show that old resentments were forgotten. Dickens first read in Boston on 2 Dec.; thence he went to New York; he read afterwards at Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, again at Philadelphia, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, Springfield, Portland, New Bedford, and finally at Boston and New York again. He received a public dinner at New York (18 April), and reached England in the first week of May 1868. He made nearly 20,000l. in America, but at a heavy cost in health. He was constantly on the verge of a breakdown. He naturally complimented Americans, not only for their generous hospitality, but for the many social improvements since his previous visits, though politically he saw little to admire. He promised that no future edition of his ‘Notes’ or ‘Chuzzlewit’ should be issued without a mention of the improvements which had taken place in America, or in his state of mind. As a kind of thank-offering, he had a copy of the ‘Old Curiosity Shop’ printed in raised letters, and presented it to an American asylum for the blind.
Unfortunately Dickens was induced upon his return to give a final series of readings in England. He was to receive 8,000l. for a hundred readings. They began in October 1868. Dickens had preferred as a novelty a reading of the murder in ‘Oliver Twist.’ He had thought of this as early as 1863, but it was ‘so horrible’ that he was then ‘afraid to try it in public’ (Letters, ii. 200). The performance was regarded by Forster as in itself ‘illegitimate,’ and Forster’s protest led to a ‘painful correspondence.’ In any case, it involved an excitement and a degree of physical labour which told severely upon his declining strength. He was to give weekly readings in London alternately with readings in the country. In February 1869 he was forced to suspend his work under medical advice. After a few days’ rest he began again, in spite of remonstrances from his friends and family. At last he broke down at Preston. On 23 April Sir Thomas Watson held a consultation with Mr. Beard, and found that he had been ‘on the brink of an attack of paralysis of his left side, and possibly of apoplexy,’ due to overwork, worry, and excitement. He was ordered to give up his readings, though after some improvement Sir Thomas consented to twelve readings without railway travelling, which Dickens was anxious to give as some compensation to Messrs. Chappell for their disappointment. In the same autumn he began ‘Edwin Drood.’ He was to receive 7,500l. for twenty-five thousand copies, and fifty thousand were sold during his life. It ‘very, very far outstripped every one of its predecessors’ (J. T. Fields, p. 246). He passed the year at Gadshill, leaving it occasionally to attend a few meetings, and working at his book. His last readings were given at St. James’s Hall from January to March. On 1 March he took a final leave of his hearers in a few graceful words. In April appeared the first number of ‘Edwin Drood.’ In the same month he appeared for the last time in public, taking the chair at the newsvendors’ dinner, and replying for ‘literature’ at the dinner of the Royal Academy (30 April), when he spoke feelingly of the death of his old friend Maclise. He was at work upon his novel at Gadshill in June, and showed unusual fatigue. On 8 June he was working in the ‘châlet,’ which had been presented to him in 1859 by Fechter, and put up as a study in his garden. He came into the house about six o’clock, and, after a few words to his sister-in-law, fell to the ground. There was an effusion on the brain; he never spoke again, and died at ten minutes past six on 9 June 1870. He was buried with all possible simplicity in Westminster Abbey 14 June following.
Dickens had ten children by his wife: Charles, born 1837; Mary, born 1838; Kate, born 1839, afterwards married to Charles Allston Collins [q. v.], and now Mrs. Perugini; Walter Landor, born 1841, died 12 Dec. 1863 (see above); Francis Jeffrey, born 1843; Alfred Tennyson, born 1845, settled in Australia; Sydney Smith Haldemand, born 1847, in the navy, buried at sea 2 May 1867; Henry Fielding, born 1849; Dora Annie, born 1850, died 14 April 1851; and Edward Bulwer Lytton, born 1852, settled in Australia.
Dickens’s appearance is familiar by innumerable photographs. Among portraits may be mentioned (1) by Maclise in 1839 (engraved as frontispiece to ‘Nicholas Nickleby’), original in possession of Sir Alfred Jodrell of Bayfield, Norfolk; (2) pencil drawing by Malise in 1842 (with his wife and sister); (3) oil-painting by E. M. Ward in 1854 (in possession of Mrs. Ward); (4) oil-painting by Ary Scheffer in 1856 (in National Portrait Gallery); (5) oil-painting by W. P. Frith in 1859 (in Forster collection at South Kensington). Dickens was frequently compared in later life to a bronzed sea captain. In early portraits he has a dandified appearance, and was always a little over-dressed. He possessed a wiry frame, implying enormous nervous energy rather than muscular strength, and was most active in his habits, though not really robust. He seems to have over-taxed his strength by his passion for walking. All who knew him, from Carlyle downwards, speak of his many fine qualities: his generosity, sincerity, and kindliness. He
