ent specially to Bath to make his sketches; for he
has caught in the most perfect way the whole _tone_ of a Bath Assembly,
and he could not have obtained this from descriptions by others. So,
too, with this picture of the Circus in Mr. Winkle's _escapade_. It will
be remembered that Boz was rather particular about this picture, and
suggested some minute alterations. Bantam, the M.C., or "the Grand
Master" as Boz oddly calls him, was drawn from life from an eccentric
functionary named Jervoise. I have never been quite able to understand
his odd hypothesis about Mr. Pickwick being "the gentleman who had the
waters bottled and sent to Clapham." But how characteristic the dialogue
on the occasion! It will be seen that this M.C. cannot credit the notion
of anyone of such importance as Mr. Pickwick "never having been in _Ba-
ath_." His ludicrous and absurd, "Not bad--not bad! Good--good. He,
he, re-markable!" showed how it struck him. A man of such a position,
too; it was incredible. With a delightful sense of this theory, he
began: "It is long--_very long_, Mr. Pickwick, _since you drank the
waters_--it appears an age." Mr. Pickwick protested that it was
certainly long since he had drunk the waters, and his proof was that he
had never been in Bath in his life. After a moment's reflection the M.C.
saw the solution. "Oh, I see; yes, yes; good, good; better and better.
You are the gentleman residing on Clapham Green who lost the use of your
limbs from imprudently taking cold _after port wine_, who could not be
moved in consequence of acute suffering, and who had the water from the
King's Bath bottled at 103 degrees and sent by waggon to his bed-room in
town, where he bathed, sneezed, and same day recovered." This amusing
concatenation is, besides, an admirable and very minute stroke of
character, and the frivolous M.C. is brought before us perfectly. While
a capital touch is that when he saw young Mr. Mutanhead approaching.
"Hush! draw a little nearer, Mr. Pickwick. You see that splendidly
dressed young man coming this way--the richest young man in Bath!"

"You don't say so," said Mr. Pickwick.

"_Yes_, _you'll hear his voice in a moment_, _Mr. Pickwick_. _He'll
speak to me_." _Particular_ awe and reverence could not be better
expressed.

It is curious how accurate the young fellow was in all his details. He
describes the ball as beginning at "precisely twenty minutes before eight
o'clock;" and according t