Charles Dickens lived at Gad's Hill Place, 2 miles (3.2 km) east of Gravesend and specifically mentions the town and its environs in at least three of his novels. In "David Copperfield" Mr. Peggotty, Ham and the Micawbers say their goodbyes and sail away from Gravesend to begin a new life in Australia. In "Great Expectations", Pip, with accomplices, rows Magwitch from London downriver in expectation of waylaying a regular steamer (whilst under way in the Lower Hope, off Gravesend) bound for Hamburg. (Gravesend also appears in "The Pickwick Papers").