and feeling of a place gives
a better idea of it than any minute or accurate description. "Some
books," he says, "give one ideas of places without descriptions; there is
something which suggests more vivid and agreeable images than distinct
words. Would _Gil Blas_ for instance? It opens with a scene of history,
chivalry, Spain, orange trees, fountains, guitars, muleteers; there is
the picturesque and the sense of the picturesque, as distinct as the
actual object." Now this exactly applies to "Pickwick," which brings up
before us Rochester, Ipswich, Muggleton, Birmingham, and a dozen other
places to the tourist. The night of the arrival at Birmingham for
instance, and the going out after dinner to call on Mr. Winkle, sen., is
strangely vivid.

{Map of the Pickwick Tours: p70.jpg}

So real is our Pickwickian Odyssey that it can be followed in all its
stages as in a diary. To put it all in "ship shape" as it were and
enhance this practical feeling I have drawn out the route in a little
map. It is wonderful how much the party saw and how much ground they
covered, and it is not a far-fetched idea that were a similar party in
our day, good humoured, venturesome and accessible, to visit
old-fashioned, out of the way towns, and look out for fun, acquaintances
and characters, they might have a good deal of the amusement and
adventure that the Pickwickians enjoyed.

The Pickwickians first went to Rochester, Chatham, Dingley Dell, and
perhaps to Gravesend. Mr. Pickwick with Wardle then pursued Jingle to
town, returning thence to the Dell, which he at once left for Cobham,
where he found his friend Tupman. The party then returned to town. Next
we have the _first_ visit to Ipswich--called Eatanswill--from which town
Mr. Pickwick and Sam posted to Bury St. Edmunds; thence to London. Next
came their third expedition to Dingley Dell for the Christmas
festivities. Then the second visit to Ipswich. Then the journey to
Bath, and that from Bath to Bristol. Later a second journey to
Bristol--another from Bristol to Birmingham, and from Birmingham to
London, Mr. Pickwick's final junketing before retiring to Dulwich.

Yet another interesting side of the Pickwick story is its almost
biographical character. Boz seems to take us with him from his very
boyhood. During the old days when his father was at Chatham he had seen
all the Rochester incidents, sat by the old Castle and Bridge, noted with
admiring awe the dockyard peopl