384
NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. v. MAY is, 1012.
The enthusiasm with which Dickens was
/everywhere received exceeded all former
demonstrations, and at Dublin a strong force
of police -mounted and on foot had to
control the traffic.
Among the farewells there was none more brilliant than that of Liverpool, where a banquet was given to Dickens in St. George's Hall, six hundred guests being present. What memories of the past are recalled by the names of the chief speakers ! Lord Dufferin, Lord Houghton, Anthony Trollope, Hepworth Dixon, Sala, Halliday, and Whitty {Liverpool Post). But so much excitement caused the guest great sufferings from fatigue of mind and body, and Dolby, who always arranged for his bedroom to com- municate with that of his beloved chief, so that he might quietly drop in during the night to see how he was getting on, nearly always found him awake.
At length Dickens' s sufferings became so intolerable that he wrote to Beard, his friend and medical adviser, who telegraphed that he was coming to him at Preston at once. On arriving, he prohibited any reading that
night, and got him away quietly to London,
where both he and Sir Thomas Watson
peremptorily insisted that there must be
no readings even in London for the present,
while all travelling in connexion with
readings must be stopped entirely.
Dickens wrote immediately in great distress to Thomas Chappell, who begged him to dismiss from his mind all thoughts of any inconvenience to which the firm might have been put by his illness, and expressed an earnest wish for his speedy and complete recovery. This handsome letter, Dolby tells us, sent Dickens home to Gadshill in " a comparatively easy frame of mind," though in his retirement he still longed to return to the " Reading " life.
After some months, all suspicion of the impending disease had so completely van- ished that, to Dickens's great delight, Sir Thomas Watson gave it as his opinion that he might venture on twelve farewell readings in London only.
JOHN COLLINS FRANCIS.
(To be continued.)
A RUNIC CALENDAR.
VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM, ROOM 132.
(See ante, pp. 261, 285, 321, 363.) CONTINUING the detail of days marked on the calendar, we have the following :
Date.
Object.
Significance.
Remarks.
July
15 +
Twelve stars,
and rake.
Divisio Apostolorum
A reminder to gather the
hay.
The traditional date of the sending
the Apostles.
forth(?) of
20 +
Flower, cross,
and dragon.
St. Margaret of Antioch . .
A legendarv virgin and martyr. See large altar-
piece in' the West Hall (V. & A.M.), No.
5894-1859.
25+
29 +
Plant and
sword.
Axe,
and sickle.
St. James the Great
St. Olaf A reminder to begin the harvest.
Apostle. Beheaded 44.
King and patron saint of Norway.
Killed 1030.
Aug.
1 +
3
Key
Meal tub
St. Peter's Chains
An agricultural or domestic reminder.
Commemorates the imprisonment of St. Peter.
Invented in the ninth century.
10 +
15 + 16
Gridiron,
and flail.
Crown Harrow
St. Lawrence
A reminder to begin
threshing.
The Assumption of the
Virgin.
An agricultural reminder . .
Roasted on a gridiron 258.
Invented 1263.
24+
Knife,
and hop plant.
St. Bartholomew
An agricultural reminder.
Apostle. Played alive.
29+
Sword
The beheading of St. John
the Baptist.
29.
