Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 11, 2025
The road came to an end there, and I was obliged to retrace my steps; but anything more entirely peaceful and beautiful in its aspect on that autumnal day than this retreat, forgotten by the world, I almost never saw." He was eager, too, to describe for our entertainment one of the yearly cricket-matches among the villagers at Gad's Hill which had just come off.
"I appoint my friend Charles Dickens, of Gad's Hill Place, in the County of Kent, Esquire, my literary executor; and beg of him to publish without alteration as much of my notes and reflections as may make known my opinions on religious matters, they being such as I verily believe would be conducive to the happiness of mankind." Some of these were in Lausanne, and some were in London.
Gad's Hill Place, Tuesday, 7th July, 1868. When he was in London the first time he came and went without reporting himself, and left me in a state of unspeakable discomfiture. Indeed, I should not have believed in his having been here at all, if Mrs. Procter had not told me of his calling to see Procter.
It was ten years since I had seen Gad's Hill Place, and I observed at once what extensive improvements had been made during that period. Dickens had increased his estate by adding quite a large tract of land on the opposite side of the road, and a beautiful meadow at the back of the house.
At first it was his summer residence merely, his wife came with him the first summer, but three years later he sold Tavistock House, and Gad's Hill was thenceforth his home. From the bustle and din of the city he returned to the haunts of his boyhood to find restful quiet and time for leisurely work among these "blessed woods and fields" which had ever held his heart.
Pitt said, "This hill is the spot where took place the robbery of the travelers in Shakespeare's 'Henry IV. The inn just opposite Gad's Hill is the Falstaff Inn, probably built about Queen Anne's time. It used to have an old sign with pictures of Falstaff and the 'Merry Wives of Windsor' upon it. I read that in the olden days ninety coaches daily stopped here. Fancy!"
His manner was so free, and yet so dignified, as to charm me completely. For I heartily despised all that fustian trumpery of the age. Then came a voice from beyond, calling: "That you, Carvel? Damn that fellow Eiffel, and did he thrust you into the Jerusalem Chamber?" "The Jerusalem Chamber!" I exclaimed. "Where I keep my Israelites," said he; "but, by Gad's life!
Of the work produced at Gad's Hill "A Tale of Two Cities," "The Uncommercial Traveler," "Our Mutual Friend," "The Mystery of Edwin Drood," and many tales and sketches of "All the Year Round" much was written in this leaf-environed nook; here the master wrought through the golden hours of his last day of conscious life, here he wrote his last paragraph and at the close of that June day let fall his pen, never to take it up again.
As Gad's my life, you deserve well for this." "I am entirely of your opinion." "Damme! You all deserve well, and damme, you shall find me grateful." "That's as it should be," said Mr. Blood. "The question is how well we deserve, and how grateful shall we find you?" Colonel Bishop considered him. There was a shadow of surprise in his face.
Here he compounded for bibulous guests his famous "cider-cup of Gad's Hill," and at the same table he was stricken with death; on a couch beneath yonder window, the one nearest the hall, he died on the anniversary of the railway accident which so frightfully imperiled his life. From this window we look out upon a lawn decked with shrubbery and see across undulating cornfields his beloved Cobham.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking