The "Golden Cross" at Charing Cross, the "Bull" at Rochester,
the "Belle Sauvage" (now demolished) near Ludgate Hill, the "Angel" at
Bury St. Edmunds, the "Great White Horse" at Ipswich, the "King's
Head" at Chigwell (the original of the "Maypole" in _Barnaby Rudge_),
the "Leather Bottle" at Cobham are only a few of those which he by his
writings made famous.
[Illustration: A Quaint Gable. The Bell Inn, Stilton]
Leaving Grantham and its inns, we push along the great North Road to
Stilton, famous for its cheese, where a choice of inns awaits us--the
"Bell" and the "Angel," that glare at each other across the broad
thoroughfare. In the palmy days of coaching the "Angel" had stabling
for three hundred horses, and it was kept by Mistress Worthington, at
whose door the famous cheeses were sold and hence called Stilton,
though they were made in distant farmsteads and villages. It is quite
a modern-looking inn as compared with the "Bell." You can see a date
inscribed on one of the gables, 1649, but this can only mean that the
inn was restored then, as the style of architecture of "this dream in
stone" shows that it must date back to early Tudor times. It has a
noble swinging sign supported by beautifully designed ornamental
ironwork, gables, bay-windows, a Tudor archway, tiled roof, and a
picturesque courtyard, the silence and dilapidation of which are
strangely contrasted with the continuous bustle, life, and animation
which must have existed there before the era of railways.
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