Outbursts of patriotism are a feature on the signboards. Great victories of the British forces by land and sea, and the great military and naval heroes have all been commemorated in their turn, beginning with the _Crispin and Crispinian_, which greeted the troops of Henry V, as they returned along the old Watling Street, after Agincourt (which was fought on the feast day of these twin saints).
“Crispin Crispian shall never go by From this day to the ending of the world, But we in it shall be remembered.” “Henry V,” IV, 3.
The _Bull and Mouth_ is said to be a corruption of Boulogne Mouth, captured by Henry VIII. _Bull and Gate_ may possibly be a similar vulgarism for Boulogne Gate. We might draw up a complete sequence of great battles fought and fortresses taken during the last three centuries, but those most frequently met with are _Gibraltar_, _Waterloo_, _Battle of the Nile_, and _Trafalgar_. Admirals range from _Blake_ to _Napier_, generals from _Marlborough_ to _Wolseley_. Not one of them is forgotten, though _Wellington_, _Nelson_ and _Keppel_ can probably claim the largest number of adherents. The _Marquis of Granby_, almost forgotten by the ordinary reader of history, enjoyed a remarkable popularity in his own day, if we are to judge by the number of portraits of this high-spirited and courageous nobleman which hang outside public-houses. The original of Mr. Tony Weller’s _Marquis of Granby_ is, we believe, the one at Epsom, “Quite a model of a roadside public-house of the better class--just large enough to be convenient, and small enough to be snug.” The sign portrayed “the head and shoulders of a gentleman with an apoplectic countenance, in a red coat with blue facings, and a touch of the same blue over his three-cornered hat, for a sky. Over that again were a pair of flags; beneath the last button of his coat were a couple of cannon; and the whole formed an expressive and undoubted likeness of the Marquis of Granby of glorious memory.”
But the heart of the nation was most deeply touched by the mingled triumph and pathos at Trafalgar. _Lord Nelson_, _Victory_, and _Trafalgar_, greet us on every high road that leads down to the sea, in the neighbourhood of every harbour or dock, and beside the quays on every navigable river. And it is surprising how many of these _Nelson_ inns are buildings three or four centuries old, showing that the innkeeper was prepared to sacrifice the sign under which he had hitherto done business and trusted to make a new reputation under the ægis of the popular hero. We have discovered several _Nelson_ inns of this type in Kent, though none which we recall with more pleasure than the quaint many-gabled wooden structure with a considerable list to starboard on the high path by the riverside at Maidstone. Its ways are homely but hearty; the same family have remained in possession for a period rapidly approaching the century; and almost every article of furniture is old-fashioned and curious.