Charles Dickens was well acquainted with the sign. In The Uncommercial Traveller (1860) he describes seeing him on his walks in the city: My day’s no-business beckoning me to the east-end of London, I had turned my face to that point of the Metropolitan compass on leaving Covent Garden, and had got past my Little Wooden Midshipman, after affectionately patting him on one leg of his knee-shorts, for old acquaintance sake.’ Dickens was so fond of the Midshipman that he gave him a starring role in Dombey and Son (1848) as the sign of Sol Gil, nautical equipment maker...
Posted on: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 22:19:07 +0000
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