E DEAN AND CHAPTER IS PLACED BY HIS
EXECUTORS]

The unfinished novel of _Edwin Drood_, which, as we have seen, is so
inseparably connected with Rochester Cathedral, has been _finished_ by
at least half a dozen authors, probably to their own satisfaction; but
it is a hard matter to the reader to struggle through any one of them.
However, there is a little _brochure_ in this direction which we feel
may here be appropriately noticed. It is called, _Watched by the Dead: A
Loving Study of Charles Dickens's half-told Tale_, 1887, and was written
by R. A. Proctor, F.R.A.S., the Astronomer, whose untimely death from
fever in America was announced after our return from our week's tramp.
The author had evidently studied the matter both lovingly and
attentively, and starts with the assumption that it is an example of
what he calls "Dickens's favourite theme," which more than any other had
a fascination for him, and was apparently regarded by him as likely to
be most potent in its influence on others. It was that of "a wrong-doer
watched at every turn by one of whom he has no suspicion, for whom he
even entertains a feeling of contempt," and Mr. Proctor has certainly
evolved a very suggestive and not improbable conclusion to the story.
Instances of Dickens's favourite theme are adduced from _Barnaby Rudge_,
where Haredale, unsuspected, steadily waits and watches for Rudge,
till, after more than twenty years, "At last! at last!" he cries, as he
captures his brother's murderer on the very spot where the murder had
been committed; from _The Old Curiosity Shop_, where Sampson and Sally
Brass are watched by the Marchioness--their powerless victim as they
supposed, and by whom their detection is brought about; from _Nicholas
Nickleby_, where Ralph Nickleby is watched by Brooker; and from _Dombey
and Son_, where Dombey is watched by Carker, and he in turn is watched
by good Mrs. Brown and her unhappy daughter. Instances of this kind also
appear in _David Copperfield_, _Bleak House_, and _Little Dorrit_.

Reasoning from similar data, Mr. Proctor concludes that Jasper was
watched by Edwin Drood in the person of Datchery, and thus he was to
have been tracked remorselessly "to his death by the man whom he
supposed he had slain." The _denouement_ as regards the other characters
seems also not improbable. Rosa Bud was to have married Lieutenant
Tartar, and Crisparkle, Helena Landless. Neville was to have died, but
not before he had learned to