In those brilliant days of Pickwick he would wander in all directions out of the London streets, and invite Forster to accompany him on these jaunts by sending him brief commands to join him. One of these ran: "You don't feel disposed, do you, to muffle yourself up and start off with me for a good brisk walk over Hampstead Heath? I know a good 'ous where we can have a red-hot chop for dinner, and a glass of good wine." And off they went, leading, as Forster says, to their "first experience of Jack Straw's Castle, memorable for many happy meetings in coming years." On another occasion, whilst writing _The Old Curiosity Shop_, Maclise accompanied them, but this time they drove to the Heath and then walked to the "Castle." Here Dickens read to his friends a number of the new story. Again, in 1844, he wrote: "Stanfield and Mac have come in, and we are going to Hampstead to dinner. I leave Betsey Prig as you know, so don't you make a scruple about leaving Mrs. Harris. We shall stroll leisurely up, to give you time to join us, and dinner will be on the table at Jack Straw's at four." A few months later, it is recorded, they dined there again, and it is evident that the old inn was a favourite haunt of the novelist on such occasions, and the Dickens traditions have so clung to it that during the flight of time they have become, as such traditions do, somewhat exaggerated. To-day, visitors are not only shown the chair he sat on, but have pointed out to them the bedroom he used to sleep in. There is no record, however, that he ever stayed the night there, or any reason for believing that he did, seeing how easy it was for him and his friends to get there and back from town. But Jack Straw's Castle has good reasons for being proud of its literary associations; for, in addition to those of Dickens and his famous friends, such names as Washington Irving, Thackeray, Du Maurier, Lord Leighton, and a host of others may be mentioned as frequenting it. To say nothing of the fact that "The Castle" is mentioned in Richardson's _Clarissa Harlowe_. [Illustration: JACK STRAW'S CASTLE, as it was in 1835 _Drawn by L. Walker from an old engraving_] Apart, however, from its literary associations, Jack Straw's Castle has a romantic history. It is generally agreed that its name is derived from that of the notorious peasant leader of the rising in the reign of Richard II. And this may be so in spite of the fact that its present designation is not older than the middle of the eighteenth century.