James Mew

“ For our Red Lions, Blue Boars, and Black Swans, and other natural anomalies, which the student of high art has in some instances desired unhappily to perpetuate, we are indebted to the heraldic distinctions of noblemen, on whose property perhaps the hostelry was built, or by whose munificence it was chiefly supported, bearing on their coat armour a swan sable, a boar azure, or a lion gules. ”

“ Strange must be the taste, observes Addison, after commenting with no little fervour on flying pigs and hogs in armour, of that man who, having all the beasts and birds in nature to choose out of, should yet prefer to call his house by the name of an ens rationis, of some creature more horrible and extraordinary than any in the deserts of Africa. ”

“ To this the Green Man is an exception, who may be confidently pronounced to be the bold Robin Hood; especially as, if the size of the picture admits it, and the artist places sufficient belief in his ability to represent him, Little John is commonly visible walking away in the far distance. ”

“ The sign-board represented the devil sable, as he appeared when held by the nose by St. Dunstan. Hogarth has represented this sign in one of his illustrations of Butler’s Hudibras. From some work on ecclesiastical history we learn that the devil was accustomed to assail St. ”