"Piokwick, sir? Why, HE knew all about it," was the reply. "No. 11
was Mr. Pickwick's room, and the proprietor would tell us everything.
A most quaint debate arose," says Mr. FitzGerald, "on Mr. Pickwick's
stay at the hotel. The host pronounced EX CATHEDRA and without
hesitation about the matter. . . . The power and vitality of the
Pickwickian legend are extraordinary indeed; all day long we found
people bewildered, as it were, by this faith, mixing up the author
and his hero."

This is not unusual, and even in these days we find that Dickens's
characters have become so real that no one stops to discuss whether
this or that really happened to them, but just simply accepts their
comings and goings as the comings and goings of the heroes and
heroines of history are accepted, with perhaps just a little more
belief in them. And so we can be assured that the "Angel" at Bury
will be chiefly remembered as the hotel where Mr. Pickwick and his
companions stayed, whoever before or since may have honoured it with
a visit, or whatever else in its history may be recalled as
important.

In 1861 Dickens again visited the town to give his famous readings
from his works, and put up at the "Angel," so that the county hotel
has many reasons for the proud title of being a Dickensian inn.




CHAPTER IX

THE "BLACK BOY," CHELMSFORD, THE "MAGPIE AND STUMP,"