Although the English ale and refreshment houses continue to select fresh signs from the notabilities of the hour, the Palmerston’s Head and the Gladstone Arms for instance, they rarely choose anything of a religious or devotional cast. One instance, however, occurs to us, and that in the neighbourhood of London, which deserves mention. In Kentish Town, under the Hampstead hills, the noisiest and most objectionable public-house in the district bears the significant sign of the GOSPEL OAK. It is the favourite resort of navvies and quarrelsome shoemakers, and took its name, not from any inclination to piety on the part of the landlord, but from an old oak tree in the neighbourhood, near the boundary line of Hampstead and St Pancras parishes, a relic of the once general custom of reading a portion of the gospel under certain trees in the parish perambulations, equivalent to “beating the bounds.” “The boundaries and township of the parish of Wolverhampton are,” says Shaw, in his “History of Staffordshire,” (vol. ii., p. 165,) “in many points marked out by what are called _Gospel Trees_;” and Herrick, in his “Hesperides,” (Ed. 1859, p. 26,) says:-- “Dearest, bury me Under that _holy oak_, or _gospel tree_; Where, though thou see’st not, thou may’st think upon Me, when _thou yeerly go’st procession_.” The old Kentish Town Gospel Oak was removed a short time since, but not until it had given a name to the surrounding fields, to a village, (Oak village,) and to a chapel, as well as to the public-house alluded to. [366] New Essays and Characters, by John Stephens the younger, of Lincoln’s Inn, Gent. London, 1631, p. 221. [367] Randle Holme, “Academy of Armour and Blazon,” p. 52. [368] _Postman_, Feb. 1-3, 1711. [369] “Notandum quoq. eius (pavonis) carnem quod D. Augustinus quoq., lib. xxi. de civitate Dei, cap. iii., et Isidorus, lib. xii., affirmant non putrescere.”--_Camerarius, Centur._, iii. 20, 1697. How to make this agree with Skelton’s idea it is not very easy to explain-- “Then sayd the Pecocke, All ye well wot, I sing not musycal, For my breast is decay’d.”--_Skelton’s Armory of Birds._ [370] See Fosbrooke’s Encyclopædia of Antiquities, vol. ii., p. 673. [371] For particulars of Topham, the Strong Man, see under HISTORICAL SIGNS. [372] This statement is made on the authority of Hone, in his “Ancient Mysteries.” Doubts, however, have been expressed as to the accuracy of his data upon this particular subject. [373] Diary of John Evelyn, Feb. 3, 1684. [374] Bagford Collection, Bib. Harl., 5931. [375] “The wood is cut in order to be burned, Therefore is this Abraham’s sacrifice.” [376] JACOB’S INN is mentioned by Hatton, 1708, “on the east side of Red Cross Street near the middle.” [377] “Amusements for the Meridian of London,” 1706. [378]