d make direct for Calais"), Mr. Ashby-Sterry succeeded,
although his greatest embarrassment arose from that irrepressible
nuisance, "Buggins the Builder," who cannot be controlled even in the
neighbourhood of Dover, so "hugely does he delight to mar those spots
that have been hallowed by antiquity, seclusion, or the pen of the
novelist. Hence the abode of Betsey Trotwood is not so pleasant as it
must have been formerly, for other houses have clustered about the back
and the front." But Mr. Ashby-Sterry quite satisfied himself as to the
identity on Dover Heights of the very neat little cottage, and assures
us that "the house, however, still stands high, the fresh breezes from
over the sea and across the Down smite it. It still has a view of the
sea, though perhaps not so uninterrupted as it was in the days of David
Copperfield." He further states that it is, perhaps, not quite so neat
as it was in Miss Betsey Trotwood's time, though there are no donkeys
about. Here are the bow windows, with the room above, where Mr. Dick
alarmed poor David by nodding and laughing at him on his first arrival.
The window on the right must have belonged to the neat room "with the
drugget-covered carpet," and the old-fashioned furniture brightly
polished, where might be found "the cat, the kettle-holder, the two
canaries, the old china, the punch-bowl full of dried rose leaves, the
tall press guarding all sorts of bottles and pots, and wonderfully out
of keeping with the rest." On the strength of this description by an
ardent lover of Dickens, we fully make up our minds to visit Dover at no
distant date to see Miss Betsey Trotwood's house for ourselves.

_A propos_ of Miss Trotwood's domicile, we have been favoured by Mr. C.
K. Worsfold, an old resident of Dover, with a letter containing some
interesting particulars, from which we extract the following:--

"Dickens's description of the local habitation of Betsey Trotwood is not
consistent with the surroundings. The hills on either side of the town
belong to the War Department, and are occupied as fortifications; on the
eastern side is the Castle, and on the western side barracks and forts.
On the western heights there is a house somewhat answering to Dickens's
description, having a garden in front of it, and a small plot of grass
in front of the garden; and about forty years ago there lived in this
house a lady of rather masculine character, who always resented any
intrusion of boys, and per