Inscriptions -- England -- London; London (England) -- Antiquities; Signs and signboards
[22] A pageant was originally the structure on which the performance
took place. Archdeacon Rogers, who saw the performance at Chester
in 1594, says that ‘Every company had its pagiant, or parte, whiche
pagiants weare a high scafolde with 2 roomes, a higher and a lower,
upon 4 wheeles. In the lower they apparelled themselves, and in the
higher they played, being all open on the tope, that all behoulders
mighte heare and see them.’
[23] One is reminded of Falstaff’s words (1 Henry IV. Act i., Scene 2):
‘For we, that take purses, go by the moon and seven stars; and not by
Phœbus,--he, that wandering knight so fair.’ Again, Pistol says; ‘Sweet
knight, I kiss thy nief. What! we have seen the seven stars.’
[24] King Richard II. had two badges: the Sun in splendour, and the
White Hart. The former is shown on the mainsail of the vessel in
which he returned from Ireland, in an illumination to a manuscript
account of Richard, by a gentleman of his suite (Harl. MS. 1319). It
is also mentioned by the poet Gower. The Sun in splendour, encircled
with a cloud distilling drops of rain, is a charge in the arms of the
Distillers’ Company. I may add that the Three Crowns appear in the arms
of the Skinners’ Company, which according to Strype were granted in the
4th year of Edward VI.
[25] ‘Some Account of the Parish of St. Clement Danes,’ by John
Diprose. 1868. Vol. i., p. 257.
[26] Guillim intimates the reason for representing the bear muzzled
in heraldry: ‘The beare by nature is a cruell beast, but this here
demonstrated unto you, is (to prevent the mischief it might otherwise
do, as you may observe) as it were, bound to the good behaviour with a
muzle.’--‘Heraldry,’ sec. iii., chap. xv., p. 199. 1660.
[27] Hicks Hall was a session-house for Middlesex. At the corner of St.
John Street, Clerkenwell, and Peter’s Lane, affixed to the wall of the
Queen’s Head tavern, is a stone tablet with the following inscription:
‘Opposite this Place Hicks Hall formerly stood, 1 mile 1 furlong from
the Standard in Cornhill, 4 furlongs 205 yards from Holborn Barrs down
Holborn, up Snow Hill, Cow Lane and through Smithfield.’
A Jacobean chimney-piece from Hicks Hall, and a portrait of Sir
Baptist, are in the Sessions House, Clerkenwell Green. See an amusing
article on Suburban Milestones, in Knight’s ‘London.’
[28] Whitechapel Mount was an elevation of ground generally thought
to have been composed, in part at least, of rubbish from the Great
Fire: Lysons, however, denies this. Another idea is, that it was a
great burial-place for victims of the Plague of 1665. A fort was built
here in 1642, one of the series then thrown round London. The Mount is
shown in Strype’s map of 1720, and in a view of London Hospital, by
Chatelain. Towards the end of last century it was a place of resort for
pugilists and dog-fighters. Mount Street and Mount Place, immediately
west of the London Hospital, Whitechapel Road, now occupy the ground,
which is still slightly raised.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account