RY MAN IN HIS HUMOUR."
_From a Painting by C.R. Leslie, R.A._]

In No. 16 we see another and very original form of the "Boz" signature.
No. 17 has a curious stroke of activity above the signature. No. 18 is a
fine, strong signature.

[Illustration: NO. 19.--WRITTEN IN 1845.]

[Illustration: NO. 20.--WRITTEN MAY 12, 1848. (PASS TO THE STAGE.)]

[Illustration:
CHARLES DICKENS AS "SIR CHARLES COLDSTREAM" IN "USED UP", 1850.
_From a Painting by Augustus Egg, R.A._]

No. 19 is remarkably vigorous and active. The well-controlled activity
and energy of the signatures are now strongly marked. No. 20 explains
itself; the curious _P_ of _Pass_ is worth notice.

[Illustration: NO. 21.--WRITTEN JULY 22, 1854.]

[Illustration: CHARLES DICKENS IN HIS STUDY, 1854.
_From the Picture by E.M. Ward, R.A._]

[Illustration: AGE 44.
_From the Painting by Ary Scheffer_.]

No. 21 is a stray illustration of clever and gracefully-executed
movements which abound in Dickens's letters.

[Illustration: NO. 22.--WRITTEN WHEN ILL, OCT. 29, 1859]

[Illustration: AGE 47.
_From an Oil Painting by W.P. Frith, R.A._]

See, in No. 22, how illness disturbed the fine action of this splendid
organism; but illness did not prevent attention to detail--the dot is
placed after the _D_.

[Illustration: NO. 23.--WRITTEN NOV. 1, 1860.]

[Illustration: NO. 24.--WRITTEN JAN. 17, 1861.]

[Illustration: NO. 25.--WRITTEN NOV. 25, 1861.]

[Illustration: DICKENS AS "RICHARD WARDOUR" IN "THE FROZEN DEEP."]

[Illustration: AGE 49.
_From a Photograph_.]

[Illustration: AGE 51.
_From a Photo. by Alphonse Maze, Paris._]

When on a reading tour, Dickens wrote at Bideford the letter from which
No. 23 has been copied. After writing that he could get nothing to eat
or drink at the small inn, he wrote the sentence facsimiled. The
exaggeration of the words is matched by the use of two capital _T_'s in
place of two small _t_'s. The letter continues: "The landlady is playing
cribbage with the landlord in the next room (behind a thin partition),
and they seem quite comfortable." No. 24 is another instance of the
variation which, in fact, obtained up to the very day before death. No.
25 was written at Berwick-on-Tweed; it is an amusing letter, and states
how the local agents wanted to put the famous reader into "a little
lofty crow's nest," and how "I instantly struck, of course, and said I
would either read in a room attached to this house ... or not at all.
T