lings; but he had got
into a Christmas habit of mind, and wouldn't respond.

FOOTNOTES:

[6] With whom Mr. and Mrs. Wills were staying at Aberystwith.

NARRATIVE.

1861.

This, as far as his movements were concerned, was again a very unsettled
year with Charles Dickens. He hired a furnished house in the Regent's
Park, which he, with his household, occupied for some months. During the
season he gave several readings at St. James's Hall. After a short
summer holiday at Gad's Hill, he started, in the autumn, on a reading
tour in the English provinces. Mr. Arthur Smith, being seriously ill,
could not accompany him in this tour; and Mr. Headland, who was formerly
in office at the St. Martin's Hall, was engaged as business-manager of
these readings. Mr. Arthur Smith died in October, and Charles Dickens's
distress at the loss of this loved friend and companion is touchingly
expressed in many of his letters of this year.

There are also sorrowful allusions to the death of his brother-in-law,
Mr. Henry Austin, which sad event likewise happened in October. And the
letter we give to Mrs. Austin ("Letitia") has reference to her sad
affliction.

In June of this year he paid a short visit to Sir E. B. Lytton at
Knebworth, accompanied by his daughter and sister-in-law, who also
during his autumn tour joined him in Edinburgh. But this course of
readings was brought rather suddenly to an end on account of the death
of the Prince Consort.

Besides being constantly occupied with the business of these readings,
Charles Dickens was still at work on his story of "Great Expectations,"
which was appearing weekly in "All the Year Round." The story closed on
the 3rd of August, when it was published as a whole in three volumes,
and inscribed to Mr. Chauncey Hare Townshend. The Christmas number of
"All the Year Round" was called "Tom Tiddler's Ground," to which Charles
Dickens contributed three stories.

Our second letter in this year is given more as a specimen of the claims
which were constantly being made upon Charles Dickens's time and
patience, than because we consider the letter itself to contain much
public interest; excepting, indeed, as showing his always considerate
and courteous replies to such constant applications.

"The fire" mentioned in the letter to Mr. Forster was the great fire in
Tooley Street. The "Morgan" was an American sea-captain, well known in
those days, and greatly liked and respected. It may intere