The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1892-08-17
RELICS OF DICKENS.
MANY QUAINT BUILDINGS MADE FA-
NOUS sY TAE NOVELIST.

NOUS Hy THE NOVELIST.
Localities Peopied By the Genius Of the
Master Hand, with charaeters That
Appeal to All. Are Fast disappearing
from Old London-BIsak House.
Ere long another Of the fast vanishing
localities, peopled by the genius Of the
master novelist with characters more
real 10 us In some respects than their
present inhabitants. will be nonexisbent.
Entering Lincoln's-inn-helds from Great
Queen street, turn to the right, pause at
80, and picture Mr.. Tulhinghorn emery
ing one evening from chambers where
lawyers lie like maggots In nuts." I'm
agine him walking through the inn,
passing beneath its ancient Tudor gate
way, and visiting Mr.. Snagsby, the law
stationer IN Cooks court, Cursitor street,
with . view of ascertaining where Memo,
the mysterious law writer, lives.
A little to the south of Old Buildings,
on the west side of Chanoery lane, are
Bishops court and Chichester Rents,
the latter approached through q tun-
neled passage alongside the Three Tuns
public house. To the Rents came the
''two gentlemen, not very neat about
the cuffs and buttons" who instituted
perquisitions through the court, Owed
into the Sols parlor and wrote with
ravenous little pens on tissue paper
"those sensational reports of the inquest
which had just been held at that well
known and popular house OF entertain
ment, the Old Soils Arms"
Soils Is tho present Old Ship Tavern.
IL stands at the head Of the court. fac
ing 1t on one side and the wall Of Lincoln
Inn on the other. 1t is certainly ancient
enough. and on tho first floor can still
be seen the identical long, low room
where the coroner presided. and where
little Swills, the comic vocalist, pre-
scented to the harmonic meeting his ad-
impersonation of that important
official.
So far Identification is plain sailing.
But where was the famous rag and bot
tie shop, whose gin soaked proprietor
died from spontaneous combustion? Mr..
Rimmer, in About London with Dick
ens." is silent on the subject. Tho writer
of Dickens London" thinks it must
have stood in Bishops court hard by
for no other reason apparently than the
fact of its being IAN old, narrow, dreary,
decaying and mournful passage, just
the place in which such people as the
poor law writer and crazy Miss Flito
would have made home"
But a careful study of every allusion
made by Dickens to the locality will, /
think. show that Mr.. Pemberton in
probably mistaken. Krook's shop is
spoken Of as lying and being in the
shadow of the wall" - blinded by
the wall" No house in Bishops
court exastly answers to this descrip-
ton. On the contrary, the only
likely one at the corner next to Old
Soils faces an open passageway which
leads to New square. Krook's must
therefore be sought for at Nos. 8 and
0 in the Rents (now occupied by II
law STATIONERY. opposite the Old Ship,
fronting the court on one side and on
the other within couple of yards off
and entirely blinded by the wall" SO
often referred to in the narrative.
Miss Elite, meeting Esther Summer
son and the wardsin chancery one morn
ing in Old square, invited them to come
and SEQ her lodgings. So close by did
she live that, slipping out at little
side gate" she stopped most unexpect-
eddy in narrow back street" (Star yard,
leading to Carey street), part of come
courts and lanes Immediately outside
the wall of the inn," and she was at
home. She lodged in q garnet at the
top of Krook shop, described as "bIind-
ed by the wall of Lincoln's Inn, which
intercepted tho light within couple of
yards" She lived in a pretty large
room, from which she had glimpse of
the roof of Lincoln's Inn hall; the new
one, be it remembered, for tho old hall
is entirely shut out from view by the tall
houses in old buildings.
1t is during the visit that the poor
little creature draws aside the curtain
of the long. low garnet window and calls
attention to a number of bird cages
hanging there, whose occupants Lady
jane, the cat, is forever striving to de-
YOUR, crouching ION the parapet outside
for hours and hours" This is conclusive
testimony, for no other house in either
court-save the Old Ship-possesses an
attic with an outside parapet. The win
dows are mostly dormers, or flush with
the wall, while from no other garnet
Sol's-can glimpse of
the old hall roof he had. This can
readily BIO tested by standing close to
The hall and looking through the trees
coward Chichester Rents, where the
'lated top story and long, low garnet
window of the rag and bottle shop may
% identified.
In u miserable back room on the sec
md floor of this dismal abode Captain
alias Memo, was found dead |
,y Mr.. Tulkinghorn and Krook-dying |
~ his own hands from an overdose of |
,pium. "To hemmed in churchyard, |
1estiferous and obscene, they take our |
lear brother here departed and lower |
lim down foot or two" On the steps
eading TO this charnelhouse Dame
burden finds her mother, with one
Irm creeping around a bar of the iron
rate and seeming To embrace it." This
pot is rather hard to lind, but walk up |
catherine street from the Strand, and |
lalf way up on the right turn into Rus |
ell court leading into Drury lane, and |
midway to the left of this passage, is the |
to the "consecrated ground"
The little tunnel of a court is much as |
was forty years ago. But the lamp is
,one, aud tho old iron gate is not the |
ne depicted by II. K. Browne. Chill
ren now play as best they can ON the |
sphalted surface of the hemmed in |
rea. where once poor 10 saw the mortal |
emains of the stranger who had been
very good to him put into the ground |
VERY nigh the top."-St. James Ga
cite.
AS long ago as 1866, Benin, a leading
herman authority, estimated tho popu-
alton of the earth at about l, 400, 000, 900.