Bars (Drinking establishments) -- England; England -- Social life and customs; Hotels -- England; Taverns (Inns) -- England
To avoid confusion we must remind the reader that the “_Bull’s Head_”
denotes the crest of the Nevilles or, occasionally, Anne Boleyn. The _Pied
Bull_ is a whimsical sign found near a cattle market or bull-ring. A few
inns, too, received the name of the Bull in Elizabethan or Jacobean times
when astrology was popular, and Taurus happened to be the house ascendant
in the horary figure. Thus in Ben Jonson’s “Alchemist”:
“A townsman born in Taurus given the bull, or the Bull’s head; in
Aries the ram.”
Sometimes in place of the official seal the monastic inn bore for its sign
a picture or carving of a religious mystery. Outside the Abbey Gate, at
Bury St. Edmunds, is the _Angel Inn_, once called the _Angelus_ or
_Salutation_; there is another _Angel Inn_, probably monastic, in
Guildford. Both of these are famous for their beautiful Early English
crypts, groined and vaulted in stone. The _Angel_ at Grantham belonged to
the Knights Templars. At Addington in Kent the _Angel_ has a very odd
staircase of great antiquity, each tread being a solid log of timber; and
an underground passage, which local gossip connects with a priory at
Ryarsh. Another monastic _Angel_ at Basingstoke is said to be the subject
of Ben Jonson’s coarse epigram, inspired by the departure of his hostess,
Mrs. Hope and her daughter Prudence. The _Cock_ as an emblem of St. Peter,
and the _Crosskeys_ are frequently found. The most interesting inn in the
city of Westminster was the _Cock and Tabard_, in Tothill Street, pulled
down in 1871. It dated from the reign of Edward III, and it was here,
according to Stowe, that the workmen engaged in the completion of the
Abbey Church were paid. From its yard two centuries later the first
stage-coach to Oxford was started. Battle Abbey possessed several “_Star_”
inns, the best known of which was the _Star_ at Alfriston, which may
either be named after Our Lady, Star of the Sea, or after the Earl of
Sussex, one of whose badges was the star.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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