it be possible to him, learn to cultivate humility and modesty and a proper respect for his betters.

The italics are ours.

So much down to the end of June. In July the excitement of all concerned grew

Confusion of Combat:

the Debris

more intense but, unfortunately for the purposes of this chronicle, more incoherent. Mr. Barton did contrive to answer, but he lost his head. It was bad enough to learn that he had not been heard of by Lord Alfred Douglas. He suffered keenly under the sense of his own non-existence. But what really beat him down was the term "Tilly-fally." After they said "Tilly-fally," Mr. Barton was never quite the same man again. To be sure, he held to his main contention, but at times his mind wandered strangely. He became humble. He referred unnecessarily to his own inferiority in education and "immaturity as a writer." In his cowed state the figure of T. W. H. C. became many times its actual size.

LONDON LITERARY LANDMARKS.

HOUSE

WHISTLER 96 CHEYNE WALK.

FA

WHISTLER'S

I fear that your readers may be overawed in this matter by T. W. H. C.'s general authority in the world of letters.

And now and then he lost himself in utter irrelevancies, as, for example, the fact that T. W. H. C. had once said that the Bishop of London was too busy to be a saint, and that German women were "abdominal." He seemed unaware of the first rule of British literary warfare which is that you shall insist openly and by implication that you tower immeasurably above the foe. At this point nobody thought any more about the poetry of Mr. Masefield. It was all a confusion of gibes and gloatings, assertions of literary prestige and loud though unaccountable cries of victory. By the middle of July Lord Alfred Douglas and T. W. H. C. stood shoulder to shoulder remarking how very far below both of them the wretched Barton lay, and T. W. H. C. had told Barton never again to discuss poetry without consulting Lord Alfred Douglas; and Lord Alfred Douglas was saying to Barton, Henceforth on any poetical question, hush, Barton, till you have heard from T. W. H. C. And at that time T. W. H. C. was incidentally

explaining how he came to have the "authority" he now possessed in the "world of letters"

Of that authority it is unnecessary for me to pretend to be unconscious, and while I hope I may never appear to misuse it, still less do I propose to be bullied, browbeaten, slandered or misrepresented out of it by critics of the stripe of Mr. Barton. It is an authority which has cost me everything that the average man of my profession might consider worth having; it has profited me absolutely nothing but objurgation, distress and uncongenial toil; and if letters are the worse for it, let Mr. Barton

ceeded Sir William Robertson Nicoll. Although he had been designed for the law, early in life he drifted into the atmosphere of the new Grub Street. At twentyone was writing on a comic paper of a chequered career. Mr. Adcock, the Editor, and a single cartoonist practically turned out the entire numbers of the publication. It was the first step in a profession in which Mr. Adcock has proved himself an astonishingly prolific worker. His publications include An Unfinished Martyrdom, 1894; Beyond Atonement, 1896; East End Idylls, 1897; The Consecration of Hetty Fleet, 1898; In the Image of God, 1898; In the Wake of the War, 1900; The Luck of Private Foster, 1900; Songs of the War, 1900; From a London Garden, 1903; More Than Money, 1903; In Fear of Man, 1904; London Etchings, 1904; Admissions and Asides, 1905; London from the Top of a Bus, 1906; Love in London, 1906; The Shadow Show, 1907; The World that Never Was, 1908, and Billicks, 1909. Famous Literary Houses is illustrated by his brother, Frederick Adcock.

Half Way in Dickens

In his surmises as to what the unwritten part of The Mystery of Edwin Drood was to contain, "Claudius Clear," in the British Weekly, hits upon the idea that the finished portion was approximately just one-half of the book, and compares it with the first half of the other Dickens novels. Edwin Drood, as we have it, runs in round numbers to about 100,000 words. When completed it would have been 200,000 words. This would have made it slightly longer than Great Expectations, which may be estimated at 160,000 words. A Tale of Two Cities runs to 143,000 words. Edwin Drood, while slightly longer than this, would have been very much shorter than the larger works of Dickens. David Copperfield has about 306,000 words; Bleak House, 308,000, and Our Mutual Friend, 297,000. All these are practically the same length. Barnaby Rudge is about 264,000 words.

To begin with Bleak House, which is one of the latest and most elaborate of

Dickens's stories. In the first half the characters arrive in crowds. There are in the first chapter ten or eleven. The second chapter brings My Lady Dedlock, Sir Leicester Dedlock, Mr. Tulkinghorn, and others. The third brings Esther Summerson and John Jarndyce, besides half a dozen more. The fourth brings us the Jellybys, with Mr. Guppy, and others. Krook and Nemo are the fresh arrivals in Chapter V; Mr. Harold Skimpole arrives in Chapter VI with the Coavinses. In Chapter VII there are six arrivals at least. Chapter VIII gives us the Pardiggles, Mr. Gusher, the brickmaker and family, and Jenny, his wife. In Chapter IX Mr. Lawrence Boythorn arrives alone; Chapter X gives us the Snagsbys, their predecessor, Peffer, the two prentices, and Guster, the servant. Miss Flite comes with Chapter XI, and along with her appear the young surgeon, the beadle, Mrs. Perkins, Mrs. Anastasia Piper, and a few more. Chapter XII brings Mlle. Hortense, maid to Lady Dedlock, Lord Boodle and his retinue, the Right Hon. William Buffy, M.P., and his retinue. Chapter XIII we have Mr. Bayham Badger, Mrs. Badger, and the former husbands of Mrs. Badger are recalled. Chapter XIV brings Mr. Turveydrop and his son, also Allan Woodcourt, the young surgeon, and we have mentioned the "old lady with a censorious countenance," and the late Mrs. Turveydrop. In Chapter XV we have Mrs. Blinder and the Neckett family; Chapter XVII Mrs. Woodcourt, mother of Allan; Chapter XIX Mr. and Mrs. Chadband; Chapter XX Young Smallweed and Jobling, alias Weevle; in Chapter XXI the Grandfather and Grandmother Smallweed, Judith Smallweed, Mr. George, trooper (Uncle George, Chapter VII), and Phil Squod of the Shooting Gallery. The great Mr. Bucket appears in Chapter XXII; Captain Hawdon is in Chapter XXVI. In Chapter XXVII we have the Bagnet family of five; in Chapter XXVIII there comes Volumnia Dedlock; Miss Wisk in Chapter XXX, and Liz in Chapter XXXI.

The end of the first half is now reached and the arrivals after that are

we are introduced to Mr. W. Grubble, the landlord of that very clean little tavern, "The Dedlock Arms." Vholes is introduced by Skimpole as the man who gives him something and called it commission. Mr. Vholes has the privilege of supporting an aged father in the Vale of Taunton, and has a red eruption here and there upon his face. He has three daughters-Emma, Jane, and Carolineand cannot afford to be selfish. In Chapter XXXVIII we meet Mrs. Guppy, "an old lady in a large cap, with rather a red nose, and rather an unsteady eye, but smiling all over." Then in Chapter XL

there are the cousins of Sir Leicester Dedlock. In Chapter XLIII Mrs. Skimpole and the Skimpole family are introduced, and in Chapter LIII Mrs. Bucket. It will be observed that some of these can scarcely be called new characters, and that not one is of any real importance, that is, so far as Bleak House is concerned. Dickens in the middle of his story had practically put every actor upon the stage. The story was to be developed by the characters to whom the reader had been introduced. It may be calculated that in the first half there are about one hundred and six characters of greater or less importance. In the second half there are, on the most generous computation, only sixteen, and not one of them plays a vital part in the development of the tale.

Our Mutual Friend may be dealt with more briefly. The book is remarkable for the profusion of characters in the first half. In the second chapter there are sixteen at least, including Mr. and Mrs. Veneering, Mr. and Mrs. Podsnap, Mortimer Lightfoot, Eugene Wrayburn, and John Harmon. The Wilfers come in Chapter IV; in Chapter V Silas Wegg and the Boffins, and almost every chapter adds to the company till we get to the middle. After that there is an abrupt cessation. There are not more than half a dozen new characters named in the second part, and all of them are wholly insignificant, the Deputy Lock, Gruff and Glum, the Greenwich pensioner, the Archbishop of Greenwich, a waiter, Mrs. Sprodgkin, the exacting member of the fold, and the Contractor of 500,000 power. In Our Mutual Friend every character of any significance has been introduced when the first half ends. The few stragglers who come later have practically no effect on the story. In Little Dorrit we have the old profuseness of characters; in the first half nearly one hundred and in the second half there are practically no new characters at all. Mr. Tinkler, the valet to Mr. Dorrit, and Mr. Eustace, the classical tourist, can hardly be counted. In Chapter XXI, "The History of a Self-Tormentor," we have Charlotte Dawes, the false friend, who

vanished instantly and counts for nothing. Thus it may be said, taking the three long books of Dickens's greater period, that in each it was his manner to introduce no new characters of the least import in the second half of his books. But it may be worth while to glance at his practice in the shorter tales, A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations.

In the second half of the former book there are practically no new characters that can be traced. The epithet can hardly be applied to the President of the trial at the Conciergerie. It is now agreed that one of Dickens's most perfect books is Great Expectations. It is known also that Dickens complied with a suggestion of Lord Lytton's, which modified the plot-not seriously nor disagreeably. Here again in the second part we have very few fresh characters. We have the Colonel in Newgate introduced by Mr. Wemmick, but he is "sure to be assassinated on Monday." Let us not forget Miss Skiffins, a good sort of fellow, with a high regard both for Wemmick and the Aged. There is the retrospective Provis, but the characters introduced belong to the past. Finally, in Chapter XLVI, we have a pleasant glimpse of the Barley family and of Mrs. Whymple, the best of housewives and the motherly friend of Clara and Herbert. It is she who fosters and regulates with equal kindness and discretion their mutual love. "It was understood that nothing of a tender nature could possibly be confided to Old Barley by reason of his being totally unequal to the consideration of any subject more psychological than Gout, Rum, and Purser's Stores." These are all the books of which Claudius Clear made a close personal examination. He believes that the general result will be the same in all save two or three exceptional works, such as Barnaby Rudge, where the Gordon Riots are brought in contrary to Dickens's original intention. Whether he consciously acted on the principle that no new characters should be introduced after half the story was told Claudius Clear thinks it is impossible to say. It seems certain, however, that he acted upon it.

"A gentleman among canaille," was the way in which Andrew Lang referred to

Andrew Lang and Bunner

Edgar Allan Poe in one of his Letters to Dead Authors. He was always rather proud of the characterisation and believed honestly in its truth. There is an old story to the effect that once, in a London literary club, Mr. Lang was expressing himself vigorously to the late Henry Cuyler Bunner on the subject of American letters and men of letters. Bunner was not the man to take these remarks placidly. He had developed symptoms of a rabid Anglophobic nature, and the Englishmen he met seemed to be stepping on every sensitive nerve in his system. Having a pretty caustic tongue of his own he gave quite as good as was sent. Finally Lang, surprised and ruffled by the sturdy counterattack, asked: "Well, Bunner, are there no Englishmen whom you like?" "Oh. yes," was the reply, "there are three large classes. Those born in Scotland,

those born in Ireland, and those who stay permanently in Westminster Abbey."

The Real Rebecca and Her Story

Not exactly new, but always worth while retelling, is the story of Rebecca Gratz, from whom Scott drew the portrait of that Rebecca who is possibly the most enduring of all his women characters. W. S. Crockett narrates it in The Scott Originals, a book which has just been issued in this country by Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons. In one way, the origin of Rebecca is an exception to the general rule, for Sir Walter seldom went far afield for his characters. To confine oneself to Ivanhoe, the name Ivanhoe was suggested by an old rhyme: the tragic death of the Templar was founded on a death which took place in Scott's presence in the Edinburgh Parliament House. The name of Front-de-Boeuf was borrowed from a roll of Norman warriors occur