
    »You cannot leave me in better hands,« said Mr. Tupman.
    »Quite impossible,« said Mr. Snodgrass.
    It was therefore settled that Mr. Tupman should be left at home in charge of
the females; and that the remainder of the guests, under the guidance of Mr.
Wardle, should proceed to the spot where was to be held that trial of skill,
which had roused all Muggleton from its torpor, and inoculated Dingley Dell with
a fever of excitement.
    As their walk, which was not above two miles long, lay through shady lanes,
and sequestered footpaths, and as their conversation turned upon the delightful
scenery by which they were on every side surrounded, Mr. Pickwick was almost
inclined to regret the expedition they had used, when he found himself in the
main street of the town of Muggleton.
    Everybody whose genius has a topographical bent 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
