of the Minories, referred to in "Oliver Twist," and
the "little inn" ("The Sun") at Canterbury, where the Micawbers lodged,
and the "White Hart" at Hook,--or more probably its predecessor of the
same name,--visited by the Pickwickians en route to Rochester,--were
realities in every sense of the word, and show once again the blending of
truth and fiction which was so remarkable in the novels, and which
indicates so strongly the tendency of Dickens to make every possible use
of accessories, sights, and scenes, with which, at one time or another, he
had been acquainted.

The "Saracen's Head" at Snow Hill,--a real thing in Dickens' day,--where
the impetuous Squeers put up during his visits to London, has disappeared.
It was pulled down when the Holborn Viaduct was built in 1869, and the
existing house of the same name in no way merits the genial regard which
is often bestowed upon it, in that it is but an ordinary London "_Pub_"
which does not even occupy the same site as its predecessor.

"The Spaniards," where foregathered the No-Popery rioters, on Hampstead
Heath, remains much as of yore; certainly it has not changed to any
noticeable degree since Mrs. Bardell, _et als._, repaired hither in the
Hampstead stage for their celebrated tea-party, as recounted in
"Pickwick."

The very term _Pickwickian Inns_ inspires rumination and imagination to a
high degree. Remembrance is all very well, but there is a sturdy reality
about most of the inns of which Dickens wrote. Thus the enthusiast may, if
he so wish, in some cases, become a partaker of the same sort of comfort
as did Dickens in his own time, or at least, amid the same surroundings;
though it is to be feared that New Zealand mutton and Argentine beef have
usurped the place in the larder formerly occupied by the "primest Scotch"
and the juiciest "Southdown."

It is said there are twenty-five inns mentioned in "Pickwick" alone; the
writer has never been able to count up but twenty-two: still the assertion
may be correct; he leaves it to the curious to verify. Certainly such well
revered names as the "Golden Cross," "The Bull," at Rochester, which,
above all other localities drawn in "Pickwick," has the liveliest
associations, "The Leather Bottle," "The Magpie and Stump," "The Marquis
of Granby," "The Blue Boar," "The White Horse Cellars" in Piccadilly, and
"The Great White Horse" at Ipswich are for ever branded upon the memory.
The following half-dozen will perhaps be bes