Footnotes

ORIGINAL MINUTES OF THE PICKWICK CLUB OF LONDON, COMMENCING IN JANUARY 1837 and running until the early 1840s. The first serialised number of Dickens's fictional counterpart had appeared at the end of March 1836; but it was not until the quintessential Cockney, Sam Weller, was introduced in the fourth part, published in June, that Pickwick can be said to have made its mark, with innumerable spin-offs such as joke books, pirated copies, theatrical adaptions, and the present club, founded six months after Sam Weller first put in his appearance.

Our club, like its fictional inspiration, was clearly based in London. Many of the topics raised for debate imply familiarity with the city, especially the East End; other London topics include "Whether it is not a bad spec. for this New Gin Shop to open in Dean St" (which, it is decided, "It is not"); or whether it would "be proper or not to pull down St Saviours Church" (this being almost certainly a reference to the newly-built church of that name in Belgravia). In as much as the meetings of Dickens's fictional club can be associated with a specific locale, the honour is usually accorded to the George & Vulture in St Michael's Alley, Cornhill. It was here, during the serialization of the novel, that a circulating library is recorded as having held a meeting, which resolved, on 30 March 1837 – several months after the foundation of our club – to order a copy of the novel when it came out in volume form (this now being in the British Library). It is also here that the City Pickwick Club, dating back to 1909, under the auspices of the Dickens Fellowship, hold their meetings.

But the chief interest of our minutes is what they tell us of the original readership of The Pickwick Papers, or at least one significant section of that readership. Their political sympathies were radical. For example, one motion that came up for discussion was "Whether the Chartists are not absurd in their demands"; to which the Club moved that it was "not absurd". When asked "To consider what remedy will be efficient to ameliorate the Condition of the People", the Club answered: "universal suffrage". Similarly, when asked "Whether Hanging tends to decrease the Crimes for which it intended", they replied "It does not". Nor do they seem to have been over enamoured of the young Victoria, who succeeded to the throne on 20 June 1837, during the run of Pickwick and the early years of the Club. A motion was put to "Thank the Duchess of Kent [Victoria's mother] for the amiable manner she has educated the Queen", which received the response: "Ought not to be thanked say all the Members". Elsewhere the motion was carried that royalty was "the very worst of humbug". While the proposal that "the Members of the Club ought to sing the National Anthem on their extraordinary meetings" received the answer, recorded by the minutes in capital letters, "NO".

In keeping with this progressive spirit, the Club decides that "Asphalt pavement" is "the superior to the Yorkshire flagstone". Although when asked "Whether Railroads are a more convenient way of Travelling than Stage Coaches", they opt for stage coaches. But, it must be confessed, they were generally less high-minded, and indeed more typical of the general tenor of these minutes are subjects such as "Why should there not be a New set of Gobbing Pots", which is marked "Mr Wardle to present one", or "Whether its better to have a pocket Handkerchief on a cold day or use your fingers". Indeed, the adjective 'Victorian' is not the first that springs to mind in characterizing members of our Club; the minutes of which, on 12 December 1841, all but splutter out with the doggerel: "damn and bugger the pickwick Club/ Dam and bugger the prick, wick Club".

Provenance: Hugh Selbourne, M.D.