Section 180. A LETTER FROM DR. HENRY DANSON TO MR. JOHN FORSTER, ON CHARLES DICKENS’S SCHOOL-LIFE. II.

I do not think (S. 64, N. 11) he⁠[1] came in for any of Mr. Jones’s scourging propensity; in fact, together with myself, he was only a day-pupil, and⁠[2] with these there was a wholesome fear of tales being carried home to the parents. His personal appearance at that time⁠[3] is vividly brought home to me in the portrait of him taken a few years later by Mr. Lawrence. He resided (S. 116, N. 17) with⁠[4] his friends, in a very small house in a street leading out of Seymour Street, north of Mr. Judkin’s chapel.

Depend on it, he was quite a self-made man, and his wonderful knowledge and command (Beherrschung, f.) of the English language must⁠[5] have been acquired by long and patient study after leaving his last school.

I have no recollection of the boy you name⁠[6]. Dickens’s chief⁠[7] associates were, I think⁠[8], Tobin, Mr. Thomas, Bray, and myself. The first named⁠[9] was his chief ally, and his acquaintance with him appears to have continued many⁠[10] years afterwards. About that time⁠[11] the Penny and Saturday magazines (S. 71, N. 2) were published weekly, and were greedily read by (S. 106, N. 23) us. We kept bees, white mice, and other living things, clandestinely⁠[12], in our desks, and the mechanical arts were a good deal cultivated, in⁠[13] the shape of coach-building, and making pumps and boats, the motive power of which was the white mice.

I think at that time Dickens took to writing⁠[14] small tales, and we had a sort of club for⁠[15] lending and circulating them. Dickens was also very strong⁠[16] in using a sort of lingo, which made us⁠[17] quite unintelligible to bystanders.