The low public-house in the "filthiest" part of Little Saffron Hill, in whose dark and gloomy den, known as the parlour, was frequently to be found Bill Sikes and his dog, Bull's-Eye, probably was no particular public-house so far as the novelist was concerned, although he gave it the distinguishing name of the Three Cripples. At any rate, it has not been identified, and must be assumed to be typical of the many with which this district at one time was infested. First referred to in Chapter XV, it is more minutely described in Chapter XXVI. "The room," we are told, "was illuminated by two gas-lights, the glare of which was prevented by the barred shutters and closely drawn curtains of faded red from being visible outside. The ceiling was blackened, to prevent its colour from being injured by the flaring lamps; and the place was so full of dense tobacco smoke that at first it was scarcely possible to discern anything more. By degrees, however, as some of it cleared away, through the open door, an assemblage of heads, as confused as the voices that greeted the ear, might be made out; and, as the eye grew more accustomed to the scene, the spectators gradually became aware of the presence of a numerous company, male and female, crowded round a long table, at the upper end of which sat a showman with a hammer of office in his hands, while a professional gentleman with a bluish nose, and his face tied up for the benefit of a toothache, presided at a jingling piano in a remote corner." That was a scene common to the "low public-house," of which the Three Cripples was a notorious example, and the atmosphere depicted no doubt applied generally to most of them. [Illustration: THE COACH AND HORSES, ISLEWORTH _Drawn by C. G. Harper_] On the other hand, the Coach and Horses, at Isleworth, where Bill Sikes and Oliver alighted from the cart they had "begged a lift" in, is no flight of Dickens's imagination and can be discovered to-day exactly where he located it.