London Taverns. The history of signboards, from the Earliest Times to
the Present Day.
By Jacob Larwood and john Camden Hotten. (1866)
CHAPTER X,
DIGNITIES, TRADES, AND PROFESSIONS.
Tools and utensils, as emblems of trade, were certainly placed outside houses at
an early period, to inform the illiterate public the particular trade or
occupation carried on within. Centuries ago the practice, as a general rule,
fell into disuse, although a few trades still adhere to it with laudable
perseverance : thus a hroom, informs us where to find a sweep ; a gilt arm
wielding a hammer tells us where the gold-beater lives ; and a last or gilt shoe
where to order a pair of boots. Those houses of refreshment and general resort,
which sought the custom of particular trades and professions, also very
frequently adopted the tools and emblems of those trades as their distinguishing
signs. At other houses, again, signs were set up as tributes of respect to
certain dignities and functions. Amongst the latter, the King's Head and Queen's
Head stand foremost, and none were more prominent types than Henry VIII. and
Queen Elizabeth, even for more than two centuries after their decease. Only
fifty or sixty years ago, there still remained a well-painted, half-length
portrait of bluff Harry, as a sign of the King's Head, before a public-house in
Southwark. His personal appearance, doubtless, more than his character as a
king, were at the bottom of this popular favour. He looked the personification
of jollity and good cheer, and when the evil passions, expressed by his
face, were lost under the clumsy brush of the sign-painter, there remained
nothing but a merry, " beery-looking ;; Bacchus, eminently adapted for a public-
house sign.
A very respectable folio might be filled with anecdotes connected with the
various King's Head inns and taverns up and down the country and in London —
some connected with royalty, others with remarkable persons. Thus, for instance,
when the Princess (afterwards Queen) Elizabeth came forth from her confinement
in the Tower, November 17, 1558, she went into the church of All Hallows,
Staining, the first church she found open, to return thanks for her deliverance
from prison. As soon as this pious duty was performed, the princess and her
attendants went to the King's Head in Fenchurch Street to take some refreshment,
and there her Royal Highness dined on pork and peas. A monument of this visit is
still preserved at the above house in an engraving of the princess, from a
picture by Hans Holbein, hung up in the coffee-room; and the dish from which she
ate her dinner still remains, it is said, affixed to the kitchen dresser there.
There is a tradition that the bells of All Hallows were rung on this occasion
with such energy, that the queen presented the ringers with silken ropes.
A more painful association is connected with another King's Head : —
" In a secluded part of the Oxfordshire hills, at a place called Collins End,
situated between Hardwicke House and Goring Heath, is a neat little rustic inn,
having for its sign a well-executed portrait of Charles I. There is a tradition
that this unfortunate monarch, while residing as a prisoner at Caversham, rode
one day, attended by an escort, into this part of the country, and hearing that
there was a bowling-green at this inn, frequented by the neighbouring gentry,
struck down to the house, and endeavoured to forget his sorrows for a while in a
game at bowls. This circumstance is alluded to in the following lines, written
beneath the signboard : —
" Stop, traveller, stop, in yonder peaceful glade,
His favourite game the royal martyr play'd.
Here, stripp'd of honours, children, freedom, rank,
Drank from the bowl, and bowl'd for what he drank ;
Sought in a cheerful glass his cares to drown,
And changed his guinea ere he lost his crown." *
The sign, which seems to be a copy from Vandyke, though much faded from exposure
to the weather, evidently displayed an amount of artistic skill not usually met
with on the signboard ; but the only information the people of the house could
give was, that they believed it to have been painted in London. His son, Charles
II., is also connected in an anecdote with a King's Head Tavern, in the Poultry,
for it is reported that he stopped at this inn on the day of his entry at the
Restoration, at the request of the landlady, who happened just then to be in
labour, and wished to salute his majesty. Mrs King, the lady so honoured, was
aunt to William Bowyer, " the learned printer of the eighteenth century." In Ben
Jonson's time there was a famous King's Head Tavern in New Fish Street, " where
roysters did range." It is this tavern, probably, that is alluded to in the
ballad of "The Ranting Wh 's Resolution :"—
" I love a young Heir
Whose fortune is fair,
And frollick in Fish Street dinners,
* Notes and Queries.