19 



of a branch of tlu- Diofcens' Fellowship in Canter- 

 bury. Branches liave been formed in various 

 cities ami towns in all parts of the country. A 

 branch even exists at the small Kentish village of 

 Staplehurst, and 1 believe I am correct in statinj^- 

 that the only incident which connects Dickens 

 with this place is the terrilile railway accident 

 which befel a passenger train on the South Eastern 

 Riiilway in June. 1865, which occurred at tliis 

 phice and in wliich train the great writer was a 

 passenger and fortunately escaped unhurt. In 

 the midst of this terrible calamity Dicki'ns, in his 

 usual un elfish and open-hearted manner and with 

 his usual great desire to do what he could for his 

 fellow men,isat once busy amongst his less fortunate 

 fellow passengers doing everything possible to 

 alleviate their sufferings. [The lecturer read 

 an extract from the letters of Diekens. giving 

 the famous novelist's personal experiences in this 

 accident.] The chief object in forming a branch 

 of the Fellowship would be of course to keep green 

 the memory of one of the greatest known novelists, 

 and one who ha>; a great claim upon the affections 

 of the citizens of Canterbury ; meetings would bo 

 held monthly throughout the year, at wliich read- 

 ings from his works might be given and probably 

 papers read respecting the originals of persons 

 and places named in " David Copperfield." In the 

 summer season visits might be made to the 

 Dickens' country, round about Kochester, Grave- 

 send, Chatham, etc. The Mayor (Mr. Alderman 

 Bennett-G'ddney) has very kindly offered to give 

 us his able assistance in forming a branch of the 

 Fellowship in the City. It is of course impossible 

 to go into details at this stage respecting this 

 matter. The accomplishment of my object 

 depends entirely upon the encouragement 

 and support given by others interested ; if any- 

 thing like strong support is given to the idea, 

 details as to how the form ition of a FeUowahip 

 might hi accomplished, could be formulated by a 

 small committee appointed for the purpose. I 

 was ple:ised to notice some time ago that the land- 

 lord of the "Sun Hotel" had caused an inscription 

 to be placed on the outside of his house, announ- 

 cing the fact that that particular house had been 

 made famous by Charles Dickens. What a pity 

 it is that similar inscriptions are not to be found 

 upon other buildings in the City with an equal 



degree of authenticity. Membei*ship of the Society 

 was a very inexpensive business ; the suliscription 

 was only one shilling per annum. Canterbury was 

 a place which teemed with Dickens — it ran through 

 one of his best books — but what did the\' find ? 

 There was no branch in .Canterbury. The fact 

 that many other smaller places had one, ho thought, 

 was a reflection upon the City. 



In a short discussion which followed. Mr. 

 Harvey alUnlod to the visit of Dickens in 1H09, at 

 which time the late Dean Alford was President of 

 that Society, and said he thought it was most 

 unfortunate that Dickens should have visited 

 Canterbury on such a day a.^ described. He 

 referi'ed to a recent visit of Americans, who, he 

 said, were never tired of talking about Dickens. 

 Taey had nothing upon which they could actually 

 rely as to the characters and places mentioned by 

 Dickens^what they had was literary patchwork, 

 but his opinion was that tlie real place mentioned 

 as Wickfield's house was to be found in Watling 

 Street, at the office of Mu'ssrs. Kingsford. 



Mr. W. E. Goulden, in reply to a question, 

 remarked that the only house he could mention as 

 certain was his father's old shop in Guildhall 

 Street. He remembered his father saying that 

 Diekens called there during his visit to Canter- 

 bury and purcliased a copy of Cruickshank's set 

 of plates called " The Bottle " only just then 

 published. He (Mr. Goulden) would be pleased 

 to join the Society. 



Mr. Cuthbert A. Gardner said he must warmly 

 support Mr. Turley's proposal to form a Dickens' 

 Fellowship in Canterbury. He mentioned that 

 there was a framed history in the office of Messrs. 

 Kingsford and Co., from which he thought they 

 might trace some information. 



Dr. Pittock and Mr. Harvey also supported the 

 proposal, and the latter, in proposing a vote of 

 thanks to Mr. Turley for his interesting paper, 

 expressed the hope tliat he would on a future 

 occasion give them a more lengthy account of the 

 subject. Subsequently, he referred to the railway 

 accident at Staplehiurst, expressing the opinion 

 that there was no doubt that Dickens' death was 

 a result of that accident. 



Mr. Turley briefly returned thanks, and promised 

 to get further information from the Parent Society 



SEVENTH WINTER MEETING.— FEBRUARY 27th, 1907. 



''ORCHIDS."— By Mr. F. C. SA(iE. 



The seventh winter meeting of the season in 

 connection with tho East Kent Scientific and 

 Natural History St'ciety was held on February 27 

 in theRefen'nce Library of the Beaney Institute, 

 under the presidency of Mr. Sidney Harvey, 

 F.C.S.. F.I.C. The proceedings took the form of 

 a " lantern evening," when a paper by Mr. F. C. 

 Sage, on " Orchids." was read by the hon. socre- 

 tarv. Mr. A. Land'-r, and a number of slides ex- 



hibited. In thci'oursc of the paper it was observed 

 that there was probably no clnss of plants which 

 had attracted so much attention in all times and 

 places from lovers of plant life than the Orchi- 

 dacEe. With their curious, and in some cases even 

 grotesque forms, their rich and varied colouring, 

 enormous variety, and often delicate perfume, it 

 would, indeed, have been strange if they had not 

 secured a leading place amongst the flowering 



