KNEW DICKENS

Evening Post, Issue 19, 23 July 1934, Page 11

KNEW DICKENS

AUCKLAND RESIDENT

CHILDHOOD RECOLLECTIONS

Fioin the England of Dickons and Thackeray to a quiet little house in Takapuna is a far cry, and, yet iv. that quiet house there lives one who, as a, little boy, knew these two great figures, for, -as friends of "his father's, often they would visit the house in London in which he lived, says the

Auckland "Stai."

The man is sir. F. S. Bobertshaw, now over 80 j'eais old, wholikes to talk of the two Yietoiian .literary' "gods/ especially Dickens- His father was a silk merchant living in. Elgin Crescent, London; and it was there in the- early sixties that the two, and others, would meet of an afternoon and talk the houis away. "Mark Lemon, one-time editor of "Punch," was his father's intimate friend, as was Thackeray also; George .Bosc Emerson, then editor of the London "J>ispatch" and Crystal Palaco leetmei^ was his mother's brother, and often the.four made the home in Elgin Crescent a second White's coffee ionse. Mr. Bobqrtshaw does not know how Ms father camp to know Dickens or Thackeray, but thinks it was, probably through" Mark Lemon. His fathor always had a taste for. letters

TALKED WHILE HE WALKEP. In those days the place of children in a household was greatly different from today, so that then no wide-eyed little toy stood at Diekens's chair to hear the great man speak. But when the .author of ?The-Tale of Two Cities" arrived about the middle of the afternoon, he would ask in his own brisk way for the children, and then into the drawingroom would be ushered the whole family to have" a few shy words with him. He would sniilo afc them,' call each by name/ and shake Stands with them.

Mr. Robevtsliav sirid that kia youthful impiession of Dickens —he was only a lad ofi eight yeais—was one of height; ,lbufc .ho has. since learned' that Dickons'was.'only sft Bin, so that he thought it must have; been the long stride Dickons took. DickenS always liked to walk -when he was talking, and so along the length of tho big ropni—■ it was drawing room and sitting-room, separated by fojding doors—ho would pace, with his hands placed on the back of'his hips. He was a lean man, always brisk" and full of nervous energy. That, perhaps, said Mi*. Robertshaw, was why he over used to on tha move. As far as Mr. Eobortshaw knew, he never mentioned his family or his family affairs. The conversation used to be on literature and the affairs of the day.

In those days Dickens and Thack«ray •were great "friends. Their famous quarrel had not then started. As Mr. Bobertshaw remembered him, Thackeray was a big man, ana used to sit quite still, ahvays in an arm-chair, with his hands placed on his kneci.

COMMENTS ON DICKENS'S-WOUKS,

After suck an introduction", it "was small wonder that Mr. Itobei'tshav? bocamo a student of Dickens. He has ev«ry volume, and they have that muchused, much-thumbed" look about them. He cannot utfdeistand why some people «an imagine that Dickens is uninter«st-1 ing. He has read him, dozens o£ times.. "It is curious," he said^ apropos Dickens's 'works, f.'hovr some people .can. read-a. book and obserye nothing beyond the story. There *are. several in■consistencies jn his works.*' la "Dombey and Son," as everyone kneuf, Qap; tain Cuttlo had no right hand, but an iron hook (see chapter IV), but in chapiter XXIH, when tha old captain-went down to the wharf tq ace his old friend Bnnsby, Dickens made Captain Cuttle ■pnt both his hands up to his mouth to hail. On another occasion, when Cap-

tain Cuttle met old Sol Gils, the nautical instrumentjaiakoi!, th? la**B' squeezed both the captain's hands. In " Martin Chuzzlewit/' Mr. Eobertshaw pointed "oiit a somewhat similar error. Mr. Pecksniff! had taken leave of

his cousin, Chuzzlewit, at the Blue Dragon Hotel, and after that "asver 80 much as going iot a walk beyond the boundaries of his own garden-" for three days. Yet in the very next paragraph, Dickens said, "Daring this interval he haunted: the Dragon at all ,times and seasons of tho day and night." .Mr. Robertshaw also pointed out that San Waller had an elder brother; careful reading- of chapter X would reveal that fact. >

Aa with every Dickens lover, Mr. Robertshaw had his repertoire of Dickens stories, in ona of which, it was shown, that a man, however famous to tho rest of the ■world, is not, a iero to his wife^ Queen Vieto'ua iwa a gieafaclmirei of Dickens's worUs, aucl J)»ckens and his wife -would Tie invited to Court. On one such occasion, they were conversing tete a-t_ote with the Queen. Her Majesty was said to- have' remarked to Mrs. Dickens that she must bo proud to be the wife of so great a writer. Whereupon. Mrs. Dickens is said to have mads the reply that while Jiis fame as a writer, was beyond dispute, aho wisTiod that he would not persist m coming to beel with cold feet.