ODD STREET- NAMES 6i 



the place of the old. For one thing, Brentford lui.s a 

 quite remarkable numl)er of old inns, and the great 

 stableyards and courtyards of other old coaching 

 hostelries which themselves have disappeared. This 

 was, in fact, the end of the first stage out of London 

 in the coachino- era. and the l)eoinnino- of the last 

 stage in ; and in consequence, as befitted a town on 

 the great highway to the West, had ample accommo- 

 dation, both for man and beast. One of these old 

 yards, indeed, — Red Lion Inn Yard — is historic, for it 

 is traditionally the spot where Edmund Ironside, the 

 king, was murdered by the Danes in 1016, after he 

 had defeated them here. The most famous, however, 

 of all the Brentford inns, the Three Pigeons, was 

 brutally demolished many years ago, although it had 

 associations with Shakespeare and ' rare ' Ben Jonson. 

 The ' Tumbledown Dick,' another vanished hostelry, 

 Avhose sio-n was a satire on the nerveless rule and 

 swift overthrow of the Protector's son. Richard 

 Cromwell, was a well-known house ; while the names 

 of some of the old vards — Green Draoon Yard and 

 Catherine Wheel Yard — are reminiscent of once- 

 popular signs. 



Then Brentford has the queerest of street names. 

 What think you of ' Half Acre ' for the style and 

 title of a thorouo-hfare ? or ' Town Meadow,' which is 

 less a meadow than a slum ? Then there are ' The 

 Butts,' with some fine, dignified Queen Anne and 

 Georgian red-brick houses, situated in a quiet spot 

 behind the High Street ; and ' The Hollows,' a 

 thoroughfare hollow no longer, if ever it was. 



Frontino- on to the Hioh Street is the l)road and 



