The RANGED DEER was the sign of the King’s gunsmith in the Minories, 1673.[229] At that period this street was full of smiths:
“The Mulcibers who in the Minories sweat And massive bars on stubborn anvils beat, Deform’d themselves, yet forge those stays of steel Which arm Aurelia with a shape to kill.”--_Congreve._
This ranged deer was simply intended for the Reindeer, which animal had then just newly come under the notice of the public; their knowledge of it was still confused, and its name was spelled in various ways, such as: _rain-deer_, _rained-deer_, _range-deer_, and _ranged-deer_.
THE ROEBUCK is equally common with the Stag; the GOLDEN BUCK, near St Dunstan, was the shop of P. Overton, publisher of “The Cries of the City of London, consisting of 74 copper-prints, each figure drawn after the life, by the famous Mr Laron.” The BUCK AND BELL is a sign at Long Itchington: the bell was frequently added to the signs of public-houses in honour of the bell-ringers, who were in the habit of refreshing themselves there. Hence we have the BULL AND BELL, Briggate, Leeds; the RAVEN AND BELL, at Shrewsbury, Wolverhampton, and Newport; the BELL AND TALBOT, at Bridgenorth; the DOLPHIN AND BELL on the token of John Warner, Aldersgate, 1668; the FISH AND BELL, (evidently the same sign,) Charles Street, Soho; the THREE SWANS AND PEAL at Walsall; the NELSON AND PEAL, and many others.
Among the taverns with the sign of the ROEBUCK that have become famous, the house in Cheapside may be mentioned as a notorious place during the Whig riots in 1715.
Not only the Deer tribe themselves, but their HORNS also make a considerable figure on the signboard. It is probably to the sign of the Horns that allusion is made in the roll of the Pardoner, “Cocke Lorells Bote:”--
“Here is Maryone Marchauntes at Allgate Her Husbõde dwells at ye siggne of _ye Cokeldes Pate_.”
The HORNS was a tavern of note in Fleet Street in the reign of Queen Elizabeth:
“The xvj day of September (1557), cam owt of Spayn to the Quens Cowrt in post Monser Regamus, gorgysly apparelled, with divers Spaneardes, and with grett cheynes, and their hats sett with stones and perlles, and sopyd [supped], and by vij of the cloke were again on horsẽbake, and so thrugh Flet Strett, and at the HORNES they dronke, and at the GRAYHONDE, and so thrugh Chepesyde, and so over the bryge, and so rod all nyght toward Dover.”--_Machyn’s Diary._