“When the name gives an occasion for an ingenious signpost, I would likewise advise the owner to take that opportunity of letting the world know who he is. It would have been ridiculous for the ingenious Mrs Salmon to have lived at the sign of the trout, for which reason she has erected before her house the figure of the fish that is her namesake. Mr Bell has likewise distinguished himself by a device of the same nature. And here, sir, I must beg leave to observe to you, that this particular figure of a Bell has given occasion to several pieces of wit in this head. A man of your reading must know that Abel Drugger gained great applause by it in the time of Ben Jonson. Our Apocryphal heathen god is also represented by this figure, which, in conjunction with the Dragon,[32] makes a very handsome picture in several of our streets. As for the _Bell Savage_, which is the sign of a savage man standing by a bell, I was formerly very much puzzled upon the conceit of it, till I accidentally fell into the reading of an old romance translated out of the French, which gives an account of a very beautiful woman, who was found in a wilderness, and is called _la Belle Sauvage_, and is everywhere translated by our countrymen _the Bell Savage_.[33] This piece of philology will, I hope, convince you that I have made signposts my study, and consequently qualified myself for the employment which I solicit at your hands. But before I conclude my letter, I must communicate to you another remark which I have made upon the subject with which I am now entertaining you--namely, that I can give a shrewd guess at the humour of the inhabitant by the sign that hangs before his door. A surly, choleric fellow generally makes choice of a _Bear_, as men of milder dispositions frequently live at the _Lamb_. Seeing _a Punchbowl_ painted upon a sign near Charing Cross, and very curiously garnished, with a couple of angels hovering over it and squeezing a lemon into it, I had the curiosity to ask after the master of the house, and found upon inquiry, as I had guessed by the little _agrémens_ upon his sign, that he was a Frenchman.” Another reason for “quartering” signs was on removing from one shop to another, when it was customary to add the sign of the old shop to that of the new one. “WHEREAS Anthony Wilton, who lived at the GREEN CROSS publick-house against the new Turnpike on New Cross Hill, has been removed for two years past to the new boarded house now the sign of the GREEN CROSS AND KROSS KEYES on the same hill,” &c.--_Weekly Journal_, November 22, 1718. “THOMAS BLACKALL and Francis Ives, Mercers, are removed from the SEVEN STARS on Ludgate Hill to the BLACK LION AND SEVEN STARS over the way.”--_Daily Courant_, November 17, 1718. “PETER DUNCOMBE and Saunders Dancer, who lived at the NAKED BOY in Great Russell Street, Covent Garden, removed to the NAKED BOY AND MITRE, near Sommerset House, Strand,” &c.--_Postboy_, January 2-4, 1711.