ing them to stay there--"_good
house_--_nice beds_--" a testimonial that used to be displayed in gold
letters at the door, but which, I have seen it stated, has been removed.
I have also read the same testimonial in the guides and advertisements.
Jingle warned them against another Inn hard by,--"Wright's--next
house--_dear_--_very dear_--half-a-crown if you look at the waiter,
making a charge for dinner, all the same, if you dined out"; a practice,
however, not altogether unknown to modern Hotels. It was bold in Boz,
thus to publicly disparage Hotels that he did not approve. "Wright's"
could not have relished so public an allusion. What or where was
Wright's--"next house?" There is now--in the same High Street--"The
King's Head," described as "Family and Commercial, one of the
oldest-established in the Kingdom, close to the Cathedral and Castle--home
comforts." This being its position--the Castle on one side, the
Cathedral on the other--situated exactly as the Bull was--and therefore
"next house," accurately described its position. Being "one of the
oldest-established," it must have been there at the time of the
Pickwickian visit.

At the Bull, they show you "Mr. Pickwick's room"--as well as Tupman's and
Winkle's--Boz's very particular description enables this to be done. Mr.
Pickwick's was, of course, to the front--when, roused by the Boots, he
gave the direction of his followers' bed-room, "next room but two on the
right hand." Winkle's room was inside Tupman's--so we are shown a room
in the front with another inside of it--and the _third_ on the left will,
of course, be Mr. Pickwick's, Q.E.D. The waiters know all these points,
and prove them to the bewildered visitors. "You see, sir, there is the
very room _where the clothes were stolen_."

III.--Jingle's Love Affairs

Jingle's elopement with the spinster aunt was ingeniously contrived, but
it seemed rather speculative and rash--she might not have had a penny.
His only ground for jumping to the conclusion that she _had_ a fortune
was that, on his saying that "Tupman only wants your money"; "The
wretch!" she exclaimed--"Mr. Jingle's doubts were resolved--she _had_
money." More wonderful, too, were the very easy terms on which he was
"bought off"--a hundred and twenty pounds. Her fortune might be
estimated at some thousands. He was really master of the situation. The
lady was of mature age--her own mistress, Wardle and his attorney could
do nothi