The morning news., 1899-05-29
OLDEST INN IN ENGLAND.
1t Is The Seven stars In the City of
Manchester.

From st. Pauls.
The Seven Stars. in the city of Manches-
ter. claims to be the Oldest licensed house
in Great Britain, and the claim rests up
on documentary evidence According to
the county records, formerly preserved in
the record office, Lancaster castle, now
removed to London. it has been a licensed
hostelry for period of $40 years. the first
license having been granted in the reign
of Edward ILL., A. D. 1856.
In the Middle Ages. inns We're not so
plentiful as in more recent times. The
entertainment of travellers was undertake
en- by the monasteries, where there was
always a hospitiun for the pedlars pL-
grims, soldiers and merchants who rode
from town TO town. In the fifteenth CEN
tury inns began to spring up, the burghers
not being on very good terms with the
monks, and caring not TO depend upon
them for hospitality
Sometimes the worthy citizens used 10
receive travellers into their houses, and
accept payment for entertaining them.
Regular inns were usually distinguished
by the sign of the landlord, with a bush
attached to it. Hence the proverb Good
wine needs no bush" The sleeping ao-
commodation in these inns, judging from
old pictures, was primitive. the beds be-
ing arranged in separate berths, like those
of a ships cabin.
Such an inn was the old Seven Stars
which had many interesting features and
historical associations. Here came Guy
Fawkes and concealed himself in "Ye Guy
Faux Chamber" as the legend over the
door testfies.
What stories could this old inn tell us!
1t would tell of the Flemish weavers, who
driven from their own country by reig-
ious prosecutions and the atrocities of
Duke Alva settled in Manchester in 1864 !;
of the dispute between the clergy of the
collegiate church and the citizens in 1874
when one of the preachers a bachelor of
divinity, on his way to the church, was
stabbed three times by the dagger OF
Manchester man; of the execution in 1884
of these popish priests whose heads were
afterward exposed from the tower of the
church.
Then there is the story of the famous
siege in 1912, when the Kings forces tried
TO take the town, and were repulsed by the
townsfolk, who were stanch Roundheads
"A great and furious skirmish did ensue :"
and the Seven Stars was in the center of
the fighting. Sir Thomas Fairfax made
Manchester his headquarters in l643, and
The walls of the Seven Stars echoed with
the carousals of the Roundhead soldiers.
10 relieve Nantwich, some dragons had TO
leave hurriedly, and secreted their mess
plate in the walls of the inn where 1t was
discovered only few years ago, and may
now be seen in the parlor OF this interest
ing hostel.
In 1745 the Seven Stars furnished accom-
mediation or the soldiers of Prince Charles
Edward. the Young Pretender. and was
the headquarters OF the Manchester regi-
| ment, commanded by Col. Townley. One
OF the rooms is called "Ye Vestry," on ac-
| count of its connection with the Collegiate
| Church. There was secret passage be-
| tween the inn and the church, and, ac-
| cordsng to the Court Leet Records, some
| OF the clergy used to go TO the Seven Stars
| IN sermon time in their surDiices, 10 re-
| fresh themselves. o. tempora o, moresl
A horseshoe at the foot of the stairs has
| a story 10 tell. During the war with
| France in 1906, the press gang was bib
| Ietted at the Seven Stars. A young far
mer's lad was leading morse 10 be shod,
| which had cast a shoe. The press gang
! rushed out seized the young man, and led
] him off to serve the King. Before leaving
he nailed the shoe 10 post on the stairs,
saving: LET this stay till come from the
wars 10 claim it." So it remains TO this
| day unclaimed, a mute reminder of its
| owners fate and of the ways of our fore
| fathers.
| we regret to hear that the old inn Is
| doomed. and that commercial enterprises
and the growth of hideous warehouses and
| factories necessitate its removal Another
interesting link between the present and
/ the mast. win be lost II Manchester allows
this relic of antiquity to be demolished