Among old New England inns; being an account of little journeys to various quaint inns and hostelries of colonial New England (1907) (14802369173)

Sign of the Hancock Tavern, Boston

Identifier: amongoldnewengla00cra (find matches)

Title: Among old New England inns; being an account of little journeys to various quaint inns and hostelries of colonial New England

Year: 1907 (1900s)

Authors: Crawford, Mary Caroline, 1874-1932

Subjects: Hotels

Publisher: Boston, L. C. Page & company

Contributing Library: The Library of Congress

Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

Text Appearing Before Image:

get out the paraphernalia of Colonial tip-pling and try how it all seems; but I haveyet to meet a modern who enjoyed the re-sults. We of to-day are too far from thedigestions of our ancestors to delight in theirdrinks. 227 CHAPTER XI TAVERN SIGNS — AND WONDERS The custom of naming the tavern andplacing before its door a signboard with amore or less appropriate device was broughtto New England from Holland and themother country. There was, indeed, a timewhen our laws required such a sign; andin France Louis XIV expressly prescribedthat Tavern keepers must put up Syn-boards and a bush: Nobody shall be al-lowed to open a tavern in the said city andits suburbs without having a sign and abush. The bush here referred to wasjust what the name would imply, set on apole or nailed to the tavern door. Hencethe proverb * Good Wine needs no bush. The variety and incongruity of tavernsigns eventually became a matter of note andprompted the following curious rhyme inthe British Apollo in 1710: 228

Text Appearing After Image:

SIGN OF THE HANCOCK TAVERN, BOSTON Tavern Signs — and Wonders ** Vm amazed at the signs,As I pass through the town,To see the odd mixture,A Magpie and Crown,The Whale and the Crow,The Razor and Hen,The Leg and Seven Stars,The Axe and The BottleThe Tun and The Lute,The Eagle and Child,The Shovel and Boot. Often, however, these titles were merecorruptions, as in the case of the ThreeBroiled Chickens, the popular name foran old tavern still standing in Woburn,Massachusetts, and kept in Revolutionarydays by Lieutenant Joseph Winn who hadhung outside his house, with pardonablepride, his coat of arms showing three spreadeagles on a shield. When the sign was aportrait of some person in public life it gen-erally reflected the political tendencies ofthe landlord. John Duggan hung out fromhis house in Corn Court a Hancock present-ment remotely after Copley because he ad-mired the patriot and wished to show it. The Leg and Seven Stars of the rhymejust quoted was however merely a deviation 229

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1907

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