Page:The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club.djvu/467

383 THE PICKWICK ClUB. 3S3

CHAPTER XXXV.

THE CH(EF FEATURES OF WHICH, WILL BE FOUND TO BE AN AUTHENTIC VERSION OF THE LEGEND OF PRINCE BLADUD, AND A MOST EXTRAORDINARY CALAMITY THAT BEFEL MR. WINKLE.

As Mr. Pickwick conteraplated a stay of at least two months in Bath, he deemed it advisable to take private lodgings for himself and friends for that period ; and as a favourable opportunity offered for their securing, on moderate terms, the upper portion of a house in the Royal Crescent, which was larger than they required, Mr. and Mrs. Dowler offered to relieve them of a bed-room and sitting-room. This proposition was at once accepted, and in three days' time they were all located in their new abode, when Mr. Pickwick began to drink the waters with the utmost assiduity. Mr. Pickwick took them systema- tically. He drank a quarter of a pint before breakfast, and then walked up a hill ; and another quarter of a pint after breakfast, and then walked down a hill ; and after every fresh quarter of a pint, Mr. Pick- wick declared, in the most solemn and emphadc terms, that he felt a great deal better, whereat his friends were very much delighted, though they had not been previously aware that there was any thing the matter with him.

The great pump-room is a spacious saloon, ornamented with Corin thian pillars, and a music gallery and a Tompion clock, and a statue oi Nash, and a golden inscription, to which all the water-drinkers should attend, for it appeals to them in the cause of a deserving charity. There is a large bar with a marble vase, out of which the pumper gets the water, and a number of yellow-looking tumblers, out of which the company get it ; and it is a most edifying and satisfactory sight to behold the perseverance and gravity with which they swallow it. There are baths near at hand, in which a part of the company wash themselves, and a band plays afterwards, to congratulate the remainder on their having done so. There is another pump-room, into which infirm ladies and gentlemen are wheeled, in such an astonishing variety of chairs and chaises, that any adventurous individual who goes in with the regu- lar number of toes, is in imminent danger of coming out without them ; and there is a third, into which the quiet people go, for it is less noisy than either. There is an immensity of promenading, on crutches and off, with sticks and without : and a great deal of con- versation, and liveliness, and pleasantry.

Every morning, the regular water-drinkers, Mr. Pick^'ick among the number, met each other in the pump-room, took their quarter of a pint, and walked constitutionally. At the afternoon*s promenade Lord Mutanhed, and the Honourable Mr. CrushtOD, the Dowager Lady