nk an Inn is a good sort of place to
propose to a single woman in, Mr. Pickwick. She is more likely to feel
the loneliness of her situation in travelling, perhaps than she would be,
at home."

We find here some of the always amusing bits of confusion that recur in
the book. Here might be a Calverley question, "When was it, and where
was it, that the Pickwickians had _two_ dinners in the one day?" Answer:
At the Great White Horse on this very visit. When Mr. Nupkins retired to
lunch, after his interview with Miss Witherfield, the Pickwickians sat
down to their dinner "quietly," and were in the midst of that meal, when
Grummer arrived to arrest them. They were taken to Nupkins', and there
dined with him. This dinner would have brought them to five o'clock:--we
are told of candles--so that it was dark--yet this was the month of May,
when it would been light enough till eight o'clock. Mrs. Nupkins' dress,
on coming in from lunch, is worth noting. "A blue gauze turban and a
light brown wig."

Again, it was to Mr. Pickwick's watch, that we owe the diverting and
farcical incident of the double bedded bedroom--and indeed we have here
all the licensed improbabilities of a Farce. To forget his watch on a
hotel table was the last thing a staid man of business would do. How
could he be made to forget it? "By winding it up," said the author.
"Winding up his watch, and _laying it on the table_." This was of course
in the _Fob_ days, when the watch had to be drawn from the deep pocket;
not as now when it is secured with a "guard chain." Naturally, he might
in an abstracted moment have so laid it down.

As an instance of the natural, every-day sort of tone prevailing through
the book, it may be noted that it is mentioned as a matter of history,
that the breakfast next day was at eleven o'clock--a late hour. But we
know, though it is not pointed out, that Mr. Magnus and Mr. Pickwick had
sat till morning drinking brandy and water, and that Mr. Pickwick had
spent a portion of the night wandering about the Hotel. Naturally he
came down late.

We are also minutely told that Mr. Magnus left the room at ten minutes
past eleven. Mr. Pickwick "took a few strides to and fro," when it
became half past eleven! But this is a rather mysterious passage, for we
next learn that "the _small hand_ of the clock, following the _latter
part_ of his example, had arrived at the figure which indicates the half
hour." The "latter part," wo