lasts which swept across the open country." At the
"Saracen's Head" in Westgate Isaac Newton used to stay, and there are
many other inns, the majority of which rejoice in signs that are blue.
We see a Blue Horse, a Blue Dog, a Blue Ram, Blue Lion, Blue Cow, Blue
Sheep, and many other cerulean animals and objects, which proclaim the
political colour of the great landowner. Grantham boasts of a unique
inn-sign. Originally known as the "Bee-hive," a little public-house in
Castlegate has earned the designation of the "Living Sign," on account
of the hive of bees fixed in a tree that guards its portals. Upon the
swinging sign the following lines are inscribed:--

Stop, traveller, this wondrous sign explore,
And say when thou hast viewed it o'er and o'er,
Grantham, now two rarities are thine--
A lofty steeple and a "Living Sign."

The connexion of the "George" with Charles Dickens reminds one of the
numerous inns immortalized by the great novelist both in and out of
London. The "Golden Cross" at Charing Cross, the "Bull" at Rochester,
the "Belle Sauvage" (now demolished) near Ludgate Hill, the "Angel" at
Bury St. Edmunds, the "Great White Horse" at Ipswich, the "King's
Head" at Chigwell (the original of the "Maypole" in _Barnaby Rudge_),
the "Leather Bottle" at Cobham are only a few of those which he by his
writings made famous.

[Illustration: A Quaint Gable. The Bell Inn, Stilton]

Leaving Grantham and its inns, we push along the great North Road to
Stilton, famous for its cheese, where a choice of inns awaits us--the
"Bell" and the "Angel," that glare at each other across the broad
thoroughfare. In the palmy days of coaching the "Angel" had stabling
for three hundred horses, and it was kept by Mistress Worthington, at
whose door the famous cheeses were sold and hence called Stilton,
though they were made in distant farmsteads and villages. It is quite
a modern-looking inn as compared with the "Bell." You can see a date
inscribed on one of the gables, 1649, but this can only mean that the
inn was restored then, as the style of architecture of "this dream in
stone" shows that it must date back to early Tudor times. It has a
noble swinging sign supported by beautifully designed ornamental
ironwork, gables, bay-windows, a Tudor archway, tiled roof, and a
picturesque courtyard, the silence and dilapidation of which are
strangely contrasted with the continuous bustle, life, and animation
whic