Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/129

 ii S.V.FKB. 10,1912.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

101

LOXDOX, SATURDAY', FEBRUARY 1", 1:>1.'.

CONTENTS. No. 111.

NOTES : Charles Dickens, 101 " Castra," "Castrse," in Old English, 103 Colkinto and Ga-lasp, 104 The Coventry Shakespeares Omar Kh iyyam Bath Abbey Arms, 105 Casanova and Kitty Fisher Lear's ' Book of Nonsense ' Dickens : Mr. Magnus's Spectacles Rights of Interment, 106 A Woman Train Dispatcher" NU est in intellect!! quod non fuerit in sensu ''Regent's Park : Centenary, 107.

nietk- among the Romans Curious Land Customs The Odd Chair: Peter the Great St. Cyr Cocquard, 108 Hone's 'Ancient Mysteries 'Earldom of Derwent water Dighton's Drawings French Prisoners of War at Lich- fleld Joseph Neunzig : Heinrich Heine Gladstone on the Duty of a Leader Musicians' Epitaphs : Inglott Selkirk Family, 109 Harry Quitter's Poems French Grammars ' Cocke Lorelle's Bote ' Cosey Hall, Gloucestershire Sir Kenelm Digby ' Temple Bar ' : Casanova Capranica Family ' Ian Roy 'Matilda of Paris Gretna Green Records Keeston Castle, Pem- brokeshire Mummers Benjamin Fletcher, Governor of New York, 110 Dickens Knockers, 111.

REPLIES :-'Lillibullero,' 111 St. Agnes: Folk-lore, 112 Bells rung for King Charles's Execution Rail way Travel : Early Impressions, 113 James Townsend " Riding the high horse" Dean Swift and the Rev. J. Geree, 114 Mistletoe St. Cuthbert's Birds " United States Security "Aviation Maida : Naked British Soldiers- Dinner-jacket, 115 ' The Confinement ' : a Poem Lairds of Drumminnor ''Samaritan Bible Felicia Remans Nicolay Family Keats's ' Ode to a Nightingale ' Queen Anne and her Children, 116 Money-box Jones and Blunkett T. Gilks, Engraver " De La " in English Surnames, 117.

NOTES ON BOOKS: The Oxford Dictionary ' Easy Chair Memories 'Reviews and Magazines.

Booksellers' Catalogues.

CHARLES DICKENS.

FEBRUARY TTH, 1812 JUNE 9rn, 1870.

(See ante, p. 81.)

IN less than ten years from his leaving the blacking warehouse we find Dickens '' stealthily one evening at twilight, with fear and trembling, dropping a packet into a dark letter-box in a dark office ' up a dark court in Fleet Street. This was the office of the old Monthly Magazine, and he has told us of his agitation when he purchased the number for January, 1834, at a shop in the Strand, and found his contribution in all the glory of print

minster Hall, and turned into it for half an hour, because my eyes were so dimmed with joy and pride, that they could not bear the street, and wore not fit to be seen there."
 * ' on which occasion I walked down to West-

The paper was entitled ' A Dinner at Poplar Walk,' and was afterwards included among the ' Sketches by Boz,' with the name of ' Mr. Minns and his Cousin.' On the 31st of March, 1836, the first number of ' Pickwick ' appeared, and two days after, the 2nd of April, he was married to Catherine, the eldest daughter of George Hogarth, who was a fellow -worker with him on The Morning Chronicle. The rapid success of ' Pickwick,' " a series of sketches without the pretence to such interest as attends a well-constructed story," and the popularity it won for its author, were marvellous. People at the time talked of nothing else, and tradesmen recommended their goods by using its name. The excitement was not confined to grown- up people even in schools the parts were looked forward to ; and Mrs. Samuel Watson, the daughter of the late Dr. Samuel G. Green, who was born in 1822, remembers that it was one of her father's favourite reminiscences that at the school he attended the head master was wont to read aloud to the boys the monthly parts as they appeared, and that a whole holiday celebrated Mr. Pickwick's release from the Fleet. For Part I. the binder did up 400 copies, while for Part XV. 40,000 were required. Forster puts the entire sum received by Dickens for the work at 2,5001. ; and on the same date that the agreement as to his share in the copyright was completed with Chapman & Hall the 19th of November, 1837 an agreement was entered into for a new work, to be entitled ' The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby.'

In the midst of the triumph of ' Pickwick ' a great personal sorrow befell Dickens, which so afflicted him that the publication was delayed for two months. This was the death of his wife's younger sister Mary, who lived with them, and who died with a terrible suddenness. Her epitaph, written by him, may be seen on her grave at Kensal Green: "Young, beautiful, and good, God numbered her among His angels at the early age of seventeen."

On his visit to London in April, 1841, Jeffrey, who had been telling all Scotland that there had been " nothing so good as Nell since Cordelia," arranged for Dickens to visit Edinburgh in June, where he was to be welcomed with a public dinner. The reception was magnificent, and Dickens with his ability for making word-portraits writes graphic descriptions of it to Forster :

" The renowned Peter Robertson is a large, portly, full-faced man with a merry eye, and a queer way of looking under his spectacles which is characteristic and pleasant.