"A few days after Dickens's death, an Englishman, deeply grieved at the event, made a sort of pilgrimage to Gad's Hill--to the home of the great novelist. He went into the famous 'Sir John Falstaff Inn' near at hand, and in the effusiveness of his honest emotions, he could not avoid taking the country waiter into his confidence. "'A great loss this of Mr. Dickens,' said the pilgrim. "'A very great loss to us, sir,' replied the waiter, shaking his head; 'he had all his ale sent in from this house!'" One of the two lime-trees only remains, but the well and bucket--as recorded by the _Uncommercial Traveller_ in the chapter on "Tramps"--are there still, surrounded by a protective fence. [Illustration: The "Sir John Falstaff" Inn, Gad's Hill.] We have but little time to notice the "Falstaff," for our admiring gaze is presently fixed on Gad's Hill Place itself, the house in which Dickens resided happily--albeit trouble came to him as to most men--from the year 1856 till his death in 1870. Everybody knows the story of how, as a little boy, he cherished the idea of one day living in this house, and how that idea was gratified in after-life. It is from the _Uncommercial Traveller_, in the chapter on "Travelling Abroad," and the repetition is never stale. He says:-- "So smooth was the old high road, and so fresh were the horses, and so fast went I, that it was midway between Gravesend and Rochester, and the widening river was bearing the ships, white-sailed or black-smoked, out to sea, when I noticed by the wayside a very queer small boy. "'Holloa!' said I to the very queer small boy, 'where do you live?' "'At Chatham,' says he. "'What do you do there?' says I. "'I go to school,' says he. "I took him up in a moment, and we went on. Presently, the very queer small boy says, 'This is Gad's Hill we are coming to, where Falstaff went out to rob those travellers, and ran away.' "'You know something about Falstaff, eh?' said I. "'All about him,' said the very queer small boy. 'I am old (I am nine), and I read all sorts of books. But _do_ let us stop at the top of the hill, and look at the house there, if you please!' "'You admire that house?' said I.