The ghost story that Charles Dickens tells Mekitty in A Tale of Two Hittys is based on a real event. Click on the link to read Chapter 2 first, if you haven’t already done so. My ghost story was inspired by a letter which Charles Dickens wrote to Wilkie Collins, a fellow author and the brother of his son-in-law, Charles Collins, on Wednesday, October 24th, 1860. In my version, I pushed the timeline to December of the same year. I also elaborated on some of the details and changed the dialog to make the story more understandable and accessible to modern readers.
Original letter from Charles Dickens to Wilkie Collins:
Rumours were brought into the house on Saturday night, that there was a “ghost” up at Larkins’s monument. Plorn was frightened to death, and I was apprehensive of the ghost’s spreading and coming there, and causing “warning” and desertion among the servants. Frank was at home, and Andrew Gordon was with us. Time, nine o’clock. Village talk and credulity, amazing. I armed the two boys with a short stick apiece, and shouldered my double-barrelled gun, well loaded with shot. “Now observe,” says I to the domestics, “if anybody is playing tricks and has got a head, I’ll blow it off.” Immense impression. New groom evidently convinced that he has entered the service of a bloodthirsty demon. We ascend to the monument. Stop at the gate. Moon is rising. Heavy shadows. “Now, look out!” (from the bloodthirsty demon, in a loud, distinct voice). “If the ghost is here and I see him, so help me God I’ll fire at him!” Suddenly, as we enter the field, a most extraordinary noise responds—terrific noise—human noise—and yet superhuman noise. B. T. D. brings piece to shoulder. “Did you hear that, pa?” says Frank. “I did,” says I. Noise repeated—portentous, derisive, dull, dismal, damnable. We advance towards the sound. Something white comes lumbering through the darkness. An asthmatic sheep! Dead, as I judge, by this time. Leaving Frank to guard him, I took Andrew with me, and went all round the monument, and down into the ditch, and examined the field well, thinking it likely that somebody might be taking advantage of the sheep to frighten the village. Drama ends with discovery of no one, and triumphant return to rum-and-water.
Charles Dickens, October 24th, 1860
In my version of the story, the “asthmatic sheep” is on her back, helpless and unable to get up. It is actually true that some sheep, especially pregnant ewes with heavy winter coats, can become top-heavy and unable to roll over if they end up on their backs. Sheep in this position are called “Cast Sheep,” and it is quite a dangerous situation. If a sheep is on her back for too long, internal gases can build up in the digestive tract and kill her. Dickens and the boys did the sheep a very good “turn” by turning her over! You can watch a video of a cast sheep here:
Who was Charles Larkin?
Charles Larkin was a British politician who had been active in Parliamentary reform. He expanded the right to vote to every property holder with a rental value over £10 in the village of Higham. To honor him, the villagers built him a monument after he died in 1833.
The Friends of Freedom in Kent erected this Monument to the Memory of CHARLES LARKIN,
In grateful testimony to his fearless and long
Advocation of Civil and Religious Liberty
And his zealous exertions in promoting the
Ever Memorable Measure of
Parliamentary Reform
AD 1832
After Charles Dickens told Mekitty the ghost story in Chapter 2 of A Tale of Two Hittys, she left the library and entered the hall. Then she heard a clock chiming. That very same clock is now kept at the Charles Dickens Museum, and you can hear it chime in this video:
And now you know all the secrets behind Chapter 2! If you enjoyed this post and want to be notified when I finish new chapters, please subscribe.
Sources:
Charles Dickens Museum. “Take a closer look at Charles Dickens’s hall clock.” YouTube. https://youtu.be/c7-fXKM8j_8. Accessed October, 2021.
“Charles Larkin.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Larkin. Accessed October, 2021.
Dickens, Charles. The Letters of Charles Dickens, Vol. 2 (of 3), 1857-1870, Project Gutenberg. Release Date: June 20, 2008 [EBook #25853]. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25853. Accessed October, 2021.
Huckett, Leroy. “White-Sheep-599040.” Pexels. https://www.pexels.com/photo/white-sheep-599040/. Accessed October, 2021.
Larkin’s Monument Photo: RM8426, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/Charles_Larkin_monument.jpg. Accessed October, 2021.
Nickless, Andy. “How You Could Easily Save a Sheep’s Life.” YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0iJQD7B6DQ. Accessed October, 2021.
“Photograph of Charles and Francis Jeffrey Dickens.” Illustrations. Free Library of Philadelphia: Philadelphia, PA. https://libwww.freelibrary.org/digital/item/38568. Accessed October, 2021.
