The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-12-27
DICKENS LONDON.
Old Landmarks Disappearing Prom
the City by the Thames.
london Chronicle. }

LOHuon II. 50 great so DOuHdleSSs th3t
the face of it is constantly undergoing
a change. That the changes are. in
the majority of cases, for the better
there is no doubt. out when the hand
OF the ''improver" falls it strikes heav-
lily, and there is hardly an improve
ment OF some sort or other which does
not rob London of a landmark oE.Im-
Dortance.
And so IL is with the London which
Charles Dickens loved so well. But
really there is very little of Dickens
London left to Va nowadays.
The great Observation-Disclosures times
without numbers there, however,
, and we are wont to fOndly gaze att
ana fancy that Little Nell really did
live there at the Old Curiosity Shop OF
Lincoln s-inn-lields; 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 de-
lusions OF Charles Dickens London
win have passed away, too, and if we
are not the poorer for 1t III that re-
spect we shall certainly mourn It's loss
Familiar Spots.
Liant street-or at least that part Of
II where Dickens lived az a boy, and
where Bob Sawyer held his memorable
party has gone; so has the Marshal
sea prison of Little Dorrit fame, but
a tablet is still there to record the fact.
ST. Georges church, where Little Dor
rit slept on the night Of her party"
and where she was afterward married,
still stands. London bridge steps. fig
uFing in "Oliver Twist"-although al
tered by the recent Widening-aro stiu
there. The curious little hooks in a
great place like London"-the Inns of
CouTt-are mostly still with us It is
true. that FuTnivars inn has disap-
pcared altogether, and great loss 10
Dickens London it is; for here the
young novelist had chambers. and here
"PichWick' was written. Yet for all
that, Furnivals inn is not mentioned
IN the novel. II was Gray's inn that
occasioned the remark OF Mr.. Pick
wick that the Inns Of Court were curl
GUS little hooks in q great place like
London" and it was here up two
pairs of steep and dirty stairs" that
Mr.. Perker. the little attorney, lived.
since then in outward appearance, but,
being somewhat distant now from the
center of legal London, it is not so
favored by lawyers as it was when
the pages Of "Pickwick" were written
Almost opposite and behind the
most ancient part Of Holborn, London
where certain gabled houses some CEN
turtles of age still stand looking upon
the public way, as if discOnsolately
looking for Old Bourne that has long
run dry, is a little nook composed of
two irregular quadrangles called Sta
pie 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 mention of them,
mole or less, in every one of his books.
Gray's inn finds place in his first
novel; Staple inn in his last.
A Picturesque Nook.
1 can conceive no more picturesque
spot in all London than Stple inn. How
long it viii remain hidden away behind
the handful of bullying old houses l do
not know. We are continually hear
ing that the old houses on HolbOrn are
doomed, and when they fall Staple inn
wiz fan, too. The old houses are world
famous, but not so Stap.e inn. Why,
l-know not, but the average Londoner
is. pIehaps, hardly aware there is such
a place. 1t is one of those hooks"
continues Dickens, "the turning into
which from the clashing street i'm
parts TO the relieved pedestrian the
sensation of having put cotton in his
ears and velvet soles on mis- boots. II
il one of those hooks where a few
smoky spaTrOWs twitteT ia smoky
trees, as though they called TO one an
other, Let us play at country and
where q few feet of garden mold and
q few yards of gravel enable them TO
do that refreshing violence TO their
tiny understandings. Moreover, il is
one of those hooks which are legal
hooks, ana it contains little hall, with
] tie lantern in its roof; to what OBJ
structive purpose devoted. and at
whose expense, this history knoweth
not"
Passing from the outer quadrangle,
passing the tree and the birds, we
reach the inner quadrangle, where, in
the left-hand corner. We find the set
OF chambers presenting in black ana
white over it's ugly portals" the mystic
riouG inscriptions:
+ T
I747
which might mean Perhaps John
Thomas or. Perhaps Joe Tyler" Here
Mr.. Gfewgious lived. There is a mourn
ful memory attaching Itself to this
house in Staple inn. II was the last
of many London houses immortalized