Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1892-08-25
Liz at GnH'S HfII
To be Continued.

Gad's Hill, despite the fame of the
host and the great attraction of his con-
versatiOn, can hardly have been the
most delightful house in the world to
stop at, at all events for the lazy and in
dolent. George Augustus Sala SAYS of
it:
Life at Gad's Hill was pleasant. but
peculiar, Dickens was a phenOnlenally
punctua1 man. He was exact. even to
the painful stage of eAacdtude, in every
transaction of life, and he expected
his guests to be as punctual and exact
as he himself was In November.
1868, on the eve of my departure for
New York, I missed bidding him fare
well because I was seven and a half
minutes late in keeping an appointment
which he had made for a final hand
shake. When I was at Gad'S Hill I
had come to know my hosts ways bet
ter, and was as punctual as the income
tax collector. We kept military time"
at all our meals: but it was between
breakfast and luncheon that Dickens
love of method most strongly asserted
itself. He expected all and every one
of his guests who earned a livelihood
by their pen to do some kind of literary
work in the interval just mentioned.
Our party during my stay at Gads Hill
only comprised, in addition to our host
and the members of his family, Wilkie
and Charles Collins, Andrew Halliday,
the dramatist, and your humble ser
want. We were all told of the work at
1870 q. NJ, and expected to keep at it
till 1:45 p. IN. The day on which I ar
rived was Saturday, and I abominate
working on the last day of the week,
which, these five-and-thirty years, has
been the Sabbath.
Fortunately I had brought down with
me q double set Of proofs of a book on
the Paris exhibition, which [ was bring
ing out One set l had fully corrected
before leaving London, so during my
three hours and odd segregation from
society | trified with the blank proofs
and drew skeletons of the 'TraddIpS"
order in the margin. Dickens had put
me in his own study, preferring to work
himself that morning in Il pretty Swiss
chalet in the grounds, the gift of lis
friend Charles Fetcster, and when l
tore up my spare set of proofs with the
bogus correction | succeeded in more
than half filling that famous waste
paper basket you Wot of. Where VIII
kie and Charles Collins and Andrew
Halliday were lodged, and what man
M Of sEyx-o,.1y,'
have forgotten. After luncheon came
the equally famous ten-mile walk-five
miles out and five miles in. From that
pedestrian toll you are excused on
showing good and proper cause, but l
had been ordered walking exercise by
my doctor, and was valid enough to
perform with Dickens and his sister
in-laW. Miss GeOrgiania HOgarth, a
tramp from Gad's Hill to Rochester,
Stroud, and back. When you returned
you were expected to drink a liquor
glass of orange brandy, and very good
orange brandy it was. l do not think
that the institution known as o'clock
tea was known in those days. At a.
bout II D. M. after cigars and billiards,
you were expected, as a might cap,
to consume a moderate amount OF hot
gin punch breWed in inimitable style
by the hands of Dickens himself. l
can see him now, cycling with fOndly
paternal glance the jug of punch,
swathed in a snowy napkin on the hob.
There was no cumpulsion as to imbib-
ing the steaming compound, but if you
passed it by your host looked hurt.