faithful regard to you. 
 
 C. D. 
 Wednesday U / o rn ing . 
 
 Copperfield and Bob even a greater success last 
 night than Carol and Trial on the night before.
 
 374 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1867 
 
 "Mr. Digguns," said the German Janitor (the 
 invariable name for the Hall Keeper), " you are gread, 
 meinherr. There is no ent to you ! " That was his 
 parting salutation as he locked me out into a hard 
 frost. "Bedder and bedder," he re-opened the door 
 to add, " Wot negst ! " 
 
 WESTMINSTER HOTEL, IRVING PLACE, 
 NEW YORK CITY, 
 
 Tuesday, Seventeenth December, 1867. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : No news, except that this house 
 was on fire last Sunday night (a matter scarcely 
 worth mentioning in New York), and that we turned 
 out and packed up. But the fire was happily got 
 under. The meeting of all the inmates, in the most 
 extraordinary dresses, and with their most precious 
 possessions under their arms or imperfectly crammed 
 into their pockets, was very ridiculous. Everybody 
 talked to everybody else, and it was on the whole 
 convivial. 
 
 Everything unchanged. Everybody sleighing. 
 Everybody coming to the Readings. There were at 
 least ten thousand sleighs in the Park last Sunday. 
 Your illustrious chief in a red sleigh covered with 
 furs, and drawn by a pair of fine horses covered 
 with bells, and tearing up 14 miles of snow an hour 
 made an imposing appearance. 
 
 Tell Wilkie with my love that I have received his 
 work* (admirably done) to the first scene of the 
 4th Act inclusive, and that I hope to bring the thing 
 to terms with Wallack. But he seems a little shy 
 
 * Presumably the dramatic version of " No Thoroughfare."
 
 1867] DOLBY. 375 
 
 (or I fancy it) touching the 10 per cent. I hope to 
 report finally by the next mail. 
 
 Ever, My Dear fellow, 
 
 Your affectionate, 
 C. D. 
 
 BOSTON, 
 
 Christmas Eve, 1867. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Many, many merry Christmases 
 and Happy New Years to you and yours, and to all of 
 us ! We spend our Christmas Day this year on the 
 Railway between this place and New York. 
 
 The same success always. 
 
 Ticknor and Fields publish the first part of 
 " Holiday Romance " on the 1st of January. They 
 publish it in 4 parts. Each part on the 1st of the 
 month. Make your calculation so that you will not 
 jostle them (remembering that we are weekly and they 
 monthly), and accordingly announce and publish. 
 Follow up perhaps after a short interval with 
 George Silverman's " Explanation/' They publish 
 that in 3 monthly parts, beginning on the 1st of 
 January. 
 
 Dolby's best regard. He is incessantly abused, for 
 no reason on earth but that he is not an American 
 agent. Think of a low newspaper (which had been 
 refused our advertisements) in Boston, the Hub of 
 the Universe as they call it (Hub being the nave of 
 a wheel), having this article of news last Sunday 
 morning : " The chap calling himself Dolby got 
 drunk last night down town, and was locked up in 
 the Police Station for fighting an Irishman " ! 
 
 I have a dismal cold, but beat it down at 8 p.m. 
 
 In making up A. Y. R. try to bring the matter
 
 376 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1867 
 
 closer down to the foot of the last page of the No. 
 And for the love of Heaven no more of those Xmas 
 Railway stories. Parkinson* very good. 
 
 Ever, My Dear Wills, 
 Affectionately yours, 
 
 C. D. 
 Mrs. Wills not forgotten. 
 
 Remark of a Western Agent (we mean to go out West) 
 to Dolby this morning ; Western Agent having been 
 present at " Copperfield " and " Bob " last night. 
 
 " Wa'al, Mas'r Dolby, I tell yew this, Sir. He has 
 a 'tarnal tall name, but he don't want it. The man 
 as can do that never was so skeared, I tell you, in 
 all my life, and thought I should ha' burst ! might 
 just go out West, never been heard of and Damn 
 me if he couldn't draw 'em across the plains if he 
 chiz, till they hit their foreheads 'gain the Rocky 
 Mountens." 
 
 Additional Memorandum. My New York landlord 
 makes me a drink melodiously called "A Rocky 
 Mountain Sneezer." 
 
 WESTMINSTER HOTEL, IHVING PLACE, 
 NEW YORK, 
 
 Monday, Thirtieth December, 1867. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Yours dated on the publishing 
 day, gives glorious tidings of the Xmas No.f But 
 somehow I am not sanguine about the play. I don't 
 see it, as I read it. It may be my mood, or my 
 anxiety, or I know not what else ; but I don't see it 
 rush on to its end in a spirited manner. 
 
 * J. C. Parkinson, a contributor. A letter from Dickens warmly com- 
 mending his services and his ability is printed in " Letters," II., 401. 
 t "No Thoroughfare."
 
 1868] WARD BEECHER'S CHURCH. 377 
 
 I have not been well, and have been obliged to 
 call in a doctor ; but am very greatly better all 
 right, in fact. A tonic seems to do me a deal of 
 good. 
 
 All right about Plorn.* By the Lord, he ought to 
 be a first-rate settler after all his cramming ! 
 
 Blazing away here, after more tremendous blazing 
 in Boston (where they went absolutely mad with 
 " Copperfield"), and previous to blazing in Phila- 
 delphia, Brooklyn, and Baltimore. Those places, this, 
 and Boston for another 2 nights, will occupy this 
 coming month of January. At Brooklyn I read in 
 Mister Ward Beecher's Church (wonderfully seated 
 for 2,000) with the audience in veritable pews ! I 
 went to look at it the other day, and, found myself 
 in a comically incongruous position. It is the only 
 building suitable to the purpose in the town. 
 
 Many happy New Years to you, old fellow. And 
 to Mrs. Wills with my love. 
 
 Ever affectionately, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 1868. 
 
 The final American Farewell Eeadiog took place in 
 New York on Monday, April 20th, and on the 22nd 
 Dickens sailed for home on the Russia. His 
 health towards the end of his tour had given cause 
 for great anxiety, for he had suffered from a violent 
 catarrh, and his foot had been in great pain. The 
 voyage, however, seemed to restore him in a wonderful 
 way. He arrived at home early in May. 
 
 In October he began another reading tour in 
 England and Scotland. On November 14th he gave 
 
 * His younyest son was preparing to go to Australia.
 
 378 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [18G8 
 
 a private reading of the Sikes and Nancy scenes 
 from " Oliver Twist," but it was not until early in the 
 following year that he added them to his public 
 repertory. Wills had an accident in the hunting field 
 during Dickens's absence in America, and was laid up 
 for a long time. 
 
 PKOVIDENCE, 
 
 Friday, Twenty-first February, 1868. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : In case you should not have 
 discovered Lytton's Grosvenor Square !N"o. I send you 
 this second note by tomorrow's mail, to let you know 
 that it is 12. 
 
 I have your letter about " Holiday Romance," this 
 morning. You will know before you get this, that it 
 is all right. 
 
 has proved untrustworthy, and the instant 
 he comes back from a mission he is now upon at 
 Buffalo, I shall peremptorily and finally discharge 
 him. That will probably be tomorrow. Dolby will 
 write to you as soon as the man is displaced telling 
 you when the weekly payment made by the office on 
 his account is to cease and determine. Here is another 
 Paragon found out ! The fellow (speculating himself) 
 is at the bottom of all the trouble we have had, 
 and has not only made me appear in this town the 
 most grasping and sordid scoundrel going, but has 
 cost me in this one place .300. 
 
 It is curious that 1 conceived a great dislike towards 
 this man, aboard the Cuba coming out. He was 
 ill all the voyage, and I only saw him two or three 
 times, staggering about the lower deck ; but I under- 
 went a change of feeling towards him, as if I had 
 taken it in at the pores of the skin. Dolby had great
 
 18G8] THE IMPEACHMENT OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 379 
 
 confidence in him, and I have never suspected him 
 until within the last few days ; but an inscrutable item 
 of complaint about the sale here, being brought in 
 yesterday afternoon by Osgood, it suddenly fired a 
 whole train in my mind and blew up the scheme. It 
 became as intelligible to all three of us, after a few 
 minutes, as to the concoctor himself. 
 
 Ever, My Dear Boy, 
 Affectionately yours, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 BOSTON, 
 
 Tuesday, Twenty-fifth February, 1868. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : It is especially lucky that I 
 made so much money at first, for this Impeachment 
 of the President * which you will have known of long 
 before you get this (the vote was taken at five yester- 
 day afternoon), will for the time, probably over-ride 
 and overthrow everything in this country. It 
 instantly emptied our great gallery here last night, 
 and paralyzed the Theatres in the midst of a rush of 
 good business. 
 
 I think of striking out next week's Headings here 
 (not yet announced), and giving the political uproar 
 and excitement that much time to take a distinct 
 direction and be intelligible to a foreigner. This 
 business of the War Secretary is the result of a 
 deliberate plan on the part of the President, to bring 
 the question between him and Congress to an issue. 
 
 * President Andrew Johnson had, in defiance of the Tenure of Office Act, 
 removed the Secretary of War (Edwin M. StanUm) from olliec without the 
 consent of the Senate. The House of Representatives thereupon voted to 
 impeach him before the Senate for high crimes and misdemeanours. In the 
 following May he was acquitted, the majority of votes against him being 
 one less than the two-thirds required for conviction.
 
 380 
 
 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. 
 
 [1868 
 
 I was confidentially forewarned of it at Washington 
 18 days ago. 
 
 Love to Mrs. Wills, 
 
 Ever, My Dear Boy, 
 
 Your affectionate, 
 C. D. 
 
 [This list is in Dickens's handwriting.] 
 
 REMAINING LIST OF READINGS. 
 
 ( Marigold and Gamp. 
 
 Monday, March 1st [2nd] 
 to 6th 
 
 Second Week of Boston 
 ' Fortnight 
 
 Copperfield and Boots. 
 Carol and Bob. 
 Dombey and Gamp. 
 Marigold and Trial. 
 
 Monday, March 9th. 
 
 Syracuse 
 
 Carol and Trial. 
 
 
 Tuesday, 
 
 10th. 
 
 Rochester (first) 
 
 Carol and Trial. 
 
 
 Wednesday, 
 
 llth. 
 
 Off Night. 
 
 
 
 Thursday, 
 
 12th. 
 
 Buffalo 
 
 Carol and Trial. 
 
 
 Friday, 
 
 13th. 
 
 Do 
 
 Marigold and Bob. 
 
 
 
 (To the Falls of Niagara, 2 hours railway.) 
 
 Monday, 
 
 16th. 
 
 Rochester (second) 
 
 Marigold and Bob. 
 
 
 Tuesday, 
 
 17th. 
 
 Off Night for travelling. 
 
 
 
 Wednesday, 
 
 18th. 
 
 Albany ... 
 
 Carol and Trial. 
 
 
 Thursday, 
 
 19th. 
 
 Do 
 
 Marigold and Bob. 
 
 
 Friday, 
 
 20th. 
 
 Springfield 
 
 Carol and Trial. 
 
 
 Monday, 
 
 23rd. 
 
 Worcester 
 
 Carol and Trial. 
 
 
 Tuesday, 
 
 24th. 
 
 Newhaven (second) 
 
 Marigold and Bob. 
 
 
 Wednesday, 
 
 25th. 
 
 Hartford (second) 
 
 Marigold and Bob. 
 
 
 Thursday, 
 
 26th. 
 
 Off Night, 
 
 
 
 Friday, 
 
 27th. 
 
 New Bedford 
 
 Carol and Trial. 
 
 
 Monday, 
 
 30th. 
 
 Portland... 
 
 Carol and Trial. 
 
 
 Tuesday, 
 
 31st. 
 
 Off Night for travelling. 
 
 
 
 Wednesday, Ap 
 
 il 1st. 
 
 1st Boston Farewell ... 
 
 The subjects of 
 
 the 
 
 Thursday, 
 
 2nd. 
 
 2nd Do. 
 
 remaining Readings 
 
 Friday, 
 
 3rd. 
 
 3rd Do. 
 
 not yet fixed. 
 
 
 Monday, 
 
 6th. 
 
 4th Do. 
 
 
 
 Tuesday, 
 
 7th. 
 
 5th Do. 
 
 
 
 Wednesday, 
 
 8th. 
 
 Final Boston Farewell... 
 
 
 
 Thursday, 
 
 9th. 
 
 Off Night. 
 
 
 
 Good Friday 
 
 10th. 
 
 Do. 
 
 
 
 Monday, 
 
 13th. 
 
 1st New York Farewell 
 
 
 
 Tuesday, 
 
 14th. 
 
 2nd Do. 
 
 
 
 Wednesday, 
 
 15th. 
 
 Off Night. 
 
 
 
 Thursday, 
 
 16th. 
 
 3rd New York Farewell 
 
 
 
 Friday, 
 
 17th. 
 
 4th Do. 
 
 
 
 Monday, 
 
 20th. 
 
 FinalAmcrican Farewell, 
 
 
 
 
 in New York. And 
 
 
 
 
 last Heading of the 
 
 
 
 
 Series 1 Wednesday, 
 
 
 
 
 22ud April, Cuba. 
 

 
 1868J PEOPLE FROM CANADA. 381 
 
 BOSTON, 
 
 Friday, Twenty-eighth February, 1868. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I enclose a curious article 
 (written for the Atlantic Monthly) on the ''Poison of 
 the Rattlesnake." * You may publish it in A. Y. R. 
 any day after the 20th of March. 
 
 As Dolby was uneasy about 's dismissal, I have 
 
 consented to keep him on, within narrower limits, 
 until we come back. 
 
 I have decided to give myself a holiday next week. 
 My next week's readings here were not announced 
 when the Impeachment broke out again, and caused 
 great excitement. As I am coming back here on the 
 1st of April for 6 Farewells, I thought it best (under 
 the exceptional circumstances of the time) to abolish 
 next week's nights. We had a fine house last night 
 for Carol and Trial, and a tremendous call between 
 the two. I responded to it, and when I came in 
 again they had covered my table with lovely flowers. 
 
 Yery sorry to hear of Wilkie's having been so ill. 
 Pray give him my love, and tell him that I earnestly 
 hope he is much better. 
 
 Our tickets at Rochester and Buffalo were sold this 
 week. People came out of Canada, struggling on foot 
 across the frozen river and climbing over great ice- 
 blocks, to buy some ! 
 
 With love to Mrs. Wills, 
 
 Ever affectionately, 
 
 C. D. 
 ROCHESTER, 
 
 Monday, Sixteenth March, 1868. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : The pony an immense a pro- 
 digious a rapturous success ! The photograph 
 
 * All the. Year Round, March 28th, 18G8.
 
 382 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1868 
 
 didn't come, either in your letter or in Mrs. Dolby's ; 
 but I was present, alone with Dolby, when he opened 
 her letter last night, and the surprise and delight 
 were marvellous to behold ! 
 
 Enclosed : 
 
 1. Another letter. 
 
 2. 2 Documents to compare with Coutts's receipts, 
 
 as usual. 
 
 3. Eeceipt for a small box from Niagara that is to 
 
 come to the office addressed to me. Please 
 pay all charges on it, and put it (unopened) 
 in my office bedroom to await my coming. 
 You will know from another letter of mine before 
 you get this, that I have always purposed doing some- 
 thing for our new Series,* though I don't yet know 
 what. I have positively resolved to write no American 
 sketches whatever. 
 
 Very extraordinary about poor Townshend ! He 
 told me, and he told Henri, that he had left the latter 
 .50 a year. I wonder did he alter his will in that 
 wise, after the discovery of the missing prints. 
 
 I don't agree with you about the Farewell Readings, 
 but think .8,000 quite as much as they will reason- 
 ably bear. It is indisputable that Chappell's profits 
 in the last Series was very small. There is no doubt 
 of it, because Dolby kept the accounts. 
 
 We have had two bright brilliant days at Niagara, 
 and the scene was splendid beyond all description. 
 With love to Mrs. Wills, 
 
 Ever my Dear Boy, 
 
 Your affectionate, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 * The first number of a " New Series" of All t/ie Year Hound appeared 
 on December 5th of this year.
 
 1868] BACK IN ENGLAND. 383 
 
 NEW YORK, 
 
 Friday, Seventeenth April, 1868. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : We have notice to be on board 
 on Wednesday at half-past one, and shall probably 
 sail at half -past two. The Farewells are going finely 
 here. I am very weary, but no worse. Your last 
 letter gives me the hope that I may find you quite 
 
 restored. I have discharged and he goes home 
 
 tomorrow. 
 
 Ever affectionately, 
 
 C.D. 
 
 [To Mrs. Wills.] 
 
 OFFICE OF ALL TEE YEAR ROUND. 
 A Weekly Journal conducted by diaries Dickens. 
 
 No. 26, WELLINGTON STREET, STRAND, 
 
 LONDON, W.C., 
 Monday, Twenty -fifth May, 1868. 
 
 MY DEAR MRS. WILLS : As I am the man who is 
 not going to the Derby, I will come down on Wednes- 
 day by the 11.55 train you tell me of, returning to 
 town by any good train in the early evening. My 
 love to Wills, whom I hope to find coming round the 
 corner (figuratively) at a steady pace. 
 
 Faithfully yours always, 
 
 CHARLES DICKENS. 
 
 [To Mrs. Wills.] 
 
 A. Y. R., 
 
 Friday, Twenty -sixth June, 1868. 
 
 MY DEAR MRS. WILLS : 1 should have answered 
 your letter yesterday, but for an unusual amount of 
 drudgery in setting Proofs right for the No. 
 
 Your tidings of Wills I think good. That he must
 
 384 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1868 
 
 have time, we knew from the first. He has not had 
 a long time yet ; and I cannot help thinking that even 
 to be no worse is to be better. The bracing place I 
 am strongly in favour of. I am very hopeful that it 
 will make a great change in him. 
 
 I had seen that letter about the Ladies' College, 
 and will be prepared to pursue the subject should the 
 opportunity be presented. Do you know that some 
 
 rather ugly disclosures are afloat about ? I know 
 
 of others, hushed up a few years ago. It is my belief 
 that some men will come to the Guild meeting, expressly 
 to prevent his having that advance of money. I think 
 I know of two, who are influencing more. And as I 
 cannot conscientiously propose it, or support it, I don't 
 think he'll get it. 
 
 Will you tell Wills at some time or other, that his 
 old Mare has not done a week's work since she came 
 to Gad's, and is totally unfit for any sort of usefulness. 
 Shall I have her shot ? 
 
 Everything at the office is quiet and straight. 
 With my love to Wills, believe me ever, 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 CHARLES DICKENS. 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 HIGHAM BY EC-CHESTER, KENT, 
 
 Tuesday , Thirtieth June, 1868. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS: Of course the Mare shall roll 
 in the lap of luxury (which is very much dried up 
 by the bye, for want of water) until you send for her. 
 
 I don't think Mr. Eobertson would do. There is 
 no literature in that kind of Drama, and I feel con- 
 vinced that the short notice and the necessity of 
 compression would be too much for him, with no
 
 18G8] WILLS'S HEAD. 385 
 
 experience of that kind of writing our kind, I mean. 
 Of the Miss Mulholland idea, I think much better. 
 I will write to her on Thursday. 
 
 Fitzgerald's "Boy's Biography"* is "servilely 
 founded " (he writes) on me. But it goes on well 
 enough, and I was to have the whole of it this week. 
 If I get it, and it continues up to the mark, we shall 
 be none the worse for having two strings to our bow. 
 
 I don't like Mrs. Linton for a story. 
 
 The fly- swallowing Holdsworth asking me with open 
 eyes t'other day what was to be done about Mr. Yates's 
 story and the volume, I thought it best to maintain 
 the fiction that we were going straight on from Wilkie 
 to Edmund. If we do not keep the fiction up as long 
 as possible, we shall not get the copy that ought to 
 be written. Grave and gloomy resolve therefore sits 
 upon my lofty brow. 
 
 I will write to you again about the Guild, on 
 Thursday or Friday. I shall be very glad when you 
 change your air again, and try a new and a bracing 
 place. Never mind the singing. If you feel that 
 your head is better, rely upon it you are right, 
 howsoever vaguely you may feel it. 
 
 For the soul of me, I cannot (hammer and think as 
 I will) raise the ghost of an idea for the Xmas No. 
 
 Disconsolately, 
 C. D. 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 HlGHAM BY EOCHESTER, KENT, 
 
 Sunday, Twenty-sixth July, 1868. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I have yours of the 22nd this 
 morning, and am delighted to get it. It has made 
 
 * " Autobiograph}' o[ a Small Boy," All the Year fitmnd, August 1.1th 
 and 22nd, 1868. 
 
 D.E. C C
 
 380 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1868 
 
 two journeys between this place and the office before 
 coming to hand. 
 
 The " Militia " paper * is by Sydney Blanchard. In 
 justice to him I must mention that it has been in type 
 for several weeks, but that I could not get it in sooner. 
 I have taken great pains with the Nos. and have 
 selected carefully. There are two papers by Sala now 
 in type. Not much in them. 
 
 I have been, and still am which is worse in 
 a positive state of despair about the Xmas No. 
 I cannot get an idea for it which is in the least 
 satisfactory to me, and yet I have been steadily 
 trying all this month. I have invented so many 
 of these Christmas Nos. and they are so profoundly 
 unsatisfactory after all with the introduced stories 
 and their want of cohesion or originality, that I fear 
 I am sick of the thing. I have had serious thoughts 
 of abandoning the Xmas No. ! There remain but 
 August and September to give to it (as I begin to 
 read in October), and I CAN NOT see it,| 
 
 I quite agree with you about the " Moonstone." 
 The construction is wearisome beyond endurance, and 
 there is a vein of obstinate conceit in it that makes 
 enemies of readers. 
 
 My love to Mrs. Wills. All sorts of messages to 
 you. 
 
 Ever affectionately, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 Poor George Cattermolc is dcad.J Very, very, 
 poor. Family quite unprovided for ; debt and 
 distress. 
 
 * " Out With the Militia," All the. Year Round, July 25th, 1868. 
 j- The Christmas number was abandoned. 
 
 + II<! dial on July 24th, aged (58. He and " Phiz " illustrated " Master 
 Humphrey's Clock."
 
 18C8] THE CHRISTMAS NUMBER. 387 
 
 Friday, Thirty-first July, 1868. 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I had such a hard day at the 
 office yesterday, that I had not time to write to you 
 before I left. So I write to-day. 
 
 I am very unwilling to abandon the Xraas No. 
 though even in the case of my little Xmas Books 
 (which were immensely profitable) I let the idea go, 
 when I thought it was wearing out. Ever since I 
 came home, I have hammered at it more or less, and 
 have been uneasy about it. I have begun something 
 which is very droll but it manifestly shapes itself 
 towards a book, and could not in the least admit of 
 even that shadowy approach to a congruous whole 
 on the part of other contributors which they have 
 ever achieved at the best. I have begun something 
 else (aboard the American mail steamer) but I don't 
 like it, because the stories must come limping in after 
 the old fashion though of course what I have done, 
 will be good for A. Y. R. In short, I have cast about 
 with the greatest pains and patience, and I have been 
 wholly unable to find what I want. 
 
 And yet I cannot quite make up my mind to give 
 in, without another fight for it. I offered 100 reward 
 at Gad's to anybody who could suggest a notion to 
 satisfy me. Charles Collins suggested one yesterday 
 morning, in which there is something though not 
 much. I will turn it over and over, and try a few 
 more starts on my own account. Finally I swear I 
 will not give it up until August is out ! Vow 
 registered. 
 
 I am clear that a No. "by various writers" would 
 not do. If we have not the usual sort of No. we must 
 call the current No. for that date, the Xmas No. and 
 make it as good as possible. The way to that can be 
 
 c c 2
 
 388 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1868 
 
 paved in the Introduction to the new Series, and we 
 will even make a merit of it. 
 
 Charles Collins is, for the time, better. I am buying 
 the freehold of the meadow at Gad's, and of an 
 adjoining arable field, so that I shall now have 
 about eight and twenty freehold acres in a ring fence. 
 No more news. 
 
 I made up a very good No. yesterday. You 
 will see in it a very short article that I have called 
 11 Now ! " which is a highly remarkable piece of 
 description. It is done by a new man from whom I 
 have accepted another article, but he will never do 
 anything so good, again. Fitzgerald's " Autobiography 
 of a Small Boy " not very original, but still good. 
 
 Ever affectionately, 
 C. D 
 
 GAD'S, 
 
 Sunday, Tiventy-scventk September, 18G8. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I want to have a talk with you 
 on Thursday, relative to putting my son Charley into 
 Morley's present place. f I must turn his education 
 to the best account I can until we can hit upon 
 some other start in life, and he can certainly take 
 the bag and report on its contents, and carry 
 on the correspondence. He seems to have an idea 
 himself that he can strike out some notions at 
 the Museum Library, and I have not dissuaded him 
 from trying. 
 
 * All the Yea?- Round, August 15th. 
 
 f Henry Morley was at this time, and had been since 1865, Professor of 
 English Literature at King's College. Charles Dickens, junior, eventually 
 came into the office, and, after his father's death, carried on the publication 
 of All the Year Itnund.
 
 1869] SIKES AND NANCY. 389 
 
 Who is the New Librarian ? I have lost sight of 
 the place since Panizzi's* time, and want to write for a 
 ticket for Charley. 
 
 I had a sad parting with poor Plornf yesterday 
 afternoon, and have not been myself since. 
 
 Ever affectionately, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 [To Mrs. Wills.] 
 
 No. 26, WELLINGTON STREET, 
 STRAND, LONDON, W.C., 
 
 Saturday, Fourteenth November, 1868. 
 
 MY DEAR MRS. WILLS : I am very sorry indeed that 
 I shall not see you and Wills to-night J though I 
 think you will escape a rather horrible business ! 
 
 Tell Wills with my love that everything is right 
 here, and going like a clock a great deal more like a 
 clock than this thing he bought me for my room here, 
 which is an utterly unreliable, unreasonable, and 
 incomprehensible Beast. 
 
 Ever faithfully, 
 
 CHARLES DICKENS. 
 
 1869. 
 
 In spite of evident signs of illness and exhaustion 
 Dickens continued his provincial reading tour until 
 
 * Sir Antonio Paniz/.i, principal librarian of the British Museum from 
 1856 to 18G6. 
 
 t His youngest son sailed for Australia, where he settled. 
 
 j At a private reading of the Slkes and Nancy scenes from " Oliver 
 Twist."
 
 390 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1869 
 
 it was peremptorily brought to an end by his doctor's 
 orders at Preston on April 22nd. Henceforth read- 
 ings which entailed travel were to be entirely 
 abandoned. 
 
 He was at work on " Edwin Drood " in October, 
 though the first monthly number was not published 
 until the following April. 
 
 Wills in the course of this year, after having 
 travelled abroad, resigned his position as sub-editor 
 of All the Year Bound and retired to the house 
 which he had taken near Welwyn in Hertfordshire. 
 His health had for some time past troubled him, and 
 his serious accident had greatly shaken him and had 
 produced what Dickens in the letter of March 30th 
 calls tl that Church organ in your head." His place 
 on All the Year Round was taken by Charles Dickens, 
 junior. 
 
 A letter from Dickens to Wills of June 24th, 
 printed in "Letters," II., 422, is not in my collection. 
 
 No. 26, WELLINGTON STREET, 
 STRAND, LONDON, W.C., 
 
 Tuesday, Second February, 18G9. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : In case your cold should keep 
 you at home both to-day and to-morrow (and mind 
 you don't come out, unless in a fit state to do so) I 
 send you this line in reference to Charley. 
 
 Don't you think, as he has so much on his hands, 
 that it will be fair to rate him on the ship's books at 
 Six Guineas per week ? 
 
 Affectionately ever, 
 
 C. D.
 
 1809] "NO THOROUGHFARE." 391 
 
 EDINBURGH, 
 
 Thursday, Twenty-fifth February, 1809. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Yours received this morning. 
 
 I have been getting on exceedingly well with my 
 foot, so far. Although I feel it a little fatigued by 
 the standing at night, it has caused me no other 
 inconvenience. " Business" here is tremendous ! 
 
 I shall hope to see you at the office on Tuesday. If 
 not, I will write to you from thence, giving you the 
 u fixture " for next day. 
 
 Ever affectionately, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 No. 26, WELLINGTON STREET, 
 
 STRAND, LONDON, W.C., 
 
 Tuesday, Thirtieth March, 18G9. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : You will be glad to hear that 
 Wilkie's play* went brilliantly last night. It was 
 extremely well played throughout, and I have rarely 
 seen Fechter to greater advantage. It was more like 
 a fiftieth night than a first. Everything was exactly 
 as I left it after four or five hours at it on Saturday. 
 Not a word or a person out of place. I told Fechter 
 that he ought to thank every one concerned, down to 
 the Supers, for their remarkable care and attention, 
 which he did when the curtain fell. There is no 
 doubt that it ought to run, for it has real merit and is 
 most completely and delicately presented. 
 
 By this time I hope you will have had a touch or 
 two of warm weather. Bitter east winds, hail, snow, 
 and other ingenious congelations of rain, are the rule 
 
 * " No Thoroughfare " at the Adelphi.
 
 392 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [18G9 
 
 here. All well and brilliant personally. I have had 
 a great burning of papers in your room have 
 destroyed everything not wanted and have laid in 
 a stock of Dictionaries and reference-books. 
 
 " Our Mr. C. Greatorex" is in communication with 
 me about a house that promises but I have not yet 
 been inside it. He seems to be a very fair and honest 
 fellow. 
 
 I went to see old Poole* yesterday, who was full of 
 interest about you. lie was so dirty, smelt so ill, and 
 scratched himself so horribly, that he turned my 
 stomach. I came back in a Hansom, quite sick, and 
 was revived (by Georgina) with brandy. N.B. I 
 have scratched myself ever since, and am doing so 
 now. 
 
 This is all my news, except that I send my love to 
 Mrs. Wills. If that Church Organ in your head will 
 but leave off playing Voluntaries, you have nothing 
 else that I know of to trouble yourself about ; so 
 stick to the mountains and the Spanish border. 
 
 Ever affectionately, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 I am off for Sheffield, Birmingham, and Liverpool, 
 tomorrow morning. " Dombey " tonight. 
 
 Monday, Third May, 18C9. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : This is to send my love to 
 Mrs. Wills and you, and to assure you that I am 
 really all right. I had begun suddenly to be so 
 shaken by constant Express travelling, that I might 
 very easily have been ill. Said the Doctors : " Take 
 
 * Sec aiitc, p. 28, note.
 
 1869] AN AMERICAN STORY. 393 
 
 warning, stop instantly." I made the plunge, and 
 became, please God, well. 
 
 Ever affectionately, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 [The first paragraph of the following letter is printed 
 in " Letters," II., 292, but is there wrongly added to 
 a letter of June 13th, 1867 which letter ought to be 
 dated June 30th.] 
 
 26, WELLINGTON STREET, 
 
 STRAND, LONDON, W.C., 
 
 Tuesday, Third August, 1869. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : Your account of your journey 
 reminds me of one of the latest American stories : 
 How a Traveller by Stage Coach said to the driver : 
 " Did you ever see a snail, Sir ? " " Yes, Sir." 
 "Where did you meet him, Sir?" "I didn't 
 meet him, Sir." " Waal, Sir, I think you did, 
 if you'll excuse me, for I'm damned if you ever 
 overtook him." 
 
 As to Mrs. , Lord ! If she only knew how 
 
 ugly I am ! I do believe her to be well let me be 
 cairn and yet under that Skimpolian mask of 
 childishness as to money and worldly affairs, what 
 abysses of shallow cunning are discernible ! 
 
 All goes well here. I have been "at it" con- 
 siderably. Look at a very remarkable story in 2 
 chapters, "An Experience,"* which begins next 
 week. 
 
 * All t/ie Year Rinind, August 14th and 21st.
 
 394 CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1869 
 
 Love to Mrs. Wills. I shall be here on Thurs- 
 day. 
 
 Ever, My Dear Wills, 
 
 Your affectionate, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 GAD'S HILL PLACE, 
 
 HlGHAM BY KOCHESTEH, KENT, 
 
 Friday, Tiventy-fourth December, 1869. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : I have been so put about by 
 conflicting engagements readings, writings, editings, 
 Birmingham correspondence and other botherations 
 that I have not even written to you. And now I 
 must put off my pleasant visit of inspection, until I 
 get a little clear, for everything comes at once. Many 
 Merry Christmases and Happy New Years to Mrs. 
 Wills and you. 
 
 Ever yours affectionately, 
 
 CHARLES DICKENS. 
 
 1870. 
 
 From January to March IGth, Dickens gave a 
 series of Farewell Headings in London at St. James's 
 Hall. 
 
 When he died on June 8th three numbers of 
 "Edwin Drood" had appeared and he had written 
 enough for three more. 
 
 I have no letters, except the two that follow, for 
 this year. 
 
 Wills outlived his friend and chief by more than 
 ten years.
 
 1870] A PULSE OF 112. 395 
 
 5, HYDE PARK PLACE, LONDON, W., 
 
 Sunday, Twenty-third January, 1870. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : In the note to hand 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 under- 
 taking* (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 continuously. My 
 ordinary pulse is 72, and it runs up under this effort 
 to 112. 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 at my book. 
 But up to this time the great preparation required in 
 
 * This refers to a morning rootling of "Sikes" arid "Nancy," mainly 
 attended by actors and actresses.
 
 39G CHARLES DICKENS AS EDITOR. [1870 
 
 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,* and I send my love to 
 Mrs. Wills. 
 
 Ever, my Dear Wills, 
 
 Affectionately yours, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 THE ATHENAEUM, 
 
 Saturday, Twenty-sixth February, 1870. 
 
 MY DEAR WILLS : You know that you are 
 expected at a certain small dinner of four, next 
 Thursday, the 3rd March, at Blanchard's in Regent 
 Street at 6 sharp ? Don't you ? A word in answer 
 to 5, Hyde Park Place, W. " 
 
 Ever affectionately, 
 
 C. D. 
 
 * Robert Chambers's second wife had died.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 ABSOLON, Mr., 44 
 
 Ainsworth, Harrison, 3 
 
 Albert, Prince Consort, 282, 300, n. 
 
 All the Year Jlound, xi, xiv, 46 ; 
 founding of, 238 ; partnership 
 agreement, 261 ; Charles Dickens, 
 jun., becomes sub-editor of, 390 
 
 Allingham, William, 96, 113 
 
 Allison, Mrs., 367 
 
 Argyll, Duke of, 204 
 
 Arnold, Matthew, 47 
 
 Atfieiueum, 101, 286, n. 
 
 Atlantic Mtmthly, 381 
 
 Austin, Henry, 49, 56, 181, 187 
 Mrs. Henry (Dickens's sister), 
 335 
 
 BAINES, Mr., 57 
 
 Bamford,|Mr., 61 
 
 Barclay-Allardice, Robert, 284 
 
 Barings' Bank, 176 
 
 Barnard, Mr., 132, 138, 139 
 
 Barrow, Robert, 2834 
 
 Bates, Mr., 175 
 
 Beale, Mr., 348 
 
 Beard, Frank, 56, 147, 153, 3334, 
 
 395 
 
 Beaucourt, M., 97, 129 
 Beecher, Ward, 377 
 Bell, Robert, 44 
 
 - Mrs., 123 
 Bennett, W. C., 912 
 Hentley's Miscellany, 1 5 
 Berry, Mr., 2923 
 Berwick, Miss (see -under Procter, 
 
 Adelaide). 
 Birtles, Mr., 317, 329, 330, 338, 341, 
 
 348, 352, 361 
 
 Blacker, Mrs., 262, 2689 
 Blackwood, publisher, 249, 266 
 
 Blanchard, Sydney, 386 
 
 Bowring, Mr., 342 
 
 Boyle, Hon. Mary, 59, 285, 346, 351 
 
 Brackenbury and Wynne, 230 
 
 Bradbury, William, 19, 134, 139,196 
 223 
 
 Bradbury and Evans, 123,126, 134, 
 177, 209, 2156, 2367, 306; 
 and Dickens's separation from his 
 wife, 238 ; Dickens's disagreement 
 with, 252 7 ; founding Once a 
 Week, 269, n. 
 
 Breach, Mr., 1734, 176 
 
 Brockedon, Mr., 601, 102 
 
 Brough, Mr., 170 
 
 Brown, Commodore, 68 
 - Mrs., 1802 
 
 Brown and Shipley, 361 
 
 Browne, Mr., 1778 
 
 Brownlow, Mr., 98 
 
 Bruce, Downing, 37, 164 
 
 Buckingham, Second Duke of. 45 
 
 Buckland, Frank, 198 
 
 Buckstone, actor, 125, 209, 232 
 
 Bulwer Lytton, Sir Edward, 40, 44, 
 47, 512, 5960, 76, 190, 2859, 
 2934, 298 
 
 Bunbury, Miss, 72 
 
 Burdett-Coutts, Baroness, xii, 66, 77, 
 801, 95, 98, 1813, 190, 207, 
 237, 243, 348, 353, 366 ; Wills 
 becomes secretary to, 157, 185 6, 
 2012, 21011 ; in Switzer- 
 land, 287 ; and Empress Eugdnie, 
 302 
 
 CALLAGHAN, attendant, 57, 66, 71, 
 
 78 
 
 Canning, Sir Stratford, 45 
 Cardale, Mrs., 127
 
 398 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Cardigan, Lord, x 
 Carleton, Mr., 1523 
 Carlisle, Lord, 82 
 Carlyle, Thomas, 214, 266, 351 
 Carrington, Lord, 46 
 Carter, Mr., 223 
 Cattermole, George, 386 
 Caudle, Mr., 95 
 Chadwick, Mr., 72 
 Chambers, Mr., 51, 53 
 
 Janet (see under Wills, Mrs. 
 
 W. H.). 
 
 -Robert, xi, 282, n. ; "Tradi- 
 tions of Edinburgh," 300 ; 
 " Vestiges of Creation," 352 ; 
 death of his second wife, 390 
 
 William, x, xi, 282, n. 
 Clianibers's Journal, x, xiii, 195, 250 
 Chapman, Mr., 88 
 
 Frederick, 279, 286 
 Chapman and Hall, 286, 289 
 Chappell & Co., 347, 353, 362, 382 
 
 " Charter House Charity, The," 177 
 
 184 
 
 Chesterton, Mr., 51 
 Chisholm, Mrs., 24, n. 
 Chorley, Henry Fothergill, 286, 337 
 
 8 
 
 Chute, Mr., 69 
 
 Civil Service Gazette, 162166 
 Clarke, Mrs. Cowden, 365 
 Cleopatra's Needle, 373, n. 
 Coe, Mr., 69, 86 
 
 - Mrs., 69 
 
 Collins, Charles Allston, 238, 242, 
 251, 285, 306, 329 ; engage- 
 ment, 277 ; illness, 388 
 
 Mrs. C. A., 238 (see also under 
 
 Dickens, Catherine). 
 
 - Wilkie, 44, 97, 135, 157, 160, 
 192, 203, 206, 21318, 2424, 
 2479, 256, 2645, 270, 275 
 6, 2802, 3045, 309, 33941, 
 374, 365; " The Frozen Deep," 
 22331, 210 ; engaged on House- 
 hold Words staff, 2213, 238; 
 "The Dead Secret," 223, n. ; 
 "The Idle Apprentice," 226 
 36; "No Name," 307; and the 
 
 Collins, Wilkie continued. 
 Garrick Club, 3413; " Arma- 
 dale," play, 352 ; " The Moon- 
 stone," 360, 386 ; assists at All 
 tlie Year Round office, 36970 ; 
 illness, 381 ; " No Thoroughfare," 
 play, 391 
 
 Cooper, Mr., 127, 133, 142 
 
 Thomas, 15 
 
 Coote, Mr., 80, 83 
 
 Cornhill Magazine, 195, 336, n. 
 
 Costello, Miss, 114 
 
 -Dudley, xv, 44, 62, 82, 103 
 1479, 299 
 
 Coutts, Miss (sec under Burdett- 
 Coutts, Baroness). 
 
 Coutts' Bank, 108, 124, 144, 199 
 202, 206, 220, 237, 272, 306, 367, 
 382 
 
 Covent Garden Theatre, 216, n. 
 
 Craik, Georgiana M., 93 
 
 Crowe, Mrs. Catherine, 23 
 
 Cruikshank, George, 110 
 
 Cuba, steamer, 367, 371, 378 
 
 Cunningham, Peter, 44, 71, 107, 172 
 
 Daily News, xi, 4, 716, 165, 250 
 
 Telegraph, 46 
 
 Davey, Mr., 130 
 Davis, Mr., 276 
 
 Devonshire, Duke of, 44, 62, n., 72 
 Dickens, Mrs. (mother}, 276, 284 ; 
 death, 330 
 
 Mrs. (wife), 35, 45, 53, 78, 
 
 103, 107, 120, 123, 128, 155, 
 189, 198, 215, 228 ; ill-health, 
 231 ; separation, 238 
 
 Alfred (l>rotlier\ 178, 1801, 
 
 275, 284 
 
 Augustus (youngest Irr other), 
 
 147, 215 
 
 - Catherine (.Katcy), 179, 219, 
 274, 287, 351 (ace alto under 
 Collins, Mrs. C. A.) 
 
 Charles, his restless energy, vi ( 
 
 358 ; appreciation of Wills, 
 xi ; edits Daily News, xi, 7 
 11 ; edits Lcntley't Miscellany r
 
 INDEX. 
 
 399 
 
 Dickens, Charles continued. 
 
 3 5 ; joint proprietor and 
 editor of Household Wordt, 
 19 ; its scope and aims, 20 ; 
 his suggestions for its title, 
 21 ; in Paris, 27 8 ; obtains a 
 pension for John Poole, 28, 108; 
 birth of his daughter Dora 
 Annie, 35 ; and the Guild of 
 Literature and Art, 44, 45 ; 
 death of his daughter and 
 father, 45, 54 ; on advertising, 
 59, 61 ; on G. A. Sala, 65, 70 ; 
 on the deficiencies of House- 
 hold Words, 73 ; on the loss of 
 a friend, 81 ; an imitator of ) 
 93 ; tour in Switzerland, 97 ; 
 takes a chateau at Boulogne, 
 102, 129 ; his courier, 118 
 9 ; his " Hard Times " 
 doubles the circulation of 
 Household Words, 121 ; com- 
 pletes " Hard Times," 131 
 3 ; purchase of Gad's Hill, 
 157, 1801, 187, 192, 210, 
 216, 217, 388 ; on Wills and 
 the Civil Service Gazette, 162 
 6 ; on a story by Holme 
 Lee, 168, 169 ; begins " Little 
 Don-it," 169 73 ; adventures 
 in Paris, 177 82 ; and Miss 
 Martincau's charges, 192 4, 
 198200 ; and Forster's share 
 in Household Words, 195 7 ; 
 and Wilkie Collins's "The 
 Frozen Deep," 219, 22331 ; 
 removes to Gad's Hill, 226 ; 
 " The Idle Apprentices ' ' Tour, 
 226 36 ; separation from his 
 wife, 238 ; "reading" tour, 
 1858. ..239 seq.; on his im- 
 pressionable mind, 247 ; dis- 
 agreement with Bradbury and 
 Evans, 2527 ; founds All 
 the Year Hound, 261 ; partner- 
 ship agreement, 261, 271 ; ill- 
 health, 270 ; pells Tavistock 
 House, 276, 280 ; destroys his 
 papers, 281 ; his heavy bur- 
 
 Dickens, Charles continued. 
 
 dens, 284 ; success of " Great 
 Expectations," 286 ; on the 
 American War, 287 ; scene at 
 Glasgow " reading," 295 7 ; 
 Macready on Dickens's read- 
 ing, 304 ; loses a bet, 304 5 ; 
 gift to Wills, 307, 308 ; in 
 Paris, 311 ; on J. G. Lockhart, 
 315 6 ; readings in Paris 
 for charity, 3268 ; "Mrs. 
 Lirriper's Lodgings," 329 
 39 ; death of his mother, 
 330 ; death of his son Sydney, 
 331, n. ; in a railway accident, 
 340, 345 6 ; resigns mem- 
 bership of Garrick Club, 341, 
 343 ; the " Chappell " reading 
 tour, 347 9 ; American 
 reading tour, 353 seq. ; on the 
 farewell dinner to him, 354 
 5 ; circulation of his Christ- 
 mas number, " Mugby Junc- 
 tion," 356 ; profit of American 
 tour, 358 ; on his own restless 
 activity, 358 ; on Wilkie 
 Collins's " The Moonstone," 
 360, 386 ; illness, 377 ; list of 
 American readings, 380 ; 
 returns to England, 383 ; buys 
 land at Gadshill, 388 ; parting 
 with his youngest son, 389 ; 
 illness, 38991 ; death, 394 ; 
 effect on himself of his read- 
 ings, 395 
 
 Charley (eldest son), 158, 175 
 
 6, 217, 286, 3889 ; sub-editor 
 of All the Year Round, 390 
 
 Dora Annie (daughter), 35, n. ; 
 
 death, 45 
 
 Edward B.L.('Plornishghenter,' 
 
 youngest son), 78, 123, 337, 
 366, 377 ; departure for 
 Australia, 389 
 
 Francis Jeffrey (third son), 
 
 287, 304, 312, 320, 327 
 
 Frederick (second brother), 
 
 228 
 
 H. P., K.C. (son), v, 76, n.
 
 400 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Dickens, John (father"), 24. 49, 57 ; 
 
 death, 45, 54 
 
 Mary (Mamie, daughter}, v., 
 xiv., 147, 219, 280, 287, 298, 
 302, 309, 311, 351, 366 
 
 Sydney S. H. (" the Admiral," 
 
 Jiftk son), 280, 298, 363 
 
 Walter Landor (sort), 216, 230 ; 
 
 death, 331, n. 
 Dixon, W. Hepworth, 101, n., 109, 
 
 139, 174, 185, 204 
 Dodd, Mr., 102 
 
 Dolby, George (Dickens's agent for 
 the " Readings "), 347, 354 
 5, 360 5, 3689, 3738, 
 3812 
 - Mrs., 382 
 Dulcamara, Dr., 255 
 Dumas Jils, 50 
 
 EDMUND, Mr., 343, 385 
 
 Edwards, Miss, 319 
 
 Egg, Augustus, 43 1, 97, 153 
 
 Eliot, George, 266 
 
 Ellen, servant, 353 
 
 Elliotson, Dr. 10910, 223 
 
 Eugenie, ex-Empress, 302 
 
 Evans, Frederick M. (joint proprietor 
 of Household Words), 19, 56, 59, 
 80, 1389, 144, 150, 107, 237, 
 271, 273 ; and Household Words 
 accounts, 252 4 
 
 FABBEB, Mr., 352 
 
 Featherstone, Miss, 125 
 
 Fechter, actor, 341, 343, 391 
 
 Fenning, Eliza, 359, 361 
 
 Field, Inspector, 412, 80 
 
 Fields, James T., 3623, 369, 371 
 
 Fillonneau, Mrs., 201 
 
 Fitzgerald, Percy, 361, 385, 388 
 
 Fitzwilliam, Mrs., 125 
 
 Foote, Samuel, 112, n. 
 
 Ford, Rev. Mr., 237 
 
 Forster, John, 257, 30, 38, 44, 
 48, 59, 69, 76, n., 98, 103, 
 111, 116, 1237, 140, 1458, 
 151, 1568, 175, 188, 195, 200, 
 203, 217, 229, 2745, 305, 
 
 Forster, John continued. 
 
 331 ; quoted, xi ; " Life of 
 Charles Dickens," xiv, 121, 
 226 7 ; joint proprietor 
 Household Words, 19 ; and the 
 Trelawney Ballad, 90 ; illness, 
 109, 110 ; his share in House- 
 hold Words, 196, 212, 2535 ; 
 and Tavistock House, 263 ; 
 letter quoted, 264 ; and the 
 Leech sale, 345 ; relations with 
 Wills, 350 ; and Dickens's 
 American tour, 357 9, 364 5 
 
 Mrs. John, 264, 2745 
 
 Fortnightly Review, 346 
 
 Foster, Mr., 55 
 
 Franklin, Sir John, 156 
 
 Lady, 157 
 
 GAERICK Club, 262, 3323, 339, 
 
 341, 343 
 
 Gaskell, Mrs., 20, 23, 423, 93, 122, 
 126, 137, 151, 176, 266 ; " North 
 and South," in Household 
 Words, 1345, 1415, 155 ; 
 " My Lady Ludlow," 242 ; " A 
 Dark Night's Work," 318, 
 3215 
 
 - Rev. Mr., 151 
 General Theatrical Fund, 911 
 
 35, n. 
 
 Gillies, Miss, 95 
 Gleig, Mr., 285 
 Gordon, Mr., 293, 296 
 Mrs., 315 
 
 Great Exhibition (1851), 62. 65 
 
 Greatorcx, C., 392 
 
 Greening, Mr., 24, 20, 64 
 
 Grey, Lady, 59 
 
 Grieve, Thomas, 44 
 
 Guild of Literature and Art, xii, xv ) 
 445, 55, 59, 02, 66, 69, 72, 76, 79, 
 80, 84, 88, 97, 109, 131, 133, 140, 
 150, 153, 3845 
 
 Guizot, M., 255, n. 
 
 HAOHE, Lewis, 45 
 Hale, Mr., 177
 
 INDEX. 
 
 401 
 
 Hall & Co., 218 
 Halliday, Mr., 319, 343306 
 Hannay, James, 58, 61, 65, 69, n, 80 
 Harper Bros., 271, 324 
 Harrisons, printer*, 324 
 Harwood, Mr., 317 
 Hawker, Rev. R. S., 90, n. 
 Haydn, Mr., 110 
 Headland, manager, -288, 
 
 296, 329 
 
 Henri, servant, 135, 382 
 Henry, Mr., 84 
 Hill, Rowland, 25 
 Hobhouse, Mr., 271 
 Hogarth, Mr., 24, 173 
 
 Mrs., 202 
 
 Georgina, v, xiv, 39, 103, 107, 
 
 123? 142, 155, 179, 182, 219, 
 280, 287, 298, 301, n., 302, 309, 
 311, 339-40, 366, 392 
 Mary, 3 
 
 Illustrated London News, 14 
 Ingram, Herbert, 217, 282 
 
 JEPHSON, Mr., 187 
 
 Jerrold, Douglas, 9, 44, 71, 105, 232 ; 
 death, 226 
 
 Jewsbury, Geraldine, 71 
 
 John, tenant, 113, 135, 139, 144, 
 147 158, 170, 189, 202, 207-8, 
 216-18, 237, 240-1, 266, 288, 
 290, 316, 320, 3246, 362 ; ill- 
 ness, 3334 
 
 Johnson, President Andrew, 379, n. 
 
 Johnson, /winter, 63-6, 59, 83, 109, 
 
 185, 216, 273, 279, 288, 291-2 
 Jolly, Emily, 167, n. 
 Jones, Gale, 167, n. 
 
 iviary, o 
 
 Holdsworth, Mr., 53, 173-4, 188, 
 
 241, 285, 288, 316, 337, 385 
 
 Hollingshead, John, 236 
 
 Hollyer, Mr., 230 
 
 Holmes, 0. W., 368 
 
 Holt, Mr., 160 
 
 Hood, Thomas, 88 
 
 Home, Richard H., 20, 33-40 44, 
 
 49, 612, 66, n., 689, 
 
 77 _ 8i8 4_5,113,n.,323,343; 
 
 dinner to, 80 ; in Australia, 
 
 94 
 
 Mrs. R. H., 94, 140 
 
 Homer, Mrs., 122 
 Household Words, xi, xiii ; Off 
 Book of, xiv ; partnership agree 
 ment, 19 ; scope and aims of, 20 ; 
 Dickens's suggestions for its title, 
 21 ; winding up of, 238 ; accounts 
 of, 2523 ; stock and title sold, 
 
 261 
 Howitt, William, 12, 20, 66, 85, 
 
 198 
 
 Miss, 65 
 
 Hullah, John Fyke, 267 
 
 Hunt, Leigh, 80, 96, 108, 113, n., 
 
 114, 156 
 Hunt and Roskell, 307, 3H 
 
 D.E. 
 
 KAMB, Edward, 11619 
 
 Keith, Mr., 72 
 
 Kelly, Mrs., 344, 367 
 
 Kemble, Adelaide (tee under 
 
 Sartoris, Mrs.) 
 Charles, 336, n. 
 
 Fanny, 348 
 
 Kinglake's " Crimea," 326 
 
 Kitton, F. J, 262 
 
 Knight, Charles, 34, n., 44-6, 53, o7, 
 
 61 
 Knowles, Mr., 361 
 
 LAING, Mr., 132 
 
 Lamb, Mr., 156 
 
 Land, Mr., 56 
 
 Landells, Mr., x 
 
 Landeeer, Sir Edwin, 185, 2C 
 
 Law, Mr., 75 
 
 Lee, Holme (see under Parr, 
 
 Harriett) 
 
 Leech, John, xii, 42 ; at Boulogne, 
 108 ; sale of his effects, 34o 
 
 Mrs., 108 
 
 Lehmann, Frederick, 302, 320 
 
 Nina, 302 
 
 R. C., 308 
 
 Lemon, Betty, 130 
 Lally, 130 
 
 D D
 
 402 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Lemon, Mark, x, 424, 56 7, 66, 69, 
 94, 1202, 1245, 128, 183, 209, 
 217 
 
 Lever, Charles, 272, 299, 30810 
 
 Lewis, Thomas, 50, 275 
 
 Lind, Jenny, 292 
 
 Linton, W. J., 107, n. 
 
 Lock, Mr., 230 
 
 Lockhart, J. G., 3156 
 
 Longfellow, H. W., 368 
 
 Low, Sampson, 321 
 
 Lynn-Linton (nee Lynn), Mrs., 
 1078, 136, 141, 154, 16971, 
 188, 2778, 295, 3156, 385; 
 sells Gad's Hill to Dickens, 157 
 
 Lytton, Robert, 2nd Lord, 290, 303, 
 322, 369, n., 378 
 
 McCuLLocH, John R., 114 
 
 Maclise, Daniel, 28, 2278 
 
 Macready, W. C., 48, 69, 124, 229, 
 251 ; on Dickens's reading of 
 " Copperfield," 304 
 
 Manley, Mr., 12 
 
 Marryat, Miss, 356 
 
 Marsh, Mr., 340 
 
 Marston, J. Westland, 44 
 
 Martell, Mrs., 208 
 
 Martin eau, Harriet, 20, 26, 367, 
 66, 903, 141, 154, 205 ; charges 
 against Dickens, 192 200 ; anec- 
 dote of, 249 
 
 Mason, Mr., 30, 353 
 
 Masson, Prof., 266, n. 
 
 Matz, B. W., 262 
 
 Mayhew, Henry, x 
 
 Mazzini, Joseph, 175 
 
 Measom, Malcolm R. L., 197 
 
 Mendicity Society, 56 
 
 Meredith, George, 270 
 - Mrs., 252 
 
 Meriton, Mr., 170 
 
 Mitchell, Mr., 5960, 348 
 
 Molesworth, Lady, 320 
 
 Morgan, apothecary, 202 
 
 Morley, Henry, 20, 42, 57, n., 61, 67 
 9, 75, 78, 83, 86, 91, 106, 118, 
 126, 129, 134, 137, 149, 155, 160, 
 171, 177, 2005, 2145, 221, 
 
 Morley, Henry continued. 
 268, 295, 299, 306, 31014, 331, 
 337, 341, 388 ; his articles on 
 Factory Reform, 1929 ; Dickens 
 on, 285 
 
 Morning Advertiser, 78 
 
 Mortlock, Mrs., 208 
 
 Morton, Mr., 86 
 
 Mulholland, Miss, 385 
 
 Murray, E. C. Grenville, 456, 51, 
 95, 175, 305, 3189, 372 
 
 Mylne, Mr., 150 
 
 NATHAN, Mr., 69 
 
 National Association of Manufac- 
 turers, 193 
 
 Newgate Market, 228 
 Northumberland, Duke of, 204 
 Novelli, Mr. and Mrs., 281 
 
 OLLIER, Mr., 114, 117, 189, 318 
 Oliffe family, 190, 315 
 
 - Lady, 320 
 Once a Week, 269, 274 
 Orr, W. S., 32 
 Osgood, Mr., 379 
 " Our Young Folks," 371, n. 
 Ouvry, solicitor, 210, 253, 257, 267, 
 
 271, 3502 
 Oxenford, John, 236 
 
 PALMERSTON, Lord, 285 
 Panizzi, Sir Antonio, 389 
 Parkinson, J. C., 376 
 Parr, Harriett (" Holme Lee "), 147, 
 
 168, n., 311 
 
 Patmore, Coventry, 33, n. 
 Paxton, Sir Joseph, 40, 56, 62 
 Payn, James, 21, 205, 225, 248 ; 
 
 quoted, 1945, 24951 
 Phillipps, Mr., 84 
 Pitt, scene painter, 49 
 Poole, John, 159, 198, 206, 219, 272, 
 
 309, 335, 366 ; Dickens obtains a 
 
 pension for, 28, 108 ; Dickens 
 
 visits, 392 
 Powell, Mr., 15 
 
 Power, Miss, 288, 312, 321, 342 
 Priestley, R. C., v
 
 INDEX. 
 
 403 
 
 Priestley, Lady, v 
 
 Prince, John C., 87 
 
 Procter, Adelaide (" Miss Berwick "), 
 
 99, 121, 267 
 Punch, x, 9, 62, 111, 285, 345, n. 
 
 " QUEEN'S MESSENGER," 46 
 Quin, Lord George, 116 
 
 RACHEL, Madame, 27, 28 
 
 Radley, Mr., 301 
 
 Rae, Dr., 156 
 
 Reade, Charles, 281, 3035 ; his 
 
 "Hard Cash," 3235 
 Rintoul, Robert S., 114, n. 
 Roberts, David, 9, 56 
 Robertson, John, 173, 183, 384 
 Ruffini, Agostino, 266, n. 
 
 Giovanni, 266 
 Russell, George, 339 
 Russia, steamer, 377 
 
 SALA, George Augustus, 46, 71, 83, 
 8689, 98, 99, 103, 106109, 113 
 116, 124, 136, 137, 143, 154, n., 
 174, 175, 208, 213, 214, 218, 225, 
 236, 285, 313, 335, 348, 386 ; 
 Dickens on, 65, 70 
 
 Samee, Mrs. Ramo, 207, 208 
 
 Sammins, W. L., 3 
 
 Sartoris, Mrs., 336 
 
 Edward John, 336, n. 
 
 Saunders, family, 185, 284 
 
 Sawyer, Rev. W. C., 337 
 
 Scheffer, painter, 190 
 
 Schloss, dealer, 345, 356 
 
 Scotsman, 295 
 
 Scott, Mr., 71, 373 
 - Mrs., 367 
 
 Shaw, Sir Charles, 155 
 
 Sidney, Mr., 136, 188, 366 
 
 Simpson, Palgrave, 343 
 
 Simpson's, 55 
 
 Skinner's, tailors, 316 
 
 Sloman, Mr., 49, 83, 88 
 
 Smart, Mr., 82 
 
 Smith, Albert, 208, 226 
 
 smith, Arthur, 226, 234, 243246, 
 274, 286 ; manages Dickens's 
 "reading" tour, 238, 241; 
 death, 289, 349 
 Joseph, 58 
 
 Snow, Mr., 214 
 
 Spectator, 114, n. 
 
 Spence, Mr., 299 
 
 3picer, Mr., 285, 286, 306, 319, 330 
 
 Spielmann, Mr. H., xiii 
 
 Stacey, Mr., 23, 94 
 
 Stanfield, Clarkson, 9, 14, 39, 56, 
 
 212, 224, 270, 304, 305 
 Stanton, Edwin M., 379, n. 
 Stephen, Sir Leslie ; 195 
 Stone, Dr., 41, n. 
 
 Mrs., 83 
 
 Frank, 44, 82. 83, 275, n. 
 
 Marcus, 275, n., 285, 331 
 
 Storrar, Dr., 109 
 Sunday Gazette, 363 
 Sydney, Mr., 76, 204 
 
 TAUCHNITZ, Baron, 84, 86 
 
 Telbin, Mr., 45 
 
 Temple Bar, 47 
 
 Tennent, Sir James E., 366 
 
 Tenniel, John, 44 
 
 Tennyson, Lord, 189 
 
 Thackeray, W. M., 177, 226 ; and 
 
 Yates, 262, 332, 333 
 Thomas, William Moy, 83, 88, 92, 
 
 103, 128, 197, 205 
 Thornbury, George Walter, 268, 
 
 269, 359 
 
 Thornton, Mr., 53 
 Ticknor and Fields, 281, 375 
 Times, 137, 236, 250, 274, 282, 285, 
 
 289, 337, 363 
 Tinsley, Mr., 351 
 Topham, F. W., 44 
 Topping, servant, 70 1 
 Toussenel, M., 1123 
 Townshend, Chauncey Hare, 135 6, 
 
 1401, 184, 335, 370, 382 
 Train, The, 47, 236 
 Trollope, Anthony, 266, 308 
 
 UPCOTT, Mr., 361
 
 404 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 VALE, Mr., 40 
 
 "Victoria, Queen, 241, 3001 
 
 Von Goetnitz, Mr., 244, n. 
 
 WALES, Prince of, 2734 
 
 Wallack, M., 374 
 
 Walpole, Miss, 207 
 
 Watson, Mr., 395 
 
 R., 77, 81 
 
 Hon. Mrs. R., 81, 116, 157, 184, 
 
 18990 
 
 Wellington, Duke of, 912 
 
 Wheatstone, Mr., 184 
 
 White, Rev. James, 170, 186, 192, 
 199, 201, 206, 209, 248 
 
 Whitehead, Charles, 191 
 
 Whitings, printers, 265, 269, 272 
 
 Whitly, Mr., 268 
 
 Wigan, Alfred, 247, n. 
 
 Horace, 352 
 
 Wills, William Henry, birth, vi ; 
 on his journey to London, 
 vii ix ; school and journ- 
 alism, ix ; writes for Punch, 
 x ; assistant editor Chambers' 
 Journal, x ; marriage, xi ; 
 sub-editor Daily Neivs, xi ; 
 assistant editor Household 
 Words, xi ; Dickens' s appre- 
 ciation of, xi ; almoner secre- 
 tary to Miss Coutts, xii, 157, 
 1856, 2012; love of 
 foxhunting, xii ; his person- 
 ality, xii ; riding accident, 
 xiii, 378 385 ; appointed 
 magistrate, xiii ; death, xiii ; 
 his works, xiii ; his letters, 
 xv ; joint proprietor House- 
 hold Words, 19 ; his letters 
 quoted, 302, 356, 48 
 9, 735 ; 1646 ; and 
 
 Wills, William Henry continued. 
 
 R. H. Home, 348 ; secre- 
 tary to the Guild of Litera- 
 ture and Art, 44 5 ; ill- 
 health, 121, 2679, 273, 
 335 8, 347 ; his mothers 
 death, 155 ; offered the editor- 
 ship of the Civil Service 
 Gazette, 1626 ; James Payn 
 on, 194 5 ; his share in 
 All tlie Year Round. 261, 271 ; 
 at Llandudno, 278 ;in Switzer- 
 land, 287 ; in Paris, 302 ; 
 Dickens's gift to, 3078 ; 
 his work on All the Year 
 Round, 334 ; presents a 
 brougham to Dickens, 339 
 40 ; and Leech's sale, 345 ; 
 relations with i'orster, 350 ; 
 advice to Dickens on his 
 American tour, 357, 364 ; 
 retirement, 390. 
 
 Mrs. W. H., xi, 38, 85, 123, 130 
 144, 155, 17], 223, 228, 2429, 
 269, 275, 278, 2812, 287, 302, 
 318, 330, 339, 345, 361, 369, 372 
 3, 3767, 3802, 386, 3926 ; 
 death, xiv ; Dickens's letters to, 
 1201, 211, 229, 3367, 347 
 350, 3834, 389 ; legacy to R. C. 
 Lehmann, 308 
 Wilson, Sir Erasmus, 73 
 Woods, agents, 293, 296 
 World, 16, 262 
 
 YATES, Edmund, 467, 236, 265, 
 268, 320, 331, 385 ; and Thackeray, 
 262, 3323 
 
 Young, Mr., 178 
 
 Miss, 69 
 
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