o serenading the two Miss Pecksniffs.

It was very affecting, very. Nothing more dismal could
have been desired by the most fastidious taste. The
gentleman of a vocal turn was head mute, or chief
mourner; Jinkins took the bass, and the rest took
anything they could get.... If the two Miss Pecksniffs
and Mrs. Todgers had perished by spontaneous combustion,
and the serenade had been in honour of their ashes, it
would have been impossible to surpass the unutterable
despair expressed in that one chorus: 'Go where glory
waits thee.' It was a requiem, a dirge, a moan, a howl,
a wail, a lament, an abstract of everything that is
sorrowful and hideous in sound.

The song which the literary boarder had written for the
occasion, 'All hail to the vessel of Pecksniff, the sire,'
is a parody of Scott's 'All hail to the chief who in triumph
advances,' from the _Lady of the Lake_.

Two words that by themselves have a musical meaning are
'Chaunter' and 'Drums'; but the Chaunter referred to is one
of Edward Dorrit's creditors, and the word means 'not a singer
of anthems, but a seller of horses.' To this profession also
Simpson belonged, on whom Mr. Pickwick was 'chummed' in the
Fleet prison. A 'drum' is referred to in the description of
the London streets at night in _Barnaby Rudge_, and signifies a
rout or evening party for cards; while one where stakes ran high
and much noise accompanied the play was known as a 'drum major.'

In _Our Bore_ (_R.P._) this sentence occurs:

He was at the Norwich musical festival when the
extraordinary echo, for which science has been wholly
unable to account, was heard for the first and last
time. He and the bishop heard it at the same moment,
and caught each other's eye.

Dr. A.H. Mann, who knows as much about Norwich and its festivals
as any one, is quite unable to throw any light on this mystic
remark. There were complaints about the acoustics of the
St. Andrew's Hall many years ago, but there appears to be no
historic foundation for Dickens' reference. It would certainly
be interesting to know what suggested the idea to him.

There is a curious incident connected with Uncle Dick, whose
great ambition was 'to beat the drum.' It was only by a mere
chance that his celebrated reference to King Charles's head
got into the story. Dickens originally wrote as follows (in
Chapter 14, _D.C._):

'Do you recollect the date,' sai