Pickwickian Studies | Page 2

stone and corner of the place, and the tone of the place! We might have lived there ourselves. Positively, as we walk through it, we seem to recognise localities like old friends.
"Boz," when he came to Ipswich, was no more than a humble reporter, on special duty, living in a homely way enough. The "White Horse" was not likely to put itself out for him, and he criticises it in his story, after a fashion that seems rather bold. His description is certainly unflattering:
"In the main street, on the left-hand side of the way"--observe how minute Boz is in his topography--"a short distance after you have passed through the open space fronting the Town Hall, stands an Inn known far and wide by the appellation of 'The Great White Horse,' rendered the more conspicuous by a stone statue of some rampacious animal, with flowing mane and tail, distantly resembling an insane cart horse, which is elevated above the principal door. The 'Great White Horse' is famous in the neighbourhood in the same degree as a prize ox or county paper-chronicled turnip, or unwieldy pig--for its enormous size. Never were there such labyrinths of uncarpeted passages, such clusters of mouldy, badly-lighted rooms, such huge numbers of small dens for eating or sleeping in, beneath any other roof, as are collected between the four walls of this overgrown Tavern."
Boz cannot give the accommodation a good word, for he calls the Pickwickian room "a large, badly furnished apartment, with a dirty grate in which a small fire was making a wretched attempt to be cheerful, but was fast sinking beneath the dispiriting influence of the place." The dinner, too, seems to have been as bad, for a bit of fish and a steak took one hour to get ready, with "a bottle of the worst possible port, at the highest possible price." Depreciation of a hostelry could not be more damaging. Again, Mr. Pickwick's bedroom is described as a sort of surprise, being "a more comfortable-looking apartment that his short experience of the accommodation of the Great White House had led him to expect."
Now this was bad enough, but his sketch of the waiter who received the arriving party is worse:
"A corpulent man, with a fortnight's napkin under his arm and coeval stockings."
There is something so hostile in all this that it certainly must have come from a sense of bad reception. As we said, the young reporter was likely enough to have been treated with haughty contempt by the corpulent waiter so admirably described, with his "coeval stockings."
Even the poor horse is not spared, "Rampacious" he is styled; the stone animal that still stands over the porch. It must be said that the steed in question is a very mild animal indeed, and far from ramping, is trotting placidly along. "Rampacious," however, scarcely seems correct--"Rampagious" is the proper form--particularly as "Boz" uses the words "On the rampage." We find ourselves ever looking at the animal with interest--as he effects his trot, one leg bent. The porch, and horse above it, have a sort of sacred character. I confess when I saw it for the first time I looked at it with an almost absurd reverence and curiosity. The thing is so much in keeping, one would expect to see the coach laden with Pickwickians drive up.
Mr. Pickwick's adventure, his losing his way in the passages, &c., might occur to anyone. It is an odd feeling, the staying at this old hostelry, and, as it draws on towards midnight, seeking your room, through endless windings, turns, and short flights. There is even now to be seen the niche where Mr. Pickwick sat down for the night; so minute are the directions we can trace the various rooms. Mr. Pickwick asked for a private room and was taken down a "long dark passage." It turned out later that Miss Witherfield's sitting-room was actually next door, so Mr. Magnus had not far to go. These rooms were on the ground floor, so Mr. Pickwick had to "descend" from his bedroom.
There is a tradition indeed that Mr. Pickwick's adventure with a lady really occurred to "Boz" himself, who had lost his way in the mazes of the passages. I have a theory that his uncomfortable night in the passages, and the possible displeasure of the authorities, may have jaundiced his views.

II.--Eatanswill and Ipswich
It is not "generally known" that Ipswich is introduced twice in the book: as Eatanswill, as well asunder its own proper name. As "Boz" was dealing with the corrupt practices at Elections, and severely ridiculing them, he was naturally afraid of being made responsible. Further, he had been despatched by the proprietors of the Chronicle to report the speeches at the election, and he did not care to take advantage of his mission for