THE YORK ROAD 325 



of surely the most delightful novels in the world. To 

 pass from the pen to the sword, at this house stayed the 

 Butcher of Culloden on his way up to London : and 1 

 do not doubt that the George's best Burgundy flowed in 

 red seas down fierce gullets in loyal celebration of that 

 shameful shamble. But, as I have said in another place, 

 the list of distinguished visitors at such great hostelrics 

 on the main roads of England, must be looked for in 

 the letters and diaries of four generations. All were 

 here, we may be well assured, at such noted halting- 

 places on the main artery of travel between two countries 

 — all and of every rank, in a motley assemblage of con- 

 fused travel — kings, queens, statesmen, highwaymen 

 (the North Road about Stamford was celebrated for these 

 gentry), generals, poets, wits, fine ladies, conspirators, 

 and coachmen. All were in such houses as this George 

 at Stamford at one time or other in the centuries, and 

 ate and drank, and robbed, or were robbed, and died, 

 and made merry. 



But if so much can be said, and indeed it is no ex- 

 aggeration to say so much about the inn at Stamford, 

 the great inn at Grantham twenty miles further north 

 should be able to claim even a fuller tide of story. For 

 the celebrated Angel at the latter place, now much 

 resorted to by hunting men and women who can start 

 from its doors to meet about four packs of hounds, is 

 nothing more nor less than one of the three mediaeval 

 hostels remaining in England. And this means a good 

 deal if one comes to think of it. It means, indeed, the 

 survival of the best kind of thing in its way to be seen. 

 For a very superlative kind of comfort was needed, I 

 surmise, after however brief an experience of mediaeval 

 roads. And if what inns there were between London 

 and York, when people had to ride the whole distance 

 over often impassable morasses, had not been A i, 

 people would not have ridden so frequently between 

 York and London. 



To give an idea of the age of the Angel at Grantham 



