The study of ancient signs takes us back to the earliest periods of civilization. Long before writing had been invented thoughts were communicated by means of rough drawings, writes L.M. Braybrooke in the "Field." Even today in the cities of Eastern countries signs of inns and shops are not required, as the trades are each confined to certain streets, or to certain TOWS in the various bazaars. The Romans were probably the first to make use of a sign to give names to their streets. At a later period the Roman artificers had their tools as the sign of their houses. Thus, we may conclude that our forefathers adopted the inn and shop signs from the Romans to indicate inns and shops by the wayside, and in towns certain devices would doubtless be adopted to attract the attention of the wayfarer; a cross, an angel or the figure of a saint to attract the Christian pilgrim, the sun and moon for a pagan. _With the growth of civilization these simple signs gave place to coats of arms and crests Over the doors of inns, One reason for this was that, in the Middle Ages, and in the absence of the family, the houses of the nobility were often used as hostelries for travellers and the family crest or arms always hung in front of the house. Naturally, the most striking feature in the arms gave to travellers, who were for the most part ignorant of the mysteries of heraldry, a name to the house, Thus a lion gules or azure became the Red or Blue Lion. Innkeepers soon began to adopt these signs and improve on them, as did the shopkeepers. They exhausted both the animal kingdom and the vegetable kingdom to find appropriate signs for their wares, Early signs were generally suspended from an iron bar fixed either in the wall of the house or on a post standing in front of it, In both cases the iron work was shaped and ornamented with that taste which characterized the metal work of the Renaissance period. In country towns and villages, where space in the streets permitted, the sign was generally suspended from a kind of triumphal arch standing out in the road and composed partly of iron and partly of wood. Many were ornamented with carving and colouring and some were real works of art, The White Hart was commonest of all signs, and the hart is to be found represented crowned, collared and chained and lying under a tree. The most famous hart sign was use to form an arch spanning the street Scole in Norfolk. It was erected in 1655 and cost over 1,000 guineas. It was taken down in 1795, At one time inn keepers were compelled by law to have a sign and a certain Florence North, in the year 1393, was "presented" for not putting up a sign. With other trades, however, the hanging up of a sign was optional,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.