Over the entrance they have placed a bust of Dickens mounted on a pedestal, flanked on each side by full-length figures of Nicholas and Squeers. Whilst on each side of the entrance porch is a bas-relief of a scene from _Nicholas Nickleby_: one representing Nicholas, Squeers and the boys preparing to leave the inn by coach, and the other, the well-known scene in Dotheboys Hall, depicting Nicholas thrashing Squeers. And so, from out of seven centuries of historical associations, the one that emerges and remains to-day is that created by Dickens. CHAPTER IV NICHOLAS NICKLEBY (_continued_) THE PEACOCK, ISLINGTON--THE WHITE HORSE, ETON SLOCOMBE--THE GEORGE, GRANTHAM--THE GEORGE AND NEW INN, GRETA BRIDGE--THE KING'S HEAD, BARNARD CASTLE--THE UNICORN, BOWES--THE INN ON THE PORTSMOUTH ROAD--THE LONDON TAVERN--AND OTHERS The first stop of Nicholas's coach after it had left the Saracen's Head was at the Peacock, at Islington, an inn of immense popularity in those palmy days when the north-country mail-coaches made it their headquarters. It stood a little further north of the Angel, and was even more famous than that historic inn. Besides being the starting point for certain coaches, it was the house of call for nearly all others going in that direction out of London, and the busy and exciting scenes which ensued outside its doors became more bewildering still by the ostlers calling out the name of each coach as it arrived. Such a scene, no doubt, was witnessed by Nicholas, in whose charge Squeers had placed the scholars, when, "between the manual exertion and the mental anxiety attendant upon his task, he was not a little relieved when the coach stopped at the Peacock, Islington. He was still more relieved when a hearty-looking gentleman, with a very good-humoured face and a very fresh colour, got up behind, and proposed to take the other corner of the seat," as he thought it would be safer for the youngsters if they were sandwiched between Nicholas and himself. Everything and everybody being settled, off they went "amidst a loud flourish from the guard's horn and the calm approval of all the judges of coaches and coach-horses congregated at the Peacock." That was in 1838; later (in 1855) Dickens refers again to the same inn. But on that occasion the scene must have been one of great tranquillity and calm, if not a little dismal.