White Hart
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The White Hart ("hart" is an old word for stag) was the personal badge of Richard II, who derived it from the arms of his mother, Joan "The Fair Maid of Kent", heiress of Edmund of Woodstock. In the Wilton Diptych (National Gallery, London), which is the earliest authentic contemporary portrait of an English king, Richard II wears a gold and enamelled white hart jewel, and even the angels surrounding the Virgin Mary all wear white hart badges. In English Folklore, the White Hart is associated with Herne the Hunter.
There are still many inns and pubs in England that sport a sign of the White Hart, the fifth most popular name for a pub.[1]
Arthur C. Clarke wrote a collection of science fictional tall tales under the title of Tales from the White Hart, which used as a framing device the conceit that the tales were told during drinking sessions in a pub named the White Hart that existed somewhere between Fleet Street and the Embankment. This pub was fictional, but was based on a real pub named the White Horse where the science fiction community of London met in the 1940s and 1950s.
Contents |
[edit] Inns
[edit] Brentwood
The White Hart in Brentwood is the oldest pub in the town, dating back to before 1480. It may have been so named after King Richard II passed through Brentwood in 1392, possibly staying at the inn. It became a coaching inn in the 18th century and in 1910 even offered repairs to motor vehicles.[2]
[edit] Ringwood
The White Hart at Ringwood in the New Forest is said to have been the first pub so named, after King Henry VII caught such a beast nearby, had it leashed and led it back to the town in triumph, a legend with the flavour of political allegory.[citation needed]
[edit] Southwark
An inn at the sign of the "White Hart" was established in the medieval period on Borough High Street in Southwark.[citation needed] It is mentioned by William Shakespeare in Henry VI, Part 1 as the headquarters of the rebels in Jack Cade's 1450 Kentish rebellion. It became one of the many famous coaching inns in the days of Charles Dickens, and it was here that Sam Weller met Mr Pickwick in the famous scene from The Pickwick Papers.[citation needed] The Inn was pulled down in the 19th century. It is next door to The George, Southwark and near the site of The Tabard.
[edit] Witley
The White Hart, the village pub in Witley, is mostly Elizabethan and is said to stand on the site of an Anglo-Saxon inn.[citation needed]
[edit] Edinburgh
In Edinburgh, "The White Hart" is an inn in the Grassmarket, established early in the 1500s. It stood a few hundred steps from the place where public hangings were held, and was popular among spectators. Robert Burns and William Wordsworth were among its notable visitors, and resurrectionists Burke and Hare found some of the victims of their murder-for-body-parts scheme there.[citation needed]
[edit] Llangybi
The White Hart in Llangybi was first built in the early 1500s and was to become the property of Henry VIII as part of Jane Seymour's wedding dowry, while a century later Oliver Cromwell is reputed to have used it as his headquarters in Monmouthshire during the English Civil War. The interior still retains no fewer than 11 fireplaces from the 1600s, a wealth of exposed beams, original Tudor period plasterwork and even a priest hole. In 2003, The Guardian reported that T. S. Eliot made cryptic reference to this pub in his poem "Usk".[3]
[edit] St Keverne
The "White Hart" in St Keverne, Cornwall was the birthplace, in 1764, of the singer and actor Charles Incledon.[citation needed]
[edit] Sonning-on-Thames
The Great House at Sonning in Sonning, Berkshire, on the banks of the River Thames, was formerly known as the White Hart because Richard II's wife, Catherine of Valois was kept prisoner in the village after his death.[citation needed]
[edit] Hull
"Ye Olde White Hart" in Kingston upon Hull dates back to maybe the 14th century. In 1642, in an upstairs room known as the Plotting Parlour, Sir John Hotham resolved to bar King Charles I from Kingston upon Hull. This act in turn triggered the English Civil War.[citation needed]
[edit] North Hampshire
There is a string of White Hart pubs along what was one of the old main coaching inn roads from London to Salisbury. These are at: Hook (The White Hart and The Old White Hart), Basingstoke, Worting, Overton, Whitchurch and Andover.
[edit] Hart Village, Hartlepool
There is a large pub in Hart Village called the white hart. It has had several famous owners for example Niel Quinn.
[edit] Salisbury, Connecticut USA
The White Hart Inn in Salisbury, Connecticut is named after one of the Hampshire taverns of the same name.[citation needed] It has operated as a post-road inn since 1867, though its physical structure dates back to 1806, when part of the current building was constructed as a private residence. It has a dining room, a pub, and numerous guest rooms and suites in the main building and in the adjoining Gideon Smith House.
[edit] Wolverhampton, England
The White Hart Inn in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England, stands in the city centre on Worcester Street. It was built in the late 19th century and is now popular with homosexual customers, and is widely regarded as a gay bar. [1]
[edit] Notes
- ^ Pub names: 5.White Hart.
- ^ Qichina (2006). Boredtown - Brentwood History. A Grumpy Old Man in Brentwood, Essex muses on small town life. Retrieved on 2006-05-08.
- ^ Ezard, John. "TS Eliot scholar finds answer to pub poet's riddle", The Guardian, 2003-08-06. Retrieved on 2008-03-29.
