y my rosy little sister,
because I had acquired a black-eye in a fight. And
though she had been, that holly-tree night, for
many a long year where all tears are dried, the
Mitre softened me yet."

About the year 1820 the landlord of the Mitre was Mr. John Tribe, and
his family being intimate with the Dickenses, young Charles spent many
pleasant evenings at the "genial parties" given at this fine old inn.
Mr. Langton mentions that the late Mr. Alderman William Tribe, son of
Mr. John Tribe, the former proprietor, perfectly recollected Charles
Dickens and his sister Fanny coming to the Mitre, and on one occasion
their being mounted on a dining-table for a stage, and singing what was
then a popular duet, _i. e._--

"Long time I've courted you, miss,
And now I've come from sea;
We'll make no more ado, miss,
But quickly married be.
Sing Fal-de-ral," &c.

The worthy alderman is also stated to have had in his possession a card
of invitation to spend the evening at Ordnance Terrace, addressed from
Master and Miss Dickens to Master and Miss Tribe, which was dated about
this time.

In consequence of the elder Dickens being recalled from Chatham to
Somerset House, to comply with official requirements, the family removed
to London in 1823,[22] "and took up its abode in a house in Bayham
Street, Camden Town." Dickens thus describes his journey to London in
"Dullborough Town," one of the sketches in _The Uncommercial
Traveller_:--

"As I left Dullborough in the days when there were
no railroads in the land, I left it in a
stage-coach. Through all the years that have since
passed, have I ever lost the smell of the damp
straw in which I was packed--like game--and
forwarded, carriage paid, to the Cross Keys, Wood
Street, Cheapside, London? There was no other
inside passenger, and I consumed my sandwiches in
solitude and dreariness, and it rained hard all
the way, and I thought life sloppier than I had
expected to find it. . . ."

Mr. W. T. Wildish, the proprietor of the _Rochester and Chatham
Journal_, kindly favours us with some interesting information which has
recently appeared in his journal, relating to Charles Dickens's
nurse--the Mary Weller of his boyhood (and perhaps the Peggotty as
well), but known