_Blue Bell--Blue Anchor._--A bell painted blue is a common tavern sign in
this country (United States); and the blue anchor is also to be met with in
many places. As these signs evidently had their origin in England, and one
of them is alluded to in the old Scotch ballad "The Blue Bell of Scotland,"
it seems to me that the best method to apply for information upon the
subject is to ask "N. & Q." Are these signs of inns heraldic survivors of
old time; are they corruptions of some other emblem, such as that which in
London transformed _La Belle Sauvage_ into the _Bell Savage_, pictorialised
by an Indian ringing a hand-bell; or is the choice of such improper colour
as blue for a bell and an anchor a species of symbolism the meaning of
which is not generally known?
[Old English W].
Philadelphia.
_"We've parted for the longest time."_--Would you insert these lines in
your paper, the author of which I seek to know, as well as the remaining
verses?
"We've parted for the longest time, we ever yet did part,
And I have felt the last wild throb of that enduring heart:
Thy cold and tear-wet cheek has lain for the last time to mine,
And I have pressed in agony those trembling lips of thine."