My first Task, therefore, should be, like that of Hercules, to clear the City from Monsters.  In the second Place, I would forbid, that Creatures of jarring and incongruous Natures should be joined together in the same Sign; such as the Bell and the Neats-tongue, the Dog and Gridiron.  The Fox and Goose may be supposed to have met, but what has the Fox and the Seven Stars to do together? and when did the Lamb [3] and Dolphin ever meet, except upon a Sign-Post?  As for the Cat and Fiddle, there is a Conceit in it, and therefore, I do not intend that anything I have here said should affect it.  I must however observe to you upon this Subject, that it is usual for a young Tradesman, at his first setting up, to add to his own Sign that of the Master whom he serv’d; as the Husband, after Marriage, gives a Place to his Mistress’s Arms in his own Coat.  This I take to have given Rise to many of those Absurdities which are committed over our Heads, and, as I am inform’d, first occasioned the three Nuns and a Hare, which we see so frequently joined together.  I would, therefore, establish certain Rules, for the determining how far one Tradesman may give the Sign of another, and in what Cases he may be allowed to quarter it with his own.

In the third place, I would enjoin every Shop to make use of a Sign which bears some Affinity to the Wares in which it deals.  What can be more inconsistent, than to see a Bawd at the Sign of the Angel, or a Taylor at the Lion?  A Cook should not live at the Boot, nor a Shoemaker at the roasted Pig; and yet, for want of this Regulation, I have seen a Goat set up before the Door of a Perfumer, and the French King’s Head at a Sword-Cutler’s.

An ingenious Foreigner observes, that several of those Gentlemen who value themselves upon their Families, and overlook such as are bred to Trade, bear the Tools of their Fore-fathers in their Coats of Arms.  I will not examine how true this is in Fact:  But though it may not be necessary for Posterity thus to set up the Sign of their Fore-fathers; I think it highly proper for those who actually profess the Trade, to shew some such Marks of it before their Doors.

When the Name gives an Occasion for an ingenious Sign-post, I would likewise advise the Owner to take that Opportunity of letting the World know who he is.  It would have been ridiculous for the ingenious Mrs. Salmon [4] to have lived at the Sign of the Trout; for which Reason she has erected before her House the Figure of the Fish that is her Namesake.  Mr. Bell has likewise distinguished himself by a Device of the same Nature:  And here, Sir, I must beg Leave to observe to you, that this particular Figure of a Bell has given Occasion to several Pieces of Wit in this Kind.  A Man of your Reading must know, that Abel Drugger gained great Applause by