Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870 -- Homes and haunts -- England -- London; Literary landmarks -- England -- London
St. George’s Church, close at hand, will be remembered in connection with
the above, as once affording refuge in its vestry for Little Dorrit, when
the sexton accommodated her with a bed formed of the pew-cushions, the
book of registers doing service as a pillow. She was afterwards married
to Arthur Clennam in this church. Full particulars of the ceremony will
be found in the last chapter of the tale. At a short distance from this
point, down Blackman Street, on the right, is (No. 90) Lant Street. In
Forster’s Biography it is narrated that Dickens, when a boy, lodged in
this street what time his father was imprisoned in the Marshalsea. The
house stood on part of the site now occupied by the Board School
adjoining No. 46—
“A back attic was found for me at the house of an insolvent-court
agent, who lived in Lant Street, in the Borough, where _Bob Sawyer_
lodged many years afterwards. A bed and bedding were sent over for
me, and made up on the floor. The little window had a pleasant
prospect of a timber-yard; and when I took possession of my new
abode, I thought it was a Paradise.”
This opinion of his boyhood seems to have been somewhat modified fifteen
years later, when the “Pickwick Papers” were written, and Mr. Robert
Sawyer had taken residence in the locality. We read—
“There is an air of repose about Lant Street, in the Borough, which sheds
a gentle melancholy upon the soul. A house in Lant Street would not come
within the denomination of a first-rate residence, in the strict
acceptation of the term; but it is a most desirable spot, nevertheless.
If a man wished to extract himself from the world, to remove himself from
within the reach of temptation, to place himself beyond the possibility
of any inducement to look out of the window, he should by all means go to
Lant Street.”
Walking onwards from “this happy valley” past Suffolk Street, to the
westward, turning off _Borough Road_, we may note on the north corner the
site of the old King’s Bench Prison, in which _Mr. Micawber_ was
detained—in the top storey but one—pending the settlement of his
pecuniary liabilities. Later on in the Copperfield history, Micawber
appointed a meeting for David and Tom Traddles as follows:—
“Among other havens of domestic tranquillity and peace of mind, my
feet will naturally tend towards the King’s Bench Prison. In stating
that I shall be (D.V.) on the outside of the south wall of that place
of incarceration on civil process, the day after to-morrow, at seven
in the evening, precisely, my object in this epistolary communication
is accomplished.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account