Charles DICKENS, immortal novelist on honeymoon at Goldsmith's plantation
Tragedy of Walter MULLENDER at CRADDOCK'S cottage, Chalk, Kent
View from the tower of St Mary the Virgin Church, Chalk Kent UK, known as Chalk Church, down Church Lane to Lower Higham Road, the Salt Marshes and the Thames beyond.
Photo courtesy of and copyright © Carole Turner March 2016
1869: Captain Edward Goldsmith's Will
A weather-board house known as Craddock's cottage, Chalk, Kent (UK) was listed as one of Captain Edward Goldsmith's properties in his will. It was located in the village of Chalk on the north side of the lower road leading to the marshes, a little way from the junction of the Gravesend to Rochester main road. Generations of the Goldsmith family had leased it to the parents of cabman John Craddock who was the occupant of the cottage when it was listed for auction on Captain Goldsmith's death in 1869 under these terms:
IN THE PARISH OF CHALKSource: National Archives UK Ref C16/781 C546012
27 COTTAGES and GARDENS in the village of Chalk, held at rentals amounting to £196 15s. per annum, together with 2a. 0r. 0p. of valuable plantation, house and garden, and building land, in the occupation of Mr. John Craddock, at a rental of £30 per annum, in 8 Lots.
Particulars, conditions, and plans may be obtained at the Auction Mart, London; Bull Hotel, Rochester; G. M. Arnold, Esq., Solicitor, Gravesend; and of Messrs. Cobb, Surveyors and Land Agents, 26, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, and Rochester, Kent.
Read the complete transcript of Captain Goldsmith's will in Chancery here.
The cottage was sold by private contract as soon as it was offered in 1869. It was almost certainly acquired because of its association with novelist Charles Dickens. He was thought to have lodged there on his honeymoon with Catherine Hogarth in early April 1836, and although disputes arose from time to time as to the veracity of this claim, with a few other cottages in the district put forward as possible contenders, the committee of the local Dickens Fellowship hoped to put an end to speculation in 1912 with their publication they called a "little brochure " - see full transcript below - titled Dickens's honeymoon and where he spent it. In this description of the cottage's exact location and connection with the Craddock family, the authors drew upon the image of a triangle:
This weather- boarded, old-fashioned cottage is situated on the north side of the present main road. Those acquainted with the locality are aware that on the way to Rochester, and just after the village school is passed, two roads branch off — the main road, and what is called the lower road leading to the golf links and the marshes. It will also have been noticed that these two roads for a short distance form two of the sides of a triangle, Mr. Brann's dairy forming the base. At the top of this triangle is situated the house where, according to Mr. Mullender, the honeymoon was spent, the present tenants being Mr. and Mrs. Redsell. In 1836, he says, the tenants were a Mr. and Mrs. Craddock, the parents of Mr. JohnFrom: Dickens's honeymoon and where he spent it (1912) pp 19-20
20
Craddock, who was for many years a well- known cabman in Gravesend, and who was born at this house in 1832. Mr. and Mrs. Craddock lived at this cottage for some thirty or forty years, and were in the habit of letting a parlour and bedroom. Mr. Mullender says his grandmother also confirmed this statement. Beyond this fact there is at present no further evidence in support of Mr. Mullender's contention, but it must be remembered that no special notice would be taken of Mr. and Mrs. Dickens engaging apartments at the house, for Dickens had yet to make his name known.
See the full transcript of this publication below, and at this link:
https://archive.org/details/dickensshoneymoo00philrich/page/n15/mode/2up
The triangle and therefore the exact location of Craddock's cottage is marked with a callout on this map of 1830. (NB: right click on it and open in a new window for large view.)
Callouts: Craddock's Cottage, Chalk; St Mary the Virgin Chalk Church; Gad's Hill House, Higham, Captain Goldsmith's house on Telegraph Lane; Lady's Tippett, Higham Creek Higham Saltings
Source: https://mapco.net/kent1801/kent16_01.htm
Probate of Captain Edward Goldsmith's estate was not settled until the early decades of the 20th century (1922). Contestations to his will in Chancery in 1870 involved his wife Elizabeth Goldsmith nee Day and his only surviving son Edward Goldsmith jnr. In 1871, from Tasmania on the other side of the world, his niece Mary Sophia Day also mounted a suit. Her sister Elizabeth Rachel Nevin nee Day and her husband, photographer Thomas J. Nevin were also listed as legatees but did not contest. The premises known as Craddock's cottage, in any event, was sold before these suits began in 1870 and the rent from John Craddock was therefore deemed "irrecoverable".
These are the key points from the Chancery documents of Captain Goldsmith's estate identifying the location and sale of the cottage. The land neighbouring Craddock's cottage was known as Goldsmith’s Plantation until the 1930s:
(5.) Four cottages or tenements and premises situate on the north side of the aforesaid Gravesend and Rochester turnpike road in the said parish of Chalk and situate on the east side of the cottage and garden hereinafter described and numbered 10 which said 4 cottages or tenements were at the time of the testator's death let to weekly tenants.
(6.) A piece of land situate opposite the "Lisle Castle" public-house on the south side of the aforesaid Gravesend and Rochester turnpike road in the said parish of Chalk and formerly let to John Craddock as yearly tenant which was sold by private contract in the year 1869 for the sum of £200.
TRANSCRIPT
(pages 6-8 of Captain Edward Goldsmith's will 1869-1872)
(10.) A piece of garden ground containing by admeasurement 1r. 30p. on the north side of the Gravesend and Rochester turnpike road with the cottage or tenement thereon erected and built situate in the parish of Chalk aforesaid and also a piece of orchard ground situate on the north side of the road leading from Gravesend to the village of Lower Higham and lying in the parish of Chalk aforesaid and containing by admeasurement 1a. 3r. 32p. all which premises are now in the occupation of John Craddock as yearly tenant at the annual rent of £30.Source: National Archives UK Ref C16/781 C546012
Read the complete transcript of Captain Goldsmith's will in Chancery here.
Kent Photo Archive
Ref. No: MMPC-Q500002
Location: CRADDOCKS COTTAGE CHALK KENT
1930: tragedy at Craddock's Cottage
When Walter Mullender was found dead in Goldsmith's Plantation with a gunshot wound to the head on Friday 7th March 1930, the inquest was conducted by Deputy Coroner Mr. F. V. Budden, the purchaser of Charles Dickens' house for a time (Kitton, Dickensiana, 1886:492). The cottage tenanted by the unfortunate Walter Mullender at Goldsmith's Plantation in the parish of Chalk was referred to in contemporary press reports of the suicide as the Dickens Cottage and Honeymoon Cottage. Walter Mullender was buried at ST MARY THE VIRGIN CHURCH, known as Chalk Church, where Captain Edward Goldsmith was buried in July 1869.
Press Reports
Source: Walter Mullender and family, Monumental Inscriptions and press reports 83, 87, 88, 89, 90, 90B
https://www.kentarchaeology.org.uk/research/monumental-inscriptions/chalk-st-mary-virgin-church
DEATH of WALTER MULLENDER, 1930
Gravesend Reporter, 15th March 1930
"TRAGEDY AT CHALKNB: Walter and Oscar were the sons of OSCAR MULLENDER snr. Walter's son was also called Walter Mullender.
POLICE PENSIONER COMMITS SUICIDE
FOUND DEAD WITH GUN BESIDE HIM
LAST MESSAGE: "CAN'T STAND MY HEAD"
An inquest was held at the "White Hart", Chalk. On Monday, on Walter Mullender, of Dicken's Cottage, Chalk, who was found dead in Goldsmith's Plantation on Friday morning with a gunshot wound to the head.
The inquiry was conducted by Mr F.V. Budden, (Deputy Coroner). Walter Mullender, son of the deceased, gave evidence of identification.
He said that the deceased was a market gardener and retired City of London policeman. He was 53 years of age. The witness, who said he lived at home, continued, " I last saw my father alive just before nine on Friday morning. He was just in front of the stables, but I cannot remember whether he was coming out or going in". He said, "I have just got the greens ready". I was just going to take them home to weigh them, then he got the gun and said he was just going round to see if there were any pigeons there. The gun had been his father's and had been in the house for some time. It is an ordinary sporting gun".
SHOOTING PIGEONS
"A few minutes after I heard the report of the gun, but I did not pay much attention because he had shot a pigeon a day or so previously, and he did not like being interrupted when he had shot one pigeon as the other comes over and he can get the pair. At about 9.30, as father had not come back, I went to the Plantation. I saw him there. He was kind of lolling against a tree, with the gun across his knees. His face was all shot away".
Witness added that there was a man digging nearby whom he asked to call a doctor. He, himself, went for the police, leaving the body as it was. On his return the doctor found a note in the deceased's hat, it was in his handwriting.
The Coroner produced the note and had began to read it when witness interrupted that he did not want it made public. The Coroner: "We have to try to discover the state of the man's mind. I have no power over the press".
The Coroner read the following extract from the note:-"I have got everything ready, I can't stand my head".
"What had he been worried with his head?" asked the Coroner.
Witness: "He had been suffering from pain in the head, but he did not take it seriously",
The Coroner: " How long had he been suffering with these pains?", "For some time now, a few years".
Witness added that he had not heard his father mention the pains during the past few months. When he had had the pains previously they had not lasted for long, and he did not have them often.
The Coroner: "Had he had pains that morning?"
WOKE UP WITH PAIN
Witness:" He woke up at four in the morning with pains in the head and thought he had a cold coming".
"Had he any financial worries ?"---- "He had an assured income from his police pension and I know of no such worries".
"He had never said he was fed up or threatened to take his own life ?" ----- "No, sir".
"You realise your father must have taken his own life ?" --- "Yes, sir".
"Can you suggest any reason why he should take his own life ?" -----"Only that he might have had an abscess in his head and could not stand the pain any longer, he would never admit that he was ill."
Margaret Mullender, the widow, said that the deceased had pains in the head but refused to see a doctor. "He always had such good health, he would not give in", she said. Continuing she stated that at about eight the deceased told her that he had woken up in the night with a headache and thought he had a cold coming.
The Coroner: "Do you know if he had any other worries?" Witness replied that she knew of none. They had a bright outlook. It was the ninth year that he had left the police. "He had been handling guns all his life", she added, "and was never happy unless he had one in his hands". She did not think he went out with the intention of taking his life.
FINGER ON THE TRIGGER
PC H.D. O' Keefe, K.C.C., Denton, said, that about 9.40 on Friday, he was called to Goldsmith's Plantation, where he saw the deceased in a sitting position with his back resting against a yew tree. A cross his knees was a 12 bore double-barrelled sporting gun. Both hands were resting on the gun. The fore-finger of the right hand was still on the trigger. The gun was loaded in both barrels and the right hand cartridge had been fired. Deceased's hat was lying three yards away and had apparently been placed there. Stuck in the hat band was a note. In answer to the Coroner: He knew deceased well. He would say he was a normally balanced man. He was of a very cheerful disposition.
The Coroner questioned the relatives with regards to the paper the note was written on and remarked that it had struck him as strange that the note was dated March 13th 1929 [The fatality occurred on March 7th 1930].
He returned a verdict that the deceased took his own life by shooting whilst of unsound mind. [end of press report].
DEATH of OSCAR MULLENDER, 1912, father of Walter Mullender.
The Gravesend Reporter, 1912
Source: https://www.kentarchaeology.org.uk/research/monumental-inscriptions/chalk-st-mary-virgin-church
"THE LATE MR. OSCAR MULLENDER AN INTERESTING CAREER
The funeral of the late Mr Oscar Mullender, of Chalk, took place on Monday last, visible signs of deep regret being manifest amongst his numerous friends, who attended the service. The village seems deeply sensible to the loss they have sustained and Mr Mullender's many qualities will be indelibly engraved upon their memories. Practically his whole life has been associated with the district he loved so dearly.
He was born at Scadbury, Southfleet on October 21st 1840. His father subsequently removed to Rettonden, Essex, and during his residence there the deceased gentleman began his education at Wickford. In 1854 they came to Chalk where his father took over the proprietorship of the "White Hart Inn", and in 1858 Mr Mullender started in business at the forge, which had already been in the hands of the family for many years. He moved to Lower Stoke ( ? ) years after but returned to Honeymoon Cottage in 1879 and restored business at the forge. It was during his association with this interesting old relic of bygone days that he made the acquaintance of the immortal Dickens. It has been generally stated that the late Mr Mullender was characterised by Charles Dickens in his famous work, Great Expectations , under the name of "Joe Gargary", but although the novelist might have utilised some of the deceased gentleman's characteristics, for undoubtedly he was on very intimate terms with him, he could not be the inspiration of the master of the forge, for Mr Mullender did not take over the proprietorship until some years after the novel was written [1861]. Before the Kent County Constabulary came into existence. Mr Mullender held the office of parish constable, and the family still possess the truncheon and handcuffs which he then used. He had taken a very keen interest in village sport and other ...... ? and during his time he has been the secretary of the Chalk Cricket Club, overseer and Churchwarden for several years, secretary of the L.U.O.A.S. For 21 years and was one of the oldest members of the A.O.F., in Gravesend. On the occasion of one particular sports event on December 28th 1866 Mr Mullender was presented with a ribbon by Charles Dickens. This is highly treasured by the family, forming as it does one of the many links they can claim with the life of the great author. The deceased was a great authority on Dickensian matters, and it is a curious coincidence that he died on the very day celebrated as Dicken's centenary. The funeral service was held at Chalk Church and was conducted by the Rev. L. White, vicar of the parish. The edifice was, despite the unpropitious weather almost filled and at the graveside numbers of people gathered. The coffin which was of plain oak and inscribed thus: Oscar Mullender who passed away February 7th 1912 in his 72nd year was carried by his workmen, at their special request, and the arrangements were carried out by Mr Goldfinch, for whose father, the deceased had at one time, worked. The chief mourners were: Charles, Oscar, Walter and Arthur (sons); Mrs G. Burton; Miss Mullender and Miss May Mullender, (daughters); Miss R. Mullender, (sister); Mr Herbert Mullender, (nephew); Mr George Richen, Senr., (brother in law);George Richen, Junr., ( nephew); Mr George Barnes, (brother in law); Mr George Burton, (son in law) and Mr Herbert Hicks.
The "Lord Nelson", the "Ship", and the blacksmith's forge
Captain Edward Goldsmith's father Richard Goldsmith snr (1769-1839) held indentures over historically significant estates in the parish of Chalk, Kent, apart from his public houses, the "China Hall" and the "Princess Victoria" in Rotherhithe, Surrey, when he died in 1839:
The first property was the cottage leased to the Craddock family and believed to be the cottage where Charles Dickens lodged for a week on his honeymoon in April 1836. It was offered at auction from Captain Goldsmith's estate in 1869.
The second was the public-house, the "Lord Nelson" owned conjointly with Richard's brother Joseph Goldsmith (1761-1827). It sat directly opposite Craddock's cottage, on the south side of the Gravesend to Rochester turnpike. On Joseph's death in 1827, the license passed to his widow Mrs Sarah Goldsmith nee Cook (1775-1856) who retired in 1848 after forty years. Joseph Goldsmith died on 14th October 1827 aged 66. Sarah his wife died on 8th January 1856 aged 81. (Source: https://www.kentarchaeology.org.uk/research/monumental-inscriptions/chalk). Sarah Goldsmith made the press in 1809 when she assisted in the capture of a robber who "exposed" her to his pistols:
Last Sunday, a Man of Colour, who had eloped from one of his Majesty's ships lying in the River, came to the "Lord Nelson" public house at Chalk, and at an early part of the evening requested a lodging, and begged permission to lay down, as he had travelled until weary. Mrs. Goldsmith the landlady, not liking his appearance, he having exposed to her view a brace of pistols, and her husband being from home, she would not permit him to go up stairs, but suffered him to lay down in an outhouse. Some persons from the ship being in pursuit of him, he was taken the same evening, when it appeared he was a Captain's Steward, and had robbed his master of cash to the amount of £20, some plate, and a gold watch, with which he was making off.Source: Kentish Gazette 23 June 1809.
The "Lord Nelson" closed in 1923, re-opened in 1947 as a youth centre, and was demolished in 1950. (Source: https://pubwiki.co.uk/KentPubs/Chalk/LordNelson.shtml)
The third property listed in Richard Goldsmith's will was another public-house, the "Ship and Lobster", known as the "Ship", located on the Thames in Ordnance Road, Denton and renowned as a centre for smuggling. It was visible from Chalk, according to Philip (1912, p.46 - see below):
From the centre of the village one can almost see the "Ship and Lobster" in the neighbouring parish of Denton, the original of the " Ship" in "Great Expectations," standing gaunt and bleak on the river wall.The Ship Inn, screenshots from "Great Expectations" 1946 (dir. David Lean)
In this famous passage from Great Expectations, (1860-61: Chapter LIV, Gutenberg transcription), Pip says goodbye to the convict Magwitch at the "Ship":
At length we descried a light and a roof, and presently afterwards ran alongside a little causeway made of stones that had been picked up hard by. Leaving the rest in the boat, I stepped ashore, and found the light to be in a window of a public-house. It was a dirty place enough, and I dare say not unknown to smuggling adventurers; but there was a good fire in the kitchen, and there were eggs and bacon to eat, and various liquors to drink. Also, there were two double-bedded rooms,—“such as they were,” the landlord said. No other company was in the house than the landlord, his wife, and a grizzled male creature, the “Jack” of the little causeway, who was as slimy and smeary as if he had been low-water mark too. ....
I lay down with the greater part of my clothes on, and slept well for a few hours. When I awoke, the wind had risen, and the sign of the house (the "Ship") was creaking and banging about, with noises that startled me....
The Jack at the "Ship" was instructed where the drowned man had gone down, and undertook to search for the body in the places where it was likeliest to come ashore. His interest in its recovery seemed to me to be much heightened when he heard that it had stockings on. Probably, it took about a dozen drowned men to fit him out completely; and that may have been the reason why the different articles of his dress were in various stages of decay.
We remained at the public-house until the tide turned, and then Magwitch was carried down to the galley and put on board. Herbert and Startop were to get to London by land, as soon as they could. We had a doleful parting, and when I took my place by Magwitch’s side, I felt that that was my place henceforth while he lived.
For now, my repugnance to him had all melted away; and in the hunted, wounded, shackled creature who held my hand in his, I only saw a man who had meant to be my benefactor, and who had felt affectionately, gratefully, and generously, towards me with great constancy through a series of years. I only saw in him a much better man than I had been to Joe.
"Great Expectations", 1946, British film based on the 1861 novel by Charles Dickens and starring John Mills and Valerie Hobson.
The supporting cast included Bernard Miles, Francis L. Sullivan, Anthony Wager, Jean Simmons, Finlay Currie, Martita Hunt and Alec Guinness.
The fourth property held by Richard Goldsmith in Chalk which has also passed into local legend because of its depiction in Charles Dickens' novel Great Expectations (1860-61), is the blacksmith's forge where Pip lived with his guardian, the blacksmith Joe Gargery. According to local legend, Thomas Mullender was the blacksmith on whom Dickens based his character Joe Gargery. His wife Sarah Mullender, a widow by 1861, became the licensee victualler of another public-house in Chalk, "The White Hart". Their son, Oscar Mullender, a carpenter, 20 yrs old in 1861, and the subject of the 1912 obituary above, was the father of the unfortunate Walter Mullender, who was the resident of Craddock's cottage when he was found dead in Goldsmith's Plantation in 1930. The weatherboard cottage attached to the forge is still standing. It is remarkably similar in construction to Craddock's cottage.
Early 20th century postcard of the cottage and forge, Chalk, Kent
Source: https://victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/gallery/112.html
A Bill of Complaint was lodged in Chancery in 1856 against the will and beneficiaries of the estate of Richard Goldsmith by solicitor George Matthews Arnold less than six months after Captain Edward Goldsmith retired permanently to his estate and residence, Gad's Hill House, Telegraph Hill, Higham, Kent. George Matthews Arnold's Bill of Complaint listed the public house the "Ship" and the "blacksmith's shop" by name, and Craddock's cottage by measurement and location, among a dozen other properties he was seeking to redeem:
2. By indentures of lease and release date respectively the Nineteenth and Twentieth days of June One thousand eight hundred and seventeen the release being duly made and executed by and between the said Richard Goldsmith of the first part Joseph Goldsmith of the second part Thomas Smith of the third part and George Henry Malme of the fourth part for the considerations therein mentioned All that messuage or dwellinghouse with the garden and orchard belonging to or occupied with the same situate at or near Chalk in the county of Kent and in the occupation of Charles Louch his undertenants or assigns. And also all those Eleven cottages or tenements with the yards and gardens to the same and also a blacksmith's shop situate at or near Chalk aforesaid And all those Four cottages or tenements situate at or near Chalk aforesaid [Craddock's cottage - 1a.3r.33p] And all that barn and an orchard or piece of and containing One acre three roods and thirty-three perches were the same more or less respectively situate at or near Chalk aforesaid and in the occupation of Mr Louch his undertenants or assigns And also all that messuage or tenement uses as a butcher's shop situate at or near Chalk aforesaid and in the occupation of Thomas Brown his undertenants or assigns which heretofore formed the east end of the messuage And all that stable erected by the said Richard Goldsmith on part of the yard or ground formerly belonging to or occupied with the public-house formerly known by the sign of the "Ship" were conveyed unto and to the use of the said George Henry Malme his heirs and assigns subject nevertheless to a proviso or agreement therein contained for redemption of the same premises upon payment by the said Richard Goldsmith his heirs executors administrators or assigns unto the said George Henry Malme his executors administrators or assigns the sum of Five hundred pounds and interest thereon on or at the day or time therein mentioned and appointed for payment thereof. [page 3 of transcript]
- Read more about George Arnold and Richard Goldsmith's will here.
- Read more about Captain Edward Goldsmith's will here.
Detail of Ordnance map, 1865, showing the "Ship", the "Lord Nelson", the "White Hart", Goldsmith's Plantation and Craddock's cottage, the "Lisle Castle", and Chalk Church, St. Mary's Church.
View map: Kent X (includes: Gravesend; Northfleet.) - Ordnance Survey Six-inch England and Wales, 1842-1952 (nls.uk)
Surveyed: 1863 to 1865, Published: 1869
Size: map 61 x 92 cm (ca. 24 x 36 inches), on sheet ca. 70 x 100 cm (28 x 40 inches)
The Quarrel over Craddock's Cottage
These are some of the publications concerned with the identification of the actual location and house where Dickens lodged while honeymooning with Catherine Hogarth in April 1836. Other premises put forward were Mrs Nash's cottage, 18 Higham Road; "The Manor House" in Chalk Road (Frederic Kitton); and the now demolished "Malt House Farm" on the corner of West Court Lane and Lower Higham Road, (notes from Gravesend Library).
1904: "The real Dickens land with an outline of Dickens's life"
The prospectus of Pickwick was issued at the end of February, 1836, and on March 31st, the first number was published at one shilling. On April 2nd, Dickens was married, in St. Luke’s Church, Chelsea, to Catherine Hogarth, eldest daughter of George Hogarth, of The Chronicle, and the honeymoon was spent at Chalk, in a house on the highway between Gravesend and Rochester: on that Dover Road which he introduces so touchingly and tellingly into Copperfield, only a few miles from that Gadshill Place which he coveted as a boy and owned as a man, overlooking the estuary of the Thames and those “ meshes ” or marshes in which such striking scenes were laid in Great Expectations.From: The real Dickens land with an outline of Dickens's life
The expense of the honeymoon was met by an advance payment for two parts of Pickwick, thus showing that Dickens was far from wealthy ; but during the year appreciation began to be manifested, he found some extra occupation in writing a farce, The Strange Gentleman, and the book of an opera, The Village Coquettes, both of which were successfully staged, and by the end of the Parliamentary session he felt his feet sufficiently to justify resigning journalism for literature....
p.60
At the beginning of January, 1837, the first issue of Bentley's Miscellany was published, an contained the opening scenes of Oliver Twist, to which reference will be made in another chapter. On the 6th of January, Dickens’s first son (Charles) was born, and about the middle of February Dickens and his wife were again at Chalk, staying in the little house where they had spent their honeymoon. In March, they removed from the small rooms in Furnival’s Inn to 48, Doughty Street, a house which still remains, and which is now marked “Dickens House” on the door.
p.66
by Ward, H. Snowden (Henry Snowden), 1865-1911
Publication date 1904
Topics Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870
Publisher London, Chapman & Hall, limited
Collection oliverwendellholmeslibrary; phillipsacademy; americana
Digitizing sponsor Kahle/Austin Foundation
Contributor Phillips Academy, Oliver Wendell Holmes Library
Language English
240 p. incl. illus., plans. 26 cm
https://archive.org/details/realdickenslandw0000ward
THE REAL DICKENS LAND; and an Outline of Dickens' Life [Dickens, Charles]
Ward, H. Snowden & Catharine Weed Barnes Ward London
Chapman & Hall, 1904. Photographs. p.59
1911: "Dickens-land"
Above: Chalk House, "Where Dickens spent his honeymoon" by E. W. Haslehust (1866-1949).
Watercolour on paper.
Source: Haslehust and Nicklin, Dickens-land, frontispiece.
Dickens-land by Nicklin, John Arnold
Publication date [1911?]
Topics Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870, Literary landmarks -- Great Britain
Publisher London, [etc.] : Blackie
Collection robarts; toronto
Digitizing sponsor MSN
Contributor Robarts - University of Toronto
Language English
https://archive.org/details/dickensland00nickuoft/page/26/mode/2up?q=Chalk
Notes from The Victorian Web
Although Charles Dickens was born at Portsmouth in 1812, Haslehust begins his sequence of "Dickens-land" watercolours with a cottage in the Kentish village of Chalk, not far from Rochester; here, Charles and Catherine Dickens (formerly, Hogarth) spent their week-long honeymoon immediately after their wedding on 2 April 1836 at St. Luke's, Chelsea. From the age of five, Dickens lived at Chatham, where his father, John, worked as a clerk in the Naval Pay Office at the city's dockyard. In 1822, he went up to to London to join his family after his father's transfer, but his happiest days of childhood were spent in Chatham, Rochester, and the Medway. Even as he married Catherine in London he was writing the picaresque novel The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, which shifts to the Kentish countryside after beginning in London.Source: http://www.victorianweb.org/painting/haslehust/14.html
Once he had acquired Gadshill Place near Rochester in March 1856, Dickens would often walk to Chalk to admire the eleventh-century Saxon church. The village on the marshes in Great Expectations is an amalgam of Cooling and Chalk, the forge on the old Dover Road outside Chalk seems to have been Dickens's model for Joe Gargery's.
Bibliography
Lynch, Tony. Dickens England: An A to Z Tour of the Real and Imagined Locations. A Traveller 's Companion. London: Batsford, 2012.
Nicklin, J. A. Dickens-land. Illust. E. W. Haslehust. Beautiful England series. Glasgow & London: Blackie & Son, 1911.
1905 & 1911: "The Dickens Country"
THE DICKENS COUNTRY BY FREDERIC G. KITTON
AUTHOR OF “CHARLES DICKENS BY PEN AND PENCIL,” “DICKENS AND HIS ILLUSTRATORS,” “CHARLES DICKENS: HIS LIFE, WRITINGS, AND PERSONALITY,” “DICKENSIANA,” ETC.L
WITH FORTY-EIGHT FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS MOSTLY FROM PHOTOGRAPHS BY T. W. TYRRELL
LONDON. ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK 1911
First published February, 1905. Reprinted September, 1911
This is Manor House, proposed by F. Kitton in 1905, disputed by A. Philip in 1912.
Dickens’s affection for Kent is indicated by the fact that he selected that county in which to spend his honeymoon, and in the village of Chalk (near Gravesend, on the main road to Dover) may still be seen the cottage where that happy period was spent, and in which he wrote some of the earlier pages of “Pickwick.”[102] It is a corner house on the southern side of the road, advantageously situated for commanding views of the river Thames and the far-stretching landscape beyond. In after-years, whenever his walks led him to this spot, he invariably slackened his pace on arriving at the house, and meditatively glanced at it for a few moments, mentally reviving the time when he and his bride found a pleasant home within its hospitable walls. Shortly after the birth of their eldest son, Dickens and his wife stayed at the honeymoon cottage, which, with its red-tiled roof and dormer windows, is a picturesque object on this famous coaching road. The walk to Chalk Church was much favoured by the novelist, where a quaint carved figure over the entrance porch interested him. This curious piece of sculpture, which he always greeted with a friendly nod, is supposed to represent an old priest grasping by the neck a large urn-like vessel, concerning which there is probably a legend. Another grotesque is seen above, and between the two is a niche, in which formerly stood an image of the virgin saint (St. Mary) to whom this thirteenth-century church is dedicated. About a mile distant, and a little south of the main road, is Shorne, another typical Kentish village, which, with its church and burial-ground, constituted for Dickens another source of attraction, and the latter was probably in his mind when he referred (in “Pickwick”) to “one of the most peaceful and secluded churchyards in Kent, where wild-flowers mingle with the grass, and the soft landscape around forms the fairest spot in the garden of England.”Source: THE DICKENS COUNTRY 1911 (Kitton F.)
CHAPTER IX., IN DICKENS LAND.
Link: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/56105/56105-h/56105-h.htm#Page_211
1912: "Dickens's Honeymoon and Where He Spent It"
Dickens's honeymoon and where he spent it
by Philip, Alexander J. (Alexander John), b. 1879
Publication date 1912
Topics Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870
Publisher London : Chapman & Hall ; Gravesend : Bryant & Rackstraw
FLIP BOOK: https://archive.org/details/dickensshoneymoo00philrich/page/n15/mode/2up
"Dickens's Honeymoon and Where he Spent it"
FULL TRANSCRIPT
CHAPTER I1957: Nash's Cottage, Gravesend Library notes
Dickens's marriage
Forster gives few details of Dickens's wooing and his marriage : in fact one finds indubitably more, and material much more pleasantly presented, in the works. Of course, details of his life at this period are available but it is not certain that they are essential here. I shall, however, refer to whatever I find necessary at this or any other period of his life to elucidate or elaborate anything in this account of his honeymoon cottage. Kitton's account of the wedding is more picturesque though still somewhat short : " The lady of his-
1
choice was Miss Catherine Thomson Hogarth, eldest daughter of George Hogarth, his fellow worker on The Morning Chronicle, the marriage ceremony (a very- unpretentious affair) taking place in the church of St. Luke, Chelsea, of which parish the Rev. Charles Kingsley (father of the author of ' Westward Ho') then officiated as rector. The bridegroom's old friend, Thomas Beard, acted as ' best man and concerning this auspicious event the late Mr. Henry Burnett . . . has placed on record the following . . . ' the breakfast was the quietest possible. The Dickens family, the Hogarth family, and Mr. Beard . . . comprised the whole of the company. A few common pleasant things were said, healths drank, with a few words said by either party — yet all things passed off very pleasantly, and all seemed happy, not the least so Dickens and his young girlish wife. She was a bright, pleasant bride, dressed in the simplest and neatest manner, and looked better perhaps than if she had been enabled to aim at something more. ' "
I stop at this point in Kitton's narrative, as it is here that he becomes unreliable in regard to the house at which the honey-moon was spent. Kitton's statement on this subject is simply a slightly altered account of Blanchard's remark : as however no one had then seen any cause for questioning this, Kitton is not to be blamed for accepting the statement without inquiry, as it emanated from so worthy a source.
The wedding took place on 2nd April, 1836 ; and the young couple immediately repaired to Chalk, the centre of that district for which Dickens always had the warmest feelings.
The first number of " Pickwick" had appeared a week earlier. Reporting and journalism, from which he had received a good salary for some time past, were relinquished, and the " Sketches " and " Pickwick " were to be looked to to make the seven pounds or thereabouts each week that had been sacrificed. At that time Dickens was living at Furnivall's Inn accumulating impressions and experiences for use at a later period.
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It is somewhat important to remember that the first part of " Pickwick " had appeared, and that the following must have been, at least, maturing in the mind of the young writer ; because he deliberately chose the locality of Chalk as the venue of the succeeding chapters, and it appears probable that, as Chalk was not then what seaside ladies now designate " a letting neighbourhood," Dickens had quite recently been visiting Gravesend and the neighbourhood, not only with the object of finding rooms or apartments, but also to gather fresh material, and to refresh the material already in his mind, for the second and succeeding parts of " Pickwick."
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CHAPTER II
CHALK
The village of Chalk that straggles indeterminately along the main road — the Chatham Road passing Gad's Hill, and the Dover Road of David Copperfield as well as of Mr. F's Aunt — has been variously described as one mile and two miles, and anything between both, from Gravesend. Really it is a good deal less than a mile from the confines of the ancient borough, but as the boundary is at some considerable distance from the town proper, it is easily understood that the distance from Gravesend to Chalk appears greater than it is. And in 1836, when Dickens brought his newly wedded wife there, the
distance must have appeared much greater on account of the long stretches of fields
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then lying between the two places, but now broken by houses and villas and blocks of small cottages. Even the view across the river was a different one, not only physically but also on account of the boats lying at anchor or sailing up and down therein ; with a few of the early steam-boats to be seen apparently in the air, as a result of the somewhat amusing feature of low marshland and a river at high water kept within bounds by the sea-wall. Chalk then might be regarded as being quite a journey from Gravesend. This is much more the case when we recollect that the Victoria Tea Gardens, as the present cemetery then was, failed because they were so far out of the town.
From the accompanying plan of the village and its surroundings at that time, a clear idea may be obtained of the aspect of the locality. This is necessary, as will be seen from what follows shortly. So much depends upon the state of the village about this period that special care has been necessary in gleaning information regarding it. Most of the detailed maps of Gravesend
6
and its immediate surroundings about 1830 fade away into indeterminate colourless space about Denton, naively suggesting that this road goes " To Rochester" without showing any direction as to how it went there. This is not the case with every map however.
The roads are much as they were eighty years ago or thereabouts, although their surroundings have changed very much. The south road from Gravesend — the Old Road, that is — ran through field land from Northfleet to Chalk, except for two or three houses at long intervals.
The north road — the main road of the present time, known as King Street, Milton Place and Milton Road — was more strikingly different even than the Old Road. Milton Place then marked the end of the town, if town is taken to mean the aggregation of buildings ; and from Harmer Street to Chalk was a pleasant country road. The present " dip " at Albion Place was then a roadway merging again into the main road at Milton Church, divided only by a hedge from this road for the
7
short distance it parted company. The railway was not then laid down. Beyond Milton Church, at the tramway terminus, were a few houses on the left at the corner of a road then terminating, so far as so aimless a road can be said to terminate, in the marshy fields. There were also two or three houses nearer the church on the opposite side of the way. From this point onwards the road regained its rural character. The forge — Joe Gargery's forge it has been identified as — was the first building. Three or four houses of the smaller kind, parts of them still standing at the present day, clustered round these three corners facing the forge. The green fields and hedges then intervened until we arrive at our corner, the Honeymoon Cottage corner. Curiously enough, from our old map, we see that this corner is the centre of the village. It was the first and the principal object to strike the eye of the " outsiders " on the coach, and from 1830 to the time of which I am writing there were many coaches to Chatham, Rochester, Maidstone, and to Canterbury, where travellers to the
8
Kent Coast usually changed. But there is the significant fact that all the travellers on the thirty or so coaches that passed it daily saw the cottage as a landmark for some distance ahead. The plot of land upon which the cottage stood was the centre of a " square." In the light of Mr. Henry Fielding Dickens's letter on p. 26 it is of the utmost significance that the houses of the " square" are, except for the (now called) Manor House and one other, all on the higher or north side and the east side. This shows conclusively, I think, that the north road, fringing the marshes on its way past Lower Shorn, was here, at least, of more importance than what is now the main road ; and would most certainly have appeared so to anyone, some years ago, when the general aspect of the village was much more rural than it is at the present day, and the houses were much fewer in number. This lower road — then a coach road too, by the way — still rejoins the present main road at Strood after meandering through some of Kent's very pleasant scenery, serving on the way some of the villages which delighted Dickens so much that he introduced them into the various works.
Getting to Chalk about this time, from 1830 to 1840, was quite romantic. One could take the coach, travelling down from London behind four spanking horses in about two hours, at any hour of the day, and for that matter, of the night too, as there were in the 1830's about thirty coaches each day; or one could take boat from Billingsgate, a roomy, beamy sort of sailing barge that carried forty or more passengers ; or (you see what a lot of " or's " there are) one could patronise the new " Star " and "Diamond " lines of packet steamers that were cutting each others' throats while they cut the fares ; or, if one were wealthy and retired like Mr. Pickwick, a saddle-horse or a post-chaise might be indulged in, although there was not much " indulgence " when Mr. Pickwick's party availed themselves of these facilities. Of course one could walk from London in a day, but that was neither dignified nor expeditious.
So far then I have tried to bring the
10
little village of Chalk, with its small square and village alehouse, overlooked by the church in the distance and overawed by the house of the gentry — not in the distance, before you. If I have not succeeded, well !
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CHAPTER III
THE HONEYMOON COTTAGE AND HOW IT CAME TO BE DISCOVERED
Laman Blanchard, a friend of Dickens, and one whose memory is still green, has given us the following passage which I give as found in " The Dickens Country," by the late M. Kitton :
" In the village of Chalk (near Gravesend, on the main road to Dover) may still be seen the cottage where that happy period was spent, and in which he wrote some of the earlier pages of ' Pickwick'. It is a corner house on the southern side of the road, advantageously situated for commanding views of the river Thames and the far-stretching landscape beyond. In after-years, whenever his walks led him to this spot, he invariably slackened his
12
pace on arriving at the house, and meditatively glanced at it for a few minutes, mentally reviving the time when he and his bride found a pleasant home within its hospitable walls. Shortly after the birth of their eldest son, Dickens and his wife stayed at the honeymoon cottage, which, with its red-tiled roof and dormer windows, is a picturesque object on this famous coaching road."
This was accepted by all the writers who followed him, without question : and if one might paraphrase the old text — all they like sheep did go astray. So much so that when the Gravesend Dickens Fellowship proposed to place a modest tablet on the cottage, known variously as " Dickens Cottage " or " The Honeymoon Cottage " they received the following letter which backed up the objection of the Dickens Fellowship Headquarters to the local selection :
November 25th, 1910.
Dear Madam, — Replying to your letter of the 23rd, re the Honeymoon Cottage,
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at Chalk, we take as our authority for the identification of the house in question, the Dickens family, E. L. Blanchard, Kitton and Snowden Ward.
Yours very truly,
W. Dexter.
The letter was written on behalf of the Headquarters Committee and weighted with all the authority of the expert opinion available, so that some courage was required — moral courage of course — to resist it.
But this is perhaps too abrupt a method of taking the reader into the thick of a controversy that has passed and that the past may be expected to bury. We will return to an account of how the cottage came to be discovered.
In 1906 soon after the Dickens Fellowship was first established in Gravesend, Mr. Mullender, whose father — a hale and hearty man at the time of writing — enjoyed the pleasure of personal knowledge of Charles Dickens and is very proud of a scarf or sash bestowed upon him by the famous novelist on the occasion of one of
14
those " sports " which Dickens delighted to promote at Higham and elsewhere in the vicinity, quite calmly propounded the theory that " Dickens Cottage " was the house in which the honeymoon was passed, and not in the manor house a short distance farther on the road to Chatham.
This was quite opposed to accepted orthodox theory. But Mr. Mullender was so assured, and still further added to the importance of his statement by saying that the fact was well known in the village, that the proposition was at least worth inquiry.
This was undertaken by Mr. Beagley, now editor of The Erith Times, and the result appeared in The Gravesend and Dartford Reporter of March 10th, 1906.
This evidence is of so much interest that it is reprinted here in full :
" This week one of our staff was commissioned to make some inquiries on the spot with regard to the subject. On coming into contact with some of the residents of Chalk, he discovered that the argument
15
contained in our last issue had become one of the principal items for discussion in the village during the week-end. To his surprise, he learned that the point raised by Mr. Mullender had been talked about among the villagers for many years, and that, while literary authorities bore out Mr. Waldegrave's statement, Mr. Mullender had many old inhabitants on his side. Mr. Kitton in his work states ' The villages of Shorne and Chalk, with their ancient churches and peaceful churchyards, he (Dickens) frequently visited with " a strange recurring fondness." ' Mr. E. Laman Blanchard has recorded that he often met, and exchanged salutations with Dickens during his pedestrian excursions on the high road leading from Rochester to Gravesend, and generally they passed each other at about the same spot — at the out-skirts of the village of Chalk, where a picturesque lane branched off towards Shorne and Cobham. ' Here' says Mr. Blanchard, ( the brisk walk of Charles Dickens was always slackened, and he never failed to glance meditatively for a
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THE MARBLE PLATE AND BRONZE PLAQUE.
Executed by Mr. Percy Fitzgerald, and presented to the Gravesend and District
Branch of the Dickens Fellowship.
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few moments at the window of a corner house on the southern side of the road, advantageously situated for commanding views of the river and the far-stretching landscape beyond. It was in that house he lived immediately after his marriage, and there many of the earlier chapters of " Pickwick" were written. '
" There is no doubt as to the house which Mr. Kitton referred to, for his book contains a portrait of it, and under the illustration he placed the words, ' The house at Chalk in which Dickens spent his honeymoon, April, 1836'. It is clear that Mr. Kitton referred to the house at the corner of Thong Lane, which residence is now generally known as Manor House, though the title deeds — the property being on the Earl of Darnley's estate — describes it as the Old Parsonage, while some of the older residents call it the Old Rectory. Although we are publishing these facts, ex parte, we would point out that the only authority Mr. Kitton gave for his assertion was the statement of Mr. Blanchard. It is also a fact worthy of notice that Mr. Percy Fitzgerald in his ' Life of Charles Dickens' makes no mention of the incident, while Mr. Forster in his ' Life of Charles Dickens' merely mentions the fact that the honey-moon was spent at Chalk, without any statement as to the house.
"Mr. Charles Mullender accompanied our representative to Manor House, and Mr. Boorman, the present occupier of the residence, ceased for a while from work on his poultry farm in order to talk with them on the subject in which he naturally takes a close interest. He stated that he had read the report which appeared in our last issue, but could give no opinion upon it. He was without any evidence that this was the house where Dickens spent his honey-moon, beyond the fact that it was so ' by general repute'.
" A visit was next paid to Mr. Benjamin Hills, who, in spite of his 89 years, is possessed of a remarkably strong memory, being able to give minute particulars with regard to the parish in the earlier part of the last century. His testimony is valuable by reason of the fact that he was a gardener
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at Manor House at the time that Dickens was married in 1836. He informed us at that date the house was occupied by a M. Leroux, a wealthy French surgeon, who came to reside there with his family. It was in 1835 that Mr. Hills was employed by M. Leroux as a gardener and the engagement extended without interruption until 1837. Thus he was at work at Manor House at the date when, according to Mr. Kitton, Dickens came there with his bride in April 1836. But Mr. Hills stoutly denies that Dickens came there. M. Leroux did not receive any visitors, he said, and certainly did not entertain any honeymoon couple. The doctor occupied the house himself during the whole of the time that Mr. Hills was gardener, and the fact that there were several daughters living with the father would not make the house a very congenial abode for a young couple on their honeymoon.
" This evidence by Mr. Hills, stated Mr. Mullender, was confirmed by his (Mr. Mullender's) grandmother who was born at Chalk, and was a young woman when
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M. Leroux occupied Manor House, and could also recall the former and subsequent tenants of the house.
" ' Where do you say, Mr. Mullender, is the house where the honeymoon was
spent ? ' asked our representative.
" ' I will take you to it' he said.
" They proceeded to a house of much less pretentious appearance. This weather- boarded, old-fashioned cottage is situated on the north side of the present main road. Those acquainted with the locality are aware that on the way to Rochester, and just after the village school is passed, two roads branch off — the main road, and what is called the lower road leading to the golf links and the marshes. It will also have been noticed that these two roads for a short distance form two of the sides of a triangle, Mr. Brann's dairy forming the base. At the top of this triangle is situated the house where, according to Mr. Mullender, the honeymoon was spent, the present tenants being Mr. and Mrs. Redsell. In 1836, he says, the tenants were a Mr. and Mrs. Craddock, the parents of Mr. John
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Craddock, who was for many years a well- known cabman in Gravesend, and who was born at this house in 1832. Mr. and Mrs. Craddock lived at this cottage for some thirty or forty years, and were in the habit of letting a parlour and bedroom. Mr. Mullender says his grandmother also confirmed this statement. Beyond this fact there is at present no further evidence in support of Mr. Mullender's contention, but it must be remembered that no special notice would be taken of Mr. and Mrs. Dickens engaging apartments at the house, for Dickens had yet to make his name known.
" There is, however, this fact, that Dickens when describing the visit of Pickwick to Bath after the breach of promise case, tells of Pickwick becoming a lodger at the house of a Mrs. Craddock.
" Another interesting feature is that in the earlier part of the last century the main road to Dover from London did not proceed in its present straight course but, at the point of the triangle referred to, went down the present lower road and then took a sharp turn to the south again. The
21
houses opposite Mr. Brann's dairy at one time formed an hostelry, as the front part of the houses even now indicate, and it was customary for the stage-coaches to make a call there.
"While they were perambulating the parish, Mr. Mullender mentioned to our representative what he described as another mistaken idea with regard to the description of this neighbourhood. In ' Great Expectations' was a description of an old forge which could be entered by a door from the kitchen of the adjoining house.
" In the work referred to above, Mr. Kitton stated that "within a short distance from the (Cooling) churchyard, we may identify, in a short row of cottages the original of Joe's (Gargery's) forge."
"Mr. Mullender states that inquiries among the oldest inhabitants of Cooling give no evidence of a forge existing at Cooling. That being so, what forge had Dickens in his mind when he wrote about a blacksmith's shop where there was a doorway leading from the forge into the kitchen of the house ? Such an arrange-
22
ment is exceptional. Mr. Mullender took our representative into the forge at Chalk and there showed him the old doorway which at one time gave entrance from the forge into the kitchen."
Some discrepancies in Hills' statements have been found, but these do not invalidate his evidence in the main, and, in spite of what has been said at different times, are easily explained by lapse of memory in an old man of nearly ninety years of age after a lapse of seventy years. It would appear that he was either gardener to Mr. Dorehill before Dr. Leroux took up his residence in the house or that Dr. Leroux took part of Mr. Dorehill's term of two years. Which, is not quite certain, and is not of much importance.
A few articles appeared on the subject from time to time, mostly from my own pen, but as the Gravesend and District Branch of the Dickens Fellowship came to an untimely end shortly after, the matter may be said to have lain in abeyance, until a year or two back when the Branch of the Fellowship was resuscitated. One
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of the earliest acts undertaken by the re-formed local Fellowship was to place a tablet on the cottage. And it was this that brought down the thunder and lightning of various opponents, and culminated in the letter given in the opening of this chapter.
With that fairness which one looks for without disappointment, the headquarters of the Fellowship, having gained time for the further consideration of the subject, set themselves to work to obtain verification of the opinion they had previously expressed.
The " cottage theory" as the one side of this truly Pickwickian controversy had come by this time to be called, was still further strengthened by the receipt of the following letter from the late Mr. Newman, who was a considerable writer on local matters, addressed to the Honorary Secretary of the Gravesend and District Branch of the Dickens Fellowship.
1, Hilton Villas,
Whitehill Koad,
November 13th, 1910.
Miss Chambers, — When the Fellowship
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was started I was living in North London, and was one of the first batch of members, and through remembering Dickens so well, was able to interest them somewhat. But I am an old man now (75) and spending my evening with my son here, and have quite given up taking an active part in any thing, though, thank God, I am able to get about and enjoy the scenery in and around the old town in which I spent the greater part of my life.
I should like to mention that I am glad to know there is to be a tablet attached to the cottage in which Dickens spent his honeymoon, and wrote great part of the " Pickwick Papers" if not all, but I hope they will put it on the right one, and not on the Manor House at the bottom of Thong Lane.
Mr. Arnold's Memorial Tablet in memory of Pocock in High Street seems to have been the only one in Gravesend.
I remain, dear madam,
Yours respectfully,
(Signed) George Newman.
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A direct inquiry by the local branch of the Fellowship elicited the following from Mr. Henry Fielding Dickens, K.C. :
2, Egerton Place, S.W.
November 26th, 1910.
Dear Madam, — The house at Chalk where my father lived for a short time is on the high road from Gravesend to Rochester at the corner of a by-road on the right hand side going to Rochester.
I can give no more definite information than this.
Yours truly,
(Signed) Henry F. Dickens.
This letter has given rise to a good deal of discussion, and further inquiry has not been able to add anything to the information it contains.
Indubitably the Manor House is on the right-hand side of the road going to Rochester and it is situated at the corner of a by-road. But there are two roads going to Rochester. Years ago the lower, or north road was probably of greater importance, and so the Honeymoon Cottage
26
also " fills the bill," if I may use the expression, instead of saying that the small cottage also satisfies the requirements of these conditions as laid down.
A few days later I received a letter from Mr. B. W. Matz, one of the best known of Dickensians, describing the method he had used in obtaining further information from other members of the family :
December 3rd, 1910.
Dear Mr. Philip, — After writing to you the other day I wrote to Mrs. Perugini myself, enclosing the cutting you sent and also the copy of the Dickensian containing the picture of the smaller house with the facts concerning Mr. Mullender's discovery. I made no comment on either claimant, but just asked her if she would say which she thought was the house in question. She sends me a letter to-day and I hasten to forward you a copy of it, which justifies my suggestion that your meeting's decision to appeal to the family was a wise one.
Yours very truly,
B. W. Matz.
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The first letter from Mrs. Perugini, the daughter of Charles Dickens, was altogether in support of the claims of the " Dickens Cottage " or small house, as that in which the honeymoon had been spent.
Dear Mr. Matz, — From what I remember having been told, I should say it was the smaller house that deserves the tablet. When we lived at Gad's Hill it had, I think, a small garden and orchard, the garden running round it. This may have been altered in later days — but to make assurance doubly sure I wrote to Miss Hogarth to hear what she thought about it, and she writes me : " It is certainly the smaller of the two houses" and she adds that, it is on the high road from Chalk to Gravesend. We neither of us remember the name Thong Lane. It is on the road opposite the church, I believe.
Yours very sincerely,
Kate Perugini.
November 30th, 1910.
The description contained in this short letter does not apply in any way to the
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Manor House, which, although it has an orchard and land attached to it, has no " garden running round it." The cottage, on the other hand, still has a garden all round, although the land to the east of the building has been built over.
However, so that there might be no doubt whatever regarding the matter so far as Mrs. Perugini could add to the sum total of knowledge concerning it, or verifying anything already known, Mr. Matz obtained a further letter from her as follows : —
Dear Mr. Matz, — I think you may rest satisfied as to the small cottage at Chalk being really the " honeymoon house." My aunt, Miss Hogarth, has a wonderfully good memory, while my own is not a bad one, and we agree in feeling certain that the Craddock cottage should claim the tablet. It certainly looks a poor little dwelling-place, now, but in 1836 was probably pretty enough to tempt my father into taking it for a few weeks. I was never told he rented it for any length of time, but I heard my mother speak very often
29
of " the little cottage at Chalk " where she passed her honeymoon, and I always supposed the very small house to be that identical cottage.
But if any doubt remains in your mind or in the minds of those other admirers of my father who wish to honour his memory, would it not be better to abstain from marking either of these houses with a tablet than run the risk of placing it on the wrong one ? We all know my father did pass his honeymoon at Chalk and that he returned to it after his first child was born, therefore we may imagine he was constantly walking about the lanes and roads, liking the place and pleased to find himself there. Is not this sufficient — or if a tablet must be placed somewhere in commemoration of his visits — why not put it on a wall at the entrance to village and leave the two houses alone ?
I return you the cutting from local paper, and with kind regards remain,
Yours very sincerely,
Kate Perugini.
December 2nd, 1910.
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At a later date Miss Hogarth penned a further letter to the Honorary Secretary of the local branch of the Fellowship in which she says :
August 16th, 1911.
I am very sorry I cannot give you any information as to the name of the person who kept the house at Chalk where Mr. and Mrs. Dickens spent their honeymoon. It was quite an ordinary small house, and I have no doubt has changed hands many times since that date. I was a very small child in those days — and I was not even present at my sister's wedding. I do remember spending a day at the Chalk house when they were staying there the year after their marriage — but I don't recollect much about it.
Some little time before his death, on the occasion of the unveiling of the tablet and bust, Mr. Newman sent what he evidently regarded as a final confirmatory letter, a benediction on the ceremony he had witnessed.
31
1, Hilton Villas,
Whitehill Road,
Gravesend,
June 14th, 1911.
. . . Please excuse a few lines to tell you how pleased I was to see the Dickens Memorial placed over the door of the right cottage. I have been quite sure of it all along, because when I was in business in Gravesend the occupant of the cottage was a customer of mine (Mrs. Craddock) as long as fifty years ago ! and I have heard her talk about Dickens having had apartments there — at that time too I often met Dickens himself in my walks on Sunday afternoons with the late Alderman E. C. Paine. We were both young men then and had not long commenced business — but those meetings with Dickens on the road and hearing him talk to his boys are fresh in memory still.
The following lines were penned by him at the same time. The " best friend " referred to is, of course, Mr. Percy Fitzgerald who executed the bust now over the doorway.
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CHARLES DICKENS.
From a little-known Photograph.
How does the touching scene to-day-
Remind us of the fleeting wings
Of Time, which ever bears away
Both men and all terrestrial things !
It seems a little while since he
Whom now we honour, lived and moved
Among us, ever cheerful, free —
Surrounded by the friends he loved.
His countenance we knew so well,
His voice and form remembered too ;
But only as a memory dwell
Now with the ever-dwindling few.
In the great seething world to-day,
His works in myriad breasts inspire
New life and courage by the way,
And Sympathy's soul-kindling fire.
And many a one will linger here
To gaze upon this simple shrine,
Which his best friend is spared to rear —
Memento of a love benign.
I will deal with some of the objections
that have been raised to the selection of
33
the Gravesend and District Branch of the Fellowship and to their decision to place a tablet on the " small house " before I proceed to describe the successive steps that were taken to give effect to this decision.
It must be explained first that there were four claimant houses in the village. As a matter of fact, while the discussion was at the height of its Pickwickian acrimoniousness, I think this number was largely exceeded ; the difficulty being rather to find a house in the village in which Dickens did not stop. Two of these, however, were quickly put out of court. The testimony in favour of one was very cousin-german to the truth, and did not even rest on hearsay ; the other was too nearly related to the " So-and-so said so " order to be seriously considered, particularly in face of the fact that this particular so-and-so was not producible. The two remaining were the Manor House, which was originally the Parsonage, and the Dickens Cottage.
One of the objections raised I have already dealt with, viz., that Hills was not
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gardener to Leroux in April 1836. The re-naming of the Parsonage as the Manor House, has been held to be evidence against the Cottage, although the train of reasoning by which this conclusion was arrived at still remains a mystery to me. For many years past it has been the practice to call houses of all kinds by names having no significance, or an outrageous one. " The Priory," "The Grange," "The Castle", "The Moat House," "The Hall," "The Court," are a few of the house-names which the fancy of the owners has bestowed upon buildings without even the most remote connection with those they are supposed to represent. With an avidity the antiquarian must deplore, some house-proud owners and tenants have combined two or more names, such as " Grange Court." So that I do not think any odium can be said to rest upon the memory of the tenant who changed the name of the old Parsonage to that of the Manor House.
It has been urged that Dickens with £30 in his pocket — paid him for the first two numbers of " Pickwick " — was in a
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position to demand the best the little village could lay before him — in fact, more than the best available, as this magnificent sum is supposed to have given both him and his bride the entree into the largest and best house within a radius of a mile or more. After all, what was this sum ? Dickens had been receiving seven guineas a week. This he had relinquished : and thirty pounds — the equivalent of four weeks' salary — is supposed to have been so large a sum in his eyes that he threw it about lavishly and without thought, and that he lived like a prince on it for the whole of his honeymoon !
" It couldn't be done, Samuel ! Not at the price ! "
Thirty pounds and Dickens would, I feel sure, soon have parted company, without his taking over the old Parsonage.
I have now in one way or another given the evidence of the family, of probability, of those who lived in the village of Chalk, and of those who living there then gave their message to their friends and their relatives. Everything points so conclusively
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to the Honeymoon Cottage that the only factor that could be admitted as of sufficient importance to reopen consideration of the subject would be a letter or some other documentary evidence of a contemporary nature. Blanchard's letter is the only fault in the chain : and that was written many years after, and even after Dickens's death, by one who did not know him in the early years of his literary struggles.
This was the ground on which the Gravesend and District Branch of the Dickens Fellowship took their stand when they decided to place a memorial tablet on the cottage on June 14th, 1911. After the delay incidental to obtaining sufficient data to satisfy the doubts of headquarters the matter was pushed ahead. The incised gunmetal tablet had to be made, and at one time it almost appeared as though it would never see the sunshine glinting on it from the corner of Cobham Woods : and as a matter of fact such turned out to be the case as, when we invited Mr. Percy Fitzgerald to be present at the ceremony
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of unveiling our unimposing tablet, he presented us with a large marble plate, gilt lettered, with a bronze plaque of the famous novelist's familiar features. I suppose there is now no one living better able to recall Dickens as he was, outside the intimate relations of his family circle, than Mr. Fitzgerald. Most Dickensians are, and all should be, acquainted with his charming books on Dickens and his works. But it is when one hears Mr. Fitzgerald on his favourite theme that one is able to realize how much his memories mean to him. The plate and plaque presented to the Gravesend and District Branch of the Dickens Fellowship for the Honeymoon Cottage was most distinctly a labour of love. They were fixed over the doorway — the front doorway, that is — of the cottage, and the original gun metal tablet was placed on the north wall at the corner.
Chalk was en fete the day the unveiling took place. The Mayor of Gravesend performed the ceremony, and the Rochester Branch of the Fellowship was strongly represented by some forty members. But perhaps I had better let eyewitnesses give their impressions as they appeared in the local papers of the time :
" The Mayor of Gravesend, Alderman H. E. Davis, J.P., C.C., on Wednesday (June 14th, 1911), unveiled a handsome black marble plaque and head of the late Charles Dickens over the doorway of the little boarded cottage at Chalk, in which the novelist spent his honeymoon, and in which some of the earlier chapters of 'Pickwick Papers' were written. The occasion was rendered particularly interesting by reason of the presence of Mr. Percy Fitzgerald, who was a great personal friend of Dickens, and who executed the bust and presented it to the Gravesend, Northfleet and District Branch of the Dickens Fellowship, with whom the idea of marking the cottage in this way first originated. Accompanying the Mayor was the Mayoress, and amongst those also present were the Rev. G. W. Mennie (president of the Branch), who presided over the ear her portion of the proceedings, Lieut. Col. and Mrs. Lawrence Gadd, Mr. and Mrs. A. J.
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Philip, Miss M. Chambers (hon. sec. of the Gravesend branch of the Fellowship), Messrs. H. Smetham and A. W. Ratcliffe (president and hon. sec. of the Rochester branch), Mrs. E. C. Paine, Mrs. and Miss Barlow, the Town Clerk (Mr. H. H. Brown, B.A.), Mr. George Sharland, the Rev. E. A. and Mrs. Davies, Mrs. Brooker, Messrs. Gilbert, Councillor and Mrs. F. Goldsmith, Councillor Howard Burton, Councillor J. Huartson, Councillor W. J. Harrington, Mr. and Mrs. Cruse, Mrs. De Frame, Mr. and Mrs. Harding, Mr. and Mrs. S. Blandford, Mr. and Mrs. D. Martin, Miss Weaver, and others, besides Mr. Marriott (hon. treasurer of the London Fellowship), and many others. At a later stage in the proceedings the Rector (the Rev. Canon Gedge), and the Rev. S. J. Poole attended.
"In opening the proceedings, the President introduced Mr. Percy Fitzgerald, stating that no living man was better qualified to speak to them about Dickens and the memories of that great and immortal man than the gentleman who then honoured them with his presence (applause).
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"Mr. Percy Fitzgerald said he might call himself the last surviving literary friend of Charles Dickens, and it was a great pleasure for him to be present on that occasion. He would have travelled a good many miles to be present, much further than he had come that day. At the same time, there was a sort of melancholy feeling in it, because his mind travelled back over a very long stretch of years, about forty years, to the day when he was walking with Dickens, and he was showing him (the speaker) all the beauties of that enchanting part of Kent, and they actually passed over that very ground. That, as he had said, was a long time ago, and he could imagine now if some unseen spirit were to have whispered in the ear of Dickens that the young man who was walking with him then on that very spot would forty years later be looking at a picture of him done by himself, who would have credited such a thing ? He had another memory of Dickens connected with Kent and Gravesend, and in his mind he saw Dickens and himself, and the novelist's charming daughters
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and sister-in-law at Gravesend at the strange hour of nearly midnight. They had been spending a whole day in Hertfordshire, at Lord Lytton's place, where there had been a function of some sort. On that occasion Dickens excelled himself. Lord Lytton and he spoke of each other and of their old friendships, and it was a really delightful day. After it was all over they found themselves at Gravesend somewhere about ten or eleven o'clock at night, and there was an Irish jaunting car which Dickens often drove on, and they were driven home through the night by Dickens himself. He supposed there was no one else existing who could claim to have been driven by Dickens. With regard to the character of Dickens, the speaker said the late novelist was one of the most extraordinarily amiable men that ever existed. He (the speaker) had met all sorts and conditions of men, some agreeable and some disagreeable, but Dickens was of a uniform temper, always kind and gentle. He was never anxious to take the first place, but was always content to take
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second place. He liked to hear others speak, but never wanted to hear himself speak. In short, he was a sort of model man, and he could assure them that to those who knew him in his house at Gad's Hill and contrasted him with the ordinary host or the ordinary head of a family, it was a revelation, as it was to see Dickens dance about, brilliant and gleaming with life like the youngest man in the room, and his two daughters circling their arms around his neck just as if he were their brother. He used to keep on acting small plays, and everything he did he did in a most delightful way.
" The Mayor then unveiled the tablet in the following speech : —
" I need hardly tell you how much I value the privilege you have conferred upon me by inviting me to unveil this medallion and tablet this afternoon. We are at a later stage to have the pleasure of hearing several gentlemen discourse upon Charles Dickens and his works, so I do not propose to detain you by any observations of my own upon the subject of the great novelist.
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All I wish to say is that, living as we do in Gravesend, practically in the heart of Dickens' land, it is eminently fitting that we should have a branch of that useful society, the Dickens Fellowship. I am glad to say that our branch is strong in numbers and active in its good work. I think that is testified to by the numbers who have made this little pilgrimage to Chalk (applause).
" I have very great pleasure in unveiling this medallion and tablet to commemorate the indubitable honeymoon cottage of Charles Dickens.
" The Mayor then pulled the cord which held the curtains, and the tablet, a beautiful piece of work, was unveiled. Surrounding a splendidly executed head of the novelist was the date of his birth and death, and a record of the fact that in that cottage he spent his honeymoon and wrote the earlier chapters of "Pickwick"
"Proceeding, the Mayor said he had a further pleasant task, and that was on behalf of the society to thank Mr. Percy Fitzgerald for so generously coming to
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their aid and presenting us with the memorials. Mr. Fitzgerald was too well known among students and lovers of Dickens to need any words of recommendation. Wherever admirers of Dickens congregated together, his name was known as a serious and devoted student of the great author, not only of his works, but of his personal history, and indeed of everything with which the name of Charles Dickens is associated (applause). He had given them a further proof of his enthusiasm by so kindly giving them those memorials and by making the long journey from London down to that little wayside village of Chalk (applause). He could only say that they as a society gave Mr. Fitzgerald a most cordial welcome to Gravesend, and thanked him very sincerely for his kindness.
" Replying to the hearty vote of thanks accorded him, Mr. Fitzgerald referred to the bust of Dickens, and said he knew the image of Dickens by heart, and nobody was better able than he, through personal associations with him, to reproduce his features more faithfully.
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" Col. Gadd proposed a vote of thanks to the Mayor. They all knew of the Mayor's public spiritedness and his unfailing readiness to respond to any call affecting Gravesend, its dignity, its well-being or its social amenities (applause). The Gravesend Branch of the Dickens Fellowship was particularly indebted to His Worship and to the Mayoress for their valuable and sympathetic support from the first moment of the resuscitated branch.
" Mr. G. Sharland seconded the motion, which was carried with acclamation, and the Mayor having briefly responded, this part of the ceremony ended.
" The cottage which has been marked by this tablet is held on a lease by Mr. 0. Mullender, and is tenanted by Mr. E. Eedsell.
This does not pretend to be an exhaustive treatise. The history of the Honeymoon Cottage and its tenants has not been traced during the nearly eighty years that have passed since Dickens was there : this could scarcely be of much interest and of less utility, but the son and daughter of the Mr. and Mrs. Craddock who were
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Dickens's landlord and landlady are still living in Gravesend at the time of writing. Hills is dead and there is now no one living, so far as I have been able to discover, who can impart first-hand knowledge of England's great novelist at that period.
Chalk's interest for the ardent Dickensian is not confined to the Honeymoon Cottage. On the opposite side of the way the forge, identified as the original of Joe Gargery's on account of the door leading from the forge to the kitchen, may be seen. And here, within the memories of those still living, were a man and woman who were prototypes of Orlick and Pip's sister, although this Orlick resembled the character only in appearance, being in reality a gentle-hearted man.
From the centre of the village one can almost see the Ship and Lobster in the neighbouring parish of Denton, the original of the " Ship " in " Great Expectations," standing gaunt and bleak on the river wall.
Chalk Church with its curious carving over the door, a relic, probably of a long series of church-ales, stands on a little knoll a short distance farther on.
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Shorne, with the " prettiest churchyard in Kent," is a little to the south, hidden by trees, but with its position strongly marked by the remains of a windmill. Here it was that Heyling's wife was buried (in " Pickwick ") and where Dickens himself wished to be laid to rest.
It would be possible to write at greater length about Dickens and Gravesend and the surrounding district — Gravesend as Muggleton alone opens up a wide field ! — but I must leave that for another occasion when at a later date I can deal with the larger subject as a whole. This little brochure is intended only to put on record the grounds on which the Committee of the local branch of the Dickens Fellowship decided upon the cottage ; so that, if at any future date, some unforeseen event, such as the discovery of documentary evidence of any kind, should take place, it will be possible to allocate it to its proper sphere, and to admit it only after the most careful scrutiny.
PRINTED BY HUNT, BARNARD AND CO., LTD., LONDON AND AYLESBURY
At the junction of Lower Higham Road and Chalk Road in the village of Chalk is Craddock’s Cottage that, for a long time, was thought to be the cottage where Charles Dickens spent his honeymoon. Indeed, the cottage has a bust of Dickens, by Percy Fitzgerald (a personal friend of Charles Dickens), with a tablet stating that it is here that Dickens spent his honeymoon. Craddock's cottage was identified as Dickens Honeymoon abode by research carried out by Gravesend Borough librarian Alex J. Philip (librarian 1903-1946). However, an authenticated handwritten letter by Dickens at the time was sent from Mrs Nash’s, which was 18 Lower Higham Road. This cottage was demolished in 1957 and a picture is shown here.
Mrs Nash's cottage, 18 Higham Road, also possibly the cottage where Dickens spent his honeymoon. There are also two other places that claim to be Dickens honeymoon cottage, and these are "The Manor House" in Chalk Road and the now demolished "Malt House Farm" on the corner of West Court Lane and Lower Higham Road.
More information can be found in A. J. Philip, Dickens Honeymoon and Where He Spent It. 1911. Available for reference at Gravesend Library.
References and further information:
"An A to Z History of Chalk" by Christoph Bull. First edition published 1984, second edition published - 1992. Available at Gravesend Library for consultation.
"Chalk Church an Illustrated Guide", updated and re-written by Christoph Bull 1997. Available at Chalk Church to purchase for £1.50.
"The Great Expectations Country" by W. Laurence Gadd 1929. Available for reference at Gravesend Library.
"A Historical Walk Through Gravesend And Northfleet" published by Gravesend Historical Society.
Craddock's Cottage today
Craddock's Cottage, Chalk, Kent, with plaque of Charles Dickens
Photos copyright and courtesy of © Carole Turner March 2016
Screenshot: Craddock's Cottage, 24 Chalk Road, Chalk, Kent. Google Maps 2021.
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