Cobham, Kent: The Leather Bottle

Early 20th c. colourised postcard

After Dickens had separated from his wife Catherine and had taken up residence at Gads Hill near Rochester, Dickens regularly dropped by for refreshment on his rambles through the Kentish countryside. The inn is located at 54-56 The Street, Cobham, Gravesend, DA12 3BZ.

In Chapter 11 of The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, Mr. Pickwick and his companions Winkle and Snodgrass enter the parlour of the Leather Bottle Inn at Cobham to find Tracy Tupman (as his note left for them at Manor Farm had led them to expect) at dinner after his rejection by Rachel Wardle. However, with such a feast spread before him in such congenial surroundings, Tupman looks nothing like a melancholy lover — "looking as unlike a man who had taken his leave of the world as possible."

Text by Philip V. Allingham.

[Thanks to Margaret Mackenzie of the Victoria Branch of The Dickens Fellowship for sharing the image of the postcard with our readers. It may be used without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you credit link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

Relevant Passage

“And really,” added Mr. Pickwick, after half an hour’s walking had brought them to the village, “really, for a misanthrope’s choice, this is one of the prettiest and most desirable places of residence I ever met with.”

In this opinion also, both Mr. Winkle and Mr. Snodgrass expressed their concurrence; and having been directed to the Leather Bottle, a clean and commodious village ale-house, the three travellers entered, and at once inquired for a gentleman of the name of Tupman.

“Show the gentlemen into the parlour, Tom,” said the landlady.

A stout country lad opened a door at the end of the passage, and the three friends entered a long, low-roofed room, furnished with a large number of high-backed leather-cushioned chairs, of fantastic shapes, and embellished with a great variety of old portraits and roughly-coloured prints of some antiquity. At the upper end of the room was a table, with a white cloth upon it, well covered with a roast fowl, bacon, ale, and et ceteras: and at the table sat Mr. Tupman, looking as unlike a man who had taken his leave of the world, as possible. [Chapter XI, "Involving another Journey, and an Antiquarian Discovery. Recording Mr. Pickwick’s Determination to be Present at an Election; and containing a Manuscript of the Old Clergyman's."]

Related Materials

References

Dickens, Charles. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Robert Seymour and Phiz. London: Chapman & Hall, 1836.

Last modified 15 September 2017