“Those who have read Charles Dickens’s ‘Life,’ by Mr. Forster, will know that he is the ‘great man’ who had lived at Tavistock House for twelve [ten] years. People from all parts of the world have come to look at the house Charles Dickens lived in, and see the interior of the house, a request which I have frequently complied with.”
On another page Mrs. Weldon says: “Although three keepers got into Tavistock House and actually laid hold of me, I escaped their delicate intentions, as I consider, by a merciful interposition of Providence....”
At the Dickens Birthday Celebration, the dancers were attired in the costumes of Dickens characters, and Mrs. Weldon appeared in wig and gown—a very fascinating Serjeant Buzfuz.
[45]The neuralgic pain in his foot, originating, he believed, in a prolonged walk in the snow, continued to cause acute suffering, and completely prostrated him at intervals.
[46]At Sotheby’s, on December 4, 1902, were sold the office table, two chairs, and a looking-glass, which for many years were in daily requisition by Dickens at the office of All the Year Round.
[47]Mr. Percy Fitzgerald, in the St. James’s Gazette, March 6, 1899.
[48]These interesting conjectures are culled from the Wiltshire Advertiser, February 4, 1904.
[49]“The Real Dickens Land,” by H. Snowden Ward, 1903.
[50]“Bleak House,” chap. lvi.
[51]Letter to Forster, January 27, 1869.