the way, of the Club button was taken from the Prince Regent, who had
his Club and uniform, which he allowed favourites to wear.

There is a story in Boswell's Biography which is transferred to
"Pickwick," that of the unlucky gentleman who died from a surfeit of
crumpets; Sam, it will be recollected, describes it as a case of the man
"as killed hisself on principle."

"He used to go away to a coffee-house after his dinner and have a
small pot o' coffee and four crumpets. He fell ill and sent for the
doctor. Doctor comes in a green fly vith a kind o' Robinson Crusoe
set o' steps as he could let down ven he got out, and pull up arter
him ven he got in, to perwent the necessity o' the coachman's gettin'
down, and thereby undeceivin' the public by lettin' 'em see that it
wos only a livery coat he'd got on, and not the trousers to match.
'How many crumpets at a sittin' do you think 'ud kill me off at once?'
said the patient. 'I don't know,' says the doctor. 'Do you think
half a crown's vurth 'ud do it?' says the patient. 'I think it
might,' says the doctor. 'Three shillin' 's vurth 'ud be sure to do
it, I s'pose?' says the patient. 'Certainly,' says the doctor. 'Wery
good,' says the patient; 'good-night.' Next mornin' he gets up, has a
fire lit, orders in three shillin's' vurth o' crumpets, toasts 'em
all, eat 'em all, and blows his brains out."

"What did he do that for?" inquired Mr. Pickwick abruptly; for he was
considerably startled by this tragical termination of the narrative.

"Wot did he do it for, sir?" reiterated Sam. "Wy, in support of his
great principle that crumpets was wholesome, and to show that he
vouldn't be put out of his vay for nobody!"

Thus Dickens marvellously enriched this quaint story. It may be found
amusing to trace the genesis of the tale. In Boswell it runs: "Mr.
Fitzherbert, who loved buttered muffins, but durst not eat them because
they disagreed with his stomach, resolved to shoot himself, and then eat
three buttered muffins for breakfast, knowing that he should not be
troubled with indigestion." We find that De Quincey, in one of his
essays, reports the case of an officer holding the rank of lieutenant-
colonel who could not tolerate a breakfast without muffins. But he
suffered agonies of indigestion. "He would stand the nuisance no longer,
but yet, being a just man, he would give Nature one final chance of
refor