The Monticellonian., 1905-10-12

garded as waste products are now utii- ized SD that the region is not quite the same fiery furnace of place by night and murky smudge by day as al the period when Dickens knew it. but il re tains enough of its old character to form still a realistic setting to the story of the journey by eanal-boat to the smoky locality. and the bewildered wanderings of the mortified pilgrims after it was reached. The description of the huge ironworks, filled with fierce glare though with corners of gloom, and "a hundred strange unearthly noises never heard elsewhere" with its workmen who moved like demons among the flame and smoke. where they spent the night; the unlovely route of the next day. amid places where the struggling vegetation sickened and sank under the hot breath of kiln and fur nace'-all are sketched with faithful hand. until the reader almost gasps for breath amid the murk and longs for his own emancipation, as well as for that of Little Nell, from this cheerless neigh borhood.
 The emancipation is complete when it comes. and the remaining part of the journey through sweet eountry-lanes .s described with equal fidelity to fact; and he who knows the country has no diff Culty in following the route despite the license which the author has taken here and there to lengthen the road some n-h Tho sl1rUa from IT h icb ha last part of the journey is made is mani festly Wolyerhampton from which the road to Tong is plain; and not so long, as the creator of Nell admits, as to neces- sitate a nights rest on the way. al though the dignity of the schoolmaster. in whose company the pilgrims were travelling, demanded it. in order that the village, which was their destination, might be entered in due state.
 The reader can only now be referred to the story for a very accurate descrip- ton of the village. Dickens has taken a few liberties with the schoolmaster house placing it nearer the church than fl actually is, and working il" some ruins near al hand for effect. The cot tage shown in the illustration was for generations the abode of the village sehoolmaster and parish clerk com bined. and is now succeeded by an up to-date schoolhouse not far away t
 is known to all as Little Nell's Cottage.
 The main interest centers in the church and the churehyard. "H was for such spot the child had wearied in the dense. dark. miserable haunts of la bor.' The many monuments within the church. in the midst of which Nell loved to sit and ponder. are historic. for they represent noble families of veil known name and famous deeds; but they now derive their principal inter est from the ghostly presence of the child" which seems among them still The death of Little Nell is one of the most pathetic passages in English literature, and her sleeping place merely imaginary though it be, IS sacred to all readers of the masters books IL is said that Hengist of old founded the neighboring castle. and. by sharp trick. gave the place its name of Thong" but far more widely known and deeply re garded than the stately castle is the humble cottage of the sehoolmaster. Tn which the winsome child of fiction faded to her death Famous names have been associated with Tong since Hengist's Dorothy Vernon, Of romantic memory. among the rest; but the place will Aknown to posterity-at least, to such as may be wise enough to read the books of one whose name a generation ago was one to conjure with not on account of it's curious origin or more recent serious history. but sim ply and sufficiently as the resting place of Little Nell