Page:The George Inn, Southwark.djvu/57

 sugar-loaf. 1720 It is reported "very large, with a considerable trade."

A story has been told of the sixth Lord Digby, who succeeded to the peerage in 1752, which is perhaps worth repeating here. It is said that at Christmas and Easter he appeared very grave, and though usually well dressed was then in the habit of putting on a shabby old blue coat. This excited the curiosity of Mr. Fox, his uncle, who had him watched, when it was discovered that twice a year, or oftener, he was in the habit of going to the Marshalsea and freeing prisoners there. The next time the almsgiving coat appeared a friend boldly asked him why he wore it. By way of reply Lord Digby took the gentleman to the George Inn, where seated at dinner were thirty people, whom his lordship had just released from the Marshalsea prison by paying their debts in full.

Corner tells us that Mary Wayland, widow of Mark followed him in the occupation of the inn; afterwards William Golding was the host, then Thomas Green, who, in 1809, was succeeded by his niece Frances, and her husband, Westerman Scholefield. 1825.—The George is reported as "a good commercial inn at the Boro High Street; well known, where several coaches and many waggons depart laden with the merchandise of the metropolis, in return for which they bring back from various parts of Kent, etc., that staple article of the country, the hop, to which we are indebted for the good quality of the London porter." The Scholefields, when they took the George in hand in 1809, worked with spirit, and evidently meant to make it succeed, as they did. There is plate still at the inn with the initials, and an old advertising card quite worth copying, although of some length, because it shows the business, and how it was done.

GEORGE INN, SOUTHWARK.

W. S. Scholefield.

The following coaches set out from the above inn:—

Maidstone, Mailing and Wrotham, four times a day.