{"id":5338,"date":"2020-02-10T15:48:15","date_gmt":"2020-02-10T15:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/?p=5338"},"modified":"2021-06-15T16:30:24","modified_gmt":"2021-06-15T15:30:24","slug":"celebrating-150-years-of-charles-dickens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/celebrating-150-years-of-charles-dickens\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating 150 years of Charles Dickens"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

To mark the 150<\/strong>th<\/strong><\/sup> anniversary of Charles Dickens\u2019s death this year, Professor Carolyn Oulton discusses the writer\u2019s connections with Kent. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Billiard room? Conservatory? Drawing room? Or maybe we should start in the library? No this isn\u2019t a game of Cluedo, although it does involve snooping round a family home unearthing secrets. To be precise, we are in Gad\u2019s Hill Place, near Higham in Rochester, where Dickens was still working on The Mystery of Edwin Drood<\/em> at the time of his death in 1870. A rare copy of the sales catalogue, now held by the British Library, shows an attractive and substantial house with its own vinery, coach house and stables. A testament indeed to the success of a young boy from the Medway whose father once told him that if he worked hard he might one day come to live in a house like this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The ground floor plans of Charles Dickens’ Gad’s Hill Place. Image courtesy of British Library<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Dickensland<\/a>\u2019, part of a Kent Maps online project being developed by Canterbury Christ Church University in collaboration with JSTOR Labs, follows Dickens and his characters round Kent, from his childhood in the environs of Chatham Dockyard to his triumphant return to Gad\u2019s Hill as a famous author in the 1850s. Following the advice of Victorian guide books, we make our very own literary pilgrimage across Kent. Along the way we meet David, the boy who runs away to Dover \u2013 or should that be Broadstairs? \u2013 and Pip, the blacksmith\u2019s apprentice from the marshes who wants to be a London \u2018gentleman\u2019. We track down the inn (we like to think) where Magwitch lies low before being ruthlessly recaptured by the forces of law and order. We dodge Edwin Drood<\/em>\u2019s Rosa Budd (she really is the most drippy young woman) and drink tea with Snodgrass from The Pickwick Papers<\/em>. In the course of our adventures we are insulted by beautiful young women, treated kindly by motherly landladies and befriend a range of eccentric characters. Among the most startling is a Major Budden, who was living at Gad\u2019s Hill in the 1880s when the house dramatically caught fire. We cannot help wondering what the health and safety experts would make of this account, \u2018It is the old story \u2013 a leakage of gas, a naked light, and an explosion; happily, Major Budden\u2019s supply of hand-grenades did their duty and saved the building.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Birdseye view of Gad’s Hill Place. Image courtesy of the British Library <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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South View of Gad’s Hill Place. Image courtesy of the British Library<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If\nyou would like to join us for our project symposium on  Wednesday 12 February and commemorate the 150th<\/sup>\nanniversary of Dickens\u2019s death, contact carolyn.oulton@canterbury.ac.uk<\/a>. Or you can keep up with\ndevelopments at #KentMaps. Any takers for Drood, in the library with a\ncandlestick?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carolyn\nOulton is Professor of Victorian Literature and Director of the International\nCentre for Victorian Women Writers (ICVWW). She is also subject lead for\nCreative and Professional Writing in the School of Humanities. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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