Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/107

 US. V. FEE 3, 1912.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

83

night " there was no advice, no counsel, no encouragement, no consolation, no sup- port from any one.

On Sundays, while his father was in the Marshalsea, his wife and the other children being with him, Charles would call for his sister Fanny at the Royal Academy of Music in Tenterden Street at nine o'clock ; and, after spending the day at the prison, they would walk back together at night.

In 1826, at the age of fourteen, a change took place, and the boy was sent to a school kept by a Mr. Jones in Mornington Place ; he gave an account of the school in House- hold Words, October llth, 1851. After remaining about two years he was sent to a school in Henrietta Street, Brunswick Square, kept by a Mr. Dawson, but was only there for a few months. After being a clerk at two solicitors' offices, his father having taken up reporting for the press, he determined to follow the same vocation ; and his industry soon made him one of the best reporters of the day. This was, of course, only attained by " a perfect and entire command of the mystery of shorthand writing, being about equal in difficulty to the mastery of six languages."

Dickens all through life recommended authors to learn shorthand, as he himself had found it so useful in noting down for future use any incident that impressed him. I possess a letter now, dated from the office of All the Year Round, giving me this advice. The pleasure he used to feel in his rapidity and dexterity in the exercise of shorthand never left him, and when listening to a dull speech he would find his hand going on the tablecloth, taking an imaginary note of it all. James Grant, who was a reporter at the same time as Dickens, states that " among the eighty or ninety reporters he occupied the very highest rank." John Black of The Morning Chronicle, who was universally beloved for his honest, great-hearted enjoy- ment of whatever was excellent in others, was wont to compliment Dickens " in the broadest of Scotch from the broadest of hearts," and Dickens " to the last " re- membered that it was most of all the cordial help of this good old mirth-loving man that had started him joyfully on his career of letters. " It was John Black who flung the slipper after me," he would often say, " Dear old Black ! my first hearty out-and- out appreciator."

JOHN Coixnsrs FRANCIS.

(To lie continued.)

INSCRIPTIONS IN BURIAL-GROUND OF ST. JOHN'S, WESTMINSTER.

(See 11 S. iv. 302, 403, 484 ; v. 42.)

261. [Blank.}

262. James and William Pethick, twins, d. March 9, 1834, a. 3 days. George William Pethick, d. Feb. 14, 1838, a. 16 mths. Thomas

Pethick, d. [Jun]e 17, 1838, a. days. M T

w. of Edw[ard] Pethick, mother of the above d. (Nov.) 4, 1839, a. 37. John, s. of Edward and Elizabeth Pethick, d. Dec., [18]41, a. 5 mths. Henry, their s., d. Aug. 5, 1842, a. 6 weeks.

263. [Blank.]

264. Mrs. Fran[ces] (Co)lls, d. Dec. 10, 1834, a. 3(4).

265. Peter Solomon Du Puy, b. March 21 1770 ; d. July 4, 1829.

266. Andrew White, d. 13 Jan., 1831, in his- 39th year.

267. Emily Sarah (Th), d. April , a. 2 yrs.

William Henr(y) a. month. Also

William Joseph, s. of the [above], d. March 21. 182(9).

268. The family vault of John Farebrother, Esq., of Millbank Street.

269. Ellen, 3rd dau. of William and Isabel Butler, 1831. Emma Jessey, their 4th dau., 1832.

270. Mrs. Hannah Hertslett, d. 8 Jan., 1828 r a. 67. Mrs. Hannah Harriet Jemima Hertslett,. d. 23 Aug., 1828, a. 38. Sophia Mary Anne Hertslett, granddau. of the first, and niece to the last above named, d. 24 Dec., 1829, a. 10. Lewis and Mary Spencer Hertslett, d. 19 Sept., 1834. Anna Maria Elizabeth, dau. of Charles and Anna Maria Hertslett, and sister of the above Sophia Mary Anne, d. 9 Nov., 1839, a. 14.

271. [Blank.]

272. James Coltman, of Upper Bloomburg Street, in this p., d. 28 Feb., 1849, in his 40th year. An affec. husb., tender parent, &c. Afflictions sore, &c.

273. Benjamin Hudson, of this p., d. 9 July, 1837, a. 72. Maria Walter, his dau., d. 1 Sept., 1839, a. 44.

274 Emma Susan, w. of Mr. Joseph

Nightingale, of Hans Place, Chelsea, gent., and niece of the above, d. 11 April, 1831, a. 30. Joseph, their infant s., d. 24 April, 1831, a. 18 days.

275. ah Brown [w. of ?] [R]obert

Brown [died] July, 1828, a..

276. Mary Ann, w. of Abraham Wright, d. 29 March, 1828, a. 31. Two of their chn. : John r d. 4 April, 1827, a. 6 weeks ; Louisa Ann, d. 6 May, 1828, a. 6 weeks.

277. Mrs. Sarah Empson, d. 24 March, 1840, a. 80.

278. Mrs. Mary Pierce, d. 24~Sept., 1827, a. 86. Mr. William Pierce, d. March 1, 1829, a. 92. Harriet Pierce, d. Aug. 5, 1849, a. 85. Anna Maria, w. of Gaetano Polidori, dau. of the above William Pierce, d. 27 April, 1853, a. 83.

SOUTH SIDE.

279. Crest. A winged spur. John Johnson, and Catherine his w., and their s. John, late Alderman, of London. The first d. Jan. 30, 1829, in his 70th year. The second d. March 27, 1846, in her 83rd year. Their s., the Alderman, d. Dec. 30, 1848, in his 57th year. Erected by William Johnson, their only surviving son, 1853.