As Close as Family
Here Charles lies on the grass relaxing with family and friends, including Wilkie second on the left, distinguishable by his beard. Wilkie recalled ‘We… were as fond of each other as men could be… Nobody (my poor dear mother excepted, of course) felt so positively sure of the future before me in Literature, as Dickens did.’
Photograph of Charles Dickens, his family and friends at Gad’s Hill by Adolphe Naudin, 1864
E200.84 © Charles Dickens Museum.