some, the name Pick-Wick. There is, however, a village near to hand
actually called "Pickwick," which may also have inspired the name
for the foundling.

For some reasons unknown, or, at any rate, unrevealed, this foundling
developed a craze for the coaching business, and, ultimately, taking
service in one of the coaching inns, devoted his time and interests
whole-heartedly to the profession, or calling. Eventually he became
the owner of the business.

His grandson, Moses, became even more famous during the coaching era
than his foundling antecedent, and at the time Pickwick was written
he was the actual proprietor of the White Hart Hotel, as well as of
the coaches which ran to and from it. He became, also, the most
popular owner in the trade, and retired to the village of Upper
Swanswick a rich man. We believe the name is still perpetuated in
the neighbourhood.

Now it is known as a fact that Dickens took the name Pickwick from
the said Moses Pickwick the proprietor of the "White Hart," whose
coaches he had seen and ridden in a year or two previously. So that
apart from the brief references to the inn in The Pickwick Papers
its history is very much associated with the book.

Unfortunately, Dickens does not give us any minute description of
it, as he does of other inns. Although it was the most important
coaching house in the city, it could not be spoken of as particularly
attractive in appearance. It looked more like a barracks than an
hotel, indeed, we believe it was used for such a purpose in its
degenerate days before it was finally demolished in 1867.