This pub’s name recalls one of East Grinstead’s former inns and the coat of arms of the Sackville family. The closure of the Dorset’s Head allowed the Cat inn, also on High Street, to change its name to the Dorset Arms. The Cat had been called The Ounce & Ivy Bush, an ounce being a wild cat species and an ivy bush a symbol denoting a high-class inn. Robert Sackville, Second Earl of Dorset, founded Sackville College almshouses, on High Street, in 1605. The college is East Grinstead’s most important historic building.