Gamp

Sarah Gamp, known as Sairy, is the drunken nurse and midwife in Charles Dickens’ novel Martin Chuzzelwit, first serialised from 1842 through 1844 by Hablot K. “Phiz” Browne. Gamp regularly refers to Harris, a woman, while going about her duties, but no one else has ever met her. Dickens explains, “the prevalent opinion was that she was a phantom of Mrs Gamp’s brain–as Messrs. Doe and Roe are fictions of the law–created for the express purpose of holding visionary dialogues with her on all manner of subjects, and invariably winding up with a compliment to the excellence of her nature.” (Allingham; Hawes). (Image: Tuck).