TOWCESTER

XVII. "OSBORNE'S," ADELPHI, AND TONY
WELLER'S PUBLIC-HOUSE ON SHOOTER'S HILL

XVIII PICKWICK AND THE GEORGE INN




PREFACE

It is not claimed for this book that it supplies a long-felt want,
or that it is at all necessary to the better understanding of the
immortal work which inspired it. Nor does the author offer any
apology for adding yet another volume to the long list of books,
already existing, which deal in some way or other with England's
classic book of humour, because it isn't so much his
fault as might appear on the surface.

A year or two ago he contributed to an American paper a series of
twenty articles on some of the prominent inns mentioned in the
works of Dickens, and before the series was completed he received
many overtures to publish them in volume form. To do so would
have resulted in producing an entirely inadequate and incomplete
book, whose sins of omission would have far outrun its virtues,
whatever they might have been.

As an alternative, he set himself the task of dealing with the inns
and taverns mentioned in The Pickwick Papers alone, grafting certain