CHARLES DICKENS. 193 



'of going at what I call a rapid pace is prodigious; it is almost 

 an impossibility. I suppose this is partly the eftect of two 

 jears' ease, and partly of the absence of streets and numbers 

 of figures. I can't express how much I want these. It seems 

 as if they supplied something to my brain which it cannot 

 bear, when busy, to lose. For a week or a fortnight I can 

 write prodigiously in a retired place (as at Broadstairs), and a 

 day in London sets me up again and starts me. But the toil 

 and labour of writing, day after day, without that magic 

 lantern, is immense.' 



The profits accruing to the author from his fresh publishing 

 arrangements, with Doitibey and Son^ for the first half-year 

 amounted to ;^2 82o. As the writing of Dombey occupied 

 his whole attention, there was no Christmas book this year. 

 On the ist December 1847, he acted as chairman at a 

 meeting of the Leeds Mechanics' Society, and on the 28th 

 of the same month he opened the Glasgow Athenaeum. 



During this year it had been announced that Shakespeare's 

 house at Stratford-upon-Avon was for sale. A public sub- 

 scription was set afoot, and by means of readings by Macready 

 and a grand performance at Covent Garden Theatre, the sum 

 of ;^3ooo was realized, sufficient to purchase it. In order to 

 provide for the proper care and custody of the house, a course 

 of amateur entertainments was given, Messrs. Charles Knight, 

 Peter Cunningham, and J. P. Collier being directors of the 

 general management, and Dickens being the stage-manager. 

 The first performance took place at the Haymarket Theatre on 

 15th May 1848. 



The summer of 1848 was passed in what his biographer 

 terms strenuous idleness, while only the task of writing his 

 Christmas book, T/ie Haunted Man, lay ahead. Early in 



