Although he was not born in Kent, Charles Dickens spent the happiest and most settled part of his childhood in Chatham and chose to return to the same area when, as an established author, he could afford to buy the house1 he had admired as a boy. It is said that John Dickens drew his son's attention to the house telling Charles that he could buy it if he worked very hard. Thirty years later he managed to do this but, with a large family to support, the hard work and expense contributed to his death at the early age of 58. There are many references, either direct or indirect, to the county of Kent in his novels and some places, for example, Broadstairs and Rochester exploit their connexions with him to host attractive annual Dickensian celebrations: both in the summer and at Christmas. In Cooling churchyard, which is assumed to be the model for the one in Great Expectations, there are 13 lozenge-shaped