f 



CHARLES DICKENS. i8i 



In these days of growing prosperity, he took a cottage at 

 Twickenham, where he spent the summer of 1838, enjoying 

 the society of Talfourd, Thackeray, Jerrold, Edwin Landseer, 

 George Cattermole, Stanfield, and W. H. Ainsworth. Before 

 the close of 1839, he had removed from his old residence in 

 Doughty Street into Devonshire Terrace, which was shut out 

 from the new road by a high brick wall facing the York Gate 

 into Regent's Park. His next novel was the Old Curiosity 

 Shop, which was issued in weekly numbers. Of the first 

 number, upwards of 70,000 copies were sold. He was to 

 receive a payment of ;^5o for each number; the numbers 

 were then to be accounted for separately, and half the 

 realized profits paid to him, the other half going to the pub- 

 lishers. The writing of this story he felt intensely, and the 

 death of little Nell affected him as powerfully as it could 

 do an interested reader. Barnaby jRudge, begun during the 

 progress of Oliver Twist, appeared in numbers in 1841. 

 The prototype of Grip, the raven which plays such an 

 important part in the story, was owned by himself, and he 

 was much grieved at its death, which took place in 1841. 

 In June 1841 he made a tour in Scotland, but took his work 

 with him, transmitting regular instalments of the story he had 

 in hand. On the 25th June, he was entertained at a public 

 dinner in Edinburgh, one of the first and most striking 

 acknowledgments that his genius was making itself known and 

 at home amongst even the colder-blooded critical public in 

 the northern capital. Professor Wilson, in the room of Lord 

 Jeffrey, filled the chair, and made an admirable speech. 

 Dickens, writing the day after the event to Mr. John Forster, 

 said: — 'The great event is over; and being gone, I am a 

 man again. It was the most brilliant affair you can con- 



