[BITList] Fwd: Dirty Dicks - Pub Near Liverpool Street, Pub in EC3, Comedy Nights in the City, Private Hire in the City, Live Music in Central London.

[HUGH]

Mike,

Quite a place indeed, and there is every chance Dickens based Miss 
Haversham's eccentricities on Dirty Dick.  A distant relation of mine  died 
in London while possessed of property. His grandson, born in Fenwick, 
Ayrshire, and about whom I wrote an article for the Scots Magazine, spent 
the years  between 1834 and 1853 in London as an instrument maker, and in 
his letters to the folks back home he tells of his frustration about the 
procrastinations of  "the d***ed lawyers" administering the grandfather's 
estate. In the end, it all went in legal expenses, every last penny. I often 
wonder if the Jarndyce v Jarndyce saga in Hard Times was inspired by this - 
or were such affairs commonplace in London at that time?

Hugh.