{"id":"01KG8AKS80XW36ZWMV9YF981MB","cid":"bafkreidon3bzepbxzixevqikto7hbhhu3eikyfa6o4ucqxmmrske4tfusy","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":6180,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:14.842Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 5","source_file":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","start_line":6118,"text":"papers. My love of literature prompted me to open the door and step in;\r\nbut a glance at my soiled shooting-jacket prompted a dignified looking\r\npersonage to step up and shut the door in my face. I deliberated a\r\nminute what I should do to him; and at last resolutely determined to\r\nlet him alone, and pass on; which I did; going down Castle-street (so\r\ncalled from a castle which once stood there, said my guide-book), and\r\nturning down into Lord.\r\n\r\nArrived at the foot of the latter street, I in vain looked round for\r\nthe hotel. How serious a disappointment was this may well be imagined,\r\nwhen it is considered that I was all eagerness to behold the very house\r\nat which my father stopped; where he slept and dined, smoked his cigar,\r\nopened his letters, and read the papers. I inquired of some gentlemen\r\nand ladies where the missing hotel was; but they only stared and passed\r\non; until I met a mechanic, apparently, who very civilly stopped to\r\nhear my questions and give me an answer.\r\n\r\n“Riddough’s Hotel?” said he, “upon my word, I think I have heard of\r\nsuch a place; let me see—yes, yes—that was the hotel where my father\r\nbroke his arm, helping to pull down the walls. My lad, you surely can’t\r\nbe inquiring for Riddough’s Hotel! What do you want to find there?”\r\n\r\n“Oh! nothing,” I replied, “I am much obliged for your information”—and\r\naway I walked.\r\n\r\nThen, indeed, a new light broke in upon me concerning my guide-book;\r\nand all my previous dim suspicions were almost confirmed. It was nearly\r\nhalf a century behind the age! and no more fit to guide me about the\r\ntown, than the map of Pompeii.\r\n\r\nIt was a sad, a solemn, and a most melancholy thought. The book on\r\nwhich I had so much relied; the book in the old morocco cover; the book\r\nwith the cocked-hat corners; the book full of fine old family\r\nassociations; the book with seventeen plates, executed in the highest\r\nstyle of art; this precious book was next to useless. Yes, the thing\r\nthat had guided the father, could not guide the son. And I sat down on\r\na shop step, and gave loose to meditation.\r\n\r\nHere, now, oh, Wellingborough, thought I, learn a lesson, and never\r\nforget it. This world, my boy, is a moving world; its Riddough’s Hotels\r\nare forever being pulled down; it never stands still; and its sands are\r\nforever shifting. This very harbor of Liverpool is gradually filling\r\nup, they say; and who knows what your son (if you ever have one) may\r\nbehold, when he comes to visit Liverpool, as long after you as you come\r\nafter his grandfather. And, Wellingborough, as your father’s guidebook\r\nis no guide for you, neither would yours (could you afford to buy a\r\nmodern one to-day) be a true guide to those who come after you.\r\nGuide-books, Wellingborough, are the least reliable books in all\r\nliterature; and nearly all literature, in one sense, is made up of\r\nguide-books. Old ones tell us the ways our fathers went, through the\r\nthoroughfares and courts of old; but how few of those former places can\r\ntheir posterity trace, amid avenues of modem erections; to how few is\r\nthe old guide-book now a clew! Every age makes its own guidebooks, and\r\nthe old ones are used for waste paper. But there is one Holy\r\nGuide-Book, Wellingborough, that will never lead you astray, if you but\r\nfollow it aright; and some noble monuments that remain, though the\r\npyramids crumble.\r\n\r\nBut though I rose from the door-step a sadder and a wiser boy, and\r\nthough my guide-book had been stripped of its reputation for\r\ninfallibility, I did not treat with contumely or disdain, those sacred\r\npages which had once been a beacon to my sire.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 5"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJRKE76XA8GX60MNS3NKC","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKRPPA08MBG3X0B7XDD98","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKS806H71SAJ5SCFCQHP3","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.616Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:30.321Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}