Nearly facing us, on the north side of Fleet Street, is Clifford’s Inn Passage, into whose retirement Mr. Rokesmith, the hero of “Our Mutual Friend,” withdrew from the noise of Fleet Street, with Mr. Boffin, when offering that gentleman his services as secretary.
Close at hand stands St. Dunstan’s Church, near to which the pump was, but is not, from whose refreshing streams “Hugh” (from the Maypole, Chigwell) sobered himself by a drenching on one occasion previous to visiting Sir John Chester at Paper Buildings. (Vide “Barnaby Rudge,” chapter 40.) The old pump has been replaced by a drinking-fountain.
Toby Veck surely must have known that pump; for though there is no precise location given by Dickens in “The Chimes” for the church near to which Toby waited for jobs, there is an etching by Stanfield in the original edition of that book (page 88), which is unmistakably the counterfeit presentment of St. Dunstan’s Tower.
Continuing the route, we pass Bouverie Street (Bradbury and Evans—now Bradbury, Agnew, and Co.—in this street were the publishers of several of the works of Dickens, “The Chimes” included) on the right, next arriving at Whitefriars’ Street on the same side.
At the corner of the street, No. 67, is the public Office of “The Daily News.” This influential newspaper was started January 21, 1846, under the supervision of Charles Dickens, and in the earlier numbers of the journal were published instalments of his “Pictures from Italy.” Dickens shortly relinquished the editorship, being succeeded by his friends Jerrold and Forster. The fact is, Charles never greatly cared for the study of general or party politics; but he always identified himself with “the People—spelt with a large P, who are governed,” rather than “the people—spelt with a small p, who govern.”
A short distance down Whitefriars’ Street is a passage (left) from which, at a right angle riverwards, we may look into Hanging Sword Alley, where Mr. Jeremiah Cruncher, messenger at Tellson’s, had his two apartments. These “were very decently kept” by his wife, whose “flopping” proclivities gave so much umbrage to Jerry.
On the opposite side of Fleet Street—No. 146—just beyond, we turn (left) into Wine Office Court, and, on the right, we arrive at “Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese.” In “The Tale of Two Cities,” Book 2, chapter 4, we read that Charles Darnay, being acquitted of the charge of high treason, on his trial at the Old Bailey, was persuaded by the young lawyer, Sydney Carton, to dine in his company thereafter:—
“Drawing his arm through his own, he took him down Ludgate Hill to Fleet Street, and so up a covered way into a tavern.”
This, of course, was the tavern intended; it having been a noted resort with literary and legal men for more than a century past. Here Doctor Johnson and Oliver Goldsmith frequently dined together in days gone by, gravely discoursing over their punch afterwards; and, in more recent years, Thackeray, Dickens, Jerrold, Sala, and others have been reckoned among the customary guests of the establishment. Mr. George Augustus Sala, in a pleasant description of the place, writes as follows:—
“Let it be noted in candour that Law finds its way to the ‘Cheese’ as well as Literature; but the Law is, as a rule, of the non-combatant, and, consequently, harmless order. Literary men who have been called to the Bar, but do not practise; briefless young barristers, who do not object to mingling with newspaper men; with a sprinkling of retired solicitors (amazing dogs these for old port wine; the landlord has some of the same bin which served as Hippocrene to Judge Blackstone when he wrote his ‘Commentaries’)—these make up the legal element of the ‘Cheese.’”