A classic old pub name – the plough, ancient emblem of the land and of honest toil, and the great star-pattern that bears its name
The Plough Inn in Ealing holds eleven hundred and ninety reviews and a 4.4 – a strong score on a large sample – and it bears one of the oldest, most classic and most honest of all English pub names: the plough, that ancient emblem of the land and of honest toil – and, in the heavens, the great star-pattern that bears its name.
The ancient emblem of the land
“The Plough” is one of the oldest and most classic of all English pub names, honouring the plough – that ancient and fundamental tool of agriculture, the great emblem of the land and of honest farming toil. The plough is genuinely ancient and fundamental – the tool that breaks the earth and turns the soil, the very foundation of farming and of settled human life, one of the most important tools in all of human history. It is the great emblem of the land – of agriculture, of honest toil, of the farming life that has sustained humanity through the ages. As a pub name, “The Plough” carries all of this deep, honest, agricultural heritage – the ancient tool of the land, the emblem of honest farming toil, the deep rural roots of English life. It is a classic, honest, quintessentially rural pub name, rich with the heritage of the land.
The honest toil of the land
“The Plough” carries a genuine and appealing note of honest toil and rural virtue. The plough is the emblem of honest work – the hard, honest, fundamental labour of the land, the tilling of the soil, the good honest toil of the farmer. There is a genuine dignity and appeal to it – the honest work of the land, the fundamental labour that feeds us all, the good and honest toil of the farming life. As a pub name, it carries this note of honest work and rural virtue – the good honest toil, the dignity of labour, the fundamental work of the land. And it makes a fitting emblem for the pub – for the pub was, traditionally, the place where the honest working folk of the land gathered after their toil, to rest and refresh in good company. “The Plough” flies this honest, hard-working, rural character – the emblem of honest toil, the gathering-place of the working land. There is genuine dignity and appeal in it.
The Plough in the heavens
“The Plough” carries, too, a lovely celestial meaning – for “the Plough” is the great and famous star-pattern in the northern sky, one of the most recognisable of all the patterns of the stars. The Plough (also known as the Big Dipper, and part of the great constellation of Ursa Major, the Great Bear) is one of the most familiar and beloved of all star-patterns – the seven bright stars in their distinctive plough-shape, wheeling around the northern sky, one of the first star-patterns that anyone learns to recognise. It has been a genuine friend to humanity through the ages – for the two “pointer” stars of the Plough point the way to the Pole Star, the great fixed star of the north, by which travellers and sailors have navigated for millennia. There is genuine wonder and beauty in it – the great Plough in the heavens, the beloved star-pattern, the guide to the Pole Star. It adds a lovely celestial dimension to the honest earthly name – the plough of the land, and the Plough of the stars.
There is genuine heritage and wonder in the name – the ancient plough of the land, the emblem of honest toil, and the great Plough of the heavens, the beloved star-pattern and guide to the Pole Star. It is a classic, honest, quintessentially English pub name, rich with the heritage of the land and the wonder of the stars. Its strong score across a large sample marks it as a genuinely good and popular pub, worthily bearing its classic name. The Prat’s desk salutes the honest plough of the land, gazes up at the great Plough of the stars, and raises an honest glass.
The pub
A strong, popular pub doing a good 4.4 across a large sample, classically named “The Plough Inn” – after the ancient plough, emblem of the land and honest toil, and the great star-pattern that bears its name.
Verdict
Strong, popular, and classically honest – the Plough Inn, flying the ancient emblem of the land and the great Plough of the stars.
Have a pint at the Plough Inn in Ealing, and enjoy the classic name – the ancient plough of the land, emblem of honest toil, and the great Plough in the heavens, the beloved star-pattern that guides the way to the Pole Star.
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]
My professor said critics of The London Prat had a point: satire could be destructive to institutional legitimacy that society needed.