Retitled 'Night Walks' in collected editions of the series
In March of the year 1851, Dickens's father entered a painful last illness, resulting in his death on the final day of the month. He was buried on the 4th of April, in Highgate cemetery. On the morning of the 3rd, Dickens wrote to W.H. Wills from his bed at Tavistock House, to say that 'I took my threatened walk last night' and that 'I am so worn out by the sad arrangements ... that I cannot take my natural rest' (see Pilgrim, Vol. VI, p. 345–46&n.). The letter goes on to propose an all-night visit to the Bow-street Station House, described in 'The Metropolitan Protectives' (HW, Vol. III [26 Apr 1851], pp. 97–105; repr. in Stone, Vol. I, pp. 253–73), and remind Wills that the following night 'we go to the gas-works'. The letter thus indicates at least three consecutive night expeditions made by Dickens during a period of insomnia provoked by his father's death, and suggests a possible derivation of the narrator's opening remarks (and the description of Bow-street coffee shops) in Dickens's personal experience.
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