PICKWICK 219 



coaching hamlet, can scarcely be said to " live up to" 

 its literary associations. Strictly speaking, it is not 

 even decayed ; but, now that the coaches are no more, 

 flourishes on the " Pickwick Brewery," which makes 

 a brave show down the road. It is an eminently 

 prosperous-looking, stone-built hamlet, a compara- 

 tively modern offshoot of the hoary Saxon village of 

 Corsham, which, once on the main road, was thrust 

 into the background when the mail coach came in, 

 and the great highway to Bath was cut on this route, 

 half a mile away. 



It is a curious literary puzzle — How did the title 

 of the " Pickwick Papers " originate ? It is a well- 

 ascertained fact that, in 1835, Dickens, then a reporter 

 for the daily press, was sent to Bath to report a 

 speech of Lord John Russell's, that now almost- 

 forgotten statesman being a candidate for representing 

 that city. The future novelist was then but twenty- 

 three years of age, a time of life when impressions of 

 travel are vivid and lasting. Journeying by coach, 

 he had every opportunity for observing places and 

 people ; and so it happened that when, a few months 

 later, the now historic publishing firm of Chapman 

 and Hall offered him the literary commission which 

 resulted in the " Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick 

 Club," the story he produced derived many of its 

 features from his own experiences. His recollections 

 had no time to fade, for in March, 183G, the first 

 part of "Pickwick" was published, and others were 

 well on the way. It must ever be a matter of doubt 

 whether Dickens noticed the existence of Pickwick, 

 the place. That he had noted the existence of Moses 



