Note 180 — Chapter X

The institution of “Bough-houses” at fairs was not confined to Horncastle. By Act of Parliament (35 George III., c. 113, s. 17) an exception was made to the general rule of a license being required for the sale of beer, that at fair-time any one hanging a bough at their door, and thus constituting the house a “booth,” might sell beer without a license. It prevailed at Pershore, with the sanction of the magistrates, as late as 1863; also at Bridgewater, Church Staunton, and Newton Poppleford (“Notes and Queries,” 3rd series, vol. iv., pp. 141 and 258). Hence we find at Carmarthen, the principal hotel named “The Ivy Bush”; and at Carlisle, in English Street, there is a coaching inn called “The Bush.” (“On the track of the Mail Coach,” by J. E. Baines, p. 226). There is also a “Bush Hotel” at Farnham. In out-of-the-way parts of Germany, as in the Upper Eisel District, at the village feast called “Kirmess” a bough is hung out at a house door to shew that refreshment may be obtained there. (“Field, Forest, and Fell,” by J. A. Owen, p. 74). Of the existence of similar houses at an early period in England, we have evidence in Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales.” There were ale-houses on the country road-sides, marked by a pole projecting over the door; and as the pilgrims rode along, the Pardoner would not begin his tale till he had stopped to refresh himself,