In 1608 the Boar's Head seems to have been
occupied by the newly organized Prince Charles's
Company. In William Kelly's extracts from the
payments of the city of Leicester we find the entry:
"Itm. Given to the Prince's Players, of White-
chapel, London, xxs."

In 1664, as Flecknoe tells us, the Cross Keys
and the Bull still gave evidence of their former
use as playhouses; perhaps even then they were
occasionally let for fencing and other contests. In
1666 the great fire completely destroyed the Bell,
the Cross Keys, and the Bell Savage; the Bull, how-
ever, escaped, and enjoyed a prosperous career for
many years after. Samuel Pepys was numbered
among its patrons, and writers of the Restoration
make frequent reference to it. What became of
the Boar's Head without Aldgate I am unable to
learn; its memory, however, is perpetuated to-day
in Boar's Head Yard, between Middlesex Street
and Goulston Street, Whitechapel.

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