Dickensian Inns & TavernsMatz, B. W. (Bertram Waldrom)
History
Dickensian Inns & Taverns
Matz, B. W. (Bertram Waldrom)
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870 -- Settings; Taverns (Inns) -- England
According to Allbut, Dickens took the name from a tavern in the Hampstead
Road where the harmonic meetings of the Sol's Society were held, and it
certainly seems that he adapted its characteristics to the Ship.
At the appointed hour the coroner arrived, and was conducted by the beadle
and the landlord to the Harmonic Meeting Room, "where he puts his hat on
the piano, and takes a Windsor chair at the head of the long table, formed
of several short tables put together, and ornamented with glutinous rings
in endless involutions, made by the pots and glasses. As many of the jury
as can crowd together at the tables sit there. The rest get among the
spittoons and pipes, or lean against the piano."
All in readiness, the famous inquest on Nemo, with poor Joe as a witness,
took place, after which the Sol's Arms gradually "melts into the shadowy
night, and then flares out of it strong in gas."
That was a special event for the Sol's Arms, which generally speaking was
just a tavern frequented by lawyers' clerks and the inhabitants of
Chichester Rents and its neighbourhood. It, no doubt, was Krook's habitual
place of call, it certainly was patronized by Mrs. Piper and Mrs. Perkins,
and Mr. Guppy must often have looked in; but its chief claim to fame was
its being the meeting place of the Harmonic Company, of whom Little Swills
was so distinguished a member.
Although Chichester Rents, which exists to-day, is not the same Chichester
Rents as when the Old Ship Tavern was there, and Krook lived there, with
Miss Flite as a lodger, one is easily reminded of these things, and of the
inquest, of Poor Joe, and of the great Little Swills, when one wanders
through this district of Dickens Land.
It is common knowledge that Chesney Wold, the country seat of the Dedlocks
of the story, was Rockingham Castle, the home of the Hon. Richard Watson
and Mrs. Watson, to whom Dickens dedicated _David Copperfield_. There is,
therefore, no difficulty in tracing the Dedlock Arms. The village of
Chesney Wold was the village of Rockingham. In Rockingham is an old inn
bearing the date of 1763, known as Sonde's Arms, which stands for the
Dedlock Arms of the story.
_Little Dorrit_ is almost as devoid of reference to inns and taverns that
count as _Bleak House_. In few cases the references are as a rule but
passing ones. Perhaps the most interesting is to the Coffee-House on
Ludgate Hill, where Arthur Clennam stayed, for it remains almost as it was
in those days.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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