17 



SIXTH WINTER MEETING.— FEBRUARY 13th, 1907. 



CHARLES DICKENS AND CANTERBURY. —By Mk. A. C. TURLEY. 



The sixth wiutornu'etiiig was held on Fob. i:it}i. 

 by kind permission of Mr. W. Cozens, at " Ye 

 Olde Canterljury Baths," in the South-Eastern 

 Station Koad. Mr. Sidney Uarvey. F.C.S. F.I.C., 

 presided, and there was a fair attendance of 

 members and friends to listen to the reading- of 

 apaperentith»d "Charles Dickens and Canterbury," 

 by Mr. A. C. Turloy vCity Stirveyr'. 



The President, in introdncinjj the lecturer, 

 alluded to the pleasure afforded of meeting in 

 that venenible old place, and said he was sure 

 they all had the best of wishes for Mr. Cozens in 

 what ho was doing to get together those interest- 

 ing objects to be seen there. 



They had to deplore the loss of another member 

 bj' the death of Canon Holland, who remained a 

 member of that Society until his death. It was a 

 great loss to the City, as the late Canon was a 

 munificent supporter of many of their institu- 

 tions, and was especially interested in the cause 

 of education. 



The subject they had before them that evening 

 was of great interest — more so, perhaps, than they 

 anticipated. 



Mr. Turley then proceeded to read the following 

 paper : My chief object in reading you this paper 

 is to plead for your assistance in establishing in 

 this City a branch of the Dickens' Fellowship, 

 and with a view of enlisting your sympathies in 

 this direction I purpose attempting to shew you 

 how closely assoc-iated with Canterbury is the 

 inimitable writer's great work — '* David Copper- 

 field." I hope to be able to prove that Canterbury 

 should have been one of the first cities in the world 

 to have kept green thomemory of the great writer. 

 That the old City occupied a warm comer in 

 Dickens' heart we have proof in aViiuidance. In 

 the 1.3th chapter of " David Copperfield," which 

 contains the account of his tramp when a child 

 from London to Dover, he speaks of Canterbin-y 

 as follows ; — *' I have associated with it (the 

 fanciful picture of his mother in her j'outh) the 

 sunny streets of Canterbury, dozing as it were in 

 the hot light and with the sight of its old houses 

 and gateways, and the stately grey Cathedral with 

 the rooks sailing round the towers." Again in 

 chapter 52 Dickens writes: — "Early in the morn- 

 ing I ventured through the dear old tranquil 

 streets, and again mingled with the shadows of 

 the venerable giiteways and churches. The nioks 

 were sailing about the Cathedi-.il tuwers. and the 

 towers themselves. ovorlof>king many a long un- 

 altered mile of the rich country and its pleasant 

 streams, were cutting the bright morning air as if 

 there were no such thing us change on eartli." In 

 later life, viz., when lie was giving his famous 

 public readings, he spoke thus of his Canterbury 

 audience :^" The must delicate I have seen in any 

 provincial place is Canterburj-. an intvUigent and 

 delightful response in them " (he wrote to his 

 daughter) " like tlie touch of a beautiful instru- 



ment." Dickens' last visit to this City was in 

 June, 1S69, twelve months prior to his lainentablo 

 death. An account of this visit is given by his 

 devoted secretary — George Dolby — in his book 

 entitled "Charles Dickens as I knew him." As the 

 account of this pilgrimage is both interesting and 

 amusing, as well as being a further proof of 

 Dickens' love for tlie old City, I venture to 

 trouble yoxi with a short exti-act from this work. 

 Upon this particular occasion, Dickens drovo 

 over to Canterbury from Gad's Hill with a 

 number of American friends, some of their ladies, 

 and his secretary — Dolby. Dolby writes :— " We 

 drove into Canterbury in the early afternoon, 

 just as the bells of the Cathedral were ringing 

 for afternoon service. Entering the quiet City 

 tmder the old gate at the end of tlie High Street, 

 it seemed as though its inhabitants were indulg- 

 ing in an afternoon's nap after the mid-day dinner. 

 But our entry and the clatter of the horses' hoofs 

 roused them as it had done the people of Rochester, 

 and they came running to their windows and out 

 into the streets to learn what so much noise might 

 mean. We turned into a bye-street in wliich the 

 Fountain Hotel is situated, where the carriages 

 and horses were to be put up while we explored 

 the City." Dolby's description of one of our 

 principal streets is not of a very flattering nature, 

 but it must be borne in mind that in 1869 the 

 entrance to this street was much narrower than it 

 is at the present time. At that date there was a 

 bit of old Canterbury at both comers of the 

 street. A very good drawing of the old-fashioned 

 building which occupied the site now covered by 

 the Capital and Counties Bank, may be seen in the 

 Beaney Institute. "When the bank premises were 

 built I think it is a pity that a design more 

 in keeping Tsith ohl Canterbiu-y was not adopted. 

 This remark applies to a niunlx'r of other new 

 buildings — banks and otherwise — which have been 

 erected in the High Street diu'ing the last quarter 

 of a century. ".We went first to the Cathedral 

 where service was just commencing. There was 

 a very small congregation, and we were all dis- 

 appointed at the careless, half-hearted manner in 

 which the service was performed. The .seeming 

 indifference of the officiating clergy, jarred most 

 acutely on Dickens' feelings, for he, who did all 

 things so thoroughly, could not conceive how (as 

 he afterwards s;iid) any persons accepting an 

 office or a trust so important as the proper render- 

 ing of our beautiful Cathedral service, could go 

 through their duties in this mechanical and slip- 

 shod fashion. He retiu*ned to this subject on 

 several subsequent occasions. As the service had 

 tended i-ather to depress than to elevate our 

 spirits, we were all glad to get out into the fresh 

 air of the cloisters on its termination. Being in 

 Canterbury Catln-dral Mr. Dickens considered it 

 necessary to show his friends the many objects of 

 interest to be found there, and after ho had 



