Spread Eagle

After I took the photo of The Witch Ball a couple of weeks ago, I've been looking out for pub signs during my weekly shopping trip to Thame.  The most magnificent sign is the 30 foot tall sign for the Spread Eagle Hotel on the Cornmarket (opposite the medieval market hall replaced by the Victorian Town Hall).  The hotel itself was obviously a Georgian coaching inn with an arched entrance to the courtyard for coaches and horses.  There has been an inn there since the 16th century and it has played host to Charles II, French prisoners from the Napoleonic Wars, famous politicians, and writers such as Evelyn Waugh who mentioned it in Brideshead Revisited.

There are lots of hostelries around England called the Spread Eagle.  The name derives from the heraldic eagle on the coat of arms of Germany, as you can see here, and originally meant that German wines were available within (I'm sure they still are!).