To blesse such vile unconsecrable stuffe,
And Brownists would conclude it good enough
For such a sacrifice."[1]
The old way was more rough and ready: thus, in 1364, a City taverner, who had sold bad wine, was made to drink some of it, and the rest was poured on his head.[2] The following seventeenth-century trade tokens, doubtless of this inn, were circulated:—
O. ANTHONY. BLAKE. TAPSTER. Ye GEORGE. INN. SOVTHWARKE ½
R. Three tobacco-pipes and four pots.
Another has—
O. IAMES, GVNTER. 16=St. George and the dragon. ¼
R. IN. SOVTHWARKE = I.A.G.
Again
O. IOHN. EDE. NEXT. THE. 3. CYPS = The name in monogram ½
R. AGAINST. THE. GEORGE. IN. SOVTHrk = HIS HALF PENY.
Between the George and the White Hart was Three Crane Court, Three Crane Yard, Crown Court, probably the same place. Even the three cups was, according to the manner of the time, a variation. 1670.—Mark Wayland and Mary, his wife, held the George at a rent of £150; at this time it was partly burnt down. Wayland rebuilt it, and had his rent reduced to £80 and a sugar-loaf. Wayland, in 1670, had a lease of Nicholas Andrewes.[3] In the great fire of the year 1676, the inn was totally destroyed, and rebuilt by the tenant; accordingly an extension of lease and a reduction of rent are granted, the old lease of thirty-nine years yet to run, and nineteen in addition, at a rent of £50 a year and a
