The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-12-30
OLD INNS OF ENGLAND.
Keepers Helped Highwaymen, and
Artists Made Their Signs.

From the London Express.
The Oldest English inn is said to be tho
| Fighting Cocks, st. Adams, but the honor
more probably rests with the Seven Stars,
| Witty Grove, Manchester, which was
| built somewhere about 1900. There was a
| Seven Stars on the site even prior to thot
date, so the landlord is. privileged to claim
that the premises have been licensed more
than $50 years.
The Dick Wilmington in Cloth Far,
| there are original pilgrims inns, hundreds
of years old-houses for the lodging Of
| travellers bent on pilgrimages to famous
| shrines.
| The Georgian Bull at hartford, with It's
red brick front, it's nine windows IN Il
row, it's galleried courtyard and its mon-
| umental bull in effgy among the CHM
| neypots, stands on the site of a pilgrims
| hosiery magnificent medieval house,
| with courtyard eloquent of coaching
days and a rare show of Jacobean carved
oak, is the New Inn at Gloucester. In
| London the only remaining gallerled lnn
| is the George, In the Borough High street
"a still thriving house. rich in old-tlme
| SAVIOR
on a desolate hilltop in Yorkshire, near
| Borough, is the Tan Hill Inn, the high
est in England. This house is 1927 feet
| above sea level.
The innkeeper's sympathy with high
waymen, in more senses than one, is wei
| known. His mmemoral completely with
| thieves and brigands is attested in scoras
| of books and plays. Dick Turpin, 1t APP
| pears never really did that memorable
| horseback ride to York. Turpin stole the
reputation of John Nevison, who accom-
| plished the ride in 1876 before Dick was
| born.
| Dick was the son of the landlord of the
| Crown at Hampstead, Essex, a still ex-
| istent hosiery. Mr.. Charles G. Harp n
| gives his real history and confounds Hal
rison Ainsworth with this disconnected
| ep!taph. THE SorrieSt, the most Sordid,
and absolutely commonplace scoundrei
| that was ever raised to 50 undeseryed :.
| pedestal"
! The Green Man, which stands on the
| crest of Putney HILL sheltered many des-
| perate and despicable characters, and tho
house still keeps stout, bolt-studdeI
door as a relic of its good old times"
Among the houses with historic assoea :
lions are the Crown and Treaty at Tx
| bridge where the commissioners of king
and parliament vainly sought for peace
| In 1913; the Saracens Head, Southwell.
where Byron hobnobbed at the bar ard
where Charles l. dined with the Scotch
| commissioners and gave himself into
their hands; the Red Lion at High Wy
combe, where Disraeli made his first po-
| litlcal speech; the Greyhound at Thame,
| where John Hampden came mortally
| wounded, prone upon his horses neck; the
| Red Lion, Hillingdon, where the Merry
| Monarch lay the first night of his dis
| tracted wanderings through England
1t is surprising how many noted artists
| began life by painting inn signs. Among
them were Morland, David Cox, Herring
and Sir William Beechey. Millas painto..
a George and Dragon sign for the George
Inn, Hayes Common. Another George
and Dragon, at WargraVe-on-Tham HI $
a double-sized sign painted by two l.
! AS. Gorng-on-T Thames has sign iron,
| the brush of Marcus Stone r. A. There
are signs by Walter Crane and Cation
Woodville at Grayshott and Flttleworth.
I Hogarth painted n number of signs for
friendly publicans.
The very Odyssey of inns says Mr..
| Harper, is "Pickwick." In that work
alone Dickens mentions flfty-five hostel
ries. All Dickens lovers know the Pick
wickian shrine at Gotham, where Mr..
Pickwick discovered his disconsola &c
| friend.
London's Pickwick hosteries have been
| remodeled out of all knowledge The
Golden Cross at Charing Cross, for ex-
| ample. where the genial old boy began
i his travels. and the Belle Salvage on
Ludgate Hill, whence the eastern eoun-
ties coaches set forth or the Bull a,
| Rochester this delicious story is told:
I 80 this Is where Mr. Pickwick Is SUP
posed to have slept?" remarked a visitor
| when viewing bedroom IL by favor of a
former landlord. That stranger meant no
offense, but the landlord was greatly rut-
fed. Supposed to have slept? He did
| sleep here, sir!'