1822-4. LONDON: mercial speculation; and had taken him into his office, and his house, to assist in it. I give now the fragment ford-stairs. of the autobiography of Dickens. At Hunger C. D. log First employment in life. "This speculation was a rivalry of "Warren's Blacking, "30, Strand," at that time very famous. One Jona'than Warren (the famous one was Robert), living at 30, 'Hungerford-stairs, or market, Strand (for I forget which 'it was called then), claimed to have been the original 'inventor or proprietor of the blacking recipe, and to 'have been deposed and ill-used by his renowned relation. 'At last he put himself in the way of selling his recipe, and his name, and his 30, Hungerford - stairs, Strand '(30, Strand, very large, and the intermediate direction 'very small), for an annuity; and he set forth by his agents 'that a little capital would make a great business of it. 'The man of some property was found in George Lamert, 'the cousin and brother-in-law of James. He bought this 'right and title, and went into the blacking business and 'the blacking premises. '—In an evil hour for me, as I often bitterly thought. 'Its chief manager, James Lamert, the relative who had lived with us in Bayham-street, seeing how I was em'ployed from day to day, and knowing what our domestic 'circumstances then were, proposed that I should go into 'the blacking warehouse, to be as useful as I could, at a 'salary, I think, of six shillings a week. I am not clear 'whether it was six or seven. I am inclined to believe, 'from my uncertainty on this head, that it was six at 'first, and seven afterwards. At any rate the offer was 'accepted very willingly by my father and mother, and 1822-4. 'on a Monday morning I went down to the blacking LONDON: 'warehouse to begin my business life. At Hunger. 'It is wonderful to me how I could have been so easily ford-stairs. 'cast away at such an age. It is wonderful to me, that, C. D. log. 'even after my descent into the poor little drudge I had 'been since we came to Londen, no one had compassion 'enough on me-a child of singular abilities, quick, eager, delicate, and soon hurt, bodily or mentally-to suggest 'that something might have been spared, as certainly it 'might have been, to place me at any common school. 'Our friends, I take it, were tired out. No one made any 'sign. My father and mother were quite satisfied. They 'could hardly have been more so, if I had been twenty 'years of age, distinguished at a grammar-school, and 'going to Cambridge. 'The blacking warehouse was the last house on the 'left-hand side of the way, at old Hungerford-stairs. It 'was a crazy, tumble-down old house, abutting of course. 'on the river, and literally overrun with rats. Its wain'scotted rooms, and its rotten floors and staircase, and the 'old grey rats swarming down in the cellars, and the 'sound of their squeaking and scuffling coming up the 'stairs at all times, and the dirt and decay of the place, 'rise up visibly before me, as if I were there again. The 'counting-house was on the first floor, looking over the 'coal-barges and the river. 'which I was to sit and work. 'pots of paste-blacking; first 'and then with a piece of blue paper; to tie them round 'with a string; and then to clip the paper close and neat, The black ing ware house. There was a recess in it, in little 1822-4. At Hungerford-stairs. C. D. loq. LONDON: 'all round, until it looked as smart as a pot of ointment 'from an apothecary's shop. When a certain number of 'grosses of pots had attained this pitch of perfection, I was 'to paste on each a printed label; and then go on again 'with more pots. Two or three other boys were kept at 'similar duty down stairs on similar wages. One of them came up, in a ragged apron and a paper cap, on the first 'Monday morning, to show me the trick of using the Bob Fagin. 'string and tying the knot. His name was Bob Fagin ; 'and I took the liberty of using his name, long after'wards, in Oliver Twist. 'Facilis Descensus.' 'Poll' Green. 'Our relative had kindly arranged to teach me some'thing in the dinner-hour; from twelve to one, I think it 'was; every day. But an arrangement so incompatible 'with counting-house business soon died away, from no 'fault of his or mine; and for the same reason, my small 'work-table, and my grosses of pots, my papers, string, scizzors, paste-pot, and labels, by little and little, ' vanished out of the recess in the counting-house, and 'kept company with the other small work-tables, grosses ' of pots, papers, string, scizzors, and paste-pots, downstairs. 'It was not long, before Bob Fagin and I, and another boy 'whose name was Paul Green, but who was currently 'believed to have been christened Poll (a belief which I 'transferred, long afterwards again, to Mr. Sweedlepipe, in Martin Chuzzlewit), worked generally, side by side. 'Bob Fagin was an orphan, and lived with his brother'in-law, a waterman. Poll Green's father had the addi'tional distinction of being a fireman, and was em'ployed at Drury-lane theatre; where another relation 'of Poll's, I think his little sister, did imps in the panto- LONDON: 'mimes. 1822-4. At Hunger tions. 'No words can express the secret agony of my soul as I ford-stairs. 'sunk into this companionship; compared these every day C. D. loq. 'associates with those of my happier childhood; and felt 'my early hopes of growing up to be a learned and distin'guished man, crushed in my breast. The deep remem'brance of the sense I had of being utterly neglected and Crushed hopes and 'hopeless; of the shame I felt in my position; of the recollec'misery it was to my young heart to believe that, day 'by day, what I had learned, and thought, and delighted 'in, and raised my fancy and my emulation up by, was 'passing away from me, never to be brought back any 'more; cannot be written. My whole nature was SO 'penetrated with the grief and humiliation of such con'siderations, that even now, famous and caressed and 'happy, I often forget in my dreams that I have a dear 'wife and children; even that I am a man; and wander 'desolately back to that time of my life. . in Gower 'My mother and my brothers and sisters (excepting The family 'Fanny in the royal academy of music) were still encamped, street. 'with a young servant-girl from Chatham-workhouse, in 'the two parlours in the emptied house in Gower-street 'north. It was a long way to go and return within the dinner-hour, and, usually, I either carried my dinner 'with me, or went and bought it at some neighbouring 'shop. In the latter case, it was commonly a saveloy 'and a penny loaf; sometimes, a fourpenny plate of beef 'from a cook's shop; sometimes, a plate of bread and 'cheese, and a glass of beer, from a miserable old public VOL. I. D 1822-4. At Hunger ford stairs. C. D. loq. LONDON: 'house over the way: the Swan, if I remember right, or 'the Swan and something else that I have forgotten. Once, I remember tucking my own bread (which I had 'brought from home in the morning) under my arm, 'wrapped up in a piece of paper like a book, and going 'into the best dining-room in Johnson's alamode beef'house in Clare-court, Drury-lane, and magnificently ordering a small plate of alamode beef to eat with it. 'What the waiter thought of such a strange little 'apparition, coming in all alone, I don't know; but I 'can see him now, staring at me as I ate my dinner, and 'bringing up the other waiter to look. I gave him a 'halfpenny, and I wish, now, that he hadn't taken it.' Regaling alamode. Saturday night's journey home. Home broken up. I lose here for a little while the fragment of direct narrative, but I perfectly recollect that he used to describe Saturday night as his great treat. It was a grand thing to walk home with six shillings in bis pocket, and to look in at the shop windows, and think what it would buy. › Hunt's roasted corn, as a British and patriotic substitute for coffee, was in great vogue just then; and the little fellow used to buy it, and roast it on the Sunday. There was a cheap periodical of selected pieces called the Portfolio, which he had also a great fancy for taking home with him. The new proposed 'deed,' meanwhile, had failed to propitiate his father's creditors; all hope of arrangement passed away; and the end was that his mother and her encampment in Gower-street north broke and went to live in the Marshalsea. I am able at this point to resume his own account. up The key of the house was sent back to the landlord, |