206 PROC. COTTESWOLD CLUB vol. xiii. (3) 



in which Hquors are supplied, in an inn, " the Bar." This 

 usually stood in the gangway or entrance to the courtyard, 

 where the " bar " was dropped to close the premises during 

 the night. 



In many towns we have examples of the " bar " still 

 occupying the same position ; as in the "Greyhound" and 

 "Green Dragon" Inns at Gloucester. I remember hearing 

 a story, when a boy, of some acrobat who had taken a 

 hackney coach to one of the old inns in London, and 

 who in passing the open window of the bar as he was being 

 slowly driven through the narrow entrance, sprang into 

 it. The driver got down from the box when he reached 

 the courtyard — opened the door — and finding no " fare " 

 within, remounted in no pleasant temper and drove back 

 to his stand. On the way out, the " flire " sHpped from 

 the bar back again through the carriage window un- 

 suspected. On reaching the stand he put his head out 

 and asked the man what he meant by driving him about in 

 this way, when he had been ordered to go to the " Saracen's 

 Head?" The man moodily drove to his destination a 

 second time, but on being tendered a half-guinea in com- 

 pensation for his wasted time, he grimly refused it, with 

 the significant remark, " No ! I won't touch your money ! 

 I know who yoit are ! " 



Some of these old inns have retained interesting features 

 of the Roman architecture besides the open galleries, all 

 indicative of their oriental origin. The outside staircase 

 is one of these, as shown in the beautiful " New Inn," at 

 Gloucester [Plate V., fig. 3]. In the " Bull and Mouth," in 

 Aldersgate Street, London [fig. 5 in the same plate], we see 

 a modern casing put over such an outside staircase : a 

 condescension to the less hardy ways we have got into ; 

 or rather an adaptation to the climate, for which Italian 

 architecture was not really suited. Another feature is 

 the use of lattice-work for the railing of the galleries of 



