, was not at first known by the sign of the "King's Head,"
but the "Rose." Machin, in his diary, Jan. 5, 1560, thus mentions
it:--"A gentleman arrested for debt: Master Cobham, with divers
gentlemen and serving men, took him from the officers, and carried him
to the Rose Tavern, where so great a fray, both the sheriffs were fain
to come, and from the Rose Tavern took all the gentlemen and their
servants, and carried them to the Compter." The house was distinguished
by the device of a large, well-painted rose, erected over a doorway,
which was the only indication in the street of such an establishment.
Ned Ward, that coarse observer, in the "London Spy," 1709, describes the
"Rose," anciently the "Rose and Crown," as famous for good wine. "There
was no parting," he says, "without a glass; so we went into the Rose
Tavern in the Poultry, where the wine, according to its merit, had
justly gained a reputation; and there, in a snug room, warmed with brush
and faggot, over a quart of good claret, we laughed over our night's
adventure. The tavern door was flanked by two columns twisted with vines
carved in wood, which supported a small square gallery over the portico,
surrounded by handsome iron-work. On the front of this gallery was
erected the sign. It consisted of a central compartment containing the
Rose, behind which the artist had introduced a tall silver cup, called
"a standing bowl," with drinking glasses. Beneath the painting was this
inscription:--

"This is
THE ROSE TAVERN,
Kept by
WILLIAM KING,
Citizen and Vintner.

This Taverne's like its sign--a lustie Rose,
A sight of joy that sweetness doth enclose;
The daintie Flow're well pictur'd here is seene,
But for its rarest sweets--come, searche within!"

About the time that King altered his sign we find the authorities of St.
Peter-upon-Cornhill determining "That the King's Arms, in painted glass,
should be refreshed, and forthwith be set up (in one of their church
windows) by the churchwarden at the parish charges; with whatsoever he
giveth to the glazier as a gratuity."

The sign appears to have been a costly work, since there was the
fragment of a leaf of an old account-book found when the ruins of the
house were cleared after the Great Fire, on which were written these
entries:--"Pd. to Hoggestreete, the Duche paynter, for ye picture of a
Rose, wth a Standing-bowle and glasses, for a signe, xx _li._, besides
diners and dri