Evening star., 1898-05-28
HAUNTS OF Mr.. PlCKWICk
Traces of the Great Man That Are Still Left
in Bath.
A Stately English Town Where Faith
IL Strong In That Famous -
Parsonage.



its parades. pump room and the rest are
haunted by ghosts of antique personages
who ruffied 1t there in the last century.
Boz. too. has done much to kindle interest
In the place. Pickwick, thu immortal, con-
tanning better description of the tone and
manners of the place in the thirties than
Miss Burney o: Smollstt has given of their
eras. In his account there Is an air of
fadsd gentility, old fashion and old Gus
toms; for then the ceremonousness and
state of society was barely lingering on,
and was presently to disappear.
In Bath the faith in Pickwick is strong,
as. indeed, it is in the half dozen or so
Piekwickian towns. Ipswich Rochester,
Bury-thal is Mr.. Pickwick has grown into
a sort of historical parsonage, who actually
visited the places and stayed at the old
inns. where they invariably show you his
particular rooms. American guests often
ask for the privilege of sleeping in Mr..
Pickwick's room." Lately a Bath gentle
White Horse at Ipswich. and was perfectly
beguiled by the faith of the waiter, who
spoke of the changes that had occurred
since Mr.. Pickwick was here" The White
Hart at Bath, where the great man put up,
has long since been pulled down.
queen square, charming old world
square. was where Mr. Bantam, the M. c.,
resided-at No. IA. Bantam was drawn,
with some disguise, from a well-known Col.
Jervoise who lived in this very house. The
place where the famous Bath footmen had
their immortal swarry-a billed leg of NUT
ton with the usual trimmings'-has been
ascertained beyond doubt. In Princes street,
few doors down, and turning out of the
square. there Is rather murky looking
public house known as the Beaufort Arms,
much fallen from it's former style, where
one could imagine knives and forks of vari-
ous-colored handles being borrowed for oc-
fu 1tNnr,
actual house of call for the SWELL foot
men, and here they had their meetings.
Some recah, in the palmy days of the Octa-
gon Chapel the whole posse of the Bath
footmen attending in their splendid regi-
mentals, velvets, gold lace, epaulets canes,
ETC.; attendants who dared not say their
masters, but their employers. The house is
NO doubt described as a greer grocers, but
BOZ, as was his Gus tom, did not wish to be
too minute and particular in his descrip-
tions.
Mr.. Pickwick and his friends went into
II rnished lodgings in house in the beau
tlul and unique Crescent, Mrs. Craddock
being his landIady. 1t has been ascertain
ed by our Bath Pickwickians that there
were only one or two houses In the Cres-
cent thus let out, the rest being private
nsnsions Mr.. Pickwick must. therefore,
nave been either at No. 10 or 16 or H. the
houses In question: comfort to know, so
far as 1t goes. Something more distinct
would have been desirable, but it is really
as near as one can get. 1t is hard as you
lcok up to the stately first-f1oor window
not TO think of the animated scene-the in
furiated Dowler shouting, the sedan at
the door. and Mr. Wrinkle in his dressing
gown flying round the Crescent Charles
Dickens the younger, by the way, objects
to this phrase of his sire's who, he insists
was confounding it with the circus; but you
can run round semi-circle-that Is, turn
hack at the top with a sweeper it may be
that the ground in front was open and
without railing
The old assembly rooms are there still.
with the tea rooms and card rooms. So is
the old theater with its venerable stone
front; and the baths still abound. Every
" here We seem to meet Mr.. Pickwick walk
ing about or going up hill-after taking
his tunlbler with a flavor of warm
smoothin' -irons)-which was certainly Mil
som street.
The occasion of Dickens visit to Bath
was the series of speeches which Lord
john Russell was making all over that
country for his contest in 1888. He had
just defeated Sir r. Peers government
The energetic Boz had come down with his
fellow reporter Beard-both being on the
staff of The Morning Chronicle" He
spared himself in no point determined to
secure the best results for mis- employers.
They were at the Bush Inn. Bristol in
May, arranging the Expressing" of speech
rem Bath and other places. The Bush, in
Corn street, which was the house to which
MIR. Wrinkle fled from the angry Dowler,
was pulled down some thirty or forty years
ago, and bank, the Wiltshire and Dor
set. stands on the site. At Bath, Boz con-
tIived to take in a great deal There is a
quaint inn in Walcot, most curious as a
specimen of the old carriers inn. 1t has d
tablet dated 1713; and here he put up
There are some In Bath who recall him and
his pcrsevering efforts to cross the little
court. his candle being blown out, he re-
turning with much perseverance to have it
lighted, only to be blown out once more.
most interesting, piquant monument
this, only to be matched by Johnson's
White House at Edinburgh. The pump
room is exactly now as it is described in
"Pickwick-even the Tompion clock Is
in the same place; go is the statue Of
Nash. and there is the open book for those
who wish to put down their names.
1t was during this election. In the Janu-
ary of the same year that Boz went to
Ipswich and witnessed the humors of the
Eatanswill election; for though he brings
his characters later to Ipswich under it's
proper name. he could not venture to deal
with the parliamentary abuses so freely
as he did without some disguise.
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