round of the period.

In 1676 it was entirely destroyed by the great fire of Southwark,
but was rebuilt immediately afterward on the old site and on the
old model. It was described by Strype about this time as a very
large inn, and we believe that it was able to accommodate between
one and two hundred guests and their retinue, with ample rooms left
for their belongings, horses and goods. It did a considerable
trade and was esteemed one of the best inns in Southwark, and so
it continued as a favourite place of resort for coaches and carriers
until the end of the coaching days.

When, therefore, Mr. Pickwick set all the world agog with his
adventures, the "White Hart" was recognized as a typical old
English inn, and was really at its best. It had arrived at this
prosperous state by easy stages during its previous 180 years,
and had a reputation for comfort and generous hospitality during
the best days of the coaching era, which had reached the golden
age when Mr. Pickwick discovered Sam Weller cleaning boots in its
coach yard one historic morning in the early nineteenth century.

It is not to be wondered at, then, that Dickens, who knew this
district so well and intimately, should introduce the "White Hart"
into his book as a setting for one of his most amusing scenes.
After speaking of London's inns in general, he makes special mention
of those in the Borough, where, he says, there still remained some
half-dozen old inns, "which have preserved their external features
unchanged, and which have escaped alike the rage for public
improvement and the encroachments of private speculation." Since
these words were written public improvement has "improved" all of