BISHOP BLAZE, or Blaize, otherwise St Blasius, is another patron of a trade to be met with on the signboard. This worthy, Bishop of Sebaste, in Cappadocia, is considered the patron of woolcombers, whence the sign is very common in the clothing districts. He is represented with the instrument of his martyrdom in his hands, an iron comb, with which the flesh was torn from his body in 289; from this implement has been attributed to him the invention of woolcombing. His holiday is celebrated every seventh year by a procession and feast of the masters and workmen of the woollen manufactories in Yorkshire and Bedfordshire; in sheep-shearing festivals, also, a representation of him used to be introduced; a stripling in habiliments of wool was seated on a milk-white steed, with a lamb in his lap, the horse, the youthful bishop, and the lamb all covered with a profusion of ribbons and flowers. ST JULIAN, the patron of travellers, wandering minstrels, boatmen, &c., was a very common inn sign, because he was supposed to provide good lodgings for such persons. Hence two Saint Julian’s crosses, in saltier, are in chief of the innholders’ arms, and the old motto was:--“When I was harbourless ye lodged me.” This benevolent attention to travellers procured him the epithet of “the good herbergeor,” and in France “_bon herbet_.” His legend in a MS., Bodleian, 1596, fol. 4, alludes to this:-- “Therfore yet to this day, thei that over lond wende, They biddeth Seint Julian, anon, that gode herborw he hem sende, And Seint Julianes Pater Noster ofte seggeth also For his faders soule and his moderes that he hem bring therto.” And in “Le dit des Heureux,” an old French fabliau:-- “Tu as dit la patenotre Saint Julian à cest matin, Soit en Roumans, soit en Latin, Or tu seras bien ostilé.”[409] In mediæval French, _L’hotel Saint Julien_ was synonymous with good cheer. “Sommes tuit vostre. Par Saint Pierre le bon Apostre, L’ostel aurez Saint Julien,”[410] says Mabile to her feigned uncle, in the fabliau of “Boivin de Provins;” and a similar idea appears in “Cocke Lorell’s bote,” where the crew, after the entertainment with the “relygyous women” from the Stews’ Bank, at Colman’s Hatch, “Blessyd theyr shyppe when they had done And dranke about a _Saint Julyan’s torne_.” ST MARTIN’S character as a saint was not unlike St Julian’s; hence we find him frequently on the signboard. The most favourite representation being the saint on horseback cutting off with his sword a piece of his cloak, in order to clothe a naked beggar. Not only inns, but booksellers also used his sign, as for instance Dionis Rose, (1514,) printer in the Rue St Jacques, Paris; and Bernard Aubrey, another printer in the same street. “Avoir l’hotel St Martin,” in old French, meant exactly the same as “avoir l’hotel St Julian:” thus, in the romance of Florus and Blanche:-- “_Flor._ Sovent dient par le bon vin Qu’ils ont l’ostel Saint Martin.”[411]