W. Childs of
Philadelphia; and that of _A Christmas Carol_--given by Dickens to his
old friend and school-fellow, Tom Mitton--was for sale in Birmingham a
few years ago, and might have been purchased for two hundred and fifty
guineas! It is now owned by Mr. Stuart M. Samuel, and has since been
beautifully reproduced in fac-simile, with an Introduction by my friend
and fellow-tramp, Mr. F. G. Kitton. Mr. Wright, of Paris, is the
fortunate possessor of _The Battle of Life_. The proof-sheets of _Great
Expectations_ are in the Museum at Wisbech. Messrs. Jarvis and Son, of
King William Street, Strand, sold some time since four of the MSS. of
minor articles contributed by Dickens to _Household Words_ in 1855-6,
viz. _The Friend of the Lions_, _Demeanour of Murderers_, _That other
Public_, and _Our Commission_, for L10 each.

At the sale of the late Mr. Wilkie Collins's manuscripts and library by
Messrs. Sotheby, Wilkinson, and Hodge, 18th June, 1890, the manuscript
of _The Frozen Deep_, by Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens, 1856 (first
performed at Tavistock House, 6th January, 1857), together with the
narrative written for _Temple Bar_, 1874, and Prompt Book of the same
play, was sold for L300. A poem written by Charles Dickens, as a
Prologue to the same play, and _The Song of the Wreck_, also written by
Charles Dickens, were sold for L11 11_s._ each. _The Perils of Certain
English Prisoners_, a joint production of Wilkie Collins and Charles
Dickens, for the Christmas number of _Household Words_, 1857, realized
L200; and the drama of _No Thoroughfare_ (imperfect), also a joint
production, fetched L22.

The manuscripts now belonging to the Nation at South Kensington are
placed in a glazed cabinet, standing in the middle of the room, on the
right of which looks down the life-like portrait of the great novelist,
painted by W. P. Frith, R.A., in 1859. The manuscript volumes are laid
open in an appropriate manner, so that we have an opportunity of
examining and comparing them with one another, and of observing how the
precious thoughts which flowed from the fertile brain took shape and
became realities.

Where corrections have been made, the original ideas are so obscured
that it is scarcely possible to decipher them. This is effected, not by
the simple method of an obliteration of the words, as is common with
some authors, by means of a line or two run through them at one stroke
of the pen, but by a series of connected circ