Jude the Obscure

Pub signs do have a fascination for me.
I have covered a few in this blog.
They really appeal when the name is totally different.
One such sign that got me thinking was Jude the Obscure which I happen to come across in Jericho.
The sign and public house name link to the last novel of Thomas Hardy and tell the story of  Jude Fawley, a village stonemason in the southwest English region of Wessex who yearns to be a scholar at Christminster, a city modelled on Oxford. Interestingly the story begun as a magazine serial and first published in book form in 1895.