Bourton gulls

Further to my post yesterday about Dickens I have started the book and I am really enjoying his turn of phrase and humour. The book starts with him going on the Britannia to see his "state-room" only to discover a very small cabin.  Having seen the artist's drawings on the wall of the agent's counting house in London he had been picturing a room with a small sofa and his lady had reckoned it would hold no more than two enormous portmanteaus. He says "portmanteaus which could now no more be got in the door, not to say stowed away, than a giraffe could be persuaded or forced into a flower pot".
Robin and I were reflecting that it is like estate agents using a wide angle lens and then us feeling disappointed when we go to view the house. 
Nice to know nothing has changed in nearly 200 years!