=1. 1. 63 Custome-house key.= This was in Tower Street on the Thames side. Stow (ed. Thoms, pp. 51. 2) says that the custom-house was built in the sixth year of Richard II. Jonson mentions the place again in _Every Man in_, _Wks._ 1. 69. =1. 1. 66 the Dagger, and the Wool-sacke.= These were two ordinaries or public houses of low repute, especially famous for their pies. There were two taverns called the ‘Dagger,’ one in Holborn and one in Cheapside. It is probably to the former of these that Jonson refers. It is mentioned again in the _Alchemist_ (_Wks._ 4. 24 and 165) and in Dekker’s _Satiromastix_ (_Wks._ 1. 200). Hotten says that the sign of a dagger was common, and arose from its being a charge in the city arms. The Woolsack was without Aldgate. It was originally a wool-maker’s sign. Machyn mentions the tavern in 1555; and it is alluded to in Dekker, _Shoemaker’s Holiday_, _Wks._ 1. 61. See Wh-C. and Hotten’s _History of Signboards_, pp. 325 and 362. =1. 1. 69 Belins-gate.= Stow (ed. Thoms, p. 78) describes Belins-gate as ‘a large water-gate, port or harborough.’ He mentions the tradition that the name was derived from that of Belin, King of the Britons, but discredits it. Billingsgate is on the Thames, a little below London Bridge, and is still the great fish-market of London. =1. 1. 70 shoot the Bridge.= The waterway under the old London Bridge was obstructed by the narrowness of the arches, by cornmills built in some of the openings, and by the great waterworks at its southern end. ‘Of the arches left open some were too narrow for the passage of boats of any kind. The widest was only 36 feet, and the resistance caused to so large a body of water on the rise and fall of the tide by this contraction of its channel produced a fall or rapid under the bridge, so that it was necessary to “ship oars” to _shoot the bridge_, as it was called,--an undertaking, to amateur watermen especially, not unattended with danger. “With the flood-tide it was impossible, and with the ebb-tide dangerous to pass through or _shoot_ the arches of the bridge.” In the latter case prudent passengers landed above the bridge, generally at the _Old Swan Stairs_, and walked to some wharf, generally _Billingsgate_, below it.’--Wh-C. =1. 1. 70 the Cranes i’ the Vintry.= These were ‘three strong cranes of timber placed on the Vintry wharf by the Thames to crane up wine there (Stow, ed. Thoms, p. 00). They were situated in Three Cranes’ lane, and near by was the famous tavern mentioned as one of the author’s favorite resorts (_Bart. Fair_ 1. 1, _Wks._ 4. 356). Jonson speaks of it again in _The Silent Woman_, _Wks._ 3. 376, and in the _Masque of Augurs_. Pepys visited the place on January 23, 1662, and describes the best room as ‘a narrow dogg-hole’ in which he and his friends were crammed so close ‘that it made me loath my company and victuals, and a sorry dinner it was too.’ Cf. also Dekker, (_Non-dram. Wks._ 8. 77).