Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1896-01-29
All OF DICKENS.
,v aee IMmoRTAlIzso IN TIE = erIcKwicK PAPERs.p

,.. of Interest In the Room Which '' .sr Pride of Mine Host of the Heath, sn Antique Church and the ,,..sees It Contains.
 ,z.s than an horr and half from lsg am, is the quiet little station at le ,e street, named, l suppose, in honor - nan road and trodden by travel
 ,bey approach the manifold glo- |ss of Gotham.
 sssham the Kentish Gotham, is one .hose places in which Kent is so , savored alike by nature and art VI ghistarical association. For what IS Du aad I' na,k scenery it has few superiors l'ls raoland The church has memorials 7 = ..se fourteenth century lords as fresh ~Aeu ' they felt the last touch of the F 'rman,s tools, while the inn opposite V'l,, 1aalont with the memories of Charles n''sons 'S and the ruddy old Elizabethan M sn is one of the stateliest homes in pagland-a real home, constantly lived ro saa Gotham in it's glory one, must ssnrse visit it in summer. 1t IS hard
 fair fair to go there. as I did. on weep v autumn day, though 1t was full of a Isym of it's own. In the first place, the sson Drecluded my approaching Cob
 in the orthodox way-from the ~ of the ancient buildings which rm the new college. The boy who acts aorter at the station did not recom rsnd tho short cut for a very wet day. had recently been plowed. So, pass l ,g first all old Kentish black and white sDSa to the left and then fine red riek Georgian mansion (described by
 in as q farm) to the right, l strode up ss main street of Gotham village to hara 4 putative leather bottle swings
 front of the inn which Dickens i'm
 rtalized in "Pickwick. <" The leather atle which, proudly labeled "Eoce
 Ouum. J swings over sign of Dick
 < Nr Piekwiek standing on chair | nh his hands under his coattails. is, as
 after of fact. made of cast iron and tipbs no les than 10 pounds, the real
 ttle being kept on the top of the clock
 inc bar parlor, guarded by an uncer- En looking monkey and dog. It is
 aued like a barrel, with combined
 1Dper and handle on one side, and has
 ITge hole cut cut just below the hau
 the reason of this being that when
 Ras dug out of field hard by it [sigbed 50 heavy that the finder hacked Xb0le to see what was in it. He was re- Erded by finding money, which was
 s5ably exactly what he wanted to find. | The i'm claims to be as old as the
 ancel of the church opposite, which &ald make 1t fourteenth century. Even
 aspect of tho much repaired exterior
 s not make this impossible, and the &agh, worm eaten, dark oak beams in %e low ceiling of the Dickens room
 Efainly look old enough.
 k Fbe Dickens room is the pride of mine A and brings Gotham visits from aOf theatrical people, who certainly
 Md never visit it for the sake of its
 k, ancient CT modern, and their hall church and college. In the visitors read such names as w. $. Penley
 J. |. Toole, the latter accompanied Mr. Clement Scott, and over the
 atelpieoe hung pretty theatrical
 lrait of Miss Mary Anderson, with hands tied together in some charac.
 which 1 did not recognize-her me AtO of visit here.
 The walls are hung with prints ot
 Hous characters and scenes in Dickens Es' Dickens programmes. sketches,
 what not, among them being The
 phic's picture of the Empty Ef, which made Luke Fildes' name,
 Dickens last letter tin autograph,
 d June s, 1870, in reply to Non
 l0mlst minister named Mateham,
 G about Edwin Brood, and with
 anetle and particular interest, be- Dickens in this last letter of his
 asoWs that he had always cherished lsanlty-even written book tc lslt home to his children, though he hot proclaimed his belief from the se top. Jingle, Sidney Carton, the io'ed, and Pecksniff are among the epfomlnent characters on the walls. mound the room there are rows of aShloned chairs, the place of honol occupied by the Dickens chair--a wpped article of the variety known furniture dealers as "The Wind Aateyer the claims of the "Leather 10 fourteenth century honors, H no doubt of the antiquity of the VI though the age of the exterior, v lhe ower's, is obliterated with sa hints. Two gigantic fints, one a'l' at least 4 feet by 2, lie on the ueloW The interior of the church, 'uaed With plaster and whitewash, 's carefully restored and highly 'ung First ill importance, of s tune Its monumental brasses, oI them, not erected, but laid l 'he chancel floor to the honor "ids and ladies of Gotham and Aas'efs of their college. These a nave 10 superiors in England, so as lar back as the beginning of a.'eenth century, Not line is a'sa Tn these graven images of the ana danes = the one in full