I bet that this is the way larger luggage loads were carried and the small slips and safer handling away from the crude loads were a common occurence for the times. It went ahead...to be picked up on arrival by coach with carry-on luggage, so to speak. It was the airport turntable of the time and the one in Livery St. would have been used by Dickens I am sure and hence the scenario of the straightaway recognition of the name by the waiter. Who knows folk, who live a quarter of a mile away. Hmmm... or across the street for that matter.