or gratified to see, and that
among your brilliant circle of well-wishers and admirers you number none
more unaffectedly and faithfully yours than,

My dear Sir, yours most truly.

1838.

NARRATIVE.

In February of this year Charles Dickens made an expedition with his
friend, and the illustrator of most of his books, Mr. Hablot K. Browne
("Phiz"), to investigate for himself the real facts as to the condition
of the Yorkshire schools, and it may be observed that portions of a
letter to his wife, dated Greta Bridge, Yorkshire, which will be found
among the following letters, were reproduced in "Nicholas Nickleby." In
the early summer he had a cottage at Twickenham Park. In August and
September he was again at Broadstairs; and in the late autumn he made
another bachelor excursion--Mr. Browne being again his companion--in
England, which included his first visit to Stratford-on-Avon and
Kenilworth. In February appeared the first number of "Nicholas
Nickleby," on which work he was engaged all through the year, writing
each number ready for the following month, and never being in advance,
as was his habit with all his other periodical works, until his very
latest ones.

The first letter which appears under this date, from Twickenham Park, is
addressed to Mr. Thomas Mitton, a schoolfellow at one of his earliest
schools, and afterwards for some years his solicitor. The letter
contains instructions for his first will; the friend of almost his whole
life, Mr. John Forster, being appointed executor to this will as he was
to the last, to which he was "called upon to act" only three years
before his own death.

The letter which we give in this year to Mr. Justice Talfourd is,
unfortunately, the only one we have been able to procure to that friend,
who was, however, one with whom he was most intimately associated, and
with whom he maintained a constant correspondence.

The letter beginning "Respected Sir" was an answer to a little boy
(Master Hastings Hughes), who had written to him as "Nicholas Nickleby"
approached completion, stating his views and wishes as to the rewards
and punishments to be bestowed on the various characters in the book.
The letter was sent to him through the Rev. Thomas Barham, author of
"The Ingoldsby Legends."

The two letters to Mr. Macready, at the end of this year, refer to a
farce which Charles Dickens wrote, with an idea that it might be
suitable