Dowie’s was much resorted to by the Lords of Session for “Meridians,” as well as in the evening for its Edinburgh ale. The ale was Younger’s. That brewer, together with his friends, instituted a Club there, which they sportively called the “College of Doway.” Johnnie Dowie is described as having been the sleekest and kindest of landlords. Nothing could equal the benignity of his smile when he brought in a bottle of “the Ale” to a company of well-known and friendly customers. It was a perfect treat to see his formality in drawing the cork, his precision in filling the glasses, his regularity in drinking the healths of all present in the first glass (which he always did, and at every successive bottle), and then his douce civility in withdrawing. Johnnie always wore a cocked hat, and buckles at knees and shoes, as well as a crutched cane.[52] Not so polished as Burns’ verses, but perhaps more suited to the Genius loci, are the lines written up in a certain old tap-room:— He that doath upon the table sit, A pot of porter shall for-fe-it. [52] Hone’s Year Book. The following additional specimens of tap-room verse are typical of their kind, and may be said to contain the be-all and end-all of the host’s proverbial philosophy. The first is taken from an Inn at Sittingbourne, where it hangs framed and glazed over the door:— Call frequently, Drink moderately, Pay honourably, Be good company, Part friendly, Go home quietly. The second is longer, but perhaps not quite so comprehensive:— All you that bring tobacco here, Must pay for pipes as well as beer; And you that stand before the fire, I pray sit down by good desire; {228} That other folks as well as you, May see the fire and feel it too. Since man to man is so unjust, I cannot tell what man to trust: My Liquor’s good, ’tis no man’s sorrow, Pay to-day. I’ll trust to-morrow. It may not be amiss to devote a few lines to the signboard artists. The following passage in _Whimzies: or a New Cast of Characters_ (1631) gives an early example of the way in which many a village signboard has been painted. “He (a painter) bestowes his Pencile on an aged piece of decayed canvas in a sooty ale-house, when _Mother Redcap_ must be set out in her Colours. Here hee and his barmy Hostess drew both together, but not in like nature; she in _Ale_, he in _Oyle_, but her commoditie goes better downe, which he meanes to have his full share of, when his worke is done. If she aspire to the Conceite of a Signe, and desire to have her Birch-pole pulled downe, he will supply her with one.” It seems that in the last century, the palmy days of signboards, the best signs were produced by the coach-painters, who derived their skill from the custom amongst the wealthy of having their coach panels decorated with a variety of subjects.