Rack. VI. Dirt. VII. Disease.

Several of the titles were used for a similar purpose at Tavistock
House, London--Dickens's former residence.

We cannot help, as we sit down quietly for a few minutes, wondering how
much of _Little Dorrit_, _Hunted Down_, _A Tale of Two Cities_, _Great
Expectations_, _The Uncommercial Traveller_, _Our Mutual Friend_, and
_The Mystery of Edwin Drood_ (which were all issued between 1856 and
1870) was written in this famous room, to say nothing of those heaps of
exquisite letters which so helped, cheered, interested, or amused many a
correspondent, and have delighted the public since.

In the hall, which has the famous parquet floor laid down by Dickens, is
still hanging the framed illumination, artistically executed by Owen
Jones, and placed there immediately after Dickens became the "Kentish
freeholder on his native heath" as he called it. It is as follows:--

This House,
GAD'S HILL PLACE,
stands on the summit of Shakespeare's Gad's Hill,
ever memorable for its association with
Sir John Falstaff, in his noble fancy.

[Illustration: Counterfeit Book-backs on Study Door.]

"But, my lads, my lads, to-morrow morning by four o'clock early at Gad's
Hill. There are pilgrims going to Canterbury with rich offerings, and
traders riding to London with fat purses; I have vizards for you all;
you have horses for yourselves."[12]

From the hall we enter the dining-room, a cheerful apartment looking on
to the beautiful lawn at the back, which has at the end the arched
conservatory of lilac-tinted glass at top, in which the novelist took so
much interest, and where he hung some Chinese lanterns, sent down from
London the day before his death. We are informed that in this building
he signed the last cheque which he drew, to pay his subscription to the
Higham Cricket Club. The door of the dining-room is faced with
looking-glass, so that it may reflect the contents of the conservatory.
Among these are two or three New Zealand tree-ferns which Dickens
himself purchased. In the dining-room Major Budden pointed out the exact
spot where the fatal seizure from effusion on the brain took place, on
the afternoon of Wednesday, 8th June, 1870, and where Dickens lay:
first on the floor to the right of the door on entering, and afterwards
to the left, when the couch was brought down (by order of Mr. Steele,
the surgeon of Stro