CHAPTER IX

DAVID COPPERFIELD

THE ROYAL HOTEL, LOWESTOFT--THE PLOUGH, BLUNDERSTONE--THE VILLAGE MAID, LOUND--THE YARMOUTH INNS--THE BLUE BOAR--THE RED LION--TWO CANTERBURY INNS--THE PIAZZA HOTEL--JACK STRAW'S CASTLE--THE SWAN, HUNGERFORD STAIRS--AND OTHERS

Before Dickens commenced to write _David Copperfield_, he visited all the districts of its early scenes to obtain local colour, and to learn something of the geography of Blunderstone, Lowestoft and Yarmouth. He was a guest of Sir Morton Peto's at Somerleyton and was invited there ostensibly to see Lowestoft, a town then just emerging into prominence as a watering-place, in the hope that he might introduce it into one of his books. On another occasion he, with John Leech and Mark Lemon, visited Yarmouth and stayed at the Royal Hotel on the Marine Parade. He either did not care very much for Lowestoft, or else found that Yarmouth was more suitable to the purpose of his book, for we only find one small incident in it associated with the first-named town.

This occurred on one autumn morning when Mr. Murdstone took little David on to the saddle of his horse and rode off with him to Lowestoft to see some friends there with a yacht. "We went to an hotel by the sea, where two gentlemen were smoking cigars in a room by themselves," says David. "Each of them was lying on at least four chairs and had a large rough jacket on. In a corner was a heap of coats and boat-cloaks, and a flag, all bundled up together."

Here Mr. Murdstone was chaffed about David, whom his friends referred to as "the bewitching Mrs. Copperfield's incumbrance," and he warned them to take care as "somebody's sharp." "Who is?" asked Quinion. "Only Brooks of Sheffield," replied Mr. Murdstone, which caused much amusement, and whenever any reference was made to David he was always styled "Brooks of Sheffield." Sherry was ordered in with which to drink to Brooks, and David was made to partake of the wine with a biscuit, and drink to the toast of "Confusion to Brooks of Sheffield."

After this incident they all walked about the cliffs, looked at things through a telescope, and then returned to the hotel to an early dinner, and David and his future father-in-law afterwards wended their way back to Blunderstone.

The hotel in which all this took place was probably the Royal, which stands to-day facing the pier and harbour, but it has evidently been rebuilt, or very much altered structurally.

Blunderstone has a village ale-house called the Plough, from which started Barkis the carrier on his daily trip to Yarmouth. David speaks of this inn, and pictures the parlour of it as the room where "Commodore Trunnion held that club with Mr. Pickle." It is still a comfortable ale-house and a centre of attraction to visitors of the unspoiled village where David was born.

On the occasion of David's drive in the carrier's cart to Yarmouth for a stay with Daniel Peggotty in order to be out of the way for his mother's marriage to Mr. Murdstone, we are introduced to the road between the village and the famous seaside town, so frequently used by Barkis and so often referred to in the course of the story.

The first halt was made at a public-house where a long wait occurred whilst a bedstead was delivered there. This inn was probably the Village Maid, at Lound, a name that may also have suggested that of the Willing Mind, the public-house where Mr. Peggotty went occasionally for short spells, as he put it to Mrs. Gummidge. But no public-house with that name, or anything like it, existed in Yarmouth, and it must, therefore, be assumed that no particular one was intended.

Arriving at Yarmouth, David found Ham awaiting him at the public-house which was the stopping place of the Blunderstone carrier. Although Dickens does not mention its name, the Buck Inn undoubtedly was the identical house where Barkis came to a halt on such occasions, and it still exists in the Market Square. At the end of his visit, David, arm-in-arm with Little Em'ly, made for the same inn once again to meet Barkis for the homeward journey in his cart.

The inn, however, at Yarmouth which has more importance attaching to it than any other is that where David met the friendly waiter whilst waiting for the coach to take him to London, and where he procured the sheet of paper and ink-stand to write his promised note to Clara Peggotty assuring her that "Barkis is willing."

There is little doubt that the inn referred to here was the Duke's Head. It was the principal coaching inn of the town, and we know that Dickens knew it well. On his arrival there in Barkis's cart, David observed that "the coach was in the yard shining very much all over, but without any horses to it as yet; and it looked in that state as if nothing was more unlikely than its ever going to London." To the coffee-room, which was a long one with some maps in it, David was conducted by William the waiter, who assisted him to get through his meal, and told him the horrible tale of the man who died from drinking a glass of ale that was too old for him. But that incident of David and the friendly waiter is too well known to need recapitulation here.

Before leaving Yarmouth, there is one more inn that claims attention. When David and Steerforth later on in the story visited the Peggottys, the hotel they stayed at has been identified as the Star Hotel, an old mansion, with moulded ribbed ceilings and the sides of the rooms panelled with oak. It has been added to since those days, but the old part still remains. It was in this house that Miss Mowcher was first introduced into the story.

It is also believed that the Feathers at Gorleston is the "decent ale-house" on the road to Lowestoft where David Copperfield, as stated in