In the house opposite the Royal George, Mrs. Gaskell's cousin Sir Henry Holland was born in 1788. He was a famous society doctor, present at Prince Albert's death and friend and doctor to six prime ministers. He was also a great traveller. Mrs. Gaskell wrote in a letter 'Dr. Holland has been at Moscow since you saw him and is at Knutsford on his way to Algeria'; he was then 64.
Besides being a noted coaching inn 'The Assembly Rooms' were in this building, they had been paid for by the subscriptions of the gentry and probably inspired awe in the young Elizabeth as they did in Edward Wilkins ("A Dark Night's Work" Chapter 1) he "had been at many splendid assemblies abroad but still the little old ballroom attached to the George Inn in his native town was to him a place grander and more awful than the most magnificent saloons he had seen in Paris or Rome". Earlier the author explains that "into those choice and mysterious precincts no townsperson was ever allowed to enter; no professional man might set his foot therein; no infantry officer saw the interior of that ball or that card room".
The Old Coachway
The George Yard
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