Landlesses, Rosa Bud, and Edwin Drood, as shown in the illustration, "At
the Piano." The Reverend Septimus Crisparkle's mother, who is the
hostess (and celebrated for her wonderful closet with stores of pickles,
jams, biscuits, and cordials), is beautifully described in the story:--

"What is prettier than an old lady--except a young
lady--when her eyes are bright, when her figure is
trim and compact, when her face is cheerful and
calm, when her dress is as the dress of a china
shepherdess: so dainty in its colours, so
individually assorted to herself, so neatly
moulded on her? Nothing is prettier, thought the
good Minor Canon frequently, when taking his seat
at table opposite his long-widowed mother. Her
thought at such times may be condensed into the
two words that oftenest did duty together in all
her conversations: 'My Sept.'"

The backs of the houses have very pretty gardens, and, as evidence of
the pleasant and healthy atmosphere of the locality, we notice beautiful
specimens of the ilex, arbutus, euonymus, and fig, the last-named being
in fruit. The wall-rue (_Asplenium ruta-muraria_) is found hereabout.
There, too, is a Virginia creeper, but we do not observe one growing on
the Cathedral walls, as described in _Edwin Drood_. Jackdaws fly about
the tower, but there are no rooks, as also stated. Near Minor Canon Row,
to the right of Boley Hill (or "Bully Hill," as it is sometimes called),
is the "paved Quaker settlement," a sedate row of about a dozen houses
"up in a shady corner."

"Jasper's Gatehouse" of the work above mentioned is certainly an object
of great interest to the lover of Dickens, as many of the remarkable
scenes in _Edwin Drood_ took place there. It is briefly described as "an
old stone gatehouse crossing the Close, with an arched thoroughfare
passing beneath it. Through its latticed window, a fire shines out upon
the fast-darkening scene, involving in shadow the pendent masses of ivy
and creeper covering the building's front." There are _three_ Gatehouses
near the Cathedral, a fact which proves somewhat embarrassing to those
anxious to identify the original of that so carefully described in the
story. A short description of these may not be uninteresting.

[Illustration: College Gate--(or Chertsey's Gate) Rochester.]

[Illustration: Prior's Gate: Rochester]

(A) "College