Southwest-sentinel. [volume] (Silver City, N.M.) 1883-189?, 1892-11-08
RELICS OF DICKENS.
MANY QUAINT BUILDINGS MADE IA
Mous sY THE EovEllsT.

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 nonexistent.
Entering LincOln's-inn-felds from Great
Queen street, turn to the right, pause at
o.. and picture Mr.. Tulkinghorn emerg-
ing one evening from chambers where
lawyers lio like maggots In nuts" I'm
agine him walking through tho inn,
passing beneath its ancient Tudor gate
way, and visiting Mr.. Snagsby, the law
Etationer in Cooks court, Cursitor street,
with a Wow 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 a 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 ptrer
'thOso sensational reports of the inquest
which had just been held at that well
known and popular house Of entertain
aent, the Old Soils Arms"
'Sol's Is the present Old Ship Tavern.
It stands at the head Of tho court. fac
ing it ON one side and the wall Of Lincoln
Inn on the other. It is certainly ancient
enough, and on the first floor can still
DO seen the identical long, low room
where the coroner presided, and where
little Swills, the comic vocalist, pre-
sented to the harmonic meeting his adj
mirable im-persoEation 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 ''anOld, narrow, dreary,
decaying and mournful passage, just
tho place in which such people as the
poor law writer and crazy Miss Flite
would have made a home"
But a careful study Of every allusion
made by Dickens TO tho locality will, !
think, show that Mr.. Pemberton IL
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 az 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 a
law Stationery, opposite the Old Ship,
fronting the court on One side and on
the other within a couple of yards of
and entirely blinded by the wall" 50
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-
GllN III u uhIIOM OaAEh nlAtNA ADN1N lhlhV
leading to Carey street., part of some
courts and lanes Immediately outside
the wall Of the inn" and she was at
home. She lodged in a garnet ut the
top Of Krook's shop, described as ''blind-
ed by the wall Of Lincoln's Inn, which
intercepted the light within a couple Of
yards" She lived in a 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
is entirely hut out from view by the tall
houses in old buildings.
It 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
June, the cat. is forever striving 10 de-
vour, crouching ''on 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, OF flush with
tho wall, while from no other garnet
window-except Sol's-can u glimpse Of
the old hall roof he had. This can
readily DO tested by standing close to
the hall and looking through the trees
toward Chichester Rents. where the
slated top story and long, low garnet
window Of the rag and bottle shop may
b. identified.
Ia a miserable back room on the sec
ond fiOor 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. "TO IL hemmed in churchyard.
pestiferOus and obscene, they take oul
dear brother here departed and lower
him down a foot or two" On the stepi
leading 10 this chanelhouse Dame
burden finds her mother, with one
I'm creeping around a bar Of the iron
gate and seeming TO embrace It," Thil
spot Is rather hard TO find. but walk M
Catherine street from the Strand, ans
half way up on the right turn into Rus
tsll court leading into Drury lane. an'
midway " the left Of this passage, is M
approach 10 the '%consecrated ground. y
The little tunnel OF a court Is much a
II was forty years ago. But the lamp !
and the old iron gate Is not In
one depicted by III. X. Browne. Chill
dren now play as best they can on TN
asphalted surface Of the hemmed Il
area, where Once poor 10 saw the mOrta
remains Of the stranger who had beel
''werry good" 10 him put into the gTOun'
"werry nigh the top."-St. James GA
Eette.
As long ago as 1860, Benin, a leading
German authority, estimated the popu
latioa Of the eartL a about I 400, 900 900