Gordon Riots worn inside the bank. From that date until 31 March 1973 the detachment became more functional than ceremonial, doing their duties in service dress with automatic weapons. Maria Edgeworth's 1817 novel "Harrington" contains a vivid evocation of the Gordon Riots, with two characters readers would find unsympathetic taken for Papists and finding refuge in the home of the rich Spanish Jew, the father of the young Jewish woman at the centre of the love story. Charles Dickens' 1841 novel "Barnaby Rudge" depicts the Gordon Riots and features Lord George in a prominent role. John Creasey's 1974 novel "The Masters of
Letters of Charles Dickens burned those letters that had been sent to him in a mass bonfire in 1860, commenting, "Would to God that every letter I had ever written was on that pile". He burned more in 1869, the year before he died. As a result, hardly more than 250 letters to Dickens have survived to the present day. The reading public's first chance to study large numbers of Dickens letters came shortly after his death with the publication of "The Life of Charles Dickens" (1872–74) by his lifelong friend John Forster. Many of Dickens's letters to Forster were included, but they were