We started by having lunch in the pleasant basement cafe, followed by a wander through the small and attractive back yard/garden. Then it was time to tackle the other four floors.
It was in this house, where he and his young wife Catherine and their growing family lived from 1837 for nearly three years, that he wrote Oliver Twist, The Pickwick Papers and Nicholas Nickleby. It was also where his pretty and much-loved sister-in-law, Mary Hogarth, died unexpectedly aged only seventeen. She was living with them and had become like a little sister to Charles. The three of them went to the theatre on the evening of 6 May 1837 and retired to bed late. Shortly afterwards the couple apparently heard a cry from Mary's room and it was clear she was ill. Despite being tended by a doctor, she died the next day. Dickens, who at the time was writing two serialised novels at once - Oliver Twist and The Pickwick Papers - was devastated. For the first and only time in his life, he missed the deadlines on both.
Apart from this tragedy, their time at Doughty Street seems to have been happy and fulfilling. There are a number of Dickens' personal possessions throughout the house and the dining room in particular gives the impression that he has just stepped outside, ready to greet his guests, whose names are beside each place setting. He thoroughly enjoyed entertaining and although the table is set for six, he managed at times to squeeze in as many as fourteen:
In his study you can see the desk and chair from his home - Gad's Hill Place - at which he wrote many of his later works, including A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations and Our Mutual Friend:
I hadn't realised that Catherine also published a book, under the pseudonym Lady Maria Clutterbuck. It was essentially a recipe book, entitled What Shall We Have for Dinner, and was published in 1851. This was a difficult year for her, as their baby daughter Dora died and she suffered a nervous collapse. Dickens also suffered the death of his father John, with whom he appears to have had a warm and affectionate relationship despite the problems caused by John's inability to manage his finances.
One of the items that caught my eye in the basement was a note that hedgehogs were sometimes kept in Victorian kitchens to eat insects. Beetles, cockroaches and other bugs were a constant nuisance and as well as using insect traps, hedgehogs were seen as a useful extra line of defence (or attack). A dirty house was regarded as producing dishonest people, so keeping one's kitchen clean was seen as both a matter of hygiene and a moral duty. Yet another reason for not living in the past....
One unusual aspect of the museum, which spans both 48 Doughty Street and the house next door, is that neither the rooms nor the accompanying guidebook give you much information at all about key events in Dickens' life and times. The emphasis is on immersing yourself in the atmosphere of the house and imagining the life he and his young family had there. It is only when you move into the adjacent linked house that you find a room with detailed timelines, enabling you to set it all in context. As it happens, I already knew a fair amount about Dickens, having ploughed through the 1,000+ page biography by Peter Ackroyd a few years ago, but on balance I think I would have preferred to have had the benefit of the timelines first. There's nothing to stop you going back into the main house again afterwards, though.
I'd recommend visiting the museum, especially if it's warm enough to sit outside in the bricked garden and have lunch there. Two hours - not counting lunch - would be ample, even for someone like me who reads every single label and tests the patience of their companions, especially as we all know I'll have forgotten most of it by the time I get home.
No comments:
Post a Comment