116 



NOVELS AND NOVELISTS. 



ble (with -whom I never inter- 

 changed any communication in my 

 life), would have exhaiisted the 

 combined patronage of all the lord- 

 chancellors since the accession of 

 the house of Brunswick, and would 

 have broken the rest of the Bank 

 of England." 



DICKENS AND SQUEERS. 



Prefixed to Dickeus's second edi- 

 tion of Nicholas Nickleby, we find 

 the following allusion to Yorkshire 

 schools : 



" I cannot call to mind, now, how 

 I came to hear about Yorkshire 

 schools, when I was not a very 

 robust child, sitting in by-places, 

 near ^Rochester Castle, with a head 

 full of Partridge, Strap, Tom Pipes, 

 and Sancho Panza; but I know 

 that my first impressions of them 

 were picked up at that time, and 

 that they were somehow or other 

 connected with a suppurated ab- 

 scess that some boy had come home 

 with, in consequence of his York- 

 shire guide, philosopher, and friend, 

 having ripped it open with an inky 

 penknife. The impression made 

 upon me, however made, never left 

 me. I was always curious about 

 them fell, long afterwards, and at 

 sundry times, into the way of hear- 

 ing more about them at last, hav- 

 ing an audience, resolved to write 

 about them. With that intent I 

 went down into Yorkshire before 

 I began this book, in very severe 

 winter time, which is pretty faith- 

 fully described herein. As I wanted 

 to see a schoolmaster or two, and 

 was forewarned that those gentle- 

 men might, in their modesty, be 

 shy of receiving a visit from the 

 author of the Pickwick Papers, I 

 consulted with a professional friend 

 here, who had a Yorkshire connec- 

 tion, and with whom I concerted a 

 pious fraud. He gave me some 

 letters of introduction, in the name, 

 I think, of my travelling compa- 

 nion: they bore reference to a sup- 



posititious little boy who had been 

 left with a widowed mother who 

 didn't know what to do with him ; 

 the poor lady had thought, as a 

 moans of thawing the tardy com- 

 passion of her relations in his be- 

 half, of sending him to a Yorkshire 

 school. I was the poor lady's friend, 

 travelling that way ; and if the re- 

 cipient of the letter could inform 

 me of a school in his neighbour- 

 hood, the writer would be very 

 much obliged. I went to several 

 places in that part of the country 

 where I understood these schools 

 to be most plentifully sprinkled, 

 and had no occasion to deliver a 

 letter until I came to a certain 

 town which shall be nameless. The 

 person to whom it was addressed 

 was not at home ; bu^ he came 

 down at night, through the snow, 

 to the inn where I was staying. 

 It was after dinner, and he needed 

 little persuasion to sit down by the 

 fire in a warm corner, and take his 

 share of the wine that was on the 

 table. I am afraid he is dead now. 

 I recollect he was a jovial, ruddy, 

 broad-faced man ; that we got 

 quainted directly ; and that we 

 talked on all kinds of subjects, ex- 

 cept the school, which he showed 

 a great anxiety to avoid. 'Was 

 there any large school near T I 

 asked him, in reference to the let- 

 ter. ' O, yes,' he said, ' there was 

 a pratty big 'un.' ' Was it a good 

 one? I asked. 'Ey,' he said, 'it 

 was as good as anoother ; that was 

 a' a laatther of opinion ;' and fell 

 to looking at the fire, staring round 

 the room, and whistling a little. 

 On my reverting to some other 

 topic that we had been discussing, 

 he recovered immediately ; but, 

 though I tried him again ana 

 again, I never approached the 

 question of the school, even if he 

 were in the middle of a laugh, 

 without observing that his coun- 

 tenance fell, and that he became 

 uncomfortable. At last, when we 



