sting show it proved to be.

The catalogue of this exhibition, however, had tacked on to it this
significant note: "The Committee's quest for literary memorabilia of the
immortal 'Boz' indicates the distressing fact that many of the rarest
items are lost to us for ever."

All of which goes again to show that the great interest of Americans in
the subject is, in a way, the excuse for being of this monograph on London
during the life and times of Dickens.

Various exhibitions of Dickens' manuscripts have been publicly held in
London from time to time, at The Exhibition of the Works of the English
Humourists in 1889, at the Victorian Exhibition of 1897, and the British
Museum has generally on show, in the "King's Library," a manuscript or two
of the novels; there are many more always to be seen in the "Dyce and
Forster Collection" at South Kensington. Never, before the exhibition held
in 1902 by the "Dickens Fellowship," has there been one absolutely
restricted to Dickens.

It is, of course, impossible to enumerate the various items, and it would
not be meet that the attempt should be made here. It will be enough to say
that among the many interesting numbers was the first portion of an
unpublished travesty on "Othello," written in 1833, before the first
published "Boz" sketch, and a hitherto unknown (to experts) page of
"Pickwick," this one fragment being valued, says the catalogue, at L150
sterling. First editions, portraits, oil paintings, miniatures, and what
not, and autographs were here in great numbers, presentation copies of
Dickens' books, given to his friends, and autographs and portraits of his
contemporaries, as well as the original sketches of illustrations to the
various works by Seymour, "Phiz," Cruikshank, Stone, Leech, Barnard, and
Pailthorpe, not forgetting a reference to the excellent work of our own
Darley, and latterly Charles Dana Gibson.

Among the most interesting items of contemporary interest in this
exhibition, which may be classed as unique, were presentation copies of
the novels made to friends and acquaintances by Dickens himself.

Among them were "David Copperfield," a presentation copy to the Hon. Mrs.
Percy Fitzgerald; "Oliver Twist," with the following inscription on the
title-page, "From George Cruikshank to H. W. Brunton, March 19, 1872;" "A
Child's History of England," with an autograph letter to Marcus Stone,
R. A.; "A Tale of Two Cities," presented to Mrs. Macready, with autograp