of the year Charles Dickens was still living in
Paris--Rue de Courcelles. His stay was cut shorter than he intended it
to have been, by the illness from scarlet fever of his eldest son, who
was at school in London. Consequent upon this, he and his wife went to
London at the end of February, taking up their abode at the Victoria
Hotel, Euston Square, the Devonshire Terrace house being still occupied
by its tenant, Sir James Duke, and the sick boy under the care of his
grandmother, Mrs. Hogarth, in Albany Street. The children, with their
aunt, remained in Paris, until a temporary house had been taken for the
family in Chester Place, Regent's Park; and Roche was then sent back to
take _all_ home. In Chester Place another son was born--Sydney Smith
Haldimand--his godfathers being Mr. Haldimand, of Lausanne, and Mr. H.
P. Smith, of the Eagle Life Assurance office. He was christened at the
same time as a daughter of Mr. Macready's, and the letters to Mr. Smith
have reference to the postponement of the christening on Mr. Smith's
account. In May, Charles Dickens had lodgings in Brighton for some
weeks, for the recovery of Mrs. Dickens's health; going there first with
his wife and sister-in-law and the eldest boy--now recovered from his
fever--and being joined at the latter part of the time by his two little
daughters, to whom there are some letters among those which follow
here. He removed earlier than usual this summer to Broadstairs, which
remained his head-quarters until October, with intervals of absence for
amateur theatrical tours (which Mr. Forster calls "splendid strolling"),
in which he was usually accompanied by his wife and sister-in-law.
Several new recruits had been added to the theatrical company, from
among distinguished literary men and artists, and it now included,
besides those previously named, Mr. George Cruikshank, Mr. George Henry
Lewes, and Mr. Augustus Egg; the supreme management and arrangement of
everything being always left to Charles Dickens. "Every Man in his
Humour" and farces were again played at Manchester and Liverpool, for
the benefit of Mr. Leigh Hunt, and the dramatic author, Mr. John Poole.

By the end of the Broadstairs holiday, the house in Devonshire Terrace
was vacant, and the family returned to it in October. All this year
Charles Dickens had been at work upon the monthly numbers of "Dombey and
Son," in spite of these many interruptions. He began at Broadstairs a
Christmas book. But he