Goat - Sopwell Lane, St Albans, Hertfordshire, UK.
N 51° 44.927 W 000° 20.340
30U E 683684 N 5736448
The Goat has rather an unclear etymology. This one looks as though he knows something that we don't!
Waymark Code: WMC74Y
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 08/02/2011
Views: 2
'The Goat' may have been a shortening of 'The Goat and Compass' (a name that still exists in a few places). And Jonathan Swift suggested that this was a derivation of the phrase 'God encompasses us', a popular Puritan saying. Puritans, however, were not known for their love of public houses, so if this is the case it may have been poking fun at them.
Perhaps more likely it would have been a reference to an ancient belief and practice, albeit rather an odd one. It was believed at one time, that the goat had the power to take on the ills of others without suffering the consequences themselves. It was therefore common to keep a goat with other animals in order that they would be kept healthy by the goat who would 'mop up' any illnesses. A scapegoat in fact. Where there was somebody ill, a goat may have been walked round the house in an effort to draw the malady out of the patient.
It is not recorded that this was ever a successful method of treatment.
Name of Artist: Not known.
Date of current sign: Not known.
Date of first pub on site: Not known.
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