REMARKS ON THE SIGNS OF INNS. (Continued from vol. LXXXVIII.)

HE FLITCH OF BACON.-On the

such as owe services to the baconne, shall be ready at the gate of the manoir, from the sonne risinge to none,

ton upon Trent, near Wichnor village, a large Inn commemorates by this sign the curious custom of the manor, which was granted in the reign of Edward III. by the Earl of Lancaster, Lord of the honour of Tutbury, to Sir Philip de Somerville, on condition that "the said Sir Philip shall fynde, meynteigne, and susteyne one bacon flyke, hanging in his halle at Wichenore, ready arrayed all tymes of the yere bott in Lent, to be given to everyche mane or womane married, after the dey and yere of their marriage be passed, and to be given to everyche man of religion, archbishop, prior, or other religious; and to everyche priest, after the year and day of their profession finished, or of their dignity resey ved in forme following; whensoever that any such before named wylle come for to enquire for the baconne in their own person, or by any other for them, they shall come to the bayliff or porter of the Lordship of Whichenour, and shall say to them in the manere as ensewethe:

Bayliffe or porter, I doo you to know that I am come for myself (or if he come for any other, shewing for whome) for one bacon flyke, hanging in the halle of the Lord of Whichenour,after the forme thereto longinge.' "After which relation, the bayliffe or porter shal assigne a daye to him, upon promise of his feythe to return, and with him to bring tweyne of his neighbours; and in the meyn time, the said bailif shall take with him tweyne of the freeholders of the Lordship of Whichenoure, and they three shal goe to the mannour of Rudlowe, belonging to Robert Knyghtly, and then shal somon the foresaid Knightley, or his bayliffe, commanding him to be ready at Whichenour, the day appointed, at pryme of day, with his carriage; that is to say, a horse and sadyle, a sakke and a pryke, for to convey and carry the said bacon and corn a journey out of the county of Stafford, at his costages; and then the sayd bailiffe shal, with the sayd freeholders, somon all the tenants of the said manoir to be ready at the day appointed at Whichenour, for to do and performe the services to the baAnd at the day assigned, all

conne.

yng of him and his felowys chapaletts, and so all those whiche shal be there to doe their services deue to the baconne: and they shal lead, the said demandant, wythe tromps and ta bours, and other manner of minstralseye, to the halle close, where he shal fynde the lord of Whichenour ready to deliver the baconne in this manere:

"He shall enquire of him which demandeth the baconne, if he have brought tweyne of his neighbours, who must answere, They be here redy; and then the steward shall cause these two neighbours to swere yf the said demandant be a weddyt man, or have be a man weddyt, and yf syth his marriage one yere and a day be passed, and yf he be a freeman or villeyn: and yf his seid neighbours make othe that he hath for him all these three points rehersed, then shal the bacon be take downe and brought to the halle dore, and shal there be layed upon one halfe a quarter of wheatte, and upon one other of rye and he that demandeth the baconne shall kneel upon his knee, and shall hold his right hande upon a booke, which shal be laid above the baconne and the corne, and shal make oath in this manere:

Here ye Sir Philip de Somervyle, lord of Whichenour, mayntayner and giver of this baconne, that I A. syth I wedded B. my wife, and syth I had her in my kepyng, and at wylle, by a yere and a daye after our marryage, I would not have changed her for none other, farer ne fowler, richer ne powrer, ne for none other descended of gretter lynage, slepyng ne wakyng, at noo tyme; and if the seid B. were sole, and I sole, I wolde take her to be my wife before all the wymen of the world, and of what condy tions soevere they be, good or evyle, as helpe me God and his seyntys, and this flesh and all fleshes.'

"And his neighbours shal make oath that they trust verily he hath said truely. And yf it be found by his neighbours aforenamed, that he be a freeman, then shall be dely vered to him halfe a quarter of wheatte and a cheese; and yf he be a villein, he shal have half a quarter of rye, withoutte cheese; and then shal Knyghtley, the

lord

lord of Rudlowe, be called for to carry all their things to fore rehersed, and the said corn shall be layd upon one horse, and he that the baconne apperteyneth shal ascend upon his horse, and shall take the chese before hym, if he have a horse, and yf he have none, the lord of Whichenour shall cause him to have one horse and sadyl, to such tyme as he passed his lordshippe, and so shal they departe the manoyr of Whichenour, with the corn and the baconne to fore him that hath wonne ytt, with trompets, tabourets, and other manoir of minstralsce; and all the free tenants of Whichenour shall conduct him to be passed the Lordship of Whichenour; and then shall they retorne, except hym to whom apperteiyneth to make the carryage and journey withoutt the countye of Stafford at the costys of his Lord of Whichenour, and yf the seid Robert Knyghtley do not cause the baconne and corne to be conveyed as is rehersed, the lord of Whichenour shal do it to be carryed, and shal distreigne the said Robert Knyghtley, for his default, for one hundred shillings in his manoir of Rudlowe, and shall kepe the distresse so takyn, irreplevisable." A similar custom of the manor of Dunmow Parva, in Essex, is generally supposed to have been instituted by one of the Fitzwalters, who are said to have possessed the lordship as parcel of their barouy for eleven generations; and of whom several monuments still remain in the venerable priory church. The ceremonial established for these occasions consisted of the married couple, who claimed the bacon, kneeling on two sharppointed stones in the church-yard, when after solemn chanting and other rites performed by the convent, the following oath was demanded of them: "You shall swear by custom of confession, That you ne'er made nuptial transgres[wife,

sion;

A whole gammon of bacon you shall receive, [leave; And bear it home with love and good For this is our custom of Dunmow well known, [your own."

Tho' the pleasure be ours, the bacon's

Three instances of the delivery of the bacon are recorded in the Chartulary of the Priory, now in the British Museum; and since the suppression of the Priory, three more instances have occurred at the Courts Baron, held by the Steward of the manor. The first recorded delivery was in 1444, to Richard Wright of Bradbourge in Norfolk, and the last was in June 20, 1751, to John Shakeshanks, woolcomber, and Anne his wife, of Wethersfield in Essex.

"The Flitch of Bacon," a ballad opera, by Henry Bate, was acted at the Haymarket in 1778, aud printed in 1779.

THE FLOWER POT. I remember this sign at Earls Shilton in Leicestershire, and I believe that it is not very uncommon.

To describe the beauties of the various kind of flowers has been a favorite theme, and there can be but few readers who do not recollect Perdita's pleasing appropriation of them in Shakespeare's" Winter's Tale." Darwin's Botanic Garden" particularly abounds in bold personification and luxuriant description. Langhorne's "Fables of Flora" are natural and easy; indeed, there is hardly a writer of any eminence from whom some Elegant Extracts" might not be ob tained, but it would be utterly inconsistent with the limits of this paper to venture on such extensive transcription.

66

As a painter of flowers, Simon Varelst, a Dutchman, stands pre-eminent. Under one of his pieces Prior wrote, "When fam'd Varelst this little wonder [view;

drew,

Flora vouchsaf'd the growing work to Finding the Painter's science at a stand, The Goddess snatch'd the pencil from his hand;

And finishing the piece, she smiling said, 'Behold one work of mine that ne'er shall

the Peer. "Yes," replied the painter, "You are my Lord Chancellor. And do you know me? I am Varelst. The King can make any man Chancellor, but he can make nobody a Varelst." Shaftesbury was disgusted, and sat to Greenhill.

To

The Floralia were instituted in the year of Rome 513, but not regularly celebrated until after 580. This festival in honour of Flora was held on the 4th of the calends of May, when the courtezans were called together and danced naked in the streets. this custom of our Roman conquerors may be traced our present festivities in May, though happily long since divested of such grossly licentious rites. The general holiday at Helston in Cornwall, on May 8, when the inhabitants go into the country and return decked with flowers, is still called the Furry, an evident corruption of the Roman Floralia. Hall gives a circumstantial account of Henry VIII. and his queen Katharine of Arragon, riding a maying from Greenwich to Shooter's hill, attended by the Lords and Ladies of their court. At our present rustic feasts, on May-day, the prettiest girl is crowned with a chaplet of flowers, as Lady of the May, the representation of the goddess Flora; and in many villages the May-pole is still retained. The last in London was taken down in 1717, and removed to Wanstead in Essex. It was more than 100 feet high, and stood on the East side of Somerset-house. Its remembrance is perpetuated by Pope, in "Amidst the area wide they took their stand, [the Strand." Where the tall May-pole once o'erlook'd The rural sacrifice of the Beltein fires, in the highlands of Scotland on the first of May, are described in

Pennant's Tour.

The antient custom of strewing the graves of departed relatives or friends with flowers, is sweetly alluded to in Cymbeline:

"With fairest flowers

Whilst Summer lasts, and I live here, Fidele, [not lack I'll sweeten thy sad grave: Thou shalt The flower, that's like thy face, pale primrose; nor [nor The azur'd harebell, like thy veins, no, The leaf of eglantine, whom not to slander, Outsweeten'd not thy breath."

And the exquisite dirge by Collins thus begins

Can mock the foibles of surviving love."

These verses, of which the first I think particularly beautiful, are taken from Mason's "Elegy in a Churchyard in South Wales," and were written in 1787, at Briton ferry in Glamorganshire, during a visit to the late Lord Vernon.

The Dutch are so excessively fond of flowers, that a tulip root has been known to sell for 5,000 florins. Young in his "Love of Fame," has severely exposed this folly in his character of "Florio."

The principal Potteries in this kingdom are near Newcastle in Staffordshire; which situation was probably chosen from coal being abundant, and the other strata consisting most commonly of clays of different kinds; some of which make excellent firebricks for building the potters' kilns, and are also used in forming the Saggers (a corruption of the German Schragers, which signify cases or supporters) in which the ware is burnt. One of the earliest authors who notices

this pottery is Dr. Plott, in his "Natural History of Staffordshire," which was published in 1686, when all the ware was of the coarse yellow, red, black, or mottled kind, and the common glaze was produced by lead ore finely powdered, and sprinkled on the pieces of ware before firing. In 1690, two foreigners, of the name of Elers, invented at Bradley a new species of glaze, by throwing into the kiln, when

brought