A Week's Tramp in Dickens-Land: Together with Personal Reminiscences of the 'Inimitable Boz' Therein CollectedHughes, William R. (William Richard)
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A Week's Tramp in Dickens-Land: Together with Personal Reminiscences of the 'Inimitable Boz' Therein Collected
Hughes, William R. (William Richard)
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870; England -- Description and travel
We are shown over the premises--scrupulously neat and clean--and observe
that there are excellent lavatories with foot-pans, and a pair of
slippers provided for each recipient. We afterwards see the six Poor
Travellers who have had their supper, and are comfortably smoking their
pipes in a snug room, and we have a pleasant and interesting chat with
them. They are much above the condition of ordinary tramps, and are
lodged in six separate bedrooms, or "dormitories" which open out of a
gallery at the back part of the building, a very curious structure,
remaining just as it was in the days of Queen Elizabeth. For supper,
each man is allowed half a pound of cooked meat, a pound of bread, and
half-a-pint of porter, and receives fourpence in money on leaving. It is
right to state that we heard complaints in the city relating to the evil
effects of a number of poor travellers being attracted to the Charity
daily, when but a few can obtain relief.
[Illustration: Satis House.]
Respecting the Worshipful Master Richard Watts himself very little is
known, except that he was appointed by Queen Elizabeth in 1560 to be the
surveyor and clerk of the works for the building of Upnor Castle; that
he was paymaster to the Wardens of Rochester Bridge for some years
previously; that he was recorder of Rochester, and represented the city
in Parliament from 1563 to 1571, and that he resided at "Satis House,"
which stood on the site of the modern residence bearing the same name,
now occupied by Mrs. Booth, a little to the south of the Cathedral, but
which must not, however, be confounded with the Satis House of _Great
Expectations_, this latter, as has been previously explained, being
identical with Restoration House, in Crow Lane. When Queen Elizabeth
visited Rochester in 1573, Watts had the honour of entertaining Her
Majesty there, on the last day of her residence in "the ancient city";
and to his expressions of regret at having no better accommodation to
offer, the Queen was pleased generously to reply, "Satis," by which name
the house has ever since been known. Estella, in _Great Expectations_,
gives another view of the origin of the name. She says:--"Its other
name was Satis; which is Greek, or Latin, or Hebrew, or all three--or
all one to me--for enough: but it meant more than it said. It meant,
when it was given, that whoever had this house, could want nothing else.
They must have been easily satisfied in those days, I should think."
Archbishop Longley was born there in 1794.
[Illustration: Watts's Monument in Rochester Cathedral.
_Over the Memorial Brass of Charles Dickens._]
There is a monument to the proctor-hating philanthropist on the wall of
the south transept of the Cathedral over the brass to Charles Dickens,
surmounted by a very curious painted marble half-figure effigy with
flowing beard, of "worthy Master Richard starting out of it, like a
ship's figurehead." Underneath is the following epitaph:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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