Before leaving Portsmouth, we just take a hasty glance at the Theatre Royal, which remains much as it was during the days of Mr. Vincent Crummles and his company, as graphically described in the twenty-second and following chapters of _Nicholas Nickleby_. Of that genial manager, Mr. T. Edgar Pemberton, in his _Charles Dickens and the Stage_, observes:-- "Every line that is written about Mr. Crummles and his followers is instinct with good-natured humour, and from the moment when, in the road-side inn 'yet twelve miles short of Portsmouth,' the reader comes into contact with the kindly old circuit manager, he finds himself in the best of good company." Mr. Rimmer, in his _About England with Dickens_, referring to the "Common Hard" at Portsmouth, says that the "people there point out in a narrow lane leading to the wharf, the house where Nicholas is supposed to have sojourned." FOOTNOTES: [19] So far as I am aware, nothing has been done to trace the genealogy of the Dickens family, and it may therefore be of interest to place on record the title of, and an extract from, a very scarce and curious thin quarto volume (pp. 1-28) in my collection. Sir Walter Scott was immensely proud of his lineage and historical associations, but it would be a wonderful thing if we could trace the descent of Charles Dickens from King Edward III. In the _Rambler in Worcestershire_ (Longmans, 1854), Mr. John Noake, the author, in alluding to the parish of Churchill, Worcestershire, says:--"The Dickens family of Bobbington were lords of this manor from 1432 to 1657, and it is said that from this family Mr. Dickens, the author, is descended." [Title.] A POSTHUMOUS POEM of the late THOMAS DICKENS, ESQ., Lieut.-Colonel in the First Regiment of Foot Guards, Dedicated, by permission, to his Royal Highness, the Duke of Gloucester, to which is added The genealogy of the Author from King Edward III.; also A few grateful stanzas to the Deity, three months previous to his death, _Sep. 21st, 1789_. CAMBRIDGE: Printed by J. Archdeacon, Printer to the University. And may be had of the Editor, C. DICKENS, LL.D., near Huntingdon, and of T. PAYNE AND SON, Booksellers, London. MDCCXC. Above the title is written in ink: "Peter Cowling to Charles Robert Dickens, 3rd son to Sam. Trevor Dickens, this 10th August, 1807, and from said Chas. R. Dickens to his loved father, on the 16th June, 1832." [EXTRACT.] Genealogy of the late Thomas Dickens, Esq. KING EDWARD III. LIONEL, Duke of Clarence his Son PHILIPPA, married to EDMUND MORTIMER, Earl of March his Daughter ROGER, Earl of March her Son