Sairey Gamp

[senga-marie]

who was this Dickens character? and why is she depicted on toby jugs

[mrs.pudding]

She was the nurse in Martin Chizzlewit - "a gossiping, gin- drinking mid-wife and nurse"

[mrs.pudding]

oops - Chuzzlewit I mean - and it was common for Toby Jugs to depict larger than life characters, both real and imaginary.

[Peter Pedant]

an umbrella -a gamp - is named after her.

because she carried an umbrella.

She was prone to spadgums - cured by gin of course. She has a confidante\- whose name escapes me and one of the punch lines in the book is where another character says i dont think there is any such person.....

Sairey is central to the plot as she has identified something early on in the book which is relevant to paternity and so on at the end.

Martin Chuzzlewwhit itself is interesting as young M is ripped off by those damned Yanks fair enough as a story line in 1850 but by the time it is reissued in 1868 DIckens who is now making a lot of money from the AMericcan Market (Is poor Nellie dead? shouted the longshoremen as the last episode of the Old Curiosity Shop comes into New York) has to rewrite the Preface and basically aplogises for the story line.