addition to the part it plays in the early portion of The Pickwick
Papers; it no doubt is the original of the "Winglebury Arms" in "The
Great Winglebury Duel" in Sketches by Boz, and is certainly the
"Blue Boar" of Great Expectations.

Dickens frequented it himself, and the room he occupied on those
occasions is known as the Dickens room and is furnished with pieces
of furniture from his residence at Gad's Hill. We know, too, that
he conducted his friends over it, on those occasions when he made
pilgrimages with them around the neighbourhood.

The house has been slightly altered since those days, but it
practically remains the same as when Dickens deposited the
Pickwickians in its courtyard that red-letter day in 1827. Its
outside is dull and sombre-looking, but its interior comfort and
spaciousness soon dispel any misgivings which its exterior might
have created.

The entrance hall is as spacious as it was when Dickens described
it, in "The Great Winglebury Duel," as ornamented with evergreen
plants terminating in a perspective view of the bar, and a glass
case, in which were displayed a choice variety of delicacies ready
for dressing, to catch the eye of a new-comer the moment he enters,
and excite his appetite to the highest possible pitch. "Opposite
doors," he says, "lead to the 'coffee' and 'commercial' rooms; and
a great wide rambling staircase--three stairs and a landing--four
stairs and another landing--one step and another landing--and so
on--conducts to galleries of bedrooms and labyrinths of sitting-rooms,
denominated 'private,' where you may enjoy yourself as privately as
you can in any place where some bewildered being or other walks into