A DICKENS MEMORIAL.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 158, 28 March 1908, Page 12

A DICKENS MEMORIAL.

Thi Dickens celobrations in London Inst month opened on Foteuary 7 with the presentation ' by Xidrd Jaiiifis of Hereford) on belialf of.'hbSfcs* 6f Dickens admirers, Of tho Natiohal Dickens Library to tlio Lord Mnytir of- London, Who will arrange to have it hoUswl in-tlio-Guildhall.' In tno evening there will: bo tho annual (liiihcr of the Boz Cliib,'of which tbo llito F. 0. Kitton Was secretary, ai\d on -Saturday thiit less sclect but perhaps nioro influential body, tlio DitkeiiS': Fellowship, will hold- high birthday revel. .It is aafe to pay that of no other English,

novelist has there been gathered together such a collection of "ana" as will henceforth fepose iii the Guildhall, let ns hope not under the dust of forgetfulnoss and neglect. The larger; part of it comes from tho library of the late Mr.■ F. G. liitton, a most indefatigable; Dickensian. It consists of many fare first editions, many practical reprints, many; plagiarisms,. and a host of books dealing , with the novelist and his work. No fewer than soveritceii volumes are required to contain the 2000 magazine articles relating to Dickons, which dato from contemporary reviews, of "Pickwick" doivn to -tho. present day. The majority were published in England and America, but, Germany and 'Franco have also contributed tlieir slmfe; \ln fact,, in tho first, volurho is, found a criticism of Dickens in German.Tho original, parts of. Proctor's "Watched by tho Dead" (oho of tho earliest, of these dreary Drood solutions) will also be fojind among tho collection, as' well as Robert Larigton's. "The Childhood . and .Youth of Charles Dickens." ' Four of the. biggest itoms (in a material' sense) are the four volumes, each ~of; "Daily Telegraph" size, containing newspaper ; cuttings chronologically arranged.. ; These contain in addition a very fino collection of; letters from contemporaries of Dickens, arid , the original drawings made by Leslie Ward. C. E.. Brock, and others ihr illustration of the novels, as well as Mr. Kittqn's own sketches, for "A Week's Tramp in Dickens Land;" A few years ago the literary world was startled ; by, j.Mr. Swinburne's ' resounding eulogy of Dickens in the pages of the "Quar-terly,'';the-first, .mgned article in that staid old, periodical.. This also finds a place: in tlie collection, and along with it is a letter from •Mr., Swinburne to Mr. Kitton, accompanied $ a proof giving the .deleted passages from' .the' article, arid m'dking, it complete..., as originally,written. ,It.iS due to Sirs; Kitton that this valuable .flbllectibri of Dickens riihterial is tq find, a permanent abidirig-placQ in tho. novelist's, native 1 land:'V.''Many.', offers came to her from America, brit she, decided that tliei collectiori should bo valued by the Dickens Fellowship; , arid that , she would part ,with it to English . subscribers at tho prico on which they, A good piirt of tho sum —about £250—hits' been .raised, by tho Fellowship, of which Mr.. J; Wi T; Ley is lion; secretary; while Mr; T; P. O'Connor has d<}no yeoman service in whipping tip otftside contributors.-