Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1874-02-05
WHOLE NO. 1916
Dotheboys Hall.
From q Correspondent of the London Notes
and Queries

from Correspondent of the London Notes
and Queries.l
l ain sure that all who feel an inter-
est in Dickens's writings will be glad
to read communication which throws
some light upon one Of his most
famous fictions. My friend writes
from Bowes, in the North Riding, a
village in the neighborhood of the
classic ground of Rokeby:
We came here, as it is on the way
to where we are going; it is my
fathers birthplace. 1t is very fine
country-fresh mountain air. Dothe-
boy hall is still here, no longer
school. Mr. Shaw, the original of
Squeers, married Miss Laidman, who
was a sort Of cousin to my father.
The school buildings are pulled down,
but the house (Dotheboy's) is still
very nice, handsome one, with large
offices, cow-houses, &c. We learn
from our landlady that in the room
where we are now sitting (Unicorn
inn, Bowes) Dickens had lunch, the
day he and q friend rode over from
Barnard castle to see and make
sketches of Mr. Shaw's school, and
the same old lady, Mrs Highmoor,
waited on them. Dickens was only
here that day, but he stayed longer in
Barnard castle, and got a great deal
of gossip, not too true, about the
school, from one -, a quondam
usher of Shaw's, and ''bad lot, )" who
had indeed been turned off for bad
conduct. Mrs Highmoor tells me, as
indeed my father always says, that
Dotheboys hall is most exaggerated
caricature. But somehow the descrip-
ton was in some respects so correct
that every recognized it. Poor Shaw
quite took it to heart, and did no
more good, got childish and paralytic,
and soon died. The school went
down fast. Mrs Shaw also died
broken-hearted. But good deal Of
money was left behind. Mrs High
moor says there was an immense num-
Der of boys, that Mr. Shaw chartered
a special coach to bring them from
London (this place is one of the great
coaching roads between York and
Glasgow, and that there was great
joy in the village on the arrival Of the
coach and it's precious freight-quite
the event, in fact, it was. She says
the boys were used very we'll, and fed
as well as could be expected for f2O
a year; that there might be things
wrong, but no complaints were ever
made that Shaw made money, because
on his own farm he grazed the cows
and fed the sheep and pigs which sup
piled the boys food. The house is at
one end of the village. The coach
road runs past the gable between the
house and the stables. My impress
sion is that Yorkshire schools were
bad, but not so bad as Dickens makes
out, and Shaw's was much better than
most of them. There is a strong
feeling here of Indignation against
Dickens, who, no doubt, ruined poor
Shaw. l think my information is
authentic, being gathered on the spot.
There were four large "London
schools" $50 called) in the village, all
knocked up by "Nicholas Nickleby."
The inhabitants are furious, and no
wonder.
l should like, by way Of comment
on my friends interesting notes and
in justice to Dickens, to remind your
readers that the great novelist, in his
preface to "Nicholas Nicllleby," says
that his description Of Dotheboys
hall was not meant to apply to any
particular man or school, but that it
was type of Yorkshire cheap schools
in general. He further distinctly and
emphatically asserts that his descrip-
ton, so far from being exaggerated,
falls far short of the reality. 1t is
quite possible that Dickens unfortu-
nately made his description in some
respects too much portrait Of Mr.
Shaw, the result of which appears to
have been that the latter fell a victim
to the obloquy which was due to
Yorkshire schoolmasters generally. If
the comparison be allowable, Shaw
suffered like Louis XVI, who was
guillotined not so much for his own
sins as for those of his scoundrel
ancestors. But, although Shaw may
have been comparatively innocent, l
have no doubt that Dickens was, in
the main, right, and that Yorkshire
schools and Yorkshire schoolmasters
were, on the whole, such as he de-
scribes them. That these gentry and
their "Caves Of Despair" no longer
exist is one of the many debts Of
gratitude which his fellow-countrymen
owe to Charles Dickens.