y a stranger under pressure of
time, strongly reminds one of the "Circumlocution Office" so graphically
described in _Bleak House_. But we are enthusiastic, and at length
obtain a clue to it in a folio volume (Letter D), containing the names
of testators who died in the year 1870, where the Will is briefly
recorded (at number 468) as that of "Dickens, Charles, otherwise Charles
John Huffham, Esquire." We pay our fees, and take our seats in the
reading-room, when the original is presently placed in our hands. It is
one of a series of three documents fastened together by a bit of green
silk cord, and secured by the seal of the office, as is customary when
there are two or more papers filed. The first document is the Will
itself, dated 12th May, 1869, written throughout by the novelist very
plainly and closely in the characteristic blue ink on a medium sheet of
faint blue quarto letter paper, having the usual legal folded margin,
and exactly covering the four pages. It is free from corrections, and is
signed, "Charles Dickens," under which is the never-to-be-mistaken
flourish. The testatum is signed by G. Holsworth, 26 Wellington Street,
Strand, and Henry Walker, 26 Wellington Street, Strand, which points to
the fact that the Will was written and executed at the office of _All
the Year Round_. He appoints "Georgina Hogarth and John Forster
executrix and executor, and guardians of the persons of my children
during their respective minorities."

The second document is the Oath of John Forster, testifying that Charles
Dickens, otherwise Charles John Huffham Dickens, is one and the same
person. The third document is a Codicil dated 2nd June, 1870 (only a
week before his death), in which the novelist bequeaths "to my son
Charles Dickens, the younger, all my share and interest in the weekly
journal called _All the Year Round_." The Codicil is witnessed by the
same persons. The Will and Codicil are both given in extenso in vol.
iii. of Forster's _Life_--the gross amount of the real and personal
estate being calculated at L93,000.[38]

* * * * *

Avery short tramp from Somerset House brings us to the last object of our
pilgrimage--the grave of Charles Dickens in Westminster Abbey. Surely no
admirer of his genius can omit this final mark of honour to the memory
of the mighty dead. Many years have rolled by since "the good, the
gentle, highly gifted, ever friendly, noble Dickens" passed away; and we