The first inhabitants are commemorated by the sign of the Ancient Briton; but this is not one of the “Cærulei Britanni,” though true blue for all that, but refers simply to a true patriot in the best sense of the word. Thus Boswell uses the expression in one of his letters to Dr Johnson:—

“I trust that you will be liberal enough to make allowance for my differing from you on two points, [the Middlesex election and the American war,] when my general principles of government are according to your own heart, and when, at a crisis of doubtful event, I stand forth with honest zeal as an ancient and faithful Briton.”

That this is the meaning attached to the word is evident from other signs of the same family, as True Briton, Generous Briton, &c., all common signatures to political letters in the newspapers of the Junius period. The modern John Bull, and the still later Old English Gentleman, descend from the same stock, and are all equally common.

England, Scotland, and Ireland was, in 1673, the sign of John Thornton, in the Minories, hydrographer to the Hon. East India Company. As he also sold maps, he had probably a map of the United Kingdom as his sign. Formerly signs representing buildings or localities in London were common, though generally they bore very little resemblance to the places intended. Among the trades tokens we find the Exchange, a tavern in the Poultry in 1651; the East India House, in Leadenhall Street, like most of this description of signs, prompted by the vicinity of the building represented; Charing Cross, the sign of a shop in that locality where they sold canaries in 1699, and also a sign at Norwich in 1750; The Old Prison, in Whitechapel—this Old Prison was intended for King’s Cross; Camden House, in Maiden Lane, 1668,—this must have been in honour of Baptist Hicks, the opulent mercer, at the White Bear, in Cheapside, who died as Viscount Camden in 1628. He built Hicks Hall on Clerkenwell Green, and presented it to the county magistrates as their session-house.

Further, there was the Temple, the sign of Mr Buck, bookseller, near the Inner Temple Gate, in Fleet Street, in 1700; and at the same period, Hyde Park, a shop or tavern in Gray’s Inn Lane. A public-house in Bridge Row, Chelsea, mentioned before 1750, and still in existence, bears the name of the Chelsea Waterworks. The Waterworks, after which it was named, were constructed circa 1724; a canal was dug from the Thames, near Ranelagh, to Pimlico, where an engine was placed for the purpose of raising the water into pipes, which conveyed it to Chelsea, Westminster, and various parts of western London. The reservoirs in Hyde and Green Park were supplied by pipes from the Chelsea Waterworks, which, in 1767, yielded daily 1740 tons.

The Lancashire Witch, a sign of an exhibition of shell-work and petrifactions in Shoreditch, 1754, was doubtless named after our old friend, Mother Shipton, born near the Petrifying Well at Knaresborough.

Even on the Continent we meet with a London sign,—viz., at Verona, where, in 1825, the Tower of London was one of the inns which recommended itself to English travellers in the following grand circular:—

“Circulatory.—The old inn of London’s Tower, placed among the more agreeable situation of Verona’s Course, belonging at Sir Theodosius Ziguoni, restored by the decorum most indulgent to good things, of life’s eases, which are favoured from every art at same inn, with all object that is concern’d, conveniency of stage-coaches, proper horses, and good foragers, and coach-house; do offers at innkeeper the constant hope to be honoured from a great concourse, where politeness, good genius of meats to delight of nations, round table, [table d’hôte,] coffee-house, hackney-coach, men servant of place, swiftness of service, and moderacion of prices, shall arrive to accomplish in him all satisfaction, and at Sir’s who will do the favour honouring him a very assur’d kindness.”

PLATE XVI.
VER GALANT.
(Rue Henri, Lyons, 1759.)		GOAT IN BOOTS.
(Fulham Road; said to be by Morland.)
A LATTICE.
(Roxburghe Ballads, circa 1650.)
THREE PIGEONS.
(Banks’s collection.)		UNICORN.
(A Bookseller’s at Cologne, 1630.)