VISITORS’ BOOKS
The Visitors’ Book is no new thing. In 1466, when a distinguished Bohemian
traveller, one Baron Leo von Rozmital, dined with the Knights of Windsor,
his hosts, after dinner, produced what they called their “missal,” and
asked for his autograph “in memoriam” of him. A little daunted, perhaps,
by so ill-omened an expression, but still courteous, the Baron complied
with the request, and wrote, “Lwyk z Rozmitala a z Blatnie.” This uncouth
autograph was not unnaturally looked upon with suspicion, and the Baron,
on leaving Windsor, found himself followed by the Knights, who made
inquiries of his retinue as to his real name. They suspected him to be
some impostor, or at the least considered him guilty of that kind of
foolishness which nowadays induces a certain class of visitor to sign
himself “Kruger” or the “King of the Cannibal Islands,” or, worse still,
to write down the name of the latest notorious criminal.
Foolishness is expected in a Visitors’ Book, and is not often wanting. In
the present writer’s own experience, when two friends who, oddly enough,
were named Rands and Sands, wrote their names in such a volume, the
waiter who read them there, half-apologetically, said, “No: your _real_
names, please, gentlemen.” Argument and assertion could not convince, and
in the end they wrote “Jones” and “Robinson,” which duly satisfied.
The Visitors’ Book of an inn usually contains little else than fulsome
praise of the establishment and a somewhat revolting appreciation of its
good cheer. Would-be wit and offensive scurrility are, as a rule, the only
other characteristics; but from all this heap of chaff and rubbish it is
possible to extract a residuum of fun and sprightly fancy. Many modern
tourists in the Lake District have, for instance, been amused--after their
own experiences around the steeps of Langdale Pikes--to read in the
Visitors’ Book of the “Salutation” at Ambleside the following piece of
poignant observation:
Little bits of Langdales,
Little bits of pikes,
Make the little tourists
Walk their little bikes.
Of the “Swan,” at Thames Ditton, Theodore Hook wrote, but whether in a
book there, or not, does not appear:
The “Swan,” snug inn, good fare affords,
As table e’er was put on;
And worthier quite of loftier boards,
Its poultry, fish, and mutton.
And while sound wine mine host supplies,
With beer of Meux or Tritton,
Mine hostess, with her bright blue eyes,
Invites to stay at Ditton.
Among the severe epigrams that guests have left behind them, none other is
so witty as that by Quin, written at the once famed “Pelican” inn, a
favourite Bath Road hostelry at Speenhamland, Newbury:
The famous inn at Speenhamland,
That stands beneath the hill,
May well be called the Pelican,
From its enormous bill.
Its monumental charges were long since ended, and where the “Pelican”
stood there are now only stables and a veterinary establishment.
Bathos, ineptitude, and lines that refuse to scan are the stigmata of
visitors’-book verse. There is no worse “poetry” on earth than that which
lurks between those covers, or in the pages of young ladies’ albums, the
last refuge of drivel and impertinence. People who would be ashamed to own
their verse elsewhere will write and sign it in a Visitors’ Book; and thus
we find, for example, at the “King’s Arms” at Malmesbury, the following,
signed by Bishop Potter of New York:
Three savages from far New York
Found rest, refreshment here;
And grateful for the King’s Arms,
Bear memory of good cheer.
All blessings rest on Hostess Jones,
And her good spouse as well;
Of their kind thought for tired bones
Our countrymen will tell.
Let us hope his divinity is better than his metrical efforts.
The interesting pages of Visitors’ Books are generally those that are not
there, as an Irishman might say; for the world is populated very densely
with those appreciative people who, whether from a love of literature, or
with an instinct for collecting autographs that may have a realisable
value, remove the signatures of distinguished men, and with them anything
original they may have written. Many years ago Charles Kingsley, Tom
Taylor, dramatist and sometime editor of _Punch_, and Thomas Hughes,
author of that classic, _Tom Brown’s Schooldays_, were staying at the
Penygwryd Hotel, on the summit of Llanberis Pass, North Wales, and wrote a
long set of verses in the Visitors’ Book; but the pages were stolen, long,
since, and now you do but come to that book by asking very nicely for it,
and then it is produced from a locked cupboard.
Here are the verses, the respective authors identified by the initials
over each. It will clearly be seen that those three were sadly in want of
occupation, and were wound up for a long run:
T. T.
I came to Penygwryd
With colours armed and pencils,
But found no use whatever
For any such utensils;
So in default of them I took
To using knives and forks,
And made successful drawings--
Of Mrs. Owen’s corks!
C. K.
I came to Penygwryd
In frantic hopes of slaying
Grilse, salmon, three-pound red-fleshed trout,
And what else there’s no saying;
But bitter cold and lashing rain,
And black nor’-eastern skies, sir,
Drove me from fish to botany,
A sadder man and wiser.
T. H.
I came to Penygwryd
A-larking with my betters,
A mad wag and a mad poet--
Both of them men of letters;
Which two ungrateful parties,
After all the care I’ve took
Of them, make me write verses
In Henry Owen’s book.
T. T.
We’ve been mist-soak’d on Snowdon,
Mist-soak’d on Glyder Fawr;
We’ve been wet through on an average
Every day three times an hour.
We’ve walk’d the upper leathers
From the soles of our balmorals,
And as sketchers and as fishers
With the weather have had our quarrels.
C. K.
But think just of the plants which stuff’d
Our box, old Yarrel’s gift,
And of those which might have stuff’d it
If the clouds had giv’n a lift;
Of tramping bogs, and climbing cliffs,
And shoving down stone fences
For spiderwort, Saussurea,
And Woodsia strensis.
T. H.
Oh, my dear namesake’s breeches--
You never saw the like--
He bust them all so shameful
A-crossing of a dyke;
But Mrs. Owen patched them
As careful as a mother,
With flannel of three colours--
She hadn’t got no other.
T. T.
But, can we say enough
Of those legs of mountain muttons?
And that onion sauce lies on our souls,
For it made of us three gluttons;
And the Dublin stout is genuine,
And so’s the Burton beer,
And the apple tarts they’ve won our hearts;
And think of soufflets here!
C. K.
Resembling that old woman
That never could be quiet,
Though victuals (says the child’s song)
And drink formed all her diet,
My love for plants and scrambling
Shared empire with my dinner;
And who says it wasn’t good must be
A most fastidious sinner.
T. H.
Now, all I’ve got to say is,
You can’t be better treated.
Order pancakes, and you’ll find
They’re the best you ever eated;
If you scramble o’er the mountains,
You should bring an ordnance map;
I endorse all that previous gents
Have said about the tap.
T. T.
Penygwryd, when wet and worn, has kept
A warm fireside for us;
Socks, boots, and never-mention-’ems,
Mrs. Owen still has dried for us;
With host and hostess, fare and bill,
So pleased we are that, going,
We feel, for all their kindness,
’Tis we, not they, are Owin’.
T. H., T. T., C. K.
Nos tres in uno juncti
Hos fecimus versiculos,
Tomas piscator pisces qui
Non cepi sed pisciculos,
Tomas sciagraphus sketches qui
Non feci sed ridiculos,
Herbarius Carolus montes qui
Nostravi perpendiculos.
T. H.
There’s big trout I hear in Edno,
Likewise in Gwynant lake,
And the governor and black alder
Are the flies that they will take,
Also the cockabondy,
But I can only say,
If you think to catch big fishes,
I only hope you may!
T. T.
I have come in for more of mountain gloom
Than mountain glory,
But I’ve seen old Snowdon rear his head
With storm-toss’d mist-wreaths hoary
I stood in the fight of mountain winds
Upon Bwlch-cwm-y-llan,
And I go back an unsketching
But a better-minded man.
C. K.
And I, too, have another debt
To pay another way,
For kindness shown by these good souls
To one who’s far away,
Even to this old colley dog,
Who tracked the mountains o’er,
For one who seeks strange birds and flowers
On far Australia’s shore.
Enough; _quantum sufficit_!
It was for lack of that natural outlet, the Visitors’ Book, that many
old-time guests had recourse to the window-pane. Unfortunately--or should
it not perhaps rather be a fortunate circumstance?--while pen and ink were
at command of every one, only a diamond ring would serve on glass; and not
every guest was so luxuriously equipped.
The classic instance of a window-pane at an inn being thus inscribed is,
of course, that of Shenstone’s writing the last stanza of his lines on
“Freedom” upon the window of an inn--generally said to be the “Red Lion”
at Henley-on-Thames. But who shall decide?
If we are to believe the account of Richard Graves, who knew the poet
well, and published _Recollections of Some Particulars in the Life of the
Late William Shenstone, Esq._, in 1788, the lines were first written in an
arbour of what used to be the “Sunrising” inn, on the crest of Edge Hill,
a house long since become a private residence.
According to Graves, Shenstone, about 1750, visited a friend, one Mr.
Whistler, in the southernmost part of Oxfordshire, and did not
particularly enjoy his visit, Mr. Whistler sending the poet’s servant off
to stay at an inn, in order that the man and the domestics of his own
house should not gossip together. Shenstone himself seems to have been a
very unamiable guest, and one better suited to an inn than to the house of
a friend; for he grew disagreeable over being expected to play “Pope Joan”
in the evening with his friend’s children, and sulked when he lost a
trifle at cards. Then he would not dress himself tidily for dinner, and
snuffed and slouched to the inconvenience of every one, so that it is not
surprising to read of a coolness, and then quarrels, coming to estrange
the pair, resulting in Shenstone abruptly cutting short his visit. He lay,
overnight, on his journey home, at the “Sunrising” inn, and the next
morning, in an arbour, inscribed the famous lines which now form the last
stanza of “Freedom.”
“More stanzas,” says Graves, “were added afterwards,” and he rightly adds
that they “diminish the force” of the original thought.
The “Sunrising” inn, long since become a private mansion, and added to
very largely, has no relics of Shenstone. It stands, with lovely gardens
surrounding, on the very lip and verge of Edge Hill, and looks out across
the great levels of Warwickshire. In recent times the hill has becomes
famous, or notorious, for motor and cycle accidents, and the approach to
it is heralded by a notice-board proclaiming “Great Danger. Cyclists
Dismount.” But in these days of better brakes, very few obey that
injunction, and ride down, safely enough.
Whistler died in 1754, when Shenstone, remorseful, wrote, “how little do
all our disputes appear to us now!”
Here, then, is the original story of the famous inscription, but it does
not necessarily prove that this melancholy poet did not also inscribe it
at Henley-on-Thames and elsewhere, notably at the “White Swan,” at that
quite different and far-distant place from the Thames-side Henley,
Henley-in-Arden, Warwickshire; an old-fashioned house still in existence,
and claiming to date from 1358.
[Illustration: HENLEY-IN-ARDEN, AND THE “WHITE SWAN.”]
If the story of the “Red Lion” at the Oxfordshire Henley be a myth, as it
is held to be, it is one of very considerable age, and one that has not
only misled uncounted myriads of writers, but will continue to do so until
the end of time. There is no disabling the flying _canard_, no overtaking
the original lie, howsoever hard you strive; and as the famous stanza
really _was_ at one time to be seen on a window of the “Red Lion” (whether
written there by Shenstone or another), it really seems that there is a
way out of the dilemma that probably has never until now been considered.
Shenstone resided on the Shropshire border, near Henley-in-Arden, but on
his journeys to and from London must often have stayed at the “Red Lion,”
Henley-on-Thames, then on one of the two principal coach-routes; and it is
quite probable that he was so pleased with the last stanza of “Freedom,”
and so satisfied with its peculiar fitness for inn windows, that he
inscribed it at both places, if not indeed at others as well:
To thee, fair Freedom! I retire,
From flattery, feasting, dice and din;
Nor art thou found in homes much higher
Than the lone cot or humble Inn.
’Tis here with boundless power I reign,
And every health which I begin,
Converts dull port to bright champagne;
For Freedom crowns it, at an Inn.
I fly from pomp, I fly from state,
I fly from falsehood’s specious grin;
Freedom I love, and form I hate,
And choose my lodgings at an Inn.
Here, waiter! take my sordid ore,
Which lacqueys else might hope to win;
It buys what Courts have not in store,
It buys me Freedom, at an Inn.
And now once more I shape my way
Through rain or shine, through thick or thin,
Secure to meet, at close of day,
With kind reception at an Inn.
_Whoe’er has travelled life’s dull round,
Where’er his stages may have been,
May sigh to think how oft he found
The warmest welcome--at an Inn._
Misquotation--sometimes a vice, occasionally a great improvement upon the
original--has constantly rendered the last two lines:
May sigh to think, he _still_ has found
_His_ warmest welcome at an inn;
and here, it seems, the use of posterity is the better.
Neither at the “White Swan” nor the “Red Lion” is the inscription now to
be found.
Dean Swift’s bitter jest, by way of advice to the landlord, scratched on a
window of the “Three Crosses” inn at Willoughby, on the road to Holyhead,
is certainly the next most celebrated. It runs:
There are three
Crosses at your door:
Hang up your Wife,
And you’l count Four.
Swift, D., 1730.
I have elsewhere,[8] and at considerable length, told the story of this
remarkable incident, and given a _facsimile_ of the still-surviving
inscription, so hesitate before reprinting it.
In imagination one sees that gifted man riding horseback on his journeys
between London and Holyhead, or Chester and Parkgate, on his way to or
from Ireland, halting overnight with his attendant at the rough inns of
that time, and leaving broadcast on the dim and flawed glass of their
windows humorous or spiteful comments upon anything that chanced to arouse
his criticism. You perceive him, waiting impatiently for breakfast,
scrawling malignant lampoons with his ring, or recording the stupidities
of his servant. The wayside taverns along that great north-westerly road
should still have such evidence of his passing, only glass is brittle, and
many a pane precious with those autographed records has accidentally
perished, while doubtless many another has long ago been removed by
admirers, and so become lost to the world.
One such was the pane at the “Yacht” inn at Chester, that hoary timbered
and plastered tavern whose nodding gables scarce uphold the story that
this was once the foremost hotel of this picturesque city. The Dean, then
at the height of his fame, halting here on his way into Ireland, was in
one of his companionable humours, and invited the Dean and the other
dignified clergy of the Cathedral to supper; but not one of them
acknowledged his intended hospitality. Deans, Canons, and Prebendaries all
agreed among themselves, or resolved separately, to ignore the
distinguished visitor, who, in his rage, decorated a window with the
couplet:
Rotten without and mouldering within,
This place and its clergy are all near akin.
On the whole, regarding this quite dispassionately, having regard to the
gross affront on the one hand and Swift’s malignant nature and very full
sense of what was due to himself on the other, it can hardly be said that
he rose to the heights of epigram or sank to the depths of abuse demanded
by the occasion. Here he surely should have surpassed himself, in the one
category or the other, or--even more characteristically--in both. We want
more bitterness, more gall, an extra infusion of wormwood, and feel that
this is an ineffectual thing that any affronted person, owning a diamond
and merely capable of writing, could have achieved. And, even so, the
historic pane itself has disappeared.
The guests at inns in the middle of the eighteenth century often did not,
it seems, disdain the walls; for in _Columella_, a curious novel of
travelling, published about that period, we read that the characters in it
found time on their journey “to examine the inscriptions on walls and
windows, and learned that the love of woman, the love of wine, and the
love of fame were the three ruling passions that usually vented
themselves” in this manner.
These were travellers who, come what might, determined to be
unconventional.
“When they came to an inn, instead of complaining of their accommodations,
or bullying the waiters, they diverted themselves with the humours of my
landlord, criticising his taste in his furniture or his pictures, or in
perusing the inscriptions on the walls or windows, or inquiring into the
history of the neighbouring gentry. In short, they had determined to be
pleased with everything, and therefore were not disappointed.”
At the inn where these original persons breakfasted the great patriot,
John Wilkes, had usurped the principal place over the parlour chimney.
Where they stopped to dine, the virtuous George the Third and the amiable
Charlotte had resumed their places in the dining-room, and “Wilkes was
only stuck up against the stable-door, and in the temple of Cloacina.”
Alas! poor Wilkes, to be subjected to such an indignity!
At one inn they found the inscription:
James Harding, from Birmingham, dined here, Sept. 29, 1763.
Button-maker by trade,
and there is your bid for fame. The other remarks they shamelessly quote
are all very well for eighteenth-century books, but they are not permitted
on the printed page in our own time.
There was once a poet of a minor sort who not only cherished a mania for
scribbling verse on the windows of inns, but was mad enough to collect and
print a series of these by no means distinguished efforts, which he
published under the title of _Verses written on Windows in several parts
of the Kingdom in a Journey to Scotland_.
This extraordinary person was one Aaron Hill, who “flourished” (as an
historian might say) between 1685 and 1750. If he is at all remembered
to-day, it is only as a friend of Pope, whose truest criticism presents
him as “one of the flying fishes, only capable of making brief flights out
of the profound.” He afterwards, with more friendship and less truth,
described Hill as attempting to dive into dulness, but rising unstained to
“mount far off among the swans of Thames.” How pretty! but he was in truth
the veriest goose, and his pinions ineffectual.
Hill wrote reams of rhymes, but few of them are poetry and fewer have any
power of entertaining. In 1728 he travelled in Scotland, and there--it is
an experience not unmatched nowadays--he encountered, while staying at an
inn in the Highlands, bad weather. Happily, not all who are weatherbound
in those latitudes scrawl their thoughts on windows, or poetic congestion
must long since have ensued. At that inn--_what_ inn or _where_ we are not
told, he accomplished his one excellent epigram, his solitary perfect
quatrain:
Scotland! thy weather’s like a modish wife;
Thy winds and rains for ever are at strife;
So Termagant a while her thunder tries,
And when she can no longer scold--she cries.
Other specimens of his quality do not exhibit the inspiration of those
lines, and indeed he is found to be too concerned with moral analogies to
please greatly, even in the best of them. Thus:
Where’er the diamond’s busy point could pass,
See! what deep wounds have pierced the middle glass!
While partial and untouching, all the rest,
Highest and lowest panes, shine, unimpressed:
No wonder, this!--for, e’en in life, ’tis so;
High fortunes stand, unreached--unseen the low,
But middle states are marks for every blow.
And again:
Whig and Tory scratch and bite,
Just as hungry dogs we see:
Toss a bone ’twixt two, they fight,
Throw a couple, they agree.
There is some just observation in that last, although how you are to give
a bone apiece, and at the same time, to Whig and Tory, would, as I
conceive the situation, be a difficult, not to say an impossible, matter
in our scheme of politics. When a Government comes into power, be it Whig
or Tory, or any other fancy label you please, it takes _all_ the bones,
and the other dog merely does the growling, until the times do alter.
With two more specimens we practically exhaust Hill’s well of fancy:
Tender-handed, stroke a nettle,
And it stings you, for your pains:
Grasp it, like a man of mettle,
And it soft as silk remains.
’Tis the same with common natures,
Use ’em kindly, they rebel:
But be rough on Nutmeg-graters,
And the rogues obey you well.
* * * * *
Here, in wet and windy weather,
Muse and I, two mopes together,
Far from friends and short of pleasure,
Wanting everything but leisure:
Scarce content, in any one sense,
Tell the showers, and scribble nonsense.
How true that last admission!
INDEX
Adelphi Hotel, Adelphi, i. 212, 264
Ale-stakes, i. 14-17
Anchor, Ripley, ii. 212, 242
Angel, Basingstoke, ii. 279
-- Bury St. Edmunds, i. 238
-- Colchester, i. 90
-- Ferrybridge, ii. 81
-- Grantham, i. 118-123
-- Guildford, ii. 57
-- Islington, i. 119
-- Stilton, ii. 48
Ass-in-the-Bandbox, Nidd, ii. 203
Barge Aground, Brentford, ii. 203
-- Stratford High Road, ii. 203
Battle, Pilgrims’ Hostel at, i. 97
Bay Tree Tavern, St. Swithin’s Lane, ii. 290
Bear, Devizes, ii. 8-16
-- Esher, ii. 116
-- and Billet, Chester, ii. 74
Bear’s Head, Brereton, ii. 62
Beaufort Arms, Bath, i. 254
Beckhampton Inn, i. 238
Bee-Hive, Eaumont Bridge, ii. 138
-- Grantham, ii. 192
Beetle-and-Wedge, Moulsford, ii. 195
Bell, Barnby Moor, i. 60, ii. 55, 81
-- Belbroughton, ii. 245
-- Berkeley Heath, i. 256
-- Dale Abbey, ii. 88, 90
-- Stilton, ii. 48-54
-- Tewkesbury, ii. 283-287
-- Warwick Lane, London, i. 30
-- Woodbridge, ii. 112
Bell and Mackerel, Mile End, ii. 129
Belle Sauvage, Ludgate Hill, i. 229
Berkeley Arms, Tewkesbury, ii. 288
Birch Tree Tavern, St. Swithin’s Lane, ii. 290
Black Bear, Sandbach, ii. 58
-- -- Tewkesbury, ii. 289
-- Boy, Chelmsford, i. 242
-- Bull, Holborn, i. 288-290
-- -- Newcastle-on-Tyne, i. 53
-- Horse, Cherhill, i. 232
-- Jack, Clare Market, i. 242-244
-- Swan, Kirkby Moorside, ii. 267
Blue Bell, Barnby Moor, i. 60, ii. 55, 81
-- Boar, Leicester, i. 202
-- -- Whitechapel, i. 291
-- Dragon, near Salisbury, i. 282-288
-- Lion, Muggleton, _i.e._ Town Malling, i. 226
-- Posts, Chester, i. 155-158
-- -- Portsmouth, ii. 137
Boar, Bluepitts, near Rochdale, ii. 197
Boar’s Head, Eastcheap, ii. 253, 261
-- Middleton, ii. 218
Boot, Chester, ii. 78
Bottom Inn, Chalton Downs, near Petersfield, i. 270-274
Buck and Bell, Long Itchington, ii. 130
Bull, Dartford, i. 79-82
-- Fenny Stratford, ii. 111
-- Rochester, i. 221-223
-- Sissinghurst, ii. 244
-- Whitechapel, i. 242, 245
Bull and Mouth, St. Martin’s-le-Grand, i. 228
Bull’s Head, Meriden, ii. 80
-- Greengate, Salford, i. 7
Burford Bridge Hotel, near Dorking, ii. 273
Bush, Bristol, i. 255
-- Farnham, i. 309
Capel Curig Inn, ii. 254
Carnarvon Castle, Chester, ii. 77
-- Arms, Guildford Street, ii. 289
Cart Overthrown, Edmonton, ii. 203
Castle, Conway, ii. 122
-- Marlborough, i. 60, ii. 8, 90-99
Cat and Fiddle, near Buxton, ii. 147
-- near Christchurch, ii. 181
Cat and Mutton, London Fields, ii. 139
Cats, Sevenoaks, ii. 191
Chapel House, near Chipping Norton, ii. 100-106
Cheney Gate, near Congleton, ii. 139
Chequers, Slapestones, ii. 134
-- of the Hope, Canterbury, i. 85
Civil Usage, Brixham, ii. 203
Clayton Arms, Godstone, ii. 30-34
Coach and Dogs, Oswestry, ii. 200
Coach and Horses, Chalton Downs, near Petersfield, i. 270
Coach and Horses, Isleworth, i. 276
Cock, Eaton Socon, i. 267
-- Great Budworth, ii. 69-71
-- Stony Stratford, ii. 43, 47
Cock and Pymat, Whittington, near Chesterfield, i. 181-184
County Inn, Canterbury, i. 291
Craven Arms, near Church Stretton, ii. 47
Cricketers, Laleham, ii. 167
Crispin and Crispianus, Strood, i. 292-295
Cross Hands, near Chipping Sodbury, ii. 85
Cross Keys, Wood Street, Cheapside, i. 295
Crow-on-Gate, Crowborough, ii. 205
Crown, Chiddingfold, ii. 242
-- Hempstead, i. 310
-- Oxford, ii. 101
-- Rochester, i. 223-225
-- Stamford, ii. 158
Crown and Treaty, Uxbridge, i. 161-169
Custom House, Chester, ii. 77
Dale Abbey, ii. 88-90
Dedlock Arms, i. 290
De Quincey, T., on old inns, i. 57, ii. 274-279
Dial House, Bocking, ii. 226
Dick Whittington, Cloth Fair, i. 4
Dolphin, Potter Heigham, i. 159
Domus Dei, Southampton, i. 90
Dorset Arms, East Grinstead, ii. 35
Duchy Hotel, Princetown, ii. 149
Eagle and Child, Nether Alderley, ii. 209
Edinburgh Castle, Limehouse, ii. 106-108
-- Regent’s Park, ii. 126-128
Eight Bells, Twickenham, ii. 200
Epitaphs on Innkeepers, ii. 245-254
Falcon, Bidford, ii. 89
-- Chester, ii. 74
Falstaff, Canterbury, i. 87
Feathers, Ludlow, ii. 18-25
Ferry inn, Rosneath, ii. 180
Fighting Cocks, St. Albans, i. 4
First and Last, Land’s End, ii. 206
-- Sennen, ii. 206
Fish and Eels, Roydon, i. 118
Flitch of Bacon, Wichnor, ii. 79
Fountain, Canterbury, i. 291
Four Crosses, Hatherton, ii. 134
Fowler, J. Kearsley, of the White Hart, Aylesbury, i. 62
Fox and Hounds, Barley, ii. 153
Fox and Pelican, Grayshott, ii. 180
Fox-under-the-Hill, Strand, i. 255
Garter, Windsor, ii. 261
Gate, Dunkirk, ii. 133
Gate Hangs Well, Nottingham, ii. 133
Gatehouse Tavern, Norwich, ii. 130
George, Amesbury, i. 283-287
-- Andover, ii. 16-18
-- Bridport, i. 180
-- Brighthelmstone, i. 181
-- Broadwindsor, i. 180
-- Colnbrook, i. 188
-- Crawley, ii. 152
-- Grantham, i. 267, ii. 55
-- Glastonbury, i. 107, 116
-- Greta Bridge, i. 268
-- Hayes Common, ii. 172
-- Huntingdon, ii. 47
-- Mere, i. 180
-- Norton St. Philip, i. 123-132
-- Odiham, ii. 44
-- Rochester, i. 82
-- St. Albans, i. 117, 119
-- Salisbury, ii. 263
-- Southwark, i. 31
-- Stamford, ii. 154-158
-- Walsall, i. 60
-- Wanstead, ii. 141
-- Winchcombe, i. 132-136
George and Dragon, Dragon’s Green, ii. 117-119
-- Great Budworth, ii. 137
-- Wargrave-on-Thames, ii. 176
-- West Wycombe, ii. 222
George and Vulture, Lombard Street, i. 213, 251, 264
George the Fourth, Clare Market, i. 242-244
God’s House, Portsmouth, i. 89
Golden Cross, Charing Cross, i. 213-220, ii. 72, 268
Grand Pump Room Hotel, Bath, i. 254
Great Western Railway Hotel, Paddington, i. 72
Great White Horse, Ipswich, i. 246-251
Green Dragon, Alderbury, i. 282-288
-- Combe St. Nicholas, ii. 109
-- Welton, i. 312
-- Wymondham, i. 95
Green Man, Hatton, i. 317
-- Putney Heath, i. 319
Green Man and Black’s Head, Ashbourne, ii. 159
Grenadier, Whitley, ii. 138
Greyhound, Croydon, ii. 153
-- Sutton, ii. 153
-- Thame, i. 160
Guildford Arms, Guildford Street, ii. 290
Halfway House, Rickmansworth, ii. 215
Hark to Bounty, Staidburn, ii. 204
-- Lasher, Castleton, ii. 204
-- Nudger, Dobcross, Manchester, ii. 204
-- Towler, Bury, Lancashire, ii. 204
Haycock, Wansford, ii. 80
Haygate Inn, near Wellington, Salop, ii. 80
Hearts of Oak, West Allington, ii. 87
Herbergers, i. 25
Hop-pole, Tewkesbury, i. 257, ii. 288
Horseshoe and Castle, Cooling, i. 295
Hostelers, i. 25
Hundred-and-One, The, ii. 129
Innkeepers, Epitaphs on, ii. 245-254
Isle of Skye, near Holmfirth, ii. 148
Jack Straw’s Castle, Hampstead Heath, i. 300-302
Johnson Dr., on inns, i. 43-46
Jolly Farmer, Farnham, ii. 217
Keigwin Arms, Mousehole, ii. 230
King and Tinker, Enfield, i. 205-207
King Edgar, Chester, ii. 72-74
King’s Arms, Lancaster, i. 299
-- Malmesbury, ii. 293
-- Salisbury, i. 180
-- Sandwich, ii. 228
King’s Head, Aylesbury, i. 141-143, ii. 38
-- Chigwell, i. 277-283
-- Dorking, i. 230
-- Stockbridge, ii. 249
-- Thame, i. 160
-- Yarmouth, i. 207, ii. 114
Labour in Vain, Stourbridge, ii. 199
Lamb, Eastbourne, ii. 57
Lawrence, Robert, of the “Lion,” Shrewsbury, i. 60, ii. 250
Leather Bottle, Cobham, Kent, i. 230
-- Holborn, ii. 191
Leighton, Archbishop, i. 29
Lion, Shrewsbury, i. 60, 297, ii. 250, 274-279
Lion and Fiddle, Hilperton, ii. 195
Lion and Swan, Congleton, ii. 65-67
Living Sign, Grantham, ii. 192
Load of Mischief, Oxford Street, ii. 162
Locker-Lampson, F., on old inns, i. 58
Loggerheads, Llanverris, ii. 168
Lord Crewe Arms, Blanchland, i. 136-140
Lord Warden, Dover, i. 54
Luttrell Arms, Dunster, ii. 37-40
Lygon Arms, Broadway, ii. 2-8, 244
Magpie, Little Stonham, ii. 153
-- and Stump, Clare Market, i. 242
Maiden’s Head, Uckfield, ii. 37
Maid’s Head, Norwich, ii. 40-42
Maison Dieu, Dover, i. 88
-- Ospringe, i. 84
Malt Shovel, Sandwich, ii. 228
Man Loaded with Mischief, Oxford Street, ii. 162
Marlborough Downs, i. 231-238
Marquis of Ailesbury’s Arms, Manton, i. 232
-- Granby, Dorking, i. 230
Maund and Bush, near Shifnal, ii. 199
Maypole, Chigwell, i. 277-282
Miller of Mansfield, Goring-on-Thames, ii. 177
Molly Mog, ii. 271
Mompesson, Sir Giles, i. 37-41
Mortal Man, Troutbeck, ii. 169
Morison, Fynes, on English inns, i. 36
Music House, Norwich, i. 157
Nag’s Head, Thame, i. 160
Neptune, Ipswich, ii. 110
Newhaven Inn, near Buxton, ii. 255
New Inn, Allerton, ii. 80
-- Gloucester, i. 98-106
-- Greta Bridge, i. 268
-- New Romney, ii. 44
-- Sherborne, i. 106
Newby Head, near Hawes, ii. 149
Noah’s Ark, Compton, i. 90
Nutley Inn, ii. 36
Old Angel, Basingstoke, ii. 279
-- Bell, Holborn, i. 30
-- -- Chester, ii. 78
-- Black Jack, Clare Market, i. 242-244
-- Fox, Bricket Wood, ii. 201
-- Hall, Sandbach, ii. 58-62
-- House at Home, Havant, ii. 220
-- King’s Head, Aylesbury, i. 141-143, ii. 38
-- -- Chester, ii. 77
-- Leather Bottle, Cobham, Kent, i. 230
-- Magpies, Sipson Green, i. 317
-- Rock House, Barton, ii. 196
-- Rover’s Return, Manchester, i. 7
-- Royal Hotel, Birmingham, i. 258, ii. 268
-- Ship, Worksop, ii. 226
-- Star, York, ii. 158
-- Swan, Atherstone, ii. 227
-- Tippling Philosopher, Chepstow, ii. 203
-- White Swan, Piff’s Elm, i. 202-205
Osborne’s Hotel, Adelphi, i. 212, 264
Ostrich, Colnbrook, i. 188-201
Pack Horse and Talbot, Turnham Green, ii. 192
Peacock, Eatanswill, i. 230
-- Rowsley, ii. 25-29
Pelican, Speenhamland, i. 208, ii. 293
Penygwryd Hotel, Llanberis, ii. 294-298
Pheasant, Winterslow Hut, ii. 102
Pickering Arms, Thelwall, ii. 71
Pie, Little Stonham, ii. 153
Pied Bull, Chester, ii. 78
_Piers Plowman_, i. 16-18
Piff’s Elm, i. 202-205
Pilgrims’ Hostel, Battle, i. 97
-- Compton, i. 90
Plough, Blundeston, i. 290
-- Ford, ii. 136
Pomfret Arms, Towcester, i. 259-263
Pounds Bridge, near Penshurst, ii. 220
Queen’s Arms, Charmouth, i. 180
-- Head, Hesket Newmarket, i. 299
-- Hotel, St. Martin’s-le-Grand, i. 229
-- Burton-on-Trent, ii. 114
Raven, Hook, ii. 86
-- Shrewsbury, i. 42, 60
Red Bull, Stamford, ii. 158
Red Horse, Stratford-on-Avon, ii. 47, 269-271
Red Lion, Banbury, i. 146
-- Canterbury, i. 51
-- Chiswick Mall, ii. 123-125
-- Egham, ii. 53-56
-- Glastonbury, i. 116
-- Great Missenden, ii. 198
-- Guildford, ii. 262
-- Hampton-on-Thames, ii. 159
-- Hatfield, ii. 55
-- Henley-on-Thames, ii. 299-301
-- High Wycombe, i. 184
-- Hillingdon, i. 169
-- Martlesham, ii. 113, 165
-- Ospringe, i. 84
-- Parliament Street, i. 265, 290
Reindeer, Banbury, i. 145, 147-155, 169
Ridler’s Hotel, Holborn, i. 31
Robin Hood, Turnham Green, ii. 131
-- Cherry Hinton, ii. 131
Rose, Wokingham, ii. 271
Rose and Crown, Halifax, ii. 273
-- Rickmansworth, ii. 215
Rover’s Return, Shudehill, Manchester, i. 7
Row Barge, Wallingford, ii. 178
Royal County Hotel, Durham, ii. 55
Royal George, Knutsford, ii. 279
-- Stroud, ii. 82
Royal Hotel, Bath, i. 255
-- Bideford, ii. 273
Royal Oak, Bettws-y-Coed, ii. 172-175
Rummyng, Elynor, i. 19-24
Running Footman, Hay Hill, i. 255, ii. 193
Running Horse, Leatherhead, i. 18-25
-- Merrow, ii. 233
Salutation, Ambleside, ii. 292
Saracen’s Head, Bath, i. 266
-- Southwell, i. 172-180
-- Towcester, i. 259-263
Serjeant’s Inn Coffee House, i. 255
Seven Stars, Manchester, i. 6, 8-12
Shakespeare’s Head, near Chipping Norton, ii. 100-106
Shears, Wantage, ii. 202
Shepherd’s Shore, Marlborough Downs, i. 232-237
Ship and Lobster, Denton, near Gravesend, i. 296
-- Afloat, Bridgwater, ii. 203
-- Aground, ii. 203
Ship, Brixham, ii. 139
-- Dover, i. 54
Smiling Man, Dudley, ii. 203
Smoker, Plumbley, ii. 179
Soldier’s Fortune, Kidderminster, ii. 136
Sondes Arms, Rockingham, i. 290
Spaniards, Hampstead Heath, i. 256, 320-327
Star, Alfriston, i. 93-97, ii. 165
-- Lewes, ii. 37
-- Yarmouth, ii. 42-44, 273
Stocks, Clapgate, ii. 202
Stonham Pie, Little Stonham, ii. 153
Sugar Loaves, Sible Hedingham, ii. 195
Sun, Canterbury, i. 292
-- Cirencester, i. 180
-- Dedham, ii. 225
-- Northallerton, ii. 248
Sunrising Inn, Edge Hill, ii. 299
Swan and Bottle, Uxbridge, i. 165
-- Charing, ii. 188
-- Ferrybridge, ii. 81, 83
-- Fittleworth, ii. 159, 183
-- Haslemere, ii. 242
-- Kirkby Moorside, ii. 267
-- Knowle, ii. 231-233
-- near Newbury, ii. 216
-- Preston Crowmarsh, ii. 179
-- Rickmansworth, ii. 214
-- Sandleford, ii. 217
-- Tewkesbury, ii. 288
-- Thames Ditton, ii. 292
-- Town Malling, i. 226
-- with Two Necks, Gresham Street, i. 54-56
Tabard, Southwark, i. 77-79
Talbot, Atcham, ii. 80
-- Cuckfield, ii. 81
-- Newark, i. 308
-- Ripley, ii. 213
-- Shrewsbury, ii. 80
-- Southwark, i. 79
-- Towcester, ii. 115, 243
Tan Hill Inn, Swaledale, near Brough, ii. 145
Tankard, Ipswich, ii. 110
Thorn, Appleton, ii. 138
Three Cats, Sevenoaks, ii. 191
-- Cocks, near Hay, ii. 47
-- Crosses, Willoughby, ii. 303
-- Crowns, Chagford, i. 170-172
-- Horseshoes, Great Mongeham, ii. 197
-- Houses, Sandal, i. 308
-- Jolly Bargemen, Cooling, i. 295
-- Magpies, Sipson Green, i. 317
-- Queens, Burton-on-Trent, ii. 114
-- Tuns, Bideford, ii. 110
Town Arms, Eatanswill, i. 230
Traveller’s Rest, Flash Bar, ii. 148
-- Kirkstone Pass, ii. 148
Treaty House, Uxbridge, i. 161-169
Trevelyan Arms, Barnstaple, ii. 40, 110
Trip to Jerusalem, Nottingham, ii. 134
Trouble House, near Tetbury, ii. 203
Turnspit Dogs, i. 48-51
Turpin’s Cave, Epping Forest, i. 310
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Bluepitts, near Rochdale, ii. 197
Unicorn, Bowes, i. 269
-- Ripon, ii. 121
Verulam Arms, St. Albans, ii. 79
Vine, Mile-End, ii. 259
_Vision of Piers Plowman_, i. 16-18
Visitors’ Books, ii. 291-308
Waggon and Horses, Beckhampton, i. 233, 237
Wellington, Broadstairs, ii. 47
-- Market Place, Manchester, i. 7
-- Rushyford Bridge, i. 60
-- Tewkesbury, ii. 287
Whetstone, Chiswick Mall, ii. 124
White Bear, Fickles Hole, ii. 203
-- and Whetstone, Chiswick Mall, ii. 123-125
-- Bull, Ribchester, ii. 119-121
White Hart, Adwalton, ii. 255
-- Aylesbury, i. 62-67, 140
-- Bath, i. 254
-- Castle Combe, ii. 234
-- Drighlington, ii. 255
-- Eatanswill, i. 230
-- Glastonbury, i. 112
-- Godstone, ii. 30-34
-- Guildford, ii. 55
-- Hackney Marshes, ii. 257-259
-- Scole, ii. 150
-- Somerton, i. 185-187
-- Southwark, i. 226-228
-- Whitchurch, Hants, ii. 280
-- Widcombe, i. 254
-- Yard, Gray’s Inn Road, ii. 106
White Horse, Eaton Socon, i. 267
-- Fetter Lane, i. 31, 219
-- Maiden Newton, ii. 289
-- Shere, ii. 241
-- Woolstone, ii. 211
White Horse Cellar, Piccadilly, i. 253
White House, Hackney Marshes, ii. 259
White Lion, Maidstone, i. 226
White Swan, Henley-in-Arden, ii. 300
Who’d Have Thought It, Barking, ii. 204
Why Not, Dover, ii. 204
Widow’s Son, Bromley-by-Bow, ii. 125-127
Windmill, North Cheriton, ii. 89-91
-- Salt Hill, i. 60
-- Tabley, ii. 179
Winterslow Hut, near Salisbury, ii. 102
Wizard, Alderley Edge, ii. 65-69
Wood’s Hotel, Furnival’s Inn, i. 31
World Turned Upside Down, Old Kent Road, ii. 204
-- near Three Mile Cross, ii. 204
Wright’s, Rochester, i. 223-225
Yacht, Chester, ii. 77, 304
_Printed and bound by Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury._
FOOTNOTES:
[1] _The Great North Road_, 1901, vol. i., pp. 260-66.
[2] The sign of “Scole White Hart,” illustrated in _Norwich Road_, p. 265.
[3] Illustrated: _Brighton Road_, pp. 333, 337.
[4] Illustrated: _Brighton Road_, p. 295.
[5] Illustrated: _Norwich Road_, p. 256.
[6] It is now the “Dolphin,” and numbered 269.
[7] Cf. _The Hastings Road_, p. 82.
[8] _The Holyhead Road_, vol. i., pp. 244-7; _Stage Coach and Mail in Days
of Yore_, vol. i., p. 46.