THE BULL, SUDBURY LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS THE CHEQUERS, Loose THE KING'S ARMS, HEMel HempsteAD THE SPREAD EAGLE, MIDHURST PIGEON HOUSE AT THE BULL, LONG Melford YARD OF THE WHITE HART, ST. ALBANS COACH GALLery at the BULL, LONG Melford FIREPLACE AT the White Hart, WithaM 84 86 89 THE HORSE AND GROOM, NEAR WALTHAM ST. THE FALSTAff, CanterbURY THE SIR JOHN Falstaff, NEWINGTON SIGN OF THE FOX AND Hounds, Barley SIGN OF BLACK'S HEAD, ASHBOURNE SIGN OF WHite Hart, Witham THE ANGEL, THEALE THE CLOTHIERS' ARMS, STROUD THE WOODMAN INN, FARNBOROUGH, KENT THE BELL INN, BELL COMMON, EPPING. OLD COUNTRY INNS CHAPTER I MANORIAL INNS WHICH among the thousand of old inns to be met with on our country roads has a right to be called the oldest? There are many claimants. The title-deeds of the Saracen's Head at Newark refer back to 1341. Local antiquaries cite documentary evidence to prove that the Seven Stars at Manchester existed before the year 1356. Symond Potyn, who founded St. Catherine's Hospital for poor Pilgrims at Rochester in 1316, is described as "of the Crown Inn." A Nottingham ballad relates the adventures of one Dame Rose who kept the Ram in that town in the days of good King Stephen." Then we have the witness of the German Ambassador to the comfort and excellence of the Fountain at Canterbury, when he lodged there in 1299, on the occasion of the marriage of King Edward I to Margaret of France. Nay, the legend runs that within its walls the four murderers of St. Thomas arranged the last |