SITTINGBOURNE 1 55 



He paid three shillings for riding these fifteen miles, 

 and alighting at the " Red Lion," put up for the 

 night, glad to get here, past the body of a robber 

 Avho had been hanged from a roadside tree for 

 murdering a messenger. The body was so surrounded 

 with ehains and rings that Herr Zinzerling was of 

 the opinion it would last a long time for the due 

 reading of a much-needed moral to others. He found 

 the landlord of the " Red Lion " to be a Scotchman 

 who knew Latin, and on this common ground of good- 

 fellowship they drank to one another and quoted the 

 classics until drmk tied their tongues and deposited 

 their bodies under the table. 



I have already had occasion to mention six first-class 

 inns that flourished here three hundred years ago ; 

 but in the middle of last century there were a great 

 many more. The " George," the " Rose," and the 

 " Red Lion " seem to have been the chief est of them 

 about this time ; and, if we may believe Hasted 

 (and there is no reason why we shouldn't), the " Rose " 

 was " the most superb of any throughout the kingdom, 

 and the entertainment afforded in it equally so.'' 

 But where is the " Rose Hotel " now ? Gone, alas ! 

 with the snows of yester-year. Where, also, the 

 " George," which at the time of Waterloo kept forty 

 pairs of post-horses ? and where the " Red Lion " ? 

 It would, I fancy, puzzle most folks to say, for although 

 they still stand, the change that came over the spirit 

 of their dream about 1840 has caused them to be cut 

 up into separate houses and tenements. 



We can, however, by intensive observation, identify 

 the " Rose." It is a handsome red brick building on 

 the left-hand side, now occupied by a firm of grocers. 

 The identification is from a beautifully-carved rose 

 in a red brick panel on the first floor, with the initials 

 " R. I." and the date 1708. The building is large, 

 and has eight windows in a row. But the " George " 

 has nine, and the " Lion " twelve. 



About this time, too, the people seem to have given 



