London to John O' Groat's. 85 



in a thousand would guess aright the name given to the 

 tavern by these tokens ? Would not ninety-nine in a 

 hundred say, " The Mouth and Bull," to be sure, not 

 only on the principle that the major includes the minor, 

 but also because the human element is entitled to pre- 

 cedence in the picture ? But the ninety-nine would be 

 completely mistaken, if they adopted this natural con- 

 clusion. They would find they had counted without 

 their host, who knows better than they the relative 

 position and value of things. What has the law of 

 logic to do with fat beef! The name of his famous 

 hotel is " THE BULL AND MOUTH;" and few in Lon- 

 don have attained to its celebrity as a historical build- 

 ing. One is apt to wonder if this precedence given to 

 the beast is really incidental, or adopted to give euphony 

 to the name of an inn, or whether there is a latent and 

 spontaneous leaning to such a method of association, 

 from some cause or other connected with perceptions 

 of personal comfort afforded at such establishments. 

 Accidental or intentional, this form of association is 

 very common. There is no tavern in London better 

 known than The Elephant and Castle, a designation that 

 would sound equally well if the two substantives were 

 transposed. Even the loftiest symbols of sovereignty 

 often occupy the secondary place in these compound 

 titles. There are doubtless a hundred inns in Great 



