In that old town we have seen much to interest,
and the historian will delight to fight over again the battle of
Evesham and study the records of the siege of the town in the Civil
War.
CHAPTER X
OLD INNS
The trend of popular legislation is in the direction of the
diminishing of the number of licensed premises and the destruction of
inns. Very soon, we may suppose, the "Black Boy" and the "Red Lion"
and hosts of other old signs will have vanished, and there will be a
very large number of famous inns which have "retired from business."
Already their number is considerable. In many towns through which in
olden days the stage-coaches passed inns were almost as plentiful as
blackberries; they were needed then for the numerous passengers who
journeyed along the great roads in the coaches; they are not needed
now when people rush past the places in express trains. Hence the
order has gone forth that these superfluous houses shall cease to be
licensed premises and must submit to the removal of their signs.
Others have been so remodelled in order to provide modern comforts and
conveniences that scarce a trace of their old-fashioned appearance can
be found. Modern temperance legislators imagine that if they can only
reduce the number of inns they will reduce drunkenness and make the
English people a sober nation.
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