APTER XV.--DULWICH

I.--Mr. Pickwick's Diversions

Mr. Pickwick, as we know, retired to end his days at peaceful
Dulwich--placid and tranquil as his own amiable heart. It is as certain
as though we had been living there and had seen all that was going on,
that he became universally popular, and quite a personage in the place.
Everyone was sure to meet him taking his afternoon walk along the rural
lanes, or making his way to the Greyhound, where he was often found of an
evening--possibly every evening. This Greyhound, an old-fashioned and
somewhat antique house, though not mentioned in the story, is linked to
it by implication; for to settle at Dulwich and ignore the Greyhound was
a thing that could not be. There is a Pickwickian tone--or was, rather,
for it is now levelled--about the place, and Boz himself used to frequent
it, belonging to a sort of dining club that met down there.

Such a paper as say the _Dulwich Observer_ would make much account of a
man like Mr. Pickwick; all his movements would be chronicled, and anyone
that chooses to bid Sarah or Mary "bring up the file for the year of Mr.
Pickwick's residence," must find innumerable entries. Let us supply a
few of these imaginative extracts:

MR. PICKWICK AT THE OPENING OF THE DULWICH LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC
ASSOCIATION.

A meeting of this admirable and thriving society--which, as our
readers know, was founded by Mr. Pickwick--was held on Saturday, at
the Greyhound Inn, where this learned and popular gentleman read a
special paper on Ralph Alleyne and his celebrated college at Dulwich.
There was a large attendance. Mr. Pickwick stated that he had long
been making researches into the Alleyne pedigree, and had made an
astonishing discovery--Alleyne, he found, was the family of the
Allens! A very dear and intimate friend of his own--a high member of
the medical profession--with whom he had spent some of the pleasantest
hours of his whole life, and who was now following his practice in
India, also bore the name of Allen--Benjamin Allen! It will be said
that there was not much in this; there were many Allens about, and, in
the world generally (loud laughter); but what will be said when, on
carelessly turning over the old rate-books, he came on this startling
fact? That at the beginning of the century his old friend's
grandfather actually occupied a small house on Tulse Hill, not five
minutes' wal