the two together being especially liked. I have gathered foal-foot flowers with stalks and leaves for my father's use in the pipe, and his opinion was that foal-foot improved the tobacco weed, and that it acted as a tonic to the system. The gipsy folk, as we called them, also smoked various kinds of dried herbs in their pipes, and the chewing of bitter herbs was very common. "Foal-foot" was the usual name for colts foot.
Worksop. Thos. Ratcliffe.
George Inn, Borough (12 S. i. 90).—Drawings of the George Inn, Southwark can be seen in the Victoria and Albert Museum. References to these are given in Philip Norman's 'Drawings of Old London,' published by H.M. Stationery Office, price 6d. The drawings are described as follows:—
8. The George Inn, Southwark, 1884; also seventeenth-century Trade Token issued from here (Black and White) (13 in. × 9¾ in.).
9. Interior of Taproom, George Inn, 1886 (Black and White) (7 in. × 10½ in.).
The George Inn, or what is left of it, stands between the sites of the Tabard and the White Hart. It seems to have come into existence in the early part of the sixteenth century, and is mentioned by the name of "St. George" in 1554:
St. George that swinged the Dragon,
And sits on horseback at mine hostess' door.
The owner in 1558 was Humfrey Colet or Collet, who had been member of Parliament for Southwark. In 1034 a return was made that the inn had been built of brick and timber (no doubt rebuilt) in 1622. Soon after the middle of that century, in a book called 'Musarum DeliciÆæ, or the Muses' Recreations,' compiled by Sir John Mennes (admiral and chief controller of the navy) and Dr. James Smith, appeared some lines "upon a surfeit caught by drinking bad sack at the George Tavern in Southwark." Perhaps the landlord mended his ways; in any case the rent was shortly afterwards 150l. a year, a large sum for those days. Two seventeenth-century trade tokens of the house exist; an illustration of one is given, which reads thus:—
O.—Anthony Blake, Tapster, Ye George Inn, Southwarke.
R.—(No legend.) Three tobacco-pipes and four pots.
In 1670, Mark Wayland and Mary his wife held the George at a rent of 150l. a year. It was then partly burnt down, and Wayland rebuilt it. In consequence his rent was reduced to 80l. and a sugar-loaf. In the Great Southwark Fire of 1676 the house was totally destroyed, and was again rebuilt by the tenant, a further reduction of the rent and an extension of the lease being granted. The present structure dates from this rebuilding. It was a great coaching and carriers' inn; only a fragment, but a picturesque one, now exists, the rest having been pulled down in 1889-90. The yard is used for the purposes of the Great Northern, the Great Central, and the Great Eastern Railway Companies.
Archibald Sparke, F.R.S.L.
Historical incidents likely to be interesting to the ordinary reader appear to be scanty in the case of the George Inn, or St. George Inn, as it seems to have been styled in the days of old. In a lecture on 'Some of the Ancient Inns of Southwark,' by Mr. Geo. R. Corner, F.S.A., read before the Surrey Archæological Society in Southwark, May 12, 1858, the author states that it is mentioned under the latter name in 1544 (34 H. VIII.), as being situate (as it is) on the northern side of the Tabard. It is also named by Stow ('Survey,' p. 415, Kingsford's ed. ii. 62), but without comment. The next known reference is furnished by two tokens now in the Beaufoy Collection at the Guildhall Library. One of them was issued by "Anthony Blake. Tapster. Ye George in Southwark," and on the reverse are three tobacco-pipes; above them, four beer measures. The other token is inscribed: "James Gunter. 16— [?]," St. George and Dragon in field. Reverse, "In Southwarke": in the field, "L. A. G."
Some lines from the 'Musarum Deliciæ, or the Muses' Recreations,' 1656, upon a surfeit caused by drinking bad sack at the George Tavern in Southwark, have come down to our days, and are quoted in Walford's 'Old and New London,' vi. 85, so they need not be repeated here.
In 1670 the inn was in great part demolished by a serious fire which then happened in the Borough, and it was totally destroyed by the still more severe conflagration in 1676, when upwards of five hundred houses were burnt. From the records of the Parliamentary inquiry into the latter misfortune, still preserved at Guildhall, it appears that the owner of the George at that time was John Sayer, and the tenant, Mark Weyland. The fire was finally stopped by the substantial building of St. Thomas's Hospital, then recently erected; and a tablet, now, I believe, removed to the new hospital at Lambeth, commemorates the event.
In the year 1739 the George Inn was the property of Thomas Aynescomb, Esq., of Charterhouse Square, from whom it descended to his granddaughter, Valentina Aynescomb, who married Lillie Smith, Esq. In 1785 the inn, with considerable other property, was sold under an Act of Parliament by the trustees to Lillie Smith Aynescomb, Esq., of Thames Street, merchant; and early in the last century it was purchased by "the trustees of Guy's Hospital. In the conveyance of 1785 the inn is described as having been formerly in the occupation of Mary Weyland (probably widow of Mark Weyland, who was host in
