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A Dickens of a Night
A famous event at Freemasons' Hall 135 years ago in honour of Charles Dickens is to be celebrated next month. Michael Slater explains the background
On 2 November 1867, Freemasons' Hall was the setting for a grand dinner in honour of Charles
Dickens, who was about to embark on a reading tour of the United States.
Nearly 450 guests sat down to a banquet in the hall while, as Charles Kent, author of Charles Dickens as a Reader, put it: 'more than 100 fair
spectators were ranged in the ladies' gallery'.
As Dickens entered the hall arm-in-arm with his
brother novelist Lord Lytton, the band of the Grenadier Guards struck up a 'full march' and the two men
received a hugely enthusiastic, handkerchief waving welcome.
On the walls of the hall were emblazoned the titles of
Dickens' books 'in great gold letters' and the Observer declared: 'the noble room had all the semblance of a temple especially erected to the honour and for the glorification of England's favourite author'.
When, after the dinner, a visibly shaken Dickens, moved by the warmth of his reception, rose to speak, 'the whole company rose in their seats, and cheered again and again'.
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MQ Magazine
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