Volume Iii Part 60 (2/2)

That you had been away for some time ”with your pupils.” That your letters were of a mild and melancholy character, and that you did not seem to care as much as might be expected about money. All this time I sat poking the fire, with a wisdom upon me absolutely crus.h.i.+ng; and finally I begged him to a.s.sure the lady that she might trust me with her real address, and that it would be better to have it now, as I hoped our further communications, etc. etc. etc. You must have felt enormously wicked last Tuesday, when I, such a babe in the wood, was unconsciously prattling to you. But you have given me so much pleasure, and have made me shed so many tears, that I can only think of you now in a.s.sociation with the sentiment and grace of your verses.

So pray accept the blessing and forgiveness of Richard Watts, though I am afraid you come under both his conditions of exclusion.[20]

Very faithfully yours.

FOOTNOTES:

[16] The poet ”Barry Cornwall.”

[17] ”Hide and Seek.”

[18] On the occasion of the Prince Consort's visit to the camp at Boulogne.

[19] Mr. Egg.

[20] The inscription on the house in Rochester known as ”Watts's Charity” is to the effect that it furnishes a night's lodging for six poor travellers--”not being Rogues or Proctors.”

1855.

NARRATIVE.

In the beginning of this year, Charles d.i.c.kens gave public readings at Reading, Sherborne, and Bradford in Yorks.h.i.+re, to which reference is made in the first following letters. Besides this, he was fully occupied in getting up a play for his children, which was acted on the 6th January. Mr. Planche's fairy extravaganza of ”Fortunio and his Seven Gifted Servants” was the play selected, the parts being filled by all his own children and some of their young friends, and Charles d.i.c.kens, Mr. Mark Lemon, and Mr. Wilkie Collins playing with them, the only grown-up members of the company. In February he made a short trip to Paris with Mr. Wilkie Collins, with an intention of going on to Bordeaux, which was abandoned on account of bad weather. Out of the success of the children's play at Tavistock House rose a scheme for a serious play at the same place. Mr. Collins undertaking to write a melodrama for the purpose, and Mr. Stanfield to paint scenery and drop-scene, Charles d.i.c.kens turned one of the rooms of the house into a very perfect little theatre, and in June ”The Lighthouse” was acted for three nights, with ”Mr. Nightingale's Diary” and ”Animal Magnetism” as farces; the actors being himself and several members of the original amateur company, the actresses, his two daughters and his sister-in-law.

Mr. Stanfield, after entering most heartily into the enterprise, and giving constant time and attention to the painting of his beautiful scenes, was unfortunately ill and unable to attend the first performance. We give a letter to him, reporting its great success.

In this summer Charles d.i.c.kens made a speech at a great meeting at Drury Lane Theatre on the subject of ”Administrative Reform,” of which he writes to Mr. Macready. On this subject of ”Administrative Reform,” too, we give two letters to the great Nineveh traveller Mr. Layard (now Sir Austen H. Layard), for whom, as his letters show, he conceived at once the affectionate friends.h.i.+p which went on increasing from this time for the rest of his life. Mr. Layard also spoke at the Drury Lane meeting.

Charles d.i.c.kens had made a promise to give another reading at Birmingham for the funds of the inst.i.tute which still needed help; and in a letter to Mr. Arthur Ryland, asking him to fix a time for it, he gives the first idea of a selection from ”David Copperfield,” which was afterwards one of the most popular of his readings.

He was at all times fond of making excursions for a day--or two or three days--to Rochester and its neighbourhood; and after one of these, this year, he writes to Mr. Wills that he has seen a ”small freehold” to be sold, _opposite_ the house on which he had fixed his childish affections (and which he calls in _this_ letter the ”Hermitage,” its real name being ”Gad's Hill Place”). The latter house was not, at that time, to be had, and he made some approach to negotiations as to the other ”little freehold,” which, however, did not come to anything. Later in the year, however, Mr. Wills, by an accident, discovered that Gad's Hill Place, the property of Miss Lynn, the well-known auth.o.r.ess, and a constant contributor to ”Household Words,” was itself for sale; and a negotiation for its purchase commenced, which was not, however, completed until the following spring.

Later in the year, the performance of ”The Lighthouse” was repeated, for a charitable purpose, at the Campden House theatre.

This autumn was pa.s.sed at Folkestone. Charles d.i.c.kens had decided upon spending the following winter in Paris, and the family proceeded there from Folkestone in October, making a halt at Boulogne; from whence his sister-in-law preceded the party to Paris, to secure lodgings, with the help of Lady Olliffe. He followed, to make his choice of apartments that had been found, and he writes to his wife and to Mr. Wills, giving a description of the Paris house. Here he began ”Little Dorrit.” In a letter to Mrs. Watson, from Folkestone, he gives her the name which he had first proposed for this story--”n.o.body's Fault.”

During his absence from England, Mr. and Mrs. Hogarth occupied Tavistock House, and his eldest son, being now engaged in business, remained with them, coming to Paris only for Christmas. Three of his boys were at school at Boulogne at this time, and one, Walter Landor, at Wimbledon, studying for an Indian army appointment.

[Sidenote: M. de Cerjat.]

TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _January 3rd, 1855._

MY DEAR CERJAT,

When your Christmas letter did not arrive according to custom, I felt as if a bit of Christmas had fallen out and there was no supplying the piece. However, it was soon supplied by yourself, and the bowl became round and sound again.

The Christmas number of ”Household Words,” I suppose, will reach Lausanne about midsummer. The first ten pages or so--all under the head of ”The First Poor Traveller”--are written by me, and I hope you will find, in the story of the soldier which they contain, something that may move you a little. It moved me _not_ a little in the writing, and I believe has touched a vast number of people. We have sold eighty thousand of it.

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