There was, at the end of the last century, a painted sign still remaining, which, under a coating of summer’s dust and winter’s sludge, faintly showed two pots of beer placed in the same position as they are on the title-page of the original edition of Skelton’s poem.
The sign of the Two Pots again gave rise to that of the Three Pots, at Horseway Bridge, Chatteris, in the same county, and at Burbage, near Hinckley.
The Rummer, another drinking vessel, is also common: there is one in Old Fish Street, and there are three Rummer public-houses in Bristol alone. A tavern of that name was kept by Samuel Prior, uncle of Matthew Prior the poet. Uncle Sam took his nephew as an apprentice to learn the business, and be his successor. Prior alludes to this uncle and his little professional tricks in the following lines:—
“My uncle, rest his soul, when living,
Might have contrived me ways of thriving;
Taught me with cider to replenish
My vats or ebbing tide of Rhenish;
So, when for Hock I drew pricked white Wine,
Swear ’t had the flavour and was right wine.”
To his stay in this tavern also alludes the bitter Whig satire in “State Poems,” (ii., p. 355,) beginning—
“A vintner’s boy the wretch was first preferr’d
To wait at vice’s gates and pimp for bread;
To hold the candle, and sometimes the door,
Let in the drunkard, and let out the w——.”
In 1709 there was another Rummer tavern “over against Bow Lane, in Cheapside,” where “the surprizing Mr Higgins, the posture master, that lately performed at the Queen’s Theatre Royal in the Haymarket,” was to be seen every evening at six; admission 18d. and 1s.
This sign was also common in Holland two centuries ago; at that time there was one in Amsterdam with this inscription:—
“Als gy dees Roemer ziet, gy kunt ze pryzen of laken,
Maar komt in, proeft zyn nat, dat zal u beeter smaaken.”[562]