Re: Life and times in Crawley?

Charles Dickens (cdickens@RMPLC.CO.UK)
Fri, 7 Feb 1997 14:28:37 -0100 

My dear Mr Coombes,

  Your description of the demolition of Lemon's house
in Crawley touched me.  I can think of nothing more
appropriate than the more modern exterior of Vine
Cottage concealing an ancient edifice within.  Lemon
himself, the modern editor of a modern journal, seemed
to his friends to carry within him traces of an ancient
English temper.
  Alas, I was never to visit Lemon in Crawley.  Not
long before he moved there with his family, in 1858,
my wife and I, after many years of domestic unhappiness,
parted.  In the negotations over a deed of separation,
with my consent Lemon undertook to represent Catherine.
I fear he was over-zealous in the execution of his
duties, and this occasioned a cooling of our friendship.
  I can truly declare I bore no malice towards Lemon, and
am glad to be able to say something of our old
warmth was rekindled when we met in 1867, by the grave
of our friend Clarkson Stanfield, but we were never to
recover the intimacy we had enjoyed when he lived in
Gordon Street, I in Tavistock Square.
  That is why I never visited him in Crawley.  Indeed,
so far as I can recall, though I have passed through the
place in railway trains, I have never set foot on its
soil.

Faithfully yours,


Charles Dickens
________________________________________________________________________________
>Dear Mr Dickens
>
>Recently a house in the High Street of Crawley, Sussex was demolished.
> According to a
>friend who witnessed the deed, the outward shell of achitectural accretions
> collapsed to
>reveal a very ancient wooden dwelling, dating from the 16th Centuary.  This was
> once the
>residence of your friend Mark Lemon who was the Editor of Punch.  Given your
> fondness
>for travel and the proximity of London to Crawley, I wonder if you visited your
> friend
>and, indeed, drank at 'The George', an old coaching inn close by?  Could it
also
> be that
>you worshipped at St Johns Church?
>
>I awaite your reply with interest.
>
>Yours sincerely
>
>Neil Coombes
>
>

======================
Charles Dickens
charles_dickens@rmplc.co.uk
Author