The Literary History of the Adelphi and Its NeighbourhoodBrereton, Austin
History
The Literary History of the Adelphi and Its Neighbourhood
Brereton, Austin
Adelphi (London, England) -- History; Literary landmarks -- England -- London; London (England) -- History
Two of the most celebrated literary names connected with the Adelphi
are Thomas Hood and Charles Dickens. Hood, soon after his marriage in
1824, lived in chambers at No. 2 Robert Street, his acquaintanceship
at that time including Charles Lamb, Hazlitt, and De Quincey. His
association with the Adelphi continued until the end of his career, for
his _Magazine_, established in 1844--the year before his death--was
published from No. 1 Adam Street. Dickens knew the Adelphi well. As
a boy he frequented its underground passages, and, later on, he used
Osborn's Hotel (the Adelphi Hotel) for a scene in _Pickwick_.[44] He
is recording his own experiences when, in _David Copperfield_, he says:
"I was fond of wandering about the Adelphi, because it was a mysterious
place, with those dark arches. I see myself emerging one evening from
some of these arches, on a little public-house close to the river,
with an open space before it, where some coal-heavers were dancing; to
look at whom, I sat down upon a bench. I wonder what they thought
of me!" This was also the scene of the meeting of the Micawbers and
Copperfield prior to the departure of the impecunious Wilkins for
Australia: "The Micawber family were lodged in a little, dirty,
tumble-down public-house, which in those days was close to the stairs,
and where protruding wooden rooms over-hung the river. The family, as
emigrants, being objects of some interest in and about Hungerford,
attracted so many beholders, that we were glad to take refuge in their
room. It was one of the wooden chambers upstairs, with the tide flowing
underneath.... I went down again next morning to see that they were
away. They had departed, in a boat, as early as five o'clock. It was a
wonderful instance to me of the gap such partings make, that although
my association of them with the tumble-down public-house and the wooden
stairs dated only from last night, both seemed dreary and deserted, now
that they were gone."[45]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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