Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-11-03
SOME ENGLISH TOPICS
Attempts to Revive the Old
Fashioned Inn.
KILLED BY THE RAILWAY
Some Remarkable Instances of Lon
gevity.
GOOD JOKE BY LORD ROBERTS
Doggerel Put Out by the Tariff Re-
formers-Tips Required for
Everything.
)OD JOKE BY LORD ROBERTS
BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS.

Written for The Star and the Chicago Record
Herald.
There are signs of the revival Of the old
fashioned post-chaise inn in England. and
they are attributed to the automobile, or
motor car, as they call 1t over there; a
much better name than ours. 1t was on
the window Of the Red Lion" at Henley,
the boating headquarters on the Thames,
that Shenstone, with diamond ring, wrote
the famous lines:
Whoe'er has Travelled life's dull round,
Whereer his stages may have been
His warmest welcome at an inn.
That sort of an inn, however, such as
used to exist in every English village be-
fore railroads were so numerous, has be
come almost obsolete. Very few remain.
The average country inn is now merely a
drinking place. Distances are SO short
in England and railway trains are so fire.
quent that a traveller can reach large
city at any hour, and commercial bag
men, as drummers are called. make their
headquarters at the large towns, where
they can find the best Accommodations and
radiate from them among the smaller
places.
The English taverns and restaurants in
London, with their roast beef, Yorkshire
pudding, fried sole, veal and ham pies
and gooseberry tarts have also become
almost obsolete. The English used
to be nation of innkeepers. but now the
business is almost entirely monopolfzed
by Germans, Swiss and Italians. Every
one of the large hotels in LONDON is man.
aged by foreigners, and the entire staff,
from the manager down to the walters,
ave from the continental countries of Eu-
rope. Only the porters and the bell boys
are natives. Even the Star and Garter,
that famous old tavern at Richmond, is
now in the hands of Italian, and when
l tried to get an old-fashioned dinner out
there a few weeks ago they handed me a
French bill of fare. There was not a
word of English upon 1t. The waiter as
sumed a contemptuous air when l asked
for roast beef and Yorkshire pudding and
pretended that he did not know what l
meant. He said that he could serve us a
good fillet, but had never heard of York
shire pudding. At the historic Mitre Hotel.
at Oxford, which has been the center of
student life for five centuries and is one
of the quaintest old structures you can
imagine, they have French bills of fare
for luncheon and dinner. For breakfast
they serve bacon and eggs, Oxford sausage,
fried sole and other native dishes. but for
the other meals the guests compelled
to accept French cooking.
The most satisfactory old-fashioned Eng
lish inn that I found this summer was
1.-THE Bull" at Rochester, several hundred
years old, where everything is conducted in
the old-fashioned way Those who are
familiar with the Pickwiek Papers will re-
member the exciting scene that took place
at The Bull" when Mr.. Tracy Tupman
attended a ball with Mr.. Alfred Jingle,
and the latter. by his attentions to a
charming young woman, excited the jeal-
ouSy of DR.. Slammer, a surgeon at the
barracks. The graphic description given
by Mr.. Dickens would apply to the house
today. The ball room remains exactly as
it was when Mr.. Jingle danced with Dr.
Slammer's sweetheart. and they serve the
guests the same dishes, cooked in the
same way, that were offered travellers who
stopped there in their post chaises before
the days of the railroad.
We made two motor trips in Warwick
shire and Kent county. which are the most
popular parts of England for excursions
by automobile. and found that several of
the old-fashioned inns like the Mermaid
at Rye. made famous by Thackeray and
others. had been overhauled and fixed up
to accommodate motoring parties We
heard also Of several others which are rec
commended as the real thing, and the pub
fishers of motoring guides and maps are
helping the good work along by advertis-
ing them.
In the city Of London perhaps similar
reforms will be made. The genuine old
Johnson and his Boswell oliver Goldsmith,
and the poets and literary men of their
time used to meet is one of the most prof
table investments in London. Crosby Hall
which was once the palace of Richard III
and is now maintained as an English inn,
Is always crowded. The London Tavern,
the Ship and Turtle and similar places are
coming money by reviving their old-fash-
toned bills OF fare and style of cooking,
while the modern houses, under Italian,
French and German management, are not
nearly SO prosperous.