The Caledonian Volume 16 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1916 Excerpt: ...he became suddenly ill, and soon was unconscious; twenty-four hours thereafter he had passed jway. On the 10th of June the world woke to learn of one of its great bereavements. Dickens, the popular writer and idol, who had endeared himself to the hearts of millions of people the wide world over, was dead, leaving a gap in the friendship that could never be filled. He had expressed a wish long before that he might be buried in the little cemetery under the old castle wall at Rochester, where in the happiest days of his childhood he had run and played. Rochester was ever and always the home of his heart. Immediately at his death, the Dean (Dean Hole) and Chapter of the Cathedral proposed that his grave should be in their sacred fane, but the newspapers of the entire country, led by the London Times, demanded that it be in Westminster Abbey, and on the fourteenth of June, without pub lic announcement, and with the knowledge of only those who took part in the funeral, all that remained of Charles Dickens was laid to rest amid the graves of other of the great literary people who had preceded him. The simplicity of the funeral was in accordance with his own wish, "That he be privately buried without previous announcement of time or place, and without monument or memorial." The stone that covers his grave is marked with the simple inscription: CHARLES DICKENS Born February the 7th, 1812 Died June the 9th, 1870 The Dean and Chapter of Rochester placed a tablet in their cathedral, setting forth the leading dates of his life, and stating that "His earliest and latest years were passed in Rochester." There poured into the home of the bereaved family tributes by the thousand, from Queen Victoria, and from the greatest and the humblest of her subject...