Will’s honest heart could ne’er refuse To drink with ev’ry brother: Then let us not his name abuse— We’ll ne’er see sic another.
But let us hope the gods above, Right minded of his merits, Have given him a gentle shove Into the land of spirits.
’Tis then his talents will expand, And make a noble figure, In tossing off a brimming glass, To make his belly bigger.
Adieu, brave landlord, may thy portly ghost Be ever ready at its heavenly post; And may thy proud posterity e’er be Landlords at Pooley to eternity. { 196}
Rather profane the last verse; but, perhaps, not more so than the epitaph on one Matilda Brown:—
Here lies the body of Matilda Brown, Who while alive was hostess of the Crown. Her son-in-law keeps on the business still, Patient, resigned to the Eternal Will.
At King’s Stanley, in Gloucestershire, is the following epitaph to another hostess, one Ann Collins:—
’Twas as she tript from cask to cask, In at a bung-hole quickly fell, Suffocation was her task, She had no time to say farewell.
[Illustration: The George Inn, Salisbury.]
The ancient George Inn, Salisbury, depicted in our illustration, was in the vicinity of the Royal residence at Clarendon, and four hundred years ago was one of the best and most commodious inns in the west of England. In the records of the Corporation of the town a lease of this house is found, dated April 9th, 1473; it is made to one John Gryme, a saddler, and contains a description of the rooms of the inn, and an inventory of furniture. The house contained at that date { 197} thirteen guest chambers, viz.:—The Principal Chamber, the Earl’s Chamber, the Pantry adjoining, the Oxford Chamber, the Abingdon Chamber, the Squire’s Chamber, the Lombard’s Chamber, the Garret, the George, the Clarendon, the Understent, the Fitzwaryn, and the London Chamber.
There was also the _taberna_ or wine-cellar, the Buttery, the Tap House, the Kitchen, the Hostry, and the Parlour. The furniture, of which a full inventory is appended, seems to have been of a very homely type. No difference seems to have been made between the living and the sleeping rooms; each room was supplied with beds, the relative importance of which was measured by the number of _planks_ they contained, and the only other articles of furniture were tables on tressels for dining and forms of oak and beech for the guests to sit at table. The Principal room was distinguished by the possession of a cupboard, and each room contained three beds.