of tobacco leaves, a feathered head-dress,
and smoking a pipe. A tobacco-paper, dating from about the time of
Queen Anne, bears rudely engraved the figure of a negro smoking, and
holding a roll of tobacco in his hand. Above his head is a crown;
behind are two ships in full sail, with the sun just appearing from
the right-hand corner above. The foreground shows four little black
boys planting and packing tobacco, and below them is the name of the
ingenious tradesman--"John Winkley, Tobacconist, near ye Bridge, in
the Burrough, Southwark." Sixty years or so ago a wooden figure,
representing a negro with a gilt loin-cloth and band with feathered
head, and sometimes with a tobacco roll, was still a frequent ornament
of tobacconists' shops.

The "Tobacco Roll," either alone or in various combinations, was one
of the commonest of early tobacconists' signs, and was in constant use
for a couple of centuries. It may still be occasionally seen at the
present time in the form of the "twist" with alternate brown or black
and yellow coils, which up to quite a recent date was a tolerably
frequent adornment of tobacconists' shops, but is now rare. This roll
represented what was called spun or twist tobacco. Dekker, in James
I's time, speaks of roll tobacco. The youngster who mimics the
stage-gallants in Jonson's "Cynthia's Revels" as described in Chapter
II (_ante_; page 31), says that he has "three sorts of tobacco in his
pocket," which probably means that it was customary to mix for smoking
purposes tobacco of the three usual kinds--roll (or pudding), leaf and
cane. One would have thought that a representation of the tobacco
plant itself would have been a more natural and comprehensive sign
than one particular preparation of the herb, yet representations of
the plant were rare, while those of the compressed tobacco known as
pudding or roll in the form of a "Tobacco Roll," as described above,
were very frequently used as signs.

From the examples given in Burn's "Descriptive Catalogue of London
Tokens" of the seventeenth century, it is clear that the "Tobacco
Roll" was a warm favourite. "Three Tobacco Rolls" was also used as a
sign. In 1732 there was a "Tobacco Roll" in Finch Lane, on the north
side of Cornhill, "over against the Swan and Rummer Tavern." In 1766,
Mrs. Flight, tobacconist, carried on her business at the "Tobacco
Roll. Next door but one to St. Christopher's Church, Threadneedle
Street."

The shop-bill of Richard L