A Week's Tramp in Dickens-Land

Rochester serves as the base for two Dickens enthusiasts exploring the places associated with the novelist in the late summer of 1888. William R. Hughes records their week of walking, beginning with a preliminary London excursion and connecting Kent's streets and landscapes with passages from Dickens's fiction. He combines travel observations with personal reminiscences, letters and information gathered from the people he meets. Later visits in different seasons allow him to check his first impressions.

The account pays close attention to small objects as well as familiar literary locations. At William Ball's home, Hughes examines silver bells used on Dickens's carriage and a hall clock that prompted a humorous letter to its maker. Another letter explains Dickens's pleasure in receiving a balustrade from old Rochester Bridge. These encounters give readers interested in Dickens a view of the everyday possessions, local friendships and physical surroundings that Hughes sought out, while preserving the conversational character of a literary walking tour.