The life and writings of Charles Dickens- a woman's memorial volume (1871) (14578986289)

Identifier: lifewritingsofch01hana (find matches)
Title: The life and writings of Charles Dickens: a woman's memorial volume
Year: 1871 (1870s)
Authors: Hanaford, Phebe A. (Phebe Ann), 1829-1921
Subjects: Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870 Novelists, English
Publisher: Boston, B.B. Russell San Francisco, A.L. Bancroft & co. (etc, etc.)
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation



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hough not born at Rochester, Mr. Dickens spentsome portion of his boyhood there, and was wont to tellhow his father, the late Mr. John Dickens, in the courseof a country ramble, pointed out to him as a child thehouse at Gads-hill Place, saying, There, my boy, ifyou work, and mind your book, you will perhaps one daylive in a house like that. This speech sunk deep ; andin after-years, and in the course of his many longpedestrian rambles through the lanes and roads of thepleasant Kentish country, Mr. Dickens came to regardthis Gads-hill house lovingly, and to wish himself itspossessor. This seemed an impossibility. The propertywas so held, that there was no likelihood of its evercoming into the market; and so Gads Hill came to bealluded to jocularly as rex5resenting a fancy which waspleasant enough in dreamland, but would never berealized. Meanwhile, the years rolled on, and GadsHill became almost forgotten; then a further lapse oftime, and Mr. Dickens felt a strong wish to settle in the
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CHARLES DICKEiSrS. 363 country, and determined to let Tavistock House. Aboutthis time, and by the strangest coincidence, his intimatefriend and close all)^, Mr. W. H. Wills, chanced to sitnext to a lady at a London dinner-party, who remarked, inthe course of conversation, that a house and grounds hadcome into her possession, of which she Avanted to dispose.The reader will guess the rest. The house was in Kent,was not far from Rochester, had this and that distin-guishing feature which made it like Gads Hill, and likeno other place; and the upshot of Mr. Willss dinner-table chit-chat with a lady whom he had never metbefore was, that Charles Dickens realized the dream ofhis youth, and^ became the possessor of Gads Hill. Itwill now be sold, as well as the valuable collection oforiginal pictures which Mr. Dickens gathered togetherduring his life, and msmj of which are illustrative of hisworks. Gads Hill is near Rochester, on the London side, andabout twenty-five miles from London. Donald G