This is an example of [[metonymy]] which is related to the fact that [[Dickens's style blurs metaphor and metonymy]]. This is a line from [[Charles Dickens|Dickens's]] novel, [[Our Mutual Friend (1864-65)]], at the very opening of chapter 7: > Silas Wegg, being on his road to the Roman Empire, approaches it by way of Clerkenwell. For context, what's literally happening is Wegg is on his way to Mr. Boffin's house, where he's being paid to read Gibbons' *The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire*. The narrator is just saying that Wegg is approaching Mr. Boffin's house (where he's going to read about the "Roman Empire") via Clerkenwell. But Wegg is also a greedy schemer. He builds castles in his mind. So his "road to the Roman Empire" is _also_ a [[metaphor]] for the riches and "empire" he's no doubt dreaming of building for himself by swindling Mr. Boffin. This is interesting to me because the metaphorical meaning isn't just parallel or in addition to the metonymic one. It is, in a sense, *based on* that meaning. Wegg is on his road to his personal "Roman Empire" (of riches) because he's on his road to Mr. Boffin's house (where he'll read about the Roman Empire). In order to get to that personal empire of riches, he has to first approach it by way of Clerkenwell. And that "by way of Clerkenwell" phrasing adds more than a hint of irony. The idea that the metonymic Roman Empire (reading to Mr. Boffin, accessible by way of Clerkenwell) will lead to the metaphoric Roman Empire (of riches for Wegg) is obviously absurd. Wegg obviously can't see that. The two meanings are tangled together in a dense metaphoric/metonymic pun. I've tried diagramming this out, like the ones in [[metaphors often rely on one or several metonymic shifts|this note]], but those diagrams assume a very basic metonymic _support_ for metaphor. This is... something else. Something far denser.