A curious anecdote is told concerning the sign of a GELDING. Golden Square, it appears, was originally called Gelding Square, from the sign of a neighbouring inn; but the inhabitants, indignant at the vulgarity of the name, changed it to its present title.
Some publicans appear to be of opinion that the GREY MARE is the best horse for their signboards; in Lancashire, especially, this sign abounds. Others put up the MARE AND FOAL; but they are evidently not very well acquainted with the old ballad of the “Mare and Foal that went to church,” for there the Mare says:--
“Oh! to pray for those publicans I am very loath, They fill their pots full of nothing but froth, Some fill them half full, and others the whole; May the devil go with them!--Amen, says the foal. Derry down,” &c.
Besides the Mare and Foal, there is the COW AND CALF, which is very common. A still more happy mother, the COW AND TWO CALVES, was, in 1762, a sign near Chelsea Pond; whilst a touching picture of paternal bliss might have been seen on a sign in Islington in the last century, viz., the BULL AND THREE CALVES; that animal, doubtless, was placed there in the company of his offspring, to illustrate the homely old proverb, “He that bulls the cow must keep the calf.” The GOAT AND KID was a sign at Norwich in 1711;[243] the SOW AND PIGS is common; and the EWE AND LAMB occurs on a trades token of Hatton Garden in 1668, and may still be seen in many places. A practical traveller in the coaching days, staying at the Ewe and Lamb in Worcester, wrote on a pane of glass in that inn the following very true remark:--
“If the people suck your ale no more Than the poor Lamb, th’ Ewe at the door, You in some other place may dwell, Or hang yourself for all you’ll sell.”
The CAT AND KITTENS was, about 1823, a sign near Eastcheap; it may have come from the publican’s slang expression, _cat and kittens_, as applied to the large and small pewter pots. In the police courts it is not uncommon to hear that such and such low persons have been “had up” for “cat and kitten sneaking,” _i.e._, stealing quart and pint pots.
So much for quadrupeds. Happy families of birds are equally abundant; there was the SPARROW’S NEST in Drury Lane, of which trades tokens are extant; the THROSTLE NEST, (a not inappropriate name for a free-and-easy singing club!) is the sign of a public-house at Buglawton, near Congleton; the MARTIN’S NEST, at Thornhill Bridge, Normanton; the KITE’S NEST, (an unpromising name for an inn, if there be anything in a name,) at Stretton, in Herefordshire; and finally, the BROOD HEN, or HEN AND CHICKENS, which latter is more common than any of the former. Not improbably it originated with the sign of the Pelican’s Nest, to which several of the above-named nests may be referred. Under the name of the “Brood Hen,” it occurs on a trades token of Battle Bridge, Southwark; as the “Hen and Chickens,” it was also known in the seventeenth century, for there are tokens of John Sell “at y^{ e} Hen and Chickens on Hammond’s Key;” it is likewise mentioned in the following daily occurrence of the good old times:--