Herbert Railton gave an artistic picture of the courtyard in the Jubilee edition of the book, but we are not able to state on what authority it was based.

There were, however, two inns at Dorking, the “King’s Head” and the “King’s Arms,” over which speculation has been rife as to which was the original of the inn so favoured by the Revd.  Mr. Stiggins.  Of the two, perhaps, the latter, still existing, seems to fit Dickens’s description best.

CHAPTER VI

THE “LEATHER BOTTLE,” COBHAM, KENT

The charming Kentish village of Cobham was familiar to Dickens in his early boyhood days, as was the whole delightful countryside surrounding it.  That he loved it throughout his whole life there is ample evidence in his letters.  It was inevitable, therefore, that his enthusiasm for it should find vent in his stories, and the first references to its green woods and green shady lanes are to be found in charming phrases in The Pickwick Papers, with the “Leather Bottle” as the centre of attraction.

The inn is first named in the book in Mr. Tupman’s pathetic letter to Mr. Pickwick written on a certain historic morning at Dingley Dell: 

“My dear Pickwick,
     “You, my dear friend, are placed far beyond the reach of many
mortal frailties and weaknesses which ordinary people cannot over come.  You do not know what it is, at one blow, to be deserted by a lovely and fascinating creature, and to fall a victim to the artifices of a villain, who hid the grin of cunning beneath the mask of friendship.  I hope you never may. 
     “Any letter, addressed to me at the ‘Leather Bottle,’ Cobham,
Kent, will be forwarded—­supposing I still exist.  I hasten from the sight of the world, which has become odious to me.  Should I hasten from it altogether, pity—­forgive me.  Life, my dear Pickwick, has become insupportable to me.  The spirit which burns within us, is a porter’s knot, on which to rest the heavy load of worldly cares and troubles; and when that spirit fails us, the burden is too heavy to be borne.  We sink beneath it.  You may tell Rachel—­Ah, that name!  “Tracy Tupman.”

[illustration:  The “Leather Bottle,” Cobham, Kent.  From a photograph]

No sooner had Mr. Pickwick read this plaintive missive than he decided to follow, with his two other companions, Winkle and Snodgrass, in search of their depressed friend.  On the coach journeyto Rochester “the violence of their grief had sufficiently abated to admit of their making a very excellent early dinner,” and having discovered the right road all three set forward again in the after-noon to walk to Cobham.