Volume Iii Part 16 (2/2)

[Sidenote: Lord Morpeth.]

1, DEVONs.h.i.+RE TERRACE, YORK GATE, REGENT'S PARK, _August 3rd, 1843._

DEAR LORD MORPETH,

In acknowledging the safe receipt of your kind donation in behalf of poor Mr. Elton's orphan children, I hope you will suffer me to address you with little ceremony, as the best proof I can give you of my cordial reciprocation of all you say in your most welcome note. I have long esteemed you and been your distant but very truthful admirer; and trust me that it is a real pleasure and happiness to me to antic.i.p.ate the time when we shall have a nearer intercourse.

Believe me, with sincere regard, Faithfully your Servant.

[Sidenote: Mr. William Harrison Ainsworth.]

DEVONs.h.i.+RE TERRACE, _October 13th, 1843._

MY DEAR AINSWORTH,

I want very much to see you, not having had that old pleasure for a long time. I am at this moment deaf in the ears, hoa.r.s.e in the throat, red in the nose, green in the gills, damp in the eyes, twitchy in the joints, and fractious in the temper from a most intolerable and oppressive cold, caught the other day, I suspect, at Liverpool, where I got exceedingly wet; but I will make prodigious efforts to get the better of it to-night by resorting to all conceivable remedies, and if I succeed so as to be only negatively disgusting to-morrow, I will joyfully present myself at six, and bring my womankind along with me.

Cordially yours.

[Sidenote: Mr. R. H. Horne.]

DEVONs.h.i.+RE TERRACE, _November 13th, 1843._

Pray tell that besotted ---- to let the opera sink into its native obscurity. I did it in a fit of d----ble good nature long ago, for Hullah, who wrote some very pretty music to it. I just put down for everybody what everybody at the St. James's Theatre wanted to say and do, and that they could say and do best, and I have been most sincerely repentant ever since. The farce I also did as a sort of practical joke, for Harley, whom I have known a long time. It was funny--adapted from one of the published sketches called the ”Great Winglebury Duel,” and was published by Chapman and Hall. But I have no copy of it now, nor should I think they have. But both these things were done without the least consideration or regard to reputation.

I wouldn't repeat them for a thousand pounds apiece, and devoutly wish them to be forgotten. If you will impress this on the waxy mind of ---- I shall be truly and unaffectedly obliged to you.

Always faithfully yours.

1844.

NARRATIVE.

In the summer of this year the house in Devons.h.i.+re Terrace was let, and Charles d.i.c.kens started with his family for Italy, going first to a villa at Albaro, near Genoa, for a few months, and afterwards to the Palazzo Pescheire, Genoa. Towards the end of this year he made excursions to the many places of interest in this country, and was joined at Milan by his wife and sister-in-law, previous to his own departure alone on a business visit to England. He had written his Christmas story, ”The Chimes,” and was anxious to take it himself to England, and to read it to some of his most intimate friends there.

Mr. Macready went to America and returned in the autumn, and towards the end of the year he paid a professional visit to Paris.

Charles d.i.c.kens's letter to his wife (26th February) treats of a visit to Liverpool, where he went to take the chair on the opening of the Mechanics' Inst.i.tution and to make a speech on education. The ”f.a.n.n.y”

alluded to was his sister, Mrs. Burnett; the _Britannia_, the s.h.i.+p in which he and Mrs. d.i.c.kens made their outward trip to America; the ”Mrs.

Bean,” the stewardess, and ”Hewett,” the captain, of that same vessel.

The letter to Mr. Charles Knight was in acknowledgment of the receipt of a prospectus ent.i.tled ”Book Clubs for all readers.” The attempt, which fortunately proved completely successful, was to establish a cheap book club. The scheme was, that a number of families should combine together, each contributing about three halfpennies a week; which contribution would enable them, by exchanging the volumes among them, to have sufficient reading to last the year. The publications, which were to be made as cheap as possible, could be purchased by families at the end of the year, on consideration of their putting by an extra penny a week for that purpose. Charles d.i.c.kens, who always had the comfort and happiness of the working-cla.s.ses greatly at heart, was much interested in this scheme of Mr. Charles Knight's, and highly approved of it.

Charles d.i.c.kens and this new correspondent became subsequently true and fast friends.

”Martin Chuzzlewit” was dramatised in the early autumn of this year, at the Lyceum Theatre, which was then under the management of Mr. and Mrs.

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