Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1892-08-11
RELICS OF DICKENS.
MANY QUAINT BUILDINGS MADE FA-
NOUS BY THE NOVELIST.

Master Hand, with Characters That
Appeal to All, Are Fast Disappearing
from Old London-Bleak 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 noneKistent.
Entering Lincoln s-inn-tields from Great
Queen street, turn TO the right, pause at
IS. and picture Mr.. Tulkinghorn emerg-
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 Chancery lane, are
Bishops court and Chichester Rents,
the latter approached through 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, 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 well
known and popular house of entertain
ment, the Old Soils Arms"
Soils is the present Old Ship Tavern.
1t stands at the head of the court. fac
ing it ON one side and the wall of Lincoln
inn ON the other. 1t is certainly ancient
enough, and ON the first floor can still
be seen the identical long, low room
where the coroner presided. and where
| little Swills, the comic vocalist, pre-
sented to the harmonic meeting his ad
mirable impersona;ion 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
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 ''an old, narrow, dreary,
decaying and mournful passage, just
the place in which such people as the
poor law writer and crazy Miss Elite
would have made home"
But careful study of every allusion
made by Dickens to the 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 passageway which
leads to New square. Krook's must
therefore be sought for at Nos. and
in the Rents now occupied by
law Stationery. opposite the Old Ship,
fronting the court Oh 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 wards in chancery 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 in narrow back street" (Star yard.
leading to Carey street,, part of some
oo,,r+, opd Tomas immadiotalv outSida
the wall of the inn," and she was at
home. She lodged in d 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 glimpse of
the roof of Lincoln's Inn hall; the new
one, be it remembered, for the 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 garret 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-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 garret
window-except Sol's-can a glimpse of
the oid hall roof he had. This can
resdiIy be tested by standing close to
the hall and looking through the trees
toward Chichester Rents, where the
slated 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 a 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
arm creeping around bar of the iron
BdbC anu " dCC IL. hIo
spot is rather hard to find, but walk up
Catherine street from the Strand, and
half way up on the right turn into Rus
sell court leading into Drury lane, and
midway to the left of this passage. is the
approach to the "consecrated ground"
The little tunnel of court is much as
it was forty years ago. But the lamp is
gone, and the old iron gate is not the |
one depicted by H. K. Browne. Chill
dren now play as best they can on the
asphalted surface of the hemmed in
area, where once poor 10 saw the mortal
remains of the stranger who had been |
VERY good" to him put into the ground
VERY nigh the top."-St. James Ga
Zette. |
Speaking of Dates. |
"Did you ever notice the curious diff
ference in the sexes which is shown in |