446 



SIGNBOARDS 



SIGOURNEY 



kidneyirort, tcorpion-grau, and the Euphraiin or 

 eyebright. In the case of the last, for example. iln> 

 plant wo* -up|>osed to be good for the eyes, because 

 of a black pupil-like spot in it.- corolla ; and hy an 

 analogous process of thought the yellow turmeric 

 was thought good for jaundice, the bloodstone for 

 stopping bleeding. Similarly white things were 

 regarded as refrigerant, red as hot. So in small- 

 pox red bed-coverings were used, with the view of 

 bringing the pustules to the surface of the Ixxly ; 

 red things were to be looked upon by the patient ; 

 burnt purple, pomegranate weds, mulberries, and 

 other red ingredients were dissolved in hut drink. 

 John of Gaddesden, physician to Edward II.. 

 directs hi- patients to be wrapped up in scarlet 

 dresses, and claims by this means to have recovered 

 the young prince ouickly from an attack of small- 

 pox. Wraxall, in his Memoirs, tells us that this 

 was done so late as 1765 with the Emperor 

 Francis I. when ill with smallpox. See PLANTS, 

 Vol. VIII. p. 222; and T. J. Pettigrew, On Super- 

 ititiotu cuniif<-tfil irit/i Medicine and Surgery ( 1844). 

 Signboards were known to both Greeks and 

 Romans. There are allusions to them in classic 

 writers; and specimens have been found at Pom|>eii 

 and Herculaneiim, sometimes painted, but oftener 

 carved. A bush was the sign of many taverns so 

 late as the reign of James I., and the antiquity of 

 that sign may lie inferred from the analogy of our 

 proverb, ' Good wine needs no bush,' to the Latin 

 'Vino vendihili suspensa hedera non opus est.' 

 During the illiterate middle ages every trade had 

 it* emblem, some of which have survived to our 

 day, as the chemist's pestle and mortar, the pawn- 

 broker's three balls, and the barber's pole, with in 

 Scotland (as on the Continent) the brazen basin, 

 which recalls Don Quixote, Besides these trade 

 emblems, every individual trader might have his 

 own special device : Sou they "s father, a Bristol 

 linen-draper, for his chose a hare. The old printers' 

 emblems, described in Vol. II. p. 303, were akin 

 hereto, ax to-day are trade marks. During the 16th 

 and 17th centuries huge painted signs came greatly 

 into vogue. They were suspended either from pro- 

 jecting metal-work, from a post or an obelisk, or 

 from a sort of miniature triumphal archway, and 

 sometimes cost great sums e.g. 1057 for the 

 'White Hart' at Scole in Norfolk, erected in 1655. 

 These creaking and ponderous signboards proved a 

 source of annoyance, sometimes of positive danger, 

 as when in 17i8 one in Bride's Lane, Fleet Street, 

 dragged down a house front, and killed in its fall 

 four persons. So in 1762-70, under act of parlia- 

 ment, the London signlMiards were either wholly re- 

 moved or at least affixed to the fronts of the houses ; 

 and this example was gradually followed through- 

 out the kingdom, though here and there signposts 

 linger, or have been restored even in London. 

 One of the oldest ami most interesting signs 

 still existing is the. ' Ked Lion ' at Marflesham, 

 Suffolk, for it was the figurehead of one of the 

 Dutch fleet defeated off Southwold in 1672; but 

 the history even of vanished signlioards has no 

 slight interest. A good many signltoards have ln-en 

 painted by great artists, Holl>ein, Correggio, Paul 

 Potter, Hogarth, Wilson, Mnrland, David Cox, 'Old' 

 'rome. Sam Hough, and Sir J. K. Millais (some of 

 which are still extant) ; and nearly every sign hail 

 it-* curious origin, hard though it may lw to come 

 at. Tims, there were the religious signs ('Saluta- 

 tion,' ' Lftmbud Flag.'tVc.), historical signs (as the 

 'Koyal Oak' and ' Manpiis of Cranby'), heraldic 

 (coat* of arms, crest*, and badges), humorous (as 

 the 'Good Woman,' without a head), and a host 

 of others. Not the least curious feature aliont old 

 signs in the havoc played on them by 'folk-ety- 

 mologies,' which have, for instance, corrupted the 

 'Bacchanals' into 'Bag o' nails," Boulogne Mouth' 



(i.e. the entrance to Boulogne harbour) into ' Hull 

 and Mouth,' the ' Catherine Wheel ' into ' Cat and 

 Wheel,' and, more dubiously, ' Caton lidcle ' (a 

 faithful governor of Calais) into 'Cat ami Fiddle," 

 (MM! eni-oiii|i!i--fth ' into ' Goat and Compasses,' 

 and ' Piga wassail ( A.S., ' Virjjin, hail,' or ' a lass 

 and a glass ') into ' Pig and Whistle.' 



See Larwood and Hotten'i Hiitory of Mitnboardt 

 (ISM), Miller-Christy's Trade-tignt of Euac ( 1887 ), and 

 F. G. H. Price's Sign* of Old Lombard Sired ( 1887 ). 



Signet* in England, one of the seals for the 

 authentication of royal grants ; for its use and lor 

 the signet oilier, now abolished, see SEAL, p. 277. 

 The signet in Scotland is a seal which seems to 

 have been originally intended to authenticate- 

 royal warrants connefted with the administra- 

 tion of justice. The principal class of solicitors 

 in Scotland are called Writers to the Signet, from 

 their having been originally clerks in the otlice of 

 the king's secretary, it being their duty to prepare 

 all warrants for charters or grants to be pos-ed 

 under either the Great Seal or Privy-seal, such 

 warrants being called from an early period 'signa- 

 tures,' because they bore the signet of the king. 

 Writers to the Signet and Solicitors before the 

 Supreme Courts were long the only solicitors 

 allowed to act as agents in the Supreme Courts. 

 But by the Law Agents Act of 1873 any person 

 duly admitted a law agent can practise in any 

 court in Scotland. See SOLICITORS. 



Sign-manual, KOYAL, the superscription of 

 the sovereign, which must lie adhibited to all writs 

 winch have to pass the Privy-seal or Great Seal. 

 When attached to a grant or warrant it must be 

 countersigned by one of the principal secretaries of 

 state, or by the Lords of the Treasury. For certain 

 deeds of minor importance a cachet or stamp of the 

 royal signature is used. 



Signorelli. LUCA, Italian painter, \vas born 

 about 1441, at Cortona, bein^ a distant relative of 

 Vasari, the historian of Italian art. He studied 

 under Piero della Francesca of the Umbrian school, 

 but seems to have learned most from observa- 

 tion of the human form. During the first half 

 of his life he had apparently no settled home ; 

 at all events he worked in various towns in Italy. 

 At Loretto he painted a number of frcscoc- of 

 sacred subjects, commissioned by Pope Sixtus IV. ; 

 in the Sistine Chapel the fresco culled the Acts 

 of Moses ; and for Lorenzo de" Medici the picture 

 known as the School of Pan. This last design 

 he subsequently repeated on the wall of I'andolfo 

 Petrucci's palace at Sienna ; in a convent of that 

 same city In 1 painted, after 1497, eight frescoes 

 illustrating the Life of St Benedict. But the 

 greatest achievement associated with his name is 

 a number of frescoes, depicting such subjects as the 

 Fall of Antichrist, Punishment of the Wicked, the 

 Last Days of Earth, done on the walls of a clm|>el 

 of the cathedral in Orvieto. The boldness and 

 grandeur of invention shown in these designs, and 

 the powerful modelling of the nude forms. MIL 

 comparisons with Michelangelo. Sigimrelli \\a> one 

 of the painters summoned to Home hy 1'ope Julius 

 II. in 1508 to adorn the Vatican, and along with 

 his colleagues was dismissed to make way for 

 Kaphael. In his native town he left many proofs 

 of nte artistic skill, and dird there in 1525. 



See Crowe and Cavaloaielle'i Hitturii of Painting in 

 Italy (1864-71), Sidney Colvin in the Cornkill for 1876, 

 and K. Vincher's Luca Signorelli (Leip. 1879). 



siirniriu'>. MRS LYDIA HUNTLEV (Huntley 

 being her maiden name), American authoress, was 

 born at Norwich, Connecticut, 1st September 1791. 

 For five years she taught a class of ladies in Hart- 

 ford ; in 1815 she published Moral Pieces in I'rote 

 and. Verse; and in 1819 she married a Hartford 



