MR FORSTFR'S LIFE OF CHARLES DICKENS.

Thames Guardian and Mining Record, Volume I, Issue 118, 24 February 1872, Page 3

MR FORSTFR'S LIFE OF CHARLE S DICKENS.

Concluded. llis first literary effort appeared in the pages of the Month/;/ Mro/ir.inc; it was a sketch having for its title “ Mrs Joseph Porter over the way.” The sketches wero continued in the Eeenimj Chronicle, and when the series was completed Dickens sold the copyright to Mr Macronc, for a conditional payment of £l5O. Several years later lie purchased back his copyright, still in the hands of Macrone, for £2.000. In March, 1830, the first number of “ Pickwick” was published by Chapman and Hall, and on the 2nd of April, in the same year, Dickens was married to Catherine, the eldest daughter of Mr George Hogarth. The melancholy suicide of Mr Seymour left Dickens without an artist to illustrate his wondeful serial, and a/irojionoi this circumstance, Mr Thackeray has related the following incidents: —

“ I can remember,” said Thackeray, “ when Mr Dickon’s was a very young man, and had commenced delighting the world with some charming humorous works in covers, which were colored light green, and came out once a month, that this young man wanted an artist to illustrate his writings ; and 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.”

In illustration of the popularity and success of “ Pick vick,” Mr Forster gives the following anecdote, related in a letter of Carlyle’s: “ An archdeacon, 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 lie thought, and got out of the room, he heard the sick person ejaculate, 1 Well, thank God, “ Pickwick” will he out in ten days anyway !’—This is dreadful.” Mr Forster thus describes the habits and tastes of Dickens in 1838-9, when the tide of prosperity had fairly set in : Dickens was very fond of riding in those early years, and there was no rccretion ho had so much indulged, or with such profit to himself,in the intervals of his hardest work. . . Ilis notion of finding rest from mental exertion in as much bodily exertion of equal severity, continued with him to the last; taking in the later years what 1 always thought the too great strains of as many miles in walking as he now took in the saddle, and too often indulging it at night; for, though lie was always passionately fond of walking, lie observed as yet a moderation in it, even accepting as sufficient my seven or eight miles companionship. ‘ What a brilliant morning for a country walk !’ lie would write, with not another word in his dispatch. Or, ‘is it possible that you can't, oughtn’t, shouldn’t, mustn’t, won'l be tempted, this gorgeous day?’ Or, ‘I start precisely—precisely mind—at halfpast one. Come, come, come, and walk in the green lanes. You will work the better for it all the week. Come! I shall expect you.’ Or, ‘ You don’t feel disposed do you, to muffle yourself up, and start off with me for a good brisk walk over Hampstead Heath ? I knows a good ’ous there where wo can have a red-hot chop for dinner, and a glass of good wine ;’ which led to our first experience of Jack Straw’s Castle, memorable for many happy meetings in coming years. But the rides werednost popular and frequent. 1 I think,’ lie would write, 1 Richmond and Twickenham, thro’ the Park, out at Knightsbridge, and over Barnes Common —would make a beautiful ride.’ Or, I Do you know, I shouldn’t object to an early chop at some villiagc inn ?’ Or, ‘ Not knowing whether my head was oil: or on, it became, so addled with work, I have gone riding the old road, and should bo truly delighted to meet or be overtaken by vou.’ Or, ‘\\ here shall it be —oh tehere — Hampstead, Greenwich. Windsor? Where? ? ? ? while the day is bright, not when it has dwindled away to nothing ! For who can be of any use whatsumdc ver such a day ns this, excepting out of doors? Or it might be interrogatory summons to * A hard trot of three hours?’ or intimation ns laconic, 1 To be henrd of at jVc 1 - pie-house, Twickenham !’” In 1841, Dickens visited Scotland. Here ho first saw “ Christopher North," and he thus describes that remarkable man : “ Walking up and down the hall of the courts of law (which was full of advocates, writers to the signet, clerks, and idlers) was a tall, burly, handsome man of eight and fifty, with a gait like O’Connell’s, the bluest eyes you can imagine, and long hair—longer than mine —falling down in a wild way under the broad brim of his hat. He had on a surtout coat, a blue checked shirt ; the collar standing up, and kept in its place with a wisp of black neckerchief : no waistcoat; and a large nccket handkerchief thrust into his breast, which was all I road and open. At his heels followed a wiry, sharpeved devil of a terrier, dogging his steps as iie went slashing up and down, now with one man beside him, now with another, and no.v quite alone, but always at a fast rolling pace, with his head in the air,and his eyes as wide open as he could get them. “ How can I give you the faintest notion of my reception here ; of the crowds that pour in and out the whole day; of the people that line the streets when I go out ; of the cheering when I went to the theatre ; of the copiesof verses, letters of congratu lation. welcomes of all kinds,balls,dinners, assemblies without end But

what can 1 tell you about any of these things which will give you the slightest notion of the enthusiastic greeting they give me, or the cry that runs through the whole country ? I have had deputations from the Far West, who have come from more than two thousand miles distance ; from the lakes, the rivers, the back-woods, the log-houses, the cities, factories, villages,"and towns. Authorities from nearly aif the States have written to rnc. I have heard from the universities, congress, senate, and bodies, public and private, of every sort and kind. 1 It is no nonsense, and no common feeling,’ wrote Dr Chan

ning to me yesterday, l lt is all heart. There never was, and never will be, such a triumph.’ And it is a good thing, is it not, ... to find those fancies it has given me and you the greatest satisfaction to think of, at the core of itall ? It makes my heart quieter, and me a more retiring, sober, tranquil man to Watch the effect of those thoughts in all this noise and hurry, even than if I sat, pen in hand, to put them down for the first time. I feel, in the best aspects of this welcome, something of the presence and influence of that spirit which directs my life, and through a heavy sorrow has pointed upwards with unchanging finger for more than four years past. And if I know my heart, not twenty times this praise would move me to an act of folly.”