"TAVERNS AND THEIR NAMES

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 84, 3 January 1929, Page 3

"TAVERNS AND THEIR NAMES

o HISTORY IN HOTEL SIGNS Little of the pageantry of the past survives in Australia, states a writer in the Melbourne ‘-Argus.'’ The pioneers left most of the curious customs of England behind them, but they brought with them the strange and often symbolic names of Cheir inns and. taverns. Scattered about the Commonwealth, more particularly in the older States, are many reminders of the times when heraldry and fable took an important part in the life of the people. Uninspired hotelkeepers have altered many of the old names to modern ones of surpassing ugliness and licensing courts have closed many old houses that bote quaint signs and quainter^names. The Commercials and Railways of the twentieth century usually remain unmolested. but every annual revision of licenses sees a heavy toll of taverns named in commemoration of fabulous beasts and almost forgotten customs. No doubt it is because the oldest houses are usually the poorest, but it is a pity that these names, so full of charm and significance, should be gradually vanishing. Birds and anijnals of all sorts figured in the signs of old inns. Usually they have some significance unknown to the licensee of to-day. The cat, conspicuous in all folklore, appears in many. Of the Cat and Fiddle, which once stood in Hobart, only an alleyway, on which the name is sometimes bestowed, remains as a reminder, but neither the cat nor the fiddl had any association with those celebrated in the nursery rhyme. The words are supposed to be a corruption either of Catherine la Fidele, wife of Peter the Great, or of Caton le Fidele. governor of Calais. Similarly Cat and Wheel is derived from Catherine's Wheel, the Catherine being the wife of Henry VIII. Other eat combinations are Cat and Parrot, Cat and Cage, Cat and Lion, and even Cat and Shoulder of Mutton. Cat names are rare in Australia, but there are plenty of other animals. The Bull and Mouth, in Melbourne, is another instance of a peculiar corruption. The name was originally Boulogne Mouth, bestowed to commemorate a minor naval engagement at that place. Other well-known distortions are Bag o’ Nails (Bacchanals) and Goat and Compasses (God Encompasses Us). There are several Red Lions in Victoria, but no Green Man, so'far as I am aware. There was one in Tasmania, but it has passed away. The green man

was the squire’s chief man or gamekeeper, who was dressed in green. Richmond (N.S.W.), until a few months ago, had a Black Morse. It had traded tor 112 years, and like the Bush Inn at New Norfolk, where there is a fine old garden, planted in the early days of the colony, it was one of the noted houses of Australia. Whether Black Horse has any particular significance 1 do not know; there is still a White Horse at Bendigo. The Green Dragon of Bendigo, the dragon of St. George,’ has gone, but Geelong still possesses its White Hart and its Elephant and Castle. The original Elephant and Castle, in England, is said to have taken its name from the skeleton of an elephant dug up near Battle Bridge in 1714. A variant of the name, indeed, it Elephant and Bridge. But there is not, I think, a Blue Boar in Australia or a Spotted Dog. but there is a Red Cow at Penrith (N.S.W.), and Sydney has its Unicorn. Birds are almost as popular. They range from the mythical Phoenix, <lf which there are two in Melbourne, to the typically Australian Bell Bird on the Prince's Highway. There is a King Parrot at Darwin, and a Pelican at Inglewood, and in Melbourne, a whole flock of birds, including a Swan, a Peacock. a Spread Eagle, and a Stork. The garden is not neglected, for there are a Flower, a Rose, a Vine, a’Cherry Tree, a Willow Tree, and a Lemon Tree, and in Sydney a Fig Tree. A humble Cauliflower flourishes in Botany Road, Sydney. and in Kathleen Valley, G 56 miles north-east of Perth, there is a solitary Yellow Aster. Some of the older signs were not without humour. That of the Labour in Vain, in Hobart, showed a person endeavouring to scrub a black boy white. Hobart also possessed the Help Me Through the World and the Bright Smile. In the Old Bell, now mute, there were certain mural decorations supposed to have been executed by. that unhappy artist Thomas Griffiths Wainwright, who is said to have admitted that he poisoned his wife’s half-sister because she had thick ankles. In Glenorchy, near Hobart, stands what was onee the Dusty Miller. Farther on, at New Norfolk, was the Ark, which was also converted into a private residence. Detached from the Ark. across the river, was the Blue Anchor. There is a Blue Anchor in Sydney to-day, and not far from it is the Fortune of War. The Angel, which also occupies a conspicuous position in the city in Sydney, is a familiar English tavern name, originally given in compliment to Richard 11., whose device it was. The Rosegnrland and I he Greenwood Tree are surely among the most pleasing names that could be chosen for inns. The Rose and Crown, and the Rose. Shamrock and Thistle have obvious as- ’ sociations. Innkeepers are nothing if not monarchists, apnarcntly. There are Royals scattered all over the countryside. Melbourne has among others a ! Royal Exchange. Royal George. Royal , Standard. Royal Saxon, and Royal . Derby. Warrnnmbool has its Royal . Archer —who was the Royal Arclmr? — and Sydney even a Royal Hyde Park. ’ There are not so many names as one > might suppose associated with the' son. Ship is common enough, and there are - various Anchor combinations. Tn Hoi hart them was a Steam Pocket Inn and , there s sill n Shipwrights’ Arms. There 1 are .several Rising Suns and Morning

and Evening Stars, but not, as far as I know, any Moons. Other curious names are Bird in Hand, Saracen’s Head, Yorkshire Stingo, All the Year Round, liarvest Home, Bunch of Grapes anef Village Belle. Dr. Syntax (Hobart) commemorates the hero of William Combe's work, a sim-ple-minded clergyman who had various adventures. Perhaps the strangest name of all. however, was discovered by Carl van Vechten on the Italian Riviera—the Hotel of the Virgin Mary and the Prince of Wales. Many of the best names have disappeared with the houses that bore them, along with the fine old words tavern and inn. Many others have been changed by ambitious innkeepers to Railway. Grand Central. Orient. Grand and other splendid names. ' Mermaid and Barleymow. Ocean Child and Undine are,, apparently, far too vulgar for the sensitive souls of manv of the tavern-keepers of 1928.