f
it had swallowed them and were ravenous for more
destruction. The coach that had carried me away,
was melodiously called Timpson's Blue-eyed Maid,
and belonged to Timpson, at the coach-office up
street; the locomotive engine that had brought me
back was called severely No. 97, and belonged to
S.E.R., and was spitting ashes and hot-water over
the blighted ground.

"When I had been let out at the platform-door,
like a prisoner whom his turnkey grudgingly
released, I looked in again over the low wall, at
the scene of departed glories. Here, in the
haymaking time, had I been delivered from the
dungeons of Seringapatam, an immense pile (of
haycock), by my countrymen, the victorious British
(boy next door and his two cousins), and had been
recognized with ecstasy by my affianced one (Miss
Green), who had come all the way from England
(second house in the terrace) to ransom me, and
marry me."

Fort Pitt must have had considerable attractions in Mr. Pickwick's time,
as it would appear that it was visited by him and his friends on the
first day of their arrival at Rochester. Lieutenant Tappleton (Dr.
Slammer's second), when presenting the challenge for the duel, thus
speaks to Mr. Winkle in the second chapter of _Pickwick_:--

"'You know Fort Pitt?'

"'Yes; I saw it yesterday.'

"'If you will take the trouble to turn into the
field which borders the trench, take the foot-path
to the left, when you arrive at an angle of the
fortification; and keep straight on till you see
me; I will precede you to a secluded place, where
the affair can be conducted without fear of
interruption.'

"'_Fear_ of interruption!' thought Mr. Winkle."

Everybody remembers how the meeting took place on Fort Pitt. Mr. Winkle,
attended by his friend Mr. Snodgrass, as second, is punctuality itself.

"'We are in excellent time,' said Mr. Snodgrass,
as they climbed the fence of the first field; 'the
sun is just going down.' Mr. Winkle looked up at
the declining orb, and painfully thought of the
probability of his 'going down' himself, before
long."

Presently the officer appears, "the gent