The sun., 1919-07-20

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III.
Among distinguished English men of
letters, one of the first to express enthusi
astic admiration for the writings Of Dick
ems was Walter Savage Lander. The two
men differed so widely in character and
genius that many critics have wondered at
the affectionate friendship which grew up
between them; but Mr.. Ley insists that
nothing could be more natural than that
a man Of Landor's enthusiasm for lib
erty, hatred of chicanery and humbug,
and fundamental tenderness, SHOULD have
welcomed the entry into the lists of 50
sturdy champion as Charles Dickens"
The idea which subsequently took the
form of Little Nell was born on a visit
to Lander on his birthday in 1910; and
Little Nell always remained Landor's IA
vorite portrait in the Dickens gallery.
These birthday visits to the poet at Bath
were kept up many years by Dickens and
John Forster, the nOvelist's friend and
biographer. On one of them Landor
spoke of the many tears that Ddrid Cop
perfeld had made him shed; when Dick
ems, referring to Robinson Crusoe, said:
but IS 1t not yet more wonderful that
one of the most popular books on earth
has nothing in it TO cause any one either
TO laugh or to cryf" In letter written
in 1856 Dickens ampifes this view of
Rnhinen,, Hrueno IT,
took Fridays death as one of the least
tender and Tin the true sensel least senti-
mental things ever written. 1t is a book
l read very much; and the wonder of its
prodigious effect on me and every one,
and the admiration thereof, grows on me
the more observe this curious fact"
Mr.. Ley devotes five chapters to the
American friends of Dickens. He places
the novelist's friendship with Washington
Irving first and foremost "The English
friends whom he loved as he loved Wash
ington Irving were very few indeed.
Longfellow he grappled to his heart with
hoops of steel; so did he Professor
FELTON,. Later James T. Fields was estab-
Gshed in his affection. Others with whom
he became on very friendly terms were
james Russell Lowell, Charles Eliot Nor
ton, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Childs,
Emerson, Dana and Bancroft Irving
presided at the dinner of welcome to
Dickens in New York, which was attended
by 500 persons and where he was so
overcome by stage fright that he short
ened his intended speech to a few SEN
fences and, after proposing the toast
"Charles Dickens, the Guest Of the Ma
tion," abruptly sat down.
This was the banquet at which Dickens
said: washington Irving! why, gentle
men, don't go upstairs to bed two nights
out of the seven without taking Washing
ton Irving under my arm; and when 1
don't take him 1 take his own brother,
Oliver Goldsmith"
w. -. 81
According to Mr.. Ley, next to Irving
Dickens's bestowed American friend was
Longfellow, who not only met the novelist
on both his American tours but visited
him in England. He speaks of the warm
welcome which Dickens received at Sun
nyside in 1867. This is a slip; Sunny
side was Irving's residence, not Longfel-
lows, and Irving had been dead eight
years when Dickens visited this country
the second time. Although Dickens met
Holmes and Lowell formally on his first
visit to Boston, neither had then attained
much literary distinction, and it was not
until his second visit that he came to
know them we'll &c.
1t is quite natural that Mr.. Ley should
mention only those American friends Of
Dickens whose achievements had given
them sufficient distinction to make them
known in England; but there were many
lesser lights. Forty years ago there was
q journalist of considerable talent in New
York Familiarity known among his friends
as the Baron Evans. He had made sew