Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1892-08-13
RELICS OF DICKENS.
MANY QUAINT BUILDINGS MADE FA-
NOUS BY THE NOVELIST.

Localities Pcopled by tho Genius Of the
Master Hand, with Characters That
Appeal to All. Arc Fnet Disappearing
from Old London-Bloak House.
Ere long another Of the fast vanishing
localities, peopled by the genius of the
master novelist with characters more
real to us in some respects than their
present inhabitants, will be nonexistent.
Entering Lincoln's-inn-helds from Great
Queen street, turn to the right, pause at
5s. and picture Mr.. Tulkinghorn emerg-
ing ono 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
statiorer 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 tho west side of Chancery lane, are
Bishop'E court and Chichester Rents,
the latter approached through q tun-
neled passage alongside the Three Tuns
public house. To the Rents came the
1.-TWO gentlemen, not very neat about
the cuffs and buttons" who instituted
peTquisitiU4s through the court, dived
into the Soils parlor and wrote with
ravenous little pens on tissue paper
''those sensational reports of the inquest
which had just been held at that we'll
known and popular house of entertain
ment, the Old Soils Arms"
Soils Is the present Old Ship Tavern.
II stands at the head of the court, fac
ing It on one side and the wall of Lincoln
Inn on the other. 1t rs certainly ancient
enough, and OH the first floor can still
boz seen the identical long, low room
where the coroner presided, and where
little 9wi1ls, the comic vocalist, pre-
sented to the harmonic meeting his ad-
mfrable impcEsonation 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..
Rimmcr, in About London with Dick
ems" is silent on the subject. The 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, inst
the place in which such people rs the
poor law writer and crazy Miss Flito
would have made home"
But u careful study of every sllusion
made by Dickens TO tho locality will, l
think, show that Mr.. Pemberton is
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 exactly answers to this descrip-
ton. On the contrary, the only
likely one at the corner next to Old
Soils faces an open paseageway which
leads to New square. Krook's must
therefore he sought for at Nos. & and
. in the Rents now occupied by
law Stationery. opposite the Old Ship,
fronting the court on one side and on
the other within a couple of yards off
and entirely blinded by tho wall" 60
often referred 10 in the narrative.
Miss Flite, meeting Esther Summer
son and the wards in chancOry one morn
ing in Old square, invited them to come
and see her lodgings. SO close by did
she live that, slipping out at a little
side gate" she stopped most unexpect-
edly III q narrow back street" TStar yard,
leading to Carey street), part of some
courts and lanes Immediately outside
the wall Of the inn," and she was ut
home. She lodged in n garret at the
top of Krook's shop, described as "blind-
ed by the wall of Lincoln's Inn, which
intercepted the light within couple of
yards" She lived in pretty large
room, from which she had n glimpse of
the roof of Lincoln's Inn hall; the new
one, be it remembered, for the old hall
IL 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 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-saye the old Ship-possesses an
attic with an outside parapet The win
dows nre mostly dorlners, or flush with
the wall, while from no other garrot
window-except Sols-can u glimpse of
the old hall roof he had. This can
readily be tested by standing close to
the hall and looking through the trees
toward Chichester Rents, where the
sluted top story and long, low garret
window of the rag and bottle shop may
be identified.
In miserable back room on the sec
ond floor of this dismal abode Captain
Hawdon, alias Memo, was found dead
by Mr.. Tulkinghorn and Krook-dying
by his own hands from an overdose of
opium. ITO hemmed In churchyard,
pestiferous and obscene, they take our
dear brother here departed and lower
him down foot or two" On the steps
leading to this charnelhouse Dame
burden finds her mother, with one