308 The Tavern Signs of Wiltshire and their Origin. 
told, involving the winding up of his affairs, and making of his will, 
before the prudent traveller would venture himself on so hazardous 
an enterprize. But when civilization increased, and people began 
to make more frequent journeys, the custom of providing accommo- 
dation for strangers would become more and more irksome to the 
entertainer; and the next step would be to set up a hostelry, which 
should provide entertainment for all travellers at a reasonable rate 
of charge. Then who so likely to be placed in the position-of land- 
lord of the newly-established inn as some retainer or vassal of the 
noble or lord of the manor, who caused such house of entertainment 
to be opened? and what so likely to be the sign of the hostelry thus 
established as the coat of arms of the same patron ? 
But the coat of arms of his noble lord or patron was not the only 
sign which the obsequious host need adopt: he might do equal 
homage to his superior, and the compliment paid him would be no 
less striking, if he adopted his crest: while, as a matter of con- 
venience, both as regarded the local painter, who was not always a 
very proficient artist; and as regarded the general public, whose 
memories and understandings were not highly developed, the single 
emblem which formed the crest was more easily mastered and 
recollected than an elaborate, and to the uneducated mind meom- 
prehensible, coat of arms. Hence arose that vast catalogue of 
zoological and botanical signs, selected from almost every depart- 
ment of the animal and vegetable kingdoms ; some of which sound 
so strangely in our ears, but which are merely the rude translation 
into our every-day vernacular of the precise descriptions of the 
Herald’s College. Thus the Golden Lion, at Swindon; and the 
Golden Swan, at Wilcot; the White Bear at Devizes; the White 
Hart, at Salisbury and twenty other places in the county ; the White 
Lion, at Westbury, Malmesbury, and elsewhere; the White Swan, 
at Warminster, Enford, Marlborough, and Trowbridge; the Black 
Dog, at Lavington, Donhead St. Mary, and Chilmark; the black 
Swan, at Devizes; and the Black Horse, eleven times repeated in the 
county; the Blwe Lion, at Collingbourne Ducis, and the Blue Boar, 
at Aldbourne ; the Green Dragon, at Market Lavington, Malmesbury, 
Barford St. Martin, and Marlborough; the Red Lull, at Broken- 
