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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/5204.txt b/5204.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a094773 --- /dev/null +++ b/5204.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3969 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Inns and Taverns of "Pickwick", by B.W. Matz + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Inns and Taverns of "Pickwick" + With Some Observations on their Other Associations + +Author: B.W. Matz + +Release Date: March, 2004 [EBook #5204] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on June 5, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INNS AND TAVERNS *** + + + + +This etext was produced by Joyce M. Noverr (JMNoverr@att.net). + + + + + +THE INNS AND TAVERNS OF "PICKWICK" + +WITH SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THEIR OTHER ASSOCIATIONS + +by B.W. Matz + +[illustration: Scene in the yard of the Bull Inn, + Whitechapel. Mr. Pickwick starts for Ipswich. + From an engraving by T. Onwhyn] + + + +CONTENTS + +PREFACE + +Chapter + I. "PICKWICK" AND THE COACHING AGE + + II. THE "GOLDEN CROSS," CHARING CROSS + + III. THE "BULL," ROCHESTER, "WRIGHT'S + NEXT HOUSE," AND THE "BLUE LION," + MUGGLETON + + IV. THE "WHITE HART," BOROUGH + + V. "LA BELLE SAUVAGE" AND THE "MARQUIS + OF GRANBY," DORKING + + VI. THE "LEATHER BOTTLE," COBHAM, KENT + + VII. THE "TOWN ARMS," EATANSWILL, AND THE + INN OF "THE BAGMAN'S STORY" + +VIII. THE "ANGEL," BURY ST. EDMUNDS + + IX. THE "BLACK BOY," CHELMSFORD, THE + "MAGPIE AND STUMP," AND THE "BULL," + WHITECHAPEL + + X. THE "GREAT WHITE HORSE," IPSWICH + + XI. THE "GEORGE AND VULTURE" + + XII. THE "BLUE BOAR," LEADENHALL MARKET, + "GARRAWAY'S" AND THE "WHITE HORSE CELLAR" + +XIII. FOUR BATH INNS AND THE "BUSH," BRISTOL + + XIV. THE "FOX UNDER THE HILL," OTHER + LONDON TAVERNS, AND "THE + SPANIARDS," HAMPSTEAD + + XV. THE "BELL," BERKELEY HEATH, THE + "HOP POLE," TEWKESBURY, AND THE + "OLD ROYAL," BIRMINGHAM + + XVI. COVENTRY, DUNCHURCH, AND DAVENTRY + INNS, AND THE "SARACEN'S HEAD," + TOWCESTER + +XVII. "OSBORNE'S," ADELPHI, AND TONY + WELLER'S PUBLIC-HOUSE ON SHOOTER'S HILL + +XVIII PICKWICK AND THE GEORGE INN + + + + +PREFACE + +It is not claimed for this book that it supplies a long-felt want, +or that it is at all necessary to the better understanding of the +immortal work which inspired it. Nor does the author offer any +apology for adding yet another volume to the long list of books, +already existing, which deal in some way or other with England's +classic book of humour, because it isn't so much his +fault as might appear on the surface. + +A year or two ago he contributed to an American paper a series of +twenty articles on some of the prominent inns mentioned in the +works of Dickens, and before the series was completed he received +many overtures to publish them in volume form. To do so would +have resulted in producing an entirely inadequate and incomplete +book, whose sins of omission would have far outrun its virtues, +whatever they might have been. + +As an alternative, he set himself the task of dealing with the inns +and taverns mentioned in The Pickwick Papers alone, grafting certain +of those articles into their proper place in the scheme of the book, +and leaving, perhaps, for a future volume, should such be warranted, +the inns mentioned in other books of the novelist. If the reading +of this volume affords half the pleasure and interest the writer has +derived from compiling it, the overtures would then seem to have been +justified, and the book's existence proved legitimate. + +Needless to say, numerous works of reference have been consulted for +facts, and the writer's indebtedness to them is hereby acknowledged. + +He also desires to record his grateful thanks to Mr. Charles G. +Harper for permission to reproduce several of his drawings from +his invaluable book on The Old Inns of Old England; to the +proprietors of The Christian Science Monitor for allowing him to +reproduce some of the pictures drawn by Mr. L. Walker for the series +of articles which appeared in that paper; to Mr. T. W. Tyrrell, Mr. +Anthony J. Smith, and Mr. T. Fisher Unwin for the loan of photographs +and pictures of which they own the copyright. + + + + +THE INNS AND TAVERNS OF "PICKWICK" + + + + +CHAPTER I + +"PICKWICK" AND THE COACHING AGE + + + +Dickens, like all great authors, had a tendency to underestimate the +value of his most popular book. At any rate, it is certainly on +record that he thought considerably more of some of his other works +than he did of the immortal Pickwick. But The Pickwick Papers has +maintained its place through generations, and retains it to-day, as +the most popular book in our language--a book unexampled in our +literature. There are persons who make a yearly custom of reading +it; others who can roll off pages of it from memory; scores who can +answer any meticulous question in an examination of its contents; and +a whole army ready and waiting to correct any misquotation that may +appear in print from its pages. All its curiosities, lapses, +oddities, anachronisms, slips and misprints have been discovered by +commentators galore, and the number of books it has brought into +existence is stupendous. + +What the secret of its popularity is would take a volume to make +manifest; but in a word, one might attribute it to its vividness of +reality--to the fact that every character seems to be a real living +being, with whose minute peculiarities we are made familiar in a +singularly droll and happy manner. With each we become close friends +on first acquaintance, and as episode succeeds episode the friendship +deepens, with no thought that our friends are mere imaginary creatures +of the author's brain. + +It does not matter if the adventures of these amiable and jovial beings +are boisterously reckless at times, or if they indulge in impossible +probabilities. Their high spirited gaiety and inexhaustible fun and +humour and their overflow of good-nature stifles criticism. + +Dickens's object in writing The Pickwick Papers he assured us in +the preface was "to place before the reader a constant succession +of characters and incidents; to paint them in as vivid colours as +he could command, and to render them, at the same time, life-like +and amusing." All this he succeeded in doing with such amazing +success that we have a masterly picture of English life of the period +to be found in no other book. The secret of the book's popularity +and fame is in its unaffected and flowing style, its dramatic power, +and, of course, its exuberant humour. + +But there is much for serious reflection in its pages as well, +and one could dilate at length on the propaganda which is so +thinly camouflaged throughout; propaganda against lawyers, prisons, +corruption in Parliament, celebrity hunting, pomposity, fraud, +hypocrisy and all uncharitableness in the abstract; but all this +is wrapped up in the same way that such things are done in all +the fairy tales of which Pickwick is one of the best. + +There are, as a fact, innumerable reasons why Pickwick is so popular, +so necessary to-day. The one which concerns us more at the moment is +its appeal as a mirror of the manners and customs of a romantic age +which has fast receded from us. It is, perhaps, the most accurate +picture extant of the old coaching era and all that was corollary +to it. No writer has done more than Dickens to reflect the glory +of that era, and the glamour and comfort of the old inns of England +which in those days were the havens of the road to every traveller. +All his books abound in pleasant and faithful pictures of the times, +and alluring and enticing descriptions of those old hostelries where +not only ease was sought and expected, but obtained; Pickwick is +packed with them. + +The outside appearance of an inn alone was in those times so well +considered that it addressed a cheerful front towards the traveller +"as a home of entertainment ought, and tempted him with many mute but +significant assurances of a comfortable welcome." Its very signboard +promised good cheer and meant it; the attractive furnishing of the +homely windows, the bright flowers on the sills seemed to beckon one +to "come in"; and when one did enter, one was greeted and cared for as +a guest and not merely as a customer. + +We all know, as Dickens has reminded us elsewhere, the great station +hotel, belonging to the company of proprietors which has suddenly +sprung up in any place we like to name, ". . . in which we can get +anything we want, after its kind, for money; but where nobody is glad +to see us, or sorry to see us, or minds (our bill paid) whether we come +or go, or how, or when, or why, or cares about us . . . where we have +no individuality, but put ourselves into the general post, as it were, +and are sorted and disposed of according to our division." That is +more the modern method and is in direct contrast to the old coaching +method, which, alas! may never return, of which the inns in Pickwick +furnish us with glowing examples. + +We certainly are coming back to these roadside inns in the present +age of rapid motor transit; yet we are in too much of a tearing +hurry to make the same use of the old inns as they did in the more +leisurely age. + +We believe these old inns attract to-day not only because of their +quaintness and the old-world atmosphere which adheres to them, but +because of the tradition which clings to them; and the most popular +tradition of all, and the one of which the proprietors are most +proud, is the Dickens tradition. + +There are scores of such inns in the city of London and throughout +the country whose very names immediately conjure up some merry +scene in his books and revive never-to-be-forgotten memories of +exhilarating incidents. + +Time, the devastating builder, and the avaricious landlord have played +havoc with many. Several, however, remain to tell their own tale, +whilst the memory of others is sustained by a modern building bearing +the old name, all of which are landmarks for the Dickens lover. + +Many of them, of course, existed only in the novelist's fertile +imagination; but most of them had foundation in reality, and most of +them, particularly in Pickwick, are mentioned by name and have become +immortal in consequence; and were it not for the popularity of his +writings, their fame in many instances would have deserted them and +their glory have departed. + +Inns, hotels and wayside public-houses play a most important part +in The Pickwick Papers, and many of the chief scenes are enacted +within their walls. The book, indeed, opens in an hotel and ends +in one. The first scene arising from the projected "journeys and +investigations" of those four distinguished members of the Club took +place in an hotel, or--to speak correctly--outside one, namely, the +"Golden Cross" at Charing Cross. There is even an earlier reference +to a public-house near St. Martin's le Grand, from where the "first +cab was fetched," whilst the last important incident of the book was +enacted in another, the Adelphi Hotel off the Strand, when Mr. Pickwick +announced his determination to retire into private life at Dulwich. + +In the ensuing pages, the Pickwickians are followed in the tours +they made in pursuit of adventure, and the inns and taverns they +stopped at are taken in the order of their going and coming. With +each is recalled the story, adventure, or scene associated with it, +and if it has any history of its own apart from that gained through +the book, record is made of the facts concerning it. + +The Pickwick Papers was completed in 1837, and a dinner was given to +celebrate the event, at which Dickens himself presided and his friend, +Serjeant T. N. Talfourd, to whom the book was dedicated, acted as +vice-chairman. Ainsworth, Forster, Lover, Macready, Jerdan and other +close friends were invited, and the dinner took place at The Prince of +Wales Coffee House and Hotel in Leicester Place, Leicester Square. + +It is very curious that no extended account of this historic event +exists. Forster, in his biography of the novelist, beyond saying that +"everybody in hearty good-humour with every other body," and that "our +friend Ainsworth was of the company," is otherwise silent over the +event. There is certainly a reference to the dinner in a letter from +Dickens to Macready, dated from "48 Doughty Street, Wednesday Evening," +with no date to it, in which he says: + +"There is a semi-business, semi-pleasure little dinner which I intend +to give at the 'Prince of Wales,' in Leicester Place, Leicester Square, +on Saturday, at five for half-past precisely, at which Talfourd, +Forster, Ainsworth, Jerdan, and the publishers will be present. It is +to celebrate (that is too great a word, but I can think of no better) +the conclusion of my Pickwick labours; and so I intend, before you take +that roll upon the grass you spoke of, to beg your acceptance of one of +the first complete copies of the work. I shall be much delighted if you +will join us." + +[illustration: The Prince of Wales Hotel, where the Pickwick + dinner was held. Drawn by Arch. Webb] + +We have seen a similarly worded letter written to Samuel Lover, and no +doubt each guest received such an invitation from the novelist. + +The only real account of the function is contained in a letter from +Ainsworth to his friend, James Crossley, which is as follows: + +"On Saturday last we celebrated the completion of The Pickwick +Papers. We had a capital dinner, with capital wine and capital +speeches. Dickens, of course, was in the chair. Talfourd was the +Vice, and an excellent Vice he made. . . . Just before he was about +to propose THE toast of the evening the headwaiter--for it was at a +tavern that the carouse took place--entered, and placed a glittering +temple of confectionery on the table, beneath the canopy of which +stood a little figure of the illustrious Mr. Pickwick. This was the +work of the landlord. As you may suppose, it was received with great +applause. Dickens made a feeling speech in reply to the Serjeant's +eulogy. . . . Just before dinner Dickens received a cheque for L750 +from his publishers." + +Although this hotel cannot rightly be termed a Pickwick inn in the +same sense that the others in this book can, it certainly has a claim +to honourable mention. + +In 1823 the building in which this notable historic dinner took +place was known as The Prince of Wales Coffee House and Hotel. +When it ceased to be an hotel we are unable to state, but in 1890 +it was a French Hospital and Dispensary, ten years later it was let +out as offices, and in 1913 it was a foreign club; but the building +is practically the same as it was in 1837. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE "GOLDEN CROSS," CHARING CROSS + + + +Before the "Golden Cross" was given such prominence in The Pickwick +Papers, it formed the subject of one of the chapters in Dickens's +previous book, Sketches by Boz. But although there is a "Golden +Cross" still standing at Charing Cross to-day, and a fairly old inn +to boot, it is not the actual one which figures in these two books +and in David Copperfield. + +As a matter of fact, there have been several "Golden Crosses" at +Charing Cross; one, perhaps the first, stood in the village of +Charing in 1643. But the one which claims our attention stood on +the exact spot where now towers the Nelson Monument in Trafalgar +Square, and was the busiest coaching inn in the west end of London. +In front of it was the King Charles statue and the ancient cross of +Charing. Close at hand was Northumberland House with its famous +lion overlooking the scene. + +This "Golden Cross" was either rebuilt in 1811 or in that year had +its front altered to the Gothic style. Whichever is the case, it +was this Gothic inn that Dickens knew and described in his books. +It was demolished in 1827, or thereabouts, to make room for the +improvements in the neighbourhood which developed, into the +Trafalgar Square we all know to-day. It was then that the present +building, facing Charing Cross Station, was erected, which, also in +its turn, has had a new frontage. + +Dickens in his early youth, whilst employed in a blacking warehouse +at Hungerford Stairs and during his youthful wanderings, became +intimately acquainted with the district. When, therefore, in the +early 'thirties he commenced his literary career, he recalled those +early days and placed on permanent record his impressions of what he +then saw, amongst which was the Golden Cross Hotel. + +And so we find that in writing the chapter in Sketches by Boz on +"Early Coaches" he chooses the "Golden Cross" of his boyhood for its +chief incident, an incident which no doubt happened to himself in +his early manhood. He had risen early on a certain cold morning to +catch the early coach to Birmingham--perhaps to fulfil one of his +reporting engagements: + +"It strikes 5:15," he says, "as you trudge down Waterloo Place on +your way to the 'Golden Cross,' and you discover for the first time +that you were called an hour too early. You have no time to go +back, and there is no place open to go into, and you have therefore +no recourse but to go forward. You arrive at the office. . . . You +wander into the booking office. . . . There stands the identical +book-keeper in the same position, as if he had not moved since you +saw him yesterday. He informs you that the coach is up the yard, +and will be brought round in about 15 minutes. . . . You retire to +the tap-room. . . . for the purpose of procuring some hot brandy and +water, which you do--when the kettle boils, an event which occurs +exactly two and a half minutes before the time fixed for the +starting of the coach. The first stroke of six peals from St. +Martin's Church steeple as you take the first sip of the boiling +liquid. You find yourself in the booking office in two seconds, and +the tap waiter finds himself much comforted by your brandy and +water in about the same period. . . . The horses are in. . . . The +place which a few minutes ago was so still and quiet is all bustle. +'All right,' sings the guard. . . . and off we start as briskly as +if the morning were all right as well as the coach." + +One of Cruikshank's pictures illustrates the above scene in the +booking office, and in it one of the figures represents Dickens +himself as he appeared at the period. Dotted about on the walls +are bills in which the name of the hotel is very conspicuous. + +In chapter two of The Pickwick Papers we get a further glimpse +of the inn, centring in a more exhilarating and epoch-making +incident. The Pickwickians were to start on their memorable +peregrinations from the "Golden Cross" for Rochester by the +famous "Commodore" coach; and Mr. Pickwick having hired a cabriolet +in the neighbourhood of his lodgings in Goswell Street arrived at +the hotel in order to meet his friends for the purpose. On +alighting, and having tendered his fare, an animated incident with +the cabman, who accused him of being an informer, ensued, and ended +in the assault and battery described in the following words: + +"The cabman dashed his hat upon the ground with a reckless disregard +of his own private property, and knocked Mr. Pickwick's spectacles +off, and followed up the attack with a blow on Mr. Pickwick's nose +and another on Mr. Pickwick's chest; and a third in Mr. Snodgrass's +eye; and a fourth, by way of variety, in Mr. Tupman's waistcoat, and +then danced into the road and then back again to the pavement, and +finally dashed the whole temporary supply of breath out of Mr. +Winkle's body; and all in half a dozen seconds." + +The embarrassing situation was only saved by the intervention of +Mr. Jingle, who quickly settled the cabman and escorted Mr. Pickwick +into the travellers' waiting-room and had a raw beefsteak applied to +Mr. Pickwick's eye, which had been badly mauled by the irate cabman. +All things righted themselves, however, and the merry party left the +"Golden Cross" on the coach for their journey to Rochester, to +the accompaniment of Mr. Jingle's staccato tones as they drove +through the archway, warning the company to take care of their heads: + +"'Terrible place--dangerous work--other day--five children--mother- +tall lady, eating sandwiches-forgot the arch--crash--knock--children +look round--mother's head off--sandwich in her hand--no mouth to put +it in--head of family off--shocking--shocking.'" + +The arch referred to by our jesting friend can be seen in the +picture here shown. + +The "Golden Cross" also figures prominently in David Copperfield on +the occasion of the arrival of the hero of the book from Canterbury: + +"We went to the 'Golden Cross,'" he says, "then a mouldy sort of +establishment in a close neighbourhood. A waiter showed me into the +coffee-room, and a chambermaid introduced me to my small bedchamber, +which smelt like a hackney coach and was shut up like a family vault." + +Later in the evening he met his old school friend, Steerforth, who +was evidently on better and more familiar terms with the waiter, for +he not only demanded, but secured a better bedroom for David. + +[illustration: The Golden Cross Hotel, Charing Cross, in 1828. + From an engraving] + +"I found my new room a great improvement on my old one," he says, +"it not being at all musty and having a fourpost bedstead in it, +which was quite a little landed estate. Here, among pillows enough +for six, I soon fell asleep in a blissful condition, and dreamed +of ancient Rome, Steerforth and friendship, until the early morning +coaches rumbling out of the archway underneath made me dream of +thunder and the gods." + +This comfortable new aspect of the inn did not stop at his bedroom, +for he took breakfast the next morning "in a snug private +apartment, red-curtained and Turkey carpeted, where the fire burnt +bright and a fine hot breakfast was set forth on a table covered +with a clean cloth. . . . I could not enough admire the change +Steerforth had wrought in the 'Golden Cross'; or compose the dull, +forlorn state I had held yesterday with this morning's comfort and +this morning's entertainment." + +It was on another occasion later in the story that David Copperfield, +then lodging in Buckingham Street close by, encountered poor old +Peggotty on the steps of St. Martin's Church. It was a snowy, +dismal night and Peggotty was resting on his journey in search +for Little Emily. + +"In those days," says Dickens, "there was a side entrance to the +stable yard of the 'Golden Cross' nearly opposite to where we stood. +I pointed out the gateway, put my arm through his, and we went +across. Two or three public rooms opened out of the stable yard; +and looking into one of them, and finding it empty, and a good fire +burning, I took him in there." + +The side entrance here referred to was at the time in St. Martin's +Lane--that part of it which then ran down from St. Martin's Church +to the Strand. It led into the stable yard, backing into what is +now Trafalgar Square, and was part of the old inn of Pickwick and +The Sketches, and not of the present one, which many topographers +have asserted. + +But the "Golden Cross" had its fame apart from Dickens, although it +is Dickens who has immortalized its name for the general public. + +As we have pointed out it was the most popular of the West End +coaching inns of London. This remark applies to the various houses +which have borne its name. It is recorded that as far back as 1757 +coaches plied between Brighton, or Brighthelmstone as it was then +called, and the "Golden Cross." The fare was 13s.--(children in lap +and outside passengers half price). For years afterwards it was the +favourite starting-place for the famous Brighton coaches, and in +1821 forty were running to and fro daily. + +Coaches from the same inn served Exeter, Salisbury, Blandford, +Dorchester and Bridport; Hastings and Tunbridge Wells; Cambridge, +Cheltenham, Dover, Norwich and Portsmouth. It was from here that +the historic "Comet" and "Regent" to Brighton and the "Tally Ho" for +Birmingham set. out on their journeys, and although the "Golden +Cross" which stands to-day cannot boast the glory of the old days of +the coaching era, it is still a busy centre, situated as it is in +the very heart of London opposite one of its busiest railway +termini. + +To-day new Dickensian associations circle round it, for on certain +days during the summer months motor coaches, chartered by the +Dickens Fellowship, make this the starting point for their +pilgrimages into Dickens-land, often taking the route the +Pickwickians did, as recorded in their chronicles. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE "BULL," ROCHESTER, "WRIGHT'S NEXT HOUSE" +AND THE "BLUE LION," MUGGLETON + + + +To the accompaniment of the "stranger's" breathless eloquence, the +Pickwickians' first journey from London passed with no untoward +adventure. Although the "Commodore" coach stopped occasionally to +change horses and incidentally to refresh the passengers, no mention +of an inn by name or any other designation is made, however, until +The Bull Inn in the High Street, Rochester, is reached. + +"Do you remain here, sir? "enquired Nathaniel Winkle of +the "stranger." + +"Here--not I--but you'd better--good house--nice beds--Wright's next +house, dear--very dear--half a crown in the bill if you look at the +waiter--charge you more if you dine at a friend's than they would if +you dined in the coffee room--rum fellows--very." + +After consultation with his friends Mr. Pickwick invited the +"stranger" to dine with them, which he accepted with alacrity. + +"Great pleasure--not presume to dictate, but boiled fowl and +mushrooms--capital thing! What time?" + +The hour being arranged they parted for the time being. + +Dickens knew his Rochester well, even in the days when he was +writing Pickwick--a knowledge gained doubtless when a lad at Chatham, +and Jingle's reference to "Wright's next house" is evidence of this, +for there was such an hotel at the time, the owner's name of which +was Wright. It was a few doors away, but was actually the next +public-house, which, of course, was what was meant. + +Its original name was the "Crown," but in 1836 the said Wright, +on becoming proprietor, altered the name it then bore to that of +his own. He also changed its appearance to suit his own fancies. +In the earlier days it was a typical coaching inn, and had the +reputation of once having been favoured with a visit of Queen +Elizabeth, as well of Hogarth and his friends. It claimed to +have been built in 1390, and was then owned by Simon Potyn, who +was several times member of Parliament for the city. + +In an old engraving of Rochester Bridge the inn can be seen with the +word "Wright's" distinctly showing in prominent letters emblazoned +on its frontage, if such proof that Jingle was not romancing were +necessary. + +The inn was rebuilt in 1864, and has been identified as the +"Crozier" of Edwin Drood, where Datchery, on his first arrival +in the town "announced himself . . . as an idle dog living on his +means . . . as he stood with his back to the empty fire-place, +waiting for his fried sole, veal cutlet and pint of sherry." + +In the meantime Mr. Pickwick and his friends, after having engaged +and inspected a private sitting-room and bedrooms and ordered their +dinner at "The Bull," set out to inspect the city and adjoining +neighbourhood. + +Before the days of Pickwick, the "Bull" presumably was merely a +comfortable roadside coaching inn between Dover and London, with no +claim to fame other than that of being a favoured resort of the +military from the adjacent town of Chatham. It is true that Queen +Victoria--then but a Princess--was compelled, because of a mishap to +the bridge across the Medway and the stormy weather, to stay in the +inn with her mother, the Duchess of Kent, for one night only. They +were on their way to London from Dover. The event happened on the +29th of November, 1836, and caused a flutter of excitement in the +city and inspired the proprietor to add the words "Royal Victoria" +to the inn's name, and to justify the adornment of the front of the +building with the royal crest of arms. + +But it remained for the Pickwickians to draw the inn out from +the ruck of the commonplace, and to spread its fame to all +corners of the globe; and the fact that it once had royal +patronage is nothing in comparison to the other fact that it +was the headquarters of the Pickwickians on a certain memorable +occasion. That is the attraction to it; that is the immutable +thing that makes its name a household word wherever the English +language is spoken. Indeed, that was the one notable event in +its history which filled the proprietor with pride, and in his +wisdom, in order to lure visitors into its comfortable interior, +he could find no more magnetic announcement for the signboard on +each side of the entrance than the plain unvarnished statement: +"Good House. Nice Beds. Vide Pickwick." + +[illustration: The Bull Hotel, Rochester. From a photograph +by T.W.Tyrrell] + +It may have boasted a history before then: it is difficult to say. +It existed in 1827 when Dickens housed the famous four within its +hospitable walls; and he doubtless knew it long before then when, +as a lad, he lived in Chatham; anyway, it was always a favourite +of his, and furnishes the scene of many incidents in his books, in +addition to the part it plays in the early portion of The Pickwick +Papers; it no doubt is the original of the "Winglebury Arms" in "The +Great Winglebury Duel" in Sketches by Boz, and is certainly the +"Blue Boar" of Great Expectations. + +Dickens frequented it himself, and the room he occupied on those +occasions is known as the Dickens room and is furnished with pieces +of furniture from his residence at Gad's Hill. We know, too, that +he conducted his friends over it, on those occasions when he made +pilgrimages with them around the neighbourhood. + +The house has been slightly altered since those days, but it +practically remains the same as when Dickens deposited the +Pickwickians in its courtyard that red-letter day in 1827. Its +outside is dull and sombre-looking, but its interior comfort and +spaciousness soon dispel any misgivings which its exterior might +have created. + +The entrance hall is as spacious as it was when Dickens described +it, in "The Great Winglebury Duel," as ornamented with evergreen +plants terminating in a perspective view of the bar, and a glass +case, in which were displayed a choice variety of delicacies ready +for dressing, to catch the eye of a new-comer the moment he enters, +and excite his appetite to the highest possible pitch. "Opposite +doors," he says, "lead to the 'coffee' and 'commercial' rooms; and +a great wide rambling staircase--three stairs and a landing--four +stairs and another landing--one step and another landing--and so +on--conducts to galleries of bedrooms and labyrinths of sitting-rooms, +denominated 'private,' where you may enjoy yourself as privately as +you can in any place where some bewildered being or other walks into +your room every five minutes by mistake, and then walks out again, to +open all the doors along the gallery till he finds his own." + +And so the visitor finds it to-day, although the interior of the +coffee-room may have been denuded of its compartments which the +interview between Pip and Bentley Drummie in Great Expectations +suggests were there on that occasion. It was in this room that +the Pickwickians breakfasted and awaited the arrival of the chaise +to take them to Dingley Dell; and it was over its blinds that +Mr. Pickwick surveyed the passers-by in the street, and before +which the vehicle made its appearance with the very amusing result +known to all readers of the book. + +The commercial room is across the yard, over which on one occasion +Mr. Wopsle was reciting Collin's ode to Pip in Great Expectations +with such dramatic effect that the commercials objected and sent up +their compliments with the remark that "it wasn't the Tumbler's Arms." + +From the hall runs the staircase upon which took place the famous +scene between Dr. Slammer and Jingle, illustrated so spiritedly by +Phiz. Those who remember the incident--and who does not?--can +visualize it all again as they mount the stairs to the bedrooms +above, which the Pickwickians occupied. They remain as Dickens +described them, even in some cases to the very bedsteads and +furniture, and are still shown to the interested visitor. + +"Winkle's bedroom is inside mine," is how Mr. Tupman put it. That +is to say, the one led out of the other, and they are numbered 13 +and 19; but which is which no one knows. Number 18, by the way, is +the room the Queen slept in on the occasion of her visit, eight +months after the appearance of the first part of Pickwick. + +Number 17 is claimed as Mr. Pickwick's room, which is also the one +Dickens occupied on one occasion, and the one spoken of in Seven +Poor Travellers, from which the occupant assured us that after the +cathedral bell struck eight he "could smell the delicious savour of +turkey and roast beef rising to the window of my adjoining room, +which looked down into the yard just where the lights of the kitchen +reddened a massive fragment of the castle wall" + +[illustrations: Staircase at the "Bull." Orchestra in Ballroom +at the "Bull"] + +An important feature in those days, and presumably to-day, was +the ballroom, "the elegant and commodious assembly rooms to +the Winglebury Arms." In The Pickwick Papers Dickens thus +describes it: "It was a long room, with crimson-covered benches, +and wax candles in glass chandeliers. The musicians were +securely confined in an elevated den, and quadrilles were being +systematically got through by two or three sets of dancers. Two +card tables were made up in the adjoining card-room, and two pair +of old ladies and a corresponding number of stout gentlemen were +executing whist therein." + +The room itself is little altered; although the glass chandeliers +have been removed, there still remains at the end the veritable +elevated den where the fiddlers fiddled. During the war it was +turned into a dining-room on account of the military and naval +demands of the town; but there may come a time when it will revert +to its old glory and tradition. + +On the evening of the Pickwickians' arrival Jingle remarks that +there is a "Devil of a mess on the staircase, waiter. Forms +going up--carpenters coming down--lamps, glasses, harps. What's +going forward?" + +"Ball, sir," said the waiter. + +"Assembly, eh?" + +"No, sir, not assembly, sir. Ball for the benefit of charity, sir." + +This was the famous ball at which the incident occurred resulting in +the challenge to a duel between Dr. Slammer and Winkle, the details +of which require no reiteration here. + +But the pleasant fact remains that the Bull Inn exists to-day and the +Dickens tradition clings to it still. One instinctively goes there +as the centre of the Dickensian atmosphere with which the old city +of Rochester is permeated. + +The Bull Inn should never lose its fame. Indeed, as long as it +lasts it never will, because Pickwick can never be forgotten. The +present-day traveller will go by rail, or some day by an aerial +'bus, and may forget the old days during his journey; but when he +arrives there and walks into the inn yard, whole visions of the +coaching days will come back to him, and prominent amongst them will +be the arrival of the "Commodore" coach with the Pickwickians on +board, and the departure of the chaise with the same company with +Winkle struggling with the tall mare, on their way to Dingley Dell, +which resulted so disastrously. He might be curious enough to want +to discover the "little roadside public-house with two elm trees, +horse-trough and a sign-post in front," where the travellers +attempted to put up the horse. That, however, has not been +discovered, although Dickens no doubt had a particular one in +his mind at the time. + +During their stay at Manor Farm, Dingley Dell, the Pickwickians +visited Muggleton to witness the cricket match between Dingley +Dell and all Muggleton. "Everybody whose genius has a topographical +bent," says Dickens, "knows perfectly well that Muggleton is a +corporate town, with a mayor, burgesses and freeman," but so far +no topographer has discovered which corporate town it was. Some +say Maidstone, others Town Malling. Until that vexed question +has been settled, however, the identification of the "large inn +with a sign-post in front, displaying an object very common in art, +but very rarely met with in nature--to wit, a Blue Lion with three +legs in the air, balancing himself on the extreme point of the +centre claw of his fourth foot," cannot definitely be verified. +The same remark applies to the Crown Inn, where Jingle stopped +on the same occasion. + +[illustration: The Swan Inn, Town Malling. Drawn by C. G. Harper] + +At Maidstone there is a "White Lion," and at Town Malling there is +the "Swan." Which of these is the original of the inn where Mr. +Wardle hired a chaise and four to pursue Jingle and Miss Rachael, +and on whose steps, the following Christmas, the Pickwickians, on +their second visit to Dingley Dell, were deposited "high and dry, +safe and sound, hale and hearty," by the Muggleton Telegraph, when +they discovered the Fat Boy just aroused from a sleep in front of +the tap-room fire, must be left to the choice of the reader. + + + + +CHAPTER IV +THE "WHITE HART," BOROUGH + + + +The pursuit of Jingle and Miss Wardle by the lady's father and Mr. +Pickwick, culminates in the "White Hart," which, in days gone by, +was one of the most famous of the many famous inns that then stood +in the borough of Southwark. Long before Dickens began to write, +the "White Hart" was the centre of the coaching activity of the +metropolis south of the Thames, and .was one of the oldest inns +in the country. + +Travellers from the Continent and the southern and eastern +counties of England to London made it their halting-place, whilst +from a business standpoint it had scarcely a rival. Coaches laden +with passengers and wagons full of articles of commerce made the +courtyard of the inn always a bustling and busy corner of a hustling +and busy neighbourhood. In the coaching era, therefore, the +"White Hart" was a household word to travellers and business men. +Dickens, with his magic pen and inventive genius, made it a +household word to the inhabitants of the whole globe, who never +had occasion to visit it either for business or pleasure. + +Its history goes back many centuries: as far back as 1400, and +possibly earlier than that. Its sign was taken from the badge of +Richard II, who adopted the emblem of the "White Hart" from the +crest of his mother, Joanna of Kent. A fine old inn of the highest +type, the "White Hart" no doubt was the resort of the most prominent +nobles and retainers of the time, public men of the period and +ambassadors of commerce. It is not surprising, therefore, that it +figures in English history generally, and was particularly mentioned +by Shakespeare. It certainly was the centre of many a stirring +scene, and events of feasting and jollity, besides being a place +where great trade was transacted. + +It is often mentioned in the Paston Letters in reference to Jack +Cade, who made it his headquarters in 1450. In Hall's Chronicles +it is recorded that the Captain, being made aware of the King's +absence, came first to Southwark, and there lodged at the "White +Hart." In Henry VI, Part II, Jack Cade is made to say, "Hath my +sword therefore broke through London gates, that you should leave +me at the 'White Hart' in Southwark?" + +Thomas Cromwell, Henry Vlll's most able minister, was also +associated with the borough of Southwark, and on one occasion (in +1529) it is recorded that he received a message to the effect that +one R. awaited him at the "White Hart" on important business. Again +the inn has mention in connection with the rebellion brought about +by Archbishop Laud's attitude to the Scottish and Puritan Churches, +when we are told that the populace and soldiers associated with it +lodged at the "White Hart." And in a like manner mention might be +made of other occasions during which, in those far-off days, the +"White Hart" played some notable part in history and in the social +round of the period. + +In 1676 it was entirely destroyed by the great fire of Southwark, +but was rebuilt immediately afterward on the old site and on the +old model. It was described by Strype about this time as a very +large inn, and we believe that it was able to accommodate between +one and two hundred guests and their retinue, with ample rooms left +for their belongings, horses and goods. It did a considerable +trade and was esteemed one of the best inns in Southwark, and so +it continued as a favourite place of resort for coaches and carriers +until the end of the coaching days. + +When, therefore, Mr. Pickwick set all the world agog with his +adventures, the "White Hart" was recognized as a typical old +English inn, and was really at its best. It had arrived at this +prosperous state by easy stages during its previous 180 years, +and had a reputation for comfort and generous hospitality during +the best days of the coaching era, which had reached the golden +age when Mr. Pickwick discovered Sam Weller cleaning boots in its +coach yard one historic morning in the early nineteenth century. + +It is not to be wondered at, then, that Dickens, who knew this +district so well and intimately, should introduce the "White Hart" +into his book as a setting for one of his most amusing scenes. +After speaking of London's inns in general, he makes special mention +of those in the Borough, where, he says, there still remained some +half-dozen old inns, "which have preserved their external features +unchanged, and which have escaped alike the rage for public +improvement and the encroachments of private speculation." Since +these words were written public improvement has "improved" all of +them, except one, the "George," right out of existence. + +But let us use Dickens's own words to describe these inns in general +and the "White Hart" in particular, for none of ours can improve his +picture. + +"Great, rambling, queer old places they are, with galleries and +passages and staircases, wide enough and antiquated enough to +furnish materials for a hundred ghost stories, supposing we should +ever be reduced to the lamentable necessity of inventing any, and +that the world should exist long enough to exhaust the innumerable +veracious legends connected with old London Bridge and its adjacent +neighbourhood on the Surrey side. + +"It was in the yard of one of these inns--of no less celebrated a one +than the 'White Hart'--that a man was busily employed in brushing the +dirt off a pair of boots, early on the morning succeeding the events +narrated in the last chapter. He was habited in a coarse-striped +waistcoat, with black calico sleeves, and blue glass buttons, drab +breeches and leggings. A bright red handkerchief was wound in a +very loose and unstudied style round his neck, and an old white hat +was carelessly thrown on one side of his head. There were two rows +of boots before him, one cleaned and the other dirty, and at every +addition he made to the clean row, he paused from his work, and +contemplated its results with evident satisfaction." + +This, we need hardly say, was the inimitable Sam Weller, and +it was his first introduction to the story with which his name +is now inseparable. + +[illustration: The White Hart Inn, Southwark, in 1858. From +an engraving by Fairholt, after a drawing by J. Sachs] + +Dickens then goes on to give further particulars of how the yard +looked on the particular morning of which he writes: + +"The yard presented none of that bustle and activity which are the +usual characteristics of a large coach inn. Three or four lumbering +wagons, each with a pile of goods beneath its ample canopy, about +the height of the second-floor window of an ordinary house, were +stowed away beneath a lofty roof which extended over one end of the +yard; and another, which was probably to commence its journey that +morning, was drawn out into the open space. A double tier of +bedroom galleries, with old, clumsy balustrades, ran round two sides +of the straggling area, and a double row of bells to correspond, +sheltered from the weather by a little sloping roof, hung over the +door. . . . Two or three gigs and chaise-carts were wheeled up under +different little sheds and penthouses; and the occasional heavy +tread of a carthorse or rattling of a chain at the further end of +the yard announced to anybody who cared about the matter that the +stable lay in that direction. When we add that a few boys in smock +frocks were lying asleep on heavy packages, wool-packs and other +articles that were scattered about on heaps of straw, we have +described as fully as need be the general appearance of the yard +of the White Hart Inn, High Street, Borough, on the particular +morning in question." + +This was the inn, then, to which Mr. Pickwick and Mr. Wardle +came in search of the runaway couple, and Sam Weller was the first +person they interviewed on the subject. The reader will refer to +Chapter X of the book should he want his memory refreshed regarding +the amusing scene with Sam, which has been so faithfully pictured +by Phiz in one of his illustrations. How they discovered the +misguided Rachael, how they bought off the adventurer, Jingle, +and how Mr. Pickwick, Wardle and the deserted lady set forth the +next day by the Muggleton heavy coach is duly set forth in Dickens's +own way. + +The "White Hart" remained very much as Dickens found it and described +it in 1836 until it was finally demolished in 1889. Following the +advent of railways it lost a good deal of its glamour, and in its +last years the old galleries on two of its sides were let out in +tenements, and the presence of the occupants gave a certain animation +to the scene. In the large inner yard were some quaint old house +which were crowded with lodgers, but it still hung on to its old +traditions of the coaching times, and even up to its last days the +old inn was the halting-place of the last of the old-fashioned +omnibuses which plied between London Bridge and Clapham. + +Nothing now remains to remind us of the old inn which Dickens and +Sam Weller have made immortal in the annals of coaching but a narrow +turning bearing its name, where is established a Sam Weller Club. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +"LA BELLE SAUVAGE" AND THE "MARQUIS OF GRANBY," DORKING + + + +"La Belle Sauvage" has, like many other historic inns, gone into the +limbo of past, if not of forgotten, things, leaving nothing but its +name denoting a cul-de-sac, to remind the present generation of its +one-time fame. + +This was the inn where Tony Weller, resplendent in many layers of +cloth cape and huge brimmed hat, stopped "wen he drove up" on the +box seat of one of the stage coaches of the period. For Tony was, +as everybody knows, a coachman typical of the period of the book, +and the "Belle Savage" (the spelling of "savage" here follows the +fashion of the period referred to) was where he started and ended +his journeys in London. But the anecdote related by his son of +how he was hoodwinked into taking out a licence to marry Mrs. +Clarke contains the chief of the only two actual references to +the fact that his head-quarters were the "Belle Savage," as he +called it. It is certainly recorded that he started from the +"Bull" in Whitechapel when he drove the Pickwickians to Ipswich, +but it is the "Belle Savage" that is associated with his name. + +"'What's your name, sir?' says the lawyer. + +"'Tony Weller,' says my father. 'Parish?' says the lawyer. 'Belle +Savage,' says my father; for he stopped there wen he drove up, and +he know'd nothing about parishes, he didn't." + +Now it seems to us a curious fact that Dickens never made any +further use of this famous inn, either in Pickwick or in his other +books; indeed, we can only recall one other reference to it, and +that when Sam's father rather despondently told him that "a thousand +things may have happened by the time you next hears any news of the +celebrated Mr. Veller o' the 'Bell Savage:'" It is particularly +curious in regard to Pickwick, for the inn was not only close to the +Fleet Prison, which figures so prominently in the book, but its +outbuildings actually adjoined it. Meagre as is the reference, it +is, nevertheless, retained in the memory, and the inn proclaimed a +Pickwickian one with as much satisfaction as if it had been the +scene of many an incident such as connect others with the book. + +Unfortunately there are only one or two landmarks remaining to show +that it ever existed. One of these is the archway out of Ludgate +Hill, just beyond the hideous bridge which runs across the road, at +the side of No. 68, which in Pickwickian days was No. 38. Perhaps +the shape of the yard which still bears the inn's name may be +considered as a trace of its former glory. This yard is now +surrounded by the business premises of Messrs. Cassell and Co., +the well-known publishers, which occupy the whole site of the old +building. + +We can find no earlier reference to the inn than that in the reign +of Henry VI, when a certain John French in a deed (1453) made over +to his mother for her life "all that tenement or inn, with its +appurtenances, called Savage's Inn, otherwise called 'le Bell on +the Hope' in the parish of Fleet Street, London." Prior to that it +may be surmised that it belonged to a citizen of the name of Savage, +probably the "William Savage of Fleet Street in the Parish of St. +Bridget," upon whom, it is recorded in 1380, an attempt was made +"to obtain by means of forged letter, twenty shillings." + +It would be clear from this that its sign was the "Bell and Hoop," +before it became the property of the Savage family, from whom there +can be no doubt it got its name of "La Belle Savage." According to +Stow, Mrs. Isabella Savage gave the inn to the Cutlers' Company, but +this would seem to be incorrect, for more recent research has proved +definitely that it was a John Craythorne who did so in 1568. The +crest of the Cutlers' Company is the Elephant and Castle, and a +stone bas-relief of it, which once stood over the gateway of the inn +under the sign of the Bell, is still to be seen on the east wall of +La Belle Savage Yard to-day. It was placed there some fifty years +ago when the old inn was demolished. + +[illustration: La Belle Sauvage Inn, Ludgate Hill. From a +drawing by T. Hosmer Shepherd] + +Years before Craythorne presented the inn to the Cutlers' Company, +however, it was known as "La Belle Sauvage," for we are told that +Sir Thomas Wyatt, the warrior poet, in 1554 made his last stand +with his Kentish men against the troops of Mary just in front of +the ancient inn, "La Belle Sauvage." He was attempting to capture +Ludgate and was driven back with some thousands of rebel followers +to Temple Bar, where he surrendered himself to Sir Maurice Berkeley, +and so sealed his own fate and that of poor Lady Jane Grey. + +Again, in 1584, the inn was described as "Ye Belle Sauvage," and +there have been many speculations as to the origin of the name, and +some doubt as to the correct spelling. + +In 1648 and 1672 exhibitions of landlords' tokens of various inns +were held, whereat were shown two belonging to "La Belle Sauvage," +the sign of one being that of an Indian woman holding a bow and +arrow, and the other, of Queen Anne's time, that of a savage +standing by a bell, and it has been conjectured that this latter +sign may have suggested the name. But as the inn was known as "Ye +Belle Savage" some sixty years previously this is hardly likely. +Another conjecture as to its origin was made by Addison in The +Spectator, who, having read an old French romance which gives an +account of a beautiful woman called in French "La Belle Sauvage" +and translated into English as "Bell Savage," considered the name +was derived from that source. Alderman Sir W. P. Treloar, in his +excellent little book on "Ludgate Hill," puts forth another idea. +"As the inn," he says, "was the mansion of the Savage family, and +near to Bailey or Ballium, it is at least conceivable that it would +come to be known as the Bail or Bailey Savage Inn, and afterward the +Old Bail or Bailey Inn." We prefer, however, to favour the Isabella +Savage theory as the likely one. + +Long before Elizabeth's time and long after-wards the inn was a +very famous one. In the days before Shakespeare the actors gave +performances of their plays in the old inn yard, using the +courtyards as the pit in theatres is used to-day, and the upper +and lower galleries for what are now the boxes and galleries of +modern theatres. In 1556, the old inns, such as the "Cross Keys," +the "Bull" and "Belle Sauvage" were used extensively for this +purpose, the latter, we are told, almost ranking as a permanent +theatre. We find Collier also stating that the "Belle Sauvage" +was a favourite place for these performances. + +Originally the old inn consisted of two courts, an inner and outer +one. The present archway from Ludgate Hill led into the latter, +which at one time contained private houses. A distinguished resident +in one of these (No. 11) was Grinling Gibbons. According to Horace +Walpole, Gibbons carved an exquisite pot of flowers in wood, which +stood on his window-sill there, and shook surprisingly with the +motion of the coaches that passed beneath. The inn proper, +surrounded by its picturesque galleries, stood in a corner of the +inner court, entered by a second archway about half-way up the yard. + +Part of the inn abutted on to the back of Fleet Prison, and Mr. +Tearle in his Rambles with an American, bearing this fact in mind, +ingeniously suggests that the conception of the idea for smuggling +Mr. Pickwick from the prison by means of a piano without works may +have been conceived in Mr. Weller's brain while resting in the +"Belle Sauvage" and contemplating the prison wall. + +In 1828, the period of The Pickwick Papers, J. Pollard painted a +picture of the Cambridge coach ("The Star") leaving the inn. A +portion of this picture showing the coach and the north side of +Ludgate Hill, was published as a lithograph by Thomas McLean of +the Haymarket. It gives the details of the inn entrance and the +coach on a large scale. The inn at the time was owned by Robert +Nelson. He was a son of Mrs. Ann Nelson, the popular proprietor +of the "Bull," Whitechapel. Besides the coaches for the eastern +counties, those also for other parts of the country started from +its precincts, for such names as Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Plymouth, +Oxford, Gloucester, Coventry, Carlisle, Manchester were announced +on the signboard at the side of the archway. + +In spite of the fact that Dickens only once refers to the inn, +its name and fame, nevertheless, will always be associated with +him and with Tony Weller, who was so familiar with it and so +attached to it, as to name it as the parish he resided in. + +[illustration: The Cambridge Coach leaving Belle Sauvage yard. +From a lithograph] + +The relating of the story of how Tony Weller was driven into +his second marriage, which reveals "La Belle Sauvage" as his +headquarters, also first brings into prominence the "Markis o' +Granby," Dorking, as the residence of Mrs. Susan Clarke, and +incidentally the scene of more than one amusing incident after +she became Mrs. Weller, senior. "The 'Marquis of Granby' in Mrs. +Weller's time," we are informed, "was quite a model of a roadside +public-house of the better class--just large enough to be convenient, +and small enough to be snug." + +In the chapter describing how Sam displayed his high sense of duty +as a son, by paying a visit to his "mother-in-law," as he called +her, and how he discovered Mr. Stiggins indulging in "hot pine-apple +rum and water," we get a little pen-picture of the inn. + +"On the opposite side of the road was a signboard on a high post +representing the head and shoulders of a gentleman with an +apoplectic countenance, in a red coat with deep blue facings, and +a touch of the same over his three-cornered hat, for a sky . . . an +undoubted likeness of the Marquis of Granby of glorious memory. The +bar window displayed a choice collection of geranium plants, and a +well-dusted row of spirit phials. The open shutters bore a variety +of golden inscriptions, eulogistic of good beds and neat wines; and +the choice group of countrymen and hostlers lounging about the stable +door and horse-trough afforded presumptive proof of the excellent +quality of the ale and spirits which were sold within." + +Phiz's picture, forming the vignette on the title-page, hardly does +justice to this description, although the incident of old Weller +performing the "beautiful and exhilarating" act of immersing Mr. +Stiggins's head in the horse-trough full of water, is spirited enough. + +The "Markis Gran by Dorken," as the elder Weller styled it in his +letter to Sam, is another of those inns, which figure prominently in +the book, that have never been actually identified. Robert Allbut, +in 1897, claimed to have found the original in the High Street +opposite the Post Office at the side of Chequers' Court. Only a +part of it then existed, and was being used as a grocer's shop. + +Herbert Railton gave an artistic picture of the courtyard in the +Jubilee edition of the book, but we are not able to state on what +authority it was based. + +There were, however, two inns at Dorking, the "King's Head" and the +"King's Arms," over which speculation has been rife as to which was +the original of the inn so favoured by the Revd. Mr. Stiggins. Of +the two, perhaps, the latter, still existing, seems to fit Dickens's +description best. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE "LEATHER BOTTLE," COBHAM, KENT + + + +The charming Kentish village of Cobham was familiar to Dickens +in his early boyhood days, as was the whole delightful countryside +surrounding it. That he loved it throughout his whole life there is +ample evidence in his letters. It was inevitable, therefore, that +his enthusiasm for it should find vent in his stories, and the first +references to its green woods and green shady lanes are to be found +in charming phrases in The Pickwick Papers, with the "Leather +Bottle" as the centre of attraction. + +The inn is first named in the book in Mr. Tupman's pathetic letter to +Mr. Pickwick written on a certain historic morning at Dingley Dell: + +"MY DEAR PICKWICK, + "You, my dear friend, are placed far beyond the reach of many +mortal frailties and weaknesses which ordinary people cannot over +come. You do not know what it is, at one blow, to be deserted by a +lovely and fascinating creature, and to fall a victim to the artifices +of a villain, who hid the grin of cunning beneath the mask of +friendship. I hope you never may. + "Any letter, addressed to me at the 'Leather Bottle,' Cobham, +Kent, will be forwarded--supposing I still exist. I hasten from the +sight of the world, which has become odious to me. Should I hasten +from it altogether, pity--forgive me. Life, my dear Pickwick, has +become insupportable to me. The spirit which burns within us, is a +porter's knot, on which to rest the heavy load of worldly cares and +troubles; and when that spirit fails us, the burden is too heavy to +be borne. We sink beneath it. You may tell Rachel--Ah, that name! +"TRACY TUPMAN." + +[illustration: The "Leather Bottle," Cobham, Kent. From a +photograph] + +No sooner had Mr. Pickwick read this plaintive missive than he +decided to follow, with his two other companions, Winkle and +Snodgrass, in search of their depressed friend. On the coach +journeyto Rochester "the violence of their grief had sufficiently +abated to admit of their making a very excellent early dinner," +and having discovered the right road all three set forward again +in the after-noon to walk to Cobham. + +"A delightful walk it was; for it was a pleasant afternoon in June, +and their way lay through a deep and shady wood, cooled by the +light wind which gently rustled the thick foliage, and enlivened by +the songs of the birds that perched upon the boughs. The ivy and +the moss crept in thick clusters over the old trees, and the soft +green turf overspread the ground like a silken mat. They emerged +upon an open park, with an ancient hall, displaying the quaint and +picturesque architecture of Elizabeth's time. Long vistas of +stately oaks and elm trees appeared on every side; large herds of +deer were cropping the fresh grass; and occasionally a startled +hare scoured along the ground, with the speed of the shadows thrown +by the light clouds which sweep across a sunny landscape like a +passing breath of summer." + +Dickens wrote that charming descriptive passage in 1836, probably +whilst spending his honeymoon at Chalk near by, and anyone taking +the same walk will find that the words paint the scene perfectly and +faithfully to-day, so unspoiled and unaltered is it. The spot will +delight the traveler as much as it did Mr. Pickwick, who exclaimed, +as it all came in view: "If this were the place to which all who are +troubled with our friend's complaint came, I fancy their old attachment +to this world would very soon return"; at any rate, his other companions +were all agreed upon the point. "And really," added Mr. Pickwick, +after half an hour's walking had brought them to the village, "really +for a misanthrope's choice, this is one of the prettiest and most +desirable places of residence I ever met with." + +Having been directed to the "Leather Bottle," "a clean and +commodious village ale-house," the three travellers entered, and at +once inquired for a gentleman of the name of Tupman. In those days +the inn was managed by a landlady, who promptly told Tom to +"show the gentlemen into the parlour." + +"A stout country lad opened the door at the end of the passage, and +the three friends entered a long, low-roofed room, furnished with a +large number of high-backed, leather-cushioned chairs, of fantastic +shapes, and embellished with a great variety of old portraits and +roughly coloured prints of some antiquity. At the upper end of the +room was a table, with a white cloth upon it, well covered with a +roast fowl, bacon, ale and et ceteras; and at the table sat Mr. +Tupman, looking as unlike a man who had taken his leave of +the world as possible. + +"On the entrance of his friends, that gentleman laid down his knife +and fork, and with a mournful air advanced to meet them." + +Mr. Tupman was quite affected by his friends' anxiety for his +welfare, but any demonstration was nipped in the bud by Mr. +Pickwick's insisting on Mr. Tupman finishing his delicate repast +first. At the conclusion thereof, Mr. Pickwick, "having refreshed +himself with a copious draft of ale," conducted poor Tracy to the +churchyard opposite, and pacing to and fro eventually combated his +companion's resolution with a successfully eloquent appeal to him +once again to join his friends. + +On their way back to the inn, Mr. Pickwick made that great discovery +"which had been the pride and boast of his friends, and the envy of +every antiquarian in this or any other country," of a small broken +stone, partially buried in the ground in front of a cottage door, +which, as everybody knows, bore the inscription: + + - | - + B I L S T + U M + P S H I + S.M. + A R K + +The exultation and joy of the Pickwickians knew no bounds and +they carefully carried the important stone into the inn, where Mr. +Pickwick's eyes sparkled with a delight as he sat and gloated over +the treasure he had discovered, the detailed adventure with which +need not be related here. Having carefully packed his prize, its +discovery and the happy meeting were duly celebrated in an evening +of festivity and conversation. + +"It was past 11 o'clock--a late hour for the little village of +Cobham--when Mr. Pickwick retired to the bedroom which had been +prepared for his reception. He threw open the lattice-window, and, +setting his light upon the table, fell into a train of meditation +on the hurried events of the two preceding days. + +"The hour and the place were both favourable to contemplation; +Mr. Pickwick was roused by the church clock striking twelve. +The first stroke of the hour sounded solemnly in his ear, but +when the bell ceased the stillness seemed insupportable; he +almost felt as if he had lost a companion. He was nervous and +excited; and hastily undressing himself, and placing his light in +the chimney, got into bed." + +But Mr. Pickwick could not sleep following the excitement of +the day's adventure, so "after half an hour's tumbling about, he +came to the unsatisfactory conclusion that it was of no use trying +to sleep, so he got up and partially dressed himself. Anything, he +thought, was better than lying there fancying all kinds of horrors. +He looked out of the window--it was very dark. He walked about +the room--it was very lonely." + +Suddenly he thought of The Madman's Manuscript which he had +brought from Dingley Dell, and, trimming his light, he put on his +spectacles and composed himself to read that blood-curdling +narrative. On reaching the end, Mr. Pickwick's candle "went +suddenly out" and he once more scrambled into bed. + +Next morning, with the coveted antiquarian treasure, the four +gentlemen travelled to London by coach. + +That is the story of the association of the "Leather Bottle," Cobham, +with The Pickwick Papers, which has spread its fame to the uttermost +parts of the world. That is the chief reason why in certain seasons +of the year the "Leather Bottle" and Cobham are visited by thousands +of admirers of the novelist, and also why the ideal Kentish village +has become a magnet to lovers of England's rural lanes and arable +fields; but the charm of it all is that when it is reached both it +and the inn are to be found exactly as Dickens so faithfully described +them many years ago. + +The inn is just an inn; a commodious village ale-house; that is the +best description of it. Its picturesque exterior, with its hanging +sign bearing a portrait of Mr. Pickwick in the act of addressing the +club, and the legend, "Dickens's Old Pickwick Leather Bottle," and +its red-tiled roof, its small windows with their old-fashioned +shutters, is no less quaint and attractive than its old-time interior. +Its original sign--the Leather Bottle--hangs in the tiny bar which is on +the immediate right of the passage, and behind a glass window, looking +as unlike a bar as anything imaginable. From this curious little +receptacle refreshment for travellers and villagers is dispensed in +stone mugs embellished with the sign of the inn; and its "low-roofed +room" is at the end of the passage as Mr. Pickwick found it, with its +oak beams across the ceiling adding to its picturesqueness. In this +room the "high back leather-cushioned chairs" are still to be seen, +together with a grandfather clock and other antique pieces of +furniture in thorough keeping with tradition. + +There, too, is the great "variety of old portraits" which decorated +the wall in Mr. Pickwick's time, with every other available inch +of wall space now covered with portraits of the novelist and his +memorable characters, pictures of scenes from his books, Dickensian +relics and knicknacks, either associated with the book which brought +it fame or with other books of the famous Boz. In a word, it is +a veritable Dickens museum, in which every lover of the novelist +lingers with pleasure and amazement, oblivious of the fact that +possibly his tea is getting cold. + +Here the visitor can have his meal as did Mr. Tupman, not perhaps +in such solitude, for the "Leather Bottle" to-day is often a busy +centre for pedestrians from the neighbouring villages, and cyclists +and motorists from far-distant towns and cities. + +Upstairs, overlooking the churchyard, is the identical front bedroom +where Mr. Pickwick spent the night, and where he sat reading long +into the early and eerie hours of the morning. The present landlord +is a true Dickensian in knowledge and character, and endeavours to +make everybody comfortable and welcome, no matter who he be. A +glance at the visitors' book will show how the inn has been sought +out by every grade of society from all over the world. Indeed, we +doubt if Shakespeare's birthplace can surpass this inn in popularity. + +[illustration: The Coffee Room, "Leather Bottle," Cobham, +Kent. From a photograph] + +But it is not merely a Pickwickian inn. It is a Dickensian inn for +which the novelist himself had a warm place in his heart for its +own sake, spending many pleasant hours within its comfortable +walls. Long before he came to live at Gad's Hill, close by, he +loved the place. As a boy at Chatham, probably he walked over +in company with his father; and when spending his honeymoon at +Chalk, he no doubt roamed in the beautiful lanes around the village. +In 1840, after spending a vacation at Broadstairs, he posted back to +London with Maclise and Forster by way of Chatham, Rochester and +Cobham, and the three spent two agreeable days in revisiting +well-remembered scenes. + +Again in 1841 Dickens and Forster passed a day and night in +Cobham and its neighbourhood, sleeping at the "Leather Bottle," +and when he ultimately became a resident at Gad's Hill the whole +district was the greatest pleasure to him. His biographer, writing +of the year 1856, says: "Round Cobham, skirting the park and +village and passing the 'Leather Bottle,' famous in the pages of +Pickwick, was a favourite walk with Dickens." + +He would often take his friends and visitors with him on these +walks, and would never miss the old village inn. W. P. Frith has +told us of how, when he formed one of the party on one of these +occasions, "we went to the 'Leather Bottle,'" and, no doubt, the +company was merry and reminiscent on the association of the village +with the novelist and his immortal book. + +The happy thing to be remembered to-day is that neither the village, +park, nor inn have changed since those historic days, so that little +imagination is required by the pilgrim to recall to his mind the +scenes and characters which have made them familiar to lovers of +Dickens in every English-speaking country. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE "TOWN ARMS," EATANSWILL, AND THE INN OF "THE BAGMAN'S STORY" + + + +Following the Pickwickians in the sequence of their peregrinations, +we become confronted with the problem, "which was the prototype of +Eatanswill?" Having weighed the evidence of each of the other +claimants for the honour, we favour that of Sudbury in Suffolk, for +which so good a case has been presented. That being so, the "Rose +and Crown" undoubtedly would be the original of the "Town Arms," the +headquarters of the Blues and the inn at which Mr. Pickwick and his +friends alighted on their arrival in the town. + +First let us briefly state the case for Sudbury. + +In the opening paragraph of Chapter XIII of the book, Dickens writes: + +"We will frankly acknowledge, that up to the period of our being +first immersed in the voluminous papers of the Pickwick Club, we had +never heard of Eatanswill; we will with equal candour admit, that we +have in vain searched for proof of the actual existence of such a +place at the present day. . . . We are therefore led to believe, +that Mr. Pickwick, with that anxious desire to abstain from giving +offence to any, and with those delicate feelings for which all +who knew him well know he was so eminently remarkable, purposely +substituted a fictitious designation, for the real name of the place +in which his observations were made. We are confirmed in this +belief by a little circumstance, apparently slight and trivial in +itself, but when considered from this point of view, not undeserving +of notice. In Mr. Pickwick's notebook, we can just trace an entry +of the fact, that the places of himself and followers were booked by +the Norwich coach; but this entry was afterwards lined through, as +if for the purpose of concealing even the direction in which the +borough is situated." + +That description fits Sudbury admirably and faithfully, but does not +by any means fit either Ipswich or Norwich, the two other claimants, +and the evidence of Mr. C. Finden Waters, a one-time proprietor of +the "Rose and Crown" at Sudbury, makes it almost certain that +Sudbury was the place Dickens had in mind. + +Mr. Waters, in 1906, devoted much time and research in order to +establish his claim, and in March, 1907, read a paper, setting forth +in detail the various points which led him to that conclusion, to +the members of a then newly formed coterie who called themselves +"The Eatanswill Club." It appears that this evidence established +the fact that Dickens visited Sudbury in 1834. On the 25th and 26th +July in the same year, a Parliamentary by-election took place there, +the incidents of which, as reported by the Essex Standard of that +period, coincided remarkably with those recorded in connexion with +the "Eatanswill" election in The Pickwick Papers. In 1835, Dickens +visited Ipswich for The Morning Chronicle, and reported the election +at that place. It is now tolerably certain that he went on to +Sudbury for a similar purpose. + +A further point is, Mr. Pickwick left by the Norwich coach. +"Eatanswill," as we have seen, being a small borough near Bury St. +Edmunds, and on the Norwich coach route, as was Sudbury, the +latter's claim gains strength indeed, if it does not actually +settle the question. At any rate, no other small borough could be +named with any assurance that Dickens had it in his mind. Indeed, +in the year 1834, there were only four Parliamentary boroughs in +Suffolk, viz. Sudbury, Ipswich, Bury St. Edmunds and Eye. Ipswich, +Mr. Pickwick visited AFTER the "Eatanswill" election, and does not +hesitate to describe it under its right name. Moreover, the claims +of Ipswich have been relinquished by even local literary men, who in +1905 actually proved that town to be topographically impossible and +named Sudbury as the original. Bury St. Edmunds is the place to +which Mr. Pickwick travelled AFTER leaving "Eatanswill," and as +that borough figures prominently in the book undisguised, it cannot +be that. Eye is off the Norwich coach road, and no one has ever +suggested that it has any claim to the honour. Sudbury alone, +therefore, remains as presenting all the main features required +for the original. + +[illustration: The "Rose and Crown," Sudbury. From a photograph] + +In 1834 the "Rose and Crown," Sudbury, was the headquarters of the +"Blue" candidate, and so its claim to be the original of the "Town +Arms," Eatanswill, would seem to be well made out; and so serious +and certain were the citizens of Sudbury on the point that they +established an "Eatanswill Club" there, and revived the Eatanswill +Gazette devoted to "Pickwickian, Dickensian and Eatanswillian humour +and research." + +Accepting this evidence, we naturally assume the "Rose and Crown" +to be the "Town Arms," which, late in the evening, Mr. Pickwick +and his companions, assisted by Sam, dismounting from the roof of +the Eatanswill coach, entered through an excited crowd assembled +there. They found, however, the inn had no accommodation to offer, +but through the friendliness of Mr. Pott, Mr. Pickwick and Winkle +accompanied that gentleman to his home, whilst Mr. Tupman, Mr. +Snodgrass and Sam repaired to the "Peacock." They all first dined +together at the "Town Arms" and arranged to reassemble there in the +morning. It was here the barmaid was reported to have been bribed +to "hocus the brandy and water of fourteen unpolled electors as was +a stopping in the house," and where most of the exciting scenes of +the election either took place, or had their rise in its precincts. + +On the same authority we locate the "Swan" as being the original of +the "Peacock," the headquarters of the "buffs," where Tupman and +Snodgrass lodged, and where was told the Bagman's story which brings +us up against yet another problem--"which was the inn on Marlborough +Downs that plays so important a part in that narrative?" + +We think, however, Mr. Charles G. Harper has solved the knotty +point in his valuable book The Old Inns of Old England. He comes +to the conclusion, by a process of elimination, that the "Waggon +and Horses" at Beckhampton, which exists to-day, nearly realises the +description of the inn given in the story. "It is," he says, "just +the house a needy bagman such as Tom Smart would have selected. It +was in coaching days a homely yet comfortable inn, that received +those travellers who did not relish either the state or the expense +of the great Beckhampton Inn opposite, where post-horses were kept, +and where the very elite of the roads resorted." + +[illustration: The "Waggon and Horses," Beckhampton. +Drawn by C. G. Harper] + +If its comfort, as described in the following paragraph, is to-day +equal to that found by Tom Smart, it is a place to seek for personal +pleasure, as well as a Pickwickian landmark. + +"In less than five minutes' time, Tom was ensconced in the room +opposite the bar--the very room where he had imagined the fire +blazing--before a substantial matter-of-fact roaring fire, composed +of something short of a bushel of coals, and wood enough to make +half a dozen decent gooseberry bushes, piled half-way up the +chimney, and roaring and crackling with a sound that of itself would +have warmed the heart of any reasonable man. This was comfortable, +but this was not all, for a smartly dressed girl, with a bright eye +and a neat ankle, was laying a very clean white cloth on the table; +and as Tom sat with his slippered feet on the fender, and his back +to the open door, he saw a charming prospect of the bar reflected +in the glass over the chimney-piece, with delightful rows of green +bottles and gold labels, together with jars of pickles and preserves, +and cheeses and boiled hams, and rounds of beef, arranged on shelves +in the most tempting and delicious array. Well, that was comfortable, +too; but even this was not all--for in the bar, seated at tea at the +nicest possible little table, drawn close up before the brightest +possible little fire, was a buxom widow of somewhere about eight-and- +forty or thereabouts, with a face as comfortable as the bar, who was +evidently the landlady of the house, and the supreme ruler over all +these agreeable possessions." + +What happened afterwards is another story. Many other incidents +occurred at Eatanswill during the Pickwickians' stay there, the +narration of which is not our purpose in these pages. One, however, +led Sam and his master hurriedly to leave the town on a certain +morning in pursuit of Alfred Jingle, who had put in an appearance at +Mrs. Leo Hunter's fancy-dress fete, and on seeing Mr. Pickwick there, +had as quickly left if as he had entered it. Mr. Pickwick, on +enquiry, discovering that Alfred Jingle, alias Charles Fitz +Marshall, was residing at the "Angel," Bury, set off in hot haste to +hunt him down, determined to prevent him from deceiving anyone else +as he had deceived him; and so we follow him in the next chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE "ANGEL," BURY ST. EDMUNDS + + + +"Beg your pardon, sir, is this Bury St. Edmunds?" + +The words were addressed by Sam Weller to Mr. Pickwick as the +two sat on top of a coach as it "rattled through the well-paved +streets of a handsome little town, of thriving appearance." +Eventually stopping before "a large inn situated in a wide street, +nearly facing the old Abbey," Mr. Pickwick, looking up, added, +"'and this is the "Angel." We alight here, Sam. But some caution +is necessary. Order a private room, and do not mention my name. +You understand?' + +"'Right as a trivet, sir,' replied Mr. Weller, with a wink of +intelligence; and having dragged Mr. Pickwick's portmanteau +from the hind boot, into which it had been hastily thrown when +they joined the coach at Eatanswill, Mr. Weller disappeared +on his errand. A private room was speedily engaged; and into +it Mr. Pickwick was ushered without delay." Having been settled +comfortably therein, partaken of dinner and listened to Sam's +philosophy about a good night's rest, he allowed that worthy +to go and "worm ev'ry secret out o' the boots' heart" regarding +the whereabouts of Fitz Marshall, as he assured Mr. Pickwick he +could do in five minutes. As good as his word he returned with +his information that the gentleman in question also had a private +room in the "Angel," but was dining out that night and had taken +his servant with him. It was accordingly arranged that Sam should +have a talk with the said servant in the morning with a view of +learning what he could about his master's plans. + +"As it appeared that this was the best arrangement that could +be made, it was finally agreed upon. Mr. Weller, by his master's +permission, retired to spend his evening in his own way; and +was shortly afterwards elected, by the unanimous voice of the +assembled company, into the tap-room chair, in which honourable +post he acquitted himself so much to the satisfaction of the +gentlemen-frequenters, that the roars of laughter and approbation +penetrated to Mr. Pickwick's bedroom, and shortened the term of his +natural rest by at least three hours. Early on the ensuing morning +Mr. Weller was dispelling all the feverish remains of the previous +evening's conviviality, through the instrumentality of a halfpenny +shower-bath (having induced a young gentleman attached to the stable +department, by the offer of a coin, to pump over his head and +face, until he was perfectly restored), when he was attracted by +the appearance of a young fellow in mulberry-coloured livery, who +was sitting on a bench in the yard, reading what appeared to be +a hymn-book, with an air of deep abstraction, but who occasionally +stole a glance at the individual under the pump, as if he took some +interest in his proceedings, nevertheless." + +This was no other than Job Trotter, the servant to Mr. Alfred +Jingle of No Hall, No Where, and in a few moments the two were in +animated conversation over a little liquid refreshment at the bar. +How Job Trotter and Alfred Jingle not only got the better of the +usually astute Sam and the innocent Mr. Pickwick, and entangled +the latter into a very embarrassing situation at the Young .Ladies' +School in the district; and how the latter extricated himself from +the awkward predicament only to find that the instigators of it had +again hurriedly left the town, is best gathered from the pages of +the book itself. + +"The process of being washed in the night air, and rough-dried in +a closet is as dangerous as it is peculiar." This having been the +case with Mr. Pickwick, he suffered as a consequence, and was laid +up with an attack of rheumatism, and had to spend a couple of days +in his bed at the hotel. To pass away the time, he devoted himself +to "editing" the love story of Nathaniel Pipkin, which he read to +his friends, who, having by this time arrived at the hotel, gathered +at his bedside and took their wine there with him. + +It was whilst staying at the "Angel" that Mr. Pickwick received +the first intimation that a writ for breach of promise had been +issued against him at the instance of Mrs. Bardell, much to the +alarm and amusement of his friends. He did not, however, hasten +back to London, but accepted Mr. Wardle's invitation to a shooting +party in the neighbourhood, where he again involved himself in a +further misadventure. + +[illustration: The Angel Hotel, Bury St. Edmunds. Drawn by +C. G. Harper] + +Now all these little untoward events happened whilst Mr. Pickwick +was staying at the "Angel," and. not only have they caused much +amusement to the readers of the book, but incidentally have added +fame and importance to the "Angel" at Bury to such an extent +that the faithful reader of Pickwick who finds himself in the +neighbourhood would no more think of passing the "Angel" than +would the pilgrim to the town omit visiting the famous abbey. +He will find the hotel little altered since the day when Mr. +Pickwick visited it, either as regards its old-time atmosphere +or its Victorian hospitality. + +It is a very plain and severe-looking building from the outside, +suggesting a gigantic doll's house with real steps up to the +front door all complete. Although it does not look as inspiring +on approaching it as most Dickensian inns do, its interior, +nevertheless, makes up in comfort what its exterior lacks +in picturesqueness. + +It has stood since 1779 and occupies the site of three ancient inns +known at the time as the "Angel," the "Castle" and the "White +Bear," respectively. In such an ancient town as Bury St. Edmunds, +with so many years behind it, the "Angel" could tell a story worth +narrating. Fronting the gates of the ancient Abbey, it occupies the +most prominent place in the town. In the wide space before it the +Bury fair was held, and a famous and fashionable festivity it was, +which lasted in the olden time for several days. Latterly, however, +one day is deemed sufficient, and that is September 21 in each year. + +In spite of its sombre appearance from the outside, it is considered +one of the most important hotels in West Suffolk, and is still a +typical old English inn, "a byword for comfort and generous +hospitality throughout the eastern counties." The spacious +coffee-room, its well-appointed drawing and sitting-rooms, its +many bedrooms, have an appeal to those desiring ease rather than +the luxuriousness of the modern style. In addition it has extensive +yards and stables, survivals of the old posting days, with a cosy +tap-room and bar, to say nothing of all the natural little nooks and +corners and accessories which pertain only to old-world hostelries. + +There still remains the pump under which Sam had his "halfpenny +shower-bath." And in the tap-room one can be easily reminded of +the scene over which Sam presided and acquitted himself with +so much satisfaction. + +As to which was the room occupied by Mr. Pickwick, history is +silent; but when Dickens was on his reporting expedition in Suffolk +during the electoral campaign of 1835, he stayed at the "Angel" +and, tradition says, slept in room No. 11. Mr. Percy FitzGerald, +on visiting it some years ago, ventured to seek of the "gnarled" +waiter information on the momentous question of Mr. Pickwick and +his adventure. + +"Piokwick, sir? Why, HE knew all about it," was the reply. "No. 11 +was Mr. Pickwick's room, and the proprietor would tell us everything. +A most quaint debate arose," says Mr. FitzGerald, "on Mr. Pickwick's +stay at the hotel. The host pronounced EX CATHEDRA and without +hesitation about the matter. . . . The power and vitality of the +Pickwickian legend are extraordinary indeed; all day long we found +people bewildered, as it were, by this faith, mixing up the author +and his hero." + +This is not unusual, and even in these days we find that Dickens's +characters have become so real that no one stops to discuss whether +this or that really happened to them, but just simply accepts their +comings and goings as the comings and goings of the heroes and +heroines of history are accepted, with perhaps just a little more +belief in them. And so we can be assured that the "Angel" at Bury +will be chiefly remembered as the hotel where Mr. Pickwick and his +companions stayed, whoever before or since may have honoured it with +a visit, or whatever else in its history may be recalled as +important. + +In 1861 Dickens again visited the town to give his famous readings +from his works, and put up at the "Angel," so that the county hotel +has many reasons for the proud title of being a Dickensian inn. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE "BLACK BOY," CHELMSFORD, THE "MAGPIE AND STUMP," +AND THE "BULL," WHITECHAPEL + + + +After Mr. Pickwick and Sam had been so cleverly outwitted by Jingle +and Job Trotter at Bury, they returned to London. Taking liquid +refreshment one day afterwards in a city hostelry they chanced upon +the elder Weller, who, in the course of conversation, revealed the +fact that, whilst "working" an Ipswich coach, he had taken up Jingle +and Job Trotter at the "Black Boy" at Chelmsford: "I took 'em up," +he emphasised, "right through to Ipswich, where the manservant--him +in the mulberries--told me they was a-going to put up for a long +time." Mr. Pickwick decided to follow them, and started, as will +be seen presently, from the Bull Inn, Whitechapel, for that town. + +The reference to the "Black Boy" is but a passing one, and it is +not even recorded that Mr. Pickwick stopped there on his journey +out; but the inn where Jingle was "taken up" was then one of the +best known on the Essex road, and was not demolished until 1857, +when it was replaced by a modern public-house which still displays +the old signboard. In an article in The Dickensian* Mr. G. 0. +Rickwood gives some interesting particulars concerning its history, +from which we gather that originally the "Black Boy" was the town +house of the de Veres, the famous Earls of Oxford, whose principal +seat, Hedingham Castle, was within a short distance of Chelmsford. +It was converted into a hostelry in the middle of the seventeenth +century, and was first known as the Crown or New Inn. It was an +ancient timber structure house, and some of the carved woodwork, +with the well-known device of the boar's head taken from one of +the rooms of the old inn, is still preserved in Chelmsford Museum. + +[* 1917, p.214.] + +At the close of the eighteenth century the "Black Boy" was +recognised as the leading hostelry of the town, and was known far +and wide. In the Pickwickian days it was a busy posting-house for +the coaches from London to many parts of Norfolk. + +[illustration: The "Black Boy," Chelmsford. From an old engraving] + +Before Mr. Pickwick carried out his determination to pursue Jingle, +he had occasion to visit the "Magpie and Stump," "situated in a +court, happy in the double advantage of being in the vicinity of +Clare Market and closely approximating to the back of New Inn." +This was the favoured tavern, sacred to the evening orgies of +Mr. Lowten and his companions, and by ordinary people would be +designated a public-house. The object of Mr. Pickwick's visit was +to discover Mr. Lowten, and on enquiry, found him presiding over a +sing-song and actually engaged in obliging with a comic song at the +moment. After a brief interview with that worthy, Mr. Pickwick was +prevailed upon to join the festive party. + +[illustration: The "George the Fourth," Clare Market. Drawn +by C. G. Harper] + +There were, at the time, two taverns, either of which might have +stood as the original for the "Magpie and Stump"; the "Old Black +Jack" and the "George the Fourth," both in Portsmouth Street, and +both were demolished in 1896. Which was the one Dickens had in mind +it is difficult to say. His description of its appearance runs as +follows: "In the lower windows, which were decorated with curtains +of a saffron hue, dangled two or three printed cards, bearing +reference to Devonshire cyder and Dantzic spruce, while a large +blackboard, announcing in white letters to an enlightened public +that there were 500,000 barrels of double stout in the cellars of +the establishment, left the mind in a state of not unpleasing doubt +and uncertainty, as to the precise direction in the bowels of the +earth in which this mighty cavern might be supposed to extend. When +we add that the weather-beaten signboard bore the half-obliterated +semblance of a magpie intently eyeing a crooked streak of brown +paint, which the neighbours had been taught from infancy to consider +as the 'stump,' we have said all that need be said of the exterior +of the edifice." + +The "Old Black Jack" has been identified as the original of the +"Magpie and Stump" by some topographers, whilst Robert Allbut in his +Rambles in Dickens-land favoured the "Old George the Fourth," adding +that Dickens and Thackeray were well-remembered visitors there. + +The Bull Inn, Whitechapel, the starting-place of Tony Weller's coach +which was to take Mr. Pickwick to Ipswich, was actually at No. 25 +Aldgate, and was perhaps the most famous of the group of inns of the +neighbourhood whence many of the Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk coaches +set out on their journeys. At the time of which we write it was +owned by Mrs. Ann Nelson, whose antecedents had been born and bred +in the business, while she herself had interests in more than one +city hostelry, as well as owned coaches. + +Mr. Charles G. Harper has several references to, and interesting +anecdotes about, Mrs. Ann Nelson and her inns in his "Road" books. +In one such reference he tells us Mrs. Ann Nelson was "one of those +stern, dignified, magisterial women of business, who were quite a +remarkable feature of the coaching age, who saw their husbands off +to an early grave and alone carried on the peculiarly exacting +double business of inn-keeping and coach-proprietorship, and did +so with success." She was the "Napoleon and Caesar" combined of +the coaching business. Energetic, she spared neither herself nor +her servants. The last to bed she was also the first to rise, +"looking after the stable people and seeing that the horses had +their feeds and were properly cared for." Insistent as she was +on rigid punctuality in all things, and hard as she was on those +who served her, she, nevertheless, treated them very well, and +gave the coachmen and guards a special room, where they dined as +well at reduced prices as any of the coffee-room customers. This +room was looked upon as their private property, and there they +regaled themselves with the best the house could provide. It was +more sacred and exclusive than the commercial-rooms of the old +Bagmen days, and was strictly unapproachable by any but those for +whom it was set apart. + +[illustration: The Bull Inn, Whitechapel. From the water-colour +drawing by P. Palfrey] + +The "Bull" began to decline when the railway was opened in 1839, +and in 1868 it was demolished. + +There is no doubt that Dickens knew it well, and probably used it +in his journalistic days when having to take journeys to the eastern +counties to report election speeches. In The Uncommercial Traveller +he speaks of having strolled up to the empty yard of the "Bull," +"who departed this life I don't know when, and whose coaches had all +gone I don't know where." + +When, therefore, he wanted a starting-point for Mr. Pickwick's +adventure to Ipswich, the "Bull," which was nothing less than an +institution at the time, readily occurred to him. + +There is an anecdote about Dickens and the coachmen's private +apartment, told by Mr. Charles G. Harper. "On one occasion Dickens +had a seat at a table, and 'the Chairman,' after sundry flattering +remarks, as a tribute to the novelist's power of describing a coach +Journey, said, 'Mr. Dickens, we knows you knows wot's wot, but can +you, sir, 'andle a vip?' There was no mock modesty in Dickens. He +acknowledged he could describe a journey down the road, but he +regretted that in the management of a 'vip' he was not expert." + +Here Sam arrived one morning with his master's travelling bag and +portmanteau, to be closely followed by Mr. Pickwick himself, who, as +Sam told his father, was "cabbin' it . .. havin' two mile o' danger +at eightpence." In the inn yard he was greeted by a red-haired man +who immediately became friendly and enquired if Mr. Pickwick was +going to Ipswich. On learning that he was, and that he, too, had +taken an outside seat, they became fast friends. Little did Mr. +Pickwick suppose that his newly made friend and he would meet again +later under less congenial circumstances. + +"Take care o' the archway, gen'l'men," was Sam's timely warning as +the coach, under the control of his father, started out of the inn +yard on its memorable journey down Whitechapel Road to the "Great +White Horse," Ipswich, an hostelry which forms the subject of the +following chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE "GREAT WHITE HORSE," IPSWICH + + + +"In the main street of Ipswich, on the left-hand side of the way, 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." + +With these identical words Dickens introduces his readers to, and +indicates precisely, the position of the famous Great White Horse +Inn at Ipswich, and a visitor to the popular city of Suffolk need +have no better guide to the spot than the novelist. He will be a +little surprised at the description of the white horse, which in +reality is quite an unoffending and respectable animal, in the act +of simply lifting its fore leg in a trotting action, that is all; +but he will be well repaid if when he arrives there he reads again +Chapter XXII of The Pickwick Papers before he starts to make himself +acquainted with the intricacies of the interior. + +That chapter, telling of the extraordinary adventure Mr. Pickwick +experienced with the middle-aged lady in the double-bedded room, +is one of the most amusing in the book, and one which has made the +"Great White Horse" as familiar a name as any in fiction or reality. + +There are few inns in the novelist's books described so fully. He +must have known it well; indeed, he is supposed to have stayed there +when, in his early days, he visited Ipswich to report an election +for The Morning Chronicle; and probably a similar mistake happened +to him to that which Mr. Pickwick experienced. So when he says, +"The 'Great 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," he evidently was recalling an impression +of those days. + +[illustration: The White Horse Hotel, Ipswich. Drawn by L. Walker] + +It is an imposing structure viewed from without, with stuccoed +walls, and a pillared entrance, over which stands the sign which so +attracted the novelist's attention. The inside is spacious, with +still the air of the old days about it, and contains fifty bedrooms +and handsome suites of rooms; but Dickens was a little misleading +regarding its size and a little unkind in his reproaches. At any +rate, if the seemingly unkind things he said of it were deserved in +those days of which he writes, they are no longer. + +"Never were such labyrinths of uncarpeted passages," he says; +"such clusters of mouldy, ill-lighted rooms, such huge numbers +of small dens for eating or sleeping in, beneath any one roof, +as are collected together between the four walls of the Great +White Horse Inn." + +Here on a certain very eventful day appeared Mr. Pickwick, who was +to have met his friends there, but as they had not arrived when he +and Mr. Peter Magnus reached it by coach, he accepted the latter's +invitation to dine with him. + +Dickens's disparaging descriptions of the inn's accommodation lead +one to believe that his experiences of the "over-grown tavern," as +he calls it, were not of the pleasantest. He refers to the waiter +as a corpulent man with "a fortnight's napkin" under his arm, and +"coeval stockings," and tells how this worthy ushered Mr. Pickwick +and Mr. Magnus into "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." Here they made their repast from a "bit of fish and +a steak," and "having ordered a bottle of the most horrible port +wine, at the highest possible price, for the good of the house, +drank brandy and water for their own." After finishing their scanty +meal they were conducted to their respective bedrooms, each with a +japanned candlestick, through "a multitude of torturous windings." +Mr. Pickwick's "was a tolerably large double-bedded room, with a +fire; upon the whole, a more comfortable looking apartment than Mr. +Pickwick's short experience of the accommodation of the 'Great White +Horse' had led him to expect." + +Whether all this was ever true does not seem to have mattered much +to the various proprietors, for they were not only proud of the +association of the inn with Pickwick, but made no attempt to hide +what the novelist said of its shortcomings. On the contrary, one of +them printed in a little booklet the whole of the particular chapter +wherein these disrespectful remarks appear. Indeed, that is the +chief means of advertisement to lure the traveller in, and when he +gets there he finds Pickwick pictures everywhere on the walls to +dispel any doubt he might have of the associations. + +It is not necessary to re-tell the story of Mr. Pickwick's +misadventure here. It will be recalled that having forgotten his +watch he, in a weak moment, walked quietly downstairs, with the +japanned candlestick in his hand, to secure it again. "The more +stairs Mr. Pickwick went down, the more stairs there seemed to be +to descend, and again and again, when Mr. Pickwick got into some +narrow passage, and began to congratulate himself on having gained +the ground floor, did another flight of stairs appear before his +astonished eyes. . . .Passage after passage did he explore; room +after room did he peep into"; until at length he discovered the +room he wanted and also his watch. + +The same difficulty confronted him on his journey backward; indeed, +it was even more perplexing. "Rows of doors, garnished with boots +of every shape, make, and size, branched off in every possible +direction." He tried a dozen doors before he found what he thought +was his room and proceeded to divest himself of his clothes +preparatory to entering on his night's rest. But, alas! he had got +into the wrong bedroom and the story of the dilemma he shortly found +himself in with the lady in the yellow curl-papers, and how he +extricated himself in so modest and gentlemanly a manner, is a story +which "every schoolboy knows." + +Having disentangled himself from the dilemma, he found the intricacies +of the "White Horse's" landings .and stairs again too much for him, +until he was discovered, crouching in a recess in the wall, by his +faithful servant Sam, who conducted him to his right room. Here Mr. +Pickwick made a wise resolve that if he were to stop in the "Great +White Horse" for six months, he. would never trust himself about in +it alone again. + +We do not suppose that the visitor would encounter the same +difficulty to-day in getting about the house as did Mr. Pickwick; +but torturous passages are there all the same; and by virtue of +Mr. Pickwick's experiences they are perhaps more noticeable than +would otherwise appear had not his adventures been given to the +world. And so the fact remains that Mr. Pickwick's spirit seems to +haunt the building, and no attempt is made to disabuse the mind that +his escapade was anything but an amusing if unfortunate reality. + +The double-bedded room is a double-bedded room still, with its old +four-posters, and is shown with great pride to visitors from all +over the world as "Mr. Pickwick's room." The beds are still hung +with old-fashioned curtains, and a rush-bottomed chair has its place +there, as it did during Mr. Pickwick's visit. Even the wall-paper +is not of a modern pattern, and may have survived from that historic +night. At least these things were the same when we last visited it. + +Indeed, all the rooms have still the atmosphere of. the Victorian +era about them. The coffee-room, the bar-parlour, the dining-room, +the courtyard and the assembly room reflect the Pickwickian period, +which in other words speak of "home-life ease and comfort," and "are +not subordinate to newfangled ideas." Whether the small room in the +vicinity of the stable-yard, where Mr. Weller, senior, was engaged +in preparing for his journey to London, taking sustenance, and +incidentally discussing "Widders" with his son Sam, exists to-day we +are unable to state with any certainty; but no doubt there is one +which would fill the bill. Which, too, was the particular room +where Mr. Pickwick and Mr. Tupman were arrested, the former on the +charge of intending to fight a duel, and the latter as aider and +abettor, history does not relate, or modern research reveal. + +The inn is some four hundred years old, and at one time was known as +the White Horse Tavern. George II is said to have stayed there some +three hundred years ago, and so, report has it, did Nelson and Lady +Hamilton; but these are small matters compared to the larger ones +connected with Mr. Pickwick, and merit but passing record. Whilst +those details concerning the fictitious character can be adjusted by +any enthusiast who stays at the "Great White Horse" on a Pickwickian +pilgrimage, no tangible trace that the three other historical +personages used the inn remains to substantiate the fact, although +the tradition is acceptable. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE "GEORGE AND VULTURE" + + + +Tucked away in the heart of the busiest part of the roaring city, +overshadowed by tall, hard-looking, modern banking and insurance +buildings and all but a thin strip of it hidden from view, is a +veritable piece of old London. + +This is the "George and Vulture," known throughout the world as +the tavern that Mr. Pickwick and his friends made their favourite +city headquarters. The address in the directory of this inn is St. +Michael's Alley, Cornhill; The Pickwick Papers, however, describe it +as being in George Yard, Lombard Street. Both are correct. If the +latter address is followed, the inn is not easy to find, for the +sign "Old Pickwickian Hostel" is so high up over the upper window in +the far left-hand corner that it is almost the last thing one sees. +One fares little better from the other approach, for the narrow +alley with its tall buildings facing each other so closely as to be +almost touched with outstretched arms, makes it necessary to search +for the entrance doorway. + +These, however, are not drawbacks to the lover of old London, for +he rather prefers to probe about for things he likes, particularly +when, as in this case, the discovery is worth the trouble; for once +inside the "George and Vulture" the pilgrim will be thoroughly +recompensed for the trouble he has taken in finding it. Here he +will be struck by the atmosphere of old time which still prevails, +even though there are signs that the modern has somewhat supplanted +the old. Not long since the dining-room on the ground floor was +well sawdusted, and partitioned off in the old coffee-room style, +and some of these high-backed box-like compartments still remain in +corners of the room. With the knowledge that this ancient hostelry +was called "Thomas's Chop House"--and it still bears that name ground +on the glass doors--one expects to discover a grill loaded up with +fizzing chops and steaks, and there it will be found, presided over +by the white-garbed chef turning over the red-hot morsels. + +Opposite the door is the old-fashioned bar, with a broad staircase +winding up by its side to another dining-room above completely +partitioned off into compartments with still another grill and a +spotlessly robed chef in evidence. Up another flight of stairs we +come to yet one more dining-room recently decorated in the old +style, with oak-beamed ceiling and surroundings to match; with +lantern lights suspended from the oak beams, grandfather clock, +warming pan, pewter plates and odd pieces of furniture in keeping +with the period it all seeks to recall. It is called the "Pickwick +Room," and this metamorphosis was carried out by a city business +firm for the accommodation of its staff at lunch, and its good +friendship toward them admirably reflects the Dickens spirit. Here +the members of the general staff, both ladies and gentlemen, +numbering about 170, daily gather for their mid-day meal; whilst +a small cosy room adjoining is et apart for the managerial heads. +On occasions, representatives of associated houses in the city and +from abroad, calling on business, are cordially invited to join the +luncheon party. + +There is an interesting Visitors' Book in the Pickwick Room, wherein +guests are asked to inscribe their names and designations; also a +private or business motto. Custom has it that a man only signs the +book once, however many times he may visit the Pickwick Room, unless +his official position has altered through business promotion. + +This being the floor tradition has decided was Mr. Pickwick's +bedroom, it is suitably decorated with Pickwickian and Dickensian +pictures and ornaments, all tending to remind the visitor of the +homely period of the past. There are no bedrooms to-day in the inn, +nor are there any comfortable so-called sitting- or coffee-rooms, +for all the available space is required for satisfying the hungry +city man. + +The history of the "George and Vulture" goes back some centuries. +Originally it was the London lodging of Earl Ferrers, and in 1175 +a brother of his was slain there in the night. It was then called +simply the "George," and described by Stow, the great historian of +London, as "a common hostelry for travellers." + +[illustration: The "George and Vulture." Drawn by L. Walker] + +Ultimately the "Vulture," for reasons undiscovered by the present +writer, was added to the sign, and the appellation the "George and +Vulture" has come through the history of London unaltered, gathering +with the flight of time many famous associations to keep its memory +green in each succeeding period, until Mr. Pickwick put the +coping-stone to its fame as one of London's imperishable heritages. + +Poets and literary men of all degrees frequented it from the +earliest times, and although there is no record available to +substantiate a claim that the great Chaucer used the house, +it seems possible that his father, who was himself a licensed +victualler in the district, knew it well. But John Skelton, the +satirical poet of the fifteenth century, undoubtedly enjoyed +its hospitality, for he has left record in the following lines +that he was acquainted with it: + Intent on. signs, the prying eye, + The George & Vulture will descry. + Let none the outward Vulture fear, + No Vulture host inhabits here. + If too well used you deem ye then + Take your revenge and come agen. + +Taverns in those days were the resort of most of the prominent men +of the day, and were used in the same manner by them as the clubs +of the present time, as a friendly meeting place for business men, +authors, artists, lawyers, doctors, actors and the fashionable +persons of leisured ease with no particular calling, all of whom +treated "mine host" as an equal and not as a servant. + +And so we find that men like Addison and Steele were much in +evidence at these friendly gatherings of their day; that Jonathan +Swift and his coteric foregathered in some cosy corner to discuss +the pros and cons of that great fraud, the South Sea Bubble; that +Daniel Defoe was a constant guest of the host of his time; that +John Wilkes and his fellow-members of "The Hell Fire Club" used the +house for their meetings, and many others the recital of whose names +would resolve into a mere catalogue. + +In 1666 the inn succumbed to the Great Fire; but after the +rebuilding its fame was re-established and has never since waned. +John Strype, the ecclesiastical historian, in his addenda to Stow's +Survey of London, records that "Near Ball Alley was the George Inn, +since the fire rebuilt, with very good houses and warehouses, being +a large open yard, and called George Yard, at the farther end of +which is the 'George and Vulture' Tavern, which is a large house and +having great trade, and having a passage into St. Michael's Alley." + +The yard referred to is now filled with large buildings, but when +it existed as part of the inn was used, like other inn yards, by +the travelling companies of players for the enactment of their +mystery and morality plays. It was in the "George and Vulture," +so it is recorded, that the first Beefsteak Club was formed by +Richard Estcourt, the Drury Lane comedian, a fashion which spread +in all directions. And so the history of the "George and Vulture" +could be traced, and anecdotes relating to it set down to fill many +pages. But whilst admitting that these antiquarian notes have their +interest for their own sake, we must leave them in order that we +may glance at the Pickwickian traditions, through which the tavern +is known to-day. + +In our last chapter we left Mr. Pickwick at the "Great White Horse," +Ipswich. On his return to London he had, perforce, to abandon his +lodgings in Goswell Street and so transferred his abode to very good +old-fashioned and comfortable quarters, to wit, the George and Vulture +Tavern and Hotel, George Yard, Lombard Street, and forthwith sent Sam +to settle the little matters of rent and such-like trifles and to +bring back his little odds and ends from Goswell Street. This done +they shortly left the tavern for Dingley Dell, where they had a royal +Christmas time. That the tavern appealed to Mr. Pickwick as ideal for +the entertainment of friends is incidentally revealed in the record +that after one of the merry evenings at Mr. Wardle's he, on waking +late next morning, had "a confused recollection of having severally +and confidentially invited somewhere about five and forty people to +dine with him at the 'George and Vulture' the very first time they +came to London." + +Just before they left Dingley Dell, Bob Sawyer, "thrusting his +forefinger between two of Mr. Pickwick's ribs and thereby displaying +his native drollery and his knowledge of the anatomy of the human +frame at one and the same time, enquired--'I say, old boy, where do +you hang out?' Mr. Pickwick replied that he was at present suspended +at the 'George and Vulture'!" + +Whether Mr. Pickwick had some idea of finding other quarters when he +said he was "at present suspended" we do not know; at all events he +made the tavern his London residence until, at the end of his +adventures, he retired to Dulwich. Before, however, he settled down +there, many incidents connected with his career took place within the +walls of his favourite tavern. It was in his sitting-room here that +the subpoenas re Bardell v. Pickwick were served on his three friends +and Sam Weller on behalf of the plaintiff. The Pickwickians were +seated round the fire after a comfortable dinner when Mr. Jackson, the +plaintiff's man, by his unexpected appearance, disturbed their happy +gathering. It was from the "George and Vulture" they all drove to the +Guildhall on the day of the trial, and it was in Mr. Pickwick's room +in the tavern that he vowed to Mr. Perker he would never pay even a +halfpenny of the damages. + +The next morning the Pickwickians again continued their travels, +Bath being their choice of place. Returning after a week's absence, +we are told that Mr. Pickwick with Sam "straightway returned to his +old quarters at the 'George and Vulture.'" Before another week +elapsed the fateful and inevitable day came when Mr. Pickwick was +arrested and eventually conveyed to the Fleet Prison. He was in bed +at the time, and so annoyed was Sam that he threatened to pitch the +officer of the law out of the window into the yard below. Mr. +Pickwick's deliverance from prison took him once again to the +"George and Vulture," and to him came Arabella Allan and Winkle to +announce to him that they were man and wife and made it their place +of residence whilst Mr. Pickwick went off to Birmingham to make +peace with Nathaniel's father. Mr. Winkle, senior, eventually +visited the old hostel and formally approved of his daughter-in-law. + +It was whilst in the inn also that Sam Weller received the news +of the death of his "mother-in-law," conveyed in the extraordinary +letter from his father, which he read to Mary in one of the +window seats. + +Here, also, came Tony Weller to make his offer of the L530 "reduced +counsels" which he had inherited, to Mr. Pickwick, adding--"P'raps +it'll go a little way towards the expenses o' that 'ere conwiction. +All I say is, just you keep it till I ask you for it again," and +bolted out of the room. + +The last specific reference to the "George and Vulture" is on the +occasion when the party left it to join Mr. Wardle and other friends +at dinner at Osborne's Adelphi Hotel. So, it will be seen, from the +first mention of the tavern about midway through the book, until +its closing pages, the "George and Vulture" may be said to have been +Mr. Pickwick's headquarters in London. + +Is it, therefore, to be wondered at, considering all the incidents +and events these few references recall, that the whole atmosphere of +the "George and Vulture" positively reeks with Pickwick? + +Is it surprising that the various proprietors of the inn have from +time to time cherished these associations, and none more so than +the present genial proprietor and his efficient manager, Mr. Woods, +and have reminded their customers each time they dine there of Mr. +Pickwick's connection with it by placing before them plates with +that immortal man's portrait in the act of addressing his club, +printed thereon? + +Is it to be wondered at that the City Pickwick Club should hold its +meetings and dinners there, or that the Dickens Fellowship should +choose it as the most appropriate spot for the entertainment of +their American and colonial visitors, and occasionally to have +convivial gatherings of its members there? + +And will it surprise anyone if a universal agitation is set on foot +to preserve it from the axe and pick of the builder which threatens +it in the near future? + +There is one extraordinarily interesting piece of history relative +to the "George and Vulture" and Pickwick with which fittingly to +close this account of London's famous inn. + +In 1837, the year that The Pickwick Papers appeared in monthly-parts, +a Circulating Book Society had its headquarters at the "George and +Vulture." On the occasion of the meeting held on March 30, 1837, it +was proposed that The Pickwick Papers, "now in course of publication, +be taken in for circulation." + +This motion was opposed by two members "who considered the work +vulgar." The motion, however, was carried with the amendment "that +the work, when complete, be obtained and circulated as one volume." +In 1838 this famous copy of the immortal work was sold by auction +amongst the members, in what was probably the very room Dickens +had in mind when describing the meetings of Mr. Pickwick and his +friends. It was bought by J. Buckham for 13s. 6d. This copy was +annotated by the owner with notes, historical and explanatory, and +is now a cherished possession of the nation in the safe custody of +the Library of the British Museum, where it is known as the "George +and Vulture" copy. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE "BLUE BOAR, "LEADENHALL MARKET," GARRAWAY'S," +AND THE "WHITE HORSE CELLAR" + + + +The "Blue Boar," Leadenhall Market, was an inn of considerable +Pickwickian importance. It was the elder Weller's favourite house +of call, and it will be remembered that Sam was sent for by his +father on one occasion to meet him there at six o'clock. Having +obtained Mr. Pickwick's permission to absent himself from the +"George and Vulture," Sam sauntered down as far as the Mansion +House, and then by easy stages wended his way towards Leadenhall +Market, through a variety of by-streets and courts, purchasing +a Valentine on his way. + +Looking round him he beheld a signboard on which the painter's art +had delineated something remotely resembling a cerulean elephant +with an aquiline nose in lieu of a trunk. Rightly conjecturing +that this was the "Blue Boar" himself, he stepped into the house +and enquired concerning his parent. Finding that his father would +not be there for three-quarters of an hour or more, he ordered +from the barmaid "nine penn'orth o' brandy and water hike, and +the ink-stand," and having settled himself in the little parlour, +composed himself to write that wonderful "walentine" to Mary. +Just as Sam had finished his missive his father appeared on the +scene, and he was invited by the dutiful son to listen to what he +had written. Tony heard it through, punctuating it during the +process with a running commentary and much advice on marriage in +general and "widders" in particular. + +It was here, too, that Tony, with the laudable intention of +helping Mr. Pickwick, offered the invaluable, and now historic, +advice concerning an "alleybi," there being, as he asserted, +"nothing like a' alleybi, Sammy, nothing." + +It was in the same parlour on the same occasion that Mr. Weller, +senior, informed his son that he had two tickets "as wos sent" +to Mrs. Weller by the Shepherd "for the monthly meetin' o' the +Brick Lane Branch o' the United Grand Junction Ebenezer Temperance +Association." He communicated the secret "with great glee and +winked so indefatigably after doing so," "over a double glass +o' the inwariable," that he and Sam determined to make use of the +tickets with the projected plan of exposing the "real propensities +and qualities of the red-nosed man," the success of which is so +well remembered. + +These facts in mind the "Blue Boar" ought not to be passed over +lightly, even though it cannot be identified by name, or its +existence traced in historic records. In those days the description +of the locality given by Dickens was accurate enough; but although +there were many inns and taverns in its district, topographers have +never discovered a "Blue Boar," or learned that one ever bore such +a sign. There was a "Bull" in Leadenhall Street at one time, and +possibly this may have been the inn the novelist made the scene of +the above incidents, simply giving it a name of his own to afford +scope for his whimsical vein in describing it. + +However, the locality has changed completely from what it was when +Tony Weller "used the parlour" of the "Blue Boar," and such coaching +inns that flourished then have all been swept away with the "shabby +courts and alleys." + +We find, however, a picture purporting to be the "Blue Boar" with +its galleries, horses and stable boys all complete drawn by Herbert +Railton, in the Jubilee edition of The Pickwick Papers. Probably +this is purely an imaginary picture. + +On the other hand, there was nothing visionary about Garraway's. +"Garraway's, twelve o'clock. 'Dear Mrs. B., Chops and Tomato Sauce, +Yours, Pickwick,'" not only implicated Mr. Pickwick, but conjured +up an old and historic coffee house of city fame. It stood in +Exchange Alley, and was a noted meeting-place for city men, and +for its sales and auctions. It was demolished some fifty years ago +after an existence of over two hundred years. It claimed to be the +first to sell tea "according to the directions of the most knowing +merchants and travellers into the eastern countries," but ultimately +became more famous for its sandwiches and sherry. No doubt it was +the latter, or something even more substantial, that Mr. Pickwick +had been indulging during the day he wrote that momentous message. +Garraway's was known to Defoe, Dean Swift, Steele and others, each +of whom have references to it in their books, and during its +affluent days it was never excelled by other taverns in the city +for good fare and comfort. It was there that the "South Sea +Bubblers" frequently met. + +[illustration: Garraway's Coffee House. From a sketch taken +shortly before demolition] + +Garraway's is mentioned in other books of Dickens. In Martin +Chuzzlewit, for instance, Nadgett, who undertook the task of +making secret enquiries for the Anglo-Bengalee business, used to +sit in Garraway's, and was occasionally seen drying a damp pocket +handkerchief before the fire, looking over his shoulder for the +man who never appeared. + +It is also referred to in Little Dorrit as one of the coffee houses +frequented by Mr. Flintwich. + +In The Uncommercial Traveller, in writing about the "City of the +Absent," Dickens makes this further allusion to the tavern: + +"There is an old monastery-cript under Garraway's (I have been in +it among the port wine), and perhaps Garraway's, taking pity on the +mouldy men who wait in its public room, all their lives, gives them +cool house-room down there on Sundays." + +Again in Christmas Stories the narrator of the "Poor Relation's Story" +who lived in a lodging in the Clapham Road, tells how, amongst other +things, he used to sit in Garraway's Coffee House in the city to pass +away the time until it was time to dine, afterwards returning to his +lodgings in the evening. + +But of all these references, Mr. Pickwick's mention of Garraway's in +his note to Mrs. Bardell is the one which will prevent its name and +fame from being forgotten more than any other incident connected +with it that we know of. + +The "White Horse Cellar" from which the Pickwickians set out on the +coach journey to Bath stood, at the time, at the corner of Arlington +Street, Piccadilly, on the site occupied by the "Ritz" to-day. It +was as famous and notorious as any coaching office in London; +perhaps being in close proximity to the park and being in the west +end, more famous than any. + +In those flourishing days of its existence it was the starting-point +of all the mails for the west of England, and was a bustling centre +of activity. It was, apparently, one of the "sights" of London, +for on fine evenings those with leisure on their hands would gather +to watch the departure of these coaches. The scene became more like +a miniature fair, with itinerants selling oranges, pencils, sponges +and such-like commodities, to the passengers and the spectators. + +Mr. Pickwick chose to take an early morning coach, perhaps to avoid +the sightseers. In his anxiety he arrived much too soon and had to +take shelter in the travellers' room--the last resort, as Dickens +assures us, of human dejection. + +"The travellers' room at the 'White Horse Cellar' is, of course, +uncomfortable," he writes; "it would be no travellers' room if it +were not. It is the right-hand parlour, into which an aspiring +kitchen fire-place appears to have walked, accompanied by a rebellious +poker, tongs and shovel. It is divided into boxes for the solitary +confinement of travellers, and is furnished with a clock, a +looking-glass, and a live waiter, which latter article is kept +in a small kennel for washing glasses in a corner of the apartment." + +Whilst taking his breakfast therein, Mr. Pickwick made the +acquaintance of Mr. and Mrs. Dowler, also bound for Bath, who +were to play such an unexpected part in his sojourn in the +famous watering-place. + +It was outside the "White Horse Cellar" that Sam Weller made that +discovery about the use of Mr. Pickwick's name which so annoyed +him. Whilst the party were mounting the coach he observed that the +proprietor's name, written in bold letters on the coach, was no +other than "Pickwick." He drew his master's attention to it, but Mr. +Pickwick merely thought it a very extraordinary thing. Sam, on the +other hand, was of the opinion that the "properiator" was playing +some "imperence" with them. "Not content," he said, "vith writin' +up Pickwick, they puts 'Moses' afore it, vich I call addin' insult +to injury, as the parrot said ven they not only took him from his +native land, but made him talk the English langvidge arterwards." + +The "White Horse Cellar" ultimately was moved to the opposite side +of Piccadilly, and in 1884, the new "White Horse" in turn was pulled +down, upon whose site was erected the "Albemarle." + +The "White Horse Cellar" is also mentioned in Bleak House in the +communication from Kenge and Carboys to Esther Summerson as her +halting-place in London. Here she was met by their clerk, Mr. +Guppy, who later, in his declaration of love to her, reminded her +of his services on that occasion--"I think you must have seen that +I was struck with those charms on the day when I waited at the +whytorseller. I think you must have remarked that I could not +forbear a tribute to those charms when I put up the steps of +the 'ackney coach." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +FOUR BATH INNS AND THE "BUSH," BRISTOL + + + +On their arrival at Bath, Mr. Pickwick and his friends and +Mr. Dowler and his wife "respectively retired to their private +sitting-rooms at the White Hart Hotel, opposite the great Pump +Room . . . where waiters, from their costume, might be mistaken +for Westminster boys, only they destroyed the illusion by behaving +themselves so much better." + +Mr. Pickwick had scarcely finished his breakfast next morning when +Mr. Dowler brought in no less a person than his friend, Angelo Cyrus +Bantam, Esquire, to introduce to him, and to administer his stock +greeting, "Welcome to Ba-ath, sir. This is, indeed, an acquisition. +Most welcome to Ba-ath, sir." + +For the story of the various adventures which overtook the +Pickwickians in the famous city, what they saw, and what they did, +the reader must be referred to the official chronicle, except where +they are connected with some inn or tavern. + +So far as the "White Hart" is concerned, there is little to be said +in this direction. After the reception at the Assembly Rooms on the +evening after their arrival, Mr. Pickwick accompanied his friends +back to the "White Hart," and "having soothed his feelings with +something hot, went to bed, and to sleep, almost simultaneously." + +As Mr. Pickwick contemplated staying in Bath for at least two +months, he deemed it advisable to take lodgings for himself and his +friends for that period. This he did, and the "White Hart" has no +further association with his person during his stay in the gay city. + +The "White Hart," nevertheless, has a very strong claim to Pickwickian +fame, apart from the brief fact that the founder of the club stayed +there a night or two. At the time, the "White Hart" belonged to the +very Moses Pickwick whose name on the coach so worried poor Sam Weller +at the start of their journey down from London. + +[illustration: The "White Hart," Bath. From an engraving] + +This Moses Pickwick was a grandson of Eleazer Pickwick, who, it is +recorded, was a foundling. The story told concerning him is that +when an infant he was picked up by a lady in the village of Wick near +Bath, carried to her home, adopted and educated. Hence, according to +some, the name Pick-Wick. There is, however, a village near to hand +actually called "Pickwick," which may also have inspired the name +for the foundling. + +For some reasons unknown, or, at any rate, unrevealed, this foundling +developed a craze for the coaching business, and, ultimately, taking +service in one of the coaching inns, devoted his time and interests +whole-heartedly to the profession, or calling. Eventually he became +the owner of the business. + +His grandson, Moses, became even more famous during the coaching era +than his foundling antecedent, and at the time Pickwick was written +he was the actual proprietor of the White Hart Hotel, as well as of +the coaches which ran to and from it. He became, also, the most +popular owner in the trade, and retired to the village of Upper +Swanswick a rich man. We believe the name is still perpetuated in +the neighbourhood. + +Now it is known as a fact that Dickens took the name Pickwick from +the said Moses Pickwick the proprietor of the "White Hart," whose +coaches he had seen and ridden in a year or two previously. So that +apart from the brief references to the inn in The Pickwick Papers +its history is very much associated with the book. + +Unfortunately, Dickens does not give us any minute description of +it, as he does of other inns. Although it was the most important +coaching house in the city, it could not be spoken of as particularly +attractive in appearance. It looked more like a barracks than an +hotel, indeed, we believe it was used for such a purpose in its +degenerate days before it was finally demolished in 1867. + +During its prosperous era, it was the resort of all the distinguished +visitors who flocked to Bath during those gay and festive times. + +There is still a relic of it in existence. The gracefully carved +effigy of a white hart, which decorated the front of the building, +now serves a similar purpose on an inn with the same name in the +suburb of Widcombe, near by. On the site of the old house now +stands the Grand Pump Room Hotel. + +The Royal Hotel to which Mr. Winkle resorted, after his adventure +with the valorous Dowler, for the purpose of escape to Bristol by +the branch coach, probably never existed--at any rate, by that name. +Dickens may have had the "York House" in his mind, for he stayed +there himself on one occasion, and it was one of those ornate +hotels, accustomed to receiving royal and distinguished visitors, +suggesting such a title as Dickens gave it. + +There is, however, a tavern in Bath which claimed--or was made to +claim--a Pickwickian association, and that is the Beaufort Arms. +The story in connection with it is that before it was a tavern it +was originally "the small greengrocer's shop" over which the Bath +footmen held their social evenings, and was, therefore, the scene of +the memorable "leg o' mutton swarry," given in honour of Sam Weller. +This may be so; we prefer to think that it was more likely to have +been the public-house from which, as we are told, drinks were +fetched for that dignified function. + +The "Saracen's Head" in the same city has a Dickensian, if not a +Pickwickian, interest, for Dickens stayed there when, in his +journalistic days, he was following Lord John Russell through the +country in 1835, reporting his speeches. We can be sure that it was +during this brief visit that he gained an insight into the social +doings and customs of the city, and also gathered the extensive +knowledge of its topography his book exhibits. The "Saracen's Head" +is proud of its Dickens associations; the actual chair he sat in, +the actual jug he drank from, and the actual room he slept in are +each shown with much ado to visitors; whilst several anecdotes +associated with the novelist's visit on the occasion are re-told +with perfect assurance of their truth. + +Arriving at Bristol after his flight from Mr. Dowler at Bath, Mr. +Winkle took up his quarters at the "Bush," there only to encounter +later in the day "the figure of the vindictive and sanguinary +Dowler" himself. Explanations soon smoothed over their little +differences, and they parted for the night "with many protestations +of eternal friendship." + +[illustration: The "Bush," Bristol. From an engraving] + +In the meantime, Sam Weller had been sent posthaste on Mr. Winkle's +heels with instructions from Mr. Pickwick to lock him in his bedroom +as soon as he found him. Sam was nothing loath, and when he had run +Winkle to earth at the "Bush", promptly carried out his master's +orders and awaited his further instructions as to what to do next. +These were brought next morning by Mr. Pickwick, in person, when he +walked into the coffee-loom. Satisfaction being arrived at, the +three stayed on at the "Bush" for a day or two, experiencing some +curious adventures in the neighbourhood during the time. + +On another occasion Mr. Pickwick and Sam stayed at the "Bush," and +after dinner the former adjourned to the travellers' room, where, +Sam informed him, "there was only a gentleman with one eye, and the +landlord, who were drinking a bowl of bishop together." + +"He's a queer customer, the vun-eyed vun, sir," observed Mr. Weller, +as he led the way. "He's a-gammonin' that 'ere landlord, he is, sir, +till he don't rightly know vether he's standing on the soles of his +boots or on the crown of his hat." + +This was no other than the man who told the story of Tom Smart at +the "Peacock," Eatanswill, and he was ready and willing to tell +another; with little persuasion he settled down and related the +story of the Bagman's Uncle. + +The "Bush" was, in its time, the chief coaching inn of the city, and +one of the headquarters of Moses Pickwick's coaching business. It +stood until 1864, near the Guildhall, and its site is now occupied +by Lloyd's Bank. This was another inn that Dickens stayed at in +1835 whilst reporting for The Morning Chronicle. Writing from that +address he says he expects to forward the conclusion of Russell's +dinner "by Cooper's company coach, leaving the 'Bush' at half-past +six next morning; and by the first Bell's coach on Thursday he will +forward the report of the Bath dinner, endorsing the parcel for +immediate delivery with extra rewards for the porter." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE "FOX UNDER THE HILL," OTHER LONDON TAVERNS, +AND THE "SPANIARDS," HAMPSTEAD + + + +On his return from Bath, Mr. Pickwick was immediately arrested +and conveyed to the Fleet Prison. In the course of the chapters +following this event there are several inns or taverns either +mentioned incidentally, or figure more or less prominently, such +as the new public-house opposite the Fleet, the "Fox Under the +Hill," Sarjeants' Inn Coffee House, the public-house, opposite +the Insolvent Debtors' Court, the Horn Coffee House in the Doctors' +Commons and the "Spaniards," Hampstead Heath. Of these the "Fox +Under the Hill," casually referred to by Mr. Roker as the spot +where Tom Martin "whopped the coach-heaver," was situated on +the Thames water-side in the Adelphi, at the bottom of Ivy Lane. +The incident he related was no doubt a recollection of Dickens's +early days in the blacking factory at Hungerford Stairs, for +the public-house was known to him, as the following sentence in +his biography shows--"One of his favourite realities was a little +public-house by the water-side called the 'Fox Under the Hill,' +approached by an underground passage which we once missed on looking +for it together"; and he had a vision which he has mentioned in +Copperfield of sitting eating something on a bench outside, one fine +evening, and looking at some coal-heavers dancing before the house. + +The public-house, nevertheless, was there when Dickens and his +biographer were seeking it, for it was not demolished until the +Victoria Embankment was built many years later. + +Robert Allbut states that the "Fox Under the Hill" was the tavern +where Martin Chuzzlewit, junior, was accommodated when he arrived +in London, and where he was visited by Mark Tapley. + +[illustration: The "Fox Under the Hill"] + +The public-house opposite the Insolvent Debtors' Court, where Mr. +Weller consulted Mr. Solomon Pell on an urgent family matter, was +no doubt the "Horse and Groom" that once stood in Portugal Street, +covered now by the solid buildings of Messrs. W. H. Smith and Sons, +of railway bookstall fame. It was here Sam obliged the company with +his song on "Bold Turpin," whilst his father and Solomon Pell went to +swear the affidavit for Sam's arrest. It was also at this identical +public-house that Mr. Solomon Pell, later on in the book, was engaged +to undertake the details of proving the Will of the late Mrs. Weller, +and where, "to celebrate Mr. Weller coming into possession of his +property," a little lunch was given to his friends, comprising +porter, cold beef and oysters, to which ample justice was done. + +Reverting to the former incident, the elder Weller and Solomon Pell +duly returned with the document all complete, and the party sallied +forth to the Fleet Prison. On their way they stopped at Sarjeants' +Inn Coffee House off Fleet Street to refresh themselves once more. +When Sarjeants' Inn was rebuilt in 1838 the coffee house referred to +ended its existence. + +The Horn Coffee House in Doctors' Commons, to which a messenger was +despatched from the Fleet Prison for "a bottle or two of very good +wine" to celebrate Mr. Winkle's visit to his old friend, was a +well-known and frequented place of call at the time. It was situated +actually in Carter Lane, and although the present house is more in +keeping with modern methods, there still remains a portion of the +old building. + +The "Spaniards," Hampstead Heath, figures more prominently in the +book than any of the foregoing, and has a story of its own to tell. +In recalling the scene in its history which associates it with The +Pickwick Papers, we remember that Mrs. Bardell and her friends, Mrs. +Sanders, Mrs. Cluppins, Mr. and Mrs. Raddle, Mrs. Rogers and Master +Tommy Bardell, bent on having a day out, had taken the Hampstead +Stage to the "Spaniards" Tea Gardens, "where the luckless Mr. +Raddle's very first act nearly occasioned his good lady a relapse, +it being neither more or less than to order tea for seven; whereas +(as the ladies one and all remarked) what could have been easier +than for Tommy to have drank out of any lady's cup, or everybody's, +if that was all, when the waiter wasn't looking, which would have +saved one head of tea, and the tea just as good!" + +But the brilliant suggestion was made too late, for "the tea-tray +came with seven cups and saucers, and bread and butter on the same +scale. Mrs. Bardell was unanimously voted into the chair, and Mrs. +Rogers being stationed on her right hand and Mrs. Raddle on her +left, the meal proceeded with great merriment and success," until +Mr. Raddle again put his foot into it by making an unfortunate +remark which upset Mrs. Bardell and caused him to be summarily +sent to a table by himself to finish his tea alone. + +Mrs. Bardell had just recovered from her fainting fit when the +ladies observed a hackney coach stop at the garden gate. Out +of it stepped Mr. Jackson of Dodson and Fogg, who, coming up to +the party, informed Mrs. Bardell that his "people" required her +presence in the city directly on very important and pressing +business. "How very strange," said Mrs. Bardell, with an air of +being someone of distinction, as she allowed herself to be taken +along, accompanied by Mrs. Sanders, Mrs. Cluppins and Tommy. +Entering the coach in waiting, to be driven, as they thought, to +Dodson and Fogg's, they were alas! sadly deceived, for shortly +afterwards Mrs. Bardell was safely deposited in the Fleet Prison +for not having paid those rascals their costs, and promptly fainted +in "real downright earnest." + +What happened to the rest of the party at the "Spaniards" history +does not relate. But the event which had promised to be such a +happy one at the famous old inn was spoiled by those rapscallions of +lawyers, and we can only hope that Mr. Raddle made himself amiable +with the two ladies left in his charge, and helped them to enjoy the +remainder of the day in the pleasant rural and rustic spot. + +The "Spaniards" is still a favourite resort of the pleasure-seeking +pedestrian, and a halting-place for refreshment for pilgrims across +the Heath. The arbours and rustic corners of its pleasant tea +gardens still attract holiday-makers, as they attracted Mrs. Bardell +and her friends on that day long since gone by. + +[illustration: The "Spaniards," Hampstead Heath. Drawn by L. Walker] + +The inn itself is spacious and offers the comforts expected of +an ancient hostelry. Dating back to about 1630 it occupies what +was once the lodge entrance to the Bishop of London's great rural +park, whose old toll gate is still remaining. It is said by some +to have derived its name through having been once inhabited by a +family connected with the Spanish Embassy; and by others from its +having been taken by a Spaniard who converted it into a house of +refreshment and entertainment. Ultimately its gardens were improved +and beautifully ornamented by one William Staples, similar to the +gardens which flourished during this period in other parts of the +metropolis. It has carried on its business of catering for all and +sundry to the present day, but the ornate decorations and statuary +have long disappeared. + +The "Spaniards" is a Dick Turpin house, for, according to tradition, +in its precincts the famous highwayman often hid from his pursuers. +We are assured that in the out-house he found his favourite +resting-place, which many a time on the late return of the marauder +had served as his bedroom. The under-ground passages that led to +the inn itself have been filled up, years ago. There were two doors +attacked by unpleasant visitors, and a secret trap-door through +which Turpin dived into the underground apartment, there to await +the departure of the raging officers, or to betake himself to the inn, +if that were clear of attack. + +To such a fine Londoner as Dickens, who must have known it and his +history thoroughly, it is a little surprising that it does not figure +more prominently in his writings than it does. There is, indeed, one +occasion when, it seems to us, he missed the opportunity of making it +a picturesque and typical setting for a scene which his pen was more +peculiarly suited than any other we know. + +In Barndby Rudge he gives us vivid pen pictures of the Gordon Rioters +setting fire to houses in London, prominent amongst them being that +of Lord Mansfield, and goes on to describe how they proceeded to the +country seat of the great Chief Justice at Caen Wood, Hampstead, to +treat it in a similar fashion. On arriving there the rioters were +met by the military, stopped in their nefarious deed, turned tail +and returned to London--all in accordance with the historical facts +which it is well known the novelist gathered from an authoritative +document. But he does not tell us how the rioters were thwarted in +their contemplated act, due, so runs the story, to the foresight of +the landlord of the "Spaniards." + +On their way to Lord Mansfield's house the rioters had to pass the +Spaniards Inn, and the landlord, having been made aware of their +approach and mission, stood at his door to meet them and enticed +them in to drink whilst he sent a messenger to the barracks for a +detachment of Horse Guards. In the interim his cellars were thrown +open to the excited rebels, hot with irresponsibility from the +devastation they had already made in London. Here he left them +to themselves surrounded by all they might require to slake their +thirsty appetites. By the time they had appeased this thirst and +were ready to continue their journey to Lord Mansfield's house a +few yards off, they discovered to their chagrin that their way was +blocked by the arrival of a contingent of soldiers. And so in +their wisdom they retraced their steps, as Dickens tells us, +faster than they went. + +Now the reason for this quick decision on the part of the rebels +is passed over by Dickens, and the "Spaniards" is, in consequence, +robbed of additional reflected glory, whilst the landlord is +deprived of his place of immortality in the pages of Dickens's book: +the one book on the "No Popery" riots that counts to-day. He does +not even mention the Spaniards Inn in Barnaby Rudge, although the +rioters are, in its pages, brought to the inn door, from which point +they are turned back, and the famous seat of Lord Mansfield remains, +if tradition be reliable, thanks to the landlord of the inn. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE "BELL," BERKELEY HEATH, THE "HOP POLE," TEWKESBURY, +AND THE "OLD ROYAL," BIRMINGHAM + + + +The chapter describing the Pickwickians' journey from the "Bush" +Bristol to Birmingham, supplies incidents at four inns mentioned by +name, and one that is not. The party comprising Mr. Pickwick and +Mr. Benjamin Allen, Bob Sawyer and Sam Weller, sallied forth in a +post-chaise. The two former seated themselves comfortably inside, +whilst Bob Sawyer occupied a seat on the trunk on the top, and Sam +settled himself in the dickey. + +The two last-named were bent on making a merry day of it, and as soon +as they were beyond the boundaries of Bristol they began their tricks +by changing hats, taking liquid and substantial refreshments to the +amusement of the passers-by, and the astonishment of Mr. Pickwick. +But the journey need not be described here. Suffice it to say that +the hilarious pair outside, come what may, meant to make a day of it. +Their first stop, ostensibly to change horses, was at the "Bell," +Berkeley Heath, on the high road between Bristol and Gloucester. + +"I say, we're going to dine here, aren't we?" said Bob, looking in +at the window. + +"Dine!" said Mr. Pickwick. "Why, we have only come nineteen miles, +and have got eighty-seven and a half to go." + +"Just the reason why we should take something to enable us to bear +up against the fatigue," remonstrated Mr. Bob Sawyer. + +"Oh, it's quite impossible to dine at half-past eleven o'clock in +the day," replied Mr. Pickwick, looking at his watch. + +"So it is," rejoined Bob, "lunch is the very thing. Hallo, you sir! +Lunch for three, directly, and keep the horses back for a quarter of +an hour. Tell them to put everything they have cold, on the table, +and some bottled ale, and let us taste your very best Madeira." +Issuing these orders with monstrous importance and bustle, Mr. Bob +Sawyer at once hurried into the house to superintend the +arrangements; in less than five minutes he returned and declared +them to be excellent. + +[illustration: The Bell Inn, Berkeley Heath. Drawn by C. G. Harper] + +The quality of the lunch fully justified the eulogium which Bob had +pronounced, and very great justice was done to it, not only by that +gentleman, but by Mr. Ben Allen and Mr. Pickwick also. In the hands +of the thirsty three, the bottled ale and the Madeira were promptly +disposed of; and when (the horses being once more put to) they +resumed their seats, with the case-bottle full of the best +substitute for milk-punch that could be procured on so short a +notice, the key-bugle sounded, and the red flag waved, without the +sightest opposition on Mr. Pickwick's part. + +The unpretentious roadside inn still exists to-day, unaltered since +the above-mentioned memorable occasion. It cherishes its Dickensian +association by curiously and oddly announcing on its signboard that: +"Charles Dickens and Party lunched here 1827. B. C. Hooper." + +It is within a mile of Berkeley Road Station on the Bristol Road, +and about the same distance from the town of Berkeley. It lies +back from the main road, and is a rambling old house and of good +age. Although it has no more mention in the book than that given +above, it is well known far and wide, nevertheless. As the +Pickwickians did not stay there the inn is deprived of the privilege +of showing a room in which the illustrious men slept, as is done in +the case of other inns; but it has been recorded by one proprietor +that travellers have called there for no other purpose than that of +drinking Dickens's health in the snug parlour. + +Continuing their journey the animated party reached in course +of time the "Hop Pole" at Tewkesbury, where they stopped to dine; +upon which occasion, we are assured, there was more bottled +ale, with some more Madeira, and some port besides; and here +the case-bottle was replenished for the fourth time. Under the +influence of these combined stimulants, Mr. Pickwick and Mr. Ben +Allen fell fast asleep for thirty miles, while Bob Sawyer and Sam +Weller sang duets in the dickey. + +The "Hop Pole" is still a flourishing country inn with the old-world +flavour and atmosphere still clinging to it, where one is treated +with the courtesy and welcome reminiscent of the old-time coaching +days. Some modern "improvements" have been made in it, but its +general appearance has not been tampered with, and it remains a +veritable Dickens landmark of the town which the Tewkesbury +Dickensians are proud of possessing. It is practically as it was +in Pickwickian days, and the fact that Mr. Pickwick dined there is +boldly announced at the side of the entrance, the porch of which did +not however exist in those days. + +From the "Hop Pole," Tewkesbury, the lively quartette continued +their journey to Birmingham in a high-spirited mood and reached +that city after dark. + +"The postboy was driving briskly through the open streets and past +the handsome and well-lighted shops which intervene between the +outskirts of the town and the Royal Hotel, before Mr. Pickwick had +begun to consider the very difficult and delicate nature of the +commission which had carried him thither." + +The difficulty and delicacy mentioned referred to the presence of +Bob Sawyer and Ben Allen, whom Mr. Pickwick for certain reasons +wished miles away, but he hoped to surmount them by making his +interview with Mr. Winkle, senior, as brief as possible. + +[illustration: The "Hop Pole," Tewkeabury, as it was in +Pickwickian days. Drawn by Arch. Webb] + +As he comforted himself with these reflections the chaise stopped +at the door of the "Old Royal," and the visitors were shown to +comfortable apartments. Mr. Pickwick immediately made enquiries +of the waiter concerning the whereabouts of Mr. Winkle's residence, +who was one not easily to be got the better of, as the following +dialogue will show: + +"'Close by, sir,' said the waiter, 'not above five hundred yards, +sir. Mr. Winkle is a wharfinger, sir, at the canal, sir. Private +residence is not--oh dear no, sir, not five hundred yards, sir.' +Here the waiter blew a candle out and made a feint of lighting it +again, in order to afford Mr. Pickwick an opportunity of asking any +further questions, if he felt so disposed. + +"'Take anything now, sir?' said the waiter, lighting the candle +in desperation at Mr. Pickwick's silence. 'Tea or coffee, sir? +Dinner, sir?' + +"'Nothing now.' + +"'Very good, sir. Like to order supper, sir?' + +"'Not just now.' + +"' Very good, sir.' Here he walked softly to the door, and then +stopping short, turned round and said with great suavity: + +"'Shall I send the chambermaid, gentlemen?' + +"'You may if you please,' replied Mr. Pickwick. + +"'If you please, sir.' + +"'Bring some soda water,' said Bob Sawyer. + +"'Soda water, sir? Yes, sir.' And with his mind apparently +relieved from an overwhelming weight by having at last got an order +for something, the waiter imperceptibly melted away. Waiters never +walk or run. They have a peculiar and mysterious power of skimming +out of rooms, which other mortals possess not." + +Eventually Mr. Pickwick and his friends arrived safely at the house +of Mr. Winkle, and, having concluded the interview, all three +returned to the hotel and went "silent and supperless to bed." + +The next day was a dreary and wet one, and, in contemplating the +aspect from his bedroom window, Mr. Pickwick was attracted by a +game cock in the stable yard, who, "deprived of every spark of +his accustomed animation, balanced himself dismally on one leg +in a corner." Then Mr. Pickwick discovered "a donkey, moping with +drooping head under the narrow roof of an outhouse, who appeared +from his meditative and miserable countenance to be contemplating +suicide." In the breakfast-room there was very little conversation; +even Mr. Bob Sawyer "felt the influence of the weather and the +previous day's excitement, and in his own expressive language, he +was 'floored.' So was Mr. Ben Allen. So was Mr. Pickwick." + +[illustration: The Old Royal Hotel, Birmingham. Drawn by L. Walker] + +The Pickwickians' visit, therefore, to the Royal Hotel was not a very +bright and lively one, but they endeavoured to make the best of it. + +"In protracted expectation of the weather clearing up, the last +evening paper from London was read and re-read with an intensity of +interest only known in cases of extreme destitution; every inch of +the carpet was walked over with similar perseverance, the windows +were looked out of often enough to justify the imposition of an +additional duty upon them, all kinds of topics of conversation were +started, and failed; and at length Mr. Pickwick, when noon had +arrived without a change for the better, rang the bell resolutely +and ordered out the chaise." + +And so they started on their journey back in spite of the miserable +'outlook, feeling it was "infinitely superior to being pent in a +dull room, looking at dull rain dripping into a dull street." + +But Mr. Pickwick's lack of enthusiasm over the hotel was not due to +the hotel itself, but more on account of the weather. As a fact, it +was a very important hotel in those days. Attached to it were large +assembly and concert rooms, erected in 1772 by Tontine. It was +known as THE Hotel, the distinctive appellation of "Royal" being +prefixed in consequence of a visit of a member of the royal family +who took up his residence there for a time. + +This is the only occasion the hotel has mention in the works of +Dickens, and although Mr. Pickwick and his friends had no reason for +being pleased with their visit to Birmingham's old inn, the reverse +can be said of Dickens himself, for on more than one occasion he had +pleasant associations of his stay there. The hotel has been +rebuilt, but the picture shows it as it was in Mr. Pickwick's day. + +Dickens visited Birmingham some dozen times from 1840 to 1870, and on +most of the early occasions it is believed he stayed at the Old Royal +Hotel. On January 6, 1853, Dickens was presented with a silver "Iliad" +salver and a diamond ring by the people of Birmingham in grateful +acknowledgment of his "varied and well-applied talents." After the +presentation the company adjourned to the Old Royal Hotel (then Dee's +Hotel), where a banquet took place with the Mayor, Henry Hawkes, in +the chair, and Peter Hollins, the sculptor, in the vice-chair. + +The company numbered 218, and the event is notable as the occasion +on which Dickens made a promise to give, in aid of the Birmingham +and Midland Institute, his first public reading from his books. + +"It would take about two hours," he said, "with a pause of ten +minutes about half-way through. There would be some novelty in the +thing, as I have never done it in public, though I have in private, +and (if I may say so) with great effect on the hearers." + +That was a notable event in Dickens's life, for it is well known +what followed from that initial public recital; and the place where +the step was taken naturally becomes a landmark in his life; and so +the Old Royal Hotel, Birmingham, if for no other reason, claims to +be remembered as a notable and important one in Dickens annals. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +COVENTRY, DUNCHUBCH, AND DAVENTRY INNS, +AND THE "SARACEN'S HEAD," TOWCESTER + + + +Continuing their journey, the Pickwickians duly reached Coventry. +The inn, however, where the post-chaise stopped to change horses is +not mentioned by name, but may have been the Castle Hotel there; at +any rate, the "Castle" has a Dickensian interest, for it was here +that a public dinner was given to Dickens in December, 1858, when he +was presented with a gold repeater watch of special construction as +a mark of gratitude for his reading of the Christmas Carol, given a +year previously in aid of the funds of the Coventry Institute. The +hotel was, at the time the Pickwickians arrived there, a posting +inn of repute. From Coventry Sam Weller beguiled the time with +anecdotes until they reached Dunchurch, "where a dry postboy and +fresh horses were procured"; the next stage was Daventry, and in +neither case is the name of an inn mentioned or hinted at. + +At the end of each stage it rained harder than ever, with the result +that when they pulled up at the "Saracen's Head," Towcester, they +were in a disconsolate state. Bob Sawyer's apparel, we are told, +"shone so with the wet that it might have been mistaken for a full +suit of prepared oilskin." In these circumstances, and on the +recommendation of the wise Sam, the party decided to stop the night. + +"There's beds here, sir," Sam assured his master as a further +inducement; "everything clean and comfortable. Very good little +dinner, sir, they can get ready in half an hour-pair of fowls, sir, +and a weal cutlet; French beans, 'taters, tart and tidiness. You'd +better stop vere you are, sir, if I might recommend." At this very +moment the host appeared, and, having confirmed Sam's statement, +Mr. Pickwick decided to take the "advice" of his trusted servant, +which caused the landlord to smile with delight. + +[illustration: The Pomfret Anns (formerly the "Saracen's +Head"), Towcester. Drawn by C.G. Harp] + +The pilgrim to Towcester to-day, searching for the sign of the +"Saracen's Head," would find himself on a fruitless errand, for it +was changed scores of years back to the Pomfret Arms. Indeed, it +was so called at the time The Pickwick Papers were first published, +having been altered in 1881 at the bidding of the new lord of the +manor when he succeeded to the titles and estates. + +But doubtless Dickens knew it in his newspaper reporting days, and +described it from memory. In any case, he is historically correct +in retaining the old name, for the period of his book is 1827-28. +Beyond the change of name the hotel to-day is practically the same +as it was in those early days, the only material alteration being +the conversion of the kitchen into a bar-parlour and smoking-room, +where the open chimney and corner seats have given place to more +modern and ornate substitutes. + +Situated in the main street this old posting house is a prominent +feature. The exterior is typical of the period. It is a low, +long-looking building with many windows, two stories high (unless +the dormer windows in the old red-tiled roof be counted another), +and is built of a light brownish sandstone brick, peculiar to the +neighbourhood. There is a picturesque bow window on the ground +floor to the left of the solid oak gateway leading into the coach +yard, and over this hangs the swinging sign-board flanked on each +side by two curious carved figures set in alcoves let into the wall; +the whole general setting is a pleasant survival of the old-time +days of the coaching era. + +There always is an agreeable and comforting relief to the traveller +when he at last arrives at the inn at his journey's end, and that +feeling will not be dispelled to-day when the old "Saracen's Head" is +reached. But to the Pickwickians, on the occasion of their visit, +wet to the skin, tired, and sorely out at elbow with the raging +element they had just driven through, the "Saracen's Head" must have +been a haven of delight indeed; and those few words of instructions +from the landlord to make the room ready for them must have been +cheerful to their ears, and the result, as described in the +following paragraph, a joy to their hearts: + +"The candles were brought, the fire was stirred up, and a fresh log +of wood thrown on. In ten minutes' time a waiter was laying the +cloth for dinner, the curtains were drawn, the fire was blazing +brightly, and everything looked (as everything always does in all +decent English inns) as if the travellers had been expected and +their comforts prepared for days beforehand." + +So in this cosy room they gathered, after they had sufficiently +dried themselves, and eagerly waited for dinner to be served. +To them suddenly reappeared Sam Weller, accompanied by no less +a person than the notorious Mr. Pott of the Eatanswill Gazette--who, +that worthy had discovered, was also staying in the hotel. He was +on his way to the great Buff Ball, to be held at Birmingham the next +evening. Needless to say, he was heartily welcomed and an agreement +was made to club their dinners. Mr. Pott soon began to entertain +the company with gossip about his mission and firebrand intentions, +taking the opportunity of letting off some of his best abusive +expletives at the expense of his rival paper, the Eatanswill +Independent, and its editor. + +Incidentally he extolled the genius of one of his staff, and +revealed the great secret of how he "crammed" for an article +on "Chinese Metaphysics" by turning up the two words in the +encyclopaedia and combining his information. He was in the midst of +enlivening the proceedings with extracts from his own lucubrations, +when his great rival, whom he was abusing, drove up, unknown to him, +and booked abed for himself at the same hotel. Mr. Slurk was also +making for the great Buff Ball at Birmingham, and, having ordered +some refreshment, retired to the kitchen (a custom in those days) +to smoke and read in peace. + +"Now some demon of discord," writes Dickens, "flying over the +'Saracen's Head' at the moment," prompted Bob Sawyer to suggest to +his friends that "it wouldn't be a bad notion to have a cigar by the +kitchen fire." They all agreed that it was a good idea, and forth +they went--only to find, to their surprise, Mr. Slurk there before +them deep in the study of some newspaper. The rival editors both +started at each other, and gradually showed symptoms of their +ancient rivalry bubbling up, which, by slow but certain process, +developed until it eventually precipitated them into a free fight +with carpet bag and fire shovel as respective weapons. + +The details of this fracas are too well known to need repetition +here. Suffice to say that, when the fray was at its height, Mr. +Pickwick felt it his duty to intervene, and called upon Sam Weller +to part the combatants. This he dexterously did by pulling a meal +sack over the head and shoulders of Mr. Pott and thus effectually +stopping the conflict. The scene, it will be remembered, was +depicted with much spirit by Phiz, the artist who illustrated +the book. The rivals parted, peace once more reigned, and the +company repaired to their respective beds. In the morning both +Mr. Pott and Mr. Slurk were careful to continue their journey in +separate coaches before the Pickwickians were stirring, whilst the +spectators of the exciting scene went forward to London in their +post-chaise a little later. + +This incident is one of those that are best remembered in the book, +and has made the "Saracen's Head," Towcester, a notable Pickwickian +landmark. The old posting inn remains to-day as it was when the +book was written, and if the kitchen--as such--is not on view any +longer, the same room turned to other uses is there for the faithful +disciple to meditate in and visualize the scene for himself; and +no doubt he will find that the inn is as famous now for its "French +beans, 'taters, tarts and tidiness" as it used to be. + +We would, however, suggest to the present owner that the words +"formerly the 'Saracen's Head' "should be added to those of the +Pomfret Arms Hotel on the sign now hanging so gracefully over the +pavement as a guide to the Dickens pilgrim seeking the Pickwickian +landmark of the town. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +"OSBORNE'S," ADELPHI, AND TONY WELLER'S +PUBLIC-HOUSE ON SHOOTER'S HILL + + + +There is a singular and conspicuous interest attaching to Osborne's +Hotel in the Adelphi, for the almost pathetic reason that it was in +one of its rooms that Mr. Pickwick first made the momentous +announcement of his intention of abandoning his nomadic life of +travel and adventure and settling down in "some quiet, pretty +neighbourhood in the vicinity of London, "where he had taken a house +which exactly suited his fancy. And so it may be said that within +its four walls the Pickwick Club brought its activities to an end, +for on Mr. Pickwick's decision to retire from its ramifications, +coupled with the fact that during his absence in the Fleet Prison +it had suffered much from internal dissensions, its dissolution was +imperative, and to use his own words with which he announced the +fact to his friends on the occasion in question, "The Pickwick Club +no longer exists." + +That was an historic pronouncement, and the room in which it was +made naturally becomes a veritable landmark for Pickwickians; and a +fitting mark of this distinction might well be made, by the fixing +of a tablet on the walls of the historic building, which still +stands practically as it was in those adventurous days. The event +which first brought Mr. Pickwick and his friends to the hotel was +a domestic one; but the occasion did not pass without an awkward +adventure such as always dogged the footsteps of the Pickwickians. + +Mr. Pickwick had just been released from the Fleet Prison and was +at Mr. Perker's office settling little details in connexion with +Messrs. Dodson and Fogg, when his old friend Wardle turned up +quite unexpectedly to seek the advice of the little lawyer on the +situation which had arisen by his daughter Emily's infatuation for +Mr. Snodgrass. He had brought his daughter up from Dingley Dell +and informed Mr. Pickwick that "she was at Osborne's Hotel in the +Adelphi at this moment, unless your enterprising friend has run away +with her since I came out this morning." + +Mr. Perker made advice unnecessary, for he proved to both of them +that they were quite delighted at the prospect. Mr. Wardle +forthwith invited them to dine with him, and he sent the fat boy +to "Osborne's" with the information that he and Mr. Pickwick would +return together at five o'clock. Arriving at the hotel the fat boy +went upstairs to execute his commission. + +"He walked into the sitting-room without previously knocking at the +door, and so beheld a gentleman with his arm clasping his young +mistress's waist, sitting very lovingly by her side on a sofa, while +Arabella and her pretty handmaid feigned to be absorbed in looking +out of a window at the other end of the room. At sight of which +phenomenon the fat boy uttered an interjection, the ladies a scream, +and the gentleman an oath, almost simultaneously. + +"Wretched creature, what do you want here?" said the gentleman, who +it is needless to say was Mr. Snodgrass. + +To this the fat boy, considerably terrified, briefly +responded, "Missis." + +"What do you want me for?" enquired Emily, turning her head +aside, "you stupid creature." + +"Master and Mr. Pickwick is a-going to dine here at five," +replied the fat boy. + +After being bribed by Snodgrass, Emily and Arabella, he was invited +by Mary to dine with her downstairs, where he regaled himself on +meat pie, steak, a dish of potatoes and a pot of porter. Here he +attempted to make love to Mary, and, having failed, "ate a pound or +so of steak with a sentimental countenance and fell fast asleep." + +"There was so much to say upstairs, and there were so many plans +to concert for elopement and matrimony in the event of old Wardle +continuing to be cruel, that it wanted only half an hour to dinner +when Mr. Snodgrass took his final adieu. The ladies ran to Emily's +bedroom to dress, and the lover, taking up his hat, walked out of +the room. He had scarcely got outside the door when he heard +Wardle's voice talking loudly; and, looking over the banisters, +beheld him, followed by some other gentlemen, coming straight +upstairs. Knowing nothing of the house, Mr. Snodgrass in his +confusion stepped hastily back into the room he had just quitted, +and, passing from thence into an inner apartment (Mr. Wardle's +bedchamber), closed the door softly, just as the persons he had +caught sight of entered the sitting-room. These were Mr. Wardle +and Mr. Pickwick, Mr. Nathaniel Winkle and Mr. Benjamin Allen, +whom he had no difficulty in recognising by their voices." + +In this dilemma Mr. Snodgrass remained, for the door was locked +and the key gone, and in desperation he sat himself down upon a +portmanteau and trembled violently. In the meantime Mr. Pickwick, +Mr. Wardle and the rest of the company settled down to dinner, at +which the fat boy made himself conspicuous "by smirking, grinning +and winking with redoubled assiduity." His state of mind grew +worse, when, having at Mr. Wardle's instructions, gone into the +next room to fetch his snuff-box from the dressing-table, he +returned with the palest face "that ever a fat boy wore." In +his effort to acquaint Mr. Pickwick with what he encountered in +the room, his manner became worse and worse, and on the instant +that Mr. Wardle was about to ring for the waiters to remove him +to a place of safety, Mr. Snodgrass, "the captive lover, his face +burning with confusion, suddenly walked in from the bedroom, and +made a comprehensive bow to the company." + +"Mr. Snodgrass, who had only waited for a hearing, at once recounted +how he had been placed in his then distressing predicament; how the +fear of giving rise to domestic dissensions had alone prompted him +to avoid Mr. Wardle on his entrance; and how he merely meant to +depart by another door, but, finding it locked, had been compelled +to stay against his will. It was a painful situation to be placed +in; but he now regretted it the less, inasmuch as it afforded him an +opportunity of acknowledging before their mutual friends that he +loved Mr. Wardle's daughter deeply and sincerely, that he was proud +to avow that the feeling was mutual, and that if thousands of miles +were placed between them, or oceans rolled their waters, he could +never for an instant forget those happy days when first--et cetera, +et cetera. + +"Having delivered himself to this effect Mr. Snodgrass bowed again, +looked into the crown of his hat, and stepped towards the door." + +But he was stopped on the threshold, and Arabella, having taken up +the defence, called on Mr. Wardle to "shake hands with him and order +him some dinner. "A reconciliation took place and Mr. Snodgrass had +dinner at a side-table, and when he had finished drew his chair next +to Emily, without the smallest opposition on the old gentleman's +part. The remainder of the evening passed off very happily "and all +was smiles and shirt collars." + +During the next few days much perturbation was evinced by the +Pickwickians at their leader's continual absence from the society +of his admiring friends, and it being unanimously resolved that +he should be called upon to explain himself, Mr. Wardle invited +the "full circle" to dinner again at Osborne's Hotel to give him +the opportunity. After the decanters "had been twice sent round" +Mr. Wardle called upon Mr. Pickwick for his explanation. This was +forthcoming in a pathetic speech, very affecting to all present, +announcing his unalterable decision of retiring for the rest of his +life into the quiet village of Dulwich. "If I have done but little +good," he said, by way of peroration, "I trust I have done less +harm, and that none of my adventures will be other than a source +of amusing and pleasant recollection to me in the decline of life. +God bless you all." + +With these words Mr. Pickwick filled and drained a bumper with a +trembling hand; and his eyes moistened as his friends rose with one +accord and pledged him from their hearts. So runs the chronicle, +and so ended the immortal Pickwick Club, in the precincts of +Osborne's Hotel in the Adelphi, which also became the headquarters +of the relatives of Mr. Wardle during their stay in London for the +wedding of his daughter. From here the wedding party set out for +Mr. Pickwick's new abode at Dulwich, from which house the ceremony +took place, and where the wedding was celebrated by a happy +breakfast party afterwards. + +[illustration: Osborne's Adelphi Hotel. From a photograph +by T.W.Tyrrell] + +To have the distinction of being the venue for such notable events +is something that any self-respecting hotel should be proud of, and +we are sure that Osborne's Hotel will be remembered so long as it +stands for those reasons alone. But it has other reasons for fame, +even if they are more likely to be forgotten, or lightly passed over +by those who keep the records of London's notable landmarks. It +stands to-day in a neighbourhood distinguished for its history, and +has claims to a share in the making of that history. + +It is situated, as it has always been, at the corner of John and +Adam Streets, and was first opened in 1777 as the Adelphi New Tavern +and Coffee House. Dickens no doubt knew it well, for the Adelphi +and its neighbourhood attracted him greatly, and its curious old +buildings, side streets and rambling arches often figure in his +books. When a mere boy at work in the blacking factory, down by +the river there, he continually wandered about its quaint byways. +"Osborne's" was a notable house in those days, and if its full +records were available, no doubt many an entertaining story +concerning its activities could be told. As it is, it is known +that "being completely fitted up in the most elegant and convenient +manner for the entertainment of noblemen and gentlemen," as it +boasted in its early days, many notable figures in past history +made it their headquarters. + +On the 8th August, 1787, Gibbon stayed there on his arrival from +Lausanne with the completion of his "History," and wrote to Lord +Sheffield to apprise him of the fact. In 1802 Isaac D'Israeli, the +author of Curiosities of Literature and father of the famous Earl of +Beaconsfield, stayed in the hotel after his honeymoon. It is also +on record that George Crabbe, the poet, with his wife resided for a +time there, and that Rowlandson, the caricaturist, died in one of +its rooms in 1827. + +Perhaps the most notorious of visitors to it were the King and Queen +of the Sandwich Islands in 1824. Unfortunately, both were victims +to the smallpox epidemic which raged at the time, and died in the +hotel, the latter on the 8th July of that year and the former on the +14th September. The visit of the "illustrious" king, we are told, +gave rise to the popular song, "The King of the Cannibal Islands." + +During the war it was acquired as a house of utility for the military. +Before it was acquired for that purpose it was the favoured resort of +business men of the neighbourhood and of certain literary and artistic +coteries, and was the headquarters of the famous O.P. Club. However, +it has returned now to its old-time ways and methods, and we hope it +will long remain a landmark for the Dickens lover and particularly the +Pickwickian devotee. + +The last tavern mentioned in The Pickwick Papers is the "excellent +public-house near Shooter's Hill, "to which Mr. Weller, senior, +retired. Unfortunately it was never named, nor has it been +identified. Continuing to drive a coach for twelve months after +the Pickwick Club had ceased to exist, he became afflicted with +gout and was compelled to give up his lifelong calling. The +contents of his pocket-book had been so well invested by Mr. +Pickwick, we are told, that he had a handsome independence for +the purpose of his last days. At Shooter's Hill he was quite +reverenced as an oracle, boasting very much of his intimacy with +Mr. Pickwick, and retaining a most unconquerable aversion to widows. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +PICKWICK AND THE "GEORGE" INN + + + +Certain traditional legends naturally grow round our old London +landmarks and, when once started, no matter how conjectural, they +are hard to overtake or suppress. + +The George Inn, Southwark, is an instance of this, and the legend +that is prone to cling to it is that it was the original of the +White Hart Inn of Pickwick fame; the contention being that Dickens, +when writing so faithfully of the "White Hart" in Chapter X of The +Pickwick Papers, where Sam Weller was first discovered, described +the "George" and called it after its near neighbour, the "White +Hart." This contention, we submit, has no justification whatever. +The only reason, therefore, for referring to it here, is with a +view to dispelling the illusion. + +It is surprising that so good a Dickensian as the late J. Ashby +Sterry should have been one of those who favoured the idea. Whether +he was the first to do so we are not aware. But in his very +interesting and informative article entitled "Dickens in Southwark," +in The English Illustrated Magazine for November, 1888, he states it +as his opinion that the "George" was the original of the "White +Hart," and reverted to the same idea in The Bystander (1901). The +following extract from the former article contains the argument he +used to substantiate his claim: + +"Moreover it (the 'George') is especially notable as being the spot +where Mr. Pickwick first encountered the immortal Sam Weller. The +'White Hart' is the name, I am aware, given in the book, but it is +said that Dickens changed the sign in order that the place should +not be too closely identified. This was by no means an unusual +custom with the novelist. I think he did the same thing in Edwin +Drood, where the 'Bull' at Rochester is described under the sign +of the 'Blue Boar.' A similar change was made in Great Expectations, +where the same inn is disguised in like fashion, in the account +of the dinner given after Pip was bound apprentice to Joe Gargery. +The 'White Hart' is close by, on the same side of the way, a little +nearer London Bridge, but little, if anything, is remaining of +the old inn, and the whole of the place and its surroundings have +been modernised. + +[illustration: The George Inn, Southwark, in 1858. From an +engraving by Fairholt] + +"I, however, had the opportunity of comparing both inns some years +ago, and have no hesitation in saying that the 'George' is the inn +where the irrepressible Alfred Jingle and the elderly Miss Rachel +were discovered by the warm-hearted, hot-tempered Wardle. If you +like to go upstairs you can see the very room where Mr. Jingle +consented to forfeit all claims to the lady's hand for the +consideration of a hundred and twenty pounds. Cannot you fancy, +too, the landlord shouting instructions from those picturesque +flower-decked galleries to Sam in the yard below?" + +These deductions and views are not in any way convincing to us; +indeed, we find ourselves in complete disagreement with them, +and few Dickensians, we feel sure, will endorse them. + +Mr. Ashby Sterry's argument regarding the "Bull" and the "Blue Boar" +at Rochester proves nothing. Dickens described the "Bull" there in +The Pickwick Papers and called it the "Bull" at Rochester, as he did +the "Leather Bottle" at Cobham, the "Angel" at Bury St. Edmunds, the +"Great White Horse" at Ipswich--to name a few parallel cases. When +he described the "Bull" and called it the "Blue Boar," it was in +another book, Great Expectations, not in Edwin Drood, as stated by +Mr. Ashby Sterry, and its location was a fictitious city, i.e. The +Market Town. + +The only case in which Dickens deliberately used the name of one inn +for another was that of the "Maypole" and "King's Head" at Chigwell +in Barnaby Rudge. But in this instance he admitted that he had done +so, although it was scarcely necessary, for the inns were very +dissimilar and the novelist's description of the latter could not +be taken for the former. + +The case of the "George" and the "White Hart" is different. They +both stood quite near to each other at the time Dickens was writing +The Pickwick Papers, and were both so named and both famous. There +could be no reason, therefore, for him to describe one and call it +by the other's name. + +Although they may not have been identical in all particulars as to +structure, the "George" and the "White Hart" were sufficiently alike +to make it possible for a person of imagination to go over the +"George" and be satisfied that such and such a room might do for +the one in which "Mr. Jingle forfeited all claims to the lady's +hand," and imagine, too, that the galleries could be accepted easily +as those over which "the landlord shouted instructions to Sam in +the Yard." But these flights of fancy could be indulged in even +n the New Inn, Gloucester, or any similar old coaching inn, if one +so desired. + +Mr. Percy FitzGerald, the greatest authority on The Pickwick Papers, +is of the same opinion as ourselves on the point, and asks: "Why +should notoriety be attached to the 'White Hart,' from which the +'George' was to be shielded?" + +No, the "George" is a wonderfully alluring old inn, and for this +reason Dickensians have a warm place in their hearts for it. But +we have no hesitation in saying that it is not the original of the +"White Hart" of Pickwick and Sam Weller fame. + +Another distinguished writer, the American novelist and artist, +F. Hopkinson Smith, in his book, Dickens's London, fell into a +similar blunder. Indeed, his book contains some glaring mistakes, +owing, no doubt, to the fact, which he admits, that he gathered his +information from any Tom, Dick or Harry he came in contact with +during his wanderings. In describing his visit to the "George," he +found incidents from Pickwick to fit every nook and cranny in the +building and quoted them with much conviction. But he quoted no +facts, nor did he give any data to substantiate his statements. +Someone told him it was the original of the "White Hart," as they +told him that the house named Dickens House in Lant Street was where +Dickens once lived, irrespective of the fact that the actual house +was demolished years before. Yet that satisfied him, he took no +trouble to make further enquiries and then imagined the rest. In +regard to the "George" he let his imagination run riot, dilated on +this being Miss Wardle's room, this being the room where the couple +were discovered, and further states that Dickens made the inn a +favourite one of his when a boy in Lant Street, and speaks of the +seat he used to sit in. All of which is sheer nonsense. + +Dickens may have known the George Inn in those early days, but being +only a mere boy is not likely to have frequented it. Although in +later years--those of Little Dorrit and the Uncommercial Traveller--it +is quite likely he may have visited it. Indeed, Miss Murray, the +present hostess, tells us he did. Her authority was Abraham Dawson, +a well-known carman and carrier in days gone by, who was a nephew of +W. S. Scholefield who owned the inn at the time. Dawson assured her +that he frequently chatted with Dickens in the coffee-room. + +Yet the only occasion, so far as we are aware, that the novelist +actually mentions the inn is in Little Dorrit, Book I, Chapter XXII, +where Maggy, speaking of Tip, says: "If he goes into the 'George' +and writes a letter. . . ." + +No, the George Inn is just a fine survival of old days--the old days +of which Dickens wrote--and is similar, in many respects, to what the +'White Hart' used to be. As such Dickensians have a great affection +for it, and there is no need to invent stories about it to justify +their reverence. + +Mr. A. St. John Adcock is another writer who steers clear of the +confusion. In The Booklover's London, after referring to the +"White Hart," he goes on to say: "If you step aside up George Yard, +which is next to the 'White Hart' yard, you may see the old George +Inn which, with its low ceilings, ancient rafters and old wooden +galleries outside, closely resembles what the 'White Hart' used to +be, and gives us an idea of the inn yards in which the strolling +players of Shakespeare's time used to set up their stages." + +Let us leave it at that and retain our regard for the old inn for +what it is, rather than for what it is not. + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Inns and Taverns of "Pickwick", by B.W. 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