The History of Signboards, from the Earliest times to the Present DayHotten, John Camden
History
The History of Signboards, from the Earliest times to the Present Day
Hotten, John Camden
Inn signs -- England -- History; Signs and signboards -- History
At one time the Mother Redcap, in Kentish Town, was kept by an old
crone, from her amiable temper surnamed Mother Damnable.[117] This was
probably the same person we find elsewhere alluded to under the name of
Mother Huff, as in Baker’s “Comedy of Hampstead Heath,” 1706, a. ii. s.
1. “_Arabella._--Well, this Hampstead’s a charming place, to dance all
night at the Wells, and be treated at _Mother Huff’s_.”
[Illustration: PLATE VI.
THREE SQUIRRELS.
(Fleet Street, circa 1668.)
HAND AND STAR.
(1550.)
CHESHIRE CHEESE.
(Modern sign, Aldermanbury, City.)
KING’S PORTER AND DWARF.
(Newgate Street, circa 1668.)
ROYAL OAK.
(Roxburghe Ballads, 1660.)]
Only a few more celebrities now remain to be disposed of; but they are
of such a varied character, and so heterogeneous, that they can scarcely
be ranged under any of the former divisions: thus we meet with the stern
reformer, MELANCTHON’S HEAD, as the sign of an orthodox publican, in
Park Street, Derby. Pretty NELL GWYNN occurs on several London
public-houses: one in Chelsea, where she must have been well known,
since her mother resided in that neighbourhood, and popular tradition
allows Nell to have been one of the principal promoters of the erection
of the famous hospital there. Another house, named after Charles II.’s
favourite mistress, may be observed in Drury Lane, in which street she
lived, and where Pepys, on May-day, 1667, saw her “standing at her
lodgings door, in her smock sleeves and boddice,” and thought her “a
mighty pretty creature.”
The SIR JOHN OLDCASTLE was a tavern, in Coldbathfields, in the beginning
of the last century; near this house, Bagford and a Mr Conyers, an
antiquarian apothecary of Fleet Street, discovered the skeleton of an
elephant in a gravel pit.[118] This house is also named in the following
bill:--[119]
“All gentlemen, who are lovers of the ancient and noble exercise of
archery, are hereby invited, by the stewards of the annual feast for
the Clerkenwell Archers, to dine with them at Mrs Mary Barton’s, at
the sign of Sir John Oldcastle, upon Friday, the 18th day of July
1707, at one of the clock, and to pay the bearer, Thomas Beaumont,
Master of the Regiment of Archers, two shillings and sixpence, and to
take a sealed ticket, that the certain number may be known, and
provision made accordingly.
Nathaniel Axtell, Esq.} Stewards.”
Edward Bromwick, Gent.}
Opposite this house stood the LORD COBHAM’S HEAD, as appears from the
_Daily Advertiser_ for August 9, 1742, which contains an advertisement
puff of this place, praising its beer at 3d. a tankard, and mentioning
the concert and illuminations. The correspondent concludes his letter by
saying: “_Note._--In seeing this great preparation, I thought it a duty
incumbent upon me to inform my fellow-citizens and others, that they may
distinguish this place from any pretended concerts, which are nothing
but noise and nonsense, in particular, one that is rightly-styled the
_Hog-concert_,” &c.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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