Chapter I: Front Matter

THE OLD INNS OF OLD ENGLAND

WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR

The Portsmouth Road, and its Tributaries: To-day and in Days of Old.

The Dover Road: Annals of an Ancient Turnpike.

The Bath Road: History, Fashion, and Frivolity on an Old Highway.

The Exeter Road: The Story of the West of England Highway.

The Great North Road: The Old Mail Road to Scotland. Two Vols.

The Norwich Road: An East Anglian Highway.

The Holyhead Road: The Mail-Coach Road to Dublin. Two Vols.

The Cambridge, Ely, and King’s Lynn Road: The Great Fenland Highway.

The Newmarket, Bury, Thetford, and Cromer Road: Sport and History on an East Anglian Turnpike.

The Oxford, Gloucester, and Milford Haven Road: The Ready Way to South Wales. Two Vols.

The Brighton Road: Speed, Sport, and History on the Classic Highway.

The Hastings Road and the “Happy Springs of Tunbridge.”

Cycle Rides Round London.

A Practical Handbook of Drawing for Modern Methods of Reproduction.

Stage-Coach and Mail in Days of Yore. Two Vols. The Ingoldsby Country: Literary Landmarks of “The Ingoldsby Legends.”

The Hardy Country: Literary Landmarks of the Wessex Novels.

The Dorset Coast.

The South Devon Coast. [_In the Press._

THE OLD INNS OF OLD ENGLAND

_A PICTURESQUE ACCOUNT OF THE
ANCIENT AND STORIED HOSTELRIES
OF OUR OWN COUNTRY_

VOL. I

BY CHARLES G. HARPER

_Illustrated chiefly by the Author, and from Prints
and Photographs_

LONDON:
CHAPMAN & HALL, LIMITED
1906
_All rights reserved_

PRINTED AND BOUND BY
HAZELL, WATSON AND VINEY, LD.,
LONDON AND AYLESBURY.

_It is somewhat singular that no book has hitherto been published dealing either largely or exclusively with Old Inns and their story. I suppose that is because there are so many difficulties in the way of one who would write an account of them. The chief of these is that of arrangement and classification; the next is that of selection; the last that of coming to a conclusion. I would ask those who read these pages, and have perhaps some favourite inn they do not find mentioned or illustrated here, to remember that the merely picturesque inns that have no story, or anything beyond their own picturesqueness to render them remarkable, are--let us be thankful for it!--still with us in great numbers, and that to have illustrated or mentioned even a tithe of them would have been impossible. I can think of no literary and artistic work more delightful than the quest of queer old rustic inns, but two stout volumes will probably be found to contain as much on the subject as most people wish to know--and it is always open to anyone who does not find his own especial favourite here to condemn the author for his ignorance, or, worse, for his perverted taste._

_As for methods, those are of the simplest. You start by knowing, ten years beforehand, what you intend to produce; and incidentally, in the course of a busy literary life, collect, note, sketch, and make extracts from Heaven only knows how many musty literary dustbins and sloughs of despond. Then, having reached the psychological moment when you must come to grips with the work, you sort that accumulation, and, mapping out England into tours, with inns strung like beads upon your itinerary, bring the book, after some five thousand miles of travel, at last into being._

_It should be added that very many inns are incidentally illustrated or referred to in the series of books on great roads by the present writer; but as those works dealing with Roads, another treating of the History of Coaching, and the present volumes are all part of one comprehensive plan dealing with the History of Travel in general, the allusions to inns in the various road-books have but rarely been repeated; while it will be found that if, in order to secure a representative number of inns, it has been, in some cases, found unavoidable to retrace old footsteps, new illustrations and new matter have, as a rule, been brought to bear._

_The Old Inns of London have not been touched upon very largely, for most of them are, unhappily, gone. Only the few existing ones have been treated, and then merely in association with others in the country. To write an account of the Old Inns of London would now be to discourse, in the manner of an antiquary, on things that have ceased to be._

CHARLES G. HARPER.

PETERSHAM, SURREY.
_September, 1906._

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. INTRODUCTORY 1

II. THE ANCIENT HISTORY OF INNS 13

III. GENERAL HISTORY OF INNS 28

IV. THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 42

V. LATTER DAYS 57

VI. PILGRIMS’ INNS AND MONASTIC HOSTELS 76

VII. PILGRIMS’ INNS AND MONASTIC HOSTELS (_continued_) 117

VIII. HISTORIC INNS 144

IX. INNS OF OLD ROMANCE 188

X. PICKWICKIAN INNS 210

XI. DICKENSIAN INNS 265

XII. HIGHWAYMEN’S INNS 303

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

SEPARATE PLATES

THE ROADSIDE INN _Frontispiece_

FACING PAGE

THE LAST OF THE OLD GALLERIED INNS OF LONDON: THE “GEORGE,”
SOUTHWARK. (_Photo by T. W. Tyrrell_) 32

THE KITCHEN OF A COUNTRY INN, 1797: SHOWING THE TURNSPIT
DOG. (_From the engraving after Rowlandson_) 48

WESTGATE, CANTERBURY, AND THE “FALSTAFF” INN 86

CHARING CROSS, ABOUT 1829, SHOWING THE “GOLDEN CROSS” INN.
(_From the engraving after T. Hosmer Shepherd_) 218

THE “GOLDEN CROSS,” SUCCESSOR OF THE PICKWICKIAN INN, AS
REBUILT 1828 220

ROCHESTER IN PICKWICKIAN DAYS, SHOWING THE OLD BRIDGE AND
“WRIGHT’S” 224

THE “BELLE SAUVAGE.” (_From a drawing by T. Hosmer Shepherd_) 228

THE DICKENS ROOM, “LEATHER BOTTLE,” COBHAM 230

THE “BULL INN,” WHITECHAPEL. (_From the water-colour drawing
by P. Palfrey_) 246

THE “WHITE HART,” BATH 252

THE “BUSH,” BRISTOL 256

THE “COACH AND HORSES,” ISLEWORTH 276

THE “LION,” SHREWSBURY, SHOWING THE ANNEXE ADJOINING, WHERE
DICKENS STAYED 298

THE “GREEN MAN,” HATTON 318

THE HIGHWAYMAN’S HIDING-HOLE 318

ILLUSTRATIONS IN TEXT

Vignette, The Old-time Innkeeper _Title-page_

PAGE

Preface v

List of Illustrations xi

The Old Inns of Old England, The “Black Bear,” Sandbach 1

The Oldest Inhabited House in England: The “Fighting Cocks,”
St. Albans 5

The “Dick Whittington,” Cloth Fair 6

“Ye Olde Rover’s Return,” Manchester 7

The Oldest Licensed House in Great Britain: The “Seven Stars,”
Manchester 11

An Ale-stake. (_From the Louterell Psalter_) 15

Elynor Rummyng 21

The “Running Horse,” Leatherhead 25

Facsimile of an Account rendered to John Palmer in 1787 54

The Last Days of the “Swan with Two Necks” 55

Crypt at the “George,” Rochester 83

Sign of the “Falstaff,” Canterbury 88

House formerly a Pilgrims’ Hostel, Compton 91

The “Star,” Alfriston 93

Carving at the “Star,” Alfriston 95

The “Green Dragon,” Wymondham 96

The Pilgrims’ Hostel, Battle 97

The “New Inn,” Gloucester 99

Courtyard, “New Inn,” Gloucester 103

The “George,” Glastonbury 109

High Street, Glastonbury, in the Eighteenth Century (_From
the etching by Rowlandson_) 115

The “George,” St. Albans 119

The “Angel,” Grantham 121

The “George,” Norton St. Philip 125

Yard of the “George,” Norton St. Philip 131

Yard of the “George,” Winchcombe 135

The “Lord Crewe Arms,” Blanchland 139

The “Old King’s Head,” Aylesbury 141

The “Reindeer,” Banbury 145

Yard of the “Reindeer,” Banbury 149

The Globe Room, “Reindeer” Inn, Banbury 153

The “Music House,” Norwich 157

The “Dolphin,” Potter Heigham 159

The “Nag’s Head,” Thame 161

Yard of the “Greyhound,” Thame 163

The “Crown and Treaty,” Uxbridge 165

The “Treaty Room,” “Crown and Treaty,” Uxbridge 167

The “Three Crowns,” Chagford 169

The “Red Lion,” Hillingdon 170

Yard of the “Saracen’s Head,” Southwell 173

King Charles’ Bedroom, “Saracen’s Head,” Southwell 177

The “Cock and Pymat” 181

Porch of the “Red Lion,” High Wycombe 184

The “White Hart,” Somerton 186

The “Ostrich,” Colnbrook 191

Yard of the “Ostrich,” Colnbrook 199

“Piff’s Elm” 203

The “Golden Cross,” in Pickwickian Days 215

The “Bull,” Rochester 223

The “Swan,” Town Malling: Identified with the “Blue Lion,”
Muggleton 226

Sign of the “Bull and Mouth” 227

The “Leather Bottle,” Cobham 229

The “Waggon and Horses,” Beckhampton 233

“Shepherd’s Shore” 235

“Beckhampton Inn” 239

The “Angel,” Bury St. Edmunds 241

The “George the Fourth Tavern,” Clare Market 243

Doorway of the “Great White Horse,” Ipswich 247

The “Great White Horse,” Ipswich 250

Sign of the “White Hart,” Bath 255

“The Bell,” Berkeley Heath 257

The “Hop-pole,” Tewkesbury 259

The “Pomfret Arms,” Towcester: formerly the “Saracen’s Head” 260

The Yard of the “Pomfret Arms” 261

“Osborne’s Hotel, Adelphi” 263

The “White Horse,” Eaton Socon 267

The “George,” Greta Bridge 269

The “Coach and Horses,” near Petersfield 271

“Bottom” Inn 273

The “King’s Head,” Chigwell, the “Maypole” of _Barnaby Rudge_ 279

The “Green Dragon,” Alderbury 283

The “George,” Amesbury 285

Interior of the “Green Dragon,” Alderbury 287

Sign of the “Black Bull,” Holborn 289

The “Crispin and Crispianus,” Strood 293

The “Ship and Lobster” 297

“Jack Straw’s Castle” 301

The “Three Houses Inn,” Sandal 308

The “Crown” Inn, Hempstead 309

“Turpin’s Cave,” near Chingford 311

The “Green Dragon,” Welton 312

The “Three Magpies,” Sipson Green 313

The “Old Magpies” 315

The “Green Man,” Putney 321

The “Spaniards,” Hampstead Heath 323