So whereas the author of Waverley documented his stories and the buildings in which they transpired (reclaiming such archival words as '
bartisan'), Dickens covered his traces with erasures: 'You may seek in vain, now, for the spot on which these sisters lived, for their very names have passed away, and dusty antiquaries tell of them as of a fable', and again, 'That stone has worn away and been replaced by others'.