PEGGOTTY’S COTIAGE TO-DAY

Evening Star, Issue 22956, 13 May 1938, Page 7

PEGGOTTY’S COTIAGE TO-DAY

“ Peggotty’s cottage,” at Gravesend, made memorable by Dickens in ‘ David Copperaeid,’ but placed by him in fancy ; at Yarmouth Sands, is to be trans- . formed into a workman’s messroom | (says the ‘ New York Times ’). , The upturned smuggler’s boat that i was converted more than a century ago into a four-roomed home and caught , Dickens’s eye when he was honeymoon- j ing near by, stands to-day a blackened. 1 untenanted relic beside the Gravesend : Canal, 20 miles from London, j Its neighbours nowadays are the gas- - works, i malthouse, and a leather fac- ! tory. It is the leather factory which j has leased the land on which the cot- ) tago stands. An official of the firm said; “ Although we intend turning the old boat into a messroom for onr staff, we shall take great care of it. Wo are proud oi the old landmark.” Mrs Bayfield, who lived in Peggotty’s cottage- nearly 30 years ago, remarked; “ 1 can still recall the beautiful flower garden md the roses climbing past the little windows in the side of tno boat. It was all marshland then, and peaceful. Cosy at night, too. We left only because our family grow too big.” To-day the home of the cheerful Pcggotty his a sadly neglected, forlorn appearance.