they discovered the Fat Boy just aroused from a sleep in front of
the tap-room fire, must be left to the choice of the reader.




CHAPTER IV
THE "WHITE HART," BOROUGH



The pursuit of Jingle and Miss Wardle by the lady's father and Mr.
Pickwick, culminates in the "White Hart," which, in days gone by,
was one of the most famous of the many famous inns that then stood
in the borough of Southwark. Long before Dickens began to write,
the "White Hart" was the centre of the coaching activity of the
metropolis south of the Thames, and .was one of the oldest inns
in the country.

Travellers from the Continent and the southern and eastern
counties of England to London made it their halting-place, whilst
from a business standpoint it had scarcely a rival. Coaches laden
with passengers and wagons full of articles of commerce made the
courtyard of the inn always a bustling and busy corner of a hustling
and busy neighbourhood. In the coaching era, therefore, the
"White Hart" was a household word to travellers and business men.
Dickens, with his magic pen and inventive genius, made it a
household word to the inhabitants of the whole globe, who never
had occasion to visit it either for business or pleasure.