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Novel suggestion

Those who have been enjoying the dramatisation of Charles Dickens 'penultimate novel Our Mutual Friend on television recently may be interested to learn of one or two associations between the novelist and Newark.

Although there is no evidence to suggest that Dickens ever came to Newark nor gave any of his celebrated readings or theatrical performances in the town he was - somewhat surprisingly - invited to represent the borough in parliament as a Liberal MP.

This interesting circumstance perhaps indicating that truth can sometimes be even stranger than fiction never came to pass but as is discussed later on the proposal was not so far-fetched as it might initially appear.

The first specific reference Dickens makes to Newark however comes in one of his most popular early novels Nicholas Nickleby (published 1838 - 39) when the town crops up in the course of a hair-raising description of the perils of long-distance coach travel in the days before railways.

Newark of course was an important coaching town in the 18th and early 19th Centuries with inns such as the Clinton Arms and Saracen's Head in the Market Place supplying much needed rest and refreshment for travellers taking the fast mail coaches along the Great North Road between London and Edinburgh.

This week's illustration from an engraving first published in 1816 captures something of the romance of coach travel as a mail coach ladened with passengers and their luggage leaves Newark over Trent Bridge and sets out on its journey northwards.

However in an age when many roads were little better than farm tracks travelling by coach was not always as safe or as pleasurable as this illustration might suggest.

As Nicholas Nickleby's coach sets out from Grantham Dickens writes: "The night and the snow came on together and dismal enough they were.

There was no sound to be heard but the howling of the wind; for the noise of the wheels and the tread of the horses' feet were rendered inaudible by a thick coating of snow which covered the ground...

"They were little more than a stage out of Grantham or about halfway between it and Newark when Nicholas who had been asleep for a short time was suddenly roused by a violent jerk which nearly threw him from his seat.

"Grasping the rail he found that the coach had sunk greatly on one side though it was still dragged forward by the horses; and while ... he .... hesitated.. whether to jump off or not the vehicle turned easily over and relieved him from all further uncertainty by flinging him into the road."

Dickens' reference to the perils of coach travel around Newark in the early 19th Century certainly makes for interesting reading but from the point of view of historical curiosity the circumstance under which he was invited to stand for election as an MP for the town is considerably more intriguing.

The proposal came in 1857 and was the brainchild of one of Newark's leading citizens William Harold Cubley - well known local portrait artist Justice of the Peace and subsequently mayor of the town.

The background to the invitation has recently been recalled in a memoir written by his great-great grandson Mr Andrew Cubley who now lives in South Wirrall Merseyside.

He writes: "Mr W. H. Cubley was conversing with a gentleman a personal friend of Mr Dickens as to who would be eligible and a desirable man to contest the borough (of Newark) in the Liberal interest.

The names of local personages were canvassed and then Mr Cubley suggested that Dickens being a popular writer would be a useful and probably successful candidate.

The suggestion was heartily approved and a letter forwith despatched." Cubley's suggestion strange as it may seem today was in fact not without precedent with on different occasions Dickens receiving similar invitations from at least two other towns - Reading and Edinburgh.

His fame as a novelist was well established but what was attracting calls for him to play a part in politics was his growing reputation as one of the country's most concerned social commentators.

With each successive novel he aligned himself ever more closely with the plight of the working man while on more than one occasion he had spoken out publicly against government maladministration at home and abroad.

At the very time when W. H. Cubley invited Dickens to stand for election in Newark his novel Little Dorrit -described as "a scathing satire on political bureaucracy" - was appearing in serialization accurately reflecting the way in which Dickens' own views on the state of the country were hardening throughout.

Little Dorrit rendered Dickens - at least in the eyes of W. H. Cubley and his followers in Newark - an ideal candidate for parliament standing on a ticket of social reform.

Cubley's letter was duly despatched in the spring of 1857 with Charles Dickens' reply dated March 11 following a few days later. Unfortunately for Cubley and the people of Newark it contained disappointing news.

"I beg to assure you " wrote Dickens "that I satisfied myself long ago that I am much better and much more usefully employed in my own calling than I could hope to be in the House of Commons.

"I believe no consideration on earth would induce me to become a member of that incoherent assembly." Dickens' letter must have come as a great disappointment to Cubley but for people today who have had the opportunity to read some of his later novels the reasons for Dickens' refusal become only too clear.

He had little time for the British parliamentary system as it then stood. Mr and Mrs Veneering attempts at social climbing in Our Mutual Friend (published 1864-65) end in a farcical election which it has been said displays admirably and completely Dickens' utter irreverence for all to do with politics.

ABOVE: Coach travel in the early 19th Century. A fast mail coach leaves Newark via the Great North Road in an illustration first published in 1816.

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