Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/538

 NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. v. JUNE 8, 1912.

1778, for a period of 20| years. There is a manuscript book still in existence at Hitchin which contains copies of legal documents relative to the town. It is dated 1779, and dedicated to " William Bogdani, Esquire, Fellow of the Royal and Antiquarian Societies in .London, and a member of Spalding Gentlemen's Society in Lincolnshire, Clerk in the office of Ordnance of the Tower of London." The Gentleman's Magazine for 19 September, 1775, records his marriage, as Maurice Bogdani, Esq., Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, to Miss (Deborah) Rhudde of Shepherd's AVell. She died on 21 December, 1786, aged 38 (Gent. Mag., Ivii. 90), and was buried at Hitchin. Her husband, by will dated 24 December, 1789 (proved 8 May, 1790), left 500Z. for invest- ment for Mrs. Margaret Hagar 10L of this principal to be given to each of her children at her death, and the remainder to be invested for teaching and clothing poor girls in the charity school at Hitchin (Cussans, ' History of Herts '). He died at Hitchin on 5 May, 1790, aged 57.

A son of the same name succeeded, and renewed the lease of the manor on 28 July, 1798, for 17i years. Presumably he died without issue, for on 2 December, 1815, the lease was again renewed, to Anthony Rhudde or Rudd of Uttoxeter, who had inherited the manor through his deceased relative Deborah Bogdani, nee Rhudde, aforesaid. He was, I believe, a member of the Car- marthenshire family, baronets Rudd of Aberglasney, and descendants of Anthony Rudd, Bishop of St. David's 1593-1614.

When the last of the Bogdanis was laid in the family grave at Hitchin, it is said that the ledger stone was accidentally broken in pieces, and was replaced by a new stone. The fragments lay in the church tower for many years, but were replaced in their original position when the floor of the church was raised and relaid.

HERBERT C. ANDKDWS.

CHARLES DICKENS. FEBRUARY TTH, 1812 JUNE 9TH, 1870.

(See ante, pp. 81, 101, 121, 141, 161, 182, 203, 223, 243, 262, 284, 301, 323, 344, 362, 383, 404, 421.)

DICKENS was longing for the quiet of Gads- hill and to get on with ' Edwin Drood,' the fifth number of which he read to Forster on the 7th of May ; but there were certain invitations he was led to accept. He dined with Motley, the American Minister ; met

Disraeli at a dinner at Lord Stanhope's ; had breakfast with Gladstone ; and on the 17th was to have gone with his daughter to the Queen's ball, but the day before he was pulled up by a sharp attack in his foot r

" And serve me right. I hope to get the better of it soon, but I fear I must not think of dining with you [ForsterJ on Friday. I have cancelled everything in the dining way for this week, and that is a very small precaution after the horrible pain I have had and the remedies I have taken."

He had to excuse himself from the General Theatrical Fund dinner, at which the Prince of Wales was to preside ; but for another dinner, at which the King of the Belgians and the Prince were to be present, " so much pressure was put upon him that he went, still suffering as he was, ta dine with Lord Houghton." Dickens, ever anxious to please, overtaxed his strength.

And now Dickens and Forster were to meet for the last time. It was on Sunday r the 22nd of that crowded May, when the two- friends dined together in Hyde Park Place,, and their conversation was full of sadness. Dickens had just heard of the death of Mark Lemon, and

" his thoughts were led to the crowd of friendly companions in letters and art who had so fallen from the ranks since we played Ben Jonson together. But we were left almost alone. ' And none," said Dickens, ' beyond his sixtieth year r very few even fifty.' "

Forster protested that " it was no good to- talk of it." " We shall not think of it the less," was his reply.

On the dining-table was a centrepiece- suggestive to him of such thoughts. A few weeks before he had received a letter from a man quite unknown to him, enclosing a cheque for 500Z. The writer described himself

" as a self-raised man, attributing his prosperous career to what Dickens's writings had taught him at its outset of the wisdom of kindness and sympathy for others ; and asking pardon for the liberty he took in hoping that he might be permitted to offer some acknowledgment of what not only had cheered and stimulated him through all his life, but had contributed so much to the success of it."

Dickens with kind words returned the cheque,, and said

" the spirit of the offer had so gratified him, that memorial of it in another form, he would gladly receive it."
 * if the writer pleased to send him any small

The memorial soon came a richly worked* basket in silver, inscribed :

"From one who has been cli.eereu and stimu- lated by Mr. Dickons'* writings, and held t he- author among his first remembrances whi-a he became prosperous..' 1