p. 77. _The Three Cranes in the Vintry._ "Then the Three Cranes' lane, so called, not only of _a sign of three cranes at a tavern door_, but rather of three strong cranes of timber placed on the Vintry wharf by the Thames side, to crane up wines there, as is afore showed. This lane was of old time, to wit, the 9th of Richard II., called The Painted Tavern lane, of the tavern being painted."--Stow's _Survey of London_, ed. by Thoms, p. 90.
"The Three Cranes was formerly a favourite London sign. With the usual jocularity of our forefathers, an opportunity for punning could not be passed; so, instead of the three cranes, which in the vintry used to lift the barrels of wine, three birds were represented. The Three Cranes in Thames Street, or in the vicinity, was a famous tavern as early as the reign of James I. It was one of the taverns frequented by the wits in Ben Jonson's time. In one of his plays he says:--
'A pox o' these pretenders! to wit, your _Three Cranes_, Mitre and Mermaid men! not a corn of true salt, not a grain of right mustard among them all!'--_Bartholomew Fair_, act i. sc. 1.
"On the 23rd of January, 1661/2 Pepys suffered a strong mortification of the flesh in having to dine at this tavern with some poor relations. The sufferings of the snobbish secretary must have been intense:--
'By invitation to my uncle Fenner's, and where I found his new wife, a _pitiful, old, ugly, ill-bred_ woman in a hatt, a mid-wife. Here were many of his, and as many of her, relations, _sorry, mean people_; and after choosing our gloves, we all went over to the Three Cranes Taverne; and though the best room of the house, in such a narrow dogghole we were crammed, and I believe we were near 40, that it made me loath my company and victuals, and a very poor dinner it was too.'
"Opposite this tavern people generally left their boats to shoot the bridge, walking round to Billingsgate, where they would reenter them."--Hotten's _History of Signboards_, p. 204.
p. 77. _Saynt Iulyans in Thystellworth parish._ 'Thistleworth, see Isleworth,' says Walker's Gazetteer, ed. 1801. That there might well have been a St Julyan's Inn there we learn from the following extract:
"St. Julian, the patron of travellers, wandering minstrels, boatmen,[186] &c., was a very common inn sign, because he was supposed to provide good lodgings for such persons. Hence two St. 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:--