West Malling home of inter-county cricket in Kent, and it is known that in 1705, "West of Kent" played Chatham at Malling. The setting for the cricket match between All Muggleton and Dingley Dell in Charles Dickens' Pickwick Papers is reputed to be based on an amalgamation of the grounds at West Malling and Maidstone. There is a resemblance to West Malling in the original illustration of the match, a version of which featured on the back of the £10 banknote featuring Dickens, first circulated on 29 April 1992. Dickens, however, was a regular visitor to Dingley Hall in the village of
Charles Dickens Jr. letter' caused embarrassment for their uncle, London barrister Henry Fielding Dickens, while the daughters of another uncle, Alfred D'Orsay Tennyson Dickens, gave an interview to a newspaper in Australia, where they'd been raised, to make clear that they were not seeking any part of the funds. According to Dickens biographer Claire Tomalin, Charles Walter, only son of Dickens, had already been 'disowned' by the family for marrying Ella Dare, a barmaid. Sydney Margaret went on to marry architect Thomas Bostock Whinney, while Ethel died, in 1936, of an overdose of phenobarbital after being found unconscious in her flat in Chelsea,