CHARLES DICKENS. 199 



Before leaving Tavistock House, Dickens gave a series of 

 dramatic performances. His friend Wilkie Collins had written 

 an entirely new drama for the occasion, called ' The Frozen 

 Deep,' and a large room was fitted up with a stage, scenerj^, 

 and footlights. Dickens' personation of one of the characters 

 surprised all who witnessed it. By the death of Douglas 

 Jerrold, in June 1857, Dickens lost an attached friend; he 

 exerted himself on behalf of his widow, and in conjunction 

 with Mark Lemon, Albert Smith, and others, a ' Jerrold Fund ' 

 was started. A series of entertainments was given, including 

 a reading by Thackeray and Dickens at St. Martin's Hall, and 

 a handsome sum was obtained. Lord Palmerston also granted 

 to the widow from the Civil List an annual pension of ;^ioo 

 a year. Dickens' Christmas number for 1857 was founded 

 on the Indian Mutiny, and was entitled, 'Perils of Certain 

 English Prisoners.' An excursion into the Lake country with 

 Wilkie Collins formed the basis of a series of articles, entitled, 

 * The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices.' 



We come now to a passage in Dickens' domestic life which 

 any writer might be glad to pass over lightly, but which plays 

 such an important part in his life up to the close, and 

 without which his true nature and character cannot be fully 

 understood. From the letters sent to his biographer, Mr. 

 Forster, from time to time, there were passages which betrayed 

 great restlessness of nature. When remonstrated with for 

 making a rush up Carrick Fell, in the Lake country, he wrote : 

 ' Too late to say, "Put the curb on, and don't rush at hills:" the 

 wrong man to say it to. I have now no relief but in action ; 

 I am become incapable of rest. I am quite confident I should 

 rust, break, and die if I spared myself. Much better to die 

 doing. What I am m that way, Nature made me first, and my 



