318 The Tavern Signs of Wiltshire and their Origin. 
Billett,’ at Winterslow? the latter not unknown (it is true) in 
other parts of England, but its intention has never yet been dis- 
covered. What again of the “ Dumb Post,’ at Bremhill?! the 
“ Cribbage Hut,’ at Sutton Mandeville ?? or the “ Crow’s Nest,” at 
the courtesy of the Rector, the Rev. Vander-Meulen, to whom I applied for in- 
formation, I learn that the carving on the Church represents a boar- hunt (boar, 
dogs, and huntsmen complete), so that it is difficult to see the connection between 
that and the tradition ! 
1The Rey. Canon Eddrup, in reply to my enquiries as to local tradition on the 
name, kindly informs me that ten years ago there was standing near the “ Dumb 
Post’ inn, at a place where four roads meet, an old finger-post, from which the 
directing arms had long since rotted away, so that it was reduced to the con- 
dition, so vexatious to the pedestrian, in a district with which he is not familiar, 
of being a ‘‘dumb post” indeed! and the worthy Vicar of Bremhill amused 
himself at the time by guessing that perhaps some local wit had indulged his 
satirical propensities by borrowing from the old direction post a name for the 
village inn hard by. Subsequent enquiry however showed that an inn bearing 
the sign of the ‘‘ Dumb Post” has existed on the spot, as long as the oldest 
inhabitant can remember; while the tradition of the house is that the inn 
originally had no sign, but that the landlord of that day, compelled by cireum- 
stances, though against his will, to give his house some distinctive sign, 
named it—perhaps in jest, perhaps from annoyance—from some old post that 
stood near. 
2Jn regard to the ‘‘ Cribbage Hut,” Mr. Swayne tells me that the old tradition 
of the neighbourhood is that the house so called was built on land “‘ cribbed” 
for the purpose from the waste. To this Mr. Wyndham objects that rent was 
always paid for it both in his father’s and late brother’s time, and that the 
arable field adjoining, is called to this day ‘‘ Hut Field,” which he thinks would 
scarcely be the case, if the Hut itself had been ‘‘cribbed” from the waste. 
’ Mr. Charles Penruddocke, however, says, and here he is corroborated by Mr, 
John Wyndham, that he always understood it was so called from the fact, that, 
in the middie of the last century, the squires of Compton, Dinton, and Ferne, 
together with Lord Arundell, were in the habit of occasionally meeting there, 
ostensibly in connection with the formation of the Whitesheet Turnpike Trust, 
when they would beguile the time by playing cribbage, and drinking a bowl of 
punch! but in reality it was a meeting of kindred spirits of Jacobite tendencies, 
where they could, without fear of interruption, drink to the king over the water 
to their hearts’ content; and, together with the punch, discuss other matters 
with which, as we know, the western squires wereconsiderably mixed up. Mr, 
Penruddocke tells me that a traditional distich, 
“They played their games 
Without the dames,’’ 
which is still remembered in the neighbourhood, alluded to this practice of the 
squires of old time. And Mr. Wyndham adds that he has often seen the old 
china bowl and the ladle, the latter with a George II. guinea at the bottom of 
