The COCK AND TRUMPET is a common sign, typifying those ideas about the cock expressed on p. 205. This simile is constantly used by the poets; and most beautifully enlarged upon by Shakespeare:-- “The _Cock_ that is the _Trumpet_ of the morn,” &c.--_Hamlet_, a. i. sc. 1. “And now the _Cock_, the morning’s _trumpeter_, Play’d hunt’s up to the day-star to appear.”--_Drayton._ “All the night shrill chaunticler, Day’s Proclaiming _Trumpeter_, Claps his wings and loudly cries, Mortals, mortals, wake, arise.”--_Nativity Hymn._[296] The COCK AND BELL, if not a simple combination of two signs, may be derived from a custom formerly practised in some parts of England, for boys to have cock-fights on Shrove Tuesday; the party whose cock won the most battles, was held victorious in the cock-pit, and gained the prize--a small silver _bell_ suspended to the button of the victor’s hat, and worn for three successive Sundays. It is an old sign, and occurs on a Birchin Lane trades token between 1648 and 1672. The COCK AND BREECHES originated in a favourite form of gilt gingerbread at Bartholomew Fair, although the very objectionable anecdote of Joe Miller concerning such a sign is generally believed to have had something to do with its origin. The COCK AND BULL is still frequently seen, but though the meaning of the phrase is well understood, neither its origin, nor the meaning of the two animals on the signboard, have as yet been properly explained. As we have no sound theory to offer, we shall abstain from entering on the subject, for fear of giving an illustration of what a cock-and-bull story is, rather than clearing up the mystery of the signboard. It occurs amongst the seventeenth century trades tokens. The COCK AND DOLPHIN was the sign of one of the London carriers’ inns:-- “James Nevil’s Coach to Hampstead comes to the Cock and Dolphin in Gray’s Inn Lane, in and out every day.”--_De Laune’s Present State of London_, 1681. Hatton, in 1708, placed this inn “on the east side of Gray’s Inn Lane, near the middle.” At the present day it is a public-house sign in Kendal, Westmoreland. It is more likely to be a combination of two signs, than to refer to the French Cock and the Dolphin in the arms of the Dauphin. The same applies to the COCK AND ANCHOR in Gateshead and Dublin; the COCK AND SWAN, and the COCK AND CROWN, both in Wakefield; and the COCK AND BEAR at Nuneaton; whilst the COCK AND HOUSE in Norwich may originally have been the cocking-house of the district,--that is, the house where cock-fights were held. Fully as general as the sign of the Cock is that of the SWAN; the reason why, is perhaps truly, though coarsely, expressed under an old Dutch signboard:-- “De Swaan voert ieder kroeg, zoowel in dorp als stad, Om dat hy altyd graag is met de bek in ’t nat.”[297]