Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/300

 NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. v. MAR. so, 1912

the dear girls could have seen the people look at me in the street ; or heard them ask me, as I hurried to the hotel after the reading last night, to 'do me the honour to shake hands, Misther Dickens, and Ood bless you, sir ; not ounly for the light you 've been to me this night, but for the light you Ve been in mee house, sir (and God love your face !), this many a year.' "

Another pathetic incident occurred when he got to York, where a lady stopped him in the street and said to him, "Mr. Dickens, will you let me touch the hand that has filled my house with many friends ? " To his great joy, his daughters joined him at Edinburgh, whence they went with him to Glasgow, where, at the end of ' Dombey,' at an afternoon reading in the cold light of day, after a short pause, all rose and thundered their applause.

"For the first time in all my public career, they took me completely off my legs, and I saw the whole eighteen hundred of them reel to one side as if a shock from without had shaken the hall."

Dickens, notwithstanding all this, was very anxious to get to the end of his readings, and to be at home again and able to sit down and think in his own study. There was only one thing quite without alloy : " The dear girls have enjoyed themselves im- mensely, and their trip with me has been a great success."

In the summer of 1860 his younger daughter Kate was married to one of the kindest of men, Charles Alston Collins. The wedding took place at Gadshill, and the villagers, to show their gratitude for Dickens' s goodness to them, turned out in his honour. All the way to the church they had erected a series of triumphal arches, & couple of small cannon into his forge, tired a feu de joie on the return. My father knew the bridegroom well, and had a great regard for him. Collins obtained his help when he was making the collection of British newspapers and periodicals for the Paris Exhibition of 1867. and in his Preface to the catalogue handsomely acknowledges that the collection was much indebted to my father's exertions for any completeness it had attained. This was the first attempt to represent literature in any of the great exhibitions, whether held in London or Paris. The idea originated with the French Emperor, and while Collins had charge of the collection of periodicals, to the Rev. W. H. Brookfield was entrusted the form- ation of the book collection.
 * and the village blacksmith, having smuggled

The sudden death of Thackeray, on the eve of Christmas, 1863, came as a painful shock to Dickens. How thankful he must have been that on that day week they had

met at the Athenaeum Club, and that he had put his hand into that of the old friend from whom he had been estranged, and made up their long quarrel ! In The Corn- hill for the following February we have Dickens's tribute of respect : "No one can bo surer than I of the goodness of his heart."

Dickens spent a sad birthday in 1864, for on that day there came to him the news that his second son, Walter Landor, had died on the last day of the old year in the Officers' Hospital at Calcutta, to which he had been sent invalided from his station, on his way home. He had obtained a military cadetship through the kindness of Miss Coutts, and was a Lieutenant in the 26th Native Infantry Regiment. He had been doing duty with the 42nd Highlanders. His father was very proud of him, and described him as " one of the most amiable boys in the world." MR. WILMOT CORFIELD, who is desirous of obtaining further information as to the young soldier's Indian career, has kindly called my attention to The Dickensian for February, 1911, which contains an article by himself, telling of his discovery of the young officer's grave in the military cemetery at Alipore. Inquiries and searches had for many years proved fruitless.

An extract is given from The Calcutta Englishman of December 23rd, 1910, stating.

"as the result of Mr. Corfield's and Messrs. Llewellyn & Co.'s efforts, on Tuesday a clue was at last obtained, and yesterday morning he and Mr. Christensen, of that firm, took photographs of it and its inscription,"

which, it is mentioned in The Dickensian for September, 1911, was sent out by Dickens to Dr. Carter, who was in charge of the Calcutta Officers' Hospital at the time, and to whom he wrote " a long and affectionate letter." The inscription is as follows :

" In memory of Lieut. Walter Landor Dickens, the second son of Charles Dickens, who died at the Officers' Hospital, Calcutta, on his way home on sick leave, December 31st, 1863, aged 23 years,"

Forster writes of him : " He had the good- ness and simplicity of boyhood to its close."

JOHN COLLINS FRANCIS. (To be continued.)

HARRISON THE REGICIDE. (See US. iii. 285, 333.)

THE following biography of Harrison ap- peared in Mercurius Elencticus for 25 Dec.- 2 Jan., 1648/9, where the writer states that the King was brought to Windsor " on Saturday, December 23, by that great warrior Col. Harrison, whom Walker (the Hebrew-