During the Civil War signs sometimes played an important part. At the death of Charles I, ior instance, the poet John Taylor, an ardent Royalist, boldly showed his opinion of that set by taking as a sign for his alehouse in Phoenix Alley, Long Acre, the Mourning Crown. But he was soon compelled to take it down. Richard Flecknoe, in his "Oenigmatical Characters 1655," tells how many of the Puritans were shocked at anything savouring of Popery: "as for the signs, they have pretty well begun their reformation already, changing the sign of the Salutation of our Lady into the Soldier and Citizen, and the Catherine Wheel into the Cat and the Wheel."
After the Great Fire, in 1668, many of the houses that were rebuilt adopted signs carved in stone and mostly painted in gilt. These were let into the front of the house, beneath the windows of the first floor, and took the place of the former wooden signboards projecting on io the streets. In those streets left untouched by the fire, however, the old order of things continued, greatly to the discomfort and. inconvenience of the foot passengers. The street being so narrow, and the signs projecting so far out on either side, the unfortunate wayfarer was often deluged with rain falling off the signboards. At length Charles LI issued an act forbidding all sign boards to hang across the street. They were to be fixed against the balconies or to some convenient part of the side of the house.
It was in Westminster that the signboards were first taken down and affixed to the front of the houses, The rest of London soon followed this example and in a few months all the parishes were cleared of signboards and signposts. About the same time the streets were paved with Scotch granite which gave rise to the following epigram:—
The Scottish new pavement well deserves our praise; To the Scotch we're obliged, too, for mending our But This we can never forgive, for they say ways
As that they have taken our posts all away Nevertheless, a few of the old signs have come down to us and some of these have been immortalized in literature.
The sign of St. Peter's Finger, at Lytchett Minster, Dorset, is believed to be a corruption of "St. Peter and Vincula," and it is suggested that the old church, which was burned down, bore this title. The only other so named in England is at Dowdley, Wilts.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.