The SWAN WITH TWO NECKS is another _lusus naturæ_ observable on the signboard, said to owe its origin to the corruption of the word _nick_ into _neck_.[300] This explanation, however ingenious, is somewhat “_sujet à caution_,” for this reason: it is a well-known and established fact that the London signs of old had no inscriptions under them. Now, considering the small size of the nicks in question, they would scarcely have been perceptible at the height on which the sign was generally suspended, and even if visible, would never have been sufficiently noticed or understood to give a name to the sign. We shall not venture to propose another solution, as nothing of a sufficiently distinct character occurs to us: but it is just possible that a sign of two swans represented swimming side by side may have given rise to the “Swan with two necks,” or that the symbol of two birds’ necks encircled by a coronet which was used by a foreign publisher--taken, it has been conjectured, by him from the arms of some trade company--may have been the origin. Machyn, in his “Diary,” mentions the sign of “the Swane with the ij nekes at Mylke Street end,” in 1556, when on the 5th of August, a woman living next door to that sign drowned herself in Moorfields. In 1636, the TWO NECKED SWAN was already to be seen in Berkshire, at the town of Lamburne, where Taylor the water poet names it as the sign of a tavern. In later years it was a famous carriers’ inn in Lad Lane, Cheapside, whence, for more than a century and a half, passengers and goods were despatched to the North. To this inn the following couplet alludes:-- “True sportsmen know nor dread nor fear, Each rides, when once the saddle in, As if he had a neck to spare, Just like the Swan in Ladlane.” _Huddersford Cape Hunt._ Notwithstanding the “double bill” suggested by the two heads, it still continues a favourite inn sign. Four is rather an unusual number on the signboard, but we have this quadruple alliance in one solitary instance, the FOUR SWANS, Bishopsgate, which is internally one of the best remaining examples of those famous galleried inns of old London. The SWAN AND BOTTLE, Uxbridge, is a variation of the Cock and Bottle; the SWAN AND RUMMER was a coffee-house near the Exchange, during the South Sea bubble--the Rummer, a common addition, being simply joined to the Swan, to intimate that wine was sold; the SWAN AND SALMON are combined on many signs, doubtless in honour of the two ornaments of our English rivers. The very name is sufficient to call up a pleasant picture. The SWAN AND HOOP, Moorfields, was the birthplace of Keats the poet. The Swan on the Hoop, “on the way called old Fysshe Strete,” is mentioned as early as 1413.[301] The same combination may still be seen on London signboards.