and the
ceaseless roar of London fills my ears."

[Illustration: Apotheosis of "Grip" the Raven. Drawn by D. Maclise,
R.A.]

Dickens lived longer at Devonshire Terrace than he did at any other of
his London homes, and a great deal of his best work was done here,
including _Master Humphrey's Clock_ (I. _The Old Curiosity Shop_, II.
_Barnaby Rudge_), _American Notes_, _Martin Chuzzlewit_, _A Christmas
Carol_, _The Cricket on the Hearth_, _Dombey and Son_, _The Haunted
Man_, and _David Copperfield_. _The Battle of Life_ was written at
Geneva in 1846. All these were published from his twenty-eighth to his
thirty-eighth year; and _Household Words_, his famous weekly popular
serial of varied high-class literature, was determined upon here, the
first number being issued on 30th March, 1850.

From Devonshire Terrace we pass along High Street, and turn into
Devonshire Street, which leads into Harley Street, minutely described in
_Little Dorrit_ as the street wherein resided the great financier and
"master-spirit" Mr. Merdle, who entertained "Bar, Bishop, and the
Barnacle family" at the "Patriotic conference" recorded in the same
work, in his noble mansion there, and he subsequently perishes "in the
warm baths, in the neighbouring street"--as one may say--in the
luxuriant style in which he had always lived.

Harley Street leads us into Oxford Street, and a pleasant ride outside
an omnibus--which, as everybody knows, is the best way of seeing
London--takes us to Hyde Park Place, a row of tall stately houses facing
Hyde Park. Here at No. 5, (formerly Mr. Milner Gibson's town residence)
Charles Dickens temporarily resided during the winter months of 1869,
and occasionally until May 1870, during his readings at St. James's
Hall, and while he was engaged on _Edwin Drood_, part of which was
written here; this being illustrative of Dickens's power of
concentrating his thoughts even near the rattle of a public
thoroughfare. In a letter addressed to Mr. James T. Fields from this
house, under date of 14th January, 1870, he says:--"We live here
(opposite the Marble Arch) in a charming house until the 1st of June,
and then return to Gad's. . . . I have a large room here with three fine
windows over-looking the park--unsurpassable for airiness and
cheerfulness."

A similar public conveyance takes us back to Morley's by way of Regent
Street, about the middle of which, on the west side, is New Burlington
Street, containing, at No. 8, the