Edmunds, and on the Norwich coach route, as was Sudbury, the
latter's claim gains strength indeed, if it does not actually
settle the question. At any rate, no other small borough could be
named with any assurance that Dickens had it in his mind. Indeed,
in the year 1834, there were only four Parliamentary boroughs in
Suffolk, viz. Sudbury, Ipswich, Bury St. Edmunds and Eye. Ipswich,
Mr. Pickwick visited AFTER the "Eatanswill" election, and does not
hesitate to describe it under its right name. Moreover, the claims
of Ipswich have been relinquished by even local literary men, who in
1905 actually proved that town to be topographically impossible and
named Sudbury as the original. Bury St. Edmunds is the place to
which Mr. Pickwick travelled AFTER leaving "Eatanswill," and as
that borough figures prominently in the book undisguised, it cannot
be that. Eye is off the Norwich coach road, and no one has ever
suggested that it has any claim to the honour. Sudbury alone,
therefore, remains as presenting all the main features required
for the original.

[illustration: The "Rose and Crown," Sudbury. From a photograph]

In 1834 the "Rose and Crown," Sudbury, was the headquarters of the
"Blue" candidate, and so its claim to be the original of the "Town
Arms," Eatanswill, would seem to be well made out; and so serious
and certain were the citizens of Sudbury on the point that they
established an "Eatanswill Club" there, and revived the Eatanswill
Gazette devoted to "Pickwickian, Dickensian and Eatanswillian humour
and research."

Accepting this evidence, we naturally assume the "Rose and Crown"
to be the "Town Arms," which, late in the evening, Mr. Pickwick