Places to Stay


“Everything looked as if the travellers had been expected and their comforts prepared for days beforehand” Charles DiCkens


bar. Peel rubbed shoulders with the many poets and artists visiting the Lake District, including Edward Thompson, another regular customer who managed to persuade the barman to accept two of his watercolours to settle his bar bill. You can still see them hanging in the bar, along with its mellow, polished walls and old oak settles. Another Lake District inn popular with


artists is The Sun Inn at Kirkby Lonsdale, an unspoilt market town on the banks of the


River Lune. The property belonged to the Guy Family from 1632, and it was once a Butchers Shop fronting the main street, with an extension adjoining the churchyard. In 1747 its name was changed to the Sun Inn (after the sundial in the churchyard). J M W Turner visited Kirkby Lonsdale between 1799 and 1822 and painted just across the churchyard from the inn. This view of the River Lune is known as Ruskin’s View; he called it “one of the loveliest views in England.”


English inns made many appearances in


the works of Charles Dickens too, including the 17th-century Saracen’s Head at Towcester (conveniently placed at the junction of Watling Street and the main Oxford-to- Northampton road). Mr Pickwick (of The Pickwick Papers) and his companions stayed here: “Everything looked (as everything always does in all decent English inns) as if the travellers had been expected, and their comforts prepared, for days beforehand,” wrote Dickens. The inn changed its name to the Pomfret Arms in 1831 to attract the patronage of the Earls of Pomfret who lived nearby, but Dickens preferred to use the original name – as did the owners, who have recently re-introduced it. Saracen’s Head is a member of Old English


Inns, as is Hunter’s Hall Inn at Kingscote, near Tetbury, in the Cotswolds. Dating back to 1604, Hunter’s Hall originally had a smithy and five stables, very useful for travellers, and in the 18th century a malthouse and probably a brewhouse. It was also the headquarters of the committee which met four times a year to organise the Kingscote races, known as the Goodwood of the West, until 1828; and later a post office. Inside, it is still the perfect image of an old English inn, with stone-flagged floors, blackened beams and great stone hearths framed by smoke- darkened oak lintels. The stable block and smithy now contain 13 en-suite bedrooms


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