III. INNS: OLD AND NEW.
Inns are the handmaids of locomotion. When the stage coaches were in full swing roadside inns were a necessity ; but when the coaches went off the roads at the opening of railways, those old inns suffered, and only a few of them remained to reap the advantages to be derived from the cyclist and motor-car traffic. Those old inns afforded a warm welcome to the travellers of their day, but a different style of comfort on the road is now required.
The accommodation for travellers at Dover in ancient and modern times is a fruitful topic. Owing to Dover's position on the Continental Passage route, there have been inns here from a very early period ; and they became more necessary after the Guest House of Dover Priory and the Hospital of the Maison Dieu ceased to entertain strangers. These religious houses had not been giving much hospitality to travellers for a good many years before the Reformation, consequently the inns and victualling houses were numerous in Dover all through the Reign of Henry VIII. Near the close of his reign, in the year 1545, special regulations were made that all inns and victualhng houses in this town should have signs painted on boards, one foot square, hung over the hall doors, so that the public might know which were public-houses and which not. All innkeepers and victuallers had to give a bond of ;^io, which was immediately forfeited in cases of disorder in any of the houses. The order as to the painted signboards v/as enforced with but two exceptions, it being mentioned that " The Lion " and the "Arms of England " had had their special signs from time out of mind, therefore they were not required to alter them. In the records of Dover, as found in the Egerton MSS. in the British Museum, the list of victualling houses and inns in Dover at that time, and the beds they contained, were as follows: —
St. James's Street.
Jasper Jure — " The Plough " (three beds).
Francis Serlis — "The Angel" (three beds).
Rowland Edridge — "The Swan" (three beds).
Roger Fisher — " The King's Arms " (three beds).
Johanna Barber (widow) — "The Signe of Jesus" (three beds).
Richard Malbine — " The Town Arms " (three beds).
John Stockham — " The Black Bull " (three beds).
The Lane Next the Mayor's
(Probably that was Dolphin Lane, as the Mayor was a sheep farmer and brewer.)
Alys Rockingham (widow) — " The Porter " (three beds).
Uppwall (Chapel Street).
George Matthew — " The Angel " (six beds).
Anthony Rede — " The Crown and Key " (six beds).
William Price — "Adam and Eve " (three beds).
WiUiam Lome — " The Black Anchor " and " The Corn Sheaf " (eight beds).
Biggin Street.
Andrew Davy — " St. Andrew's Cross " (three beds).
Thomas Jaxon — " The Cock " (nhie beds).
Simon Fry — " The Anchor " (two beds).
John Miles — " The Lilly Pot " (eight beds).
Richard Wilmington — " The Greyhound " (four beds).
Thomas Everedge — " The Helmet " (four beds).
Margery Wilshire — " The Broad Axe " (three beds).
Edward Foster — " The Ship " (four beds).
Richard Rogers — " The Sun " (four beds).
Johanna Vaughan (widow) — " The Crown " (eight beds).
Roger Bund — " The Half Moon " (three beds).
James Dowell — " The Unicorn " (three beds).
William Dawson — " The Goat's Head " (three beds).
Cuthbert Digeson — " The Tailor's Shears " (four beds).
The inns were not so numerous as the victualling houses. The following is the list of them, but it does not mention the streets in which they were situated : —
" The Rose " (twelve beds and stabling) — Thomas Foxley.
" The Maidenhead " (seven beds and stabling) — Dawson Parnell.
" The Ship " (six beds and staViling) — Hugh Brackett.
" The Angel " (six beds) — William Green.
" The Spread Eagle " (three beds and stabling) — Hugh Fludd.
" The Arms of England " (eight beds and stabling — John Bowlle (Mayor).
" The Bear " (four beds and stabling) — John Gilbert.
" The Lion " (sixteen beds and stabling) — William Fisher.
" The Woolsack " (ten beds and stabling) — Thomas Vittery.
" The Senior " (eight beds and stabling) — Richard Elham.
In the reign of Queen EUzabeth, innkeepers and victuallers were prohibited from going to the seaside on the arrival of Passage Boats to procure guests. In the Stuart times the " Shakespeare " Inn, then called " The George," was estabhshed. " The Cock " Inn and " The King's Head " (still existing in the Pier) were established in the Reign of James I. " The Ship Tavern," " The London " Hotel, and '' The Yorke " Hotel, all notable houses for travellers, flourished in the Pier District at the close of the Eighteenth Century. To " The Ship " the Duke of WeUing ton was carried on the shoulders of Dover Burgesses when he landed at Dover after the Peace of 1814, and when His Grace had been set down in his room he ordered the landlady to provide for them all an unlimited supply of buttered toast. " The Yorke " Hotel is mentioned in Miss Berry's Journal as " a cheerful house overlooking the sea." At the " London " Hotel, in Council House Street, Madame Bonaparte stayed in 1805, when, owing to a family quarrel, she was not allowed to land in France. " The Ship " Hotel was kept in later years by Mr. John Birmingham, who was afterwards the well-known host of the "Lord Warden" Hotel.
Inns and ale-houses very rapidly increased in Dover in the early part of the Nineteenth Century. At the annual Licensing Sessions in the year 1837 twenty-one new licences were granted; and in 1846 the public-houses averaged one for every one hundred of the inhabitants. The tide of travel through Dover very largely increased during the latter part of the Nineteenth and the first decade of the Twentieth Century ; but, owing to the hurried way in which Continental travellers have been coming and going in recent years, without much waiting for wind and tide, a smaller propor tion of them sought the hospitality of the inns of Dover.