but the literary project which will come into active existence next month. But your proposal is so handsome that it changes my resolution, and I cannot refuse it. I will endeavour to be at work upon the tale while this note is on its way to you across the water." The "project" referred to here as coming into active existence next month was "A Tale of Two Cities."

CHAPTER XXV.

"THE UNCOMMERCIAL TRAVELLER."

T was at the end of this year that a series of quaint and descriptive papers, which had

appeared in All the Year Round, was published by Messrs. Chapman and Hall, under the title of "The Uncommercial Traveller." They were originally seventeen in number, but in a subsequent edition they were increased to twenty-eight papers, bearing such titles as "City Churches," "Sly Neighbourhoods," "Night Walks," "Chambers," "Birthdays," "Funerals,' Funerals," "Tramps." We need scarcely remark that they are all admirably written, and abound in delicate touches. In "Nurse's Stories," Mr. Dickens says,-" Brobingnag (which has the curious fate of being usually mis-spelt when written)." Here the illustrious author actually falls into the very error he is speaking of. The proper

spelling of the word is Brobdingnag.

It was in the autumn of this year that Mr. Dickens finally removed from Tavistock House to Gad's Hill, a place which he had purchased four years before. Some arrangement, we believe, in connection with the lease of the London house prevented his remov

ing earlier. Tavistock House thenceforward became the residence of Mr. Phineas Davis, a gentleman well known in aristocratic circles. The house next to Tavistock House was occupied by the late Mr. Frank Stone, the eminent artist, and for a long time Mr. Dickens's neighbour.

The Christmas number for 1860 was "A Message from the Sea." It was here that we became acquainted with Captain Jorgan, the American captain, and his faithful steward, Tom Pettifer. The Captain's task satisfactorily terminated, he shakes hands with the entire population of the fishing village, inviting the whole, without exception, to come and stay with him for several months at Salem, U.S.

"The Seafaring Man," narrating the shipwreck, and the island on fire, in intensity and vividness of description, are wonderful pieces of writing.

The manager of the Britannia Theatre, Hoxton, having announced for representation a dramatic adaptation of the tale, Dickens, in a letter to the Times, gave his reasons for interfering with its production. Subsequently, Mr. Charles Reade tried the question in his action against Mr. Conquest for représenting "Never too Late to Mend," and was unsuccessful.

It was towards the close of this year that "Great Expectations," which had been published in All the Year Round, came out in the (for Mr. Dickens) somewhat unusual form-the old lending-library form-of

three volumes, and was published by Messrs. Chapman and Hall, illustrated by Marcus Stone, and inscribed to Mr. C. H. Townshend. It is a novel of the most peculiar and fantastic construction, the plot of an extraordinary description, and the characters often grotesque, and sometimes impossible. Here we meet with Abel Magwitch, the convict, a powerfully drawn character; with Pip, a selfish, and oftentimes a pitiful fellow, but good in the end, when his expectations have entirely faded; with Joe Gargery, the blacksmith, the finest character of all-kind, patient, and true to Pip, from his infancy to manhood, shielding him in all his shortcomings when a child, and liberally spooning gravy into his plate when he gets talked at by Pumblechook at dinner; with Miss Havisham, the broken-hearted woman, existing with the one idea of training her adopted child; with Estella, a beautiful conception (Pip's love for her, and his grief when he finds her married to Bentley Drummle, the man without a heart to break, are masterpieces of description); with Pumblechook, that frightful impostor. Perhaps the most entertaining portions are those connected with Wemmick, the lawyer's clerk, his "Castle" at Walworth, and his peculiar ideas of portable property, his post-office mouth, and Mr. Jaggers, the criminal lawyer of Little Britain, his employer.

We may here mention that "Satis House," the residence of Miss Havisham, lies a little to the west of Boley Hill, near Rochester, and derived its pecu

liar name from the fact of Richard Watts (founder of the Poor Travellers' House previously referred to) entertaining Queen Elizabeth in it—when on her journey round the coasts of Sussex and Kent-in 1573. Here she stayed some days, and on her leaving, Watts apologized for the smallness of the house for so great a Queen; she merely replied Satis," signifying she was well content with her accommodation.