rith, R.A., has been published, in which
there is a most interesting reminiscence of Dickens; indeed, there are
many scattered throughout the three volumes, but the one in question
refers to "a stroll" which Dickens took with Mr. Frith and other friends
in July 1868. Mr. Cartwright, the celebrated dentist, was one of the
party, and the "stroll" was in reality, as the genial R. A. describes
it, "a fearfully long walk" such as he shall never forget; nor the night
he passed, without once closing his eyes in sleep, after it. "Dickens,"
continues Mr. Frith, "was a great pedestrian. His strolling was at the
rate of perhaps a little under four miles an hour. He was used to the
place,--I was not, and suffered accordingly."

Having a shrewd suspicion that this referred to one of the long walks
taken in our tramp, the present writer communicated with Mr. Frith on
the subject, and he was favoured with the following reply:--

"The stroll I mentioned in my third volume was through Lord Darnley's
park, but after that I remember nothing. As the time spent in walking
was four hours at least, we must have covered ground far beyond the
length of the park.

"On another occasion,--Dickens, Miss Hogarth, and I went to Rochester to
see the Castle, and the famous Pickwickian inn. On another day we went
to the Leather Bottle at Cobham, where Dickens was eloquent on the
subject of the Dadd parricide, showing us the place where the body was
found, with many startling and interesting details of the discovery."

The subject of the Dadd parricide alluded to by Mr. Frith was a very
horrible case; the son--an artist--was a lunatic, and was subsequently
confined in Bethlehem Hospital, London. There are two curious pictures
by him in the Dyce and Forster collection at South Kensington; one is
inscribed "Sketches to Illustrate the Passions--Patriotism. By Richard
Dadd, Bethlehem Hospital, London, May 30, 1857, St. George's-in-the-Fields."
It has much minute writing on it. The other is "Leonidas with the
Wood-cutters," and illustrates Glover's poem, _Leonidas_. It is
inscribed, "Rd. Dadd, 1873." He died in Bethlehem Hospital in 1887.

The Dover Road! What a magic influence it has over us, as we tramp along
it in the quiet summer evening, and recall an incident that happened
nearly a hundred years ago, what time the Dover mail struggled up
Shooter's Hill on that memorable Friday night, and Jerry Cruncher, who
had temporarily suspended his "fishing" op