MEMENTOS OF CHARLES DICKENS.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 748, 10 December 1870, Page 2

MEMENTOS OF CHARLES DICKENS.

(From the Publishers' Circular.') A satirical contemporary noted, the other day, as a proof of the innate love of relics which is in all human breasts, that, in laying the foundation stone of a Wesleyan chapel, a curl of John YVesley's hair was fondly deposited with other suitable offerings. The "newspaper writer was not at all satisfied that fhe hair was that of the sainted John "Wesley, but was severe upon the relic-hunting people who could even venerate a curl of his wig. Of course the story was too good to be entirely true. Hair of Wesley, or of hiswig, was deposited, but not as a relic ; and the pastor not unnaturally protested against such a color being put upou a harmless act. But independently of this, men of letters can hardly pick a hole in the coats of men of a religious turn of mind. On Saturday last there was a great gathering at the sale of Charles Dickens, and the " effects,''* to use the auctioneer's phrase, of the great author were eagerly bought as relics by a crowd of his contemporaries—by authors to whom he had giving a helping baud, by friends who had gathered round him in life, and by a public who admired him. Old familiar faces were to be seen in the crowd around the auctioneer, and never in any sale-room, perhaps, was there so much sentiment and sad feeling expressed as there. ,But in securing the "lots"—the forty pictures, the few objects of art, china, and silver—which were dispersed, the passion of the relic-hunter equalled, if not surpassed, the loving veneration of the relation or the friend. We own, as national property of which we are proud, a somewhat doubtful portrait (the Chandos) of Shakspeare; but although the director of the National Portrait Gallery was there, neither he nor the author's son secured the portrait of Diokens by Maclise—one of the best, if not the very best, portrait ever painted by that artist—an admirable and engaging picture to boot, not even counting its supreme interest. Every one in the room wished that this picture should be secured for the nation, if it were by any means separated from the family of" the author. Indeed, there is in Sheridan's comedy a scene which rose to everyone's mind where the nephew is ready to sell a " roomful of ancestors" and a library full of " learning that had run in the family like an heirloom," but will not part with the portrait of hiß Uncle Oliver, even though be had " an unforgiving eye and a disinheriting counten-

ance." " The old fellow," says' Charles Surface, "was very good tome, and, egad! I'll keep his picture while I have a room to put it in." But not one of the family bought the portrait of Dickens (they perhaps may possess others), nor did Mr Scharf buy ib for the nation ; it fell to the Rev. Sir Ed. Jodrell, for Bix hundred and sixty guineas, and a very cheap picture has the reverend gentleman got. We can only hope that, after many years enjoying his purchase, he may bequeath it to the nation. Some few other pictures realised large prices.but not much more than they were worth. The two Cattermoles of Little Nell and Little Nell's Grave, fetched one hundred and Bixty and one hundred and eighty guineas; a series of pencil sketches by Leech, bought by Mr Dickens for about five guineas, brought sixteen guineas and a half. Mr Frith's picture of Dolly Varden, for which, twenty-seven years ago, Frith was paid twenty pounds, fetched one thousand pounds—its market value, so much has Frith risen, being about eight hundred pounds, independent of any of its associations. Mr Frith, by the way, has painted at least a dozen replicas of this, with, of course, certain variations. The pictures alone of Mr Dickens, which were certainly not firstrate, in a critical point of view, fetched seven thousand six hundred and ninetyeight pounds. Of these pictures, there were three which had a curious history, both parts of which are so marvellous that it is hard to say which exceeds the other in its amazing incredibility. They were by Stanfield, painted for the Frozen Deep performances, and one was a marvel of power, marvellous even for our seapainter, great as he is. This pictures fetched nine hundred and ninety guineas; the other two, one hundred and fifty and one hundred and seventy-five guineas respectively, and yet here comes the story —Mr Dickens appreciated them so little that be left them behind at Tavistock House, as fixtures, and the succeeding tenant begged him to remove them, as they were " disagreeable to his wife !" The history of Art has some curious anecdotes, none more wonderful than that. After the pictuies, the relic hunters gathered more closely around the auctioneer, and " went in" for the different items with vigour. A stuffed raven, the original of Barnaby Budge's Grip, and of whom Mr Dickens relates that it " devoured a whole staircase" just before it died, brought the enormous price of one hundred and twenty guineas; and the six silver toddyladles presented by the publishers to the very successful author of Pickwick, a considerable deal more than their weight in gold. Each ladle had, like an apostle spoon, a figure on the top, but, beyond that, was not more valuable than an ordinary king's-pattern dessert-spoon. But Mr Halliday bought the one with the figure of Mr Pickwick for sixty-nine pounds; the Fat Boy fetched thirty; Mr "Weller, fifty-one; Mr Jingle, thirty; Sam "Weller, sixty-four; and Mr Winkle, twenty-three—Mr Charles Dickens, junior, having secured three out of the half-dozen ! But the intense desire of relic collecting, hunting, and viewing, hardly ends there. Crowds of fashionable and literary people flocked to the sale-room on the days of view with more interest than they show in the .Royal Academy; and an American gentleman, Mr Howard Paul, offered what turned out to be the "ridiculously small sum" of six thousand pounds for all the " effects" as they were, for the purpose of taking them " the round " of the States, where he apprehended, and not without reason, that they would draw a goodly number of sightBeers. We are glad that Dickens's furniture was not Barnamised in that way; but on the whole, after this, authors and writers cannot throw a stone at the relic-hunters, of whatever complexion of faith. Let us end this episode in the curiosities of literature by a very pleasant and graceful trait of a generous people. ,An American gentleman has proposed that the United States' men should purchase DickeDs's house at Gadshill, and present it to the English nation as a bond of union between two great peoples, and as a thank-offering for the pleasure given to an English-speaking nation by an English author. It is yet too early to make Gadshill a place of pilgrimage, but the offer deserves our thanks for the kindliness and generosity it evinces.