Gads Hill Place in Higham

Higham, Kent

Higham is a small village bordering the Hoo Peninsula, in Kent, between Gravesend and Rochester. The civil parish of Higham is in Gravesham district and as at the 2001 UK Census, had a population of 3,938.-History:...

, Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

, sometimes spelt Gadshill Place and Gad's Hill Place, was the country home of Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...

, the most successful British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 author of the Victorian era

Victorian era

The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...

.

The house was built in 1780 for a former Mayor of Rochester, Thomas Stephens, opposite the Sir John Falstaff

Falstaff

Sir John Falstaff is a fictional character who appears in three plays by William Shakespeare. In the two Henry IV plays, he is a companion to Prince Hal, the future King Henry V. A fat, vain, boastful, and cowardly knight, Falstaff leads the apparently wayward Prince Hal into trouble, and is...

 Public House. Charles Dickens first saw the mansion when he was 9 years old in 1821, when his father John Dickens

John Dickens

John Dickens was the father of English novelist Charles Dickens and was the model for Mr Micawber in his son's semi-autobiographical novel David Copperfield.-Biography:...

 told Charles that if he worked hard enough, one day he would own it or just such a house. As a boy, Charles Dickens would often walk from Chatham to Gads Hill Place as he wished to see it again and again as an image of his possible future. Dickens was later to write, " I used to look at it as a wonderful Mansion (which God knows it is not) when I was a very odd little child with the first faint shadows of all my books in my head - I suppose." Thirty-five years later, after Dickens had risen to fame and wealth, he discovered that the house was for sale and bought it for £1790 in March 1856 from Mrs Eliza Lynn Linton. Initially Dickens bought the house as an investment, intending to let it, but changed his mind and used it instead as a country retreat, moving into the house in June 1857.

Dickens had bookshelves installed in his study at Gads Hill Place, some of which contained dummy books the titles of which he invented to reflect his own prejudices and opinions, including Hansard's Guide to Refreshing Sleep, History of a Short Chancery Suit in twenty-one volumes, Socrates on Wedlock, King Henry the Eighth's Evidences of Christianity, and the series The Wisdom of Our Ancestors: I Ignorance, II Superstition, III The Block, IV The Stake, V The Rack, VI Dirt, and VII Disease. Alongside these was placed a very narrow dummy volume entitled The Virtues of Our Ancestors.

Dickens was visited at Gads Hill Place in 1857 by Danish

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 author and poet Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish author, fairy tale writer, and poet noted for his children's stories. These include "The Steadfast Tin Soldier," "The Snow Queen," "The Little Mermaid," "Thumbelina," "The Little Match Girl," and "The Ugly Duckling."...

, who was invited for two weeks but who stayed for five. Other guests included Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline...

, Charles Allston Collins

Charles Allston Collins

thumb|Convent Thoughts by CollinsCharles Allston Collins was a British painter, writer and illustrator associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.-Early years:...

, Wilkie Collins

Wilkie Collins

William Wilkie Collins was an English novelist, playwright, and author of short stories. He was very popular during the Victorian era and wrote 30 novels, more than 60 short stories, 14 plays, and over 100 non-fiction pieces...

, Marcus Stone

Marcus Stone

Marcus Stone , English painter, son of Frank Stone, ARA, was trained by his father and began to exhibit at the Royal Academy before he was eighteen; and a few years later he illustrated with much success books by Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, and other writers, friends of his family.He was...

, H.F. Chorley

Henry Fothergill Chorley

Henry Fothergill Chorley was an English literary, art and music critic and editor. He was also an author of novels, drama, poetry and lyrics....

 Percy Fitzgerald

Percy Hethrington Fitzgerald

Percy Hetherington Fitzgerald was a British author and critic, painter and sculptor. He was born in Ireland at Fane Valley, County Louth, educated at Stonyhurst College, Lancashire, and at Trinity College, Dublin...

, John Leech, Alexander William Kinglake

Alexander William Kinglake

Alexander William Kinglake was an English travel writer and historian.He was born near Taunton, Somerset and educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge...

, William Powell Frith

William Powell Frith

William Powell Frith , was an English painter specialising in genre subjects and panoramic narrative works of life in the Victorian era. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1852...

 and Charles Fechter

Charles Fechter

-Biography:Fechter was born, probably in London, of French parents, although his mother was of Piedmontese and his father of German extraction.As a boy he had ambitions to be a sculptor's life but discovered his talent accidentally while appearing in some private theatricals. In 1841 he joined a...

. The house became Dickens's country home until his death in 1870, when he died from a stroke on a couch in the dining room. Many of the contents of the house were auctioned after his death.

In 1864 Fechter

Charles Fechter

-Biography:Fechter was born, probably in London, of French parents, although his mother was of Piedmontese and his father of German extraction.As a boy he had ambitions to be a sculptor's life but discovered his talent accidentally while appearing in some private theatricals. In 1841 he joined a...

 gave Dickens a prefabricated two-storey Swiss chalet as a Christmas present. Dickens had it assembled on land he owned on the opposite side of the Rochester High Road. Later, he had a brick-lined tunnel dug between the house's front lawn and the chalet. During the Spring and Summer months Dickens worked on many of his later works in his study on the top floor of this Swiss chalet, including A Tale of Two Cities

A Tale of Two Cities

A Tale of Two Cities is a novel by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. With well over 200 million copies sold, it ranks among the most famous works in the history of fictional literature....

, Great Expectations

Great Expectations

Great Expectations is a novel by Charles Dickens. It was first published in serial form in the publication All the Year Round from 1 December 1860 to August 1861. It has been adapted for stage and screen over 250 times....

, Our Mutual Friend

Our Mutual Friend

Our Mutual Friend is the last novel completed by Charles Dickens and is one of his most sophisticated works, combining psychological insight with social analysis. It centres on, in the words of critic J. Hillis Miller, "money, money, money, and what money can make of life" but is also about human...

and the unfinished The Mystery of Edwin Drood

The Mystery of Edwin Drood

The Mystery of Edwin Drood is the final novel by Charles Dickens. The novel was left unfinished at the time of Dickens' death, and his intended ending for it remains unknown. Though the novel is named after the character Edwin Drood, the story focuses on Drood's uncle, choirmaster John Jasper, who...

. The chalet has been preserved and was moved to the 'Dickens Centre' in Rochester High Street, Rochester, as a memorial to the writer.

Gads Hill Place was bought by Charles Dickens, Jr

Charles Dickens, Jr

Charles Dickens, Jr, born Charles Culliford Boz Dickens , was the first child of the novelist Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine. A failed businessman, he became the editor of his father's magazine All the Year Round, and a successful writer of dictionaries...

 after his father's death, but he was forced to give it up in 1879 because of his own ill-health. In 1924 the house became Gad's Hill School

Gad's Hill School

Gad's Hill School in Kent, England was formerly Gads Hill Place, the country home of Charles Dickens. It became an independent, private day school in 1924.-Traditions:...

, which it remains today.

In June 2008 the house was shown in the Channel 4

Channel 4

Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

 TV docudrama Dickens' Secret Lover, presented by actor Charles Dance

Charles Dance

Walter Charles Dance, OBE is an English actor, screenwriter and director. Dance typically plays assertive bureaucrats or villains. His most famous roles are Guy Perron in The Jewel in the Crown , Dr Clemens, the doctor of penitentiary Fury 161, who becomes Ellen Ripley's confidante in Alien 3 ,...

, on Dickens's alleged affair with the actress Ellen Ternan

Ellen Ternan

Ellen Lawless Ternan , also known as Nelly Ternan or Nelly Robinson, was an English actress who is mainly known as the woman for whom Charles Dickens separated from his wife Catherine.-Life:...

 during the last 13 years of his life.
Gads Hill Place is a Grade I listed building.

External links

• The Gads Hill Appeal
• http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7594964.stmGads Hill Visitors Centre BBC
  BBC
  The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
  
  News 2008]
• Gads Hill Place on Discover Gravesham
• Description of Gads Hill Place from c.1900