A 4.4 pub named Lincoln – almost certainly the English cathedral city, though the name conjures an American president
The Lincoln Arms holds a 4.4 from three hundred and seventy-three people, and carries a name that will, for many, instantly conjure a bearded American president – but which, in an English pub context, almost certainly refers to something much closer to home: the English city and county of Lincoln.
Not that Lincoln
To the modern ear, “Lincoln” means Abraham Lincoln – the American president who led the Union through the Civil War, ended slavery, and was assassinated in a theatre, one of the towering figures of world history. It is a powerful association, and an English pub called the Lincoln Arms might seem, at first glance, to be honouring him.
But it almost certainly is not. In the English context, “Lincoln” is first and foremost an English place – the ancient cathedral city of Lincoln, and the surrounding county of Lincolnshire, in the east of England. Lincoln is one of England’s great historic cities, crowned by Lincoln Cathedral, one of the most magnificent Gothic cathedrals in Europe, which for over two centuries was reputedly the tallest building in the world. A pub called the Lincoln Arms is far more likely honouring this English city and its heraldry than the American president.
Lincoln the city
Lincoln deserves its fame. Its cathedral, begun in the eleventh century, is a masterpiece of Gothic architecture, and its central tower, once topped with a spire, is thought to have surpassed the Great Pyramid to become the tallest structure in the world – a title it held until the spire collapsed in a storm in the sixteenth century. The city also holds one of the four surviving original copies of Magna Carta, the great charter of English liberties. Lincoln is deep, ancient English history, and a worthy source for a pub name.
The London Lincoln connection
There is also a London Lincoln to consider. Lincoln’s Inn, one of the four Inns of Court, lies not far south of King’s Cross – it is one of the ancient legal institutions, named after an early associate, Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln. Given the pub’s proximity to the legal district, the name might also nod to Lincoln’s Inn and the lawyers’ quarter. Either way – the cathedral city or the Inn of Court – the reference is English, not American.
The name’s power
The Prat’s naming desk notes the interesting phenomenon here: a name whose original English meaning has been substantially overwritten, in the modern mind, by a more famous later association. “Lincoln” meant the English city for centuries before there was an Abraham Lincoln, but the president has become so famous that he now colours the name for everyone. The pub, honouring the old English Lincoln, is quietly upstaged by the American one – a small example of how fame can hijack a name and change what it summons.
The pub
A 4.4 across three hundred and seventy-three people is a solid, real-sample score. The reviews describe a good, traditional, welcoming pub doing an honest trade near the stations – a proper local under the name of England’s great cathedral city.
Verdict
A good traditional pub named after Lincoln – the ancient English cathedral city whose spire may once have been the tallest thing on earth – though the name now inevitably conjures the American president who came long after.
Go, have a pint at the Lincoln Arms, and raise it to the English Lincoln – the Gothic cathedral, the Magna Carta, the vanished world-beating spire – while the American president, unbidden, hovers over the name.
Alan Nafzger was born in Lubbock, Texas, the son Swiss immigrants. He grew up on a dairy in Windthorst, north central Texas. He earned degrees from Midwestern State University (B.A. 1985) and Texas State University (M.A. 1987). University College Dublin (Ph.D. 1991). Dr. Nafzger has entertained and educated young people in Texas colleges for 37 years. Nafzger is best known for his dark novels and experimental screenwriting. His best know scripts to date are Lenin’s Body, produced in Russia by A-Media and Sea and Sky produced in The Philippines in the Tagalog language. In 1986, Nafzger wrote the iconic feminist western novel, Gina of Quitaque. He currently lives in Holloway, North London. Contact: [email protected]
Written despair. Version.
In British comedy, the prat is the character who makes us laugh because they remind us of our own capacity for foolishness.