Produced by Chris Curnow, Emmy and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) A WEEK'S TRAMP IN DICKENS-LAND [Illustration: The Marshes, Cooling.] A WEEK'S TRAMP IN DICKENS-LAND TOGETHER WITH =Personal Reminiscences of the 'Inimitable Boz'= THEREIN COLLECTED. BY WILLIAM R. HUGHES, F.L.S. _WITH MORE THAN A HUNDRED ILLUSTRATIONS BY F. G. KITTON AND OTHER ARTISTS._ LONDON: CHAPMAN & HALL, LIMITED. BOSTON: ESTES AND LAURIAT. 1891. RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED, LONDON & BUNGAY. [_All Rights reserved._] TO MY WIFE AND DAUGHTERS, EMILY AND EDITH, I DEDICATE THIS RECORD OF "A WEEK'S TRAMP," TO REMIND THEM OF THE MANY PLEASANT READINGS FROM DICKENS WE HAVE ENJOYED TOGETHER AT HOME. PREFACE. * * * * * "'I should like to show you a series of eight articles, Sir, that have appeared in the Eatanswill Gazette. I think I may venture to say that you would not be long in establishing your opinions on a firm and solid basis, Sir.' "'I dare say I should turn very blue long before I got to the end of them,' responded Bob. "Mr. Pott looked dubiously at Bob Sawyer for some seconds, and turning to Mr. Pickwick said:-- "'You have seen the literary articles which have appeared at intervals in the Eatanswill Gazette in the course of the last three months, and which have excited such general--I may say such universal--attention and admiration?' "'Why,' replied Mr. Pickwick, slightly embarrassed by the question, 'the fact is, I have been so much engaged in other ways, that I really have not had an opportunity of perusing them.' "'You should do so, Sir,' said Pott with a severe countenance. "'I will,' said Mr. Pickwick. "'They appeared in the form of a copious review of a work on Chinese metaphysics, Sir,' said Pott. "'Oh,' observed Mr. Pickwick--'from your pen I hope?' "'From the pen of my critic, Sir,' rejoined Pott with dignity. "'An abstruse subject I should conceive,' said Mr. Pickwick. "'Very, Sir,' responded Pott, looking intensely sage. 'He _crammed_ for it, to use a technical but expressive term; he read up for the subject, at my desire, in the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_.' "'Indeed!' said Mr. Pickwick; 'I was not aware that that valuable work contained any information respecting Chinese metaphysics.' "'He read, Sir,' rejoined Mr. Pott, laying his hand on Mr. Pickwick's knee, and looking round with a smile of intellectual superiority, 'he read for metaphysics under the letter M, and for China under the letter C; and combined his information, Sir!'