Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1874-02-05
DOTHEBOYS HALL.

Il
sends to that journal the following arti-
Gle, which puts another aspect on one OF
Dickens happiest creations. We have
heard something Of the sort before, but
have never seen it in quite so authentic
a shape:
| have recently received letter from
an old friend and schoolfellow, which
appears to me so far to exceed the in
terest of merely private letter that |
have obtained his leave to send copy
of it to N. and @. | am sure that all
who feel an interest in Dickens 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. Dotheboys Hall is
still here, no longer a school. Mr.. Shaw,
the original of Squeers, married Miss
Laidman, who was a sort of cousin by
my father. The school buildings are
pulled down, but the house (Dotheboys)
is still very nice, handsome one, with
large offices, COW houses, etc. We learn
from our landlady that in the room
where we are now sitting tUnicorn Inn,
Bowes) Dickens had lunch the day he
and 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. Dick
ems was only here that day, but he
stayed longer in Barnard Castle, and
got 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 Of for
bad conduct. fGJ
Mrs. Highmoor tells me, as indeed my
father always says, that Dotheboys hall
is a most exaggerated caricature. But
somehow the description was in some
respects so correct that everybody re-
cognized it. Poor Shaw quite took 1t to
heart, and did no more good, got child
ish 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 Lon
don (this place is one of the great coach
ing roads between York and Glasgow
and that there was great joy in the vii
lage on the arrival of the coach and its
precious freight-qutite the event, in
fact, it was. She says the boys were
used very well, and fed as well as could
be expected for f20 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
supplied the boys food.
90 The house is at one end of the vii
lage. The coach-road runs past the
gable between the house and the stables.
My impression is that Yorkshire
schools were bad, but not so bad as
Dickens makes out, and Shaw was
much better than most of them There |
is strong feeling here of Indignation
against Dickens, who, no doubt, ruined
Shaw L
In :his reply to my request to pub
lish the above, my friend says:
by all means use my notes on
l think my information is
authentic, being gathered on the spot
There were four large London schools
in the WALLACE, all knocked
up by Nicholas Nickleby." The in
habitants furious, and no wonder"
l should like, by way of comment on
my friends interesting notes and in JUS
ice to Dickens, to remind your readers
hat the great novelist, in his preface to
Nicholas Nickelby," says that his de-
of Dotheboys Hall was not
meant to apply to any particular man
Or school, but that it was type of York
shire cheap schools in general. He
urther distinctly and emphatically as
,erts that this description, 30 far from
,eing exaggerated, falls short of the
eality. 1t is quite possible that Dick
ms unfortunately made his description
n some respects too much a portrait of
dr. Shaw, tho result Of which appears
o have been that the latter fell victim
o the obloquy which was due to York
hire schoolmasters generally. II the
comparison be allowable, Shaw suffered
ike Louis XVI, who was guillotined no.
10 much for his own sins as for those /,
# his scoundrel ancestors But although ,
Shaw may have been comparatively in
loeent, have no doubt that Dickens
vas, in the main, right, and that York
hire schools and Yorkshire school
masters we're, on the whole, such as he
them. That these gentry and
heir Caves of Despair" no longer exist
: one Of the many debts Of gratitude
,hich bic fellow countrymen owe to
)harles Dickens