By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 323 
But we have also the “ Olive Branch,” at Devizes; the “ Peach 
Tree,’ at Calne; the “Elm Tree,” at Devizes; and the “ London 
Elm,’ at Swallowcliffe, near Salisbury. Of the “ Oak” we have an 
instance at Westbury, and standing alone it seems to signify the 
“ British Oak,” and is not to be confounded with the vast army of 
“ Royal Oaks,” which have been considered in another category. 
Other now singular, though once celebrated signs to be found 
within the county, are the “ French Horn,” at Pewsey, once of 
frequent occurrence throughout England, being in all probability a 
corruption of the “ Bugle,” from the Bottlemakers’ Arms.!| Then 
there is the “ Chequers,’ at Corsham and Box, one of the most 
ancient of all devices, though the meaning of it is not accurately 
known: it has been thought, however, to indicate that the landlord 
was also a money-changer ; and a chequered board or “ Exchequer ” 
(divided into squares like a chess-board, and coloured black and 
white, red and white, or blue and white, upon which calculations 
were made by means of counters), used to denote the money-changers’ 
office. Moreover we are not without our “ Saracen’s Head,” at 
Salisbury and Highworth : a good old relic of Crusading memories, 
wherein the terrible foe to the Christian was exaggerated into a 
colossal size, and his head of enormous bulk bore the swarthiest of 
faces, the most truculent eyes, and the fiercest of expressions. At 
Bugley, near Warminster, the “ Blue Bali” occurs, a symbol seldom 
met with in these days, but a favourite sign in the seventeenth 
century, as we learn from the immortal Pepys. Then we have the 
“ Red Rover,’ at West Wellow, doubtless derived from Cooper’s 
famous novel, which took hold of the popular fancy to such an 
extent, that it was adopted by many landlords as their emblem. 
There is again the “ Athelstane Inn,” at Malmesbury, in commemo- 
ration of the second founder of the Abbey. There is the “‘ Lion and 
_ Fiddle,” at Hilperton, which I make no doubt to be a painter’s 
blunder from some original “Cat and Fiddle,” which was a very 
1Tt has been conjectured that these so-called Bugle horns on the Bottlemakers’ 
Arms were in reality drinking horns, which would have been more appropriate ; 
but in truth a ‘“ Bugle” means any horn, being the old French word for wild 
_ bull; and hence bugle horn, from the French beugler, to low, or bellow. 
