THE "TOWN ARMS," EATANSWILL, AND THE INN OF "THE BAGMAN'S STORY"
Following the Pickwickians in the sequence of their peregrinations,
we become confronted with the problem, "which was the prototype of
Eatanswill?" Having weighed the evidence of each of the other
claimants for the honour, we favour that of Sudbury in Suffolk, for
which so good a case has been presented. That being so, the "Rose
and Crown" undoubtedly would be the original of the "Town Arms," the
headquarters of the Blues and the inn at which Mr. Pickwick and his
friends alighted on their arrival in the town.
First let us briefly state the case for Sudbury.
In the opening paragraph of Chapter XIII of the book, Dickens writes:
"We will frankly acknowledge, that up to the period of our being
first immersed in the voluminous papers of the Pickwick Club, we had
never heard of Eatanswill; we will with equal candour admit, that we
have in vain searched for proof of the actual existence of such a
place at the present day. . . . We are therefore led to believe,
that Mr. Pickwick, with that anxious desire to abstain from giving
offence to any, and with those delicate feelings for which all
who knew him well know he was so eminently remarkable, purposely
substituted a fictitious designation, for the real name of the place
in which his observations were made. We are confirmed in this
belief by a little circumstance, apparently slight and trivial in
itself, but when considered from this point of view, not undeserving
of notice. In Mr. Pickwick's notebook, we can just trace an entry
of the fact, that the places of himself and followers were booked by
the Norwich coach; but this entry was afterwards lined through, as
if for the purpose of concealing even the direction in which the
borough is situated."
That description fits Sudbury admirably and faithfully, but does not
by any means fit either Ipswich or Norwich, the two other claimants,
and the evidence of Mr. C. Finden Waters, a one-time proprietor of
the "Rose and Crown" at Sudbury, makes it almost certain that
Sudbury was the place Dickens had in mind.
Mr. Waters, in 1906, devoted much time and research in order to
establish his claim, and in March, 1907, read a paper, setting forth
in detail the various points which led him to that conclusion, to
the members of a then newly formed coterie who called themselves
"The Eatanswill Club." It appears that this evidence established
the fact that Dickens visited Sudbury in 1834. On the 25th and 26th
July in the same year, a Parliamentary by-election took place there,
the incidents of which, as reported by the Essex Standard of that
period, coincided remarkably with those recorded in connexion with
the "Eatanswill" election in The Pickwick Papers. In 1835, Dickens
visited Ipswich for The Morning Chronicle, and reported the election
at that place. It is now tolerably certain that he went on to
Sudbury for a similar purpose.
A further point is, Mr. Pickwick left by the Norwich coach.
"Eatanswill," as we have seen, being a small borough near Bury St.
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
and his companions, assisted by Sam, dismounting from the roof of
the Eatanswill coach, entered through an excited crowd assembled
there. They found, however, the inn had no accommodation to offer,
but through the friendliness of Mr. Pott, Mr. Pickwick and Winkle
accompanied that gentleman to his home, whilst Mr. Tupman, Mr.
Snodgrass and Sam repaired to the "Peacock." They all first dined
together at the "Town Arms" and arranged to reassemble there in the
morning. It was here the barmaid was reported to have been bribed
to "hocus the brandy and water of fourteen unpolled electors as was
a stopping in the house," and where most of the exciting scenes of
the election either took place, or had their rise in its precincts.
On the same authority we locate the "Swan" as being the original of
the "Peacock," the headquarters of the "buffs," where Tupman and
Snodgrass lodged, and where was told the Bagman's story which brings
us up against yet another problem--"which was the inn on Marlborough
Downs that plays so important a part in that narrative?"
We think, however, Mr. Charles G. Harper has solved the knotty
point in his valuable book The Old Inns of Old England. He comes
to the conclusion, by a process of elimination, that the "Waggon
and Horses" at Beckhampton, which exists to-day, nearly realises the
description of the inn given in the story. "It is," he says, "just
the house a needy bagman such as Tom Smart would have selected. It
was in coaching days a homely yet comfortable inn, that received
those travellers who did not relish either the state or the expense
of the great Beckhampton Inn opposite, where post-horses were kept,
and where the very elite of the roads resorted."
[illustration: The "Waggon and Horses," Beckhampton.
Drawn by C. G. Harper]
If its comfort, as described in the following paragraph, is to-day
equal to that found by Tom Smart, it is a place to seek for personal
pleasure, as well as a Pickwickian landmark.
"In less than five minutes' time, Tom was ensconced in the room
opposite the bar--the very room where he had imagined the fire
blazing--before a substantial matter-of-fact roaring fire, composed
of something short of a bushel of coals, and wood enough to make
half a dozen decent gooseberry bushes, piled half-way up the
chimney, and roaring and crackling with a sound that of itself would
have warmed the heart of any reasonable man. This was comfortable,
but this was not all, for a smartly dressed girl, with a bright eye
and a neat ankle, was laying a very clean white cloth on the table;
and as Tom sat with his slippered feet on the fender, and his back
to the open door, he saw a charming prospect of the bar reflected
in the glass over the chimney-piece, with delightful rows of green
bottles and gold labels, together with jars of pickles and preserves,
and cheeses and boiled hams, and rounds of beef, arranged on shelves
in the most tempting and delicious array. Well, that was comfortable,
too; but even this was not all--for in the bar, seated at tea at the
nicest possible little table, drawn close up before the brightest
possible little fire, was a buxom widow of somewhere about eight-and-
forty or thereabouts, with a face as comfortable as the bar, who was
evidently the landlady of the house, and the supreme ruler over all
these agreeable possessions."
What happened afterwards is another story. Many other incidents
occurred at Eatanswill during the Pickwickians' stay there, the
narration of which is not our purpose in these pages. One, however,
led Sam and his master hurriedly to leave the town on a certain
morning in pursuit of Alfred Jingle, who had put in an appearance at
Mrs. Leo Hunter's fancy-dress fete, and on seeing Mr. Pickwick there,
had as quickly left if as he had entered it. Mr. Pickwick, on
enquiry, discovering that Alfred Jingle, alias Charles Fitz
Marshall, was residing at the "Angel," Bury, set off in hot haste to
hunt him down, determined to prevent him from deceiving anyone else
as he had deceived him; and so we follow him in the next chapter.