rred to as _the_ authority at home and abroad."

Speaking with his friend and companion for many years, Mr. George Payne,
F.S.A., Hon. Sec. to the Kent Archaeological Society, on my last visit,
about several personal characteristics of our mutual friend, such as his
persistent energy and his indomitable disposition to stoically resist
the infirmities of approaching age, and decline any assistance in
helplessness, and especially as to the _quaestio vexata_, "Bill Stumps,
his mark," Mr. Payne expressed his opinion, that at the bottom of his
heart Mr. Roach Smith may probably have had a feeling that Dickens in
some way (however unintentionally) slighted the science of archaeology,
which he (Mr. Roach Smith) had all his life tried to elevate.

A most distinguished antiquarian, a thoroughly honourable man, a
versatile and accomplished gentleman, and a kind-hearted and liberal
friend, the town of Strood, to which he was for so many years endeared,
will long and deservedly mourn his loss.

[17] It is interesting to place on record here, that the germ of Charles
Dickens's "Readings," which afterwards developed so marvellously both in
England and America, originated in Birmingham. On the 27th of December,
1853, he read his _Christmas Carol_ in the Town Hall in aid of the funds
of the Institute. On the 29th he read _The Cricket on the Hearth_, and
on the 30th he repeated the _Carol_ to an audience principally composed
of working men. The success was overwhelming.

[18] Miss Hogarth informs me that her brother-in-law frequently dined
out in the neighbourhood, accompanied by his daughter and herself.

CHAPTER IX.

CHATHAM:--ST. MARY'S CHURCH, ORDNANCE TERRACE, THE
HOUSE ON THE BROOK, THE MITRE HOTEL, AND FORT
PITT. LANDPORT:--PORTSEA, HANTS.

"The home of his infancy, to which his heart had
yearned with an intensity of affection not to be
described."--_The Pickwick Papers._

"I believe the power of observation in numbers of
very young children to be quite wonderful for its
closeness and accuracy. Indeed, I think that most
grown men who are remarkable in this respect, may,
with greater propriety, be said not to have lost
the faculty than to have acquired it; the rather,
as I generally observe such men to retain a
certain freshness, and gentleness, and capacity of
being please