Under The Garland.

instinct Avould detect its location , depend upon it . It needed no bush—the ancient indication of the propinquity of a tavern , as we all know—to intimate its immediate neig hbourhood . Anent this let me remind you—dear but thirsty reader—how city taverns , in general , retire up alleys—cuts de sae—snuggle in back yards , and flourish in obscure corners . I Avill say nothing of their pet names—a dozen instances will recur to the mind of every toiler under the Bel ( l ) and the dragon of Bow steeple : Doll ' s , and Jem ' sand Charles ' sand Betty ' s . The diminutive by Avhich the old tavern I discourse

, , of is knoAvn is Wreath's—Wreath's under the " Garland "—Capuchin Court , Great St . Bernard the Missionary , London , E . G . But—Avhy the "Garland ? "again . Well , if you remember , the "Bush" of the ancient hostelry was not invariably the rough and ready " bunch of greens " carried by Moonshine in the "Midsummer Night ' s Dream . " Sometimes it was fantastically arranged—gracefully entwinedhooped and double hoopedlike the rotund vessels within . HenceI take

, , , it , that in ancient times Wreath's hung out for its sign a globular kind of device in twined laurels and ivy , to serve for the traditional bush , and so from this graceful effigy—Avhen garlands Avere not so rare beneath the shadow of Paul ' s as they , alas ! now are—vide Dryden ' s May Queen , the traditions of Evil May Day , etc ., etc ., etc . —the sign grew , so to speak , to the house , and the topers were said to drink , and the tapsters reputed to draw , " Under the Garland . "

Whether the original Wreath derived his name from the house he kept , or whether the hostelry adopted its sign from appositeness to the patronymic of its proprietor , it seems impossible at this distance of time to determine . In the church-yard of Great St . Bernard the Missionary , hard by , stands a huge sarcophagus-like monument , a ] l its angles worn off by centuries of exposure to the weather , which purports to be the memorial of " Gregorie Wreathe Armig . kite of thys Paryshe , " and , so far as I can

make it out , the remainder of the inscription essays to inform the puzzled would-be decipherer that this gentleman—for the Latin affix connotes gentility— " deceysed in y feare of God , anno dom 15— " and something . Then , apparently , comes an attempt at commemoration of " Awebry , Wyfe of y above , " and tAvo or three of their children , Avho , presumably , died young . Mixed up all about this petrified record are some entablatures that were once probably meant for shields ; but I am no herald , and even if I coidd make out the devices—which I cannot—should very soon expose my ignorance if I began to describe , or , gides , embattled , Avavy of the first , fezzy , talbot regardant , and so on .

Who was the original Wreath ? If you come to that , who was the man in the iron mask ? I believe Wreath Armigi served Church-warden of his parish about the time Elizabeth is said to have regaled on pork and pease at the King ' s Head in Fenchurch Street , on her release from the Tower , when morose Mary , her sister , and that lady ' s saturnine husband , Philip , lived miserably at " Huytal . " * I am not about to ask you to believe that Shakespere met Sir Walter Raleigh , and Lord Southampton , and Ben