There are, perhaps, some people who, shall we say, ‘celebrated’ a little too much over the Christmas and New Year period. Not me, obviously; only one glass of beer a week for me, Christmas or no Christmas (and if you believe that, you’ll believe anything).

Last month, I was invited to look through some of the items hidden away at Watford Library either because they’re old and fragile or because there isn’t space to display them (and, at this point I’d like to give a huge thank you to Sarah Costello and her colleagues at Watford Library for this, and all they do. Without them, this column wouldn’t exist.)

Anyway, over the coming months there’ll be a number of features in these pages which come from this source and which haven’t seen the light of day for years.

The first such feature comes this week from “A Soliloquy on Public House Signs” by Henry Williams, published in November 1878 by Bowers Brothers, Temperance Printing and Publishing Offices, in London.

It’s a four-page discourse on the evils of strong drink and, while no doubt taken very seriously in its day, reading it now, I must confess not only to being rather amused by it but also amazed at the number of pubs Watford had in those days.

Anyway, Henry’s diatribe begins thus: “Thoughfully I walked through the streets one windy day, when the signs suspended from fronts of the various public houses, and swinging backward and forward in the breeze, attracted my attention and called forth a soliloquy to the following effect.

“What do each of those signs suggest. There is the sign ‘The Dog’, men in a state of drunkenness are sometimes called by their pot companions ‘Jolly Dogs’. We will also call them dogs but must add, they are dogs afflicted with hydrophobia [rabies]. A dog so afflicted has a preternatural dread of water. A drunkard must have a similar dread or he would not prefer intoxicating drinks to that delightful invigorating beverage ‘Pure Water’.

“There is ‘The Horns.’ Illustrations of Satan give him a pair of horns and surely there is nothing more devilish than strong drink. ‘The Leviathan’ is described in the book of Job as being a huge animal, probably a whale, and one swallowed Jonah. How much more voracious than a whale must be strong drink that annually swallows up in death thousands of our fellow creatures.

“‘The Stag’. This animal is quick in action and so is strong drink, but there is this difference between a stag and a drunkard; the stag drinks water and can run away, a man drinks beer and often cannot even walk away.”

And so it goes on, as Henry looks at ‘The Golden Lion’, ‘The Red Lion’ and ‘The White Lion’ followed by ‘The Lamb’ (“an innocent and harmless little creature and would more properly represent ginger beer than any other kind of beer. What a pity it is that any liquor less harmless than ginger beer should be sold in a house bearing such a sign.”)

Then we get ‘The Spread Eagle’ (“a powerful bird that preys on other creatures [just as] strong drink preys on man and spreads its dark wings over many a happy household”), ‘The Compasses’, ‘The Bell’ (“What does this sign suggest? Death! How many times has the bell tolled for men and women who, but for the love of strong drink, would probably have been alive and well now”), ‘The Victoria’ (“It is an insult to Her Majesty to christen a house in which intoxicating drinks are sold with the name of England’s greatest and most beloved Monarch”), ‘The Case Is Altered’, ‘St George’ and ‘The Green Man’ (“a man with little sense is called green. What shall we say of the drunkard? That he is a Very Green Man!)

Then it’s on to ‘The Swan’, ‘The Three Tuns’ (“...means three large beer tubs, but for our purpose we will suppose it to mean three tons weight, which is about the weight a man’s head appears to be when he is drunk”), ‘The Brewer’s Arms’, ‘The Malsters [maybe a misprint for Maltsters?] Arms’, ‘The Angel’ and ‘The Hit or Miss’.

He ends his tour at The Anglers.

“Reader, be cautious and look well at the bait before you take it, it contains a very sharp hook and if you are caught thereby you will smart greatly. Many men there are who have felt the evils of drunkenness, oh that they may be seized by a resolution similar to that of a fish, then will they avoid those evils that invariably result from being caught by that sharp hook Strong Drink.”

I don’t know how many of these leaflets were printed, or how they were greeted at the time,  but more than 136 years later, it’s, if nothing else, a remarkable document from a bygone age.