The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1889-05-18
GAD'S HILL.

years, and that before attaining his desire he
had lived In several homes Of decidedly I'M
satisfactory kind. In his schoolboy days IT
was his delight to wander over the hill MADE
famous by Shakespeare. Much OF 1t was then
OMEN ground and he used to linger under the
trees and dream out those scenes when alter-
wards charmed his many million readers.
Once his father was walking there with him
and Charles expressed his admiration OF the
queer old house on the summit, to which the
father replied:
swell, if you work and mind your book
you will, perhaps, live in a house like that"
Then, says the novelist in late interview,
the intention was formed in his mind and the
ownership of that house became sort OF
beacon light to his young ambition. But 1t
is painful to review the experiences that lay
Immediately before him. The family was,
considering its refinement and tastes, IN
pinching poverty for many years. Dickens
has pleasantly touched the improvidence OF
his father in the renowned character OF VIII
kins Micawber. When the talented lad was
but Is years old, the family was practically
broken up, and Charles had to betake him
self to severe toll of pen and brain. His first
location, to reappear in his works, was in the
place-Americans would call it a "block"-
known as Furnivals Inn, and an extremely
common place it was There he worked for
a lawyer at thirteen and six" $3.50 per
week. and there he wrote "Pickwick" and
many fugitive pieces.
When the proceeds of these enabled him to
have a larger room, in a somewhat better
neighborhood he still loved TO linger for
hours in the old quarter, and finally devel-
oped almost mania for rambling in the low
est quarters of London, where he would sleep
In the cheapest lodging houses and cook his
steak at the common stove. From 1887 to
1910 he lived in a plain brick house on
Doughty street, and when in the latter year
he was able to take middle class residence
at No. | Devonshire Terrace his relatives
thought 1t most marvellous rise in the world.
In 1850 he removed to Tavistock house, and
remained till 1860 Each remove marks a
rise in fortune. Finally he attained the
height of his ambition-Gad's Hill. The solid
old dwelling there contains fourteen living
rooms, besides the regular offices, and the
eleven acres about it contain gardeners
cottage, stables, green houses, coach house
and yard, kitchen garden, rare beds and
parterres, and lawn tennis ground.
The restless activity of Dickens tempera-
ment found an outlet in planning and i'm
proving, or at any rate changing, the entire
hill. He had a large conservatory built adj
joining the dining room and tunnel made
under the public road to connect the grounds
with a little retreat called ''The WILDERNESS"
In this were two magnificent cedars, much
celebrated by visitors, and a little Swiss chalet
presented to Dickens by his friend Fechter In
this chalet the novelist had plainly fur
nished room, to which he would retire to write
;,,fn md In
penned the last lines he wrote. His articles
in All the Year Round and many fugitive
pieces he dictated to stenographer, but
wrote all his novels and other elaborate
pieces, and pruned, corrected and revised
them with great care. While at this work he
smoked a prodigious number of cigarettes
and towards the last drank altogether too
much sherry. When he stopped to think he
usually fell to combing his hair or whiskers
with that once noted pocket comb which cut
such a figure during his first visit to America
and disguised many of his admirers.
Americans who visited Dickens at Gads
Hill were usually demoralized by their trip
thither and delighted with their reception
Taking the hOusetop railroad at Charing
Cross station, the train runs for half an hour
over the roofs of red tiled houses, and then,
slowly descending to the earth, runs for an
hour longer and these London suburban
trains run at an amazing speed through out
lying villages and by an occasional mansion,
the grounds about which are no doubt very
handsome, but are shut out from the travel
ers view by those hideous high walls which
crafty British conservatism. Alighting at
Higham station, in Kent, the traveller must
cross the country for two miles or $50 and
most of the way up hill and between market
gardens and orchards, to arrive at knoll
fronted by large irs-and this is Gad's Hill
Outside the grounds is the dusty or muddy
little village-a public" and a few tene-
ments. The people areof the most pronounc-
ed rural English type, broad, heavy, OK eyed
and free Britons, free to drink all they can
soak up at "tuppence pint" and to rear
their children in ignorance SO dense that they
can form no conception of q foreigners reas-
ons for visiting the place.
Like all English country places, the grounds
are walled in, but the wall has Dickensian
moderation compared with most. Entering
the large gate, the visitor first sees square
frame on which is an inscription to the effect
that the house stands on the Gadshill of
Shakespeare and a quotation from Henry
"" act /, scene 2. This hill was celebrated
for robbers from the very earliest times
Shakespeare made it famous, and it was re-
deemed, and Dickens raised it to high renown
as goal of classic pilgrimage. Through the
large bay window by which he usually sat
Dickenscould overlook the road by which the
Canterbury pilgrims passed, as told by Chau-
Ger, and the spot where Falstaff and COM
pany ran away from the eleven men in
buclram" When Dickens pictures were sold
duly 9, 1870 everything in the library and
living room Of the novelist remained just as
he had left It, and the visitors of that day
had the last view Of that sort. Now all is
changed, and new parties are in possession;
but Gad's Hill will remain as place of liter
airy renown, like the home of Shakespeare
and the birthplace of Burns.
The --latest NisitoIs To Gad's Bill raport that