[572] Additional MSS., 5079.
CHAPTER XII.
DRESS; PLAIN AND ORNAMENTAL.
Of this class only a few signs are to be found; one of the most common is the Hat, the usual hatter’s sign, although it may also be found before taverns and public-houses, in which case, however, it is probable that it was the previous sign of the house, which the publican on entering left unaltered; or it may have been used to suggest “a house of call” to the trade. The age of each individual hat-sign may sometimes be gathered from its shape; thus there is one in Whitechapel, made out of tin, representing the cocked hat worn at the end of the last century; it is evidently a relic of that time. The continental hatters using this sign, occasionally indulged in a little humour. A hatter at Ghent in the sixteenth century added to it this distich:—
“Onder den Hoedt
Schuylt quaedt & goet.”[573]
And a Dutch hatter made a still more unpleasant allusion to the brains of his customers:—
“Hier maakt men sterke hoeden om de hersens in te sluyten
Opdat het los verstand daar niet mag vliegen buyten.”[574]
Dr Franklin used to tell an amusing story of a journeyman hatter, his companion when young, who on commencing business for himself, was anxious to get a handsome signboard, with a proper inscription. This he composed himself as follows:—