father came out of prison, and Charles the younger got
some schooling at Wellington House Academy, which supplied "some of the
lighter traits of Salem-house" in _David Copperfield_.

Dickens began life as a lawyer's clerk of a humble sort, and thus gained
the knowledge of which he made such admirable use in _Pickwick_ and
elsewhere.

But his energy in learning shorthand and becoming a professional reporter
at the age of nineteen was a much more important step. Forster quotes
Beard, "the friend he first made in that line when he entered the
gallery," as saying that "there never was such a reporter."

Dickens saw the last of the old coaching days, and he describes his
experience as a reporter--work which largely contributed to his literary
success:--

"I have had to charge for half a dozen breakdowns in half a dozen times
as many miles. Also for the damage of a great-coat from the drippings of
a blazing wax-candle, in writing through the smallest hours of the night
in a swiftly flying carriage and pair."

"I have been . . . belated on miry by-roads, towards the small hours,
forty or fifty miles from London, in a wheel-less carriage with exhausted
horses and drunken post-boys, and have got back in time for publication,
to be received with never-forgotten compliments by the late Mr Black . . .
in the broadest of Scotch."

We see plainly enough whence came the description {205} of the chase
after Jingle and Miss Wardle. "'I see his head,' exclaimed the choleric
old man, 'Damme, I see his head. . . ' The countenance of Mr Jingle,
completely coated with mud thrown up by the wheels, was plainly
discernible at the window of his chaise, and the motion of his arm, which
he was waving violently towards the postillions, denoted that he was
encouraging them to increased exertion."

"I never did feel such a jolting in my life," said poor Mr Pickwick; but
it was under such conditions that Dickens worked through the nights
transcribing his shorthand notes.

While he was still a reporter his career as an author began.

In a letter to Wilkie Collins, 6th June 1856, Dickens relates that he
began "to write fugitive pieces for the old _Monthly Magazine_" when he
was in "the gallery" for the _Mirror of Parliament_. His _op. 1_ was
_Mrs Joseph Porter over the Way_; and when it appeared in the glory of
print "I walked down," he wrote, "to Westminster Hall and turned into it
for half an hour, because my eyes were so dimmed with j