the king of the Bookmakers, _Per se Fitz_.
This time it is the _History of the Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick
Club_, published by CHAPMAN AND HALL, and "inscribed"--why not
"dedicated?"--to HENRY FIELDING DICKENS, son of "The Only One,"
the Master. _Interesting?_ Of course it is, anything about DICKENS,
specially in connection with the immortal _Pickwick_, must be
interesting, and for chatty, gossiping bookmaking we only say, "Give
us Fitz." He is to the manor born. He is neither romancer nor poet:
"_poeta nascitur non_ 'Fitz.'" Occasionally FITZ is aggravatingly
reticent. For instance, at page 16 we read, "_Two or three years
ago_"--which? two or three?--"_a curious and amusing coincidence
brought the author's son, a barrister in good practice_"--Which son?
His name? There were more sons than one: were they all barristers? And
was this one the only one in good practice?--"_into connection with
his father's famous book. It occurred at a trial on the Circuit._"
Which Circuit? Which is "_the_ Circuit"? The Baron, who is now the
Last of the Barons but one, only asks because the phrase "on Circuit"
would not have required his query; but "on the Circuit" is another
pair of shoes. "_A trial_." What trial? When? At p. 17, "_The Judge
entered into the humour of the thing_"--what Judge? The Baron is
of opinion that in the well-known advertisement about the Waverley
Pen, quoted in a note at p. 25, the correct order should be, "_The
Pickwick, the Owl, and the Waverley Pen_"--not Pickwick last. Did
CHARLES DICKENS ever write to FORSTER that he was "_getting on like a
house o' fire"?_ Surely this should be a "house a-fire," or "a house
on fire"; for a "house o' fire" means a "house of fire," which is not
what the expression is intended to convey. At p. 51, in a note, FITZ
says, "'_Phiz, Whizz,' or something of that kind, was_ T. HOOD's
_joke_." Was it? If so, where does the joke come in?

[Illustration]

My friend, the late GEORGE ROSE, better known as "ARTHUR SKETCHLEY,"
used to say that DICKENS took _Sam Weller_ from (as I understood him)
a character in one of O'KEEFE's comedies. This statement was given
on the authority of Mr. BAYLE BERNARD. But I am bound to say I can
find nothing like _Sam_ in O'KEEFE's; but I have found DICKENS there
bodily. It is in Sc. 1, Act I. of _Life's Vagaries; or, The Neglected
Son._ "'Oh!' exclaims FANNY, 'if my papa was to see me--oh!' (_Seeing_
DICKENS, _runs; he stops her._)" And, oddly enoug