"and sugar-candy." On my first visit to the metropolis, I also remember meeting with a paper sign over a blind archway, back of Holborn, which advertised," Genteel Accommodations for Single "Gentlemen;" trying this place, by way of experiment, for a few days, I was served with unsavory food on a cracked plate, and put to sleep in the same room with a snoring stage coachman.

Samples, secondly, seem to have less resemblance to signs than have advertisements, but are rather their substitutes, and have an advantage in their portability, that they may travel to foreign parts, and extend the fame of a shopkeeper, while the sign can only be looked upon in one place, though at all times. The most humorous sample that I ever met with, was in the person of a Comedian who performed at one of the theatres, that once a year are opened for public admission, at a period of general gaiety, in a certain quarter of the Metropolis, noted for its congregations of cattle, and that unfortunate race of peasants so denounced and persecuted by Mr. Martin of Galway. The period alluded to, as my reader must be aware, extends but to a few days, yet the amusements being under the especial patronage of St. Bartholomew, are generally well attended, and I dont remember the cause now, but, one among many, I was carried myself in the current of a crowd thither up the long avenue of a lane, and regained my feet directly opposite to one of those legitimate and original theatres of Thespis, which it is now, though I know not the reason, the anti-classic fashion of the times to revile. On the platform which ran in front of the grand entrance, I perceived many" angels ever bright and fair," dancing together in the hilarity of their hearts, and several figures, arrayed in the Roman toga or corslet, and military buskin, who appeared to me to be the resuscitated spirits of those famous Latin soldiers, Marius, Cæsar, the Gracchi, and others, who were so fond of mobs, walking about with a military step and a frowning aspect, and among them the Comedian before mentioned, or in the technical language of his profession, the clown. His dress and manners attracted very general notice, which should be the first aim of every public character. He then threw a somerset, and executed several very interesting specimens of ornamental gymnastics, called tumbling,-when, stepping forward, he informed the crowd, that "he wouldn't think of demanding any "thing for these feats, but he hoped that they would be willing to pay for the rest.”

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But I am afraid I have dwelt too long on these minor branches of Signology, to the neglect of the principal and important subject itself. Having explained, therefore, in the best manner I was able, my opinion respecting this science, without, as I informed my reader, at all entering into a profound investigation of it, I shall content myself by passing on to some illustrations, in the hope that these remarks, simple and unsatisfactory as they may have been, will still have the effect of directing the eye of some virtuoso to a proper consideration of this neglected science; and thus, that the world in a future day may be benefited by a judicious treatise respecting it,

being the duty of a public observer, like the " Little Unknown," to take cognizance of every thing in public that is decent and meritorious, for the information of those who have not time or similar opportunities of observation with himself. Such an act as the above, however praiseworthy, is nothing more than his duty, and therefore should it be attended with the happy consequences he anticipates, he would not wish, or be warranted to receive, any extraordinary quantity of thanks.

Respecting the signs in the Metropolis, as I have considered the science of Signology in a general point of view, I am not bound to speak of them particularly in one place; more especially since, in this case, as they are as public to all the world as myself, however I might edify my reader, by citing them in illustration, I should certainly fail in surprising or pleasing him. However, I have one or two remarks to make upon certain signs, for the purpose of setting public opinion right, an aim which it is both my duty and my wish to be always attentive to.

The sign of the Bull and Mouth, (which by a foreigner has been termed our national sign) the public generally believe to have been formerly that of the Boulogne Mouth, which is not the case, for I am warranted in asserting, that its proper name is, and was, the Bull in Mouth, having been originally opened by an East Indian, who witnessed the extraordinary operation of a Boa Constrictor dining off of a Bull; which induced him on his going into business, to have as correct a picture painted of the occurrence as he could, in order that customers might be drawn to the house, to hear him give an account of it.

The original proprietor of an inn in Wood Street, Cheapside, was named Keys, a man distinguished through life for a very irascible and discontented disposition; as an image of his name, he had adopted for his sign, a Bunch of Keys, but on his death, his successor ingeniously invented the present device over the door, significant of the characteristic of the late proprietor, viz. The Cross Keys.

A public-house, by no means as well known in that quarter of the Metropolis, is designated by the term of the Cat and Gridiron, which is certainly a very offensive alteration and disfigurement of its original name. Catharine Griderne, though a foreigner, was an amiable, honest, and pains-taking female, who brought up nineteen children, and buried three husbands; a record is preserved at some length of her in the parish, which furnishes evidence to prove, that though a publican, she was by no means a re-publican, and very little of the sinner.

In the same manner, in a lane which runs north and south out of a principal thoroughfare, a little way distant, stands the house of entertainment, bearing the sign of the " Pig and Tinder Box,”—a vile and vulgar corruption of Pigrono Tinderbotski, the name of a noble Russian who, exiled from his own country, fled to this, and wound up the latter threads of life in peaceful obscurity at this house, which circumstance attracted such a host of visitors to see him, that

the landlord, in gratitude, had his picture taken for a sign. Would it not disturb the spirit of the noble Russian, were he now capable of earthly considerations, to think of the manner in which his name is perpetuated?

There are many other signs, equally obscure in their transmutations and worthy of notice, which I am now willing to pass over, or rather pass by, as I find no particular fault with the derivations so generally assigned to them. As, for instance, The Goat and Compasses, and Bag of Nails-the former of which is said to be the alteration of " God encompasses us,"-a sign which was no means one of the wonders of the times in the days of Cromwell, when it is supposed that one of his companions, who was a very spiritual man, wished to get into a spirituous kind of business, and so turned publican, with the above words for the appellation of his house, which would induce one to think, that he intended his customers to sing psalms instead of songs in his parlor, and very prejudicially to his own interests, hold the vice of inebriation in utter abhorrence. However, in the vast mutations which Signology, as well as man and empire, has undergone since those days; and when we are aware in the present time, that it is the magistrate who encompasses a publichouse rather than Providence, I do not murmur so much at the modern acceptation of "The Goat and Compasses," particularly as a few years ago it was the "Goat encompasses," by which no doubt a satiric reflection was intended upon some conservator of the public peace, and arbiter of licences.

With the sign of the "Bag of Nails," as derived from that of the "Bacchanals," I am not disposed to quarrel in the least, from the great wit which appears to me to be contained in its meaning. Could a more happy similitude have been invented or adopted? to have called them a Bag of Screws," might have been wanting wit, and very defamatory to their general character; but between a veritable Bacchanal, and a good Nail, a great deal of resemblance exists; as, for instance, you would say that such a man was of good mettle, somewhat pointed, and never without a head.

So much for the Metropolis.

In a country town, where once I resided some time, my barber hung up his own likeness before his door for a sign, having shaved himself very smoothly before he sate for it. The influence of a pretty face in attracting custom, is very well known I believe all the world over, for the shopkeepers in Paris pay pretty women for merely sitting in a conspicuous situation all day, and there is no doubt that pretty barmaids have made the fortunes of many a host. But it is dangerous for one to trust too much to his own face as a lure, more especially as a man, since men I've often thought are more apt than women to think well of their personal appearance. My barber, I've no doubt, thought his face a very becoming part of himself, and yet it had no more character than a round of beef; and I'll be bound he didn't make enough out of it to pay the painter.

In travelling through Staffordshire, I once met with a biogra

phical allusion in the sign of a shoemaker, who had enclosed himself, his tools, and his stock in trade, together with a variety of boots and shoes, in a small box, about the dimensions of Diogenes' tub. His sign was a ship with sails set, and flags floating in the wind, beneath which ran two lines of patriotic poetry, conveying the spirit of the design, and of the shoemaker. Many, I am assured, must recollect that industrious cordwainer, distinguished as he was by an indefatigable melody, while he stitched in time to the tune, as boatmen sometimes row, or beat an accompaniment on his lap-stone. Now it is not easy to imagine any connection between a ship and the manufacture of shoes; nor did the cobler think there was, for he chose his design from the circumstance of his having previously been in the naval service, on which he prided himself, and took his sign therefore as knights used to do their coats of arms, from some notable action or expedition in which they had been concerned.

The satirical sign, perhaps, is more estimable in its genius than the generality, since it is intended to correct the vices and follies of mankind, while it is unfortunately the object of many others to promote them. One of this description I once observed over an inn door, wherein was represented a man in good apparel, of a pretty sufficient compass of person, and a self-complacent look, well mounted, and appearing to be well satisfied with himself and the world, with these words issuing from his mouth, "I am going to "law." Opposite to him in the sign, he is meeting another of a lean habit of body, in a worn-out dress, and of a repenting aspect, with his legs hanging on each side of a bareboned jade, and replying in this manner, "I have been to law." Yet, however just and pungent this satire might have been upon the particular profession which it aimed at, I must confess I never yet saw a public-house sign representing one man reeling away from an inn door intoxicated, and another going towards it sober.

Not many miles from London, I once saw, and I dare say it is still to be seen, a sign, which, in the ingenious conceit that it put forth, at least had the merit of frankness. A tailor adorned his shop door with the representation of an enormous cabbage, the top of which had recently been snipped by a pair of shears (also shewn), which appeared to be just in the act of repeating the operation,

"Still opening to devour."

But lest his customers should think him guilty of any extraordinary offence, he surrounded the whole with the motto in capital letters, of "Evil be to him, who evil thinks.”

THE WARRIOR'S GRAVE.

The red-cross Warrior sleeps
Far o'er the Eastern waves,

Where the wild Sirocco sweeps,

And the Syrian whirlwind raves.

THE PERIODICAL LITERATURE OF GERMANY.

It has lately transpired, somewhere or other, that the Germans are not only writing crazy folios on metaphysics, and sickening stories of "the wild and wonderful," but that they are doing a vast deal besides, especially in the line of periodical literature. We have for some time been in the habit of considering their literature as peculiarly fertile in those elegant and short-lived annual productions, which are now naturalized among ourselves: things which make their appearance at a season devoted to merriment, when the graver pursuits of literature are for a while laid aside, and when, besides their own gay flighty host,

"No spirit dares stir abroad."

We have been told of their Forget-me-nots and Moss-roses, of their Minervas and Uranias, and the like names of sweet flowers and heathenish goddesses. We have seen these rivalled, too, by flowers sprung up in our own clime, and which, for aught we know, a good Christian may take up without being thought of the worse for it. Mr. J. even says, he believes he has seen all productions of that sort, published at home or abroad; and he gives us to understand, that still the one, for which he," the witty Mr. J.," has occasionally been inditing his own good things, is far the best of them all-the very paragon of Taschenbuch. We may, perhaps, be tempted, in a subsequent number, to pass in review those that we have seen-and we are afraid they are not all; but this time we propose to confine ourselves to the daily publications of Germany.