CHARLES DICKENS. ,97 



appealing to a more select public, never attained the same 

 great circulation as those of Charles Dickens. Thackeray is 

 reported to have said : ' Ah ! they talk to me of popularity, 

 with a sale of little more than one-half of 10,000. Why, look 

 at that lucky fellow Dickens, with Heaven knows how many 

 readers, and certainly iiot less than 30,000 buyers.' At 

 another time he remarked to a friend, that it was very strange, 

 yet nevertheless a fact, that Dickens' publishers sold five copies 

 of his books for one which the booksellers sold of his own. 



For his Christmas numbers 1854 and 1855, Dickens con- 

 tributed the afterwards highly popular ' Richard Doubledick,' 

 and ' Boots at the Holly Tree Inn.' In Christmas week 1855, 

 Dickens read his * Christmas Carol ' to a large audience at the 

 Mechanics' Institute, Sheffield, in aid of the funds. At the 

 close, he was presented by the Mayor with a handsome table 

 service of cutlery. The first number of Little Dorrit made its 

 appearance at Christmas 1855, and the last in April 1857. It 

 appeared at first in the usual twenty numbers, was issued when 

 complete by Messrs. Bradbury & Evans, with illustrations by 

 'Phiz,' and a dedication to Clarkson Stanfield, R.A., the land- 

 scape painter. It showed up the procrastination and formal 

 routine of the Government administration ; its title originally 

 stood as Nobody's FmiU, the leading character who would 

 bring about all the mischief in it laying the blame on Provi- 

 dence, and saying, ' Well, it's a mercy, however, nobody was to 

 blame, you know.' Its sale in parts was over 35,000 copies, 

 but it has not met with such continued popularity as some of 

 his other works. 



Early in 1856, Dickens made a change of residence from 

 Tavistock House, Tavistock Square, to Gad's Hill Place. The 

 account of how he came into possession of this place is thus 



