The George

In the novel Dumb Witness, The George is an inn situated in Market Basing. Hercule Poirot and Hastings stay there on several occasions when investigating the death of Emily Arundell.

The George also occurs, in the same context, as an inn in The Incident of the Dog's Ball, the unpublished short story which was later expanded into Dumb Witness. Here the inn is in a different town, Little Hemel. As in the longer story, Poirot and Hastings stay there. They had a bad lunch, Hastings records, "as is the way with country inns."

The food in the Market Basing George is perhaps better but not by much. Hastings describes a lunch "some excellent mutton" but with "large slabs of watery cabbage and some dispirited potatoes. Somerather tasteless stewed fruit and custard followed."

Nonetheless the waiter was talkative enough to provide Poirot with background information on the houses in the area, particularly Little Green House and its inhabitants.

According to Christie's notes in her notebook 63, when planning Dumb Witness she appears to have intended to use another inn "The Lamb" in Market Basing. The Lamb also being the name of an actual inn in Wallingford upon which it is believed Market Basing is based. When she adapted the short story into the novel, Little Hemel was indeed changed to Market Basing, but for some reason unknown, she did not change the George to the Lamb.