LONDON: 1834-6. Mr. James Grant's recollec tions of C. D. Beard. 'even find my hand going on the table-cloth, taking an 'imaginary note of it all.' The latter I have known him do frequently. It was indeed a quite ordinary habit with him. Mr. James Grant, a writer who was himself in the gallery with Dickens, and who states that among its eighty or ninety reporters he occupied the very highest rank, not merely for accuracy in reporting but for marvellous quickness in transcribing, has lately also told us that while there he was exceedingly reserved in his manners, and that, though showing the usual courtesies to all he was concerned with in his duties, the only personal Mr. Thomas intimacy he formed was with Mr. Thomas Beard, then too reporting for the Morning Chronicle. I have already mentioned the friendly and familiar relations maintained with this gentleman to the close of his life; and in confirmation of Mr. Grant's statement I can further say that the only other associate of these early reporting days, to whom I ever heard him refer with special regard, was the late Mr. Vincent Dowling, many years editor of Bell's Life, with whom he did not continue much personal intercourse, but of whose character as well as talents he had formed a very high opinion. Nor is there anything to add to the notice of these days which the reader's fancy may not easily supply. A letter has been kept as written by him while engaged on one of his expresses;' but it is less for its saying anything new, than for its confirming with a pleasant vividness what has been said already, that its contents will justify mention here. Mr. Vincent Dow. ling. He writes, on a 'Tuesday morning' in May 1835, from BRISTOL : 1835. An express C. D. Devon the Bush-inn, Bristol; the occasion that has taken him to the west, connected with a reporting party, being Lord John Russell's Devonshire contest above-named, and his asso- expedition. ciate-chief being Mr. Beard, entrusted with command for the Chronicle in this particular express. He expects to forward the conclusion of Russell's dinner' by Cooper's company's coach leaving the Bush at half-past six next morning; and by the first Ball's coach on Thursday morning he will forward the report of the Bath dinner, indorsing the parcel for immediate delivery, with extra rewards for the porter. Beard is to go over to Bath next morning. Letter of He is himself to come back by the mail from Marl- during borough; he has no doubt, if Lord John makes a speech contest. of any ordinary dimensions, it can be done by the time Marlborough is reached; and taking into consideration 'the immense importance of having the addition of 'saddle horses from thence, it is, beyond all doubt, worth 'an effort. . . . I need not say,' he continues, 'that it will be 'sharp work and will require two of us; for we shall both Sharp 'be up the whole of the previous night, and shall have to 'sit up all night again to get it off in time.' He adds. that as soon as they have had a little sleep they will return to town as quickly as they can but they have, if the express succeeds, to stop at sundry places along the road to pay money and notify satisfaction. And so, for himself and Beard, he is his editor's very sincerely. Another anecdote of these reporting days, with its sequel, may be added from his own alleged relation, in which however mistakes occur that it seems strange he should have made. The story, as told, is that the late VOL. I. work. C. D. and Mr. Stan ley. 1834-6. Stanley's speech against O'Connell. LONDON: Lord Derby, when Mr. Stanley, had on some important occasion made a speech which all the reporters found it necessary greatly to abridge; that its essential points had nevertheless been so well given in the Chronicle that Mr. Stanley, having need of it for himself in greater detail, had sent a request to the reporter to meet him in Carlton-house-terrace and take down the entire speech; that Dickens attended and did the work accordingly, much to Mr. Stanley's satisfaction; and that, on his dining with Mr. Gladstone in recent years, and finding the aspect of the dining-rcom strangely familiar, he discovered afterwards on enquiry that it was there he had taken the speech. The story, as it actually occurred, is connected with the brief life of the Mirror of Parliament. It was not at any special desire of Mr. Stanley's, but for that new record of the debates, which had been started by one of the uncles of Dickens and professed to excel Hansard in giving verbatim reports, that the famous speech against O'Connell was taken as described. The young reporter went to the room in Carlton-terrace because the work of his uncle Barrow's publication required to be done. there; and if, in later years, the great author was in the same room as the guest of the prime minister, it must have been but a month or two before he died, when for the first time he visited and breakfasted with Mr. Gladstone. Re-re ported for the Mirror of Parlia ment. The mention of his career in the gallery may close with the incident. I will only add that his observation while there had not led him to form any high opinion of the house of commons or its heroes; and that, of the Pick wickian sense which so often takes the place of common sense in our legislature, he omitted no opportunity of declaring his contempt at every part of his life. LONDON: 1835. Nine sketches in the Monthly. "Boz." The other occupation had meanwhile not been lost sight of, and for this we are to go back a little. Since the first sketch appeared in the Monthly Magazine, nine others have enlivened the pages of later numbers of the same magazine, the last in February 1835, and that which appeared in the preceding August having first had the signature of Boz. This was the nickname of a pet child, his youngest Origin of brother Augustus, whom in honour of the Vicar of Wakefield he had dubbed Moses, which being facetiously pronounced through the nose became Boses, and being shortened became Boz. Boz was a very familiar house'hold word to me, long before I was an author, and so I 'came to adopt it.' Thus had he fully invented hist Sketches by Boz before they were even so called, or any one was ready to give much attention to them; and the next invention needful to himself was some kind of payment in return for them. The magazine was owned Captain as well as conducted at this time by a Mr. Holland, who had come back from Bolivar's South American campaigns with the rank of captain, and had hoped to make it a popular mouthpiece for his ardent liberalism. But this hope, as well as his own health, quite failed; and he had sorrowfully to decline receiving any more of the sketches when they had to cease as voluntary offerings. I do not think that either he or the magazine lived many weeks after an evening I passed with him in Doughty-street in 1837, when he spoke in a very touching way of the failure Holland. LONDON of this and other enterprises of his life, and of the help that Dickens had been to him. 1835-6. Mr. George Sketches continued Chronicle. Nothing thus being forthcoming from the Monthly, it was of course but natural the sketches too should cease to be forthcoming; and, even before the above-named February number appeared, a new opening had been found for them. An evening off-shoot to the Morning Chronicle had been lately in hand; and to a countryman of Black's engaged in the preparations for it, Mr. George Hogarth, Dickens was communicating from his rooms in Furnival'sinn, on the evening of Tuesday the 20th of January 1835, certain hopes and fancies he had formed. This was the beginning of his knowledge of an accomplished and kindly man, with whose family his relations were soon to become so intimate as to have an influence on all his future career. Mr. Hogarth had asked him, as a favour to himself, to write an original sketch for the first number of the enterprise, and in writing back to say with what readiness he should comply, and how anxiously he should desire to do his best for the person who had made the request, he mentioned what had arisen in his mind. It had occurred to him that he might not be unreasonably or improperly trespassing farther on Mr. Hogarth, if, trusting in Evening to his kindness to refer the application to the proper quarter, he begged to ask whether it was probable, if he commenced a regular series of articles under some attractive title for the Evening Chronicle, its conductors would think he had any claim to some additional remuneration (of course, of no great amount) for doing so. In short, he wished to put it to the proprietors-first, whether |