In 1841 Dickens, writing to his friend and biographer, John Forster, inviting him to take a trip to Chigwell, said: "Chigwell, my dear fellow, is the greatest place in the world. Name your day for going. Such a delicious old inn, opposite the churchyard--such a lovely ride--such beautiful forest scenery--such an out-of-the-way, rural, place--such a sexton! I say again name your day." In quoting this alluring invitation in his biography of the novelist, John Forster adds: "The day was named at once, and the whitest of stones marks it, in now sorrowful memory. Dickens's promise was exceeded by our enjoyment; and his delight in the double recognition of himself and of Barnaby, by the landlord of the nice old inn, far exceeded any pride he would have taken in what the world thinks the highest sort of honour." As _Barnaby Rudge_ had been published by this time, the novelist must have made many a trip to the King's Head previously, for the early chapters of the story in which the inn is introduced had been written long before. Time has played very few tricks either with the building or with Chigwell, for they are practically the same to-day as they were at the period in which Dickens was writing. The inn can still be said to be a delicious old one, and, if one rides to it as Dickens did, his description of the forest scenery and the nature of the out-of-the-way, rural place will be found as true to-day as when he discovered it, nearly a century ago: facts which many a pilgrim to it since can substantiate. [Illustration: THE KING'S HEAD, CHIGWELL _Drawn by L. Walker_] The description of the Maypole in the opening chapter of _Barnaby Rudge_ has been quoted often, but we make no apology for quoting it again, for no more enticing way of introducing it could be imagined. Besides which it incidentally suggests its past history as well as affirms its present picturesqueness: