National Republican., 1888-05-27
D1CKENs's CHARACTERS.
Where He Found Some of the Pro-
totypes.
From Temple Bari

shire schools, they lodged at the principal
hotel in Barnard Castle, In the county OF
Durham, and Immediately opposite the ho.
tel was watchmakers shop, easily seen by |
the novelist from his sitting room window. |
Over the shop-front was conspicuously |
peced the name of "lIumphreys, Clock |
maker,n which fixed itself so indelibly on |
the authors mind that he gave 1t to the |
clockmahe er in his next story, and wrote to |
tell "Master Humphreys what he had |
done, sending him, at the same
time o copy of "Nicholas Nickleby.n As
for the original Of the famous clock itself,
we learn that its manufacture was begun in
1S2S by William Humphreys, son OF Thomas
Humphreys, the then proprietor of the shop.
On its completion the following year 1t was
placed in a niche ON the right hand side of
the glass shop door, where Dickens first
saw II, and where in passing he frequently
consulted IL for the correct time, thus be-
coming acquainted with the owner and his
son, Master Humphreys. The shop was a
veritablc "curiosity shop" containing, as 1t
did, such n miscellaneous collection of toys,
clocks, philosophlc instruments, and relics
innumerable.
One of the most amusing characters in
the "Old Curiosity Shop is that of the small
slipshod girl who wore "a dirty coarse apron
and bib, which left nothing of her visible
but her face and feet,n and who was called
''the marchioness" by that choice spirit, Mr..
Richard Swiveller, In order "to make IT seem
more real and pleasant The novelist took
his first impression Of this domestic young
person from maid-ofall-work possessed .
by the Dickens family when living in Bay
ham street, Camdentown. She was an orphan
| from the Chatham workhouse and continued
| to wait upon her employers during their in
| carceration in the Marshalsea. Like young
| Charles Dickens, she had q lodging in the
neighborhood of the prison, that she might
| he early on the scene OF her duties; and
| when Charles met her, as he would do oc-
| casionally, in his lounging place by London
bridge, he would occupy the time before the
| gates opened by telling her most astonish-
ing flctions about the wharves and the
tower "But hope l believe them my
| self,n he would say,
The room which young Dickens then oc-
cupied was back attic In the house of an
| insolvent court agent In Liant street, Boro'.
where Bob Sawyer lodged many years after
ward His landlord was "a fat, good ma
tured, kind old gentleman. He was lame,
and had quiet old wife; and he had n
very innocent grown-up son, who was lame,
too" The elderly couple and their only
son were dead when these particulars
were related by Dickens to his biog,
rapher, who informs us that they live still
very pleasantly, in another form, as the Gar
land family in the "Old Curiosity Shop"
Turning to minor character in the story,
It is said that she first study for the poet of
Mrs. Jarley's wax work was made from one
of the rhymesters regularly employed by
Robert Warren, the backing manufacturer,
whom Dickens remembered so well.
In the preface to an early edition OF
"Martin Chuzzlewitn Dickens speaks of
Mrs. Camp as fair representation, at the the
attendent on the poor in sickness, but, as
Mr.. Foster says, he might have added that
the rich were no better off, for Mrs. Camps
original was in reality a person hired by a
most distinguished friend of his own, a
lady, to take charge Of an invalid very dear
to her, and the common habit of this nurse
in the sick room, among other Gampish
peculianties, was to rub her nose along the
top of the tall fender. In spite Of Mrs. Camps
propensity for strong drink and other hui
man weaknesses, we cannot resist the hu.
morous side Of her character, nor deny that
she is general favorite.
1t has already been said that Dickens
when mere lad, lodged near the Marshal
sea during his fathers incarceration there
Before he lived with the originals OF the
| Garland family he was handed over to a re
duced old lady long known to his parents
Mrs. Roylance, who took children In tt
board, and had done so at Brighton. VIII
| n lew ulIeruIlOuS anu bhh
; lady unconsciously sat for Mrs. Pipchin II
"Dombey and Son." when she took II
Young Charles Dickens. The well know
Illustration, representing Mrs. Pipchin ant
Paul at the fire, greatly distressed the au
! thor because .sPhiz" failed to realize tn
t scene as the former had conceived it.
} II Is, perhaps, not generally known tina
of Dickens. lie was the only child of MI
I and Mrs. Burnett Fanny Dlckens), AM
! Master Harry Burnett is described by on
D who knew the family well as ia singula
r child, meditative and quaint in a remark
: able degree. He was the original, as Dick
G ems told his sister, of little Paul Dombey
It Harry had been taken to Brighton, Il
a little PAUL is represented to have been, an
Q had there, for hours, lying on tn
Is beach with his books, given utterant
to thoughts quite as remarkable Il
a child as those which are put into the III
l. of Paul Dombey. u ~ - The child SCENE
II never tired of reading the Bible, and h
G age; and the bright little fellow was alwa.
II happy" There can be no doubt tn
Dickens, in his pathetic description of Paul
Is experience of life, recorded some OF his J
ST collections of the days when he was und
the protection of that stern guardian, Mr
81 Roylance.
s. Dickens considered oDavid Copperfield
|
"a his preference may be looked for in the fa
T. that 1t is to great extent autobiographica
c. The author has himself declared that mai
C. of the incidents in David's career are ide
lie tical with those experienced by himself,
~ that, up to certain point, he may be co
$. sidered as the prototype OF the hero OF Z
ie story To certain extent, also, Mr.. Mica
es ber was portrait OF the novelist's fatht
who, like him, was remarkable for rheto
IL cal eXuberance, q peculiarity which fou
as frequent and always agreeable expr'
O. sion in many of the noveliscs II
~ ters, written long before "Copp'
OF fleldn was thought Of. "No, one
a. a, Dickens without secretly liking him the b
10 ter for these aourishes of speech, viii
ell adapted themselves 30 readily to his gloC
n as well as to his cheerfulness, that ~ -
er difficult not to fancy they had helped h
ur considerably in both, andh rendered mt
ON tolerable to him, II also more possible,
Ter shade and sunshine of his chcckered II
'er y - It delighted Dickens to rembe
We Der that IL was one of his connections
lr- father wrote a celebrated sentences: "A
i must express my tendency to BELT
ay that his longevity is ito say the least
en- it) extremely problematical. =" There a
~ existed in the personal appearance OF
lry type. A friend and neighbor Of Mr.. Jc
hu Dickens describes him as "a chatty, pie
i'd ant companion, possessing varied fund
IL anecdotc and agenuine vein Of humor.
lay was well.built man, rather stout, OF V
rn- active habits, little pompous, and V
II proud las well he might be- of his talen
son. lie dressed well and wore goo
bunch of seals suspended across his wa
M coat from his watch chain.
writer says that Dickens also avail
at himself of certain peculiarities of Thor
we Powell, "a so-called literary man,
idy America, many Of whose idiosyncra
ue were set forth In n story published in =