popular. Bunny had proposed filming scenes from the novel in England to Vitagraph executives around a year before production took place. As he recounted in September 1912: "The making of Pickwick has been one of my fondest dreams for several years. It has been my desire to produce in pictures the famous character of Pickwick amid the very scenes of which Dickens wrote, and I think when these pictures we have made are shown to the public it will be said that our work has not been in vain." Bunny's popularity was at its peak at the time he traveled to England. Regarding his time there, The Moving Picture World reported: "Whenever he appears upon the street in London he has to 'keep moving.' If he stops for any length of time he is in danger of arrest for blockading the sidewalk. He is so well-known by sight, through his appearances in the Vitagraph pictures, that everywhere he goes he is recognized and hailed with glee by the general run of mankind." While filming was taking place, Bunny was offered a contract by an English producer with a salary that considerably exceeded the $200 a week he was making at Vitagraph. Bunny cabled news of the offer to Vitagraph, and was promptly offered a raise that he found satisfactory. Vitagraph was committed to producing an accurate and authentic adaptation of Dickens's novel. Bunny recounted to The Moving Picture World how the Vitagraph party attempted to borrow an original two-wheeled cab from the British Museum to use in the film, but were refused by the museum curators. The group apparently made an exact replica of this vehicle, and used it frequently in the film. According to Bunny, the four-wheeled coach used for the ride to Rochester in "The Honorable Event" was an original from the times of Pickwick. Bunny related that while filming in Rochester, large crowds gathered each day to watch the filming take place, and that nearly all of Rochester's police force was required to keep them at a proper distance. Besides The Pickwick Papers, the Vitagraph party shot several one-reel films while abroad, including Bunny at Sea, filmed on board ship to England; Bunny at the Derby, filmed at Epsom Downs; Cork and Vicinity, filmed in Cork, Ireland; and The Blarney Stone, filmed at Blarney Castle. The group returned to the United States after three months abroad and