A rare and original issue of The Times newspaper for Wednesday May 6, 1863
This venerable publication was founded in 1785 and still publishes in London today.
This issue of 8 pages, 16 sides features a fascinating variety of advertisements including positions wanted and available, apartments and houses to rent, medical cures and horses and "chariots" for sale - the equivalent for our "Auto" section today! Great adverts and pricing for sea voyages to China, India, South Africa and Australia . The format for the front page of this newspaper remained the same until the 1960's
London entertainment included a wide range of theatre performances as well as readings by Charles Dickens (see scan and below) and Fanny Kemble
This was in the midst of the American Civil War and this issue reports on the Vicksburg blockade as well as other areas of conflict - see scan. Much news also from British Columbia - see scan
Fascinating reading for the historian - parliamentary debates, murders, police reports and court reports.
Good condition but with clean tears and separation to several pages without loss of text - see scans. Page size 18.5 x 24.5 inches .
Farewell readings
In 1868–69 Dickens gave a series of "farewell readings" in England, Scotland and Ireland, beginning on 6 October. He managed, of a contracted 100 readings, to give 75 in the provinces, with a further 12 in London.[165] As he pressed on he was affected by giddiness and fits of paralysis. He had a stroke on 18 April 1869 in Chester.[169] He collapsed on 22 April 1869, in Preston, Lancashire; on doctor's advice, the tour was cancelled.[170] After further provincial readings were cancelled, he began work on his final novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Described as a "dark and gothic" tale, his unfinished novel focuses on Drood's uncle, John Jasper, a drug-addicted choirmaster.[171] It was fashionable in the 1860s to 'do the slums' and, in company, Dickens visited opium dens in Shadwell in the East End of London, where he witnessed an elderly addict called "Laskar Sal", who formed the model for "Opium Sal" in Edwin Drood.[172]
After Dickens regained enough strength, he arranged, with medical approval, for a final series of readings to partly make up to his sponsors what they had lost due to his illness. There were 12 performances, on 11 January to 15 March 1870; the last at 8:00pm at St James's Hall, London. Though in grave health by then, he read A Christmas Carol and The Trial from Pickwick. On 2 May, he made his last public appearance at a Royal Academy banquet in the presence of the Prince and Princess of Wales, paying a special tribute on the death of his friend the illustrator Daniel Maclise.[173]