What are you reading Anna
Night Walks by Charles Dickens
What is about
Night Walks
He wrote it at a time in his life when he was an insomniac
Charles used to wander through London at night in an effort to seek a cure
It was during these walks that he really discovered the streets
And it is recorded in this small book
So what has this to do with the Duke of Wellington
One of these observations is called Trading in Death
Let me read some of it to you
It is about Wellington’s funeral
SEATS and WINDOWS to LET in the best part of the Strand a few doors from Coutts banking house
Or more locally souvenirs
One of the last LETTERS of the DUKE OF WELLINGTON for DISPOSAL dated from Walmer Castle within a day or two of his death
There was quite a cottage industry in those days
It seems quite haunting that the Duke lived and died so near to us
Do you think our house was here in 1852
I doubt it
What do you think was here
I do not have foggiest as the coastal geography has changed so much around here in the last hundred and fifty years
The sea I think was nearer to the castle in those days
Would you pay to watch the Duke’s funeral
I fear I would be a bit late Anna
I mean if you were around in 1852
Watch it on television
I would watch it on television
In 1852
Yes just after the Night Garden
Outlaw
Yes
I cannot get any sense out of this one
Really
What is your question
Would you have paid to watch the Duke of Wellington’s funeral in London in 1852
Dunno
Maybe
Would you
Possibly
Outlaw
What
Would you end this fiction as we are getting precisely nowhere
I was rather enjoying it
Ask Anna
I have
And what did she say
She just took the piss
Do you know something Anna
Pray tell
You take life far to seriously sometimes
It saddens my pen