Morning journal and courier., 1891-01-24
MIR. wAKEmAN,s JOURNEYINGs.
Al York, England-Charlcs Dickens
"Nfcholas Niekleby" Private
schools in the Early Part OF the
Present Century-The Village of
Bowes-Witches of Rere Cross
Lonely Stanemoor Mountain.


Present Century-The Village of
Bowes-Witches of Rere Cross
Lonely Stanemoor Mountain.
YORK, England, Jan. 8.
To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
Probably the greatest immediate and
lasting good ever done any nation by a
single work of fiction was effected by the
nicholas Nickleby" of Charles Dickens.
During the early part of the present
century the private schools, and particu-
larly the boys schools of England, with a
few notable exceptions like that of Rugby,
were the most infamous i'll the world. If
there can be superiority in infamy, York
shire stood first and best. Dickens him
self said of its private school-masters:
Graders in the avarice. Indifference or
imbecility of parents, and the helplessness
of children; ignorant, sordid, brutal men,
to whom few considerate persons would
have entrusted the board and lodging of a
horse or dog; they formed the worthy
cornerstone of structure which, for alb
surdity and a magnificent high minded
laissez- -aller neglect, has rarely been ex-
ceeded in the world"
How Dickens grand and humane genius
came to espouse the cause of the hosts of
helpless and outraged children in England
is pleasing "reminiscences of his magnifi-
cent literary career. The English-speak-
ing world was still in raptures over his
first success under the nom de plume of
"Boz" His publishers, Chapman Il Hall
of London, had immediately engaged an
other work from his pen to appear in
parts. Its plan and scope were still sub
jects for discussion, and, under the bur
dens and impositions of the young au-
thor's new relation to men and things, a
grievous and desperate anxiety to Dickens
himself In this condition of unrest and
perturbation there foated into his mind a
misty rehabilitation of his own vague
childish fancies regarding Yorkshire
schools He tells of these in his own in
imitable way in the last preface written by
him for "Nicholas Nickleby." He says:
'1 cannot call to mind now how came to
hear about Yorkshire schools when I was
u uOt very FoDust Clllio bittiiiS III py pidccs
near Rochester castle, with head full of
Partridge, Strap, Tom Pipe and Sancho
Panza; but know that my first impress
sions of them were picked up at that time,
and that they were somehow or other con-
nected with q suppurated abscess that
some boy had come home with, in conse-
quence of his Yorkshire guide, philoso-
pher and friend having ripped it open with
an inky penknife!"
Here was opportunity for great and
merciful motive in fiction. With a boon
companion, Hablot Browne, Dickens left
London few weeks before Christmas of
1887. The two made thorough pilgrim
age of Yorkshire on the old post-chaise
routes, gathering, under all manner of
pretenses, every possible fact bearing on
| the accursed system; consulting files of
| cd newspapers in York and neighboring
cities for records of damage suits brought
against proprietors of these schools for
cruelty; wheedling his way into this OBJ.
scure den and forcing his way into that
one; and, at last, in the remotest and
most dreary portion of northern York.
shire, coming upon a nest of the dreadful
| places at and near the then thriving vii
laee of Bowes Here Dickens remained
| for time. He had letters to q yeoman OF
the place, soon to shine as one of the i'm
fnortals of fiction as honest "John Brow
die" He represented himself as agent OF
poor widow desirous of placing her only
boy in a quiet country school. In thii
way he secured admission to number u