II.--The Pump Room and a.s.sembly Rooms
No group of architectural objects is more effective or touches one more nearly than the buildings gathered about the Baths. There is something quaint and old-fashioned in the arrangement, and I am never tired of coming back to the pretty, open colonnade, the faded yet dignified Pump- room, with the ambitious hotel and the solemn Abbey rising solemnly behind. Then there is the delightful Promenade opposite, under the arcades--a genuine bit of old fashion--under whose shadow the capricious f.a.n.n.y Burney had often strolled. Everything about this latter conglomeration--the shape of the ground, the knowledge that the marvellous Roman baths are below, and even the older portion of the munic.i.p.al buildings whose elegant decorations, sculptured garlands, &c., bespeak the influence of the graceful Adam, whose pupil or imitator Mr.
Baldwin may have been.
Boz"s description of the tarnished Pump-room answers to what is seen now, save as to the tone of the decorations. I say "Boz"s," for Pickwick, it should be recollected, was not actually acknowledged by the author, under his proper name. It was thought that the well-known and popular "Boz" of the "Sketches" would attract far more than the obscure C. d.i.c.kens. Now Boz and the Sketches have receded and are little thought of. Boz and Pickwick go far better together than do Pickwick and d.i.c.kens. There is an old-fashioned solemnity over this Pump-room which speaks of the old cla.s.sical taste over a hundred years ago. How quaint and suitable the inscription, "[Greek text]," in faded gilt characters. Within it is one stately chamber, not altered a bit since the day, sixty-three years ago, that Boz strolled in and wrote this inscription: As I sat with a friend beside me in the newly finished concert-room, which is in _happy_ keeping, I called up the old genial Pickwick promenading about under the direction of Bantam, M.C., and the genial tone of the old gaiety and good spirits.
The "Tompion Clock," which is carefully noted by Boz, seems to have been always regarded as a sort of monument. It is like an overgrown eight-day clock, without any adornment and plain to a degree--no doubt relying upon its Tompion works. It is in exactly the same place as it was over sixty years ago, and goes with the old regularity. Nay, for that matter, it stands where it did a hundred years ago--in the old recess by Nash"s statue and inscription, and was no doubt ordered at the opening of the rooms. In an old account of Bath, at the opening of the century, attention is called to the Tompion clock with a sort of pride. The steep and shadowy Gay Street, which leads up to the inviting Crescent and the more sombre Queen"s Square, affects one curiously. Then we come to the old a.s.sembly Rooms close by the Circus, between Alfred Street and Bennell Street--a stately, dignified pile--in the good old cla.s.sical style of Bath. One looks on it with a mysterious reverence: it seems charged with all sorts of memories of old, bygone state. For here all the rank and fashion of Bath used to make its way of a.s.sembly nights. Many years ago, there was here given a morning concert to which I found my way, mainly for the purpose of calling up ghostly memories of the Thrales, and Doctor Johnson, and Miss Burney, and, above all, of Mr. Pickwick. Though the music was the immortal "Pa.s.sion" of Bach, my eyes were travelling all the while from one piece of faded _rococo_ work and decoration. Boz never fails to secure the _tone_ of any strange place he is describing. We all, for instance, have that pleased, elated feeling on the first morning after our arrival over night at a new place--the general brightness, surprise, and air of novelty. We are willing to be pleased with everything, and pa.s.s from object to object with enjoyment. Now all this is difficult to seize or to describe. Boz does not do the latter, but he conveys it perfectly. We see the new arrivals seated at breakfast, and the entrance of the Dowlers with the M.C., and the party setting off to see the "Lions," the securing tickets for the a.s.sembly, the writing down their names in "the book," Sam sent specially up to Queen"s Square, and so on. All which is very exhilarating, and reveals one"s own feeling on such an occasion. The "Pump-room books" are formally mentioned in the regulations. We can see the interior of the a.s.sembly Rooms in Phiz"s plate, with its huge and elaborately framed oval mirrors and chandeliers--the dancing-room set round with raised benches. After the pattern of Ridotto rooms abroad, there were the card-rooms and tea-rooms, where Mr. Pickwick played whist with Miss Bolo. We note the sort of Adam or Chippendale chair on which the whist Dowager is sitting with her back to us.
Considering that the rules of dress were so strict, pumps and silk stockings being of necessity, we may wonder how it was that the President of the Pickwick Club was admitted in his morning dress, his kerseymere tights, white waistcoat, and black gaiters. It is clear that he never changed his dress for evening parties, save on one occasion. Mr.
Pickwick"s costume was certainly in defiance of all rules and regulations. It is _laid_ in the regulations of Mr. Tyson, M.C., who directed that "no gentleman in boots or half-boots be admitted into the rooms on ball nights or card nights." Half-boots might certainly cover Mr. Pickwick"s gaiters. So accurate is the picture that speculation arises whether Phiz went specially to Bath to make his sketches; for he has caught in the most perfect way the whole _tone_ of a Bath a.s.sembly, and he could not have obtained this from descriptions by others. So, too, with this picture of the Circus in Mr. Winkle"s _escapade_. It will be remembered that Boz was rather particular about this picture, and suggested some minute alterations. Bantam, the M.C., or "the Grand Master" as Boz oddly calls him, was drawn from life from an eccentric functionary named Jervoise. I have never been quite able to understand his odd hypothesis about Mr. Pickwick being "the gentleman who had the waters bottled and sent to Clapham." But how characteristic the dialogue on the occasion! It will be seen that this M.C. cannot credit the notion of anyone of such importance as Mr. Pickwick "never having been in _Ba- ath_." His ludicrous and absurd, "Not bad--not bad! Good--good. He, he, re-markable!" showed how it struck him. A man of such a position, too; it was incredible. With a delightful sense of this theory, he began: "It is long--_very long_, Mr. Pickwick, _since you drank the waters_--it appears an age." Mr. Pickwick protested that it was certainly long since he had drunk the waters, and his proof was that he had never been in Bath in his life. After a moment"s reflection the M.C.
saw the solution. "Oh, I see; yes, yes; good, good; better and better.
You are the gentleman residing on Clapham Green who lost the use of your limbs from imprudently taking cold _after port wine_, who could not be moved in consequence of acute suffering, and who had the water from the King"s Bath bottled at 103 degrees and sent by waggon to his bed-room in town, where he bathed, sneezed, and same day recovered." This amusing concatenation is, besides, an admirable and very minute stroke of character, and the frivolous M.C. is brought before us perfectly. While a capital touch is that when he saw young Mr. Mutanhead approaching.
"Hush! draw a little nearer, Mr. Pickwick. You see that splendidly dressed young man coming this way--the richest young man in Bath!"
"You don"t say so," said Mr. Pickwick.
"_Yes_, _you"ll hear his voice in a moment_, _Mr. Pickwick_. _He"ll speak to me_." _Particular_ awe and reverence could not be better expressed.
It is curious how accurate the young fellow was in all his details. He describes the ball as beginning at "precisely twenty minutes before eight o"clock;" and according to the old rules it had to begin as soon after seven as possible. "Stay in the tea room and take your sixpennorths."
Mr. Dowler"s advice was after a regulation "that everyone admitted to the tea-rooms on dress nights shall pay _6d._ for tea." The M.C."s visit to Mr. Pickwick was a real carrying out of the spirit of the regulations, in which it was requested that "all strangers will give the M.C. an opportunity of being introduced to them before they themselves are ent.i.tled to that attention and respect."
Nothing is more gratifying to the genuine Pickwickians than to find how all these old memories of the book are fondly cherished in the good city.
All the Pickwickian localities are identified, and the inhabitants are eager in every way to maintain that Mr. Pickwick belongs to them, and had been with them. We should have had his room in the White Hart pointed out, and "slept in" by Americans and others, had it still been left to stand. Not long since, the writer went down to the good old city for the pleasant duty of "preaching Pickwick," as he had done in a good many places. There is an antique building or temple not far from where an old society of the place--the Bath Literary and Scientific Inst.i.tute--holds its meetings, and here, to a crowded gathering under the presidency of Mr. Austen King, the subject was gone into. It was delightful for the Pickwickian stranger to meet so appreciative a response, and many curious details were mentioned. At the close--such is the force of the delusion--we were all discussing Mr. Pickwick and his movements here and there, with the same _conviction_ as we would have had in the case of Miss Burney, or Mrs. Thrale or Dr. Johnson. The whole atmosphere was congenial, and there was an old-world, old-fashioned air over the rooms.
It was delightful to be talking of Mr. Pickwick"s Bath adventures in Bath.
Nor was there anything unreasonably fantastical in making such speculations all but realities. Bantam lived, as we know, in St. James"s Square--that very effective enclosure, with its solemn house and rich deep greenery, that recall our own Fitzroy. No. 14 was his house, and this, it was ascertained, was the actual residence of the living M.C. How bold, therefore, of Boz to send up Sam to the very Square! Everyone, too, knew Mrs. Craddock"s house in the Circus--at least it was one of two. It was No. 15 or 16, because at the time there were only a couple in the middle which were let in lodgings, the rest being private houses.
This was fairly reasonable. But how accurate was Boz! No doubt he had some friends who were quartered in lodgings there.
I scarcely hoped to find the scene of the footmen"s "swarry" tracked out, but so it was. On leaving Queen Square in company with Mr. Smauker to repair to the scene of the festivity, Sam and his friend set off walking "towards High Street," then "turned down a bye-street," and would "soon be there." This bye-street was one turning out of Queen Square at the corner next Bantam"s house; and a few doors down we find a rather shabby- looking "public" with a swinging sign, on which is inscribed "The Beaufort Arms"--a two-storied, three-windowed house. This, in the book, is called a "greengrocer"s shop," and is firmly believed to be the scene of "the Swarry" on the substantial ground that the Bath footmen used to a.s.semble here regularly as at their club. The change from a public to a greengrocer"s scarcely affects the point. The uniforms of these gentlemen"s gentlemen were really splendid, as we learn from the text--rich plushes, velvets, gold lace, canes, &c. There is no exaggeration in this, for natives of Bath have a.s.sured me they can recall similar displays at the fashionable church--of Sundays--when these n.o.ble creatures, arrayed gorgeously as "generals," were ranged in lines outside "waiting their missuses," _pace_ Mr. John Smauker. At the greengrocer"s, where the Bath footmen had their "swarry," the favourite drink was "cold srub and water," or "gin and water sweet;" also "S"rub punch," a West Indian, drink, has now altogether disappeared. It sounds strange to learn that a fashionable footman should consult "a copper timepiece which dwelt at the bottom of a deep watch-pocket, and was raised to the surface by means of a black string with a copper key." A _copper_ watch seems extraordinary, though we have now those of gun metal.
The Royal Crescent, with its fine air and fine view, always strikes one with admiration as a unique and original monument: the size and proportions are so truly grand. The whole scene of Mr. Winkle"s escapade here is extraordinarily vivid, and so protracted, while Mrs. Dowler was waiting in her sedan for the door to be opened, that it has the effect of imprinting the very air, look, and tone of the Royal Cresent on us. We seem to be waiting with her and the chair-man. It seems the most _natural_ thing in the world. The houses correspond almost exactly with Phiz"s drawing.
Pickwick, it has been often pointed out, is full of amusing "oversights,"
which are pardonable enough, and almost add to the "fun" of the piece. At the opening, Mr. Pickwick is described as carrying his portmanteau--in the picture it is a carpet-bag. The story opens in 1827, but at once Mr.
Jingle begins to talk of being present at the late Revolution of 1830.
The "George and Vulture" is placed in two different streets. Old Weller is called Samuel. During the scene at the Royal Crescent we are told that Mrs. Craddock threw up the drawing-room window "just as Mr. Winkle was rushing into the chair." She ran and called Mr. Dowler, who rushed in just as Mr. Pickwick threw up the other window, "when the first object that met the gaze of both was Mr. Winkle bolting into the sedan chair"
into which he had bolted a minute before. The late Charles d.i.c.kens the younger, in the notes to his father"s writings, affects to have discovered an oversight in the account of the scene in the Circus. It is described how he "took to his heels and tore _round_ the Crescent, hotly pursued by Dowler and the coachman. He kept ahead; the door was open as he came _round_ the second time, &c." Now, objects the son, the Cresent is only a half circle; there is no going round it, you must turn back when you come to the end. Boz must have been thinking of the Circus.
Hardly--for he knew both well--and Circus and Crescent are things not to be confused. The phrase was a little loose, but, as the Circus was curved "round," is not inappropriate, and he meant that Winkle turned when he got to the end, and ran back.
It must have been an awkward thing for Winkle to present himself once more at Mrs. Craddock"s in the Crescent. How was the incident to be explained save either at his own expense or at that of Mr. Dowler? If Dowler were supposed to have gone in pursuit of him, then Mr. Winkle must have fled, and if he were supposed to have gone to seek a friend, then Dowler was rather compromised. No doubt both gentlemen agreed to support the one story that they had gone away for mutual satisfaction, and had made it up.
Then, we are told, if it were theatre night perhaps the visitors met at the theatre. Did Mr. Pickwick ever go? This is an open question. Is the chronicler here a little obscure, as he is speaking of "the gentlemen" _en bloc_? Perhaps he did, perhaps he did"nt, as Boz might say. On his visit to Rochester, it does not appear that he went to see his "picked-up" friend, Jingle, perform. The Bath Theatre is in the Saw Close, next door to Beau Nash"s picturesque old house. The old grey front, with its blackened mouldings and sunk windows, is still there; but a deep vestibule, or entrance, with offices has been built out in front, which, as it were, thrusts the old wall back--an uncongenial mixture.
Within, the house has been reconstructed, as it is called, so that Mr.
Palmer or Dimond, or any of the old Bath lights, to say nothing of Mr.
and Mrs. Siddons, would not recognise it. Attending it one night, I could not but recall the old Bath stories, when this modest little house supplied the London houses regularly with the best talent, and "From the Theatre Royal, Bath," was an inducement set forth on the bill.
III.--Boz and Bath
After his brilliant, genial view of the old watering-place, it is a surprise to find Boz speaking of it with a certain acerbity and even disgust. Over thirty years later, in 1869, he was there, and wrote to Forster: "The place looks to me like a cemetery which the dead have succeeded in rising and taking. Having built streets of their old gravestones, they wander about scantly, trying to look alive--a dead failure." And yet, what ghostly recollections must have come back on him as he walked those streets, or as he pa.s.sed by into Walcot, the Saracen"s Head, where he had put up in those old days, full of brightness, ardour, and enthusiasm; but not yet the famous Boz! Bath folk set down this jaundiced view of their town to a sort of pique at the comparative failure of the Guild dramatic performance at the Old a.s.sembly Rooms, where, owing to the faulty arrangement of the stage, hardly a word could be heard, to the dissatisfaction of the audience. The stage, it seems, was put too far behind the proscenium, "owing to the headstrong perversity of d.i.c.kens, who never forgave the Bath people." Charles Knight, it was said, remonstrated, but in vain. Boz, however, was not a man to indulge in such feelings. In "Bleak House" he calls it "dreary."
There had been, however, a previous visit to Bath, in company with Maclise and Forster, to see Landor, who was then living at No. 35 St.
James"s Square--a house become memorable because it was there that the image of his "Little Nell" first suggested itself. The enthusiastic Landor used, in his "tumultuous" fashion, to proclaim that he would set fire to the house and burn it to the ground to prevent its being profaned by less sacred a.s.sociations. He had done things even more extravagant than this, and would take boisterous roars of laughter as his odd compliment was discussed.
The minuteness of his record of the gaieties shows how amused and interested Boz was in all that he saw. Nothing escaped him of the routine, day, hour, and place; all is given, even the different rooms at the a.s.sembly House. "In the ball-room, the long card-room, the octagon card-room, the staircases, the pa.s.sages, the hum of many voices and the sound of many feet were perfectly bewildering; dresses rustled, feathers waved, lights shone, and jewels sparkled. There was the music, not of the quadrille band, for it had not yet commenced," &c. Here Bantam, M.C., arrived at precisely twenty minutes before eight, "to receive the company." And such company! "Brilliant eyes, lighted up with pleasurable expectation, gleamed from every side, and, look where you would, some exquisite form glided gracefully through the throng, and was no sooner lost than it was replaced by another as dainty and bewitching"; the warmth of which description showing how delighted was the young man with all he saw. But how did he secure admission? For it was a highly fashionable company; there were vouchers and tickets to be secured. But these were slight difficulties for our brilliant "pushful" young man. He could make his way, and his mission found him interest. He certainly saw as much of Bath as anyone could in the time. Yet, gay and sprightly as was his account of Bath, there may have been a reason why Boz may have not recalled the place with pleasurable feelings. It will be recollected that, after giving a few lines to the account of Mr. Pickwick and friends being set down at the White Hart, he carries them off at once to lodgings in the Crescent. That first-cla.s.s hotel was, alas! not open to the poor, over-worked reporter; and he could tell of nothing that went on within its portals. Hotel life on a handsome scale was not for _him_, and he was obliged to put up at far humbler quarters, a sort of common inn.
There is nothing more quaint or interesting than this genuine antique--the Saracen"s Head in Walcot. It may pair off with the old White Horse in Canongate, where "Great Sam" put up for a night. It is surely the most effective of all the old inns one could see. It has two faces, and looks into two different streets, with its double gables, and date (1713) inscribed on a tablet outside. It is a yellow, well-worn little building. And you enter through darkened tunnels, as it were, cut through the house, coming into a strange yard of evident antiquity, with a steep, ladder-like flight of stone steps that leads up to a window much like the old Canongate houses. Here, then, it was that Boz put up, and here are preserved traditions and relics of his stay. One of the tales is that, after some exuberant night _in the election time_, he would get his candle and, having to cross the court, would have it blown out half a dozen times, when he would go back patiently to relight it. They show his chair, and a jug out of which he drank, but one has not much faith in these chairs and jugs; they always seem to be supplied to demand, and must be found to gratify the pilgrims.
One of the examination queries which might have found a place in Mr.
Calverley"s paper of questions is this: "When did Mr. Pickwick sit down _to make entries in his journal_, and spend half an hour in so doing?" At Bath on the night of Mr. Winkle"s race round the Crescent. What was this journal? Or why did he keep it? Or why are so few allusions made to it?
Mr. Snodgra.s.s was the appointed historiographer of the party, and his "notes" are often spoken of and appealed to as the basis of the chronicle. But half an hour, as I say, was the time the great man seems to have allotted to his posting up the day"s register: "Mr. Pickwick shut up the book, wiped his pen _on the bottom of the inside of his coat-tail_, and opened the drawer of the inkstand to put it carefully away." How particular--how real all this is! This it is that gives the _living_ force to the book, and a persuasion--irresistible almost--that it is all about _some living person_. I have often wondered how it is that this book of Boz"s has such an astounding power of development, such a fertility in engendering other books, and what is the secret of it.
Scott"s astonishing Waverley series, Thackeray"s "Vanity Fair," Boz"s own "Nicholas Nickleby," "Oliver Twist," in fact, not one of the whole series save "the immortal "Pickwick"" has produced anything in the way of books or commentaries. I believe it is really owing to this. Boz was a great admirer of Boswell"s equally immortal book. I have heard him speak of it. He attempted parodies of it even. He knew all the turns, the Johnsonian twists, "Why, sirs," &c., and used them in his letters. He was permeated with the Johnsonian ether; that detail, that description of trifling things which was in Boswell, attracted him, and he felt it; and the fact remains that Pickwick is written on _the principles_--no copy--of the great biography, and that Boz applied to a mere fictional story what was related in the account of a living man. And it is really curious that Boswell"s "Life of Johnson" should be the only other book that tempts people to the same rage for commentary, ill.u.s.trations, and speculations. These are of exactly the same character in both books.
The MS. that Mr. Pickwick so oddly found in the drawer of his inkstand at Mrs. Craddock"s, Royal Crescent, Bath, offered another instance of Boz"s ingenious methods of introducing episodical tales into his narrative. He was often hard put to it to find an occasion: they were highly useful to fill a s.p.a.ce when he was pressed for matter. He had the strongest _penchant_ for this sort of thing, and it clung to him through his life.
Those in "Pickwick" are exceedingly good, full of spirit and "go," save one, the "Martha Lobbs" story, which is a poorish thing. So good are the others, they have been taken out and published separately. They were no doubt written for magazines, and were lying by him, but his Bath story--"The True Legend of Prince Bladud"--was written specially. It is quite in the vein of Elia"s Roast Pig story, and very gaily told. He had probably been reading some local guide-book, with the mythical account of Prince Bladud, and this suggested to him his own humorous version. At the close, he sets Mr. Pickwick a-yawning several times, who, when he had arrived at the end of this little ma.n.u.script--which certainly could not have been compressed into "a couple of sheets of writing-paper," but would have covered at least ten pages--replaced it in the drawer, and "then, with a _countenance of the utmost weariness_, lighted his chamber candle and went upstairs to bed." And here, by the way, is one of the amusing oversights which give such a piquancy to "Pickwick." Before he began to read his paper, we are carefully told that Mr. Pickwick "unfolded it, lighted his bedroom candle that it might burn up to the time he had finished." It was Mr. C. Kent who pointed this out to him, when Boz seized the volume and humorously made as though he would hurl it at his friend.
Anyone interested in Bath must of necessity be interested in Bristol, to which, as all know, Mr. Winkle fled after the unhappy business in the Circus. He found a coach at the Royal Hotel--which no longer exists--a vehicle which, we are told, went the whole distance "twice a day and more" with a single pair of horses. There he put up at the Bush, where Mr. Pickwick was to follow him presently. The Bush--a genuine Pickwick inn--where Mr. Pickwick first heard the news of the action that was to be brought against him, stood in Corn Street, near to the Guildhall, the most busy street in Bristol; but it was taken down in 1864, and the present Wiltshire Bank erected on the site. Mr. Pickwick broke off his stay at Bath somewhat too abruptly; he left it and all its festivities on this sudden chase after Winkle. But he may have had a reason. Nothing is more wonderful than Boz"s propriety in dealing with his incidents, a propriety that is really instinctive. Everything falls out in the correct, natural way. For instance, Mr. Pickwick having received such a shock at the Bush--the announcement of the Bardell action--was scarcely in heart to resume his jollity and gaieties at Bath. We might naturally expect a resumption of the frolics there. He accordingly returned there; but we are told curtly, "The remainder of the period which Mr. Pickwick had a.s.signed as the duration of his stay at Bath pa.s.sed over without an occurrence of anything material. Trinity term commenced on the expiration of the first week. Mr. Pickwick and his friends returned to London; and the former gentleman, attended of course by Sam, straightway repaired to his old quarters at the George and Vulture."
And now in these simple sentences have we not the secret of the great attraction of the book? Who would not suppose that this was a pa.s.sage from a biography of some one that had lived? How carefully _minute_ and yet how naturally the time is accounted for--"pa.s.sed over without the occurrence of anything material." It is impossible to resist this air of _vraisemblance_.
CHAPTER III. OLD ROCHESTER
I.--Jingle and the Theatre
The little Theatre here must be interesting to us from the fact of Jingle"s having been engaged to play there with the officers of the 52nd Regiment on the night of May 15th, 1827. Jingle was described as "a strolling actor," and belonged to the "Kent circuit," that is, to the towns of Canterbury, Rochester, Maidstone, &c. To this circuit also belonged "Dismal Jemmy," who was "no actor," yet did the "heavy business." It does not appear that he, also, was engaged for the officers" performance. We often wonder whether Jingle _did_ perform on the night in question; or did Dr. Payne and Lieutenant Tappleton tell the story of his behaviour to their brethren: of his pa.s.sing himself off as a gentleman, his wearing another gentleman"s clothes, and his insults to Dr. Slammer. Tappleton scornfully recommended Mr. Pickwick to be more nice in the selection of his companions. No doubt Jingle was suggested to the officers by the manager: "knew a really smart chap who will just do for the part." On the whole, I think they must have had his services, as it was too late to get a subst.i.tute. Jingle, as we know, was played successfully by Sir Henry Irving in the early "seventies, _tempore_ Bateman. His extraordinary likeness to the Phiz portrait struck every one, and it was marked, not only in face, but in figure, manner, &c. The adaptation of "Pickwick," however, was very roughly done by the late James Albery, who merely _tacked_ together the Jingle scenes. Those, where there is much genial comedy, such as the Ball scene at Rochester, were left out. It is likely that the boy, Boz, noticed Dismal Jemmy among the strollers, and possibly may have seen a Jingle himself. But the characters of Jingle and his confederate, Job, were certainly suggested by Robert Macaire and Jacques Strop, which, a little before the appearance of Pickwick, were being played in London--in "_L"Auberge des Adrets_."
Mr. Pickwick had discovered in the morning that Jingle was "connected with the Theatre in that place, _though he is not desirous to have it generally known_."
Now considering generally the different "games" he was pursuing, his pa.s.sing himself off as an officer, an amateur of cricket, &c., it was not altogether desirable to have his profession known. Knowing also that Mr.
Pickwick intended staying at Rochester, and that the gay Tupman or Snodgra.s.s would find out his engagement and witness his performance, he likely enough confided his secret to Mr. Pickwick. "Dismal Jemmy," the odd being who appears at Rochester for a short time, had promised Mr.
Pickwick a tale which he never gave him. At the end of the story, _Boz_, having forgotten the engagement, is driven to supply a far-fetched reason. He was Job"s brother, and went to America "in consequence of being too much sought after here." It will be recollected he was of a depressed and gloomy cast, and on the Bridge at Rochester talked of suicide. He also told the dismal "stroller"s tale." Now, it is plain that Boz drew him as a genuine character, and his behaviour to the stroller was of a charitable kind. Boz, in fact, meant him to be a suitable person to relate so dismal an incident. However, all this was forgotten or put aside at the end, and having become Job"s brother, he had to be in keeping. The reformed Jingle declared he was "merely acting--clever rascal--hoaxing fellow." His brother Job added that he himself was the serious one, "while Jemmy never was." Mr. Pickwick then presumed that his talk of suicide was all flam, and that his dismals were all a.s.sumed. "He could a.s.sume anything," said Job. Boz, too, forgot that his name was James Hutley, whereas the brothers" was Trotter--though this may have been an a.s.sumed one.
The condition of the Rochester stage must have been rather low, when we find two such persons as Jingle and Dismal Jemmy members of the corps.
Jingle"s jerky system of elocution would seem a complete disqualification. From sheer habit, it would have been impossible for him to say his lines in any other fashion--which in all the round of light "touch and go" comedy, would have been a drawback.
The little Theatre is at the farther end of the town, where the road turns off to the fields, a low, unpretending building with a small portico. I recall it in the old days, on a walk from Gads Hill, when I paused to examine the bills of the benefit of a certain theatrical family of the Crummles sort--father, mother, sons, and daughters, who supplied everything. The head founded his claims to support on being a fellow townsman, winding up with Goldsmith"s lines:
And as the hare, whom hounds and horns pursue, Pants to the spot from whence at first it flew; I still had hopes, my lengthened wanderings past, Here to return, and die at home at last.