It must be said, however, that a fair case can be made for Norwich. In
introducing Eatanswill, Boz says that "an anxious desire to abstain from
giving offence" prompted Mr. Pickwick, _i.e._, Boz, to conceal the real
name of the place. He adds that he travelled by the Norwich coach, "but
this entry (in Mr. Pickwick's notes) was afterwards lined through as if
for the purpose of concealing even the direction." Some might think that
this was a veiled indication, but it seems too broad and obvious a
method, that is, by crossing out a name to reveal the name. It is much
more likely he meant that the town was somewhere between Norwich and
London, and on that line. There are arguments, too, from the distances.
There are two journeys in the book from Eatanswill to Bury, which seem to
furnish data for both theories--the Ipswich and the Norwich ones. But if
we have to take the _dejeuner_ in its literal sense, and put it early in
the day, say, at eleven, and Mr. Pickwick's arrival at Bury, "wery late,"
as Sam had it, we have some six hours, or, say, forty miles, covered by
the journey. But the events at Mrs. Leo Hunter's were certainly at mid-
day--between one and three o'clock. It was, in fact, a grand lunch. So
with Winkle's journey. He left Eatanswill half-an-hour after breakfast,
and must have travelled by the same coach as Mr. Pickwick had done, and
reached Bury just in time for dinner, or in six or seven hours. Now it
will not be said that he would not be a whole day going four-and-twenty
miles.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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