knows perfectly well that Muggleton is a corporate town, with a

mayor, burgesses, and freemen; and anybody who has consulted the

addresses of the mayor to the freemen, or the freemen to the mayor,

or both to the corporation, or all three to Parliament, will learn from

thence what they ought to have known before, that Muggleton is an

ancient and loyal borough, mingling a zealous advocacy of Christian

principles with a devoted attachment to commercial rights; in

demonstration whereof, the mayor, corporation, and other

inhabitants, have presented at divers times, no fewer than one

thousand four hundred and twenty petitions against the continuance

of negro slavery abroad, and an equal number against any

interference with the factory system at home; sixty-eight in favour of

the sale of livings in the Church, and eighty-six for abolishing Sunday

trading in the street.

Mr Pickwick stood in the principal street of this illustrious town, and

gazed with an air of curiosity, not unmixed with interest, on the

objects around him. There was an open square for the market-place;

and in the centre of it, a large inn with a sign-post in front, displaying

an object very common in art, but rarely met with in nature - to wit, a

blue lion, with three bow legs in the air, balancing himself on the

extreme point of the centre claw of his fourth foot. There were, within

sight, an auctioneer's and fire-agency office, a corn-factor's, a linen-

draper's, a saddler's, a distiller's, a grocer's, and a shoe-shop - the

last- mentioned warehouse being also appropriated to the diffusion of

hats, bonnets, wearing apparel, cotton umbrellas, and useful

knowledge. There was a red brick house with a small paved courtyard

in front, which anybody might have known belonged to the attorney;

and there was, moreover, another red brick house with Venetian

blinds, and a large brass door-plate with a very legible announcement

that it belonged to the surgeon. A few boys were making their way to

the cricket-field; and two or three shopkeepers who were standing at

their doors looked as if they should like to be making their way to the

same spot, as indeed to all appearance they might have done, without

losing any great amount of custom thereby. Mr Pickwick having

paused to make these observations, to be noted down at a more

convenient period, hastened to rejoin his friends, who had turned out

of the main street, and were already within sight of the field of battle.

The wickets were pitched, and so were a couple of marquees for the

rest and refreshment of the contending parties. The game had not yet

commenced. Two or three Dingley Dellers, and All- Muggletonians,

were amusing themselves with a majestic air by throwing the ball

carelessly from hand to hand; and several other gentlemen dressed

like them, in straw hats, flannel jackets, and white trousers - a

costume in which they looked very much like amateur stone-masons -

were sprinkled about the tents, towards one of which Mr Wardle

conducted the party.

The Pickwick Papers