Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1893-07-06

had for Inc the weirdest fascination OF
any provincial spot in Britain, though
both hamlet and inn are now dreary
and desolate beyond description. The
old inn here, now called the Unicorn, |
was first known as the George. Eight |
coaches, bound either TO London or
Glasgow, daily changed horses in its |
great yard in the good old coaching |
days. 1t is 10 this inn that Charles |
Dickens, with great and inerciful |
motive in fiction, repaired with his
friend and companion, Hablot Browne,
a few weeks before Christmas of 1887,
where the two remained while Dickens
secured material for "Nicholas
Nickleby."
He had letters to yeomen of the
place, soon to shine as one of the inn
mortals of fiction as honest John
Browdie." He represented himself as
agent Of poor widow DESTROYS of plac-
ing her only boy in quiet country
school. In this way he secured admis-
sion to number in the vicinity, though
shut out of some by the wary masters.
The school seeming most suitable as
prototype of them all, from the personnel
Of its savage owner and his family, with
wild and desolate physical surroundings
in keeping with the hopelessness OF the
school-life of the place itself, was the
Dotheboys Hall, still standing in Bowes
hardly stones throw from the
ancient Unicorn inn, the house being
now occupied by "old man Bonsficld,"
husband of the veritable Squeers'
daughter, Fanny Squcers, known in life
as Mary Ann Shaw-where nicholas
Nickleby," his protege in misery the
wretched "Smike,n ami scores of other
helpless young lives, are depicted as
having undergone an almost inconceiv-
able life of servitude, starvation and
/ cruelty.
Investigations showed that the horri-
BILE picture drawn was not an exaggera-
ton, and bore out Dickens own state
ment in the original preface that "Mr.
Squeers and his school are faint and
feeble pictures of an existing reality,
purposely subdued and kept down lest
they should be deemed impossible"
This, Dickens second, and in some re-
spects his greatest, novel was begun in
April, 1888, and finished in October,
1889. At the appearance of the first
part, he RIA away from London, Us he
always did, to remain in hiding until a
distinct measure Of public favor or dis
favor was shown. In the case of
Nicholas Nickleby" his forgivable
skulling was of short duration. The
first days sale of the first part exceeded
$4,000 copies. Not six months had
passed before the torture and cruelty to
helpless scholars in these remote prison
pens were abated, and before the last
chapter of "Nicholas Nickleby" had
been read, public feeling, which in many
portions of the country barely escaped
expression in riot, had annihilated every
child.hell of the Dotheboys Hall variety
in England.
If you came from London to Bowei
| over the same coach road as did Mich
olas Nickleby, when, nearing the end
{ of his dreary journey, sat about
o'clock that night, he and Mr.. Squeert
. and the little boys and their united lug
gage were put down at the George ant
, New Inn" you would have come by thu
! old coach road from London to Edin
4 burgh and Glasgow. On leaving th,
' ancient city of York you would hav,
! struck into highway 1000 years old
Masses of Roman legions have swept
. tide on tide, back and forth over tn,
r same stone road. Stern Agricola, tn
i courtly Tacitus and Emperor Serviu
: himself, have ridden towards the un
4 conquerable north upon it. the latte
n left $4,000 of his army dead among tn
# Scotch mists and mountains, and witt
4 his face set towards Rome and home
! only reached York to die of his wound
G and chagrin.
n 1t is the great Roman Road of Eng
land. Waiting, or Waithling, Street
" is called. Away in the north of York
!. shire, few miles above Catteric
II Bridge, one stem of this highway goe
!. on through Durham and Northumbel
a land, and thence to Edinburgh. Tn
Il other swings around to the westward
/. traversing Westmoreland and Cumbei
ar land through Carlisle to the Gres
" Roman Wall, which once protecte
If Britain from the Caledonian horde
d and thence, in more modern coac
N road, winds through the olden lover
ii haven, Gretna Green, to Glasgow. o
st this western stem, between the rivel
~ Tees and Greta, at the eastern edge c
II Stanemoor, nearly surrounded by des(
ID late moors, and in the northwest cornt
" of Yorkshire, lies what is left of Bowe
N 1t is difficult not to wander away frol
IS, a description Of the old Unicorn Inn,
at Bowes, among the literary and antique
ce ran things of interest in its neighbo
ly hood. The inn itself must not be col
at founded, even under its old name of IL
&c George, with the George Inn of Gre
I'd Bridge, six miles nearer York, now use
or as corn mill To disguise the exa
v. location of Dotheboys Hall, Dickei
c. made Squeers (Shaw) travel with your
w Nickleby three miles from the Georl
lg Inn at Greta Bridge to the suppositioi
I'd "EIall," followed by the "cart-l load
at infant misery" What they really d
Or, do was to dismount all together from ii
SO York and Carlisle coach within the in
I'D yard of this very Unicorn, and the
ce shiver along the crooked, cobbled sing
re- street of Bowes, until they arrived
u the "long, old-loOking house." lit
Id way beyond to the west, and tall, lie,
I'M boy (poOr SmilIe y with lantern in
hand issued forth"
he The Unicorn, which seems to ha
an completely escaped the attention of En-
les lIsh antiquarians and travellers, Is n
sh only remarkable from its association
of in having been the most important il
rs, near the border, between York al
cir Glasgow and Edinburgh in oldcn tim
I'D but in also being the largest of the
JUS ancient English roadside hostelries 81
ue extant which were called into exIsten
me by the necessities of travel in the {
en- coaching days.
ms At its very door the Royal Mail beg
ter the ascent over the Great North Ro
to of weird, dreary and vast Stanemo
les peopled only by witch and warlot
in silent ever save from bowling tempes