“Jasper's Gatehouse, Rochester, Kent” by E. W. Haslehust (1866-1949).

Jasper's Gatehouse, Rochester, Kent

Ernest William Haslehust (1866-1949), RI, RWA

1911

Water colour painting

16.5 x 11 cm framed

[Click on image to enlarge it.]

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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Passage Realised

From the hum and traffic of the cheerfully frequented High Street to the calm and hush of the Cathedral precincts entrance is given by Chertsey's or College Yard Gate, which abuts on the High Street about a hundred yards north of the Cathedral. It was this Gate which Sir Luke Fildes sketched, as he has recorded in an interesting letter published in A Week's Tramp in Dickens-Land, by W. R. Hughes, for the background of his drawing of Durdles Cautioning Sapsea. There are, however, two other gatehouses, the "Prior's", a tower over an archway, containing a single room approached by a "postern stair", and "Deanery Gate", a quaint old house adjoining the Cathedral which has ten rooms, some of them beautifully panelled. Its drawing-room on the upper floor bears a strong resemblance to the room — as depicted by Sir Luke Fildes — in which Jasper entertained his nephew and Neville Landless, but the artist believes that he never saw the interior. It is not unlikely that Dickens took some details from each of the gatehouses to make a composite picture of "Mr. Jasper's own gatehouse", which seemed so to stem the tide of life, that while the murmur of the tide was heard beyond, not a wave would pass the archway. [Nicklin, 17-18]

The exterior is little changed today, offering the stroller entrance into the secluded environments of the Cathedral close and a fine view of the outer bailey of the old Castle, much as that enjoyed by Edwin Drood, Helena and Neville Landless in Dickens's last novel. "Beside it stands the house occupied in the same novel by Mr. Topes. This was the 'official dwelling . . . of modest proportions' of the Cathedral's chief verger and the lodging place of Mr. Datchery" (Lynch 156-157).

Related Material

Bibliography

Kitton, Frederick G. The Complete Mystery of Edwin Drood, by Charles Dickens: The History, Continuations, and Solutions (1870-1912) by J. Cuming Walters. With a portrait and illustrations by Sir Luke Fildes, R. A., F. G. Kitton. Facsimiles and a Bibliography. London: Chapman and Hall, 1912.

Lynch, Tony. Dickens England: An A to Z Tour of the Real and Imagined Locations. A Traveller's Companion. London: Batsford, 2012.

Nicklin, J. A. Dickens-land. Il. E. W. Haslehust. Beautiful England series. Glasgow & London: Blackie & Son, 1911.

Paroissien, David. The Companion to Great Expectations. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 2000.

Last modified 4 March 2014