By a coincidence, the month which we selected (August) was Dickens's
favourite month, if we may judge from the opening sentences of the
sixteenth chapter of _Pickwick_:--

"There is no month in the whole year, in which
nature wears a more beautiful appearance than in
the month of August. Spring has many beauties, and
May is a fresh and blooming month, but the charms
of this time of year are enhanced by their
contrast with the winter season. August has no
such advantage. It comes when we remember nothing
but clear skies, green fields, and sweet-smelling
flowers--when the recollection of snow, and ice,
and bleak winds, has faded from our minds as
completely as they have disappeared from the
earth,--and yet what a pleasant time it is.
Orchards and cornfields ring with the hum of
labour; trees bend beneath the thick clusters of
rich fruit which bow their branches to the ground;
and the corn, piled in graceful sheaves, or waving
in every light breath that sweeps above it, as if
it wooed the sickle, tinges the landscape with a
golden hue. A mellow softness appears to hang over
the whole earth; the influence of the season seems
to extend itself to the very wagon, whose slow
motion across the well-reaped field, is
perceptible only to the eye, but strikes with no
harsh sound upon the ear."

By another coincidence, the day which we selected to commence our tramp
was Friday--the day upon which most of the important incidents of
Dickens's life happened, as appears from frequent references in
Forster's _Life_ to the subject.

Provided with a selection of books inseparably connected with the
subject of our tour, including, of course, copies of _Pickwick_, _Great
Expectations_, _Edwin Drood_, _The Uncommercial Traveller_, Bevan's
_Tourist's Guide to Kent_, one or two local Handbooks, one of Bacon's
useful cycling maps, with a sketch map of the geology of the district
(which greatly helped us to understand many of its picturesque effects,
and was kindly furnished by Professor Lapworth, LL.D., F.R.S., of the
Mason College, Birmingham), and with a pocket aneroid barometer, which
every traveller should possess himself with if he wishes to make
convenient arrangements as regards weather, we make a