London Taverns. The history of signboards, from the Earliest Times to
the Present Day.
By Jacob Larwood and john Camden Hotten. (1866)
At the end of the last chapter we spoke of the profane application of some of
the most sacred things to signboard purposes. In France this was still worse
than in England. That amusing gossip, Tallemant des Reaux, in his " Contes et
Historiettes," tells us how an innkeeper of the Rue Montmartre, in Paris, put up
for his sign the God's head, (la Tete Dieu,) and notwithstanding all the efforts
of the cure of St Eustache to make him take it down he would not comply until
compelled by the magistrates. Though two centuries have elapsed, the French of
the present day are not much better ; for in Paris, in the Rue Mon detour, there
is actually a cafe known as the Nom de Jestjs,
Boursault. a clever writer of the time of Louis XI V., whose indignant letter
about the Royal Arms we have noticed in a former chapter, addressed a letter to
Bizoton, one of the police magistrates, in which he vents his anger at some of
the religious signs, and complains of the profanity of a lodging-house with the
sign of the Annunciation in the Rue de la Huchette, in which there were as many
rogues and reprobates as there were honest lodgers. Amongst the signs that
shocked him most he names le Saint Esprit, (the Holy Ghost.) la Trinite, (the
Trinity,) V Image Notre Dame, &c. ; but particularly one, representing Christ
taken prisoner, with the profane motto, " Au juste prix." This con- tains a
blasphemous pun, — juste prix at once signifying ajixed price, and "just
caught." The sign was set up at a little ordinary in a lane between the Rue St
Honore and the Rue Richelieu. And, though Boursault says in his letter that he
had so fumed and thundered against the landlord that he had taken it down, yet
it made its appearance again afterwards, and was handed down to our time, since
not many years ago it might have been observed in the Cour du Dragon, above the
shop of an ironmonger.
Saints are still in full feather on the signboards in Roman Catholic countries.
Amongst hundreds of others the following may be seen in Paris on cafes and
hotels in the present day : — St Barbe, St Christ ophe, St Eustache, St Joseph,
St Laurent, St Marie, St Louis, St Merri, St Michel, St Paul, St Phar, St
Pierre, St Quentin, St Roc, St Thomas d'Aquin, St Vincent de Paul, &c, &c.
A curious French sign is mentioned by Coryatt, which he saw at Amiens. " I lay
at the signe of the Ave Maria, where I read these two verses, written in golden
letters upon the linterne of the doore, at the entry into the Inne. This in
Greeke, T55s <pi\o%ev/'a$ [An evika)>Qdvsff0s 1 that is, Forget not your good
entertainment ; and this in Latine, Hospitibus hic tuta fides."*
Saints were formerly very common on signboards, and this abuse also was wittily
ridiculed by the pungent satire of Artus Desire, a French poet of the fifteenth
century : —
" En leur logis plein de vers et de teignes,
Ou est loge" le grand diable d'enfer,
Mettent de Dieu et de saints les enseignes,
Leurs ditz logis oh. n'y a que desroys,
Pendre font tous sur le pave du roy
De grands tableaux et enseignes dorees,
Pour des montres qu'ils ont fort bien de quoy,
Et qu'il y a de tres grasses porees.
L'un pour enseigne aura la Trinite,
L'autre Saint Jehan, et l'autre Saint Savin,
L'autre Saint Maure, l'autre VHumaniU
De Jesus Christ notre Sauveur divin,
De Dieu, des saintz, sont leurs crieurs de vin,+
Tant aux citez que villes et villages,
Des susditz sainctz les devotes images,
En prophanant leur preciosite."."]:
* Coryatt's Crudities, London, 1776, p. 15, reprinted from the edition of 1611.
f In those early days the sign alone of a house was not thought to give
sufficient publicity. Touters {crieurs) were therefore sent about town (a custom
dating from the Romans.) Thus in the "Crieries de Paris," (Barbazan, Fabliaux et
Contes, vol. ii., p.
277,)—
" D'autres cris on fait plusieurs,
Qui long seraient a, reciter.
L'on crie vin nouveau et vieux,
Duquel Ton donne a, tater."
These touters had their statutes and privileges granted to them by Philip
Auguste in
1258, some of which are very curious.
X Not only had the innkeepers saints on their signboards, but the different
reception-
rooms in their houses were also sanctified with some holy name. Artus Desire
quaintly
inveighs against this practice in his " Loyaulte Consciencieuse des Tavernieres
:" —
" Semblablement toutes leurs chambres painctes,
Ou il n'y a qu' ordure et ivrognise,
Portent les noms de benoistz sainctz et sainctes
Contre Thonneur de Dieu et son Eglise.
L'une s'apelle, a. leur mode et devize,
Le Paradis et l'autre Sainct Clement.
Et quant quelqu'un rabaste fermement,
L'hostesse crie Andre, Gruillot, Mornable,
Laisse-moy tout, et va legerement
En Paradis, compter de par le Diable.
S'on si veut chauffer,
Portent le faggot
Robin avec Margot,
De par Lucifer."
(" In the same manner all their painted rooms, in which there is nothing but
filth and
Many of these saints were patrons of particular trades, and were constantly
adopted as the signs of those that followed them.
Thus St Crispin was generally a shoemaker's sign. At the present day, the gentle
craft represented by this saint live up to the proverb, and keep to the "last;"
but many publicans still have the sign of Crispin, Saint Crispin, Jolly Crispin,
or Crispin and Crispian, and occasionally King Crispin, (as at Morpeth.) And
well may they put their houses under the protection of this saint, since the
proverb says, " Gobblers and tinkers are the best ale drinkers." Crispin and
Crispian were two Koman brothers, sons of a king ; they travelled to France to
preach Christianity, and worked at the trade of shoemakers, making sandals for
the poor, which they gave away, the angels supplying them with leather. Hence
they are considered the patrons of shoemakers. They were beheaded at Soissons in
308. What may have contributed to their popularity in this country is the fact
of the battle of Agincourt having been fought on their day, October 25,
U15:—
" And Crispin Crispian shall never go by
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember' d,
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers,
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition,
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap, while any speaks
That fought with us upon St Crispin's day."
Henry the Fifth, iv. 3.
From Shakespeare we turn to the homely ihymes of a Dutch shoemaker at the Hague,
who, in the seventeenth century, had this couplet over his door : —
" Dit is Sint Crispyn, maar ik hiet Stoffel,
Ik maak een laars, schoen en pantoffel."*
A more spirited one about the same time was in Bergen op Zoom, which is not bad
satire for a Dutchman : —
drunkenness, are named after some blessed saint, contrary to the respect due to
the Lord and His Church. According to this custom one is called the Paradise,
and another St Clement. And if anybody higgles about his bill the hostess calls
out, Andrew, Will, Momable, leave everything, and run quickly up to the Paradise
to make out the bill, in the Devil's name. And if anybody wants a fire, Bob or
Maggy has to cany up a faggot in the name of Lucifer.")
* " This is Saint Crispin, but my name is Kit,
I make boots, shoes, and slippers."
Hier in Krispyn kan min de minsch int beeste villen
Elk schoenen na zyn voet voor gilt terstond bestillen,
Doch menig beest alheir steekt in een menschevel,
Draagt zeep zyn broeder's huid en 't staat dat beest nog wel."*
The St Hugh's Bones was another sign of the gentle craft ; it seems to be
extinct now, but a trades token shows that, in 1657, it was the sign of a house
in Stanhope Street, Claremarket. From a little chapbook, entitled, —
" The Delightful, Princely, and Entertaining History of the Gentle Craft, &c.
London : printed for J. Ehodes, at the corner of Bride Lane, in Fleet- Street,
1725,"
we gather that Saint Hugh was a prince's son,+ deeply in love with a saintly
coquette called Winifred. Having been jilted by this lady in a very pious
manner, he went travelling, resisted the temptations of Venice,;}] like another
St Anthony, passed through numberless adventures, compared to which those of
Baron Munchausen sink into insignificance, and was finally, by a jumble of most
amusing anachronism, martyred in the reign of Diocletian, by being made to drink
a cup of the blood of his lady-love, mixed with " cold poison," after which, his
body was hung on the gallows. But among other misfortunes in his travels, he had
been shipwrecked and lost all his wealth, so that he had to choose a profession,
which was that of shoemaker, and so well he liked his fellow- workmen that,
having nothing else to ' give, he bequeathed his bones to them. After they had
been " well picked by the birds," some shoemakers took them from the gallows,
and made them into tools, and hence their tools were named St Hugh's Bones. They
are specified in the following rhyme, which appears to have been the shoemakers'
shibboleth : —
(i My friends, I pray, you listen to me,
And mark what Saint Hugh's Bones shall be :
First a Drawer and a Dresser,
Two Wedges, a more and a lesser.
A pretty Block, Three Inches high,
In fashion squared like a die ;
Which shall be called by proper name
A Heelblock, ah ! the very same ;
A Handleather and a Thumbleather likewise,
To put on Shooe-thread we must devise ;
* " Here at the Crispin any man may for his money
Immediately obtain shoes made out of animals'" skins ;
But many a brute in this town wears a human skin,
Nay, wears his own brother's skin, and the brute looks even well in it."
t So were Crispin and Crispian, and hence the trade is called the "Gentle
Craft.*
j The gayest city in Europe three centuries ago.
The Needle and the Thimble shall not be left alone,
The Pinchers, the Pricking Awl, and Rubbing Stone;
The Awl, Steel and Jacks, the Sowing Hairs beside,
The S tirrop holding fast, while we sow the Cow hide;
The Whetstone, the Stopping Stick, and the Paring Knife,
All this does belong to a Journeyman's Life :
Our Apron is the shrine to wrap these Bones in,
Thus shroud we S. Hugh's Bones in a gentle lamb's skin. ¦-
" Now you good Yeomen of the Gentle Craft," the story goes on, " tell me (quoth
he) how like you this ? As well (replied they) as Saint George does of his horse
: for as long as we can see him fight the Dragon, we will never part with this
poesie. And it shall be concluded, That what journeyman soever he be hereafter
that cannot handle his Sword and Buckler, his long Sword and Quarterstaff, sound
the Trumpet, or play upon the Flute, or bear his part in a Three Man's song, and
readily reckon up his Tools in Rhime, (except be have borne colours in the
Field, being a Lieutenant, a Sergeant or Corporal,) shall forfeit and pay a
Bottle of Wine, or be counted a Colt; to which they answered all viva voce,
Content, Content. And then, after many merry songs, they departed. And never
after did they travel without these tools on their backs, which ever since have
been called Saint Hugh's Bones."
Bishop Blaze, or Blaize, otherwise St Blasius, is another patron of a trade to
be met with on the signboard. This worthy, Bishop of Sebaste, in Cappadocia, is
considered the patron of woolcomberSj whence the sign is very common in the
clothing districts. He is represented with the instrument of his martyrdom in
his hands, an iron comb, with which the flesh was torn from his body in 289 ;
from this implement has been attributed to him the invention of woolcombing. His
holiday is celebrated every seventh year by a procession and feast of the
masters and workmen of the woollen manufactories in Yorkshire and Bedfordshire ;
in sheep-shearing festivals, also, a representation of him used to be introduced
; a stripling in habiliments of wool was seated on a milk-white steed, with a
lamb in his lap, the horse, the youthful bishop, and the lamb all covered with a
profusion of ribbons and flowers.
St Julian, the patron of travellers, wandering minstrels, boatmen, <tc, was a
very common inn sign, because he was supposed to provide good lodgings for such
persons. Hence two Saint Julian's crosses, in saltier, are in chief of the
innholders' arms, and the old motto was: — " When I was harbourless ye lodged
me/' This benevolent attention to travellers procured him the epithet of " the
good herbergeor," and in France " bon herbet.^ His legend in a MS., Bodleian,
1596, fol. 4, alludes to this : —
" Therfore yet to this day, thei that over lond wende,
They biddeth Seint Julian, anon, that gode herborw he hem sende,
And Seint Julianes Pater Noster ofte seggeth also
For his faders soule and his moderes that he hem bring therto."
And in " Le dit des Heureux,'' an old French fabliau : —
" Tu as dit la patenotre
Saint Julian a cest matin,
Soit en Roumans, soit en Latin,
Or tu seras bien ostile*." *
In mediaeval French, L'hotel Saint Julien was synonymous with good cheer.
" Sommes tuit vostre.
Par Saint Pieire le bon Apostre,
L'ostel aurez Saint Julien," f
says Mabile to her feigned uncle, in the fabliau of " Boivin de Provins ;" and a
similar idea appears in " Cocke Lorell's bote," where the crew, after the
entertainment with the " relygyous women" from the Stews' Bank, at Colman's
Hatch,
" Blessyd theyr shyppe when they had done
And dranke about a Saint Iiclt/an's torne."
St Martin's character as a saint was not unlike St Julian's; hence we find him
frequently on the signboard. The most favourite representation being the saint
on horseback cutting off with his sword a piece of his cloak, in order to clothe
a naked beggar. Not only inns, but booksellers also used his sign, as for
instance Dionis Rose, (1514,) printer in the Rue St Jacques, Paris; and Bernard
Aubrey, another printer in the same street.
" Avoir l'hotel St Martin," in old French, meant exactly the same as " avoir
l'hotel St Julian :" thus, in the romance of Florus and Blanche : —
" Flor. Sovent dient par le bon vin
Qu'ils ont l'ostel Saint Martin." £
And in the story of " L'Anneau," by Jean de Boves, (which is the same as
Chaucer's " Miller's Tale,") it is said of the two students at the end : — "
Cest ainsi qu'ils eurent a ses depens l'ostel Saint
* "You have said
St Julian's prayer this morning,
Either in French or in Latin,
Now you are sure to be well lodged."
f " We are entirely at your service.
By S. Peter the good apostle
You shall have St Julian inn (or welcome.)"
% " Often good wine makes them say,
That they have the inn of St Martin."
Martin."* These two saints, it is believed, are no longer to be
found on the signboard, but another powerful patron of travellers,
St Chkistopher, may still occasionally be met with, as for in-
stance in Bath, where in the seventeenth century it was still very
common. Taylor the Water poet mentions it as the sign of an inn
at Eton, and it occurs on various trades tokens of London shops,
inns, and taverns. This saint's intercession was thought effica-
cious against all danger from fire, flood, and earthquake, whence
it became a custom to paint his image of a colossal size on walls
of churches and houses, sometimes occupying the whole height of
the building, so that it might be seen from a great distance. %
Generally he was represented wading through a river, with the
infant Christ on his shoulders, and leaning on a flowering rod.
Such representations are met with in every part of Western Europe;
they still remain in many places in England, as at St James'
Church, South Elmham, Suffolk ; Bibury Church, Gloucester-
shire ; Beddington, Surrey ; Croydon ; Hengrave ; West Wick-
ham, &c, &c, &c. They were also very numerous on the Continent \ in the porch of
St Mark's, Venice, there is a mosaic bust of him, with these words : —
" Christophori Sancti speciem quicumque tuetur
Illo namque die nullo languore tenetur."*)*
A somewhat similar inscription occurs under one of the very
earliest block prints, (now in the possession of Earl Spencer,)
evidently made for pasting against the walls in inns, and other
places frequented by travellers and pilgrims. Under it are the
following words : —
" Cristofori faciem die quacumque tueris
Illo nempe die morte mala non morieris.
millesimo ccccxx. tercio."J
Travellers even carried his figure about with them, either on their
hat or on their breast, as we gather from Chaucer's " Yeoman " —
" A Cristofre on his brest of silver shene."
In the "Pleasant Conceits of Old Hobson the Londoner," 1607,
a jest is related, made by that dry old joker at the expense of
Saint Christopher, which again illustrates the levity with which
religious matters were treated in those days : —
* " Thus they had at his expense the inn of St Martin."
t "Whosoever sees the image of St Christopher,
Shall that day not feel any sickness."
X " The day that you see St Christopher's face,
That day shall you not die an evil death. 1423."
286 THE HISTORY OF SIGNBOARDS.
" Maister Hobson and another of his neighboris on a time walking to
Southwarke faire, by chance dranke in a house, which had the signe of Sa.
Christopher, of the which signe the goodman of the house gave this com-
mendation, Saint Christopher (quoth he) when hee lived upon the earth
bore the greatest burden that ever was, which was this, he bore Christ
over a river ; nay, there was one (quoth Maister Hobson) that bore a greater
burden. Who was that? (quoth the innkeeper) Marry, (quoth Maister
Hobson) the asse that bore him and his mother. So was the innekeeper
called asse by craft."
The house in which this joke was perpetrated is enumerated by
Stowe amongst the principal inns of Southwark.
St Luke still figures as the sign of two or three public-houses
*in London. Being the patron of painters, it certainly was the
least the sign-painters could do to honour his portrait with an
occasional appearance on the signboard. Yet it must be con-
fessed St Luke was but a sorry hand at painting. There is a
portrait of the Holy Virgin painted by him preserved in the
Church of Silivria, on the shores of the Sea of Marmora ; but
such a daub ! the most modest village sign-painter would be
ashamed of the production. Yet, for all that, the thing works
miracles, and the only wonder is that its first effort in this line
was not to change itself into a good picture. We wonder at the
Virgin, too, and expected better from her taste ; for in Valencia
Cathedral there is another portrait of her painted by Alonzo
Cano, which is one of the most lovely female heads we ever had the
happiness to gaze upon. And so well pleased was the Holy Virgin
with this likeness, that she deigned to descend from heaven to com-
pliment the blessed artist upon his work. So says the legend,
and so the old beadle tells the travellers. But Luke possessed
other attributes. Aubrey tells us : " At Stoke Verdon, in the Parish
of Broad Chalke, was a chapell (in the chapell close by the farm-
house) dedicated to Saint Luke, who is the Patron or Tutelar Saint
of the Home Beasts, and those that have to do with them" &c* This
arose evidently from the Ox being his emblem, as the Lion was
of St Mark, the Eagle of St John, and the Angel of St Matthew.
For this reason St Luke was doubtless often chosen as the sign of
inns frequented by farmers and graziers.
Simon the Tanner of Joppa is an old-established house in
Long-lane, Bermondsey, and, as a sign, is supposed to be unique.
It seems to have been adopted with reference to the tanners, who
frequented the house, or it may have been the former occupation
* Aubrey, Remains of Judaism and Gentilism. Lansdowne MSS., No. 231.
PLATE XII.
GRINDING OLD INTO YOltNG.
(Froni an old woodcut, circa 1720.)
i!!"!l!iill!!IIP
I PRAY FOR ALL I PLEAD FOR ALL I MAINTAIN ALL I FIGHT FOR ALL I TAKE ALL
FIVE ALLS.
(From an old print by Kay. The figures represent Dr Hunter, a famous Scotch
clergyman ; Erskine
the lawyer ; a farmer; His Sacred Majesty George IIL ; and the gsntleman whose
name should
never he mentioned to ears polite.) s^r*
pup
IE HIS
Ho"bson <.' L
:e faire, b 1|&
p'her, of thf
ion, S^
SAINTS, MARTYRS, LTC,
'i
of the landlord, who gave the sign to his ho i_ Simon is named
'A1 M Acts x. 32, " Send therefore to Joppa, and call hither Simon,
%'whose surname is Peter ; he is lodged in the house of one Simon
/ a tanner, by the sea-side."
But of all the signs coming under this class, Saint George
and the Dragon is undoubtedly the greatest favourite in Eng-
land, and it is equally well represented in other countries ; for of
this saint may be said what Velleius Paterculus said about
Pompey : " Quot partes terrarum sunt, tot fecit monumenta
victorias suae." In London alone there are at present not less
than sixty-six public-houses and taverns with this name, not,,
counting the beer-houses, coffee-houses, &c. Yet, after all, it is
very doubtful if St George ever existed, and he may be only a
popular corruption of St Michael conquering Satan, or Perseus'
romantic delivery of Andromeda. Hence the little rhyme re-
corded by Aubrey, and various other seventeenth century collectors
of ana:
" To save a mayd St George the Dragon slew —
A pretty tale, if all is told be true.
Most say there are no dragons, and 'tis sayd
There was no George ; pray God there was a mayd."
St George is mentioned by Bede, who calls the 23d of April
" Natale S. Georgii Martyris." He was, however, at that time a
very recent importation, for Adamnanus (690), who lived just
before Bede, says, speaking of Arnulphus after his return from
the East : " Etiam nobis de quodam martyre Georgio nomine
narrationem contulit." In the reign of Canute, there was already
a house of regular canons sacred to St George at Thetford, in
Norfolk. The church of St George, Southwark, is also thought
to have existed before the Conqueror. But after the Conquest,
chapels were frequently erected to him, and on the seals of this
period he is often represented without the Dragon. Edward III.
had a particular veneration for him. Many of his statutes begin i
" Ad honorem omnipotentis Dei, Sanctse Marise Virginis gloriosae,
et Sancti Georgii Martyris." It was after the foundation of the
Order of the Garter that it became such a favourite sign. The
fact that he was the patron of soldiers also assisted his popularity
on the signboard.
There still exists an old and much dilapidated stone sign of St
George and the Dragon in the front of a house on Snowhill.
Frequently this sign is abbreviated to the George. There was
255 "HE HISTORY OF SIGNBOARDS.
an inn of this name, mentioned in 1554 as being situate on the
north side of the Tabard. This inn was very much damaged by the
great n>e of Southwark in 1670, and completely burned down
in 1676. But it was rebuilt^ and has come down to our time.
Machyn, in his Diary, mentions several Georges ; one of them
in connexion with an occurrence which gives a good view of these
lawless times : —
" The viij day of December 1559 was the day of the Conception of owre
Lade was a grett fyre in the Gorge in Bred stret ; itt begane at vj of the
cloke at nyght and dyd gret harm to dyvers houses. The 9th of Decembet
cam serten fellows unto the Gorge in Bred stret where the fyre was and gutt
into the howse and brake up a chest of a clothear and toke owt xl. lb. and
after cryd fyre, fyre, so that ther cam ijc pepull, and so they took one."
The George in Lombard Street was a very old house, once the
town mansion of the Earl Ferrers, in which one of that family
was murdered as early as 1175, (see Stow.) At this house died,
in 1524, Kichard Earl of Kent, who had wasted his property in
gaming and extravagance ; it was then an inn, where the nobility
used to put up at. George Dowdall, Archbishop of Armagh, (1558,)
was buried from this house. Finally, we may mention a George
Inn at Derby, in connexion with the following advertisement
from the Daily Advertiser, Oct. 1758 : — ^ ^
" A YOUNG LADY STRAYED.— A young Lady, just come out of
J\_ Derbyshire, strayed from her Guardian. She is remarkably genteel
and handsome. She has been brought up by a farmer near Derby, and
knows no other but that they are her parents ; but it is not so, for she is
a lady by birth, though of but little learning. She has no cloathes with
her, but a riding habit she used to go to market in. She will have a fine
estate, as she is an heiress, but knows not her birth, as her parents died
when she was a child, and I had the care of her, so she knows not but that
I am her mother. She has a brown silk gown that she borrowed of her
maid — that is, dy'd silk, and her riding dress a light drab, lin'd with blue
Tammy, and it has blue loops at the button-holes ; she has outgrown it ;
and I am sure that she is in great distress both for money and cloaths ; but
whoever has relieved her I will be answerable if they will give me a letter,
where she may be found ; she knows not her own sirname. I understand
she has been in Northampton for some time ; she has a cut in her forehead,
Whosoever will give an account where she is to be found shall receive twenty
guineas reward. Direct for M. "W. at the George Inn, Derby."
Besides the Dragon, St George is found in various other com-
binations, as the Geoege and Blue Boae, High Holborn, an
old inn lately come to its end. In the seventeenth century this
house was called the Blue Boae, and is said to have been the
house in which Cromwell and Ireton, disguised as common
SAINTS, MARTYRS, ETC. 289
troopers, intercepted a letter of King Charles to his queen.
Cromwell, the story goes on to say, finding by this letter that his
party were not likely to obtain good terms from the king, " from
that day forward resolved his ruin."* Unfortunately for lovers
of the romantic, there is no foundation for this dramatic incident.
The George and Thirteen Cantons, kept by the great Bob
Travers, is another odd combination, occurring in Church Street,
Soho ; it is, however, easily explained when we learn that there
is another public-house called the Thirteen Cantons, in King
Street, also in Soho. This sign was put up in reference to the
thirteen Protestant cantons of Switzerland — a compliment to the
numerous Swiss who inhabit the neighbourhood.
But the strangest combination of all is that of the George
and Vulture. At present there are three public-houses in London
with this sign : one in St George-in-the-East, one in Wapping, and
one in Haberdasher Street, Hoxton. As in the " Live Vulture," (see
p. 224:,) the only obvious explanation for this strange combination
seems to be the possibility of a vulture having been exhibited at
this house. Vultures were still considered great curiosities as late
as the eighteenth century. In 1726, one of the attractions at
Peckham Fair was a menagerie, and amongst the animals exhibited
the vulture was described in the following terms : —
" The noble Vulture Cock, brought from Archangall, having the finest
talons of any bird that seeks her prey ; the forepart of his head is covered
with hair; the second part resembles the wool of a black ; below that is a
white ring, having a ruff that he cloaks his head with at night." .
Et is a name of some standing. " Near Ball Alley was the
George Inn, since the Fire, rebuilt with very good houses, well
Inhabited, and warehouses, being a large open yard, and called
George Yard, at the farther end of which is the George and
Vulture Tavern, which is a large house and of a great trade,
having a passage into St Michael's Alley," [Cornhilljt There
was another tavern of this name on the east side of the high
road, nearly opposite Bruce Green, Tottenham, in early times
much frequented by the citizens of London taking their recrea-
tions. It is mentioned in the " Search aftexClaret " a s early as
1691. Several coins of the reign of Queen Elizabeth and Charles
I. were discovered on pulling down the old house. A coat of
arms of Queen Elizabeth was fixed over the front door, but at the
* Memoirs of Roger Earl of Orrery, by Rev. Mr Th. Morris, (Earl of Orrery's
State
Letters,) 1742, fol. 15.
" t Strype, B. ii., p. 162.
T
29O THE HISTORY OF SIGNBOARDS.
demolition of the building it was put up at the back of a house
in Hale Lane. After the fashion of the time, the house was
duly puffed up in newspaper poems. The following is copied
from a newspaper-cutting circa 1761-62, and as it enumerates
the attractions of a suburban tea-garden of the period, may be
quoted here at full length : —
" If lur'd to roam in Summer Hours,
Your Thoughts incline tow'rd Tott'nham Bow'rs. *
Here end your airing Tour and rest
Where Cole invites each friendly Guest :
Intent on signs, the prying Eye,
The George and Vulture will descry ;
Here the kind Landlord glad attends
To wellcome all his chearfull Friends
"Who, leaving City smoke, delight
To range where various scenes invite.
The spacious garden, verdant Field,
Pleasures beyond Expression yield,
The Angler here to sport inclined
In his Canal may Pastime find.
Neat racy Wine and Home-brew' d Ale
The nicest Palates may regale,
Nectarious Punch — and (cleanly grac'd)
A Larder stor'd for ev'ry Taste.
The cautious Fair may sip with Glee
The fresh' st Coffee, finest Tea.
Let none the outward Vulture fear,
IsTo Vulture host inhabits here,
If too well us'd you deem ye — then
Take your Revenge and come again."
St Paul, the patron saint of London, was formerly a common
sign in the metropolis. One of the trades tokens of a house or
tavern in Petty France, Westminster, represents the saint before
his conversion, lying on the ground, with his horse standing by
him; this house was called "the Saul." Perhaps this was a
monkish pleasantry of the period, (as Westminster was under the
patronage of St Peter,) representing an unpleasant event in the
history of the great patron, and showing, by simple analogy, the
vast superiority of the converted St Peter. The usual way, how-
ever, of commemorating the saint on the signboard was the St
Paul's Head. This was the sign of a very old inn in Great
Carter Lane, (Doctors' Commons,) opposite which Bagford lived
in 1712. As an inn, it is mentioned by Machyn, in his Diary, in
1562. " The 25 may was a yonge man did hang ymseylff at the
* Tottenham High Cross.
SAINTS, MARTYRS, ETC. 29 1
Polles Head, the inn in Carterlane." Trades tokens of this house
are extant in the Beaufoy Collection. In the eighteenth century,
most of the celebrated libraries were sold at this inn : * amongst
others that of the bibliomaniac, Tom Rawlinson — the Tom Folio
of the Toiler, whose books were brought to the hammer between
1721-33 — the sale extending to seventeen or eighteen separate
auctions. The disposal of his MSS. alone occupied sixteen days.
To this tavern formerly the new sheriffs, after having been sworn
in, used to resort to receive the keys of the different jails ; that
ceremony terminated, they were regaled with sack and walnuts
by the keeper of Newgate. The St Paul's Coffee-house is built
on the site of this old inn. About 1820 there was another Paul's
Head in Cateaton Street, where a literary club used to be held
"for the cultivation of forensic eloquence." It was under the
patronage of several distinguished characters, and had for a motto
the modest words, " Sic itur ad astra." The vicinity of the cathe-
dral evidently had suggested both these signs, as well as that
exhibited by Philip Waterhouse, a bookseller " at the St Paul's
Head in Canning Street near Londonstone" in 1630. On another
sign, in the same locality, the two saints were united, viz., the
Saint Peter and Saint Paul, St Paul's Churchyard. Of this
house, also, trades tokens are extant.
Although St Peter was, doubtless, as common on the sign-
board before the Preformation as the other great saints of reli-
gious history, yet no instances of this have come down to us.
His keys, however — the famous Cross Keys — are very common.
At Dawdley, and on the road between Warminster and Salisbury,
there is a very curious sign called Peter's Finger, which is be-
lieved to occur nowhere else. In all probability this refers to the
benediction of the Pope, the finger of his Holiness being raised
whilst bestowing a blessing. St Peter being the first of the Papal
line, was doubtless often represented with his finger raised in old
pictures and carvings. The following passage from Bishop Hall's
" Satires " alludes to the finger : —
" But walk on cheerly 'till thou have espied
St Peter's finger, at the churchyard side." — Book v., sat. 2,
St Dunstan, the patron saint of the parish of that name in
London, was godfather to the D evil, — that is to say, to the sign
of the famous tavern of the Devil and St Dunstan, within
* The first library sold by auction in this country was that of Dr Seaman, of
Warwick
Court, Warwick Lane, in 1676.
292 THE HISTORY OF SIGNBOARDS.
Temple Bar. The legend runs, that one day, when working at
his trade of a goldsmith, he was sorely tempted by the devil, and
at length got so exasperated that he took the red hot tongs out
of the fire and caught his infernal majesty by the nose. The
identical pinchers with which this feat was performed are still
preserved at Mayfield Palace, in Sussex. They are of a very re-
spectable size, and formidable enough to frighten the arch one
himself. This episode in the saint's life was represented on the
signboard of that glorious old tavern. By way of abbreviation,
this house was called The Devil, though the landlord seems to
have preferred the other saint's name ; for on his token we read :
" The D (sic) and Dunstan" probably fearing, with a classic
dread, the ill omen of that awful name.
Allusions to this tavern are innumerable in the dramatists ;
one of the earliest is in 1563, in the play of " Jack Jugeler."
William Eowley thus mentions it in his comedy of a " Match
by Midnight," 1633:—
"Bloodhound. As you come by Temple Bar make a step to the Devil.
Tim. To the Devil, father ?
Sim. My master means the sign of the Devil, and he cannot hurt you,
fool ; there's a saint holds him by the nose.
Tim. Sniggers, what does the devil and a saint both on a sign ?
Sim. What a question is that ? "What does my master and his prayer-
book o' Sundays both in a pew ?"
So fond was Ben Jonson of this tavern, that he lived " without
Temple Bar, at a combmaker's shop," according to Aubrey, in
order to be near his favourite haunt. It must have been, there-
fore, in a moment of ill-humour, when he found fault with the
wine, and made the statement that his play of the " Devil is an
Ass," (which is certainly not amongst his best,) was written
" when I and my boys drank bad wine at the Devil." But
surely he would not have established his favourite Apollo Club
at a place where they sold bad wine. He himself composed the
famous " Leg es Con yjyjales" for this club, which are still pre-
served, with the respect due to so sacred a relic, in the banking
house of Messrs Child & Co., erected in 1788 on the place where
the tavern formerly stood. They are twenty-four in number,
some of them rather characteristic : —
" 4. And the more to exact our delight whilst we stay,
Let none be debarr'd from his choice female mate.
5. Let no scent offensive the chamber infest.
10. Let our wines without mixture or scum be all fine,
Or call up the master and break his dull noddle.
SAINTS, MARTYRS, ETC. 293
16. With mirth, wit, and dancing, and singing conclude,
To regale every sense with delight in excess.
21. For generous lovers let a corner be found,
"Where they in soft sighs may their passions relieve."
The last clause was, " Focus perennis esto,'' which proves that
rare old Ben understood comfort. Latin inscriptions were also
in other parts of the house. Over the clock in the kitchen
might have been seen, as late as 1731, "Si nocturna tibi noceat
potatio vini, hoc in mane bibis iterum, et erit medicina."* An
elegant rendering of the well-known phrase, " A hair of the dog
that bit you.'' Not only Ben Jonson, but almost all the great
poets of two centuries, honoured this house with their presence.
" I dined to-day," says Swift, in one of his letters to Stella,
" with Dr Garth and Mr Addison, at the Devil Tavern, near
Temple Bar, and Garth treated." Numerous similar quotations
might be found, showing the visits to this place of nearly all the
great literary stars of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Simon Wadloe was one of the most famous landlords of this
tavern. Pepys, April 22, 1661, — "Wadlow, the Vintner at the
Devil, in Fleet Street, did lead a fine company of soldiers, all
young comely men, in white Doublets" (this was on Charles II.
going from the Tower to Whitehall.) Ben Jonson called him the
king of skinkers.t Among the verses on the door of the Apollo
room occurred the lines —
" Hang up all the poor hop drinkers,
Cries old Sim, the king of skinkers."
Camden, in his " Remains," records the following epitaph on
this worthy : —
" Apollo et cohors Musarum,
Bacchus vini et uvarum,
Ceres pro pane et cervisia,
Adeste omnes cum tristitia.
Diique, Deseque, lamentate cuncti,
Simonis Yadloe funera def uncti,
Sub signo malo bene vixit, mirabile !
Si ad coelum recessit gratias Diabolic %
* " If your potations overnight do not agree with you, take another glass of
wine in the
morning, and it will cure you."
t Skinker, an old English word, synonymous to tapster, drawer.
" Bacchus the win him skinketh all about."— Chaucer, Marchant's Tale, 9696.
% " Apollo and you, band of Muses,
Bacchus, god of wine and grapes,
Ceres, goddess of bread and beer,
You all must share our sorrow.
Weep all ye gods and goddesses,
Over the bier of the defunct Simon Wadloe,
He lived vjell under an evil sign,
If he goes to heaven, miracle ! thanks to the Devil."
294 THE HISTORY OF SIGNBOARDS.
In opposition to this Old Devil a Young Devil Tavern was
opened, also in Fleet Street, in 1707, and here the first meetings
of the Society of Antiquaries were held, but the " Young Devil "
was not a success, and the house was soon closed.
Though the Devil is not a promising name for a public-house,
owing to his near connexion with evil spirits, yet there was a
third tavern named after — if not devoted to him — the Little
Devil, Goodman's Fields, Whitechapel. Ned Ward, in 1703,
highly commends the punch of this house, which he partook of
in " a room neat enough to entertain Venus and the graces."
It was a house entirely after jolly Ned's fancy. " My landlord
was good company, my landlady good humoured, her daughter
charmingly pretty, and her maid tolerably handsome, who can
laugh, cry, say her prayers, sing a song, all in a breath, and can
turn in a minute to all sublunary points of a female compass." *
The Devil (le Diable) was also a celebrated tavern in Paris,
near the Palais de Justice. It is thus named in the " Ode a
tous les Cabarets :" —
* Lieux sacree ou Ton est soumis
Aux saints oracles de Themis,
Eneor que vous ayez la gloire,
De voir totxt le monde a genoux,
Sans le Diable et la Tete-Noire,f
Je n'approcherais pas de vous." J
In the seventeenth century Paris also had its Petit Diable, (Little
Devil,) a tavern of some renown.
The Devil's House was the name of a favourite Sunday
resort in the last century, in the Hornsey Road, Islington. It is
said to have been the retreat of Claude Duval (uncle Duval's
house, Devil's house,) the elegant highwayman in the reign of
Charles II., who infested the lanes about Islington; but from a
survey taken in 1611, it appears that the house bore already at
that time the name of " Devil's House." From its general ap-
pearance it seemed to date from Queen Elizabeth's reign. It was
surrounded by a moat filled with water, and passed by a wooden
bridge. Its attractions are held forth in the following laudatory
* Ned Ward's " London Spy," 1703.
t La Tete JSfoire, (the Moor's head,) another famous tavern in that locality.
X "Sacred precincts, where are delivered
The holy oracles of Themis,
Though you may boast
To see everybody kneel to you,
Were it not for the Devil and the 3foor's Tiead
I would never come near you."
SAINTS, MARTYRS, ETC. 295
epistle, an example of the florid and poetical advertising in vogue
when Richardson wrote novels of six volumes all in letters — com-
positions too painfully pathetic for our matter-of-fact age : —
" To the Printer of the Publick Advertiser.
" Sir, — Keturning yesterday from a rural excursion to Hornsey, I casually
stopped for a little refreshment at an house, commonly known by the name
of Devil's House, situated within two fields of Holloway-Turnpike. I own
that I was vastly surprised at so charming and delightful a place, so near
town, and at the great improvements lately made there. The garden is
well laid out, encompassed with a beautiful moat, and a good canal in the
orchard. On inquiry, I found the landlord (remarkable for his civil and
obliging behaviour) had stocked the same with plenty of tench, carp, and
other fish, with free liberty for his customers to angle therein. Tea and
hot loaves are ready at a moment's notice, and new milk from the cows
grazing in the pleasant meadows adjoining, with a good larder, and the best
wines, &c. In short, I know not a more agreeable place, where persons of
both sexes of genteel taste may enjoy a more innocent and delightful
amusement. But what surprised me most, was that the landlord, by a pecu-
liar turn of invention, had changed the DeviVs House to the Summer House,
— a name I find it is for the future to be distinguished by. I wish, Mr
Printer, your readers as much pleasure as myself, and am, sir, your con-
stant reader, " H. G.
"May 25, 1767."
At Royston, Herts, there is a public-house known as the
Devil's Head. There is no signboard, but a carved representa-
tion of his satanic majesty's head projects from the building, the
name being underneath.
St Patrick is exclusively an Irish sign. He is generally
represented in the costume of a bishop, driving a flock of snakes,
toads, and other vermin before him, which he is said to have
banished from Ireland. His life is more replete with miracles
than any of the other saints.
" St Patrick was a gentleman,
And came of dacent people,"
for his father was a noble Roman, who lived at Kirkpatrick, in
Scotland, The saint's life was very active ; he founded 365
churches, ordained 365 bishops, and 3000 priests, converted
12,000 persons in one district, baptized seven kings at once,
established a purgatory, and with his staff expelled every reptile
that stung or croaked. This last feat, however, has been per-
formed by a great many saints in different parts of the world.
Not so the feat he performed at his death, when, having been be-
headed, he coolly took his head under his arm, (or, according to
the best authorities, in his mouth,) and swam over the Shannon.
296 THE HISTORY OF SIGNBOARDS.
In such cases as the Bishop of Narbonne said about St Denis,
(who walked from Montmartre to St Denis with his head under
his arm,) " il riy a que le premier pas qui coute."*
In many instances, no doubt, before the Eeformation, the
shopkeeper would choose his patron saint for his sign, to act as
a sort of lares and penates to his house. An example of this
occurs on the following imprint : — " Manual of Prayers, 1539.
Imprynted in Bottol [St Botolph's] Lane, at the sygne of the
Whyt Beare, by me, Jhon Mayler, for John Waylande, and
be to sell in Powles Churchyarde, by Andrew Hester, at the
Whyt Horse, and also by Mychel Lobley, at the sygne of the
Saint Mychel ;" this last bookseller, therefore, had chosen his
own patron saint for his sign. For the same reason another
bookseller adopted, in the early part of the sixteenth century,
Saint John the Evangelist — " The Doctrynall of Good Ser-
vauntes. Imprynted at London, in Flete Strete, at the sygne of
Saynt Johan Evangelyste, by me, JoJoan Butler." This Butler
was a judge of the Common Pleas, as well as a bookseller. About
the same period the Evangelist was also the sign of another man
of the same profession — " Kobert Wyce, dwellinge at the sygne
of Seynt Johan Euagelyst, in Seynt Martyns parysshe, in the
hide besyde Charynge Crosse, in the bysshop of Norwytche
rentys." He was the printer of the well-known " Pronosty-
cacion for ever of Erra Pater ; a Jewe borne in Jewry, a doctor
in Astronomye and Physicke," which was continued for ages
after him. Kobert Wyce must have been about the first book-
seller and printer in this neighbourhood, as in Queen Elizabeth's
reign the parish contained less than one hundred people liable to
be rated, t We find the same as one of the oldest printer's signs
in France, on an edition of Merlin's Prophecies, printed at Paris
in 1438, by Abraham Verard, dwelling near the church of Notre
Dame, at the sign of St John the Evangelist.
Other saints, again, have a local reputation, and are perpetuated
on the signboards in certain localities only, as for instance St
Thomas of Canterbury ; St Edmund's Head, at Bury St Ed-
munds ; and St Ctjthbert, at Monk's house, near Sunderland.
This saint was the first bishop of Northumberland.
" But fain St Hilda's nuns would learn,
If on a rock by Lindisfarne,
* St Justin, another martyr, after his head was struck off, picked it up, and,
holding it
in his hand, conversed with the bystanders,
f Cunningham's London.
SAINTS, MARTYRS, ETC. 297
St Cuthbert sits and toils to frame
The seaborn weeds which bear his name,"
says Sir Walter Scott, alluding to the stalks of the Encrinites,
which are called St Cuthbert's Beads, the saint, as the story goes,
amusing himself by stringing them together.
Hugh Singleton, a bookseller in the sixteenth century, lived at
the sign of the St Augustine ; probably he had chosen this
saint from the fact of his being a distinguished writer as well as
saint. George Carter, a shopkeeper in the seventeenth century,
adopted St Alban, the protomartyr, as his sign, evidently for no
other reason but because he lived in "St Alban' s Street, near
St James's Market f and another, William Ellis of Tooley Street,
had the sign of St Clement, perhaps on account of his being a
native of the parish of St Clement's. Trades tokens of both
these houses are to be seen in the Beaufoy Collection.
St Laurent was the sign of an inn in Lawrence Lane, Cheap-
side, but from a border of blossoms or flowers round it, it was
commonly called Blossoms, or by corruption, Bosom's Inn —
such at least is the explanation of Stow : —
"Antiquities in this lane — [St Laurence Lane, Cheapside] — I find none
other than that, among many fair houses, there is one large inn for the re-
ceipt of travellers called Blossoms Inn, but corruptly Bosoms Inn, and
hath to sign St Laurence the deacon in a border of blossoms or flowers."
Flowers are said to have sprung up at the martyrdom of this
saint, who was roasted alive on a gridiron. But in the " History
of Thomas of Beading," ch. ii., another version is given, which
seems, however, little else than a joke : —
" Our jolly clothiers kept up their courage and went to Bosom's Inn, so
called from a greasy oid fellow who built it, who always went nudging with
his head in his bosom winter and summer, so that they called him the pic-
ture of old Winter."
In 1522 the Emperor Charles V. honoured Henry Till, with
a visit ; at first his intention was to come with a retinue of
2044 persons and 1127 horses, but subsequently he reduced
them to 2000 persons and 1000 horses. To lodge these visitors,
various "inns for horses ,; were "seen and viewed," amongst
which "St Laurance, otherwise called Bosoms Yn," is noted
down to have "xx beddes and a stable for lx horses."* It is
curious, in this list of inns, to observe the proportion of beds as
* Our Harry VIII. was fully as extravagant in his retinue. When he went over to
meet Francis I. at the Camp du Drap u'or, he required 2400 beds, and stabling
for
2000 horses.
298 THE HISTORY OF SIGNBOARDS.
compared with stabling room, showing how most of the followers
of a nobleman on a journey had to shift for themselves and sleep
in the straw or elsewhere. On the occasion of this imperial visit,
the city authorities were evidently afraid of being drunk dry by
the many Flemings in the train of the Emperor. To avoid this
calamity, a return was made of all the wine to be found at the
eleven wine merchants, and the twenty-eight principal taverns
then in London, the sum total of which w T as 809 pipes.*
In the sixteenth century the house seems already to have been
famous as a carrier's inn, (which it continued for three centuries,)
as appears from the following allusion : — " Yet have I naturally
cherisht and hugt it in my bosome, even as a carrier at Bosome's
Inne doth a cheese under his arms. ; 't A satirical tract about
Banks and his horse " Marocius Extaticus," (reprinted by the
Percy Society,) gives the names of its authors as "John Dando
the w 7 iredrawer of Hadley, and Harrie Hunt, head ostler of
Besomes Inner Another domestic of this establishment is handed
down to posterity in Ben Jonson's " Masque of Christmass," pre-
sented at Court in 1616, where the following lines occur : —
"But now comes Tom of Bosom's Inn,
And he presenteth Misrule." J
The Catherine Wheel was formerly a very common sign,
most likely adopted from its being the badge of the order of
the knights of Saint Catherine of Mount Sinai, created anno
1063, for the protection of pilgrims on their way to and from
the Holy Sepulchre. Hence it was a suggestive, if not eloquent
sign for an inn, as it intimated that the host was of the
brotherhood, although in a humble way, and would protect the
travellers from robbery in his inn, — in the shape of high charges
and exactions, — just as the knights of St Catherine protected
them on the high road from robbery by brigands. These knights
wore a white habit embroidered with a Catherine wheel, (i.e. a
wheel armed with spikes,) and traversed with a sword stained
* "Rutland Papers," reprinted for Camden Society.
t Epistle Dedicatory to "Have at you to Saffron Walden," 1596.
I " Misrule in a velvet cap, a sprig, a short cloak, a great yellow ruff, like a
reveller ;
his torch bearer bearing a rope, a cheese, and a basket." The names given were
the
real designations of the performers in private life. Kit, the cobbler of Philpot
Lane ; Cis,
a cook s wife from Scalding Alley; Nell, a milliner from Threadneedle Street ;
and Tom,
our drawer from Blossom's Inn.
" And he presenteth Misrule,
Which you may know by the very show,
Albeit you never ask it ;
For there you may see, wha-t his ensignes bee,
The rope, the cheese, and the basket."
SAINTS, MARTYRS, ETC. 299
with blood.* There were also mysteries in which St Catherine
played a favourite part, one of which was acted by young ladies
on the entry of Queen Catherine of Arragon (queen to our Henry
VIII.) in London in 1501 ; in honour of this queen the sign may
occasionally have been put up. The Catherine wheel was also a
charge in the Turners' arms. Flechnoe tells us, in his " Enigma-
tical Characters," (1658,) that the Puritans changed it into the
Cat and Wheel, under which name it is still to be seen on a
public-house at Castle Green, Bristol. In the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries the Catherine Wheel was a famous carrier's
inn in Southwark ; and at the present day there is still an old
public-house in Bishopsgate Street Without, inscribed, " Ye old
Catherine Wheel, 1594." t
Besides these, there were other signs expressing a religious
idea, such as the Heae,t in Bible, which occurs under one of the
Luttrell Ballads : — " The Citizens' joys for the Rebuilding of
London, printed by P. Lillicross, for Richard Head, at the Heart
in Bible, in Little Britain, where you may have Mr Matthews,
his approved and universal pills for all diseases, 1667." Another
bookseller on London Bridge, Eliz. Smith, 1691, had the Hand
and Bible. Biblical phrases also were employed, as for instance,
the Lion and Lamb, which occurs on several seventeenth cen-
tury trades tokens of Snowhill, Southwark, &c, and is still much
in vogue. It is an emblematical representation of the Millen-
nium, when " the lion shall lie down by the kid/' In the last
century there was a Lion and Lamb on a signboard at Sheffield,
with the following poetical effusion : —
" If the Lyon show'd kill the Lamb,
We '11 kill the Lyon — if we can ;
But if the Lamb show'd kill the Lyon,
"We '11 kill the Lamb to make a Pye on."
The antithesis to this sign, namely, the Wolf and Lamb, occurs
occasionally, as in Charles Street, Leicester, and in a few other
places. In Grosvenor Street it was probably once represented by
a lion and a kid, but the public, not minding the text, called the
sign the Lion and Goat, and that name it still bears. The Lion
and Adder, Nottingham, Newark, and various other places, or
the Lion and Snake, as at Bailgate, Lincoln, come from Psalm
* St Catherine was beheaded after having been placed between wheels with spikes,
from
which she was saved by an angel descended from heaven.
t Several of the old carriers and coaching inns still remain in Bishopsgate
Street, under
their old names, as the Black Bull, the Green Dragon, the Four Swans, and (until
a few
months ago) the Flowerpot, &c.
300 THE HISTORY OF SIGNBOARDS.
xci. 13, where the godly are reminded: — "Thou shalt tread
upon the Lion and Adder, the young lion and the dragon shalt
thou trample under feet." These two signs apparently came in
use during the Commonwealth. They have a decided flavour of
the time when Scripture language formed the common speech of
every day life.
The Lamb and Flag is another sign common all over England,
representing originally the holy lamb with the nimbus and banner,
but now so little understood by the publicans, that on an ale-
house at Swindon, it is pictured with a spear, to which a red-
white-and-blue streamer is appended. It may also be of heraldic
origin, for it was the coat of arms of the Templars, and the crest
of the merchant tailors. The Lamb and Anchor, Milk Street,
Bristol, seems to be a mystical representation of hope in Christ;
both these last signs date from before the Reformation. From
that period also dates the sign of the Bleeding Heart, the em-
blematical representation of the five sorrowful mysteries of the
Rosary, viz., the heart of the Holy Virgin pierced with five swords.
There is still an ale-house of this name in Charles Street, Hatton
Garden, and Bleeding Heart Yard, adjoining the public-house, is
immortalised in "Little Dorrit." The Wounded Heart, one of the
signs in Norwich in 17 '50,* had the same meaning. The Heart
was a constant emblem of the Holy Virgin in the middle ages ;
thus, on the clog almanacs, all the feasts of St Mary were in-
dicated by a heart. It was not an uncommon sign in former
times. The Heart and Ball appears on a trades token as the
sign of a house in Little Britain, the Ball being simply some silk
mercer's addition; and the Golden Heart f was a sign in Green-
wich in 1737, next door to which Dr Johnson used to live when
he was newly come to town, and wrote the Parliamentary articles
for the Gentleman 's Magazine. At present there are three public-
houses with this sign in Bristol, and in other places it may be
met with.
Heaven was a house of entertainment near Westminster Hall;
the present committee rooms of the House of Commons are
erected on its site. Butler alludes to this house in " Hudibras,"
p. 3:-
" False Heaven at the end of the Hall."
Pepys records his dining at this house in the winter of 1660,
* Gentleman's Magazine, March 1842.
t It is said that this sign, put up in French somewhere as the cceur dore, was
Eng-
lished into the "queer door."
SAINTS, MARTYRS, ETC. 30 1
and with due respect for the place, he put on his best fur cap for
the occasion. " I sent a porter to bring my best fur cap, and so I
returned and went to Heaven ; where Luellin and I dined/'
Paradise was a messuage in the same neighbourhood, and Hell
and Purgatory subterranean passages \ but in the reign of James
I. Hell was the sign of a low public-house frequented by lawyers'
clerks. Heaven and Hell are mentioned, together with a
third house called Purgatory, in an old grant dated the first
year of Henry VII. * The Three Kings is a sign representing
the three Eastern magi or kings, who came to do homage to our
Saviour. We find it used as early as the sixteenth century by
Julyan Notary, in St Paul's Churchyard, one of the earliest Lon-
don printers. The Three Kings was formerly a constant mer-
cer's sign. Bagford gives the following reason for this : —
" Mersers in thouse dayes war Genirall Marchantes and traded in all sortes
of Rich Goodes, besides those of scelckes (silks) as they do nou at this
day : but they brought into England fine Leninn thered (linen thread)
gurdeles (girdles) finenly worked from Collin + (Cologne.) Collin, the city
which then at that time of day florished much and afforded rayre commo-
detes, and these merchats that vsually traded to that citye, set vp ther
singes ouer ther dores of ther Houses the three kinges of Collin, with the
Armes of that Citye, which was the Three Ckouens of the former kings
in memorye of them, and by those singes the people knew in what wares
they deld in." J
There is and was until lately such a sign carved in stone in front
of a house in Bucklersbury, which street was once the head
quarters of the mercers and perfumers. The three kings stood in
a row, all in the same garb and position, with their sceptres
shouldered. The history of the Three Kings was a favourite
story in the middle ages. Wynkyn deWorde printed, anno 1516,
" The Lives of the Three Kinges of Collen." The same subject
had been printed in Paris in 1498 by Tresyrel : " La Vie des Troys
Roys, Balchazar, Melchior, et GasjDard." They also appeared in
many of the ancient plays and mysteries. In one of the Chester
pageants, acted by the shearmen and tailors, they are called Sir
Jasper of Tars ; Sir Melchior, king of Araby ; Sir Balthazer, king
of Saba ; they enjoy the same names and kingdoms in the " Come-
die de l'Adoration des Trois Roys," by Marguerite de Yalois.
* Note in Gilford's Ben Jonson, vol. iv., p. 174.
t They were called the three kings of Cologne because they were buried in that
city.
The Empress Helena brought their bones to Constantinople, from whence they were
re-
moved to Milan, and thence in 1164 to Cologne, where they are still kept as
sacred and
miracle- w orking relics.
\ Hart. MSS. 5910, vol. i., fol. 193.
302 t THE HISTORY OF SIGNBOARDS.
Their offerings are recorded in the following charm against fall-
ing sickness : —
" Jaspar fert myrrham, thus Melehior, Balthazar aurum,
Haec tria qui secum portabit nomina regum
Solvitur a morbo, Christi pietate, caduco." *
Another Latin distich has —
" Tres Eeges Eegi Regum tria dona firebant
Myrrham Homini, uncto aurum, thura dedere Deo," +
Melehior was usually represented as a bearded old man, Jasper
as a beardless youth, and Balchazar as a Moor with a large
beard.
This sign was as common on the Continent as in England, and
at the present day it may often be met with. Eustache Des-
champs, in the sixteenth century, thus celebrated the good cheer
of one of the taverns in Paris : —
" Prince, par la Vierge Marie,
On est a la Cossonerie,
Aux Cannettes ou aux Trots Rois."
IS Adoration des Trois Rois was, in 1674, the sign of Francois
Muguet, one of the Parisian booksellers.
Not unlikely the sign of the Kings and Keys, a tavern in Fleet
Street, is an abbreviation of the Three Kings and Cross Keys. At
Weston-super-Mare, and at Chelmsforth, there is another sign which
owes its origin to the Three Kings, namely, the Three Q-ueens.
When, in 1764, the Paving Act for St James' was put into execu-
tion, the sign of the Three Queens, in Clerkenwell Green, was re
moved at a cost of upwards of <£200 ; it extended not less than seven
feet from the front of the house. Lloyd's Evening Post, January
12-14, 1761, tells how two sharpers came to this ale-house and stole
the silver tankard in which their drink was served them. Each
tavern in those days possessed a number of silver tankards, in
which the well-dressed customers were served with sack and canary.
It may be imagined that the thieves were quietly on the look-out
for such a prize. The same paper gives an advertisement about
two silver pints stolen from the Jolly Butchers at Bath ; in fact,
* " Jasper brings myrrh, Melehior frankincense, Balthazar gold.
He who carries these three names of the kings about with him
Will, through Christ's favour, be delivered of the falling sickness."
In the trial of the smugglers for the murder of Chater and Galley, excisemen of
Chi-
chester, in the last century, one of the prisoners was found with this charm in
his pocket.
With this scrap of paper in his possession, he had considered himself quite safe
from
detection.
f " Three kings brought three gifts to the King of Kings.
They gave myrrh to him as man, gold as king, and frankincense as God."
SAINTS, MARTYBS, ETC. 303
similar advertisements were of almost daily occurrence. " The
Praise of JTorkshire Ale," 1685, also mentions —
" Selling of Ale, in Muggs,
Silver Tankards, Black Pots, and Little Juggs."
One other semi-religious legend has provided a subject for
many a signboard, namely, the Man in the Moon. Though
this cannot strictly be styled a religious legend, yet it may be
included in this class, as the idea is said to have originated from
the incident given in Numbers xv. 32, et seq., " And while the
children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that
gathered sticks upon the Sabbath-day," &c. Not content with
having him stoned for this desecration of the day, the legend
transferred him to the moon. It is, however, a Christian legend,
for the Jews had some Talmudical story about Jacob being in the
moon ; in fact, almost every nation, whether ancient or modern,
sees somebody in it. The Man in the Moon occurs on a seven-
teenth century token of a tavern in Cheapside, represented by a
half-naked man within a crescent, holding on by the horns.
There is still a sign of this description in Little Vine Street,
Regent Street, and in various other places. Generally he is re-
presented with a bundle of sticks, a lanthorn (which, one would
think, he did not want in the moon,) and frequently a dog. Thus
Chaucer depicts him in " Cresseide," v. 260 : —
" Her gite was gray and full of spottes blacke,
And on her breast a chorl painted full even,
Bearing a bush of thorns on his backe,
"Which for his theft might clime no ner y e heven."
Shakespeare also alludes to him : —
" Steph. I was the Man in the Moon when time was.
" Caliban. I have seen thee in her, and I do adore thee ; my mistress
showed me thee, thy dog and bush." — Tempest, ii., sc. 2.
Also —
" Quince. One must come in with a bush of thorns and a lanthorn, and say he
comes to disfigure or to present the person of moonshine." — Mid-summer Night's
Dream, iii., sc. 1.
This bunch of thorns is alluded to by Dante, " Inferno," canto xx. 124, where
the Man in the Moon is spoken of as Cain —
" Ma viene omai : che gia tiene il confine
D' amendue gli emisperi e tocca l'onda
Sotto Sibilia Caino e le spine." *
* " But come now, for already hovers Cain with his bundle of thorns On the
confines of the two hemispheres, and touches the, Waves beneath Seville."
And again in " Paradiso," canto ii. 49, speaking of the moon, he asks —
" Ma detemi, che sono i segni bui
Di questi corpo, che laggiuso in terra
Fan di Cain favoleggiare altrui?" *
And the annotators of Dante say that Cain was placed in the moon with a bundle
of thorns on his back, similar to those he had placed on the altar when he
offered to the Lord his unwelcome sacrifice. This Man in the Moon, whether Cain,
Jacob, or the Sabbath-breaker, has been celebrated by innumerable songs.
Alex. Neckham (recently edited by Mr T. Wright) refers to him from a very
ancient ballad, and one of the oldest songs is in the Harl. MSS., 2253,
beginning :—
" Mon in the mone stond and streit, On is bot-forke is burthen he bereth, Hit is
muche wonder that he na doun slyt For doute lest he valle he shoddreth and
skereth. When the forst freseth muche chele he byd The thornes beth kene is
hattren to-tereth N'is no wytht in the world that wot when he syt Ne, bote hit
bee the hegge, whot wedes he wereth." For all this, his life seems to be very
merry, for one of the Roxburghe Ballads (i. £, 298) informs us that —
" Our Man in the Moon drinks Clarret,
"With powderbeef, turnep and carret ;
If he doth so, why should not you
Drink until the sky looks blue."
From whence they obtained the information it is difficult to say, but it was a
well-established fact with the old tobacconists that he could enjoy his pipe.
Thus he is represented on some of the tobacconists' papers in the Banks
Collection puffing like a steam-engine, and underneath the words, " Who '11
smoake with y e Man in y e Moon V If these frequent allusions in songs and plays
were not enough to remind the Londoners that there was such a being, they could
see him daily amongst the figures of old St Paul's—
" The Great Dial is your last monument ; where bestow some half of the three
score minutes to observe the sauciness of the Jacks f that are above the Man in
the Moon there ; the strangeness of their motion will quit your labour." —
Decker's Gull's Hornbook.
* " But tell me, what are the dark spots
On that body, which makes them down there on earth
Talk of Cain and the bundle of thorns !"
t Paul's Jacks were the little automaton figures that struck the hours in old St
Paul's Similar puppets, or figures, were also on other London churches.