A DICEMS PROBLEM.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCIII, Issue 14353, 19 November 1910, Page 1 (Supplement)

A DICEMS PROBLEM.

The d-eath at Southsea of Mrs Geor"•ina Margaret Hay man, at the age of 81; calls the fact, states a writer in the '"Daily News," that her claim to have been the original of Dickens' famous •jhaiiacter "Dittle Dorrit' lias long been disputed on behalf of Mrs Cooper, of Soiithgate, who, I am told, lias attained the great age of 98, though this statement I am unahle to - verify at the moment. Dickens, it is said, frequently visit-eel Mrs Ha-yman's father, a Loudon solicitor, and her brother is claimed to have been the original of "Tiny Tim.' On the other hand, Mrs Oooper's brother, Tom Mitten, was a schoolfellow of the'author, and Dickens often visited the Mitten heme, where he constantly addressed the little girl as "Little Dorrit," promising would afterwards use the name for a book. Not a. few of my correspondents liav* been nuzzled by the rival claims, and ifc would be greatly interesting if the point, could be definitely s-ettled. "liit. tie Dorrit," the books of reference tell us, wnc written between 1855 and 1857, t' — I.T" ("Wiper, nresuming

til" vrnr rt hor birth to ]iav» been 1R12,' must hare been 43 years of a"e — Dickens' ofrn acre it that time—while ]Vfr; Hnvman would liava .been in h-r 26tH sgar.