e and Referee--C. DICKENS, ESQ.
Clerk of the Course--C. DICKENS, JUNR., ESQ.
Stewards and Keepers of the Course--MESSRS. A. H. LAYARD,
M.P., H. CHORLEY, J. HULKES, and H. DICKENS.

In a letter written to Mr. Forster next day, Dickens said, "The road
between this and Chatham was like a fair all day, and surely it is a
fine thing to get such perfect behaviour out of a reckless sea-port
town."

We presently meet with another representative of the class of village
labourer at Upper Higham, a cheery old man, although, as is sadly too
often the case in his class, he was suffering from "the Rheumatiz."
"Those are nice chrysanthemums in your garden," we observe. "Yes, they
are, sir," he replies; "but if they had been better attended to when
they was young, they'd have been nicer." "Well, I suppose both of us
would," is the rejoinder. We are in touch on the instant. Our new
acquaintance laughs, and so a question or two is put to him, and the
following is the substance of his answers, rendered _a la_ Jingle but
very feelingly:--

"Mr. Dickens was a nice sort of man--very much liked--missed a great
deal when he died--poor people and the like felt the miss of him. He was
a man as shifted a good deal of money in the place. You see, he had a
lot of friends--kept a good many horses,--and then there was the men to
attend to 'em, and the corn-chandler, the blacksmith, the wheelwright,
and others to be paid--the poor--and such-like--felt the miss of him
when he died."

"How long have you lived here?"

"Well, I come in '45, eleven years before Mr. Dickens."

"And I suppose you are over sixty."

"Well, sir, I shall never see seventy again."

Wishing our friend "good-night," we continue our tramp. On another
occasion we met, in the same place, a third specimen of village
labourer, "a mender of roads," who knew Charles Dickens, and so we
walked and chatted pleasantly with him for some distance. Said our
informant, "You see, Mr. Dickens was a very liberal man; he held his
head high up when he walked, and went at great strides." The "mender of
roads" was some years ago a candidate for a vacant place as
under-gardener at Gad's Hill, but the situation was filled up just an
hour before he applied for it. He said Mr. Dickens gave him
half-a-crown, and afterwards always recognized him when he met him with
a pleasant nod, or cheerfully "passed the time of day." We heard in many
places that Dicke