With regard to the SWAN AND SUGARLOAF, which occurs amongst the trades tokens, and is still seen, (as in Fetter Lane, for instance,) the sugarloaf was at first added by a grocer, whose sign having gained popularity as a noted landmark, or from other causes, was imitated by rivals or juniors, particularly on account of its presenting the favourite alliteration. Combinations with the sugarloaf are very common, all arising from its being the grocer’s sign: thus the THREE CROWNS AND SUGARLOAF, Kidderminster; WHEATSHEAF AND SUGARLOAF, Ratcliff Highway, seventeenth century, (trades token;) TOBACCO ROLL AND SUGARLOAF, Gray’s Inn Gate, Holborn;[302] the THREE COFFINS AND SUGARLOAF, Fleet Street, 1720. In the sign of the SWAN AND RUSHES, at Leicester, the rushes were merely a pictorial accessory, placed in the background to bring out the white plumage of the Swan, whilst the SWAN AND HELMET, at Northampton, no doubt originated from a helmet with a Swan for crest. In one instance, a DRAKE occurs as a sign, namely, on the token of Will. Johnson, at “ye Drake in Bell Yard,” near Temple Bar, 1667. The Duck is only to be seen in company with the Dog; in one instance it accompanies a Mallard. This last animal was otherwise well known to the Londoners, since in 1520, amongst “the articles of good gouernãce of the cite of London,” it was recommended to magistrates--“also ye shall enquyre, yf ony person kepe or norrysh hoggis, oxen, kyen, or _mallardis_ within the ward in noying of ther neyhbours.”[303] The DUCK AND MALLARD was the sign of a lock (and probably gun-) smith in East Smithfield in 1673.[304] The PIGEON was a tavern at Charing Cross in 1675.[305] The THREE PIGEONS were very common; there still exists an inn of this name at Brentford:-- “It is a house of interest as being in all likelihood one of the few haunts of Shakespeare now remaining; as being indeed the sole Elizabethan tavern existing in England, which in the absence of direct evidence, may fairly be presumed to have been occasionally visited by him.”[306] It was kept at one time by Lowin, one of the original actors in Shakespeare’s plays, and is often named by the old dramatists: “Thou art admirably suited for the _Three Pigeons_ at Brentford. I swear I know thee not.”--_The Roaring Girl._ “We will turn our courage to Braynford, westward, My Bird of the Night--to the Pigeons.” _Ben Jonson’s Alchymist._ There, also, George Peel played some of his merry pranks. In the parlour is an old painting dated 1704, representing a landlord attending to some customers seated at a table in the open air, with these lines:-- “Wee are new beginners And thrive wee would fain, I am honest Ralph of Reading, My wife Susana to name.”