19 JUNE 1897, Page 17

DICKENS'S NAMES.

[To THY EDITOR Op TIER " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—I should not think that " Gamp " and " Harris " represent a merely fortuitous coincidence between fact and fancy. In my old conveyancing days I once had an abstract to peruse, relating to some property in a Southern county (Hampshire, I think), which contained the names of no less than three of the personages in the "Pickwick Papers," " Pickwick " itself, and, I think, " Tupman " and "Winkle." I could not doubt that the deed in question must have passed through Dickens's hands when he was in a solicitor's office, and that he had noted the names for use. So, I should think, with " Gamp" and "Harris."—I am, Sir, &c., J. M. LUDLOW.