The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-07-03

WIDOW QeSlrOus OF placing her only boy I'M
secured admission TO number in the vi
entity, though shut out Of some by the
wary masters. The school" seeming
most suitable as prototype Of them am
from the personel of its savage owner and
his family, with wild and desolate physi-
cal surroundings in lzeepng with the hope
lessness OF the schOOl-ife of the place IT.
self, was the Dotheb0ys Hall. stin stand
ng in Bowes-hardly a stones throw from
the ancient Unicorn inn. the house being
now occupied by ~'old man Bonsfield,"
husband Of the verftable Squeer's daugh-
ter, Fanny Squeers, known in life as Ma
ry Ann Shaw-where Nicholas Nicltle-
by" his protege in misery the wretched
''Smike," and scores of other helpless
young lives: are depicted as having under
gone an almost inCOnceivable life of serv-
itude, starvation and cruelty.
Investigations showed that the horri-
Die picture drawn was not an eXaggera-
ton, and bore out Dickens own statement
in the original preface that Mr. Squeers
and his school are faint and feeble pict-
ures of an existing reality, purposely sub
dued and kept down lest they should be
deemed impossible" This, Dickens sec
ond, and in some respects his greatest,
novel was begun in April, 1888, and fin
ished in October, 1899 At the appear
ance of the first part he ran away from
London, as he always did, to remain in
hiding until a distinct measure of public
favor or disfavor was shown. In the case
Of Nicholas Nickleby7 his forgivable
skulkihg was of short duration. The first
days sale of the first part exceeded So
600 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, pub
lie 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.
II you came from London to Bowes over
the same cOQch-road as did Nicholas
Nickleby, when, nearing the end of his
dreary journey, lat about 6 o'clock that
night, he and Mr.. Squeers and the little
boys and their united luggage were put
down at the Georgia and New lnn," you
would have come by the old coach road
from London to Edinburgh and Glasgow
On leaving the ancient city of York you
would have struck into a highway 1900
years old. Masses of Roman legions have
swept, tide on tide back and forth over The
same stone road Stern Agricola, the
cOurtlv Tacitus and Emperor Servius him
self, have ridden towards the unconquer-
able North upon it. The latter left $4,000
of his army dead among the Scotch mists
and mountains, and with his face set to-
wards Rome and home, only reached York
to die of his wounds and chagrin.
1t is the great Roman road of England.
Waiting, or Waithling, street it is called.
Away in the north of Yorkshire, n few
miles above Catterick Bridge, one stem
of this highway goes on through Durham
and Northumberland, and thence to Edin-
burgh. The other swings around to the
westward traversing WestmOreland and
Cumberland through Carlisle to the great
Roman wall, which eproteCted Britain
from the CaledOnian hordes, and thence,
in a more modern coach road. winds
through the olden lovers haven, Gretna
Green, to Glasgow. On this western
stem, between the rivers Tees and Greta,
at the,eastern edgeof Stanemoor, nearly
surrounded by desolateAnOors, and in the
northwest corner of Yorkshire, lies what
is left of Bowes. ..,....
1T is difficult not to wander away from
description of the old Unicorn Tnn,- at
Bowes, among the literary and antigua
rian thingsDf interest in its neigborhood.
The Inn itself must not be COMPOUNDED,
even under its old name Of the George,
with the George Inn of Greta bridge, six
miles nearer York, now used as q corn
mill. To disguise the exact location of
Dotheboys Hall, Dickens made Squeers
(Shaw) travel with young NieklebN three
miles from the George Inn at Gfeta bridge
to the supposititious "Halr' followed by
the "cart--load of infapt misery" What
they really did do was to dismOunt all
together from the York and Carlisle
coach within the inn-yard of this very
Unicorn, and then SILVER along the crook
ed, cobbled single street of Bowes, until
they arrived at the ''long, oOld-looking
house" little way beyond to the west,
and "a TALL lean boy pOor SmikeO with
a lantern in his hand issued forth"
The Unicorn, which seems to have COM
pletely escaped the attention of English
antiquarians and travellers, is not only re-
markable from its associations, in having
been the most important inn near the Dor
der, between York and Glasgow and Ed
inburgh in olden times but in also being
the largest of those ancient English road
side hostelries still eXtaut which were
called into existence by the necessities of
travel in the old coaching days,
At its very door the Royal Mail began
the ascent over the Great North Road of
weird, dreary and vast Stanemoor, peo-
pied only by witch and warlock; silent
ever save from bowling tempest; and with
no semblaCe of humans upon 1t, save at its
desolate top, where William the Conquer
er and Malcolm of Scotland fought dread
fully and long to decide the boundaries
of their respective kingdoms; and then
wisely stopped and Toasted, sensibly de-
Gliding thato on the very spot, should be
raised the great Roi now Rere) cross, or
''Cross of Kings, s" on one side of which
was craven the image of William, and on
the other that of Malcolm; but 800 years
have eaten these old faces away and none
others will be seen until Kirk6y Stephen,
nesting in the valley on the other side
towards ancient Penrith and Carlisle is
reached; all of WHICH gave travellers
cheer at the Unicorn a special zast not
unmixed with tinge of dread.
It's form is of double quadrangle, each
fully 100 feet square. The one next the
street has its entire front open to the
great ihn-yard thus formed. The two
sides AUDITING the street comprised re-
spectively the inn proper-a long, two
storied and garreted stone structure, with
A perfect maze of curious old rooms APP
preached byoutlandish stairs, entries and
landings. and rendered additionallYbe-
wildering by countless inches, cupbOards,
alcoves and blind panels and the other
huge brew house, with dozens of graner-
les and store-rooms behind. The side OPP
nosite the street provided offices and
sleeping accommodations for guards post
bows, whips and all those inn-helpers cen
cefned in working the coaches, or dealing
with the tired cattle of the many trave-
lers on horseback, merchandise packers
and wagoners passing between England
and Scotland a century ago.
In this quadrangle are also many open
stopn ehads with tiled roofs stone feed |