lightly, even though it cannot be identified by name, or its
existence traced in historic records. In those days the description
of the locality given by Dickens was accurate enough; but although
there were many inns and taverns in its district, topographers have
never discovered a "Blue Boar," or learned that one ever bore such
a sign. There was a "Bull" in Leadenhall Street at one time, and
possibly this may have been the inn the novelist made the scene of
the above incidents, simply giving it a name of his own to afford
scope for his whimsical vein in describing it.

However, the locality has changed completely from what it was when
Tony Weller "used the parlour" of the "Blue Boar," and such coaching
inns that flourished then have all been swept away with the "shabby
courts and alleys."

We find, however, a picture purporting to be the "Blue Boar" with
its galleries, horses and stable boys all complete drawn by Herbert
Railton, in the Jubilee edition of The Pickwick Papers. Probably
this is purely an imaginary picture.

On the other hand, there was nothing visionary about Garraway's.
"Garraway's, twelve o'clock. 'Dear Mrs. B., Chops and Tomato Sauce,
Yours, Pickwick,'" not only implicated Mr. Pickwick, but conjured
up an old and historic coffee house of city fame. It stood in
Exchange Alley, and was a noted meeting-place for city men, and
for its sales and auctions. It was demolished some fifty years ago
after an existence of over two hundred years. It claimed to be the
first to sell tea "according to the directions of the most knowing
merchants and travellers into the eastern countries," but ultimately
became more famous for its sandwiches and sherry. No doubt it was