The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1933-07-07

food and rehearsal of the latest local
gossip. AT glance, they could see
the choice of fare awaiting them, give
their orders while divesting themselves
of their coats and wraps, and find their
food ready on the table in the dining
room the instant they set down. The
quick luncheon counter of today could
have rendered no more expeditions
service.
The ancient appointments, the eject
eras, and the various little elegancies
of other days are all intimately bound
up with the history of the INNS They
form part of the visible record of
social life for centuries past, and
many a quaint reminder there is of
manners and customs that are now but
memories. But, more than that, the
very air of the old hostelries Is vibrant
with mellowed associations. On cross
ing their thresholds you catch per-
vading sense of genial human inter-
course through many generations.
Before the minds eye goodly COM
pany of those who long enjoyed each
inns hospitality seems to people the
public rooms-exalted personages and
also men of low degree. The common
hearth was free to all alike These
thronging memories of those who erst-
while sheltered beneath its roof, along
with the actual present beauty and
interest Of its buildings, are among the
most potent Of all the many factors
that go to make up the subtle lure of
the old English inn.
Literary Shrines.
Should you chance to visit Saffron
Walden and put up at the Rose and
Crown, you will be reminded that, al
most beyond doubt, Shakespeare stayed
there when he visited the town with
his company of players in 1907.
Though the inn was refronted with
brick in 1890 and new sashed and
beautified In the year 174S," and has
undergone sundry other alterations In
the course of the centuries, much Of
the original Tudor work remains as 1t
was when Shakespeare knew 1t.
The Rose and Crown is by way Of
being literary shine on another
count, too. Himself poet and the as
sociate of literary men, young William
Holgate, the son Of the Rose and
Crowns landlord, seems on credible
evidence to have been the mysterious
"Mr. W. H." to whom Shakespeare ded-
icated his Sonnets.
Time and again you will find your
self dining and sleeping at the same
inn where some famous historical per-
sonage has stayed; perhaps the very
same room may fall TO your lot. In
the George at Buckden, Huntingdon
shire, for example, you may be given
the room where Queen Victoria slept
as a girl, when, her carriage having
broken down on the road. she had to
spend the night at this hosiery. The
inn people will probably ask you to be
careful not to disarrange anything in
this sanctum, for they pride themselves
on keeping the room exactly as It was
when its royal occupant slept In the
mahogany four-poster.
1t is somewhat more stimulating to
the Imagination to sit In the taproom
of the White Horse at Eaton Socon
and picture Dick Turpin coming In and
calling for pot of ale or a hot toddy.
But both the George at Buckden and
the White Horse at Eaton Socon are
rich in picturesque appeal and quite
capable of holding the visitors in
terest without the added lure of his
toric association. Under a Georgian
exterior the White Horse retains its
Fifteenth century characteristics and
structure. Both inns are filed with no
end of old furnishings which enhance
their charm.
Amid environments no less allurinp
and highly varied, you can keep COM
pany at Portsmouth with Lord Nelson
and the Duke of wellington: at
Grantham with Richard III; at Guild
ford with Samuel Pepys; at Chigwell
with Queen Elizabeth; and at Broad
way, II you like the contrast when
extremes meet in the same inn, with
both King Charles the Martyr and
Oliver Cromwell.