Chaucer’s pilgrims put up at the _Chequers on the Hope_ (_i.e._, on the Hoop) at Canterbury, and part of this inn still remains near the Cathedral gate. There was also a _Chequers Inn_ at St. Albans, but it has now ceased to exist. Either may have stood on the sites of Roman inns; but with these as with the thatched _Chequers_ on the Watling Street, near Redbourne, or the _Chequers_ at Loose or Doddington, speculation is vain. Like the needy knife-grinder, whose breeches were so woefully torn during his drinking bout at an inn bearing the same name: “Story? God bless you, I have none to tell, sir!” is the universal answer to all our inquiries for any historical particulars beyond a century or two back.
Wayside inns needed no licence and were usually carried on by a hosteller who combined the occupation with that of farmer or tradesman of some kind. Where any old leases exist they are described merely as tenements or farms. Thus the _Dorset Arms_ at Withyham, a very picturesque old shingled and barge-boarded inn, appears as “Somers’ Farm.” Only by accident do we find the name of one of the tenants, William Pigott, on a list of Sussex tavern-keepers in the year 1636.
[Illustration: The Three Horseshoes near Papworth Everard]
When the sign of the _Three Horseshoes_ occurs at the end of a rough difficult stretch of road during which a horse would often lose a shoe, it is probable that the inn grew up side by side with a blacksmith’s business, even when the smithy no longer exists. In a very lonely and exposed situation on the Ermine Street, where the road to St. Ives crosses near Papworth Everard, there is a thatched inn bearing this sign and also known as _Kisby’s Hut_. At Lickfold, about six miles from Haslemere, almost under the shadow of Black Down, the highest hill in Sussex, there is a cosy half-timbered _Three Horseshoes_, which has come down to our time practically unaltered since the day of its erection in 1642, and it is well worth examination. The roads around it are liable to be flooded, and it is a likely place for waggoners to pull up for repairs. But when disentangling the riddles of local history, we must not be led astray with obvious explanations. Many old coats of arms contain the three horseshoes. Indeed there is one inn on a manor once belonging to the Shelleys, where possibly the forgotten shield of the older Kentish branch of the family--the three escallops--has been repainted as three horseshoes.