rable, and kind, and paid
his bills most regularly. The first work I did for him was to make a
dog-kennel; I also put up the chalet at Gad's Hill. When it was
forwarded from London, which was by water, Mr. Fechter [whose name he
did not at first remember] sent a Frenchman to assist in the erection.
The chalet consisted of ninety-four pieces, all fitting accurately
together like a puzzle. The Frenchman did not understand it, and could
not make out the fitting of the pieces. So I asked Mr. Henry [Mr. Henry
Fielding Dickens, the novelist's sixth son, the present Recorder of
Deal] if he understood French. He said 'Yes,' and told me the names of
the different pieces, and I managed it without the Frenchman, who stayed
the night, and went away next day." In conversation, we suggest that the
circumstance of the chalet having been made in Switzerland may have
embarrassed the Frenchman, he not having been accustomed to that kind of
work. In his letter to Forster of the 7th June, 1865, Dickens
says:--"The chalet is going on excellently, though the ornamental part
is more slowly put together than the substantial. It will really be a
very pretty thing; and in the summer (supposing it not to be blown away
in the spring), the upper room will make a charming study. It is much
higher than we supposed."

Mr. Couchman also took down the chalet after Charles Dickens's death,
and erected it at the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, where it remained for
a short time, and was subsequently presented to the Earl of Darnley by
several members of the Dickens family. His lordship afterwards ordered
him to fit it up at Cobham Hall, where, as previously stated, it now
stands. The woods of which it is constructed he believed to be Baltic
oak and a kind of pine, the lighter parts being of maple or sycamore. We
saw it subsequently.

Several contracts were entered into by Mr. Couchman with Charles Dickens
for the extension and modification of Gad's Hill Place, notably during
the year 1861. We are favoured with a sight of an original specification
signed by both parties, which is as follows:--

"Specification of works proposed to be done at
Gad's Hill House, Higham, for C. Dickens, Esq.

"_Bricklayer._--To take off slates and copings and
heighten brick walls and chimneys, and build No. 2
new chimneys with stock and picking bricks laid in
cement. No. 2 chimney bars, to cope gable ends
wi