It was for lack of that natural outlet, the Visitors’ Book, that many old-time guests had recourse to the window-pane. Unfortunately--or should it not perhaps rather be a fortunate circumstance?--while pen and ink were at command of every one, only a diamond ring would serve on glass; and not every guest was so luxuriously equipped. The classic instance of a window-pane at an inn being thus inscribed is, of course, that of Shenstone’s writing the last stanza of his lines on “Freedom” upon the window of an inn--generally said to be the “Red Lion” at Henley-on-Thames. But who shall decide? If we are to believe the account of Richard Graves, who knew the poet well, and published _Recollections of Some Particulars in the Life of the Late William Shenstone, Esq._, in 1788, the lines were first written in an arbour of what used to be the “Sunrising” inn, on the crest of Edge Hill, a house long since become a private residence. According to Graves, Shenstone, about 1750, visited a friend, one Mr. Whistler, in the southernmost part of Oxfordshire, and did not particularly enjoy his visit, Mr. Whistler sending the poet’s servant off to stay at an inn, in order that the man and the domestics of his own house should not gossip together. Shenstone himself seems to have been a very unamiable guest, and one better suited to an inn than to the house of a friend; for he grew disagreeable over being expected to play “Pope Joan” in the evening with his friend’s children, and sulked when he lost a trifle at cards. Then he would not dress himself tidily for dinner, and snuffed and slouched to the inconvenience of every one, so that it is not surprising to read of a coolness, and then quarrels, coming to estrange the pair, resulting in Shenstone abruptly cutting short his visit. He lay, overnight, on his journey home, at the “Sunrising” inn, and the next morning, in an arbour, inscribed the famous lines which now form the last stanza of “Freedom.” “More stanzas,” says Graves, “were added afterwards,” and he rightly adds that they “diminish the force” of the original thought. The “Sunrising” inn, long since become a private mansion, and added to very largely, has no relics of Shenstone. It stands, with lovely gardens surrounding, on the very lip and verge of Edge Hill, and looks out across the great levels of Warwickshire. In recent times the hill has becomes famous, or notorious, for motor and cycle accidents, and the approach to it is heralded by a notice-board proclaiming “Great Danger. Cyclists Dismount.” But in these days of better brakes, very few obey that injunction, and ride down, safely enough. Whistler died in 1754, when Shenstone, remorseful, wrote, “how little do all our disputes appear to us now!”