The subsequent passage, in Good Newes and Bad Newes, by S. R. 4to. Lond. 1622, seems to prove that anciently Tavern Keepers kept both a Bush and a Sign: a Host is speaking: I rather will take down my Bush and Sign Anciently putting up boughs upon any thing was an indication that it was to be sold, which is probably also the reason why an old Beesom, which is a sort of dried Bush, is put up at the topmast head of a ship or boat when she is to be sold. In "Greene's Conceipt," 4to. 1598, p. 10, we read, "Good wine needes no Ivie Bush." In " England's Parnassus," Lond. 1600, the first line of the Address to the Reader runs thus: "I hang no Ivie out to sell my wine" and in Brathwaite's "Strappado for the Divell," 8vo. Lond. 1615, p. 1, there is a Dedication to Bacchus, Sole Soveraigne of the Ivy Bush, prime founder of Red Lettices," &c. In Dekker's" Wonderful Yeare," 4to. Lond. 1603, Signat. F. we read: "Spied a Bush at the ende of a pole, the auncient badge of a country alehouse." In Vaughan's Golden Grove, 8vo. Lond. 1608, is the following passage: "Like as an Ivy Bush put forth at a vintrie, is not the cause of the wine, but a Signe that wine is to bee sold there; so, likewise, if we see smoke appearing in a chimney, wee know that fire is there, albeit the smoke is not the cause of the fire." The following is from Harris's "Drunkard's Cup," p. 299, Nay if the house be not worth an Ivie Bush, let him have his tooles about him; Nutmegs, Rosemary, Tobacco, with other the appurtenances, and he knowes how of puddleale to make a cup of English wine." "In olde times, such as solde Horses were wont to put flowers or boughes upon their heads as they now put ribands or straws." The Checquers, at this time a common Sign of a public house, was originally intended for a kind of Draughtboard, called Tables, and showed that there that game might be played. From their colour, which was red, and the similarity to a Lattice, it was corruptly called the Red Lettuce, which word is frequently used by ancient writers to signify an alehouse. The Editor of Brand's Popular Antiquities observes, "Perhaps the reader will express some surprise when he is told that shops with the Sign of the Checquers were common among the Romans. See a view of the lefthand street of Pompeii, presented by Sir William Hamilton to the Antiquarian Society." In King Henry IV. p. 2, Falstaff's Page, speaking of Bardolph, says, "He called me even now, my lord, through a Red Lattice, and I could see no part of his face from the window." This designation of an Alehouse is not altogether lost, though the original meaning of the word is, the Sign being converted into a Green Lettuce. "The keeper of a Village Inn in Essex named Bush, having a very prettie daughter, was often told humoursomelie that Betty was the most inviting Bush that ever looked over a Lattice; and it was a compliment paid to herself, who wore much ornament of apparel, that good wine needed no Bush." A curious mode of getting customers to spend money in alehouses used to be to get them to drink to the number of letters in their mistresses names, like the Roman custom, of which we are told, Clodia sex Cyathis, septem Justina bibatur. Antiquaries have always been much interested about Signs, as we may find by a paper in the Antiquarian Repertory, and have likewise puzzled themselves uselessly about the origin of the strange composition of incongruous animals and things which we see on Signs. On this branch of our inquiry a very amusing paper will be found in the Spectator, Vol. I. The Signs of London formerly were a source of great amusement to foreigners, who wondered to see a Fox and the Seven Stars together, a Cat and Bagpipes, Sun and Whalebone, and many other strange accompaniments. In a curious poem, entitled, " Poor Robin's Perambulation from Saffron Walden to London, July 1678, 4to. Lond. 1678, p. 22, the following lines occur: Going still nearer London, I did come In little space of time to Newington. The Signs of Cock and Pie, and Bull and Lion. In the British Apollo we find verses something like the following: I'm amazed at the Signs, As I pass through the town, The Bible and Swan, The Axe and the Bottle, Or o'er Booksellers Stalls. "As for the Signs," says an old writer, they have pretty well begun their reformation already, changing the Sign of the Salutation of the Angel and our Lady into the Souldier and Citizen, and the Katherine Wheel into the Cat and Wheel; so as there only wants their making the Dragon to kill St. George, and the Devil to tweak St. Dunstan by the nose, to make the reformation compleat. Such ridiculous work they make of their reformation, and so zealous are they against all mirth and jollity, as they would pluck down the Sign of the Cat and Fiddle too, if it durst but play so loud as they might hear it."* Probably from the strange couplets on Signs came the popular verse sung to children : Hei diddle diddle, the Cat and the Fiddle, The little Dog laughed to see such a sport, The three Blue Balls, as is observed in the Antiquarian Repertory, prefixed to the doors and windows of Pawnbrokers' Shops, by the vulgar humourously enough said to indicate that it is two to one that the things pledged are ever redeemed, were in reality the Arms of a set of Merchants from Lombardy, who were the first that publicly lent money on pledges. They dwelt together in a street from them named Lombard Street in London. The appellation of Lombard was formerly all over Europe considered as synonymous to "Usurer."The three Golden Balls are more modern than those painted blue. We next come to Barbers' Signs and the explanation of the Barber's Pole, still to be seen in our old towns and villages. Brand observes, that the Sign of a Barber's Shop being singular has attracted much notice. It is generally distinguished by a long Pole instead of a Sign. In the Athe * A curious Letter will be found in the Gent. Mag. for Sept. 1770, vol. xi. p. 403, on the Origin of Signs denoting Trades. nian Oracle, vol. i. p. 334, this custom is thus accounted for: it is of remote antiquity:-" The Barber's art was so beneficial to the publick, that he who first brought it up in Rome, had, as authors relate, a statue erected to his memory. In England they were in some sort the surgeons of old times, into whose art those beautiful Leeches, our fair Virgins, were also accustomed to be initiated. In cities and corporate towns they still retain their name of Barber Chirurgeons. They therefore used to hang their Basons out upon Poles, to make known at a distance to the weary and wounded traveller where all might have recourse. They used Poles, as some inns still gibbet their Signs across a town." Some persons think this Pole originated from the word Poll or Head, and others have indulged conceits as farfetched and as unmeaning; but the true intention of that particoloured Staff was to show that the master of the shop practised Surgery, and could breathe a vein as well as mow a beard: such a Staff being to this day, by every village practitioner, put into the hand of a patient undergoing the operations of phlebotomy. The white band, which encompasses the Staff, was meant to represent the fillet thus elegantly twined about it. In confirmation of this opinion the reader may be referred to the Cut of the Barber's Shop in "Comenii Orbis pictus," where the patient under phlebotomy is represented with a Pole or Staff in his hand. And that this is a very ancient practice appears from an Illumination in a Missal of the time of Edward the First. Lord Thurlow, in his Speech for postponing the further reading of the Surgeon's Incorporation Bill, July 17th, 1797, to that day three months, in the House of Peers, stated, "That by a statute still in force, the Barbers and Surgeons were each to use a Pole. The Barbers were to have theirs blue and white, striped, with no other appendage; but the Surgeons, which was the same in other respects, was likewise to have a Galley Pot and a Red Rag, to denote the particular nature of their vocation." Gay, in his Fable of the Goat without a Beard, thus humourously describes a Barber's Shop, the Monkey officiating as Barber to the Goat: -- His Pole with Pewter Basons hung, Who shaved, drew Teeth, and breathed a Vein. We shall resume and conclude the consideration of Signs on the 20th instant. August 19. SS. Timothy, Agapius, and Thecla Martyrs. St. Lewis Bishop and Confessor. St. Mochteus Bishop. St. Cumin Bishop in Ireland. CHRONOLOGY.-Battle at St. Martha in 1702. It was on this day in 1782 that the Royal George of 100 guns sunk off Spithead, and in her perished above 600 persons. Her remains were visited in a diving bell. Augusti mors.-Rom. Cal. The death of any great man naturally brings the recollections of his character into one's mind; that of Augustus seems to have been pleasing, affable, and good humoured. Among other good traits was one in particular, worthy the imitation of crowned heads in general. He so disliked prostration and adulation from his subject that he ridiculed it, and has been known to ask a beggar, who approached him in an humble and trembling manner, whether he thought him an Elephant? Louis XVI. of France, Frederick II. of Prussia, Joseph Emperor of Germany, and Napoleon, forbade their subjects to kneel before them, mindful of the sentiment that Shakespeare has so well expressed :— Mock not flesh and blood With solemn reverence, &c. FAUNA.-About this time of year Earwigs and other insects of this class become very numerous and troublesome, particularly in houses where Vines or any other trees or ornamental plants are trained up against the walls. We believe their name has no connexion whatever with the popular notion of their getting into the ears, notwithstanding the French have got the name Perce oreille. The Germans call them Erdwig, from the same Saxon root as our name, and which we imagine to signify Earthworker. They certainly enter holes and shady places in hot weather; but we recollect no well authenticated story of their entering the human ear, the cerumen in which seems calculated to prevent their entrance. AESTIVAL FLORA.-The following are the Summer plants now in full perfection: INDIAN CRESS or NASTURTIUM Tropoeolum majus. CHINA ASTER Aster Chinensis, many beautiful varieties. CRIMSON MONARDA Monarda fistulosa. PRINCES' FEATHER Amaranthus melancholicus. LOVE LIES BLEEDING Amaranthus hypochondriacus. There are several other species also common now. See Hort. Kew. v. p. 171. |