186 ARTISTS AND AUTHORS reformer, and was ill-fitted by his temper to lead public opinion. But his lofty moral character, the noble purity and elevation of his life, and his singleness of aim, joined with his extraordinary powers as a poet, as a wielder of the English language and no poet since the great days has had such a varied power over all chords of the lyre these elements combined to make the name of Tennyson without a doubt the greatest of his time among the poets of the English-speak- ing race. He died at Aldworth House, in Surrey, October 6, 1892. ^sr^er CHARLES DICKENS By Walter Besant (1812-1870) Charles Dickens was born at Landport, now a great town, but then a little suburb of Portsmouth, or Portsea, lying half a mile outside of the town walls. The date of his birth was Friday, February 7, 181 2. His father was John Dickens, a clerk in the navy pay-office, and at that time attached to the Portsmouth dockyard. The familiarity which the novelist shows with sea-ports and sailors is not, however, due to his birthplace, because his father, in the year 18 14, was recalled to Lon- don, and in 1816 went to Chatham. They still show the room in the dockyard where the elder Dickens worked, and where his son often came to visit him. The family lived in Ordnance Place, Chatham, and the boy was sent to a school kept in Gibraltar Place, New Road, by one William Giles. As a child he is said to have been a great reader, and very early began to attempt original writing. In 182 1, Charles being then nine years of age, the family fell into trouble ; reforms in the Admiralty deprived the father of his post, and the greater part of his income. They had to leave Chatham and removed to -.':- .-* --- . ma Zanm
