The Old Inns of Old England, Volume 1 (of 2): A Picturesque Account of the Ancient and Storied Hostelries of Our Own CountryHarper, Charles G. (Charles George)
History
The Old Inns of Old England, Volume 1 (of 2): A Picturesque Account of the Ancient and Storied Hostelries of Our Own Country
Harper, Charles G. (Charles George)
England -- Social life and customs; Hotels -- England
The “Royal Hotel,” whence Mr. Winkle fled by branch coach to Bristol, is
not to be found, and the “Bush” at Bristol itself is a thing of the past.
It stood in Corn Street, and was swept out of existence in 1864, the
Wiltshire Bank now standing on the site of it; but how busy a place it was
in Pickwickian days let the old picture of coaches arriving and departing
eloquently tell.
The inns of the succeeding chapters--the tavern (unnamed) at Clifton, the
“Farringdon Hotel,” the “Fox-under-the-Hill,” overlooking the river from
Ivy Bridge Lane in the Strand, the “New Hotel,” Serjeant’s Inn Coffee
House, and Horn’s Coffee House--are merely given passing mention, and it
is only in Chapter XLVI. that we come to closer touch with actualities, in
the arrest of Mrs. Bardell in the tea-gardens of the “Spaniards” inn,
Hampstead Heath. The earwiggy arbours of that Cockney resort are still
greatly frequented on Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays.
A very modest and comparatively little-known Pickwickian house is the
“Bell,” Berkeley Heath, on the dull, flat high-road between Bristol and
Gloucester, unaltered since the day when Mr. Pickwick set forth by
post-chaise with Mr. Bob Sawyer and his fellow-roysterer, Ben Allen, from
the “Bush” at Bristol for Birmingham. Here they had lunch, as the present
sign-board of the inn, gravely and with a quaint inaccuracy, informs us:
insisting that it was “Charles Dickens and party” who so honoured the
“Bell.” They had come only nineteen miles, and without any exertion on
their own part, yet when they changed horses here, at half-past eleven
a.m., Bob Sawyer found it necessary to dine, to enable them “to bear up
against the fatigue.”
“‘Quite impossible!’ said Mr. Pickwick, himself no mean trencherman.
“‘So it is,’ rejoined Bob; ‘lunch is the very thing. Hallo, you sir! Lunch
for three, directly, and keep the horses back for a quarter of an hour.
Tell them to put everything they have cold on the table, and some bottled
ale, and let us taste your very best Madeira.’”
[Illustration: THE “BUSH,” BRISTOL.]
Those were truly marvellous times. All the way from Bristol those three
had been drinking milk-punch, and had emptied a case-bottle of it, and we
may be quite sure (although it is not stated) that they made havoc of a
prodigious breakfast before they started; Yet they did “very great
justice” to that lunch, and when they set off again the case-bottle was
filled with “the best substitute for milk-punch that could be procured on
so short a notice.”
[Illustration: “THE BELL,” BERKELEY HEATH.]
“At the ‘Hop-Pole’ at Tewkesbury they stopped to dine; upon which occasion
there was more bottled ale, with some more Madeira, and some port besides;
and here the case-bottle was replenished for the fourth time.” Therefore,
it is evident that, twice on the twenty-four miles between Berkeley Heath
and Tewkesbury, they had a re-fill.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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