"CRISPIN AND CRISPIANUS" 101 



of weather-boarding, chiefly on the upper storeys. 

 An instance of this is seen at Strood at an inn, the 

 " Crispin and Crispianus," standing in the main 

 street. A still more interesting point about this old 

 house is its pictorial swinging sign, overhanging the 

 pathway — a representation of the two shoemaker 

 brothers, Crispin and Crispian, at work, cobbling boots. 

 The brothers were Christian martyrs who suffered 

 death at Soissons, a.d. 287. How they came to serve 

 as the sign of an inn is quite unknown. It has been 

 suggested that, as Aglncourt was i'ought on Saint 

 Crispin's Day, this old sign is of the warlike and 

 patriotic order to which belong the Waterloo, 

 Wellington, Nelson, Alma, and Trafalgar signs that 

 are so plentiful on this road ; but it is a great deal 

 more likely that it is a relic of the days when men 

 made pilgrimages to Becket's shrine, when innkeepers 

 found their account to he in calling their houses after 

 some popular saint or another. 



A curious incident in connection with the " Crispin 

 and Crispianus " must be noted before we pass on. 

 It happened in 1830. One night ii: September of 

 that year, a doctor who had only just then commenced 

 practice in Strood was called in to see a man lying 

 at the point of death in an upper room of the old inn. 

 He hastened to the place, aid found a man lying in 

 bed who told him that, although he was known only 

 as an ostler, he was really the Earl of Coleraine, nephew 

 of that notorious Colonel Hanger who is chiefly known 

 as the riotous boon-companion of the Prince Regent in 

 the early days of Brighton and the Pavilion. Colonel 

 Hanger was the fourth earl, and succeeded his brother 

 in the title, which he never assumed. He died, 

 childless, in 1824, and the earldom became extinct. 

 As Colonel Hanger was the youngest son of his father, 

 and as no mention has ever been made of any of his 

 elder brothers leaving sons, the matter is not a little 

 mysterious, especially as the colonel's right to the 

 title, had he chosen to use it, was not disputed. 



