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"If you was to take and show that man the buoy at the Nore," said Captain
Cuttle, "and ask him his opinion of it, Wal'r, he'd give you an opinion
that was no more like the buoy than your uncle's buttons are."
Buttons like some sort of King Charles's head, even come into Dickens's
ghost stories. From the Christmas story, THE HAUNTED HOUSE, comes this
description of- the ghost of Master B.
The young spectre was dressed in an obsolete fashion; or rather, he
was not so much dressed as put into a case of inferior pepper-and-salt
cloth, made horrible by the means of shining buttons. I observed that
these buttons went, in a double row, over each shoulder of the young
ghost, and appeared to descend his back. He wore a frill round his
neck. His right hand (which I distinctly noticed to be inky) was laid
upon his stomach; connecting this action with some feeble pimples on
his countenance, and his general air of nausea, I concluded this ghost
to be the ghost of a boy who had habitually taken a great deal too
much medicine."
And this description is reminiscent of the more famous one of Marley's
ghost in A CHRISTMAS CAROL:
"His body was transparentso that Scrooge, observing him, and looking
through his waistcoat, could see the two buttons on his coat behind."
Undoubtedly with some of Dickens's characters, buttons maketh the man.
Jack Hopkins stands revealed by the fact that he wore 'thunder-and
lightning' buttons, even if we don't know what Thunder-and-lighning
buttons are. He was, of course, one of the guests at Bob Sawyer's
disasterous supper-party at Mrs Raddle4s in Lant Street.
"A loud double knock was heard. "I hope that's Jack Hopkins, said
Bob Sawyer.
A heavy footstep was heard upon the stairs, and Jack Hopkins presented
himself. He wore a black velvet waistcoat with thunder and lightning
buttons; and a blue striped shirt, with a white false collar."
Hopkins was responsible for making most of .the noise at the party.
He sang songs as loudly as he could, and completely out of tune. He
was the main cause of Mrs Raddle shrieking down from upstairs and
demanding that "those wretches be turned away at once".
They're going, Mrs Raddle, the're going," said the miserable Bob,
'I'm afraid you'd better go," said Mr Bob Sawyer to his friends.
"I thought you were making too much noise."
