h_ offices, to which
mirthful publication Dickens made but one contribution,--and that was
never published. Further adown the street is still the building which gave
shelter to the famous dinners of the round-table when all the wits of
_Punch_ met and dined together, frequently during the London season.

In Mitre Court, until recently, stood the old tavern which had, in its
palmier if not balmier days, been frequently the meeting-place of Johnson,
Goldsmith, and Boswell; while but a short distance away we are well within
the confines of the Temple which not only sheltered and fostered the law,
but literature as well.

An incident which shows Dickens' sympathy with the literary life of the
day was in 1854, when the great-grandson of the man who has given so much
to all ages of Englishmen,--De Foe,--was made happy with a relief of L2 a
month. Dickens was (as might have been expected) amongst the most liberal
subscribers to the little fund. If everybody who has derived delight from
the perusal of "Robinson Crusoe" had but contributed a single farthing to
his descendant, that descendant would become a wealthy man. When De Foe
was asked what he knew of his great ancestor's writings, he answered
(though doubtless without any intentional comment on his ancestor's
reputation) that in his happier days he had several of De Foe's works; but
that he never could keep a copy of "Robinson Crusoe;" "there were so many
borrowers of the book in Hungerford Market alone." Charles Knight, the
publisher and antiquarian, instituted the fund, and the money was raised
by him chiefly among literary men.

The most sentimental and picturesque interest attaches itself to the
extensive series of buildings on the south side of Fleet Street,
familiarly known as the Temple. Here Goldsmith is buried beside the
curious and interesting Temple Church. The other of the four great Inns of
Court are Lincoln's Inn in Chancery Lane and Gray's Inn in Holborn. Allied
with the four great inns were the more or less subsidiary Inns of
Chancery, all situated in the immediate neighbourhood, one of which, at
least, being intimately associated with Dickens' life in
London--Furnival's Inn, which, with Thavie's Inn, was attached to
Lincoln's Inn. Here Dickens lived in 1835 at No. 15, and here also he
lived subsequent to his marriage with Catherine Hogarth in the following
year. It was at this time that the first number of "Pickwick" was written
and published. The buildi