eel quite safe in
assuming that Town Malling was the type from which Muggleton was taken;
and we confidently recommend all admirers of _Pickwick_ to include that
pleasant Kentish country-town in their pilgrimage.

Having exhausted, so far as our examination is concerned, the
cricket-ground, by the kindness of our young friend who acts as guide,
we see a little more of the town. It consists of a long wide street,
with a few lateral approaches. The houses are well built, and the
church, which is partly Norman, and, like most of the village churches
in Kent, is but a little way from the village, stands on an eminence
from whence a good view may be obtained. We observe, as indicative of
the fine air and mild climate of the place, many beautiful specimens of
magnolia, and wistaria (in second flower) in front of the better class
of houses. One of these is named "Boley House," and as we are told that
Sir Joseph Hawley resided near, our memories immediately revert to the
cognomen of a well-known character in _The Chimes_. Other names in the
place are suggestive of Dickens's worthies, _e.g._ Rudge, Styles,
Briggs, Saunders, Brooker, and John Harman. The last-mentioned is the
second instance in which Dickens has varied a local name by the
alteration of a single letter. There is also the not uncommon name of
"Brown," who, it will be remembered, was the maker of the shoes of the
spinster aunt when she eloped with the faithless Jingle; "in a po-chay
from the 'Blue Lion' at Muggleton," as one of Mr. Wardle's men said; and
the discovery of the said shoes led to the identification of the errant
pair at the "White Hart" in the Borough. After Sam Weller had described
nearly all the visitors staying in the hotel from an examination of
their boots:--

"'Stop a bit,' replied Sam, suddenly recollecting
himself. 'Yes; there's a pair of Vellingtons a
good deal vorn, and a pair o' lady's shoes, in
number five.' 'Country make.'

"'Any maker's name?'

"'Brown.'

"'Where of?'

"'Muggleton.'

"'It _is_ them,' exclaimed Wardle. 'By heavens,
we've found them.'"

What happened afterwards every reader of _Pickwick_ very well knows.

Near Town Malling there is a curious monument erected to the memory of
Beadsman, the horse, belonging to Sir Joseph Hawley, which won the Derby
in 1859, and which was bred in the place. The monument (an exceedingl