rs. Micawber made us a bowl
of hot punch with her own hands."

They spent a jolly evening, and ended with singing _Auld Lang Syne_.

The "little Inn" is again alluded to later in the story, where Mr.
Micawber announces his full determination to abstain from everything
until he has exposed the machinations of, and blown to pieces,
"the--a--detestable serpent--HEEP;" and finally, where David Copperfield
"assisted at an explosion," and Mr. Micawber is triumphant, and the
"transcendent and immortal hypocrite and perjurer, HEEP," is forced to
succumb.

Speaking of the "little Inn" for the last time, David says:--"I looked
at the old house from the corner of the street. . . . The early sun was
striking edgewise on its gables and lattice-windows, touching them with
gold; and some beams of its old peace seemed to touch my heart."

Dr. Sheppard subsequently told us that, when he was beginning to turn
his attention to the deciphering and utilizing of ancient MSS., he was
much impressed, when perusing some articles in _Household Words_, or
some other papers written by Dickens, relating to the neglected state of
public records, more particularly at Canterbury; and when many years
after the very records of which he wrote came under his (Dr. Sheppard's)
care, he was surprised to find the names of Snodgrass, Sam Weller, and
others therein. The records to which Dr. Sheppard referred were those in
charge of the Archbishop's Registrar at Canterbury.

If time permits it would be pleasant to go on to Dover,[33] to see "Miss
Betsey Trotwood's house," but this is impossible; and indeed, all that
can be said about a tramp in search of "that very neat little cottage
with cheerful bow windows in front of it, a small square gravelled court
or garden full of flowers carefully tended, and smelling deliciously,"
has been well said by Mr. Ashby-Sterry in his delightful little volume,
_Cucumber Chronicles_.

[Illustration: "The Little Inn" Canterbury]

After much perseverance, and in spite of almost as many difficulties as
beset poor little David Copperfield himself in his search for his aunt
(who, as the Dover boatmen told him, "lived in the South Foreland Light,
and had singed her whiskers by doing so"--"that she was made fast to the
great buoy outside the harbour, and could only be visited at
half-tide"--"that she was locked up in Maidstone Jail for
child-stealing"--and that "she was seen to mount a broom in the last
high wind an