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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/23490-h.zip b/23490-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..704f5a2 --- /dev/null +++ b/23490-h.zip diff --git a/23490-h/23490-h.htm b/23490-h/23490-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ec33daa --- /dev/null +++ b/23490-h/23490-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5267 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" /> +<title>Pickwickian Studies</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + P.headingsummary { margin-left: 5%;} + H1, H2 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + } + H3, H4, H5 { + text-align: left; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + table { border-collapse: collapse; } + td { vertical-align: top; border: 1px solid black;} + td p { margin: 0.2em; } + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + color: gray;} + + .citation {vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: none;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h2> +<a href="#startoftext">Pickwickian Studies, by Percy Fitzgerald</a> +</h2> +<pre> +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Pickwickian Studies, by Percy Fitzgerald + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Pickwickian Studies + + +Author: Percy Fitzgerald + + + +Release Date: November 15, 2007 [eBook #23490] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PICKWICKIAN STUDIES*** +</pre> +<p><a name="startoftext"></a></p> +<p>Transcribed from the 1899 New Century Press edition by David +Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org</p> +<h1>PICKWICKIAN STUDIES</h1> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">by</span><br /> +PERCY FITZGERALD, M.A., F.S.A.<br /> +<span class="smcap">Author of</span> “<i>The History of +Pickwick</i>,” “<i>Pickwickian Manners and +Customs</i>,”<br /> +“<i>Bozland</i>,” <i>&c.</i></p> +<p style="text-align: center">London:<br /> +THE NEW CENTURY PRESS, LIMITED<br /> +434 <span class="smcap">Strand</span>, W.C<br /> +1899</p> +<h2><!-- page 1--><a name="page1"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +1</span>CHAPTER I. IPSWICH</h2> +<h3>I.—The Great White Horse</h3> +<p>This ancient Inn is associated with some pleasant and +diverting Pickwickian memories. We think of the adventure +with “the lady in the yellow curl papers” and the +double-bedded room, just as we would recall some “side +splitting” farce in which Buckstone or Toole once made our +jaws ache. As all the world knows, the “Great White +Horse” is found in the good old town of Ipswich, still +flourishes, and is scarcely altered from the days when Mr. +Pickwick put up there. Had it not been thus associated, +Ipswich would have remained a place obscure and scarcely known, +for it has little to attract save one curious old house and some +old churches; and for the theatrical antiquary, the remnant of +the old theatre in Tacket Street, where Garrick first appeared as +an amateur under the name of Lyddal, about a hundred and sixty +years ago, and where now the Salvation Army +“performs” in his stead. <a name="citation1"></a><a +href="#footnote1" class="citation">[1]</a> The touch of +“Boz” kindled the old bones into life, it peopled the +narrow, winding streets with the Grummers, Nupkins, Jingles, +Pickwick and his followers; with the immortal lady aforesaid in +her yellow curl papers, to say nothing of Mr. Peter Magnus. +From afar off even, we look at Ipswich with a singular interest; +some of us go down there to enjoy the peculiar feeling—and +it <i>is</i> a peculiar <!-- page 2--><a name="page2"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 2</span>and piquant one—of staying at +Mr. Pickwick’s Inn—of sleeping even in his +room. This relish, however, is only given to your true +“follower,” not to his German-metal +counterfeit—though, strange to say, at this moment, +Pickwick is chiefly “made in Germany,” and comes to +us from that country in highly-coloured almanacks—and +pictures of all kinds. About Ipswich there is a very +appropriate old-fashioned tone, and much of the proper country +town air. The streets seem dingy enough—the hay +waggon is encountered often. The “Great White +Horse,” which is at the corner of several streets, is a +low, longish building—with a rather seedy air. But to +read “Boz’s” description of it, we see at once +that he was somewhat overpowered by its grandeur and immense +size—which, to us in these days of huge hotels, seems +odd. It was no doubt a large posting house of many small +chambers—and when crowded, as “Boz” saw it at +Election time in 1835, swarming with committeemen, agents, and +voters, must have impressed more than it would now. The +Ball-room at “The Bull,” in Rochester, affected him +in much the same way; and there is a curious sensation in looking +round us there, on its modest proportions—its little hutch +of a gallery which would hold about half-a-dozen musicans, and +the small contracted space at the top where the +“swells” of the dockyard stood together. +“Boz,” as he himself once told me, took away from +Rochester the idea that its old, red brick Guildhall was one of +the most imposing edifices in Europe, and described his +astonishment on his return at seeing how small it was.</p> +<p>Apropos of Rochester and the Pickwick feeling, it may be said +that to pass that place by on the London, Chatham, and Dover line +rouses the most curious sensation. Above is the Castle, +seen a long time before, with the glistening river at its feet; +then one skirts the town passing by the backs of the very +old-fashioned houses, and you can recognise those of the +Guildhall and of the Watts’ Charity, and the gilt vanes of +other quaint, old buildings; you see a glimpse of the road rising +and falling, with its pathways raised on each side, with all +sorts of faded tints—mellow, subdued reds, sombre greys, a +patch of green here and there, and all more or less dingy, and +“quite out of fashion.” There is a rather +forlorn tone over it all, especially when <!-- page 3--><a +name="page3"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 3</span>we have a +glimpse of Ordnance Terrace, at Chatham, that abandoned, +dilapidated row where the boy Dickens was brought up dismally +enough. At that moment the images of the Pickwickians recur +as of persons who had lived and had come down there on this +pleasant adventure. And how well we know every stone and +corner of the place, and the tone of the place! We might +have lived there ourselves. Positively, as we walk through +it, we seem to recognise localities like old friends.</p> +<p>“Boz,” when he came to Ipswich, was no more than a +humble reporter, on special duty, living in a homely way +enough. The “White Horse” was not likely to put +itself out for him, and he criticises it in his story, after a +fashion that seems rather bold. His description is +certainly unflattering:</p> +<blockquote><p>“In the main street, on the left-hand side +of the way”—observe how minute Boz is in his +topography—“a short distance after you have passed +through the open space fronting the Town Hall, stands an Inn +known far and wide by the appellation of ‘The Great White +Horse,’ rendered the more conspicuous by a stone statue of +some rampacious animal, with flowing mane and tail, distantly +resembling an insane cart horse, which is elevated above the +principal door. The ‘Great White Horse’ is +famous in the neighbourhood in the same degree as a prize ox or +county paper-chronicled turnip, or unwieldy pig—for its +<i>enormous size</i>. Never were there such labyrinths of +<i>uncarpeted passages</i>, such clusters of <i>mouldy</i>, +<i>badly-lighted rooms</i>, such huge numbers of small dens for +eating or sleeping in, beneath any other roof, as are collected +between the four walls of this overgrown Tavern.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Boz cannot give the accommodation a good word, for he calls +the Pickwickian room “a large, badly furnished apartment, +with <i>a dirty grate</i> in which a small fire was making a +wretched attempt to be cheerful, but was fast sinking beneath the +dispiriting influence of the place.” The dinner, too, +seems to have been as bad, for a <i>bit of fish</i> and a steak +took one hour to get ready, with “<i>a bottle of the worst +possible port</i>, <i>at the highest possible +price</i>.” Depreciation of a hostelry could not be +more damaging. Again, Mr. Pickwick’s bedroom is +described as a sort of surprise, being “a more +comfortable-looking apartment that his short experience of the +accommodation of the Great White House had led him to +expect.”</p> +<p><!-- page 4--><a name="page4"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +4</span>Now this was bad enough, but his sketch of the waiter who +received the arriving party is worse:</p> +<blockquote><p>“A corpulent man, with a fortnight’s +napkin under his arm and coeval stockings.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>There is something so hostile in all this that it certainly +must have come from a sense of bad reception. As we said, +the young reporter was likely enough to have been treated with +haughty contempt by the corpulent waiter so admirably described, +with his “coeval stockings.”</p> +<p>Even the poor horse is not spared, “Rampacious” he +is styled; the stone animal that still stands over the +porch. It must be said that the steed in question is a very +mild animal indeed, and far from ramping, is trotting placidly +along. “Rampacious,” however, scarcely seems +correct—“Rampagious” is the proper +form—particularly as “Boz” uses the words +“On the rampage.” We find ourselves ever +looking at the animal with interest—as he effects his trot, +one leg bent. The porch, and horse above it, have a sort of +sacred character. I confess when I saw it for the first +time I looked at it with an almost absurd reverence and +curiosity. The thing is so much in keeping, one would +expect to see the coach laden with Pickwickians drive up.</p> +<p>Mr. Pickwick’s adventure, his losing his way in the +passages, &c., might occur to anyone. It is an odd +feeling, the staying at this old hostelry, and, as it draws on +towards midnight, seeking your room, through endless windings, +turns, and short flights. There is even now to be seen the +niche where Mr. Pickwick sat down for the night; so minute are +the directions we can trace the various rooms. Mr. Pickwick +asked for a private room and was taken down a “long dark +passage.” It turned out later that Miss +Witherfield’s sitting-room was actually next door, so Mr. +Magnus had not far to go. These rooms were on the ground +floor, so Mr. Pickwick had to “descend” from his +bedroom.</p> +<p>There is a tradition indeed that Mr. Pickwick’s +adventure with a lady really occurred to “Boz” +himself, who had lost his way in the mazes of the passages. +I have a theory that his uncomfortable night in the passages, and +the possible displeasure of the authorities, may have jaundiced +his views.</p> +<h3><!-- page 5--><a name="page5"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +5</span>II.—Eatanswill and Ipswich</h3> +<p>It is not “generally known” that Ipswich is +introduced twice in the book: as Eatanswill, as well asunder its +own proper name. As “Boz” was dealing with the +corrupt practices at Elections, and severely ridiculing them, he +was naturally afraid of being made responsible. Further, he +had been despatched by the proprietors of the <i>Chronicle</i> to +report the speeches at the election, and he did not care to take +advantage of his mission for literary purposes. The father +of the late Mr. Alfred Morrison, the well-known, amiable +virtuoso, was one of the candidates for Ipswich at the election +in 1835, and he used to tell how young “Boz” was +introduced into one of the rooms at the “Great White +Horse,” where the head-quarters of the candidate was. +Sir Fitzroy Kelly was the other candidate, a name that seems +pointed at in Fizkin.</p> +<p>This high and mighty point of the locality of Eatanswill has +given rise to much discussion, and there are those who urge the +claims of other towns, such as Yarmouth and Norwich. It has +been ingeniously urged that, in his examination before Nupkins, +Mr. Pickwick stated that he was a perfect stranger in the town, +and had no knowledge of any householders there who could be bail +for him. Now if Eatanswill were Ipswich, he must have known +many—the Pott family for instance—and he had resided +there for some time. But the author did not intend that the +reader should believe that the two places were the same, and +wished them to be considered different towns, though <i>he</i> +considered them as one. It has been urged, too, that +Ipswich is not on the direct road to Norwich as stated by the +author; but on consulting an old road book (Mogg’s) I find +that it is one of the important stages on the coach line.</p> +<p>But what is conclusive is the question of distance. On +hurrying away so abruptly from Mrs. Leo Hunter’s, Mr. +Pickwick was told by that lady that the adventurer was at Bury +St. Edmunds, “<i>not many miles from here</i>,” that +is a short way off. Now Bury is no more than about +four-and-twenty miles from Ipswich, a matter of about four +hours’ coach travelling. Great Yarmouth is fully +seventy by roundabout roads, which could not be described as +being “a <!-- page 6--><a name="page6"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 6</span>short way from here.” It +would have taken eight or nine hours—a day’s +journey. Mr. Pickwick left Eatanswill about one or two, for +the lunch was going on, and got to Bury in time for dinner, +which, had he left Yarmouth, would have taken him to the small +hours of the morning.</p> +<p>No one was such a thorough “Pressman” as was +“Boz,” or threw himself with such ardour into his +profession. To his zeal and knowledge in this respect we +have the warmest testimonies. When he was at Ipswich for +the election, he, beyond doubt, entered with zest and enjoyment +into all the humours. No one could have written so minute +and hearty an account without having been “behind the +scenes” and in the confidence of one or other of the +parties. And no wonder, for he represented one of the most +important of the London “dailies.”</p> +<p>The fact is, Ipswich was a sort of a tempestuous borough, the +scene of many a desperate conflict in which one individual, Mr. +Fitzroy Kelly—later Chief Baron—made the most +persevering efforts, again and again renewed, to secure his +footing. Thus, in December, 1832, there was a fierce +struggle with other candidates, Messrs. Morrison, Dundas, and +Rigby Wason, in which he was worsted—for the moment. +But, in January, 1835, when he stood again, he was +successful. This must have been the one in Pickwick, when +the excesses there described may have taken place. There +were four candidates: one of whom, Mr. Dundas—no doubt +depicted as the Honourable Mr. Slumkey—being of the noble +family of Zetland. We find that the successful candidate +was unseated on petition, and his place taken by another +candidate. In 1837, he stood once more, and was defeated by +a very narrow majority. On a scrutiny, he was restored to +Parliament. Finally, in 1847, he lost the seat and gave up +this very uncertain borough. Now all this shows what forces +were at work, and that, with such determined candidates, +electoral purity was not likely to stand in the way. All +which makes for Ipswich.</p> +<p>It must be said, however, that a fair case can be made for +Norwich. In introducing Eatanswill, Boz says that “an +anxious desire to abstain from giving offence” prompted Mr. +Pickwick, <i>i.e.</i>, Boz, to conceal the real name of the +place. He adds that he travelled by the Norwich coach, +“but this entry (in Mr. Pickwick’s <!-- page 7--><a +name="page7"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 7</span>notes) was +afterwards lined through as if for the purpose of concealing even +the direction.” Some might think that this was a +veiled indication, but it seems too broad and obvious a method, +that is, by crossing out a name to reveal the name. It is +much more likely he meant that the town was somewhere between +Norwich and London, and on that line. There are arguments, +too, from the distances. There are two journeys in the book +from Eatanswill to Bury, which seem to furnish data for both +theories—the Ipswich and the Norwich ones. But if we +have to take the <i>déjeûner</i> in its literal +sense, and put it early in the day, say, at eleven, and Mr. +Pickwick’s arrival at Bury, “wery late,” as Sam +had it, we have some six hours, or, say, forty miles, covered by +the journey. But the events at Mrs. Leo Hunter’s were +certainly at mid-day—between one and three +o’clock. It was, in fact, a grand lunch. So +with Winkle’s journey. He left Eatanswill +half-an-hour after breakfast, and must have travelled by the same +coach as Mr. Pickwick had done, and reached Bury just in time for +dinner, or in six or seven hours. Now it will not be said +that he would not be a whole day going four-and-twenty miles.</p> +<p>A fair answer to these pleas might be that Boz was not too +scrupulous as to times or distances when he was contriving +incidents or events; and numberless specimens could be given of +his inaccuracies. Here, “panting time toiled after +him in vain.” It was enough to talk of breakfast and +dinner without accurately computing the space between. But +a close admeasurement of the distance will disprove the Norwich +theory. Bury was twenty-four miles from Ipswich, and +Ipswich forty miles from Norwich—a total of seventy-four +miles, to accomplish which would have taken ten, eleven or twelve +hours, to say nothing of the chance of missing the +“correspondance” with the Northern Norwich +coach. Then again, Boz is careful to state that Eatanswill +was “one of the smaller towns.” In this class +we would not place Norwich, a large Cathedral City, with its +innumerable churches, and population, even then, of over 60,000, +whereas Ipswich was certainly one of these “smaller +towns,” having only 20,000. It must be also +considered, too, that this was a cross road, when the pace would +be slower than on the great main lines, say, at five miles an +hour, which, with stoppages, <!-- page 8--><a +name="page8"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 8</span>&c., would +occupy a period for the twenty-four miles of some four hours, +that is, say, from two to six o’clock. Boz, by his +arrangement of the traffic, would seem to assume that a +conveyance could be secured at any time of the day, for Mr. +Pickwick conveniently found one the instant he so abruptly +quitted Mrs. Leo Hunter’s, while Winkle and his friends +just as conveniently found one immediately after breakfast. +He appears to have been seven hours on the road. But the +strong point on which all Ipswichians may rest secure is Mr. +Pickwick’s statement to Mrs. Leo Hunter that Bury was +“not many miles from here.”</p> +<p>But an even more convincing proof can be found in +Jingle’s relation to Eatanswill. He came over from +Bury to Mrs. Leo Hunter’s party, leaving his servant there, +at the Hotel, and returned the same evening. The place must +have been but a short way off, when he could go and return in the +same day. Then what brought him to Eatanswill? We are +told that at the time he was courting Miss Nupkins, the +Mayor’s daughter; of course, he rushed over in the hope of +meeting her at Mrs. Leo Hunter’s +<i>déjeûner</i>. Everything, therefore, fits +well together.</p> +<p>I thought of consulting the report of the House of Commons +Committee on the Election Petition, and this confirmed my +view. There great stress is laid on the Blue and Buff +colours: in both the report and the novel it is mentioned that +the constables’ staves were painted Blue. Boz makes +Bob Sawyer say, in answer to Potts’ horrified enquiry +“Not Buff, sir?” “Well I’m a kind +of plaid at present—mixed colours”—something +very like this he must have noticed in the Report. A +constable, asked was his comrade, one Seagrave, Buff, answered, +“<i>well</i>, <i>half and half</i>, <i>I +believe</i>.” In the Report, voters were captured and +put to bed at the White Horse; and Sam tells how he “pumped +over” a number of voters at the same house. The very +waiter, who received Mr. Pickwick so contemptuously, was examined +by the Committee—his name was Henry Cowey—and he +answered exactly like the waiter with the +“fortnight’s napkin and the coeval +stockings.” When asked “was not +so-and-so’s appearance that of an intoxicated +person?” the language seemed too much for him, rather, he +took it to himself: “If I <i>had</i> been intoxicated, I +could not have done my business.” This is quite in +character.</p> +<p><!-- page 9--><a name="page9"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +9</span>Boz calls the inn at Eatanswill, “The Town +Arms.” There was no such sign in all England at the +time, as the Road Book shows. Why then would he call the +White Horse by that name? The Town Arms of Ipswich have two +white <i>Sea Horses</i> as supporters. This had certainly +something to do with the matter.</p> +<p>Mr. Pott was surely a real personage: for “Boz,” +who presently did not scruple to “takeoff” a living +Yorkshire schoolmaster in a fashion that all his neighbours and +friends recognised the original, would not draw back in the case +of an editor. Indeed, it is plain that in all points Pott +is truly an admirable figure, perfect in every point of view, and +finished. In fact, Pott and Pell, in their way, are the two +best pieces of work in the book. How admirable is the +description; “a tall, thin man with a sandy-coloured head, +inclined to baldness, and a face in which solemn importance was +blended with a look of unfathomable profundity. He was +dressed in a long, brown surtout, with a black cloth waistcoat +and drab trousers. A double eye-glass dangled at his +waistcoat, and on his head he wore a very low-crowned hat with a +broad rim.” Every touch is delightful—although +all is literal the literalness is all humour. As when Pott, +to recreate his guest, Mr. Pickwick, told Jane to “go down +into the office and bring me up the file of the Gazette for +1828. I’ll read you just a few of the leaders I wrote +at that time upon the Buff job of appointing a new tollman to the +turnpike here. I rather think they’ll amuse +you.” This was rich enough, and he came back to the +same topic towards the end of the book.</p> +<p>It will be remembered Mr. Pott went to Mrs. Leo Hunter’s +<i>Fête</i> in the character of a Russian with a knout in +his hand. No doubt the Gazette had its “eye on +Russia” and like the famous <i>Skibbereen Eagle</i> had +solemnly warned the Autocrat to that effect. It is, by the +way, amusing to find that this organ, <i>The Eagle</i> to wit, +which so increased the gaiety of the nation, has once more been +warning the Autocrat, and in a vein that proves that “our +filthy contemporary,” <i>The Eatanswill Gazette</i>, was no +exaggerated picture. This is how <i>The Eagle</i>, in a +late issue, speaks of the Russian occupation of Port +Arthur:—“And once again that keen, fierce glance is +cast in the direction of the grasping Muscovite; again, one of +the foulest, <!-- page 10--><a name="page10"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 10</span>one of the vilest dynasties that has +impiously trampled on the laws of God, and has violated every +progressive aspiration the Almighty implanted in the human heart +when He fashioned man in His own image, and breathed into his +soul the breath of life, threatens, for the moment at least, to +put back the hands of the clock that tells the progress of +civilisation. The Emperor of all the Russias, this wicked +enemy of the human race, has succeeded in raising his hideous +flag on Port Arthur, and planting his iron heel and cloven hoof +on the heathen Chinese—filthy, degenerate creatures, who, +it must be admitted, are fitting companions for the +tallow-eating, ‘knouting’ barbarian.”</p> +<h3>III.—Nupkins and Magnus.</h3> +<p>Who was intended by Nupkins, the intolerable Mayor of +Ipswich? An odious being. We may wonder at +“Boz’s” courage, for, of course, the existing +Mayor of Ipswich might think that the satire was pointed at +<i>him</i>. There can be little doubt, however, that +Nupkins was drawn from a London Police Magistrate, and is, in +fact, another portrait of the functionary whom he sketched +specially for “Oliver Twist” under the name of Mr. +Fang. Nupkins, however, is more in the comedy +vein—ridiculed rather than gibbeted—than was Mr. +Fang. We have only to compare the touches in both +descriptions:</p> +<blockquote><p>“I beg your pardon for interrupting +you,” said Mr. Pickwick, “but before you proceed to +act upon any opinion you may have formed, I must claim my right +to be heard.”</p> +<p>“Hold your tongue,” said the magistrate, +peremptorily.</p> +<p>“I must submit to you, sir—” said Mr. +Pickwick.</p> +<p>“Hold your tongue, or I shall order an officer to remove +you.”</p> +<p>“You may order your officers to do whatever you please, +sir,” said Mr. Pickwick.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Compare with this “Oliver Twist”:</p> +<blockquote><p>“Who are you?” said Mr. Fang.</p> +<p>“Before I am sworn, I must beg to say one word, and that +is I really never, without actual experience, could have +believed—”</p> +<p>“Hold your tongue, sir,” said Mr. Fang, +peremptorily.</p> +<p>“I will not, sir.”</p> +<p>“Hold your tongue this instant, or I’ll have you +turned out of the office.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><!-- page 11--><a name="page11"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +11</span>Mr. Pickwick, it will be remembered, made a +communication to Mr. Nupkins which changed the whole state of +affairs. Mr. Nupkins, with all his insolent despotism, was +held in check by conference with his clerk, Jinks, who kept him +from making mistakes by judicious hints.</p> +<p>Fang’s clerk, like Mr. Jinks, interposed:</p> +<blockquote><p>“How do you propose to deal with the case, +sir?” inquired the clerk, in a low voice.</p> +<p>Mr. Jinks pulled him by the sleeve and whispered +something. He was evidently remonstrating. At length +the magistrate, gulping down with a very bad grace his +disinclination to hear anything more, said sharply, “What +do you want to say?”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>When Mr. Fang was about to commit Oliver, the Bookstall-keeper +rushed in, and insisted on being heard, and, like Mr. Nupkins, +Mr. Fang had to listen:</p> +<blockquote><p>“I demand to be sworn,” said the man, +“I will not be put down.”</p> +<p>“Swear the man,” growled Mr. Fang, with a very ill +grace. “Now, what have you got to say?”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Again, Mr. Nupkins said of Sam:</p> +<blockquote><p>“He is evidently a desperate +ruffian.”</p> +<p>“He is my servant, sir,” said Mr. Pickwick, +angrily.</p> +<p>“Oh, he is your servant, is he. A conspiracy to +defeat the ends of justice.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Compare Fang and the Bookseller:</p> +<blockquote><p>“That book, is it paid for? No, it is +not.”</p> +<p>“Dear me, I forgot all about it,” exclaimed the +old gentleman.</p> +<p>“A nice person to prepare a charge against a poor +boy,” said Fang; “the law will overtake you yet, +&c.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>and so on.</p> +<p>In short, Nupkins is a softened edition of Fang. It was +curious that he turned out at the end not altogether so badly, +and there is certainly a little inconsistency in the +character. After Mr. Pickwick’s disclosures, he +becomes very rational and amiable. We may wonder, too, how +the latter could have accepted hospitality from, or have sat down +at the board of, the man who treated him in so gross a <!-- page +12--><a name="page12"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +12</span>fashion, and, further, that after accepting this +entertainment, Mr. Pickwick should take an heroic and injured +tone, recalling his injuries as he withdrew, but <i>after</i> his +dinner.</p> +<p>This magistrate was despotic enough, but we might have +expected that he would have had Mr. Peter Magnus brought before +him also, and have issued a warrant. The lady, however, was +silent as to her admirer, and this difficulty appears to have +occurred to the author for he makes Mr. Nupkins remark: +“The other principal <i>you say</i> has absconded,” +she having said nothing whatever. Being at the “White +Horse,” too, he was accessible. He may, however, have +gone off to secure “a friend.”</p> +<p>In Ipswich there is controversy as to the exact whereabouts of +his mansion. But there can be little doubt as to the +matter, as the directions given are minute. The guide books +take care to point it out. “Bending his steps towards +St. Clement’s Church”—that is leaving the +“White Horse” and following the street on the right, +“he found himself in a retired spot, a kind of courtyard of +venerable appearance, which he discovered had no other outlet +than the turning by which he had entered.” I believe +it is the house at the far end of the lane—now Mr. +Bennett’s. The street has been cut through the +lawn. There are here, as there were then, “old red +brick houses” and “the green gate of a garden at the +bottom of the yard.” Nothing could be more precise, +allowing of course for the changes, demolitions, re-buildings, +&c., of sixty years.</p> +<p>What became of Mr. Peter Magnus and his lady? Did they +“make it up”? or was Mr. Pickwick enabled to make +such explanations as would clear away all suspicions. Did +the two angry gentlemen meet again after Mr. Pickwick’s +return to the “White Horse?” These are +interesting questions, and one at least can be answered. +Owing to an indiscretion of the foolish Winkle’s, during +the famous action of Bardell v. Pickwick, we learn that Mr. +Pickwick “being found in a lady’s apartment at +midnight had led to the <i>breaking off of the projected +marriage</i> of the lady in question.” Now this seems +a serious result of Mr. Pickwick’s indiscretion, and very +unfortunate for the poor lady, and ought to have caused him some +remorse. No doubt he explained the incident, which he had +<!-- page 13--><a name="page13"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +13</span>better have done at first, for <i>now</i> it had the air +of attempting to shield the lady. It was odd that Mr. +Pickwick should thus have interfered with the marriage of +<i>two</i> elderly spinster ladies.</p> +<p>There is, by the way, a droll inconsistency on the part of the +author in his description of a scene between Mr. Magnus and Mr. +Pickwick. When the former was about to propose to the +middle-aged lady, he told Mr. Pickwick that he arranged to see +her at eleven. “It only wants a quarter +now.” Breakfast was waiting, and the pair sat down to +it. Mr. Magnus was looking at the clock every other +second. Presently he announced, “It only wants <i>two +minutes</i>.” Notwithstanding this feverish +impatience, he asks Mr. Pickwick for his advice in proposing, +which the latter gave at great length. Mr. Magnus listened, +now without any impatience. The clock hand was +“verging on the five minutes past;” not until it was +<i>ten</i> minutes past did he rise.</p> +<h3>IV.—Had Mr. Pickwick ever Loved?</h3> +<p>Mr. Pickwick’s early history is obscure enough, and we +know no details save that he had been “in +business.” But had he ever an affair of the +heart? Just as in real life, when a stray allusion will +occasionally escape from a person betraying something of his past +history, so once or twice a casual remark of Mr. Pickwick’s +furnishes a hint. Thus Mr. Magnus, pressing him for his +advice in this delicate matter of proposing, asked him had he +ever done this sort of thing in his time. “You mean +proposing?” said the great man. +“Yes.” “Never,” said Mr. Pickwick, +<i>with great energy</i>, and then repeated the word +“Never.” His friend then assumed that he did +not know how it was best to begin. “Why,” said +the other, cautiously, “I may have formed some ideas on the +subject,” but then added that he had “never submitted +them to the test of experience.” This is distinct +enough, but it does all the same hint at some <i>affaire de +cœur</i>, else why would he “have formed some ideas +upon the subject.” Of course, it may be that he was +thinking of Mrs. Bardell and her cruel charges. Still, it +was strange that a man should have reached to fifty, have grown +round and stout, without ever offering his hand. The first +picture in the book, however, helps us to speculate a +little. Over his head in the <!-- page 14--><a +name="page14"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 14</span>room at +Dulwich hangs the portrait of an old lady in spectacles, the +image of the great Samuel; his mother certainly. He +evidently regarded her with deep affection, he had brought the +picture to Dulwich and placed it where it should always be before +his eyes. Could it not be, and is it not natural that in +addition to his other amiabilities he was the best of +sons—that she “ruled the roast”—that in +the old Mrs. Wardle, to whom he so filially attended, he saw his +mother’s image, that she was with him to the day of her +death, and that while she lived, he resolved that no one else +should be mistress there! After her death he found himself +a confirmed old bachelor. There’s a speculation for +you on the German lines.</p> +<p>We might go on. This self denial must have been the more +meritorious as he was by nature of an affectionate, even amorous, +cast. He seized every opportunity of kissing the young +ladies. He would certainly have liked to have had some fair +being at home whom he could thus distinguish. How good this +description of the rogue—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Mr. Pickwick kissed the young +ladies—we were going to say as if they were his own +daughters, only, as he might possibly have infused <i>a little +more warmth into the salutation</i>, the comparison would not be +quite appropriate.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>He never lost a chance. In the same spirit, when the +blushing Arabella came to tell of her marriage, “can you +forgive my imprudence?” He returned “no verbal +response”—not he—“but <i>took off his +spectacles in great haste</i>, and seizing both the young +lady’s hands in his, kissed her a great many +times—perhaps a greater number of times than was absolutely +necessary.” Observe the artfulness of all +this—the deliberation—taking off the spectacles so +that they should not be in the way—seizing her +hands—and then setting to work! Oh, he knew more of +“this sort of thing” than he had credit for. He +had never proposed—true—but he had been near it a +precious sight more than he said.</p> +<p>Miss Witherfield is a rather mysterious personage, yet we take +an interest in her and speculate on her history. She lived +some twenty miles from Ipswich—no doubt at a family place +of her own. She had come in to stay at the White Horse for +the night and the morning. She was, no doubt, a person of +property—otherwise Mr. Magnus would <!-- page 15--><a +name="page15"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 15</span>not have been +so eager, and he must have been a fortune hunter, for he confided +to Mr. Pickwick, that he had been jilted “three or four +times.” What a quaint notion by the way that of his: +“I think an Inn is a good sort of place to propose to a +single woman in, Mr. Pickwick. She is more likely to feel +the loneliness of her situation in travelling, perhaps than she +would be, at home.”</p> +<p>We find here some of the always amusing bits of confusion that +recur in the book. Here might be a Calverley question, +“When was it, and where was it, that the Pickwickians had +<i>two</i> dinners in the one day?” Answer: At the +Great White Horse on this very visit. When Mr. Nupkins +retired to lunch, after his interview with Miss Witherfield, the +Pickwickians sat down to their dinner “quietly,” and +were in the midst of that meal, when Grummer arrived to arrest +them. They were taken to Nupkins’, and there dined +with him. This dinner would have brought them to five +o’clock:—we are told of candles—so that it was +dark—yet this was the month of May, when it would been +light enough till eight o’clock. Mrs. Nupkins’ +dress, on coming in from lunch, is worth noting. “A +blue gauze turban and a light brown wig.”</p> +<p>Again, it was to Mr. Pickwick’s watch, that we owe the +diverting and farcical incident of the double bedded +bedroom—and indeed we have here all the licensed +improbabilities of a Farce. To forget his watch on a hotel +table was the last thing a staid man of business would do. +How could he be made to forget it? “By winding it +up,” said the author. “Winding up his watch, +and <i>laying it on the table</i>.” This was of +course in the <i>Fob</i> days, when the watch had to be drawn +from the deep pocket; not as now when it is secured with a +“guard chain.” Naturally, he might in an +abstracted moment have so laid it down.</p> +<p>As an instance of the natural, every-day sort of tone +prevailing through the book, it may be noted that it is mentioned +as a matter of history, that the breakfast next day was at eleven +o’clock—a late hour. But we know, though it is +not pointed out, that Mr. Magnus and Mr. Pickwick had sat till +morning drinking brandy and water, and that Mr. Pickwick had +spent a portion of the night wandering about the Hotel. +Naturally he came down late.</p> +<p><!-- page 16--><a name="page16"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +16</span>We are also minutely told that Mr. Magnus left the room +at ten minutes past eleven. Mr. Pickwick “took a few +strides to and fro,” when it became half past eleven! +But this is a rather mysterious passage, for we next learn that +“the <i>small hand</i> of the clock, following the +<i>latter part</i> of his example, had arrived at the figure +which indicates the half hour.” The “latter +part,” would refer to “fro.” Perhaps it +is a fresh gibe at the unlucky White Horse and its +administration. The “small hand,” in any case, +could not, and would not, point to the half hour, save that it +had got loosened, and had jumped down, as hands will do, to seek +the centre of gravity.</p> +<p>How natural, too, is the appearance of Jingle. With +Wardles’ £120 in his pocket, he was flush of cash, +and could make a new appearance—in a new district—as +an officer—Captain FitzMarshall. He was “picked +up,” we are told, at some neighbouring races. Sudbury +and Stowmarket are not far off.</p> +<p>Some years ago, the late Lady Quain was staying at Ipswich and +took so deep an interest in the “Great White Horse” +and its traditions that she had it with all its apartments +photographed on a large scale, forming a regular series. +Her husband, the amiable physician whose loss we have to deplore, +gave them to me. The “White Horse” was +decidedly wrong in having Mr. Pickwick’s double-bedded room +fitted up with brass Birmingham bedsteads. Were I the +proprietor I would assuredly have the room arranged exactly as in +Phiz’s picture—the two old-fashioned four-posts with +the dimity curtains, the rush light and shade on the floor, the +old glass on the dressing-table. To be even more realistic +still there might be added Mr. Pickwick’s night-capped head +peeping out, and the lean presentment of the lady herself, all, +say, in wax, <i>à la Tussaud</i>. What a show and +attraction that would be!</p> +<p>The author’s ingenuity was never at fault in the face of +a difficulty. Mr. Pickwick was to be got to Nupkins’ +in a sedan chair, a grotesque incident; but then, what to do with +Tupman, also arrested? As both would not fit in an ordinary +sedan, the sedan was made to fit <i>them</i>, and thus it was +done. “It was recollected that there stood in the Inn +yard an old sedan chair, which, having been originally built for +a gouty gentleman with funded property, would hold Mr. <!-- page +17--><a name="page17"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +17</span>Pickwick and Mr. Tupman at least as conveniently as a +modern postchaise.”</p> +<p>Nothing is more remarkable than the ingenious and striking +fashion in which “<i>Boz</i>” has handled the episode +of the double-bedded room and the yellow curl papers. The +subject was an awkward one and required skilful management, or it +might have repelled. The problem was how to make the +situation amusing and yet not too realistic? It will be +seen that all the <i>appearances</i> of a most embarrassing +situation are produced, and yet really neither the lady nor Mr. +Pickwick have taken off their garments. To produce this +result, much elaborate machinery was requisite. The beds +were arranged as if on the stage, one on each side of the door +with a sort of little lane between the wall and each bed. +Mr. Pickwick, we are told, actually crept into this lane, got to +the end where there was a chair, and in this straight, confined +situation proceeded to take off his coat and vest and to fold +them up. It was thus artfully brought about that he +appeared to have gone to bed, and could look out from the dimity +curtains without having done so. It does not strike every +one that Mr. Pickwick, under ordinary circumstances, would have +taken off his “things” before the fire just as the +lady did, in the free and open space, and not huddled up in a +dark corner. However, as Mr. Weller says: “It wos to +be, and—it wos,” or we should have had no story and +no laugh.</p> +<p>There is a pleasant story—quite akin to Mr. +Pickwick’s adventure—of what befell Thackeray when +travelling in America. Going up to bed, he mistook the +floor, and entered a room the very counterpart of his own. +He had begun to take off his clothes, when a soft voice came from +within—“<i>Is that you</i>, +<i>George</i>?” In a panic, he bundled up his things, +like Mr. Pickwick, and hurriedly rushed out, thinking what would +be the confusion should he encounter “George” at the +door. Anthony Trollope, my old, pleasant friend and sponsor +at the Garrick Club, used to relate another of these hotel +misadventures which, he protested, was the most +“side-splitting” thing ever he heard of. A +gentleman who was staying at one of the monster Paris hotels with +his lady, was seized with some violent cold or pulmonary +attack. She went down to try and get him a mustard plaster, +which, <!-- page 18--><a name="page18"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 18</span>with much difficulty, she +contrived. Returning in triumph, as Mr. Pickwick did with +his recovered watch, she found that he had fallen into a gentle +sleep, and was lying with his head buried in the pillows. +With much softness and deftness, she quickly drew away the +coverings, and, without disturbing him, managed to insinuate the +plaster into its proper place. Having done her duty, she +then proceeded to lie down, when the sleeping man, moving +uneasily, awoke and showed his face. It was <i>not</i> her +husband! She fled from the room. The humour of the +thing—as described by Trollope—was the bewilderment +of the man on discovering the damp and burning mass that had been +applied to him, and the amazing disappearance of his +visitant. What did it all mean? The mystery probably +remained unsolved to the day of his death.</p> +<p>But the Great White Horse received an important cosmopolitan +compliment from across the seas—at the Chicago +Exhibition—when a large and complete model was prepared and +set up in the building. This was an elaborate as well as +important tribute to the Book which it was assumed that every one +knew by heart.</p> +<h3>V.—Ipswich Theatre</h3> +<p>Boz, on his travels, with his strong theatrical taste, was +sure to have gone to the little theatre in Tacket Street, now a +Salvation Army meeting-house. It is the same building, +though much altered and pulled about, as that in which David +Garrick made his first appearance on the stage, as Mr. Lyddal, +about 150 years ago. I have before me now a number of +Ipswich play bills, dated in the year 1838, just after the +conclusion of “Pickwick,” and which, most +appropriately, seem to record little but Boz’s own +work. Pickwick, Oliver, Nickleby, and others, are the Bill +of Fare, and it may be conceived that audiences would attend to +see their own Great White Horse, and the spinster lady in her +curl papers, and Mr. Nupkins, the Mayor, brought on the +boards. These old strips of tissue paper have a strange +interest; they reflect the old-fashioned theatre and audiences; +and the Pickwickian names of the characters, so close after the +original appearance, have a greater reality. Here, for +instance, is a programme for Mr. Gill’s benefit, on <!-- +page 19--><a name="page19"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +19</span>January 19, 1839, when we had “The Pickwickians at +half-price.” This was “a comic drama, in three +acts, exhibiting the life and manners of the present day, +entitled—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: center">“<span +class="smcap">Pickwick</span>, or the sayings and doings of Sam +Weller!”<br /> +<i>Adapted expressly for this Theatre from the celebrated +Pickwick Papers</i>,<br /> +<i>by Boz</i>!</p> +<p>“The present drama of Pickwick has been honoured by +crowded houses, and greeted by shouts of laughter and reiterated +peals of applause upon every representation, and has been +acknowledged by the public Press to be the only successful +adaptation.</p> +<p>The <span class="smcap">Illustrations</span> designed and +executed by popular <span class="smcap">Phiz-es</span>.</p> +<p>The new music by Mr. Pindar. The quadrilles under the +direction of Mr. Harrison.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>All the characters are given.</p> +<p>“Mr. Pickwick,” founder of the Club, and +travelling the counties of Essex and Suffolk in pursuit of +knowledge.</p> +<p>“Snodgrass,” a leetle bit of a poet.</p> +<p>“Winkle,” a corresponding member also; and a +something of a sportsman.</p> +<p>“Job Trotter,” thin plant o’ ooman natur; +something between a servant and a friend to Jingle; a kind of +perambulating hydraulic.</p> +<p>“Joe,” a fat boy, addicted to cold pudding and +snoring.</p> +<p>“Miss Rachel Wardle,” in love with Jingle or +anybody else that will have her.</p> +<p>“Emily” was appropriately represented in such a +Theatre, by Miss Garrick.</p> +<p>The scenes are laid at first at the Red Lion, Colchester, +close by which is Manor Farm, where a ball is given, and, of +course, “the Pickwickian Quadrilles!” are danced +“as performed at the Nobility’s Balls.” +(I have these quadrilles, with Mr. Pickwick, on the title.) +Then comes the White Hart, and “How they make +sausages!” displayed in large type. The scene is then +shifted to the Angel, at Bury, and the double-bedded room with +its “horrible dilemma,” and</p> +<p style="text-align: center">“<span class="smcap">Scene of +Night Caps</span>!”</p> +<p>It will be noticed that there is nothing of the Great White +Horse in the very town. The reason was that the proprietor +was disgusted <!-- page 20--><a name="page20"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 20</span>by the unflattering account given of +his Inn and must have objected. It winds up with the Fleet +scenes, where Mr. Weller, senr.,</p> +<p style="text-align: center">“<span class="smcap">Arrests +his own Offspring</span>.”</p> +<p>That this notion of the Great White Horse being sulky and +hostile is the true one is patent from another bill, December 10, +1843, some four years later, when the proprietor allowed his Inn +to be introduced. The piece was called—</p> +<p style="text-align: center">“<span class="smcap">Boots at +the White Horse</span>.”</p> +<p>“Now acting in London with extraordinary +success.” This was, of course, our old friend +“Boots at the Swan,” which Frank Robson, later, made +his own. As Boz had nothing to do with it, there could be +no objection. Barnaby Rudge, however, was the piece of +resistance. On another occasion, January, 1840, came Mr. J. +Russell, with his vocal entertainment, “Russell’s +Recollections” and “A Portrait from the Pickwick +Gallery.” “Have you seen him? +Alphabetical Distinctions. A sample of <span +class="smcap">Mister Sam Weller’s</span> Descriptive +Powers.”</p> +<p>Some adaptation or other of Dickens seems to have been always +the standing dish. The old Ipswich Theatre is certainly an +interesting one, and Garrick and Boz are names to conjure +with.</p> +<h3>VI.—Who was Pott?</h3> +<p>There have been abundant speculations as to the originals of +the Pickwickian characters—some Utopian enough, but I do +not think that any have been offered in the case of Mr. Pott, the +redoubtable editor of the <i>Eatanswill Gazette</i>. I am +inclined to believe that the notorious and brilliant Dr. Maginn +was intended. He and Pott were both distinguished for their +“slogging” or bludgeoning articles, and both were +High Tories, or “Blue,” as Mr. Pott had it. But +what is most significant is that in the very year Pickwick was +coming out, to wit, 1836, Maginn had attracted general attention +and reprobation by the scandal of his duel with Grantley Berkely, +arising out of a most scurrilous review of the latter’s +novel. To this meeting he had been brought with some +difficulty—just as Pott—the +“Pot-valiant,” declined to “serve him +so,” <i>i.e.</i>, Slurk; being restrained by the laws of +his country. He was an assistant editor to the +“Standard,” and had <!-- page 21--><a +name="page21"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 21</span>furnished +scurrilites to the “John Bull.” He had about +this time also obtained an influence over the interesting +“L. E. L.,” whom John Forster, it is known, was +“courting,” and by some rumours and machinations +succeeded in breaking off the business. Now Forster and +Boz, at the time, were bosom friends—Forster could be +unsparing enough where he was injured: and how natural that his +new friend should share his enmities. Boz was always glad +to gibbet a notorious public abuse, and here was an +opportunity. Maginn’s friend, Kenealey, wrote to an +American, who was about to edit Maginn’s writings, +“You have a glorious opportunity, where you have no fear of +libel before your eyes. <i>Maginn’s best things can +never be published till his victims have passed from the +scene</i>.” How significant is this! Then +Pott’s “combining his information,” his +“cramming” critic, his using the lore of the +Encyclopedia Britannica for his articles suggest Maginn’s +classical lucubrations. A well-known eminent +<i>Littérateur</i>, to whom I suggested this view, +objected that Pott is not shown to be such a blackguard as +Maginn, and that Maginn was not such an ass as Pott. But +Boz generalised his borrowed originals. Skimpole was taken +from Leigh Hunt, yet was represented as a sort of scoundrel; and +Boz confessed that he only adapted his lighter manner and airy +characteristics.</p> +<p>In these latter days, people have been somewhat astonished by +the strange “freak” of our leading journal in so +persistently offering and pressing on the public their venture of +a new edition of the Encyclopedia. Every ingenious +variation of bold advertisement is used to tempt the +purchaser—a sovereign down and time for the rest; actual +pictures of the whole series of volumes; impassioned arguments, +pleadings, and an appeal to take it at the most wonderfully low +price. Then we have desirable information, dealing with +topics of varied kind, and assurances that material would here be +found for dealing conveniently with every known subject. +Still, what a surprise that use was not made of “the +immortal Pickwick” in whose pages these peculiar advantages +were more successfully and permanently set forth and illustrated +by one most telling example furnished by no other than Mr. Pott +himself, the redoubtable editor of the <i>Eatanswill +Gazette</i>. To him and to no other is due the credit of +being the first to show <!-- page 22--><a name="page22"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 22</span>practically <i>how to use</i> the +Encyclopedia. He has furnished a <i>principle</i> which is +worth all the lengthy exhortations of the <i>Times</i> +itself.</p> +<p>Pott seems to have kept the work in his office, and to have +used it for his articles in a highly ingenious fashion. For +three months had he been supplying a series of papers, which he +assures us “appeared at intervals,” and which excited +“such general—I may say, such universal attention and +admiration.” A fine tribute surely to the +Encyclopedia. For recollect Pott’s was a +newspaper. The <i>Times</i> folk say nothing of this +important view. Poor, simple Mr. Pickwick had not seen the +articles because he was busy travelling about and had no time for +reading. (Probably Pott would have put him on the +“free list” of his paper, but for the awkward Winkle +flirtation which broke up the intimacy). Nay, he might have +had “the revolving book case,” which would handily +contain <i>all</i> the volumes.</p> +<p>And what were these articles? “They appeared in +the form of a <i>copious</i>”—mark the +word!—“review of a work on Chinese +Metaphysics.” It had need to be copious therefor, for +it is a very large subject. Mr. Pickwick himself must have +been very familiar with the Encyclopedia, for he at once objected +that he was not aware that so abstruse a topic was dealt with in +its pages. He had perhaps consulted the book, say, at +Garraway’s Coffee House, for, alas! the good man was not +able to have a library of his own, living, as he did, in lodgings +or at the “George and Vulture.” Mr. Pott, +however, who also knew the work well, had then to confess that +there was no such subject treated separately in it. But the +articles were from the pen of his critic (not from his own), +“who <i>crammed</i> for it, to use a technical but +expressive term; he read up for the subject, at my desire, in the +Encyclopedia.”</p> +<p>Now, as the subject was <i>not</i> treated in the work, how +could this “cramming” help him? Here comes in +the system, so unaccountably overlooked by the <i>Times</i>, +<i>i.e.</i>, the Combination Method. “He read, +sir,” rejoined Pott, laying his hand on Mr. +Pickwick’s knee and looking round with a smile of +intellectual superiority, “he read for metaphysics under +the letter <i>M</i>, and for China under the letter <i>C</i>, and +<i>combined his information</i>, <i>sir</i>.” There +we have it! We find separate articles <i>De </i><!-- page +23--><a name="page23"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +23</span><i>omni scribili</i>, and many topics unavoidably passed +over; but we see how this can be cured by the ingenious Pott +system. Combine your information! There you +are! Here for instance—under +“Metaphysics” we do find something about’ +Confucius and the other Pundits; we then turn to China and get +local colour, Chinese writers. &c., and then proceed +“to combine our information.” And so with +hundreds of other instances and other topics. Pott, +therefore, has been overlooked by the managers of the +<i>Times</i>, but it is not yet too late for them to call +attention to his system. It is of interest to all at +Eatanswill.</p> +<p>Pott was in advance of his time. His paper was not +wholly the sort of scurrilous organ it has been shown to +be. To weight its columns with “Chinese +Metaphysics,” was a bold, reforming step—then the +going on for three months, <i>i.e.</i>, <i>twelve</i> +articles—and all read with avidity. And what are we +to think of the Eatanswill readers—surely in advance, +too. And here we have him, nearly seventy years ago, giving +a well-deserved puff to the Encyclopedia, which is really worth +the innumerable columns the leading journal has devoted to the +book. Its last effort was to show an ingenious connection +between the British Association and the Encyclopedia, on the +ground of its various Presidents. “It stimulates, in +fact creates, the necessity for a good working Library of +Science. It is here that the Encyclopedia comes in as of +especial service.”</p> +<h2><!-- page 24--><a name="page24"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +24</span>CHAPTER II. BATH</h2> +<h3>I.—The Old City</h3> +<p>Bath, which already owed so much to famous writers, was +destined to owe even more to Boz, the genial author of +“Pickwick”—a book which has so much increased +the gaiety of the nation. The scenes at the old city are +more minute and vivid than any yet offered. But, if it owe +much to Boz, it repaid him by furnishing him with a name for his +book which has gone over the world. Everything about this +name will be interesting; and it is not generally known when and +how Boz obtained it.</p> +<p>There is a small hamlet some few miles from Bath and 97 from +London—which is 106 miles away from Bath—bearing the +name of “Pickwick.” The Bath coach, by the way, +started from the White Horse Cellars, Piccadilly, at half-past +seven in the morning, and took just twelve hours for the +journey. Now it is made by the Great Western in two! +Here, many years ago, at the time of the story, was +“Pickwick House, the seat of C. N. Loscombe, Esq.,” +and also “Pickwick Lodge,” where dwelt Captain +Fenton. Boz had never seen or heard of such places, but all +the same they indirectly furnished him with the name. A +mail-coach guard found an infant on the road in this place, and +gave it the name of “Pickwick.” The word +“Pickwick” contains the common terminal +“wick,” as in “Warwick,” and which means +a village or hamlet of some kind. Pickwick, however, has +long since disappeared from the face of the map. Probably, +after the year 1837, folk did not relish dating their letters +from a spot of such humorous memories.</p> +<p>This Moses Pickwick was taken into the service of the coaching +hotel, the White Hart, gradually devoted himself to the horse and +coaching business, and, at the time of Boz’s or Mr. +Pickwick’s visit, was the actual proprietor of the coaches +on the road. “The name,” said Sam, “is +not only down on the vay-bill, sir, but they’ve <!-- page +25--><a name="page25"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +25</span>painted vun on ’em on the door of the +coach.” As Sam spoke he pointed to that part of the +door on which the proprietor’s name usually appears, and +there, sure enough, in gilt letters of a goodly size, was the +magic name of <span class="smcap">Pickwick</span>. +“Dear me,” said Mr. Pickwick, quite staggered by the +coincidence, “what a very extraordinary thing!” +“Yes; but that ain’t all,” said Sam, again +directing his master’s attention to the coach-door. +“Not content with writin’ up ‘Pickwick,’ +they put ‘Moses’ afore it, which I calls adding +insult to injury.” “It’s odd enough, +certainly,” said Mr. Pickwick. When he was casting +about for a good name for his venture, it recurred to him as +having a quaint oddity and uncanniness. And thus it is that +we owe to Bath, and to Bath only, this celebrated name. It +is said that he rushed into the publisher’s office, +exultingly proclaiming his selection.</p> +<p>Few cities have had their society and manners sketched by such +eminent pens as Bath—Smollett, Miss Burney, Miss Austen, +and Boz. The old walls and houses are thus made to +live. Boz has given one of the most vivid and vivacious +pictures of its expiring glories in the thirties, when there were +still “M.C.s,” routs, assemblies, and sedans. +His own connection with the place is a personal, and a very +interesting one. He was there in 1835 on election business +hurrying after Lord John Russell, all over the country, to report +his speeches—a young fellow of three and twenty, full of +“dash,” “go,” and readiness of resource, +of immense energy and carelessness of fatigue, ready to go +anywhere and do anything. While thus engaged on serious +business, he kept his eyes wide open, took in all the humours of +Bath, and noted them in his memory, though he made no use of this +till more than two years later, when he was well on into +“Pickwick.”</p> +<p>The entering an old city by night always leaves a curious +romantic impression, and few old cities gain so much as Bath by +this mode of approach. The shadowy houses have a monumental +air; the fine streets which we mostly ascend show a mystery, +especially as we flit by the open square, under the great, black +Abbey, which seems a beetling rock. This old Bath +mysteriousness seems haunted by the ghosts of Burney, Johnson, +Goldsmith, Wilkes, Quin, Thrale, <!-- page 26--><a +name="page26"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 26</span>Mr. Pickwick, +and dozens more. Fashion and gentilily hover round its +stately homes. Nothing rouses such ideas of state and +dignity as the Palladian Circus. There is a tone of +mournful grandeur about it—something forlorn. Had it, +in some freak of fashion, been abandoned, and suffered, for a +time at least, to go to neglect and be somewhat overgrown with +moss and foliage, it would pass for some grand Roman ruin. +There is a solemn, greyish gloom about it; the grass in the +enclosure is rank, long, and very green. Pulteney Street, +too: what a state and nobility there is about it! So wide +and so spacious; the houses with an air of grand solidity, with +no carvings or frittering work, but relying on their fine lines +and proportion. To lodge there is an education, and the +impression remains with one as of a sense of personal dignity +from dwelling in such large and lofty chambers, grandly laid out +with noble stairs and the like. The builders in this fine +city would seem to have been born architects; nearly all the +houses have claims to distinction: each an expression and feeling +of its own. The fine blackened or browned tint adds to the +effect. The mouldings are full of reserve and chastened, +suited exactly to the material. There is something, too, +very stately about the octagon Laura Place, which opens on to +Pulteney Street.</p> +<p>In this point of view Bath is a more interesting city than +Edinburgh. Mr. Peach has written two most interesting +little quartos on the “Historic Houses of Bath;” and +Mr. T. Sturge Cotterell has prepared a singularly interesting map +of Bath, in which all the spots honoured by the residence of +famous visitors are marked down. It is very extraordinary +the number and distinction of these personages.</p> +<p>I don’t know anything more strange and agreeable than +the feeling of promenading the Parades, North and South—a +feeling compounded of awe, reverence, and exciting +interest. The tranquil repose and dignity of these low, +solid houses, the broad flagged Promenade, the unmistakable air +of old fashion, the sort of reality and self-persuasion that they +might in a moment be re-peopled with all these eminent +persons—much as Boz called up the ghosts of the old +mail-coach passengers in his telling ghost story—the sombre +grey of the walls, the brightness of the windows: these elements +join to leave an extraordinary impression. The houses on +these Parades <!-- page 27--><a name="page27"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 27</span>are charming from their solid +proportions, adapted, as it were, to the breadth of the +Parade. Execrable, by the way, are the modern attempts seen +side by side; feeble and incapable, not attempting any expression +at all. There is a row of meagre tenements beside the +Abbey—attempts at pinnacled gables—which it is a +sorrowful thing to look on, so cheap and starved is it. +Even the newer shops, in places like Milsom Street, with nothing +to do but to copy what is before them, show the same +<i>platitude</i>. Here and there you are constantly coming +upon one of these beautifully designed old mansions piteously +disguised, cut up in two or three it may be, or the lower portion +fashioned into a shop.</p> +<h3>II.—The Pump Room and Assembly Rooms</h3> +<p>No group of architectural objects is more effective or touches +one more nearly than the buildings gathered about the +Baths. There is something quaint and old-fashioned in the +arrangement, and I am never tired of coming back to the pretty, +open colonnade, the faded yet dignified Pump-room, with the +ambitious hotel and the solemn Abbey rising solemnly +behind. Then there is the delightful Promenade opposite, +under the arcades—a genuine bit of old fashion—under +whose shadow the capricious Fanny Burney had often +strolled. Everything about this latter +conglomeration—the shape of the ground, the knowledge that +the marvellous Roman baths are below, and even the older portion +of the municipal buildings whose elegant decorations, sculptured +garlands, &c., bespeak the influence of the graceful Adam, +whose pupil or imitator Mr. Baldwin may have been.</p> +<p>Boz’s description of the tarnished Pump-room answers to +what is seen now, save as to the tone of the decorations. I +say “Boz’s,” for Pickwick, it should be +recollected, was not actually acknowledged by the author, under +his proper name. It was thought that the well-known and +popular “Boz” of the “Sketches” would +attract far more than the obscure C. Dickens. Now Boz and +the Sketches have receded and are little thought of. Boz +and Pickwick go far better together than do Pickwick and +Dickens. There is an old-fashioned solemnity over this +Pump-room which speaks of the old classical taste <!-- page +28--><a name="page28"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 28</span>over +a hundred years ago. How quaint and suitable the +inscription, +“’Αριστον +yεν υδορ,” in faded +gilt characters. Within it is one stately chamber, not +altered a bit since the day, sixty-three years ago, that Boz +strolled in and wrote this inscription: As I sat with a friend +beside me in the newly finished concert-room, which is in +<i>happy</i> keeping, I called up the old genial Pickwick +promenading about under the direction of Bantam, M.C., and the +genial tone of the old gaiety and good spirits.</p> +<p>The “Tompion Clock,” which is carefully noted by +Boz, seems to have been always regarded as a sort of +monument. It is like an overgrown eight-day clock, without +any adornment and plain to a degree—no doubt relying upon +its Tompion works. It is in exactly the same place as it +was over sixty years ago, and goes with the old regularity. +Nay, for that matter, it stands where it did a hundred years +ago—in the old recess by Nash’s statue and +inscription, and was no doubt ordered at the opening of the +rooms. In an old account of Bath, at the opening of the +century, attention is called to the Tompion clock with a sort of +pride. The steep and shadowy Gay Street, which leads up to +the inviting Crescent and the more sombre Queen’s Square, +affects one curiously. Then we come to the old Assembly +Rooms close by the Circus, between Alfred Street and Bennell +Street—a stately, dignified pile—in the good old +classical style of Bath. One looks on it with a mysterious +reverence: it seems charged with all sorts of memories of old, +bygone state. For here all the rank and fashion of Bath +used to make its way of Assembly nights. Many years ago, +there was here given a morning concert to which I found my way, +mainly for the purpose of calling up ghostly memories of the +Thrales, and Doctor Johnson, and Miss Burney, and, above all, of +Mr. Pickwick. Though the music was the immortal +“Passion” of Bach, my eyes were travelling all the +while from one piece of faded <i>rococo</i> work and +decoration. Boz never fails to secure the <i>tone</i> of +any strange place he is describing. We all, for instance, +have that pleased, elated feeling on the first morning after our +arrival over night at a new place—the general brightness, +surprise, and air of novelty. We are willing to be pleased +with everything, and pass from object to object with +enjoyment. <!-- page 29--><a name="page29"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 29</span>Now all this is difficult to seize or +to describe. Boz does not do the latter, but he conveys it +perfectly. We see the new arrivals seated at breakfast, and +the entrance of the Dowlers with the M.C., and the party setting +off to see the “Lions,” the securing tickets for the +Assembly, the writing down their names in “the book,” +Sam sent specially up to Queen’s Square, and so on. +All which is very exhilarating, and reveals one’s own +feeling on such an occasion. The “Pump-room +books” are formally mentioned in the regulations. We +can see the interior of the Assembly Rooms in Phiz’s plate, +with its huge and elaborately framed oval mirrors and +chandeliers—the dancing-room set round with raised +benches. After the pattern of Ridotto rooms abroad, there +were the card-rooms and tea-rooms, where Mr. Pickwick played +whist with Miss Bolo. We note the sort of Adam or +Chippendale chair on which the whist Dowager is sitting with her +back to us.</p> +<p>Considering that the rules of dress were so strict, pumps and +silk stockings being of necessity, we may wonder how it was that +the President of the Pickwick Club was admitted in his morning +dress, his kerseymere tights, white waistcoat, and black +gaiters. It is clear that he never changed his dress for +evening parties, save on one occasion. Mr. Pickwick’s +costume was certainly in defiance of all rules and +regulations. It is <i>laid</i> in the regulations of Mr. +Tyson, M.C., who directed that “no gentleman in boots or +half-boots be admitted into the rooms on ball nights or card +nights.” Half-boots might certainly cover Mr. +Pickwick’s gaiters. So accurate is the picture that +speculation arises whether Phiz went specially to Bath to make +his sketches; for he has caught in the most perfect way the whole +<i>tone</i> of a Bath Assembly, and he could not have obtained +this from descriptions by others. So, too, with this +picture of the Circus in Mr. Winkle’s +<i>escapade</i>. It will be remembered that Boz was rather +particular about this picture, and suggested some minute +alterations. Bantam, the M.C., or “the Grand +Master” as Boz oddly calls him, was drawn from life from an +eccentric functionary named Jervoise. I have never been +quite able to understand his odd hypothesis about Mr. Pickwick +being “the gentleman who had the waters bottled and sent to +Clapham.” But how characteristic the dialogue on the +occasion! It will be seen that <!-- page 30--><a +name="page30"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 30</span>this M.C. +cannot credit the notion of anyone of such importance as Mr. +Pickwick “never having been in <i>Ba-ath</i>.” +His ludicrous and absurd, “Not bad—not bad! +Good—good. He, he, re-markable!” showed how it +struck him. A man of such a position, too; it was +incredible. With a delightful sense of this theory, he +began: “It is long—<i>very long</i>, Mr. Pickwick, +<i>since you drank the waters</i>—it appears an +age.” Mr. Pickwick protested that it was certainly +long since he had drunk the waters, and his proof was that he had +never been in Bath in his life. After a moment’s +reflection the M.C. saw the solution. “Oh, I see; +yes, yes; good, good; better and better. You are the +gentleman residing on Clapham Green who lost the use of your +limbs from imprudently taking cold <i>after port wine</i>, who +could not be moved in consequence of acute suffering, and who had +the water from the King’s Bath bottled at 103 degrees and +sent by waggon to his bed-room in town, where he bathed, sneezed, +and same day recovered.” This amusing concatenation +is, besides, an admirable and very minute stroke of character, +and the frivolous M.C. is brought before us perfectly. +While a capital touch is that when he saw young Mr. Mutanhead +approaching. “Hush! draw a little nearer, Mr. +Pickwick. You see that splendidly dressed young man coming +this way—the richest young man in Bath!”</p> +<p>“You don’t say so,” said Mr. Pickwick.</p> +<p>“<i>Yes</i>, <i>you’ll hear his voice in a +moment</i>, <i>Mr. Pickwick</i>. <i>He’ll speak to +me</i>.” <i>Particular</i> awe and reverence could +not be better expressed.</p> +<p>It is curious how accurate the young fellow was in all his +details. He describes the ball as beginning at +“precisely twenty minutes before eight +o’clock;” and according to the old rules it had to +begin as soon after seven as possible. “Stay in the +tea room and take your sixpennorths.” Mr. +Dowler’s advice was after a regulation “that everyone +admitted to the tea-rooms on dress nights shall pay <i>6d.</i> +for tea.” The M.C.’s visit to Mr. Pickwick was +a real carrying out of the spirit of the regulations, in which it +was requested that “all strangers will give the M.C. an +opportunity of being introduced to them before they themselves +are entitled to that attention and respect.”</p> +<p>Nothing is more gratifying to the genuine Pickwickians than to +find how all these old memories of the book are fondly cherished +in <!-- page 31--><a name="page31"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +31</span>the good city. All the Pickwickian localities are +identified, and the inhabitants are eager in every way to +maintain that Mr. Pickwick belongs to them, and had been with +them. We should have had his room in the White Hart pointed +out, and “slept in” by Americans and others, had it +still been left to stand. Not long since, the writer went +down to the good old city for the pleasant duty of +“preaching Pickwick,” as he had done in a good many +places. There is an antique building or temple not far from +where an old society of the place—the Bath Literary and +Scientific Institute—holds its meetings, and here, to a +crowded gathering under the presidency of Mr. Austen King, the +subject was gone into. It was delightful for the +Pickwickian stranger to meet so appreciative a response, and many +curious details were mentioned. At the close—such is +the force of the delusion—we were all discussing Mr. +Pickwick and his movements here and there, with the same +<i>conviction</i> as we would have had in the case of Miss +Burney, or Mrs. Thrale or Dr. Johnson. The whole atmosphere +was congenial, and there was an old-world, old-fashioned air over +the rooms. It was delightful to be talking of Mr. +Pickwick’s Bath adventures in Bath.</p> +<p>Nor was there anything unreasonably fantastical in making such +speculations all but realities. Bantam lived, as we know, +in St. James’s Square—that very effective enclosure, +with its solemn house and rich deep greenery, that recall our own +Fitzroy. No. 14 was his house, and this, it was +ascertained, was the actual residence of the living M.C. +How bold, therefore, of Boz to send up Sam to the very +Square! Everyone, too, knew Mrs. Craddock’s house in +the Circus—at least it was one of two. It was No. 15 +or 16, because at the time there were only a couple in the middle +which were let in lodgings, the rest being private houses. +This was fairly reasonable. But how accurate was Boz! +No doubt he had some friends who were quartered in lodgings +there.</p> +<p>I scarcely hoped to find the scene of the footmen’s +“swarry” tracked out, but so it was. On leaving +Queen Square in company with Mr. Smauker to repair to the scene +of the festivity, Sam and his friend set off walking +“towards High Street,” then “turned down a +bye-street,” and would “soon be there.” +This bye-street was one <!-- page 32--><a name="page32"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 32</span>turning out of Queen Square at the +corner next Bantam’s house; and a few doors down we find a +rather shabby-looking “public” with a swinging sign, +on which is inscribed “The Beaufort Arms”—a +two-storied, three-windowed house. This, in the book, is +called a “greengrocer’s shop,” and is firmly +believed to be the scene of “the Swarry” on the +substantial ground that the Bath footmen used to assemble here +regularly as at their club. The change from a public to a +greengrocer’s scarcely affects the point. The +uniforms of these gentlemen’s gentlemen were really +splendid, as we learn from the text—rich plushes, velvets, +gold lace, canes, &c. There is no exaggeration in this, +for natives of Bath have assured me they can recall similar +displays at the fashionable church—of Sundays—when +these noble creatures, arrayed gorgeously as +“generals,” were ranged in lines outside +“waiting their missuses,” <i>pace</i> Mr. John +Smauker. At the greengrocer’s, where the Bath footmen +had their “swarry,” the favourite drink was +“cold srub and water,” or “gin and water +sweet;” also “S’rub punch,” a West +Indian, drink, has now altogether disappeared. It sounds +strange to learn that a fashionable footman should consult +“a copper timepiece which dwelt at the bottom of a deep +watch-pocket, and was raised to the surface by means of a black +string with a copper key.” A <i>copper</i> watch +seems extraordinary, though we have now those of gun metal.</p> +<p>The Royal Crescent, with its fine air and fine view, always +strikes one with admiration as a unique and original monument: +the size and proportions are so truly grand. The whole +scene of Mr. Winkle’s escapade here is extraordinarily +vivid, and so protracted, while Mrs. Dowler was waiting in her +sedan for the door to be opened, that it has the effect of +imprinting the very air, look, and tone of the Royal Cresent on +us. We seem to be waiting with her and the chair-man. +It seems the most <i>natural</i> thing in the world. The +houses correspond almost exactly with Phiz’s drawing.</p> +<p>Pickwick, it has been often pointed out, is full of amusing +“oversights,” which are pardonable enough, and almost +add to the “fun” of the piece. At the opening, +Mr. Pickwick is described as carrying his portmanteau—in +the picture it is a carpet-bag. The story opens in 1827, +but at once Mr. Jingle begins to talk of being <!-- page 33--><a +name="page33"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 33</span>present at +the late Revolution of 1830. The “George and +Vulture” is placed in two different streets. Old +Weller is called Samuel. During the scene at the Royal +Crescent we are told that Mrs. Craddock threw up the drawing-room +window “just as Mr. Winkle was rushing into the +chair.” She ran and called Mr. Dowler, who rushed in +just as Mr. Pickwick threw up the other window, “when the +first object that met the gaze of both was Mr. Winkle bolting +into the sedan chair” into which he had bolted a minute +before. The late Charles Dickens the younger, in the notes +to his father’s writings, affects to have discovered an +oversight in the account of the scene in the Circus. It is +described how he “took to his heels and tore <i>round</i> +the Crescent, hotly pursued by Dowler and the coachman. He +kept ahead; the door was open as he came <i>round</i> the second +time, &c.” Now, objects the son, the Cresent is +only a half circle; there is no going round it, you must turn +back when you come to the end. Boz must have been thinking +of the Circus. Hardly—for he knew both well—and +Circus and Crescent are things not to be confused. The +phrase was a little loose, but, as the Circus was curved +“round,” is not inappropriate, and he meant that +Winkle turned when he got to the end, and ran back.</p> +<p>It must have been an awkward thing for Winkle to present +himself once more at Mrs. Craddock’s in the Crescent. +How was the incident to be explained save either at his own +expense or at that of Mr. Dowler? If Dowler were supposed +to have gone in pursuit of him, then Mr. Winkle must have fled, +and if he were supposed to have gone to seek a friend, then +Dowler was rather compromised. No doubt both gentlemen +agreed to support the one story that they had gone away for +mutual satisfaction, and had made it up.</p> +<p>Then, we are told, if it were theatre night perhaps the +visitors met at the theatre. Did Mr. Pickwick ever +go? This is an open question. Is the chronicler here +a little obscure, as he is speaking of “the +gentlemen” <i>en bloc</i>? Perhaps he did, perhaps he +did’nt, as Boz might say. On his visit to Rochester, +it does not appear that he went to see his +“picked-up” friend, Jingle, perform. The Bath +Theatre is in the Saw Close, next door to Beau Nash’s +picturesque old house. The old grey front, with its +blackened mouldings and <!-- page 34--><a name="page34"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 34</span>sunk windows, is still there; but a +deep vestibule, or entrance, with offices has been built out in +front, which, as it were, thrusts the old wall back—an +uncongenial mixture. Within, the house has been +reconstructed, as it is called, so that Mr. Palmer or Dimond, or +any of the old Bath lights, to say nothing of Mr. and Mrs. +Siddons, would not recognise it. Attending it one night, I +could not but recall the old Bath stories, when this modest +little house supplied the London houses regularly with the best +talent, and “From the Theatre Royal, Bath,” was an +inducement set forth on the bill.</p> +<h3>III.—Boz and Bath</h3> +<p>After his brilliant, genial view of the old watering-place, it +is a surprise to find Boz speaking of it with a certain acerbity +and even disgust. Over thirty years later, in 1869, he was +there, and wrote to Forster: “The place looks to me like a +cemetery which the dead have succeeded in rising and +taking. Having built streets of their old gravestones, they +wander about scantly, trying to look alive—a dead +failure.” And yet, what ghostly recollections must +have come back on him as he walked those streets, or as he passed +by into Walcot, the Saracen’s Head, where he had put up in +those old days, full of brightness, ardour, and enthusiasm; but +not yet the famous Boz! Bath folk set down this jaundiced +view of their town to a sort of pique at the comparative failure +of the Guild dramatic performance at the Old Assembly Rooms, +where, owing to the faulty arrangement of the stage, hardly a +word could be heard, to the dissatisfaction of the +audience. The stage, it seems, was put too far behind the +proscenium, “owing to the headstrong perversity of Dickens, +who never forgave the Bath people.” Charles Knight, +it was said, remonstrated, but in vain. Boz, however, was +not a man to indulge in such feelings. In “Bleak +House” he calls it “dreary.”</p> +<p>There had been, however, a previous visit to Bath, in company +with Maclise and Forster, to see Landor, who was then living at +No. 35 St. James’s Square—a house become memorable +because it was there that the image of his “Little +Nell” first suggested itself. The enthusiastic Landor +used, in his “tumultuous” fashion, to proclaim that +he would set fire to the house and burn it to the ground <!-- +page 35--><a name="page35"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +35</span>to prevent its being profaned by less sacred +associations. He had done things even more extravagant than +this, and would take boisterous roars of laughter as his odd +compliment was discussed.</p> +<p>The minuteness of his record of the gaieties shows how amused +and interested Boz was in all that he saw. Nothing escaped +him of the routine, day, hour, and place; all is given, even the +different rooms at the Assembly House. “In the +ball-room, the long card-room, the octagon card-room, the +staircases, the passages, the hum of many voices and the sound of +many feet were perfectly bewildering; dresses rustled, feathers +waved, lights shone, and jewels sparkled. There was the +music, not of the quadrille band, for it had not yet +commenced,” &c. Here Bantam, M.C., arrived at +precisely twenty minutes before eight, “to receive the +company.” And such company! “Brilliant +eyes, lighted up with pleasurable expectation, gleamed from every +side, and, look where you would, some exquisite form glided +gracefully through the throng, and was no sooner lost than it was +replaced by another as dainty and bewitching”; the warmth +of which description showing how delighted was the young man with +all he saw. But how did he secure admission? For it +was a highly fashionable company; there were vouchers and tickets +to be secured. But these were slight difficulties for our +brilliant “pushful” young man. He could make +his way, and his mission found him interest. He certainly +saw as much of Bath as anyone could in the time. Yet, gay +and sprightly as was his account of Bath, there may have been a +reason why Boz may have not recalled the place with pleasurable +feelings. It will be recollected that, after giving a few +lines to the account of Mr. Pickwick and friends being set down +at the White Hart, he carries them off at once to lodgings in the +Crescent. That first-class hotel was, alas! not open to the +poor, over-worked reporter; and he could tell of nothing that +went on within its portals. Hotel life on a handsome scale +was not for <i>him</i>, and he was obliged to put up at far +humbler quarters, a sort of common inn.</p> +<p>There is nothing more quaint or interesting than this genuine +antique—the Saracen’s Head in Walcot. It may +pair off with the old White Horse in Canongate, where +“Great Sam” put up for a night. It is surely +the most effective of all the old inns one could <!-- page +36--><a name="page36"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +36</span>see. It has two faces, and looks into two +different streets, with its double gables, and date (1713) +inscribed on a tablet outside. It is a yellow, well-worn +little building. And you enter through darkened tunnels, as +it were, cut through the house, coming into a strange yard of +evident antiquity, with a steep, ladder-like flight of stone +steps that leads up to a window much like the old Canongate +houses. Here, then, it was that Boz put up, and here are +preserved traditions and relics of his stay. One of the +tales is that, after some exuberant night <i>in the election +time</i>, he would get his candle and, having to cross the court, +would have it blown out half a dozen times, when he would go back +patiently to relight it. They show his chair, and a jug out +of which he drank, but one has not much faith in these chairs and +jugs; they always seem to be supplied to demand, and must be +found to gratify the pilgrims.</p> +<p>One of the examination queries which might have found a place +in Mr. Calverley’s paper of questions is this: “When +did Mr. Pickwick sit down <i>to make entries in his journal</i>, +and spend half an hour in so doing?” At Bath on the +night of Mr. Winkle’s race round the Crescent. What +was this journal? Or why did he keep it? Or why are +so few allusions made to it? Mr. Snodgrass was the +appointed historiographer of the party, and his +“notes” are often spoken of and appealed to as the +basis of the chronicle. But half an hour, as I say, was the +time the great man seems to have allotted to his posting up the +day’s register: “Mr. Pickwick shut up the book, wiped +his pen <i>on the bottom of the inside of his coat-tail</i>, and +opened the drawer of the inkstand to put it carefully +away.” How particular—how real all this +is! This it is that gives the <i>living</i> force to the +book, and a persuasion—irresistible almost—that it is +all about <i>some living person</i>. I have often wondered +how it is that this book of Boz’s has such an astounding +power of development, such a fertility in engendering other +books, and what is the secret of it. Scott’s +astonishing Waverley series, Thackeray’s “Vanity +Fair,” Boz’s own “Nicholas Nickleby,” +“Oliver Twist,” in fact, not one of the whole series +save “the immortal ‘Pickwick’” has +produced anything in the way of books or commentaries. I +believe it is really owing to this. Boz was a great admirer +of Boswell’s equally immortal book. I have <!-- page +37--><a name="page37"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 37</span>heard +him speak of it. He attempted parodies of it even. He +knew all the turns, the Johnsonian twists, “Why, +sirs,” &c., and used them in his letters. He was +permeated with the Johnsonian ether; that detail, that +description of trifling things which was in Boswell, attracted +him, and he felt it; and the fact remains that Pickwick is +written on <i>the principles</i>—no copy—of the great +biography, and that Boz applied to a mere fictional story what +was related in the account of a living man. And it is +really curious that Boswell’s “Life of Johnson” +should be the only other book that tempts people to the same rage +for commentary, illustrations, and speculations. These are +of exactly the same character in both books.</p> +<p>The MS. that Mr. Pickwick so oddly found in the drawer of his +inkstand at Mrs. Craddock’s, Royal Crescent, Bath, offered +another instance of Boz’s ingenious methods of introducing +episodical tales into his narrative. He was often hard put +to it to find an occasion: they were highly useful to fill a +space when he was pressed for matter. He had the strongest +<i>penchant</i> for this sort of thing, and it clung to him +through his life. Those in “Pickwick” are +exceedingly good, full of spirit and “go,” save one, +the “Martha Lobbs” story, which is a poorish +thing. So good are the others, they have been taken out and +published separately. They were no doubt written for +magazines, and were lying by him, but his Bath +story—“The True Legend of Prince +Bladud”—was written specially. It is quite in +the vein of Elia’s Roast Pig story, and very gaily +told. He had probably been reading some local guide-book, +with the mythical account of Prince Bladud, and this suggested to +him his own humorous version. At the close, he sets Mr. +Pickwick a-yawning several times, who, when he had arrived at the +end of this little manuscript—which certainly could not +have been compressed into “a couple of sheets of +writing-paper,” but would have covered at least ten +pages—replaced it in the drawer, and “then, with a +<i>countenance of the utmost weariness</i>, lighted his chamber +candle and went upstairs to bed.” And here, by the +way, is one of the amusing oversights which give such a piquancy +to “Pickwick.” Before he began to read his +paper, we are carefully told that Mr. Pickwick “unfolded +it, lighted his bedroom candle that it might burn up to the time +he had <!-- page 38--><a name="page38"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 38</span>finished.” It was Mr. C. +Kent who pointed this out to him, when Boz seized the volume and +humorously made as though he would hurl it at his friend.</p> +<p>Anyone interested in Bath must of necessity be interested in +Bristol, to which, as all know, Mr. Winkle fled after the unhappy +business in the Circus. He found a coach at the Royal +Hotel—which no longer exists—a vehicle which, we are +told, went the whole distance “twice a day and more” +with a single pair of horses. There he put up at the Bush, +where Mr. Pickwick was to follow him presently. The +Bush—a genuine Pickwick inn—where Mr. Pickwick first +heard the news of the action that was to be brought against him, +stood in Corn Street, near to the Guildhall, the most busy street +in Bristol; but it was taken down in 1864, and the present +Wiltshire Bank erected on the site. Mr. Pickwick broke off +his stay at Bath somewhat too abruptly; he left it and all its +festivities on this sudden chase after Winkle. But he may +have had a reason. Nothing is more wonderful than +Boz’s propriety in dealing with his incidents, a propriety +that is really instinctive. Everything falls out in the +correct, natural way. For instance, Mr. Pickwick having +received such a shock at the Bush—the announcement of the +Bardell action—was scarcely in heart to resume his jollity +and gaieties at Bath. We might naturally expect a +resumption of the frolics there. He accordingly returned +there; but we are told curtly, “The remainder of the period +which Mr. Pickwick had assigned as the duration of his stay at +Bath passed over without an occurrence of anything +material. Trinity term commenced on the expiration of the +first week. Mr. Pickwick and his friends returned to +London; and the former gentleman, attended of course by Sam, +straightway repaired to his old quarters at the George and +Vulture.”</p> +<p>And now in these simple sentences have we not the secret of +the great attraction of the book? Who would not suppose +that this was a passage from a biography of some one that had +lived? How carefully <i>minute</i> and yet how naturally +the time is accounted for—“passed over without the +occurrence of anything material.” It is impossible to +resist this air of <i>vraisemblance</i>.</p> +<h2><!-- page 39--><a name="page39"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +39</span>CHAPTER III. OLD ROCHESTER</h2> +<h3>I.—Jingle and the Theatre</h3> +<p>The little Theatre here must be interesting to us from the +fact of Jingle’s having been engaged to play there with the +officers of the 52nd Regiment on the night of May 15th, +1827. Jingle was described as “a strolling +actor,” and belonged to the “Kent circuit,” +that is, to the towns of Canterbury, Rochester, Maidstone, +&c. To this circuit also belonged “Dismal +Jemmy,” who was “no actor,” yet did the +“heavy business.” It does not appear that he, +also, was engaged for the officers’ performance. We +often wonder whether Jingle <i>did</i> perform on the night in +question; or did Dr. Payne and Lieutenant Tappleton tell the +story of his behaviour to their brethren: of his passing himself +off as a gentleman, his wearing another gentleman’s +clothes, and his insults to Dr. Slammer. Tappleton +scornfully recommended Mr. Pickwick to be more nice in the +selection of his companions. No doubt Jingle was suggested +to the officers by the manager: “knew a really smart chap +who will just do for the part.” On the whole, I think +they must have had his services, as it was too late to get a +substitute. Jingle, as we know, was played successfully by +Sir Henry Irving in the early ’seventies, <i>tempore</i> +Bateman. His extraordinary likeness to the Phiz portrait +struck every one, and it was marked, not only in face, but in +figure, manner, &c. The adaptation of +“Pickwick,” however, was very roughly done by the +late James Albery, who merely <i>tacked</i> together the Jingle +scenes. Those, where there is much genial comedy, such as +the Ball scene at Rochester, were left out. It is likely +that the boy, Boz, noticed Dismal Jemmy among the strollers, and +possibly may have seen a Jingle himself. But the characters +of Jingle and his confederate, Job, were certainly suggested by +Robert Macaire and Jacques Strop, which, a little before the +appearance of Pickwick, were being played in London—in +“<i>L’Auberge des Adrets</i>.”</p> +<p><!-- page 40--><a name="page40"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +40</span>Mr. Pickwick had discovered in the morning that Jingle +was “connected with the Theatre in that place, <i>though he +is not desirous to have it generally known</i>.”</p> +<p>Now considering generally the different “games” he +was pursuing, his passing himself off as an officer, an amateur +of cricket, &c., it was not altogether desirable to have his +profession known. Knowing also that Mr. Pickwick intended +staying at Rochester, and that the gay Tupman or Snodgrass would +find out his engagement and witness his performance, he likely +enough confided his secret to Mr. Pickwick. “Dismal +Jemmy,” the odd being who appears at Rochester for a short +time, had promised Mr. Pickwick a tale which he never gave +him. At the end of the story, <i>Boz</i>, having forgotten +the engagement, is driven to supply a far-fetched reason. +He was Job’s brother, and went to America “in +consequence of being too much sought after here.” It +will be recollected he was of a depressed and gloomy cast, and on +the Bridge at Rochester talked of suicide. He also told the +dismal “stroller’s tale.” Now, it is +plain that Boz drew him as a genuine character, and his behaviour +to the stroller was of a charitable kind. Boz, in fact, +meant him to be a suitable person to relate so dismal an +incident. However, all this was forgotten or put aside at +the end, and having become Job’s brother, he had to be in +keeping. The reformed Jingle declared he was “merely +acting—clever rascal—hoaxing fellow.” His +brother Job added that he himself was the serious one, +“while Jemmy never was.” Mr. Pickwick then +presumed that his talk of suicide was all flam, and that his +dismals were all assumed. “He could assume +anything,” said Job. Boz, too, forgot that his name +was James Hutley, whereas the brothers’ was +Trotter—though this may have been an assumed one.</p> +<p>The condition of the Rochester stage must have been rather +low, when we find two such persons as Jingle and Dismal Jemmy +members of the corps. Jingle’s jerky system of +elocution would seem a complete disqualification. From +sheer habit, it would have been impossible for him to say his +lines in any other fashion—which in all the round of light +“touch and go” comedy, would have been a +drawback.</p> +<p>The little Theatre is at the farther end of the town, where +the road turns off to the fields, a low, unpretending building +with a small <!-- page 41--><a name="page41"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 41</span>portico. I recall it in the old +days, on a walk from Gads Hill, when I paused to examine the +bills of the benefit of a certain theatrical family of the +Crummles sort—father, mother, sons, and daughters, who +supplied everything. The head founded his claims to support +on being a fellow townsman, winding up with Goldsmith’s +lines:</p> +<blockquote><p>And as the hare, whom hounds and horns pursue,<br +/> +Pants to the spot from whence at first it flew;<br /> +I still had hopes, my lengthened wanderings past,<br /> +Here to return, and die at home at last.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Boz was hugely amused when I rehearsed this to him at +lunch.</p> +<p>He himself, on his later visit, noted the strange +encroachments that were being made on the Theatre. A wine +merchant had begun on the cellars, and was gradually squeezing +himself into the box-office, and would no doubt go on till he +secured the auditorium, the lobbies, etc. When I last +passed by that way, it had become the Conservative Club, or some +such institution.</p> +<p>The wonderful picture, given in “Nickleby,” of the +Portsmouth playhouse, with all its characters and accessories and +inner life, shows the most intimate familiarity with all the ways +and fashions of the old Provincial Theatre. Every +touch—Crummles, Folair, Lenville, Snivelicci—proves +clearly that he knew perfectly the life behind the scenes, and +that he wrote of it <i>con amore</i>. There was a firm +belief at the Theatre Royal, Portsmouth, that all the performers +in “Nickleby” were personal sketches of this +corps. One actor told my friend, Mr. Walter Pollock, that +they could even identify Folair, Lenville & Co., and that +there was a playbill still extant in which either the names or +the pieces corresponded. But in this theory, however, +little faith can be placed; for at the time the family was at +Portsmouth, Dickens was but a child not more than ten or twelve +years old, and not likely, therefore, to be taken behind the +scenes, or to pick up or observe much. It is certain that +the whole description of the Theatre and its company, with the +minute and intimate details of stage life, was drawn from this +little house at Rochester. But we can go beyond mere +speculation.</p> +<p>In one of his retrospections, Boz tells us of a visit he paid +to Rochester in the fifties, “scenes among which my +<i>early days</i> were past.” The town he calls +Dullborough, which is a little hard on the <!-- page 42--><a +name="page42"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 42</span>place. +He went to look at the old theatre, and reveals to us how it +brought back to him a number of reminiscences, which shows that +he was much associated with stage matters when a youth, for he +describes Richard III. and Macbeth all “cast” and +mounted exactly as Mr. Crummles would have mounted them. +“There was Richard in a very uncomfortable wig, and +sleeping in war time on a sofa that was much too short for him, +and his conscience fearfully troubled his boots.” +There was the lovely young woman, “who went out gleaning, +in a narrow, white muslin apron, with five beautiful bars of five +different colours across it. The witches bore an awful +resemblance to the Thanes and other inhabitants of Scotland; +while the good King Duncan couldn’t rest in his grave, but +was constantly coming out of it and calling himself somebody +else.” These are all Crummles touches, only he +refrained from going again over the old ground. But one +point further favours the theory—he recalls his alarm when +Richard in his terrific combat was “backing up against the +stage box.” He was in the stage box then, and +therefore a privileged person at the theatre. His uncle, +“Dr. Slammer,” no doubt was thus complimented as +being “in Her Majesty’s service.” +“Of course,” he goes on, “the town had shrunk +fearfully since I was a child there.”</p> +<p>The description of the outlaw drama which Nicholas Nickleby +saw on the night of his arrival is exactly in the key of the +account of the performance of “Richard III.” just +given: also the account of the London manager, who was in the +boxes; still more so when Mr. Crummles and all the company +<i>died at him</i>. And as in Nickleby we have “the +Comic Countryman” who so inopportunely caught a bluebottle +when Mrs. Crummles was making her great point for the London +Manager: so in the account of Dullborough we are told of +“the <i>Funny</i> Countryman” who sustained the +comic, bucolic parts. This alone would show that the +Rochester and Portsmouth Theatres were the same, while the +beautiful young lady in the white apron performed the same sort +of characters that Miss Bravassa, or Miss Snivelicci did.</p> +<p>And in this connection may be supplied a further speculation +which is interesting. In <i>Boz’s</i> earlier works +it is plain that he relies for his most striking effects of +character on his own recollections and <!-- page 43--><a +name="page43"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 43</span>personal +observations. They might be considered passages from his +autobiography. I have thought that much in +“Nickleby” of Nicholas’s career and +Nicholas’s own character was drawn from himself. +Nicholas suggests Boz in appearance, in his spirit and vehemence, +and in some of his adventures. Some years ago a remarkable +letter appeared in the papers, in which Dickens, then a mere +youth, made an application to one of the managers, Mr. Webster I +think, for a situation in his theatre. He wanted to go on +the stage. Was not this like Nicholas? This desire +was surely founded on intimate acquaintance with the boards and +amateur experience.</p> +<p>“I had entertained the impression,” he goes on, +“that the High Street was as wide as Regent Street—I +found it little better than a lane. There was a public +clock in it which I had supposed to be the finest clock in the +world, whereas it now turned out to be <i>as inexpressive</i>, +<i>moon-faced and weak</i> a clock as ever I saw.” +The Town Hall was a “mean little brick heap, like a +demented chapel.”</p> +<h3>II.—The Bull</h3> +<p>Jingle, it will be recollected, on the party arriving at the +Bull, gave that Inn the highest praise, recommending them to stay +there—“<i>good house</i>—<i>nice +beds</i>—” a testimonial that used to be displayed in +gold letters at the door, but which, I have seen it stated, has +been removed. I have also read the same testimonial in the +guides and advertisements. Jingle warned them against +another Inn hard by,—“Wright’s—next +house—<i>dear</i>—<i>very dear</i>—half-a-crown +if you look at the waiter, making a charge for dinner, all the +same, if you dined out”; a practice, however, not +altogether unknown to modern Hotels. It was bold in Boz, +thus to publicly disparage Hotels that he did not approve. +“Wright’s” could not have relished so public an +allusion. What or where was +Wright’s—“next house?” There is +now—in the same High Street—“The King’s +Head,” described as “Family and Commercial, one of +the oldest-established in the Kingdom, close to the Cathedral and +Castle—home comforts.” This being its +position—the Castle on one side, the Cathedral on the +other—situated exactly as the Bull was—and therefore +“next house,” accurately described its +position. Being “one of the +oldest-established,” it must have been there at the time of +the Pickwickian visit.</p> +<p><!-- page 44--><a name="page44"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +44</span>At the Bull, they show you “Mr. Pickwick’s +room”—as well as Tupman’s and +Winkle’s—Boz’s very particular description +enables this to be done. Mr. Pickwick’s was, of +course, to the front—when, roused by the Boots, he gave the +direction of his followers’ bed-room, “next room but +two on the right hand.” Winkle’s room was +inside Tupman’s—so we are shown a room in the front +with another inside of it—and the <i>third</i> on the left +will, of course, be Mr. Pickwick’s, Q.E.D. The +waiters know all these points, and prove them to the bewildered +visitors. “You see, sir, there is the very room +<i>where the clothes were stolen</i>.”</p> +<h3>III.—Jingle’s Love Affairs</h3> +<p>Jingle’s elopement with the spinster aunt was +ingeniously contrived, but it seemed rather speculative and +rash—she might not have had a penny. His only ground +for jumping to the conclusion that she <i>had</i> a fortune was +that, on his saying that “Tupman only wants your +money”; “The wretch!” she +exclaimed—“Mr. Jingle’s doubts were +resolved—she <i>had</i> money.” More wonderful, +too, were the very easy terms on which he was “bought +off”—a hundred and twenty pounds. Her fortune +might be estimated at some thousands. He was really master +of the situation. The lady was of mature age—her own +mistress, Wardle and his attorney could do nothing to stop the +business. He certainly might have held out for four or five +hundred pounds. Perker’s diplomacy was wretched, and +his plea about the age of the old lady mere burlesque. +“You are right, my dear sir—she is rather old. +The founder of the family came into Kent when Julius Cæsar +invaded Britain; only one member of it since who hasn’t +lived to eighty-five, and <i>he</i> was beheaded by one of the +Henrys. The old lady is not seventy-three now, my dear +sir.” Which seems like buffooning in a man of +business.</p> +<p>Jingle’s course, after he left Rochester, can be traced +very readily. With plenty of money in his pocket, he found +his way to Ipswich (or Eatanswill), assuming the name of Captain +FitzMarshall, and taking with him, as his confederate, Job +Hutley. There he got introduced to Nupkins, the Mayor, who +presided at the election, and who had made his money in +“the nail and sarsepan business”—that is, as an +ironmonger. The few words this functionary uttered on the +hustings are of the same pompous character as his later +magisterial deliverances.</p> +<p><!-- page 45--><a name="page45"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +45</span>“‘Whiffin, <i>proclaim</i> silence,’ +said the Mayor, with air of <i>pomp</i>, &c., where this +superciliousness is emphasised. ‘Gentlemen,’ he +went on, ‘brother electors of the Borough of Eatanswill, we +are met here to-day for the purpose of choosing a representative +in the room of our late’—but the noise and +interruptions prevented the rest of the speech being heard. +Notwithstanding, he characteristically ‘thanked the meeting +for the patient attention with which they had heard him +throughout,’ a declaration that excited roars of laughter, +lasting for a quarter of an hour.”</p> +<p>This is exactly what one might expect from the self-sufficient +Nupkins, who was evidently understood and laughed at by his +fellow townsmen. Later, when the confusion and +“row” grew fast and furious, our Mayor “issued +imperative orders to twelve constables to seize the ringleaders, +who might amount in number to two hundred and fifty or +thereabouts.” We can recall Nupkins’ dealing +with the schoolboys in exactly the same sapient spirit.</p> +<p>Into the family of this worthy Jingle insinuated +himself. But would he not be recognised by Mr. Pickwick and +his friends? Yes; but we find that he took up his quarters +at Bury St. Edmunds, conveniently near, and, assuming that the +Pickwickians had departed after the election, thought he might +safely exhibit himself at Mrs. Leo Hunter’s party, whence +he was tracked back to Bury by Mr. Pickwick. It is +certainly fresh evidence of the identity of Eatanswill with +Ipswich that Jingle should have appeared in both places as +“Captain FitzMarshall.” Once established in the +Mayor’s family, the insinuating Jingle devoted himself to +the capture of the haughty and ill-natured Henrietta Nupkins, +making his way into her good graces, and “cutting +out” Sidney Porkenham, her old-established admirer. +This was Jingle’s second attempt at matrimony which failed +like the first. It may be said, after all, that his +behaviour was not so heinous. He was a fortune hunting +adventurer—such was his role—which was common enough +in those times. The unlucky Leo Hunter meeting, however, +spoiled all.</p> +<p>After the trick on Mr. Pickwick at the school, and which was a +fair retort, the pair left Bury that very night.</p> +<p>By an odd coincidence, they were taken up the next day by <!-- +page 46--><a name="page46"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +46</span>old Weller at Chelmsford—a stage or two from +London. He was driving the Ipswich coach, and brought them +to that town. It is clear, therefore, that they took this +round from Bury in dread of pursuit, and with a view to throw Mr. +Pickwick off the scent. The latter gentleman never dreamed +that they were so near him, dismissed the whole matter, and +returned to town to arrange about his action. By a happy +chance he met old Weller, and, within a few days, set off for +Ipswich and unmasked Captain FitzMarshall in Nupkins’ own +house. After this failure, his course was downward, and we +next meet him in the Fleet.</p> +<p>Job’s story was that Jingle dragged him away in a +post-chaise and persuaded the girl at the boarding-school to tell +Mr. Pickwick that she knew nothing of the matter. He had +also bribed the schoolmistress to tell the same story. He +had then deserted her for a better speculation, to wit, Miss +Nupkins, to whom he had hurried back.</p> +<p>But for Mr. Pickwick’s unfortunate adventure at the +“White Horse,” Jingle would likely enough have +captured Henrietta Nupkins. When Sam so opportunely met Job +in the Inn yard at Ipswich, he, instead of punishing him as he +had so often threatened to do, merely bid him be at the Inn at +eight o’clock. Why did he not bring him straight to +Mr. Pickwick who was upstairs? Instead, he went up himself, +told his master it was “all in trainin’,” and +“detailed the plan of action.” Mr. Pickwick was +curious, but Sam only said “all in good time.” +We never learn what the plan of action was to be. Indeed, +what could the pair do to Jingle?</p> +<h3>IV.—The Garrison</h3> +<p>The military recollections of Rochester and Chatham are +amusingly confused, or rather, in defiance of all known +regulations. Thus, at the Ball, we find Colonel Bulder as +“head of the garrison”—one would think at so +important a quarter, where there was a large garrison, a General +at least would be in command. Then we may ask the question, +why was not Dr. Slammer in uniform—always required in +presence of a commander? It was wonderfully bold, too, on +Boz’s part to give the <i>numbers</i> of the +regiments. Hon. Wilmot Snipe of the 97th, who <i>was</i> in +full uniform, which Mr. Tupman took for “a fancy <!-- page +47--><a name="page47"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +47</span>dress.” It was, of course, a Highland +one. We learn, too, that the other regiment was the 43rd, +to which Dr. Payne belonged, and that the 52nd was getting up +plays at the local theatre. And why did Boz select these +particular numbers?</p> +<p>The Chatham garrison consisted of “half-a-dozen +regiments,” with which a fair display at a Review could be +made on “The Lines.” Temporary fortifications +had been erected, the citadel was to be attacked and +taken—Fort Pitt we may assume—and a mine was to be +sprung. Servants were keeping places for the ladies +“on the Batteries”—an alarming position it +would seem. The Sergeants were running “with vellum +books” under their arms, usually left at home on +Review-day. The Officers were “running backwards and +forwards,” while Colonel Bulder was seen +“gallopping” (with two p’s) at large, +“prancing and curvetting,” that is, making his steed +curvet. The operations were, however, not under his +command, but directed by the “Commander-in-Chief,” +not, of course, of the Army, but, we may presume, the General of +the district. His behaviour was the most extraordinary of +all, for, instead of cultivating a solemn reserve and quietude, +and standing still, surrounded by his staff, he was seen +“backing his horse <i>among the people</i>,” and +heard shouting “till he was hoarse.” The +soldiers wore the old, stiff leather stock, choking them, which +was heard of so much in Crimean days. They were also +arrayed in <i>white</i> trowsers. Boz is here wonderfully +accurate, for these garments were always worn after May came +round, and this was May.</p> +<p>The catastrophe to the Pickwickians from their having got +between the two lines of soldiers, is somewhat perplexing. +One line was advancing to the attack, the other firmly awaiting +it. They were shouted at to get out of the way. +Suddenly the half-dozen regiments had overthrown them. Mr. +Pickwick was upset. Winkle received a bloody nose, after +performing a compulsory <i>somerset</i>; then, at the same +moment—wonder of wonders—we were told that the +regiments were “half-a-thousand yards +off,”—that is about a third of a mile away—all +in a second! It is hard to understand why they were so +maltreated. The soldiers would, of course, never have met; +and in our own time the amenities of a Review and the police +would have secured stray civilians from such rough +treatment. We do not <!-- page 48--><a +name="page48"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 48</span>know whether +the evolutions described were accurate—such as “one +rank firing over the heads of another and then running +away.”</p> +<p>It was to this exciting spectacle that old Wardle brought a +party in that wonderful Barouche of his—which is really +phenomenal for its accommodation. When Mr. Pickwick +recovered his hat, he found these persons in the +carriage:—1, Wardle; 2, a daughter; 3, a second ditto; 4, a +sister; 5, Trundle; 6, Tupman; 7, Fat Boy, on the box. The +Pickwickians were actually summoned by the hearty Wardle to +join. “Room <i>for you all</i>—two inside and +one on the ox,” where there was one already. All +accepted the invitation, making <i>ten</i> persons in all who +were accommodated in the Barouche! But this does not +exhaust its wonders. When lunch time came round, with +plates, dishes, bottles, eight persons were squeezed together +inside, so no wonder Wardle said, “We must sit +close.” How it was done is not to be +conceived—two sitting together is the usual allowance for a +modern Barouche, but four on one side!—and yet we are told, +when the horses were put to, the Barouche “rattled +off.”</p> +<p>The boy Dickens had carefully noted the behaviour of the +garrison, and described them as “staggering about the +streets of Chatham dead drunk,” more especially when we +remember that the “following them about, and joking with +them, affords <i>a cheap and innocent amusement for the boy +population</i>—” (<i>vide Mr. Pickwick’s +notes</i>). The boy, no doubt, often witnessed the incident +of the private, “drawing his bayonet, and stabbing the +barmaid who had refused to draw him more liquor.” It +is characteristic, by the way, of the police in a garrison town, +for this fellow appears to have been at large on the next day, as +he went down to the Tavern and tried to “square it” +with the girl.</p> +<p>And now, is not this a testimony to this strange book, that we +should be thus introduced to old Rochester and its doings, and +out of the scant materials furnished, can really reconstruct the +time and the place, and find out, as if by enquiries, all about +Jingle and his connections and the theatre—such is the +fruitfulness of the text?</p> +<h2><!-- page 49--><a name="page49"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +49</span>CHAPTER IV. BOZ AND BLACKING.</h2> +<p>One of the remarkable things associated with +“Pickwick” is its autobiographical character, as it +might be termed, and the amount of the author’s personal +experience which is found in passages. Such are his +sketches of Rochester and Chatham life during his boyhood, his +recollections of Grimaldi’s dissolute son, his own poignant +sorrow on the death of Mary Hogarth, and the painful memories of +his boyish apprenticeship to an uncongenial trade more than +hinted at. The election matters were also particular +memories of his own, so was the scene of the ghostly mail +coaches. Then there was the hideous recollection of the +life in a debtors’ prison, of which he had such sad +personal experience, with much more. He recalled the time +when he had a miserable lodging in Lant Street, Borough, and Lant +Street was for him always a fixed point in his memory, and grew +in size and importance. And when he described some wretched +creature hiding himself in London purlieus, he chose some +miserable place like College-street in Camden Town, whither his +own family had retired.</p> +<p>All these things supply a singular vitality and realism, and +also a distinct interest for those who are “in the +know,” for Boz himself at the time was a dramatic and +interesting figure, and this story of his struggle out of a state +of squalid misery is truly pathetic.</p> +<p>Readers of Forster’s interesting “Life” will +recall the dismal passage in the account given by Dickens to his +friend, and his agonising experience when he was employed at the +blacking factory. Many at the time thought that this +painful episode might have been spared the reader, but the +uncompromising biographer would not sacrifice it. On the +whole, he was right, as the trial had an important influence on +the writer’s character. It will be recollected that +he was employed at a place set up in Chandos Street, just out of +the Strand, <!-- page 50--><a name="page50"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 50</span>by one of the firm of Warrens, and +his duties seemed to consist in pasting the labels on the +bottles. Many will still recall the keen rivalry that +existed between the famous firms, Warren and Day and Martin, +which brought much amusement to the public from the arts of +“bold advertisement” with which the war was +waged. There were ingenious “Crambos,” such as +a cat gazing with well-assumed surprise at her face reflected in +one of Day and Martin’s well-polished shoes. These +things made a deep impression on the boy, who saw their grotesque +side. They were oddly bound up with his early impressions +and sorrows.</p> +<p>Hence, we find in the course of “Pickwick,” a few +allusions to these blacking rivals and their ways, which might +seem mysterious and uncalled for to those not in the secret, but +which for himself had the highest significance. When Sam is +first introduced at the “White Hart,” he is in the +very act of cleaning boots, and we have almost an essay on the +various species of boots and polishing. We are told +minutely that he was engaged in “brushing the dirt off a +pair of boots . . . ” There were two rows before him, +one cleaned, the other dirty. “There were +<i>eleven</i> pair, and one shoe, as belongs to No. 6 with the +wooden leg.” “The eleven boots is to be called +at half-past eight (an odd consensus in eleven persons), and the +shoe at nine.” He set to work upon a top-boot.</p> +<p>The landlady then made her appearance in the opposite gallery +and flung down a pair of shoes to be cleaned for No. 5, first +floor. There is a dramatic action in these calls from the +different galleries, which shows that Boz had the stage before +him. Sam then chalked the number on the sole. When he +found that it was for people of consequence in a private room +that the articles were required, he set to work with a will and +produced a polish “that would have struck envy to the soul +of <i>the amiable Mr. Warren</i>, <i>for they used Day and +Martin’s at the</i> ‘<i>White +Hart</i>.’” Here will be noted the compliment +to his old employer, though it was of a conventional sort.</p> +<p>With this very number “Pickwick” was destined to +leap into its amazing popularity, and the advertisement must have +been a valuable one. There may have been another reason, +for there was to be a “Pickwick advertiser,” which +was patronised by the firms, and it may <!-- page 51--><a +name="page51"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 51</span>have been +stipulated as a condition that the author was to give them this +“lift.” Another patron was Rowland, whose real +name was Rouland, of “Maccassar oil” and +“Kalydor” celebrity. We have a relic of one of +these forgotten nostrums in the familiar +“Anti-maccassar” known to every good housewife. +To Rowland or Rouland he later made an allusion in the text.</p> +<p>This method of calling attention to the merits of wares was a +French one—a sort of <i>réclame</i> introduced by +Villemessant in his journal <i>La Sylphide</i>. Thus +“Pickwick” was quite “up-to-date.” +After Jingle had gone off to Doctors Commons for his license, Sam +renewed his efforts, “burnishing a pair of <i>painted +tops</i>, worn by a farmer.” Then, interrogated by +Perker, he described the tenants of the inn by their +boots—a pair of “Hessians” in 13, two pair of +“halves,” with six “tops.”</p> +<p>In chapter xxxiv. we have another allusion to blacking. +“No man,” said Sam, “ever talked in poetry +’cept a beadle on Boxin’ Day, <i>or Warren’s +blackin’</i>.” This referred to the +rhymes—or verses—with which the firm filled the +newspapers in praise of their article. It will be +remembered that Mrs. Jarley, in the “Old Curiosity +Shop,” employed “a poet” to celebrate her +waxworks in similar fashion, and who was content with a few +shillings for each effort. We may be certain that this was +a boyish recollection, and that he had seen this blacking +“poet” making his calls in Chandos Street or haggling +for his miserable wage. The beadle, also alluded to, was a +prominent figure with Boz; but he has disappeared, with his huge +cocked hat, scarlet waistcoat, and uniform. He is to be +seen in Wilkie’s brilliant picture in the National +Gallery. It is evident from the passage that he came round +on Boxing Day for his <i>douceur</i>, reminding his patrons, as +the dustmen now do sometimes, by a copy of verses. Sam adds +that no one did this sort of thing except the persons +mentioned—“and <i>Rowland’s oil</i>, or some of +them low fellows.” The perfumer could only have been +half pleased with this uncomplimentary form. Still, such as +it was, it <i>was</i> an advertisement. Boz also makes +several allusions to the inventor, Bramah, mentioning Bramah +locks and keys with plugs, &c. Old Weller talks of +being locked up “in a fireproof chest with a patent +<i>Bramin</i>.” Bramah’s hydraulic press was a +<!-- page 52--><a name="page52"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +52</span>scientific novelty then, as were also his “patent +safes.” Bramah appears to have advertised in +“Pickwick.” These <i>réclames</i> are of +a rather elaborate kind, as when Lowten arrived at the office +(lii), we are told, he drew “a Bramah key from his pocket, +with a small plug therein to keep the dust out.” Then +“comforting himself with this reflection, Mr. Lowten +extricated the plug from the door key; having opened the door, +re-plugged and re-pocketed his Bramah.”</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Note</span>.—The horrors of the +Blacking episode were ever present to Dickens’ +recollection, and, as if under a sort of fascination, he later +seemed almost impelled to refer to them. Thus, in +Copperfield, we find him describing, but under a disguise, the +same incident. As when he was sent to Murdstone and +Grimby’s warehouse, it was still the washing and labelling +of bottles—“<i>not of blacking</i>,” but of +wines and spirits. “When the empty bottles ran short, +there were labels to be pasted on the full ones, or corks to be +fitted to them, &c.” But there is also another +allusion to the same, but curiously veiled, when he speaks of the +carman, Tipp, who “wore a red jacket.” Now, to +this day Day and Martin’s carmen wear red jackets, and +Warren’s men probably did so; but, at all events, it is +clearly an allusion to the costume of the blacking drivers. +There are allusions to blacking in Little Dorrit and Bleak +House.</p> +<h2><!-- page 53--><a name="page53"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +53</span>CHAPTER V. SINGLE SPEECH TRUNDLE</h2> +<p>This gentleman, as we know, was the affianced husband of +Isabella Wardle, and to the scenes of their marriage, the +festivities, &c., we owe some pleasing incidents. +Trundle was a good specimen of the <i>cypher</i> or nullity; +naturally, he is a figure at Manor Farm, but does nothing, and +practically says nothing. He was clearly a neighbouring +squire of limited ideas, or plain country gentlemen, that could +do no more than love his Isabella. Yet, while Boz describes +the “affairs” of Arabella and Winkle, of Emily and +Snodgrass, he wholly passes by Trundle and his +<i>inamorata</i>. We can see what manner of man Trundle +was, as he is shown seated in the barouche, at the review, +between the two sisters, each with long ringlets and +parasols. He is a good-looking young man, with mutton-chop +whiskers and black hair, on which his hat is set jauntily. +He is described as “a young gentleman apparently enamoured +of one of the young ladies in scarfs and pattens.” +Wardle introduced him in a rather patronising way. +“This is my friend, Mr. Trundle.” When the +firing began, there was much agitation among the young ladies, +screaming, &c., so that the gentlemen had to support them: +Mr. Trundle “was actually obliged to hold one of them +up.” But after the lunch was unpacked, the wine +uncorked, &c., there came a remarkable +development—Trundle actually spoke, made the one single +remark that is recorded of him in the whole chronicle! +Never before or after did he say a word. He was, in fact, +“single speech Trundle.” And what were these +words: “Will you permit me to have the pleasure, +Sir?” said Mr. Trundle to Mr. Winkle; a proposal to +“take wine with him,” as it is called, Winkle had a +bottle all to himself on the box seat, which, no doubt, attracted +the reticent Trundle. The two gentlemen not only took wine +together, but had “a glass round, ladies and +all.” But we should note that Trundle phrase, the +almost too humble form: “Will you permit me the pleasure, +Sir.” It looks as though Trundle were “an +ass,” as it is called. The fact remains, however, +that Trundle’s single speech was: “Will you permit me +to have the pleasure, Sir?”</p> +<p><!-- page 54--><a name="page54"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +54</span>After a few days’ interval, when Mr. Pickwick and +party found their way to Manor Farm, there were games +<i>galore</i>, and at the “round one,” Isabella and +Trundle, we are told, “went partners,” so all was +going on well. The Squire had been nearly brought up to the +point. It is painful to come to the conclusion, but +Isabella’s admirer, though a country gentlemen, was nothing +of a sportsman, and rather a poor creature. When Mr. +Pickwick and his followers were up early and out at the rook +shooting, we find no Trundle. He was lying a-bed, no +doubt. Stranger still, when the whole party went in for a +day to Muggleton for the cricket match, Trundle was the only one +who stayed behind. He remained with the ladies, for a +purpose, no doubt; still, ladies don’t like this sort of +thing. The evening came. “Isabella and Emily +strolled out with Mr. Trundle.” I have an idea that +on this very day matters came to a crisis in that quarter. +Everything favoured—all the men were away—he may have +seized the opportunity to “propose.” At all +events, we are significantly told that at the supper +“Isabella Wardle devoted herself <i>exclusively</i> to Mr. +Trundle.” Pointed enough, surely. We may be +fortified in this view by finding that on the return of the +party, all dead drunk, at one in the morning, on Trundle was +specially cast the degrading menial duty of carrying Wardle to +bed—his future father-in-law.</p> +<p>Did Boz dislike this man all this while, or did he feel that +he could do nothing with him in the story? It is certain, +however, that in the talks at Bury over the Bardell action, the +Boarding School adventure, &c., we never hear the sound of +Trundle’s voice. He is effaced. He makes no +remark on anything.</p> +<p>One of Boz’s most daring pantomime changes, is the +sudden arrival of old Wardle at Bury, when Mr. Pickwick was +released from the cupboard—and sandwich bags—in Miss +Tomkins’ school. The door was unlocked, and there +stood Wardle and the silent Trundle. A rather lame account +is given of the coincidence. Mr. Pickwick naturally asked, +“How did you come here?” “Trundle and I +came down here for some good shooting on the first,” +&c. Now, here it is evident Wardle good-naturedly +saddled himself with the company of the silent man, but he had +his reasons. Trundle was now son-in-law <i>elect</i>. +They were both at the “Angel” at Bury, and for some +days <!-- page 55--><a name="page55"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +55</span>here were Mr. Pickwick and his +“followers.” There was the exciting notice of +action <i>re</i> Bardell v. Pickwick. There had nearly been +Pott v. Pott and Winkle. And yet, all the time, this +Trundle listens, and eats and drinks; but there is no sign of him +on the record. He is busy maintaining his character as a +cypher.</p> +<p>Everything, however, points to show the all but comtemptuous +opinion that was held of this Trundle. Wardle had been +there two or three days when Winkle and the others came over from +Eatanswill, yet he had never told Mr. Pickwick or Winkle that +Trundle was to be married at Christmas, and that they were all to +be invited to the wedding. By the oddest of coincidences, +Tupman and Snodgrass, getting down from the coach at the +“Angel,” were met by Wardle, who at once said, +“I have <i>just been</i> telling Pickwick that we must have +you all down at Christmas. We’re going to have a +wedding.” But I doubt if this <i>be</i> an +oversight. The fact was, no one thought anything of that +cypher Trundle, or of his marriage—a matter of no +importance to anybody. That this is the true explanation is +plain, for Snodgrass, fancying that the wedding was of <i>his</i> +lady, turned pale. What was old Wardle’s +remark? Most significant of Trundle’s +<i>status</i>. “Don’t be frightened,” he +said, “<i>it’s only</i> Trundle <i>there</i> and +Bella.” “Only Trundle there,” +<i>i.e.</i>, only that poor insignificant thing there! No +more depreciatory words could be chosen, or put into the mouth of +an honest country gentleman. I am certain that old Wardle +gave his child reluctantly to this soft sort of +fellow—“Only Trundle there!” Then for the +shooting party. We hear of Tupman and Winkle even, with +their guns, &c., but not a sign of this Trundle, a country +gentleman, supposed to enjoy field sports. If Tupman and +Winkle had to carry their guns reversed “like privates at a +funeral,” was Trundle excepted? We cannot tell, for +he is not even named. Or was he of the shooting party at +all? It has always seemed astonishing that Winkle should +have been allowed, particularly by Mr. Pickwick, to join the +<i>second</i> shooting party. Everyone seemed to have +forgotten his first performance, when he might have shot his +friend Tupman dead, and, as it was, “peppered” him +severely. Tupman would naturally have objected to so +dangerous a companion. Wardle, at whose home the casualty +occurred, merely said, “I beg <!-- page 56--><a +name="page56"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 56</span>my friend +Winkle’s pardon, though; he has had some +practice.” Was this ironical? I fancy the whole +scene had passed out of the author’s mind.</p> +<p>Well, the Christmas season having come round—and +certainly Trundle must have been a very feeble creature to allow +himself to be “kept over” for so long a +time—the whole party assembled at Manor Farm; now there, +and on such an occasion at least, Trundle, being one of the two +central figures, will certainly assert himself. We shall +expect to see and hear him to good effect. Never was there +a greater mistake. As the Pickwickians arrived, the whole +“house party” were in the lane to greet them; we are +told in careless fashion that among them “there were +Isabella and <i>her faithful</i> Trundle,” <i>i.e.</i>, the +poor insignificant “chap” who was about to enter the +family by particular favour. Then Mr. Pickwick was told +that they had all been to “inspect the furniture and +fittings-up of the new house which the young couple were to +tenant.” This is very significant, for it throws a +certain light on Trundle’s situation. It is plain +that this house was on Wardle’s property, and that Trundle +had none of his own. It was, in fact, a poorish match and +the young couple were dependent more or less on Wardle. +Even the old lady didn’t like it, she resented their going +to look at the house, and her son, to soothe her, made this +significant speech: “Recollect Bella; <i>come</i>, <i>you +must keep her spirits up</i>, <i>poor girl</i>.” +“Poor girl!” “Keep her spirits +up!” Why?</p> +<p>On the wedding day, however, Trundle made an effort to assert +himself. He was “in high feather and spirits,” +<i>i.e.</i>, awkwardly pretended to be, but, of course, took +nobody in. Indeed, we are told he was “a little +nervous withal.” We may be sure he was, and therefore +looking “more of an ass” than ever. For such +<i>must</i> appear to be a really nervous man in high spirits and +going to be married. All the girls were in tears, Wardle +himself quite broken down, for they knew what was before the poor +child. At the wedding banquet Mr. Pickwick made an +admirable, natural speech, which was greeted with tumults of +applause, and was reported word for word. Then we are told +how Wardle proposed Mr. Pickwick; Mr. Pickwick, the old lady; +Snodgrass, Tupman, the poor relations, all had their speeches; +but there is not a single word of Trundle, who appears to have +been mumchance—<!-- page 57--><a name="page57"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 57</span>no one wanted him. In his +speech at the wedding, the amiable Pickwick had, of course, to +give the expected conventional praises to Trundle. But how +guarded he is! “God bless ’em,” he says; +“my young friend I believe to be a very excellent and manly +fellow.” I <i>believe</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, he did not +<i>know</i> it. “Manly,” we might question, for +in manliness he was deficient. We could hear the rustics +below: “Squire Trundle manly! he! he! not he!” +But on the bride, Mr. Pickwick was enthusiastic: “I +<i>know</i> her,” he said, “to be a very, very +amiable and lovely girl; I admire, love, and esteem +her.” At the close he prayed that Wardle’s +daughter “might enjoy all the happiness that even he could +desire.” Not that he was sure of, but that he could +desire. But Trundle, the cypher, no one thought of him, no +one cared about his speech. Most likely, in his +“nervousness,” he mumbled forth some indistinct words +which no one could hear, so it was best and most charitable to +pass him by altogether in the report. At the dance at +night, where he surely would have led off the movements, still +not a word of him. And at last, “long before Mr. +Pickwick was weary of dancing, the newly-married pair had retired +from the room.” Mr. Lang fancies that they had gone +upstairs; but I imagine they repaired to their new home close +by. But then, with that minuteness which never fails Boz, +we had been told that they were not to go there till after the +Christmas holidays.</p> +<p>But, after all, one might be inclined to doubt this theory of +the young pair remaining at the house. For do we not find +that on the next day, which was Christmas day, when there was the +going to Church, and the skating and sliding, and Mr. +Pickwick’s immersion, there is no mention of the happy +pair? It looks as though they were at their own home.</p> +<p>After this, many events occurred. Mr. Pickwick was +“tried” and “conwicted,” as old Weller +has it; was sent to prison and released. On his return from +Birmingham we have some signs of Wardle and his family. +That gentleman was sorely disturbed by Emily’s +“goings on” with Snodgrass, and forecasted another +imprudent marriage like Trundle’s. He had a suitable +match for her in his eye: “a young gentleman down in our +neighbourhood,” but Arabella’s elopement set the fire +to the powder, and here it <!-- page 58--><a +name="page58"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 58</span>is worth +while comparing the marriages of Emily and her sister Isabella as +a test of the relative importance of Snodgrass and this +Trundle. The one took place in London with great show and +pomp, all the family going up specially for it. “A +handsome portion was bestowed on Emily,” but there is not a +word to show that Trundle received a halfpenny.</p> +<p>Then followed the scenes at Osborne’s Hotel in the +Adelphi, when all was made up and Snodgrass accepted. And +now, at last, we hear something of Trundle. Mrs. T., as we +might expect, was in an “interesting way,” and had to +be informed of what was going on. But it had to be broken +to her by Trundle, in right of his office. Good, easy +man! We can hear him: “the news will be too much for +her” (this is on the record). She would insist on +going, and it would be fatal. He would, of course, implore +her not to agitate herself in her present state. As a +matter of course he was all astray. The news was <i>not</i> +too much for her. She ordered at once a cap and a new +dress, and declared that she <i>would</i> go up for the +wedding. The horrified Trundle, who had clearly no +authority whatever, called in the Doctor to exert <i>his</i>, +which he did in this way: by leaving it all to herself. Boz +emphasizes it, by way of contrast to Trundle, saying that +“he was a wise and <i>discreet fellow</i>.”</p> +<p>Of course the foolish Trundle was put aside; the lady went and +suffered no harm. This proves that Trundle was the <i>mari +de la femme</i>, with no will of his own.</p> +<p>At Dulwich Church, the bridegroom was met “by the bride, +the maids, the Winkles, the Wardles, and Trundles,” always +to be last and insignificant. In course of time we are told +that Mr. Pickwick was much troubled at first by the numerous +applications made to him to act as Godfather to the offspring of +his friends! These came from Mr. Winkle, Mr. Snodgrass, and +Mr. Trundle. Last of course. Poor soul! We can +see him, grown elderly, sitting at his own table, smiling or +silent, or with an occasional “yes, my dear,” +“certainly, my dear,” “by all means, my +dear.”</p> +<h2><!-- page 59--><a name="page59"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +59</span>CHAPTER VI. MUGGLETON AND ITS CRICKET</h2> +<p>The situation and real name of Muggleton has always been a +hotly debated point; many have been the speculations and many the +suggestions as to the original. I was once inclined to +adopt Gravesend, on the statement of the author’s daughter, +that, one day, driving with her father towards Cobham, he said +that “it was here that Mr. Pickwick dropped his +whip.” Cobham would be on the way to Gravesend.</p> +<p>Now what was Muggleton? A large town, with Mayor, +Burgesses, and Freemen—an ancient and loyal Borough, much +given to petitioning Parliament. It is insinuated that +these petitions were guided by Stiggins-like +instincts—“a zealous advocacy of Christian principles +combined with a devoted attachment to commercial rights. +Hence they were against negro slavery abroad and <i>for</i> the +factory system at home. They were for abolishing Sunday +trading in the streets, and for maintaining the sale of church +livings.” A member of Boz’s family has assured +me that Maidstone was in the author’s mind: it is only some +eight miles from Rochester. But “The Bull” +waiter informed the Pickwickians that Muggleton was nearly double +the distance, or fifteen miles; while Gravesend is about six +miles from Rochester—so the evidence of distance does not +help us. Where, too, did Mr. Pickwick drop his whip? +The Pickwickian enthusiast can ascertain this—’an he +will—by a little calculation. After leaving +“The Bull,” the tall quadruped exercised his +“manœuvre” of darting to the side of the road, +rushing forward for some minutes—<i>twenty +times</i>—which would cover about an hour. In the +etching, there is a picture of the spot—a hedge-lined +road. Mr. Pickwick and his friends had to walk the whole +way; yet they arrived late in the afternoon. No one could +walk from Rochester to Maidstone in that time.</p> +<p>It was natural that Mr. Pickwick should drop his +whip—but most unnatural that he should ask Winkle to +dismount and pick it up for him; <!-- page 60--><a +name="page60"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 60</span>and most +unnatural of all that Winkle, in his precarious situation, should +consent to dismount. The ordinary course would be that +Tupman or Snodgrass should get down. Then, for the great +marvel of all, we have Mr. Pickwick, who <i>would not</i> get +down, or <i>could not</i> get down to pick up his whip, getting +down to help Mr. Winkle on to his horse! Thus, on the two +occasions, the useless or lazy Tupman and Snodgrass kept their +seats.</p> +<p>It has been claimed—by the late Charles Dickens the +younger—that Town Malling was Muggleton, and on the ground +that it has always had a reputation for good cricket. It is +not far from Maidstone. But this is easily disposed +of. Muggleton is described as an important corporate town, +with a Mayor, etc. Further, the cricketing at Muggleton was +of the poorest sort. There was an elderly gentleman playing +who could not stop the balls—a slim one was hit on the +nose—they were a set of “duffers,” in +fact. As for Dickens knowing nothing about cricket, as Mr. +Lang contends, I can say, that he was always interested in +it. I myself have seen him sit the whole day in a marquee, +during a match got up by himself at Gads Hill, marking (or +“notching”) in the most admirable manner. +Anything he did or described, he did and described according to +the best fashion he could compass.</p> +<p>Wishing, however, to investigate this knotty question +thoroughly, I lately communicated with the Town Clerk of +Maidstone, Mr. Herbert Monckton, who was good enough to search +the Books with reference to certain queries which I +furnished. Dickens states of the mysterious and unnamed +Borough, that it had its Mayor, Burgesses, and +Freemen—which at once excludes Town Malling which the +younger Charles Dickens had selected. The Clerk has found +that, at the period in question, there were 813 Freemen on the +roll. It has always been held to be “an ancient and +loyal Borough,” but this, of course, most boroughs of its +standing would claim to be. Boz speaks of innumerable +Petitions to Parliament, and Mr. Monckton tells me that he has +found many petitions in the Books—one in 1828 +<i>against</i> the Licensing Bill, which seems to prove that +Maidstone, like Muggleton, “mingled a zealous advocacy of +Christian principles with a devoted attachment to commercial +rights.” Then as to the description: Both Maidstone +and Muggleton have an open <!-- page 61--><a +name="page61"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 61</span>square for +the market: there are also in both places in the square a fire +office, linendraper, corn factor, saddler, grocer, shoe-shop, but +apparently no distiller. It was curious, certainly, that +there should be an Inn with so odd a sign as the Blue Lion in +Maidstone—and also a post bearing this sign, in +front. Then as to the cricket, the cricket field was in the +Meadow, Maidstone, not far from the High Street; while at +Muggleton, we are told that Mr. Pickwick’s friends +“had turned out of the main street and were already within +sight of the field of battle.”</p> +<p>And here we may admire the wonderful walking powers that Boz +allots to his heroes—Tupman and Pickwick, who were elderly +persons and stout withal. Fifteen miles to +Muggleton—two miles further to Manor Farm—and all +done between eleven o’clock, and a period “late in +the afternoon”—say five o’clock. At a +later visit came the memorable five-and-twenty-mile walk to get +an appetite for dinner. The truth was, such stretches were +as nothing to Boz himself. Walking was his grand pastime +and one absolute necessity. He tramped on with an amazing +energy and vigour, which, as I know from experience, it was +impossible to match. Sometimes he walked the streets for +nearly the whole night. This personal element helps to +explain many things in “Pickwick” which contains the +early life of Boz.</p> +<h2><!-- page 62--><a name="page62"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +62</span>CHAPTER VII. GOSWELL STREET</h2> +<p>A question that has often exercised ingenious folk is, why did +Mr. Pickwick choose to live in Goswell Street? rather, why did +Boz select such a quarter for him? Of course, at that time, +it was really a “genteel” neighbourhood, as anyone +can see who walks along the desolate streets and terraces, the +forlorn squares and enclosures that are close by, and where the +New River runs. Nothing is more depressing than the aspect +of these fallen places; but, in Mr. Pickwick’s time, they +had not been very long erected. Indeed, this offers yet +another department which his wonderful Book suggests: that it is +the best record of all the changes that have taken place in +London. This Goswell Street tenancy shows clearly that the +neighbourhood was a desirable one for residents of +position. Mr. Pickwick was a City man, and his club met in +Huggin Lane, in the City. He generally put up, or, as Bob +Sawyer had it, “hung out,” at the “George and +Vulture,” also in the City. One side of Goswell +Street, in those days—a road ascending to the old Angel +Inn—faced, near the top, a number of the pretentious +squares and terraces I have been describing. That +interesting old theatre, Sadler’s Wells, was in the rear, +and the New River passed beneath it or beside it, and, quite +uncovered in those days, rippled along on its course from the +country.</p> +<p>All the houses were private houses. Some enthusiasts +have actually identified Mrs. Bardell’s +apartments—but without a particle of evidence. Now it +has become a busy thoroughfare, with a noisy tramway: nearly all +the houses have been turned into shops, and Mr. Pickwick could +scarcely recognize his old quarters. The whole region bears +a faded air. Amateurs, who love exploring their London, +will find entertainment in wandering about Islington and the +adjoining districts, experiencing quite a new sensation and +hardly realizing that they are so close to Aldersgate. The +New River itself, which ends its course here, is a pleasant +attraction, with its great basin, and ancient offices by the edge +of the water.</p> +<p><!-- page 63--><a name="page63"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +63</span>Imitating Elia, I once set out from here, and followed +its course and its many windings far out into the country, taking +up the journey on successive days, going towards its source in +Hertfordshire, and a most pleasant, interesting voyage of +discovery it was. For it so winds and bends, now passing +through fields and demesnes, now skirting towns and villages, +that it is just as picturesque as any natural stream. Such +being its attractions, Mr. Pickwick was virtually living in the +country or in the suburbs, and enjoying the fine, keen, inspiring +air which the jaded Londoner from lower districts may, even now, +still inhale. There is no Goswell Street now, but Goswell +<i>Road</i>—a very noisy, clattering thoroughfare.</p> +<p>Another remark to be made is this:—how much do we owe to +the vivifying power of Boz’s descriptions of these old +Towns, Inns, and Streets? The ordinary provincial +town—unsung and undescribed by him—remains what it is +and nothing more. York and Manchester stir no memories, and +are unvisited by pilgrims, because <i>they are not in +Pickwick</i>. Boz seems to have found the true +<i>interpretation</i> and inner meaning of each place, and has +actually preserved the tone and flavour that existed in his own +time. This continues even now. As we stroll through +Rochester or Ipswich, Bath or Bury, Pickwick and his friends walk +with us. And, as if well contented to rest under the spell, +these antique towns have made no effort at change, but remain +much as they were.</p> +<p>And this prompts the question: <i>Where did Mrs. Cluppins +live</i>? At the trial we learned that she was a friend and +neighbour of Mrs. Bardell’s, one of her +<i>commères</i>. She had “looked in” on +the momentous morning, having been out to purchase “kidney +pertaties,” yet, on their Hampstead junketting, we find her +coming with the Raddles, in their cab, all the way from Lant +Street, Borough. She was clearly Mrs. Raddle’s friend +and neighbour. Perhaps she had moved, though this is not +likely. The household gods of such, like Elia’s, +strike a deep root.</p> +<p>In his descriptions of the Bardell party’s journey to +Hampstead, which ended so disastrously, the art of Boz is shown +as usual by supplying the notion of movement—he seems to +take us along up the northern heights—we feel the +pleasurable anticipations of a party of <!-- page 64--><a +name="page64"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 64</span>pleasure for +the lower middle class. From the lower end of Goswell +Street—where Mr. Pickwick’s lodgings must have been, +for, in the upper part, there are no houses opposite for Mrs. +Raddle to call at—it must have been a long drive for the +party. I assume they must have made for Kentish Town, and +toiled up Haverstock Hill at a walk, for the coach was heavily +laden enough. Pleasant Hampstead! One is always glad +to find Boz associating his humour with places that we are deeply +interested in. The Hampstead of this hour, though changed +enough, may remind us very fairly of Boz’s time. It +has still the attractions of the old-fashioned, red-brick houses, +and terraces, the mixture of green, and the charming, even +seductive, heath. “The Spaniards” at +Hampstead—Boz calls it “<i>The</i> +Spaniard”—is scarcely altered from the day of the +Bardell visit, and is as picturesque as ever with its Tea Gardens +and Bowers. I never pass it without seeming to see +Jackson’s hackney-coach waiting and the Sheriff’s man +at the gate taking his drink. The other Inn, also bound up +with memories of Boz, “Jack Straw’s Castle,” +also stands, but one reads with alarm on this day of grace (June +12th, 1898):—</p> +<blockquote><p>There are few Londoners who will not grieve to +hear that the well-known inn on the Spaniards Road, “Jack +Straw’s Castle,” famous as the rendezvous of authors, +artists, statesmen, and many a celebrity of old days, is going +the way of other ancient buildings. The low rooms and +quaint interior of the hostel are now being entirely transformed +and modernised. The only concession made to the prejudices +of the old frequenters of the inn is that the outer face is to be +preserved intact. To the passer by, no great change will +perhaps be apparent; but within, the charm of the place will have +vanished entirely. A spacious saloon bar flooded with +glaring light, with modern furniture and appliances, is to take +the place of the old rooms, coffee-room, billiard-room, and +bar. In fact, it is to become a modern hotel. The +change is quite enough to make the shade of Dickens arise. +As John Forster has told us, the great novelist loved this old +chop-house, and, after a ramble on the Heath, often adjourned +here for a good, wholesome dinner.</p> +</blockquote> +<h2><!-- page 65--><a name="page65"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +65</span>CHAPTER VIII. MARY HOGARTH</h2> +<p>This young girl—to whom a touching interest attached +from her being so prematurely cut off—was a most +interesting creature, one of three sisters, daughters of Mr. +George Hogarth, a Writer to the Signet, who is a sort of link +between Scott and Dickens. For he had acted as the +former’s man of business in the Ballantyne disputes, and +must have prompted Dickens in the article that he wrote on that +thorny subject. He was a good musician and a writer in the +magazines. We find his work in the old “Monthly +Magazine” where Dickens made his <i>début</i>; and +when Boz was installed as editor of +“Bentley’s,” we find him admitting much of his +father-in-law’s writing. His “Memoirs of the +Opera” are well-known. There is a charming outline +sketch of Maclise’s, showing the profiles of two of the +sisters with Dickens, all three of the most refined and +interesting cast—but Boz’s face is certainly the +handsomest of the three. He must have been a most +attractive young man—something of the pattern of his own +Nicholas Nickleby.</p> +<p>One of the most interesting features of the episode is the +reference the author was constantly making to this +bereavement. In the rollicking “Pickwick,” any +serious introduction of such a topic would have been out of +place: though I fancy a little paragraph in the account of the +Manor Farm Christmas festivities is connected with it. But +about the same time, or rather, some six months later, he was +busy with his “Oliver Twist,” and it seems certain +that Rose Maylie was drawn from this sympathetic creature, for +there is a feeling and a passionate grief displayed that could +only be caused by the loss of a person that he had known and +loved. Here is his description of Rose:—“The +younger lady was in the lovely bloom and springtime of womanhood, +at that age when, if ever angels be for God’s good <!-- +page 66--><a name="page66"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +66</span>purposes enthroned in mortal forms, they may be without +impiety supposed to abide in such forms as hers. She was +not <i>past seventeen</i>. Cast in so slight and exquisite +a mould; so mild and gentle; so pure and beautiful; that earth +seemed not her element, nor its rough creatures her fit +companions.”</p> +<p>We may compare with this the touching inscription placed by +Dickens on her tomb in Kensal Green: “Young, beautiful and +good, God, in His mercy, numbered her among His angels at the +early age of seventeen.” He had long planned that he +should be laid beside her, but on Mrs. Hogarth’s death, +some five years later, he had to resign his place to her. +This was a renewal of the old grief. The epitaph nearly +seems the epitome of all that he says of Rose Maylie.</p> +<p>“The very intelligence that shone in her deep blue eye, +and was stamped upon her noble head, seemed scarcely of her age, +or of the world; and yet the changing expression of sweetness and +good humour, the thousand lights that played upon the face and +left no shadow there; above all, the smile, the cheerful, happy +smile, were for Home, and fireside peace and +happiness.” She is then described as “playfully +putting back her hair, which was simply braided on her forehead; +and threw into her beaming look such an expression of affection +and artless loveliness that blessed spirits might have smiled to +look upon her.”</p> +<p>The earnestness, the feeling of sincerity thrown into this +description—the tone of reality—leave a conviction +that this must have been drawn from a person who had lived and in +whom the writer had the deepest interest. Further, it is +clearly the description of a person who had passed away: of one +who was no longer with him. <a name="citation66"></a><a +href="#footnote66" class="citation">[66]</a> “She was +at the theatre with us on Saturday night, well and happy, and +expired in my arms a few hours afterwards.” So he +wrote to Mr. Cox.</p> +<p>At the end, he returns to the subject, and retouches the +picture:</p> +<blockquote><p>“I would show Rose Maylie in all the bloom +and grace of early womanhood, shedding on her secluded path in +life the soft and gentle light that fell on all who trod it <!-- +page 67--><a name="page67"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +67</span>with her and shone into their hearts; I would paint her +<i>the life and joy of the fireside circle</i>, and the lively +summer group; I would follow her through the sultry fields at +noon, and hear the low tones of her sweet voice in the moonlit +evening walk; I would watch her in all her goodness and charity +abroad, and the untiring discharge of domestic duties at home; I +would summon before me again those joyous little faces that +clustered round her knee; I would recall the tone of that clear +laugh, and conjure up that sympathizing tear that glistened in +the soft, blue eye. These, and a thousand looks and smiles, +and turns of thought and speech, I would fain recall them, every +one.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Again, it is clear that all this is personal, and written of +one that he knew and deeply loved.</p> +<p>In “Nickleby,” there is yet another allusion to +this sad subject—it is suggested by Kate’s grief for +Smike:</p> +<blockquote><p>“It is an exquisite and beautiful thing in +our nature that, when the heart is softened and touched by some +tranquil happiness or affectionate feeling, the memory of the +dead comes over it most powerfully and irresistibly. It +would almost seem as though our better thoughts and sympathies +were charms in virtue of which the soul is enabled to hold some +vague and mysterious intercourse with the spirits of those whom +we dearly loved in life. Alas! how often and how long may +these patient angels hover above us, watching for the spell which +is so seldom uttered, and so soon forgotten.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>This is no artificial utterance. He had clearly +interrupted himself to indulge in this sad retrospect. He +then points a moral from Mrs. Nickleby, who, he says, could not +conceive the idea of anyone dwelling on such thoughts in +secret. I have always had a notion that this worthy +lady’s incongruities and rambling methods were suggested by +one of his own household, whose imperfection was found to be a +complete lack of sympathy with him in all his feelings.</p> +<p>The devotion of Oliver Twist to Rose, it is not fanciful to +say, was intended to symbolise his own to Mary. We can +recall the passionate, agitated excitement with which +Rose’s illness is described—the hanging on the +doctor’s sentence, &c.—a reminiscence certainly, +and we have only to look at the sketch by Cruikshank of his +friend (given in my “<i>Bozland</i>”) to recognise +the likeness to Oliver. Oliver’s sufferings were his +own.</p> +<p>How tremendous the blow of her death must have been to the +successful writer may be conceived when he did not scruple to +<!-- page 68--><a name="page68"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +68</span>interrupt the book and cast it aside altogether from +sheer incapacity to write a line. The June number did not +appear. No one can imagine the inconvenience, the loss, the +enormous risks that were run by taking this step—the horror +and consternation of the publishers and all concerned. It +proved how indifferent he had become to his prospects and +prosperity when he could hazard such a thing. The first of +the month came round, but no “Pickwick.” It was +a public catastrophe. When he was able to resume his story, +he found it necessary to issue an explanation in the form of an +address. <a name="citation68"></a><a href="#footnote68" +class="citation">[68]</a></p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right">186 Strand,<br /> +June 30th, 1837.</p> +<p>The author is desirous to take the opportunity afforded him by +the resumption of his work to state, once again, what he thought +had been stated sufficiently emphatically before, namely, that +its publication was interrupted by a severe domestic affliction +of no ordinary kind; that this was the sole cause of the +non-appearance of the present number in its usual course; that, +hereafter, it will continue to be published with its accustomed +regularity. However superfluous this <i>second notice</i> +may appear to many, it is rendered necessary by various idle +speculations and absurdities which have been industriously +propagated during the past month and which have reached the +author’s ears from many quarters, and have grieved him +exceedingly. By one set of intimate acquaintances, +especially well-informed, he has been killed outright; by +another, driven mad; by a third, imprisoned for debt; by a +fourth, left per steamer for the United States; by a fifth, +rendered incapable of mental exertion for evermore; by all, in +short, represented as doing anything but seeking by a few +weeks’ retirement, the restoration of cheerfulness and +peace, of which a sad bereavement has necessarily deprived +him.</p> +</blockquote> +<h2><!-- page 69--><a name="page69"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +69</span>CHAPTER IX. THE PICKWICK CLUB</h2> +<p>This was a common form of social meeting, and we find in the +memoirs of Adolphus and John Taylor and Frederick Reynolds +descriptions of the “Keep the Line,” “The +Finish,” and other oddly-named societies. The +cheerful glass was the chief object. Mr. Lowten’s +Club, “The Magpie and Stump,” in Clare Market, +supplies a specimen of a lower class club. “Veels +vithin veels,” as Sam would say.</p> +<p>In his speech at Dulwich, at the close of the book, Mr. +Pickwick spoke rather pathetically of the closing of his +wanderings. “I shall never forget having devoted the +greater part of two years to mixing with different varieties and +shades of human character, frivolous as my pursuit of novelty may +have appeared to many.” He spoke of the club also, to +which “he had communicated both personally and by +letter,” acquainting them with his intention of withdrawing +from public life to the country. He added that +“during our long absence it had suffered much from internal +dissensions,” and this, with other reasons, had obliged him +to dissolve it. This “absence,” both as planned +and carried out, was merely occasional. Mr. Pickwick and +his friends were rarely, and only now and then, absent from town, +going away for short spells, save, of course, the enforced +absence in the Fleet Prison and the months or weeks (as it may +be) in Bath. “The George and Vulture” was not +far from Huggin Lane, so Mr. Pickwick must have been constantly +at the Club, or <i>could</i> have been had he chosen to go +there. All this notion of severance, therefore, was +somewhat sentimental.</p> +<p><!-- page 70--><a name="page70"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +70</span>But the “dissensions” the President spoke of +were natural enough. He was the founder and mainstay of the +association—probably paid its expenses. The whole +object of the institution, it may be suspected, was to exalt the +founder. In such a state of things, it was natural that +there should be an opposition, or discontented party, headed by +“that Blotton.” When Blotton was got rid of, +his friends would think that he had been badly treated and take +advantage of the occasional absences of the chief to foment +revolt. Then Blotton was expelled, assuredly unfairly, for +he merely took the opposite view on the Cobham stone, and he +might have left some who belonged to his faction and who thought +he had been harshly dealt with. Mr. Pickwick, in fact, +merely returned from his agreeable junketting to have this +gentleman expelled. Despotism of this sort always leads to +discontent and parties—hence the +“dissensions.” Mr. Pickwick, from his treatment +of Blotton, must have been a Tory of the old Eldon school. +Here was his blemish. He had no toleration for others, and +had an undue idea of his own position. We can trace the +whole thing perfectly. He was a successful man of +business—an export merchant apparently—being +connected with an agent at Liverpool whom he had +“obliged.” Round such a man who was +good-natured and philanthropic would gather flatterers and +toadies; hence the suggestion to found a club with his own name +and “button.” Of this he could be +“Boss,” and he was listened to and courted. It +was like the devotion of satellites to the late Mr. +Gladstone. We can see all this in the picture of the club +at the beginning, where, with the exception of the four +legitimate Pickwickians, all seem rather of the tradesman class, +and are vulgar types enough. In such surroundings, Mr. +Pickwick could “rule the roast” and grow despotic and +even arrogant.</p> +<p>Blotton, however, who seems to have been an independent sort +of fellow, could not submit to this, was of the Opposition, and, +no doubt, a thorn in Mr. Pickwick’s side. And here is +yet another point of the likeness to the Johnsonian +coterie. In “The Club,” Hawkins—Sir John +of that ilk—was uncongenial—“a detestable +fellow,” Bozzy calls him—objecting, quarrelling, and, +at last, on one occasion was so rude that he had to +withdraw. Now, that this offence was rankling is <!-- page +71--><a name="page71"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +71</span>evident, and it explains the fracas which took place at +the opening. Blotton looked on Mr. Pickwick’s +travelling as pure humbug. The idea of his contributing +anything useful or instructive in his so-called reports seemed +nonsense. Further, was it not something of a job? +Pickwick was taking three of his own special +“creatures” with him—Winkle, to whom he had +been appointed governor; Snodgrass, who was his ward; and Tupman, +who was his butt and toady. They were the <i>gentlemen</i> +of the club. None of the outsiders were chosen. From +Blotton’s behaviour, too, on the Cobham business, it is +clear he thought Mr. Pickwick’s scientific researches were +also “humbug.” A paper by that gentleman had +just been read—“The tracing of the source of the +ponds at Hampstead” and “Some observations on the +theory of tittlebats.” There was somewhat too much of +this “bossing.” The whole report read by the +secretary was full of gross flatteries. They had +“just heard read with feelings of unmingled satisfaction +and unqualified approval,” &c., “from which +advantages must accrue to the cause of science”—cause +of rubbish! Then, it added, obsequiously, something about +“the <i>inestimable</i> benefits from carrying the +speculations of that <i>learned</i> man” &c. Mr. +Pickwick, in his speech, was certainly self-laudatory and +provocative. He talked of his pride in promoting the +Tittlebatian theory, and “let <i>his enemies make the most +of it</i>.” This was marked enough, and no doubt +caused looks at Blotton. Then he began to puff his new +enterprise at “a service of some danger.”</p> +<p>There were, were there not, upsets of coaches “in all +directions,” horses bolting—boats overturning, and +boilers bursting? Now, Blotton—after all the humbug +that had gone before, and particularly after a provocative +reference to himself—could not stand this, and, amid the +obsequious cries and “cheers,” said, boldly, +“No!” (A Voice: “No!”) That +is, signifying there were no such dangers. The fury of the +orator on “the Windsor chair,” was quite +Gladstonian. “No!” he cried; on which the +cheers of his followers broke out. “Who was it that +cried No?” Then he proceeded to imagine it came from +some “vain and disappointed man—he wouldn’t say +haberdasher.”</p> +<p>To the Pickwick Club there was a Vice-President, named +Smiggers—Joseph Smiggers, Esq., P.V.P.M.P.C., that is, +Perpetual <!-- page 72--><a name="page72"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 72</span>Vice-President and Member of the +Pickwick Club. Smiggers was, of course, supposed to be +“Pickwick’s creature,” or he would not have +been there. He was a tall, corpulent man, with a soft +face—as we see him in his picture. As Mr. Pickwick +speaks, it is remarkable that both Vice-President and +Secretary—the two officers—have each one arm raised +as if in ecstatic rapture—clear proof of their subservience +to Pickwick. On Smiggers’ right is a +“doddering” old fellow of between seventy and +eighty—clearly a “nullity”—on his left, +another member nearly as old, but with a glimmer of +intelligence. Down the side of the table, facing the +orator, are some odd faces—one clearly a Jew; one for whom +the present Mr. Edward Terry might have sat. Blotton is at +the bottom, half turned away in disgust. His neighbour +looks at him with wonder, as who should say, “How can you +be so insensible?” Odd to say—and significant, +too—Blotton has brought into the club his <i>dog</i>, a +ferocious looking “bull,” which sits at his feet +under the table. We should say, on the whole, that Blotton +could only count on—and that, with but a limited +sympathy—the Terry-faced and Jew-faced men—if he +<i>could</i> count on them. The Secretary was like a +clerk—a perky fellow—and had a pen behind his ear; +probably in some Bank or Counting House, so strong is +habit. One member of the Club alone is invisible—the +one beyond Tupman—all that is seen of him is a hand holding +a tumbler as if about to drink. The Dodderer is applauding; +so are the Jew, Blotton and Tupman; so is the round-faced man, +just beyond the invisible one.</p> +<p>Mr. Pickwick and his three friends being removed or absent, +and Blotton expelled, out of the fourteen members there were left +but nine, whereof we reckon four or five as Pickwickians and the +rest as <i>Blottonites</i>.</p> +<p>And how easily can we imagine the acrimonious discussions that +went on!</p> +<p>“This ’ere Pickwick, who was always making the +club a hend to his own glorification, had gone off on his touring +to get more grist for his mill.” It was really, a +“mutual admiration society,” and as for the reports, +notes, &c., he was sending back “they ’ad +’ad enough of it.” The club didn’t meet +to be listening to long-winded yarns to be read out by their +worthy secretary, but for a glass and social intercourse. +<!-- page 73--><a name="page73"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +73</span>As for the “travels and preambulations,” +what were they more than visits to genteel ’ouses where +Pickwick was “showing oft” at their expense? +Then where were the “Sportin’ +transactions?” The whole thing was +“rot.” Then the Cobham stone business, at which +the whole town was laughing, and which their worthy friend +Blotton had exposed. Blotton was the only long-headed, +creditable man they had. <i>He</i> ought to have been their +president. But he had been turned out by the +“<i>lick-spittles</i>” of the society.</p> +<h2><!-- page 74--><a name="page74"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +74</span>CHAPTER X. ROADSIDE INNS</h2> +<h3>I.—The Bell at Berkeley Heath</h3> +<p>In the animated journey, from Bristol to Birmingham, the +travellers stopped at various posting-houses where the mercurial +Sawyer would insist on getting down to lunch, dine, or otherwise +refresh—his friends being always ready to comply after a +little decent hesitation. It was thus that they drew up at +The Bell at Berkeley Heath, which our writer presently +sketches. It will be seen there is more of the drink at the +Bell than of the Bell itself. It is, indeed, no more than +<i>cœcum nomen</i>—much as though we read the name at +the end of “Bradshaw”—yet, somehow, from the +life and movement of the journey, it offers a sort of attraction: +it seems familiar, and we have an interest in it. The Bell +now “goes on,” as the proprietor tells me. +There are travellers who come there and drink Boz’s health +in the snug parlour. It is, in fact, a Pickwickian Inn, and +is drawn within the glamour of the legend, and, what a marvel! +the thing is done by the magic of those three or four +lines. “The Bell,” says Mrs. Hooper, +“lies back on the main road from Bristol to Gloucester, and +is just nineteen miles from Bristol. It is a rambling old +house and a good deal dilapidated, and of good age.”</p> +<p>With this meagre record it yet offers such Pickwickian +interest that, not many months ago, a photograph was taken of it +which was engraved for the <i>Daily Graphic</i>. There is +no Mr. Pickwick’s room to be shown, as undoubtedly there +<i>would</i> be had that gentleman only stayed the night there; +but he only lunched and then went forward. There is a +mistiness as to whether the Pickwickians sat in the public +coffee-room or had a private +“settin’-room.” It was to a certainty the +<!-- page 75--><a name="page75"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +75</span>coffee-room, as they only stayed a short time. So +the proprietor, with a safe conscience, might exhibit “the +room where Mr. Pickwick lunched.” On the face is +imbedded a tablet bearing the date 1729, and there is an ancient +farmer close by who was born in “The Bell” in the +year 1820. If we lend ourselves properly to the delusion, +he might recall Mr. Pickwick’s chaise drawing up full sixty +years ago. “Ay, I mind it well. I were joost +then fifteen. A stoutish gent in gaiters—might +’ave been a bishop—and sich a lively young chap as +wos with him, full o’ spirits, chucking a’ the gurls +under the chins. And their sarvant! O <i>he</i> were +one. Sam, he were caa’d—I moind that—Sam +Summut. And they caa’d for the best o’ +everythin’, and took away wi’ them a lot, Madeary, +and wot not,” and so on.</p> +<h3>II.—The Greyhound, Dulwich</h3> +<p>Mr. Pickwick, as we know, at the close of his wanderings +retired to this tranquil and pleasant suburb—then much more +retired than it is now. In accordance with his habit of +enshrining his own personal sympathies in his writing, Boz was, +as it were, conveying that it was such a sequestered spot as he +himself would choose under similar conditions. Last year +(1898), the interesting old road-side Inn, The Greyhound, was +levelled—an Inn to which Mr. Pickwick must have found his +way in the dull evening to drink “cold Punch” or +preside at the club which he most certainly—if we know him +well—must have founded. A wealthy gentleman of social +tastes, and with a love for tavern life, would have no difficulty +in establishing a new Pickwick Club.</p> +<p>At the Greyhound, nigh a century ago, there was actually a +club which entertained Tom Campbell, Mark Lemon, Byron’s +tutor, and many more. Boz himself, we are told, used to +find his way there with Theodore Hook, Moore, and others. +Boz, therefore, must have regarded this place with much favour, +owing to his own experiences of it—and to have selected it +for his hero’s tranquil old age shows how high a place it +had in his memory. The description is charming and brings +this sylvan retreat to which we have walked many a time perfectly +before us.</p> +<p><!-- page 76--><a name="page76"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +76</span>This taste for surrounding himself with persons of lower +degree—such as were the rank and file—was curiously +enough shared by Mr. Pickwick’s predecessor, Dr. Johnson, +who, when he found the Literary Club somewhat too much of a +republic, and getting “out of hand,” established a +social meeting at the Essex Head Club—in the street of that +name, off the Strand—composed in the main of respectable +tradesmen, who would listen obsequiously. Thus, it may be +repeated, does the same sort of character develop invariably on +the same lines, and thus did Mr. Pickwick unconsciously follow in +the footsteps of the “great Lexicographer.”</p> +<h3>III.—Grimaldi the Younger</h3> +<p>As I was the first to point out, the powerful +“Stroller’s Tale” of which Boz himself thought +so highly, was founded on the career of the unfortunate son of +the great Grimaldi. The story is related by “Dismal +Jemmy,” the actor, who, in the tale itself, is called +Hutley, and it corresponds in all its details with +Grimaldi’s history. He died in September, 1832, +nearly four years before Pickwick was thought of, but Boz had +learned the incident long before the Grimaldi MSS. were given him +to edit, and I am inclined to think he must have learned them +from his friend Harley who was intimate with the Grimaldis. +In the memoirs it is stated that Gledinning, a Printer, was sent +by the father to his son’s dying bed, and he was probably +the Hutley of the Stroller’s Tale, and, perhaps, the person +who brought old Grimaldi the news of his death. We are told +in the “Tale” that he had an engagement “at one +of the Theatres on the Surrey side of the water,” and in +the memoirs we find that he was offered “an engagement for +the Christmas at the Coburg.” There his death is +described:—“He rose in bed, drew up his withered +limbs—he was acting—he was at the Theatre. He +then sang some roaring song. The walls were alive with +reptiles, frightful figures flitted to and fro . . . His +eyes shone with a lustre frightful to behold, the lips were +parched and cracked, the dry, hard skin glowed with a burning +heat, and there was an almost unearthly air of wild anxiety in +the man’s face.” Hutley also describes how he +had to hold him down in his bed. Compare with <!-- page +77--><a name="page77"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 77</span>this +the account in the memoirs—“his body was covered with +a fearful inflammation—he died in a state of wild and +furious madness, rising from his bed, dressing himself in stage +costume to act snatches of the parts, and requiring to be held +down to die by strong manual force.” This dreadful +scene took place at a public house in Pitt Street, out of +Tottenham Court Road.</p> +<p>“The man I speak of,” says Boz in the story, +“was a low, pantomime actor and an habitual drunkard. +In his better days he had been in the receipt of a good +salary. His besetting sin gained so fast on him that it was +found impossible to employ him in the situations in which he +really was useful.” In the “memoirs” this +is more than supported: “The man who might have earned with +ease and comfort from six to seven hundred a year, was reduced to +such a dreadful state of destitution and filth . . . In +fact, at one time, it was thought he might have succeeded his +father.”</p> +<p>It is quite plain, therefore, that Boz was recalling this +tragic episode. Boz remarks that pantomime +actors—clowns and others “either die early or, by +unnaturally taxing their bodily energies, lose prematurely their +physical powers.” This was what occurred to Grimaldi, +the father, whose curious decay he was to describe later in the +memoirs. It may be added that there is an Alderman Harmer, +Hatton Garden, mentioned in the memoirs, with whom Grimaldi +<i>père</i> had some dealings; and, long after, this name +was introduced by Boz into “Our Mutual Friend.”</p> +<h2><!-- page 78--><a name="page78"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +78</span>CHAPTER XI. MR. PICKWICK’S PROTOTYPE</h2> +<p>We had a narrow escape of losing our Pickwick and his familiar +type. The original notion was to have “a tall, long, +thin man,” and only for the late Edward Chapman, who +providentially thought of the Richmond gentleman, Foster, we +should have lost for ever the short, rotund Pickwick that we so +love and cherish. A long, thin Pickwick! He could not +be amiable, or benevolent, or mild, or genial. But what +<i>could</i> such a selection mean? Why, that Boz saw an +opening for humorous treatment in introducing a purblind, foolish +Professor, or scientist—one with spectacles—prying +into this and that, taking notes &c. As Winkle was the +sportsman, Tupman, the lover, Snodgrass, the poet, so Mr. +Pickwick was to be a sort of Pangloss or Dominie Sampson. +His curiosity and love of enquiry were to get him into scrapes, +just as Mr. Winkle’s sham sportsmanship was to get him into +embarrassments. In fact, the first appearance in +Seymour’s plate—the scene with the cabman—shows +him as quite a different Pickwick; with a sour, cantankerous +face; not in “tights,” but in a great coat; he is +scarcely recognisable. Seymour was then determined to show +him after his own ideal. But when the poor artist destroyed +himself the great man was brought up to the fitting type. +So undecided were the parties about that type that the author had +to leave it altogether an open question—a <i>tabula +rasa</i>—not announcing that his hero was either tall or +short, fat or lean, pale or rosy; all he commits himself to in +his opening chapter is that he was bald, that he wore tights and +gaiters, and, what is rather singular, <i>circular +spectacles</i>. I suppose, in contrast to the more +elongated glasses.</p> +<p><!-- page 79--><a name="page79"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +79</span>It might be an interesting question for the “paper +of questions,” “Why did Mr. Pickwick wear circular +spectacles?” Was there any local weakness? The +artist never forgot this direction. In the author of the +Tittlebatian system, &c., the “circular +spectacles” would impart a sort of wise and owl-like +stare. It was, of course, due to Chapman, the publisher, +and was another of his “happy suggestions.”</p> +<p>This Mr. Foster, of Richmond—fortunately for +himself—was not known to be the original of +“Pickwick,” though many must have been struck by the +likeness, both in physique and costume, to the picture. It +is not stated that the features were copied, though, no doubt, +Chapman would have vividly described them also; and Seymour was +so ready and deft with his pencil that he must have certainly +caught the likeness even from the description. We could +fancy him rapidly making trial sketches, “Is that near +it?” “No, fatter in the cheeks.” +“Is <i>that</i>?” “No, forehead a little +higher, more bald,” and so on. I myself was at +Richmond, having just come from school, about ten years after the +appearance of Pickwick—and for aught I know may have seen +this Foster promenading it on the Hill. There was no +particular interest then in Pickwick—which was somewhat +forgotten, the interest being absorbed in the newer and brilliant +works which Boz was bringing out. The society there was +thoroughly Pickwickian; there were many old-fashioned figures, +including the Mr. Jesse at whom the “Ponto” story was +directed. We were gay enough. The old Star and Garter +was flourishing. There were the Assembly Rooms at the +Castle Inn, with “Almack’s Balls”; barges +coming down on Regatta days, when people danced on the deck and +feasted in the cabin. There were private parties and +dinners, and the old Theatre—Kean’s, with the +manager’s house adjoining—was still standing on the +Green, opening fitfully enough for a few nights, and then closing +as fitfully. There I saw “The Green +Bushes.” Such a little Bandbox as it was! There +were the two wooden staircases <i>outside</i>, of quaint +appearance. Mr. Tupman may have been then alive and walking +on the Terrace. He had retired there just twenty years +before. He had probably rooms on the Green, near Maid of +Honour Row. This little sketch shows clearly that Richmond +is very nearly <!-- page 80--><a name="page80"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 80</span>associated with Pickwick. But +here comes in another reminiscence of Richmond, for there rises +before me, about a dozen years after the appearance of the book, +the image of a very Pickwickian figure—bald and +“circular,” cozy, wearing a white tie and +glasses—a favourite gossip with all the ladies—no +other indeed than Maria Edgworth’s brother. He was a +florid, good-humoured personage, a great talker, knew everybody +in the place, and, like Mr. Pickwick, was an old bachelor, and +kept an important housekeeper. He was genial and +hospitable, would give parties, dinners, and dances. But +the likeness in physique was the oddest part.</p> +<p>As the outside of Foster, of Richmond, supplied Mr. +Pickwick’s outside and habit as he lived, so his +“in’ards,” or character, was also turned to +profit and not wasted. And here suggests itself a very +likely speculation. This image of the Richmond Foster was +before him; through the book he thought of the old Beau and the +ladies’ protests. The amorous element would not do +for his hero, for whom he had other work; but while he left the +physique to Pickwick he certainly transferred the +<i>character</i> to one of his leading figures. That this +is not fanciful will be seen. Mr. Chapman described Foster +as “a fat old Beau”: he was very popular, or, it may +be, exceedingly well off. And at a place like Richmond he +would be very <i>recherché</i>. But is it not +exactly suggestive of Tupman—this “fat old +Beau” devoted to the ladies? (“Because you are +too old, sir; and too fat, sir,” said his chief.) And +on the first opportunity he <i>did</i> get into tights, viz., as +the brigand. What is more convincing is that at the close +Boz sent Tupman back to Richmond whence he came, and where we are +carefully assured “he walks constantly on the Terrace +during the summer months with a youthful and jaunty air which has +rendered him the admiration of the numerous elderly dames of +single condition who reside in the vicinity.” Seeing +Mr. Foster’s occupation, I really think that this accounts +for the novelist’s selection of Richmond.</p> +<p>Mr. Chapman recalled that not even the persuasion of the +Richmond ladies could induce Mr. Foster, of Richmond, to forego +his “tights” and gaiters—and much amusement was +caused by the idiosyncrasy. This persistence, it is clear, +was before Boz, who makes Mr. Pickwick abandon his gaiters only +at the Ball at Manor Farm, <!-- page 81--><a +name="page81"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 81</span>but we are +distinctly told “that it was the first time” he did +so “within the memory of his oldest friends.” +Thus we have Foster, of Richmond, brought into actual touch with +his double. Thus much for his physique, which, it is +admitted, was all that was drawn from Foster. But that +friendly manner; that genial, amiable nature which made him think +“the whole world akin;” whence did Boz import all +that? I believe he found this genial, friendly type in the +very man who had suggested Foster, of Richmond, to him. +That this is not purely fanciful will be seen from an account of +Edward Chapman kindly supplied to me by one of his family.</p> +<p>“He was a short, stoutish person, very good-humoured, an +affectionate family man, unaffected, and fond of the +country. But touching his character; the first feature that +came into my mind was his extreme justice; in my very earliest +years I remember being impressed by it—one <i>felt</i> it: +all actions and motives were judged with a catholicity and +charity that made us trust him implicity, and I see my sister has +the same remembrance. He was naturally of a quiet, easy +disposition; not much of a talker, but when he spoke he was +always worth listening to. I see also she mentions his +sense of humour, when his eyes would light up with a merry +twinkle. I never remember hearing him say an unkind word to +anyone. It is very pleasant to hear that papa is to be +mentioned in connection with Pickwick, and I will gladly tell you +all I can regarding my impressions of his character and tastes, +&c. We only saw him for a short hour in the evening +when he was tired after his day’s work and little inclined +to talk, but we always had a child-like instinct of his great +justice and impartiality—an impression that I retained all +through his life.</p> +<p>“Later on, at Tunbridge Wells, where we saw more of him, +I learned to admire his vast store of knowledge, as there was +hardly a subject that I asked for information on that he did not +know a great deal about. Also he had a great love of beauty +in nature, and was never so happy as when he had his favourite, +shabby old hat on and a long stick, which he had cut himself, in +his hand, and poked about the grounds which surrounded our house, +inspecting the holly hedge and shrubs he had planted—in +fact it used to be a standing joke that he <!-- page 82--><a +name="page82"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 82</span>used to +measure his holly bushes every day to see how much they had grown +in the night. He was perfectly happy in such a life, as it +suited his peaceful contented nature.</p> +<p>“He was a man who never used a rough word to anyone, but +his remarks, if he were angry, could sting sharply. He had +a fund of quiet humour, like a Scotchman, and his sallies told +all the more, as they generally came when least expected and +without an effort. Later on, I travelled with my mother and +him for several years and benefited greatly through his knowledge +and love of art, and his recognition and appreciation of all that +was good and worthy of admiration in foreign lands and +peoples. He had a soft heart, too, and was always ready to +help those who asked for aid.”</p> +<p>Next is introduced the prototype of Mr. Pickwick in a few +touches:—</p> +<p>“There was an old family friend living at Richmond, +named John Foster, <i>not Forster</i>, who was quite a character, +especially in his personal appearance; it occurred to my father +to introduce him to Dickens who had just commenced the Pickwick +Papers. Accordingly, they were invited to meet one another +at dinner, and, from this copy, Dickens turned out Pickwick.</p> +<p>“The trial in Pickwick was not originally written as it +is given to the public. The number was just coming out and +in the hands of “the reader” (I believe John Forster +was my father’s reader at that time, and had been educated +for the Bar), when the following occurred: Dickens was going to +dine that evening at my father’s house; they were waiting +for dinner to be announced, when a messenger came in a great +hurry (I think it must have been from the reader) to say that +Dickens was wrong on a point of law, and that something must be +done at once as the number was on the eve of publication, and the +printers were waiting. They rang the bell, ordered dinner +to be put back, and placed pen and paper before Dickens who set +to work at once and re-wrote part of the trial, there and then; +it was given to the messenger waiting in the hall, and Dickens +sat down to dinner with a comfortable feeling that the +publication had been saved in time.</p> +<p>“I have given these anecdotes as we remember hearing +them <!-- page 83--><a name="page83"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +83</span>spoken about in our home. I can picture the last +one so well, the rapidity with which it was done, the young +author, my parents, and the pretty home in which it took +place.</p> +<p>“My father’s marriage was a romantic one. +Visiting at Hitchin, he fell in love with his next door +neighbour, a very pretty little Quakeress, dressed in the Quaker +fashion of those days; her father was a very strict Friend, and +was made very uneasy at the attentions of this London lover; but +Mary was bright and vivacious, and encouraged him, and many were +the interviews contrived by the young couple. Their rooms +were on the same floor, though in different houses; my father, +behind a piece of furniture, bored a hole through the dividing +wall, and the lovers slipped notes backwards and forwards by this +means. I am not aware that the simple-hearted parents ever +found it out.</p> +<p>“But, at last, Mary was persuaded to leave her sheltered +home and launch out into the world by his side. They were +married in the north of England, from her brother’s house; +the bridegroom sending from London, the day before the marriage, +the dresses the little Quakeress was to robe herself in when she +slipped out of her garb. The fit must have been greatly +left to chance!</p> +<p>“Being full of tact and of engaging manners, she proved +an excellent hostess, and well fitted for the position she +held.</p> +<p>“My father died 20th February, 1880, aged 76, and was +buried at Hitchin, beside my mother. He had long retired +from business, and spent many years abroad on account of my +mother’s health.”</p> +<p>This pleasing sketch quite suggests the account given by +Sterne of his father. There is a quaint, old-world air +about it—and the traits are really those of Mr. Pickwick in +his later development. We could imagine the latter at +Dulwich examining and measuring his holly bushes. It would +not be too fanciful to suppose that Boz—constantly with +him, dining with him, and consulting him on every +point—must have been impressed, and influenced too, by +those amiable qualities, particularly by that unaffected +simplicity and good-will which is also so notable in his +hero. So the figure stands thus—first, the long, thin +man with Dry-as-dust tastes: then the short, round +philanthropist, whose externals were suggested by the Foster, of +Richmond, <!-- page 84--><a name="page84"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 84</span>the latter’s +“internals” being transferred to Tupman. Not +only do “Vith and Visdom” go together, but also +“Vith” and good humour and benevolence, which Boz +felt were necessary adjuncts to such a physique. Where was +he to find these? Now, we know how much Boz was inclined to +draw from what was before his eyes. It saved him trouble +and also set his imagination at work. The Cheeryble +Brothers, each a <i>Pickwick redivivus</i>, were taken from the +Grant Brothers, merchants, at Manchester. And here he had +this very exceptional character daily before him, in the person +of Edward Chapman. <a name="citation84"></a><a href="#footnote84" +class="citation">[84]</a></p> +<h2><!-- page 85--><a name="page85"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +85</span>CHAPTER XII. THE CALVERLEY EXAMINATION PAPER</h2> +<p>Few things have been more interesting to the Pickwickian, or +have done more to elevate Pickwickian study, than this celebrated +<i>jeu d’esprit</i>. Calverley, or Blayds—his +original name—was a brilliant creature, well known for his +scholarship, verses, and sayings. He early obtained a +fellowship at Cambridge, and was one of the youngest +“Dons.” Like Dr. Thomson, the celebrated +Master, he is felt to be a characteristic and a real personage, +even by those little familiar with his work or writings. He +was, moreover, an ardent Pickwickian and thoroughly saturated +with the spirit of the immortal book, to appreciate which a +first-rate memory, which he possessed, is essential; for the +details, allusions, names, suggestions, are so immense that they +require to be present together in the mind, and jostle each other +out of recollection. In the ’fifties, there were at +Cambridge a number of persons interested in the Book, who were +fond of quoting it and detecting oddities. It was in the +year 1858 or 1859—for, curious to say, the year cannot be +fixed—that Calverley conceived the <i>bizarre</i> idea of +offering a premium for the best answers to a series of searching +examination questions, drawn from this classic. It was held +at his own rooms at 7 o’clock in the evening, as Sir Walter +Besant, one of the candidates, recalls it. There were about +a dozen entered, the most formidable of whom were Skeat, the +present professor of Anglo-Saxon, a well-known Chaucerian +scholar, and Sir Walter Besant aforesaid. The latter +describes the scene in very dramatic fashion—the Examiner, +in his gown, cap, and hood, gravely walking up and down during +the two <!-- page 86--><a name="page86"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 86</span>hours the examination lasted, going +through the ceremonial with all the regular solemnity of the +Senate House. The candidates, we are told, expected a sort +of jocose business, and were little prepared for the +“stiffness” of the questions which were of the deep +and searching kind they were accustomed to in the case of a Greek +Play or a Latin Epic. Almost at once, three-fourths showed +by their helpless bewilderment that the thing was beyond them; +and the struggle lay between the two well-versed +Pickwickians—Besant and Skeat. The latter was known +to have his “Pickwick” at his fingers’ ends, +and Besant confessed that he had but small hopes of +success. Both plodded steadily through the long list of +questions. It should be said that the competition was open +only to members of Christ Church College, which thus excluded the +greatest reputed Pickwickian of them all, John Lemprière +Hammond—the name, by the way, of the “creator” +of Sam Weller on the stage. Besant went steadily through +his list of questions to the end, revised his answers, and got +his paper ready for delivery, but Skeat worked on to the very +last moment. An evening or two later, as they were going +into Hall, Calverley pinned up his report on the board at the +door just like one of the usual University reports, and there was +read the result:—</p> +<p>Besant . . . 1st Prize</p> +<p>Skeat . . . 2nd Prize</p> +<p>The authorities were not a little shocked at a liberty which +assumed the aspect of a burlesque of their own proceedings, and +Calverley was spoken to gently by a Don of the older +school. The paper of questions certainly shows what ability +may be brought to bear on so trifling a matter; for there is +really a power of analysis and a grasp of “inner +meaning” that is most remarkable. Sir Walter has very +acutely commented on this little “exercise,” and has +shown that it reached much higher than a mere jest. It +brought out the extraordinary capacities of the book which have +exercised so many minds. For “The Pickwick +Examination,” he says, “was not altogether a +burlesque of a college examination; it was a very real and +searching examination in a book which, brimful as it is of +merriment, mirth, and wit, is just as intensely human as a book +can be. The characters are not puppets in a farce, stuck up +only to be knocked down: they are men and <!-- page 87--><a +name="page87"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 87</span>women. +Page after page, they show their true characters and reveal +themselves; they are consistent; even when they are most absurd +they are most real; we learn to love them. It is a really +serious test paper; no one could answer any of it who had not +read and re-read the Pickwick Papers, and acquired, so to speak, +a mastery of the subject. No one could do well in the +examination who had not gone much further than this and got to +know the book almost by heart. It was a most wonderful +burlesque of the ordinary College and Senate House examination, +considering the subject from every possible point of view. +Especially is it rich in the department then dear to Cambridge: +the explanation of words, phrases, and idioms.”</p> +<p>Some of these cruxes, Sir Walter tells us, could not be solved +by the examiner, and were laid before Boz himself, with a copy of +the questions. Needless to say, Boz was infinitely amused, +but, to the general disappointment, could or would give no +information. The answer of Browning on a similar appeal is +well known—he referred his questioners to the Browning +Society, as knowing as much as he did on the point. There +is no doubt that this is the true philosophy of the thing: that, +once his ideas are in print, the author has no more to do with +them or their meaning than anyone else has. The passages +must speak for themselves; they are children sent into the +world—helpless infants like those Pickwickian +“expletives, let loose upon society.” Among +these unexplained things were “my Prooshan Blue” and +“Old Nobs.” Sir Walter, with real Pickwickian +sagacity, points to a true explanation which may be applied in +other cases. “Probably it was a phrase <i>which he +had heard in a crowd</i>, and had never asked himself what it +meant,” <i>i.e.</i>, it seemed appropriate, and what a +person in such a case would use. This is in fact part of +that “hallucination” of which G. H. Lewes spoke; the +scene came so completely before Boz that the words and phrases +suggested themselves to him and could not be denied, and he did +not ask them to give any account. This principle, however, +does not hinder an amusing display of speculation. Mr. +Andrew Lang’s explanation of “My Prooshan Blue” +is certainly far fetched. He thinks it refers to a dreamy +notion of George IV., who, at one moment, thought of changing the +British uniform to the Prussian Blue. Now, this was not +known at the time, and came out <!-- page 88--><a +name="page88"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 88</span>years +later. It had certainly not reached persons of the Weller +class. The truth is that most of Sam’s grotesque +epithets, <i>e.g.</i>, “young Brokiley sprout,” were +the arbitrary coinage of a fantastic mind. This, too, as +Sir Walter said, “he may have heard in a crowd,” or +in the mazes of his own brain. “Old Nobs” is +just as reasonable as Hamlet’s “Old +Truepenny.” “Are you there, Old +Truepenny,” might have been said by Sam to his father, as +Hamlet addressed it to <i>his</i>.</p> +<h2><!-- page 89--><a name="page89"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +89</span>CHAPTER XIII. PICKWICK IN REAL LIFE</h2> +<h3>I.—Dowler and John Forster</h3> +<p>The truculent Dowler figured before in “The Tuggs at +Ramsgate”—a very amusing and Pickwickian +tale—under the title of Capt. Waters, who exhibits the same +simulated ferocity and jealousy of his spouse. +Cruickshank’s sketch, too, of the Captain is like that of +Dowler when throwing up the window in the Crescent. Mrs. +Waters is made as attractive as Mrs. Dowler, and Cymon Tuggs, +like Winkle, excites the jealousy of the husband.</p> +<p>“Stop him,” roared Dowler, “hold +him—keep him tight—shut him in till I come +down—I’ll cut his throat—give me a +knife—from ear to ear, Mrs. Craddock, I will.” +And Captain Waters: “Ah! what do I see? Slaughter, +your sabre—unhand me—the villain’s +life!”</p> +<p>In the same story we have an anticipation of another incident: +the shutting up and detection of Pipkin in the cupboard, who is +discovered by a pipe being required, just as young Tuggs was by +his coughing from the tobacco smoke. Boz was partial to +this method of discovery, for, at the close, Snodgrass was thus +concealed and shut up at Osborne’s Hotel. His +detection, through the stupidity of the Fat Boy, is singularly +natural and original.</p> +<p>Some of Dowler’s dictatorial ways may have been +suggested by Boz’s friend, the redoubtable John +Forster. There is one passage in the Bath chapters where we +almost seem to hear our old friend speaking, when he took command +of his friends and introduced them, “My friend, Angelo +Cyrus Bantam, Esquire, know each other.” +“Bantam; Mr. Pickwick and his friends are strangers. +<i>They must put their names down</i>. <i>Where’s the +book</i>?” Then adds: “This is a long +call. It’s time to go; I shall be here again in an +hour. <i>Come</i>.” And at the assembly he +still continued his patronage and direction of everybody. +“Step in the tea-room—take your +sixpenn’orth. They lay on hot water and call it +tea. Drink it,” said Mr. Dowler, <i>in a loud <!-- +page 90--><a name="page90"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +90</span>voice</i>, <i>directing Mr. Pickwick</i>.” +Forster “all over.” We have heard him +“direct” on many an occasion. When starting +from the White Horse Cellars, Dowler, fancying that more +passengers were to be squeezed into the coach, said he would be +d---d if there were; he’d bring an action against the +company, and take a post chaise.</p> +<h3>II.—Thackeray</h3> +<p>In Thackeray’s “Newcomes,” the writer had +some reminiscences of a place like Eatanswill, for we are told of +the rival newspapers, “The Newcome Independent” and +“The Newcome Sentinel,” the former being edited by +one Potts. These journals assailed each other like their +brethren in “Pickwick.” “Is there any man +in Newcome except, perhaps, our <i>twaddling old +contemporary</i>, <i>the Sentinel</i>,” &c. +Doyle’s picture of the election is surely a reminiscence of +Phiz’s. There is the same fight between the +bandsmen—the drum which someone is kicking a hole in, the +brass instrument used, placards, flags, and general +<i>mêlée</i>.</p> +<p>Doyle could sketch Forster admirably. Witness the +drawing of the travelling party in a carriage, given by Mr. +Kitton in his wonderful collection, “Dickens, by pen and +pencil,” where he has caught Forster’s +“magisterial” air to the life. The picture, +“F. B.,” Fred Bayham in the story, is certainly the +figure of Forster (vol. ii., pp. 55 and 116.) F. B. is +shown both as a critic and pressman, though he has nothing of J. +F.’s domineering ways. Again, the waiter, speaking of +Lord Highgate, said he was a <i>most harbitrary gent</i>. +This refers to the memorable story of Forster being summoned by +the cabman who said he did so because “he were such a +harbitrary cove.” The truth was, Forster knew the +distance to a yard, and would tender the cabman his exact fare +and no more. Once, dining with Forster at a hotel in the +country where he had rooms, we lit our cigars after dinner, on +which the waiter remonstrated, saying it was not allowed. +Then I knew the meaning of a “Harbitrary Cove.” +How the irate Forster blew him up, roared at him, and drove him +out, terrified! It was, indeed, Dowler threatening the +coach proprietor.</p> +<p><!-- page 91--><a name="page91"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +91</span>Thackeray would of course have known the story; he meant +a sort of veiled allusion which had or had not a reference. +We have the key to this sort of thing in the strange, +uncomplimentary reference to Catherine Hayes, the murderess, but +which was at once applied to an interesting and celebrated Irish +singer of the same name. The author must have anticipated +this, and, perhaps, chuckled over the public ignorance, but the +allusion was far-fetched. In the same fashion a dramatist +once chose to dub one of his characters by my own rather unusual +name, on which he protested that he never dreamt of it, that +others bore it; still he, however, was obliged to remove it.</p> +<p>Again, on p. 55 we have this passage: “I was thirsty, +having walked from “Jack Straw’s Castle,” at +Hampstead, where poor Kiteley and I had been taking a +chop.” This was written in 1855, only a few years +after Forster’s admirable performance of Kiteley with the +other amateurs in “Every man in his humour.” +“Jack Straw’s Castle,” too, was a regular haunt +of Forster and Dickens. It is as certain as anything can be +that this allusion was not an accidental one.</p> +<h3>III.—Tupman</h3> +<p>Tupman’s relations to Mr. Pickwick were somewhat +peculiar; he was elderly—about Mr. Pickwick’s +age—whereas Winkle and Snodgrass were young fellows under +Mr. Pickwick’s guardianship. Over them he could +exercise despotic authority; which he did, and secured +obedience. It was difficult to do this in the case of his +contemporary, Tupman, who naturally resented being “sat +upon.” In the incident of the <i>Fête</i> at +Mrs. Leo Hunter’s, and the Brigand’s +dress—“the two-inch tail,” Mr. Pickwick was +rather insulting and injudicious, gibing at and ridiculing his +friend on the exhibition of his corpulence, so that Tupman, stung +to fury, was about to assault him. Mr. Pickwick had to +apologise, but it is clear the insult rankled; and it would +appear that Tupman was never afterwards much in the confidence of +his leader, and, for that matter, in the confidence of his +author. Boz, either consciously or unconsciously, felt +this. Tupman, too, never seems to have got over the figure +he “cut” in the spinster aunt business, and the loss +of general respect.</p> +<p>Still he submitted to be taken about under Mr. +Pickwick’s <!-- page 92--><a name="page92"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 92</span>patronage, but soon the mutual +irritation broke out. The occasion was the latter’s +putting on speckled stockings for the dance at Manor Farm. +“<i>You</i> in silk stockings,” exclaimed Tupman, +jocosely; a most natural, harmless remark, considering that Mr. +Pickwick invariably wore his gaiters at evening parties. +But the remark was hotly resented, and challenged. +“You see nothing extraordinary in the stockings <i>as</i> +stockings, I trust, sir?” Of course his friend said +“No, certainly not,” which was the truth, but Mr. +Pickwick put aside the obvious meaning. Mr. Tupman +“walked away,” wishing to avoid another altercation, +afraid to trust himself; and Mr. Pickwick, proud of having once +more “put him down,” assumed his “customary +benign expression.” This did not promise well.</p> +<p>In all the Manor Farm jollity, we hear little or nothing of +Tupman, who seems to have been thought a cypher. No doubt +he felt that the girls could never look at him without a +smile—thinking of the spinster aunt. In the picture +of the scene, we find this “old Buck” in the +foreground, on one knee, trying to pickup a pocket handkerchief +and holding a young lady by the hand. Snodgrass and his +lady are behind; Winkle and his Arabella on the other side; +Trundle and his lady at the fire. Then who was +Tupman’s young woman? She is not mentioned in the +text, yet is evidently a prominent personage—one of the +family. At Ipswich, he was crammed into the sedan chair +with his leader—two very stout gentlemen—which could +not have increased their good humour, though Tupman assisted him +from within to stand up and address the mob. We are told +that “all Mr. Tupman’s entreaties to have the lid of +the vehicle closed” were unattended to. He felt the +ridicule of his position—a sedan chair carried along, and a +stout man speaking. This must have produced friction. +Then there was the sense of injustice in being charged with +aiding and abetting his leader, which Mr. Pickwick did not +attempt to clear him from. When Mr. Pickwick fell through +the ice, Tupman, instead of rendering help, ran off to Manor Farm +with the news of the accident.</p> +<p>Then the whole party went down to Bath and, during their stay +there, we have not a word of Tupman. He came to see his +friend in the <!-- page 93--><a name="page93"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 93</span>Fleet—with the others of +course. But now for the remarkable thing. On Mr. +Pickwick’s happy release and when every one was rejoining, +Wardle invited the whole party to a family dinner at the +Osborne. There were Snodgrass, Winkle, Perker even, but no +Tupman! Winkle and his wife were at the “George and +Vulture.” Why not send to Tupman as well. No +one perhaps thought of him—he had taken no interest in the +late exciting adventures, had not been of the least help to +anybody—a selfish old bachelor. When Mr. Pickwick had +absented himself looking for his Dulwich house, it is pointed out +with marked emphasis that certain folk—“among whom +was Mr. Tupman”—maliciously suggested that he was +busy looking for a wife! Neither Winkle nor Snodgrass +started this hypothesis, but Tupman. He, however, was at +Dulwich for Winkle’s marriage, and had a seat on the +Pickwick coach. In later days, we learn that the +Snodgrasses settled themselves at Dingley Dell so as to be near +the family—the Winkles, at Dulwich, to be near Mr. +Pickwick, both showing natural affection. The selfish +Tupman, thinking of nobody but himself, settled at Richmond where +he showed himself on the Terrace with a youthful and jaunty air, +“trying to attract the elderly single ladies of +condition.” All the others kept in contact with their +chief, asking him to be godfather, &c. But we have not +a word of Tupman. It is likely, with natures such as his, +that he never forgot the insulting remark about his +corpulence. That is the way with such vain creatures.</p> +<p>Boz, I believe, had none of these speculations positively +before him, but he was led by the logic of his story. He +had to follow his characters and their development; they did not +follow him.</p> +<h3>IV.—Grummer</h3> +<p>This well drawn sketch of an ignorant, self-sufficient +constable is admirable. I have little doubt that one of the +incidents in which he figures was suggested to <i>Boz</i> by a +little adventure of Grimaldi’s which he found in the mass +of papers submitted to him, and which he worked up +effectively. A stupid and malicious old constable, known as +“Old Lucas,” went to arrest the clown on an imaginary +charge, <!-- page 94--><a name="page94"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 94</span>as he was among his friends at the +theatre. As in the case of Grummer, the friends, like +Winkle and Snodgrass, threatened the constable. The +magistrate heard the case, sentenced Grimaldi to pay 5s. +fine. Old Lucas, in his disappointment, arrested him +again. Being attacked by Grimaldi, as Grummer was by Sam, +he drew his staff and behaved outrageously. The magistrate +then, like Nupkins, had him placed in the dock, and +sentenced.</p> +<p>It has also been stated that Grummer was drawn from +Towshend—the celebrated Bow Street Runner again introduced +in “Oliver Twist.” Towshend was a privileged +person, like Grummer, and gave his advice familiarly to the +magistrates.</p> +<h2><!-- page 95--><a name="page95"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +95</span>CHAPTER XIV. CHARACTERISTICS</h2> +<h3>I.—The Wardle Family</h3> +<p>Here is a very pleasing and natural group of persons, in whom +it is impossible not to take a deep interest. They are like +some amiable family that we have known. Old Wardle, as he +is called, though he was under fifty, was a widower, and had +remained so, quite content with his daughters’ +attachment. He had his worthy old mother to live with him, +to whom he was most dutiful, tolerant, and affectionate. +These two points recommend him. There was no better son +than Boz himself, so he could appreciate these things. The +sketch is interesting as a picture of the patriarchal system that +obtained in the country districts, all the family forming one +household, as in France. For here we have Wardle, his +mother, and his sister, together with his two pleasing daughters, +while, later on, his sons-in-law established themselves close +by. The “poor relations” seem to have been +always there. It is astonishing how Boz, in his short +career, could have observed and noticed these things. +Wardle’s fondness for his daughters is really charming, and +displayed without affectation. He connected them with the +image of his lost wife. There is no more natural, truly +affecting passage than his display of fretfulness when he got +some inkling that his second daughter was about to make a rather +improvident marriage with young Snodgrass. The first had +followed her inclinations in wedding Trundle—a not very +good match—but he did not lose her as the pair lived beside +<!-- page 96--><a name="page96"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +96</span>him. He thought Emily, however, a pretty girl who +ought to do better, and he had his eye on “a young +gentleman in the neighbourhood”—and for some four or +five months past he had been pressing her to receive his +addresses favourably. This was clearly a good match. +Not that he would unduly press her, but “if she +<i>could</i>, for I would never force a young girl’s +inclinations.” He never thought, he says, that the +Snodgrass business was serious. But, how natural that, when +Arabella, their friend, had become a regular heroine and had gone +off with her Winkle, that this should fill Emily’s head +with similar thoughts, and set the pair on thinking that they +were persecuted, &c. What a natural scene is this +between father and daughter.</p> +<blockquote><p>“My daughter Bella, Emily having gone to bed +with a headache after she had read Arabella’s letter to me, +sat herself down by my side the other evening, and began to talk +over this marriage affair. “Well, pa,” she +says; “what do you think of it?” “Why, my +dear,” I said; “I suppose it’s all very well; I +hope it’s for the best.” I answered in this way +because I was sitting before the fire at the time, drinking my +grog rather thoughtfully, and I knew my throwing in an undecided +word now and then would induce her to continue talking. +Both my girls are pictures of their dear mother, and as I grow +old I like to sit with only them by me; for their voices and +looks carry me back to the happiest period of my life, and make +me, for the moment, as young as I used to be then, though not +quite so light-hearted. “It’s quite a marriage +of affection, pa,” said Bella, after a short silence. +“Yes, my dear,” said I; “but such marriages do +not always turn out the happiest.” “I am sorry +to hear you express your opinion against marriages of affection, +pa,” said Bella, colouring a little. “I was +wrong; I ought not to have said so, my dear, either,” said +I patting her cheek as kindly as a rough old fellow like me could +do it, “for your mother’s was one and so was +yours.” “It’s not that, I meant, +pa,” said Bella. “The fact is, pa, I wanted to +speak to you about Emily.” The long and the short of +it is, then, that Bella at last mustered up courage to tell me +that Emily was unhappy; that she and your young friend Snodgrass +had been in constant correspondence and communication ever since +last Christmas; that she had very dutifully made up her mind to +run away with him, in laudable imitation of her old friend and +schoolfellow.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Another member of this pleasant household was “The Fat +Boy.” There is nothing humorous or farcical in the +mere physical exhibition of a fat person, <i>quâ</i> his +fat. It was, indeed, the fashion of the day—and on +the stage particularly—to assume that fatness was +associated with something comic. There are a number of +stout persons in Pickwick—the hero himself, Tupman, old +Weller, and all the coachmen, the turnkeys, Slammer, Wardle, Fat +Boy, Nupkin’s <!-- page 97--><a name="page97"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 97</span>cook, Grummer, Buzfuz, Mrs. Weller, +Mr. Bagman’s uncle, and others. Thackeray attempted +to work with this element in the case of Jos Sedley, and his +fatness had a very close connection with his character. +But, in the case of Boz, his aim was much more intellectual and, +as it were, refined. For his object was to show what was a +fat person’s view of this world, as seen through the medium +of Fat. The Fat Boy is not a selfish, sensual being by +nature—he is really helpless, and the creature of necessity +who is forced by his bulk to take a certain <i>fat</i> view of +everything round him.” If we reflect on it we shall +see how clearly this is carried out. It is curious that, in +the instance of the Fat Boy, Boz should have repeated or +duplicated a situation, and yet contrived to impart such varied +treatment, but I suspect no one has ever noticed the point. +Joe, it will be remembered, witnessed the proceedings in the +arbour, when Mr. Tupman declared his passion for the spinster +aunt, and the subsequent embracing—to the great +embarrassment of the pair. At the close of the story he +also intruded on another happy pair—Mr. Snodgrass and his +<i>inamorata</i>—at a similar delicate moment. Yet in +the treatment, how different—“<i>I wants to make yer +flesh creep</i>!”—his taking the old lady into +confidence; and then he was pronounced by his master, Wardle, to +be under some delusion—“let me at +him”—&c., so his story and report led him into a +scrape. When he intruded on the pair at Osborne’s +Hotel, and Snodgrass was, later, shut up there, again he was made +the scapegoat, and Wardle insisted that he was drunk, +&c. So here were the incidents repeating +themselves.</p> +<h3>II.—Shooting, Riding, Driving, etc.</h3> +<p>Boz declared in one of his Prefaces that he was so ignorant of +country sports, that he could not attempt to deal with them in a +story. Notwithstanding this protest, he has given us a +couple of shooting scenes which show much experience of that form +of field sports. There is a tone of sympathy and freshness, +a keen enjoyment of going forth in the morning, which proves that +he himself had taken part in such things. Rook-shooting was +then an enjoyable sport, and Boz was probably thinking of the +rooks at Cobham, where he had no <!-- page 98--><a +name="page98"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 98</span>doubt hovered +round the party when a lad. As we know, Mr. Tupman, who was +a mere looker-on, was “peppered” by his friend +Winkle, a difficult thing to understand, as Winkle must have been +firing high into the trees, and if he hit his friend at all, +would have done so with much more severity. The persons who +were in serious danger from Mr. Winkle’s gun were the boys +in the trees, and we may wonder that one, at least, was not shot +dead. But the whole is so pleasantly described as to give +one a perfect <i>envie</i> to go out and shoot rooks. There +are some delightful touches, such as Mr. Pickwick’s alarm +about the climbing boys, “for he was not quite certain that +the distress in the agricultural interest, might not have +compelled the small boys attached to the soil to earn a +precarious and hazardous existence by making marks of themselves +for inexperienced sportsmen.” And again, “the +boy shouted and shook a branch with a nest on it. +<i>Half-a-dozen young rooks in violent conversation flew out to +ask what the matter was</i>.” Does not this bring the +whole scene before us.</p> +<p>The other shooting scene is near Bury St. Edmunds—on Sir +Geoffrey Manning’s grounds—on September 1st, 1830, or +1827, whichever Boz pleases, when “many a young partridge +who strutted complacently among the stubble with all his finical +coxcombry of youth, and many an older one who watched his levity +out of his little, round eye with the contemptuous air of a bird +of wisdom and experience, alike unconscious of their approaching +doom, basked in the fresh morning air with lively and blithesome +feelings, and, a few hours later, were laid low upon the +earth.” Here we have the beginning of that delightful +fashion of Dickens’s, which he later carried to such +perfection, of associating human feelings and associations with +the animal creation, and also inanimate objects.</p> +<p>Everything connected with “the shooting” is +admirably touched: The old, experienced “shot,” +Wardle; the keepers and their boys; the dogs; the sham amateurs; +the carrying of the guns “reversed arms, like privates at a +funeral.” Mr. Winkle “flashed and blazed and +smoked away without producing any material results; at one time +expending his charge in mid-air, and at others sending it +skimming along so near the surface of the ground as to place the +lives of the <!-- page 99--><a name="page99"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 99</span>two dogs on a rather uncertain and +precarious tenure. ‘What’s the matter with the +dogs’ legs? How <i>queer</i> they’re +standing!’ whispered Mr. Winkle. ‘Hush, +can’t you! Don’t you see they are making a +point?’ said Wardle. ‘Making a point?’ +said Mr. Winkle, glaring about him, as if he expected to discern +some particular beauty in the landscape which the sagacious +animals were calling special attention to. ‘What are +they pointing at?’ ‘Keep your eyes open,’ +said Wardle, not heeding the question in the excitement of the +moment. ‘Now then.’” How natural +and humorous is all this.</p> +<p>This was partridge shooting, “old +style”—delightful and inspiriting, as all have felt +who have shared in it. Now we have “drives” on +a vast scale; then you would follow the birds from field to field +“marking them down.” I myself with an urchin, a +dog, and a single-barrelled old gun have thus followed a few +precious birds from field to field all the day and secured them +at the last. That was true enjoyment.</p> +<h3>III.—Horses and Driving in “Pickwick.”</h3> +<p>For one who so modestly disclaimed all knowledge of sporting +and country tastes, Boz shows a very familiar acquaintance with +horses and their ways. He has introduced a number of these +animals whose points are all distinctly emphasized: a number of +persons are shown to be interested in horses, who exhibit their +knowledge of and sympathise with the animals, a knowledge and +sympathy which is but a reflection of his own. The cunning +hand that could so discriminate between shades of humorous +characters would not be at a loss to analyse traits of equine +nature. There is the cab horse, said to be forty years old +and kept in the shafts for two or three weeks at a time, which is +depicted in Seymour’s plate. How excellently drawn +are the two Rochester steeds: one “an immense brown horse, +displaying great symmetry of bone,” which was to be driven +by Mr. Pickwick, and Mr. Winkle’s riding animal, another +immense horse “apparently a near relative of the animal in +the chaise.” “He don’t shy, does +he?” The ostler guaranteed him quiet—“a +hinfant in arms might drive him”—“He +wouldn’t shy if he met a whole waggon-load of monkeys with +<!-- page 100--><a name="page100"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +100</span>their tails burnt off.” A far more original +illustration than anything used by the Wellers, whose special +form that was. I pass over the details of the driving and +the riding which show a perfect knowledge of animals, such as +“the tall quadruped.” Nothing is more droll +than the description of the loathing with which the party came to +regard the animal they were compelled to lead about all +day. Then we have the post horses and all connected with +them. There is Tom Smart’s “vixenish +mare,” quite an intelligent character in her way. The +account of the coach drive down to Muggleton shows admirable +observation of the ways of the drivers.</p> +<p>Ben Allen’s aunt had her private fly, painted a sad +green colour drawn by a “chubby sort of brown +horse.” I pass over the ghostly mailcoach horses that +flew through the night in “The Story of the Bagman’s +Uncle,” flowing-maned, black horses. There are many +post horses figuring in Mr. Pickwick’s journey from Bristol +to Birmingham and thence home; horses in the rain and out of +it.</p> +<p>Namby’s horse was “a bay, a well-looking animal +enough, but with something of a flash and dog-fighting air about +him.” The horses which took the hackney coach to the +Fleet jolted along as hackney coaches usually do. +“The horses ‘went better,’ the driver said, +‘when they had anything before them.’ They must +have gone at a most extraordinary pace when there was +nothing.” Visiting the Fleet with Mrs. Weller and the +deputy Shepherd, Mr. Weller drove up from Dorking with the old +piebald in his chaise cart, which, after long delay, was brought +out for the return journey. “If he stands at livery +much longer he’ll stand at nothin’ as we go +back.” There is a capital scene at the opening of +Chapter XLVI., when the “cabrioilet” was drawing up +at Mrs. Bardell’s, and where so much that is dramatic is +“got out” of such a simple incident between the +contending directions.</p> +<h3>IV.—Mr. Pickwick in Silk Stockings.</h3> +<p>How well Boz knew how to touch the chords of human +character—a power that certainly needs long experience to +work—is shown by the scene at Wardle’s dance, where +Mr. Pickwick is nettled by Tupman’s <!-- page 101--><a +name="page101"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 101</span>remarking +that he was wearing “pumps” for the first time. +“<i>You</i> in silk stockings,” said that +gentleman. Mr. Pickwick had just called attention to the +change which he considered a sort of public event to be admired +by all. “See this great man condescending to our +frivolous tastes,” and his host had noted it in a +flattering way. “You mean to dance?” But +Tupman did not look at it in this respectful way—he made a +joke of it! “<i>You</i> in silk +stockings.” This was insolent to the grave, great man +and philosopher, so he turned sharply on his familiar: “And +why not, sir—why not?” This with warmth. +The foolish Tupman, still inclined to be jocose, said, “Oh, +of course, there is no reason why you shouldn’t wear +them”—a most awkward speech—as who should say, +“This is a free country—a man can wear a night cap in +public if he chooses.” “I imagine not, +sir—I imagine not,” said Mr. Pickwick, in a <i>very +peremptory</i> tone. Mr. Tupman had contemplated a laugh, +but he found it was a serious matter, so he looked grave, and +said <i>they were a pretty pattern</i>. How natural is all +this! And still more so his leader’s reply. +“I hope they are,” he said, fixing his eyes upon his +friend, “You see nothing extraordinary in the stockings, +<i>as</i> stockings, I trust, sir.” The frightened +Tupman said, “Certainly not, Oh, certainly not,” and +walked away. Mr. Pickwick’s face resumed its +customary benign expression. This little picture of +weakness in an eminent man is characteristic. For observe, +when Tupman showed the folly of wearing a “two inch +tail” to the brigand’s coat, Mr. Pickwick was +furious, told him he was too old and too fat; but when someone +remarks on <i>his</i> silk stockings he gets deeply +offended. His vanity is touched, there should have been no +remark, or, at least, only of admiration. He was, in fact, +one of those flattered and spoiled personages who cannot see any +harm in their doing what they reprove in others. Many a +really great character is weak in this direction. Observe +the disingenuousness of the great man; he knew, perfectly, that +Tupman noticed nothing odd in the stockings, “<i>as</i> +stockings,” he meant the oddity of his wearing them at all, +and he had said so, plainly. But, ignoring this, the great +man chose to assume that he was insolently reflecting on their +pattern as outlandish. With his despotic pressure, he +forced him to say they were of a “pretty pattern,” +and thus vindicated his authority.</p> +<h3><!-- page 102--><a name="page102"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 102</span>V.—Violent Assaults, Shooting, +&c</h3> +<p>Duelling, imprisonment for debt, intoxication, elopements, +are, perhaps, the most striking social incidents in +“Pickwick” that have disappeared and become all but +antiquarian in their character. Yet another, almost as +curious, was the ready recourse to physical force or +violence—fistic correction as it might be termed. A +gentleman of quiet, restrained habit, like Mr. Pickwick, was +prepared, in case of call, either to threaten or execute summary +chastisement on anyone who offended him. The police or +magistrates seemed not to have been thought of, for the victim +would not think of appealing to either—all which seems +strange to us nowadays. At the Review even, the soldiers +coolly overthrew Mr. Pickwick and his friends who had got in +their way. Winkle was maltreated so severely that the blood +streamed from his nose; this would not now be tolerated. +When Jingle affronted the great man by calling his friend +“Tuppy,” Mr. Pickwick, we are told, “hurled the +inkstand madly forward and followed it up himself.” +This hurling of things at offenders was a common incident, +particularly in quarrels at table, when the decanter was +frequently so used, or a glass of wine thrown in the face. +After the adventure at the Boarding School, Mr. Pickwick +“indented his pillow with a tremendous blow,” and +announced that, if he met Jingle again, he would “inflict +personal chastisement on him”; while Sam declared that he +would bring “real water” into Job’s eyes. +Old Lobbs, in the story, was going to throttle Pipkin. Mrs. +Potts insisted that the editor of <i>The Independent</i> should +be horsewhipped. More extraordinary still, old Weller, at a +quiet tea-meeting, assaulted the Shepherd, giving him “two +or three for himself, and two or three more to hand over to the +man with the red nose.” Everyone set themselves right +in this way and, it is clear, knew how to use their “bunch +of fives.” Nor were there any summonses or police +courts afterwards; the incident was closed. Sam, attempting +to rescue his master at Ipswich, knocked down the +“specials” right and left, knocking down some for +others to lie upon, yet he was only fined two pounds for the +first assault and three for the second—now he would have +been sent to jail under a severe sentence. Mrs. Raddle +insisted that her husband should get up and knock every <!-- page +103--><a name="page103"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +103</span>one of the guests down stairs, while Jack Hopkins +offered to go upstairs and “pitch into the +landlord.” At the Brick Lane meeting, Brother +Stiggins, intoxicated, knocked Brother Tadger down the stairs, +while old Weller violently assaulted Stiggins. At Bath, +Dowler hunted Winkle round the Crescent, threatening to cut his +throat; and at Bristol, when the terrified Winkle tried to ring +the bell, Dowler fancied that he was going to strike him. +At Bristol, Ben Allen flourished the poker, threatening his +sister’s rival, and when Mr. Pickwick sent Sam to capture +Winkle, he instructed him to knock him down even, if he resisted; +this direction was given with all seriousness. “If he +attempts to run away from you, <i>knock him down</i>, or lock him +up, you have my full authority, Sam.” The despotism +of this amiable man was truly extraordinary, he ruled his +“followers” with a rod of iron. That such +should be exercised, or accepted even by the reader, is a note of +the time. It was, however, only a logical consequence of +the other summary methods.</p> +<p>The altercation between Mr. Pickwick and his other +“follower,” Tupman, arising out of the +“two-inch tail” question, was on the same +lines. For the affront of being called fat and old the +latter scientifically turned up his cuffs and announced that he +would inflict summary chastisement on his leader. Mr. +Pickwick met him with a cordial “come on,” throwing +himself into a pugilistic attitude, supposed by the two +bystanders to have been intended as a posture of defence. +This seems to have been accepted as a natural incident, though it +was deprecated. In the Fleet Prison, when Mr. +Pickwick’s nightcap was snatched off, he retorted with a +smart blow, and again invited everyone, “all of you,” +to “come on.” When the coachmen attended Sam to +the Fleet, walking eight abreast, they had to leave behind one of +the party “to fight a ticket porter, it being arranged that +his friends should call for him as they came back.” +Even in a moment of agitation—as when Ben Allen learned +that his sister had “bolted,” his impulse was to rush +at Martin the groom and throttle him; the latter, in return, +“felling the medical student to the ground.” +Then we have the extraordinary and realistic combat between Pott +and Slurk in the kitchen of the “Saracen’s +Head,” Towcester—the one armed with a shovel, the +other with a carpet bag—and old Weller’s chastisement +<!-- page 104--><a name="page104"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +104</span>of Stiggins. In short, this system of +chastisement on the spot, it is clear, was a necessary equipment, +and everybody, high and low, was understood to be ready to secure +satisfaction for himself by the aid of violence. No doubt +this was a consequence of the duel which was, of course, to be +had recourse to only as the last resort.</p> +<p>When the wretched Jingle, and the still more wretched Job met +Mr. Pickwick in the Fleet, and the latter, giving money, had +said, “Take that, sir,” the author adds, “Take +what? . . . As the world runs, it ought to have been a +sound, hearty cuff, for Mr. Pickwick had been duped, deceived, +&c.” Thus, Boz thought, as of course, that this +was the suitable method of treatment in such cases. +“Must we tell the truth?” he goes on; “it was a +piece of money.” The unconsciousness of all this is +very striking.</p> +<h3>VI.—Winkle and Snodgrass</h3> +<p>It has always seemed a matter of astonishment to me how such a +creature as Winkle should have won the fair Arabella. Every +act of this man was a deception—he could not help pretence, +or, shall we say it boldly, lying. His duel was a series of +tricks—his shooting, skating, etc., all a sham. Even +when found out as an impostor before all the keepers and others, +we find him impudently saying, “I’ll tell you what I +shall do <i>to get up my shooting again</i>.” The +fellow never had any shooting to get up. But the mere habit +of untruth was ingrained in the man. His undignified race, +in a dressing-gown, round the Crescent was no doubt concealed +from Arabella—she would never have got over that! As +a display of cowardice it was only matched by his hypocritical +assumption of courage before Dowler when he found he could assume +it safely. He deceived his father and Mr. Pickwick as to +his marriage, and dropped on his knees to the latter to beg +pardon. How mean, too, was his behaviour to Mrs. Pott in +the difficulty with her husband. But nothing could shake +the interest of the fair Arabella in her lover, even his +ignominious and public treatment by Mr. Pickwick at the skating +exhibition. How <i>can</i> we account for it. But Boz +knew the female nature well, and here is the explanation: Winkle +had been “out”—had figured in a duel with a +real officer <!-- page 105--><a name="page105"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 105</span>in the army. There was no +mistake about <i>that</i>—gone out, too, in what appeared a +chivalrous manner to save the honour of the club. At least +it had the appearance of all that (though here was another +falsehood). This had been told to all—no doubt by +Winkle himself—many times over. Nothing could +enfeeble that, it seemed heroic, and covered all other +<i>laches</i>. Neither did it lose in <i>his</i> telling of +it.</p> +<p>The most ridiculous feature surely in the man was his +costume—meant to be of a sporting complexion—which he +never abandoned: green shooting coat, plaid neckchief, and +closely fitting drabs. When he returned from his honeymoon, +he was still in this uniform.</p> +<p>We may assume, however, that this points to a custom of the +time: that the sportsman was <i>always</i> a sportsman. +Even at the club meeting, at a poorish room in a tavern, he must +carry on the fiction that he has just come back from a +day’s sporting, for there on the floor, conspicuous, are +the fowling piece, game bag, fishing rod, &c.</p> +<p>Snodgrass was another incapable and quite +uninteresting—a person whom we would not care to +know. He posed as a poet and, to this end, wore, even at +the club, “a mysterious blue cloak, with a canine skin +collar”; imagine this of a warm evening—May +12—in a stuffy room in Huggin Lane! He must, however, +live up to his character, at all hazards.</p> +<p>Snodgrass and his verses, and his perpetual “note +book,” must have made him a bore of the first water. +How could the charming Emily have selected him. He, too, +had some of Winkle’s craft. He had been entertained +cordially and hospitably by old Wardle, and repaid him by +stealing his daughter’s affections in a very underhand way, +actually plotting to run away with her.</p> +<p>There was something rather ignominious in his detection at +Osborne’s Hotel. He is a very colourless being. +As to his being a Poet, it would seem to be that he merely gave +himself out for one and persuaded his friends that he was +such. His remarks at the “Peacock” are truly +sapient: “Show me the man that says anything against women, +as women, and <i>I boldly declare he is not a +man</i>!” Which is matched by Mr. Winkle’s +answer to the charge of his being “a serpent”: +“Prove it,” said Mr. Winkle, warmly. It is to +be suspected that the marriage with the amiable Emily was not a +success. <!-- page 106--><a name="page106"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 106</span>The author throws out a hint to that +effect: “Mr Snodgrass, being occasionally abstracted and +melancholy, is to this day reputed a great poet among his +acquaintance, though we do not find he has ever written anything +to encourage the belief.” In other words he was +carrying on the old Pickwick game of “Humbug.” +So great an intellect had quite thrown itself away on poor +Emily—even his abstraction and melancholy. How +natural too that he should “hang on” to his +father-in-law “and establish himself close to Dingly +Dell”—to “sponge,” probably—while +he made a sham of farming; for are we not told that he purchased +and cultivated a small farm—“<i>more for occupation +than profit</i>”—thus again making believe. +Poor Emily!</p> +<p>I lately looked through the swollen pages of the monster +London Directory to find how many of the Pickwickian names were +in common use. There was not a single Snodgrass, though +there was one Winkel, and one “Winkle and Co.” in St. +Mary Axe. There was one Tupman, a Court dressmaker—no +Nupkins, but some twenty Magnuses, and not a single +Pickwick. There were, however, some twenty-four +Wellers.</p> +<h2><!-- page 107--><a name="page107"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 107</span>CHAPTER XV.—DULWICH</h2> +<h3>I.—Mr. Pickwick’s Diversions</h3> +<p>Mr. Pickwick, as we know, retired to end his days at peaceful +Dulwich—placid and tranquil as his own amiable heart. +It is as certain as though we had been living there and had seen +all that was going on, that he became universally popular, and +quite a personage in the place. Everyone was sure to meet +him taking his afternoon walk along the rural lanes, or making +his way to the Greyhound, where he was often found of an +evening—possibly every evening. This Greyhound, an +old-fashioned and somewhat antique house, though not mentioned in +the story, is linked to it by implication; for to settle at +Dulwich and ignore the Greyhound was a thing that could not +be. There is a Pickwickian tone—or was, rather, for +it is now levelled—about the place, and Boz himself used to +frequent it, belonging to a sort of dining club that met down +there.</p> +<p>Such a paper as say the <i>Dulwich Observer</i> would make +much account of a man like Mr. Pickwick; all his movements would +be chronicled, and anyone that chooses to bid Sarah or Mary +“bring up the file for the year of Mr. Pickwick’s +residence,” must find innumerable entries. Let us +supply a few of these imaginative extracts:</p> +<h4>MR. PICKWICK AT THE OPENING OF THE DULWICH LITERARY AND +SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION.</h4> +<blockquote><p>A meeting of this admirable and thriving +society—which, as our readers know, was founded by Mr. +Pickwick—was held on Saturday, at the Greyhound Inn, where +this learned and popular gentleman read a special paper on Ralph +Alleyne and his celebrated college at Dulwich. There was a +large attendance. Mr. Pickwick stated that he had long been +making researches into the Alleyne pedigree, and had made an +astonishing discovery—Alleyne, he found, was the family of +the Allens! <!-- page 108--><a name="page108"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 108</span>A very dear and intimate friend of +his own—a high member of the medical profession—with +whom he had spent some of the pleasantest hours of his whole +life, and who was now following his practice in India, also bore +the name of Allen—Benjamin Allen! It will be said +that there was not much in this; there were many Allens about, +and, in the world generally (loud laughter); but what will be +said when, on carelessly turning over the old rate-books, he came +on this startling fact? That at the beginning of the +century his old friend’s grandfather actually occupied a +small house on Tulse Hill, not five minutes’ walk from the +college (loud applause). He saw, they saw the significance +of this. Following up the clue, he next found that this +gentleman was a person of literary tastes—and, mark this, +often went into town to scientific meetings and to the theatres +(loud applause). Further, he had discovered one or two very +“oldest inhabitants” (a laugh) who had known this +very Benjamin Allen, the grandfather, and who could not recall +anything precise about him: but all agreed, and they should +further mark this, that he had the air and bearing of a man of +theatrical tastes, and that “it was as likely as +not”—to use their very words—“that he +belonged to the family of Ralph Allen” (applause). +The learned gentleman then proceeded to work out his clever +theory with much ingenuity, and, at the end, left “not a +shadow of a shade of a doubt” in the minds of his hearers +in general, and in his own mind in particular, that this Dr. +Benjamin Allen—of the East Indies—was the lineal +descendant of our own Ralph Allen. We have, however, with +regret to add, that this evening did not pass over so +harmoniously as it could be desired. As soon as Mr. +Pickwick had sat down and discussion was invited—Mr. +Pickwick, however, saying that there was really nothing to +discuss, as no one knew the facts but himself—a visitor +from Town, who had been introduced at his own request by one of +the members, stood up, will it be believed, to <i>attack</i> Mr. +Pickwick and his paper! It transpired that this +intruder’s name was Blotton, a person in the haberdashery +line, and that he came from somewhere in the neighbourhood of +Huggin Lane. He said that all they had been listening to +was simple moonshine. (<i>No</i>! <i>No</i>!) +But Yes! Yes! Had they ever heard of a river in +Monmouth and another in Macedon? There was an Allen some +hundred years ago—and a Ben Allen now alive in India. +What rubbish was this? (“<i>Shame</i>” cries of +“<i>put him out</i>”). Where was the +connection, he asked. Some old dotard or dodderer, they +were told, said so. The doddering in the case was not +confined to that individual. Here Mr. Pickwick rose, and, +with much heat, told the intruder to sit down. He would not +hear him; he ought to be ashamed of himself. “Would +you believe it,” went on Mr. Pickwick, “this is a +person who was actually <i>expelled</i>—yes, +expelled—from a club—the well-known Pickwick Club of +which I was the founder. Let him deny it if he +dare.” Here the individual called out “Bill +Stumps! Tell ’em about that.” “I +will not tell ’em, sir,” said Mr. Pickwick, warmly; +“they know it too well. It shall be known as long as +my name is known and when this person is consigned to the gutter +whence he came.” “It’s all Humbug,” +said Mr. Blotton, “humbug you were and humbug you ever will +be.” Here Dr. Pettigrew, our excellent local +practitioner, interposed, “Gentlemen, gentlemen,” he +said; “is this to <!-- page 109--><a +name="page109"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 109</span>go on; are +we to listen to this low abuse?” A number of persons +closing round Blotton succeeded in ejecting him from the room, +and this truly painful incident closed.</p> +</blockquote> +<h4>VISITORS AT THE DELL.</h4> +<blockquote><p>During the past week, Mr. Pickwick has been +entertaining a series of visitors—among others, Mr. Wardle, +of Manor Farm, Muggleton, Kent, with Miss Wardle, his +sister—the heroine of a most romantic story communicated to +us by Mr. Weller, though we are not privileged to lift the veil +from this interesting episode. But suffice it to say that +it comprised an elopement and exciting chase, in which Mr. +Pickwick, with his usual gallantry, took part. The +estrangement which necessarily followed between brother and +sister has long since been happily healed. Mr. Perker, the +eminent London solicitor—Mr. Pickwick’s “guide, +philosopher and friend”—has also been staying at the +Dell.</p> +</blockquote> +<h4>HUMOROUS ADVENTURE.</h4> +<blockquote><p>Our readers will be entertained by the following +droll contretemps which befel our deservedly popular +fellow-citizen, as we may call him, Mr. Pickwick. As our +readers know, the Annual Charity Dinner took place at the +Greyhound, on Tuesday, Mr. Pickwick being in the chair, and +making many of his happiest speeches during the course of which +he related many curious details about himself and his life. +The party did not break up till a late hour—nearly eleven +o’clock. A fly—a special one, as +usual—had been retained to take Mr. Pickwick home, but as +the trusted Hobson, who invariably attends Mr. Pickwick on such +occasions, had another engagement, a stranger was procured from +Camberwell. Mr. Pickwick was placed in the vehicle not, as +he says, without misgivings, and, as he admits, fell fast +asleep. He was driven home—as he fancied. On +arriving, the coachman had much difficulty in making himself +heard. Mr. Pickwick entered the house, still scarcely +aroused, and turning into the study, sank into an armchair, and +once more fell into a slumber. He was presently aroused, he +says, by voices, and found himself surrounded by strange faces +and figures in various states of +<i>déshabillé</i>. The head of the house, the +well-known Mr. Gibson, who had been roused from his slumbers, on +the maid, Mary Perkes, giving the alarm that robbers were in the +house, had rushed down in his trousers only; the man-servant +ditto; the young ladies in anything they could find. Mr. +Pickwick describes his alarm as he found these faces round him, +and, not unnaturally, conceived the idea that robbers had broken +into <i>his</i> house, and that his was in their power! A +humorous imbroglio followed. He instantly rushed to secure +the poker, and, flourishing it round his head, cried out +repeatedly, “Keep off! every one of you! or I’ll +brain the first man that comes near me!” Fortunately, +the respected man-servant, who had been many years with Mr. +Gibson, and had met Mr. Weller, at once recognized Mr. +Weller’s master, and said: “Why, its Mr. Pickwick! +ain’t it? Don’t you know <i>this</i> +ain’t your own house, sir.” The truth then all +flashed upon him. Mr. Pickwick relates that he became so +tickled <!-- page 110--><a name="page110"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 110</span>with the odd humour of his situation +that he fell into his chair in convulsions of laughter, and +laughed long and loudly, for many minutes. The more he +laughed, the more Mr. Gibson laughed. At last, all was +explained, and the amusing scene ended by a room being hastily +got ready for Mr. Pickwick (for the cabman had gone away). +No one was more amused, or indeed, more pleased, at these +“mistakes of a night” than Mr. Gibson, who always +tells the story with infinite drollery. Mr. Pickwick takes +all the blame on himself, declaring, as he says his old friend +Winkle used to say: “<i>It wasn’t the wine</i>, +<i>but the salmon</i>.”</p> +</blockquote> +<h4>ATTEMPTED ROBBERY AT MR. PICKWICK’S HOUSE.</h4> +<blockquote><p>Last night, we are sorry to learn, a very daring +attempt was made to rob the mansion of our much esteemed +resident, Mr. Pickwick. The Dell, as our readers know, is a +substantial dwelling-house, standing in its own grounds, and +comparatively unprotected. The family, consists of the +owner, his housekeeper, Mrs. Purdy, and his faithful servant, Mr. +Samuel Weller, whose pleasant humour is well-known, and who is +deservedly popular in Dulwich. Nothing was noticed until +about two o’clock in the morning, when, as Mr. Weller has +informed us, he was awakened by a low, grinding sound, which, in +his quaint style, he says reminded him “a fellow in +<i>quad</i> a-filing his irons.” With much +promptitude he rose and, loosening the dog, proceeded in the +direction of the sounds; the villains, however, became alarmed, +and Mr. Weller was just in time to see them, as he says, +“a-cuttin’ their lucky” over the garden +wall. Much sympathy is expressed for the worthy and +deservedly esteemed Mr. Pickwick, and for the outrage done to his +feelings.</p> +</blockquote> +<h4>FETE AT MR. PICKWICK’S.</h4> +<blockquote><p>On Thursday last, this amiable and always +benevolent gentleman, who, it is known, takes the deepest +interest in the stage, invited all the brethren of the college to +a dinner, after which, he threw open his grounds to all his +acquaintances, indeed, to all Dulwich. The banquet was of a +sumptuous character, and was provided from the Greyhound. +After the usual loyal toasts, the warden proposed Mr. +Pickwick’s health in appropriate terms, to which that +gentleman responded in an admirable speech, in which he reviewed +some portions of his life. After stating how dear and near +to his affection was the college and all that was concerned with +it, he entered into some various details of Ralph Alleyne, who, +as we all know, was an actor and connected with actors. +“I have already, by means of my researches, shown how +strangely related he was to myself, being of the same family with +an eminent physician in India, Mr. Benjamin Allen. +(Cheers.) I, myself, have known actors—one who was +known to his brethren as ‘dismal Jemmy’—(loud +laughter)—from, I suppose, the caste of characters he was +always assuming. Dismal Jemmy, however, had to leave the +country—(laughter)—I will not say why.” +(Roars of laughter.) Another actor whom he had known was +one of the most remarkable men he had ever met, for talent and +resources—would that he had confined his talent to its <!-- +page 111--><a name="page111"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +111</span>legitimate sphere, namely, on the +<i>boards</i>—but, unfortunately, he had chosen to exert it +at his, Mr. Pickwick’s, expense. (Loud +laughter.) This performer tried to live by his wits, as it +is called, and he, Mr. Pickwick, had encountered him, and his +wits, too and nearly always with success. Mr. Pickwick then +humorously described some of his adventures with this person, +causing roars of laughter by a description of a night in the +garden of a Boarding School, into which he had been entrapped on +the pretext that the actor was about to run away with one of the +young ladies. In the most comic fashion, he related how he +had been captured by the whole school, headed by its principal, +and locked up in a cupboard, and was only released by his +faithful man, Sam, whom, personally, some of them +knew—(loud applause.) Well, after frustrating the +knavish tricks of this actor, he at last found him in a +debtors’ prison in the most abject misery and destitution, +and he was happy to tell them, that the man was completely +reformed, and getting an honest livelihood in one of our +colonies. Such was his experience of the actors’ +profession.</p> +</blockquote> +<h4>MARRIAGE IN HIGH LIFE AT IPSWICH.</h4> +<blockquote><p>An interesting event, in which our esteemed +fellow-citizen, Mr. Pickwick, has taken a deep interest, took +place at the historic town of Ipswich, when Mr. Sidney Porkenham, +eldest son of --- Porkenham, Esq., led to the altar at St. +Clement’s Church, Henrietta, the beautiful and accomplished +daughter of --- Nupkins, Esq., late Mayor of that city. +Among the guests were J. Grigg, Esq., Mrs. and the Misses Grigg, +Mr. and Mrs. Slummin Towken and Mr. Slummin Towken, jun, --- +Jinks, Esq., and many more. Mr. Pickwick had intended to be +present and had already promised to stay with Mr. Nupkins, but +was prevented by illness. His present to the bride, a +costly one and in exquisite taste, was purchased at +Micklethwaite’s, High Street, Camberwell, where it was +exhibited and excited universal admiration. It consisted of +a watch and curb chain of the finest workmanship, for Mr. +Pickwick placed no limit on Micklethwaite. We understand +that at a recent dinner at Mr. Humberstone, our esteemed +rector’s, Mr. Pickwick, after alluding to Miss Nupkins and +the coming marriage, literally convulsed the party by relating +his famous adventure at the Great White Horse, which he tells in +the raciest style, and how it led to his being led off prisoner, +and brought before his friend, Mr. Nupkins, then Mayor of +Ipswich. At the close he became a little pensive. +“Ah! poor Peter Magnus! and Miss W---, sorry! +I’m sorry, very.” Our Rector has often +“chaffed” this worthy gentleman on his midnight +adventure, saying, waggishly, “there was more in it than +met the eye.” We have seen Mr. Pickwick smile, and he +would say, “well, sir, she was a fine woman, a very fine +woman, and I’m not going to kiss and tell.”</p> +</blockquote> +<h4>MR. PICKWICK AT DULWICH POLICE COURT.</h4> +<blockquote><p>Thomas Bardell, aged 19, was charged before His +Worship, with extorting money under false pretences from Mr. +Pickwick. It appears from the gentleman’s <!-- page +112--><a name="page112"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +112</span>evidence, which he gave with great fulness, that, many +years ago, a woman of the name of Bardell, a lodging-house +keeper, brought an unfounded action against Mr. Pickwick, and +obtained damages which Mr. Pickwick refused to pay, preferring to +go to the Fleet Prison. This person had a son, then a mere +child, who was the prisoner. A week ago, Mr. Pickwick +received a piteous letter, signed Tommy Bardell, saying that his +mother was dying, and in the deepest distress, all their +furniture sold, or pawned. After making some inquiries, and +finding that there was a woman in distress at the place, Mr. +Pickwick sent the prisoner two sovereigns. Within a +fortnight he received a second application, saying that the +unhappy woman’s bed was being taken away, &c.; he sent +another sovereign. When he received a third application he +thought it high time to put it into the hands of his man, Sam +Weller, who made enquiries and found out there was no mother, +Mrs. Bardell being long, long since dead. His worship +committed him to jail for six months as a vagabond, but, at Mr. +Pickwick’s request, reduced his sentence to two months.</p> +</blockquote> +<h3>II.—Mr. Pickwick’s Funeral.</h3> +<blockquote><p>The funeral <i>cortège</i> left the Dell at +ten o’clock, and was one of the most striking displays of +public feeling that Dulwich has seen for many years. And +not only was Dulwich thus affected, but in Camberwell all the +numerous shops were closed, and the inhabitants turned out in +crowds. The procession comprised many mourning coaches +containing all Mr. Pickwick’s oldest friends. He had +survived all his relations. Among the mourners were Mr. +Wardle, of Dingley Dell, with his son-in-law, --- Trundle, Esq.; +Mr. Tupman, who travelled specially from Richmond; Messrs. Winkle +and Snodgrass, who had been his inseparable companions in his +famous tours; and --- Perker, Esq., who was the deceased’s +legal adviser and confidential friend. An interesting +incident was the appearance among the mourners of an elderly +gentleman, Mr. Peter Magnus, between whom and Mr. Pickwick, as we +learn from his faithful servant, there had for many years been a +cloud or misunderstanding on account of some lady whose marriage +with Mr. Magnus Mr. Pickwick had unwittingly frustrated. +This injury, if injury there was, Mr. Magnus had buried in the +grave, and had rushed to Dulwich to lend his heartfelt +sympathy. Such things go far to reconcile one to human +nature, if such reconcilement be incumbent. A deputation +from the Dulwich Literary and Scientific Association, of which +Mr. Pickwick was Perpetual President, walked in the +procession. Passing the well-known Greyhound Inn, one of +Mr. Pickwick’s favourite haunts, it was noticed the blinds +were drawn down.</p> +<p>We copy from the <i>Eatanswill Gazette</i> the following +admirable tribute to Mr. Pickwick’s merit, from the +vigorous pen, as we understand, of its Editor, Mr. +Pott:—“Not only in Dulwich, but in Eatanswill, is +there mourning, to-day. We have lost +Pickwick—Pickwick the true and the Blue. For Blue he +was, to the very core and marrow of his bones, and it was we +ourselves, who first permeated him with real Blue +principles. Many a time and oft has he sat at our feet, +drinking in with rapture, <!-- page 113--><a +name="page113"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 113</span>almost, the +stray scraps of immortal doctrine with which we favoured +him. Is it not an open secret that, but for +Pickwick’s exertions—exertions which laid the +foundations of the disease which ultimately carried him +off—our late admirable member, the Honourable Samuel +Slumkey, would not have been returned? The <i>Gazette</i>, +it is true, first burst open the breach, in which Pickwick threw +himself, waving his flag on high, and led us on to victory. +Of course, our verminous contemporary, the <i>Independent</i>, +will scoff, and wipe its shoes on the illustrious dead. Of +course, the mangey creature—ceasing the while from its +perennial self-scratching—will hoot something +derogatory. Let it sneer, yelp aloud in its impotent +hog-like manner; let it root with its filthy snout among the +heaps of garbage where it loves to make its unclean haunt in +unspeakable Buffery. ’Twill not serve—the +noisome fumes will stifle it.”</p> +<p>We regret to say that these prognostications of Mr. +Pott’s were but too soon, and too fatally realised, for in +almost the next issue of the <i>Independent</i>, we find a +scandalous and indecent attack on our late beloved Mr. +Pickwick. Shocking as it is, we cannot forbear, in duty to +the deceased gentleman, presenting it to our readers—</p> +</blockquote> +<h4>“POTT’S PICKWICK.”</h4> +<blockquote><p>“Our emasculated contemporary, not content +with debauching Eatanswill politics, must go far afield and drag +from his grave an obscure and feeble being whom he claims to make +one of his besmirched heroes. But Potts’ praise, as +we have learned long since, is no more than daubing its object +with dirt. Why, this very Pickwick whom he +belauds—can it be forgotten how Eatanswill shook its sides +with laughter at the figure he made our besotted contemporary +cut? Who will forget Mr. W---le, his creature, whom +Pickwick introduced into the Potts’ household and the +resulting scandal, how Mr. W---le, aforesaid, fled from the +house, leaving the belated Ariadne in tears? Does Pott +forget who it was put his finger on this spot and, for the fair +fame of Eatanswill, clamoured for its extinction? Who +forgets our warnings and their fulfilment? The arrival of +the Lieutenant; the menaced proceedings in a certain court; the +departure of the fair but frail culprit. And yet Pott with +an ineffable effrontery that would do credit to a fishwife in and +from Billingsgate, clamours about this Pickwick and his virtues, +and drops his maudlin tears upon his coffin! Why was he not +there to give his hand to Mr. Lothario W---le, who, we +understand, was also present? By the way, we have received +the following lines from a valued correspondent:—</p> +<p>Your tears you may sprinkle<br /> +O W---le, O W---le,<br /> + With more of this same kind of rot.<br /> +The lady so gay<br /> +Could not say you nay,<br /> + Merely bidding you ‘<i>Go to +Pot</i>.’</p> +<p>Our hide-bound contemporary, will not, of course, see the +point—”</p> +<p><!-- page 114--><a name="page114"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +114</span>We are grieved to say, that the indecent Eatanswill +controversy over the lamented Mr. Pickwick still goes on. +More strictly speaking, however, he has dropped out of sight +owing to the inflamed passions which have been roused between the +editors. Our sympathies are, we need not say, with Mr. +Pott, still we wish he would somewhat temper his language, out of +respect for the dead. Here is his crushing +retort—</p> +</blockquote> +<h4>“FILTH ON THE COFFIN.”</h4> +<blockquote><p>“We have seen at some historic funeral, say +of some personage obnoxious to the mob, dead dogs, cats, rats, +and rotten eggs, hurled from a safe distance at the passing +coffin. This is what our fast decomposing and wholly +noisome contemporary is now doing. Shall we say it? +How beastly, how congenial to the man’s feelings! +Paugh! Decency; propriety; sense of restraint; all unknown +terms in his Malay tongue—for this Swift’s +yahoo. But we know what rankles. Has our contemporary +in mind a chastisement that was inflicted on him in the kitchen +of a certain inn, and in the presence of Pickwick +himself—has he forgotten the fire irons—or, to speak +accurately, <i>the</i> fire irons. That bruise, we dare +swear, is still raw. But there are pole-cats who cannot +divest themselves of their odour, do what they will, and this +festering mass of decaying garbage, which goes by the name of +<i>The Independent</i>, and which is unaccountably overlooked by +the night men in their rounds, is fast breeding a pestilence in +the pure air of Eatanswill.” This lamentable +controversy still continues.</p> +</blockquote> +<h4>STRANGE INCIDENT.</h4> +<blockquote><p>We noticed among the company at Mr. +Pickwick’s funeral a gentleman of unobstrusive exterior, +who seemed to be vainly seeking his place, and to whom our +representative offered his services. It turned out that his +name was Trundle, and that he was one of the appointed +pall-bearers, but that he had been unaccountably overlooked, and +his place taken by someone else. Mr. Trundle made no +complaint, but our representative thought it his duty to mention +the circumstance to Mr. Wardle, who, it appears, is his +father-in-law, but who only smiled, good-humouredly saying +“O, Trundle, to be sure. No one minds him and +<i>he</i> won’t mind.” But no further attention +was paid to the matter. Mr. Trundle, our representative +adds, was a man of modest and retiring ways, and did not seem in +the least put out by the mistake.</p> +</blockquote> +<h2>Footnotes:</h2> +<p><a name="footnote1"></a><a href="#citation1" +class="footnote">[1]</a> Some years ago, as it is stated in +Murray’s Guide Book, most of the old gabled houses +disappeared. They are shown in “Phiz’s” +picturesque sketch.</p> +<p><a name="footnote66"></a><a href="#citation66" +class="footnote">[66]</a> “Oliver Twist” was +begun in January, 1837, and Rose Maylie introduced about July or +August. Mary Hogarth died on May 7th.</p> +<p><a name="footnote68"></a><a href="#citation68" +class="footnote">[68]</a> Mr. Wright lately possessed a +most interesting copy, presented number by number to Mary Hogarth +by the author, up to No. 14, with this inscription: “From +hers affectionately, Charles Dickens.” The succeeding +numbers were given to her schoolfellow, Miss Walker. Mr. +Wright also possessed the letter announcing her death. It +runs: “Sunday night, 8th May, 1837. We are in deep +and sincere distress. Miss Hogarth, after accompanying Mrs. +Dickens and myself to the theatre last night, was taken seriously +ill, and, despite our best endeavours to save her, expired in my +arms.” It is curious to notice that this phrase +should recur in Nickleby, it running, “My darling lad, who +was taken ill last night, I thought would have expired in my +arms.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote84"></a><a href="#citation84" +class="footnote">[84]</a> In a presentation copy of +“Pickwick,” given to Edward Chapman, November 14th, +1839, he calls him and Hall “the best of booksellers, past, +present, or to come, and my trusty friends.”</p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PICKWICKIAN STUDIES***</p> +<pre> + + +***** This file should be named 23490-h.htm or 23490-h.zip****** + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/3/4/9/23490 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Pickwickian Studies + + +Author: Percy Fitzgerald + + + +Release Date: November 15, 2007 [eBook #23490] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PICKWICKIAN STUDIES*** + + +Transcribed from the 1899 New Century Press edition by David Price, email +ccx074@pglaf.org + + + + + +PICKWICKIAN STUDIES + + +BY +PERCY FITZGERALD, M.A., F.S.A. +AUTHOR OF "_The History of Pickwick_," "_Pickwickian Manners and +Customs_," +"_Bozland_," _&c._ + +London: +THE NEW CENTURY PRESS, LIMITED +434 STRAND, W.C +1899 + + + + +CHAPTER I. IPSWICH + + +I.--The Great White Horse + + +This ancient Inn is associated with some pleasant and diverting +Pickwickian memories. We think of the adventure with "the lady in the +yellow curl papers" and the double-bedded room, just as we would recall +some "side splitting" farce in which Buckstone or Toole once made our +jaws ache. As all the world knows, the "Great White Horse" is found in +the good old town of Ipswich, still flourishes, and is scarcely altered +from the days when Mr. Pickwick put up there. Had it not been thus +associated, Ipswich would have remained a place obscure and scarcely +known, for it has little to attract save one curious old house and some +old churches; and for the theatrical antiquary, the remnant of the old +theatre in Tacket Street, where Garrick first appeared as an amateur +under the name of Lyddal, about a hundred and sixty years ago, and where +now the Salvation Army "performs" in his stead. {1} The touch of "Boz" +kindled the old bones into life, it peopled the narrow, winding streets +with the Grummers, Nupkins, Jingles, Pickwick and his followers; with the +immortal lady aforesaid in her yellow curl papers, to say nothing of Mr. +Peter Magnus. From afar off even, we look at Ipswich with a singular +interest; some of us go down there to enjoy the peculiar feeling--and it +_is_ a peculiar and piquant one--of staying at Mr. Pickwick's Inn--of +sleeping even in his room. This relish, however, is only given to your +true "follower," not to his German-metal counterfeit--though, strange to +say, at this moment, Pickwick is chiefly "made in Germany," and comes to +us from that country in highly-coloured almanacks--and pictures of all +kinds. About Ipswich there is a very appropriate old-fashioned tone, and +much of the proper country town air. The streets seem dingy enough--the +hay waggon is encountered often. The "Great White Horse," which is at +the corner of several streets, is a low, longish building--with a rather +seedy air. But to read "Boz's" description of it, we see at once that he +was somewhat overpowered by its grandeur and immense size--which, to us +in these days of huge hotels, seems odd. It was no doubt a large posting +house of many small chambers--and when crowded, as "Boz" saw it at +Election time in 1835, swarming with committeemen, agents, and voters, +must have impressed more than it would now. The Ball-room at "The Bull," +in Rochester, affected him in much the same way; and there is a curious +sensation in looking round us there, on its modest proportions--its +little hutch of a gallery which would hold about half-a-dozen musicans, +and the small contracted space at the top where the "swells" of the +dockyard stood together. "Boz," as he himself once told me, took away +from Rochester the idea that its old, red brick Guildhall was one of the +most imposing edifices in Europe, and described his astonishment on his +return at seeing how small it was. + +Apropos of Rochester and the Pickwick feeling, it may be said that to +pass that place by on the London, Chatham, and Dover line rouses the most +curious sensation. Above is the Castle, seen a long time before, with +the glistening river at its feet; then one skirts the town passing by the +backs of the very old-fashioned houses, and you can recognise those of +the Guildhall and of the Watts' Charity, and the gilt vanes of other +quaint, old buildings; you see a glimpse of the road rising and falling, +with its pathways raised on each side, with all sorts of faded +tints--mellow, subdued reds, sombre greys, a patch of green here and +there, and all more or less dingy, and "quite out of fashion." There is +a rather forlorn tone over it all, especially when we have a glimpse of +Ordnance Terrace, at Chatham, that abandoned, dilapidated row where the +boy Dickens was brought up dismally enough. At that moment the images of +the Pickwickians recur as of persons who had lived and had come down +there on this pleasant adventure. And how well we know every stone and +corner of the place, and the tone of the place! We might have lived +there ourselves. Positively, as we walk through it, we seem to recognise +localities like old friends. + +"Boz," when he came to Ipswich, was no more than a humble reporter, on +special duty, living in a homely way enough. The "White Horse" was not +likely to put itself out for him, and he criticises it in his story, +after a fashion that seems rather bold. His description is certainly +unflattering: + + "In the main street, on the left-hand side of the way"--observe how + minute Boz is in his topography--"a short distance after you have + passed through the open space fronting the Town Hall, stands an Inn + known far and wide by the appellation of 'The Great White Horse,' + rendered the more conspicuous by a stone statue of some rampacious + animal, with flowing mane and tail, distantly resembling an insane + cart horse, which is elevated above the principal door. The 'Great + White Horse' is famous in the neighbourhood in the same degree as a + prize ox or county paper-chronicled turnip, or unwieldy pig--for its + _enormous size_. Never were there such labyrinths of _uncarpeted + passages_, such clusters of _mouldy_, _badly-lighted rooms_, such huge + numbers of small dens for eating or sleeping in, beneath any other + roof, as are collected between the four walls of this overgrown + Tavern." + +Boz cannot give the accommodation a good word, for he calls the +Pickwickian room "a large, badly furnished apartment, with _a dirty +grate_ in which a small fire was making a wretched attempt to be +cheerful, but was fast sinking beneath the dispiriting influence of the +place." The dinner, too, seems to have been as bad, for a _bit of fish_ +and a steak took one hour to get ready, with "_a bottle of the worst +possible port_, _at the highest possible price_." Depreciation of a +hostelry could not be more damaging. Again, Mr. Pickwick's bedroom is +described as a sort of surprise, being "a more comfortable-looking +apartment that his short experience of the accommodation of the Great +White House had led him to expect." + +Now this was bad enough, but his sketch of the waiter who received the +arriving party is worse: + + "A corpulent man, with a fortnight's napkin under his arm and coeval + stockings." + +There is something so hostile in all this that it certainly must have +come from a sense of bad reception. As we said, the young reporter was +likely enough to have been treated with haughty contempt by the corpulent +waiter so admirably described, with his "coeval stockings." + +Even the poor horse is not spared, "Rampacious" he is styled; the stone +animal that still stands over the porch. It must be said that the steed +in question is a very mild animal indeed, and far from ramping, is +trotting placidly along. "Rampacious," however, scarcely seems +correct--"Rampagious" is the proper form--particularly as "Boz" uses the +words "On the rampage." We find ourselves ever looking at the animal +with interest--as he effects his trot, one leg bent. The porch, and +horse above it, have a sort of sacred character. I confess when I saw it +for the first time I looked at it with an almost absurd reverence and +curiosity. The thing is so much in keeping, one would expect to see the +coach laden with Pickwickians drive up. + +Mr. Pickwick's adventure, his losing his way in the passages, &c., might +occur to anyone. It is an odd feeling, the staying at this old hostelry, +and, as it draws on towards midnight, seeking your room, through endless +windings, turns, and short flights. There is even now to be seen the +niche where Mr. Pickwick sat down for the night; so minute are the +directions we can trace the various rooms. Mr. Pickwick asked for a +private room and was taken down a "long dark passage." It turned out +later that Miss Witherfield's sitting-room was actually next door, so Mr. +Magnus had not far to go. These rooms were on the ground floor, so Mr. +Pickwick had to "descend" from his bedroom. + +There is a tradition indeed that Mr. Pickwick's adventure with a lady +really occurred to "Boz" himself, who had lost his way in the mazes of +the passages. I have a theory that his uncomfortable night in the +passages, and the possible displeasure of the authorities, may have +jaundiced his views. + + + +II.--Eatanswill and Ipswich + + +It is not "generally known" that Ipswich is introduced twice in the book: +as Eatanswill, as well asunder its own proper name. As "Boz" was dealing +with the corrupt practices at Elections, and severely ridiculing them, he +was naturally afraid of being made responsible. Further, he had been +despatched by the proprietors of the _Chronicle_ to report the speeches +at the election, and he did not care to take advantage of his mission for +literary purposes. The father of the late Mr. Alfred Morrison, the well- +known, amiable virtuoso, was one of the candidates for Ipswich at the +election in 1835, and he used to tell how young "Boz" was introduced into +one of the rooms at the "Great White Horse," where the head-quarters of +the candidate was. Sir Fitzroy Kelly was the other candidate, a name +that seems pointed at in Fizkin. + +This high and mighty point of the locality of Eatanswill has given rise +to much discussion, and there are those who urge the claims of other +towns, such as Yarmouth and Norwich. It has been ingeniously urged that, +in his examination before Nupkins, Mr. Pickwick stated that he was a +perfect stranger in the town, and had no knowledge of any householders +there who could be bail for him. Now if Eatanswill were Ipswich, he must +have known many--the Pott family for instance--and he had resided there +for some time. But the author did not intend that the reader should +believe that the two places were the same, and wished them to be +considered different towns, though _he_ considered them as one. It has +been urged, too, that Ipswich is not on the direct road to Norwich as +stated by the author; but on consulting an old road book (Mogg's) I find +that it is one of the important stages on the coach line. + +But what is conclusive is the question of distance. On hurrying away so +abruptly from Mrs. Leo Hunter's, Mr. Pickwick was told by that lady that +the adventurer was at Bury St. Edmunds, "_not many miles from here_," +that is a short way off. Now Bury is no more than about four-and-twenty +miles from Ipswich, a matter of about four hours' coach travelling. Great +Yarmouth is fully seventy by roundabout roads, which could not be +described as being "a short way from here." It would have taken eight or +nine hours--a day's journey. Mr. Pickwick left Eatanswill about one or +two, for the lunch was going on, and got to Bury in time for dinner, +which, had he left Yarmouth, would have taken him to the small hours of +the morning. + +No one was such a thorough "Pressman" as was "Boz," or threw himself with +such ardour into his profession. To his zeal and knowledge in this +respect we have the warmest testimonies. When he was at Ipswich for the +election, he, beyond doubt, entered with zest and enjoyment into all the +humours. No one could have written so minute and hearty an account +without having been "behind the scenes" and in the confidence of one or +other of the parties. And no wonder, for he represented one of the most +important of the London "dailies." + +The fact is, Ipswich was a sort of a tempestuous borough, the scene of +many a desperate conflict in which one individual, Mr. Fitzroy +Kelly--later Chief Baron--made the most persevering efforts, again and +again renewed, to secure his footing. Thus, in December, 1832, there was +a fierce struggle with other candidates, Messrs. Morrison, Dundas, and +Rigby Wason, in which he was worsted--for the moment. But, in January, +1835, when he stood again, he was successful. This must have been the +one in Pickwick, when the excesses there described may have taken place. +There were four candidates: one of whom, Mr. Dundas--no doubt depicted as +the Honourable Mr. Slumkey--being of the noble family of Zetland. We +find that the successful candidate was unseated on petition, and his +place taken by another candidate. In 1837, he stood once more, and was +defeated by a very narrow majority. On a scrutiny, he was restored to +Parliament. Finally, in 1847, he lost the seat and gave up this very +uncertain borough. Now all this shows what forces were at work, and +that, with such determined candidates, electoral purity was not likely to +stand in the way. All which makes for Ipswich. + +It must be said, however, that a fair case can be made for Norwich. In +introducing Eatanswill, Boz says that "an anxious desire to abstain from +giving offence" prompted Mr. Pickwick, _i.e._, Boz, to conceal the real +name of the place. He adds that he travelled by the Norwich coach, "but +this entry (in Mr. Pickwick's notes) was afterwards lined through as if +for the purpose of concealing even the direction." Some might think that +this was a veiled indication, but it seems too broad and obvious a +method, that is, by crossing out a name to reveal the name. It is much +more likely he meant that the town was somewhere between Norwich and +London, and on that line. There are arguments, too, from the distances. +There are two journeys in the book from Eatanswill to Bury, which seem to +furnish data for both theories--the Ipswich and the Norwich ones. But if +we have to take the _dejeuner_ in its literal sense, and put it early in +the day, say, at eleven, and Mr. Pickwick's arrival at Bury, "wery late," +as Sam had it, we have some six hours, or, say, forty miles, covered by +the journey. But the events at Mrs. Leo Hunter's were certainly at mid- +day--between one and three o'clock. It was, in fact, a grand lunch. So +with Winkle's journey. He left Eatanswill half-an-hour after breakfast, +and must have travelled by the same coach as Mr. Pickwick had done, and +reached Bury just in time for dinner, or in six or seven hours. Now it +will not be said that he would not be a whole day going four-and-twenty +miles. + +A fair answer to these pleas might be that Boz was not too scrupulous as +to times or distances when he was contriving incidents or events; and +numberless specimens could be given of his inaccuracies. Here, "panting +time toiled after him in vain." It was enough to talk of breakfast and +dinner without accurately computing the space between. But a close +admeasurement of the distance will disprove the Norwich theory. Bury was +twenty-four miles from Ipswich, and Ipswich forty miles from Norwich--a +total of seventy-four miles, to accomplish which would have taken ten, +eleven or twelve hours, to say nothing of the chance of missing the +"correspondance" with the Northern Norwich coach. Then again, Boz is +careful to state that Eatanswill was "one of the smaller towns." In this +class we would not place Norwich, a large Cathedral City, with its +innumerable churches, and population, even then, of over 60,000, whereas +Ipswich was certainly one of these "smaller towns," having only 20,000. +It must be also considered, too, that this was a cross road, when the +pace would be slower than on the great main lines, say, at five miles an +hour, which, with stoppages, &c., would occupy a period for the twenty- +four miles of some four hours, that is, say, from two to six o'clock. +Boz, by his arrangement of the traffic, would seem to assume that a +conveyance could be secured at any time of the day, for Mr. Pickwick +conveniently found one the instant he so abruptly quitted Mrs. Leo +Hunter's, while Winkle and his friends just as conveniently found one +immediately after breakfast. He appears to have been seven hours on the +road. But the strong point on which all Ipswichians may rest secure is +Mr. Pickwick's statement to Mrs. Leo Hunter that Bury was "not many miles +from here." + +But an even more convincing proof can be found in Jingle's relation to +Eatanswill. He came over from Bury to Mrs. Leo Hunter's party, leaving +his servant there, at the Hotel, and returned the same evening. The +place must have been but a short way off, when he could go and return in +the same day. Then what brought him to Eatanswill? We are told that at +the time he was courting Miss Nupkins, the Mayor's daughter; of course, +he rushed over in the hope of meeting her at Mrs. Leo Hunter's +_dejeuner_. Everything, therefore, fits well together. + +I thought of consulting the report of the House of Commons Committee on +the Election Petition, and this confirmed my view. There great stress is +laid on the Blue and Buff colours: in both the report and the novel it is +mentioned that the constables' staves were painted Blue. Boz makes Bob +Sawyer say, in answer to Potts' horrified enquiry "Not Buff, sir?" "Well +I'm a kind of plaid at present--mixed colours"--something very like this +he must have noticed in the Report. A constable, asked was his comrade, +one Seagrave, Buff, answered, "_well_, _half and half_, _I believe_." In +the Report, voters were captured and put to bed at the White Horse; and +Sam tells how he "pumped over" a number of voters at the same house. The +very waiter, who received Mr. Pickwick so contemptuously, was examined by +the Committee--his name was Henry Cowey--and he answered exactly like the +waiter with the "fortnight's napkin and the coeval stockings." When +asked "was not so-and-so's appearance that of an intoxicated person?" the +language seemed too much for him, rather, he took it to himself: "If I +_had_ been intoxicated, I could not have done my business." This is +quite in character. + +Boz calls the inn at Eatanswill, "The Town Arms." There was no such sign +in all England at the time, as the Road Book shows. Why then would he +call the White Horse by that name? The Town Arms of Ipswich have two +white _Sea Horses_ as supporters. This had certainly something to do +with the matter. + +Mr. Pott was surely a real personage: for "Boz," who presently did not +scruple to "takeoff" a living Yorkshire schoolmaster in a fashion that +all his neighbours and friends recognised the original, would not draw +back in the case of an editor. Indeed, it is plain that in all points +Pott is truly an admirable figure, perfect in every point of view, and +finished. In fact, Pott and Pell, in their way, are the two best pieces +of work in the book. How admirable is the description; "a tall, thin man +with a sandy-coloured head, inclined to baldness, and a face in which +solemn importance was blended with a look of unfathomable profundity. He +was dressed in a long, brown surtout, with a black cloth waistcoat and +drab trousers. A double eye-glass dangled at his waistcoat, and on his +head he wore a very low-crowned hat with a broad rim." Every touch is +delightful--although all is literal the literalness is all humour. As +when Pott, to recreate his guest, Mr. Pickwick, told Jane to "go down +into the office and bring me up the file of the Gazette for 1828. I'll +read you just a few of the leaders I wrote at that time upon the Buff job +of appointing a new tollman to the turnpike here. I rather think they'll +amuse you." This was rich enough, and he came back to the same topic +towards the end of the book. + +It will be remembered Mr. Pott went to Mrs. Leo Hunter's _Fete_ in the +character of a Russian with a knout in his hand. No doubt the Gazette +had its "eye on Russia" and like the famous _Skibbereen Eagle_ had +solemnly warned the Autocrat to that effect. It is, by the way, amusing +to find that this organ, _The Eagle_ to wit, which so increased the +gaiety of the nation, has once more been warning the Autocrat, and in a +vein that proves that "our filthy contemporary," _The Eatanswill +Gazette_, was no exaggerated picture. This is how _The Eagle_, in a late +issue, speaks of the Russian occupation of Port Arthur:--"And once again +that keen, fierce glance is cast in the direction of the grasping +Muscovite; again, one of the foulest, one of the vilest dynasties that +has impiously trampled on the laws of God, and has violated every +progressive aspiration the Almighty implanted in the human heart when He +fashioned man in His own image, and breathed into his soul the breath of +life, threatens, for the moment at least, to put back the hands of the +clock that tells the progress of civilisation. The Emperor of all the +Russias, this wicked enemy of the human race, has succeeded in raising +his hideous flag on Port Arthur, and planting his iron heel and cloven +hoof on the heathen Chinese--filthy, degenerate creatures, who, it must +be admitted, are fitting companions for the tallow-eating, 'knouting' +barbarian." + + + +III.--Nupkins and Magnus. + + +Who was intended by Nupkins, the intolerable Mayor of Ipswich? An odious +being. We may wonder at "Boz's" courage, for, of course, the existing +Mayor of Ipswich might think that the satire was pointed at _him_. There +can be little doubt, however, that Nupkins was drawn from a London Police +Magistrate, and is, in fact, another portrait of the functionary whom he +sketched specially for "Oliver Twist" under the name of Mr. Fang. +Nupkins, however, is more in the comedy vein--ridiculed rather than +gibbeted--than was Mr. Fang. We have only to compare the touches in both +descriptions: + + "I beg your pardon for interrupting you," said Mr. Pickwick, "but + before you proceed to act upon any opinion you may have formed, I must + claim my right to be heard." + + "Hold your tongue," said the magistrate, peremptorily. + + "I must submit to you, sir--" said Mr. Pickwick. + + "Hold your tongue, or I shall order an officer to remove you." + + "You may order your officers to do whatever you please, sir," said Mr. + Pickwick. + +Compare with this "Oliver Twist": + + "Who are you?" said Mr. Fang. + + "Before I am sworn, I must beg to say one word, and that is I really + never, without actual experience, could have believed--" + + "Hold your tongue, sir," said Mr. Fang, peremptorily. + + "I will not, sir." + + "Hold your tongue this instant, or I'll have you turned out of the + office." + +Mr. Pickwick, it will be remembered, made a communication to Mr. Nupkins +which changed the whole state of affairs. Mr. Nupkins, with all his +insolent despotism, was held in check by conference with his clerk, +Jinks, who kept him from making mistakes by judicious hints. + +Fang's clerk, like Mr. Jinks, interposed: + + "How do you propose to deal with the case, sir?" inquired the clerk, + in a low voice. + + Mr. Jinks pulled him by the sleeve and whispered something. He was + evidently remonstrating. At length the magistrate, gulping down with + a very bad grace his disinclination to hear anything more, said + sharply, "What do you want to say?" + +When Mr. Fang was about to commit Oliver, the Bookstall-keeper rushed in, +and insisted on being heard, and, like Mr. Nupkins, Mr. Fang had to +listen: + + "I demand to be sworn," said the man, "I will not be put down." + + "Swear the man," growled Mr. Fang, with a very ill grace. "Now, what + have you got to say?" + +Again, Mr. Nupkins said of Sam: + + "He is evidently a desperate ruffian." + + "He is my servant, sir," said Mr. Pickwick, angrily. + + "Oh, he is your servant, is he. A conspiracy to defeat the ends of + justice." + +Compare Fang and the Bookseller: + + "That book, is it paid for? No, it is not." + + "Dear me, I forgot all about it," exclaimed the old gentleman. + + "A nice person to prepare a charge against a poor boy," said Fang; + "the law will overtake you yet, &c." + +and so on. + +In short, Nupkins is a softened edition of Fang. It was curious that he +turned out at the end not altogether so badly, and there is certainly a +little inconsistency in the character. After Mr. Pickwick's disclosures, +he becomes very rational and amiable. We may wonder, too, how the latter +could have accepted hospitality from, or have sat down at the board of, +the man who treated him in so gross a fashion, and, further, that after +accepting this entertainment, Mr. Pickwick should take an heroic and +injured tone, recalling his injuries as he withdrew, but _after_ his +dinner. + +This magistrate was despotic enough, but we might have expected that he +would have had Mr. Peter Magnus brought before him also, and have issued +a warrant. The lady, however, was silent as to her admirer, and this +difficulty appears to have occurred to the author for he makes Mr. +Nupkins remark: "The other principal _you say_ has absconded," she having +said nothing whatever. Being at the "White Horse," too, he was +accessible. He may, however, have gone off to secure "a friend." + +In Ipswich there is controversy as to the exact whereabouts of his +mansion. But there can be little doubt as to the matter, as the +directions given are minute. The guide books take care to point it out. +"Bending his steps towards St. Clement's Church"--that is leaving the +"White Horse" and following the street on the right, "he found himself in +a retired spot, a kind of courtyard of venerable appearance, which he +discovered had no other outlet than the turning by which he had entered." +I believe it is the house at the far end of the lane--now Mr. Bennett's. +The street has been cut through the lawn. There are here, as there were +then, "old red brick houses" and "the green gate of a garden at the +bottom of the yard." Nothing could be more precise, allowing of course +for the changes, demolitions, re-buildings, &c., of sixty years. + +What became of Mr. Peter Magnus and his lady? Did they "make it up"? or +was Mr. Pickwick enabled to make such explanations as would clear away +all suspicions. Did the two angry gentlemen meet again after Mr. +Pickwick's return to the "White Horse?" These are interesting questions, +and one at least can be answered. Owing to an indiscretion of the +foolish Winkle's, during the famous action of Bardell v. Pickwick, we +learn that Mr. Pickwick "being found in a lady's apartment at midnight +had led to the _breaking off of the projected marriage_ of the lady in +question." Now this seems a serious result of Mr. Pickwick's +indiscretion, and very unfortunate for the poor lady, and ought to have +caused him some remorse. No doubt he explained the incident, which he +had better have done at first, for _now_ it had the air of attempting to +shield the lady. It was odd that Mr. Pickwick should thus have +interfered with the marriage of _two_ elderly spinster ladies. + +There is, by the way, a droll inconsistency on the part of the author in +his description of a scene between Mr. Magnus and Mr. Pickwick. When the +former was about to propose to the middle-aged lady, he told Mr. Pickwick +that he arranged to see her at eleven. "It only wants a quarter now." +Breakfast was waiting, and the pair sat down to it. Mr. Magnus was +looking at the clock every other second. Presently he announced, "It +only wants _two minutes_." Notwithstanding this feverish impatience, he +asks Mr. Pickwick for his advice in proposing, which the latter gave at +great length. Mr. Magnus listened, now without any impatience. The +clock hand was "verging on the five minutes past;" not until it was _ten_ +minutes past did he rise. + + + +IV.--Had Mr. Pickwick ever Loved? + + +Mr. Pickwick's early history is obscure enough, and we know no details +save that he had been "in business." But had he ever an affair of the +heart? Just as in real life, when a stray allusion will occasionally +escape from a person betraying something of his past history, so once or +twice a casual remark of Mr. Pickwick's furnishes a hint. Thus Mr. +Magnus, pressing him for his advice in this delicate matter of proposing, +asked him had he ever done this sort of thing in his time. "You mean +proposing?" said the great man. "Yes." "Never," said Mr. Pickwick, +_with great energy_, and then repeated the word "Never." His friend then +assumed that he did not know how it was best to begin. "Why," said the +other, cautiously, "I may have formed some ideas on the subject," but +then added that he had "never submitted them to the test of experience." +This is distinct enough, but it does all the same hint at some _affaire +de coeur_, else why would he "have formed some ideas upon the subject." +Of course, it may be that he was thinking of Mrs. Bardell and her cruel +charges. Still, it was strange that a man should have reached to fifty, +have grown round and stout, without ever offering his hand. The first +picture in the book, however, helps us to speculate a little. Over his +head in the room at Dulwich hangs the portrait of an old lady in +spectacles, the image of the great Samuel; his mother certainly. He +evidently regarded her with deep affection, he had brought the picture to +Dulwich and placed it where it should always be before his eyes. Could +it not be, and is it not natural that in addition to his other +amiabilities he was the best of sons--that she "ruled the roast"--that in +the old Mrs. Wardle, to whom he so filially attended, he saw his mother's +image, that she was with him to the day of her death, and that while she +lived, he resolved that no one else should be mistress there! After her +death he found himself a confirmed old bachelor. There's a speculation +for you on the German lines. + +We might go on. This self denial must have been the more meritorious as +he was by nature of an affectionate, even amorous, cast. He seized every +opportunity of kissing the young ladies. He would certainly have liked +to have had some fair being at home whom he could thus distinguish. How +good this description of the rogue-- + + "Mr. Pickwick kissed the young ladies--we were going to say as if they + were his own daughters, only, as he might possibly have infused _a + little more warmth into the salutation_, the comparison would not be + quite appropriate." + +He never lost a chance. In the same spirit, when the blushing Arabella +came to tell of her marriage, "can you forgive my imprudence?" He +returned "no verbal response"--not he--"but _took off his spectacles in +great haste_, and seizing both the young lady's hands in his, kissed her +a great many times--perhaps a greater number of times than was absolutely +necessary." Observe the artfulness of all this--the deliberation--taking +off the spectacles so that they should not be in the way--seizing her +hands--and then setting to work! Oh, he knew more of "this sort of +thing" than he had credit for. He had never proposed--true--but he had +been near it a precious sight more than he said. + +Miss Witherfield is a rather mysterious personage, yet we take an +interest in her and speculate on her history. She lived some twenty +miles from Ipswich--no doubt at a family place of her own. She had come +in to stay at the White Horse for the night and the morning. She was, no +doubt, a person of property--otherwise Mr. Magnus would not have been so +eager, and he must have been a fortune hunter, for he confided to Mr. +Pickwick, that he had been jilted "three or four times." What a quaint +notion by the way that of his: "I think an Inn is a good sort of place to +propose to a single woman in, Mr. Pickwick. She is more likely to feel +the loneliness of her situation in travelling, perhaps than she would be, +at home." + +We find here some of the always amusing bits of confusion that recur in +the book. Here might be a Calverley question, "When was it, and where +was it, that the Pickwickians had _two_ dinners in the one day?" Answer: +At the Great White Horse on this very visit. When Mr. Nupkins retired to +lunch, after his interview with Miss Witherfield, the Pickwickians sat +down to their dinner "quietly," and were in the midst of that meal, when +Grummer arrived to arrest them. They were taken to Nupkins', and there +dined with him. This dinner would have brought them to five o'clock:--we +are told of candles--so that it was dark--yet this was the month of May, +when it would been light enough till eight o'clock. Mrs. Nupkins' dress, +on coming in from lunch, is worth noting. "A blue gauze turban and a +light brown wig." + +Again, it was to Mr. Pickwick's watch, that we owe the diverting and +farcical incident of the double bedded bedroom--and indeed we have here +all the licensed improbabilities of a Farce. To forget his watch on a +hotel table was the last thing a staid man of business would do. How +could he be made to forget it? "By winding it up," said the author. +"Winding up his watch, and _laying it on the table_." This was of course +in the _Fob_ days, when the watch had to be drawn from the deep pocket; +not as now when it is secured with a "guard chain." Naturally, he might +in an abstracted moment have so laid it down. + +As an instance of the natural, every-day sort of tone prevailing through +the book, it may be noted that it is mentioned as a matter of history, +that the breakfast next day was at eleven o'clock--a late hour. But we +know, though it is not pointed out, that Mr. Magnus and Mr. Pickwick had +sat till morning drinking brandy and water, and that Mr. Pickwick had +spent a portion of the night wandering about the Hotel. Naturally he +came down late. + +We are also minutely told that Mr. Magnus left the room at ten minutes +past eleven. Mr. Pickwick "took a few strides to and fro," when it +became half past eleven! But this is a rather mysterious passage, for we +next learn that "the _small hand_ of the clock, following the _latter +part_ of his example, had arrived at the figure which indicates the half +hour." The "latter part," would refer to "fro." Perhaps it is a fresh +gibe at the unlucky White Horse and its administration. The "small +hand," in any case, could not, and would not, point to the half hour, +save that it had got loosened, and had jumped down, as hands will do, to +seek the centre of gravity. + +How natural, too, is the appearance of Jingle. With Wardles' 120 pounds +in his pocket, he was flush of cash, and could make a new appearance--in +a new district--as an officer--Captain FitzMarshall. He was "picked up," +we are told, at some neighbouring races. Sudbury and Stowmarket are not +far off. + +Some years ago, the late Lady Quain was staying at Ipswich and took so +deep an interest in the "Great White Horse" and its traditions that she +had it with all its apartments photographed on a large scale, forming a +regular series. Her husband, the amiable physician whose loss we have to +deplore, gave them to me. The "White Horse" was decidedly wrong in +having Mr. Pickwick's double-bedded room fitted up with brass Birmingham +bedsteads. Were I the proprietor I would assuredly have the room +arranged exactly as in Phiz's picture--the two old-fashioned four-posts +with the dimity curtains, the rush light and shade on the floor, the old +glass on the dressing-table. To be even more realistic still there might +be added Mr. Pickwick's night-capped head peeping out, and the lean +presentment of the lady herself, all, say, in wax, _a la Tussaud_. What +a show and attraction that would be! + +The author's ingenuity was never at fault in the face of a difficulty. +Mr. Pickwick was to be got to Nupkins' in a sedan chair, a grotesque +incident; but then, what to do with Tupman, also arrested? As both would +not fit in an ordinary sedan, the sedan was made to fit _them_, and thus +it was done. "It was recollected that there stood in the Inn yard an old +sedan chair, which, having been originally built for a gouty gentleman +with funded property, would hold Mr. Pickwick and Mr. Tupman at least as +conveniently as a modern postchaise." + +Nothing is more remarkable than the ingenious and striking fashion in +which "_Boz_" has handled the episode of the double-bedded room and the +yellow curl papers. The subject was an awkward one and required skilful +management, or it might have repelled. The problem was how to make the +situation amusing and yet not too realistic? It will be seen that all +the _appearances_ of a most embarrassing situation are produced, and yet +really neither the lady nor Mr. Pickwick have taken off their garments. +To produce this result, much elaborate machinery was requisite. The beds +were arranged as if on the stage, one on each side of the door with a +sort of little lane between the wall and each bed. Mr. Pickwick, we are +told, actually crept into this lane, got to the end where there was a +chair, and in this straight, confined situation proceeded to take off his +coat and vest and to fold them up. It was thus artfully brought about +that he appeared to have gone to bed, and could look out from the dimity +curtains without having done so. It does not strike every one that Mr. +Pickwick, under ordinary circumstances, would have taken off his "things" +before the fire just as the lady did, in the free and open space, and not +huddled up in a dark corner. However, as Mr. Weller says: "It wos to be, +and--it wos," or we should have had no story and no laugh. + +There is a pleasant story--quite akin to Mr. Pickwick's adventure--of +what befell Thackeray when travelling in America. Going up to bed, he +mistook the floor, and entered a room the very counterpart of his own. He +had begun to take off his clothes, when a soft voice came from +within--"_Is that you_, _George_?" In a panic, he bundled up his things, +like Mr. Pickwick, and hurriedly rushed out, thinking what would be the +confusion should he encounter "George" at the door. Anthony Trollope, my +old, pleasant friend and sponsor at the Garrick Club, used to relate +another of these hotel misadventures which, he protested, was the most +"side-splitting" thing ever he heard of. A gentleman who was staying at +one of the monster Paris hotels with his lady, was seized with some +violent cold or pulmonary attack. She went down to try and get him a +mustard plaster, which, with much difficulty, she contrived. Returning +in triumph, as Mr. Pickwick did with his recovered watch, she found that +he had fallen into a gentle sleep, and was lying with his head buried in +the pillows. With much softness and deftness, she quickly drew away the +coverings, and, without disturbing him, managed to insinuate the plaster +into its proper place. Having done her duty, she then proceeded to lie +down, when the sleeping man, moving uneasily, awoke and showed his face. +It was _not_ her husband! She fled from the room. The humour of the +thing--as described by Trollope--was the bewilderment of the man on +discovering the damp and burning mass that had been applied to him, and +the amazing disappearance of his visitant. What did it all mean? The +mystery probably remained unsolved to the day of his death. + +But the Great White Horse received an important cosmopolitan compliment +from across the seas--at the Chicago Exhibition--when a large and +complete model was prepared and set up in the building. This was an +elaborate as well as important tribute to the Book which it was assumed +that every one knew by heart. + + + +V.--Ipswich Theatre + + +Boz, on his travels, with his strong theatrical taste, was sure to have +gone to the little theatre in Tacket Street, now a Salvation Army meeting- +house. It is the same building, though much altered and pulled about, as +that in which David Garrick made his first appearance on the stage, as +Mr. Lyddal, about 150 years ago. I have before me now a number of +Ipswich play bills, dated in the year 1838, just after the conclusion of +"Pickwick," and which, most appropriately, seem to record little but +Boz's own work. Pickwick, Oliver, Nickleby, and others, are the Bill of +Fare, and it may be conceived that audiences would attend to see their +own Great White Horse, and the spinster lady in her curl papers, and Mr. +Nupkins, the Mayor, brought on the boards. These old strips of tissue +paper have a strange interest; they reflect the old-fashioned theatre and +audiences; and the Pickwickian names of the characters, so close after +the original appearance, have a greater reality. Here, for instance, is +a programme for Mr. Gill's benefit, on January 19, 1839, when we had "The +Pickwickians at half-price." This was "a comic drama, in three acts, +exhibiting the life and manners of the present day, entitled-- + + "PICKWICK, or the sayings and doings of Sam Weller!" + _Adapted expressly for this Theatre from the celebrated Pickwick + Papers_, + _by Boz_! + + "The present drama of Pickwick has been honoured by crowded houses, + and greeted by shouts of laughter and reiterated peals of applause + upon every representation, and has been acknowledged by the public + Press to be the only successful adaptation. + + The ILLUSTRATIONS designed and executed by popular PHIZ-ES. + + The new music by Mr. Pindar. The quadrilles under the direction of + Mr. Harrison." + +All the characters are given. + +"Mr. Pickwick," founder of the Club, and travelling the counties of Essex +and Suffolk in pursuit of knowledge. + +"Snodgrass," a leetle bit of a poet. + +"Winkle," a corresponding member also; and a something of a sportsman. + +"Job Trotter," thin plant o' ooman natur; something between a servant and +a friend to Jingle; a kind of perambulating hydraulic. + +"Joe," a fat boy, addicted to cold pudding and snoring. + +"Miss Rachel Wardle," in love with Jingle or anybody else that will have +her. + +"Emily" was appropriately represented in such a Theatre, by Miss Garrick. + +The scenes are laid at first at the Red Lion, Colchester, close by which +is Manor Farm, where a ball is given, and, of course, "the Pickwickian +Quadrilles!" are danced "as performed at the Nobility's Balls." (I have +these quadrilles, with Mr. Pickwick, on the title.) Then comes the White +Hart, and "How they make sausages!" displayed in large type. The scene +is then shifted to the Angel, at Bury, and the double-bedded room with +its "horrible dilemma," and + +"SCENE OF NIGHT CAPS!" + +It will be noticed that there is nothing of the Great White Horse in the +very town. The reason was that the proprietor was disgusted by the +unflattering account given of his Inn and must have objected. It winds +up with the Fleet scenes, where Mr. Weller, senr., + +"ARRESTS HIS OWN OFFSPRING." + +That this notion of the Great White Horse being sulky and hostile is the +true one is patent from another bill, December 10, 1843, some four years +later, when the proprietor allowed his Inn to be introduced. The piece +was called-- + +"BOOTS AT THE WHITE HORSE." + +"Now acting in London with extraordinary success." This was, of course, +our old friend "Boots at the Swan," which Frank Robson, later, made his +own. As Boz had nothing to do with it, there could be no objection. +Barnaby Rudge, however, was the piece of resistance. On another +occasion, January, 1840, came Mr. J. Russell, with his vocal +entertainment, "Russell's Recollections" and "A Portrait from the +Pickwick Gallery." "Have you seen him? Alphabetical Distinctions. A +sample of MISTER SAM WELLER'S Descriptive Powers." + +Some adaptation or other of Dickens seems to have been always the +standing dish. The old Ipswich Theatre is certainly an interesting one, +and Garrick and Boz are names to conjure with. + + + +VI.--Who was Pott? + + +There have been abundant speculations as to the originals of the +Pickwickian characters--some Utopian enough, but I do not think that any +have been offered in the case of Mr. Pott, the redoubtable editor of the +_Eatanswill Gazette_. I am inclined to believe that the notorious and +brilliant Dr. Maginn was intended. He and Pott were both distinguished +for their "slogging" or bludgeoning articles, and both were High Tories, +or "Blue," as Mr. Pott had it. But what is most significant is that in +the very year Pickwick was coming out, to wit, 1836, Maginn had attracted +general attention and reprobation by the scandal of his duel with +Grantley Berkely, arising out of a most scurrilous review of the latter's +novel. To this meeting he had been brought with some difficulty--just as +Pott--the "Pot-valiant," declined to "serve him so," _i.e._, Slurk; being +restrained by the laws of his country. He was an assistant editor to the +"Standard," and had furnished scurrilites to the "John Bull." He had +about this time also obtained an influence over the interesting "L. E. +L.," whom John Forster, it is known, was "courting," and by some rumours +and machinations succeeded in breaking off the business. Now Forster and +Boz, at the time, were bosom friends--Forster could be unsparing enough +where he was injured: and how natural that his new friend should share +his enmities. Boz was always glad to gibbet a notorious public abuse, +and here was an opportunity. Maginn's friend, Kenealey, wrote to an +American, who was about to edit Maginn's writings, "You have a glorious +opportunity, where you have no fear of libel before your eyes. _Maginn's +best things can never be published till his victims have passed from the +scene_." How significant is this! Then Pott's "combining his +information," his "cramming" critic, his using the lore of the +Encyclopedia Britannica for his articles suggest Maginn's classical +lucubrations. A well-known eminent _Litterateur_, to whom I suggested +this view, objected that Pott is not shown to be such a blackguard as +Maginn, and that Maginn was not such an ass as Pott. But Boz generalised +his borrowed originals. Skimpole was taken from Leigh Hunt, yet was +represented as a sort of scoundrel; and Boz confessed that he only +adapted his lighter manner and airy characteristics. + +In these latter days, people have been somewhat astonished by the strange +"freak" of our leading journal in so persistently offering and pressing +on the public their venture of a new edition of the Encyclopedia. Every +ingenious variation of bold advertisement is used to tempt the +purchaser--a sovereign down and time for the rest; actual pictures of the +whole series of volumes; impassioned arguments, pleadings, and an appeal +to take it at the most wonderfully low price. Then we have desirable +information, dealing with topics of varied kind, and assurances that +material would here be found for dealing conveniently with every known +subject. Still, what a surprise that use was not made of "the immortal +Pickwick" in whose pages these peculiar advantages were more successfully +and permanently set forth and illustrated by one most telling example +furnished by no other than Mr. Pott himself, the redoubtable editor of +the _Eatanswill Gazette_. To him and to no other is due the credit of +being the first to show practically _how to use_ the Encyclopedia. He +has furnished a _principle_ which is worth all the lengthy exhortations +of the _Times_ itself. + +Pott seems to have kept the work in his office, and to have used it for +his articles in a highly ingenious fashion. For three months had he been +supplying a series of papers, which he assures us "appeared at +intervals," and which excited "such general--I may say, such universal +attention and admiration." A fine tribute surely to the Encyclopedia. +For recollect Pott's was a newspaper. The _Times_ folk say nothing of +this important view. Poor, simple Mr. Pickwick had not seen the articles +because he was busy travelling about and had no time for reading. +(Probably Pott would have put him on the "free list" of his paper, but +for the awkward Winkle flirtation which broke up the intimacy). Nay, he +might have had "the revolving book case," which would handily contain +_all_ the volumes. + +And what were these articles? "They appeared in the form of a +_copious_"--mark the word!--"review of a work on Chinese Metaphysics." It +had need to be copious therefor, for it is a very large subject. Mr. +Pickwick himself must have been very familiar with the Encyclopedia, for +he at once objected that he was not aware that so abstruse a topic was +dealt with in its pages. He had perhaps consulted the book, say, at +Garraway's Coffee House, for, alas! the good man was not able to have a +library of his own, living, as he did, in lodgings or at the "George and +Vulture." Mr. Pott, however, who also knew the work well, had then to +confess that there was no such subject treated separately in it. But the +articles were from the pen of his critic (not from his own), "who +_crammed_ for it, to use a technical but expressive term; he read up for +the subject, at my desire, in the Encyclopedia." + +Now, as the subject was _not_ treated in the work, how could this +"cramming" help him? Here comes in the system, so unaccountably +overlooked by the _Times_, _i.e._, the Combination Method. "He read, +sir," rejoined Pott, laying his hand on Mr. Pickwick's knee and looking +round with a smile of intellectual superiority, "he read for metaphysics +under the letter _M_, and for China under the letter _C_, and _combined +his information_, _sir_." There we have it! We find separate articles +_De omni scribili_, and many topics unavoidably passed over; but we see +how this can be cured by the ingenious Pott system. Combine your +information! There you are! Here for instance--under "Metaphysics" we +do find something about' Confucius and the other Pundits; we then turn to +China and get local colour, Chinese writers. &c., and then proceed "to +combine our information." And so with hundreds of other instances and +other topics. Pott, therefore, has been overlooked by the managers of +the _Times_, but it is not yet too late for them to call attention to his +system. It is of interest to all at Eatanswill. + +Pott was in advance of his time. His paper was not wholly the sort of +scurrilous organ it has been shown to be. To weight its columns with +"Chinese Metaphysics," was a bold, reforming step--then the going on for +three months, _i.e._, _twelve_ articles--and all read with avidity. And +what are we to think of the Eatanswill readers--surely in advance, too. +And here we have him, nearly seventy years ago, giving a well-deserved +puff to the Encyclopedia, which is really worth the innumerable columns +the leading journal has devoted to the book. Its last effort was to show +an ingenious connection between the British Association and the +Encyclopedia, on the ground of its various Presidents. "It stimulates, +in fact creates, the necessity for a good working Library of Science. It +is here that the Encyclopedia comes in as of especial service." + + + + +CHAPTER II. BATH + + +I.--The Old City + + +Bath, which already owed so much to famous writers, was destined to owe +even more to Boz, the genial author of "Pickwick"--a book which has so +much increased the gaiety of the nation. The scenes at the old city are +more minute and vivid than any yet offered. But, if it owe much to Boz, +it repaid him by furnishing him with a name for his book which has gone +over the world. Everything about this name will be interesting; and it +is not generally known when and how Boz obtained it. + +There is a small hamlet some few miles from Bath and 97 from London--which +is 106 miles away from Bath--bearing the name of "Pickwick." The Bath +coach, by the way, started from the White Horse Cellars, Piccadilly, at +half-past seven in the morning, and took just twelve hours for the +journey. Now it is made by the Great Western in two! Here, many years +ago, at the time of the story, was "Pickwick House, the seat of C. N. +Loscombe, Esq.," and also "Pickwick Lodge," where dwelt Captain Fenton. +Boz had never seen or heard of such places, but all the same they +indirectly furnished him with the name. A mail-coach guard found an +infant on the road in this place, and gave it the name of "Pickwick." The +word "Pickwick" contains the common terminal "wick," as in "Warwick," and +which means a village or hamlet of some kind. Pickwick, however, has +long since disappeared from the face of the map. Probably, after the +year 1837, folk did not relish dating their letters from a spot of such +humorous memories. + +This Moses Pickwick was taken into the service of the coaching hotel, the +White Hart, gradually devoted himself to the horse and coaching business, +and, at the time of Boz's or Mr. Pickwick's visit, was the actual +proprietor of the coaches on the road. "The name," said Sam, "is not +only down on the vay-bill, sir, but they've painted vun on 'em on the +door of the coach." As Sam spoke he pointed to that part of the door on +which the proprietor's name usually appears, and there, sure enough, in +gilt letters of a goodly size, was the magic name of PICKWICK. "Dear +me," said Mr. Pickwick, quite staggered by the coincidence, "what a very +extraordinary thing!" "Yes; but that ain't all," said Sam, again +directing his master's attention to the coach-door. "Not content with +writin' up 'Pickwick,' they put 'Moses' afore it, which I calls adding +insult to injury." "It's odd enough, certainly," said Mr. Pickwick. When +he was casting about for a good name for his venture, it recurred to him +as having a quaint oddity and uncanniness. And thus it is that we owe to +Bath, and to Bath only, this celebrated name. It is said that he rushed +into the publisher's office, exultingly proclaiming his selection. + +Few cities have had their society and manners sketched by such eminent +pens as Bath--Smollett, Miss Burney, Miss Austen, and Boz. The old walls +and houses are thus made to live. Boz has given one of the most vivid +and vivacious pictures of its expiring glories in the thirties, when +there were still "M.C.s," routs, assemblies, and sedans. His own +connection with the place is a personal, and a very interesting one. He +was there in 1835 on election business hurrying after Lord John Russell, +all over the country, to report his speeches--a young fellow of three and +twenty, full of "dash," "go," and readiness of resource, of immense +energy and carelessness of fatigue, ready to go anywhere and do anything. +While thus engaged on serious business, he kept his eyes wide open, took +in all the humours of Bath, and noted them in his memory, though he made +no use of this till more than two years later, when he was well on into +"Pickwick." + +The entering an old city by night always leaves a curious romantic +impression, and few old cities gain so much as Bath by this mode of +approach. The shadowy houses have a monumental air; the fine streets +which we mostly ascend show a mystery, especially as we flit by the open +square, under the great, black Abbey, which seems a beetling rock. This +old Bath mysteriousness seems haunted by the ghosts of Burney, Johnson, +Goldsmith, Wilkes, Quin, Thrale, Mr. Pickwick, and dozens more. Fashion +and gentilily hover round its stately homes. Nothing rouses such ideas +of state and dignity as the Palladian Circus. There is a tone of +mournful grandeur about it--something forlorn. Had it, in some freak of +fashion, been abandoned, and suffered, for a time at least, to go to +neglect and be somewhat overgrown with moss and foliage, it would pass +for some grand Roman ruin. There is a solemn, greyish gloom about it; +the grass in the enclosure is rank, long, and very green. Pulteney +Street, too: what a state and nobility there is about it! So wide and so +spacious; the houses with an air of grand solidity, with no carvings or +frittering work, but relying on their fine lines and proportion. To +lodge there is an education, and the impression remains with one as of a +sense of personal dignity from dwelling in such large and lofty chambers, +grandly laid out with noble stairs and the like. The builders in this +fine city would seem to have been born architects; nearly all the houses +have claims to distinction: each an expression and feeling of its own. +The fine blackened or browned tint adds to the effect. The mouldings are +full of reserve and chastened, suited exactly to the material. There is +something, too, very stately about the octagon Laura Place, which opens +on to Pulteney Street. + +In this point of view Bath is a more interesting city than Edinburgh. Mr. +Peach has written two most interesting little quartos on the "Historic +Houses of Bath;" and Mr. T. Sturge Cotterell has prepared a singularly +interesting map of Bath, in which all the spots honoured by the residence +of famous visitors are marked down. It is very extraordinary the number +and distinction of these personages. + +I don't know anything more strange and agreeable than the feeling of +promenading the Parades, North and South--a feeling compounded of awe, +reverence, and exciting interest. The tranquil repose and dignity of +these low, solid houses, the broad flagged Promenade, the unmistakable +air of old fashion, the sort of reality and self-persuasion that they +might in a moment be re-peopled with all these eminent persons--much as +Boz called up the ghosts of the old mail-coach passengers in his telling +ghost story--the sombre grey of the walls, the brightness of the windows: +these elements join to leave an extraordinary impression. The houses on +these Parades are charming from their solid proportions, adapted, as it +were, to the breadth of the Parade. Execrable, by the way, are the +modern attempts seen side by side; feeble and incapable, not attempting +any expression at all. There is a row of meagre tenements beside the +Abbey--attempts at pinnacled gables--which it is a sorrowful thing to +look on, so cheap and starved is it. Even the newer shops, in places +like Milsom Street, with nothing to do but to copy what is before them, +show the same _platitude_. Here and there you are constantly coming upon +one of these beautifully designed old mansions piteously disguised, cut +up in two or three it may be, or the lower portion fashioned into a shop. + + + +II.--The Pump Room and Assembly Rooms + + +No group of architectural objects is more effective or touches one more +nearly than the buildings gathered about the Baths. There is something +quaint and old-fashioned in the arrangement, and I am never tired of +coming back to the pretty, open colonnade, the faded yet dignified Pump- +room, with the ambitious hotel and the solemn Abbey rising solemnly +behind. Then there is the delightful Promenade opposite, under the +arcades--a genuine bit of old fashion--under whose shadow the capricious +Fanny Burney had often strolled. Everything about this latter +conglomeration--the shape of the ground, the knowledge that the +marvellous Roman baths are below, and even the older portion of the +municipal buildings whose elegant decorations, sculptured garlands, &c., +bespeak the influence of the graceful Adam, whose pupil or imitator Mr. +Baldwin may have been. + +Boz's description of the tarnished Pump-room answers to what is seen now, +save as to the tone of the decorations. I say "Boz's," for Pickwick, it +should be recollected, was not actually acknowledged by the author, under +his proper name. It was thought that the well-known and popular "Boz" of +the "Sketches" would attract far more than the obscure C. Dickens. Now +Boz and the Sketches have receded and are little thought of. Boz and +Pickwick go far better together than do Pickwick and Dickens. There is +an old-fashioned solemnity over this Pump-room which speaks of the old +classical taste over a hundred years ago. How quaint and suitable the +inscription, "[Greek text]," in faded gilt characters. Within it is one +stately chamber, not altered a bit since the day, sixty-three years ago, +that Boz strolled in and wrote this inscription: As I sat with a friend +beside me in the newly finished concert-room, which is in _happy_ +keeping, I called up the old genial Pickwick promenading about under the +direction of Bantam, M.C., and the genial tone of the old gaiety and good +spirits. + +The "Tompion Clock," which is carefully noted by Boz, seems to have been +always regarded as a sort of monument. It is like an overgrown eight-day +clock, without any adornment and plain to a degree--no doubt relying upon +its Tompion works. It is in exactly the same place as it was over sixty +years ago, and goes with the old regularity. Nay, for that matter, it +stands where it did a hundred years ago--in the old recess by Nash's +statue and inscription, and was no doubt ordered at the opening of the +rooms. In an old account of Bath, at the opening of the century, +attention is called to the Tompion clock with a sort of pride. The steep +and shadowy Gay Street, which leads up to the inviting Crescent and the +more sombre Queen's Square, affects one curiously. Then we come to the +old Assembly Rooms close by the Circus, between Alfred Street and Bennell +Street--a stately, dignified pile--in the good old classical style of +Bath. One looks on it with a mysterious reverence: it seems charged with +all sorts of memories of old, bygone state. For here all the rank and +fashion of Bath used to make its way of Assembly nights. Many years ago, +there was here given a morning concert to which I found my way, mainly +for the purpose of calling up ghostly memories of the Thrales, and Doctor +Johnson, and Miss Burney, and, above all, of Mr. Pickwick. Though the +music was the immortal "Passion" of Bach, my eyes were travelling all the +while from one piece of faded _rococo_ work and decoration. Boz never +fails to secure the _tone_ of any strange place he is describing. We +all, for instance, have that pleased, elated feeling on the first morning +after our arrival over night at a new place--the general brightness, +surprise, and air of novelty. We are willing to be pleased with +everything, and pass from object to object with enjoyment. Now all this +is difficult to seize or to describe. Boz does not do the latter, but he +conveys it perfectly. We see the new arrivals seated at breakfast, and +the entrance of the Dowlers with the M.C., and the party setting off to +see the "Lions," the securing tickets for the Assembly, the writing down +their names in "the book," Sam sent specially up to Queen's Square, and +so on. All which is very exhilarating, and reveals one's own feeling on +such an occasion. The "Pump-room books" are formally mentioned in the +regulations. We can see the interior of the Assembly Rooms in Phiz's +plate, with its huge and elaborately framed oval mirrors and +chandeliers--the dancing-room set round with raised benches. After the +pattern of Ridotto rooms abroad, there were the card-rooms and tea-rooms, +where Mr. Pickwick played whist with Miss Bolo. We note the sort of Adam +or Chippendale chair on which the whist Dowager is sitting with her back +to us. + +Considering that the rules of dress were so strict, pumps and silk +stockings being of necessity, we may wonder how it was that the President +of the Pickwick Club was admitted in his morning dress, his kerseymere +tights, white waistcoat, and black gaiters. It is clear that he never +changed his dress for evening parties, save on one occasion. Mr. +Pickwick's costume was certainly in defiance of all rules and +regulations. It is _laid_ in the regulations of Mr. Tyson, M.C., who +directed that "no gentleman in boots or half-boots be admitted into the +rooms on ball nights or card nights." Half-boots might certainly cover +Mr. Pickwick's gaiters. So accurate is the picture that speculation +arises whether Phiz went specially to Bath to make his sketches; for he +has caught in the most perfect way the whole _tone_ of a Bath Assembly, +and he could not have obtained this from descriptions by others. So, +too, with this picture of the Circus in Mr. Winkle's _escapade_. It will +be remembered that Boz was rather particular about this picture, and +suggested some minute alterations. Bantam, the M.C., or "the Grand +Master" as Boz oddly calls him, was drawn from life from an eccentric +functionary named Jervoise. I have never been quite able to understand +his odd hypothesis about Mr. Pickwick being "the gentleman who had the +waters bottled and sent to Clapham." But how characteristic the dialogue +on the occasion! It will be seen that this M.C. cannot credit the notion +of anyone of such importance as Mr. Pickwick "never having been in _Ba- +ath_." His ludicrous and absurd, "Not bad--not bad! Good--good. He, +he, re-markable!" showed how it struck him. A man of such a position, +too; it was incredible. With a delightful sense of this theory, he +began: "It is long--_very long_, Mr. Pickwick, _since you drank the +waters_--it appears an age." Mr. Pickwick protested that it was +certainly long since he had drunk the waters, and his proof was that he +had never been in Bath in his life. After a moment's reflection the M.C. +saw the solution. "Oh, I see; yes, yes; good, good; better and better. +You are the gentleman residing on Clapham Green who lost the use of your +limbs from imprudently taking cold _after port wine_, who could not be +moved in consequence of acute suffering, and who had the water from the +King's Bath bottled at 103 degrees and sent by waggon to his bed-room in +town, where he bathed, sneezed, and same day recovered." This amusing +concatenation is, besides, an admirable and very minute stroke of +character, and the frivolous M.C. is brought before us perfectly. While +a capital touch is that when he saw young Mr. Mutanhead approaching. +"Hush! draw a little nearer, Mr. Pickwick. You see that splendidly +dressed young man coming this way--the richest young man in Bath!" + +"You don't say so," said Mr. Pickwick. + +"_Yes_, _you'll hear his voice in a moment_, _Mr. Pickwick_. _He'll +speak to me_." _Particular_ awe and reverence could not be better +expressed. + +It is curious how accurate the young fellow was in all his details. He +describes the ball as beginning at "precisely twenty minutes before eight +o'clock;" and according to the old rules it had to begin as soon after +seven as possible. "Stay in the tea room and take your sixpennorths." +Mr. Dowler's advice was after a regulation "that everyone admitted to the +tea-rooms on dress nights shall pay _6d._ for tea." The M.C.'s visit to +Mr. Pickwick was a real carrying out of the spirit of the regulations, in +which it was requested that "all strangers will give the M.C. an +opportunity of being introduced to them before they themselves are +entitled to that attention and respect." + +Nothing is more gratifying to the genuine Pickwickians than to find how +all these old memories of the book are fondly cherished in the good city. +All the Pickwickian localities are identified, and the inhabitants are +eager in every way to maintain that Mr. Pickwick belongs to them, and had +been with them. We should have had his room in the White Hart pointed +out, and "slept in" by Americans and others, had it still been left to +stand. Not long since, the writer went down to the good old city for the +pleasant duty of "preaching Pickwick," as he had done in a good many +places. There is an antique building or temple not far from where an old +society of the place--the Bath Literary and Scientific Institute--holds +its meetings, and here, to a crowded gathering under the presidency of +Mr. Austen King, the subject was gone into. It was delightful for the +Pickwickian stranger to meet so appreciative a response, and many curious +details were mentioned. At the close--such is the force of the +delusion--we were all discussing Mr. Pickwick and his movements here and +there, with the same _conviction_ as we would have had in the case of +Miss Burney, or Mrs. Thrale or Dr. Johnson. The whole atmosphere was +congenial, and there was an old-world, old-fashioned air over the rooms. +It was delightful to be talking of Mr. Pickwick's Bath adventures in +Bath. + +Nor was there anything unreasonably fantastical in making such +speculations all but realities. Bantam lived, as we know, in St. James's +Square--that very effective enclosure, with its solemn house and rich +deep greenery, that recall our own Fitzroy. No. 14 was his house, and +this, it was ascertained, was the actual residence of the living M.C. How +bold, therefore, of Boz to send up Sam to the very Square! Everyone, +too, knew Mrs. Craddock's house in the Circus--at least it was one of +two. It was No. 15 or 16, because at the time there were only a couple +in the middle which were let in lodgings, the rest being private houses. +This was fairly reasonable. But how accurate was Boz! No doubt he had +some friends who were quartered in lodgings there. + +I scarcely hoped to find the scene of the footmen's "swarry" tracked out, +but so it was. On leaving Queen Square in company with Mr. Smauker to +repair to the scene of the festivity, Sam and his friend set off walking +"towards High Street," then "turned down a bye-street," and would "soon +be there." This bye-street was one turning out of Queen Square at the +corner next Bantam's house; and a few doors down we find a rather shabby- +looking "public" with a swinging sign, on which is inscribed "The +Beaufort Arms"--a two-storied, three-windowed house. This, in the book, +is called a "greengrocer's shop," and is firmly believed to be the scene +of "the Swarry" on the substantial ground that the Bath footmen used to +assemble here regularly as at their club. The change from a public to a +greengrocer's scarcely affects the point. The uniforms of these +gentlemen's gentlemen were really splendid, as we learn from the +text--rich plushes, velvets, gold lace, canes, &c. There is no +exaggeration in this, for natives of Bath have assured me they can recall +similar displays at the fashionable church--of Sundays--when these noble +creatures, arrayed gorgeously as "generals," were ranged in lines outside +"waiting their missuses," _pace_ Mr. John Smauker. At the greengrocer's, +where the Bath footmen had their "swarry," the favourite drink was "cold +srub and water," or "gin and water sweet;" also "S'rub punch," a West +Indian, drink, has now altogether disappeared. It sounds strange to +learn that a fashionable footman should consult "a copper timepiece which +dwelt at the bottom of a deep watch-pocket, and was raised to the surface +by means of a black string with a copper key." A _copper_ watch seems +extraordinary, though we have now those of gun metal. + +The Royal Crescent, with its fine air and fine view, always strikes one +with admiration as a unique and original monument: the size and +proportions are so truly grand. The whole scene of Mr. Winkle's escapade +here is extraordinarily vivid, and so protracted, while Mrs. Dowler was +waiting in her sedan for the door to be opened, that it has the effect of +imprinting the very air, look, and tone of the Royal Cresent on us. We +seem to be waiting with her and the chair-man. It seems the most +_natural_ thing in the world. The houses correspond almost exactly with +Phiz's drawing. + +Pickwick, it has been often pointed out, is full of amusing "oversights," +which are pardonable enough, and almost add to the "fun" of the piece. At +the opening, Mr. Pickwick is described as carrying his portmanteau--in +the picture it is a carpet-bag. The story opens in 1827, but at once Mr. +Jingle begins to talk of being present at the late Revolution of 1830. +The "George and Vulture" is placed in two different streets. Old Weller +is called Samuel. During the scene at the Royal Crescent we are told +that Mrs. Craddock threw up the drawing-room window "just as Mr. Winkle +was rushing into the chair." She ran and called Mr. Dowler, who rushed +in just as Mr. Pickwick threw up the other window, "when the first object +that met the gaze of both was Mr. Winkle bolting into the sedan chair" +into which he had bolted a minute before. The late Charles Dickens the +younger, in the notes to his father's writings, affects to have +discovered an oversight in the account of the scene in the Circus. It is +described how he "took to his heels and tore _round_ the Crescent, hotly +pursued by Dowler and the coachman. He kept ahead; the door was open as +he came _round_ the second time, &c." Now, objects the son, the Cresent +is only a half circle; there is no going round it, you must turn back +when you come to the end. Boz must have been thinking of the Circus. +Hardly--for he knew both well--and Circus and Crescent are things not to +be confused. The phrase was a little loose, but, as the Circus was +curved "round," is not inappropriate, and he meant that Winkle turned +when he got to the end, and ran back. + +It must have been an awkward thing for Winkle to present himself once +more at Mrs. Craddock's in the Crescent. How was the incident to be +explained save either at his own expense or at that of Mr. Dowler? If +Dowler were supposed to have gone in pursuit of him, then Mr. Winkle must +have fled, and if he were supposed to have gone to seek a friend, then +Dowler was rather compromised. No doubt both gentlemen agreed to support +the one story that they had gone away for mutual satisfaction, and had +made it up. + +Then, we are told, if it were theatre night perhaps the visitors met at +the theatre. Did Mr. Pickwick ever go? This is an open question. Is +the chronicler here a little obscure, as he is speaking of "the +gentlemen" _en bloc_? Perhaps he did, perhaps he did'nt, as Boz might +say. On his visit to Rochester, it does not appear that he went to see +his "picked-up" friend, Jingle, perform. The Bath Theatre is in the Saw +Close, next door to Beau Nash's picturesque old house. The old grey +front, with its blackened mouldings and sunk windows, is still there; but +a deep vestibule, or entrance, with offices has been built out in front, +which, as it were, thrusts the old wall back--an uncongenial mixture. +Within, the house has been reconstructed, as it is called, so that Mr. +Palmer or Dimond, or any of the old Bath lights, to say nothing of Mr. +and Mrs. Siddons, would not recognise it. Attending it one night, I +could not but recall the old Bath stories, when this modest little house +supplied the London houses regularly with the best talent, and "From the +Theatre Royal, Bath," was an inducement set forth on the bill. + + + +III.--Boz and Bath + + +After his brilliant, genial view of the old watering-place, it is a +surprise to find Boz speaking of it with a certain acerbity and even +disgust. Over thirty years later, in 1869, he was there, and wrote to +Forster: "The place looks to me like a cemetery which the dead have +succeeded in rising and taking. Having built streets of their old +gravestones, they wander about scantly, trying to look alive--a dead +failure." And yet, what ghostly recollections must have come back on him +as he walked those streets, or as he passed by into Walcot, the Saracen's +Head, where he had put up in those old days, full of brightness, ardour, +and enthusiasm; but not yet the famous Boz! Bath folk set down this +jaundiced view of their town to a sort of pique at the comparative +failure of the Guild dramatic performance at the Old Assembly Rooms, +where, owing to the faulty arrangement of the stage, hardly a word could +be heard, to the dissatisfaction of the audience. The stage, it seems, +was put too far behind the proscenium, "owing to the headstrong +perversity of Dickens, who never forgave the Bath people." Charles +Knight, it was said, remonstrated, but in vain. Boz, however, was not a +man to indulge in such feelings. In "Bleak House" he calls it "dreary." + +There had been, however, a previous visit to Bath, in company with +Maclise and Forster, to see Landor, who was then living at No. 35 St. +James's Square--a house become memorable because it was there that the +image of his "Little Nell" first suggested itself. The enthusiastic +Landor used, in his "tumultuous" fashion, to proclaim that he would set +fire to the house and burn it to the ground to prevent its being profaned +by less sacred associations. He had done things even more extravagant +than this, and would take boisterous roars of laughter as his odd +compliment was discussed. + +The minuteness of his record of the gaieties shows how amused and +interested Boz was in all that he saw. Nothing escaped him of the +routine, day, hour, and place; all is given, even the different rooms at +the Assembly House. "In the ball-room, the long card-room, the octagon +card-room, the staircases, the passages, the hum of many voices and the +sound of many feet were perfectly bewildering; dresses rustled, feathers +waved, lights shone, and jewels sparkled. There was the music, not of +the quadrille band, for it had not yet commenced," &c. Here Bantam, +M.C., arrived at precisely twenty minutes before eight, "to receive the +company." And such company! "Brilliant eyes, lighted up with +pleasurable expectation, gleamed from every side, and, look where you +would, some exquisite form glided gracefully through the throng, and was +no sooner lost than it was replaced by another as dainty and bewitching"; +the warmth of which description showing how delighted was the young man +with all he saw. But how did he secure admission? For it was a highly +fashionable company; there were vouchers and tickets to be secured. But +these were slight difficulties for our brilliant "pushful" young man. He +could make his way, and his mission found him interest. He certainly saw +as much of Bath as anyone could in the time. Yet, gay and sprightly as +was his account of Bath, there may have been a reason why Boz may have +not recalled the place with pleasurable feelings. It will be recollected +that, after giving a few lines to the account of Mr. Pickwick and friends +being set down at the White Hart, he carries them off at once to lodgings +in the Crescent. That first-class hotel was, alas! not open to the poor, +over-worked reporter; and he could tell of nothing that went on within +its portals. Hotel life on a handsome scale was not for _him_, and he +was obliged to put up at far humbler quarters, a sort of common inn. + +There is nothing more quaint or interesting than this genuine antique--the +Saracen's Head in Walcot. It may pair off with the old White Horse in +Canongate, where "Great Sam" put up for a night. It is surely the most +effective of all the old inns one could see. It has two faces, and looks +into two different streets, with its double gables, and date (1713) +inscribed on a tablet outside. It is a yellow, well-worn little +building. And you enter through darkened tunnels, as it were, cut +through the house, coming into a strange yard of evident antiquity, with +a steep, ladder-like flight of stone steps that leads up to a window much +like the old Canongate houses. Here, then, it was that Boz put up, and +here are preserved traditions and relics of his stay. One of the tales +is that, after some exuberant night _in the election time_, he would get +his candle and, having to cross the court, would have it blown out half a +dozen times, when he would go back patiently to relight it. They show +his chair, and a jug out of which he drank, but one has not much faith in +these chairs and jugs; they always seem to be supplied to demand, and +must be found to gratify the pilgrims. + +One of the examination queries which might have found a place in Mr. +Calverley's paper of questions is this: "When did Mr. Pickwick sit down +_to make entries in his journal_, and spend half an hour in so doing?" At +Bath on the night of Mr. Winkle's race round the Crescent. What was this +journal? Or why did he keep it? Or why are so few allusions made to it? +Mr. Snodgrass was the appointed historiographer of the party, and his +"notes" are often spoken of and appealed to as the basis of the +chronicle. But half an hour, as I say, was the time the great man seems +to have allotted to his posting up the day's register: "Mr. Pickwick shut +up the book, wiped his pen _on the bottom of the inside of his +coat-tail_, and opened the drawer of the inkstand to put it carefully +away." How particular--how real all this is! This it is that gives the +_living_ force to the book, and a persuasion--irresistible almost--that +it is all about _some living person_. I have often wondered how it is +that this book of Boz's has such an astounding power of development, such +a fertility in engendering other books, and what is the secret of it. +Scott's astonishing Waverley series, Thackeray's "Vanity Fair," Boz's own +"Nicholas Nickleby," "Oliver Twist," in fact, not one of the whole series +save "the immortal 'Pickwick'" has produced anything in the way of books +or commentaries. I believe it is really owing to this. Boz was a great +admirer of Boswell's equally immortal book. I have heard him speak of +it. He attempted parodies of it even. He knew all the turns, the +Johnsonian twists, "Why, sirs," &c., and used them in his letters. He +was permeated with the Johnsonian ether; that detail, that description of +trifling things which was in Boswell, attracted him, and he felt it; and +the fact remains that Pickwick is written on _the principles_--no copy--of +the great biography, and that Boz applied to a mere fictional story what +was related in the account of a living man. And it is really curious +that Boswell's "Life of Johnson" should be the only other book that +tempts people to the same rage for commentary, illustrations, and +speculations. These are of exactly the same character in both books. + +The MS. that Mr. Pickwick so oddly found in the drawer of his inkstand at +Mrs. Craddock's, Royal Crescent, Bath, offered another instance of Boz's +ingenious methods of introducing episodical tales into his narrative. He +was often hard put to it to find an occasion: they were highly useful to +fill a space when he was pressed for matter. He had the strongest +_penchant_ for this sort of thing, and it clung to him through his life. +Those in "Pickwick" are exceedingly good, full of spirit and "go," save +one, the "Martha Lobbs" story, which is a poorish thing. So good are the +others, they have been taken out and published separately. They were no +doubt written for magazines, and were lying by him, but his Bath +story--"The True Legend of Prince Bladud"--was written specially. It is +quite in the vein of Elia's Roast Pig story, and very gaily told. He had +probably been reading some local guide-book, with the mythical account of +Prince Bladud, and this suggested to him his own humorous version. At +the close, he sets Mr. Pickwick a-yawning several times, who, when he had +arrived at the end of this little manuscript--which certainly could not +have been compressed into "a couple of sheets of writing-paper," but +would have covered at least ten pages--replaced it in the drawer, and +"then, with a _countenance of the utmost weariness_, lighted his chamber +candle and went upstairs to bed." And here, by the way, is one of the +amusing oversights which give such a piquancy to "Pickwick." Before he +began to read his paper, we are carefully told that Mr. Pickwick +"unfolded it, lighted his bedroom candle that it might burn up to the +time he had finished." It was Mr. C. Kent who pointed this out to him, +when Boz seized the volume and humorously made as though he would hurl it +at his friend. + +Anyone interested in Bath must of necessity be interested in Bristol, to +which, as all know, Mr. Winkle fled after the unhappy business in the +Circus. He found a coach at the Royal Hotel--which no longer exists--a +vehicle which, we are told, went the whole distance "twice a day and +more" with a single pair of horses. There he put up at the Bush, where +Mr. Pickwick was to follow him presently. The Bush--a genuine Pickwick +inn--where Mr. Pickwick first heard the news of the action that was to be +brought against him, stood in Corn Street, near to the Guildhall, the +most busy street in Bristol; but it was taken down in 1864, and the +present Wiltshire Bank erected on the site. Mr. Pickwick broke off his +stay at Bath somewhat too abruptly; he left it and all its festivities on +this sudden chase after Winkle. But he may have had a reason. Nothing +is more wonderful than Boz's propriety in dealing with his incidents, a +propriety that is really instinctive. Everything falls out in the +correct, natural way. For instance, Mr. Pickwick having received such a +shock at the Bush--the announcement of the Bardell action--was scarcely +in heart to resume his jollity and gaieties at Bath. We might naturally +expect a resumption of the frolics there. He accordingly returned there; +but we are told curtly, "The remainder of the period which Mr. Pickwick +had assigned as the duration of his stay at Bath passed over without an +occurrence of anything material. Trinity term commenced on the +expiration of the first week. Mr. Pickwick and his friends returned to +London; and the former gentleman, attended of course by Sam, straightway +repaired to his old quarters at the George and Vulture." + +And now in these simple sentences have we not the secret of the great +attraction of the book? Who would not suppose that this was a passage +from a biography of some one that had lived? How carefully _minute_ and +yet how naturally the time is accounted for--"passed over without the +occurrence of anything material." It is impossible to resist this air of +_vraisemblance_. + + + + +CHAPTER III. OLD ROCHESTER + + +I.--Jingle and the Theatre + + +The little Theatre here must be interesting to us from the fact of +Jingle's having been engaged to play there with the officers of the 52nd +Regiment on the night of May 15th, 1827. Jingle was described as "a +strolling actor," and belonged to the "Kent circuit," that is, to the +towns of Canterbury, Rochester, Maidstone, &c. To this circuit also +belonged "Dismal Jemmy," who was "no actor," yet did the "heavy +business." It does not appear that he, also, was engaged for the +officers' performance. We often wonder whether Jingle _did_ perform on +the night in question; or did Dr. Payne and Lieutenant Tappleton tell the +story of his behaviour to their brethren: of his passing himself off as a +gentleman, his wearing another gentleman's clothes, and his insults to +Dr. Slammer. Tappleton scornfully recommended Mr. Pickwick to be more +nice in the selection of his companions. No doubt Jingle was suggested +to the officers by the manager: "knew a really smart chap who will just +do for the part." On the whole, I think they must have had his services, +as it was too late to get a substitute. Jingle, as we know, was played +successfully by Sir Henry Irving in the early 'seventies, _tempore_ +Bateman. His extraordinary likeness to the Phiz portrait struck every +one, and it was marked, not only in face, but in figure, manner, &c. The +adaptation of "Pickwick," however, was very roughly done by the late +James Albery, who merely _tacked_ together the Jingle scenes. Those, +where there is much genial comedy, such as the Ball scene at Rochester, +were left out. It is likely that the boy, Boz, noticed Dismal Jemmy +among the strollers, and possibly may have seen a Jingle himself. But +the characters of Jingle and his confederate, Job, were certainly +suggested by Robert Macaire and Jacques Strop, which, a little before the +appearance of Pickwick, were being played in London--in "_L'Auberge des +Adrets_." + +Mr. Pickwick had discovered in the morning that Jingle was "connected +with the Theatre in that place, _though he is not desirous to have it +generally known_." + +Now considering generally the different "games" he was pursuing, his +passing himself off as an officer, an amateur of cricket, &c., it was not +altogether desirable to have his profession known. Knowing also that Mr. +Pickwick intended staying at Rochester, and that the gay Tupman or +Snodgrass would find out his engagement and witness his performance, he +likely enough confided his secret to Mr. Pickwick. "Dismal Jemmy," the +odd being who appears at Rochester for a short time, had promised Mr. +Pickwick a tale which he never gave him. At the end of the story, _Boz_, +having forgotten the engagement, is driven to supply a far-fetched +reason. He was Job's brother, and went to America "in consequence of +being too much sought after here." It will be recollected he was of a +depressed and gloomy cast, and on the Bridge at Rochester talked of +suicide. He also told the dismal "stroller's tale." Now, it is plain +that Boz drew him as a genuine character, and his behaviour to the +stroller was of a charitable kind. Boz, in fact, meant him to be a +suitable person to relate so dismal an incident. However, all this was +forgotten or put aside at the end, and having become Job's brother, he +had to be in keeping. The reformed Jingle declared he was "merely +acting--clever rascal--hoaxing fellow." His brother Job added that he +himself was the serious one, "while Jemmy never was." Mr. Pickwick then +presumed that his talk of suicide was all flam, and that his dismals were +all assumed. "He could assume anything," said Job. Boz, too, forgot +that his name was James Hutley, whereas the brothers' was Trotter--though +this may have been an assumed one. + +The condition of the Rochester stage must have been rather low, when we +find two such persons as Jingle and Dismal Jemmy members of the corps. +Jingle's jerky system of elocution would seem a complete +disqualification. From sheer habit, it would have been impossible for +him to say his lines in any other fashion--which in all the round of +light "touch and go" comedy, would have been a drawback. + +The little Theatre is at the farther end of the town, where the road +turns off to the fields, a low, unpretending building with a small +portico. I recall it in the old days, on a walk from Gads Hill, when I +paused to examine the bills of the benefit of a certain theatrical family +of the Crummles sort--father, mother, sons, and daughters, who supplied +everything. The head founded his claims to support on being a fellow +townsman, winding up with Goldsmith's lines: + + And as the hare, whom hounds and horns pursue, + Pants to the spot from whence at first it flew; + I still had hopes, my lengthened wanderings past, + Here to return, and die at home at last. + +Boz was hugely amused when I rehearsed this to him at lunch. + +He himself, on his later visit, noted the strange encroachments that were +being made on the Theatre. A wine merchant had begun on the cellars, and +was gradually squeezing himself into the box-office, and would no doubt +go on till he secured the auditorium, the lobbies, etc. When I last +passed by that way, it had become the Conservative Club, or some such +institution. + +The wonderful picture, given in "Nickleby," of the Portsmouth playhouse, +with all its characters and accessories and inner life, shows the most +intimate familiarity with all the ways and fashions of the old Provincial +Theatre. Every touch--Crummles, Folair, Lenville, Snivelicci--proves +clearly that he knew perfectly the life behind the scenes, and that he +wrote of it _con amore_. There was a firm belief at the Theatre Royal, +Portsmouth, that all the performers in "Nickleby" were personal sketches +of this corps. One actor told my friend, Mr. Walter Pollock, that they +could even identify Folair, Lenville & Co., and that there was a playbill +still extant in which either the names or the pieces corresponded. But +in this theory, however, little faith can be placed; for at the time the +family was at Portsmouth, Dickens was but a child not more than ten or +twelve years old, and not likely, therefore, to be taken behind the +scenes, or to pick up or observe much. It is certain that the whole +description of the Theatre and its company, with the minute and intimate +details of stage life, was drawn from this little house at Rochester. But +we can go beyond mere speculation. + +In one of his retrospections, Boz tells us of a visit he paid to +Rochester in the fifties, "scenes among which my _early days_ were past." +The town he calls Dullborough, which is a little hard on the place. He +went to look at the old theatre, and reveals to us how it brought back to +him a number of reminiscences, which shows that he was much associated +with stage matters when a youth, for he describes Richard III. and +Macbeth all "cast" and mounted exactly as Mr. Crummles would have mounted +them. "There was Richard in a very uncomfortable wig, and sleeping in +war time on a sofa that was much too short for him, and his conscience +fearfully troubled his boots." There was the lovely young woman, "who +went out gleaning, in a narrow, white muslin apron, with five beautiful +bars of five different colours across it. The witches bore an awful +resemblance to the Thanes and other inhabitants of Scotland; while the +good King Duncan couldn't rest in his grave, but was constantly coming +out of it and calling himself somebody else." These are all Crummles +touches, only he refrained from going again over the old ground. But one +point further favours the theory--he recalls his alarm when Richard in +his terrific combat was "backing up against the stage box." He was in +the stage box then, and therefore a privileged person at the theatre. His +uncle, "Dr. Slammer," no doubt was thus complimented as being "in Her +Majesty's service." "Of course," he goes on, "the town had shrunk +fearfully since I was a child there." + +The description of the outlaw drama which Nicholas Nickleby saw on the +night of his arrival is exactly in the key of the account of the +performance of "Richard III." just given: also the account of the London +manager, who was in the boxes; still more so when Mr. Crummles and all +the company _died at him_. And as in Nickleby we have "the Comic +Countryman" who so inopportunely caught a bluebottle when Mrs. Crummles +was making her great point for the London Manager: so in the account of +Dullborough we are told of "the _Funny_ Countryman" who sustained the +comic, bucolic parts. This alone would show that the Rochester and +Portsmouth Theatres were the same, while the beautiful young lady in the +white apron performed the same sort of characters that Miss Bravassa, or +Miss Snivelicci did. + +And in this connection may be supplied a further speculation which is +interesting. In _Boz's_ earlier works it is plain that he relies for his +most striking effects of character on his own recollections and personal +observations. They might be considered passages from his autobiography. +I have thought that much in "Nickleby" of Nicholas's career and +Nicholas's own character was drawn from himself. Nicholas suggests Boz +in appearance, in his spirit and vehemence, and in some of his +adventures. Some years ago a remarkable letter appeared in the papers, +in which Dickens, then a mere youth, made an application to one of the +managers, Mr. Webster I think, for a situation in his theatre. He wanted +to go on the stage. Was not this like Nicholas? This desire was surely +founded on intimate acquaintance with the boards and amateur experience. + +"I had entertained the impression," he goes on, "that the High Street was +as wide as Regent Street--I found it little better than a lane. There +was a public clock in it which I had supposed to be the finest clock in +the world, whereas it now turned out to be _as inexpressive_, _moon-faced +and weak_ a clock as ever I saw." The Town Hall was a "mean little brick +heap, like a demented chapel." + + + +II.--The Bull + + +Jingle, it will be recollected, on the party arriving at the Bull, gave +that Inn the highest praise, recommending them to stay there--"_good +house_--_nice beds_--" a testimonial that used to be displayed in gold +letters at the door, but which, I have seen it stated, has been removed. +I have also read the same testimonial in the guides and advertisements. +Jingle warned them against another Inn hard by,--"Wright's--next +house--_dear_--_very dear_--half-a-crown if you look at the waiter, +making a charge for dinner, all the same, if you dined out"; a practice, +however, not altogether unknown to modern Hotels. It was bold in Boz, +thus to publicly disparage Hotels that he did not approve. "Wright's" +could not have relished so public an allusion. What or where was +Wright's--"next house?" There is now--in the same High Street--"The +King's Head," described as "Family and Commercial, one of the +oldest-established in the Kingdom, close to the Cathedral and Castle--home +comforts." This being its position--the Castle on one side, the +Cathedral on the other--situated exactly as the Bull was--and therefore +"next house," accurately described its position. Being "one of the +oldest-established," it must have been there at the time of the +Pickwickian visit. + +At the Bull, they show you "Mr. Pickwick's room"--as well as Tupman's and +Winkle's--Boz's very particular description enables this to be done. Mr. +Pickwick's was, of course, to the front--when, roused by the Boots, he +gave the direction of his followers' bed-room, "next room but two on the +right hand." Winkle's room was inside Tupman's--so we are shown a room +in the front with another inside of it--and the _third_ on the left will, +of course, be Mr. Pickwick's, Q.E.D. The waiters know all these points, +and prove them to the bewildered visitors. "You see, sir, there is the +very room _where the clothes were stolen_." + + + +III.--Jingle's Love Affairs + + +Jingle's elopement with the spinster aunt was ingeniously contrived, but +it seemed rather speculative and rash--she might not have had a penny. +His only ground for jumping to the conclusion that she _had_ a fortune +was that, on his saying that "Tupman only wants your money"; "The +wretch!" she exclaimed--"Mr. Jingle's doubts were resolved--she _had_ +money." More wonderful, too, were the very easy terms on which he was +"bought off"--a hundred and twenty pounds. Her fortune might be +estimated at some thousands. He was really master of the situation. The +lady was of mature age--her own mistress, Wardle and his attorney could +do nothing to stop the business. He certainly might have held out for +four or five hundred pounds. Perker's diplomacy was wretched, and his +plea about the age of the old lady mere burlesque. "You are right, my +dear sir--she is rather old. The founder of the family came into Kent +when Julius Caesar invaded Britain; only one member of it since who +hasn't lived to eighty-five, and _he_ was beheaded by one of the Henrys. +The old lady is not seventy-three now, my dear sir." Which seems like +buffooning in a man of business. + +Jingle's course, after he left Rochester, can be traced very readily. +With plenty of money in his pocket, he found his way to Ipswich (or +Eatanswill), assuming the name of Captain FitzMarshall, and taking with +him, as his confederate, Job Hutley. There he got introduced to Nupkins, +the Mayor, who presided at the election, and who had made his money in +"the nail and sarsepan business"--that is, as an ironmonger. The few +words this functionary uttered on the hustings are of the same pompous +character as his later magisterial deliverances. + +"'Whiffin, _proclaim_ silence,' said the Mayor, with air of _pomp_, &c., +where this superciliousness is emphasised. 'Gentlemen,' he went on, +'brother electors of the Borough of Eatanswill, we are met here to-day +for the purpose of choosing a representative in the room of our late'--but +the noise and interruptions prevented the rest of the speech being heard. +Notwithstanding, he characteristically 'thanked the meeting for the +patient attention with which they had heard him throughout,' a +declaration that excited roars of laughter, lasting for a quarter of an +hour." + +This is exactly what one might expect from the self-sufficient Nupkins, +who was evidently understood and laughed at by his fellow townsmen. +Later, when the confusion and "row" grew fast and furious, our Mayor +"issued imperative orders to twelve constables to seize the ringleaders, +who might amount in number to two hundred and fifty or thereabouts." We +can recall Nupkins' dealing with the schoolboys in exactly the same +sapient spirit. + +Into the family of this worthy Jingle insinuated himself. But would he +not be recognised by Mr. Pickwick and his friends? Yes; but we find that +he took up his quarters at Bury St. Edmunds, conveniently near, and, +assuming that the Pickwickians had departed after the election, thought +he might safely exhibit himself at Mrs. Leo Hunter's party, whence he was +tracked back to Bury by Mr. Pickwick. It is certainly fresh evidence of +the identity of Eatanswill with Ipswich that Jingle should have appeared +in both places as "Captain FitzMarshall." Once established in the +Mayor's family, the insinuating Jingle devoted himself to the capture of +the haughty and ill-natured Henrietta Nupkins, making his way into her +good graces, and "cutting out" Sidney Porkenham, her old-established +admirer. This was Jingle's second attempt at matrimony which failed like +the first. It may be said, after all, that his behaviour was not so +heinous. He was a fortune hunting adventurer--such was his role--which +was common enough in those times. The unlucky Leo Hunter meeting, +however, spoiled all. + +After the trick on Mr. Pickwick at the school, and which was a fair +retort, the pair left Bury that very night. + +By an odd coincidence, they were taken up the next day by old Weller at +Chelmsford--a stage or two from London. He was driving the Ipswich +coach, and brought them to that town. It is clear, therefore, that they +took this round from Bury in dread of pursuit, and with a view to throw +Mr. Pickwick off the scent. The latter gentleman never dreamed that they +were so near him, dismissed the whole matter, and returned to town to +arrange about his action. By a happy chance he met old Weller, and, +within a few days, set off for Ipswich and unmasked Captain FitzMarshall +in Nupkins' own house. After this failure, his course was downward, and +we next meet him in the Fleet. + +Job's story was that Jingle dragged him away in a post-chaise and +persuaded the girl at the boarding-school to tell Mr. Pickwick that she +knew nothing of the matter. He had also bribed the schoolmistress to +tell the same story. He had then deserted her for a better speculation, +to wit, Miss Nupkins, to whom he had hurried back. + +But for Mr. Pickwick's unfortunate adventure at the "White Horse," Jingle +would likely enough have captured Henrietta Nupkins. When Sam so +opportunely met Job in the Inn yard at Ipswich, he, instead of punishing +him as he had so often threatened to do, merely bid him be at the Inn at +eight o'clock. Why did he not bring him straight to Mr. Pickwick who was +upstairs? Instead, he went up himself, told his master it was "all in +trainin'," and "detailed the plan of action." Mr. Pickwick was curious, +but Sam only said "all in good time." We never learn what the plan of +action was to be. Indeed, what could the pair do to Jingle? + + + +IV.--The Garrison + + +The military recollections of Rochester and Chatham are amusingly +confused, or rather, in defiance of all known regulations. Thus, at the +Ball, we find Colonel Bulder as "head of the garrison"--one would think +at so important a quarter, where there was a large garrison, a General at +least would be in command. Then we may ask the question, why was not Dr. +Slammer in uniform--always required in presence of a commander? It was +wonderfully bold, too, on Boz's part to give the _numbers_ of the +regiments. Hon. Wilmot Snipe of the 97th, who _was_ in full uniform, +which Mr. Tupman took for "a fancy dress." It was, of course, a Highland +one. We learn, too, that the other regiment was the 43rd, to which Dr. +Payne belonged, and that the 52nd was getting up plays at the local +theatre. And why did Boz select these particular numbers? + +The Chatham garrison consisted of "half-a-dozen regiments," with which a +fair display at a Review could be made on "The Lines." Temporary +fortifications had been erected, the citadel was to be attacked and +taken--Fort Pitt we may assume--and a mine was to be sprung. Servants +were keeping places for the ladies "on the Batteries"--an alarming +position it would seem. The Sergeants were running "with vellum books" +under their arms, usually left at home on Review-day. The Officers were +"running backwards and forwards," while Colonel Bulder was seen +"gallopping" (with two p's) at large, "prancing and curvetting," that is, +making his steed curvet. The operations were, however, not under his +command, but directed by the "Commander-in-Chief," not, of course, of the +Army, but, we may presume, the General of the district. His behaviour +was the most extraordinary of all, for, instead of cultivating a solemn +reserve and quietude, and standing still, surrounded by his staff, he was +seen "backing his horse _among the people_," and heard shouting "till he +was hoarse." The soldiers wore the old, stiff leather stock, choking +them, which was heard of so much in Crimean days. They were also arrayed +in _white_ trowsers. Boz is here wonderfully accurate, for these +garments were always worn after May came round, and this was May. + +The catastrophe to the Pickwickians from their having got between the two +lines of soldiers, is somewhat perplexing. One line was advancing to the +attack, the other firmly awaiting it. They were shouted at to get out of +the way. Suddenly the half-dozen regiments had overthrown them. Mr. +Pickwick was upset. Winkle received a bloody nose, after performing a +compulsory _somerset_; then, at the same moment--wonder of wonders--we +were told that the regiments were "half-a-thousand yards off,"--that is +about a third of a mile away--all in a second! It is hard to understand +why they were so maltreated. The soldiers would, of course, never have +met; and in our own time the amenities of a Review and the police would +have secured stray civilians from such rough treatment. We do not know +whether the evolutions described were accurate--such as "one rank firing +over the heads of another and then running away." + +It was to this exciting spectacle that old Wardle brought a party in that +wonderful Barouche of his--which is really phenomenal for its +accommodation. When Mr. Pickwick recovered his hat, he found these +persons in the carriage:--1, Wardle; 2, a daughter; 3, a second ditto; 4, +a sister; 5, Trundle; 6, Tupman; 7, Fat Boy, on the box. The +Pickwickians were actually summoned by the hearty Wardle to join. "Room +_for you all_--two inside and one on the ox," where there was one +already. All accepted the invitation, making _ten_ persons in all who +were accommodated in the Barouche! But this does not exhaust its +wonders. When lunch time came round, with plates, dishes, bottles, eight +persons were squeezed together inside, so no wonder Wardle said, "We must +sit close." How it was done is not to be conceived--two sitting together +is the usual allowance for a modern Barouche, but four on one side!--and +yet we are told, when the horses were put to, the Barouche "rattled off." + +The boy Dickens had carefully noted the behaviour of the garrison, and +described them as "staggering about the streets of Chatham dead drunk," +more especially when we remember that the "following them about, and +joking with them, affords _a cheap and innocent amusement for the boy +population_--" (_vide Mr. Pickwick's notes_). The boy, no doubt, often +witnessed the incident of the private, "drawing his bayonet, and stabbing +the barmaid who had refused to draw him more liquor." It is +characteristic, by the way, of the police in a garrison town, for this +fellow appears to have been at large on the next day, as he went down to +the Tavern and tried to "square it" with the girl. + +And now, is not this a testimony to this strange book, that we should be +thus introduced to old Rochester and its doings, and out of the scant +materials furnished, can really reconstruct the time and the place, and +find out, as if by enquiries, all about Jingle and his connections and +the theatre--such is the fruitfulness of the text? + + + + +CHAPTER IV. BOZ AND BLACKING. + + +One of the remarkable things associated with "Pickwick" is its +autobiographical character, as it might be termed, and the amount of the +author's personal experience which is found in passages. Such are his +sketches of Rochester and Chatham life during his boyhood, his +recollections of Grimaldi's dissolute son, his own poignant sorrow on the +death of Mary Hogarth, and the painful memories of his boyish +apprenticeship to an uncongenial trade more than hinted at. The election +matters were also particular memories of his own, so was the scene of the +ghostly mail coaches. Then there was the hideous recollection of the +life in a debtors' prison, of which he had such sad personal experience, +with much more. He recalled the time when he had a miserable lodging in +Lant Street, Borough, and Lant Street was for him always a fixed point in +his memory, and grew in size and importance. And when he described some +wretched creature hiding himself in London purlieus, he chose some +miserable place like College-street in Camden Town, whither his own +family had retired. + +All these things supply a singular vitality and realism, and also a +distinct interest for those who are "in the know," for Boz himself at the +time was a dramatic and interesting figure, and this story of his +struggle out of a state of squalid misery is truly pathetic. + +Readers of Forster's interesting "Life" will recall the dismal passage in +the account given by Dickens to his friend, and his agonising experience +when he was employed at the blacking factory. Many at the time thought +that this painful episode might have been spared the reader, but the +uncompromising biographer would not sacrifice it. On the whole, he was +right, as the trial had an important influence on the writer's character. +It will be recollected that he was employed at a place set up in Chandos +Street, just out of the Strand, by one of the firm of Warrens, and his +duties seemed to consist in pasting the labels on the bottles. Many will +still recall the keen rivalry that existed between the famous firms, +Warren and Day and Martin, which brought much amusement to the public +from the arts of "bold advertisement" with which the war was waged. There +were ingenious "Crambos," such as a cat gazing with well-assumed surprise +at her face reflected in one of Day and Martin's well-polished shoes. +These things made a deep impression on the boy, who saw their grotesque +side. They were oddly bound up with his early impressions and sorrows. + +Hence, we find in the course of "Pickwick," a few allusions to these +blacking rivals and their ways, which might seem mysterious and uncalled +for to those not in the secret, but which for himself had the highest +significance. When Sam is first introduced at the "White Hart," he is in +the very act of cleaning boots, and we have almost an essay on the +various species of boots and polishing. We are told minutely that he was +engaged in "brushing the dirt off a pair of boots . . . " There were two +rows before him, one cleaned, the other dirty. "There were _eleven_ +pair, and one shoe, as belongs to No. 6 with the wooden leg." "The +eleven boots is to be called at half-past eight (an odd consensus in +eleven persons), and the shoe at nine." He set to work upon a top-boot. + +The landlady then made her appearance in the opposite gallery and flung +down a pair of shoes to be cleaned for No. 5, first floor. There is a +dramatic action in these calls from the different galleries, which shows +that Boz had the stage before him. Sam then chalked the number on the +sole. When he found that it was for people of consequence in a private +room that the articles were required, he set to work with a will and +produced a polish "that would have struck envy to the soul of _the +amiable Mr. Warren_, _for they used Day and Martin's at the_ '_White +Hart_.'" Here will be noted the compliment to his old employer, though +it was of a conventional sort. + +With this very number "Pickwick" was destined to leap into its amazing +popularity, and the advertisement must have been a valuable one. There +may have been another reason, for there was to be a "Pickwick +advertiser," which was patronised by the firms, and it may have been +stipulated as a condition that the author was to give them this "lift." +Another patron was Rowland, whose real name was Rouland, of "Maccassar +oil" and "Kalydor" celebrity. We have a relic of one of these forgotten +nostrums in the familiar "Anti-maccassar" known to every good housewife. +To Rowland or Rouland he later made an allusion in the text. + +This method of calling attention to the merits of wares was a French +one--a sort of _reclame_ introduced by Villemessant in his journal _La +Sylphide_. Thus "Pickwick" was quite "up-to-date." After Jingle had +gone off to Doctors Commons for his license, Sam renewed his efforts, +"burnishing a pair of _painted tops_, worn by a farmer." Then, +interrogated by Perker, he described the tenants of the inn by their +boots--a pair of "Hessians" in 13, two pair of "halves," with six "tops." + +In chapter xxxiv. we have another allusion to blacking. "No man," said +Sam, "ever talked in poetry 'cept a beadle on Boxin' Day, _or Warren's +blackin'_." This referred to the rhymes--or verses--with which the firm +filled the newspapers in praise of their article. It will be remembered +that Mrs. Jarley, in the "Old Curiosity Shop," employed "a poet" to +celebrate her waxworks in similar fashion, and who was content with a few +shillings for each effort. We may be certain that this was a boyish +recollection, and that he had seen this blacking "poet" making his calls +in Chandos Street or haggling for his miserable wage. The beadle, also +alluded to, was a prominent figure with Boz; but he has disappeared, with +his huge cocked hat, scarlet waistcoat, and uniform. He is to be seen in +Wilkie's brilliant picture in the National Gallery. It is evident from +the passage that he came round on Boxing Day for his _douceur_, reminding +his patrons, as the dustmen now do sometimes, by a copy of verses. Sam +adds that no one did this sort of thing except the persons mentioned--"and +_Rowland's oil_, or some of them low fellows." The perfumer could only +have been half pleased with this uncomplimentary form. Still, such as it +was, it _was_ an advertisement. Boz also makes several allusions to the +inventor, Bramah, mentioning Bramah locks and keys with plugs, &c. Old +Weller talks of being locked up "in a fireproof chest with a patent +_Bramin_." Bramah's hydraulic press was a scientific novelty then, as +were also his "patent safes." Bramah appears to have advertised in +"Pickwick." These _reclames_ are of a rather elaborate kind, as when +Lowten arrived at the office (lii), we are told, he drew "a Bramah key +from his pocket, with a small plug therein to keep the dust out." Then +"comforting himself with this reflection, Mr. Lowten extricated the plug +from the door key; having opened the door, re-plugged and re-pocketed his +Bramah." + +NOTE.--The horrors of the Blacking episode were ever present to Dickens' +recollection, and, as if under a sort of fascination, he later seemed +almost impelled to refer to them. Thus, in Copperfield, we find him +describing, but under a disguise, the same incident. As when he was sent +to Murdstone and Grimby's warehouse, it was still the washing and +labelling of bottles--"_not of blacking_," but of wines and spirits. +"When the empty bottles ran short, there were labels to be pasted on the +full ones, or corks to be fitted to them, &c." But there is also another +allusion to the same, but curiously veiled, when he speaks of the carman, +Tipp, who "wore a red jacket." Now, to this day Day and Martin's carmen +wear red jackets, and Warren's men probably did so; but, at all events, +it is clearly an allusion to the costume of the blacking drivers. There +are allusions to blacking in Little Dorrit and Bleak House. + + + + +CHAPTER V. SINGLE SPEECH TRUNDLE + + +This gentleman, as we know, was the affianced husband of Isabella Wardle, +and to the scenes of their marriage, the festivities, &c., we owe some +pleasing incidents. Trundle was a good specimen of the _cypher_ or +nullity; naturally, he is a figure at Manor Farm, but does nothing, and +practically says nothing. He was clearly a neighbouring squire of +limited ideas, or plain country gentlemen, that could do no more than +love his Isabella. Yet, while Boz describes the "affairs" of Arabella +and Winkle, of Emily and Snodgrass, he wholly passes by Trundle and his +_inamorata_. We can see what manner of man Trundle was, as he is shown +seated in the barouche, at the review, between the two sisters, each with +long ringlets and parasols. He is a good-looking young man, with mutton- +chop whiskers and black hair, on which his hat is set jauntily. He is +described as "a young gentleman apparently enamoured of one of the young +ladies in scarfs and pattens." Wardle introduced him in a rather +patronising way. "This is my friend, Mr. Trundle." When the firing +began, there was much agitation among the young ladies, screaming, &c., +so that the gentlemen had to support them: Mr. Trundle "was actually +obliged to hold one of them up." But after the lunch was unpacked, the +wine uncorked, &c., there came a remarkable development--Trundle actually +spoke, made the one single remark that is recorded of him in the whole +chronicle! Never before or after did he say a word. He was, in fact, +"single speech Trundle." And what were these words: "Will you permit me +to have the pleasure, Sir?" said Mr. Trundle to Mr. Winkle; a proposal to +"take wine with him," as it is called, Winkle had a bottle all to himself +on the box seat, which, no doubt, attracted the reticent Trundle. The +two gentlemen not only took wine together, but had "a glass round, ladies +and all." But we should note that Trundle phrase, the almost too humble +form: "Will you permit me the pleasure, Sir." It looks as though Trundle +were "an ass," as it is called. The fact remains, however, that +Trundle's single speech was: "Will you permit me to have the pleasure, +Sir?" + +After a few days' interval, when Mr. Pickwick and party found their way +to Manor Farm, there were games _galore_, and at the "round one," +Isabella and Trundle, we are told, "went partners," so all was going on +well. The Squire had been nearly brought up to the point. It is painful +to come to the conclusion, but Isabella's admirer, though a country +gentlemen, was nothing of a sportsman, and rather a poor creature. When +Mr. Pickwick and his followers were up early and out at the rook +shooting, we find no Trundle. He was lying a-bed, no doubt. Stranger +still, when the whole party went in for a day to Muggleton for the +cricket match, Trundle was the only one who stayed behind. He remained +with the ladies, for a purpose, no doubt; still, ladies don't like this +sort of thing. The evening came. "Isabella and Emily strolled out with +Mr. Trundle." I have an idea that on this very day matters came to a +crisis in that quarter. Everything favoured--all the men were away--he +may have seized the opportunity to "propose." At all events, we are +significantly told that at the supper "Isabella Wardle devoted herself +_exclusively_ to Mr. Trundle." Pointed enough, surely. We may be +fortified in this view by finding that on the return of the party, all +dead drunk, at one in the morning, on Trundle was specially cast the +degrading menial duty of carrying Wardle to bed--his future father-in- +law. + +Did Boz dislike this man all this while, or did he feel that he could do +nothing with him in the story? It is certain, however, that in the talks +at Bury over the Bardell action, the Boarding School adventure, &c., we +never hear the sound of Trundle's voice. He is effaced. He makes no +remark on anything. + +One of Boz's most daring pantomime changes, is the sudden arrival of old +Wardle at Bury, when Mr. Pickwick was released from the cupboard--and +sandwich bags--in Miss Tomkins' school. The door was unlocked, and there +stood Wardle and the silent Trundle. A rather lame account is given of +the coincidence. Mr. Pickwick naturally asked, "How did you come here?" +"Trundle and I came down here for some good shooting on the first," &c. +Now, here it is evident Wardle good-naturedly saddled himself with the +company of the silent man, but he had his reasons. Trundle was now son- +in-law _elect_. They were both at the "Angel" at Bury, and for some days +here were Mr. Pickwick and his "followers." There was the exciting +notice of action _re_ Bardell v. Pickwick. There had nearly been Pott v. +Pott and Winkle. And yet, all the time, this Trundle listens, and eats +and drinks; but there is no sign of him on the record. He is busy +maintaining his character as a cypher. + +Everything, however, points to show the all but comtemptuous opinion that +was held of this Trundle. Wardle had been there two or three days when +Winkle and the others came over from Eatanswill, yet he had never told +Mr. Pickwick or Winkle that Trundle was to be married at Christmas, and +that they were all to be invited to the wedding. By the oddest of +coincidences, Tupman and Snodgrass, getting down from the coach at the +"Angel," were met by Wardle, who at once said, "I have _just been_ +telling Pickwick that we must have you all down at Christmas. We're +going to have a wedding." But I doubt if this _be_ an oversight. The +fact was, no one thought anything of that cypher Trundle, or of his +marriage--a matter of no importance to anybody. That this is the true +explanation is plain, for Snodgrass, fancying that the wedding was of +_his_ lady, turned pale. What was old Wardle's remark? Most significant +of Trundle's _status_. "Don't be frightened," he said, "_it's only_ +Trundle _there_ and Bella." "Only Trundle there," _i.e._, only that poor +insignificant thing there! No more depreciatory words could be chosen, +or put into the mouth of an honest country gentleman. I am certain that +old Wardle gave his child reluctantly to this soft sort of fellow--"Only +Trundle there!" Then for the shooting party. We hear of Tupman and +Winkle even, with their guns, &c., but not a sign of this Trundle, a +country gentleman, supposed to enjoy field sports. If Tupman and Winkle +had to carry their guns reversed "like privates at a funeral," was +Trundle excepted? We cannot tell, for he is not even named. Or was he +of the shooting party at all? It has always seemed astonishing that +Winkle should have been allowed, particularly by Mr. Pickwick, to join +the _second_ shooting party. Everyone seemed to have forgotten his first +performance, when he might have shot his friend Tupman dead, and, as it +was, "peppered" him severely. Tupman would naturally have objected to so +dangerous a companion. Wardle, at whose home the casualty occurred, +merely said, "I beg my friend Winkle's pardon, though; he has had some +practice." Was this ironical? I fancy the whole scene had passed out of +the author's mind. + +Well, the Christmas season having come round--and certainly Trundle must +have been a very feeble creature to allow himself to be "kept over" for +so long a time--the whole party assembled at Manor Farm; now there, and +on such an occasion at least, Trundle, being one of the two central +figures, will certainly assert himself. We shall expect to see and hear +him to good effect. Never was there a greater mistake. As the +Pickwickians arrived, the whole "house party" were in the lane to greet +them; we are told in careless fashion that among them "there were +Isabella and _her faithful_ Trundle," _i.e._, the poor insignificant +"chap" who was about to enter the family by particular favour. Then Mr. +Pickwick was told that they had all been to "inspect the furniture and +fittings-up of the new house which the young couple were to tenant." This +is very significant, for it throws a certain light on Trundle's +situation. It is plain that this house was on Wardle's property, and +that Trundle had none of his own. It was, in fact, a poorish match and +the young couple were dependent more or less on Wardle. Even the old +lady didn't like it, she resented their going to look at the house, and +her son, to soothe her, made this significant speech: "Recollect Bella; +_come_, _you must keep her spirits up_, _poor girl_." "Poor girl!" "Keep +her spirits up!" Why? + +On the wedding day, however, Trundle made an effort to assert himself. He +was "in high feather and spirits," _i.e._, awkwardly pretended to be, +but, of course, took nobody in. Indeed, we are told he was "a little +nervous withal." We may be sure he was, and therefore looking "more of +an ass" than ever. For such _must_ appear to be a really nervous man in +high spirits and going to be married. All the girls were in tears, +Wardle himself quite broken down, for they knew what was before the poor +child. At the wedding banquet Mr. Pickwick made an admirable, natural +speech, which was greeted with tumults of applause, and was reported word +for word. Then we are told how Wardle proposed Mr. Pickwick; Mr. +Pickwick, the old lady; Snodgrass, Tupman, the poor relations, all had +their speeches; but there is not a single word of Trundle, who appears to +have been mumchance--no one wanted him. In his speech at the wedding, +the amiable Pickwick had, of course, to give the expected conventional +praises to Trundle. But how guarded he is! "God bless 'em," he says; +"my young friend I believe to be a very excellent and manly fellow." I +_believe_, _i.e._, he did not _know_ it. "Manly," we might question, for +in manliness he was deficient. We could hear the rustics below: "Squire +Trundle manly! he! he! not he!" But on the bride, Mr. Pickwick was +enthusiastic: "I _know_ her," he said, "to be a very, very amiable and +lovely girl; I admire, love, and esteem her." At the close he prayed +that Wardle's daughter "might enjoy all the happiness that even he could +desire." Not that he was sure of, but that he could desire. But +Trundle, the cypher, no one thought of him, no one cared about his +speech. Most likely, in his "nervousness," he mumbled forth some +indistinct words which no one could hear, so it was best and most +charitable to pass him by altogether in the report. At the dance at +night, where he surely would have led off the movements, still not a word +of him. And at last, "long before Mr. Pickwick was weary of dancing, the +newly-married pair had retired from the room." Mr. Lang fancies that +they had gone upstairs; but I imagine they repaired to their new home +close by. But then, with that minuteness which never fails Boz, we had +been told that they were not to go there till after the Christmas +holidays. + +But, after all, one might be inclined to doubt this theory of the young +pair remaining at the house. For do we not find that on the next day, +which was Christmas day, when there was the going to Church, and the +skating and sliding, and Mr. Pickwick's immersion, there is no mention of +the happy pair? It looks as though they were at their own home. + +After this, many events occurred. Mr. Pickwick was "tried" and +"conwicted," as old Weller has it; was sent to prison and released. On +his return from Birmingham we have some signs of Wardle and his family. +That gentleman was sorely disturbed by Emily's "goings on" with +Snodgrass, and forecasted another imprudent marriage like Trundle's. He +had a suitable match for her in his eye: "a young gentleman down in our +neighbourhood," but Arabella's elopement set the fire to the powder, and +here it is worth while comparing the marriages of Emily and her sister +Isabella as a test of the relative importance of Snodgrass and this +Trundle. The one took place in London with great show and pomp, all the +family going up specially for it. "A handsome portion was bestowed on +Emily," but there is not a word to show that Trundle received a +halfpenny. + +Then followed the scenes at Osborne's Hotel in the Adelphi, when all was +made up and Snodgrass accepted. And now, at last, we hear something of +Trundle. Mrs. T., as we might expect, was in an "interesting way," and +had to be informed of what was going on. But it had to be broken to her +by Trundle, in right of his office. Good, easy man! We can hear him: +"the news will be too much for her" (this is on the record). She would +insist on going, and it would be fatal. He would, of course, implore her +not to agitate herself in her present state. As a matter of course he +was all astray. The news was _not_ too much for her. She ordered at +once a cap and a new dress, and declared that she _would_ go up for the +wedding. The horrified Trundle, who had clearly no authority whatever, +called in the Doctor to exert _his_, which he did in this way: by leaving +it all to herself. Boz emphasizes it, by way of contrast to Trundle, +saying that "he was a wise and _discreet fellow_." + +Of course the foolish Trundle was put aside; the lady went and suffered +no harm. This proves that Trundle was the _mari de la femme_, with no +will of his own. + +At Dulwich Church, the bridegroom was met "by the bride, the maids, the +Winkles, the Wardles, and Trundles," always to be last and insignificant. +In course of time we are told that Mr. Pickwick was much troubled at +first by the numerous applications made to him to act as Godfather to the +offspring of his friends! These came from Mr. Winkle, Mr. Snodgrass, and +Mr. Trundle. Last of course. Poor soul! We can see him, grown elderly, +sitting at his own table, smiling or silent, or with an occasional "yes, +my dear," "certainly, my dear," "by all means, my dear." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. MUGGLETON AND ITS CRICKET + + +The situation and real name of Muggleton has always been a hotly debated +point; many have been the speculations and many the suggestions as to the +original. I was once inclined to adopt Gravesend, on the statement of +the author's daughter, that, one day, driving with her father towards +Cobham, he said that "it was here that Mr. Pickwick dropped his whip." +Cobham would be on the way to Gravesend. + +Now what was Muggleton? A large town, with Mayor, Burgesses, and +Freemen--an ancient and loyal Borough, much given to petitioning +Parliament. It is insinuated that these petitions were guided by +Stiggins-like instincts--"a zealous advocacy of Christian principles +combined with a devoted attachment to commercial rights. Hence they were +against negro slavery abroad and _for_ the factory system at home. They +were for abolishing Sunday trading in the streets, and for maintaining +the sale of church livings." A member of Boz's family has assured me +that Maidstone was in the author's mind: it is only some eight miles from +Rochester. But "The Bull" waiter informed the Pickwickians that +Muggleton was nearly double the distance, or fifteen miles; while +Gravesend is about six miles from Rochester--so the evidence of distance +does not help us. Where, too, did Mr. Pickwick drop his whip? The +Pickwickian enthusiast can ascertain this--'an he will--by a little +calculation. After leaving "The Bull," the tall quadruped exercised his +"manoeuvre" of darting to the side of the road, rushing forward for some +minutes--_twenty times_--which would cover about an hour. In the +etching, there is a picture of the spot--a hedge-lined road. Mr. +Pickwick and his friends had to walk the whole way; yet they arrived late +in the afternoon. No one could walk from Rochester to Maidstone in that +time. + +It was natural that Mr. Pickwick should drop his whip--but most unnatural +that he should ask Winkle to dismount and pick it up for him; and most +unnatural of all that Winkle, in his precarious situation, should consent +to dismount. The ordinary course would be that Tupman or Snodgrass +should get down. Then, for the great marvel of all, we have Mr. +Pickwick, who _would not_ get down, or _could not_ get down to pick up +his whip, getting down to help Mr. Winkle on to his horse! Thus, on the +two occasions, the useless or lazy Tupman and Snodgrass kept their seats. + +It has been claimed--by the late Charles Dickens the younger--that Town +Malling was Muggleton, and on the ground that it has always had a +reputation for good cricket. It is not far from Maidstone. But this is +easily disposed of. Muggleton is described as an important corporate +town, with a Mayor, etc. Further, the cricketing at Muggleton was of the +poorest sort. There was an elderly gentleman playing who could not stop +the balls--a slim one was hit on the nose--they were a set of "duffers," +in fact. As for Dickens knowing nothing about cricket, as Mr. Lang +contends, I can say, that he was always interested in it. I myself have +seen him sit the whole day in a marquee, during a match got up by himself +at Gads Hill, marking (or "notching") in the most admirable manner. +Anything he did or described, he did and described according to the best +fashion he could compass. + +Wishing, however, to investigate this knotty question thoroughly, I +lately communicated with the Town Clerk of Maidstone, Mr. Herbert +Monckton, who was good enough to search the Books with reference to +certain queries which I furnished. Dickens states of the mysterious and +unnamed Borough, that it had its Mayor, Burgesses, and Freemen--which at +once excludes Town Malling which the younger Charles Dickens had +selected. The Clerk has found that, at the period in question, there +were 813 Freemen on the roll. It has always been held to be "an ancient +and loyal Borough," but this, of course, most boroughs of its standing +would claim to be. Boz speaks of innumerable Petitions to Parliament, +and Mr. Monckton tells me that he has found many petitions in the +Books--one in 1828 _against_ the Licensing Bill, which seems to prove +that Maidstone, like Muggleton, "mingled a zealous advocacy of Christian +principles with a devoted attachment to commercial rights." Then as to +the description: Both Maidstone and Muggleton have an open square for the +market: there are also in both places in the square a fire office, +linendraper, corn factor, saddler, grocer, shoe-shop, but apparently no +distiller. It was curious, certainly, that there should be an Inn with +so odd a sign as the Blue Lion in Maidstone--and also a post bearing this +sign, in front. Then as to the cricket, the cricket field was in the +Meadow, Maidstone, not far from the High Street; while at Muggleton, we +are told that Mr. Pickwick's friends "had turned out of the main street +and were already within sight of the field of battle." + +And here we may admire the wonderful walking powers that Boz allots to +his heroes--Tupman and Pickwick, who were elderly persons and stout +withal. Fifteen miles to Muggleton--two miles further to Manor Farm--and +all done between eleven o'clock, and a period "late in the afternoon"--say +five o'clock. At a later visit came the memorable five-and-twenty-mile +walk to get an appetite for dinner. The truth was, such stretches were +as nothing to Boz himself. Walking was his grand pastime and one +absolute necessity. He tramped on with an amazing energy and vigour, +which, as I know from experience, it was impossible to match. Sometimes +he walked the streets for nearly the whole night. This personal element +helps to explain many things in "Pickwick" which contains the early life +of Boz. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. GOSWELL STREET + + +A question that has often exercised ingenious folk is, why did Mr. +Pickwick choose to live in Goswell Street? rather, why did Boz select +such a quarter for him? Of course, at that time, it was really a +"genteel" neighbourhood, as anyone can see who walks along the desolate +streets and terraces, the forlorn squares and enclosures that are close +by, and where the New River runs. Nothing is more depressing than the +aspect of these fallen places; but, in Mr. Pickwick's time, they had not +been very long erected. Indeed, this offers yet another department which +his wonderful Book suggests: that it is the best record of all the +changes that have taken place in London. This Goswell Street tenancy +shows clearly that the neighbourhood was a desirable one for residents of +position. Mr. Pickwick was a City man, and his club met in Huggin Lane, +in the City. He generally put up, or, as Bob Sawyer had it, "hung out," +at the "George and Vulture," also in the City. One side of Goswell +Street, in those days--a road ascending to the old Angel Inn--faced, near +the top, a number of the pretentious squares and terraces I have been +describing. That interesting old theatre, Sadler's Wells, was in the +rear, and the New River passed beneath it or beside it, and, quite +uncovered in those days, rippled along on its course from the country. + +All the houses were private houses. Some enthusiasts have actually +identified Mrs. Bardell's apartments--but without a particle of evidence. +Now it has become a busy thoroughfare, with a noisy tramway: nearly all +the houses have been turned into shops, and Mr. Pickwick could scarcely +recognize his old quarters. The whole region bears a faded air. +Amateurs, who love exploring their London, will find entertainment in +wandering about Islington and the adjoining districts, experiencing quite +a new sensation and hardly realizing that they are so close to +Aldersgate. The New River itself, which ends its course here, is a +pleasant attraction, with its great basin, and ancient offices by the +edge of the water. + +Imitating Elia, I once set out from here, and followed its course and its +many windings far out into the country, taking up the journey on +successive days, going towards its source in Hertfordshire, and a most +pleasant, interesting voyage of discovery it was. For it so winds and +bends, now passing through fields and demesnes, now skirting towns and +villages, that it is just as picturesque as any natural stream. Such +being its attractions, Mr. Pickwick was virtually living in the country +or in the suburbs, and enjoying the fine, keen, inspiring air which the +jaded Londoner from lower districts may, even now, still inhale. There +is no Goswell Street now, but Goswell _Road_--a very noisy, clattering +thoroughfare. + +Another remark to be made is this:--how much do we owe to the vivifying +power of Boz's descriptions of these old Towns, Inns, and Streets? The +ordinary provincial town--unsung and undescribed by him--remains what it +is and nothing more. York and Manchester stir no memories, and are +unvisited by pilgrims, because _they are not in Pickwick_. Boz seems to +have found the true _interpretation_ and inner meaning of each place, and +has actually preserved the tone and flavour that existed in his own time. +This continues even now. As we stroll through Rochester or Ipswich, Bath +or Bury, Pickwick and his friends walk with us. And, as if well +contented to rest under the spell, these antique towns have made no +effort at change, but remain much as they were. + +And this prompts the question: _Where did Mrs. Cluppins live_? At the +trial we learned that she was a friend and neighbour of Mrs. Bardell's, +one of her _commeres_. She had "looked in" on the momentous morning, +having been out to purchase "kidney pertaties," yet, on their Hampstead +junketting, we find her coming with the Raddles, in their cab, all the +way from Lant Street, Borough. She was clearly Mrs. Raddle's friend and +neighbour. Perhaps she had moved, though this is not likely. The +household gods of such, like Elia's, strike a deep root. + +In his descriptions of the Bardell party's journey to Hampstead, which +ended so disastrously, the art of Boz is shown as usual by supplying the +notion of movement--he seems to take us along up the northern heights--we +feel the pleasurable anticipations of a party of pleasure for the lower +middle class. From the lower end of Goswell Street--where Mr. Pickwick's +lodgings must have been, for, in the upper part, there are no houses +opposite for Mrs. Raddle to call at--it must have been a long drive for +the party. I assume they must have made for Kentish Town, and toiled up +Haverstock Hill at a walk, for the coach was heavily laden enough. +Pleasant Hampstead! One is always glad to find Boz associating his +humour with places that we are deeply interested in. The Hampstead of +this hour, though changed enough, may remind us very fairly of Boz's +time. It has still the attractions of the old-fashioned, red-brick +houses, and terraces, the mixture of green, and the charming, even +seductive, heath. "The Spaniards" at Hampstead--Boz calls it "_The_ +Spaniard"--is scarcely altered from the day of the Bardell visit, and is +as picturesque as ever with its Tea Gardens and Bowers. I never pass it +without seeming to see Jackson's hackney-coach waiting and the Sheriff's +man at the gate taking his drink. The other Inn, also bound up with +memories of Boz, "Jack Straw's Castle," also stands, but one reads with +alarm on this day of grace (June 12th, 1898):-- + + There are few Londoners who will not grieve to hear that the + well-known inn on the Spaniards Road, "Jack Straw's Castle," famous as + the rendezvous of authors, artists, statesmen, and many a celebrity of + old days, is going the way of other ancient buildings. The low rooms + and quaint interior of the hostel are now being entirely transformed + and modernised. The only concession made to the prejudices of the old + frequenters of the inn is that the outer face is to be preserved + intact. To the passer by, no great change will perhaps be apparent; + but within, the charm of the place will have vanished entirely. A + spacious saloon bar flooded with glaring light, with modern furniture + and appliances, is to take the place of the old rooms, coffee-room, + billiard-room, and bar. In fact, it is to become a modern hotel. The + change is quite enough to make the shade of Dickens arise. As John + Forster has told us, the great novelist loved this old chop-house, + and, after a ramble on the Heath, often adjourned here for a good, + wholesome dinner. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. MARY HOGARTH + + +This young girl--to whom a touching interest attached from her being so +prematurely cut off--was a most interesting creature, one of three +sisters, daughters of Mr. George Hogarth, a Writer to the Signet, who is +a sort of link between Scott and Dickens. For he had acted as the +former's man of business in the Ballantyne disputes, and must have +prompted Dickens in the article that he wrote on that thorny subject. He +was a good musician and a writer in the magazines. We find his work in +the old "Monthly Magazine" where Dickens made his _debut_; and when Boz +was installed as editor of "Bentley's," we find him admitting much of his +father-in-law's writing. His "Memoirs of the Opera" are well-known. +There is a charming outline sketch of Maclise's, showing the profiles of +two of the sisters with Dickens, all three of the most refined and +interesting cast--but Boz's face is certainly the handsomest of the +three. He must have been a most attractive young man--something of the +pattern of his own Nicholas Nickleby. + +One of the most interesting features of the episode is the reference the +author was constantly making to this bereavement. In the rollicking +"Pickwick," any serious introduction of such a topic would have been out +of place: though I fancy a little paragraph in the account of the Manor +Farm Christmas festivities is connected with it. But about the same +time, or rather, some six months later, he was busy with his "Oliver +Twist," and it seems certain that Rose Maylie was drawn from this +sympathetic creature, for there is a feeling and a passionate grief +displayed that could only be caused by the loss of a person that he had +known and loved. Here is his description of Rose:--"The younger lady was +in the lovely bloom and springtime of womanhood, at that age when, if +ever angels be for God's good purposes enthroned in mortal forms, they +may be without impiety supposed to abide in such forms as hers. She was +not _past seventeen_. Cast in so slight and exquisite a mould; so mild +and gentle; so pure and beautiful; that earth seemed not her element, nor +its rough creatures her fit companions." + +We may compare with this the touching inscription placed by Dickens on +her tomb in Kensal Green: "Young, beautiful and good, God, in His mercy, +numbered her among His angels at the early age of seventeen." He had +long planned that he should be laid beside her, but on Mrs. Hogarth's +death, some five years later, he had to resign his place to her. This +was a renewal of the old grief. The epitaph nearly seems the epitome of +all that he says of Rose Maylie. + +"The very intelligence that shone in her deep blue eye, and was stamped +upon her noble head, seemed scarcely of her age, or of the world; and yet +the changing expression of sweetness and good humour, the thousand lights +that played upon the face and left no shadow there; above all, the smile, +the cheerful, happy smile, were for Home, and fireside peace and +happiness." She is then described as "playfully putting back her hair, +which was simply braided on her forehead; and threw into her beaming look +such an expression of affection and artless loveliness that blessed +spirits might have smiled to look upon her." + +The earnestness, the feeling of sincerity thrown into this +description--the tone of reality--leave a conviction that this must have +been drawn from a person who had lived and in whom the writer had the +deepest interest. Further, it is clearly the description of a person who +had passed away: of one who was no longer with him. {66} "She was at the +theatre with us on Saturday night, well and happy, and expired in my arms +a few hours afterwards." So he wrote to Mr. Cox. + +At the end, he returns to the subject, and retouches the picture: + + "I would show Rose Maylie in all the bloom and grace of early + womanhood, shedding on her secluded path in life the soft and gentle + light that fell on all who trod it with her and shone into their + hearts; I would paint her _the life and joy of the fireside circle_, + and the lively summer group; I would follow her through the sultry + fields at noon, and hear the low tones of her sweet voice in the + moonlit evening walk; I would watch her in all her goodness and + charity abroad, and the untiring discharge of domestic duties at home; + I would summon before me again those joyous little faces that + clustered round her knee; I would recall the tone of that clear laugh, + and conjure up that sympathizing tear that glistened in the soft, blue + eye. These, and a thousand looks and smiles, and turns of thought and + speech, I would fain recall them, every one." + +Again, it is clear that all this is personal, and written of one that he +knew and deeply loved. + +In "Nickleby," there is yet another allusion to this sad subject--it is +suggested by Kate's grief for Smike: + + "It is an exquisite and beautiful thing in our nature that, when the + heart is softened and touched by some tranquil happiness or + affectionate feeling, the memory of the dead comes over it most + powerfully and irresistibly. It would almost seem as though our + better thoughts and sympathies were charms in virtue of which the soul + is enabled to hold some vague and mysterious intercourse with the + spirits of those whom we dearly loved in life. Alas! how often and + how long may these patient angels hover above us, watching for the + spell which is so seldom uttered, and so soon forgotten." + +This is no artificial utterance. He had clearly interrupted himself to +indulge in this sad retrospect. He then points a moral from Mrs. +Nickleby, who, he says, could not conceive the idea of anyone dwelling on +such thoughts in secret. I have always had a notion that this worthy +lady's incongruities and rambling methods were suggested by one of his +own household, whose imperfection was found to be a complete lack of +sympathy with him in all his feelings. + +The devotion of Oliver Twist to Rose, it is not fanciful to say, was +intended to symbolise his own to Mary. We can recall the passionate, +agitated excitement with which Rose's illness is described--the hanging +on the doctor's sentence, &c.--a reminiscence certainly, and we have only +to look at the sketch by Cruikshank of his friend (given in my +"_Bozland_") to recognise the likeness to Oliver. Oliver's sufferings +were his own. + +How tremendous the blow of her death must have been to the successful +writer may be conceived when he did not scruple to interrupt the book and +cast it aside altogether from sheer incapacity to write a line. The June +number did not appear. No one can imagine the inconvenience, the loss, +the enormous risks that were run by taking this step--the horror and +consternation of the publishers and all concerned. It proved how +indifferent he had become to his prospects and prosperity when he could +hazard such a thing. The first of the month came round, but no +"Pickwick." It was a public catastrophe. When he was able to resume his +story, he found it necessary to issue an explanation in the form of an +address. {68} + + 186 Strand, + June 30th, 1837. + + The author is desirous to take the opportunity afforded him by the + resumption of his work to state, once again, what he thought had been + stated sufficiently emphatically before, namely, that its publication + was interrupted by a severe domestic affliction of no ordinary kind; + that this was the sole cause of the non-appearance of the present + number in its usual course; that, hereafter, it will continue to be + published with its accustomed regularity. However superfluous this + _second notice_ may appear to many, it is rendered necessary by + various idle speculations and absurdities which have been + industriously propagated during the past month and which have reached + the author's ears from many quarters, and have grieved him + exceedingly. By one set of intimate acquaintances, especially well- + informed, he has been killed outright; by another, driven mad; by a + third, imprisoned for debt; by a fourth, left per steamer for the + United States; by a fifth, rendered incapable of mental exertion for + evermore; by all, in short, represented as doing anything but seeking + by a few weeks' retirement, the restoration of cheerfulness and peace, + of which a sad bereavement has necessarily deprived him. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. THE PICKWICK CLUB + + +This was a common form of social meeting, and we find in the memoirs of +Adolphus and John Taylor and Frederick Reynolds descriptions of the "Keep +the Line," "The Finish," and other oddly-named societies. The cheerful +glass was the chief object. Mr. Lowten's Club, "The Magpie and Stump," +in Clare Market, supplies a specimen of a lower class club. "Veels +vithin veels," as Sam would say. + +In his speech at Dulwich, at the close of the book, Mr. Pickwick spoke +rather pathetically of the closing of his wanderings. "I shall never +forget having devoted the greater part of two years to mixing with +different varieties and shades of human character, frivolous as my +pursuit of novelty may have appeared to many." He spoke of the club +also, to which "he had communicated both personally and by letter," +acquainting them with his intention of withdrawing from public life to +the country. He added that "during our long absence it had suffered much +from internal dissensions," and this, with other reasons, had obliged him +to dissolve it. This "absence," both as planned and carried out, was +merely occasional. Mr. Pickwick and his friends were rarely, and only +now and then, absent from town, going away for short spells, save, of +course, the enforced absence in the Fleet Prison and the months or weeks +(as it may be) in Bath. "The George and Vulture" was not far from Huggin +Lane, so Mr. Pickwick must have been constantly at the Club, or _could_ +have been had he chosen to go there. All this notion of severance, +therefore, was somewhat sentimental. + +But the "dissensions" the President spoke of were natural enough. He was +the founder and mainstay of the association--probably paid its expenses. +The whole object of the institution, it may be suspected, was to exalt +the founder. In such a state of things, it was natural that there should +be an opposition, or discontented party, headed by "that Blotton." When +Blotton was got rid of, his friends would think that he had been badly +treated and take advantage of the occasional absences of the chief to +foment revolt. Then Blotton was expelled, assuredly unfairly, for he +merely took the opposite view on the Cobham stone, and he might have left +some who belonged to his faction and who thought he had been harshly +dealt with. Mr. Pickwick, in fact, merely returned from his agreeable +junketting to have this gentleman expelled. Despotism of this sort +always leads to discontent and parties--hence the "dissensions." Mr. +Pickwick, from his treatment of Blotton, must have been a Tory of the old +Eldon school. Here was his blemish. He had no toleration for others, +and had an undue idea of his own position. We can trace the whole thing +perfectly. He was a successful man of business--an export merchant +apparently--being connected with an agent at Liverpool whom he had +"obliged." Round such a man who was good-natured and philanthropic would +gather flatterers and toadies; hence the suggestion to found a club with +his own name and "button." Of this he could be "Boss," and he was +listened to and courted. It was like the devotion of satellites to the +late Mr. Gladstone. We can see all this in the picture of the club at +the beginning, where, with the exception of the four legitimate +Pickwickians, all seem rather of the tradesman class, and are vulgar +types enough. In such surroundings, Mr. Pickwick could "rule the roast" +and grow despotic and even arrogant. + +Blotton, however, who seems to have been an independent sort of fellow, +could not submit to this, was of the Opposition, and, no doubt, a thorn +in Mr. Pickwick's side. And here is yet another point of the likeness to +the Johnsonian coterie. In "The Club," Hawkins--Sir John of that ilk--was +uncongenial--"a detestable fellow," Bozzy calls him--objecting, +quarrelling, and, at last, on one occasion was so rude that he had to +withdraw. Now, that this offence was rankling is evident, and it +explains the fracas which took place at the opening. Blotton looked on +Mr. Pickwick's travelling as pure humbug. The idea of his contributing +anything useful or instructive in his so-called reports seemed nonsense. +Further, was it not something of a job? Pickwick was taking three of his +own special "creatures" with him--Winkle, to whom he had been appointed +governor; Snodgrass, who was his ward; and Tupman, who was his butt and +toady. They were the _gentlemen_ of the club. None of the outsiders +were chosen. From Blotton's behaviour, too, on the Cobham business, it +is clear he thought Mr. Pickwick's scientific researches were also +"humbug." A paper by that gentleman had just been read--"The tracing of +the source of the ponds at Hampstead" and "Some observations on the +theory of tittlebats." There was somewhat too much of this "bossing." +The whole report read by the secretary was full of gross flatteries. They +had "just heard read with feelings of unmingled satisfaction and +unqualified approval," &c., "from which advantages must accrue to the +cause of science"--cause of rubbish! Then, it added, obsequiously, +something about "the _inestimable_ benefits from carrying the +speculations of that _learned_ man" &c. Mr. Pickwick, in his speech, was +certainly self-laudatory and provocative. He talked of his pride in +promoting the Tittlebatian theory, and "let _his enemies make the most of +it_." This was marked enough, and no doubt caused looks at Blotton. Then +he began to puff his new enterprise at "a service of some danger." + +There were, were there not, upsets of coaches "in all directions," horses +bolting--boats overturning, and boilers bursting? Now, Blotton--after +all the humbug that had gone before, and particularly after a provocative +reference to himself--could not stand this, and, amid the obsequious +cries and "cheers," said, boldly, "No!" (A Voice: "No!") That is, +signifying there were no such dangers. The fury of the orator on "the +Windsor chair," was quite Gladstonian. "No!" he cried; on which the +cheers of his followers broke out. "Who was it that cried No?" Then he +proceeded to imagine it came from some "vain and disappointed man--he +wouldn't say haberdasher." + +To the Pickwick Club there was a Vice-President, named Smiggers--Joseph +Smiggers, Esq., P.V.P.M.P.C., that is, Perpetual Vice-President and +Member of the Pickwick Club. Smiggers was, of course, supposed to be +"Pickwick's creature," or he would not have been there. He was a tall, +corpulent man, with a soft face--as we see him in his picture. As Mr. +Pickwick speaks, it is remarkable that both Vice-President and +Secretary--the two officers--have each one arm raised as if in ecstatic +rapture--clear proof of their subservience to Pickwick. On Smiggers' +right is a "doddering" old fellow of between seventy and eighty--clearly +a "nullity"--on his left, another member nearly as old, but with a +glimmer of intelligence. Down the side of the table, facing the orator, +are some odd faces--one clearly a Jew; one for whom the present Mr. +Edward Terry might have sat. Blotton is at the bottom, half turned away +in disgust. His neighbour looks at him with wonder, as who should say, +"How can you be so insensible?" Odd to say--and significant, too--Blotton +has brought into the club his _dog_, a ferocious looking "bull," which +sits at his feet under the table. We should say, on the whole, that +Blotton could only count on--and that, with but a limited sympathy--the +Terry-faced and Jew-faced men--if he _could_ count on them. The +Secretary was like a clerk--a perky fellow--and had a pen behind his ear; +probably in some Bank or Counting House, so strong is habit. One member +of the Club alone is invisible--the one beyond Tupman--all that is seen +of him is a hand holding a tumbler as if about to drink. The Dodderer is +applauding; so are the Jew, Blotton and Tupman; so is the round-faced +man, just beyond the invisible one. + +Mr. Pickwick and his three friends being removed or absent, and Blotton +expelled, out of the fourteen members there were left but nine, whereof +we reckon four or five as Pickwickians and the rest as _Blottonites_. + +And how easily can we imagine the acrimonious discussions that went on! + +"This 'ere Pickwick, who was always making the club a hend to his own +glorification, had gone off on his touring to get more grist for his +mill." It was really, a "mutual admiration society," and as for the +reports, notes, &c., he was sending back "they 'ad 'ad enough of it." The +club didn't meet to be listening to long-winded yarns to be read out by +their worthy secretary, but for a glass and social intercourse. As for +the "travels and preambulations," what were they more than visits to +genteel 'ouses where Pickwick was "showing oft" at their expense? Then +where were the "Sportin' transactions?" The whole thing was "rot." Then +the Cobham stone business, at which the whole town was laughing, and +which their worthy friend Blotton had exposed. Blotton was the only long- +headed, creditable man they had. _He_ ought to have been their +president. But he had been turned out by the "_lick-spittles_" of the +society. + + + + +CHAPTER X. ROADSIDE INNS + + +I.--The Bell at Berkeley Heath + + +In the animated journey, from Bristol to Birmingham, the travellers +stopped at various posting-houses where the mercurial Sawyer would insist +on getting down to lunch, dine, or otherwise refresh--his friends being +always ready to comply after a little decent hesitation. It was thus +that they drew up at The Bell at Berkeley Heath, which our writer +presently sketches. It will be seen there is more of the drink at the +Bell than of the Bell itself. It is, indeed, no more than _coecum +nomen_--much as though we read the name at the end of "Bradshaw"--yet, +somehow, from the life and movement of the journey, it offers a sort of +attraction: it seems familiar, and we have an interest in it. The Bell +now "goes on," as the proprietor tells me. There are travellers who come +there and drink Boz's health in the snug parlour. It is, in fact, a +Pickwickian Inn, and is drawn within the glamour of the legend, and, what +a marvel! the thing is done by the magic of those three or four lines. +"The Bell," says Mrs. Hooper, "lies back on the main road from Bristol to +Gloucester, and is just nineteen miles from Bristol. It is a rambling +old house and a good deal dilapidated, and of good age." + +With this meagre record it yet offers such Pickwickian interest that, not +many months ago, a photograph was taken of it which was engraved for the +_Daily Graphic_. There is no Mr. Pickwick's room to be shown, as +undoubtedly there _would_ be had that gentleman only stayed the night +there; but he only lunched and then went forward. There is a mistiness +as to whether the Pickwickians sat in the public coffee-room or had a +private "settin'-room." It was to a certainty the coffee-room, as they +only stayed a short time. So the proprietor, with a safe conscience, +might exhibit "the room where Mr. Pickwick lunched." On the face is +imbedded a tablet bearing the date 1729, and there is an ancient farmer +close by who was born in "The Bell" in the year 1820. If we lend +ourselves properly to the delusion, he might recall Mr. Pickwick's chaise +drawing up full sixty years ago. "Ay, I mind it well. I were joost then +fifteen. A stoutish gent in gaiters--might 'ave been a bishop--and sich +a lively young chap as wos with him, full o' spirits, chucking a' the +gurls under the chins. And their sarvant! O _he_ were one. Sam, he +were caa'd--I moind that--Sam Summut. And they caa'd for the best o' +everythin', and took away wi' them a lot, Madeary, and wot not," and so +on. + + + +II.--The Greyhound, Dulwich + + +Mr. Pickwick, as we know, at the close of his wanderings retired to this +tranquil and pleasant suburb--then much more retired than it is now. In +accordance with his habit of enshrining his own personal sympathies in +his writing, Boz was, as it were, conveying that it was such a +sequestered spot as he himself would choose under similar conditions. +Last year (1898), the interesting old road-side Inn, The Greyhound, was +levelled--an Inn to which Mr. Pickwick must have found his way in the +dull evening to drink "cold Punch" or preside at the club which he most +certainly--if we know him well--must have founded. A wealthy gentleman +of social tastes, and with a love for tavern life, would have no +difficulty in establishing a new Pickwick Club. + +At the Greyhound, nigh a century ago, there was actually a club which +entertained Tom Campbell, Mark Lemon, Byron's tutor, and many more. Boz +himself, we are told, used to find his way there with Theodore Hook, +Moore, and others. Boz, therefore, must have regarded this place with +much favour, owing to his own experiences of it--and to have selected it +for his hero's tranquil old age shows how high a place it had in his +memory. The description is charming and brings this sylvan retreat to +which we have walked many a time perfectly before us. + +This taste for surrounding himself with persons of lower degree--such as +were the rank and file--was curiously enough shared by Mr. Pickwick's +predecessor, Dr. Johnson, who, when he found the Literary Club somewhat +too much of a republic, and getting "out of hand," established a social +meeting at the Essex Head Club--in the street of that name, off the +Strand--composed in the main of respectable tradesmen, who would listen +obsequiously. Thus, it may be repeated, does the same sort of character +develop invariably on the same lines, and thus did Mr. Pickwick +unconsciously follow in the footsteps of the "great Lexicographer." + + + +III.--Grimaldi the Younger + + +As I was the first to point out, the powerful "Stroller's Tale" of which +Boz himself thought so highly, was founded on the career of the +unfortunate son of the great Grimaldi. The story is related by "Dismal +Jemmy," the actor, who, in the tale itself, is called Hutley, and it +corresponds in all its details with Grimaldi's history. He died in +September, 1832, nearly four years before Pickwick was thought of, but +Boz had learned the incident long before the Grimaldi MSS. were given him +to edit, and I am inclined to think he must have learned them from his +friend Harley who was intimate with the Grimaldis. In the memoirs it is +stated that Gledinning, a Printer, was sent by the father to his son's +dying bed, and he was probably the Hutley of the Stroller's Tale, and, +perhaps, the person who brought old Grimaldi the news of his death. We +are told in the "Tale" that he had an engagement "at one of the Theatres +on the Surrey side of the water," and in the memoirs we find that he was +offered "an engagement for the Christmas at the Coburg." There his death +is described:--"He rose in bed, drew up his withered limbs--he was +acting--he was at the Theatre. He then sang some roaring song. The +walls were alive with reptiles, frightful figures flitted to and fro . . . +His eyes shone with a lustre frightful to behold, the lips were +parched and cracked, the dry, hard skin glowed with a burning heat, and +there was an almost unearthly air of wild anxiety in the man's face." +Hutley also describes how he had to hold him down in his bed. Compare +with this the account in the memoirs--"his body was covered with a +fearful inflammation--he died in a state of wild and furious madness, +rising from his bed, dressing himself in stage costume to act snatches of +the parts, and requiring to be held down to die by strong manual force." +This dreadful scene took place at a public house in Pitt Street, out of +Tottenham Court Road. + +"The man I speak of," says Boz in the story, "was a low, pantomime actor +and an habitual drunkard. In his better days he had been in the receipt +of a good salary. His besetting sin gained so fast on him that it was +found impossible to employ him in the situations in which he really was +useful." In the "memoirs" this is more than supported: "The man who +might have earned with ease and comfort from six to seven hundred a year, +was reduced to such a dreadful state of destitution and filth . . . In +fact, at one time, it was thought he might have succeeded his father." + +It is quite plain, therefore, that Boz was recalling this tragic episode. +Boz remarks that pantomime actors--clowns and others "either die early +or, by unnaturally taxing their bodily energies, lose prematurely their +physical powers." This was what occurred to Grimaldi, the father, whose +curious decay he was to describe later in the memoirs. It may be added +that there is an Alderman Harmer, Hatton Garden, mentioned in the +memoirs, with whom Grimaldi _pere_ had some dealings; and, long after, +this name was introduced by Boz into "Our Mutual Friend." + + + + +CHAPTER XI. MR. PICKWICK'S PROTOTYPE + + +We had a narrow escape of losing our Pickwick and his familiar type. The +original notion was to have "a tall, long, thin man," and only for the +late Edward Chapman, who providentially thought of the Richmond +gentleman, Foster, we should have lost for ever the short, rotund +Pickwick that we so love and cherish. A long, thin Pickwick! He could +not be amiable, or benevolent, or mild, or genial. But what _could_ such +a selection mean? Why, that Boz saw an opening for humorous treatment in +introducing a purblind, foolish Professor, or scientist--one with +spectacles--prying into this and that, taking notes &c. As Winkle was +the sportsman, Tupman, the lover, Snodgrass, the poet, so Mr. Pickwick +was to be a sort of Pangloss or Dominie Sampson. His curiosity and love +of enquiry were to get him into scrapes, just as Mr. Winkle's sham +sportsmanship was to get him into embarrassments. In fact, the first +appearance in Seymour's plate--the scene with the cabman--shows him as +quite a different Pickwick; with a sour, cantankerous face; not in +"tights," but in a great coat; he is scarcely recognisable. Seymour was +then determined to show him after his own ideal. But when the poor +artist destroyed himself the great man was brought up to the fitting +type. So undecided were the parties about that type that the author had +to leave it altogether an open question--a _tabula rasa_--not announcing +that his hero was either tall or short, fat or lean, pale or rosy; all he +commits himself to in his opening chapter is that he was bald, that he +wore tights and gaiters, and, what is rather singular, _circular +spectacles_. I suppose, in contrast to the more elongated glasses. + +It might be an interesting question for the "paper of questions," "Why +did Mr. Pickwick wear circular spectacles?" Was there any local +weakness? The artist never forgot this direction. In the author of the +Tittlebatian system, &c., the "circular spectacles" would impart a sort +of wise and owl-like stare. It was, of course, due to Chapman, the +publisher, and was another of his "happy suggestions." + +This Mr. Foster, of Richmond--fortunately for himself--was not known to +be the original of "Pickwick," though many must have been struck by the +likeness, both in physique and costume, to the picture. It is not stated +that the features were copied, though, no doubt, Chapman would have +vividly described them also; and Seymour was so ready and deft with his +pencil that he must have certainly caught the likeness even from the +description. We could fancy him rapidly making trial sketches, "Is that +near it?" "No, fatter in the cheeks." "Is _that_?" "No, forehead a +little higher, more bald," and so on. I myself was at Richmond, having +just come from school, about ten years after the appearance of +Pickwick--and for aught I know may have seen this Foster promenading it +on the Hill. There was no particular interest then in Pickwick--which +was somewhat forgotten, the interest being absorbed in the newer and +brilliant works which Boz was bringing out. The society there was +thoroughly Pickwickian; there were many old-fashioned figures, including +the Mr. Jesse at whom the "Ponto" story was directed. We were gay +enough. The old Star and Garter was flourishing. There were the +Assembly Rooms at the Castle Inn, with "Almack's Balls"; barges coming +down on Regatta days, when people danced on the deck and feasted in the +cabin. There were private parties and dinners, and the old +Theatre--Kean's, with the manager's house adjoining--was still standing +on the Green, opening fitfully enough for a few nights, and then closing +as fitfully. There I saw "The Green Bushes." Such a little Bandbox as +it was! There were the two wooden staircases _outside_, of quaint +appearance. Mr. Tupman may have been then alive and walking on the +Terrace. He had retired there just twenty years before. He had probably +rooms on the Green, near Maid of Honour Row. This little sketch shows +clearly that Richmond is very nearly associated with Pickwick. But here +comes in another reminiscence of Richmond, for there rises before me, +about a dozen years after the appearance of the book, the image of a very +Pickwickian figure--bald and "circular," cozy, wearing a white tie and +glasses--a favourite gossip with all the ladies--no other indeed than +Maria Edgworth's brother. He was a florid, good-humoured personage, a +great talker, knew everybody in the place, and, like Mr. Pickwick, was an +old bachelor, and kept an important housekeeper. He was genial and +hospitable, would give parties, dinners, and dances. But the likeness in +physique was the oddest part. + +As the outside of Foster, of Richmond, supplied Mr. Pickwick's outside +and habit as he lived, so his "in'ards," or character, was also turned to +profit and not wasted. And here suggests itself a very likely +speculation. This image of the Richmond Foster was before him; through +the book he thought of the old Beau and the ladies' protests. The +amorous element would not do for his hero, for whom he had other work; +but while he left the physique to Pickwick he certainly transferred the +_character_ to one of his leading figures. That this is not fanciful +will be seen. Mr. Chapman described Foster as "a fat old Beau": he was +very popular, or, it may be, exceedingly well off. And at a place like +Richmond he would be very _recherche_. But is it not exactly suggestive +of Tupman--this "fat old Beau" devoted to the ladies? ("Because you are +too old, sir; and too fat, sir," said his chief.) And on the first +opportunity he _did_ get into tights, viz., as the brigand. What is more +convincing is that at the close Boz sent Tupman back to Richmond whence +he came, and where we are carefully assured "he walks constantly on the +Terrace during the summer months with a youthful and jaunty air which has +rendered him the admiration of the numerous elderly dames of single +condition who reside in the vicinity." Seeing Mr. Foster's occupation, I +really think that this accounts for the novelist's selection of Richmond. + +Mr. Chapman recalled that not even the persuasion of the Richmond ladies +could induce Mr. Foster, of Richmond, to forego his "tights" and +gaiters--and much amusement was caused by the idiosyncrasy. This +persistence, it is clear, was before Boz, who makes Mr. Pickwick abandon +his gaiters only at the Ball at Manor Farm, but we are distinctly told +"that it was the first time" he did so "within the memory of his oldest +friends." Thus we have Foster, of Richmond, brought into actual touch +with his double. Thus much for his physique, which, it is admitted, was +all that was drawn from Foster. But that friendly manner; that genial, +amiable nature which made him think "the whole world akin;" whence did +Boz import all that? I believe he found this genial, friendly type in +the very man who had suggested Foster, of Richmond, to him. That this is +not purely fanciful will be seen from an account of Edward Chapman kindly +supplied to me by one of his family. + +"He was a short, stoutish person, very good-humoured, an affectionate +family man, unaffected, and fond of the country. But touching his +character; the first feature that came into my mind was his extreme +justice; in my very earliest years I remember being impressed by it--one +_felt_ it: all actions and motives were judged with a catholicity and +charity that made us trust him implicity, and I see my sister has the +same remembrance. He was naturally of a quiet, easy disposition; not +much of a talker, but when he spoke he was always worth listening to. I +see also she mentions his sense of humour, when his eyes would light up +with a merry twinkle. I never remember hearing him say an unkind word to +anyone. It is very pleasant to hear that papa is to be mentioned in +connection with Pickwick, and I will gladly tell you all I can regarding +my impressions of his character and tastes, &c. We only saw him for a +short hour in the evening when he was tired after his day's work and +little inclined to talk, but we always had a child-like instinct of his +great justice and impartiality--an impression that I retained all through +his life. + +"Later on, at Tunbridge Wells, where we saw more of him, I learned to +admire his vast store of knowledge, as there was hardly a subject that I +asked for information on that he did not know a great deal about. Also +he had a great love of beauty in nature, and was never so happy as when +he had his favourite, shabby old hat on and a long stick, which he had +cut himself, in his hand, and poked about the grounds which surrounded +our house, inspecting the holly hedge and shrubs he had planted--in fact +it used to be a standing joke that he used to measure his holly bushes +every day to see how much they had grown in the night. He was perfectly +happy in such a life, as it suited his peaceful contented nature. + +"He was a man who never used a rough word to anyone, but his remarks, if +he were angry, could sting sharply. He had a fund of quiet humour, like +a Scotchman, and his sallies told all the more, as they generally came +when least expected and without an effort. Later on, I travelled with my +mother and him for several years and benefited greatly through his +knowledge and love of art, and his recognition and appreciation of all +that was good and worthy of admiration in foreign lands and peoples. He +had a soft heart, too, and was always ready to help those who asked for +aid." + +Next is introduced the prototype of Mr. Pickwick in a few touches:-- + +"There was an old family friend living at Richmond, named John Foster, +_not Forster_, who was quite a character, especially in his personal +appearance; it occurred to my father to introduce him to Dickens who had +just commenced the Pickwick Papers. Accordingly, they were invited to +meet one another at dinner, and, from this copy, Dickens turned out +Pickwick. + +"The trial in Pickwick was not originally written as it is given to the +public. The number was just coming out and in the hands of "the reader" +(I believe John Forster was my father's reader at that time, and had been +educated for the Bar), when the following occurred: Dickens was going to +dine that evening at my father's house; they were waiting for dinner to +be announced, when a messenger came in a great hurry (I think it must +have been from the reader) to say that Dickens was wrong on a point of +law, and that something must be done at once as the number was on the eve +of publication, and the printers were waiting. They rang the bell, +ordered dinner to be put back, and placed pen and paper before Dickens +who set to work at once and re-wrote part of the trial, there and then; +it was given to the messenger waiting in the hall, and Dickens sat down +to dinner with a comfortable feeling that the publication had been saved +in time. + +"I have given these anecdotes as we remember hearing them spoken about in +our home. I can picture the last one so well, the rapidity with which it +was done, the young author, my parents, and the pretty home in which it +took place. + +"My father's marriage was a romantic one. Visiting at Hitchin, he fell +in love with his next door neighbour, a very pretty little Quakeress, +dressed in the Quaker fashion of those days; her father was a very strict +Friend, and was made very uneasy at the attentions of this London lover; +but Mary was bright and vivacious, and encouraged him, and many were the +interviews contrived by the young couple. Their rooms were on the same +floor, though in different houses; my father, behind a piece of +furniture, bored a hole through the dividing wall, and the lovers slipped +notes backwards and forwards by this means. I am not aware that the +simple-hearted parents ever found it out. + +"But, at last, Mary was persuaded to leave her sheltered home and launch +out into the world by his side. They were married in the north of +England, from her brother's house; the bridegroom sending from London, +the day before the marriage, the dresses the little Quakeress was to robe +herself in when she slipped out of her garb. The fit must have been +greatly left to chance! + +"Being full of tact and of engaging manners, she proved an excellent +hostess, and well fitted for the position she held. + +"My father died 20th February, 1880, aged 76, and was buried at Hitchin, +beside my mother. He had long retired from business, and spent many +years abroad on account of my mother's health." + +This pleasing sketch quite suggests the account given by Sterne of his +father. There is a quaint, old-world air about it--and the traits are +really those of Mr. Pickwick in his later development. We could imagine +the latter at Dulwich examining and measuring his holly bushes. It would +not be too fanciful to suppose that Boz--constantly with him, dining with +him, and consulting him on every point--must have been impressed, and +influenced too, by those amiable qualities, particularly by that +unaffected simplicity and good-will which is also so notable in his hero. +So the figure stands thus--first, the long, thin man with Dry-as-dust +tastes: then the short, round philanthropist, whose externals were +suggested by the Foster, of Richmond, the latter's "internals" being +transferred to Tupman. Not only do "Vith and Visdom" go together, but +also "Vith" and good humour and benevolence, which Boz felt were +necessary adjuncts to such a physique. Where was he to find these? Now, +we know how much Boz was inclined to draw from what was before his eyes. +It saved him trouble and also set his imagination at work. The Cheeryble +Brothers, each a _Pickwick redivivus_, were taken from the Grant +Brothers, merchants, at Manchester. And here he had this very +exceptional character daily before him, in the person of Edward Chapman. +{84} + + + + +CHAPTER XII. THE CALVERLEY EXAMINATION PAPER + + +Few things have been more interesting to the Pickwickian, or have done +more to elevate Pickwickian study, than this celebrated _jeu d'esprit_. +Calverley, or Blayds--his original name--was a brilliant creature, well +known for his scholarship, verses, and sayings. He early obtained a +fellowship at Cambridge, and was one of the youngest "Dons." Like Dr. +Thomson, the celebrated Master, he is felt to be a characteristic and a +real personage, even by those little familiar with his work or writings. +He was, moreover, an ardent Pickwickian and thoroughly saturated with the +spirit of the immortal book, to appreciate which a first-rate memory, +which he possessed, is essential; for the details, allusions, names, +suggestions, are so immense that they require to be present together in +the mind, and jostle each other out of recollection. In the 'fifties, +there were at Cambridge a number of persons interested in the Book, who +were fond of quoting it and detecting oddities. It was in the year 1858 +or 1859--for, curious to say, the year cannot be fixed--that Calverley +conceived the _bizarre_ idea of offering a premium for the best answers +to a series of searching examination questions, drawn from this classic. +It was held at his own rooms at 7 o'clock in the evening, as Sir Walter +Besant, one of the candidates, recalls it. There were about a dozen +entered, the most formidable of whom were Skeat, the present professor of +Anglo-Saxon, a well-known Chaucerian scholar, and Sir Walter Besant +aforesaid. The latter describes the scene in very dramatic fashion--the +Examiner, in his gown, cap, and hood, gravely walking up and down during +the two hours the examination lasted, going through the ceremonial with +all the regular solemnity of the Senate House. The candidates, we are +told, expected a sort of jocose business, and were little prepared for +the "stiffness" of the questions which were of the deep and searching +kind they were accustomed to in the case of a Greek Play or a Latin Epic. +Almost at once, three-fourths showed by their helpless bewilderment that +the thing was beyond them; and the struggle lay between the two +well-versed Pickwickians--Besant and Skeat. The latter was known to have +his "Pickwick" at his fingers' ends, and Besant confessed that he had but +small hopes of success. Both plodded steadily through the long list of +questions. It should be said that the competition was open only to +members of Christ Church College, which thus excluded the greatest +reputed Pickwickian of them all, John Lempriere Hammond--the name, by the +way, of the "creator" of Sam Weller on the stage. Besant went steadily +through his list of questions to the end, revised his answers, and got +his paper ready for delivery, but Skeat worked on to the very last +moment. An evening or two later, as they were going into Hall, Calverley +pinned up his report on the board at the door just like one of the usual +University reports, and there was read the result:-- + +Besant . . . 1st Prize + +Skeat . . . 2nd Prize + +The authorities were not a little shocked at a liberty which assumed the +aspect of a burlesque of their own proceedings, and Calverley was spoken +to gently by a Don of the older school. The paper of questions certainly +shows what ability may be brought to bear on so trifling a matter; for +there is really a power of analysis and a grasp of "inner meaning" that +is most remarkable. Sir Walter has very acutely commented on this little +"exercise," and has shown that it reached much higher than a mere jest. +It brought out the extraordinary capacities of the book which have +exercised so many minds. For "The Pickwick Examination," he says, "was +not altogether a burlesque of a college examination; it was a very real +and searching examination in a book which, brimful as it is of merriment, +mirth, and wit, is just as intensely human as a book can be. The +characters are not puppets in a farce, stuck up only to be knocked down: +they are men and women. Page after page, they show their true characters +and reveal themselves; they are consistent; even when they are most +absurd they are most real; we learn to love them. It is a really serious +test paper; no one could answer any of it who had not read and re-read +the Pickwick Papers, and acquired, so to speak, a mastery of the subject. +No one could do well in the examination who had not gone much further +than this and got to know the book almost by heart. It was a most +wonderful burlesque of the ordinary College and Senate House examination, +considering the subject from every possible point of view. Especially is +it rich in the department then dear to Cambridge: the explanation of +words, phrases, and idioms." + +Some of these cruxes, Sir Walter tells us, could not be solved by the +examiner, and were laid before Boz himself, with a copy of the questions. +Needless to say, Boz was infinitely amused, but, to the general +disappointment, could or would give no information. The answer of +Browning on a similar appeal is well known--he referred his questioners +to the Browning Society, as knowing as much as he did on the point. There +is no doubt that this is the true philosophy of the thing: that, once his +ideas are in print, the author has no more to do with them or their +meaning than anyone else has. The passages must speak for themselves; +they are children sent into the world--helpless infants like those +Pickwickian "expletives, let loose upon society." Among these +unexplained things were "my Prooshan Blue" and "Old Nobs." Sir Walter, +with real Pickwickian sagacity, points to a true explanation which may be +applied in other cases. "Probably it was a phrase _which he had heard in +a crowd_, and had never asked himself what it meant," _i.e._, it seemed +appropriate, and what a person in such a case would use. This is in fact +part of that "hallucination" of which G. H. Lewes spoke; the scene came +so completely before Boz that the words and phrases suggested themselves +to him and could not be denied, and he did not ask them to give any +account. This principle, however, does not hinder an amusing display of +speculation. Mr. Andrew Lang's explanation of "My Prooshan Blue" is +certainly far fetched. He thinks it refers to a dreamy notion of George +IV., who, at one moment, thought of changing the British uniform to the +Prussian Blue. Now, this was not known at the time, and came out years +later. It had certainly not reached persons of the Weller class. The +truth is that most of Sam's grotesque epithets, _e.g._, "young Brokiley +sprout," were the arbitrary coinage of a fantastic mind. This, too, as +Sir Walter said, "he may have heard in a crowd," or in the mazes of his +own brain. "Old Nobs" is just as reasonable as Hamlet's "Old Truepenny." +"Are you there, Old Truepenny," might have been said by Sam to his +father, as Hamlet addressed it to _his_. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. PICKWICK IN REAL LIFE + + +I.--Dowler and John Forster + + +The truculent Dowler figured before in "The Tuggs at Ramsgate"--a very +amusing and Pickwickian tale--under the title of Capt. Waters, who +exhibits the same simulated ferocity and jealousy of his spouse. +Cruickshank's sketch, too, of the Captain is like that of Dowler when +throwing up the window in the Crescent. Mrs. Waters is made as +attractive as Mrs. Dowler, and Cymon Tuggs, like Winkle, excites the +jealousy of the husband. + +"Stop him," roared Dowler, "hold him--keep him tight--shut him in till I +come down--I'll cut his throat--give me a knife--from ear to ear, Mrs. +Craddock, I will." And Captain Waters: "Ah! what do I see? Slaughter, +your sabre--unhand me--the villain's life!" + +In the same story we have an anticipation of another incident: the +shutting up and detection of Pipkin in the cupboard, who is discovered by +a pipe being required, just as young Tuggs was by his coughing from the +tobacco smoke. Boz was partial to this method of discovery, for, at the +close, Snodgrass was thus concealed and shut up at Osborne's Hotel. His +detection, through the stupidity of the Fat Boy, is singularly natural +and original. + +Some of Dowler's dictatorial ways may have been suggested by Boz's +friend, the redoubtable John Forster. There is one passage in the Bath +chapters where we almost seem to hear our old friend speaking, when he +took command of his friends and introduced them, "My friend, Angelo Cyrus +Bantam, Esquire, know each other." "Bantam; Mr. Pickwick and his friends +are strangers. _They must put their names down_. _Where's the book_?" +Then adds: "This is a long call. It's time to go; I shall be here again +in an hour. _Come_." And at the assembly he still continued his +patronage and direction of everybody. "Step in the tea-room--take your +sixpenn'orth. They lay on hot water and call it tea. Drink it," said +Mr. Dowler, _in a loud voice_, _directing Mr. Pickwick_." Forster "all +over." We have heard him "direct" on many an occasion. When starting +from the White Horse Cellars, Dowler, fancying that more passengers were +to be squeezed into the coach, said he would be d---d if there were; he'd +bring an action against the company, and take a post chaise. + + + +II.--Thackeray + + +In Thackeray's "Newcomes," the writer had some reminiscences of a place +like Eatanswill, for we are told of the rival newspapers, "The Newcome +Independent" and "The Newcome Sentinel," the former being edited by one +Potts. These journals assailed each other like their brethren in +"Pickwick." "Is there any man in Newcome except, perhaps, our _twaddling +old contemporary_, _the Sentinel_," &c. Doyle's picture of the election +is surely a reminiscence of Phiz's. There is the same fight between the +bandsmen--the drum which someone is kicking a hole in, the brass +instrument used, placards, flags, and general _melee_. + +Doyle could sketch Forster admirably. Witness the drawing of the +travelling party in a carriage, given by Mr. Kitton in his wonderful +collection, "Dickens, by pen and pencil," where he has caught Forster's +"magisterial" air to the life. The picture, "F. B.," Fred Bayham in the +story, is certainly the figure of Forster (vol. ii., pp. 55 and 116.) F. +B. is shown both as a critic and pressman, though he has nothing of J. +F.'s domineering ways. Again, the waiter, speaking of Lord Highgate, +said he was a _most harbitrary gent_. This refers to the memorable story +of Forster being summoned by the cabman who said he did so because "he +were such a harbitrary cove." The truth was, Forster knew the distance +to a yard, and would tender the cabman his exact fare and no more. Once, +dining with Forster at a hotel in the country where he had rooms, we lit +our cigars after dinner, on which the waiter remonstrated, saying it was +not allowed. Then I knew the meaning of a "Harbitrary Cove." How the +irate Forster blew him up, roared at him, and drove him out, terrified! +It was, indeed, Dowler threatening the coach proprietor. + +Thackeray would of course have known the story; he meant a sort of veiled +allusion which had or had not a reference. We have the key to this sort +of thing in the strange, uncomplimentary reference to Catherine Hayes, +the murderess, but which was at once applied to an interesting and +celebrated Irish singer of the same name. The author must have +anticipated this, and, perhaps, chuckled over the public ignorance, but +the allusion was far-fetched. In the same fashion a dramatist once chose +to dub one of his characters by my own rather unusual name, on which he +protested that he never dreamt of it, that others bore it; still he, +however, was obliged to remove it. + +Again, on p. 55 we have this passage: "I was thirsty, having walked from +"Jack Straw's Castle," at Hampstead, where poor Kiteley and I had been +taking a chop." This was written in 1855, only a few years after +Forster's admirable performance of Kiteley with the other amateurs in +"Every man in his humour." "Jack Straw's Castle," too, was a regular +haunt of Forster and Dickens. It is as certain as anything can be that +this allusion was not an accidental one. + + + +III.--Tupman + + +Tupman's relations to Mr. Pickwick were somewhat peculiar; he was +elderly--about Mr. Pickwick's age--whereas Winkle and Snodgrass were +young fellows under Mr. Pickwick's guardianship. Over them he could +exercise despotic authority; which he did, and secured obedience. It was +difficult to do this in the case of his contemporary, Tupman, who +naturally resented being "sat upon." In the incident of the _Fete_ at +Mrs. Leo Hunter's, and the Brigand's dress--"the two-inch tail," Mr. +Pickwick was rather insulting and injudicious, gibing at and ridiculing +his friend on the exhibition of his corpulence, so that Tupman, stung to +fury, was about to assault him. Mr. Pickwick had to apologise, but it is +clear the insult rankled; and it would appear that Tupman was never +afterwards much in the confidence of his leader, and, for that matter, in +the confidence of his author. Boz, either consciously or unconsciously, +felt this. Tupman, too, never seems to have got over the figure he "cut" +in the spinster aunt business, and the loss of general respect. + +Still he submitted to be taken about under Mr. Pickwick's patronage, but +soon the mutual irritation broke out. The occasion was the latter's +putting on speckled stockings for the dance at Manor Farm. "_You_ in +silk stockings," exclaimed Tupman, jocosely; a most natural, harmless +remark, considering that Mr. Pickwick invariably wore his gaiters at +evening parties. But the remark was hotly resented, and challenged. "You +see nothing extraordinary in the stockings _as_ stockings, I trust, sir?" +Of course his friend said "No, certainly not," which was the truth, but +Mr. Pickwick put aside the obvious meaning. Mr. Tupman "walked away," +wishing to avoid another altercation, afraid to trust himself; and Mr. +Pickwick, proud of having once more "put him down," assumed his +"customary benign expression." This did not promise well. + +In all the Manor Farm jollity, we hear little or nothing of Tupman, who +seems to have been thought a cypher. No doubt he felt that the girls +could never look at him without a smile--thinking of the spinster aunt. +In the picture of the scene, we find this "old Buck" in the foreground, +on one knee, trying to pickup a pocket handkerchief and holding a young +lady by the hand. Snodgrass and his lady are behind; Winkle and his +Arabella on the other side; Trundle and his lady at the fire. Then who +was Tupman's young woman? She is not mentioned in the text, yet is +evidently a prominent personage--one of the family. At Ipswich, he was +crammed into the sedan chair with his leader--two very stout +gentlemen--which could not have increased their good humour, though +Tupman assisted him from within to stand up and address the mob. We are +told that "all Mr. Tupman's entreaties to have the lid of the vehicle +closed" were unattended to. He felt the ridicule of his position--a +sedan chair carried along, and a stout man speaking. This must have +produced friction. Then there was the sense of injustice in being +charged with aiding and abetting his leader, which Mr. Pickwick did not +attempt to clear him from. When Mr. Pickwick fell through the ice, +Tupman, instead of rendering help, ran off to Manor Farm with the news of +the accident. + +Then the whole party went down to Bath and, during their stay there, we +have not a word of Tupman. He came to see his friend in the Fleet--with +the others of course. But now for the remarkable thing. On Mr. +Pickwick's happy release and when every one was rejoining, Wardle invited +the whole party to a family dinner at the Osborne. There were Snodgrass, +Winkle, Perker even, but no Tupman! Winkle and his wife were at the +"George and Vulture." Why not send to Tupman as well. No one perhaps +thought of him--he had taken no interest in the late exciting adventures, +had not been of the least help to anybody--a selfish old bachelor. When +Mr. Pickwick had absented himself looking for his Dulwich house, it is +pointed out with marked emphasis that certain folk--"among whom was Mr. +Tupman"--maliciously suggested that he was busy looking for a wife! +Neither Winkle nor Snodgrass started this hypothesis, but Tupman. He, +however, was at Dulwich for Winkle's marriage, and had a seat on the +Pickwick coach. In later days, we learn that the Snodgrasses settled +themselves at Dingley Dell so as to be near the family--the Winkles, at +Dulwich, to be near Mr. Pickwick, both showing natural affection. The +selfish Tupman, thinking of nobody but himself, settled at Richmond where +he showed himself on the Terrace with a youthful and jaunty air, "trying +to attract the elderly single ladies of condition." All the others kept +in contact with their chief, asking him to be godfather, &c. But we have +not a word of Tupman. It is likely, with natures such as his, that he +never forgot the insulting remark about his corpulence. That is the way +with such vain creatures. + +Boz, I believe, had none of these speculations positively before him, but +he was led by the logic of his story. He had to follow his characters +and their development; they did not follow him. + + + +IV.--Grummer + + +This well drawn sketch of an ignorant, self-sufficient constable is +admirable. I have little doubt that one of the incidents in which he +figures was suggested to _Boz_ by a little adventure of Grimaldi's which +he found in the mass of papers submitted to him, and which he worked up +effectively. A stupid and malicious old constable, known as "Old Lucas," +went to arrest the clown on an imaginary charge, as he was among his +friends at the theatre. As in the case of Grummer, the friends, like +Winkle and Snodgrass, threatened the constable. The magistrate heard the +case, sentenced Grimaldi to pay 5s. fine. Old Lucas, in his +disappointment, arrested him again. Being attacked by Grimaldi, as +Grummer was by Sam, he drew his staff and behaved outrageously. The +magistrate then, like Nupkins, had him placed in the dock, and sentenced. + +It has also been stated that Grummer was drawn from Towshend--the +celebrated Bow Street Runner again introduced in "Oliver Twist." Towshend +was a privileged person, like Grummer, and gave his advice familiarly to +the magistrates. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. CHARACTERISTICS + + +I.--The Wardle Family + + +Here is a very pleasing and natural group of persons, in whom it is +impossible not to take a deep interest. They are like some amiable +family that we have known. Old Wardle, as he is called, though he was +under fifty, was a widower, and had remained so, quite content with his +daughters' attachment. He had his worthy old mother to live with him, to +whom he was most dutiful, tolerant, and affectionate. These two points +recommend him. There was no better son than Boz himself, so he could +appreciate these things. The sketch is interesting as a picture of the +patriarchal system that obtained in the country districts, all the family +forming one household, as in France. For here we have Wardle, his +mother, and his sister, together with his two pleasing daughters, while, +later on, his sons-in-law established themselves close by. The "poor +relations" seem to have been always there. It is astonishing how Boz, in +his short career, could have observed and noticed these things. Wardle's +fondness for his daughters is really charming, and displayed without +affectation. He connected them with the image of his lost wife. There +is no more natural, truly affecting passage than his display of +fretfulness when he got some inkling that his second daughter was about +to make a rather improvident marriage with young Snodgrass. The first +had followed her inclinations in wedding Trundle--a not very good +match--but he did not lose her as the pair lived beside him. He thought +Emily, however, a pretty girl who ought to do better, and he had his eye +on "a young gentleman in the neighbourhood"--and for some four or five +months past he had been pressing her to receive his addresses favourably. +This was clearly a good match. Not that he would unduly press her, but +"if she _could_, for I would never force a young girl's inclinations." He +never thought, he says, that the Snodgrass business was serious. But, +how natural that, when Arabella, their friend, had become a regular +heroine and had gone off with her Winkle, that this should fill Emily's +head with similar thoughts, and set the pair on thinking that they were +persecuted, &c. What a natural scene is this between father and +daughter. + + "My daughter Bella, Emily having gone to bed with a headache after she + had read Arabella's letter to me, sat herself down by my side the + other evening, and began to talk over this marriage affair. "Well, + pa," she says; "what do you think of it?" "Why, my dear," I said; "I + suppose it's all very well; I hope it's for the best." I answered in + this way because I was sitting before the fire at the time, drinking + my grog rather thoughtfully, and I knew my throwing in an undecided + word now and then would induce her to continue talking. Both my girls + are pictures of their dear mother, and as I grow old I like to sit + with only them by me; for their voices and looks carry me back to the + happiest period of my life, and make me, for the moment, as young as I + used to be then, though not quite so light-hearted. "It's quite a + marriage of affection, pa," said Bella, after a short silence. "Yes, + my dear," said I; "but such marriages do not always turn out the + happiest." "I am sorry to hear you express your opinion against + marriages of affection, pa," said Bella, colouring a little. "I was + wrong; I ought not to have said so, my dear, either," said I patting + her cheek as kindly as a rough old fellow like me could do it, "for + your mother's was one and so was yours." "It's not that, I meant, + pa," said Bella. "The fact is, pa, I wanted to speak to you about + Emily." The long and the short of it is, then, that Bella at last + mustered up courage to tell me that Emily was unhappy; that she and + your young friend Snodgrass had been in constant correspondence and + communication ever since last Christmas; that she had very dutifully + made up her mind to run away with him, in laudable imitation of her + old friend and schoolfellow. + +Another member of this pleasant household was "The Fat Boy." There is +nothing humorous or farcical in the mere physical exhibition of a fat +person, _qua_ his fat. It was, indeed, the fashion of the day--and on +the stage particularly--to assume that fatness was associated with +something comic. There are a number of stout persons in Pickwick--the +hero himself, Tupman, old Weller, and all the coachmen, the turnkeys, +Slammer, Wardle, Fat Boy, Nupkin's cook, Grummer, Buzfuz, Mrs. Weller, +Mr. Bagman's uncle, and others. Thackeray attempted to work with this +element in the case of Jos Sedley, and his fatness had a very close +connection with his character. But, in the case of Boz, his aim was much +more intellectual and, as it were, refined. For his object was to show +what was a fat person's view of this world, as seen through the medium of +Fat. The Fat Boy is not a selfish, sensual being by nature--he is really +helpless, and the creature of necessity who is forced by his bulk to take +a certain _fat_ view of everything round him." If we reflect on it we +shall see how clearly this is carried out. It is curious that, in the +instance of the Fat Boy, Boz should have repeated or duplicated a +situation, and yet contrived to impart such varied treatment, but I +suspect no one has ever noticed the point. Joe, it will be remembered, +witnessed the proceedings in the arbour, when Mr. Tupman declared his +passion for the spinster aunt, and the subsequent embracing--to the great +embarrassment of the pair. At the close of the story he also intruded on +another happy pair--Mr. Snodgrass and his _inamorata_--at a similar +delicate moment. Yet in the treatment, how different--"_I wants to make +yer flesh creep_!"--his taking the old lady into confidence; and then he +was pronounced by his master, Wardle, to be under some delusion--"let me +at him"--&c., so his story and report led him into a scrape. When he +intruded on the pair at Osborne's Hotel, and Snodgrass was, later, shut +up there, again he was made the scapegoat, and Wardle insisted that he +was drunk, &c. So here were the incidents repeating themselves. + + + +II.--Shooting, Riding, Driving, etc. + + +Boz declared in one of his Prefaces that he was so ignorant of country +sports, that he could not attempt to deal with them in a story. +Notwithstanding this protest, he has given us a couple of shooting scenes +which show much experience of that form of field sports. There is a tone +of sympathy and freshness, a keen enjoyment of going forth in the +morning, which proves that he himself had taken part in such things. Rook- +shooting was then an enjoyable sport, and Boz was probably thinking of +the rooks at Cobham, where he had no doubt hovered round the party when a +lad. As we know, Mr. Tupman, who was a mere looker-on, was "peppered" by +his friend Winkle, a difficult thing to understand, as Winkle must have +been firing high into the trees, and if he hit his friend at all, would +have done so with much more severity. The persons who were in serious +danger from Mr. Winkle's gun were the boys in the trees, and we may +wonder that one, at least, was not shot dead. But the whole is so +pleasantly described as to give one a perfect _envie_ to go out and shoot +rooks. There are some delightful touches, such as Mr. Pickwick's alarm +about the climbing boys, "for he was not quite certain that the distress +in the agricultural interest, might not have compelled the small boys +attached to the soil to earn a precarious and hazardous existence by +making marks of themselves for inexperienced sportsmen." And again, "the +boy shouted and shook a branch with a nest on it. _Half-a-dozen young +rooks in violent conversation flew out to ask what the matter was_." Does +not this bring the whole scene before us. + +The other shooting scene is near Bury St. Edmunds--on Sir Geoffrey +Manning's grounds--on September 1st, 1830, or 1827, whichever Boz +pleases, when "many a young partridge who strutted complacently among the +stubble with all his finical coxcombry of youth, and many an older one +who watched his levity out of his little, round eye with the contemptuous +air of a bird of wisdom and experience, alike unconscious of their +approaching doom, basked in the fresh morning air with lively and +blithesome feelings, and, a few hours later, were laid low upon the +earth." Here we have the beginning of that delightful fashion of +Dickens's, which he later carried to such perfection, of associating +human feelings and associations with the animal creation, and also +inanimate objects. + +Everything connected with "the shooting" is admirably touched: The old, +experienced "shot," Wardle; the keepers and their boys; the dogs; the +sham amateurs; the carrying of the guns "reversed arms, like privates at +a funeral." Mr. Winkle "flashed and blazed and smoked away without +producing any material results; at one time expending his charge in mid- +air, and at others sending it skimming along so near the surface of the +ground as to place the lives of the two dogs on a rather uncertain and +precarious tenure. 'What's the matter with the dogs' legs? How _queer_ +they're standing!' whispered Mr. Winkle. 'Hush, can't you! Don't you +see they are making a point?' said Wardle. 'Making a point?' said Mr. +Winkle, glaring about him, as if he expected to discern some particular +beauty in the landscape which the sagacious animals were calling special +attention to. 'What are they pointing at?' 'Keep your eyes open,' said +Wardle, not heeding the question in the excitement of the moment. 'Now +then.'" How natural and humorous is all this. + +This was partridge shooting, "old style"--delightful and inspiriting, as +all have felt who have shared in it. Now we have "drives" on a vast +scale; then you would follow the birds from field to field "marking them +down." I myself with an urchin, a dog, and a single-barrelled old gun +have thus followed a few precious birds from field to field all the day +and secured them at the last. That was true enjoyment. + + + +III.--Horses and Driving in "Pickwick." + + +For one who so modestly disclaimed all knowledge of sporting and country +tastes, Boz shows a very familiar acquaintance with horses and their +ways. He has introduced a number of these animals whose points are all +distinctly emphasized: a number of persons are shown to be interested in +horses, who exhibit their knowledge of and sympathise with the animals, a +knowledge and sympathy which is but a reflection of his own. The cunning +hand that could so discriminate between shades of humorous characters +would not be at a loss to analyse traits of equine nature. There is the +cab horse, said to be forty years old and kept in the shafts for two or +three weeks at a time, which is depicted in Seymour's plate. How +excellently drawn are the two Rochester steeds: one "an immense brown +horse, displaying great symmetry of bone," which was to be driven by Mr. +Pickwick, and Mr. Winkle's riding animal, another immense horse +"apparently a near relative of the animal in the chaise." "He don't shy, +does he?" The ostler guaranteed him quiet--"a hinfant in arms might +drive him"--"He wouldn't shy if he met a whole waggon-load of monkeys +with their tails burnt off." A far more original illustration than +anything used by the Wellers, whose special form that was. I pass over +the details of the driving and the riding which show a perfect knowledge +of animals, such as "the tall quadruped." Nothing is more droll than the +description of the loathing with which the party came to regard the +animal they were compelled to lead about all day. Then we have the post +horses and all connected with them. There is Tom Smart's "vixenish +mare," quite an intelligent character in her way. The account of the +coach drive down to Muggleton shows admirable observation of the ways of +the drivers. + +Ben Allen's aunt had her private fly, painted a sad green colour drawn by +a "chubby sort of brown horse." I pass over the ghostly mailcoach horses +that flew through the night in "The Story of the Bagman's Uncle," flowing- +maned, black horses. There are many post horses figuring in Mr. +Pickwick's journey from Bristol to Birmingham and thence home; horses in +the rain and out of it. + +Namby's horse was "a bay, a well-looking animal enough, but with +something of a flash and dog-fighting air about him." The horses which +took the hackney coach to the Fleet jolted along as hackney coaches +usually do. "The horses 'went better,' the driver said, 'when they had +anything before them.' They must have gone at a most extraordinary pace +when there was nothing." Visiting the Fleet with Mrs. Weller and the +deputy Shepherd, Mr. Weller drove up from Dorking with the old piebald in +his chaise cart, which, after long delay, was brought out for the return +journey. "If he stands at livery much longer he'll stand at nothin' as +we go back." There is a capital scene at the opening of Chapter XLVI., +when the "cabrioilet" was drawing up at Mrs. Bardell's, and where so much +that is dramatic is "got out" of such a simple incident between the +contending directions. + + + +IV.--Mr. Pickwick in Silk Stockings. + + +How well Boz knew how to touch the chords of human character--a power +that certainly needs long experience to work--is shown by the scene at +Wardle's dance, where Mr. Pickwick is nettled by Tupman's remarking that +he was wearing "pumps" for the first time. "_You_ in silk stockings," +said that gentleman. Mr. Pickwick had just called attention to the +change which he considered a sort of public event to be admired by all. +"See this great man condescending to our frivolous tastes," and his host +had noted it in a flattering way. "You mean to dance?" But Tupman did +not look at it in this respectful way--he made a joke of it! "_You_ in +silk stockings." This was insolent to the grave, great man and +philosopher, so he turned sharply on his familiar: "And why not, sir--why +not?" This with warmth. The foolish Tupman, still inclined to be +jocose, said, "Oh, of course, there is no reason why you shouldn't wear +them"--a most awkward speech--as who should say, "This is a free +country--a man can wear a night cap in public if he chooses." "I imagine +not, sir--I imagine not," said Mr. Pickwick, in a _very peremptory_ tone. +Mr. Tupman had contemplated a laugh, but he found it was a serious +matter, so he looked grave, and said _they were a pretty pattern_. How +natural is all this! And still more so his leader's reply. "I hope they +are," he said, fixing his eyes upon his friend, "You see nothing +extraordinary in the stockings, _as_ stockings, I trust, sir." The +frightened Tupman said, "Certainly not, Oh, certainly not," and walked +away. Mr. Pickwick's face resumed its customary benign expression. This +little picture of weakness in an eminent man is characteristic. For +observe, when Tupman showed the folly of wearing a "two inch tail" to the +brigand's coat, Mr. Pickwick was furious, told him he was too old and too +fat; but when someone remarks on _his_ silk stockings he gets deeply +offended. His vanity is touched, there should have been no remark, or, +at least, only of admiration. He was, in fact, one of those flattered +and spoiled personages who cannot see any harm in their doing what they +reprove in others. Many a really great character is weak in this +direction. Observe the disingenuousness of the great man; he knew, +perfectly, that Tupman noticed nothing odd in the stockings, "_as_ +stockings," he meant the oddity of his wearing them at all, and he had +said so, plainly. But, ignoring this, the great man chose to assume that +he was insolently reflecting on their pattern as outlandish. With his +despotic pressure, he forced him to say they were of a "pretty pattern," +and thus vindicated his authority. + + + +V.--Violent Assaults, Shooting, &c + + +Duelling, imprisonment for debt, intoxication, elopements, are, perhaps, +the most striking social incidents in "Pickwick" that have disappeared +and become all but antiquarian in their character. Yet another, almost +as curious, was the ready recourse to physical force or violence--fistic +correction as it might be termed. A gentleman of quiet, restrained +habit, like Mr. Pickwick, was prepared, in case of call, either to +threaten or execute summary chastisement on anyone who offended him. The +police or magistrates seemed not to have been thought of, for the victim +would not think of appealing to either--all which seems strange to us +nowadays. At the Review even, the soldiers coolly overthrew Mr. Pickwick +and his friends who had got in their way. Winkle was maltreated so +severely that the blood streamed from his nose; this would not now be +tolerated. When Jingle affronted the great man by calling his friend +"Tuppy," Mr. Pickwick, we are told, "hurled the inkstand madly forward +and followed it up himself." This hurling of things at offenders was a +common incident, particularly in quarrels at table, when the decanter was +frequently so used, or a glass of wine thrown in the face. After the +adventure at the Boarding School, Mr. Pickwick "indented his pillow with +a tremendous blow," and announced that, if he met Jingle again, he would +"inflict personal chastisement on him"; while Sam declared that he would +bring "real water" into Job's eyes. Old Lobbs, in the story, was going +to throttle Pipkin. Mrs. Potts insisted that the editor of _The +Independent_ should be horsewhipped. More extraordinary still, old +Weller, at a quiet tea-meeting, assaulted the Shepherd, giving him "two +or three for himself, and two or three more to hand over to the man with +the red nose." Everyone set themselves right in this way and, it is +clear, knew how to use their "bunch of fives." Nor were there any +summonses or police courts afterwards; the incident was closed. Sam, +attempting to rescue his master at Ipswich, knocked down the "specials" +right and left, knocking down some for others to lie upon, yet he was +only fined two pounds for the first assault and three for the second--now +he would have been sent to jail under a severe sentence. Mrs. Raddle +insisted that her husband should get up and knock every one of the guests +down stairs, while Jack Hopkins offered to go upstairs and "pitch into +the landlord." At the Brick Lane meeting, Brother Stiggins, intoxicated, +knocked Brother Tadger down the stairs, while old Weller violently +assaulted Stiggins. At Bath, Dowler hunted Winkle round the Crescent, +threatening to cut his throat; and at Bristol, when the terrified Winkle +tried to ring the bell, Dowler fancied that he was going to strike him. +At Bristol, Ben Allen flourished the poker, threatening his sister's +rival, and when Mr. Pickwick sent Sam to capture Winkle, he instructed +him to knock him down even, if he resisted; this direction was given with +all seriousness. "If he attempts to run away from you, _knock him down_, +or lock him up, you have my full authority, Sam." The despotism of this +amiable man was truly extraordinary, he ruled his "followers" with a rod +of iron. That such should be exercised, or accepted even by the reader, +is a note of the time. It was, however, only a logical consequence of +the other summary methods. + +The altercation between Mr. Pickwick and his other "follower," Tupman, +arising out of the "two-inch tail" question, was on the same lines. For +the affront of being called fat and old the latter scientifically turned +up his cuffs and announced that he would inflict summary chastisement on +his leader. Mr. Pickwick met him with a cordial "come on," throwing +himself into a pugilistic attitude, supposed by the two bystanders to +have been intended as a posture of defence. This seems to have been +accepted as a natural incident, though it was deprecated. In the Fleet +Prison, when Mr. Pickwick's nightcap was snatched off, he retorted with a +smart blow, and again invited everyone, "all of you," to "come on." When +the coachmen attended Sam to the Fleet, walking eight abreast, they had +to leave behind one of the party "to fight a ticket porter, it being +arranged that his friends should call for him as they came back." Even +in a moment of agitation--as when Ben Allen learned that his sister had +"bolted," his impulse was to rush at Martin the groom and throttle him; +the latter, in return, "felling the medical student to the ground." Then +we have the extraordinary and realistic combat between Pott and Slurk in +the kitchen of the "Saracen's Head," Towcester--the one armed with a +shovel, the other with a carpet bag--and old Weller's chastisement of +Stiggins. In short, this system of chastisement on the spot, it is +clear, was a necessary equipment, and everybody, high and low, was +understood to be ready to secure satisfaction for himself by the aid of +violence. No doubt this was a consequence of the duel which was, of +course, to be had recourse to only as the last resort. + +When the wretched Jingle, and the still more wretched Job met Mr. +Pickwick in the Fleet, and the latter, giving money, had said, "Take +that, sir," the author adds, "Take what? . . . As the world runs, it +ought to have been a sound, hearty cuff, for Mr. Pickwick had been duped, +deceived, &c." Thus, Boz thought, as of course, that this was the +suitable method of treatment in such cases. "Must we tell the truth?" he +goes on; "it was a piece of money." The unconsciousness of all this is +very striking. + + + +VI.--Winkle and Snodgrass + + +It has always seemed a matter of astonishment to me how such a creature +as Winkle should have won the fair Arabella. Every act of this man was a +deception--he could not help pretence, or, shall we say it boldly, lying. +His duel was a series of tricks--his shooting, skating, etc., all a sham. +Even when found out as an impostor before all the keepers and others, we +find him impudently saying, "I'll tell you what I shall do _to get up my +shooting again_." The fellow never had any shooting to get up. But the +mere habit of untruth was ingrained in the man. His undignified race, in +a dressing-gown, round the Crescent was no doubt concealed from +Arabella--she would never have got over that! As a display of cowardice +it was only matched by his hypocritical assumption of courage before +Dowler when he found he could assume it safely. He deceived his father +and Mr. Pickwick as to his marriage, and dropped on his knees to the +latter to beg pardon. How mean, too, was his behaviour to Mrs. Pott in +the difficulty with her husband. But nothing could shake the interest of +the fair Arabella in her lover, even his ignominious and public treatment +by Mr. Pickwick at the skating exhibition. How _can_ we account for it. +But Boz knew the female nature well, and here is the explanation: Winkle +had been "out"--had figured in a duel with a real officer in the army. +There was no mistake about _that_--gone out, too, in what appeared a +chivalrous manner to save the honour of the club. At least it had the +appearance of all that (though here was another falsehood). This had +been told to all--no doubt by Winkle himself--many times over. Nothing +could enfeeble that, it seemed heroic, and covered all other _laches_. +Neither did it lose in _his_ telling of it. + +The most ridiculous feature surely in the man was his costume--meant to +be of a sporting complexion--which he never abandoned: green shooting +coat, plaid neckchief, and closely fitting drabs. When he returned from +his honeymoon, he was still in this uniform. + +We may assume, however, that this points to a custom of the time: that +the sportsman was _always_ a sportsman. Even at the club meeting, at a +poorish room in a tavern, he must carry on the fiction that he has just +come back from a day's sporting, for there on the floor, conspicuous, are +the fowling piece, game bag, fishing rod, &c. + +Snodgrass was another incapable and quite uninteresting--a person whom we +would not care to know. He posed as a poet and, to this end, wore, even +at the club, "a mysterious blue cloak, with a canine skin collar"; +imagine this of a warm evening--May 12--in a stuffy room in Huggin Lane! +He must, however, live up to his character, at all hazards. + +Snodgrass and his verses, and his perpetual "note book," must have made +him a bore of the first water. How could the charming Emily have +selected him. He, too, had some of Winkle's craft. He had been +entertained cordially and hospitably by old Wardle, and repaid him by +stealing his daughter's affections in a very underhand way, actually +plotting to run away with her. + +There was something rather ignominious in his detection at Osborne's +Hotel. He is a very colourless being. As to his being a Poet, it would +seem to be that he merely gave himself out for one and persuaded his +friends that he was such. His remarks at the "Peacock" are truly +sapient: "Show me the man that says anything against women, as women, and +_I boldly declare he is not a man_!" Which is matched by Mr. Winkle's +answer to the charge of his being "a serpent": "Prove it," said Mr. +Winkle, warmly. It is to be suspected that the marriage with the amiable +Emily was not a success. The author throws out a hint to that effect: +"Mr Snodgrass, being occasionally abstracted and melancholy, is to this +day reputed a great poet among his acquaintance, though we do not find he +has ever written anything to encourage the belief." In other words he +was carrying on the old Pickwick game of "Humbug." So great an intellect +had quite thrown itself away on poor Emily--even his abstraction and +melancholy. How natural too that he should "hang on" to his father-in- +law "and establish himself close to Dingly Dell"--to "sponge," +probably--while he made a sham of farming; for are we not told that he +purchased and cultivated a small farm--"_more for occupation than +profit_"--thus again making believe. Poor Emily! + +I lately looked through the swollen pages of the monster London Directory +to find how many of the Pickwickian names were in common use. There was +not a single Snodgrass, though there was one Winkel, and one "Winkle and +Co." in St. Mary Axe. There was one Tupman, a Court dressmaker--no +Nupkins, but some twenty Magnuses, and not a single Pickwick. There +were, however, some twenty-four Wellers. + + + + +CHAPTER XV.--DULWICH + + +I.--Mr. Pickwick's Diversions + + +Mr. Pickwick, as we know, retired to end his days at peaceful +Dulwich--placid and tranquil as his own amiable heart. It is as certain +as though we had been living there and had seen all that was going on, +that he became universally popular, and quite a personage in the place. +Everyone was sure to meet him taking his afternoon walk along the rural +lanes, or making his way to the Greyhound, where he was often found of an +evening--possibly every evening. This Greyhound, an old-fashioned and +somewhat antique house, though not mentioned in the story, is linked to +it by implication; for to settle at Dulwich and ignore the Greyhound was +a thing that could not be. There is a Pickwickian tone--or was, rather, +for it is now levelled--about the place, and Boz himself used to frequent +it, belonging to a sort of dining club that met down there. + +Such a paper as say the _Dulwich Observer_ would make much account of a +man like Mr. Pickwick; all his movements would be chronicled, and anyone +that chooses to bid Sarah or Mary "bring up the file for the year of Mr. +Pickwick's residence," must find innumerable entries. Let us supply a +few of these imaginative extracts: + + +MR. PICKWICK AT THE OPENING OF THE DULWICH LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC +ASSOCIATION. + + + A meeting of this admirable and thriving society--which, as our + readers know, was founded by Mr. Pickwick--was held on Saturday, at + the Greyhound Inn, where this learned and popular gentleman read a + special paper on Ralph Alleyne and his celebrated college at Dulwich. + There was a large attendance. Mr. Pickwick stated that he had long + been making researches into the Alleyne pedigree, and had made an + astonishing discovery--Alleyne, he found, was the family of the + Allens! A very dear and intimate friend of his own--a high member of + the medical profession--with whom he had spent some of the pleasantest + hours of his whole life, and who was now following his practice in + India, also bore the name of Allen--Benjamin Allen! It will be said + that there was not much in this; there were many Allens about, and, in + the world generally (loud laughter); but what will be said when, on + carelessly turning over the old rate-books, he came on this startling + fact? That at the beginning of the century his old friend's + grandfather actually occupied a small house on Tulse Hill, not five + minutes' walk from the college (loud applause). He saw, they saw the + significance of this. Following up the clue, he next found that this + gentleman was a person of literary tastes--and, mark this, often went + into town to scientific meetings and to the theatres (loud applause). + Further, he had discovered one or two very "oldest inhabitants" (a + laugh) who had known this very Benjamin Allen, the grandfather, and + who could not recall anything precise about him: but all agreed, and + they should further mark this, that he had the air and bearing of a + man of theatrical tastes, and that "it was as likely as not"--to use + their very words--"that he belonged to the family of Ralph Allen" + (applause). The learned gentleman then proceeded to work out his + clever theory with much ingenuity, and, at the end, left "not a shadow + of a shade of a doubt" in the minds of his hearers in general, and in + his own mind in particular, that this Dr. Benjamin Allen--of the East + Indies--was the lineal descendant of our own Ralph Allen. We have, + however, with regret to add, that this evening did not pass over so + harmoniously as it could be desired. As soon as Mr. Pickwick had sat + down and discussion was invited--Mr. Pickwick, however, saying that + there was really nothing to discuss, as no one knew the facts but + himself--a visitor from Town, who had been introduced at his own + request by one of the members, stood up, will it be believed, to + _attack_ Mr. Pickwick and his paper! It transpired that this + intruder's name was Blotton, a person in the haberdashery line, and + that he came from somewhere in the neighbourhood of Huggin Lane. He + said that all they had been listening to was simple moonshine. (_No_! + _No_!) But Yes! Yes! Had they ever heard of a river in Monmouth and + another in Macedon? There was an Allen some hundred years ago--and a + Ben Allen now alive in India. What rubbish was this? ("_Shame_" + cries of "_put him out_"). Where was the connection, he asked. Some + old dotard or dodderer, they were told, said so. The doddering in the + case was not confined to that individual. Here Mr. Pickwick rose, + and, with much heat, told the intruder to sit down. He would not hear + him; he ought to be ashamed of himself. "Would you believe it," went + on Mr. Pickwick, "this is a person who was actually _expelled_--yes, + expelled--from a club--the well-known Pickwick Club of which I was the + founder. Let him deny it if he dare." Here the individual called out + "Bill Stumps! Tell 'em about that." "I will not tell 'em, sir," said + Mr. Pickwick, warmly; "they know it too well. It shall be known as + long as my name is known and when this person is consigned to the + gutter whence he came." "It's all Humbug," said Mr. Blotton, "humbug + you were and humbug you ever will be." Here Dr. Pettigrew, our + excellent local practitioner, interposed, "Gentlemen, gentlemen," he + said; "is this to go on; are we to listen to this low abuse?" A + number of persons closing round Blotton succeeded in ejecting him from + the room, and this truly painful incident closed. + + + +VISITORS AT THE DELL. + + + During the past week, Mr. Pickwick has been entertaining a series of + visitors--among others, Mr. Wardle, of Manor Farm, Muggleton, Kent, + with Miss Wardle, his sister--the heroine of a most romantic story + communicated to us by Mr. Weller, though we are not privileged to lift + the veil from this interesting episode. But suffice it to say that it + comprised an elopement and exciting chase, in which Mr. Pickwick, with + his usual gallantry, took part. The estrangement which necessarily + followed between brother and sister has long since been happily + healed. Mr. Perker, the eminent London solicitor--Mr. Pickwick's + "guide, philosopher and friend"--has also been staying at the Dell. + + + +HUMOROUS ADVENTURE. + + + Our readers will be entertained by the following droll contretemps + which befel our deservedly popular fellow-citizen, as we may call him, + Mr. Pickwick. As our readers know, the Annual Charity Dinner took + place at the Greyhound, on Tuesday, Mr. Pickwick being in the chair, + and making many of his happiest speeches during the course of which he + related many curious details about himself and his life. The party + did not break up till a late hour--nearly eleven o'clock. A fly--a + special one, as usual--had been retained to take Mr. Pickwick home, + but as the trusted Hobson, who invariably attends Mr. Pickwick on such + occasions, had another engagement, a stranger was procured from + Camberwell. Mr. Pickwick was placed in the vehicle not, as he says, + without misgivings, and, as he admits, fell fast asleep. He was + driven home--as he fancied. On arriving, the coachman had much + difficulty in making himself heard. Mr. Pickwick entered the house, + still scarcely aroused, and turning into the study, sank into an + armchair, and once more fell into a slumber. He was presently + aroused, he says, by voices, and found himself surrounded by strange + faces and figures in various states of _deshabille_. The head of the + house, the well-known Mr. Gibson, who had been roused from his + slumbers, on the maid, Mary Perkes, giving the alarm that robbers were + in the house, had rushed down in his trousers only; the man-servant + ditto; the young ladies in anything they could find. Mr. Pickwick + describes his alarm as he found these faces round him, and, not + unnaturally, conceived the idea that robbers had broken into _his_ + house, and that his was in their power! A humorous imbroglio + followed. He instantly rushed to secure the poker, and, flourishing + it round his head, cried out repeatedly, "Keep off! every one of you! + or I'll brain the first man that comes near me!" Fortunately, the + respected man-servant, who had been many years with Mr. Gibson, and + had met Mr. Weller, at once recognized Mr. Weller's master, and said: + "Why, its Mr. Pickwick! ain't it? Don't you know _this_ ain't your + own house, sir." The truth then all flashed upon him. Mr. Pickwick + relates that he became so tickled with the odd humour of his situation + that he fell into his chair in convulsions of laughter, and laughed + long and loudly, for many minutes. The more he laughed, the more Mr. + Gibson laughed. At last, all was explained, and the amusing scene + ended by a room being hastily got ready for Mr. Pickwick (for the + cabman had gone away). No one was more amused, or indeed, more + pleased, at these "mistakes of a night" than Mr. Gibson, who always + tells the story with infinite drollery. Mr. Pickwick takes all the + blame on himself, declaring, as he says his old friend Winkle used to + say: "_It wasn't the wine_, _but the salmon_." + + + +ATTEMPTED ROBBERY AT MR. PICKWICK'S HOUSE. + + + Last night, we are sorry to learn, a very daring attempt was made to + rob the mansion of our much esteemed resident, Mr. Pickwick. The + Dell, as our readers know, is a substantial dwelling-house, standing + in its own grounds, and comparatively unprotected. The family, + consists of the owner, his housekeeper, Mrs. Purdy, and his faithful + servant, Mr. Samuel Weller, whose pleasant humour is well-known, and + who is deservedly popular in Dulwich. Nothing was noticed until about + two o'clock in the morning, when, as Mr. Weller has informed us, he + was awakened by a low, grinding sound, which, in his quaint style, he + says reminded him "a fellow in _quad_ a-filing his irons." With much + promptitude he rose and, loosening the dog, proceeded in the direction + of the sounds; the villains, however, became alarmed, and Mr. Weller + was just in time to see them, as he says, "a-cuttin' their lucky" over + the garden wall. Much sympathy is expressed for the worthy and + deservedly esteemed Mr. Pickwick, and for the outrage done to his + feelings. + + + +FETE AT MR. PICKWICK'S. + + + On Thursday last, this amiable and always benevolent gentleman, who, + it is known, takes the deepest interest in the stage, invited all the + brethren of the college to a dinner, after which, he threw open his + grounds to all his acquaintances, indeed, to all Dulwich. The banquet + was of a sumptuous character, and was provided from the Greyhound. + After the usual loyal toasts, the warden proposed Mr. Pickwick's + health in appropriate terms, to which that gentleman responded in an + admirable speech, in which he reviewed some portions of his life. + After stating how dear and near to his affection was the college and + all that was concerned with it, he entered into some various details + of Ralph Alleyne, who, as we all know, was an actor and connected with + actors. "I have already, by means of my researches, shown how + strangely related he was to myself, being of the same family with an + eminent physician in India, Mr. Benjamin Allen. (Cheers.) I, myself, + have known actors--one who was known to his brethren as 'dismal + Jemmy'--(loud laughter)--from, I suppose, the caste of characters he + was always assuming. Dismal Jemmy, however, had to leave the + country--(laughter)--I will not say why." (Roars of laughter.) + Another actor whom he had known was one of the most remarkable men he + had ever met, for talent and resources--would that he had confined his + talent to its legitimate sphere, namely, on the _boards_--but, + unfortunately, he had chosen to exert it at his, Mr. Pickwick's, + expense. (Loud laughter.) This performer tried to live by his wits, + as it is called, and he, Mr. Pickwick, had encountered him, and his + wits, too and nearly always with success. Mr. Pickwick then + humorously described some of his adventures with this person, causing + roars of laughter by a description of a night in the garden of a + Boarding School, into which he had been entrapped on the pretext that + the actor was about to run away with one of the young ladies. In the + most comic fashion, he related how he had been captured by the whole + school, headed by its principal, and locked up in a cupboard, and was + only released by his faithful man, Sam, whom, personally, some of them + knew--(loud applause.) Well, after frustrating the knavish tricks of + this actor, he at last found him in a debtors' prison in the most + abject misery and destitution, and he was happy to tell them, that the + man was completely reformed, and getting an honest livelihood in one + of our colonies. Such was his experience of the actors' profession. + + + +MARRIAGE IN HIGH LIFE AT IPSWICH. + + + An interesting event, in which our esteemed fellow-citizen, Mr. + Pickwick, has taken a deep interest, took place at the historic town + of Ipswich, when Mr. Sidney Porkenham, eldest son of --- Porkenham, + Esq., led to the altar at St. Clement's Church, Henrietta, the + beautiful and accomplished daughter of --- Nupkins, Esq., late Mayor + of that city. Among the guests were J. Grigg, Esq., Mrs. and the + Misses Grigg, Mr. and Mrs. Slummin Towken and Mr. Slummin Towken, jun, + --- Jinks, Esq., and many more. Mr. Pickwick had intended to be + present and had already promised to stay with Mr. Nupkins, but was + prevented by illness. His present to the bride, a costly one and in + exquisite taste, was purchased at Micklethwaite's, High Street, + Camberwell, where it was exhibited and excited universal admiration. + It consisted of a watch and curb chain of the finest workmanship, for + Mr. Pickwick placed no limit on Micklethwaite. We understand that at + a recent dinner at Mr. Humberstone, our esteemed rector's, Mr. + Pickwick, after alluding to Miss Nupkins and the coming marriage, + literally convulsed the party by relating his famous adventure at the + Great White Horse, which he tells in the raciest style, and how it led + to his being led off prisoner, and brought before his friend, Mr. + Nupkins, then Mayor of Ipswich. At the close he became a little + pensive. "Ah! poor Peter Magnus! and Miss W---, sorry! I'm sorry, + very." Our Rector has often "chaffed" this worthy gentleman on his + midnight adventure, saying, waggishly, "there was more in it than met + the eye." We have seen Mr. Pickwick smile, and he would say, "well, + sir, she was a fine woman, a very fine woman, and I'm not going to + kiss and tell." + + + +MR. PICKWICK AT DULWICH POLICE COURT. + + + Thomas Bardell, aged 19, was charged before His Worship, with + extorting money under false pretences from Mr. Pickwick. It appears + from the gentleman's evidence, which he gave with great fulness, that, + many years ago, a woman of the name of Bardell, a lodging-house + keeper, brought an unfounded action against Mr. Pickwick, and obtained + damages which Mr. Pickwick refused to pay, preferring to go to the + Fleet Prison. This person had a son, then a mere child, who was the + prisoner. A week ago, Mr. Pickwick received a piteous letter, signed + Tommy Bardell, saying that his mother was dying, and in the deepest + distress, all their furniture sold, or pawned. After making some + inquiries, and finding that there was a woman in distress at the + place, Mr. Pickwick sent the prisoner two sovereigns. Within a + fortnight he received a second application, saying that the unhappy + woman's bed was being taken away, &c.; he sent another sovereign. When + he received a third application he thought it high time to put it into + the hands of his man, Sam Weller, who made enquiries and found out + there was no mother, Mrs. Bardell being long, long since dead. His + worship committed him to jail for six months as a vagabond, but, at + Mr. Pickwick's request, reduced his sentence to two months. + + + +II.--Mr. Pickwick's Funeral. + + + The funeral _cortege_ left the Dell at ten o'clock, and was one of the + most striking displays of public feeling that Dulwich has seen for + many years. And not only was Dulwich thus affected, but in Camberwell + all the numerous shops were closed, and the inhabitants turned out in + crowds. The procession comprised many mourning coaches containing all + Mr. Pickwick's oldest friends. He had survived all his relations. + Among the mourners were Mr. Wardle, of Dingley Dell, with his son-in- + law, --- Trundle, Esq.; Mr. Tupman, who travelled specially from + Richmond; Messrs. Winkle and Snodgrass, who had been his inseparable + companions in his famous tours; and --- Perker, Esq., who was the + deceased's legal adviser and confidential friend. An interesting + incident was the appearance among the mourners of an elderly + gentleman, Mr. Peter Magnus, between whom and Mr. Pickwick, as we + learn from his faithful servant, there had for many years been a cloud + or misunderstanding on account of some lady whose marriage with Mr. + Magnus Mr. Pickwick had unwittingly frustrated. This injury, if + injury there was, Mr. Magnus had buried in the grave, and had rushed + to Dulwich to lend his heartfelt sympathy. Such things go far to + reconcile one to human nature, if such reconcilement be incumbent. A + deputation from the Dulwich Literary and Scientific Association, of + which Mr. Pickwick was Perpetual President, walked in the procession. + Passing the well-known Greyhound Inn, one of Mr. Pickwick's favourite + haunts, it was noticed the blinds were drawn down. + + We copy from the _Eatanswill Gazette_ the following admirable tribute + to Mr. Pickwick's merit, from the vigorous pen, as we understand, of + its Editor, Mr. Pott:--"Not only in Dulwich, but in Eatanswill, is + there mourning, to-day. We have lost Pickwick--Pickwick the true and + the Blue. For Blue he was, to the very core and marrow of his bones, + and it was we ourselves, who first permeated him with real Blue + principles. Many a time and oft has he sat at our feet, drinking in + with rapture, almost, the stray scraps of immortal doctrine with which + we favoured him. Is it not an open secret that, but for Pickwick's + exertions--exertions which laid the foundations of the disease which + ultimately carried him off--our late admirable member, the Honourable + Samuel Slumkey, would not have been returned? The _Gazette_, it is + true, first burst open the breach, in which Pickwick threw himself, + waving his flag on high, and led us on to victory. Of course, our + verminous contemporary, the _Independent_, will scoff, and wipe its + shoes on the illustrious dead. Of course, the mangey creature--ceasing + the while from its perennial self-scratching--will hoot something + derogatory. Let it sneer, yelp aloud in its impotent hog-like manner; + let it root with its filthy snout among the heaps of garbage where it + loves to make its unclean haunt in unspeakable Buffery. 'Twill not + serve--the noisome fumes will stifle it." + + We regret to say that these prognostications of Mr. Pott's were but + too soon, and too fatally realised, for in almost the next issue of + the _Independent_, we find a scandalous and indecent attack on our + late beloved Mr. Pickwick. Shocking as it is, we cannot forbear, in + duty to the deceased gentleman, presenting it to our readers-- + + + +"POTT'S PICKWICK." + + + "Our emasculated contemporary, not content with debauching Eatanswill + politics, must go far afield and drag from his grave an obscure and + feeble being whom he claims to make one of his besmirched heroes. But + Potts' praise, as we have learned long since, is no more than daubing + its object with dirt. Why, this very Pickwick whom he belauds--can it + be forgotten how Eatanswill shook its sides with laughter at the + figure he made our besotted contemporary cut? Who will forget Mr. W--- + le, his creature, whom Pickwick introduced into the Potts' household + and the resulting scandal, how Mr. W---le, aforesaid, fled from the + house, leaving the belated Ariadne in tears? Does Pott forget who it + was put his finger on this spot and, for the fair fame of Eatanswill, + clamoured for its extinction? Who forgets our warnings and their + fulfilment? The arrival of the Lieutenant; the menaced proceedings in + a certain court; the departure of the fair but frail culprit. And yet + Pott with an ineffable effrontery that would do credit to a fishwife + in and from Billingsgate, clamours about this Pickwick and his + virtues, and drops his maudlin tears upon his coffin! Why was he not + there to give his hand to Mr. Lothario W---le, who, we understand, was + also present? By the way, we have received the following lines from a + valued correspondent:-- + + Your tears you may sprinkle + O W---le, O W---le, + With more of this same kind of rot. + The lady so gay + Could not say you nay, + Merely bidding you '_Go to Pot_.' + + Our hide-bound contemporary, will not, of course, see the point--" + + We are grieved to say, that the indecent Eatanswill controversy over + the lamented Mr. Pickwick still goes on. More strictly speaking, + however, he has dropped out of sight owing to the inflamed passions + which have been roused between the editors. Our sympathies are, we + need not say, with Mr. Pott, still we wish he would somewhat temper + his language, out of respect for the dead. Here is his crushing + retort-- + + + +"FILTH ON THE COFFIN." + + + "We have seen at some historic funeral, say of some personage + obnoxious to the mob, dead dogs, cats, rats, and rotten eggs, hurled + from a safe distance at the passing coffin. This is what our fast + decomposing and wholly noisome contemporary is now doing. Shall we + say it? How beastly, how congenial to the man's feelings! Paugh! + Decency; propriety; sense of restraint; all unknown terms in his Malay + tongue--for this Swift's yahoo. But we know what rankles. Has our + contemporary in mind a chastisement that was inflicted on him in the + kitchen of a certain inn, and in the presence of Pickwick himself--has + he forgotten the fire irons--or, to speak accurately, _the_ fire + irons. That bruise, we dare swear, is still raw. But there are pole- + cats who cannot divest themselves of their odour, do what they will, + and this festering mass of decaying garbage, which goes by the name of + _The Independent_, and which is unaccountably overlooked by the night + men in their rounds, is fast breeding a pestilence in the pure air of + Eatanswill." This lamentable controversy still continues. + + + +STRANGE INCIDENT. + + + We noticed among the company at Mr. Pickwick's funeral a gentleman of + unobstrusive exterior, who seemed to be vainly seeking his place, and + to whom our representative offered his services. It turned out that + his name was Trundle, and that he was one of the appointed + pall-bearers, but that he had been unaccountably overlooked, and his + place taken by someone else. Mr. Trundle made no complaint, but our + representative thought it his duty to mention the circumstance to Mr. + Wardle, who, it appears, is his father-in-law, but who only smiled, + good-humouredly saying "O, Trundle, to be sure. No one minds him and + _he_ won't mind." But no further attention was paid to the matter. + Mr. Trundle, our representative adds, was a man of modest and retiring + ways, and did not seem in the least put out by the mistake. + + + + +Footnotes: + + +{1} Some years ago, as it is stated in Murray's Guide Book, most of the +old gabled houses disappeared. They are shown in "Phiz's" picturesque +sketch. + +{66} "Oliver Twist" was begun in January, 1837, and Rose Maylie +introduced about July or August. Mary Hogarth died on May 7th. + +{68} Mr. Wright lately possessed a most interesting copy, presented +number by number to Mary Hogarth by the author, up to No. 14, with this +inscription: "From hers affectionately, Charles Dickens." The succeeding +numbers were given to her schoolfellow, Miss Walker. Mr. Wright also +possessed the letter announcing her death. It runs: "Sunday night, 8th +May, 1837. We are in deep and sincere distress. Miss Hogarth, after +accompanying Mrs. Dickens and myself to the theatre last night, was taken +seriously ill, and, despite our best endeavours to save her, expired in +my arms." It is curious to notice that this phrase should recur in +Nickleby, it running, "My darling lad, who was taken ill last night, I +thought would have expired in my arms." + +{84} In a presentation copy of "Pickwick," given to Edward Chapman, +November 14th, 1839, he calls him and Hall "the best of booksellers, +past, present, or to come, and my trusty friends." + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PICKWICKIAN STUDIES*** + + +******* This file should be named 23490.txt or 23490.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/3/4/9/23490 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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