re'_, when we look at others that have suffered much stranger
metamorphoses; for who would have thought that time could have performed
such wonderful changes as to have transformed a view of Boulogne Harbour
into a Black Bull, and a tremendous mouth sufficiently large to
swallow its neighbours, horns and all; or the name La Belle Sauvage, or
Beautiful Savage, into a bell, and a gigantic wild man of the woods."

"Then again," said Sparkle, "taking up the subject, "the pole and bason,
though no longer the exhibited emblems of a barber's occupation in
London, are still very often to be met with in its environs and in the
country, where they are ostentatiously protruded from the front of
the house, and denote that one of those facetious and intelligent
individuals, who will crop your head or mow your beard, 'dwelleth here.'
Like all other signs, that of the barber is of remote antiquity, and has
been the subject of many learned conjectures: some have conceived it
to originate from the word poll, or head; but the true intention of
the party-coloured staff, was to indicate that the master of the shop
practised surgery, and could breathe a vein, as well as shave a beard;
such a staff being to this day used by practitioners, and put into the
hand of the patient while undergoing the operation of phlebotomy: the
white band, which no doubt you have observed encompassing the staff, was
meant to represent the fillet, thus elegantly twined about it.

~~400~~~ "And this," said Sparkle, "appears to be the most reasonable
conjecture of any I ever heard, as it is well known the two businesses
were in former times incorporated together, and the practiser was termed
'A Barber Surgeon.' Then as to their utility: the choice of a
witty device, or splendid enluminure, was formerly thought of great
consequence to a young beginner in the world; and I remember reading of
an Innkeeper at Cassel, who having considerably profited by his numerous
customers under the sign of 'The Grey Ass,' supposing himself well
established in his trade and his house, began to be tired of the vulgar
sign over his door, and availed himself of the arrival of the Landgrave
of Hesse, to make (as he thought) a very advantageous change. In an
evil hour, therefore, 'The Grey Ass' was taken down and thrown aside,
in order to give place to a well painted and faithful likeness of the
Prince, which was substituted for it as a most loyal sign.

"A small and almost unfrequented