Page:The George Inn, Southwark.djvu/22

 a good idea of that at the George. The first thing that strikes you as you enter, is its compactness. It is small, but everything is there. Arrays of pewter pots of ancient lineage, tankards, glasses, mugs, bottles of wine and spirits and appetising liqueurs and other things necessary for a well-equipped bar-parlour of the olden times. In one corner are four pulls set in a mahogany case, each of which come down through a slit lined with pewter; near by are sets of drawers containing the cherished silver of the establishment, tobacco and other mysterious items, to say nothing of the cash till and the row of polished casks overhead. In the centre of the room is a brilliantly polished table with books and flowers and writing materials upon it, with chairs in convenient places. The sills in front of the ancient casements are also decorated with old glass ornaments and flowers. Nor must we overlook the old horse pistols, relics of the coaching era.

If one is permitted to enter Miss Murray's cosy sitting-room beyond, our eyes will sparkle at the bottle-glazed cupboard door, which safely guards more antiques in the way of rare china and silver which have resided therein for many years. Everything in the little room is in keeping with its setting—old photographs, old pictures, old ornaments—a spot quite out of the ruck of modern life.

The coffee room across the passage throws your mind even further back into the past. Here is a coffee-room such as the Pickwickians and their ancestors revelled in. The same old box compartments with their mahogany tables, seats and high-backed partitions; mahogany sideboards and occasional tables, where the joints are placed at meal-times; mahogany chairs with horse-hair seats to pull round the fire on winter days; casement windows, T-shaped gas jets, old prints; to say nothing of the red cord bell-rope still in working order by the side of the fireplace.

In a corner is an old Parliament clock of the period 1797-8, specimens of which are seldom seen nowadays, and, therefore, one of the George's most curious relics.