and Se?Jtiments. 321 populous and frequented parts of the country from an early period, and is not unfrequently alluded to in popular writers. It was indicated by a ftake projeding from the houfe, on which fome objeft was hung for a No. 215. A P, at the .Lie- Stake. fign, and is fometimes reprefented in the illuminations of manufcripts. Our cut No. 215, taken from a manufcript of the fourteenth century, in the Britilli Mufeum (MS. Reg. 10 E. iv.), reprefents one of thofe ale- houfes, at which a pilgrim is halting to take refreflmient. The keeper of the ale-houfe, in this inftance, is a. woman, the ale-wife, and the flake appears to be a befom. In another (No. 216), taken from a manufcript copy of the " Moralization of Chefs," by Jacques de Ceffoles, of the earlier part of the fifteenth century (MS. Reg. 19 C. xi.), a round fign is fufpended on the ftake, with a figure in the middle, which may pollibly be intended to re- prefent a bufli. A garland was not unfrequently hung upon the Ihike ; on this Chaucer, defcribing his "fompnour," fays : — A garland had he Jet upon his heed. As gret as it were for an ale-liake. — Cant. Tales, I. 688. A bulli was ftill more common, and gave rife to the proverb that " good T T wine 216. The Road-fide Inn.
