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THE
7
HISTORY
PICKWICK
AN ACCOUNT OF ITS
CHARACTERS, LOCALITIES, ALLUSIONS, AND ILLUSTRATIONS
WITH A BIBLIOGRAPHY
PERCY FITZGERALD, M.A., F.S.A.
LONDON— CHAPMAN AND HALL, LIMITED 1891
[All right* reserved]
PS
PBIBTED BY GILBERT AND HIVINGTON, LD., ST. .lOHB'S HOUSE, CLF.KKESWKLL ROAD, E.C.
Jnscribefc
TO
HENRY FIELDING DICKENS,
THE SON
THE AUTHOR OF "PICKWICK/'
INTRODUCTION.
THERE are many who look back with delight to the days of their childhood, when " Pickwick," in its green wrappers, was coming out month by month, and furnished nearly two years of sustained enjoyment to people of all ages and conditions. The cherished numbers, bound into a volume, now lie before me, and bring back the recollection of the almost feverish expectancy with which its mirth-moving incidents were awaited or listened to, as the head of the family read them aloud, to increase, it might be, his own sense of the relish. Not the least merit in this book is that it should have been thus appreciated by children ; but the aged found no less enjoyment in its humours ; so those of the old and new fashion were alike recreated. This was in itself a phenomenon. If it be not read by the children of our generation, it is owing to the change in habits and manners ; it is too much to expect such an exertion from the juvenile mind, as to assume the existence of duelling, stage coaches, elopements, old inns, and other obsolete things.
vi INTRODUCTION.
The book is so rich in suggestion, so stored with humorous touches and allusions, that each reading — as Professor Ward has pointed out — brings out something that has escaped notice : while the general hilarity is so overpowering that •many delicate touches escape notice, and require pause and deliberation to discover.
It may be that objection will be taken to the somewhat minute character of the following specu- lations, and it may be thought that the praises are exaggerated ; but the position held for over half a century by " Pickwick " is really a unique one. Edition after edition comes out, and the stock of allusions and metaphor's drawn from it increase every day. The book is regularly studied, and the ardent Pickwickian will find in these pages much that will assist him in his labours. As the form of humour now in fashion is of a some- what trivial kind, founded on verbal quips and fancies, it were to be heartily desired that something of the old Pickwickian, laughter- moving humour, illustrating comic adventure, could be revived. "We cannot, of course, revive a young and buoyant Dickens ; but where genuine humour exists, it can be turned into new and varied channels, and by careful study, something of the original pattern may be caught : like BoswelFs German, who, when surprised jumping over chairs, explained, *' J'apprends d'etre vif."
INTRODUCTION. vii
I have shown in the text how much this work has engrossed the labours of bibliographers, topographers, critics, students of manners and customs, even of professors of " Folk lore." The illustrations, with their " stages," the artists themselves, and their history, have excited the curiosity and research of the inquirer. All these topics have been dealt with, not too copiously, I hope ; they offer an interest even for the general reader. The imitations, translations, dramas > &c., still further show the singular vitality and fascination of the subject. We may look around in vain for any work of modern times which has excited such interest or prompted so much com- mentary, except it be the " Life of Johnson." But Boswell's hero lived. Mr. Pickwick, how- ever, is quite as familiar to us as Boswell's idol, and almost as living.
In conclusion, I have to acknowledge the assistance I have received from all quarters, assistance given cordially and heartily, as though it were felt that the service was rendered to their old esteemed friend Mr. Pickwick, for whom too much could not be done. I have been particularly aided by the Rev. Alfred Buss, son of one of the early illustrators of " Pickwick," and by Mr. W. Wright of Paris, who opened to me his extraordinary " Dickens Collections." I am also indebted to Dr. Brougham, the Dean of
viii INTRODUCTION.
Lismore ; to Mr. Sketchley, Librarian of the Forster and Dyce Collections ; to Mr. Grego ; to the Vicar of Cobham ; and to several other persons who have aided in various ways.
I may add that a small portion of this book has already made its appearance in the Gornhill Magazine, where it excited some interest and discussion. I have also included some papers on the same subject, from the St. James's Gazette.
ATHEN^DM CLUB,
January, 1891.
THE
HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
i.
THIS cheerful and inspiring work, which, of all modern inventions has most increased the gaiety of nations and the public stock of harmless pleasure, appeared over fifty years ago, and its Jubilee has recently been celebrated by a sump- tuous edition, the " Victoria," enriched with " extra " illustrations, and notes explaining its origin. Such is a tribute almost of affection ; while any new information about its characters seems to be always welcomed, much as are fresh biographical details concerning some popular favourite. During the last half-century all that relates to the composition of the immortal book, the allusions, the personal history of the author and of all concerned, has been greedily sought for, and gathered up ; the work itself has come to be
B
2 THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
treated as a classic, and laborious persons are already exhausting themselves in commentaries, collections and discussions on its text and illustra- tions. None are so interested as our American cousins, and, it may be added, the booksellers ; while a standing entry in every catalogue is half a column or so of " Pickwicks."
In this marvellous " Pickwick " panorama the work of a young man of two -and- twenty, there are some seventy or eighty characters, round, clearly drawn, original, and distinct. Of these about twenty are leading or working performers, as they may be called, who carry the piece regularly through, and appear in all the acts. These are Mr. Pickwick, and his three friends, Tupman, Winkle, and Snodgrass ; "Wardle, his daughter Emily, and the " Fat Boy ;" Jingle and Job Trotter; Ben Allen and Arabella ; Bob Sawyer, Perker, with Lowten his clerk ; the two Wellers, and Mary the pretty housemaid; Stiggins and Mrs. Weller. In addition there are fifty and more minor figures, who appear little more than once, and then go their way. This amusing miscellany is all marshalled without confusion or crowding, and furnishes entertainment to the close. We have only to call up the list to marvel at the author's power of gay invention. We have Dr. Slammer, Dr. Payne, and the widow; the dockyard magnates; Mr. and Mrs. Pott, Slurk,
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 3
the Leo Hunters, and Count Smorltork; the spinster aunt and her mother, the " long game- keeper," Magnus, Miss Withersfield, and Dowler. Then come the characters of the Fleet : Roker, Mivins, Smangle, the Cobbler, the Butcher, Par- son, &c. ; the M.C. at Bath, with Lord Mutin- hed ; the card-playing ladies, and the immortal "Bath footmen;" Nupkins the Mayor, and his servant Muzzle; the constable, Grummer, Dod- son and Fogg and their clerks ; the attorney Pell, Justice Stareleigh, Serjeants Buzfuz and Snubbin, with the other barristers ; the chemist- jury man ; Mrs. Cluppins and Mrs. Rogers, and old Winkle ; to say nothing of a crowd of inferior characters who appear but for a few moments, but who serve their purpose, helping on the story and amusing the reader. The remarkable thing is, that not only are there characters of one class, but there are classes of the same character — all distinct.
The figures of Mr. Pickwick and his party are known wherever an English story is read. A more artistic and suitable character for suggest- ing or provoking situations could not have been devised. He is universally popular, and his popu- larity is declared in all sorts of ways. At the interesting Dickens sale, a set of small apostle spoons ornamented with Pickwick figures were fiercely contended for, and we recall the triumph with which the late Andrew Halliday, one of the
B 2
4 THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
master's own " merry men," displayed to us a single spoon which he had secured for the enormous price of sixty-nine odd pounds ! The Christmas- trees in Germany and elsewhere are often hung with Wellers, Winkles, &c., in their habits as they were etched. The fund of happy and ready quota- tions has been amply enriched by points and allusions from the same story, the most useful and humorous being that of " the Pickwickian sense," which removes offence from an offensive speech. The sale of this extraordinary work has never flagged during fifty years, and we are told that, since the death of the author, over a million copies have been disposed of by its publishers. One of the most touching, practical tributes to the popularity of the story — one which would have given the author gratification — is that at the Bodleian Library, " they show a stained and battered volume in the Eussian language, which the besiegers of Sebastopol found among the dreadful ruins of the Redan," a tattered copy of " Pickwick." Topographers, Biblio- graphers, critics, booksellers, annotators, artists, have all been attracted and kept at work by this extraordinary book. It may be said indeed, with- out exaggeration, that there is a regular " Pick- wick" literature. So real are the characters and scenes, that in reading it over and over again, we find no more sense of familiarity or same-
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 5
ness than we do in meeting friends or acquaint- ances. In these fictitious beings, as in real life, we seem to discover on further intimacy fresh points of interest which have escaped us before.
The oft-told but always interesting story of the origin of " Pickwick " has been clearly and satis- factorily related by Mr. Forster, in his admirable biography of the author. In its way it is as in- teresting, and even romantic, as anything known in the history of authorship. There was living in Furnival's Inn, a bright, vivacious, energetic young fellow, then a reporter on the press, and who was indeed scarcely more than a magazine writer. Young as he was — not more than three and twenty — his childhood and youth had been the severest discipline conceivable. He had passed through much privation, had been familiar with the inside of debtors' prisons, had been glad to snatch a morsel at a tavern, like the " Fox under the Hill," a SDrtof shanty on the river, which disappeared only yesterday — thus picking up a sort of " extensive and .peculiar" knowledge of London life and manners. These experiences he had already set out in some vivid and amusing local sketches, which had attracted attention.
But in 1835 came a chance which he hailed with delight, and which promised an opening. It really amounted to no more than a clever piece
6 THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
of " drudgery " which was to consist in illustrating certain illustrations that were to be executed by an artist of much popularity. This was a combination then in favour. The public was partial to a coarse sort of coloured caricature, and illustrated adventure. The pub- lishers of the present volume, Messrs. Chap- man and Hall, were then at No. 186, Strand, and it was Mr. Edward Chapman who was chiefly concerned in arranging the plan. In a letter dated July 7, 1849, he furnished his recollections to the author himself — which corresponded in every particular with the latter' s own. Dickens's account is given in the preface to the edition of 1847, and is an interesting piece of personal history.
The way in which the happy chance offered was this : —
"In November," says Mr. Chapman, "we published a little book called the ' Squib Annual,' with plates by Seymour, and it was during my visit to him, to see after them, that he said he should like to do a series of cockney sporting plates of a superior sort to those he had already published. I said I thought it might do if accompanied by letterpress and published in monthly parts ; and this being agreed to, we wrote to an author of " Three Courses and a Dessert" (a Mr. Clarke). I proposed it; but
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 7
receiving no answer, the scheme dropped for some months, till Seymour said he wished us to decide, as another job had offered which would fully occupy his time. And it was on -this we decided to ask you to do it." As they had already formed a connection with him, this was natural. " But I am quite sure," he goes on, " that from the beginning to the end nobody but yourself had anything whatsoever to do with it."
It was evident that the intended new work was little more than " a job," or piece of hack-work as it might be called, in which the writer was to be useful to Mr. Seymour. Mr. Buss states in his memoir that others besides Dickens and Mr. Clarke were thought of as literary " illustrators " of the Illustrations. Leigh Hunt was at one time proposed, and Mr. Mackenzie Bell tells us that Charles Whitehead, a friend of Dickens, and some years older, " used constantly to affirm that he had been asked to write to Seymour's sketches; but that feeling uncertain as to his being able to supply the copy with regularity, he had recom- mended Dickens."
Mr. Edward Chapman further relates the nature of the contract between the firm and the young author. " There was no agreement about ' Pickwick ' except a verbal one. Each number was to consist of a sheet and a half, for which we were to pay fifteen guineas, and we
8 THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
paid him for the first two numbers at once, as he required the money to go and get married with. We were also to pay more according to the sale, and I think "Pickwick" altogether cost us three thousand pounds." Mr. Forster thinks that the share of profit thus calculated would have come to four times as much, and his impression is that the sum received was not so large. When arrangements were made for a new venture it was agreed that, after five years, the author should have a share in the copyright of " Pickwick." But all through the firm behaved to him with fairness and liberality.
" I was a young man of three-and-twenty, when the publishers, attracted by some pieces I was at that time writing in the Morning Chro- nicle newspaper (of which one series had lately been collected and published in two volumes, illustrated by my esteemed friend, Mr. George Cruikshank), waited upon me to propose a some- thing that should be published in shilling numbers — then only known to me, or, I believe, to any- body else, by a dim recollection of certain interminable novels in that form, which used to be carried about the country by pedlars,
" When I opened my door in Furnival's Inn to the managing partner who represented the firm, I recognized in him the person from whose hands I had bought, two or three years previously, and
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 9
whom I had never seen before or since, my first copy of the Magazine in which my first effusion — dropped stealthily one evening at twilight, with fear, and trembling, into a dark letter-box, in a dark office, up a dark court in Fleet Street — ap- peared in all the glory of print ; on which memo- rable occasion (how well I recollect it) I walked down to Westminster Hal], and turned into it for half-an-hour, because my eyes were so dimned with joy and pride, that they could not bear the street, and were not fit to be seen there. I told my visitor of the coincidence, which we both hailed as a good omen ; and so fell to business.
" The idea propounded to me, was, that the monthly something should be a vehicle for certain plates to be executed by Mr. Seymour ; and there was a notion, either on the part of that ad- mirable humorous artist, or of my visitor, that a ' Nimrod Club ' would be the best means of intro- ducing these. I objected, on consideration, that although born and partly bred in the country, I was no great sportsman."
"Within the memory of the present generation there used to be in the Haymarket a well-known print shop, whose windows displayed coloured caricatures, chiefly representing sporting cock- neys in old-fashioned costume — strange beings, whose guns were always going off by accident, whose fishing-hooks caught in ladies' bonnets.
io THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
These were coarsely drawn and highly coloured, and underneath was usually some punning title, such as " A Good Bite," &c. The favourite pur- veyor for these things appears to have been this Mr. Seymour, an artist of skill, but who seems to have brought his humour down to the level of the street public. Mr. Buss gives a very plausible account of how the idea of a club came to suggest itself to the artist. He lived at Islington, which was then a great resort of cockney sportsmen, who were ever firing at the cats and sparrows, or fishing in the New River, and their oddities impressed him forcibly. He himself was fond of angling and of sport of all kinds.
He had the most marvellous fertility and facility in his work; his sketches amount to thousands, and display a great deal of clever invention. Underneath each plate is put some rather vulgar or " slangey " jest : these, however, were condescensions to the public taste, for he was capable of better things, had exhibited at the Academy, and could etch with freedom and refinement. It was the fashion then in the trade that for such works the plate should be the leading feature; the artist in fact told the story as he pleased, and the author was expected to " write up" to him. It was in this way that Dr. Syntax had made such a success, the " hack " Combe, from his prison furnishing copy to any
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 1 1
amount and for any subject. It seems to have been expected that the young Dickens was to follow the usual course.
Seymour had been engaged on a paper called the Figaro, edited by a clever member of a witty, clever family, and showed extraordinary ver- satility and energy in his work. At one time he took up " High Art," and retired with a fellow- student to^practise his art, to that interesting old monument near Islington, Canonbury Tower, which has furnished shelter to Goldsmith and other remarkable persons. The result of these ardent studies was an enormous and ambitious picture, representing scenes of German Diablerie, " The Giant of the Brocken," " The Skeleton Hunt," the " Casting of the Bullets " from " Der Freischutz," and other goblin incidents. The picture was exhibited without success, and the artist soon abandoned this line.
Dickens, heartily accepting his role, tells us that he put in Winkle "expressly for the use of Mr. Sey- mour," who introduced one of his most favourite types to represent him, and which figures in many of the cockney sporting caricatures, with check neckcloth, turned-up nose, and long gaiters. On the green cover of " Pickwick " he is seen firing at a spat-row. A design of this kind is also to be found in one of the caricatures.
More interesting and a greater matter of
12 THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
discussion has been the question of the origin of the central figure of the story, " the immortal Pickwick." The first type for this personage was, according to Mr. Chapman's statement,1 " a long thin man. The present one he made from my description of a friend of mine at Eichmond, a fat old beau, who would wear, in spite of ladies' protests, drab tights and gaiters. His name was John Foster." 2 Seymour would also appear to have designed Tupman and Snod- grass, but they are rather indistinct and colourless. His family, however, claimed that the gaiters, and Pickwick himself, was his conception also, and an attempt was made to support this by reference to one of his old caricatures of a portly old gentleman fishing. But there is little resemblance.
The very name of " Pickwick," so natural and yet of quaint sound, unfamiliar, and yet recog- nizable, was one of the happiest selections ever made. It is interesting to consider how it came to be suggested to him. It was said that when it occurred to him, he rushed off: in triumph to the publishers, calling out, " I have got it, — ' Pick- wick ' ! "
The coaches running between Bath and London belonged to a well-known proprietor named Pick- wick, of a family established in Bath. There can be
1 Forster's Life of Dickens i. 91.
2 Mr. Forster pleasantly calls attention to this odd coincidence.
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 13
little doubt that Dickens had abundant experi- ences of coaching, when on his reporting expedi- tions, which brought this exceptional and quaint name to his mind when he was looking out for one for his hero. It had been better, according to strict artistic propriety, that the master and servant had not the same name, Samuel. But in this case, "Sara " might be considered a different name from " Samuel," for no one would think of calling Mr. Pickwick " Sam," or his servant " Samuel."
It will be recollected how bewildered Sam was at discovering the name of his master upon the coach that was to take them to Bath : —
" Here's rayther a rum go, sir," replied Sam.
" What ? " inquired Mr. Pickwick.
"This here, sir," rejoined Sam. "I'm wery much afeerd, sir, that the properiator o' this here coach is a playin' some imperence vith us."
"How is that, Sam?" said Mr. Pickwick; " aren't the names down on the way-bill ? "
" The names is not only down on the vay-bill, sir," replied Sam, "but they've painted vun on 'em up, on the door o' the coach."
" Dear me," exclaimed Mr. Pickwick, quite staggered by the coincidence; "what a very extraordinary thing ! "
"Yes, but that ain't all," said Sam, again directing his master's attention to the coach door; "not content vith writin' up Pickwick,
14 THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
they puts c Moses ' afore it, vich I call addin' insult to injury," as he paused.
I have always fancied that Dickens could not fairly have avoided noting the coincidence of Mr. Pickwick's travelling in Pickwick's coach. Having adopted the proprietor's name, he probably wished to pass it off, in a good-natured way, making a sort of amende by the bold advertisement; or felt that unless he took some notice of the fact, there would be orood-
7 O
natured persons to note it.
Mr. R. Peach, of Bath, who has written several agreeable works on his native city, full of interesting details, has furnished some facts concerning the Pickwick family. " At the close of the lasi; century," he writes to me, £{ Sleazer Pickwick (from these names, Eleazer and Moses, it must have been a Jewish family), who had been for some years a postboy at the Old Bear Inn, succeeded a Mr. Brockman at the White Hart ; he made the hostelry very popular and famous. He had two sons who succeeded him, the elder of whom was the father of Charles Pickwick and of Major Pickwick, who was the father of Moses Pickwick. The old Pick, wick, who kept the hotel and who. was living at the time of Dickens' visit, died soon after, and was succeeded by Mr. Cooper, but the posting and coaching business was carried on by Moses, whom
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 15
I knew very well. Charles died before I came to Bath, he left one son and two daughters. The son entered the army, and for some reason changed his name to Sainsbury." The reason probably was the awkwardness of bearing a too familiar name associated with grotesque adventures.
Thus far Mr. Peach's narrative. But it would seem as if everything connected with the family should have a quaint flavor". "Witness these entries in a newspaper : —
"In his 19th year, 1795, after a long, often flattering, but at last fatal illness, Mr. "William Pickwick, son of Mr. P. of the White Hart Inn, Bath. He had been but a short period entered at Oxford, when the rupture of a blood-vessel impaired a constitution not naturally good, and terminated in depriving society of a valuable young man, his distressed parents of an only child, as amiable in manner as his genius was promising." And again : —
" This evening (October, 1807), GeorgeHawkins, driver of Mr. Pickwick's coach from Southampton to Bath, was taken suddenly and very alarmingly ill on Slander wick Common. When all apprehen- sions of immediate danger were over, he was un- willing to be carried to one of the neighbouring cottages, and was at his own request removed to the inside (of the coach), where he expired before the coach reached Bath."
1 6 THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
This might have been one of Sam's own very appropriate anecdotes related on the top of the coach. Mr. Charles Pickwick died in 1835. A contributor to Notes and Queries, a paper from which I have taken much that is interesting about the story, writing in 1887, says that there was then living in Penarth, close to Cardiff, an efficient police officer, Sergeant Eleazer Pickwick. And a friend informs me that there is, or was until lately, engaged on the coach running between Ross and Pontypool, a well-known and exceedingly popular guard of the name of Pick- wick.
In the first two numbers the author seems to have accepted as a type for his hero a rather disagreeable, sour and " cantankerous " cast of person. He had not, however, as yet developed the milder and more placid elements in Mr. Pickwick's character. He was much pleased with the pains the artist took to realize his ideas. Witness the modest letter, to be quoted later, which he addressed to him in reference to one of the illustrations.
Two or three years ago a curious and amusing coincidence brought the author's son, a barrister in good practice, into connection with his father's famous book. It occurred at a trial on the circuit.
Mr. Dickens, who was counsel for the defence, announced that he meant to call Mr. Pickwick.
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 17
The judge entered into the humour of the thing. " Pickwick," he said, " is a very appropriate character to be called by Dickens", (laughter). With much pleasantness the advocate replied : " I fully believe that the sole reason why I was instructed in this case was that I might call Mr. Pickwick" (laughter), " and it may interest your lordship to learn that the witness is a descendant, — a grandnephew, I believe, of Mr. Moses Pickwick who kept a coach at Bath, and that I have every reason to believe that it was from this Moses Pickwick that the name of the immortal Pick- wick was taken. I daresay your lordship will remember that that very eccentric and faithful follower of Mr. Pickwick — Sam Weller — seeing his name outside of the coach, was indignant because he thought it was a personal reflection upon his employer." This little bit of comedy harmonizes well with our old Pickwickian asso- ciations.
Meanwhile the young author had lost not a moment in setting to work ; and, full of spirit and overflowing with humorous ideas, got ready his opening chapters.
On March 26th, 1836, the following advertise- ment appeared in The Times : —
" THE PICKWICK PAPERS. " On the thirty-first of March will be published,
i8 THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
to be continued monthly, price Is., the first number of The Posthumous Papers of the Piclaviclc Club, containing a faithful record of the peram- bulations, perils, travels, adventures, and sport- ing transactions of the corresponding members. Edited by ' Boz.' Each monthly part em- bellished with four illustrations by Seymour. Chapman and Hall, 186, Strand, and all Book- sellers." 3
"We may assume that it was thought that " Boz " would be a more attractive name than the then obscure one of " Charles Dickens." The first number was arranged in the well-known "green leaves" which for over fifty years were to be the familiar joy of every lover of harmless pleasure. Their success at first was not remark- able— indeed the venture would seem to have "hung fire" a little.
Seymour prepared some seven illustrations in all, of which four were to appear in the first number. Some of these are excellent in the drawing and composition — done with a firm touch and much dramatic spirit, and in a wholly different style from that of his caricatures ; and there is no scene we recall better than that of Jingle's
3 On the same day was announced the first part of the "Library of Fiction," containing " The Tuggs's at Eamsgate," by Boz, and also some recognizable Pickwickian figures by Seymour, such as Jingle and Doctor Slammer.
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 19
altercation on the stairs with Dr. Slammer. Jingle's attitude is excellent. So with the draw- ing of the " tall quadruped." The horse, in his struggle, is admirably sketched, and capitally modelled. It is superior in these points to one substituted for it later. Mr. C. Thomson, in bis handsome volume on Hablot Browne, gives a facsimile of one of the original drawings for the Stroller's Tale, which is really graceful and spirited. It is after Rowlandson's fashion, outlined with a pen, and lightly washed or tinted with water- colour. His etchings indeed promised well, and would no doubt have improved as he felt his way. It is, however, worth noting that the face and character of Mr. Pickwick had not then been settled, and in the altercation with the cabman and the club scene it appears very hostile and uninviting.
The news of the important contract the author communicated to his betrothed, Miss Kate Hogarth, on one evening in 1835, when the responsibility of his venture obliged him to deny himself the pleasure of a visit to her. "My dearest Kate, the house is up, but I am very sorry to say I must stay at home. I have had a visit from the publishers this morning, and the story cannot be any longer delayed ; it must be done to- morrow. As there are more important considera- tions than the mere payment for the story involved
c 2
2O THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
too, I must exercise a little self-denial and set to work. They (Chapman and Hall) have made me an offer of fourteen pounds a month, to write and edit a new publication they contemplate, entirely by myself, to be published monthly, and each number to contain four woodcuts. I am to make my estimate and calculations, and to give them a decisive answer on Friday morning. The work will be no joke, but the emolument is too tempting to resist." This characteristic letter is the most interesting piece associated with Pick- wick, or, indeed, with the course of the author. He was but just twenty-three, and it shows the reserve and self-denial of one far older — the thoughtful restraint which takes time to consider before deciding. "But the emolument is too tempt- ing to resist." How natural and characteristic is this ! He seemed to be quite delighted with the modest honorarium. Shortly after the arrange- ment was concluded, Mr. James Grant, who had taken the editorship of the " Monthly Magazine," to which Dickens had furnished " Mrs. Joseph Porter" and other pieces, applied to him to continue his contributions. The young writer wrote that he had just concluded with Messrs. Chapman and Hall, and that he would be obliged to raise his terms to eight guineas a sheet, or ten shillings a page.
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 21
In an "illustrated" copy of the Forster Life, prepared by Mr. Harvey of St. James's Street, there was a letter of Dickens' to Harley, the actor, which shows how devotedly he applied to his task : " I am so engaged with my respectable friend Pickwick, on whom I have only just commenced, that I cannot get out this week."
In the same ardent spirit he wrote to his be- trothed after the work had commenced, excusing himself from a visit. "I have at this moment got Pickwick and his friends on the Rochester coach, and they are going on swimmingly, in company with a very different character from any I have yet described, who I flatter myself will make a decided hit. I want to get them from the Ball to the Inn before I go to bed, and I think that will take me until one or two o'clock at the earliest. The publishers will be here in the morning, so you will readily suppose I have no alternative but to stick at my desk." This short scrap gives a fair notion of the spirit and high pressure, under which the work was carried out by all concerned.
The passage " I want to get them from the Ball to the Inn," seems to indicate that his first intention was to exhibit Mr. Pickwick and all his friends at the Rochester Ball ; so that it would
22 THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
almost appear that the capital device of the borrowing of the coat, and Mr. Winkle's adventure, had been an inspiration that came to him as he wrote. We can fancy it would have been amusing enough to have seen Mr. Pickwick figuring away at the dance. On the other hand " them" may have been intended only for Jingle and Tupman.
It will be seen also from his little note that he was accustomed to give his friends an anticipatory enjoyment of his plans and characters, 'and to consult with them on the treatment. This was his fashion all through ; and it bespeaks his open and unaffected nature. Indeed, it is said that at this time his Pickwick used to be read to a few friends by Talfourd, and criticisms and sugges- tions were freely given and adopted.
We must always look with interest at Furnival's Inn, No. 15 — now marked with one of the Society of Arts tablets — where he wrote the larger por- tion of the " Pickwick Papers," — a year's work from March to March. He married his wife two days after the appearance of the first number of the work, and in the March of the following year removed to Doughty Street, No. 48, where the last portion of Pickwick was written.
Some little versicles written to the printers or engravers have been preserved, and were lately " sold in America " for a large sum.
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 23
Private and Confidential. To MR. HICKS.
Oh, Mr. Hick
— s, I'm heartily sick
Of this sixteenth Pickwick,
"Which is just in the nick
For the publishing trick,
And will read nice and slick
If you'll only he quick,
I don't write on tick,
That's my comfort, avick.
Mr. James Grant insists that the early numbers rather fell flat, or, as he puts it, were " a signal failure," and adds that " Charles Tilt, the book- seller, out of friendship for the firm, made great exertions to push the sale, taking 1500 copies of each number, which he sent into the country " on sale or return," as it is called. He even goes so far as to say it was proposed to stop the whole when Seymour died, but that on the appearance of Samuel Weller, the flagging interest revived. All which is most inaccurate, and inconsistent with well-established facts. It, may however, represent the story current in " the trade." *
4 He adds some further mythical details as to Dickens' re- muneration ; how the firm "gave Dickens a present of 500Z. in November," and more by-and-by, amounting in all to 3500Z., while the publishers netted over 20,OOOZ. This, however, is nothing to what appears in the preface to a French translation of the little story of "The Baron Grogswig," an elegant little
24 THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
The general tumultuous success that attended the work became pronounced after the appearance of Sam Weller, when the whole kingdom was read- ing the numbers, in a state of eager expectancy and delight. As Mr. Croker tells us, a notable and exceptional point in this success was, that, " with the exception of occasional extracts in the newspapers, he received little or no assist- ance from the Press. Yet, in less than six months from the appearance of the first number of the Pickwick Papers, the whole reading world was talking about them — the names of "Winkle, Wardle, Weller, Snodgrass, Dodson and Fogg, — had be- come familiar in our mouths as Household Words. Nay, Pickwick chintzes figured in linen-drapers' windows, and Weller corduroys in breeches- makers' advertisements ; Boz cabs might be seen rattling through the streets, and the portrait of the author of Pelham or Crichton was scraped down or pasted over to make room for that of the new popular favourite in the omnibuses." 5 There
book, prettily illustrated. M. de Bedoliere there speaks of the 50,000 subscribers to Pickwick, and of two American editions, each of 100,000 copies. The author, according to this authority, received 5QL for the first number, 100?. for the third, and for the whole, 16,OOOZ!
6 This was a characteristic element in the conduct of what is called " the vehicular traffic " of the city. Now the omnibus traveller is recreated with portraits of some popular performer, or notability.
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 25
were to be seen " Pickwick canes," " Pickwick gaiters," " Pickwick Hats," with narrow curled brims; and even tobacco-stoppers. Many years later a tobacco-merchant brought out a small, cheap and convenient cigar, " the penny Pick- wick," which has ever since been patronized by 'Arry when out for his holiday.
A further testimonial to this popularity was the formation of " Pickwick clubs " all over the kingdom, in which the members supported the characters, or at least took the names of Winkle, Weller, &c. Even in our day the tradition is kept by one of the most flourishing of bicycle clubs, "the Pickwick," and many of these pages have been written, appropriately, with a " Pickwick " pen.6 There are still sold Pickwick menus.
Mr. Carlyle's graphic testimony to its popularity is well known. "An Archdeacon," he wrote to Forster, " with his own venerable lips repeated to me the other night, a strange profane story of a solemn clergyman, who had been administering ghostly consolation to a sick person : having finished satisfactorily as he thought, and got out of the room, he heard the sick man ejaculate, '"Well, thank God, Pickwick will be out in ten days any way.' On the whole, I think nothing
Advertised for years in the familiar couplet: — They come as a boon and a blessing to men, The Waverley, Owl, and Pickwick pen.
26 THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
more forcible or better than this has been said of Pickwick." This passage is quite Pickwickian in character, and the sketch of the patient turning wearily from his proper clerical comforter, to the ephemeral instalment of the story, has a grim air of humour.
"How I envy," says Mr. Herman Merivale, "the generation which read Pickwick as it came out in numbers, — and my father has told me that it was the phenomenon of the time. My grandfather's whole family of sons and daughters (a very large one), used to cluster round him to hear number after number read out to them. He always studied them himself for an hour or two, in order to be able to read them aloud with decent gravity, and his apoplectic struggles and occasional shouts made them feel bad — longing for their turn." Another thus forcibly recalls the same feverish enjoyment with which each instalment was awaited. " Few works of this or any other age have enjoyed greater or more universal popularity. The unani- mous (with one or two modified exceptions) approval of the press ; the unprecedented sale of copies : the feverish anxiety with which every one watched the coming ' first ' as being to usher in a new number of the engrossing series ; the voracious eagerness with which each precious morsel was literally devoured as soon as presented ; the feel- ing of half disappointment, half anticipation in
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 27
which we closed each number, with the knowledge that a long month must elapse before curiosity could be satisfied or anxiety relieved — these every reader will recollect as furnishing an index of public favour." But the most impressive testi- mony to this success is Miss Mitford's letter of rebuke to some incurious Dublin friends who knew nothing of Pickwick : —
" So you never heard of the Pickwick Papers ! Well, they publish a number once a month, and print 25,000. It is fun — London life — but with- out anything unpleasant ; a lady might read it aloud; and this so graphic, so individual, and so true, that you could courtesy to all the people as you see them in the streets. I did think there had not been a place where English is spoken, to which Boz had not penetrated. All the boys and girls talk his fun — the boys in the streets ; and yet those who are of the highest taste like it the most. Sir Benjamin Brodie takes it to read in his carriage between patient and patient ; and Lord Denman studies Pickwick on the Bench while the jury are deliberating. Do take, some means to borrow the 'Pickwick Papers.' It seems like not having heard of Hogarth." This unaffected belief in the reality of the story, with a sort of compassion for the benighted creatures who " had never heard of Pickwick," is a truly genuine tribute.
II.
ONPJ reason for the exuberance and the life-like originality which distinguished the characters of the new story has, I think, not been suggested before. In those happy, buoyant days, when the author was busy with newspaper work, he was encountering the varieties that are found in courts and taverns, as well as all the curious adventurers who " hung loose " upon this sort of society. N"o one was more accessible, or met every one so much " half -way," as it is called, a charm which he retained to the end of his life. His quick eye, therefore, caught up and appropriated all odd types of character in abundance, wherever he encountered them. At that time he appears to have been a most brilliant, clever being, exuberant in fancy and full of life.
But as he prospered, and rose out of this sphere, the old opportunities became lost to him, and he ceased to encounter these inspiring if grotesque types. He had then to trust to his imagination and invention. Hence those more fanciful figures which crowd his later stories, and whose attrac-
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 29
tion rests upon curious turns and oddities of manner and speech, and which are admired for their ingenuity rather than for their nature.
His friend Forster had an important share in the revision and correction of proofs, and was entrusted, in the author's absence, with the nice duty of " cutting," when there was an excess of matter. We thus have not all that the author wrote in his pleasant exuberance and superabun- dance of ideas ; and whereas, in later works, he was generally " short" of matter to fill a number, in Pickwick there was nearly always an overplus which had to be compressed or cut away.1
To Forster, when he reached No. 15, he wrote full of enthusiasm for his work — he was " getting on like a house o' fire," and thought the next Pickwick would " bang all the others." In this was the well-known account of the Fleet Prison and the debtors. " Every point was a telling one," says his friend, " and the truthfulness of the whole unerring. The dreadful restlessness of the place, undefined and yet unceasing, was pictured throughout with De Foe's minute reality." That dreadful restlessness actually expresses the tone of his description, which is apart from its details, and could only be imparted by one who was inspired by
1 We find him writing to Forster, "I send you revise of the Pickwick by Fred, — you will see my alterations of it are very slight."
3O THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
a vivid sense of what lie was drawing. Mr. Forster notes a fine point in his character in the indiffer- ence he showed to any praise of his work " on the literary side," compared with its higher recog- nition as bits of real life, set forth with the purpose of doing good to his fellow-creatures. Pickwick might seem to be an exception, from its jovial, farcical character; but a "first Book" has its immunities and privileges. He had to feel his way and make sure of his ground. " It has been often noted that the later portion seemed incon- sistent with the first, not only in its more serious tone — which this sense of responsibility made him adopt — but in the actual characters ;" and this charge was ingeniously justified by the author for this reason. He argued " that the mere oddities of a friend were apt to strike us at first ; but as we grow acquainted with him the better and more serious qualities reveal themselves."
This trusty friend of nearly forty years whom he was then addressing as "My dear sir," was editing the Examiner, and, as the work went on, identified himself thoroughly and generously with the interests of the author. When the work reached the fifteenth number he wrote a review of it which was cordial and enthusiastic. It will be interesting to note how ardent were these praises. "In this number the author has achieved his masterpiece. Every point tells and the reality of
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 31
the whole is wonderful. We place the picture by the side of those of the greatest; masters of this style of fiction in our language, and it rises in comparison."
He then speaks of "the exquisite sketches of Mr. Smangle and his friends. All is real life and human nature. Ifc is not a collection of humorous or pathetic dialogues about people who have no tangible existence in the mind ; but it is a succes- sion of actual scenes, the actors of which take a place in the memory. We recognize in this fine writer a maturing excellence which promises at no distant day the very greatest accomplishment of that great style in which Fielding, honouring humanity while he exalts literature, achieved those books which are now appealed to as we appeal to truth or nature. We see in every succeeding work he takes in hand a superior insight into the general principles of character^ joining itself to the old and exquisite representations of local peculiarities and humours ; and we can rarely now find anything that approaches to caricature with- out finding also some very shrewd and sound truths concealed beneath it.
" The illustrations are as usual full of excellent character. The ease and skill with which they are drawn are among the least of his merits, they leave an artistic feeling and amazement most rare in things of the kind."
32 THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
It is strange to think that the composition of this festive, jocund work, presumed to have been written in a whirl of good spirits, should have been marked by two events of a very tragic kind. The first, which occurred before the second number was reached, was the death of the illustrator, almost at starting. This alone might have proved a serious check to the success of the work, and, but for the good luck which attended the spirited author, might have shipwrecked it altogether. The other was the death of his wife's sister.
The young writer had only a short time before written to Seymour with a kindness and tact remarkable in one of his years : —
" Furnival's Inn, No. 8a.
" Mr DEAE SIR, — I had intended to write to you, to say how much gratified I feel by the pains you have bestowed on our mutual friend Mr. Pickwick, and how much the result of your labours has sur- passed my expectations. I am happy to be able to congratulate you, the publishers and myself, on the success of the undertaking, which appears to have been most complete. I have now another reason for troubling you. It is this. I am extremely anxious about the Stroller's Tale, the more especially as many literary friends on whose judgment I place great reliance, think it will create considerable sensation. I have seen your design for an etching to accompany it. I think
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 33
it extremely good, but still it is not quite my idea ; and as I feel so very solicitous to have it as complete as possible I shall feel personally obliged to you if you will make another drawing. It will give me great pleasure to see you, as well as the drawing, when it is complete, with this view I have asked Chapman and Hall to take a glass of grog with me on Sunday evening (the only night on which I am disengaged), when I hope you will be able to look in. The alterations I want, I will endeavour to explain. I think the woman should be younger, the dismal man decidedly should, and he should be less miserable in appearance. To communicate an interest to the plate, his whole appearance should express more sympathy and solicitude, and while I represented the sick man as emaciated and dying, I would not make him too repulsive. The furniture of the room you have depicted admirably. I have ventured to make these suggestions, feel- ing assured that you will consider them in the spirit in which I submit them to your judgment. I shall be happy to hear from you that I may expect to see you on Sunday evening."
2 It may be mentioned here that the Athenceum did not favour " Pickwick :"—
" A wit or humourist should remind you of human nature — in its vivid and lustrous colours — and not hunt you back to a foregone work. The writer of the periodical (for such it is)
D
34 THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
But the catastrophe which was to be so perilous for the interests of " Pickwick " was at hand. Though a person of gay and pleasant disposition, the artist had latterly been much depressed. This state of mind seems to have had little or no relation to a quarrel with the Figaro, with which he had renewed his connection. The truth was, he was overwhelmed with work, as, indeed, the vast number of his sketches in every direction and form, proves. It was likely enough that his sketches did not give complete satisfac- tion to the proprietors of " Pickwick," but no doubt the strain of getting ready no less than four illustrations for a number was excessive. The " copy," too, was delayed to the last moment, and could have left him little time. As, however, he was so facile a workman — he had contributed no less than 300 designs to the Figaro — and could dash off his designs rapidly, one is not inclined to lay much stress upon this. On April 20th, on the eve of the appearance of the second number, he was found to have committed suicide. This he carried out in the most deliberate manner. He retired to a
which is now before us has great cleverness, but he runs closely upon some leading hounds in the humorous pack, and when he gives tongue (perchance a vulgar tongue) he reminds you of the bay of several deep dogs who have gone before. The ' Pickwick Papers ' are in part made up of two pounds of Smollett, three ounces of Sterne, a handful of Hook, a dash of a grammatical Pierce Egan, incidents at pleasure served with an original sauce."
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 35
summer-house in the back garden of his house at Islington, and, attaching a string to the trigger of a fowling-piece, shot himself through the head. Much commiseration was shown for the fate of the unfortunate artist, and the following accounts appeared in the papers : —
" Mr. R. Seymour, the caricaturist, it appears, with all his relish for and quick perception of the humorous, was subject to dreadful fits of despondency and melancholy, in one of which he committed suicide. He was undoubtedly a man of considerable talent, at his outset there was too much of mannerism in his designs, and that mannerism was not original. But latterly, especially, in his illustrations of the ' Book of Christmas ' and the c Library of Fiction,' he gave good promise of being a distinguished artist. He supplied, we believe, from its commencement to his death, a period of nearly five years, the political sketches of the Figaro."
An address, dated April 27th, and written by Dickens, was issued with the next number. It spoke in sympathetic terms of the loss of the artist : —
"We do not allude to this distressing event in the vain hope of adding by an eulogium of ours to the respect in which Mr. Seymour's memory is held by all who ever knew him. Arrangements are in progress which will enable us to present the
D 2
36 THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
ensuing number of the ' Pickwick Papers ' on an improved plan which we trust will give entire satisfaction to our readers."
After the artist's death, the connection was des- tined to be the source of annoyance to the author. Almost at once the family began to put forward a claim that their deceased relative was entitled to the credit of originating the idea of "Pickwick." A pamphlet or leaflet of a few leaves only — now extraordinarily scarce, and for a single copy of which ten pounds was asked some years ago 3 — was circulated, in which this claim was seriously maintained. Seymour, it urged, was an amateur gardener, and his experiences and failures in this direction suggested to him the subject of " Pick- wick and his Club." He offered it to Mr. Spooner, the well-known print-seller, and etched some plates as a beginning. This' was in 1835. In the following year Mr. Chapman called on him and mentioned " Pickwick " to him, with a proposal that it should be issued in half-guinea volumes, but the artist insisted on the " numbers " or "parts." " Boz " was, as we have seen, called in : they concocted the details together, and Seymour having one of his four plates before him, repre- senting a poor author in a garret, suggested the
3 This seems an enormous price, but last year a copy was sold at Mr. Mackenzie's sale for over seven times that amount.
TUB HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 37
subject of "The Stroller's Tale," which was adopted. Dickens, he said, was to receive 15L a month ; he himself, though reported to have 5Z. for each drawing, really only had II. 15s. " Pickwick " was already exhibited in a series of plates called " The Heiress." One of his plates he had brought to Dickens on a particular Sunday, but returned home much discontented, and from that time — whatever time it was — did nothing more for " Pickwick," destroying all his corrections, &c.
Such was this very incoherent story, which is disposed of by Mr. Chapman's version already given, and by the admission that the artist was allowed the full credit of designing Mr. Winkle, and of suggesting the sporting character of the story. This idea, as Dickens said, was to have been enlarged " for the benefit of Mr. Sey- mour," so that his hitherto scattered caricatures of this kind might now have a sort of cohesion, owing to the advantage of narration. But nearly thirty years later the claim was once more put forward with more particularity : and, in an indignant strain, the author wrote to the Athenceum, on March 31st, 1866, to repudiate the whole story : —
" Mr. Seymour, the artist, never originated, suggested, or in any way had to do with, save as illustrator of what I devised, an incident, a
38 THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
character (except the sporting tastes of Mr. "Winkle), a name, a phrase, or a word to be found in the * Pickwick Papers.'
" I never saw Mr. Seymour's handwriting, I believe, in my life.
" I never even saw Mr. Seymour but once in my life, and that was within eight-and-forty hours of his untimely death. Two persons, both still living, were present on that short occasion. Mr. Sey- mour died when only twenty-four printed pages of the ' Pickwick Papers ' were published ; I think before the next twenty-four pages were completely written ; I am sure before one subsequent line of the book was inserted."
In a letter to his son, the author throws some more light on the subject : —
" 6, Southwick Place, Hyde Park, " April 4th, 1866.
" MY DEAR CHAELEY, — There has been going on for years an attempt on the part of Seymour's widow, to extort money from me, by representing that he had some inexplicable and ill-used part in the invention of Pickwick ! ! ! I have dis- regarded it until now, except that I took the precaution some years ago, to leave among my few papers Edward Chapman's testimony to the gross falsehood and absurdity of the idea.
" But last week I wrote a letter to the Athenceum about it, in consequence of Seymour's son re-
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 39
viving the monstrosity. I stated in that letter that I had never so much as seen Seymour but once in my life, and that was some eight-and- forty hours before his death. I stated also that two persons still living were present at the short interview. Those were your uncle Frederick and your mother. I wish you would ask your mother to write to you, for my preservation among the aforesaid few papers, a note giving you her re- membrance of that evening — of Frederick's after- wards knocking at our door before we were up, to tell us that it was in the papers that Seymour had shot himself, and of his perfect knowledge that the poor little man and 1 looked upon each other for the first and last time that night in Furnival's Inn. It seems a superfluous precaution, but I take it for the sake of our descendants long after. " Yours ever affectionately,
"C. D."
In a new preface, added later, he also took care to put on record his view of this transaction: —
"It is with great unwillingness that I notice some intangible and incoherent assertions which have been made, professedly on behalf of Mr. Sey- mour, to the effect that he had some share in the invention of this book, or of anything in it, not faithfully described in the foregoing paragraph. With the moderation that is due equally to my respect for the memory of a brother-artist and to
4o THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
my self-respect, I confine myself to placing on record here the facts : —
" That Mr. Seymour never originated or sug- gested an incident, a phrase, or a word, to be found in this book. That Mr. Seymour died when only twenty-four pages of this book were published, and when assuredly not forty-eight were written. That I believe I never saw Mr. Seymour's handwriting in my life. That I never saw Mr. Seymour but once in my life, and that was on the night but one before his death, when he certainly offered no suggestion whatsoever. That I saw him then in the presence of two persons both living, perfectly acquainted with all these facts, and whose written testimony to them I possess. Lastly, that Mr. Edward Chapman (the survivor of the original firm of Chapman and Hall) has set down in writing, for similar preser- vation, his personal knowledge of the origin and progress of this book, of the monstrosity of the baseless assertions in question, and (tested by details) even of the self-evident impossibility of there being any truth in them. In the exercise of the forbearance on which I have resolved, I do not quote Mr. Edward Chapman's account of his deceased partner's reception, on a certain occasion, of the pretences in question."
Nothing but the brilliancy of the young author and the spirit of the publishers could have saved
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 41
the venture after this serious check, at its very starting. Yet the loss of Seymour, tragic as were the circumstances, was certainly an unmixed benefit ; for had he continued to be connected with it, the "sporting" character of the work must have developed ; and scenes and situations would have had to be supplied, or " put in for the benefit of Mr. Seymour ;" and the writer have been unable to take that free, unfettered course which has made the book what it is.4
4 Seymour furnished some clever etchings to a little book, published by Messrs. Chapman and Hall in 1835, and called " The Squib Annual." One of the plates represents a sort of prison yard, and the warder is somewhat of an anticipation of Mr. Pickwick, having his short portly figure, low-crowned hat, shorts and boots.
III.
THE embarrassment caused to the new venture by this casualty was excessive. An artist had to be supplied at once, and it was difficult to know to whom to apply. Who was now to work out the "sporting-cockney" theme, for which Seymour had such a gift ? In the new number the in- dulgence of the public was humbly solicited : —
" Some apology is due to our readers with only three plates. When we say they comprise Mr. Seymour's last efforts, and that upon one of them in particular (the Stroller's Tale) he was engaged to a late hour of the night preceding his death, we feel confident the excuse will be deemed a sufficient one.
" Some time must elapse before the void the deceased gentleman has left can be filled up. The blank his death has occasioned in the society which his amiable nature won and his talents adorned, we can hardly hope to see supplied."
In the dearth of suitable talent for the purpose — Cruikshank and Seymour were indeed the only
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 43
etchers of reputation — the publishers esteemed themselves fortunate in having selected an artist of note — viz. Mr. Buss. This gentle- man was a painter of much merit, and had exhibited at the Academy. He had a talent for painting pictures suitable for engraving and likely to hit the public taste. One of these, which was highly popular, exhibited " Sir Walter Ealeigh smoking his first pipe," where the consternation of the servant on entering is humorously conveyed.1 Mr. John Jackson, a well-known wood-engraver, at the time working for the firm, had been applied to, to help them out of their difficulty, and sug- gested this artist, who was unacquainted with the mystery of etching. He had been a pupil of that capital theatrical portrait-painter, Clint, and was employed to illustrate Cumberland's " British Theatre" with sketches of Harley and other comedians. We may suppose, however, from his acquaintance with Jackson, that he could design on the wood. Sixteen years later we find him, in announcing a course of lectures, thus describing himself : — " Mr. R. W. Buss, painter, designer on
1 Another picture now in the possession of his son, the Rev. Alfred Buss, was even more popular. It is entitled " Satis- faction," and represents with bitter irony the issue of a duel, in which one of the combatants has been killed and the other mortally wounded. The scene is dramatically expressed, and the costumes — the long cloaks, caps, &c.,are quite Pickwickian.
44 THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
wood, and etcher, begs to inform the committee," &c.
One of the firm now waited on him and ex- plained their difficult situation, promising, more- over, due consideration for his lack of practice. His son, Mr. Alfred Buss, writes : — " After much pressure, he consented to put aside the picture he was preparing for exhibition, and to undertake the work. He began at once to practise the various operations of etching and biting in. The subjects were then selected. When, however, he began to etch them on the plate, he found the wax break up under the etching point, as he had little or no experience in laying it. Time was precious, but as the pressure was very great, and the time so short, he secured the services of a professional etcher." The result was the unsatis- factory " Buss Plates " now found in a few copies of the first edition, and which, by a curious com- pensation, a,re sought for with as much avidity by collectors as though they were rare gems of art. One represented the " cricket match," with very stout players, and an elderly gentleman " fielding," the other Tupman and the " spinster aunt " in the arbour, not very successful either in design or execution.2
2 I have seen many of his little experiments in pen and ink, which are spirited enough, and dashed off with much freedom.
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 45
Among the artist's sketches and finished drawings are several designs for these two scenes. One of the cricketers is shown receiving a blow of the ball on his face, which no doubt was found too farcical. He confessed candidly enough that " there was a vague impression on my mind that these etchings were abominably bad, and utterly devoid of promise and hope ;" so the result was not surprising.
By the time the next number was ready a great alteration had been made in the plan of the undertaking. Before the dismissal of Mr. Buss, a change was made in the length of each part and number of illustrations, the pages being increased to thirty-two, and the plates reduced to two. This was announced in the following address, dated May 30, 1836 :—
" We announced in our last, that the ensuing numbers of the ' Pickwick Papers ' would appear in an improved form ; and we now beg to call the attention of our readers to the fulfilment of our promise.
" Acting upon a suggestion which has been made to them from various influential quarters, the Publishers have determined to increase the quantity of letterpress in every monthly part, and to diminish the number of plates. It will be seen that the present number contains eight additional pages of closely printed matter, and
46 THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
two engravings by Mr. Buss, a gentleman already well known to the public as a very humorous and talented artist.
" The alterations in the plan of the work entail upon the Publishers a considerable expense, which nothing but a large circulation would justify them in incurring. They are happy to have it in their power to state that the rapid sale of the two first numbers, and the daily increasing demand for the periodical, enables them to acknowledge the patronage of the public in the way which they hope will be deemed most accept- able.
" May 30th, 1836."
The artist was now busy designing other plates for the succeeding numbers — among which were the " tipsy scene " in Wardle's kitchen ; " The elopement," which is curiously like Browne's plate, and Winkle's accidental shooting of Tuprnan, all three a vast improvement on the first attempts— when he received a communication that his further services were to be dispensed with. This dismissal was felt bitterly, and brought great mortification. It must be said the fault was not altogether his. In an elaborate statement which he drew up for his children, he set out his case, under a sense of having been dealt with unjustly.3
3 With his son, the Eev. Alfred Buss, the Vicar of St. James's, Curtain Koad, Shoreditch, I lately spent an agreeable morning,
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 47
This feeling lay dormant for nearly forty years, until it was awakened by an allusion in Mr. Forster's " Life of Dickens." It must be said, however, that his style of humour was unsuited to that of " Pickwick," though it is quite clear that he had to bear the consequences of his unlucky ignorance of the art of etching. It is this part of the work that is inferior. He gives this account of the matter in his statement : —
"I was in an evil hour induced to place my de- signs in the hands of an engraver to be etched and bitten in. The work he did very well indeed, but, as might have been expected, had I time for thought, the free touch of the original work was entirely wanting. The etching itself failed, but the biting in was admirably done. Time was up. The plates must be placed at once in the printers' hands. Thus my name appeared to designs, not one touch of which was on the plates. I felt greatly annoyed at all this, and, had I been allowed time, would have cancelled these two plates." He had carefully prepared a third design, which he had submitted to the firm as a specimen, and this is executed with some delicacy and cleverness, and with humour too.
"I also got ready," he says, "a Pickwick
during the course of which he was kind enough to lay before me all his father's papers, sketches, proofs, &c. ; on a careful examination of which the account just given is based.
48 THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
design to try my power. It is taken from the de- scription of Mr. Pickwick at the review, when he was pushed forward by a crowd behind him, and jammed backward by a tall grenadier. As might be expected, it is thin and scratchy in exe- cution." * Of this plate there are believed to be only one or two copies. The others have been reproduced.
The artist was later much employed as an illustrator of books, and had considerable success. Mr. Colburn engaged him to illustrate the diverting story of Mrs. Trollope, " The Widow Married," which " ran " in the Neiv Monthly. We find his work also in the Penny Magazine. But his more remarkable efforts, which have merit for their drawing and etching, are his illustra- tions to Captain Marryatt's " Peter Simple," which show much spirit and correct colouring in their costumes and incidents. There we see in the limbs and attitudes his knowledge of drawing.5
The firm had fortunately secured another illustrator, a difficult task indeed, though they had offers enough. "I can remember," so Mr.
* Memoir.
6 He also was engaged to illustrate Mrs. Trollope's " Michael Armstrong, ' and Harrison Ainsworth's " Court of James II.," for the New Monthly, where he tried to imitate the grim, realistic style of Cruikshank.
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 49
Thackeray told the story at one of the Academy dinners, " when Mr. Dickens was a very young man, and had commenced delighting the world with some charming humorous works, in covers which were light green, and came out once a month ; that this young man wanted an artist to illustrate his writings. I recollect walking up to his chambers in Furnival's Inn, with two or three drawings in my hand, which strange to say, he did not find suitable." Thackeray's sketches for his own works have a certain attraction of individuality and even humour, but they have what may be called an "amateurish" air.6 They are moreover uncertain, as though the result did not answer the artist's intentions. He would have been unsuited to the task.7
By a fortunate chance, selection was made of Mr. Hablot K. Browne, a most competent person, whose work was exactly adapted to the story, and who through his long connection with Dickens showed an extraordinary flexibility and genius, that was really invaluable for a work that spread over so vast a field of adventure and character.
6 Thackeray's style, Mr. Buss tells us, was founded on that of the caricaturist Bunbury, and was therefore old-fashioned and not original.
7 Another candidate was Leech, one of whose delicately drawn sketches, for Tom Smart's story, is reproduced in the Victoria edition.
50 THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
Much interesting detail, as to " Phiz's " connec- tion with Dickens, will be found in the hand- some quarto volume, on " Phiz," written by Mr. Thomson.
It was indeed later stated, that "Phiz " also, like Buss, was inexperienced in the technical parts of etching, and, like him, had to call in assistance.8 Mr. Jackson, the engraver, however, states that Phiz could etch perfectly, and mentions a large plate of John Gilpin's ride, which was his work. It would seem this very etching led to his engagement. It was Mr. Jackson, it will be recollected, who recommended Buss, and after the latter was engaged, Mr. Chapman chanced to call on Jackson, and was attracted by this picture. " Mr. Chapman in common with every one who had seen it, was delighted with it, and forthwith applied to Browne." The truth, however, was that Phiz was already a most competent artist, having been long in Messrs. Finden's employment; and only -transferred the work to an assistant when he was pressed for time.
8 Mr. Buss, in his Memoir, speaks of some " proofs " of the plates in " Nicholas Nickleby," which were " worked on only by 'Phiz,' and which may be compared with their finished state after they had been treated by Sands." The latter, who was .an old friend of Buss's, naturally claimed as much credit as he could for his assistance, and appeals to one of the drawings on which this direction by Browne was written : " The outlines of the figure I have etched in with a broad point, intentionally ; bite them slightly that they may not be too hard."
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 51
All the characters, indeed, who were attracted to the bright and buoyant Dickens seemed to have something of his spirit in their nature. The new illustrator found for "Pickwick" was a young fellow, just one-and-twenty, shrewdly observant, and pleasant, and known as Hablot Knight Browne. He was one of the youngest of fifteen children. The family had good connections, and two of his brothers distinguished themselves in the army and in the Church. He was called " Hablot " after a French officer who was engaged to one of the family, and who was killed at Waterloo.
In his line, Browne was as industrious and fertile and as much in demand as Dickens. Two of his early plates to " Pickwick " are marked with " Nemo " in faint characters in the corner, but he later adopted the well-known " Phiz," to be in harmony with his collaborator "Boz."9 He became, indeed, the author's second self in the designing of these pictures, adapting himself with infinite resource to the hurried conditions of the venture. Dickens used to tell how often he had merely to explain to the artist in a few words, the character of the situation, which the latter caught
9 " Phiz, whizz, or something of the kind," was T. Hook's joke. "I think," said the artist, " I signed myself as 'Nemo' to my first etchings, before adopting ' Phiz ' as my sobriquet, to harmonize, I suppose, better with Dickens's ' Boz.' "
E 2
52 THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
with admirable instinct and intelligence. On other more fortunate occasions the proofs were read to him. It need not be said that there is an art, not merely in giving a representation of the described scene, but in supplying what the public will accept as expressing what they have read. Mr. Thomson has some shrewd observations on this point.
It was felt that a work containing specimens of three artists, two of whom were scarcely in " touch " with the narrative, could not be con- sidered as well harmonized. Buss's productions impaired the effect as the leaves were turned over, and it was determined that the industrious Browne should supply substitutes for these. He accord- ingly re-drew Seymour's plates in the early parts, and substituted others for the two of Buss's. Indeed the demand for the work was so great, that three sets of the illustrations were etched. When the work had run half its course, on issuing the tenth number, for December, 1836, "Boz" added this address to the reader, written without any affectation : — •
"Ten months have now elapsed since the appear- ance of the first number of the ' Pickwick Papers.' At the close of the year, and the conclusion of half his task, their author may perhaps without any unwarrantable intrusion on the notice of the public, venture to say a few words of himself.
" He has long been desirous to embrace the first
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 53
opportunity of announcing, that it is his intention to adhere to his original pledge of confining this work to twenty numbers. He has every tempta- tion to exceed the limits he first assigned to himself, the brilliant success, an enormous and increasing sale, the kindest notice and the most extensive popularity can hold out. They are one and all sad temptations to an author ; but he has determined to resist them ; firstly, because he wishes to keep the strictest faith with his readers ; and secondly, because he is most anxious that when the posthumous papers of the Pickwick Club form a complete work, the book may not have to contend against the heavy disadvantage of being prolonged beyond his original plan.
" For ten mouths longer, then, if the author be permitted to retain his health and spirits, the ' Pickwick Papers ' will be issued in their present form, and will then be completed. By what fresh adventures they may be succeeded is no matter for present consideration. The author merely hints that he has strong reason to believe that a great variety of other documents still lie hidden in the repository from which these were taken, and that they may one day see the light.
" With this short speech Mr. Pickwick's stage manager makes his most grateful bow, adding, on behalf of himself and his publishers, what the late eminent Mr. John Richardson, of Horsemonger
54 THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
Lane, and the yellow caravan with the brass knocker, always said on behalf of himself and company, at the close of every performance, " Ladies and gentlemen, for these marks of your favour, we beg to return you our sincere thanks, and allow us to inform you, that we shall keep respectively going on, beginning again, and regularly until the end of the fair."
The work, as we said, must have been prosper- ing exceedingly to triumph over the periodical shocks or blows that it received in its course. It is rare that we find an undertaking planned to exhibit the talents of a particular artist, all but shipwrecked after starting, by the sudden death of that person. But a greater danger even arises from any interruption in supplying the public with what it expects to receive, and has contracted for. The general reader is touchy and capricious, and resents such freedoms.
Dickens was tenderly attached to one of his wife's sisters, Mary Hogarth, an interesting person. It was in the month of May, 1837, when his "Pickwick" was riding on the swelling tide of popularity that this young lady died suddenly. He felt the blow in an extraordinary way, and so poignant was his grief that he found it impossible to apply his thoughts to the humorous story he was conducting. It was actually suspended — to the consternation of the publishers — to wait his
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 55
return to composure. The first of the month went by without the flutter of the customary green leaves, and the fretted, eager public had to wait all the month of June without their supply. He found it necessary, with the July number, to issue an address explaining the delay, and this address, it may be said, showed that he was still nervous and overwrought.
" 186, Strand, June 30, 1837. " The author is desirous to take the opportunity afforded him by his resumption of this work to state once again, what he thought had been stated sufficiently emphatically before, namely, that its publication was interrupted by a severe domes- tic affliction of no ordinary kind, that this was the sole cause of the non-appearance of the present number in its usual course, and that henceforth it will continue to be published with its accustomed regularity. However superfluous this second notice may appear to many, it is rendered necessary by various idle speculations and absurdi- ties which have been industriously propagated during the past month, which have reached the author's ears from many quarters, and have grieved him exceedingly. By one set of intimate acquaintances, especially well informed, he has been killed outright; by another driven mad; by a third imprisoned for debt; by a fourth left per steamer for the United States ; by a fifth rendered
56 THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
incapable of mental exertion for evermore ; by all, in short, represented as doing anything but seeking a few weeks' retirement, the restoration of cheerfulness and peace, of which a sad be- reavement has necessarily deprived him."
A curious form of " Address," with jocose com- ments by the editor, had been used by Hood and others in the London Magazine. They are too familiar, but are in the spirit of the time. Our author prints for his readers a ludicrous remon- strance addressed to him, on the score of the cab- man's supposed cruel treatment of his horse : —
"If it is carelessness only, it maybe corrected if it be bad taste ; but perhaps you could in another paper point out to the obtuse like myself, the wit or humour of depicting the noblest of animals faint, weary and over- driven, subjected to a brute, only to be tolerated because he at least is ignorant of the creature and his Creator."
" This is evidently," said the author, " a very pleasant person, a fellow of infinite fancy. We shall be happy to receive other communications from the same source, and on the same terms, that is to say, post paid." This is the style of the "Mudfog" papers.
In November, 1837, the last number of "Pick- wick " was issued, and the happy conclusion was celebrated by a dinner, " with himself in the chair, and Talfourdin the vice-chair, everybody in hearty good-humour with every other body."
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 57
In Mr. Forster's library at South Kensington there is a handsome copy of " Pickwick," a pretty specimen of binding, delicately tooled. There were three copies sent to him by the publishers, " extra super bound," as he called them, in the month of December, 1837, the work being now com- plete. He presented one to his wife, another to Ains worth, and the third to Forster.
When the last number had been issued, and the work was published in its final shape, the pseudonym of " Boz " was discarded, and the real name of the writer placed on the title- page.1
Another of the wonders connected with this wonderful book is that while he was furnishing his pleasant contingent of fun and humour, month by month, and before he was half way through it, he had begun, in January, 1837, another story, " Oliver Twist." Thus, for eleven months there were two streams of fun and humour gushing forth, without the slightest sign of confusion, or of flagging power and interest. He was also editing a magazine. Nor was this all. He had actually contracted with Macrone, the publisher, to fur- nish him with a third novel !
1 This epigram was in one of the magazines: — Who " the Dickens " " Boz " could be,
Puzzled many a learned elf, But time unveiled the mystery,
And " Boz " appeared as Dickens' self.
58 THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
" Monday, May 8, 1836.
"MY DEAR MACRONE, — I shall have great pleasure in accepting from you the sum of 200L for the first edition of a work of fiction (in three volumes of the usual type) to be written by me, and to be entitled ' Gabriel Vardon, the Lock- smith of London,' of which not more than 1000 copies are to be printed.
" I also understand that the before-mentioned 200L are to be paid by you, on delivery of the entire manuscript — on or before the 30th day of November next, or as soon afterwards as I can possibly complete it."2
This impossible agreement was, however, can- celled, at a heavy sacrifice. During this busy year, the author also brought out two plays ! 3
Talfourd,an accomplished, many-sided character, was a dramatic critic of delicacy, skill and power, as also a writer of much finish and art in works of " long breath," such as his life of Lamb. He moreover worked at his profession with great success, and on the circuit contended for the lead with such an opponent as Maule. This versatile
2 Nearly two hundred letters of Dickens were in Mr. Ouvry's possession, and, at his death, were disposed of to an American newspaper. Some of these, including the one just quoted, were published in the Times of November 2, 1883.
3 Nor, again, was this all. He wrote a pamphlet, " Sunday under Three Heads," now literally worth more than its we ight in gold!
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 59
man had recently entered Parliament, and, after some minor efforts, had taken up a subject which was near to Dickens's heart, viz. the right of authors to enjoy the fruits of their labours, with protection from pillage. Talfourd, who sat for his native town, Heading, introduced his Copyright Bill early in the year 1837, in a speech of singular elegance and finish. It is likely indeed, from some of the pathetic turns, that his friend aided him in the composition. He, with the " trusty " Forster, were the friends whom Dickens regarded with most affection. He had watched over and fol- lowed the career of Pickwick and his followers, and at the happy close it was Talfourd who presided at the dinner given in celebration of the event. It was to Talfourd that he inscribed the work, in a dedication breathing a warm affection and gratitude.
" To SERGEANT TALFOURD, M.P., ETC., ETC. " MY DEAR SIR, — If I had not enjoyed the happi- ness of your private friendship, I should still have dedicated this work to you as a slight and most inadequate acknowledgment of the inestimable services you are rendering to the literature of your country,, and of the lasting benefits you will confer upon the authors of this and succeeding genera- tions, by securing to them and their descendants a permanent interest in the copyright of their works.
60 THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
" Many a fevered head and palsied hand will gather new vigour in the hour of sickness and distress from your excellent exertions ; many a widowed mother and orphan child, who would otherwise reap nothing from the fame of departed genius but the too frequent legacy of poverty and suffering, will bear, in her altered condition, higher testimony to the value of your labours than the most lavish encomiums from lip or pen could ever afford.
" Besides such tribute, any avowal of feeling from me on the question to which you have devoted the combined advantages of your elo- quence, character and genius, would be powerless indeed. Nevertheless, in thus publicly express- ing my deep and grateful sense of your efforts in behalf of English literature, and of those who devote themselves to the most precarious of all pursuits, I do but imperfect justice to your strong feelings on the subject, if I do no service to you.
" These few sentences would have comprised all I should have to say, if I had only known you in your public character. On the score of private feeling let me add a word more.
" Accept the dedication of this book, my dear sir, as a mark of my warmest regard and esteem, as a memorial of the most gratifying friendship I have ever contracted, and of some of the pleasantest hours I have ever spent, as a token of my fervent
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 61
admiration of every fine quality of your head and heart, as an assurance of the truth and sincerity with which I shall ever be,
" My dear Sir, " Most faithfully and sincerely yours,
" CHARLES DICKENS."
" 48, Doughty Street,
" September 27th, 1837."
Talfourd, un distracted from the serious pur- pose of his life by his connection with the stage, or his intimacy with this choice spirit of literature, was eventually appointed a judge, and it was in the year 1854, when holding the assizes at Stafford, that he died suddenly under tragic circumstances. The calendar was a heavy one, and marked by an unusual amount of dreadful crime. This seems to have affected him, and in his address he spoke in a very feeling way of the lack of sympathy that existed between the upper and lower classes, urging the former to show a livelier interest in those who were below them. Suddenly he fell forward on his book, and, being " carried from the Court by six gentlemen," was found to have expired.
It is curious to find — and many have been perplexed at the omission — that, when a new edition of the story was issued in 1847, this affec- tionate dedication to Talfourd was withdrawn ; and a simple " inscription as a memorial of
62 THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
friendship" substituted. Even this has disappeared from the later editions. Mr. Frederic Chapman has, however, informed me, that this omission was really owing to lack of room, when the cheaper editions came to be issued.
"The popularity of 'Pickwick,' " wrote Mr. For- ster, " outstripped at a bound that of all the most famous books of the century. The charm of its gaiety and good-humour, its inexhaustible fun, its riotous overflow of animal spirits, its bright- ness and keenness of observation, and, above all, the incomparable ease of its many varieties of enjoyment, fascinated everybody. Judges on the bench, and boys in the street, gravity and folly, the young and the old alike found it to be irresistible."
This is sound and excellent criticism. Farther on, he adds, " We had all become conscious in the very thick of the extravagance of adventure and fun set before us, that here were real people."
IV.
BIBLIOGRAPHY lias in our time become a regular science and supplies a minute and logical system of appraisement for settlingthe market value of books. The original edition of " Pickwick" takes a high place in the list of valuable books, but it engages all the skill of an expert to settle if a particular copy has all the requisite " points." This subject of what Mrs. Malaprop might have called the Biblio-idolatry of Dickens has of late years been carried to an extraordinary pitch. There can be no doubt there is a sort of fascination about it, which is founded to a great extent on the superior artistic merits of the books themselves, as specimens of typography, as also on their history and associa- tions. Further, "Pickwick" is so sincere and genuine, so full of allusions and so characteristic of its era, that it bears study and investigation, and what might seem trivial helps to increase the interest. The special form of issue in numbers or parts, each number set off with illustrations of a
64 THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
high character, resulted in a volume of particular form and character, which was a whole, and yet at the same time had the air of a number of separate episodes. The shape became, therefore, rather peculiar and exceptional — a large octavo, in amount equal to two volumes bound together. The paper was superfine, and the printing executed with much care ; and the illustrations, when fresh, and the plates unworn, have an attraction from their spirit and brilliancy. It must be remem- bered that the ordinary trade issues of our day are often machined, and the plates electrotyped ; whereas the delicacy of the original illustrations, which are etchings, forms an adornment to a volume. They are different from the hasty, carelessly drawn engravings which set off the common works of commerce.
It is indeed astonishing to find to what extent the principles of Bibliography have been applied to these works. There are already some half-dozen books dealing in the most minute way with the different editions and their illustrations. Such are Mr. F. Kitton's " Dickensiana" Mr. Dexter's " Memorial of Dickens," Mr. J. Cook's " Biblio- graphy," Mr. E. Herne Shepherd's, Mr. 0. Thomson's, and Mr. Johnson's volumes, all full of research and comparison ; with Mr. Anderson's, of the British Museum, ft Bibliography," the fullest and most scientific of all.
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 65
Mr. Plumptre Johnson, in his pretty volume, speaks very seriously of the difficulties that beset the collector, who yearns, like the owner of the " blue " teapot, to live up to a proper copy of the first edition of Pickwick. It might seem an easy thing, on the first thought, to obtain such a trouvaille, scarce though it may be : an order to an experienced bookseller might readily secure it. But there is as much difficult v here, as in
tt
being certain as to the originality of a picture. The first object is to see that the work is in its original numbers or parts, with the old green covers on. This is at least primd facie evidence of genuineness in the illustrations ; for later on the book was issued complete. Next must be pointed out the danger which besets the collector, owing to three " states " of each illustration being issued, after number 10 had appeared; and these, being mixed together, are found indiscrimi- nately in all the succeeding parts, the " first state " of one plate being in the same number with the " second state " of another. Mr. Johnson knew of a collector who possessed four copies in numbers, all in this unsatisfactory condition; but, by a system of exchanges and purchases, he at last succeeded at infinite toil in forming a perfect set, homogeneous as it were, when all the plates were of the same state. We may smile at this, but as we said, the perfect article is a different thing
p
66 THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
altogether from the ordinary edition of commerce. Everything, to be " desirable," should be com- plete, in its best and most natural shape, and in its proper order ; and degrees of merit are found in every work that comes from man's hand.
Another danger is from the spurious imitations and forgeries. To meet the demand, shall we say, of crazy amateurs, eager to have the two " sup- pressed Buss plates," these have been reproduced in different ways and offered as genuine. Evi- dences of later editions have been removed from the title-pages by the aid of chemicals ; portions have been reprinted, and sets " made up," as it is called, ingeniously " adulterated," as the old dry- asdusts used to say of the Shakespearian Folios.
" Pickwick " was published, as Mr. C. Plumptre Johnson tells us, " in twenty numbers, in green wrappers, one of which should be preserved." Of these seven plates were by Seymour, thirty-six by Phiz, and two by Buss. The last two are not essential as they were " suppressed," and two others " The influence of the salmon," and the " Arbour scene," by Phiz, substituted. The collector should see that all these plates are good impressions, and mark that they have no letterpress descriptions under them. He should also see that the plates by Buss are original impressions, as they have been republished in so-called facsimile.
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 67
The spurious plates were first issued on India paper only, in which form they could deceive nobody, but I have since seen copies on ordinary paper. It is also desirable to have the four notices issued with numbers 2, 3, 10 and 15 respectively. Browne's first specimens were singularly suc- cessful, and are now pleasing to look at, from the softness of the treatment and delicacy of the tints. These were " the upset," and the scene in the White Hart Inn — so interesting as a record of the days when the inn yards, with picturesque galleries running round in tiers, were frequented. The faces are almost as delicate as those of Cruik- shank's, whose work the plate suggests, and the details are sketched in a very artistic style. It is worth while putting one of the later copies — when the plate had been re-drawn, and re- issued again and again, — beside it. They are virtually different works. There is a good deal of persiflage, and perhaps contempt, displayed, at the expense of amateurs who collect mezzotints and engravings in different " states," who will give twenty pounds for a proof impression, and reject the ordinary engraving, though offered for five shillings : the truth being that, placed side by side, the inferior copy seems unendurable, half the shadows being worn away, the other half blackened and confused. The very dainty and interesting volume written by Mr. Dexter,
F 2
68 THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
entitled a " Dickens Memento," deals minutely with all the little notes and varieties by which the genuine plates and true first edition are to be known. As he shows, Part I. contains four etchings by Seymour ; " at least it should do so, " but ninety-nine copies out of every hundred have only Phiz's copies of these etchings. Part II. has only three etchings by the same artist, but these are not difficult to obtain as they were used in all the sets in parts and also in the first cloth issue."
The publishers, pressed by the demand for copies, for which an insatiate, delighted public were clamouring eagerly, were at their wits' end to supply them. It has been often repeated that they started with the modest impression • of 500 copies, but at the close were furnishing 30,000. As in the case of appreciating the value of money in old days, this circulation, considering the restrained dimensions of publishing, and the difficulties of dis- seminating books, was certainly equivalent to double that amount in our time. These figures may be gathered from what was called " The Pickwick Advertiser," the leaves sewed up at the end of each number, and which, in number 18, for Oct. 2, 1837, sets out that, " The impres- sion of the advertising sheet is limited to 20,000, but the circulation of the work being 29,000, that
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 69
number of bills is required." It will be seen that before the close the work must have risen by another 1000.
We have spoken of the curious variations that occur in the replicas of the plates : and it may be asked how these are to be accounted for. As mere slavish copying, whether in writing or draw- ing, is found infinitely more tedious than original work, our artist copied rather freely and with such improvements and variations as occurred to him. Hence is opened up a great field for collectors, who must look warily to see that their plates are
A>
in the first or second state, as it may be.1 The
1 Dr. Brougham, the Dean of Lismore, an enthusiastic Pickwickian, has kindly collated for me the variations of the etchings in his three copies, with this result : —
" Frontispiece. A. and B. the same, and signed " Phiz fecit." In C. it is signed "Phiz del." In C.Pickwick's footstool is different, and his glass is empty, also the faces on the pillars differ from those in A. and B. Opposite picture in A. and B. "Phiz fecit." In C. "Phiz feet;" also the Marquis of Granby's pigtail is different, and TFeller is spelt with W. instead of V. as in A. and B.
p. 69. Cricket match at Dingley Dell f ' drawn and etch'd by S. W. Buss/' not in A. or C.
p. 74. Arbour scene in B. " Drawn and etch'd by S. W. Buss," a totally different version of same scene by "Phiz" in A. and C.
p. 313. Skating scene. Same in A. and B. In C. Winkle's skates and gloves are given, also a stake in the ice, at right front. Snodgrass's face, and Emily Wardle's bonnet strings are also different, and there is a little church steeple in background.
p. 343. The Valentine, same in A, andB In C. Sam's face.
7o THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
truth is, the whole impression was mixed, the publishers issuing such plates as they had to hand,
and the buttons on old Weller's coat are different, and there is a bow on the bell cord, which is not in A. and B. " Grimes " is misspelt in all, and the (j in Dublin is turned wrong.
p. 354. The Trial. Missing from C. A. differs from B. in the figures of the lawyers in back benches, the face of Buzfuz and the shape of his brief. Mr. Perker's hat is beside him in B. but not in A., and they differ in several small details in foreground.
p. 409. A. and C. the same. B. is different in book-case in background ; man's face at window ; position of Mr. Winkle's cigar, and the spoon in his tumbler. Bob Sawyer's face is also different in B. from A. and C.
p. 434. A. and C. the same. In B. the window is different, also the hands of the clock, the back of Pickwick's chair, and the pewter on floor in front.
p. 441. "The Zephyr." Same in A. and C. ; in B. the clothes on the line are different \ also the bedclothes to right ; the Zephyr's cap and face of man singing. In A. and C. there are two balls in front ; in C. it looks like a glass.
p. 453. A. differs from B. and C., first in the potato falling from Job Trotter's dish, the face of the girl watering the flowers, the faces of the old man and child in front. A. is signed "Phiz," but B. and C. " Phiz del."
p. 495. Contents of basket in foreground, and Mrs. Cluppins' profile, different in A. from B. and C.
p. 533. (Bob Sawyer on top of chaise.) In B. the man cheer- ing in background has a bundle hanging on his stick. This is not in A. and C. ; also the following are same in A. and C. and different from B. : — Sam Weller's cuffs, the face of the coachman and man beside him. Left leg of fallen child in fore- ground.
p. 553. " The rival Editors." Missing from C. In A., " Phiz del." (very small) ; in B., "Phiz del." All the details in these, contents of dresser, mantlepiece, differ.
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 71
whether of the first or second state. In many copies, which are apparently first editions, the plates of the last portion of the volume are the re- engraved ones, and this is known by their having a description under each plate, whereas the earliest set of plates had only a reference to the page.
Browne soon acquired freedom and boldness of touch, and his plates appear to have been re-engraved in a dashing, rapid style, and in rough, vigorous fashion ; though the faint, delicate strokes, the velvety textures, have disappeared, every line is thick, strong, and black ; witness the stretched reins of the horse in Winkle's scene with the " tall quadruped." Thus, a large cir- culation has its drawbacks.
Some of these variations which ingenious students have puzzled out, are certainly curious and interesting. Such, for instance, as the scene of Mr. Pickwick seated in his wheel-
p. 579. A. and B. the same. In C. Mary has no shoe- strings, and one of the hind legs of the fat boy's chair is seen, which is not in A. and B.
p. 590. In A. and B. there is a little bottle beside Mr. Pell's glass, not in C. The oyster shells on floor and table are the same in A. and B., but different in C.
It is curious how sometimes A. and B. differ from C., and sometimes A. and C. from B. ; and also, how much oftener these differences occur in the beginning and end, than towards the middle of the work."
Thus far the Dean : but at the close of the work we shall return to the subject.
72 THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
barrow in the pound, where there were origi- nally two donkeys, but one was later "taken out."
Some editions have at the bottom of the title- page, " Phiz feet.," and the amateur must look to it that it is thus abbreviated. In other editions over the inn door there is read in legible characters, " Tony Veller, licensed to sell beer, spirits, tobacco." In the first edition we find " PHIZ fecit " in large characters and in full ; while " Tony Veller " only, can be made out over the door. The frontispiece has " Phiz Feet." on the left hand at the bottom. On some frontispieces " Phiz " is on one side of the shield, and " feet." on the other. This informa- tion we owe to Mr. Morris of Eastbourne. Unluckily, there is no certainty in the matter, and the point of priority is hotly debated.
Bat even these varieties, carefully ascertained, do not bring rest or security. Some urge that the true first edition should have " Feller" on the signboard; other copies have " TFeller." This was carrying idiomatic particularity too far, as the sign-painter must have spelled the name correctly : for we have Mr. Weller's own authority, " put it down a Wee."
A true copy of "Pickwick," with all the condi- tions and in a fine state, was lately sold at Sotheby's for over 201. But here is a choice (S well-found "
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 73
copy which Messrs. Robson and Kerslake were " offering " some time ago : —
"Pickwick Papers, 1837. Bound in 2 vols., and containing 2 cancelled plates by Buss, in addition to those substituted for them ; 1 un- published plate by Buss (" The Review "), in two states, plain and coloured; a set of 32 extra coloured plates by Onwhyn ; 2 sets of Pailthorpe's Illustrations, India proofs and coloured ; a set of extra coloured plates by Crowquill; a set of 4 Original Illustrations to the Pickwick Papers,' being 16 wood engravings ; a set of coloured plates by Phiz, from the Household Edition ; 2 India-proof plates by F. Barnard; 2 engraved vignettes; 6 very pretty full-page wood engrav- ings, by Phiz; frontispiece to the 'Charles Dickens' edition, by Leslie ; and specially printed titles."
This shows what " capability," as Mr. Robins used to say, there lies in our good and sound Pickwick. It can be developed to any extent, a " swellin' wisibly" by all sorts of adornments. A list of the artists who have illustrated "Pickwick" would be a long one. It would include Seymour, Buss, "Phiz," Onwhyn, Pailthorpe, Crowquill, Barnafd, Leslie ; besides many American and Australian artists.
There is a curious mystery, or it may be finality, in this connection of original illustrations with the text, from which, bad, indifferent or good, they
74 THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
are not to be divorced. They have been engen- dered with it : they have come, in response to the author's ideal ; he at least has accepted them. They have been produced under his prompting and direction. Such are strong recommendations; but a more important cause for their acceptance is that the reader has come to know the characters and scenes in this shape. The newer designs have no authenticity, and are distasteful because strange. Within the last few years Mr. F. Barnard, a clever artist, has issued some elaborately finished drawings of some of Dickens' leading characters. They are full of force, and, being on a large scale, the expression of the features is brought out with many minute and distinct touches. Yet somehow this very precision seems to remove them from us to a distance. They are not like our old favourites, which were generalized by a few vigorous strokes. This artist, has, for instance, given a capital portrait of the housebreaking ruffian in " Oliver Twist," but it is not our Sikes. So has Mr. Frith done Dolly Yarden and Kate Nickleby, very charming and popular portraits ; but we find ourselves objecting that Dolly's mouth is " not like," or not like what we expected.
In truth we must feel to these posthumous illustrations much as we do in the case of some celebrated person whom we are to meet, and
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 75
whom we have been hearing of all our lives, but whose face and figure do not correspond, be- cause our imagination has formed for us another ideal. Nothing physical, indeed, could correspond to the fanciful sketch of our imagination. But when the idea and the expression have grown together, they harmonize. It is so with the illustrations which have been presented to us in company with the writer's fancies.
The later illustrator of " Pickwick " should hardly venture to touch scenes that have been already treated ; they seem sacred. But it might be allowable to treat others that have not been attempted, provided they are treated in the same style. Thus Mr. Pailthorpe has done some etchings on this principle, which, when bound up, match very fairly with the original series. There is one plate happily selected, depicting a truly humorous incident, when Mr. Pickwick is refused hospitality at an inn, being suspected of having stolen the " tall quadruped," and which is worthy of all praise.
Many years ago " Phiz " was employed to illustrate a cheap edition of " Pickwick " which Messrs Chapman and Hall were about to issue. These drawings were on the wood, and offer a curious contrast to the original work of the artist. We look in vain for the familiar lineaments of the various " Pickwickians." There was little
76 THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
attempt to carry out the accepted likeness of Pickwick, Winkle, &c., and any faces or figures that occurred to him seem to have been dashed in or off, as hurriedly as possible. The only solution is that the artist had lost his former " cunning," and, what was more sad, only eager to earn his crust, with as little exertion of his talents as possible.
Dickens had marvellous tact in appreciating the nice proprieties of illustration, and freely made objection and suggestions when he was not satisfied. These were often written on the draw- ing itself. As when the plate of Mrs. Leo Hunter at her party was sent to him : "I think it would be better," he wrote, fc if Pickwick had hold of the Bandit's arm. If Minerva tried to look a little younger, more like Mrs. Pott, who is perfect, I think it would be an additional improvement." The hostess had been represented as tall and rather stout. It is pleasant to have glimpses of these councils.
One naturally believes that if a writer minutely and carefully describe his scene in such a way that it rises to the mind's eye, the artist can have no difficulty. But the more minutely the writer describes the scene, the harder will it be for the artist to give effect to the description. If the writer mark the principal characters well, and leave the remainder of the incident in what
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 77
artists call " mystery," the task of the illustrator is comparatively easy. But when the author enters into details, and describes with care what he wishes to impress on the readers, the labour of the draughtsman rises in proportion. The artist has to be careful to follow all the points brought forward by the writer, and to see that each detail is subordinate to the whole. When the author is precise, the illustrator has to be general ; when the writer is vague, the artist is free.
For these reasons the failure of the Buss plates was not so much owing to the failure of artistic power as to the sentiment of the writer being missed. The expression fails to satisfy the reader who has just read the description.
y.
ONE of the chief attractions of " Pickwick," and a secret of its popularity, is the singular flavour of its descriptions. This is really extra- ordinary, and denotes a rare power, and a vivid dramatic sentiment. The characteristic costumes, old-fashioned and effective, which enter into, and colour the story, the bits of description of Old London, legitimately helping on the narrative, the admirable painting of such things as inn life in country towns, coaching, with a hundred other touches, all add to the charm. There are some places, however, which live again for us, as they did sixty years ago, with a singular and effective vitality, such as Rochester and Bath. The colours here are " laid " with some of the tranquil grace of Miss Austen : there is little personal description, and in every movement and every touch we are conscious of that peculiar note of its own which distinguishes every place, and gives it a special charm, though but few possess the gift of discovering or describing it. It is much the same in the case of painting. We often turn to a collection of " Views of the Cathedrals of
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 79
England," either engraved or photographed, and
hich seem to us so many imposing buildings of
merit, and of many varieties ; yet who has not
felt, after a visit say to Salisbury or Canterbury,
that he has hitherto had little idea of the charm of
the building ? It is the peculiar tone of the place,
its surroundings, its relation to the town, its
skies and colouring that is wanting. No pictured
" elevation " of Salisbury Cathedral can furnish
an idea of the fane itself, with its acute spire and
peculiar tint, its strange air of solitariness, its
retired close. But the painter, Constable, has
pierced to the true note, and his fine picture brings
before us the whole poetry of the scene, the airy,
hovering clouds, the peculiar greens of the place,
the relation of the trees and skies to the central
object. It is the same with these old-fashioned,
slumbering towns, round which still hover old
and ghostly glories.
Rochester, and the neighbouring Chatham, is but little changed from the Pickwickian days. The old High Street has still a tranquil " snoozing " air, with its overhanging houses ; and the old inns look very much as they did when the coach drove up to the Bull Inn with Mr. Pickwick and his friends on the outside. If we visit Rochester, we feel, as Sam says, that "we have knowd him afore," so perfectly has the tone been caught in the story. We have exactly the same sensations as
8o THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
the party Lad, when we are set down, arriving as strangers at the snug "Bull." While dinner is getting ready there is no excitement, but still pleasure of a curious kind. As we dine we hear Mr. Jingle asking the waiter : —
" Devil of a mess on the staircase, waiter," said the stranger. " Forms going up — carpenters coming down — lamps, glasses, harps. What's going forward ? "
" Ball, sir," said the waiter.
" Assembly, eh ? "
" No, sir, not Assembly, sir. Ball for the benefit of a charity, sir."
Three of the guests secure tickets. " Mr. Tracy Tupman and the stranger entered the ball-room.
" It was a long room, with crimson-covered benches, and wax candles in glass chandeliers. The musicians were securely confined in an elevated den, and quadrilles were being systema- tically got through by two or three sets of dancers. Two card-tables were made up in the adjoining card-room, and two pair of old ladies and a corresponding number of stout gentlemen were executing whist therein."
The room is still shown, and how curious is the feeling of looking at one of these rare hotel ball- rooms ! The " elevated den " is still there.
Many years ago, in the lifetime of the author, when staying at Gadshill, I walked betimes on
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 81
one Sunday morning, into the old town, where, for the moment, I seemed to become one of the Pickwickians. Everything was redolent of the story. The pleasant green lanes, rather than roads, rose up and down : occasionally I encountered a gig, and a stray waggon or van. There was to be a race or a fair on the Monday, and here was a two-wheeled cart, the proprietor of which walked by his vehicle in a Sunday cloak made out of the gauzy and dappled oilcloth which served as his roulette board. After three or four miles, the great river and the bridge came in sight. And there, as the spectator stood upon the bridge, was a striking view indeed. Pressing on, I entered the little old town, which seemed a snake- shaped street with old rustic inns and posting yards, and a few ancient framed houses, their thin old bones and joints well looked to, and kept as fresh as paint could make them. Everything was as bright and clean as a Dutch town, even to the one policeman who, having little to do, began an affable conversation >. Taking another bend, the little old town showed me its well-rusted Queen Anne Town Hall with yellow stone corners, and a high French roof, and a delightful old clock, that hung out a great way over the street, in a mass of florid carving. Behind was a nicbe and a flamboyant statue of a naval officer, in gauntlets, pointing probably to the French, the
G
82 THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
brave old Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovel. Further on was a low edifice, unmistakable in character, with a portico and pillars, the Theatre Royal, with some faded bills, which I approached to read with interest. I found that, say, "Mr. George Jenby," the eminent character actor and vocalist, was to give two nights in this,
His NATIVE TOWN. Being assisted by
Miss Mary Jenby (of the London concerts),
Miss Susan Jenby (of the London and suburban concerts),
Mr. William Jenby (who was of no concerts at all),
and by The infant, Marie Jenby.
I wished the Jenby family all success, for I. was worked into sympathy with their efforts, by a pathetic quotation subjoined to the Bill, that
As the hare whom hounds and horns pursue, Pants to the spot from where at first it flew,
so had worthy Jenby and his family come to ask support from his " native town " l As was to be expected the host of Gadshill was delighted with this little touch.
Among the agreeable books written on the places described by Dickens, Mr. Langton's
1 This quaint little Rochester playhouse, which had an extra- ordinary Pickwickian air, has long since ceased to " function," and has been altered into some institution, a Conservative club, I believe.
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 83
account of Rochester and the author's associations with it, is the most interesting. As we said, this subject seems to have a sort of fascination, and we find writers of all sorts and conditions return- ing again and again to it. Connected himself with Rochester and Chatham, this gentleman has related some interesting particulars of Dickens's youth, showing also how he delighted to enshrine in his writings all his early and most cherished associations. It will be recollected that a retired spot " behind Fort Pitt " at Chatham was selected as the scene of Mr. Winkle's duel. This place, it appears, was the favourite ground for settling disputes that arose between the four schools of the town, to one of which Dickens had been sent, and with which he was no doubt familiar. The scholars at these seats of education were described in a popular distich, as : —
Baker's Bull-dogs,
Giles' cats, New Road Scrubbers,
Troy Town rats.
Dickens was at Giles' Academy.
Rochester with its inn, the latter minutely described, figures in one of the " Sketches by Boz," called " The Great Winglebury Duel." It was strangely entitled " The Blue Lion and Stomach Warmer," and had its " elegant and commodious " assembly-rooms. The tale is further curious as
G 2
84 THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
an anticipation of certain portions of Pickwick, there being a duel to come off, while a young lady, Miss Manners, visits the mayor, just as Miss Withersfield did Mr. Nupkins. The boots of the Blue Lion is placed on guard over one of the combatants, as Sam was over Mr. "Winkle.
There is also another account of the scenes described by Dickens, a special "Pickwickian Pilgrimage," by an American, Mr. Hassard, and written in a very genial spirit. For this gentle- man Rochester and the opening scenes had most attraction.
There is no doubt that this vivid conjunction of known localities with the characters has imparted a living force and a new interest to the story. It has made the Pickwickians live, move, and have their being in a very extraordinary degree. Dr. Slammer's second gave the clearest directions to the unhappy Winkle. " You know Fort Pitt; turn into the field which borders the trench, take the footpath when you arrive at an angle of the fortification, and keep straight on.'* " Following these instructions, we find ourselves in a rather lonely region of open meadow, with a clump of trees in the distance, much less secluded than it was in Mr. Winkle's time, for the houses are in full view."
The youthful and brilliant writer had taken stock of the manners and society of the place where he had been a boy, and from what we know of one specimen, it is likely that all the
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 85
characters were drawn from life. Slammer, the " PePPerj" doctor, was sketched from a Dr. Sam Piper, whom an old friend and brother officer describes as " a worthy, honest, single-minded man of the old school, given to swearing and other peculiarities, who was one of the ( characters ' of Chatham upon my first going there in 1836. He belonged to the Provisional Battalion of Chatham in days long ago. Upon the occasion of * Pick- wick ' being published, and the allusion to the Rochester Bah1, with Slammer's name, the latter, in the first instance, ' naturally ' thought of calling out the author, and, on second thoughts, of prosecuting him for libel. His true friends, however, strongly advised against this step." Looking over some papers lately, this remiuiscent gentleman found a letter of his ancient comrade, which is quite in the " Slammer" style : —
"New Hill: March 17, '58. " You, the two undermentioned officers, are hereby required to attend at my house, to-morrow, Thursday, at six o'clock, to meet only Dr. and
Mrs. , also to masticate and wash down your
food with good and wholesome wine. In neglect of, or disobeying this order, you are liable to be sworn at.
" Gentlemen, yours sincerely,
" SAM PIPER." 2
2 This was communicated to me by General Kent, an old friend of Dr. Piper's brother officer.
86 THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
The model for the " Fat Boy " was also supplied from Chatham, and the tradition there — as I have heard from several sources — is, that he was one James Budden, whose father kept the Red Lion Inn. He used to assist in the bar, as Mr. Kitton tells us, " his remarkable obesity at- tracting general attention ; but it is probably doubtful if he possessed the other remarkable characteristic — that of going to sleep in all sorts of places and attitudes. He acquired an esta- blishment of his own in High Street, Chatham, where, on more than one occasion, he was hon- oured by Dickens' s presence as a guest." In one of the " Sketches by Boz," entitled " Mr. Minns and his Cousin," there is a Mr. Octavius Budden (a retired corn-chandler), and his wife and son, who are said to have been members of the same family. Captain Budden was lately owner of Gadshill.
It may be added that Dickens was partial to Kentish names. Upwich, the greengrocer jury- man, was named after a little town in that county, and Mrs. Pott's " body-guard " possibly received hers from the Goodwin Sands.
The walk to Cobham, a charming bit of Kent, is described in " Pickwick : " —
" A delightful walk it was : for it was a pleasant afternoon in June, and their way lay through a deep and shady wood, cooled by the light wind
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 87
which gently rustled the thick foliage, and enlivened by the songs of the birds that perched upon the boughs. The ivy and the moss crept in thick clusters over the old trees, and the soft green turf overspread the ground like a silken mat. They emerged upon an open park, with an ancient hall, displaying the quaint and picturesque architecture of Elizabeth's time. Long vistas of stately oaks and elm-trees appeared on every side : large herds of deer were cropping the fresh grass ; and occasionally a startled hare scoured along the ground, with the speed of the shadows thrown by the light clouds which swept across a sunny land- scape like a passing breath of summer.
" ' And really,' added Mr. Pickwick, after half an hour's walking had brought them to the village, ' really, for a misanthrope's choice, this is one of the prettiest and most desirable places of residence I ever met ,with.' Having been directed to the Leather Bottle, a clean and commodious village ale-house, the three travellers entered, and at once inquired fora gentleman of the name of Tupman.
" ' Show the gentlemen into the parlour, Tom,' said the landlady."
It may be added here that there is a dread- ful tragedy also associated with Cobham Park. A well-known painter of the day came down with his father, and, decoying him into the woods murdered him. He fled to the Continent, but
88 THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
was captured and confined for life in an asylum, where Mr. John Forster often saw him on his visits of inspection.
A delightful walk which we took recently, starting from breezy Gravesend, up by Windmill Hill, thence across field-paths the whole way to Cobham, and from Cobham on to Rochester — a stretch of about ten miles — kindled afresh these Pickwickian recollections to an extraordinary degree. The district is in itself a charming specimen of what may be called the snug Kentish scenery, with its mixture of sober greens and mellow, well-ripened brick colour ; its sylvan lanes, low woods, and hop-poles stacked effec- tively in pyramids. Cobham has a peculiar grace of its own, an air of shelter and antique retire- ment. The stately Elizabethan pile, Cobham Hall, with its cheerful red towers and innumerable chimneys and gables, is the centre of the whole. As we stood and looked, the memories of a walk many years old rose up, when the genial author himself led the way, and did the honours of his country in showing all the choicest and most at- tractive bits. "We see him trudging on before, in the earnest, straightforward fashion he did every- thing, delighted with what he had seen a hundred times before. "We stand now as we did then, at the entrance of the great lime-tree avenue, across which a chain was mysteriously stretched, the
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 89
noble owner, as he explained to him, having to deny himself the use of this approach to gratify the prejudice or superstition of his lowly neigh- bours. This privilege he was allowed to enjoy on one occasion only — that of his own obsequies — when his remains were to be borne in state down the tabooed avenue to its final resting-place. The village adjoining had a charming, nestling air, a little gently winding street of quaint red-brick houses, old inns chiefly; at the furthest end of which, after passing " The Ship," and of course " The Darnley Arms," stood the modest " Leather Bottle."
A pretty, compact, white little tenement it is, with a sign swinging over the door, portraying Mr. Pickwick, his hands under his coat-tails, and the inscription, " Dickens' Old Pickwiclc Leather Bottle Hotel." There is an overhanging, well- tiled roof, a lamp over the door, little shuttered windows at each side, and a general air of cosi- ness ; luncheons, dinners, we are told, are " ar- ranged on the shortest notice," and it is " all among the cherries, apples, and hops," and also "clean and commodious (vide Pickwick) ; Cobham, Kent, opposite the Church and College, the favourite resort of the late Charles Dickens," an ambiguous but allowable exaggeration. There is " an Ordinary every Sunday at half-past one, at 2s." each, and the telegraphic address is " Pick-
9O THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
wick Cobham." Entering, we find a snug little bar, and, some good ale being drawn, the land- lord suggests that it should be quaffed in " the Pickwick room," to give it the suitable flavour.
From the chronicle, which is with us, we learn that " A stout country lad opened a door at the end of the passage, and the three friends entered a long, low-roofed room, furnished with a large number of high-backed, leather-cushioned chairs of fantastic shapes, and embellished with a great variety of old portraits and roughly-coloured prints of some antiquity. At the upper end of the room was a table with a white cloth upon it, well covered with a roast fowl, bacon, ale, and et ceteras." And there it is still ; the passage, and the door at the end of the passage, and a charm- ing old room of some size, very low, and with a sort of framed ceiling, its yellow walls grimed with the smoke and steam of a hundred " ordi- narys." There are the old, high-backed chairs, no doubt bought in Rochester to add " local colour " and to correspond with the text — an old portrait of the teaboard-pattern, with an ancient clock, en- gravings and photographs of " Boz." From the centre there used to hang a bottle or gourd ; but the "Leather Bottle" is clearly our old friend Cf the Black Jack," now found in museums. It is pleasant to find after over fifty years everything corresponding so exactly and so naturally. The
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 91
" Leather Bottle," however, had a narrow escape of being burnt down, a few years ago.
Four or five miles trudging brought us to the river and to the noble view of Rochester, with its castle and church, and to the three bridges which cross it in such awkward companionship. On the right after crossing the bridge, we came to a large and mellowed chocolate-coloured building, with a long range of windows, an inn of importance, the old Pickwickian " Bull." A large gateway supported by two columns shows a huge courtyard within, and over the door is a solid " Eoyal Arms," with a little bull on the top of the lamp. But, alas ! there is a sign that the " Bull " is faltering in its Pickwickian allegiance, or " wobbling," as politicians have it, for on each side of the gateway is a board with this inscrip- tion in gold characters : —
" LAWRENCE'S VICTORIA AND BULL INN; " an intrusion, however loyal, which will assuredly end in displacing the older sign. We wandered in. On the right and left were the doors leading into coffee-rooms and offices, while down the yard were bowed windows and the " Assembly Room," overhead, supported on pillars. There was in- finite accommodation in a spacious yard for post- chaises and gentlemen's private carriages of the old days. On the left, by the coffee-room, was the hall and flight of stairs — that flight, how
92 THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
familiar it seemed ! For the moment we caught ourselves saying, " Here Jingle actually stood and bearded the peppery Dr. Slammer," just as we see the pair in the etching. It was, indeed, exactly as it appeared in those times, with a pleasant flavour of very old fashion — a black japanned clock standing at the top of the stairs, with venerable carpets, and several landings. Some- what timorously a demand was made to be shown the ball or assembly-room ; but the spirit of the request was understood, and, indeed, received as flattering. We thought of the Pickwickians at their dinner in one of the rooms below. A waiter led the way, and threw open a door to the left, close to the top of the stairs. There was the old assembly-room, not very large, where some forty or fifty could dance with comfort. There was an air of faded old fashion about it ; its three spindly glass chandeliers hanging in the centre, exactly as they had lighted the august Clubbers and the Hon. Mr. Snipe, as again for the moment we firmly believed. At the end, only a foot or so over our head, was a little attenuated railing or balcony, with curtains drawn behind, in which the musicians fiddle away to this hour.
" It was a long room, with crimson-covered benches, and wax candles in glass chandeliers. The musicians were securely confined in an elevated den, and quadrilles were being systema-
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 93
tically got through by two or three sets of dancers. Two card-tables were made up in the adjoining card-room, and two pair of old ladies, and a corresponding number of stout gentlemen, were executing whist therein."
It was astonishing how exactly everything cor- responded to this description, save that there were circular rows of cane chairs instead of the crimson benches. The waiter, alas ! knew no- thing of "Pickwick;" fancied some architectural aim or purpose, and tried impartially to carry out his guide or showman business. There were dances, he said, often given here " in the season." A curious, indescribable impression was left as we surveyed this faded old chamber. One would like to halt for the night at the Bull (or future Victoria), for the old town is stored with at- tractions. The Town Hall and Corn Exchange are fine crusted specimens of ripe brick ; there are also the memories of Edwin Drood, of the Minor Canon Row, the Castle, and the Seven Poor Travellers.3
8 There are other Pickwickian Inns — such as the Great "White Horse at Ipswich. It is evidence of the extraordinary vitality of the story, that such works as Murray's Hand- books, and the A. B.C. Railway guide, gravely record, as if communicating a fact of actual historical interest, that at this house (the White Horse), " occurred Mr. Pickwick's remarkable adventure with the lady in yellow curl-papers," — while the Bull " was honoured by the visit of Mr. Pick- wick." The inn-keepers themselves, in their advertisements,
94 THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
Dorking, in spite of its two railway stations, stands pretty much where it did fifty years ago, and retains its air of pleasant rurality. The High Street is as drowsy and old fashioned as the lover of good old crusted rusticity could ^desire, while the arrival of the "Dorking Coach" at mid-day during the season, the bugle performing its fanta- sias with a forced hilarity to impart a theatrical effect, offers a counterfeit of the old coaching days. There is an abundance of framed houses, sound and in good working condition, in and about the place ; but the number of inns is phenomenal. It has its "White Horses, Black Horses, Red Lions, Old Rams, Old Bulls, to say nothing of Crowns, King's Heads, Bells, Wheat- Sheaves and others. As it is, Wellers abound, and on various boards and shop-fronts the name meets the stranger's eye. The amateur's first thought is to settle the identity of Mr. Weller's inn, but claims are conflicting. A local guide- book stoutly insists on the King's Head in West
quaintly invite attention to the fact "that Mr. Pickwick and his friends had stayed at this house." Mr. Hissey asked the landlord of the Great White Horse if this were not the hotel Mr. Pickwick is supposed to have put up at. " Supposed ! " was the indignant reply, " I've the very carving knife and fork he used ivhen he ivas here : ivory mounted they are ; they go with the hotel, and were handed to me when I took it." No other known work of fiction has imparted this extraordinary feeling of reality.
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 95
Street ; others set up the Three Tuns, about the middle of the High Street, while a third section are for the familiar Old White Horse. It is disheartening, however, to find it contended that Weller's inn was actually not in Dorking, and that the candidate inn was scarcely pre- tentious enough to suggest a Marquis of Granby. " The Marquis of Granby," we are told, " in Mr. "Weller's time was quite a model of a roadside public-house of the better class, just large enough to be convenient, and small enough to be snug. On the opposite side of the road was a large sign- board on a high post, representing the head and shoulders of a gentleman with an apoplectic countenance, in a red coat, with deep blue facings, and a touch of the same blue over his three- cornered hat, for a sky." All the now claiming inns would probably repudiate the description of "a roadside public-house of the better class," even though complimented with being " quite a model " in that category ; neither could the White Horse or Three Tuns be correctlv de-
tf
scribed as " roadside," nor would their position in the High Street admit of the sign-board being hung on the other side, which would be objected to by tradesmen opposite. The White Horse too, has more ambitious aims than the satisfying the requirements of " convenience " merely, and though snug enough, does not supply the " snug-
96 THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
ness " that comes from smallness of accommo- dation. The King's Head, however, seems to have the fairest claim ; the picture resembles it ; and in a number of All the Year Round, in 1869, and which passed under Dickens' eye, it is stated that the King's Head was the inn intended.
The truth, however, is that the inimitable Charles, like a true artist, generalized, selecting a bit here and a bit there, and compounding the whole according to his wants. An American writer maintains that the " Markis o' Granby " lately standing at Esher, was intended. But alas ! for such speculations, when Dickens was a child there was in Chatham a Marquis of Granby, kept by Thomas Weller, and this no doubt was in his mind. Sawyer is another Pickwickian name dis- played here ; there is even pointed out the actual locale of Mr. Wardle's shooting party, which Mr. Pickwick attended, it will be remembered, in a wheel-barrow. My friend Mr. Marcus Stone tells me that once, when he was walking with the author of " Pickwick " along the green lanes near G-adshill, a vegetable cart drove past, on which was the name "Weller." He remarked the coincidence. " Coincidence," exclaimed Dickens, " why, it is the man ! " meaning that the name had been suggested by a shop in Chatham.
Desperate efforts have been made to identify the localities of Dingley Dell, Muggleton, and
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 97
Eatauswill, corrupted, we may presume, from Eat-and-swill. This latter town offered really nothing individual, and the election was of but a common type, many of which Dickens had wit- nessed. The author at the opening of chapter thirteen somewhat laboriously tries to show that he has no particular town in his eye : —
" We will frankly acknowledge, that up to the period of our being first immersed in the volumi- nous papers of the Pickwick Club, we had never heard of Eatanswill. We are therefore led to believe that Mr. Pickwick purposely substituted a fictitious designation, for the real name of the place in which his observations were made. In Mr. Pickwick's note-book, we can just trace an entry of the fact, that the places of himself and followers were booked by the Norwich coach; but this entry was lined through." From this we might be inclined to infer that the borough of IPSWICH was in Dickens' mind.
It may have been that Eatanswill was intended for EXETER, whither, in 1835, Dickens repaired " to * take ' the speech of Lord John Russell, in the midst of a lively fight, maintained by all the vagabonds in the county." An aristocrat, it will be recollected, was one of the candidates. It was here that he so humorously described his reporting under difficulties, two colleagues holding a handkerchief over his notes to keep off the rain.
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The son of the author is inclined to fix on Town Mailing as the original of Muggleton, it being always a great cricketing place. But the author gives a further indication which would be of help to those familiar with the politics of the time, that " Muggleton was an ancient and loyal borough, mingling a zealous advocacy of Christian principles with a devoted attachment to commercial rights ; in demonstration whereof, the mayor, corpora- tion, and other inhabitants, have presented at divers times no fewer than one thousand four hundred and twenty petitions against the con- tinuance of negro slavery abroad, and an equal number against any interference with the factory system at home ; sixty-eight in favour of the sale of livings in the Church, and eighty-six for abolishing Sunday trading in the street."
Mr. Frost, who travelled over Kent, visiting the various localities associated with Dickens, made what may be called a thoroughly scientific exami- nation of these knotty points. Again it may be asked, does not this show how extraordinary is the hold which everything connected with " Pick- wick " has on the public mind ? He says : —
" Dingley Dell, if it is to be found at all, must be sought, therefore, east of the Medway, between the two lines of railway, and west of a curved line drawn from Judd's Hill to Paddock Wood,
THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK. 99
through Otterden and Staplehurst ; and in that portion of Kent, though there may be many spots the seclusion and picturesqueness of which might suggest such a name as Dingley Dell, there is no town to correspond to Muggleton. All the localities mentioned by Dickens in his narrative of the Pickwickians' journey and their sojourns at Manor Farm must be regarded, therefore, as being equally with Mr. "Wardle and the fat boy the creations of his fancy."
But it is BATH that, most of all, seems to live again in his pages. That stately city, always attractive, has now entered on a new revival of life, but cannot shake itself free from the old associations of Miss Burney, Miss Austen, and Dickens. How pleasantly quaint the names of the streets, the Parade, the Eoyal Crescent, the Circus, Queen's Square, Great Pulteney Street ; with the Pump-Room, the Assembly-Rooms, the "White Hart ! The visitor, as he wanders about, thinks how appropriate it is that Mr. Pickwick and his friends should have lodged at the Crescent, and have joined with the Dowlers in taking the whole suite from Mrs. Craddock, the landlady. The great pump-room has or had a curious faded air of fashion, and is now, as then, " a spa- cious saloon, ornamented with Corinthian pillars, and a music-gallery, and a Tompion clock, and a statue of Nash, and a golden inscription, to which
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all the water-drinkers should attend, for it appeals to them in the cause of a deserving charity."
Then the Assembly-Kooms ; stately, well-de- signed chambers, where there are forlorn concerts and entertainments now given, and which seem charged with the old glories. Once attending these solemnities, I seemed to see the gay company again, and in one of the little rooms could call up the card-tables, and Mr. Pickwick seated at whist with the terrible, feathered old ladies.
The scenes at this assembly, the glitter and bustle and va et vient, are admirable ; witness the little talk with Lord Mutanhed, in his " wed mail cart," just of the length and complexion which would occur in a crowded ball-room. Bantam the M.C., is farcical enough, but excellent.
There have been some changes in the place since the days of the Pickwickians. The White Hart Hotel, which stood in Stall Street, ap- pears to have been replaced by the present Grand Pump-room Hotel. As already mentioned, the White Hart was kept by Eleazer Pickwick, who had been a post-boy at the Bear. The old figure of the White Hart that used to be over the entrance, is now, or was lately, to be seen over the refreshment-rooms opposite the Memorial Hospital. The waiters, Dickens tells us, "might be mistaken for Westminster boys," from their costume — an allusion that must have puzzled many. Mr. Peach explains that the
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waiters then wore breeches and silk stockings, and the maids a peculiar, close-fitting dress. This traditional costume of the inn was maintained almost to its closing in 1864. Lord Lytton and Lord Beaconsfield, in their youthful days, were fond of patronizing the White Hart.
It was during Lord John Russell's candidature, in 1835, that Dickens was sent to Bath to report a dinner, at which the candidate was to speak. He stayed at the Bush Inn at Bristol, to which Mr. Winkle fled,- — since pulled down. One of his most spirited feats is connected with this trip, and proves that he would have been conspicuous in any walk of life.
" The report of the Bath dinner shall be for- warded by the first Bath coach on Thursday morning — what time it starts we have no means of ascertaining till we reach Bath ; but you will receive it as early as possible, as we will indorse the parcel 'Pay the porter 2s. 6d. extra for immediate delivery.' I need not say that it will be sharp work, and will require two of us ; for we shall both be up the whole of the previous night, and shall have to sit up all night again to get it off in time.
" Pray direct to one of us at the White Hart, Bath, and inform us in a parcel sent by the FIRST COACH after you receive this, exactly at what hour it arrived. Do not fail on any account."
Almost on the eve of his death, Dickens
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wandered back to Bath, and it is curious to con- trast the impression then left upon him, compared with the jocund, almost riotous spirit of nearly forty years before. " Lander's ghost," he wrote, "goes along the silent streets here before me. The place to me looks like a cemetery, which the dead have succeeded in rising and taking. Having built streets of their old gravestones, they wander about scantly, trying to look alive, a dead failure." These grim images scarcely answer to our notions of the stately city. Though the Bathonians were displeased at this unfavourable description, they should find com- pensation in the thought that it was in the house No. 35, St. James's Square, at a birthday dinner, the idea of "Little Nell" was first conceived.
A pleasantly grotesque sketch is that of Bantam as M.O., and though it may have been that Dickens did not intend to portray the actual holder of the office, he could not have been ignorant that, for this very reason, it would be considered as a portrait. The office was held at the time, and until 1849, by Colonel, afterwards General Jervois, who later was appointed Governor of Hong Kong We could scarcely fancy Mr. Bantam filling such an office. Further, Mr. Peach of Bath, who recalls Colonel Jervois, writes that he cannot perceive the slightest resemblance or verisimilitude to Jervois.
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The George arid Vulture, as we know, was Mr. Pickwick's favourite house when he was in town, and he was perpetually arriving there or depart- ing thence. The name has a quaint, pleasant ring, and also illustrates forcibly the changes of social life. Now-a-days no one in Mr. Pickwick's position would dream of putting up at a place with a sign, though there are still some old houses left in Holborn, such as THE OLD BELL, and in the Borough, which are comfortable inns of the country pattern. A pilgrimage to the George and Vulture is the duty of every ardent Pickwickian ; and the hostelry in question will be found near Lombard Street, close to the Bank of England.
This old tavern, as we now see it, closes up the end of a small court, with dull-coloured walls, and grimed bricks ; an archway leads under or through it to the street beyond ; while flanking it is the new and palatial-like building just con- structed for the Berlin Bank. It has been said that this is not the veritable old "George;" but there stands the old house, with the name and title; and its hotel-like air. Now it is a city chop-house, with a narrow, squeezed and tortuous entry, and the low ceiling and " boxes " are to be seen through the dingy panes. In the face of these facts, the burden of proof seems to lie upon the objectors.
Perhaps the most interesting of these Pick- wickian inns, is the old one in the High Street,
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Borough, the White Hart, which till lately tottered on in a very crazy state, in company with its fellows of the same pattern, up and down the street, the King's Head, the Queen's Head, and others. It is interesting, even on other grounds, to pay a visit to these relics of a bygone style of travelling, and at some hour of the day there is generally to be seen some American stranger, often standing in the centre of the yard, and looking up at the ruined galleries. There is almost a firm faith that a real Pickwick, Wardle, and Perker stood there over fifty years ago, questioning Sam ; such has been the vitality of the story. It is astonish- ing that some of the great railway companies had riot secured it as a " Goods Depot," the general final stage ; but there it stood, decayed and abandoned.
A very interesting and learned work has re- cently been published, on the " Inns of Old South- wark," by Messrs Rendle and Norman, in which is set out the whole history of the White Hart, which is an extraordinary one, dating from the time of Jack Cade. The antiquarian authors declare that not a word could be added to Dickens' perfect description. " The sober his- torian who wished to describe faithfully the place as it was, could not do it better, if so well. Dickens has filled in particulars evidently from the life. In only one little detail does he deviate
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from strict topographical accuracy. The galleries were on three sides of the yard instead of two, as he states." . . . " Till September, 1884, the old galleries were let out in tenements, and the pre- sence of the inmates gave life and movement to the scene. Here every afternoon might be seen a solitary omnibus which plied to Clapham, the last descendant of the old coaches. The inner yard is now finally closed."
It will be recollected that after his excited interview with Dodson and Fogg, Mr. Pickwick, turning into Cheapside from Cornhill, asked his servant where he could obtain a restorative. ".Second court on the right-hand side," was the reply, " last house but vun on the same side the way. Take the box as stands in the first fire- place," &c. This turn is Freeman's Court, nearly opposite Bow Church, a dark little flagged passage, and the " last house but vun " is now old Burton's coffee-house.
Another Pickwickian inn which has not suffered the least change is the " Spaniards " on the top of Hampstead Hill, not far from the Jack Straw's Castle, where " Boz " and his friend had so many pleasant " shoemakers' holidays." We can see the tea-gardens, with their bowery alcoves, where Mrs. Bardell and her friends enjoyed themselves, and, for the moment, can almost fancy we see the very spot where Mr. Jackson
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pointed the party out to the bailiff. This im- pression of reality is as extraordinary here as in other spots, and I fancy is owing to the author's perfect instinct of appropriation. He fitted his characters exactly to the localities and vice versa. No other place would have suited the scene so perfectly.
It was from the Bull Inn, "Whitechapel, that Mr. Pickwick started for Ipswich, on a coach driven by his servant's father. This was in the old days the regular point of departure for coaches going north-east. The old inn is still, or was very lately, to be seen, not much altered, and was visited by Mr. Hassard.
The Groldeii Cross, at Charing Cross, whence the Pickwickians started on May 13th, 1827, by the Rochester coach (and there is something De- foe like in this particularity of date), is now an important and decorous family hotel. But for some years after the date of the journey it was the great starting-point for the coaches, and displayed a sign. We can see still the outline of the very low archway which invited Mr. Jingle's warning : —
" Terrible place — dangerous work — other day — five children — mother — tall lady, eating sand- wiches— forgot the arch — crash — knock — chil- dren look round — mother's head off — sandwich in her hand — no mouth to put it in— head of a family off — shocking — shocking."
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The Great White Horse Inn, Ipswich, is still what it was, and dates, Mr. Hissey says, from the sixteenth century. " It is a building of many passages and staircases ; the courtyard is grass- covered, with a fountain playing and ferns around." A friend of the present writer lately visited it, and was much struck with the low, large chambers and rambling passages, where the guest would lose his way, exactly as Mr. Pickwick did.4
Recently the writer made a careful search in the squalid purlieus of Clare Market, for the tavern frequented by Perker's clerk, Lowten. "At the back of the New Inn," I found a couple of very ancient well grimed -taverns, close together and not unpicturesque. Either would " serve." One is The Old George the Fourth, a strange tottering place propped over the street, and thus making a sort of arcade, on wooden columns ; near it is the sombre, desolate-looking Black Jack, even yet more decayed and grimed, the name almost illegible, the windows admitting little light.
4 This lady — a true Pickwickian — has had a number of photographs taken of the old hostel, which are now before me, and give an excellent idea of the place. To Mr. Hissey this old doggrell was repeated : —
" The White Horse " shall kick " The Bear,"
And make " The Griffin " fly, Shall turn " The Bell " upside down,
And drink the " Three Tuns " dry.
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There is, however, an actual Magpie and Sturap to be seen in Fetter Lane. It is minutely de- scribed by the author, in his graphic fashion.
" In the lower windows, which were decorated with curtains of a saffron hue, dangled . two or three printed cards, bearing reference to Devon- shire cyder and Dantzic spruce, while a large black board, announcing in white letters to an enlightened public that there were 500,000 barrels of double stout in the cellars of the establishment, left the mind in a state of not unpleasing doubt and un- certainty as to the precise direction in the bowels of the earth in which this mighty cavern might be supposed to extend."
The extraordinary propriety in nearly all instances of Dickens's selections of localities was never better illustrated than by his choice of " Lant Street, Borough," as the place of residence for a medical student. There is something even in the name, and still more in the dingy forlornness and air of shabbiness and abandonment which it now offers. This vivid impression he had gathered from his own dismal juvenile recollections, and which he sometimes transfers to his readers, for, as we know, Dickens, when a boy, lodged in this street at the time his father was imprisoned in the Marshalsea. The house stood on part of the site now occupied by the Board School adjoining No. 46. " A back attic was found for me at the
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house of an insolvent-court agent, who lived in Lant Street, in the Borough, where Bob Saivyer lodged many years afterwards. A bed and bed- ding were sent over for me, and made up on the floor. The little window had a pleasant prospect of a timber-yard; and when I took possession of my new abode, I thought it was a Paradise."
This opinion of his boyhood seems to have been somewhat changed fifteen years later, when Mr. Robert Sawyer had taken up his residence in the locality. " There is an air of repose about Lant Street, in the Borough, which sheds a gentle melancholy upon the soul. A house in Lant Street would not come within the denomination of a first-rate residence, in the strict acceptation of the term ; but it is a most desirable spot nevertheless. If a man wished to abstract him- self from the world, to remove himself from within the reach of temptation, to place himself beyond the possibility of any inducement to look out of the window, he should by all means go to Lant Street."
This exactly describes the tone and aspect of Lant Street at this hour, its air of waste, lonely dinginess, and shabby gentility. On the right as we' go down, there is a row of houses, such as are seen in country towns, with very narrow, prim-looking doors, all of the same pattern, but in sound if shabby condition. Here was certainly
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Mr. Sawyer's apartment; on the other side is a row of a much meaner sort, and where, it is to be feared, the little boy lodged, in the old disastrous days. Part of the street, close to the High Street, has been levelled, and a Board School has been erected. It is a depressing place altogether.
The Pickwickian Pilgrim will own that Gos- well Eoad, the former Goswell Street where Mr. Pickwick lodged, is unsatisfactory in its power of reviving Pickwickian memories. We imagine — nay, require a dull, comfortable-looking, old-fashioned, retired street ; but, instead, find a busy, noisy thoroughfare, a long hill crowded with tramcars and omnibuses, given over to shops rather ill formed, and suggesting a street in some manufacturing town.
VI.
ONE of the TTiost attractive sides of " Pickwick " is the complete picture it offers of an old English state of manners which has now disappeared or faded out. These characters and incidents belong to the state of society that then existed — nay, are its product. Thus the slow and deliberate mode of travelling by coach, the putting up at inns, enforced a sort of fellowship and contact, and led to ready acquaintanceship and to a display of peculiarities. The same conditions of travel, too, promoted a species of adventure, often not without its farce. Now, with the various changes has come an orderly uniformity, reflected in the dramas of our time, which contrast as strongly with the old boisterous humour of the ancient farces. In country houses, cut off from regular contact with the metropolis, simple, unsophisticated characters such as were found at Dingley Dell were not at all improbable. Mistakes in double-bedded rooms, cordial acceptance of adventurers and impostors, like Captain Fitz-Marshall picked up at an assembly rout, elopements, duels, were, as can be seen from the newspapers of the time, ordinary
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incidents enough. The vivid yet unaffected style in which these now abolished incidents are brought before us is extraordinary. Nothing could be more perfect as a complete picture than the account of the Fleet Prison, the fashion of life there, the sin- gular characters, their reckless originality ; yet all contributing entertainment as they forwarded the strict " business " of the piece. We know as much of the Fleet as if we had resided there for months. As we have shown, our author caught-the whole flavour of Bath, with its assemblies, master of ceremonies, footmen, &c., so that even now a visitor for the first time finds himself in a manner familiar with it, and feels the peculiar tone of digni- fied old fashion which had been described to him.
It might seem paradoxical to say, that one reason for the extraordinary vitality of the book is found in so much of it being drawn from transient events that were then exciting public attention, and going on about the author; such as the state of the prisons, the general corruption at elections, the violence of counsel, and various follies of fashion ; with sketches of not a few foolish people, and their " fads."
At the time " Pickwick " was appearing the treatment of debtors was attracting much atten- tion, and the House of Commons had been ordering returns. In the month in which the first number appeared, the "warden" of the Fleet wrote to the
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Times to deny that " he was aware that a guinea and a half was often paid for a room ;" or that four or five persons were crammed into a single apartment. These guarded denials may have attracted the young author's eye; he had besides his own dismal recollections.
As we stand at Ludgate Circus, looking to St. Paul's, we shall see facing us, on our left, inFarring- don Street, an imposing Congregational Hall. This, with the buildings adjoining, stands upon part of the ground once occupied by the " Fleet " prison. It stretches back to the ground, or to a portion of it, now occupied by some large printing offices. A long blank wall, with a small central block of entrance, ran along the street. Mr. Ash- ton, who has written an account of the place, has given a plan; but do we not know it better than any plan could show it ? and could we not find our way to the coffee-room flight, or to the racquet- ground ?
Pierce Egan, in his " Life in London," described Tom and Jerry being taken by their friend Bob Logic, just as Mr. Pickwick was, to " a whistling shop." It was customary not to ask for drink, but to whistle, which was understood as an order. The "Fleet" was finally closed about!842, and a few years after the appearance of the story, the prison was sold and levelled to the ground. It was curious, too, that the pathetic history of the
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chancery prisoner should have been more than justified by a piteous tale which came out at an inquest held on a poor woman who was for years confined in the Queen's Bench prison. It was related that, after this long immurement, she had died from fever brought 011 by anxiety and hope deferred. Imprisonment for debt was not prac- tically abolished until 1864. Many years later Dickens described the interior of another prison, the Marshalsea, of which he had many painful memories. This was done in his later manner, when he had completely changed his style, and it would be interesting to compare the effect of the descriptions of the two places. It must be said the later account is not nearly so effective as the first, though infinitely more minute and elaborate. It is often a mistake to imagine that the most detailed "inventory" of a place con- veys a perfect idea of it ; a few bold, vigorous strokes will be far more effective. The Marshalsea is painted almost laboriously, but somehow the Chiverys who are "on the lock" and the collegians, and the scene of the signing of the address in Mr. Dorrit's room, have an artificial air, beside the masterly picture, done with a few bold, natural strokes, of the precious trio, the butcher and his friend, and the parson, whose noisome room in the Fleet Mr. Pickwick came to take. The squalor, the meanness consequent upon imprisonment
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for debt, the white walls and long galleries, de- scribed with a sort of pride to Mr. Pickwick when he was introduced : " this is the coffee-room flight ;" the bare background of the lodge, lit up, into which Mrs. Bardell was brought, all have an extraordinary, life-like air.
In " The Old Man's Tale of the Queer Client," the author described what he had seen in his childhood : —
"In the Borough High Street, near Saint George's Church, and on the same side of the way, stands, as most people know, the smallest of our debtors' prisons, the Marshalsea. Although in later times it has been a very different place from the sink of filth and dirt it once was, even its improved condition holds out but little tempta- tion to the extravagant, or consolation to the im- provident. It may be my fancy, or it may be that I cannot separate the place from the old recol- lections associated with it, but this part of London I cannot bear. Want and misfortune are pent up in the narrow prison ; an air of gloom and dreari- ness seems, in my eyes at least, to hang about the scene, and to impart to it a squalid and sickly hue."
The tragic story that follows is certainly a reminiscence, as is also the scene at the funeral.
We find that, not only in the Pickwick Club, but in other productions written about the same
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time, our author exercised much good-humoured satire on the subject of learned societies and their " Transactions." In the " Mudfog Papers," which he wrote when he was editor of Bentley's Miscellany, there is much ridicule, carried out in a very elabo- rate way, of the scientific meetings at Mudfog, with specimens of the papers read, discussions by Professors Dosey and Wheazy, not, it must be said, in his lightest manner. The opening chapter of " Pickwick," it will be recollected, contains persiflage of the same kind, with a special ridicule of the " letters " which many such societies attach to their names. Later on came the well- known discovery of the stone with inscribed characters, which some of the profane insisted 011 interpreting as Bill Stumps, &c. This persistent satire of one subject, it is likely enough, was excited by some more than ordinary exhibition of absurdity ; and I find that the period in question was marked by a sort of rage for founding new societies. Within half a dozen years had come into being the Geographical Society, the United Service Institute ; the Harveian Society, the Entomolo- gical, Statistical, Numismatic and Ornithological Societies. But the society that seems specially to have excited his satire was the British Association, founded in 1831, and whose progresses about the country are so ludicrously paraded in the Mudfog Papers. The " Pickwick " opening chapter seems to have been intended to ridicule this now popular
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association. In this way many a pleasant passage in the story, when made thus intelligible, becomes doubly acceptable.
Thus some reference of the kind was clearly intended in the second page. " The travelling members were to correspond with the society, and requested to forward, from time to time, authentic accounts of their journeys and investigations, to- gether with all tales and papers, which local scenery associations may give rise to." Dickens was fond of this sort of machinery for his works, and tried to adapt it to Master Humphrey's Clock. But in "Pickwick" it was found too pedantic and constraining a process, and he almost at once abandoned it, though occasionally the original notion seemed to recur ; as when he would present Mr. Pickwick making notes of his day's proceedings, or collecting tales. Mr. Snod- grass also made records ; " we frankly say that to the note-book of Mr. Snodgrass we are indebted for the particulars recorded in this and the succeeding chapters." This was but a cramping, roundabout process after all. The novelist has the privilege of being invisibly present to witness the serious or humorous turn of events ; but it was difficult to imagine that, for all such shrewd observations and droll comments, we were indebted to Mr. Snodgrass's diary. " The Pickwick papers are our New River Head. The labours of others have raised for us an
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immense reservoir of facts. We merely lay them on."
It is curious indeed to note the escape we have had of what might have been failure, owing to the adoption of .a forced style, based on this sort of humour. The established magazine treatment of the time was a kind of subdued burlesque, aiming at the description of serious matter in a tone of mock gravity, but which after a time became fatiguing. The account of the club discussion at the opening is in this formal manner, a good illustration- of which is the conceit of the letters " C.M.P.C." put after every name, again and again explained in a note to mean " Corresponding Member of the Pickwick Club." This was, at the time, a form of humour. So with the rather formal headings of the chap- ters, such as, " How the Piclcwichians made and cultivated the acquaintance of a couple of nice young men belonging to one of the Liberal Professions, Sfc. ; " while another chapter, " llecords a touching act of delicate feeling, achieved and performed by Messrs. Dodson and Fogg," which has a laboured air. But the whole antiquarian element was an inconsistency. The " Bill Stumps his mark " incident, as every one will recall, was treated in a comedy spirit in the " Antiquary," where we all recall the old Monkbarns expatiating on the inscribed stone with the four letters : —
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A.D.L.L.
which he interpreted Agricola dicavit libens liibens, but which, as the Bedesman explained, meant " Adam Drum's lang ladle." There is also a story told of a hoax played off on a brother antiquary, by Steevens, who had a tablet engraved with Saxon characters, and exposed in a broker's shop, where it was discovered, and purchased by the credulous virtuoso.
Few things have been so often quoted as the apologetic explanation of the expression * a Pickwickian sense.' This happy phrase was suggested by " the parliamentary sense," by which orators in the House of Commons protested they meant nothing offensive. Not long before Sir Robert Peel had called Mr. Hume to account for some language of the kind, and the latter had made some lame explanation, which Dickens may have had before him.
One of the author's original ideas was certainly to find material in the lighter absurdities of the day, illustrated by Jingle's anecdote of Ponto's sagacity. This was no doubt one of Seymour's pictorial suggestions, and the author seemed to excuse its introduction in a note withdrawn in later editions : —
" Although we find this circumstance recorded, as a singular one in Mr. Pickwick's note-book, we cannot refrain from humbly expressing our
I2O THE HISTORY OF PICKWICK.
dissent from that learned authority ; the stranger's anecdote is not one quarter so wonderful as some of Mr. Jesse's ' Gleanings.' Ponto sinks into utter insignificance before the dogs whose actions be there records."
The subject of this little hit was the well- known naturalist, who, like Mr. Pickwick's original, later lived at Richmond, and was one of the lights of the pleasant society of that place.
The incidents described at the Eatanswill election, the locking up and pumping on voters, the upsetting them into ponds, and such dis- orders, had been occupying public attention only a year or two before. Much time in Parlia- ment was taken up investigating such excesses, and the cases of Ipswich and Norwich, and Stafford particularly, had caused many scandals. It is impossible not to admire the judicious tone he adopted in dealing with these points, a satirical, half-sarcastic description — for, as in the instance of the Fleet, he rarely speaks in his own person, but lets his personages and incidents speak for themselves. Stiggins, and others of his character, he despatched and ridiculed with a hearty relish, that showed how keenly he felt. In later works he revived the type several times in the persons of Snawley and Chadband. It is likely that in early life he had suffered from one of these sanctimonious impostors, and it is
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probable that his father and mother may have been partial to such persons.
The elaborate sketch of Stiggins, which is, however, exaggerated in some portions — witness his drunkenness at the public tea, when he must have lost his character — is on the whole admirable; and his scene with the widower and his son, and his gradual doubtful approaches, capital. A scrupulous person, shocked at the " profanity " of the sketch, wrote six years later to remonstrate ; and the author explained his design, which was to show " how sacred things are degraded, vulgarized, and rendered absurd, when persons who are utterly incompetent to teach the commonest things, take upon themselves to ex- pound such mysteries, and how, in making mere cant phrases of divine words, these persons miss the spirit in which they had their origin." " I have seen a good deal of this sort of thing in many parts of England. . . . That every man who seeks heaven must be born again, I sincerely believe. That it is expedient for every hound to say so in a certain snuffling form of words to which he attaches no good meaning, I do not believe." This is a capital comment.
Mrs. Leo Hunter, a delightful character in its way, seems to have been sketched from life, and there is little doubt was intended for an enor- mously rich, "lion-hunting" lady living in Portland
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Place, but who eventually became poor. The fancy fete at " the Den " was a curious illustration of social manners — fancy dresses being worn in broad daylight. These, too, were the days of the " Annuals," "Talismans," "Winter's Wreath," " Books of Beauty," which were filled with verses from noble and genteel amateurs, often as ridiculous as the " Ode to the expiring frog."
Here too will be noted the tall figure of Mr. Pott as a Russian, with his knout. In the early plates there was an absurd likeness in the nose and face to Lord Brougham, but in succes- sive impressions a shaggy beard was added, and the whole disguised. Dickens, no doubt, did not wish it to be thought that he was ridiculing one who was his and Forster's friend.
It may be added here, that Grad's Hill Place formerly belonged to Mrs. Lynn Linton's family. Old Weller, according to her recollection, was well known on the road between London and Rochester, bearing the name in the flesh of " Old Chomley," and who was at once recognized by the neighbourhood as the original. Indeed all his best, most spirited characters were inspired by his own recollections: "Pickwick" is stored with such. Stareleigh, Buzfuz, Snubbin — Pott beyond question, though unidentified, with the other characters we have mentioned ; to say nothing of Micawber, Skimpole, Boythorn, the Cheerybles, and many more.
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It may be doubted if Jingle and his follower Job are as successful characters as the rest. They rather belong to the stage, and Jingle's utterances seem meant for the footlights, from their peculiar form; neither is the character quite original, though useful in conducting the narrative, as through the story he draws out and plays upon the Pickwickian weakness and cre- dulity. Charles Mathews the Elder, had a fa- vourite figure in his entertainment, one Major Longbow, who told Munchausen stories much in the same style. One of the Major's favourite tales, was that of the lady in India burnt by some accident, and whom the husband called in his servants to " sweep up." This may have suggested Quanko Samba and his fate. Again, we find, that a year or so before, Lemaitre had brought Robert Macaire and Jacques Strop to London. The grotesque devotion of the latter to his master no doubt furnished hints to Dickens, who must have seen -the piece. Still there is great art in presenting Jingle as an " agreeable rattle," with nothing repulsive. The buoyant humour of the writer carries him along. In reality Jingle was a common swindler, yet we never think of this harsh term in connection with him.
For his many life-like sketches of " limbs of the law," he must have drawn on his own memory. Nothing can be more varied, more distinct, than
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these various types. On leaving school he was for a time in the office of Messrs. Ellis and Black- more, Solicitors of Gray's Inn. Indeed Mr. Kitton says that Mr. Blackmore, the junior partner, afterwards recognized several incidents that occurred in this office and also some of the characters. He had a fellow-clerk named Potter, who was partial to theatricals, whom Mr. George Lear, who was one of Dickens' fellow-clerks, fancied was the original of Jingle.
VII.
So buoyant and tumultuous is the spirit in which the story is carried on, that the author often falls into some oddities and incongruities which, according to the old stage phrase, he " bustles through " by sheer force of good spirits. Thus, at starting he got his dates con- fused, the proceedings of the Club preparatory to the expedition being put in the year 1817. This may have appeared too far back, so a little further on we have the year 1827, which was the proper starting-point of the Odyssey. But when Mr. Jingle was on the coach going to Rochester, it will be recollected he described his writing a poem on " the revolution of July." " Present ? think I was ! fired a musket, fired with an idea," &c. Extrication here was literally hopeless ; it would be absurd to alter the date of the whole story for the convenience of a little anecdote. So the lively author took the most sensi- ble course, left it as it was, adding this jocose note in later editions, " A remarkable instance of the prophetic force of Mr. Jingle's imagination : this dialogue occurred in the year 1827, and the Revolution in 1830."
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When Dodson and Fogg served their notice on Mr. Pickwick, the author may have had this mistake in his mind, and dated it 1830. It was evident, however, that it had occurred only a few months after the party had started on their tour in 1827 ; so the date had to be put back to that year.
Our pleasant author, always one of the most scru- pulously accurate in all that concerned his "proofs," made a few little slips in the course of his work. This is not surprising in what was so gigantic an enterprise from the vast number of characters, incidents, names, relations, localities, with a hun- dred other things which had to be kept in view. The result were some oversights of a pleasant sort, and which we note here, not from any foolish wish of detecting blemishes, but to increase the sense of humorous enjoyment. In the first edition there was a list of errata, which is entertaining in its way : —
P. 1, line 9, for 1817, real 1827.
P. 185, line 25, for 1830, read 1827.
P. 202, line 30, for 1830, read 1827.
P. 278, line 40, for " the elder Mr. Samuel," read "the elder Mr. Weller." '
P. 342, line 5, for " S. Weller, Esquire, senior/' read " Tony Veller, Esq."
P. 541, line 12, for "Sun Court, Cornhill," read "George Yard, Lombard Street."
These little slips are characteristic.
In chapter 28, when he is describing the
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marriage festivities at Dingley Dell, lie portrays the old lady, Mr. Wardle's mother, seated at the top of the table " with her newly married daughter on one side." This was of course her granddaughter. In chapter 27, we find Sam speaking of his father's second wife as his " mother-in-law," meaning thereby his " step- mother." Even the printers occasionally nodded, as we find two " chapter 28's," one of which is distinguished by a star.
Not unnaturally he sometimes found himself con- fusing the twoWellers. But a more curious mistake was the making Mr. Pickwick give his London address to Mr. Winkle, senior, as the " George and Vulture," in "Sun Court, Cornhill," instead of George Yard, Lombard Street. The same mis- take occurs also in chapter 30, when " Mr. Jack- son bent his steps direct to Sun Court, and walked straight into the George and Vulture." Sun Court was, however, not far off.
Another mistake of dates is found in the account of the visit to Mr. Pott's house, who, in 1327, orders a file of the Gazette for 1828 to be brought up to him. " Here," says Charles Dickens the younger, "Mr. Pott falls into the same sort of prophetic mistake as that to which the author calls attention in the case of Mr. Jingle in the footnote to chapter 2, which was added in later editions."
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"Mr. Pickwick's adventures began with his departure from Goswell Street, 13th May, 1827, and the Eatanswill Election evidently took place in the same year. Messrs. Dodson and Fogg's first letter to Mr. Pickwick was dated August 28th, 1827, and was necessarily written after these events."
There is one form of mechanism in the manage- ment of his story for which the author had a strong penchant, namely, the introduction of an occasional tale. This was too often contrived a propos de bottes. A coach is upset in the snow, and the travellers have to sit round the inn fire ; or Mr. Pickwick opens a drawer as he is going to bed and finds a MS. ; or in the commercial room some one relates a "Bagman's Tale;" or there is some one on a bridge who gives him a story to read at his leisure, or Sam relates another which Mr. Pick- wick takes down and edits. Through the course of " Pickwick" we meet no less than a dozen of these tales. One is inclined to suspect that they were unused magazine stories lying by the author, with which he filled in his number, if time failed or inspiration flagged. But the truth is, Dickens always had a fancy for this old-fashioned device. His introduction to "Master Humphrey's Clock" he made a sort of miscellany for short stories ; and in the numerous " Christmas Numbers " of House' hold Words and All the Year Round he
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reverted to his pet idea, and snowed much ingenuity in devising machinery or " framework " for the same purpose. Some of the "Pickwick " stories, however, we would not willingly part with, notably the ghostly mail-coach legend, which is highly original, and even in a sort of keeping with the narrative.
Some of the feats of walking, described in these memoirs, are indeed of an extraordinary kind. Thus it is somewhat astonishingto read that, " after dinner they met again, after a five-and-twenty mile walk, undertaken by the males at "Wardle's recom- mendation, to get rid of the effects of . the wine at breakfast," an amazing feat considering that some of " the males' ' were elderly, stout, and plethoric. But it is exactly what the genial author himself would have thought a trifle under such circumstances. These unconsidered state- ments were after all only proofs of the buoyancy and enthusiasm of his narrative, and no one pauses to consider the incongruity. Again, when Mr. Pickwick took out the Legend of Prince Bladud, to read before going to bed, we are told expressly, " he lighted his bedroom candle, that it might burn up well by the time he finished " — odd evidence, by the way, of the inferior chandlery of the day — but when, with many yawns, and "a countenance expressive of the utmost weariness," he had got to the end of the story, " he lighted his
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chamber candle," already, as we were told, alight. When the mistake was laughingly pointed out to the gifted author, he refused to credit it.1
Another singular incident for which no explana- tion can be given was the conveying of Mrs. Clup- pins with Mrs. Bardell to the Fleet prison and there locking her up ; for on "this lady Messrs. Dod- son and Fogg had no claim whatever, and they left* the other members of the party, such as Mrs. Rogers, unmolested. Mrs. Cluppins would have had good grounds for an action against those astute gentlemen.
In the obstreperous scene at Bath, when Mr. Winkle, in his dressing-gown, was shut out into the -street, the landlady had seen from the drawing-room window Mr. Winkle " bolt " into Mrs. Dowler's sedan chair. She then rushed to call Mr. Dowler, shrieking " that his wife was running away." Now that gentleman had to come
1 It was Mr. Charles Kent who made the discovery. He pleasantly describes Dickens' burlesque indignation, vehement denial, and half astonishment at the idea even of such an over- sight. " No I No ! NO ! " he exclaimed. An appeal was made to the book itself. We can see the twinkle in his eye, and the simulated comic fury with which he made as though he were about to hurl the volume at his friend. Then, rushing to the top of the steps that led down into the garden, he called to some -of his family who were walking there, "Come! Come! Come up quick ! " to show them the discovery. The mistake Was certainly of an amusing kind, but he never amended it.
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from his bedroom, and throw up the window, " yet the first object that met his gaze was Mr. Winkle bolting into the sedan chair." It may be added here, that the arrangement of this scene was the subject of much consultation between artist and writer; there were many figures to be brought in, and Mr. Pickwick was to have thrown up the window on the story above, which would have placed him too high. "Phiz" writes, " Shall I leave Pickwick where he is, or put him under the bedclothes ? I could not carry him so high as the second floor." The author replied, " Winkle should be holding the candlestick above his head, I think. It looks more comical, the light having gone out. A fat chairman, so short as our friend here, never drew breath in Bath. I would leave him where he is, decidedly. Is the lady full dressed? she ought to be. — C. D."
On arriving at old Wardle's after the accidents on the road, and after a glass of cherry brandy, we have a curious specimen of the manners of the time ; for we are told of the party " being joined by Mr. Tupman, who had lingered behind" to snatch a "kiss from Emma" (the maid), for which he had been duly rewarded " with sundry pushings and scratchings," an extraordinary pro- ceeding on the part of a very stout, elderly gentle- man who was a new guest, and had barely entered the house. The Pickwickians too had been on the
x 2
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road the whole day, had had a long, weary walk of at least ten miles, and yet were offered no refresh- ment, save a glass of cherry brandy ; after which they were at once set down to a game of cards until supper came. These are traits of social life.
Sometimes, in his pleasant exuberance, the author forgets an element or incident, in his de- scription, and introduces something that appears inconsistent with what has gone before. Thus, when Mr. Pickwick is found in the garden of Miss Tomkins' Ladies' School at Bury St. Edmund's, and admitted to the house, he is locked up in " a closet in which the day-boarders hung their bonnets and sandwich-bags." Yet further on we read : — " Mr. Pickwick sat down in the closet, beneath a grove of sandwich-bags, and awaited the return of the messengers," &c. In the middle of the night the sandwich bags would be at the day-boarders' homes.
"When Mr. Pickwick was on the bridge at Ro- chester, he encountered "dismal Jemmy," who had read the story of the stroller to the party the night before. Not content with this, Jemmy made a proposal, " Would you communicate it to the club, of which you have spoken so frequently ? " " Cer- tainly," replied Mr. Pickwick, " if you wished it ; and it would be entered on their transactions." " You shall have it," replied the dismal man. "Your address?"
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Here was of course promise of another tale, which it was not convenient to introduce at the moment. It is amusing to find that the author altogether forgot this engagement until the close of his story, when he found an adroit excuse. As Mr. Pickwick was saying farewell to Jingle, he finds that " Jemmy " turns out to be Job Trotter's brother, who had emigrated to America. " That accounts for my not having received the ' page from the romance of real life,5 which he promised me one morning when he appeared to be contem- plating suicide on Rochester bridge, I suppose," said Mr. Pickwick, smiling. This was the best that could be done under the circumstances.
When the ice broke under Mr. Pickwick, he sank completely under the water, and dis- appeared for some time, which had to be ac- counted for by his saying, " that he fell upon his back." Why Mr. Allen and his friend should during the crisis, have consulted seriously about bleeding the company generally, is not clear.
At the Raddle supper party, when the hot water was ordered up, it will be remembered that the landlady had ordered the fire to be raked out. "You can't have no warm water," said the girl. But at the beginning of the night, the "first instalment of punch in a white jug " was brought in, and after supper " another jug of punch was put on the table ; it had been ready made in a red
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pan." This might be an oversight, or it may be that punch had then a stricter and more limited sense, meaning the " materials " simply.
There is a slight anticipation of Sam's mode of illustration, in the extraordinary, original speech addressed by the ostler to Mr. Pickwick, when about to drive to Dingly Dell. " Shy ? he wouldn't shy if he was to meet a waggon-load of monkeys, with their tails burnt off." The scene where Sam is writing his valentine under the easy criticism of his father, suggests the well-known one in " The Rivals,'5 where Acres is writing his challenge. Actors nearly always introduce a " gag," which they may have borrowed from Mr. "Weller; "addressing the same lady" being malaproped into " undressing." We find the same idea in Sam's letter. " I feel myself ashamed, and completely circumscribed in a dressin' of you." A careful study of this ad- mirably drawn character will show that at the opening the author had not quite grasped its capabilities. It was only after two or three numbers' progress that he found himself develop- ing his happy varieties of humour and illustration, which ripened as he went along. Sam at the " Old White Hart " was rather a flippant and even uncongenial person, and his answers pert rather than humorous. We wonder, too, how the son of the proprietor of a flourishing inn, and so
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superior in his gifts, should have found himself reduced so low as to accept the post of " boots " in a borough inn. But it is likely that Weller senior, his inn, and his widow were after- thoughts suggested by Sam's successful develop- ment.
It may be noted, to show that Sam's character was then not quite fixed in the author's mind, that he probably intended to make him more of a vagabond ; for we find the impatient land- lady calling him from one of the galleries, " "Where's that lazy, idle — Why, Sam — oh ! there you are!- — why don't you answer?" And the Boots did answer pertly enough, " Wouldn't be genteel to answer till you'd done talking." Here was still the " wagginer's boy," undeveloped till he took service with Mr. Pickwick.
As "Pickwick " was itself full of odd allusions and originalities, so it was destined to be associated with a chain of still more curious coincidences. What could be more singular than that the author should have become, many years later most intimate with a family of Wellers. one of whom married his brother ? Another of the ladies married Mr. Thompson, and became the mother of Lady Butler, the artist. Weller is an invaluable, effective name. A more direct sugges- tion of the name is found in the fact that his nurse's name is said to have been Mary Weller.
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The name, therefore, under all the varied con- ditions, seemed almost to invite his selection.
As regards the " origin " of Sam Weller,2 it is said that there was a popular actor tempore " Pickwick," named Sam Yale, who per- formed Simon Splatterdash, in an old piece of Beazley's, the theatrical architect, called, " The Boarding House." There is certainly a suggestion in the name, and Sam Vale seems like Sam " Veller." . In the farce, the servant of the Boarding House is represented as interlarding his conversation with metaphorical illustrations, such as : —
" Let every one take care of themselves," as the jackass said when he danced among the chickens.
"I am down upon you," as the extinguisher said to the rushlight.
" Come on," as the man said to the tight boot.
" Where shall we fly ?" as the bullet said to the trigger.
" Sharp work for the eyes," as the devil said when a broad-wheeled waggon went over his nose.
" Why, here we are all mustered," as the roast beef said to the welsh rabbit.
*' Nibbled to death with ducks," as the worm said to the fisherman.
2 People now bearing this name seem to like to christen their children Samuel ; and not long since, at a concert, we heard a young postman, announced as " Mr. Samuel Weller," troll forth a song.
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These specimens, it will be seen, are of a rude and vulgar type, and cannot be put beside the sagacious and apt utterances of Sam.
Stiggins might well have held the elder Weller in a sort of holy horror, and have been frightened away from the inn; for Mr. Weller attacked him no less than three times in the course of the story; first when he assailed the shepherd, giving him two or three for himself and then " two or three more for the man with the red nose ; " then at the Brick Lane meeting, when he drove Stiggins into a corner, and danced round, " tapping him " on the head ; to say nothing of the last assault, when he kicked him out, and held his head in the trough.
It might have been a question in Mr Calverly's set of questions, " Who first used the expression, ' Life isn't all beer and skittles,' and on what occasion ? " It is to Sam we owe that oft- quoted proverb, though a little altered in the use, but which few suspect that he uttered. " It's a regular holiday to them," he said in the Fleet, *• all porter and skittles." It has been objected, how- ever to Sam, that in his anxiety to display his sagacity, the author credited him with more knowledge than he could have had opportunity of acquiring. Not many will recall his own account of himself ; he was " a carrier's boy at startin', then a wagginer's, then a helper, then a Boots, now he's a gen'1'man's servant." This sort of rustic
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education, and familiarity with horses, shows that it may have been intended to make him a sort of element in the " sporting '' direction ; but the truth is we do not think of Sam in such a con- nection, and the passage may be accepted as an oversight, like Jingle's share in the French Revolution of 1830.
The objection, however, to Sam's knowledge of all kinds, is not well founded. There is a vast deal of knowledge of the names of things, with- out actual knowledge, which quick and sagacious observers pick up. Such is Sam's allusion to " the perpetual motion." Not to be thus justified, however, is his acquaintance with Mr. Sterne's Sentimental Journey. " No man," he says, " never see a dead donkey 'cept the gentleman in the black silk smalls, as know'd the young 'ooman as kept a goat, and that wos a French donkey." Here we see he knew not only the " dead ass " of Nampont, but the passage where Mr. Sterne describes his own dress ; and also " Maria of Moulines " ! This is astounding in the ci-devant " wagginer's boy." It must be said, however, that plates of these interesting scenes were often seen in the shop windows, and the inquisitive might have been attracted by the one in which the dead donkey figures. So with his speech on disappointed men, who he says, "if they were gen'lmen you'd call 'em misantropes." Occa- sionally Weller senior indulges in his son's peculiar
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form of metaphor, as when lie tells him he will be wiser when he is married, " but vether it's vorth while goin' through so much to learn so little, as the charity boy said ven he got to the end of the alphabet, is a matter of taste." We find Sam also anticipating Mr. Crummies' prodigy, and calling a boy " an infant phenomenon."
It was said by several writers that in some points his humour was founded on, or suggested by, that of Washington Irving, whose little tale of the " Stout Gentleman " was named as being his model. No doubt he vastly admired the American writer, and it may be admitted that the machinery of " The Sketch Book" and " Bracebridge Hall," which was original enough, and conveniently offered a mode of "setting" short tales in a romantic frame, was before his mind. For both writers scenes of affectionate enjoyment and revelry in old mansions had a kind of fascination. But the humour of Irving was of a very mild, tempered character: he had little fertility; in fact comparison on this point is almost ludicrous.
Mr. Ward, in his account of Dickens, notes the amount of feasting and enjoyment of victuals and drinking through the work. But as he says truly, Dickens " loved merely the paraphernalia of good cheer, and talking about wassail bowls and good punch ; in practice he was most abstemious."3
3 This we can testify from our own experience, and there was something quaint in this contrast of precept and practice.
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In a conversation with his father, Sam Weller accuses him of " prophesying away like a red-faced Nixon," which provokes Mr. "Weller to ask, " Who wos he ? " and he is answered, without much filial feeling, " Never mind who he wos — he wosn't a coachman, that's enough for you." The inquiring reader will also naturally ask " Who wos he ? " This " red-faced Nixon " was a mysterious allusion enough ; but lately, in a bookseller's catalogue, we came upon the follow- ing, which explains it: "Nixon's Cheshire Prophecy, with the prophecy at large. Coloured folding frontispiece representing Nixon " — probably with "a dab" of carmine on his cheeks.
Count Smorltork, one of Mrs. Leo Hunter's guests, is drawn in a few touches, and the dialogue between him and Mr. Pickwick is perfect in its appropriateness and humour — such is his reply to the former's courteous remark, " Politics comprises in itself a subject of no inconsiderable magnitude," " Poltic surprises in himself, ver good." This foreigner was modelled on Prince Puckler-Muskau, who only a year or so before had travelled through England, paying visits to the nobility and gentry, furnished with a note-book, the contents of which filled out his volumes. This hurried scampering over the country brought him much ridicule, and by jesters of the poorer sort he was dubbed " pickled mustard."
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Sam's odd story of the " buttered muffins," is excellent, and dramatically told, particularly in the conversation between the doctor and the patient. This propriety in the short sketches, where the writer completely disappears, is one of the best things in the book. A story nearly similar is
found in Boswell, where we are told that " Mr. ,
who loved buttered muffins, but durst not eat them because they disagreed with his stomach, resolved to shoot himself, and then ate three buttered muffins before breakfast, knowing that he should not be troubled with indigestion." This unfortunate gentleman had two pistols ; one was found lying charged upon the table by him after he had shot himself with the other. Sam's friend had eaten three shillings' worth.
The worthy Hain Fris well's comment on this is characteristic, and would have "arrided" the writer himself : " That appetite must indeed be morbid which is willing to purchase a solitary gratification, such as eating buttered muffins, at the expense of life itself ! "
Cricket at this time had not developed into a science, and hence we meet with some odd technical phrases connected with the game. The fielders are called " scouts," who were to "look out " in different parts of the field. What was more odd, there were two bowlers, one for each wicket, which we may suppose was the custom at the time.
VIII.
FROM an eminent Counsel, Mr. Bompas, Q.C., I have received this interesting and amusing letter in reference to the original of the learned Sergeant Buzfuz, in the memorable " Trial :" —
" I am the youngest son of Sergeant Bompas, and have never heard it doubted that the name Sergeant Buzfuz was taken from my father, who was at the time considered a most successful advocate. I think that he may have been chosen for the suc- cessful advocate because my father was so success- ful ; but I have never been able to ascertain that there was any other special resemblance. I do not remember my father myself; he died when I was eight years old, but I am told I am like him in face. He was tall (5 feet 10 ins.) and a large man, very popular and very excitable in his cases, so that I am told that counsel against him used to urge him, out of friendship, not to get so excited. A connection of mine who knew him well, went over to hear Charles Dickens, sen., read the trial scene, to see if he at all imitated him in voice or manner, but told me that he did not do so at all.
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I think, therefore, having chosen his name as a writer might now that of Sir C. Russell, he then drew a general type of barrister, as he thought it might be satirized. If I can give you any other information, I will gladly do so. My father, like myself, was on the Western Circuit, and leader of it at the time of his death. I had a curious coincidence happen to me once. A client wrote to apply to the court to excuse a juror on the ground that he was a chemist, and had no assistant who understood the drugs. It was not till 1 made the application, and the court began to laugh, that I remembered the Pickwick trial. I believe the application was quite bond fide, and not at all in imitation of it.
" Yours faithfully,
" JOHN BOMPAS."
" Mr. Justice Stareleigh," writes Mr. Croker, "is an admirable likeness of an ex-judge, who, with many admirable and valuable qualities of head and heart, had made himself a legitimate object of ridi- cule by his explosions on the bench." This is quite true ; for the little judge, as is well known, was a sketch from life, being the portrait of the oddly named Mr. Justice Gazelee, a name which is clearly suggested by Stareleigh. In his readings, Mr. Dickens chose for his model, as he himself assured me, the cavernous, sepulchral tones of " old
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Rogers," whom he could take off to the life.1 It is curious that the judge should have resigned his office in 1837, the very year in which the " Trial " appeared. I have always heard that Serjeant Talfourd revised " Bardell v. Pickwick," and had drawn Dickens' attention to some existing legal absurdities.
" It is generally believed," goes on Croker, " that the counsel in * Bardell v. Pickwick ' are portraits, but we have tried in vain to discover more than a very faint resemblance in either of them, and Ser- jeant Buzfuz's speech is certainly not in the manner of the gentleman supposedto be intended under the name. It is simply a clever quiz on a style of oratory which was finally quizzed out of fashion by Lord Brougham." He adds, however, that the sketch of the judge might also apply to Lord Tenterden, whose precision in keeping witnesses to the point was illustrated by his question to a young counsel at dinner : " Would he have venison ? " The reply being that he was going to take some boiled chicken, the Judge said, " That is not an answer to my question, sir."
A portion was a satire on the cause celebre of " Norton v. Melbourne," in which heavy damages
1 Sir Stephen Gazelee was a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for fourteen years, having the reputation of heing a very " painstaking,