Henry Crabb Robinson, in his diaries

Extract from journal entry, 19 March 1852: ‘I began and read the first number of Bleak House. It opens with exaggerated and verbose description. London fog is disagreeable even in description, and on the whole the first number does not promise much, except an exposure of the abuses of Chancery practice. The best thing is the picture of adesolate condition of a natural child, but she is removed out of it before sympathy is much called out.’ (Henry Crabb Robinson on Books and their Authors, ed. E. J. Morley (1938), ii, 715)