ou will excuse me for saying how very much
I am pleased with the first numbers of your new work. Pecksniff and his
daughters, and Pinch, are admirable--quite first-rate painting, such as
no one but yourself can execute."

"P.S.--Chuffey is admirable. I never read a finer piece of writing; it
is deeply pathetic and affecting."

Miss G. HARCOURT, 29_th March_ 1843.--"My dear G---

The pain in my knee
Would not suffer me
To drink your bohea.
I can laugh and talk
But I cannot walk;
And I thought His Grace would stare,
If I put my leg on a chair.
And to give the knee its former power,
It must be fomented for half an hour;
And in this very disagreeable state
If I had come at all, I should have been too late."

JOHN MURRAY, 4_th June_ 1843.--"My youngest brother died suddenly,
leaving behind him 100,000 pounds and no will. A third of this therefore
fell to my share, and puts me at my ease for my few remaining years."

MRS GROTE, 17_th July_ 1843.--"I met Brunel at the Archbishop's and found
him a very lively and intelligent man. He said that when he coughed up
the piece of gold, the two surgeons, the apothecary, and physician all
joined hands, and danced round the room for ten minutes, without taking
the least notice of his convulsed and half-strangled state. I admire
this very much."

"I much doubt if I have ever gained 1500 pounds by my literary labours in
the course of my life" (31_st Aug._ 1843).

C. DICKENS, 21_st Feb._ 1844,--"Many thanks for the 'Christmas Carol,'
which I shall immediately proceed upon, in preference to six American
pamphlets . . . all promising immediate payment!"

COUNTESS GREY, 11_th Oct._ 1844.--"See what rural life is:--

"Combe Florey Gazette.

"Mr Smith's large red cow is expected to calve this week.

"Mr Gibbs has bought Mr Smith's lame mare.

"It rained yesterday, and, a correspondent observes is not unlikely
to rain to-day.

"Mr Smith is better.

"Mrs Smith is indisposed.

"A nest of black magpies was found near the village yesterday."

Sydney Smith died 22nd February 1845.

CHARLES DICKENS

My aim is to give some account of Charles Dickens' personality, to think
of him as a man rather than a writer. For the facts of his life I have
to depend largely on Forster's biography, {199} which is doubtless
trustworthy, but the personality of the author does not tend to make