THE ORIGIN OF THE PUBLIC HOUSE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12765, 17 June 1911, Page 12 (Supplement)

THE ORIGIN OF THE PUBLIC HOUSE.

In these days, when intoxicating liquor of any sort or description is recarded by many as a root of much evil, it is interesting to look back over past agns and discover the genesis of the modern public house in England It is unnecessary in ?o doing to go further back than the Roman Conquest, though it is quite certain that even prior .to those far off days there were people who made a livelihood by selling somf kind of intoxicating- beverage. With the opening uv of the country by tho Romans. hostelries sprang up for the convenience of travellers. As time went on the selling of liquor became so lucrative that wherever the traveler broke his journey his thirst might ha quenched. This naturally produced competition among the many tavern owners, especially, in the large towns 3 who vied with one another as to the means or attracting the thirsty. It was in these circumstances that the "alo stnke," or pole, to which was attached a furze bush, first came into prominence. In 1375 these signs became so great a tmisance that a law was passed to thw t-ffect that "'ale stakes" projecting more than seven feet over the kina Js high^ way were prohibited—a fact wTiicn gay» rise to tho proverb that "good wine noeds no bnsh " There are very few of tho old inns in existence tn-^d&v. Tho .Snst to; survive; was tho<-"Qld Bell" in liolbprn,- which was demolished In ■1597: Like, its * ancient, predecessors;. it iioasted >qf .a - courtyard with: gallery, and large* feat^. which were olosed at night, exactly on the same principle as the Eastern "caravanserai."