It does not find a legitimate place in this book to describe the finding of the most likely house in which Dickens' honeymoon was spent, but it is most interesting as an example of the way in which such things" come about."

At least two routes have been mapped out as that taken by "Little Nell " and her grandfather. And while I do not doubt for a moment that Dickens travelled with the people of his brain along a well remembered road and met with well defined curiosities of humanity which he had fallen in with on other roads, I do not think that either route can be pointed to with certainty. And I think it extremely likely that many roads of real life were pressed into the service of the one. No doubt it is a sign of the truth that so many places live on the memories of the great novelist, and although the fifty-five inns and hotels of Pickwick have dwindled to a paltry dozen, the only result so far has been to increase the interest of those remaining.

With the exception of Bath it is rather curious that Dickens' books deal in a great measure with East and South East England, a part of England which still appears to enjoy the greatest popularity with the Londoner.

There are endless phases of the novelist's works, but even if I were able it would not be desirable to deal here with more than those two which are responsible for the existence of the book. Of these, the first is the belief that it will assist the study of Dickens to be the re-creation of the material aspect of the country and town as it was in his day. Quite apart from the possible value of the work as a book of reference, I would fain hope that it will show that Dickens' novels may be relied upon for this purpose. The second reason for the compilation of the book is a similar one regarding the people of the period. It would be easy to write a vivid description, a life-like picture, of the Victorian era from Dickens' works. Our doubt of the works; and the accusation of exaggeration, which has been so often levelled against them; are due to our own ignorance of life at that time. The incident of the coachman cutting at Jonas with his whip when that illfated man was engaged on his second great crime seems unreal and impossible, until it is remembered that the coachman was king of the road, and so literally did he realize this position that he demanded pourboire with the effrontery of a footpad, and met a refusal with the same methods of foul language and fisticuffs. Even the children's games, some of them still seen in the poorer London districts, were real, and were played by the many girls and boys who then made walking in the London byways somewhat hazardous. The rhyme of the Deputy Winks

was in part a warning note in a rough and tumble boys' game, although I must confess myself quite unable to give any explanation of its meaning or the origin of its use.

Here are two minute details, but the thousands of pages of Dickens' novels teem with many more thousands of incidents or unconsidered trifles which either are or will become priceless gems of folklore and its study.

OF THE