74 FISHES OF FANCY. 



dinner on some future occasion, put it back into the river 

 with a bell round its neck, so that he should be able to 

 know its whereabouts the moment he wanted it ; or it may- 

 be the usual bell added in honour of the bell-ringers. A 

 quaint variety of this sign is the Bell and Mackerel, in the 

 Mile End Road. The Three Fishes was a favourite device 

 in the Middle Ages, crossing or interpenetrating each 

 other in such a manner that the head of one fish was at the 

 tail of another. 



" The Three Herrings, the sign of James Moxton, a book- 

 seller in the Strand, near York House, in 1675, is evidently 

 but another name for the Three Fishes ; at the present 

 day it is the sign of an ale-house in Bell Yard, Temple 

 Bar. Several taverns with this sign are mentioned in the 

 French tales and plays of the seventeenth century. Two 

 of them seem to have been very celebrated, one in the 

 Faubourg St. Marceau, the other near the Palais de Justice. 

 This last one seems to have been particularly famous, for 

 it is named as a rival to the celebrated Pomme de Pin. 

 The Fish and Quart, at Leicester, must be passed by in 

 silence, as the combination cannot immediately be ac- 

 counted for. Were it in France a solution would be easier, 

 for in French slang a 'poisson,' or fish, means a small 

 measure of wine. The Fish and Eels at Roydon, in Essex, 

 the Fish and Kettle, Southampton, and the White Bait, 

 Bristol, all tell their own tale, and need no comment. The 

 Salmon is seen occasionally near places where it is caught. 

 The Salmon and Ball is the well-known ball of the silk- 

 mercers in former times added to the sign of the salmon ; 

 w^hilst the Salmon and Compasses is the masonic emblem 

 that is added to the sign. Both these occur in more than 

 one instance in London." 



