“May Hyde, near Smithfield, at the Martyr’s Head,
Who charms the nicest judge with noble red,
Thrive on by drawing wines, which none can blame,
But those who in his sign behold their shame;”[58]
which seems to be an allusion to Puritanical water-drinkers. To this unfortunate king belongs also the sign of the Mourning Bush, set up by Taylor the water-poet over his tavern in Phœnix Alley, Long Acre, to express his grief at the beheading of Charles I.; but he was soon compelled to take it down, when he put up the Poet’s Head, his own portrait, with this inscription:—
“There is many a head hangs for a sign;
Then, gentle reader, why not mine?”
This “Poeta Aquaticus,” as he sometimes called himself, was a boatman on the Thames, and alehouse-keeper by profession, besides being the author of fourscore books of very original poetry. At the same time that he put up his new sign of the Poet’s Head, he issued a rhyming pamphlet, in which occur the following lines:—
“My signe was once a Crowne, but now it is
Changed by a sudden metamorphosis.
The crowne was taken downe, and in the stead
Is placed John Taylor’s, or the Poet’s Head.
A painter did my picture gratis make,
And (for a signe) I hang’d it for his sake.
Now, if my picture’s drawing can prevayle,
‘Twill draw my friends to me, and I’ll draw ale.
Two strings are better to a bow than one;
And poeting does me small good alone.
So ale alone yields but small good to me,
Except it have some spice of poesie.
The fruits of ale are unto drunkards such,
To make ‘em sweare and lye that drinke too much.
But my ale, being drunk with moderation,
Will quench thirst, and make merry recreation.
My book and signe were publish’d for two ends,
T’ invite my honest, civill, sober friends.
From such as are not such, I kindly pray,
Till I send for ‘em, let ‘em keep away.
From Phœnix Alley, the Globe Taverne neare,
The middle of Long Acre, I dwell there.
“John Taylor, Poeta Aquaticus.”
| PLATE IV. | |
 |  |
| EAGLE AND CHILD. (Banks’s Bills, circa 1750.) | ROBIN HOOD AND LITTLE JOHN. (Roxburghe Ballads, 1600.) |
 |  |
| GRIFFIN AND CHAIR. (Banks’s Bills, 1790.) | BOLT-IN-TUN. (Fleet Street). |
 |  |
| BOAR’S HEAD. (Eastcheap.) | BULL’S HEAD. (Longhborough, Linc., 1806.) |
The Mourning Crown was afterwards revived, and in the last century it was the sign of a tavern in Aldersgate, where, on Saturdays, when Parliament was not sitting, the Duke of Devonshire, the Earls of Oxford, Sunderland, Pembroke, and Winchelsea, Mr Bagford the antiquary, and Britton the musical small-coalman, used to refresh themselves, after having passed the forepart of the day in hunting for antiquities and curiosities in Little Britain and its neighbourhood.
Not only was the Crown put in mourning at the death of Charles I., but also the Mitre. Hearne has an anecdote which he transcribed from Dr Richard Rawlinson:—“Of Daniel Rawlinson, who kept the Mitre Tavern in Fenchurch Street, and of whose being sequestered in the Rump time, I have heard much. The Whigs tell this, that upon the king’s murder he hung his sign in mourning. He certainly judged right; the honour of the mitre was much eclipsed through the loss of so good a parent of the Church of England. Those rogues say, this endeared him so much to the Churchmen that he soon throve amain, and got a good estate.”