THE INNS OF ENGLAND

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 35, 25 January 1932, Page 11

THE INNS OF ENGLAND

HISTORICAL INTEREST (By T.C.L.) “I’m amazed at the Signs As 1 pass through the Town To sec the odd mixture, A Magpie and Crown, The Whale and the Crow, The Razor and Hen, Tho Leg and Seven Stars, The Axe and the Bottle, The Tun and the Lute, The Eagle and Child, The Shovel and Boot.” Thus runs the doggerel of the early 18th century versifier. One of the things which impresses the colonial visitor to provincial England is tho queer nomenclature of the inns. There arc ecclesiastical symbols—-the Mitres (the Mitre of Oxford, near the colleges, is one of the best known), the Crosses, the Angels, the Cross Keys; the signs of tho Saints —St. George and the Dragon, the St. Dunstan, the St. James, etc. The kings of England are commemorated by the Henrys, the Georges, the Richards; the national heroes by the Nelsons, the Dukes of Wellington, the Royal Oaks, the Dukes of Rutland and the Marquises of Granby, The chase and sport are perpetuated in the signs of The Three Fox Inn, The White Hart, The Swan with Two Necks, The Goat and Compasses, The Bull and Mouth (a corruption, ’tis said, of Boulogne Mouth, the mouth of Boulogne harbour, long the headquarters of the English army in France during the Middle Ages). “COCK AND BULL.” Then there is The Cock and Bull, credited to the names of two adjoining old coaching inns in Fenny Stratford, the patrons of one always being rea to cap a story emanating from the other. From this competition in exaggeration and imagination came the saying', “Cock and Bull stories,” at least that is what is told the innocent wayfarer in Fenny Stratford. Then there are the agricultural symbols—“ The Plough and the Harrow,’’ “The White Horse.” “God Speed the Plough,” “Three Jolly Waggoners,” The Hog in Pound,” “The Packhorse in Pound,” “The Cauliflower and Mutton” and “The Horses.” All over the country you see “Saracen’s Heads, “Green Dragons,” “The Golden Lions,” “The Sins and Garters,” “The Globes.” “The White Swans,” “The G'eorges” and “The Vultures.” ARTISTIC SIGNS. The signs themselves are often works of art. Swinging out half over the footpath or narrow, crooked street or lane, or set firmly into the building, they serve as a connection of the past with the present and provide an index into the character and history of the inns themselves. In the old days much store was placed in the artistic beauty and effectiveness of the signs, and not a little rivalry existed amongst the proprietors, who encouraged down at heel artists to stay at their hostels, and “take out’’ their board and lodgings and liquid refreshments in sign painting and general embellishment. Indeed, such notable artists as Robert Dalton, keeper of the pictures to George 111., Sir Charles Ross, and Samuel Wale, R.A., were not ashamed to acknowledge their handiwork in this connection. But the signs are not always the work of wielders of the brush and

palette. They frequently take the form of sculptures—dragons, lions, swans, harts, bulls, bears, horses and unicorns, and even hunches of grapes. Then there are wrought iron frames, the work of skilful and experienced iron craftsmen in which England abounded in the loth and 16th centuries. CONSERVATISM, lhe old inns preserve their characteristics as iai as possible, lhe motor lias greatly alteieu the conditions of travel, ana consequently the inns Have tiaa to conform with tnem. In doing so, however, they have blended tile new with the old in quite a successlui and wonderful way. Ine cobued courtyards that the mail coach ot old swung into with speed and abandon and emptied the thirsty and hungry passengers for refreshment or lodging, nave been converted into conservatories aud the mews into garages. The dining-rooms, with their great oak beams and heavy sideboards and chairs, and the broad tables on which frequently appear countless initials, are much the same as they were 200 or 300 years ago. The same may also be said of the bedrooms —low ceiling, high bedsteads, cld curtains, candle-sticks (electric lighting and other modern devices are conspicuously absent from most of the old inns). The stairs are steep and narrow, often ricketty aud unsafe. Below, near the dining-room, are the cosy parlours and burs where the rustic and unsophisticated villagers of old used to assemble and discuss village and national politics over their mugs of beer. To-day, however, it is the motorist or the commercial traveller who is mostly seen in those rooms; the villager is pushed by the course of events into more lowly inns on the outskirts. These inns—the ‘‘Leather Bottles,” ‘‘The Twa Dogs,” ‘‘Old Mother Redcap” —are distinguished by the benches in front of them — topers’ benches on which the local worthies may be seen sitting and talking in their various strange dialects, waiting for the bars to re-open. Many of tho country inns have maintained or restored their original bowling green. At Banbury Cross there is a wonderful old green and garden, kept up just as it was hundreds of years ago. Yes, the same Banbury Cross of the nurserv rhyme—

Ride a cock horse To Banbury Cross To see a fine lady Ride on a white horse; Rings on her fingers And bells on her toes, She shall have music Wherever she goes. King’s Lynn also has its howling green at the back, with a little gazebo from which to survey the green and the game of bowls or look out over tho broad waters of The Wash. At Hadley, a hamlet in Worcester, the inn possesses a bowling green that has been in regular use for over 450 years. INTERESTING ANTIQUES. Some of the furniture in these old inns is just as old as the bowling greens, and intrigues the visitor and arouses the envy and cupidity of tho antique dealers, ever on the look out for genuine old-fashioned furniture and relics. With all their resources and cunning they are often taken down. In an inn in a remote part of Cumberland there is a fine old sideboard, with every sign and murk of age. It is, liowei er, replaced about every month by an exact replica.—so great is tho demand of the London dealers for a sideboard really old and valuable! The antique doctor, like the antique silverware doctor, does a thriving business in England, mostly with Cousin Jonathan, who regards a trip to England ns virtually wasted if he returns with out a relic or an article of the. Tudor period to show to his envious friends! Much could be written pf the interest and charm and allurement of the old English inn. No two are alike in their characteristics, except in the spell they exert over the wayfarer from afar. They arc a part, and an important part,

of the life of the nation, a link with the past, an institution full of romance and tradition that is being kept alive by the innkeepers, who are really “mine hosts” and not, as often in the cities, stiff and mechanised officials who regard their guests as units worth so much in shillings and pounds to the turnover of the business. May tho inu-keeper of old England live long and prosper!