Now it seems to us a curious fact that Dickens never made any further use of this famous inn, either in Pickwick or in his other books; indeed, we can only recall one other reference to it, and that when Sam’s father rather despondently told him that “a thousand things may have happened by the time you next hears any news of the celebrated Mr. Veller o’ the ‘Bell Savage:’” It is particularly curious in regard to Pickwick, for the inn was not only close to the Fleet Prison, which figures so prominently in the book, but its outbuildings actually adjoined it.  Meagre as is the reference, it is, nevertheless, retained in the memory, and the inn proclaimed a Pickwickian one with as much satisfaction as if it had been the scene of many an incident such as connect others with the book.

Unfortunately there are only one or two landmarks remaining to show that it ever existed.  One of these is the archway out of Ludgate Hill, just beyond the hideous bridge which runs across the road, at the side of No. 68, which in Pickwickian days was No. 38.  Perhaps the shape of the yard which still bears the inn’s name may be considered as a trace of its former glory.  This yard is now surrounded by the business premises of Messrs. Cassell and Co., the well-known publishers, which occupy the whole site of the old building.

We can find no earlier reference to the inn than that in the reign of Henry VI, when a certain John French in a deed (1453) made over to his mother for her life “all that tenement or inn, with its appurtenances, called Savage’s Inn, otherwise called ’le Bell on the Hope’ in the parish of Fleet Street, London.”  Prior to that it may be surmised that it belonged to a citizen of the name of Savage, probably the “William Savage of Fleet Street in the Parish of St. Bridget,” upon whom, it is recorded in 1380, an attempt was made “to obtain by means of forged letter, twenty shillings.”

It would be clear from this that its sign was the “Bell and Hoop,” before it became the property of the Savage family, from whom there can be no doubt it got its name of “La Belle Savage.”  According to Stow, Mrs. Isabella Savage gave the inn to the Cutlers’ Company, but this would seem to be incorrect, for more recent research has proved definitely that it was a John Craythorne who did so in 1568.  The crest of the Cutlers’ Company is the Elephant and Castle, and a stone bas-relief of it, which once stood over the gateway of the inn under the sign of the Bell, is still to be seen on the east wall of La Belle Savage Yard to-day.  It was placed there some fifty years ago when the old inn was demolished.

[illustration:  La Belle Sauvage Inn, Ludgate Hill.  From a drawing by T. Hosmer Shepherd]

Years before Craythorne presented the inn to the Cutlers’ Company, however, it was known as “La Belle Sauvage,” for we are told that Sir Thomas Wyatt, the warrior poet, in 1554 made his last stand with his Kentish men against the troops of Mary just in front of the ancient inn, “La Belle Sauvage.”  He was attempting to capture Ludgate and was driven back with some thousands of rebel followers to Temple Bar, where he surrendered himself to Sir Maurice Berkeley, and so sealed his own fate and that of poor Lady Jane Grey.