this morning's entertainment."

It was on another occasion later in the story that David Copperfield,
then lodging in Buckingham Street close by, encountered poor old
Peggotty on the steps of St. Martin's Church. It was a snowy,
dismal night and Peggotty was resting on his journey in search
for Little Emily.

"In those days," says Dickens, "there was a side entrance to the
stable yard of the 'Golden Cross' nearly opposite to where we stood.
I pointed out the gateway, put my arm through his, and we went
across. Two or three public rooms opened out of the stable yard;
and looking into one of them, and finding it empty, and a good fire
burning, I took him in there."

The side entrance here referred to was at the time in St. Martin's
Lane--that part of it which then ran down from St. Martin's Church
to the Strand. It led into the stable yard, backing into what is
now Trafalgar Square, and was part of the old inn of Pickwick and
The Sketches, and not of the present one, which many topographers
have asserted.

But the "Golden Cross" had its fame apart from Dickens, although it
is Dickens who has immortalized its name for the general public.

As we have pointed out it was the most popular of the West End
coaching inns of London. This remark applies to the various houses
which have borne its name. It is recorded that as far back as 1757
coaches plied between Brighton, or Brighthelmstone as it was then
called, and the "Golden Cross." The fare was 13s.--(children in lap