Who authorised the burial of Charles Dickins in Westminster Abbey?
Gladstone, who was Prime Minister at the time. He approved the burial in the Abbey in direct contradiction of the wishes of Queen Victoria, who hated Dickens’ books and was allegedly one of the inspirations for the character Fagan in Oliver Twist. In an astute political move, Gladstone arranged the funeral of the populist Dickens in an attempt to destabilise the monarchy. In an interesting twist in the tale, the Abbey sexton, a Mr Tobias Grubb is said to have switched the body of Dickens with a local ice cream salesman so there is some doubt as to the identity of the body inside the tomb.
I’ve no doubt that Gladstone had a lot to do with it. In any event, the safest burial place for such as Chas Dickens is Westminster Abbey – RIP etc. Mark Twain on Charles Dickens http://www.twainquotes.com/18680205.html I’d say that Chas was on the US speech circuit for far too long and this probably resulted in an early onset of old-age and death before his time. Actually, it’s not true that HM Queen Vic hated or disliked Dickens – she was after all a Liberal and knew that the best way to maintain the nation was by avoiding such disruption as had happened in earlier times in France. But, ho-hum, in c1870 there came the Paris Commune. And, you can enjoy some of that by simply having a meal at the Marmite Restaurant in Monmartre, which was estabished originally as a co-operative enterprise to ensure the ‘workers’ got good meals. Beware, because the portions are massive peasant sized monsters. Yum! Montmartre
