Dickens probably wrote the following portions of 'Discovery of a Treasure Near Cheapside': from the beginning to 'uneasy about it!' (p. 195); from 'Thus, I came out' (p. 197) to the conclusion.
Dickens may also have added touches to the following passage: from 'I left the furnaces' to 'tale of sorrow' (p. 196).
'Discovery of a Treasure Near Cheapside' describes a visit to Brown and Wingrove's Wood Street Smelting Works, a gold refinery located at 30-31 Wood Street, Cheapside, London. The essay is another good example of a Dickensian 'process' article - an article which explains an ordinary manufacturing process and at the same time reveals its special wonder and enchantment. Dickens felt that this fusion of realism and fancy could help make daily life more imaginative and therefore more bearable. The anomalous tree which figures so prominently in Dickens' portion of the article was a plane tree growing at the corner of Wood Street in the church-yard of St. Peter's, Westcheap.
Harry Stone; © Bloomington and Indiana University Press, 1968. DJO gratefully acknowledges permission to reproduce this material.
