gardens, woods, and fields--or, rather, from the one great garden
of the whole of the cultivated island in its yielding
time--penetrate into the Cathedral, subdue its earthy odour, and
preach the Resurrection and the Life. The cold stone tombs of
centuries ago grow warm, and flecks of brightness dart into the
sternest marble corners of the building, fluttering there like
wings."

On the eve of that last day he had more than once expressed his
satisfaction at having finally abandoned all intention of exchanging
Gadshill for London. He had done this still more impressively a few days
before.

"While he lived, he said, he should wish his name to be more and
more associated with the place; and he had a notion that when he
died, he should like to lie in the little graveyard belonging to
the Cathedral at the foot of the Castle wall."

Half of his wish had to go unfulfilled; the other half has been realized
in a different but a profounder sense than that in which it is
conceived. While he lives, in the creations of his humour and pathos,
airy things of fun and frolic, tenderness and tears, his name is more
and more associated "with the scenes"--to borrow the words of the
memorial tablet in Rochester Cathedral--"in which his earliest and his
latest years were passed", scenes that "from the associations ... which
extended over all his life" have the best right to be known as
"Dickens-land".

_Printed by Blackie & Son, Ltd., Glasgow_

* * * * *

Transcriber's note

The following changes have been made to the text:

Page 19: "by an unbridgable chasm" changed to "by an unbridgeable
chasm".

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Dickens-Land, by J. A. Nicklin

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