In Sir
Walter Raleigh's _Shakespeare_, 1907, p. 31, it is suggested that "if the
father of Charles Dickens lent his likeness to Mr Micawber, it is at
least possible that some not unkindly memories of the paternal advice of
John Shakespeare have been preserved for us in the sage maxims of
Polonius."

In March 1852 the first number of _Bleak House_ appeared, and he wrote to
Mary Boyle, 22nd July 1852:--"I am not quite sure that I ever did like,
or ever shall like, anything quite so well as _Copperfield_. But I
foresee, I think, some very good things in _Bleak House_." In November
he records that the sale is half as large again as _Copperfield_. In the
winter of 1850 he showed his appreciation of Mrs Gaskell by writing to
her (31st January 1850): "I do honestly know that there is no living
English writer whose aid I would desire to enlist in preference to the
authoress of _Mary Barton_ (a book that most profoundly affected and
impressed me)." . . . .

In September 1857, he writes to Miss Hogarth from Allonby, telling her of
the homage he receives in the North--station-masters help him to alight,
deputations await him at hotels, crowds see him off. The landlady at
Allonby was immensely fat, and her husband said that once on a time he
could tuck his arm round her waist. "'And can't you do it now,' I said,
'you insensible dog? Look at me! Here's a picture!' Accordingly, I got
round as much of her as I could; and this gallant action was the most
successful I have ever performed, on the whole."

In 1853 he took the Chateau des Moulineaux at Boulogne, whence he wrote
asking a friend to visit him. He described his chateau:--"Excellent
light wines on the premises, French cookery, millions of roses, two cows
(for milk punch), vegetables cut for the pot, and handed in at the
kitchen window; five summer-houses, fifteen fountains (with no water in
'em), and thirty-seven clocks (keeping, as I conceive, Australian time)."

In September of the same year (1853) he writes to Walter Savage
Landor:--"I may now write to thank you for the happiness you have given
me by honouring my name with such generous mention on (? in) such a noble
place, in your great book. . . . Believe me, I receive the dedication
like a great dignity, the worth of which I hope I thoroughly know."

In this year, too, he gave his first public readings, which took place at
Birmingham, and well would it have been for him had he never embarked on
this exhau