THE GREYHOUND INN, STROUD " 190 THE SHIP, WINGHAM 194 THE KING’S HEAD, AYLESBURY 196 TAP-ROOM AT THE BULL, SUDBURY 198 THE KING’S HEAD, LOUGHTON, ESSEX _facing_ 200 FIREPLACE AT THE SUN, FEERING 203 FIREPLACE AT THE NOAH’S ARK, LURGASHALL 207 FOX AND PELICAN INN, HASLEMERE _facing_ 212 THE WHITE HORSE INN, STETCHWORTH, NEWMARKET " 228 THE WOODMAN INN, FARNBOROUGH, KENT " 240 THE WHEATSHEAF INN, LOUGHTON, ESSEX " 248 THE SKITTLES INN, LETCHWORTH, HERTS " 254 RECREATION ROOM IN THE SKITTLES INN, LETCHWORTH, HERTS " 266 THE BELL INN, BELL COMMON, EPPING " 280 SIGN OF THE ANGEL INN, WOOLHAMPTON 285 [Illustration: The King’s Arms, Hemel Hempstead] 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 details of their plot in 1170, and that the wife of Earl Godwin stayed at this inn in 1029. But what are all these compared with the _Fighting Cocks_ at St. Albans, said to be the oldest inhabited house in England? A few years ago its signboard modestly chronicled the fact that it had been “Rebuilt after the Flood.”