Turks Head
It is reputed Charles Dickens was inspired by the Turk's Head for the fat boy in Pickwick Papers. Dickens visited Exeter regularly, and rented Mile End Cottage, Alphington, Exeter, for four years from 1839, for his parents. He thought the area to be "the most beautiful in this most beautiful of English counties". He wrote the opening chapters of Nicholas Nickleby at Mile End Cottage and chose Dawlish, 9 miles from Exeter, as Nickleby's birthplace. The sly Pecksniff from Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens was modelled on a Topsham resident.