Retitled 'Dullborough Town' in collected editions of the series
In the index of Vol. III of ATYR (1860), the present Item appears under the title 'Childhood Associations', and the two are clearly linked by their presentation of what appear to be interesting recollections of Dickens's very early childhood. Accordingly, scholars and biographers since Forster have not hesitated to make use of both essays to supplement otherwise scanty evidence about his early life (see Forster, Book I, Ch. 3, Book 8, Ch. 5; Edgar Johnson, Charles Dickens, His Tragedy and His Triumph, 1952, Vol. 1, pp. 11-26 passim). The memory of arriving in London for the first time at the Cross-Keys, Wood-street, Cheapside, in a coach smelling of straw, is one Dickens later assigns to Pip in the 13th instalment of Great Expectations (ATYR, Vol. IV, 23 February 1861).
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