A hundred years ago
From the 'Spectator,' 18 June 1870—Dickens was privately buried in Westminster Abbey on Tuesday last . . .
It is somewhat curious that his death occurred on the fifth anniversary of his great escape from the terrible railway accident on the 9th June, 1865, on the South-Eastern Railway. Of that accident Dickens wrote, "I remember with devout thankfulness that I can never be much nearer parting company with my readers for ever that. I was then, until there shall be written against my life the two words with which I close this book. 'The end'." It is said that he had been so deeply impressed with the prob- ability of a speedy end, as to have made liberal arrangements with his publishers in relation to that very continger.cy of his not completing "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" which has now happened. The greater part of the story appears, however, to be already in existence. The end of the book, as of the life, was already antici- pated by him who had the deepest concern in it; but it met his anticipation half-way.
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