Charles Dickens and Higham a Circular Walk
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Charles Dickens and Higham A circular walk www.kent.gov.uk/explorekent KENT Charles John Huffam Dickens was born in Portsmouth on the 7th of February 1812 to John and Elizabeth Dickens, the 2nd of 8 children. John was a pay clerk in the Royal Navy and the family moved with his job, coming to Chatham when Charles was 5 years old. Dickens was so inspired by what he found in Kent that he returned here for the last years of his life. Many people and places in his novels have Kentish roots. The marshland around this area lent itself to the vivid opening of Great Expectations. Dickens was a dedicated walker. 12 miles was an average daily walk. He would walk in all weathers, turning ideas over in his mind. This walk covers 6.6 miles and includes places & landmarks that Dickens would have known well. 1 Arrivals 2 Building a new life It is unlikely that Dickens would Dickens’s early life was happy, but his have chosen to live at Gad’s Hill father John was careless with money Place had Higham lacked a railway and fell into debt. In 1823 John was station. Regular railway travel was compelled to put his son Charles to “…walking was, perhaps, vital to Dickens. Even his traumatic work in Warren’s blacking factory near experience of the Staplehurst railway the Strand, pasting labels onto bottles his chiefest pleasure, and crash on the 9th of June 1865 did not of boot polish for 6 shillings a week. the country lanes and city curtail this. Dickens felt the indignity keenly. streets alike found him a close Only a few days after Dickens began observer of their beauties Dickens would often walk or ride his factory life his father served 3 and interests. He was a rapid down to Higham Railway Station to months in the Marshalsea Prison for greet visitors to Gad’s Hill Place on unpaid debts. walker, his usual pace being their arrival in Higham. four miles an hour, and to Dickens’s intense drive for personal keep step with him required From the entrance road to Higham success was in reaction to these energy and activity similar to Railway Station, turn right and cross childhood experiences. He bought his own.” Mamie Dickens the railway bridge. Take the footpath Gad’s Hill Place, not only as a home on the right which leads over open but also to mark his achievements. fields. Follow the path until you reach a track, (The Landway.) Turn right and head uphill past White House Farm. The KnoleThe My father, seeing me so fond of it, has often said to me, ‘If you were to be very persevering and were to work hard, you might some day come to live in it. Clerks Cottage c1900 Gads Hill Place Gads Hill Place was leased to Joseph would ensure “audibility in reading to a In 1859, a tunnel was built under the 5 A Writer’s refuge Hindle (the vicar of Higham from congregation.” road so Dickens could cross to his 1829 to 1874.) Dickens allowed him to In 1864, the actor Charles Fechter chalet unimpeded by traffic. remain there until Hindle’s newly built After passing the church, turn left on gave Dickens a Swiss chalet as a In the 1960s, the chalet was moved house, ‘The Knowle’ was ready. to Forge Lane. Christmas present. The chalet was to the garden of Eastgate House in delivered to Gad’s Hill, via Higham Rochester, which was fictionalised as You will find Higham Library on your Shortly after the farm, take the path Railway station, in 58 boxes. It was the Westgate House Establishment for right, next door to the Gardeners bearing right across the field with St assembled across the road from Gad’s Young Ladies in The Pickwick Papers Arms. John’s Church in front of you. Upon Hill Place in the area that Dickens and the Nun’s House in The Mystery reaching the field edge, turn left referred to as ‘the shrubbery’. In May of Edwin Drood. 4 Reading Dickens alongside allotments and then right 1868 he wrote: “The place is lovely, along Hermitage Road. 200 years since his birth, Charles and in perfect order. I have put five Please note that The Wilderness is Dickens remains the most popular mirrors in the Swiss chalet (where I private property. write) and they reflect and refract in 3 Shrinking the Sunday walk novelist in the English language. His all kinds of ways the leaves that are books are read around the world 6 Dickens’s dream house Joseph Hindle was conscious that and the characters he described – quivering at the windows, and the his church was almost 2 miles away Ebenezer Scrooge, Miss Haversham, great fields of waving corn, and the “A mansion of dull red brick, with a little from the growing communities of Mr Pickwick – full of the life and sail-dotted river. weathercock-surmounted cupola on the Mid & Upper Higham. He paid for energy of their creator, are immortal. roof, and a bell hanging in it.” the building of St John’s Church on My room is up among the branches A Christmas Carol Hermitage Road. The church was To find out more about Charles of the trees; and the birds and the consecrated in January 1862. Dickens & his written works visit butterflies fly in and out, and the As a boy, Charles would walk with Higham Library. green branches shoot in, at the open his father to Gad’s Hill, famous as the As residents of Upper Higham, The windows, and the lights and shadows location of Falstaff’s failed attempt Dickens family began to attend St As you enter the library you will see of the clouds come and go with the at highway robbery in Shakespeare’s John’s Church in preference to St a framed large scale map of Higham rest of the company. The scent of the Henry IV Part I. Dickens recalled his Mary’s. The family had a pew in the to the left of the door. The map is flowers, and indeed of everything that early fascination with Gad’s Hill Place chancel. dated 1864 so the streets, buildings is growing for miles and miles, is most in The Uncommercial Traveller: and landmarks of Dickens’ day are delicious.” “You admire that house?” said I. Christopher Cay, the curate of St recorded. “Bless you, sir,” said the very queer John’s Church, benefited from Here Dickens worked on Great small boy, “when I was not more than Dickens’ “practice and experience” Leaving the Library, continue down Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, Our half as old as nine, it used to be a treat as a famous public reader. Dickens Forge Lane to the end of the road and Mutual Friend, The Uncommercial for me to be brought to look at it. And advised him that “reading more from turn left. Traveller and The Mystery of Edwin now, I am nine, I come by myself to look the chest and less from the throat” Drood. at it. And ever since I can recollect, We ascend to the monument. Stop at the gate. Moon is rising. Heavy shadows… Suddenly, as we enter the field, a most extraordinary noise responds... View from Hermitage Rd View from From The Larches continue along my father, seeing me so fond of it, has foot-races and rustic sports in my field 8 Dickens the man of the world often said to me, ‘If you were to be very here… As I have never yet had a case of (& ghost hunter!) Hermitage Road. Enjoy the great views persevering and were to work hard, you drunkenness, the landlord of The Falstaff to either side. Dickens paid attention to current might some day come to live in it.’ had a drinking-booth on the ground… affairs and as a young man worked as Take the footpath on your left just We had two thousand people here. a parliamentary reporter. He would before Mill Barn. You can see the base Dickens paid for the house on the have been familiar with the reforms of the old windmill. Follow the well 14th of March 1856. His son Charley introduced in 1832 by Rochester defined path straight and cross the recalled the purchase: “We inspected auctioneer Charles Larkin giving the road to take the restricted byway. the premises as well as we could vote to every householder owning Follow the track straight ahead to from the outside – my father, full of property worth more than 10 pounds. another road. Turn right towards pride at his new position as a Kentish The monument on Telegraph Hill was freeholder…and we lunched at the Lillechurch and take the footpath erected to commemorate Larkin after Falstaff Inn opposite, and walked to opposite the farm entrance. his death in 1833 and has since been Gravesend to dinner, full of delightful Head across the field passing through renovated twice. anticipation of the country life to come.” kissing gates, when you reach the road, take the track opposite through In 1860 rumour spread that the hill Please note that Gad’s Hill School is Oakleigh Nursery & Farm. was haunted. Dickens took his young private property. St Johns Falstaff sons ghost-hunting as he wrote to his When the track splits, take the left- friend the author Wilkie Collins: hand fork with St Mary’s church spire 7 A merry man Among the crowd were soldiers, navvies, directly in front of you. and labourers of all kinds…There was Dickens’s guests often stayed at the “We ascend to the monument.