CHARGES AGAINST DICKENS'

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24986, 21 September 1946, Page 5

CHARGES AGAINST DICKENS'

A grandson replies hundred members of the ■ ?«ns Fellowship, at a conference “Snr. in London on June 22, heard Sv new president, a grandson of the answering a series of attacks s Eaker was Mr Henry Charles ‘?J n sson of Sir Henry Dickens and of Monica Dickens, herself a vSst He was replying to the sug‘JSn's (made in recent years in gK and the press) that Charles S£ns was a fop, a drunkard, a cruel unnatural father, and a libertine, ’rkp charge of foppery, he said, was . Saed on the fact that Dickens was ‘Siond of flowered waistcoats, an °S,hle weakness shared by such men ‘nisraeli. Lord Lytton, and Count in fact, these waistcoats the fashion of the day. Vad drunkenness. Mr Dickens re--imbered his father’s description of at Gadshill. Dickens Sm=»lf would bring for his guests a selection of bottles from the celEr although he mixed skilfully all 2nds of punches, he drank very little hjffisell. Children’s Affection On the count that Dicisens was a jpi unnatural father, Mr Dickens Sid he knew three of the children, ail of these throughout their lives Lpver ceased to express their admiration and great love for their father. Last, the charge that Dickens was a libertine. Here Mr Dickens, speaking « a lawyer, said that there was “no evidence sufficient to hang a cat on.” It had been said that the woman in onestion— presumably there was only one-made a confession. There were no details whatever. This piece of gos«ip was mentioned by the Writer of one book and repeated in the next, until jt was assumed to be historical in the popular press had itated that Dickens was the most unattractive figure of his time. Surely the truth was precisely opposite: he was the valued friend of almost every celebrity of the day.

Georgina Hogarth Mr Dickens also defended his aunt, Georgina Hogarth. It had been alleged ately that she was a scheming, cold, and calculating • woman who ousted her sister from Dickens’s home and alienated his children’s affections. This was nonsense, said Mr Dickens. Georgina Hogarth was “a sweet, kindly, nid-Victorian woman totally incapable of such behaviour.’’ Mr Dickens reopened the Dickens House in Doughty street, Bloomsbury, which had been shut for seven years: its treasures were removed to the country. During the week the Dickens House received the "gift (from Mrs Walter Dexter) of 200 letters in the correspondence between Dickens and bis oldest friend, Thomas Beard.