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Let's get the
easy part over with first: What is a Talbot? A Talbot
is a large heavy mostly white hound with pendulous
ears and drooping flews held to be ancestral to the
bloodhound, or maybe even the foxhound. They were
occasionally used to run alongside coaches (to what
end is unclear), which may explain the name's association
with this pub, as it was once a coaching inn.
Doubtless we did
not see this pub at its best. We were pretty much
the only people in at the time, and the pub is a large
congregation of buildings, so we were spread extremely
thin. The beer was moderate, but we could see the
potential here. It is a tranquil village with lots
of history, what looks like a delightful pub with
splendid accommodation. I can see the attraction of
a weekend away in a place like this.
The church is
steeped in history. In a small chapel off to the side
is an unusual memorial, being very large and being
topped with a lovely horse & soldier statue. The
memorial names him as being Edward Horner, but it
was only later that I learned the significance of
that name.
Little
Jack Horner
Sat in the corner,
Eating a Christmas pie;
He put in his thumb,
And pulled out a plum,
And said, What a good boy am I!
Yep, that Jack
Horner.
And for your
edification and delight, I have even found out the
meaning of that old nursery rhyme. When Henry VIII
dissolved the monastic orders in 1538 and seized so
much church property, the Abbot of nearby Glastonbury
sent deeds to twelve manorial estates to the King
in an inevitably vain attempt to curry his favor him.
These were baked into a pie to fool highway robbers,
a common practice in those days, and were trusted
to John (or Jack) Horner, for delivery. Twelve estate
deeds were sent: eleven completed the journey. Allegedly,
on the way, Horner opened the pie and acquired the
deed to the estate of Mells, the plum piece of property
in the pie-filling portfolio. Hence, the nursery rhyme
of "Little Jack Horner".
Jack Horner took
full advantage of the situation and became a very
successful part of the Landed Gentry. Whether or not
he was truly guilty of the theft, history has branded
him so. These days, the media convicts suspects before
their fair trial, while in the case of Jack Horner,
it has been the singing or nursery rhymes down through
the years.
On the back of
his newfound wealth, Jack set about improving and
expanding his family's properties. His buildings were
legendary, and if you do not believe me, just think
of another nursery rhyme:
This is
the Maiden all forlorn
That milked the Cow with the crumpled horn
That tossed the Dog
That worried the Cat
That killed the Rat
That ate the Malt
That lay in the House
That Jack Built.
Yep,
that Jack!
As we have noticed
in previous chapters, the English do not forget from
one generation to the next, especially when it comes
to affairs of the Crown. The Horner family has naturally
claimed that the estate was given to Jack as payment
for successful delivery of the deeds, and of course
you can choose whom to believe. Indeed, someone has
even come up with a completely different story, that
Jack acted entirely in support of the King, by hiding
important Wells Cathedral documents from Oliver Cromwell
in the 1640s. This story of course varies from the
original by over a hundred years, and is lacking some
of the fine detail that make the underhanded version
so much more compelling. In either case the Horners
continued to live in Mells up to the present day.
As if this was
not enough to set Mells Church apart from the rest,
the First World War poet, Siegfried Sassoon is buried
in the churchyard, with a simple marker, engraved
with: Siegfried Loraine Sassoon 1886-1967 R.I.P.
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To Get There:
Somerset backroads again I am afraid. Mells is a couple
of miles straight west of Frome, south of the A362.
The Talbot itself is on the narrow main street with
the church right behind it.
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Whenever
you go into a pub at a weird time of the day, when the
pub is clearly not quite in the swing of things, give
it a bit more latitude. |
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Go
back to
this pub. |
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