OFTEN MET DICKENS

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 April 1939, Page 9

OFTEN MET DICKENS

OLD MAN’S REMINISCENCES. LONDON, March 18. John Davis, 90 this, week, is a Londoner who well remembers Charles Dickens, with whom he often came into contactMr Davis is a retired postal servant who has been drawing his pension now for more than 40 years. He used to work in the London West Central district when Dickens ran “Household Words” from an office in Wellington Street, Strand. “We used to oblige Dickens when he was in town,” said Mr Davis this week, “by sending round to his office letters that were addressed to his home at Gad’s Hill, Rochester, and should by rights have gone on there. It was against the rules, but the Post Office winked at it, he being the great man. As a young fellow I often took these letters in.

“One day, near the end of May, 1807, he called me into his private office and told me he wanted to invite a cricket team of the West Central postal district to be his guests at Gad’s Hill and play a match with the village team. “I couldn’t 'go and very sorry I wai afterwards, when I heard about the good time Mr Dickens gave them.

“It was a hot June day, and from Gravesend, the nearest railway station, the team drove the remaining 14 miles in a brake. When they got to Gad’s Hill, Mr Dickens took them to the marquee he had put on the village green and gave them a regular ‘blow-out.’ It made the match rather late in starting.” When at last, after this thoroughly Pickwickian introduction, it did begin, Dickens was scorer. His son Harry (afterwards Sir Henry Dickens. City of London Recorder) captained the home side. “I couldn’t tell you who won,” said Mr Davjs solemnly. “No one ever found' out. Some said one and others said another. It was never properly cleared up. You see, the boys drank \ery hearty-like before the match, and then every now and again the gams was stopped for refreshments 1 , the day. being so hot, so naturally things got confused. “The batsmen ran into each other and knocked one another down, the bowlers sometimes bowled at people who weren’t playing, and the fielders kept slipping off to the marquee. It ended with the umpire returning a sort of open verdict. So both sides were able to celebrate the victory—whosever victory it was—in the marquee without any sore feelings.”