306 The Tavern Signs of Wiltshire and their Origin. 
joints of meat: a great judge, if five-and-thirty years of experience 
can give sound judgment. I verily believe that I have bought and 
roasted more whole sirloins of beef than any man in England. I 
know all about the matter: a very great visitor of Newgate market : 
in short, though a very little eater, ] am a very great provider. It is 
afancy; I like the subject, and, therefore, I understand it: and with 
all this knowledge of the matter, I say, I never saw veal and lamb 
half so fine as that I saw in Warminster. The town is famous for 
fine meat, and I knew it, and therefore I went out in the morning | 
to look at the meat.” 
Our dinner being now ready you will have an opportunity of 
putting Mr. Cobbett’s praises to the test. 
J. E. Jackson. 
SOME ACCOUNT OF 
The Cavern Signs of Wiltshire and theiv Origu. — 
By the Rey, A. C. Smrrn. 
(Read before the Society at Warminster, August, 1877.) 
T may not be generally recognized, but it is none the less 
<2 | true, that a great. deal of local history is embodied in some 
of the old tavern signs of England ; and if we could trace back the 
origin of some of our older sign-boards which swing before the more 
established houses of public entertainment in this county, we should 
discover a mine of information, where we little expected it, in regard 
to the ownership of lands, or the pre-eminence of some family for 
the time being in their several localities. Perhaps this may seem 
at first sight a somewhat rash assertion; and it may be said that 
