"Mr. Dickens was a nice sort of man--very much liked--missed a great deal when he died--poor people and the like felt the miss of him. He was a man as shifted a good deal of money in the place. You see, he had a lot of friends--kept a good many horses,--and then there was the men to attend to 'em, and the corn-chandler, the blacksmith, the wheelwright, and others to be paid--the poor--and such-like--felt the miss of him when he died." "How long have you lived here?" "Well, I come in '45, eleven years before Mr. Dickens." "And I suppose you are over sixty." "Well, sir, I shall never see seventy again." Wishing our friend "good-night," we continue our tramp. On another occasion we met, in the same place, a third specimen of village labourer, "a mender of roads," who knew Charles Dickens, and so we walked and chatted pleasantly with him for some distance. Said our informant, "You see, Mr. Dickens was a very liberal man; he held his head high up when he walked, and went at great strides." The "mender of roads" was some years ago a candidate for a vacant place as under-gardener at Gad's Hill, but the situation was filled up just an hour before he applied for it. He said Mr. Dickens gave him half-a-crown, and afterwards always recognized him when he met him with a pleasant nod, or cheerfully "passed the time of day." We heard in many places that Dickens was "always kindly" in this way to his own domestics, and to the villagers in a like station of life to our intelligent friend "the mender of roads." A fourth villager, a groom, who had been in his present situation for twenty years, said:--"Both the old gentleman and young Mr. Charles were very much liked in Higham. There wasn't a single person in the place, I believe, but what had a good word for them." It may be interesting to mention that Higham--the old name of which was Lillechurch--is an extensive parish divided into several hamlets. In a useful little book published in 1882, called _A Handbook of Higham_, the Rev. C. H. Fielding, M.A., the author, says:--"There are few parishes more interesting than Higham, as it provides food for the antiquarian and the student of Nature; while its position near the 'Medway smooth, and the Royal-masted Thame,' affords to the artist many an opportunity for a picture, while the idler has the privilege of lovely views." Mr. Roach Smith was of opinion that Higham was the seat of "a great Roman pottery." A Monastery of importance existed here for several centuries, Mary, daughter of King Stephen, being one of the Prioresses; but it was dissolved by Henry VIII. The list of flowering plants given in Mr. Fielding's book is extensive and interesting, and contains many rarities.