A Week's Tramp in Dickens-Land Part 16

It is with feelings of the deepest regret that we find ourselves obliged to conclude the publication of our Journal in this sudden and unexpected manner, but we feel sure that the great indulgence of the Public will overlook this, as it has done many other great errors in the Gad's Hill Gazette.

In conclusion, we beg to take leave of our Subscribers in our public capacity of Editor, thanking them for their kindness in supporting our Journal, and wis.h.i.+ng them all

--"A Happy New Year."--

[Ill.u.s.tration: Signature: A. F. d.i.c.kens]

(Signed) Sole Editor

Mrs. Hulkes had a number of pleasant recollections of Gad's Hill Place, and of Charles d.i.c.kens and his family. "As a girl," said this lady, "I was an admiring reader of his works, and I longed to see and know the author; but little did I think that my high ambition would ever be gratified." That a warm friends.h.i.+p existed between his admirer and Charles d.i.c.kens, who subsequently became her near neighbour, is evidenced by the fact that, in reply to her request, he allowed this lady the great privilege of reading the catastrophe of that exquisitely-pathetic and n.o.bly-altruistic story of _A Tale of Two Cities_, some weeks before its publication, as appears from the following letter:--

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

"_Sunday evening, Sixteenth Oct., 1857._

"MY DEAR MRS. HULKES,

"My daughter has shown me your note, and it has impressed me with the horrible determination to become a new kind of Bluebeard, and lay an awful injunction of secrecy on you for five mortal weeks.

"Here is the remainder of the _Tale of Two Cities_. Not half-a-dozen of my oldest and most trusty literary friends have seen it. It is a real pleasure to me to entrust you with the catastrophe, and to ask you to keep a grim and inflexible silence on the subject until it is published. When you have read the proofs, will you kindly return them to me?

"With my regard to Mr. Hulkes,

"Believe me always, "Faithfully yours, "CHARLES d.i.c.kENS.

"MRS. HULKES."

Mrs. Hulkes said that when d.i.c.kens went to Paris in 1863, he jokingly said to her, "I am going to Paris; what shall I bring you?" She replied, "A good photograph of yourself, as I do not like the one you gave me; and I hear the French people are more successful than the English, or their climate may help them." And he brought a photograph of himself, of which there were only four printed. It now graces Mrs. Hulkes'

drawing-room, and represents the novelist very life-like in full face, head and bust. The photograph was taken by Alphonse Maze, and has been exquisitely engraved in Mr. Kitton's _Charles d.i.c.kens by Pen and Pencil_.

Mrs. Hulkes mentioned a curious and interesting circ.u.mstance. On the night before the funeral of her friend, Miss d.i.c.kens sent down to the Little Hermitage to ask if she could kindly give her some roses. Mrs.

Hulkes cut a quant.i.ty from one of the trees in the garden (Lamarque, she believes), and the tree never bloomed again, and soon after died. No doubt, as she observed, it bled to death from the excessive cutting. It was the second case only of the kind in her experience as a rose-grower during very many years.

Charles d.i.c.kens also took interest in his friend's son (their only child, who has since finished his University career), and this gentleman prizes as a relic a copy of _A Child's History of England_, which was presented to him, with the following inscription written in the characteristic blue ink--"Charles d.i.c.kens. To his little friend, Cecil James Hulkes. Christmas Eve, 1864." In a letter to Miss Hogarth, written from New York, on Friday, 3rd January, 1868, he says:--"I have a letter from Mrs. Hulkes by this post, wherein the boy encloses a violet, now lying on the table before me. Let her know that it arrived safely and retaining its colour."

There are many interesting relics of Gad's Hill Place now in the possession of the family at the Little Hermitage, notably Charles d.i.c.kens's seal with his crest, and the initials C. D., his pen-tray, his desk, a photograph of the study on 8th June, 1870 (a present from Miss Hogarth), the portrait above referred to, an arm-chair, a drawing-room settee, a dressing-table, and a library writing-table.

On another occasion we were favoured with an interview by Mr. J. N.

Malleson, of Brighton, who formerly resided at the Great Hermitage, Higham, and who was a neighbour of Charles d.i.c.kens for many years. Mr.

Malleson came to the Great Hermitage in 1859, and a day or two after Christmas Day in that year--having previously been a guest at the wedding of d.i.c.kens's second daughter Kate, with Mr. Charles Alston Collins--he met the novelist, who, stopping to chat pleasantly, asked his neighbours where they dined at Christmas? "Oh, Darby and Joan," said our informant. d.i.c.kens laughingly replied:--"That shall never happen again"; and the following year, and every year afterwards, except when their friend was in America, Mr. and Mrs. Malleson received and accepted invitations to dine at Gad's Hill Place. On the exception in question, the family of d.i.c.kens dined at the Great Hermitage.

In the autumn of the year 1889 we had a most interesting chat with Mr.

William Stocker Trood, at his residence, Spearcehay Farm, Pitminster, pleasantly situated in the vale of Taunton, for many years landlord of the Sir John Falstaff at Gad's Hill. The first noteworthy circ.u.mstance to record is that his name is not _Edwin_ Trood, as commonly supposed, but William Stocker, as above stated, Stocker being an old family name.

This fact disposes of the supposition that the former two names, with the alteration of a single letter, gave rise in d.i.c.kens's mind to the designation of the princ.i.p.al character in _The Mystery of Edwin Drood_.

The name of "Trood" is by the subst.i.tution of one letter easily converted into Drood, and that word is perhaps more euphonious with "Edwin" as prefixed to it; but "William Stocker" is not by any means easily converted into "Edwin." The idea that "Edwin Drood" is derived from "William Stocker Trood" may therefore be dismissed as a popular fallacy. It may be mentioned, however, _en pa.s.sant_, that Mr. Trood had a brother named Edward, who sometimes visited him at the Falstaff, and also a son who bore the name of his uncle.

We found our informant to be wonderfully genial, hale and hearty, although in his eighty-fifth year. He had a perfect recollection of Charles d.i.c.kens, and remembered his first coming to Gad's Hill Place.

Before the house was properly furnished and put in order, both Mr. and Mrs. d.i.c.kens sometimes slept at the Falstaff; and afterwards, when visitors were staying at Gad's Hill Place, and the bedrooms there were full, some of them slept at the Inn; in particular, John Forster, Wilkie Collins, and Marcus Stone. He said Mr. d.i.c.kens was a very nice man to speak to, and Mrs. d.i.c.kens was a very nice lady. They were always kind and pleasant as neighbours, but Mr. d.i.c.kens did not talk much. Said Mr.

Trood:--"When I was at Higham, Mr. d.i.c.kens used to say no one could put in a word; I had all the talk to myself." The sons were all very pleasant; in fact, he liked the family very much indeed.

Mr. Trood sometimes acted as local banker to Charles d.i.c.kens, and used to cash his cheques for him. Only the day before his death, he cashed a cheque for 22, and was subsequently offered 24 for it by an admirer of d.i.c.kens who desired the autograph; but to his credit it should be mentioned that he did not accept the offer.

Our informant next spoke of the wonderful partiality of d.i.c.kens to cricket; he would stand out all night if he could watch a cricket match.

The matches were always played in Mr. d.i.c.kens's field, and the business meetings of the club were held monthly at the Falstaff. Mr. Trood was Treasurer of the club. Occasionally there was a dinner.

A circ.u.mstance was related which made a profound impression on our friend. The family at Gad's Hill Place were very fond of music, and on one occasion there were present as visitors two great violinists, one a German and the other an Italian, and it was a debated question among the listeners outside the gates, where the music could be distinctly heard, which played the better. Mr. Trood had just returned from Gravesend in the cool of the summer evening, about ten o'clock, and stood in the road opposite listening, "spellbound," to the delightful music. Miss d.i.c.kens played the accompaniments.

Mr. Trood spoke with a lively and appreciative recollection of the Christmas sports that were held in a field at the back of Gad's Hill Place, and of the good order and nice feeling that prevailed at those gatherings, although several thousand people were present. Among the games that were played, the wheeling of barrows by blind-folded men seemed to tickle him most.

Our octogenarian friend also spoke of the great love of d.i.c.kens for scarlet geraniums. Hundreds of the "Tom Thumb" variety were planted in the beds on the front lawn and in the back garden at Gad's Hill Place.

Soon after the terrible railway accident at Staplehurst, d.i.c.kens came over to the Falstaff and spoke to Mr. Trood, who congratulated him. Said d.i.c.kens, "I never thought I should be here again." It is a wonderful coincidence to record, that a young gentleman named d.i.c.kenson, who subsequently became intimate with the novelist, changed places (so as to get the benefit of meeting the fresh air) with a French gentleman in the same carriage who was killed, and Mr. d.i.c.kenson escaped! The accident happened on the 9th June, 1865, and d.i.c.kens died on the "fatal anniversary," 9th June, 1870.

Mr. Trood confirmed his daughter's (Mrs. Latter's) account of the _fracas_ with the men and performing bears, given in another chapter, adding, "That _was_ a concern."

The beautiful city of Exeter is not far from Taunton, and we naturally avail ourselves of the opportunity of stopping there for a few hours, and stroll over to see the village of Alphington. It was here, in the year 1839, that Charles d.i.c.kens took and furnished Mile End Cottage for his father and mother and their youngest son. He thus describes the event in a letter to Forster:--"I took a little house for them this morning (5th March, 1839), and if they are not pleased with it I shall be grievously disappointed. Exactly a mile beyond the city on the Plymouth road there are two white cottages: one is theirs, and the other belongs to their landlady. I almost forget the number of rooms, but there is an excellent parlour with two other rooms on the ground floor, there is really a beautiful little room over the parlour which I am furnis.h.i.+ng as a drawing-room, and there is a splendid garden. The paint and paper throughout is new and fresh and cheerful-looking, the place is clean beyond all description, and the neighbourhood I suppose the most beautiful in this most beautiful of English counties." The negotiations with the landlady and the operation of furnis.h.i.+ng the house are most humorously pourtrayed in the same letter.

The cottage is also described in _Nicholas Nickleby_, which he was writing at the time. Mrs. Nickleby, in allusion to her old home, calls it "the beautiful little thatched white house one storey high, covered all over with ivy and creeping plants, with an exquisite little porch with twining honeysuckles and all sorts of things."

Fifty years have pa.s.sed since the parents of the novelist went to live at Alphington, which, notwithstanding the subsequent growth of the city, still continues to be a pretty suburb with fine views of the Ide Hills to the westward, and Heavitree to the eastward. Our efforts to obtain any reminiscences of the d.i.c.kens family in the village were quite unsuccessful--so long a time had elapsed since their departure--although, to oblige us, the vicar of the place kindly made enquiries, and took some interest in the matter.

FOOTNOTES:

[11] Since this was written, Gad's Hill Place has been purchased by the Hon. F. G. Latham. Major Budden has resigned his commission locally, and now holds a commission in the Limerick City Artillery Militia. It is very pleasant to place on record that in subsequent visits to "d.i.c.kens-Land" I was always received with friendly kindness by Major and Mrs. Budden, whose hospitality I often enjoyed. Their enthusiasm for the late owner of Gad's Hill Place, and their willingness to show every part of their beautiful residence to any one specially interested, was most gratifying to a lover of d.i.c.kens. Like the novelist, Mrs. Budden is fond of private theatricals, and has published a little book on _Mrs.

Farley's Wax-Works and How to Use Them_.

[12] It has been suggested that the lines above quoted might give one the impression that they are those of Falstaff. This, of course, is not the case. They are spoken by Poins, when in company with Falstaff, Prince Henry, and others. They occur in Act I. Scene ii. of _King Henry IV._, Part 1.

A Note to Charles Knight's Edition of Shakespeare, contained in the "Ill.u.s.trations to Act I." of the same Play, states that Gad's Hill appears to have been a place notorious for robbers before the time of Shakespeare, for Stevens discovered an entry of the date of 1558 in the books of the Stationers' Company, of a ballad ent.i.tled, "The Robbery at Gad's Hill." And the late Sir Henry Ellis, of the British Museum, communicated to Mr. Boswell, Editor of Malone's Shakespeare, a narrative in the handwriting of Sir Roger Manwood, Chief Baron of the Exchequer, dated 5th July, 1590, which shows that Gad's Hill was at that period the resort of a band of well-mounted robbers of more than usual daring, as appears from the following extract:--

"In the course of that Michaelmas term, I being at London, many robberies were done in the bye-ways at Gad's Hill, on the west part of Rochester, and at Chatham, down on the east part of Rochester, by horse thieves, with such fat and l.u.s.ty horses, as were not like hackney horses nor far-journeying horses; and one of them sometimes wearing a vizard grey beard, he was by common report in the country called 'Justice Grey Beard;' and no man durst travel that way without great company."

[13] At an interview with Mr. H. F. d.i.c.kens some time afterwards, he told me the story of the origin of _The Gad's Hill Gazette_. There was a good deal of sand exposed at the back of the house, and the sons of the novelist--who like other boys were full of energy,--were fond of playing at "burying" each other. Their father naturally feared that this kind of play might have some disastrous effects, and develop into burying in earnest. So he said one day to his sons, "Why not establish a newspaper, if you want a field for your energies?" _The Gad's Hill Gazette_ was the result. At first the tiny journal was written on a plain sheet and copies made; then a Manifold Writer was used; and afterwards came the Printing Press.

CHAPTER VIII.

CHARLES d.i.c.kENS AND STROOD.

"So altered was the battle-ground, where thousands upon thousands had been killed in the great fight."--_The Battle of Life._

"Keep me always at it, I'll keep you always at it, you keep somebody else always at it. There you are, with the Whole Duty of Man in a commercial country."--_Little Dorrit._