COPPEDFIELD'S CHURCH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20264, 25 May 1929, Page 8 (Supplement)

COPPEDFIELD'S CHURCH.

THE NEED OF REPAIR. The parish church of Blundeston, in Suffolk, is badly in need of repair, and a movement is on foot to restore it in memory of Charles Dickens and " David Copperfield." " No commentator, so far as I know, has ever seriously disputed that Blundeston is tho place," says a writer in an English paper, " thinly disguised as ' Blunderstone,' that Dickens had in his mind as the sceno of David G'opperfield's early childhood, or that its ' Rookery,' the birthplace of his hero, was the present parsonage. The contiguity of the house and church are frequently noted in the early chapters. Was not Peggotiy, as she sat in ' our pew,' able to keep an eye on the house during divine worship ? " Among the earliest memories that David recalls aro those of his father's grave in the churchyard, of his looking at it from his bedroom window in the moonlight and in the morning sunshine. The brief description of his childish impressions of the Sunday service is one of the memorable passages in Dickens', and almost the last scene in the child's life at Blunderstone is the burial of his mother in his father's grave. " There should be no question, therefore, about the rights of Blundeston in ' David Copperfield's church,' though it must be admitted that, outside the church, the churchyard, and the ' Rookery' (without any rooks), our knowledge of Blunderstone and its people is extremely limited. " Only one person, as far as I can see, appears on the scene who can be definitely identified as a native. That is Mr. Chillip, who in his professional capacity brought David Copperfield into the world, and narrowly escaped being assaulted afterwards by Mrs. Trotwood when he disclosed the sex of the newly born babe. Mr. Murdstone, at the time of his courtship of David's mother, has tho air of being a neighbour; but where he lived before he took up his residence at the 'Rookery* after his marriage is not definitely indicated. " I have heard it plausibly argued that Mr. Barkis was a Blundeston man, running the local carrier's cart to Yarmouth; but the counter-argument seemed to me equally strong, thatßarkis' headquarters were always at Yarmouth. We know, of course, that he took a _ house there on his marriage, and that it was from Yarmouth that he eventually ' went out with the tide.' "