248 COACHING DAYS AND COACHING WAYS 



pile — frowning walls — tottering arches — dark nooks — ■ 

 crumbling staircases — old cathedral too — earthy smell — 

 pilgrims' feet worn away the old steps — confessionals like 

 money-takers' boxes at the theatre ; " after which I looked 

 at the bridge over which David Copperfield saw himself 

 coming as evening closed in footsore and tired, and 

 eating the bread that he had bought for supper ; after 

 which I went to the Bull and Victoria Hotel and had 

 supper myself. 



" Good house — nice beds," according to Mr. Jingle, 

 who however did not put up here himself, if my memory 

 serves me, but he dined with the Pickwickians and recom- 

 mended broiled fowl and mushrooms — if he might be 

 permitted to dictate. But why prolong the description 

 of that immortal night ? It is sufficient to say that at 

 the Bull — which is as fine a specimen of the inn of old 

 days as I have seen on my travels — everything con- 

 nected with the stay of the Pickwickians is preserved 

 and cherished as the apple of his eye by the courteous 

 and cultivated proprietor. All is shown to those who 

 are interested and reverent. The long room where the 

 ball took place, " with crimson covered benches and wax 

 candles in glass chandeliers ; the elevated den in which 

 the musicians were securely confined;' the corner of 

 the staircase where the indignant Slammer met the vic- 

 torious Jingle returning after escorting Mrs. Budger to 

 her carriage, and said " Sir ! ' in an awful voice, pro- 

 ducing a card ; the bedroom of Winkle " inside that of 

 Mr. Tupman's," an arrangement which enabled Mr. 

 Jingle to restore his borrowed plumage " unbeknownst' 1 

 at the conclusion of the ball. All the first part of Pick- 

 wick is to be seen I say at the Bull and Victoria — with 

 surroundings eloquent of the old-world past ; and which 

 the author has in some other of his works thus graphically 

 described : — 



" A famous inn ! The hall a very grove of dead game, 

 and dangling joints of mutton ; and in one corner an 

 illustrious larder, with glass doors developing cold fowls 



