The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-06-24
Two Of Dickens's Friends.

Ali lovers of Dickens will be interested TO
hear of the death os M. BEAUFORT Mutuel, the
owner of the house which Dickens occupied at
Boulogne and whose amiabiity, vivacity and
sweetness of disposition are so frequently re-
ferred to in Forster's biography. HE backed
himself down the avenue with his cap in his
hand as if he were going to back himself into
the evening star without the ceremony of dy-
ing first I never did see such gentle, kind
heart" This is one of the many illusions to
this excellent Frenchman who died a few days
since at Condette, village some eight miles
from Boulegne, in his seventy ninth year.
Another link between Dickens and the pres
ent generation is broken by the death of Mr..
I. j. Thompson, at the age of sixty-nine. Ed
ucated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and IN
fortunately possessed of an ample fortune so
that he was not spurred to turn his fine talents
to public account, he made the acquaintance of
Charles Dickens early in life, and was one of
his amateur dramatic company, which includ-
ed George Henry Lewes, John Leach. Doug
las Jerrold and Forster, and which performed
for the benefit of Door Leigh Hunt. OF that
company Mr.. Thompson was the last survivor,
as he was also the only one who did not make
a reputation in the world of letters or of art.
But, as If to make atonement, one of his two
daughters-to whose cultivation he devoted
the best years of his life-is devoted to litera-
ture and the other has won fame as the paint
er of the "Roll-Call''. Mr.. Thompson in con-
nection with Mr. Dennison (afterward Lord
Ossington) made an unsuccessful attempt to
represent Weymouth in Parliament during
the Corn-Law struggle. He was one of the
first batch of members of the Travellers Club,
and for m any years member of the Reform.
Blessed with an excellent memory, Mr..
Thompson was full of interesting reminiscent
ces of the days when Dickens and Louis Napo-
leon and Disraeli constantly met under Lady
Bessington's roof; when Count d'Orsay, with
his broad-brimmed hat and the highest posi-
BILE pdltdlon of some light tint rode in the
Park, looking on horseback larger than ever;
and when country cousins in all the rap
ture of visit to the Opera in the Grisi-cum-
Labla che cum Rubini- cum Tamburini- cum
Taglioni times used to gaze at the occupants
of certain box-one of the best boxes you
may be sure-wherein sat in all her Rubens-
like beauty the "most gorgeous Lady Blessing
ton" Gas DIR. Parr used to call herr confronted
by the COunt-the only man in the house fitted
to be her pendant; while from the background
Disraeli's pale face much shaded by sable
ringlets would often lean forward into the
light Dickens and Louis Napoleon used fire.
quently to talk together, but were not very
congenial, for the novelist was wont to declare,
81 always found him a stupid man." Mr..
Thompson, to whom Dickens used the express
sion, was accustomed to compare it with the
estimate of the Emperor formed by another of
his friends, Louis Blanc, who thought him a
fool because he could not speak for fifteen
minutes together''-the verdict, it is needless
to add, of an extremely fluent man.