Page 26 - PBCOctober2016

Pickwick Bicycle Club Magazine Volume 13 No.2 October 2016 26

'Step in, Mr. Pickwick,' said Lowten. 'Well, will you leave a message, Mr. Watty, or will you
call again?' 'Ask him to be so kind as to leave out word what has been done in my business,'
said the man; 'for God's sake don't neglect it, Mr. Lowten.' 'No, no; I won't forget it,'
replied the clerk. 'Walk in, Mr. Pickwick. Good-morning, Mr. Watty; it's a fine day for
walking, isn't it?' Seeing that the stranger still lingered, he beckoned Sam Weller to follow
his master in, and shut the door in his face.”

Anthony J Smith pre 1881 to 1921 President (1918)
Edwin Campbell 1924 to 1936
L J Mansfield 1938 to 1965
Alexander S Newall 1965 to 2006
Stuart Mason-Elliott 2005 to present

The Chancery prisoner -

“'There's a capital room up in the coffee-room flight, that belongs to a Chancery prisoner,'
said Mr. Roker. 'It'll stand you in a pound a week. I suppose you don't mind that?' 'Not at
all,' said Mr. Pickwick. 'Just step there with me,' said Roker, taking up his hat with great
alacrity; 'the matter's settled in five minutes. Lord! Why didn't you say at first that you
was willing to come down handsome?' The matter was soon arranged, as the turnkey had
foretold. The Chancery prisoner had been there long enough to have lost his friends,
fortune, home, and happiness, and to have acquired the right of having a room to himself.
As he laboured, however, under the inconvenience of often wanting a morsel of bread, he
eagerly listened to Mr. Pickwick's proposal to rent the apartment, and readily covenanted
and agreed to yield him up the sole and undisturbed possession thereof, in consideration of
the weekly payment of twenty shillings; from which fund he furthermore contracted to pay
out any person or persons that might be chummed upon it.
As they struck the bargain, Mr. Pickwick surveyed him with a painful interest. He was a tall,
gaunt, cadaverous man, in an old greatcoat and slippers, with sunken cheeks, and a restless,
eager eye. His lips were bloodless, and his bones sharp and thin. God help him! The iron
teeth of confinement and privation had been slowly filing him down for twenty years.”

H Bolsover 1956 to 1968
R Forsyth 1968 to 1977
E A Harris 1978 to 1993
John R Taylor 1994 to 2001
Peter Hargroves 2006 to present