but I dismiss them from my mind as
being probably unintentional, and certainly
opposed to the general good feeling and good
sense.

"Faithfully yours,
"CHARLES DICKENS.
"MR. H. WRIGHT."

Both Mrs. Easedown and Mrs. Wright informed us (through Mrs. Budden)
that "Mr. Dickens was the best of masters, and a dear good man; that he
gave a great deal away in the parish, and was very much missed; that he
frequently went to church and sat in the chancel. . . . When he lived in
Higham there used to be a great deal of ague, and he gave away an
immense quantity of port wine and quinine. Since the Cement Works have
been at Cliffe there has been very little ague at Higham."

* * * * *

Mr. Robert Lake Cobb, of Mockbeggar House, Higham, a land agent of high
position and a County Councillor, told us that he took in the _Pickwick
Papers_ as they appeared in numbers, and he recollected how eagerly he
read them, and how tiresome it was to have to wait month by month until
the story was finished. The book made a tremendous sensation at the
time. Many years afterwards Charles Dickens came to reside at Gad's Hill
Place, and the families became intimate. "Mr. Dickens," observed our
informant, "was a very pleasant neighbour, and had always got something
nice to say. He was a dreadful man to walk--very few could keep up with
him."

Mr. Cobb had one son, Herbert, who was a playfellow of Dickens's boys;
and as illustrative of the interest he took in his neighbours, on one
occasion the novelist and our informant were talking over matters, when
the former said, "What are you going to bring your boy up to?" "A land
agent," replied Mr. Cobb. "Ah," said the novelist, "whatever you do,
make him self-reliant." He thought that of all the sons Mr. Henry
Fielding Dickens most resembled his father.

Among the notable people Mr. Cobb met at Gad's Hill Place were Mr.
Forster, Mr. Wilkie Collins, Mr. Fechter the actor, and others. When
Hans Christian Andersen was visiting there, Dickens took him to Higham
Church. Mr. Cobb spoke of the pleasant picnic parties which Dickens gave
on Blue Bell Hill. He was of opinion that Cob-Tree Hall in that
neighbourhood, about one and a half miles from Aylesford, nearly
parallel with the river, suggested the original of Manor Farm, Dingley
Dell. It formerly belonged to Mr. Franklin