inns in England. He tells of Squeers conducting his new pupils through
Grantham to Dotheboys Hall, and how after leaving the inn the luckless
travellers "wrapped themselves more closely in their coats and cloaks
... and prepared with many half-suppressed moans again to encounter
the piercing blasts which swept across the open country." At the
"Saracen's Head" in Westgate Isaac Newton used to stay, and there are
many other inns, the majority of which rejoice in signs that are blue.
We see a Blue Horse, a Blue Dog, a Blue Ram, Blue Lion, Blue Cow, Blue
Sheep, and many other cerulean animals and objects, which proclaim the
political colour of the great landowner. Grantham boasts of a unique
inn-sign. Originally known as the "Bee-hive," a little public-house in
Castlegate has earned the designation of the "Living Sign," on account
of the hive of bees fixed in a tree that guards its portals. Upon the
swinging sign the following lines are inscribed:--

Stop, traveller, this wondrous sign explore,
And say when thou hast viewed it o'er and o'er,
Grantham, now two rarities are thine--
A lofty steeple and a "Living Sign."

The connexion of the "George" with Charles Dickens reminds one of the
numerous inns immortalized by the great novelist both in and out of
London. 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]