The Trade Signs of Essex: A popular account of the origin and meanings of the public houses & other signs — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
The Trade Signs of Essex: A popular account of the origin and meanings of the public houses & other signs
John Stuart Mill · en
Beacon of Henry V., the Feathers of Henry VI., the Star of the Lords of
Oxford (whose brilliancy decided the fate of the Battle of Barnet), the
Lion of the Duke of Norfolk (which shone conspicuous on Bosworth field),
and many others, too numerous to mention, may yet be seen as sign-boards
to village inns contiguous to the former castles of families whose
possessions have passed into other hands.” From the red shield (_roth
schild_), above the door of the house of an honest old Hebrew, forming
No. 148 in the _Juden Gasse_, or Jews’ Alley, at Frankfort, has been
derived the name of the richest family in the world.
From these heraldic devices have unquestionably been derived many of the
strangely-coloured animals, such as red and blue lions, blue boars,
&c., which are quite unknown to men of science, and have never yet been
seen except in Heraldry and upon sign-boards. A calculation will show
that no less than 203 Essex signs, or about 15 per cent., are described
as being of some particular colour, and that these coloured signs are
animals in nearly all cases--one good proof of their heraldic origin.
Black occurs 24 times, blue 7 times, golden 6 times, green 28 times
(including dragons and men only), red 39 times (including 34 RED LIONS,
3 RED COWS, 1 RED HOUSE, and 1 RED TAPE TAVERN), and white exactly 100
times (including 50 WHITE HARTS, 2 WHITE SWANS, 2 WHITE BEARS, WHITE
LIONS, WHITE HORSES, &c.). In London the proportion of coloured signs is
much smaller. There are 79 distinct devices, or about 4·5 per cent. of
the entire number.