[Illustration: The Punch Bowl, High Easter]
In the absence of documents it is not easy to discriminate between the Church Inn and the Church House. Old inns near the church bearing ecclesiastical names may be of either origin, or may have served for both. The _Bell_ is very common all over England. It is always found near the church, and the sign is of the highest antiquity. Chaucer tells us that the _Tabard_ in Southwark was “juste by the Belle.” The _Bell_ at Finedon, in Northamptonshire, puts in a claim to be one of the very oldest in the country, and the old _Bell Tavern_ which formerly stood in King Street, Westminster, is mentioned in the expenses of Sir John Howard, Jockey of Norfolk, in 1466. At the _Bell_, in Warwick Lane, died the good Archbishop Leighton in 1684. “He often used to say that if he were to choose a place to die in, it should be an inn; it looks like a pilgrim’s going home, to whom this world was all as an inn, and who was weary of the noise and confusion in it.... And he obtained what he desired.”[8]
Not unusual in this situation is a _Lamb Inn_. The _Lamb_ at Eastbourne has a small but well-proportioned crypt, vaulted and groined. There is a _Lamb and Flag_ near the old parish church at Brighton, Sudbury, and at Swindon; and a _Lamb and Anchor_ in Bristol. These owe their origin to a carving of the _Agnus Dei_, but may sometimes point to a house of the Knights Templars, for the _Agnus Dei_ appeared on their coat of arms. The _Bleeding Heart_ is an emblem of the five sorrowful mysteries of the Rosary, and the _Heart_, generally found as the _Golden Heart_, is in honour of the Blessed Virgin. The _Anchor_ is suggestive of a church inn, but we have not been able to trace a house bearing this sign to any very remote period. At Hartfield, there is an _Anchor Inn_ close to the church, evidently ancient, and having a delightful old-fashioned garden. It was formerly occupied by a church institution where the poor were fed and housed in return for such labour as their age and skill would permit, founded by the Rev. Richard Randes, a rector of the parish some two hundred and fifty years ago. The house contains evidence of having existed long before this date.