“In the chimneys of the disused rooms, swallows had built their nests for many a long year, and from earliest spring to latest autumn whole colonies of sparrows chirped and twittered in the eaves. There were more pigeons about the dreary stable-yard and outbuildings than anybody but the landlord could reckon up. The wheeling and circling flights of runts, fantails, tumblers, and pouters, were perhaps not quite consistent with the grave and sober character of the building, but the monotonous cooing, which never ceased to be raised by some among them all day long, suited it exactly, and seemed to lull it to rest. With its overhanging storys, drowsy little panes of glass, and front bulging out and projecting over the pathway, the old house looked as if it were nodding in its sleep. Indeed it needed no very great stretch of fancy to detect in it other resemblances to humanity. The bricks of which it was built had originally been a deep dark red, but had grown yellow and discoloured like an old man’s skin; the sturdy timbers had decayed like teeth; and here and there the ivy, like a warm garment to comfort it in its age, wrapped its green leaves closely round the time-worn walls. “It was a hale and hearty age, though, still; and in the summer or autumn evenings, when the glow of the setting sun fell upon the oak and chestnut trees of the adjacent forest, the old house, partaking of its lustre, seemed their fit companion, and to have many good years of life in him yet.” The house indicated in the foregoing description still stands, much as it was in the days of which Dickens wrote. It is, however, _not_ the MAYPOLE at Chigwell. Dickens, to suit the purposes of his tale, made free use of that license usually allowed to poets and writers of fiction. His description, as above, gives a very fair idea of the fine old hostelry known as the KING’S HEAD, situate opposite the church in the village of Chigwell, where it has displayed the same sign since 1789 at least. It was in what has since been known as the “Chester Room” in this house, that a portion, at least, of _Barnaby Rudge_ was penned. On the sign-board swinging over the door, there is a large portrait of King Charles I., painted some years ago by Miss Herring. At Chigwell Row, about two miles distant, there _is_ a MAYPOLE INN, with a maypole still before the door, and on the site which Dickens indicates; but the foregoing description is (as has been said) that of the KING’S HEAD. The present MAYPOLE is an inn of no special pretensions, and is not the same house that displayed the sign at least as early as 1789. A writer in _Notes and Queries_,[84] says that the following was formerly to be seen on the sign:-- “My liquor’s good, My measure’s just, Excuse me, sirs, I cannot trust.” [Illustration: KING’S HEAD INN. (_At Chigwell._)]