An early 19th century view of Dover. Such a view
as this greeted David Copperfield as he approached
Dover.
‘The Personal History of David Copperfield’
by Charles Dickens,
was published in November 1850, having appeared in serial
form between May 1849 and November 1850.
In Chapter 13 Dickens describes David’s
arrival in Dover in his search for his great-aunt Betsy
Trotwood:
“When I came, at last, upon the
bare, wide downs near Dover, it relieved the solitary
aspect of the scene with hope; and not until I reached
that first great aim of my journey, and actually set
foot in the town itself, on the sixth day of my flight,
did it desert me. But then, strange to say, when I stood
with my ragged shoes, and my dusty, sunburnt, half-clothed
figure, in the place so long desired, it seemed to vanish
like a dream, and to leave me helpless and dispirited.
I inquired about my aunt among the
boatmen first, and received various answers. One said
she lived in the South Foreland Light, and had singed
her whiskers by doing so; another, that she was made
fast to the great buoy outside the harbour, and could
only be visited at half-tide; a third, that she was
locked up in Maidstone jail for child-stealing; a fourth,
that she was seen to mount a broom in the last high
wind, and make direct for Calais. The fly-drivers, among
whom I inquired next, were equally jocose and equally
disrespectful; and the shopkeepers, not liking my appearance,
generally replied, without hearing what I had to say,
that they had got nothing for me. I felt more miserable
and destitute than I had done at any period of my running
away. My money was all gone, I had nothing left to dispose
of; I was hungry, thirsty, and worn out; and seemed
as distant from my end as if I had remained in London.
The morning had worn away in these inquiries, and
I was sitting on the step of an empty shop at a street
corner, near the market-place,…”
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Igglesden
and Graves
The shop doorstep David rested on has
long been identified as that of the old established
Dover bakers Igglesden and Graves in the Market
Square.The firm used this association on their advertising
for many years. The bakers closed in the late 1960s
and the shop became a stationers and bookshop.
The shop has now returned to its former
catering role as a tea room and sandwich shop, trading
on its David Copperfield connection as ‘Dickens Corner’.
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Advert for Igglesden and Graves, 1949.
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