_Tradesmen's Signs_ (Vol. iii., p. 224.).--In the delightful little volume
on Chaucer, in Knight's shilling series, entitled _Pictures of English
Life_, the author has the following on the Tabard, at p. 19.:--
"The sign and its supports were removed in 1776, when all such
characteristic features of the streets of London in the olden time,
disappeared _in obedience to a parliamentary edict_ for their
destruction."
It would appear, however, by the subsequent quotation from Brand's
_Antiquities_, vol. ii. p. 359., that the edict above referred to was not
carried into execution against all signs; or that, if so, it was soon
repealed:--
"Lord Thurlow, in his speech for postponing the further reading of the
Surgeons' Incorporation Bill, July 17th, 1797, stated 'that by a
statute still in force, the barbers and surgeons were each to use a
pole.'"