sed by the question, 'the
fact is, I have been so much engaged in other ways, that I really have
not had an opportunity of perusing them.'

"'You should do so, Sir,' said Pott with a severe countenance.

"'I will,' said Mr. Pickwick.

"'They appeared in the form of a copious review of a work on Chinese
metaphysics, Sir,' said Pott.

"'Oh,' observed Mr. Pickwick--'from your pen I hope?'

"'From the pen of my critic, Sir,' rejoined Pott with dignity.

"'An abstruse subject I should conceive,' said Mr. Pickwick.

"'Very, Sir,' responded Pott, looking intensely sage. 'He _crammed_ for
it, to use a technical but expressive term; he read up for the subject,
at my desire, in the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_.'

"'Indeed!' said Mr. Pickwick; 'I was not aware that that valuable work
contained any information respecting Chinese metaphysics.'

"'He read, Sir,' rejoined Mr. Pott, laying his hand on Mr. Pickwick's
knee, and looking round with a smile of intellectual superiority, 'he
read for metaphysics under the letter M, and for China under the letter
C; and combined his information, Sir!'

"Mr. Pott's features assumed so much additional grandeur at the
recollection of the power and research displayed in the learned
effusions in question, that some minutes elapsed before Mr. Pickwick
felt emboldened to renew the conversation."

* * * * *

The above perennial extract from the immortal _Pickwick Papers_ suggests
to some extent the nature of the contents of this Volume. It is the
record of a pilgrimage made by two enthusiastic Dickensians during the
late summer of 1888, together with "combined information,"--not indeed
"crammed" from the ninth edition just completed of the valuable work
above referred to, but gathered mostly from original sources,--respecting
the places visited, the characters alluded to in some of the novels,
personal reminiscences of their Author, appropriate passages from his
works (for which acknowledgments are due to Messrs. Chapman and Hall),
and some little mention of the thoughts developed by the associations of
"Dickens-Land."

Although the pilgrimage only extended to a week, and every spot referred
to (save one) was actually visited during that time, it is but right to
state that on three subsequent occasions the author has gone over the
greater part of the same ground--once in the early winter, when the blue
clematis and the aster had given place to the yellow jas