considered and abandoned for the time. But the proposal was constantly
renewed, and the idea never wholly relinquished for many years before he
actually decided on making so distant a "reading tour."

Mr. Procter contributed to the early numbers of "All the Year Round"
some very spirited "Songs of the Trades." We give notes from Charles
Dickens to the veteran poet, both in the last year, and in this year,
expressing his strong approval of them.

The letter and two notes to Mr. (afterwards Sir Antonio) Panizzi, for
which we are indebted to Mr. Louis Fagan, one of Sir A. Panizzi's
executors, show the warm sympathy and interest which he always felt for
the cause of Italian liberty, and for the sufferings of the State
prisoners who at this time took refuge in England.

We give a little note to the dear friend and companion of Charles
Dickens's daughters, "Lotty" White, because it is a pretty specimen of
his writing, and because the young girl, who is playfully "commanded" to
get well and strong, died early in July of this year. She was, at the
time this note was written, first attacked with the illness which was
fatal to all her sisters. Mamie and Kate Dickens went from Gad's Hill to
Bonchurch to pay a last visit to their friend, and he writes to his
eldest daughter there. Also we give notes of loving sympathy and
condolence to the bereaved father and mother.

In the course of this summer Charles Dickens was not well, and went for
a week to his old favourite, Broadstairs--where Mr. Wilkie Collins and
his brother, Mr. Charles Allston Collins, were staying--for sea-air and
change, preparatory to another reading tour, in England only. His letter
from Peterborough to Mr. Frank Stone, giving him an account of a reading
at Manchester (Mr. Stone's native town), was one of the last ever
addressed to that affectionate friend, who died very suddenly, to the
great grief of Charles Dickens, in November. The letter to Mr. Thomas
Longman, which closes this year, was one of introduction to that
gentleman of young Marcus Stone, then just beginning his career as an
artist, and to whom the premature death of his father made it doubly
desirable that he should have powerful helping hands.

Charles Dickens refers, in a letter to Mrs. Watson, to his portrait by
Mr. Frith, which was finished at the end of 1858. It was painted for Mr.
Forster, and is now in the "Forster Collection" at South Kensington
Museum.

The Christmas number of this ye