- White Hart
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. InEnglish Folklore , the White Hart is associated withHerne 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. [ [http://www.fatbadgers.co.uk/Britain/weird.htm Pub names: 5.White Hart.] ]
Arthur C. Clarke wrote a collection ofscience fiction altall tale s under the title of "Tales from the White Hart ", which used as aframing device theconceit 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.Inns
Brentwood
The White Hart in Brentwood is the oldest
pub in the town, dating back to before 1480. It may have been so named afterKing Richard II passed through Brentwood in 1392, possibly staying at the inn. It became acoaching inn in the 18th century and in 1910 even offered repairs to motor vehicles.cite web | author=Qichina | title=Boredtown - Brentwood History | url=http://boredtown.co.uk/history.html | year=2006 | work=A Grumpy Old Man in Brentwood, Essex muses on small town life | accessdate=2006-05-08]Ringwood
The White Hart at
Ringwood in theNew 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.Fact|date=March 2008outhwark
An inn at the sign of the "White Hart" was established in the
medieval period onBorough High Street inSouthwark .Fact|date=March 2008 It is mentioned byWilliam Shakespeare in "Henry VI, Part 1 " as the headquarters of the rebels inJack Cade 's 1450Kent ish rebellion. It became one of the many famouscoaching inn s in the days ofCharles Dickens , and it was here that Sam Weller metMr Pickwick in the famous scene from "The Pickwick Papers ".Fact|date=March 2008 The Inn was pulled down in the 19th century. It is next door toThe George, Southwark and near the site ofThe Tabard .Witley
The White Hart, the village pub in
Witley , is mostlyElizabethan and is said to stand on the site of anAnglo-Saxon inn .Fact|date=March 2008Edinburgh
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 publichanging s were held, and was popular among spectators.Robert Burns andWilliam Wordsworth were among its notable visitors, and resurrectionistsBurke and Hare found some of the victims of their murder-for-body-parts scheme there.Fact|date=March 2008Llangybi
The White Hart in Llangybi was first built in the early 1500s and was to become the property of
Henry VIII as part ofJane Seymour 's weddingdowry , while a century laterOliver Cromwell is reputed to have used it as his headquarters in Monmouthshire during theEnglish Civil War . The interior still retains no fewer than 11 fireplaces from the 1600s, a wealth of exposed beams, originalTudor period plasterwork and even a priest hole. In 2003, "The Guardian " reported thatT. S. Eliot made cryptic reference to this pub in his poem "Usk". [cite news| first = John| last = Ezard| title = TS Eliot scholar finds answer to pub poet's riddle| url = http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2003/aug/06/highereducation.books| work = The Guardian| date = 2003-08-06| accessdate = 2008-03-29]t Keverne
The "White Hart" in
St Keverne ,Cornwall was the birthplace, in 1764, of the singer and actorCharles Incledon .Fact|date=March 2008onning-on-Thames
The
Great House at Sonning inSonning ,Berkshire , on the banks of theRiver 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.Fact|date=March 2008Hull
"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, SirJohn Hotham resolved to bar King Charles I fromKingston upon Hull . This act in turn triggered theEnglish Civil War .Fact|date=March 2008North 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.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.
alisbury, Connecticut USA
The White Hart Inn in
Salisbury, Connecticut is named after one of theHampshire taverns of the same name.Fact|date=March 2008 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.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 withhomosexual customers, and is widely regarded as agay bar . [http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/29/29646/White_Hart/Wolverhampton]Notes
External links
* [http://www.briantimms.com/pubsigns/photographs/heraldicsymbolswhitehart.htm Heraldic symbols: the White Hart]
* [http://libwww.library.phila.gov/medieval/lewis_e201/badges.html The White Hart and other royal badges on a roll of Edward IV]
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