Descriptive of a very important Proceeding¹ on the Part of Mr. Pickwick; no less an Epoch² in his Life, than in this History

Mr. Pickwick’s apartments in Goswell Street, although on a limited scale, were not only of a very neat and comfortable description, but peculiarly adapted for the residence of a man of his genius and observation. His sitting-room³ was the first-floor front, his bedroom the second-floor front; and thus, whether he were sitting at his desk in his parlour, or standing⁴ before the dressing-glass in his dormitory, he had an equal opportunity of contemplating⁵ human nature in all the numerous phases it exhibits, in that not more populous⁶ than popular thoroughfare. His landlady⁷, Mrs. Bardell — the relict and sole executrix of a deceased custom-house officer — was a comely⁸ woman of bustling⁹ manners and agreeable appearance, with a natural genius for cooking, improved by study and long practice, into an exquisite¹⁰ talent. There were no children, no servants, no fowls¹¹. The only other inmates¹² of the house were a large man and a small boy; the first a lodger¹³, the second a production of Mrs. Bardell’s. The large man was always home

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