Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-12-14
DICK EMS, LONDON
OLD LANDMARKS D1sApPEARINa
FROM THE CITY By THE THAMES.
A Tablet Marks the Site Of the Debtors
Prison Of the Marshalsea-Ths
Inns Of Court.

London is SO great so boundless, that the
face of 1t is constantly undergoing q
change. That the changes are, in the ma
jority of cases. for the better there is no
doubt, but when the hand of the "im-
proven" falls 1t strikes heavily, and there
is hardly an improvement of some sort or
other which does not rob London Of land
mark of Importance.
And so 1t is with the London which
Charles Dickens loved so WELL But really
there is very little of Dickens London left
to us nowadays.
The great Observation-Disclosures times with
out number-is there. however, and we are
wont to fondly gaze at It and fancy that
Little Nell really did live there at the Old
Curiosity Shop off Lincoln s-inn-fields; but
there is not one shred Of evidence to prove
that this was the home Of that sweet child
and her grandfather
The house is doomed, and when 1t has
passed away one of the great delusions of
Charles Dickens London will have passed
away too, and If we are not the poorer for
1t In that respect we shall certainly mourn
it's loss as vanished bit of Old London.
Familiar Spots.
Liant street-or at least that part Of 1t
where Dickens lived as a boy, and where
Bob Sawyer held his memorable party, has
gone; so has the Marshalsea prison of Lit
tie Dorrit fame, but a tablet is still there
to record the fact. st. Georges Church,
where Little Dorrit slept on the night of
her party" and where she was afterward
married, still stands. London bridge steps,
figuring in "Oliver Twist''-although altered
by the recent widening-are still there. The
curious little hooks in great place like
London''-the Inns of Court-are mostly
stilI with us 1t is true that Furnival's Inn
has disappeared altogether, and a great
loss to Dickens London 1t is; for here the
young novelist had chambers and here
"Pickwick" was written. Yet for all that
Furnivals Inn is not mentioned In the
novel, 1t was Grays Inn that occasioned
the remark of Mr.. Pickwick that the Inns
of Court were curious little. hooks in
great place like London and 1T was here
"up two pairs of steep and dirty stairs
that Mr.. Perker, the little attorney. lived
Gray's Inn has not much changed since
then In outward appearance, but, being
somewhat distant now from the center Oh
legal London, it is not so favored by law
yers as it was when the pages of Pick
wick" were written.
Almost opposite and behind the most
ancient part of Holborn, London where
certain gabled houses some centuries or age
still stand looking upon the public way, as
If disconsolately looking for Old Bourne
that has long run dry. Is a little nook com
posed Of two irregular quadrangles called
Staple Inn.
These inns are the only real parts OF
Dickens London left US. Those that are
still preserved are almost intact Staple
Inn is no exception. Dickens must have
had a great fondness for the Inns of Court.
for almost without exception we find men
ton of them, more or less in every one OF
his books. Grays Inn finds a place in his
first novel; Staple Inn In his last.
A Picturesque Nook.
can conceive no more picturesque spot In
all London than Staple Inn. How long 1t
will remain hidden away behind the handful
of bullying old houses I do not know. We
are continually hearing that the old houses
on Holborn are doomed, and when they fall
STAPLE Inn will fall too The old houses are
world famous; but not so Staple Inn. Why.
| know not, but the average Londoner Is,
perhaps hardly aware there Is such place.
ut is one of those nooks,' continues Dick
ems, 1.-THE turning into which from the clash
ing street imparts to the relieved pedestrian
the sensation of having put cotton In his
ears and velvet soles on his boots 1t Is
one of those hooks where a few smoky
sparrows twitter In smoky trees, as though
they called to one another. Let us play at
country and where a few feet OF garden
mold and a few yards Of gravel enable
them to do that refreshing violence to their
tiny understandings. Moreover 1t is one of
those hooks which are legal hooks, and 1t
contains a little hall, with little lantern
voted, and at whose expense, this history
knoweth not
Passing from the outer quadrangle, pass
ing the tree and the birds, we reach the
inner quadrangle, where, In the left-hand
corner, we find the set of chambers pre-
senting in black and white over its ugly
portals" the mysterious inscription: