LINK WITH DICKENS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23029, 5 May 1938, Page 17

LINK WITH DICKENS

AGED GARDENER'S STORY AUTHOR'S CHARACTERISTICS [from a special correspondent] LONDON. April 14 The last living link with Charles Dickons is 6aid to be Mr. George Woollev, of Pilgrim's Hatch, Essex, aged 86. At the age of 13 he went to work as a gardener for the great novelist at Gad's Hill, Kent. "I have been with plenty of people since, at big houses and small ones, but 1 have never known a nicer gentleman to work for than Mr. Charles," said Mr. Wool ley this week. "He always used to wear a white bowler hat and a cutaway coat. You do not see them nowadays. "I never knew him give a cross word to anybody, though he did like to be alone, and did not like being disturbed. "Opposite the house was a sort of wood the master called the Wilderness. He used to go over there to write. He did not like to have to walk round the house and across the road so I helped to dig a tunnel under, the road. "I often used to hear what sounded like someone making a speech. I wondered what it was at first and then I found out it was Mr. Dickens composing his writing out loud. He was working on 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood' then. He died before he finished it."