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diff --git a/44382-0.txt b/44382-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e9e84e8 --- /dev/null +++ b/44382-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6281 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44382 *** + +OLD COUNTRY INNS OF ENGLAND + + + + +_Uniform with this volume_ + + +INNS AND TAVERNS OF OLD LONDON + +Setting forth the historical and literary associations of those ancient +hostelries, together with an account of the most notable coffee-houses, +clubs, and pleasure gardens of the British metropolis. + +By HENRY C. SHELLEY + +With coloured frontispiece, and 48 other illustrations + +L. C. PAGE & COMPANY + +53 Beacon Street, Boston, Mass. + + + + +[Illustration: The Chequers, Loose] + + + + + Old Country Inns of England + + BY HENRY P. MASKELL + AND EDWARD W. GREGORY + + _With Illustrations by_ + THE AUTHORS + + + BOSTON + L. C. PAGE & COMPANY + MDCCCCXI + + + + +PREFACE + + +“Why do your guide books tell us about nothing but Churches and Manor +Houses?” Such was the not altogether unjustifiable complaint of an +American friend whose motor car was undergoing repairs. He was stranded in +a sleepy old market town of winding streets, overhanging structures and +oddly set gables, where every stone and carved beam seemed only waiting an +interpreter to unfold its story. + +In the following pages we have attempted a classification and description +of the inns, which not only sheltered our forefathers when on their +journeys, but served as their usual places for meeting and recreation. The +subject is by no means exhausted. All over England there are hundreds of +other old inns quite as interesting as those which find mention, and it is +hoped that our work may prove for many tourists the introduction to a most +fascinating study. + +Thoughtful men, including earnest Churchmen such as the Bishop of +Birmingham and the Rev. H. R. Gamble, are asking the question whether the +old inns should be allowed to disappear. The public house as a national +institution has still its purposes to fulfil, and a few suggestions have +therefore been included with a view of showing how it might easily be +adapted to modern social needs. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAP. PAGE + + I. MANORIAL INNS 1 + + II. MONASTIC INNS 14 + + III. THE HOSPICES 29 + + IV. THE RISE OF THE TOWNS 41 + + V. THE CRAFT GUILDS AND TRADERS’ INNS 56 + + VI. CHURCH INNS AND CHURCH ALES 67 + + VII. COACHING INNS 81 + + VIII. WAYSIDE INNS AND ALEHOUSES 96 + + IX. HISTORIC SIGNS AND HISTORIC INNS 112 + + X. SPORTS AND PASTIMES 135 + + XI. THE INNS OF LITERATURE AND ART 148 + + XII. FANCIFUL SIGNS AND CURIOUS SIGNBOARDS 160 + + XIII. HAUNTED INNS 181 + + XIV. OLD INNS AND THEIR ARCHITECTURE 195 + + XV. THE COMMERCIAL TRAVELLER 209 + + XVI. THE NEW INN AND ITS POSSIBILITIES 220 + + XVII. INN FURNITURE 237 + + XVIII. THE INNKEEPER 256 + + XIX. PUBLIC HOUSE REFORM 272 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + PAGE + + THE CHEQUERS, LOOSE _Frontispiece_ + + THE KING’S ARMS, HEMEL HEMPSTEAD x + + THE SPREAD EAGLE, MIDHURST 8, 10 + + THE BULL, SUDBURY 19 + + PIGEON HOUSE AT THE BULL, LONG MELFORD 21 + + YARD OF THE WHITE HORSE, DORKING 27 + + THE WHITE HART, BRENTWOOD 42 + + THE SWAN, FELSTEAD 51 + + THE BRICKLAYERS’ ARMS, CAXTON 61 + + THE GOLDEN FLEECE, SOUTH WEALD 63 + + PORCH, CHALK CHURCH, KENT _facing_ 67 + + CHURCH HOUSE, PENSHURST 72 + + THE PUNCH BOWL, HIGH EASTER 74, 76 + + YARD OF THE WHITE HART, ST. ALBANS 84 + + COACH GALLERY AT THE BULL, LONG MELFORD 86 + + FIREPLACE AT THE WHITE HART, WITHAM 89 + + OLD COACHING INNS, ST. ALBANS 94 + + BOTOLPH’S BRIDGE INN, ROMNEY MARSH 95 + + THE WHITE HORSE, PLESHY 99 + + THE CHEQUERS, DODDINGTON _facing_ 104 + + THE CHEQUERS, REDBOURNE 106 + + THE THREE HORSE SHOES, PAPWORTH EVERARD 108 + + THE HORSESHOES, LICKFOLD 109 + + THE RED LION, WINGHAM 113 + + THE SWAN, SUTTON VALENCE 116 + + THE KING’S HEAD, ROEHAMPTON 119 + + THE NELSON, MAIDSTONE 129 + + THE HORSE AND GROOM, NEAR WALTHAM ST. LAWRENCE 136 + + THE FALSTAFF, CANTERBURY 149 + + THE SIR JOHN FALSTAFF, NEWINGTON 152 + + SIGN OF THE FOX AND HOUNDS, BARLEY 165 + + SIGN OF BLACK’S HEAD, ASHBOURNE 170 + + SIGN OF WHITE HART, WITHAM 173 + + THE ANGEL, THEALE 175 + + THE CLOTHIERS’ ARMS, STROUD _facing_ 184 + + THE GREYHOUND INN, STROUD " 190 + + THE SHIP, WINGHAM 194 + + THE KING’S HEAD, AYLESBURY 196 + + TAP-ROOM AT THE BULL, SUDBURY 198 + + THE KING’S HEAD, LOUGHTON, ESSEX _facing_ 200 + + FIREPLACE AT THE SUN, FEERING 203 + + FIREPLACE AT THE NOAH’S ARK, LURGASHALL 207 + + FOX AND PELICAN INN, HASLEMERE _facing_ 212 + + THE WHITE HORSE INN, STETCHWORTH, NEWMARKET " 228 + + THE WOODMAN INN, FARNBOROUGH, KENT " 240 + + THE WHEATSHEAF INN, LOUGHTON, ESSEX " 248 + + THE SKITTLES INN, LETCHWORTH, HERTS " 254 + + RECREATION ROOM IN THE SKITTLES INN, LETCHWORTH, HERTS " 266 + + THE BELL INN, BELL COMMON, EPPING " 280 + + SIGN OF THE ANGEL INN, WOOLHAMPTON 285 + + + + +[Illustration: The King’s Arms, Hemel Hempstead] + + + + +OLD COUNTRY INNS + + + + +CHAPTER I + +MANORIAL INNS + + +Which among the thousand of old inns to be met with on our country roads +has a right to be called the oldest? There are many claimants. The +title-deeds of the _Saracen’s Head_ at Newark refer back to 1341. Local +antiquaries cite documentary evidence to prove that the _Seven Stars_ at +Manchester existed before the year 1356. Symond Potyn, who founded St. +Catherine’s Hospital for poor Pilgrims at Rochester in 1316, is described +as “of the _Crown Inn_.” A Nottingham ballad relates the adventures of one +Dame Rose who kept the _Ram_ in that town “in the days of good King +Stephen.” Then we have the witness of the German Ambassador to the comfort +and excellence of the _Fountain_ at Canterbury, when he lodged there in +1299, on the occasion of the marriage of King Edward I to Margaret of +France. Nay, the legend runs that within its walls the four murderers of +St. Thomas arranged the last details of their plot in 1170, and that the +wife of Earl Godwin stayed at this inn in 1029. But what are all these +compared with the _Fighting Cocks_ at St. Albans, said to be the oldest +inhabited house in England? A few years ago its signboard modestly +chronicled the fact that it had been “Rebuilt after the Flood.” + +Nevertheless, we can safely assert that no English inn has a history of +more than 800 years, and that very few hostelries can trace their +independent existence to a period earlier than the fourteenth century. +Until the towns had acquired rights of self-government and trade had in +consequence begun to expand, there was little occasion for inns. England +under the Norman kings was a purely agricultural country with scattered +villages where dependent tillers of the soil grouped their clay-walled +thatched hovels around church and manor-house. Even ancient towns, with a +record of a thousand years, were merely rather larger villages on a +navigable river or a cross road. Foreign merchant ships were just +beginning to call once more at the seaports on the chance of trade. + +Travelling on the roads was attended with serious dangers and +inconveniences. Robbers abounded, some not so courteous and discriminating +as the legendary Robin Hood. Armed retainers at the tail of some noble +lord’s retinue were occasionally not above a little highway robbery on +their own account, and if the victim failed to beat off his assailant his +remedy at law was precarious at best. Such a band, if sufficiently +numerous, would even go so far as to attack the King’s officers sent in +pursuit of them. The journey might at any time be brought to an abrupt +conclusion because the travellers’ horses and carts were forcibly +commandeered by the purveyor to the King or some great noble. The roads +themselves were in a disgraceful state, full of deep ruts, holes and +quagmires, quite impassable in wet weather; their repair was left to +chance or the good-will of neighbouring owners. In the towns they were +encumbered with heaps of refuse. The rolls of Parliament from the reign of +Edward I onward contain numerous petitions for a regular highway tax. + +A curious illustration of the lack of any systematic authority over the +roads, even as late as the fifteenth century, is preserved in the records +of the Manor of Aylesbury. A local miller, named Richard Boose, needed +some ramming clay for the repair of his mill. Accordingly his servants dug +a great pit in the middle of the road, ten feet wide and eight feet deep, +and so left it to become filled with water from the winter rains. A glover +from Leighton Buzzard, on his way home from market, fell in and was +drowned. Charged with manslaughter, the miller pleaded that he knew no +place wherein to get the kind of clay he required except on the high road. +He was acquitted.[1] + +Furthermore, all England was parcelled out into manors, each a little +principality in itself presided over by a lord who in practice possessed +summary rights over life and property within his domain. A stranger might +be called upon to undergo a very searching examination to account for his +presence in the neighbourhood. Most of the inhabitants were forbidden to +leave the demesne without the consent of their lord. Not that this was a +great hardship; the idea of a journey rarely occurs to the bucolic mind, +and fully half the rural population of England in these days of cheap +railway excursions are content to spend their lives within their native +parish, or at any rate never venture beyond the market town. + +In every manor there was a manor-house, the residence of the lord and the +centre of the life of the community. It was usually quite a simple +building on the main street near the church. Here were held the manor +courts, view of frank pledge, assize of bread and ale and other quaint +customs, some of which have come down to our own days. Hither at Hocktide +and harvest would come the tenants and their wives, bringing their own +platters, cups and napkins for their feast. + +Such few travellers as were benighted on the road, small merchants or +pedlars going to a local fair, a knight or squire on his way to court, +Kings’ messengers and officials, would naturally put up at the +manor-house. Hospitality was so rarely called for that it was willingly +afforded, just as it is at an Australian homestead in the backwoods. One +more sleeping place on the rushes in the hall, another seat at the common +table--above or below the salt according to the hosteller’s estimate of +the guest’s condition in life--was no great matter. Doubtless each in his +own degree made his present to the hosteller in the morning; the butler +in a country house still expects his solatium from the parting guest. + +By the middle of the fourteenth century the roads had become more +frequented, and it was no longer the fashion for the lord to reside in the +comparatively humble manor-house. The cost of living had seriously +increased; the nobility were impoverished by attendance at court, the +foreign wars, and their crowd of retainers. So the lord retired to his +more secluded castle or country seat, leaving strangers to be entertained +at the manor-house by a steward who afterwards was replaced by a regular +innkeeper as tenant. Throughout these changes the family crest or arms +remained on the front of the building. Or sometimes the manor-house was +turned to other uses and an inn was built close by, and the coat of arms +hung over the door in order to induce travellers to transfer their custom +thither. Such is the origin of the official inn throughout feudal Europe, +but in the Black Forest and the Tyrol the process was sometimes completely +reversed. As the nobility became poorer they parted with their estates and +turned innkeepers. One can still now and then make the surprising +discovery that mine host is by birth a baron, actually entitled to bear +the arms above his door, and that it is his ancestors who sleep under +those magnificent marble tombs in the minster hard by. + +Inns with heraldic emblems for their signs, or called the Norfolk Arms, +Dorset Arms, Neville Arms, according to the local landowner, abound +everywhere--the actual arms scarcely ever being emblazoned on account of +the heavy tax on armorial bearings. But it is not easy to trace their +connection with the manor-house. Manors have been alienated over and over +again; with each change the sign on the inn has usually been repainted +with the arms of the new owner. One of the few exceptions is the _Tiger_ +at Lindfield, which carries us back to the Michelbournes of the fourteenth +century. + +For a characteristic example of a manorial inn we must invite our readers +to visit the sleepy town of Midhurst, venerable in its winding streets of +projecting upper stories, deeply moulded eaves and gables; a town nestling +among the gentler slopes of the South Downs, on the banks of that sweetest +and most musical of trout streams, the Sussex Rother. Here is an old inn, +far away from the great roads which no vandal has yet ventured to +rebuild. The older portion dates from about 1430, and no doubt stands on +the site of the original manor-house of the De Bohuns. It is an excellent +example of an early timber-framed house of the better class, with massive +old oak ceilings, ingle-nooks and “down” fires. The old fireplaces and +recessed ovens are pronounced by experts to be genuine fourteenth-century +work. A very large addition was made in 1650, when the stables were also +built. This latter portion will not be regretted by the visitor who loves +more comfort and cheery surroundings than is possible in a conscientiously +preserved fourteenth-century hotel. + +[Illustration: The Spread Eagle, Midhurst] + +In clearing away the paint from one of the panelled rooms at the _Spread +Eagle_ an inscription was discovered: “The Queen’s Room,” possibly +referring to the much travelled Queen Elizabeth who was entertained +“marvellously, nay rather excessively,” by Sir Anthony Browne, first +Viscount Montagu, at Cowdray, in 1591. A melancholy interest attaches to +the sign of the _Spread Eagle_. It was the crest of the Montagu family, +which came to an end in 1793 with the drowning of the last Viscount +Montagu at Schaffhausen, on the Rhine, in the very same week that his +splendid mansion at Cowdray was destroyed by fire. + +It is worth noting that the double-gabled house in the foreground of our +first picture of the _Spread Eagle_ (once also an inn, now a cosy +temperance hotel) was built early in the seventeenth century by an +ancestor of Richard Cobden. + +On royal manors the crown was more frequently employed as a distinguishing +mark of the manorial hall than the royal arms. Inns having for their +signs the King’s Arms have usually assumed this title during the +Reformation period when the royal arms were ordered to be set up in the +churches. An exception is the _King’s Arms_ Hotel at Godalming, which has +every reason to claim to be the original inn of the royal manor. The +present building is not much more than two centuries old, a fine +substantial example of red-brick domestic architecture in the reign of +good Queen Anne. An oak-panelled room is shown to visitors as that in +which Peter the Great Czar of Russia slept during his visit to England. +The landlord’s bill on this occasion is preserved as a curiosity in the +Bodleian library. The items of the bill are as follows: Breakfast--half a +sheep, a quarter of lamb, ten pullets, twelve chickens, three quarts of +brandy, six quarts of mulled wine, seven dozen of eggs, with salad in +proportion. At dinner the company had five ribs of beef weighing three +stone, one sheep weighing fifty pound, three quarters of lamb, a shoulder +and loin of veal boiled, eight pullets, eight rabbits, two-and-a-half +dozen sack and one dozen of claret. The number of guests was twenty-one. + +[Illustration: The Spread Eagle, Midhurst] + +There is another old inn at Godalming with the sign of _Three Lions_. We +have not been able to obtain any authentic information about its history, +and it may be only a coincidence that the royal arms before Edward III +quartered the arms of France consisted of three lions on a shield. + +Even if inns that can prove their authentic manorial origin are few and +far between, this class of hostelry must once have been the most important +of all. The nomenclature of the thirteenth-century manor is preserved in +every detail of the modern inn. The hosteller remains as the ostler, who +now usually confines his attention to four-footed visitors; the +chamberlain has changed his sex (though only since the days of Sir Roger +de Coverley) and has become the Chambermaid. In most old manor-houses +provisions, wine and ale were served from a special department close to +the porch and called the “bower,” from Norse _Bür_, meaning buttery. +Frequenters of a modern inn resort for the same purpose to the “bar.” +Lastly, the presiding genius in every hotel or tavern, no matter how +humble, is invariably referred to as “the Landlord.” The very word “Inn,” +like the French _hôtel_, anciently implied the town residence of a +nobleman. The Inns of Court were nearly all of them houses of the nobility +converted for the purpose of lodging the law students there. The same +remark applies to the inns which preceded the cloistered colleges of our +older universities. + +But we usually know the English inn by a much nobler name--a name which +carries us back to an age many generations before there were any manorial +lords to the tribal chief, and beyond the tribal chieftain to the common +dwelling of our Aryan forefathers. We generally refer to it as “The +public-house.” It is the one secular place of resort where we can all +forget our social differences; where millionaire and pauper, nobleman and +navvy can hob-nob together on equal ground if they care to do so. The +public-house opens its doors to every well-behaved citizen without +distinction of persons. It is the abiding witness to the common +brotherhood of man. For the public-house is not merely an institution to +provide lodging and refreshment for the individual wayfarer, nor yet a +shop for the sale of certain specific liquids; it is a place where men can +meet to entertain each other, and converse with their fellow men on equal +terms. As such it is hateful to the sectary, who would fain see men sorted +out into exclusive coteries for the airing of their own opinions and class +grievances. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +MONASTIC INNS + + +Rural England, during the two centuries after the Conquest, was +practically under martial law. The hardy Men of Kent and the Vale of +Holmsdale were strong enough to retain some of their ancient rights and +privileges. Beyond these districts local government was suppressed and a +military despotism took its place, administered often by half-civilized +chieftains. One influence alone was formidable enough to modify and soften +the crude tyranny of the feudal system--that of the Monasteries. + +The religious orders were the only class who had directly profited by the +new regime to increase their power. Hitherto merely national they now +became, in a way, part of an international system. Not that they ceased to +be patriotic. In the combinations against regal misrule which produced the +Great Charters, Bishops and Abbots threw in their lot heartily with the +lay barons. But in themselves they formed at this time an almost +independent authority with special privileges dangerous to meddle with, +because behind them was the Universal Church and its temporal head the +Pope, now just reaching the zenith of his authority. + +It was the religious orders that saved England from barbarism. Each +monastery was a kind of impregnable city within which all the graces of +civilization were fostered. Here learning, literature and art were +diligently studied; rich and poor, bondman and free, were welcomed as +scholars if only they proved their ability to profit by the tuition. A +certain number of manors were allotted to the Church, and this number was +constantly being increased by royal or private benefaction. The tenants of +ecclesiastical manors, more especially the villeins or serfs, were in +these early times much better treated than those subject to the secular +lords. The tenures were generally easy, labour customs could be commuted +for a small sum of money, and the serfs could acquire freedom on very +moderate terms. Enlightened forms of lease were introduced. + +The monks were the great agriculturists of the Middle Ages, and so were +concerned in the maintenance of facilities for traffic. Apart from this +their one duty to the State was to satisfy the _trinoda necessitas_, +particularly the care of roads and bridges. This was considered a pious +and meritorious duty often rewarded with special indulgences; such +undertakings were a work of mercy, in that they befriended the unfortunate +traveller. The roads adjoining a monastic estate were usually kept in fair +condition, as compared with those in other districts. The first London +Bridge was built by the Prior of St. Mary Overie; another great endowed +bridge, that over the Medway at Rochester, owes its origin to the great +St. Dunstan. Nearly all the picturesque gothic bridges which still survive +were the work of the monks. Travelling was in many other ways directly +fostered by the monasteries. Communications were constantly passing +between the various houses of an order, many of which were on the +Continent. Authority for the election of a new abbot or a change in the +statutes would have to be obtained from Rome. The two centuries after the +Conquest witnessed a continual rebuilding and beautifying of the Abbey +Churches. Materials had to be brought from a distance, skilled artists +engaged, rich plate, metal work, and ornate vestments procured for the +altar-service. All this was a great stimulus to trade. + +The doors of the monastery were open to all comers, and there were many +reasons why hospitality would be sought at a religious house in preference +to the manorial inn. Rich people resorted to them because of their comfort +and security; the poor because there was nothing to pay. No unpleasant +questions were likely to be asked; so we find Quentin Durward (in the +novel of Sir Walter Scott, which gives us such an excellent idea of the +period he describes,) always avoiding the public inns and taking refuge at +the monasteries in order to minimize the risk of his secret mission being +betrayed. Most of these houses had been endowed by the king or nobles, and +their descendants considered themselves at home within the precincts. + +These noble guests, especially when they were accompanied by a +miscellaneous retinue, were apt to be rather too roisterous and turbulent +for the cloister. A statute of Edward I forbids anyone to lodge at a +religious house without the formal invitation of the Superior, unless he +be the founder, and then he must conform closely to the rules and +regulations. The poor alone were to retain the right to the grace of +hospitality free of charge. Numerous later statutes were enacted with the +same end in view. The monks of Battle rebuilt their Guest House outside +the Abbey Gate where it still remains a most beautiful example of +fifteenth-century half-timber work. Long before this time, however, +another expedient had been devised to cope with the increasing crowd of +travellers needing rest and refreshment. + +Whenever we come across an inn bearing the sign of the _Bull_ it is worth +while to inquire whether there was formerly a religious house in the +neighbourhood. We have examined into the history of upwards of a hundred +“Bulls,” and even where definite proof has not been forthcoming, the +circumstantial evidence has always been sufficient to arouse suspicion. It +is especially a common sign in connection with a nunnery. Thus the inns of +this name at Dartford, Barking and Malling, all three very ancient, +belonged to the local abbeys. At Hythe, on the Medway, a manor of Malling +Abbey, there is a _Bull Inn_; and another at Theale in Berkshire, which +was the property of the prioress of Goring. Elfrida, the mother-in-law of +Edward the Martyr, founded a nunnery at Reading in expiation of the base +murder of that prince. This nunnery was abolished owing to scandals in the +twelfth century, but a _Bull Inn_ still flourishes near the site of the +Abbey Gate. At Newington, next Sittingbourne, the prioress was found +strangled in her bed and the nuns were removed elsewhere, but the _Bull_ +remains as the chief inn to this day. + +[Illustration: The Bull, Sudbury] + +In deeds of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries relating to the _Bull_ +at Barking, this house is referred to as “tectum vel hospitium vocatum le +_Bole_.” _Bole_ is the old French equivalent of the Latin _bulla_, a seal +from which it is clear that no bovine connection is implied by the sign, +but merely that the inn was licensed under the seal of the Abbey. Some +antiquaries have suggested that such inns were tied houses where ale of +monastic brewing was sold, reminding us of the current explanation of the +xx and xxx marks on barrels of strong ale, as having been originally the +seals guaranteeing the quality in the days when the monks were the leading +brewers. It is true that the peculiar virtue of the wells at +Burton-on-Trent was known at a very early period, and that the ale brewed +in the local Abbey was an article of commerce when Richard I was king. +Tied houses were not uncommon in the Middle Ages, witness the _Bear Inn_ +in Southwark, leased in 1319 by Thomas Drinkwater, wine merchant to James +Beauflur, on condition that he purchased all his liquor from the said +Thomas Drinkwater, who agreed to furnish all needful flagons, mugs, +cutlery and linen. On the other hand, very few collegiate houses brewed +ale beyond the needs of their own consumption, and we have not yet come +across any lease binding their tenants. Mention is often made of a +brewhouse attached to the inn. As to the marks on the barrels a prosaic +solution is that these are merely excise marks of the seventeenth century, +when beer was taxed according to its strength. + +[Illustration: Pigeon House at the Bull, Long Melford] + +Whatever the terms of its original lease may have been the _Bull_ profited +by monastic favour and protection to grow into a big and prosperous +establishment. It is nearly always the leading hostelry of the town. Two +centuries ago the _Bull_ at St. Albans was described by Baskerville as the +largest in England, but with the decay of the coaching trade it has +retired into private life. Mr. Jingle’s recommendation of the _Bull_ at +Rochester, “Good house, nice beds,” might be fairly applied to nearly +every _Bull Inn_ of our acquaintance. The sign is a symbol of steady-going +respectable old-fashioned ways, where comfort is not sacrificed to +economy, and where the cellar and kitchen are alike irreproachable. Any +remnants of antiquity are concealed behind a broad Georgian façade, for +good business entails frequent rebuilding. The _Bull_ at Barking is now to +all appearance a quite modern hotel. Few would guess that its history +could be traced for seven hundred years, and that twice during that time +it has been occupied by a single family for more than a century. In 1636 +it was sold to St. Margaret’s Hospital in Westminster, for the sum of one +shilling; and therefore continues to be collegiate property. + +To avoid confusion we must remind the reader that the “_Bull’s Head_” +denotes the crest of the Nevilles or, occasionally, Anne Boleyn. The _Pied +Bull_ is a whimsical sign found near a cattle market or bull-ring. A few +inns, too, received the name of the Bull in Elizabethan or Jacobean times +when astrology was popular, and Taurus happened to be the house ascendant +in the horary figure. Thus in Ben Jonson’s “Alchemist”: + + “A townsman born in Taurus given the bull, or the Bull’s head; in + Aries the ram.” + +Sometimes in place of the official seal the monastic inn bore for its sign +a picture or carving of a religious mystery. Outside the Abbey Gate, at +Bury St. Edmunds, is the _Angel Inn_, once called the _Angelus_ or +_Salutation_; there is another _Angel Inn_, probably monastic, in +Guildford. Both of these are famous for their beautiful Early English +crypts, groined and vaulted in stone. The _Angel_ at Grantham belonged to +the Knights Templars. At Addington in Kent the _Angel_ has a very odd +staircase of great antiquity, each tread being a solid log of timber; and +an underground passage, which local gossip connects with a priory at +Ryarsh. Another monastic _Angel_ at Basingstoke is said to be the subject +of Ben Jonson’s coarse epigram, inspired by the departure of his hostess, +Mrs. Hope and her daughter Prudence. The _Cock_ as an emblem of St. Peter, +and the _Crosskeys_ are frequently found. The most interesting inn in the +city of Westminster was the _Cock and Tabard_, in Tothill Street, pulled +down in 1871. It dated from the reign of Edward III, and it was here, +according to Stowe, that the workmen engaged in the completion of the +Abbey Church were paid. From its yard two centuries later the first +stage-coach to Oxford was started. Battle Abbey possessed several “_Star_” +inns, the best known of which was the _Star_ at Alfriston, which may +either be named after Our Lady, Star of the Sea, or after the Earl of +Sussex, one of whose badges was the star. + +Semi-religious signs such as the _Angel_, _Star_ and _Mitre_ are not +always monastic, nor need they imply pre-reformation origin. The Angel at +Islington is, comparatively speaking, a mushroom upstart. Under the sign +of the _Angel_, Jacobs, a Jew, opened in 1650 one of the first +coffee-houses in the parish of St. Peter, Oxford. A pious Roundhead might +find chapter and verse for the sign and gloat over the conceit of +entertaining an Angel--perhaps not unawares. Puritan sects have been known +to give the official title of “Angel” to their itinerant preachers. The +_Cock Tavern_, in Fleet Street, in spite of the splendid gilt chanticleer +(generally attributed to Grinling Gibbons) has no connection with St. +Peter. An advertisement, printed in the _Intelligence_ of 1665, shows +that its old name was the _Cock and Bottle_. Cock is still used in some +parts of the country for the spigot, or tap in a barrel; and the sign was +simply a short way of informing the bibulous that they could obtain here +ale both on draught and in bottle. + +A monastic inn far exceeding in world-wide fame all others, is that +_Tabard Inn_ in the Borough, whence five hundred years ago thirty merry +pilgrims set forth on a springtide morning on their three days’ journey +along the old Watling Street to Canterbury. The _Tabard_ was a speculation +of the Abbot of Hyde, Winchester, and no doubt a profitable one, for its +landlords were always men of character and substance who would attract +guests of good class. Harry Bailey, Chaucer’s friend, represented +Southwark in two successive parliaments, and another landlord, William +Rutton, sat in Parliament for East Grinstead in 1529. Built in 1307, +together with a hostel for the clergy of the monastery, it remained in +much the same condition as when Chaucer sang its praises until about 1602. +The stone-coloured wooden gallery, in front of which hung a picture of the +Canterbury Pilgrimage, attributed to Blake, and the so-called “Pilgrim’s +room” were probably of this period; the rest was rebuilt after the great +fire of Southwark, 1676. Twenty years ago all was demolished, and a +gin-shop on its site of modern, vulgar red-brick mock gothic absurdly +claims the title of “_The Old Tabard_.” + +One religious order never attempted to divert the increasing stream of +guests into the inns. With the Knights Hospitallers all comers were +welcomed; the entertainment of strangers remained their chief duty. The +accounts of their house in Clerkenwell for the year 1337 show that they +had spent more than their whole revenue--at least £8,000, the reason +being, as the prior explains, the hospitality given to strangers, members +of the royal family and other grandees who all expected to be entertained +in accordance with their rank. A noble would occasionally send his whole +suite to the convent in order to save expense. The Knight monks finding no +Paynim to demolish became an order of hotel-keepers, and travellers never +failed to profit by the generous fare provided in their numerous +establishments. + +[Illustration: Yard of the White Horse, Dorking] + +At Dorking, when the Knights departed, the innkeeper took their place and +continues to keep up the old traditions. The _White Cross_ is now the +_White Horse_, though not from any similarity of names but because the +Earls of Arundel, and afterwards the Dukes of Norfolk, were lords of the +manor. In later life the _White Horse_ was a famous coaching house, and +rebuildings have apparently destroyed any feature older than say three +centuries. Perhaps it was in the yard of this house, where a noble old +vine spreads green fragrance over the great white gables, that Charles +Dickens met the individual who sat for the portrait of Tony Weller. Deep +underneath the building are a series of vaults cut out of the +sandstone--maybe a relic of the Hospitallers. In one of the lowest is a +curious old well. Tradition has it that these cellars were used in the +smuggling days. To lovers of the road the quaint gables and broad oriels +of the _White Horse_ are no mean landmark, for they are the destination of +a real old-fashioned coach and four running hither from Charing Cross +daily during the summer months. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE HOSPICES + + +Mention of the Knights Hospitallers brings us by an easy stage to +pilgrimages; it was the original purpose of this order to keep open the +route to the Holy Places and to assist the sick and needy pilgrims on +their journey. Some pious merchants of Amalfi obtained permission to found +a refuge for destitute pilgrims to the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, about +the middle of the eleventh century. At first the brethren of St. John were +content with nursing the sick and relieving the hungry in the Jerusalem +Hospice, and in this work of mercy earned the toleration of Saladin when +he once more captured Jerusalem from the Christians. But at this time they +had already taken to the sword and had become very active and trenchant +members of the Church Militant. + +Rich in glowing romance and stirring adventure is the story of the +pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and the many expeditions to regain possession of +the Holy Land. We are more concerned with the ordinary Englishman. While +the Crusade ensured the absence for a season of a goodly number of +turbulent lords and truculent retainers, he was at liberty to visit the +shrines of his own country. At Glastonbury was the chapel of St. Joseph of +Arimathea and the sacred Thorn, as venerable as anything in Christendom. +Hardly less ancient was the shrine of the first martyr, St. Alban; while +at Durham he might kneel in reverence before the relics of the great St. +Cuthbert and the Venerable Bede. St. Ethelbert of Hereford and St. Edmund +at Bury St. Edmunds would equally invite the suffrages of their clients. + +Pilgrimages played their part, and a very important one too, in the making +of England. They gave the ordinary man an opportunity to travel. A subject +race of stolid peasantry, who otherwise would never have left the confines +of their lord’s estate, were encouraged to go on a long journey and see +what the world outside was like. If any man wished to go on a pilgrimage +he needed only a scrip and staff consecrated by his parish priest. So +furnished no lord could detain him. By virtue of his pious and meritorious +vow he would find friends and assistance everywhere. The most desperate +characters would respect the sanctity of his profession; if a robber found +that his victim was a pilgrim he restored all that he had taken.[2] During +his absence, any monastery was prepared to take charge of his affairs, nor +could any legal proceedings be taken against him until his return. +Pilgrimages were the thin end of the wedge which was destined to shatter +the whole feudal system. They sowed the seeds of the great Revolt of the +peasants under Richard II. They instilled into the heart of the people +that roving restless spirit that made the Englishman the most successful +coloniser the world has ever known. + +Under the very curfew the torch of liberty was smouldering. It is +significant that nearly all the places of popular pilgrimage established +between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries had a political basis. The +figure of the last king of the old English stock stood out bright against +the darkness of England, trodden under foot by the foreigner. Memories of +peace, prosperity, and independence gathered round his name, and while men +were clamouring for the good laws of Edward the Confessor, throngs of +pilgrims hastened to implore intercession of the Saint; to-day his tomb +in the Abbey of Westminster is the most hallowed spot for every true +Englishman. A century later the scene of the martyrdom at Canterbury was +attracting even vaster crowds, nearly one-tenth of the whole population of +the country resorting hither for worship in a single year. We may well +believe that they came to reverence St. Thomas of Canterbury, as not +merely a devout ascetic, but as the first Commoner of English birth who +dared to brave the absolute power of the King. + +There were several quite unauthorised pilgrimages of political origin. +Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, who had headed the barons in their agitation +against Edward II and the royal favourites, became, after his execution, a +saint in popular estimation; pilgrimages were organised to Pontefract as +well as to a picture of the “Saint” set up in St. Paul’s Cathedral in +spite of royal protests. By a strange revulsion of sentiment the tomb of +Edward II, himself one of the least desirable of kings, became a place of +pilgrimage; and a special inn had to be built at Gloucester to accommodate +those who wished to make their prayers and vows on his behalf. The good +Simon de Montfort, although he died under excommunication, was accounted a +saint; and Latin hymns and versicles were composed for his office.[3] + +Of all the devotional pilgrimages none could stand in comparison with Our +Lady of Walsingham. It may be regarded as illustrative of the English +character that this shrine grew into notoriety, without any startling +miracle, from simple and homely beginnings. A pious Norfolk lady caused a +little wooden house to be built in imitation of the Holy House at Nazareth +and invited her neighbours to join with her there in meditation on the +mystery of the Immaculate Conception. With time and a great concourse of +pilgrims came an elaboration of legend and a variety of foreign +accessories, maybe exaggerated in the half satirical description given by +Erasmus. But when the true unvarnished story of Walsingham comes to be +written it will show that to the very end a degree of sober good sense +controlled the authorities there. + +In the fourteenth century pilgrimages had become the fashion for all +classes. With kings and nobles they were a ceremonial duty. The sick man +went to regain his health and discovered it, maybe, on the breezy heath or +sunny downs long before he reached the Shrine. The simple devout soul, no +doubt, found in the restful minster the religious consolation he came in +search of. More worldly people enjoyed an inexpensive holiday. Merchants +went on pilgrimages to avoid their creditors. During their absence an +uncomfortable “slump” in business could be tided over. Chaucer half +conveys a sly suggestion that this was the motive underlying the presence +of the merchant in the “Canterbury Tales”: + + “There wiste no wight that he was in debt.” + +Workmen weary of a thankless task found a pretext in a pilgrimage for +going off on the quest of a new master. An idle apprentice had an excuse +ready at hand for exchanging the dull city workshop for a week in the +Kentish orchards. A villein might succeed in reaching some distant town +where he could live unbeknown by his lord for the necessary year and a day +which meant permanent freedom. Statutes were passed over and over again to +restrain these abuses, but they were all evaded. The pilgrimage was an +institution hallowed from time immemorial, and none could gainsay the +right of every Christian man to take in hand his scrip and staff. + +Imagine the motley procession almost ceaseless from morn till eve on the +Roman roads to the North through St. Albans, Eastward to Canterbury, or +Westward by Reading or Salisbury towards the favoured resort. Ladies of +rank in their horse-litters or rich tapestried carriages; peasants in +their springless two-wheeled dog-carts. Then a company of middle-class +people on horseback, all of them, men and women alike, well able to manage +their steeds. The very poor travelled on foot, and many better class trod +barefoot some portion of the Walsingham green way as a penitential +exercise. Lame, halt and blind negotiated their journey as best they +could. The pilgrim roads were fairly good; Watling Street ran almost +straight as an arrow as it was set out by the Roman engineers from +Deptford to Canterbury. All roads were said to lead to Walsingham, and +that through Ware and Newmarket, if not Roman, was nearly as direct. +Pilgrims on horseback from the West of England might utilize the so-called +“Pilgrims’ Way” to Canterbury, but by the fourteenth century the Kentish +portion had been broken up into a series of feeders to the Watling Street. +A similar bridle path ran from Newmarket towards Fakenham on the +Walsingham route. + +When night fell these wayfarers would tax all available resources for +their shelter and sustenance. At the manor-house they were very unwelcome; +the lord had good cause to detest the idea of poor people going on +pilgrimage. The monastery could only receive a small proportion. Many +needed nursing as well as rest. And so a special form of +lodging-house--half inn, half charitable institution had to be devised. +The great Hospice at Jerusalem, which provided for fully a thousand +visitors at one time, was regarded as the model, but the idea is much +older. At Cebrero, in Northern Spain, there is a _Hospicio Real_, founded +in 836 by King Alphonso II, for pilgrims crossing the pass of Piedrafita +on the way from Segovia to St. James of Compostella. St. John’s Hospital +at Winchester claims to have been originally founded by St. Brinstan about +the year 930 for sick and poor pilgrims to St. Swithin. + +For the Canterbury pilgrims there were many of these hospices. That at +Rochester, a private benefaction, we have already mentioned. The _George +Inn_, which still can show a fine Early English crypt, may also be +described as a pilgrims’ inn, though, perhaps, like that at St. Albans, +for the better class of people. There was a pilgrims’ resting house at +Bapchild, near Sittingbourne. Ospringe, near Faversham, takes its name not +from the spring which used to babble so pleasantly along the water lane, +but from the great hospice founded by Henry III. By a similar “derangement +of epitaphs” the hospice at Colnbrook has developed into the _Ostrich +Inn_. A considerable portion of the hospice at Ospringe survives to this +day in half-timbered buildings around the _Crown Inn_, and the chapel is +said to form the foundations of the _Ship Inn_ on the opposite side of the +road. It is more likely that this inn stands on the site of the separate +establishment provided for lepers. This hospice must have been of great +extent and provided accommodation for rich and poor alike. A master and +three regular brethren of the Order of the Holy Cross were to superintend +the work of hospitality and nursing. Owing to an outbreak of the plague in +the reign of Edward IV the brethren forsook the place in a panic and died +without taking care to choose their successors. The property escheated to +the Crown; hence the presence of the _Crown Inn_. + +Canterbury abounded in hospices of various kinds, some specially reserved +for the poorer clergy. The fourteenth century façade and vaulted lower +storey of one of these still survives in the High Street. Originally +established by St. Thomas himself, it was rebuilt by Archbishop Stratford, +whose regulations provided that every pilgrim in health should have one +night’s lodging to the cost of fourpence (about five shillings in modern +money); the weak and infirm were to be preferred to the hale, and women +upwards of forty years were to attend to the bedding and administer +medicaments to the sick. + +At Maidstone, there was a large hospice for pilgrims travelling to +Canterbury by Malling and Charing. St. Peter’s Church was formerly the +Chapel of this institution. At Reading the hospice was founded by Abbot +Hugh about 1180 and dedicated to St. John the Baptist. A sisterhood of +eight widows ministered to the wants of the pilgrims. We may mention also +the hospitals of St. Giles and St. Ethelbert at Hereford, both of very +ancient date. At the latter alms were distributed to a hundred poor people +daily. + +Under the sign of the _George Inn_ we can often detect the successor to a +pilgrims’ hostel dedicated to St. George of the Dragon. The _George_, at +Glastonbury, the very finest existing example of an inn built in stone +during the Perpendicular period, was founded by Abbot Selwood in 1489, and +provided board and lodging to pilgrims free of charge for two days. The +_George_ at St. Albans, is more suggestive in its present state of a cosy +well-ordered coaching inn of the Georgian period, with nothing visible of +antiquity except its panelled staircase and beautiful old furniture. But +its records carry us back to 1401, and in 1448 it received a licence from +the Abbot for the celebration of low mass in the private chapel on account +of the many noble and worthy personages who resorted thither when on +pilgrimage to the Cathedral. At another George and Dragon hospice at +Wymondham, the Saint has succumbed to the reptile, and the _Green Dragon_ +presides alone on the signboard. + +Pilgrims to shrines beyond sea were not forgotten. At Dover the _Maison +Dieu_ was built and endowed by Hubert de Burgh, the great Justiciary, in +the reign of Edward III; and on crossing to Calais the adventurer found +another _Maison Dieu_, the first of a long chain of resting-places on the +way to Rome, the Three Kings at Cologne, or Rocamadour, in Guyenne, +according as his fancy or devotion might direct him. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE RISE OF THE TOWNS + + +Every high road leads sooner or later to a market town, and in that town +the tourist may be sure of finding a _White Hart Inn_. The _White Hart_ is +the commonest of signs all through England. Half-timbered and rambling, +with the marks of decrepit old age and long service writ large all over +it, this inn is in evidence near the market-place, often in a street of +the same name, to remind us of its importance in the days gone by. +Sometimes, as at Guildford and Brentwood, the old building lies hidden +behind a more modern front. When the builder has laid violent hands on a +_White Hart_, title-deeds or other authentic records of its antiquity are +in nearly every case available. + +[Illustration: The White Hart, Brentwood] + +A vague tradition attempts to explain these inns as royal posting-houses, +it being supposed that stations to supply fresh horses for the royal +journeys were first established during the last years of Edward III. +Undoubtedly the _White Hart_ inns all date from the beginning of the +reign of Richard II. After the scandals and misrule during the long dotage +of his father, the nation centred all their hopes in the young king who +showed promise of becoming a wise and able ruler. The policy of the good +Parliament would once more govern in the council, and it seemed a happy +omen when he took for his badge the white stag with a collar of gold +around his neck. This legend, portrayed on so many signboards, was a +delight of the mediæval romantic writers: the white hart was never to be +taken alive except by one who had conquered the whole world. Its oldest +form appears in the pages of Aristotle who relates how Diomedes +consecrated a white stag to Diana; and how it lived for a thousand years +before it was killed by Agathocles, King of Sicily. Pliny gives Alexander +the Great, and later writers Julius Cæsar and Charlemagne, as the Emperors +who captured the young white stag and released it after decorating it with +the golden band. On the Dorchester road, near Stowminster, there used to +be an inn with this kingly stag painted for a sign, and underneath the +following lines translated from a mediæval quatrain by some not very +conscientious scholar who has imported Cæsar, stag and all, into the West +of England: + + “When Julius Cæsar landed here, + I was then a little deer, + When Julius Cæsar reigned King, + Round my neck he put this ring; + Whoever shall me overtake, + Spare my life for Cæsar’s sake!” + +But when we begin to inquire into the actual title-deeds of the _White +Hart_ inns, we find ourselves in the midst of movements of far deeper +import than the outburst of national loyalty on the signboards. The story +of a great mediæval fiscal policy; the birth of home manufactures; the +struggle of the towns for municipal rights. The sign of the White Hart +marks a turning-point in the great social and industrial revolution which +was to bring to the great body of Englishmen prosperity and freedom. + +No country could compare with England, during the Middle Ages, for the +production of wool. From the twelfth century onwards wool was almost the +only export and the principal source of wealth for landowners and farmers. +So important a trade was bound to receive the attention of Chancellors in +search of a new tax. Accordingly, early in the thirteenth century, a +system was devised by which no wool could possibly be exported until it +had contributed its quota to the royal treasury. Wool, as well as some +other raw materials, such as skins, lead and tin, had to be brought for +sale to an appointed place called the Staple, where the trade was under +the superintendence of a special corporation whose seal must appear on +every bale. The Staple was at first fixed at Bruges, the chief seaport of +the Flemish cloth manufacturer, but during the reign of Edward III, it was +moved to England, and then finally, in 1390, established at Calais. +Thither every dealer was obliged to carry his bales by certain approved +routes, through Boston, London, Sandwich, Winchester, or Southampton, and +these towns became subsidiary centres of the Staple. _Staple Inn_, in +Holborn, was an inn for merchants of the Staple before it became a resort +for the lawyers. In the end the merchants of the Staple grew into a ring +of powerful monopolists, who controlled prices, regulated times of sale, +and even secured the carrying trade in their own hands. The sale of +English sheep abroad, either for breeding or for shearing, was also +forbidden under very heavy penalties. + +All these vexatious formalities in getting his wool to Calais, and the +rapacity of the merchants of the Staple, disgusted the English farmer. As +early as 1258 Simon de Montfort urged that England ought to be a centre +of manufacture, and not merely a source of raw material. Edward III, +while with one hand consolidating the power of the monopolists who +controlled the Staple, on the other hand stimulated the obvious remedy. He +invited Flemish weavers to settle in this country. By the end of his reign +the whirring sound of the looms might be heard all through Norfolk, Essex +and Kent. From a country of farmers which exported wool, England was soon +to be transformed into a country of manufacturers who exported cloth. The +sale of wool at the Staple dwindled away, while Yorkshire tweeds and +Cotswold broadcloths were winning the preference for price and quality in +the most distant markets. + +The commercial prosperity of England is generally said to have been built +up on the industries arising out of the woolpack. But in the fourteenth +century capital was already being found for the development of many other +enterprises. In 1307 there were complaints about London fog, owing to the +use of coal as fuel. In the Sussex weald and the Forest of Dean the iron +trade was so busy that it was necessary to import a considerable portion +of the ore from Sweden and Spain. The excellence of English guns, it is +said, contributed largely to the victories of Henry V in France.[4] The +lost art of brickmaking was reintroduced by the Flemings. Cheaper labour +and materials induced copper-founders from Dinant and bell-founders from +Liege to transfer their trades hither. Instead of bringing beer from +Prussia the shipmasters found it more profitable to export Maidstone ales +into Flanders. + +Meanwhile, the towns from a position of semi-servitude had been step by +step attaining to liberty, wealth and the political franchise. London led +the way owing to the presence of merchants from Rouen and Caen who settled +there immediately after the Conquest and took the position of a governing +class prepared to treat with the King for privileges. The steps by which +the various boroughs secured their rights of self-government, free speech +in free meeting and equal justice would need several volumes to describe. +They were won by steady solid perseverance, by customs allowed to grow up +unnoticed during the quarrels between the barons and the royal favourites, +by a direct bargain with the lord of the manor, or in a few instances by +less ingenuous methods. Most of the towns, like London, were situated on +the royal demesne. With these the work was comparatively easy. Secure of +his ultimate supremacy, and indifferent to small sources of power, the +king was generally willing to surrender local claims for a fixed payment +in money. A Corporation was a better security for the payment of dues than +petty officers given to peculation. Accordingly, from the reign of Henry +I, charters were granted giving a progressive degree of liberty, although +until the reign of John the King retained the nomination of the portreeve +or mayor. + +The feudal baron was not so willing to part with his supremacy. But the +nobility were rapidly becoming poorer; and the issue of the battle was +ultimately with the strong. Either the powerful merchants’ guild, +returning unwearied to the fray after each rebuff, by its steady dogged +agitation ended in forcing a compromise, or else the traders deserted the +place and let it dwindle away into a poverty-stricken village. Sometimes +an ancient charter was alleged to exist and prescriptive rights claimed +before a commission in the King’s Courts; and the longest purse could fee +the most persistent counsel. + +Much less hopeful were the prospects of citizens whose lord was a +religious house. The monasteries were rich, well acquainted with forms of +law, and as trustees not justified in parting with their hereditary +assets. Hitherto promoters of progress, the monks now began, to be +regarded as a stumbling-block on the path towards freedom. And from this +arose the smouldering hatred of the monasteries that underlies so much of +the literature of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. During the great +revolt of the villeins the monasteries and bishops’ palaces on the route +of the insurgents were all burnt and sacked by the mob. At St. Albans, +Cirencester, and even in the cinque port of Romney, the struggles of the +townsfolk to burst their thraldom were endless and always futile. It was +organised force in conflict with organised authority, and the result was +that the latter prevailed. At Coventry the motto of the two contending +bodies was _divide et impera_. The Merchant Guild became the Guild of the +Holy Trinity and shared with the Corpus Christi Guild (of which the Prior +and other Churchmen were members) all authority in the town, nominating +the Mayor and all the important officials. + +Simon de Montfort, “the father of English liberty,” was the first to +recognise the growing importance of the commercial middle classes by +summoning two burgesses from each of the town boroughs to his Parliament +in 1264, and their presence was treated as a matter of course in +subsequent Parliaments, though they formed a comparatively insignificant +factor. In the reign of Edward III, when the Knights of the Shire +associated with them to form the future House of Commons, their growing +wealth and ability to make terms with the King as a condition of granting +supplies was recognised and a marked increase of parliamentary activity +commenced. Their “petitions” became on the assent of the Crown Statutes of +the Realm, and henceforward the Lower House was to initiate nearly all +legislation. + +And now we can return to our _White Hart_ inns. They were the first inns +to be built by the corporations, or at least under their licence. Secure +in the possession of their charter, proud of their ever-increasing +commerce, hopeful of the future privileges and reforms that were likely to +be obtained by their burgesses in Parliament, the towns began to provide +new inns of a superior kind for the merchants who came regularly to their +markets. They were held direct from the King, and to the reigning king +alone they looked for any future marks of favour. Hence these inns almost +invariably bear the badge of the reigning king. When Richard II was +deposed the White Hart gave place to the White Swan of Henry IV, and this +latter is nearly as common on the signboards. Barons and earls might +dispute and make war on one another as to who was the sovereign _de jure_; +the concern of the towns was with the king _de facto_. The Commons +regarded each change of dynasty from Plantagenet to red rose and from red +rose to white rose with the complacency of the Vicar of Bray. The old +aristocracy ruined themselves and died out amid these political disputes; +meanwhile the burghers grew rich and their posterity formed the nucleus of +a new aristocracy of English race and of more patriotic instincts. + +[Illustration: The Swan, Felstead] + +The signboards tell the same tale all through the fifteenth century. The +Antelope of Henry VI, the White Lion of Edward IV, and the White Boar of +Richard III each take their turn. The changes they represented meant +little more than incidental gossip to the burghers. All the real life of +the citizens was in their home and trade, in their craft guilds, in +treaties with neighbouring towns, or in the little controversies of the +town council. + +We know only a few incidental details about the internal comforts of the +White Hart inns. The majority of the guests slept in large rooms, on +couches or wooden bedsteads. Only a few very important grandees were +accorded a private _camera_. The bed was a long sack-like mattress stuffed +with straw or hay; great folk would carry with them their own bed on +their journeys. Most people lay in their ordinary clothes on the bed, +though counterpanes and linen were just coming into use. Carpets were +chiefly employed like tapestry for hanging on the walls and diminishing +the continual draughts. The women had their special apartments; the +serving men slept on the rushes of the hall, while the grooms were left to +make the best of stable and barn. Meals were taken at fixed hours, at a +long movable table on trestles in the hall, guests and servants sitting +down together, but placed according to rank. Some of the dishes would not +commend themselves to fastidious moderns, but at least, there was never +any lack of good wholesome fare; loaves, joints and meat pasties all on a +gargantuan scale. Wines of British as well as foreign extraction competed +with the nut brown ale. Essex was in those days the vineyard of England. + +How much we have fallen off in the capacity of our stomachs from the good +old times of open-air life and daily exercise on horseback may be judged +from the following allowance of provisions granted to Lady Lucy, one of +the maids of honour to Queen Katherine of Aragon: + + “Breakfast--A chine of beef, a loaf, a gallon of ale. + + Luncheon--Bread and a gallon of ale. + + Dinner--A piece of boiled beef, a slice of roast meat, a gallon of + ale. + + Supper--Porridge, mutton, a loaf, and a gallon of ale.” + +When the Warden of Merton College travelled with two of his fellows and +four servants from Oxford to Durham in 1331, the season being winter, +their average bill was 2d. for beds for the whole party, or for the +servants alone, one halfpenny; at the town inns of fifty years later the +price of a bed was one penny, and the increased comfort warranted the +higher charge.[5] The private rooms, instead of being numbered, received +names according to the subject portrayed on the tapestry hangings. This +custom continued in old-fashioned inns up to quite recent times, and has +served as the basis of stage humour of a sort: + + SCENE. A Country Inn. + + _Timothy._ What rooms have you disengaged, Waiter? + + _Waiter._ Why sir, there’s the Moon: but I forget--there’s a man in + that. + + _Timothy._ Eh! A man in the Moon! Oh then we’ll not go there. + + _Waiter._ There’s the Waterloo Subscription, Sir; that’s full--there’s + the Pope’s Head; that’s empty, etc., etc.[6] + +In the minute books of the Grey Coat Hospital, a very valuable religious +educational charity, we come across a rather startling entry. On Epiphany, +1698, “After prayers and sermon in church, the children and their parents +dined in Hell.” Heaven and Hell were two public dining rooms adjoining the +old Palace of Westminster, and so named either from the hangings or other +pictorial decoration. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE CRAFT GUILDS AND TRADERS’ INNS + + +Of the writing of books about the mediæval guilds there seems to be no +end, and each new contribution serves to mystify rather than to throw +light on the difficulties of the subject. From the earliest times, it was +an inherent tendency of the Teutonic races to combine and form guilds. +There were guilds for the building of bridges, for the relief of poor +pilgrims, and for almost every imaginable purpose, ranging from the +organisation of a municipality to the Saxon “frith-gild,” which undertook +the punishment of thieves and the exacting of compensation for homicides. +As to the craft guilds of the Middle Ages, some are content to regard them +as trade unions, others as similar to our modern clubs, and a third class +of writers assert that they were purely religious. As a matter of fact, +they were capable of becoming all three in turn. + +No doubt the original motive of these guilds was to create a monopoly and +artificial control over the particular trade, and also to obtain that +security which only an organised association is able to give against +tyranny and corruption. They comprised all ranks, wage-earners, +manufacturers, and merchants. The weakness of such a body was that there +was no community of interests as regards the internal economy of the +industry. That is to say, the merchants and masters would not be induced +to improve the position of their apprentices or to raise the wages of +journeymen. The only common ground would lie in attempts to assert the +interests of the trade at large against the whole body of consumers, or +against competing trades. + +On the other hand, the Corporation itself was originally a guild which had +succeeded in obtaining a charter and thus becoming the administrative +authority. It would regard with anxiety the creation of other bodies which +might follow in its footsteps and become very dangerous rivals. Charters, +indeed, were in the twelfth century being bought from the King, which +rendered fraternities dependent for their existence on the royal will +alone. The weavers of London lived in a quarter by themselves, with their +own courts and raised their own taxes, suffering no intrusion from the +City officials. Only by an expensive process of boycotting was this abuse +brought to an end. When once the municipalities perceived their danger, +they proceeded ruthlessly to reduce the craft guilds into subjection and +to limit the purposes for which they were permitted to combine. + +And this brings us to the second period in the history of the craft +guilds, when we find each trade forming itself into an association to +provide a burial fund for its deceased members, masses for the repose of +their souls, and to organise a solemn procession and miracle play on the +annual festival. Behind the religious association the union for trade +purposes remained. When the secular powers of the craft guild were more +clearly defined, in the fifteenth century, under the style of a company, +the observance of the mystery was often allowed to fall into desuetude. +The Companies became mere trustees of the endowments belonging to the +religious guilds and treated with equanimity the abolition of these trusts +at the Reformation. + +In the third period the craft guilds as Companies became a useful adjunct +of the Corporation, protecting the community from overcharges, settling +disputes in the trade, and generally forming courts of reference on +technical matters. The City companies of to-day, though not under any +compulsion to do so, still occasionally render service of a kindred +nature. The work of the Plumbers’ Company, a few years ago, in arranging +for the examination and registration of plumbers will be called to mind; +the Apothecaries’ Company has also done good service. Out of the guilds of +the Holy Trinity at Hull and at Deptford has grown the Corporation of +Trinity House, that wealthy philanthropic body that builds lighthouses, +licenses pilots, and ministers in various ways to the welfare of our +merchant shipping. + +At Headcorn and Cranbrook, in the Weald of Kent, and again at Lavenham and +Sudbury, in Suffolk, may be seen many beautiful examples of the halls of +the craft guilds now derelict and converted to less noble purposes. Part +of the _King’s Head_ at Aylesbury is supposed by experts to have been +anciently a Guildhall. We shall refer more fully to this building in +another chapter. + +We have seen that the guilds afforded very few advantages to the +wage-earners, and according to the natural tendency of all such bodies, +they ended in becoming aristocratic and exclusive. They were for a long +period masters of the labour of the country, preventing any attempts at +strikes, and securing that all disputes as to the rate of pay should be +settled by the arbitration of their own warden. Vainly the serving-men of +the Saddlers strove to form a guild of their own on the harmless pattern +of a religious body with their own festival at Our Lady of +Stratford-le-Bow. It was complained of them that in thirteen years their +hire had more than doubled the ordinary rate, and their meetings were +ruthlessly repressed. The May-Day festival of the Journeymen Shearers in +Shrewsbury was suppressed for a similar reason.[7] + +Only one refuge remained for the oppressed workmen--the inn, which for +centuries was to be the place where he could hold these more or less +illegal meetings with his comrades. In the houses of call for artisans, +the workers discussed their grievances, hatched conspiracies and strikes, +or devised less drastic methods for the betterment of their condition. At +Kidderminster there is an inn called _The Holy Blaise_, after the patron +of weavers; another, _Bishop Blaise_, exists in the heart of the City of +London in New Inn Yard. The _Boar’s Head_, by the way, was a commonly +accepted emblem of St. Blaise. Many _St. Crispins_ or _Jolly Crispins_ +survive to represent the shoemaker. St. Hugh was another patron of the +shoe trade, and there was once a _St. Hugh’s Bones_ in Clare Market. +_Simon the Tanner_ is an old house in Long Lane, Bermondsey. A later age +absurdly re-named inns frequented by the labouring class as _The Weavers’ +Arms_, _Carpenters’ Arms_, _Bricklayers’ Arms_, etc., etc. These inns, a +common occurrence in every large town, are often of old foundation, and +incidentally commemorate the fact that in the public-house it was that the +wage-earners first learnt the art of combination for their own betterment. +Here the earliest trade unions found a welcome and a home, with which many +of their successors are still content. The club room at the inn was the +cradle of the Friendly Societies. The Freemasons have given name to a +whole series of taverns. All the numerous and generally well managed +benefit Societies on the pattern of the Foresters, Hearts of Oak and +Oddfellows owe their very existence to the public-house. + +[Illustration: Bricklayers’ Arms, Caxton] + +It was anciently the custom for workmen to be paid at the nearest inn, and +out of this, during the bad period at the beginning of the nineteenth +century grew a very serious abuse. Those to whom was entrusted the duty of +engaging and paying various forms of precarious and unskilled labour, such +as coal whippers and porters, found it profitable to become owners of +public-houses where the unfortunate men were kept waiting for a job which +was generally awarded to the individual whose score was the largest. When +the men returned from their work they were expected to spend a +considerable portion of their earnings for the good of the house. The +Truck Act of 1843 put an end to this heartless scandal. + +[Illustration: Golden Fleece, South Weald] + +The _Woolpack_ and _Fleece_ were, of course, the signs of inns frequented +by the merchants who came to buy wool. At Guildford all the alehouses were +at one time required to exhibit a Woolpack as a token of the leading +commodity in the town. There is a very fine old _Golden Fleece Inn_ at +South Weald in Essex, broad-fronted and roomy, Jacobean in style, but +fallen sadly from its old estate since the coach traffic ceased on the +Ipswich road. + +The _Three Kings_ was anciently the sign of the mercers, because in the +Middle Ages linen thread materials brought from Cologne had the highest +reputation, and were probably stamped either with the figures of the three +wise men, or with three crowns. But the _Three Crowns_ are asserted to be +more commonly emblematic of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland and +Ireland. The _Golden Ball_ was another mercers’ sign, from the arms of +Constantinople, which was formerly the centre of the silk trade. The +_Elephant and Castle_ was the crest of the Cutlers’ Company. However, the +_Elephant and Castle_, at the corner of Newington Causeway, has a quite +different origin. The skeleton of an elephant was discovered while digging +a gravel-pit near this spot in 1714. Elephants in mediæval heraldry were +invariably represented as carrying a solidly-built castle, a traveller’s +exaggeration of the Indian palanquin. The _Lion and Castle_ indicated a +dealer in Spanish wines, because sherry casks were stamped with the brand +of the Spanish arms. + +Foresters resorted for company to the _Green Man_, and the survival of +many old taverns of that name reminds us that there were numerous forests +in the neighbourhood of London. The Northwood, or Norwood, extended from +near the _Green Man_ at Dulwich to Croydon, where there is another _Green +Man Inn_. The _Green Man_ at Leytonstone stands on the verge of Epping +Forest. Wherever a painted sign exists on one of these houses it generally +represents either an archer or a forester clad in Lincoln green. + +The _Two Brewers_ does not denote that the ale of the two rival tradesmen +is on sale, but the manner in which beer was anciently carried about +before the invention of brewers’ drays. Two porters are shown bearing the +precious barrel slung between them on a pole. + +Last of all to be mentioned among the inns which remind us of disappearing +occupations are those found usually where the ancient green ways join the +main roads to London. The drover and his herd of tired wild-eyed cattle is +no longer a feature on the roadside. It is cheaper and more convenient to +send oxen to market by cattle-train. But the long green lanes, touching +here and there a market town, extend through the Eastern and Midland +counties, right up to the North of England. Lonely and deserted, +practicable only by the pedestrian or the rider of a sure-footed pony, +scarcely ever used except by the county officials, whose duty it is to +maintain the right of way, they remain as an ideal hunting ground for the +naturalist. When the explorer, tired and hungry after many miles of rough +journeying, finds shelter at the _Drover’s Call_, _Butcher’s Arms_, or +_Jolly Drovers_, the purpose of these old half-forgotten by-roads is made +clear to him, and he can meditate during his hour of rest on the changes +which fifty years have made in the methods of transport. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +CHURCH INNS AND CHURCH ALES + + +We had occasion a year or two ago to visit a small country town where +several public-houses were scheduled previous to being closed under the +Licensing Act. It was impossible to defend the continuance of the +licences. The high road which ran through the lower part of the town was +well provided with inns for the passing traveller. These condemned inns, +nine or ten in number, were all in a side street leading to the church at +the top of the hill. We inquired of a local antiquary, an enthusiast on +the subject of inns, whether he could account for the existence of so many +in a situation apparently ill-adapted for a prosperous trade, and received +a surprising explanation. + +[Illustration: Porch, Chalk Church, Kent] + +“They loved God in those days,” muttered the old gentleman, with a sigh of +regret, “and loving God each man loved his brother also. In the church +they learnt the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven; the public-house gave +them the opportunity of realising the Kingdom of Heaven in the practice +of brotherly love. It is a survival of the early Christian Agape. +‘Exercise hospitality one to another,’ says the Apostle--for this is the +full meaning of προσλαμβάνεσθαι in Romans xv, 7. In the good old days men +did not go into a public-house to drown their wits in gin, but to buy each +other good wholesome ale in Christian fellowship. And as every man went to +church--of course, there had to be many alehouses!” + +We have since discovered a less picturesque though much more plausible +origin of these superfluous inns which will be given in another chapter. +Nevertheless, allowing for our good friend’s flamboyant enthusiasm, there +is an element of truth in his contention. Wherever there is a church we +may be certain of finding an old inn hard by. In pre-reformation times the +Church, while not exactly countenancing the alehouse, looked not sourly on +drinking customs when indulged in with discretion. The training of the +character in self-restraint is a great ideal of the Catholic Church. The +alternation of festival and fast is one integral feature of the process. +Fasting alone is insufficient. Continual abstinence results in +self-mutilation; the appetite is merely distorted thereby. It is a great +secret of the higher life that where there is no temptation there can be +no victory. And so the Church enjoined on our forefathers the duty of +feasting heartily and fasting conscientiously each in their due season. A +great doctor of the Church gave the maxim that to be fasting after the +fifth hour of a holy-day was to be _ipso facto_ excommunicate. + +Before inns became common the parish clergy were expected to entertain +travellers. It must be borne in mind that until the thirteenth century +many of the secular priests were married men. The Rolls of Parliament for +1379 contain a complaint that owing to the non-residence of the clergy +this duty of affording shelter to benighted wayfarers was in danger of +lapsing. In our own boyhood it was still the traditional custom for +travellers in remote districts to put up at the rectory, and this may help +to account for the unnecessary size of rectories in sparsely populated +country parishes. But obviously the unmarried priest of the fifteenth +century found it more convenient to all parties when an inn was built on +his glebe, where it would be more or less under his control, and he could +be answerable for its good conduct. + +Again, parishioners from outlying districts were expected on high +festivals to attend morning and afternoon services at their mother church. +In licensing a chapel at Smallhythe in 1509 “on account of the badness of +the roads and the dangers which the inhabitants underwent from the waters +being out,” Archbishop Warham was careful to stipulate that the people of +Smallhythe were not thereby released from their duties at the parish +church of Tenterden. Some accommodation was necessary where those coming +from a distance could rest and have their midday meal during the interval +between High Mass and Vespers. At Lurgashall, in Sussex, there is a very +ancient closed porch of wood extending the whole length of the South aisle +which local tradition declares to have been built for this express +purpose. Perhaps also the large parvise to the west of the tower at +Boxley, like in form to the antechapels in the colleges at Oxford and +Cambridge, was a shelter of this kind. Mr. Baring-Gould thinks that the +deep porches in the French cathedrals were intended to shelter the +peasants during the midday hours. But by the fifteenth century the +increase in the standard of comfort would demand an inn, rather than +these exposed and draughty places for shelter. + +Church Ales were a special institution of the mediæval Church to the +intent that no parishioner by reason of poverty should lack the means of +feasting to his heart’s content on the greater holy-days; all were to +assemble and make merry together. “In every parish,” says Aubrey, in the +introduction to his “Natural History of Wiltshire,” “there was a Church +House, to which belonged spits, crocks, and other utensils for dressing +provisions. Here the housekeepers met. The young people were there, too, +and had dancing, bowling, shooting at butts, etc., the ancients sitting +gravely by and looking on. All things were civil and without scandal.” +Whitsuntide was the great feast of early summer before haymaking began, +and so these feasts were popularly known as Whitsun-Ales, but Easter and +Christmas were not forgotten. From an old Breton legend we learn +incidentally that it was customary for the three masses of Christmas to be +said consecutively by anticipation, after which all adjourned for a +gorgeous feast in the neighbouring Church House. Sometimes two parishes +united for the celebration of the Church Ale. In Dodsworth’s manuscripts +there is an old indenture preserved, an agreement between the parishioners +of Elveston and Okebrook, in Derbyshire, to brew four ales, and every ale +of one quarter of malt between Easter and the feast of St. John the +Baptist; every inhabitant of the two parishes to attend the several ales. +Charitable folks bequeathed funds for the maintenance of these parish +banquets on particular festivals. + +[Illustration: Church House, Penshurst] + +Just above the western door of Chalk Church, near Gravesend, squats carved +in stone a grotesque goblin figure, cross-legged and grinning with a most +jovial expression as he grasps a flagon of ale. Charles Dickens in his +latter years never omitted to stop and have greeting with this comical old +monster. Now, this sculpture commemorates a _give ale_, bequeathed by +William May, in 1512, that there should be “every year for his soull, an +obit, and to make in bread six bushells of wheat, and in drink ten +bushells of malt, and in cheese twenty pence, to give to poor people for +the health of his soull.” + +After the Reformation the Church Ales were continued, chiefly in order +that the Churchwardens might by the sale of the liquor secure funds for +the repair of the fabric. “There were no rates for the poor in my +grandfather’s days,” says Aubrey. “But for Kingston St. Michael (no small +parish) the Church Ale of Whitsuntide did the business.” Abuses rapidly +crept in. Stubbs, the author of the “Anatomie of Abuses,” complains in +1583, that the ales were kept up for six weeks on end, or even longer. In +the West of England instances are related of the South aisle of the church +being filled with beer casks and men busy supplying all comers. The sale +of liquor went on during morning service greatly to the disturbance of the +officiating minister. Bishops’ injunctions, ecclesiastical canons, and +orders of the justices fulminated vainly against the degenerated Church +Ales. Not till the time of the Commonwealth were they finally abolished. + +[Illustration: The Punch Bowl, High Easter] + +Bishop Hobhouse traces the growth of the Church House into a regular +tavern at Tintinhull in Somersetshire. First, there was a small bakehouse +for the making of the _pain bénit_. In time this had developed into a +bakery supplying the whole neighbourhood with bread. From brewing ale for +Church festivals, the brewhouse undertook the regular sale of malt liquor; +and it was a very profitable business for the churchwardens; so that +municipal trading was not quite unknown in the olden time. + +The only examples of an undoubted Church House that we have come across +are the “Church Loft” at West Wycombe, in Bucks, and the exquisite +half-timbered building over the Lych Gate at Penshurst. The _Castle Inn_ +at Hurst, in Berkshire, is traditionally known as the Church House. The +bowling-green behind this inn is one of the best in England and of great +antiquity. There are many inns and other old houses near churchyards which +probably began their career as Church Houses; the half-timbered “Priest +house” at Langdon, in Essex, and the long plastered and tiled tudor +structure over the porch at Felstead, opposite the _Swan Inn_, and +formerly used as the Grammar School, may both be of this category. The +_Punch Bowl_ at High Easter is actually in the churchyard; its interior +framing--a marvellous piece of joinery--and the richly-moulded beams show +it to have been built at the same time as part of the church, perhaps by +the same craftsmen. By the way, Mr. James Stokes, the landlord for many +years of the _Punch Bowl_, a worthy, good-hearted man, was in size the +nearest rival of Daniel Lambert we ever met. His huge proportions were not +by any means due to indolent habits. He was a thatcher by trade, and +noted in the district for his activity and skill. + +[Illustration: The Punch Bowl, High Easter] + +In the absence of documents it is not easy to discriminate between the +Church Inn and the Church House. Old inns near the church bearing +ecclesiastical names may be of either origin, or may have served for both. +The _Bell_ is very common all over England. It is always found near the +church, and the sign is of the highest antiquity. Chaucer tells us that +the _Tabard_ in Southwark was “juste by the Belle.” The _Bell_ at Finedon, +in Northamptonshire, puts in a claim to be one of the very oldest in the +country, and the old _Bell Tavern_ which formerly stood in King Street, +Westminster, is mentioned in the expenses of Sir John Howard, Jockey of +Norfolk, in 1466. At the _Bell_, in Warwick Lane, died the good Archbishop +Leighton in 1684. “He often used to say that if he were to choose a place +to die in, it should be an inn; it looks like a pilgrim’s going home, to +whom this world was all as an inn, and who was weary of the noise and +confusion in it.... And he obtained what he desired.”[8] + +Not unusual in this situation is a _Lamb Inn_. The _Lamb_ at Eastbourne +has a small but well-proportioned crypt, vaulted and groined. There is a +_Lamb and Flag_ near the old parish church at Brighton, Sudbury, and at +Swindon; and a _Lamb and Anchor_ in Bristol. These owe their origin to a +carving of the _Agnus Dei_, but may sometimes point to a house of the +Knights Templars, for the _Agnus Dei_ appeared on their coat of arms. The +_Bleeding Heart_ is an emblem of the five sorrowful mysteries of the +Rosary, and the _Heart_, generally found as the _Golden Heart_, is in +honour of the Blessed Virgin. The _Anchor_ is suggestive of a church inn, +but we have not been able to trace a house bearing this sign to any very +remote period. At Hartfield, there is an _Anchor Inn_ close to the church, +evidently ancient, and having a delightful old-fashioned garden. It was +formerly occupied by a church institution where the poor were fed and +housed in return for such labour as their age and skill would permit, +founded by the Rev. Richard Randes, a rector of the parish some two +hundred and fifty years ago. The house contains evidence of having existed +long before this date. + +At least one church has, by the vicissitudes of time, become an inn; the +_George Hotel_ at Huntingdon, itself very old and picturesque, enshrines +in its cellars and lower walls all that is left of St. George’s Church. +The stones of St. Benedict’s Church in the same town were used two +centuries ago in building the _Barley Mow Inn_ at Hartford, and some +figures and panelling may be seen in the tap-room of the _Queen’s Head_, +close by where this church stood. At the _Old Red House_, about four miles +north of Newmarket on the road to Brandon, the bar-counter is formed out +of the rood-screen turned out of the neighbouring church at a +“Restoration” about five-and-twenty years ago. + +In a corner of Romford churchyard a fifteenth-century chantry-house, +founded by Avery Comburgh, Squire of the Body to Henry VI, and +Under-Treasurer to Henry VII, became after the Reformation the _Cock and +Bell Inn_. Through the kindness of Messrs. Ind, Coope & Co., the present +Bishop of Colchester was enabled to regain possession for religious uses, +and after three hundred and sixty years of alienation this building, still +possessing its original oak ceiling beams and panelling has been converted +into a Church House for the parish, and a hall for meetings, corresponding +in style, has now been added from the design of Sir Charles Nicholson, +Bart. + +Among the pleasantest memories of a pilgrimage to Walsingham, is that of a +Sunday spent at a little Suffolk village, where after service Pastor and +flock alike adjourned to our inn for a half an hour’s gossip. The old +custom would be difficult to restore nowadays, but much of the social +influence of the Church over the labouring classes was lost when rectors +left off occupying, at least once a week, the chair in the village inn +parlour. For it is not without good reason that church and inn stand so +frequently side by side. Each ministers alike to the natural and common +needs of man, and each in its own way has its lesson to teach us in the +gospel of the larger life. They have stood together through the ages as a +protest against the wayward theories of man-made puritanism; for they +belong to the Commandment which is “exceeding broad.” + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +COACHING INNS + + +A hundred years ago, everybody who had occasion for inland travelling was +perforce obliged to use the road; that is, unless he preferred a canal +boat or barge, and navigable waters lay in the desired direction. Rich +people travelled in their private carriage with four horses which were +changed every few miles at the posting-houses. Those without means had to +content themselves with carriers’ carts or the stage broad-wheeled +waggons; a few resorted to dog-carts, then a tiny four-wheeled contrivance +actually drawn by dogs. But the great majority of passengers were conveyed +in the coaches or mails. In 1825 it was calculated that no less than +10,000 persons were daily on the road in mail-coaches, so closely timed +that if a driver were to be ten minutes late in arriving at an important +centre many corresponding services would be seriously upset. The average +speed, allowing for changing horses, was about ten miles an hour on the +fast day coaches. + +All this vast organisation had grown up since the time of Queen Elizabeth, +when the coach was introduced from France by Fitz-Alan, Earl of Arundel. +Only in her old age would this queen leave her horse for the effeminate +conveyance, and the Judges continued to ride on horseback to Westminster +Hall, almost until the Restoration. In the year 1672, when there were only +six stage-coaches in daily running, a Mr. John Cresset, of the +Charterhouse, published a pamphlet urging their suppression on the ground +that “These stage-coaches make gentlemen come to London on every small +occasion, which otherwise they would not do, but upon urgent necessity; +nay the convenience of the passage makes their wives often come up, who +rather than come such long journeys on horseback would stay at home. Then, +when they come to town, they must presently be in the mode, get fine +clothes, go to plays and treats, and by these means get such a habit of +idleness and love of pleasure, as to make them uneasy ever after.” + +The coaches started on their journey each morning and evening from great +inn yards surrounded by tiers of galleries one above the other. Sometimes, +as at the _Bull and Mouth_ in St. Martins le Grand, or the _Oxford Arms_ +in Warwick Lane, there were four stories of these galleries. It is not +easy to trace the various steps by which the plan of the coaching inn was +evolved from the “corrall” of migrating tribes, who when resting for the +night arranged their waggons in a hollow square, with their cattle in the +centre. But the idea underlying the coaching inn was a species of fortress +entered only by the great archway with massive doors strongly barred at +closing time. The bedchambers of the guests all opened into the galleries +overlooking the yard. When an alarm was raised each owner of waggons or +cattle in the yard could at once hurry out to the defence of his property. +Later on, the traveller would be bound to hear the note of the guard’s +horn, warning him that the coach in which he had booked a place was +preparing to start. + +“Heads, heads,--take care of your heads!” is the cry as the Pickwick Club +pass on the top of the Rochester coach through the low inn archway. +“Terrible place--dangerous work--other day--five children--mother--tall +lady eating sandwiches--forgot the arch--crash--knock--children look +round--mother’s head off--sandwich in her hand--no mouth to put it +in--head of a family off--shocking, shocking!” And it was no invention of +the ingenious Mr. Jingle--for the accident actually happened at the _White +Hart_ at St. Albans. + +[Illustration: Yard of White Hart, St. Albans] + +Just as the coaching system had reached its highest perfection, the +railway came and the coach vanished--more suddenly than the horse vehicle +has disappeared from the Strand with the advent of the taxi-cab and motor +omnibus. The landlord of the coaching inn and the posting-house found his +occupation gone almost as abruptly as the guard and driver. Gone are all +the coaching inns of London, although their names survive as receiving +offices of the railway carriers. In country towns on the main roads, like +Sittingbourne or Godalming, huge forlorn wrecks present their face to the +roads converted into shops or tenements. Some of them continue to maintain +a precarious existence in country villages like Buckden in +Huntingdonshire, scarcely visited by the traveller of to-day, whereas +seventy years ago their vast size was often insufficient to accommodate +the daily arrivals of guests. They linger on in the hope that motorists +may bring them a new popularity. Others, tired of empty rooms and +dwindling local trade have retired into private life. At Caxton, on the +old North Road, the _George_, a very large inn of a lonely country +village, is now a comfortable private residence, and the old gateway arch +would hardly be recognized in the French window opening on the front +garden. + +[Illustration: Coach Gallery at the Bull, Long Melford] + +Gone are the old galleried yards. We do not know of one complete instance, +except the little disused _Coach and Horses_ in York Street, Westminster, +which is neither large nor beautiful. Fragments of galleries exist at the +old _George Inn_ in the Borough, where they are in several stories; at +the _George_ at Huntingdon; the _Golden Lion_ at St. Ives, and the _New +Inn_ at Gloucester; but the finest remaining gallery is at the _Bull_ at +Dartford. The _Bull_ at Long Melford owns a glazed gallery, running along +the side of the yard next the inn, said to have served to facilitate the +loading of luggage on the coaches. + +But in provincial towns the coaching inn is not quite left desolate; it is +the place of departure and arrival for the carrier’s van. One need only +search any local directory to discover the enormous number of these +conveyances and the various inns from which they start. The rustic still +prefers this method of travel to any other, and if the tourist is not in a +hurry the box seat of a carrier’s cart is the ideal place from which to +study rural affairs. The carrier knows everybody in the district and he is +often a dry kind of philosopher, if not an archæologist or naturalist. Win +his heart and he will divulge unexpected secrets, besides securing for you +the most comfortable night’s lodging. His recommendation will prove a +passport admitting into every grade of village society. + +When the world proves unkind, when the loneliness and disappointments of +life press hard upon you--if Fortune has dealt you a humiliating +rebuff--then, if you have a few shillings left, one night spent in an old +wayside coaching inn will brace your system up and give you heart to face +your troubles once more with a new courage. The world you have left may +have despised you. Within the walls of this old hostelry, landlord, +waiter, chambermaid, exist only to obey your lightest whim. You are the +luminary round which this little world revolves--the “gentleman in the +parlour.” As Washington Irving so well puts it: “To a homeless man there +is a momentary feeling of independence as he stretches himself before an +inn fire; the armchair is his throne, the poker is his sceptre, and the +little parlour his undisputed empire.” If you condescend to join the +company in the tap-room, still further honour awaits you. Your +pronouncements on things temporal or things eternal have acquired an +acknowledged value; your opinion is invited and universally deferred to; +and the oldest inhabitant will for your special benefit invent a new +series of reminiscences. In short, you will feel the truth of all that Dr. +Johnson has laid down on the subject: “At a tavern there is a general +freedom from anxiety. You are sure you are welcome; and the more noise you +make, the more trouble you give, the more good things you call for, the +welcomer you are. No servants will attend you with the alacrity which +waiters do, who are incited by the prospects of an immediate reward in +proportion as they please. No, sir; there is nothing which has been +contrived by man by which so much happiness is produced as by a good +tavern or inn.” + +[Illustration: The White Hart, Witham] + +A few minutes’ gossip with the landlord after closing time, and you sink +to rest in the depth of a feather bed, which removes the last vestiges of +the care that has beset you. Early in the morning you rise refreshed and +vigorous, ready after a walk round the old-fashioned garden to devour +unlimited supplies of ham and eggs washed down by coffee. It is only in +real old coaching inns that they possess the secret of brewing old English +coffee--a beverage that owes nothing to the poisonous intoxicating berry +of Arabia, discovered by the brothers Shirley. We believe it is +manufactured by roasting and grinding some species of scarlet runner. As a +breakfast drink it is unequalled. This coffee is the last of a series of +exhilarating experiences before you go your way rejoicing and awake to all +the graces of life. The bill will not be exorbitant--that is, if you have +been reasonable in your demands--and the landlord contemplates with +pleasure your return on a future occasion. + +We love the coaching inn, not only as the home of practical good cheer, +but for the romantic memories that cling to it. Scarcely one of them but +has its story of the eloping couple, whose chaise slipped out at the back +gate just as the heroine’s father alighted to make inquiries at the front +door; the details vary, but the lovers always escape in the nick of time +with the connivance of Boniface. In a corner of the gallery of one old inn +near Huntingdon, a narrow door is shown, fitting so exactly that when +closed no person except those in the secret could trace it. Here some Dick +Turpin or Claude Duval might lie in wait and peep over the balcony to +choose his prey among the passengers stopping for the night; or find safe +hiding from the Bow Street runners. Romance easily gathered around the +journey by coach. Whereas a railway acquaintance ends when the passengers +each go his or her own way from the arrival platform, the companions on +the coach-top met again in the coffee-room, and might renew their intimacy +at breakfast next morning. Between London and York there was ample time +and opportunity for any suitable young couple to arrive at a good +understanding with one another. + +None of the coaching inns had a more remarkable history than the _Castle +Inn_ at Marlborough. Built by Francis, Lord Seymour, in the reign of +Charles II from the reputed designs of Webb, Inigo Jones’ pupil and +son-in-law, this sumptuous manor-house was the favourite residence of the +Seymour family. During its occupation by Frances, Countess of Hertford, +and afterwards Duchess of Somerset, in the early years of the eighteenth +century, many of the leading wits and scholars of the age were invited +here. Dr. Watts, the hymn-writer, James Thomson, author of “The Seasons,” +and Elizabeth Rowe are all said to have composed their lays in the +grottoes and extravagantly-arranged gardens. When the house passed by +marriage into the hands of the Northumberland family it was neglected as a +superfluous residence, and at last was let on lease as an inn to a Mr. +Cotterell. It was a broad-fronted stately mansion, the most splendid and +best appointed hotel in England during that age. Before the grand portico +no less than forty coaches changed horses every day. The service was +magnificent. A dinner of twenty-two covers could, if necessary, be served +up on silver. + +The great Lord Chatham once stayed several weeks at the _Castle Inn_. He +was detained there on his way back to London from Bath, by a relapse of +gout. His own suite demanded twenty rooms, and the exigencies of State +during that time strained the resources of the hotel to the utmost. He +required the whole staff, waiters, ostlers and boot-boys to wear his +livery. Mr. Stanley Weyman has seized on just this critical moment, and +has woven round the _Castle Inn_ the sweetest and most enthralling of his +many novels. + +Other romances of real life are associated with it. Driving through +Marlborough and halting at the _Castle Inn_, a certain Duke of Chandos +heard screams in the inn-yard. Hastening to the spot he found a beautiful +girl being brutally beaten by an ostler. When the Duke interfered, the +ostler declared that the young woman was his wife, and therefore that he +had an indefeasible right to beat her. However, he was willing to +compromise the matter by selling his wife for £20. The Duke paid the +money, took the young woman away, and, so we are told, afterwards made her +Duchess of Chandos. + +[Illustration: Old Coaching Inns, St Albans] + +Water has continued to flow under the bridge that spans the Kennett for +many generations since Sir George Soane sat on the parapet and wooed +Julia, the college porter’s daughter. The old Bath Road knows no more the +coaches, curricles, wigs and hoops, holstered saddles or the beaux and +fine ladies, and gentleman’s gentlemen whose environment they were. We +drift half-unconsciously into the language of the novelist who has +recalled these old days so vividly. The _Castle Inn_ is now part of +Marlborough College, founded in 1843. The _Rose Inn_ at Wokingham has been +refronted since “With pluvial patter for refrain,” Gay, Pope, Swift and +Arbuthnot spent a rainy afternoon there vying their verses in praise of +Molly Moy, the fair daughter of their host, who in spite of her beauty +lived to be an old maid of seventy. Yet the wayfarer will discover that +innkeeper’s daughters are as pretty as they were in the days gone by. +Romance is not the exclusive property of any one generation. Where youth +and beauty are to be found there lurks the romance; and it belongs as much +to the inns of our own time as when highwaymen, patches, puffs, wigs, and +knee breeches were the prevailing fashion. + +[Illustration: Botolph’s Bridge Inn, Romney Marsh] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +WAYSIDE INNS AND ALEHOUSES + + +We have shown in previous chapters how the old English inn grew up almost +always under some local authority--either the lord of the manor, the +monastery, or the parish--and its conduct was regulated by legal +enactments from the reign of Henry II onwards. The alehouse, on the +contrary, might conduct its business as its owner pleased, subject only to +the natural laws of supply and demand. Every householder was free to brew +either for his own consumption or for sale, the one condition being that +his liquor was wholesome and good. Among the crimes that incurred the +punishment of the ducking-stool in the city of Chester during Saxon times +was that of brewing bad beer. + +In every manor there was held annually the assize of bread and ale, the +two staple articles of diet which it was essential should be pure and of +good quality. “Bread, the staff of life, and beer life itself,” not +unknown as a motto on the signboards, is a saying that has come down to +us from a prehistoric period. And modern science, as it seems, is inclined +to endorse the maxim. Good old-fashioned wheaten and rye bread, made from +the whole flour from which only the coarser brans had been sifted, built +up the stamina of our forefathers. Their chief drink was ale brewed from +barley or oaten malt. The small proportion of alcohol served as a vehicle +for the organic phosphates necessary for the sustenance of strong nerves, +while the ferment of the malt helped to digest the starch granules in the +bread. Bread and ale are still the main diet of our labouring classes--but +alas! stale, finely-sifted flour contains a very poor allowance of gluten, +and chemically produced saccharine is destitute of phosphates. O, that our +modern legislators would revive the assize of bread and ale! + +In _Arnold’s Chronicle_, published by Pynson about 1521, the following +receipt for making beer is given: “Ten quarters of malt, two quarters of +wheat, two quarters of oats and eleven poundes of hoppys, to make eleven +barrels of single beer.” Hops only came into use about the reign of Henry +VII; previously ivy berries, heath or spice had been used as a flavouring +for ale. Leonard Maskall, of Plumpton, a writer on gardening in the reign +of Henry VIII, has the credit of acclimatising the hop-plant. He is also +said to have first introduced carp in the moat at Plumpton Place. Hence +the rhyme of which many versions are given: + + “Hops, heresy, carp and beer, + Came into England all in one year.” + +However, hops are mentioned as an adulterant in ale in a statute of Henry +VI; and about the same time mention of beer occurs in the accounts of Syon +Nunnery, which were kept in English. + +Every inn, large or small, once possessed its own brewhouse, and although +wholesale breweries were established about the time of the Flemish +immigration, at the end of the fourteenth century, home-brewed ale was +commonly on draught fifty or sixty years ago. The _White Horse_ at Pleshy, +that village that boasts of knowing neither a teetotaller nor a drunkard, +relied entirely on its home-brewed liquors up to within the last ten +years, and the apparatus wherein they were prepared remains for the +student of old methods to examine. + +Home-brewed ale is still more commonly to be met with in some districts +than many suppose. Even in the neighbourhood of the greatest brewery town +in the world, Burton-on-Trent, there are small inns which rely upon their +own brewing for the best of their ale. There is a very old brewhouse at +Derby, at the _Nottingham Castle Inn_, into which any passer-by may step +from the street and see, twice a week, a huge cauldron containing about a +hundred and twenty gallons, bubbling and foaming in the corner. This +brewhouse dates from the sixteenth century, and is one of the oldest +buildings in the town; the _Dolphin_, whose licence dates from 1530, being +another and perhaps older inn in the same neighbourhood. + +[Illustration: White Horse, Pleshy] + +A legion of brewers are named in Domesday Book, mostly women, and manorial +assizes show a preponderance of the fairer sex. The price of bread and ale +was fixed by statute in Henry III’s reign, and it was the business of the +Ale-tester to see that the measures were of standard capacity and stamped +with some recognized official mark. Alehouses abounded everywhere, known +by a long pole surmounted by a tuft of foliage. An Act of 1375 regulates +the length of the ale-stake at not more than seven feet over the public +way. The poles had a tendency to become over long to the deterioration of +the timber structures from which they depended, as well as danger to +travellers passing on horseback. At Guildford, and some other cloth +centres, the alehouses were required to exhibit a woolpack for a sign. + +These alehouses were of all sorts and sizes. There was the humble +hedgeside cottage, looking like a mere sentry-box, illustrated in the +fourteenth century MS.[9], where a hermit is being entertained by an +alewife with a very large beer jug; or the little alehouse on the Watling +Street, somewhere near Rainham, where Chaucer’s Pardoner dismounted to + + “Drynke and byten on a cake” + +before commencing his tale; or the establishment by Leatherhead Bridge, +where Elinour Rummyng drove such a thriving trade, immortalised by the +poet Skelton. Some of these larger alehouses were a cause of anxiety to +well-disposed people, and no doubt the Church Houses were partly +instituted with the idea of inducing the faithful to spend their time in a +less disreputable manner. All kinds of bad characters resorted to the +alehouse. Piers Plowman gives us a lurid picture of what went on there. +How the glutton going to be shriven met the alewife and was induced to +spend the afternoon and evening with + + “Tymme the tynkere and tweyne of his prentis + Hikke the hakeneyman and Hughe the nedeler, + Clarice of cokkeslane, and the clerke of the Cherche + Dawe the dykere and a doziene other; + Sir Piers of Pridie and Peronelle of Flanders, + A ribidour, a ratonere, a rakyer of Chepe, + A ropere, a redynkyng, and Rose the disheres, + Gofrey of Garlekehithe, and Gryfin the Walshe, + And upholderes an hepe.” + +They drink deeply, joke coarsely and quarrels ensue. + +Finally the glutton is hopelessly intoxicated. + + “He myghte neither steppe ne stande, er his staffe hadde; + And thanne gan he go, liche a glewmannes biche, + Somme tyme aside, and somme tyme arrere, + As who-so leyth lynes for to lache foules.” + +His wife and maid carry him home between them and he lies helpless through +Saturday and Sunday, waking in bitter repentance at having missed his +duties.[10] + +From Skelton we learn how women came to pledge their wedding rings and +husbands’ clothes + + “Because the ale is good.” + +Hence the necessity for an Act in Henry VII’s reign which empowered +justices to close alehouses notorious for bad conduct, and later, the +first Licensing Act of 1552, requiring every alehouse-keeper to obtain the +licence of two justices, and regulating the manner in which the business +is to be carried on. By an Act of 1627, a fine of twenty-one shillings, or +in default a whipping, was inflicted on the keepers of unlicensed +alehouses, and on a second conviction imprisonment for one month. But none +of these measures were enforced throughout the country, and they were +easily evaded. Anyone was still free to sell ale in booths at fair time, +and many trades had by custom the privilege to sell ale as a part of their +business: for example, barbers and blacksmiths, whose customers required +entertainment while waiting their turn. Two centuries after the first +Licensing Act, the nation was still unconvinced on the subject of free +trade in liquor. In a report on an inquiry made by Justices of the Peace +for the County of Middlesex in 1736, it was shown that within the limits +of Westminster, Holborn, The Tower and Finsbury (exclusive of London and +Southwark), there were no less than 2,105 unlicensed houses. Spirits were +retailed by above eighty other trades, particularly chandlers, weavers, +tobacconists, shoemakers, carpenters, barbers, tailors, dyers, etc. + +Barbers’ shops were once resorted to by idlers, in order to pass away +their time, and a system of forfeits prevailed, nominally to enforce +order, but in practice to promote the sale of drink. They are referred to +in “Measure for Measure.” + + “Laws for all faults, + But laws so countenanced that the strong statutes + Stand like the forfeits in a barber’s shop + As much in mock as mark.” + +Dr. Kenrick professes to have copied the following list of forfeits in a +shop near Northallerton: + + “RULES FOR SEEMLY BEHAVIOUR + + First come, first served--then come not late; + And when arrived keep your state; + For he who from these rules shall swerve + Must pay the forfeits--so observe. + + 1. + + Who enters here with boots and spurs, + Must keep his nook; for if he stirs, + And gives with armed heel a kick, + A pint he pays for every prick. + + 2. + + Who rudely takes another’s turn, + A forfeit mug may manners learn. + + 3. + + Who reverentless shall swear or curse, + Must lug seven farthings from his purse. + + 4. + + Who checks the barber in his tale, + Must pay for each a pot of ale. + + 5. + + Who will or cannot miss his hat + While trimming, pays a pint for that. + + 6. + + And he who can or will not pay, + Shall hence be sent half trimm’d away, + For will he, nill he, if in fault, + He forfeit must in meal or malt. + But mark who is already in drink, + The cannikin must never clink.” + +[Illustration: The Chequers, Doddington] + +As the restrictions on travelling gradually disappeared many of the +alehouses developed into inns. As early as 1349, a statute of Edward III, +requiring those who entertained travellers to be content with moderate +prices, recognizes the class of _Herbergers_[11] or keepers of unlicensed +hostelries. And these inns as a class are deserving of close study from +the difficult problem of determining their exact age. Some of them may +have existed as alehouses during the Saxon period; some may even stand on +the sites of Roman _tabernae_. + +The oldest of all inn signs of this class is the _Chequers_, found +throughout England, but especially in the neighbourhood of old Roman +roads. This sign is found on many houses at Pompeii, and was throughout +Europe the common indication of a money-changer’s office. Hence our Court +of the Exchequer, which concerned itself with the national funds and their +collection. The chess-board was the most primitive form of ready reckoner; +and as the innkeeper was the person best qualified to act as money-changer +he readily undertook the business. Small tradesmen still send their +assistants to the public-house when they require to change a sovereign. +Many heraldic shields are painted with checks, and Brand, in his “Popular +Antiquities,” suggested that the Chequers represent the coat of arms of +the Earls of Warrenne, on the supposition that a member of this family in +the reign of Edward IV possessed the exclusive right of granting licences. +It is absolutely certain that no such licence was ever authorised. Nothing +of the kind was ever attempted before Sir Giles Mompesson in the reign of +James I; but, of course, some “chequers” may possibly have a heraldic +origin. + +[Illustration: The Chequers, Redbourne] + +Chaucer’s pilgrims put up at the _Chequers on the Hope_ (_i.e._, on the +Hoop) at Canterbury, and part of this inn still remains near the +Cathedral gate. There was also a _Chequers Inn_ at St. Albans, but it has +now ceased to exist. Either may have stood on the sites of Roman inns; but +with these as with the thatched _Chequers_ on the Watling Street, near +Redbourne, or the _Chequers_ at Loose or Doddington, speculation is vain. +Like the needy knife-grinder, whose breeches were so woefully torn during +his drinking bout at an inn bearing the same name: “Story? God bless you, +I have none to tell, sir!” is the universal answer to all our inquiries +for any historical particulars beyond a century or two back. + +Wayside inns needed no licence and were usually carried on by a hosteller +who combined the occupation with that of farmer or tradesman of some kind. +Where any old leases exist they are described merely as tenements or +farms. Thus the _Dorset Arms_ at Withyham, a very picturesque old shingled +and barge-boarded inn, appears as “Somers’ Farm.” Only by accident do we +find the name of one of the tenants, William Pigott, on a list of Sussex +tavern-keepers in the year 1636. + +[Illustration: The Three Horseshoes near Papworth Everard] + +When the sign of the _Three Horseshoes_ occurs at the end of a rough +difficult stretch of road during which a horse would often lose a shoe, +it is probable that the inn grew up side by side with a blacksmith’s +business, even when the smithy no longer exists. In a very lonely and +exposed situation on the Ermine Street, where the road to St. Ives crosses +near Papworth Everard, there is a thatched inn bearing this sign and also +known as _Kisby’s Hut_. At Lickfold, about six miles from Haslemere, +almost under the shadow of Black Down, the highest hill in Sussex, there +is a cosy half-timbered _Three Horseshoes_, which has come down to our +time practically unaltered since the day of its erection in 1642, and it +is well worth examination. The roads around it are liable to be flooded, +and it is a likely place for waggoners to pull up for repairs. But when +disentangling the riddles of local history, we must not be led astray +with obvious explanations. Many old coats of arms contain the three +horseshoes. Indeed there is one inn on a manor once belonging to the +Shelleys, where possibly the forgotten shield of the older Kentish branch +of the family--the three escallops--has been repainted as three +horseshoes. + +[Illustration: The Horseshoes, Lickfold] + +The _Plough_ and _Harrow_ are both primitive emblems, and agricultural +signs such as these point to a very high antiquity. The _Plough_ at +Kingsbury is supposed to be more than eight hundred years old. + +At the Upper Dicker in Sussex there is an inn called the _Plough_, which +is worth visiting by motorists on their way to the _Star_ at Alfriston, +especially as it will enable them to get a glimpse of Michelham Priory on +an island in the Cuckmere close by. The tap-room of this inn has a +generously-planned fireplace with an ancient fireback and dogs. Up till +quite recently it was the custom to keep a fire constantly burning, and in +the hottest weather the warmth of this fire was far from unwelcome owing +to the thickness of the outer walls. This tradition of the ever-burning +fire is a curious one, found in remote districts, and pointing to a time +when the public-house was necessarily resorted to for purposes of this +kind. At the _Chequers Inn_, Slapestones, near Osmotherly, in Yorkshire, +the hearth-fire has been burning uninterruptedly for at least a hundred +and thirty years. + +Some inns now known as the _Ship_ were possibly at one time the “Sheep,” +as will be readily understood by those acquainted with rustic dialect. +_Shepherd and Crook_, _Load of Hay_, _Woodman_, are all to be found in +rural districts throughout England. The _Wheatsheaf_, whether it surmounts +a fine old coaching house in a market town, or a little wayside inn far +from the madding crowd, reminds us that we once could boast of the finest +wheat culture in the world; while the _Harvest Home_ pleasantly recalls +the merry-making which concluded the ingathering of the crops. + +In some country villages there are a very large number of small inns close +together, perhaps three in a row. At Steeple Ashton, in Oxfordshire, there +are thirteen, and at East Ilsley, in Berkshire, nearly as many to a +population of about five hundred. The street seems almost to consist of +public-houses. But it would be quite wrong to suppose that the inhabitants +of these districts are unduly given to convivial habits. The reports of +the petty sessions show that drunkenness is exceedingly rare. In Steeple +Ashton division no charge of drunkenness has been heard for the past six +years. Such villages are decayed market towns, which become important at +the time of their periodical sheep fairs, when an army of graziers and +shepherds from the distant downs must find board and lodging. For a week +these inns are crowded with dealers in velveteen jackets, and grizzled +veterans clad in those blue smock coats and slouched hats, which were once +the universal dress of village labourers, with a shaggy bob-tail dog under +every chair. When fair-time is over they are quite deserted. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +HISTORIC SIGNS AND HISTORIC INNS + + +“The Greeks honoured their great men and successful commanders by erecting +statues to them,” remarks Jacob Larwood; “modern nations make the +portraits of their celebrities serve as signs for public-houses.”[12] +Certainly it would be possible to make the signboards on the inns serve as +texts for a complete history of England. There was once even a _Cæsar’s +Head_ in Great Palace Yard; and King Alfred and Canute are still +commemorated at Wantage and at Southampton; while the _King Edgar Inn_ at +Chester, represents on its sign that monarch being rowed in a wherry down +the river Dee by eight tributary kings. But for authentic and ancient +historical signs we must not refer to any earlier period than the reign of +Edward III, when inns began to be built in large numbers. + +Many _Red Lion_ inns date from this reign. The red lion was the badge of +John of Gaunt, married to Constance, daughter of Don Pedro the Cruel, +King of Leon and Castille. On the other hand, John of Gaunt was the leader +of an unpopular and reactionary party, not likely to commend itself to the +innkeeper. The _Red Lion_ at Wingham, containing an old court-room and +some curious and beautifully carved oaken beams, ceilings and kings-posts, +is declared by experts to date from 1320. In this case it is more probable +that the red lion of Scotland, conquered by Edward I, is commemorated. A +landlord of the _Red Lion_ at Sittingbourne, in 1820, advertised his +establishment as “Remarkable for an entertainment made by Mr. John Norwood +for King Henry V, as he returned from the Battle of Agincourt, in France, +in the year 1415, the whole amounting to no more than nine shillings and +ninepence, wine being at that time only a penny a pint, and all other +things proportionately cheap.” The _Red Lion_ at Speldhurst, near +Tunbridge Wells, was discovered by the investigations of the late Mr. +Morris in the Inland Revenue to have possessed a licence in 1415. + +[Illustration: Red Lion, Wingham] + +Not all _Red Lion_ inns, however, date from the fourteenth century, for +this was also said to be the favourite badge of Cardinal Wolsey. At +Hampton-on-Thames the _Red Lion_ came into existence when that great +statesman was building Hampton Court Palace, and served to lodge the +better class of craftsmen engaged in the work. After being for centuries a +favourite meeting-place for the Royal Chase, it became a resort for +literary and dramatic folk, Dryden, Pope, Colley Cibber, Addison, Quinn, +and Kitty Clive being among the names associated with the house. In the +early part of the nineteenth century it was famous for its tulip feasts +which drew the tulip fanciers of the world to Hampton. In 1908 the +charming old Tudor structure was condemned to make way for a +street-widening scheme, and its last appearance was as the background to a +cinematograph picture, in which the house suddenly burst into flames, +frenzied occupants appeared at the windows, the heroes of the local fire +brigade flew to the rescue in the nick of time, and the fire was put out +in the most approved manner. + +At Walsingham there is a large inn containing remains of +fourteenth-century work, called the _Black Lion_. Perhaps it takes its +name from the arms of Queen Philippa, of Hainault, who came hither with +her husband, Edward III, in 1361, to offer thanks for the happy conclusion +of the French Wars after the treaty of Bretigny. But both _Black Lion_ and +_Golden Lion_ may occasionally refer to the lions of Flanders and be marks +of the great immigration of Flemish weavers, ironfounders and brewers +during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. + +[Illustration: The Swan, Sutton Valence] + +The _Swan_ was a favourite emblem with many of our kings, its first +mention being in the “Vow of the Swan,” when Edward I swore to take +vengeance on Scotland for the murder of Comyn. On the signboards it must +generally be ascribed to Henry IV. With Henry V and VI, the antelope is +the heraldic emblem; there is an old half-timbered _Antelope_ opposite the +Market House at Godalming, but it has recently been re-named the _White +Hart_. At Bristol and at Guildford are _White Lion_ inns, probably in +honour of Edward IV, whose arms have for supporters the _White Lion_ and +the _Black Bull_ of the house of Clarence. + +Richard III reigned for too short a span to provide us with many _White +Boars_, and the few that existed hastened after his death to change their +names to that of the _Blue Boar_; a coat of blue paint was a cheap way of +converting the _White Boar_ of the fallen monarch into the _Blue Boar_ of +the Earl of Oxford, whose influence had contributed very largely to place +Henry Tudor on the throne. It was at the _Blue Boar_ at Leicester, that +Richard III slept just before the battle of Bosworth. A large richly +carved and gilded four-post bedstead was long preserved there and shown to +sightseers as the bed which he occupied. In the time of Elizabeth, a Mr. +Clarke, who kept the house, accidentally discovered a huge store of gold +coins of the reign of Richard III, underneath the planks of the bedstead. +He concealed his good fortune and thus from a poor condition he became +rich, but this ill-gotten wealth brought a curse in its train. A +maid-servant plotted with seven ruffians to rob the inn. Mrs. Clarke, +interrupting them at their work, was strangled by the maid-servant, who +was sentenced to be drawn and burnt, and her seven accomplices were hanged +in the Market Place at Leicester in 1613. + +Another sign which disappeared utterly after the Battle of Bosworth, was +the _White Rose_; but the _Red Rose of Lancaster_ is not uncommon at the +present time in the County Palatine. The _Rose and Crown_, or _Rose and +Portcullis_, are the royal signs of Henry VII’s reign. But as the _Rose_ +was in mediæval times regarded as an emblem of Our Lady, “Rosa Mystica,” +besides being a national emblem, the numerous _Rose_ inns must not be +attributed to this period without more positive historical evidence. Such +doubts are not likely to arise with regard to the _King’s Head_, a sign +nearly always adorned with a lifelike portrait of bluff King Harry. Many +of these houses are old monastic or collegiate property, whose lessees +were anxious by the change of sign, to acknowledge their acceptance of the +situation. It is not necessary to fare a long distance from town to find +an old _King’s Head_. In the village of Roehampton, a short mile from +Putney, the much married monarch may still be recognized on the battered, +faded signboard hanging over an obelisk-shaped post in front of the long +low inn, faced with shingles. Within the house are many quaint +low-ceilinged rooms and some curious relics. + +[Illustration: King’s Head, Roehampton] + +“Good Queen Bess,” either by portrait or bust, is associated with the +_Queen’s Head_, although in this case painter or modeller had to be +careful, as the Virgin Queen was exceedingly particular. If her effigy +proved to be uncomely, or not lifelike in her opinion, it was liable to +destruction and the perpetrator to suffer from her serious displeasure. A +proclamation of 1563, complains that “a grete number of her loving +subjects are much greved and to take grete offence with the errors and +deformities allredy committed by sondry persons in this behalf,” and +orders that means be taken to “prohibit the shewing and publication of +such as are apparently deformed, until they may be reformed which are +reformable.” Many of the _Queen’s Head_ inns may owe their origin to Sir +Walter Raleigh, who, in the thirtieth year of that reign obtained a patent +“to make licence for keeping of taverns and retailing of wines through +England.” The _Queen’s Head_ at Islington, a noble structure with an +elaborately-carved front and richly ornamented ceilings, has always been +connected traditionally with Sir Walter. Either in this house, or at the +_Old Pied Bull_ close by, occurred that amusing episode in the early +history of tobacco smoking. His servant, happening to be carrying in a +pail of water, observed to his horror clouds of smoke issuing from +Raleigh’s mouth, and imagining him to be on fire, with admirable presence +of mind poured the liquid in a deluge over the knight.[13] Both inns have +unfortunately been pulled down. + +With James I, the arms of England and Scotland were united, and the +Unicorn appears for the first time. There are many _Unicorn_ inns in the +South of England; but the fabulous beast was also a sign used by +apothecaries, possibly because the horn (really that of the Narwhal) was +supposed to detect the presence of poison. Albertus Magnus mentions +(without endorsing) a belief current in his time that knife-handles made +of this substance would sweat, if poison was brought into the room. Fuller +was more credulous. + +Charles I took refuge at the _Unicorn Inn_ at Weobly, in Herefordshire, on +September 5th, 1645, and this inn was afterwards called the _Crown_. It is +now a private house. + +_Royal Oaks_ are everywhere in memory of the Boscobel Oak, and the +accession of Charles II. _Oliver Cromwell_, who had usurped the _Rose and +Crown_ in High Street, Knightsbridge, was dethroned once more to make room +for the reinstatement of the old sign. Coming nearer to our own time the +_Brunswick_ inns hail the succession of the house of Brunswick to the +English Crown. George III and George IV appear occasionally, but not so +frequently as William IV, our Sailor King. Queen Victoria’s popularity is +shown by the hundreds of _Victoria_, _Island Queen_, _Empress_ and +_Jubilee_ inns. Since the coronation of our late gracious sovereign, King +Edward VII, the duties of the justices have involved the closing of old +houses rather than the licensing of new ones. So that it is unlikely that +future generations will be able to realise the esteem and regard of his +subjects by any large number of _Edward VII_ inns. However, there will be +a considerable array of _Royal Alberts_ and _Prince of Wales_ signboards +to indicate this nation’s good feeling towards him when he was heir +apparent to the throne; the same remark will apply with regard to the +_Princess Alexandra_ and _Rose of Denmark_. + +We have by no means exhausted the list of royal emblems. Some _Falcon_ +inns may have taken their title from the badge of the Dukes of York; but +this was not invariably the case, when in districts where hawking was a +popular sport. The _Falcon Hotel_, near Clapham Junction, owes its name to +the river Falcon, once a considerable stream, but now only permitted to +flow through Battersea underground. The “Gun” was a Tudor sign, and the +_Gun Inn_ at Dorking, evidently dates from the reign of Edward VI. Edward +III quartered the French arms with the English; the practice was continued +by his successors and may have originated the _Fleur de Lis_ or _Flower de +Luce_ inns, where none of the local families bear this charge on their +shields. Mention of the _Fleur de Lis_ at Faversham is the one piece of +local colouring in the “Tragedy of Arden of Faversham,” formerly +attributed to Shakespeare. The _Three Frogs_, near Wokingham, is, perhaps, +a version of the arms of France; before the _entente cordiale_ it used to +be a theory widely current among patriotic Britons that the _fleur de lis_ +really was intended for a heraldic representation of a frog. + +Occasionally members of noble families have attained to such distinction +that their crests have been utilized for inn signs far beyond the limits +of their estates. The _Bear and Ragged Staff_ was the crest of the Earls +of Warwick; but it attained to notoriety after its adoption by the +rapacious Dudleys. Robert Dudley, afterwards Duke of Northumberland, +discarded the Green Lion, his own emblem, for the Bear and Ragged Staff +of his mother, the last heiress of the Warwick family. His fourth son, +Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, a favourite of Queen Elizabeth, +inherited the manor at Cumnor, an old possession of Abingdon Abbey. The +_Bear and Ragged Staff_ at Cumnor, and its landlord at that period, Giles +Gosling, are described in Sir Walter Scott’s novel, “Kenilworth,” wherein +is also related the tragic fate of Dudley’s unhappy countess, Amy Robsart. +Old pictures show this inn down to the middle of the last century as +retaining its thatched roof and rustic primitive appearance. On the +signboard was the name of the licensee, with the addition, “late Giles +Gosling.” + +The _Eagle and Child_ was the crest of the Earls of Derby, the _Maiden +Head_, of the Dukes of Buckingham, and the _White Bear_, that of the Earls +of Kent. A still more frequent sign in the home counties, the +_Grasshopper_, shows the popularity of the great Sir Thomas Gresham, to +whom we owe the Royal Exchange and many other great City institutions. Sir +Christopher Hatton and Sir Francis Walsingham, both Elizabethan statesmen +of eminence, gave us respectively the _Hind_ and the _Tiger’s Head_. For +the _Saracen’s Head_ there will be various claimants, according to +locality, so many crusaders having adopted this charge; but a few +innkeepers of Lollard sympathies possibly adopted the sign out of +compliment to Sir John Oldcastle. Bagford informs us that the _Pelican_ +was the badge of Lord Cromwell, the despoiler of monasteries, who also +stole this emblem from the Church. At Speen, near Newbury, there was a +coaching inn on the Bath Road, which provoked an epigram: + + “The famous house at Speenhamland, + That stands upon the hill, + May well be called the Pelican, + From its enormous bill.” + +Coming to the ballad heroes, _Guy of Warwick_ and the _Dun Cow_ slain by +him are found all through the Midlands; but they cannot compare for +popularity with _Robin Hood_, who is usually accompanied by _Little John_ +on the signboard. This is not a result of the modern taste for romantic +literature. The _Robin Hood_ is mentioned as a common alehouse sign by +Samuel Rowlands in “Martin Mark-all, Beadle of Bridewell,” published in +1610. All the world loved Robin Hood, and cherished his memory as a jolly +good-natured outlaw, manly and fearless, generous to the poor and careful +for the honour of womenkind. Robin Hood alone among the revolutionary +spirits of the Middle Ages has a place on the signboards, although Wat +Tyler is remembered in connection with the _Crown Inn_ at Dartford, and +_Jack Straw’s Castle_ was until lately a great resort for holiday-makers +on Hampstead Heath. _King James and the Tinker_ inn at Enfield, which +claims on doubtful authority to be over a thousand years old, is +associated with another ballad story of which there are many versions, +such as “King Henry and the Miller of Mansfield,” or “King John and the +Miller of Charlton.” In one of these tales our old friend, the Vicar of +Bray, was dining at the _Bear_ at Maidenhead with some friends. The party +had taxed all the resources of the hotel, and when a stranger tired and +hungry asked for refreshments, the vicar only admitted him to table very +grudgingly. At the end of the meal the stranger discovered that he had +left his purse behind him, and was roundly abused by the dignitary. +However, his curate pleaded that the merry quips and anecdotes of the +guest deserved consideration; he had proved himself a good fellow and had +earned his dinner. At this moment some members of the royal staff enter, +and the guest turns out to be nothing less than his Majesty James I. So +the churlish vicar undergoes much discomfiture, and the curate receives +the reward of high preferment. + +Outbursts of patriotism are a feature on the signboards. Great victories +of the British forces by land and sea, and the great military and naval +heroes have all been commemorated in their turn, beginning with the +_Crispin and Crispinian_, which greeted the troops of Henry V, as they +returned along the old Watling Street, after Agincourt (which was fought +on the feast day of these twin saints). + + “Crispin Crispian shall never go by + From this day to the ending of the world, + But we in it shall be remembered.” + “Henry V,” IV, 3. + +The _Bull and Mouth_ is said to be a corruption of Boulogne Mouth, +captured by Henry VIII. _Bull and Gate_ may possibly be a similar +vulgarism for Boulogne Gate. We might draw up a complete sequence of great +battles fought and fortresses taken during the last three centuries, but +those most frequently met with are _Gibraltar_, _Waterloo_, _Battle of the +Nile_, and _Trafalgar_. Admirals range from _Blake_ to _Napier_, generals +from _Marlborough_ to _Wolseley_. Not one of them is forgotten, though +_Wellington_, _Nelson_ and _Keppel_ can probably claim the largest number +of adherents. The _Marquis of Granby_, almost forgotten by the ordinary +reader of history, enjoyed a remarkable popularity in his own day, if we +are to judge by the number of portraits of this high-spirited and +courageous nobleman which hang outside public-houses. The original of Mr. +Tony Weller’s _Marquis of Granby_ is, we believe, the one at Epsom, “Quite +a model of a roadside public-house of the better class--just large enough +to be convenient, and small enough to be snug.” The sign portrayed “the +head and shoulders of a gentleman with an apoplectic countenance, in a red +coat with blue facings, and a touch of the same blue over his +three-cornered hat, for a sky. Over that again were a pair of flags; +beneath the last button of his coat were a couple of cannon; and the whole +formed an expressive and undoubted likeness of the Marquis of Granby of +glorious memory.” + +But the heart of the nation was most deeply touched by the mingled triumph +and pathos at Trafalgar. _Lord Nelson_, _Victory_, and _Trafalgar_, greet +us on every high road that leads down to the sea, in the neighbourhood of +every harbour or dock, and beside the quays on every navigable river. And +it is surprising how many of these _Nelson_ inns are buildings three or +four centuries old, showing that the innkeeper was prepared to sacrifice +the sign under which he had hitherto done business and trusted to make a +new reputation under the ægis of the popular hero. We have discovered +several _Nelson_ inns of this type in Kent, though none which we recall +with more pleasure than the quaint many-gabled wooden structure with a +considerable list to starboard on the high path by the riverside at +Maidstone. Its ways are homely but hearty; the same family have remained +in possession for a period rapidly approaching the century; and almost +every article of furniture is old-fashioned and curious. + +[Illustration: The Nelson, Maidstone] + +The public-house has been described as “the forum of the English.” We may +sneer at pot-house politics, but it is only in the tavern, the haven of +free speech, that the burning questions of the day can be discussed with +freedom and sincerity. Washington Irving called the inn “the temple of +true liberty.” The _Punch Bowl_ was a Whig sign, because that party +preferred that beverage (possibly because it was favoured by Fox), whereas +the Tories remained faithful to old-fashioned drinks like claret and sack. +Most of the political idols obtaining a recognition over the tavern door +have been champions of reform, such as _John Wilkes_, _Sir Francis +Burdett_, _Palmerston_, and _Gladstone_. Traditionally the innkeeper was +strongly inclined to this side until the bitter attacks of a section of +the Liberal party on his business and very existence forced him in +self-protection into alliance with modern conservatism. + +Little interesting fragments of local history are sometimes recorded on +the signboards. For instance, in High Street, South Norwood, there are +three public-houses in succession, the _Ship_, _Jolly Sailor_, and +_Albion_. But for these we might forget that the Croydon Canal once ran +through this district with a wharf for unloading barges. The _Sloop Inn_, +at Blackhouse, in Sussex, dates from the time when the river Ouse was +navigable as far as Lindfield. At the foot of Gipsy Hill is the _Gipsy +Queen_, named after Margaret Finch, who ruled over the encampment of +nomads in the forest and told fortunes to all comers. She died in 1760, at +the age of 109, and was buried in Beckenham Churchyard. Owing to her +constant habit of sitting with her chin resting on her knees, it was +necessary to employ a deep square box in place of an ordinary coffin for +her interment. Local worthies are not very frequent; but John Winchcombe, +the famous clothier of Newbury, “the most considerable clothier that +England ever had,” is honoured at intervals along the Bath Road as _Jack +of Newbury_. _General Wolfe_, unlike the prophets, finds special +remembrance in his own birthplace, Westerham; but Sir Walter Raleigh has +been quite overlooked at Mitcham, in spite of the fact that he was the +founder of its leading manufacture. The inhabitants of Islington are more +grateful to _Sir Hugh Middleton_ for providing them with the New River, +and more than one house bearing this sign exists in the district. + +Foreign princes have occasionally attained the distinction of tavern +popularity, but none so frequently as _Frederick the Great_, whose +portrait over the inspiring words “The Glorious Protestant Hero,” was +painted on many a signboard after the battle of Rosbach, and the _King of +Prussia_ is still a familiar name. _Garibaldi_ is an instance of British +sympathy with the political aspirations of a foreign people. Many English +adventurers joined in the struggles of the young Italian nation, and its +principal hero became for the time a popular idol of the very first order. +The length to which a section of the community were led in their worship +of the red-shirted revolutionist is satirised happily in Mortimer Collins’ +“Village Comedy,” wherein the local publican constantly cites “Old Garry” +as the proper person to appeal to in deciding delicate questions of +etiquette and morality. + +The _Anchor_ at Liphook, on the old Portsmouth road, was a favourite +resort of Edward II, when hunting in Woolmer Forest, and Queen Anne when +visiting the Staghunt also put up here. To this inn came Samuel Pepys in +1668, “exceeding tremulous about highwaymen,” having missed his way to +Guildford while coming over Hindhead. Another inn which could many a tale +unfold, if walls had tongues as well as ears, is the _Bull_ at Coventry. +Half a dozen conspiracies have been hatched under its spreading gables. +Henry VII made it his headquarters before the Battle of Bosworth. Mary +Queen of Scots was imprisoned here for a short time; and it was the first +meeting-place for the devisers of Gunpowder Plot to blow up the Houses of +Parliament. + +A handsomely-panelled and pilastered room in the _Crown and Treaty_ at +Uxbridge, is shown to visitors as part of the hall in which took place +those six months of fruitless negotiations between King and Parliament in +1644, which ended in sealing the fate of the monarchy. We have not been +able to trace the particular establishment, but it is said that an +alehouse had its share in accomplishing the restoration of Charles II. It +appears that a messenger from the Parliament carrying letters to General +Monk at Edinburgh travelled in company with one of the General’s +sergeants, and happened to mention that he also held despatches for the +Governor of Edinburgh Castle. The circumstance aroused the suspicions of +his companion. The messenger was induced to stop at a wayside inn and +plied with brandy until he became so intoxicated that the papers could be +taken from his person without detection. Then the sergeant posted by +forced stages to his general with the packet, which was opened and +perused. It turned out to contain an order for Monk’s arrest. Policy and +resentment combined to direct the eyes of Monk to Charles Stuart, and in +due course the Restoration became an accomplished fact. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER X + +SPORTS AND PASTIMES + + +Many of the inn signs to be met with in the old provincial trading centres +recall the sports of our ancestors. Too often these were of a brutal and +barbarous character, suited only to an age which took its pleasures +strenuously and knew nothing of squeamishness and delicate nerves. Not +that we of the twentieth century are at heart one whit more humane. The +cockney who would faint at the bloodshed and slaughter in a bull-ring, +devours greedily in his Sunday newspaper all the details of a horrible +murder, or a railway accident. + +Bull-running and bull-baiting was an attraction only rivalled by +bear-baiting. The corporations of some towns had a by-law forbidding +butchers to exhibit bull beef for sale, unless the animal had previously +been baited by dogs for the amusement of the populace. Over the entrance +of the ancient Butchers’ Hall at Hereford, still hangs the bull-ring that +was used on these occasions. It required the introduction of several +fruitless bills into the House of Commons between 1802 and 1835, before an +Act was finally passed to abolish the practice. _Dog and Bear_ is a very +common sign, usually Jacobean in its origin. _Bull and Ring_, _Dog and +Bull_, _Bull and Butcher_, are all somewhat rare. + +[Illustration: Horse and Groom, near Waltham St. Lawrence] + +Cock-fighting was a very favourite spectacle from the earliest times, +enjoyed heartily by gentle and serf, young and old, learned and simple. +Nature intended the game-cock to strive for mastery with his rival, and +with the weapons provided by nature the combat has a fearful interest for +the modern British boy, as each spring new conflicts recur in the +farmyard. But the art of the Elizabethan sportsman supplemented nature +with a sharp spur of steel. A graphic account of a cock-fight is given by +Count Kilmansegge in his “Diary of a Journey to England, 1761-2.” The +scene is to be identified by the little passage from Queen Anne’s Gate to +Birdcage Walk, still known as Cock-Pit Alley. + +“On the 1st February, we went to see a cock-fight, which lasted the whole +of the week, where heavy bets, made by the Duke of Ancaster and others, +for more than 100 guineas were at stake. The fight takes place at the +Cock-Pit close to St. James’s Park, in the vicinity of Westminster. In the +middle of a circle and a gallery surrounded by benches, a slightly-raised +theatre is erected upon which the cocks fight; they are a small kind of +cock, to the legs of which a long spur, like a long needle is fixed, with +which they know how to inflict damage on their adversaries very cleverly +during the fight, but on which also they are frequently caught themselves, +so breaking their legs. One bird of each of the couples which we saw +fighting met with this misfortune, so that he was down in a moment, and +unable to raise or to help himself, consequently his adversary at once had +an enormous advantage. Notwithstanding this, he fought with his beak for +half an hour but the other bird had the best of it, and both were carried +off with bleeding heads. No one who has not seen such a sight can conceive +the uproar by which it is accompanied, as everybody at the same time +offers and accepts bets.... We were satisfied with seeing two fights, +although we might have remained to see still more for the half-crown which +we paid on entering.” + +The cock-pit was not infrequently to be found in the inn yards. At Lincoln +the corporation pit was in the yard of the _Reindeer_, and here James I, a +great patron of this sport, was entertained. Pope, whilst living with his +father at Chiswick, took great delight in cock-fighting; all his +pocket-money was laid out in buying birds from various choice strains. +From this passion, we are told, his mother had the good sense and skill to +wean him. + +Country towns generally contain an inn called the _Cock-fighters_, +sometimes with remains of the old pit _in situ_; and the sign of the _Cock +and Bell_ is said to be derived from the shrovetide cock-fights, when boys +matched their birds against each other, and to the lucky owner was awarded +a silver bell, which he wore in his hat for three Sundays following. +Originally, the Shrovetide cocks were mounted on stools and stones thrown +at them. Out of this has grown the modern “Cocoanut Shy.” + +The sign of the _Bird in Hand_, often merely facetious, may when seen on +old inns, as at Widmore, near Bromley, have reference to hawking; so with +_Hawk and Buckle_ and _Falcon_ which, as a rule, we are content to treat +as heraldic emblems. + +The _Kentish Bowman_ and the _Bow and Arrow_ remain to tell us of archery, +the favourite village pastime in rural England until quite recently. It is +a disputed point whether the resilient virtues of the wood, or their use +in Palm Sunday processions had most to answer for the hacked and mutilated +condition of the branches of old churchyard yews. _Speed the Plough_ +recalls the rustic ploughing competitions. + +_Dog and Gun_, _Dog and Duck_, _Dog and Badger_, _Fox and Hounds_, and +_Huntsman_, all betray the characteristic trait of John Bull, who +celebrates a fine frosty morning by “going out to kill something.” The +Hunt meet is usually in front of some leading inn; and hither when the run +is over choice blades repair to recount the doings of the day. These inns +abound in trophies of the chase, mounted antlers, stuffed foxes, otters, +or rare birds in glass cases; though few can vie with the collection of +specimens and prints at the _Swan_, Tarporley; where even the plate and +crockery bear witness to the pursuits of its patrons. + +The _Blue Cap_ at Sandiway, in Cheshire, built in 1715, was so re-named in +1762 in memory of a very remarkable hound. So fast was his pace that a +weight had to be slung round his neck to prevent him outracing the rest of +the pack. On one side of the signboard his portrait appears. On the +reverse the following account of the race which first brought him into +notice: + +“On Saturday, September 28th, 1762, Blue Cap and Wanton, ye property of +Mr. Smith-Barry, Master of ye Cheshire, in a match over ye Beacon course +at Newmarket, beat a couple of Mr. Meynell’s (ye Quorn), one of which was +Richmond. Sixty horses started with ye hounds. Mr. Smith-Barry’s huntsman, +Cooper, was ye first up, but ye mare that carried him was quite blind at +ye end. Only twelve got to ye end. Will Craine, who trained ye Cheshire +hounds, came in twelfth on Rib. Betting was 6 to 4 on Meynell’s.” + +According to Daniel the race was run at fully thirty miles an hour. + +From an inn named after an hound, we pass to another in the same county, +much more curious and antique in its thatched roof gables and old +furniture, which keeps green the memory of a splendid racehorse. The +_Smoker_ at Plumbley has nothing to do with tobacco. The portrait of the +old horse, together with the arms of Sir George Leicester, father of the +first Baron de Tabley, owner of the horse, have been painted on the +signboard by the daughter of Lady Leighton Warren, a member of this +family. + +Inns are no longer betting centres, but their owners are keenly interested +in sport, and many jovial souls still notch calendars by racing events, +referring to some local episodes as having occurred “in the year when +Stickphast won the Derby.” Although the _Running Horse_ was a Hanoverian +emblem, most of the houses of this name within a few miles of Epsom must +owe their origin to the racing fraternity. The old _Running Horse_ at +Sandling, near Maidstone, so students of Dickens declare, suggested Mr. +Pickwick’s adventure with the eccentric steed, hired for the benefit of +Mr. Winkle. + +Bowls is still almost as favourite a pastime at the old inns as it was in +the days of Sir Francis Drake. In East Anglia the greens are often of +remarkable size and beautifully kept. The finest bowling green in the +South of England is, we believe, that behind the _Queen’s Head_ at +Hawkhurst, an old-fashioned house to be visited for its sweet situation +and cosy arrangements--as well as for the almost unique collection of old +furniture gathered together by the late Mr. Clements. On the lawn of the +_Anchor_ at Hartfield, a game is in vogue called “Clock Golf,” which we +have seen nowhere else, but which possesses its attractions. + +It is a traditional habit among prize-fighters when they retire on their +laurels to assume the management of a tavern, where their reputation makes +them efficient in maintaining order; but the sedentary style of life +usually produces too much adipose tissue for perfect health and happiness. +Old cricketers also drift into the same haven. Indeed, the public-house +has contributed many of the best exponents of the national game. William +Clarke, the father of modern cricket, and first secretary of the famous +All England Eleven, kept the _Trent Bridge Inn_ at Nottingham; Noah Mann, +a famous Sussex player, and one of the heroes of the Hambleden Club, came +from an inn at North Chapel, near the Surrey border of the county. He is +said to have once made ten runs with one hit. At Mitcham, nursery alike of +vegetation and of Surrey cricket, every publican is a cricketer of repute. +_Bat and Ball_, _Cricketers_, and similar signs are, of course, to be met +with everywhere. + +At the _Swan_, Ash Vale, close to Basingstoke Canal, and at present kept +by Mr. John Tupper, the well-known army trainer, there still remains one +of the last rat-pits--of course, now not utilized for the sport. Ratting +survived cock-fighting for a time, the usual method being to turn a dog in +with a number of rats, which he was expected to kill within a given number +of minutes. The pit was about six feet in diameter with a high unclimbable +rim either of wood or polished cement. + +A more humane, but very exciting rough-and-tumble competition may +occasionally be witnessed in the public-houses of some east-end districts, +and is entitled “Boot hunting.” Various individuals who pay an entrance +fee of perhaps sixpence, group themselves on a platform at the end of the +room, and remove their footgear which are put into a barrel, shaken up, +and then deposited in a heap. The signal is given, each man scrambles for +his own property, and to the first who succeeds in getting his boots on +the prize is awarded. Sometimes the competitors are chosen by the audience +whose “gate-money” provides the trophy. + +We can hardly trace the sites even of the inns and alehouses between Ware +and Tottenham mentioned in the “Compleat Angler.” But, like old Isaac +Walton, the modern piscator loves to sample “the good liquor that our +honest forefathers did use to drink of, which preserved their health, and +made them to live so long and to do so many good deeds!” The _Talbot_ has +disappeared from Ashbourne on the Dove, but there are “other inns as +good.” The _Isaac Walton Inn_, on the Dove, has been for many years a +favourite resort of anglers. On the banks of the Thames, Kennet, Arun, or +Great Ouse, there are hostelries in which anglers much do congregate at +eventide during the season; on their walls gigantic trout (suspected by +the stranger to be modelled in plaster), float in most lifelike attitude +within a sea of painted glass. And we know of snug bar parlours in the +backwoods of Bermondsey, Finsbury, and Bethnal Green, whither about nine +o’clock men laden with rods and heavy baskets or sacks may be observed +hurrying along to be in time for the “weighing in.” + +The inn yards of Bishopsgate and Southwark witnessed the early +performances of the English drama; and the auditorium of the theatre takes +its form from the tiers of galleries surrounding the “pit” which the +players found there. Music halls have also grown up from the impromptu +concerts in the taverns. The older music halls, like the _Oxford_, +_Middlesex_, or _Deacon’s_, were twenty years ago simply public-houses +with a hall behind them, where a chairman, armed with a hammer to maintain +silence, announced each performer by name and arranged the order of the +programme. + +Many inns contain museums. At the _Marquis of Granby_, near New Cross +Station, there is a magnificent collection of hunting-knives, rifles, etc. +The late Mr. Frank Churchill, of the _White Lion_, Warlingham, displayed +in the ancient chimney-corner of that house gridirons, spits, and +domestic utensils of ancient pattern, and Mr. Alfred Churchill had a +similar museum at the _White Hart_, at Bletchingley. + +For some unknown reason the police are discouraging these museums, and in +some districts publicans are warned against harbouring games of any kinds. +Even good old English manly pastimes like bowls and skittles are under the +ban of the licensing magistrates. + +The other day we discussed the matter with an old yeoman farmer, while we +watched a quartette of young fellows playing a kind of bagatelle. He +declared that the effect of this policy, now so sedulously pursued by the +police, of depriving public-house frequenters of any species of recreation +whatever, was fast driving young men into the political clubs where +extravagant gambling and hard drinking, especially of spirits, was the +fashion. Many promising careers had been ruined in this way--and this we +may corroborate from our own experience in various towns. With tears in +his eyes the old man confessed to us that his vote had blackballed his own +boy from admission into the local club. The total expenditure of the group +during a whole evening’s amusement at the public-house amounted to a sum +not exceeding a shilling; perchance at the club they might have been +tempted to squander away at least half their week’s earnings. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE INNS OF LITERATURE AND ART + + +John Ball, shut up in the Archbishop’s prison at Canterbury, fell +a’longing for “the green fields and the whitethorn bushes, and the lark +singing over the corn, and the talk of good fellows round the alehouse +bench.” The same craving for the real things of life comes to every +creative genius fretting against class restrictions. Sir Walter Scott, +when staying with Wordsworth at Grassmere, usually managed to give his +host the slip in order to spend an hour or two in the _Swan_ beyond the +village; just as Addison had fled the splendid state of Holland House for +the _Old White Horse_ in Kensington Road. Either this wayside inn or the +_Red Lion_ at Hampton, was the scene of the historic drinking bout between +Addison and Pope, which so upset the latter’s digestion and sense of +dignity that he ever afterwards described the great essayist as a terrible +drunkard. The _Bull and Bush_, in North End Hampstead, now chiefly +patronised by holiday makers on account of its attractive tea-gardens, +was another resort where Addison, Dryden, Steele, and the rest of the +famous galaxy of wits loved to gather. It is said also to have once been +the country seat of Hogarth. + +[Illustration: The Falstaff, Canterbury] + +More temperate in their devotion to the flowing bowl, but scarcely less +brilliant in their abilities, were the company who fifty years ago used to +visit the _Bull_ at Woodbridge. George Borrow, the gipsy wanderer; Edward +Fitzgerald, the translator of “Omar Khayyam,” and Charles Keene, the +_Punch_ Artist, were among the number. Old John Grout, who kept the house, +was himself an odd character. When Lord Tennyson came to stay with +Fitzgerald, at Woodbridge, the latter remarked to Grout that the town +ought to feel itself honoured. John was not a student of poetry, and +inquired of Mr. Groome (whose son tells the story in “Two Suffolk +Friends”) who was the gentleman that Mr. Fitzgerald had been talking of. +“Mr. Tennyson, the poet-laureate,” was the reply. “Dissay,” said John, +hazily; “anyhow, he didn’t fare to know much about hosses when I showed +him over my stables!” In these stables there is a tomb to the memory of +George Carlow, who was buried there in 1738, at his own special desire. + +Many, who afterwards rose to eminence in the world of art and letters +were born at inns. David Garrick’s birthplace was at the _Raven_ at +Hereford; at the Garrick Theatre, hard by, Kitty Clive, Mrs. Siddons and +Kemble made some of their early successes. William Cobbett was born at the +_Jolly Farmer_ at Farnham; while at the little _Wheatsheaf_ in Kelvedon, +now disused, but still retaining the wrought-iron bracket from which the +sign used to swing, Charles Spurgeon, the famous preacher, first saw the +light. Cardinal Wolsey’s father is generally described as a butcher, but +he was also a tavern-keeper at Ipswich. Like dear old Tom Hughes, who kept +the _Black Lion_ at Walsingham, a few years ago, he combined with his inn, +branch shops for the sale of bread and meat. It was at the _Black Bear_ at +Devizes, then kept by his father, that Sir Thomas Lawrence first +discovered his talent as a painter. We may add that a personage with an +entirely different kind of reputation--Dick Turpin--was born at the +_Crown_, Hempstead, Essex. + +A very large number of inns all over England are dedicated to the memory +of Shakespeare; in fact, a print dated 1823 shows the chief portion of the +house where the Bard was born at Stratford-on-Avon, as a very picturesque +inn--the _Swan and Maiden Head_--with a portly, good-humoured landlord +standing in the doorway and inviting visitors to enter and drink a bumper. +Of Shakespeare’s characters, the one best known on the signboards is Sir +John Falstaff. There are three _Falstaff_ inns on the Dover road. The +first is that on Gad’s Hill, the scene of the hero’s most glorious +exploit, and incidentally connecting him with his prototype, Sir John +Oldcastle. At Canterbury, just outside the West Gate, the _Falstaff_ is a +fine old-fashioned comfortable house with some very good linen-fold +panelling. But we love best to linger over the _Sir John Falstaff_ at +Newington, near Sittingbourne. The projecting upper storey, bracketed out +on grinning satyrs, the excellent portrait of the fat knight on the +signboard, the noble cornice, and the rakish lines of the great red-tiled +roof all give the distinctive character of the best Jacobean work. +Standing amid its homelier neighbours in the village street, it looks like +a rollicking cavalier who has come down in the world and is just a little +bit ashamed of being seen in such company. His finery is sadly faded; he +is obliged now to shift for himself and pick up what he can among these +common people. If we wait awhile, he will take us aside, and confide in us +about his doings, when he could share in the gay monarch’s revels with the +best of them. _Ben Jonson_, _Garrick_, and _Dr. Syntax_, are almost the +only other literary or dramatic signs that are at all common. + +[Illustration: Sir John Falstaff, Newington] + +The _Three Pigeons_ at Brentford was, in all likelihood, one of the haunts +of Shakespeare, and was certainly frequented by Ben Jonson, who mentions +it in the “Alchymist,” as also does Thomas Middleton in “The Roaring +Girl.” At this time the landlord was John Lowin, of the Globe Theatre, +said to have been the original creator of Falstaff in the “Merry Wives of +Windsor,” and of the part of Henry VIII. He died in great poverty during +the Commonwealth and the inn has lately been rebuilt. + +Whether the _Bell_ at Edmonton is really the house at which John Gilpin +ought to have dined is a controversial point, in spite of the graphic +portrait of the hero on his mettlesome steed. More authentic is the fact +that, at the _Bell_, Charles Lamb was in the habit of taking a parting +glass with his friends before seeing them off by the London coach. + +The _White Swan_ at Henley-in-Arden, and the _Red Lion_ at Henley, dispute +the claim to having inspired William Shenstone’s poem “Written at an Inn.” +Dr. Johnson decided in favour of the latter, and would repeat with emotion +the concluding verse which was scratched in the inn window: + + “Whoe’er has travelled life’s dull round + Where’er his stages may have been, + May sigh to think he still has found + The warmest welcome at an inn.” + +By way of antithesis we subjoin the following poem on a window in the +_Star and Garter_ at Brighton: + + “WM. VEAR + Slept Here + October the 1st + Last Year.” + +In the earlier chapters of “The Cloister and the Hearth,” a variety of +characteristic mediæval inns are described, with much archæological +accuracy and also with a sly satirical humour. “Like Father, like Son,” is +a proverb very true in the unchanging byways of Central Europe. Charles +Reade is for ever giving us graphic touches regarding the eccentricities +and shortcomings of Black Forest and Burgundian inns of our own time. +Delightful, too, is the scene at the _Pied Merlin_ in Conan Doyle’s “White +Company,” and we appreciate it none the less that some of the appointments +at Dame Eliza’s hostelry were scarcely likely to be found in a New Forest +inn so early as the reign of Edward III. + +For the coaching inns recourse must be had to the pages of “Joseph +Andrews,” “Tom Jones,” and “Pickwick,” and for the smaller class of inns, +“The Old Curiosity Shop.” Fielding and Dickens are each inimitable in +their way; the earlier novelist concentrates on humanity in its many sorts +and conditions; Dickens, on the contrary, revels in surrounding details. +He loves to dally with every smoke-stained beam, lattice-window, or row of +battered pewter pots and blue mugs, before ushering in the motley throng +who gather round the tap-room fire, or the fine lady and gentleman in the +smartly-appointed chaise whom the landlord receives so obsequiously. + +Many of the best scenes in old comedies are laid in the inns. When they +were a general place of resort for all classes, including men of rank and +fortune, they naturally lent themselves to the unexpected meetings and odd +blunders which serve to make up a farcical plot. County, racing and +hunting balls were all held in the principal inn of a town; just the +opportunity for a needy adventurer to introduce himself by impersonation +or otherwise. The details of the scheme are arranged in the Coffee Room; +and landlord or waiter supply the necessary information enabling the lover +to pose successfully as Simon Pure. Then, again, the audience were +familiar with the surroundings and were easily drawn into sympathetic +interest. Waiter, boots, and ostler were all valuable properties to be +utilized in supplying the humorous element as occasion served. + +George Colman, the younger, chose for much of the action of his play, +“John Bull, or the Englishman’s Fireside,” a little wayside inn on the +Cornish border. Sir Walter Scott praised this comedy as “by far the best +example of our later comic drama. The scenes of broad humour are executed +in the best possible taste; and the whimsical, yet native characters, +reflect the manners of real life.” Not the least pleasing of these is +Denis Brulgruddery, the warm-hearted impulsive landlord of the _Red Cow_. +And so it ever is. We associate the inn with genial comfort and old +English hospitality; the sight of it kindles every good sentiment of human +kindness within us, and we hail with enthusiasm the reconciliation of +father and child, the union of two constant lovers, and happiness restored +all round. There is nothing so successful on the stage as an inn scene. + +Artists have also shared in the making of the inns. A host of signboards +are attributed to Hogarth or that eccentric and profligate genius, George +Morland. Isaac Fuller was another eminent painter who turned his talents +in this direction. The _Royal Oak_ sign at Bettws-y-Coed, now in the +possession of the Willoughby d’Eresby family, was painted by David Cox, +the _George and Dragon_ at Hayes, in Kent, by Millais. Outside the +_King’s Head_ at Chigwell--the Maypole of “Barnaby Rudge”--hangs a +portrait of Charles I, by Miss Herring, while the sign of the _George and +Dragon_ at Wargrave is the work of Mr. George Leslie, R.A. St. George is +depicted as taking refreshment after the battle out of a tankard of +respectable size. The old inn by the bridge at Brandon on the Little Ouse, +and the _Old Swan_ at Fittleworth on the Arun, are full of paintings by +modern artists; the latter has one room ornamented with panel pictures by +various hands, and the sign (too delicate to hang outside) was painted by +Caton Woodville. There was at Horncastle, in Lincolnshire, a signboard +painted by Hilton, the Royal Academician, which hung over the inn door for +over forty years, finally being taken down and sold, on a change of +tenancy. + +Mr. J. F. Herring, the animal painter, used to relate how he once painted +a signboard for a carpenter employed by him. The carpenter afterwards took +a beer shop and put the sign, which represented the “Flying Dutchman,” +over the door. Eventually he sold it for £50, and with the money emigrated +to Australia. + +Most old inns contain pictures more or less valuable, or at least old +sporting prints. Few can compare in this respect with the _George_ at +Aylesbury, rebuilt about 1810, which from time immemorial has possessed a +remarkable collection of good pictures; portraits by Sir Joshua Reynolds +and Mytens, besides some well executed copies of Rubens, Raphael and +others. It is supposed to have been brought from Eythorpe House, +demolished in the early years of the nineteenth century. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +FANCIFUL SIGNS AND CURIOUS SIGNBOARDS + + +The antiquarian magazines of the last century are full of correspondence +and ingenious explanations of such signs as the _Pig and Whistle_, _Cat +and Fiddle_, or _Goat in Boots_. Many of the suggestions offered are far +more whimsical in character than the devices they profess to explain. “Cat +and Fiddle” is supposed to be a corruption of _Caton Fidèle_, a certain +incorruptible Governor of Calais. _Pig and Whistle_ has been traced to +“Peg and Wassail,” with reference to the pegged tankards formerly passed +round for the loving cup, each guest being expected to drink down to the +next peg. “Pix and Housel,” in honour of the Blessed Sacrament, or the +Danish _Ave Maria_, and “Pige Washail” have also been suggested by the +learned. Mr. T. C. Croker, in his “Walk to Fulham,” attempted to derive +the _Goat in Boots_ at Fulham from _der Goden Boode_, the “Messenger of +the Gods,” or Mercury; the idea being that the house was originally a +posting inn. The _Pig and Whistle_ may possibly be a rustic corruption of +the _Bear and Ragged Staff_ on a somewhat faded signboard. + +Animals masquerading in human attire or performing human actions were a +favourite conceit of the mediæval craftsman, as may be seen by the +carvings on the stalls of our old cathedrals. Most likely we owe these +humorous signs to the sign-painter himself. He was commissioned to design +an advertisement that would puzzle inquisitive people and so attract +customers. + +The _Goat and Compasses_ is supposed to be a corruption of a motto set up +over inns during the period of puritan tyranny, “God encompasses us”; _Bag +of Nails_ of “Bacchanals.” In default of better explanations we must +accept these. Until recently a public house existed in St. James’ Street, +called the _Savoy Weepers_--a name which might open up an endless +mystification if we did not know that the house was previously occupied by +the _Savoir Vivre_ Club. The _Goose and Gridiron_ is, according to the +_Tatler_, a parody of the favourite trade-mark of early music houses, the +_Swan and Harp_; while the _Monster_ in Pimlico may have been the +monastery inn, built during the time that the monks of Westminster Abbey +farmed this estate. + +_Why Not_, and _Dew Drop Inn_ are, of course, invitations to the wayfarer; +_Bird in Hand_ and _Last House_, or _Final_, suggestion that he should not +waste his opportunities to imbibe. + +In the village of Sennen, Cornwall, is one of the best known inns, having +for its sign the _First and Last_, which is quite obviously not intended +as a limit to the drinker. It has reference, of course, to the fact that +if you should be journeying to the south-west the inn will be the _last_ +one you will meet with before reaching the sea, whereas it will be the +_first_ should your journey be by ship coming eastward. As a matter of +actual experience, hundreds of ships which in the course of a year “pick +up” the light at Land’s End have not been in sight of a public-house for +months, during which they have been crossing thousands of miles of ocean. +So that in the case of sailors working these particular vessels the name +of the inn has a very appealing significance. + +He would be a bold man who would venture to assert positively which is the +best-known inn in London; but if the map be consulted, the _Elephant and +Castle_ will be seen to occupy a position at the junction of several +great roads to the south, and if the volume of traffic which must daily go +past the doors is considered, it needs very little more to convince most +people that the _Elephant_ is probably better known by name at all events, +than any other public-house within the four-mile radius of Charing Cross. +In coaching times the inn was passed by every traveller bound for the +south-east, and some authorities have contended that when Shakespeare +recommended that “In the south suburbs at the _Elephant_ is best to +lodge,”[14] he had in his mind the celebrated hostelry of Newington Butts. +But this is probably a mistake, for the _Elephant and Castle_ did not come +into existence until long after Shakespeare’s time. In 1658, the ground +upon which it now stands was not built upon, but probably the first inn on +the site came into existence about twenty years later. In 1824, the inn +was rebuilt, and since then there have been many additions and alterations +which have got farther and farther away from the original building as it +was in the seventeenth century. The _Elephant and Castle_, as far as the +antiquarian is concerned, is now merely a curious name. Another extremely +rare sign in London is the _Sieve_, which as late as 1890 stood in the +Minories. In 1669 there was a _Sieve_ in Aldermanbury, but more is known +of the one in the Minories. It was referred to in the “Vade Mecum for Malt +Worms,” 1715, and was then considered one of the oldest and most noted +public-houses of London. It adjoined Holy Trinity Church. Underneath were +crypt-like cellars which may originally have had connection with the +adjoining convent of the nuns of St. Clare. In the records of the Parish +of Holy Trinity, which was all included within the ancient precincts of +the convent, there is mention of the appointment of a “vitler to the +parish.” On February 13th, 1705, is a record of a vestry meeting at the +_Sieve_ “about agreeing to pull down the churchyard wall.” On this +occasion so serious was the discussion that as much as six shillings was +spent in refreshments before the matter was settled. A good deal of +speculation on the origin of the name of this old inn has been indulged +in, one solution being that the chalk foundations in the crypt may have +suggested the sign. The Metropolitan Railway Company acquired the +property, and closed the house in 1886, before its final disappearance +four years later. + +[Illustration: Sign of Fox and Hounds, Barley] + +The _Adam and Eve_, another common London sign, is, we have reason to +believe, frequently a repainting of the Zodiacal sign of the _Twins_, the +city having according to astrologers, its ascendant in Gemini, the House +of Mercury, who rules merchandise and all ingenious arts. + +An odd sign to find in the heart of Essex is the _Whalebone_, and in the +same county at Great Leighs, there is a _Saint Anna’s Castle_, which is +supposed to stand on the site of a hermitage made sacred by the presence +of some local saint. + +Dean Swift was once asked by the village barber of Co. Meath, by whom he +was regularly shaved, to assist him in the invention of an inscription +for the sign of the _Jolly Barber_, a house which it was intended to +conduct as an inn and a barber’s shop combined. Swift at once composed the +following couplet, which remained under the painted sign depicting a +barber with a razor in one hand and a full pot in the other, for many +years: + + “Rove not from pole to pole, but step in here + Where nought excels the shaving but--the beer.” + +_The Three Loggerheads_, generally in the form of two silly looking faces +and the motto: + + “We three + Loggerheads be,” + +is an attempt to take a mean advantage of the unwary spectator. Sometimes +two asses appear on the signboard with the inscription “When shall we +three meet again?” and this sign is alluded to by Shakespeare in “Twelfth +Night.” At Mabelthorpe is a unique sign called the _Book in Hand_. It is +not so much on account of its name that it is curious, for this might have +occurred to anyone, particularly in days when the ability to read was not +so conspicuously common as it is to-day. But the sign itself is so odd. A +rudely shaped hand and forearm sticks out straight from the brick wall and +in the hand is an open book with three Latin crosses on the right page +and one on the left. The origin of the sign is lost, but it seems +obviously to have had at one time some ecclesiastical connection. + +Many names of inns have arisen from the puns on the landlord or locality. +The _Black Swan_ in Bartholomew Lane, once a resort for musical +celebrities was kept by Owen Swan, parish clerk of St. Michael’s Cornhill. +The _Brace_ Tavern, in Queen’s Bench Prison, was opened by two brothers of +the name of Partridge. _Hat and Tun_ was the sign of a public-house in +Hatton Garden, and the _Warbolt in Tun_ of the little inn at Warbleton, in +Sussex. At least one _Three Pigeons_ began business with a worthy surnamed +Pigeon for landlord, although this sign is usually derived from a coat of +arms charged with three martlets. According to a correspondent, the _Bell +Inn_ of a village not far from Oxford was formerly kept by John Good, who +set up this inscription under a gigantic representation of a bell: + + “My name, likewise my ale, is good, + Walk in, and taste my own home-brewed, + For all that know John Good can tell + That, like my sign, it bears the Bell.” + +Ben Jonson in the “Alchymist” satirised this kind of wit: + + “He shall have _a bell_ that’s Abel, + And by it standing one whose name is _Dee_ + In a rug gown, there’s _D_ and _Rug_, that’s Drug; + And right anenst him a dog snarling _err_, + There’s _Drugger_, Abel Drugger. That’s his sign.” + +The last _Honest Lawyer_ in London has just ceased to exist, but there is +still an _Honest Miller_ at Withersden, near Wye, in Kent. It is +approached by devious ways and difficult to find. Hence perhaps the name. +Like the _Silent Woman_, the honest lawyer was represented with his head +cut off. A very famous signboard, said to have been painted by Hogarth, +was _The Man loaded with Mischief_, in Oxford Street. The man was carrying +a woman, glass in hand, a magpie, and a monkey. Underneath was the rhyme: + + “A monkey, a magpie, and a wife + Is the true emblem of strife.” + +At Grantham, an eccentric lord of the manor about a century ago insisted +on having all the signs of public-houses on his estate painted with the +political colour which he favoured. Thus the town possessed, in 1830, the +following: _Blue Boat_, _Blue Sheep_, _Blue Bull_, _Blue Ram_, _Blue +Lion_, _Blue Bell_, _Blue Cow_, _Blue Boar_, _Blue Horse_, and _Blue Inn_. +By way of retaliation, a neighbouring landowner and political opponent +actually named one of his houses the _Blue Ass_. Grantham also can boast +of the original _Beehive Inn_ with the motto: + + “Stop! Traveller, this wondrous sign explore, + And say when thou hast viewed it o’er, + Grantham, now, two rarities are thine, + A lofty steeple, and a living sign.” + +On Gallows Tree Heath, near Reading, there stands a _Reformation Inn_, +somewhat grim and tantalizing in its greeting to the unfortunate wretches +who were led past it to execution, and had lost the opportunity to profit +by the advice. A cynical humour of the same description must have +suggested the _Half Brick_ for the sign of an inn at Worthing. It is said +that the aborigines of some towns in England invariably welcome a stranger +by “heaving half a brick at him.” + +The original _Hole in the Wall_ is believed to have been either (1) a +highwayman’s retreat, such as the _Hole in the Wall_ in Chandos Street, +where Claude Duval was captured, or (2) an aperture made in the wall of a +debtor’s prison through which charitable people might offer gifts of money +or victuals to the unfortunate inmates. At the _Hole in the Wall_ in the +Borough there is a museum of curiosities worth a visit, and another under +the railway arches of Waterloo Station is a noted depot for Petersfield +ales, much frequented by railway men and various odd characters. There is +to this day a very suggestive hole in the wall at _Turpin’s Cave_, a +small inn near High Beech, Epping Forest. In this hole it is commonly +believed that the celebrated highwayman hid himself on many occasions when +hard pressed by the police. The story can very easily be believed by +anyone with a spark of imagination, for the inn lies in a secluded nook +which even to-day is not at all easy to find, in spite of a signboard +stuck up in the gorse bushes some little distance from the road. The hole +itself is a kind of arched ruin, bricked over, and might at a pinch have +held Black Bess and her famous rider. + +[Illustration: Sign of Black’s Head, Ashbourne] + +Almost gone are the heavy frames and beams which once stretched across the +highways and effectually proclaimed the name and style under which the +innkeeper carried on his business. On these beams a group of swans +disported in effigy before the _Four Swans_ at Waltham Cross. A fine +magpie dangled from the centre at Stonham, Suffolk, while elsewhere a fox +was represented crossing the beam and followed by a bevy of hounds. There +is still remaining such a beam, from the centre of which a bell is +suspended outside the _Bell_ at Edenbridge. Another is still in use at +Ashbourne, Derbyshire, where the _Green Man and Black’s Head_, an old +Georgian posting house, announces its existence by a long beam stretched +across the street, supported at one end by a pole, the other end running +into the red brick wall of the building, immediately over the typical +archway leading to the inn yard. The black’s head is an effigy in carved +and painted wood, planted firmly in the centre of the beam and looking for +all the world as if it had only lately been cut off and put there to warn +other blacks of a similar awful fate, if ever they should chance to come +to Ashbourne. Under the head, suspended from the beam is a big framed +picture, and a small secondary beam on each side has recently been placed +to carry those two terribly modern words, “garage” and “petrol.” One can +fancy the old driver of the four-in-hand, could he come to life again, +scratching his head in perplexity over the hidden mysteries of these +literary innovations to the familiar sign. Ashbourne, it may be remarked +in passing, whilst perhaps not glorying in “one man one public-house,” is +certainly as close to that condition of things as any town in England. To +a stranger visiting Ashbourne in the middle of the week and feeling the +charm of its quiet old-world streets with but few people walking about, it +is a matter for wonder as to how all the licensed houses keep going. But +go there on market days and note the waggons and farmers’ carts standing +in rows outside every hostelry and the matter becomes much more easily +understood. Ashbourne, like one or two other towns of the North Derbyshire +and Staffordshire moors, has until quite recently been cut off from the +run of the country’s traffic, and is still a market centre for a very +extensive agricultural district. Within the last year or two a road motor +service has placed it in rapid and frequent communication with the county +town, so that this comparative isolation is likely to last very little +longer. + +The _White Hart_ at Scole, in Norfolk, once had the most expensive and +elaborate sign of this character ever produced. High above the road it +stretched, on one side attached to the house, and resting on a brick pier +at the opposite end across the way. In the centre was a noble White Hart, +carved in a stately wreath, while on each side were no less than +twenty-four allegorical figures in compartments. The whole was designed by +John Fairchild, in 1655, and cost £1,057. An engraving was published by +Martin in 1740. By the way, this inn also possessed “a very large round +bed big enough to hold fifteen or twenty couples in imitation of the +great bed at Ware.” + +[Illustration: Sign of White Hart, Witham] + +Of existing signs, the most remarkable is the _Red Lion_ of Martlesham +outside an inn which is itself both old and curious. This monster, a +byword all over Suffolk, was probably at one time the figure-head of a +ship, and local tradition ascribes it to one of the Dutch warships +destroyed in the battle of Sole Bay, fought off Southwold in 1672. Outside +the _Bear_ at Wantage stands a lifelike carved bear on a high pedestal; at +the _Bear_ at Chelsham, in Surrey, a large white bear lurks amongst the +shrubs of the front garden in a way very startling to timid passers-by, +especially at dusk. The _Swan_ at Great Shefford, in Bucks, has a most +effective sign, in the form of a large vane representing a swan; while the +_White Horse_ at Ipswich, as in Mr. Pickwick’s time, “is rendered the more +conspicuous by a stone statue of some rapacious animal with flowing mane +and tail distantly resembling an insane cart-horse, which is elevated +above the principal door.” + +The disused _Sun Inn_ at Saffron Walden, built about 1625, has for its +sign a noble piece of plaster work in the tympanum representing the Sun +supported by two giants. A curious old piece of carving which displays a +white swan chained to a tree flanked by the arms of England and France +forms the sign of the _Swan Inn_ at Clare, and probably is intended to +commemorate some triumph of the House of Clarence over the Lancastrians. +Another beautiful little inn, now disused and sadly neglected, the _Angel_ +at Theale, has angel heads introduced over each of its dainty oriels. + +[Illustration: Angel Inn, Theale] + +Many of the _White Hart_ inns retain painted signboards of quite passable +quality. At Chelmsford, the animal is carved and rests on a projecting +bracket. More prominent, though not conceived in a very artistic spirit, +is the _White Hart_ at Witham, cut out and painted on a huge piece of +sheet copper. This is widely known as the most conspicuous and telling +sign on the road from London to Ipswich. + +The _White Hart_ in the Borough, now converted into a club in honour of +Sam Weller, possessed anciently the largest signboard in London. Perhaps +this is why Jack Cade selected it in 1450 for his headquarters. Of +existing signboards the most elaborate is the _Five Alls_ at Marlborough, +once a very common subject for the tavern picture. The first compartment +portrays the Queen with the label, “I rule all.” In the second is a +Bishop, “I pray for all.” Next comes a lawyer, “I plead for all,” followed +by a truculent soldier, “I fight for all.” The last figure is the +taxpayer, “I pay for all.” Some facetious innkeepers added a sixth, the +Devil with the motto, “I take all!” This sign with local modifications is +not unknown outside the drinking shops in Holland, and, according to +Larbert, a characteristic example may be seen swinging under the blue sky +in the sunny street of Valetta in Malta. The largest sign we have ever +come across is the tile painting on the front of the _Kentish Drovers_ in +the old Kent Road. + +But the number of these quaint and comical signs is diminishing every +year. The innkeeper plies his trade under more difficult conditions and is +glad to accept the tempting cash offers made to him by collectors. In +place of the old carved figures or painting, last survival of the days +when every building in a town was distinguished by some badge or device, +the name of a public-house now generally appears written in gilt letters +on the signboard. Even this is frequently lost amid the flaring +advertisements of the brewer, and of the various brands of whiskey +retailed in the establishment. In fact, the frequenters of such a house of +entertainment, especially in the London district, are sometimes ignorant +of its ancient designation, and refer to it either by the name of the +landlord, or of the wholesale dealer, “Mooney’s” or “Guests,” for whose +business it serves as a local branch. + +Landlords of inns near London are not usually very original in their views +of life, and rarely advertise any spark of humour. Perhaps they take +their duties to the public too seriously. Occasionally, however, one comes +across evidence that the keeper of an inn is sufficiently detached in mind +as to admit within the walls of his house of business a jest or two in +print. These are usually framed and hung up in the bar, and as they have +never been seen quite new, but are frequently fly-blown and yellow with +age, it would seem to follow that the race of facetious landlords has come +to an end. In the _Duke of Wellington Inn_, near High Beech, Epping +Forest, the following rules hang in the bar. They are probably from their +phraseology American in origin, and the second was evidently designed as a +sarcastic if not effectual check upon manners and customs in business +houses of the States. + + NOTICE + + 1. A man is kept engaged in the yard to do all the CURSING and + SWEARING at this establishment. + + 2. A Dog is kept to do all the BARKING. + + 3. Our Potman or “Chucker Out” has won seventy-five prizes, and is an + excellent shot with a Revolver. + + 4. The UNDERTAKER calls every morning FOR ORDERS. + + 5. The Lord helps those who help themselves; but the Lord help those + that are caught helping themselves here. + +This notice hangs in an old frame over the door. On an adjoining wall is +the following: + + OFFICE RULES + + 1. Gentlemen upon entering will leave the door open or apologise. + + 2. Those having no business should remain as long as possible, take a + chair and lean against the wall; it will preserve the wall and prevent + it falling upon us. + + 3. Gentlemen are requested to smoke, especially during office hours; + tobacco and segars of the finest brands will be supplied gratis. + + 4. Spit on the floor, as the spittoons are only for ornaments. + + 5. TALK LOUD or WHISTLE, especially when we are engaged. If this has + not the desired effect, SING. + + 6. If we are in business conversation with anyone, gentlemen are + requested not to wait until we are disengaged, but join us, as we are + particularly fond of speaking to half a dozen or more at one time. + + 7. Profane language is expected at all times, especially if ladies are + present. + + 8. Put your feet on the table, or lean against the desk. It will be of + great assistance to those who are writing. + + 9. Persons having no business to transact will call often or excuse + themselves. + + 10. Should anyone desire to borrow money do not fail to ask for it, as + we do not require it for business purposes, but merely for the sake of + lending. + +We copied the following from a placard either in the _Windmill_ at +Hollingbourne, or the _Ten Bells_ at Leeds, in Kent: + + GOOD ADVICE + + Call Frequently, + Drink Moderately, + Pay Honourably, + Be Good Company, + Part Friendly, + Go Home Quietly. + + Let these lines be no man’s sorrow, pay to-day and trust to-morrow. + +In the _General Wolfe_ at Westerham: + + THE LANDLORD’S PUZZLE + + More Shall Trust + Score I Sent + for what I + my And Have + Do Beer If + Pay Clerk Brewers + I May So + Must Their My + +And at Groombridge: + + My ale is good, my measure just, + And yet--my friends, I cannot trust. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +HAUNTED INNS + + +Why is it that haunted inns are so scarce and difficult to find? We have +sought for them far and wide. During thirty years of wanderings among the +old inns, we have retired for the night full oft into blackened oak-lined +chambers with secret sliding panels in the walls, or traps in the ceiling, +that offered golden opportunities for any ghost of enterprise; rooms where +heavy tie-beams and dark recesses cast eerie shadows in the moonlight; +vast churchlike dormitories with springy floors which if one jumped out of +bed caused the door incontinently to unlatch and open in a distinctly +ghostlike manner. But no supernatural visitor has ever favoured us. In +vain we have tried the experiment of sleeping in bedchambers which the +great ones of the earth have made memorable, from Queen Elizabeth to Dick +Turpin. No cavalier knight has ever tried to unburden his conscience to +us, no spectral dame has come to moan and wring her hands with grief, no +clanking chains on the stairs, merely the peaceful dreamless sleep of the +proverbial top. + +The learned in occult lore tell us that the astral body must follow the +habits of the departed to whom it once belonged. It would therefore prefer +private dwellings to the inns which it merely occupied for a night or two. +Ghosts with a grievance would find more congenial occupation in annoying +surviving relatives rather than the passing traveller who is not +interested in their concerns. Well-informed and intelligent spectres, of +course (unless they had some private end in view), steer clear of inns +altogether. At the baronial hall, the ghost is a cherished petted +heirloom; the innkeeper regards him as a nuisance, driving away the more +timid class of customers, and in case of trouble might call in the parson +to exorcise him with bell, book and candle. Then, again, in the halcyon +days for the spooks, say a hundred years ago, the traveller generally +drank deeply to the good of the house. The spectral vision fell flat when +tested on an individual well inoculated with spirit of a more material +nature. In face of all these discouragements, the ghosts, as a rule, left +hotels and taverns unmolested. + +One exception is to be found at the _Ostrich_ at Colnbrook, a beautiful +old Elizabethan coaching inn, retaining near the middle of its long +half-timbered and gabled front, above the yard gate, the platform by which +“the quality” embarked on the coach. It is an ideal place for a ghost to +take sanctuary, with many corridors and low-ceilinged chambers, all lined +through with carved chestnut panelling and twisted pilasters. There is a +Queen’s room, said to have been used by Queen Elizabeth while awaiting the +repair of her coach which had lost a wheel crossing the ford. Over the +mantelpiece is her coat of arms. But chiefest of all is the Blue Chamber, +sacred to the memory of Dick Turpin. This ubiquitous villain, so tradition +states, once leaped from the first floor window and escaped into the +street when pressed by the authorities.[15] + +The ghost is also associated with the Blue Chamber. His name in the flesh +was Thomas Cole, and his story is told in a very rare work of Jacobean +date, published by Thowe, of Reading. + +Once upon a time in the reign of Henry I, the _Ostrich_ was already a +flourishing inn kept by a man and his wife who were secretly robbers and +murderers. When a guest of substance came along and was considered a +suitable victim, the husband would remark aloud: “Wife, I know of a fat +pig if you want one!” and she would answer, “Well, put him into the pigsty +till to-morrow.” Then the visitor was put into the Blue Chamber above the +kitchen. Underneath the bed there was a trap-door, so arranged that by +pulling out two iron pins in the kitchen below the whole fell down, and +plunged the unfortunate man into an immense iron brewing-vat filled with +boiling water. The dead body was then thrown into the Colne which flows +just behind the house. If other travellers asked for the murdered man in +the morning, they were told that he had saddled his horse and ridden away +before dawn. As a matter of fact, the horse had been saddled and taken +away to a barn, some distance off, where the innkeeper cropped and branded +it in such a manner that recognition was impossible. + +Thomas Cole was a Reading clothier, rich and thrifty. He was in the habit +of riding to London, and sleeping at the _Ostrich_ on his return +journey, when he usually carried a considerable sum of money, the proceeds +of his sales. For a long time Cole had been marked out for the cauldron as +he usually travelled alone. After the manner of most sixteenth-century +legends--Arden of Faversham, for example--the murderers were on several +occasions balked of their prey at the last moment when the guest had been +shown into the Blue Chamber. Once it was his friends, Gray of Gloucester +and William of Worcester, who also traded with cloth in London, and +arrived unexpectedly late at night. Another time a tavern dispute kept the +house in commotion; a third time a rumour came that his friend Thomas à +Beckett’s house in Chepe was on fire, and he returned to town. On another +visit he was so ill that a nurse must needs watch by his bedside. + +[Illustration: The “Clothiers’ Arms,” Stroud] + +But at last the opportunity came. Poor Thomas was full of forebodings of +some impending calamity all the evening. He dictated his will to the +landlord, disposing of his wealth, half to his only daughter, half to his +wife. His goodness failed to move the hearts of the greedy couple, and +that night the bolts were withdrawn and he was scalded to death. + +When the innkeeper had disposed of the body in the river, he found that +the merchant’s horse had broken loose and wandered out into the street, +where he was lost for the time being. + +Next day, Cole’s family, who were expecting his return, were alarmed at +his non-appearance. They sent his servants to make inquiries at the inn. +The horse was found on the road. The servants were not satisfied with the +explanations given them, and appealed to the authorities. On hearing this, +the innkeeper lost courage and fled secretly away; but his wife was +apprehended and confessed the truth. It appeared that sixty persons had +been done away with by means of the falling floor. Both the murderers +eventually suffered the extreme penalties of the law of that period. + +On the credit of the above story the ghost of Thomas Cole enjoyed for +centuries a magnificent notoriety, strutting proudly at midnight along the +corridors and terrifying any unfortunate occupant of the Blue Chamber out +of his wits. But the historical critic has found him out. There was no +cloth trade either in Reading, Gloucester, or Worcester, when Henry I was +king, nor was Thomas à Beckett a friend of his, nor did the Blue Chamber +itself exist, indeed there were no beds invented for ages afterwards. +Colnbrook is not so called because “Cole was in the Brook” as was +pretended, nor did the river Colne receive that name because Cole was in +it. If the shade of Mr. Cole has not fled away altogether, it takes care +to hide its diminished head in some dark corner or cupboard. For at least +ten years this detected impostor has not shown himself in the Blue +Chamber. As a matter of fact, the _Ostrich_ was a hospice founded by Milo +Crispin about 1130, and given in trust to the Benedictines at Abingdon. + +About two hundred years ago the owners of the _Hind’s Head_ at Bracknell +tried to emulate the exploits of their rivals at Colnbrook. One winter’s +night a stout-hearted farmer was benighted there and spent a merry evening +round the fire with some jovial companions. At last a serving-maid showed +him up to his chamber. In a scared whisper she warned him that he had +taken refuge with a band of villains. By the side of the bedstead was a +trap-door leading into a deep well. He threw the bed down the trap-door +and escaped by the window. Then he roused the neighbourhood. The gang of +ruffians were captured and all executed at Reading. In the well were found +the bones of all their victims. + +The _Hind’s Head_ is a pleasant little inn, with a fine old garden, and we +have slept in the haunted room--slept the sleep of the just undisturbed by +visitors of any kind. But we have hopes of the _Hind’s Head_, for the +present occupier is a man of taste, who believes that behind the modern +wainscot ingle-nooks and other treasures of the old time are waiting to be +unveiled. The trap-door and the well are to be seen _in situ_, and perhaps +when the old-fashioned appearance of the interior is restored, the ghosts +may be induced to return. + +On the western end of Exmoor there is an old inn, the _Acland Arms_, which +supernatural visitants have rendered uninhabitable. It lies deserted and +melancholy, with its ruined porch and the broken walls of its weed-choked +garden. The wraith of Farmer Mole haunts its precincts. He was returning +from South Molton market one dark night on a horse laden with sacks of +lime. Many years afterwards horse and man were dug out of the bog close +by, into which they must have wandered in the mist and become engulfed. + +For the tale of the “Hand of Glory” we are indebted to Mrs. Katherine +Macquoid, and will let it be told in her own words, with only a few +abbreviations.[16] + +The _Spital Inn_ on Stanmore in Yorkshire, was, in the year 1797, a long +narrow building kept by one George Alderson. Its lower storey was used as +stabling, for the stage-coaches changed horses at the inn; the upper part +was reached by a flight of ten or twelve steps leading up from the road to +a stout oaken door, and the windows, deeply recessed in the thick walls, +were strongly barred with iron. + +One stormy October night, while the rain swept pitilessly against the +windows and the fierce gusts made the casements rattle, George Alderson +and his son sat over the crackling log fire and talked of their gains at +Broughton Hill Fair; these gains, representing a large sum of money, being +safely stowed away in a cupboard in the landlord’s bedroom. A knock at the +door interrupted them. + +“Open t’ door, lass,” said Alderson. “Ah wadna keep a dog out sik a neet +as this.” + +“Eh! best slacken t’ chain, lass,” said the more cautious landlady. + +The girl went to the door, but when she saw that the visitor was an old +woman, she bade her come in. There entered a bent figure dressed in a +long cloak and hood; this last was drawn over her face and, as she walked +feebly to the armchair which Alderson pushed forward, the rain streamed +from her clothing and made a pool on the oaken floor. She shivered +violently but refused to take off her cloak and have it dried. She also +refused the offer of food or a bed. She said she was on her way to the +south, and must start as soon as there was daylight. All she needed was a +rest beside the fire. + +The innkeeper and his wife were well used to wayfarers; they soon said +“Good-night,” and went to bed; so did their son. Bella, the maid, was left +alone with the shivering old woman, who gave but surly answers to her +advances, and the girl fancied that the voice, though low, was not a +woman’s. Presently the wayfarer stretched out her feet to warm them, and +Bella’s quick eyes saw under the hem of the skirt that the stranger wore +horseman’s gaiters. The girl felt uneasy, and instead of going to bed, she +resolved to stay up and watch. + +[Illustration: The “Greyhound” Inn, Stroud] + +Presently Bella lay down on a long settle beyond the range of the +firelight and watched the stranger while she pretended to fall asleep. +All at once the figure in the chair stirred, raised its head and listened; +then it rose slowly to its feet, no longer bent but tall and powerful +looking; it stood listening for some time. There was no sound but Bella’s +heavy breathing, and the wind and rain beating on the windows. Then the +woman took from the folds of her cloak a brown withered human hand; next +she produced a candle, lit it from the fire, and placed it in the hand. +Bella’s heart beat so fast that she could hardly keep up the regular deep +breathing of pretended sleep; but now she saw the stranger coming towards +her with this ghastly chandelier, and she closed her lids tightly. She +felt that the woman was bending over her, and that the light was passed +slowly before her eyes, while these words were muttered in the strong +masculine voice that had first roused her suspicions: + + “Let those who rest more deeply sleep; + Let those awake their vigils keep.” + +The light moved away, and through her eyelashes Bella saw that the woman’s +back was turned to her, and that she was placing the hand in the middle of +the long oak table, while she muttered this rhyme: + + “O Hand of Glory, shed thy light; + Direct us to our spoil to-night.” + +Then she moved a few steps away and undrew the window curtains. Coming +back to the latter she said: + + “Flash out thy light, O skeleton hand, + And guide the feet of our trusty band.” + +At once the light shot up a bright vivid gleam, and the woman walked to +the door; she took down the bar, drew back the bolts, unfastened the +chain, and Bella felt a keen blast of cold night air rush in as the door +was flung open. She kept her eyes closed, however, for the woman at that +moment looked at her, and then drawing something from her gown, she blew a +long shrill whistle; she then went out at the door and down a few of the +steps, stopped and whistled again, but the next moment a vigorous push +sent her spinning down the steps on to the road below. The door was +closed, barred and bolted, and Bella almost flew to her master’s bedroom +and tried to wake him. In vain, he and his wife slept on, while their +snores sounded loudly through the house. The girl felt frantic. + +She then tried to rouse young Alderson, but he slept as if in a trance. +Now a fierce battery on the door and cries below the windows told that +the band had arrived. + +A new thought came to Bella. She ran back to the kitchen. There was the +Hand of Glory, still burning with a wonderful light. The girl caught up a +cup of milk that stood on the table, dashed it on the flame and +extinguished it. In one moment, as it seemed to her, she heard footsteps +coming from the bedrooms, and George Alderson and his son rushed into the +room with firearms in their hands. As soon as the robbers heard the +landlord’s voice bidding them depart, they summoned him to open the door, +and produce his valuables. Meanwhile young Alderson had opened the window, +and for answer he fired his blunderbuss down among the men below. + +There was a groan--a fall--then a pause, and, as it seemed to the +besieged, a sort of discussion. Then a voice called out, “Give up the Hand +of Glory, and we will not harm you.” + +For answer young Alderson fired again and the party drew off. Seemingly +they had trusted entirely to the Hand of Glory, or else they feared a long +resistance, for no further attack was made. The withered hand remained in +the possession of the Aldersons for sixteen years after. + +This story, concludes Mrs. Macquoid, was told to my informant, Mr. +Atkinson, by Bella herself when she was an old woman. + +[Illustration: The Ship, Wingham] + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +OLD INNS AND THEIR ARCHITECTURE + + +Although many of our country inns must in their structural substance date +from the reigns of Edward III and Richard II, and some, like the _Red +Lion_ at Wingham, and the _White Hart_ at Newark, possess features that +are without doubt fourteenth-century work, the earliest examples worthy of +extended description and classification date from the middle of the +fifteenth century. The enormous development of trade, and the wealth of +the towns at this period, occasioned the building of hostelries so +magnificent in size and so well adapted for comfort that they have often +served through the strain and stress of coaching days. Some of these inns +are well worthy of being compared with the grand parish churches which the +same age has bequeathed to us. + +Hidden behind a corner of the market-place at Aylesbury is the noble old +_King’s Head_, presenting to a narrow turning its broad mullioned windows +and Tudor entrance gateway. The interior has an open spacious staircase, +and a lofty tap-room with massive oak cornice, and moulded ceiling-ribs +meeting in a carved boss. It is lighted by a magnificent window, the +ancient stained glass in which represents the arms of England and France +quartered, the arms of Margaret of Anjou, and numerous heraldic and +ecclesiastical symbols. A strong opinion exists that this house was a +refectory for the Grey Friars; others have suggested that it was a hall of +one of the town Guilds, built soon after the marriage of Henry VI, in +1444. With regard to the glass, there is some question whether it was not +brought hither from some other position, especially as one of the heraldic +shields has been reversed during insertion. But the whole apartment +remains very much in its original state except that the chimney piece is +ordinary and modern. + +[Illustration: King’s Head, Aylesbury] + +The yard of the old _King’s Head_ is still a busy picturesque one on +market days, but the scene has lost a delightful background since the +removal of the old galleries. + +Even finer in its carvings and the richly-moulded cornice and ceiling +beams is the great hall in the _Bull_ at Long Melford. Probably this is a +little earlier in date than the Aylesbury house. Unfortunately, the +beauty of this exquisite hall is marred by glass partitions and modern +wall decoration of an inferior quality. Three miles away at Sudbury there +is another _Bull_ also of Edwardian date, full of quaint nooks and +retaining its original front, altered only by the insertion of a few +eighteenth-century window frames. It stands near the site of an old +friary, but we are inclined to believe that it owes its name, not to a +monastic origin, but to the Black Bull of the House of Clarence. + +[Illustration: Tap-room at the Bull, Sudbury] + +Other fine old inns of this period are the _New Inn_ at Gloucester, built +by Abbot Seabrook from the designs of John Twyning, a monk; the _Sun_ at +Feering in Essex, formerly a manor-house; and the _George_ at Glastonbury, +unique in the possession of its original stone front, bold oriels and +richly-traceried windows. The _Crown_ at Shipton-under-Wychwood has a fine +archway in the Perpendicular style and also some mullioned windows. + +Nearer London is the _White Hart_ at Brentwood. “There are few hostelries +in England,” says Albert Smith, “into which a traveller would sooner turn +for entertainment for himself and animal than that of the _White Hart_, +whose effigy looks placidly along the principal street from his lofty +bracket, secured thereto by a costly gilt chain, which assuredly prevents +him from jumping down and plunging into the leafy glades and coverts +within view. And when you enter the great gate, there is a friendly look +in the old carved gallery running above the yard, which speaks of comfort +and hospitality; you think at once of quiet chambers; beds into which you +dive, and sink at least three feet down, for their very softness; with +sweet, clean, country furniture, redolent of lavender. The pantry, too, is +a thing to see, not so much for the promise of refection which it +discloses, as for its blue Dutch tiles, with landscapes thereon, where +gentlemen of meditative minds, something between Quakers and British +yeomen, are walking about in wonderful coats, or fishing in troubled +waters; all looking as if they were very near connections of the +celebrated pedestrian, Christian, as he appeared in the old editions of +‘The Pilgrim’s Progress.’” And the _White Hart_ at Brentwood remains a +treasure among old inns, although fate has not been kind to it during the +sixty years since little Fred Scattersgood found shelter there when +running away from persecution at Merchant Taylors’ School. Depressed Tudor +arches, framed in dark oak, open into each of its two great yards, and an +early Tudor arcading forms the front of the gallery, a retreat from which +the fair dames of Brentwood were wont to watch the cock-fightings. Just +inside the principal entrance will be found some excellent renaissance +woodwork. + +[Illustration: “The King’s Head,” Loughton, Essex] + +At Alfriston, in Sussex, is the _Star Inn_, small in size, but of the +highest interest. On brackets on each side of the doorway are mitred +figures of St. Giles with a hind and St. Julian, the patrons of weary +wayfarers. A beam in the parlour is ornamented with a shield and the +sacred monogram, and all kinds of curious carvings abound in the building. +In the dining-room upstairs, suggestive of an old ship’s cabin, the solid +construction of the fine old roof may be studied. For four centuries it +has borne its coverings of thick Horsham stone slabs without shifting, and +seems sound enough to resist time for a long period to come. Antiquarians +have supposed this inn to have been erected as a pilgrim’s hostel, but it +seems scarcely probable that voyagers, even if they landed at Seaford, +would take this route either to Canterbury or Chichester. It belonged to +the Abbey of Battle, and the many ecclesiastical carvings may be ascribed +to the monkish craftsmen. Just above a facetious, smiling lion thickly +bedaubed with red paint, and evidently the figure-head of a ship stranded +on this dangerous coast, is the carver’s mark showing the date of the +building. A rude heraldic design on the angle bracket, represents a +coronetted ragged staff supported by a bear and a lion with a twisted +tail. In 1495, Edmund Dudley married Elizabeth Grey, last heiress of +Warwick the “King-maker.” The union of the Green Lion with the Bear and +Ragged Staff was a great event for the Sussex people. Edmund Dudley was +brought up at Lewes Priory, and the hillfolk were proud of his success in +becoming the chief minister of his time. + +The _Maid’s Head_ at Norwich, so far as the older part of this excellent +house is concerned, is chiefly Elizabethan and early Jacobean; thanks to +the careful restoration and the valuable collection of old furniture +introduced by Mr. Walter Rye, much of the interior helps us to realise +what an old inn looked like two or three centuries ago. But the _Maid’s +Head_ has a more ancient history, and can boast of a Norman cellar (a +relic of the Bishop’s Palace), while in the drawing-room, a real +fifteenth-century fireplace, discovered in the thickness of the wall, has +been opened up and correctly fitted with dogs and hood. The panelled +billiard-room, cosy Jacobean bar, and the music gallery in the assembly +room (like the “Elevated Den” in the _Bull_ at Rochester), are all +delightful. The only fault we can find at the _Maid’s Head_ is that the +old inn-yard, now converted into a lounge, has been roofed in with glass +at too low a level. A much better effect would have been attained by +introducing the glazed protection high above the galleries, as has been +done in the yard of the _Rose and Crown_ at Sudbury. + +[Illustration: Sun Inn, Feering] + +Another Elizabethan inn of note is the _Star_ at Great Yarmouth, built by +a local merchant, William Crowe, at the end of the sixteenth century. Here +the Nelson Room, so called from a famous portrait of Lord Nelson, is +beautifully panelled in dark oak. When the match-boarding was torn down +for repairs about forty years ago the original fireplace and chimney-piece +were discovered and restored. Over the mantel are the arms of the Merchant +Adventurers who received their charters from Queen Elizabeth. + +The exact date of the _Feathers_ at Ludlow is not very easy to determine, +but it must have existed before 1609, when Rees Jones took a lease of the +premises; and the initials “R. I.” on the lockplate probably refer to +him. The splendid carved front with a gallery of spiral balusters, the +studded door, elaborate ceilings, fireplaces and panelling are, of course, +well known to all students, and illustrated in every collection. In 1616, +there was a celebration in Ludlow of “The Love of Wales to their Sovereign +Prince”; and from this event the inn must have received its name. It is +the finest of all the _Magpie_ half-timbered inns of Cheshire, +Herefordshire, and Shropshire. By the time these lines are in print the +famous “Globe Room” at the _Reindeer_ at Banbury will have been exported +to America, but a replica in all respects is to be erected in its place. A +copy of the ceiling is already at the South Kensington Museum. + +Many of the great coaching inns of the Queen Anne and Georgian eras are +not lacking in good proportion and correct classic detail. But they lack +the individuality of the very old inns, and a long description of them +would interest only the purely architectural student. The artist will find +effects of colour and lighting in the mouldering brick cornices at +Godalming or Sittingbourne. The old ballrooms in county towns, now +deserted for the modern Town Hall, and made to do duty as store rooms, +are always worth peeping into; and little survivals of our forefathers’ +habits of life are to be detected in the broad staircases and deep easy +window seats. Hotel architecture continued to follow the fashion, and even +the Greek revival early in the last century and the later Italian revival +had their influence. + +Some very curious examples of the Sir Charles Barry period are to be noted +in the neighbourhood of the Crystal Palace. Fifty years of wear might make +us forgive some of their eccentricities. Among these, one of the best from +the architectural point of view, is the little _Goat House Hotel_ in South +Norwood, so named from a famous goat-breeding establishment which existed +on an island of the Croydon Canal. The portico, cluster of narrow +round-headed windows and slender Lombardic tower of this building are not +bad, albeit hopelessly exotic. At least they show an attempt at artistic +purpose during the years when public-house design was generally mechanical +and sordid. + +For the very queerest adaptation by a local builder of the style in vogue +during the Greek revival, a visit must be paid to the _Lisle Castle_, on +the Dover Road, about three miles beyond Gravesend. + +[Illustration: The Noah’s Ark, Lurgashall] + +Old wayside inns, as a rule, have few architectural pretensions; good +sound proportion, breadth of roof, bold chimney breasts, and age together +suffice to make them attractive and dignified. Internally the tap-rooms +are often panelled, and the ceilings crossed by many smoke-stained beams; +with here and there a welcome chimney-corner. Ingle-nooks and +chimney-corners are still fairly numerous even in the home counties. +Surrey can boast of a good half-dozen; _The Plough_ at Smallfield, near +Red Hill, the _Crown_ at Chiddingfold, the _White Lion_ at Warlingham, may +be given as instances--while there are more than one in that fine old +Elizabethan inn, the _Clayton Arms_, formerly the _White Hart_ at +Godstone. Leaves Green and Groombridge own two out of the many scattered +about Kent. In Sussex they are too common to require special notice. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE COMMERCIAL TRAVELLER + + +The genuine traveller is really the man who is on business. Even the +tourist can scarcely lay confident claim to the title. Is he not on +pleasure bent? Is he not going from place to place merely for the fun of +the thing? Is he not really a stay-at-home who has ventured out merely to +stretch his legs? Ask the keeper of a commercial hotel in a country town +who his customers are. He will tell you that they are commercial +_travellers_ and coffee-room _visitors_. The two classes are distinct in +the mind of mine host. One suggests work, the other play. The commercial +man is bound to travel whether he likes it or not, the visitor is a fitful +amateur amusing himself by a change from the monotony of home. + +Whoso looks upon the commercial traveller as a modern production created +by the railway system should listen to the explosion of wrath from an old +hand on the road, who has had time and inclination to examine into the +history of commerce. “What, no traditions!” he will exclaim. “Permit me to +call your attention once more, my friend, to the parable of the Good +Samaritan. Who was he, I should like to know, but a commercial traveller? +Everything points to it. He was travelling in oil and wine, why else +should he have had them with him? Notice his influence with the host of +the inn. He was evidently known there. He could give instructions and had +enough ready money to leave two denarii on his departure, with a reminder +that he would be coming again later on. Then, again, his broad-minded +sympathy, he was certainly no sectarian. Commercial travellers rarely are. +Their calling teaches them to be friendly to all sorts and conditions of +men. No traditions? History is full of incidents which show that the man +who travels with samples is as old as the hills.” + +During the eighteenth and early nineteenth century it was the bagman who +used the inn. Not a term of opprobrium this by any means. Think of the +immediate forerunner of the present-day commercial, sitting astride a +sturdy horse with a well-stocked bag on each side, facing all weathers, +negotiating all roads, and making a journey of a month or two at a time. +Not an altogether despicable figure this. There would be nothing squeamish +about his methods, perhaps; but he would be equally welcome to his +customers and mine host as a carrier of news or a purveyor of goods. He +travelled horseback because the roads he had to go over were not always +suitable for vehicles. It was not till Macadam that the light spring-cart +became an essential part of his equipment. + +Long after the commencement of railways the commercial traveller was known +as a bagman. The _Daily Telegraph_, in the year 1865, seemed in doubt as +to whether its readers would recognize the more modern name without some +explanation, for it refers to “a traveler--I mean a bagman, not a +tourist--arriving with his samples at a provincial town.” At that time, of +course, commercial travellers were increasing in numbers; but inasmuch as +railways only connected up towns on certain routes, the light cart was +used constantly to go the round of outlying districts. Indeed, to-day, +there are commercial travellers who still use the older method of progress +for work in parts of counties where railway communication is poor and the +service of trains intermittent. The motor-car is also an occasional means +of conveyance for travellers. When first it was so used, tradesmen looked +askance at it as being likely to frighten the horses of carriage +customers. + +The country inn began to cater specially for business men early in the +nineteenth century, and the establishment of the commercial room was the +ultimate result of the special accommodation which innkeepers offered to +travellers. + +[Illustration: The “Fox and Pelican” Inn, Haslemere] + +Let no unwary casual visitor, even to-day, imagine that all rooms except +the bedchambers of an inn in a country town are open to him. The +commercial room is a private apartment reserved for privileged +representatives of business concerns. A ritual has grown up which is +strictly observed by those whose right it is to make use of its many +conveniences. Notice the formality of greeting which a late comer extends +to the president of the table at the one o’clock dinner. “Mr. President, +may I be permitted to join you?” or “Mr. President, may I have the honour +of joining this company?” “With pleasure, sir.” The head of the table +invites the company to join him at wine. “Well, gentlemen, what do you +say to a bottle of sherry to begin with?” And later on--“Now gentlemen, +suppose we have a bottle of port.” Here is indicated a spaciousness of +life, a dignity and ease which the rapid pushful customs of to-day are +hustling into the past. But although the long wine dinners in the +commercial room, where every traveller was considered good for at least a +pint, are almost over, the ceremonial is still to a great extent kept up. +At one time not so long ago, a diner paid for his share of the wine +consumed whether he drank it or not; but the spread of teetotalism, the +establishment of Temperance Hotels and the gradual curtailment of the time +spent on dinner, as well as the keen competition which compelled every man +on the road to make as much of the afternoon as he did of the morning, led +to a freer personal liberty in the consumption of and payment for liquor. +Nowadays, a commercial traveller orders and pays for what he likes. There +is a generally understood rule that the traveller longest in the hotel +shall officiate as president, and should an entirely fresh set of arrivals +enter the commercial room at dinner-time, the first to come in takes the +head of the table as president, or chairman, as he is more commonly +called to-day. The custom of toasting the Sovereign at dinner, at one time +common, has now fallen into disuse. In places where the Sunday commercial +dinner is still an institution--return tickets on the railways at a single +fare, and express trains have largely done away with it--the old time +formalities are still kept up, for Sunday is a day which admits of plenty +of leisure and opportunity for ceremonial. Grace used to be pronounced by +the president, and a story goes that on one occasion--perchance on many +subsequent occasions--at a suggestion from one of the diners that Mr. +President should “now say grace,” the head of the table arose and +inquired, “Is there a clergyman present? No? Thank God,” and resumed his +seat. + +One good custom which still survives and is likely to do so, is the penny +collection in the Commercial Room for the Commercial Travellers’ Schools +and the Commercial Travellers’ Benevolent Association. This collection is +taken daily at every dinner in the commercial room all over the country, +and it is largely from the proceeds that these institutions are supported. +A sidelight on custom may be observed in the fact that in many hotels now +the collection is taken at breakfast to ensure every traveller being +present. The midday dinner became less well attended, and this led to a +serious diminution in the receipts when once travellers began to use +restaurants and take advantage of local travelling facilities to visit +customers at some distance from headquarters. It is common for the +landlord of the inn to take charge of the money collected. The president +of the table enters the amount, divided into equal portions into two books +and fixes his initials, the proprietor of the establishment, on the annual +remittance to the Association, receiving a votes allotment which can be +utilized on behalf of any applicants for the privileges of the two +philanthropic bodies. + +No one is permitted to smoke in the commercial room until after 9 p.m., a +rule which is observed far more strictly than those unacquainted by actual +experience with the traveller’s life might think. The custom of using +slippers of the inn, which indispensable “Boots” keeps often at his own +expense, is peculiar to the commercial room, though many travellers now +carry their own foot wear for the fireside with them. At the _Red +Horse_,[17] Stratford-on-Avon, “Boots” is credited with having as fine a +selection of comfortable slippers as is to be found in the kingdom. + +Convenience for those who use the room led to the provision of a big table +in the centre, with small writing-tables round the walls. In old inns this +simple method of furnishing is still retained; but more pretentious +establishments now have a separate writing-room. Upon the landlord rests +the responsibility of providing many small details in equipment, such as +books of reference, time-tables, ink-stands, paper and pens. At the _Old +Steyne Hotel_, Brighton, the landlord--himself an old Commercial--even +goes to the length of providing an open box of penny and halfpenny stamps +which travellers may take from as they will, paying for what they use by +placing the money in another box which stands close by. Probably in no +other room of an inn could such a convenience be extended without abuse. +At the same hotel a special stand of well-selected canes is always kept +for travellers who may wish to use them in their walks of relaxation on +the front. + +Beyond these small matters of detail of equipment the commercial room has +little of interest. Hear the description of the author of “The Ambassadors +of Commerce,” who prefaces what he has to say with the remark that “the +cosiness and comfort of the commercial room in the old-fashioned hotel are +by no means due to its architectural form, its size, ventilation, or +adaptation to its special purposes--most of them having none of these +requisites--but to its association,” etc.... “The room itself is not hung +with choice works of art in either oil or water colours.” We seem, by the +way, to have seen many a terrible old oleograph. “The proprietor being +more desirous of advertising noted whiskys and popular bitter ales, he +covers his walls with framed advertisements of these beverages. These, +with a coloured print of the Commercial Travellers’ Schools at Pinner, and +a notice of the dinner hour, complete the picture. Add to the same a dozen +or more half-dried overcoats, mackintoshes, whips, rugs, hats of all +conceivable shapes, and you have some idea of the ornamentations and fine +art decoration of an old-fashioned commercial room.” Not an altogether +unattractive picture either. It smacks of the old mid-Victorian times when +mahogany and horsehair were the chief stock in trade of the furnisher. A +day may come when this much abused combination of woodwork and upholstery +will be sought after. Stranger things have happened. Mahogany and +horsehair chairs and sofas are rapidly approaching that age limit beyond +which they will certainly become interesting, and one can see in +imagination the advertisements of the second-hand dealers who will +describe them as “genuinely old.” In that day many an old commercial room +will be made to yield up its treasures to the insatiable greed of +collectors. It is not uncommon, however, to find odd pieces of +eighteenth-century furniture in the travellers’ room to-day. We have come +across several old sideboards which were obviously of not later date than +Sheraton’s time, though in all probability the famous cabinet-maker had +but little to do with their origin. + +It is the experience of most commercial travellers that the temperance +hotel, quite apart from the fact that it supplies no alcoholic liquors, +is only very rarely comparable to the fully-licensed house. Tradition may +have something to do with the comfort of the old inn, and temperance +hotels have no traditions whatever. Their inception was due to a protest, +and even to-day, with the temperance movement so well understood and +appreciated, the “hotels” which advertise themselves as being dogmatically +averse to a particular form of refreshment, more often than not seem +unable adequately to provide comforts about which there can be no question +whatever. We have known many temperance hotels which began with a flourish +of trumpets and a long list of influential patrons; a few years later they +had become slovenly, disreputable, and even in one or two cases, immoral. +An inn may have peculiarities, it may have character through history and +old associations, but one thing it should certainly never possess, and +that is a narrow shibboleth. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE NEW INN AND ITS POSSIBILITIES + + +Whatever developments may be in store in the future will depend almost +entirely as to how far the licensing authorities and the various bodies +formed for the purpose of furthering the cause of temperance, to say +nothing of trade protection societies, can sink their differences and come +to some sort of understanding as to the best type of inn for public +convenience. Some temperance reformers have dreamt of a land without +public-houses, and even to-day it is not at all uncommon to hear a +lecturer in his enthusiasm for the cause of total abstinence express the +wish that every drop of intoxicating liquor in the country could be run +into the sewers to-morrow, and every public-house at the same time have +its shutters put up. Of course such a dream is impossible of fulfilment, +and by far the bulk of English people are heartily glad it is so. On the +other hand, there is a small body of opinion which thinks that +public-house licences should be dispensed with altogether, that anybody +should be permitted to sell intoxicating spirits if he thinks fit, and +that the removal of restriction would tend towards temperance. This also +is a condition of things which is not in the range of practical politics. + +What, however, does seem a hopeful possibility is that a middle course +should become more generally accepted in the direction of improvement of +public-houses and their conduct, not for the sake of “the trade” on the +one hand, nor for the temperance societies on the other, but for the +benefit of the public. On the whole, the number of people, even in the +temperance ranks, who look upon the public-house as of the devil, to be +destroyed wherever possible, is very small, and it is also fair to say +that among publicans the attitude of mind which regards the possession of +a licence as merely permission to sell as much intoxicating liquor as +possible is becoming rarer every day. The trade has been forced, not +without some grumbling, to recognize tea as a form of liquid refreshment +which may legitimately be called for by the traveller; and although there +are still, in out of the way country districts, wayside inns where the +kettle never seems to boil, and, according to the veracious landlord, no +fire is ever kept up in the afternoon, it is usually easy to obtain tea on +demand in most licensed houses. What has led to this no doubt is the +discovery that tea may be provided at a profit. + +Of late years traffic on the turnpike road has become thicker and thicker. +But the travellers of to-day are not those of a hundred or even fifty +years ago, any more than they are the pilgrims of the thirteenth century. +No use offering them strong ale for breakfast or rum punch at every halt. +As well might one hawk the metal charms which found such ready sale seven +hundred years ago on the great roads to holy shrines. The modern pilgrim +comes on motor-car and bicycle and the relic of his trip is the nimble +picture postcard. Of course, one must not forget that the country inn is +not entirely kept up as a convenience to travellers. It must minister +besides to the permanent residents of the neighbourhood. The regular +customer must be studied, and he has the comforts of home near by. He does +not appear to want them in the bar of the _Blue Lion_ or _George the +Fourth_. Sufficient for him if he find civility and an opportunity of +discussing a tankard of ale and a pipe in company with his friends. But +for all that, travellers continue to increase and the faster they go the +quicker they come. + +A motorist or cyclist thinks nothing of an extra mile or two in search of +good cheer. This is a point which may well be commended to landlords of +inns which are not in the direct line of traffic. The number of people, +too, who take a positive pleasure in going out of their way to search for +unfrequented hostelries is on the increase. Motor-cars have to a great +extent driven cyclists on to the by-roads, and in planning a tour the +rider of the humbler machine will take any amount of trouble to avoid main +roads in his anxiety to avoid dust and obtain peace and quietness. This +tends to increase the popularity of half-forgotten inns in remoter +districts. Where a generation ago the advent of a traveller from a +distance was an event to be remembered, nowadays the ubiquitous motorist +and cyclist may turn up any moment. It is to the interest, therefore, of +rural innkeepers to study him. + +Another fact to be remembered, is the increase in the number of lady +travellers on the roads, and ladies quite rightly will not stand any sort +of makeshift accommodation. Where a man will thankfully accept his pot of +beer and bread and cheese in an evil smelling bar parlour, a woman will +prefer to sit under a tree outside and do without refreshment until it can +be obtained in reasonable cleanliness and comfort. Women, as a rule, +travel under the protection of men, and depend upon their escort for the +discovery of nice places in which to take meals. Men, therefore, have to +find them, and many a little inn which might profit by frequent parties of +both sexes is passed by in favour of a more pretentious establishment +further on, not because the accommodation is not extensive and elaborate +at the smaller place, but because of lack of cleanliness, plain reasonable +fare, and some attention to the amenities of life. + +Quite a small thing will turn a lady traveller against a wayside inn. +Those horrible, narrow swing doors, which are only too common, are quite +enough to make a woman decide against the inn which is so unfortunate as +to have them barring the only entrance. No man ever pushed through such +doors with dignity, and a woman feels instinctively that to struggle with +them involves almost a loss of self-respect. A woman likes to _enter_ a +house. She does not like to slip in furtively, and she feels, perhaps +unconsciously, that there is a hint of the surreptitious in these doors in +the way they open just wide enough on pressure and close again immediately +as if to hide a misdemeanour. No woman, either, will stand and drink even +the mildest of non-alcoholic liquors if she can possibly help it. She +prefers to sit down. The ordinary bar, therefore, has no attractions for +her. Even in a railway refreshment room, where hurry excuses most things, +a woman will only stand under compulsion. It is not that she really wants +to sit down through weariness, for she may have been sitting for hours in +a railway carriage. But she has an instinct for propriety and conduct. If +tea shops, which are so largely patronized by women, had a high bar like +public-houses, with as little sitting accommodation, as is often to be +found in licensed establishments, they could not possibly keep open. Why +it should be customary to stand up to drink a glass of beer and sit down +to take a cup of tea is a mystery. + +Let us admit and welcome the efforts of the old Georgian coaching inns to +keep abreast of the times. Let us cheerfully accept the attempts of mine +host to put life into an old musty coffee-room and bar parlour. +Conservatism is not without value at the inn with a history, and the +landlord for his own sake must step warily. Let no iconoclast interfere +too violently with the worm-eaten glories of old oak and mahogany or seek +to disparage the solid virtues of the great round of beef, or the +appetising ingredients of the game pie. Tradition in such things is well +worth preserving. + +But it is the licensed house which never had much of a history, which has +nothing interesting to preserve, whose justification for existence is +solely on account of its use to the community as a house of call, that so +often requires alteration. The new inn, moreover, the building itself, +erected here in the twentieth century for the accommodation of modern +people, must be as suitable for its purpose as the old coaching-house was +for the stiff, befuddled travellers who, a hundred years ago, alighted +from the “Royal Mail” or “Eclipse” for a much-needed night’s repose on +their journey to London. It is plain that people use the roads to-day +quite as much for pleasure as business. The railway takes the business man +from one end of England to the other, faster, cheaper, and more +comfortably than even the motor-car has yet achieved on the turnpike. +Relaxation from work means for many thousands a journey by road, and it is +in making suitable preparation for those who take their pleasure in this +way that the new inn should devote at least half of its energies. The time +may not be ripe in England for the adoption of the café system of the +Continent. Perhaps the climate is somewhat against it. But some +improvements, which a study of the French and German methods would +suggest, might easily be taken in hand. The argument of the old +teetotaller, not always expressed, perhaps, but certainly present, was +that the more uncomfortable and disreputable the public-house the less +temptation there would be to go into it. One can understand the point of +view as with an effort one can realise the horror of the Puritans for +anything in the form of an image in a Church. But people do not want +nowadays to use the inn as a place in which to get drunk; a drunken man, +to say nothing of a drunken woman, is a universal object of pity and +scorn. What is demanded is a wholesome, clean and pleasant place in which +to have something to eat and drink without being told by anyone, publican +or teetotaller, what form the refreshment shall take. + +Herein is one of the reasons for the movement in favour of reformed +public-houses. The People’s Refreshment House Association, Ltd., which has +now over seventy public-houses under its management in different parts of +the country has shown how licensed premises may be improved and made to +pay at the same time. Proof of this is to be found in the balance-sheet of +the Association which has shown a regular annual payment of its maximum +dividend of five per cent. since 1899, with over £1,000 placed to reserve. +Of course, the Association is frankly a temperance body, but it would be +just as well if those people who shy at the idea of public-houses becoming +controlled by bigotry would consult the dictionary and discover for +themselves the real meaning of the word temperance. Having done so, they +will, perhaps, realise that in pursuit of moderation there is no reason +whatever why the interests of “the trade,” the reformer, and the public +should not be identical, for all these prefer the temperate man to the +drunkard. The fact that about 80 per cent. of the licensed houses of +England are tied to brewers should not stand in the way of improvement; +indeed, in some cases, particularly in the provision and upkeep of +suitable premises, brewers have done more than could possibly be +undertaken by private owners or the public-house Trusts of which, by the +way, there is one now in nearly every county. Without going into the many +vexed questions, most of which are matters for the trade alone, +surrounding the tied house, it may not unreasonably be hoped that the +brewer will see more and more in the future how his duty to the public and +his interests alike demand a broader and more enlightened policy than the +crude idea of monopoly of sale. + +[Illustration: The “White Horse” Inn, Stetchworth, Newmarket] + +Improvements, however, cannot be entered upon with much hope of success +without the sympathy of the licensing justices, and it is as much to be +desired that they should recognize that the public interest lies in the +direction of the reformed public-house as that the brewer should realise +that licensed premises are not solely to be run as drinking shops. The +restrictions in very many parts of England which have been put in the way +of improvements and extensions are absurd. Wherever specially free +facilities have been granted for the sale of intoxicating liquor--as at +the White City in 1908--nothing has resulted which in any way caused the +authorities to regret having trusted the public not to make beasts of +themselves. The Bill introduced by Lord Lamington in the House of Lords +crystallised the views of reformers, who desire to make the public-house +more attractive. It provided that licensing justices should not interfere +with the provision of accommodation for the supply of tea, coffee, cocoa, +or food; with the substitution of chairs and tables for bars; with the +provision of games, newspapers, music, or gardens, or any other means of +reasonable recreation. It also asked that the Licensing Bench should allow +the improvements of premises in the direction of making them more open and +airy than at present and more healthy generally. There are numerous cases +in which the action of justices in refusing to grant facilities for +improvement has been almost incomprehensible, and amply justified the +implied rebuke contained in the Bill. In London the continental café--or +rather an English adaptation of the idea--has been established with +success, and though the metropolis is commonly judged by other standards +than those of the countryside, the way in which the café has been received +seems to indicate not only the desire for freer and more enlightened +management, but also the possession by the public of sufficient moral +fibre to make use of the increased facilities temperately and in reason. + +New inns have been erected in recent years--not many of them it is +true--with the object of supplying the wants of to-day in a liberal and +broad-minded way. Occasionally the assistance of architects of +acknowledged position has been enlisted in making the buildings themselves +more attractive and less vulgar than has been only too common, and if the +effect of environment upon morality and behaviour counts for anything +these new inns should be an improvement in every way upon the bulk of +those built at any rate during the Victorian period. The inn at Sandon, on +Lord Harrowby’s estate, may be mentioned as a case in point. The _Fox and +Pelican_ at Haslemere, the architects of which were Messrs. Read and +Macdonald, is another, which has, by the way, a sign painted by Mr. Walter +Crane. There is the _Skittles Inn_ at Letchworth, designed by Messrs. R. +Barry Parker, and Raymond Unwin. In this last instance the conditions +under which the building was erected were much easier than those which +commonly obtain in older settled districts, where many interests have to +be considered. At Garden City the question regarding the sale of alcoholic +liquors is one on which there is considerable divergence of view. About +the necessity for providing a well-designed and conducted house for the +general refreshment of travellers and as a centre for social intercourse +there would appear, however, to have been no doubt whatever. The +_Skittles_ is referred to here simply as a nicely-planned building of very +attractive appearance which seems to embody most of the improvements one +would wish to see in the design of modern inns. The architects have +contrived cleverly to combine the idea of the continental café and the +English country inn. The rooms are large and airy, there is plenty of +seating accommodation, and a billiard-room is one of the attractions. +There is an entire absence of ornamental decoration, a form of +embellishment which still continues to appear in nine out of every ten +newly equipped public-houses, in the country as well as in towns. Of +course, it is perfectly plain that with a new house of refreshment which +is not to hold a licence, anything may be done. Directly an architect is +commissioned to design a fully-licensed inn his difficulties commence. He +is hedged about by all sorts of restrictions. It is inconceivable, +however, that the cause of true temperance can be injured by the provision +of a good, convenient building for a licensed victualler’s trade, instead +of the vulgar atrocity which is so common. + +It is not at all certain that the classification of compartments such as +saloon bar, private bar, public bar, tap-room, bar parlour, and so on, is +not out of harmony with modern requirements. No doubt this division has +its conveniences, in the same way that the three classes of compartments, +which some railway companies still keep up is found on the whole of +benefit. But, to take the café again as an illustration, there appears to +be no necessity there for such rigid distinctions, and many of the greater +railway companies have found no ill results from the total elimination of +at least second class. Some of the new tube railways have only one class, +and if one form of public convenience is found to answer without class +distinction, why not another? + +Some of the new inns which have architectural character have been +disfigured by flaring advertisements. The licensed trade should know +whether publicity of this kind given to particular brands of ale and +spirits, on the whole contributes to the good of the house on which the +announcements are displayed; but there can be little doubt that one result +is to vulgarize the building. In cases where the landlord of the property +sets his face against advertising of this kind, the inn seems by contrast +to proclaim its respectability and on that account must attract some +custom, at all events. A very good building, as yet not spoilt by +advertisements, is the _Bell_, on the high road between the _Wake Arms_ +and Epping, and another is the _White Horse_, Stetchworth, Newmarket, +which Mr. C. F. A. Voysey designed for Lord Ellesmere. The _Wheatsheaf_, +Loughton, is a new inn designed by Mr. Horace White, which is as yet free +from objectionable signboards, and is a very good type of building for the +smaller country public. There are also various good inns designed by Mr. +P. Morley Horder, in Gloucestershire, and _The George and Dragon_, +Castleton, erected some sixteen years ago, is a licensed house of +excellent design, by Mr. W. Edgar Wood. + +For a model wayside inn of the smaller class, where the internal treatment +shows good taste with the utmost simplicity commend us to the _White +Hart_ at West Wickham. It replaces a very ancient wooden house which had +proved past repair, and is probably unique amongst modern inns in that it +is designed for the convenient drawing of all the malt liquors direct from +the wood. Another more ambitious house by the same architects (Messrs. +Berney & Son) at Elmers End, with an elaborate half-timbered front, +recalling Black Forest architecture, has anticipated the requirements of +the Children’s Act. The well-proportioned tea room is approached by a +colonnade at the side of the building and isolated from the bars. + +Among brewers who have had the foresight to erect inns of better +accommodation and more pleasing design than most of those put up during +the latter part of last century are Messrs. Godsell & Co., of Stroud, an +example of whose houses we illustrate in the _Greyhound Inn_; and the +Stroud Brewery Co., whose _Prince Albert_ at Rodborough, Gloucestershire, +and the _Clothiers’ Arms_, are excellent specimens of the modern country +inn. These three were from the designs of Mr. P. Morley Horder. Good taste +is by no means lacking in some of the many houses owned by Messrs. Nalder +& Collyer, Ltd., in Kent, Surrey, and Sussex. This firm have also restored +the old-fashioned type of signboards. + +Other inns of recent date and of distinctive design are the _Red Lion_, +King’s Heath, Worcestershire, by Messrs. Bateman & Bateman; the _Wentworth +Arms_, Elmesthorpe, Leicestershire, by Mr. C. F. A. Voysey; the _George_, +Hayes, Kent, by Mr. Ernest Newton; the _Duck-in-the-Pond_, Harrow Weald, +by Mr. R. A. Briggs; the _Maynard Arms_, Bagworth, Leicester, by Messrs. +Everard & Pick; the remodelled _White Hart_ at Sonning-on-Thames, by Mr. +W. Campbell Jones; the _Dog and Doublet_, Sandon; the _Hundred House_, +Purslow, Shropshire (a modern reconstruction); the _Green Man_, Tunstall, +Suffolk; the _Old White House_ and the _Elm Tree_ at Oxford, by Mr. Henry +T. Hare; and various temperance inns, amongst which are the _Ossington +Coffee House_, Newark, by Messrs. Ernest George & Yeates; the _Bridge +Inn_, Port Sunlight, by Messrs. Grayson & Ould (now fully licensed); and +the Bournville Estate public-house, by Mr. W. Alexander Harvey. In London +two finely designed interiors are the _Coal Hole_, in the Strand, by Mr. +W. Colcutt, and the _Copt Hall_, in Copthall Avenue, by Mr. P. Morley +Horder. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +INN FURNITURE + + +It will not come as any surprise to readers who have so far dipped with us +into the pages of the past, to learn that mediæval inns, and indeed those +of the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, have very little to show +in the way of furniture. Our ancestors had far less done for them when +they put up for the night than we are accustomed to to-day in the most +primitive districts. Travellers did not even expect a bed. They were +thankful enough if they could get some sort of rough bedstead on which to +lay their own bed which they brought with them. Of course, these were +people of some means. Whenever Royalty travelled the train of waggons +required to convey furnishing equipment frequently extended to formidable +dimensions. On the other hand, the accumulation of wealth in the sixteenth +century soon began to raise the standard of furnishing at the inn, and a +diary kept by a Dutch physician named Levinus Lemnius, who made an +adventure into England during Elizabeth’s reign, is worth quoting as an +indication of the rapid improvement which was taking place. The good +doctor evidently had not been used to luxuries, for he says: “The neate +cleanliness, the exquisite fineness, the pleasaunte and delightful +furniture in every poynt for the household, wonderfully rejoyced me, their +nosegayes, finely entermingled with sundry sortes of fragreunte flowers in +their bedchambers and privy roomes with comfortable smell cheered mee up +and entirely delyghted all my sences.” He probably stayed at the best +hostelries which could be found, and it would be unwise to conclude that +all inns of the period had so many charms as those to which he refers. + +One feature of the furnishing of old inns which adds not a little to the +picturesqueness of the interiors is the high-backed settle, with wings or +arms. This is universal all over England. It varies considerably in +different localities, for the local handicraftsman has worked according to +tradition, and he has also in most cases made the settle for a particular +place and to serve a special purpose. Of course, the original reason for +its design was to keep out draughts from the constantly opening door, and +this purpose is still strong enough to make the settle a very convenient, +not to say necessary, fixture in most inns, in spite of all sorts of +modern draught-excluding devices. It scarcely seems likely that the +high-backed settle will ever be entirely superseded. It is not +particularly comfortable according to present-day ideas of comfort in +seats, which seem to revolve round upholstery. But it is very clean. It +will not harbour dust, and if well made it will stand the assaults of time +for centuries. The old Elizabethan and Jacobean settles were extremely +heavy. It was evident in those days that sturdiness was inseparable from +strength, and considering the possible rough usage to which seats in the +inn might well on occasion be put, the heavy timbers of which they were +constructed seem to have been well advised. They very often had fine +carving, and were constructed with the seat forming a lid to the boxed-in +lower part. It was in the eighteenth century that settles became of little +account, and they were then plainly made by carpenters simply to serve a +useful purpose. There is a good example of a carved settle in the _Union +Inn_, Flyford Flavel, Worcestershire; and in many an old inn in +Berkshire, a county which has retained its ancient character perhaps more +than any other, are heavy old oak settles guarding the warm fireside. In +the tap-room of the _Green Dragon_, Combe St. Nicholas, near Chard, is a +settle finely carved of fifteenth-century origin. Judging by its character +it must at one time have been in some ecclesiastical building. The _Green +Dragon_ was monastic. The settle after a time developed into the fixed +partition, its back stretched up to the ceiling, and a door was placed at +the end, the partition being continued beyond to the opposite wall. +Considerations of light sometimes prevented this being carried out +entirely but a modern compromise was effected by glazing the screen above +the high settle back and putting glass panels in the door. The development +of the ingle-nook came about through chimney-corner and settle being +combined in one feature. + +[Illustration: The “Woodman” Inn, Farnborough, Kent] + +The settle in some form or other is the best possible seat for the inn, +particularly if space is limited. It might be pleasanter to have small +tables and chairs, but in many an old building there is only enough room +for a couple of long seats and a table. A long bench upon which people can +sit in a row side by side is the best seat in existence for saving +space. Light furniture is utterly unsuitable for inns. For one thing it is +usually nothing like strong enough, and even if it be it commits an +artistic sin in looking too fragile for its purpose. Take the respective +merits of the very many forms in which the old Windsor chair has been +made, and the modern bent-wood chair. Now the latter is without doubt the +strongest seat for its weight which has been invented in modern times. It +is one of the few successes in chair-making which can claim to be the +direct outcome of scientific methods. It has absolutely no ancestors +whatever, and can attach itself to no tradition. It is a bald product of +the application of science to furniture, and when the Austrian inventor +finally made it perfect he had achieved utility, nothing more, nothing +less. The bent-wood chair is in pretty nearly every concert hall in the +world. It has conquered completely the restaurants and cafés of the +Continent, and it is to be seen often in old inns of the English +countryside. Now, the last is a regrettable fact. The Austrian bent-wood +chair or settee looks positively effeminate in the country inn with its +thin polished legs, its slender-looking back, and perforated, +mechanically made seat. Something is called for of a greater weight of +timber, which shall look more in keeping with the building and more in +accordance with the solid unimpassioned, phlegmatic way of life of rural +districts. Let us have the chair or settle made by the village wheelwright +or carpenter, rather than the product of an Austrian factory. + +But in the Windsor chair we have a type which can certainly compete with +bent-wood in strength if not in lightness. The Windsor chair, besides, is +capable of much greater variety of form than the Austrian production. It +has a tradition of its own and has as great a celebrity as its more modern +competitor. It is heavier and sturdier. It savours somewhat of the +kitchen, but although it cannot be regarded as the last word on art +craftsmanship, it is not altogether unpleasant to look upon, and is much +more comfortable in use than many a chair with greater pretensions to +artistic appearance. It is still made by hand and costs very little. In +the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the smaller inns contained many +chairs, a few of which are still to be met with, simply made by the +village joiner on the lathe. They had plain wooden seats, and there was +very great diversity of “members” in the turned rails. They called for +comparatively little skill to make, and beyond their bare proportions +showed small ingenuity in making the form comfortable for the body. +Frequently they had rush seats. Within recent years chairs of this kind +have been sought for and made the base of many extremely interesting +seats, designed and constructed by modern craftsmen. + +The oldest form of inn table is the trestle. It dates back to the Middle +Ages, and although nothing like so much used to-day, it still survives in +many an old tap-room. It was originally even a simpler affair than it is +now, being merely a board with movable trestles underneath. It could +readily be moved and pushed away if space were required on special +occasion. At the _Plough Inn_, Birdbrook, Essex, an old thatched house, is +a red brick floored tap-room which contains several fine trestle tables +and settles of simple design and perfect utility. + +But the simple table, chair and settle, beyond which the public part of +the inns of the Middle Ages and the smaller alehouses for centuries were +unfurnished, except, perhaps, for a stool or backless bench, are nothing +compared with the splendid legacy of sixteenth and seventeenth-century +carved oak furniture still left to us in many of the historic hostelries +in the shires. Later enthusiasm in collecting has no doubt been +responsible for the fine specimens of furniture such as those to be seen +at the _Lygon Arms_, Broadway, Worcestershire, and it is extremely +difficult to say with certainty how many of the genuinely old pieces to be +found in other famous inns originally belonged to the building. There is +the _Feathers_, Ludlow, where in the beautiful old dining-room is a fine +collection of furniture, hardly in accord with the period of the ceiling, +the carved oak overmantel, and other permanent features of the room. The +Jacobean and Chippendale chairs are the result of enlightened purchase in +later days. One of the finest Jacobean staircases in an inn is that at the +_Red Lion_, Truro. + +Very little furniture of the Renaissance period, from the Elizabethan +carved oak to the mahogany of the later eighteenth century, is peculiar to +inns. An exception is the bar, which, of course, was a fixture and part of +the inn structure. Our modern bar with its almost invariable ugliness, its +row of vertical handles for drawing beer, and its aggressive cash +register, is a poor survival of the Jacobean bar, an example of which is +still in existence at the _Maid’s Head_, Norwich. It is worthy of +recollection that the high stools which enable one to sit at a bar are +quite of modern origin. Bar lounging evidently did not become a habit +until the nineteenth century. People sat down and had their refreshments +at ease. + +A table which was sometimes found in Jacobean inns of the larger and more +important kind was the one upon which the game of “shovel-board” was +played. “Shovel-board” tables were very long, sometimes even as much as +ten yards. They were about three feet or three feet six inches wide, and +the game played resembles in principle our own deck billiards. Indeed the +“shovel-board” table is thought to be the direct ancestor of the modern +billiard table, without which, of course, no inn of any size nowadays is +complete. The extreme vagueness of the early history of the game of +billiards, however, scarcely justifies any dogmatic statement as to its +relationship with “shovel-board.” A Charles II billiard table with a +wooden bed, cork cushions, and corkscrew legs is in the possession of Mr. +Robert Rushbrooke, of Rushbrooke, which seems to show that “shovel-board” +tables and billiard tables existed at the same time. This, however, does +not do away with the contention of those who assert that the modern game +was elaborated from the simpler pastime beloved of Henry VIII and Charles +II. The last long “shovel-board” table in an inn was definitely stated by +Strutt, in his “Sports and Pastimes of the People of England,” to be at “a +low public-house in Benjamin Street, Clerkenwell Green.” It was three feet +broad and thirty-nine feet long. + +As “shovel-board” tables were very expensive pieces of furniture, it is +doubtful whether any but the most important inns ever had them. The game +was played frequently on tables of much smaller dimensions, and the name +of “shovel-board” is usually used nowadays to designate a particular form +of extending table with hidden leaves. The long Elizabethan and Jacobean +tables--rather mistakenly known as refectory tables--which stood on stout +turned legs connected by thick rails, were ideal boards for the old game. +At Penshurst are, at the present time, two of the finest specimens of long +trestle tables in the country. They date from the early fifteenth century +and measure twenty-seven feet long by three feet wide. + +Innkeepers, of course, had to keep abreast of the times in the matter of +furnishing, and in the coaching era the old hostelries were furnished in +the latest and most approved fashion. Hence it is that the Georgian inns, +where they have not been denuded of their treasures by enterprising +collectors, or turned inside out by some unfortunately advised landlord +who preferred Victorian horsehair and mahogany, still contain many +interesting pieces of the time of Chippendale, Heppelwhite, and Sheraton. +A warning may not be out of place to those who imagine that these famous +names applied to furniture really indicate that the cabinet-making was +done by the craftsmen themselves. Without unimpeachable documentary +evidence, it is utterly impossible to ascribe any fine piece of mahogany +to any one of the three great cabinet-makers of the eighteenth century. +The names indicate nowadays certain periods which are fairly definitely +fixed, and certain easily recognizable styles of work. In many an old inn +you will see in the coffee-room or commercial room side tables, dining +tables, card tables, chairs, settees, mirrors, long-case clocks, bureaux, +and corner cupboards which may typify any or all of the great periods of +the eighteenth century, and it is quite likely that down in the hall or in +the corridors and kitchen you will discover specimens of Jacobean chests, +gate-leg tables, dressers, a “bread-and-cheese” cupboard, perhaps, and +other relics of even an earlier age. The fact was, of course, that pieces +of furniture were bought as they were required, and when an inn had a +history running well into two centuries it would have been remarkable +indeed if a heterogeneous collection had not been got together. It is only +the modern craze for collecting which has robbed the inn of so many of its +treasures. The experts will tell you that the fact of a piece of furniture +being old is no guarantee whatever of its worth, excepting whatever value +may be attached to mere length of years. A joiner in the country, say in +Shropshire or Yorkshire, might not make a piece of furniture for mine host +of the _Chequers_ or _Blue Lion_ as well or in such good taste as would +the first-class cabinet-makers of London. It is quite likely that he would +invest it with some local character, and if this is well preserved in the +piece it has its worth on this account alone. But country made +Chippendale, Heppelwhite, or Sheraton furniture, although charming enough, +has rarely any exceptional value. Wherever the contents of a large country +house was offered for sale, the innkeeper as a man of some substance would +buy, and it is this fact which explains in some cases the finds of really +valuable furniture which have been made at old inns. + +[Illustration: The “Wheatsheaf” Inn, Loughton, Essex] + +The sort of advertisement--common enough then as now--which attracted +local competition can be realised by the following, from the _Kentish +Gazette_ of September 21st, 1790, which announced the sale in the Isle of +Thanet of: + + “All the genuine _Household Furniture_, comprising bedsteads with + marine and other furniture, fine goose feather beds, blankets, etc., + mahogany wardrobes, chest of drawers, ditto dressing tables, mahogany + press, bedsteads, with green check furniture; mahogany escritoire; + ditto writing table with drawers; ditto dining and Pembroke tables; + library table with steps; mahogany and other chairs; pier glasses and + girandoles, in carved and gilt frames; a neat sofa; an exceeding good + eight-day clock; Wilton and other carpets; register and Bath stoves; + kitchen range; smoke-jack and other useful kitchen furniture; two + large brewing-coppers, exceedingly good brewing utensils, and other + effects.” + +This was the sale of the property of a man of quality. It is probable from +the description that the furniture was comparatively new at that time. +The Pembroke table, the mahogany escritoire, the pier glasses and +girandoles and other items were plainly eighteenth century. The enumerated +articles would no doubt be the most attractive pieces in the sale. Whether +there was any old oak or not cannot be ascertained from the advertisement, +but it is quite likely, for it would never be quoted, being thought at +that time of no value. The catalogues of such sales were always left with +the chief innkeepers of the neighbourhood, and to the innkeeper came any +likely buyers who would discuss the mansion and its contents. Foreign +competition in the way of dealers from London, was not to be feared in +those days, and the “neat sofa” and “exceeding good eight-day clock” were +quite as likely to find their way to the coaching inn as to any of the +prosperous farmhouses in the neighbourhood. + +A fairly common fixture in old inns was the angle cupboard. It was usually +not a separate piece of furniture, but was fitted into the angle of the +wall. It takes up little space, and was convenient for the storage of +crockery. + +There is a famous angle cupboard at the _New Inn_, New Romney. + +The bedchambers of the old coaching inns had as an inevitable feature the +four-posters, now, by the way, again coming into fashion. These bedsteads +were not always fine in design by any means. The turning of the posts was +often quite clumsy enough, but they were never so hideous as the tester +beds of the nineteenth century. The prettiest bed-posts were those of the +latter half of the Georgian period, and Heppelwhite in particular is +credited with the design of some of the most charming. As to drapery, +which all good chambermaids kept spotless and clean, the following +suggestion from Heppelwhite’s own book may be quoted. + +“It may be executed of almost any stuff which the loom produces. White +dimity, plain or corded, is peculiarly applicable for the furniture, +which, with a fringe with a gymp head, produces an effect of elegance and +neatness truly agreeable.” He goes on to say: “The Manchester stuffs have +been wrought into bed furniture with good success. Printed cottons and +linens are also very suitable, the elegance and variety of patterns of +which afford as much scope for taste, elegance and simplicity as the most +lively fancy can wish. In general the lining to these kinds of furniture +is a plain white cotton. To furniture of a dark pattern a green silk +lining may be used with good effect.” + +This description gives a very fair idea of the way in which beds were +draped about a hundred to a hundred and fifty years ago. Of course, the +word “furniture” in the above quotation is an old name for the hangings. +It is used in the sense that hangings furnished the bed. + +Tall-boys were found in the old inn bedroom, the corner washstand with its +blue and white crockery, and one of those small loose mirrors (far too +small for the modern beauty) with three little drawers underneath. It is +quite common in any country inn nowadays to meet with these simple +furnishings, though the four-poster has given way in many instances to +cheap “black and brass” or “all-black” bedsteads of the age of mechanical +ingenuity, and instead of a bed of goose-down you shall lie on wool over +that really very comfortable rascal the wire mattress. The immortal +Jingle, who surely puts into four words more philosophy on the subject of +a good inn than anyone else in fiction, summed up everything when he +remarked, “Good house; nice beds.” + +The day should not be far distant when the new inn, not large fashionable +hotels, will seek to furnish in some better way than by the purchase of +heavy and ornate cast-iron tables with marble tops for the saloon bar, +with utterly unsuitable saddle-bag suites for the parlour, with flashing +mirrors everywhere, and ornamental crockery, palm stands of dubious +origin, and gilt leather papers as decorative enrichments. + +However much influence the Arts and Crafts movement has had in the +furnishing of the domestic dwelling, it has left practically untouched the +house which belongs of right to the public. There are craftsmen, however, +many of them, whose furniture seems as if it were designed specially for +the country inn, yet it is doubtful whether one was ever commissioned to +supply the equipment which would give such character and charm to the +modern licensed house. Some of the pieces of furniture, such as plain +straightforward oaken drawers, benches, chairs, sturdy tables, cupboards +and the like which have for many years been exhibited by members of the +Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, would be infinitely more suitable in +the inn than anywhere else. It is not apparently lack of money which +makes those who furnish inns anew look to the modern and often hideous +productions of commerce for their furniture. It would seem to be rather +lack of knowledge or taste. No publican exists but wants to make his house +attractive; but, except occasional advice about the preservation of the +character of old inns by the retention of what old furniture there may be +and the purchase of other pieces in a style suitable to the building, +there would appear to be no influence whatever to prevent refurnishing in +a manner which suggests too often an attempt to reproduce a railway hotel +in miniature. At the moment the most accessible good furniture for the new +inns is to be found in the modern reproductions of well-known styles which +are to be purchased through the ordinary commercial channels and at +commercial prices. It is the commonest experience to go into a country inn +of undeniable architectural charm, even if the attraction be merely that +it seems a simple homely looking building and nothing else, and to find +inside furnishing as bad or worse than that of the cheap lodging-house. +Now the inn should be a cut above that. It should not be too much to +expect a little simplicity in furnishing. It is the attempt to +elaborate which usually results in such artistic disaster. We have in +memory many a little public-house, whose parlour is so small as to +prohibit the slightest effort at decorative detail, and others--obscure +alehouses some of them--where obviously there is not the wherewithal to +provide up-to-date splendours, and in these instances the plain, honest +benches, the trestle tables, the Windsor chairs and homely dresser +constitute an interior which could scarcely be improved. There being no +chance to elaborate, well has fortunately been left alone. + +[Illustration: The “Skittles” Inn, Letchworth, Herts] + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE INNKEEPER + + “A seemly man our Hosté was withal. + For to have been a marshall in a hall. + A largé man he was with eyen stepe, + A fairer burgess is there none in Chepe; + Bold of his speech and wise, and well-y-taught + And of manhood him lackedé right naught. + Like thereto he was right a merry man.” + + +A model to all innkeepers was Our Hosté of the _Tabard_; a born leader of +men, quick to understand each man’s individualities, and full of kindly +sympathy for all. Ready of wit, he was ever careful to remove the sting +before it could rankle. A man of education, he could adapt himself to his +company and be skilful in devices for their comfort and recreation. Not +least of his many qualifications as a landlord was his presence of mind in +averting disputes by a judicious change of the subject. + +We no longer send innkeepers to Parliament, nor do members of Parliament, +as a rule, undertake the personal superintendence of hotels, as they +often did in the fourteenth century. But the type of innkeeper portrayed +as Harry Bailey of the _Tabard_, in Southwark, is by no means extinct. You +may find him if you search well under many an old gable or Queen Anne +cornice--sometimes even in a smart new red-brick hotel. Nor is he lacking +on the great ancient trade routes that run right through Europe--not even +in those establishments recommended by Baedeker or Bradshaw--though the +new races of purse-proud tourists and Cook’s excursionists are fast +expelling him in favour of the servile and mercenary business manager. In +a humbler way, the village and wayside inns contain good men and true who +follow in the footsteps of Harry Bailey. Such inns, often kept by retired +tradesmen, blacksmiths or farmers, are a boon and a blessing to the +neighbourhood. They are not only a centre of recreation for the village +labourer; they tend also to educate and uplift him, ridiculous as the +assertion may seem to those who have never put on an old coat and tramped +through the by-ways into Arcady. + +Diverse and sundry are the concerns in which the village innkeeper is +called upon to give advice. He is the arbitrator in disputes, he solves +weighty problems of rural etiquette. He knows the inner secrets of every +home and can weigh the respective merits of his clientele to a nicety. To +him it is that each one comes for help in trouble, social or financial, +and his charity is given irrespective of politics or creed, given +considerately as becomes a man of affairs, and without stint. The parish +clergy know him as a valuable ally, and it is not unusual to find him +acting as churchwarden. Nay, only the other day we saw a procession headed +by the worthy village publican carrying the cross, and a manful and +decorous crossbearer he proved himself. + +It is surprising what good fellows innkeepers generally are, when one +considers all the difficulties surrounding their occupation. They are the +legitimate prey of every tax and rate collector. We know of one +middle-class beerhouse where the rent charged by the brewers is only £50 a +year, but which is rated at more than double that amount. The innkeeper, +for the purpose of taxation, is merged in the licensed victualler. He is +told that his business of selling fermented liquors is a valuable +monopoly, and a very heavy licensed duty is exacted for the privilege. Yet +he is expected to view with equanimity the dozens of bottles of beer, +wine and spirits passing his door in the trucks of the grocer, who by +virtue of a nominal licence can easily undersell him. Long after the hour +when he is bound by law to close, he hears the shouts of the bibulous in +the neighbouring political club; on Sunday mornings he sees a procession +of jugs and bottles issuing from this same untaxed establishment. +Blackmailed by the police, and spied upon by the hirelings of all kinds of +busybody societies, he goes to the Brewster Sessions in each year in fear +and trembling. The licensing justices must by law have no interest +whatever either in a brewery or a licensed house of any description, but +they may be, and frequently are, teetotallers. Every other subject of his +Majesty is entitled to plead his cause before his peers. The licensed +victualler, alone of all Englishmen since the days of Magna Charta, has to +submit to be tried by enemies who have sworn his ruin. + +How we all love to see, on the stage, at least, if not in real life, +jovial, hearty old souls like Mine Host who entertained Falstaff at the +_Garter_, or old Will Boniface (first landlord to be so dubbed) of the +_Beaux Stratagem_. It is disappointing that Farquhar was such a wronghead +dramatist as to make all his interesting characters vicious. We cannot +believe this fat and pompous host with a wholesome faith in the virtues of +his brew could really have been a scoundrel or capable of conspiring with +footpads. No! Julius Cæsar was a better judge of fat human nature than +Farquhar! Depend upon it, Boniface slept after his potations the sleep of +an honest man. Just listen to him: + + Sir, you shall taste my Anno Domini, I have lived in Lichfield, man + and boy, above eight-and-fifty years, and I believe have not consumed + eight-and-fifty ounces of meat. + + _Aimwell._ At a meal, you mean, if one may guess your sense by your + bulk. + + _Boniface._ Not in my life, Sir; I have fed purely upon ale; I have + ate my ale, drank my ale, and I always sleep upon ale. + + _Enter tapster with a Tankard._ + + Now, sir, you shall see; your worship’s health; Ha! delicious, + delicious--fancy it Burgundy, only fancy it, and ’tis worth ten + shillings a quart. + + _Aimwell_ (_drinks_). ’Tis confounded strong. + + _Boniface._ Strong! It must be so; or how would we be strong that + drink it? + +Hawthorne tried hard to find Mr. Boniface’s inn at Lichfield, but in vain. +He had to content himself with the _Black Swan_, once owned by Dr. +Johnson. Farquhar was careful not to indicate the particular inn referred +to, if it ever existed there. Not that the dramatists in bygone days lived +in fear of a libel action. Witness a farce by J. M. Morton, in which Mrs. +Fidget, the landlady of the _Dolphin_ at Portsmouth, is most cruelly +pilloried for her dishonesty and meanness. In “Naval Engagements” Charles +Dance portrays Mr. Short of the _Fountain_ in the same town as a scurvy +impudent rascal, taking advantage of customers who had spent the night not +wisely nor too well, to charge them for an unordered and unserved +breakfast. Short’s sanctimonious morality and his devices to detain +customers in a hurry, so that they are compelled to stay in the inn for +dinner, are a valuable humorous element of this play. + +Fielding’s innkeepers are all exquisitely drawn, with the lifelike touches +of a fine student of human nature in its infinite variety. We love best of +all the host of that inn where Parson Adams met the braggart, untruthful +squire who offered him a fine living and endless other benefits without +the slightest intention of fulfilling his promises. Mine Host stands by +chuckling inwardly at the good jest when the squire undertakes to defray +the bill for the lodging and entertainment of the party. Nor does he lose +his good-humour when he finds next morning the joke turned against himself +and that the worthy curate has not a farthing in his purse. + +“Trust you, master? that I will with all my heart. I honour the clergy too +much to deny trusting one of them for such a trifle; besides, I like your +fear of never paying me. I have lost many a debt in my lifetime; but was +promised to be paid them all in a very short time. I will score this +reckoning for the novelty of it; it is the first, I do assure you, of its +kind. But what say you, master, shall we have t’other pot before we part? +It will waste but a little chalk more; and, if you never pay me a +shilling, the loss will not ruin me.” + +By way of contrast we are given the termagant Mrs. Tow-wouse, whose +ill-temper and selfish grasping ways were always counteracting her +easy-going spouse’s mild attempts in the direction of generosity: + +“Mrs. Tow-wouse had given no utterance to the sweetness of her temper. +Nature had taken such pains in her countenance, that Hogarth himself never +gave more expression to a picture. Her person was short, thin, and +crooked; her forehead projected in the middle and thence descended in a +declivity to the top of her nose, which was sharp and red, and would have +hung over her lips, had not Nature turned up the end of it; her lips were +two bits of skin, which, whenever she spoke, she drew together in a purse; +her chin was peaked; and at the upper end of that skin which composed her +cheeks, stood two bones, that almost hid a pair of small red eyes. Add to +this a voice most wonderfully adapted to the sentiments it was to convey, +being both loud and hoarse.” + +Surely such a picture is worthy of being beside Skelton’s description of +the frowsy ale wife of Leatherhead. + +Dean Swift encountered a lady of the same contrary nature at the _Three +Crosses_, on the road between Dunchurch and Daventry. He left his opinion +of his hostess on one of the windows: + + “To the Landlord. + There hang three crosses at thy door, + Hang up thy wife and she’ll make four.” + +And here we may be permitted to introduce an adventure of our own. A party +of three, we were engaged on a walk across the Dunes, near Nieuport, and +had lost our way. Flemish was the language of the district, and this in +its spoken form was a sealed book to all three. By and by we came to a +little roadside estaminet which we entered, and in correct exercise-book +French inquired the nearest way to Furnes. The proprietor replied by +placing before us three large glasses of the local beverage. It was a hot, +dusty day, we were thirsty and the beer light and harmless. So we drank it +and then again inquired the way to Furnes. For answer our glasses were +forthwith refilled. When we shook our heads in dissent, the obliging +caterer brought out in turn every different kind of bottle and brand of +cigar and cigarette the establishment could muster. It was no good. We did +not wish to drink or smoke. + +He was perplexed and sat down for a few moments to scratch his head and +ponder over the puzzling problem. At last he decided to do what many wiser +men before have done when in a quandary: he called his wife. Maybe female +intuition might pierce into these mysteries where dull reason vainly +groped in darkness. + +She came, pink and rosy as some glorious dawn, tripping as lightly as a +forty-eight inch waist and a weight somewhere near fourteen stone would +permit. After darting a scornful glance at her lord and master she turned +to us with a sweet smile. We asked in Parisian tongue the nearest way to +Furnes. In a trice she placed before us three pint glasses of Flemish +white beer. We manifested our disapproval very strongly; we did not want +any beer, and her husband watched and smoked his pipe with a cynical grin +as she brought us, in vain, the bottles and various other articles from +the shelves. + +Then a brilliant idea occurred to one of the trio. After all, the Flemish +language is only a dialect of German! So in truly classic German he +inquired of the puzzled dame--Would she kindly tell us the nearest way to +Furnes? + +A bright smile of intelligence illumined her features. She understood now +exactly what we wanted, and popping into the kitchen behind, she soon +returned with three steaming plates full of most delicious hotch-potch +soup. There were haricots, lentils, cabbage stumps, garlic, chicken bones, +sausages and other articles unidentified in that soup. But it was +appetising; we remembered that we were hungry from a long walk and sat +down and absorbed it with a good-will. + +That woman, we know for certain, became our devoted friend from the +moment. She will never forget us. She demurred very strongly to our paying +anything for the refreshment, and tried hard to force three more pints of +that terribly mild beer on us before we left. Not only had we appreciated +her cooking at its fullest value--we had also proved her abilities as a +cosmopolitan woman of business--and, depend upon it, the fact has been +rubbed into her partner in life many times since then! + +But of worthy, buxom good-tempered landladies there is always a plentiful +supply, faithful and true in the defence of their friends, like the good +widow McCandlish in “Guy Mannering,” or beneficent fairies, ready to +adjust the difficulties of eloping young couples and their several +guardians with the delicacy and tact of a Mrs. Bartick.[18] The fair sex +have usually all the business qualities for the conduct of a good inn, and +when with these are conjoined kindness of disposition the traveller is +blest indeed. + +Once upon a time, so tradition hath it--there was a barmaid in a +Westminster tavern who married her master. After his death, she +continued to carry on the business, and had occasion to seek the advice of +a lawyer named Hyde. Mr. Hyde wooed and married her. Then Hyde became Lord +Chancellor and was ennobled as Lord Clarendon. Their daughter married the +Duke of York, and was the mother of Mary and Anne Stewart. So the landlady +of an inn became the grandmother of two queens. Most history books are +content to describe Lord Clarendon’s second wife as the daughter of Sir +Thomas Aylesbury; but the supporters of the traditional view maintain that +this was an invention of the Court Party. + +[Illustration: The Recreation Room in the “Skittles” Inn, Letchworth] + +We have not yet encountered an innkeeper exactly of the same type as old +John Willet, of the _Maypole_ at Chigwell, that “burly large-headed man +with a fat face, which betokened profound obstinacy and slowness of +apprehension, combined with a very strong reliance upon his own merits.” +We meet occasionally in other walks of life these small-minded individuals +whom chance has endowed with pride of place and the opportunity to +tyrannize over all around them. Like the sovereign owner of the ancient +hostelry with its “huge zigzag chimneys and more gable ends than a lazy +man would care to count on a sunny day,” not to speak of its diamond-pane +lattices and its ceilings blackened by the hand of time and heavy with +massive beams, they imagine that their reign will endure to the end. Is +there in all literature a more pathetic piece of writing than that in +which Charles Dickens depicts the humiliation of John Willet, when the +Gordon rioters invade the _Maypole_, and the fallen tyrant finds himself +“sitting down in an armchair and watching the destruction of his property, +as if it were some queer play or entertainment of an astonishing and +stupefying nature, but having no reference to himself--that he could make +out--at all?” + +Innkeepers have been reckoned among the poets. John Taylor, the “Water +Poet,” so called because he commenced life as a waterman, and because so +many of his voluminous works deal with aquatic matters, kept a tavern in +Phœnix Alley, Longacre. Being a faithful royalist he set up the sign of +the _Mourning Crown_ over his house to express his sorrow at the tragic +death of Charles I, but was compelled by the Parliament to take it down. +He replaced it with his own portrait and the following lines: + + “There is many a head hangs for a sign; + Then, gentle reader, why not mine?” + +The episode is commemorated in a rhyming pamphlet issued by him at the +same time: + + “My signe was once a _Crowne_, but now it is + Changed by a sudden metamorphosis. + The Crowne was taken downe, and in the stead + Is placed John Taylor’s or the _Poet’s Head_.” + +Of Taylor’s works, the mere enumeration of which occupies eight closely +printed pages in “Lownde’s Bibliographer’s Manual,” the best known are his +“Prayse of Cleane Linen,” and “The Pennyless Pilgrimage,” descriptive of a +journey on foot from London to Edinburgh, “not carrying any money to and +fro, neither begging, borrowing or asking meat, drink or lodging.” In +1620, he made a similar journey from London to Prague, and published an +account of it. + +Scarcely less eminent in his way was Ned Ward, the “Publican Poet,” +immortalised in the “Dunciad.” His works are scurrilous and coarse, yet +not to be despised by students of London topography in the reign of Queen +Anne. His writings in the _London Spy_ describe the London taverns and +inns of his day, and he produced several imitations of Butler’s +“Hudibras,” including a versified translation of “Don Quixote,” and +“Hudibras Redivivus.” The latter work obtained for its author the +privilege of standing twice in the pillory and of paying a fine of forty +marks. His inn stood in Woodbridge Street, Clerkenwell, and his poetical +invitation to customers includes a reference to the Red Bull Theatre, +close by, made famous by Shakespeare and Edward Alleyn, the founder of +Dulwich College: + + “There on that ancient, venerable ground, + Where Shakespeare in heroic buskins trod, + Within a good old fabrick may be found + Celestial liquors, fit to charm a god.” + +Very different was the side in politics favoured by Sam House, “the +patriotic publican.” Apprenticed as a brewhouse cooper, his active +industrious habits enabled him, when only twenty-five years of age, to +lease an inn at the corner of Peter Street, Wardour Street, Soho, called +the _Gravel Pits_, which name he changed to the _Intrepid Fox_, or _The +Cap of Liberty_. In 1763 he very warmly espoused the cause of John Wilkes, +and sold his beer at threepence a pot in honour of the champion of +freedom. Of unflinching political integrity, Sam House was in most +respects a well-meaning, good-hearted man, with but one reprehensible +vice--a habit of swearing most horribly, no matter what the company. Many +are the unprintable anecdotes related with regard to this failing, when +the most exalted personages were conversing with him. Another eccentric +feature of his character was illustrated when he had laid a wager with a +young man to race him in Oxford Road. Just when his victory seemed +assured, a mischievous wag in the crowd suddenly shouted, “D----n Fox and +all his friends, say I!” Forthwith Sam forgot all about his race, and +regardless of protests from his backers, turned round and administered a +sound drubbing to the blasphemer. This gave great amusement to the +spectators, but meanwhile his rival had passed the winning-post. Sam +cheerfully paid the penalty, consoling himself that he had lost the race +in a good cause, while avenging an insult to his political idol. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +PUBLIC-HOUSE REFORM + + +“Nothing suits worse with vice than want of sense,” remarked Sir Harry +Wilding in the “Constant Couple.” For vice we might read benevolence and +find the maxim equally appropriate. Good judgment is especially needful in +that kind of philanthropy so much in vogue at the present time, wherein +one class of the community interests itself in improving the condition of +another class with which it is imperfectly acquainted. + +Take, for instance, the housing of the working classes. A committee of +maiden ladies meet together and engage the services of some clever young +architect. The local landowner finds the funds, and very soon a row of +cottages has been built of dainty picturesque appearance, and everything +inside them equally lovely. The sanitation is of the latest, the rooms are +light and airy. All sorts of clever devices are introduced to economize +space, nice cupboards, economical cooking stoves with every appliance to +delight the housewife, and even a bath artfully hidden beneath a +trap-door just in front of the kitchen fire. There is even high art +decoration approved by the Kyrle Society. In short, these cottages would +be a joy and a treasure if only the ungrateful labourer would consent to +leave his insanitary hovel and come and take up his abode therein. He +emphatically declines to do so because they contain no “best room.” + +The committee of maiden ladies are very indignant at the idea of the +working man insisting on his best room, an apartment which remains +hermetically closed from week-end to week-end, reserved only as a shrine +for the family Bible and for the reception of a few highly-favoured +visitors. He ought, they contend, to be satisfied with the big airy +living-room, specially designed for his family, and has no business to +complain that his little heirlooms will be at the mercy of inquisitive and +mischievous children. But it will be a bad day for England when the “best +room” disappears from the artisan’s home. It is by long tradition his +castle, his secret keep, the innermost temple of his religion. Every +patriotic instinct of the poor man has its centre within that little +stuffy apartment. Home to the working man means the best room. The safety +of the best room justifies all the national expenditure on a standing army +and a huge navy. In the defence of that best room he is prepared to send +his sons to lay their bones in some nameless soldier’s grave in the most +distant corner of the empire. Take away the best room and the wage-earner +has no home worth either working for or fighting for. He becomes an +atheist, an anarchist, and a general outcast. + +A similar lack of appreciation of human nature is shown by certain +philanthropists in dealing with the use by working men of the public-house +as a place of resort. How much better, they urge, if the workman would +spend his time in more intellectual surroundings--in reading rooms, +popular lectures or entertainments, Christian endeavour societies, etc., +etc. And so they exert all their influence over licensing justices, the +police and other authorities, inciting them to make the public-house as +uncomfortable as possible; with the result that a series of very +undesirable institutions having all the worst qualities of the gin palace, +without its publicity or proper means of supervision, are coming into +existence. Penny readings, lectures, and other religious or educational +centres are well enough in their way; but the man of few home resources +yearns for the gossip of the alehouse. Only there can he find what the +soul of every human being longs for, the company of his own kind, and +recreation and amusement which he himself can assist in supplying. + +Still, if it is to continue, the public-house must be reformed and +improved in some way to satisfy the national conscience. And a book of +this kind seems to be incomplete unless it contains some suggestions as to +the direction in which reform ought to proceed. + +In the first place, we would urge the inexpediency of any further +legislation. Anybody, who as a parish worker or as an employer of labour +has interested himself in a model public-house, will agree with us in +this. No other institution in the country is so hopelessly law-ridden and +police-ridden. We might make an exception in the case of the licence +itself. All taxation of alcoholic liquors should be direct and should be +levied at the fountain head--whether distiller, brewer or importer. The +licence for retailing such liquors should be a moderate and fixed amount +like all other licences. Why the publican should be penalised at so high +a rate, when the grocer, whose annual sales often exceed those of all the +public-houses in the district combined, is let off with a nominal sum, +passes all comprehension. + +To impose a high licence on the hotel or tavern-keeper is, in the opinion +of those who have studied the subject carefully, a mistake both +economically and morally. First, because a large and increasing portion of +his sales consists in wares which the outside dealer supplies without the +necessity of either tax or licence. Secondly, there is a serious +temptation offered to the publican to recoup the high expenditure on his +licence by inducing his customers to drink. And it is most important that +men of the highest character and responsibility should be encouraged to +take office as innkeepers and publicans. This can hardly be the case while +the high licence adds so seriously to the amount of unremunerative capital +required for embarking in the business. No other trade is handicapped by +such an iniquitous impost. + +We must not, of course, shirk that ugly word, “monopoly value,” introduced +by the Licensing Act of 1902. But it is a monopoly of dwindling value +riddled by half a dozen competing agencies and minimised by all sorts of +vexatious restrictions. Sunday trading is not a desirable thing, but a +visit to any favourite suburban resort on Sunday morning reveals a state +of affairs only to be paralleled in Gilbertian comic opera. Tobacconists, +sweet-stuff shops, tea gardens and enterprising Italian caterers are all +doing a roaring trade without let or hindrance. Meanwhile the “Licensed +Victualler,” who pays so high a price for his “monopoly” as a purveyor of +refreshments, is compelled on pain of extinction to keep his doors bolted +and barred against all but the few hardy souls who have accomplished the +Sabbath Day’s journey. + +There is an underworld in the drink trade. Provincial allotment holders +never seem to lack a good supply of the national beverage on Sunday +mornings; it does not flow from the local alehouse. Quarterns of gin and +whisky are obtainable in London from some unknown sources at all hours of +the night. One of the authors, associated for many years with a famous +church in the poorer districts of central London, made some astonishing +discoveries with regard to this illicit drink traffic. Most of it is the +direct outcome of the oppressive one-sided licensing laws. + +On the liquor question itself, we would suggest that the tax on beer +should be graduated, and a comparatively light duty be imposed on beer +guaranted to be brewed entirely from malt and hops, and containing only +the small proportion of alcohol necessary to carry the phosphates--say not +more than four per cent. We believe that the revenue would not ultimately +lose much by this concession, while the result of its general adoption as +a beverage would be highly beneficial. No better preventative could be +imagined against nervous depression, the great curse of modern life, and +the real cause of the drink and drug-taking habits--than a revival of the +good old English mild ale such as our forefathers brewed in the +pre-reformation Church Houses. + +We have already referred to the work of the Public Refreshment House +Association, and much good is bound to result from the efforts of this +body in improving the status of the public-house. Its methods and the +rules laid down for the management of the houses under its control are +worthy of all praise. The foresight and self-denial of its directorate +are especially commendable, in that the society seeks to co-operate in the +formation of separate county trusts, rather than to aggrandize itself by +acquiring an unlimited number of licences. The danger of a gigantic trust, +as of a national monopoly, would be that enormous power might, in the +second generation, fall into the hands of an ambitious and tyrannical +central staff. One fear only we have with regard to the P.R.H.A. Its +establishments are so attractive and altogether so desirable, that like +all philanthropic efforts they will end by benefiting a higher class than +was at first intended. The lady cyclist and the weekender will avail +themselves of their advantages rather than the rural labourer. And we hope +that the wise authorities at headquarters will guard against this +difficulty by encouraging games, and providing magazines for the users of +the tap-room. + +A worthy country cleric of our acquaintance takes exception to the +preferential commission which the Association allows to its local managers +in order to push the sale of temperance drinks. He urges that no +temperance drink has hitherto been invented which is either thirst +quenching or wholesome. The tea and coffee habit would end by making the +villager as neurotic as his cockney cousin. Aerated waters, flavoured with +narcotic drugs and saturated with gaseous mineral carbonic dioxide, put a +severe strain on the action of the heart; fruit syrups are doctored with +nerve-destroying formaline to prevent natural fermentation. Even the +popular ginger beer and ginger ale are not unimpeachable. Ginger is a drug +injurious to the coating of the stomach; and in some modern brands the +more poisonous capsicum is employed as a cheaper substitute. + +But on general grounds, we think this encouragement of temperance drinks +is altogether a judicious move. The public-house exists for the benefit +and use of all classes and sections of the community; the teetotaller has +as much right there as anybody else, and it is desirable that he should +exercise that right as frequently as possible. The popular idea that the +tavern is only a place for the consumption of certain alcoholic drinks +must be dispelled; such liquors have to be on sale there merely because a +large majority of Englishmen habitually desire them as beverages, and it +is not the duty of those in charge to decide whether they shall, or shall +not, continue to do so. Wine, beer and spirits are an essential part, +but still only one department of the tavern-keeper’s business. + +[Illustration: The “Bell” Inn, Bell Common, Epping] + +Village trusts have been introduced with success in some rural districts. +A body of trustees is elected by the whole parish for a term of years, on +much the same lines as the Parish Council. Management on a democratic +basis has its good points, if only the natives can be roused to take a +keen interest in the subject. But all these revolutionary displacements of +“the trade” are unnecessary. The good conduct of the public-house depends +not so much on those who manage it as on those who habitually use it, and +on the growth of a healthy national appreciation of its value. If only men +of good-will made it a rule to visit from time to time the various +licensed houses of the neighbourhood, their very presence would be a +wonderful help to the cause of morality. A good understanding with the +landlord should be established, and then suggestions for the improvement +of the house quietly and considerately discussed with him. We know of +parish priests who, facing sneers about “Beer and Bible,” have pursued +this course, and their efforts have brought blessing and reward. But it +must be understood that all genuine progress is slow. The _Public_-house +is not so much the moulder as the index of public morals; and any violent +attempts at reforming it are as absurd as to manipulate a barometer with a +view to improving the weather. + +In a recent speech the Bishop of Birmingham cited as his ideal of the +public-house, an establishment in Barcelona which he had visited several +times, and which struck him as being specially delightful. He described it +as an immense room in which there must have been about a thousand people. +They were of all classes; a good many of them were artisans who wore their +blouses, and they were there with their wives and children constantly. +They were drinking all sorts of things--beer, wine, tea, coffee, or milk, +and some of them were drinking a peculiar compound of a kind of pink +colour, the nature of which he was not able to ascertain through an +imperfect knowledge of the language. There was rather a good band, but one +could not hear it much because all were talking and laughing and making +themselves extremely agreeable to one another. He asked himself every time +he went there--Was not that type of place of public resort, public +refreshment, and public amusement entirely desirable? He had been there +on Sundays and week-days, and he never felt that he had seen or heard +anything that was not entirely desirable. Every time he went there--and he +could find the same thing in other countries and cities--he said to +himself: What was there in the nature of things why we could not have +exactly this kind of place of public amusement and recreation--this kind +of public-house with regard to which they would not feel the slightest +desire for any legislation to restrict the opportunity of women or +children or of anybody else going into it? + +There are several public-houses in England where the presence of an +enlightened thinker like Dr. Gore would be welcomed. One in particular +occurs to us as we write--the _Ship_ at Ospringe, near Faversham. The +climate of the Swale marshes will not admit of a hall to contain over a +thousand people, but here there is a room which on Saturday nights might +contain any number up to a hundred and fifty. There is no band--the police +would speedily interfere at the first trumpet blare; nor any +children--thanks to a recent Act of Parliament. But his lordship would +find a happy good-humoured company, young men and old, wives and +sweethearts, some drinking beer, some lemonade, young girls eating their +supper of bread and cheese or fish, all engaged in merry converse, or +listening with uncritical good-nature to songs and recitations provided by +such among their number as are inclined to oblige. If a pianist happens to +turn up, so much the better; otherwise the vocalist does his best without +accompaniment. All is homely and hearty. We have visited the _Ship_ many +times and never perceived any signs of objectionable conduct. If it lacks +any of the advantages of its Barcelona rival, we must blame the law and +the licensing authorities--certainly not the institution. + +In Spain, as in Germany, the inn or the tavern is regarded as an essential +element of civic life, not as a place to be discouraged and despised. A +century or two ago all good and respectable Britons avoided the theatre, +and the drama in England became a byword for immorality and +licentiousness. A better spirit arose; churchmen and ladies of refinement +interested themselves in the theatre; the ban was removed, and now we can +take our sisters, cousins and aunts to see an English play without fear of +incurring their reproaches. Perchance, also, a new era may await the +public-house, and its value as an educative and steadying influence on the +democracy will be understood. + +[Illustration: Angel Inn, Woolhampton] + +We live in the midst of a period when great revolutionary changes are +impending. Never before has the struggle for existence among the masses +been so keenly felt, or the cruel differences of opportunity of rich and +poor so widely ventilated. Class privilege and hereditary endowment seem +alike destined for the melting-pot. What will emerge none can tell. We +have shown how in previous ages, whenever there were great political or +social changes, the tavern played its part. Within the doors of the +public-house all men are brethren. There alone class can meet class and +discuss their difficulties freely and even dispassionately. Society has +too long left the lower orders to estimate the advantage of culture from +its Tony Lumpkins. It is a great opportunity. The venerable house of call, +bequeathed to us by the ages, beckons all to come within its kindly +shelter, out of the storms of class hatred and political prejudice. +Churlish and short-sighted indeed will those be who reject the invitation. + +For, after all, the old antiquary whom we met with in the chapter on the +Church Inns was right. The keynote of the public-house and its true +purpose in life is Christian Charity. Charity which suffereth long and is +kind, bearing all things, envying not, nor believing any evil; and without +which we are nothing. The greatest thing in Earth or Heaven. + +[Illustration] + + + + +INDEX + + + _Acland Arms_, Exmoor, 188 + + Addington, _Angel_, 23 + + _Albion_, South Norwood, 131 + + Alfriston, _Star_, 24, 201 + + _Anchor_, Hartfield, 78, 142 + + ---- Liphook, 133 + + _Angel_, Addington, 23 + + ---- Basingstoke, 23 + + ---- Bury St. Edmunds, 23 + + ---- Grantham, 23 + + ---- Guildford, 23 + + ---- Islington, 24 + + ---- Theale, 175 + + ---- Woolhampton, 285 + + _Antelope_, Godalming, 116 + + Ashbourne, _Green Man and Black’s Head_, 171 + + Ash Vale, _Swan_, 143 + + Aylesbury, _George_, 159 + + ---- _King’s Head_, 59, 195 + + + Bagworth, _Maynard Arms_, 236 + + Barking, _Bull_, 18, 22 + + Barley, _Fox and Hounds_, 165 + + _Barley Mow_, Hartford, 79 + + Basingstoke, _Angel_, 23 + + Battersea, _Falcon_, 122 + + _Bear_, Chelsham, 174 + + ---- Maidenhead, 126 + + ---- Southwark, 20 + + ---- Wantage, 174 + + _Bear and Ragged Staff_, Cumnor, 124 + + _Bee Hive_, Grantham, 168 + + _Bell_, Edenbridge, 171 + + ---- Edmonton, 154 + + ---- Epping, 234 + + ---- Finedon, 77 + + ---- Westminster, 77 + + ---- Warwick Lane, 77 + + Bermondsey, _Simon the Tanner_, 61 + + Bettws-y-Coed, _Royal Oak_, 157 + + Birdbrook, _Plough_, 243 + + _Bird in Hand_, Bromley, 139 + + _Bishop Blaise_, New Inn Yard, 61 + + _Black Bear_, Devizes, 151 + + _Black Lion_, Walsingham, 115, 151 + + _Black Swan_, Lichfield, 260 + + Bletchingley, _White Hart_, 146 + + _Blue Boar_, Leicester, 117 + + _Blue Cap_, Sandiway, 140 + + _Book in Hand_, Mabelthorpe, 166 + + _Bournville Public House_, 236 + + Bracknell, _Hind’s Head_, 187 + + Brentford, _Three Pigeons_, 153 + + Brentwood, _White Hart_, 41, 42, 199 + + _Bricklayers’ Arms_, Caxton, 61 + + _Bridge Inn_, Port Sunlight, 236 + + Brighton, _Old Steyne_, 216 + + Broadway, _Lygon Arms_, 244 + + _Bull_, Barking, 18, 22 + + ---- Coventry, 133 + + ---- Dartford, 18, 87 + + ---- Long Melford, 21, 87, 197 + + ---- Malling, 18 + + ---- Newington, 19 + + ---- Reading, 19 + + ---- Rochester, 22, 204 + + ---- St. Albans, 21 + + ---- Sudbury, 198 + + ---- Theale, 18 + + ---- Woodbridge, 150 + + _Bull and Bush_, Hampstead, 148 + + _Bull and Mouth_, St. Martins le Grand, 82, 127 + + Bury St. Edmunds, _Angel_, 23 + + + _Cæsar’s Head_, Great Palace Yard, 112 + + Canterbury, _Chequers_, 106 + + ---- _Falstaff_, 152 + + ---- _Fountain_, 1 + + _Castle_, Hurst, 75 + + ---- Marlborough, 91 + + Castleton, _George and Dragon_, 234 + + Caxton, _Bricklayers’ Arms_, 61 + + ---- _George_, 86 + + Chelsham, _Bear_, 174 + + _Chequers_, Canterbury, 106 + + ---- Doddington, 107 + + ---- Loose, 107 + + ---- St. Albans, 107 + + ---- Slapestones, 110 + + Chester, _King Edgar_, 112 + + Chiddingfold, _Crown_, 208 + + Chigwell, _King’s Head_, 158 + + Clare, _Swan_, 175 + + _Clothiers’ Arms_, Stroud, 235 + + _Coach and Horses_, Westminster, 86 + + _Coal Hole_, Strand, 236 + + _Cock_, Fleet Street, 24 + + _Cock and Bell_, Romford, 79 + + _Cock and Tabard_, Westminster, 23 + + Colnbrook, _Ostrich_, 37, 188 + + Combe St. Nicholas, _Green Dragon_, 240 + + _Copt Hall_, London, E.C., 236 + + Coventry, _Bull_, 133 + + _Crown_, Chiddingfold, 208 + + ---- Dartford, 126 + + ---- Hempstead, 151 + + ---- Ospringe, 37 + + ---- Rochester, 1 + + ---- Shipton-under-Wychwood, 199 + + _Crown and Treaty_, Uxbridge, 133 + + Cumnor, _Bear and Ragged Staff_, 124 + + + Dartford, _Bull_, 18, 87 + + ---- _Crown_, 126 + + Derby, _Dolphin_, 100 + + Derby, _Nottingham Castle_, 99 + + Devizes, _Black Bear_, 151 + + Doddington, _Chequers_, 107 + + _Dog and Doublet_, Sandon, 236 + + _Dolphin_, Derby, 100 + + ---- Portsmouth, 261 + + Dorking, _White Horse_, 26 + + ---- _Gun_, 123 + + _Dorset Arms_, Withyham, 107 + + _Duck in the Pond_, Harrow Weald, 236 + + _Duke of Wellington_, High Beech, 178 + + + Edenbridge, _Bell_, 171 + + Edmonton, _Bell_, 154 + + _Elephant and Castle_, London, S.E., 64, 163 + + _Elm Tree_, Oxford, 236 + + Elmers’ End, _William IV_, 235 + + Elmesthorpe, _Wentworth Arms_, 236 + + Enfield, _King James and the Tinker_, 126 + + Epping, _Bell_, 234 + + + _Falcon_, Battersea, 122 + + _Falstaff_, Canterbury, 152 + + ---- Gad’s Hill, 152 + + ---- Newington, 153 + + Farnham, _Jolly Farmer_, 151 + + Faversham, _Fleur de Lis_, 123 + + _Feathers_, Ludlow, 204, 244 + + Feering, _Sun_, 199 + + Felstead, _Swan_, 51, 75 + + _Fighting Cocks_, St. Albans, 2 + + Finedon, _Bell_, 77 + + _First and Last_, Sennen, 162 + + Fittleworth, _Old Swan_, 158 + + _Five Alls_, Marlborough, 176 + + _Fleur de Lis_, Faversham, 123 + + Flyford Flavel, _Union_, 239 + + _Fountain_, Canterbury, 1 + + ---- Portsmouth, 261 + + _Four Swans_, Waltham Cross, 171 + + _Fox and Hounds_, Barley, 165 + + _Fox and Pelican_, Haslemere, 231 + + + _George_, Aylesbury, 159 + + ---- Caxton, 86 + + ---- Glastonbury, 39, 199 + + ---- Hayes, 158, 236 + + ---- Huntingdon, 78 + + ---- Rochester, 37 + + ---- St. Albans, 39 + + ---- Southwark, 87 + + ---- Winchester, 54 + + ---- Wymondham, 39 + + _George and Dragon_, Castleton, 234 + + ---- Wargrave, 158 + + _General Wolfe_, Westerham, 131, 180 + + _Gipsy Queen_, Norwood, 131 + + Glastonbury, _George_, 39, 199 + + Gloucester, _New Inn_, 32, 87, 199 + + _Goat House_, Norwood, 206 + + Godalming, _Antelope_, 116 + + ---- _King’s Arms_, 10 + + ---- _Three Lions_, 11 + + Godstone, _Clayton Arms_, 208 + + _Golden Fleece_, South Weald, 63 + + _Golden Lion_, St. Ives, 87 + + _Green Dragon_, Combe St. Nicholas, 240 + + _Green Man_, Croydon, Dulwich, Leytonstone, 65 + + ---- Tunstall, 236 + + _Green Man and Black’s Head_, Ashbourne, 171 + + Grantham, _Angel_, 23 + + ---- _Beehive_, 168 + + ---- _Blue Inns_, 168 + + _Greyhound_, Strand, 235 + + Guildford, _Angel_, 23 + + ---- _White Hart_, 41 + + ---- _White Lion_, 117 + + _Gun_, Dorking, 123 + + + _Half Brick_, Worthing, 169 + + Hampton-on-Thames, _Red Lion_, 114 + + Harrow Weald, _Duck in the Pond_, 236 + + Hartfield, _Anchor_, 78, 142 + + Haslemere, _Fox and Pelican_, 231 + + Hawkhurst, _Queen’s Hotel_, 142 + + Hemel Hempstead, _King’s Arms_, x + + Hempstead, _Crown_, 151 + + Henley-in-Arden, _White Swan_, 154 + + Henley-on-Thames, _Red Lion_, 154 + + Hereford, _Raven_, 151 + + High Beech, _Duke of Wellington_, 178 + + High Easter, _Punch Bowl_, 74, 76 + + _Hind’s Head_, Bracknell, 187 + + _Hole in the Wall_, Borough, 169 + + ---- Waterloo Station, 169 + + Hollingbourne, _Windmill_, 179 + + _Holy Blaise_, Kidderminster, 61 + + _Honest Miller_, Wye, 168 + + _Horse and Groom_, Waltham St. Lawrence, 136 + + _Hundred House_, Purslow, 236 + + Huntingdon, _George_, 78, 87 + + ---- _Queen’s Head_, 79 + + Hurst, _Castle_, 75 + + + _Isaac Walton_, Ashbourne, 144 + + Islington, _Angel_, 24 + + ---- _Pied Bull_, 120 + + ---- _Queen’s Head_, 120 + + ---- _Sir Hugh Middleton_, 120 + + + _Jack of Newbury_, Reading, 131 + + _Jack Straw’s Castle_, Hampstead, 126 + + _Jolly Farmer_, Farnham, 151 + + _Jolly Sailor_, South Norwood, 131 + + + Kelvedon, _Wheatsheaf_, 151 + + _Kentish Drovers_, Old Kent Road, 177 + + _King Edgar_, Chester, 112 + + _King James and the Tinker_, Enfield, 126 + + _King’s Arms_, Godalming, 10 + + ---- Hemel Hempstead, x + + _King’s Head_, Aylesbury, 59, 195 + + ---- Chigwell, 158 + + ---- Roehampton, 118 + + King’s Heath, _Red Lion_, 236 + + Kingsbury, _Plough_, 109 + + Kidderminster, _Holy Blaise_, 61 + + + _Lamb_, Eastbourne, 77 + + _Lamb and Anchor_, Bristol, 78 + + _Lamb and Flag_, Brighton, 78 + + ---- Sudbury, Swindon, 78 + + Leicester, _Blue Boar_, 117 + + Lichfield, _Black Swan_, 261 + + Lickfold, _Three Horseshoes_, 108 + + Lincoln, _Reindeer_, 138 + + Liphook, _Anchor_, 133 + + _Lisle Castle_, Chalk, Gravesend, 208 + + Long Melford, _Bull_, 21, 87, 197 + + Loose, _Chequers_, 107 + + Loughton, _Wheatsheaf_, 234 + + Ludlow, _Feathers_, 204, 244 + + Lurgashall, _Noah’s Ark_, 207 + + _Lygon Arms_, Broadway, 244 + + + Mabelthorpe, _Book in Hand_, 166 + + Maidenhead, _Bear_, 126 + + _Maid’s Head_, Norwich, 202, 245 + + Maidstone, _Nelson_, 129 + + Malling, _Bull_, 18 + + Manchester, _Seven Stars_, 1 + + Marlborough, _Castle_, 91 + + ---- _Five Alls_, 176 + + _Marquis of Granby_, Deptford, 145 + + ---- Epsom, 128 + + Martlesham, _Red Lion_, 174 + + _Maynard Arms_, Bagworth, 236 + + Midhurst, _Spread Eagle_, 7 + + _Monster_, Pimlico, 161 + + + _Nelson_, Maidstone, 129 + + Newark, _Ossington_, 236 + + ---- _Saracen’s Head_, 1 + + Newington, _Bull_, 19 + + ---- _Falstaff_, 153 + + _New Inn_, Gloucester, 32, 87, 199 + + ---- New Romney, 250 + + _Noah’s Ark_, Lurgashall, 207 + + Norwich, _Maid’s Head_, 202, 245 + + Norwood, _Gipsy Queen_, 131 + + ---- _Goat House_, 206 + + ---- Nautical Inns, 131 + + _Nottingham Castle_, Derby, 99 + + Nottingham, _Ram_, 1 + + + _Old Red House_, nr. Newmarket, 79 + + _Old Steyne_, Brighton, 216 + + _Old White House_, Oxford, 236 + + _Ossington_, Newark, 236 + + Ospringe, _Crown_, 37 + + ---- _Ship_, 37 + + _Ostrich_, Colnbrook, 37, 188 + + Oxford, _Elm Tree_, 236 + + ---- _Old White House_, 236 + + _Oxford Arms_, Warwick Lane, 83 + + + Papworth Everard, _Three Horse Shoes_, 108 + + _Pelican_, Speen, 125 + + _Pied Bull_, Islington, 120 + + Pleshy, _White Horse_, 98 + + _Plough_, Birdbrook, 243 + + ---- Kingsbury, 109 + + ---- Smallfield, 208 + + ---- Upper Dicker, 109 + + Plumbley, _Smoker_, 141 + + Portsmouth, _Dolphin_, 261 + + ---- _Fountain_, 261 + + Port Sunlight, _Bridge Inn_, 236 + + _Prince Albert_, Rodborough, 235 + + _Punch Bowl_, High Easter, 74, 76 + + Purslow, _Hundred House_, 236 + + + _Queen’s Head_, Huntingdon, 79 + + ---- Islington, 120 + + _Queen’s Hotel_, Hawkhurst, 142 + + + _Ram_, Nottingham, 1 + + _Raven_, Hereford, 151 + + Reading, _Bull_, 19 + + Redbourne, _Chequers_, 107 + + _Red House_, Stratford-on-Avon, 216 + + _Red Lion_, Hampton-on-Thames, 114, 148 + + ---- Henley, 154 + + ---- King’s Heath, 236 + + ---- Martlesham, 174 + + ---- Sittingbourne, 114 + + ---- Speldhurst, 114 + + ---- Truro, 244 + + ---- Wingham, 113, 195 + + _Reformation_, Reading, 169 + + _Reindeer_, Lincoln, 138 + + Rochester, _Bull_, 22, 204 + + ---- _George_, 37 + + Rodborough, _Prince Albert_, 235 + + Roehampton, _King’s Head_, 118 + + Romford, _Cock and Bell_, 79 + + _Rose_, Wokingham, 94 + + _Rose and Crown_, Sudbury, 204 + + _Royal Oak_, Bettws-y-Coed, 157 + + _Running Horse_, Sandling, 141 + + + Saffron Walden, _Sun_, 174 + + St. Albans, _Bull_, 21 + + ---- _Chequers_, 107 + + ---- _Fighting Cocks_, 2 + + ---- _George_, 39 + + ---- _White Hart_, 85 + + _St. Anna’s Castle_, Great Leighs, 165 + + Sandiway, _Blue Cap_, 140 + + Sandon, _Dog and Doublet_, 236 + + _Saracen’s Head_, Newark, 1 + + Scole, _White Hart_, 172 + + Sennen, _First and Last_, 162 + + _Seven Stars_, Manchester, 1 + + Shefford, _Swan_, 174 + + _Ship_, Norwood, 131 + + ---- Ospringe, 37, 283 + + ---- Wingham, 194 + + Shipton-under-Wychwood, _Crown_, 199 + + _Sieve_, Minories, E.C., 164 + + _Simon the Tanner_, Bermondsey, 61 + + _Sir Hugh Middleton_, Islington, 132 + + Sittingbourne, _Red Lion_, 114 + + _Skittles_, Letchworth, 231 + + Slapestones, _Chequers_, 110 + + Smallfield, _Plough_, 208 + + _Smoker_, Plumbley, 141 + + Sonning, _White Hart_, 236 + + South Weald, _Golden Fleece_, 63 + + Speen, _Pelican_, 125 + + Speldhurst, _Red Lion_, 114 + + _Spread Eagle_, Midhurst, 7 + + _Spital_, Stanmore, 189 + + _Star_, Alfriston, 24, 201 + + ---- Great Yarmouth, 204 + + _Star and Garter_, Brighton, 155 + + Stratford-on-Avon, _Red Horse_, 216 + + Strand, _Clothiers’ Arms_, _Greyhound_, 235 + + _Swan_, Ash Vale, 143 + + ---- Clare, 175 + + ---- Felstead, 51, 75 + + ---- Fittleworth, 158 + + ---- Grasmere, 158 + + ---- Shefford, 174 + + ---- Sutton Valence, 116 + + ---- Tarporley, 140 + + _Swan and Maiden Head_, Stratford-on-Avon, 152 + + Sudbury, _Bull_, 19, 198 + + ---- _Rose and Crown_, 204 + + _Sun_, Feering, 199 + + ---- Saffron Walden, 174 + + Sutton Valence, _Swan_, 116 + + + _Tabard_, Southwark, 25 + + Tarporley, _Swan_, 140 + + _Ten Bells_, Leeds, Kent, 179 + + Theale, _Angel_, 175 + + _Three Crosses_, nr. Daventry, 263 + + _Three Frogs_, Wokingham, 123 + + _Three Horseshoes_, Lickfold, 108 + + ---- Papworth Everard, 108 + + _Three Lions_, Godalming, 11 + + _Three Pigeons_, Brentford, 153 + + _Tiger_, Lindfield, 7 + + Truro, _Red Lion_, 244 + + Tunstall, _Green Man_, 236 + + _Turpin’s Cave_, High Beech, 170 + + + _Unicorn_, Weobley, 121 + + _Union_, Flyford Flavel, 239 + + Upper Dicker, _Plough_, 109 + + Uxbridge, _Crown and Treaty_, 133 + + + Walsingham, _Black Lion_, 115, 151 + + Waltham Cross, _Four Swans_, 171 + + Wantage, _Bear_, 174 + + _Warbolt-in-Tun_, Warbleton, 167 + + Warlingham, _White Lion_, 145, 208 + + Weobly, _Unicorn_, 121 + + _Wentworth Arms_, Elmsthorpe, 236 + + Westerham, _General Wolfe_, 132 + + Westminster, _Cock and Tabard_, 23 + + ---- _Coach and Horses_, 86 + + West Wickham, _White Hart_, 235 + + _Wheatsheaf_, Kelvedon, 151 + + _Wheatsheaf_, Loughton, 234 + + ---- Bletchingley, 146 + + _White Hart_, Borough, 176 + + ---- Brentwood, 41, 199 + + ---- Godalming, 117 + + ---- Godstone, 208 + + ---- Guildford, 41 + + ---- St. Albans, 85 + + ---- Scole, 172 + + ---- Sonning, 236 + + ---- West Wickham, 235 + + ---- Witham, 89, 176 + + _White Horse_, Dorking, 26 + + ---- Kensington, 148 + + ---- Pleshy, 98 + + _White Lion_, Bristol, 117 + + ---- Guildford, 117 + + ---- Warlingham, 145 + + _White Swan_, Henley-in-Arden, 154 + (See also _Swan_) + + _William IV_, Elmers’ End, 235 + + Winchester, _George_, 54 + + _Windmill_, Hollingbourne, 179 + + Wingham, _Red Lion_, 113, 195 + + ---- _Ship_, 194 + + Witham, _White Hart_, 89, 176 + + Withyham, _Dorset Arms_, 107 + + Wokingham, _Rose_, 94 + + ---- _Three Frogs_, 123 + + Woodbridge, _Bull_, 150 + + Wye, _Honest Miller_, 168 + + Wymondham, _Green Dragon_, 39 + + + Yarmouth, _Star_, 204 + + +THE END + + +_Press of Isaac Pitman & Sons, Bath, England._ + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Parker’s “Manor of Aylesbury,” 14. + +[2] “Paston Letters,” III, 304. + +[3] See also J. J. Jusserand. “English Wayfaring Life,” p. 342. + +[4] J. R. Green. “Town Life in the Fifteenth Century,” I, 55. + +[5] At the _George Inn_, Winchester, in Elizabeth’s reign, the charge for +a feather bed for one night was one penny; for a dinner of “Beef, mutton, +or pigge,” sixpence. + +[6] “All at Coventry.” By W. T. Montcrieff. + +[7] Green. “Town Life in the Fifteenth Century,” II, 126. + +[8] “Burnet’s Own Times,” II, 426. + +[9] MS. 10. E. IV. + +[10] “Piers the Plowman.” Text B., Passus V.; Text C., Passus VII. + +[11] Literally “Harbourers.” Compare the French _Auberge_. + +[12] “History of Signboards,” II, 45. + +[13] Charles Lamb, who delighted in the old _Queen’s Head_, suggests that +the liquid was not water but “Black Jack.” + +[14] “Twelfth Night”; Act III, Sc. 3. + +[15] Some of the rival establishments at Colnbrook contend that the above +honours belong to them, and not to the _Ostrich_. + +[16] “About Yorkshire.” + +[17] Larwood and Hotten, in “The History of Signboards,” state that the +sign of the _Red Horse_ in their day was almost extinct. Longfellow’s +description of “The Wayside Inn” contains the lines: + + “And half effaced by rain and shine, + The red horse prances on the sign.” + +[18] “Three Deep; or All on the Wing.” A once favourite farcical play by +Joseph Lunn. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Old Country Inns of England, by +Henry P. Maskell and Edward W. Gregory + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44382 *** diff --git a/44382-h.zip b/44382-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 08d8ae9..0000000 --- a/44382-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/44382-h/44382-h.htm b/44382-h/44382-h.htm index eab5860..7e1a982 100644 --- a/44382-h/44382-h.htm +++ b/44382-h/44382-h.htm @@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> <head> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" /> <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> <title> Old Country Inns of England, by Henry P. Maskell and Edward W. Gregory—A Project Gutenberg eBook @@ -51,49 +51,7 @@ </style> </head> <body> - - -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Old Country Inns of England, by -Henry P. Maskell and Edward W. Gregory - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. 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