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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.
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