4 Annotations

First Reading

michael parsons  •  Link

To understand the derivation of the pub name 'swan with two necks' (necks is a corruption of nicks) see this excellent article by Anita Hunter
http://www.garfnet.org.uk/new_mil…

cumsalisgrano  •  Link

Who owns the Swan thy be eating, see the nicks on the beak.

Second Reading

Bill  •  Link

Swan with two Necks, Lad Lane, an old inn, tavern, and booking and parcel office, from which coaches and waggons started to the north of England; a corruption of Swan with two Nicks, the mark (cygninota) of the Vintners' Company for their "game of swans" on the Thames. By an old law (or custom, rather) every swan that swam under London Bridge belonged, by right of office, to the Lieutenant of the Tower. Lad Lane is now incorporated with Gresham Street.
The Carriers of Manchester doe lodge at the Two Neck'd Swan in Lad Lane, between Great Wood Street, and Milk Street End.—Taylor's Carrier's Cosmographie, 4to, 1637.
There was a house with this sign, in 1632, in Swan Alley, Southwark.
---London, Past and Present. H.B. Wheatley, 1891.

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References

Chart showing the number of references in each month of the diary’s entries.

1664

  • Apr