River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1919-01-23

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- presumably the Bull hotel at
81 Rochester was merely COM
Portable roadside coaching inn
between Dover and London, with no
claim to fame other than that of being
a favored resort of the military from
the adjacent town of Chatham. It is
true that Queen Victoria-then but
princess-was compelled, because of
a mishap to the bridge across the
Midway and the stormy weather, to
stay in the inn with her mother, the
duchess of Kent, for one night only.
They were on their way to London
from Dover. The event happened on
the Goth of November, 1886, and caus-
ed flutter of excitement in the city
and inspired the proprietor to add the
words "Royal Victoria" to the inns
name, and to justify the adOrnment of
the front of the building with the
royal coat of arms, writes 3. w. MatZ
in the Christian Science Monitor.
But it remained for the Pickwick-
ians to draw the inn out from the
ruck of the commonplace and to
spread it's fame to all corners of the
globe; and the fact that it once had
royal patronage is nothing in compari-
son to the other fact that it was the
headquarters of the Pickwickians on
certain memorable occasion. That is
the attraction of it; that is the i'm
mutable thing that makes it's name
household word wherever the English
language is spoken. Indeed, that was
the one notable event in it's history
which filed the proprietor with PRIDE
and in his wisdom, in order to lure Wis
itOrS into it's comfortable interior, he
could find no more magnetic announce
ment for the signboard on each side
of the entrance, than the plain unvar-
nished statement: "Good House, Nice
Beds. Vide Pickwick."
Was Familiar to Dickens.
It may have boosted history before
then; it is difficult to say. 1t existed
in 1927 when Dickens housed the
famous four within it's hospitable
walls; and he doubtless knew it long
before then when, as lad, he lived in
Chatham; anyway it was always a
favorite of his, and furnishes the
scene of many incidents in his books,
In addition to the part it plays in the
early portion of the "Pickwick Pa
pers;" it no doubt is the original of
the Winglebury Arms in ''The Great
Winglebury Duel" in sketches by
Boz" and is certainly the Blue Boar
of "Great Expectations" He fire.
Quented it himself and the room he
occupied on these occasions is known
as the Dickens room and is furnished
with pieces of furniture from his resi-
dence at Gad's HILL, We know, too,
that he conducted his friends over it,
on these occasions when he made pill
grimages with them around the neigh
bOrhood.
The house has been slightly altered
since those days, but it practically re-
mains the same as when Dickens de-
posted the Pickwickians in its court
yard that red-letter dayVin 1927. It's
outside is dull and somber looking, but
its interior comfort and spaciousness
soon dispel any misgivings which its
exterior might have created.
The entrance hall is as spacious as
it was when Dickens described it, in
1.-THE Great Winglebury Duel" as or
namented with evergreen plants ter
minating in a perspective view of the
bar, and a glass case, in which were
displayed a choice variety of delica-
cies ready for dressing, to catch the
eye of a newcomer the moment he
enters, and excite his appetite to the
highest possible pitch. Opposite
DOORS" he says, lead to the coffee
and commercial rooms; and a great
wide rambling staircase-three stairs
and landing-four stairs and another
landing-one step and another landing
and so on-conducts to galleries of
bedrooms and labyrinths of sitting
rooms, denominated private where
you many enjoy yourself as privately
as you can in any place where some
bewildered being or other walks into
your room every five minutes by mis-
take, and then walks out again, to
open all the doors along the gallery
till he finds his own"